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Queen Elizabeth Remove the Obamas from Royal Wedding Guest List
For eight years, Michelle Obama genuinely thought she was a queen and expected to be treated like one. Now that she’s a regular citizen, she’s having a hard time of letting go of her former status as the (failed) first lady and keeps trying to push her way into every major social scene where she doesn’t belong and is apparently not invited.
Heavy Tech use Linked to ADHD
Researchers at USC tracked 2,500 10th graders and found that those most addicted to social media sites were... more
Students Take Field Trip to Space
Imagine instead of viewing a shark-infested shipwreck or a space station in photos, technology meant you actually swam... more
Female Ejaculation Comes in Two Forms
What do you think of when you hear the words “female ejaculation”? Come to think of it, the... more
The 72-year-Old Ballerina
How Peta Boreham is defying stereotypes through dance.... more
Sour Honey is a Cure for Cancer
In the heart of the Brazilian jungle, a tiny, remote area exists where special bees create one of... more
Calgary Man Slices Off Penis After Attaching Razor Blade to Fidget Spinner
A 23-year old man is recovering in hospital after an accident involving a modified fidget spinner went horribly... more
Avatar Therapy Weakens Hallucinations
Confronting an avatar on a computer screen helped patients hearing voices to cope better with hallucinations, a UK... more
Cinema Drinks Contain Unsafe Bacterias
Drinks from three of the UK's largest cinema chains have been found to contain unacceptably high levels of... more
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Win I'M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT
Enter now through Monday, July 8th at noon ET for your chance to win an early reader edition of I'M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT and share your feedback about it!
Are You Ready for King Arthur...in Space?
Authors Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy have teamed up for a gender-bent, diverse retelling of the legend of King Arthur...with a galactic twist.
Return to the Magical World of Orleans with THE EVERLASTING ROSE
In the sequel to THE BELLES, Dhonielle Clayton forces belle Camille to decide just how much she's willing to sacrifice.
LOVELY WAR is a Sweeping, Multi-Layered Historical Romance
Combining mythology, fate and and both world wars, Julie Berry spins a heartbreaking and formidable tale of love.
Senior Year Comes with Tough Choices in RAYNE & DELILAH'S MIDNITE MATINEE
Best friends Delia and Josie love hosting their campy creature feature show, but with the end of senior year, they have to face their futures.
Ultimate Reading List: Our MUST-Reads for March
Check out the books we recommend this month!
Sneak Peek: I'M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT
Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy
The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton
Lovely War by Julie Berry
Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner
Ultimate Reads for March
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Features and Contests
Ultimate Reading List Monthly Update
One of our most popular features on Teenreads is our Ultimate Reading List, a selection of books that are compelling, beautifully written, pure fun, thought-provoking or edge-of-your-seat gripping --- books that we would hand to someone and say, “Read this!” This month, we're adding ON THE COME UP by Angie Thomas; THE GIVER (Graphic Novel) (Giver Quartet) written by Lois Lowry with illustrations by P. Craig Russell; THE WEIGHT OF OUR SKY by Hanna Alkaf; WATCH US RISE by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan; THE ART OF LOSING by Lizzy Mason; THE WEIGHT OF A THOUSAND FEATHERS by Brian Conaghan; WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE by Tehlor Kay Mejia; and THE MUSIC OF WHAT HAPPENS by Bill Konigsberg.
The Lady Is a Spy: Virginia Hall, World War II Hero of the French Resistance by Don Mitchell - Nonfiction
When Hitler invaded Poland, Virginia Hall was traveling in Europe. Instead of returning home, she headed to France. An ordinary woman from Maryland, she dove into the action, first joining a French ambulance unit and later becoming an undercover agent for both the British Office of Strategic Services and the US Office of Strategic Services. She passed in plain sight of the enemy and soon found herself being hunted by the Gestapo. Her covert operations, efforts with the Resistance and risky work as a wireless telegraph operator greatly contributed to the Allies' eventual win.
Night Music by Jenn Marie Thorne - Contemporary Fiction
Ruby has always been a future classical pianist and daughter of renowned composer Martin Chertok. But after her horrendous audition, it's clear that music has dumped her. Oscar is a musical genius. But while he might be the type who'd name himself when asked about his favorite composer, Oscar is not the type to jeopardize his chance to study under the great Martin Chertok --- not for a crush. But as the New York City summer heats up, so does the spark between Ruby and Oscar. Can two people still figuring themselves out figure out how to be together? Or will the world make the choice for them?
Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith - Contemporary Fiction
When Hugo's girlfriend dumps him, her parting gift is the pair of tickets for their long-planned last-hurrah-before-uni trip --- booked under her name. Meanwhile, Mae is still reeling from being rejected from USC's film school. When she stumbles across Hugo's ad for a replacement Margaret Campbell (her full name!), she's certain it's exactly the adventure she needs. What starts as a convenient arrangement soon turns into something more. But when life outside the train catches up to them, can they find a way to keep their feelings for each other from getting derailed?
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw - Fantasy
Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow, where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Now, each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three girls so that they may have revenge. Seventeen-year-old Penny has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, a boy named Bo arrives; unaware of the danger. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters. But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.
The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum - Science Fiction
Ryann dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn’t an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park. Then one day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann’s offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system. Every night, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And now it’s up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof, until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more.
If You're Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser - Thriller
After Zan’s best friend moves to California, she is crushed when Priya suddenly ghosts and her social media has turned into a stream of posts chronicling a sunny, vapid new life that doesn’t sound like her at all. Everyone tells Zan to let Priya do her thing and move on. Then she meets Logan, the compelling new guy in Spanish class, who's just as willing as she is to throw himself into the investigation when everyone else thinks her suspicions are crazy. Then a clue hidden in Priya’s latest selfie introduces a disturbing possibility: Maybe Priya isn’t just not answering Zan’s emails. Maybe she can’t.
Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons Series) by Matt de la Pena - Science Fiction
Clark Kent has always been faster, stronger --- better --- than everyone around him. But it's not like he's earned his powers...yet. Lately it's difficult to hold back and keep his heroics in the shadows. When Clark follows the sound of a girl crying, he comes across Gloria Alvarez and learns that people are disappearing from the Mexican-American and undocumented worker community in Smallville. Teaming up with his best friend, Lana Lang, Clark discovers that before he can save the world, he must save Smallville.
The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons - Thriller/Suspense
Welcome to Vale Hall, the school for aspiring con artists. When Brynn is recruited to Vale, it seems like her chance to start over, but she soon learns that Vale chooses students not so much for their scholastic talent as for their extracurricular activities, such as her time spent conning rich North Shore kids out of their extravagant allowances. At first, Brynn jumps at the chance to help the school in its mission to rid the city of corrupt officials, but that’s before she meets her mark, a senator’s son, and before she discovers the school’s headmaster has secrets he’ll stop at nothing to protect.
The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie - Science Fiction
There is something Poe Blythe, the 17-year-old captain of the Outpost’s last mining ship, wants far more than the gold they tear from the Serpentine River. She wants revenge. Poe has vowed to annihilate the river raiders who robbed her of everything two years ago. But as she navigates the treacherous waters of the Serpentine and realizes there might be a traitor among her crew, she must also reckon with who she has become, who she wants to be and the ways love can change and shape you. Even --- and especially --- when you think all is lost.
Second Star (A Neverland Transmissions Novel Book 1) (Neverland Chronicles) by J. M. Sullivan - Fantasy
Wendy Darling is a new Captain of a ship in the Londonierre Brigade, and when the Brigade receives a strange transmission from the legendary James Hooke, Wendy is willing to risk it all to rescue her hero. She races to the planet known as Neverland, her mission to find the lost crew and bring them home. When Wendy crash lands on the ominous planet, she quickly discovers Neverland's dark secret; a malevolent being known as The Shadow that's looking for a host body to escape its eternal prison. To fulfill her mission, Wendy must decide whether to trust Hooke or the mysterious Fleet mechanic who goes by the name of Pan --- and she has to decide quickly...Before the darkness consumes them all.
The Witch's Tower (Twisted Ever After) by Tamara Grantham - Fantasy
Gothel is a witch. Punished for the actions of her mother, either she stands guard over Princess Rapunzel --- or she dies. Protecting Rapunzel means watching as the princess lays trapped in a tower. Gothel’s life has become one of imprisonment and solitude as well --- until a prince and his handsome squire appear at the tower. Only one object can cut Rapunzel’s hair and end the curse: a pair of magical shears. As Gothel and the prince’s squire, Raj Talmund, work to form a plan to get them, she finds herself more and more drawn to the mysterious young man from the Outerlands.
More reviews »
Authors Maureen Doyle McQuerry and Stephanie Morrill Discuss Historical Fiction
Historical fiction allows you, the reader, to travel back in time from the safety of your couch, subway seat or other favorite reading spot. Today on Teenreads we had the chance to talk to two young...
Celebrating Favorite Bookish Couples for Valentine's Day --- A Guest Post by Teen Board Member Jessica K.
Happy Valentine's Day! Here at Teenreads we are super excited today about our love for books, our favorite characters and our favorite bookish couples. Check out some of Teen Board Member Jessica...
The 2019 ALA Youth Media Awards
Today is one of the biggest days of the year for young adult and children's literature: the announcement of the ALA Youth Media Awards. Each year the American Library Association honors the books...
Watch a Book Trailer for THE SIMILARS by Rebecca Hanover --- Now in Stores!
If you're itching for a genre-bending read about science, identity and heartbreak to kick off your 2019 TBR, look no further than Rebecca Hanover's debut novel, THE SIMILARS, which is now in...
Teen Board Member Rachel D. Interviews Somaiya Daud at the Miami Book Fair
Somaiya Daud's debut novel, MIRAGE, is a beautifully written fantasy about royal and colonial politics where a girl is forced to be a body double for a despised princess. In a world...
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Everything Wii u
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare May Be Released For Wii U
The Wii U logo was found in the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare website source code today (via CharlieIntel). The source code shows an image that leads us to believe that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare...
Free Wii U Game With Mario Kart 8 Purchase
In an effort to promote the Wii U, Nintendo is offering a free game with the purchase of Mario Kart 8. To take advantage of the free game offer, the game must be registered on Club Nintendo no later t...
Best Buy Offers Free Gas With Mario Kart 8 Pre-order
Best Buy is offering a $10 prepaid Mastercard with your pre-order of Mario Kart 8. While the retail giant is offering to help fill your gas tank if you pre-order Mario Kart 8 with them online or in st...
Mario Kart 8 Bundle Revealed (UPDATE)
Update: Nintendo of America has confirmed it is releasing in the US a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Set bundle that includes a Wii U Deluxe Set system, a Mario Kart 8 game, a red Mario Wii Wheel accessory and a...
New Fatal Frame Coming to Wii U
Thanks to a translation of a Famitsu report by Gematsu, details regarding a new Fatal Frame game have emerged. The details say that Tecmo Koei and Nintendo are working together on this unannounced pro...
Playstation, Xbox One & Last Gen Games 50% Off
A huge sale is going on now over at Newegg. Select Playstation 4, Xbox One and Wii U games are discounted at 50% off but Newegg is offering an extra 10% off when you use promo code VGMADNESS1. For Xbo...
Smash Bros 4 More Characters Announced – 3DS Wii U
More characters have been announced for the upcoming game on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. In a Super Smash Bros. trailer recently released by Nintendo, newcomer Greninja is showcased. Greninja is a nin...
Child of Light Coming Soon – Ubisoft Montreal
On April 30, 2014, Ubisoft Montreal is set to release a new RPG called Child of Light on Microsoft Windows, PS3 and PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and the forgotten Wii U. The game is set in a fantasy wo...
COPYRIGHT ©2017 APGN
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IU Newsroom
IU News Archives
IUPUI
IU Newsroom »
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IU researchers help add greater precision to fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
The study is the first to reveal in extreme detail the operation of the biochemical clockwork that drives cellular division in bacteria and could inform efforts to develop drugs that combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
IUPUI faculty use grant to help digitally preserve historic Indianapolis African-American church
School of Informatics and Computing faculty at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis are using a $57,000 IU grant to help save a historic trove of archival documents and objects from the Bethel AME Church, Indianapolis? oldest African-American church.
Research finds business training leads to stronger career outcomes for arts graduates
Recent graduates with arts degrees have better career and entrepreneurial training than those who came before them, according to a report released by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project at the Indiana University School of Education. The research, based on a survey of arts graduates , demonstrates that new approaches to arts education are helping prepare students for careers and give them tools they need to succeed.
Scholar of free-market environmentalism to present first Ostrom Lecture on Environmental Policy
Terry Anderson, the John and Jean De Nault senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a leading scholar of free-market environmentalism, will present the inaugural Ostrom Lecture on Environmental Policy next week at Indiana University Bloomington. Anderson will speak on "Who Owns the Environment? Lessons from the Legacy of Elinor Ostrom" at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 22 in Woodburn Hall 120.
Author-activist Sandra Steingraber to keynote SustainIU Week
Sandra Steingraber, a cancer survivor, author, scientist and activist who brings a personal perspective to studying the links between human health and the environment, will be the keynote speaker for next week's SustainIU Week activities at Indiana University Bloomington. Steingraber will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 21 in Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union.
IU Bloomington's Mathers Museum to temporarily close during summer for renovations
The renovations will include the installation of new state-of-the-art gallery lighting systems, as well as improved accessibility features.
Indiana University to host young African leaders through Mandela Washington Fellowship program
Indiana University will host 25 of Africa's brightest emerging leaders for six-week academic and leadership institute this summer sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
Indiana University announces nine new distinguished professors
Nine Indiana University scholars and researchers have been promoted to distinguished professor, the highest academic rank the university bestows upon faculty.
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Light. Years ahead.
With the new MacBook, we set out to do the impossible: engineer a full-size
experience into the lightest and most compact Mac notebook ever.
That meant reimagining every element to make it not only lighter and thinner
but also better. The result is more than just a new notebook. It’s the future of the notebook.
SPACE GRAY. GOLD. SILVER
A full-size keyboard.
In a fraction of the space.
We believe that a comfortable, full-size keyboard is essential for a great notebook experience. But to fit one into the elegantly thin new MacBook, we had to completely rethink how a keyboard is engineered and constructed. To create the new keyboard, we redesigned each key and its underlying mechanism — not only making the whole keyboard much thinner, but also allowing for more comfortable, precise, and responsive typing that just feels right.
Retina re-envisioned.
The moment you open the new MacBook, its gorgeous 12‑inch Retina display with edge-to-edge glass brings everything into focus. Every photo leaps off the screen in rich, vibrant detail. Over 3 million pixels render each letter with crystal clarity. And it all comes to light on the thinnest, most energy-efficient Retina display ever on a Mac, meticulously honed to deliver a bold visual experience within an impossibly minimal design.
The trackpad
pushed even further with Force Touch.
With the new MacBook comes a whole new way to experience a trackpad. The Force Touch trackpad is engineered to deliver a responsive, uniform click no matter where you press the surface. And underneath, force sensors detect how much pressure you’re applying and give you new ways to interact with your Mac. You can now use a Force click to enable new capabilities, like quickly looking up the definition of a word or previewing a file just by clicking and continuing to press on the trackpad. You’ll also experience haptic feedback — a tactile vibration from the trackpad that adds the sense of touch to what you see on the screen. These advanced capabilities work in addition to all the intuitive Multi-Touch gestures Mac users love. You’ll be more in touch with your Mac than ever before. Without lifting a finger.
Fully equipped for a wireless world.
The new MacBook is designed to fit effortlessly into our increasingly wireless world. Just about anything you do with a notebook can now be done over the air, thanks to Apple software that takes full advantage of the latest Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology. So no matter where you are, you can connect to the web, transfer files, organize your photos, listen to music, and more — without being tied down.
The most efficient way to charge a notebook is by connecting a charger to a port. And as long as we were going to include a port for charging the new MacBook, we wanted to make sure it was the most advanced and versatile one available. The new USB‑C port puts just about everything you need in a port all in one place. This amazing port provides charging, speedy USB 3 data transfer, and video output in a small, reversible design that’s one-third the size of the current USB port.
All-day battery life.
All-new design.
We know people rely on Apple notebooks for all-day battery life, regardless of how compact they are. And with the slim new MacBook enclosure, all-day battery life simply would not be achievable using traditional rectangular batteries. So we developed our own unique battery technology specifically designed to make use of every last millimeter of available space. The result is a terraced, contoured battery design that not only fits perfectly inside the incredibly slim MacBook, but also is unlike anything seen before in a notebook.
Processor(s) 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, with 4MB L3 cache
Storage 512GB PCIe-based onboard SSD
RAM 8GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory
Display Retina display 12-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology 2304-by-1440 resolution at 226 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors 16:10 aspect ratio Supported scaled resolutions: 1440 by 900 1280 by 800 1024 by 640
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 615 Dual display and video mirroring: simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz on an external display, both at millions of colors
Battery Up to 10 hours wireless web Up to 12 hours iTunes movie playback Up to 30 days of standby time Built-in 41.4-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery 29W USB-C Power Adapter; USB-C power port
Warranty Your MacBook comes with 90 days of free telephone support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan to extend your service and support to three years from your computer’s purchase date. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple‑authorized technicians using genuine Apple parts. For more information, visit Apple Support or call 800-823-2775.
