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Should I Fire My Client?
Episode 2: Should I Fire My Client?
Michael Blake, a Director at Brady Ware & Company and Host of the Decision Vision podcast, interviews Jim DeBetta on how to recognize when a client might be a bad fit, why it’s best to part ways, and how to do it gracefully.
Jim DeBetta, DeBetta Enteprises
Jim DeBetta is the Founder and President of DeBetta Enterprises which specializes in coaching and consulting for inventors and consumer products start-up companies. DeBetta Enterprises also assists clients with product development and engineering of consumer products as well as sales and marketing representation to major retailers for our select clients. Recently, Jim was Vice President of Retail Distribution for TV Goods which is owned by Kevin Harrington from the ABC show Shark Tank. I headed up a team of retail specialists that called on the world’s most prestigious retailers and TV shopping networks including HSN and QVC.
Jim is the author of the top-selling book, The Business of Inventing, former Staff Writer for Inventors Digest, and has sold over 100 million dollars of products for product entrepreneurs and inventors alike. His podcast, Get Retail Ready, is a valuable resource for those just starting out or looking to scale their business.
DeBetta Enterprises has formed a solid network of product engineers, factory brokers, angel investment firms, licensing experts, and sales and marketing professionals among many other areas of expertise. The firm works with Fortune 500 companies, celebrities, and individual inventors alike. They specialize in finding factories to produce products, create pricing strategies, marketing and public relations, and selling products to major retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels, Walgreens, HSN, Macy’s, Amazon, and many others.
Prior to forming DeBetta Enterprises, Jim led a successful start up company which produced sport optics such as binoculars and hand held magnifiers. Jim was President and COO as the company grew from insignificant revenue to nearly $50 million dollars in sales in under 8 years.
For more information on Jim DeBetta and DeBetta Enterprises, go to http://www.jimdebetta.com/.
Transcript: Should I Fire My Client? -- Episode 2
DecisionVision20190214_DeBetta.mp3 (transcribed by Sonix)
Female: Welcome to Decision Vision, a podcast series focusing on critical business decisions brought to you by Brady Ware & Company. Brady Ware is a regional, full-service accounting and advisory firm that helps businesses and entrepreneurs make visions a reality.
Michael Blake: Welcome to Decision Vision, a podcast giving you, the listener, clear vision to make great decisions. In each episode, we’ll discuss the process of decision making on a different topic rather than making recommendations because everyone’s circumstances are different. We will talk to subject matter experts about how they would recommend thinking about that decision.
Michael Blake: My name is Mike Blake, and I am your host for today’s program. I’m a Director at Brady Ware & Company, a full-service accounting firm based in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Dayton; Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Indiana; and Alpharetta, Georgia, which is where we are recording today. Brady Ware is sponsoring this podcast. If you like this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes, and also please consider leaving a review of this podcast as well.
Michael Blake: So, today, we’re going to talk about something that doesn’t get talked about a lot, which is firing a client. And firing a client when you’re in business, and particularly, if you have a sales role is something that just seems wrong. We work so hard to get clients. Clients are not easy to get. They’re not easy to keep. And so, we’re hardwired that every client is precious. And to, a large extent, I think that’s a healthy attitude to have.
Michael Blake: When you’re not grateful for your clients, bad things happen, your business is not going to survive long. But there is a point where enough is enough. The customer isn’t always right. In fact, sometimes the customer is not the right fit, or they’re just a raving lunatic, or somewhere in between. But the thing about that process is important. If you fire the wrong client, you’ve passed up revenue for no good reason. If you fire the client badly, then your reputation is going to suffer. But if you’ve been in any business long enough, firing a client or firing customer is a fact of life.
Michael Blake: So, we’re going to talk about that today with Jim DeBetta. Jim is the Founder and President of DeBetta Enterprises, which specializes in coaching and consulting for inventors and consumer products startup companies. His firm also assists clients with product development and engineering of consumer products, as well as sales and marketing representation to major retailers for their select clients.
Michael Blake: Recently, he was Vice President of Retail Distribution for TV Goods, which is owned by Kevin Harrington from the ABC show, Shark Tank. Jim headed up a team of retail specialists that called on the world’s most prestigious retailers and TV shopping networks, including HSN and QVC.
Michael Blake: Jim is the author of the top selling book The Business of Inventing, aformer staff writer for Inventors Digest and have sold over $100 million of products for product entrepreneurs and inventors alike. Jim’s podcast, Get Retail Ready, is a valuable resource for those just starting out or looking to scale their business.
Michael Blake: His firm has formed a solid network of product engineers, factory brokers, Angel investment firms, licensing experts, and sales and marketing professionals among many other areas of expertise. They work with Fortune 500 companies, celebrities, and individual inventors alike. Jim and his team specializes in finding factories to produce products, create pricing strategies, marketing and public relations, and selling products to major retailers such as Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond, Michaels, Walgreens, HSN, Macy’s, Amazon, and many others.
Michael Blake: Prior to forming the DeBetta Enterprises, Jim led a successful startup company that produced support optics, such as binoculars and hand-held magnifier. He was President and Chief Operating Officer and led the company from insignificant revenue to nearly $50 million in sales in under eight years. We welcome Jim DeBetta to the program. Jim, thanks for showing up.
Jim DeBetta: Hey, thanks Mike. Good to see you again.
