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__label__wiki	0.639841	0.639841	Is There a Safer Choice Than Opioids After a C-Section? By Serena Gordon FRIDAY, March 22, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Expectant moms often try to plan as many aspects of their upcoming delivery as they can. But one thing they might not consider is what type of pain relief they will choose if they need to have a C-section. Now, new research from the University of Texas suggests that while opioids can control pain, a combination of other painkillers could offer similar relief with fewer side effects and no risk of addiction. "Opioids do not need to be routinely prescribed for every woman," said study author Dr. Jenifer Dinis. She is a clinical instructor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UT Health McGovern Medical School in Houston. In a U.S. First, Baby Is Delivered From Womb Transplanted From Deceased Donor For Many, Pot Is Now an Alternative to Opioids or Sleep Meds "We can control pain effectively with ibuprofen and acetaminophen. For those who do need opioids, we don't need to give out as much," Dinis said. A big concern anytime opioids are used is the potential for addiction. As many as one in four people given a long-term prescription for opioids in primary care has reported struggling with addiction, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even if people don't use the opioid prescriptions they're given, family members or friends may end up using those drugs. In 2016, more than 11 million Americans said they had misused opioids during the past year, the CDC said. Approximately 130 Americans die every day due to opioid overdose. Dr. Harshal Kirane, director of addiction services at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, said that new mothers "have a number of different stressors after the birth of a child" that can put them at risk of addiction. But, he said, that risk isn't unique to new moms. "We need to identify better, more refined, more precise guidelines for the management of opioid analgesics in all contexts." To see if pain could effectively be managed after a surgical delivery, Dinis and her colleagues recruited almost 200 women having a C-section. The women were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received opioids for pain relief. The other group was given ibuprofen (such as Advil/Motrin) every six hours and acetaminophen (Tylenol) every four hours. If their pain wasn't well-controlled with this combination, the women could ask for opioids. Pain relief scores were slightly better in the non-opioid group, the study found. Women who took opioids were more likely to have drug-related side effects. The most common side effects in the opioid group were sleepiness and constipation. Dinis said she hopes this study sparks interest in looking at alternative ways of managing pain after a surgery. "We want to make sure patients have good pain control after surgery," she said, but "one of the biggest things that can help in the opioid crisis is decreasing the number of people getting opioids." Kirane said this study showed "a marked reduction in the amount of opioid required." But he also pointed out that some patients in the ibuprofen/acetaminophen group did need "rescue" opioids. And while the study highlighted an encouraging trend in trying to make pain management guidelines safer, it also showed that "one size does not fit all," Kirane added. Doctors and patients need to talk about pain management options in a collaborative way, he suggested. In addition, doctors need to be fully informed about a patient's previous opioid experience, and patients need to be aware of the risks involved with any medication, Kirane said. Dinis presented the research recently at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine meeting, in Las Vegas. The findings were also published in a supplement to the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Learn more about pain relief after surgery from the American Board of Internal Medicine's Choosing Wisely website. SOURCES: Jenifer Dinis, M.D., clinical instructor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences, and fellow, maternal-fetal medicine, UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas; Harshal Kirane, M.D., director of addiction services, Staten Island University Hospital, New York City; January 2019, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology supplement; Feb. 15, 2019, presentation, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine meeting, Las Vegas	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line613
__label__wiki	0.561818	0.561818	Feral Librarian Research libraries & higher education. Sometimes music, sports, & other stuff. « Educause 2016: Libraries and future of higher education Care for one another » Hack the library Published November 5, 2016 Library stuff 2 Comments Tags: future of libraries, mit, open access, research This is the text of a talk I gave at a recent MIT Libraries all-staff meeting to introduce the recommendations in the preliminary report from the Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of Libraries. A colleague suggested I share the notes more broadly, as she considered it not just a rallying call for the MIT Libraries community, but also a good recap of the core themes in the report. I gave this talk about a week before the report was released. I am very excited to have this chance to start sharing with you the results of our nearly yearlong engagement with the Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of Libraries. What this community has done in convening this Task Force, soliciting the input we got, hosting the range of conversations we had, and really listening to our community, is remarkable, and honestly unheard of in my experience of academic libraries. The very fact that the 30 members of the Task Force, and the literally hundreds of other members of our community spent their time, energy, and brain power developing a vision for the future of research libraries and producing a set of recommendations for MIT to move us toward that future is amazing. We had faculty from all 5 schools (over 20 faculty in total), plus students and staff, thinking about, talking about, and ultimately writing about libraries since October. Their engagement, and frankly their confidence in us to realize the bold vision they have laid out for us, is a testament to all the work that all of you have done to earn their faith, respect, and enthusiastic support. Everything you all and your colleagues have done made the work of this Task Force possible and is the enabling lifeblood that runs through this report. I know you all have been waiting for this report for a while now, we have been in a state of transition and a state of preparing and building our capacity to enact a new vision and new strategic priorities for some time; and I want to thank you for your patience and say that I hope you are as certain as I am that it has been worth the wait. Working with this Task Force to gather input, to really listen to the community, and to try to synthesize and make sense of everything we heard, and everything we collectively know and think and want out of libraries and higher education has pretty much consumed my time and my energy and my soul for the last 10 months. This has been the most intense, hardest, and most important work I have done in my library career to date. And this kickoff with you all is perhaps the most important step now that the report is so close to approval and public release. We are the ones, collectively, who are going to make the vision and recommendations in this report a reality. This report confirms that the MIT community expects big things from us; and I for one wouldn’t have it any other way. Barry Bonds hitting one into McCovey Cove, by Chris Bourg To use a baseball analogy, with this Task Force and this report, we are swinging for the fences. But I’m a San Francisco Giants fan, and I had the privilege of watching Barry Bonds in his glory years. I watched him swing for the fences in games where he only got 1 pitch to hit; and still he connected more than any other player in history. If you want to hit a homerun, you have to swing for the fences. (I may have also adlibbed something about this report being “research library on steroids” to complete the analogy-although I still choose to believe Barry never knowingly used steroids.) For the less baseball obsessed amongst us, I’ll say that this is our moonshot. And really a moonshot is a better analogy, because hitting a home run, as majestic as that is, is a solo act. Getting to the moon though, that’s a team effort. And like a moonshot, this vision we have in front of us only gets off the ground once you all are invested in it too. And to get there, I know you all need time to think about it, talk about it, ask questions about it. Certainly your expertise and your experience and your ideas on how we can move these recommendations forward will be crucial. We need to, and will, have conversations about where we start, what we need, and success will look like – in short, medium and long term. We also need to ask questions together, come to a shared understanding, and develop a shared sense of excitement and commitment. The impact of the Task Force and the report will be realized through your engagement. You have all, I hope, read the Executive Summary by now; and you know even from that, that the Task Force has painted a high-level aspirational, but not vague, future for us. One of the most inspiring sub-texts of the report and the conversations in the forums we held and in the Task Force meetings themselves was the confidence our colleagues throughout the Institute (faculty, staff, students, and alumni) have in us; and their desire to collaborate with us as partners in providing the content, tools, services, expertise, spaces, and technologies needed to do what MIT does best – advance knowledge, educate students, and solve the worlds biggest problems. I believe this report goes well beyond any other strategic plan or library vision I have seen, in that it recommends that we not just respond to changes in scholarship and teaching, but that we become a platform through which research, teaching, and learning is transformed. Let me talk a little about the Task Force’s process and the vision and recommendations in the report. First, the Task Force had a number of passionate conversations where there was some pretty vigorous disagreement on a range of topics, such as: the relative role of digital versus print collections, the degree to which MIT & the MIT Libraries should push Open Access for all scholarly publications, the degree to which MIT ought to prioritize our obligations to a global community versus our service to the on-campus local community. These and other topics inspired some heated debates and were the source of some tensions in the Task Force … but ultimately, we found remarkable levels of agreement around a common set of principles and values. That consensus formed the basis for the vision and set of recommendations that ultimately landed in the report. The values that animate the vision of the Task Force are things like the importance of the advancement of knowledge, privacy, openness, service, innovation, and support for diversity in all aspects of our work. As the executive summary makes clear, the Task Force articulated a vision of a future where access to information is ubiquitous and open. The Task Force and the folks we talked to envision a world where data and knowledge and scholarship flows freely, and where anyone can access it, share it, contribute to it, and exploit it as needed. They want libraries to build and maintain that world, and collaborate with others to build it. Through all the different opinions and approaches to the future of libraries, the Task Force was united in affirming that at their core, libraries have always been about sharing information, providing community spaces, and preserving knowledge. In the report, the Task Force sketches a vision for what those functions could and should look like in a truly networked, fully digitally enabled world. This image of the open dome is the key illustration of the new vision of a research library that fully exploits technology to operate as an open global platform. We want the libraries to be that platform in a physical and a networked digital world, and we seek collaborators from within MIT and throughout the world to help us build that platform. This platform idea, which is both a set of networked repositories of content, metadata, tools and services, and a set of physical spaces, services, and human expertise; is symbolized by the iconic MIT great dome, and it rests on a set of pillars. Those pillars represent community, discovery, stewardship, and research. The vision and the recommendations are all based on the shared mission and set of values that the Task Force agreed on — MIT’s and librarianship’s values of openness, service, advancing knowledge, innovation, and diversity. There are recommendations associated with each of the pillars. Let’s start with Community and Relationships. The Task Force report calls on us to think of our community and our relationships in global terms, and to think of our spaces and our services, especially our educational role, as open and integrated into the full life of our communities. Recommendation 1: The Task Force asserts that the MIT Libraries must be a global library serving a global university and its audiences. The MIT Libraries should conceive of the communities they serve as concentric circles, from the closely affiliated circle of current students, faculty, and staff to increasingly larger circles of cooperating scholars, MIT alumni, participants in MITx classes, the local Cambridge and Boston community, and the broader global community of scholars. Recommendation 1 says that we need to think of ourselves as a global library for a global university; and that we should think of our audience in terms of concentric circles – striving to provide as much access as possible to people in all circles. This recommendation came about in recognition of the way MIT scholars work – both the fact that they frequently work from remote locations all around the globe, and the fact that they collaborate with other scholars, formally and informally, from all over the world. As MIT seeks to take on research questions and grand challenges that are global in nature, MIT faculty need to be able to easily share articles and data and access with colleagues who are not officially part of the MIT community. The Task Force recognizes that all scholarship is better when more people can participate, and opening up access as widely as we can helps move that vision along. The value of openness also came up in discussions of the library spaces – we heard over and over how much the MIT community appreciated that our libraries, unlike many other private university libraries, are open to the public. Students spoke of the libraries as a “haven” on campus; faculty and staff described our spaces (and their vision for renovated spaces) as intellectual and social gathering spaces. And one department head told me that she credits the library for their best graduate student yield in years, because they held their graduate student reception in the library during preview weekend. Recommendation 2: The Task Force recommends that the Institute create a new planning group to make specific recommendations regarding the redesign of the MIT Libraries’ physical spaces, reflecting the vision and themes of this report. Recommendation 2 is about bringing focused and expert attention to developing a vision for library spaces that fits our vision for the library more generally. There is early support by the administration for convening this space planning group; and I think we will be able to make progress there rather quickly. Recommendation 3: In supporting the research and teaching mission of MIT, the Libraries will provide educational opportunities to equip MIT community members with essential skills and habits for critically and effectively using information. It also will teach them the skills required to responsibly generate new knowledge and to create the platforms, systems, and networks to disseminate it, guided by the values held dear by MIT and by the library profession. Recommendation 3 goes beyond usual information literacy roles for librarians, and recognizes that both our expertise and student need is much more complicated than how to search. Students at MIT are more than consumers of information. As individual creators of knowledge, they need to understand patents, standards, copyright, trademarks, regulations and all the rules of engagement in the global landscape where commerce, academia, and research take place. In addition to creating new knowledge, students are also actively developing apps, algorithms, platforms and tools that enable dissemination, sharing, and consumption of information by others – it is essential that MIT students critically understand the impact and social consequences of technical choices and design decisions. This recommendation validates much of what we are already doing, and gives us the support and mandate to do more; and to really do some interesting and innovative things with our instruction program. The Discovery and Use section of the full report is the most detailed, and not surprisingly, the most technical. Recommendation 4: In support of the MIT mission and values of openness and service, the MIT Libraries should be a trusted vehicle for disseminating MIT research to the world. In Recommendation 4, the Task Force is saying they expect us to continue to be the primary trusted dissemination platform for OA articles, but/and also calls on us to expand that to include taking responsibility for openly providing rich, comprehensive, well-described, and well-structured data that will fuel an ever-evolving scholarly ecosystem. In the Task Force discussions with faculty, many scholars talked as much about wanting to discover people and ideas as they did about wanting to discovery articles – even, especially people & research happening right here at MIT. They want the libraries to take responsibility for collecting and providing access to all kinds of research outputs. The Task Force recognizes the importance of having a repository of information about MIT’s research efforts, with carefully curated links to its resources, authors, contributing organizations and topical areas; and they are signaling their support for the libraries leading those efforts. Recommendation 5: The MIT Libraries will provide comprehensive digital access to content in our collections and/or content needed by MIT’s global community by expanding our capacity to acquire and make available born-digital content, and by embarking on an ambitious project to digitize much of our analog collections. Recommendation 5 came out of some of the most passionate debates the Task Force had. There were members of the Task Force who do everything online, and who believe that better technology and changing user behaviors and expectations will make the need for print materials go away sooner rather than later. Other members were just as passionate about the need for tangible materials for some kinds of learning and some types of research. But, even those who make heavy use of print resources also need online access to digital resources. Eventually we all agreed that in an ideal world, everything would be available in digital form; and some things would also be available in physical formats. It took a bit of data to help some members of the Task Force see just how much of the scholarly record is actually not digital, or not digital in accessible, findable formats. Although I like to refer to Recommendation 5 as our “Digitize Everything” mandate – it is actually considerably more nuanced than that. Yes, it does call for an ambitious digitization project, but/and it also calls for efforts to ensure our digital collections are available in minimal computing environments and in formats optimized for text-mining and other computational analyses. Recommendation 6: Through interdisciplinary institutional and external partnerships, the Libraries should generate open, interoperable content platforms that explore new ways of producing, using, sharing, and preserving knowledge and that promote revolutionary new methodologies for the discovery and organization of information, people, ideas, and networks. Recommendation 6 follows from 5. It isn’t enough to just digitize everything – we have to then create and maintain open, interoperable, and networked platforms of content so that we aren’t simply creating new silos of digital content. The content platforms we create have to work with existing digital libraries, and have to be open so that scholars can be creative in how they access, discover, and use the content. Many members of the Task Force were most excited about the prospect of the libraries building and expanding its content platforms so that new kinds of discovery tools could be built – ideally by and for scholars, reflecting scholarly needs and academic values. While many faculty rely on third party tools like Google Scholar, academia.edu, Mendeley and the like; they see the long-term value and benefits of such tools emanating from within academia – where there is a commitment to sustainability and a history of trust. Recommendation 7: The Task Force recommends that the Institute convene a new Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to review the current MIT Faculty Open Access Policy and its implementation with an eye toward revising and expanding current policies and practices, where appropriate, to further the Institute’s mission of disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. Recommendation 7 reflects the high level of interest the Task Force heard from faculty, students, staff, post-docs and others in Open Access. At almost every meeting we had, someone asked “what are you going to do about OA?” or more pointedly “what are you going to do about the publishers?” The Task Force wisely realized that while the libraries have significant interest in and expertise in facilitating open access to scholarship, MIT’s OA policy is a Faculty policy, and any revisions to it must come from an MIT coalition much broader than the libraries. On to recommendations in the area of Stewardship & Sustainability. Our responsibility as the long term stewards of scholarship, and especially of the Institute’s memory, is ever more important and we are being called upon to expand and accelerate our leadership in developing sustainable models in digital preservation. Recommendation 8: Through its archival programs and practices, the MIT Libraries will serve as a durable, trusted repository for research objects produced at MIT and the metadata associated with MIT scholars and scholarship, as a continuation of their mission to serve as the “Institute’s memory” and record of research and learning. These recommendations reflect the dual ideas that the library has to continue to serve as the Institute’s memory, and that long-term stewardship of records, manuscripts, data, articles, and other kinds of research objects is a real and pressing challenge in a digital age. Scholars are putting their papers up on personal and department websites, and sharing their data and graphs on commercial sites like Mendeley and Figshare. While these are expedient short-term solutions that work well enough for an individual scholar, the Task Force recognizes that the Institute and academia in general is best served when the libraries are the trusted long-term repository for the scholarly record. Our challenge in accomplishing this recommendation is as much an organizational and a resource one as it is a technical one; but having this kind of a recommendation from the Task Force provides a strong organizational mandate to build on. Recommendation 9: The MIT Libraries should continue to actively engage with and, in many cases, provide leadership to collaborative global efforts to develop viable models and systems for the long-term stewardship and preservation of digital research. Recommendation 9 says we can’t do this alone, and provides us with the encouragement to continue to lead where we have the expertise, and to partner and collaborate with promising coalitions that are working on the hard problems of digital stewardship & preservation. Recommendation 10: The Task Force recommends that MIT establish an Initiative for Research in Information Science and Scholarly Communication, based in the MIT Libraries, to enable bold experimentation and to serve as a hub for best-in-class research on the great challenges in information science and scholarly communication. Recommendation 10 is where the Task Force signals just how serious they are about this vision. Much of what we want to accomplish in building and sustaining a library that operates as an open global platform requires significant investment in research, development, and experimentation. An Initiative for Research in Information Science and Scholarly Communication would accelerate progress on a number of key issues of importance to scholars and practitioners at MIT and across the globe. An initiative of this kind would leverage several strengths of MIT and the MIT Libraries to achieve significant progress in interdisciplinary, applied research, and experimentation in information science and scholarly communication. MIT Libraries have a uniquely close relationship with the MIT Press, an existing research program in information science, a donor-funded Digital Sustainability Lab working on solutions to digital content management challenges, and access to scholars and students doing groundbreaking work in relevant fields at MIT. The Task Force imagines research projects that draw on local and external expertise in, for example, brain and cognitive science, media arts and design, computer science, and business modeling. I think that the big message from the Task Force report is that Libraries have always been the platform upon which new knowledge and understandings are built; and that even, especially at a place like MIT, libraries remain a central part of the scholarly ecosystem and have a crucial role to play in transforming research and learning in a digital age. There is also a recognition in this report that the work we are being asked to do is hard, and that in many cases the models don’t yet exist. There are gaps in the knowledge needed to advance some of recommendations – so the libraries also have to be a home for research and development. At its core, this report is an affirmation that libraries and our collections are for use – that is the root of our conception of the library as a global platform. This report and the vision it promotes is an invitation – we are inviting MIT and the world to hack the open global platform that is our library. We are all are part of that invitation – with this report and starting with this conversation, we are all being invited to invent the future, to build the components (technical, social, educational, political) of a global library, and to simultaneously hack the library in exciting, clever, productive, and creative ways. Batter up! 2 Responses to “Hack the library” 1 The Anthropologist’s Tale: Lianza #open17 \| Donna Lanclos–The Anthropologist in the Stacks Trackback on October 5, 2017 at 1:20 am 2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology invites academe to collaborate on future of libraries - Grants For College Trackback on November 23, 2016 at 8:02 pm Libraries in a computational age Open as in dangerous Follow Feral Librarian by Email Enter your email address to follow Feral Librarian by email. The unbearable whiteness of librarianship What happens to libraries and librarians when machines can read all the books? The radicalism is coming from inside the library Academic Librarian Bully Bloggers Butch Wonders Dan Cohen DSHR's Blog Everybody's Libraries Free Government Information Free Range Librarian Gavia Libraria (the library loon) Gentle Disturbances Go to Hellman hanging together Katherine Kott Consulting Library Babel Fish Lorcan Dempsey’s weblog Miriam Posner's Blog Seeing the Picture THE JERSEY EXILE the scholarly kitchen Works Cited: Natalia Cecire's blog baked goods with the right amount of ginger are a gift from the goddesses 54 minutes ago RT @WeedenKim: Rules passed under a majority-Republican House after Trump won the primary prevent members of Congress from referring to the… 56 minutes ago RT @LousyLibrarian: Nobody wants their first conversation of the day to begin with "Guess what's in the book drop!" 57 minutes ago @moon_is_sharp @tressiemcphd But just barely 1 hour ago RT @dawnbazely: Delivering Critical Thinking 101 is pretty much higher education’s main mission. 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__label__wiki	0.502578	0.502578	1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: Bible Scripture Verse Art It was carved with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces, a man's face toward the palm tree on one side and a young lion's face toward the palm tree on the other side; they were carved on all the house all around. From the ground to above the entrance cherubim and palm trees were carved, as well as on the wall of the nave. The doorposts of the nave were square; as for the front of the sanctuary, the appearance of one doorpost was like that of the other. The altar was of wood, three cubits high and its length two cubits; its corners, its base and its sides were of wood And he said to me, "This is the table that is before the LORD." The nave and the sanctuary each had a double door. Each of the doors had two leaves, two swinging leaves; two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other. Also there were carved on them, on the doors of the nave, cherubim and palm trees like those carved on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the front of the porch outside. There were latticed windows and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch; thus were the side chambers of the house and the thresholds. Christian Canvas Art It isn’t always easy to completely overhaul your house for all the seasons, but it is easy to change out a piece of artwork here and there. I’m in love with all the free printable scripture art options you can find online these days. If you want a pretty yet inexpensive way to decorate these choices are perfect for you! Looking for a thoughtful gift, these would be perfect. Bible Scripture Verse Art Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around.read more. Christian Art and Gifts There is not much happening in terms of home decor in my house during this stage of life, but I’ve just recently been trying to think harder about ways to make our living space feel more polished. I’ve always liked the use of inspirational home decor and Bible verses in the homes of others. It just adds small reminders of truth throughout the rooms you visit everyday. When I enter the home of someone with Bible verse home decor it also helps me quickly understand their faith lies. It may even be a conversation starter. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art David built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites: of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with 120 of his brothers; ... Christian Canvas Art "You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth. "As a jeweler engraves a signet, you shall engrave the two stones according to the names of the sons of Israel; you shall set them in filigree settings of gold.read more. Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. ... He measured the length of the building along the front of the separate area behind it, with a gallery on each side, a hundred cubits; he also measured the inner nave and the porches of the court. The thresholds, the latticed windows and the galleries round about their three stories, opposite the threshold, were paneled with wood all around, and from the ground to the windows (but the windows were covered), over the entrance, and to the inner house, and on the outside, and on all the wall all around inside and outside, by measurement.read more. Christian Art and Gifts and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. "And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, and the ark of testimony, and the mercy seat upon it, and all the furniture of the tent, the table also and its utensils, and the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering also with all its utensils, and the laver and its stand, Bible Scripture Verse Art If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ... Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art He made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. Under it were figures of gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward. Its thickness was a handbreadth. And its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held 3,000 baths. ... The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: ... "You shall have no other gods before Me. "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,read more. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art 1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: Christian Art and Gifts For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood, the lintel and five-sided doorposts. So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. So also he made for the entrance of the nave four-sided doorposts of olive woodread more. Christian Art and Gifts The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. ... “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: ... Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” Bible Scripture Verse Art Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com. Cite this page: Editor: Stephen Smith. Publication date: Jun 18, 2019. Publisher: OpenBible.info. “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Christian Art and Gifts “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. ... "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. "This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. Bible Scripture Verse Art Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ... Now King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was a widow's son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work. He fashioned the two pillars of bronze; eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of both. read more. Christian Canvas Art For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ... 1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art I’ve always liked the lyrics of the popular hymn that state “It is well with my soul.” It was only when I researched some of the background for this post that I learned some of the story behind these famously sung words. Did you know that words to this hymn were penned by Horatio Spafford after the tragic loss of ALL 5 of his children? You can read the story behind the hymn and the full lyrics here. Christian Art and Gifts Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar. The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth. Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge. ... Christian Art and Gifts Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.” Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art "The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods. "But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him? "Now send me a skilled man to work in gold, silver, brass and iron, and in purple, crimson and violet fabrics, and who knows how to make engravings, to work with the skilled men whom I have in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art It isn’t always easy to completely overhaul your house for all the seasons, but it is easy to change out a piece of artwork here and there. I’m in love with all the free printable scripture art options you can find online these days. If you want a pretty yet inexpensive way to decorate these choices are perfect for you! Looking for a thoughtful gift, these would be perfect. Christian Art and Gifts He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths. Then he made the ten stands of bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and its height three cubits. This was the design of the stands: they had borders, even borders between the frames, and on the borders which were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths at each side. Its opening inside the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round. The four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around. He made the ten stands like this: all of them had one casting, one measure and one form. He made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin. Then he set the stands, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; and he set the sea of cast metal on the right side of the house eastward toward the south. Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the LORD: the two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the tops of the pillars; and the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands; and the one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea; and the pails and the shovels and the bowls; even all these utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were of polished bronze. In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; the weight of the bronze could not be ascertained. Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold; and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold. Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the LORD was finished And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around.read more. Remember that biblical art, as a visual representation of the Bible, is not always rated “G.” The Bible is not a children’s story, so some biblical art contains nudity or bloody depictions of violence. Not all things in the Bible are beautiful and calming; many times biblical stories are full of distortion and dissonance. As such, biblical artwork will tell the full Story of God that includes creation, fall, and redemption, with each of its harsh realities. As in all of life, the believer is called to be discerning. Christian Art and Gifts So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees. So also he made for the entrance of the nave four-sided doorposts of olive wood and two doors of cypress wood; the two leaves of the one door turned on pivots, and the two leaves of the other door turned on pivots. He carved on it cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the engraved work. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ... Christian Canvas Art Throughout history, many artists have acknowledged God’s sovereignty and position as the ultimate Creator depicting in their work the accounts and truths which God has given to his people through the Bible. Virtually every biblical account has been visually portrayed at least once and usually many times throughout history and across cultures. In museums, galleries, churches, cathedrals, and homes around the world, such works of art are helping people gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptures. Christian Canvas Art Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ... Christian Art and Gifts Visual art, including stained glass, sculptures, and paintings, was incredibly important in Medieval times when most people were illiterate. The Bible was unavailable except to the very upper classes (who were more likely to be able to read), but by using the visual arts the biblical account was made available for everyone. Biblical art was known as biblia paupernum or “the Bible of the poor.” Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art He also made two pillars for the front of the house, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on the top of each was five cubits. He made chains in the inner sanctuary and placed them on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and placed them on the chains. He erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and the other on the left, and named the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art David built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites: of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with 120 of his brothers; ... Bible Scripture Verse Art From the very first verse of Scripture, God reveals himself as the Creator, an Artist. Everything within the universe is a magnificent element of the Great Artist’s masterpiece. As works of art created in God’s own image (Gen 1:27), people are endowed with the ability to create as well. We can choose to join the Master Artist by being artists ourselves. Share Your Faith Products Canvas Art “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Bible Scripture Verse Art Bible Scripture Verse Art Here Contact us at [email protected] \| Sitemap xml \| Sitemap txt \| Sitemap	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line616
__label__wiki	0.790891	0.790891	Muslim Man Accused of Helping to Plot Texas Attack, Planning to Bomb Arizona Mall, Super Bowl By Heather Clark on December 25, 2015 1 Comment PHOENIX — A Muslim man who was arrested in June after allegedly being involved in a plot to attack a “draw Muhammad” contest in Texas has now also been accused of planning to bomb a shopping mall in Arizona and the 2015 Super Bowl. Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 44, of Arizona, had been charged this summer after investigators believed that he helped to plan the attack in Garland, along with Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, also from the Pheonix area. As previously reported, Simpson and Soofi traveled to Texas in May to attack the event, driving up to the Curtis Culwell Center near the end of the gathering and began shooting at a security officer. Police officers who were on duty for extra security then returned the gunfire with the suspects, fatally wounding them. Kareem was arrested after being connected to the incident as it was believed that he helped to plan the assault, provided the weapons carried by the men, and went with Simpson and Soofi to shooting practice to prepare for the attack. He was charged with conspiracy, interstate transportation of firearms, false statements, and felony possession of firearms. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury added a new charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization as it has since been alleged that Kareem, as well as Simpson and Soofi, had supported ISIS. The indictment says that Simpson and Soofi were carrying a printout of the Islamic State flag at the time of the Texas attack. According to reports, Kareen had researched travel to the Middle East to fight with the terror organization and encouraged Simpson and Soofi to carry out attacks in the U.S. as retribution for military action against ISIS . Prosecutors also accuse Kareem of watching and sharing jihadist videos, as well as seeking information about how to obtain pipe bombs to attack Westgate Mall and the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale during the 2015 Super Bowl. The three are additionally stated to have scoped out military installations for potential attacks. In June, during his initial indictment, prosecutor Kristen Brook called Kareem “off the charts dangerous.” “This is an individual who is apt to incite violence,” she said. His attorney, Daniel Maynard, asserted that the case was based on an unreliable source. “This case is all smoke and mirrors, based on confidential source that is not reliable at all,” Maynard said. “This is a typical, typical jailhouse snitch.” Kareem’s family also believes he is innocent. Kareem was born Decarus Lowell Thomas, but later changed his name after converting to Islam. Muslim Man Accused of Helping to Plot Texas Attack, Planning to Bomb Arizona Mall, Super Bowl added by Heather Clark on December 25, 2015	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line617
__label__wiki	0.864651	0.864651	Legal Background on Arbitrariness On June 29, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed a group of cases, which argued that the death penalty was being applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner—a manner that was uneven, infrequent, and often selectively imposed against black people. In the landmark decision known as Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), the Court held that Georgia’s death-penalty procedures violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. The Furman decision effectively voided every state’s death penalty law, commuted the sentences of more than 600 death-row prisoners around the country, and suspended the future use of the death penalty. The five justices in the majority could not agree on a rationale in striking down the death penalty, but all focused on the freakish and unpredictable manner in which death sentences were imposed. Following Furman, many states enacted new statutes that they believed would decrease arbitrariness in capital sentencing. To address the unconstitutionality of unguided jury discretion, some states removed all discretion by mandating capital punishment for those convicted of capital crimes. This practice, however, was held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280 (1976), because it did not allow for consideration of individual differences among defendants. Other states sought to focus the jury’s discretion by providing sentencing guidelines to direct the jury when deciding whether to impose death. Georgia provided bifurcated proceedings, in which guilt and sentence are determined in separate trials. In the sentencing phase, the jury had to find at least one aggravating circumstance (characteristics that make certain murders worse than others) beyond a reasonable doubt before considering other evidence and making a decision between life or death. In an effort to safeguard against arbitrary sentencing, Georgia also created specialized appellate review of any death sentence, which included consideration of whether the death sentence was a proportional punishment. In 1976, Georgia’s guided discretion statute, as well as statutes in Florida and Texas, were approved by the Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153. The decision in Gregg held that the revised death-penalty statutes were constitutional and that the death penalty itself was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment. The Court’s decision in Gregg began what many call “the modern era of capital punishment.” Despite the majority decision in Gregg, Justice Thurgood Marshall remained skeptical that the death penalty could be applied fairly even with the new procedures in place. “The task of eliminating arbitrariness in the infliction of capital punishment is proving to be one which our criminal justice system — and perhaps any criminal justice system — is unable to perform.” Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 440 (1980) (Marshall, J., concurring). The goal of the refined procedures was to reserve the ultimate punishment only for “those whose unspeakable deeds truly merited their assignment to the category of the ‘worst of the worst.’” Frank Baumgartner, et al., Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty, Oxford Univ. Press (2017), at 4. Less than a decade after the Supreme Court approved the new capital sentencing statutes based, in part, on a requirement that state appellate courts conduct a comparative proportionality review of all death sentences, the Court held that review was not constitutionally mandated. In Pulley v. Harris, 465 U.S. 37 (1984), the Court recognized that proportionality review “does provide the ‘function of death sentence review with a maximum of rationality and consistency’” but nonetheless reasoned that “[t]he fact that the practice is an especially good one … does not mean that it is an indispensable element of meaningful appellate review.” This decision effectively resulted in most states abandoning the practice of reviewing death sentences to determine whether they were, in fact, just or proportionate in relation to others. In the decades since Gregg, studies, reports, research, and data have shown that the administration of capital punishment throughout the United States is not applied only to the worst of the worst but instead is affected by arbitrary and irrelevant factors. In fact, Justice Stevens—who was on the Court at the time Gregg was decided and voted in favor of upholding the death penalty based on the new statutory requirements—has since said that “the death penalty today is vastly different from the death penalty that we thought we were authorizing.” At the time of the decision, Justice Stevens believed that the universe of defendants who could be eligible for the death penalty was “sufficiently narrow” so that society could be “confident that the defendant really merits that severe punishment,” but over the years, the death penalty has expanded and the protections that were once in place have been abandoned that Stevens said “the underlying premise for [his] vote [in Gregg] has disappeared.” Leigh B. Bienen, The Proportionality Review of Capital Cases by State High Courts After Gregg: Only “The Appearance of Justice”?, 87 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 130 (1996). Legally Irrelevant Factors Impact Death Sentencing The Death Penalty Is Not Limited to the Worst of the Worst Arbitrariness and the Constitution Furman v. Georgia, 1972 “The high service rendered by the ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment is to require legislatures to write penal laws that are evenhanded, nonselective, and nonarbitrary, and to require judges to see to it that general laws are not applied sparsely, selectively, and spottily to unpopular groups.” —Justice William Douglas, concurring “These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual. For, of all the people convicted of rapes and murders in 1967 and 1968, many just as reprehensible as these, the petitioners are among a capriciously selected random handful upon whom the sentence of death has in fact been imposed.” —Justice Potter Stewart, concurring Justice Potter Stewart	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line622
__label__cc	0.52642	0.47358	Reunion Tower Schedule Reunion Tower Dallas / Fort Worth 300 Reunion Boulevard East Neighborhood: Central Dallas Reunion Tower is a 561-foot observation tower and one of the most recognizable landmarks in Dallas, Texas. Located in the Reunion district of downtown D... read more Reunion Tower Schedule and Tickets Jul 26 7:00 PM Painting With a View @ Reunion Tower Find Tickets MORE INFO ABOUT Reunion Tower Reunion Tower is a 561-foot observation tower and one of the most recognizable landmarks in Dallas, Texas. Located in the Reunion district of downtown Dallas, the tower is part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex, and is the 15th tallest building in Dallas. The tower consists of three floors with circular floor plans and a 360 degree view of the city. The first level is the observation deck, called the "GeO-Deck". The second level is home to the Cloud 9 Cafe. On the top level is the fine-dining restaurant Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck. The interior facility includes an interactive digital experience featuring information about Dallas landmarks, Reunion Tower itself, the events of November 22, 1963, live view high-definition cameras and more. The exterior of the observation deck feature telescopes with amazing views in every direction. Both restaurants have rotating floors that boast a 360 degree view of the city while guests dine. For more information, visit www.reuniontower.com Venue setup: Reunion Tower	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line624
__label__wiki	0.899033	0.899033	Natural - Imagine Dragons Natural Lyrics When every one of them is giving up or giving in, tell me Nothing ever comes without a consequence or cost, tell me Will the stars align? [Pre-Chorus] That's the price you pay Leave behind your heartache, cast away Just another product of today And you're standing on the edge, face up 'cause you're a... A beating heart of stone You gotta be so cold To make it in this world Yeah, you're a natural Living your life cutthroat Yeah, you're a natural Natural Lyrics Will the stars align? Yeah, you're a natural[Verse 2] Will somebody Let me see the light within the dark trees' shadows and What's happenin'? Lookin' through the glass find the wrong within the past knowin' Oh, we are the youth Call out to the beast, not a word without the peace, facing A bit of the truth, the truth Leave behind your heartache, cast away Just another product of today Rather be the hunter than the prey And you're standing on the edge, face up 'cause you're a...[Chorus] A bit of the truth, the truth[Pre-Chorus] Yeah, you're a naturalI can taste it, the end is upon us, I swear Gonna make it I'm gonna make it Yeah, you're a natural[Outro] Imagine Dragons are an alternative rock band which formed in 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The band consists of Dan Reynolds (vocals), Wayne Sermon (guitar), Ben McKee (bass) and Daniel Platzman (drums). The band released four EPs - "Imagine Dragons" (2009), "Hell and Silence" (2010), "It's Time" (2011) and "Continued Silence" (2012) - before releasing their debut full length album "Night Visions" on 4 September 2012. The band's single "It's Time", which previously appeared on the "It's Time" and "Continued Silence" EPs in addition to appearing on "Night Visions", is the group's biggest hit, reaching #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. In a dark kitchen in the middle of a sweaty night in Las Vegas, all 6’4” of Dan Reynolds is hunched over a laptop, slapping beats on the table and crooning lyrics into a tiny microphone. Before long, he and the other three members of indie rock band Imagine Dragons would be playing “It’s Time,” that same laptop-demo-turned-supersized-anthem, from the roof of a parking garage to a wave of thousands of screaming fans. This song title to the single from their 2012 debut KidInaKorner/Interscope release “Continued Silence EP” is an all too apt descriptor of the band’s hard-earned success—but it’s also emblematic of the deep-seated anxiety Reynolds and the rest of the band experienced leaving behind any realistic expectation of a normal job to do the thing they love most. A third-generation Las Vegas native, Reynolds is no stranger to the adage “the house always wins,” choosing to pave his musical career with a near obsessive work ethic and hundreds of unused demos rather than roll the dice with the first songs that sprung from his mouth. It’s no surprise, then, that he was drawn to guitarist Wayne Sermon, another founding member of Imagine Dragons. Having practically grown up in a recording studio and graduated Berklee College of Music, Wayne had been practicing his guitar through meals and other socially inappropriate situations as long as he could remember; he challenged Dan in a way that was both uncomfortable and exactly what they both needed. When they began writing songs together and recognized something special was happening, Wayne called up his Berklee friend Ben McKee, who promptly dropped out of school with only a few credits left, moving across the country to play bass for the band. This sort of reckless/genius behavior is typical for Ben, who has an uncanny penchant for spicy food and a suitcase full of unbelievable road stories. More recently, the band was joined by drummer Daniel Platzman, another Bostonian schoolmate who seems way too nice to be playing rock and roll until you actually see him in action. Several tours and three self-released EPs later, Imagine Dragons had made a serious name for itself, particularly in the west coast circuit. Although their songs vary from nearly whimsical and light to brooding and powerful, listeners are drawn to the inherent honesty in the music. The only rule of thumb for the band, it seems, is to write from a true place; the result is songs that literally run the spectrum of human emotion. Attend a concert, and it becomes clear that the live performance of deeply personal songs has a real effect on people. And the band itself is not immune, as demonstrated when Dan literally passed out into the drum set during a finale song, sending cymbals and drum stands crashing while the rest of the band played on until the close. Great songwriting is bound to be noticed eventually. As proof that the harder you work, the luckier you get, one of those people who noticed was Grammy winning producer Alex da Kid (Eminem, Rihanna). Alex and Dan began collaborating on projects, and soon the band had developed a relationship with Alex and his team. The alchemy resulting from Alex’s hip hop sensibilities and Imagine Dragons’ anthemic rock is nothing short of explosive. The byproduct of this creative collision is “Continued Silence,” a six song in-your-face sonic grenade that breaks musical boundaries and yet is strangely relatable by its improbably diverse audience. Despite it all, on any given day when they aren’t on the road playing shows, you can still find Imagine Dragons huddled away in a rehearsal room somewhere, banging out song after song in search of the next perfect track. Like most things in Vegas, the band is angled at going big or going bust. For the sake of those who love great music, we hope it’s the former. More lyrics by Imagine Dragons My Fault	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line625
__label__wiki	0.859393	0.859393	Posts Tagged ‘Bounty Killer and Elephant Man’ anger, Bounty Killer and Elephant Man, confession, Forgiveness, hatred, homophobia in Jamacia, homosexuality, identity crisis, Jamacia, love, rebellion, Satan, shame, Sin ConversationswitCoyfee presents Life In Jamacia In homosexuality on July 21, 2009 at 2:35 pm Gays In Jamacia Live in Fear Hey Guys! This is Coyfee and as always, I was surfing and ran across this story. I won’t offer much comment on the topic. Accept I do not believe in cruelty to the homosexual community because first of all they are people. Now concerning my beliefs, those are private unless you ask me. I will not make this post about me or my beliefs. I will offer this Biblical verse as a scriptural reference. Romans 1:20-Romans 2. 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. I will however direct your attention to the post. I was shocked at the below advertisement. Read below ..Battyman(Jamacian word for homosexuals). By Associated Press July 20, 2009 9:17 am Even now, about three years after a near-fatal gay bashing, Sherman gets jittery at dusk. On bad days, his blood quickens, his eyes dart, and he seeks refuge indoors. A group of men kicked him and slashed him with knives for being a “batty boy” — a slang term for gay men — after he left a party before dawn in October 2006. They sliced his throat, torso, and back, hissed anti-gay epithets, and left him for dead on a Kingston corner. “It gets like five, six o’clock, my heart begins to race. I just need to go home, I start to get nervous,” said the 36-year-old outside the secret office of Jamaica’s sole gay rights group. Like many other gays, Sherman won’t give his full name for fear of retribution. Despite the easygoing image propagated by tourist boards, gays and their advocates agree that Jamaica is by far the most hostile island toward homosexuals in the already conservative Caribbean. They say gays, typically those in poor communities, suffer frequent abuse. But they have little recourse because of rampant anti-gay stigma and a sodomy law banning sex between men in Jamaica and 10 other former British colonies in the Caribbean. It is impossible to say just how common gay bashing attacks like the one against Sherman are in Jamaica — their tormentors are sometimes the police themselves. But many homosexuals in Jamaica say homophobia is pervasive across the sun-soaked island, from the pulpit to the floor of the Parliament. Hostility toward gays has reached such a level that four months ago, gay advocates in New York City launched a short-lived boycott against Jamaica at the site of the Stonewall Inn, where demonstrations launched the gay-rights movement in 1969. In its 2008 report, the U.S. State Department also notes that gays have faced death and arson threats, and are hesitant to report incidents against them because of fear. For gays, the reality of this enduring hostility is loneliness and fear, and sometimes even murder. Andrew, a 36-year-old volunteer for an AIDS education program, said he was driven from the island after his ex-lover was killed for being gay — which police said was just a robbery gone wrong. He moved to the U.K. for several years, but returned to Jamaica in 2008 for personal reasons he declined to disclose. “I’m living in fear on a day-to-day basis,” he said softly during a recent interview in Kingston. “In the community where my ex-lover was killed, people will say to me when I’m passing on the street, they will make remarks like ‘boom-boom-boom’ or ‘batty boy fi dead.’ I don’t feel free walking on the streets.” Many in this highly Christian nation perceive homosexuality as a sin, and insist violence against gays is blown out of proportion by gay activists. Some say Jamaica tolerates homosexuality as long as it is not advertised — a tropical version of former President Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for the U.S. military. Jamaica’s most prominent evangelical pastor, Bishop Herro Blair, said he sympathizes with those who face intolerance, but that homosexuals themselves are actually behind most of the attacks reported against them. “Among themselves, homosexuals are extremely jealous,” said Blair during a recent interview. “But some of them do cause a reaction by their own behaviors, for, in many people’s opinions, homosexuality is distasteful.” Other church leaders have accused gays of flaunting their behavior to “recruit” youngsters, or called for them to undergo “redemptive work” to break free of their sexual orientation. Perhaps playing to anti-gay constituents, politicians routinely rail against homosexuals. During a parliamentary session in February, lawmaker Ernest Smith of the rulingJamaica Labor Party stressed that gays were “brazen,” ”abusive,” and “violent,” and expressed anxiety that the police force was “overrun by homosexuals.” A few weeks later, Prime Minister Bruce Golding described gay advocates as “perhaps the most organized lobby in the world” and vowed to keep Jamaica’s “buggery law” — punishable by 10 years — on the books. During a BBC interview last year, Golding vowed to never allow gays in his Cabinet. The dread of homosexuality is so all-encompassing that many Jamaican men refuse to get digital rectal examinations for prostate cancer, even those whose disease is advanced, said Dr. Trevor Tulloch, a urology consultant at Andrews Memorial Hospital. “Because it is a homophobic society, there’s such a fear of the sexual implications of having the exam that men won’t seek out help,” said Tulloch, adding Jamaica has a soaring rate of prostate cancer because men won’t be screened. The anti-gay sentiment on this island of 2.8 million has perhaps become best known through Jamaican “dancehall,” a rap-reggae music hybrid that often has raunchy, violent themes. Some reggae rappers, including Bounty Killer and Elephant Man, depend on gay-bashing songs to rouse concert-goers. “It stirs up the crowd to a degree that many performers feel they have to come up with an anti-gay song to incite the audience,” said Barry Chevannes, a professor of social anthropology at the University of the West Indies. Brooklyn-based writer Staceyann Chin, a lesbian who fled her Caribbean homeland for New York more than a decade ago, stressed that violence in Jamaica is high — there were 1,611 killings last year, about 10 times more than the U.S. rate relative to population — but that it is “extraordinarily” high against gays. “The macho ideal is celebrated, praised in Jamaica, while homosexuality is paralleled with pedophilia, rapists,” Chin said. “Markers that other people perceive as gay — they walk a certain way, wear tight pants, or are overly friendly with a male friend — make them targets. It’s a little pressure cooker waiting to pop.” In 1996, when she was 20, Chin came out as lesbian on the Kingston UWI campus. She said she was ostracized by her peers, and one day was herded into a campus bathroom by a group of male students, who ripped off her clothes and sexually assaulted her. “They told me what God wanted from me, that God made women to enjoy sex with men,” recalled Chin, a poet, performer and lecturer who closes her just-published memoir “The Other Side of Paradise” with her searing account of the attack. Even in New York City, anti-gay Jamaican bigots sent her hate-filled e-mails after a 2007 appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s TV talk show to discuss homosexuality. Chin said she doesn’t know if she would have the courage to come out now as a lesbian in Jamaica. “The tensions are higher now. People are feeling very much that they have to declare camps,” she said. Jamaican nationalism has always been tied in deeply with bugbears about masculinity, making for a “potent brew” where those who violate accepted standards of manliness are easy targets, said Scott Long of Human Rights Watch. Long, head of a gay rights program at the New York-based group, pointed out that most other English-speaking islands in the region have tiny populations, where gays don’t come out and visible activism is limited. “(But) what stands out about Jamaica is how absolutely, head-in-the-sand unwilling the authorities have been for years to acknowledge or address homophobic violence,” he said. “Most notably, three successive governments have completely, utterly, publicly refused even to talk about changing the buggery law — which expressly consigns gay people to second-class citizens and paints targets on their backs.” Prominent Jamaican political activist Yvonne McCalla Sobers noted that social standing still protects gay islanders, especially in Kingston, where a quest for privacy and the fear of crime has driven many to live behind gated walls with key pad entry systems, 24-hour security and closed-circuit television monitoring. People with power and money who are not obviously gay are often protected, she said. “My thought is there are far more men having sex with men in this country than you would ever think is happening,” Sobers said. Many gays from poorer areas in Jamaica say they congregate in private to find safety and companionship. Once a month, they have underground church services at revolving locations across the island. Sherman, meanwhile, is simply trying to move on with his life. But he said he will always remember how, after his attack, patrolmen roughly lifted his bloodied body out of their squad car when a man admonished them for aiding a “batty boy.” A woman shamed them into driving him to a hospital; they stuffed him in the car’s trunk. “Being gay in Jamaica, it’s like, don’t tell anybody. Just keep it to yourself,” he said evenly, with a half smile. Please tell me what you thought of this post. Talk2Me..Leave me your comments.. ▶ View 1 Comment	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line629
__label__wiki	0.563434	0.563434	The Big Turnaround in Retirement Policy August 13, 2018 at 09:37PM Retirement Income Journal The Big Turnaround in Retirement Policy Since November 2016, the direction of retirement policy in the U.S. has reversed. Legislators, not bureaucrats, are in the lead. The SEC, not DOL is in charge of ethics. Industry-led initiatives, not consumer initiatives, are gathering support. It's a dramatic shift. To the extent that the U.S. has a “retirement policy,” its flavor has definitely changed since Nov. 2016. Given the fact that a business-oriented administration has replaced a consumer-oriented administration, this should not be a surprise. It’s interesting to see who is taking the lead in setting policy today. For one thing, the pro-Wall Street SEC, not the pro-consumer Department of Labor, is setting the standard for advisor ethics. The Obama DOL aimed to apply the protections and restrictions of the closely-regulated pension world to the tax-deferred IRA world. The SEC seems to tolerate rougher play in the advisory world, and seems satisfied with a caveat-emptor standard that will require consumers to watch out for their own best interest. Regarding conflicts-of-interest in the advisory world, the Obama DOL tried to sharply reduce them (in part by demanding a written pledge of loyalty to clients from advisors selling variable and indexed annuities on commission) while still allowing business to proceed. For the financial industry, those same conflicts-of-interest—symbiotic relationships between product manufacturers and distributors—are the synergies at the very heart of its business models. Industry opposition to the Obama fiduciary rule eventually led to its demise at the hands of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It remains to be seen what the SEC will do. The public comment period for its vaguely-worded “Regulation Best Interest” proposal just ended. In the retirement income arena, the action has shifted from the executive branch to the legislative branch. Under Obama, the Treasury Department drove the government’s thinking about financial products for tax-deferred accumulation and distribution. Mark Iwry at Treasury, for example, initiated the myRA workplace IRA program for savers at companies without 401(k) plans. He also initiated the Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract, now offered by a handful of mutual life insurers. It allows people who buy deferred income annuities with a portion of their tax-deferred savings (up to 25%) to defer required minimum distributions on that portion until income begins or age 85, whichever comes first. That era is over largely over. The newest and most talked-about retirement ideas are bubbling up from the legislative branch. Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has proposed the Retirement Enhancement and Security Act (RESA) of 2018 and Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Richard Neal is sponsoring the Retirement Simplification and Enhancement Act. The Hatch bill would allow retirement plan providers to sponsor 401(k) plans and invite dozens of employers to join. The Neal bill would reduce or even eliminate the legal liabilities that are said to deter many small company employers from sponsoring 401(k) plans. There are several other initiatives in the mix as well. These efforts appear to reflect a spirit of deregulation in keeping with the new administration’s preferences. The new initiatives would relax some of the regulations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and allow plan providers, including life insurers who are also plan providers, to sponsor and design 401(k) plans. If employers do bear less fiduciary responsibility for plan design in the future, insurers might even pre-build income annuities in 401(k) plans. Employers have been resistant to in-plan annuities because of liability concerns. The Trump administration styles itself as “populist,” but the Obama approach to retirement was arguably much more populist, if populism and consumerism are at all related. The myRA and the QLAC ideas were aimed at the neediest, with their benefits tailored mainly to the accumulation and distribution challenges of individual lower- and middle-income Americans. These initiatives offered only mild opportunities for people in the retirement business. By contrast, there’s a lot of excitement in the 401(k) industry about the Hatch and Neal bills. Those bills would make the small plan market more accessible to large service providers. Whether they would result in the availability of 401(k) plans to millions of currently uncovered American workers remains to be seen. The new legislative proposals are said to have a 50% chance of becoming reality, perhaps as part of the next phase of tax reform. Given the gridlock and dysfunction in Washington, D.C.—a city that grows more opulent even as government decays—it’s equally possible that these potentially transformative initiatives could get kicked down the road. © 2018 RIJ Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. Fax Machines Are Still Everywhere, and Wildly Insecure I want bad news and I want it fast: That’s the business model for Factal, a business-focused company from the founders of Breaking News Facebook and the newsroom: 6 questions for Siva Vaidhyanathan Week_2_Cowan_and_Sharp_Artificial Intelligence DebateOCR IS289.3 Week 2 Class Notes	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line633
__label__wiki	0.761024	0.761024	Home » About Us » Past Newsletters » 2014 Newsletter » Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching: Trevon Logan 2014 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching Given to Trevon Logan The Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching honors faculty members for superior teaching. Recipients are nominated by present and former students and colleagues and are chosen by a committee of alumni, students, and faculty. They are inducted into the university's Academy of Teaching, which provides leadership for the improvement of teaching at Ohio State. When Trevon Logan is not teaching economics to his undergraduate students, he serves as both the director of Undergraduate Studies and advisor to the Undergraduate Economics Society — a classic example of a professor devoted to students’ best interests. But more, students consistently say that he provides them with a top-notch education. “Trevon is much more than an effective teacher,” one nominator wrote. “He has demonstrated a strong commitment to making the undergraduate experience for economics majors and other students as rewarding as possible.” One way Logan achieves this is in his teaching process. He uses a more discussion-oriented approach with his students, a strategy that isn’t common in economics. The phrase “demanding and rewarding” and variations of that are common on student evaluation forms. “He expects a lot of his students, but rather than complain about the workload, students report that they enjoyed the challenge because he made the material so interesting,” another nominator wrote. Logan has taught seven economics lecture courses, participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Program at the University of Michigan and served as an advisor and supervisor of several dissertations. He is the current president of the National Economic Association. As for his contributions to Ohio State, Logan reinstituted and redesigned Economics 4553: Economics of Population, and designed a new course, Economics 5150: Economic Transitions in the 20th Century. Logan even features his own published research in every course he teaches. Logan earned a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line638
__label__wiki	0.910794	0.910794	Home > Law Journals > Buffalo Law Review > Vol. 52 > No. 3 (2004) Buffalo Law Review 2004–2005 Board of Editors David A. Westbrook The Case of the Missing Discipline: Finding Buddhist Legal Studies Rebecca Redwood French Which Law through Which War? Law through War Revisited Pierre d'Argent Reading Quicksilver: A Response to Pierre d'Argent A Woman's World: What if care work were socialized and police and fire protection left to individual families? Richard Michael Fischl Aspirational Law Philip Harvey Law, Economics, and the Theory of the Firm Michael J. Meurer Secret Police and the Mysterious Case of the Missing Tort Claims Marc L. Miller and Ronald F. Wright Charity Begins in Washington, D. C. Edward L. Rubin My Dinner at Langdell's Pierre Schlag From High in the Paper Tower, an Essay on von Humboldt's University John Henry Schlegel Agenda Setting in Supreme Court Tax Cases: Lessons from the Blackmun Papers Nancy C. Staudt Annual Index to Volume 52 About the Buffalo Law Review The Docket Buffalo Law Review Mastheads Symposium: Opportunities for Law's Intellectual History The Rule of Law in Ancient Athens Symposium: Advertising and the Law All Issues Vol. 67, No. 2 Vol. 67, No. 1 Vol. 66, No. 5 Vol. 66, No. 4 Vol. 66, No. 3 Vol. 66, No. 2 Vol. 66, No. 1 Vol. 65, No. 5 Vol. 65, No. 4 Vol. 65, No. 3 Vol. 65, No. 2 Vol. 65, No. 1 Vol. 64, No. 5 Vol. 64, No. 4 Vol. 64, No. 3 Vol. 64, No. 2 Vol. 64, No. 1 Vol. 63, No. 5 Vol. 63, No. 4 Vol. 63, No. 3 Vol. 63, No. 2 Vol. 63, No. 1 Vol. 62, No. 5 Vol. 62, No. 4 Vol. 62, No. 3 Vol. 62, No. 2 Vol. 62, No. 1 Vol. 61, No. 5 Vol. 61, No. 4 Vol. 61, No. 3 Vol. 61, No. 2 Vol. 61, No. 1 Vol. 60, No. 5 Vol. 60, No. 4 Vol. 60, No. 3 Vol. 60, No. 2 Vol. 60, No. 1 Vol. 59, No. 5 Vol. 59, No. 4 Vol. 59, No. 3 Vol. 59, No. 2 Vol. 59, No. 1 Vol. 58, No. 5 Vol. 58, No. 4 Vol. 58, No. 3 Vol. 58, No. 2 Vol. 58, No. 1 Vol. 57, No. 5 Vol. 57, No. 4 Vol. 57, No. 3 Vol. 57, No. 2 Vol. 57, No. 1 Vol. 56, No. 4 Vol. 56, No. 3 Vol. 56, No. 2 Vol. 56, No. 1 Vol. 55, No. 4 Vol. 55, No. 3 Vol. 55, No. 2 Vol. 55, No. 1 Vol. 54, No. 5 Vol. 54, No. 4 Vol. 54, No. 3 Vol. 54, No. 2 Vol. 54, No. 1 Vol. 53, No. 5 Vol. 53, No. 4 Vol. 53, No. 3 Vol. 53, No. 2 Vol. 53, No. 1 Vol. 52, No. 4 Vol. 52, No. 3 Vol. 52, No. 2 Vol. 52, No. 1 Vol. 51, No. 4 Vol. 51, No. 3 Vol. 51, No. 2 Vol. 51, No. 1 Vol. 50, No. 3 Vol. 50, No. 2 Vol. 50, No. 1 Vol. 49, No. 3 Vol. 49, No. 2 Vol. 49, No. 1 Vol. 48, No. 3 Vol. 48, No. 2 Vol. 48, No. 1 Vol. 47, No. 3 Vol. 47, No. 2 Vol. 47, No. 1 Vol. 46, No. 3 Vol. 46, No. 2 Vol. 46, No. 1 Vol. 45, No. 3 Vol. 45, No. 2 Vol. 45, No. 1 Vol. 44, No. 3 Vol. 44, No. 2 Vol. 44, No. 1 Vol. 43, No. 3 Vol. 43, No. 2 Vol. 43, No. 1 Vol. 42, No. 3 Vol. 42, No. 2 Vol. 42, No. 1 Vol. 41, No. 3 Vol. 41, No. 2 Vol. 41, No. 1 Vol. 40, No. 3 Vol. 40, No. 2 Vol. 40, No. 1 Vol. 39, No. 3 Vol. 39, No. 2 Vol. 39, No. 1 Vol. 38, No. 3 Vol. 38, No. 2 Vol. 38, No. 1 Vol. 37, No. 3 Vol. 37, No. 2 Vol. 37, No. 1 Vol. 36, No. 3 Vol. 36, No. 2 Vol. 36, No. 1 Vol. 35, No. 3 Vol. 35, No. 2 Vol. 35, No. 1 Vol. 34, No. 3 Vol. 34, No. 2 Vol. 34, No. 1 Vol. 33, No. 3 Vol. 33, No. 2 Vol. 33, No. 1 Vol. 32, No. 3 Vol. 32, No. 2 Vol. 32, No. 1 Vol. 31, No. 3 Vol. 31, No. 2 Vol. 31, No. 1 Vol. 30, No. 4 Vol. 30, No. 3 Vol. 30, No. 2 Vol. 30, No. 1 Vol. 29, No. 4 Vol. 29, No. 3 Vol. 29, No. 2 Vol. 29, No. 1 Vol. 28, No. 4 Vol. 28, No. 3 Vol. 28, No. 2 Vol. 28, No. 1 Vol. 27, No. 4 Vol. 27, No. 3 Vol. 27, No. 2 Vol. 27, No. 1 Vol. 26, No. 4 Vol. 26, No. 3 Vol. 26, No. 2 Vol. 26, No. 1 Vol. 25, No. 3 Vol. 25, No. 2 Vol. 25, No. 1 Vol. 24, No. 3 Vol. 24, No. 2 Vol. 24, No. 1 Vol. 23, No. 3 Vol. 23, No. 2 Vol. 23, No. 1 Vol. 22, No. 3 Vol. 22, No. 2 Vol. 22, No. 1 Vol. 21, No. 3 Vol. 21, No. 2 Vol. 21, No. 1 Vol. 20, No. 3 Vol. 20, No. 2 Vol. 20, No. 1 Vol. 19, No. 3 Vol. 19, No. 2 Vol. 19, No. 1 Vol. 18, No. 3 Vol. 18, No. 2 Vol. 18, No. 1 Vol. 17, No. 3 Vol. 17, No. 2 Vol. 17, No. 1 Vol. 16, No. 3 Vol. 16, No. 2 Vol. 16, No. 1 Vol. 15, No. 3 Vol. 15, No. 2 Vol. 15, No. 1 Vol. 14, No. 3 Vol. 14, No. 2 Vol. 14, No. 1 Vol. 13, No. 3 Vol. 13, No. 2 Vol. 13, No. 1 Vol. 12, No. 3 Vol. 12, No. 2 Vol. 12, No. 1 Vol. 11, No. 3 Vol. 11, No. 2 Vol. 11, No. 1 Vol. 10, No. 3 Vol. 10, No. 2 Vol. 10, No. 1 Vol. 9, No. 3 Vol. 9, No. 2 Vol. 9, No. 1 Vol. 8, No. 3 Vol. 8, No. 2 Vol. 8, No. 1 Vol. 7, No. 3 Vol. 7, No. 2 Vol. 7, No. 1 Vol. 6, No. 3 Vol. 6, No. 2 Vol. 6, No. 1 Vol. 5, No. 3 Vol. 5, No. 2 Vol. 5, No. 1 Vol. 4, No. 3 Vol. 4, No. 2 Vol. 4, No. 1 Vol. 3, No. 2 Vol. 3, No. 1 Vol. 2, No. 2 Vol. 2, No. 1 Vol. 1, No. 3 Vol. 1, No. 2 Vol. 1, No. 1	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line639
__label__wiki	0.609172	0.609172	United Kingdom flags Somerset flag (official) Select product 150x90 cm 90x60 cm About the Somerset flag The flag of Somerset is the flag of the English county of Somerset. A campaign had been running between 2006–09 in support of a flag and subsequently the Association of British Counties had taken up the campaign. The Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, Elizabeth, Lady Gass, had shown her support as had David Heath MP and the local TV, radio and newspapers. The flag was adopted following a competition in July 2013.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line640
__label__wiki	0.528424	0.528424	Home » eDiscoveryDaily » Electronic Discovery » 2017 eDiscovery Case Law Year in Review, Part 4 2017 eDiscovery Case Law Year in Review, Part 4 As we noted yesterday, Tuesday and Monday, eDiscovery Daily published 78 posts related to eDiscovery case decisions and activities over the past year, covering 62 unique cases! Yesterday, we looked back at cases related to possession, custody and control, subpoena of cloud provider data, waiver of privilege and the first part of the cases relating to sanctions and spoliation. Today, let’s take a look back at the remaining sanctions and spoliation cases. We grouped those cases into common subject themes and will review them over the next few posts. Perhaps you missed some of these? Now is your chance to catch up! But first, it’s also worth noting that Tom O’Connor and I will be discussing some of these cases – and what the legal profession can learn from those rulings – on TODAY’S webcast Important eDiscovery Case Law Decisions of 2017 and Their Impact on 2018 at noon CT (1pm ET, 10am PT). The webcast is CLE accredited in selected states, so come check it out! SPOLIATION / SANCTIONS Here are the remaining fifteen cases related to spoliation and sanctions below: Court Says Rule 37(e) Doesn’t Apply When Recording Was Intentionally Deleted: In Hsueh v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Fin. Services, New York District Judge Paul A. Crotty relied upon inherent authority to impose sanctions and determined “that an adverse inference is the appropriate remedy” for the plaintiff’s deletion of a recorded conversation with an HR representative, agreeing with the defendants that “Rule 37(e) applies only to situations where ‘a party failed to take reasonable steps to preserve’ ESI; not to situations where, as here, a party intentionally deleted the recording.” Court Grants Summary Judgment After Plaintiff’s Spoliation Motion Denied: In Taylor v. Thrifty Payless, Inc., d/b/a Rite-Aid, Oregon District Judge Marco A. Hernandez granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment after denying the plaintiff’s request for spoliation sanctions against the defendant for failing to preserve store videos that were taken on the day of her slip and fall in the defendant’s store. Court Grants Motion for Terminating Sanctions Against Defendants for Intentional Spoliation: In Omnigen Research et. al. v. Wang et. al., Oregon District Judge Michael J. McShane granted the plaintiffs’ Motion for Terminating Spoliation Sanctions and agreed to issue an Order of Default Judgment in favor of the plaintiffs (while dismissing the defendants’ counterclaims) due to the defendants’ intentional destruction of evidence on several occasions. With Ample Evidence of Bad Faith, Court Sanctions Defendant for Failure to Produce Documents: In CrossFit, Inc. v. Nat’l Strength and Conditioning Assn., California District Judge Janis L. Sammartino granted the plaintiff’s motion for several issue, evidentiary, and monetary sanctions, but denied the plaintiff’s request for terminating sanctions due to the defendant’s bad faith that resulted in the defendant’s failure to produce documents. Court Declines to Impose Sanctions for Failure to Preserve Web History: In Eshelman v. Puma Biotechnology, Inc., North Carolina Magistrate Judge Robert B. Jones, Jr., among other rulings, denied the plaintiff’s motion for an order permitting a jury instruction in response to the defendant’s failure to preserve certain internet web browser and search histories, concluding that the plaintiff “is not entitled to a sanction pursuant to Rule 37(e)(1)” and that the plaintiff “is not entitled to an adverse jury instruction as a sanction pursuant to Rule 37(e)(2).” Defendant Not Sanctioned Despite Use of Evidence Wiping Software: In HCC Ins. Holdings, Inc. v. Flowers, Georgia District Judge William S. Duffey, Jr. denied the plaintiff’s motion for adverse inference sanctions despite evidence that the defendant had used evidence wiping software twice after being ordered to produce her personal computer, stating that the plaintiff “offers only bare speculation that any of its trade secrets or other data were actually transferred” to the defendant’s laptop. Plaintiff Sanctioned for Spoliation of Evidence in His Case Against Taylor Swift: In Mueller v. Swift, Colorado District Judge William J. Martinez ruled that “Plaintiff’s loss or destruction of the complete recording of the June 3, 2013 conversation [between the plaintiff and his supervisors] constitutes sanctionable spoliation of evidence”, but rejected the defendants’ request to make a finding of bad faith and to give the jury an adverse inference instruction, opting instead for permitting the defendants to cross-examine the plaintiff in front of the jury regarding the record of his spoliation of evidence. Court Grants Defendant’s Request for $18.5 Million in Attorney Fees and Costs: In Procaps S.A. v. Patheon Inc., Florida District Judge Jonathan Goodman, in a very lengthy ruling, granted the defendant’s supplemental motion for attorney’s fees and non-taxable costs in the full amount requested of $18,494.846. We’ve covered this case several times over more than three years. Court Grants Lesser Sanctions Against Defendant for Various Discovery Issues: In New Mexico Oncology v. Presbyterian Healthcare Servs., New Mexico Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth, detailing numerous defendant discovery deficiencies alleged by the plaintiff, ruled that the “harsh sanctions of default judgment or an adverse jury instruction” requested by the plaintiff “are not warranted” and instead opted to require the defendant to pay plaintiff costs related to activities resulting from defendants’ over-designation of documents as privileged and recommended that the defendants be ordered to pay the plaintiff 75% of the costs associated with its Motion for Sanctions including all fees paid to expert witnesses to prepare reports and testify at the motion hearing. Court Opts for Lesser Sanction for Failure to Preserve Electronic Vehicle Data: In Barry v. Big M Transportation, Inc., et al., Alabama Chief Magistrate Judge John E. Ott denied the plaintiffs’ request for default judgment sanctions for failing to preserve a tractor-trailer involved in an automobile accident and its “Electronic Data/Electronic Control Module (ECM) Vehicle Data Recorder/Black Box” and the data associated with the ECM device. As an alternative sanction, Judge Ott indicated the intent to tell the jury that the ECM data was not preserved and to allow the parties to present evidence and argument at trial regarding the defendant’s failure to preserve the data. Plaintiff Sanctioned for Preserving Only Scanned Copy of Journal and Destroying the Original: In Mitcham v. Americold Logistics, LLC, Colorado Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang granted (in part) the defendant’s motion for sanctions for the plaintiff’s delay in producing a copy of a journal she kept while employed by the defendant and for her failure to produce the original copy of the journal by granting leave to re-open the plaintiff’s deposition for an additional two hours to examine the plaintiff about the journal and associated fees and expenses, but denied the defendant’s request for fees and expenses associated with the filing of the instant Motion and denied the defendant’s request for an adverse inference instruction. Court Characterizes Plaintiff’s Request for Spoliation of Images Still Available as “Frivolous”: In Barcroft Media, Ltd. et al. v. Coed Media Grp., LLC, New York District Judge Jesse M. Furman denied the Plaintiffs’ motion for spoliation sanctions for failing to preserve web pages containing disputed images, and motion in limine to preclude the testimony of a defense expert witness for failing to list him in the defendant’s initial disclosures. Court Denies Default Judgment Sanctions for Defendant’s Production of Two Versions of Same Email: In Catrinar v. Wynnestone Communities Corp., et al., Michigan Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen denied the plaintiff’s Motion for Discovery Sanctions (requesting a default judgment) for fabricating and producing false evidence, finding that the defendant’s production of two versions of an email fail all four factors of the Harmon test applied by the court in this case to determine whether the defendant’s failure was due to willfulness, bad faith, or fault and whether the plaintiff was prejudiced by the defendant’s conduct, among other factors. Houston, We Have a Problem – Court Specifies Jury Instructions to Address Spoliation Findings: In GN Netcom, Inc. v. Plantronics, Inc., Delaware District Judge Leonard P. Stark chose to determine the preliminary and final jury instructions he would give with respect to the defendant’s spoliation for the “intentional and admitted deletion of emails” ruled on earlier, as well as the “Stipulated Facts” he would read to the jury at or near the start of the trial, rather than respond to the four spoliation-related questions posed by the plaintiff or defendant. Dispute Over Scope of Preservation Obligation Leads to Partial Sanctions For Now: In E.E.O.C. v. GMRI, Inc., Florida Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman, in a very lengthy and detailed order, denied in part and granted in part the plaintiff’s motion for sanctions for spoliation of paper applications, interview booklets, and emails. Judge Goodman did not grant the request for most-severe type of relief sought – permissible inferences at the summary judgment and trial stages – but did rule that the plaintiff could “present evidence of the purportedly destroyed and/or missing paper applications, interview booklets and guides, and emails to the jury” and “argue to the jury that Seasons 52 acted in bad faith (as defined by Rule 37(e)(2))”, which could lead to the jury inferring that the lost ESI was unfavorable to the defendant. That’s it for this year’s review. Tomorrow, we get started on cases we plan to cover this year! Stay tuned! Want to take a look at cases we covered the previous six years? Here they are: 2016: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 So, what do you think? Did you miss any of these? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line641
__label__wiki	0.606243	0.606243	Home » Auto Accidents » Father and Daughter Knocked Down in Cotton Tree Hit & Run Ezekial Ortega There was a near fatal traffic accident on the George Price Highway in Cotton Tree Village, Cayo District. Ezekial Ortega was travelling on a motorcycle with his eighteen-year-old step-daughter, Lillian Sanabria. He had just picked her up from the University of Belize and was travelling to the village when a vehicle hit them from behind. The impact sent Ortega and Sanabria to the pavement, but the driver didn’t stop. Sanabria sustained a gash to the back of the head and was taken to the Western Regional Hospital where she has since been treated and released. Ortega, on the other hand, sustained severe injuries to the head and body and is now fighting for his life at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. A News Five team spoke to Sanabria, who was recovering at her house in the village. Lillian Sanabria Lillian Sanabria, Accident Victim “I just feel when the car bounce we and the car didn’t bring no light from front and back so I neva watch dah back weh happen. So I just feel when the car bounce we and we drop. He was coming so fast that I didn’t see it. When we drop on the ground, he went faster and that’s when I realise. And my father, when a car pass, the helmet broke; that’s when I woke up and my father was cleaning his head. That’s when I got scared and I started to run and ask for help. And there was a man and I asked if he can lend me a call and he told me I am calling the police. And then I saw a lot of blood on me and I said what happened and I started to touch my head and that’s when I touch it and it was bust from here; all over here.” Duane Moody “Where were you guys coming from?” “I call him to come and look for me because I got to night school and he gone look for me because my friend didn’t reach and her father normally bring us home. But she didn’t reach that’s why I called my father.” “What are they saying is his condition?” “Well they are saying that he didn’t wake up; he’s still in the same critical that they had him in Belmopan.” “The investigation revealed that they obviously were hit from behind by a vehicle which did not stop. A small portion of a blue bumper was found at the scene so police are following several leads in relation to this investigation. Mister Ortega received head and body injuries and is in a critical condition at the K.H.M.H. while his passenger, Miss Sanabria also received head injuries, but she is in a stable condition.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line642
__label__cc	0.60635	0.39365	The team 2 Elkmont Exchange’s team is made up of handpicked industry veterans whose backgrounds inspired them to create such a unique F&B concept. Check out their bios to learn more. Brew Sales Johnny Miller has worn many hats while working in the Knoxville craft beer industry; these include production, service, sales and everything in between. He has a passion for growing the industry to its fullest potential through both consumer and retailer education. Johnny has received his BJCP certification and is working toward becoming Cicerone certified. Johnny serves on the board for the Knoxville Area Brewers Association, is a board member for the Tennessee Winter Beer Festival and also serves on the board for the Knoxville chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild. In an effort to give back to his community, Johnny volunteers his time for several other beer related events throughout East Tennessee including the planning and execution of the Knox Brewtails event. Johnny is passionate about Knoxville and the beer industry and always brings with him a strong sense of community, commitment to service, and dedication to quality. In his spare time Johnny enjoys cooking for friends, sitting by the fire with his wife, and exploring the outdoors of East Tennessee. Chris Meadows Chris graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Reinhardt University in 2005. Shortly after, he moved to Atlanta, where he quickly became familiar with the city’s rapidly growing SweetWater Brewing Company. He began volunteering at SweetWater’s infamous 420 Festival which eventually led to a position on the packaging line. Chris was promoted to Cellar after a year of employment; it was in this position that he learned more about the fermentation process and his passion for craft truly began to form. Chris aspired to become a brewer and decided to take up the hobby of homebrewing to coincide with his cellar work. He quickly learned the trade and was offered a Brewer position in 2012. After spending a few years mastering SweetWater’s large scale brewhouse, Chris advanced to Lead Brewer. In this position, Chris spent significant time training a steady stream of new hires, developing future recipes on the pilot system and assisting in creation of a barrel-aging/souring program. As a result of the barrel program’s popularity, SweetWater constructed a full-scale sour facility, named The Woodlands, which opened to the public in January 2016. Chris received a Degree in Advanced Brewing Science & Engineering from the American Brewers Guild in 2016. The same year, he was awarded as Sweetwater Brewing Company’s Brewer of the Year. He has been with Elkmont Exchange since the beginning and his creative brewing knowledge has resulted in some of our favorite beers! When he steps away from the brewery, Chris enjoys music, hiking and traveling with his amazing wife. Jesse Rossbach Jesse Rossbach is a kitchen guru with a love for the process of menu development and recipe perfection. His reputation for carefully crafted menus along with his degree from Johnson and Wales made him a natural recruit for Tim Love’s Austin Lonesome Dove location and, eventually, for the opening of Love’s Knoxville location. Jesse worked closely with Love to create enviable menus in stunning atmospheres, and, thanks to the the fates, Jesse end up coming our way during the summer of 2018. Since taking up the helm at Elkmont just a few short months ago, Jesse has revitalized the menu, invigorated the kitchen, and brought an unprecedented passion for creativity. Inspired by the craft culture and the ever-expanding horizon to create, Jesse is constantly crafting new favorites. When he’s not cooking, creating, or drinking his favorite beer — the Elkmont Imperial Brett IPA — you can find him at home, jamming on his drums. Yep, he’s that cool. We’re proud to call Jesse our Executive Chef and Elkmont looks forward to many years of his talent leading our kitchen! Matthew Lillie Hailing from Cleveland, OH; Matthew Lillie does in fact rock! Matthew began brewing young and continued to impress his friends with home brews throughout his time at Missouri Western State University. He cut his professional teeth nine years ago at Coors Brewing Company, in Golden, CO. He worked on bottling and in the main brewing facility. Drawn to the adventure of invention, he went on to brew for Pat’s Backcountry Beverages. He worked on creating the containers for beer in a concentrated form, which would allow serious backpackers to have beer, without lugging heavy cans. For a time, he also gained additional experience brewing at the Denver Rock Bottom. Ultimately, he was drawn to craftier brews and went to work at Breckenridge Brewery, in Littleton CO. We are proud to have Matthew on our team of brewers! Come in and say hello or catch him on a trail, river or a local park playing with his amazing rescue pups! Sign up below to keep up with news, events, and special promotions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line646
__label__wiki	0.511906	0.511906	Have been online for a few months and logged several reviews, I thought it was time to update the review philosophy to make it a bit more detailed and give a more permanent spot on the site. After all, we can throw numbers at you all day but they don’t mean anything if we don’t tell you what they mean. Why do we score games? While I am fully aware of the hypocrisy of advocating against scoring reviews (which I do because it can reduce a two-thousand word review down to one number) and continuing to score games on a numeric scale. However, supporting a score with a detailed explanation in a review gives the readers reasons to buy or not buy a game based on more than just one number. My personal objections aside, the fact is that a review score is an expectation of the gaming public. People expect their to be a score accompanying a review. The gaming economy is built around review scores with Metacritic used by some publishers to set sales targets and determine bonuses paid to developers. As such, scores are a necessary evil that the industry has evolved into seeing as a necessity. How do we score games? While we don’t always score games on their core components individually, we do evaluate all games based on their story/plot, gameplay, graphics, audio and value. The most important and the most intangible criterion for evaluating a game is how fun it is. A game could have great graphics and a well-written story but if it’s frustrating to play, its score will suffer because nobody wants to play a game that isn’t fun. At the end of the day, gameplay should be king in gaming but could be set aside if the story is integral to enjoying the game. Our scores will always be half or whole numbers. I’ve never been a fan of using the whole spectrum between 0 and 100% when a difference of a couple of percentage points can come off as very arbitrary. After all, what is really the difference between a game with a rating of 8.8 and one scored 8.9 out of 10? Though those decimals matter when AAA releases are scored from 8 to 10 but we have a scale from 0 to 10 and use the whole spectrum for every game. While I like whole number scores more than the percentages, they seem occasionally a little imprecise when a game that’s rated a 7 could almost be an 8 but is lumped in with company that it’s better than. And a buy, rent or don’t buy rating system could sink a whole game if one person just doesn’t like it enough to buy it even if it’s a good enough game to score in the 70s on GameRankings. What do the scores mean? 10 – Hall of Famer A game that scores a perfect ten might not be absolutely perfect but it is as close to perfection as you can expect. This game is one that will sweep the year-end awards and be talked about as one of the all-time great games for years to come. We’re talking about console and genre standard setting games that will be used as a benchmark for other games in this genre for years to come. 9.0 & 9.5 – Excellent An excellent game may not be perfect but it’s, again, damn close. While there are some flaws, they’re so few and so small that they won’t significantly affect your experience. These games will be on the short list of game of the year award lists and is very likely pick up awards for best game of the year in its genre and for its console. It will also set a benchmark for similar games in the future. A purchase isn’t so much highly recommended as mandatory. 8.0 & 8.5 – Great Great games are games that may not necessarily do everything better than the rest of the market but enough parts of the game are done very well. One of the core components might be lacking but the remainder make up for it enough to make for a great game. While games in the 9 to 10 range are likely to get universal praise, these games won’t be quite so unanimously praised. Unless you hate games in this genre, a purchase is highly recommended. 7.0 & 7.5 – Good It’s a game that could have been better with a little more time and effort but isn’t bad as it stands. There are issues with the core game components above that keep it from being a great game such as lacking value or some noticeable bugs. If you’re a fan of the genre or series, you’ll want to pick it up. It’s still worth a play but we could understand if you pass. 6.0 & 6.5 – Above Average It’s better than most games but not by much. You can have some enjoyment but there isn’t enough to the game to give it a strong recommendation. There are issues with those core components that prevent the game from being a completely enjoyable experience but some people will really like it. 5.0 – Average There’s nothing good enough about this game to recommend it nor is there enough pervasively bad about it to recommend against buying it. That being said, it’s our opinion that these games are not worth a full price purchase. If you can get them on sale or used, you’ll get enough value out of it that it might almost be worth it, especially if you are a fan of these games. Note that there is no 5.5 score here because that would be above average. If it’s good enough to get a 5.5, it’s probably good enough to get a 6.0. On a 10-point scale from 0 to 10, 5.0 is perfectly in the middle and perfect for the average score. 4.0 & 4.5 – Below Average There are just too many issues with this game to let it escape with a passing grade. The glitches can be fixed with a patch but these things really should have been taken care of before shipping or with a day one patch. Otherwise, there aren’t enough redeeming qualities to this game to recommend a purchase. 3.0 & 3.5 – Bad When we get to scores below four, we’re starting to look at some serious issues that are much worse than those issues that a quick patch can fix. These issues often include design flaws and glitches, among other things. These games can be fun at times but tend to be dull or frustrating more often than not. 2.0 & 2.5 – Awful When we get down this low, the game should neither be purchased for yourself or as a gift. If you receive it as a gift, I would highly recommend re-gifting to someone you don’t like. There is no enjoyment to be had out of playing this game unless you are under the age of eight or are insane. 1.0 & 1.5 – Garbage As in the game belongs in the garbage rather than in your console or on your hard drive. There are countless flaws throughout the game in just about every possible core area of the game. You would be better off watching paint dry than attempting to play this game. At least then you have the fumes to keep you occupied. 0.0 – Epic Fail I’m not sure what’s worse, that somebody said that this game could be released to market or that someone actually might pay money for it. If a game scores a perfectly imperfect 0, it has to be effectively unplayable. I don’t mean “it’s too hard unplayable” but buggier than the floor beneath the bed in a sleazy motel. If it is playable, it has to be so bad that having both of your hands cut off would be preferable to playing this game.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line654
__label__cc	0.570331	0.429669	> Events in Texas > St. David's Day at The Abbey Inn St. David's Day at The Abbey Inn Come enjoy traditional foods from Wales & England as we celebrate “St. David's Day" at The Abbey Inn. Food, Fun & Music - March 2nd, 2013. Limited seating available. The Abbey Inn Mar 02, 2013 at 11:30 AM (CST) The Church of St. David of Wales in Denton, Texas is hosting it's second “St. David's Day" at The Abbey Inn. This day-long event, including lunch and dinner, will feature traditional foods from Wales and England. Your ticket includes a choice of cuisine from a specially prepared menu and non-alcoholic beverages. Live music at lunch and dinner. The Abbey Inn Restaurant & Pub is situated on Denton’s Historic Courthouse Square and serves a unique blend of traditional British favorites and contemporary American dishes. Everything from the 19th century church pews to a traditional English bar was carefully chosen to create the mood and ambiance of an English Pub. Map of The Abbey Inn 101 W Hickory St,	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line656
__label__wiki	0.881245	0.881245	The 1947 Partition Archive - Spotlight at Stanford The 1947 Partition Archive Survivors and their Memories Search in Everything Title Author/Contributor Subject search for Hindi[remove]2 Urdu2 Saleem, Sobia2 Mehta, Jaya, 1933-1 Refai, Shafi, 1942-1 Place created Fremont (Calif.)[remove]2 Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives2 You searched for: Language Hindi Remove constraint Language: Hindi Place created Fremont (Calif.) Remove constraint Place created: Fremont (Calif.) {:heatmaps=>"Map"} 1. Oral history with Shafi Refai, 2016 March 13 Oral history with Shafi Refai, 2016 March 13. Refai, Shafi, 1942- and Saleem, Sobia Author (no Collectors): Refai, Shafi, 1942-, Saleem, Sobia, Saleem, Sobia, and Saleem, Sobia Mr. Shafi Refai was born on May 27th, 1942 in Surat, Gujarat, India. His ancestors hail from the region of Iraq. In the 18th century, the migrated towards the South Asian Subcontinent, and since then, his family has always been in the Gujarat region—until some of them more recently migrated to the United States. Mr. Refai shares that his ancestors may have migrated to the Subcontinent because under the Mughal Empire, the region was a melting pot for different types of people. Once Mr. Refai’s family migrated to India, they established the Refai Sufi Order based on tasawwuf, or spirituality rather than mere physical rituals and practice. His family can trace 40 generations of their forefathers directly back to the Prophet Muhammad; they keep this history of the names of their links to the Prophet within their family and they carry it within their historical family name: Syed. Mr. Refai’s family received the name from their famous 11th century Sufi forefather: Ahmed Kabir Rifai. Ahmed ar-Rifai was a humble man, despite his wealth, and he was known for founding the Refai Sufi Order in present-day Iraq.Mr. Refai’s paternal grandfather’s untimely death is what made his own childhood more than of a prince than of a Sufi scholar. Mr. Refai’s grandfather, the household patriarch, was a Sufi leader and scholar. In fact, Mr. Refai’s home was a Sufi khanqa, a school of sorts for lay people; however, Mr. Refai’s grandfather passed away when his son, Mr. Refai’s father, was only five years old. After the death of his father, Mr. Refai’s father was raised by his grandmother. Mr. Refai’s great-grandmother was the daughter of the navaab, the Muslim king, of Surat, Gujarat. Because of his father’s upbringing in a navaab house, Mr. Refai’s own childhood was spent playing with Surat’s royalty—his cousins and second cousins—when the navaab at the time would visit their family. Mr. Refai’s maternal grandfather also had links to royalty: he was the secretary of the maharaja, the Hindu king, of Baroda (present-day Vadoda). His mother’s side of the family were Syeds and mirs. Mr. Refai shares that when the maharaja of Baroda wanted to marry the maharaja of Maysur’s daughter, he had Mr. Refai’s maternal grandfather send the proposal to the family.Mr. Refai grew up in a joint family with his parents and his three siblings as well as his uncles and aunties. The men generally worked outside the home while the ladies took care of the housekeeping. Mr. Refai is the oldest son in his family; he has an older sister, and two younger brothers and a younger sister. Because of their shared home, Mr. Refai grew up in a warm, close-knit family environment. He shares that even though they were from Gujarat, Mr. Refai’s family was Urdu speaking at home. The children learned several languages at school: Urdu, their native language; Gujurat, the state language; Hindi, the national language; English, the global/colonial language; and their choice of Persian or Sanskrit, traditional/historical languages. Mr. Refai shared that he and his siblings took Persian because when their family migrated from Iraq, they transitioned from Arabic to Persian before eventually speaking Urdu. He discovered this while examining the books that his family kept with them throughout the years, although he confesses that many of them are now lost, disintegrated due to bookworms, or indecipherable because no one in his family speaks that level of Arabic. As a young man, Mr. Refai especially enjoyed the Urdu poetry of Iqbal and Ghalib.As a child, Mr. Refai would enjoy many activities and holidays with his friends, family, and family friends. As a young man, for example, he particularly enjoyed played cricket outside their home. He would occasionally visit a few mosques with his family for daily prayers and weekly Friday prayers. Sometimes, his family would visit Doomas, a seaside city eight miles from their home where they would enjoy the water and play in the side. Eid was Mr. Refai’s favorite holiday. On this far, Mr. Refai’s family would make biryani, goat curry, tikka, and seekh. Family and friends would visit their home to share in the food and festivities. The children received small cash presents. Another holiday Mr. Refai enjoyed celebrating as a child in India, although he shares that he hasn’t celebrated it since arriving to the U.S. in ’71, is Diwali. On this celebrative day marking the Hindu new year, firecrackers were lit, and people enjoyed themselves. Mr. Refai would visit his grandfather’s Hindu friends with him on Diwali; they would be given firecrackers to light and sweets to consume. Surat was actually known for its sweets like ghaani and barfi. Mr. Refai also loved the kite-flying holiday of Utraaon on January 14th, when the city would be filled with young and old flying kites. Movies though, Mr. Refai explains, were the main source of entertainment for his family and young people in those days, and his family loved going to the cinema.Mr. Refai’s family home was rather large. Besides the khanqa, the lay people’s Sufi school, Mr. Refai’s family’s grounds also included a family cemetery. Near their home was the River Tapti, although the received water from a pipe based water supply system. Sometimes, they had to collect water in an underwater tank for emergency purposes, just in case the pipes were blocked or clogged. Mr. Refai’s family home itself had huge courtyards; the home really consisted of four home together, so that each of Mr. Refai’s paternal grandfather’s sons had their own home. For transportation, Mr. Refai’s family either used the French car that his father bought or the Buick that his grandfather would later purchase. Other times, they used their horse and tonga to get places. At one time, all the people who lived in the home and at the khanqa kept up the tradition of preserving the Refai Sufi Order and school in India; however, Mr. Refai explains, as time when on, people lost touch with being fulltime Sufis. More and more people left home to work and even went abroad, like him. These days, Mr. Refai cherishes the rituals of rational thought more than religious dogma.In those days, Surat was a small town of only 250,000, but these days Mr. Refai says, the city has changed and grown to a bustling city of five million. Before the Partition, Mr. Refai’s grandfather had been interested in politics, so he had gone over to a small town near by, Randair, where he served as their mayor, but these days, Randair has been incorporated into the larger Surat. Most people in Surat followed the Gregorian calendar, but at home, people might also follow their own religious or ethnic calendar, much in the way that Mr. Refai’s family followed the Hijri Islamic calendar in their homes. They used this calendar to mark and celebrate people’s birthdates. For their birthdays, Mr. Refai’s family would get people cake, flowers, money, and gifts. Surat was a modern enough town with electricity and movie houses. Seller would go through the streets and sells fruits, vegetables, chocolates, and biscuits. The majority Hindu town had good interfaith relations before and after the Partition. For example, the school that Mr. Refai attended with Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim boys began as a madrasa school in a mosque until it eventually became its own entity and transformed into a government sponsored school.In Mr. Refai’s childhood home, the food that didn’t come from the markets and mundis came from his grandfather’s farms. Mr. Refai’s grandfather owned quite a great deal of land and several properties. He would lease them out to farmers and others, but he also kept some farmland for himself. He particularly enjoyed growing mangos, although he also grew javaar, a grain. Mr. Refai’s family no longer owns these lands though because his grandfather has long since sold them and given up the farms with the grains and fruit that would be directly delivered to their home. In fact, these fresh and homemade traditional foods are what Mr. Refai revealed that he missed most when he first came to the United States; although these days, they are easily accessible.The Partition was something that Mr. Refai and his family barely noticed. As a child of five, the only strong memory or impression he has from during those years is that his grandfather and his father would sit with friends close to the radio and would listen to news about the Partition and the split that would soon take place in the South Asian Subcontinent. Mr. Refai isn’t aware of any political movements, social upheaval, or chaos in his area of the Gujarat at that time. He does remember that Ghandhi assassination came as a bit of a shock to everyone at his school.Much has changed since the Partition for Surat and for Mr. Refai as well. Surat no longer has a navaab. All of the children in his immediate and extended family went abroad to the U.K. and the U.S. to study, and so they no longer maintain the old kingdom. As he grew older, Mr. Refai knew that he wanted to go to a country that was more based in rationalism and thought than religion and tradition. After studying civil engineering in India, Mr. Refai applied for an American visa and waited. During this time, he married and moved to Dubai for work, but soon, his visa was accepted, and he left his job in Dubai for San Francisco, where his wife soon joined him as well.These days, Mr. Refai works as a civil engineer for the City of Oakland, California; when he’s not working, he enjoys reading books in history, politics, and religion—or texts that intersect these three areas. He also enjoys attending events sponsored by the Urdu Academy in the Bay Area, where they hold mushairas, or poetry events focusing on a single poet, their life, and their poetry. He still enjoys the poets from his youth: Ghalib, Iqbal, and Mir.Mr. Refai’s philosophy, in the words of one he admires, is that “no single people have a monopoly on truth—it is spread everywhere.” Although, Mr. Refai reflects, the goal of the Partition for some was to unite the Muslims into one country, they are now instead divided amongst three countries in the Subcontinent: Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Mr. Refai believes that Jinnah himself did not expect that those in power would agree to divide India into two countries; as Mr. Refai sees it, Jinnah simply approached Parliament at the time to ask for rights for Muslims in the new nation that was to be rather than to create a separate nation. Mr. Refai leaves future generations with the following: “We should try to rationalize the world and follow it—not towards our own self-interested but for the interest of all of humanity. […] Most problems in the world today are not God-made, but man-made, and them come from our own selfishness.” Urdu and Hindi 5 video files Publication Info: Fremont (Calif.) Fremont (Calif.), March 13, 2016 partitionArchive_2199 2. Oral history with Jaya Mehta, 2015 December 16 Oral history with Jaya Mehta, 2015 December 16. Mehta, Jaya, 1933- and Saleem, Sobia Mehta, Jaya, 1933-, Saleem, Sobia, Saleem, Sobia, and Saleem, Sobia Mrs. Jaya Mehta, nee Jaya Patel, was born in Vadodara, now known as Baroda, India on May 15th, 1933. Because her father was a businessman, her family traveled quite a bit with him between places likes Baroda, Bombay, and even East Africa, where Mrs. Mehta spent a few years of her childhood. Mainly, however, her family lived in Bombay. Hers was a unique family: they had seven siblings from three different mothers. Her father’s first wife had had four children before passing away in childbirth; then her father remarried, but his second wife passed away during the birth of their first child. Mrs. Mehta’s mother had two children and remained the mother for the youngest three-four children. Mrs. Mehta’s elder half sisters were already married by this time, and one had moved away from their family in Bombay to live in Baroda with her husband. Mrs. Mehta’s siblings got along so well with each other—despite their differences in mothers—that they became a role model family for her Gujarati community in Bombay.Mrs. Mehta cannot speak of her childhood without speaking fondly of her father, Mr. Somabhai Patel. When asked how it was that her various siblings got along so well with each other, without hesitating Mrs. Patel credits her father, in her words the man who helped shaped who she is today. He was a very commensensical and practical man. Every evening, he made sure the whole family had dinner together, and every weekend, he also made sure they went to a drive together either to the beach, which was not so crowded in those days, or to their farmlands, 11,000 acres of primarily cotton. Mr. Patel stressed the importance of an education to both his sons and his daughters, supporting two of his daughters in becoming practicing doctors. The environment in the Patel house was, also quite uniquely, one of morals but not religion, something unheard of in those days. However, because Mr. Patel was well-respected within their community, no one bothered him in hs ways, even when most of his children had small civil ceremonies rather than grand religious weddings. Mr. Patel also instilled a sense of independence and health in his children, telling them that even if they wanted a cup of water, they should fetch it themselves, and they shouldn’t eat street food, but fruits with thick skins only when purchasing food on the street.Mrs. Mehta herself was not so fond of studying and reading, so one summer, she took a vacation with her sister and Mr. and Mrs. Sevenoaks to Europe by sea to various countries like the United Kingdom and Austria, among others. She speaks of how, even at 19, she would get into amusement parks as a child because of her thin figure—however, she also speaks of how she would get carded when they went to an over-18-only place and would have to carry her passport accordingly. Mrs. Mehta’s hair was a incredibly long when she was young and even into her middle age—it would near reach the ground! She would turn heads wherever she went and catch people’s attention. One time on her European trip, when they were trying to cross the border, the two guards were arguing amongst each other before they approached her in the vehicle. “We can’t decide,” they said to her and her sister, “if you two are twins!” They couldn’t believe it! Mrs. Mehta’s sister’s hair also cascaded down at least to her knees. The Sevenoaks were kind to the girls, making sure to explain local customs to them, like kissing on the hands as a form of greeting, so that they wouldn’t be alarmed as they passed through different countries, like Austria.During the time of the Partition, Mrs. Mehta says that she herself was not very involved. Her father had a strict rule—education first, everything else after. Thus some of the younger Patel siblings, the students in her family, were even sent away from Bombay to Baroda by her father during that tumultous time to continue studing. Mrs. Mehta recalls though that her elder sisters, who were married and had already completed their studies, were somewhat involved as citizens and activists in the Partition. Following the news and advice of the Indian National Congress, they bought a spinning wheel to spin their yarn and threads to make their own clothing, like Gandhiji was encouraging people to do. They would make themselves simple clothes and wear them until they were tattered all in an effort to make sure they didn’t purchase the British’s mechanically produced cloth. Her sisters would also attend some of the protests and rallies. A few of those, Mrs. Mehta remembers, were right next to their home. The Britsh soldiers and militia would come and beat the legs of those who were injured quite badly. She remembers her father would open their home up to these injured rally and protest attendees and that her family would tend to them and care for them.Bombay had always been a cosmopolitan city and would always be one, according to Mrs. Mehta, so she didn’t feel that it changed very much after the Partition. The Sindhi population in the city increased, and with them, they brought their love for education and built universities around the city. They were also very good embroidery- men and women, and hence with the influx of their populations, Bombay’s embroidered and designed clothing and styles boomed. All in all, Mrs. Mehta says, the changes were small, but whoever migrated to the big city brought with them all the positives and good things about their culture and shared them with the city and its inhabitants.Bombay is where Mrs. Mehta has spent the majority of her life. As a child, she enjoyed attending the Kite Flying Festival on the 14th of January where the children would fly kites and eat sweets, like peanut and sesame brittle. She also loved celebrating Garba with her Gujarati community in Bombay. During Garba, Mrs. Mehta would be able to sing, a passion which naturally ignited in her from the tender age of four, and dance dandian, a two-stick spinning dance style; she also loved the little gifts of metal utensils they would receive at the event. Bombay was where Mrs. Mehta dated her husband for six years; it’s where she eventually married her husband; it’s where she sang on the radio and modeled saris; it’s where she had a her daughter; it’s where she decided to learn to sing formally by moving to Baroda to attending a five-year singing program; and it’s where she finally decided, after her husband passed, that she would give up her life in India to move to America to be with her daughter in 2003.However, Mrs. Mehta has not slowed down one bit since her move to the States. Because of the sense of independence her father instilled in her, she’s learned to adapt, begin new projects, and never be bored. These days, Mrs. Mehta is still quite active: she drives herself, cooks vegetarian meals for her family four days a week, gives the seniors at the India Community Center singing lessons, has a weekly bridge troupe, puts on fundraising Bollywood dance numbers in which she’s often center stage, and is working to collect various memories and stories in to compile her family’s history. Of course, she also manages to share her love with her daugher and two grandchildren. Hindi and Urdu Fremont (Calif.), December 16, 2015	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line659
__label__wiki	0.67195	0.67195	Who (not EU citizen) can apply for residence permit/visa from within Germany? If my citizenship allows me to enter the Schengen Area for 90 days without a visa, can I apply for a residence permit/visa being inside the country (ex. Germany) I ask because as a Colombian, I know I have to return to my country to apply for the permit, but from October 2015 the EU won't ask Colombians and Peruvians for visas anymore, does it mean that in 2016 I could come back to Germany or any other Schengen country and apply for the permit within that country? visa germany schengen Nicolás ArévaloNicolás Arévalo No, whether you can directly apply for a residence permit from within the country is entirely up to each individual country and will not necessarily change after Colombian and Peruvian citizens are exempted from the Schengen visa requirement. There is no link between this and the Schengen regulations and no general rule that would apply in all Schengen countries. In Germany and the Netherlands, some people can indeed directly apply for a residence permit based on their citizenship, even if they entered without visa with an eye towards residence. But the list of countries whose citizens can do that is much smaller than the list of countries whose citizens can visit the Schengen area without a visa. In both cases, it only covers a handful of high-income countries like the US, Japan, Canada, Australia or South Korea. It turns out that the list of countries whose citizens benefit from this is almost the same in the Netherlands and Germany but I think that legally speaking it's mostly a coincidence. By contrast, in France, all third-country citizens must in principle first apply for a long-stay visa from outside the country and there is no exception based on citizenship. There are always other exceptions as well, typically for refugees, sometimes also for people who qualify for a residence permit as of right (e.g. spouses) and in some other situations, so many details can make a difference. So the most generic answer to your question is that you can't assume that anything will change or that it will become possible for Columbian citizens to switch from a short-stay to a long-stay status. But since you specifically mentioned Germany, I will go into a little more details about what I know about the rules there. As explained in Switch from Schengen Visa to a Student Visa in Germany, citizens from 13 countries can in any case enter Germany without visa and apply for a student permit in the country. That list only includes one South American country (Brazil), even though most of them are already on the annex II list of country whose citizens do not need a visa to enter the Schengen area. Only citizens of Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada, South-Korea, New Zealand und the USA can do the same for a work permit (i.e. citizens of Brazil and other countries that belong to the first but not the second set of countries can do it for a permit that does not give them the right to work but not for a work permit). Both of these lists are defined in § 41 of the Aufenthaltsverordnung. The same act also provides for a few other exceptions that can in principle apply to citizens of any country in § 39. Point 3 in particular implies that it's possible to apply for a residence permit within in Germany if the conditions required to obtain it only became fulfilled after entering the country (say you marry and therefore become eligible for a spouse permit or something like that). But I don't know exactly in which cases this rule can or cannot be applied. Finally, the stay of members from the family of an EU citizen is regulated by an entirely separate piece of legislation and they can in any case apply for a residence card (technically that's not called a “permit”) from within the country. GalaGala My goal is to apply to an artist visa, and I understand that I have to get an announcement in the bürgeramt but I won't get one unless I have a rent contract. How can I do both things if I'm not in the country? – Nicolás Arévalo Jul 14 '15 at 15:50 @NicolásArévalo I must admit that I have no idea about that. But do ask it as a separate question ;-) Hopefully, someone else will be able to answer! – Gala Jul 15 '15 at 7:52 Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged visa germany schengen or ask your own question. Switch from Schengen Visa to a Student Visa in Germany Can spouses apply for a resident permit within Germany? Is a residence permit (but not working permit) still valid after being laid off in Germany (US citizen)? Schengen visa to a residency permit for a same-sex marriage in Germany Switching between a Schengen visa and a residence permit in Germany Germany Residence Permit away for many days Will applying for a Dutch residence permit invalidate my French residence permit immediately? Is it possible to apply Schengen visa type C(90 days) with one way flight and apply Temporary residence permit at the arrival destination? Can a non-EU national apply for a work permit from within Germany on business visa? Can I apply for a work permit while on Schengen visa? Can I apply for a student visa in Spain once I enter the Schengen as a visa-free traveler?	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line660
__label__cc	0.511422	0.488578	Nigel Hannaford Commentary, Frontier Centre, Interview, Role of Government June 9, 2008 Frontier Centre: Do you think that free speech is a part of the Canadian tradition? Nigel Hannaford: It’s more than a part of the Canadian tradition, although it is a tradition. But it’s also part of the Canadian Constitution. It’s guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. FC: Can it be overridden? NH: Yes, and it’s overridden all the time in the courts and the Human Rights Commissions when they decide under another clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that they demonstrably justify, in a free and democratic society, that it should take second place to something else. FC: What are those limits? What do you think are the legitimate things that trump the right to free speech? NH: Well I don’t think anything trumps the right to free speech other than when somebody is inciting somebody else to do something dastardly. If I say “I hate teenagers” I have said a nasty thing but I shouldn’t be prosecuted for that. If I say “I hate teenagers and somebody should go and kill them” then I have definitely crossed a line. That’s where the limit is, when you incite harm to somebody else. FC: I could argue playing Devil’s advocate that you could incite indirectly, “will someone rid me of this troublesome teenager?” Who gets to decide what is direct incitement and what is permissible speech? NH: Not the Human Rights Commissions, that’s for sure. Take it to the court where you’ve got the available defenses and you can argue your case before people who are legally trained and who have a respect for the law. FC: Do you think it’s fair to say that for legitimate complaints, about which we should limit free speech, the courts are a sufficient remedy? NH: Now what legitimate complaints are we talking about here? The incitement to hatred? Those are the only ones I’m recognizing. Absolutely take them to court and have it out. We do have legislation, we have section 318 or 319 in the Canadian Criminal Code which sets out what you can and cannot do. The reason that people go to the Human Rights tribunal rather than take something to court is that when they go to court then they have to follow the rules, they are dealing with lawyers, they are dealing with judges, they are dealing with people who have statutory defenses. FC: And they have to pay for it. NH: And of course they have to pay for it. And they have to take the risk that if they’re wrong, they will face the costs. If they’re wrong, not that it ever happens in a Human Rights tribunal – the victim always loses – but if the victim ever wins, they still walk out of there with all their expenses tied around their necks whereas the complainant does not. FC: What are the constituencies who support or profit from Human Rights Commissions? Where is their support coming from? NH: You’ve asked a very big question. There’s been a fundamental change in people’s expectations in society. When the Constitution was patriated in 1982, when we established the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, we took the first step in evolution in Canada from being a parliamentary democracy, in which Parliament would have the last say on anything, to being a constitutional democracy in which the judges would have the last say on any matter that was brought up. It was the moment when it made more sense if you had a problem to go and get a lawyer than to go see your Member of Parliament. You’re asking who benefits. Well the key item in the Constitution, the key value, is not actually liberty, it’s equality. Which sounds like a good thing, but what does equality really mean? If it means that all of us stand equal before the law, then most people are going to say that’s a good thing. But if it means that in the name of equality you can’t have an opinion that offends someone else because they claim that by expressing that opinion you are diminishing them as a person, well then of course it means something completely different, which we as liberty loving people don’t support. So who has actually used the legislation? The key human rights cases have been determined in the first place on women’s issues, that is when someone is denied a job as a bus driver because gosh, everybody knows you have to be a man to be a bus driver and look your feet don’t even reach the pedals. But nevertheless you would win that case and the employer would be told to give you a bus that you could drive, you know adjust the seat or something. So certainly the feminist strand has been a beneficiary of this new approach. The Jewish lobbies have used it very effectively to out and silence Holocaust deniers and hate speech purveyors. The gay lobby has used it to silence its critics in a number of cases. I think what you’re seeing now with the Mark Steyn case and the Ezra Levant case is an attempt by Muslim advocacy groups to limit discussion in areas that are of interest to them, but overall it is the replacement of the old idea of equality before the law with equality in some hard to define way that somehow places a person’s right not to be offended above somebody else’s right to free speech. Canada’s original free speech hero was Joseph Howe. He was a newspaper publisher who saw things that were wrong in government, published it, the government objected, they sued him for seditious libel, they told him that he was an irresponsible journalist for bringing this stuff up, because if you say bad things about the government well how can anybody ever respect the government. Nevertheless he faced them in court and a jury found him not guilty and ever since that time, which was 1835, if you’re a history buff, ever since that time Canadians have thought that they’ve had free speech. Now they didn’t always really have it, certainly the Communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses have had their problems, trade unionists have had their problems with people trying to silence them. There’s a great Supreme Court of Canada case in 1877 where the Roman Catholic Church had to be told that they couldn’t recommend to their parishioners that they not vote for the Liberals because the Liberals were sinners. There have been lots of people who from time to time have had problems in the free speech area, but it’s always been against the backdrop that free speech is important, that the right to express your opinion is fundamental to democracy and that the right to free speech is not to protect the opinions that we all like and agree with, it is to protect the opinions that we hate. And that’s what we’re losing at the moment. FC: So you’re not really supporting free speech if you only support free speech for people who please you, are you? What do you think are the best practical steps public figures could take to deal with the threat presented by Human Rights Commissions? And by that I mean politicians but also columnists or even people who write a letter to the editor. And how should private figures behave other than simply contacting their Member of Parliament and that sort of thing? Are there any steps that you think people should take? NH: First of all, it is important to contact your Member of Parliament. It is important to contact your Member of the Legislative Assembly because these commissions and the tribunals that serve them were established by politicians. They were established by provincial legislatures. They were established by the federal government. It is the federal government and the provincial legislatures that can undo the bad things that they have done. You’re not going to do it by rioting in the streets. You’re not going to do it by refusing to pay your taxes or anything else like that. You’ve got to get the people who have the power to do this to want to do it. Therefore you do have to contact your politicians and you do have to write your letters to the editor. You also have to talk about it with people at every opportunity because what we need is a mass market. We need people to be concerned about it. We have to generate that sense of urgency to do something about this because it’s far too easy to let it go and let somebody else do it and not say “oh that was interesting, now let’s go to the Sports pages.” FC: As a columnist, does the presence of Human Rights Commissions affect what you do? Do you find yourself reluctant to draw their attention? How does it influence the way you write if it does? NH: The Bible tells us to be as “wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.” You ask how it affects me? Obviously, I am not going to write something in a column for the sole and express purpose of seeing how much trouble I can generate for myself. However, when it comes to a matter of what is true and what is fair to print then I will write what I believe to be true and what is fair. If that sparks a complaint so be it. FC: So you try to write the way you would if they didn’t exist? NH: Yes. FC: What are your thoughts on similar free speech issues in other countries? I know Europe has in some ways gone much farther down the road of limits on free speech. In the States they have a more solid sense of free speech but there are still issues. There was someone in Philadelphia who was brought before something similar for having a sign up for asking his patrons to order at his restaurant in English, for instance. So how do you think Canada compares? NH: It’s neither the worst billet in the barracks nor is it the best. I do admire the American respect for free speech, even as I sometimes deplore where it takes them. But as we were talking about earlier, you have to take the rough with the smooth. You can’t only allow the speech that you agree with. I do fear for Great Britain, because I think that those same kinds of influences that we contend with here in Canada are very much alive and active in that part of the world as well. There is a common feature to everybody who tries to influence speech and put their template upon public discussion. They all think they’re doing it for a good cause. Nobody goes out and does it thinking that it is a bad thing. Thus, for instance, the Communists, when they insisted upon their orthodoxy felt that it was in the best interests of the working class that they should control public discourse. The Roman Catholic Church, when it had the Inquisition did so because it felt it was in the best interests of people to be constrained to orthodoxy that their souls would be saved if they were compelled to submit to the earthly authority of the Church. Certainly I have no doubts in my mind that people who serve in Human Rights Commissions do so with the highest motives, believing that they will have a part in creating a better society, according to their light, than the one that they live in now. It’s just not a society that I want to live in. FC: Now speaking of people trying to make it better by their lights, Soharwardy, who brought the complaint against Ezra Levant and sort of kicked off Ezra’s adventure, one of the things he mentions in his complaint is that it is against Muslim law to criticize Mohammed. So essentially what he is trying to do is to get Canadian Human Rights Commissions to impose Islamic law on non-Muslims. Now I’m sure he thinks that this would make us all in some way happier or get us into paradise but you mentioned that there are a number of different constituencies to which Human Rights Commissions cater, one of which is this “Islamophobia” industry, so to the extent that this comes from a religious tradition that doesn’t have much of a tradition of co-existence with civil government, what do we do about it? Is this a symptom of a wider problem with assimilation? Did this just happen to be one group that is using Human Rights Commissions, could other groups try and remake society in the same way? NH: I think that any group which has a distinct perspective, if it can find a way to bring the equality argument into play for itself will try to do that. It’s there to be used, and what’s more is it’s free and it’s fun. I think that that’s precisely what we’re dealing with here is how do we protect ourselves against that kind of interference. The fact is that this country, like a number of others, has a certain political culture and in that political culture disrespect of persons in form of satire or irony, disrespect in the form of political cartooning is all part of it. When a person comes from another country they should know to expect that. If they feel that that is something that they can’t tolerate and don’t want to live with, then there are other countries that you can emigrate to, I guess, and you won’t have the same problems. I’m of the opinion that the truth is best arrived at by hashing out ideas in the public market place and those that actually have merit with finally prevail. There’s an expression that lawyers love to use, they say “Those who love sausages and love the law, shouldn’t watch either being made.” I think that that is so very descriptive of our political process. People’s sensitivities will be trampled on, they will be hurt but there isn’t a better way. There isn’t a way that certainly does the job and still leaves liberty to the individual in a better way than our own so it’s a question of fitting in. View in PDF Format	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line664
__label__cc	0.728292	0.271708	Beyond the Reach Beyond the Reach (2014) ★★★★ / ★★★★ While out hunting in the Mojave Desert, Madec (Michael Douglas), a corporate shark in the process of closing down a multimillion-dollar deal, shoots a man accidentally. Ben (Jeremy Irvine), Madec’s hunting guide, insists that they return the corpse to town as soon as possible. However, his client has another idea: Shoot the dead man—this time with Ben’s rifle—to make the death look like a murder. After all, one cannot shoot a man twice accidentally. Although offered a great life in exchange for his silence, Ben opts to do the right thing—which gets him in very big trouble with the man who has everything except a conscience. Minimalist down to its marrow, director Jean-Baptiste Léonetti’s “Beyond the Reach” may be unbelievable at times but it is without a doubt entertaining, suspenseful, and thrilling. It could have been boring—after all, it is about a person waiting for another to die under the desert sun—but it knows exactly when and how to change gears in order to make us care about what is about to happen. The film is not for everyone because it requires a bit of patience and a whole lot of appreciation for the little things. The protagonist is smart, resourceful, and charismatic. But so is the villain—and with a dash of crazy. This makes them equal and it is quite compelling to watch them move the chess pieces across the desert-dry yellow board. Furthermore, the two characters are interesting because they have opposite personalities. More interesting is how the screenplay allow them to dance from the moment the fatal bullet hits the unsuspecting man from a distance. Irvine plays Ben as quiet, mysterious, maybe a bit sad for having been left behind—first by his family and then recently by his girlfriend (Hanna Mangan Lawrence). And yet there is an indomitable fighter inside him—Irvine’s signature and the reason why, in my opinion, he is one of the best young performers currently working today. On the other hand, Douglas plays Madec as supremely confident, with a powerful presence despite his age, and someone who oozes privilege. Madec is the kind of antagonist who plays classical music and drinks cocktail while watching someone suffer under the scorching sun through his binoculars. It is interesting to see the two duking it out in one of the harshest places on the planet. I enjoyed how the camera is unafraid to show the repercussions of being out in the sun for too long. It begins with a simple sunburn and as the picture goes on, blisters begin to appear, the soles of one’s feet start to tear off, sweat and grime makes Ben more animalistic—internally and externally—desperate for food, water, and safety. The protagonist knows when to take advantage of a situation but is constantly prevented from getting the upper-hand. This pattern is very necessary to support the material’s understated message: The rich tends to always be a step ahead of those who have less simply because they have means. Based on the novel “Deathwatch” by Robb White and screenplay by Stephen Susco, “Beyond the Reach” could have been a home run if it were not for its final five minutes. The last shot, I think, should have left the viewer wondering instead of giving out the answer once the screen fades to black. The story is a morality play after all. Nevertheless, I admired the picture for its willingness to experiment. beyond the reach, film, hanna mangan lawrence, jean-baptiste leonetti, jeremy irvine, michael douglas, movie review, movies, review, thriller ← The We and the I Zombeavers →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line665
__label__wiki	0.866656	0.866656	English sentences with think of as special in context, I personally have things that I can do that others cannot, but I don't like to think of myself as special. Some people just don't think of them as special or as important because everyone has one. These are not really separate communities, so much as subsets of Masonry... think of them as special interest groups. I have some friends who happen to be LGBT, but I don't think of them as "special" for it. I like to think of it as special instead of different haha Your stadium (more importantly, the speakers that pump in noise) make you think of yourself as special. Do not think of them as special while you are not, many of them were ordinary people and were astonished to find themselves in a direct experience like this. I know in their national psyche, almost every country thinks of themselves as "special" and "exceptional", so what does that mean to a small country like israel? The thing is: Asking somebody out is a completely normal thing to do and the more you think of it as something special, the more awkward it gets. He thinks of VA as a special spot of hell. Another tip is to think of them as nothing special, they're just like any other note. Every 16 year old thinks of themselves as a special snowflake, every 16 year old does stupid shit that they look back to and cringe later on. source: Reddit show contexthide context Think of this as a special. If you're familiar with the Potency/Act distinction, you can think of form as a special case of Act, and matter as a special case of potency. Try not to think of keto as particularly special but rather just focus on whole foods. When the YT vids of hyi first started coming around I didn't really think of hyi as anything special. I s'pose you could think of us as a special division of the Her Majesty's forces. Think of it as a special day to celebrate your love and affection for each other. I like to think of him as my special adviser. One of the features of Boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before them. Keep it simple, try not to think of keto as particularly special, yes an entire macro group is limited but I cook no differently than my parents did when I was a kid and they weren't on keto. It's not that they have drastically changed the look or anything and I still struggle with some boob hate here and there but I personally like to think of it as a special accessory that spices them up a bit and has made me hate them a bit less! I've been a player and a GM in numerous of these, as has the group I'm playing with, and though I knew exactly who was the DM, I didn't think of his character as special in any way. If it's got meaning, and both of us think of it as something special, then surely some of that meaning, for us, comes from our promises to each other to keep it that way? In cases that don't involve food, I think of shopping as a special ops mission! I honestly don't think of myself as anyone special and am quite surprised at the response to this AMA! I think of these special weapons as sort of melee spells. I haven't done any of the former yet, but I like to think of my channel as a special case as I record with my non-gamer mom, so pretty much everything is at least half blind. In some ways, you could think of the toxins as a special mechanism or competitive advantage by the bacteria which allow them to have a "monopoly", if you will, on that food source. So if it's any consolation, she probably thinks of you as her most special dog. Second, don't think of your virginity as something special. I generally think of clutch as big performances in big, late-game moments, rather than just purely winning championships, so I'll still defend the Vikings example. if im ever in conversation theyll probably think of me as exotic :S It's not exactly a great thing to make your kids think of cooking as punishment though. Think of it as a continuum. Think of it as a 6 to 10 point swing since the turnover would have given GT great position. I think his luck as of late prevented him from taking the shot. Maybe not think of it as what you're good at but what your skills are. Think of the 8x10 as an aspect ratio rather than an actual size. I think he's thinking of xposed as a framework, hence a replacement, but he says that it's not a replacement so it's not a framework. Think of it as taking a power nap I made a change to the OP, I guess we will have to wait if any announcements come out but until then I would just think of it as Valve clearing a backlog or giving everyone an end of year surprise. Arguably, it shouldn't really matter since it doesn't directly affect the original fans...but by the same token, it shouldn't directly affect the bandwagoners if the original fans think of them as sort of posers or whatever, haha. Do not think of it as harder, just think of it as interesting. He did criticise something he termed "cognitive science" but this isn't what we now think of as cognitive science. The only thing I can think of as being a problem would be not having Big Ben nearby, transport is also slimmer over there, you have London Bridge, Fenchurch Street and Tower Hill (for the tube). I like to think of it as a superpower. I like to think of it as a summarization of the PC's ideals, and not their entire denomination. yeah, I think of it as more of a 40s/early 50s look.