Product Code: MacBook
Ex Tax: BDT 160,000.00
Price in reward points: 50
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GRiZ Returns for first music release in more than a year
with double A-side release ‘It Gets Better (feat. DRAM)’ and ‘Can’t Get Enough’
Urban Rebel PR
Posted by shaun on Nov 2, 2018
GRiZ makes his grand return today with two new singles––one featuring DRAM, and one marking his own vocal debut. The pair of tunes is the first music the Denver-based multi-instrumentalist has released in over a year. Following an extended social media blackout, GRiZ surfaced 15 minutes ago, breaking an eight-month-long silence by way of a Facebook Live stream. Today’s return is one long awaited by fans; after announcing his departure from social media last year, fans feared that it was the end of GRiZ. Little did they know, he would spend that time not only holed away in his studio but also traveling the country recording new music.
It’s been an eventful few years for GRiZ, the launch of his 15-piece live band, cannabis-debut GRiZ Kush, his own name brand Ale, his coming out publicly, and the annual holiday-charity smashes GRiZMAS in Detroit. The past few years’ saw career highlight performances from Grant, including back to back massive shows at Red Rocks, Chicago’s Navy Pier, Santa Barbara Bowl, San Francisco’s Warfield and more. For the great unveil, GRiZ enlisted none other than rapper, singer, songwriter and actor DRAM to feature on ‘It Gets Better’. DRAM’s ethos is simple and parallels that of GRiZ; stay true to yourself, spread love and positivity. Both artists aim to preach openness, acceptance, and love to their devout fanbases, deeming the collaboration a Cinderella’s glass slipper.
The second single, ‘Can’t Get Enough’, features GRiZ’s first ever rap verse. A homage to the classical GRiZcography, guitar riffs, twangy basslines and festival-worthy soundscapes lay the perfect foundation for the long-awaited self-performed verse. It’s the final piece to the puzzle, and one that has taken almost a decade to master. The double A-side displays Grant’s mission to dig deeper and evolve his signature sonic palette, looking for internal and external inspiration, while eschewing du jour musical trends, to explore his range of sound design and arrangement. Appropriately, the group of songs will be paired with two lyric videos to parallel the remarkability of the features from both DRAM and GRiZ himself.
For more information, check socials:
facebook.com/mynameisGRiZ | instagram.com/griz
twitter.com/Griz | https://soundcloud.com/griz
GRiZ Tour Dates
Dec 14th - Masonic Temple - Detroit, MI*
Dec 15th - Masonic Temple - Detroit, MI
Dec 29th - Hi Jinx - Philadelphia, PA
Dec 31st - Decadence Music Festival - Phoenix, Arizona
Jan 10th - Holy Ship!
Feb 28 - March 3rd - Envision Festival
Other New Discoveries
MILEY CYRUS - "Mother's Daughter" Press Release & Video Premiere
Lil Nas X Comes Out In Pride Post: 'Thought I Made It Obvious'
Miley Cyrus Supports 'Baby Brother' Lil Nas X After He Comes Out as Gay
MOGUAI goes back to his roots with Hip-hop inspired ‘Don’t Stop’
BABYMETAL Perform First Show of 2019, Announce ‘METAL GALAXY’ World Tour
(June 28 and 29)
Ed Sheeran & Khalid Release 'Beautiful People' Music Video
watch mv here
Scottish Synth-Pop Band CHVRCHΞS Bringing Their First Solo Concert to Hong Kong This Summer
< CHVRCHΞS LOVΞ IS DΞAD ASIA TOUR 2019 HONG KONG >
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Chamber Symphony No. 1 for Marimba
McCarthy, Daniel (b. 1955)
Genre: Solo Marimba & Chamber Winds
# of Players:
Level: Medium Difficult | Duration: 14:30
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
-- None -- Score & Parts Score Only
The title Chamber Symphony indicates that the wind ensemble is more intimately involved (musically speaking) with the soloist than an accompaniment as in a concerto. In this regard, the single winds and marimba are treated integrally although the marimba is the featured instrument.
Genre: Solo Marimba & Chamber Winds | # of Players: 12
Solo Marimba (5-octave)
B-flat Clarinet
B-flat Trumpet
F Horn
Percussion (snare drum, low tom, woodblock, low temple block, claves, afuche, bongos, suspended cymbal, gong, castanets)
This piece was commissioned by Cort McClaren, president of C. Alan Publications and the School of Music at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The piece was premiered at the Southeast chapter of the Music Educators National Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina in the fall of 1994 with the American Marimba soloist Michael Burritt, professor of percussion studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
The lush outdoors of northwestern Michigan's lower peninsula directly inspired the first and third movements, respectively "Deer Hunting in Michigan" and "The Stuff of Adventure." McCarthy developed a strong attachment to this region, being born in Onekoma, Michigan, growing up in Bay City, Michigan, and attending the Interlochen Art Academy during his High School years. While at the Interlochen Arts Academy he studied trumpet and piano for four years. McCarthy dedicated this composition to his trumpet teacher at Interlochen, John Lindenau. Recorded by The University of North Texas Wind Symphony, Eugene Corporon, conductor, Mark Ford, marimba soloist.
Almost Beyond (Solo Marimba w/ Piano) $24.00 Add To Cart
Salopettes (Flute/Marimba Duet) $25.00 Add To Cart
Awaken the Peace Within (Trio for Trumpet, Cello & Marimba) $28.00 Add To Cart
Burn3 (Trio for Flute, Clarinet, & Marimba) $28.00 Add To Cart
Isle of Skye (Duet for Flute & Marimba) $25.00 Add To Cart
Concerto for Marimba and Wind Ensemble $140.00 Choose Options
Concerto No. 2 for Marimba & Chamber Ensemble $95.00 Choose Options
Concerto for Marimba & Wind Ensemble $180.00 Choose Options
Concertino for Marimba and Wind Ensemble $120.00 Choose Options
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Tayto
George Hirsch August 11, 2010
I recently realized that with all the places I have traveled to around the globe there's a spud of a common thread to all those destinations. You could say my common thread is the chip, or crisp if you are in the UK and parts of the EU. I’ve de-bagged a couple in Greece, flavored with rosemary; very tasty. An interesting twist was the peri-peri version I noshed on in the outback of South Africa. And of course have nibbled on a few, purely for research in the US. Ahem. Sorry, those pre-formed spuds in a can don't make the cut.
So what makes this the unique link to my travels? The seasoning usually becomes very localized, like ketchup or pickle flavored - a favorite up in Canada. Mostly, I like them plain-n-simple like the way they were origially made.
Limerick Market - buying Taytos, Barry's and Jam
The original potato chip recipe was created in Saratoga Springs by another Chef George; George Crum and they were called "Saratoga Chips". It’s said Chef George came up with this crispy thin chip when soggy potatoes kept being returned to the kitchen from a Mr. Vanderbilt. The chip was such a hit they made it on the menu full time. See sometimes good stuff can come from a flop!
In 1920, Frank Smith was one of the first to season a slice. Smith's crisps were originally packaged with a twist of salt in grease proof paper bags - and sold in London. Smith’s today is known as Walker’s Crisps. Other than salt, the potato chip remained unseasoned until an innovation by Joe "Spud" Murphy, the owner of an Irish crisp company called Tayto, developed a way in the 1950’s to produce the world's first seasoned crisps. Flavors; Cheese & Onion and Salt & Vinegar.
You may be asking, George I thought you only ate healthy? I Sure do, but part of a healthy eating regemin is moderation, not sacrifice. I enjoy a few. I don't suggest parking in front of the TV with a 6 1/2 gallon can Grandma Utz’s Chips (one of my favorite’s made in the US).
So far Utz has me sold for chips in the US. What’s my top travelled chip? Without a doubt the original "Cheese and Onion" made by Tayto. My crew recently introduced me to Taytos when filming in Ireland for GH Living it UP!. It's time to go back, I finished my last bag.
images: Hirsch Productions
In chips, condiment Tags As seen on George Hirsch Living it UP! TV series, Grandma Utz’s Chips, Tayto
← rick's picksSunny Side →
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New In Vitro Study Data Shows that Wound Dressing with Silver Kills MRSA and Other 'Superbugs' Resistant to Antibiotics
DALLAS, TX (April 15, 2011) - ConvaTec, a world-leading developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies for community and hospital care, today announced new in vitro study results showing that a wound dressing containing ionic silver is able to kill several strains of highly-resistant bacteria, commonly referred to as 'superbugs.' The study showed that bacteria found beneath the dressing died within 48 hours.1 The study results were presented at the 24th Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and Wound Healing Society (SAWC/WHS) in Dallas, Texas.
In the in vitro study, a simulated wound fluid (serum and peptone water) model was designed to measure antimicrobial activity over a seven-day wear time. A sample of the silver-containing sodium carboxymethyl cellulose wound dressing was aseptically transferred to the simulated wound fluid containing 1x106 cfu/ml of a wound pathogen (A. baumannii,C. difficile, CA-MRSA, or ESBL-producing bacteria). Following incubation, total viable counts (TVCs) were performed on each test model using a pour plate method. TVCs were performed on each model at four, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours, and at seven days. All models were re-inoculated with a fresh challenge of the same bacteria at 72 hours.
Bacteria from external sources such as the surrounding skin, gut and mouth are often found in wounds associated with surgery, trauma, disease or other causes. Any wound, especially one that does not heal quickly or at all, presents an opportunity for bacterial colonization and difficult-to-treat infections. An increasing prevalence of bacteria with enhanced virulence that are resistant to antibiotics is becoming a major concern for treating clinicians and hospitals. To reduce the risk of infection, many wound dressings are designed to conform well to a wound's unique topography to position an antimicrobial agent to be in contact with threatening bacteria.
In the study, bacteria samples were covered with silver-containing sodium carboxymethyl cellulose wounddressing. The dressing was shown to be effective against emerging pathogens over a seven-day test period, including against re-inoculation. The dressing killed ESBL-producing bacteria andA. baumanniiquickly and consistently, with an approximate 100,000-fold reduction of all pathogens within 24 hours. The rate of kill forC. difficilewas rapid, with an approximate 100,000-fold reduction of all bacteria after four hours. The potency of silver-containing sodium carboxymethyl cellulose wounddressing against CA-MRSA was effective with a 100-fold reduction in bacterial population within 48 hours and no bacteria detected by day seven.
About Methicillin ResistantStaphylococcus aureusand Community-Associated Methicillin ResistantStaphylococcus aureus
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics called beta-lactams. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin, and amoxicillin. In the community, most MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections are skin infections and they are genetically and phenotypically distinct from the typical MRSA strain. More severe or potentially life-threatening MRSA infections occur most frequently among patients in healthcare settings. While 25% to 30% of people are colonized in the nose with staph, less than 2% are colonized with MRSA.2,3
About Acinetobacter baumannii
Acinetobacter is a group of bacteria commonly found in soil and water. While there are many types or "species" of Acinetobacter and all can cause human disease, Acinetobacter baumannii accounts for about 80% of reported infections. Outbreaks of Acinetobacter infections typically occur in intensive care units and healthcare settings housing very ill patients. Acinetobacter infections rarely occur outside of healthcare settings.4
AboutClostridium difficile
Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that can colonize in the gut most often following the prolonged use of antibiotics during healthcare treatment. Clostridium difficile infections cause diarrhea and more serious intestinal conditions such as colitis.5
About Extended-Spectrum beta-Lactamase Bacteria (ESBL)
ESBLs are enzymes that mediate resistance to extended-spectrum (third generation) cephalosporins (e.g., ceftazidime, cefotaxime, and ceftriaxone) and monobactams (e.g., aztreonam) but do not affect cephamycins (e.g., cefoxitin and cefotetan) or carbapenems (e.g., meropenem or imipenem).6
About ConvaTec
ConvaTec is a leading developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies that have helped improve the lives of millions of people worldwide. With four key focus areas - Ostomy Care, Wound Therapeutics, Continence and Critical Care, and Infusion Devices - ConvaTec products support healthcare professionals from the hospital to the community health setting.
SC-000209-US
Welsby S, Towers V, Joseph A, Booth R, Hogarth A, Bowler P. The In VitroSusceptibility of 'Superbugs' to a Silver-Containing Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose Wound Dressing. Poster Presented at: 24th Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and Wound Healing Society Meeting; April 15-17, 2011; Dallas, TX.
MRSA information page. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. http://www.cdc.gov/mrsa/index.html. Accessed April 6, 2011.
Gorwitz RJ, Kruszon-Moran D, McAllister S, et al. Changes in the Prevelance of Nasal Colonization withStaphylococcus aureusin the United States, 2001-2004.J of Infect Dis. 2008;197(9):1226-34.
Healthcare-associated infections information page. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/acinetobacter.html. Accessed April 6, 2011.
Heathcare-associated infections information page. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cdiff/Cdiff_infect.html. Accessed April 6, 2011.
Healthcare-associated infections information page. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/settings/lab/lab_esbl.html. Accessed April 6, 2011.
Use of a Simple Three-Step Process and Prevention Algorithm to Protect Skin shown to Reduce Pressure Ulcers
ConvaTec Healthcare Announces Plans to Refinance Secured Term Loans
ConvaTec Healthcare Postpones Plans to Refinance Secured Term Loans
ConvaTec Supported Studies to be Presented at the 24th Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) and Wound Healing Society (WHS)
ConvaTec Healthcare Announces 2010 Year-end Earnings Call
ConvaTec Donates $10,000 to AAWC Global Volunteers Program Through SAWC Walk for Wellness
ConvaTec Announces Acquisition of Trent Direct
ConvaTec Introduces Thinner Versiva XC Dressing Designed to Improve Conformability
ConvaTec Healthcare Announces 2011 First Quarter Earnings Call
Preliminary Results of a Large Scale Study Show ConvaTec Moldable Technology™ Skin Barriers Help to Prevent and Improve Peristomal Skin Issues in Ostomy Patients
ConvaTec Healthcare Announces 2011 Second Quarter Earnings Call
ConvaTec Announces Acquisition of Boston Medical Device
ConvaTec Announces Acquisition of Farnhurst Medical
ConvaTec First Company Granted Ethical Business Logo By Eucomed
ConvaTec Healthcare Announces 2011 third Quarter Earnings Call
ConvaTec Awarded Mediwales 2011 Innovation Award
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Listing on BookAngel:
Alien Abduction: The Transmitter
Last Free Dates: 1st Mar 15 to 5th Mar 15
...This very short story may be of interest to fans of alien abduction stories, but there's not really much new here for those already familiar with the genre...
A young man wakes up to find his dream of having something implanted into his skull was not a dream. There’s a wound in his head and a small silver device on his pillow…and then things get worse
This is a very short story with a slow start, but once the action kicks in the story picks up the pace almost too quickly. Things happen with little explanation and scenes change very quickly. The ending is abrupt and, to me at least, the weakest point. It tries to be deliberately ambigious, but actually negates most of what has already happened.
This may be of interest to fans of alien abduction stories, but there’s not really much new here for those already familiar with the genre, and not really enough of a story to draw in those who aren’t.
I’m suggesting another reviewer look at this in case I am being unfair, but despite the good writing, the lack of explanation and weak ending knock it down to a 2 for me.
Reviewed by Reader for Bookangel.co.uk
Reviewed on: 2014-12-21
Review Policy: No compensation is received for reviews. View our Review Policy here.
Other reviews you might like:
Scramble – Digital Science Fiction Short Story: Original Imprint
Five stars, and if the rest of the Blue Collar Space series are as good, I'd suggest giving them a look as well. A wonderful blend of plot and character.
Village E3: Survival of the Human Spirit
This book didn't click for me at all. For a book that's entitled "Survival of the Human Spirit" - well, that title is badly misleading.
Lies We Will Tell Ourselves
Lies We Will Tell Ourselves is a high quality sci-fi collection. Sci-fi readers should enjoy it, but so may readers who simply want stories to make them think.
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Scottish Highland Games: A Brief History and the Main Events
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Davidson, Alan
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Gold, Luisa Marietta
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Brand: Alan Jeffreys
Approach To Battle
by Alan Jeffreys
Publisher Helion
Pages 249p
You Save: £2.00 (7%)
Approach to Battle : Training the Indian Army During the Second World War
The Indian Army was the largest volunteer army during the Second World War. Indian Army divisions fought in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy - and went to make up the overwhelming majority of the troops in South East Asia. Over two million personnel served in the Indian Army - and India provided the base for supplies for the Middle Eastern and South East Asian theatres.
This monograph is a modern historical interpretation of the Indian Army as a holistic organisation during the Second World War. It will look at training in India - charting how the Indian Army developed a more comprehensive training structure than any other Commonwealth country. This was achieved through both the dissemination of doctrine and the professionalism of a small coterie of Indian Army officers who brought about a military culture within the Indian Army - starting in the 1930s - that came to fruition during the Second World War, which informed the formal learning process.
Finally, it will show that the Indian Army was reorganised after experiences of the First World War. During the interwar period, the army developed training and belief for both fighting on the North West Frontier, and as an aid to civil power. With the outbreak of the Second World War, in addition to these roles, the army had to expand and adapt to fighting modern professional armies in the difficult terrains of desert, jungle and mountain warfare.
A clear development of doctrine and training can be seen, with many pamphlets being produced by GHQ India that were, in turn, used to formulate training within formations and then used in divisional, brigade and unit training instructions - thus a clear line of process can be seen not only from GHQ India down to brigade and battalion level, but also upwards from battalion and brigade level based on experience in battle that was absorbed into new training instructions. Together with the added impetus for education in the army, by 1945 the Indian Army had become a modern, professional and national army.