Michael Blake: So, it’s interesting. When I put this topic out there. I really put it out on social media. I’d like somebody to come on and talk about firing clients. And sort of you rose your hand and said that, “I really like to come on and talk about that.” What motivated you to do that? Why is that a subject that is close to your heart?
Jim DeBetta: Well, I mean, I think, in any business, but particularly my business, inventing is an emotional business. So, when people have a product, it’s not just, “Hey, I have a particular thing, I want to get out there.” But they get very tied to it because it’s like their baby. I mean, it’s something that they created out of a need or because there was a problem, and they couldn’t solve it, or couldn’t find a solution. So, they say, “Well, I got to do this on my own.” And then, they spend years developing it. And then, when they come to me, then I have to see if it’s a good fit for me. And when I saw that, I was like, “Oh, I got to jump in on this one.”
Michael Blake: I have a little of experience to that myself. As you know, I used to run a nonprofit called StartupLounge, and I’m still at a monthly office hours. And sometimes, an entrepreneur shows up, and they want to run their idea by me. And you have to tell them, “Well, I’m sure your baby’s healthy but it ain’t all that good looking.”
Michael Blake: And that is something that is not necessarily well-received from somebody that has internalized their problem or their business, I should say, the problem that they’re trying to solve, and they’ve had a lot of people cheer them along the way. So, that’s friends and family, “Go for it. That’s a great idea.” People, by the way, who lose nothing if the business fails, advisors like me that can make money if they start their business, start spending money on advisors. And there’s this feedback loop that just internalizes. And all of a sudden, you can get to a point where you think, “Wow, I’ve got the next iPhone.” It’s just that obvious. Do you encounter that as well?
Jim DeBetta: Oh yeah. And friends and family are the worst because they they love you or-
Michael Blake: They really are.
Jim DeBetta: … they’re supposed to love you, but you’ll always have that obnoxious one that will say, “Oh, that’s crappy,” or “I wouldn’t do that ever.” But most of the time, they’re going to give you support, whether it’s the product’s good or not good in their mind. And that’s what they should do, in a way, but that’s why we don’t want them to say, “Well, my next door neighbor, or my parents, or my kids think this is great.” That’s a red flag to me. What matters is what everybody else in the world thinks objectively, so people can look at it and say, with no vested interest saying, “I would buy this,” or “I don’t like that.” And that’s an important thing.
Jim DeBetta: But all of this comes down to, which I know we’re going to talk about is managing expectations when people start to work with me. And right off the bat, that’s how I determine if I should take on a client or even move on from a client when things start — when I get that feeling that things aren’t going right.
Michael Blake: Okay. Well, we’ll come back to that. Let’s start off with, how do you work with a client?
Jim DeBetta: Well, I mean, usually, people will come to me in all stages. Some people will come to me, and say, “Hey, Jim. I’ve got an idea for something.” And they haven’t really done anything. Maybe they’ve done a patent search, or they just went online, and wanted to see if the product was actually out there. And assuming that they haven’t found what it is that they’re creating, they will come to me, and I basically project manage them through the whole process. So, people will come to me at that stage. And then, people come to me that have multi-million dollar businesses, and they’re already selling some retailers, but they want to go further. They want to scale. They want to get into every retailer they can. They want to be a huge company.
Jim DeBetta: So, they come to me at all phases and stages. And they come from everywhere, from social media, all over the world from referrals. And because the world’s so digital, people can find me easily, and I get a lot of lead flow, and people just reaching out because they see me out there online.
Michael Blake: And you’re not hard to find. I mean, you’re a pretty prolific creator of content as well. And, I mean, you always want to give advice. I’m sure that helps. So, doing what you do, and I think I know the answer to this, but I don’t want to assume, what do you think is the hardest part about working with a client in your space? What’s the hardest hurdle you had to get over, the most common challenge?
Jim DeBetta: It’s that emotional part that they all believe that their product is going to be the next billion-dollar idea. And most aren’t going to be million-dollar ideas. And I always say to people, “It’s okay to be a thousander,” because no inventor that I know invents for a living. They have a day job or a night job. And so, they have a living. They live a normal life, and this is something they do on the side. They do it at their lunch break, on the weekends, at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 at night. So, for them, it’s a part-time thing, if that makes sense.
Michael Blake: That’s really interesting. You’re right. I mean, there really is, now, kind of modern day Thomas Edison, right?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah.
Michael Blake: Maybe the late Steve Jobs. Maybe he was kind of that, and he had like a whole huge corporation to sort of back that. And maybe the late, I’m sure you’re aware of him. The late Ron Popeil.
Jim DeBetta: It’s huge.
Michael Blake: That kind of that guy, right?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah, absolutely.
Michael Blake: By the way. I have one of those those Showtime Rotisserie.
Jim DeBetta: Doesn’t everyone? I think.
Michael Blake: I got one of those things for Christmas. The damn thing actually works.
Jim DeBetta: They are good.
Michael Blake: I can’t believe it. We don’t make a turkey without it now.
Michael Blake: I got that thing for Christmas, and I thought, “For sure, this is going in our attic. It’s never coming out again.” And now, I was going to fry a turkey last year, and my son, “Oh, you’re going to fry a turkey?”
Jim DeBetta: Yes.