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line666
__label__wiki	0.679994	0.679994	Tag Archives: Pont St Esprit poisoning The poisoned witches – a scientific explanation for witchcraft February 20, 2017 Articles, English Civil War, The Cavalier Historian17th century, Arthur Miller, English Civil War, ergot, Grauballe man, history, Linnda Caporael, LSD, Maurice Moss, poison, Pont St Esprit poisoning, rye, Salem witch trial, science, The Crucible, Warbouys, witch, witch trials, witchesDorinda Balchin What would you do if someone told you that there was a witch living in your town or village? Most people in the western world of the 21st century would smile and treat it as a joke at best, and at worst as someone trying to stir up trouble. But things would have been very different in the past. During the Middle Ages witches were thought to be behind many illnesses from fevered nightmares to sick animals and dying children. This supposed interference in the natural order of things was known as bewitchment and struck at regular intervals, blighting the lives of thousands of people over hundreds of years. During the period of the 15th to 17th centuries bewitchment reached epidemic proportions with over 40,000 men, women and children in Europe being executed as witches. It was not only the poor who believed in witchcraft, even well-educated people of the time feared the supernatural and the Vatican sent out a decree warning people against bewitchment. England was no different to the rest of Europe and many witch finders made it their life’s work to hunt down witches, one actually took 250 people before the courts in just two short years. Witches were greatly feared, and witchcraft was punishable by death. A well-known example happened at a manor house in the village of Warboys near Cambridge in 1589 when a mysterious illness struck down the five little daughters of the Throckmorton family and seven of their maidservants. The illness bore all the hallmarks of witchcraft, and fear spread throughout the village. The distraught family called in doctors and church leaders to try to diagnose what was wrong (at the time many doctors were willing to accept the idea of witchcraft after all other available explanations for an illness had failed). The sick victims at Warboys had all the classic symptoms of bewitchment – hellish visions, often of wild animals (one said she saw a cat tearing her flesh off); the bodies of those affected went into violent fits and writhed in agony on their beds. Once it was decided that witchcraft was the source of the problem someone had to be blamed and, as with most cases at the time, it was an innocent local misfit, Alice Samuel, who was singled out. Standard practice was to torture a witch, who would often be branded or held under water; witchcraft was so feared that it didn’t matter how much the accused suffered as any method used to see the curse of bewitchment lifted was deemed totally acceptable. Many people believed that if you scratched a witch to draw blood it would help to relieve the suffering of the person who had been bewitched and so this was done to Alice on several occasions. After a year of continuous pressure Alice Samuel finally confessed to being a witch. As punishment, and to keep the village safe in future, she was hanged, along with her husband and daughter. Another well know incident of witchraft happened in Salem on the east coast of America. The Salem Witch trials of 1692 played out in a very similar way to the Alice Samuel case, and Arthur Miller later wrote about what happened in his play The Crucible. In December1691 many settlers in Salem had been struck by a horrifying disease, similar in its symptoms to what happened in Warboys and, as in England, it was believed that the Devil was responsible. The town doctor was convinced that what was happening was the result of witchcraft, particularly as eight girls said that they had been bewitched; for the next year the young girls regularly testified in court against other town members. Based on the evidence of the children 152 people were imprisoned on charges of witchcraft, and although none of them confessed 19 men and women were found guilty and executed as witches. Linnda Caporael So what was going on? Was there simply a widespread primitive belief in the devil and witchcraft, or was there something else behind these incidents? Professor Linnda Caporael is a Behavioural Psychologist who studied what happened at Salem. Many people believe that the girls had made it all up, but Linnda could think of no reason why they would have done that, or kept up the pretence for so long. The more she studied, the more she began to believe that most of what the girls had experienced had not been faked, particularly when they suffered from severe convulsions. Another factor which made her question accepted belief was that the girls were not the only ones to have experienced visions, many other men, women and children in the village reported hallucinations to the doctors and clergymen. When Linnda re-read another account it made her think that the symptoms were very similar to those experienced by people who had taken LSD (acid) which is an hallucinogenic drug from the 1960’s. People who have taken LSD say that they experience hallucinations like living nightmares which are very similar to what the victims of witchcraft said in Salem. This left Linnda with one big question – if the cause of witchcraft was LSD, where had the drug come from? Albert Hofmann LSD did not exist in the 15th to 17th centuries, in fact it was not until 1943 that the Swiss neuro-physiologist Albert Hoffman experimented with a natural fungus called ergot whilst looking for medical applications for a drug. As part of his experiments he made an extract from the ergot fungus, accidentally spilling some of it onto his hand. Within hours he began to hallucinate. When he finally recovered from the horrific hallucinations he set to work and derived LSD from the extract. Linnda Caporael began to look at ergot poisoning as a possible explanation for bewitchings. The descriptions of the effects of the drug on people which she found in medical books matched the symptoms from Salem and she was convinced that she had found an explanation for witchcraft in nature. The next question, then, was how the settlers had come into contact with the drug? As it was not only the settlers in Salem who were affected by witchcraft but their animals as well (cattle acted strangely and died of no natural causes) Linnda began to wonder if a food common to both humans and animals could be the source, so she began looking at grain. The dominant crop in Salem was rye, so the question now was to find out how ergot could have got into the rye fields. To help her Linda looked at the work of fungal toxicologist, Professor Maurice Moss. A fungus contaminates its host and gradually replaces the original seed with its own material so, Linnda surmised, if the rye in the fields was contaminated with ergot then the bread would have been contaminated too. This was important to her theory because the nerve toxins now contained in the bread would account for the hallucinations, pin pricking sensations, the feeling of insects crawling beneath the skin and the powerful fits which meant that the sick people could barely be held down by their friends and family. Ergotamine (taken from the word ergot) is a drug used in Holland to treat migraines and has been shown to have constrictive powers which can lead to convulsions, and to the blood draining from the skin causing pricking sensations. Linnda then turned to look at the environment which, again, supported her theory. Ergot thrives in wet, damp soil, and in 1691 the Salem crops had been planted in low marshy ground. For a mass infection of the harvest to take place it would have needed a warm wet spring and summer; the spring of 1691was stormy and wet and was followed by a wet summer, the crop grown in Salem was rye. Most of the sickness was on one side of the village where the homes backed onto the western farms with swampy marshlands. Rye was also the staple diet in Europe in the Middle Ages which, if Linnda Carpoael is correct, could explain the witch persecutions which took place so frequently; particularly as the poor peasant classes were hit most, and rye was their staple diet. An historian by the name of Professor Mary Matossian has mapped outbreaks of witch trials which were localised in Britain – these were mainly, but not exclusively, in Essex and East Anglia – the surprising result is that the outbreaks coincided with the main rye growing regions. As the weather conditions at the time were different to today, with wetter and warmer summers, the conditions were ideal for the formation of ergot on rye. Grauballe man Supporting scientific evidence for this theory about the causes of witchcraft comes from the ‘peat bog man of Grauballe’. He was buried in a bog in Denmark during the Iron Age and found in 1952. The man had been murdered with a knife and club then dumped naked into the bog – his throat had been cut from ear to ear and a blow to the right temple had fractured his skull. Although this sounds brutal this ritual was often carried out if someone was thought to be possessed by demons, the fracturing of the skull would allow the demon to escape and the victim could rest in peace. A post mortem was carried out on the Grauballe man in 1952 and his stomach contents showed that his last meal had largely comprised of ergot. Chemical tests on a gut sample showed that ergot alkaloids were present, therefore the man would have been hallucination, convulsing, vomiting etc. and would probably have been killed as a witch. The most recent case of a mass poisoning happened in 1951 when an entire village in France had ergot poisoning caused by infected bread. In Pont St Esprit (Provence) in August of that year 250 people were struck down, several were taken to hospitals and psychiatric asylums in the weeks which followed. They were sick, had stomach cramps, couldn’t sleep, suffered from violent convulsions and terrifying hallucinations. Many had to be strapped down to stop them jumping out of windows to escape their torment. At least five people died during the outbreak and when ergot poisoning was finally found to be the cause many people did not believe the explanation. The Bishop of Nimes was called in to exorcise the devil from the bakery which had been the source of the outbreak. Interestingly, a dog which had been fed on scraps of the rye bread ran in circles and was biting at rocks until it broke its teeth on them and then died. This was an exact parallel to what happened to the animals in Salem. So, was witchcraft really a problem in the past, or were bewitchments caused by ergot poisoning? I am fascinated by the fact that scientific research is constantly revealing more about our past. I have come to believe that the misinterpretation of ergot poisoning is responsible for reports of witchcraft over the centuries, and this is what lead me to write the conclusion to the story of Rebekah and Simon in my novel ‘The Cavalier Historian’. If you like Barbara Erskine you'll love this #paranormal #saga tinyurl.com/zzfgrvq @joinLordGrey… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 hour ago	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line667
__label__wiki	0.540441	0.540441	Addictive Properties Crime & Law Enforcement Drug Testing (Employee) Drug Testing (Student) Drug Use Prevalence Gateway Theory HIV and Injection Drug Use HIV and Race Marijuana Policy Reform Mental Health Medications New Psychoactive Substances including Synthetic Cannabinoids Pain Management and Rx Drugs Prisons Overview Prison and Drugs Prison and Race Supervised Consumption Facilities Home » Chapters » Drug Use Estimates Drug Use Estimates Estimated Prevalence of Past-Month Substance Use in US by Those Aged 12 and Older Prevalence of Marijuana Use among People in the US Aged 12 or Older Estimated 30-Day Prevalence of Use of Various Drugs for Grades 8, 10, and 12 Combined Items per page 510204060- All - 81. Drug Usage - Research - 3-31-12 (Use Unrelated to Enforcement) "Opponents of drug policy reform commonly argue that drug use would increase if health-based models were emphasized over drug law enforcement,14 but we are unaware of any research to support this position. In fact, a recent World Health Organization study demonstrated that international rates of drug use were unrelated to how vigorously drug laws were enforced, concluding that 'countries with stringent user-level illegal drug policies did not have lower levels of use than countries with liberal ones.'15" Wood, Evan; McKinnon, Moira; Strang, Robert; and Kendall, Perry R., " Improving community health and safety in Canada through evidence-based policies on illegal drugs," Open Medicine (Ottawa, Canada: 2012) Vol 6, No 1, p. 1. http://www.openmedicine.ca/art... 82. Impact of Decriminalization "The information we have presented adds to the current literature on the impacts of decriminalization. It disconfirms the hypothesis that decriminalization necessarily leads to increases in the most harmful forms of drug use. While small increases in drug use were reported by Portuguese adults, the regional context of this trend suggests that they were not produced solely by the 2001 decriminalization. We would argue that they are less important than the major reductions seen in opiate-related deaths and infections, as well as reductions in young people’s drug use. The Portuguese evidence suggests that combining the removal of criminal penalties with the use of alternative therapeutic responses to dependent drug users offers several advantages. It can reduce the burden of drug law enforcement on the criminal justice system, while also reducing problematic drug use." Hughes, Caitlin Elizabeth and Stevens, Alex, "What can we learn from the Portugese decriminalization of drugs?" British Journal of Criminology (London, United Kingdom: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, November 2010), Vol. 50, Issue 6, p. 1018. http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/... 83. Marijuana Decriminalization and Substitution Effects "In conclusion, our results suggest that participation in the use of both licit and illicit drugs is price sensitive. Participation is sensitive to own prices and the price of the other drugs. In particular, we conclude that cannabis and cigarettes are complements, and there is some evidence to suggest that cannabis and alcohol are substitutes, although decriminalization of cannabis corresponds with higher alcohol use. Alcohol and cigarettes are found to be complements. "The results also show that the liberalized legal status of cannabis in South Australia coincides with higher cannabis participation on average over the period under investigation. In South Australia, where possession of small amounts of cannabis is no longer a criminal offence, the probability of use is estimated to be 2.0 percentage points higher than elsewhere based on the pooled sample of data. Further investigation revealed that although participation increased in South Australia shortly after the liberalization of the cannabis laws, the effect of decriminalization was transitory and had disappeared in seven years. In addition, our results indicate that the increase in participation was due to individuals over 30 delaying giving up cannabis use as a result of its changed legal status, not an increase in use by younger people. This finding provides an explanation of why US studies based on youth fail to find that decriminalization has an impact on the probability of cannabis use, while studies based on adults and youth, or just adults, do find a positive association between decriminalization and participation in cannabis use." Cameron, Lisa & Williams, Jenny, "Cannabis, Alcohol and Cigarettes: Substitutes or Complements?" The Economic Record (Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: The Economic Society of Australia, March 2001), p. 32. http://cms.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn... 84. Occupational Injury "We conclude that there is an association between substance use and occupational injury. This association is stronger for males and in certain industries, such as manufacturing and construction, and may also be stronger for younger workers, though future research is needed on this last point. The proportion of injuries caused by substance use, however, is relatively small. Instead, there is mounting evidence that harmful substance use is one of a constellation of behaviors exhibited by certain individuals who may avoid work-related safety precautions and take greater work-related risks. Thus, we suspect that it is more likely that risk-taking dispositions, often termed deviance proneness, and other omitted factors can explain most empirical associations between substance use and injuries at work." Ramchand, Rajeev; Pomeroy, Amanda; Arkes, Jeremy, "The Effects of Substance Use on Workplace Injuries" Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009), p. 31. http://www.rand.org/content/da... 85. Use in Low Income Areas "Although residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods, neighborhoods with high concentrations of minorities, and neighborhoods with high population densities reported much higher levels of visible drug sales, they reported only slightly higher levels of drug use, along with somewhat higher levels of drug dependency. This finding indicates that conflating drug sales with use, so that poor and minority areas are assumed to be the focus of the problem of drug use, is plainly wrong. The finding is based on the data collected across 41 sites, including city and suburban (but not rural) areas in all regions." Saxe, Leonard, PhD, Charles Kadushin, PhD, Andrew Beveridge, PhD, et al., "The Visibility of Illicit Drugs: Implications for Community-Based Drug Control Strategies," American Journal of Public Health (Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, Dec. 2001), Vol. 91, No. 12, p. 1991. http://ajph.aphapublications.o... 86. Income and Relationship Status "Legal and illegal use of drugs was most strongly associated with age, sex, and income. Higher income was associated with a greater likelihood of drug use for all drug types examined, which is perhaps not surprising given that drug use requires disposable income. Relationship status was linked to illegal (but not legal) drug use: both cocaine and cannabis use were more likely among persons who had never been married or previously been married." Degenhardt, Louisa; Chiu, Wai-Tat; Sampson, Nancy; Kessler, Ronald C.; Anthony, James C.; Angermeyer, Matthias; Bruffaerts, Ronny; Girolamo, Giovanni de; Gureje, Oye; Huang, Yueqin; Karam, Aimee; Kostyuchenko, Stanislav; Lepine, Jean Pierre; Mora, Maria Elena Medina; Neumark, Yehuda; Ormel, J. Hans; Pinto-Meza, Alejandra; Posada-Villa, Jose´; Stein, Dan J.; Takeshima, Tadashi; Wells, J. Elisabeth, "Toward a Global View of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, and Cocaine Use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys," Plos Medicine (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Public Library of Science, July 2008) Vol. 5, Issue 7, p. 1062. http://www.plosmedicine.org... 87. Disadvantaged Areas "Although serious drug use is slightly more prevalent in poor minority neighborhoods than elsewhere, the major problem for disadvantaged neighborhoods is drug distribution. These communities are victims not only of their own drug abuse but also of a criminal drug market that serves the entire society. The market establishes itself in disadvantaged communities in part because of the low social capital in these neighborhoods. The drug economy further erodes that social capital." 88. Punitive Drug Control Policies Have Limited Effects "The use of drugs seems to be a feature of more affluent countries. The US, which has been driving much of the world’s drug research and drug policy agenda, stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies, as well as (in many US states), a higher minimum legal alcohol drinking age than many comparable developed countries. The Netherlands, with a less criminally punitive approach to cannabis use than the US, has experienced lower levels of use, particularly among younger adults. Clearly, by itself, a punitive policy towards possession and use accounts for limited variation in nation level rates of illegal drug use." Degenhardt, Louisa; Chiu, Wai-Tat; Sampson, Nancy; Kessler; Ronald C.; Anthon, James C.; Angermeyer, Matthias; Bruffaerts, Ronny; Girolamo, de Giovanni ; Gureje, Oye; Huang, Yueqin; Karam, Aimee; Kostyuchenko, Stanislav; Lepine, Jean Pierre; Mora, Maria Elena Medina; Neumark, Yehuda; Ormel, J. Hans; Pinto-Meza, Alejandra; Posada-Villa, Jose; Stein, Dan J.; Takeshima, Tadashi; Wells, J. Elisabeth, "Toward a Global View of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, and Cocaine Use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys," PLoS Medicine (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Public Library of Science, July 2008) Vol. 5, Issue 7, p. 1062. 89. Stigmatization "Because the impacts of problem drug users are largely hidden, and also because their number is actually relatively small (approximately 330,000; Hay et al., 2008),22 people’s understanding of problem drug use tends to come from remote sources – the media (including the internet, television, films, magazines and books) and anecdote – rather than from direct experience. This provides fertile ground for the growth of myths and stereotypes: for example, the prevalent belief in instant addiction and the myth of the drug dealer offering free drugs at the school gates." Lloyd, Charlie, "Sinning and Sinned Against: The Stigmatisation of Problem Drug Users," (London, United Kingdom: UK Drug Policy Commission, August 2010)p. 49. http://www.ukdpc.org.uk/public... 90. Sewage Testing "Some scientists have recently turned to the sewer to develop a more accurate estimate of drug use. They examine tiny samples of raw sewage for the presence of illicit drugs and their metabolites in a science known as sewer epidemiology.4 These samples are essentially a diluted urine test collected from an entire community,5 making them akin to a “community urinalysis.”6 The basic science is simple: nearly every drug ingested into the body is eventually excreted and finds its way into the sewer system, allowing scientists to profile a community’s drug use based on objective data." Hering, Christopher L., "Flushing the Fourth Amendment Down the Toilet: How Community Urinalysis Threatens Individual Liberty," Arizona Law Review (Tuscon, AZ: The University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, 2009) Volume 51, Issue 3, p. 742. http://www.arizonalawreview.or... 91. Drug Usage - MTF - History of the Monitoring the Future Survey Project Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF History) "Monitoring the Future (MTF) is designed to give sustained attention to substance use among the nation’s youth and adults. It is an investigator-initiated study that originated with and is conducted by a team of research professors at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Since its onset in 1975, MTF has been continuously funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse — one of the National Institutes of Health — under a series of peer-reviewed, competitive research grants. The 2014 survey, reported here, is the 40th consecutive survey of 12th-grade students and the 24th such survey of 8th and 10th graders. "MTF contains ongoing series of national surveys of both American adolescents and adults. It provides the nation with a vital window into the important but largely hidden problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol abuse, tobacco use, anabolic steroid abuse, and psychotherapeutic drug abuse. For four decades MTF has helped provide a clearer view of the changing topography of these problems among adolescents and adults, a better understanding of the dynamics of factors that drive some of these problems, and a better understanding of some of their consequences. It has also given policymakers, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the field some practical approaches for intervening." Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (June 2015). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2014: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 1. http://monitoringthefuture.org... 92. Long Term Trends In Prevalence of Marijuana Use Among Youth "Marijuana use declined in the early 2000s, but subsequently rebounded before leveling in the past couple of years. In 2014 the percentage of youth who used marijuana in the past year among students in 12th, 10th, and 8th grade was 35.1%, 27.3%, and 11.7%, respectively. "It is important to note that 8th grade students were the first to show the two major shifts in marijuana prevalence — an increase at the start of the 1990s and a decrease by the end of the 1990s. As mentioned above, this suggests that 8th graders may be the most immediately responsive to changing influences in the larger social environment. The lag in the decline in the later grades likely reflects some cohort effects (i.e., lingering effects of changes in use that occurred when the students were in lower grades). "Levels of annual marijuana use today are considerably lower than the historic highs observed in the late 1970s, when more than half of U.S. 12th graders had used marijuana in the past year. This high point marked the pinnacle of a rise in marijuana use from relatively negligible levels before the 1960s.2 "Important changes in young people’s attitudes and beliefs about marijuana use have occurred over the study period, and these changes can account for much of the long-term decline in use, as well as the increase in use during the 1990s drug relapse. Chapter 8 contains a more thorough discussion of this issue. " Figure 5-4a and Table 5-5d provide trends in daily marijuana use. These trends depart somewhat from the typical pattern seen for drug use because, among 12th graders, today’s level of use is actually higher than it was at the end of the 1990s relapse period. Although daily use of marijuana declined somewhat in 2014 as compared to the previous year, the average level since 2010 (i.e., 2011–2014 combined) is the highest recorded in the past two decades. (See Chapter 10 for additional information on the cumulative amount of daily marijuana use among 12th graders. It shows that the proportion using marijuana daily for a month or more at any time in the past is considerably higher than the proportion reporting daily marijuana use during just the past month.) The overall trends follow a similar pattern in 12th, 10th, and 8th grade, and in 2014 prevalence levels of daily marijuana use were 5.8%, 3.4%, and 1.0%, respectively. About one in every 17 twelfth-grade high school students in 2014 was a daily or near-daily marijuana user. "Still, the percentage of youth using marijuana on a daily basis today is substantially lower than its peak in the late 1970s, when it reached a high of 10.7% among 12th grade students. As we will discuss in Chapter 8, we think much of the decline from this peak is attributable to a very substantial increase in teens’ concerns about possible adverse effects from regular use and to a growing perception that peers disapproved of marijuana use, particularly regular use. The recent surge in daily marijuana use since 2009 among 12th-grade students tracks with concurrent, decreasing levels of perceived harmfulness and disapproval of regular marijuana use. " In 2014 marijuana use showed a one-year, slight decline in lifetime, annual, thirty-day, and daily use in all three grades. This finding is unexpected in light of the positive publicity marijuana has received in recent years prior to the data collection in 2014, with several states allowing medical marijuana use and two states (Colorado and Washington) legalizing recreational use for adults. Further, perceived risk of marijuana use among adolescents has declined in recent years (discussed in more detail in Chapter 8), which also supports an expectation for an increase in marijuana use this year. The study results point to the need for further qualitative and quantitative research to analyze why marijuana use has not increased in the last two or three years as expected." drug use, 1975–2014: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, pp. 148-149. 93. Alcohol Use Among US Youth, 2014 " Alcohol and cigarettes are the two major licit drugs included in the MTF surveys, though even these are legally prohibited for purchase by those the age of most of our respondents. Alcohol use is more widespread than use of illicit drugs. About two thirds of 12th-grade students (66%) have at least tried alcohol, and more than one third (37%) are current drinkers — that is, they reported consuming some alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey (Table 4-2). Even among 8th graders, more than a quarter (27%) reported any alcohol use in their lifetime, and one in eleven (9%) is a current (past 30 day) drinker.4 " Of greater concern than just any use of alcohol is its use to the point of inebriation: In 2014 one ninth of all 8th graders (11%), three tenths of 10th graders (30%), and half of all 12th graders (50%) said they had been drunk at least once in their lifetime. The levels of selfreported drunkenness during the 30 days immediately preceding the survey are strikingly high — 3%, 11%, and 24%, respectively, for grades 8, 10, and 12." drug use, 1975–2014: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 85. 94. Cigarette Use Among US Youth, 2014 " Prevalence of cigarettes is generally higher than for any of the illicit drugs, except for marijuana. About one third (34%) of 12th graders reported having tried cigarettes at some time, and one seventh (14%) smoked in the prior 30 days. Even among 8th graders, about one seventh (14%) reported having tried cigarettes and 4% reported smoking in the prior 30 days. Among 10th graders, 23% reported having tried cigarettes, and 7.2% reported smoking in the prior 30 days. The percentages reporting smoking cigarettes in the prior 30 days are actually lower in all three grades in 2014 than the percentages reporting using marijuana in the prior 30 days: 4.0% for cigarettes versus 6.5% for marijuana in 8th grade; 7.2% versus 16.6% in 10th grade; and 13.6% versus 21.2% in 12th grade. These numbers reflect mostly the considerable decline in cigarette use that has occurred in recent years, though the recent increase in marijuana use has contributed to their standing relative to each other as well. Among 8th, 10th and 12th graders, lifetime prevalence of marijuana use in 2014 was also higher than lifetime prevalence of cigarette use. (Annual prevalence of cigarettes is not assessed.) As noted below, however, daily use in the prior 30 days was higher for cigarettes than for marijuana or alcohol in 8th and 12th grades. For 10th graders marijuana daily use was higher than daily cigarette use (3.4% versus 3.2%)." Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (June 2015). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2014: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 85. 95. Illegal Use of Prescription Drugs and Narcotics Other Than Heroin Among US Youth "Any prescription drug misuse includes use of narcotics, sedatives, tranquilizers, and/or amphetamines without medical supervision. It has been of considerable public health concern in recent years, because most of these drugs showed a substantial increase in use in the 1990s, which then continued into the first decade of the 2000s, when many of the illegal drugs already were in decline. "Only 12th-graders report on their use of all of these drugs; they show a statistically significant decline between 2013 and 2014, from 16 percent to 14 percent, saying that they used one or more of these prescription drugs in the 12 months prior to the survey. The gradual turnaround began after 2005, when 17 percent indicated misuse of any of these drugs. "'It's not as much progress as we might like to see, but at least the number of students using these dangerous prescription drugs is finally declining,' Johnston said. "Narcotic drugs other than heroin—among the most dangerous of the prescription drugs—have been declining in use by 12th-graders since 2009, when 9 percent indicated using them without medical supervision in the prior 12 months. Their use continued to drop significantly, from 7 percent in 2013 to 6 percent in 2014. Use of these drugs is reported only for 12th grade; students are reporting that these drugs are increasingly difficult to obtain. "Use in the prior 12 months of the specific narcotic analgesic OxyContin also declined this year, significantly so in 8th grade. OxyContin use reached a recent peak among adolescents around 2009 and use has declined since then in all three grades. The 2014 reports of use in the past 12 months stand at 1.0 percent, 3.0 percent and 3.3 percent in grades 8, 10 and 12, respectively." Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Miech, R.A., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (December 16, 2014). "Use of alcohol, cigarettes, and a number of illicit drugs declines among U.S. teens," University of Michigan News Service: Ann Arbor, MI, pp. 3-4. http://www.monitoringthefuture... 96. Perceived Availability of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Among US Youth " Substantial differences were found in perceived availability of the various drugs. In general, the more widely used drugs are reported to be available by higher proportions of the age group, as would be expected (see Tables 9-6, 9-7, and 9-8). Also, older age groups generally perceive drugs to be more available. For example, in 2013, 39% of 8th graders said marijuana would be fairly easy or very easy to get (which we refer to as 'readily available'), versus 70% of 10th graders and 81% of 12th graders. In fact, compared to 8th graders, the proportion of 12th graders indicating that drugs are available to them is two to four times as high for other drugs included in the study and five times as high for narcotics other than heroin. (Tranquilizers, on the other hand, are reported as only a little less available by 8th graders.) Both associations are consistent with the notion that availability is largely attained through friendship circles. (A section in Chapter 10 documents where 12th graders obtain prescription drugs that are not medically prescribed, and friends clearly are the leading source.) The differences among age groups may also reflect less willingness and/or motivation on the part of those who deal drugs to establish contact with younger adolescents. Because many inhalants — such as glues, butane, and aerosols — are universally available, we do not ask about their availability. See Table 9-8 for the full list of drugs included in the questions for 12th graders; a few of these drugs were not asked of the younger students (see Tables 9-6 and 9-7). " Measures on the availability of cigarettes are not included in the 12th-grade questionnaires because we have assumed that they are almost universally available to this age group. However, data on this measure are collected from 8th and 10th graders, which clearly show that cigarettes are readily available to most of them. In 2013, 50% of 8th graders and 71% of 10th graders thought that cigarettes would be fairly easy or very easy for them to get if they wanted some. " The great majority of teens also see alcohol as readily available: In 2013, 56% of 8th graders, 77% of 10th graders, and 90% of 12th graders said it would be fairly easy or very easy to get." Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., Schulenberg, J. E. & Miech, R. A. (2014). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2013: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, pp. 452-453. 97. Attitudes of Young People Toward Legalization of Marijuana " Table 8-8 lists the proportions of 12th graders in 2013 who favor various legal consequences for marijuana use: making it entirely legal (42%), a minor violation like a parking ticket but not a crime (25%), or a crime (21%). The remaining 13% said they 'don’t know.' It is noteworthy just how variable attitudes about this contentious issue are. " Asked whether they thought it should be legal to sell marijuana if it were legal to use it, about three in five (61%) said 'yes.' However, about 85% of those answering 'yes' (52% of all respondents) would permit sale only to adults. A small minority (9%) favored the sale to anyone, regardless of age, while 29% said that sale should not be legal even if use were made legal, and 10% said they 'don’t know.' Thus, while the majority subscribe to the idea of legal sale, if use is allowed, the great majority agree with the notion that sale to underage people should not be legal." Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., Schulenberg, J. E. & Miech, R. A. (2014). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2013: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 400. 98. Perceived Effect of Legalization on Youth "Most 12th graders felt that they would be little affected personally by the legalization of either the sale or the use of marijuana. Over half (56%) of the respondents said that they would not use the drug even if it were legal to buy and use, while others indicated they would use it about as often as they do now (15%) or less often (1.5%). Only 9% said they would use it more often than they do at present, while 10% thought they would try it. Another 9% said they did not know how their behavior would be affected if marijuana were legalized. Still, this amounts to 19% of all seniors, or about one in five, who thought that they would try marijuana, or that their use would increase, if marijuana were legalized." 99. Effects of Decriminalization and Legalization on Adolescent Substance Use " Most 12th graders felt that they would be little affected personally by the legalization of either the sale or the use of marijuana. Over half (53%) of the respondents said that they would not use the drug even if it were legal to buy and use, while others indicated that they would use it about as often as they do now (14%) or less often (1%). Only 9% said they would use it more often than they do at present, while 13% thought they would try it. Another 11% said they did not know how their behavior would be affected if marijuana were legalized. Still, this amounts to 22% of all 12th graders, or about one in five, who thought that they would try marijuana, or that their use would increase, if marijuana were legalized. " A study of the effects of decriminalization by several states during the late 1970s, based on MTF data, found no evidence of any impact on the use of marijuana among young people, nor on attitudes and beliefs concerning its use.13 However, it should be noted that decriminalization falls well short of the full legalization posited in the questions here. Moreover, the situation today is very different from the one in the late 1970s, with more peer disapproval and more rigorous enforcement of drug laws, at least until very recently. Some more recent studies suggest that there might be an impact of decriminalization, because 'youths living in decriminalized states are significantly more likely to report currently using marijuana.'14 One study using MTF data shows that prevalence of marijuana use among 12th-grade Californian students significantly increased in the two years after decriminalization went into effect in 2011, and youth attitudes also became significantly more permissive.15 As more states approve full legalization for adults, (as has occurred in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, DC), it seems quite possible that attitudes about and use of marijuana will change. Declines in perceived risk and disapproval of marijuana would seem the most likely attitudinal changes, and such changes may well lead to increased use among youth." Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2016). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2015: Volume I, Secondary school students. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, p. 398. Available at http://monitoringthefuture.org... 100. Trends in Attitudes of US 12th Graders Toward Legalization of Any Illegal Drugs " From 1975 through 1978, there were modest declines (shifts of five to seven percentage points, depending on the substance) in the proportions of 12th graders who favored legal prohibition of private use of any of the five illicit drugs (see Table 8-7). But by 1990 (12 years later), all of these proportions had increased substantially, with shifts of 8 to 31 percentage points. The proportion who thought marijuana use in private should be prohibited by law more than doubled, from 25% in 1978 to 56% in 1990—a dramatic shift. " Then, between 1990 and 1997, positions on prohibition of all illicit drug use softened once again, particularly in the case of marijuana use in private. After 1997 these attitudes were fairly stable, or continued to soften slightly. For example, in 2013, 69% thought taking amphetamines or sedatives (barbiturates) in public should be prohibited, down from 77% in 1997. " One important change in these attitudes that occurred after 2006 is increased tolerance for the use of marijuana in private, as the proportion favoring prohibition declined from 42% in 2006 to 32% in 2013. Tolerance for public use of marijuana increased after 2008, when 70% thought such use should be prohibited, dropping to 61% by 2013. " The proportions favoring prohibitions on the use in private of some other drugs have also declined since about 2007, including LSD (from 64% to 58% in 2013), amphetamines or sedatives (barbiturates) (from 54% to 49%), and heroin (from 73% to 71%)."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line668
__label__cc	0.585567	0.414433	Contact Us \| sales@latrobefoundry.com \| 724.537.3341 Butt Weld Fittings Flanged Pipe Fittings Socket Weld Couplings Custom Castings All Categories > Threaded Pipe Fittings > Tee, Reducing > View Items Tee, Reducing Email This Page Printable Page National pipe threads in accordance with ANSI/ASME B1.20.1 Fittings are right-hand threaded The fittings have a general conformance with dimensional standard MIL-DTL-52618-E Fittings are random tested at 120 pounds of air pressure under water, for a normal surface condition rating of 150 pounds of pressure Individual fittings are not marked with alloy or pressure data Fittings are not anodized Dimensions available upon request Please contact us for pricing information 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/4" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/4" 3/4" x 3/4" x 1" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 3/4" x 3/4" x 1" 1" x 1/2" x 1/2" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1" x 1/2" x 1/2" 1" x 3/4" x 1" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1" x 3/4" x 1" 1" x 1" x 3/8" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1" x 1" x 3/8" 1" x 1" x 1-1/4" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1" x 1" x 1-1/4" 1-1/4" x 3/4" x 1-1/4" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 3/4" x 1-1/4" 1-1/4" x 1" x 3/4" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 1" x 3/4" 1-1/4" x 1" x 1" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 1" x 1" 1-1/4" x 1" x 1-1/2" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 1" x 1-1/2" 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" x 1/2" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" x 1/2" 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" x 1" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" x 1" 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" x 1-1/2" Tee, Reducing N/A 356-F N/A 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" x 1-1/2" Latrobe Foundry Machine & Supply Company PO Box 431 \| Latrobe, PA 15650 724.537.3341724.537.0482sales@latrobefoundry.com © Latrobe Foundry Machine & Supply Company. All Rights Reserved\|Site Created by Thomas Marketing Services Powdered by Navigator Platform	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line673
__label__cc	0.643946	0.356054	S.PEERS Childhood’s End: EU criminal law in 2014 Posted on January 3, 2015 by edecapitani Original Published HERE Monday, 29 December 2014 With the elections to the European Parliament, the installation of a new European Commission, and a number of important legislative and case-law developments, 2014 was an important year for the European Union. This is the first in a series of blog posts reviewing the year in selected fields of EU law. The most significant change to EU criminal law came on December 1, when the five-year transitional period relating to EU criminal law measures adopted before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty (‘pre-Lisbon EU criminal law measures’, also known in practice as the ‘third pillar’) came to an end. From this date on, pre-Lisbon EU criminal law measures are subject to the normal rules of EU law (except that they maintain their previous limited legal effect, in particular the lack of direct effect). More specifically, this change (discussed generally here) has three main impacts. Firstly, the UK was entitled to opt out of all pre-Lisbon EU criminal law measures, and then apply to opt back in to some of them again. The UK indeed exercised these possibilities, opting back in to 35 such measures as of 1 December 2014 (see discussion of the details here), following an unnecessarily convoluted process in the House of Commons (discussed here). In a nutshell, since the UK has opted back into a large majority of the pre-Lisbon measures which have any significant importance, the whole process has had barely reduced the UK’s actual degree of participation in EU criminal law. Secondly, the end of the transitional period means that the EU Commission can now bring infringement actions against Member States that failed to correctly implement pre-Lisbon EU criminal law measures – or that failed to implement such measures at all. The relevance of this is obvious in light of the Commission reports issued this year, regarding: legislation on the transfer of prisoners, probation and parole and supervision orders (discussed here); hate crime and Holocaust denial (discussed here); and conflicts of jurisdiction and the recognition of prior convictions (discussed here). Thirdly, all courts in all Member States can now send references to the CJEU on the interpretation pre-Lisbon EU criminal law. For the EU as a whole, the impact of this change will probably be limited in practice, because (a) two-thirds of Member States allowed such references anyway, and (b) there were no such limits regarding EU criminal law adopted after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. On the former point, the CJEU decided two cases this spring on the EU’s double jeopardy rules (discussed here), in which it finally developed the relationship between those rules and the double jeopardy provisions of the ECHR and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. A final reference to the CJEU on the basis of the old rules, sent just a month before the end of the transitional period (Kossowski), now asks the Court to clarify whether Member States’ derogations from the Schengen rules violate the EU Charter. On the second point, the first reference from national courts on post-Lisbon EU criminal law was referred this year: the Covaci case, on the Directive on interpretation and translation in criminal law proceedings and the Directive on the ‘letter of rights’. So far, there is no sign of the predicted avalanche of cases on EU suspects’ rights legislation (the deadline to apply the letter of rights Directive passed in June). Of course, there could still be an increase of such cases in future, perhaps after the 2016 deadline to apply the third suspects’ rights Directive (on access to a lawyer). And in the meantime, Member States must apply the victims’ rights Directive towards the end of 2015. Hopefully the CJEU’s case law on that measure will be more convincing than its ruling earlier this year (criticised here) on the scope of the Directive on compensation for crime victims. Another important CJEU judgment in the criminal law field this year (discussed here) ruled that policing information measure actually fell within the scope of EU transport law. The immediate impact of this judgment was a rush to adopt replacement legislation (the text of which is already agreed), which will apply to all Member States (the UK, Ireland and Denmark had opted out of the prior measure). More broadly, the judgment shows that the CJEU is not inclined to interpret the EU’s criminal law powers broadly – at least as compared to the EU’s other powers. The end of the transitional period did not lead to a general review of pre-Lisbon EU criminal law measures, with the Commission proposing only a very limited repeal of some obsolete measures (I’ll blog on these proposals in the new year). In particular, the new Justice Commissioner appears to have no significant agenda to suggest criminal law proposals, whether to amend prior measures or to adopt new ones (for an argument as to what the Commission should do, see here). However, some of the pre-Lisbon criminal law measures have been amended or replaced, or will be amended or replaced by proposed legislation now under discussion. In particular, during 2014, the EU adopted legislation concerning: the European Investigation Order (discussed here); the counterfeiting of the euro (discussed here); the confiscation of criminal assets; and the European Police College (moving its seat from the UK to Hungary). The EU also adopted legislation on criminal sanctions for market abuse (discussed here). There are also proposals under discussion to replace pre-Lisbon EU criminal law measures concerning: fraud against the EU (see the state of play here); the police agency, Europol (see discussion of negotiations here); the prosecutors’ agency, Eurojust (there was a partial agreement on this proposal); and data protection in criminal law cases (see the state of play here). The latter issue is increasingly important, as indicated by the related CJEU judgment invalidating the data retention directive (discussed here), which gave rise to questions as to whether Member States could adopt or retain their own data retention laws (on this point, see generally here, and here as regards the UK in particular). In fact, the CJEU will soon be ruling on data protection and criminal law issues as such, since the European Parliament has asked it to rule on the validity of the EU/Canada draft treaty on passenger name records (see discussion here). The pending Europe v Facebookcase (discussed here) raises questions about the impact of the Snowden revelations upon the EU and US arrangements on data protection. In the meantime, the proposed Directiveon passenger name records still remains on ice (having been put there by the European Parliament), with EU leaders’ attempt to set a deadline to adopt this proposal by the end of 2014 proving futile. Other proposals are also under discussion: a more general overhaul of the European Police College; the creation of a European Public Prosecutors’ Office (see the state of play here); and the adoption of three more suspects’ rights measures, concerning child suspects (agreed by the Council), presumption of innocence (also agreed by the Council) and legal aid (see the state of play here). However, the Commission’s proposal for new rules relating to the EU’s anti-fraud body, OLAF, soon melted in the heat of Council opposition. Taken as a whole, the year 2014 showed how the European Parliament, the CJEU and the Commission are already playing a significant role in the development of EU criminal law. Following the final demise of the third pillar, the year 2015 is likely to see further important developments in this area, which will make the pre-Lisbon measures even less important: the adoption of new legislation on Europol, the European Police College and possibly Eurojust, as well as revised legislation on fraud against the EU budget. There will likely be two or three further Directives on suspects’ rights and the victims’ rights Directive will begin to apply. The rules on the new European Public Prosecutors’ Office might also be agreed, and there could be significant developments in the area of data protection. Overall, the longer-term trends toward greater parliamentary and judicial control and greater focus on individual rights in this area accelerated significantly in 2014 and could well do so again next year. This entry was posted in 1. EU and MS legal Order and Institutional framework, 1.1 Decision Making Process - Planning, 1.1 News from the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, 3. Fundamental rights - Charter, 3.2 Data protection, 8. Judicial cooperation, 8.2 Judicial cooperation in criminal matters, 9. Internal security -police cooperation by edecapitani. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line676
__label__cc	0.515751	0.484249	Donald Duck Sunday Newpaper Comics Vol. 1 Trade Paperback or Graphic Novel From the Disney Vaults-the original Donald Duck color Sunday comics collected in a book series for the very first time! After a try-out as part of the Silly Symphonies series, Donald was given his own Sunday comics page in late 1939 and it became an instant hit. This premiere volume includes more than three full years of rare Sunday comics, from the first strip on December 10, 1939 through the end of 1942. Drawn by Al Taliaferro and written by Bob Karp, the comics are reproduced from pristine original material in the Disney Vaults! Bob Karp	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line678
__label__wiki	0.520046	0.520046	Information on Singapore Tourist Attractions, Events, Transport, People Singapore Attractions Beaches, Water Front Fun With Animals Singapore Top 10 Top 10 Must See & Do Top 10 Religion Singapore Public Holidays In 2017 And 2018 Listed below are the Singapore Public Holidays and Singapore School Holidays in 2017 and 2018. Also listed are major Singapore Festival dates and Singapore Holidays. The following 11 days are gazette Singapore public holidays. SINGAPORE PUBLIC HOLIDAYS 2017 SINGAPORE HOLIDAYS DESCRIPTION OF SINGAPORE PUBLIC HOLIDAYS New Year’s Day 1 January 2017 (Sunday) 1 January 2018 (Monday) This is the first day of the Gregorian New Year. New Year’s Day 2 January 2017 (Monday) Since New Year’s Day in 2017 is on a Sunday, the next Monday, 2 Jan 2017, is a holiday. Chinese New Year 28 January 2017 (Saturday) 16 February 2018 (Friday) Chinese New Year is the most important Chinese festival in Singapore. Chinese dominated areas like Chinatown, are colourfully lit up weeks before the New Year. Lion dancers, colourful lights, lanterns, fireworks, Chingay Parade, floats, street performances and Chinese food delicacies are all part of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Singapore. The Family Reunion Dinner on New Year’s eve is an important Singapore tradition. The prolonged Chinese New Year celebrations go on till Chinese Lantern Festival, 15 days into the New Year. Chinese New Year is also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year. 2017 is the Chinese year of the Rooster and 2018 is the Chinese year of the Dog. Since 29 Jan 2017 is a Sunday, the next Monday is a public holiday in Singapore. Chinese New Year 29 January 2017 (Sunday) 17 February 2018 (Saturday) Chinese New Year 30 January 2017 (Monday) Good Friday 14 April 2017 (Friday) 30 March 2018 (Friday) Good Friday is a Christian Festival that commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. Singaporean Christian attend Church service on this solemn day. This link has information on the Top 10 Best And Most Famous Churches in Singapore. Vesak Day (Buddha Purnima) 10 May 2017 (Wednesday) 30 April 2018 (Monday) Buddha Purnima (Vesak) is the birthday of Gautam Siddhartha, who attained enlightenment and became Buddha. In Singapore Vesak Day is a celebration of the birth, life, enlightenment and death of Buddha. One in three Singaporean is a Buddhist. Buddhism is the largest religion in Singapore. On Vesak Day devotees pray at Buddhist Temples, wash Buddha statues with water and perform good deeds during the day. Vesak Day is also known as Buddha Purnima and Buddha Day. This is a list of the Top 10 Best And Famous Buddhist Temples In Singapore. Labour Day 1 May 2017 (Monday) 1 May 2018 (Tuesday) May 1 is International Workers’ Day, which is also known as May Day and Labour Day. In Singapore Labour Day celebrates the contribution of workers. Hari Raya Puasa (Eid-Al-Fitr) 25 June 2017 (Sunday) 15 June 2018 (Friday) Hari Raya Puasa is a Muslim Festival that marks the end of the Holy month of Ramadan. Throughout Ramadan, adult Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. On Hari Raya Puasa (Eid al-Fitr), Singaporean Muslims put on new clothes and offer prayers at the Mosque. After this they greet family and friends. Most Muslim households have special food preparations for this festival. Hari Raya Puasa is also known as Eid al-Fitr, Id al-Fitr, Hari Raya Fitrah and Hari Raya Idul Fitri. This is a list of the Top 10 Best And Most Famous Mosques in Singapore. Hari Raya Puasa (Eid-Al-Fitr) 26 June 2017 (Monday) Since 25 June 2017 is a Sunday, the next Monday, 26 June 2017, is a public holiday. Singapore National Day 9 August 2017 (Wednesday) 9 August 2018 (Thursday) Singapore gained its independence from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. Singapore National Day celebrates Singapore’s independance. Singapore National Day Parade is the biggest of the day. This is a military and cultural parade which is followed by dazzling fireworks. Hari Raya Haji (Eid-Al-Adha) 1 September 2017 (Friday) 21 August 2018 (Tuesday) According to legend Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son on the command of God. At the last moment God tells Abraham to stop and instead an animal is sacrificed. Hari Raya Haji is a Muslim festival that honours Abraham’s sacrifice. On Hari Raya Haji Muslims pray at the Mosque. Some Mosque sacrifice animal and distribute food among the needy. Hari Raya Haji also marks the end of Haj, which is the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. Hari Raya Haji is popularly known as Eid-Al-Adha or Id Al-Adha or Bakri-Id. Deepavali (Diwali) 18 October 2017 (Wednesday) 8 November 2018 (Thursday) Diwali or Deepavali is the Hindu festival of light. Deepavali celebrates the return to Ayodhya of Lord Ram after 14 years of exile. Lord Ram was accompanied by his wife, Sita and his brother, Lakshman, in exile. On Diwali Hindus clean up their homes, wear new clothes, pray, give gifts to family and friends and burst firecrackers. The most important activity on Deepavali is Lakshmi Puja or prayer to Goddess Lakshmi the Goddess of wealth. This is a list of the Top 10 Best Hindu Temples in Singapore. Christmas Day 25 December 2017 (Monday) 25 December 2018 (Tuesday) Christians celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Singapore celebrates Christmas with zeal and splendour. Singapore streets are lit up with decorative lights. The Christmas decorations at Singapore’s malls, especially those on Orchard Road, are a sight to behold. The fun mood in Singapore continues till New Year. This is a list of the Top 10 Best And Most Famous Churches in Singapore. If a Singapore Holiday is on Sunday, then the following Monday is a holiday. Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has announced the list of Singapore public holidays in 2017. Please refer to their website for further details. The 2018 list of public holidays in Singapore is yet to be officially announced. Employers have the flexibility to give employees alternate holidays in place of the above Singapore public holidays. The above Singapore Public Holidays are also Singapore bank holidays and Singapore national holidays. Singapore School Holidays in 2017 and 2018 Singapore’s schools have two Semesters and each Semester has 2 Terms. There is a long holiday break between the two Semesters and a short break between Term 1 and Term 2 of both Semesters. In addition to the Singapore public holidays, schools also get holidays for Youth Day, Day after National Day, Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day. Singapore School Holidays in 2017 SINGAPORE SCHOOL HOLIDAY DATES IN 2017 School Holidays between Terms 1 and 2 11 March, 2017 (Saturday) To 19 March, 2017 (Sunday) School Holidays between Semeter 1 and Semeter 2 27 May, 2017 (Saturday) To 26 June, 2017 (Monday) Singapore Youth Day 2 July, 2017 (Sunday). Monday 3 July, 2017 is a School Holiday Day after National Day 10 August, 2017 (Thursday) Singapore Teachers’ Day 1 September, 2017 (Friday) School Holidays between Terms 3 and 4 1 September, 2017 (Friday) To 10 September, 2017 (Sunday) Singapore Children’s Day (Only Primary School has a Holiday) 6 October, 2017 (Friday) School Holidays at End of Academic Year 18 November, 2017 (Saturday) To 1 January, 2018 (Monday) Dates That Singapore Schools Will Be Open In 2017 Singapore School Term Dates for 2017. These are the dates that students will attend school. SINGAPORE SCHOOL TERM IN 2017 SINGAPORE SCHOOL DATES IN 2017 2017 Semester 1 Term 1 Monday 2 January to Friday 10 March Term 2 Monday 20 March to Friday 26 May Term 3 Tuesday 27 June to Thursday 31 August Term 4 Monday 11 September to Friday 17 School Holidays between Semeter 1 and Semeter 2 26 May, 2018 (Saturday) To 24 June, 2018 (Sunday) Day after National Day 10 August, 2018 (Friday) School Holidays between Terms 3 and 4 1 September, 2018 (Saturday) To 9 September, 2018 (Sunday) School Holidays at End of Academic Year 17 November, 2018 (Saturday) To 1 January, 2019 (Tuesday) These are the Singapore School Term Dates for 2018. These are the dates that schools will be operational. Term 1 Tuesday 2 January to Friday 9 March Term 3 Monday 25 June to Friday 31 August Term 4 Monday 10 September to Friday 16 Nov PLEASE NOTE: School holidays in Singapore are decided by the Ministry of Education. The above lists of Singapore school holidays in 2017 and Singapore school holidays in 2018 are tentative dates based pm holidays in previous years. Please refer to the Ministry of Education’s website for the official dates. Please note that this is not the official list of school holidays in Singapore. Singapore Festivals And Special Days in 2017, 2018 In addition to the 11 Singapore public holidays, Singapore also celebrates many festivals, anniversaries and special days. Listed below are the anniversaries, special occasions and festivals in Singapore in 2017 and 2018. SINGAPORE FESTIVALS, HOLIDAYS 2017 FESTIVALS IN SINGAPORE DESCRIPTION OF SINGAPORE FESTIVALS, SPECIAL DAYS Thaipusam 10 February 2017 (Friday) 31 January 2018 (Wednesday) Thaipusam is a Hindu festival that is celebrated with fervour by Singapore’s Tamil community. Thaipoosam celebrates the victory of Lord Murugan over the demon Soorapadman and his demons (Asuras). Devotees take out a procession from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple (397 Serangoon Road, Little India), which travels for 4 Kms and ends at Sri Thendayuthapani Temple (15 Tank Road). Some worshipers carry milk, other pierce their bodies with spears. Valentine’s Day 14 February 2017 (Tuesday) 14 February 2018 (Wednesday) Valentine’s Day is globally celebrated as the day of love. Couples lavish gifts and dinners on their loved ones. Valintine’s Day is very popular in Singapore with one estimate suggesting that Singaporean’s are the largest spenders on Valentine’s Day in the world. Total Defence Day 15 February 2017 (Wednesday) 15 February 2018 (Thursday) February 15, 1942 marks the surrender of Singapore by the British to the Japanese. The main Total Defense Day commemorations take place at Kranji War Memorial. On this day the government spreads awareness message on defence preparedness. “Total Defence” is the name of Singapore’s comprehensive defence strategy. Lantern Festival 11 February 2017 (Saturday) 2 March 2018 (Friday) Chinese Lantern Festival takes place 15 days after the Chinese New Year. This is the first full moon in the new Chinese year. Lantern Festival signals the end of Chinese New Year celebrations. This festival is celebrated with the lighting of Lanterns. In Singapore the River Hongbao event is held on the Marina Bay Floating Platform. (NOTE: Mid-Autumn Festival in September also called Lantern Festival.) International Women’s Day 8 March 2017 (Wednesday) 8 March 2018 (Thursday) International Women’s Day is an international event that celebrates the role of women in all spheres of life. Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations, which is the coordinating body of women’s organizations, organizes an event on this day. Holy Saturday (Easter Saturday) 15 April 2017 (Saturday) 31 March 2018 (Saturday) Holy Saturday is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. Holy Saturday is also known as Easter Saturday or Silent Saturday or Great Sabbath. Easter vigil is name of the mass on Holy Saturday. This link has information on the Top 10 Best And Most Famous Churches in Singapore. Easter 27 March 2016 (Sunday) 1 April 2018 (Sunday) Easter is an important Christian festival that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This link has information on the Top 10 Best And Most Famous Churches in Singapore. Qingming Festival (Ching Ming Festival) 4 April 2017 (Tuesday) 5 April 2018 (Thursday) Qing Ming Festival is a Chinese festival that honours dead ancestors. For Qingming Festival, families clean the tombs of their ancestors and make offerings of food, flowers and incense. Qingming Festival is also known as “Ancestors Day”, “Tomb Sweeping Day”, “Chinese Pure Brightness Festival” and “Ching Ming Festival”. In Singapore, Chinese cemetery and columbaria are at Choa Chu Kang, Mount Vernon, Yishun and Mandai. Baisakhi (Vaisakhi) 14 April 2017 (Friday) 14 April 2018 (Saturday) Baisakhi Festival is mainly celebrated by the Sikh, Punjabi, Sindhi and North Indian communities. In Punjab Baisaki is the harvest festival and the Punjabi New Year. Vaisakhi or Baisakhi also marks the start of the Sikh Khalsa. Baisakhi is also known as Vaisakhi or Vasakhi. Sikh Gurudwaras (Temples) where Baisakhi is celebrated are Central Sikh Temple (Towner Road), Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road, Gurudwara Sahib Yishun, Katong Gurudwara, Pardesi Khalsa Dharmak Diwan, Khalsa Dharmak Sabha. Mother’s Day 14 May 2017 (Sunday) 13 May 2018 (Sunday) Mother’s Day is a global celebration of mothers. It a day for showering Mothers with love and affection. Mother’s Day is celebrated every year on the second Sunday in May. Start of Ramadan (29-days) 27 May 2017 (Saturday) 16 May 2018 (Wednesday) Ramadan (or Ramzan) is the Month of Fasting for Muslims. During Ramadan able-bodied adult Muslims are not supposed to eat from dawn to dusk. As per Islam, the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad for the first time during Ramadan. The pre-dawn meal is known as “Sahur” and the post dusk meal is known as “Iftar”. Ramadan ends on “Hari Raya Puasa”. Between 14% to 15% of Singapore’s population are followers of Islam. Majority of Singapore’s Muslims are of Malay ancestry, while some are of Indian ethnicity. Dragon Boat Festival 30 May 2017 (Tuesday) 18 June 2018 (Monday) The main celebrations for Dragon Boat Festival are held at Bedok Reservoir. Dragon boats from Singapore and abroad compete in the race. Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated in honour of the death anniversary of poet Qu Yuan. Dragon Boat Festival is also known as “Duanwu” and “Tuen Ng”. Father’s Day 18 June 2017 (Sunday) 17 June 2018 (Sunday) Father’s Day is a global celebration of fathers. It a day for celebrating the contribution made by fathers. Father’s Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday in June. Singapore Armed Forces Day 1 July 2017 (Saturday) 1 July 2018 (Sunday) Armed Forces Day is celebrated to hounour Singapore’s Armed Forces (SAF). A parade is held on July 1. Winners of the Singapore Armed Forces Best Unit Competition are awarded prizes on Singapore Armed Forces Day. Racial Harmony Day 21 July 2017 (Friday) 21 July 2018 (Saturday) Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-cultural country. Racial Harmony Day is celebrated to spread the message of racial and communal harmony. Racial Harmony Day is held on July 21 because Singapore’s first riots took place on 21 July, 1964. Hungry Ghost Festival (Yu Lan Pen) 5 September 2017 (Tuesday) 25 August 2018 (Saturday) Hungry Ghost Festival is a Buddhist and Taoist festival, which is mainly celebrated by the Chinese. Family members offer food, drinks, prayers and joss paper to their deceased relatives. In Singapore entertainment events are held on Hungry Ghost Festival, where the front rows are left empty for ghosts and spirits. The Hungry Ghost Festival is also known as “Yu Lan Jie” or “Zhong Yuan Jie”. The entire seventh month of the Chinese Calendar is considered to be Ghost Month where spirits enter from the after world. Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) 4 October 2017 (Wednesday) 24 September 2018 (Monday) Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as Moon Festival. Mainly celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people, Mid-Autumn Festival marks the end of the autumn harvest. Moon Festival festival is celebrated by gifting and eating mooncakes. In Singapore children carry lanterns during this festival; hence Mid-Autumn Festival is sometimes called “Lantern Festival”. Singapore’s Chinatown is beautifully lit up for Mid Autumn Festival and is the place to go to enjoy this festival. (NOTE: The “Lantern Festival” in February, that marks the end of Chinese New Year celebrations, is different from this festival). Islamic New Year (1st Day of Muharram) 21 September 2017 (Thursday) 11 September 2018 (Tuesday) Islam follows a lunar calendar and this day is the Muslim New Year. The first month of the Islamic calendar is called Muharram and it is considered the second holiest month of the year after Ramadan. The tenth day of Muharram is of special importance to Shia Muslim, for whom it is Day of Ashura, and for Sunni Muslims who celebrate the victory of Moses and his people over the Pharaoh. Maulad Nabi (Mawlid)- Birth of Prophet Muhammad 1 December 2017 (Friday) 20 November 2018 (Tuesday) Maulad Nabi is the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. This Muslim festival is also called Maulid Nabi, Milad-Un-Nabi, Mawlid al-Nabi, Maulidur Rasul, Id-E-Milad. Christmas Eve 24 December 2017 (Sunday) 24 December 2018 (Monday) Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas. The midnight mass on Christmas Eve is of special importance to Christians, since it is believed that Jesus Christ was born at night. Between 18% to 19% of Singapore’s population are followers of Christianity and it is the fastest growing religion in Singapore. New Year’s Eve 31 December 2017 (Sunday) 31 December 2018 (Monday) The last day of the year is a day for fun. Parties are held all over Singapore to bring in the new year. Top 10 Free Attractions And Free Things To Do in Singapore Top 10 Must See Attractions and Things To Do In Singapore Top 10 Things To Do In Singapore For Families And Kids Top 10 Best and Famous Churches in Singapore Top 10 Best and Famous Buddhist Temples in Singapore Top 10 Best and Famous Hindu Temples in Singapore Top 10 Best and Famous Mosques in Singapore Ticket Prices, Location And Timing Of Singapore’s Main Attractions Top 10 Best Zoos, Animal and Bird Attractions in Singapore Top 10 Best Rides, Roller Coasters and Water Rides in Singapore Top 10 Best Gardens and Parks in Singapore List of Holidays and Festivals in Singapore in 2015 List of Public and School Holidays in Singapore in 2016 Public And School Holidays In Singapore In 2014 Singapore Chinese New Year (Lantern Festival): Image by fliesyan. Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). Singapore National Day Fireworks: Image by William Cho. Image taken from Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Singapore Deepavali Celebrations: Image by David Sifry. Image used under Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). List of Public and School Holidays in Singapore in 2016 Singapore Public Holidays 2019, School Holidays © 2013 Singapore Attractions, Places Of Interest And Events Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line680
__label__wiki	0.928286	0.928286	SNK 40th Anniversary Collection: Archiving a Golden Age of Gaming, Out March 19 on PS4 Posted by Dimitrije Stankov \| Feb 14, 2019 \| Featured, Latest News, Playstation \| 0 \| The arcade comes home with SNK 40th Anniversary Collection on PS4 starting March 19 — relive 24 classics from the golden age of retro gaming. Then dive into Museum Mode to immerse yourself in SNK’s rich history, boasting an abundance of high-definition artwork and rare promotional assets. Today, developer Brandon Sheffield discusses how these materials were carefully researched and lovingly compiled, as well as the importance of preserving such history. How have you come to work on this collection? What was the archival process like? Actually, I worked on a Digital Eclipse archive as one of my first game writing jobs! Way back in 2006 I wrote some quiz questions for Capcom Classics Collection: Volume 2, so with the resurrection of Digital Eclipse as a company, I was really excited to get back into it, now that I have a lot more experience. Together with Frank Cifaldi, who runs the Video Game History Foundation, I wanted to push our archival and research process even further with our first SNK title. Essentially, Frank gathered as much printed material, game boards, and various scraps of information as possible. He scanned and cleaned up those materials, and tested the games in the collection against the boards to make sure they were accurate, and if they weren’t, went to lengths to fix that (such as re-recording or dumping new audio). Meanwhile, I interviewed former SNK staff members, and gathered information about the games for use in the museum, as well as whatever concept art former SNK artists had squirreled away. In one case I went to Japan, then took a 7.5 hour journey by train, bus, and car, to reach a specific arcade game warehouse out in the middle of nowhere, in a town called Tatsuno. I spoke with the proprietor there, because he had some of the games about which we knew almost nothing. Without that trip, a lot of our info would’ve been wrong! So that’s how dedicated we are to trying to do this right. How did certain games get chosen to be featured in Museum Mode? This was a back-and-forth between Digital Eclipse and SNK. SNK had certain titles they wanted, and so did we. One important thing we did was find a way to replicate the Loop Lever. The Loop Lever was a unique joystick that SNK developed which allowed the player to rotate (by twisting the joystick) and move (by tilting the joystick) at the same time. No prior collection has been able to replicate that because there’s simply no hardware that supports it. We split the movement and rotation across two joysticks, making these games fully playable again, even if they’re not playable in the exact original format. It’s more important that people have the experience of the game, so we wanted to make that happen. Once we did, we tried to get as many Loop Lever-compatible games in the collection as we could, and we got pretty close to all of them! Aside from that, we knew we wanted Athena, we knew we wanted Crystalis, and we knew we had to showcase that song in Psycho Soldier! The first vocal track ever in an arcade game? How could we resist! Did you have previous experience with SNK (such as having played the original titles in SNK 40th Anniversary Collection)? If so, how does it feel to return to those games now? I’ve been playing SNK games all my life. Of course I played a lot of Neo Geo games, and I was an insane collector of Neo Geo Pocket games, but I also played games like Ikari II in a local arcade during high school too. Coming back to these games is almost like a breath of fresh air, especially with the renewed Loop Lever controls. Honestly I am better at Ikari now than I ever was because of that! But the real revelation for me came as I researched these titles and why they were important. There were so many things that SNK did before anyone else, that honestly I didn’t even know about before doing this research. They created one of the first playable tutorials. One of the first games with the concept of a health bar. It was a great time of innovation in the industry, and I really felt that as I interviewed the people who made them. What are some highlights the player should take away from Museum Mode? Some people have likened the collection to a digital, playable history book, and I really like that idea. SNK is most famous for games that began in its Neo Geo era, but when you play this game, when you go through the Museum, you see the roots of those games. SNK’s first fighting game is here. Sure, it’s nothing compared to Fatal Fury or The King of Fighters. But it’s the first. How did they get from there to where they are now? That’s what we want people to see. Back then, SNK was making new, bespoke boards for many of their games. If they wanted to do something new, they not only had to come up with the gameplay and art innovations, but also hardware to support it. So while a game like Vanguard might feel a bit stiff in today’s world, we want to make sure everyone understands its importance, and its place in history. Before this collection I feel that SNK’s important history was under-discussed, and my hope is that by reading and playing with our “digital history book” players will feel the impact of that history. What are your thoughts on the importance of preserving video game history, and today’s gaming audiences/industry in general? I think it’s incredibly important to preserve our history, especially as ancient game boards disappear, and source code is lost. Emulation is literally the only way we can present these games, because there’s not a soul alive with the source code to most of these projects. But we can make sure that emulation is as close to the original if we have the boards, and that’s what we try to do. There’s value in appreciating the incredible craft of these creators, the speed with which they had to make these games, and the intense labor that went into them. The path they paved helped us get to where we are now, establishing the gameplay and art standards upon which we’ve built a global industry. On top of that, when I spoke to the original developers of these games, they were so happy to speak. They said that they felt their part in history had been forgotten, as people usually speak about the Neo Geo when they speak of SNK. They were simply glad that anyone still wanted to hear their stories, and learn from them. To me their contribution to the game industry is so valuable, and I’m very happy we can share a piece of that with everyone. nis americaplaystation gamesps4snk 40th anniversary collection PreviousGenre-Swapping JRPG Death end re;Quest Out February 19 on PS4 NextStudy says US Twitch streamers raked in roughly $87 million in 2017 The Rage 2 Rules of Insanity – Tips & Tricks Share of the Week – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice PlayStation Blogcast 329: Puyo Puyoself Together	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line682
__label__cc	0.718809	0.281191	Disney Junior in the House! Posted on October 16, 2013 by Kristen Rutherford • 0 Comments Tunip! Photo: Kristen Rutherford This September, my daughter turned 4, and for her birthday cake, she had a very specific request: She wanted an Octonauts cake. In fact, she was way more granular about it—what she wanted was, “A cake that has Tunip on the top part, and on the bottom part I want it to look like the ocean, and when you cut it open it should also look like the ocean.” Thank goodness she designed her own cake like this, because, frankly, I was scared she was going to ask me to make the Octopod. Which, I “think” I could do—but it was going to require a lot of engineering, tons of butter, and several trips to Home Depot. Photo: Kristen Rutherford Why the Octonauts? Because that show is SO GOOD. Seriously: I predict that in 20 years there will be an influx of marine biologists, all because of their underwater adventures. And the books by Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy of Meomi Design are even better. You can watch the Octonauts on Disney Jr. but it’s not a Disney production—it’s a British import. (Some of the accents were re-dubbed for American ears—personally, I prefer the British version where Dashi is Australian!) The big preschool American properties on Disney Junior right now are: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia The First, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Doc McStuffins. And lately, Disney Junior has been paying a lot of attention to the four of them, and rolling out tons of fun and interesting live events surrounding them. And in an odd twist of events, my family has participated in a bunch of Disney Junior events in a short period of time. It’s like I baked that Octonauts cake and suddenly the floodgates opened. We live in Los Angeles, so Disneyland is right down the road. We have annual passes and head down there when the weather is nice and the park isn’t crowded. We go around my daughter’s birthday once the LAUSD kids are back in school, and top on our “this-is-our-routine-list” is the Disney Junior show over in California Adventure. The performance is a round up of the Disney Junior properties within the framework of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey and the gang are preparing a surprise party for Minnie, and to get inspiration and help, Toodles suggests they check in with Doc, Sofia and Jake for ideas. Yes, you get to call Toodles. Yes, surprises rain down Disney-style from the ceiling. Most importantly: Yes, you can sing those catchy Disney songs at the top of your lungs and nobody will judge you. (That last part may just be me, but I see other parents doing it—I see you.) Coincidentally, around that same time the Disney Junior Pirate & Princess Adventure Live show came to Los Angeles, so we figured since we love the Disneyland version, we’d check out what they had planned for the big stage. The show was playing at the Dolby Theatre, formerly the Kodak Theatre; that’s where they present the Oscars. It’s a huge, beautiful space that holds over 3,000 people. The show opened with a fifteen minute live show starring Doc McStuffins—and I was thrilled to see that the Doc was being played by an actual actress—not someone dressed up in the costume and sporting one of those giant character head things. Whenever I see someone in one of those get-ups on a stage dancing around, (as we often do when they do pre-shows at the El Capitan—the Los Angeles Disney movie theatre), I spend the whole time worrying that they’re going to plummet off the stage and meet an untimely death. Just me? Ok then. Photo Courtesy Disney Once the Doc finished her little mini-episode/performance, the show kicked in. Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse are the emcees, the show kicks off with a live episode of Sofia the First, a short break for intermission, and then a live episode of Jake and The Neverland Pirates. First things first—this is a live performance, in that there are real people on stage acting out the parts—but the whole thing is entirely lip-synced to sound true to the voices of the show. Don’t go expecting a full-on Broadway version of Sofia and Jake, the way you would if you went to see The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast, or even the abbreviated but amazing Aladdin at Disneyland. This lip-synced performance isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you ask me—I’m 100% in favor of getting kids to see live theater as early as you possibly can. Doesn’t matter if it’s Broadway, dinner theater, local ballet troupes, operas, school plays—whatever it takes to get them interested in theater is ultimately a good thing. I loved seeing tons of families there with babies, all ready to experience an event together. I don’t know if this will be true at your local theater, but the Dolby was fine with kids dancing in the aisles too. Photo: Courtesy Disney Junior The show quality, costumes, and set design were top-notch, and the parts well cast, with excellent dancers. I asked my daughter what she thought of the show (she’s four) and she loved it—but she wondered why children didn’t play the kids’ roles. Whenever we see live shows of any kind, we place a lot of importance on the ways we can show the performers our respect for the hours and hours of hard work they put into a show. We dress up, we arrive on time, we pay attention, and we clap hard or give a standing ovation to show our appreciation. So we explained that the huge amounts of rehearsal time, performance hours, and the fact that the show tours around the country would be hard on a kid as far as schoolwork and family goes. The Sofia portion of the show was fine—a good solid episode with a lot of great special effects and surprises for the audience—but the pirate portion was much more exciting and engaging. If you want to see the show, you can check the schedule on Ticketmaster and grab some tickets. That same week, wouldn’t you know it, the Doc Mobile was in our town! The Doc Mobile is a beautiful silver Airstream trailer, decked out in a theme titled, “So Much You Can Do… To Take Care of You!” Children were encouraged to bring a toy that they could perform a check-up on, and the focus was on health and wellness. My daughter had her annual check-up that same week, and I asked her pediatrician if people came into her rooms now singing “Time for your check-up!” She said yes, and that in fact, Doc McStuffins had made her job a lot easier, that kids knew what to expect and weren’t afraid. The day the Doc Mobile arrived, it was a blisteringly hot morning in Los Angeles, and the line for the mobile was HUGE. I was impressed with how the Disney Junior PR team handled the crowd—they had people walking up and down the line with tubs of sun block and bottled water, and they immediately assessed the situation and started handing out wristbands with a time frame for people to return to the event. Just like a Fast-Pass at Disneyland! We made our way through the nutrition charts, and the dance party that taught kids about exercise, and walked through the trailer, and it was fun—but the thing that made this event rise above being just another promotional tie-in to a kids’ show was the presence of actual doctors from the Artemis Medical Society. This group is made up of almost 3,000 women physicians of color from around the world, and was formed after the release of Doc McStuffins. They saw themselves reflected in this young, animated, would-be doctor, and they aim to serve as even more inspiration for young girls who may want to follow in their footsteps. How cool is that? Photo Courtesy Disney Junior And okay, the event featured a “big headed” Doc McStuffins—a character that made her debut at the D23 Expo—but you know what? I’ll suffer through my worry of her toppling off any stage. It’s an easy exchange for a show that promotes good health, fear-free doctor visits, and does so much to empower and inspire our little girls. Liked it? Take a second to support Kristen Rutherford on Patreon! Filed Under: Entertainment, GeekMom, TV and Movies Tags: Disney Junior, Octonauts, Sofia the First Kristen Rutherford ← What Character Traits Do You Most Want to Instill in Your Child? The Results Are In! GeekMom: Comic Book Corner — October 16th, 2013 →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line683
__label__wiki	0.655314	0.655314	March 16, 2018 - 2:52 pm EDT 1 year ago How Bay Hill Became Arnie’s Place Chris Chaney Follow Twitter/@GurvanGuillotel Bay Hill Club & Lodge was a golfing outpost tucked away on Orlando’s western outskirts when Arnold Palmer first visited in 1962. It didn’t make much of an impression then, but that changed when he returned three years later for an exhibition with Jack Nicklaus and local pro Dave Ragan. Upon returning to his winter base in South Florida, Palmer told his wife: “Babe, I just played the best golf course in Florida – and I want to own it.” It wasn’t until 1969 before Palmer secured a lease to operate Bay Hill, and five years later he completed a purchase of the club from owners in Tennessee and Michigan. By then, the Palmers had made Orlando their winter home. The PGA Tour didn’t arrive until 1979, when Palmer brought the old Florida Citrus Open across town from its home at Rio Pinar CC. Palmer didn’t miss a start for 26 years, last teeing it up at age 74, and an audience with “The King” was one of the most cherished parts of winning – even if the winner was also a legend. “To be able to win this tournament and to have Arnold there and to shake his hand and for him to give me a big hug and a couple times he’d go, I called it, I knew you were going to make that putt,” said Woods at Bay Hill on Tuesday. “And it was little things like that, the last sharing jokes with him out there on the green and he and I laughing, those are moment that is unfortunately that I’ll never have, but I have those memories.” Read more at Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest goings-on in the world of golf by following the SwingxSwing Clubhouse on social media. We share stories, stats and breaking news on Twitter, keep the fun going off the course on Instagram and share any and all golf-related topics on Facebook. Never be the odd golfer out when your friends are talking about the latest or funniest happenings in golf. Sign up for the SxS newsletter today!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line686
__label__cc	0.653892	0.346108	At the Perimeter Graham spent the past week at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, as a guest of its Director Neil Turok, talking with several of its leading theoreticians. This was part of Graham’s research for his forthcoming book on the relationship between mathematics and fundamental physics, which Einstein called ‘miraculous’. For Paul Dirac, theoreticians who work on fundamental physics should regard mathematical beauty as their lodestar. In Graham’s first stay at the Perimeter Institute, in 2012, he gave a public lecture on ‘Paul Dirac and Mathematical Beauty’, now available on Youtube. As Graham saw, the Institute is a unique place with a carefully engineered environment that encourages discussion and collaboration. Over lunch, Turok told Graham that he wants the Institute to be the best possible place to conceive and incubate new ideas’, adding that ‘there are no groups here, only creative individuals who are free to pursue their curiosity and are able to cross boundaries between different disciplines’. Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Ontario Restaurant at Perimeter Institute Graham’s next book will look at the history of the subject, as well its developing relationship. This is why Graham wanted to revisit the Institute, now one of the world’s leading centres of research into quantum field theory, a source of great interest to both physicists and mathematicians. The importance of mathematics to modern theoretical physics was highlighted by the Institute’s recent hiring of the Irish mathematician Kevin Costello, whose innovative research has caught the imagination of several leading theoreticians, including Edward Witten. Turok says: ‘New mathematics is now crucial to many areas of contemporary theoretical physics and it’s great to see mathematicians working so closely here with physicists.’ Kevin Costello One of the most productive areas of mathematics-physics collaboration in the past few years has been the theoretical study of scattering of fundamental particles. Institute’s leading theoreticians, the Venezuelan physicist Freddy Cazacho, is one of the leaders in this field, following his collaboration with Nima Arkani-Hamed, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Graham spoke to the two of them, and learned how their aim of shedding light on the interactions of sub-atomic physics has led them to new areas of contemporary mathematics, especially in the field of algebraic geometry, notably in the development of so-called Positive Grassmanians. Freddy Cazacho (left) and Nima Arkani-Hamed (right) One of the highlights of Graham’s visit was the opportunity to attend gathering of mathematicians who assembled at the Perimeter Institute to discuss the theme of ‘Symplectic Duality and Gauge Theory’. On the Saturday morning, it was ‘standing room only’ for Edward’s talk on the Geometric Langlands Programme and the light it sheds on gauge theories. Graham was struck by the atmosphere in this talk: ‘here was a great theoretician reaching out to mathematicians, bringing new insights into front-line mathematics from front-line physics, at the same time as seeking inspiration from mathematics’. It was a fitting climax to an enormously productive visit. Edward Witten Posted in News, Other Cambridge, UK » « Masters of Edinburgh Notre-Dame Cathedral came far closer to collapsing than people knew. This is how it was saved: https://t.co/AyjFZ0Bx0m 28 minutes ago The Universe Speaks in Numbers 'Fascinating and elegantly written' Manjit Kumar '…An amazing achievement' Michael Frayn 'Superbly written, riveting' Martin Rees 'Masterful, riveting' Nima Arkani-Hamed 'A wonderful book' Tom Stoppard 'I am overcome with admiration for its range and profundity' Michael Frayn 'A must-read for physicists and mathematicians' Jacob Bourjaily 'A tour de force' David Forfar Clerk Maxwell Foundation 'Excellent' Chris Quigg 'Enjoyable and important ... Read it!' Simon Cocking	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line688
__label__cc	0.556619	0.443381	“A Plea for Caution” One Year Later; The New York Times Op-Ed That Revealed Much about Putin In his September 2013 New York Times op-ed, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not suggest any real steps to create opportunities for international cooperation or greater peace and security. He seemingly wanted to stir mistrust worldwide toward US efforts in foreign affairs. It would be disingenuous for US President Barack Obama’s administration to deny its behavior toward Putin likely influenced his decision to write it. In a September 11, 2013 New York Times op-ed, Russian President Vladimir Putin provided a commentary on US-Russian relations that appeared to be a rebuttal to US President Barack Obama’s August 10, 2013 speech on the possible US military response to the chemical use by the President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. Putin’s objective with the op-ed was to reach the US public through the back channel of the news media. That was made clear when he stated, “Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.” Yet, Putin failed to realize that while he sought to promote Russia’s positions and arguments in the media, attempting to cope with policy analysts and popular pundits, hostile to his statements, on their “home court”, would be a mistake. Global media is still dominated by the West. Moreover, among those people interested in foreign and defense policy in the West and worldwide, very few would ever take the position that Russia was equal imilitarily, economically, or politically to the US and its Western partners. Far more people worldwide might accept negative perspectives of Russia given its human rights and civil rights history, and the authoritarian nature of the Soviet Union from which it had emerged. Changing such perceptions of Russia would be difficult to accomplish with one op-ed. What made the op-ed even less likely to receive approval was the manner in which Putin presented his facts and arguments. He does not present a discussion based on Russia’s genuine concerns about the impact of military action. Putin displayed more tack than tact in his commentary. There was no romantic fuzziness in his words. There is no soft spot. It is not some lush, soupy appeal. The op-ed lacks the moral eloquence of Obama’s speeches. Manifested in the text, however, was the fact that Putin is tough and has no time to be a sentimentalist. Putin was well-aware that he was communicating with citizens of an, albeit, adversarial government. Despite his best intentions, his recognition of the fact that he is not the best friend of the US public–and he likely does not care to be–managed to infiltrate his statements. Putin accomplished very little with the op-ed. Since the time it was published, the atmosphere in international affairs has not improved, mutual trust has not been strengthened, and US-Russian relations have worsened. Putin has made major moves in Ukraine contrary to US wishes, and he has warned the West that Russia still has nuclear arms. If anything, his op-ed serves as a marker, indicating a genuine downturn in US-Russian relations had occurred. A look at events surrounding his decision to publish the commentary sheds light on how US-Russia relations fell to current levels, but also seems to provide hope that a constructive dialogue between Obama and Putin could still develop. Background: Putin and the US Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the authentic face of the Russian government has been Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin restored order in Russia after the internal chaos of the 1990s, reestablishing the power of the state. Many would note the record shows he accomplished this with little regard for human and political rights. Putin is conscientious about his work, and has become quite experienced in governance and wielding national power. His style of management is undoubtedly shaped by his initial career as an officer in the Soviet Union’s Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (the Committee for State Security) known better as the KGB—the agency responsible for intelligence, counterintelligence, and internal security. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring. Putin has been advised and assisted by a small group of men who served alongside him during his KGB career. These men are known as siloviki (power men). Finding siloviki, particularly retirees of the KGB, and the present day security service, Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsi (Federal Security Service) or FSB, in high places in Russia is not unusual. A quarter of Russia’s senior bureaucrats, particularly in the armed forces and the security services, are siloviki. At the pinnacle are men who came from Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg. The “roots” of the families those men come from go back to the beginnings of the Communist Party and its first political police known as the Cheka. Putin’s Cheka heritage includes both a father and grandfather who served in the security service. Putin attended the schools and auniversity Chekisty (Chekist) progeny typically attended. The Chekists share a view that the greatest danger to Russia comes from the West. They believe Western governments are driven to weaken their homeland, create disorder, and make it dependent of Western technologies. They feel that under former President Boris Yeltsin, the Russian leadership made the mistake of believing Russia no longer had any enemies. The Chekists are resentful of the West’s success over the Soviet Union in the Cold War. As Putin himself has publicly expressed, the Chekist consider the collapse of the Soviet Union, under Western pressure, as the worst geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century. That loss did not mean a loss of dignity or the will to act. Anti-Western sentiment became so strong that it has created a siege mentality among the Chekists. In his March 18, 2014 speech declaring Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Putin spoke not only as the voice of Russia, but the voice of the Chekists. He enumerated some of the actions taken by the West that have fostered contempt in Moscow. He mentioned: Russia’s economic collapse, which many Russians recall was worsened by destructive advice from Western business and economic experts that did more to cripple their country; the expansion of NATO to include members of the Soviet Union’s own alliance, the Warsaw Pact; the erroneous Russian decision to agree to the treaty limiting conventional forces in Europe, which he refers to as the “colonial treaty”; the West’s dismissal of Russia’s interests in Serbia and elsewhere; attempts to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO and the EU; and, Western efforts to instruct Russia on how to conduct its affairs domestically and internationally. Putin is determined to save Russia from disintegration, and frustrate those he perceives as enemies that might weaken it. He will not be satisfied until Russia’s global power and influence are restored and the independent states of the former Soviet Union are brought back under Moscow’s political, economic, and military (security) influence. Even prior to the op-ed’s publishing, the downward spiral of Russia’s relations with the Obama administration was evinced by: Putin’s decision to allow National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to reside in Russia; ongoing espionage efforts between Russia and the US, including the activities of Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (Foreign Intelligence Service) or SVR officer Anna Chapman and other Russian “illegals” captured by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2010; counter allegations of US spying on Russia revealed by Snowden and Wikileaks; and the US admonishment of Russia on human rights issues. Despite these and other negative connections, the White House sent Putin proposals on a variety of issues, some in which he had already expressed disinterest. They insisted that he agree to reductions that would be made in both nations’ nuclear arsenals. Putin rejected the nuclear arms proposals due mainly to his concerns over the efficacy of taking such an audacious step. To him, the proposals called for staggering reductions. He views nuclear weapons as a means to assure Russia’s survival. It is unlikely that a Chekist would ever reduce Russia’s nuclear arsenal to a level demanded by the White House. Perhaps positive signals from Obama’s discussions on nuclear arms reductions with the erstwhile Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave administration officials and advisers the idea that Putin would follow-up by accepting proposals on it. Obama felt he had a strong relationship with Medvedev. Obama seemed to measure all possibilities on relations with Russia on his interactions with him. So comfortable was Obama with Medvedev that he went as far as to declare a new era between the two former Cold War adversaries existed. There were more than enough senior Russia analysts in the US government who could have confirmed Putin, who at the time was serving as Russia’s Prime Minister, was the real power in Moscow. However, Obama administration officials and advisers did not appear to give any deep consideration to this matter. Since Medvedev was Russia’s president, Obama saw him as the authority with whom he needed to be concerned. He treated Putin as “the other guy.” Obama did little to build a positive relationship with him. When he returned to the Russian presidency for a third term, what Obama knew about him was mostly in the abstract. Summit Cancellation 2013: The Catalyst Obama administration officials and advisers were clearly unprepared to hear or accept Putin’s final rejection of their nuclear arms reduction proposals and reacted poorly to it. They seemed driven to achieve objectives for their president without consideration of the efficacy of their approach. Whether they even thought Putin’s concerns over nuclear arms reduction proposals were genuine is not clear. However, Putin’s decision was viewed within the Obama administration as ending their president’s “signature effort to transform Russian-American relations and potentially dooming his aspirations for further nuclear arms cuts before leaving office.” With the apparent goal of retaliating against Putin over his refusal to accept its nuclear proposals, on August 7, 2013, Obama cancelled a Moscow summit meeting with Putin set for September. It was an amateurish and dangerous response by the administration to Putin. Yet, the decision meant much more than blocking the meeting. For Putin, the summit with the US president would be an important part of his effort to show that under his leadership, Russia has returned to the world stage as a global power. As an outcome of the actual talks with Obama, Putin likely hoped to demonstrate that he is a strong leader who is able to respond effectively to the US on security issues. During the event in Moscow, Putin would also receive the chance to present his resurgent Russia in the best light possible. Obama administration officials and advisers knew the summit meeting would have been a proud occasion for Putin and the Russian people. However, they were out to prove that it was in control of the situation. They sought to bring to light what they believed was the reliance of Russian leaders on US standing and capabilities to elevate a country that was practically an economic basket case and a shadow of its former self as a military power. Boiled down, they felt Russia needed the US, but the US did not need Russia. So, they scrapped the summit. Publicly, Obama administration’s officials and advisers made things worse by publicly explaining that the meeting was cancelled because was not seen as an effective use of the president’s time. An August 8, 2013 New York Times article quoted US Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes as stating, “We weren’t going to have a summit for the sake of appearance, and there wasn’t an agenda that was ripe.” Officials and advisers tossed in comments about Putin’s rejection of the proposal. An unidentified source for the same August 8th article stated, “We just didn’t get traction with the Russians. They were not prepared to engage seriously or immediately on what we thought was the very important agenda before us.” That source went on to state, “this decision was rooted in a much broader assessment and deeper disappointment.” Yet, despite these thinly veiled excuses, it was generally understood that the cancellation appeared was a consequence of Putin’s refusal to consider the proposals for extreme nuclear reductions. From it, came seasons of disappointment. Memores acti prudentes future! (Mindful of what has been done, aware of what must be!) The Op-Ed By cancelling the summit, Obama administration officials and advisers played into the worst anti-Western strain of Chekist thought. Putin saw the US decision as a form of rejection, a personal affront, and an effort to humiliate him. In Moscow, the anger, bitterness, and hostility that grew in Putin over the cancellation, along with a lot of other things, was likely palpable. Putin had his own set of options. As Obama’s approval ratings on foreign policy had dropped precipitously during the year to a bit less than 39.8 percent by the end of August, Putin may have perceived that he had a shot of reaching a disappointed US public with a special message. The Russian Federation government had a contract with the Ketchum public relations firm that included placing favorable news items about Russia in US newsmedia outlets. Putin used the firm to place his op-ed in the New York Times. In writing his editorial, Putin, in part, seemed to be utilizing a bit of old KGB tradecraft in writing the piece. (Tradecraft refers generally to skills used in clandestine service to include efforts to manipulate opponents.) Much of what he proffered was a distorted view of circumstances. Putin began by offering a discussion of certain truths about the US-Russian relations as allies during World War II and adversaries during the Cold War. He recounts that the veto power given the Permanent Five Members of the UN Security Council was established to create consensus on issues of peace and war. He explained that if states were to bypass the UN Security Council and take military action without authorization, as the Obama administration indicated it was prepared to do in August 2013, that UN’s relevance would be placed in jeopardy. As a result the UN would suffer the fate of the League of Nations. However, in further discussion of the UN, Putin engages in something akin to introjection, claiming qualities typically identified with, and exemplified by, the US. Having been successful in constructing a peaceful solution on Syria’s chemical weapons issue, Putin portrays Russia as a beacon of light in international affairs, and promoter of transnationalism, multilateral solutions, and the maintenance of international peace and security. Putin explained, “From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos.” While he should be commended for expressing these sentiments, it has actually been the US, particularly the Obama administration, which, for the most part, has shown great reverence for international law. Obama, himself, would undoubtedly prefer to solve problems at the diplomatic table using reason and logic, due process, and rule of law. Putin, on the other hand, has what former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called “a zero-sum worldview.” Contrary to Obama’s belief in the importance of win-win relationships among nations, Putin sees all transactions as win-lose; if one party benefits, the other must lose. Gaining and retaining power is Putin’s goal. Putin goes on to explain, “The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.” Here, Putin provides a veiled reference to the Operation Unified Protector, when multinational forces under NATO command imposed a no-fly zone and destroyed government forces loyal to then-Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi under UN Security Council Resolution 1973. (The military operation to enforce the UN Security Council Resolution was initially led by the US under Operation Odyssey Dawn.) In Putin’s view, Western-led forces went beyond their mandate to aid anti-Gaddafi forces, and their actions led to his overthrow. Gaddafi had been a friend of the Soviet Union and Russia. Despite the fact that the action against him was taken under a UN Security Council resolution, to Putin, it represented one more instance of the West trampling on Russia’s interests. However, looking at Russia’s actions, Putin was not in a position to admonish anyone about international law and the use of force. In 2008, Putin invaded Georgia, and Russian troops still occupy the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions. He forced Armenia to break off its agreements with the EU, and Moldova is under similar pressure. In November 2013, using economic influence and political power, he drove then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to abort an agreement Ukraine had with the EU that would have pulled it toward the West. Once the Ukrainian Parliament removed Yanukovych, Putin grabbed Crimea. In appraising the use of force by the US, Putin engages in a type of projection, imputing some of the dominant traits of his own handling of foreign policy on the Obama administration. He goes as far as to blame the US for efforts by some nations to acquire nuclear weapons. Putin explains: “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.” The truth is that Obama has been averse to taking military action, contrary to former US President George W. Bush who was perceived as having the US take pre-emptive military action at the slightest whiff of aggression. Obama’s policy of restraint matches the public mood. Developing proposals for military action has been very difficult for administration officials and advisers. In situations where the use of force is almost absolutely necessary, officials and advisers have presented options for action that are lightweight, very small in scale and calibrated precisely. Putin’s discussion of Obama as being interventionist is shear fantasy. While obama has been involved in situations worldwide as a leader on the internation stage, its ill-advised action in Libya was its only authentic intervention. Note that it is Putin who now appears poised to move further into Ukraine. Even if a US audience was not receptive to his message, Putin likely assumed the hyperbole in his commentary would serve to impress many people in other countries who are ill-disposed toward the US and its policies. appreciative of his efforts to admonish it. Undoutedly, his words were likely captivating and satisfying enough for those who choose not to look deeply and those who choose simple answers. Many realities are erased and the past is written off. He then writes on the past a new story, a substitute for reality. The op-ed seemed to be “sabotaged” by his comments concerning “American exceptionalism” that was rejected and much derided within all circles in the US; and, by his discouraging words concerning US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If someone claiming to be a Chekist were ever to offer encouraging words about the spirit of US public or US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he would most likely be an imposter! Creating even more discord, Putin explained that US action could place multilateral efforts on Iran and Israel-Palestine at risk. The one part of Putin’s op-ed deserving real consideration was his discussion of the danger posed to international peace and security by Islamic militant groups in Syria. Putin succinctly analyzes the emerging threat. He reported, “There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations. This internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world. Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria? After all, after fighting in Libya, extremists moved on to Mali. This threatens us all.” Putin again seemed to be using skills acquired during his KGB days to develop a strong report on the emerging threat of Islamic militant groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). Still, he also seemed to be providing a glimpse of what was being discussed in the Kremlin on developments in Syria, as well as Iraq. His prognostication about the growth of the Islamic militant groups has been on the mark to the extent that the ISIS threat has not reached the shore of the US or Europe. Yet, few in the US focused on Putin’s important comments on Islamic militant groups. His questionable discussion of other issues distracted US readers from anything constructive he had to state. In his op-ed, Putin does not suggest any real steps that would help create possibilities for international cooperation or greater peace and security. Indeed, it was not constructed to improve things. Putin essay better served to stir mistrust worldwide toward US efforts in foreign affairs. It would be disingenuous for the Obama administration to deny that its approach to Putin, prior to the op-ed, played a likely role in his decision to write it. Put basely, the Obama administration officials and advisers treated Putin as if he was “their ball to play with.” They lashed out at Putin in a very public way on many occasions, and Putin saw the op-ed as a means to respond to those incidents “publicly.” Unfortunately, rather than use the op-ed to discuss his dissatisfaction and concerns about US actions, he prevaricated and made a number of remarks the US public would only find offensive. Once those points were highlighted in the US newsmedia by political pundits and policy analysts, few in the US public would read it or give it thought after “hearing” what was in it. Putin will unlikely write an op-ed again in a US newspaper given his experience with the first. However, it is likely, given the current course of US-Russian relations, Putin’s future communications with the US public will be far less “congenial.” Posted in Afghanistan, Al-Nusra Front, Cheka, Chekist, Chekisty, Cold War, Crimea, Dmitry Medvedev, Economic Sanctions, Edward Snowden, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsi, Foreign Intelligence Service, FSB, George W. Bush, God, Iran, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, KGB, Kiev, Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, Kremlin, Moscow, National Security Agency, NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Obama, Operation Odyssey Dawn, Operation Unified Protector, Putin, Robert Gates, Russia, Russian Federal Security Service, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Siloviki, Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, Soviet Union, St. Petersburg, SVR, Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Ukraine, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, UN, UN Security Council Resolution 1973, United Nations, US Deputy National Security Adviser Antony Blinken, US Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin Rhodes, US President Barack Obama, US President George W. Bush, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates \| Leave a reply As World Boils, Fingers Point Obama’s Way; In Putin’s View, Obama Is Doing Just Fine! Russian President Vladimir Putin is tactically shrewd and more experienced than US President Barack Obama as a leader. Such realities cannot be ignored or rationalized as being unimportant. Putin likely recognizes the benign, forgiving side of Obama’s approach to foreign affairs. It could provide him with the opportunity to do much more to restore Russia’s power and influence. According to an August 16, 2014, New York Times article entitled, “As World Boils, Fingers Point Obama’s Way,” the debate in Washington on foreign policy boils down to two opposite positions: It is all US President Barack Obama’s fault, according to his critics; no, it is not, according to his supporters, because these are events beyond his control. US citizens, the article explains, often think of their president as an all-powerful figure who can command the tides of history—and presidents have encouraged this image over the years because the perception itself can be a form of power. However, Obama, himself, has increasingly argued that his power to shape these seismic forces is actually limited. He is quoted in the article as stating, “Apparently people have forgotten that America, as the most powerful country on earth, still does not control everything around the world.” Obama’s adversaries and supporters have viewed that statement as rationalization. He seems to be excusing his own actions, or inactions, as the case may be. Polling data provided in the article seems to indicate that Obama’s policy of restraint matches the public mood. Polls indicate the US public finds little appetite for robust intervention in Syria, Ukraine, or Iraq. Nonetheless, having gazed at the results of Obama’s handling of foreign policy, 58 percent of those polled disapproved of his efforts. There is also real disappointment with Obama’s leadership within foreign capitals. Perceptions of friends and opponents among foreign leaders of Obama’s foreign policy performance has shaped their decisions on how to proceed for the remainder of his term in office. Particularly concerning opponents, the US soon face threats has not really seen since the end of the Cold War. Understanding how Obama’s actions and inactions on foreign policy, albeit unwittingly, may have blazed a trail to a more dangerous future for the US, could assist in making decisions on how to handle challenges during the remaining years of Obama’s presidency, specifically those concerning Russia. Obama and the Policy of Forgiveness Speaking with equanimity and certitude during the 2008 US Presidential Campaign, Obama indicated that as president, he would be able to achieve much by taking a course different than his predecessors. To ensure outcomes in support of US interests, force would not be used to support diplomacy. Obama’s approach seemingly introduced his personal philosophy, a type of teleology concerning man’s purpose on earth, and the meaning and importance of life. (Obama’s private thoughts on policy may be influenced by a kind of eschatology, a concept on the end of life, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and humankind.) Using his personal philosophy, Obama has tried to look at the deeper side of every policy issue confronting him. Duc in altum! (Put out into the deep!) Confident in the better side of human nature, Obama has sought to operate under the notion that issues in foreign affairs could actually be resolved at the negotiating table. He prods administration officials and advisers along his way when they were uncertain or against what he had proposed. He asserts moral authority with foreign leaders. Working within the parameters of Obama’s thinking, administration officials and advisers have not always fully considered challenging foreign policy problems as they truly exist. Euphonious policy speeches from the Obama and administration officials are often laden with rhetorical arguments, using only acceptable language and a selective list of the realities of a situation. Those assessments can still captivate and satisfy some in the US public who have grown weary of warfare as well as US friends and allies overseas hoping for new, constructive approaches that would establish peace and security. However, recently, such efforts at obfuscation have been regularly overcome by the light of the truth. Obama’s apparent philosophy has greatly impacted the conduct of US foreign policy regarding the use of force. Developing proposals for military action has been vexing for administration officials and advisers. Obama has been averse to taking military action. That has limited the range of options that they could present to their president. In a situations where the use of force is almost absolutely necessary, officials and advisers likely presented options for actions that were light-weight; very small in scale and calibrated precisely. They needed to be effective enough to achieve all objectives based on Obama’s concepts. They also had to find the right language to make the option palatable to Obama. That effort typically initiated an engrossing policy debate among White House advisers. This keeps them busy, but does not make them fruitful. It accounts for difficulties officials and advisers had in getting Obama to come to terms with proposals and plans presented on Syria, Ukraine, and Iraq, leaving an air of uncertainty on how to proceed. Reluctant to make use of US military despite the fact that it provides real capabilities and possibilities for effective and successful action, Obama more frequently proffers the idea that the US can work with partners in regions in turmoil to establish multilateral responses. Yet, few states in the world still possess real military strength to project significant force within their regions or beyond their own borders. Pressed with a situation in which few options other than the use of military power would seem the best to take, despite red-lines issued and stern warnings given, the world has also seen the Obama administration do more than just avoid military action. Rather, it has practically forgiven or, given the overwhelming military power of the US, shown mercy toward an offending rouge actor. Some of the most challenging problems for the Obama administration’ foreign policy degraded much further as a result of this tack. After receiving Obama’s forgiveness, or mercy for their trespasses, the offending actors have never given any indications that they would halt their actions or reform in some way having escaped retribution from the US. That has been the case with Syria, North Korea, Russia, and non-state actors such as Hezbollah and the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria. When some nations have trespassed against the US, it would make sense to forgive the action, understanding that the relationship could be put back on course. This was the case, for example, with Israel when it engages in efforts by its intelligence service to penetrate US government organizations. The US has never been happy about efforts by France to collect economic intelligence from US businessmen staying in hotels in on its territory. Germany efforts to gather information from computer networks and databases in the US has raised the administration’s ire. In such cases, the US could demand a change in behavior from those nations that have “lost their way” knowing an effort would be made to avoid such actions in the future. It Will Be Difficult for Obama to Deter Putin Obama’s approach, of being forgiving and showing mercy over the actions of rogue actors, has not been missed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has accomplished much in recent months. The military operation in Crimea transpired on the heels of the successful 2014 Winter Olympics Games in Sochi. There was still a sense of renewed national identity, national pride, and patriotism among Russians. As events developed in Kiev, Putin understood that he still had strong cards to play, and he used one, moving into Crimea, to gain an advantage in what is a negative situation for Russia. He seemingly annexed Crimea in return for the loss of a friendly government and Russian influence in Ukraine. In response, the US and European Union imposed sanctions on Russia that were mild, and Putin pressed onward. Since March, Putin has vowed to use military force to protect Russian speaking compatriots across the former Soviet Union. He branded southern and eastern Ukraine “New Russia”, a name the rebels took up as a catch-all for most militia groups. Two provinces have been partly occupied by armed separatist fighters. The rebels are led almost exclusively by Russian citizens and have managed to acquire tanks, missiles, and other heavy weaponry which the Ukrainian government and the West said could only have come from Russia. A military offense from the Ukrainian government has pushed the rebels out of many of their stronghold, leaving them largely besieged in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, which the rebels have proclaimed capitals of the two “people’s republics”. NATO is greatly concerned over Russia’s decision to mass 20,000 combat ready troops along Ukraine’s eastern border to include tanks, infantry, artillery, air defense systems, logistics troops, special forces, and aircraft. While threats to impose even greater economic hardships were made, it was not until July 17, 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, ostensibly by a Russian-made anti-aircraft missile system under the control of the rebels, were the screws tightened sharply. All 298 people onboard were killed. These far broader sanctions target Russia’s energy, financial, and defense sectors. In the end, Obama made the statement that the US has done everything it can to convince Russia to change course in Ukraine. He explained, “Short of going to war, there are going to be some constraints in terms of what we can do if President Putin and Russia are ignoring what should be done in their long-term interests.” He further stated, “Sometimes people don’t always act rationally.” Putin has tried to hold his own against Western economic measures. For example, in a sweeping response, Russia has banned all imports of food from the US and all fruit and vegetables from Europe. The measures would hurt farmers in the West for whom Russia is a big market. Russia is the greatest buyer of European fruit and vegetables, accounting for $43 billion worth of food in 2013, and the second greatest importer of US poultry, accounting for 8 percent of chicken exports. Such anti-Western action plays well with the Russian public. Russia has also signed a deal with Iran expected to undermine Western-led sanctions against the two countries. The memorandum of understanding between the two governments envisages wider economic cooperation to include closer ties in the oil and gas sector, construction and rebuilding of generating capacity, development of a power supply network infrastructure, machinery, consumer goods, and agriculture. It lays the foundation for a multi-billion dollar oil agreement between Moscow and Tehran, or the so-called oil-for-goods contract. Russia claims that cooperation between Russia and Tehran did not violate the UN Security Council Resolution. A Possible Audacious Move by Putin Putin can accept Obama and his advisers are using sanctions to halt Russia’s activities in Ukraine and push all parties to the negotiating table, but he also may believe it is part of an effort to fulfill a Western goal of weakening Russia and creating disorder. Tough economic sanctions, Russia’s expulsion from the G-8, denial of Russian separatists’ right to independence, and the US condemnation of Russia for the annexation of Crimea very likely play into a siege mentality that exists among many Russian security officials at the highest level. Moreover, these steps may have stirred some sense of humiliation among them. It may appear to Putin that the West simply refuses to respect Russia as a power, even militarily. The possibility exists that Western sanctions against Russia may prove to be extraordinarily challenging for Putin and his advisers. They may sense their country faces a great a peril much as Japanese leaders had felt their country was endangered by the US under similar pressure before December 7, 1941. If the US threatens further harsher sanctions and pushes the European states to do the same, Putin and his advisers may take audacious steps to change the power equation between Russia and the US and its partners, going farther than Obama and other Western leaders might ever imagine. Sensing his back is up against the wall, unable to project strength otherwise, Putin might seek to deter further actions against it by making rather extraordinary threats to use Russian military power as a response. Shrill statements of condemnation and saber rattling would be heard throughout Washington. Yet, threats of force against Russia would have little meaning at that point. Too many speeches and statements on why US military power should be withheld have already been made to create enough doubt over whether the US might respond at all. Putin may judge that Obama would be unwilling to engage in nuclear exchange because it would most certainly result in the evisceration of several million of lives. Giving an order to use nuclear weapons would be completely alien to Obama’s nature. Considering that, along with the Obama’s record and reputation on the use of force, Putin might calculate that if he pushes hard enough, Obama might eventually back away from further tough talk and harsh economic measures. An authentic debate and decision would likely ensue on Ukraine’s true importance to the US. Putin may assess that Obama would most likely want to negotiate some resolution. Make no mistake, Putin has the will to attack with nuclear weapons, but he also has a bargaining spirit. Talks un such a situation might provide Putin with an opportunity to achieve many objectives that are important to him. Putin and his advisers undoubtedly took great interest when the Obama administration’s decided to make steep reductions in US conventional forces. Those cuts have left the US less able to project power, take and hold ground in a non-permissive environment, or engage in sustained ground combat operations in defense of the interests of the US, its friends, and allies. In 2013, the US withdrew its last two heavy armored brigades from Germany. Tank units anchored the US military presence on the ground in Europe for 70 years. US military leaders have considered withdrawing the last squadron of F-15C air superiority fighters from England. Putin was likely shocked upon receiving Obama administration’s proposals in 2013 calling for steep reductions in nuclear forces. He rejected them not out of political expedience but due to concerns over the efficacy of taking such an audacious step. Putin views nuclear weapons as a means to assure Russia’s survival. Reducing Russia’s nuclear arsenal to a level determined by the bean-counting of those forces by US analysts would never have been acceptable to him.However, from that experience Putin could clearly see that for the Obama administration, the US nuclear arsenal was merely a political bargaining chip, but not a military tool. Such decisions and actions in the past would make it more likely for Putin and his advisers to assess that Obama would unlikely be willing to use nuclear weapons. As the driving force behind the Soviet Union, and since the end of the Cold War as an independent state, primacy has been given to Russia in US thinking on the defense of US interests worldwide and the establishment of global peace and security. Despite proxy wars and other confrontations and conflicts, of high and low gradients, along the course of the Cold War, both states, while possessing the unique and mutual capability to annihilate one another and the world with their nuclear arsenals, neither state acted with its weapons. What Russian leaders thought about the US ostensibly deterred them from hostile actions. By maintaining robust conventional military resources and capabilities, as well as an air, land, and sea nuclear triad, US diplomacy could be supported time and again by the credible threat of force. It was understood in Washington that the US must not only look strong but must be strong. During his May 29, 2014 commencement address at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, Obama explained, “I would betray my duty to you, and to the country we love, if I sent you into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed to be fixed, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak.” Again, Obama failed to recognize or accept a situation as it truly existed. It is difficult to see how Obama can reconcile his belief that a strong image worldwide does not matter given the position he is currently in with Putin and Russia. Has Putin Been Testing the US? Sensing what he may perceive as Obama’s weakness, Putin seems to be testing the possibility of using grander action. So far, in July and August, Russian strategic nuclear bombers have conducted numerous incursions into northwestern US air defense identification zones. On several occasions, the incursions by Russian Tu-95 Bear H bombers prompted the scrambling of US fighter jets. A number of Russian intelligence-gathering jets have also been detected with the bombers. Russia’s Northern Fleet anti-submarine forces detected and aggressively forced out a US Navy Virginia class submarine out of Russian boundary waters in the Barents Sea. A seaborne anti-submarine group and an Il-38 anti-submarine warfare plane, were sent to the region to search and track it down. Putin also recently warned that Russia was developing new strategic nuclear weapons that would catch the West by surprise. He stated, “We will give joy to our partners with those ideas and their implementation. I mean those (weapons) systems.” He explained that the new nuclear systems have been kept from public eye. Using approaches reflective of his philosophy, Obama has been unable to accomplish much with Putin on Ukraine. Obama sees Putin’s myopia as the main obstacle. However, Putin is not standing around and pointing fingers. Rather, he is on a mission to restore Russia’s global power and influence and to bring the independent states that were once part of the Soviet Union back into Russia’s orbit. He wants to create a Russian sphere of influence—political, economic, and security—and dominance. Putin is tactically shrewd, and far more experienced than Obama as a leader. Such realities cannot be ignored or rationalized as being unimportant. In thinking about Obama, Putin undoubtedly recognizes the US president’s rather benign, forgiving side, and wants to exploit it to the greatest degree possible to achieve his goals for Russia. Assertive and decisive US action most likely would have achieved many US goals and had a strong educational effect on leaders globally, including Putin. Yet, the Obama administration failed to project authentic US strength. Threats of military action now would have questionable impact. It would be difficult for Obama to convince Putin of his willingness to fight over Ukraine when he was unwilling to fight anywhere else, even after red-lines were crossed and stern warnings were given. Rather than try to confront Putin head to head, including with sanctions, former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates offered a useful suggestion. He believes the only way to counter Putin’s aspirations on Russia’s periphery is for the US to play a strategic long game. That means to take actions that unambiguously demonstrate to Russians that his worldview and goals—and his means of achieving them—over time will dramatically weaken and isolate Russia. The Europeans must consider how they can work in partnership with the US in that effort. While the proposal recognizes the urgency of the situation, it does not demand military action and provides a concept for a strategy that will achieve a specific outcome which requires a long term program to achieve. It seems to fall within the parameters of what Obama might find acceptable. It might be worth trying. Posted in 2008 US Presidential Campaign, Barents Sea, Cold War, Crimea, Donetsk, Economic Sanctions, F-15C fighter, G-8, God, Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, Israel, Israelis, Japan, Kiev, Luhansk, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, NATO, New Russia, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Obama, Putin, Robert Gates, Russia, Russian Northern Fleet, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Soviet Union, Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Tu-95 Bear H bomber, Ukraine, UN, United Nations, US Military Academy, US President Barack Obama, Virginia class submarine, Washington, D.C. \| Leave a reply	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line690
__label__cc	0.556449	0.443551	Britain’s mistreatment of immigrants plays into al-Qaeda’s hands This is a guest post by Nadja Stamselberg For the past eight months I have taught English as a second language to teenagers coming form Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Iranian Kurdistan. Out of the ten pupils, three were girls and seven were boys. Aged between sixteen and nineteen, all but one were here without their families. Two boys from Afghanistan and a boy from Pakistan are orphans, whilst another three Afghan boys and an Ethiopian girl don’t know where their parents are or whether they are still alive. Most of them have been trafficked to England. Put on a lorry by a relative who couldn’t afford to look after them, they were sent off to a better future. They survived weeks of inhumane conditions, cramped at the back of airless containers, their limbs numb, their hearts brought to a standstill each time a lorry slowed down or stopped. Some of them even saw their friends and fellow passengers die of exhaustion and dehydration. Nevertheless, when talking about their perilous journey, their faces light up as if they are remembering a great adventure. Perhaps it is a privilege of youth to gloss over most the horrendous experiences and refer to them with nostalgia, or perhaps a mean of survival. One of the boys often talked about Rome, a city he spent a week in whilst the local mafia negotiated with the traffickers before letting them continue their journey. The city made quite an impression on him. It was the first sight of Europe that he saw. The ancient squares and churches were as beautiful, if not even more so, than the ones in his hometown of Herat in Afghanistan. More importantly he was able to experience a place he read and learnt about in school in Iran. Growing up in a refugee camp outside Tehran, he would often imagine these faraway places, and now he was in one of them. Once in the United Kingdom they applied for asylum and were housed either with foster families, or were put in shared accommodation with other adolescents from similar backgrounds. Each one was assigned a social worker to help them to adjust to their new life. They were also enrolled at a college where they would study English, basic numeracy and IT. With few exceptions, most of them had never been to school. Growing up in war-torn countries robbed them not only of their childhoods and their parents, but of their education as well. Nevertheless, most of them could read and write in their own languages, with a number of them being multilingual, able to speak several languages and dialects. Literacy, however limited, was courtesy of the madrasas. Religion in fact has been the only stable, positive factor in their lives. It provided them with discipline; purpose and most importantly hope that better times were to come. Many of them battle depression and have anger issues and difficulties coping with their new lives. The Afghan boy, whose trafficking experiences took him on an unwilling yet fascinating journey across Europe, broke down in one of the tutorial classes. Only sixteen at the time, he felt that his life was not worth living. He was alone, his parents were killed by the Taliban upon their return from exile in Iran; an only child, he had no one to lean on. Coming from a Hazara background, most of his family has been killed and displaced. The only living relative, his aunt’s husband who paid for his journey to England, was never heard of again. He would often miss college to go to the Refugee Council. A French lady who worked there became like a surrogate mother for him. He spoke of her with so much tenderness, always mentioning that she said that he was like a son to her. Humane contact and genuine emotions are what these children crave the most. The ones who have successfully been placed with the foster families often thrive. However, as soon as they turn eighteen they are no longer allowed to stay with the families, nor in the shared accommodation. Upon reaching legal adulthood they, often with as little as fifteen minutes notice, have to move. We had cases where the key worker would call the college and ask for the student to be sent home to move as a cab was coming to his place to pick up his stuff. If they did not make it in time, their things would be packed by the key worker and sent to the new address. They were promised that their relocation to hostels and B&Bs was temporary until they were allocated a more permanent abode. Very often they would spend months living in minimally furnished rooms, sometimes not even having bed sheets. Robberies were regular occurrences, their rooms broken into and their few precious possessions stolen. Unfortunately, these are not the only insecurities they face. Their long-term stay and settlement in the United Kingdom is questionable, with their right to remain reconsidered once they turn eighteen. In fact, for the duration of their stay in the United Kingdom they face uncertainty and the possibility of being sent back to their country of origin. Since quite a few countries are now seen as ‘safe enough’, a number of the adolescent asylum seekers will most certainly face deportation. Having to deal with these issues manifests in different ways. Some of them resolve to self-harm, some get in trouble with the law, others grin and bear it making the most of their lives here. Sadly, they are often expected to transgress. The overworked and jaded social workers tend to have little sympathy for their plights. At a parents’ meeting, I had one student’s social worker refer to him as a ‘little sod’ who keeps getting into trouble with the law. Upon inquiring further I was told that he was booked for dodging the bus fare and for sitting in the driver’s seat of a car without having a licence. Furthermore, their life stories are not believed. The Home Office regards most of their asylum applications as fabrications designed to fool the British system. Their dates of births are also often dismissed as fakes and many are given new ones, the most popular being 1st of January. At the same parent’s meeting, another social worker told me that I should be careful with believing everything the students tell me as they come form a culture, in this particular case form South Asia, where it is a norm to tell people what they want to hear instead of the truth. He was trying to show understanding for my naiveté, but stressed that I will soon realise myself that this student’s story was questionable, constructed for the benefit of staying in this country. The story that his parents were killed by his uncle in a dispute over land was questionable. His subsequent crime of beating the same uncle to death by a wooden stick whilst sleeping could not be confirmed and the account of both him and his brother spending two years moving from one place to the other all over Pakistan running from relatives was unsubstantiated. Furthermore, he was illegally in this country for two years before applying for asylum. Having turned eighteen, the Home Office is due to reconsider his case. Aware of this, he was filled with terror by the prospect of being sent back to Pakistan. Ever since he was twelve years old he has been on the run. He had a deep hatred and fear of the country where he found no protection from the law and saw no justice served. He was so grateful to be able, for the first time in his life, to go to school and have some semblance of a normal life, and was looking forward to making his life here. My initial reaction when he told me that if he gets sent back home he will join al Qaeda was to dismiss it as another provocative remark. Looking for a reaction, some of the students would talk about al Qaeda, Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, boasting about their support for their cause and playing up to the stereotypes imposed on them by society. However, I was soon to realise that his statement was not a childish attempt at attention seeking, but an option he was seriously considering. His motifs were neither a religious fervour nor a dislike of the West and its values. On the contrary, they were a frantic plea for some structure, direction and security, whatever that might be. Feeling let down by his own family, country and eventually by the United Kingdom, which had supposed to provide him with a safe haven and another shot at the normal life and education he so desperately craved, he would be a perfect target for recruiting. Preying at disillusioned youth with no jobs and no hope, al Qaeda offers to fill the vacuum left by poverty, lack of education and displaced and destroyed family units. Youth, inexperience and feelings of hopelessness make al Qaeda’s newfound followers susceptible to all sorts of anti-Western sentiments disguised as ‘anti-imperialist’ ones. Back in the United Kingdom, Islamophobia (systematically promoted by some sections of the political elite and the media); poor treatment of the immigrants; and attempts to manage community diversity to suit certain economic interests best, all deepen divisions within the popular classes, creating more resentment toward the young asylum seekers. Consequently, some of the students are faced with bigoted comments and insults. Many of them also complain about their treatment by the Home Office officials. All of this in turn provides a valuable service to reactionary political Islam, giving credibility to its anti-Western discourse. This makes it possible to lure and draft the deported asylum seekers. Despite everything, most of them love living in the United Kingdom and are very grateful for the freedoms and opportunities it offers. Casualties of the wars we waged on their behalf, our broken promises and their own societies’ inability to provide them with protection and a future, these vulnerable young people need our help. Instead of treating them as parasites on our economy and a threat to our society and values, the Home Office should recognise these young persons’ strengths and potential. Giving them an opportunity; a much-deserved chance to rebuild their shattered lives; we will not only gain valuable members of our society, who will enrich and contribute to it, but also deprive various terrorist organisations both of their mission and of many of their potential followers. Nadja Stamselberg has recently finished a PhD in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She wrote her thesis on practices of exclusion and European identity. She is currently working on a book, which traces the historical precursors of exclusion in Europe, connecting it to the subsequent concepts of hospitality and cosmopolitanism. Tuesday, 8 July 2008 - Posted by Marko Attila Hoare \| Afghanistan, Immigration, India, Iran, Islam, Kurds, London, Middle East, Pakistan, Racism […] Nadja Stamselberg shows, the opposite is the case: For the past eight months I have taught English as a second […] Pingback by The anti-terror case for immigration « Max Dunbar \| Saturday, 12 July 2008	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line691
__label__wiki	0.532235	0.532235	Kinship and Elopement in Bosnia-Hercegovina Review of Keith Doubt, Through the Window: Kinship and Elopement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Central European University Press, Budapest and New York, 2014, 158 +xvii pp. ‘The world has read much about the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, its horrible nature and unconscionable character’, writes Keith Doubt in his preface, ‘but the world has read less about Bosnia-Herzegovina itself’ (p. xii). Indeed, it is difficult for many of us to think of the country without thinking of the war that ended in 1995 and the political struggle that has continued ever since. One of my personal regrets, as a historian specialising in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is that I never knew the country as it existed before the war, particularly since many people who did, both natives and other foreigners, have described it as an idyll. I’ve been told more than once about how you could go skiing in the morning in the mountains around Sarajevo, then drive down to the coast for a swim in the afternoon. Very little is left of that idyll today. Doubt has set out to shed light on the hidden or forgotten social relations of Bosnia-Hercegovina that existed before the war and continue to exist, and his book owes a large debt to the now-classic anthropological studies of William Lockwood and Tone Bringa. Specifically, he studies familial relations by focusing on the phenomenon of ‘elopement’, which as Svetlana Slapsak indicates in the foreword, does not have the same implications as it did in the pre-feminist era in other countries. Although elopement in Bosnia-Hercegovina does allow a woman to choose her marriage partner, it does not damage a woman’s reputation or that of her family but represents a socially acceptable norm. Indeed, Doubt links this to the greater importance of affinal kinship ties; i.e., those based on marriage rather than blood. It is often supposed that the ancestors of today’s Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims, had essentially the same culture as those of the Serbs or Croats until this was altered by Ottoman Islamic occupation. But according to Lockwood, as cited by Doubt: ‘Muslim peasants of Bosnia give much less emphasis to patrilineality and to groups based on patrilineal kinship than do either the Croats or (especially) the Serbs… The slack seems to be taken up by an increased emphasis on affinal relations.’ (Doubt, pp. 97-98). Paradoxically, in this regard, Serbs and Croats are culturally closer to Turks than any of these are to Bosniaks, for the Turks share with the former, but not with the latter, an agnatic kinship structure that defines family and community. This observation emphasises the distinctiveness of an autochthonous Bosniak culture, distinct from both the wider Serbo-Croat and post-Ottoman neighbourhoods. It perhaps stands in tension, however, with observations that Doubt makes later, that emphasise Bosnian commonalities: ‘The emphasis on establishing affinal relations is not only a cultural custom of Bosniaks, but also a cultural custom of Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs’ (p. 123). Doubt supports this assertion by reference to a survey, which indicates that even in the present day, the two sets of parents of a married couple (i.e. those of a husband and of a wife) visit each other frequently: about two thirds or three fifths of those questioned indicated that their parents visited each other at least four times a year, with very minor differences in the rate for the three nationalities. Keith Doubt Thus, Doubt’s research powerfully illustrates the distinctiveness of both Bosnian and Bosniak culture, and the richness of its heritage. It would not be possible in this review to do justice to the complexity and nuance of Doubt’s interdisciplinary study and discussion. They provide an antidote to the facile tendency among some observers, and not only foreign ones, to assume that the cultural differences between Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims can be reduced to religious ones, and the book sensitively discusses the relationship between ethnic culture and religion, though the latter features only slightly in it. Doubt ends by overstating somewhat the extent to which the Bosnian commonality and identity have been neglected by scholars and remain obscure; they have, in fact, been explored and written about in various ways by many different scholars, myself included. If we do not have a more complete picture of what makes Bosnians specifically ‘Bosnian’, this is probably because non-native scholarship about the country is still relatively underdeveloped in general, rather than due to a particular neglect of this topic. In fact, almost any scholar not completely blinded by an ideological agenda, and indeed almost any visitor who spends any length of time in the country and its neighbours, will be aware that Bosnia-Hercegovina and its people are distinctive, and that the Bosnian Serbs and Croats and the lands they inhabit are not simply indistinguishable from their counterparts in Serbia and Croatia. Doubt argues that as long as the common Bosnian gemeinschaft, particularly gemeinschaft of kin, is sustained, then ‘the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina is promising’ (p. 135). But he also notes that the cultural phenomenon of elopement, on which the book focuses, is in decline and faces extinction. Thus, as this book suggests, though Bosnia-Hercegovina’s statehood is badly broken and its citizens politically divided along ethno-nationalist lines, shared common traditional cultural practices, albeit in decline, bear witness to the fact that the country continues to exist. Of course, this begs many questions, such as whether these cultural practices differ significantly between the different regions of Bosnia-Hercegovina, how much other traditional Bosnian cultural practices differ from those in Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro, and what the implications are of the continued decline of these various practices for Bosnia-Hercegovina’s long-term survival. This fascinating little book does not provide all the answers, but it does suggest a lot of original ways of looking for them. Monday, 24 August 2015 - Posted by Marko Attila Hoare \| Balkans, Bosnia, Former Yugoslavia, gender \| Keith Doubt, Svetlana Slapsak, Tone Bringa, William Lockwood	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line692
__label__cc	0.592449	0.407551	Give Thanks by Giving Back! SHARED by: Gymtime The Gymtime Foundation is providing an excellent opportunity for families to help those who are still facing hardships in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. This Sunday, November 18, the Gymtime Foundation will be taking a group to the Long Beach, Long Island Relief Center to assist The Tunnels to Towers Foundation in their hurricane relief efforts. The Long Beach community desperately needs help and we encourage adults and children ages 12 and up to join our group (volunteer opportunities are not exclusive to Gymtime families – please bring your friends!). The Gymtime Foundation will provide transportation and lunch to the first 50 volunteers to sign-up. Space is limited, please call 212-861-7732 if you are interested in participating. TRANSPORTATION SCHEDULE: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18 9:15a.m. Meet at Gymtime, 1520 York Avenue (Corner of 80th Street and York Ave) 9:30a.m. Bus Departs Gymtime for 11a.m. Bus arrives Long Beach, Long Island Relief Center 3p.m. Bus Departs Long Beach, Long Island Relief Center 4:30p.m. Bus arrives at Gymtime *Schedule is subject to change slightly depending on traffic Volunteer opportunities for children include accepting donations, sorting donations, notifying neighborhood about Tunnels to Towers and bringing supplies to people who cannot leave their homes. Opportunities for adults include clean-up as well as the sorting and distribution of food and supplies. If you would like to meet our group at Long Beach, we will be volunteering at the Long Beach Catholic Regional School with Tunnel to Towers. The address is 735 West Broadway Long Beach NY 11561. The hours for volunteers are 8-5p.m. and the site is open to the public from 9-4p.m., 7 days a week. About The Gymtime Foundation: The Gymtime Foundation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, was established by Michael and Bonni Branciforte, founders of Gymtime Rhythm and Glues and York Avenue Preschool, to raise funds for causes dedicated to children’s health and environmental issues. About Tunnels to Towers: Tunnel to Towers Foundation was created in 2003, by the family of Stephen Siller, who passed away on 9/11. The charity is filled with good people doing good things in memory of a good man. The Foundation has established “In the Line of Duty” programs for Firefighters, First Responders, and Military and “Legacy of Love” programs to make a lasting and positive difference in the lives of children who have lost one or both parents. Every year, Tunnel to Towers holds a charity run to retrace Stephen’s steps. The last two weeks, they have played a major role in Hurricane Sandy relief. Please join us in helping them with their efforts. Visit tunneltotowers.org for more information. No related content found. Announcements and tagged get involved, Sandy, Tunnel to Towers, Volunteer	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line695
__label__wiki	0.940982	0.940982	British Swimming is the national governing body of swimming, water polo, synchronised swimming, diving and open water in Great Britain.[2] British Swimming is a federation of the national governing bodies of England (Swim England), Scotland (Scottish Swimming), and Wales (Swim Wales).[2] These three are collectively known as the Home Country National Governing Bodies.[3] SportPark, Loughborough University, Loughborough Maurice Watkins[1] Chief Exec Jack Buckner (from October 2017) Performance Directors: Chris Spice - Swimming, Para-Swimming - Chris Furber, Alexei Evangulov - Diving, Synchro - Karen Thorpe Amateur Swimming Federation of Great Britain (ASFGB) www.britishswimming.org For international swimming purposes, competitive swimming in Northern Ireland falls under the Irish swimming federation, Swim Ireland, and as such British Swimming represents Great Britain, rather than the United Kingdom. For the Olympic Games, Northern Irish swimmers may opt to compete for British Swimming. British Swimming is a member of FINA, LEN, the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association, and has responsibility for elite performance, doping control and international relationships and events for the sports within the Great Britain. The Home Country National Governing Bodies are affiliated to British Swimming and are responsible for all other management of the sports in their respective countries from the learn to swim programmes up to performance development.[4] ChampionshipsEdit British Swimming organises championships every year in each of the sporting disciplines. SwimmingEdit Long course See also: List of British Swimming Championships champions The British Swimming Championships (50 m) are usually held in March or April each year, and usually act as selection trials for upcoming international level competitions due to be held in the following summer season. 2001 10–15 April Aquatics Centre, Manchester World Championships Trials 2002 10–15 April Aquatics Centre, Manchester Commonwealth Games Trials 2003 19–23 March Ponds Forge, Sheffield World Championships Trials 2004 7–11 April Ponds Forge, Sheffield Olympic Trials 2005 16–20 March Aquatics Centre, Manchester World Championship Trials 2006 4–9 April Ponds Forge, Sheffield European Championship and European Junior Championship Trials 2007 26 March–1 April Aquatics Centre, Manchester 2008 31 March–6 April Ponds Forge, Sheffield Olympic Trials 2009 16–20 March Ponds Forge, Sheffield World Championship Trials 2010 29 March - 3 April Ponds Forge, Sheffield European Championships Trials, Commonwealth Games Trials 2011 5–12 March Aquatics Centre, Manchester World Championships Trials 2012 3–10 March Aquatics Centre, London Olympic Trials, London Prepares series 2013 26–30 June Ponds Forge, Sheffield World Championships Trials 2014 10–15 April Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow Commonwealth Games Trials 2015 14-18 April Aquatics Centre, London World Championships Trials 2016 12-17 April Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow Olympic Trials 2017 18-23 April Ponds Forge, Sheffield The British Swimming Short Course Championships were usually held in August or September each year, though the event has not been held since 2004 2001 9–12 August Norwich 2002 12–15 September Cambridge 2003 14–17 August Grand Central Pools, Stockport 2004 26–29 August Aquatics Centre, Manchester Water poloEdit Domestic water polo competition in the UK is centred on the National Water Polo League (NWPL) and National Women's Water Polo League (NWWPL), which operate through the autumn and winter. The British Championships organised by British Swimming are held in the Spring. Winners of the championships in recent years are listed below. Men's champions Women's champions 1996[5] Bristol N/A 1999[6] Lancaster N/A 2002[5] Penguin N/A 2005[5] Lancaster Sheffield 2006[7] Lancaster City of Sheffield 2007[5] Lancaster ? 2008[8] Rotherham Manchester 2009[9] Lancaster Manchester Masters swimmingEdit An annual championships for Masters swimmers is organised in rotation by the Home Countries, usually in June, for senior (18–24 yrs) and masters (25 yrs+). The championships are held in a long course (50 m) pool. The championships are held in a long course (50 m) pool. 1987 9–11 October Afan Lido Pool, Aberavon 1988 4–5 November Dundee 1989 3–5 November Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre, Coventry 1990 November Wales Empire Pool, Cardiff 1991 July Leeds International Pool, Leeds 1992 5–7 June Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London 1993 4–6 June Wales Empire Pool, Cardiff 1994 3–5 June Leeds International Pool, Leeds 1995 2–4 June Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, London 1996 26–28 April Ponds Forge, Sheffield 1998 29–31 May Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow 1999 4–6 June Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre, Coventry 2001 1–3 June Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow 2002 31 May–2 June Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, London 2003 6–8 June Welsh National Pool, Swansea 2004 23–25 April Aquatics Centre, Manchester 2006 16–18 June Aquatics Centre, Manchester 2009 19 June Cardiff International Pool, Cardiff 2010 18–20 June Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow[10] 2011 17–19 June John Charles Centre for Sport, Leeds[11] 2012 4–6 May Ponds Forge, Sheffield[12] 2013 14–16 June Plymouth Life Centre, Plymouth[13] 2014 13–15 June Welsh National Pool, Swansea[14] 2015 12-14 June Aquatics Centre, Manchester[15] Open water swimmingEdit Alongside the Open Water Grand Prix series, British Swimming also arranges national championship events over 5 km and 10 km. DivingEdit The British Diving Championships are held annually in the winter. Sometimes the annual championships are held in the December of the preceding calendar year. 2004 13–14 December 2003 Ponds Forge, Sheffield 2005 11–13 February Ponds Forge, Sheffield 2006 16–18 December 2005 Aquatics Centre, Manchester 2008 4–6 January Aquatics Centre, Manchester 2009 5–7 February Ponds Forge, Sheffield 2010 25–27 June Ponds Forge, Sheffield 2011 10–12 June John Charles Aquatics Centre, Leeds 2012 8–10 June Ponds Forge, Sheffield 2013 8–10 February Life Centre, Plymouth 2014 6–8 June Ponds Forge, Sheffield 2015 20-22 February Life Centre, Plymouth[16] Synchronised swimmingEdit The British Synchronised Swimming Championships are usually held in November or December each year. 2004 6–7 November Gala Baths, Walsall 2005 5–6 November Braunstone LC, Leicester 2006 2–3 December Gloucester LC, Gloucester SponsorshipEdit In 2009, British Swimming announced a £15 million, 6 year sponsorship deal with British Gas.[17][18][19] It also announced sponsorship with Kellogg's[20] and Speedo[21] in 2009. In 2016, British Swimming announced a new sponsorship deal with TYR Sport, Inc.. Keil, Ian/Wix, Don, In the Swim. The Amateur Swimming Association from 1869 to 1994, London 1996 British records in swimming List of Olympic size swimming pools in the United Kingdom Swimming clubs in Kent ^ "British Swimming name Maurice Watkins as their new Chairman". BBC. 4 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014. ^ a b About British Swimming page of the British Swimming website (www.swimming.org/britishswimming); retrieved 2010-07-13. ^ ASA LEVEL 1 CERTIFICATE FOR TEACHING WATER POLO ^ "The difference between British Swimming and the Amateur Swimming Association" (PDF). British Swimming. 30 November 2005. Retrieved 31 July 2008. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "NWPL Results Archive". Retrieved 27 October 2008. [dead link] ^ "Lancaster City Swimming and Water Polo Club". Archived from the original on 10 May 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2008. ^ "GB Water Polo Championships 2006" (PDF). Retrieved 29 October 2008. ^ "British Water Polo Championships 2008" (PDF). Retrieved 29 October 2008. ^ "City of Manchester and Lancaster take British water polo titles". 22 February 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009. [permanent dead link] ^ "British Gas Swimming Championships 2010". British Swimming via SportSystems. British Swimming/SportSystems. Retrieved 1 September 2014. ^ "British Gas Masters Championships 2011". British Swimming via SportSystems. British Swimming/SportSystems. Retrieved 1 September 2014. ^ "British Gas Masters and Senior Age Group Champs Moves To Sheffield". British Swimming. British Swimming. Retrieved 1 September 2014. ^ "British Gas Masters and Senior Age Group Championships 2013". The ASA. The ASA. Retrieved 1 September 2014. ^ "British Gas Masters and Senior Age Group Championships 2014". British Swimming. British Swimming. Retrieved 1 September 2014. ^ "British Masters and Senior Age Group Championships 2015". The ASA. British Swimming. Retrieved 13 July 2015. ^ "British Gas Diving Championships 2015". The ASA. British Swimming. Retrieved 13 July 2015. ^ Parsons, Russell (13 March 2009). "British Gas signs 15m swimming sponsorship". Marketing Week. Retrieved 24 April 2014. ^ "Campaign:Pools 4 Schools" (PDF). ESA website. ESA. Retrieved 24 April 2014. [permanent dead link] ^ http://www.sportcentric.com/vsite/vcontent/content/news/0,10869,5157-183729-200947-40069-294738-news-item,00.html[dead link] ^ Salter, Jessica (1 July 2009). "British Swimming boosted by £3m Kellogg's deal". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 April 2014. ^ Long, Michael (11 March 2009). "Speedo makes a splash with British Swimming". SportsPro. Retrieved 24 April 2014. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Swimming&oldid=905486425"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line696
__label__wiki	0.853632	0.853632	Hugo de Vries In this Dutch name, the family name is De Vries, not Vries. Hugo Marie de Vries (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦyɣoː də ˈvris]) (16 February 1848 – 21 May 1935)[2] was a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of Gregor Mendel's work, for introducing the term "mutation", and for developing a mutation theory of evolution. ForMemRS HonFRSE[1] De Vries, c. 1907 Hugo Marie de Vries (1848-02-16)16 February 1848 Lunteren, Netherlands Scientific career De Vries was born in 1848, the eldest son of Gerrit de Vries (1818–1900), a lawyer and deacon in the Mennonite congregation in Haarlem and later Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1872 until 1874,[3] and Maria Everardina Reuvens (1823–1914), daughter of a professor in archaeology at Leiden University. His father became a member of the Dutch Council of State in 1862 and moved his family over to The Hague. From an early age Hugo showed much interest in botany, winning several prizes for his herbariums while attending gymnasium in Haarlem and The Hague. In 1866 he enrolled at the Leiden University to major in botany. He enthusiastically took part in W.F.R. Suringar's classes and excursions, but was mostly drawn to the experimental botany outlined in Julius von Sachs' 'Lehrbuch der Botanik' from 1868. He was also deeply impressed by Charles Darwin's evolution theory, despite Suringar's skepticism. He wrote a dissertation on the effect of heat on plant roots, including several statements by Darwin to provoke his professor, and graduated in 1870. Early careerEdit After a short period of teaching, De Vries left in September 1870 to take classes in chemistry and physics at the Heidelberg University and work in the laboratory of Wilhelm Hofmeister. In the second semester of that school year he joined the lab of the esteemed Julius Sachs in Würzburg to study plant growth. From September 1871 until 1875 he taught botany, zoology, and geology at schools in Amsterdam. During each vacation he returned to the lab in Heidelberg to continue his research. In 1875, the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture offered De Vries a position as professor at the still to be constructed Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule ("Royal Agricultural College") in Berlin. In anticipation, he moved back to Würzburg, where he studied agricultural crops and collaborated with Sachs. By 1877, Berlin's College was still only a plan, and he briefly took up a position teaching at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. The same year he was offered a position as lecturer in plant physiology at the newly founded University of Amsterdam. He was made adjunct professor in 1878 and full professor on his birthday in 1881, partly to keep him from moving to the Berlin College, which finally opened that year. De Vries was also professor and director of Amsterdam's Botanical Institute and Garden from 1885 to 1918. Definition of the geneEdit In 1889, De Vries published his book Intracellular Pangenesis,[4] in which, based on a modified version of Charles Darwin's theory of Pangenesis of 1868, he postulated that different characters have different hereditary carriers. He specifically postulated that inheritance of specific traits in organisms comes in particles. He called these units pangenes, a term 20 years later to be shortened to genes by Wilhelm Johannsen. Rediscovery of geneticsEdit Find sources: "Hugo de Vries" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Hugo de Vries in the 1890s To support his theory of pangenes, which was not widely noticed at the time, De Vries conducted a series of experiments hybridising varieties of multiple plant species in the 1890s. Unaware of Mendel's work, De Vries used the laws of dominance and recessiveness, segregation, and independent assortment to explain the 3:1 ratio of phenotypes in the second generation.[5] His observations also confirmed his hypothesis that inheritance of specific traits in organisms comes in particles. He further speculated that genes could cross the species barrier, with the same gene being responsible for hairiness in two different species of flower. Although generally true in a sense (orthologous genes, inherited from a common ancestor of both species, tend to stay responsible for similar phenotypes), De Vries meant a physical cross between species. This actually also happens, though very rarely in higher organisms (see horizontal gene transfer). De Vries' work on genetics inspired the research of Jantina Tammes, who worked with him for a period in 1898. In the late 1890s, De Vries became aware of Mendel's obscure paper of thirty years earlier and he altered some of his terminology to match. When he published the results of his experiments in the French journal Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences in 1900, he neglected to mention Mendel's work, but after criticism by Carl Correns he conceded Mendel's priority. Correns and Erich von Tschermak now share credit for the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws. Correns was a student of Nägeli, a renowned botanist with whom Mendel corresponded about his work with peas but who failed to understand its significance, while, coincidentally, Tschermak's grandfather taught Mendel botany during his student days in Vienna. Mutation theoryEdit In his own time, De Vries was best known for his mutation theory. In 1886, he had discovered new forms among a display of the evening primrose (Oenothera lamarckiana) growing wild in an abandoned potato field near Hilversum, having escaped a nearby garden.[6] Taking seeds from these, he found that they produced many new varieties in his experimental gardens; he introduced the term mutations for these suddenly appearing variations. In his two-volume publication The Mutation Theory (1900–1903) he postulated that evolution, especially the origin of species, might occur more frequently with such large-scale changes than via Darwinian gradualism, basically suggesting a form of saltationism. De Vries's theory was one of the chief contenders for the explanation of how evolution worked, leading, for example, Thomas Hunt Morgan to study mutations in the fruit fly, until the modern evolutionary synthesis became the dominant model in the 1930s. During the early decades of the twentieth century, de Vries' theory was enormously influential and continued to fascinate non-biologists long after the scientific community had abandoned it.[7] The large-scale primrose variations turned out to be the result of various chromosomal abnormalities, including ring chromosomes, balanced lethals and chromosome duplications (polyploidy), while the term mutation now generally is restricted to discrete changes in the DNA sequence. However, the popular understanding of "mutation" as a sudden leap to a new species has remained a staple theme of science fiction, e.g. the X-Men movies (and the comic books that preceded them).[8] Finally, in a published lecture of 1903 (Befruchtung und Bastardierung, Veit, Leipzig), De Vries was also the first to suggest the occurrence of recombinations between homologous chromosomes, now known as chromosomal crossovers, within a year after chromosomes were implicated in Mendelian inheritance by Walter Sutton.[9] Honors and retirementEdit Hugo de Vries at his retirement (Thérèse Schwartze, 1918) In 1878 De Vries became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10] In May 1905, De Vries was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society. In 1910, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Darwin Medal in 1906 and the Linnean Medal in 1929. He retired in 1918 from the University of Amsterdam and withdrew to his estate "De Boeckhorst" in Lunteren where he had large experimental gardens. He continued his studies with new forms until his death in 1935. BooksEdit His best known works are: Intracellular Pangenesis (1889) The Mutation Theory German edition Bd. 1-2 (1901–03), English edition Volume 2 (1909–10) Retrieved 2009-08-20 Species and Varieties: Their Origin by Mutation (1905) Plant Breeding (1907), German translation (1908) The standard author abbreviation de Vries is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[11] ^ Hall, A. D. (1935). "Hugo de Vries. 1848-1935". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1 (4): 371–373. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1935.0002. ^ Ralph E. Cleland (1936). "Hugo de Vries". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 76 (2): 248–250. JSTOR 984672. ^ Nanne van der Zijpp, "De Vries." Mennonite Encyclopedia, Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1955-59: vol. IV, p. 862-863. ^ "ESP Digital Books: Intracellular Pangenesis". ^ Stamhuis, I. H.; Meijer, O. G.; Zevenhuizen, E. J. (1999). "Hugo de Vries on heredity, 1889-1903. Statistics, Mendelian laws, pangenes, mutations". Isis; an International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences. 90 (2): 238–267. doi:10.1086/384323. PMID 10439561. ^ de Vries, Hugo. Die mutationstheorie. Versuche und beobachtungen über die entstehung von arten im pflanzenreich, Leipzig,Veit & comp.,1901-03. ^ Endersby, Jim (September 2013). "Mutant Utopias: Evening Primroses and Imagined Futures in Early Twentieth-Century America" (PDF). Isis. 104 (3): 471–503. doi:10.1086/673270. PMID 24341261. ^ Stableford, Brian M.; Langford, David (2018-08-12). "Mutants". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 2018-09-08. ^ Crow, E. W.; Crow, J. F. (2002). "100 years ago: Walter Sutton and the chromosome theory of heredity". Genetics. 160 (1): 1–4. PMC 1461948. PMID 11805039. ^ Blakeslee, Albert F.; Conklin, E. G. (1935). "Hugo de Vries (1848 - 1935)". Science. 81 (2111): 581–584. Bibcode:1935Sci....81..581B. doi:10.1126/science.81.2111.581. Retrieved 20 July 2015. ^ IPNI. de Vries. Everdell, William R. "Hugo de Vries and Max Planck: The Gene and the Quantum," in The First Moderns, Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth Century Thought (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 159-176. "Hugo de Vries; commemoration". Revue médicale de Liège. 5 (23): 816. 1950. PMID 14809033. Andrews, F. M. (1930). "Hugo de Vries". Plant Physiology. 5 (1): 174.172–180. doi:10.1104/pp.5.1.175. PMC 440205. PMID 16652643. Bowler, P. J. (1978). "Hugo De Vries and Thomas Hunt Morgan: The mutation theory and the spirit of Darwinism". Annals of Science. 35 (1): 53–73. doi:10.1080/00033797800200141. PMID 11615685. Darden, L. (1976). "Reasoning in scientific change: Charles Darwin, Hugo de Vries, and the discovery of segregation". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 7 (2): 127–169. doi:10.1016/0039-3681(76)90014-5. PMID 11615593. Endersby, Jim (September 2013), "Mutant Utopias: Evening Primroses and Imagined Futures in Early Twentieth-Century America" (PDF), Isis, 104 (3): 471–503, doi:10.1086/673270, PMID 24341261 Guignard, J. L. (2005). "About Hugo De Vries' letter written to Léon Guignard dated November 12, 1899, complimenting him for the discovery of double fertilization". Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie. 53 (345): 85–93. doi:10.3406/pharm.2005.5762. PMID 16021760. Lenay, C. (2000). "Hugo De Vries: From the theory of intracellular pangenesis to the rediscovery of Mendel". Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série III. 323 (12): 1053–1060. Bibcode:2000CRASG.323.1053L. doi:10.1016/s0764-4469(00)01250-6. PMID 11147091. Van Der Pas, P. W. (1970). "The correspondence of Hugo de Vries and Charles Darwin". Janus. 57: 173–213. PMID 11609703. Stamhuis, I. H. (2007). "Discovery of the correspondence of Hugo de Vries with his friend and colleague Jan Willem Moll". The Mendel Newsletter; Archival Resources for the History of Genetics & Allied Sciences (16): 7–12. PMID 19069204. Theunissen, B. (1993). "Nature study and happiness in life: Hugo de Vries, Eli Heimans and Jac. P. Thijsse". Gewina. 16 (4): 287–307. PMID 11630205. Theunissen, B. (1994). "Closing the door on Hugo de Vries' Mendelism". Annals of Science. 51 (3): 225–248. doi:10.1080/00033799400200231. PMID 11639916. Theunissen, B. (1994). "Knowledge is power: Hugo de Vries on science, heredity and social progress". British Journal for the History of Science. 27 (94 Pt 3): 291–311. doi:10.1017/s0007087400032192. PMID 11639948. Vaughan, T. W. (1906). "The Work of Hugo De Vries and Its Importance in the Study of Problems of Evolution". Science. 23 (592): 681–691. Bibcode:1906Sci....23..681W. doi:10.1126/science.23.592.681. PMID 17754450. Zevenhuizen, Erik (1998) - 'Hugo de Vries : life and work.' In: Acta Botanica Neerlandica 47(4), December 1998, p. 409-417. online available via “natuurtijdschriften.nl”. Wikiquote has quotations related to: Hugo de Vries Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hugo de Vries. Wikisource has original works written by or about: Biography (in Dutch) Ridley, Matt, The Agile Gene, 2003, ISBN 0-06-000679-X, pp 231–2. History of Horticulture Works by Hugo de Vries at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Hugo de Vries at Internet Archive Works by Hugo de Vries at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Hugo de Vries available online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Biographical sketch of Hugo de Vries with a picture Article relating the work of Gregor Mendel Concerning the Law of Segregation of Hybrids Pangenes Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugo_de_Vries&oldid=905060098"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line697
__label__wiki	0.893288	0.893288	John Seymour (1474–1536) Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall in the parish of Great Bedwyn in the Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, Knight banneret (c. 1474[1][2] – 21 December 1536[3]) was an English soldier and a courtier who served both Henry VII and Henry VIII. Born into a prominent gentry family, he is best known as the father of the Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, and hence grandfather of king Edward VI of England.[4] Sir John Seymour Arms of Seymour: Gules, two wings conjoined in lure or 21 December 1536(1536-12-21) (aged 61–62) Church of St Mary, Great Bedwyn 51°22′37″N 1°36′09″W / 51.3769°N 1.6026°W / 51.3769; -1.6026 English courtier Father of Jane Seymour, Queen consort of Henry VIII of England Margery Wentworth Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset Sir Henry Seymour Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley Anthony Seymour Jane, Queen of England Margery Seymour Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell Dorothy Seymour Elizabeth Darrell Wolfhall Farm, all that remains of Wulfhall Hall, home of the Seymours FamilyEdit The Seymours were descendants of an Anglo-Norman family that took its name from St. Maur-sur-Loire in Touraine. William de St. Maur in 1240 held the manors of Penhow and Woundy (now called Undy in Monmouthshire). William's great-grandson, Sir Roger de St. Maur, had two sons: John, whose granddaughter conveyed these manors by marriage into the family of Bowlay of Penhow, who bore the Seymour arms; and Sir Roger (c.1308 – Before 1366), who married Cicely, eldest sister and heir of John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp. Cicely brought to the Seymours the manor of Hache, Somerset, and her grandson, Roger Seymour, by his marriage with Maud, daughter and heir of Sir William Esturmy, acquired Wulfhall (or Wolf Hall) in Wiltshire.[5] Sir John Seymour, was a great-great-grandson of this Roger Seymour.[4] Sir John Seymour, was born around 1474,[1][2] the eldest son of John Seymour (c. 1450 – 26 October 1491) of Wulfhall, Wiltshire, by his marriage to Elizabeth Darell (or Darrell) (born c. 1451). He married Margery, the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk, and his wife Anne Say.[4] Anne was the daughter of Sir John Say and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence Cheney (or Cheyne) (c.1396–1461) and Elizabeth Cokayne.[4] Margery Wentworth's grandfather, Sir Philip Wentworth, had married Mary, daughter of John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford, whose mother Elizabeth was daughter of Henry Percy (Hotspur) and great-great-granddaughter of Edward III.[6] Margery was renowned for her beauty as well as her quiet and gentle demeanour, and she came to the attention of the poet, John Skelton.[7] More recently an ascendant of Actor Danny Dyer [8] He succeeded his father in 1492 and was knighted in the field by Henry VII for his services against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath on 17 June 1497.[9] He was made Knight banneret in 1513.[4] He was present at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournay in 1513 as well as the two meetings between Henry VIII and Francis I:– the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 and again in 1532. [10] Offices heldEdit His offices included:[10] Warden, Savernake Forest, Wiltshire October 1491 Sheriff, Wiltshire 1498–1499, 1507–1508, 1518–19, 1524 – January 1526 Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset 1515–1516, 1526–1527 Justice of the peace Wiltshire 1499–1536 Steward, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham's lands, Wiltshire by 1503 Knight of the body by 1509 Constable and door-ward, Bristol Castle, Gloucestershire August 1509, jointly. (with son Edward) July 1517 Under captain, Dragon of Greenwich 1512 Commissioner subsidy, Wiltshire 1512, 1514, 1515, Wiltsshire and Salisbury 1523 Commissioner musters, Wiltshire 1513 Commissioner loan 1524 Steward, manor of Kingston Lisle, Berkshire before 1513 Forester, Grovely, Wiltshire February 1526 Groom of the Bedchamber 1532 Marriage and IssueEdit Monumental brass of John Seymour (died 15 July 1510), eldest son of Sir John Seymour (d.1536) of Wulfhall. Great Bedwyn Church Sir John Seymour (1474–21 December 1536),[3][2] of Wulfhall, Savernake, Wiltshire, married Margery Wentworth (c.1478–18 October 1550) on 22 October 1494.[11] The couple had ten children: [11][12] John Seymour (died 15 July 1510),[13][14] eldest son and heir apparent who predeceased his father without progeny. His monumental brass survives set into the floor of Great Bedwyn Church, inscribed as follows:[15] "Here lyeth the body of John Seymour sonne and here of Sr John Seymour, Knight, & of Margery oon of the daughters of Sr Henry Wentworth, Knight, which decessed ye xv day of July the yer of or Lord MVCX on whos soule Jh(es)u have m(er)cy & of yor charitie say a Pater Nost(er) & a Ave (Maria)" Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of Edward VI (c. 1500[16]/1506[4] – 22 January 1552)[17] married firstly Catherine, daughter of Sir William Filliol[4] and secondly Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope.[4] Sir Henry Seymour (1503–1578) married Barbara, daughter of Morgan Wolfe[18] Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (c. 1508 – 20 March 1549) married Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII[19][20] John Seymour (died young)[21] Anthony Seymour (died c. 1528)[13] Jane Seymour, queen Consort of Henry VIII (c. 1509 – 24 October 1537)[22][11] Margery Seymour (died c. 1528)[13] Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell (c. 1518[23] – 19 March 1568[24]) Dorothy Seymour (c. 1519– )[21] married firstly, Sir Clement Smith (c. 1515 – 26 August 1552), MP, of Little Baddow, Essex[14][25] and secondly, Thomas Leventhorpe of Shingle Hall,[26] Hertfordshire.[21][27] Of the ten children born at Wulfhall, six survived:– three sons: Edward, Henry and Thomas, and three daughters: Jane, Dorothy and Elizabeth. Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth were courtiers. Edward and Thomas, would both be executed during the reign of Edward VI. Henry Seymour, who lacked his brothers' ambition, lived away from court, in relative obscurity.[18] He also had an illegitimate son:[28][29][30] Sir John Seymour (c. 1530 – before August 1599[28]), married in March 1568 Jane or Joan Poyntz, daughter of Sir Nicholas Poyntz and Joan Berkeley.[28][31] Notable childrenEdit Four of the Seymour children achieved prominence at the royal court:– Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth. Jane Seymour, the eldest surviving daughter, was a maid of honour of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and then later of Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII stayed at Wulfhall with Queen Anne in the summer of 1535 for a few days.[32] In early 1536, Henry declared his love for Jane and began spending increasing amounts of time with her, chaperoned by her brother, Edward. Henry and Jane were officially betrothed the day after Anne Boleyn was arrested and executed on charges of treason, adultery and incest. After Jane became queen on 30 May 1536, her family scaled the social ranks, as was befitting the family of a royal consort. Her eldest brother, Edward, was made an earl and eventually a duke and briefly ruled England on behalf of his nephew, King Edward VI. Her second brother, Thomas, was made a baron and Lord High Admiral, and in 1547 eloped with Henry VIII's widow, Queen Catherine Parr. Both Edward and Thomas were beheaded for treason, a few years apart. Seymour's second daughter, Elizabeth, was first married to Sir Anthony Ughtred (c.1478 – 1534), secondly to Gregory Cromwell (c.1520 – 1551), son of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, and for a third time to John Paulet, Baron St John (c.1510 – 1576), who succeeded his father as Marquess of Winchester in 1572. Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, later 1st Duke of Somerset & Lord Protector Jane Seymour, Queen of England, Hans Holbein the Younger Portrait of a Lady, possibly Elizabeth Seymour[23] Death and burialEdit Church of St Mary The Virgin, Great Bedwyn Seymour died on 21 December 1536.[10] By royal custom, his daughter Queen Jane did not attend the funeral.[3] He was first buried in the church of Easton Priory, but following the collapse of that building was reburied in 1590 by his grandson, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, in the church of Great Bedwyn,[33][34] the parish church of Wulfhall, where survives his monument.[35][36] His eldest son and heir, Edward Seymour, inherited lands to the annual value of £275.[10] Monument, Great BedwynEdit His Monument in Great Bedwyn Church consists of a chest tomb displaying heraldic escutcheons, surmounted by his recumbent effigy, fully dressed in armour with hands in prayer, his head resting on his helm from which projects the sculpted Seymour crest of a pair of wings. His feet rest on a lion and a sword lies by his side.[37] On the wall above is fixed a tablet inscribed as follows:[38] "Here lyeth intombed the worthie Sr John Seymour of Wolfhall, Knight, who by Margerie his wyfe, daughter of Sr Henry Wentworthe, Knight, from whome the nowe Lorde Wentworthe is discended, had sixe sonnes and fower daughters, to wete, John who dyed unmaryed; Edwarde, Duke of Somerset, Earl of Hertforde, Vicount Beauchampe and Baron Seymour, uncle to Kinge Edwarde the Sixt, Governor of his Royall Person, Protector of all his Dominions and Subjects, Lorde Treasorer and Earle Marshall of Englande; w(i)ch Duke maryed Anne, daughter of Sr Edwarde Stanhope, Knight, by Elizabeth his wyfe, daughter of Sr Foulke Burgchier, Lorde Filzwaryn, (sic) from whome the moderne Earles of Bathe are discended; Sr Henry Seymour, Knight, who maried Barbara daughter of Thomas Morgan, Esquier; Thomas Lorde Seymour of Sudeley, Highe Admirall of Englande, who maryed Katherine, Queene of Englande, and wydow to Kinge Henry the Eight. One other Jhon, and Anthony, who dyed in theire infancy. Jane Qveene of Englande, wyfe to Kynge Henry the Eight, and mother to Kynge Edwarde the Sixt; Elizabeth, firste maryed to Sr Henry Ughtred,(sic) Knight, after to Gregorie, Lorde Cromwell, and last to Jhon Lorde Sainct John of Basinge,(sic) after Marquesse of Winchester; Margery, who dyed in her infancy, and Dorothe, maryed to Sr Clement Smythe, Knight. This Knight departed this lyfe at LX yeares of age, the XXI day of December, Anno 1536, and was firste buryed at Eston Priorie Churche amongst divers of his auncestors, bothe Seymours and Sturmyes. Howbeit that Churche beinge ruyned, and thereby all theire monumentes either whollie spoyled, or verie much defased duringe the mynoritie of Edwarde, Earle of Hertforde, sonne to the said Duke, the said Earle after, as well for the dutyfull love he beareth to his said grandefather, as for the better contynuans of his memory, did cause his bodie to be removed, and here to be intombed at his own coste and chardge, the laste daye of September, Anno 1590, in the XXXII yeare of the moste happye raigne of our gratious Soveraigne Ladie Queene Elizabeth." A transcript was made of the inscriptions of the Seymour monuments by the topographer John Aubrey on his visit to the church in 1672, who also recorded the heraldry on the monument at that date, much of which has been lost.[39] ^ a b Norton 2009, p. 7. ^ a b c Aubrey 1862, p. 375–376:John Seymour's monument gives his age as 60 which points to a birth year of 1476. "This Knight departed this Lyfe at LX years of age, the XXI day of December, Anno 1536 ..." ^ a b c Norton 2009, p. 125–126. ^ a b c d e f g h Pollard 1897, pp. 299–310. ^ Roskell & Knightly 1993. ^ Seymour 1972, p. 18. ^ Norton 2009, pp. 9–10. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052k2jt ^ Loades 2013, p. 20. ^ a b c d Davids 1982. ^ a b c Norton 2009, p. 11. ^ Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry III 2011, p. 111. ^ a b Aubrey 1862, p. 377. ^ Frederic Madden, Bulkeley Bandinel, John Gough Nichols, (Eds.), Collectanea Topographica Et Genealogica, Vol.5, pp.21–24 [1] ^ Beer 2009. ^ Pole 2008, p. 481. ^ a b Hawkyard 1982b. ^ Hawkyard 1982c. ^ a b c Burke III 1836, p. 201. ^ Wagner & Schmid 2012, p. 1000. ^ a b Strong 1967, pp. 278–281: "The portrait should by rights depict a lady of the Cromwell family aged 21 c.1535–40..." ^ College of Arms 2012, p. 63. ^ Machyn 1848, p. 24, 326. ^ Shingle Hall is also listed as Shingey, Shingley and Shinglehall in various sources. ^ Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry III 2011, p. 82. ^ a b c MacLean 1887, p. 152, Will proved 4 August 1599 ^ Chitty 1885, p. 129. ^ Burke 1965, p. 581. ^ Lauder 2002, p. 138. ^ Aubrey 1862, p. 374–375. ^ Sherlock 2008, p. 34, 36. ^ "Great Bedwyn - British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 January 2019. ^ For description of monument and transcript of inscription see: Collectanea Topographica Et Genealogica, Volume 5 edited by Frederic Madden, Bulkeley Bandinel, John Gough Nichols, pp.21–24 [2]. For images see: [3][4] ^ Stuff, Good. "Church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Retrieved 12 January 2019. ^ Text from: Frederic Madden, Bulkeley Bandinel, John Gough Nichols, (Eds.), Collectanea Topographica Et Genealogica, Vol.5, pp.21–24, corrected from observation of photograph [5] ^ Aubrey,John, An Essay Towards the Description of the North Division of Wiltshire, 1672, (ed. Sir T. Phillipps), 1838 Edition, pp.72–4 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Pollard, Albert Frederick (1897). "Seymour, Edward". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 299–310. Aubrey, John; Jackson, John Edward (1862). Wiltshire: The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, F. R. S., A. D. 1659–70, With Illustrations. Corrected and enlarged by John Edward Jackson. London: Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. Beer, Barrett L. (2004). "Jane [née Jane Seymour] (1508/9–1537)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14647. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Beer, Barrett L. (January 2009) [First published 2004]. "Seymour, Edward, duke of Somerset (c.1500–1552)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25159. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Bernard, G. W. (May 2011) [First published 2004]. "Seymour, Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley (b. in or before 1509, d. 1549)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25181. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Bindoff, S. T. (1982). "Cromwell, Thomas (by 1485–1540), of London". In Bindoff, S. T. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509–1558. 1: Appendices, constituencies, members A–C. London: Published for the History of Parliament Trust by Secker & Warburg. ISBN 978-0436042829. Burke, Bernard (1965). Townend, Peter (ed.). Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry. Edited by Peter Townend (18th ed.). London: Burke's Peerage. ASIN B0006BNKM8. Burke, John (1836). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Enjoying Territorial Possessions or High Official Rank; But Invested With Heritable Honours. III. London: Published for Henry Colburn by R. Bentley. Carthew, G. A. (1878). The Hundred of Launditch and Deanery of Brisley; in the County of Norfolk; Evidences and Topographical Notes from public records, Heralds' Visitations, Wills, Court Rolls, Old Charters, Parish Registers, Town books, and Other Private Sources; Digested and Arranged as Materials for Parochial, Manorial, and Family History. II. Collected by G.A. Carthew. Norwich: Printed by Miller and Leavins. Chitty, Henry; Phillipot, John (1885). MacLean, John; Heane, W. C. (eds.). The Visitation of the County of Gloucester, Taken in 1623, by Henry Chitty and John Phillipot as Deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, With Pedigrees from the Heralds' Visitations of 1569 and 1582–3, and Sundry Miscellaneous Pedigrees. Publications of the Harleian Society. XXI. Edited by Sir John MacLean, F.S.A., etc., and W. C. Heane, M.R.C.S., etc. London: Harleian Society. Cokayne, G. E. (1913). Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H. Arthur (eds.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. III. London: St. Catherine Press. Cokayne, G. E. (2000). Gibbs, Vicary; Doubleday, H. A.; White, Geoffrey H.; Warrand, Duncan; Lord Howard de Walden (eds.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. III (new ed.). Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing. pp. 555, 557–558. Cokayne, G. E. (1916). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. IV. London: St. Catherine Press. Cokayne, G. E. (1898). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. VIII. Exeter: William Pollard. Colby, Frederic Thomas, ed. (1872). The Visitation of the County of Devon in the Year 1620. Publications of the Harleian Society. VI. Edited by Frederic Thomas Colby. London: Printed by Taylor and Co. College of Arms (1829) [Printed by S. and R. Bentley, London, 1829]. Catalogue of the Arundel Manuscripts in the Library of the College of Arms. [By William Henry Black. With a preface signed C. G. Y., i.e. Sir Charles George Young]. Rarebooksclub.com (published 20 May 2012). ISBN 9781236284259. Dasent, John Roche, ed. (1892) [First published HMSO:1892]. Acts of the Privy Council of England. New Series. IV: 1552–1554. British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2014. Davids, R. L. (1982). "Seymour, Sir John (1473/74–1536), of Wolf Hall, Wilts.". In Bindoff, S. T. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Faris, David (1999). Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists: The Descent from the Later Plantagenet Kings of England, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III, of Emigrants from England and Wales to the North American Colonies Before 1701 (2nd ed.). Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. ISBN 978-0880821070. Flower, William (1881). Norcliffe, Charles Best (ed.). The Visitation of Yorkshire in the Years 1563 and 1564, Made by William Flower, Esquire, Norroy king of Arms. Publications of the Harleian Society. XVI. Edited by Charles Best Norcliffe. London: Mitchell and Hughes, Printers. Fuidge, N. M. (1981). "Ughtred, Henry (by 1534–aft. Oct. 1598), of Southampton and Ireland". In Hasler, P. W. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558–1603. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 19 April 2014. Hawkyard, A. D. K. (1982). "Cromwell, Gregory (by 1516–51), of Lewes, Suss.; Leeds Castle, Kent and Launde, Leics.". In Bindoff, S. T. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 19 April 2014. Hawkyard, A. D. K. (1982). "Seymour, Sir Henry (by 1503–78), of Marwell, Hants.". In Bindoff, S. T. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 10 March 2014. Hawkyard, A. D. K. (1982). "Seymour, Sir Thomas II (by 1509–49), of Bromham, Wilts., Seymour Place, London and Sudeley Castle, Glos.". In Bindoff, S. T. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 10 March 2014. "Journal of the House of Lords". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2014. Lauder, Rosemary (2002). Devon Families. Tiverton: Halsgrove. ISBN 978-1-84114-140-4. Leithead, Howard (2008) [First published 2004]. "Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex (b. in or before 1485, d. 1540)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6769. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2014. Loades, David (2013). Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's Favourite Wife (hardback). Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 9781445611570. Machyn, Henry (1848). Nichols, John Gough (ed.). The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant–Taylor of London, from A. D. 1550 to A. D. 1563. [Camden Society. Publications]. XLII. Edited by John Gough Nichols. London: Printed for the Camden Society by J. B. Nichols and Son. MacLean, John (1887). "Manor of Tockington and the Roman Villa". In Maclean, John (ed.). Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, For 1887–88. XII. Edited by Sir John MacLean, F.S.A., &c. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. pp. 123–169. MacMahon, Luke (2004). "Ughtred, Sir Anthony (d. 1534)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27979. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) N. M. S. (1981). "Cromwell, Thomas (c.1540–c.1611), of king's Lynn, Norf.". In Hasler, P. W. (ed.). Members. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 4 March 2014. Noble, Mark (1784). Memoirs of Several Persons and Families Who, by Females are Allied to, or Descended from the Protectorate–House of Cromwell. Birmingham: Pearson and Rollason. Norris, Herbert (1998). Tudor Costume and Fashion. With a new introduction written by Richard Martin (new ed.). New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486298450. Norton, Elizabeth (2009). Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love (hardback). Chalford: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781848681026. Pole, Reginald; Mayer, Thomas F.; Walters, Courtney B. (2008). A Biographical Companion: The British Isles (hardback). The Correspondence of Reginald Pole. 4. By Thomas F. Mayer and Courtney B. Walters. St Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754603290. Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. III (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-1461045205. Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. III (2nd ed.). CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1461045137. Roskell, J. S.; Knightly, Charles (1993). "Sturmy (Esturmy), Sir William (c.1356–1427), of Wolf Hall in Great Bedwyn, Wilts. and Elvetham, Hants.". In Roskell, J. S.; Clark, C. Rawcliffe (eds.). Members. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386–1421. Historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 11 March 2014. Russell, Gareth (14 May 2010). "May 14th, 1536: Mistress Seymour's New Lodgings". Confessions of a Ci-Devant. Garethrussellcidevant.blogspot.com.au. Retrieved 3 April 2014. Schofield, John (2011). The Rise & Fall of Thomas Cromwell: Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5866-3. Seymour, William (1972). Ordeal by Ambition: An English Family in the Shadow of the Tudors. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0283978661. Sherlock, Peter (2008). Monuments and Memory in Early Modern England. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6093-4. Starkey, David (2004). Six Wives: The queens of Henry VIII. London: Vintage. ISBN 9780099437246. Strong, Roy (May 1967). "Holbein in England – I and II". The Burlington Magazine. 109 (770): 276–281. JSTOR 875299. Strype, John (1822). Ecclesiastical Memorials. II. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Syvret, George S.; Carteret, Samuel de (1832). Chroniques des Iles de Jersey, Guernesey, Auregny et Serk (in French). Auquel on a ajouté un Abrégé Historique des dites Iles par Samuel de Carteret. Guernesey: de l'imprimerie de Thomas James Mauger. Thornton, Tim (2012). The Channel Islands, 1370–1640: Between England and Normandy. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-711-4. Wagner, John A.; Schmid, Susan Walters (2012). Encyclopedia of Tudor England (hardback). 3. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598842982. Wilson, Derek (2006). Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man (revised ed.). London: Pimlico. ISBN 9781844139187. Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Mary the Virgin's church, Great Bedwyn. Seymour, Sir John (1473/74-1536), of Wolf Hall, Wilts. A biography Seymour Family A pedigree of the Seymour family John Seymour at Find a Grave Church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Bedwyn British Listed Buildings Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Seymour_(1474–1536)&oldid=887273904"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line698
__label__cc	0.630891	0.369109	Mount Oku rat (Redirected from Lamottemys) The Mount Oku rat (Lamottemys okuensis) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. The genus Lamottemys is monotypic, and this is the only species. It is found only in Cameroon where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat destruction. Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1] Order: Rodentia Family: Muridae Genus: Lamottemys Petter, 1986 L. okuensis Lamottemys okuensis Petter, 1986[2] The Mount Oku rat is a medium-sized species growing to a head-and-body length of about 126 mm (5 in). The dorsal fur is glossy and soft, dark brownish-black tinged with russet, with no stripe along the spine. The individual hairs are dark grey, banded with ochre and with black tips, and there are numerous longer, black guard hairs. The underparts are yellowish-grey, the hairs having grey bases and yellowish tips. The limbs are yellowish-brown, with four digits on the front feet and five digits on the hind. The tail is about the same length as the body, and is covered with scales and small black bristles.[3] This rat is endemic to Cameroon in West Africa where it is only known from the forested slopes of Mount Oku at altitudes of between 2,100 and 3,000 m (6,890 and 9,843 ft) in areas with thorn-bushes, dense undergrowth and rough vegetation.[3] It is unclear whether it can adapt to secondary growth forest.[1] EcologyEdit This species is probably herbivorous and terrestrial, based on its body proportions. One female captured in the dry season (January) contained a single developing embryo, so litter sizes may be low. Genets and mongooses are likely to be predators of this rat, and it is also hunted for food by local villagers.[3] StatusEdit This rat has a limited range, its total area of occupancy being about 500 km2 (193 sq mi), with all the population being located on the forested slopes of Mount Oku. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being "endangered," based on the continuing degradation of the forest, parts of which are being cleared for agricultural purposes.[1] Wikispecies has information related to Mount Oku rat ^ a b c Kennerley, R. (2016). "Mount Oku Rat: Lamottemys okuensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2018.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 May 2019. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link) ^ Musser, G.G.; Carleton, M.D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1339. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. ^ a b c Kingdon, Jonathan; Happold, David; Butynski, Thomas; Hoffmann, Michael; Happold, Meredith; Kalina, Jan (2013). Mammals of Africa. A&C Black. p. 439–441. ISBN 978-1-4081-8996-2. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mount_Oku_rat&oldid=905723427"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line699
__label__wiki	0.775946	0.775946	Martin Lamble Martin Francis Lamble (28 August 1949 – 12 May 1969) was the drummer for British folk rock band, Fairport Convention, from just after their formation in 1967, until his death in the band's van crash in 1969. He joined the band after attending their first gig and convincing them that he could do a better job than their current drummer, Shaun Frater. Martin Francis Lamble (1949-08-28)28 August 1949 St John's Wood, London, England M1 motorway, near Scratchwood Services, Watford, England Island Records, Polydor The eldest of three brothers, Martin was educated at Priestmead primary school, Kenton, and later at University College School, Hampstead. He played on the band's first three albums, but shortly after recording Unhalfbricking on 12 May 1969,[1] Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway, near Scratchwood Services, on the way home from a gig at Mothers. Lamble was killed outright in this accident at the age of 19.[1][2] He also played on Al Stewart's album Love Chronicles, released in September 1969. ^ a b Rob Young, Fairport Convention and Electric Folk: Faber Forty-Fives: 1967–1970. Retrieved 24 September 2015 ^ "This Day in Music Spotlight: The Highway Wreck that Killed Fairport Convention's Drummer". Gibson.com. 25 May 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2015. Fairport Convention official website Martin Lamble discography at Discogs This article on a British drummer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Martin_Lamble&oldid=814540445" Last edited on 9 December 2017, at 12:08	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line700
__label__wiki	0.752948	0.752948	For the former minor league baseball team, see New Orleans Pelicans (baseball). The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays their home games in the Smoothie King Center. 2019–20 New Orleans Pelicans season 2002–2005; 2007–2013 New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets 2013–present[1][2][3] Smoothie King Center Navy blue, gold, red[4][5][6] Zatarain's[7] Dennis Lauscha Trajan Langdon Alvin Gentry Gayle Benson[8][9] Erie BayHawks Division titles www.nba.com/pelicans The Pelicans were established as the New Orleans Hornets in the 2002–03 season when then-owner of the Charlotte Hornets, George Shinn, relocated the franchise to New Orleans. Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the franchise temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City, where they spent two seasons officially known as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. The team returned to New Orleans full-time for the 2007–08 season. On January 24, 2013, the franchise announced it would rename itself the Pelicans,[10] effective after the conclusion of the 2012–13 season. The Charlotte Hornets' name, history, and records from 1988 to 2002 were returned to its original city to be used by the then–Charlotte Bobcats franchise, which subsequently became the Charlotte Hornets, starting May 20, 2014.[1] In 16 seasons of play since the original franchise relocated from North Carolina, the Louisiana franchise has achieved an overall regular season record of 610–686, and has qualified for the playoffs seven times. Their achievements include two playoff series victories and one division title. Franchise historyEdit Main article: History of the New Orleans Pelicans Relocation to New OrleansEdit Smoothie King Center, home arena of the New Orleans Pelicans While the Charlotte Hornets put a competitive team on the court throughout the 1990s, the team's attendance began falling dramatically. Many attributed this lapse in popularity to the team's owner, George Shinn, who was slowly becoming despised by the people of the city.[11] In 1997, a Charlotte woman claimed that Shinn had raped her, and the resulting trial severely tarnished his reputation in the city. The consensus was that while Charlotte was as basketball city, fans took out their anger at Shinn on the team. Shinn had also become discontented with the Charlotte Coliseum, which had been considered state-of-the-art when it opened but had since been considered obsolete due to a limited number of luxury boxes. On March 26, 2001, both the Hornets and the Vancouver Grizzlies applied for relocation to Memphis, Tennessee,[12] which was ultimately won by the Grizzlies. Shinn then issued an ultimatum that unless the city built a new arena at no cost to him, the Hornets would leave town. The city initially refused, leading Shinn to consider moving the team to either Norfolk, Louisville, or St. Louis. Of the cities in the running, only St. Louis had an NBA-ready arena, the Savvis Center, already in place and was a larger media market than Charlotte at the time; also, it was the only one of the four to have previously hosted an NBA franchise — the St. Louis Hawks, who moved to Atlanta in 1968. Finally, a new arena in Uptown, which would eventually become the Spectrum Center, was included in a non-binding referendum for a larger arts-related package, and Shinn withdrew his application to move the team. Polls showed the referendum on its way to passage. However, just days before the referendum, Mayor Pat McCrory vetoed a living wage ordinance. The veto prompted many of the city's black ministers to oppose the referendum; they felt it was immoral for the city to build a new arena when city employees were not paid enough to make a living.[13] After the referendum failed, city leaders devised a plan to build a new arena in a way that did not require voter support, but made it known that they would not even consider building it unless Shinn sold the team. While even the NBA acknowledged that Shinn had alienated fans, league officials felt such a demand would anger other owners.[14] The city council refused to remove the statement, leading the Hornets to request a move to New Orleans – a move which would eventually return the NBA to that city since the Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. Before the Hornets were eliminated from the playoffs, the NBA approved the move. As part of a deal, the NBA promised that Charlotte would get a new team, which took the court two years later as the Charlotte Bobcats. In a 2008 interview with the Charlotte Observer, Shinn, who has not returned to Charlotte since the Hornets moved, admitted that the "bad judgment I made in my life" played a role in the Hornets' departure. He also said that if he had it to do all over again, he would not have withdrawn from the public after the sexual assault trial. Shinn emphasized how he was making amends by committing to New Orleans saying, "I've made enough mistakes in my life. I'm not going to make one here. This city needs us here. We're going to make this (New Orleans) thing work."[15] 2002–2005: Early years in New OrleansEdit The Hornets opened their inaugural season in New Orleans on October 30, 2002, against New Orleans' original NBA franchise, the Utah Jazz. In the first regular season NBA game played in New Orleans in over 17 years,[16] the Hornets defeated the Jazz 100–75, and posthumously retired #7 of "Pistol" Pete Maravich during halftime. The Hornets finished the season with a 47–35 record but were defeated by the Philadelphia 76ers in the First Round of the 2003 playoffs. Following the season, the team unexpectedly fired head coach Paul Silas and replaced him with Tim Floyd. The Hornets began the 2003–04 season strong with a 17–7 start but sputtered at the end and finished 41–41. They lost to the Miami Heat in the First Round of the 2004 playoffs. After the season, Floyd was fired and the team hired Byron Scott as its new head coach. During the first two seasons in New Orleans the Hornets competed in the NBA's Eastern Conference. The 2004–05 season saw the team move to the Western Conference's Southwest Division to even the number of teams in each conference after the Charlotte Bobcats started play in their inaugural season of that same year. In a season marred by injury to the team's three all-stars, the team finished the year with a franchise-worst record of 18–64. 2005–2011: Chris Paul eraEdit Chris Paul, selected by the Hornets as the fourth pick of the 2005 NBA draft In the subsequent draft, the Hornets used their first-round pick to select point guard Chris Paul out of Wake Forest University. Because of the catastrophic devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina upon the communities of southeastern Louisiana, the Hornets franchise temporarily relocated its base of operations to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 2005–06 and 2006–07, posting records of 38–44 and 39–43 respectively.[17] During this time, the franchise was known as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. In these two seasons, most home games were played at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, while a few remained at New Orleans Arena. One year after the Hornets moved back to New Orleans permanently, the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Hornets franchise returned to New Orleans full-time for the 2007–08 season, with all 41 home games in the New Orleans Arena. The 2008 NBA All-Star Game and its accompanying festivities were awarded to New Orleans and a serious marketing campaign was commenced in February 2007. Healthier than previous seasons, the Hornets opened the season with a 29–12 record at the halfway mark, completing the regular season with a record of 56–26, making the season their most successful ever. The Hornets also won their first division title, winning the Southwest Division. Having clinched the second overall seed for the Western Conference in the 2008 playoffs, the Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, but then lost to the defending-champion San Antonio Spurs in seven games in the conference semifinals. In August 2008, the Hornets unveiled a modified logo and new uniforms with the colors of Creole blue, purple, and Mardi Gras gold. Pinstripes were also added to the uniforms. The Hornets also introduced a new gold alternate uniform in 2010 which was used mostly in games played on Saturday at home and on the road. The Hornets finished the 2008–09 season with a 49–33 record. Facing the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2009 playoffs, the Hornets were eliminated in five games. The Hornets started the 2009–10 season with a 3–6 record and fired head coach Byron Scott. General manager Jeff Bower took over the head coaching duties for the remainder of the season. The Hornets finished the season with a 37–45 record and last in the Southwest Division they had won two seasons prior. Jeff Bower resigned as head coach and Monty Williams was brought in as new head coach. The team finished the 2010–11 season with a 46–36 record and qualified for the 2011 NBA Playoffs, where they lost to the Lakers four games to two. In December 2010, the NBA purchased the Hornets from George Shinn for an estimated $300 million.[18][19] 2011–2019: Anthony Davis eraEdit 2011–2013: Paul's departure; beginning the Anthony Davis eraEdit Before the 2011–12 season, the Hornets were considering trade offers for Chris Paul and he requested a trade to the New York Knicks. The Hornets looked at many teams, including the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors as trade partners, but Paul had made it clear he wanted to be traded to New York or Los Angeles. A three-team trade involving the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets was agreed upon, but commissioner David Stern vetoed the trade.[20] On December 14, 2011, the Hornets agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers that would send Paul to Los Angeles in exchange for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu, and a first-round draft pick acquired by the Clippers from a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2004. At the end of the 66-game lockout-shortened 2011–12 season, the Hornets had the worst record in the Western Conference with 21–45. On April 13, 2012, it was announced that Tom Benson, owner of the National Football League's New Orleans Saints, had purchased the franchise from the NBA for $338 million.[21][22] In addition, Benson announced that he would change the team name to something that would better suit the region, fueling rumors that the Hornets name could one day return to Charlotte, where the Charlotte Bobcats had been playing since 2004.[23][24] In June 2012, Benson appointed two senior Saints executives to supervise the Hornets: Saints' general manager Mickey Loomis became head of basketball operations, overseeing general manager Dell Demps, and Saints' business operations head Dennis Lauscha took on the same role with the Hornets.[25] The Hornets traded Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza to the Wizards for Rashard Lewis, whom they bought out, and a draft pick. On May 30, 2012, the Hornets were awarded the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft and subsequently drafted Anthony Davis. They also drafted Austin Rivers with the tenth pick (acquired from the Clippers as part of the Chris Paul trade). On July 11, 2012, Ryan Anderson, 2012's Most Improved Player and three-point field goals leader, was acquired by the New Orleans Hornets in a sign-and-trade with the Orlando Magic for Gustavo Ayón. 2013–2015Edit New owner Tom Benson had indicated early in his ownership that he wished to change the team's name to something more local, even preferring that the Utah Jazz – founded in New Orleans in 1974 and played there until 1979 – give up the "Jazz" name, but the Jazz indicated they had no interest in returning the name due to over 30 years of history associated with it. Benson had also heavily favored the names "Brass" and "Krewe". However, on December 4, 2012, it was reported that the Hornets would change their name to the New Orleans Pelicans beginning with the 2013–14 season.[26] The team name is inspired by Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican.[27] The name "Pelicans" previously had been used by a minor-league baseball team that played in New Orleans from 1901 to 1957.[28] The Hornets organization officially confirmed the name change in a press conference held on January 24, 2013, where officials unveiled the team's new logos and navy blue–gold–red color scheme.[10][29] On April 18, 2013, after the end of the team's 2012–13 season, the team's name was officially changed to the Pelicans.[30] Following the New Orleans franchise's 2013 disestablishment of the "Hornets" name, on May 21, 2013, the Charlotte Bobcats' owner Michael Jordan officially announced the organization had submitted an application to change the name of his franchise to the Charlotte Hornets for the 2014–15 season pending a majority vote for approval by the NBA Board of Governors at a meeting in Las Vegas, on July 18, 2013.[31] Then-NBA Deputy Commissioner and COO Adam Silver had previously pointed out that the league owns the rights to the name Hornets and that could speed up the process.[32] The NBA unanimously approved the name change starting with 2014–15.[33] On June 27, 2013, during the 2013 NBA draft, the Pelicans selected Nerlens Noel 6th overall, and traded him along with a 2014 protected first-round pick for All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday of the Philadelphia 76ers and the 42nd pick, Pierre Jackson.[34] At a May 20, 2014, press conference announcing the Charlotte Bobcats' official team name change to Hornets, it was also announced that the Pelicans agreed to transfer the records and statistics of the original Hornets (1988–2002) to the current Charlotte franchise, thus unifying all of Charlotte's NBA basketball history under one franchise; the team records and statistics since the 2002 move to New Orleans would be retained by the Pelicans, retroactively turning the Pelicans into a 2002 expansion team.[1] As a result, the Hornets are considered in the league records as having suspended operations from 2002 to 2004, became the Bobcats from 2004 to 2014, and then the Hornets again. 2015–2016: Return to the playoffsEdit Alvin Gentry has been coaching the Pelicans since 2015 During the 2014–15 NBA season, for the first time under the name Pelicans, the team qualified for the NBA playoffs with a 45–37 record as the eighth seed in the Western Conference. They owned the tie-breaker over the Oklahoma City Thunder by winning the regular season head-to-head series, 3–1, and they faced the Golden State Warriors in the first round; the Warriors swept the Pelicans in four games. After the season, the Pelicans fired coach Monty Williams.[35] On May 31, 2015, the Pelicans hired Alvin Gentry as the franchise's sixth head coach.[36] The Pelicans missed the 2016 NBA Playoffs, finishing with a 30–52 record. They acquired the 6th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft from the draft lottery and selected Buddy Hield from the University of Oklahoma.[37] 2017–2019: End of the Anthony Davis eraEdit On February 20, 2017, the Pelicans acquired DeMarcus Cousins in a trade with the Sacramento Kings when they traded Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a 2017 first-round pick, and a 2017 second-round pick in exchange for Cousins and Omri Casspi. On February 1, 2018, the Pelicans acquired Nikola Mirotić in a trade with the Chicago Bulls. Though the trade went through, a previous trade for Mirotić to the Pelicans was called off when New Orleans did not want to pay for Mirotić's 2019 team option contract that Mirotić had signed with the Bulls during the off-season in 2017. The Pelicans received Mirotić and a 2018 second-round pick for veterans Ömer Aşık, Jameer Nelson, and Tony Allen. Mirotić demanded a trade when former teammate Bobby Portis punched Mirotić in the face during an off-season practice. At the time of the trade, Mirotić was the Bulls' leading scorer, and DeMarcus Cousins was injured. Mirotić played well for the Pelicans after the trade.[38] On March 15, 2018, Tom Benson died from complications of the flu. Ownership of the Pelicans and the Saints were transferred to Benson's widow, Gayle Benson.[39] The Pelicans clinched a playoff spot on April 9, 2018,[40] and finished with a 48–34 record. In the first round of the playoffs, they swept the Portland Trail Blazers in four games[41] and then lost to the Golden State Warriors four games to one.[42] In January 2019, Anthony Davis demanded a trade from the franchise, and was fined for publicly announcing the request.[43] On May 14, 2019, the Pelicans received the first overall pick at the NBA draft lottery of the 2019 NBA draft, despite having a six percent chance to win it.[44][45] On June 15, 2019, the Pelicans agreed to trade Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers. In return, the Lakers agreed to send Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first round picks, including the 4th pick in the 2019 NBA draft, to the Pelicans.[46] The Pelicans later agreed to trade draft rights of the 4th pick of the 2019 NBA draft to the Atlanta Hawks, receiving the draft rights to the 8th, 17th and 35th picks in the 2019 draft in return.[47] The three-way trade was completed on July 6, 2019, marking the end of an era for the Pelicans.[48] 2019–present: Rebuilding; beginning with Zion WilliamsonEdit On June 20, 2019, the Pelicans selected Zion Williamson, a freshman out of Duke, with the first overall pick.[49] The Pelicans also drafted Jaxson Hayes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Marcos Louzada Silva via the trade with the Atlanta Hawks. On July 1, 2019, the Pelicans announced that they had signed Williamson to his rookie-scale contract.[50] Logos and uniformsEdit The New Orleans Hornets were sold to Tom Benson on April 13, 2012.[21] After purchasing the team, Benson indicated that he wanted to change the club's nickname to something more regionally appropriate. On December 14, 2012, it was reported that the Hornets would change their nickname to the New Orleans Pelicans.[26] On January 24, 2013, the team held a press conference, where it unveiled its new nickname, logos and colors. The name Pelicans is a reference to the brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana.[10][27] The team said in a press release that its colors would be navy, gold and red; each color is represented in the city flag of New Orleans.[29] The team formally adopted its new brand identity at the end of the 2012–13 season.[30] On August 1, 2013, the Pelicans released their new uniforms. The 'New Orleans' wordmark logo across the front of the jerseys is inspired by French Quarter street signs; the Pelicans are one of three NBA teams to wear the city name across the front of both home and road jerseys. The partial logo is featured on the sides of the shorts, and the "Bird-de-Lis" logo (a combination mark of the pelican, fleur-de-lis and crescent basketball shape) is featured on the back neck.[51][52][53][54] NBA teams were not allowed to have alternate uniforms during their first season of operation. On September 23, 2014, the Pelicans unveiled a red alternate uniform for the 2014–15 season that would be worn four times in the year.[55] Prior to the red alternate uniform unveiling, the NBA announced that its league logo would be moved to the back neck of game jerseys for all 30 clubs; as a result, the NBA league logo replaced the "Bird-de-Lis" logo on the back neck.[56][57] On September 17, 2015, the Pelicans unveiled a new alternate uniform, introduced as part of the NBA's "Pride" uniforms for the 2015–16 season. The short-sleeved uniforms feature Mardi Gras' signature colors – purple, green and gold. The tops are purple with green accents on the sleeves and sport 'NOLA' (a local acronym for New Orleans, Louisiana) across the chest in the Pelicans’ signature font in gold letters trimmed in green. The Pelicans 'NO' logo is featured at the bottom of the v-neck and the Crescent City basketball logo is on the left sleeve in Mardi Gras colors. Additionally, the trim around the neckline is purple, green and gold-striped. Additionally, on the back of the jersey, the players’ numbers will be gold with green trim, last name in white traditional lettering and the NBA logo will be featured at the base of the neck. The purple shorts will have green and gold stripes down the side with a small secondary logo – the "Bird-de-Lis" in gold centered on the waistband. The Pelicans’ partial logo is on both sides of the shorts in Mardi Gras colors.[58] PlayersEdit Main article: New Orleans Pelicans all-time roster See also: New Orleans Pelicans draft history Current rosterEdit New Orleans Pelicans roster DOB (YYYY-MM-DD) G 0 Alexander-Walker, Nickeil 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1998–09–02 Virginia Tech G 2 Ball, Lonzo 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1997–10–27 UCLA G/F 5 Bluiett, Trevon (TW/FA) 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 198 lb (90 kg) 1994–11–04 Xavier G 2 Clark, Ian (FA) 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 175 lb (79 kg) 1991–03–07 Belmont F 13 Diallo, Cheick (FA) 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1996–09–13 Kansas F/C 22 Favors, Derrick 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 265 lb (120 kg) 1991–07–15 Georgia Tech G 3 Hart, Josh 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1995–03–06 Villanova F/C 10 Hayes, Jaxson 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 2000–05–23 Texas G 11 Holiday, Jrue 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1990–06–12 UCLA F 14 Ingram, Brandon 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1997–09–02 Duke G 15 Jackson, Frank 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1998–05–04 Duke F 21 Miller, Darius (FA) 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1990–03–21 Kentucky G 55 Moore, E'Twaun 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 191 lb (87 kg) 1989–02–25 Purdue C 8 Okafor, Jahlil 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 275 lb (125 kg) 1995–12–15 Duke G 4 Redick, JJ 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 200 lb (91 kg) 1984–06–24 Duke G/F 34 Williams, Kenrich 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) 1994–12–02 TCU F 1 Williamson, Zion 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 285 lb (129 kg) 2000–07–06 Duke Assistant coach(es) Darren Erman Chris Finch Kevin Hanson Fred Vinson Mike Penberthy (Assistant/Player Development) (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended (GL) On assignment to G League (TW) Two-way affiliate player Injured Last transaction: 2019–07–01 Retained draft rightsEdit The Pelicans hold the draft rights to the following unsigned draft picks who have been playing outside the NBA. A drafted player, either an international draftee or a college draftee who is not signed by the team that drafted him, is allowed to sign with any non-NBA teams. In this case, the team retains the player's draft rights in the NBA until one year after the player's contract with the non-NBA team ends.[59] This list includes draft rights that were acquired from trades with other teams. 2018 2 51 Tony Carr G United States Pallacanestro Cantù (Italy) 2010 2 48 Latavious Williams F United States Igokea (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Acquired from Miami (via Oklahoma City) [60] Retired numbersEdit New Orleans Pelicans retired numbers 7 Pete Maravich G 1974–1979a October 30, 2002 a The then-New Orleans Hornets retired Maravich's number during their first game in New Orleans in honor of his basketball contributions to the state of Louisiana, both during his college career at Louisiana State University (LSU) and his professional career with the city's former NBA team, the New Orleans Jazz. Franchise recordsEdit Main article: New Orleans Pelicans accomplishments and records No franchise records SeasonsEdit Main article: List of New Orleans Pelicans seasons Head coachesEdit Main article: List of New Orleans Pelicans head coaches Paul Silas 2002–2003 88 49 39 .557 82 47 35 .573 6 2 4 .333 Tim Floyd 2003–2004 89 44 45 .494 82 41 41 .500 7 3 4 .429 Byron Scott 2004–2009 436 211 225 .484 419 203 216 .484 17 8 9 .471 Jeff Bower 2009–2010 73 34 39 .487 73 34 39 .487 0 0 0 – Monty Williams 2010–2015 404 175 229 .433 394 173 221 .439 10 2 8 .200 Alvin Gentry 2015–present 337 150 187 .445 328 145 183 .442 9 5 4 .556 Home arenasEdit Smoothie King Center (2002–present), formerly known as New Orleans Arena (2002–2014) One other temporary facility due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina: Ford Center (2005–2007) MascotEdit Pierre the Pelican is the official mascot for the Pelicans. He was introduced on October 30, 2013, the opening night of regular season for the team at home against the Indiana Pacers.[61][62] The name for the mascot was selected by the fans through an online poll on the team's website. However, Pierre's unconventional design frightened some fans. The mascot's redesigned head was released on February 11, 2014.[63] The Pelicans' prior mascot was Hugo the Hornet, who was part of the organization from 2002 to 2013. Hugo returned as the mascot for the Charlotte Hornets starting with the 2014–15 season.[64] ^ a b c "Charlotte Hornets Name Returns to Carolinas". Hornets.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. May 20, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2015. ^ "History: Team by Team" (PDF). 2018-19 Official NBA Guide. NBA Properties, Inc. October 8, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2019. ^ "NBA.com/Stats–New Orleans Pelicans seasons". Stats.NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Retrieved June 1, 2019. ^ "New Orleans Pelicans Logos Unveiled". Pelicans.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. January 24, 2013. Retrieved May 15, 2017. ^ "Logos/Marks" (PDF). New Orleans Pelicans 2018-19 Media Guide. NBA Properties, Inc. November 9, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2019. ^ "New Orleans Pelicans Reproduction Guideline Sheet". NBA Properties, Inc. Retrieved February 27, 2018. ^ "New Orleans Pelicans and Zatarain's cook-up a winning partnership". Pelicans.com (Press release). NBA Media Ventures, LLC. October 25, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017. ^ Aldridge, David (March 19, 2018). "Future of New Orleans Pelicans stable, even as team mourns owner Tom Benson's death". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. Retrieved April 5, 2018. ^ "A message from owner Gayle Benson to Pelicans fans". Pelicans.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. March 16, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018. ^ a b c "Benson Family Unveils New Orleans Pelicans Colors and Logos". New Orleans Pelicans. January 24, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013. ^ "Charlotte Hornets (1988–2002)". SportsECyclopedia.com. February 28, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015. ^ "CNNSI.com – NBA Basketball – Hornets to apply for relocation to Memphis – Monday March 26, 2001 05:47 PM". SportsIllustrated.CNN.com. March 26, 2001. Archived from the original on February 8, 2002. Retrieved December 7, 2012. ^ World Class City, Third World Paycheck. Creative Loafing, December 29, 2001 ^ "ESPN.com – Council willing to amend 'new owner' statement". ESPN.Go.com. Associated Press. February 16, 2002. Retrieved January 9, 2014. ^ Green, Ron Jr. Shinn: I messed up in Charlotte Archived September 9, 2012, at Archive.today. Charlotte Observer, November 1, 2008. ^ "ESPN.com: Eye for victory". ESPN.Go.com. Retrieved January 9, 2014. ^ "Hornets to Play in Oklahoma City". National Basketball Association. September 21, 2005. Retrieved September 21, 2005. ^ Bennett, Dashiell (January 7, 2011). "Larry Ellison Confirms He Tried To Buy The New Orleans Hornets, But Was Beaten Back By The NBA". Business Insider. Retrieved January 7, 2011. ^ "NBA completes Hornets purchase". National Basketball Association. December 20, 2010. Retrieved December 20, 2010. ^ Beck, Howard (December 8, 2011). "N.B.A. Rejects Trade Sending Paul to Lakers". New York Times. ^ a b "Saints owner Benson buys Hornets from NBA". National Basketball Association. Associated Press. April 13, 2012. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2015. ^ Smith, Jimmy (April 13, 2012). "New Orleans Hornets to be purchased by New Orleans Saints' owner Tom Benson for $338 million". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved November 1, 2015. ^ "Hornets seeking name change, set to build new practice facility". WWL-TV. April 16, 2012. Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2014. ^ We Beelive: Charlotte...take back your Hornets! Facebook Page ^ "Mickey Loomis takes on top New Orleans Hornets job". NFL.com. Associated Press. June 19, 2012. ^ a b Moore, Matt (June 11, 2008). "Report: Hornets to change name to New Orleans Pelicans in 2013-14". CBSSports.com. Retrieved December 7, 2012. ^ a b "List of Louisiana State symbols". Louisiana Division of Administration. Archived from the original on March 29, 2013. Retrieved January 27, 2013. ^ Eichenhofer, Jim (September 27, 2013). "Pelicans nickname has century-plus history in New Orleans". New Orleans Pelicans. Retrieved September 27, 2013. ^ a b "New Orleans Pelicans Logos Unveiled". New Orleans Pelicans. January 24, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013. ^ a b "New Orleans Pelicans Officially Adopt New Namesake". New Orleans Pelicans. April 18, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2015. ^ "Bobcats Sports & Entertainment Applies to Change Team's Name to Hornets". NBA Media Ventures, LLC. May 21, 2013. Retrieved May 21, 2013. ^ "Jordan: Bobcats changing name to Hornets". NBA Media Ventures, LLC. May 21, 2013. Retrieved May 21, 2013. ^ "NBA approves Charlotte's name change". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. July 18, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013. ^ Keith Pompey; Marc Narducci (October 17, 2013). "Holiday-Noel trade becomes official". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved September 7, 2015. ^ {cite web\|title=New Orleans Pelicans fire head coach Monty Williams\|url=https://www.espn.co.uk/nba/story/_/id/12872739/new-orleans-pelicans-fire-head-coach-monty-williams%7Cwebsite=espn.com%7Caccessdate=July 15, 2019\|date=May 13, 2015}} ^ "New Orleans Pelicans Name Alvin Gentry Head Coach". New Orleans Pelicans. Retrieved May 31, 2015. ^ "NBA Draft 2016: Buddy Hield taken 6th by Pelicans". sbnation.com. June 23, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2019. ^ Wojnarowski, Adrian (February 1, 2018). "Pelicans acquire Nikola Mirotic for three players, first-round pick". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 31, 2018. ^ "Tom Benson's will names Gayle Benson as sole beneficiary, leaves estranged family out". The Times-Picayune. March 17, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018. ^ Meagher, Sean (April 10, 2018). "NBA playoff race: Pelicans clinch with win vs Clippers". OregonLive.com. Retrieved April 24, 2018. ^ Amick, Sam (April 21, 2018). "No. 6 seed Pelicans make NBA playoff history with first-round sweep of Trail Blazers". USA TODAY. Retrieved April 24, 2018. ^ Meagher, Sean (May 8, 2018). "Golden State Warriors eliminate New Orleans Pelicans, advance to Western Conference finals". OregonLive.com. Retrieved May 10, 2018. ^ Maloney, Jack (January 29, 2019). "Pelicans' Anthony Davis fined $50,000 for making trade demands public". ESPN.com. Retrieved February 6, 2019. ^ "2019 NBA Draft Lottery Results". NBA.com. May 14, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2019. ^ "Winning Williamson: Pelicans land No. 1 pick". ESPN.com. May 14, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2019. ^ "Pelicans Agree to Trade Anthony Davis to the Lakers". nytimes.com. June 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019. ^ "Report: Hawks trade up to get No. 4 pick; Pelicans get 8th, 17th and 35th picks". nba.com. June 20, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019. ^ "Deals becoming real as NBA moratorium period ends". nba.com. July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019. ^ Press, Brian Mahoney \| The Associated. "Pelicans select Zion Williamson with No. 1 pick in Draft". NBA.com. Retrieved July 5, 2019. ^ "It's official: Zion Williamson signs rookie contract with the Pelicans". nola.com. July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019. ^ "Pelicans Uniform Unveiling". New Orleans Pelicans. August 1, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2015. ^ "NEW ORLEANS PELICANS UNVEIL NEW UNIFORMS" (Press release). New Orleans Pelicans. August 1, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2015. ^ Creamer, Chris (August 1, 2013). "New Orleans Pelicans Unveil New Uniforms". SportsLogos.net. Retrieved August 1, 2013. ^ Lukas, Paul (August 1, 2013). "Uni Watch on Pelicans' jersey reveal". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 4, 2013. ^ "New Orleans Pelicans Unveil Alternate Red Uniform" (Press release). New Orleans Pelicans. September 23, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014. ^ "New NBA Swingman Jersey Features – Guide to New 2014–2015 Swingman Jerseys". National Basketball Association. December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2014. ^ Lukas, Paul (June 19, 2014). "NBA to move league logo to back of jerseys". ESPN.com. Retrieved June 19, 2014. ^ "Pelicans Unveil Pride Uniforms in Celebration of the Spirit of Mardi Gras" (Press release). New Orleans Pelicans. September 17, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2015. ^ Coon, Larry. "NBA Salary Cap FAQ – 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement". Retrieved April 13, 2014. If the player is already under contract to, or signs a contract with a non-NBA team, the team retains the player's draft rights for one year after the player's obligation to the non-NBA team ends. Essentially, the clock stops as long as the player plays pro ball outside the NBA. ^ "Pelicans Acquire Ish Smith". NBA.com. February 19, 2015. Retrieved February 19, 2015. ^ "Pierre the Pelican introduced in first quarter". New Orleans Pelicans. October 30, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2016. ^ Golliver, Ben (October 31, 2013). "New Orleans Pelicans introduce new mascot 'Pierre' as part of rebranding effort". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved January 6, 2013. ^ "Pierre the Pelican Injury Update" (Press release). New Orleans Pelicans. February 11, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2016. ^ "A Hornet Comes Home". Charlotte Hornets. June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2014. Wikimedia Commons has media related to New Orleans Pelicans. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Orleans_Pelicans&oldid=906638034"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line701
__label__cc	0.659992	0.340008	(Redirected from US subprime mortgage crisis) The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a nationwide financial crisis, occurring between 2007 and 2010, that contributed to the U.S. recession of December 2007 – June 2009.[1][2] It was triggered by a large decline in home prices after the collapse of a housing bubble, leading to mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures and the devaluation of housing-related securities. Declines in residential investment preceded the recession and were followed by reductions in household spending and then business investment. Spending reductions were more significant in areas with a combination of high household debt and larger housing price declines.[3] The housing bubble preceding the crisis was financed with mortgage-backed securities (MBSes) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which initially offered higher interest rates (i.e. better returns) than government securities, along with attractive risk ratings from rating agencies. While elements of the crisis first became more visible during 2007, several major financial institutions collapsed in September 2008, with significant disruption in the flow of credit to businesses and consumers and the onset of a severe global recession.[4] There were many causes of the crisis, with commentators assigning different levels of blame to financial institutions, regulators, credit agencies, government housing policies, and consumers, among others.[5] Two proximate causes were the rise in subprime lending and the increase in housing speculation. The percentage of lower-quality subprime mortgages originated during a given year rose from the historical 8% or lower range to approximately 20% from 2004 to 2006, with much higher ratios in some parts of the U.S.[6][7] A high percentage of these subprime mortgages, over 90% in 2006 for example, were adjustable-rate mortgages.[4] Housing speculation also increased, with the share of mortgage originations to investors (i.e. those owning homes other than primary residences) rising significantly from around 20% in 2000 to around 35% in 2006–2007. Investors, even those with prime credit ratings, were much more likely to default than non-investors when prices fell.[8][9][10] These changes were part of a broader trend of lowered lending standards and higher-risk mortgage products,[4][11] which contributed to U.S. households becoming increasingly indebted. The ratio of household debt to disposable personal income rose from 77% in 1990 to 127% by the end of 2007.[12] When U.S. home prices declined steeply after peaking in mid-2006, it became more difficult for borrowers to refinance their loans. As adjustable-rate mortgages began to reset at higher interest rates (causing higher monthly payments), mortgage delinquencies soared. Securities backed with mortgages, including subprime mortgages, widely held by financial firms globally, lost most of their value. Global investors also drastically reduced purchases of mortgage-backed debt and other securities as part of a decline in the capacity and willingness of the private financial system to support lending.[6] Concerns about the soundness of U.S. credit and financial markets led to tightening credit around the world and slowing economic growth in the U.S. and Europe. The crisis had severe, long-lasting consequences for the U.S. and European economies. The U.S. entered a deep recession, with nearly 9 million jobs lost during 2008 and 2009, roughly 6% of the workforce. The number of jobs did not return to the December 2007 pre-crisis peak until May 2014.[13] U.S. household net worth declined by nearly $13 trillion (20%) from its Q2 2007 pre-crisis peak, recovering by Q4 2012.[14] U.S. housing prices fell nearly 30% on average and the U.S. stock market fell approximately 50% by early 2009, with stocks regaining their December 2007 level during September 2012.[15] One estimate of lost output and income from the crisis comes to "at least 40% of 2007 gross domestic product".[16] Europe also continued to struggle with its own economic crisis, with elevated unemployment and severe banking impairments estimated at €940 billion between 2008 and 2012.[17] As of January 2018, U.S. bailout funds had been fully recovered by the government, when interest on loans is taken into consideration. A total of $626B was invested, loaned, or granted due to various bailout measures, while $390B had been returned to the Treasury. The Treasury had earned another $323B in interest on bailout loans, resulting in an $87B profit.[18] Background and timeline of eventsEdit Main articles: Subprime crisis background information, Subprime crisis impact timeline, United States housing bubble, and United States housing market correction President George W. Bush discusses Education, Entrepreneurship & Home Ownership at the Indiana Black Expo in 2005 Subprime mortgage lending jumped dramatically during the 2004–2006 period preceding the crisis (source: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Report, p. 70 Figure 5.2). Federal funds rate history and recessions Factors contributing to housing bubble Domino effect as housing prices declined The immediate cause of the crisis was the bursting of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006.[19][20] An increase in loan incentives such as easy initial terms and a long-term trend of rising housing prices had encouraged borrowers to assume risky mortgages in the anticipation that they would be able to quickly refinance at easier terms. However, once interest rates began to rise and housing prices started to drop moderately in 2006–2007 in many parts of the U.S., borrowers were unable to refinance. Defaults and foreclosure activity increased dramatically as easy initial terms expired, home prices fell, and adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) interest rates reset higher. As housing prices fell, global investor demand for mortgage-related securities evaporated. This became apparent by July 2007, when investment bank Bear Stearns announced that two of its hedge funds had imploded. These funds had invested in securities that derived their value from mortgages. When the value of these securities dropped, investors demanded that these hedge funds provide additional collateral. This created a cascade of selling in these securities, which lowered their value further. Economist Mark Zandi wrote that this 2007 event was "arguably the proximate catalyst" for the financial market disruption that followed.[4] Several other factors set the stage for the rise and fall of housing prices, and related securities widely held by financial firms. In the years leading up to the crisis, the U.S. received large amounts of foreign money from fast-growing economies in Asia and oil-producing/exporting countries. This inflow of funds combined with low U.S. interest rates from 2002 to 2004 contributed to easy credit conditions, which fueled both housing and credit bubbles. Loans of various types (e.g., mortgage, credit card, and auto) were easy to obtain and consumers assumed an unprecedented debt load.[21][22] As part of the housing and credit booms, the number of financial agreements called mortgage-backed securities (MBS), which derive their value from mortgage payments and housing prices, greatly increased. Such financial innovation enabled institutions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing market. As housing prices declined, major global financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in MBS reported significant losses. Defaults and losses on other loan types also increased significantly as the crisis expanded from the housing market to other parts of the economy. Total losses were estimated in the trillions of U.S. dollars globally.[23] While the housing and credit bubbles were growing, a series of factors caused the financial system to become increasingly fragile. Policymakers did not recognize the increasingly important role played by financial institutions such as investment banks and hedge funds, also known as the shadow banking system. These entities were not subject to the same regulations as depository banking. Further, shadow banks were able to mask the extent of their risk taking from investors and regulators through the use of complex, off-balance sheet derivatives and securitizations.[24] Economist Gary Gorton has referred to the 2007–2008 aspects of the crisis as a "run" on the shadow banking system.[25] The complexity of these off-balance sheet arrangements and the securities held, as well as the interconnection between larger financial institutions, made it virtually impossible to re-organize them via bankruptcy, which contributed to the need for government bailouts.[24] Some experts believe these shadow institutions had become as important as commercial (depository) banks in providing credit to the U.S. economy, but they were not subject to the same regulations.[26] These institutions as well as certain regulated banks had also assumed significant debt burdens while providing the loans described above and did not have a financial cushion sufficient to absorb large loan defaults or MBS losses.[27] The losses experienced by financial institutions on their mortgage-related securities impacted their ability to lend, slowing economic activity. Interbank lending dried-up initially and then loans to non-financial firms were affected. Concerns regarding the stability of key financial institutions drove central banks to take action to provide funds to encourage lending and to restore faith in the commercial paper markets, which are integral to funding business operations. Governments also bailed out key financial institutions, assuming significant additional financial commitments. The risks to the broader economy created by the housing market downturn and subsequent financial market crisis were primary factors in several decisions by central banks around the world to cut interest rates and governments to implement economic stimulus packages. Effects on global stock markets due to the crisis were dramatic. Between 1 January and 11 October 2008, owners of stocks in U.S. corporations suffered about $8 trillion in losses, as their holdings declined in value from $20 trillion to $12 trillion. Losses in other countries averaged about 40%.[28] Losses in the stock markets and housing value declines place further downward pressure on consumer spending, a key economic engine.[29] Leaders of the larger developed and emerging nations met in November 2008 and March 2009 to formulate strategies for addressing the crisis.[30] A variety of solutions have been proposed by government officials, central bankers, economists, and business executives.[31][32][33] In the U.S., the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in July 2010 to address some of the causes of the crisis. CausesEdit Further information: Causes of the 2007–2012 global financial crisis and Causes of the United States housing bubble OverviewEdit Housing price appreciation in selected countries, 2002–2008 U.S. households and financial businesses significantly increased borrowing (leverage) in the years leading up to the crisis The crisis can be attributed to several factors, which emerged over a number of years. Causes proposed include the inability of homeowners to make their mortgage payments (due primarily to adjustable-rate mortgages resetting, borrowers overextending, predatory lending, and speculation), overbuilding during the boom period, risky mortgage products, increased power of mortgage originators, high personal and corporate debt levels, financial products that distributed and perhaps concealed the risk of mortgage default, monetary and housing policies that encouraged risk-taking and more debt, international trade imbalances, and inappropriate government regulation.[6][34][35][36][37] Excessive consumer housing debt was in turn caused by the mortgage-backed security, credit default swap, and collateralized debt obligation sub-sectors of the finance industry, which were offering irrationally low interest rates and irrationally high levels of approval to subprime mortgage consumers due in part to faulty financial models.[38][39] Debt consumers were acting in their rational self-interest, because they were unable to audit the finance industry's opaque faulty risk pricing methodology.[40] Among the important catalysts of the subprime crisis were the influx of money from the private sector, the banks entering into the mortgage bond market, government policies aimed at expanding homeownership, speculation by many home buyers, and the predatory lending practices of the mortgage lenders, specifically the adjustable-rate mortgage, 2–28 loan, that mortgage lenders sold directly or indirectly via mortgage brokers.[41] On Wall Street and in the financial industry, moral hazard lay at the core of many of the causes.[42] In its "Declaration of the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy," dated 15 November 2008, leaders of the Group of 20 cited the following causes: During a period of strong global growth, growing capital flows, and prolonged stability earlier this decade, market participants sought higher yields without an adequate appreciation of the risks and failed to exercise proper due diligence. At the same time, weak underwriting standards, unsound risk management practices, increasingly complex and opaque financial products, and consequent excessive leverage combined to create vulnerabilities in the system. Policy-makers, regulators and supervisors, in some advanced countries, did not adequately appreciate and address the risks building up in financial markets, keep pace with financial innovation, or take into account the systemic ramifications of domestic regulatory actions.[43] Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke testified in September 2010 regarding the causes of the crisis. He wrote that there were shocks or triggers (i.e., particular events that touched off the crisis) and vulnerabilities (i.e., structural weaknesses in the financial system, regulation and supervision) that amplified the shocks. Examples of triggers included: losses on subprime mortgage securities that began in 2007 and a run on the shadow banking system that began in mid-2007, which adversely affected the functioning of money markets. Examples of vulnerabilities in the private sector included: financial institution dependence on unstable sources of short-term funding such as repurchase agreements or Repos; deficiencies in corporate risk management; excessive use of leverage (borrowing to invest); and inappropriate usage of derivatives as a tool for taking excessive risks. Examples of vulnerabilities in the public sector included: statutory gaps and conflicts between regulators; ineffective use of regulatory authority; and ineffective crisis management capabilities. Bernanke also discussed "Too big to fail" institutions, monetary policy, and trade deficits.[44] During May 2010, Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker separately described questionable assumptions or judgments underlying the U.S. financial and economic system that contributed to the crisis. These assumptions included: 1) Housing prices would not fall dramatically;[45] 2) Free and open financial markets supported by sophisticated financial engineering would most effectively support market efficiency and stability, directing funds to the most profitable and productive uses; 3) Concepts embedded in mathematics and physics could be directly adapted to markets, in the form of various financial models used to evaluate credit risk; 4) Economic imbalances, such as large trade deficits and low savings rates indicative of over-consumption, were sustainable; and 5) Stronger regulation of the shadow banking system and derivatives markets was not needed.[46] Economists surveyed by the University of Chicago during 2017 rated the factors that caused the crisis in order of importance: 1) Flawed financial sector regulation and supervision; 2) Underestimating risks in financial engineering (e.g., CDOs); 3) Mortgage fraud and bad incentives; 4) Short-term funding decisions and corresponding runs in those markets (e.g., repo); and 5) Credit rating agency failures.[47] The U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported its findings in January 2011. It concluded that "the crisis was avoidable and was caused by: Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve's failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; Key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels."[48] NarrativesEdit U.S. residential and non-residential investment fell relative to GDP during the crisis There are several "narratives" attempting to place the causes of the crisis into context, with overlapping elements. Five such narratives include: There was the equivalent of a bank run on the shadow banking system, which includes investment banks and other non-depository financial entities. This system had grown to rival the depository system in scale yet was not subject to the same regulatory safeguards.[25][49] The economy was being driven by a housing bubble. When it burst, private residential investment (i.e., housing construction) fell by nearly 4% GDP and consumption enabled by bubble-generated housing wealth also slowed. This created a gap in annual demand (GDP) of nearly $1 trillion. Government was unwilling to make up for this private sector shortfall.[50][51] Record levels of household debt accumulated in the decades preceding the crisis resulted in a balance sheet recession (similar to debt deflation) once housing prices began falling in 2006. Consumers began paying down debt, which reduces their consumption, slowing down the economy for an extended period while debt levels are reduced.[3][49] Housing speculation using high levels of mortgage debt drove many investors with prime-quality mortgages (i.e., those investors in the middle of the credit score distribution) to default and enter foreclosure on investment properties when housing prices fell; the blame on "subprime" homeowners (i.e., those at the bottom of the credit score distribution) was overstated.[8][10] Government policies that encouraged home ownership even for those who could not afford it, contributing to lax lending standards, unsustainable housing price increases, and indebtedness.[52] Underlying narratives #1-3 is a hypothesis that growing income inequality and wage stagnation encouraged families to increase their household debt to maintain their desired living standard, fueling the bubble. Further, this greater share of income flowing to the top increased the political power of business interests, who used that power to deregulate or limit regulation of the shadow banking system.[53][54][55] Housing marketEdit Boom and bustEdit Main articles: United States housing bubble and United States housing market correction Household debt relative to disposable income and GDP. Existing homes sales, inventory, and months supply, by quarter. Vicious cycles in the housing and financial markets. According to Robert J. Shiller and other economists, housing price increases beyond the general inflation rate are not sustainable in the long term. From the end of World War II to the beginning of the housing bubble in 1997, housing prices in the US remained relatively stable.[56] The bubble was characterized by higher rates of household debt and lower savings rates, slightly higher rates of home ownership, and of course higher housing prices. It was fueled by low interest rates and large inflows of foreign funds that created easy credit conditions.[57] Between 1997 and 2006 (the peak of the housing bubble), the price of the typical American house increased by 124%.[58] From 1980 to 2001, the ratio of median home prices to median household income (a measure of ability to buy a house) fluctuated from 2.9 to 3.1. In 2004 it rose to 4.0, and by 2006 it hit 4.6.[59] The housing bubble was more pronounced in coastal areas where the ability to build new housing was restricted by geography or land use restrictions.[60] This housing bubble resulted in quite a few homeowners refinancing their homes at lower interest rates, or financing consumer spending by taking out second mortgages secured by the price appreciation. US household debt as a percentage of annual disposable personal income was 127% at the end of 2007, versus 77% in 1990.[12][61] While housing prices were increasing, consumers were saving less[62] and both borrowing and spending more. Household debt grew from $705 billion at year end 1974, 60% of disposable personal income, to $7.4 trillion at yearend 2000, and finally to $14.5 trillion in midyear 2008, 134% of disposable personal income.[63] During 2008, the typical US household owned 13 credit cards, with 40% of households carrying a balance, up from 6% in 1970.[64] Free cash used by consumers from home equity extraction doubled from $627 billion in 2001 to $1,428 billion in 2005 as the housing bubble built, a total of nearly $5 trillion over the period.[65][66][67] U.S. home mortgage debt relative to GDP increased from an average of 46% during the 1990s to 73% during 2008, reaching $10.5 trillion.[68] From 2001 to 2007, U.S. mortgage debt almost doubled, and the amount of mortgage debt per household rose more than 63%, from $91,500 to $149,500, with essentially stagnant wages.[69] Economist Tyler Cowen explained that the economy was highly dependent on this home equity extraction: "In the 1993-1997 period, home owners extracted an amount of equity from their homes equivalent to 2.3% to 3.8% GDP. By 2005, this figure had increased to 11.5% GDP."[70] This credit and house price explosion led to a building boom and eventually to a surplus of unsold homes, which caused U.S. housing prices to peak and begin declining in mid-2006.[71] Easy credit, and a belief that house prices would continue to appreciate, had encouraged many subprime borrowers to obtain adjustable-rate mortgages. These mortgages enticed borrowers with a below market interest rate for some predetermined period, followed by market interest rates for the remainder of the mortgage's term. The US home ownership rate increased from 64% in 1994 (about where it had been since 1980) to an all-time high of 69.2% in 2004.[72] Subprime lending was a major contributor to this increase in home ownership rates and in the overall demand for housing, which drove prices higher. Borrowers who would not be able to make the higher payments once the initial grace period ended, were planning to refinance their mortgages after a year or two of appreciation. As a result of the depreciating housing prices, borrowers’ ability to refinance became more difficult. Borrowers who found themselves unable to escape higher monthly payments by refinancing began to default. As more borrowers stopped making their mortgage payments, foreclosures and the supply of homes for sale increased. This placed downward pressure on housing prices, which further lowered homeowners' equity. The decline in mortgage payments also reduced the value of mortgage-backed securities, which eroded the net worth and financial health of banks. This vicious cycle was at the heart of the crisis.[73] By September 2008, average U.S. housing prices had declined by over 20% from their mid-2006 peak.[74][75] This major and unexpected decline in house prices means that many borrowers have zero or negative equity in their homes, meaning their homes were worth less than their mortgages. As of March 2008, an estimated 8.8 million borrowers – 10.8% of all homeowners – had negative equity in their homes, a number that is believed to have risen to 12 million by November 2008. By September 2010, 23% of all U.S. homes were worth less than the mortgage loan.[76] Borrowers in this situation have an incentive to default on their mortgages as a mortgage is typically nonrecourse debt secured against the property.[77] Economist Stan Leibowitz argued in the Wall Street Journal that although only 12% of homes had negative equity, they comprised 47% of foreclosures during the second half of 2008. He concluded that the extent of equity in the home was the key factor in foreclosure, rather than the type of loan, credit worthiness of the borrower, or ability to pay.[78] Increasing foreclosure rates increases the inventory of houses offered for sale. The number of new homes sold in 2007 was 26.4% less than in the preceding year. By January 2008, the inventory of unsold new homes was 9.8 times the December 2007 sales volume, the highest value of this ratio since 1981.[79] Furthermore, nearly four million existing homes were for sale,[80] of which roughly 2.2 million were vacant.[81] This overhang of unsold homes lowered house prices. As prices declined, more homeowners were at risk of default or foreclosure. House prices are expected to continue declining until this inventory of unsold homes (an instance of excess supply) declines to normal levels.[82] A report in January 2011 stated that U.S. home values dropped by 26 percent from their peak in June 2006 to November 2010, more than the 25.9% drop between 1928 to 1933 when the Great Depression occurred.[83] From September 2008 to September 2012, there were approximately 4 million completed foreclosures in the U.S. As of September 2012, approximately 1.4 million homes, or 3.3% of all homes with a mortgage, were in some stage of foreclosure compared to 1.5 million, or 3.5%, in September 2011. During September 2012, 57,000 homes completed foreclosure; this is down from 83,000 the prior September but well above the 2000–2006 average of 21,000 completed foreclosures per month.[84] Homeowner speculationEdit Main article: Speculation Speculative borrowing in residential real estate has been cited as a contributing factor to the subprime mortgage crisis.[85] During 2006, 22% of homes purchased (1.65 million units) were for investment purposes, with an additional 14% (1.07 million units) purchased as vacation homes. During 2005, these figures were 28% and 12%, respectively. In other words, a record level of nearly 40% of homes purchased were not intended as primary residences. David Lereah, National Association of Realtors's chief economist at the time, stated that the 2006 decline in investment buying was expected: "Speculators left the market in 2006, which caused investment sales to fall much faster than the primary market."[86] Housing prices nearly doubled between 2000 and 2006, a vastly different trend from the historical appreciation at roughly the rate of inflation. While homes had not traditionally been treated as investments subject to speculation, this behavior changed during the housing boom. Media widely reported condominiums being purchased while under construction, then being "flipped" (sold) for a profit without the seller ever having lived in them.[87] Some mortgage companies identified risks inherent in this activity as early as 2005, after identifying investors assuming highly leveraged positions in multiple properties.[88] One 2017 NBER study argued that real estate investors (i.e., those owning 2+ homes) were more to blame for the crisis than subprime borrowers: "The rise in mortgage defaults during the crisis was concentrated in the middle of the credit score distribution, and mostly attributable to real estate investors" and that "credit growth between 2001 and 2007 was concentrated in the prime segment, and debt to high-risk [subprime] borrowers was virtually constant for all debt categories during this period." The authors argued that this investor-driven narrative was more accurate than blaming the crisis on lower-income, subprime borrowers.[8] A 2011 Fed study had a similar finding: "In states that experienced the largest housing booms and busts, at the peak of the market almost half of purchase mortgage originations were associated with investors. In part by apparently misreporting their intentions to occupy the property, investors took on more leverage, contributing to higher rates of default." The Fed study reported that mortgage originations to investors rose from 25% in 2000 to 45% in 2006, for Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada overall, where housing price increases during the bubble (and declines in the bust) were most pronounced. In these states, investor delinquency rose from around 15% in 2000 to over 35% in 2007 and 2008.[9] Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute described the negative consequences of not adjusting tax and mortgage policies to the shifting treatment of a home from conservative inflation hedge to speculative investment.[89] Economist Robert Shiller argued that speculative bubbles are fueled by "contagious optimism, seemingly impervious to facts, that often takes hold when prices are rising. Bubbles are primarily social phenomena; until we understand and address the psychology that fuels them, they're going to keep forming."[90] Keynesian economist Hyman Minsky described how speculative borrowing contributed to rising debt and an eventual collapse of asset values.[91] Warren Buffett testified to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: "There was the greatest bubble I've ever seen in my life...The entire American public eventually was caught up in a belief that housing prices could not fall dramatically."[45] High-risk mortgage loans and lending/borrowing practicesEdit A mortgage brokerage in the US advertising subprime mortgages in July 2008. In the years before the crisis, the behavior of lenders changed dramatically. Lenders offered more and more loans to higher-risk borrowers,[6][92] including undocumented immigrants.[93] Lending standards deteriorated particularly between 2004 and 2007, as the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mortgage market share (i.e. the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which specialized in conventional, conforming, non-subprime mortgages) declined and private securitizers share grew, rising to more than half of mortgage securitizations.[6] Historically less than 2% of homebuyers lost their homes to foreclosure. But by 2009 over 40% of subprime adjustable rate mortgages were past due. (source: Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, p.217, figure 11.2) Subprime mortgages grew from 5% of total originations ($35 billion) in 1994,[94][94][95] to 20% ($600 billion) in 2006.[95][96][97] Another indicator of a "classic" boom-bust credit cycle, was a closing in the difference between subprime and prime mortgage interest rates (the "subprime markup") between 2001 and 2007.[98] In addition to considering higher-risk borrowers, lenders had offered progressively riskier loan options and borrowing incentives. In 2005, the median down payment for first-time home buyers was 2%, with 43% of those buyers making no down payment whatsoever.[99] By comparison, China has down payment requirements that exceed 20%, with higher amounts for non-primary residences.[100] Growth in mortgage loan fraud based upon US Department of the Treasury Suspicious Activity Report Analysis To produce more mortgages and more securities, mortgage qualification guidelines became progressively looser. First, "stated income, verified assets" (SIVA) loans replaced proof of income with a "statement" of it. Then, "no income, verified assets" (NIVA) loans eliminated proof of employment requirements. Borrowers needed only to show proof of money in their bank accounts. "No Income, No Assets" (NINA) or Ninja loans eliminated the need to prove, or even to state any owned assets. All that was required for a mortgage was a credit score.[101] Types of mortgages became more risky as well. The interest-only adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), allowed the homeowner to pay only the interest (not principal) of the mortgage during an initial "teaser" period. Even looser was the "payment option" loan, in which the homeowner has the option to make monthly payment that do not even cover the interest for the first two or three year initial period of the loan. Nearly one in 10 mortgage borrowers in 2005 and 2006 took out these "option ARM" loans,[69] and an estimated one-third of ARMs originated between 2004 and 2006 had "teaser" rates below 4%. After the initial period, monthly payments might double[95] or even triple.[102] The proportion of subprime ARM loans made to people with credit scores high enough to qualify for conventional mortgages with better terms increased from 41% in 2000 to 61% by 2006. In addition, mortgage brokers in some cases received incentives from lenders to offer subprime ARM's even to those with credit ratings that merited a conforming (i.e., non-subprime) loan.[103] Mortgage underwriting standards declined precipitously during the boom period. The use of automated loan approvals allowed loans to be made without appropriate review and documentation.[104] In 2007, 40% of all subprime loans resulted from automated underwriting.[105][106] The chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association claimed that mortgage brokers, while profiting from the home loan boom, did not do enough to examine whether borrowers could repay.[107] Mortgage fraud by lenders and borrowers increased enormously.[108] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in January 2011 that many mortgage lenders took eager borrowers' qualifications on faith, often with a "willful disregard" for a borrower's ability to pay. Nearly 25% of all mortgages made in the first half of 2005 were "interest-only" loans. During the same year, 68% of "option ARM" loans originated by Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual had low- or no-documentation requirements.[69] At least one study has suggested that the decline in standards was driven by a shift of mortgage securitization from a tightly controlled duopoly to a competitive market in which mortgage originators held the most sway.[6] The worst mortgage vintage years coincided with the periods during which Government Sponsored Enterprises (specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) were at their weakest, and mortgage originators and private label securitizers were at their strongest.[6] Why was there a market for these low quality private label securitizations? In a Peabody Award winning program, NPR correspondents argued that a "Giant Pool of Money" (represented by $70 trillion in worldwide fixed income investments) sought higher yields than those offered by U.S. Treasury bonds early in the decade. Further, this pool of money had roughly doubled in size from 2000 to 2007, yet the supply of relatively safe, income generating investments had not grown as fast. Investment banks on Wall Street answered this demand with financial innovation such as the mortgage-backed security (MBS) and collateralized debt obligation (CDO), which were assigned safe ratings by the credit rating agencies. In effect, Wall Street connected this pool of money to the mortgage market in the U.S., with enormous fees accruing to those throughout the mortgage supply chain, from the mortgage broker selling the loans, to small banks that funded the brokers, to the giant investment banks behind them. By approximately 2003, the supply of mortgages originated at traditional lending standards had been exhausted. However, continued strong demand for MBS and CDO began to drive down lending standards, as long as mortgages could still be sold along the supply chain. Eventually, this speculative bubble proved unsustainable. NPR described it this way:[109] The problem was that even though housing prices were going through the roof, people weren't making any more money. From 2000 to 2007, the median household income stayed flat. And so the more prices rose, the more tenuous the whole thing became. No matter how lax lending standards got, no matter how many exotic mortgage products were created to shoehorn people into homes they couldn't possibly afford, no matter what the mortgage machine tried, the people just couldn't swing it. By late 2006, the average home cost nearly four times what the average family made. Historically it was between two and three times. And mortgage lenders noticed something that they'd almost never seen before. People would close on a house, sign all the mortgage papers, and then default on their very first payment. No loss of a job, no medical emergency, they were underwater before they even started. And although no one could really hear it, that was probably the moment when one of the biggest speculative bubbles in American history popped. Subprime mortgage marketEdit Number of U.S. residential properties subject to foreclosure actions by quarter (2007–2012). Subprime borrowers typically have weakened credit histories and reduced repayment capacity. Subprime loans have a higher risk of default than loans to prime borrowers.[110] If a borrower is delinquent in making timely mortgage payments to the loan servicer (a bank or other financial firm), the lender may take possession of the property, in a process called foreclosure. The value of American subprime mortgages was estimated at $1.3 trillion as of March 2007,[111] with over 7.5 million first-lien subprime mortgages outstanding.[112] Between 2004 and 2006 the share of subprime mortgages relative to total originations ranged from 18%–21%, versus less than 10% in 2001–2003 and during 2007.[113][114] The majority of subprime loans were issued in California.[115] The boom in mortgage lending, including subprime lending, was also driven by a fast expansion of non-bank independent mortgage originators which despite their smaller share (around 25 percent in 2002) in the market have contributed to around 50 percent of the increase in mortgage credit between 2003 and 2005.[116] In the third quarter of 2007, subprime ARMs making up only 6.9% of US mortgages outstanding also accounted for 43% of the foreclosures which began during that quarter.[117] By October 2007, approximately 16% of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARM) were either 90-days delinquent or the lender had begun foreclosure proceedings, roughly triple the rate of 2005.[118] By January 2008, the delinquency rate had risen to 21%[119] and by May 2008 it was 25%.[120] According to RealtyTrac, the value of all outstanding residential mortgages, owed by U.S. households to purchase residences housing at most four families, was US$9.9 trillion as of year-end 2006, and US$10.6 trillion as of midyear 2008.[121] During 2007, lenders had begun foreclosure proceedings on nearly 1.3 million properties, a 79% increase over 2006.[122] This increased to 2.3 million in 2008, an 81% increase vs. 2007,[123] and again to 2.8 million in 2009, a 21% increase vs. 2008.[124] By August 2008, 9.2% of all U.S. mortgages outstanding were either delinquent or in foreclosure.[125] By September 2009, this had risen to 14.4%.[126] Between August 2007 and October 2008, 936,439 US residences completed foreclosure.[127] Foreclosures are concentrated in particular states both in terms of the number and rate of foreclosure filings.[128] Ten states accounted for 74% of the foreclosure filings during 2008; the top two (California and Florida) represented 41%. Nine states were above the national foreclosure rate average of 1.84% of households.[129] Mortgage fraud and predatory lendingEdit "The FBI defines mortgage fraud as 'the intentional misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission by an applicant or other interest parties, relied on by a lender or underwriter to provide funding for, to purchase, or to insure a mortgage loan.'"[130] In 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned of an "epidemic" in mortgage fraud, an important credit risk of nonprime mortgage lending, which, they said, could lead to "a problem that could have as much impact as the S&L crisis".[131][132][133][134] Despite this, the Bush administration prevented states from investigating and prosecuting predatory lenders by invoking a banking law from 1863 "to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative."[135] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in January 2011 that: "... mortgage fraud... flourished in an environment of collapsing lending standards and lax regulation. The number of suspicious activity reports – reports of possible financial crimes filed by depository banks and their affiliates – related to mortgage fraud grew 20-fold between 1996 and 2005 and then more than doubled again between 2005 and 2009. One study places the losses resulting from fraud on mortgage loans made between 2005 and 2007 at $112 billion. "Predatory lending describes unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices of some lenders during the loan origination process."Lenders made loans that they knew borrowers could not afford and that could cause massive losses to investors in mortgage securities."[69] Financial marketsEdit Boom and collapse of the shadow banking systemEdit Comparison of the growth of traditional banking and shadow banking[136] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in January 2011: "In the early part of the 20th century, we erected a series of protections – the Federal Reserve as a lender of last resort, federal deposit insurance, ample regulations – to provide a bulwark against the panics that had regularly plagued America's banking system in the 19th century. Yet, over the past 30-plus years, we permitted the growth of a shadow banking system – opaque and laden with short term debt – that rivaled the size of the traditional banking system. Key components of the market – for example, the multitrillion-dollar repo lending market, off-balance-sheet entities, and the use of over-the-counter derivatives – were hidden from view, without the protections we had constructed to prevent financial meltdowns. We had a 21st-century financial system with 19th-century safeguards."[69] In a June 2008 speech, President of the NY Federal Reserve Bank Timothy Geithner, who later became Secretary of the Treasury, placed significant blame for the freezing of credit markets on a "run" on the entities in the "parallel" banking system, also called the shadow banking system. These entities became critical to the credit markets underpinning the financial system, but were not subject to the same regulatory controls as depository banks. Further, these entities were vulnerable because they borrowed short-term in liquid markets to purchase long-term, illiquid and risky assets. This meant that disruptions in credit markets would make them subject to rapid deleveraging, selling their long-term assets at depressed prices.[26] Repo and other forms of shadow banking accounted for an estimated 60% of the "overall US banking system," according to Paul Krugman,.[137] Geithner described its "entities": "In early 2007, asset-backed commercial paper conduits, in structured investment vehicles, in auction-rate preferred securities, tender option bonds and variable rate demand notes, had a combined asset size of roughly $2.2 trillion. Assets financed overnight in triparty repo grew to $2.5 trillion. Assets held in hedge funds grew to roughly $1.8 trillion. The combined balance sheets of the then five major investment banks totaled $4 trillion. In comparison, the total assets of the top five bank holding companies in the United States at that point were just over $6 trillion, and total assets of the entire banking system were about $10 trillion." He stated that the "combined effect of these factors was a financial system vulnerable to self-reinforcing asset price and credit cycles."[26] Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman described the run on the shadow banking system as the "core of what happened" to cause the crisis. As the shadow banking system expanded to rival or even surpass conventional banking in importance, politicians and government officials should have realized that they were re-creating the kind of financial vulnerability that made the Great Depression possible – and they should have responded by extending regulations and the financial safety net to cover these new institutions. Influential figures should have proclaimed a simple rule: anything that does what a bank does, anything that has to be rescued in crises the way banks are, should be regulated like a bank. He referred to this lack of controls as "malign neglect."