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Commentary :: International
9-11 hero tells of explosions in the the WTC
by brian 26 Jun 2005
WTC janitor pulls burn victim to safety after basement explosion rocks north tower seconds before jetliner hit top floors. Also, two other men trapped and drowning in a basement elevator shaft, were also pulled to safety from underground explosion..
by you WTC Basement Blast And Injured Burn Victim Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High; Eye Witness Testimony Is Conclusive That North Tower Collapsed From Controlled Demolition
By Greg Szymanski
What happened to William Rodriguez the morning of 9/11 is a miracle. What happened to his story after-the-fact is a tragedy.
But with miracles and tragedies comes truth. And truth is exactly what Rodriguez brings to the whole mystery surrounding 9/11.
Declared a hero for saving numerous lives at Ground Zero, he was the janitor on duty the morning of 9/11 who heard and felt explosions rock the basement sub-levels of the north tower just seconds before the jetliner struck the top floors.
He not only claims he felt explosions coming from below the first sub-level while working in the basement, he says the walls were cracking around him and he pulled a man to safety by the name of Felipe David, who was severely burned from the basement explosions.
All these events occurred only seconds before and during the jetliner strike above. And through it all, he now asks a simple question everybody should be asking? How could a jetliner hit 90 floors above and burn a man’s arms and face to a crisp in the basement below within seconds of impact?
Rodriguez claims this was impossible and clearly demonstrates a controlled demolition brought down the WTC, saying "Let’s see them (the government) try to wiggle out of this one."
Well, they haven’t wiggled out of it because the government continues to act like Rodriguez doesn’t exist, basically ignoring his statements and the fact he rescued a man burnt and bleeding from the basement explosions.
His eye witness account, ignored by the media and the government, points the finger squarely on an official cover-up at the highest levels since the government contends the WTC fell only from burning jet fuel. And after listening to Rodriguez, it’s easy to see why the Bush administration wants him kept quiet.
Bush wants him quiet because Rodriguez’s account is ‘proof positive’ the WTC was brought down by a controlled demolition, not burning jet fuel. And Bush knows if he’s caught lying about this or caught in a cover-up, it’s just a matter of time before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.
In fact, Rodriguez’s story is so damaging – so damning – it literally blows the lid off the government story, literally exposing the whole 9/11 investigation as a sham and a cover-up of the worst kind.
And it appears the cover-up also extends to the media.
NBC news knew about his story several years ago, even spending a full day at his house taping his comments. But when push came to shove, his story was never aired. Why?
His eyewitness account, backed up by at least 14 people at the scene with him, isn’t speculation or conjecture. It isn’t a story that takes a network out on a journalistic limb. It’s a story that can be backed up, a story that can be verified with hospital records and testimony from many others.
It’s a story about 14 people who felt and heard the same explosion and even saw Rodriguez, moments after the airplane hit, take David to safety, after he was burnt so bad from the basement explosion flesh was hanging from his face and both arms
So why didn’t NBC or any other major news outlets cover the story? They didn’t run it because it shot the government story to hell and back. They didn’t run it because "the powers that be" wouldn’t allow it.
Since 9/11, Rodriguez has stuck to his guns, never wavering from what he said from day one. Left homeless at times, warned to keep quiet and subtly harassed, he nevertheless has continued trying to tell get his message out in the face of a country not willing to listen.
Here is his story:
It’s a miracle Rodriguez, 44, who worked at the WTC for 20 years, is even alive. Usually arriving to work at 8:30am, the morning of 9/11 he reported 30 minutes late. If he’d arrived on time, it would have put him at the top floors just about the same time the jetliner hit the north tower.
"It was a miracle. If I arrived on time, like always, I’d probably be dead. I would have been up at the top floors like every morning," said Rodriguez about the quirk of fate that saved his life.
But since he was late, Rodriguez found himself checking into work in an office on sub-level 1 when the north tower was hit, seemingly out of harms way. However, the sound and concussion of a massive explosion in the sub-levels right below his feet changed that.
"When I heard the sound of the explosion, the floor beneath my feet vibrated, the walls started cracking and it everything started shaking," said Rodriguez, who was huddled together with at least 14 other people in the office.
Rodriguez said Anthony Saltamachia, supervisor for the American Maintenance Co., was one of the people in the room who stands ready to verify his story.
"Seconds after the first massive explosion below in the basement still rattled the floor, I hear another explosion from way above," said Rodriguez. "Although I was unaware at the time, this was the airplane hitting the tower, it occurred moments after the first explosion."
But before Rodriguez had time to think, co-worker Felipe David stormed into the basement office with severe burns on his face and arms, screaming for help and yelling "explosion! explosion! explosion!"
David had been in front of a nearby freight elevator on sub-level 1 about 400 feet from the office when fire burst out of the elevator shaft, causing his injuries.
"He was burned terribly," said Rodriguez. "The skin was hanging off his hands and arms. His injuries couldn’t have come from the airplane above, but only from a massive explosion below. I don’t care what the government says, what scientists say. I saw a man burned terribly from a fire that was caused from an explosion below.
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/article/1518131/28031.htm
Re: 9-11 hero tells of explosions in the the WTC
by Veteran
RT (nospam) AS (unverified) 27 Jun 2005
You clowns need to stop watching the X FIles and wake up. Absolute nonsense.
by Maslauskas
maslauskas (nospam) riseup.net (unverified) 27 Jun 2005
"NBC news knew about his story several years ago, even spending a full day at his house taping his comments. But when push came to shove, his story was never aired. Why?" -- a typo I believe. Should this be "months: instead of "years"?
As for the comment left by veteran. I have nothing to say... but George Orwell does: "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."
The Only Bozo Is Bush!
by Plain Truth
Hey neo-nuts! Face it. Too many witnesses. And too much evidence!
You right-wing people need to wake up! Considering, you are in denial...about the downing street minutes and the other eight meetings prior to downing street memo. Face it...Your stalin-mini-me, is guilty as Benedict Arnold! And shouldn't the guilty do time? I'd say...
WTC was takin' down. There is no conceivable way those building would have falling straight down without explosives. And why was building 5 takin' down many hours later? Sure wasn't jet fuel that took it down. Well neo-lovers? Let's hear your rocket science theory...
by Accuracy Bot
(No verified email address) 02 Jul 2005
Plain, it was actually WTC 7 that was pulled by the lease holder, Larry Silverstein hours later. Larry is not a Martian or a Zombie as far as I know, but a very wealthy individual, especially after collecting the insurance money for the buildings he allowed to be destroyed. If that so-called freedom tower ever goes up, it will be cursed and haunted by the oh about 3000 ghosts demanding justice. Good luck Larry!
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Diana's Murder - Latest / Analysis
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:28 am Post subject: Diana's Murder - Latest / Analysis
Former Top Cop Whitewashes Diana's Murder
The UK establishment's hand-picked cover-up cop has decided
that the murder of Diana was an "accident." Big surprise!
It's all a bit reminiscent of the 9/11 issue. A lot of diversionary claims
are manufactured and then dismissed. These claims get all the media
attention and the really substantial issues are ignored. Like this one:
"Sceptics of the official account question why a crucial witness, the driver
of a second car involved in the crash, has never been identified and how
it took nearly two hours to get Diana to a hospital just four miles away."
This exposes the Stevens' inquiry as the farce it is:
Jeweler Was Told To Lie In Princess Diana Case
December 6, 2006 - Maira Oliveira - All Headline News Reporter
London, England (BANG) - A key witness in the inquiry into the death
of Britain's Princess Diana recently claimed police threatened him to
change his evidence.
Jeweler Alberto Repossi - who claims he sold Diana's lover Dodi Al Fayed
an engagement ring the day before the couple were killed in a car crash
in Paris on August 31, 1997 - alleges he was put under pressure by
investigators to retract the statement he gave to Lord Stevens, who is
leading the inquiry.
There is speculation that investigators did not want evidence that Diana
and Dodi were to become engaged to be made public, as it would fuel
conspiracy theories championed by Dodi's father Mohammed Al Fayed
that the princess was murdered as part of a secret plot to prevent her
from marrying a Muslim.
Repossi told Britain's Daily Express newspaper, "These are things which I
am absolutely certain about. They warned me if anyone lied to Lord
Stevens - and anyone could include the prime minister or even the secret
service - then he had the power to get people sent to prison.
He added, "They kept repeating the warnings of the risk to my reputation
and the bad press coverage I would get. But despite all this, I was not
prepared to change what I'd said before because it was the truth."
Repossi's testimony - backed up by receipts and CCTV footage - reveals
Dodi and Diana picked a $305,000 emerald and diamond ring from a
range of engagement bands called "Did-Moi Oui" which means "Tell Me
Yes" at his Monte Carlo jewelry store in August 1997.
Dodi - the son of Harrods owner, Mohammad Al Fayed - asked for the
ring to be sent to Repossi's Paris branch so he could collect it on August30.
Repossi said, "I strongly support any attempt to determine exactly what
caused this terrible tragedy. Until now I thought I could play my part by
co-operating fully with the inquiry. But my treatment during the
interviews has convinced me that they are not interested in establishing
the truth."
He continued, "My real concern is that attempts were certainly made to
get me to change what I knew to be the truth. I believe they were doing
this in order to support theories or conclusions they had already arrived
at before they saw me. They only seemed interested in trying to show
me I was lying."
The investigation is expected to conclude that the crash was an accident
due to driver Henri Paul being under the influence of alcohol and driving
over the speed limit.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005768564
The Observer headlines a claim that US Intel was bugging Diana, and
pushes further down their story the revelations that her driver was
working for French Intelligence.
US bugged Diana's phone on night of death crash
Mark Townsend and Peter Allen in Paris
Sunday December 10, 2006 - The Observer
The American secret service was bugging Princess Diana's telephone conversations without the approval of the British security services on the night she died, according to the most comprehensive report on her death, to be published this week.
Among extraordinary details due to emerge in the report by former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens is the revelation that the US security service was bugging her calls in the hours before she was killed in a car crash in Paris.....
Scotland Yard's inquiry, published this Thursday, also throws up further intelligence links with the Princess of Wales on the night she died. The driver of the Mercedes, Henri Paul, was in the pay of the French equivalent of M15. Stevens traced £100,000 he had amassed in 14 French bank accounts though no payments have been linked to Diana's death.
Stevens's conclusion is that Diana, her companion Dodi Fayed, and Paul himself died in an accident caused by Paul driving too fast through the Pont de l'Alma underpass in Paris while under the influence of drink. The car was being pursued by photographers at the time.
Tests have confirmed that Paul was more than three times over the French drink-drive limit and was travelling at 'excessive' speed. The inquiry will quash a number of conspiracy theories that have circulated since 31 August 1997, among them that Diana was pregnant. It also found no evidence that the princess was planning to get engaged to Dodi, son of Mohamed Fayed.
The Harrods tycoon believes that Paul's blood samples were swapped to portray him as a drunk in an elaborate cover-up by the establishment to stop Diana marrying Dodi, a Muslim.
Stevens is expected to concede that while there was a mix-up it was an accident and that the original French post-mortem which found that Paul was three-times over the French drink-drive limit was correct.
He is also expected to discount the role of the white Fiat Uno which struck Diana's car shortly before the crash, even though British police officers have failed to track down the vehicle which left paintwork on the black Mercedes.
The inquiry will support the findings of the original French accident inquiry in criticising the paparazzi as a possible reason for encouraging Paul to speed. The 'bright light' theory - the claim that the driver was deliberately blinded by a beam immediately before the crash - is also dismissed by Stevens.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1968664,00.html
Dodi's father Mohammed Al Fayed has forced them to hold the
inquest in public. But it's a stacked deck anyway, as he well knows.
Al Fayed wins bid to have Diana inquest held in public
Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has decided to hold the preliminary
hearings of the Diana inquest in public, a spokesman for the Judicial
Communications Office said today.
Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, a former senior judge, has come out of
retirement to hear the inquests into Princess Diana and Dodi's deaths.
Mohammed Al Fayed, the father of Diana's lover Dodi who was also killed
in the 1997 Paris car crash, had threatened legal action over the matter.
A spokesman for the JCO said Lady Butler-Sloss sent a letter to
interested parties outlining her change of mind.....
"The reasons she had in mind that led her to conclude initially that the meeting should be held in private were entirely pragmatic - such as the size of the courtroom."
Matters that will be decided at the preliminary hearing include whether a jury will sit on the inquest.
If so, they would be made up of members of the Royal Household as Diana was still considered a member of the Royal Family when she died.
Let's leave the final words on this to Diana' words in her letter;
to Mohammed al-Fayed; and to Britain's former Spy Boss:
Conjecture was further fanned in 2004 by revelations that Diana had written a letter to her former butler Paul Burrell 10 months before her death in which she said she suspected Charles was trying to kill her.
"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous," the letter said, according to excerpts leaked to the British media. "My husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury."
Al Fayed's father Mohamed, multi-millionaire owner of the exclusive London store Harrods, has campaigned ever since the deaths for a full public inquiry to be held into the events.
"It is absolute black and white horrendous murder," he said.
However suggestions of a murder plot have been dismissed by witnesses, officials and royal commentators.
Dame Stella Rimington, Britain's one-time spy chief, totally dismissed suggestions there had been a sinister plot.
"It was a car accident and that is that. Basically all conspiracy theories
are mad," she said in a newspaper interview.
Following Stevens' report, preliminary inquest hearings will take place in early January under Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, a former senior judge who has stepped out of retirement to replace Burgess. An initial decision to hold them in private was overturned last week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10414705
Last edited by Fintan on Mon Aug 07, 2017 6:49 am; edited 2 times in total
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 9:41 am Post subject:
But just what DID happen on that night?
For the last 9 years I have heard lots and lots of accusations but not ONE logistical outline of what might really have happened that night.
Fintan, do you have a minute-by-minute likely scenario?
Rumpl4skn
Location: 36� 3'N x 86�40'W
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:04 am Post subject:
Well, I'm just a preipheral observer, but my first impression is... if it took 2 hours to get her to a hospital 4 miles away, then all you do is cause an accident in a particular area, and make sure the "emergency response team" is more interested in delivering her to the morgue than the hospital.
Has anyone investigated the EMT's (or whatever they call them in France) and if there were any anomalies regarding their activities that evening? They would certainly have to have been compromised in some way, and someone certainly would have a clue. You don't have to buy off every witness, just the ones you think have a conscience and/or friends in higher places who aren't payroll (a rapidly decresing commodity these days, I admit).
"No matter what happens, ever... there's ALWAYS at least one reason. And the top reason is ALWAYS money."
For example, 911 was the work of American intelligence operatives on American soil.
Wouldn't it be a bit(or very) difficult for British intelligence to pull something like 'Diana's murder' on foreign soil? I mean, it would take a lot of cooperation with for the most part dis-interested and possibly hostile French. And also, why would the French have cooperated at all with something like this? What's in it for them?
MichaelC wrote:
You mean France, the G8 member nation?
How or why would their intel cooperate?
Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 3:12 pm Post subject:
Rumpl4skn wrote:
It would seem that gang members are asked to kill someone to stay in the gang. So France must kill Diana to stay in the G8. This also gives cover to the real G8 gang member who ordered the hit. Its mafia all round.
I'll get rid of your problem if you agree to get rid of one of mine.
I fail to see what importance Diana could have had to "G8 business".
I mean, she was just sort of an annoying character who was a pain in the ass for the British Royal family.
But cetainly no $$billions were hanging on whether she remained breathing or not.
I guess I just don't get it.
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:49 pm Post subject: An Engagement with Death
MichaelC: I fail to see what importance Diana could have had to "G8 business".
I mean, she was just sort of an annoying character who was a pain in the ass for the British Royal family. But cetainly no $$billions were hanging on whether she remained breathing or not. I guess I just don't get it.
Ok, maybe other people also don't get it, so.....
An Engagement with Death
Imagine the effect of Diana going out with some "muslimaniac",
or even married to some "muslimaniac" like Dodi al-Fayed....
...just as the 9/11 "anti-Muslim Crusade" was gearing up to drop
thousands of tons of bombs on Muslim women and children.
Including napalm and even cluster bombs.
Imagine what Diana's stance on all this would have been.
Imagine the UK anti-war resistance that would spring up
as the most popular member of Britain's Royal Family
took on the military-industrial establishment.
It would have made the invasion of Iraq impossible.
It would have made the UK's involvement in the "crusade" impossible.
As I reported above:
When Diana picked out that engagement ring with Dodi, the prepared plan
was sanctioned and went into high gear. After a public announcement
of an engagement a hit would have been difficult --because the
suspicions of the British public would have make it a very risky move.
The Palace might have been burned. (I'm only half kidding.)
So, Diana picked out an engagement ring, and was dead within 24hrs.
That's how to describe this to anybody who doubts she was murdered.
"Diana picked out an engagement ring, and was dead within 24hrs."
Then connect the dots for them.
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:56 pm Post subject:
We sometimes have a tendency to underestimate how important public opinion is. The globalist perps don't just go off half-cocked and do whatever they want without public support. They court, sway, or manufacture public opinion to fit the plan.
They didn't pull the trigger on Iraq War I when they decided it was necessary. GHW Bush didn't just invade Iraq when he felt like it - he had to manufacture a picture of the Iraqi's as bloodthirsty, maniacal killing machines first. That was the purpose of the "Kuwaiti incubator deaths" lie - get get the American public to see the Iraqi military as a collection of ruthless baby murderers.
Once that psy-op was pulled - enlisting the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter posing as an 'anonymous' nurse, giving her tearful, coached testimony before Congress - public opinion swelled, and the War was a go.
The Brits knew what was already on the table for 2002, and they couldn't have a positive Arab role model and his hugely popular pacifist Brit wife speaking out against the war. You remove the threat before it is revealed WHY it is a threat. Then it's just an unfortunate 'accident'.
Fintan is right on the money here.