Michael Blake: “I really like the rotisserie one.” So, Ron, if you’re listening buddy, you’ve got one satisfied costumer down here.
Jim DeBetta: That’s right.
Michael Blake: But you’re right. Most people do this as a side gig. I hadn’t thought of that. That’s a really interesting.
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. And they have to because when you start, like you start any business, you’re writing checks, but there’s no money coming in. So, they need to fund the business through whatever it is that they do for a living. Very few people will call me with an inheritance on their hands, or they’ll just max out their cards, but that’s another thing too. I have to kind of temper that. If somebody says to me, “Jim, I’m going to empty my 401(k),” I push back. I don’t want it. I don’t want to feel — because I know it’s a risky business, I don’t want to be the one that takes the money there and leads them down that path. They fail, and now they really have nothing.
Michael Blake: And that puts a lot of pressure on you.
Jim DeBetta: Sure.
Michael Blake: That, for me, would create performance anxiety.
Jim DeBetta: Right.
Michael Blake: When somebody comes to me and says, “I’ve just emptied out my 401(k). I’ve leveraged the 529. My wife doesn’t know any of this.”
Jim DeBetta: I have that too. It’s like, “Don’t tell my wife. Don’t tell my husband.” I’m like, I don’t really want to start off this way. I always say, “Don’t tell me. If it’s something you don’t think I want to hear, don’t even bring it up.”
Michael Blake: That’s right.
Jim DeBetta: It’s a scary thing out with people. Because they get so emotionally attached, they will do just about anything to fund it or come up with money for it. And that’s a scary notion sometimes.
Michael Blake: So, it sounds like part of your job, and I find this in mine too, sometimes, you have to be an amateur therapist.
Jim DeBetta: You do. I mean, and again, a lot of it comes down to just calming people down. They call me up, “Jim, I’ve got this thing. It’s awesome. I’m so excited. And I’ve been doing this, and I’ve been doing that.” And you have to get them on the phone. You have to say, “All right, look, it’s a business, it’s like any other business. It’s risky.” And I have to almost scare them away because if I don’t let them know the realities of it and that they can fail.
Jim DeBetta: And some people say, “Well, why do you do that? Why do you scare people away? Why aren’t you being more positive?” I’m like, “Look, I’d rather air on the side of, ‘Okay, I prevented somebody from doing something basically stupid,’ and encourage their misbelief of something than-” You know what I mean? That’s important to me. And I’ve been doing this for you 20 plus years. I think I have a good handle, a good intuition when it comes to how people are with me. And within 30 seconds, I know how they’re going to be.
Michael Blake: And I think that’s a sign of a strong professional is you know there are some times you shouldn’t take your client on because you could take their money today. In fact, in your case, they’re probably saying, “Shut up and take my money. I got to get this thing on Walmart and Target.” And you make it hard. And I suspect, because I run into this also, when people think that they want their business appraised, I don’t want them at the end of a 30-day, 60-day, one-year process thinking that I had told them that I laid out the yellow brick road for them, and then it didn’t end that way. That’s bad all the way around, right?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. And you’ll hear me say this a few times, it’s managing expectations for people. You have to do it for them. They’re not going to do it themselves. They’re excited, right? They’ve got an idea. I mean, they see other people, they watch Shark Tank, they see all the activity out there, and they believe that their product is the next one or it’s better. And they get fooled by that. And so, it is. I have to. I don’t want to.
Jim DeBetta: I mean, who wants to turn away business, but I have to tell some people, “This is not right. You shouldn’t be doing this,” or “You should slow down,” or there are people that want to hire me, they see the offerings I have in terms of packages and things that I offer. “I want the best. I want-” I’m like “No, no. You’re not ready for that.” “What do you mean I’m not?” They get — I’m like, “Look I could take your money. I’ll send you an invoice. You’ll pay me in five seconds.”.
Jim DeBetta: But that’s not the right thing to do. The right thing is to get them in a better position to have a better chance at success. And the way to do that is to calm them down, right, and say, “Here’s what’s likely to happen. Here’s the path. It’s not going to take three weeks. It’s going to take three months or six months.” And then, they go back and sleep on it. And then, usually, most people will come back to reality and say, “Okay, I got it. I talked it over with whoever. I appreciate it. I feel good about it. Okay, how do we move forward?”
Michael Blake: So, do you remember the first time or one of the first times you ever had to fire a client? And if so — Or maybe talk about any time you had to fire a client. What prompted that? And how did somebody get through your gate process, your gate keeping?
Jim DeBetta: Well, some people, you just can’t get through to. I mean, if somebody is really that excited, you’re not going to stop them. If they don’t go to me, they’re going to find somebody else to do it for them, or they’ll do it themselves, which is scary because they really don’t know what they’re doing. I would always say, “You’re sick, you go to a doctor,” that kind of thing. You can’t be a product designer, a package expert, a factory, an attorney, and all those things. You can’t be, right?
Jim DeBetta: So, those people will go ahead and try to do it anyway. Who knows who listens to this. Of course, there’ll be no names mentioned, but I have fired a lot of people. And the first time I fired somebody, it was hard for me because it was many years ago. And, again, you’re earlier in your business, and you need all the business you can get, but you still want to have integrity and do the right thing. But you try to justify it in your own mind like, “Should I fire them or can I just — They’ll be OK you know and I’ll still work with them.”