[138][139] The securitization markets supported by the shadow banking system started to close down in the spring of 2007 and nearly shut-down in the fall of 2008. More than a third of the private credit markets thus became unavailable as a source of funds.[140] According to the Brookings Institution, the traditional banking system does not have the capital to close this gap as of June 2009: "It would take a number of years of strong profits to generate sufficient capital to support that additional lending volume." The authors also indicate that some forms of securitization are "likely to vanish forever, having been an artifact of excessively loose credit conditions."[141] Economist Gary Gorton wrote in May 2009: Unlike the historical banking panics of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the current banking panic is a wholesale panic, not a retail panic. In the earlier episodes, depositors ran to their banks and demanded cash in exchange for their checking accounts. Unable to meet those demands, the banking system became insolvent. The current panic involved financial firms "running" on other financial firms by not renewing sale and repurchase agreements (repo) or increasing the repo margin ("haircut"), forcing massive deleveraging, and resulting in the banking system being insolvent.[25] Fed Chair Ben Bernanke stated in an interview with the FCIC during 2009 that 12 of the 13 largest U.S. financial institutions were at risk of failure during 2008. The FCIC report did not identify which of the 13 firms was not considered by Bernanke to be in danger of failure.[142] Economist Mark Zandi testified to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in January 2010: The securitization markets also remain impaired, as investors anticipate more loan losses. Investors are also uncertain about coming legal and accounting rule changes and regulatory reforms. Private bond issuance of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, and CDOs peaked in 2006 at close to $2 trillion...In 2009, private issuance was less than $150 billion, and almost all of it was asset-backed issuance supported by the Federal Reserve's TALF program to aid credit card, auto and small-business lenders. Issuance of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities and CDOs remains dormant.[143] The Economist reported in March 2010: "Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were non-banks that were crippled by a silent run among panicky overnight "repo" lenders, many of them money market funds uncertain about the quality of securitized collateral they were holding. Mass redemptions from these funds after Lehman's failure froze short-term funding for big firms."[144] SecuritizationEdit Borrowing under a securitization structure. IMF diagram of CDO and RMBS. Further information: Securitization and Mortgage-backed security Securitization – the bundling of bank loans to create tradeable bonds – started in the mortgage industry in the 1970s, when Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) began to pool relatively safe, conventional, "conforming" or "prime" mortgages, create "mortgage-backed securities" (MBS) from the pool, sell them to investors, guaranteeing these securities/bonds against default on the underlying mortgages.[6][145] This "originate-to-distribute" model had advantages over the old "originate-to-hold" model,[146] where a bank originated a loan to the borrower/homeowner and retained the credit (default) risk. Securitization removed the loans from a bank's books, enabling the bank to remain in compliance with capital requirement laws. More loans could be made with proceeds of the MBS sale. The liquidity of a national and even international mortgage market allowed capital to flow where mortgages were in demand and funding short. However, securitization created a moral hazard – the bank/institution making the loan no longer had to worry if the mortgage was paid off[147] – giving them incentive to process mortgage transactions but not to ensure their credit quality.[148][149] Bankers were no longer around to work out borrower problems and minimize defaults during the course of the mortgage.[150] With the high down payments and credit scores of the conforming mortgages used by GSE, this danger was minimal.[151] Investment banks however, wanted to enter the market and avoid competing with the GSEs.[147] They did so by developing mortgage-backed securities in the riskier non-conforming subprime and Alt-A market. Unlike the GSEs[152] the issuers generally did not guarantee the securities against default of the underlying mortgages.[6] What these "private label" or "non-agency" originators did do was to use "structured finance" to create securities. Structuring involved "slicing" the pooled mortgages into "tranches", each having a different priority in the stream of monthly or quarterly principal and interest stream.[153][154] Tranches were compared to "buckets" catching the "water" of principal and interest. More senior buckets didn't share water with those below until they were filled to the brim and overflowing.[155] This gave the top buckets/tranches considerable creditworthiness (in theory) that would earn the highest "triple A" credit ratings, making them salable to money market and pension funds that would not otherwise deal with subprime mortgage securities. To use up the MBS tranches lower in payback priority that could not be rated triple-A and that a conservative fixed income market would not buy, investment banks developed another security – known as the collateralized debt obligation (CDO). Although the CDO market was smaller, it was crucial because unless buyers were found for the non-triple-A or "mezzanine" tranches, it would not be profitable to make a mortgage-backed security in the first place.[156][157] These CDOs pooled the leftover BBB, A-, etc. rated tranches, and produced new tranches – 70%[158] to 80%[159] of which were rated triple A by rating agencies. The 20–30% remaining mezzanine tranches were sometimes bought up by other CDOs, to make so-called "CDO-Squared" securities which also produced tranches rated mostly triple A.[160] This process was later disparaged as "ratings laundering"[161] or a way of transforming "dross into gold"[162] by some business journalists, but was justified at the time by the belief that home prices would always rise.[163][164] The model used by underwriters, rating agencies and investors to estimate the probability of mortgage default was based on the history of credit default swaps, which unfortunately went back "less than a decade, a period when house prices soared".[165] In addition the model – which postulated that the correlation of default risks among loans in securitization pools could be measure in a simple, stable, tractable number, suitable for risk management or valuation[165] – also purported to show that the mortgages in CDO pools were well diversified or "uncorrelated". Defaults on mortgages in Orlando, for example, were thought to have no effect on – i.e. were uncorrelated with – the real estate market across the country in Laguna Beach. When prices corrected (i.e. the bubble collapsed), the resulting defaults were not only larger in number than predicted but far more correlated.[165] Still another innovative security criticized after the bubble burst was the synthetic CDO. Cheaper and easier to create than original "cash" CDOs, synthetics did not provide funding for housing, rather synthetic CDO-buying investors were in effect providing insurance (in the form of "credit default swaps") against mortgage default. The mortgages they insured were those in "cash" CDOs the synthetics "referenced". So instead of providing investors with interest and principal payments from MBS tranches, payments were the equivalent of insurance premiums from the insurance "buyers".[166] If the referenced CDOs defaulted, investors lost their investment, which was paid out to the insurance buyers.[167] Unlike true insurance, credit default swaps were not regulated to insure that providers had the reserves to pay settlements, or that buyers owned the property (MBSs) they were insuring, i.e. were not simply making a bet a security would default.[168] Because synthetics "referenced" another (cash) CDO, more than one – in fact numerous – synthetics could be made to reference the same original, multiplying the effect if a referenced security defaulted.[169][170] As with MBS and other CDOs, triple A ratings for "large chunks"[171] of synthetics were crucial to the securities' success, because of the buyer/investors' ignorance of the mortgage security market and trust in the credit rating agencies ratings.[172] Securitization began to take off in the mid-1990s. The total amount of mortgage-backed securities issued almost tripled between 1996 and 2007, to $7.3 trillion. The securitized share of subprime mortgages (i.e., those passed to third-party investors via MBS) increased from 54% in 2001, to 75% in 2006.[98] In the mid-2000s as the housing market was peaking, GSE securitization market share declined dramatically, while higher-risk subprime and Alt-A mortgage private label securitization grew sharply.[6] As mortgage defaults began to rise, it was among mortgages securitized by the private banks. GSE mortgages – securitized or not – continued to perform better than the rest of the market.[6][173] Picking up the slack for the dwindling cash CDO market[174] synthetics were the dominant form of CDO's by 2006,[175] valued "notionally"[176] at an estimated $5 trillion.[175] By the autumn of 2008, when the securitization market "seized up" and investors would "no longer lend at any price", securitized lending made up about $10 trillion of the roughly $25 trillion American credit market, (i.e. what "American homeowners, consumers, and corporations owed").[140][141] In February 2009, Ben Bernanke stated that securitization markets remained effectively shut, with the exception of conforming mortgages, which could be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.[177] According to economist A. Michael Spence: "when formerly uncorrelated risks shift and become highly correlated ... diversification models fail." "An important challenge going forward is to better understand these dynamics as the analytical underpinning of an early warning system with respect to financial instability."[178] Criticizing the argument that complex structured investment securitization was instrumental in the mortgage crisis, Paul Krugman points out that the Wall Street firms issuing the securities "kept the riskiest assets on their own books", and that neither of the equally disastrous bubbles in European housing or US commercial property used complex structured securities. Krugman does agree that it is "arguable is that financial innovation ... spread the bust to financial institutions around the world" and its inherent fragmentation of loans has made post-bubble "cleanup" through debt renegotiation extremely difficult.[137] Financial institution debt levels and incentivesEdit Leverage ratios of investment banks increased significantly between 2003 and 2007. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in January 2011 that: "From 1978 to 2007, the amount of debt held by the financial sector soared from $3 trillion to $36 trillion, more than doubling as a share of gross domestic product. The very nature of many Wall Street firms changed – from relatively staid private partnerships to publicly traded corporations taking greater and more diverse kinds of risks. By 2005, the 10 largest U.S. commercial banks held 55% of the industry's assets, more than double the level held in 1990. On the eve of the crisis in 2006, financial sector profits constituted 27% of all corporate profits in the United States, up from 15% in 1980."[69] Many financial institutions, investment banks in particular, issued large amounts of debt during 2004–07, and invested the proceeds in mortgage-backed securities (MBS), essentially betting that house prices would continue to rise, and that households would continue to make their mortgage payments. Borrowing at a lower interest rate and investing the proceeds at a higher interest rate is a form of financial leverage. This is analogous to an individual taking out a second mortgage on his residence to invest in the stock market. This strategy proved profitable during the housing boom, but resulted in large losses when house prices began to decline and mortgages began to default. Beginning in 2007, financial institutions and individual investors holding MBS also suffered significant losses from mortgage payment defaults and the resulting decline in the value of MBS.[179] A 2004 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision related to the net capital rule allowed US investment banks to issue substantially more debt, which was then used to purchase MBS. Over 2004–07, the top five US investment banks each significantly increased their financial leverage (see diagram), which increased their vulnerability to the declining value of MBSs. These five institutions reported over $4.1 trillion in debt for fiscal year 2007, about 30% of US nominal GDP for 2007. Further, the percentage of subprime mortgages originated to total originations increased from below 10% in 2001–03 to between 18–20% from 2004 to 2006, due in-part to financing from investment banks.[113][114] During 2008, three of the largest U.S. investment banks either went bankrupt (Lehman Brothers) or were sold at fire sale prices to other banks (Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch). These failures augmented the instability in the global financial system. The remaining two investment banks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, opted to become commercial banks, thereby subjecting themselves to more stringent regulation.[180][181] In the years leading up to the crisis, the top four U.S. depository banks moved an estimated $5.2 trillion in assets and liabilities off-balance sheet into special purpose vehicles or other entities in the shadow banking system. This enabled them to essentially bypass existing regulations regarding minimum capital ratios, thereby increasing leverage and profits during the boom but increasing losses during the crisis. New accounting guidance will require them to put some of these assets back onto their books during 2009, which will significantly reduce their capital ratios. One news agency estimated this amount to be between $500 billion and $1 trillion. This effect was considered as part of the stress tests performed by the government during 2009.[182] Martin Wolf wrote in June 2009: "...an enormous part of what banks did in the early part of this decade – the off-balance-sheet vehicles, the derivatives and the 'shadow banking system' itself – was to find a way round regulation."[183] The New York State Comptroller's Office has said that in 2006, Wall Street executives took home bonuses totaling $23.9 billion. "Wall Street traders were thinking of the bonus at the end of the year, not the long-term health of their firm. The whole system – from mortgage brokers to Wall Street risk managers – seemed tilted toward taking short-term risks while ignoring long-term obligations. The most damning evidence is that most of the people at the top of the banks didn't really understand how those [investments] worked."[59][184] The incentive compensation of traders was focused on fees generated from assembling financial products, rather than the performance of those products and profits generated over time. Their bonuses were heavily skewed towards cash rather than stock and not subject to "claw-back" (recovery of the bonus from the employee by the firm) in the event the MBS or CDO created did not perform. In addition, the increased risk (in the form of financial leverage) taken by the major investment banks was not adequately factored into the compensation of senior executives.[185] Credit default swapsEdit Credit default swaps (CDS) are financial instruments used as a hedge and protection for debtholders, in particular MBS investors, from the risk of default, or by speculators to profit from default. As the net worth of banks and other financial institutions deteriorated because of losses related to subprime mortgages, the likelihood increased that those providing the protection would have to pay their counterparties. This created uncertainty across the system, as investors wondered which companies would be required to pay to cover mortgage defaults. Like all swaps and other financial derivatives, CDS may either be used to hedge risks (specifically, to insure creditors against default) or to profit from speculation. The volume of CDS outstanding increased 100-fold from 1998 to 2008, with estimates of the debt covered by CDS contracts, as of November 2008, ranging from US$33 to $47 trillion[citation needed]. CDS are lightly regulated, largely because of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. As of 2008, there was no central clearing house to honor CDS in the event a party to a CDS proved unable to perform his obligations under the CDS contract. Required disclosure of CDS-related obligations has been criticized as inadequate. Insurance companies such as American International Group (AIG), MBIA, and Ambac faced ratings downgrades because widespread mortgage defaults increased their potential exposure to CDS losses. These firms had to obtain additional funds (capital) to offset this exposure. AIG's having CDSs insuring $440 billion of MBS resulted in its seeking and obtaining a Federal government bailout.[186] The monoline insurance companies went out of business in 2008–2009. When investment bank Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September 2008, there was much uncertainty as to which financial firms would be required to honor the CDS contracts on its $600 billion of bonds outstanding.[187][188]Merrill Lynch's large losses in 2008 were attributed in part to the drop in value of its unhedged portfolio of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) after AIG ceased offering CDS on Merrill's CDOs. The loss of confidence of trading partners in Merrill Lynch's solvency and its ability to refinance its short-term debt led to its acquisition by the Bank of America.[189][190] Economist Joseph Stiglitz summarized how credit default swaps contributed to the systemic meltdown: "With this complicated intertwining of bets of great magnitude, no one could be sure of the financial position of anyone else-or even of one's own position. Not surprisingly, the credit markets froze."[191] Author Michael Lewis wrote that CDS enabled speculators to stack bets on the same mortgage bonds and CDO's. This is analogous to allowing many persons to buy insurance on the same house. Speculators that bought CDS insurance were betting that significant defaults would occur, while the sellers (such as AIG) bet they would not. A theoretically infinite amount could be wagered on the same housing-related securities, provided buyers and sellers of the CDS could be found.[192] Derivatives such as CDS were unregulated or barely regulated. Several sources have noted the failure of the US government to supervise or even require transparency of the financial instruments known as derivatives.[193][194][195] A 2008 investigative article in the Washington Post found that leading government officials at the time (Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt) vehemently opposed any regulation of derivatives. In 1998 Brooksley E. Born, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, put forth a policy paper asking for feedback from regulators, lobbyists, legislators on the question of whether derivatives should be reported, sold through a central facility, or whether capital requirements should be required of their buyers. Greenspan, Rubin, and Levitt pressured her to withdraw the paper and Greenspan persuaded Congress to pass a resolution preventing CFTC from regulating derivatives for another six months – when Born's term of office would expire.[194] Ultimately, it was the collapse of a specific kind of derivative, the mortgage-backed security, that triggered the economic crisis of 2008.[195] In addition, Chicago Public Radio, Huffington Post, and ProPublica reported in April 2010 that market participants, including a hedge fund called Magnetar Capital, encouraged the creation of CDO's containing low quality mortgages, so they could bet against them using CDS. NPR reported that Magnetar encouraged investors to purchase CDO's while simultaneously betting against them, without disclosing the latter bet.[170][196][197] Instruments called synthetic CDO, which are portfolios of credit default swaps, were also involved in allegations by the SEC against Goldman-Sachs in April 2010.[198] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in January 2011 that CDS contributed significantly to the crisis. Companies were able to sell protection to investors against the default of mortgage-backed securities, helping to launch and expand the market for new, complex instruments such as CDO's. This further fueled the housing bubble. They also amplified the losses from the collapse of the housing bubble by allowing multiple bets on the same securities and helped spread these bets throughout the financial system. Companies selling protection, such as AIG, were not required to set aside sufficient capital to cover their obligations when significant defaults occurred. Because many CDS were not traded on exchanges, the obligations of key financial institutions became hard to measure, creating uncertainty in the financial system.[69] Inaccurate credit ratingsEdit Main article: Credit rating agencies and the subprime crisis MBS credit rating downgrades, by quarter Credit rating agencies – firms which rate debt instruments/securities according to the debtor's ability to pay lenders back – have come under scrutiny during and after the financial crisis for having given investment-grade ratings to MBSs and CDOs based on risky subprime mortgage loans that later defaulted. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed by investors against the "Big Three" rating agencies – Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings.[199] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC)[200] concluded the "failures" of the Big Three rating agencies were "essential cogs in the wheel of financial destruction" and "key enablers of the financial meltdown".[201] Economist Joseph Stiglitz called them "one of the key culprits" of the financial crisis.[202] Others called their ratings "catastrophically misleading", (the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner[203]), their performance "horrendous" (The Economist magazine[204]). There are indications that some involved in rating subprime-related securities knew at the time that the rating process was faulty.[205][206] The position of the three agencies "between the issuers and the investors of securities"[207] "transformed" them into "key" players in the housing bubble and financial crisis according to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report. Most investors in the fixed income market had no experience with the mortgage business – let alone dealing with the complexity of pools of mortgages and tranche priority of MBS and CDO securities[207] – and were simply looking for an independent party who could rate securities.[208] The putatively independent parties meanwhile were paid "handsome fees" by investment banks "to obtain the desired ratings", according to one expert.[208] In addition, a large section of the debt securities market – many money markets and pension funds – were restricted in their bylaws to holding only the safest securities – i.e securities the rating agencies designated "triple-A". Hence non-prime securities could not be sold without ratings by (usually two of) the three agencies.[209] From 2000 to 2007, one of the largest agencies – Moody's – rated nearly 45,000 mortgage-related securities[210] – more than half of those it rated – as triple-A.[211] By December 2008, there were over $11 trillion structured finance securities outstanding in the U.S. bond market debt.[210] But as the boom matured, mortgage underwriting standards deteriorated. By 2007 an estimated $3.2 trillion in loans were made to homebuyers and owners with bad credit and undocumented incomes, bundled into MBSs and CDOs, and given top ratings[212] to appeal to global investors. As these mortgages began to default, the three agencies were compelled to go back and redo their ratings. Between autumn of 2007 and the middle of 2008, agencies downgraded nearly $2 trillion in MBS tranches.[213] By the end of 2008, 80% of the CDOs by value[214] rated "triple-A" were downgraded to junk.[215][216] Bank writedowns and losses on these investments totaled $523 billion.[212][217][218] Critics such as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission argue the mistaken credit ratings stemmed from "flawed computer models, the pressure from financial firms that paid for the ratings, the relentless drive for market share, the lack of resources to do the job despite record profits, and the absence of meaningful public oversight".[69] Structured investment was very profitable to the agencies and by 2007 accounted for just under half of Moody's total ratings revenue and all of the revenue growth.[219] But profits were not guaranteed, and issuers played the agencies off one another, 'shopping' around to find the best ratings, sometimes openly threatening to cut off business after insufficiently generous ratings.[220] Thus there was a conflict of interest between accommodating clients – for whom higher ratings meant higher earnings – and accurately rating the debt for the benefit of the debt buyer/investors – who provided zero revenue to the agencies.[221] Despite the profitability of the three big credit agencies – Moody's operating margins were consistently over 50%, higher than famously successful Exxon Mobil or Microsoft[222] – salaries and bonuses for non-management were significantly lower than at Wall Street banks, and its employees complained of overwork. This incentivized agency rating analysts to seek employment at those Wall Street banks who were issuing mortgage securities, and who were particularly interested in the analysts' knowledge of what criteria their former employers used to rate securities.[223][224] Inside knowledge of interest to security issuers eager to find loopholes included the fact that rating agencies looked at the average credit score of a pool of borrowers, but not how dispersed it was; that agencies ignored borrower's household income or length of credit history (explaining the large numbers of low income immigrants given mortgages—people "who had never failed to repay a debt, because they had never been given a loan"); that agencies were indifferent to credit worthiness issues of adjustable-rate mortgages with low teaser rates, "silent second" mortgages, or no-documentation mortgages.[225] As of 2010, virtually all of the investigations of rating agencies, criminal as well as civil, are in their early stages.[226] In New York, state prosecutors are examining whether eight banks[227] duped the credit ratings agencies into inflating the grades of subprime-linked investments.[228] In the dozens of suits filed against them by investors involving claims of inaccurate ratings[199] the rating agencies have defended themselves using the First Amendment defense—that a credit rating is an opinion protected as free speech.[229] In 2013, McClatchy Newspapers found that "little competition has emerged" since the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006 was passed "in rating the kinds of complex home-mortgage securities whose implosion led to the 2007 financial crisis". The Big Three's market share of outstanding credit rating has barely shrunk, moving from 98% to 97%.[230] Governmental policiesEdit Main article: Government policies and the subprime mortgage crisis U.S. Subprime lending expanded dramatically 2004–2006. Government over-regulation, failed regulation and deregulation have all been claimed as causes of the crisis. Increasing home ownership has been the goal of several presidents including Roosevelt, Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush.[231] Decreased regulation of financial institutionsEdit Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief. Alan Greenspan[232] Several steps were taken to reduce the regulation applied to banking institutions in the years leading up to the crisis. Further, major investment banks which collapsed during the crisis were not subject to the regulations applied to depository banks. In testimony before Congress both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Alan Greenspan claimed failure in allowing the self-regulation of investment banks.[233][234] In 1982, Congress passed the Alternative Mortgage Transactions Parity Act (AMTPA), which allowed non-federally chartered housing creditors to write adjustable-rate mortgages. This bi-partisan legislation was, according to the Urban Institute, intended to "increase the volume of loan products that reduced the up-front costs to borrowers in order to make homeownership more affordable."[235] Among the new mortgage loan types created and gaining in popularity in the early 1980s were adjustable-rate, option adjustable-rate, balloon-payment and interest-only mortgages. Subsequent widespread abuses of predatory lending occurred with the use of adjustable-rate mortgages.[41][236] Approximately 90% of subprime mortgages issued in 2006 were adjustable-rate mortgages.[4] The Glass-Steagall Act was enacted after the Great Depression. It separated commercial banks and investment banks, in part to avoid potential conflicts of interest between the lending activities of the former and rating activities of the latter. In 1999 Glass-Steagall was repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Economist Joseph Stiglitz criticized the repeal of Glass Steagall because, in his opinion, it enabled the risk-taking culture of investment banking to dominate the more conservative commercial banking culture, leading to increased levels of risk-taking and leverage during the boom period.[237] President Bill Clinton, who signed the legislation, dismissed its connection to the subprime mortgage crisis, stating (in 2008): "I don't see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis."[238] The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 was bi-partisan legislation that formally exempted derivatives from regulation, supervision, trading on established exchanges, and capital reserve requirements for major participants. It "provided a legal safe harbor for treatment already in effect."[239] Concerns that counterparties to derivative deals would be unable to pay their obligations caused pervasive uncertainty during the crisis. Particularly relevant to the crisis are credit default swaps (CDS), a derivative in which Party A pays Party B what is essentially an insurance premium, in exchange for payment should Party C default on its obligations. Warren Buffett famously referred to derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" in early 2003.[240][241] Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, who many economists blamed for the financial crisis, testified in October 2008 that he had trusted free markets to self-correct and had not anticipated the risk of reduced lending standards."Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief."[232] Some analysts believe the subprime mortgage crisis was due, in part, to a 2004 decision of the SEC that affected 5 large investment banks. The critics believe that changes in the capital reserve calculation rules enabled investment banks to substantially increase the level of debt they were taking on, fueling the growth in mortgage-backed securities supporting subprime mortgages. These banks dramatically increased their risk taking from 2003 to 2007. By the end of 2007, the largest five U.S. investment banks had over $4 trillion in debt with high ratios of debt to equity, meaning only a small decline in the value of their assets would render them insolvent.[242][243] However, in an April 9, 2009 speech, Erik Sirri, then Director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, argued that the regulatory weaknesses in leverage restrictions originated in the late 1970s: "The Commission did not undo any leverage restrictions in 2004," nor did it intend to make a substantial reduction.[244] Policies to promote affordable housingEdit Several administrations, both Democratic and Republican, advocated affordable housing policies in the years leading up to the crisis. The Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 established, for the first time, an affordable housing loan purchase mandate for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a mandate to be regulated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Initially, the 1992 legislation required that 30 percent or more of Fannie's and Freddie's loan purchases be related to affordable housing. However, HUD was given the power to set future requirements. During the later part of the Clinton Administration, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced "new regulations to provide $2.4 trillion in mortgages for affordable housing for 28.1 million families, which increased the required percentage of mortgage loans for low- and moderate-income families that finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must buy annually from the then current 42 percent of their total purchases to a new high of 50 percent.[245] Eventually (under the Bush Administration) a 56 percent minimum was established.[246] Additionally, in 2003, "The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.".[247] "The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream", was compiled in 1995 by Henry Cisneros, President Clinton's HUD Secretary. This 100-page document represented the viewpoints of HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, leaders of the housing industry, various banks, numerous activist organizations such as ACORN and La Raza, and representatives from several state and local governments."[248] In 2001, the independent research company, Graham Fisher & Company, stated: "While the underlying initiatives of the [strategy] were broad in content, the main theme … was the relaxation of credit standards."[249] "Members of the Right tried to blame the seeming market failures on government; in their mind the government effort to push people with low incomes into home ownership was the source of the problem. Widespread as this belief has become in conservative circles, virtually all serious attempts to evaluate the evidence have concluded that there is little merit in this view." Joseph Stiglitz[250] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (majority report), Federal Reserve economists, and several academic researchers have stated that government affordable housing policies were not the major cause of the financial crisis.[6][116] They also state that Community Reinvestment Act loans outperformed other "subprime" mortgages, and GSE mortgages performed better than private label securitizations. Community Reinvestment ActEdit The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was originally enacted under President Jimmy Carter in 1977 in an effort to encourage banks to halt the practice of lending discrimination. In 1995 the Clinton Administration issued regulations that added numerical guidelines, urged lending flexibility, and instructed bank examiners to evaluate a bank's responsiveness to community activists (such as ACORN) when deciding whether to approve bank merger or expansion requests.[251] Critics claim that the 1995 changes to CRA signaled to banks that relaxed lending standards were appropriate and could minimize potential risk of governmental sanctions. Conservatives and libertarians have debated the possible effects of the CRA, with detractors claiming that the Act encouraged lending to uncreditworthy borrowers,[252][253][254][255] and defenders claiming a thirty-year history of lending without increased risk.[256][257][258][259] Detractors also claim that amendments to the CRA in the mid-1990s, raised the amount of mortgages issued to otherwise unqualified low-income borrowers, and allowed the securitization of CRA-regulated mortgages, even though a fair number of them were subprime.[260][261] In its "Conclusions" submitted January 2011, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported that "the CRA was not a significant factor in subprime lending or the crisis. Many subprime lenders were not subject to the CRA. Research indicates only 6% of high-cost loans—a proxy for subprime loans—had any connection to the law. Loans made by CRA-regulated lenders in the neighborhoods in which they were required to lend were half as likely to default as similar loans made in the same neighborhoods by independent mortgage originators not subject to the law."[69] Critics claim that the use of the high-interest-rate proxy distorts results because government programs generally promote low-interest rate loans—even when the loans are to borrowers who are clearly subprime.[262] However, several economists maintain that Community Reinvestment Act loans outperformed other "subprime" mortgages, and GSE mortgages performed better than private label securitizations.[6][116] However, economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that banks undergoing CRA-related regulatory exams took additional mortgage lending risk. The authors of a study entitled "Did the Community Reinvestment Act Lead to Risky Lending?" compared "the lending behavior of banks undergoing CRA exams within a given census tract in a given month (the treatment group) to the behavior of banks operating in the same census tract-month that did not face these exams (the control group). This comparison clearly indicates that adherence to the CRA led to riskier lending by banks." They concluded: "The evidence shows that around CRA examinations, when incentives to conform to CRA standards are particularly high, banks not only increase lending rates but also appear to originate loans that are markedly riskier." Loan delinquency averaged 15% higher in the treatment group than the control group one year after mortgage origination.[263] State and local governmental programsEdit As part of the 1995 National Homeownership Strategy, HUD advocated greater involvement of state and local organizations in the promotion of affordable housing.[264] In addition, it promoted the use of low or no-down payment loans and second, unsecured loans to the borrower to pay their down payments (if any) and closing costs.[265] This idea manifested itself in "silent second" loans that became extremely popular in several states such as California, and in scores of cities such as San Francisco.[266] Using federal funds and their own funds, these states and cities offered borrowers loans that would defray the cost of the down payment. The loans were called "silent" because the primary lender was not supposed to know about them. A Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (affiliated with HUD) publicity sheet explicitly described the desired secrecy: "[The NRC affiliates] hold the second mortgages. Instead of going to the family, the monthly voucher is paid to [the NRC affiliates]. In this way the voucher is "invisible" to the traditional lender and the family (emphasis added)[267] Role of Fannie Mae and Freddie MacEdit Franklin Raines earned $90 million in salary and bonuses while he was head of Fannie Mae.[268] Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government sponsored enterprises (GSE) that purchase mortgages, buy and sell mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and guarantee nearly half of the mortgages in the U.S. A variety of political and competitive pressures resulted in the GSEs ramping up their purchase and guarantee of risky mortgages in 2005 and 2006, just as the housing market was peaking.[269][270] Fannie and Freddie were both under political pressure to expand purchases of higher-risk affordable housing mortgage types, and under significant competitive pressure from large investment banks and mortgage lenders.[271] As early as February 2004, in testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Alan Greenspan (chairman of the Federal Reserve) raised serious concerns regarding the systemic financial risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac represented. He implored Congress to take actions to avert a crisis.[272] The GSEs dispute these studies and dismissed Greenspan's testimony. Nine of the ten members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in 2011 that Fannie and Freddie "contributed to the crisis, but were not a primary cause",[273] or that since "credit spreads declined not just for housing, but also for other asset classes like commercial real estate ... problems with U.S. housing policy or markets [could] not by themselves explain the U.S. housing bubble."[274] According to the Commission, GSE mortgage securities essentially maintained their value throughout the crisis and did not contribute to the significant financial firm losses that were central to the financial crisis. The GSEs participated in the expansion of subprime and other risky mortgages, but they followed rather than led Wall Street and other lenders into subprime lending.[69] Several studies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and several academic institutions summarized by economist Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute, indicate Fannie and Freddie were not to blame for the crisis.[275] A 2011 statistical comparisons of regions of the US which were subject to GSE regulations with regions that were not, done by the Federal Reserve, found that GSEs played no significant role in the subprime crisis.[276] In 2008, David Goldstein and Kevin G. Hall reported that more than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages came from private lending institutions in 2006, and the share of subprime loans insured by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac decreased as the bubble got bigger (from a high of insuring 48 percent to insuring 24 percent of all subprime loans in 2006).[277] In 2008, another source found estimates by some analysts that Fannie's share of the subprime mortgage-backed securities market dropped from a peak of 44% in 2003 to 22% in 2005, before rising to 33% in 2007.[271] Whether GSEs played a small role in the crisis because they were legally barred from engaging in subprime lending is disputed.[278] Economist Russell Roberts[279] cites a June 2008 Washington Post article which stated that "[f]rom 2004 to 2006, the two [GSEs] purchased $434 billion in securities backed by subprime loans, creating a market for more such lending."[280] Furthermore, a 2004 HUD report admitted that while trading securities that were backed by subprime mortgages was something that the GSEs officially disavowed, they nevertheless participated in the market.[281] Insofar as Fannie and Freddie did purchase substandard loans, some analysts question whether government mandates for affordable housing were the motivation. In December 2011 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives, accusing them of misleading investors about risks of subprime-mortgage loans and about the amount of subprime mortgage loans they held in portfolio.[282] According to one analyst, "The SEC's facts paint a picture in which it wasn't high-minded government mandates that did the GSEs wrong, but rather the monomaniacal focus of top management on marketshare. With marketshare came bonuses and with bonuses came risk-taking, understood or not."[283] However, there is evidence suggesting that governmental housing policies were a motivational factor. Daniel H. Mudd, the former CEO of Fannie Mae, stated: "We were afraid that lenders would be selling products we weren't buying and Congress would feel like we weren't fulfilling our mission." Another senior Fannie Mae executive stated: "Everybody understood that we were now buying loans that we would have previously rejected, and that the models were telling us that we were charging way too little, but our mandate was to stay relevant and to serve low-income borrowers. So that's what we did."[284] In his lone dissent to the majority and minority opinions of the FCIC, Peter J. Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) blamed U.S. housing policy, including the actions of Fannie and Freddie, primarily for the crisis, writing: "When the bubble began to deflate in mid-2007, the low quality and high risk loans engendered by government policies failed in unprecedented numbers. The effect of these defaults was exacerbated by the fact that few if any investors – including housing market analysts – understood at the time that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had been acquiring large numbers of subprime and other high risk loans in order to meet HUD's affordable housing goals." His dissent relied heavily on the research of fellow AEI member Edward Pinto, the former Chief Credit Officer of Fannie Mae. Pinto estimated that by early 2008 there were 27 million higher-risk, "non-traditional" mortgages (defined as subprime and Alt-A) outstanding valued at $4.6 trillion. Of these, Fannie & Freddie held or guaranteed 12 million mortgages valued at $1.8 trillion. Government entities held or guaranteed 19.2 million or $2.7 trillion of such mortgages total.[285] One counter-argument to Wallison and Pinto's analysis is that the credit bubble was global and also affected the U.S. commercial real estate market, a scope beyond U.S. government housing policy pressures. The three Republican authors of the dissenting report to the FCIC majority opinion wrote in January 2011: "Credit spreads declined not just for housing, but also for other asset classes like commercial real estate. This tells us to look to the credit bubble as an essential cause of the U.S. housing bubble. It also tells us that problems with U.S. housing policy or markets do not by themselves explain the U.S. housing bubble."[286] Economist Paul Krugman wrote in January 2010 that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, CRA, or predatory lending were not primary causes of the bubble/bust in residential real estate because there was a bubble of similar magnitude in commercial real estate in America.[287] Countering the analysis of Krugman and members of the FCIC, Peter Wallison argues that the crisis was caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble that was supported largely by low or no-down-payment loans, which was uniquely the case for U.S. residential housing loans. He states: "It is not true that every bubble – even a large bubble – has the potential to cause a financial crisis when it deflates." As an example, Wallison notes that other developed countries had "large bubbles during the 1997–2007 period" but "the losses associated with mortgage delinquencies and defaults when these bubbles deflated were far lower than the losses suffered in the United States when the 1997–2007 [bubble] deflated."[288][288] Other analysis calls into question the validity of comparing the residential loan crisis to the commercial loan crisis. After researching the default of commercial loans during the financial crisis, Xudong An and Anthony B. Sanders reported (in December 2010): "We find limited evidence that substantial deterioration in CMBS [commercial mortgage-backed securities] loan underwriting occurred prior to the crisis."[289] Other analysts support the contention that the crisis in commercial real estate and related lending took place after the crisis in residential real estate. Business journalist Kimberly Amadeo wrote "The first signs of decline in residential real estate occurred in 2006. Three years later, commercial real estate started feeling the effects."[290] Denice A. Gierach, a real estate attorney and CPA, wrote: ...most of the commercial real estate loans were good loans destroyed by a really bad economy. In other words, the borrowers did not cause the loans to go bad, it was the economy.[291] A second counter-argument to Wallison's dissent is that the definition of "non-traditional mortgages" used in Pinto's analysis overstated the number of risky mortgages in the system by including Alt-A, which was not necessarily high-risk. Krugman explained in July 2011 that the data provided by Pinto significantly overstated the number of subprime loans, citing the work of economist Mike Konczal: "As Konczal says, all of this stuff relies on a form of three-card monte: you talk about 'subprime and other high-risk' loans, lumping subprime with other loans that are not, it turns out, anywhere near as risky as actual subprime; then use this essentially fake aggregate to make it seem as if Fannie/Freddie were actually at the core of the problem."[292] Other contributing factorsEdit Policies of central banksEdit Federal funds rate and various mortgage rates Central banks manage monetary policy and may target the rate of inflation. They have some authority over commercial banks and possibly other financial institutions. They are less concerned with avoiding asset price bubbles, such as the housing bubble and dot-com bubble. Central banks have generally chosen to react after such bubbles burst so as to minimize collateral damage to the economy, rather than trying to prevent or stop the bubble itself. This is because identifying an asset bubble and determining the proper monetary policy to deflate it are matters of debate among economists.[293][294] Some market observers have been concerned that Federal Reserve actions could give rise to moral hazard.[42] A Government Accountability Office critic said that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's rescue of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998 would encourage large financial institutions to believe that the Federal Reserve would intervene on their behalf if risky loans went sour because they were "too big to fail."[295] A contributing factor to the rise in house prices was the Federal Reserve's lowering of interest rates early in the decade. From 2000 to 2003, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate target from 6.5% to 1.0%.[296] This was done to soften the effects of the collapse of the dot-com bubble and of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and to combat the perceived risk of deflation.[293] The Fed believed that interest rates could be lowered safely primarily because the rate of inflation was low; it disregarded other important factors. According to Richard W. Fisher, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Fed's interest rate policy during the early 2000s (decade) was misguided, because measured inflation in those years was below true inflation, which led to a monetary policy that contributed to the housing bubble.[297] Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan — both former chairmen of the Federal Reserve — disagree, arguing decisions on purchasing a home depends on long-term interest rates on mortgages not the short-term rates controlled by the Fed. According to Greenspan, "between 1971 and 2002, the fed funds rate and the mortgage rate moved in lock-step," but when the Fed started to raise rates in 2004,[298][299][300] mortgage rates diverged, continuing to fall (or at least rise) for another year (see "Fed Funds Rate & Mortgage Rates" graph). Construction of new homes didn't peak until January 2006.[301] Bernanke speculates that a world wide "saving glut" pushed capital or savings into the United States, keeping long-term interest rates low and independent of Central Bank action.[302] Agreeing with Fisher that the low interest rate policy of the Greenspan Fed both allowed and motivated investors to seek out risk investments offering higher returns, is finance economist Raghuram Rajan who argues that the underlying causes of the American economy's tendency to go "from bubble to bubble" fueled by unsustainable monetary stimulation, are the "weak safety nets" for the unemployed, which made "the US political system ... acutely sensitive to job growth";[303] and attempts to compensate for the stagnant income of the middle and lower classes with easy credit to boost their consumption.[304] Economist Thomas Sowell wrote that the Fed's decision to steadily raise interest rates was a key factor that ended the housing bubble. The Fed raised rates from the unusually low level of one percent in 2004 to a more typical 5.25% in 2006. By driving mortgage rates higher, the Fed "made monthly mortgage payments more expensive and therefore reduced the demand for housing." He referred to the Fed action as the "nudge" that collapsed the "house of cards" created by lax lending standards, affordable housing policies, and the preceding period of low interest rates.[52] Mark-to-market accounting ruleEdit Main article: Fair value accounting and the subprime mortgage crisis Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair William Isaac placed much of the blame for the subprime mortgage crisis on the Securities and Exchange Commission and its fair-value accounting rules, especially the requirement for banks to mark their assets to market, particularly mortgage-backed securities.[305] Whether or not this is true has been the subject of ongoing debate.[306][307] The debate arises because this accounting rule requires companies to adjust the value of marketable securities (such as the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) at the center of the crisis) to their market value. The intent of the standard is to help investors understand the value of these assets at a point in time, rather than just their historical purchase price. Because the market for these assets is distressed, it is difficult to sell many MBS at other than prices which may (or may not) be reflective of market stresses, which may be below the value that the mortgage cash flow related to the MBS would merit. As initially interpreted by companies and their auditors, the typically lower sale value was used as the market value rather than the cash flow value. Many large financial institutions recognized significant losses during 2007 and 2008 as a result of marking-down MBS asset prices to market value. Globalization, technology and the trade deficitEdit U.S. current account or trade deficit through 2012 In 2005, Ben Bernanke addressed the implications of the United States's high and rising current account deficit, resulting from U.S. investment exceeding its savings, or imports exceeding exports.[308] Between 1996 and 2004, the U.S. current account deficit increased by $650 billion, from 1.5% to 5.8% of GDP. The U.S. attracted a great deal of foreign investment, mainly from the emerging economies in Asia and oil-exporting nations. The balance of payments identity requires that a country (such as the U.S.) running a current account deficit also have a capital account (investment) surplus of the same amount. Foreign investors had these funds to lend, either because they had very high personal savings rates (as high as 40% in China), or because of high oil prices. Bernanke referred to this as a "saving glut"[302] that may have pushed capital into the United States, a view differing from that of some other economists, who view such capital as having been pulled into the U.S. by its high consumption levels. In other words, a nation cannot consume more than its income unless it sells assets to foreigners, or foreigners are willing to lend to it. Alternatively, if a nation wishes to increase domestic investment in plant and equipment, it will also increase its level of imports to maintain balance if it has a floating exchange rate. Regardless of the push or pull view, a "flood" of funds (capital or liquidity) reached the U.S. financial market. Foreign governments supplied funds by purchasing U.S. Treasury bonds and thus avoided much of the direct impact of the crisis. American households, on the other hand, used funds borrowed from foreigners to finance consumption or to bid up the prices of housing and financial assets. Financial institutions invested foreign funds in mortgage-backed securities. American housing and financial assets dramatically declined in value after the housing bubble burst.[309][310] Economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote in October 2011 that the recession and high unemployment of the 2009–2011 period was years in the making and driven by: unsustainable consumption; high manufacturing productivity outpacing demand thereby increasing unemployment; income inequality that shifted income from those who tended to spend it (i.e., the middle class) to those who do not (i.e., the wealthy); and emerging market's buildup of reserves (to the tune of $7.6 trillion by 2011) which was not spent. These factors all led to a "massive" shortfall in aggregate demand, which was "papered over" by demand related to the housing bubble until it burst.[311] Subprime mortgage crisis phasesEdit January 2007 to March 2008Edit Further information: List of writedowns due to subprime crisis Securitization markets were impaired during the crisis. Financial market stresses became apparent during 2007 that resulted in sizable losses across the financial system, the bankruptcy of over 100 mortgage lenders and the emergency sale of investment bank Bear Stearns in March 2008 to depository bank JP Morgan Chase. Some writers began calling the events in the financial markets during this period the "Subprime Mortgage Crisis" or the "Mortgage crisis".[179][312] As U.S. housing prices began to fall from their 2006 peak, global investors became less willing to invest in mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The crisis began to affect the financial sector in February 2007, when HSBC, one of the world's largest banks, wrote down its holdings of subprime-related mortgage securities by $10.5 billion, the first major subprime related loss to be reported.[313] By April 2007, over 50 mortgage companies had declared bankruptcy, many of which had specialized in subprime mortgages, the largest of which was New Century Financial.[314] At least 100 mortgage companies either shut down, suspended operations or were sold during 2007.[315] These mortgage companies made money on the origination and sale of mortgages, rather than interest from holding the mortgage. They had relied on continuing access to this global pool of investor capital to continue their operations; when investor capital dried-up, they were forced into bankruptcy. Other parts of the shadow banking system also encountered difficulty. Legal entities known as structured investment vehicles (SIV) and hedge funds had borrowed from investors and bought MBS. When mortgage defaults rose along with the fall in housing prices, the value of the MBS declined. Investors demanded that these entities put up additional collateral or be forced to pay back the investors immediately, a form of margin call. This resulted in further sales of MBS, which lowered MBS prices further. This dynamic of margin call and price reductions contributed to the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds in July 2007, an event which economist Mark Zandi referred to as "arguably the proximate catalyst" of the crisis in financial markets.[4] On August 9, 2007 French bank BNP Paribas announced that it was halting redemptions on three investment funds due to subprime problems, another "beginning point" of the crisis to some observers.[316][317] Investment banks such as Bear Stearns had legal obligations to provide financial support to these entities, which created a cash drain. Bear Stearns reported the first quarterly loss in its history during November 2007 and obtained additional financing from a Chinese sovereign wealth fund. Investment banks Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley had also obtained additional capital from sovereign wealth funds in Asia and the Middle East during late 2007.[312] The major investment banks had also increased their own borrowing and investing as the bubble expanded, taking on additional risk in the search for profit. For example, as of November 30, 2006, Bear Stearns reported $383.6 billion in liabilities and $11.8 billion in equity, a leverage ratio of approximately 33.[318] This high leverage ratio meant that only a 3% reduction in the value of its assets would render it insolvent. Unable to withstand the combination of high leverage, reduced access to capital, loss in the value of its MBS securities portfolio, and claims from its hedge funds, Bear Stearns collapsed during March 2008. Historian Robin Blackburn wrote: "The Wall Street investment banks and brokerages hemorrhaged $175 billion of capital in the period July 2007 to March 2008, and Bear Stearns, the fifth largest, was 'rescued' in March, at a fire-sale price, by JP Morgan Chase with the help of $29 billion of guarantees from the Federal Reserve."[179] April to December 2008Edit The TED spread (the difference between the interest rates on interbank loans and on the safer short-term U.S. government debt) – an indicator of credit risk – increased dramatically during September 2008. Further information: Indirect economic effects of the subprime mortgage crisis Financial market conditions continued to worsen during 2008. By August 2008, financial firms around the globe had written down their holdings of subprime related securities by US$501 billion.[319] The IMF estimated that financial institutions around the globe would eventually have to write off $1.5 trillion of their holdings of subprime MBSs. About $750 billion in such losses had been recognized as of November 2008. These losses wiped out much of the capital of the world banking system. Banks headquartered in nations that have signed the Basel Accords must have so many cents of capital for every dollar of credit extended to consumers and businesses. Thus the massive reduction in bank capital just described has reduced the credit available to businesses and households.[320] The crisis hit a critical point in September 2008 with the failure, buyout or bailout of the largest entities in the U.S. shadow banking system. Investment bank Lehman Brothers failed, while Merrill Lynch was purchased by Bank of America. Investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley obtained depository bank holding charters, which gave them access to emergency lines of credit from the Federal Reserve.[321] Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the federal government. Insurance giant AIG, which had sold insurance-like protection for mortgage-backed securities, did not have the capital to honor its commitments; U.S. taxpayers covered its obligations instead in a bailout that exceeded $100 billion.[322] Further, there was the equivalent of a bank run on other parts of the shadow system, which severely disrupted the ability of non-financial institutions to obtain the funds to run their daily operations. During a one-week period in September 2008, $170 billion were withdrawn from US money funds, causing the Federal Reserve to announce that it would guarantee these funds up to a point.[323] The money market had been a key source of credit for banks (CDs) and nonfinancial firms (commercial paper). The TED spread (see graph above), a measure of the risk of interbank lending, quadrupled shortly after the Lehman failure. This credit freeze brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse. In a dramatic meeting on September 18, 2008, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke met with key legislators to propose a $700 billion emergency bailout of the banking system. Bernanke reportedly told them: "If we don't do this, we may not have an economy on Monday."[324] The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, also called the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), was signed into law on October 3, 2008.[325] In a nine-day period from Oct. 1–9, the S&P 500 fell a staggering 251 points, losing 21.6% of its value.[326] The week of Oct. 6–10 saw the largest percentage drop in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average – even worse than any single week in the Great Depression.[327] The response of the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other central banks was dramatic. During the last quarter of 2008, these central banks purchased US$2.5 trillion of government debt and troubled private assets from banks. This was the largest liquidity injection into the credit market, and the largest monetary policy action, in world history. The governments of European nations and the US also raised the capital of their national banking systems by $1.5 trillion, by purchasing newly issued preferred stock in their major banks.[320] On Dec. 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve cut the Federal funds rate to 0–0.25%, where it remained until December 2015; this period of zero interest-rate policy was unprecedented in U.S. history.[328] ImpactsEdit Main article: Financial crisis of 2007–08 The International Monetary Fund estimated that large U.S. and European banks lost more than $1 trillion on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009. These losses were expected to top $2.8 trillion from 2007 to 2010. U.S. banks losses were forecast to hit $1 trillion and European bank losses will reach $1.6 trillion. The IMF estimated that U.S. banks were about 60 percent through their losses, but British and eurozone banks only 40 percent.[329] Impact in the U.S.Edit Impacts from the crisis on key wealth measures U.S. Real GDP – Contributions to percent change by component 2007–2009 Between June 2007 and November 2008, Americans lost more than a quarter of their net worth. By early November 2008, a broad U.S. stock index, the S&P 500, was down 45 percent from its 2007 high. Housing prices had dropped 20% from their 2006 peak, with futures markets signaling a 30–35% potential drop. Total home equity in the United States, which was valued at $13 trillion at its peak in 2006, had dropped to $8.8 trillion by mid-2008 and was still falling in late 2008.[330] Total retirement assets, Americans' second-largest household asset, dropped by 22 percent, from $10.3 trillion in 2006 to $8 trillion in mid-2008. During the same period, savings and investment assets (apart from retirement savings) lost $1.2 trillion and pension assets lost $1.3 trillion. Taken together, these losses total $8.3 trillion.[330] Real gross domestic product (GDP) began contracting in the third quarter of 2008 and did not return to growth until Q1 2010.[331] CBO estimated in February 2013 that real U.S. GDP remained 5.5% below its potential level, or about $850 billion. CBO projected that GDP would not return to its potential level until 2017.[332] The unemployment rate rose from 5% in 2008 pre-crisis to 10% by late 2009, then steadily declined to 7.6% by March 2013.[333] The number of unemployed rose from approximately 7 million in 2008 pre-crisis to 15 million by 2009, then declined to 12 million by early 2013.[334] Residential private investment (mainly housing) fell from its 2006 pre-crisis peak of $800 billion, to $400 billion by mid-2009 and has remained depressed at that level. Non-residential investment (mainly business purchases of capital equipment) peaked at $1,700 billion in 2008 pre-crisis and fell to $1,300 billion in 2010, but by early 2013 had nearly recovered to this peak.[335] Housing prices fell approximately 30% on average from their mid-2006 peak to mid-2009 and remained at approximately that level as of March 2013.[336] Stock market prices, as measured by the S&P 500 index, fell 57% from their October 2007 peak of 1,565 to a trough of 676 in March 2009. Stock prices began a steady climb thereafter and returned to record levels by April 2013.[337] The net worth of U.S. households and non-profit organizations fell from a peak of approximately $67 trillion in 2007 to a trough of $52 trillion in 2009, a decline of $15 trillion or 22%. It began to recover thereafter and was $66 trillion by Q3 2012.[338] U.S. total national debt rose from 66% GDP in 2008 pre-crisis to over 103% by the end of 2012.[339] Martin Wolf and Paul Krugman argued that the rise in private savings and decline in investment fueled a large private sector surplus, which drove sizable budget deficits.[340][341] Members of US minority groups received a disproportionate number of subprime mortgages, and so have experienced a disproportionate level of the resulting foreclosures.[342][343][344] A study commissioned by the ACLU on the long-term consequences of these discriminatory lending practices found that the housing crisis will likely widen the black-white wealth gap for the next generation.[345] Recent research shows that complex mortgages were chosen by prime borrowers with high income levels seeking to purchase expensive houses relative to their incomes. Borrowers with complex mortgages experienced substantially higher default rates than borrowers with traditional mortgages with similar characteristics.[346] The crisis had a devastating effect on the U.S. auto industry. New vehicle sales, which peaked at 17 million in 2005, recovered to only 12 million by 2010.[347] Impact on EuropeEdit Further information: European sovereign-debt crisis and Austerity Public debt to GDP ratio for selected European countries - 2008 to 2012. Source Data: Eurostat Relationship between fiscal tightening (austerity) in Eurozone countries with their GDP growth rate, 2008–2012[348] The crisis in Europe generally progressed from banking system crises to sovereign debt crises, as many countries elected to bail out their banking systems using taxpayer money. Greece was different in that it concealed large public debts in addition to issues within its banking system. Several countries received bailout packages from the "troika" (European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund), which also implemented a series of emergency measures. Many European countries embarked on austerity programs, reducing their budget deficits relative to GDP from 2010 to 2011. For example, according to the CIA World Factbook Greece improved its budget deficit from 10.4% GDP in 2010 to 9.6% in 2011. Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, France, and Spain also improved their budget deficits from 2010 to 2011 relative to GDP.[349][350] However, with the exception of Germany, each of these countries had public-debt-to-GDP ratios that increased (i.e., worsened) from 2010 to 2011, as indicated in the chart shown here. Greece's public-debt-to-GDP ratio increased from 143% in 2010 to 165% in 2011.[349] This indicates that despite improving budget deficits, GDP growth was not sufficient to support a decline (improvement) in the debt-to-GDP ratio for these countries during this period. Eurostat reported that the debt to GDP ratio for the 17 Euro area countries together was 70.1% in 2008, 79.9% in 2009, 85.3% in 2010, and 87.2% in 2011.[350][351] Unemployment is another variable that might be considered in evaluating austerity measures. According to the CIA World Factbook, from 2010 to 2011, the unemployment rates in Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and the UK increased. France and Italy had no significant changes, while in Germany and Iceland the unemployment rate declined.[349] Eurostat reported that Eurozone unemployment reached record levels in September 2012 at 11.6%, up from 10.3% the prior year. Unemployment varied significantly by country.[352] Economist Martin Wolf analyzed the relationship between cumulative GDP growth from 2008 to 2012 and total reduction in budget deficits due to austerity policies (see chart) in several European countries during April 2012. He concluded that: "In all, there is no evidence here that large fiscal contractions [budget deficit reductions] bring benefits to confidence and growth that offset the direct effects of the contractions. They bring exactly what one would expect: small contractions bring recessions and big contractions bring depressions." Changes in budget balances (deficits or surpluses) explained approximately 53% of the change in GDP, according to the equation derived from the IMF data used in his analysis.[353] Economist Paul Krugman analyzed the relationship between GDP and reduction in budget deficits for several European countries in April 2012 and concluded that austerity was slowing growth, similar to Martin Wolf. He also wrote: "this also implies that 1 euro of austerity yields only about 0.4 euros of reduced deficit, even in the short run. No wonder, then, that the whole austerity enterprise is spiraling into disaster."[354] Sustained effectsEdit This chart compares U.S. potential GDP under two CBO forecasts (one from 2007 and one from 2016) versus the actual real GDP. It is based on a similar diagram from economist Larry Summers from 2014.[355] The crisis had a significant and long-lasting impact on U.S. employment. During the Great Recession, 8.5 million jobs were lost from the peak employment in early 2008 of approximately 138 million to the trough in February 2010 of 129 million, roughly 6% of the workforce. From February 2010 to September 2012, approximately 4.3 million jobs were added, offsetting roughly half the losses.[356][357] In Spring 2011 there were about a million homes in foreclosure in the United States, several million more in the pipeline, and 872,000 previously foreclosed homes in the hands of banks. Sales were slow; economists estimated that it would take three years to clear the backlogged inventory. According to Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics, home prices were falling and could be expected to fall further during 2011. However, the rate of new borrowers falling behind in mortgage payments had begun to decrease.[358] The New York Times reported in January 2015 that: "About 17% of all homeowners are still 'upside down' on their mortgages ... That's down from 21% in the third quarter of 2013, and the 2012 peak of 31%." Foreclosures as of October 2014 were down 26% from the prior year, at 41,000 completed foreclosures. That was 65% below the peak in September 2010 (roughly 117,000), but still above the pre-crisis (2000-2006) average of 21,000 per month.[359] Research indicates recovery from financial crises can be protracted, with lengthy periods of high unemployment and substandard economic growth.[360] Economist Carmen Reinhart stated in August 2011: "Debt de-leveraging [reduction] takes about seven years ... And in the decade following severe financial crises, you tend to grow by 1 to 1.5 percentage points less than in the decade before, because the decade before was fueled by a boom in private borrowing, and not all of that growth was real. The unemployment figures in advanced economies after falls are also very dark. Unemployment remains anchored about five percentage points above what it was in the decade before."[361] Savings surplus or investment deficitEdit U.S. savings and investment; savings less investment is the private sector financial surplus During the crisis and ensuing recession, U.S. consumers increased their savings as they paid down debt ("deleveraged") but corporations simultaneously were reducing their investment. In a healthy economy, private sector savings placed into the banking system is borrowed and invested by companies. This investment is one of the major components of GDP. A private sector financial deficit from 2004 to 2008 transitioned to a large surplus of savings over investment that exceeded $1 trillion by early 2009 and remained above $800 billion as of September 2012. Part of this investment reduction related to the housing market, a major component of investment in the GDP computation. This surplus explains how even significant government deficit spending would not increase interest rates and how Federal Reserve action to increase the money supply does not result in inflation, because the economy is awash with savings with no place to go.[341] Economist Richard Koo described similar effects for several of the developed world economies in December 2011: "Today private sectors in the U.S., the U.K., Spain, and Ireland (but not Greece) are undergoing massive deleveraging in spite of record low interest rates. This means these countries are all in serious balance sheet recessions. The private sectors in Japan and Germany are not borrowing, either. With borrowers disappearing and banks reluctant to lend, it is no wonder that, after nearly three years of record low interest rates and massive liquidity injections, industrial economies are still doing so poorly. Flow of funds data for the U.S. show a massive shift away from borrowing to savings by the private sector since the housing bubble burst in 2007. The shift for the private sector as a whole represents over 9 percent of U.S. GDP at a time of zero interest rates. Moreover, this increase in private sector savings exceeds the increase in government borrowings (5.8 percent of GDP), which suggests that the government is not doing enough to offset private sector deleveraging."[362] Sectoral financial balancesEdit Main article: Sectoral financial balances Sectoral financial balances in US economy 1990–2017. By definition, the three balances must net to zero. Since 2009, the US foreign surplus (trade deficit) and private sector surplus have driven a government budget deficit. Economist Wynne Godley explained in 2004-2005 how U.S. sector imbalances posed a significant risk to the U.S. and global economy. The combination of a high and growing foreign sector surplus and high government sector deficit meant that the private sector was moving towards a net borrowing position (from surplus to deficit) as a housing bubble developed, which he warned was an unsustainable combination.[363][364] Economist Martin Wolf explained in July 2012 that government fiscal balance is one of three major financial sectoral balances in the U.S. economy, the others being the foreign financial sector and the private financial sector. The sum of the surpluses or deficits across these three sectors must be zero by definition. In the U.S., a foreign financial surplus (or capital surplus) exists because capital is imported (net) to fund the trade deficit. Further, there is a private sector financial surplus due to household savings exceeding business investment. By definition, there must therefore exist a government budget deficit so all three net to zero. The government sector includes federal, state and local. For example, the government budget deficit in 2011 was approximately 10% GDP (8.6% GDP of which was federal), offsetting a capital surplus of 4% GDP and a private sector surplus of 6% GDP.[340] Wolf argued that the sudden shift in the private sector from deficit to surplus forced the government balance into deficit, writing: "The financial balance of the private sector shifted towards surplus by the almost unbelievable cumulative total of 11.2 per cent of gross domestic product between the third quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009, which was when the financial deficit of US government (federal and state) reached its peak...No fiscal policy changes explain the collapse into massive fiscal deficit between 2007 and 2009, because there was none of any importance. The collapse is explained by the massive shift of the private sector from financial deficit into surplus or, in other words, from boom to bust."[340] ResponsesEdit Further information: Subprime mortgage crisis solutions debate Various actions have been taken since the crisis became apparent in August 2007. In September 2008, major instability in world financial markets increased awareness and attention to the crisis. Various agencies and regulators, as well as political officials, began to take additional, more comprehensive steps to handle the crisis. To date, various government agencies have committed or spent trillions of dollars in loans, asset purchases, guarantees, and direct spending. For a summary of U.S. government financial commitments and investments related to the crisis, see CNN – Bailout Scorecard. Federal Reserve and other central banksEdit Main article: Federal Reserve responses to the subprime crisis Federal Reserve holdings of treasury (blue) and mortgage-backed securities (red) The central bank of the US, the Federal Reserve, in partnership with central banks around the world, took several steps to address the crisis.[365] Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated in early 2008: "Broadly, the Federal Reserve's response followed two tracks: efforts to support market liquidity and functioning and the pursuit of our macroeconomic objectives through monetary policy."[119] The Federal Reserve Bank: Lowered the target for the Federal funds rate from 5.25% to 2%, and the discount rate from 5.75% to 2.25%. This took place in six steps occurring between 18 September 2007 and 30 April 2008;[366][367] In December 2008, the Fed further lowered the federal funds rate target to a range of 0–0.25% (25 basis points).[368] Undertook, along with other central banks, open market operations to ensure member banks remain liquid. These are effectively short-term loans to member banks collateralized by government securities. Central banks have also lowered the interest rates (called the discount rate in the US) they charge member banks for short-term loans;[369] Created a variety of lending facilities to enable the Fed to lend directly to banks and non-bank institutions, against specific types of collateral of varying credit quality. These include the Term Auction Facility (TAF) and Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).[370] In November 2008, the Fed announced a $600 billion program to purchase the MBS of the GSE, to help lower mortgage rates.[371] In March 2009, the Federal Open Market Committee decided to increase the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet further by purchasing up to an additional $750 billion of government-sponsored enterprise mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to $1.25 trillion this year, and to increase its purchases of agency debt this year by up to $100 billion to a total of up to $200 billion. Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities during 2009.[372] According to Ben Bernanke, expansion of the Fed balance sheet means the Fed is electronically creating money, necessary "because our economy is very weak and inflation is very low. When the economy begins to recover, that will be the time that we need to unwind those programs, raise interest rates, reduce the money supply, and make sure that we have a recovery that does not involve inflation."[373] The New York Times reported in February 2013 that the Fed continued to support the economy with various monetary stimulus measures: "The Fed, which has amassed almost $3 trillion in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities to promote more borrowing and lending, is expanding those holdings by $85 billion a month until it sees clear improvement in the labor market. It plans to hold short-term interest rates near zero even longer, at least until the unemployment rate falls below 6.5 percent."[374] Economic stimulusEdit Main articles: Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 On 13 February 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law a $168 billion economic stimulus package, mainly taking the form of income tax rebate checks mailed directly to taxpayers.[375] Checks were mailed starting the week of 28 April 2008. However, this rebate coincided with an unexpected jump in gasoline and food prices. This coincidence led some to wonder whether the stimulus package would have the intended effect, or whether consumers would simply spend their rebates to cover higher food and fuel prices. On 17 February 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an $787 billion stimulus package with a broad spectrum of spending and tax cuts.[376] Over $75 billion of the package was specifically allocated to programs which help struggling homeowners. This program is referred to as the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan.[377] The U.S. government continued to run large deficits post-crisis, with the national debt rising from $10.0 trillion as of September 2008 to $16.1 trillion by September 2012. The debt increases were $1.89 trillion in fiscal year 2009, $1.65 trillion in 2010, $1.23 trillion in 2011, and $1.26 trillion in 2012.[378] Bank solvency and capital replenishmentEdit Main article: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 See also: 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package Common equity to total assets ratios for major US banks Losses on mortgage-backed securities and other assets purchased with borrowed money have dramatically reduced the capital base of financial institutions, rendering many either insolvent or less capable of lending. Governments have provided funds to banks. Some banks have taken significant steps to acquire additional capital from private sources. The U.S. government passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA or TARP) during October 2008. This law included $700 billion in funding for the "Troubled Assets Relief Program" (TARP). Following a model initiated by the United Kingdom bank rescue package,[379][380] $205 billion was used in the Capital Purchase Program to lend funds to banks in exchange for dividend-paying preferred stock.[381][382] Another method of recapitalizing banks is for government and private investors to provide cash in exchange for mortgage-related assets (i.e., "toxic" or "legacy" assets), improving the quality of bank capital while reducing uncertainty regarding the financial position of banks. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced a plan during March 2009 to purchase "legacy" or "toxic" assets from banks. The Public-Private Partnership Investment Program involves government loans and guarantees to encourage private investors to provide funds to purchase toxic assets from banks.[383] As of April 2012, the government had recovered $300 billion of the $414 billion that was ultimately distributed to them via TARP. Some elements of TARP such as foreclosure prevention aid will not be paid back. Estimated taxpayer losses were $60 billion.[384] For a summary of U.S. government financial commitments and investments related to the crisis, see CNN – Bailout Scorecard. For a summary of TARP funds provided to U.S. banks as of December 2008, see Reuters-TARP Funds. Bailouts and failures of financial firmsEdit Further information: List of bankrupt or acquired banks during the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, National City acquisition by PNC, Government intervention during the subprime mortgage crisis, and Bailout People queuing outside a Northern Rock bank branch in Birmingham, United Kingdom on September 15, 2007, to withdraw their savings because of the subprime crisis.[385] Several major financial institutions either failed, were bailed out by governments, or merged (voluntarily or otherwise) during the crisis. While the specific circumstances varied, in general the decline in the value of mortgage-backed securities held by these companies resulted in either their insolvency, the equivalent of bank runs as investors pulled funds from them, or inability to secure new funding in the credit markets. These firms had typically borrowed and invested large sums of money relative to their cash or equity capital, meaning they were highly leveraged and vulnerable to unanticipated credit market disruptions.[179] The five largest U.S. investment banks, with combined liabilities or debts of $4 trillion, either went bankrupt (Lehman Brothers), were taken over by other companies (Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch), or were bailed out by the U.S. government (Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) during 2008.[386] Government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac either directly owed or guaranteed nearly $5 trillion in mortgage obligations, with a similarly weak capital base, when they were placed into receivership in September 2008.[387] For scale, this $9 trillion in obligations concentrated in seven highly leveraged institutions can be compared to the $14 trillion size of the U.S. economy (GDP)[388] or to the total national debt of $10 trillion in September 2008.[378] Major depository banks around the world had also used financial innovations such as structured investment vehicles to circumvent capital ratio regulations.[389] Notable global failures included Northern Rock, which was nationalized at an estimated cost of £87 billion ($150 billion).[390] In the U.S., Washington Mutual (WaMu) was seized in September 2008 by the US Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).[391] This would be followed by the "shotgun wedding" of Wells Fargo and Wachovia after it was speculated that without the merger Wachovia was also going to fail. Dozens of U.S. banks received funds as part of the TARP or $700 billion bailout.[392] The TARP funds gained some controversy after PNC Financial Services received TARP money, only to turn around hours later and purchase the struggling National City Corp., which itself had become a victim of the subprime crisis. As a result of the financial crisis in 2008, twenty-five U.S. banks became insolvent and were taken over by the FDIC.[393] As of August 14, 2009, an additional 77 banks became insolvent.[394] This seven-month tally surpasses the 50 banks that were seized in all of 1993, but is still much smaller than the number of failed banking institutions in 1992, 1991, and 1990.[395] The United States has lost over 6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007.[396] The FDIC deposit insurance fund, supported by fees on insured banks, fell to $13 billion in the first quarter of 2009.[397] That is the lowest total since September 1993.[397] According to some, the bailouts could be traced directly to Alan Greenspan's efforts to reflate the stock market and the economy after the tech stock bust, and specifically to a February 23, 2004 speech Mr. Greenspan made to the Mortgage Bankers Association where he suggested that the time had come to push average American borrowers into more exotic loans with variable rates, or deferred interest.[398] This argument suggests that Mr. Greenspan sought to enlist banks to expand lending and debt to stimulate asset prices and that the Federal Reserve and US Treasury Department would back any losses that might result. As early as March 2007 some commentators predicted that a bailout of the banks would exceed $1 trillion, at a time when Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Henry Paulson all claimed that mortgage problems were "contained" to the subprime market and no bailout of the financial sector would be necessary.[398] Homeowner assistanceEdit U.S. Changes in Household Debt as a percentage of GDP for 1989-2016. Homeowners paying down debt for 2009-2012 was a headwind to the recovery. Economist Carmen Reinhart explained that this behavior tends to slow recoveries from financial crises relative to typical recessions.[399] U.S. federal government spending was held relatively level around $3.5 trillion from 2009-2014, which created a headwind to recovery, reducing real GDP growth by approximately 0.5% per quarter (annualized) on average between Q3 2010 and Q2 2014.[400] Both lenders and borrowers may benefit from avoiding foreclosure, which is a costly and lengthy process. Some lenders have offered troubled borrowers more favorable mortgage terms (e.g. refinancing, loan modification or loss mitigation). Borrowers have also been encouraged to contact their lenders to discuss alternatives.[401] The Economist described the issue this way in February 2009: "No part of the financial crisis has received so much attention, with so little to show for it, as the tidal wave of home foreclosures sweeping over America. Government programmes have been ineffectual, and private efforts not much better." Up to 9 million homes may enter foreclosure over the 2009–2011 period, versus one million in a typical year.[402] At roughly U.S. $50,000 per foreclosure according to a 2006 study by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, 9 million foreclosures represents $450 billion in losses.[403] A variety of voluntary private and government-administered or supported programs were implemented during 2007–2009 to assist homeowners with case-by-case mortgage assistance, to mitigate the foreclosure crisis engulfing the U.S. One example is the Hope Now Alliance, an ongoing collaborative effort between the US Government and private industry to help certain subprime borrowers.[404] In February 2008, the Alliance reported that during the second half of 2007, it had helped 545,000 subprime borrowers with shaky credit, or 7.7% of 7.1 million subprime loans outstanding as of September 2007. A spokesperson for the Alliance acknowledged that much more must be done.[405] During late 2008, major banks and both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac established moratoriums (delays) on foreclosures, to give homeowners time to work towards refinancing.[406][407][408] Critics have argued that the case-by-case loan modification method is ineffective, with too few homeowners assisted relative to the number of foreclosures and with nearly 40% of those assisted homeowners again becoming delinquent within 8 months.[409][410][411] In December 2008, the U.S. FDIC reported that more than half of mortgages modified during the first half of 2008 were delinquent again, in many cases because payments were not reduced or mortgage debt was not forgiven. This is further evidence that case-by-case loan modification is not effective as a policy tool.[412] In February 2009, economists Nouriel Roubini and Mark Zandi recommended an "across the board" (systemic) reduction of mortgage principal balances by as much as 20–30%. Lowering the mortgage balance would help lower monthly payments and also address an estimated 20 million homeowners that may have a financial incentive to enter voluntary foreclosure because they are "underwater" (i.e. the mortgage balance is larger than the home value).[413][414] A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston indicated that banks were reluctant to modify loans. Only 3% of seriously delinquent homeowners had their mortgage payments reduced during 2008. In addition, investors who hold MBS and have a say in mortgage modifications have not been a significant impediment; the study found no difference in the rate of assistance whether the loans were controlled by the bank or by investors. Commenting on the study, economists Dean Baker and Paul Willen both advocated providing funds directly to homeowners instead of banks.[415] The Los Angeles Times reported the results of a study that found homeowners with high credit scores at the time of entering the mortgage are 50% more likely to "strategically default" – abruptly and intentionally pull the plug and abandon the mortgage – compared with lower-scoring borrowers. Such strategic defaults were heavily concentrated in markets with the highest price declines. An estimated 588,000 strategic defaults occurred nationwide during 2008, more than double the total in 2007. They represented 18% of all serious delinquencies that extended for more than 60 days in the fourth quarter of 2008.[416] Homeowners Affordability and Stability PlanEdit Main article: Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan On 18 February 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a $73 billion program to help up to nine million homeowners avoid foreclosure, which was supplemented by $200 billion in additional funding for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase and more easily refinance mortgages. The plan is funded mostly from the EESA's $700 billion financial bailout fund. It uses cost sharing and incentives to encourage lenders to reduce homeowner's monthly payments to 31 percent of their monthly income. Under the program, a lender would be responsible for reducing monthly payments to no more than 38 percent of a borrower's income, with government sharing the cost to further cut the rate to 31 percent. The plan also involves forgiving a portion of the borrower's mortgage balance. Companies that service mortgages will get incentives to modify loans and to help the homeowner stay current.[417][418][419] Loan modificationsEdit Untold thousands of people have complained in recent years that they were subjected to a nightmare experience of lost paperwork, misapplied fees and Kafkaesque phone calls with clueless customer service representatives as they strived to avoid foreclosures they say were preventable. These claims are backed up by a swelling number of academic studies and insider accounts of misconduct and abuse.[420] Now it's becoming clear just how chaotic the whole system became. Depositions from employees working for the banks or their law firms depict a foreclosure process in which it was standard practice for employees with virtually no training to masquerade as vice presidents, sometimes signing documents on behalf of as many as 15 different banks. Together, the banks and their law firms created a quick-and-dirty foreclosure machine that was designed to rush through foreclosures as fast as possible.[421] Regulatory proposals and long-term solutionsEdit Further information: Subprime mortgage crisis solutions debate and Regulatory responses to the subprime crisis President Barack Obama and key advisers introduced a series of regulatory proposals in June 2009. The proposals address consumer protection, executive pay, bank financial cushions or capital requirements, expanded regulation of the shadow banking system and derivatives, and enhanced authority for the Federal Reserve to safely wind-down systemically important institutions, among others.[422][423][424] The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in July 2010 to address some of the causes of the crisis. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before Congress on October 29, 2009. His testimony included five elements he stated as critical to effective reform: Expand the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation bank resolution mechanism to include non-bank financial institutions; Ensure that a firm is allowed to fail in an orderly way and not be "rescued"; Ensure taxpayers are not on the hook for any losses, by applying losses to the firm's investors and creating a monetary pool funded by the largest financial institutions; Apply appropriate checks and balances to the FDIC and Federal Reserve in this resolution process; Require stronger capital and liquidity positions for financial firms and related regulatory authority.[425] The Dodd-Frank Act addressed these elements, but stopped short of breaking up the largest banks, which grew larger due to mergers of investment banks at the core of the crisis with depository banks (e.g., JP Morgan Chase acquired Bear Stearns and Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in 2008). Assets of five largest banks as a share of total commercial banking assets rose then stabilized in the wake of the crisis.[426] During 2013, Senators John McCain (Republican) and Elizabeth Warren (Democratic) proposed a bill to separate investment and depository banking, to insulate depository banks from higher risk activities. These were separated prior to the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.[427] Law investigations, judicial and other responsesEdit Significant law enforcement action and litigation resulted from the crisis. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation probed the possibility of fraud by mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and insurer American International Group, among others.[428] New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued Long Island based Amerimod, one of the nation's largest loan modification corporations for fraud, and issued numerous subpoenas to other similar companies.[429] The FBI assigned more agents to mortgage-related crimes and its caseload dramatically increased.[430][431] The FBI began a probe of Countrywide Financial in March 2008 for possible fraudulent lending practices and securities fraud.[432] Several hundred civil lawsuits were filed in federal courts beginning in 2007 related to the subprime crisis. The number of filings in state courts was not quantified but was also believed to be significant.[433] In August 2014, Bank of America agreed to a near-$17 billion deal to settle claims against it relating to the sale of toxic mortgage-linked securities including subprime home loans, in what was believed to be the largest settlement in U.S. corporate history. The deal with the U.S. Justice Department topped a deal the regulator made the previous year with JPMorgan Chase over similar issues.[434] Morgan Stanley paid $2.6 billion to settle claims in February 2015, without reaching closure on homeowner relief and state claim Bank fines and penaltiesEdit U.S. banks have paid considerable fines from legal settlements due to mortgage-related activities. The Economist estimated that from 2008 through October 2013, U.S. banks had agreed to $95 billion in mortgage-related penalties. Settlement amounts included Bank of America ($47.2B), JP Morgan Chase ($22.3B), Wells Fargo ($9.8B), Citigroup ($6.2B) and Goldman-Sachs ($0.9B).[435] Bloomberg reported that from the end of 2010 to October 2013, the six largest Wall St. banks had agreed to pay $67 billion.[436] CNBC reported in April 2015 that banking fines and penalties totaled $150 billion between 2007 and 2014, versus $700 billion in profits over that time.[437] Many of these fines were obtained via the efforts of President Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), which was created in November 2009 to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The FFETF involves over 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. Attorney's offices, and state and local partners. One of its eight working groups, the Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group, was created in 2012 and is involved in investigating and negotiating many of the fines and penalties described above.[438] In popular cultureEdit Several books written about the crisis were made into movies. Examples include The Big Short by Michael Lewis and Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The former tells the story from the perspective of several investors who bet against the housing market, while the latter follows key government and banking officials focusing on the critical events of September 2008, when many large financial institutions faced or experienced collapse. ImplicationsEdit VOA Special English Economics Report from October 2010 describing how millions of foreclosed homes were seized by banks Estimates of impact have continued to climb. During April 2008, International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that global losses for financial institutions would approach $1 trillion.[439] One year later, the IMF estimated cumulative losses of banks and other financial institutions globally would exceed $4 trillion.[440] Francis Fukuyama has argued that the crisis represents the end of Reaganism in the financial sector, which was characterized by lighter regulation, pared-back government, and lower taxes. Significant financial sector regulatory changes are expected as a result of the crisis.[441] Fareed Zakaria believes that the crisis may force Americans and their government to live within their means. Further, some of the best minds may be redeployed from financial engineering to more valuable business activities, or to science and technology.[442] Roger Altman wrote that "the crash of 2008 has inflicted profound damage on [the U.S.] financial system, its economy, and its standing in the world; the crisis is an important geopolitical setback...the crisis has coincided with historical forces that were already shifting the world's focus away from the United States. Over the medium term, the United States will have to operate from a smaller global platform – while others, especially China, will have a chance to rise faster."[320] GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt has argued that U.S. trade deficits and budget deficits are unsustainable. America must regain its competitiveness through innovative products, training of production workers, and business leadership. He advocates specific national goals related to energy security or independence, specific technologies, expansion of the manufacturing job base, and net exporter status.[443] "The world has been reset. Now we must lead an aggressive American renewal to win in the future." Of critical importance, he said, is the need to focus on technology and manufacturing. "Many bought into the idea that America could go from a technology-based, export-oriented powerhouse to a services-led, consumption-based economy – and somehow still expect to prosper," Jeff said. "That idea was flat wrong."[444] Economist Paul Krugman wrote in 2009: "The prosperity of a few years ago, such as it was – profits were terrific, wages not so much – depended on a huge bubble in housing, which replaced an earlier huge bubble in stocks. And since the housing bubble isn't coming back, the spending that sustained the economy in the pre-crisis years isn't coming back either."[445] Niall Ferguson stated that excluding the effect of home equity extraction, the U.S. economy grew at a 1% rate during the Bush years.[446] Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has argued that this is an economic reset at a lower level, rather than a recession, meaning that no quick recovery to pre-recession levels can be expected.[447] The U.S. Federal government's efforts to support the global financial system have resulted in significant new financial commitments, totaling $7 trillion by November, 2008. These commitments can be characterized as investments, loans, and loan guarantees, rather than direct expenditures. In many cases, the government purchased financial assets such as commercial paper, mortgage-backed securities, or other types of asset-backed paper, to enhance liquidity in frozen markets.[448] As the crisis has progressed, the Fed has expanded the collateral against which it is willing to lend to include higher-risk assets.[449] The Economist wrote in May 2009: "Having spent a fortune bailing out their banks, Western governments will have to pay a price in terms of higher taxes to meet the interest on that debt. In the case of countries (like Britain and America) that have trade as well as budget deficits, those higher taxes will be needed to meet the claims of foreign creditors. Given the political implications of such austerity, the temptation will be to default by stealth, by letting their currencies depreciate. Investors are increasingly alive to this danger..."[450] The crisis has cast doubt on the legacy of Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System from 1986 to January 2006. Senator Chris Dodd claimed that Greenspan created the "perfect storm".[451] When asked to comment on the crisis, Greenspan spoke as follows:[293] The current credit crisis will come to an end when the overhang of inventories of newly built homes is largely liquidated, and home price deflation comes to an end. That will stabilize the now-uncertain value of the home equity that acts as a buffer for all home mortgages, but most importantly for those held as collateral for residential mortgage-backed securities. Very large losses will, no doubt, be taken as a consequence of the crisis. But after a period of protracted adjustment, the U.S. economy, and the world economy more generally, will be able to get back to business. Post Recession Home Ownership by MillennialsEdit Following the recession of the 2008-2010 era, there became a bigger focus from Millennials on mortgages the effect they have on their personal finances. Most who were of working age were unable to find employment that would allow them to save enough for a house. The lack of good employment opportunities has created questions among this generation about how much of their lives that they are willing to invest into a home and if that money isn't better spent elsewhere. Mortgage Magnitude[452] looks at how many years of life a mortgage will actually cost a consumer given the area's median income and median home value, showing homes in metropolitan areas ranging from ratios of 1:5 to 1:10. Donna Fancher researched to find if the "American Dream" of owning a home is still a realistic goal, or if it is continually shrinking for the youth of the US, writing: "The value of owner-occupied housing also exceeds income growth. In many markets, prospective buyers are continuing to rent due to concerns over affordability. However, demand also increases rent disproportionately."[453] While housing prices fell dramatically during the recession, prices have been steadily coming back to pre-recession prices; with a rising interest rate, home ownership could continue to be challenging for Millennials. Jason Furman wrote: "while the unemployment rate for those over 34 peaked at about 8 percent, the unemployment rate among those between the ages of 18 and 34 peaked at 14 percent in 2010 and remains elevated, despite substantial improvement; delinquency rates on student loans have risen several percentage points since the Great Recession and even into the recovery; and the homeownership rate among young adults has dropped from a peak of 43 percent in 2005 to 37 percent in 2013 concurrent with a large increase in the share living with their parents."[454] RecoveryEdit In the United StatesEdit Several major U.S. economic variables had recovered from the 2007-2009 Subprime mortgage crisis and Great Recession by the 2013-2014 time period. U.S. median family net worth peaked in 2007, declined due to the Great Recession until 2013, and only partially recovered by 2016.[455] The recession officially ended in the second quarter of 2009,[456] but the nation's economy continued to be described as in an "economic malaise" during the second quarter of 2011.[457] Some economists described the post-recession years as the weakest recovery since the Great Depression and World War II.[458][459] The weak economic recovery has led many to call it a "Zombie Economy", so-called because it is neither dead nor alive. Household incomes, as of August 2012, had fallen more since the end of the recession, than during the 18-month recession, falling an additional 4.8% since the end of the recession, totally to 7.2% since the December 2007 level.[460] Additionally as of September 2012, the long-term unemployment was the highest it had been since World War II,[461] and the unemployment rate peaked several months after the end of the recession (10.1% in October 2009) and was above 8% until September 2012 (7.8%).[462][463] The Federal Reserve kept interest rates at a historically low 0.25% from December 2008 until December 2015, when it began to raise them again. However, the Great Recession was different in kind from the all the recessions since the Great Depression, as it also involved a banking crisis and the de-leveraging (debt reduction) of highly indebted households. Research indicates recovery from financial crises can be protracted, with lengthy periods of high unemployment and substandard economic growth.[360] Economist Carmen Reinhart stated in August 2011: "Debt de-leveraging [reduction] takes about seven years ... And in the decade following severe financial crises, you tend to grow by 1 to 1.5 percentage points less than in the decade before, because the decade before was fueled by a boom in private borrowing, and not all of that growth was real. The unemployment figures in advanced economies after falls are also very dark. Unemployment remains anchored about five percentage points above what it was in the decade before."[464][399] Then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke explained during November 2012 several of the economic headwinds that slowed the recovery: The housing sector did not rebound, as was the case in prior recession recoveries, as the sector was severely damaged during the crisis. Millions of foreclosures had created a large surplus of properties and consumers were paying down their debts rather than purchasing homes. Credit for borrowing and spending by individuals (or investing by corporations) was not readily available as banks paid down their debts. Restrained government spending following initial stimulus efforts (i.e., austerity) was not sufficient to offset private sector weaknesses.[400] For example, U.S. federal spending rose from 19.1% GDP in fiscal year (FY) 2007 to 24.4% GDP in FY2009 (the last year budgeted by President Bush) before falling towards to 20.4% GDP in 2014, closer to the historical average. In dollar terms, federal spending was actually higher in 2009 than in 2014, despite a historical trend of a roughly 5% annual increase. This reduced real GDP growth by approximately 0.5% per quarter on average between Q3 2010 and Q2 2014.[465] Both households and government practicing austerity at the same time was a recipe for a slow recovery.[400] Several key economic variables (e.g., Job level, real GDP per capita, household net worth, and the federal budget deficit) hit their low point (trough) in 2009 or 2010, after which they began to turn upward, recovering to pre-recession (2007) levels between late 2012 and May 2014 (close to Reinhart's prediction), which marked the recovery of all jobs lost during the recession.[13][466][14][467] Real median household income fell to a trough of $53,331 in 2012, but recovered to an all-time high of $59,039 by 2016.[468] However, the gains during the recovery were very unevenly distributed. Economist Emmanuel Saez wrote in June 2016 that the top 1% of families captured 52% of the total real income (GDP) growth per family from 2009-2015. The gains were more evenly distributed after the tax increases in 2013 on higher-income earners.[469] President Obama declared the bailout measures started under the Bush Administration and continued during his Administration as completed and mostly profitable as of December 2014.[470] As of January 2018, bailout funds had been fully recovered by the government, when interest on loans is taken into consideration. A total of $626B was invested, loaned, or granted due to various bailout measures, while $390B had been returned to the Treasury. The Treasury had earned another $323B in interest on bailout loans, resulting in an $87B profit.[18] Business and economics portal Banks portal 2010 United States foreclosure crisis American Casino, documentary film about the crisis Bear Stearns Collateralized debt obligation#Subprime mortgage crisis Community Reinvestment Act Diamond-Dybvig model Fair value accounting and the subprime mortgage crisis Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Inside Job, documentary film about the crisis January 2008 stock market volatility Late 2000s recession List of entities involved in 2007–2008 financial crises List of largest U.S. bank failures (many were caused or related to this crisis) Long-Term Capital Management Marquette Nat. Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp. Mortgage-backed security National City acquisition by PNC, the merger of PNC Financial Services and National City Corp. after National City became a victim of the subprime crisis. 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Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via Reuters. ^ Testimony of Mark Zandi to Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission-January 2010 Archived 2010-12-15 at the Wayback Machine ^ "Shine a light". 25 March 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via The Economist. ^ Tuckman, Bruce; Serrat, Angel (2011). Fixed Income Securities: Tools for Today's Markets. Wiley. p. 568. ^ Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). GPO. 2010. p. 89. ^ a b McLean, Bethany; Nocera, Joe (2010). All the Devils Are Here. Portfolio, Penguin. p. 19. After the REMIC battle, [whatever that was] Wall Street realized it was never going to dislodge Fannie and Freddie from their dominant position as the securitizers of traditional mortgages. ... Wall Street would have to find some other mortgage product to securitize, products that Fannie and Feddie couldn't – or wouldn't – touch. .... 'Their effort became one to find products they could profit from where they didn't have to compete with Fannie.' ^ Lewis, Holden (18 April 2007). "'Moral hazard' helps shape mortgage mess". Bankrate.com. ^ Purnanandam, Amiyatosh K. (2011). "Originate-to-distribute Model and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis". Review of Financial Studies. 24 (6): 1881–1915. doi:10.1093/rfs/hhq106. ^ Lemke, Lins and Picard, Mortgage-Backed Securities, Chapter 3 (Thomson West, 2013 ed.). ^ Samuelson, Robert J. (January 31, 2012). "Reckless Optimism". Claremont Institute. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2013. Most home mortgages were relatively safe investments, and Fannie and Freddie's lending standards were conservative. In the main, the GSEs bought and guaranteed loans with sizeable down payments, typically 20%, for borrowers who could be expected, based on their incomes and credit histories, to meet their monthly mortgage payments with little difficulty. By regulation, the GSEs were not allowed to deal in mortgages above a given amount ($417,000 in 2007, before the crisis). Private lenders, therefore, were left with both the larger and the riskier mortgages, all of which were called "non-conforming" loans because they didn't fit the GSEs' criteria. The GSEs seemed to have a lock on the "conforming" market, the bigger, safer part of the mortgage business. ^ Walden, Gene. "Make More with Mortgage-backed Securities". AllStarStocks.com. Securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also guarantee ... the timely payment of all principal and interest of the mortgage-backed securities they issue. Although their guarantee doesn't carry the weight of the U.S. government, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are two of the most fiscally sound corporations in America. Their mortgage-backed securities are considered to be the equivalent of AAA-rated corporate bonds. They have never defaulted on a mortgage-backed security. ^ The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. 2011. p. 70. ^ Katz, Alyssa (2009). Our Lot: How Real Estate Came To Own Us, Kindle Edition. 400-07: Bloomsbury USA, New York. ISBN 9781608191406. ^ Here's how a CDO works\| Upstart Business Journal\| December 5, 2007 ^ Morgenson and Rosner Reckless Endangerment, 2010 p.278 ^ see also Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, p. 127 ^ 70%. "Firms bought mortgage-backed bonds with the very highest yields they could find and reassembled them into new CDOs. The original bonds ... could be lower-rated securities that once reassembled into a new CDO would wind up with as much as 70% of the tranches rated triple-A. Ratings arbitrage, Wall Street called this practice. A more accurate term would have been ratings laundering." (source: McLean and Nocera, All the Devils Are Here, 2010 p. 122) ^ 80%. "In a CDO you gathered a 100 different mortgage bonds – usually the riskiest lower floors of the original tower ...... They bear a lower credit rating triple B. ... if you could somehow get them rerated as triple A, thereby lowering their perceived risk, however dishonestly and artificially. This is what Goldman Sachs had cleverly done. It was absurd. The 100 buildings occupied the same floodplain; in the event of flood, the ground floors of all of them were equally exposed. But never mind: the rating agencies, who were paid fat fees by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms for each deal they rated, pronounced 80% of the new tower of debt triple-A." (source: Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine WW Norton and Co, 2010, p. 73) ^ "According to data compiled by the FCIC, tranches from CDOs rose from an average of 7% of the collateral in mortgage-backed CDOs in 2003 to 14% by 2007. CDO-squared deals – those engineered primarily from the tranches of other CDOs – grew from 36 marketwide in 2005 to 48 in 2006 and 41 2007." Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, p. 203 ^ McLean, and Nocera. All the Devils Are Here, 2010 (p. 122) ^ Morgenson, Gretchen; Rosner, Joshua (2011). Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon. New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company. p. 280. ISBN 9781429965774. ^ Kourlas, James (April 12, 2012). "Lessons Not Learned From the Housing Crisis". The Atlas Society. Retrieved 2012-12-24. In the post-war period, falling home prices were rare. From 1945 to 2006, nominal home prices never fell on the national level, at least not significantly. Some argue that there was a drop of 1 percent in 1963 and 1990; there were regional drops such as in California in the early 1990s. But a 25–30% drop in the national average just wasn't part of the historical record. Consequently, models used to price mortgage portfolios under-weighted scenarios with large price declines. ^ Samuelson, Robert J. (2011). "Reckless Optimism". Claremont Review of Books. XII (1): 13. Archived from the original on 2013-12-24. The mortgage debacle, ... was simply one manifestation, ... of a climate that made foolish practices seem sensible. A broad underestimation of risk rested on self-serving assumptions. It was, for example, widely assumed that home prices would always rise, meaning that if borrowers defaulted lenders would be protected against heavy losses. This was one reason why Standard & Poor's and Moody's gave mortgage-related securities high ratings. ^ a b c Salmon, Felix (2009-02-23). "Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street". Wired. ^ credit default swap insurance "buyers" were known as "short investors" ^ "Unlike the traditional cash CDO, synthetic CDOs contained no actual tranches of mortgage-backed securities ... in the place of real mortgage assets, these CDOs contained credit default swaps and did not finance a single home purchase." (source: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, 2011, p. 142) ^ Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). GPO. 2011. p. 50. Credit default swaps were often compared to insurance: the seller was described as insuring against a default in the underlying asset. However, while similar to insurance, CDS escaped regulation by state insurance supervisors because they were treated as deregulated OTC derivatives. This made CDS very different from insurance in at least two important respects. First, only a person with an insurable interest can obtain an insurance policy. A car owner can insure only the car she owns – not her neighbor's. But a CDS purchaser can use it to speculate on the default of a loan the purchaser does not own. These are often called "naked credit default swaps" and can inflate potential losses and corresponding gains on the default of a loan or institution. Before the CFMA was passed, there was uncertainty about whether or not state insurance regulators had authority over credit default swaps. In June 2000, in response to a letter from the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, the New York State Insurance Department determined that "naked" credit default swaps did not count as insurance and were therefore not subject to regulation. In addition, when an insurance company sells a policy, insurance regulators require that it put aside reserves in case of a loss. In the housing boom, CDS were sold by firms that failed to put up any reserves or initial collateral or to hedge their exposure. In the run-up to the crisis, AIG, the largest U.S. insurance company, would accumulate a one-half trillion dollar position in credit risk through the OTC market without being required to post one dollar's worth of initial collateral or making any other provision for loss. AIG was not alone. ... ^ a b "The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep the Bubble Going — ProPublica". ProPublica. 9 April 2010. Archived from the original on 10 April 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ McLean and Nocera. All the Devils Are Here, 2010 (p. 265) ^ Deliquencies among prime, fixed rate mortgages never rose over 5%. Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, p. 217, figure 11.2 ^ Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). GPO. 2011. p. 188. The collateralized debt obligation machine could have sputtered to a natural end by the spring of 2006. 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Retrieved 2010-07-09. ^ "The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis". Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ a b The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. 2011. pp. 43–44. Purchasers of the safer tranches got a higher rate of return than ultra-safe Treasury notes without much extra risk – at least in theory. However, the financial engineering behind these investments made them harder to understand and to price than individual loans. To determine likely returns, investors had to calculate the statistical probabilities that certain kinds of mortgages might default, and to estimate the revenues that would be lost because of those defaults. Then investors had to determine the effect of the losses on the payments to different tranches. This complexity transformed the three leading credit rating agencies – Moody's, Standard & Poor's (S&P), and Fitch – into key players in the process, positioned between the issuers and the investors of securities. ^ a b The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. 2011. p. 44. Participants in the securitization industry realized that they needed to secure favorable credit ratings in order to sell structured products to investors. Investment banks therefore paid handsome fees to the rating agencies to obtain the desired ratings. "The rating agencies were important tools to do that because you know the people that we were selling these bonds to had never really had any history in the mortgage business. ... They were looking for an independent party to develop an opinion," Jim Callahan told the FCIC; Callahan is CEO of PentAlpha, which services the securitization industry, and years ago he worked on some of the earliest securitizations ^ McLean, Bethany and Joe Nocera. All the Devils Are Here, the Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, Portfolio, Penguin, 2010 (p. 111) ^ a b Benmelech, Efraim; Dlugosz, Jennifer (2009). "The Credit Rating Crisis" (PDF). NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009. National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Macroeconomics Annual. ^ The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. 2011. p. xxv. ^ a b Bloomberg-Smith-Bringing Down Ratings Let Loose Subprime Scourge Archived 2010-06-03 at the Wayback Machine\| By Elliot Blair Smith \| bloomberg.com\| September 24, 2008 ^ Birger, Jon (6 August 2008). "The woman who called Wall Street's meltdown". Fortune. Retrieved 2010-05-24. [Between Q3 2007 and Q2 2008, rating agencies lowered the credit ratings on $1.9 trillion in mortgage-backed securities ] ^ worth $300 billion ^ The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (PDF). National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States. 2011. p. 224. ) ^ Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States, p. 229, figure 11.4 ^ Smith, Elliot Blair (September 24, 2008). "Bringing Down Wall Street as Ratings Let Loose Subprime Scourge". Bloomberg. Without those AAA ratings, the gold standard for debt, banks, insurance companies and pension funds wouldn't have bought the products. Bank writedowns and losses on the investments totaling $523.3 billion led to the collapse or disappearance of Bear Stearns Cos., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. and compelled the Bush administration to propose buying $700 billion of bad debt from distressed financial institutions. ^ Bloomberg-Smith-Race to Bottom at Rating Agencies Secured Subprime Boom, Bust Archived 2010-06-03 at the Wayback Machine\| By Elliot Blair Smith \| bloomberg.com\| September 25, 2008 ^ McLean, Bethany; Nocera, Joe (2010). All the Devils Are Here. Penguin. p. 118. [Example from page 118] UBS banker Rovert Morelli, upon hearing that S&P might be revising its RMSBS ratings, sent an e-mail to an S&P analyst. 'Heard your ratings could be 5 notches back of moddys [sic] equivalent, Gonna kill you resi biz. May force us to do moddyfitch only ...' ^ "Credit and blame". 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Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via www.nytimes.com. ^ "HOPE NOW Alliance Created to Help Distressed Homeowners" (PDF). 2007-10-10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-23. ^ "Hope Now says nearly 8% of subprime borrowers helped". CNN. 2008-02-06. Archived from the original on February 10, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-19. ^ Christie, Les (2008-10-06). "BofA to slash mortgage payments for Countrywide borrowers". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24. ^ Christie, Les (2008-11-20). "CNN – Fannie & Freddie Suspend Foreclosures". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Fannie News Release". Fanniemae.com. 2008. Archived from the original on 2011-05-10. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Economist-Understanding Foreclosure Drivers". Economist.com. 2009-02-19. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Summary of Act" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-06-26. ^ Christie, Les (2008-04-22). "No help for 70% of subprime borrowers". CNNMoney.com. Cable News Network. Retrieved 2008-09-17. ^ Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer (2008-12-23). "Most mortgage fixes are bad medicine – Dec. 23, 2008". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Charlie Rose-Roubini-Mortgage Solutions". Charlierose.com. Archived from the original on 2009-02-22. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Forbes-Roubini". Forbes.com. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ McKim, Jenifer B. (7 July 2009). "Lenders avoid redoing loans, Fed concludes". Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via The Boston Globe. ^ "LA Times-Homeowners who strategically default a growing problem-September 2009". Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ "President Obama's Plan". Bloomberg.com. 2009-02-20. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ Fact Sheet-Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan Archived 2009-02-19 at the Wayback Machine ^ L, Edmund; REWS (4 March 2009). "U.S. Sets Big Incentives to Head Off Foreclosures". Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via www.nytimes.com. ^ "Foreclosure Settlement Still Failing 700,000 Families One Year Later". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-07. ^ "Homeowners Wrongfully Foreclosed Upon Go Through Legal Wringer". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-07. ^ "Remarks of the President on Regulatory Reform \| The White House". Whitehouse.gov. 2009-06-17. Retrieved 2012-11-18. ^ "Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers - The Case for Financial Regulatory Reform". Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via www.washingtonpost.com. ^ Treasury Department Report – Financial Regulatory Reform Archived 2010-04-21 at the Wayback Machine ^ Secretary Geithner Testimony to House Financial Service Committee-October 29, 2009 Archived November 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine ^ "5-Bank Asset Concentration for United States". 30 August 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ "Warren Joins McCain to Push New Glass-Steagall Law for Banks". 12 July 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via www.bloomberg.com. ^ FBI Investigating Potential Fraud by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, AIG Archived 2012-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, Associated Press, September 23, 2008. ^ "Cuomo: I'll Sue Foreclosure-Relief Scam Artists". villagevoice.com. 2009-06-09. Archived from the original on 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-06-09. ^ "FBI Cracks Down On Mortgage Fraud". CBS news. 2008-06-19. ^ "FBI – Mortgage Fraud Takedown – Press Room – Headline Archives 06–19–08". Fbi.gov. Archived from the original on 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2008-10-26. ^ "FBI probes Countrywide for possible fraud". Money.cnn.com. 2008-03-08. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Subprime lawsuits on pace to top S&L cases – The Boston Globe". 2008-02-15. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-19. ^ "Bank of America to pay nearly $17 bn to settle mortgage claims". Philadelphia Herald. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014. ^ The Economist-Payback Time for Subprime-October 26, 2013 ^ "Banks Finally Pay for Their Sins, Five Years After the Crisis". 1 November 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via www.bloomberg.com. ^ Schoen, John W. (30 April 2015). "7 years on from crisis, $150B in fines and penalties". Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ "Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group Members Announce First Legal Action". www.justice.gov. Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ "IMF says worldwide losses stemming from the US subprime mortgage crisis could run to $945 billion". ^ "IMF Summary" (PDF). Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ "Fukuyama: The End of America Inc \| Newsweek Business \| Newsweek.com". Newsweek.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24. ^ "Zakaria: A More Disciplined America \| Newsweek Business \| Newsweek.com". Newsweek.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24. ^ Charlie Rose – Immelt Interview Archived 2009-06-27 at the Wayback Machine ^ Immelt Comments at Detroit Econ Club Archived 2009-07-03 at the Wayback Machine ^ Krugman, Paul (22 December 2008). "Opinion - Life Without Bubbles". Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via www.nytimes.com. ^ "There will be blood". Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via The Globe and Mail. ^ "Ballmer: Economy Has Reset". www.realclearmarkets.com. Retrieved 5 October 2017. ^ David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer (2008-11-26). "CNN-Bailout Summary". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2009-02-27. ^ "Bloomberg Article". 2008-09-19. Archived from the original on 2012-10-24. ^ "Birth pains". 14 May 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2017 – via The Economist. ^ "FT.com / Companies / US & Canada – Fed rapped over subprime loans". 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-19. [dead link] ^ "https://nation.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=de7f932e3a1d494f9c9d9a67fb0de646". nation.maps.arcgis.com. Retrieved 2018-04-25. External link in \|title= (help) ^ "https://arcgis-content.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=49952831812243bdaa0a169cda0bd126". arcgis-content.maps.arcgis.com. Retrieved 2018-04-25. External link in \|title= (help) ^ Furman, Jason; Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers (July 24, 2014). "America's Millennials in the Recovery" (PDF). The Zillow Housing Forum – via Google Scholar. ^ Federal Reserve-Survey of Consumer Finances 2017 ^ "Business Cycle Dating Committee, National Bureau of Economic Research". ^ Appelbaum, Binyamin (April 24, 2011). "Stimulus by Fed Is Disappointing, Economists Say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 2, 2011. Retrieved April 24, 2011. the disappointing results [of the actions of the Federal Reserve] show the limits of the central bank’s ability to lift the nation from its economic malaise. ^ Paul Wiseman (26 August 2012). "Economy Recovery Ranks as Weakest since World War II". San Diego Union Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved 27 August 2012. ^ Christopher S. Rugaber (24 August 2012). "Weak recovery leaves laid-off US workers struggling to find new jobs; most take pay cuts". Washington Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012. ^ Jeff Kearns (23 August 2012). "U.S. Incomes Fell More In Recovery, Sentier Says". Bloomberg. Retrieved 4 September 2012. ^ Jon Talton (4 September 2012). "State of the labor force under pressure this holiday". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 4 September 2012. ^ James Sherk (30 August 2012). "Not Looking for Work: Why Labor Force Participation Has Fallen During the Recession". Reports. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2012. ^ "THE RACE: After convention speeches end and balloons drop, nation faces cold realism on jobs". Washington Post. Associated Press. 4 September 2012. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2012. ^ "Double dip, or just one big economic dive?". Washington Post. ^ CBO Historical Tables-Retrieved March 24, 2018 ^ "Real gross domestic product per capita". 28 June 2018. ^ "Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] as Percent of Gross Domestic Product". 28 March 2018. ^ "Real Median Household Income in the United States". 13 September 2017. ^ "Emmanuel Saez-Striking it richer: The evolution of top incomes in the U.S.-June 30,2016" (PDF). ^ "U.S. Declares Bank and Auto Bailouts Over, and Profitable". Fried, Joseph, Who Really Drove the Economy into the Ditch? (New York, NY: Algora Publishing, 2012) ISBN 978-0-87586-942-1. Wallison, Peter, Bad History, Worse Policy (Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 2013) ISBN 978-0-8447-7238-7. Fengbo Zhang (2008): 1. Perspective on the United States Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis , 2. Accurately Forecasting Trends of the Financial Crisis , 3. Stop Arguing about Socialism versus Capitalism . Archaya and Richardson. Financial Stability: How to Repair a Failed System NYU Stern Project-Executive Summaries of 18 Crisis-Related Papers Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget "Stimulus Watch," (Updated Regularly). Blackburn, Robin (March–April 2008). "The Subprime Crisis". New Left Review. II (50). Demyanyk, Yuliya (FRB St. Louis), and Otto Van Hemert (NYU Stern School) (2008) "Understanding the Subprime Mortgage Crisis," Working paper circulated by the Social Science Research Network. DiMartino, D., and Duca, J. V. (2007) "The Rise and Fall of Subprime Mortgages," Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Economic Letter 2(11). Dominique Doise, Subprime: Price of infringements/Subprime : le prix des transgressions, Revue de droit des affaires internationales (RDAI) / International Business Law Journal (IBLJ), N° 4, 2008 Ely, Bert (2009) "Bad Rules Produce Bad Outcomes: Underlying Public-Policy Causes of the U.S. Financial Crisis," Cato Journal 29(1). Don Tapscott, 2010. Macrowikinomics, Publisher Atlantic Books Gold, Gerry, and Feldman, Paul (2007) A House of Cards – From fantasy finance to global crash. London, Lupus Books. ISBN 978-0-9523454-3-5 Hellwig, Martin F. Systemic risk in financial sector: an analysis of subprime-mortgage financial crisis. De Economist (2009) 157:129–207. DOI 10.1007/s10645-009-9110-0 Hunout, Patrick (2008), A World in Convulsions, Brussels, The Social Capital Foundation, http://www.socialcapital.is/TSCF/Hunout_2008.pdf Michael Lewis, "The End," Portfolio Magazine (November 11, 2008). Lewis, Michael (2010). The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-393-07223-5. Lemke, Thomas P.; Lins, Gerald T.; Picard, Marie E. (2012). Mortgage-Backed Securities. Thomson West. Liebowitz, Stan (2009) "Anatomy of a Train Wreck: Causes of the Mortgage Meltdown" in Randall Holcombe and B. W. Powell, eds., Housing America: Building out of a Crisis. Oakland CA: The Independent Institute. Muolo, Paul & Padilla, Matthew (2008). Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-29277-8. Woods, Thomas E. (2009) Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse / Washington DC: Regnery Publishing ISBN 1-59698-587-9 Reinhart, Carmen M., and Kenneth Rogoff (2008) "Is the 2007 U.S. Sub-Prime Financial Crisis So Different? An International Historical Comparison," Harvard University working paper. Stewart, James B., "Eight Days: the battle to save the American financial system", The New Yorker magazine, September 21, 2009. Clark, Kenneth E. "Legacy of Greed: The Story Behind the Mortgage and Housing Meltdown", Publisher: Author Solutions ISBN 978-1-4520-5439-1 http://www.kennetheclark.com Review of Mark Zandi's book Financial Shock: A 360° Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis from The New York Review of Books Zandi, Mark Book Excerpt: Financial Shock-Chapter 1 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mortgage crisis. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission – Homepage Report of Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission-January 2011 FCIC - Graphics Page Federal Reserve-Subprime Mortgage Crisis History Page Federal Reserve-Timeline of the financial crisis Reuters: Times of Crisis – multimedia interactive charting the year of global change PBS Frontline – Inside the Meltdown PBS - What You Need to Know About the Crisis "Government warned of mortgage meltdown Regulators ignored warnings about risky mortgages, delayed regulations on the industry". CNN. December 1, 2008. Archived from the original on December 16, 2008. Retrieved 2010-05-24. "The US sub-prime crisis in graphics". BBC. 21 November 2007. CNN Scorecard of Bailout Funds at CNN Bailout Allocations & Payments Barth, Li, Lu, Phumiwasana and Yago. 2009. The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Markets: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Market Meltdown. Amazon Financial Times – In depth: Subprime fall-out The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Infographic by Jonathan Jarvis The Economic Crisis: Its Origins and the Way Forward Video of lecture given by Marshall Carter, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, at Boston University, April 15, 2009 The True American Dream Home Ownership, the Subprime Lending Crisis, and Financial Instability by Masum Momaya – International Museum of Women The Financial Crisis: What Happened and Why – Lecture 2 Video of lecture given in July 2009, by Yaron Brook, professor of finance and executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights Lectures by Ben Bernanke to an economics class at George Washington University March, 2012 "Chairman Ben Bernanke Lecture Series Part 1" Recorded live on March 20, 2012 10:35am MST Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Subprime_mortgage_crisis&oldid=905340346"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line702
__label__cc	0.541893	0.458107	Wizet Wizet (Korean: 위젯) is a video game development studio located in Seoul, South Korea. They reached commercial success with their hit game MapleStory and were absorbed into their publishing company, Nexon. Nexon developed a franchise system and expanded its services to Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the United States, Europe, Brazil, and Vietnam. Eventually, Wizet reached the global world after having finished developing key features of MapleStory.[1] April 1999 [citation needed] Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea MapleStory, QuizQuiz, Heat Project, Kavatina Story .15 million USD per year www.wizet.net (now defunct) In Nexon Japan's 2011 financial deck, Wizet announced that Maplestory 2, a 3D sequel to Wizet's hit game, is in development.[2] Prior to joining Nexon America, Min Kim operated the successful launch of Maplestory as the Vice President of Global Business Development in Wizet Corporation. Min started his career in video games as a senior associate of business development at Nexon Corporation pursuing new business opportunities such as a social networking service, a board game business, and online game licensing, eventually becoming the Vice President, and later CEO, of the Nexon America branch.[3] MapleStoryEdit Main article: MapleStory The expansion of Wizet to the Global world of MapleStory began in January 2004. The open beta testing began in September 2004. ^ "Wizet". IGN. Retrieved May 17, 2015. ^ Buzzi, Matthew (2014-05-23). "'MapleStory 2' Gameplay: First Trailer Of In-Game Footage Released, Shows Off New 3D Graphics & Features". Gamenguide. ^ http://www.gdcchina.com/conference/keynotes.html#kim Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wizet&oldid=906581534"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line703
__label__cc	0.711829	0.288171	About Technopolis GS 40 winners of the second round of the International physics contest to visit Technopolis GS GS Group investment and industry holding company summed up the results of second extramural round of the International physics contest for school students. 