They couldn’t have the mother of the future King of England married to a swarthy Moslem.
These Anglophiles mean business.
Thats why they killed her and Dody.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 11:10 pm Post subject: Diana: The 18 missing witnesses
Diana: The 18 missing witnesses in £4m inquiry
13/12/06 - By John Twomey UK Daily Express
EIGHTEEN key witnesses have been ignored by the £4million Lord Stevens inquiry into the death of Princess Diana.
Their evidence to French police had raised several questions about the fatal crash in Paris.
But detectives working on the three-year inquiry – which will publish its findings tomorrow – didn’t interview them to gather fresh testimony.
The revelations come after the Daily Express revealed disturbing allegations from a crucial witness in the Diana probe who claimed that British detectives tried to pressure him into changing parts of his evidence.
The claims by jeweller Alberto Repossi – who insists Diana and Dodi were engaged when they died in the crash – have been dismissed by the Operation Paget squad.
Lord Stevens’ inquiry was set up to finally discover the truth behind how Princess Diana’s Mercedes, driven by Henri Paul, came to crash in the Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed has spent the past nine years mounting a determined campaign for the truth, spending millions of pounds uncovering fundamental flaws in the original French inquiry.
He remains convinced that the pair were murdered in a plot organised by the British Establishment, including the intelligence services.
One of the many theories put forward is that the Princess’s car was struck by another vehicle as it entered the tunnel under the River Seine.
And yesterday it emerged that one family which gave detailed statements to French police – but not to their British counterparts – told how they saw two large cars heading at speed towards the Pont de L’Alma underpass in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
Moments later, the vehicles disappeared into the tunnel and the family heard the screeching of brakes, the “scrunching” of metal, a first sickening impact and a louder bang followed by the haunting sound of a jammed horn.
As the witnesses looked down into the underpass, they saw the wreckage of the Mercedes car which was carrying Diana and Dodi slewed across the carriageway. But there was no sign of the second car.
The family also told how a taxi, following at a normal distance, stopped at the tunnel entrance but no-one got out.
They also recalled seeing a mystery man running straight past them and into the tunnel. The family, which has declined to be named, was interviewed by Captain Eric Crosnier of the Paris crime squad shortly after the crash. The family says it has given no other interviews.
Lord Stevens will present his findings at a press conference to the world’s media tomorrow.
The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner is understood to have concluded that Diana and Dodi died because their chauffeur Henri Paul was drunk and driving too fast.
Paul was also killed and Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but survived.
Harrods owner Mr Al Fayed suspects British intelligence officers were involved in “organising” the crash and covering up afterwards.
He fears the deaths were ordered because the Establishment could not bear the thought of the mother of a future king being pregnant with a Muslim’s child.
Last week, his lawyers forced the former senior judge in charge of the inquest to back down over plans to hold preliminary hearings in private. Lady Butler-Sloss said she was persuaded to reverse her decision because of “strong public interest in the case”.
But Mr Al Fayed’s victory has only fuelled suspicions that a cover-up is being attempted.
Statements made by the French family have been backed up by another witness, Clifford Gooroovado, 41.
He said: “The Mercedes car was driving behind another car. The car in front of the Mercedes was probably running at normal speed. The consequence was that the Mercedes probably accelerated so hard in order to pull out and overtake this car.”
Grigori Rassinier, who was also near the underpass, said in a statement: “There were a number of cars in the tunnel and it was certainly possible that there was one or more other cars travelling ahead of the Mercedes at the time of the crash.”
Mr Rassinier said he had been contacted by the Operation Paget squad last year and offered to travel to London to give a statement. But he claims he never heard from them again.
Last week, the Daily Express revealed how Monte Carlo-based jeweller Mr Repossi alleged he was put under pressure to change his story during lengthy interviews with officers from Lord Stevens’ squad.
The jeweller claims – backed up by receipts and CCTV footage from his Monaco showroom – that Diana and Dodi picked out a £230,000 emerald and diamond band from a variety of engagement rings in a prestigious range called Dis-Moi Oui – Tell Me Yes.
Dodi later asked for the ring to be sent to the Repossi store at the Place Vendome in Paris, which the jeweller opened especially so he could visit on August 30 – the day before the crash.
The fabulous engagement ring was later left at Dodi’s Paris apartment where he had planned to present it to the princess. Detectives from Lord Stevens’ team interviewed Mr Repossi three times and his wife once.
In the final meeting in July this year, officers told him that the jewellery was not an engagement ring. Mr Repossi said: “They warned me that if anyone lied to Lord Stevens then he had the power to get people sent to prison,” he said.
“They kept repeating the warnings of the risk to my reputation and the bad press coverage I would get. But despite all this, I was not prepared to change what I’d said before because it was the truth.”
The inquiry team vehemently denies any attempt to put pressure on any witness to tell anything other than the truth.
Sources close to Lord Stevens’ investigation yesterday suggested that the 18 witnesses may not have been spoken to because their original statements were perfectly adequate and there was no need to interview them again.
http://express.lineone.net/news_detail.html?sku=874
The spin last night on MSNBC's Fucker Carlson show was along the predictable lines that "this Princess Di Thing is all being blown out of proportion" because the "incompetant govt officials" mishandled the situation, and now the "conspiracy theorists" are out of control. Again.
This truly is the problem, you know. Normal, non-conspiratorial things happen every day, but because of the scourge of "govt incompetence" (see: 9/11, Iraq War 2, 7/7 Bombings, Waco, Katrina, et al) , those whacky conspiracy theorists get the wrong idea, and voila, we have a problem manufactured out of thin air (see: 'Manufacturing Out Of Thin Air', Fed, The). There's nothing untoward going on in high places, folks, we just simply have to get better at ignoring these feelings of unease. Conspiracies are not the enemy - the "real killers" are those delusional types who toss away their generationally-entrenched blind faith in higher power (see: God, Govt, TV, etc.) and waste their time trying to research things that everyone of normal mind has already accepted as "shit" that "happens". As Rodney King said: "Can't we all just move along?"*
Please give generously, and with your help and generous donations, the governments of the world can hopefully stamp out Conspiracy Theorism in your lifetime, making the world a more placid, less cynical, unquestionably unquestioned, spent-plutonium sandbox for all of God's chillun. Oh wait... we already do donate generously to that.
(*Obviously, I was kidding about the Rodney King quote. Rodney King's famous quote was: "Ow! Ouch! Hey, stop it! Owwwww!")
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It is Important To Remember...
....that no matter how intimidating someone is. They probably look quite silly eating ramen in their pajamas....
(This is of little consolation to those of you that watched a certain tape....but every little bit helps.)
Posted by Ken at 11:13 PM
Labels: :), Perspective, Talented Peoples Work
Egyptoid said...
It is my birthday, and I have no Ramen.
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On the train to Busan with Cloud9
279dEmily Rand
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Trains get ready to depart Seoul Station in Seoul, South Korea, for the beachside city of Busan and other destinations around the country. Courtesy Greyson "GoldenGlue" Gilmer/Cloud9
Emily RandESPN
SEOUL, South Korea -- A group of weary young men shuffled through Seoul Station early Monday afternoon. They walked up the stairs to the second level of the Korea Train Express terminal in search of sustenance, coffee, caffeine and food. After a hard-fought play-in stage, North America's Cloud9 League of Legends team was headed to the 2018 World Championship group stage in Busan.
They made their way back down to the first floor with about 20 minutes left until their train departure. Their luggage and equipment had been sent ahead of time, with the exception of a few backpacks and Robert "Blaber" Huang's Maryland Terrapins pillow, currently in the possession of Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen. Jensen sniffled a bit, blinking widely behind red-framed glasses. He was still recovering from a cold.
A large LED screen featuring famous South Korean trot singer Hong Jin-young beamed down at them as they reached the entrance to the KTX platform. The number of their 2 p.m. train from Seoul to Busan flashed red, signaling it was time to board.
At previous events, the team had traveled by bus. "Never again," C9's founder and CEO Jack Etienne said. A few of his players had become motion sick on bus rides. Hopefully, the Gyeongbu high-speed railway would serve his charges better, he said as they began to fill up one of the first-class cars.
While the rest of the team was ushered by general manager Gaylen Malone, their coach, Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu, immediately settled in for the two-and-a-half hour ride. Clad in a London Spitfire sweatshirt, he placed his luggage on the rack above, and claimed the single seat at the front of the car. He neatly tucked his electronics in his suit jacket pocket and hung it on a nearby coat hanger.
"This is my seat," he said. "Goodnight."
Later, his soft snoring would become oddly soothing background noise, combined with the whirr of the train engine and occasional clacking of wheels against the tracks. The rest of the team paired off into twos.
At precisely 2 p.m., the KTX 241 train left Seoul Station bound for Busan with nearly an entire business-class car filled with members of C9, potentially bound for their doom: the worlds quarterfinals.
Hour 1: Cheonan-Asan, Osong, Daejeon
The countryside rolls by as North American League of Legends team Cloud9 rides a train from Seoul to Busan for the world championship group stage. Courtesy of Greyson "GoldenGlue" Gilmer/Cloud9
"Oh, I wonder if there will be zombies on this train?"
"I wonder how many times they've heard that? I bet every person who works here is so sick of that joke."
"Good movie though."
Two players in the back of the car were joking about "Train to Busan," a well-known South Korean zombie movie that has become the namesake of this oft-traveled route.
Above the din, someone made a joke that none of the tickets were paid for. Somehow Blaber, rookie jungler and newest member of the squad, was volunteered by team manager Lee "Robin" Seung-hwan to pay for everything, most likely because he piped up first.
"Sure," Blaber said affably. "My card doesn't work but ..."
Finding a global ATM to take a foreign credit card is but one of a myriad of small issues that can crop up as a foreigner traveling in South Korea. Somehow they came up with the money.
G-Rex's Stitch: "I think I am better than Cody Sun."
Cuballende's sacrifice for team inspired Tierwulf and those around him
SuperMassive have a lot to prove for team and country
On the train, bot laner Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi and mid-laner-turned-coach Greyson "GoldenGlue" Gilmer began one of their toughest battles at worlds thus far: a tug-of-war between the plug adapter and the train electrical outlet. The outlet won. A few of the other business-class passengers began to complain about the noise, and Robin stepped in to quiet the team.
Reapered blissfully slept through it all, a truly seasoned business traveler.
When the groups for the world championship play-ins were drawn, C9 was put in a tough position. The team was bound for Group B, home of defending world champions Gen.G (formerly Samsung Galaxy) and 2018 Mid-Season Invitational champion Royal Never Give Up. The third team drawn into the group was Europe's second seed, Vitality.
Based on play-in performances, C9's chances to get out of Group B were perceived as even lower than they were prior to the start of worlds. C9 had two shaky victories against Japan's DetonatioN FocusMe, and their qualifying series against Gambit Esports had gone to five games. Simply put, in the words of top laner Eric "Licorice" Ritchie, "It didn't feel good." Yet others on C9 talked about the entirety of the play-in stage as necessary practice for the rookie players.
"We have three rookies on the team so them getting the stage experience is really helpful," veteran jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen said. "It doesn't matter too much that the first games are shaky as long as we continue to improve throughout worlds."
Cloud9 stands on the main stage in Busan, South Korea, after a train ride from Seoul to Busan, ready to play in the group stage of the League of Legends World Championship. Courtesy of Riot Games
Casting a looming shadow behind the train was the dreaded spectres of RNG and Gen.G. The players were relaxed, chill and happy to sit back and chat about solo queue escapades, play "Magic the Gathering" online once the Wi-Fi network had been discovered -- this, more than the battle of the electrical outlet, had been the most important order of business when the team had boarded the train. Yet, the size of the task in front of them was daunting. Each of the C9 players talked about the strengths of RNG and Gen.G, focusing on RNG's AD carry Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao.
"We're going to have to play some of the strongest teams in the tournament in our group," Goldenglue said. "We did hold back some picks from the play-ins that we've been preparing for our groups. We were able to get out of play-ins without showing those picks so we've been preparing specific strategies since it is a [single-game format] so there's a chance we can take some games off of the big teams and have a chance of making it out."
He paused and then laughed.
"[Single-game format] is definitely preferred. God bless."
Unlikely upsets are the only way C9 would make it out of its group, and the team was under no illusions to the contrary. Every bit of experience, whether it was watching these teams' qualifying runs to the world championship, studying drafts, or even facing them in solo queue, could be seen as valuable if the correct information could be gleaned from it.
"Going up against either [Liu "Mlxg" Shi-Yu] or [Hung "Karsa" Hau-Hsuan], I played solo queue and was up against Karsa four games in a row and he was doing the same thing every single game," Svenskeren said, laughing. "I'm not sure if he was trying to get into my head, but he would do red buff to Level 2 gank mid legit four games in a row so I was like, 'Is he trying to make me think this is what he's going to do onstage or something?' It didn't work out very well but he kept doing it. It's going to be exciting either way."
C9 would also have to sweep Vitality, who the team faced earlier in its bootcamp immediately after Vitality had arrived in South Korea.
"We scrimmed them when they first got here," Licorice said. "[Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro] is an animal. He'll fight you under tower. He's actually crazy -- that's all of their players actually. They try to fight you and that's how they get advantages. It's always fun playing against them so I'm excited for that."
Hour 2: Dongdaegu, Singyeongju, Ulsan
The train to Busan, the actual train, not the zombie movie, is a winding path through mountains and farmland with occasional cities peppered along the way. It's bright, comfortable and relaxing. By the second hour, the members of C9 had settled down and were quietly talking, or perhaps dozing off. Blaber had reclaimed his Maryland pillow, and Sneaky, running a green and white deck had, in the worlds of Goldenglue, been clapped by his opponent in "Magic the Gathering." Assistant Coach Jung "Rapidstar" Min-seong provided translation whenever necessary as the train attendants, dressed in pale seafoam green uniforms, bowed politely every time they exited or entered the train car.
When faced with insurmountable odds, what is a team to do outside of preparation? Is it better to go into each match playing, as the old adage says, with nothing to lose? The answer for C9 seems to be to play more aggressively, much like how the team transformed when Blaber first joined the starting lineup in the middle of NA LCS Summer Split. Unfortunately for C9, the team has had some difficulty finding that aggression.
"I would like to say our aggression," Sneaky said when listing his team's strengths. "But it's been really hard for us to show it as much during this worlds."
Blaber, who is credited for the team's new in-your-face style, was also realistic.
"This is the first time that I'm going into a tournament where I think my opponent might actually be better than me," Blaber admitted. "Even when we played against Team Liquid in the finals we had 2-0'd them in the regular split. When I first came to LCS I had never played these teams before and I didn't think about that the first time against them. Hopefully I'll still be able to keep my aggression."
Epilogue: Busan
As the train screeched to a slow stop coming into Busan Station, Reapered sat up and yawned. If he hadn't slept for the entirety of the train ride, he was a good actor. C9 shuffled as a group, continuing to chatter amongst themselves, as Robin ushered them into the salty ocean breeze, packing them into taxis four at a time, with instructions in rapid-fire Korean to take the team to Haeundae Beach.
On Wednesday at 5 p.m. local time, the worlds group stage began at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO). A few hours later, C9 was obliterated by RNG in what must have appeared to starting jungler Svenskeren and Blaber watching from the sidelines as a rerun of one of their solo queue games on the South Korean ladder.
"I think Karsa is going to do the same thing [as Mlxg], regardless of who plays," Blaber said, laughing a bit. "I played against Karsa too and he did red to dive my bot lane into dive my bot lane, into dive my bot lane again. I was up in farm by like 30 but he was 4-0 so, I don't know what to think of that."
Interestingly enough, it was also Blaber's words from the train trip that predicted one of the more unlikely Day 1 outcomes: Vitality's upset victory over reigning world champions Gen.G.
"I feel like Vitality might have some chance to upset either of the two teams and us for sure," Blaber said. "They didn't seem that strong when we played against them but I do think that if we want to get out of groups we need to get all the wins we can against Vitality but I think they have a chance to upset the better teams, too."
The Vitality that C9 met on Day 2 was not the Vitality of scrims. Vitality saved initiations for key teamfights, taking advantage of C9's vision gaps. It was still a kill-heavy game with flashy performances from Jiizuke's Leblanc and bot laner Amadeu "Attila" Carvalho. The game was all but lost until C9 turned it around through teamfighting. Still lacking was the early aggression that C9 had hoped for, but it was a start. After an exhausting 40-minute contest, C9 finished the first two days 1-1.
If worlds was a horror movie, perhaps C9 would struggle through groups but, in the final few moments, miraculously manage to survive against all odds. This isn't a movie, and there are no zombies. But the odds are still equally stacked against them.
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« Trump's Supreme Court Pick Has Opined on Student Discipline, School Police | Main | Health Groups to Trump: Vaccines Are Safe »
Newtown Debates Letter Asking Trump to Denounce Sandy Hook 'Truthers'
By Evie Blad on February 3, 2017 1:11 PM | No comments
The Newtown, Conn., school board wants President Donald Trump to denounce Sandy Hook "truthers"—people who claim the 2012 mass shootings at the town's elementary school were an elaborate hoax.
The board this week authorized its chair to sign a letter to the president, calling on Trump to speak out against people who perpetuate the conspiracy theory that the shootings, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, were staged to drum up public support for stricter gun laws, the Newtown Bee reports. Other Newtown city boards are also considering whether to sign and send the letter.
The letter, which was drafted by Democratic Town Committee Chair Eric Paradis, singles out Infowars personality and controversial radio host Alex Jones, who has supported Trump and who popularized the hoax theory, the Bee reports. Trump praised Jones during the 2016 campaign. The White House has denied rumors that it offered a spot in its daily media briefings to Infowars.