Jim DeBetta: But I had a woman who, right off the bat, was, “This is the billion idea. And then, it’s going to be great.” You get excited by their enthusiasm. But then, literally, the next day, I’d be getting emails saying, “What’s getting done here? Are you doing this? Are you doing that? How can we ever reach out to one of the chain stores yet?” And I’m like, “We just started yesterday.” And even though I said, “It’s going to take time, this is the process,” I couldn’t calm this person down, ever. And it drove me crazy.
Jim DeBetta: Then, they get mad because you’re not performing even though you’ve had in writing saying, “This is what it’s going to take.” And you have a phone call, “This is what it’s going to take.” It’s almost like I didn’t say anything. And then, they are like almost going after, and I’m like, “I can’t.” I mean, forget the money. It’s like, “I can’t do this. It’s too stressful. Here’s somebody else you can go talk to.”
Michael Blake: It’s the kind of client where every time they contact you, it’s never just talk about what a great job you’re doing.
Jim DeBetta: But you cringe, you see that e-mail in your inbox, or the phone ringing, and you’re like, I don’t want to answer the phone when you call or be happy to get your email. I shouldn’t be working with you.” Over time, you evolve. Right now, I’m really picky. I want to work with people that are fun to work with, that I enjoy talking to. That’s like my biggest criteria now. I mean, a product is product, right? I mean, they’re made of something, they made in a factory, we sell it to the same stores, they’re widgets to me.
Jim DeBetta: I mean, I get excited and passionate about the products when I go to the retailers, but, at the end of the day, a product is a product. I have to enjoy working with you because if I cringe or even shudder at the thought of hearing from you, who wants to do that? I don’t want to do that, enough for any amount of money really.
Michael Blake: Yeah. Well-
Jim DeBetta: Maybe, maybe.
Michael Blake: So, this is actually segueing nicely into the kind of the next question I want to ask, which is, what are some of those warning signs that this relationship is a mistake and we got to think about ending it?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. On their end, they’re overenthusiastic to the point where they’re not being realistic. That’s the number one criteria to me. Number two is somebody that will tell me that they’re on their last dime doing this. And I have people that I start with. So, I’ve hired them, or they’ve hired me rather. And then, I have to fire them because they reveal something like that to me, something personal or something financial, and I’m like, “Look, it’s like building a house. You got to have the money to build the house. Once the architect lays out the plans, what are you going to build? The frame? And then, go out of money,” and I get that kind of scenario.
Jim DeBetta: Those people, I have to try to help them for free, so to speak, and transition them off of what they’re doing or onto another, like maybe go to licensing versus doing it themselves, and introduce them to those people. But I got to let those people go to because that kind of thing where they reveal something personal to me, I know it’s going to be — Then, yes. There’s that performance pressure. If this thing isn’t a home run, maybe they won’t get mad at me, but I’m going to feel bad and it’s going to be devastating for them.
Michael Blake: Right. I mean, if you have any sense of integrity, you do feel responsibility for the client outcomes. And yeah, I’m sure some people just want to bring inventions to the market because that’s just a vision they have. But people want to make money. They’re putting a significant financial investment. I get that too. And particularly in the startup space, someone will call me up and say, “I want to get my business appraised because I’m going to raise money.”
Michael Blake: And one of the first questions I ask them is, “Well, you’re talking to this one investor. If they no, what happens?” “Well, I don’t know. I’m not sure.” “Well, do you have enough money to survive?” “Well, no. I need this investment.” I said, “Well, then my valuation doesn’t matter.” Right?
Michael Blake: If that person walks away, you’re out of business. I’ve taken a check, but I haven’t helped, I really haven’t helped anybody in that process, right?
Michael Blake: And that invention, inventor story sounds very similar to that.
Jim DeBetta: I think that’s a big part of it. I think because those people that come to us, you hope that they’re coming to us for a reason because they don’t know something, we know something, they need our help. And that’s another reason that I’ve let people go is because people will hire me, and then they tell me everything that I’m supposed to be doing. Even though they have no knowledge, they say, “Jim shouldn’t you do this? And this is how this should be done. No, when you talk to a buyer this is what you should be saying.” I’m like-
Michael Blake: Oh, that drives me crazy.
Jim DeBetta: And look, I’m open here. Look, I’m willing to learn something new. I don’t care where it comes from. I mean, my kids can tell me something, and if I could pick up something, and it helps me to do my job better for them, great. I’m not about, “You hire me, so I tell you everything. You have no say. You have no ability to help.” I always tell people right off the bat, “This is a two-way street. We have to communicate. I need things from you. You need things for me. And if there’s differences, we talk them out. But primarily, you’ve hired me. You’re paying me to do something that you can’t do or don’t know how to do. So, when push comes to shove, you have to make a choice,go with my words because I’ve done this ten thousand times.”
Michael Blake: Why hire me if you’re not you’re not going to listen to my advice?
Jim DeBetta: Right. And I’ve let a couple people go in the middle of things because they were so overbearing with them hiring me, but then all of a sudden, they where the expert and I was the client. It shouldn’t be that way. Again, it should be collaborative, but it shouldn’t be where if I pay somebody to come do something for me, I expect that they’re going to be competent, and they’re going to do their job. And I say, “Hey, what about that?” or “Can you maybe look at this?” That’s your right. You’re paying money, but if you’re going to overwhelm, overtake the whole process, then you know what, go do it yourself or find somebody else. And it’s frustrating sometimes.