40 students from 16 Russian regions advanced to the third round. According to results of the second extramural round of the International physics contest for high school students from non-capital cities, 25 students of senior classes, 7 ninth-graders and 8 tenth-graders came through to the final. The greatest number of winners came from among residents of the Republic of Mordovia, Bashkiria and the Tomsk region. All contestants demonstrated excellent knowledge of the material and the ability to use their expertise in the limited time allotted for performing tasks. Some of the students, who showed the best results, also took part in the last year's International math contest and advanced to the third face-to-face round, but didn’t manage to become winners. School students, who scored the highest number of points in the second round, will travel to the innovation cluster Technopolis GS, located in the town of Gusev, Kaliningrad region to take part in the contest final. GS Group, the contest organizer, bears all expenses related to school students’ transfers, accommodation and meals. The face-to-face competition will be held in Technopolis GS on December 6, 2014. According to its results the eleventh-grade winners will get personalized scholarships for one academic year, provided they enter the relevant higher education institutions for professions that are in demand in the innovation cluster. Finalists from among students of ninth and tenth grades will gain special prizes from GS Group including computer equipment and certificates for installation of the Tricolor TV set of equipment. Organizing International physics contest is a part of the career guidance policy conducted by the GS Group holding company to train and support young specialists. The contest was arranged specially to support school students from non-capital cities who often have fewer opportunities to get a quality higher education in the Russian leading universities. Last year the winners of the similar math contest were admitted to the field-specific universities of Moscow and St. Petersburg with the assistance of the holding company. Under the conditions of the contest, school students receive a scholarship from GS Group during the current academic year. The similar program of material support for nonresident freshmen and sophomores is carried out by the largest Russian higher educational institutions. Thus, the alumni community of the Lomonosov Moscow State University pays an additional scholarship to nonresident excellent freshmen, as well as to students from disadvantaged groups. Press service contacts Russia, Kaliningrad region, Gusev city, Industrialnaya street, 11 Tel: +7 (40143) 36-755 E-mail: pr@technopolis.gs	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line704
__label__wiki	0.791842	0.791842	Political ideology which advocates civil liberties with an emphasis on economic freedom Part of a series on History of liberalism Contributions to liberal theory Cultural liberalism Economic liberalism Harm principle Internationalism Market economy Natural and legal rights Negative/positive liberty Non-aggression Principle Permissive society Civic nationalism Conservative liberalism Democratic liberalism Green liberalism Liberal feminism Equity feminism Liberal autocracy Liberal Catholicism Liberal conservatism Liberal internationalism Liberal socialism Agorism Anarcho-capitalism Christian libertarianism/Libertarian Christianity Geolibertarianism Green libertarianism Libertarian conservatism Minarchism Paleolibertarianism Right-libertarianism Voluntaryism Muscular liberalism National liberalism Ordoliberalism Radical centrism Religious liberalism Secular liberalism Social liberalism Technoliberalism Third Way Whiggism Lord Acton Rifa'a al-Tahtawi Jean le Rond d'Alembert Chu Anping Raymond Aron Prosper de Barante Frédéric Bastiat William Beveridge Norberto Bobbio Lujo Brentano John Bright Victor de Broglie Ernst Cassirer Boris Chicherin Anders Chydenius Richard Cobden R. G. Collingwood Marquis de Condorcet Vincenzo Cuoco Ralf Dahrendorf Guido De Ruggiero Antoine Destutt de Tracy John Dewey A. V. Dicey Zhang Dongsun Charles Dunoyer Ronald Dworkin Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed József Eötvös Karl-Hermann Flach David Lloyd George William Ewart Gladstone Piero Gobetti Francisco Luís Gomes Thomas Hill Green François Guizot Friedrich Hayek Auberon Herbert Leonard Hobhouse John A. Hobson Baron d'Holbach Qin Hui Wilhelm von Humboldt Zef Jubani Namık Kemal Adamantios Korais Will Kymlicka Mariano José de Larra W. E. H. Lecky Thomas Babington Macaulay Harriet Martineau Minoo Masani Jules Michelet Janusz Korwin-Mikke James Mill Donald Barkly Molteno Theodor Mommsen Leo Chiozza Money Charles de Montalembert José María Luis Mora Chantal Mouffe Dadabhai Naoroji Friedrich Naumann Robert Nozick Bertil Ohlin Alan Paton Richard Price Joseph Priestley Guillermo Prieto François Quesnay Ignacio Ramírez Walther Rathenau Joseph Raz Ernest Renan Charles Renouvier David Ricardo Wilhelm Röpke Antonio Rosmini Carlo Rosselli Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Jean-Baptiste Say Li Shenzhi Judith Shklar Algernon Sidney Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès İbrahim Şinasi Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi Hernando de Soto Polar Herbert Spencer Germaine de Staël William Graham Sumner Augustin Thierry Johan Rudolph Thorbecke Ernst Troeltsch Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Abel-François Villemain Lester Frank Ward Mary Wollstonecraft Tao Xingzhi Gu Zhun Africa Liberal Network Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Arab Liberal Federation Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats European Democratic Party European Party for Individual Liberty International Alliance of Libertarian Parties International Federation of Liberal Youth Liberal International Liberal Network for Latin America Liberal parties Liberal South East European Network Czech lands Democratic capitalism Liberal bias in academia Liberalism portal Classical liberalism is a political ideology and a branch of liberalism which advocates civil liberties under the rule of law with an emphasis on economic freedom. Closely related to economic liberalism, it developed in the early 19th century, building on ideas from the previous century as a response to urbanisation and to the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States.[1][2][3] Notable individuals whose ideas contributed to classical liberalism include John Locke,[4] Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo. It drew on the classical economic ideas espoused by Adam Smith in Book One of The Wealth of Nations and on a belief in natural law,[5] utilitarianism[6] and progress.[7] The term classical liberalism has often been applied in retrospect to distinguish earlier 19th-century liberalism from social liberalism.[8] 1 Evolution of core beliefs 1.1 Friedrich Hayek's typology of beliefs 3 Intellectual sources 3.1 John Locke 3.2 Adam Smith 3.3 Classical economics 3.4 Utilitarianism 4 Political economy 5 Free trade and world peace Evolution of core beliefs[edit] Core beliefs of classical liberals included new ideas—which departed from both the older conservative idea of society as a family and from the later sociological concept of society as complex set of social networks. Classical liberals believe that individuals are "egoistic, coldly calculating, essentially inert and atomistic"[9] and that society is no more than the sum of its individual members.[10] Classical liberals agreed with Thomas Hobbes that government had been created by individuals to protect themselves from each other and that the purpose of government should be to minimize conflict between individuals that would otherwise arise in a state of nature. These beliefs were complemented by a belief that laborers could be best motivated by financial incentive. This belief led to the passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which limited the provision of social assistance, based on the idea that markets are the mechanism that most efficiently leads to wealth. Adopting Thomas Robert Malthus's population theory, they saw poor urban conditions as inevitable, believed population growth would outstrip food production and thus regarded that consequence desirable because starvation would help limit population growth. They opposed any income or wealth redistribution, believing it would be dissipated by the lowest orders.[11] Drawing on ideas of Adam Smith, classical liberals believed that it is in the common interest that all individuals be able to secure their own economic self-interest. They were critical of what would come to be the idea of the welfare state as interfering in a free market.[12] Despite Smith’s resolute recognition of the importance and value of labor and of laborers, classical liberals selectively criticized labour's group rights being pursued at the expense of individual rights[13] while accepting corporations' rights, which led to inequality of bargaining power.[14][15] Classical liberals argued that individuals should be free to obtain work from the highest-paying employers while the profit motive would ensure that products that people desired were produced at prices they would pay. In a free market, both labor and capital would receive the greatest possible reward while production would be organized efficiently to meet consumer demand.[16] Classical liberals argued for what they called a minimal state, limited to the following functions: A government to protect individual rights and to provide services that cannot be provided in a free market. A common national defense to provide protection against foreign invaders.[17] Laws to provide protection for citizens from wrongs committed against them by other citizens, which included protection of private property, enforcement of contracts and common law. Building and maintaining public institutions. Public works that included a stable currency, standard weights and measures and building and upkeep of roads, canals, harbors, railways, communications and postal services.[17] Classical liberals asserted that rights are of a negative nature and therefore stipulate that other individuals and governments are to refrain from interfering with the free market, opposing social liberals who assert that individuals have positive rights, such as the right to vote,[18] the right to an education, the right to health care and the right to a living wage. For society to guarantee positive rights, it requires taxation over and above the minimum needed to enforce negative rights.[19][20] Core beliefs of classical liberals did not necessarily include democracy or government by a majority vote by citizens because "there is nothing in the bare idea of majority rule to show that majorities will always respect the rights of property or maintain rule of law".[21] For example, James Madison argued for a constitutional republic with protections for individual liberty over a pure democracy, reasoning that in a pure democracy a "common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole [...] and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party".[22] In the late 19th century, classical liberalism developed into neo-classical liberalism, which argued for government to be as small as possible to allow the exercise of individual freedom. In its most extreme form, neo-classical liberalism advocated social Darwinism.[23] Right-libertarianism is a modern form of neo-classical liberalism.[23] Friedrich Hayek's typology of beliefs[edit] Friedrich Hayek identified two different traditions within classical liberalism, namely the British tradition and the French tradition. Hayek saw the British philosophers Bernard Mandeville, David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, Josiah Tucker and William Paley as representative of a tradition that articulated beliefs in empiricism, the common law and in traditions and institutions which had spontaneously evolved but were imperfectly understood. The French tradition included Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Marquis de Condorcet, the Encyclopedists and the Physiocrats. This tradition believed in rationalism and sometimes showed hostility to tradition and religion. Hayek conceded that the national labels did not exactly correspond to those belonging to each tradition since he saw the Frenchmen Montesquieu, Benjamin Constant and Alexis de Tocqueville as belonging to the British tradition and the British Thomas Hobbes, Joseph Priestley, Richard Price and Thomas Paine as belonging to the French tradition.[24][25] Hayek also rejected the label laissez-faire as originating from the French tradition and alien to the beliefs of Hume and Smith. Guido De Ruggiero also identified differences between "Montesquieu and Rousseau, the English and the democratic types of liberalism"[26] and argued that there was a "profound contrast between the two Liberal systems".[27] He claimed that the spirit of "authentic English Liberalism" had "built up its work piece by piece without ever destroying what had once been built, but basing upon it every new departure". This liberalism had "insensibly adapted ancient institutions to modern needs" and "instinctively recoiled from all abstract proclamations of principles and rights".[27] Ruggiero claimed that this liberalism was challenged by what he called the "new Liberalism of France" that was characterised by egalitarianism and a "rationalistic consciousness".[28] In 1848, Francis Lieber distinguished between what he called "Anglican and Gallican Liberty". Lieber asserted that "independence in the highest degree, compatible with safety and broad national guarantees of liberty, is the great aim of Anglican liberty, and self-reliance is the chief source from which it draws its strength".[29] On the other hand, Gallican liberty "is sought in government [...]. [T]he French look for the highest degree of political civilization in organizational, that is, in the highest degree of interference by public power".[30] Classical liberalism in Britain developed from Whiggery and radicalism, was also heavily influenced by French physiocracy and represented a new political ideology. Whiggery had become a dominant ideology following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and was associated with the defence of the British Parliament, upholding the rule of law and defending landed property. The origins of rights were seen as being in an ancient constitution, which had existed from time immemorial. These rights, which some Whigs considered to include freedom of the press and freedom of speech, were justified by custom rather than by natural rights. They believed that the power of the executive had to be constrained. While they supported limited suffrage, they saw voting as a privilege rather than as a right. However, there was no consistency in Whig ideology and diverse writers including John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith and Edmund Burke were all influential among Whigs, although none of them was universally accepted.[31] From the 1790s to the 1820s, British radicals concentrated on parliamentary and electoral reform, emphasising natural rights and popular sovereignty. Richard Price and Joseph Priestley adapted the language of Locke to the ideology of radicalism.[31] The radicals saw parliamentary reform as a first step toward dealing with their many grievances, including the treatment of Protestant Dissenters, the slave trade, high prices and high taxes.[32] There was greater unity to classical liberalism ideology than there had been with Whiggery. Classical liberals were committed to individualism, liberty and equal rights. They believed that required a free economy with minimal government interference. Writers such as John Bright and Richard Cobden opposed both aristocratic privilege and property, which they saw as an impediment to the development of a class of yeoman farmers. Some elements of Whiggery opposed this new thinking and were uncomfortable with the commercial nature of classical liberalism. These elements became associated with conservatism.[33] A meeting of the Anti-Corn Law League in Exeter Hall in 1846 Classical liberalism was the dominant political theory in Britain from the early 19th century until the First World War. Its notable victories were the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, the Reform Act of 1832 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. The Anti-Corn Law League brought together a coalition of liberal and radical groups in support of free trade under the leadership of Richard Cobden and John Bright, who opposed militarism and public expenditure. Their policies of low public expenditure and low taxation were adopted by William Ewart Gladstone when he became Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Prime Minister. Classical liberalism was often associated with religious dissent and nonconformism.[34] Although classical liberals aspired to a minimum of state activity, they accepted the principle of government intervention in the economy from the early 19th century with passage of the Factory Acts. From around 1840 to 1860, laissez-faire advocates of the Manchester School and writers in The Economist were confident that their early victories would lead to a period of expanding economic and personal liberty and world peace, but would face reversals as government intervention and activity continued to expand from the 1850s. Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, although advocates of laissez-faire, non-intervention in foreign affairs and individual liberty, believed that social institutions could be rationally redesigned through the principles of utilitarianism. The Conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli rejected classical liberalism altogether and advocated Tory democracy. By the 1870s, Herbert Spencer and other classical liberals concluded that historical development was turning against them.[35] By the First World War, the Liberal Party had largely abandoned classical liberal principles.[36] The changing economic and social conditions of the 19th century led to a division between neo-classical and social (or welfare) liberals, who while agreeing on the importance of individual liberty differed on the role of the state. Neo-classical liberals, who called themselves "true liberals", saw Locke's Second Treatise as the best guide and emphasised "limited government" while social liberals supported government regulation and the welfare state. Herbert Spencer in Britain and William Graham Sumner were the leading neo-classical liberal theorists of the 19th century.[37] Neo-classical liberalism has continued into the contemporary era, with writers such as John Rawls.[38] The evolution from classical to social/welfare liberalism is for example reflected in Britain in the evolution of the thought of John Maynard Keynes.[39] In the United States, liberalism took a strong root because it had little opposition to its ideals, whereas in Europe liberalism was opposed by many reactionary or feudal interests such as the nobility, the aristocracy, the landed gentry, the established church and the aristocratic army officers.[40] Thomas Jefferson adopted many of the ideals of liberalism, but in the Declaration of Independence changed Locke's "life, liberty and property" to the more socially liberal "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".[4] As the United States grew, industry became a larger and larger part of American life; and during the term of its first populist President, Andrew Jackson, economic questions came to the forefront. The economic ideas of the Jacksonian era were almost universally the ideas of classical liberalism.[41] Freedom, according to classical liberals, was maximised when the government took a "hands off" attitude toward the economy.[42] Historian Kathleen G. Donohue argues: [A]t the center of classical liberal theory [in Europe] was the idea of laissez-faire. To the vast majority of American classical liberals, however, laissez-faire did not mean no government intervention at all. On the contrary, they were more than willing to see government provide tariffs, railroad subsidies, and internal improvements, all of which benefited producers. What they condemned was intervention in behalf of consumers.[43] Leading magazine The Nation espoused liberalism every week starting in 1865 under the influential editor Edwin Lawrence Godkin (1831–1902).[44] The ideas of classical liberalism remained essentially unchallenged until a series of depressions, thought to be impossible according to the tenets of classical economics, led to economic hardship from which the voters demanded relief. In the words of William Jennings Bryan, "You shall not crucify the American farmer on a cross of gold". Classical liberalism remained the orthodox belief among American businessmen until the Great Depression.[45] The Great Depression of the 1930s saw a sea change in liberalism, with priority shifting from the producers to consumers. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal represented the dominance of modern liberalism in politics for decades. In the words of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.:[46] When the growing complexity of industrial conditions required increasing government intervention in order to assure more equal opportunities, the liberal tradition, faithful to the goal rather than to the dogma, altered its view of the state. [...] There emerged the conception of a social welfare state, in which the national government had the express obligation to maintain high levels of employment in the economy, to supervise standards of life and labour, to regulate the methods of business competition, and to establish comprehensive patterns of social security. Alan Wolfe summarizes the viewpoint that there is a continuous liberal understanding that includes both Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes:[47] The idea that liberalism comes in two forms assumes that the most fundamental question facing mankind is how much government intervenes into the economy. [...] When instead we discuss human purpose and the meaning of life, Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes are on the same side. Both of them possessed an expansive sense of what we are put on this earth to accomplish. [...] For Smith, mercantilism was the enemy of human liberty. For Keynes, monopolies were. It makes perfect sense for an eighteenth-century thinker to conclude that humanity would flourish under the market. For a twentieth century thinker committed to the same ideal, government was an essential tool to the same end. The view that modern liberalism is a continuation of classical liberalism is not universally shared.[48][49][50][51][52] James Kurth, Robert E. Lerner, John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge and several other political scholars have argued that classical liberalism still exists today, but in the form of American conservatism.[53][54][55][56][57] According to Deepak Lal, only in the United States does classical liberalism—through American conservatives—continue to be a significant political force.[58] Intellectual sources[edit] John Locke[edit] Central to classical liberal ideology was their interpretation of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, which had been written as a defence of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Although these writings were considered too radical at the time for Britain's new rulers, they later came to be cited by Whigs, radicals and supporters of the American Revolution.[59] However, much of later liberal thought was absent in Locke's writings or scarcely mentioned and his writings have been subject to various interpretations. For example, there is little mention of constitutionalism, the separation of powers and limited government.[60] James L. Richardson identified five central themes in Locke's writing: individualism, consent, the concepts of the rule of law and government as trustee, the significance of property and religious toleration. Although Locke did not develop a theory of natural rights, he envisioned individuals in the state of nature as being free and equal. The individual, rather than the community or institutions, was the point of reference. Locke believed that individuals had given consent to government and therefore authority derived from the people rather than from above. This belief would influence later revolutionary movements.[61] As a trustee, government was expected to serve the interests of the people, not the rulers; and rulers were expected to follow the laws enacted by legislatures. Locke also held that the main purpose of men uniting into commonwealths and governments was for the preservation of their property. Despite the ambiguity of Locke's definition of property, which limited property to "as much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of", this principle held great appeal to individuals possessed of great wealth.[62] Locke held that the individual had the right to follow his own religious beliefs and that the state should not impose a religion against Dissenters, but there were limitations. No tolerance should be shown for atheists, who were seen as amoral, or to Catholics, who were seen as owing allegiance to the Pope over their own national government.[63] Adam Smith[edit] Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, was to provide most of the ideas of economics, at least until the publication of John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy in 1848.[64] Smith addressed the motivation for economic activity, the causes of prices and the distribution of wealth and the policies the state should follow to maximise wealth.[65] Smith wrote that as long as supply, demand, prices and competition were left free of government regulation, the pursuit of material self-interest, rather than altruism, would maximise the wealth of a society[15] through profit-driven production of goods and services. An "invisible hand" directed individuals and firms to work toward the public good as an unintended consequence of efforts to maximise their own gain. This provided a moral justification for the accumulation of wealth, which had previously been viewed by some as sinful.[65] He assumed that workers could be paid wages as low as was necessary for their survival, which was later transformed by David Ricardo and Thomas Robert Malthus into the "iron law of wages".[66] His main emphasis was on the benefit of free internal and international trade, which he thought could increase wealth through specialisation in production.[67] He also opposed restrictive trade preferences, state grants of monopolies and employers' organisations and trade unions.[68] Government should be limited to defence, public works and the administration of justice, financed by taxes based on income.[69] Smith's economics was carried into practice in the nineteenth century with the lowering of tariffs in the 1820s, the repeal of the Poor Relief Act that had restricted the mobility of labour in 1834 and the end of the rule of the East India Company over India in 1858.[70] Classical economics[edit] In addition to Smith's legacy, Say's law, Thomas Robert Malthus' theories of population and David Ricardo's iron law of wages became central doctrines of classical economics. The pessimistic nature of these theories provided a basis for criticism of capitalism by its opponents and helped perpetuate the tradition of calling economics the "dismal science".[71] Jean-Baptiste Say was a French economist who introduced Smith's economic theories into France and whose commentaries on Smith were read in both France and Britain.[70] Say challenged Smith's labour theory of value, believing that prices were determined by utility and also emphasised the critical role of the entrepreneur in the economy. However, neither of those observations became accepted by British economists at the time. His most important contribution to economic thinking was Say's law, which was interpreted by classical economists that there could be no overproduction in a market and that there would always be a balance between supply and demand.[72] This general belief influenced government policies until the 1930s. Following this law, since the economic cycle was seen as self-correcting, government did not intervene during periods of economic hardship because it was seen as futile.[73] Malthus wrote two books, An Essay on the Principle of Population (published in 1798) and Principles of Political Economy (published in 1820). The second book which was a rebuttal of Say's law had little influence on contemporary economists.[74] However, his first book became a major influence on classical liberalism. In that book, Malthus claimed that population growth would outstrip food production because population grew geometrically while food production grew arithmetically. As people were provided with food, they would reproduce until their growth outstripped the food supply. Nature would then provide a check to growth in the forms of vice and misery. No gains in income could prevent this and any welfare for the poor would be self-defeating. The poor were in fact responsible for their own problems which could have been avoided through self-restraint.[75] Ricardo, who was an admirer of Smith, covered many of the same topics, but while Smith drew conclusions from broadly empirical observations he used deduction, drawing conclusions by reasoning from basic assumptions [76] While Ricardo accepted Smith's labour theory of value, he acknowledged that utility could influence the price of some rare items. Rents on agricultural land were seen as the production that was surplus to the subsistence required by the tenants. Wages were seen as the amount required for workers' subsistence and to maintain current population levels.[77] According to his iron law of wages, wages could never rise beyond subsistence levels. Ricardo explained profits as a return on capital, which itself was the product of labour, but a conclusion many drew from his theory was that profit was a surplus appropriated by capitalists to which they were not entitled.[78] Utilitarianism[edit] Utilitarianism provided the political justification for implementation of economic liberalism by British governments, which was to dominate economic policy from the 1830s. Although utilitarianism prompted legislative and administrative reform and John Stuart Mill's later writings on the subject foreshadowed the welfare state, it was mainly used as a justification for laissez-faire.[79] The central concept of utilitarianism, which was developed by Jeremy Bentham, was that public policy should seek to provide "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". While this could be interpreted as a justification for state action to reduce poverty, it was used by classical liberals to justify inaction with the argument that the net benefit to all individuals would be higher.[71] Political economy[edit] Classical liberals saw utility as the foundation for public policies. This broke both with conservative "tradition" and Lockean "natural rights", which were seen as irrational. Utility, which emphasises the happiness of individuals, became the central ethical value of all liberalism.[80] Although utilitarianism inspired wide-ranging reforms, it became primarily a justification for laissez-faire economics. However, classical liberals rejected Smith's belief that the "invisible hand" would lead to general benefits and embraced Malthus' view that population expansion would prevent any general benefit and Ricardo's view of the inevitability of class conflict. Laissez-faire was seen as the only possible economic approach and any government intervention was seen as useless and harmful. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was defended on "scientific or economic principles" while the authors of the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 were seen as not having had the benefit of reading Malthus.[81] However, commitment to laissez-faire was not uniform and some economists advocated state support of public works and education. Classical liberals were also divided on free trade as Ricardo expressed doubt that the removal of grain tariffs advocated by Richard Cobden and the Anti-Corn Law League would have any general benefits. Most classical liberals also supported legislation to regulate the number of hours that children were allowed to work and usually did not oppose factory reform legislation.[81] Despite the pragmatism of classical economists, their views were expressed in dogmatic terms by such popular writers as Jane Marcet and Harriet Martineau.[81] The strongest defender of laissez-faire was The Economist founded by James Wilson in 1843. The Economist criticised Ricardo for his lack of support for free trade and expressed hostility to welfare, believing that the lower orders were responsible for their economic circumstances. The Economist took the position that regulation of factory hours was harmful to workers and also strongly opposed state support for education, health, the provision of water and granting of patents and copyrights.[82] The Economist also campaigned against the Corn Laws that protected landlords in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports of cereal products. A rigid belief in laissez-faire guided the government response in 1846–1849 to the Great Famine in Ireland, during which an estimated 1.5 million people died. The minister responsible for economic and financial affairs, Charles Wood, expected that private enterprise and free trade, rather than government intervention, would alleviate the famine.[82] The Corn Laws were finally repealed in 1846 by the removal of tariffs on grain which kept the price of bread artificially high,[83] but it came too late to stop the Irish famine, partly because it was done in stages over three years.[84][85] Free trade and world peace[edit] Several liberals, including Smith and Cobden, argued that the free exchange of goods between nations could lead to world peace. Erik Gartzke states: "Scholars like Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Richard Cobden, Norman Angell, and Richard Rosecrance have long speculated that free markets have the potential to free states from the looming prospect of recurrent warfare".[86] American political scientists John R. Oneal and Bruce M. Russett, well known for their work on the democratic peace theory, state:[87] The classical liberals advocated policies to increase liberty and prosperity. They sought to empower the commercial class politically and to abolish royal charters, monopolies, and the protectionist policies of mercantilism so as to encourage entrepreneurship and increase productive efficiency. They also expected democracy and laissez-faire economics to diminish the frequency of war. In The Wealth of Nations, Smith argued that as societies progressed from hunter gatherers to industrial societies the spoils of war would rise, but that the costs of war would rise further and thus making war difficult and costly for industrialised nations:[88] [T]he honours, the fame, the emoluments of war, belong not to [the middle and industrial classes]; the battle-plain is the harvest field of the aristocracy, watered with the blood of the people. [...] Whilst our trade rested upon our foreign dependencies, as was the case in the middle of the last century...force and violence, were necessary to command our customers for our manufacturers...But war, although the greatest of consumers, not only produces nothing in return, but, by abstracting labour from productive employment and interrupting the course of trade, it impedes, in a variety of indirect ways, the creation of wealth; and, should hostilities be continued for a series of years, each successive war-loan will be felt in our commercial and manufacturing districts with an augmented pressure — Richard Cobden[89] [B]y virtue of their mutual interest does nature unite people against violence and war, for the concept of cosmopolitan right does not protect them from it. The spirit of trade cannot coexist with war, and sooner or later this spirit dominates every people. For among all those powers (or means) that belong to a nation, financial power may be the most reliable in forcing nations to pursue the noble cause of peace (though not from moral motives); and wherever in the world war threatens to break out, they will try to head it off through mediation, just as if they were permanently leagued for this purpose. — Immanuel Kant[90] Cobden believed that military expenditures worsened the welfare of the state and benefited a small, but concentrated elite minority, summing up British imperialism, which he believed was the result of the economic restrictions of mercantilist policies. To Cobden and many classical liberals, those who advocated peace must also advocate free markets. The belief that free trade would promote peace was widely shared by English liberals of the 19th and early 20th century, leading the economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946), who was a classical liberal in his early life, to say that this was a doctrine on which he was "brought up" and which he held unquestioned only until the 1920s.[91] In his review of a book on Keynes, Michael S. Lawlor argues that it may be in large part due to Keynes' contributions in economics and politics, as in the implementation of the Marshall Plan and the way economies have been managed since his work, "that we have the luxury of not facing his unpalatable choice between free trade and full employment".[92] A related manifestation of this idea was the argument of Norman Angell (1872–1967), most famously before World War I in The Great Illusion (1909), that the interdependence of the economies of the major powers was now so great that war between them was futile and irrational; and therefore unlikely. Bourbon Democrat Classical economics Classical republicanism Constitutional liberalism Fiscal conservatism Georgism Jeffersonian democracy Liberal democracy List of liberal theorists Modern liberalism Neoclassical liberalism Night-watchman state Physiocracy Political individualism ^ Conway, p. 296. ^ Hudelson, Richard (1999). Modern Political Philosophy. M. E. Sharpe. pp. 37–38. ISBN 9780765600219. ^ Dickerson, Flanagan & O'Neill, p. 129. ^ a b Steven M. Dworetz (1994). The Unvarnished Doctrine: Locke, Liberalism, and the American Revolution. ^ Appleby, Joyce (1992). Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination. Harvard University Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780674530133. ^ Gaus, Gerald F.; Kukathas, Chandran (2004). Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE. p. 422. ISBN 9780761967873. ^ Hunt, p. 54. ^ Richardson, p. 52. ^ Hunt, pp. 44–46. ^ Alan Ryan, "Liberalism", in A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, ed. Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1995), p. 293. ^ Evans, M. ed. (2001): Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Liberalism: Evidence and Experience, London: Routledge, 55 (ISBN 1-57958-339-3). ^ a b Smith, A. (1778). "8". An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. I. W. Strahan; and T. Cadell. ^ a b Hunt, pp. 51–53. ^ For a general discussion on the right to vote. Charles Edward Andrew Lincoln IV, Hegelian Dialectical Analysis of U.S. Voting Laws, 42 U. Dayton L. Rev. 87 (2017). ^ Kelly, D. (1998): A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and the Welfare State, Washington, DC: Cato Institute. ^ Richardson, pp. 36–38. ^ Ryan, A. (1995): "Liberalism", In: Goodin, R. E. and Pettit, P., eds.: A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, p. 293. ^ James Madison, Federalist No. 10 (22 November 1787), in Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison, The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States, ed. Henry Cabot Lodge (New York, 1888), p. 56. ^ a b Mayne, p. 124. ^ Hayek, F. A. (1976). The Constitution of Liberty. London: Routledge. pp. 55–56. ISBN 9781317857808. ^ F. A. Hayek, 'Individualism: True and False', in Individualism and Economic Order (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 1–32. ^ De Ruggiero, p. 71. ^ a b De Ruggiero, p. 81. ^ De Ruggiero, pp. 81–82. ^ Lieber, p. 377. ^ Lieber, pp. 382–383. ^ a b Vincent, pp. 28-29. ^ Turner, Michael J. (1999). British Politics in an Age of Reform. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-7190-51869. ^ Vincent, pp. 29–30. ^ Gray, pp. 26–27. ^ Gray, p. 28. ^ Ishiyama & Breuning, p. 596. ^ See the studies of Keynes by Roy Harrod, Robert Skidelsky, Donald Moggridge and Donald Markwell. ^ Hartz, Louis (1955). "The Concept of a Liberal Society". The Liberal Tradition in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780156512695. ^ Jeremy M. Brown (1995). Explaining the Reagan Years in Central America: A World System Perspective. University Press of America. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-8191-9813-6. ^ Paul Kahan (3 January 2014). The Homestead Strike: Labor, Violence, and American Industry. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-136-17397-4. Called the "Jacksonian Era," this era was characterized by greater voting rights for white men, a hands-off approach to economic issues, and a desire to spread U.S. culture and government west (an outlook called "Manifest Destiny"). ^ Kathleen G. Donohue (2005). Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780801883910. ^ Pollak, Gustav (1915). Fifty Years of American Idealism: 1865-1915. Houghton Mifflin Company. ^ Eric Voegelin, Mary Algozin, and Keith Algozin, "Liberalism and Its History", Review of Politics 36, no. 4 (1974): 504–520. ^ Arthur Schelesinger Jr., "Liberalism in America: A Note for Europeans", in The Politics of Hope (Boston: Riverside Press, 1962). ^ Wolfe, Alan (12 April 2009). "A False Distinction". The New Republic. ^ D. Conway (5 October 1998). Classical Liberalism: The Unvanquished Ideal. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-230-37119-4. ^ Richman, Sheldon (12 August 2012). "Classical Liberalism vs. Modern Liberalism". Reason. Reason Foundation. Retrieved 4 November 2016. ^ Faria Jr., Miguel A. (21 March 2012). "Classical Liberalism vs Modern Liberalism (Socialism) – A Primer". haciendapublishing.com. Hacienda Publishing. Retrieved 4 November 2016. ^ Alan Ryan (5 August 2012). The Making of Modern Liberalism. Princeton University Press. pp. 23–26. ISBN 1-4008-4195-X. ^ Andrew Heywood (12 March 2012). Political Ideologies: An Introduction. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-230-36994-8. ^ Nathan Schlueter; Nikolai Wenzel (2 November 2016). Selfish Libertarians and Socialist Conservatives?: The Foundations of the Libertarian-Conservative Debate. Stanford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-5036-0029-4. American conservatism is a form of classical liberalism. ^ John Micklethwait; Adrian Wooldridge (2004). The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America. Penguin. p. 343. ISBN 978-1-59420-020-5. Whichever way you look at it, American conservatism has embraced a great chunk of classical liberalism-so much of it that many observers have argued that American conservatism was an oxymoron; that it is basically classical liberalism in disguise. ^ James R. Kirth (17 May 2016). "A History of Inherent Contradictions: The Origins and Ends of American Conservatism". In Sanford V. Levinson (ed.). American Conservatism: NOMOS LVI. Melissa S. Williams, Joel Parker. NYU Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-4798-6518-5. Of course, the original conservatives had not really been conservatives either. They were merely classical liberals. It seems to be the case in American that most so-called conservatives have really been something else. This has confused not only external observers of American conservatism (be they on the European Right or on the American Left), but it has confused American conservatives as well. ^ Robert C. Smith (9 September 2010). Conservatism and Racism, and Why in America They Are the Same. SUNY Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4384-3234-2. Locke's classical liberalism is American conservatism, a conservatism whose core ideas went virtually unchallenged until the New Deal. ^ Robert Lerner; Althea K. Nagai; Stanley Rothman (1996). American Elites. Yale University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-300-06534-3. Moreover, Americans do not use the term liberalism in the same way that Europeans do. In fact, classical European liberalism more closely resembles what we (and what Americans generally) call conservatism. ^ Deepak Lal (16 December 2010). Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century. Princeton University Press. p. 51. ISBN 1-4008-3744-8. The major votaries of classical liberalism today are American conservatives. For as Hayek noted: "It is the doctrine on which the American system of government is based. "But, contemporary American conservatism is a novel brew which Micklethwait and Wooldridge rightly note is a mixture of the individualism of classical liberalism and "ubertraditionalism." It represents adherence to the bourgeois organization of society epitomized by that much-maligned word, "Victorian": with its faith in individualism, capitalism, progress, and virtue. Having been silenced by the seemingly endless march of "embedded liberalism" since the New Deal, American conservatism has, since the late 1960s, regrouped, and under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush created a new powerful political movement. Thus, apart from the brief period of Margaret Thatcher's ascendancy in Britain, it is only in the United States that the classical liberal tradition continues to have political force. ^ Steven M. Dworetz, The Unvarnished Doctrine: Locke, Liberalism, and the American Revolution (1989). ^ Mills, pp. 63, 68. ^ a b Mills, p. 64. ^ Mills, p. 65. ^ Mills, pp. 71–72. ^ a b c Richardson, p. 33. ^ a b Richardson, p. 34. ^ George Miller. On Fairness and Efficiency. The Policy Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1-86134-221-8 p. 344. ^ Christine Kinealy. A Death-Dealing Famine:The Great Hunger in Ireland. Pluto Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-7453-1074-9. p. 59. ^ Stephen J. Lee. Aspects of British Political History, 1815–1914. Routledge, 1994. ISBN 978-0-415-09006-3. p. 83. ^ Erik Gartzke, "Economic Freedom and Peace," in Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report (Vancouver: Fraser Institute, 2005). ^ Oneal, J. R.; Russet, B. M. (1997). "The Classical Liberals Were Right: Democracy, Interdependence, and Conflict, 1950–1985". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (2): 267–294. doi:10.1111/1468-2478.00042. ^ Michael Doyle, Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism, and Socialism (New York: Norton, 1997), p. 237 (ISBN 0-393-96947-9). ^ Edward P. Stringham, "Commerce, Markets, and Peace: Richard Cobden's Enduring Lessons", Independent Review 9, no. 1 (2004): 105, 110, 115. ^ Immanuel Kant, The Perpetual Peace. ^ Donald Markwell, John Maynard Keynes and International Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace, Oxford University Press, 2006, ch. 1. ^ John Maynard Keynes and International Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace Donald Markwell (2006), reviewed by M S Lawlor (February 2008). Conway, David (2008). "Liberalism, Classical". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications; Cato Institute. pp. 295–298. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n179. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. De Ruggiero, Guido (1959). The History of European Liberalism. Boston: Beacon Press. Dickerson, M. O.; Flanagan, Thomas; O'Neill, Brenda (2009). An Introduction to Government and Politics: A Conceptual Approach. Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780176500429. Gray, John (1995). Liberalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-2800-9. Heywood, Andrew (2004). Political Theory, Third Edition: An Introduction. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-96180-3. Hunt, E. K. (2003). Property and Prophets: The Evolution of Economic Institutions and Ideologies. New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. ISBN 0-7656-0608-9. Ishiyama, John T.; Breuning, Marijike (2010). 21st Century Political Science: A Reference Handbook. 1. London, England: SAGE Publications. ISBN 1-4129-6901-8. Lieber, Francis (1881). The Miscellaneous Writings of Francis Lieber, Volume II: Contributions to Political Science. Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott. Mills, John (2002). A Critical History of Economics. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-97130-2. Richardson, James L. (2001). Contending Liberalisms in World Politics: Ideology and Power. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1-55587-939-X. Turner, Rachel S. (2008). Neo-Liberal Ideology: History, Concepts and Policies: History, Concepts and Policies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-748-63235-2. van de Haar, Edwin (2015). Degrees of Freedom: Liberal Political Philosophy and Ideology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-412-85575-6. Vincent, Andrew (2009). Modern Political Ideologies (Third ed.). Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-5495-6. Alan Bullock and Maurice Shock, ed. (1967). The Liberal Tradition: From Fox to Keynes. Oxford. Clarendon Press. Epstein, Richard A. (2014). The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674724891. Katherine Henry (2011). Liberalism and the Culture of Security: The Nineteenth-Century Rhetoric of Reform. University of Alabama Press; draws on literary and other writings to study the debates over liberty and tyranny). Donald Markwell (2006). John Maynard Keynes and International Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace. Oxford, England. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198292364. Alan James Mayne (1999). From Politics Past to Politics Future: An Integrated Analysis of Current and Emergent Paradigmss. Westport, Connecticut. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-96151-6. Gustav Pollak, ed. (1915). Fifty Years of American Idealism: 1865-1915; short history of The Nation plus numerous excerpts, most by Edwin Lawrence Godkin. 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__label__cc	0.670994	0.329006	Silke Schreiber-Barsch Home > Vol 23, No 53 (2019) > Schreiber-Barsch Is it the Taking Part that Counts? Access to Lifelong Learning Opportunities in Germany’s Regime of Dis/Ability Encyclopaideia – Journal of Phenomenology and Education. Vol.23 n.53 (2019) Focus – peer-reviewed https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1825-8670/9349 Is it the Taking Part that Counts? Access to Lifelong Learning Opportunities in Germany’s Regime of Dis/Ability Silke Schreiber-Barsch — University of Hamburg (Germany) — Contact: silke.schreiber-barsch@uni-hamburg.de Silke Schreiber-Barsch is an Assistant Professor in Adult Education at the Faculty of Education, Unit of Lifelong Learning, University of Hamburg (Germany). Her main research areas are international and comparative adult education, theory and practices of lifelong learning, issues of participation and social inclusion/exclusion, with particular emphasis on education and adults with dis/abilities through the analytical lens of relational spatial theory, and global citizenship education. This paper reveals why the issue of transforming the system of lifelong learning towards an ‘inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning’ (United Nations, 2006, p. 16), due to national ratifications of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), cuts right to the core of democratic societies and national policy agendas. Following the socio-spatial works by Löw (2001; 2008), the example of the German lifelong learning arena serves to illustrate the benefit of spatial theory in the adult education discourse. Empirical findings of a qualitative research design allow insights into how access to a place of learning is interpreted and organised by adult education professionals. It opens up an understanding of who gains access to public adult education institutions and, imperatively, why access is not merely a pedagogical issue, but a negotiation of citizenship and politics and is, thus, of a genuine political nature. Questo articolo mostra per quali motivi trasformare la formazione permanente in un “sistema inclusivo a tutti i livelli in tutte le fasi della vita” (United Nations, 2006, p. 16), sulla base delle ratifiche della Convenzione delle Nazioni Unite sui diritti delle persone con disabilità (2006), al centro dell’interesse delle società democratiche e delle agende politiche nazionali. Facendo seguito alle pubblicazioni socio-spaziali di Löw (2001; 2008), il modello della Germania dimostra i benefici della teoria spaziale nell’ambito della formazione permanente. Dati empirici di una ricerca di tipo qualitativo permettono di vedere chiaramente come l’accesso a uno spazio di apprendimento viene interpretato e organizzato da professionisti della formazione in età adulta. Questi dati danno inoltre la possibilità di capire chi ha accesso alle istituzioni pubbliche per la formazione in età adulta e, di conseguenza, di vedere come l’accesso stesso non sia una questione meramente pedagogica, bensì strettamente legata al tema della cittadinanza e di conseguenza di chiara natura politica. Keywords: Adult Education; Inclusion; Dis/Ability; Spatial Theory; Citizenship. 2 Germany’s regime of dis/ability with regard to adult education and learning 3 Space is more than place: Adult Education, Spatial Theory and Dis/ability 3.1 Analytical Approach: Martina Löw’s relational understanding of space 4 The architecture of inclusion: proposing a heuristic framework 4.1 The professionals’ core activities in realising inclusive learning 4.2 Logic of professional activities – quality of participation on offer 5 Conclusion: It is the quality of participation that counts Education for all—and especially for some has been a leading leitmotif throughout the history of adult education in the global North and South. It refers to adult education’s mandate to foster, via learning and education, the social inclusion of adults and, in particular, marginalised or vulnerable groups in society (Schreiber-Barsch, 2018). The works of Paulo Freire (1968) in Latin America or the European popular educational movements (Steele, 2007) give exhaustive credit to this. At the same time, it becomes obvious that in executing the mandate of social inclusion, adult education and its practitioners have continued to oscillate between two poles. Between the objectives of the learner’s adaptation to society’s requirements on the one hand and of his / her empowerment to social transformation, critical reflection and resistance against just these requirements with the option to initiate social change on the other. Under these auspices, the mandate of social inclusion has always strengthened a profound linkage to social struggles in the sense of “collective mediations” of citizenship (Isin & Nyers, 2014, p. 1; Kabeer, 2005). Against this backdrop, the paper aims to narrow the issue of social inclusion on one specific category of social diversity: the category of dis/ability. In the wake of the ratification of the United Nation (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by its member states in 2006, national education systems are called upon to ensure “an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning” (United Nations, 2006, art. 24). This claims to finally fully ensure the existing right to education for all (United Nations, 1948, art. 26). However, especially in countries like Germany with a traditionally highly segregated education system (Poore, 2009; Richardson & Powell, 2011), this political agenda-setting shakes the very foundations of who’s in and who’s out in society’s lifelong learning system. This on-going upheaval represents the framework of this paper within which social struggle and transformation are exemplified by the question of who gets and, in what way, access to the contested terrain of a learning place in the public space such as a public adult education centre. Is it truly the taking part of adults with dis/abilities that counts in realising inclusive learning and easy access learning opportunities? Using the spatial theory approach by Martina Löw (2001), the paper will elaborate upon why a public adult education centre is more than a territory shared by learners, professionals and pedagogical material. A spatial approach reveals the inherent symbolic dimensions of expected normality and of the distribution of power and dominion, determining who is to what extent able, powerful and considered able to redefine, reorder and, finally, ensure the given ideas about learning and participation. Given the call for a paradigm shift in Germany’s traditionally highly segregated education system by means of the ratification of the UN Convention in the year 2009, a political agenda-setting process has been launched towards an inclusive system of lifelong learning from the cradle to the grave: Our way to an inclusive society (BMAS, 2011; 2016). A remarkable aspect is that, on this policy level, the issue of inclusion in the sense of dis/ability is almost entirely focused on the formal context of schooling and vocational education and training (joint learning of pupils with and without dis/abilities)—and almost seems to fade away beyond. Inclusive learning has become an aspect of the mandatory system’s part, not of the voluntary arena of adult learning and education. This leads to a point made by Masschelein and Quaghebeur (2005). By referring to Foucault’s concept of governmentality (1978), they raise the debate on governmental techniques of a participatory regime: Who shall participate in what and under what conditions, thus: is Participation for Better or for Worse? Similarily, Edwards, Armstrong and Miller (2001) had emphasised that in spite of all claims for social inclusion and lifelong learning, not all adults necessarily would want to be included in what is on offer. Thus, neither inclusion nor participation are context-free, but are to be seen as embedded in a specific participatory regime at a given time in a given society. Against this backdrop, a glance at the categories of inclusion and dis/ability is needed in order to clarify their understanding in the present paper. This provides the foundation for introducing the analytical lens of spatial theory used in the empirical research on inclusive learning places in the public space of adult education. Due to its prominent role in the UNESCO policy agenda-setting process since the beginning of the 1990s, inclusion has become a rather fuzzy term and, therefore, always needs to be contextualised (Wilson, 2000). In doing so, the paper begins by referring to the social sciences discourse on social inclusion / exclusion as it had originated in the 1960s (Lenoir, 1974; Castel, 1995). As outlined earlier (Schreiber-Barsch, 2018), a differentiation in system, process, condition appears to be useful. First, it is supposed that societal systems of inclusion / exclusion do not follow steady, quasi-natural logics, but represent socially (re)produced entities that are permanently under negotiation. Objects of negotiation are socially, culturally and politically defined terms of membership, recognition and participation in society. In the case under scrutiny, that would mean the policy level of the UN Convention and the agenda-setting process at the national system’s macro level. Moreover, inclusion / exclusion are, second, not dichotomous, but dialectical and constantly on-going processes that proceed along social features like gender, age, ethnic origin, corporeality and the like; in varying degrees (more or less inclusive / exclusive) and duration (time). This emphasises the common practice of inclusion and exclusion without necessarily knowing whether inclusion or exclusion is considered to be the favourable choice in a specific case. Exclusion, thus, only becomes abnormal in the sense of problematic, if to be excluded entails a solidified loss of opportunities to participate in society in a way that the individual or a collectivity (like a social group) view as a disadvantage or as a the loss of an appropriate living standard (Bartelheimer, 2007). Along the UN inclusion-agenda, primarily social processes with regard to the category of dis/ability and their inclusive / exclusive dynamics are put in the limelight. The logic of the Convention argues that barriers to learning and, thus, to participation in society due to being disabled are a non-acceptable standard of living and a loss of personal opportunities. Third, inclusion / exclusion generally stand for a normative framework of a desired societal condition (i.e. an exclusive or inclusive society). In its modern welfare state version, usually the normative framework of justifying social inclusion is closely linked to ideas of equality, human rights and democracy (Young, 2002; Wilson, 2000) and to the right to education (United Nations, 1948, art. 26)—which directly sets the link to the case under scrutiny. Discussing inclusion in the sense of dis/ability, makes it, moreover, necessary to define the understanding of dis/ability prominent in this paper. Dis/ability is not an ontological category, but it could be congenital, acquired (by accident, disease etc.) or also socially constructed. This complexity refuses one-dimensional explanatory models. In acknowledging this, the UN Convention shifted from the traditional medical model of dis/ability to the social model of dis/ability, emphasising the interrelatedness of being, in whatever sense, individually impaired as well as living in disabling societal conditions. The paper, however, pursues a cultural model of dis/ability, following the strands of the Critical Disability Studies. They argue for a multi-factorial account of dis/ability in its interrelatedness with biological, social, cultural and psychological aspects, attitudes and norms and explicitly pay attention to the interwoven power structures (Rocco & Delgado, 2011; Shakespeare, 2013; Snyder & Mitchell, 2006; Riddell & Watson, 2014). Ultimately, the paper uses the term ‘adults with learning difficulties’ in order to avoid the stigmatising label of intellectual or cognitive disability, but favouring the term brought forward by the self-advocacy group People First. Focussing on adult education, it becomes apparent that, in Germany, the traditionally highly segregated education is reproduced as a similar counterpart in adult education. For centuries, segregation was based on a deficit-oriented categorisation of learners into normal and special learning institutions along the so-called “able/not-able divide,” as Campbell (2009) argues from the perspective of the Critical Disability Studies. This has resulted in the on-going status quo that, in Germany, learning opportunities for adults with impairments or learning difficulties continue to be provided almost exclusively in sheltered workshops or in care institutions without any primary adult education mandate—hence not in public spaces such as, for example, a public adult education centre (Lindmeier, 2003; Heimlich & Behr, 2009). Empirical data on the rudimentary participation of learners with dis/abilities in the arena of lifelong learning confirm their positioning at the outer periphery of this arena (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung, 2014), which, again, echoes the features of the current participatory regime. It clearly emphasises that adults with impairments or learning difficulties are not recognised as regular clients of and prospective participants in adult education. One of adult education’s core principles is identifying target groups that are seen both as capable of and vitally in need of learning and that are thus addressed using specific target group-oriented measures (Hippel & Tippelt, 2009). However, historically, adults with impairments or learning difficulties have not been even granted the status of a prospective clientele of adult education (see e.g. Theunissen & Hoffmann, 2003). Even worse, the long-term effects of the inhuman euthanasia program (called T4) by the National Socialist dictatorship with the systematic killing of more than 70,000 people with all kinds of disabilities between 1939 and 1945 are still present. The age gap of elderly people with dis/abilities in relation to the number of elderly without, has only recently been closing (Dieckmann & Giovis, 2012, p. 15). This emphasises that a glance at Germany’s regime of dis/ability is not a purely pedagogical issue. But it cuts right to the core of democratic societies and their participatory regimes in positioning people according to the existing order as a citizen or “not-yet-being-a-citizen” (Biesta & Lawy, 2006) or also a “lesser citizen” (Kabeer, 2005) due to dis/ability, installing a “regime of dis-citizenship” (Devlin & Pothier, 2006). In this sense, a public adult education institution is of interest for the question under scrutiny, because it provides a public space for learning, and, by this, also for performing and communicating political subjectivities. As Amin (2015) has pointed out, public spaces are in essence political arenas. Under negotiation is the very foundation of citizenship which is understood, following Biesta and Lawy (2006), as a “practice of identification with public issues” (ibid., p. 72); it represents transformative processes of how “people relate to, understand and express their place and role in society” (ibid., p. 73). Pursuing this argument, civic learning has to be seen as a cultural process and, by being performed through gaining access to and occupying public spaces, a wayfinding into society. Adult education’s objectives of fostering not only the learner’s adaptation to society’s requirements, but also his / her empowerment to social transformation and critical reflection becomes more than obvious and more than necessary. As outlined earlier (Schreiber-Barsch, 2016), in Germany, public adult education centres, the so-called Volkshochschulen, represent a public learning space legitimised by their general accessibility and their public and professional mandate. Their historical roots stretch back to the end of the 19th century (Süssmuth & Sprink, 2009). Today, about 900 public adult education centres exist throughout Germany, operating as independent legal entities, but working under the auspices of the state, the respective federal states and the local authorities (Huntemann & Reichart, 2014). They offer further education, in-house training, vocational certificates as well as literacy or citizenship courses and the whole range of liberal adult education learning offers. About 40 % of their financial resources stems from public subsidies, with revenues from participation fees amounting also to 40 % (as for 2013; ibid.). Their traditionally close ties to the public sector and their historical leitmotif of providing adult education for all and especially for some, beyond any particular political convictions, age cohorts, financial situations or learning objectives, explains why their work is labelled adult education in public responsibility. However, data on public adult education centres still manifests the traditional participatory regime along the able/not-able divide. The share of target-group oriented courses amongst the total number of all courses is 17 %; of this, 2 % are explicitly labelled as for “people with disabilities” (Huntemann & Reichart, 2014). In another current survey (Koscheck, Weiland & Ditschek, 2013), all adult education providers were asked, for the first time, to estimate (because quantitative data rarely exists and is complicated, if not unethical, to gain) the number of participants with disabilities / impairments in their regular course portfolio; the findings revealed a percentage of less than 5 %. Whether or not it is possible to calculate an adequate participation rate, there is no denying that the proportion of adults with impairments or learning difficulties is very low. What becomes apparent is the cultural and political dimension of the issue, as this low participation rate cannot be explained solely by a lack of wheelchair ramps or insufficient formal rights—certainly, no public adult education centre has a mission statement saying they are not open or not responsible for this clientele. It manifests the symbolic framework that public adult education centres are meant for abled adults and sheltered workshops or similar institutions are meant for non-abled adults. This is what Holston (2007) defines as the “know-your-place” rule, re-produced by most of society’s members, be they individuals, organisations, professionals or the like, and by explicit facts and internalised attitudes and norms, an interactive doing disability (Waldschmidt, 2008). Thus, even though formal access might be provided, voices are not acknowledged and recognition is granted only pro forma. Young (2002) has called this internal exclusion: “Though formally included in a forum or process, people may find that their claims are not taken seriously and may believe that they are not treated with equal respect” (ibid., p. 55). This mechanism can be illustrated by providing a short interview sequence of the empirical data to be presented in the following chapter (chapter 4). In our explorative qualitative study (Schreiber-Barsch & Fawcett, 2017), one interviewee, a head of a public adult education centre, explained why their institution has to be seen from his / her point of view as a role model for inclusion: …the people [with learning difficulties; SSB] water our FLOWERS. They come and remove the paper for recycling. They come and make our notice board nice. And all these things, distributing programme booklets and leaflets at the beginning of the term. […] So, if you had been here on Monday, you would have thought: wow, what’s going on here? There was a hustle and bustle from many people, also people with a cognitive disability, doing things, removing the waste paper, fetching recyclable bottles from the storage room, because they take them away. […] It is very extreme here, because we have this close collaboration. That we can just say: OK, come over and do something with us together. And… of course, they do not get money from us, but they then get something like a big pile of chocolate or something like that… (INT_1_00:07:22-2).1 This sequence is interesting because it allows insight into the traditional logics of the able/ not-able divide at an adult’s place of learning. It is assumed that inclusion is successfully implemented by the sole physical presence of people with learning difficulties at the territory of the centre—echoing that it is the taking part that counts. Their presence at the centre is explained not e.g. with regard to learning interests or to their participation in course offers, but to the close territorial proximity to the nearby care institution and the benefit of integrating them in the administrative working context of the centre, thus, labelling it rather as a charitable mission. Ultimately, this corresponds to the type of remuneration for their work (not money, but sweets). Using relational spatial theory (Löw, 2001) enables the analysis of the interrelatedness of material, personal, social, and symbolic dimensions of space and, thus, opens up an understanding of the spatial order of learning places. The so-called spatial turn in social science and humanities has brought the phenomena of space and place into the foreground since the beginning of the 1990s. This paper draws on the work of Martina Löw (2001; 2008), who, with her concept of space, has provided one of the most influential German-language sociological works in recent years. Löw’s aim is, in reference to the work of Giddens (1984), to overcome theoretical dichotomies and understand space as a duality of structural order/ing and action (Löw, 2001; 2008). Significant for this paper is Löw’s relational understanding of space; defining space as a relational ordering of social goods and living beings at places (Löw, 2001). This order/ing is re-produced by what she calls processes of synthesis and placing of these elements (see below). Furthermore, her approach allows an analytical differentiation between space and place, as place refers to a concrete, territorial locus, whereas at one locus many social spaces may be produced, re-arranged and negotiated (ibid.). The same territorial public adult education centre may represent an everyday learning space for some, but a distant world for others. Thus, social spaces are settings of human activities and appropriation processes, meaning that given spaces are appropriated, as well as new ones created (Deinet, 2010). Yet, a learning space only emerges at the moment when subjective appropriation processes are happening at a specific learning place by performing learning activities (Kraus, 2015). The importance of including the aspect of action is based upon its function as a mediating category, as Löw states, which “makes it possible to link bodily positioning, perception, and the constructional performances of subjects with material artefacts and institutional frameworks” (Löw, 2008, p. 31). Institutionalised order/ings like the aforementioned “know-your-place” rule are defined by Löw as spatial structures. Löw elaborates that spatial structures enable and constrain action and that they are deeply anchored in institutions. Thus, “institutions are enduring regularities in social actions” (Löw, 2008, p. 39), through (re)producing rules, selectively allocating resources, executing negative sanctions in case of rule violations and so on. The German history of adult education and dis/abilities illustrates the mechanisms and powerful consequences of such spatial structures: in this case of the traditional spatial structure of segregated spaces for adult learners with dis/abilities (Schreiber-Barsch, 2015; 2017), establishing the basic pattern of segregated learning institutions. It is against this background that the policy agenda on inclusion has set changes in action, because from now on, the traditional order was labelled as a dis-order (Fritsche, 2010). This means it is defined as problematic in accordance with the aims of the UN Convention and its national agenda-setting on an inclusive learning system (BMAS, 2011; 2016) and as to be tackled with public measures. However, the actual implementation of the agenda-setting on an inclusive learning arrangement—be it minimal or thorough—in learning places for adults, illustrates the ambivalent struggle to re-arrange institutionalised social order/ings and to redistribute lines of power among the parties concerned. Thus, are the traditional divide and barriers being removed, merely shifted, or even (re)produced under a different guise in the name of inclusion and equal access? The starting point of piloting an explorative study was the assumption that research on professional activities with the aim of implementing a howsoever inclusive learning place for adults would allow significant insights into the spatial order/ings of social space with its interrelatedness of material, personal, social, and symbolic dimensions, being embedded in a certain participatory regime. It is about the professional spatial activities in the sense of a relational ordering of social goods and living beings at places (Löw, 2001), targeted on the leitmotif of inclusion. Professional activities are understood, in the pilot study, as management and planning activities under the auspices of the claims of the policy agenda on inclusion, the respective institution’s profile and requirements, the individual professional’s beliefs and range of actions and, furthermore, the professionally assumed needs and wants of adults and prospective participants. The research project, described in detail by Schreiber-Barsch and Fawcett (2017), adopted a qualitative research design (following Grounded Theory; Strauss & Corbin, 1998; Strübing, 2014). Semi-guided expert interviews were used (Bogner, Littig & Menz, 2014) (of approximately 90 minutes) with pedagogical professionals from the field under scrutiny (academic / institutional stakeholders working in or with institutionalised learning settings for adults, meaning, mostly, public adult education centres or publicly accessible disabled care providers; n=7). The research question asked how inclusion, in the sense of the UN Convention, is operationalised in institutional learning settings for adults. Thus, what renders a learning place an inclusive learning place? Accordingly, the professional’s perspective was given priority, yet, representing as a pilot study the starting point for a follow-up with participatory research methods, giving voice to adults with learning difficulties themselves. The data was analysed using selective coding following Strauss and Corbin (1998), which is based on the identification of one (or more) core categories that concern and explain the primary phenomenon (here, the operationalisation of inclusion). Following Löw’s approach, professionals’ activities are understood as processes of (re)producing learning spaces through spacing and synthesising (see Sect. 3.1): spacing as activities of positioning and re-arranging of social goods and living beings, and synthesising, meaning the active performance of individuals via perception, imagining or remembering to merge the positioned and re-arranged elements to spaces. Hence, in our research, we elaborated on the spatiality of the professionals’ activities, deriving the interwoven processes of spacing and synthesising from their explanations of how they are operationalising inclusion. Such spacing and synthesising as an expression of professionally performed procedures is neither completely determined, nor completely arbitrary; it is individually performed against the backdrop of common expectations, routines, professional know-how with regard to how to render possible adult learning. In this sense, also non-performing an activity is understood as a performance. Accordingly, the same features of the same place of learning could be perceived as a barrier impeding participation of e.g. an adult learner in a wheel chair, or, as an impulse to question the usual distribution of course rooms and think about alternatives. Irritations in the wake of managing and planning adult learning at a certain place could be responded by performing rather a managing optimism (Fritsche, 2010), or, a managing pessimism—opening up a quite diverse learning space and opportunities for participation. Thus, the person performing the processes of spacing and synthesising, here at a public place of learning, is of key significance in (re)producing societal structures of power and dominion (Löw, 2001, p. 215). Our findings elicit a conceptual model, which is called the architecture of inclusion at public learning places for adults (Schreiber-Barsch & Fawcett, 2017). The model serves as a heuristic framework, offering insights into the specific variance of activities targeted at realising inclusion, and, moreover, into possible consequences of such activities regarding the learner’s opportunities for participation, as shown in table 1. Table 1 – The architecture of inclusion at public learning places for adults in public space: the spatiality of professionals’ activities (own illustration; Schreiber-Barsch & Fawcett, 2017) Following the iterative analysis process of Grounded Theory (see above), the interviews elicited three components as key areas of professional core activities in realising an inclusive learning place. Moreover, each component is based upon a category. These categories, in turn, consists of certain characteristics. The specific feature of each characteristic is illustrated by a dimensional range, which runs between two poles. These poles determine the variance of activities, which had been articulated by the interviewees. (With regard to the citation of the interviews, it shall be noted that the names of the interviewees are in each case anonymised; INT is an abbreviation for interview, followed by the indication of the interview’s number, and, in some cases of the respective interview sequence. Capital letters within a citation comply with an emphasis by the interviewee.) A summary of the findings provides insight into the heuristic framework, beginning by referring to the identified key areas of professional core activities in realising an inclusive learning place: Entrance point to the place of learning (the key component): Who is given what kind of access? And, who is assigned to which places at the place of learning? Findings emphasise that access represents a key momentum in realising inclusion. Access is prior to whatever kind of participation in e.g. a course offer, and is, thus, of key significance. It serves as an institutionalised hinge between adult education providers and adults interested in learning—representing the processing of adult education and, at the same time, the outcome of a certain participatory regime. The findings show that access is negotiated along the categories of respective professional order/ings of an inclusive place of learning and of practical strategies to implement accessibility. These include statements on the professionals application of features like the layout of program booklets or flyers (using (no) simple language, (no) guidance by means of pictures / symbols, or the like), the labelling of course offers (using or avoiding the term “cognitive disability”) or also the handling of the physical conditions of the premises. The variances run between the poles of a narrow understanding of territoriality / materiality as inclusion (e.g. a wheelchair ramp as inclusion, the physical presence of a disabled body at the learning place as inclusion) up till awarding a maximum autonomy to the individual learner in taking a decision to participate or not. Furthermore, with regard to the frameworks of implementation, the statements show a dimensional range between a managing pessimism (pro forma minimum solutions) up till an inclusion-mainstreaming as centre of the overall quality feature of the institution. Concerning concrete strategies for accessibility, the interviews show a different understanding of how to make use of aspects or opportunities which could serve as a vehicle (medium) for fostering access to a public space of learning (e.g. providing open meeting places for communication and socialising). Such (non-existing) vehicles keep the place of learning either still alien or render it more and more familiar for learners of all kinds. This highly influences the adult’s perceptions whether a place is considered as my place to learn, being a legitimised addressee and prospective participant of learning offers. Identifying individuals as learners: What kind of learners are identified to belong to what kind of clientele? This points to the question of who is seen both as capable of and vitally in need of learning. The processes and contents of such labelling procedures are described between the poles of, on the one hand, having a formalised (= fixed) texture (regarding e.g. assumptions about preferred course topics or expectations of learning objectives), or rather, on the other hand, showing a texture in transformation. Under negotiations are the professionals’ expectations of the however defined normal learner and his / her interests, needs and capabilities and their transfer to a more or less adapted spatial order/ing. This also includes understandings of who actually owns the status of an expert with regard to inclusion and settings of inclusive learning (who is competent to define whether something is inclusive?). Staging as adult learning provider: How are adult education providers presenting themselves in the public space of learning and within the contested terrain of supply and demand? And, which provider declares himself—or someone else—as expert for the provision of inclusive learning? It shows a struggle over the professions competencies, resources and positions within the local arena of provision. The interviews state a consensus. Not only on the high relevance of the UN Convention on being a crucial catalyst for having put inclusion on the top of the agendas and, finally, initiated its transfer to practice. But also on the perception of who is seen as expert for the provision of inclusive learning—as all providers declare this expertise for themselves, depending on from what expertise is derived from (from historical leitmotifs of social inclusion, from know-how in Special Needs Education, or the like). At the same time, the prioritisation of inclusion in the public space of lifelong learning also fuels resource allocation conflicts in the social space of a certain territory. Persons with dis/abilities are referred to as being a social group “under siege” from the diverse providers and their striving for resources, which rather fosters ideas of a monopoly than synergy. Furthermore, the insights into the professionals’ activities of (re)producing learning spaces through processes of spacing and synthesising elicit two vital logics. Vertically, these run through all categories and they sum up, on the one hand, on a meta-level the overarching logic of the respective professional activities, and, on the other hand, in consequence, a specific quality of participation on offer at the place of learning. These logics do not have a clear distinction, yet, they emphasise highly obvious tendencies. A segregated model of professional activities A segregated model of professional activities corresponds to a fixed quality of participation, according to which the professionals (more or less consciously) order certain learners to specific places, learning objectives, needs and / or social features and hereby continue to prefer the traditional physical segregation of learning places. Correspondingly, inclusion is imagined and performed as a “piece of scenery” (INT_7); a Potemkin village that pro forma opens up the opportunity for participation. Yet, it positions learners only on assigned places and keeps inclusion on the shiny surface of the learning place. The participation of adults with dis/abilities is seen as functional first and foremost for others, not for themselves: “then I just push three wheelchairs in as well and this will be also nice for the other ones” (INT_5). A target-group oriented model of professional activities In this model, the rather inflexible structures dissolve towards a situational quality of participation, this means towards a situational case-by-case decision making in the procedures of planning and managing and with regard to interests, needs, capabilities and preferences of individual learners or required actions. Nevertheless, the learners remain in specifically labelled groups of learners and specifically arranged learning settings. For example, an inclusive course offer is indeed integrated in a program booklet of an adult education centre, but the administrative proceeding (registration, information) and the implementation (place of learning, teaching staff, course material) remains allocated to a disabled care provider—in this sense, inclusion is outsourced and excluded. An inclusive model of professional activities The inclusive model goes beyond inflexible structures, situational case-by-case decision making or also prior assignments of certain learners to specific places and learning arrangements. Rather, he or she who would like to learn and to participate will be given opportunities to do so. It shows a flexible professional attitude in acknowledging of whatever could be seen as relevant for participation and of inclusion as an on-going process of trial and error, of finding (also unconventional) solutions or at least a compromise. Irritations in the wake of planning and managing are valued as productive impulse to encourage alternative paths and multi-dimensional perspectives on an issue under scrutiny. However, this neither means reproducing the traditional welfare attitude under a different guise (because all learners are seen to contribute their share and to take their part of responsibility), nor the view that an inclusive setting of teaching and learning needs to be fully and completely accomplished before being granted to declare oneself as an inclusive learning place. This could be called a professional’s awareness of limits (not to be confused with the managing pessimism), which renders transparent the current status of inclusion: “Ok, I call it inclusion, but I know, that it is not yet inclusion” (INT_1). In concluding, the paper draws attention to the point that it is not the taking part that counts in the arena of inclusive learning and teaching, but it is the specific quality of participation that counts and that is on offer for those interested in learning. Therefore, as described, the multi-dimensional issue of access to a place of learning needs to be recognised as an institutionalised order/ing of a social space with its interrelatedness of material, personal, social, and symbolic dimensions, and under the auspices of a certain participatory regime. Against this backdrop and apart from non-negotiable responsibilities on the policy level and on institutional levels to acknowledge the right to exercise existing rights (right to education), the following understanding of an inclusive system of lifelong learning is brought to the fore. It means recognising and establishing a parity of esteem of all adults interested in learning in being able to decide whether to participate in what is on offer or not. 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Inklusionsarchitekturen: Wie wird ein Lernort zu einem inklusiven Lernort im öffentlichen Raum des Lebenslangen Lernens? Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung, 40(3), 295–319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40955-017-0097-x. Shakespeare, T. (2013). Disability Rights and Wrongs Revisited (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. Snyder, S. L. & Mitchell, D. T. (2006). Cultural Locations of Disability. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Steele, T. (2007). Knowledge is Power! The Rise and Fall of European Popular Educational Movements, 1848–1939. Oxfort et al.: Peter Lang. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of Qualitative Research – Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. London: Sage Publications. Strübing, J. (2014). Grounded theory (3rd ed.). Wiesbaden: VS. Süssmuth, R. & Sprink, R. (2009). Volkshochschule. In R. Tippelt & A.v. Hippel (Eds.), Handbuch Erwachsenenbildung/Weiterbildung (pp. 473 – 490) (3rd ed.). Wiesbaden: VS Verl. Theunissen, G. & Hoffmann, C. (2003). Entwicklung, Theorie und Perspektiven einer Erwachsenenbildung bei Menschen mit Lernschwierigkeiten und mehrfacher Behinderung. In G. Theunissen (ed.), Erwachsenenbildung und Behinderung (pp. 45–64). Bad Heilbrunn/Obb.: Klinkhardt. United Nations (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved March 29, 2019 from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf. United Nations (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved March 29, 2019 from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2.html. Waldschmidt, A. (2008). „Wir Normalen" – „die Behinderten" ? Erving Goffman meets Michel Foucault. In K.S. Rehberg (ed.), Die Natur der Gesellschaft (pp. 5799–5809). Frankfurt a.M.: Campus Verl. Wilson, J. (2000). Doing justice to inclusion. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 15(3), 297–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/088562500750017907. Young, I.M. (2002). Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Names of the interviewees are in each case anonymised; INT is an abbreviation for interview, followed by the indication of the interview’s number, and, in some cases of the respective interview sequence. Capital letters within a citation comply with an emphasis by the interviewee.↩ Copyright © 2019 Silke Schreiber-Barsch The text in this work is licensed under the Creative Commons BY License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Copyright (c) 2019 Silke Schreiber-Barsch	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line706
__label__wiki	0.746176	0.746176	What is the Taylor Report? Study The Game By Paul Gerald Up on the terraces at The Abbey Stadium If you’re sort of new to English football, part of the learning process involves what people are talking about. So one question you might come up with is, What is the Taylor Report? Here is a quick history lesson. Things can get exciting outside a game, like here with Chelsea at Tottenham, but rarely dangerous. The Hooligan Days Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Britain was experiencing social and economic upheaval, with one result being lots of young men with time on their hands and frustration and resentment in their hearts. So they collectively decided to get their frustrations out at football games. I am simplifying, of course, but you get the idea. All the images you have of soccer hooliganism — which virtually doesn’t exist anymore — date from these awful days. Twin Disasters: Heysel and Hillsborough In the 1980s, two disasters involving English fans turned the tide of public opinion for good — and got the attention of public authorities. The first was in the European Cup (now Champions League) final in 1985, when a group of Liverpool fans attacked Juventus fans, leading to a crush, a wall collapse, 39 deaths, and hundreds of injuries. English clubs were banned from the continent for five years after that. The second, and more relevant here, was the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989, when too many Liverpool fans were sent into an enclosed area at the Hillsborough stadium for an FA Cup semifinal, resulting in a crush and the deaths of 96 supporters. The cops blew it badly that day, and then lied about it and tried to blame it on Liverpool fans, a situation which is only now being fully addressed, 30 years later. Buy my Book, The Groundhopper’s Guide to Soccer in England Enter Lord Taylor After Hillsborough, a commission was formed to figure out how to make attending football games safer — and to get to the bottom of Hillsborough. The result was a sweeping plan that essentially blamed Hillsborough on the police and put forth mutiple suggestions, all of which the government accepted, to make football safer. When you hear about the Taylor Report in the context of today’s football, it is usually because of three major changes it brought about: the banning of alcohol within the stadium, the removal of fencing meant to keep fans off the pitch, and the requirement that stadiums get rid of terraces, the open standing areas where so much trouble had occurred. Post-Taylor, stadiums had to be converted to “all-seaters,” which was accomplished by 1995. Get my book from Amazon.com or Powells.com The away end at Griffin Park, with terraces in the lower level. For old-timers, therefore, the history of football in England is sort of split into pre- and post-Taylor Report, with the good or bad “old days” of hooliganism, crappy stadiums and unsafe conditions … but also better atmosphere … replaced by safer, more family-friendly situations with, many say, less atmosphere. There are other factors that have all but wiped out hooliganism, including higher ticket prices and the combination of ID cards and video cameras that enable stadium bans for troublemakers. Also, the bigger picture of the economy and social condition has improved. Some lower-league clubs still have terraces, by the way, including Brentford, who are currently in the Championship. I suppose if they ever got promoted they would have to go all-seater, but as it happens they are building a new all-seater stadium anyway. There is a subtle but growing movement among fans to promote “safe standing,” essentially terraces, which are still in use in Germany. There, you can also drink beer while watching the game. And in fact, many Brits take footballing vacations to Germany and swear the atmosphere is superior there, anyway. Buy The Groundhopper’s Guide to Soccer in England Are You Looking to Attend a Premier League Game? Check out my Consulting and Ticket Services Subscribe to my “Groundhopper” newsletter	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line709
__label__cc	0.662016	0.337984	Magic Mike Lacks Luster Posted on July 28, 2012 by Missy Krehbiel Director Steven Soderbergh cemented my interest in and appreciation for Independent Film back in 1989 with his seminal movie sex, lies and videotape, a film that was a game-changer for the Independent Film Movement ~ as well as for me. Ever since, I have paid attention to Soderbergh’s film trajectory, which has taken some interesting turns and certainly doesn’t seem to follow any predictable path. Like any frequently working director, he’s had his hits (the refreshingly smart and acutely comedic George Clooney and J.Lo-starring crime caper Out Of Sight, and the intelligently effecting Traffic, for which Soderbergh won an Oscar for Directing) and misses (Clooney didn’t get as lucky with Solaris). Nonetheless, I’ve got to give Soderbergh kudos for experimenting with a broad range of material and genres. So although it seemed an unlikely pairing for Soderbergh to direct a movie about male strippers, his attachment to it was the very thing that gave the atypical subject matter some interesting credit. However, after having seen it, I can’t figure out why he chose to do it or why he wasn’t able to bring more to it than he did. Alex Pettyfer and Channing Tatum Magic Mike has a fairly thin premise to begin with. Mike (Channing Tatum, who apparently actually did do some “erotic male dancing” back before he hit it big and does indeed have the moves ~ and abs ~ to prove it!) “recruits” and takes under his wing a young stud struggling to find work (and his way). Adam (Alex Pettyfer) quickly gets inducted into the group of strippers, inheriting the moniker “The Kid”, and soon gets caught up in some of the seedier aspects of “the business”…just as Mike begins to question his own place in it (which sounds potentially deeper than it ever actually gets). By far the most enjoyable scenes take place at the nightclub where the group of men perform ~ dancing, disrobing, and often coming perilously close to baring ALL ~ for the throngs of screaming girls in their audience. The crew is headed up by club owner/MC and sometime “performer” himself, Dallas, hilariously played by Matthew McConaughey, in the second role I’ve seen him in this month in which he has shone (he was fantastic in Bernie as well, which I will be reviewing soon). He is pitch perfect as the smooth-talking, crowd-cajoling, rebel-rousing leader of the group and frequently steals the show. In addition to Tatum and Pettyfer, the rest of the group is comprised of the smolderingly handsome Joe Manganiello (True Blood), whose stage name is “Big Dick Richie”, if that tells you anything, the so-good-looking-he’s-pretty Matt Bomer (White Collar), former wrestler Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriquez (CSI: Miami). While the more recognizable of those names were hugely promoted prior to the release of the film, I was disappointed in how little they actually appeared on-screen. (I felt a bit cheated on the Manganiello/Bomer front!) Regardless, the scenes within the club, both backstage AND on stage, are highly entertaining, often extremely funny and provide the most thorough backdrop into the world the film inhabits (and intends to explore). A sense of camaraderie and comfort exists between these men ~ it’s clear that they’ve formed a sort of family, even if that family is somewhat dysfunctional. Tatum & Cody Horn So you would think that what for the most part works in the dark of night, so to speak, would carry over into the bright Florida light of day…but (at least for me), it didn’t. There are numerous ancillary plot lines (if you can call them that), particularly with Tatum’s character, none of which seem to ever be fully fleshed out or ultimately resolved. The closest any of them ever gets to resolve is the storyline involving the (obligatory) romantic interest that develops between Mike and Adam’s sister, Brooke (the appealingly pleasant and natural Cody Horn), though even that feels unearned ~ and therefore unconvincing. And I’m not sure which is worse ~ plot lines (however flimsy) remaining unresolved or plot lines being resolved in an unsatisfying manner. I choose neither. And expect more in the hands of Soderbergh, even if it’s originally a script issue. In all, Magic Mike, the movie, just like Magic Mike, the man, can’t quite decide what it wants to be. Not quite a comedy (though far more successful in its comedic elements than in its dramatic), and not a quite a drama. So in the end, it doesn’t quite live up to the hype. Now if I could have stuck the dollar bills I spent on movie admission into the pants of a few of those actors…all might have been forgiven. This entry was posted in Movies and tagged Alex Pettyfer, Channing Tatum, Cody Horn, entertainment, George Clooney, Independent Film, Joe Manganiello, Magic Mike, male strippers, Matthew Bomer, Matthew McConaughey, Out of Sight, sex lies & videotape, Steven Soderbergh, Traffic by Missy Krehbiel. Bookmark the permalink. 3 thoughts on “Magic Mike Lacks Luster” Michael on July 28, 2012 at 10:14 am said: Hilar! My radar was right about this little, uh, nugget. File in the “Stevie Nicks: No One is That Cute” slot. So much more “magic”, if that’s what you call it, available online and free for the searching– trust me. And for the record, when I was in Miami the strippers literally showed everything– e v e r y t h i n g . I was embarrassed and amazed at once. One more great review, Missy! juggernautpost on July 28, 2012 at 1:42 pm said: Carla on July 30, 2012 at 6:22 am said: Loving your closing line! HA!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line710
__label__wiki	0.67488	0.67488	Why Turkey Wants to Invade the Greek Islands Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that Turkey “gave away” Greek islands that “used to be ours” and are “within shouting distance”. “There are still our mosques, our shrines there,” he said, referring to the Ottoman occupation of the islands. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images) Turkish propagandists also have been twisting facts to try to portray Greece as the aggressor. Although Turkey knows that the islands are legally and historically Greek, Turkish authorities want to occupy and Turkify them, presumably to further the campaign of annihilating the Greeks, as they did in Anatolia from 1914 to 1923 and after. Any attack against Greece should be treated as an attack against the West. There is one issue on which Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), are in complete agreement: The conviction that the Greek islands are occupied Turkish territory and must be reconquered. So strong is this determination that the leaders of both parties have openly threatened to invade the Aegean. The only conflict on this issue between the two parties is in competing to prove which is more powerful and patriotic, and which possesses the courage to carry out the threat against Greece. While the CHP is accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP party of enabling Greece to occupy Turkish lands, the AKP is attacking the CHP, Turkey’s founding party, for allowing Greece to take the islands through the 1924 Treaty of Lausanne, the 1932 Turkish-Italian Agreements, and the 1947 Paris Treaty, which recognized the islands of the Aegean as Greek territory. In 2016, Erdoğan said that Turkey “gave away” the islands that “used to be ours” and are “within shouting distance.” “There are still our mosques, our shrines there,” he said, referring to the Ottoman occupation of the islands. Two months earlier, at the “Conference on Turkey’s New Security Concept,”Erdoğan declared: “Lausanne… has never been a sacred text. Of course, we will discuss it and struggle to have a better one.” Subsequently, pro-government media outlets published maps and photos of the islands in the Aegean, calling them the territory that “Erdoğan says we gave away at Lausanne.” To realize his ultimate goal of leaving behind a legacy that surpasses that of all other Turkish leaders, Erdoğan has set certain objectives for the year 2023, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic, and 2071, the 1,000th anniversary of the 1071 Battle of Manzikert, during which Muslim Turkic jihadists from Central Asia defeated Christian Greek Byzantine forces in the Armenian highland of the Byzantine Empire. The idea behind these goals is to create nationalistic cohesion towards annexing more land to Turkey. To alter the borders of Turkey, however, Erdoğan must change or annul the Lausanne Treaty. Ironically, ahead of his two-day official visit to Greece in December — touted as a sign of a new era in Turkish-Greek relations — Erdogan told Greek journalists that the Lausanne Treaty is in need of an update. During his trip, the first official visit to Greece by a Turkish head of state in 65 years, Erdoğan repeated his mantra that the Lausanne Treaty must be revised. The following month, Erdoğan targeted CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, again accusing the party that signed the Lausanne Treaty of giving away the islands during negotiations. “We will tell our nation about [this],” Erdoğan said. What this statement means is that Erdogan accepts that the islands legally belong to Greece. Yet, at the same time, he calls the Greek possession of the territory “an invasion” — apparently because the islands were once within the borders of the Ottoman Empire — and he now wants them back. Turkish politicians all seem to have their own motivations for their obsession with the islands: Traditional Turkish expansionism, Turkification of Hellenic lands, neo-Ottomanism and Islam’s flagship of conquest — jihad. There are also strategic reasons for their wanting to invade the islands, which can be understood in a statement made by Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş about Turkey’s control of Cyprus since 1974: “There is this misinformation that Turkey is interested in Cyprus because there is a Turkish society there… Even if no Turks lived in Cyprus, Turkey would still have a Cyprus issue and it is impossible for Turkey to give up on that.“ The same attitude and mentality apply to the Aegean islands. Although Turkey knows that the islands are legally and historically Greek, Turkish authorities want to occupy and Turkify them, presumably to further the campaign of annihilating the Greeks, as they did in Anatolia from 1914 to 1923 and after. The destruction of any remnant of Greek culture that existed in Asia Minor, a Greek land prior to the 11th century Turkish invasion, is almost complete. There are fewer than 2,000 Greeks left in Turkey today. Given that Turkey brutally invaded Cyprus in 1974, its current threats against Greece — from both ends of Turkey’s political spectrum — should not be taken lightly by the West. Greece is the birthplace of Western civilization. It borders the European Union. Any attack against Greece should be treated as an attack against the West. It is time for the West, which has remained silent in the face of Turkish atrocities, to stand up to Ankara. Full article: Why Turkey Wants to Invade the Greek Islands (Gatestone Institute) This entry was posted in Axis Powers, Europe, European Union, Government Corruption, Greece, Islam, Military, Military History, National Security & Terrorism, Politics, Turkey, War and tagged 100th anniversary, 1071 Battle of Manzikert, 1924 Treaty of Lausanne, 1932 Turkish-Italian Agreements, 1947 Paris Treaty, Aegean, AKP, Byzantine empire, CHP, Cyprus, EU, europe, European Union, Greece, Greek islands, Greek territory, Hellenic lands, historically Greek, invade, Islam, Justice and Development Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Lausanne Treaty, National Security & Terrorism, nationalistic cohesion, neo-Ottomanism, New Security Concept, Ottoman Empire, Ottoman occupation, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Republican People’s Party, Turkey, Turkification, Turkify, Turkish expansionism, Turkish propagandists, Tuğrul Türkeş, War, Why Turkey Wants to Invade the Greek Islands. Bookmark the permalink. Russia upgrades presence in Pakistan Major data breach at Marine Forces Reserve impacts thousands	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line712
__label__wiki	0.836726	0.836726	ASU doctoral student studies Nepalese vulnerable to tiger attacks Scott Seckel Fear of being eaten by a wild animal is our most ancient emotion. Physiologically, evolution has equipped humans with a cocktail of chemicals that automatically shoot into our systems at the sound of a guttural roar. But being attacked by tooth and claw in the 21st century for most people is as likely as being killed by a sword or an arrow. Unless they live in parts of Africa and Asia, where it remains a very real threat. Between 2007 and 2016, 40 people were killed in tiger attacks in the vicinity of Chitwan National Park in Nepal, according to park officials. Almost half of them were killed by one tigress. The cat remains at large. An Arizona State University doctoral candidate in environmental life sciences spent last summer in Nepal near the national park, studying how an invasive vine is helping tigers and other wild animals attack people. Michele Clark is earning her PhD in environmental life sciences from the School of Life Sciences. Last summer she worked in the buffer-zone forests the Nepalese government has established surrounding Chitwan National Park. The buffer zones, or community forests, were established so local people can gather firewood or fodder for their animals. In 2007, the area began to be invaded by a vine similar to kudzu. One plant was recorded that year. Seven years later, it covered 75 to 100 percent of the forest surveyed. “In just a matter of years, things have changed drastically,” Clark said. Women go to the jungle every single day for about two hours to collect wood and grasses. “In that time you’re really risking your life because there are so many animals there that are threatening,” Clark said. “In that way it’s taking more time to collect resources because where they used to go is now covered in the vine. They have to go deeper and deeper into the jungle to find the things they need.” The vine, called mile-a-minute leaf (scientific name is Mikania micrantha), can grow very rapidly within a week, and it can cover the forest and kill the trees. The Nepalese jungle is trees and grasses, not vines, so the vine changes the dynamics. It creates extremely dense cover in the jungle. Clark started her research by doing social surveys instead of ecological surveys. “When I was asking them those questions, at least in terms of this vine, they were starting to become more fearful that they couldn’t escape tigers and rhinos if they were to attack them in the forest because they would trip on the vine,” she said. “Or they couldn’t see because it forms these impenetrable mats. If you were in a really dense invasion and you didn’t have a machete or something, it would be like climbing over boulders. You’d have to step over this, crawl under that. It would double your time.” A young woman was killed in the same forest Clark worked in. On a day Clark was working in the jungle a woman had her arm broken in a rhino charge. “It helped me put into perspective how important and dangerous resource collection is for women in these areas,” she said. Newspapers ran graphic photos of the tiger attack’s aftermath. “It was really gory,” she said. “They show way worse photos in Nepal than we would ever imagine seeing in the U.S. That’s what brings it home. It’s a true problem, not a made-up problem, and it’s happening all the time. Even if it happens once a year it’s too many times for people to feel safe in the buffer zone.” The wildlife is protected, so killing the animals is not an option. The Nepalese government is trying to double the tiger population, which has been on the rebound in the country over the past decade. Clark researched different treatments for the vine that were viable culturally and economically. Chemicals were out — they’re too expensive, and to the Nepalese, the forest is a sacred place where no one would want to bring them. Chopping down the vine just made it spread more and faster. They found out the best way to get rid of the vine was to remove it and bury it so it wouldn’t resprout. “I know that sounds crazy, but there’s a lot of people and a lot of hands and labor available in Nepal. It’s relatively cheap, because there’s people available to do this,” Clark said. She did social surveys to see if people would implement it. It turned out avoiding tigers was more important than eradicating the vine. “They ended up saying while they thought it was a good idea, they were still concerned that when you do that technique, the forest itself was a scary place to be in,” she said. “... (The conflict with wildlife) was an issue that became more pressing than invading plants.” In some places the local people had cut away everything. To them, that looked better than places where only the vine had been eradicated, because they could see farther and more clearly. “Really they were doing it so they could see and feel safer,” Clark said. “Our ivory-tower scientist impression of what people were doing wasn’t like that on the ground at all. It was for a totally different reason.” Clark is working on a paper now, and analysis of the social research will be out in about a year. Her work was funded by a Fulbright Research Scholarship as well as a National Science Foundation: Coupled Natural and Human Systems grant. “People feel helpless,” Clark said. “There’s not much they can do. They can’t stop the vine, they can’t protect themselves from wild animals, but they still need resources so much that every day they go back to the jungle. My conclusion is I don’t have an answer for how it all works, but my hope is to create a forest management plan to reduce the vine while meeting some of the goals these people have like being able to see further, not being fearful of wild animals while incorporating traditionally or culturally important plant species into the forest plan. It would be what indigenous people want to see.” Top photo: Tigress with cubs, Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Courtesy of World Wildlife Fund, Nepal	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line713
__label__wiki	0.641814	0.641814	MJ Giving A selection of links committed to supporting Michael's Message. If you would like a link to your website or blog included on this page, Please Contact me. Major Love Prayer 25th each month Major Love Prayer, a monthly global event that takes place simultaneously in every country on Earth. Inspired by Michael Jackson's desire to heal the world and begun by his fans, our mission is to make that change...with love. We believe that prayer (meditation, intention, etc) is a powerful force. We can heal the world with L.O.V.E. when we come together as ONE. So please join us this 25th at 2pm Los Angeles time and help us send out a major love! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MajorLovePrayer You can follow us on Twitter, too! : http://www.twitter.com/MajorLovePrayer A Million Trees for Michael What is A Million Trees for Michael? It's a site for fans of Michael Jackson where we can give a gift back to HIM in exchange for the music, the magic, & the memories he has given to us for nearly five decades! Won't you plant 15 trees for him? Your minimum gift of $25 will plant 25 trees in Michael Jackson's memory. You can give HERE a Gift of Trees at American Forests, select "Give the Gift of Trees in Memorial". Then select the amount you wish to give eg: $25 Under the section "Personalize Your Certificate:" Tribute Type: select In Memory of and type in the box below To:* Michael Jackson Complete the rest of your details ♥ Michael Jackson’s Legacy (MJL) Michael Jackson’s Legacy (MJL) is a charitable organisation dedicated to continuing Michael Jackson’s humanitarian legacy in his absence, and thereby making the world a better place. Michael Jackson inspired love, hope and compassion worldwide through his music and through his humanitarian work on behalf of the suffering and underprivileged, and we are committed to continuing his legacy of love in his memory and through his example. Our projects will reflect issues that he cared deeply about: the welfare of children and animals, the protection of the environment, and the elimination of needless suffering. We as individuals do not have the influence that a worldwide superstar can procure, but as individuals, we can ‘make that change’ and collectively, we can make a difference. His dream has become our desire; his message, our mission. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaeljacksonslegacy Follow us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/MichaelJsLegacy Support World Vitiligo Day PETITION LETTER I support the petition to designate as Vitiligo World Day and save millions of people worldwide from social isolation and persecution.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line715
__label__cc	0.695347	0.304653	Photo by Bristol Culture The museum has some of the finest Elizabethan workmanship in the country, alongside some magnificent examples of Georgian architecture Nestled on one of central Bristol’s busy roads sits an unlikely historical treat in the well preserved 16th Century Red Lodge Museum. Behind the red door lies the oldest rooms in Bristol, adorned with the original hand carved oak, stone and a notable moulded ceiling which inspired the design for Knot Garden at the front of the property. Built by John Young, the house - originally the lodge to the Great House - has a rich history. John Young was a courtier to both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and famously hosted the Queen at his residence; fast forward three hundred years, and the Lodge became the property of Lady Byron, the then widow of one of Britain’s most famous poets, who rented the building to the zealous reformer Mary Carpenter to use as a school. The Great Oak Room is the only 16th century panelled room, complete with its plasterwork ceiling and stone chimneypiece, to survive in the city - one of the finest Elizabethan rooms in the West Country. Limited accessibility for wheelchair users The Red Lodge Museum, Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5LJ Follow The Red Lodge Museum Tweets by The Red Lodge Museum St George's Bristol	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line716
__label__wiki	0.949119	0.949119	by Georgie Bretherton paris jackson has landed her first major movie role The Jackson progeny will play “an edgy 20-year-old” alongside Charlize Theron, Thandie Newton and Amanda Seyfried. Paris Jackson has just landed a role in her first feature length film, having already graced our screens in producer Lee Daniel's FOX drama Star, earlier this year. The 19-year-old daughter of the late Michael Jackson will make her debut in Nash Edgerton's next project for Amazon studios. The Aussie director made a name for himself with the 2008 thriller The Square, written by his brother Joel Edgerton, the star of Loving. Jackson will play "an edgy 20-year-old" called Nelly in the untitled dark comedy that follows a mild-mannered businessman (David Oyelowo) as he transitions from citizen to criminal. Other stars attached to the project include Charlize Theron, Thandie Newton, Amanda Seyfried and David Oyelowo. Paris has previously spoken about her desire to pursue an acting career. Earlier this year she gushed over the experience of filming her part in Star, that saw her play a social media guru for one episode. At the time Jackson said, "This role is really opposite to me and, for it being my first real on-camera acting, I think it's a good way for me to show my acting capabilities." We're rooting for you, Paris! Text Georgie Bretherton	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line720
__label__wiki	0.939933	0.939933	Black Americans in Congress > Historical Essays > Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood Historical Essays Black Americans in Congress: Introduction Reconstruction’s New Order Precongressional Experience Washington Experience Legislative Interests Rolling Back Civil Rights The Negroes' Temporary Farewell Permanent Interests Meet the African-American Members of the 41st–45th Congresses (1870–1887) Educational Resources on Black Americans in Congress In former Confederate states, black-majority districts were essential for electing African-American Representatives, especially in South Carolina, which elected relatively large numbers of black Members. Only one black Member during this era served a district whose population was less than 50 percent black: James Rapier represented, for one term, a southeastern Alabama district with a population that was 44 percent black.40 The rest served districts with populations that were typically at least 60 percent African-American. With Republicans in control of state legislatures across the former Confederacy during Reconstruction, the GOP drew congressional districts favorable to Republicans in order to boost the party’s national strength upon their return to the Union. As speaker of the Mississippi state assembly in 1872, for instance, John Lynch reapportioned the state’s six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, creating five Republican-dominated districts. Later that year, he won a coastal seat with a majority-black (55 percent) population. /tiles/non-collection/b/baic_cont_1_freedmen_bureau_LC_USZ62_105555.xml Image courtesy of the Library of Congress A.R. Waud portrayed the agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau as peacemakers between blacks and whites in this 1868 print. South Carolina was, arguably, the crucible of the black congressional experience in the Reconstruction South; six of the 17 black Americans to serve in Congress during Reconstruction were from the Palmetto State. This number alone, however, fails to convey South Carolina’s influence on black service in the Capitol during the 19th century. From 1870 to 1887, South Carolina sent at least one black Representative to the House in all but one Congress, the 46th Congress (1879–1881), during which no black men from any state served in the House. In the 42nd Congress (1871–1873), all but one of the state’s four congressional districts were represented by black men. Richard Cain’s election as an At-Large Representative (representing the entire state) in the following Congress meant five out of six South Carolina Representatives were black. South Carolina’s large proportion of black Members during this era was due to a number of factors. For starters, Union forces captured some of the South Carolina Sea Islands as early as 1861, emancipating the large enslaved populations there and providing early educational and economic opportunities which quickly translated to political organization. Led by a mixed-race elite, black Charlestonians also organized quickly after the war’s end. In September 1865, the South Carolina state legislature passed a series of restrictive Black Codes that attempted to limit black employment, movement, and lifestyle. In response, black South Carolinians organized a statewide Colored Peoples Convention in November to protest the new laws. Several future South Carolina Members of Congress featured prominently at the convention, including Joseph Rainey, Robert De Large, Alonzo Ransier, and Richard Cain. Their protest proved successful: In early 1866 the new military commander of South Carolina, Union General Daniel Sickles, nullified the Black Codes. After the Fifteenth Amendment became law, the Republican Party quickly marshaled the large, organized, African-American population on the South Carolina coast into a dominant voting bloc.41 Unlike in other states, where white Republicans began stripping power from black Republicans, black South Carolinians maintained a majority in the state legislature from 1868 to 1876. Black presiding officers reigned in the state house of representatives from 1872 to 1876. In fact, Robert Elliott resigned his seat in Congress to take over the state speakership in 1874. Black congressional candidates still faced monumental electoral obstacles, despite having majorities of black and Republican voters in their districts. Violence, brutality, murder, and intimidation were commonplace during congressional campaigns in the postwar South. A variety of white supremacist groups existed across the former Confederacy, the most notorious being the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Red Shirts and Rifle Clubs operated out of South Carolina. White Leagues also flourished in the South.42 White supremacists threatened and often killed black voters and attacked the candidates during campaigns. The violent campaigns in the South also led to an influx of contested elections in the House as candidates and their supporters questioned the legitimacy of the results. The House Committee on Elections handled an unusually heavy caseload during the Reconstruction Era. Established in 1789, the committee was charged with rendering judgments on disputed elections based on evidence and witness testimony. Members of the panel heard each candidate’s evidence asserting his right to the seat. The committee voted for its choice candidate and reported its findings to the whole House for a final vote. Usually, the candidate representing the majority party had a distinct advantage because votes within the committee and on the House Floor were often decided along party lines.43 Sixty percent of cases heard by the committee between 1867 and 1911 were from the former Confederacy—a percentage that only underscored the violence given that Confederate states constituted only around 25 percent of the House.44 /tiles/non-collection/b/baic_cont_1_revels_credentials_nara.xml Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration On January 25, 1870, the provisional governor of Mississippi certified that the Mississippi state legislature elected Hiram Revels to the United States Senate. Though every southern state experienced violent elections, Alabama was the center of KKK activity. In September 1868, Klansmen forced James Rapier to flee his home under threat of violence; as a political refugee in his own state, Rapier was forced to hide out in a boardinghouse in Montgomery, Alabama, for a year. Seeking re-election in 1874 to his southeastern Alabama district, Rapier faced stolen and destroyed ballot boxes, bribery, fraudulent vote counts, armed intimidation, and murder. Terrified, black voters stayed home, and Rapier lost the election.45 In central Alabama that year, African-American candidate Jeremiah Haralson failed to garner more than 700 votes in a district whose population was more than 80 percent black. After more than a decade of lawlessness and violence in the state, the New York Times observed in 1884 that “the Democrats will always win in Alabama, no matter how great the preponderance of the black voting population.”46 In 1874 Representative John Lynch defied the odds and won re-election after Mississippi Democrats vowed to recapture the state government. “The Democrats were bold, outspoken, defiant, and determined,” Lynch remarked. “I noticed that I was not received and greeted.” Mississippi Democratic clubs were converted into “armed military companies” that raided his Republican meetings.47 At an evening speech in Vicksburg, Lynch was nearly crushed in a stampede after someone cut the lights and terrified people fled the venue.48 Lynch was the only Republican to survive a Democratic sweep in the polls in Mississippi. “It would be a source of personal pride and congratulation if I could declare upon the floor of the House of Representatives today that mob-law and violence do not exist in any part of the South and are not tolerated by any portion of its citizens,” Lynch said. “The circumstances are such that the facts would not sustain me in making this declaration.”49 Senator Blanche Bruce made a similar observation. Having witnessed White League intimidation, Bruce warned his colleagues that “violence so unprovoked . . . is a spectacle not only discreditable to the country, but is dangerous to the integrity of our free institutions.”50 Contested Elections /tiles/non-collection/b/baic_cont_1_pinchback_lc_dig_cwpbh_03863.xml Image courtesy of the Library of Congress In a unique case of double contested elections, African-American candidate Pinckney B. S. Pinchback of Louisiana was elected simultaneously to both the Senate and House. Pinchback lost the contested House seat and, citing claims of fraud in the state legislature, the Senate denied him his seat as well. Serving as provisional governor of Louisiana at the time, Pinchback signed his own election certifications. Black Representatives in the Reconstruction Era routinely had their elections challenged by white opponents. Contested elections were an issue from the start and prevented the seating of the first African American to win a congressional election. On October 4, 1868, John Willis Menard, an Illinois-born mixed-race newspaper editor who had held several GOP patronage positions since 1862, declared his candidacy for a special election to fill a vacant New Orleans, Louisiana, seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Though he won the special election with 65 percent of the vote, his opponent, Democrat Caleb Hunt, contested the results, and the House Committee on Elections declared the seat vacant. Menard defended his right to take office, and on February 27, 1869, became the first African American to speak before the House while it was in session. Five other black men—Robert De Large, Joseph Rainey, Josiah Walls, Richard Cain, and Robert Smalls—all lost contested elections. In 1876 Rainey and Smalls retained their seats, despite the ruling of the Committee on Elections, because the House never took up their cases for a full vote. Five black Members contested six separate elections they ostensibly lost. Only John Lynch and Robert Smalls successfully contested their 1880 electoral losses before the majority Republican 47th Congress (1881–1883).51 Black Members forced to defend their seats during contested election investigations lost valuable time in introducing legislation or speaking on the House Floor. As the enormous caseload trickled through the Committee on Elections, the panel often delayed its deliberations until late in the second session. Josiah Walls, for instance, saw his political career routinely derailed by contested elections. The Ku Klux Klan, entrenched near his northern Florida home, managed to unseat him twice by running ex-Confederate generals against him in contests for an At-Large seat. Preoccupied with defending his seat, Walls was unable to legislate at all in the 44th Congress (1875–1877). 40Stanley B. Parsons et al., United States Congressional Districts, 1843–1883 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986): 146. Ultimately, Rapier left his seat after one term to run against Representative Jeremiah Haralson in a neighboring black-majority district. Josiah Walls also served as an At-Large Representative in Florida—with a population that was 44 percent black—in the 42nd Congress (1871–1873). See Parsons et al., United States Congressional Districts, 1843–1883: 99. Senators Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce were both elected to the Senate by Republican majority state legislatures in Mississippi, a state whose population was more than 50 percent black in 1870. See Foner, Freedom’s Lawmakers: xiii. 41Okun Edet Uya, From Slavery to Political Service: Robert Smalls, 1839–1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971): 32–36; Powers, Black Charlestonians: 81–85; Williamson, After Slavery: 371. 42For more names and state affiliations of white supremacist groups, see Franklin and Moss, From Slavery to Freedom: 275. 43In response to the growing number of contested elections, the Senate created its Committee on Privileges and Elections on March 10, 1871. See David T. Canon et al., Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789 to 1946, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2002): 253–257. 44Jeffrey A. Jenkins, “Partisanship and Contested Election Cases in the House of Representatives, 1789–1902,” Studies in American Political Development 18 (Fall 2004): 130. 45Loren Schweninger, “James T. Rapier of Alabama and the Noble Cause of Reconstruction,” in Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era: 86; Dubin et al., U.S. Congressional Elections, 1788–1997: 230. 46“The Election in Alabama,” 29 November 1884, New York Times: 1. 47John Roy Lynch, Reminiscences of an Active Life: The Autobiography of John Roy Lynch, ed. John Hope Franklin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970): 163–166. 48John Hope Franklin, “John Roy Lynch: Republican Stalwart from Mississippi,” in Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era: 47. 49Congressional Record, House, 44th Cong., 1st sess. (13 June 1876): 3781–3786. 50Congressional Record, Senate, 44th Cong., 1st sess. (31 March 1876): 2101–2105. 51Chester H. Rowell, A Historical and Legal Digest of All the Contested Election Cases (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1901). Though Rowell offers one of the most comprehensive sources on the activities of the Committee on Elections for this era, his data are incomplete. At least six contested elections involving black men are missing from his volume. This count also includes those whose seats were declared vacant. History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008. “Elections,” https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Fifteenth-Amendment/Crafting-Identity/ (July 17, 2019)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line724
__label__cc	0.683966	0.316034	Chapter XIII - Comparison Of Christianism With The Religious Ideas Inspired By Nature Having thus shewn, from the internal evidence of things, the cause that produced a change in the state of learning, and the motive for substituting the study of the dead languages, in the place of the Sciences, I proceed, in addition to the several observations already made in the former part of this work, to compare, or rather to confront, the evidence that the structure of the universe affords, with the christian system of religion. But as I cannot begin this part better than by referring to the ideas that occurred to me at an early part of life, and which I doubt not have occurred in some degree to almost every other person at one time or other, I shall state what those ideas were, and add thereto such other matter as shall arise out of the subject, giving to the whole, by way of preface, a short introduction. My father being of the quaker profession, it was my good fortune to have an exceedingly good moral education, and a tolerable stock of useful learning. Though I went to the grammar school, I did not learn Latin, not only because I had no inclination to learn languages, but because of the objection the quakers have against the books in which the language is taught. But this did not prevent me from being acquainted with the subjects of all the Latin books used in the school. The natural bent of my mind was to science. I had some turn, and I believe some talent for poetry; but this I rather repressed than encouraged, as leading too much into the field of imagination. As soon as I was able, I purchased a pair of globes, and attended the philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and became afterwards acquainted with Dr. Bevis, of the society called the Royal Society, then living in the Temple, and an excellent astronomer. I had no disposition for what was called politics. It presented to my mind no other idea than is contained in the word jockeyship. When, therefore, I turned my thoughts towards matters of government, I had to form a system for myself, that accorded with the moral and philosophic principles in which I had been educated. I saw, or at least I thought I saw, a vast scene opening itself to the world in the affairs of America; and it appeared to me, that unless the Americans changed the plan they were then pursuing, with respect to the government of England, and declared themselves independent, they would not only involve themselves in a multiplicity of new difficulties, but shut out the prospect that was then offering itself to mankind through their means. It was from these motives that I published the work known by the name of Common Sense, which is the first work I ever did publish, and so far as I can judge of myself, I believe I should never have been known in the world as an author on any subject whatever, had it not been for the affairs of America. I wrote Common Sense the latter end of the year 1775, and published it the first of January, 1776. Independence was declared the fourth of July following. [NOTE: The pamphlet Common Sense was first advertised, as "just published," on January 10, 1776. His plea for the Officers of Excise, written before leaving England, was printed, but not published until 1793. Despite his reiterated assertion that Common Sense was the first work he ever published the notion that he was "junius" still finds some believers. An indirect comment on our Paine-Junians may be found in Part 2 of this work where Paine says a man capable of writing Homer "would not have thrown away his own fame by giving it to another." It is probable that Paine ascribed the Letters of Junius to Thomas Hollis. His friend F. Lanthenas, in his translation of the Age of Reason (1794) advertises his translation of the Letters of Junius from the English "(Thomas Hollis)." This he could hardly have done without consultation with Paine. Unfortunately this translation of Junius cannot be found either in the Bibliotheque Nationale or the British Museum, and it cannot be said whether it contains any attempt at an identification of Junius--Editor.] Any person, who has made observations on the state and progress of the human mind, by observing his own, can not but have observed, that there are two distinct classes of what are called Thoughts; those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have. As to the learning that any person gains from school education, it serves only, like a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for himself afterwards. Every person of learning is finally his own teacher; the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception. Thus much for the introductory part. From the time I was capable of conceiving an idea, and acting upon it by reflection, I either doubted the truth of the christian system, or thought it to be a strange affair; I scarcely knew which it was: but I well remember, when about seven or eight years of age, hearing a sermon read by a relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the church, upon the subject of what is called Redemption by the death of the Son of God. After the sermon was ended, I went into the garden, and as I was going down the garden steps (for I perfectly recollect the spot) I revolted at the recollection of what I had heard, and thought to myself that it was making God Almighty act like a passionate man, that killed his son, when he could not revenge himself any other way; and as I was sure a man would be hanged that did such a thing, I could not see for what purpose they preached such sermons. This was not one of those kind of thoughts that had any thing in it of childish levity; it was to me a serious reflection, arising from the idea I had that God was too good to do such an action, and also too almighty to be under any necessity of doing it. I believe in the same manner to this moment; and I moreover believe, that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system. It seems as if parents of the christian profession were ashamed to tell their children any thing about the principles of their religion. They sometimes instruct them in morals, and talk to them of the goodness of what they call Providence; for the Christian mythology has five deities: there is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the God Providence, and the Goddess Nature. But the christian story of God the Father putting his son to death, or employing people to do it, (for that is the plain language of the story,) cannot be told by a parent to a child; and to tell him that it was done to make mankind happier and better, is making the story still worse; as if mankind could be improved by the example of murder; and to tell him that all this is a mystery, is only making an excuse for the incredibility of it. How different is this to the pure and simple profession of Deism! The true deist has but one Deity; and his religion consists in contemplating the power, wisdom, and benignity of the Deity in his works, and in endeavouring to imitate him in every thing moral, scientifical, and mechanical. The religion that approaches the nearest of all others to true Deism, in the moral and benign part thereof, is that professed by the quakers: but they have contracted themselves too much by leaving the works of God out of their system. Though I reverence their philanthropy, I can not help smiling at the conceit, that if the taste of a quaker could have been consulted at the creation, what a silent and drab-colored creation it would have been! Not a flower would have blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird been permitted to sing. Quitting these reflections, I proceed to other matters. After I had made myself master of the use of the globes, and of the orrery, [NOTE by Paine: As this book may fall into the bands of persons who do not know what an orrery is, it is for their information I add this note, as the name gives no idea of the uses of the thing. The orrery has its name from the person who invented it. It is a machinery of clock-work, representing the universe in miniature: and in which the revolution of the earth round itself and round the sun, the revolution of the moon round the earth, the revolution of the planets round the sun, their relative distances from the sun, as the center of the whole system, their relative distances from each other, and their different magnitudes, are represented as they really exist in what we call the heavens.--Author.] and conceived an idea of the infinity of space, and of the eternal divisibility of matter, and obtained, at least, a general knowledge of what was called natural philosophy, I began to compare, or, as I have before said, to confront, the internal evidence those things afford with the christian system of faith. Though it is not a direct article of the christian system that this world that we inhabit is the whole of the habitable creation, yet it is so worked up therewith, from what is called the Mosaic account of the creation, the story of Eve and the apple, and the counterpart of that story, the death of the Son of God, that to believe otherwise, that is, to believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders the christian system of faith at once little and ridiculous; and scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air. The two beliefs can not be held together in the same mind; and he who thinks that he believes both, has thought but little of either. Though the belief of a plurality of worlds was familiar to the ancients, it is only within the last three centuries that the extent and dimensions of this globe that we inhabit have been ascertained. Several vessels, following the tract of the ocean, have sailed entirely round the world, as a man may march in a circle, and come round by the contrary side of the circle to the spot he set out from. The circular dimensions of our world, in the widest part, as a man would measure the widest round of an apple, or a ball, is only twenty-five thousand and twenty English miles, reckoning sixty-nine miles and an half to an equatorial degree, and may be sailed round in the space of about three years. [NOTE by Paine: Allowing a ship to sail, on an average, three miles in an hour, she would sail entirely round the world in less than one year, if she could sail in a direct circle, but she is obliged to follow the course of the ocean.--Author.] A world of this extent may, at first thought, appear to us to be great; but if we compare it with the immensity of space in which it is suspended, like a bubble or a balloon in the air, it is infinitely less in proportion than the smallest grain of sand is to the size of the world, or the finest particle of dew to the whole ocean, and is therefore but small; and, as will be hereafter shown, is only one of a system of worlds, of which the universal creation is composed. It is not difficult to gain some faint idea of the immensity of space in which this and all the other worlds are suspended, if we follow a progression of ideas. When we think of the size or dimensions of, a room, our ideas limit themselves to the walls, and there they stop. But when our eye, or our imagination darts into space, that is, when it looks upward into what we call the open air, we cannot conceive any walls or boundaries it can have; and if for the sake of resting our ideas we suppose a boundary, the question immediately renews itself, and asks, what is beyond that boundary? and in the same manner, what beyond the next boundary? and so on till the fatigued imagination returns and says, there is no end. Certainly, then, the Creator was not pent for room when he made this world no larger than it is; and we have to seek the reason in something else. If we take a survey of our own world, or rather of this, of which the Creator has given us the use as our portion in the immense system of creation, we find every part of it, the earth, the waters, and the air that surround it, filled, and as it were crowded with life, down from the largest animals that we know of to the smallest insects the naked eye can behold, and from thence to others still smaller, and totally invisible without the assistance of the microscope. Every tree, every plant, every leaf, serves not only as an habitation, but as a world to some numerous race, till animal existence becomes so exceedingly refined, that the effluvia of a blade of grass would be food for thousands. Since then no part of our earth is left unoccupied, why is it to be supposed that the immensity of space is a naked void, lying in eternal waste? There is room for millions of worlds as large or larger than ours, and each of them millions of miles apart from each other. Having now arrived at this point, if we carry our ideas only one thought further, we shall see, perhaps, the true reason, at least a very good reason for our happiness, why the Creator, instead of making one immense world, extending over an immense quantity of space, has preferred dividing that quantity of matter into several distinct and separate worlds, which we call planets, of which our earth is one. But before I explain my ideas upon this subject, it is necessary (not for the sake of those that already know, but for those who do not) to show what the system of the universe is.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line725
__label__wiki	0.675921	0.675921	Reactions to Lincoln's Inauguration Date(s): March 1861 Location(s): MOBILE, Alabama Tag(s): Government, Politics, Slavery, War Course: “Rise And Fall of the Slave South,” University of Virginia Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. One month earlier, Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated as the new president of the Confederacy. Elizabeth Saxon traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to celebrate the inauguration of Davis and then traveled to Mobile when Lincoln was inaugurated. In Mobile, she visited with a good friend and mentor from her childhood, Madame Octavia Walton Invert. Well-educated and charming, Madame Invert was a woman of society. Saxon described her as the most generous person she had ever met. The two exchanged formalities and then discussed Lincoln's present inauguration with sadness and fear. Invert cried for the friends she had scattered throughout the North and the South and knew how difficult the upcoming months would be. Saxon was younger and saw more hope for the future. Yet the depression of her role model was greatly troubling, and the somber mood quickly spread to Elizabeth herself. Uncertainty surrounded Lincoln's inauguration. Unionists and Confederates found themselves unsure of what would happen next. His inauguration speech needed to alleviate fears and explain his positions and possible actions. In his speech, Lincoln proclaimed that his purpose was not to eliminate slavery but rather oversee that which belonged to the government. In this sense, he was referring to the states that had already seceded. This included Saxon's home state of Alabama, which had seceded on January 11, 1861. Lincoln argued that he had no intentions of ending slavery in the South, but simply wanted to preserve the Union. Despite Lincoln's reassurances, southerners were not convinced. Many believed that slavery could not be protected in the current Union regardless of who was in charge. States that had already seceded continued to encourage border states to join their new nation. Even though states like Alabama had already taken action, no one knew what Lincoln's response would be. When he refused to sit idly by and allow the South to create its own nation, war became the next possible step. While the border states did not seceded until April and May, the rest of the South knew that war was coming. Unlike the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, the inauguration of Lincoln was a somber occasion. Invert's wisdom led her to believe that war between the North and the South was next and that would mean great casualties on both sides. Though younger, Saxon realized a great deal from watching the depression Invert faced. She too came to believe that the Confederate States of America would have to fight to preserve themselves. Lincoln could not say anything to convince the southern states that he would fairly handle the institution of slavery. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, A Southern Woman's War Time Reminiscences (Memphis, TN: Pilcher Printing Co., 1905). William L. Barney, The Secessionist Impulse: Alabama and Mississippi in 1860 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974). David Donald Jean Baker, and Michael Holt, The Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000). Larry D. Mansch, Abraham Lincoln, president-elect: The Four Critical Months from Election to Inauguration (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2005).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line726
__label__wiki	0.932116	0.932116	The pack rides during the sixth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 160 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Mulhouse and finish in La Planche des Belles Filles, France, Thursday, July 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) The pack rides past police officers during the sixth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 160 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Mulhouse and finish in La Planche des Belles Filles, France, Thursday, July 11, 2019. Colombia's Egan Arley Bernal Gomez resupplies during the sixth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 160 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Mulhouse and finish in La Planche des Belles Filles, France, Thursday, July 11, 2019. Belgium's Dylan Teuns celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the sixth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 160 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Mulhouse and finish in La Planche des Belles Filles, France, Thursday, July 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Italy's Giulio Ciccone puts on the overall leader's yellow jersey on the podium, at the end of the sixth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 160 kilometers (100 miles) with start in Mulhouse and finish in La Planche des Belles Filles, France, Thursday, July 11, 2019. sports 5 days ago The Associated Press — By JOHN LEICESTER - AP Sports Writer CHAMPAGNEY, France (AP) — Two Tour de France rookies stole the show on the first mountain stage, with Dylan Teuns of Belgium winning Stage 6 and Giulio Ciccone of Italy taking the overall race lead on Thursday. More Tour de France: https://apnews.com/TourdeFrance	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line730
__label__wiki	0.55987	0.55987	Four from 40 The announcement of which of the 40 designs on the long-list has made the final four is being made at Te Papa. Stuff is reporting on it live and has the first of the four: The first is black and white with a white and black fern: Designed by Alofi Kanter from Auckland, the original submission said: “Just the silver fern. Black and white. On a flag, saying loud and clear: New Zealand. The design is simple and pure, using our national colours. Credit for the fern goes to The New Zealand Way Limited.” The second is: Kyle Lockwood’s red and blue with a fern and stars. The third is black and white with a koru designed by Andrew Fyfe. The fourth is Lockwood’s black and blue with fern and stars. The Flag Consideration Panel has a bigger version. 3 Comments \| flag \| Tagged: Alofi Kanter, Andrew Fyfe, Flag Consideration Panel, Kyle Lockwood \| Permalink Flying the flag The Herald asks would you stand and wave this flag? And has artists impressions of some of the 40 long-listed designs as they might have been used. All look better than I thought they might and this is still my preferred option. Artist’s impression of Mahe Drysdale with Kyle Lockwood’s Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue) flag. Illustration / NZ Herald Graphic 2 Comments \| flag \| Tagged: Kyle Lockwood, Mahe Drysdale, NZ Herald \| Permalink One opportunity this century Prime Minister John Key has accepted a challenge from MoreFM breakfast host Simon Barnett to make his case for a change of the New Zealand flag in six minutes this morning at 7:40 a.m. If he needs inspiration, Mahe Drysdale has provided it: I have raced under the current flag, I have led the New Zealand Olympic team into the Opening ceremony in 2008 and closing ceremony in 2012 carrying the current flag and I have had the flag raised with the national anthem played at 5 World Championship and the Olympic games and been photographed numerous times holding the flag. From that you might think the current flag is pretty special to me! Well it has been a big part of my celebrations over the years but I don’t race for the flag, I race for New Zealand and the people of New Zealand. The flag represents us as a nation it identifies our nation and if it’s the current flag or a new one I will continue to proudly represent New Zealand under either. My issue with the current flag is, I don’t think it truly represents who we are and how we have evolved as a nation since the current flag was adopted over 100 years ago in 1902. We are now in the minority of countries of former British dominions that still has a flag with the union flag (jack) in its flag. Whether you agree with the referendum about changing the flag or not, doesn’t really matter. It is going to happen and so I encourage everyone in New Zealand to have a good think about it and make your opinion count. If you truly like the current flag, vote for it. Personally I think we can do better and this is an opportunity that may never happen again in our lifetime to choose a flag that is distinctly New Zealand, represents us and we can all be proud of. Lets not be scared of change. It’s more than a century since the current flag was adopted, we won’t get another chance to vote on whether or not to change it for a similar length of time. Personally I like the Southern Cross, I like the Silver Fern, I like the Koru, I like the Kiwi to me these are symbols New Zealanders can identify with and represent New Zealand as a country. I do get annoyed overseas when people can’t distinguish us from the Aussies, as they don’t know that we have red stars and they have white ones. I believe we have moved on from being governed by the UK so it would be a good time to show our independence by dropping the union Jack from our flag. As for colours red, white and blue, they are UK colours, again I like black and white they are our national colours, blue at a stretch due to the large amount of sky and sea we have. People say black and white is too much like Isis, I say rubbish I think people can tell the difference between a flag with Arabic writing and a kiwi symbol, plus we can’t let a terror group control what colours we use. Those are my personal views but again its up to all the people of the nation to decide what they like best. The best example I can think of is the Canadian flag, again when this changed to the current flag back in the 1960’s it was highly controversial, but I think it is now a striking flag with the red and white (national colours) and maple leaf (national symbol) it is very easy to identify it’s the Canadian flag and I certainly don’t hear anyone complaining about it any more. I have heard various views from our veterans and the RSA regarding why we can’t change the flag, as its disrespectful to those that fought under the flag. I hugely value what all veterans have done for our country and what they have sacrificed for people like myself. I certainly don’t wish to disrespect them or their views but I have two points here. One by fighting for us they insured we didn’t end up having the German or Japanese flag and they have given us the ability to live in a democracy where the people of the country get to make decisions like what flag we want to represent us as a nation. Secondly and again I don’t wish to belittle what they have done in any way, as they certainly made the ultimate sacrifice for us all. But I don’t buy the argument that they fought for the flag, I believe they fought for the nation, the great people that live in New Zealand and because they believed in our nation, not because they liked the flag. We aren’t after all dishonoring the current flag, just discussing if its time for a make over, the current flag will always be a big part of our history. New Zealanders didn’t fight under our flag in WWI, they fought under the British one. New Zealand soldiers did, and still do, wear a fern and those who died in service have a fern on their graves. So this leads me back to the referendum, at around $26 million this seems like an expensive exercise. The thing is though, whether you agree or not, it is happening. So lets make it worthwhile. It will be a waste of money if everyone says I don’t care and doesn’t think about it. It is a lot of money over a couple of years, but not nearly as much spread across more than a century since the current flag was adopted and a similar time before there is likely to be another chance for us to vote on the matter. The decision to spend the money has been made, the waste will be if people close their minds and refuse to engage in the process. Lets all put our heads together, really think about it and decide if you truly think our current flag represents us as a nation in 2015 and going forward for generations. Or is it time to change and use this once in a lifetime opportunity to come up with something we can all be proud of. A flag that stands out and uniquely identifies us. Personally I believe kids under the official voting age should have a say in this referendum, they are after all the ones who will have to live with it for the longest! Personally I hope there is a change option that I can identify with and I like more than the current flag, either way the people of New Zealand get to make the decision and I will proudly represent our nation under whatever flag the nation decides, I just hope it will be one like the Canadian flag that has our national colours and some unique Kiwi symbol(s). Mike Hosking agrees: . . . My gut is the new design must contain the fern. The same way the Canadians respond to the maple leaf, if there is one thing that is instantly recognisable all over the world that is ours, it’s the fern. But let’s at least start to take this thing seriously, those of us who have laughed or joked or questioned the very existence of this whole process (like me). Let’s at least accept it’s here, it’s real and once they get to the pointy end of the choice, let’s put a bit of weight around our place in the world and the role a flag plays in that. What we want to say about ourselves, what sort of course we want to chart, what sort of message we want to send. Mahe is right – this is a once in a lifetime chance. We squander it at our peril. The Flag Consideration panel had more than 10,292 designs submitted from which they will choose the four we will vote on. Several have a silver fern and four stars, among them is this one which I like: Designed by: Kyle Lockwood from Nelson Suggested by: Andrew Whelan from Nelson I believe the Silver fern is central to our nation’s identity and deserves pride of place on our flag. In war, in sport and in commerce it is the symbol of our country that has outlived all others, and under which we all unite regardless of cultural or ethnic differences. I think black has also become an important part of our identity, and this version of Kyle’s flag allows the black to celebrate the southern cross flying in our clear night sky while still allowing for a touch of colour, and retaining a little of the red, white and blue of its predecessor. Lockwood has another variation on this flag with the black and blue reversed. . . . Black has been a gazetted official New Zealand colour since at least 1975, along with red and white, and the colour blue features on our official coat of arms and, of course, our present flag which was made official in 1902. The colours black, red, white and blue were also on New Zealand’s first home grown flag design of 1834. Black also featured strongly on New Zealand war service medals, given to our brave soldiers after World War Two, it is a significant colour to Maori, and features on the Maori National Flag of New Zealand made official in 2011. . . Contrary to popular belief the silver fern did not start out as a rugby football symbol, it actually was first worn by New Zealand troops in 1853, and in the 1880s was adopted by our rugby team, firstly as a gold fern on a navy blue Jersey. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the silver fern on an all‐black jersey became well known. Like the maple leaf to Canada, the silver fern ‘screams New Zealand’, and it’s not just a mere sports symbol. In far off fields lie our soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, forever memorialised under the silver fern. The fern is on our army and navy logos, our firefighter and police uniforms, it’s on our money, it’s on our passports, it’s on our national airliners, it’s our symbol and it’s time we put it on our flag. In examining our history and growing sense of national identity, it appears that many would like to include our famous national colour black, and of course many others would not like to see a fully black flag with all the piracy connotations that it invokes. Perhaps this flag, with a nod to our past, incorporating all of New Zealand’s national colours and the fern, is the design that best represents New Zealand ‐ without the colonial overtones of the Union flag that takes up the dominant position on our present flag. And, like the flags of Belgium and South Africa, it also doesn’t suffer from an overuse of black. Black is our obvious national colour. It represents the pride and strength of New Zealand. To Māori, black represents potential, and signifies the beginning of time, which is apt, given our position as one of the first nations to see the new day. The colour blue, representing the pacific, and our clear skies, along with the traditional New Zealand Southern Cross in red, gives this proposed national flag the required vibrancy that a silver fern on an entirely black background cannot achieve. By incorporating the Southern Cross and colours from our present flag, I believe the design also honours our history. The fern says New Zealand in a way the current flag doesn’t: Why change the flag? New Zealand needs a flag which is instantly recognisable – so our troops don’t have to add a black-and-white Kiwi beneath a camouflaged flag so that they’re not confused for Australian or British soldiers. Leave a Comment » \| flag, politics \| Tagged: Andrew Whelan, John Key, Kyle Lockwood, Mahe Drysdale, Mike Hosking, silver fern, Simon Barnett \| Permalink Flag of the day The Flag Consideration Panel is inviting people to upload designs for a new flag. There are more than 2000 in the gallery already. This is one of the ideas promoted by Kyle Lockwood: 2 Comments \| flag, politics \| Tagged: Flag Consideration Panel, Kyle Lockwood \| Permalink	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line732
__label__wiki	0.881561	0.881561	Latest Arkansas News Suspected tornado in Mississippi from Barry's wet remnants MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A suspected tornado struck a rural area of north Mississippi on Tuesday, damaging homes and knocking down trees and power lines as the wet remnants of Tropical Storm Barry rumbled through several states, officials said. A storm that may have included a tornado passed through Victoria,... The Latest: Suspected tornado part of Barry's remnants ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (AP) — The Latest on the effects of the remnants of Hurricane Barry (all times local): 2:50 p.m. Officials say a suspected tornado has moved through a rural area of north Mississippi, damaging homes and knocking down trees and power lines. National Weather Service forecaster Andrew... Final blast of torrential rains unleashed by weakened Barry NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tropical Depression Barry spared New Orleans and Baton Rouge from catastrophic flooding, but even as it weakened and moved north through Arkansas, its trailing rain bands swamped parts of Louisiana with up to 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rain and transformed part of the Mississippi... PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AP) — Authorities are investigating whether possibly the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history is behind the death of an Arkansas woman in 1994. Police in Pine Bluff are reviewing the case of Jolanda Jones's death after Samuel Little confessed to her killing, which had been... The Latest: Louisiana governor 'grateful' storm wasn't worse NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on Barry (all times local): 6:20 p.m. Louisiana's governor says he is "extremely grateful" that Tropical Depression Barry did not cause the disastrous floods that had earlier been forecast. In a news conference Sunday evening, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Barry's rains could... Ex-lobbyist in Arkansas corruption case seeks freedom LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A former lobbyist who pleaded guilty to bribing three former Arkansas lawmakers in a political corruption case in Arkansas and Missouri is asking to be released from custody pending his formal sentencing. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that request to release 58-year-old... Federal court: Duggar sister privacy lawsuit can proceed SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by four reality show sisters can proceed against an Arkansas city that released confidential information about their alleged sexual abuse by a brother, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Jill Duggar Dillard, Jessa... Police seize 31 slot machines from Arkansas gas stations SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — Authorities are investigating after police seized more than two dozen slot machines from a pair of convenience stores in northwest Arkansas. Thirty-one slot machines from the two stores in Springdale as part of the investigation Thursday. Although voters legalized casino gambling in... Man gets 2.5 years in prison for attack on US airman LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A jujitsu instructor has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison for punching and stomping on the head of a U.S. airman at a bar on an Air Force base in Japan. Rodrigo Gomez, 44, was convicted of attempted voluntary manslaughter, assault and other charges in April. U.S. District... Judge barred from executions cases seeks justices' recusal Jul. 11, 2019 11:54 AM EDT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas judge who participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration the same day he blocked the state from using a lethal injection drug wants state Supreme Court justices to disqualify themselves from hearing his request to handle execution-related cases again. Pulaski...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line734
__label__wiki	0.631334	0.631334	Can a vaccine prevent the earliest forms of rheumatic heart disease? November 14, 2018 /in Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Cardiology & Heart Surgery News /by Innovation District Craig Sable, M.D., associate chief of the division of cardiology and director of echocardiography at Children’s National Health System, earned a lifetime achievement award, formally known as the 2018 Cardiovascular Disease in the Young (CVDY) Meritorious Achievement Award, on Nov. 10 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2018. The CVDY Council bestows the prestigious award to individuals making a significant impact in the field of cardiovascular disease in the young. The CVDY Council supports the mission to improve the health of children and adults with congenital heart disease and acquired heart disease during childhood through research, education, prevention and advocacy. Dr. Sable is recognized for his entire body of research, education and advocacy focused on congenital and acquired heart disease, but especially for his rheumatic heart disease (RHD) research in Uganda. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Sable has brought more than 100 doctors and medical staff to Kampala, the capital and largest city in Uganda, partnering with more than 100 local doctors and clinicians to develop a template for a sustainable infrastructure to diagnose, treat and prevent both RHD and congenital heart disease. RHD is a result of damage to the heart valves after acute rheumatic fever (ARF). The process starts with a sore throat from streptococcal infection, which many children in the United States treat with antibiotics. “For patients who develop strep throat, their body’s reaction to the strep throat, in addition to resolving its primary symptoms, can result in attacking the heart,” says Dr. Sable. “The initial damage is called acute rheumatic fever. In many cases this disease is self-limited, but if undetected, over years, it can lead to long-term heart valve damage called rheumatic heart disease. Unfortunately, once severe RHD develops the only treatment is open-heart surgery.” In 2017, Sable and the researchers published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine about the global burden of RHD, which is often referred to as a disease of poverty. RHD is observed more frequently in low- and middle-income countries as well as in marginalized communities in high-income countries. RHD has declined on a global scale, but it remains the most significant cause of morbidity and mortality from heart disease in children and young adults throughout the world. In 2017 there were 39.4 million causes of RHD, which resulted in 285,000 deaths and 9.4 million disability-adjusted life-years. In 2018 the World Health Organization issued a referendum recognizing rheumatic heart disease as an important disease that member states and ministries of health need to prioritize in their public health efforts. The common denominator that drives Dr. Sable and the global researchers, many of whom have received grants from the American Heart Association to study RHD, is the impact that creating a scalable solution, such as widespread adoption of vaccines, can have on entire communities. “The cost of an open-heart surgery in Uganda is $5,000 to $10,000, while treatment for a child with penicillin for one year costs less than $1,” says Dr. Sable. “Investment in prevention strategies holds the best promise on a large scale to eradicate rheumatic heart disease.” Sable and the team have screened more than 100,000 children and are conducting the first randomized controlled RHD trial, enrolling nearly 1,000 children, to examine the effectiveness of using penicillin to prevent progression of latent or subclinical heart disease, the earliest form of RHD. During the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Dr. Sable and a team of surgeons will fly back to Uganda to operate on children affected by RHD, while also advancing their research efforts to produce a scalable solution, exported on a global scale, to prevent RHD in its earliest stages. Dr. Sable and colleagues from around the world partner on several grant-funded research projects. Over the next few years, the team hopes to answer several important questions, including: Does penicillin prevent the earliest form of RHD and can we develop a vaccine to prevent RHD? To view the team’s previously-published research, visit Sable’s PubMed profile. To learn about global health initiatives led by researchers at Children’s National, visit www.GHICN.org. https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Craig-Sable.jpg 300 400 Innovation District https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/idlogo1-tagline-Advances-in-Medicine.gif Innovation District2018-11-14 12:31:562018-11-19 10:47:05Can a vaccine prevent the earliest forms of rheumatic heart disease? Assessing the risk factors in rheumatic heart disease December 13, 2017 /in Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Cardiology & Heart Surgery News /by Innovation District Rheumatic heart disease is caused by untreated throat infections from the streptococcal bacterium. The infections progress into acute rheumatic fever and eventually weaken the valves of the heart. Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the most commonly acquired cardiovascular disease in children and young adults. The devastating condition, which was endemic in the United States before 1950, is now relatively rare in the developed world due to social and economic development and the introduction of penicillin. But, in the developing world RHD remains nearly as common as HIV. Fortunately, RHD is a cumulative disease and opportunities exist for early intervention. To further explore the utility of early diagnosis and intervention, a research team headed by Children’s National Heart Institute cardiologist Andrea Beaton, M.D., conducted a prospective natural history study of children with latent RHD. RHD is caused by untreated streptococcal throat infections that progress into acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and eventually weaken the valves of the heart. While initial episodes of ARF occur almost exclusively during childhood, RHD most commonly presents in adolescents and young adults. This latent period between ARF and clinically apparent RHD is an ideal opportunity for early intervention, and screening echocardiography (echo) has emerged as a potentially powerful tool for early detection of RHD. In their study published in the journal Circulation in September 2017, Dr. Beaton and her colleagues examined echocardiograms from children with latent RHD who were enrolled in the Ugandan National RHD registry. The researchers also developed models to search for risk factors and compare progression-free survival between patients who did and did not receive penicillin. The team reports that children with moderate-to-severe latent RHD discovered by echo screening have poor outcomes. Children with both borderline and mild definite RHD have better outcomes but remain at substantial risk of progression. The researchers also found that children who are diagnosed at a younger age, and the presence of morphological mitral valve features, generally lead to unfavorable outcomes. The authors conclude that children with moderate to severe RHD at screening should be considered for treatment as clinically diagnosed RHD, and that children with borderline or mild definite RHD at screening should, at a minimum, be maintained in close clinical follow up. “It is clear that children found to have the earliest forms of RHD, seen only by echo, are at substantial risk for progression of disease. This study urges us forward to see if we can intervene to stop this progression once children are identified,” says Dr. Beaton. “We are excited that our next project will be to do just that – a randomized clinical trial in Uganda to determine if penicillin can protect the hearts of children found to have latent RHD.” https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Gram-positive-bacteria-Streptococcus-pyogenes.jpg 300 400 Innovation District https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/idlogo1-tagline-Advances-in-Medicine.gif Innovation District2017-12-13 13:47:372018-09-21 13:04:34Assessing the risk factors in rheumatic heart disease Rheumatic Heart Disease Center Launches with $3.7 Million AHA Grant July 3, 2017 /in At a Glance Home Page, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Cardiology & Heart Surgery News /by Innovation District Ten-year-old Angioletta was clinically diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease in 2014 (severe leakage of her mitral valve). She’s been medically managed at the clinic Children’s helps support and conducts research at in Gulu, and she is a very active participant in the support group led by Children’s National research assistant, Amy Scheel. Angioletta hasn’t had any major complications, but her only hope for long-term survival is to undergo open heart surgery to replace her abnormal valve. Experts are looking towards the research from the new Center to help prevent future generations of children like Angioletta from developing RHD. Known as the ‘world’s forgotten disease,’ Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) is caused by untreated streptococcal throat infections that progress into acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and eventually weaken the valves of the heart. It is the most common cardiovascular disease in children and young adults globally – affecting nearly 33 million people and causing 345,000 deaths annually – yet, it is preventable with early detection and access to penicillin. To help end the epidemic, Children’s National Health System has been awarded a $3.7 million grant from the American Heart Association (AHA) to launch a Rheumatic Heart Disease Center, with the goal of developing innovative strategies and economic incentives to improve the prevention and diagnosis of RHD in high-risk, financially disadvantaged countries and low-income communities across the United States. Children’s National is one of four centers in the AHA’s Strategically Focused Children’s Research Network, which is dedicated to improving children’s heart health and reducing the global burden of cardiovascular disease and stroke. AHA selected Children’s for the grant based on its proven record of global collaboration to solve complex health issues and the potential impact of this research. The program will use Children’s robust telemedicine infrastructure to connect co-collaborators around the world, as well as train the next generation of globally minded cardiovascular researchers. “While it’s often thought that we’ve already beaten rheumatic heart disease, data shows there’s nearly no decrease in mortality rates in low-income countries. The disease is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, and some poverty-stricken communities in the U.S. are hit nearly as hard,” said Craig Sable, M.D., associate division chief of cardiology. “We are thrilled to receive this funding from the AHA, which will help us close the research gap for this neglected disease and change the plight of millions of children around the world.” About the center and research focus areas Over the next four years, the Rheumatic Heart Disease Center, led by Children’s National Heart Institute experts Dr. Sable and Andrea Beaton, M.D., cardiologist, along with RHD leaders around the globe, will develop evidence-based strategies to strengthen the health system’s response to RHD through synergistic basic, clinical and population science research along the entire spectrum of the disease. The Rheumatic Heart Disease Center, led by Children’s National Heart Institute experts Andrea Beaton, M.D., and Craig Sable, M.D., along with RHD leaders around the globe, will develop evidence-based strategies to strengthen the health system’s response to RHD. The basic research project, led by James Dale, M.D., chief of the division of infectious disease at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, will work to better define the immune system response to Group A Streptococcal (GAS) infection, or strep throat, paving the way for vaccine development. In collaboration with a partner site in Cape Town, South Africa, experts will recruit 300 children ages 5-15 to participate for 24 months in a study capturing and classifying various strains of the GAS bacteria. Similar to the common flu, the strains of GAS bacteria vary from region to region and year to year. By identifying immune system targets, or how our bodies fight GAS, the research can inform the creation of effective and long-lasting vaccines. Dr. Beaton will lead the clinical project that will work to improve understanding and detection of ARF, the precursor to RHD. According to Dr. Beaton, the current, outdated paradigm is that patients with RHD at one point experienced a full-blown episode of ARF – including fever, severe joint pains and rash. These symptoms should be unmistakable and prompt treatment, but in truth the disease remains vastly underdiagnosed in high-risk regions. Through an on-the-ground partnership with experts at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda, the clinical project will work to enroll over 1,000 children ages 3-18 with more subtle symptoms, potentially suggestive of ARF, in order to paint a more accurate picture of the disease in Africa today. “The gap between the low number of children diagnosed with ARF and the high number of young adults with advanced RHD remains one of the most challenging mysteries and barriers to improved RHD prevention,” said Dr. Beaton. “For the first time, we will systematically characterize the clinical, laboratory and echocardiographic features of ARF in low-resource settings, with the goal of developing a biological signature for ARF that can be translated into a diagnostic test and improve detection.” Dr. Beaton expects that this research could benefit other related diseases too, such as kidney disease or serious skin infections. The population research project, led by David Watkins, M.D., M.P.H., an expert in epidemiological and economic modeling at the University of Washington in Seattle, will work to build an economic case for prevention around the world, using the data from the basic and clinical work. The goal is to identify local gaps in delivery of health services for disease prevention and treatment and to measure the cost-effectiveness of RHD interventions, as well as the cost of inaction – especially as patients suffering from advanced RHD are often in the prime of their productive, adult lives. Researchers anticipate the findings will provide effective tools for addressing RHD in other endemic countries too. https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Angioletta-Rheumatic-Heart-Disease.jpg 300 400 Innovation District https://innovationdistrict.childrensnational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/idlogo1-tagline-Advances-in-Medicine.gif Innovation District2017-07-03 09:41:002018-09-21 13:04:46Rheumatic Heart Disease Center Launches with $3.7 Million AHA Grant	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line738
__label__wiki	0.760184	0.760184	HomeNewsCharging Fastned Expands Into Germany Fastned Expands Into Germany product 2017-05-03 11:06:37 https://insideevs.com/news/333993/fastned-expands-into-germany/ Charging, ev charging, germany, europe, netherlands, EVs, quick charging, fast charging, fastned BMW i3 at Fastned charging station Netherlands-based EV charging company, Fastned, will open several stations in Germany, prior to the release of a myriad of upcoming electric vehicles from several OEMs. Fastned has plans in place to construct a fast-charging network throughout Europe, and securing multiple locations in Germany is a significant step forward. The company will build and manage stations at 14 new locations in Germany, and each station will consist of several fast chargers capable of a 150 kW to 350 kW output. Tesla Model S Charging At Fastned Charger More interestingly, the company's chargers will be the first public chargers in Germany that can charge vehicles from any brand, and also the fastest public chargers in the country. Never before have German citizens been capable of adding 500 km (~311 miles) in 15 minutes. The locations are possible due to a partnership with the city of Limburg, the Van der Valk hotel chain, and developer Lutzenberger Projektentwicklung (Lu.pe). Michiel Langezaal, CEO of Fastned, shared: "We are witnessing the start of the ‘Autowende’, from fossil to electric. This is accompanied by the start of a transition from petrol stations to fast-charging stations where electric cars can charge super fast and continue their journey. Fastned is building a pan-European network of fast charging stations that will provide freedom to drivers of electric cars to travel across Europe. As charging speeds increase, charging will become like refuelling your car, and fast charging stations will be the petrol stations of the future." Fastned currently operates 60 fast-charging stations along highways in the Netherlands, and has land, approval, and plans in place for 201 stations. The company is consistently expanding by 10 percent per month, in order to have new stations in place as Tesla, Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, and Jaguar arrive with new EVs. These 14 locations won't be the only locations in Germany, as Fastned is continuing to contact local authorities and private property owners to secure additional spots. The company focuses on ideal locations along major highways, and is already in the process of securing property in other countries as well. Source: Green Car Congress ev charging germany europe netherlands EVs quick charging fast charging fastned	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line739
__label__wiki	0.629625	0.629625	Places to go / Welcome to invigorating Brittany. Rugged coastlines, jagged cliffs and spectacular seascapes make this region ideal for back to nature breaks. Its 2,700 kilometres (1,677 miles) of coastline dotted with fine sandy beaches, cliffs and secluded islands are a perfect reason to visit. But Brittany also has glorious countryside and numerous historic cities. In this land of legends discover countless beautiful towns like enchanting Gacilly, famous for its arts and crafts heritage. Must-sees in Brittany Rennes to Brest In Rennes, the superb 17th century Parliament building and its cobbled streets lined with medieval half-timbered houses, reflect the illustrious history of this ancient capital. It has a trendy side too. The 14th century Couvent des Jacobins has been transformed into a stylish conference centre hosting concerts and art exhibitions. Not far from the city of Quimper, Pont-Aven is known as for its popularity with painters in the late 19th century who flocked here to capture its beauty, leading to the formation of the École de Pont-Aven art movement. Head west to Brest! At Océanopolis Park take a tour of the world’s oceans without leaving the harbour. Its three pavilions, 77 aquariums and more than 10,000 animals make for a fabulous visit. The park is located on the Sentier des Douaniers (Customs Trail), the famous GR 34 coastal path which runs for 2000 kilometres (1,242 miles) and was voted the favourite hiking trail of the French. The Pink Granite Coast The Pink Granite Coast is famous for its rocky coastline. From Trébeurden to the island of Bréhat the magnificent landscape is filled with thousands of granite blocks shaped by the ocean, adding an almost otherworldly look to the sandy bays and tiny islands. In Ploumanac'h, a charming and historic little town with half-timbered houses, the burned copper hues of the granite landscape is spread over the ocean floor and covers more than 25 hectares... The Bay of Saint-Brieux is perfect for those who seek an active holiday, with wonderful coastal scenery punctuated with cliffs and sand dunes, seaside resorts and fishing ports. At low tide, the sea retreats more than 7 kilometres (4 miles), to create a fabulous playground for fishing enthusiasts. High tides at Saint-Malo Saint-Malo experiences some of the highest tides in Europe. To see this phenomenon at its best, view the ocean from the top of the city’s 12th century ramparts. The lure of island life is strong in Brittany. The Gulf of Morbihan, known as the "small sea", is officially one of the most beautiful bays in the world. A string of islands float off the coast including the Ile-d'Arz with its wild moors and the Île aux Moines (Monks Island), irresistibly pretty with its traditional fishermen's houses and flower decked streets featuring colourful camelia bushes. It’s the largest of 15 inhabited islands in a group known as the Ponant Islands scattered between the Channel and the Atlantic. From the forest of Brocéliande to the Route du Rhum Brittany is a land of legends. In the mysterious forest of Brocéliande, the trees, moors and ponds whisper stories of King Arthur, awakening the spirits of the wizard Merlin and the fairy Viviane. Meanwhile out on the ocean, if Brittany’s lighthouses could talk they would tell tales of epic storms: Tévennec Lighthouse is on an isolated rock that’s reputed to be haunted, and La Jument Lighthouse is famously perched on tiny island rock. In Saint-Malo, between the high tides, it’s fun to watch ferries and ships come and go. The city of “corsairs” (pirates) now has a new maritime role: for the past 40 years, the greatest navigators of the world have gathered there to take part in the famous Route du Rhum yacht race which runs from Saint Malo to Guadeloupe. Breton delicacies It’s well known that the sea air gives you an appetite! In Brittany you’re in the right place though, it’s full of tasty treats. It’s an even better experience at the beach with a packet of galettes from Pont-Aven or a slice of Breton ‘far’, a light and fluffy flan. They share an essential ingredient – generous amounts of butter. When it comes to enjoying a great lunch or delicious dinner, taste the freshest oysters or scallops from Cancale. Head to the markets and do as the locals – munch on a galette saucisse (a pancake with a sausage) washed down with Breton cider. And take home a scrumptious souvenir - superb salted butter caramels. Made in Quiberon, these sweet treats even inspire Michelin starred chefs! Display All Being a culture vulture Enjoying nature Fun with the kids Living like royalty Something for two Fruit of the sea The art of preparing seafood in Brittany Oysters, fish, blue lobsters, shrimp and other crustaceous: seafood in Brittany is truly… All aboard! The Brittany coast from an old… How about taking to the seas in Brittany to admire the beauty of the coast? It’s even better on an… Brittany: what to do, what to see... This legendary peninsula offers adventurous visitors an ocean of landscapes, as well as an… Short-lived labyrinth When street art transforms an old building in… Along the port of Vannes in Brittany, a former administrative building of 150 offices has been… La Gacilly Photo Festival, Brittany 8 moments of pure, unadulterated golf in Brittany One to watch: Anaïs Bouilly, jewellery designer Anaïs lives out in the countryside near Rennes, in Brittany. She returned to the land of her birth… How I managed not to see a single dolmen in… Some say the best thing about travelling lies in the unexpected twists and turns. In France,… Before you set off The Crit'Air anti-pollution vehicle sticker Living like royalty	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line744
__label__cc	0.644439	0.355561	Head of Fundraising £40,000 - £47,000 (depending on experience) Charities, Charity & volunteering support, Children, Fundraising, Social welfare Prospectus is excited to be working with with a fantastic organisation to support their search for a new Head of Fundraising. For the past 10 years, the organisation has been proud of its contribution to the improvement of education in our state-funded schools; channelling ideas, innovation, passion and expertise to deliver some of the best performing schools in the country. With offices in London and Manchester, the organisation supports the creation of new schools within communities, drawing together parents, teachers, charities, and schools; they work as a key partner to see the spark of an idea flourish into open, thriving schools. Reporting to the COO, and as a key member of the organisation's Senior Management Team, the Head of Fundraising will lead on developing and delivering a new 5 year fundraising strategy in line with cross-organisational strategy, to ensure the organisation's long term sustainability. The position will also involve acting at the organisation's ambassador externally and generating new relationship and income from a range of donors across high net worth individuals, trusts, foundations and corporate partners. The successful candidate will bring strong strategic and analytical skills, coupled with gravitas and credibility to represent the organisation and build strong lasting relationships with both supporters and colleagues. The organisation will be looking for candidates with demonstrable experience of setting and implementing a fundraising strategy and leading income generation from new relationships from any relationship focused income stream (high net worth individuals, trusts, foundations and corporate partners). This is a hands-on position so self-motivation and proactivity will be essential. The successful candidate will also enjoy working within a team in a dynamic and passionate environment and will be driven by the organisation's mission. At Prospectus we invest in your journey as a candidate and are committed to supporting you in your application. In order to apply please submit your CV in the first instance and begin to prepare your supporting statement. Should your experience be suitable, we will send you the full job description and will arrange for a call and/or meeting to brief you on the role. You'll then have all the information you need to formally apply. We are looking forward to speaking with you soon. Head of Fundraising Events CHARITY PEOPLE £40k per year The salary is in the range of £55,000 to £60,000 p.a for the right candidate SPORTS AID TRUST Charities jobs in London (Central) Children jobs in London (Central) Fundraising jobs in London (Central) Charity & volunteering support jobs in London (Central) Social welfare jobs in London (Central)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line750
__label__cc	0.676429	0.323571	Archive \| US Election RSS feed for this archive The Wizard of Oz of US Politics 2012 Here’s a fun and interesting look at the parallels between US politics in 2012 and the 1939 MGM fantasy film The Wizard of Oz. In the film, Dorothy (representing the American Every-Citizen) has been separated from her familiar homeland and needs a Wizard’s help in restoring her to her unchanging Kansas. During her journey she meets three candidates who might help her: 1. A Scarecrow in need of a brain. 2. A Tin Man seeking a heart. 3. A Cowardly Lion lacking courage. These three candidates have striking similarities to Presidents past, present, and possibly future… 1. George W. Bush, proudly anti-intellectual, but seeking respect. 2. Barack Obama, seemingly lacking the courage of his convictions. 3. Mitt Romney, heartless chopper of deadwood. In L. Frank Baum’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the brainless, gutless, and emotionally challenged trio often demonstrate the opposite characteristics. Scarecrow uses his head, Lion often roars, and Tin Man shows compassion. At one point the Lion even envies the Tin Man: “Perhaps, if I had no heart I should not be a coward.” There is something familiar and timeless here. History is replete with examples of persons who acquire knowledge, timid souls who take bold action, and callous persons who become sensitive. That the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man are strikingly appropriate figures for the early 21st century is just coincidence. The Wizard turns out to be an elderly man from the Midwest who got to Oz in a circus balloon. He has presided over the land for many years by smoke and mirrors and has fooled everyone into thinking he saved the country. He is charming and uses his genial disposition to convince Dorothy’s companions that he has given them the qualities they seek. Finally, however, he confesses to being just a clever salesman, a “humbug”. The Wizard is a humbug, providing the model for Ronald Reagan, whom the current trio of chief executives and would-be chiefs frequently cite as their inspiration for policy and governance. President Reagan, salesman for General Electric, Van Heusen shirts, Chesterfield cigarettes, and the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), is as amiable a wizard as anyone would want to save the emerald city from wicked witches, flying monkeys, and “other terrorists”. Like Dorothy, we’ll all follow the Yellow Brick Road to the voting booth, work our magic behind the curtain, and hope for a transformation of our favourite character. Not to forget The Wicked Witch of The West…lets just say she represents the Evils of Government and Big Business. She scared me as a child and now more then ever she still does! Adapted by John Zeus. Original Source: Bernard Mergen: Wizard of Oz politics – Op-Ed Commentaries – The Charleston Gazette – West Virginia News and Sports –.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line753
__label__cc	0.604129	0.395871	After the Cold War Judging the Past in Chile, France, Indonesia and Spain ‘The end of the Cold War suddenly removed the props which had held up the international structure and, to an extent not yet appreciated, the structures of the world’s domestic political systems. And what was left was a world in disarray and partial collapse, because there was nothing to replace them.’ Eric Hobsbawm, Interesting Times, 2002. Considerable attention has been paid to the impact of the end of the Cold War on Russia and the former Eastern bloc. There has been less work on the countries that were on the other side of the War, in the West and the non-aligned countries and yet for forty years not only international politics but internal national alignments were largely governed by the exigencies of the Cold War. This project aims to trace the on-going and profound consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union on four countries: Chile, Indonesia, Spain and France. Calenda – Histoire politique La décennie décisive : 1869-1879 Pouvoir et émotions. Sensibilités, représentations, gouvernance (France-Espagne, XVIe-XVIIIe siècle) Les réalismes de Georg Lukács L’histoire et la géographie, disciplines d’éducation, de recherche et de développement Naturalisation et légitimation des pouvoirs (1300–1800) Professionnels en « déplacement ». Ce que passer les frontières professionnelles veut dire Communismes et dissidences politiques Une histoire globale de Trieste au XVIIIe siècle Penser l’après-guerre. Amériques latines (XIXe-XXe siècles) Review of Henry Rousso: La dernière catastrophe Henry Rousso, La dernière catastrophe: l’histoire, le présent, le contemporain. Paris: Gallimard, Nrf essais, 2012. Pp. 338. 21 euros. Henry Rousso’s essay offers a wide-ranging reflection on what it means to write the ‘history of the present’, a field which, in recent decades, has moved from the margins of history to its very centre. His aim is to trace the evolution of the ‘history of the present ‘, the forms it has taken and the problems it has posed over the centuries and poses now. In his first chapter, Rousso outlines the historiography of the history of the present: he explores what it meant to write this history in classical times, in the middle ages, in ‘modern’ times – a term which, he notes, is open to uncertain dating. But the principal focus of the book is to trace and explain the emergence of a particular form of the history of the present from the 1970s on, with a focus on the French, German, English and American historical fields (although, understandably, the French field receives most attention). Discussing the evolution of the theory and practice of the history of the present in the late twentieth century, Rousso pays close attention to the impact of the two World Wars, these ‘catastrophes’ that placed new demands on the historian and transformed the relationship of public and historian to the past and to the present. The trauma of WWI encouraged the public’s engagement with history and accorded an increasingly prominent role to ‘witnesses’, as veterans demanded that their experience be remembered – and never repeated. Rousso notes the collections that were begun in the midst of the war, to preserve the items, documents, etc that might capture the experience of the soldiers and the brutal reality of combat. The Australian reader is reminded of the role that Charles Bean played in ensuring that such items were collected from the battlefields towards the end of WWI, and his campaign for the establishment of a permanent institution of memory and record that became the Australian War Memorial. Bean saw such a memorial as, in part, fulfilling his notion of a debt owed to those who died, and this notion of a debt owed to the victims is one that, Rousso argues, began to emerge in the aftermath of WWI and even more strongly after WWII. The recent past became the object of increasingly close attention after WWII, in the context of the war trials, the ideological confrontations of the Cold War and the construction of the European Community. But it is above all from the 1970s that the history of the present became a major preoccupation both in the discipline of history and amongst the public and media as war crimes and above all the extermination of the Jews re-emerged as central preoccupations of academic focus, public commemoration and judicial examination. A ‘second wave of purges’ took place in France, with the trials of Barbie (1987), Touvier (1994), Papon (1997), drawing historians into playing the role of expert witness and even moral arbiter. Nuancing Hartog’s category of ‘presentism’, Rousso argues that it is less the hegemony of the present that characterises our contemporary collective imaginary, than the persistence of a past that summons us to pass judgment and ensure compensation for events that took place several generations ago, as if they were contemporary. How to define the boundaries of the present? Where does it begin? Rousso’s title, La Dernière catastrophe [The latest catastrophe] contains his answer: catastrophic events force the ensuing generations to attempt to re/write their recent history, to give meaning to the rupture with the past, to re-establish individual and collective identities (251). In his final chapter, Rousso reviews the various candidates for the catastrophic events that might mark the start of our ‘present’ – 1917? 1945 ? 1989? 2001 ? If it is still too early to assess the impact of the terrorist attacks on the USA of 2001, the events of 1989/1991 seem to Rousso to mark the end of the cycle that began in 1917 with the Russian Revolution. Finally, what does Rousso say about the nature of our contemporary approach to writing the history of our present? This particular conjuncture is characterised by five principal features: the weight of the (catastrophic) events; social demands on the historian; judicial involvement; the importance attached to witness and to memory. Rousso reflects on the challenge posed to history by those who claim that direct experience trumps the perspective of the historian: his book opens with an anecdote that suggests the extent to which the witness to an event is felt to have a special insight that the historian cannot replicate, a prejudice shared even by certain historians. Rousso stands firm for the role of the historian in combatting the immediacy of events through the mediation that history offers, though he does not under-estimate the challenge involved in establishing a sufficient critical distance. It is impossible in this short review to do justice to this very rich and detailed reflection on such a wide range of topics and issues in the theory and practice of the history of the present: the problem of periodisation; the reasons behind the contemporary ‘era of commemoration’; the increasing attention paid to WWI since the 1990s ; discussion of the work of other major historians such as René Rémond and Pierre Nora. It is to be hoped that an English translation will soon be available to ensure wider access to this work. ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI University of Sydney Posted on 27/01/2013 Author Elizabeth Rechniewski Previous Previous post: After the Cold War Next Next post: Germany circa 1990. A stamp is dedicated to the 1st anniversary of the fall of the wall. A blog proposed by Hypotheses - This blog in Hypotheses catalogue - Privacy Policy Syndication Feed - Credits	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line756
__label__wiki	0.580278	0.580278	Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy Wants Out of Casper Wrongful Death Suit The Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy trained two Casper police officers, but it cannot legally be responsible for their actions when they shot and killed a man in east Casper a year ago, according to the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office. The Douglas-based academy responded to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Linda Lennen, mother of 36-year-old Douglas Oneyear, who claims the city and police department created the policies, and the academy did the training that enabled officers to shoot him after he was reported behaving erratically on Feb. 26, 2018, according to the complaint filed by Lennen's attorney Todd Hambrick of Casper. "Plaintiff alleges that the Officers in this case were plainly incompetent and knowingly violated the law when they caused Douglas Oneyear's unwarranted and excruciating physical and mental anguish and death," according to the complaint. But the academy responded that Lennen’s civil rights claim should be dismissed in part because the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars lawsuits for damages against state agencies. A state agency is not a “person” that can be sued under the civil rights act, and the academy has sovereign immunity as an educator for peace officers, according to the academy’s response. The teachers at the academy are educators, not peace officers, according to the Attorney General's Office. Even if the academy employed peace officers, they could only legally be considered such if there were on the property in Douglas, they were providing security for Wyoming officials, or while acting under an emergency. The Attorney General's Office also said Lennen erroneously lumped the academy with the City of Casper, the police department and the officers. “The Plaintiff does not explain, ‘what each defendant did to him or her; when the defendant did it; how the defendant’s actions harmed him or her; and what specific legal right the plaintiff believes the defendant violated,’” according to the response citing a previous case. The city, police department and the officers have yet to respond to Lennen's lawsuit. After the shooting, the case was turned over to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. The uninjured officers, Jonathan Schlager and Cody Meyers, were placed on administrative leave during the investigation. In April, Police Chief Keith McPheeters said officers acted lawfully and appropriately, and no charges would be filed. McPheeters also released a video of the incident. Former District Attorney Mike Blonigen said later that officers faced a "suicide by cop situation" and had no choice but to shoot Oneyear, who had mental illness and substance abuse issues. Meanwhile, Oneyear's family through Hambrick said he was carrying a toy sword and didn't pose a threat that required deadly force. Filed Under: Douglas Oneyear, federal court, Linda Lennen, Police Department, shooting, U.s. District Court, wrongful death, Wyoming Attorney General, Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy Categories: Casper News	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line758
__label__wiki	0.801146	0.801146	Mr. Dorman Says Goodbye After 34 Years Aman Hashim on 17 May, 2019 at 8:00 am (R-L) Mr. Dorman assists his freshman photography students Dylan Baker and Taylor Knowlton. Photo: Aman Hashim “Success and care,” said junior Meghan McMillin when describing photography and sculpture teacher France Dorman. “He only cares about our success and will go to extreme lengths to help us progress in our daily lives through the lens of photography.” Mr. Dorman has transformed the photography department at Pace for over thirty years, but at the end of this school year, he begins the next chapter of his life. He not only introduced ICGL trips to India every other year, but is also proud to have brought the Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) art exhibition to Pace, the largest competition of its kind. Mr. Dorman arrived at Pace in August 1985, having just finished graduate school at Georgia State University. He had been substituting for teachers at Lovett, Pace and Westminster and was soon offered the job at Pace by former headmaster George Kirkpatrick. Mr. Dorman instantly made a contribution to the school by drawing the entire floor plan to scale of the current photography and ceramics rooms. In addition, he initiated the idea of adding a traditional dark room for developing photographs in black and white. Twenty-eight years ago Mr. Dorman introduced the ACP to Pace, bringing in well-known judges and artists, “the pantheon of photography notables” according to Mr. Dorman. Mr. Dorman has a passion for collaboration and loves how the ACP brings the Atlanta schools together. “Although it is a competition with a cash reward, it is mainly to encourage young artists and that’s what I really like about the ACP,” he said. He is eager to see his students improve and excel in the art world and has a reputation for caring more for them than the prize itself. His favorite tradition at Pace Academy is the ICGL study tours he leads to Africa and India that allow students to exchange cultures while capturing images of new environments. “All of the ICGL trips are so meaningful to the students, families and to the world because of the impact they make on them and us,” explained Mr. Dorman. “You all are the young leaders who are going to inherit the world on issues of energy, climate and water on a global scale.” Junior Tanner Walton, who went on the 2018 trip to India, admired how Mr. Dorman immersed himself in the culture by collaborating with the locals. “He was so friendly and outgoing, and it opened my eyes to witnessing a new culture through the lens of photography,” said Walton. Upon retiring from Pace, Mr. Dorman will continue to be an activist in the areas of environmental conservation and politics. With a traditional and digital dark room along with a ceramics studio in his backyard, he intends to devote full time to his art, with a focus on tying it into current events. His sculptures are considered to be “new reality” or never-seen-before abstract art that is open to interpretation. He plans to be more politically active in light of the current political climate. ”I think we need to protect the environment through art,” said Mr. Dorman. “The most meaningful artworks are those that refer to the ills of society.” Pace News Senior 'Assassin Game' Arrives at Pace Lifers Share Favorite Memories	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line769
__label__wiki	0.743708	0.743708	Anti-Corruption Helpdesk Research by Topic Research by Country Maria Krambia Kapardis Maria is currently an Associate Professor of Accounting with a specialisation in Forensic Accounting, at the Cyprus University of Technology and has served as Chair of the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management as well as Associate Dean of the School of Management and Economics at the same University. For a number of years, she was a university academic in Australia. Has been Visiting Scholar at Girona University, Spain March 2012; Visiting Professor at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia December 2016; and was elected Visiting Scholar, Cambridge University 09/2017-12/2017. She is the founder and first Chair of Transparency International-Cyprus (2010-2017) as well as the founder and first president of the Economic Crime and Forensic Accounting Committee of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (2010-2014). In addition, for a number of years now, she is a member of the disciplinary body of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus. Krambia-Kapardis is a Fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia and a Certified Fraud Examiner and has served as the country expert on corruption for the European Commission. Maria has authored a number of books, articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. Her research interests include: fraud detection, investigation and prevention; anti-corruption; corporate responsibility; corporate governance; gender issues in business and ethics. Her most recent book was published in the USA in 2016 by Palgrave Macmillan and its title is Corporate Fraud and Corruption: A Holistic Approach to Preventing Financial Crises. In 2015 she was awarded two best paper awards by Emerald for her publications in the field of corruption. Finally, Maria is on the editorial board of a number of peer-reviewed journals, has been the examiner of a number of PhDs and in 2017 she was commissioned by the Cyprus Ministry of Justice and Public Order to prepare a Report on Anti-Corruption Agencies. She has been the local coordinator for a number of EU Funded Projects and in 2017 the Gold Business Magazine named her one of the 100 most powerful and influential women in Cyprus. https://mariakrambiakapardis.wordpress.com Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Guyana, with reference to natural resource sectors reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degredation Behaviour changing campaigns: success and failure factors behaviour changing campaigns Bhutan: Overview of Corruption and Anti-Corruption CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: Overview of political corruption asset disclosure political party financing Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Professional Title Associate Professor of Accounting Country - by - country reporting Corporate ethics & compliance Audit and oversight Fraud detection and prevention, corruption and anti-corruption, anti-corruption agencies, CSR, Governance, Business Ethics, Gender in Business Michael Johnston Attiya Waris K. Chad Clay Florian Schatz Andrea Bonime-Blanc Visit Transparency International The Anti-Corruption Knowledge Hub is operated by Transparency International and funded by the European Union. Neither the Knowledge Hub nor content hosted on it should not be considered as representative of the Commission or Transparency International’s official position. Neither the European Commission, Transparency International nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. Privacy – Terms – Impressum – Note about browsers and our site Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0 © 2019 Transparency International – Some rights reserved Responsive versions of the site in progress.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line770
__label__wiki	0.728225	0.728225	Kahana, Jacob ben Abraham Category » Biography Actors and Comedians Medal of Freedom Recipients Musicians and Singers Nobel Prize Laureates Producers/Directors/Screenwriters U.S. Members of Congress Religious Figures Top 50 American Jews KAHANA, JACOB BEN ABRAHAM (d. 1826), rabbinical scholar in Vilna. His father was rabbi at Brestowitz in the province of Grodno. Supported by his father-in-law, Issachar Baer, the brother of Elijah of Vilna and one of the prominent rabbis of that town, he devoted himself to study. On the death of his father-in-law, he was appointed by the communal leaders of Vilna as trustee of the local charities. He is the author of a commentary in three parts on tractate Eruvin: on the tractate in the Babylonian Talmud, the Tosefta, and the Jerusalem Talmud respectively. Each section has a different title but the whole work was given the general title Ge'on Ya'akov. It was published, together with Joseph Padua's two-page pamphlet Zikhron Yosef (1863), by Raphael Nathan Neta Rabbinovicz, who wrote a lengthy introduction containing a biography of the author. Kahana occupied no rabbinical position, but was held in the highest esteem. R.N.N. Rabbinovicz, in: J. Kahana, Ge'on Ya'akov (1863), introd.; S.J. Fuenn, Kiryah Ne'emanah (19152), 239f.; L. Ginzberg, Perushim ve-Ḥiddushim ba-Yerushalmi, 1 (1941), 1x (Eng. introd.), 128f. (Heb. introd.).	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line773
__label__wiki	0.630836	0.630836	home » JIS News » OPM Minister McNeill Expresses Regret at Minister Roger Clarke’s Passing Written by: Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment Photo: JIS Photographer The Honourable Roger Clarke is Dead Sir Howard Laid to Rest Jamaicans Urged to Cultivate Spirit of Optimism Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, the Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill has expressed deep regret at news of the passing of his colleague, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Hon. Roger Clarke. Minister McNeill, described the late Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries as “a giant of a man with a giant personality.” Minister McNeill added that “he was blessed with a unique sense of humour and was always able to lighten even the saddest of moments.” In extending sincere condolences to Mr. Clarke’s family, colleagues and friends, Minister McNeill, described the late Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries as “a giant of a man with a giant personality.” Minister McNeill added that “he was blessed with a unique sense of humour and was always able to lighten even the saddest of moments.” Minister McNeill outlined that “Roger was my colleague Member of Parliament (MP) in Westmoreland along with the Hon. Luther Buchanan, and over the years we worked assiduously together in developing the parish and improving the welfare of the people.” Minister McNeill described Mr. Clarke as an excellent Minister of Agriculture who was quite suited for the role, seeing he was one of Jamaica’s largest farmers. “In recent years we had been working hand in hand to strengthen the linkages between tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, entertainment and other key sectors through the Tourism Linkages Hub, which is housed in my ministry,” he expressed. Minister McNeill also emphasized that Minister Clarke has made a significant contribution to the development of Jamaica, both at the local level in Westmoreland as MP and at the national level, as a Cabinet Minister and one of Jamaica’s longest serving parliamentarians. “He was a friend and a colleague who will be missed immensely. On behalf of the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, I wish to express my profound sadness at the passing of this outstanding public servant,” said Minister McNeill.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line775
__label__cc	0.733552	0.266448	← Libraricating ‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson → ‘The Silkworm’ by Robert Galbraith J.K. Rowling has a sense of humour. After it became public that Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym for her new crime novel series, she came to the Theakston’s Crime Writing Festival dressed in a suit and tie! Rowling has implied that the new series which started with ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’, will go the distance as long or longer than the Harry Potter series, with at least six or seven instalments. This second in the series was, in my opinion, way better than the first, so I think she is finding her stride in this genre, and with the characters of Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin. Although I don’t think this series holds any of the genius that she displayed with Harry Potter, I am looking forward to what is coming next. The series definitely now ‘has legs’, a pun in poor taste if you know that the protagonist is a war veteran with a debilitating injury. ‘The Silkworm’ is set in the literary world of authors and publishers and editors, perhaps because the author knows the publishing industry. When Owen Quine goes missing after writing a despicable controversial book, his wife calls Cormoran Strike to investigate. Quine has gone off before, but when it becomes clear that there are several people who are angry about the poisonous portraits he has written into the new book, and when his body is discovered in brutally bizarre circumstances, the investigator realizes there might be several people who wanted Quine silenced. I love how Cormoran gathers all of the suspects into one room near the end and flushes out the culprit – reminds me of the old classic whodunits. Cormoran as a character, in my mind’s eye, kind of reminds me of a younger, more handsome version of Fitz from Cracker (Robbie Coltrane). Robert Galbraith even has his own website! (Robert Galbraith Website) I especially enjoyed the FAQs there. This entry was posted in Fiction and tagged J.K. Rowling, Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line777
__label__cc	0.594883	0.405117	Kentucky Grants For NonProfit Support Services: 76 Non-Profit Support Services Grants for Kentucky. Grants For NonProfit Support Services for board of directors' management, financial accountability and to strengthen community resources, encourage volunteerism and community services. Page 1 of 2 2 of 2 Grants to USA Nonprofits Supporting Wildlife Sanctuaries to Enhance Organizational Effective... Grants ranging from $1,500 to $15,000 to USA nonprofits supporting wildlife sanctuaries or refuges, to enhance the effectiveness of the organizations. Funding is intended to aid organizations in strengthening their expertise to develop and execute projects, expand and increase their capacity and skills, gain and build comm... Grants to USA and Canada Designers and Agencies to Develop a Publicity Campaign with a Nonpr... Grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to USA and Canada designers and design agencies to partner with a nonprofit to develop a publicity campaign. Recipient organizations will implement campaigns that effectively communicate the needs and concerns of the community they serve. At least a portion of the grant must be used fo... Grants to USA Nonprofits to Present Outdoor Music Concert Series in Small and Mid-Sized Town... Grants of $25,000 to USA and territories nonprofit organizations to present free, professional music concert series that are open to the public and that take place in small to mid-sized towns and cities. The public spaces in which the concerts are to take place must be outdoors, easily accessible to a wide range of socioec... In-Kind Services, Fundraising Opportunities, and Cash Prizes to USA, Canada, and Internationa... In-kind services, fundraising opportunities, and cash prizes of up to $3,000 to USA, Canada, and International nonprofit organizations to increase fundraising capacity. Matching concessions for organization donors and additional prizes for successful participants will also be provided. The GlobalGiving Accelerator is a... Grants and In-Kind Support to USA Nonprofits, Municipalities, For-Profits, and Universities ... Grants of up to $5,000 and in-kind support to USA nonprofits, universities, municipalities, and for-profits for programs that provide adult swimming lessons. The purpose of the program is to serve as an educational and financial resource for adult learn-to-swim programs. If awarded a grant, USMS will promote the progra... In-Kind Grants of Marketing and Branding Services to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofi... In-kind services to USA, Canada, and International nonprofit organizations for branding development, marketing strategies, website design, and creative services. The goal of the program is to help charitable organizations strengthen their marketing and branding efforts through: - Brand assessment and development - Ide... In-Kind Grants to Kentucky Visual and Craft Artists for Marketing and Business Training In-kind grants of business training and marketing assistance to Kentucky visual and craft artists who create original work. Selected artists will be eligible to be included in an online craft directory, exhibit at a State craft fair, receive introductions to business opportunities and referrals to galleries and buyers, and... Fellowship to a USA Undergraduate or Graduate Student of Color to Work in the Nonprofit Sect... Fellowship to a USA undergraduate or graduate student from an underrepresented community of color seeking to gain experience in the philanthropy, nonprofit, and social enterprise sector. The fellow will work part-time at the Funding Source’s Washington, DC office and participate in the Philanthropy and Social Innovation ... Grants to USA Nonprofits for Projects and Educational Programs to Promote Environmental Activ... Grants to USA nonprofit organizations for innovative projects to educate and inspire individuals, communities, and organizations to engage in environmental activism. Funding is intended for pilot, model, and demonstration projects that seek to change attitudes and behaviors about environmental issues. The Foundation par... Grants to USA Nonprofits and Agencies to Promote Safe ATV Riding and Access Grants of up to $10,000 to USA nonprofit organizations and government agencies to ensure the future of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riding. Funding is available to local, state, and national organizations working to preserve trail access and promote safe and responsible riding. Organizations can apply for either monetary gran... In-Kind Grants of Consulting Services to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits and Other ... In-kind grants of consultation services to USA, Canada, and International nonprofits and organizations owned by women, veterans, and minorities for organizational support. Services include web design and development, marketing and branding, and operations consulting. Available Services: - Branding: Your brand image sh... Grants and In-Kind Grants to USA Nonprofits for Technology-Driven Projects Grants and in-kind support to USA nonprofit organizations for projects that use technology to address the world's most critical challenges. Funding is intended to support nonprofits that work toward technology-driven goals and to empower nonprofits to prioritize the utilization of technology as a mission-critical component... In-Kind Grants to USA, Canada, and International K-12 Schools and IHEs to Implement Safety Te... In-kind grants valued at $30,000 to USA, Canada, and International K-12 schools and institutions of higher education to implement safety technology to ensure that students and others on campus receive immediate emergency assistance. Funding is intended for licensing and implementation costs. Specifically, the campus saf... In-Kind Grants to USA Nonprofits, Agencies, and Schools to Build Soccer Fields for Children ... In-kind grants of up to $50,000 to USA nonprofit organizations, agencies, schools, and churches to build soccer fields in underserved communities. Applicants must submit a letter of intent prior to submitting a full application. Funding is intended to help cover the costs associated with lighting, irrigation, construction,... Grants and In-Kind Donations to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits for Music Educatio... Grants averaging $2,500 and in-kind product donations to USA, Canada, and International nonprofits for programs that provide music education in schools and local communities. New applicants must submit a letter of inquiry prior to applying. Funding is intended to improve access to music instruction and to give children gre... In-Kind Donations of Computers to USA Nonprofits to Improve Organizational Management and Ca... In-kind donations of up to 20 computers to USA nonprofit organizations to expand their capacity to address the needs of underserved populations. Donations are intended to help organizations improve their ability to provide services such as education, job training, technology training, and health care. An InterConnectio... In-Kind Grants to USA Public and Tribal Libraries in Rural Areas for New Children's Books In-kind grants valued at $400 to $800 to USA public libraries and tribal libraries in rural areas to acquire brand new, high quality, hardcover children's books. Recipients will be able to choose which books are best suited for their community from a list of over 500 books, including award-winning and star-reviewed titles ... In-Kind Grants of Cloud Resources to USA, Canada, and International Individuals in Nonprofits... In-kind grants of cloud computing resources to USA, Canada, and International individuals affiliated with a nonprofit, IHE, government entity, or company for projects that promote environmental sustainability. Funding is intended for projects that align with at least one of four areas of interest: agriculture, climate chan... Grants to USA Nonprofits, Law Firms, and Attorneys to Promote Human Rights and Economic Just... Grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to USA small law firms, private attorneys, and nonprofits providing legal services to strengthen justice in the areas of poverty law, environmental justice, and civil and human rights. Applicants must submit a letter of intent prior to submitting a full application. Areas of focus ... Grant to a USA, Canada, or International Filmmaker for a Unique Film Project Grant and in-kind services to a USA, Canada, and International filmmaker to support a unique film project that contributes to society. Funding is intended to support a film that may not otherwise be completed without the help of the grant. Eligible projects include feature-length films, short films, web or television serie... Grants to USA Nonprofits for Environmental, Arts, Educational, and Health Programs Grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 to USA nonprofit organizations to support schools; museums, performing arts and cultural programs; hospitals; skills training; educational programs; programming for youth, seniors, and people who are handicapped; environmental and wildlife protection activities; and other programs that... In-Kind Grants of Technical Assistance to Kentucky Arts Organizations, Groups, and Artists In-kind grants of technical assistance valued at $400 to Kentucky community groups, arts organizations, and qualifying individual artists for arts-related activities. The grant will cover a six-hour consultation for assistance with activities such as marketing, fundraising, and financial management, board and staff develop... In-Kind Grants to USA Nonprofits and Agencies for Facility Improvements that Enhance Public ... In-kind grants valued up to $5,000 to USA nonprofit organizations and public agencies for capital improvements that will enhance the public health of local communities. The primary goal is to provide funding and volunteer opportunities to support the renovation, retrofitting, refurbishment, accessibility modifications, and... Award to a USA or Canada Library Organization in Recognition of a Strong Staff Development P... Award of $3,500 to a USA or Canada library that demonstrates the greatest merit for a program of staff development designed to further the goals and objectives of the library organization. For the purpose of this grant program, a library organization is defined as any of the following: - Individual library; - Library s... Fundraising and Publicity Opportunity for USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits to Host ... Deadline Ongoing Fundraising opportunity for USA, Canada, and International nonprofit organizations to host a jazz concert held in honor of their organization or cause. Applicants must contact the funding source prior to applying. In addition to funds raised through concert ticket sales, recipient organizations will benefit from the opport... Donations & Sponsorships to USA Nonprofits & For-Profits for Education, Literacy, and the Ar... Donations to USA nonprofit organizations for programming support for arts, pre-K-12 education, and literacy programs across the country. In addition, sponsorship opportunities are provided to USA for-profit and nonprofit organizations focusing on literacy, the arts, and higher learning. A suitable sponsorship is one tha... In-Kind Donations of Surplus Property to USA Nonprofits and Local Governments In-kind donations to USA and territories nonprofit organizations and local government agencies that are interested in receiving surplus property no longer needed by the federal government. This program distributes property of all types, with the exception of federal government records, certain naval vessels, and land and o... Grants and In-Kind Services to USA Nonprofits for Programs that Promote Safety Grants of up to $1,000 and In-kind support to USA nonprofit organizations to promote safety in a broad range of areas. The Foundation supports programs in the areas of child abuse prevention, aquatic safety, employee safety, facility safety, emotional safety, transportation safety, and other data-driven safety efforts. ... Grants to USA Grassroots Organizations to Promote Social and Environmental Justice Grants to USA grassroots organizations working to promote environmental justice and social change. This program supports organizations seeking to further their mission through collaboration and networking with other grassroots organizations. Priority will be given to small, community-based groups seeking to meet face-to-fa... Grants and In-Kind Support to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits in Eligible Regions ... Grants and in-kind support to USA, Canada, and International nonprofits for programs that will benefit the communities in which the funding source does business. Funding may be awarded for capital campaigns, disaster relief, memorial funds for associates or family members, and customer and vendor requests. Eligible communi... In-Kind Donations to USA Nonprofits to CoverTransportation Costs In-kind donations to USA nonprofit organizations for transportation costs related to organizational fundraising. The Foundation seeks to support nonprofits serving the communities in which its customers and employees live and work. Funding consists of donations of complimentary, roundtrip travel to approved organizations f... Grants and Consulting Services to USA Communities and IHEs for the Construction or Repair of... Grants and in-kind consulting services to USA communities, organizations, and IHEs to construct, improve, or upgrade tennis facilities. Eligible facility improvements include: repairs of court amenities, painting lines, resurfacing, tennis court construction, lighting, and installation of new technology. The USTA Facil... In-Kind Grants to USA School Districts for the Installation of AV Technology In-kind grants to USA school districts for the installation of advanced AV technology solutions in classrooms. Funding is intended to promote the expansion and increased visibility of AV technology in order to evaluate these technologies and define standards for AV systems. The following grant programs are available: ... In-Kind Grants of Sports Equipment to USA Schools to Develop Fitness, Coordination, and Moto... In-kind grants of sports equipment to USA schools to provide students with a fun and unique sports experience that promotes the development of motor skills, fitness, sequencing, patterning, concentration, and focus, as well as ambidexterity and hand-eye coordination. The grant consists of a 30-set Speed Stacks Sport Pa... Grants to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits and For-Profits for Social Change Projects Grants to USA, Canada, and International social change organizations (including nonprofits and for-profits) that are in the early stages of their development for programs and projects that address important social issues at the national or global level. Funding is intended to support efforts that aim to improve the lives o... Grants to Kansas City Area Nonprofits for Education and Civic Engagement and to USA Nonprofit... Grants to Kansas and Missouri nonprofit organizations for programs and projects that focus on education and/or benefiting Kansas City area residents through civic engagement. Grants are also made to USA nonprofits across the country for entrepreneurship programs and activities. Through these grants, the Foundation int... Grants to USA Nonprofits for Progress Measurement, Animal Advocacy, and Independent Media Grants to USA nonprofit organizations for projects that seek to build a more sustainable, just, and humane world. Specific funding areas include measuring human progress, animal advocacy, and independent media. Though the Foundation currently supports projects in Global HIV/AIDS, it is not currently accepting any other AID... Grants to USA and Canada Nonprofits in Eligible Cities for Community Services, Financial Lit... Grants to USA and Canada nonprofits, educational institutions, and cultural organizations in eligible cities for community and social services, culture and history, financial literacy, and education. Applications are accepted from metropolitan areas around the funding source's employee sites, including Albuquerque, NM; Bos... Grants to USA Nonprofits to Support Organizational Fundraising Events Grants to USA nonprofit organizations for fundraising event support. Funding is intended to support organizations that enhance the lives of local residents through programs in the arts, education, and women's, men's, and children's health issues. Proposals can come from both local and national nonprofits. In-kind Grants of Children's Toys and Products to USA Nonprofits, Schools, and Organizations In-kind grants of children's toys and products to USA nonprofits, schools, faith-based, and newly developed organizations. Funding is intended to provide nonprofits with necessary supplies to achieve their mission and help local children (ages 3-12 preferred). Nonprofits may apply to receive donations such as toys, diapers... Grants to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits for Education, Economic Empowerment, and ... Grants of up to $75,000 USA, Canada, and International nonprofit organizations to identify and develop innovative solutions to socioeconomic challenges in underserved communities. Funding areas include education, economic empowerment, and basic human needs. Evaluation criteria include: - Addresses a Significant Socia... In-Kind Grants of Technology and Organizational Support for USA, Canada, and International N... In-kind grants of technology support to USA, Canada, and International nonprofit organizations to promote products and services and raise the organization's online profile. Eligible organizations may come from over 50 countries that are registered for the program. See Additional Eligibility Information below for details. ... Grants and Donations to USA, Canada, and International Nonprofits for Education and Marine Co... Grants and in-kind donations to USA, Canada, and International nonprofit organizations for programs and services that focus on the areas of education and marine conservation. Funding will be provided in the form of cash grants or as in-kind cruise donations to to be used for fundraising purposes. In-Kind Grants to USA and Mexico City Nonprofits, Schools, and Municipalities to Create Outs... In-kind grants to USA and Mexico City nonprofit organizations, schools, and municipalities to design and build playgrounds and play areas for children. The funding source will facilitate and assist organizations in planning and building a safe, customized play space to meet community needs. Projects may involve landscaping... In-Kind Donations to USA and Canada Nonprofits, Religious Organizations, and Schools to Bene... In-kind donations of promotional products valued at $500 to USA and Canada nonprofit organizations, accredited schools, and registered charities. Funds are intended to improve the quality of life of those in need. The promotional items may be used to recruit volunteers, raise awareness, thank donors, or to offer comfort to... In-Kind Grants of Books to USA Nonprofits that Serve Low-Income or Underserved Children In-kind grants of books to USA nonprofit organizations that assist underserved or low-income children. This program is intended to provide books to organizations in need of a small library, or that need to add to or rebuild a library. Books may also be presented to children to take home. In-Kind Book Donations to USA Title 1 Schools, Teachers, and After-School Programs with Low-... In-kind book donations to USA Title 1 schools and Title 1 school teachers, as well as other schools and after-school programs with low-income students. Through this program, schools are awarded children's books and related educational resources that help get encourage underserved children across the country to read. Th... Grants to USA and Territories Nonprofits for Community, Education, and Environment Programs ... Grants to USA and territories nonprofit organizations for programs that provide services to low or middle-income individuals in the areas of community, education, and environment. Priority is given to nonprofits serving communities in which the funding source has a strong presence. Focus areas for funding are: Commun... Grants and In-Kind Support to USA Nonprofits for Technology and Expertise Grants and in-kind support to USA nonprofit organizations for innovative ideas that will benefit local communities. Funds are intended to help facilitate increased access to information technology, capital, and professional expertise needed to effect change in the community. Funding Priorities The Firespring Foundati...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line781
__label__wiki	0.501267	0.501267	Vegas Play of the Day: Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts Indianapolis Colts outside linebacker Jabaal Sheard (93) causes Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage (3) to fumble the ball during the half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017, in Houston. Houston recovered the ball. By Case Keefer (contact) Monday, Aug. 20, 2018 \| 1:53 p.m. The fifth season of the annual Play of the Day betting competition between the Sun’s sports staff is now under way, effective July 1. Bankrolls start at $10,000 for each of the four participants, with the objective to increase it as much as possible over the next year. The minimum daily wager is $300, with a $200 penalty assessed for failing to place a bet on an assigned day. Past winners are Case Keefer in 2017-2018, Ray Brewer in 2016-2017 and 2015-2016, and Taylor Bern in 2014-2015. Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts Under 43 points: $440 to win $400 It’s Monday Night Football, and for at least this week, the betting public is living up to its classic reputation. Gamblers are taking the favorite — the Ravens at minus-1.5 — and the over. They’ve only bet enough to move the number on the total, though. And that’s why there might be value in going under. A few years ago, it was rare to ever see a total as high as 43 points in a preseason game, which are typically far lower-scoring than the regular season. Maybe it’s an old-time bias influencing my pick, but it’s hard to believe the new Colts and the old Colts will light up the scoreboard once they start mass substitutions in the second quarter to let positional battles commence. Neither Baltimore nor Indianapolis saw the total go over 43 points in their first preseason game. Look for defense to dominate most of the game — in classic preseason fashion. Current Standings: Keefer (6-3, $10,908), Grimala 6-2, $10,800), Granger (4-0, $10,455), Brewer (3-4, $8,440) Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line785
__label__wiki	0.586436	0.586436	Tag Archives: technology ventures Cracking the Technion’s code Posted on May 5, 2013 by Laura Rosbrow I just published an in-depth article in The Jerusalem Post Metro section, titled “Cracking the Technion’s Code,” about why the Technion was ranked sixth in the world in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology survey that evaluated entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education institutions. For anyone interested in understanding the start-up nature of Israel, this article provides a number of insights. Technion’s impact on the Israeli economy is pretty expansive: for example, two-thirds of the 72 Israeli companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange either were founded or are led by Technion graduates. If you want to learn how Technion graduates have become so successful, you can see the full (non-pay-walled) article below. As always, I’d love your comments and suggestions. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ With a degree for start-ups and a minor in entrepreneurship on offer, the university is in the business of encouraging innovations. By LAURA ROSBROW Photo by: LAURA ROSBROW In an attempt to understand the impact of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, the authors of the 2012 book Technion Nation: Technion’s Contribution to Israel and the World asked graduates of the institution a survey question that verged on the poetic: “Ernest Hemingway once wrote an entire story in only six words. It was ‘Baby shoes. Never used. For sale.’ Please describe your contribution to Israel and to humanity, in six words.” Many responses touched on the diversity of Technion graduates’ technological accomplishments: “Provide poor countries with appropriate technology… Developed Intel’s 8087 microprocessor… Simulation software for unmanned drone aircraft.” But one of the best and most straightforward answers was the following: “I came, I studied, I’m rich.” The entrepreneurial spirit is so strong at the Technion that even MIT has noticed. In early April, the Technion ranked sixth in the world in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology survey that evaluated entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education institutions. The only universities that beat the Technion were MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, London’s Imperial College, and Oxford – meaning that the Technion scored higher than Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, all of which have top-ranked business programs. The Technion probably received this ranking in part because of its new partnership with New York’s Cornell University. In late 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a first-time bid to universities around the world to launch an applied sciences graduate school in his city. The Technion partnered with Cornell, and both won the competition. Now Cornell Tech, which is in and of itself an innovation at the university level, will start offering limited programming this fall. The Roosevelt Island campus where Cornell Tech will be based is expected to launch fully in 2017, serving approximately 2,500 graduate students. Aside from that partnership, though, the Technion’s numbers speak for themselves: Two-thirds of the 72 Israeli companies listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange either were founded or are led by Technion graduates; graduates of the institute lead nine out of the country’s 10 leading exporting companies; and one quarter of the Technion’s 67,000 alumni have at one time initiated a business. Technion graduates largely drive the annual output of the country’s electronics and software industry, which is approximately $20 billion – half of the country’s total annual exports. A glass window at the Faculty of Computer Science reads “I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.” Long before Israel’s independence in 1948, graduates of the school – which was founded in 1912 – were helping to build the state. They developed much of the industry in the country’s early days, including roads, highways and desalination plants. More recently, they created technologies such as text messaging, drip irrigation, the disk on key, and the Arrow defense system. In the last eight years, three Technion faculty members have won Nobel Prizes. While the Technion has greatly contributed to Israel’s becoming a “start-up nation,” the school is also a product of Israeli culture. According to Prof. Miriam Erez, the associate dean of the Technion’s MBA programs and a recipient of the 2005 Israel Prize in management science, “entrepreneurial spirit is very Israeli. Israeli culture has all the ingredients necessary for entrepreneurship and innovation.” Photo of Professor Miriam Erez Erez – an organizational psychologist – is the Israeli coinvestigator of the GLOBE Study of Leadership, an international group of social scientists and management scholars from 62 countries that studies cross-cultural leadership. Out of the values that the study compares, she says, Israel ranks well in those pertaining to entrepreneurship and innovation. Significantly, though, it has a moderate ranking in the most important value, collectivism versus individualism. “The common research says that individualism enhances innovation, and collectivism discourages innovation,” she explains. “Israel is in between – not very individualistic, but also not very collectivistic. I think in today’s global culture, because entrepreneurship is to a large extent based on your network, if you’re a pure individualist, what is the likelihood that you’ll get support for your project, even if you have great ideas? I personally think this moderate level is best, which is exactly what we found here.” This conclusion helps affirm why collective Israeli experiences, such as the army and university, foster local entrepreneurs’ networks. Along with strong communities, the Israelis’ individualist side plays out in a value called “power distance,” in which Israel ranks very low. Erez explains that power distance is about hierarchy in society, such as the power distance between managers and employees. In cultures where that distance is higher, employees do not feel they can express their opinions. That is not the case in Israel. “People feel very comfortable criticizing their own bosses,” she says, noting that although it can be difficult to manage these kinds of employees, “this is exactly what you need for entrepreneurship and innovation. [You need] people who feel free to express their own ideas and criticize until they find the best solution.” Sitting in Erez’s office, one can tell that she nurtures her relationships. Near one of her large windows sits a 30-by-90-cm. paper tree, with the photos of several young people adorning the ends of each white branch. When asked about the tree, she smiles and says her students made it for her last year. OVER THE years, she has maintained good contact not only with students, but also with industry professionals. Her interest in creativity and innovation led her to found the Knowledge Center for Innovation, which aims to enhance innovation in Israeli industry. One of those contacts was Uzi de Haan. Both were PhD students at the Technion at the same time. While Erez went into academia, de Haan went into industry, having been trained as an aeronautical engineer. In his last position, he was the CEO of Philips in Israel, which grew to $350 million in revenues under his management. When he retired from Philips at a relatively young age in 2003, Erez saw it as an opportunity and invited him to become a professor at the Technion. He accepted, wanting to teach entrepreneurship. Photo of Professor Uzi de Haan In 2004, he helped start the institute’s first entrepreneurship center. The Bronica Entrepreneurship Center, which began with only one course, now offers 17. In the fall, Technion students will be able to select an entrepreneurship minor. The Technion also offers an international MBA program in English, with a similar program focused specifically on start-ups beginning this fall. Alongside courses, the center offers assistance to early-stage entrepreneurs in developing business ideas, including to Technion alumni. According to Keren Rubin, the center’s director, “in the last six years, the center has assisted in establishing more than 40 companies. We help them in the very early stage with the transition to the ecosystem.” Although the center is of a modest size, with a handful of employee desks and a small conference table, it feels well-placed to grow. The office is located on the top floor of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management. From one of its many windows, there is a bird’s-eye view of the modern, blue-and-beige-paneled Technion, and the industrial yet beautiful Haifa Bay at the bottom of the hill. Asked why he thinks the Technion received the No. 6 ranking from MIT, de Haan answers, “We’re very much part of the ecosystem. Half of Intel’s engineers [in Israel] are Technion graduates. All those guys in tech companies are Technion graduates. We’re like a main supplier for engineers and innovation in Israel.” It is no coincidence that Google, Yahoo, Apple, IBM and Intel have offices in Haifa. They did this largely so they could recruit graduates from the Technion. Many students at the institute also work in industry while they study, applying what they learn in the field to their studies and vice versa. Photo of Technion courtyard Tal Goldman, an undergraduate student in computer science, works at the Technion’s Student Union. He says he gains skills in this position that he would not gain in hi-tech – though he is sure his grade point average would be higher if he did not need to work. In contrast, Tehila Sabag, an industrial engineering student who works for the Bronica Center, asserts that her studies “were not hurt because of my work. On the contrary, I think that because of my work experience, I am now a better industrial engineer and manager with more of a business perspective, rather than just an engineering one.” She also values taking entrepreneurship courses, such as a popular one that Nobel Prize winner Dan Shechtman offers. “The entrepreneurial activity that takes place here is the flagship of the Technion,” she says. Goldman, too, sees such activity as a major part of the school’s efforts. “I see the Technion’s investment in entrepreneurship all the time,” he says. “There are advertisements everywhere, such as in emails, posters, and from lecturers, to take part in entrepreneurial projects.” THIS DEEP-ROOTED relationship between the Technion and industry is part of what makes the Bronica Center’s BizTEC competition so successful. Now in its eighth year, the student-run BizTEC is a national competition that selects the best student-led technology-based ventures. Winning the competition opens doors for many to connect with venture capitalists and interested funders from the center’s network of professionals. Life Bond, one of BizTEC’s early winners, created biological sealants to seal bleeding tissue instantly. It has raised over $30 million. More recently a start-up called Pixtr, which automatically corrects photos taken by mobile phones so that they look professional, accomplished several impressive early-stage goals thanks to the Bronica Center. In a select meeting between the center’s top start-up ventures and top industry mentors, a fairy-tale match was made: Uri Levine, the founder of Waze – which was voted Best Overall Mobile App in the Global Mobile Awards Competition in February – decided to become Pixtr’s mentor and chairman. He and the center helped Pixtr join Microsoft’s Azure Accelerator Program, which is aimed at early-stage start-ups. As part of the program, Microsoft provides office space, training, mentoring and other benefits. “The most important thing about the center is the people,” says 30-year-old Pixtr cofounder Aviv Gadot, explaining what he feels has made the center a success. “Uzi has so much experience and a great reputation within the industry, and Keren could move mountains. They are an amazing team.” But for all the center’s success stories, there are many more start-ups that fail. Rubin asserts that the chances are “90% against you when you start.” Still, asked if he thinks the start-up bubble has burst, as some leaders are saying, in light of the current budget deficit, de Haan quickly replies in the negative. “Technology and economic growth are synonymous,” he says. “There’s an exponential growth in new technologies. There’s no way big companies want to take on these new technologies. You need more and more start-ups to do this first innovation. Big companies don’t want to take the risk. They feel, ‘Why not outsource these crazy innovations to start-ups, and if they don’t fail, we’ll buy them.’” The problem, he notes, is how to fund those start-ups. “But there are new mechanisms – crowd-sourcing, boutiques, venture capital, etc. There are ways to do it.” Posted in Cultural, Published \| Tagged applications, Aviv Gadot, BizTEC, Bronica Entrepreneurship Center, Cornell Tech, entrepreneurship, innovation, Keren Rubin, Knowledge Center for Innovation, Life Bond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Miriam Erez, MIT, Pixtr, science, start-up nation, start-ups, Tal Goldman, Technion, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, technology, technology ventures, Tehila Sabag, The Jerusalem Post, Uri Levine, Uzi de Haan, Waze \| 1 Reply	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line787
__label__wiki	0.577108	0.577108	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Seventh Circuit › 1985 › Zellmer Fromm and Marilyn Tucker, Individually and on Behalfof All Those Similarly Situated, Plainti... Receive free daily summaries of new opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Zellmer Fromm and Marilyn Tucker, Individually and on Behalfof All Those Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs-appellants, v. Edward J. Rosewell, Treasurer and Ex Officio Countycollector of Cook County, Illinois; Thomas C. Hynes,assessor of Cook County, Illinois; Harry H. Semrow Andpatrick Quinn, Commissioners of Board of (tax) Appeals Ofcook County, Illinois; Richard M. Daley, State's Attorneyof Cook County, Illinois; the County of Cook, a Bodycorporate and Politic; and Robert J. Dempsey, Judge of Thecircuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Defendants-appellees, 771 F.2d 1089 (7th Cir. 1985) U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit - 771 F.2d 1089 (7th Cir. 1985) Argued June 5, 1985. Decided Aug. 29, 1985. As Amended Sept. 3, 1985 James A. Rooney, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellants. Robert J. Tonos, Mark R. Davis, Patricia Rosen, Office of Atty. Gen., Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellees. Before COFFEY and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and WRIGHT* , Senior Circuit Judge. EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Senior Circuit Judge. Property owners in Cook County, Illinois sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for alleged deprivations of procedural due process rights by county officials who determined plaintiffs' liability for 1980 real estate taxes. They sought a declaratory judgment, damages, and injunctive relief. The district court dismissed their complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. We affirm the dismissal. FACTS AND STATUTORY FRAMEWORK Under Illinois law, there are two procedures for challenging Cook County tax assessments: (1) the "taxpayer objection" procedure, and (2) the "certificate of error" procedure. Under the first, plaintiffs may challenge their assessments by filing a complaint with the Board of Appeals (Board). Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 120, Sec. 598. The Board's two commissioners have four-year terms. Id. at Sec. 492. Their function is to review taxpayer complaints. See generally People ex rel. Thomas v. Nixon, 353 Ill. 556, 187 N.E. 650 (1933) (tracing legislative history of the Cook County Board of Appeals). The taxpayer is entitled to notice of the Board's hearing and an opportunity to be hearD. Ill. Rev.Stat. ch. 120, Sec. 599. Judicial review of the Board's actions is available in the state courts but the taxpayer must first pay the entire tax under protest. Id. at Sec. 675. Then he must file objections to the collector's Application for Judgment and order of sale attacking the assessment. Id. at Sec. 716. The plaintiff may raise constitutional challenges to the assessment in his objection. Rosewell v. LaSalle National Bank, 450 U.S. 503, 514, 101 S. Ct. 1221, 1229, 67 L. Ed. 2d 464 (1981). The "certificate of error" procedure provides an alternate method of challenging taxes. See Chicago Sheraton Corp. v. Zaban, 71 Ill. 2d 85, 15 Ill.Dec. 634, 373 N.E.2d 1318, 1321, appeal dismissed, 439 U.S. 888, 99 S. Ct. 602, 58 L. Ed. 2d 672 (1978). This procedure provides: In counties containing 1,000,000 or more inhabitants, if, at any time before judgment is rendered in any proceeding to collect or to enjoin the collection of taxes based upon any assessment of any property belonging to any person or corporation, the county assessor shall discover an error or mistake in such assessment, such assessor shall execute a certificate setting forth the nature of such error, and the cause or causes which operated to produce it. The certificate when endorsed by the board of appeals showing its concurrence therein, and not otherwise, may be received in evidence in any court of competent jurisdiction, and when so introduced in evidence such certificate shall become a part of the court records, and shall not be removed from the files except upon the order of the court. A certificate executed pursuant to this Section may be issued to the person erroneously assessed or may be presented by the assessor to the court as an objection in the application for judgment and order of sale for the year in relation to which the certificate is made. Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 120, Sec. 604. Fromm and Tucker first challenged their 1980 assessment by filing a complaint with the Board alleging the assessed value of their property was too high. The Board refused to lower the assessment. Tax collector Rosewell issued 1980 tax bills of $21,043.98 based on the assessed value of $123,272. Plaintiffs paid the first installment in full. Upon receiving the second installment bill, they asked tax assessor Hynes to execute a certificate of error. Hynes reduced the assessment to $99,000 and recalculated their tax bill. He informed plaintiffs that they needed to pay only the reduced amount and could disregard notices advising them of the unpaid balance "until the matter is resolved in court." He also told them, however, that the certificate of error did not assure a favorable determination and was only a recommendation to the Circuit Court. At this point, they could have followed the tax objection procedure by paying the full amount of the original second bill under protest, thus preserving their right to contest the assessment in court. Instead, they paid only the reduced amount in reliance upon the certificate of error. After two years, Hynes forwarded the executed certificate to the defendant Commissioners Semrow and Quinn for their endorsements. Quinn refused to endorse the certificate. Appellants received no notice of his refusal. Because plaintiffs had not paid their initial 1980 assessment in full, the collector proceeded to file an Application for Judgment and order of sale with the Circuit Court. Plaintiffs were not entitled to file any objections to the collector's action because they had not paid the full amount of taxes under protest, a necessary prerequisite. Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 120, Sec. 716. In February 1984, State's Attorney Daley presented the non-endorsed certificate of error to defendant Circuit Court Judge Dempsey as an objection, pursuant to Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 120, Sec. 604. Judge Dempsey refused to admit the certificate into evidence because it had not been endorsed by the Board. See id. Because there were no valid objections to the collector's Application for Judgment, he entered judgment against the property for the unpaid taxes plus interest. The judgment was not appealed. In April 1984, defendant Rosewell mailed the judgment order to plaintiffs. Their attempt to pay the assessed taxes under protest was denied. They then paid their delinquent 1980 taxes, plus full interest and penalties in the amount of $6,133.76, and regained title to the property. PROCEEDINGS BELOW They brought this Section 1983 action for alleged deprivations of their money and their statutory right to contest their assessment. They complained that they did not receive notice of the Board's refusal to endorse their certificate, were denied an opportunity to present evidence to the Board, and were not notified of the proceeding before Judge Dempsey. The district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss. The court held that injunctive relief is barred by the Tax Injunction Act (Act), 28 U.S.C. § 1341, and declaratory and monetary relief is barred by comity. Appellants have dismissed their appeal from the denial of injunctive relief and challenge only the dismissal of the declaratory judgment and damages claims. In the alternative, they ask this court to certify the question of availability of state remedies to the Illinois Supreme Court. Review of a dismissal for failure to state a claim is limited to the contents of the complaint. We accept its factual allegations as true. Strauss v. City of Chicago, 760 F.2d 765, 766 (7th Cir. 1985). The complaint should not be dismissed unless it appears beyond doubt that plaintiffs can prove no set of facts in support of their claims which would entitle them to relief. Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S. Ct. 99, 101-102, 2 L. Ed. 2d 80 (1957); Carl Sandburg Village Condominium Ass'n v. First Condominium Development Co., 758 F.2d 203, 207 (7th Cir. 1985). The Tax Injunction Act bars a taxpayer from contesting the validity of a state tax in a Sec. 1983 injunction action if there is a "plain, speedy and efficient" state remedy available. Rosewell, 450 U.S. at 512, 101 S. Ct. at 1228. It divests the court of jurisdiction to consider actions that "suspend or restrain" the assessment and collection of state taxes. California v. Grace Brethren Church, 457 U.S. 393, 408, 102 S. Ct. 2498, 2507, 73 L. Ed. 2d 93 (1982). Principles of comity bar a taxpayer from contesting the validity of a state tax in a Sec. 1983 damage or declaratory judgment action if there is a "plain, adequate and complete" state remedy available. See Fair Assessment in Real Estate Ass'n v. McNary, 454 U.S. 100, 102 S. Ct. 177, 70 L. Ed. 2d 271 (1981); Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Huffman, 319 U.S. 293, 63 S. Ct. 1070, 87 L. Ed. 1407 (1943); Alcan Aluminium Ltd. v. Dept. of Revenue of the State of Oregon, 724 F.2d 1294, 1297 (7th Cir. 1984). We agree with the district court that the comity principle controls the disposition of appellants' claims for declaratory relief and money damages. These taxpayers must seek protection of their federal rights by state remedies, the adequacy of which is well settled. See Fair Assessment, 454 U.S. at 116, 102 S. Ct. at 186. In Rosewell v. LaSalle National Bank, an Illinois taxpayer challenged the constitutionality of the taxpayer objection procedure on equal protection and due process grounds. The Supreme Court held that the procedure is a plain, speedy and efficient remedy against a wrongful assessment. 450 U.S. at 514, 101 S. Ct. at 1229. The Court reasoned: There is no doubt that the Illinois state-court refund procedure provides the taxpayer with a 'full hearing and judicial determination' at which she may raise any and all constitutional objections to the tax.... Appeal to higher Illinois courts is authorized, ... and review is ultimately available in this Court.... Id. (citations omitted). In paragraph 21 of their amended complaint, plaintiffs acknowledge that they understood this procedure. Nothing prevented them from pursuing this remedy. Regarding the certificate of error procedure, the Illinois Supreme Court has made clear that taxpayers have neither a statutory nor a constitutional right to participate in the certificate of error proceeding or to challenge any alleged irregularities in it. Chicago Sheraton Corp. v. Zaban, 115 Ill.Dec. at 637, 373 N.E.2d at 1321. We held that the U.S. Supreme Court's dismissal for want of a substantial federal question operated as an adjudication on the merits of the constitutional claim presented. Chicago Sheraton Corp. v. Zaban, 593 F.2d 808 (7th Cir. 1979). We explained: We have examined the jurisdictional statement in the appeal to the Supreme Court, the opinion of the Illinois Supreme Court, and the briefs filed by parties before that court and conclude that the precise constitutional claim of deprivation of due process as presented here was presented and decided by the Illinois Supreme Court and by summary dismissal of the appeal in the United States Supreme Court. The Zaban case bears a strong resemblance to this case. In Zaban, the plaintiff's property was the subject of an assessor's certificate of error forwarded to the Board. After a four-year delay, the Board refused to endorse the certificate. The plaintiff had no notice of the nonendorsement. The state court refused to consider the nonendorsed certificate. There, as here, the plaintiff failed to pursue its available remedy, the taxpayer objection procedure codified at Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 120, Secs. 675 and 716. The Illinois Supreme Court held that " [h]aving failed to timely file a complaint with the board, plaintiff was precluded from pursuing the statutory remedy of objection in the collector's application for judgment proceeding." Zaban, 15 Ill.Dec. at 638, 373 N.E.2d at 1322. The flaw in appellants' argument is that the certificate of error procedure is not the statutory method to judicially challenge tax assessments in Illinois. The taxpayer objection procedure may be pursued independently of and concurrently with the remedy they chose. Rosewell, 450 U.S. at 514, 101 S. Ct. at 1229. The two remedies are not mutually exclusive. Appellants have a constitutionally adequate state remedy to protest the assessment and collection of property taxes. They may not claim a deprivation of due process rights because the tax objection procedure was available to them.1 Because this case is controlled by the precedent cited, we deny the motion to certify. See Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 110A, Sec. 20 (certification discretionary where state law issue may be determinative and there are no controlling precedents in the decisions of the state supreme court); 7th Cir.R. 13 (this court may certify question of state law when rules of the highest court of a state permit certification). Hon. Eugene A. Wright, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is sitting by designation We reject appellants' claim of denial of court access based on Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, --- U.S. ----, 105 S. Ct. 1487, 84 L. Ed. 2d 494 (1985), Mennonite Board of Missions v. Adams, 462 U.S. 791, 103 S. Ct. 2706, 77 L. Ed. 2d 180 (1983), and Logan v. Zimmerman Brush Co., 455 U.S. 422, 102 S. Ct. 1148, 71 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1982). We find these cases inapplicable of Seventh Circuit opinions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line788
__label__wiki	0.74298	0.74298	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Eleventh Circuit › 1990 › Reginald Jones, Petitioner-appellant, v. J.o. Davis, Warden, Respondent-appellee Receive free daily summaries of new opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Reginald Jones, Petitioner-appellant, v. J.o. Davis, Warden, Respondent-appellee, 906 F.2d 552 (11th Cir. 1990) U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit - 906 F.2d 552 (11th Cir. 1990) George Huddleston, Spanish Fort, Ala., for petitioner-appellant. Andy S. Poole, Kenneth Nunnelley, Asst. Attys. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for respondent-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Before FAY and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges, and GIBSON* , Senior Circuit Judge. PER CURIAM: Reginald Jones appeals the second denial, after remand for an evidentiary hearing, of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Because the magistrate, whose recommendation the district court adopted, misinterpreted this court's prior opinion, we REVERSE and REMAND for a grant of the writ. An all-white jury convicted Jones, a black man, of burglary in the third degree. The assistant district attorney of Mobile County, Alabama, created this monochromatic jury by using seven of his nine peremptory strikes to dismiss all blacks from the jury venire. At the time of jury selection, Jones objected to the assistant district attorney's tactic and moved for a mistrial. The trial court denied the motion but granted Jones the opportunity to address the jury selection issue in a later evidentiary hearing. Upon being convicted and sentenced, Jones moved the trial court for a new trial based in part on his allegation that the state's purposeful, deliberate and systematic use of its peremptory challenges to strike all black persons from his venire violated his constitutional right to trial by a fair and impartial jury. At the evidentiary hearing that followed, several local criminal defense attorneys supported Jones' motion, testifying that the Mobile County district attorney's office had a pattern and practice of excluding blacks from jury service, particularly when the defendant in the case was black. The assistant district attorney who prosecuted Jones also testified; he denied the existence of any policy of racial exclusion and explained his use of peremptory strikes thusly: "I didn't like the looks of those seven people and that's why I struck them." The trial court denied the motion for a new trial. Jones appealed the state's use of peremptory challenges and the trial court's denial of a new trial to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. That court affirmed his conviction without opinion and denied rehearing. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of Alabama denied Jones' petition for a writ of certiorari. Jones then filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, alleging that his conviction violates the Constitution or laws of the United States as a result of the assistant district attorney's racially exclusionary use of peremptory strikes. On the recommendation of the magistrate, the district court denied Jones' habeas petition, and Jones appealed to this court. In Jones v. Davis, 835 F.2d 835 (11th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1008, 108 S. Ct. 1735, 100 L. Ed. 2d 199 (1988), this court reversed the denial of Jones' petition, finding that in the state court evidentiary hearing Jones had met his initial burden of making a prima facie case under Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S. Ct. 824, 13 L. Ed. 2d 759 (1965),1 overruled, Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 1712, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69 (1986), (Swain still controls cases in which conviction became final before Batson decided), and Willis v. Zant, 720 F.2d 1212 (11th Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1256, 104 S. Ct. 3548, 82 L. Ed. 2d 851 (1984),2 of a pattern of systematic exclusion. Because the state court had restricted Jones from presenting additional evidence in support of his allegations and because the assistant district attorney had not availed himself of his right to rebut Jones' evidence, this court remanded the case to the district court "for an evidentiary hearing to be conducted pursuant to the guidelines established in Willis v. Zant." Jones, 835 F.2d at 840 (citation omitted). The magistrate conducted the Willis v. Zant evidentiary hearing on March 13-15, 1989. In his Recommendation, the magistrate states: Prior to [the] hearing, petitioner's counsel argued that the Eleventh Circuit in its opinion determined that petitioner made out a prima facie case under Swain at the state court evidentiary hearing and that this Court, accordingly, need only determine whether respondents could rebut the prima facie case. This Court disagrees with petitioner's reading of the Jones v. Davis opinion, as had the appellate court found that petitioner established a prima facie case under Swain, it would not have remanded the case for a full evidentiary hearing under the guidelines established in Willis v. Zant; rather, it would simply have remanded the case for a hearing to determine whether the respondent could rebut petitioner's prima facie case. Having failed to do the latter, the Magistrate understands the appellate court as remaining unconvinced that petitioner proved a prima facie case under [Swain ]. R2-92-6-7. The magistrate concluded that the facts proved by Jones at the hearing did not make out a case under Swain, which recommendation the district court adopted. We believe that the magistrate misconstrued the prior panel opinion. In Jones v. Davis, this court unequivocally states, "In Willis v. Zant, we set forth the method by which a petitioner may make out a prima facie case under the Swain standard and thus overcome the presumption that the prosecutor acted within the confines of the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause.... We believe that Jones has met this initial burden." 835 F.2d at 838 (citation omitted). The earlier panel did not remand for a full Willis v. Zant hearing because it was unpersuaded that Jones had made his prima facie case; rather, the panel wished to afford Jones the opportunity to present the totality of his evidence without restriction as well as to give the assistant district attorney the chance to rebut Jones' prima facie case. The magistrate was not free to reexamine this court's conclusion, which constituted the law of the case, that Jones established a prima facie case under Swain. See Wheeler v. City of Pleasant Grove, 896 F.2d 1347, 1350 (11th Cir. 1990); Barber v. International Bhd. of Boilermakers, 841 F.2d 1067, 1070-71 (11th Cir. 1988); United States v. Robinson, 690 F.2d 869, 872 (11th Cir. 1982) (both district court and court of appeals bound by factual findings and legal conclusion made by court of appeals in prior appeal of same case). The magistrate, however, did have authority to evaluate the state's rebuttal evidence. This he did in a footnote, stating that " [i]n the instant case, were this Court to determine that petitioner proved a prima facie case under Swain, habeas relief would be in order as respondents have produced no rebuttal evidence." R2-92-6 n. 4. We find no error in this conclusion of the magistrate. Thus, since this court previously has found that Jones proved a prima facie case under Swain and since no evidence appears to rebut that prima facie case, we REVERSE the district court's denial of habeas corpus relief and REMAND for the granting of the writ and appropriate relief. Honorable Floyd R. Gibson, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation We have decided that it is permissible to insulate from inquiry the removal of Negroes from a particular jury on the assumption that the prosecutor is acting on acceptable considerations related to the case he is trying, the particular defendant involved and the particular crime charged. But when the prosecutor in a county, in case after case, whatever the circumstances, whatever the crime and whoever the defendant or victim may be, is responsible for the removal of Negroes who have been selected as qualified jurors by the jury commissioners and who have survived challenges for cause, with the result that no Negroes ever serve on petit juries, the Fourteenth Amendment claim takes on added significance. In these circumstances, giving even the widest leeway to the operation of irrational but trial-related suspicions and antagonisms, it would appear that the purposes of the peremptory challenge are being perverted.... [T]he presumption protecting the prosecution may well be overcome. Such proof might support a reasonable inference ... that the peremptory system is being used to deny the Negro the same right and opportunity to participate in the administration of justice enjoyed by the white population 380 U.S. at 223-24, 85 S. Ct. at 837-38 (citation omitted). Willis v. Zant instructs district courts in this circuit on how to handle evidentiary hearings regarding the Swain issue. First, the petitioner has the occasion to prove on specific facts--that is, direct testimonial or indirect statistical evidence, but never mere allegation--that the prosecutor had a "systematic and intentional practice of excluding blacks from traverse juries in criminal trials through the exercise of peremptory challenges, and that this practice continued unabated in petitioner's trial." Id. at 1220 (emphasis in original). While the petitioner need not demonstrate that the prosecutor invariably struck all black venirepersons presented, "the facts must manifestly show an intent on the part of the prosecutor to disenfranchise blacks from traverse juries in criminal trials in his circuit." Id. If the petitioner succeeds in making a prima facie case, the prosecutor can rebut either by showing that " 'racially neutral selection procedures have produced the [historical and systematic] disparity,' " id. (quoting United States v. Perez-Hernandez, 672 F.2d 1380, 1387 (11th Cir. 1982) (quoting Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U.S. 625, 631-32, 92 S. Ct. 1221, 1225-26, 31 L. Ed. 2d 536 (1972))), or by showing that "neutral reasons for the striking of all the blacks in petitioner's trial itself" exist. Id. at 1221. In either type of rebuttal, mere assertions of good faith and intentions are insufficient to rebut a prima facie case. "This is not to say that testimony alone is per se insufficient. We believe, however, that if petitioner can show a prima facie case, 'testimony from the alleged discriminators should be viewed with a great deal of judicial scrutiny.' " Id. (quoting Perez-Hernandez, 672 F.2d at 1387)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line789
__label__wiki	0.584706	0.584706	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Sixth Circuit › 1990 › Unpublished Dispositiontennessee Public Service Commission, Petitioner v. Interstate Commerce Commis... Receive free daily summaries of new opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Unpublished Dispositiontennessee Public Service Commission, Petitioner v. Interstate Commerce Commission; United States of America; Respondentscentral Transport, Incorporated; Con-way Southern Express,inc.; Robert E. Brizendine, Trustee for Browntransport Corporation Trustee; Humboldtexpress, Inc., Intervenors, 921 F.2d 277 (6th Cir. 1990) U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit - 921 F.2d 277 (6th Cir. 1990) BEFORE: MERRITT, Chief Judge; JONES and WELLFORD, Circuit Judges. Petitioner Tennessee Public Service Commission (TPSC) seeks review of two decisions issued by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) concerning exemptions granted Intervenor Con-Way Southern Express, Inc. (CSE) and moves this Court to stay enforcement of those orders pending review. Intervenor CSE and the respondent ICC oppose a stay and have filed separate motions to dismiss the petition as untimely filed. TPSC opposes the motions to dismiss. Upon review of the materials before the Court, we find that TPSC's petition is neither timely nor taken from an appealable order. The Hobbs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2344, requires that a party seeking review of a final administrative order of the ICC file a petition for review with the appellate court within 60 days after entry. Unlike judicial orders, "entry of an ICC administrative order occurs when the agency's signature and seal are affixed to the order"; that date corresponds to the service date of the order. Chem-Haulers, Inc. v. United States, 536 F.2d 610, 614-15 (5th Cir. 1976). The 60 day period is a jurisdictional requirement which may not be altered or extended. Kentucky v. Brock, 845 F.2d 117, 120 (6th Cir. 1988); State of Texas v. United States, 749 F.2d 1144, 1146 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1032 (1985); Calif. Ass'n of the Physically Handicapped v. FCC, 833 F.2d 1333, 1334 (9th Cir. 1987); Sierra Club v. NRC, 825 F.2d 1356, 1359 (9th Cir. 1987). To be timely filed, the petition must be received by the appellate court within 60 days; mailing the petition within that time frame is insufficient. See Danko v. Dir. OWCP, 846 F.2d 366, 369 (6th Cir. 1988) (per curiam); see also Kahler-Ellis Co v. Ohio Turnpike Comm'n, 225 F.2d 922 (6th Cir. 1955). In the present case, the ICC's decision was served on July 30, 1990. The petition for review was filed in this Court on October 2, 1990, four days late. Moreover, even if the petition were timely filed, it does not appear that the petition was filed from a reviewable order as orders denying motions for reconsideration may be reviewed only when the underlying motion alleged new evidence or changed circumstances. See ICC v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 486 U.S. 270 (1987). Accordingly, it is ORDERED that this appeal be dismissed for want of appellate jurisdiction. The motion for a stay is denied as moot. of Sixth Circuit opinions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line790
__label__wiki	0.721726	0.721726	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Third Circuit › 1990 › Thomas C. Ramseur, Appellant, v. Howard C. Beyer; and the Attorney General of the State Ofnew Jersey... Receive free daily summaries of new opinions from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Thomas C. Ramseur, Appellant, v. Howard C. Beyer; and the Attorney General of the State Ofnew Jersey, Appellees, 921 F.2d 504 (3d Cir. 1990) US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - 921 F.2d 504 (3d Cir. 1990) Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6) Nov. 26, 1990.Decided Dec. 28, 1990. Wilfredo Caraballo, Matthew Astore, Office of the Public Defender, Advocate, East Orange, N.J., for appellant. Hilary L. Brunell, Office of Essex County Prosecutor, Newark, N.J., for appellees--Howard C. Beyer and Atty. Gen., State of N.J. Before BECKER, NYGAARD, Circuit Judges, and POLLAK, District Judge* OPINION OF THE COURT BECKER, Circuit Judge. Thomas C. Ramseur appeals from the district court's order denying his ex parte motion to extend the time for filing a notice of appeal pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (5). Because we find that the district court abused its discretion in denying Ramseur's motion, we will reverse. This is a habeas corpus action, 28 U.S.C. § 2254. After exhausting his state remedies, Ramseur, who had been convicted of murder and related charges, petitioned the district court for the District of New Jersey for a habeas corpus writ. In an opinion and order dated March 14, 1990, the district court denied Ramseur's habeas petition and found no probable cause for appeal. On April 10, 1990, Ramseur's counsel mailed a notice of appeal from his office in East Orange, New Jersey to the clerk of the district court, whose office is located less than five miles away in Newark, New Jersey. Ramseur's notice of appeal, however, was not received by the district court and stamped "filed" until April 23, 1990, thirteen days after it was mailed, and seven days after the 30-day time period for filing appeals had lapsed, see Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (1).1 Ramseur's counsel thereupon moved for an extension of time in which to appeal, pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (5). Rule 4(a) (5) provides that the district court, upon the showing of excusable neglect or good cause, may extend the time for filing a notice of appeal. Ramseur's counsel argued that the "inexplicable" thirteen-day delay constituted excusable neglect. The district court, however, denied this motion stating only that Ramseur had not made an adequate showing of excusable neglect. This appeal followed. We will review for abuse of discretion.2 Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a) (5) states in pertinent part: The district court, upon a showing of excusable neglect or good cause, may extend the time for filing a notice of appeal upon motion filed not later than 30 days after the expiration of the time prescribed by this Rule 4(a). Any such motion which is filed before expiration of the prescribed time may be ex parte unless the court otherwise requires. In Consolidated Freightways Corp. of Del. v. Larson, 827 F.2d 916 (3d Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1032, 108 S. Ct. 762, 98 L. Ed. 2d 775 (1988), we interpreted "Rule 4(a) (5) to require a finding of excusable neglect in those instances where the court, after weighing the relevant considerations is satisfied that counsel has exhibited substantial diligence, professional competence and has acted in good faith to conform his or her conduct in accordance with the rule." Id. at 920. We noted, further, that: [T]he rules governing timeliness of appeals exist to promote fairness, and to promote prompt notice of appeal thereby avoiding the prejudicial effect of reopening litigation which the opposing party had assumed was closed. The length of the delay and the basis of the delay affect the overall fairness concern. Where ... the delay was minimal, and where the court has determined that the delay was not the result of any bad faith but rather occurred despite counsel's substantially diligent efforts at compliance, the judicial interest in deciding cases on the merits outweighs the interest in finality. Ramseur's notice of appeal was mailed on April 10th, a full six days before the 30-day time period expired. Yet it was not "filed" until April 23rd, thirteen days later. Ramseur asserts that this delay was inexplicable and thus qualifies as excusable neglect. We agree. Because his notice of appeal was filed only seven days late, granting Ramseur an extension does not raise overall fairness concerns. More importantly, the delay was not attributable to counsel's bad faith. Rather, Ramseur's notice of appeal was untimely despite counsel's diligent efforts at compliance. By mailing the notice of appeal on April 10th, Ramseur's counsel reasonably believed that it would be filed within the 30-day time period. Further, counsel, upon learning of the delay, acted expeditiously to cure it, by promptly moving for an extension under Rule 4(a) (5). In Consolidated Freightways, the notice of appeal was prepared one day before the 30-day time period expired. Because counsel intended to hand-deliver the notice of appeal, we noted that, in the normal course of events, it would have been timely filed.3 See 827 F.2d at 917 n. 1. In view of counsel's due diligence, we held that in the factual context of that case, counsel's inadvertent misdirection of the notice of appeal constituted excusable neglect under Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (5). Likewise, other cases have found untimely notices of appeal to be valid by reason of excusable neglect when they are mailed at such a time and in such a manner that, under normal circumstances, the district court would have received them in a timely fashion. See, e.g., Scarpa v. Murphy, 782 F.2d 300 (1st Cir. 1986) (notice of appeal, which was mailed five days before expiration of 30-day period but was filed two days late, held to be valid due to excusable neglect/good cause because five days normally was sufficient for the three-mile delivery); Wright v. Deyton, 757 F.2d 1253, 1255-56 (11th Cir. 1985) (" [T]he district court should determine when the document was mailed and whether, in ordinary course of events, the clerk would have received the letter by the applicable filing deadline."); Gibbs v. Town of Frisco City, Alabama, 626 F.2d 1218, 1220 (5th Cir. 1980) (excusable neglect found because two days were allowed for a mailing which normally took one day); see also 9 J. Moore, B. Ward, & J. Lucas, Moore's Federal Practice p 204.13 [1.-3], at 4-105 n. 18 (1989) ("If the notice of appeal is mailed in time so that in normal course it will arrive in time, but does not, extensions have been upheld."). Here, Ramseur's counsel reasonably believed that a notice mailed from East Orange on April 10th would arrive in Newark by April 16th.4 We therefore conclude that Ramseur's notice of appeal was untimely due to excusable neglect. For the foregoing reasons, we will reverse as an abuse of discretion the district court's order denying Ramseur's motion under Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (5) and will remand with directions to enter an order extending the time for appeal and accepting nunc pro tunc the filing of the notice of appeal on April 23, 1990. Honorable Louis H. Pollak, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation A notice of appeal, to be timely, must be filed "with the clerk of the district court within 30 days after the date of entry of the order appealed from." Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (1). Accordingly, Ramseur's notice of appeal normally would have been due on April 13, 1990. Because April 13th was a legal holiday and a Friday, however, his notice of appeal was not due until April 16, 1990, see Fed. R. App. P. 26(a). Therefore, when filed on April 23rd, Ramseur's notice of appeal was seven days late In Consolidated Freightways Corp. of Del. v. Larson, 827 F.2d 916, 918 (3d Cir. 1987), cert. denied 484 U.S. 1032, 108 S. Ct. 762, 98 L. Ed. 2d 775 (1988), we stated that our standard of review in appeals involving Fed. R. App. P. 4(a) (5) is mixed. Whereas review of the district court's interpretation of Rule 4(a) (5) is plenary, review of the court's denial of a requested extension under the rule is limited to an abuse of discretion. Because the district court in this case effectively rejected Ramseur's motion for an extension in one sentence without proffering an interpretation of Rule 4(a) (5) in support of his denial, we will review for an abuse of discretion Counsel inadvertently mailed the notice of appeal to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania instead of hand-delivering it to the Middle District. By the time the notice was forwarded to the Middle District, it was five days late We note that Ramseur's notice of appeal was mailed during the Easter holiday season. Although the mail is typically slower at that time of year, we think that the four working days between April 10th and 16th were sufficient reasonably to ensure that Ramseur's notice of appeal would be timely filed of Third Circuit opinions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line791
__label__cc	0.660344	0.339656	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Eleventh Circuit › 1991 › Savers Federal Savings & Loan Association, Plaintiff,resolution Trust Corporation, As Conservator fo... Savers Federal Savings & Loan Association, Plaintiff,resolution Trust Corporation, As Conservator for Saverssavings Association, Plaintiff-appellee,r.f.s. Management Company of Alabama, Inc., Receiver,aircoa Hospitality Services, Inc., Intervenor, v. Amberley Huntsville, Ltd., Amberley Decatur Joint Venture,amberley Associates, Warner E. Stone, Defendants-appellants,joe R. Faulk, G.n. Olson, Donald E. Redford, Defendants.savers Federal Savings & Loan Association, Plaintiff,resolution Trust Corporation, As Conservator for Saverssavings Association, Plaintiff-appellee,rfs Management Company of Alabama, Inc., Receiver, v. Amberley Decatur, Ltd., Amberley Decatur Joint Venture,amberley Associates, Warner E. Stone, Defendants-appellants,joe R. Faulk, Jr., Gerald Nels Olson, Donald E. Redford, Defendants, 934 F.2d 1201 (11th Cir. 1991) US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit - 934 F.2d 1201 (11th Cir. 1991) William L. Chenault, III, Chenault, Hammond and Hall, Decatur, Ala., for defendants-appellants. James T. Baxter, III, Berry, Ables, Tatum, Little & Baxter, P.C., Huntsville, Ala., for plaintiff-appellee. Antony S. Burt, Nancy T. Beggs, Katherine T. Millett, Hopkins & Sutter, Chicago, Ill., J. Scott Watson, F.D.I.C., Appellate Litigation, Washington, D.C., for Resolution Trust Corp. and Savers Federal. Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Before ANDERSON and CLARK, Circuit Judges, and TUTTLE, Senior Circuit Judge. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge: This is an appeal of two related cases1 in which the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Resolution Trust Corporation ("RTC"), which is acting as conservator for Savers Savings Association ("Savers"), and against appellants Amberley Huntsville Joint Venture ("Joint Venture"), Amberley Huntsville, Ltd. ("Limited"), Amberley Associates ("Associates"), and Warner E. Stone ("Stone"). Appellants contend that the summary judgment should be vacated because there remain issues of material fact regarding their respective liabilities on two promissory notes and the accompanying guaranties. We affirm the district court's judgments in favor of RTC but modify the amounts of the judgments and remand only the issue of the amount due under the Huntsville Guaranty. This appeal involves two promissory notes, each of which is accompanied by a guaranty, executed by appellants in favor of Savers Federal Savings and Loan Association ("Savers Federal"), the predecessor in interest to the RTC. On or about November 10, 1983, Joint Venture executed a Note ("Huntsville Note") in which it promised, among other things, to repay to Savers Federal the principal sum of $7,840,000, or so much of the principal as was actually disbursed, plus other amounts required by the note. The Huntsville Note was nonrecourse. It limited Joint Venture's liability to the assets that Joint Venture had pledged as security for the note and expressly provided that Savers Federal could not seek to enforce the debt against assets not specifically pledged as security.2 The note expressly provided that Savers Federal was not entitled to recover a deficiency judgment against Joint Venture if the foreclosure and sale of the pledged assets failed to cover the amount due.3 The principle collateral for the note was an improved parcel of real property on which Joint Venture had constructed and was operating a hotel ("mortgaged property"). In addition to the terms regarding payment of principal and interest, the Huntsville Note stated that Joint Venture promised to pay certain other amounts to Savers Federal as "additional interest." This provision addressed two contingencies. If Joint Venture sold the mortgaged property prior to maturity of the note, the note required Joint Venture to pay Savers Federal fifteen percent of the "Net Sales Proceeds" as "additional interest."4 If Joint Venture repaid its obligations in full at maturity or prior to maturity, the note required Joint Venture to pay Savers Federal fifteen percent of the "Fair Market Value" of Savers Federal's "additional interest."5 As part of the same transaction, Warner E. Stone, Joe R. Faulk, Jr., Gerald N. Olson and Donald E. Redford, as individuals, executed a Guaranty in which they promised to repay a portion of the amount due under the note if Joint Venture defaulted. For purposes of this appeal, the Guaranty required the guarantors to pay Savers Federal the amount "by which the outstanding principal balance of the Note exceeds $5,880,000."6 On or about July 22, 1985, Joint Venture executed another Note ("Decatur Note") in favor of Savers Federal, promising to pay the principal sum of $5,750,000, or so much of the principal as was actually disbursed, and other amounts required by the terms of the note. The terms of the Decatur Note were quite similar to those of the Huntsville Note but varied in certain details. Like the first note, the Decatur Note was nonrecourse, providing that Savers "shall not seek a personal deficiency judgment against the [Joint Venture] but will pursue any deficiency judgment against the guarantors of the indebtedness...." The Decatur Note also contained a provision similar to the "additional interest" provision in the Huntsville Note. The Decatur Note granted Savers an "Equity Share" which required Joint Venture to pay Savers fifteen percent of the "Net Sales Proceeds" of the mortgaged property if it was sold during the "Construction Phase" of the loan or twenty-five percent of the proceeds if the mortgaged property was sold during the "Permanent Phase" of the loan.7 The Decatur Note also provided that if Joint Venture paid its obligations at or before maturity, Joint Venture had to pay Savers fifteen percent of the "Fair Market Value of the Mortgaged Property," but if Joint Venture failed to pay its obligations at maturity, it had to pay Savers twenty-five percent of the fair market value of the property.8 Finally, the four guarantors of the Huntsville Note also executed a guaranty of Joint Venture's obligations under the Decatur Note on or about July 22, 1985. On November 16, 1988, Savers Federal filed suit in Alabama state court alleging that Joint Venture had defaulted on both notes. Savers Federal alleged that it was entitled to recover judgment and to foreclose on the mortgaged properties pursuant to the respective Mortgage and Security Agreement for each note. Savers Federal sought to recover the outstanding principal, interest, and other costs associated with the loans as well as all expenditures related to the actions of foreclosure. Savers Federal also alleged that Faulk, Olson, Redford and Stone would be liable under the guaranties for any deficiencies resulting from the foreclosure actions. The defendants answered and alleged as affirmative defenses that the "additional interest" provision had created a partnership in fact between Savers Federal and the defendants and that Savers Federal had breached its fiduciary duties arising from that partnership. Specifically, defendants alleged that Savers Federal misled them into believing that it had restructured the loan when in fact, it had not. Defendants also alleged that Savers Federal violated its duty of good faith and fair dealing under the Uniform Commercial Code. On February 10, 1989, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board appointed the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation ("FSLIC") to serve as conservator for Savers Federal. FSLIC removed the case to federal court under 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1331 (Supp.1990) and 12 U.S.C.A. Secs. 1730(k) (1) (B) & (C) (1989). On August 9, 1989, the Resolution Trust Corporation ("RTC") succeeded FSLIC as conservator for Savers Federal upon the enactment of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act ("FIRREA"). See 12 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1441a(b) (3) (1989). Subsequently, the Office of Thrift Supervision placed Savers Federal into receivership and appointed RTC as receiver. All of the assets of Savers Federal were then transferred to Savers Savings Association ("Savers") with RTC remaining as Savers' conservator. The liabilities of the former Savers Federal remained with RTC in its capacity as receiver for Savers, and the district court entered an order substituting RTC for Savers Federal as the proper plaintiff. On May 30, 1989, Joint Venture, Limited and Associates filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The district court issued an order lifting the automatic stay of proceedings under the Code and permitting this case to go forward against Joint Venture, Limited and Associates. Guarantors Faulk, Olson and Redford also filed bankruptcy and currently remain under the protection of the Bankruptcy Code's automatic stay provision. Guarantor Stone did not file for bankruptcy protection. On January 23, 1990, RTC filed motions for summary judgment on each note and guaranty. In each motion, RTC sought a judgment on the relevant note and foreclosure of the accompanying mortgage against Joint Venture, Limited and Associates. Pursuant to the terms of the notes, RTC did not seek deficiency judgments against Joint Venture, Limited and Associates. Instead, RTC sought a deficiency judgment against guarantor Stone, the only guarantor not under bankruptcy protection, under the terms of both guaranties. In support of each motion for summary judgment, RTC attached an affidavit from Knighten Starnes, the asset manager at RTC responsible for both the Huntsville and Decatur Notes. Starnes testified that under the Huntsville Note, the "arrearage" was $8,034,386.38 and the total outstanding balance was $10,125,694.95, and that under the Decatur Note, the "arrearage" was $5,796,791.19 and the total amount due was $7,495,665.19.9 To oppose the motions for summary judgment, appellants submitted the affidavit of Stone, a general partner in Joint Venture and one of the guarantors of both notes. Stone testified that Savers had assumed an equity interest in the property beyond that of a mere creditor, that Joint Venture had turned management of the properties over to a third-party in reliance upon promises by Savers, that Savers had agreed to accept cash flow payments rather the regular payments specified in the notes, and that Savers had breached the above promises by enforcing the original terms of the notes.10 With respect to the Huntsville Note, Stone also testified that a condition precedent had occurred under the terms of the guaranty that limited his liability. On February 28, 1990, the district court entered summary judgment in favor of RTC on both notes and both guaranties. On the Huntsville Note, the district court entered judgment in the amount of $8,034,386.38 against Joint Venture, Limited, Associate, Olson, Redford and Stone. The judgment also named as a debtor Joe R. Faulk, who had had some dealings with Savers and was the father of one of the defendants, Joe R. Faulk, Jr., but was not actually a party to the case. On the Decatur Note, the court awarded $5,796,791.19 against the same parties. All parties realized immediately that the summary judgment contained errors. RTC moved to alter or amend the summary judgment and filed a proposed summary judgment order for each note. Under the Huntsville Note, RTC asked for a judgment of $10,125,694.95 against no specified person or entity, the right to foreclose, and a judgment against Stone, in his capacity as guarantor, in the amount of $4,245,694.95. The proposed summary judgment order for the Decatur Note was identical but sought $7,495,665.19 under the note, foreclosure, and $1,873,916.97 under Stone's guaranty. In its proposed judgments, RTC did not seek deficiency judgments against Joint Venture, Associates or Limited and did not seek any judgment against Faulk, Olson or Redford, all of whom remained under bankruptcy protection. On March 22, 1990, the district court substantially adopted RTC's proposed summary judgment orders, including the amounts due, but entered the judgments against Joint Venture, Limited, Associates and Stone rather than against no persons or entities in particular. Following the entry of the amended orders of summary judgment, appellants filed a Motion for Reconsideration or, in the Alternative, to Alter or Amend Order and Judgment. The district court denied this motion on April 6, 1990. 1. Liability Under the Huntsville and Decatur Notes Appellants contend that the Huntsville and Decatur Notes created a partnership between themselves and Savers, giving rise to a mutual fiduciary duty. Appellants argue that Savers' efforts to obtain foreclosures in order to collect on the notes violated Savers' fiduciary duty to appellants under the partnership arrangement. To the extent that this argument is based upon any collateral or side agreements, written or unwritten, between appellants and Savers, it is barred by the D'Oench Duhme doctrine and 12 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1823(e) (1989). In D'Oench, Duhme & Co. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 315 U.S. 447, 62 S. Ct. 676, 86 L. Ed. 956 (1942), the Supreme Court held that when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") assumes control of a bank and attempts to enforce a note under the terms on its face, the borrower against whom the note is enforced cannot assert as a defense a collateral written agreement by the bank not to collect on the note. The Court held that permitting such collateral agreements to frustrate the collection of bank loans by the FDIC would completely destroy the ability of the FDIC to assess the solvency of lending institutions. Id. 62 S. Ct. at 679-81. When examining a bank, the FDIC would not be able to evaluate its strength from the bank's records because it could not identify which loans were subject to non-collection agreements and which were enforceable. Id. As a result of this decision, the principle of prohibiting the enforcement of agreements not appearing in bank records against federal regulatory agencies has become known as the D'Oench Duhme doctrine. Congress codified D'Oench Duhme the doctrine at 12 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1823(e) (1989). This statute precludes enforcement against the FDIC of any "agreement" that is adverse to the interests of the FDIC unless the agreement is in writing, was executed by the relevant parties at the same time as the loan, is approved in the minutes of the lender's board of directors or appropriate loan committee, and has continuously appeared in the lender's official records of the loan.11 The Supreme Court recently interpreted Sec. 1823(e) broadly in Langley v. FDIC, 484 U.S. 86, 108 S. Ct. 396, 98 L. Ed. 2d 340 (1987). There, the Court affirmed a summary judgment against defaulted borrowers who alleged that the FDIC should not be able to enforce a note and mortgage agreement because the lender had fraudulently misrepresented the acreage of the mortgaged property, the acreage within that property containing minerals, and the presence of preexisting mineral rights leases. Id. 108 S. Ct. at 400. Even though the alleged misrepresentations were not recorded anywhere in the loan documents, the borrowers contended that D'Oench Duhme should not bar the defense of misrepresentation because the conduct of the bank was fraudulent and the FDIC knew of the allegations of fraud when it assumed control of the loan. Id. 108 S. Ct. at 401-02. The Supreme Court held that Sec. 1823(e) did bar the defense of misrepresentation, concluding that the term "agreement" in the statute was not limited to express promises by a bank to perform some obligation in the future. The Court reasoned that in order for Sec. 1823(e) to serve Congress' stated purpose of preserving the ability of the FDIC to regulate depository institutions, the term "agreement" must encompass not only written collateral agreements but any unwritten or unrecorded agreements as well, including fraudulent misrepresentations by the bank. The Court also held that neither the fraudulent nature of the alleged misrepresentation nor the FDIC's prior knowledge of the allegations of fraud affected the operation of Sec. 1823(e). From the above discussion, we are convinced that the D'Oench Duhme doctrine and Sec. 1823(e) bar appellants from asserting any defense or argument based upon any collateral written or unwritten agreement that was not part of the initial transaction and does not appear in the bank's records of the Huntsville or Decatur Notes. Therefore, any arguments relating to the duties owed by the parties or to the existence of a partnership must be based on the terms appearing on the faces of the loan documents. Appellants argue that the Huntsville and Decatur Notes created a partnership between themselves and Savers under Alabama law. The Alabama Code defines a partnership as an "association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit." Ala.Code Sec. 10-8-2(7) (1975). The Huntsville and Decatur Notes each contain a provision which requires appellants to pay to Savers at the termination of the loan a lump sum equal to a specified percentage of the value of the mortgaged property. Appellants argue that these provisions give Savers a "beneficial interest" in the mortgaged properties and therefore indicate that Savers and appellants are co-owners of the properties within the meaning of Ala.Code Sec. 10-8-2(7). Appellants also argue that because Savers agreed to accept as payment a percentage of the value of the mortgaged property, Savers agreed to accept "a share of the profits" for purposes of Ala.Code Sec. 10-8-20(4) (1975), which provides that " [r]eceipt by a person of a share of the profits of a business is prima facie evidence that he is a partner in the business ..." Based on these statutes and the terms of the notes, appellants assert that Savers entered into a partnership. Appellants' argument fails for a number of reasons. Most obviously, there are no partnership agreements between the parties and there is no language in the loan documents of either the Huntsville Note or the Decatur Note indicating or referring to the existence of a partnership. Significantly, the Decatur Note contains an express disclaimer of any "partnership, joint venture or association" between Savers and appellants.12 In addition, appellants' argument that Alabama law implies a partnership from the terms of repayment is misplaced. The presumption of partnership only applies when two persons or entities share the "profits" of a venture. The payments required by the two notes in the instant case were not from the "profits" of Joint Venture. The payments were due only upon events that terminated the mortgage, and the loan documents did not require appellants to pay any of their operating revenue to the bank beyond the scheduled repayment of principal and interest. Even if the payments had been from Joint Venture's profits, appellants' argument still fails. The presumption that a recipient of a share of the profits of a venture is a partner in the venture does not apply when the profits are received " [a]s interest or other payment on a loan, though the amount of payment varies with the profits of the business...." Ala.Code Sec. 10-8-20(4)d. (1975). Both the Huntsville and Decatur Notes are clear that the provisions which entitle Savers to a lump sum payment at the termination of the loan were intended as payments on the loans, not as Savers' share of the profits earned by appellants. Indeed, the provision in the Huntsville Note refers to the lump sum payment as "additional interest." The fact that the amount of the lump sum payment varies according to the appreciated value of the mortgaged property does not create a presumption of partnership, as is evident from Ala.Code Sec. 10-8-20(4)d.'s express language "though the amount of the payment varies with the profits of the business." Finally, the lump sum payment provisions did not place any risk of loss on Savers. Under Alabama law, a significant factor "in determining whether a partnership relationship exists is the existence of a legally binding obligation to share in the losses of the business." Adderhold v. Adderhold, 426 So. 2d 457 (Ala.Civ.App.1983). In each note, appellants alone bore the risk of loss. The Huntsville Note requires appellants to repay the loan in full, regardless of whether their business makes a profit, expressly including a lump sum payment equal to twenty percent of the value of the mortgaged property in the event of default. Both notes also provide that if at any time the outstanding loan balance exceeds eighty percent of the fair market value of the mortgaged property, appellants must provide either a new appraisal or pay down the loan balance.13 Thus, each note contains specific provisions that protect Savers from potential losses due to depreciation or insufficient appreciation of the mortgaged properties and provide Savers with express rights if appellants are unable to pay. Neither of these provisions places any risk of loss on Savers. For the several reasons stated above, we find that neither the Huntsville Note nor the Decatur Note created a partnership between appellants and Savers. In addition, we find that Savers owed no duty of good faith to appellants in exercising its rights under the acceleration provisions of the respective notes. Appellants contend that Savers owed them a duty of good faith and fair dealing under the Alabama Commercial Code and Alabama common law and breached that duty by exercising its right to accelerate the loan. More precisely, appellants argue that Savers agreed to accept cash flow payments in lieu of the scheduled payments of principal and interest to help appellants avoid default while short on cash. Appellants assert that Savers, after accepting a number of cash flow payments, nevertheless accelerated the entire amount due under the notes with full knowledge that appellants could not pay because they had been paying Savers all of their available cash reserve in the form of the cash flow payments. There is no evidence in the bank records of either the Huntsville or Decatur loan that Savers agreed to accept cash flow payments instead of the scheduled payments of principal and interest. Consequently, appellants cannot rely upon the existence of such an agreement to create a duty of good faith. See D'Oench, Duhme & Co. v. Federal Deposit Ins. Corp., 315 U.S. 447, 62 S. Ct. 676, 86 L. Ed. 956 (1942); 12 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1823(e). With respect to the Alabama Commercial Code, Savers acted within the statutory definition of "good faith" in the context of loan acceleration. Ala.Code Sec. 7-1-208 (1984) provides that a party possessing the power of acceleration "shall have the power to do so only if he in good faith believes that the prospect of payment is impaired."14 There is no dispute that appellants could not make the scheduled payments under either note at the time they were due. Under these facts, Savers' acceleration of the loan was completely within the bounds of good faith as defined in Ala.Code Sec. 7-1-208. 2. Amount Due Under the Huntsville and Decatur Notes Having concluded that Savers had no fiduciary duty or duty of good faith to appellants, we affirm the district court's summary judgment of liability on the Huntsville Note and the Decatur Note. We agree with appellants, however, that the district court's order must be modified to reflect the nonrecourse nature of these notes. With respect to the Huntsville Note, the district court entered judgment against Joint Venture, Associates and Warner E. Stone in the amount of $10,125,694.95 plus the costs of the action and reasonable attorneys' fees. This order directs Joint Venture, Associates and Stone to pay $10,125,694.95, the entire amount due under the note. However, the note expressly provides that the liability of its signatories is limited to the value of the assets pledged as security: The Maker shall be liable upon the indebtedness under this Note, all sums to accrue or become payable thereon ... to the extent, but only to the extent, of the security pledged for the payment of this Note, including without limitation all property rights and estates described in the Mortgage and Security Agreement, Loan Agreement, and other Security Documents. (emphasis added). The note further provides that the legal action available to Savers against the makers in the event of default is limited to the preservation, enforcement and foreclosure of the liens pledged as security for the note, expressly forbidding Savers from seeking to recover assets of the makers not pledged as security for the note or under the accompanying guaranty. Finally, the note specifically precludes Savers from obtaining a deficiency judgment against the makers, except in their capacity as guarantors. From the foregoing provisions, we are convinced that Savers' remedies under the note are limited to foreclosure upon the assets pledged as security thereto. Thus, we affirm the district court's judgment of foreclosure. However, we modify the district court's order to eliminate any recovery against Joint Venture, Associates or Stone15 of any amount above and beyond the value derived from the assets pledged as security under the note and its accompanying security agreements. The same is true for the Decatur Note. The district court entered summary judgment under this note against Joint Venture, Limited, Associates and Warner E. Stone in the amount of $7,495,665.19. This order included a judgment of foreclosure in favor of RTC under the Mortgage and Security Agreement that permitted the clerk of the court to sell the foreclosed property at public auction. We find that the provisions of the Decatur Note clearly limit the liability of the makers to the value of the pledged collateral: It is understood and agreed that in any proceedings for the enforcement of the indebtedness secured hereby, the Payee shall not seek a personal deficiency judgment against Maker, but will pursue any deficiency judgment against the guarantors of the indebtedness. Therefore, although we affirm the district court's order permitting the foreclosure and public sale of the property pledged as security for the note by the makers, we modify the district court's order to eliminate any recovery against Joint Venture, Associates, Limited or Stone of any amount above and beyond the collateral.16 Appellant Stone does not dispute that he is bound to pay RTC under the terms of the Huntsville and Decatur guaranties.17 The only remaining issue is the amount of Stone's liability. The district court entered summary judgment against Stone under the Decatur Guaranty in the amount of $1,873,916.97. The parties do not dispute the amount of this judgment, which is thus affirmed. With respect to the Huntsville Guaranty, however, Stone asserts that the district court erred in calculating the amount of his liability. The provision of the Huntsville Guaranty that defines the amount recoverable from Stone provides as follows: The term "Guaranteed Indebtedness" shall mean all sums stated to be payable under the terms of the Note ... including, without limitation, each and every installment of principal and/or interest under said Note ...; provided, however, on and after the Limitation Date (as hereinafter defined) the Guaranteed Indebtedness shall only include, if any, the amount of the principal balance of the Note from time to time outstanding by which the unpaid principal balance of the Note exceeds $5,880,000.00. (emphasis added). The "Limitation Date" has passed and thus the amount due under the guaranty is governed by the highlighted portion of the text of the guaranty. The parties dispute, however, the amount guaranteed by this provision. Stone contends that his liability under the Huntsville Guaranty is limited to the amount by which the outstanding principal on the loan exceeds $5,880,000.00. Stone urges that the "outstanding ... principal balance" includes only principal and does not include accrued interest. RTC argues that the guaranty requires Stone to pay the difference between $5,880,000.00 and the total amount outstanding under the Huntsville Note, including both unpaid principal and accrued interest. RTC asserts that there was an unlimited guaranty of principal and interest, and then after a certain date the guaranty of principal was limited to the excess over $5,880,000.00, leaving the guaranty of accrued interest unlimited. This issue was fairly presented to the district court, but was not addressed. We decline to address it now, preferring that the district court do so in the first instance. Accordingly, the judgment against Stone on the guaranty is vacated and this issue is remanded to the district court for adjudication.18 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment against Amberley Huntsville Joint Venture, Amberley Huntsville Associates, and Warner E. Stone on the Huntsville Note is affirmed. The judgment against Amberley Decatur Joint Venture, Amberley Decatur, Ltd., Amberley Huntsville Associates and Warner E. Stone on the Decatur Note is also affirmed. However, the judgment is modified to reflect the nonrecourse nature of the loans by limiting the liability to the value of the assets pledged as security for the loans. We also affirm the district court's summary judgment in the amount of $1,873,916.97 against Warner E. Stone on the Decatur Guaranty. With respect to the Huntsville Guaranty, we vacate the judgment against Warner E. Stone and remand to the district court for adjudication of the amount due. For the foregoing reasons, the district court's judgment is AFFIRMED in part, MODIFIED in part, VACATED in part, and REMANDED in part. These cases, docket numbers 90-7307 and 90-7308, were not consolidated by the district court or by this court on appeal. However, they were scheduled and argued together before this court. We order that the cases are hereby consolidated The Huntsville Note provided: The Maker shall be liable upon the indebtedness under this Note, all sums to accrue or become payable thereon ... to the extent, but only to the extent, of the security pledged for the payment of this Note, including without limitation, all property, rights and estates described in the Mortgage and Security Agreement, Loan Agreement, and other Security Documents. In addition, the Huntsville Note provided that Savers' legal rights were limited to the preservation, enforcement and foreclosure of liens, rights, properties and estates in the Mortgage and Security Agreement and Security Documents now or at any time hereafter securing the payment of the indebtedness evidenced by this Note and no attachment, execution or other writ of process shall be sought, issued or levied upon any assets, properties or funds of the Maker or its Joint Venturers or Partners of Joint Venturers except in their capacity as Guarantors, other than the properties, rights, estates, and interests described in the Mortgage and Security Agreement and Security Document securing the indebtedness evidenced by this Note. The Huntsville Note expressly precluded Savers from obtaining a deficiency judgment against its makers: In the event of foreclosure of such liens, rights, properties and estates in the Mortgage and Security Agreement and the Security Documents securing the payment of the indebtedness evidenced by this Note by private power of sale or otherwise, no judgment for any deficiency upon such indebtedness, sums and amounts shall be obtainable by the Payee or other holder hereof against the Maker hereof, individually, or his heirs, successors, assigns, legal representatives, or Joint Venturers and/or Partners of Joint Venturers of Maker except in their capacity as Guarantors. The exact language of this provision is as follows: Upon the sale of the Mortgaged Property, refinance or maturity of the loan, whichever first occurs and in addition to other costs and fees required to be paid under the Security Instruments (hereinafter defined) and subject to any applicable usury limitations, Maker promises to pay to the order of Payee, as "Additional Interest" the following sums: (1) Fifteen Percent (15%) of the "Net Sales Proceeds" from the sale of the Mortgaged Property hereinafter defined and more particularly described in the Mortgage and Security Agreement of even date herewith, securing the loan evidenced by this Promissory Note, and; (2) an amount equal to Fifteen Percent (15%) of the difference between the appraised value of the Mortgaged Property according to the appraisal approved by Payee ... With respect to the makers' obligations at maturity or early retirement of the debt, the Huntsville Note provided as follows: In the event Maker does not sell the Mortgaged Property but repays the loan prior to maturity or at maturity, Maker shall pay to Payee for its Additional Interest and in lieu thereof the Fair Market Value of Payee's Additional Interest. The provision of the Huntsville Guaranty that defines the amount recoverable from the guarantors provides as follows: Thus, the "Guaranteed Indebtedness" initially included the entire amount borrowed by the makers of the Huntsville Note but was reduced following the "Limitation Date" as defined in the guaranty. The parties agree that the "Limitation Date" has passed and that in this appeal, the amount due under the guaranty is defined by the last sentence of the above provision: "the amount of the principal balance of the Note from time to time outstanding by which the unpaid principal balance of the Note exceeds $5,880,000." For a more complete discussion of this issue, see text infra at Section III (B). The Decatur Note provides as follows: In addition to the payment of principal and interest provided to be paid herein ... Maker [the Joint Venture] promises to pay to the order of [Savers], as an "Equity Share", Fifteen percent (15%) of the "Net Sales Proceeds" upon the sale of the Mortgaged Property more particularly described in the Exhibit "A" attached hereto and made a part hereof, if the sale of the Mortgaged Property occurs during the Construction Phase of the Loan or Twenty-five percent (25%) of the "Net Sales Proceeds" upon the sale of the Mortgaged Property more particularly described in Exhibit "A", if said sale occurs during the Permanent Phase of the Loan ... The Decatur Note further provides as follows: If the Mortgaged Property is not sold prior to the maturity date of the Loan, at maturity [Savers] is to receive an amount equal to Twenty-five percent (25%) of the Fair Market Value of the Mortgaged Property ... If [the Joint Venture] repays in full the principal and interest of the Loan ... [the Joint Venture] must purchase [Savers'] "Equity Share" for Fifteen percent (15%) of the Fair Market Value of the Mortgaged Property. In the affidavit, Starnes defined "arrearage" to include both the principal amount owed on the loan as well as any accrued and unpaid interest. The total amount due reflects the "arrearage" plus the amount due under the "additional interest" and "equity" provisions of the Huntsville and Decatur Notes, respectively Stone also testified that Savers failed to credit Joint Venture's cash flow payments against the balance due and improperly added late fees and delinquent interest to the amount due Section 1823(e) provides as follows: No agreement which tends to diminish or defeat the interests of the [FDIC] in any asset acquired by it under this section or section 1821 of this title, either as security for a loan or by purchase or as receiver of any insured depository institution, shall be valid against the Corporation unless such agreement-- (1) is in writing, (2) was executed by the depository institution and any person claiming an adverse interest thereunder, including the obligor, contemporaneously with the acquisition of the asset by the depository institution, (3) was approved by the board of directors of the depository institution or its loan committee, which approval shall be reflected in the minutes of said board or committee, and (4) has been, continuously, from the time of its execution, an official record of the depository institution. Paragraph 11.20 of the Decatur Mortgage and Security Agreement provides as follows: 20 No Partnership: Nothing contained in the Security Documents is intended to, or shall be construed as, creating to any extent and in any manner whatsoever any partnership, joint venture or association between Mortgagor, any Guarantor, Mortgagee, or in any way make Mortgagee co-principals with Mortgagor or any Guarantor with reference to the Mortgaged Property, and any inferences to the contrary are hereby expressly negated The Huntsville Note contains the following provision: Notwithstanding the foregoing and in no event shall the outstanding principal balance of this Note exceed Eighty percent (80%) of the Fair Market Value of the Mortgaged Property (according to the latest appraisal furnished by Borrower) during the Construction Phase of this Loan or Eighty-five Percent (85%) of such Fair Market Value of the Mortgaged Property during the Permanent Phase of this Loan. In the event the outstanding principal balance exceeds the required percentage of Fair Market Value then Borrower shall either furnish a new appraisal showing an increased Fair Market Value or pay the excess of the principal amount to the Payee hereof upon written request. Ala.Code Sec. 7-1-208 provides in full as follows: A term providing that one party or his successor in interest may accelerate payment or performance or require collateral or additional collateral "at will" or "when he deems himself insecure" or in words of similar import shall be construed to mean that he shall have power to do so only if he in good faith believes that the prospect of payment or performance is impaired. The burden of establishing lack of good faith is on the party against whom the power has been exercised. The Huntsville Note provides that its limitation on recovery from the makers of the note does not in any way limit Savers' ability to pursue deficiency judgments against the guarantors: Notwithstanding anything herein contained to the contrary, this paragraph shall not mitigate, void, effect or satisfy in any manner the obligations of the Guarantors under that certain Guaranty Agreement of even date herewith executed by Joe R. Faulk, Jr., G.N. Olson, Donald E. Redford and Warner E. Stone. Our holding with respect to the Huntsville Note does not affect the liability of the guarantors under the terms of the Huntsville Guaranty. The Decatur Note provides that the limitation on recovery from the makers of the note does not in any way limit Savers' ability to pursue deficiency judgments against the guarantors: Notwithstanding anything herein contained to the contrary, this paragraph shall not mitigate, void, effect or satisfy in any manner the obligations of the Guarantors under their Guaranty of even date herewith executed by Joe R. Faulk, Jr., Gerald Nels Olson, Donald E. Redford and Warner E. Stone. Our holding with respect to the Decatur Note does not affect the liability of the guarantors under the terms of the Decatur Guaranty. The automatic stay of proceedings under the Bankruptcy Code remains in effect as to the other guarantors of these notes: Gerald N. Olson, Donald E. Redford and Joe R. Faulk, Jr Stone contends that the affidavit supporting RTC's motion for summary judgment against Stone on the guaranty was conclusory and did not provide component figures and calculations. This argument may have merit. On remand, if summary judgment is proper with respect to the amount due under the Huntsville Guaranty, more detailed affidavits may be required to establish the exact amounts of principal, accrued interest, and other payments overdue under the Huntsville Note Stone also argues that the RTC affidavit failed to consider disputes between the parties regarding proper credit of past payments against the indebtedness. Stone's allegations regarding the proper credit of past payments are conclusory and without merit.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line792
__label__wiki	0.855296	0.855296	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Second Circuit › 1996 › Andrew Gottlieb, and Jean Gottlieb, Individually and As Thenatural Parents of Infants Dawn Gottlieb... Receive free daily summaries of new opinions from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Andrew Gottlieb, and Jean Gottlieb, Individually and As Thenatural Parents of Infants Dawn Gottlieb and Leegottlieb, Plaintiffs-appellants, v. the County of Orange, Orange County Department of Socialservices, Esther Coppola, in Her Individual Capacity and Inher Official Capacity As an Employee of the County of Orangeand the Orange County Department of Social Services Andlinda E. Douthert, in Her Individual Capacity and in Herofficial Capacity As a Supervisory Employee of the County Oforange and the Orange County Department of Social Services,defendants-appellees,todd Zeltman, New York State Trooper, in His Individualcapacity, Defendant, 84 F.3d 511 (2d Cir. 1996) US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - 84 F.3d 511 (2d Cir. 1996) Argued Feb. 2, 1996. Decided May 29, 1996 Nelson M. Farber, New York City (Akst & Akst, New York City, on the brief), for Plaintiffs-Appellants. Phyllis A. Ingram, Nyack, New York (MacCartney, MacCartney, Kerrigan & MacCartney, Nyack, New York, on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees. Lansner & Kubitschek, New York City (Carolyn A. Kubitschek, New York City, of counsel), filed a brief for amicus curiae National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in support of Appellants. Before: OAKES, KEARSE, and WINTER, Circuit Judges. KEARSE, Circuit Judge: Plaintiffs Andrew and Jean Gottlieb (the "Gottliebs") appeal from so much of a final judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as dismissed their claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994) for compensatory and punitive damages against defendants County of Orange and Orange County Department of Social Services (collectively the "County") and two County employees, Esther Coppola and Linda E. Douthert, for actions taken allegedly in violation of plaintiffs' due process rights during a County investigation into allegations that Andrew had sexually abused plaintiffs' two children. The district court, Vincent L. Broderick, Judge, granted partial summary judgment dismissing plaintiffs' claims against Coppola and Douthert on the ground of qualified immunity. See Gottlieb v. County of Orange, 871 F. Supp. 625 (1994) ("Gottlieb I "). Thereafter, the court, Charles L. Brieant, Judge, granted summary judgment in favor of the County on the ground, inter alia, that the undisputed facts established that the County had adequately trained its caseworkers. See Gottlieb v. County of Orange, 882 F. Supp. 71 (1995) ("Gottlieb II "). On appeal, plaintiffs challenge both summary judgment decisions, contending that they were entitled to summary judgment in their favor or that there were factual issues that precluded summary judgment against them. For the reasons that follow, we disagree and we affirm the judgment of the district court. In 1990, the Gottliebs lived in Orange County, New York, with their daughter Dawn, age five, and their son Lee, age four. The County, through its Child Protective Services agency, investigates reports of child abuse in Orange County. On January 24, 1990, the County received from a state agency a report of an anonymous complaint of child abuse in the Gottlieb family. As recorded by the state agency, the January 24 complaint about the Gottliebs stated that "Father pulls down his pants and underwear and dances around the living room in front of the children. This has occurred more than once. Mother is present when this occurs and laughs about it." On January 29, the County received another complaint; the complainant no longer sought anonymity and said she was the source of the January 24 complaint. The County's record of the complaint stated that according to the complainant ("Source"), [y]esterday, Father pulled down his pants and underwear and danced around the living room. This has happened in the past. Mother is aware of this and she thinks that it's funny. Father wakes Dawn up at night and gets into bed with child. Father tickles Dawn's breasts. An attached comment sheet also noted: Dawn stated "Father tickles my boobies". Dawn also said that Father wakes her up and tells her that he has to get in bed with her because she can't sleep. Father then makes her hold him tight. Father tells child not to tell Mommy. Source is extremely concerned about confidentiality. Source watches Dawn after school at 3 p.m. and she picks Lee up at noon from nursery school. Source made first report, but was anonymous. Source wants contact this time. Coppola, a senior caseworker for the County, was assigned to investigate the matter and was given the above information. On January 30, Coppola contacted the Source, who repeated the substance of the above communications. In questioning the Source, Coppola focused on the substance of the allegations and did not conduct "background inquiries to evaluate the source's reliability, or whether the source may have harbored any malice toward the plaintiffs." Gottlieb I, 871 F. Supp. at 627-28. In her deposition, Coppola stated that though she did not specifically ask whether the Source had any malice towards the Gottliebs, she saw no evidence of malice in the Source's responses to the questions that were asked. On January 31, Coppola went to Lee's nursery school, but Lee was absent; Coppola spoke to the principal, though not to Lee's teacher. The principal said that Lee had had no behavioral problems. On the following day, February 1, Coppola interviewed, seriatim, Lee, Dawn, their mother, and their father. Lee, interviewed at his nursery school, "did not disclose any abuse"; he laughed when asked about his father's pants falling down. Coppola then talked with Dawn at her school in an interview lasting 45 minutes to an hour; Coppola took extensive notes of the interview and was deposed on the subject for several days. The school nurse was present for all but the first 10 minutes of the interview. At the outset, Coppola sought to build rapport with Dawn, stating that Coppola's job was "to protect children." Coppola also asked questions designed to measure Dawn's ability to distinguish fact from fantasy. She determined that Dawn could count on her fingers; knew some colors, her age, and the names of family members; could remember and describe gifts, toys, and her birthday; knew that Coppola could not walk up a wall or fly, and that only birds and planes fly; and was familiar with "non-threatening body parts" such as Coppola's nose and eyes. Dawn played with toys brought by Coppola and said she wanted to draw. Dawn drew pictures that she then covered with black. Before the nurse joined them, Coppola asked Dawn "when [Dawn] was going to tell about Daddy losing his pants." Coppola testified at her deposition that Dawn, who "thought it was pretty funny," looked at me and she said ... "How do you know that?" And she said, "It's an in-house secret, and daddy doesn't like tattletales." And I said, "It's okay. You can tell me." And then she said how daddy lost his pants and everybody was laughing.... Coppola told Dawn that it was all right to tell because Coppola knew "all in house secrets." In the presence of the school nurse, Coppola asked whether Dawn knew other body parts, and Dawn identified breasts, buttocks, and the vaginal area in colloquial terms (e.g., "boobies" for breasts). Coppola then asked, "Remember we just talked about in house secrets and you told me about Daddy ['s] pants falling down [?]"; Dawn responded that she did. Coppola reiterated that it was all right for Dawn to talk about in house secrets because Coppola knew about them, but that Dawn had to tell the truth: "it [']s OK to tell but it has to be true [.] It has to really happen." Coppola repeatedly reassured Dawn that what had happened was not her fault and told Dawn it was all right to tell what had happened, so long as she was telling the truth. Coppola asked, "Did Daddy [']s pants fall down?", and Dawn "giggled yes." Then Coppola, indicating her own private areas, asked, "Has any one touched you here [,] here [,] or here [?]"; Dawn said " [Y]es." Thereafter, in response to a series of largely nonleading questions (e.g., "Who touches [?]"; "What does he touch [?]"; "With what [?]"; "Where [?]"; "Who knows about this [?]"; and "How do you know they know this [?]"), Dawn proceeded to state that on three occasions in the dark in her room, her father had inserted and moved his finger inside her vaginal area. Dawn said her father also touched her brother's anus. Dawn said her mother, aunt, and grandmother knew that her father touched her, that her mother and grandmother had told her father to stop, and that her parents had fought about it. Her father had stopped for a while but then had resumed. Dawn said she had never touched her father's private parts but that her brother had touched her private parts after seeing her father touch them. Dawn indicated that she was afraid to have anyone outside of the family learn of these events and feared that she would be punished if she talked about them outside of the home. After the interview, Coppola asked the nurse whether Dawn had had any behavior problems; the nurse subsequently informed Coppola that there had been no behavior or attendance problems. Coppola also talked with Dawn's teacher and, speaking only in generalities, asked her to "support" Dawn and to inform Coppola if any problems arose. Coppola immediately reported to Douthert, her supervisor, the substance of Dawn's statements, and Douthert told Coppola to contact law enforcement. Coppola and a state trooper, defendant Todd Zeltman, proceeded to interview Dawn at Dawn's baby sitter's home. According to Zeltman's deposition, Dawn made statements confirming Coppola's account of the initial interview. Coppola then interviewed Dawn's mother, Jean, who denied that Dawn had told her of any sexual abuse. Jean stated that Dawn could have gotten the idea of her father inserting and moving his finger in her vagina by watching a pornographic video that Jean claimed Dawn had viewed accidentally the prior weekend. Coppola then spoke with Dawn's father, Andrew. Andrew said that his pants had once fallen down accidentally (an explanation Coppola testified she had found "valid"), and he denied sexually abusing Dawn. After these interviews, Coppola informed the Gottliebs that the County would seek to take Dawn and Lee into custody pending completion of the investigation unless Jean could make suitable arrangements to separate the children from Andrew. Jean was offered the alternative of making suitable arrangements for herself and the children to stay elsewhere; she was told that it would not be suitable for them to stay with Andrew's mother or sister, who Dawn had said knew of the abuse. The Gottliebs were also offered the alternative of having Andrew move out of the home for 90 days. The Gottliebs spoke with an attorney by telephone. Then, rather than have the children moved or removed, Andrew left the home. Although on February 1 Andrew had volunteered to take a lie detector test regarding Dawn's allegations, he withdrew that offer on the advice of counsel. The Gottliebs and the County then agreed on a cooperative course of action. Jean took Dawn to see a physician and a psychiatrist of the Gottliebs' own choosing " [f]or validation purposes"; after examinations, these doctors opined that there was no evidence of sexual abuse. Approximately one month after he left the home, Andrew was allowed to return and remain in the home. Nonetheless, in April 1990, a state-agency follow-up report marked the matter "indicated" rather than "unfounded," and a review body found that "there was 'some credible evidence' of sexual abuse and inadequate guardianship of both children by their parents." No judicial proceeding was instituted, however, until October 1990, when the County applied in family court for an order directing that experts chosen by the County be permitted to examine Dawn to assess the allegations of sexual abuse. That application was withdrawn in November 1990, apparently based on an agreement between plaintiffs and the County to have County experts examine the reports of plaintiffs' doctors who had examined Dawn in February 1990. After completing their review of those reports in January and February of 1991, the County's experts expressed a desire to conduct independent examinations. The County did not make a new family-court application for examinations until June. That court denied the application on the ground that the existing expert opinions that no abuse had occurred, combined with the County's delays in seeking an order permitting its own experts' examination, persuaded the court that it was not in the best interests of the child to undergo any further examinations in connection with events alleged to have occurred some 17 months prior to the County's June 1991 application. Eventually, after a state administrative proceeding, the complaints against the Gottliebs were expunged from the record. Plaintiffs commenced the present action in January 1993 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging, inter alia, that the investigation and the removal of Andrew from the Gottliebs' home violated their rights to procedural and substantive due process. To the extent pertinent to this appeal, the complaint alleged (1) that plaintiffs were denied procedural due process because they were not afforded a hearing before or after Andrew was forced to leave the home; and (2) that plaintiffs were denied substantive due process because (a) Coppola interviewed Dawn without plaintiffs' knowledge and consent, (b) there was not a sufficient basis for the County to separate Andrew from his children, and (c) the County's hiring and training of its caseworkers evinced deliberate indifference towards the privacy interests of families. Following a period of discovery, Zeltman was dismissed from the case by stipulation, defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, and plaintiffs cross-moved for partial summary judgment in their favor. In Gottlieb I, Judge Broderick denied plaintiffs' motion without comment. He granted defendants' motion insofar as it sought dismissal of the claims against Coppola and Douthert on the ground of qualified immunity, stating that the record provided "an objectively reasonable basis" for them "to believe there existed an 'imminent danger' to the daughter." 871 F. Supp. at 629. As for the claims against the institutional defendants, the court noted that though the County argued that its training of its caseworkers did not display a deliberate indifference to constitutional rights, the County had merely "submitted a list of training courses which the defendants have taken, but ha [d] not offered any evidence as to the content taught in such courses," id. at 631 n. 12. The court therefore denied the County's motion, ruling that the County had not proffered evidence of "significant substantive training relating to the kinds of questioning appropriate." Id. at 631. The court stated that such evidence could be submitted in support of a renewed summary judgment motion by the County. The County thereafter renewed its motion, supplementing its presentation of evidence as to its hiring and training practices for caseworkers assigned to investigate allegations of child abuse. To qualify for a position in the sexual abuse unit of the County's child protective services agency, an applicant was required to possess a four-year higher education degree and one year of casework experience. Coppola, who joined the unit in 1987 or 1988, had bachelor's and master's degrees in social work and took two written tests to qualify for her position as senior caseworker. Coppola received ongoing training, and by January 1990 she had completed some 46 hours of training courses whose titles indicated a focus on sexual abuse investigation and interviewing or on child sexual abuse victims. Douthert held a master's degree in social work and, by January 1990, had completed about 39 hours of County-sponsored training with respect to the investigation of child abuse, in particular sexual abuse, and with respect to sexual-abuse interviewing skills. The record as to the content of the County's child protective services ("CPS") training courses included the following. County caseworkers were taught to follow the procedures set out in the New York State Child Protective Services Program Manual ("CPS Manual"). The CPS Manual states, inter alia, that it is important to contact the source of an abuse report "to clarify information contained in the report" and "to obtain additional information." It also states: The CPS worker should be patient and flexible. Rapport can be established with the child by asking him/her some general questions about him/herself and by explaining the purpose of the interview in a manner appropriate to the child's ability to understand. During the course of the interview, the CPS caseworker should ask questions in a non-judgmental and supportive way to elicit information concerning the allegations. The children need to be reassured that they are not bad, in trouble, or at fault.... Coppola's training also included programs that used a New York State Child Protective Services guidebook called "The Sexual Abuse Interview" ("CPS Interview Guidebook") and the New York State Child Protective Services Training Institute Guidebook ("CPS Training Guidebook"). The CPS Interview Guidebook notes that " [a] person must be able to communicate with a child and be able to elicit an account of what actually occurred without leading the child victim or introducing suggestive material prematurely." It undertakes to ensure that at the conclusion of training, "participants will be able to ... recognize how leading questions can contaminate the objectivity of the investigative interview." The CPS Interview Guidebook contains an exercise consisting of a column of "Leading Questions" that participants are required to transpose into "Non-leading Questions." An "Interview Checklist" instructs caseworkers to ask themselves, "Were open ended questions asked effectively?" and "Were the questions leading/suggestive?" In addition, Volume One of the CPS Training Guidebook warns caseworkers to, inter alia, "Solicit information in a non-accusatory manner [and] ask open-ended questions." It admonishes "DON'T ... Lead the interview by asking yes/no questions," and "DON'T ... Tell the child what happened concerning the allegations, e.g., 'Daddy really beat you last night, didn't he?'." In Gottlieb II, Judge Brieant granted the County's renewed and augmented summary judgment motion and dismissed the claims against the County. As to the substantive due process claim, the court reviewed the County's evidence of its training on child sexual abuse investigation, and found that plaintiffs had "offered nothing to indicate that the training was perfunctory or that the instructions were ignored in the County's training programs" and had "failed to provide any evidence which would establish the inadequacy of training." 882 F. Supp. at 73. As for the procedural due process claim, the court held that there had been no violation because, inter alia, it was reasonable for Coppola, who had received adequate training, to believe that the immediate separation of Andrew from Dawn was required because of emergency circumstances. The court noted that Andrew had thereafter secured the examiners of his choice, cooperated with the investigators, been allowed to return home, and ultimately had the complaints expunged from the record. See id. There being no remaining unresolved claims, a final judgment was entered dismissing the complaint. This appeal followed. On appeal, plaintiffs principally pursue their claims (1) that they were deprived of substantive due process because the primary factual predicate for the County's separation of Andrew from his children was statements by Dawn that had been elicited by leading questions from an improperly and carelessly trained caseworker, and (2) that they were deprived of procedural due process because the County failed to seek judicial ratification of its insistence that Andrew and the children be separated. For the reasons that follow, we are unpersuaded.A. The Substantive Due Process Claims It is established that parents have a fundamental, constitutionally protected liberty interest in the custody of their children. See, e.g., Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651-52, 92 S. Ct. 1208, 1212-13, 31 L. Ed. 2d 551 (1972); Duchesne v. Sugarman, 566 F.2d 817, 825 (2d Cir. 1977). Where, however, there is an objectively reasonable basis for believing that parental custody constitutes a threat to the child's health or safety, government officials may remove a child from his or her parents' custody at least pending investigation. See, e.g., Cecere v. City of New York, 967 F.2d 826, 829 (2d Cir. 1992); Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d 913, 921-22 (2d Cir. 1987); Duchesne v. Sugarman, 566 F.2d at 826. Plaintiffs claim that there was no such basis in the present case and that all of the defendants are liable for separating Andrew from the rest of the family. We conclude that the district court properly dismissed these claims. In order to establish the liability of a municipality in an action under § 1983 for unconstitutional acts by a municipal employee below the policymaking level, a plaintiff must show that the violation of his constitutional rights resulted from a municipal custom or policy. See, e.g., City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 389, 109 S. Ct. 1197, 1205, 103 L. Ed. 2d 412 (1989); Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808, 823-24, 105 S. Ct. 2427, 2436-37, 85 L. Ed. 2d 791 (1985) (plurality opinion); Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S. Ct. 2018, 2037, 56 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1978). The inference that such a policy existed may arise from "circumstantial proof, such as evidence that the municipality so failed to train its employees as to display a deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of those within its jurisdiction." Ricciuti v. New York City Transit Authority, 941 F.2d 119, 123 (2d Cir. 1991); see, e.g., City of Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. at 390-91, 109 S. Ct. at 1205-06; Walker v. City of New York, 974 F.2d 293, 297-98 (2d Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 961, 113 S. Ct. 1387, 122 L. Ed. 2d 762 (1993); Sorlucco v. New York City Police Department, 971 F.2d 864, 870-71 (2d Cir. 1992). A government employee sued in her individual capacity for damages arising out of her performance of discretionary functions is entitled to qualified immunity where it was objectively reasonable to believe that her acts did not violate clearly established federally protected rights. See, e.g., Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639-40, 107 S. Ct. 3034, 3038-39, 97 L. Ed. 2d 523 (1987); Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S. Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L. Ed. 2d 271 (1986); Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S. Ct. 2727, 2738, 73 L. Ed. 2d 396 (1982); Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d at 920. The qualified immunity defense may be upheld as a matter of law when the evidence is such that, even when it is viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs and with all permissible inferences drawn in their favor, no rational jury could fail to conclude that it was objectively reasonable for the defendant to believe that she was acting in a fashion that did not violate such a right. See, e.g., Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d at 921; Halperin v. Kissinger, 807 F.2d 180, 189 (D.C. Cir. 1986) (Scalia, J., sitting by designation). In order to defeat a summary judgment motion that is properly supported by affidavits, depositions, and documents as envisioned by Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e), the opposing party is required to come forward with materials envisioned by the Rule, setting forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue of material fact to be tried. He cannot defeat the motion by relying on the allegations in his pleading, see id., or on conclusory statements, or on mere assertions that affidavits supporting the motion are not credible, see, e.g., L & L Started Pullets, Inc. v. Gourdine, 762 F.2d 1, 3-4 (2d Cir. 1985); Wyler v. United States, 725 F.2d 156, 160 (2d Cir. 1983). The motion "will not be defeated merely ... on the basis of conjecture or surmise." Bryant v. Maffucci, 923 F.2d 979, 982 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 849, 112 S. Ct. 152, 116 L. Ed. 2d 117 (1991). In ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the district court is required to resolve all ambiguities and draw all factual inferences in favor of the party against whom summary judgment is sought, see, e.g., Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 2513, 91 L. Ed. 2d 202 (1986); Donahue v. Windsor Locks Board of Fire Commissioners, 834 F.2d 54, 57 (2d Cir. 1987). If the undisputed facts reveal that there is an absence of sufficient proof as to any essential element on which the opponent of summary judgment has the burden of proof, any factual dispute with respect to other elements becomes immaterial and cannot defeat the motion. See, e.g., Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S. Ct. 2548, 2552-53, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1986); Burke v. Jacoby, 981 F.2d 1372, 1379 (2d Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 909, 113 S. Ct. 2338, 124 L. Ed. 2d 249 (1993). We will reverse the granting of summary judgment if there is any evidence in the record from which a reasonable inference on an issue of material fact could be drawn in favor of the nonmoving party. See, e.g., Goenaga v. March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, 51 F.3d 14, 18 (2d Cir. 1995); Bryant v. Maffucci, 923 F.2d at 982. In the present case, there seems to be no genuine dispute as to what Dawn told Coppola. Coppola testified to the statements summarized in Part I.A.1. above; her account was confirmed by her notes of the interview. Zeltman testified in his deposition that Dawn's statements in the subsequent interview that he attended were consistent with Coppola's account of the first interview; Zeltman's testimony was confirmed by his own official report. Although in response to defendants' summary judgment motion plaintiffs denied that Dawn made certain statements, their denials were conclusory, and they did not present any evidence that would undermine the evidence presented by defendants. Indeed, Jean Gottlieb's own deposition testimony conflicts with plaintiffs' denial. Jean testified that after Andrew's return to the home, Dawn said, " 'I didn't tell the truth and I know that nothing happened.' " Thus, though Jean's testimony sought to impeach the content of Dawn's statements, it supported defendants' evidence that the statements were in fact made. Dawn's statements plainly provided an objectively reasonable basis for Coppola and Douthert to believe that Andrew and Dawn should be separated, at least pending further investigation. Although plaintiffs argue that there were issues of fact that should have precluded summary judgment dismissing their substantive due process claims, much of their argument is conclusory or ignores the record. For example, plaintiffs argue that the statements Dawn made were suspect because the questions Coppola asked were leading. But the County presented evidence of the questions asked by Coppola, and plaintiffs did not controvert that evidence. As detailed above in Part I.A.1., the questions that elicited Dawn's damaging allegations of Andrew's manipulation of her vagina were not leading. Neither plaintiffs' conclusory statements to the contrary nor their emphasis on preliminary questions that were to an extent leading was sufficient to create a genuine issue to be tried as to whether the material portion of Coppola's interrogation was leading. Further, though plaintiffs argue that "CPS caseworkers were not trained ... to avoid asking leading questions" (Plaintiffs' brief on appeal at 41), that conclusory and unsupported assertion could not create a triable issue in light of the contrary documents submitted by the County. For example, as set out in Part I.B. above, the CPS Interview Guidebook used by the County to train caseworkers including Coppola undertook to ensure that at the conclusion of training, "participants will be able to ... recognize how leading questions can contaminate the objectivity of the investigative interview"; it provided exercises requiring the caseworker to transform leading questions into nonleading questions; and it repeatedly stressed that the caseworker must "be able to elicit an account of what actually occurred without leading the child." (Emphases added.) Similarly, the CPS Training Guidebook admonished "DON'T ... Lead the interview by asking yes/no questions," and "DON'T ... Tell the child what happened concerning the allegations, e.g., 'Daddy really beat you last night, didn't he?'." Plaintiffs did not come forward with any evidence to suggest that the documents submitted by the County were not used in training County CPS caseworkers in general or Coppola in particular. Plaintiffs' challenge to the adequacy of the County's training of caseworkers is instead premised on the initial denial of summary judgment in Gottlieb I and their argument that "the fact that two federal judges could examine the same record and disagree as to whether the Constitution was violated strongly suggests that reasonable jurors could do the same." (Plaintiffs' brief on appeal at 39 (emphasis added).) This argument is flawed in that, inter alia, the materials before the judges in Gottlieb I and Gottlieb II were not the same. The Gottlieb I court stated that on the record before it the County had not shown adequate training, but the court invited supplementation of the record. The County thereafter presented new evidence. The Gottlieb II court made its ruling on the basis of the augmented record. In sum, plaintiffs failed to come forward with any evidence to controvert defendants' showing as to (a) the content of the training given Coppola and Douthert, (b) the propriety of that training, (c) the nonleading nature of the questions that elicited Dawn's accusations against Andrew, and (d) the damning nature of the statements made by Dawn. The properly conducted investigation gave reasonable ground for Coppola and Douthert to believe that there existed circumstances warranting the separation of Andrew from Dawn pending further inquiry. The district court properly concluded that there were no genuine issues of material fact to be tried with respect to plaintiffs' substantive due process claims because, even with all permissible inferences drawn in favor of plaintiffs, no rational juror (a) could reasonably find deliberate indifference on the part of the County in light of the training courses described above, or (b) could fail to find that Coppola and Douthert had a reasonable basis for believing that the circumstances warranted the immediate separation of Andrew from Dawn. Plaintiffs contend that they were denied procedural due process principally because defendants failed to give them notice and a hearing before or after requiring Andrew's separation from Dawn. The district court properly dismissed these claims as well. A parent may not lawfully be deprived of the custody of his or her child without a hearing "at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner." Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. 545, 552, 85 S. Ct. 1187, 1191, 14 L. Ed. 2d 62 (1965). It is established, however, that government officials may remove a child from his or her parents' custody before a hearing is held where there is an objectively reasonable basis for believing that a threat to the child's health or safety is imminent. See, e.g., Cecere v. City of New York, 967 F.2d at 829; Hurlman v. Rice, 927 F.2d 74, 80 (2d Cir. 1991); Robison v. Via, 821 F.2d at 921-22; Duchesne v. Sugarman, 566 F.2d at 826. For the reasons discussed in Part II.A. above, a rational juror could not fail to conclude that defendants had an objectively reasonable basis for believing that the prompt separation of Andrew from Dawn, without pausing to obtain a court order, was necessary. The Source had reported ongoing sexual abuse of Dawn; Dawn herself described repeated molestations by Andrew; and Dawn said that Andrew did not like "tattletales" and that she expected to be punished if she spoke of those matters outside of the home. Accordingly, no pre-separation hearing was required. The question remains whether plaintiffs were deprived of due process because there was no judicial review following Andrew's departure from the home. Where there has been an emergency removal of a child from a parent's custody without a hearing, due process requires that the state procedures provide the parent an opportunity to be heard at a reasonably prompt time after the removal. See generally Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. at 552, 85 S. Ct. at 1191. We conclude that the available state procedures provided Andrew with such an opportunity. At the time of the events in the present case, the New York Family Court Act ("Act"), N.Y.Fam.Ct.Act §§ 1021-1030 (McKinney 1983 & Supp.1990), authorized a designated employee of a county department of social services, where there was not time to obtain a court order, to take a child into protective custody if the employee "ha [d] reasonable cause to believe that the child [wa]s in such circumstance or condition that his continuing in said place of residence or in the care and custody of the parent or person legally responsible for the child's care present [ed] an imminent danger to the child's life or health," id. § 1024(a). In the case of such a removal on the ground of abuse, the child protective agency was required either to petition the family court for an order that the child not be returned to the home, or to recommend to the court either that the child be returned to the home or that no petition be filed. See id. § 1026. If for any reason the child was not returned to the home, the agency was required to file a petition with the court, and a hearing was required to be held not later than three court days from the date of the child's removal. See id.; see also id. § 1021 (requiring officials to file family-court petition if child not returned within three days after removal with consent). If the child was removed from the home pursuant to § 1024, that section required the agency, coincident with removal, to give written notice to the parent or legal custodian of the right under § 1028 of the Act to apply to the family court for the return of the child. See id. § 1024(b) (iii). Section 1028 provided that, if there was no prior hearing, the parent or legal custodian of a child temporarily removed pursuant to § 1024 could apply for an order returning the child to the applicant's custody. Unless good cause was shown, a hearing was required to be held within three court days of the application. See id. § 1028. Although § 1028 made express provision for the parent to make such an application only where the child had been "removed" from the home, a substantially similar successor section has been interpreted to encompass circumstances in which the child remained in her home but one parent's custodial rights were altered. Thus, in Commissioner of Social Services ex rel. Alexandria H., 159 Misc.2d 345, 346, 348, 604 N.Y.S.2d 471, 471-72, 473 (N.Y. Fam. Ct.1993), where separated parents had joint custody of a child who resided with her mother, § 1028 was interpreted to permit the father to challenge an order releasing the child to the sole custody of the mother. Thus, Andrew had the opportunity to have a judicial hearing within three days of his departure from the home simply by making application to the family court pursuant to § 1028. Notwithstanding Andrew's opportunity to obtain such a hearing, plaintiffs contend that the burden of commencing a judicial proceeding was on the County and that the County's failure to do so constituted a denial of due process. Plaintiffs rely heavily on language in Duchesne v. Sugarman stating that after the emergency removal of the children in that case, the burden of initiating judicial review was on the welfare agency. The facts of Duchesne, however, were entirely different from those here. In Duchesne, the agency had taken custody of two children in emergency circumstances because their mother had been hospitalized and there was no one to care for them. The mother did not consent, however, despite agency requests, to a transfer of custody. After the mother was released from the hospital, she immediately and repeatedly sought the return of her children. Her requests were rejected. After more than a year of such rejections, she eventually sought legal advice and commenced a habeas corpus action; only thereafter did the agency seek judicial authorization to retain custody of the children. The interval between the agency's removal of the children and its application for judicial authorization had been more than two years. Noting that after her release from the hospital the mother had made "numerous and vociferous requests" for the return of her children, that there was "an uneven situation in which the government has a far greater familiarity with the legal procedures available for testing its action," and that the mother was "uneducated and uninformed in legal intricacies," the Duchesne court stated that " [i]n this situation, the state cannot constitutionally 'sit back and wait' for the parent to institute judicial proceedings.... The burden of initiating judicial review must be shouldered by the government." 566 F.2d at 828. The circumstances in Duchesne were a far cry from those here. In the present case, for example, the Gottliebs consulted with an attorney by telephone on February 1 before there was any separation of Andrew from Dawn. Further, after that consultation with the attorney, Andrew elected to leave the home pending completion of the investigation, rather than have the children uprooted to live with relatives or taken into County custody. While we do not suggest that there is no substantive deprivation where the parent elects to leave the home in preference to having the child removed, that election has an impact on what procedures are required of the governmental agency. When the agency takes the child into its own custody, causing a complete uprooting, it must promptly seek court approval. There are sound policy reasons for not imposing such a requirement automatically when, in preference to having the child removed, the parent has temporarily agreed to leave the home. First, such a requirement would remove one incentive for the agency to offer temporary parental departure as an alternative to removal of the child; the preservation of that alternative would seem generally to be in the best interest of the child. Further, from the departing parent's standpoint, judicial review may not be the preferred method of resolving the matter, for the statutory procedures envision a hearing within three days, and the evidence or allegations may be such that the parent believes the matter likely cannot be adjudicated quickly. He may well consider it in his or his family's best interest to have the investigation proceed on a cooperative basis rather than by adjudication. The imposition of an automatic requirement that the agency seek a court order even after a parental departure would deprive the parent of the option to proceed on a nonadjudicative basis. The events in this case are illustrative. The Gottliebs promptly retained an attorney, began negotiations with the County, and entered into a cooperative effort to resolve the matter. As a result, the Gottliebs were allowed to have the investigation proceed with Dawn being examined only by doctors of their own choosing--an unlikely result had there been a court proceeding--and Andrew was allowed to return home after one month rather than the three months originally envisioned for the investigation. Further, if a departing parent wishes to have the agency initiate judicial review, he can cause it to do so simply by writing to the agency and informing it that he intends to return to the home five days later unless the agency obtains a court order forbidding his return. Had Andrew given the County such notice, it would then have been incumbent on the County to secure an order enforcing his separation from Dawn. In the absence of such notice by Andrew, however, the parties were free to resolve the matter without judicial intervention. We conclude that due process was satisfied because Andrew had the opportunity to obtain prompt post-separation judicial review either by filing an application pursuant to § 1028 or by notifying the County of his intention to return home, which would have forced the County to seek a court order. Either would have resulted in the hearing that plaintiffs claim they were denied. We have considered all of plaintiffs' contentions on this appeal and have found them to be without merit. The judgment of the district court is affirmed. of Second Circuit opinions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line794
__label__wiki	0.718916	0.718916	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › District Courts › New York › Southern District of New York › 1992 › Wiradihardja v. Bermuda Star Line, Inc. Wiradihardja v. Bermuda Star Line, Inc., 802 F. Supp. 989 (S.D.N.Y. 1992) U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York - 802 F. Supp. 989 (S.D.N.Y. 1992) 802 F. Supp. 989 (1992) Martin WIRADIHARDJA, Plaintiff, BERMUDA STAR LINE, INC., Defendant. No. 89 Civ. 3927 (SWK). United States District Court, S.D. New York. September 1, 1992. 990 991 Profeta & Eisenstein, New York City by Constance M. Burke, for plaintiff. Martocci & Burns, New York City by Michael Martocci, for defendant. KRAM, District Judge. This action under the Jones Act, 46 U.S.C.App. § 688,[1] arises from injuries that plaintiff, Martin Wiradihardja ("Wiradihardja"), allegedly sustained as a result of a subordinate crew members' assault while Wiradihardja was aboard the Bermuda Star Line ("BSL") vessel the S.S. QUEEN OF BERMUDA (the "S.S. QUEEN"). Presently before the Court is BSL's motion, pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for an order granting it summary judgment dismissing the complaint's negligence and unseaworthiness claims. Also before the Court is Wiradihardja's cross-motion, pursuant to Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for an order granting it sanctions, including striking BSL's answer, due to BSL's failure to comply with discovery orders. BACKGROUND[2] During June, 1988, plaintiff Wiradihardja was employed as a food manager aboard the S.S. QUEEN.[3] In Wiradihardja's capacity as the S.S. QUEEN's food manager, his responsibilities included supervision of the vessel's food service, food suppliers and food service crew members. Deposition of Martin Wiradihardja, dated Oct. 16, 1989 ("Tr."), at 16, 74. On June 30, 1988, Wiradihardja was in his office adjacent to the vessel's crew mess hall doing paperwork at his desk when a member of the food service staff known to Wiradihardja as Winston Wilson, a vegetable cook, appeared at the office doorway twelve to fifteen feet away. (Tr. at 36-37, 40.) Wilson picked up from the crew mess table in the front of Wiradihardja's office a bottle of tabasco sauce and a bottle of ketchup. (Tr. at 38-39.) Wilson launched the bottle of tabasco at Wiradihardja. (Tr. at 39-42.) Wiradihardja evaded the projectile. (Tr. at 41-42.) Wilson then cast a bottle of ketchup at Wiradihardja, who, in an effort to shield himself, raised his left arm. (Tr. at 40-43.) The bottle of ketchup struck Wiradihardja's left forearm causing a fracture which necessitated surgical repair. (Tr. at 42-43, 77-78.) This action was brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to recover damages for the injuries Wiradihardja sustained aboard the S.S. QUEEN, and was transferred to this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404. The complaint alleges a claim under the Jones Act for negligence, as well as a claim alleging that the vicious propensity of an S.S. QUEEN crew member rendered the vessel unseaworthy. The parties have concluded extensive discovery and filed a joint pre-trial order. BSL nevertheless moves for an order granting it summary judgment dismissing the complaint. BSL contends that, as a matter of law, it may not be held liable in tort (or otherwise) for the injuries Wiradihardja allegedly sustained aboard the S.S. QUEEN. BSL also argues that Wiradihardja 992 has failed to adduce evidence sufficient to support a claim for unseaworthiness and contends that it is entitled to an order dismissing this claim as a matter of law. Wiradihardja opposes BSL's motion for summary judgment and cross-moves for an order, pursuant to Rule 37(b) (2) (C) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, striking BSL's answer on account of BSL having misrepresented to the Court its inability to produce personnel files sought by Wiradihardja during discovery. I. Summary Judgment Standard Under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, summary judgment is appropriate where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." The moving party bears the initial burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Adickes v. S.H. Kress and Co., 398 U.S. 144, 157, 90 S. Ct. 1598, 1608, 26 L. Ed. 2d 142 (1970). The movant may discharge this burden by demonstrating to the Court that there is an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party's case. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S. Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1986).[4] The non-moving party then has the burden of coming forward with "specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial," Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e), by "a showing sufficient to establish the existence of [every] element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Id. at 322, 106 S. Ct. at 2552. The court "must resolve all ambiguities and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the party defending against the motion." Eastway Construction Corp. v. City of New York, 762 F.2d 243, 249 (2d Cir. 1985); Lopez v. S.B. Thomas, Inc., 831 F.2d 1184, 1187 (2d Cir.1987); see also Adickes v. S.H. Kress and Co., 398 U.S. at 158-59, 90 S. Ct. at 1608-09. But the court must inquire whether "there is sufficient evidence favoring the non-moving party for a jury to return a verdict for that party," Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L. Ed. 2d 202 (1986), and grant summary judgment where the non-movant's evidence is merely colorable, conclusory, speculative or not significantly probative. Id. at 249-50, 106 S.Ct. at 2510-11; see Knight v. U.S. Fire Ins. Co., 804 F.2d 9, 12-15 (2d Cir.1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 932, 107 S. Ct. 1570, 94 L. Ed. 2d 762 (1987); Argus Inc. v. Eastman Kodak Co., 801 F.2d 38, 45 (2d Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1088, 107 S. Ct. 1295, 94 L. Ed. 2d 151 (1987). The non-movant must "do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts." Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S. Ct. 1348, 1356, 89 L. Ed. 2d 538 (1986). To determine whether the moving party has met its burden, the court must focus on both the materiality and the genuineness of the factual issues raised by the non-movant. As to materiality, "it is the substantive law's identification of which facts are critical and which facts are irrelevant that governs." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S. Ct. at 2510. A dispute over irrelevant or unnecessary facts will not preclude summary judgment, id., but the presence of unresolved factual issues that are material to the outcome of the litigation mandates a denial of the summary judgment. See, e.g., Knight v. U.S. Fire Ins. Co., 804 F.2d at 11-12. Once the non-moving party has successfully met the burden of establishing the existence of a genuine dispute as to an issue of material fact, summary judgment must be denied unless the moving party 993 comes forward with additional evidence sufficient to establish his or her burden under Rule 56. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. at 330 & n. 2, 106 S. Ct. at 2556 & n. 2 (Brennan, J., dissenting). In sum, if the court determines that "the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is no `genuine issue for trial.'" Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S. Ct. at 1356 (quoting First National Bank of Arizona v. Cities Service Co., 391 U.S. 253, 288, 88 S. Ct. 1575, 1592, 20 L. Ed. 2d 569 (1968)); see also Weg v. Macchiarola, 654 F. Supp. 1189, 1191-92 (S.D.N.Y.1987). II. Negligence Claims Under certain circumstances, an employer who knows or who can reasonably foresee that an employee, while on the job, is likely to commit an assault, may be held responsible for the employee's activities. In order to establish a shipowner's liability in negligence under these circumstances, a plaintiff must establish that (1) the assailant is a person of known vicious character, Offshore Logistics Inc. v. Astro Marine, Inc., 482 F. Supp. 1119, 1121 (E.D.La.1980) and (2) the shipowner knew or should have known of the crew member's violent propensities. Sundberg v. Washington Fish & Oyster Co., 138 F.2d 801 (9th Cir.1943). Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer may also be found liable for an assault by an employee if the assault is committed by a superior upon a subordinate and the assault bears a relation to the real or apparent scope of the attacker's employment or to the interest of the employer, that is, when it is in furtherance of the employer's business. See Lykes Brothers S.S. Co., Inc. v. Grubaugh, 128 F.2d 387, 391 (5th Cir.1942); see also Jones v. Lykes Bros. S.S. Co., 204 F.2d 815 (2d Cir.1953) (no recovery under Jones Act for assault by fellow servant unless assault was committed in discharge of assailant's duties and in furtherance of work of employer's business). Review of the undisputed facts in this case indicates the absence of facts sufficient to establish a prima facie claim under either theory. Absent from the record are facts which would permit the inference that BSL was negligent in hiring or employing Wilson. There are no facts to establish that Wilson's violent conduct was foreseeable. Significantly, there is no indication that Wiradihardja or anyone else ever heard or saw Wilson harm or threaten anyone or otherwise exhibit violent conduct. (Tr. at 88.) In addition, Wiradihardja personally promoted Wilson from galley cleaner to vegetable cook, after Wilson requested the promotion (Tr. at 25), an action that Wiradihardja would hardly have taken had he any reservations about Wilson's possible propensity toward violence. As Wiradihardja has failed to proffer evidence from which a reasonable trier of fact could conclude that his assailant had a propensity to violence or that BSL should have known of any such vicious propensity, the Court holds that, as a matter of law, no reasonable juror could find that BSL was negligent in employing Wilson. Although Wiradihardja points to two occasions where Wilson refused to follow orders from superiors (see Wir. Tr. at 27-28, 32-33), these incidents fail to create a genuine triable issue as to the foreseeability of Wilson's violent conduct. These two incidents, perhaps properly described as "insubordination" were reported to Wiradihardja himself who in turn conveyed the information to officers aboard the S.S. QUEEN, who took no disciplinary action. At best, these incidents support the notion that sailors often lead a rough life and, when confined to a vessel for extended periods during ocean voyages, may be more prone to quarrelsome behavior than are their landlubbing counterparts. See Jones v. Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., 204 F.2d 815, 817 (1953) ("every workman is apt to be angry when a fellow complains of his work to their common superior ... some will harbor their resentment and provoke 994 a quarrel ... sailors lead a rough life and are more apt to use their fists"). Moreover, there is no evidence that these two incidents involved any acts of violence. Accordingly, the Court holds that proof of these two incidents, without more, do not constitute sufficient evidence from which a trier of fact may reasonably infer a propensity to violence. Wiradihardja similarly fails to adduce facts sufficient to support a claim under the theory of respondeat superior. Wiradihardja's own testimony establishes that as a vegetable cook, Wilson was subordinate to Wiradihardja and worked under Wiradihardja's supervision. (Tr. at 25.) The alleged attack, therefore, was by a subordinate upon a superior. Wiradihardja thus fails, as a matter of law, to satisfy the core elements of his respondeat superior claim, namely that the attack was both by a superior upon a subordinate and in furtherance of the employer's business. See Lykes Brothers S.S. Co., Inc. v. Grubaugh, 128 F.2d 387, 391 (5th Cir.1942); see also See Walters v. Moore-McCormack Lines, 309 F.2d at 194-95 (assault "not committed for the benefit of the defendant" may not be viewed as a vicious and vengeful act which the owner could predict at the time of hiring). Accordingly, BSL is entitled to summary judgment dismissing the complaint's negligence claim. III. Unseaworthiness It is well-established that a shipowner has an absolute nondelegable duty to ensure that its vessel is seaworthy. Kratzer v. Capital Marine Supply, Inc., 490 F. Supp. 222, 229 (M.D.La.1980) (citing Mitchell v. Trawler Racer, Inc., 362 U.S. 539, 80 S. Ct. 926, 4 L. Ed. 2d 941 (1960)). This duty encompasses the obligation to provide a competent crew, composed of seamen of equal disposition and seamanship to ordinary men in the calling. See Vallot v. Central Gulf Lines, Inc., 641 F.2d 347 (5th Cir.1981); Miles v. Melrose, 882 F.2d 976 (5th Cir.1989). The key point is that a ship is rendered "unseaworthy" unless it and all of its appurtenances and crew members are reasonably fit and safe for their intended maritime endeavors. See Miles v. Melrose, 882 F.2d 976 (5th Cir.1989); Kratzer v. Capital Marine Supply, Inc., 490 F. Supp. 222 (M.D.La.1980). An injured seaman may recover from a shipowner for breach of the warranty of seaworthiness if injuries were intentionally caused by a fellow seaman in an unprovoked and unusually savage attack. See Claborn v. Star Fish & Oyster Co., Inc., 578 F.2d 983, 985-87 (5th Cir.1978). Unlike a negligence claim for which foreseeability and fault are required, such are not prerequisites to an unseaworthiness claim. See Bartholomew v. Universe Tankships, Inc., 263 F.2d 437, 444 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 1000, 79 S. Ct. 1138, 3 L. Ed. 2d 1030 (1959); Deakle v. John E. Graham & Sons, 756 F.2d 821 (11th Cir. 1985). What is required, however, is a showing that the seaman has a "savage and vicious nature," rendering the ship a "perilous place." Walters v. Moore-McCormack Lines Inc., 309 F.2d 191, 193 (2nd Cir.1962); (citing Boudoin v. Lykes Brothers S.S. Co., 348 U.S. 336, 340, 75 S. Ct. 382, 385, 99 L. Ed. 354 (1955)). Significantly, the Supreme Court has held that a vessel's unseaworthiness may be established solely upon the circumstances of the crew member's conduct, which is itself sufficient to establish his savage and vicious nature. See Boudoin v. Lykes Brothers S.S. Co., 348 U.S. at 340, 75 S. Ct. at 385. Upon consideration of the record here, the Court concludes that Wiradihardja has adduced sufficient unrebutted evidence from which a jury may reasonably conclude that Wilson's presence aboard the S.S. QUEEN rendered the vessel unfit for its maritime endeavors. Specifically, the record supports a finding that Wilson attacked Wiradihardja with an instrumentality that was likely intended to cause an injury more severe than would have been inflicted with fists alone. It is clearly possible for a jury to conclude, based upon the severity of the injuries Wiradihardja suffered as a result of the attack as well as 995 the apparent sudden and unprovoked nature of the attack, that Wilson had such a dangerous propensity toward violence so as to have rendered the vessel unseaworthy. See Deakle, 756 F.2d at 826 (where defendant did not controvert facts surrounding attack, evidence of sudden, savage, and unprovoked assault warranted finding of unseaworthiness without regard to fault or notice of crew member's violent propensity). Accordingly, BSL's motion to dismiss the complaint's unseaworthiness claim is denied. IV. Summary Judgment in Plaintiff's Favor Although raising and granting a summary judgment motion sua sponte in favor of the non-moving party is not expressly authorized by Rule 56, the practice has become an accepted method of expediting litigation. See Coach Leatherware Co., Inc. v. AnnTaylor, Inc., 933 F.2d 162 (2d Cir.1991) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 326, 106 S. Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L. Ed. 2d 265 (1986) and C. Wright, A. Miller & M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2720, at 33-35 (1983)). The prevailing view in this Circuit is that a court need not give notice of its intention to enter summary judgment against a moving party since "it is most desirable that the court cut through the mere outworn procedural niceties and make the same decision as would have been made had [plaintiff] made a cross-motion for summary judgment." Local 33 Int'l Hod Carriers Bldg. and Common Laborers Union of Am. v. Mason Tenders Dist. Council of Greater N.Y., 291 F.2d 496, 505 (2d Cir.1961); see also Abrams v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 450 F.2d 157, 165-66 (2d Cir.1971), aff'd, 411 U.S. 582, 93 S. Ct. 1736, 36 L. Ed. 2d 503 (1973). The threat of procedural prejudice in raising and granting such a motion is greatly diminished if the court's sua sponte determination is based on issues identical to those raised by the moving party. See Coach Leatherware Co., 933 F.2d at 167. For the reasons set forth below, the record and procedural posture of this case establish that Wiradihardja is entitled to partial summary judgment with respect to liability onlyon his unseaworthiness claim. In considering Wiradihardja's entitlement to summary judgment on his unseaworthiness claim, the Court has relied upon certain aspects of the procedural background of this action as well as the facts and circumstances which prompted Wiradihardja's motion for discovery sanctions, all of which are summarized below. During the course of discovery in this action, Wiradihardja propounded a Supplemental Notice to Produce, dated June 18, 1990, (the "Supplemental Notice") requesting that BSL produce for discovery and inspection, inter alia, "[p]ersonnel records, including employment application, for Wiradihardja's assailant, Winston Wilson ... [and] [t]he names and addresses of persons who witnessed the incident of June 30, 1988 that is the subject of this lawsuit." Supplemental Notice, at ¶¶ 1, 3. BSL, by its attorney Michael D. Martocci, Esq., responded to this request for production of documents, in pertinent part, as follows: 1. Defendant had no employee named Winston Wilson employed on the QUEEN OF BERMUDA ... on June 30, 1988. 2. Since defendant sold its cruise vessels as of May 12, 1989, and since defendant no longer owns or operates any cruise vessels, defendant disposed of most of its records, such as crew lists and other routine documents. Some records were passed on to the company which purchased the vessel, and these records were stored in a warehouse, but poorly labelled. A search has been made of the warehouse without success.... 3. Defendant is unaware of any witnesses to the incident of June 30, 1988. Responses to Plaintiff's Supplemental Notice to Produce, dated July 5, 1990, annexed to the Burke Affidavit (emphasis added). On December 5, 1990, the Magistrate Judge supervising discovery in this action issued an order which provides, in pertinent part, as follows: The Court declines to order defendant to permit plaintiff's counsel to review its 996 warehoused documents. Based on the representation of defendant's counsel and his client as to the unavailability or personnel files of witnesses specified by plaintiff's counsel, as well as ignorance of the last known addresses of those individuals, defendant will be precluded from calling at trial any fact witnesses formerly employed on the ship in question concerning whom defense counsel has represented that defendant has no locatable records. Order of United States Magistrate Judge Michael H. Dolinger, dated December 5, 1990. During the course of briefing his motion to have BSL's answer stricken pursuant to Rule 37(b) (2) (C), Wiradihardja asserted that contrary to BSL's earlier representation to the Court that it was unable to locate and produce personnel files he sought during discovery, such documents were in fact in BSL's possession and were being withheld from him. Wiradihardja contended that, because BSL's counsel refers to the alleged assailant's "unblemished" "record" as well as "his record" in its memorandum of law, BSL necessarily possessed the assailant's personnel file while attempting to conceal this fact from the Court. BSL's counsel denied these accusations, indicating that "[i]t amounts to complete nonsense to interpret an inadvertent error in English, taken out of the context of the paragraph ... as a "terrible" concealment of legitimate discovery documents or information...." Defendant's Reply and Opposition Memorandum ("Def.Mem.") (undated, served and filed on July 26, 1991), at 5. BSL counsel went on to indicate that: defendant firmly stands by all its previous statements contained in all responses to plaintiff's discovery requests, namely that it has no personnel records regarding the assailant whose correct identity has never been revealed by plaintiff, and that it has truthfully responded to plaintiff's discovery requests. Defendant's Memorandum of Law and the Martocci Moving Affidavit made numerous references to information contained in the record of this case and not in the assailant's personnel records which Mr. Martocci has never seen because defendant does not know the identity of the assailant. Def.Mem., at 3-4. Thus, BSL affirmed its earlier responses to Wiradihardja's discovery requests; namely, that it (i) had no employee which it could identify as Winston Wilson, employed on the S.S. QUEEN at the time of the incident which is the subject of this action, (ii) was unable to locate and produce any pertinent documents sought by Wiradihardja, (iii) is unaware of any witnesses to the incident of June 30, 1988. On October 16, 1989, Wiradihardja gave sworn deposition testimony which detailed the facts and circumstances surrounding the June 30, 1988 attack on board the S.S. QUEEN. BSL, however, has proffered no evidentiary facts to rebut Wiradihardja's account of the incident.[5] Moreover, BSL's statement of undisputed material facts, submitted pursuant to Local Civil Rule 3(g), concedes each and every material aspect of Wiradihardja's factual account of the assault.[6] Accordingly, with respect to 997 liability only, there are no material issues of fact in dispute and Wiradihardja's unseaworthiness claim is one the Court may decide as a matter of law. Because the Court finds, for the reasons set forth above, see pp. 994-995, supra, that Wiradihardja has adduced sufficient uncontroverted evidence from which a jury may reasonably conclude that Wilson's presence aboard the S.S. QUEEN rendered the vessel unfit for its maritime endeavors, BSL's failure to rebut any of the evidence supporting Wiradihardja's claim mandates summary judgment, as to liability only, in Wiradihardja's favor. For the reasons set forth above, BSL's motion, pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for an order granting it summary judgment dismissing the complaint, is granted to the extent that plaintiff's claim for relief is premised upon negligence or respondeat superior, and is denied in all other respects. The Court sua sponte grants summary judgment in favor of plaintiff on his unseaworthiness claim, with respect to liability only. The parties shall file an amended joint pre-trial order with respect to the trial on damages by September 15, 1992, and the trial on the issue of plaintiff's damages shall begin on October 12, 1992, at 9:30 a.m., in Courtroom 2704. [1] The Jones Act provides in pertinent part: Any seaman who shall suffer personal injury in the course of his employment may, at his election, maintain an action for damages at law, with the right of trial by jury, and in such action all statutes of the United States modifying or extending the common-law right or remedy in cases of personal injury to railway employees shall apply.... 46 U.S.C.App. § 688. [2] Unless otherwise indicated, the following uncontroverted facts are taken from the parties' statements of undisputed material facts submitted pursuant to Local Civil Rule 3(g), and the parties' affidavits and the exhibits attached thereto. [3] The S.S. QUEEN was a passenger cruise ship owned and operated by BSL, sailing a regular route between New York, New Orleans and Bermuda. Affidavit of Constance M. Burke, Esq., sworn to July 18, 1991 ("Burke Aff."), at ¶ 2. [4] The moving party does not have the burden of providing evidence to negate the non-moving party's claims. Id. As the Supreme Court recently noted, "whether the moving party accompanies its summary judgment motion with affidavits, the motion may, and should, be granted so long as whatever is before the court demonstrates that the standard for the entry of summary judgment, as set forth in Rule 56(c), is satisfied." Id. [5] As BSL has repeatedly indicated that it is unaware of any witnesses to the incident of June 30, 1988, this failure to controvert Wiradihardja's account with evidentiary facts appears to be a result of its failure to locate relevant documents and witnesses. [6] BSL's Rule 3(g) statement provides in pertinent part as follows: 1. BSL owned and operated a cruise vessel known as the s/s QUEEN OF BERMUDA on June 30, 1988. 2. BSL employed plaintiff on the QUEEN OF BERMUDA as food manager on June 30, 1988. 3. On June 30, 1988, plaintiff was in his office adjacent to the vessel's crew mess hall doing paperwork. A subordinate vegetable cook crew member appeared at the doorway of plaintiff's office and threw a bottle of katsup [sic] which plaintiff evaded. The assailant then threw a bottle of tobasco [sic] sauce which struck plaintiff's left forearm. 4. Neither before nor after the incident did the assailant explain the reasons for his sudden assault. 5. Before the incident of June 30, 1988, plaintiff and the assailant had a friendly relationship. Plaintiff promoted the assailant shortly before the incident. 6. The assailant gave no prior indication of any tendencies to assault or vicious propensities. There is no evidence as to any other assault previously or thereafter committed by the assailant against any other crew member. The assailant had no previous record regarding misconduct, behavior or violation of ship's discipline. 7. Plaintiff was never threatened by the assailant, nor did plaintiff have any disagreement or fight with the assailant prior to June 30, 1988. Plaintiff never heard the assailant harm or threaten to harm anyone. Defendant's Rule 3(g) Statement (undated, served and filed on June 18, 1991, at ¶¶ 1-7.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line795
__label__cc	0.649743	0.350257	BLOG TOUR: The Heart of Thornewell by Anita Stansfield THE HEART OF THORNEWELL by Anita Stansfield What should have been a grand adventure in Africa ends in heartbreak for Enid Hawthorne, following her husband's untimely death. Bereft, the young widow bravely boards a ship for home with precious cargo—her unborn child. She hopes to find refuge in England in the only place she can—Thornewell Hall, the estate of her late husband's family. But upon her arrival, she finds a bleak home in the depths of mourning. It is clear that hers is not the only tragedy, but Enid is unprepared for the hostility that meets her arrival. Sebastian, Earl of Thornewell, is grief-stricken following the loss of his wife and child. The news that his brother is dead is simply more than he can take—and he knows who is to blame: his sister-in-law, Enid. So when she arrives on his doorstep, seeking asylum, he does his duty in allowing her to stay—and nothing more. Yet fate has other plans, and as they face joys and trials alongside each other, their broken hearts begin to heal. But there is a cloud over their future, for Enid harbors a secret that may drive them apart forever. Anita Stansfield has a gift for writing stories full of emotion. The characters in this book certainly experience a wide range of emotions. Enid Hawthorne is a young, pregnant missionary's wife who has just lost her husband to disease. But she has no time to grieve as she must make her way back to England from Africa. She's not sure her husband's brother, the Earl of Thornewell will welcome her, he didn't like her before, but she has no where else to go as her own family disowned her years before. But she isn't prepared for what she finds. Thornewell is full of grief as well as the mistress died after childbirth just a few months earlier. But grief is just the beginning of the roller coaster of emotions that both Enid and Sebastian, the Earl of Thornewell experience as they both struggle to cope with the loss of their spouses. There is blame and anger and confusion. Neither intended to fall in love with the other but they can't help themselves, but Sebastian's stubborn determination to blame Enid for his brother's death (without hearing about what happened) puts a wall between them that may not be climbable. I enjoyed reading this, but frankly there were a number of occasions when I seriously wanted to let Sebastian have it because he was being so unfair and unkind to Enid. I cheered Enid on when she stood up for herself and refused to let Sebastian get away with his behavior. Stansfield has written another tender love story that takes both the characters and the reader on a journey through the challenges of life. June 11th: https://www.rockinbookreviews.com/, http://mybookaday.com/ June 12th: http://empowermoms.net/, https://joyinthemoments.wordpress.com/ June 13th: https://www.singinglibrarianbooks.com/, http://lifeiswhatitscalled.blogspot.com/ June 14th: https://ldsandlovinit.blogspot.com/, https://brightlystreet.com/, http://www.kindleandme.com/ June 15th: http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/, http://booksaresanity.blogspot.com/, http://sweetlymadejustforyou.com/blog/ Posted by Geo Librarian at 10:48 PM No comments: Labels: Clean Romance, Covenant Communications, historical romance, Regency (clean) BLOG TOUR w/ GIVEAWAY: Loving Lieutenant Lancaster by Sarah M. Eden LOVING LIEUTENANT LANCASTER by Sarah M. Eden Regency romance (clean) Orphaned as a child, Arabella Hampton was the unwanted and unloved charge of a cruel aunt and neglectful uncle. The only light in her young life was the kindness of the Jonquil family, and she clung to the childish dream of someday living with them at Lampton Park. Now, years later, that opportunity is presented to Arabella in a most unexpected way: she is to be the lady’s companion to the dowager countess. As she takes up residence at the estate, the young woman soon finds that life at the Park is far more complicated than she imagined. The lines of her position are blurred, and she is neither family nor servant. So when the countess plans a grand house party, Arabella is content to hide in the shadows. But one gentleman sees her there. Lieutenant Linus Lancaster has retired from the navy and is not looking for love, especially when he finds himself entangled in his sisters’ scheme to trap him into finding a wife at a house party at Lampton Park. Yet amid the festivities, he’s impossibly drawn to the dowager’s quiet companion, Arabella. Their regard for each other is undeniable, but they are haunted by their pasts. Can the two find a way to bridge their worlds? As always, I was thrilled to read this new Sarah Eden book. I've really developed an attachment to the Lancaster and Jonquil families and for the two to come together in this book made me really want to read the book. And I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This story revolves around the romance between Linus Lancaster (the brother of Persephone, Athena, and Daphne), recently retired naval officer, and Arabella Hampton, the Dowager Lady Lampton's new companion. Arabella grew up next door to the Jonquils and thought of the Jonquil brothers' father as her own after she was orphaned. The poor treatment she received from her own relatives lead her to want to be part of the Jonquil family. After her father figure died, Arabella's hope for a better life faded a bit, until she's asked to be the companion to the Dowager Lady Lampton. But she's not sure what her position in the family is and so does her best to stay quietly out of the way. But when Linus arrives with his sister, the Duchess of Kielder and the rest of his relatives for a house party hosted by the current Lord Lampton (Philip Jonquil), he notices Arabella despite her efforts to remain in the background. Linus is struggling himself to discover where he belongs in relation to his family and his newfound role as the male head of the family and the family's Shropshire holdings. He's still grieving the loss of his older brother, Evander and is reluctant to become a landowner. As Linus and Arabella get to know each other, they find comfort in the other's kindness and understanding. And a growing affection between the two interferes with Linus's sister's matchmaking plans. Additionally, Linus has been asked to help keep the Dangerous Duke of Kielder from injuring their host, Lord Lampton, so Linus has plenty to keep him busy. Especially when sickness invades the household, and Arabella's relatives arrive to torment her. I enjoyed all the different aspects of the story. Not least of which was getting to know Linus and Arabella. But I was also thrilled to meet up with characters from the past that I love. I found the interactions between Lord Lampton and the Duke of Kielder particularly entertaining (especially since Philip is deliberately going out of his way to annoy the Duke). There are also hints about future stories that I found intriguing. I can't wait to read future stories about both these families. June 4th: http://mybookaday.com/, https://www.wishfulendings.com/, http://bonnieharris.blogspot.com/, http://heidi-reads.blogspot.com/, http://thoroughlyhere.blogspot.com/ June 5th: http://www.blogginboutbooks.com/, http://lisaisabookworm.blogspot.com/, https://brightlystreet.com/, https://www.rockinbookreviews.com/, http://gettingyourreadonaimeebrown.blogspot.com/ June 6th: http://www.kindleandme.com/, http://ldswritermom.blogspot.com/, http://www.iamareader.com/, https://rachellechristensen.com/,https://joyinthemoments.wordpress.com/, http://sweetlymadejustforyou.com/ June 7th: https://www.singinglibrarianbooks.com/, https://ldsandlovinit.blogspot.com/, http://literarytimeout.blogspot.com/, http://katiescleanbookcollection.blogspot.com/ June 8th: http://minreadsandreviews.blogspot.com/, http://www.iamareader.com/, http://whynotbecauseisaidso.blogspot.com/, http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/, http://booksaresanity.blogspot.com/ Labels: Covenant Communications, favorite author, Favorites, historical fiction, historical romance, Regency (clean) BLOG TOUR: The Heart of Thornewell by Anita Stansf... BLOG TOUR w/ GIVEAWAY: Loving Lieutenant Lancaster...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line797
__label__wiki	0.846421	0.846421	Physicists quantify temperature changes in metal nanowires January 17, 2014 , University of Arkansas (Phys.org) —Using the interaction between light and charge fluctuations in metal nanostuctures called plasmons, a University of Arkansas physicist and his collaborators have demonstrated the capability of measuring temperature changes in very small 3-D regions of space. Plasmons can be thought of as waves of electrons in a metal surface, said Joseph B. Herzog, visiting assistant professor of physics, who co-authored a paper detailing the findings that was published Jan. 1 by the journal Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society. The paper, titled "Thermoplasmonics: Quantifying Plasmonic Heating in Single Nanowires, was co-written by Rice University researchers Mark W. Knight and Douglas Natelson. In the experiments, Herzog, who joined the U of A faculty last summer, fabricated plasmonic nanostructures with electron beam lithography and precisely focused a laser on to a gold nanowire with a scanning optical setup. "This work measures the change in electrical resistance of a single gold nanowire while it is illuminated with light," Herzog said. "The change in resistance is related to the temperature change of the nanowire. Being able to measure temperature changes at small nanoscale volumes can be difficult, and determining what portion of this temperature change is due to plasmons can be even more challenging. "By varying the polarization of the light incident on the nanostructures, the plasmonic contribution of the optical heating has been determined and confirmed with computational modeling," he said. Herzog's publication is in a rapidly growing, specialized area called thermoplasmonics, a sub-field of plasmonics that studies the effects of heat due to plasmons and has been used in applications ranging from cancer treatment to solar energy harvesting. Herzog combines his research of plasmons with his expertise in nano-optics, which is the nanoscale study of light. "It's a growing field," he said. "Nano-optics and plasmonics allow you to focus light into smaller regions that are below the diffraction limit of light. A plasmonic nanostructure is like an optical antenna. The plasmon-light interaction makes plasmonics fascinating." Herzog is setting up his research lab at the University of Arkansas, which will focus on nano-optics and plasmonics. In addition to his appointment in physics, Herzog collaborates with the university's microelectronics-photonics program is a faculty member and the University of Arkansas' Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering. More information: "Thermoplasmonics: Quantifying Plasmonic Heating in Single Nanowires." Joseph B. Herzog, Mark W. Knight, and Douglas Natelson. Nano Lett. (2014). DOI: 10.1021/nl403510u Journal information: Nano Letters Provided by University of Arkansas A breakthrough in plasmonics Periodic structures in organic light-emitters can efficiently enhance, replenish surface plasmon waves Scientists demonstrate new method for harvesting energy from light Controlling light with light Photon-plasmon nanowire laser offers new opportunities in light manipulation Nov 07, 2013 feature Nanoplasmonics: Towards efficient light harvesting	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line805
__label__wiki	0.942317	0.942317	The Soviet Union through French Eyes, 1945–85 The Soviet Union through French Eyes, 1945–85 pp 120-123 \| Cite as Robert Desjardins Part of the St Antony’s/Macmillan Series book series Jean Bonamour recently wrote that the necessity for growth in Soviet and East European studies in France would eventually ‘lead to the realization that the organizational problems are of decisive importance’.1 At this final stage, we turn our attention briefly to a question which has been surfacing intermittently in the recent past, namely the question of setting up an important centre for research on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A centre of this kind would ideally be endowed with substantial financial and technical resources. It would also assemble a ‘critical mass’ of French specialists of the first rank, as well as young and lesser-known researchers. Such a centre would promote interdisciplinary research, and would seek to establish durable and fruitful relations with some of the key research centres located outside France. However, the realisation of the idea, in spite of its undeniable merits, has yet to materialise. In this connection, it may be noted that the newly created IMSECO has little to do with such an ‘ideal’ centre. As mentioned to us by its director Marc Ferro, this new institute clearly does not have the ambition to centralise French research on the Soviet Union, but rather, to use Ferro’s words, to give ‘more visibility’ to Soviet studies conducted in France.2 Organizational Problem Decisive Importance Soviet System French Research American Social Scientist J. Bonamour, ‘Soviet and East European Studies in France’ in A. Buchholz (ed.), Soviet and East European Studies in the International Framework, p. 54.Google Scholar Interview with Marc Ferro in Paris, 16 May 1986.Google Scholar Lannes and Lazitch, ‘La technique du pouvoir en U.R.S.S.’, p. 221.Google Scholar Interview with H. Carrère d’Encausse in Paris, 5 November 1982.Google Scholar Jean-Pierre Chevènement, ‘Comprendre’, République Moderne, no. 2 (Fall 1985) p. 5.Google Scholar Interview with Lilly Marcou in Paris, 29 June 1984.Google Scholar Hassner, ‘American Foxes and French Hedgehogs? A French Perspective on East European Studies’, p. 368.Google Scholar J. Rupnik, ‘Le totalitarisme vu de l’Est’, in G. Hermet (ed.), Totalitarismes, pp. 52–3.Google Scholar Hassner, ‘Le miroir totalitaire — Le totalitarisme soviétique vu de l’ouest’, p. 204.Google Scholar Brown, ‘Political Power and the Soviet State: Western and Soviet Perspectives’, in N. Harding (ed.), The State in Socialist Society, p. 87.Google Scholar Aron, Democracy and Totalitarianism, pp. 215–16.Google Scholar © Robert Desjardins 1988 There are no affiliations available Desjardins R. (1988) Conclusions. In: The Soviet Union through French Eyes, 1945–85. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London Publisher Name Palgrave Macmillan, London eBook Packages Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line806
__label__wiki	0.870921	0.870921	Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe pp 113-156 \| Cite as Instabilities in the Envelopes and Winds of Very Massive Stars Stanley P. Owocki Part of the Astrophysics and Space Science Library book series (ASSL, volume 412) The high luminosity of Very Massive Stars (VMS) means that radiative forces play an important, dynamical role both in the structure and stability of their stellar envelope, and in driving strong stellar-wind mass loss. Focusing on the interplay of radiative flux and opacity, with emphasis on key distinctions between continuum vs. line opacity, this chapter reviews instabilities in the envelopes and winds of VMS. Specifically, we discuss how: (1) the iron opacity bump can induce an extensive inflation of the stellar envelope; (2) the density dependence of mean opacity leads to strange mode instabilities in the outer envelope; (3) desaturation of line-opacity by acceleration of near-surface layers initiates and sustains a line-driven stellar wind outflow; (4) an associated line-deshadowing instability leads to extensive small-scale structure in the outer regions of such line-driven winds; (5) a star with super-Eddington luminosity can develop extensive atmospheric structure from photon bubble instabilities, or from stagnation of flow that exceeds the “photon tiring” limit; (6) the associated porosity leads to a reduction in opacity that can regulate the extreme mass loss of such continuum-driven winds. Two overall themes are the potential links of such instabilities to Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stars, and the potential role of radiation forces in establishing the upper mass limit of VMS. Mass Loss Rate Radiative Force Sonic Point Stellar Envelope Eddington Limit This work was supported in part by NASA ATP grant NNX11AC40G, NASA Chandra grant TM3-14001A, and NSF grant 1312898 to the University of Delaware. I thank M. Giannotti for sharing his Mathematica notebook for the OPAL opacity tables, and N. Shaviv for many helpful discussions and for providing Fig. 5.12. I also acknowledge numerous discussions with G. Graefener, N. Smith, J. Sundqvist, J. Vink and A.J. van Marle. Abbott, D. C. (1980). The theory of radiatively driven stellar winds. I - A physical interpretation. Astrophysical Journal, 242, 1183.Google Scholar Abbott, D. C. (1982). The theory of radiatively driven stellar winds. II - The line acceleration. Astrophysical Journal, 259, 282.Google Scholar Arons, J. (1992). Photon bubbles - Overstability in a magnetized atmosphere. Astrophysical Journal, 388, 561.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Begelman, M. C. (2002). Super-eddington fluxes from thin accretion disks? Astrophysical Journal Letters, 568, L97.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Belyanin, A. A. (1999). Optically thick super-Eddington winds in galactic superluminal sources. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 344, 199.ADSGoogle Scholar Blaes, O., & Socrates, A. (2003). Local radiative hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic instabilities in optically thick media. Astrophysical Journal, 596, 509.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Castor, J. I., Abbott, D. C., & Klein, R. I. (1975). Radiation-driven winds in of stars. Astrophysical Journal, 195, 157.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Cohen, D. H., Leutenegger, M. A., Wollman, E. E., Zsargó, J., Hillier, D. J., Townsend, R. H. D., & Owocki, S. P. (2010). A mass-loss rate determination for ζ Puppis from the quantitative analysis of X-ray emission-line profiles. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 405, 2391.ADSGoogle Scholar Crowther, P. A. (2012). In Death of massive stars: Supernovae and gamma-ray bursts (Volume 279 of IAU symposium, Environments of massive stars and the upper mass limit, pp. 9–17), Nikkon.Google Scholar Crowther, P. A., Schnurr, O., Hirschi, R., Yusof, N., Parker, R. J., Goodwin, S. P., & Kassim, H. A. (2010). The R136 star cluster hosts several stars whose individual masses greatly exceed the accepted 150Msolar stellar mass limit. Monthy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 408, 731.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Dessart, L., & Owocki, S. P. (2003). Two-dimensional simulations of the line-driven instability in hot-star winds. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 406, L1.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Dessart, L., & Owocki, S. P. (2005). 2D simulations of the line-driven instability in hot-star winds. II. Approximations for the 2D radiation force. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 437, 657.Google Scholar Eddington, A. S. (1926). The internal constitution of the stars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.zbMATHGoogle Scholar Feldmeier, A. (1995). Time-dependent structure and energy transfer in hot star winds. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 299, 523.ADSGoogle Scholar Feldmeier, A., Puls, J., & Pauldrach, A. W. A. (1997). The X-ray emission from shock cooling zones in O star winds. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 322, 878.ADSGoogle Scholar Figer, D. F. (2005). An upper limit to the masses of stars. Nature, 434, 192.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Friend, D. B., & Abbott, D. C. (1986). The theory of radiatively driven stellar winds. III - Wind models with finite disk correction and rotation. Astrophysical Journal, 311, 701.Google Scholar Fullerton, A. W., Massa, D. L., & Prinja, R. K. (2006). The discordance of mass-loss estimates for galactic O-type stars. Astrophysical Journal, 637, 1025.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Gammie, C. F. (1998). Photon bubbles in accretion discs. Monthy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 297, 929.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Gayley, K. G. (1995). An improved line-strength parameterization in hot-star winds. Astrophysical Journal, 454, 410.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Glatzel, W. (1994). On the origin of strange modes and the mechanism of related instabilities. Monthy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 271, 66.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Glatzel, W. (2005). In R. Humphreys & K. Stanek (Eds.) The fate of the most massive stars (Volume 332 of Astronomical Society of the Pacific conference series, Instabilities in the most massive evolved stars, p. 22), Jackson Hole, WY.Google Scholar Glatzel, W., & Kiriakidis, M. (1993). Stability of massive stars and the humphreys / davidson limit. Monthy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 263, 375.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Gräfener, G., Owocki, S. P., & Vink, J. S. (2012). Stellar envelope inflation near the Eddington limit. Implications for the radii of Wolf-Rayet stars and luminous blue variables. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 538, A40.Google Scholar Grevesse, N., & Noels, A. (1993). Atomic data and the spectrum of the solar photosphere. Physica Scripta T47, 133.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Humphreys, R. M., Davidson, K. (1979). Studies of luminous stars in nearby galaxies. III - Comments on the evolution of the most massive stars in the milky way and the large magellanic cloud. Astrophysical Journal, 232, 409.Google Scholar Iglesias, C. A., & Rogers, F. J. (1996). Updated opal opacities. Astrophysical Journal, 464, 943.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Joss, P. C., Salpeter, E. E., & Ostriker, J. P. (1973). On the “critical luminosity” in stellar interiors and stellar surface boundary conditions. Astrophysical Journal, 181, 429.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Kee, N. D., Owocki, S., & ud-Doula, A. (2014). Suppression of X-rays from radiative shocks by their thin-shell instability. Monthy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 438, 3557.Google Scholar Kippenhahn, R., Weigert, A., & Weiss, A. (2013). Stellar structure and evolution: Astronomy and astrophysics library. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar Kudritzki, R. P., Puls, J., Lennon, D. J., Venn, K. A., Reetz, J., Najarro, F., McCarthy, J. K., & Herrero, A. (1999). The wind momentum-luminosity relationship of galactic A- and B-supergiants. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 350, 970.ADSGoogle Scholar Levermore, C. D., Pomraning, G. C., Sanzo, D. L., & Wong, J. (1986). Linear transport theory in a random medium. Journal of Mathematical Physics, 27, 2526.MathSciNetCrossRefzbMATHADSGoogle Scholar Lucy, L. B. (1984). Wave amplification in line-driven winds. Astrophysical Journal, 284, 351.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Lucy, L. B., & Solomon, P. M. (1970). Mass loss by hot stars. Astrophysical Journal, 159, 879.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar MacGregor, K. B., Hartmann, L., & Raymond, J. C. (1979). Radiative amplification of sound waves in the winds of O and B stars. Astrophysical Journal, 231, 514.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Nugis, T., & Lamers, H. J. G. L. M. (2002). The mass-loss rates of Wolf-Rayet stars explained by optically thick radiation driven wind models. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 389, 162.Google Scholar Oey, M. S., & Clarke, C. J. (2005). Statistical confirmation of a stellar upper mass limit. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 620, L43.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Oskinova, L. M., Hamann, W.-R., & Feldmeier, A. (2007). Neglecting the porosity of hot-star winds can lead to underestimating mass-loss rates. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 476, 1331.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Owocki, S. P. (1991). In: L. Crivellari, I. Hubeny, & D. G. Hummer (Eds.) NATO ASIC proceedings 341: Stellar atmospheres – beyond classical models (A smooth source function method for including scattering in radiatively driven wind simulations, p. 235), Trieste.Google Scholar Owocki, S. P. (2008). In W.-R. Hamann, A. Feldmeier, L. M. Oskinova (Eds.), Clumping in hot-star winds (Dynamical simulation of the “velocity-porosity” reduction in observed strength of stellar wind lines, p. 121). Germany: Universitätsverlag Potsdam.Google Scholar Owocki, S. P. (2013). In T. D. Oswalt & M. A. Barstow (Eds.), Planets, stars and stellar systems. (Volume 4 of Stellar structure and evolution stellar winds, p. 735). Dordrecht/New York: Springer.Google Scholar Owocki, S. P., Castor, J. I., & Rybicki, G. B. (1988). Time-dependent models of radiatively driven stellar winds. I - Nonlinear evolution of instabilities for a pure absorption model. Astrophysical Journal, 335, 914.Google Scholar Owocki, S. P., & Cohen, D. H. (2006). The effect of porosity on X-ray emission-line profiles from hot-star winds. Astrophysical Journal, 648, 565.CrossRefADSGoogle Scholar Owocki, S. P., Gayley, K. G., & Shaviv, N. J. (2004). 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__label__wiki	0.826841	0.826841	Top 10 People Who Became Famous For Ordinary Reasons George Wilson April 18, 2018 0 Everyone has the dream at some point. Whether it is accepting the highest acting achievement, performing in front of thousands of fans, or coming up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, everyone has dreamed of being famous. Of the roughly seven billion people on the planet, however, only a fraction of a percentage will make the fantasy a reality. Most celebrities are hardworking, competitive, and downright lucky. They possess skill through practice and genetics and are better than most at their craft. This list is not about those people. Instead, we’ll discuss the individuals who achieved stardom by being incredibly average. Featured image credit: gazettereview.com 10 People Who Share Names With Celebrities Photo credit: time.com What could be more ordinary than sharing the name you were given at birth with a celebrity? It takes no effort aside from being born. Many celebrities will change their names to make them more catchy or memorable. But every so often, you get a celebrity with a fairly common name and it affects the people who share that name.[1] For instance, Taylor Swift is a world-renowned pop star who seems to get more famous each day. But Taylor Swift is also a male photographer from Seattle who has the email address [email protected] He’s received thousands of emails from fans (including nude photos from some superfans) who think they are contacting the pop star. He is not alone. Whether their names are Taylor Swift, Matthew Broderick, or Donald Trump, they all request that you refrain from making witty, original comments about their names because those remarks are not as witty or original as you think. 9 People Who Became Memes Photo credit: mentalfloss.com To err is human. So it is only natural that one of the most ordinary ways to become famous is by accident. The Internet has paved the way for people to reach stardom via viral media. Some are good—like “ridiculously photogenic guy”—and others are bad—like “sheltering suburban mom.”[2] Either way, the message from most of these living memes is to take it all in stride. It is not you but the image of you that the jokes are about. Oh, and turn off your notifications on social media. 8 John Doe While not an actual person but a collective name for an unidentified or unnamed person, John or Jane Doe is a famous symbol for a typical person. Originally developed as a legal loophole for landowners wishing to evict tenants or squatters without having to slog through the legal process, the first recorded use of the placeholder name is thought to have occurred in the 13th century.[3] Commonly, legal cases featured John Doe as the plaintiff and Richard Roe as the defendant. No one truly knows the origin of the names. But it is interesting that a doe is a female deer and a roe is a species of deer common to Britain. Nevertheless, the current representation of John Doe is a body whose identity is not confirmed and people in the legal process who wish to not be named (Roe v. Wade). 7 Jimmy Hoffa Photo credit: history.com Maybe one of the biggest ongoing mysteries in US history is the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa. A former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1958 until 1971, Hoffa was known for shady tactics and connections with the mob. In 1975, Hoffa suddenly disappeared after an alleged meeting with two Mafia bosses. Evidence has been hard to come by in this case, and some law enforcement officers even tried hypnotizing suspects and witnesses to determine the whereabouts of Hoffa. Perhaps due to the success of the Godfather series that came out during this time, the case of Jimmy Hoffa gained lots of attention. SNL and various comedians caught on as well, using Jimmy Hoffa as a joke to describe something missing or difficult to find.[4] Multiple urban legends explaining his whereabouts exist. Time and again, people surface to claim that they know the location of Hoffa. This shows that there may be no simpler way to become famous than by just disappearing. 6 Elizabeth Swaney Photo credit: chicago.suntimes.com The Olympics are known for displaying the best of the best. Average was not in the lexicon of these events . . . until the 2018 Winter Olympics. Elizabeth Swaney surprised everyone watching the women’s half-pipe skiing with her shockingly average performance. Many people, including the announcers, were having difficulty understanding how someone could have made it into the Olympics with such a mediocre performance. The answer: Swaney took advantage of the system.[5] Knowing she could not compete with the US team, she eventually decided to ski for Hungary (the birthplace of her grandparents) to give her the best chance. All she had to do was participate and not crash in any races to gather enough points to qualify. After a few years, Swaney accomplished the average person’s dream as described by CBS Sports’ Pete Blackburn: “Scamming the system to achieve your life goals while doing the absolute bare minimum to get there.” Of course, the Olympic Committee is already looking into how to close this loophole. 5 Joe The Plumber Photo credit: politico.com Joe Wurzelbacher (aka “Joe the Plumber”) rose to fame during the 2008 US presidential election campaign. After Joe asked Barack Obama about his new tax plan, Senator John McCain began to push Joe as the average hardworking American that Obama was going to hurt with his socialist policies. Joe became the symbol for conservatives. During the campaign, however, it was discovered that Joe actually worked as a plumber without a license. Joe was not a fan of the newfound publicity in his life. After the campaign, he got a union job with Chrysler Group LLC.[6] He and John McCain are no longer friends, and Joe has been quoted as saying, “McCain was trying to use me. [ . . . ] It was a ploy.” It is tough to be more average than becoming famous as the symbol for the average person. 4 William Hung Most people love to sing—whether it is to themselves or in front of others. It is one of the reasons that karaoke is so popular. However, most people do not have the pipes to become a professional singer. That didn’t stop William Hung. His rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” during his audition for American Idol captivated the audience even if Judge Simon Cowell didn’t appreciate him. “I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all,” Hung responded when Cowell told Hung that he couldn’t sing or dance. The other judges applauded Hung’s comments, and to everyone’s surprise, he became a superstar. Many people were dismayed by his popularity. They said that Hung was only famous because people were making fun of him and the Asian stereotype they thought he was portraying. Hung has stated that he enjoyed the attention and felt that he was not being laughed at in a bad way.[7] Currently, Hung is a statistical analyst for the LA County Sheriff’s Department. Although he’s no longer performing, he looks back fondly on the days when he became famous despite his critics’ harsh comments. 3 Colin Holmes Photo credit: curiosity.com Colin Holmes is not famous, but his brain is. When he was a 28-year-old graduate student, Colin remained motionless for 27 10-minute MRI scans to create a high-quality composite image of his brain. This was done when MRI scans were not as readily accessible as they are now. Thus, this image (called “Colin 27” or “Average Colin”) was extremely valuable for studying the brain.[8] Since then, Colin’s brain has appeared all over the world in over 800 research articles and academic papers. Although his brain is famous, most scientists don’t know who Colin is. He doesn’t receive any royalties for the image of his brain, either. But that’s okay. He is simply happy that his efforts have benefited the scientific world. When Colin was 52, he had another MRI scan of his brain for comparison. Afterward, he breathed a sigh of relief, stating, “I think I’ve got some time left.” So the next time you come across an image of a brain, check to see if it’s Colin’s! 2 Mario Mendoza Photo credit: personalmoneystore.com You may have heard the term “Mendoza Line” when watching baseball or listening to someone talk about the performance of an athlete. Many athletes (especially baseball players) are described as being above or below the Mendoza Line, which indicates what caliber of player they are. The term is named after former Seattle Mariners’ shortstop Mario Mendoza. Teammates are credited with inventing the expression, which started as a joke among them. It caught fire when baseball player George Brett made a comment to reporters about checking the paper to see if any players were below the “Mendoza Line.” Mario Mendoza’s career batting average sat neatly at .200. Anybody at or near this “Mendoza Line” is thought to be performing at a mediocre rate. The expression has become so popular that it is now part of the mainstream lexicon. Mario Mendoza’s batting legacy has entered the halls of history as a statistic for measuring mediocrity.[9] 1 Adolphe Quetelet Photo credit: Joseph-Arnold Demannez It would be difficult to identify what is average about any of the people on this list without determining what “average” actually means. Adolphe Quetelet was the first and foremost person to scientifically apply the idea of “average” to humans. Originally an astronomer, Quetelet applied his knowledge to studying people after his observatory had been overtaken by rebel troops during the Belgian Revolution in the early 19th century. He wished to find organized rules and models for human behavior in much the way that Isaac Newton discovered laws of the physical world. Quetelet gathered data on the measurements of humans which had been recorded by governments throughout Europe. By applying the astronomical principle of the average, Quetelet calculated the average of multiple measurements from height to age when married. Then he used this data to construct the idea of what we now consider the average human.[10] For example, Quetelet used the average height and weight of people to develop the body mass index (BMI) that we still use today. However, being average to Quetelet meant something very different than how we think of average today. In his astronomical and mathematical training, the average was the closest that one could ever hope to get to the true value. Therefore, being average in terms of his human calculations meant that you were as close to perfect as possible. So, enjoy being average because someone thinks you are perfect! George Wilson currently lives in Central Florida and has an orange tree he likes to sit near and think about the typical things in life that people take for granted. He is getting ready to be a father with the love of his life and has two cats that are very spoiled. Read more unusual stories about famous people on 10 Unsettling Cases Of Famous People Who Disappeared and 10 Famous People Who Have Hated The Fame. Top 10 Autodidacts Throughout History Top 10 Times People Created Their Own Language 10 Scientific Studies To Increase Your Faith In Humanity 10 Extraordinary Things People Did While In A Coma	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line809
__label__wiki	0.894005	0.894005	Freedman v Freedman and others Mistake Rectification. Two properties were placed in trust for the benefit of the claimant. Her father loaned her money to purchase one of the properties. The claimant made a settlement by which she would pay the loan back to her father. The solicitor failed to inform her of the negative effects of doing so. On learning of the negative effects, she sought to have the settlement set aside, on the grounds of equitable mistake. Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Commissioners resisted the application. The Chancery Division held that, applying settled law, it was appropriate for the settlement to be set aside. Simon v Byford and others Will Testator. The claimant challenged the validity of his mother's will, which had omitted specific bequests to him of 16 shares in a company and a flat from a previous will. The expert evidence provided that the deceased had been suffering dementia at the time that the will was made. The Chancery Division, in upholding the validity of the will, found that the deceased had understood it, and had known and approved of its provisions. R (on the application of Sandiford) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Judicial Review Application for judicial review. The claimant was a British national who had been convicted of trafficking narcotics in Indonesia and sentenced to death by firing squad. She applied for judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State's policy not to fund legal representation for British nationals facing the death penalty abroad. The Divisional Court dismissed the claimant's application and she appealed. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the appeal, holding that the claimant was not within the scope of European Union law or the European Convention on Human Rights and that the policy was not irrational. Matthews v Solicitors Regulation Authority Solicitor Disciplinary proceedings. The appellant had been found guilty of breaching the solicitors' code of conduct. Before the tribunal, he had agreed to pay costs of 16,000 and was subsequently fined 5,000. The solicitor appealed, contending that the sanction had been excessive. The Administrative Court found that the tribunal's reasons had been lacking and found that it was apparent that it had failed to take into account means when considering overall financial liability. Although the tribunal had been entitled to find that a fine was warranted, in circumstances where there was substantial mitigation, the magnitude of the fine had been excessive. Overall financial liability would be reduced from 21,000 to 5,000 comprising a fine of 500 and costs of 4,500. Public Safety Charitable Trust v Milton Keynes Council Rates Charitable and other organisations. The instant proceedings concerned three appeals by way of case stated from magistrates' courts, which each raised the same central issue concerning the test for relief for charities from non-domestic rates in relation to the activities of the Public Safety Charitable Trust. The Administrative Court applied Kenya Aid Programme v Sheffield City Council (), to the effect that the natural reading and meaning of the words used in of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 were apt to cover not only consideration of the purpose of the use, but also the extent or amount of the actual use. Futter and another v Revenue and Customs Commissioners; Pitt and another v Revenue and Customs Commissioners Settlement Advancement. In two appeals concerning private trusts, the Supreme Court explained the rule in Hastings-Bass as it applied to fiduciaries and breaches of their duty. The Court also explained the rule for setting aside a voluntary disposition on the ground of mistake. C v Birminham & Solihul Mental Health NHS Trust and another Mental health Patient. The claimants were both restricted patients subject to restriction orders under the . They applied to the First Tier Tribunal for a recommendation for transfer to a less restrictive location. The First Tier Tribunal declined to deal with the requests and the claimants appealed, asserting that there was a legitimate expectation that the requests would be considered. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the claimants' appeals on the basis that there was no such legitimate expectation. Greaves v Stolkin Will Validity. The Chancery Division held that, on the facts, a deceased had known and had approved of the contents of a disputed codicil. Accordingly, the codicil was valid and should be admitted to probate. PC (by her litigation friend the Official Solicitor) and another v A Local Authority Mental health Persons who lack capacity. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, held that, whilst the Court of Protection had posed the correct test, under the to the question of whether a woman with learning difficulties had had capacity to make a decision whether to live with her husband in circumstances where her husband had been convicted of serious sexual offences against his former wives, the court had erred in its approach to the circumstances of the case. In circumstances where the individual concerned had had capacity to marry, she had to be taken to have capacity to make a decision to perform the terms of her marriage contract. Clear and cogent evidence would be required for the court to determine that she had lacked the capacity to cohabit with her husband, and there was no such evidence in the instant case. Bennett v Petit and others Will Execution. The Chancery Division pronounced in favour of a will made in 1992 which benefited the step-grandchildren of the deceased and not his son, from whom he had allegedly become estranged. In all the circumstances, it was unsurprising that the deceased had gone along with the idea that, in the event of his wife dying first, his estate should go to the step-grandchildren. That might have followed a persistent campaign of nagging or similar pressure and amounted to a resigned reaction of the deceased for the sake of a quieter life, but no case of undue influence had been advanced. Lexis®PSL delivers easy and cost-effective online access to practical guidance, Butterworths commentary, cases, legislation, forms and precedents. Find out more and sign up for a free trial here.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line811
__label__cc	0.698539	0.301461	Source Cues and Public Support for the Supreme Court April 2015 By libertyreview in Law, Politics TOM S. CLARK, JONATHAN P. KASTELLEC AMERICAN POLITICS RESEARCH 43.3 (2015): 504-535 Abstract: It is well known that the public often relies on cues or heuristics when forming opinions. At the same time, leading theories of opinion formation about the Supreme Court see such support as relatively fixed. Using a series of survey experiments, we find source cues significantly influence the public’s support for the Court, including the extent to which individuals believe the Court should be independent from the elected branches. Specifically, we find partisan source cues play a significant role in shaping public opinion regarding life tenure for the justices and the extent to which the Court should have the final say in constitutional matters—individuals are less likely to support court-curbing measures when informed that elites from the opposite party have proposed them than when such measures are endorsed by either a neutral source or members of their own party. We also find a strong connection between specific support for particular decisions and the degree to which people believe the Court should be free from external influence, as individuals are more likely to say the justices should be influenced by demonstrators when the side they favor is the one doing the demonstrating. These results have important implications for understanding the extent to which politicians can shape the public’s overall support for the Court, as well as for assessing the degree to which the public views the Court as a “political” institution. « The Ethics of Legislative Vote Trading Between Nihilism and Transcendence: Camus’s Dialogue with Dostoevsky » Liberty Fund Books: Political Thought	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line812
__label__wiki	0.506471	0.506471	Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology A computer-based simulation of childbirth using the partial Dirichlet–Neumann contact method with total Lagrangian explicit dynamics on the GPU Rudy Lapeer Zelimkhan Gerikhanov Said-Magomed Sadulaev Vilius Audinis Roger Rowland Kenda Crozier Edward Morris During physiological or ‘natural’ childbirth, the fetal head follows a distinct motion pattern—often referred to as the cardinal movements or ‘mechanisms’ of childbirth—due to the biomechanical interaction between the fetus and maternal pelvic anatomy. The research presented in this paper introduces a virtual reality-based simulation of physiological childbirth. The underpinning science is based on two numerical algorithms including the total Lagrangian explicit dynamics method to calculate soft tissue deformation and the partial Dirichlet–Neumann contact method to calculate the mechanical contact interaction between the fetal head and maternal pelvic anatomy. The paper describes the underlying mathematics and algorithms of the solution and their combination into a computer-based implementation. The experimental section covers first a number of validation experiments on simple contact mechanical problems which is followed by the main experiment of running a virtual reality childbirth. Realistic mesh models of the fetus, bony pelvis and pelvic floor muscles were subjected to the intra-uterine expulsion forces which aim to propel the virtual fetus through the virtual birth canal. Following a series of simulations, taking variations in the shape and size of the geometric models into account, we consistently observed the cardinal movements in the simulator just as they happen in physiological childbirth. The results confirm the potential of the simulator as a predictive tool for problematic childbirths subject to patient-specific adaptations. Finite element method Biomechanics Hyperelasticity Obstetrics The online version of this article ( https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-018-01109-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorised users. The biomechanical process of human childbirth involves intricate interactions between the two main agents, i.e. the fetus and the maternal abdominal and pelvic anatomy. More specifically, during the second stage of labour, the fetal head comes into contact with the maternal bony pelvis and pelvic floor muscles due to the expulsive forces aiming to expel the fetus from the womb. From a purely physical perspective, this constitutes a mechanical contact problem which lies at the basis of various phenomena including: The ‘cardinal movements’ (CMs) of the fetal head which occur during physiological birth1; The adverse effect on pelvic floor muscles when overstretched and potentially resulting in incontinence following childbirth; The possibility of labour coming to a halt because the fetal shoulder impacts with the bony pelvis known as shoulder dystocia (SD); Unfavourable presentations such as brow and face. In the longer run, the aim of the project is to create a patient-specific ‘virtual reality’ (VR) childbirth simulator capable of assessing the likelihood of normal and, more importantly, abnormal outcomes for individual cases prior to the actual event. This is of great clinical importance as it would allow clinicians to plan ahead, for example, to decide on an elective Caesarean Section (CS) if the simulation returns a high risk score on the occurrence of SD. Before such a sophisticated predictive simulator can be developed, the ‘normal’ interaction between fetus and maternal pelvic anatomy—nowadays referred to as physiological childbirth—has to be realistically modelled and simulated first.2 In this paper, we focus on the technical side of the R&D by describing the methodology we used to model the mechanical contact problem of physiological childbirth on computer. We used an explicit finite element (FE) formulation, better known as the Total Lagrangian Explicit Dynamics (TLED) method by Miller et al. (2007) to calculate the deformations of the soft tissues. The contact forces fed into TLED are calculated via a modified projection-based contact method (Yastrebov 2013). Validation is based on the quantitative and qualitative observations (or absence) of the CMs of normal childbirth. Even though the methodology is applied to modelling childbirth on computer in this paper, it can be easily adopted for other soft tissue simulations that include mechanical contact interactions, for example, surgical simulation and navigation, and robotic surgery. FE modelling of childbirth biomechanics related phenomena dates back to the late 1970s. McPherson and Kriewall (1980) modelled the deformation of fetal cranial bone when subjected to the uterine pressure during the first stage of labour using finite element Analysis (FEA). Due to limited processing power in those days, they created a FE model of the parietal bones only. Building on this preliminary model, Lapeer and Prager (2001) developed a 3D FE model of fetal head moulding and successfully validated it against a clinical study by Sorbe and Dahlgren (1983). Their work has been used in various applications including the effect of head moulding on the pelvic floor muscles (Silva et al. 2015), infant and baby head trauma (Loyd et al. 2015) and fetal growth (Libby et al. 2017). The effect of labour, be it physiological or assisted, on the biomechanical behaviour of the pelvic floor muscles is another popular subject where FEA is used. Lien et al. (2004) predicted the stretching of the Levator Ani Muscle (LAM—the collection of pelvic floor muscles) using MR (magnetic resonance) images and FEA during the second stage of labour. Parente et al. (2009) assessed the effect of the variation in material properties of the pelvic floor muscles on their biomechanical behaviour during physiological childbirth. Silva et al. (2017) assessed the biomechanical properties of the pelvic floor muscles of continent and incontinent women, respectively, also using MRI data and (inverse) FEA. Oliveira et al. (2017) analysed the effect of episiotomy (incision made in the vagina to aid delivery or avoid damage to other tissues) on the pelvic floor muscles using FE models. Last but not least, a number of attempts to model a VR childbirth simulator have been made since the early 1990s. Boissonnat and Geiger (1993) created a simple model of a fetal skull interacting with the bony pelvis. The model was not FE based, but contact forces and resulting moments on the head were based on the degree of volumetric interpenetration of the skull polyhedra into the pelvic polyhedra. Rotations of the head resembling the CMs were apparently observed during some simulations. Liu et al. (1996) proposed to improve Geiger’s model by developing a fully articulated fetal model and use FE analysis to determine the forces and moments acting on the fetal head though we are not aware of any further publications covering the suggested improvements. Buttin et al. (2009) modelled a fetus using two ellipsoids for the fetal head and trunk, respectively, and performed FEA on the descent of the fetus. They link their simulation to the BirthSIM system by Moreau et al. (2007) which is used for hands-on training and planning of obstetrics forceps delivery. The strengths of the reported research are the consideration of key soft tissues including the uterus and a mouldable (non-rigid) fetal head. These strengths are somehow weakened due to the simplification of the geometric models which are merely ellipsoids and no mention of the observation of the CMs or mechanisms of the fetal head. Gerikhanov et al. (2013) created a VR simulation with the aim of observing the cardinal movements starting with the least complex configuration of a rigid bony pelvis and a rigid fetal skull. The underlying model was based on rigid body mechanics. They observed flexion of the fetal head and internal rotation to some degree. They concluded that additional maternal anatomy such as the pelvic floor muscles would be required as a minimal configuration to observe the critical CMs (flexion, internal rotation, extension and external rotation). It is their proposal that has been further investigated in the research presented in this paper. The rigid body model by Gerikhanov et al. (2013) is bound to be inadequate due to the addition of soft tissues which significantly increase complexity; thus, a new model is required using a combination of explicit FE and mechanical contact methods. 3 Methodology The proposed methodology is a combination of the Total Lagrangian Explicit Dynamics (TLED) explicit FE formulation which is coupled to a projection-based contact method to calculate the contact forces causing deformation in the soft tissues which subsequently cause the fetal head to rotate. The external body forces are the intra-uterine expulsion force and the maternal bearing down forces. The soft tissues (pelvic floor muscles, ligaments and uterine cervix) are modelled using tetrahedral elements and Neo-Hookean hyperelastic material properties. Other components in the model are static (maternal pelvis) or dynamic (fetus) rigid bodies. The fetus has one articulation, i.e. the fetal neck which couples the rigid fetal head to the rigid fetal body. It is comprised of a linear and torsional spring (see Table 3 for the stiffness coefficients) to resist translations and rotations, respectively. Bending (flexion/extension/lateral flexion) is constrained by the contact of the fetal head with the fetal body. Rotations in the transverse plane are constrained by the torsional spring. The remainder of this section describes each of the numerical TLED and contact methods separately and then consolidates these within the FE formulation. The implementation is covered at the end of the section. 3.1 TLED formulation TLED (Miller et al. 2007) is a variation on the Lagrangian formulation of the finite element method (FEM). Belytschko et al. (2014) describe the difference between the updated Lagrangian (UL) and total Lagrangian (TL) formulations: Dependent variable description: UL—current or deformed configuration; TL—reference or material configuration. Derivatives of the dependent variables: UL—evaluated with respect to the spatial coordinates; TL—evaluated with respect to the material coordinates. Strain measure: UL—strain rate; TL—total strain. The main advantage of the TL formulation is that a considerable number of variables can be pre-computed and then reused throughout the simulation, thus saving computation time. We start by writing down the law of conservation of linear momentum (Belytschko et al. 2014): $$\nabla _0 \cdot {\mathbf {P}} + {\mathbf {b}} - \rho _0{\ddot{\mathbf {u}}} = 0$$ where $\nabla _0$ is the nabla operator in the reference (material) configuration, ${\mathbf {P}}$ is the nominal stress, ${\mathbf {b}}$ is a vector of body forces, $\rho _0$ is the density in the reference configuration and ${\ddot{\mathbf {u}}}$ is the acceleration vector or second derivative in time of the displacement vector ${\mathbf {u}}$. Using the weak form (principle of virtual work) we multiply Eq. 1 with a variation $\delta u$ and integrate over the reference domain $\Omega _0$: $$\int _{\Omega _0} \delta u \frac{\partial {\mathbf {P}}}{\partial X}{\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0 + \int _{\Omega _0} \delta u {\mathbf {b}} {\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0 - \int _{\Omega _0} \delta u \rho _0{\ddot{\mathbf {u}}} {\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0 = 0$$ where X is the position vector of a material point in the reference configuration and each of the three individual terms, respectively, represent: The internal energy $\delta W^{{\mathrm{int}}}$; The external energy $-\delta W^{{\mathrm{ext}}}$; The kinetic energy $\delta W^{{\mathrm{kin}}}$. Considering the arbitrariness of the variation $\delta u$, the forces can be determined immediately from Eq. 2. The external forces $f^{{\mathrm{ext}}}$ are defined by the intra-uterine pressure and maternal bearing down forces (see Sect. 4.3 for actual values); the kinetic forces $f^{{\mathrm{kin}}}$ are determined in the TLED update loop (see Fig. 7). This means that only the internal forces require further attention: $$f^{{\mathrm{int}}} = \int _{\Omega _0} \frac{\partial {\mathbf {P}}}{\partial X}{\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0$$ We approximate the internal forces $f^{{\mathrm{int}}}$ by nodal forces f by introducing shape functions N and the matrix of the shape function derivatives $\partial {\mathbf {h}}$. Expressing the first Piola–Kirchoff (FPK) stress tensor ${\mathbf {P}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$ in terms of the second Piola–Kirchoff (SPK) stress ${\mathbf {S}}$ whilst introducing the deformation gradient ${\mathbf {F}}$ gives the nodal force: $$f = \int _{\Omega _0} \frac{\partial N}{\partial X}{\mathbf {P}}^{{\mathrm{T}}} {\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0 = \int _{\Omega _0} \partial {\mathbf {h}}{\mathbf {P}}^{{\mathrm{T}}} {\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0 = \int _{\Omega _0} \partial {\mathbf {h}}{\mathbf {SF}}^{{\mathrm{T}}} {\mathrm{d}}\Omega _0$$ The above integral needs to be derived numerically. Consider a continuous function $\phi$ of natural element coordinates $\xi ,\eta ,\zeta$: $$\int _{\Omega } \phi (\xi ,\eta ,\zeta ){\mathrm{d}}\Omega = \int \,\int \,\int _{-1}^{1} \phi (\xi ,\eta ,\zeta ){\mathrm{d}}\xi {\mathrm{d}}\eta {\mathrm{d}}\zeta$$ This integral can be approximated via three-dimensional Gaussian quadrature integration with quadrature points in each dimension resulting in a triple summation of three-dimensional weights multiplied with the function value at each quadrature point. This triple summation is often simplified to a single summation where the product of weights in each dimension are multiplied yielding one single weight for $n_q$ quadrature points: $$\int _{\Omega } \phi (\xi ,\eta ,\zeta ){\mathrm{d}}\Omega \approx \sum _{q=1}^{n_q} w_q \phi (\xi _q,\eta _q,\zeta _q)$$ For tetrahedral elements, the Jacobian: $$J = det\left( \frac{\partial X}{\partial e_c}\right) = 6V_0$$ for element natural coordinates $e_c = \{ \xi ,\eta ,\zeta \}$ and the volume of the undeformed tetrahedron $V_0$. This yields the following expression for: $$d \Omega _0 = \frac{1}{6}J {\mathrm{d}}\xi {\mathrm{d}}\eta {\mathrm{d}}\zeta = V_0 {\mathrm{d}}\xi {\mathrm{d}}\eta {\mathrm{d}}\zeta$$ Substituting Eq. 8 into Eq. 4 and using Eq. 6 to perform numerical integration, we get: $$f = \int \,\int \,\int _{0}^{1} V_0 \partial {\mathbf {h}}{\mathbf {SF}}^{{\mathrm{T}}} {\mathrm{d}}\xi {\mathrm{d}}\eta {\mathrm{d}}\zeta \approx \sum _{q=1}^{n_q} w_q V_0 \partial {\mathbf {h}}{\mathbf {SF}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ Since the above integration is in the range [0, 1] instead of the canonical $[-1,1]$, the weights in each dimension are scaled to 1. The combined weight $w_q$ across the three dimensions will then also be equal to 1 thus Eq. 9 reduces to: $$f = V_0 \partial {\mathbf {h}}{\mathbf {SF}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ The deformation gradient ${\mathbf {F}}$ in Eq. 10 can be derived from: $${\mathbf {F}} = \partial {\mathbf {h u}} + {\mathbf {I}}$$ with the identity matrix ${\mathbf {I}}$. Finally, to derive $\partial {\mathbf {h}}$, we apply the chain rule to the matrix of shape function derivatives: $$\partial {\mathbf {h}} = \frac{\partial N}{\partial X} = \frac{\partial N}{\partial e_c}\frac{\partial e_c}{\partial X} = \frac{\partial N}{\partial e_c}\left( \frac{\partial X}{\partial e_c}\right) ^{-1}$$ The shape functions for a constant strain tetrahedral element are: $$N_1(\xi ,\eta ,\zeta )=\xi$$ $$N_2(\xi ,\eta ,\zeta )=\eta$$ $$N_3(\xi ,\eta ,\zeta )=\zeta$$ $$N_4(\xi ,\eta ,\zeta )= 1 - \xi - \eta - \zeta .$$ The Jacobian matrix ${\mathbf {J}}$ is given by: $${\mathbf {J}} = \frac{\partial X}{\partial e_c} = {\mathbf {X}} \frac{\partial N}{\partial e_c} = \left[ \begin{array}{cccc} x_1 &{} x_2 &{} x_3 &{} x_4 \\ y_1 &{} y_2 &{} y_3 &{} y_4 \\ z_1 &{} z_2 &{} z_3 &{} z_4 \end{array} \right] \ \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} 1 &{} 0 &{} 0 \\ 0 &{} 1 &{} 0 \\ 0 &{} 0&{} 1 \\ -1 &{} -1 &{} -1 \end{array} \right]$$ where ${\mathbf {X}}$ is the matrix of nodal coordinates. Working out Eq. 17 gives: $${\mathbf {J}} = \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} x_1 - x_4 &{} x_2 - x_4 &{} x_3 - x_4 \\ y_1 - y_4 &{} y_2 - y_4 &{} y_3 - y_4 \\ z_1 - z_4 &{} z_2 - z_4 &{} z_3 - z_4 \end{array} \right] = \left[ \begin{array}{c} E_1 \\ E_2 \\ E_3 \end{array} \right] ^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ where $E_i$ are column vectors representing tetrahedral edges. We can now derive $\partial {\mathbf {h}}$ by substituting Eq. 18 (following inversion) into Eq. 12: $$\partial {\mathbf {h}} = \frac{\partial N}{\partial e_c}\left[ \begin{array}{ccc} E_1&E_2&E_3 \end{array} \right] ^{-1}$$ We will relate the internal forces described in Eq. 10 with the contact forces derived later in Sect. 3.3. 3.2 Mechanical contact method The forces which affect the motion of the baby’s head (CMs) are a result of the contact interaction between the baby head and the maternal pelvic anatomy—including the bony pelvis, the pelvic floor muscles and ligaments and the fully dilated uterine cervix—during the second stage of labour which is the expulsion stage. During the first stage of labour, the movement of the baby is slow and consists of the head being in contact with the uterine cervix (i.e. the lower part of the uterus) which dilates from almost closed to full dilation (approx. 10 cm on average). The fetal head to uterine cervix contacts causes the phenomenon known as fetal head moulding (Lapeer and Prager 2001). We ignore fetal head moulding at this stage of the development thus consider the fetal head to be rigid. Thus, the simulation starts at the end of the first stage or start of the second stage. The fetus is descending and is not yet in contact with the pelvic anatomy. To detect contact, we need to perform a contact detection procedure which is better known in computer graphics and computer games as collision detection. Once contact/collision is detected between the baby head and any part of the maternal anatomy, contact pairs need to be established between the two surfaces according to a contact discretisation method. Once contact pairs have been established, the contact needs to be ‘resolved’ using a contact resolution method. We will discuss each of these three methods next. One should keep in mind that these procedures are part of a continuous update loop. 3.2.1 Contact detection We used hierarchical collision detection (CD) to minimise processing overhead using a two-step process with a broad and narrow phase. During the broad phase, FE mesh models are first subdivided in different rectangular regions using a Bounding Volume Hierarchy (BVH) which in our implementation is an octree subdivision. Figure 1 shows an octree built around the bony pelvis model. BVHs can be implemented using pointers, but since elements are not typically removed in our application, this approach causes a significant overhead when the tree needs to be traversed during the CD process due to indirect memory access. Therefore, we adopted a pointer-less method where leaf nodes are stored in sequential order and their position being accessed through an indexing function. We used Morton code or z-order curve indexing for this purpose (Morton 1966) which reduces the dimensionality of the key from three to one. The construction of the octree was done in a top-down fashion, i.e. starting from the entire mesh model and subdividing in smaller boxes until the smallest box contains a preset maximum number of faces. This approach is preferred over a bottom-up approach which starts at the level of a single face. Although both approaches are O(N) for N faces, the latter requires to run a nearest neighbour test at each new level up the tree which causes a significant overhead for complex FE meshes. The broad phase at runtime uses a tree traversal algorithm. Since some of the meshes are deformable, e.g. the pelvic floor muscle mesh (see Fig. 12), the orientation of the AABBs (axis aligned bounding boxes) is relatively changed to one another which turns them in OBBs (Oriented Bounding Boxes). Even a rigid body in the simulation, e.g. the fetal head, will change in global directions so if AABBs were referred to a global coordinate system they will turn into OBBs as well. There are two ways to resolve this: either both OBBs to be checked for collision are referred to a global coordinate system or the local coordinate system of one of the two bodies (typically the rigid body) is used as the master coordinate system and the other body’s OBBs are referred to it. Figure 2 shows the two approaches and illustrates that the second approach is favourable as only one transformation is required which results in a speedup for high OBB counts, typical for complex FE mesh traversal. Once potential collision between parts of potentially colliding bodies is detected through the nearest OBBs, the narrow phase identifies face-to-face collision between the relatively small number of faces contained in each of the OBBs. We use the well-established SAT (Separating Axis Theorem) for this purpose (Miller 1997). The bony pelvis model with octree-based AABBs (axis aligned bounding boxes) Top: OBBs of object 1 and 2 referred to global coordinate system. Bottom: Object 1 becomes master object, and object 2’s position and orientation are referred to the master object’s local coordinate system 3.2.2 Contact discretisation Ignoring multiple body contact and self-contact, we assume two bodies to be in contact at some instance in time at one (or multiple) section(s) of their respective boundaries. Since the bodies or ‘objects’ in our application are discretised FE mesh models, we select one object’s contact surface to be the ‘master’ surface and the other to be the ‘slave’ surface. Typically, the latter is the surface with the higher mesh resolution. Due to the discrete nature of contact interaction, contact pairs between master and slave surfaces are selected according to three different scenarios. In a node-to-node (NTN) approach, these contact pairs consist of corresponding nodes on each of the two surfaces on a one-to-one basis, based on minimal distance. This works fine for contact in the normal direction, but in the tangential direction, i.e. when slip occurs, node correspondence may be lost for some nodes. In a node-to-segment (NTS) discretisation, a node from the slave surface is paired with a segment of the master surface. This approach is better suited for large deformations and large tangential sliding as compared to the NTN approach. The method works fine if slave surfaces have higher resolution than master surfaces but if this is not the case then undetected or ‘spurious’ penetrations may occur. Finally, the segment to segment (STS) relates segments of each one surface to the other. Though attractive in theory, this method is complex to implement in practical problems. In our application, we opted for the NTS discretisation due to the large displacements between the slave surface (the fetal head) and the master surfaces (maternal anatomy including bony pelvis, pelvic floor muscles and uterine cervix). 3.2.3 Contact resolution The body parts in contact in our application are the rigid fetal head with either the deformable pelvic floor muscles or the rigid bony pelvis. Both rigid body parts are of arbitrary shape. We do not consider friction at this stage due to the complexity of finding realistic values of friction coefficients for our particular application. As such, the following Hertz-Signorini-Moreau (HSM) contact conditions hold for frictionless contact (Yastrebov 2013) for an arbitrary rigid body with an arbitrary deformable body on the contact zone $\Gamma _c$ (of which the active contact zone $\bar{\Gamma }_c$ is the subset of contact pairs in contact): $$g \ge 0, \sigma _n \le 0, g\sigma _n = 0, \sigma _t = {\mathbf {0}}$$ where g is the gap between corresponding elements of a contact pair. The condition that the gap should be non-negative is crucial to the underlying principles of various numerical contact methods discussed later. The contact pressure $\sigma _n$ is non-positive for non-adhesive contact. The third condition signifies that a positive gap implies a zero contact pressure and the presence of a positive contact pressure, a zero gap. Finally, the tangential stress vector $\sigma _t$ is the zero vector due to frictionless contact. The SAT CD method looks for intersections at the level of the primitives which are typically outer faces of the object boundaries. Due to the a posteriori nature of SAT CD when using finite time steps, collisions can be missed hence causing interpenetration of the two objects. In applications such as game physics, this may be avoided by either using a priori CD methods which preempt collisions and avoid interpenetration or by rectifying the interpenetration by calculating the exact point of collision. The concept of interpenetration (or negative gap g) and its rectification to satisfy the HSM condition of a non-negative gap g (Eq. 20) lays at the basis of several numerical contact methods. Next, we give a brief review of some popular contact methods followed by more in-depth coverage of the projection-based partial Dirichlet–Neumann (pDN) contact method which we adapted to our specific problem statement. Penalty method (PM) treats interpenetrations as strict constraint violations by introducing a resistive ‘penalty’ force as a function of the gap (or penetration) between the node and the master surface. An abstract way of visualising penalty-based methods is to imagine a resistive spring between the contact surfaces which has length 0 when there is no contact and which elongates with increasing penetration (violation of the HSM first condition). The relation between the force and the gap is often taken to be linear (Hooke’s law) due to its simplicity although nonlinear (quadratic and exponential) functions provide more accurate results. To fulfil a non-penetration condition, the penalty force has to be infinite which implies that in practical solutions this condition can only be approximately fulfilled. Since the penalty parameter(s), which relate(s) the force to the gap, is/are problem specific hence empirically determined (Kikuchi and Oden 1988), they cannot be used in a different context, e.g. when scaling the problem geometry or modifying material properties or the time step. Lagrange multiplier method (LMM) The LMM aims to fulfil the HSM conditions using constrained minimisation. The Lagrangian is given by: $${\mathcal {L}}({\mathbf {u}}, \lambda _n) = \Pi ({\mathbf {u}}) + \int _{\bar{\Gamma }_c^1} \lambda _n g({\mathbf {u}}) {\mathrm{d}}\bar{\Gamma }_c^1$$ where ${\mathbf {u}}$ is the displacement vector on the active contact zone $\bar{\Gamma }_c^1$ of deformable object 1; $\Pi ({\mathbf {u}})$ is the corresponding deformation energy; $\lambda _n$ are a continuous set of Lagrange multipliers on the active contact zone to enforce the gap condition $g({\mathbf {u}}) \ge 0$. The stationary condition is obtained by taking the variation of ${\mathcal {L}}({\mathbf {u}}, \lambda _n)$. It should be noted that the following relation holds for the contact pressure $\sigma _n$: $$\|\sigma _n\| = \|\lambda _n\| = \frac{\partial {\mathcal {L}} }{\partial g}$$ Since the LMM introduces additional degrees of freedom into the solution that represent the contact forces between the bodies in contact, the solution becomes harder to obtain and may in fact become impractical to compute for relatively large problems (Pietrzak and Curnier 1999). The augmented Lagrange method (ALM) combines the LMM with the PM which leads to improved solution convergence, thus considerably improving the speed of the solver (Simo and Laursen 1992). The LMM was used with an explicit FE model by Taylor (1989) in the PRONTO 3D software for transient solid dynamics. Heinstein (1997) also used the LMM in combination with a matrix-free explicit FE model using an iterative approach to enforce the contact non-penetration conditions outlined in (20). Further work by Heinstein et al. (2000) focused on contact-impact modelling for large deformation problems (including friction) in an explicit dynamic FE setting. Despite the focus being on impact modelling, the method can be used for quasi-static contact problems as well and can deal with multiple object contact. Johnsen et al. (2012) combined the method by Heinstein et al. (2000) with Miller’s TLED method (Miller et al. 2007) and integrated these into the NiftySim TLED simulation software (Johnsen et al. 2014). Additional functionality includes contact normal smoothing for improved stability and a friction model. Johnsen’s updated method is also capable of simulating contact between two soft tissues or soft tissues and rigid objects. Further development by Johnsen et al. (2015) includes the earlier mentioned BVH (Sect. 3.2.1) to improve performance for high polygon count meshes using a heuristic approach. Projection-based method (PBM) The main issue with the PM is its inability to satisfy the conditions outlined in (20). Whilst the LMM-based methods do satisfy these conditions, when used within an explicit FE model, the solution depends on the time step used for explicit time integration. To deal with these shortcomings, projection-based methods treat contact conditions strictly kinematically by resolving contact by moving or ‘projecting’ violating (or interpenetrating) nodes out of penetration. As such the contact conditions (20) are satisfied, whilst the computational cost of projection is significantly smaller than for LMM-based approaches. Since PBMs are strictly kinematic, the contact force is unknown. Cirak and West (2005) use a momentum-based approach to derive the contact force, based on the momentum exchange between interacting nodes. Interpolation is used when nodes hit faces instead of other nodes. Momentum is calculated from the mass and velocity of the nodes in contact. The method is useful for impact modelling but less so for quasi-static approaches as there is little or no momentum exchange. The partial Dirichlet–Neumann (pDN) contact method described by Yastrebov (2013) is also projection based. The non-penetration conditions (20) are enforced by projection of the (slave) nodes onto the (master) surface using the Dirichlet boundary conditions. Tangential contributions including friction are treated as Neumann boundary conditions. The method was not originally designed for explicit FE though the use of a Dirichlet boundary condition along the normal direction of the contact surface leads to a more robust contact resolution due to having no dependency on the reaction force and the time step in explicit FE. Due to the process of childbirth being a slow quasi-static process, the relative velocities of the contact surfaces remain small and no impact is present nor do we consider any friction at this stage. As such, the adaptation of the pDN method for our purpose has resulted in the projection-based contact method algorithm illustrated in Fig. 3. The slave surface nodes are in blue colour, and the master surface is pink. The issue that arises is that in between one time step $\delta t = h$, a free node ${\mathbf {p}}$ at position ${\mathbf {p}}_{t-h}$ will have penetrated the surface ending up at position ${\mathbf {p}}_t$ whilst violating the HSM conditions described earlier. We wish to move the node to the position ${\mathbf {p}}_p = {\mathbf {p}}_i + {\mathbf {s}}$ where ${\mathbf {p}}_i$ is the intersection point of node ${\mathbf {p}}$ with the master surface and ${\mathbf {s}}$ is the tangential slip that would have occured within the time step. Rather than calculating the exact position of ${\mathbf {p}}_i$, it is more straightforward to project ${\mathbf {p}}_t$ in the direction of the master surface’s normal ${\mathbf {n}}$ over the distance $d_t$ (gap) which is obtained from: $$d_t = ({\mathbf {p}}_t -{\mathbf {p}}_o)\cdot{\mathbf {n}}$$ where ${\mathbf {p}}_o$ is an arbitrary node on the master’s intersection plane (plane origin). The projected position ${\mathbf {p}}_p$ is then given by: $${\mathbf {p}}_p = {\mathbf {p}}_t + d_t{\mathbf {n}}$$ Algorithm 4 in “Appendix 3’ further describes the implementation of the projection-based contact method. The principle behind the implemented pDN method. Blue nodes are part of the slave surface penetrating the pink master surface. The node ${\mathbf {p}}$ at time $t-h \ ({\mathbf {p}}_{t-h})$ will interpenetrate the master surface at the next time step ($h=\delta t$) ending up at position ${\mathbf {p}}_t$. To satisfy the HSM conditions, ${\mathbf {p}}_t$ is projected back to the surface to end up at the position ${\mathbf {p}}_p = {\mathbf {p}}_i + {\mathbf {s}} = {\mathbf {p}}_t + {\mathbf {d}}_t$ where ${\mathbf {p}}_i$ is the intersection point and ${\mathbf {s}}$ the tangential slip vector 3.3 Calculating the contact force Since the proposed pDN method only satisfies the non-penetration conditions, the contact force needs to be calculated separately as part of the explicit FE formulation we outlined in Sect. 3.1. The FEM integrates stress over element volume to evaluate nodal forces. Here, nodal forces are evaluated across the element surface. Therefore, we adopt the finite volume method (FVM) (Teran et al. 2003) to evaluate the stress-based contact force. “Appendix 1” illustrates the basic principle of calculating a nodal force for a 2D triangular element. Extending to a 3D tetrahedron (see Fig. 4), we get for the nodal force at node i: $$f_i = - \sum _{j=1}^n \frac{1}{3} \sigma _j(a_{j,1} {\mathbf {n}}_{j,1} + a_{j,2} {\mathbf {n}}_{j,2} + a_{j,3} {\mathbf {n}}_{j,3})$$ $\sigma _j$ is the Cauchy stress in element j; $a_{j,k}, {\mathbf {n}}_{j,k}, k = 1\ldots 3$—areas and normals, respectively, of the faces of element j comprising node i (current or spatial configuration); n is the number of elements of the surrounding volume around node i. Replacing the Cauchy stress with the nominal stress and using Nanson’s formula to express areas and normals in the reference (material) configuration (Holzapfel 2000) gives: $$f_i = - \sum _{j=1}^n \frac{1}{3} {\mathbf {P}}_j(A_{j,1} {\mathbf {N}}_{j,1} + A_{j,2} {\mathbf {N}}_{j,2} + A_{j,3} {\mathbf {N}}_{j,3})$$ where ${\mathbf {P}}_j$ is the nominal stress tensor for element $j; {\mathbf {N}}_{j,l}, A_{j,l}$ are the normal and area, respectively, of the node i adjacent to face l of element j in the reference configuration. The sum of the product of normals and areas can be pre-computed per element j: $b_j = \frac{1}{3} \sum _{l\ne j} A_l {\mathbf {N}}_l$. Additionally, for a tetrahedron, the following relation holds: $\sum _{k=1}^4 A_k {\mathbf {N}}_k = 0$. Putting this together, we arrive at the matrix ${\mathbf {B}}_m$: $${\mathbf {B}}_m = -\frac{1}{3} [ A_1 {\mathbf {N}}_1 \ A_2 {\mathbf {N}}_2 \ A_3 {\mathbf {N}}_3 \ A_4 {\mathbf {N}}_4 ] = \left[ b_1 \ b_2 \ b_3 \ b_4 \right]$$ As such, force contributions of one element e to each of its nodes as derived from the FVM can be written in the nodal force contribution matrix: $$f_{{\mathrm{FVM}}}^e = {\mathbf {P}} {\mathbf {B}}_m = [ g_1 \ g_2 \ g_3 \ g_4 ]^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ With $g_k$, the nodal force contributions of element e to node k. Equation 10 in Sect. 3.1 (TLED) also represents the individual element contribution to the nodal forces and has to equate in absolute value (though opposite sign) to the force derived in Eq. 28 which gives3: $${\mathbf {P}} {\mathbf {B}}_m = - V_0 {\mathbf {F}}{\mathbf {S}}^{{\mathrm{T}}} \partial {\mathbf {h}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ Since ${\mathbf {P}} = {\mathbf {FS}}$ and ${\mathbf {S}}={\mathbf {S}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$ (Holzapfel 2000), the term ${\mathbf {F}}{\mathbf {S}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$ in Eq. 29 can be replaced by ${\mathbf {P}}$ which cancels out with its left-hand side equivalent resulting in: $${\mathbf {B}}_m = - V_0 \partial {\mathbf {h}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ FVM integration for a 3D region showing a node i and the elements of its surrounding polygon in the reference (left) and current (right) configurations. The coloured region shows the neighbourhood in which the stress is integrated. $A_j (a_j)$ and ${\mathbf {N}}_j ({\mathbf {n}}_j)$ are the area and normal, respectively, for the reference (current) configuration of face j 3.4 Implementation The underlying architecture of the birth simulation software is an entity-component system (ECS) (Nystrom 2014). An ECS works well in computer game styled software where many ‘entities’ use similar generic components. An entity identifies an object, e.g. fetal head, pelvis, pelvic floor muscle. It will typically encapsulate this object’s position, orientation, velocity and so forth, but it will not contain any methods with respect to the behaviour of the object. This is held in different (generic) components that relate to systems, e.g. systems for rendering, physics, object manipulation (UI), camera, keyboard and windows. As such, behaviour is decoupled from the actual object. Figure 5 shows an ECS diagram for the fetal head in the simulation. The requirement for interactive (realtime) rates in our childbirth simulation dictates that the computations are to be performed within small time periods (preferably smaller than 16 ms). To facilitate this, various underlying systems need to run in parallel. Figure 6 shows a flow chart of all main systems as part of the simulation. The TLED implementation is run on the GPU using the OpenCL4 API. Note that other research teams have developed GPU-based implementations of the TLED method using the NVidia CUDA5 technology (Taylor et al. 2008; Johnsen et al. 2014). Figure 7 gives an overview of each stage of the TLED implementation. Each of the stages of pre-computation, element and node processing are described in Algorithms 1–3 in “Appendix 3”. The pre-computation step is executed once, whereas the nodal and elemental updates are constantly updated in a continuous cycle of data exchange between the two kernels. The nodal displacement updates at the next time step $t+1$ are calculated using an explicit FE solver with Verlet numerical integration: $$u_{t+1} = A({\mathbf {R}}_t - {\mathbf {F}}_t) + Bu_t + Cu_{t-1}$$ where u is the nodal displacement, ${\mathbf {R}}_t$, the external force vector, ${\mathbf {F}}_t$, the internal force vector, both at time t and the pre-computed constants A,B,C are: $$\begin{aligned} A&= \left( \frac{1}{\Delta t^2} {\mathbf {M}} + \frac{1}{2 \Delta t} {\mathbf {C}}\right) ^{-1} \nonumber \\ B&= \frac{2}{\Delta t^2} {\mathbf {M}} A \nonumber \\ C&= \frac{1}{2 \Delta t} {\mathbf {C}} A + \frac{B}{2}\end{aligned}$$ where ${\mathbf {M}}$ is the mass matrix and ${\mathbf {C}}$ the damping matrix. Convergence to the correct solution is conditional to a sufficiently small time step, $\Delta t$, according to the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition (Lewy et al. 1928). Figure 8 shows the basic class diagram of the TLED implementation. The implementation of the pDN contact method is illustrated in Algorithm 4 in “Appendix 3”. The main nodal boundary condition (BC) used in the pDN method is a plane constraint.6 A penetrating slave node, with a plane constraint attached to it, will be projected onto the master surface plane which is described by the four parameters of the plane equation (step 2 in Algorithm 4). The contact detection process is executed on the CPU. Figure 6 illustrates the parallel execution of TLED and contact detection at the abstract level. Figure 9 shows how the contact and TLED processes interact with one another at the process level. During the sync event, data are exchanged between CPU (contact) and GPU (TLED). This allows TLED to use the latest contact conditions as BCs until the next sync event, whilst the latest nodal deformations are considered to be constant in the contact detection until the next sync event. The system employs amortised contact detection where contact is performed once per frame as opposed to performing it at every TLED subtask (red and green blocks in Fig. 9) which require a complete TLED update each. The per-frame simulation time step is 16 ms, whereas TLED subtask time steps are considerably smaller. The reason for this is to allow the system to be updated in real time as CPU-processed contact detection at every TLED subtask step is not feasible due to data transfer overheads. An entity-component system (ECS) diagram for the fetal head Flow chart of the processes involved in the childbirth simulation. A sync event at the end of each frame enables synchronisation of the concurrent processes related to contact detection, rigid body dynamics and TLED The core steps of the TLED algorithm as implemented in the childbirth simulation software. The two kernels constantly exchange data. $S_{{\mathrm{PK}}}$ is the second Piola–Kirchoff stress. See also Algorithms 1–3 in “Appendix 3” Basic class diagram of the TLED implementation in the childbirth simulation software. All computations are performed in the Calculator subclasses, and the FE data are stored in the Assembly class The contact method executed on the CPU generates the contact boundary conditions (BCs). During the sync event, the data are exchanged between the CPU (contact) and GPU (TLED). Green and red sub-tasks on the GPU as part of TLED depict per-element and per-node kernels, respectively 4 Experiments In this section, we cover first a number of experiments on the validation of the implemented contact method, followed by the main experiment covering the ‘acid test’ as to whether our VR childbirth simulator is capable of showing the same biomechanical behaviour of a real physiological childbirth by exhibiting the four critical CMs of the fetal head: flexion, internal rotation, extension and external rotation. 4.1 Contact method validation We compared the implemented projection-based contact method with TLED against the tried and tested ABAQUS software7 in explicit contact mode. A cube with sides of 10 cm and Neo-Hookean hyperelastic material properties was used with a bulk modulus, $k = 1$ MPa and a shear modulus, $\mu = 66$ kPa (corresponding to pelvic floor muscle tissue—see Table 3). These moduli needed to be converted into Neo-Hookean polynomial coefficients where $C_{10} = \mu /2 = 33$ kPa and $D_1 = 2/k = 0.002$ kPa$^{-1}$ for use in ABAQUS Explicit. The cube consists of first-order tetrahedral elements and all bottom plane nodes are encastred. The number of elements was increased from 126 elements up to 12490 elements in five steps. A solid sphere (or ball) with a diameter of 10 cm was then gently released (initial velocity is 0) on top of the cube. Two mass densities were applied to yield spheres of 10 and 15 kg, respectively.8 The time step was set to 16 ms in BirthView (the name of our simulation software), whereas ABAQUS ran at a stable time step increment of 0.001 ms. Table 1 shows the results. Figure 10 shows the (10 kg) sphere with initial contact on the top surface on the cube (left) and at maximum deflection $u_{y,{\mathrm{max}}}$ in the negative y direction (right). The results show that the BirthView physics engine (TLED/pDN) exhibits less sensitivity to the number of elements used as compared to ABAQUS explicit contact which underestimates the deflection at lower element counts. This phenomenon is clearer at the higher weight of 15 kg (which is the mass equivalent to the force of a combined volitional push and the weight of the baby) where the percentage difference between the deflection at 126 elements versus 12490 elements is just 7% in BirthView, whereas it is almost 30% in ABAQUS. Ignoring this trend, the deflection at the higher element counts corresponds well between BirthView and ABAQUS with differences of no more than 5%. Comparison of the deflection in the negative y-direction $u_{y,{\mathrm{max}}}$ in mm (note that minus signs have been omitted for clarity) for the BirthView and ABAQUS explicit FE with contact solvers, following the sphere on cube experiment Load (kg) #tet BirthView Diff. (%) − 17 − 9 Two spheres of 10 and 15 kg, respectively, were used. The number of elements for the cube varied between 126 and 12,490 elements A solid sphere of 10 kg is gently lowered on a hyperelastic cube (1256 elements with pelvic floor muscle tissue properties) in BirthView. All nodes on the bottom plane of the cube are encastred. Left: initial contact. Right: maximum deflection $u_{y,{\mathrm{max}}} = -19.53\,\hbox {mm}$ 4.2 Time step sensitivity To illustrate the relative insensitivity to the time step of the penalty-based method, implemented in BirthView, a comparison to Heinstein’s method (Heinstein et al. 2000) is facilitated through the following experiment: The same cube with sides of 10 cm and pelvic floor muscle hyperelastic properties is used. A square plate of $10\times 10$ cm is gently lowered on the cube and the deflection, $u_{y,{\mathrm{max}}}$, in the negative y direction is measured for different time steps. Table 2 and Fig. 11 show the results. It is clear that Heinstein’s method only converges to the true solution when the time step is sufficiently small, whereas the penalty-based method exhibits the same solution across all tested time step magnitudes starting from the 16 ms upper bound. Comparison of BirthView’s penalty-based contact method and Heinstein’s method on loading a hyperelastic cube with a pressure plate of 186.6 N at different values of the time step Time step (ms) $u_{y, {\mathrm{max}}}$ (mm) Heinstein The corresponding compression values $u_{y,{\mathrm{max}}}$ in mm are shown for each of the two methods in columns 2 and 3, respectively, and the relative difference in column 4 Comparison of BirthView’s projection-based contact method (blue curve) and Heinstein’s method (red curve) on loading a hyperelastic cube with a pressure plate of 186.6 N at different values of the time step. The abscissa shows the time step in ms, the ordinate the value of $u_{y,{\mathrm{max}}}$ in m 4.3 Childbirth simulation Due to the complex nature of combining TLED and contact interaction algorithms, described earlier, an incremental approach was needed to arrive at the current childbirth simulation which we present next. The various experiments that laid the foundation of the simulation were successfully completed and validated and can be found in Gerikhanov (2017). The current version is capable of simulating physiological childbirth with the baby in occiput anterior (OA) position. OA implies that the back of the baby’s head presents to the front of the maternal pelvis near the time of expulsion and is the most common presentation (Williams Obstetrics 2014). At the start of the second stage of labour, the back of the baby’s head either faces left from the mother’s viewpoint (LOA) or right (ROA).9 The simulation’s components and their material properties (Hoyte et al. 2008) are listed in Table 3. Figure 12 shows the pelvic floor muscle mesh and the encastre points connecting the muscle to the bony pelvis. The latter was derived from the Visible Female (US national library of medicine 1996), whereas the pelvic floor muscles were derived from a 22-year-old subject of the BodyParts3D library (Mitsuhashi et al. 2009). The fetal head is a decimated and adapted version of the detailed fetal skull model used in Lapeer and Prager (2001) and is shown in Fig. 13. It is attached to the fetal trunk via a stiff combined linear and torsional spring—see Fig. 14. The fetal trunk was obtained from MR scans of a stillborn baby. The sacrospinous ligaments are triangular in shape and connect, on both left and right sides, through their triangular base to the edge formed by the sacrum and coccyx and their triangular apex to the ischial spine—see Fig. 15. Both the sacrospinous ligaments and the uterine cervix were modelled manually using anatomical images (Drake et al. 2014) and the Blender software (Blender Online Community 2015). The deformable pelvic floor mesh and its encastre points to connect the assembly to the maternal bony pelvis Rigid fetal head model with 7900 triangular first-order shell elements A combined linear and torsional (stiff) spring connects the fetal head to the fetal trunk and functions as the fetal neck The sacrospinous ligaments mesh model containing 12,320 tetrahedral first-order elements. The frontal part of each ligament is encastred to the ischial spines, whereas the back part is encastred to the sacrum Geometrical components of the childbirth simulation #elements Material property Fetal head 7900 triangular shell Connected to neck Fetal neck Linear 100 N/m Fixed to fetal head and trunk Torsional 100 Nm/rad Rotations in sagittal and coronal planes are constrained by head to body contact Rotations in the transverse plane are constrained by the torsional spring Fetal trunk Free moving Bony pelvis 14,000 triangular shell Encastred (immobile) Uterine cervix 1,024 tetrahedral Neo-Hookean HE: m = 66 kPa, K = 1 MPa Fixed in x, y, z at pubic bone Pelvic floor muscles 28,700 tetrahedral Encastred—see Fig. 12 Sacrospinous ligaments Neo-Hookean HE: m = 160 kPa, K = 1 MPa All elements are first-order. Material properties of the soft tissues are adopted from Hoyte et al. (2008) The intra-uterine pressure (IUP) lays at the basis of the uterine expulsion force which applies to the fetal buttocks and is at its peak once the uterine cervix has fully dilated which marks the end of the first stage of labour and the start of the second stage of labour. The IUP varies periodically over a period of approximately 3 min with a basal and peak pressure. Quantitative experiments on the intra-uterine pressure (IUP) have been performed since the 1950s (Turnbull 1957). For our experiment, we adopted more recent values as reported by Ashton-Miller and DeLancey (2009), i.e. a baseline force of 16 N at rest, 54 N during a uterine contraction (peak) and 120 N during a volitional push. The initial position of the fetal head is above the pelvic brim upon which the uterine force is applied and the TLED/contact algorithm enters in an update loop, as previously shown in Figs. 6, 7 and 9, to, respectively, detect contact between head and pelvis, resolve the contact and update the deformation of the soft tissues and rigid body mechanics of the fetal head, neck and trunk. The main objective of the experiments is to observe the critical cardinal movements of the fetal head which occur in the vast majority of physiological (‘natural’) childbirths, i.e. in the order: flexion, internal rotation, extension and external rotation. Figure 16 shows the position, flexion (rotation in the sagittal plane) and rotation (in the transverse plane) at each stage of the expulsion of the virtual baby. Flexion (negative ‘deflexion’—orange curve) starts around the 36 s mark followed by internal rotation (red curve) reaching a maximum around the 120 s mark, followed by extension (or deflexion—orange curve) just above the 144 s mark followed by full external rotation around the 180 s mark. Figure 17 shows snapshots of the simulation at the four distinct stages of flexion, internal rotation, extension and external rotation.10 The fetal head position (blue curve), rotation in the sagittal plane [orange curve: flexion (–) and extension/deflexion (+)] and rotation in the transverse plane (red curve) throughout the simulation starting with the fetal head above the pelvic brim in ROA position and ending with the head being expelled A VR childbirth simulation run in BirthView: top left: initial (LOA) position; top right: flexion; middle left: internal rotation; middle right: extension start; bottom left: extension finish; bottom right: external rotation. The colour code encodes the displacement of the soft tissues where blue starts at 0.0 mm, then 6.4, 12.8 (cyan), 19.2, 25.6 (green), 32.0, 38.4, 44.8 (yellow), 51.2 (orange) and 57.6 mm (red) Snapshots of the same simulation as shown in Fig. 17 showing the effect on the sacrospinous ligaments at the stages of internal rotation (left) and external rotation (right) The experiment reported in Sect. 4.3 included all soft tissues currently modelled, i.e. the pelvic floor muscles (aka Levator Ani Muscle), the sacrospinous ligaments and the uterine cervix. From preliminary experiments, not fully reported here, we started with a bony pelvis, fetal head and uterine cervix only, then added each of the soft tissues separately. Table 4 shows which of the critical CMs were observed in each of these configurations. The final configuration (Case 4) corresponds to the experiment reported in Sect. 4.3 where all soft tissues have been added. It can be seen that only in this case are all the critical CMs observed. It is interesting to note that this does not happen if either the pelvic floor muscles (Case 2) or the sacrospinous ligaments (Case 3) are present. If the latter is added (Case 3), it makes no difference at all as the outcome is the same as in Case 1 (neither pelvic floor muscles nor sacrospinous ligaments). For Case 2 (pelvic floor muscles only), flexion is observed and internal rotation goes halfway but then does not progress any further so the virtual fetus never gets delivered. It is only when both pelvic floor muscles and sacrospinous ligaments are added that all CMs are observed and the virtual fetus is successfully delivered. This can also be observed from the trajectories shown in Fig. 16 and the screen shots from BirthView in Figs. 17 and 18. A well-known phenomenon during physiological childbirth is the fetus moving upwards and downwards (bouncing) due to the pulsating expulsive force even though the net motion is downwards (Bamberg et al. 2012). This phenomenon is also present in the BirthView Case 4 simulation and can be most clearly observed during the fetal head’s extension phase as illustrated in the supplementary video and from the wavy patterns in the blue curve in Fig. 16 which corresponds to the fetal head position or ‘station’. To assess robustness, Case 4 experiments with realistic variations in the initial position, the fetal head and pelvic geometry (Hall et al. 2007), were run (but not reported here) and the four critical CMs were still observed resulting in the delivery of the virtual fetus.11 In Fig. 16, we observe that the total simulation time is approx. 216 s which is just under 4 min. This is much faster than the time the second stage of labour on average lasts during a real childbirth which is approx. 20 min to 2 h (Williams Obstetrics 2014). There are several reasons for this. Firstly, various surrounding maternal organs (e.g. the bladder) have been ignored in the model as they do not actively participate though they do indirectly constrain the passage. Secondly, there will be varying degrees of friction at times due to variation in fluid content between contact surfaces. Finally, the pelvic floor muscle model in the simulation has strictly hyperelastic properties and no visco-elastic properties that will slow down progress of the simulated childbirth process. Four experiments with different configurations of soft tissues added Flexion Internal rotation External rotation $\sim 1/3$ Case 4 corresponds to all soft tissues added which is the only configuration that exhibits all four critical cardinal movements (CMs) thus leading to successful delivery of the virtual fetus. The other cases grind to a halt at the internal rotation stage which never fully completes and consequently does not allow the VR fetus to progress beyond that stage We have presented a methodology to facilitate a VR computer-based physiological childbirth simulation. We described the underlying model, including the mathematics, soft tissue models and processing using TLED, the projection-based contact method and their implementation on the GPU. It was shown from quantitative (head rotation values) and qualitative (observation of the critical cardinal movements) results that the fetal motions in the VR-based simulation are remarkably similar to its motions in a real scenario. The current simulator which uses average-sized models of fetal and maternal anatomy will be further developed for educational purposes. From our conversations with health professionals, it has become apparent that trainee midwives and obstetricians could greatly benefit from a tool that allows them to look inside an otherwise largely non-transparent process. To arrive at such a tool, more complex scenarios should be tested. First of all, further stability testing is needed (which are already ongoing at the time of writing) to assess variations in the geometrical size and shape of key anatomical components (e.g. smaller or larger than average fetal head, different types of pelvis) and the material properties of the soft tissues (looser or stiffer cervix, pelvic floor muscles and sacrospinous ligaments). Secondly, different positions of the fetus at the start of the second stage of labour should be tested. The most important one would be shoulder dystocia (SD) as it is one of the most critical situations that can occur during childbirth in developed countries (Crofts et al. 2006). The simulator could also be used in conjunction with a force-feedback hardware device to do training of instrumental delivery such as obstetric forceps (Moreau et al. 2007). Additional improvements, of a biomechanical nature, to potentially enhance soft tissue behaviour and interaction include the addition of visco-elastic material properties to the soft tissues to improve realism in terms of duration, a deformable fetal head including moulding (Lapeer and Prager 2001), and articulated arms and legs to simulate the delivery of the fetal trunk once the head has been delivered. In the longer term additional maternal anatomical models should be added as well, i.e. a full uterus and abdominal organs such as the bladder. Ultimately, the simulator could be used to predict adverse outcomes prior to the actual childbirth. This requires the currently ‘average-sized’ simulator to be transformed into a ‘patient-specific’ sized simulator. Although this is perfectly doable with modern day medical imaging technology, the following challenges would have to be dealt with: Key anatomical components of the mother and fetus would be segmented from high-resolution and correctly weighted MR images obtained a number of weeks before the predicted delivery. This would also require the scaling of the fetal anatomy to conform with the expected size at birth. Growth charts could be used for this purpose. The average models can be warped through non-rigid registration algorithms to correspond with the shape and size of the patient-specific models (including the additional scaling mentioned before). Lapeer et al. (2009) developed a fast non-rigid registration algorithm on the GPU that registers high-resolution medical image volumes in less than one second. To assess the material properties of the maternal soft tissue, ultrasound elastography or MRE (Magnetic Resonance Elastography) could be used. Further applications of the simulator could include the assessment of structural changes to soft tissues at the mechanobiology level due to excessive deformation potentially followed by permanent tissue damage. In the case of the pelvic floor muscles, this could result into post-partum incontinence, whereas excessive moulding of the fetal head could cause intracranial haemorrhage(s). The critical cardinal movements of the fetal head in order of occurrence are: flexion, internal rotation, extension and external rotation. In the past, the term ‘normal’ childbirth was used when the baby is delivered vaginally without additional instrumental intervention. Following a debate amongst midwives and obstetricians on the ambiguity of ‘normal’, a birth without instrumental intervention is now called ‘physiological’ childbirth. The proof of this equality is provided in “Appendix 2”. https://www.khronos.org/opencl/. https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone. The software facilitates the use of other nodal BCs through displacement, linear and spring constraints. https://www.3ds.com/products-services/simulia/products/abaqus/. The weights have been selected on the basis of the force applied during a volitional push during childbirth which, including the weight of the baby, range approx. between a mass equivalent of 10 and 15 kg. The current simulation can be run in real time on a quadcore (2.9 GHz per core) laptop or desktop with at least 16 GB (1866 MHz) of memory and a high-end video adapter card with at least 4 GB GDDR5 dedicated memory. A video showing the full process is available as additional material. The uterine cervix only affects flexion at the start of the process by pre-flexing the head. It does not affect the other cardinal movements due to it being fully dilated. This study was partially funded by the National Institute for Health Research (Grant Number HTD-515). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Supplementary material 1 (mp4 12400 KB) Appendix 1: Nodal contact force for 2D triangular element Here, we describe the underlying fundamentals of the FVM (finite volume method) for later calculation of the nodal contact force for 3D tetrahedrons using a simplified case for 2D triangles first. Consider the divergence (Gauss’) theorem in 2D: $$\int _A (\nabla \cdot \sigma ) {\mathrm{d}}A = \oint _s (\sigma \cdot {\mathbf {n}}){\mathrm{d}}s$$ In a linear (constant strain) element, the Cauchy stress $\sigma$ is constant over the element thus: $$\nabla \cdot \sigma = 0$$ This implies that the surface integral in the left-hand side of Eq. 33 is zero, and hence for the 2D triangular element shown in Fig. 19 we obtain: $$\int _{\partial \Omega _1} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s + \int _{\partial \Omega _2} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s + \int _{\partial T_1} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s + \int _{\partial T_2} \sigma {\mathbf {n} }{\mathrm{d}}s = 0$$ Which can be rewritten as: $$\int _{\partial \Omega _1} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s + \int _{\partial \Omega _2} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s = - \int _{\partial T_1} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s + \int _{\partial T_2} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s$$ The nodal force $f_i$ is derived by applying Eq. 36 for all the surrounding elements of node i: $$f_i = \oint _{\partial \Omega _1} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s = - \sum _j \int _{\partial T_j} \sigma {\mathbf {n}} {\mathrm{d}}s$$ The length of $\partial T_j$ is half the length of corresponding edge $E_j$ thus for n edges with normals ${\mathbf {n}}$: $$f_i = - \sum _{j=1}^n \frac{1}{2} \sigma (E_j {\mathbf {n}}_j + E_{(j+1)\mathrm {mod}\ n} {\mathbf {n}}_{(j+1)\mathrm {mod}\ n})$$ FVM integration for a 2D region showing a node i and the elements of its surrounding polygon. The coloured region shows the neighbourhood in which stress is integrated. The lighter coloured triangle shows the boundary segments $\partial \Omega _j$ and edge segments $\partial T_j$ Appendix 2: Proof of contact force equality and reaction forces We assume that the forces in Eqs. 10 and 28 are equal and thus lead to Eq. 29 and subsequently Eq. 30. The proof is based on evaluating the matrix of shape function derivatives $\partial {\mathbf {h}}$ in function of tetrahedral properties. From the Jacobian matrix in Eq. 18, we can derive the inverse Jacobian matrix: $${\mathbf {J}}^{-1} = \frac{\partial e_c}{\partial X} = \frac{1}{6V_0} \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} a_1 &{} b_1 &{} c_1 \\ a_2 &{} b_2 &{} c_2 \\ a_3 &{} b_3 &{} c_3 \end{array} \right]$$ It can be verified that $a_i, b_i, c_i$ correspond to the x, y, z components, respectively, of the normal vector to the tetrahedral triangular face opposite to vertex i. This implies that the area of triangular face i is equal to: $$A_i = \frac{1}{2} \sqrt{a_i^2 + b_i^2 + c_i^2}$$ and that the determinant of ${\mathbf {J}}$ is six times the volume of the tetrahedron. If we consider the vector ${\mathbf {s}}_i = \left[ a_i \ b_i \ c_i \right]$ and the normalised vector ${\hat{\mathbf {s}}}_i = {\mathbf {s}}_i / \|{\mathbf {s}}_i\|$, where ${\hat{\mathbf {s}}}_i = {\mathbf {N}}_i$ and $\|{\mathbf {s}}_i\| = A_i$, we get: $${\mathbf {s}}_i = 2 A_i {\mathbf {N}}_i$$ We can now rewrite Eq. 39 as: $$\frac{\partial e_c}{\partial X} = \frac{1}{3V_0} \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} A_1 {\mathbf {N}}_1 \\ A_2 {\mathbf {N}}_2 \\ A_3 {\mathbf {N}}_3 \end{array} \right]$$ Substituting Eq. 42 into Eq. 12 and substituting $A_4 {\mathbf {N}}_4 = - ( A_1 {\mathbf {N}}_1 + A_2 {\mathbf {N}}_2 + A_3 {\mathbf {N}}_3)$ we get: $$\partial {\mathbf {h}} = \frac{1}{3V_0}\left[ \begin{array}{ccc} A_1 {\mathbf {N}}_1 \\ A_2 {\mathbf {N}}_2 \\ A_3 {\mathbf {N}}_3 \\ A_4 {\mathbf {N}}_4 \end{array} \right]$$ Rewriting Eq. 27 and relating it to Eq. 43, we get: $${\mathbf {B}}_m = - \frac{1}{3}\left[ \begin{array}{ccc} A_1 {\mathbf {N}}_1 \\ A_2 {\mathbf {N}}_2 \\ A_3 {\mathbf {N}}_3 \\ A_4 {\mathbf {N}}_4 \end{array} \right] ^{{\mathrm{T}}} = - V_0 \partial {\mathbf {h}}^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ Which is equal to Eq. 30. $\square$ Reaction forces Nodal forces contributed by element e are evaluated as: $$f_e = {\mathbf {P}} {\mathbf {B}}_m = \frac{1}{3} {\mathbf {P}} \left[ \begin{array}{ccc} A_1 {\mathbf {N}}_1 \\ A_2 {\mathbf {N}}_2 \\ A_3 {\mathbf {N}}_3 \\ A_4 {\mathbf {N}}_4 \end{array} \right] ^{{\mathrm{T}}}$$ The nominal stress ${\mathbf {P}}$ relates to the traction force ${\mathbf {T}}$ and area normal ${\mathbf {N}}$ as ${\mathbf {T} }= {\mathbf {P}}{ \mathbf {N}}$. The force acting on area A (reference configuration) is then: $$f = {\mathbf {T}}A = {\mathbf {P}}{ \mathbf {N} }A$$ This shows that the force acting on an element e in Eq. 45 as calculated from our contact model corresponds to the general force as a result of the traction force in an element. As such, the contact reaction force for face i from elements $j = 1\ldots 4$ can be derived as: $$R_i = f_i = \frac{1}{3} {\mathbf {P}} A_i {\mathbf {N}}_i = - \frac{1}{3} \sum _{j \ne i} {\mathbf {P} }A_j {\mathbf {N}}_j$$ Appendix 3: Algorithms Ashton-Miller JA, DeLancey JO (2009) On the biomechanics of vaginal birth and common sequelae. Annu Rev Biomed Eng 11(1):163Google Scholar Bamberg C, Rademacher G, Güttler F, Teichgräber U, Cremer M, Bührer C, Spies C, Hinkson L, Henrich W, Kalache KD et al (2012) Human birth observed in real-time open magnetic resonance imaging. 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Am J Obstet Gynecol 64(3):321Google Scholar US national library of medicine (1996) The visible human project. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/ Williams Obstetrics (2014) 24th edn, McGraw Hill, New YorkGoogle Scholar Yastrebov VA (2013) Numerical methods in contact mechanics. ISTE/Wiley, New YorkzbMATHGoogle Scholar 1.School of Computing SciencesUniversity of East AngliaNorwichUK 2.School of Health SciencesUniversity of East AngliaNorwichUK 3.Department of Obstetrics and GynaecologyNorfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS TrustNorwichUK Lapeer, R., Gerikhanov, Z., Sadulaev, SM. et al. Biomech Model Mechanobiol (2019) 18: 681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-018-01109-x DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-018-01109-x	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line815
__label__cc	0.605793	0.394207	Symbolic Dynamics and Hyperbolic Groups Michel Coornaert Athanase Papadopoulos Part of the Lecture Notes in Mathematics book series (LNM, volume 1539) Michel Coornaert, Athanase Papadopoulos A quick review of Gromov hyperbolic spaces Symbolic dynamics The boundary of a hyperbolic group as a finitely presented dynamical system Another finite presentation for the action of a hyperbolic group on its boundary Trees and hyperbolic boundary Semi-Markovian spaces The boundary of a torsion-free hyperbolic group as a semi-Markovian space Gromov's theory of hyperbolic groups have had a big impact in combinatorial group theory and has deep connections with many branches of mathematics suchdifferential geometry, representation theory, ergodic theory and dynamical systems. This book is an elaboration on some ideas of Gromov on hyperbolic spaces and hyperbolic groups in relation with symbolic dynamics. Particular attention is paid to the dynamical system defined by the action of a hyperbolic group on its boundary. The boundary is most oftenchaotic both as a topological space and as a dynamical system, and a description of this boundary and the action is given in terms of subshifts of finite type. The book is self-contained and includes two introductory chapters, one on Gromov's hyperbolic geometry and the other one on symbolic dynamics. It is intended for students and researchers in geometry and in dynamical systems, and can be used asthe basis for a graduate course on these subjects. Dynamical system Fundamental theorem of calculus Gromov hyperbolic space Group theory Representation theory combinatorial groups hyperbolic group symbolic dynamics DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0092577	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line816
__label__cc	0.610758	0.389242	Amazon Simplifies the Cloud With Elastic Beanstalk By Stan Schroeder 2011-01-19 09:53:29 UTC Amazon Web Services has launched a new service called Elastic Beanstalk, which helps developers simplify the management of their applications in the cloud. The service, launched in beta, is primarily aimed at developers who either can't or don't want to manage every little detail about the deployment of their app in the cloud, such as load balancing, auto scaling and health monitoring. However, Elastic Beanstalk lets developers keep full control over the AWS resources powering their app, if they choose to handle it themselves. "This is for customers building applications that may not have the technical depth to manage the underlying compute infrastructure. Beanstalk is completely black-boxed," says the vice president of web services at Amazon, Adam Selipsky. The initial release of Elastic Beanstalk supports Java, using the Apache Tomcat software stack, but Amazon claims the service is designed "so that it can be extended to support multiple development stacks and programming languages in the future." Elastic Beanstalk is free for AWS customers, who only need to pay for the resources needed to run their applications. Topics: amazon, application, Beanstalk Elastic, cloud, cloud computing, Dev & Design, developers, development	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line818
__label__wiki	0.784367	0.784367	Ignite by the numbers Proof that the North can hold its own in building the UK’s technology industry Yesterday saw the conclusion of Ignite’s fourth accelerator programme, with a public showcase at Campus North. Coincidentally, it followed the national launch of TechNorth, a new government agency to highlight and promote the work of the digital industries in cities across the North of England. Ignite was one of the partners involved in the bid, and provided crucial validation and credibility to the proposed outputs of the new agency. Newcastle has the most developed tech and startup community in the North of England, and Ignite is the only longstanding accelerator programme in the Northern regions. So while the spotlight is on the North, I thought I’d share some of the highlights of a presentation I made to the audience at yesterday’s event: Campus North is a privately operated venue in the heart of Newcastle. It was commercially funded through partnerships, a successful Kickstarter campaign (which reached its target in 29 hours) and personal investment from the management team. It’s 10,000 sq ft of hot-desking, co-working, office and venue space, and it’s important to recognise that we established Campus North to meet the demands of the city’s existing tech community, rather than to stimulate interest in a vacuum. Since opening its doors in June, the venue has had over 3,000 visitors. A typical sample of the type of events taking place at Campus North include: • Tech meetups • Newcastle University Entrepreneurs • Sage Mentoring • Mozilla Maker Party • Free Coding Courses The last example is something I’m particularly proud to see the team organise; Phil Jeffes, a developer with one of the startups based at Campus North, offered his time to produce a free six-week course for adults not involved in the industry to learn the fundamentals of programming. Between the hot-desking, co-working, offices and accelerator programme, Campus North supports around 50 startups at any one time. Code Clubs In October 2013, there were 3 Code Clubs in the North East of England. Ignite seconded its operations manager to Code Club for a week per month to work as a regional coordinator. Bear in mind that at this point, Ignite was a team of three people operating both an accelerator and co-working space—offering a week of manpower per month to a third party was a significant and potentially detrimental undertaking. 12 months later, and there are now 69 Code Clubs in the region. Code Club has now established paid regional coordinator roles across the country. There are over 4,000 9–11 year olds in the North East learning the basics of programmming every year. 28 early-stage startups graduated from Ignite’s first three cohorts. 82% of all teams raised seed investment as a result, and by the end of the 2014, the total investment raised by our alumni will tip over £10 million. Ignite is a seed accelerator; that is to say, the majority of teams have never raised investment before joining us. Techstars, on the other hand, prefers experienced teams, a substantial number of which will have already raised before joining, and the expectation is that startups will raise at least $1.5 million once they exit the programme. Seedcamp is a micro-fund, and Entrepreneur First recruits individual graduates rather than teams. It’s important to make the distinction that while these are are incredibly successful programmes, they’re not seed accelerators comparable to Ignite. While raising investment is by no means an accurate indicator of a startup’s success, it is a significant metric for Ignite, because the purpose of the programme is to ensure teams are investment-ready and capable of raising seed capital (should that be the best course of action for them; generating crazy amounts of revenue is always a welcome alternative). The long and the short of it is that Ignite is the most successful seed accelerator in the UK. By comparing the top-line figures that are available for other programmes accepting early-stage teams, Ignite alumni are more likely to raise more investment than any other: Seed accelerator in the UK Please forgive the flag-waving and the self-congratulatory tone, but we’re now a team of just four people operating Ignite and Campus North, and like most startups, we rarely take the time to celebrate our own achievements. Next year our plans will take us across the country and across continents; our home, however, will always be Newcastle. There are amazing founders, teams and technologies wherever you care to look, and we’re excited about playing our part in making the UK’s technology scene shine. Co-founder & CEO at Ricochet, founder of Newcastle Tech Trust. Formerly Hyperloop One, Government of Dubai, Techstars, Campus North, Ignite.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line821
__label__wiki	0.695398	0.695398	Kurdistan Regional Government: Independence, Greed or Feasibility Iraq, Not In My Name You are what you eat. So eat healthy. Sherko Bekas was one of the most prominent poets in Kurdish history whose powerful poems was translated into more than ten languages. Son of the famous poet Fayaq Bekas, Sherko was born in May 1940 in the Kurdish capital of culture Slemani, he died of cancer last year on August 4th. Published initially in the SMART magazine, the following interview was originally recorded in Kurdish in 2012 at Sherko’s office in Slemani. Medya magazine has decided to re-publish the interview on the first anniversary of Sherko Bekas’ death, which is August 4th. Interview and translation by Aras Ahmed Mhamad: Why do you write poetry and what inspires you? Sherko Bekas: Because my soul, conscious, and unconscious asks for poetry. Because I have been living with it for several decades and is a part of my breathing, my movements of my fingers and is the vision of my dreams. Poetry is my eyesight. Why do we fall in love, sing songs and dance? Why do we resort to nature? Why and why? Humanity has been under the influence of the magic of nature and its surroundings. Our conscious and unconscious is the compass of our desires and wishes. And when language became the greatest sign of humanity’s existence, people tried to express their inner-self through words and sentences. With the invention of writing, people attempted to communicate their conscious and unconscious through legends and myths. The best examples are probably the stories of the Sumerians and the Pharaohs. Poetry is the birth of the magical moments where (our) imagination reaches the highest point of expression. There isn’t a specific source or frame for inspiration. Talent, maturity, intellectuality, experience make a poet. In today’s world, everything from a worm to a star can be a source of inspiration. In poetry, there is no word or subject to be banned. A mouse, probably, can be a better source of inspiration than a god. What is your definition of poetry after five decades of experience? Sherko Bekas: Poetry is indefinable; like the sounds of the river, the screaming of a hungry person, and a lover’s heartbeat, which are also indefinable. From Plato’s time to today, there have been millions of definitions for poetry but none of them could give the exact picture of it. Imagination can’t be put into a frame. The nature of poetry is like the nature of gods; they have neither a beginning nor an end. Poetry is a continuous act of questioning and questions have no ending. What do you think a poet’s role is, particularly in this computerized and technological world? Sherko Bekas: A poet’s role and “question’’ is similar. Both seek and search for the unknown endlessly. In this era, poets are mirrors for the sufferings and dreams of humanity. The essence of humanity and poems cannot be separated. We often observe two kinds of poets. The first kind is a poet but the second is a poet and a human as well. Obviously, human beings need the second because they live for the sake of beauty and reality. The world of technology and computers cannot replace the feeling of love because humans are a combination of physical and spiritual aspects. In this computerized period, when humans feel bored they resort to nature, sunshine, moonlight, singing and dancing. In other words, they resort to the world of poems. Our desires and needs have no specific place to settle. Every type of Art has its own fans regardless of whether they are a few or many. Poetry and Art are usually encircled by the elite, not all people. Those who have the yearning of poetry and art in their minds and are good readers of them can’t be compared to those who like playing football. Desires are different. However, every desire has its follower and the world can hold us all. A poet’s role and perspective is relative not absolute and this is different from one poet to the other. The roles and perceptions have several dimensions and every dimension has its scope of reflection. Additionally, a poet’s role is to supervise and protect the beauties of humanity. I am not a poet to only write beautiful things. This is a part of the matter and it will remain incomplete- if I won’t retaliate upon all the authorities who kill beauty irrespective of where they are. Have you ever imagined a day where poetry and poets are neglected – taking into the consideration the fact that the rise of novel has marginalized poetry. Sherko Bekas: A beautiful poem is just like a pleasant voice, none can be neglected. No invention can wipe away the other invention. Beautiful novels couldn’t erase beautiful short stories. Cinema couldn’t obliterate novels. Beautiful things complete each other and each beautiful thing has its taste, pleasure, colour, smell and love. If there were no poems, there wouldn’t have been novels. The era of the novel was the era of intense social relations. Prose addresses us more directly and is more logical and it talks about the miseries of our daily life. Whereas, the language of poems are more indirect and symbolic and there is a kind of disguise in the language of poems. Tolstoy couldn’t eliminate Pushkin, Gogol couldn’t confiscate Lermontov, and Hugo couldn’t abolish Rambo; likewise, novels cannot put an end to beautiful poems. Every genre of literature has its magic, beauty and language. Our thoughts and literature will get richer having those differences. However, people and readers in general will love literature that addresses their wound, wish and worry directly and can see in their daily associations. In Kurdish society, poems are still the highest points of the mountains and aren’t lowering. When cinema was invented, the entire world said that this is the end of poetry and many other things. But that was untrue. By depending on the statistics I read these days, poems have still a good number of readers in Europe and America. Moreover, there are still academic researches and studies on poems in the big centres of the world especially in the popular universities. As you know, the yearly Nobel Prize is sometimes won by poets. Poetry has been said to weaken the military spirit, encourage people to do vice and distract people from the right path. How does that make you feel as a poet? Sherko Bekas: I haven’t heard of these allegations and the question isn’t clear. What military are you talking about? Where can we find the ‘vice’of poetry?If the aim of the question is erotic poems, then in my opinion they are an important part of our lives and social affairs. These poems can approach the reality of humans’ conscious and unconscious better. And that is the beauty and reality of life and love. Whether society, law and religion accept these kind of poems or not, it doesn’t affect the fact of their existence and continuity. Religious extremists retaliate against these poems by making use of social conventions and the values of religion. Poetry isn’t a slogan to embrace moral allegation. Poetry is like reality that appears unclothed. Those things that are considered bad by conservatives might be developed to me. After all, who decides which way is bad and which way is good? What is ‘good’ and ‘bad’? Poetry is above all observations. In fact, this is the challenge between beauty and its enemies. The enemies of beauty are those who consider themselves moral but from humanity’s perspective they have the lowest human features. The good and bad aspect of poems has one criteria and that is its artful side. Additionally, for every kind of thought and opinion there is a picture that finds its place in poems without paying attention to any sort of social, religious or political censorship. The humanity of poems can be found in its freedom and freedom can’t be restricted. Good and bad is relative and there is no absolute decision in them. Do you think poetry presents a world more beautiful than the world we live in? If so, is this a good or bad thing? Sherko Bekas: The world of poems is the world of childhood and lovers. One of the utopian things that humanity always wishes to reach is the world of peace and love which is the exact opposite to the world that we live in nowadays. The world of today is the world of war, destruction, pain and starvation. It is the world of authority and confrontation between big interests and usually bloody ambitions. The world of today reaches its death edge because of the ambitions of big countries. One of the hopes of humanity was that that modernism would bring a world full of happiness and justice. But unfortunately modernism brought world wars and atomic bombs. This failure made people hopeless and darkened the future of humanity. In the world of poems, certainty and justice can be established. Poetry wants to change the bitter realities of the world to happiness and begin change in every aspect of human life. Since the development of humans, philosophy and every theory of the world came to make people happy. Conversely, from the religious messages to the messages of modernism till today all have brought a message that is full of war, injustice, cruelty and discrimination. The world of poems is the world of love in its essence, while the world of today is the world of untruth and worldly authority. Poetry by itself is powerless and can’t provide us that beautiful world. But poetry is always the magical energy that can spread love all over humankind. It is a spiritual force that can always be a lighted torch. And of course the world of childhood and love is the world of purity and peace that is why they are the most beautiful and the best in the world. The Case for Kurdistan Dengî Kurdistan-The voice of Kurdistan: Şerko Bêkes, a short tribute	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line823
__label__wiki	0.914915	0.914915	The Duchess of Sussex becomes the patron of four organizations ACU National Theatre Patronages Press Release Smart Works The Mayhew This morning, Kensington Palace finally announced Meghan’s first patronages! The Duchess’s main focus will be education, the arts, helping women and animal welfare. Here is a description of each organization, and for more information, visit our page on Meghan’s patronages. Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex will become Patron of four organisations that reflect the causes and issues with which she has long been associated including the arts, access to education, support for women and animal welfare. Her Majesty The Queen has passed on two patronages to The Duchess of Sussex –The National Theatre and The Association of Commonwealth Universities. The Queen has held the roles for 45 and 33 years respectively. Her Royal Highness will also take on Patronage of two additional charities as part of her official working portfolio – Smart Works and Mayhew. The Duchess is delighted to become Patron of both national and grassroots organisations that are part of the fabric of the UK, and is very much looking forward to working with them to bring wider public attention to their causes. Her Royal Highness feels she can use her position to focus attention on, and make a particular difference to these organisations and, more widely, the sectors they each represent. For the arts, the National Theatre’s mission is to make world class theatre that is entertaining, challenging and inspiring for everyone and to be as inclusive, diverse and national as possible. In support of access to education, the Association of Commonwealth Universities is the world’s first and oldest international university network and the only accredited organisation representing higher education across all 53 Commonwealth countries. With regards to supporting women, Smart Works helps long-term unemployed and vulnerable women regain the skills, confidence and tools to succeed at job interviews, return to employment and transform their lives. In terms of animal welfare, Mayhew is a grassroots charity working in a unique way to improve the lives of animals and people to better communities both in London and internationally. Over the last year, Her Royal Highness has held meetings and conducted private visits with each of these organisations. The Duchess will today visit Smart Works and over the next few weeks will undertake public visits to the other three organisations. Source: The Royal Family The Duchess of Sussex visits Smart Works Official dates for The Duke & Duchess of Sussex’s Autumn Tour The Duchess of Sussex visits the National Theatre The Duke & Duchess of Sussex will visit Morocco in late February	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line825
__label__cc	0.62212	0.37788	Home > Melbourne News Opening session of Christian Leadership Series, ‘Forming Disciples for Mission: A Scriptural Lens’ Tiffany Davis, Archbishop's Office of Evangelisation Hosted by the Archbishop’s Office for Evangelisation Melbourne, this four-week lecture series is aimed at providing ongoing faith formation for those serving in local parish ministry and leadership positions. Over four Wednesday nights in May, some of Australia’s leading biblical scholars will explore a range of topics from the creation story and the development of scientific and religious thought to the prophetic movement, the Lukan narrative, and key figures in the formation and identity of the early church—all of which offer much wisdom and insight for the (Catholic) Christian disciples and communities we seek to become. Week 1: “God and Creation” Opening the series on Wednesday night was Dr Mary Coloe pbvm, Associate Professor in New Testament at Yarra Theological Union. Mary taught for over 20 years at ACU, as well as Boston College in Berkeley and at Ecce Homo in Jerusalem. Speaking on “God and Creation”, Mary brought together current science—which speaks of an evolutionary and expanding universe—and the way the Bible reflects on the meaning of this universe. Although the desire for ongoing scripture study and faith formation is often expressed by people of all ages, she opined that most Catholics now in their 60s or70s grew up without much knowledge of the bible. ‘We knew the bible stories by hearing about them, or from seeing pictures, or stained glass windows. We understood these stories as real historical events—in other words, we took them to be literally true. … In secondary school I was drawn to sciences… and it was as if my brain was split in half—my religious sense was literal, but my science sense already knew that the world was far more complex and more ancient than Schuster’s [illustrated] bible history.’ Mary acknowledged the relationship between science and religion and that both offered different ways of looking at the world from different perspectives. ‘Both are human ways of responding to mystery. The big mysteries like, “why am I here? Where did I come from? What’s death? What’s beyond death?” With human ingenuity, human insight, wonder and imagination, we move through life. It’s my belief and experience that God reaches out to us in these faculties, of thinking and wondering. Whether I did science or theology, God and I were in dialogue.’ Developments in the fields of astronomy, geology, and biology in the late Middle Ages challenged the way people were interpreting the Bible. Archaeological finds in the Middle East during the 1800s significantly impacted biblical scholarship and introduced new critical methods of study—i.e. the Historical Critical Method presented by German scholars—which unfortunately the Catholic Church was slow to accept. Ancient literature was also being rediscovered, with some stories bearing striking similarities with those in the Bible. ‘It made people realise that the biblical authors took from the cultures around them—the images, the motifs, the stories—and worked them into their own theology. And their theology emphasised the God of Moses who had led them from slavery and who had entered into a special relationship with them. And they described the why of that using these other stories from around them. Stories about flood, building a tower, humans made from clay—they’re all there—long before the Genesis stories were written.’ She went on to discuss three major Catholic documents that significantly shifted biblical scholarship to a more critical method, and away from its earlier literal interpretations. One of these documents, Providentissimus Deus, was written in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII. ‘He must’ve been an extraordinary man. He’s the one who wrote Rerum Novarum, the great encyclical on social justice and this great encyclical (Providentissimus Deus) on biblical scholarship. He also set up the pontifical commission on biblical scholarship and recognised the value of these new tools discovered by Protestants. He encouraged the use of the Latin translation (Vulgate), but at the same time encouraged scholars to go back and look at the original Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, so there was the beginning of real scholarship starting. … And we begin to see that the sacred writers did not seek to penetrate the secrets of nature, but rather described and dealt with things in more or less figurative language—symbolic stories.’ Then, fifty years later in 1943 Pope Pius XII wrote his encyclical, Divino Afflante Spiritu, which instructed Catholic biblical scholars to make use of scientific approach methods that were hitherto forbidden. He wrote ‘that the interpreter endeavour to find the age in which the writer lived, the sources, the form of expression that was being used: was it poetry or a legal text?’ Finally, through the Second Vatican Council, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) affirmed that 'the interpreter must investigate what meaning the sacred writer intended to express and actually expressed in particular circumstances by using contemporary literary forms in accordance with the situation of his own time and culture.' In studying the creation story and the whole of the bible, both a religious and scientific (historical) sensibility is needed. As Mary says, ‘It’s always helpful when trying to make sense of a biblical passage to ask, “What was going on in the life of the people at that time? What were the issues they faced? People who were in exile in Babylon, and had been there for 50 years might have been wondering, “Is our God powerful? Can our God save us? Can God bring us back to life as a people?” And then in the Yahwist writing, the question is, “We know God is a great fighter, God helps us escape from Egypt. And now here we are over in this land and we’re meant to be farmers. What do we know about farming? What does God know about farming?” And then come the questions of “Why is life the way it is? Why is there sin?” It is those questions that Genesis 2 and 3 tries to address. They are theological questions.’ Next week, participants will hear from Associate Professor Mark O’Brien OP who will speak on the Prophetic Movement. In week three, Dr Chris Monaghan will speak on the Lukan narrative and how the gospel offers a roadmap for what discipleship looks like in today’s age. In the fourth and final week, Dr Rosemary Canavan will explore the clothing imagery employed by St Paul to construct a new sense of Christ-centred identity in the early church. Registration is still open for single and/or all sessions at https://www.trybooking.com/BBRXJ. Previous Article Archbishop Comensoli joins Ukrainian Melbourne Catholics in solidarity on the Sunday of Thomas Next Article Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia lead Sea to Sea Marian Pilgrimage	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line826
__label__wiki	0.988901	0.988901	Home / Health / Patrick Shanahan as defense secretary: White House knew about domestic incident for months, officials say Patrick Shanahan as defense secretary: White House knew about domestic incident for months, officials say The White House knew of a violent domestic dispute between members of the Defense Defense Secretary, Patrick Shanahan, who derailed his expected nomination to become the permanent secretary, according to two administrative officials who know the case. 19659002] However, President Trump said he left for Florida on Tuesday to first learn about Ganahan's family problems. Mr. Trump said he did not ask Shanahan to withdraw his appointment as defense secretary. This was Shanahan's decision. CBS News & # 39; Ben Tracy asked whether Army Secretary Mark Esper, Trump appointed to act as a defense secretary, nominated for the permanent position. "That's what I'm going to do," he said. He added that he would soon decide. Shanahan withdrew from the top Pentagon post on Tuesday. Reports have appeared on two confrontations dating from 2010 and 2011. In the 2010 Incident, Shanahan and his former wife, Kimberly Jordinson, each claimed to have been beaten by the other, according to divorce records. Shanahan refused to strike Jordinson and she was arrested, but the case was dropped later. In 2011, the couple's son, William Shanahan, broke his mother with a baseball bat, unknowingly dropped her and broke her skull. The incident was first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, shortly after the Trump announced that Shanahan had withdrawn from consideration. Shanahan wrote a memorandum that defended his son shortly after the 2011 incident, but told The Post he did this without the full knowledge of his wife's injuries. One senior administration officer told CBS News that the White House was aware of the incident involving Shanahan son but did not know about the 2010 confrontation. Another official said the White House knew about the 2011 incident going back when Bill Shine was the White House Communications Director. Shine resigned in March this year. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, running between national security advisor John Bolton and President Trump, on March 22, 2019, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS The White House did not formally appoint Shanahan as a permanent defense secretary, but plans to do so, "even this morning," an administrative officer told CBS News. After reports by Yahoo News and USA Today, some of the details of Shanahan's controversial divorce revealed and the allegations of 2010 he went to the White House on Tuesday. Mick Mulvaney, acting chief of staff, withdrew his name, official said. He then met President Trump in the Oval Office and told him he had withdrawn. The republican sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, said Mr. Trump called him on Tuesday morning to inform him of Shanahan's decision. After Shanahan withdrew, lawmakers immediately started asking questions about what the White House knew and when. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters that the committee was not informed of Shanahan's domestic history when he was nominated as deputy secretary in 2017. He said the failure to disclose the incidents was "possibly a deliberate concealment" and called for an investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general. Blumenthal also said Shanahan could have violated the law if he had not disclosed the incidents to the White House or during his FBI background check. "I want to know if it's the FBI, or any deliberate concealment by Shanahan," Blumenthal said. In a statement on Tuesday, Shanahan said he was withdrawing because a painful and deeply personal family situation cleared up long ago and in an incomplete and therefore deceptive manner during this process. painted. " Clare Hymes, Robert Legare and Nancy Cordes reported.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line831
__label__wiki	0.83754	0.83754	Award-winning documentary, Yield, shown at TIU Theater. The award-winning documentary,Yield, was shown at TIU theater at Makati Cinema Square along Chino Roces Ave. from Oct. 19-21. Produced by TIU Films, the documentary is about child labor. Yield won the Best Documentary and Best Editing awards at the 55th FAMAS Awards while it won the Best Documentary Award at the Urian Awards. The documentary was produced and directed by Toshihiko Uriu. It was co-directed by Victor Delotavo Tagara who was also the cinematographer and editor. The film was done over a period of five years and features the lives of nine children: Stonecutters April, Ariel, and Rommel are siblings living off selling rocks they hack off a menacing mountain. Jomar scours the ocean silt for gold. Edralen and Jason tend to and transport agricultural products, and Essam, a child warrior. TIU Films and TIU Theater are affiliates of Manila Shimbun TV.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line832
__label__cc	0.706117	0.293883	Rogiet – St Mary’s church The church in Rogiet was probably erected in the 13th century, and in the fourteenth century it was significantly expanded. Originally, it was dedicated to Saint Hilary, which could refer either to Saint Eleri or to Saint Hilary from Arles. In 1903, the church was renovated, and a northern nave was added to it on the occasion. The church consists of a rectangular, short nave and, unusually longer but also rectangular chancel on the eastern side. In the fourteenth century to the west side of the nave was placed a tall and lofty tower. It is topped with a parapet and battlement on corbels and decorative pinnacles in the corners. From the south has a four-sided communication turret. The southern entrance to the nave is preceded by a porch. The northern nave and sacristy are modern additions, but fortunately stylistically refer to medieval elements. The roof of the nave was originally slightly higher, which can be seen on the eastern wall of the tower. Inside the presbytery there are small remains of medieval wall polychromes, but most of them were hidden under thick, early modern plasters. church from the south, photo: M. Day, Flickr church from the east, photo: Expat, Flickr church from the north, photo: M. Day, Flickr Website britishlistedbuildings.co.uk, Church of St Mary A Grade II Listed Building in Rogiet, Monmouthshire. Website wikipedia.org, St Mary’s Church, Rogiet.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line837
__label__wiki	0.715036	0.715036	Tag Archives: gas Despite the apparent success of a French-led military force in ridding Northern Mali from an armed separatist movement, recent violence has suggested that significant challenges remain to both that country and the energy sectors of its neighbors. As recently as this past weekend, a car bomb and violence were reported in Timbuktu, once again highlighting the uncertainty of the region and the challenges of those in the region in need of a more stable business environment. As much of North Africa has struggled with wide-ranging political opposition movements, resulting in the collapse of long-standing governments, Algeria has remained unchallenged by protest efforts. Rather, threats to the country’s stability have come from outside, with substantial pressure coming from a stretch of Mali along the country’s southern border. The country has struggled with an armed separatist movement for months, which seized authority from national troops late last year. This pressure boiled over into Algeria in January with a coordinated raid on a BP gas site, spurring a messy government response and ending with the death of 38 foreign workers. The impact was immediate, with foreign firms suggesting delays to protect their personnel and neighboring Libya promising swift action against any similar events. More than just an unfortunate turn of events for a country that relies heavily on energy revenues for just about every aspect of government spending, the event presented a real threat to vital foreign investment needed to strengthen and expand the country’s infrastructure. Algeria currently boasts access to about 12.2 billion barrels in oil reserves and 159 tcf of natural gas, with the U.S. as one of their largest trading partners. However, a recent decline in local production and a push to tap into the country’s sizable shale potential have highlighted the role of foreign investment in the country’s immediate energy growth plans. To reach new output goals, Algeria will contribute billions from their own coffers towards boosting downstream capacity, but they will also need to partner with foreign partners who can offer the investment support and technical know-how needed to boost production exploit shale reserves in the near future. Algeria has promoted substantial shale potential, attracting a number of necessary foreign firms to their shores, each providing the equipment and experience needed for the introduction of shale to the region. Keeping them in place may prove a little more difficult unless Algeria can provide a more stable working environment, making the kind of flare-ups seen this week all the more damaging. Originally Posted: Newsbase’s MEA Downstream Monitor Photo: Mem.algeria.com Tagged Algeria, Energy, gas, Mali, Mediterranean, oil Recent entries by large cap actors into Morocco’s oil and gas sector over the last three months have signaled a new confidence regarding the country’s largely dormant hydrocarbon potential. With Chevron and Portugal’s Galp taking on controlling stakes in areas previously claimed by only modest, independent operators, Morocco’s push to expand their traditional energy potential appears to be gaining traction. However, with the North African nation’s domestic demand at the heart of this push, it remains unclear whether its weakened downstream potential will be able to meet expected growth. Despite a virtually non-existent oil and gas sector, Morocco has recently made a subtle push towards appealing to foreign firms in order to explore the country’s offshore and non-traditional options. So far, efforts to broaden the country’s energy potential have included only renewable campaigns, including a 2009, $9 billion solar scheme, and attracting smaller firms to potential oil and gas fields. However, over the last two months, both Chevron and Galp have bought into controlling stakes of offshore projects. For Galp, an early December purchase from Australia’s Tangiers was driven by a 450 million barrel potential reserve, which was revised to an estimated 750 million barrels following further studies. Making a more sizable statement as one of the world’s largest actors, Chevron inked an offshore deal with Morocco’s Offices National Des Hydrocarbures Et Des Mines to take on seismic studies of the Cap Rhir Deep, Cap Cantin Deep, and Cap Walidia Deep efforts. However, as the country explores their domestic potential as a way of easing dependence on expensive and increasingly volatile imports, Morocco’s downstream potential does not appear to be keeping pace. As of 2011, the country boasts only a single refinery at Mohammedia following the conversion of their Sidi Kacem facility to a distribution plant. Despite a long-running modernization push as a part of an agreement between Rabat and state operator, Samir, the plant has seen partial slowdowns in output over the last year. These pauses have been the result of scheduled maintenance and expansion plans that have included upgrades to a new crude distillation unit and a jet fuel facility, which can produce 600,000 metric tons a year. This effort is a part of a broader strategy to add 4m tonnes of refined oil per year, according to Reuters. While these efforts appear to address current domestic demand, it is far less clear whether a single plant will be able to meet an increase in local production should Galp or Chevron gain traction over the coming year or two. Origionally Posted: Newsbase’s MEA Downstream Monitor Tagged dosnstream, Energy, gas, Morocco, oil North African Energy Targeted by Labor Concerns After nearly two years of widespread political and social transitions across North Africa, protest and labor movements have continued to expand in hopes of making the most of the new political environment. While motivations may vary, these groups are increasingly targeting the region’s energy sector in Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, commonly aiming their ire at foreign firms and their local subsidiaries. Against a backdrop of regional unrest, these energy-aimed efforts are to continuing to increase and beginning to threaten what many feel is North Africa’s quickest and surest route to recovery and post-Arab Spring stability. In many cases, protests and labor strikes have taken issue with what is felt to be a lack of common benefit from the region’s rich oil and gas production. From Tunis to Benghazi, this has centered on the complaint that far too little of the region’s oil and gas wealth and revenue is reaching local communities. A Post Arab Spring Analysis In Tunisia, critics have taken issue with what they feel is a lack of work opportunities for local workers offered by the country’s most prominent energy outfit, BG and their local subsidiary BG Tunisia. Facing a 17.6 percent post-revolution unemployment rate, Tunisia has been unable to keep up with and absorb the growth in increasingly skilled young workers, according to a World Bank report. Facing a similar demand for more work opportunities, but without the spike in skilled labor, Libya has seen protest movements target oil and gas facilities across the country, including a December strike at one of the country’s busiest oil and gas ports, Ras Lanuf. Protestors began the New Year with a strike at the Zueitina oil terminal, situated just east of Tripoli. According to the country’s Oil and Gas Minister, Abdul Bari Laroussi, the shutdown has come with a demand to employ 1,500 local residents and cost the country an estimated $1 million a day in lost revenue. Additionally, Libya has seen protest groups use energy facilities to voice concerns about a variety of issues, most notably political representation. Shortly before the country’s first post-revolution election, armed militias occupied refineries in El-Sider, Ras Lanuf and Brega, shutting down half of the country’s export capacity. Their actions were aimed at increasing the number of seats reserved for the country’s oil-rich eastern provinces and shifting more authority over energy issues to the city of Benghazi. Despite having largely escaped the kind of public protests that led to political transitions across the region, Algeria has faced its own share of protests aimed at the incredibly valuable oil and gas sector. Even before the Arab Spring protests began, Algeria faced a pushback from the country’s large number of unemployed for what they felt to be a lack of opportunities for local workers. Undoubtedly the country’s largest economic force, Algeria’s oil and gas production accounts for 98 percent of their export revenue and a large percentage of government funding. State efforts to curb these protests through increasing government incentives spending and a tighter security environment have worked in the short term. However, protests have continued to flare up as resentment builds around a lack of benefits seen across the country as well as wider uncertainty about what will follow the expected retirement of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika before scheduled elections in 2014. According to a Bloomberg report, dwindling oil reserves and uncertainty have made the country’s relative calm difficult to sustain. “Pacification through finance can’t go on forever,” Azzedine Layachi, a professor of international and Middle East affairs at St. John’s University in New York and Rome, told Bloomberg. “Everything is in shutdown mode until 2014 and that’s when we’ll see what direction Algeria takes.” An Uncertain Landscape for Foreign Investors In all three national cases, further labor unrest and protests aimed at energy sector actors could have a significant effect on the ability to attract much-needed investment and interest from foreign firms. In Libya, this means the ability to promote the full return of companies that halted operations in the midst of the civil violence that brought down the government of Muammar Gadaffi and move beyond pre-conflict levels to ensure future growth. While Tunisia is putting less emphasis on energy reserves as a means of economic recovery, continuing unrest does threaten to put off further investment from companies like BG, which provides over half of the country’s natural gas demand. Last year, sit-ins at processing plants spurred talks between the company and local leaders, concluding in pledges for greater attention to local hires, including training options. Recently the company has said that while they would not consider leaving the county as a result of the sit-ins, they did not see themselves in a wider labor role. “We continue to work in Tunisia and to explore new opportunities. Although the phenomenon of sit-ins and strikes is annoying, the group will not leave the country for all that,” Sami Iskander, Executive Vice-President and Managing Director of BG, Africa, Middle East and Asia told the Tunisian News Agency, but added, “the main purpose of the group is the production and supply of gas in the country and not creating jobs.” Currently BG provides about 60 percent of Tunisia’s natural gas demand and employs about 1,000 employees. Finally, further unrest in Algeria could prove troubling to the government’s recent push towards introducing unconventional shale exploration efforts to the country. Boasting significant domestic potential, Algeria will have to first deal with significant foundational investments associated with the shale excavation process in terms of both machinery and technical expertise. To help cope with these early expenses, the national government and the state-backed Sonatrach have unveiled new revenue sharing agreements and taxing schemes aimed at appealing to foreign investors with shale experience. Already known as a risky investment in the region, Algeria could prove even more uninviting if protests and strikes continue to expand. So far, these protests have elicited little more from state officials than targeted actions according to each, specific case. However, according to the Agence France-Presse, Libya’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has threatened to impose “order by force” in to address those actions that threaten the country’s energy sector. “Oil is our only source of revenue,” he said, according to the AFP report. “We will not allow any (armed) force to confront the people and threaten national security. I warn families, tribes and regions that we will take decisive measures.” While Tripoli’s hard line may prove effective in garnering local support, it is far less clear whether it will provide the sense of stability needed for foreign firms to return to the region. Image: The Australian Originally Posted in Newsbase’s AfrOil Monitor Tagged Algeria, gas, Libya, north africa, oil, Tunisia Eastern Med Transport Options Have to Overcome Region’s Political Tension Transport options for the Eastern Mediterranean’s gas discoveries are taking on a familiar political tone as Turkey, Cyprus and Greece stake out European market options. The current debate centers around how those firms active in the Tamar, Leviathan and Block 12 gas fields, situated in the waters between Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon, will be able to export gas to the European market. Any solution would help Europe reach resource diversification goals by opening up access to some of the largest gas finds in the last decade. However, just as political tension between regional actors have led to overlapping claims to the reserves, transmission solutions have run up against long-standing animosity. For their part, Israel has pressed for downstream and transmission infrastructure to be built outside their own borders for both security and environmental reasons. This approach has made their partnership with Cyprus all the more important to export options. This has also made the possibility of an export line through Turkey all the more complicated. Turkey has recently expressed their interest in expanding their regional energy role, with Ambassador Mithat Rende, Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs at Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs telling the recent Energy and Economic Summit, “Construction of a pipeline to Turkey is the best way to export Israeli gas, both in terms of economics and in terms of energy.” However, this spirit of outreach does not extend to any collaboration with Cyprus. Turkey recently stated that they would boycott those companies that partnered with Cyprus for similar regional exploration efforts. What Turkey may be pushing for is a re-purposing of the dormant ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) pipeline. After bidding to take on Caspian gas to the European market, the ITGI was shelved amid fears that Greece stakeholders would not be able to financially support it. However, the project’s director of international activities, Dimitris Manolis, told Reuters that he could see the project re-purposed for the Eastern Mediterranean gas finds, offering a link through Greece and Italy by 2018 or 2019. The ITGI would be an upgrade and extension of existing pipelines, estimated to cost $1.6 billion. A Liquefied Natural Gas solution to the export question received a boost this week with the announcement that Australia’s Woodside had taken on a 30 percent interest in Leviathan gas field, taking on any LNG efforts on the project. Texas-based Noble Gas will be the upstream operator for the effort. Image: Edison.com Originally Posted: Newsbase’s Euroil Monitor Tagged Cyprus, gas, Israel, ITGI pipeline, lebanon, levant basin, leviathan, turkey Tunisia and an Undefined Shale Future As the rush to exploit shale reserves continues across the globe, Tunisia’s potential has come into the spotlight due to a number of conflicting reports from interested foreign firms and the country’s new government. Facing expected increases in local demand and a weakened post-Arab Spring economy, which contracted 1.8 percent last year, a Tunisian shale boom would be a helpful step forward in terms of energy security and growth. While modest in comparison to larger shale markets, most notably the United States and China and to a lesser degree, Poland, Tunisia’s shale estimates suggest enough potential to change the energy landscape of this country of 10.5 million. According to a U.S. Energy Intelligence Agency report, as of 2009, Tunisia offered approximately 18 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas. However, despite clearly stated interest on the part of several foreign firms and a lack of viable hydrocarbon alternatives, Tunisia’s current transitional government has avoided a clear embrace of the often-controversial extraction process. A Growing Caution As countries across the globe rush to replicate the progress seen in the United States over the last decade, many have rushed to partner with foreign partners with more direct experience with the costly and very technical shale extraction process, known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”. The extraction, according to the UPI, “involves drilling into the rocks horizontally and then cracking them with a high-pressure missile of water mixed with sand and chemicals, to unlock the gas from the impermeable shale rock.” The complexities of this process and the environmental risks involved have made introducing shale projects difficult into new markets increasingly difficult. Bolstered by reporting and advocacy groups in the United States, opposition has grown due to concern about possible harmful waste, water supplies and the potential impact irresponsible development could have on the local environment and aquifers. This has resulted in partial or outright bans on shale efforts across Europe and delays in government approval in several more countries. Early reports suggest that these concerns may have had a hand in the delay or outright denial of licensing rights for shale projects in Tunisia. In late September, Tunisia’s Industry Ministry were pushed to respond to reports that they were preparing to grant an unconventional license to Shell in the Kairouan region of the country. Denying the completed agreement, the Ministry announced that while they had received a related application, they had responded with an appeal for an environmental and water impact analysis, according to an Al Bawaba report. The water usage issue related to “fracking”, which can require millions of gallons for each well, is especially important for the arid North African region. The Ministry release did allow that government was considering shale options, stating, “Tunisia is mulling over producing shale gas to meet its growing domestic demand and the expected drop in traditional oil stock”. However, just a few days later, the African Manager website reported that a source close to the case stated that shale efforts would likely be abandoned completely by the current government thanks to concerns about the potential environmental impact. While unconfirmed outside of that source, the report does reflect the lack of a clear narrative about the country’s current position on introducing shale efforts. Ready and Waiting However the country decides, they will have a number of potential partners to held lay a shale foundation. Earlier this year, Shell announced plans to pursue unconventional efforts in both Tunisia and neighboring Algeria, which has been much more assertive in their support for shale development. So far, Algiers has signed production agreements with Italy’s Eni and Shell, among others. Going so far as to introduce new hydrocarbon legislation to entice foreign investment in unconventional energy projects, Algeria has set a course for energy diversification, addressing a steady increase in domestic demand and allowing an increase in export revenue. For Tunisia, the addition of shale to the country’s energy options would address more modest goals of just easing dependence on costly refined oil imports and the burden of steadily declining local oil reserves. In addition to Shell, Winstar Resources have also expressed a strong interest in pursing what they feel is Tunisia’s vas energy potential. Despite reports of a possible sale of their Tunisian interests earlier this year, the Canadian company included a positive outlook of their access to the country’s shale potential in their August, second quarter corporate report. Earlier this year, representatives from Italy’s Eni suggested they might extend their shale reach beyond Algeria and were “thinking of entering the Tunisian shale gas market,” according to a Dow Jones report. In late September, the country’s shale reserves also took center stage at the second annual Tunisia Oil and Gas Summit, where the keynote session explored Tunisia’s unconventional, including input from a number of foreign E&P firms and sponsor Halliburton. The US company has been at the forefront of shale excavation technology for decades. It should be noted that even if the country’s transitional government side against introducing shale to the Tunisian landscape, presidential and parliamentary elections have now been scheduled for June of next year. With new leadership in sight, any opposition could face a limited lifespan. For their part, Shell has not included any information about unconventional projects in their online literature related to Tunisia, but did recently announce a $150 million oil exploration deal in the country. Image: Agency Tunis African Press Originally Posted: Newsbase’s AfrOil Monitor Tagged arab spring, gas, Mediterranean, oil, Shale, Tunis, unconventional Hoping to Leave Challenges Behind, BP Eyes Libya Return Following a year and a half of political and military delays, BP is poised to pick up where they left off in Libya, joining the roster of international firms hoping to make the most of Africa’s largest proven oil reserves. Despite the presence of many of the same obstacles that put a halt to their efforts in the North African country in the summer of 2010, BP officials remain confident that they will soon be able to achieve the production goals they set out almost five years ago. The result of a $900 million deal made in 2007, the BP’s Libyan projects were expected to receive more than a billion dollars worth of company investments over the next seven years. The original agreement outlined an exploration project that would cover 54,000 square kilometers of the onshore Ghadames and offshore frontier Sirt basins, allowing for 20 appraisal wells if initial efforts were deemed successful, according to company literature. The company’s Libyan presence would include both on and offshore efforts, allowing for the company’s first projects in the country since 1971 when the new government nationalized all of BP’s assets. However, those efforts soon came under fire, initially due to allegations that the company had pushed UK political figures to support the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi in exchange for the new contracts. Facing calls for project delays from both the US and UK, the company worked to calm political waters, but soon found themselves at the center of the year’s largest environmental disaster. Confidence in the company’s safety record took a hit during the summer of 2010 after the company’s connection to the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico spurred a sharp backlash among EU environmental and political groups. The backlash forced a delay in activity, just as BP was concluding a sprawling seismic survey of their offshore licenses. EU political figures began demanding for greater oversight of BP activities in the Mediterranean as well as proof of the company’s capabilities to financially address a possible spill. However, Lockerbie and environmental concerns took a backseat during the summer of 2011 when Libya’s political environment became too unstable for BP to keep their expatriate staff in place. As anti-Gadaffi forces moved west from Benghazi, followed by the arrival of supporting NATO forces, violence forced a complete halt in production and export efforts, resulting in an evacuation of all international staff by foreign firms. Now nearly four months after Gadaffi’s death and the recognition of the country’s transitional government as the Libya’s legitimate political leaders by even ardent critics of the anti-government movement, BP is focusing on building their earlier efforts. However, obstacles to a full return remain. “We are making preparations (we still have just under 100 local staff) to resume our activities but the security situation is still too uncertain,” remarked BP media representative Robert Wine last week. Although members of the transitional government have worked to calm worries about lingering violence, some foreign firms have not reached a level of confidence in the country’s ability to ensure the safety of their workers. Other international firms have been quicker to return to their Libyan efforts, including Spain’s Repsol, France’s Total and notably Italy’s Eni who have come close to reaching pre-conflict production levels. “We do intend to pick up where we left off, but the circumstances on the ground have to be safe first,” Wine wrote, adding, “Security means safety for anyone working there. Until then, we won’t ask people – not just international staff – to work where it’s dangerous.” Responding to whether BP foresaw any obstacles to working alongside the country’s transitional government, who have previously offered strong warnings against countries and companies that had previously worked with the Gadaffi government, Wine wrote that he was confident they would be able to work for and with them to fulfill their contracts. A quick and stable return to Libya may help BP restore some of the investor confidence lost in light of their involvement in the Deepwater Horizon spill and its subsequent lawsuits. Currently facing 600 civil lawsuits from plaintiffs across United States Gulf Region, BP has announced its intention to vigorously fight the cases, though they have allowed that the ongoing legal issues have curtailed interest from investors. “We have many people who do say, we are interested in investing in BP but not until all this is behind you,” CEO Bob Dudley told a press conference last week, according to the Financial Times. For now, BP will be able to build upon a return to higher profits with the announcement of $23.9 billion last week, as lower production levels and delayed projects were offset by higher oil prices throughout last year. According to the AFP, the earnings report was accompanied by a higher company dividend, suggesting confidence among company management that any challenges BP faced in the new year were manageable. However, facing a lengthy challenge in US courts, the UK company could likely use all the support it can get. Image: Arab Money Matters Tagged BP, gas, Libya, oil Eni’s Gas Grid Split May Not Be Enough for the EU A pressured push to decrease Eni’s stake in continental Europe’s largest regulated gas business has won the support of Italian government leaders and shareholders. However, if the Italian energy giant succeeds in retaining partial ownership of the company, the split could potentially run afoul of European Union rules. Originally majority shareholders in Snam Rete Gas SpA, the country and continent’s largest regulated gas business, Eni was pushed to reduce their stake in 2009 as a part of a European Union energy liberalization accord. The move was meant to free up Italy’s gas transporting network for greater competition with regional partners. For proponents of the ownership unbundling, which includes both anti-trust officials and shareholders, the move would benefit Eni by allowing for the deconsolidation of Snam’s 12.2 billion euro in debt, reducing Eni’s debt to 7 billion euro, allowing for increased funding of new exploration and production efforts. For regulators, the move would reduce the chance that Eni could distort natural gas flows into the European market by blocking fuel pipelines from the region’s high priced markets, which it has been accused of doing, according to Bloomberg. Further, the move would allow for the delayed implementation of a law meant to put distance between oil and gas production entities and transportation operators. For Snam, the split would free the transportation operators to increase investment in European projects, according to the Financial Times. While the exact details of the government-forced break-up remain uncertain, analysts have predicted that it will require Eni to reduce their stake in the company from 50 to 20 percent, garnering the firm approximately 3.5 billion. Company CEO Paolo Scaroni has signaled that the amount would help Eni increase funding towards projects in Mozambique and the Barrents Sea, according to the Financial Times. Seemingly cleared from all sides, the deal garnered negative attention last week when the head of Italy’s gas authority remarked that Eni’s 20 percent retention of Snam would violate EU rules on the matter. While reports on the comments did not expand on how exactly they would run afoul of official regulations, given the context of EU pressure towards a reduced Eni role, the warning suggests that more divestment may be needed before moving forward. Image: Trek Earth Tagged Energy, Eni, European Union, gas, Italy, oil, Snam Shale, Energy and North Africa’s Future As countries across North Africa work towards rebuilding both customer confidence and hydrocarbon operations following the political and financial instability of 2011, some are looking past traditional options to test the limits of the region’s shale potential. First initiated in Tunisia in the Spring of 2010, North Africa’s shale efforts have slowly spread across the region, adopted by both established oil and gas producers and those who see little potential for traditional measures. The push towards exploring the area’s deep-set shale reserves came as the success of such efforts in the United States and studies showing widespread potential across the globe began to spur investor excitement. As time allowed closer inspection of the geological variances of the Maghreb states and their true shale potential, a clearer picture of what shale deposits could mean for the region has emerged. These efforts come just as similar efforts in more mature shale markets are running into often debilitating challenges. Building on environmental worries related to the practice of fracking, public and political movements have successfully stalled efforts in the United Kingdom, France and parts of Germany as the uncertainty about the effects of the practice have added to concerns about project costs. This environment led European Union Energy Chief Gunther Ottenger to suggest the possibility of a community–wide regulatory system on shale efforts, inviting a pledge to veto any such legislation from Poland’s government, who has led the way towards introducing shale projects to the European marketplace. Meanwhile, in the birthplace of the fracking process, US President Barack Obama accompanied his support for further shale projects with an appeal for energy companies to disclose the ingredients of fracturing fluids, which have been protected information until now. However, these worries and protest movements have done little to damper enthusiasm among North African actors, as they continue to move shale projects forward. Building on the region’s first shale effort in March 2010, Tunisia are continuing to work with early partners France’s Perenco and Canada’s Cygam in their exploration efforts, though last year’s political transition slowed the effort’s momentum. While both firms have worked to assure their Tunisian partners of their intent to stay put, lingering questions of instability, including the recent kidnapping of a mayor near the vital Ghadames Basin do little to help calm project partners. Hailed as the country with the most shale potential thanks to the accessibility and quantity of reserves in the Ghadames Basin it shares with Tunisia and the Illizi Basin, Algeria has moved to attract foreign partners for shale efforts. According to Reuters, estimates suggest up to 1,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, trapped in shale rock about 1000 meters beneath the ground. Facing a steady decline in the production levels of more mature oil and gas options, Algeria’s actions suggest a long-term approach to energy alternatives that included a heavy dependence on non-traditional resources such as shale. Algeria and their state-backed firm Sonatrach have worked to secure working partnerships to help move their shale efforts forward, beginning with the signing of a MOU with Italy’s Eni last year. The Spanish giant has also looked to expand their resource base after Libya’s production all but halted amid political violence last year. Eni’s MOU with Sonatrach is meant to both lend the company’s shale extraction expertise to Algeria and help the company ensure a more dependable natural gas source for export-heavy Italy. After investing billions in hopes of solidifying Libya as a consistent source of oil and gas for the domestically barren Italy, the country lost nearly a third of their energy imports as political protests turned into violent conflict earlier this year. While Eni stands as Algeria’s largest shale partner, Sonatrach have announced that they will continue seeking shale partnerships with other international firms. Even in Morocco, where domestic energy resources have remained elusive to the leadership of King Mohammad VI, one company has bet that the company’s true potential lies far deeper. Following four years of testing and coming in the latter half of a 3 year Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Morocco, London-based San Leon announced this month that they were ready to begin production at a site in the southern part of the country. Hoping to replicate their efforts in Poland, San Leon entered the northwest African nation five years ago to begin initial testing in the Tarfaya Oil Shale Field Pilot Project. San Leon recently announced that they had achieved “connectivity” between two wells in their Tarfaya oil shale project, suggesting progress in the country, though the Irish firm’s pace has worried some as their share price shrunk 59 percent over the last year. Despite overlapping basins deemed positive, Libya is the only country in the region to receive little attention by shale actors, as alternative efforts have been overshadowed by the substantial promise of traditional energy projects. The Obstacles that Remain For all the interest in the region’s predicted shale potential, a number of obstacles towards profitable operations remain, which have undoubtedly increased with the political instability of the last year. In addition to countries now faced with re-building confidence among foreign investors following the ousting of long-standing governments in 2011, many face significant funding deficits needed to support the high infrastructure costs associated with shale efforts. Largely lacking the access to the equipment, technology and personnel needed to reach and exploit shale projects, North African states will need the support of international partners to move these projects forward. In addition to signing cooperation agreements with firms from across Europe, some states are looking to the US State Department’s Global Shale Gas Initiative for guidance and aid, though political divisions and uncertainty about regional stability have kept that support Image: Arabian Oil and Gas Tagged Algeria, gas, Libya, Morocco, oil, Shale, Tunisia New Med Landscape Spurs Pipeline Reevaluation A new political and economic landscape across the Mediterranean region has led to a revaluation of existing and upcoming pipeline projects with some receiving a fresh look from political leaders and investors. Economic shifts across Southern Europe and long-awaited political transitions across North Africa over the last year have forced many in the Mediterranean region to rethink their dependence on transport lines and where oil and gas deliveries will come from in the coming years. Political strife turned violent in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt resulted in complete pipeline shutdowns at several points during 2011 leaving customers to the north uncertain about the future of their energy needs. Heavily dependent on Libyan products and exports from Algeria, shipped through a Tunisian hosted pipeline, Italy in particular faced potential reserve deficits over the last year. Further east, attacks on pipelines in the Sinai Peninsula left heavily dependent Israel and Jordon to explore alternative options for their natural gas needs. This new environment has allowed for consideration of other projects in the region as energy customers seek stability for the years ahead. “Widespread instability across the Middle East and Africa region has raised important questions about the long-term impact on upstream investments, oil and gas production and hydrocarbon exports in the region,” wrote Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in an October opinion piece for The New York Times. A recent report in The Wall Street Journal suggested that the instability in the region, as well as the uncertainty about the viability of Iranian oil, had sent large consumers like China in search of new sources of oil and natural gas. “China is making good progress toward diversifying its oil supply,” Gordon Kwan, a Hong Kong-based energy analyst at Mirae Asset Securities told the WSJ. “If they were to concentrate on just one or two countries that just accidentally went out of production, [global] oil prices could easily double.” A Fresh Look A long delayed direct connection between Algeria and Italy has received new attention since political instability in Tunisia and Libya led Italian leaders to rethink the reliability of their existing transport lines. The result of an MOU signed in 2007, bringing to together the interests of Algeria’s state-backed Sonatrach, Euro energy firms Edison, Enel and Hera, the 900km Galsi pipeline would mark the second such project linking the North African nation with Italy, via a landing in Sardinia. However, unlike the Trans Mediterranean pipeline, the Galsi would carry an estimated 8 billion cubic meters of gas northwards upon completion directly from country to country, skipping a passage through Tunisia. Held up due to issues of funding and government support, the Galsi has earned the support of Italian industry and political leaders eager to reduce their dependence on transport lines through the potentially volatile Tunisian territory. The new pipeline would become the country’s fourth connection to the European marketplace, joining the Transmed, Maghreb-Europe Gas and MedGaz pipelines, the last of which came on line in mid-2011 though Spanish dips in demand have kept it from running at full capacity. Following delays and outright production stoppages resulting from political strife in Libya, the end of 2011 saw a return to service for the country’s Greenstream pipeline. According to the UPI, Italy imported 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas in November despite a reduction in the country’s demand. Both the Galsi and MedGaz pipelines will play a large part in Algeria’s efforts to greatly increase production and exports over the coming year. Having spent the last year addressing corruption at the country’s state-backed energy firm Sonatrach, a shift in sector leadership and finding ways to quell the sort of public protests that led to political changes in neighboring Libya and Tunisia, Algeria are now focused on expanding their energy industry through infrastructure investment and greater use of new transport lines. Eastern Promise Driven by the potential of new natural gas efforts in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek natural-gas supplier Depa have conducted a preliminary study into the feasibility of a pipeline linking Cyprus and Greece. While the report found that the pipeline was possible, it may run into opposition from regional leaders as claims to Eastern Mediterranean natural gas reserves have become the focal point of political infighting between Cyprus, Turkey, Israel and Lebanon. Depa have also begun exploring the possibility of a liquefied natural-gas terminal as an alternative, according to a report in Business Week. The focus on the Eastern Mediterranean centers on the Leviathan Basin, inviting both conflicting claims to the area’s natural gas potential and a host of new transport and production project proposals from all sides. With the potential to allow for greater energy independence for countries like Israel, the Basin could serve to further reduce demand for products transported through volatile North African pipelines, including the Egyptian lines that have suffered from continued attacks since the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak. Image: Iraq Business News Tagged Galsi, gas, MedGaz, Mediterranean, oil, Pipeline	cc/2019-30/en_head_0012.json.gz/line839

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