Sandy Hook truthers have tormented families of the shooting victims. One was arrested in 2016 for a death threat against a victim's relative.
Erica Lafferty, whose mother died in the shootings, previously called on Trump to denounce Jones in a November letter published in USA Today:
"Even after an election that exposed deep divisions in our country, surely we can all agree on this: The mass shooting at Sandy Hook happened. Twenty-six families, including mine, were torn apart and will never be the same. Any preposterous ideas to the contrary cannot be allowed to seep into our country's mainstream discourse. They must be swiftly and publicly refuted.
Surely, the newly elected leader of the free world can see that."
Not everyone in Newtown, which has notably shied away from the media spotlight since the shootings, supports the letter. At public meetings of other Newtown town boards, some residents, including the relative of a Sandy Hook shooting victim, said they feared it would be unproductive or stir up backlash and "give oxygen to something that doesn't deserve it," the Bee reports. Some town officials have been hesitant to sign onto the letter, the paper reports.
Newtown finance board Vice Chairman James Gaston, spoke in support of signing and sending the letter.
"Families have been threatened and sometimes you have to speak up as someone who had conspiracy theorists supporting him," Gaston said in a town meeting, according to the Bee. "We're asking [Trump] to recognize that 26 were killed—denounce all who spread lie —and to not support those who are promoting something hurtful and untrue. We're not asking to pass a law, we're asking for support. We received support from President Obama, now we're asking for support from President Trump."
Photo: White roses with the faces of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are attached to a telephone pole in January 2013, on the one-month anniversary of the shooting that left 26 dead in Newtown, Conn. --Jessica Hill/AP-File
Related reading on the Newtown shootings:
Sandy Hook Panel: Schools Must Address Mental Health, Social, Emotional Issues
School Shootings: Sandy Hook Promise Ad Shares Warning Signs for Gun Violence
Sandy Hook Shooter's Needs Went Unmet by Schools and Parents, Report Concludes
Senator Ends 15-Hour Push for Tighter Gun Laws With Story of Newtown Teacher
Three Years After Newtown, Schools Broaden Their Definition of Safety
A Year Later, Newtown Tragedy Yields Little Policy Change
Sandy Hook: Words and Actions
School-Violence Tip Lines Get a Second Look After Sandy Hook
Use of School Shooter Drills Has Increased Significantly Since Newtown Shootings
Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.
Education Politics
School Violence, School Shootings
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UFC's Patrick Walsh: Waiting for the Opportunity to Fight in Boston
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Zach Aittama
K-1 Announces Full Fight Card For 2018 Featherweight Championship Tournament
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Events, Results, Videos
Titan FC 34: Healy vs. Edwards Weigh-in Results and Photo Gallery
News, Photos
Boxing Hipster Podcast Episode 17: Valdez Wins Thriller, Porter Stops Berto
Pang (top) (Cheryl Tay/ONE FC)
ONE FC’s Adrian Pang: Friendships and Fighting
It was Oct. 30, 2011. Inside the City of Dreams Grand Hyatt Ballroom in Macau, a bond was forming. Within the confines of the roped ring, Adrian Pang and Jadamba Narantungalag were about to embark on what both men would later call the toughest fight of their respective careers.
Neither man gave up an inch throughout the entertaining bout. Scrambles, exchanges and attempted submissions kept the crowd on the edge of their seats as both men spilled blood on that warm October night. It wasn’t until round three, when Narantungalag landed punch after punch after punch on a forward-marching Pang, that these men would realize exactly what they had signed up for. In the end, a title changed hands and a mutual respect was born.
Only one man could win the fight, but both were rewarded with a friendship. It would become a bond between two warriors, and it’s a bond that will never be broken. A little over three years later, the two would meet again. However, this time, no blood would be spilled.
Pang (R) (Cheryl Tay/ONE FC)
“Jadamba was there [in Beijing], and he came up to me in the locker room after the fight,” Pang recalled to Combat Press. “We got a photo together, and he had this massive bodyguard with him and they were all wearing suits and stuff. The bodyguard was like, ‘Jadamba tell you he come from Mongolia just to watch you fight.’ I said thank you and said how good Jadamba was, then he said, ‘Jadamba want you to be ONE FC lightweight champion,’ and I was kinda like, ‘Yeah, thanks mate’ [laughs].
“He’s awesome, though. I’ve never really formed a friendship with anybody that I’ve fought and lost to, but him and I have a mutual respect. He said I was the toughest fight he’s ever had, and he was mine too — that’s what made me go and do strength training. After I recovered from the fight, I knew I had to do something. It was like trying to hold down a baby bull; I couldn’t keep him down. Even [Yui Chul] Nam wasn’t that strong, and he was like 10 times bigger. Seeing Jadamba there was a nice little highlight. It’s nice to get that respect from him.”
After almost 18 months out of action, Pang made his return to the cage on Dec. 19, 2014. He faced Vincent Latoel at ONE FC 24: Dynasty of Warriors. The fight marked the first time Pang had fought internationally since losing his Legend FC lightweight title to Narantungalag. While he won his much-anticipated ONE FC debut bout, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the 37-year-old.
“I’m not waiting another 18 months, man. That was a killer,” Pang confessed. “That weight cut killed me. I made 70.8 [kilos] with my usual struggle — that’s the usual allowance, 70.3 with a 500-gram allowance — but in ONE FC there’s no allowance at all. I think I had four goes at it. In the end, I made it and I just looked massive [laughs], I’m definitely gonna be leaner next time I cut that weight. I felt a bit tired, but after 18 months off, I fuckin went all right [laughs].”
Throughout the ONE FC broadcast, commentators Josh Thomson and Steve Dawson alluded to the fact that Pang had struggled to make weight for his bout. Pang, a veteran of 31 fights, has always been proud of his gas tank when it came time to enter battle, but this time around it was a little different.
“It’d been 18 months and I was just empty,” Pang admitted. “I made the weight in the end, but it was just hard. It took me an extra couple of hours and took so much out of me. I’ve never been so big, though. I was 79.6 [kilos] before I went to bed that night, and I only ate once. I’ve never been that big, ever. When I was fighting [Bernardo] Trekko and guys like that, and when I fought Jadamba, I was 75 kilos. We worked out that for three years after I fought Jadamba just before my injury and doing a proper weight program, I’ve put on one kilo a year of proper muscle. I’m lean as hell now. There’s no fat to come off me.”
As Pang pushed forward throughout the entertaining bout with Latoel, his body felt completely different to what it had in any fight before. As he reared back and landed one of his notorious right hands in the second round to send Latoel to the mat, he tried his hardest to finish the deed in front of him. However, he couldn’t quite get over the line.
“I felt like I was a hundred kilos,” Pang recalled. “I couldn’t smash his head in. I jumped on him and I cracked him, but I can’t remember if I tried to soccer kick him or I missed. I remember going for that guillotine and thinking, ‘I don’t have it.’ And I swept him into the anaconda d’arce choke, but my hands couldn’t even grip my bicep properly.
Adrian Pang (L) (Cheryl Tay/ONE FC)
“It was a cracker of a fight, and Vincent, he was hungry. He was just coming off that loss to Caros Fodor and he was hungry to win. I think they were a bit concerned about my size, even though he was heaps taller than me. He just seemed to really want that win. I could see it in his eyes. He thought he was gonna win that fight, but I was never gonna let him have it.”
On the back of his successful ONE FC debut, the question has been raised: What is next for the veteran Australian lightweight? A fight that has been suggested by many, including Combat Press, is a showdown with Koji Ando, who is also a former Legend FC lightweight champion.
“I think Koji has done enough to earn himself a shot at the title,” Pang said. “I’d like to have another fight before I get thrown up there again. With the layoff — even though I won every round, I out-struck him and took him down and whatever — I felt that it wasn’t my best. I don’t feel good yet. In my career, I’ve never gassed. That’s my enemy. My mortal enemy. I don’t really care who they put me in with, I’ll be ready no matter what.”
Adrian would like to thank Fairtex, Australian Sports Nutrition and Instinct Sports Nutrition. He would also like to thank everybody at Integrated MMA. Follow Pang on Twitter: @adrianpangmma
Adrian PangAustraliaJadamba NarantungalagONE FCVincent Latoel
RFA 22’s Mark Dickman: Embracing the Holiday Grind
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones Tests Positive for Cocaine, Enters Rehab
Located in New South Wales, Australia Neil Rooke has been writing about the sport of MMA since 2011. In the past, Neil has written for Cage Junkies and The MMA Corner. Neil is also a regular contributor to Fight! Magazine Australia and Yahoo! Sports Singapore and his work has also appeared on news.com.au.
Combat Press Men’s MMA Rankings: April 13, 2015
Jacob Mahony Defends Bantamweight Title Against Reece McLaren at XFC 23
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Professor Shittu Wins ECOWAS Grant
Professor Adebayo Shittu of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, College of Agricultural Management and Rural Development (COLAMRUD) of the University, has won an international grant to the tune of Euros 118,956 from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Professor Shittu stated that a proposal titled, “Incentivising Adoption of Climatic Smart Practices in Cereals Production in Nigeria: Sociocultural and Economic Diagnosis”, was prepared by his team to apply for the funding in collaboration with the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Badeggi, Niger State, following the Call for Proposal on “Innovative Projects for Food and Nutrition Security in West Africa”, courtesy of the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF), Support Programme for Food and Nutrition Security in West Africa (PASANAO), with the funding assistance from the French Development Agency (AFD).
Professor Shittu noted that the nation-wide study sought to evaluate the socio-economic impacts of adopting Climate Smart Practices (CSPs), in maize and rice production, adding that it was also to Identify appropriate mechanisms by which wide-spread adoption of CSPs might be incentivised to stop or reverse land degradation, evaluate the restoration of ecosystem health, enhance livelihood outcomes and build resilience to climate change using the examples of rice and maize farmers in Nigeria, while the duration of the project is one year, which ends in October 2017.
The Professor Agricultural and Resource Economics further stated that members of his research team comprise Professor Oluwakemi Fapojuwo, Department of Agricultural Administration; Dr. Bolarinwa Senjobi, Department of Soil Science and Land Management; Dr. Thomas Fabunmi, Department of Plant Physiology and Crop Production; Dr. Dare Akerele, Department of Agricultural Extension and Farm Management; and Dr. Rahman Sanusi, also from AEFM. Others are Dr. Abiodun Obayelu and Dr. Elizabeth Oluwalana, from the Agricultural Media Resources and Extension Centre (AMREC), while the collaborating scientists from NCRI include Dr. Saliu Tiamiyu; Miss Uduma Ugalahi; and Mr. Jude Eze.
tags: Agricultural Media Resources and Extension Centre, AMREC, Climate Smart Practices, COLAMRUD, College of Agricultural Management and Rural Development, CSP, Department of Agricultural Administration, Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Department of Agricultural Extension and Farm Management, Department of Plant Physiology and Crop Production, Department of Soil Science and Land Management, Dr. Abiodun Obayelu, Dr. Bolarinwa Senjobi, Dr. Dare Akerele, Dr. Elizabeth Oluwalana, Dr. Rahman Sanusi, Dr. Saliu Tiamiyu, Dr. Thomas Fabunmi, Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, French Development Agency, Miss Uduma Ugalahi, Mr. Jude Eze, NCRI, PASANAO, Professor Oluwakemi Fapojuwo, Professor Shittu, Support Programme for Food and Nutrition Security in West Africa
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There Are No Wasted Auditions (Part 2)
Sometimes big disappointments prepare you for bigger opportunities.
How can you protect your kids from having their self-esteem crushed but also prepare them for real life? How do you teach them to work hard, chase their dreams, and take leaps of faith, and at the same time explain to them that working hard doesn’t always pay off, that dreams are sometimes just fantasies, and that the net doesn’t always catch you when you jump?
How do you prepare them to plow forward, when you struggle with this paradox in your own life?
We faced this dilemma when our son poured his heart and soul into getting a role for a play, Pippin, and his younger brother who didn’t work as hard—and isn’t passionate about acting—got the part instead. (Click here to read last week’s post)
We’d been afraid that this might hurt their relationship, but Orly showed incredible grace and maturity when he was able to separate being happy for his brother from being sad for himself.
Orly continued acting and auditioned for a role in Winnie the Pooh at another local children’s theatre, landing the character, “Peter The Rabbit.”
Winnie The Pooh’s opening night coincided with Orly’s birthday. He received a gift like no other, when four 21-year-olds from the Pippin cast, showed up to watch Orly perform. We’d gotten to know these students from the UM Theatre School since we spent a lot of time waiting around for Justin during rehearsals. I’m sure they had much better things to do on a Friday night than attend a kids’ show, but theater people are special.
This goes to show that you can build relationships even when you’re on the side-lines. You never know what those relationships will mean in your life. We’d connected with these young adults in a magical way—and we knew someway, somehow, we’d meet again.
Our son’s wounds scabbed, and our family bond grew stronger. It was a time of learning and healing.
One Saturday morning, Orlando sat in the terrace browsing through his phone as he enjoyed his morning coffee and weekend mini-cigar. I swung in my hanging chair, writing on my laptop.
“Check this out, Caro.” He interrupted me. He’d seen a cool event happening in New York that the kids would love, and immediately looked up flights.
“Tickets to New York are super cheap.” He also found discounted prices and availability in a great hotel in the heart of Midtown.
It was a great deal. “Let’s do it, babe.” I agreed.
“You know what would make this trip perfect?”
Uh oh, I thought, knowing my husband.
“If we took the kids to see Hamilton.”
“Are you nuts?” I yelled. “Hamilton tickets are way too expensive. Forget it.”
“But we’ve saved so much money on everything else,” Orlando pleaded. “Experiences like this one is what we work so hard for. Our sons love Hamilton right now. We don’t know how long that’ll last. Besides, I’d love to do something special for them after the whole Pippin thing. Let’s make this an amazing experience. It’ll be our Christmas present to our family. ”
This conversation pretty much sums up our marriage:
I’m conservative and calculated.
He’s impulsive and spontaneous.
I think about it.
He acts on it.
We find a way to meet in the middle.
After an hour debating the pros and cons, I begrudgingly agreed to buy the Hamilton tickets.
Goodbye cheap trip to NYC.
Nonetheless, we couldn’t wait to surprise our kids on Christmas.
But on December 14th, an email arrived that would change everything:
I was given your contact information from the director of Pippin…
We are doing a developmental reading of a new musical called Devotion…
There is a part in the musical for a 10-year-old boy…
The workshop/reading will take place from January 20th through January 25th…
If you’re interested in your son being considered…
There is nothing better than kids who trust their parents. I adamantly dislike pre-teen shows and kid super hero movies that make the parents look like morons. I’ve never understood why these companies would program children to distrust their parents. That programming encourages children to turn to their peers and social media for guidance when they need it, and that can steer young people in the wrong direction.
We strive to avoid this. We’re honest and open with our kids when they ask us questions (regardless of how uncomfortable the answers are), we follow through on our word, and we don’t make promises we can’t keep. It’s why I was nervous when my husband promised my son that the director would call him one day for another role. But Orlando was confident. “The director said she looked forward to working with Orly in the future. Something has to come up one day where she recommends him for a role.”
He was right.
He called the director who emailed us. “Thank you for your email. Orly would love to be considered for this role. Please let us know when the audition is,” Orlando said.
“Oh, there isn’t an audition.” The director replied. “If Pippin’s director thinks he’s perfect for this role, that’s all we need to know.”
“Wow, okay.” Orlando replied surprised. “What’s the play about?”
“It’s actually a workshop/reading. We’ve received a grant to feature our theater students in a new musical, Devotion, by musical composer and lyricist, Mark Sonnenblick and Broadway director, Maggie Burrows. The play has one child role.”
We couldn’t wait to share this news with our son. As soon as we got home, we sat Orly down on the sofa. His brothers gathered around being nosy.
“Orly, you remember how sad you were that you didn’t get the part of Pippin?” His dad asked.
“Of course I do.” Orly smirked.
“Well, guess what? We just received an email from UM. They’re bringing in a composer and director from New York to do a workshop of a new musical. They need a 10-year-old boy for one of the roles. Would you like to audition?”
“Yea, sure.” Orly said but his half-hearted response showed he wasn’t confident about getting the part.
“Well, you can’t audition.”
“Why not?” His face turned serious.
“Because you already got the role!”
“What?”Orly’s eyes lit up.
“Remember when we told you there are no wasted auditions? Well, it turns out your Pippin audition was really an audition for Devotion. They saw your talent and your behavior, and now they don’t need to look for someone else to fill that role. They want you.”
Orly jumped off the couch and ran around the house. Justin ran behind him, hugging him and screaming. “Dad, you promised she’d remember me, and she did! I can’t believe it.” Orly hugged his dad.
It was a golden moment in parenting world. A moment that we hoped would yield our kids’ trust in the future.But it was also a life lesson for all of us.
We audition for roles, interview for jobs, submit articles for publications, and invest our resources hoping for that opportunity which is right in front of us. It’s devastating to be rejected. It feels like we’re not good enough or smart enough or connected enough. But the work is never wasted. The investment of time, energy, and honing your skills is not lost—unless you quit.
If you stay on course, other opportunities will appear. All that work and effort will suddenly be worth it. You’ll realize you’d been in training for something bigger; you just didn’t know it at the time.
For a moment, everything was right in our world.
And then, I opened my calendar to pencil in the dates of the workshop.
“Orlando, can I talk to you for a minute in private?” We walked into our bedroom and closed the door.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“The reading is on January 25th. Our flight to New York leaves on the 24th and it’s non-refundable. What do we do now?”