Michael Blake: I think that gets a fundamental lack of trust, and not in your trustworthiness, but the client’s inability to trust you. I actually fired a client earlier, it’s now 2019, middle of last year because we did an appraisal for them, sent them a draft. And the client, then, took our drafts, started showing it, and said, “I showed it to my friend who’s an investment banker,” and he says, “Your numbers are wrong.” And I listened very carefully to investment bankers because they’re out in the marketplace. So, many of them are very good experts.
Michael Blake: So, well. “What did you show them?” “First of all, I showed you the work product.” “So, okay, our engagement, I said, you weren’t supposed to do that, but, okay. What information did you give them besides the work product?” “Nothing, we had a 10-minute conversation.” “All right. So, our teams put in 25 hours on this, but you’re going to show this to one person with a 10-minute conversation, you’re going to decide that their opinion is more valid than mine. I think that you should retain them or somebody else. Let’s settle up and split because if that’s the level of trust you have in this process, I can’t think of what’s going to make it end well.”
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. And we fight that in my business too. Somebody will immediately go somewhere else, or they’ll try to reach the retail buyers themselves because I haven’t gotten in touch with them quick enough. There’s always going to be those types of people. So, all you can do really is just try to set the table from the beginning, “Here’s how I work. This is what I expect of you. This is what you should expect of me.” We talk about it. We write it out.
Jim DeBetta: Beyond that, you lose control a little bit. But, again, you can usually — I know I can get a great sense of how somebody is immediately. I could just tell. I could tell their tone. It also depends on how much experience they have. If they’ve been trying to do this on their own, and they’ve failed repeatedly, they’re coming to me at a desperation. They really will then say, “Okay. Jim, you do what you got to do,” because they’re at their end. They don’t have other option. They’ve probably tried other avenues, or tried calling other people, and they aren’t getting satisfaction. So now, I’m the end game for them.
Jim DeBetta: Those people are a little easier to deal with because they let me do my thing, and they listen better. The ones that, like I said, get very emotional or very connected to their own thought about, “This is not going to fail no matter what,” I’m like, “Well, you need to have a great mindset, this is not going to be an easy road, but I’m telling you right now, the chances of you succeeding, they’re small. And I just want to let you know that right off the bat.” But we get that people will go around you, or talk to a name, or somebody who’s not from the business at all even, and say, “They said that this packaging doesn’t look good or the pricing is wrong.” And I’m like, “Are they buying it? Are they in this business?” I get a lot of that. And it’s easy usually to kind of squash it. But, once in a while, you get somebody who really push the envelope on it.
Michael Blake: So, how do you tell whether or not there’s a systematically bad fit versus it’s just a bad day, bad week ,bad month for you or the client?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. I have people that they are a good fit, and then they’ll have that breakdown because they’re right, they’re spending money, and nothing’s happening yet. They’re not selling. It’s much easier to write a check to get prototypes done or patents done, but to sell a retail, it’s such a long-selling cycle. So, they won’t see money for six months, a year, and it’s hard for them. And so, sometimes people will — It seems like everything is going great, and I get that email that I’m happy to get or that call, but it’s a total flip. They’re like, “Jim, I don’t know what’s going on, and I feel this way, I feel that way.” That’s a bad day. They just need you to encourage them. “Look, this is the business. This is what we talked about. It’s going to be all right. I understand.”
Jim DeBetta: Nine out of 10 times, they’re good. You talk to them right through, But other times, you get people who are completely the opposite. And, again, I got a pretty good feel, I rarely get it wrong these days. I used to not always get it right, but, now, I’m a much better because I’m even more patient with waiting for people. I don’t look to sign somebody up so quickly anymore. Now, I let people sleep on it, and I sleep on it.
Jim DeBetta: I had been talking to a woman just yesterday, actually yesterday morning. Long story short, I talked to her a couple of weeks ago. She sent me samples, I looked at them, I thought they were really good. And I took a few days to call her back. I wanted to feel like this was a good fit for me as well. And we got on the phone, and we talked it out, and she understands. And I said, “Well if you’re good,” and then, I followed up with an email and said, “Let me know what you think.” And so, I’m slower in my process, but I think that allows me to have less error in what kind of client I have and how they’re going to be.
Michael Blake: I tell people, there’s not that much benefit to being older. You get gray hair, and in my case you get two arthritic ankles, but the positive side of that is wisdom.” And realizing that the value of a deep breath, the value of sleeping on things, the value that you don’t have to respond to everything right in the moment because that leads to a bad decision more often than not.
Jim DeBetta: And I’m not that way. I’m more of the impulsive type. It’s hard for me to sit back and wait. I’m not afraid to lose anything. There’s always businesses. There will always be. As long as there are inventors, I’ll be in business. I never worry about that anymore. But it’s still my nature to want to respond quickly, but I have to actually stop myself and find something else to do. Otherwise, I will be reactive too quickly.