God sure has a sense of humor.
Do we lose thousands of dollars and cancel the surprise trip we planned for our children with so much love? Or do we decline the opportunity our son was given in furtherance of his dream of becoming an actor?
Stay tuned for the final post on this story next week, and find out how we handled this conflict.
building relationshipsdelayed gratificationinspirationlessons learnedparentingpromisessuccess skills
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Home / Month: March 2018
How Is a Ritual Like a Dutch Bike?
9 March 2018 Ron Grimes
bicyclingritual, festivaltheorythings, objects
When I first began teaching in the Netherlands, I marveled at the herds of Dutch bikes that swarmed the streets. Exiting Velorama, Nijmegen’s tightly packed little bike museum, I jokingly said to a colleague, “The Dutch imagination is profoundly ‘bicyciular.’” Each time I was back in Nijmegen, I had to walk past a bike shop. I would stop and press my nose to the window. Shouldn’t a man, now ensconced upon a Dutch chair of ritual studies, ride a fine Dutch bike? The high prices of those hardy, brilliantly engineered machines only intensified my lust. Dutch bikes are sexy, but not in the cheesy way that Harley Davidson motorcycles are made to appear sexy by draping a babe across the rear fender. Until recently, no one in North America thought Dutch bikes were sexy. They are so heavy. Their rear ends (their booties) are too big and their tires, skinny. Their chains are not tantalizingly exposed to public view. And you perch on the saddle, upright, exposing little that is interesting from behind.
I was proud to be magnificently alone in my appreciation of the beauty of Dutch bikes. As far as I knew, no one else in Canada or the U.S. was lusting after them. Then suddenly everything changed. Dutch bikes have now become a fashion accessory for American males. The phrase “Dutch-inspired”[1] i s selling not only bikes in Seattle, Brooklyn, and Toronto but men’s clothing in New York.[2] So now I am a little embarrassed to be casting such a fashionable item as the privileged symbol for this article. I’ve begun to worry that, should I ever own a good Dutch bike, I might have to adopt a classier dress code.
I could argue that a rite is a structure, placing myself in the august company of Claude Levi-Strauss. Or I could claim that it is dynamic, casting myself as a fellow traveler of Heidelberg’s Dynamics of Ritual project.[3] But probably because I was teaching ritual studies in the Flat Land of the Bike, an odd sentence lodged like a thorn in my brain: “A rite is like a good Dutch bike: If it is broken, it’s worth fixing.” The sentence may seem flippant, but it would not go away.
I made the mistake of telling some doctoral students about my not-so-secret desire for a fine Dutch bike. Later they invited me on a country ride and loaned me a “true” (not a “fine”) Dutch bike: only one gear, a fender needing to be wired on, and its paint fading. The experience tempted me to modify the sentence in my head, “A rite is like a ‘true’ Dutch bike, so it probably needs fixing.”
Before I begin the Quixotic task of comparing rites with bikes, some context: I have spent much time and energy working to demonstrate that ritual activities can be both creative and critical, and therefore, that theorizing about them should be as well. Creativity and criticism are two sides of the same coin. If ritual creativity is weak, ritual criticism will be too. If ritual criticism is muted, ritual creativity will suffer. I’ve also argued that rites are practical; they do important cultural, physical, moral, and intellectual work. Rituals should be as shapely as a good Dutch bike and as useful as a monkey wrench in the hands of a plumber.
When I first began studying ritual, I asked how ritual practices shape, or fail to shape, people’s attitudes, values, and decisions. I wanted to know how ritually enhanced images and practices shaped their views of the world. Currently, however, I have taken one step back and am asking theoretical and methodological questions: How do scholarly practices—applying for grants, conducting research, applying theories, and writing books—generate the scholarly world we call “ritual studies?” Where do theories of ritual come from? What do they really accomplish, or fail to accomplish?
Barry Stephenson and I built Ritual Studies Dot Com, a Web site for international, interdisciplinary discussion.[4] We had to choose an image for the home page and could have taken the easy way by merely putting up a picture of a ritual, but we decided to be suggestive rather than literal. We used two images—both a bit of a tease. One suggested that ritual is processual, flowing. However, this image was of Laurel Creek in winter, so the water was frozen.[5] It leaves viewers with a question: Is ritual flowing or fixed?
The second one playfully and critically asks viewers: If you think ritual is a structure, how about this kind? The photo showes the rear end of a Chinese restaurant, one that has, over the years, been patched in mismatched ways. Each image says something about how scholars might conceive ritual. There are other, contending models. The images are invitations to a friendly argument, a debate.
When I first began work on The Craft of Ritual Studies,[6] I thought of ritual-using and theory-using as two distinctly different activities. Later, I changed my mind, having found that scholars, like ritualists, inescapably wield metaphors, analogies, and images. I began to see that figures of speech and visual images are as essential to theory-making as they are to ritual-making. The theorist’s question isn’t only, “What convincing words can we use to describe ritual?” but also, “How should we imagine ritual?”
Theory-construction isn’t only about crafting words into credible statements, but also about images, visual as well as verbal. Even in the sciences, not to mention the social sciences and humanities, images and diagrams buttress verbal theory-construction. Theorizing, then, is an audio-visual production; we not only speak and write theories, we also visualize them. So I began hunting for the images that now litter this article.
I began plowing through theoretical writings, trying to understand not only the terms and concepts but the images that lie beneath them.
For instance, if we are going to speak of a ritual as a structure, what kind? What does it look like?
A set of interlocking stones?
A hierarchically arranged pyramid?
If a ritual is a system, is it like
a subway system?
a nervous system?
a solar system?
If a ritual is a dynamic process, how does it work? What does it look like?
A circular set of feedback loops?
A river’s course?
The aerodynamics of a speeding automobile?
If a ritual is deep or layered, how many layers are there,
and what are their names?
How does one know which layers are superficial and which ones, deep?
If a ritual exercises power,
what kind of power?
where and how is it generated?
how is it transferred, through what kinds of lines?
If ritual is embodied power,
in whom is it embodied?
how is it embodied?
in muscles? in minds? in hearts?
If a ritual has dimensions, what are they?
Which ones matter most?
Which ratios between dimensions are the most determinative of ritual efficacy?
If ritual is a language constructed of symbols,
and they mean things in the ways that words mean them,
what “language” does ritual speak?
Who can “speak ritual” and who cannot?
If ritual is constructed of elements how many are there and what are their names?
If ritual has building blocks, what are their shapes, and of what are they made?
If riiuals have a backstage area and a front of house, how do we know when we’ve entered the one zone and exited the other? Where’s the curtain?
If a rite of passage transports a person across a threshold ,
how shall we envision such betwixt and between zones.
To what extent are they actually spatial?
You could object that no one takes such terms literally, that in scholarly discourse these are abstractions not figures of speech. However, all analogies are meant to “hold,” that is, be literal in some ways but not in others. My attempt to visualize or literalize a metaphor, is a way of learning more about how it works in a theory. Images do matter, because they shape and reflect attitudes, so the more explicit we become about them, the more effective we can be in both constructing and criticizing theories of ritual. It is fair to ask of any theoretically deployed image, analogy, or metaphor: In what respects does it hold, and in what respects does it not?
I began digging metaphors, images, and analogies out of abstract theoretical prose, because, in reading scholarly works on ritual, I was too often uncertain when, or even whether, I was reading theory. In ritual studies rarely does anyone say, “I am now writing a theory, and here it is.” So readers are left to ferret out the theory, and, worse, to guess at the methods implied by that theory. How does one distinguish between an ethnographic description of a single ritual performance and a generalized description of a ritual, or between a formal definition and a generalizing statement? I discovered that others, graduate students and professors alike, were often having the same difficulty knowing which parts of a book are theoretical. Eventually, I drafted a guide for reading articles theoretically and methodologically. Even though it is only a question set, it implies a tight connection between theorizing, imagining, and writing.
Before I return to evangelizing in favor of Dutch bikes, we should make an elementary distinction between analogy and metaphor. For a dad to boast about his son, “Paul is like a lion,” is an analogy, a mere comparison, but when Paul’s classmate Heather screams, “Paul, you are a stupid skunk,” that is a metaphor, although not a very strong one, because we know Paul is not really a skunk but a mere boy who has been teasing Heather. She probably means either, “I don’t like you, Paul” or more maybe, “You smell bad, like a skunk.” Weak metaphors are easily reducible to analogies, and analogies are easily explained as comparisons that hinge on one or two similarities.
A metaphor is a stronger kind of symbol, because it equates the “vehicle” (the symbol that points) with its “tenor” (that to which it points). A metaphor is also more complex, not merely x = y, but also x ≠ y. A metaphor simultaneously and paradoxically posits both identity and dis-identity.
The most rooted, or radical, metaphors are those that resist translation or reduction. If a ceremonially authorized person dresses up in robes and hands you a piece of bread while saying, “This is my body,” that is radically metaphoric, especially if you’re a Catholic, because the priest is declaring both: “This is bread; this is not bread.”
We can lose sight of metaphors, and they can become weak. “Head of the table” and “foot of the table” are rarely recognized as metaphors until someone comments on them or shows us an image that reactivates them. Where is the “head of a table?” Where is the “foot” of a table. Not usually on the “leg” of a table.
However, if your society expects you sit at the foot of the table, and lower body parts are associated with the sinister left hand, you are in a metaphorically reinforced position of subservience. The metaphor has force.
In Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, two American philosophers, show how entire worldviews and value systems are encoded in the adjectives “right” and “left” or innocent prepositions such as “up” or “down.”[7] Determinative metaphors are not mere cute turns of phrase or single images. Rather, they form clusters, systems, or webs, and they do so not only in ordinary social life but also in the rarified atmosphere of ritual theory. Because invisible metaphors embedded in theories can be even more determinative than visible ones, it is important to locate and reflect on them.
One of the most pernicious and widespread metaphors in ritual theory is that of “structure.” Jan Snoek says, “most ritual behavior is more formally stylized, structured, and standardized than most common behavior.”[8] Eugene d’Aquili defines ritual behavior as “a subset of formalized behavior that involves two or more individuals in active and reciprocal communication and that is structured….”[9] Catherine Bell treats ritualization less as a noun than as a verb. Even so, for her, ritual is “the strategic production of expedient schemes that structure an environment….”[10]
“Structure,” whether used as a verb or noun, may not sound to your ear like a metaphor, but it is. Even though none of these theorists would actually claim that ritual is unchanging, the architectural metaphor, “structure,” connotes something solid, reinforcing the widespread assumption that rituals are comparatively stable, that they don’t change, or change very little.
Since the mid-1960s, to counteract static theories rooted in static metaphors like “structure,” we have learned to speak of ritual as “dynamic.” Now rituals compete with racy sports cars and motivational public speakers. Ritual is no longer stodgy and unchanging but dynamic (it changes) and transformative (it changes things). But this idea too rides the back of a metaphor, since, literally speaking, the term “dynamics” refers to that branch of mechanics which studies motion and equilibrium. In speaking of ritual as “dynamic,” we are transposing the notion of driving forces from physics and hydraulics to psychology and politics, where the sources of action are really motivations rather than physical causes. In other words, if the notion of “ritual dynamics” leads us to imagine rites as causes or effects rather than as motivated actions, we have been seduced by the hidden metaphor.
A variant of dynamics is hydraulics, the branch of science that studies liquids in motion. Sigmund Freud made extensive use of hydraulic metaphors. Libido was liquid-like energy welling up from the unconscious, exerting upward “pressure,” like water heated in a boiler system. For Freud, catharsis was a kind of “emptying,” and cathexis, a kind of “filling.” Sublimation amounted to “channeling.”
Hydraulic metaphors helped 19th century thinkers get beyond the notion of information as discreet units. These metaphors enabled people to embrace the idea of continuous flow. But the metaphors carried other implications, and they were often unrecognized. For instance, communication came to be imagined as flowing through “lines,” and those “pipelines” could get “clogged.” Consequently, neurotics required therapists for the same reason that toilets require plumbers, to help clean out the grunge.
To nuance and complicate the hydraulic model by imagining “multi-channels,” does not get beyond the root hydraulic metaphor of a liquid flowing through a pipe or through several discreet channels. We bump up against the limits of the metaphor when try to imagine multiple voices “flowing” through a single telephone wire.
There are plenty of other concepts that are used like abstractions but which hide analogies or metaphors that can lead their users into absorbing attitudes conditioned by the images that lie beneath. Think, for instance, about Emile Durkheim’s notion of ritual “solidarity.” Don’t just think it, try to feel it, sense it. What does the idea or feeling of solidarity do for your understanding of ritual? In my imagination ritual solidarity is hardwood, oak, safe and supportive. Or consider Durkheim’s claim that rituals are characterized by “collective effervescence.” The images makes you want to rise up, like bubbles in a drink. I can’t contemplate the image-idea of collective effervescence for long without feeling Jamaican ginger beer bubbling up in my throat.
I am not trying to convince you that you should buy into my preferred metaphors instead of someone else’s, just to recognize that theorizing is not only about cobbling together verbal abstractions.Theorizing is also a way of imagining, consequently different from, but similar to, imagining in the arts.
Theorizing is not only imaginative, it is also strategic, thus similar to advertising. To theorize is to make a pitch, mount an argument for choosing this over that. The choice of key metaphors is not merely arbitrary, nor is it innocently aesthetic, a matter of turning phrases or deploying attractive images. It is culturally and historically conditioned, and it expresses strongly, if not sacredly, held values. Theorizing, however much it appears to mask or play down passion, is passionate to the point of being evangelical. Most of the theorists I know, regardless of how they write, will fight to defend their theories. So do not be fooled by the desiccated prose that too many theorists proffer.
By now, you are probably wondering what happened to that promised Dutch bike (the “fine,” idealized one, or the “true” one owned by a doctoral student’s boyfriend). I have latched onto the analogy, “A rite is like a bike” partly because no one is fooled by it. It is a mere analogy, not an invisible, determinative metaphor. It has no pretentions to power. Thinking of a rite as bike-like is modest—not very sexy—because everyone knows a rite is not a bike. You immediately understand that you could select other analogous objects: airplanes, computers, dresses, saxophones, or Chinese bikes. No one thinks a bike is a rite in the same way people do when they talk about rites as structures or rites as dynamic.
A rite as bike-like seems far-fetched, but I could make the connection more obvious by selecting certain kinds of bikes, this one, for instance, which tows a coffin on wheels.[11] A bike used as a ritual tool makes the bike-rite connection clear. Once you see the photo, the link is obvious.
It’s worth playing out some of the possible answers to the question, How is a rite like a Dutch bike? One answer is: For both a rite and bike, you can produce a parts list, and parts lists are handy. Try putting on a wedding or funeral without a list, and you are courting disaster. Try shooting a rite with no idea of its components and you’ll leave something out.
A rite is like a bike insofar as the whole can be factored into parts or the parts cobbled together into a whole. I call these “elements,” because they are primary, but you could call them something else, micro-structures, or more plainly, “the nuts and bolts of ritual.” Thinking this way has a certain plumber-like utility to it, but we shouldn’t let the analogy fool us. Adding elements—ritual objects to ritual spaces to ritual actors—doesn’t produce a ritual any more than a bucket of nuts, bolts, sprockets, and spokes equals a bicycle.
Unless you repair your own bike or you are a bike mechanic, you would not know how to assemble a bike out of a bunch of parts. An exploded diagram would get you one step closer, because it helps you conceive the spatial relations properly. Let’s say that you do, in fact, succeed in assembling a bike out of a bucketful of parts, there are at least two other problems: You must learn how to balance a bike, that is, to ride it, and you must know the rules of the road and understand biking culture. If don’t, getting “doored” is a distinct possibility.
So there is more to a bike (not to mention, a ritual) than just a bunch of static parts. Bikes and rites have a statics, evident in frame ratios, tubing, and joints, but also a dynamics. Riders need to know not only what the components are but also how they go together; how they work; how to use a bike physically; and how to use it socially and legally. In other words, to theorize them properly, we must put action into the picture, and then frame the picture in a cultural context.
So, a rite is bike-like insofar as it has “parts,” but how far can we go with the analogy? Imagine playing a game in which the winning side is the one that comes up with the most ways in which a rite is like a bike:
A rite is a like a bike; each can be schematized as a parts list or exploded diagram.
A rite is a like a bike; each can be fixed if broken. (Some would contest this claim.)
A rite is a like a bike; each will transport you from here to there.
A rite is like a bike; it can carry a heavy load.
Mechanical metaphors are useful insofar as they capture the material, tool-like aspects of ritual and because they help us grasp part-whole relations. However, because we are critically minded scholars, we’d should play the opposite game by running out the counterargument:
A rite is not like a bike; a rite disappears immediately after it is performed.
A rite is not like a bike; a rite cannot be invented or tossed in the junk yard.
A rite is not like a “true” Dutch bike; rites are always well oiled. (Is this true?)
A rite is not like a bike; rites don’t rust.
You get the general point, I hope: Not only that critical thought can be playlike, and that play is a form critical thinking but that metaphors and analogies have consequences and limits; we can only “ride” them so far.
Then what? We get off and proceed without benefit of analogy and metaphor? I think not. I doubt that is even possible. Then, we shift to another metaphor in the way scientists have to shift between particle theory and wave theory. The mechanical analogy of the bike can help us understand part/whole relations, movement through space, and some of the material aspects of ritual, but it does not, for instance, help us much with progression through time.
A rite unfolds through time. Noting this fact, some opt for a narrative metaphor: A ritual is, or is like, a story; it has a beginning, middle, and end. This is a popular idea because it makes ritual seem synchronous with myth or biography, two kinds of narrative. Fine, then we should test it by trying to create a plotline or storyboard for the ritual that we are studying. How well does that work? Does a rite really follow a plot-like course?
Or are the phases of a rite more like the rotating of a kaleidoscope than a turn in a plot? Do the actions of the ritual start at point A and go to point B like a story, or do they just go round and round a center? How far can you ride on the narrative metaphor?
When I have to give up my bike because the mechanistic metaphor has gone as far as it can, I turn to performance. My particular academic tribe venerates dramatistic metaphors.[12] Because actions, including ritual actions, are shaped by human perspectives and intentions, not merely driven by forces and powers, dramatism and the resources of performance studies can do theoretical work that bikes and mechanistic metaphors cannot. Dramatistic theories suggest that movement and change occur through the interactions and decisions of human characters, that things are not “driven” forward in the way bikes and trucks are but in the way a plot is.
Whereas the bike analogy compares ritual to something distant (a mechanical object), the drama metaphor compares ritual with something quite close, namely theater. The strength of dramatistic metaphors (or performance approaches, if you prefer) is that they compare one kind of strongly bounded human activity with another kind of strongly bounded activity. When we compare ritual with theatre, it’s like comparing apples with oranges rather than apples with Volkswagens. The kinship between ritual and drama is so strong that some of my compatriots would argue that ritual is (not merely, is like) dramatic. I don’t, because there are significant differences. One difference is that the roles and actions of plays are typically framed as “not real, make-believe,” whereas in rites, the roles and actions are framed as “believed” or at least “accepted.” Another difference is that, plays have audiences, whereas rituals have congregations or tribes or communities. Audiences are not, or not for very long, communities; rather, they are consumer groups. Having paid admission, they sit side by side for a couple of hours, but they do not feel obligated to look out for each other’s welfare after the performance is over.
I conclude by considering briefly a third metaphor (not a bike, not a performance): a web, a nexus of interconnectedness that rituals are supposed to facilitate. Neither mechanistic models nor dramatistic ones quite capture the networking nature of ritual traditions. Although in plays characters interact and are thus interconnected, dramatistic models are homocentric, human-centered, so we need something more “ecological,” such that a change in one part ripples through another and finally through the whole system. A web is suggestive of systemic interconnection, reminding us that, although we may be talking about a ritual, this ritual may be embedded in a ritual system, which is embedded in a cultural system, which is embedded in a global, or even interplanetary, system.
Systems metaphors keep returning in different guises, not only the 19th century hydraulic variant but mid-twentieth century cybernetics and more recently in cognitive science, computer-modeling, and complex systems theory.
Imagining ritual as a form of web-making, helps us reconceive ritual interconnectivity and boundaries, of the relations between rites and their contexts—social, economic, and environmental. Webs not only can connect, they can also entrap.
A web creates segmented boundaries, but they are permeable. If rituals are weblike, they do not have walls but membranes. If rituals have boundaries, and they are not like stone walls but like membranes, how do rituals select what can, and cannot, pass through? Or maybe you don’t think that things, values, “pass through?” Fine. Then maybe there are “carriers,” like bees. People who “carry” values from inside a ritual to the environment outside the ritual.
In any case, if we begin to reflect on ritual as weblike, we may wish to draw upon images of the WWW with nodes connected by hubs. Computer hubs connected by communication lines resemble the human nervous system, which utilizes a set of nodes connected by axons.
Currently, there is great interest in complex systems modeling that would enable us to connect various kinds of systems: nervous systems, computer systems, economic systems, and ecosystems with ritual systems. Both the Santa Fe Institute and the New England Complex Systems Institute foster complex system modeling. If you examine this example from the New England Complex Systems Institute, you can see that many of the metaphors and analogies that we have discussed are combined in this model: levels, hierarchy, dynamics, plotlike directionality, and recursive circularity.
Few ritual studies scholars have paid attention to complex systems modeling. The most explicit complex system theorizing is carried out by theologian-philosopher Mark Taylor in The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture.[13] Anthropologist Roy Rapport in Religion in the Making and other works approaches an ecological model.[14] Thomas Lawson and Robert McCauley, using cognitive psychological modes, in Bringing Ritual to Mind could, but haven’t yet, moved in this direction.[15]
Once we humans model a single system and then do the same with another, we begin trying to imagine a meta-system that contains all the others. Soon we are conceiving a series of nested, interacting systems. A very attractive but undeveloped idea is that of fractals. A fractal is a micro-geometrical structure which, when repeated with slight variation, accounts for a macro-structure.
The Sierpenski Triangle is an example; the big triangle is made of smaller triangles, which are, in turn, made of even smaller triangles. In a fractal, the pattern appears to be the same regardless of the level of magnification. The branches of a tree replicate the pattern of the entire tree. A stalk of broccoli consists of hundreds of repetitions of each floret.
The strength and weakness of all modeling is simplification. You try to explain the most complicated things by identifying the fewest number of simple things out of which they are constructed. The temptation, then is to leap, to stitch together the entire universe, the macrocosm, by imagining it as a repetition, reiteration, or reflection of something much smaller.
There is something almost hypnotic about seeing how the coast of Norway as photographed from space seems be a fractal of a microscopic photo of a capillary in a blood vessel.
Fractals, used as models, sit on a precipice where science meets art and mysticism.
I am not so much recommending fractals as trying to illustrate the range of metaphors and models on which one might draw in trying to theorize ritual.
By now, your head is probably spinning, and you can begin to sense the Faustian temptations of theoretical modeling. I have taken you on an intellectual roller coaster ride. First, we are riding around on hardy Dutch bikes. Then, we are romping across the fronts and backs of stages full of players. And now I am tangling you up in a knot of weblike systems.
Lest we become unnerved by this little tour of the ritual theory universe, let us “return” to biking imagery. Comforting, isn’t it? A theoretical model should be as practical, reliable, and, dare I say it, imaginative as a well made bakfiets, don’t you think? Or do you? If the bakfiets is a little too old fashioned fo r your tastes, then how about a Conference Bike? Made in Holland, where else? Who else but an American living in the Netherlands, Eric Staller would design a bike that combines the practical mechanism of bikes and the weblikenss of the human brain and the fractal universe? You can even imagine the sociodrama that would set up if members of your work team or family were to spend 8 hours pedaling this to Leiden. You can buy this expensive machine, a model of ritual solidarity, either as “Conference Bike” (to attract Dutch buyers) or as “Love Bike” (the American version). You can bike in any direction, provided the seven peddling, effervescent conference-goers, or lovers, ride it cooperatively.
Maybe you have had enough of this bike and web play, and you just want to know where all this get us regarding ritual theory. Fair enough, I’ll summarize the argument line:
Western theories of ritual are constructed largely out of words.
Sometimes these theories are grounded on actual rites, but more often, they are based on the words of other theories.
Beneath theoretical verbalizations are images, analogies, and metaphors.
Because theorizing is imagination-driven, it is as artistic as it is scientific.
Underlying metaphors are not mere illustrations but either generative forces, creating new insights, or inhibitive blockers, obstructing insight.
Unrecognized, they can be either irrelevant or profoundly determinative.
Because of these dangers, sustained criticism of theories is essential to the construction of new theories.
In the humanities and social sciences, a crucial form of theory criticism is that of exposing the assumptions buried in determinative metaphors.
Although theoretical critique can dislodge such images, it is not possible to circumvent them altogether.
For a model of ritual to be adequate, it must enable one either to build or explain rituals by taking into account their
static elements, using, e.g., mechanical models
internal dynamics, using, e.g., narrative / dramatic models
interactions with their contexts, using, e.g., complex systems (cybernetic, ecological, cognitive) models
Any theory that fails to account for all three, regardless of the metaphors it uses, cannot produce an adequate model for ritual studies research.
Why would anyone want to model ritual? Probably, if all is going well with a ritual, participants would not want to model it at all, but if things are going badly, then they may be forced to create a model. If your ritual is broken, or if there is an important occasion with no ritual means of marking it, then having a blueprint is helpful. If you are a scholar, you want to model ritual because, among other things, scholars build theories.
I end with a counter-argument and a question. The devil, if given his dues, would put this question to my argument: What do you do about mixed metaphors? Let’s say that you write this sentence in an essay, “Milking the workers for all they were worth, the manager barked orders at them.” When your teacher writes “mixed metaphor,” in the margin, this is a criticism. First the manager is a milker of cows, then he is a dog? Your teacher is saying, “Choose one or the other but not both.” Mixing two metaphors in the same sentence makes it sound ridiculous. So how many metaphors can a theory tolerate? Should there be only one? If more than one, how many?
That’s my killer question. Now, here’s yours: What’s your most frequently deployed theory of ritual, and what images, analogies, or metaphors inform it? If your model for understanding ritual is not a Dutch bike, what is it?
Bell, Catherine M. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
d’Aquili, Eugene G. , Charles D. Laughlin, and John McManus. The Spectrum of Ritual: A Biogenetic Structural Analysis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
Goffman, Erving. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1967.
Grimes, Ronald L. The Craft of Ritual Studies. Oxford Ritual Studies Series. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
McCauley, Robert N., and E. Thomas Lawson. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Schechner, Richard. Performance Studies: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 2002.
Snoek, Jan. “Defining ‘Rituals’.” In Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts, edited by Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek and Michael Stausberg. 3-14. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
Taylor, Mark C. The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Turner, Victor Witter. Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Symbol, Myth, and Ritual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974.
[1]. Bowery Lane Bicycles in New York City manufactures such bikes.
[2]. See, for instance, the online magazine, Por Homme, http://www.porhomme.com/2009/04/dress‑codes‑the‑dutch‑bicycle/#more‑7799
[3]. For more information on the project: http://www.ritualdynamik.de/
[4]. It is no longer live.
[5]. Photo by Robert W. Harwood, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rwharwood/
[6]. Ronald L. Grimes, The craft of ritual studies, Oxford Ritual Studies Series (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). The book borrows some of the argument, but none of the illustrations, from this presentation.
[7]. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors we live by (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).
[8]. Jan Snoek, “Defining ‘rituals,’” in Theorizing rituals: issues, topics, approaches, concepts, ed. Jens Kreinath, Jan Snoek, and Michael Stausberg (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 13.
[9]. Eugene G. d’Aquili, Charles D. Laughlin, and John McManus, The spectrum of ritual: a biogenetic structural analysis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979). 29.
[10]. Catherine M. Bell, Ritual theory, ritual practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). 140.
[11]. Photo courtesy of Meike Heessels.
[12]. See, for example: Victor Witter Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, Symbol, Myth, and Ritual (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974); Richard Schechner, Performance studies: an introduction (London: Routledge, 2002); Erving Goffman, Interaction ritual: essays on face-to-face behavior (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1967).
[13]. Mark C. Taylor, The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
[14]. Roy A. Rappaport, Ritual and religion in the making of humanity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
[15]. Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson, Bringing ritual to mind: psychological foundations of cultural forms (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
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The swine flu virus that has sparked fear and precautions worldwide appears to be no more dangerous than the regular flu virus that makes its rounds each year, U.S. officials said Monday.
"What the epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain of U.N. is that the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu -- how sick you get -- is not stronger than regular seasonal flu," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday as the worldwide number of confirmed cases of swine flu -- technically known as 2009 H1N1 virus -- topped 1,080.
The flu has been blamed for 26 deaths: 25 in Mexico and one in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.
Still, Napolitano noted, the seasonal flu results in "hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations" and roughly 35,000 fatalities each year in the United States. There are still concerns that the virus could return in the fall, in the typical flu season, as a stronger strain.
"We are cautiously optimistic that this particular strain will not be more severe than a normal seasonal flu outbreak," Napolitano said. Watch Napolitano assess the swine flu risk Read full article »
CNN's Karl Penhaul in Mexico City, John Vause in Beijing, Diana Magnay in Geneva and Pauline Choo in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
All About Swine Flu • Mexico • World Health Organization
Flu hysteria called a danger
Canada: Farmer possibly gave swine flu to pigs
'Walking well' are flooding hospitals
iReport.com: Are you in Hong Kong? Share your story
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Wednesday, 20th October, 2010
07.00 p.m.
Council Chamber, Town Hall, High Street, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 1AU
The Worshipful the Mayor (Cllr Colin Leckonby); Cllr Hilary Aggio, Cllr Mrs Lynne Apedaile, Cllr Paul Baker, Cllr Jim Beall, Cllr Mrs Jennie Beaumont, Cllr Phillip Broughton, Cllr Mrs Ann Cains, Cllr Dick Cains, Cllr Julia Cherrett, Cllr Aidan Cockerill, Cllr David Coleman, Cllr Robert Cook, Cllr Ian Dalgarno, Cllr Ken Dixon, Cllr Jackie Earl, Cllr Mick Eddy, Cllr Kevin Faulks, Cllr John Fletcher, Cllr Mrs Suzanne Fletcher, Cllr Maurice Frankland, Cllr John Gardner, Cllr Robert Gibson, Cllr David Harrington, Cllr Miss Barbara Inman, Cllr Mohammed Javed, Cllr Paul Kirton, Cllr Terry Laing, Cllr Miss Tina Large, Cllr Alan Lewis, Cllr Ken Lupton, Cllr Mrs Ann McCoy, Cllr Mrs Kath Nelson, Cllr Steve Nelson, Cllr Bill Noble, Cllr Mrs Jean O'Donnell, Cllr Maurice Perry, Cllr Mrs Maureen Rigg, Cllr Roy Rix, Cllr Fred Salt, Cllr Andrew Sherris, Cllr Michael Smith, Cllr Mick Stoker, Cllr Steve Walmsley, Cllr Mrs Mary Womphrey and Cllr Mick Womphrey.
N Schneider (CE); D E Bond, P K Bell,(LD); P Dobson (DNS); J Danks, L King, A Kelly (R); J Humphreys (CESC).
Mr F W Hayes (Chairman of the Standards Committee).
Cllr Eileen Craggs, Cllr Jean Kirby, Cllr Liz Nesbitt, Cllr Ross Patterson, Cllr Sylvia Walmsley, Cllr Bill Woodhead and Cllr Barry Woodhouse.
152/10 THE RIFLES - LETTER OF THANKS
Preamble for item C 152/10
153/10 FORMER COUNCILLOR NORMAN TEASDALE
155/10 MINUTES
(Attachment: 1)Minutes
156/10 THE JOINT AUTHORITIES GROUP (JAG) UK - AWARD
157/10 NORTHUMBRIA IN BLOOM AWARDS
158/10 ENTENTE FLORALE AWARDS
159/10 APSE AWARD
160/10 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME
The Director of Law and Democracy informed the Worshipful the Mayor that no Public Questions had been received.
161/10 APPOINTMENTS PANEL (HEADS OF SERVICE) MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Mrs McCoy, seconded by Councillor Gibson and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Appointments Panel (Heads of Service) held on 10th September 2010 (Minute APP 13/10 - APP 15/10) be received.
163/10 AUDIT COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Womphrey, seconded by Councillor O Donnell and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Audit Committee held on 23rd August 2010 (Minute A 24/10 - A 30/10) be received.
164/10 CABINET MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Lupton, seconded by Councillor Mrs Beaumont and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Cabinet held on 30th September 2010 (Minute CAB 66/10 - CAB 79/10) be confirmed or received as appropriate.
Moved by Councillor Lupton, seconded by Councillor Mrs Beaumont and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Cabinet held on 14th October 2010 (Minute CAB 80/10 - CAB 81/10) be received subject to the following correction:-
At minute CAB 80/10:-
Following the paragraph relating to Councillor Patterson's declaration of Interest insert:-
"He also had a personal, non prejudicial interest in the item as he was a Director of Barwick's Own 2 nd Secondary School".
166/10 CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Harrington, seconded by Councillor Eddy and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Children and Young People Select Committee held on 9th June 2010 (Minute CYP 12/10 - CYP 13/10) be confirmed.
Moved by Councillor Harrington, seconded by Councillor Eddy and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Children and Young People Select Committee held on 30th June 2010 (Minute CYP 14/10 - CYP 19/10) be confirmed.
Moved by Councillor Harrington, seconded by Councillor Eddy and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Children and Young People Select Committee held on 14th July 2010 (Minute CYP 20/10 - CYP 24/10) be confirmed.
Moved by Councillor Harrington, seconded by Councillor Eddy and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Children and Young People Select Committee held on 1st September 2010 (Minute CYP 25/10 - CYP 30/10) be confirmed.
170/10 CORPORATE, ADULT SERVICES & SOCIAL INCLUSION SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES
(Attachment: 10)Minutes
Moved by Councillor Stoker, seconded by Councillor Apedaile and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Corporate, Adult Services & Social Inclusion Select Committee held on 20th July 2010 (Minute CAS 10/10 - CAS 15/10) be confirmed.
171/10 EMPLOYEE APPEALS PANEL MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Mrs Nelson and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Employee Appeals Panel held on 17th June 2010 (Minute EAP 7/10 - EAP 9/10) be received.
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Mrs Nelson and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Employee Appeals Panel held on 6th July 2010 (Minute EAP 10/10 - EAP 12/10) be received.
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Mrs Nelson and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Employee Appeals Panel held on 12th July 2010 (Minute EAP 13/10 - EAP 15/10) be received.
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Mrs Nelson and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Employee Appeals Panel held on 2nd August 2010 (Minute EAP 16/10 - EAP 18/10) be received.
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Mrs Nelson and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Employee Appeals Panel held on 17th September 2010 (Minute EAP 19/10 - EAP 22/10) be received.