Michael Blake: Yeah. I mean, you’d love to resolve it, get it off your plate, and not have to worry about it. But again, that’s just growth. That’s the benefit we get for the gray hair. Do you have a preferred kind of method for firing a client? In other words, there’s a passive way to firing a client, which is basically raise your rates, and then they don’t want to work with you anymore. Or there’s that, “It’s not me, it’s you” conversation, even though in your mind you’re saying, “It’s not me, it’s you.” Do you have a preferred method or have you use different techniques based on a different scenario?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. When you had written that out about the raise your prices sort of thing, I think I do that naturally only because I know the type of client I want, and I know that will do well, and I know that client has to be financially capable of doing things. I know that there are people who will — I don’t do the free stuff or the 1999 to get them in the door. I don’t like doing those types of things because I know that that client will pay a few dollars to get information, but they probably won’t want to pay a lot more to have the real work done.
Jim DeBetta: I don’t know if I have a specific way I go about that. I think I just feel it as I go and as things develop. But my criteria is, just like I said, it’s just more instinct than it is anything these days. I just get a sense. I get them on the phone. I won’t do it via email. If I have a problem with somebody, I am a big emailer. I prefer to actually email and text people than to talk all day long. But if I have a problem with somebody, I will call them, and I will say that it’s them. I won’t blame me because I know that I do the same thing for you, that I’ll do for you, that I do for everybody, if that makes sense.
Jim DeBetta: So, I will let them know that. It’s not tolerable. I can’t work on the — You hired me to help you, and you’re telling me what to do, or you’re unrealistic. And I know this is going to lead to bad things. So, I tell them that either they need to change, and some people will, or they need to understand that we can’t work together anymore. And then I’ll finish up and help them transition, but that’s usually what I would do.
Michael Blake: Well, that’s good. So, you don’t break up by email, or text, or anything like that.
Jim DeBetta: No. Not like that.
Michael Blake: Do it like a professional, right?
Jim DeBetta: That’s a tough one to do.
Michael Blake: But the object lesson here is if I ever see you calling, that means you’re going to break up with me.
Jim DeBetta: That sounds great. I would tell people, “If I call you, and I don’t outbound call a lot of my clients a lot, it’s either something is going on bad, or something is really good, like we get a big purchase order from a retailer, but you’ll like it enough. That’s a fun phone call to get. But if I call you otherwise, something is up. Otherwise, we’re going to email and correspond that way.”
Michael Blake: Okay. Is there a client you can remember that you should have fired, but didn’t?
Jim DeBetta: There’s probably a bunch that I probably should have. And again, those with were the early days when I tried to hang on, not necessarily I really needed to, but I felt like I could. I tried to — Like I said, with age comes wisdom. Now I know that I don’t want to wake up tomorrow feeling stressed. I don’t want to go through a month of stress before I let somebody go. If I feel the tension, and I know it because it’s not me, even if I’m wrong, I’m still going to let them go.
Michael Blake: I found that I cannot think of a time where I’ve ultimately regretted either firing a client or turning one away, but I can tell you for sure the clients that I’ve regretted taking on are not fired.
Jim DeBetta: Yeah, I agree. I think you remember, if you will, the mistakes more than.
Jim DeBetta: Because we don’t know what would have happened with that the other way. But we know when we keep ones that are difficult, you still try to see it through though, right? I always try to ignore how they get, and I just say, “Just let me do my thing.” If I just keep going on, and they don’t like what I’m doing, they’re going to fire me. So, I almost put it on them. I’m like, “I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
Michael Blake: Well, you think they’ll fire you, right? But some don’t.
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. No, you’re right. But then it winds up working out because, then, they see what they hired me for, right. At the end of the day, at the end of the road, look, it worked, or you got your product developed, or hey, you’re selling it on whatever website. Then, they’re happy and appreciative later on.
Michael Blake: So, that’s interesting. So, I think that’s sort of a lesson. It seems to me like you know pretty early on if it’s a bad fit. It doesn’t sort of sneak up on you necessarily. It’s not like the boiling fraud for example. It sounds like you know pretty early on.
Jim DeBetta: Yes. Almost every time, I know right away.
Michael Blake: Really?
Jim DeBetta: Very quickly.
Michael Blake: That’s awesome.
Jim DeBetta: Because I can, again. And I think that a lot of it, it’s just instinct and experience. I’ve done it a million times. There’s only certain ways people can be. It’s not like there’s a thousand different ways people are going to act. It’s just really a handful when I see those that are red flags to me, I know. And like I said, again, even before there is a higher fire, I know how people are going to be. If I can’t manage their expectations immediately, I know that I shouldn’t even begin working with them. Never mind having to fire them, so to speak.
Michael Blake: Because it’s not going to get better.
Jim DeBetta: It’s not. I know it’s not going to be.
Michael Blake: The more ingrained you get, you’re more entrenched, right?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. And I don’t need that. I don’t want that.
Michael Blake: Okay. Has a client ever talked you out of firing them? You’re all set, you’re going to fire them, but then they said, “No, I really want to stick it. Please, Jim. You’re so great. I promise I’ll be better.”
Jim DeBetta: I don’t know if I’ve had that. I think it’s either it’s cut or dry. I’ve had a few people where I’ve told them they need to calm down. It wasn’t like you’re getting fired. I guess it’s like the warning, right?
Jim DeBetta: You need to chill out, you need to do this, you need to do that, or you’re not communicating well, or you’re going and trying to email a buyer when I told you do not do that. People will go off the script, so to speak. And I’ll warn them. And then, those people will say, “Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it,” even though they probably knew what they were doing. And then most of the time, they’re good. They turn around because I try to be friendly. I’m not like, get on, I’m trying to be rough with people when I work with them. I’m not trying to dictate. I’m trying to do my job.