176/10 ENVIRONMENT SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Mrs Rigg, seconded by Councillor Smith and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Environment Select Committee held on 9th August 2010 (Minute ENV 13/10 - ENV 18/10) be confirmed subject to the following correction:-
Minute ENV 15/10, Page 370:-
At the first line delete "9th August 2010" and replace with "28th June 2010".
177/10 EXECUTIVE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Gibson, seconded by Councillor Miss Large and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Executive Scrutiny Committee held on 27th July 2010 (Minute EXC 9/10 - EXC 14/10) be received.
178/10 HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Mrs Cains, seconded by Councillor Faulks and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Health Select Committee held on 5th July 2010 (Minute H 15/10 - H 21/10) be confirmed.
179/10 HOUSING & COMMUNITY SAFETY SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Cherrett, seconded by Councillor Earl and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Housing & Community Safety Select Committee held on 10th August 2010 (Minute HCS 17/10 - HCS 22/10) be confirmed.
180/10 LICENSING COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Mrs Nelson, seconded by Councillor Kirton and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Licensing Committee held on 28th July 2010 (Minute L 23/10 - L 28/10) be received subject to the following correction:-
Minute L 26/10 Page 384:-
In the first resolution second line delete the word "attainted" and replace it with the word "obtained".
Moved by Councillor Mrs Nelson, seconded by Councillor Kirton and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Licensing Committee held on 23rd August 2010 (Minute L 29/10 - L 41/10) be received.
182/10 LICENSING SUB COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Mrs Nelson, seconded by Councillor Kirton and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Licensing Sub Committee held on 2nd August 2010 (Minute LSC 22/10 - LSC 24/10) be received.
Moved by Councillor Mrs Nelson, seconded by Councillor Kirton and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Licensing Sub Committee held on 16th August 2010 (Minute LSC 25/10 - LSC 27/10) be received.
184/10 PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Salt and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning Committee held on 25th August 2010 (Minute P 48/10 - P 53/10) be received.
Moved by Councillor Rix, seconded by Councillor Salt and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning Committee held on 15th September 2010 (Minute P 54/10 - P 59/10) be received.
186/10 REGENERATION & TRANSPORT SELECT COMMITTEE MINUTES
Moved by Councillor Perry, seconded by Councillor Cains and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Regeneration and Transport Select Committee held on 26th July 2010 (Minute RTS 28/10 - RTS 32/10) be confirmed.
Moved by Councillor Perry, seconded by Councillor Cains and RESOLVED that the minutes of the Regeneration and Transport Select Committee held on 16th August 2010 (Minute RTS 33/10 - RTS 39/10) be confirmed.
188/10 CLEVELAND FIRE AUTHORITY AUTHORITY MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting of the Cleveland Fire Authority held on the 30th July 2010 were noted.
189/10 CLEVELAND POLICE AUTHORITY MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting of the Cleveland Police Authority Executive held on the 15th June 2010 were noted.
190/10 CLEVELAND POLICE AUTHORITY EXECUTIVE MINUTES
191/10 PARISH COUNCIL LIAISON FORUM MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council Liaison Forum held on the 20th September 2010 were noted subject to the following correction:-
At minute PCL 9/10 delete the words "Council appointed" from the declaration by Councillor Mrs Beaumont.
192/10 SCHOOLS' WORKFORCE JOINT CONSULTATIVE PANEL
The minutes of the meeting of the Schools' Workforce Joint Consultative Panel held on the 14th July 2010 were noted.
193/10 PROPOSED DISPENSATION FOR NON-ATTENDANCE - COUNCILLOR NESBITT
RESOLVED that Council grant a dispensation to allow Councillor Nesbitt to remain qualified as a Member until such time as she has recovered from illness and is able to attend a meeting of the Council.
194/10 MEMBERS' QUESTION TIME
195/10 FORWARD PLAN AND LEADERS STATEMENT
152/10 The Worshipful the Mayor read out a letter of thanks that had been received from Brigadier J C W Maciejewski DSO MBE regarding the recent Freedom Parade for The Rifles.
153/10 Members stood in a minute's silence as a mark of respect for former Councillor Norman Teasdale.
154/10 Councillor Dixon declared a personal, non prejudicial interest in respect of agenda item 13 - Cabinet Minute CAB 81/10 as he was a Director of Barwick's Own 2nd Secondary School.
Councillor Harrington declared a personal, non prejudicial interest in respect of agenda item 13 - Cabinet Minute CAB 81/10 as he was a Director of Barwick's Own 2nd Secondary School.
155/10 The minutes of the meeting of Council held on 8th September 2010 were signed by the Worshipful the Mayor as a correct record.
156/10 The Worshipful the Mayor presented the JAG (Joint Authorities Group) UK Award to Steve Dodds (Engineer - Highway Network Management Team) for his efforts and contribution in connection with street works and traffic management issues.
157/10 The Worshipful the Mayor informed Members of the results of the Northumbria in Bloom Awards.
The Northumbria in Bloom Gold Award 2010 went to Stockton on Tees for achieving Best City in 2010 for a seventh successive year.
The Northumbria in Bloom Best Park in a Town Award 2010 went to Stockton on Tees for Ropner Park.
The Worshipful the Mayor and the Cabinet Member for Environment congratulated the Care For Your Area team on their achievements and presented the awards to the Jamie McCann (Head of Direct Services), Dave Mace and Dave Snowden (Direct Services).
158/10 The Worshipful the Mayor informed Members of the results of the Entente Florale Awards.
Stockton on Tees won the prestigious Entente Florale 2010 Gold Plaque. Stockton on Tees achieved the highest possible standard after representing the UK in Europe's biggest environmental competition.
159/10 The Worshipful the Mayor informed Members of the results of the APSE (Association of Public Service Excellence) Awards.
Stockton on Tees won Best Team of the year 2010 award for Parks, Grounds and Horticulture.
The Worshipful the Mayor and the Cabinet Member for Environment congratulated the Care For Your Area team on their achievements and presented the awards to the Jamie McCann (Head of Direct Services) and Nigel Clark (Horticulture Manager).
Stockton on Tees also won the APSE (Association of Public Service Excellence) Overall Council of the Year 2010 award in Service Delivery.
From more than 300 entries across the UK this award was testament to the hard work of all of the staff, who provided a consistently high standard of front-line services.
The Worshipful the Mayor presented the award to the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council.
193/10 It was reported that Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 provided that where a Council Member failed, throughout a period of six consecutive months, to attend any meeting of his/her authority then he/she ceased to be a member of the authority unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the authority before the expiry of that period.
Councillor Nesbitt was incapacitated due to illness and had been unable to attend any meeting of the authority for a period in excess of 4 months. It was requested that Council consider granting her a dispensation.
194/10 The following question was submitted by Councillor Walmsley for response by the Leader of the Council:-
"As the only group to argue against the re-branding of the former Teesside International Airport - ironically referred to as TIA - can we now assume that with the introduction of extortionate charges to all would be passengers to keep the airport afloat that the other TIA (Thornaby Independent Association) were absolutely right in opposing the utter nonsense which has now led to the airport being in such a perilous state?"
The Leader of the Council responded with:-
"The Chief Executive Officer from Peel Airports has supplied the following response:-
It would be quite misleading to suggest any relationship between the issue of the name change at Durham Tees Valley, introduced some years ago, and the current urgent need to achieve financial stability at the airport.
The reality, as outlined to our local authority shareholders recently, is that, in common with all sections of air transport industry, Durham Tees Valley has been severely affected by the impact of the global recession, leading to significant falls in passenger numbers.
When Vancouver Airport Services took the decision earlier this year to invest in Peel Airports it was made clear that putting Durham Tees Valley on a firm financial footing would be a top priority�along with working to increase the range of flights and services.
Already significant savings in operating costs have been put in place and the drive to improve efficiency will continue. At the same time it has to be recognised that some services, such as air traffic control and firefighting, must be maintained regardless of passenger numbers.
The decision to introduce a Passenger facility fee was taken only after a great deal of careful consideration. We recognise that no-one likes to be asked to pay money, but it must be understood that this measure is a vital element in the plans for securing the future of the airport.
We are continuing our efforts to attract new services and develop new opportunities, despite conditions in the air transport industry remaining very challenging.
We are aware of the ongoing debate over the area's identity and views on the airport name. It is matter which we will keep under consideration and review but at present our key objective is to achieve financial stability."
Councillor Walmsley asked the following supplementary question:-
"I was sitting up here when the presentation was made to us on the re-branding and how this would make the airport as good as Newcastle. Flying over ICI will not be the same as flying over Durham Cathedral. We do not want to see the airport in financial difficulty but the people that agreed the re-branding should step down. Re-branding has not worked?"
"Over �30 million has been spent on the airport including new runway lighting. The airport can only make money from airlines and passengers which makes it difficult for the airport in the current economic climate."
The following question was submitted by Councillor Walmsley for response by the Cabinet Member for Housing & Community Safety:-
"TriStar: How much was spent on Decent Standards and how much can TriStar legitimately guarantee to be spent on housing following stock transfer?"
The Cabinet Member for Housing & Community Safet responded with:-
"In the eight years of the ALMO there has been �200million spent on improvements, maintenance and repairs.
Following transfer, Tristar plans to spend:-
around �140million on improvements, maintenance and repairs in the first five years
around �600million on improvements, maintenance and repairs over thirty years
All of the spend alongside the income coming into the new company forms part of the detailed Tristar Business Plan which gets submitted to funders as part of the transfer process.
Details of investment in Tenants homes is part of the offer document that was sent to tenants as part of the ballot process. Post transfer it will be part of the legally binding agreement between the Council and Tristar Homes."
"I am delighted the Cabinet Member has responded. Is the �600 million a guaranteed figure and can residents have confidence in that?"
The Cabinet Member for Housing & Community Safety responded with:-
"Yes the figure is a legally binding guarantee. There will be a programme of works to replace windows and kitchens."
The following question was submitted by Councillor Walmsley for response by the Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Transport:-
"The Mandale Triangle Gyratory scheme - oddly suggesting that it will improve bus transport - has led to a glut of complaints to ward and town councillors about what purpose it really serves. Can the Cabinet member inform us who designed this project and at what cost?"
The Cabinet Member for Regeneration & Transport responded with:-
"The Mandale Gyratory bus works form part of the Tees Valley Major bus scheme, which received funding from Central Government in June this year.
The detailed design of the works was undertaken by the Council and the cost of the works was �600K, which is funded directly from the major scheme. Works to repair Victoria Bridge were also completed at the same time, which were funded from maintenance budgets."
"This is leading to my next question but are the only beneficiaries the occasional bus that travels over the Victoria Bridge. Whoever inherits Thornaby Town Hall will also have �100k of improvements. Isn't all this a waste of public money?"
"The answer to the second part of your supplementary question is no. The answer to the first part is that the scheme was developed by the Council and former JSU to improve overall bus journey times between Stockton and Middlesbrough, with over 40 buses per hour in each direction using the route. The works have deliberately taken out capacity for cars to use the route as the opening of 1825 Way to the A66 was always intended to reduce traffic over Victoria Bridge.
Improvements in reliability for bus services are key to improving the experience for users and increasing patronage. The Mandale works, together with the improvements scheduled for Riverside Roundabout will reduce journey times for buses significantly."
"I have sat on the Licensing Committee when taxi drivers were not only obliged to pay for the cost of improving or replacing vehicles, but also pay the consequences of not providing an acceptable service. Therefore, why should this Council fork out �450k or thereabouts to subsidise bus companies who routinely do what they want? Isn't this akin to the tail wagging the dog?"
"I am glad you have toned down your question Councillor Walmsley and you should apologise to the Licensing Committee Members.
The bus companies run commercial services that don't always suit the ideals of the Council for covering community areas. The Council has to therefore fund additional services for those areas that are not commercially viable yet do have a demand for public transport, including some de-minimus diversions.
This is a national position since bus deregulation in 1985. Some examples include:-
- 588/589 service linking The Clarences with Billingham and Stockton
- 507 daytime services running through Yarm and Thornaby to Stockton Town Centre.
All services that are subsidised are done under contract that specifies the route, timings and frequency to ensure the Council's objectives are met."
"I will not apologise to Licensing Committee Members. Taxi drivers have a job to do and should be treated with the respect they deserve. I was at a recent meeting regarding the houses on Westbury Street. Some of the houses have structural damage because of the buses and the kids take their life into their own hands when they are going to school. Why couldn't we do something sensible with the �600k that was spent on the Mandale Triangle Gyratory scheme?"
"We are looking at the problems in Westbury Street but it is because of the bus patronage that the buses travel on that street. We can not tell the bus companies not to use the street. I have asked officers to have a further look at the situation. Licensing Committee Members have a job to do as well as taxis drivers."
"(P 317) refers to the White Water Course and other matters related to the initiative. Does the Cabinet member agree that should an Olympic Steering Group ever truly scrutinise the state of the area on the Thornaby side of the river that they might re-think staging anything in this area?"
The Cabinet for Regeneration & Transport responded with:-
"It is recognised that the land ownership on Teesdale development has left inconsistencies that mean the Council does not control all areas and are therefore unable to maintain them to the levels that are seen elsewhere around the Borough.
A Member, Officer and resident group have been working towards some piecemeal solutions around the anti-social behaviour, street cleanliness and maintenance. The challenge remains around the land that is not owned by Stockton Council and that's why for some time now we have been pursuing the private developers of this site to fulfil their legal duty to properly maintain their land, with little success.
British Waterways are one organisation that owns many areas of riverside walkway that need attention. I have asked that Senior Officers ensure British Waterways responsibilities are followed up as a matter of urgency.
I am also conscious that the legal position is frustrating, particularly with the seemingly unwillingness of the private developers to take action, but before we can adopt this land and take control, we must pursue all avenues to try and make the landowners accountable for their responsibilities.
Nevertheless the Council will continue to support local residents and try and target some resources, albeit piecemeal, to improve the area whilst continuing to actively lobby and pursue legal means against the landowners to pay for the clear-up."
"The white water course is incidential to the question and is an excellent facility. It wasn't meant to trip the Cabinet Member up. I went on a walk with a BBC reporter recently near Trinity Mews and we discussed the poor state of the area on the Thornaby side of the river. How are these companies allowed to be set up and then be dissolved leaving Stockton Council to pick the bills up? The local MP's could help the people that have moved in there and I don't mind saying that these people that set up these companies are crooks.
"It only costs �100 to form a company and the liaibility is only �1 for each member. It should be a criminal offence to do what these people are doing. Two years a go I went round the site with somebody from Durham University to look at the some of the areas. Officers have looked at costs for remedial work. We are trying to pursue these companies and it is a disgrace what these companies are doing to the Teesdale area."
195/10 The Leader of the Council gave his Forward Plan and Leaders Statement.
The Leader of the Council outlined it would be easy for Members to look on the awards received by the employees and the Council as self indulgent and self congratulatory but he believed that the success in the areas involved was an expression of the dedication and professionalism of everyone concerned in the Council in serving the community and added his thanks to everyone concerned.
By way of contrast Members were aware that the Chancellor's announcement on public spending was made earlier on the day of this meeting.
While it would take a while for the Council to understand the full details of what had come through, the Leader of the Council shared a few headlines with Members:-
As with all budget announcements the devil would be in the detail. The headline statement for local government was that it was going to face cuts of 7.1% each year for 4 years. However, it was not yet clear whether these totals took into account additional changes to Local Government Finacing.
All Councils that freeze their council tax in 2011/12 would be funded at a flat rate of 2.5%.
Capital funding from all departments to Councils would fall by 45% over the period of the review.
The PFI funding for the replacement of the street lighting stock had also been withdrawn.
A more detailed briefing would be sent to all Members and there was also a Member's seminar on Monday, 25th October 2010 in the Lecture Hall, Stockton Central Library.
On the Economy:-
There were some positive announcements that could be seen in the coming weeks.
At the next Cabinet the Council would learn the outcome of two very important inspections into Safeguarding and Looked after Children and Adults inspections. These were extremely thorough and far ranging and while they won't be public until later in the week and into next - the Council had every confidence that they reflected the progress that had been made in these areas.
the Council were also expecting next week an announcement of the Tees Valley's bid to become a Local Enterprise Partnership. Again, all the signs pointed to a positive outcome for the Tees Valley which would be a tremendous opportunity for our area.
The Council had recently learnt that Stockton was one of the Country's three fastest growing places for new business start ups with the Business Barometer, published by Royal Mail showing the number of new businesses in the UK increasing for the first time in 18 months.
The news that Stockton was a leader in enterprise growth followed last month's announcement naming it as the most enterprising place in the North east, as regional winner in the Enterprising Britain competition.
Some Local Investment News included:-
TAG Energy Solutions was developing a plant at Haverton Hill to manufacture offshore wind turbine foundations, which was likely to create 100 jobs initially with a further 300 coming on stream to service orders in a �20m investment programme.
And to recognise all this work Stockton would host next month - Stockton Enterprise Week - a whole host of enterprising activities to encourage local people to set up businesses.
From the 15th to 19th November 2010 an ambitious programme of events would offer people the chance to find out about anything from becoming a market trader, to setting up in the digital industries or getting on in the music business.
There were over 500 businesses now signed up to receive electronically a "Business Briefing" called Connected to Business an initiative from the Council outlining recent investments, regeneration news and how the Council could help business.
And finally:-
The Council was coming to the end of a legal process which would see the demolition of Billingham House starting on site early in the New Year.
And today the Leader had received a letter from the store manager of Debenhams stating that the rumours that the High street store was closing had no foundation and that they were proud to have a store in Stockton and value the support and loyalty of their customers.
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