Michael Blake: People hurt themselves when they do that.
Jim DeBetta: Right. So, it’s kind of like a parent to a kid. Look, you’re doing this wrong, and then you hug him later and it’s fine, and usually that works out.
Michael Blake: Okay. Any concluding comments? Anything we haven’t covered that you think we should before we wrap up here?
Jim DeBetta: Well, I think we’ve hit on all the big things. I think you have to — I think, for me, and I think what other people can benefit from is even though you want that client, even though it may be important to you, whether it’s financially or just for your own self to feel like you can obtain clients. I think you have to go with your gut. I think you have to realize that if something just doesn’t feel right, and you feel like it’s overwhelming, or there’s going to be undue pressure, or you can’t manage those expectations, just don’t even do it. Don’t even start. I know it’s easy to say because I’ve been doing this, and I have an established business, but if I could look back at my younger self and do certain things over, I would probably have been a little more patient with the hire, so I didn’t have to worry about the fire.
Michael Blake: Because hiring the wrong client can actually do more harm than good, right?
Jim DeBetta: Yeah. And, also, if you get people who are a little off the wall with the way they are, they’re very aggressive, or they’re hotheaded. Then, today, with social media, they could just go online and be reckless in what they say about you.
Michael Blake: That’s true.
Jim DeBetta: I’ve been fortunate, I’ve never had anybody do that. Although I’ve not had many people that have gotten upset like that. But, still, it’s so easy. I mean, someone could just comment on this podcast blah, blah, blah. People do whatever they like.
Michael Blake: You can walk out of here and accuse me of a federal crime.
Jim DeBetta: Before I even get to my car, right?
Michael Blake: Absolutely.
Jim DeBetta: And that’s scary. So, you have to also be cognizant of that, that if you feel like that person is going to be that person. I have people call me up and they say, “Jim,” and they tell me how confrontational they are with other things in their life. And I’m like, “Yikes. Is that the kind of person I want to even work with? If things go south, maybe they’re going to-” If they’re telling me what they’re doing to other people, maybe they’re going to do that to me.
Michael Blake: Sorry, I was late, I got a ticket for road rage on my first meeting.
Jim DeBetta: Right, yeah.
Michael Blake: Not a good sign.
Jim DeBetta: Well, I’ll call you back tomorrow. We’ll see if we could work together.
Michael Blake: So, well this has been great. I want to make sure people know how to find you. So, if they want to learn more about this or what you would actually do for a living, how do they find you?
Jim DeBetta: Well, can you hide anymore these days? I mean, if-
Michael Blake: I’ve tried, man.
Jim DeBetta: You can’t. No, not today. Yeah, we push too much out there to be — I would say social media is the best way. I have one of the largest invention groups on Facebook in the world. It’s called We Know Inventing. People could go on there. But if they just go on and Google Jim DeBetta, it will lead them to my websites, which one is my namesake jimdebetta.com. I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, I’m on LinkedIn very heavily, I’m on Twitter. They’ll find me in two seconds. They’ll be able to reach me. And I answer everything. It’s hard to because I get a couple hundred emails a week or messages. And I believe in that. I’ll sit up, and I’ll, at least, say, “Got it. And thanks for reaching out.” So, I respond to people. And I think it’s important to in business to be busy as you get to, at least, acknowledge somebody coming along.
Michael Blake: Yeah. Well, very good. Well, that’s going to wrap it up for today’s program. I’d like to thank Jim DeBetta so much for joining us and sharing his expertise with us. We’ll be exploring a new topic each week. So, please tune in, so that when you’re faced with your next business decision, you have clear vision when you’re making it. Once again, this is Mike Blake. Our sponsor is Brady Ware & company. And this has been the Decision Vision Podcast.
The above audio transcript of “DecisionVision20190214_DeBetta.mp3” was transcribed by the best audio transcription service called Sonix. If you have to convert audio to text in 2019, then you should try Sonix. Transcribing audio files is painful. Sonix makes it fast, easy, and affordable. I love using Sonix to transcribe my audio files.
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Français Nova Scotia
You are here: About us / Our research / Our researchers / Dr Michael Ohh
Dr Michael Ohh
Local corporate partnerships NS
National and Nova Scotia Division Honours
Dr Ohh is an associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology at the University of Toronto. He is known for his paradigm-shifting work in the field of oxygen-sensing pathways in cancer development and progression. His work of deciphering these pathways at cellular and molecular levels has led to innovations in novel anti-cancer therapies. His laboratory is also an excellent training ground for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinician-scientists interested in basic cancer biology and translational research.
Dr Ohh received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1995 and was a Medical Research Council (CIHR) and National Cancer Institute of Canada postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School prior to joining University of Toronto. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Oncology.
Dr Ohh has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals such as Nature Medicine and Science with over 5,000 combined citations. He is frequently invited to present his concept-provoking ideas and findings at both basic research and clinical meetings in Canada, the United States and Europe. combined citations. He is frequently invited to present his concept-provoking ideas and findings at both basic research and clinical meetings in Canada, the United States and Europe.
Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer
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Home > Articles > Press Articles > JD Wetherspoon capital allowances
Comment on JD Wetherspoon v HMRC Capital Allowances Tax Tribunal Decision
This article appeared in The Tax Journal (the "non-taxing weekly for top professionals) on Monday, 18 February 2008.
The decision in JD Wetherspoon plc v HMRC SpC 657, which was published just before Christmas, related to an appeal in connection with the tax return for the company’s accounting year to 31 July 1999. It is surprising that such a fundamental issue as the scope of the term ‘plant’ in such a commonplace context should be so unclear as to give rise to an uncertainty which was yet to be resolved eight or nine years after the incurring of the expenditure concerned. Nor, one suspects, is it yet resolved, for the decision is a questionable one, probably leaving both parties discontented and in all likelihood heading for the Courts.
It would be unfair, however, to criticise the Commissioners too harshly, as it seems that there were just too many individual areas of dispute referred to them. The taxpayer and HMRC failed to agree on the treatment of more than 120 items of expenditure, and the Commissioners acknowledged that ‘the case involved a mass of detail most of which was not covered in the time which the parties had agreed for the hearing’.
The decision focused on sample pub premises in Cardiff (converted from a theatre) and Cosham (converted from two high street shops). The Commissioners decided to address points of principle, using only a small number of disputed items as examples to illustrate their reasoning. They addressed three issues:
whether expenditure on certain assets was properly regarded as expenditure on plant and machinery;
the meaning and scope of CAA 1990, s 66 (now CAA 2001, s 25), dealing with expenditure on building alterations incidental to the installation of plant and machinery; and
whether and how the project ‘on costs’ of preliminaries and professional fees could be allocated to the cost of plant and machinery.
Plant or premises?
The first issue boiled down to a reconsideration of the ‘premises test’. The Commissioners took just one asset of the many in dispute and sought to use it to illustrate the impact of applying general principles. In the circumstances, this was the only practical approach. The asset they chose to consider was wood panelling fixed to the walls and used by the taxpayer to create a richer and more inviting atmosphere than traditional painted walls; or to put it in terms of the celebrated case IRC v Scottish & Newcastle Breweries Ltd [1992] STC 296, to create an ‘ambience’. In that case, it was claimed that one element of the company’s trade was the provision of a certain type of atmosphere, or ambience, conducive to attracting custom. This argument proved attractive to the courts and consequently allowances were given in respect of fixed items used to create this ‘ambience’, such as decor, murals and sculptures.
The Commissioners in JD Wetherspoon referred to this case and accepted ‘that the panelling was an embellishment to create ambience’, but then, in my opinion, made two mistakes.
Firstly, they did not adequately consider whether the panelling could be both premises and plant – although they acknowledged Lord Lowry’s comment in Scottish & Newcastle that an asset could be both plant and premises in exceptional cases, they merely concluded ‘This, of course, is not one of those cases’. This conclusion was ill-considered – following Scottish & Newcastle, it is accepted that hospitality premises are an exceptional case.
Secondly, they failed to consider fully how higher courts have expanded Lord Lowry’s interpretation of the term ‘premises’.
Thus in Wimpy International Ltd v Warland [1989] STC 273 (the first port of call for any discussion of the meaning of ‘premises’) Glidewell LJ commented:
‘when Lord Lowry referred to “something which becomes part of the premises”, he cannot have meant simply something which is affixed to the premises. He must have been expressing in other words the point made by Oliver LJ in Cole Brothers v Phillips about something which “performs simply and solely the function of housing the business”.’
So, having accepted that the panelling did not simply and solely perform the function of housing the business (because it created ambience), the Commissioners were bound to accept the decision of the higher courts and find that the panelling was not premises and therefore not barred from being plant. This they did not do, and thus appear to have erred in point of law.
Key factors
The Commissioners recognised, following Mr Justice Hoffmann in Wimpy v Warland [1988] STC 149, that the key issue waswhether it was ‘more appropriate’ to regard the panels as part of the premises, rather than having retained a separate identity. However, their decision was flawed at the outset by their failure to consider what was meant by the term ‘premises’, as discussed above.
They ran through the four factors (not absolute hurdles) set out by Mr Justice Hoffmann, as follows:
whether the disputed item appears visually to retain a separate identity;
the degree of permanence with which it has been attached;
the incompleteness of the structure without it; and
the extent to which it was intended to be permanent or whether it was likely to be replaced within a relatively short period.
The Commissioners’ individual decisions were as follow:
the panelling ‘did appear visually to retain a separate identity’;
the panelling was ‘clearly capable of being removed; indeed similar panelling had been removed … and reused. There is no reason to believe that removal … would cause more than surface damage to the plaster’;
'The structure of the rooms was clearly not incomplete without the panelling’ (that is, the structure was complete without the panelling); and
‘The panelling was not likely to be removed after only a short period’.
Let us consider these conclusions. The first three point to the panelling being plant, rather than premises. So even at that point it would seem ‘more appropriate’ on balance to regard the panelling as having retained a separate identity, rather than as being part of the premises, following Mr Justice Hoffmann’s principles.
The fourth finding seems to be based on surmisal rather than evidence (at least, none is referred to in the published decision) and is in any case a misunderstanding of what Mr Justice Hoffman’s fourth consideration intended. It has never been considered that an asset failed to be regarded as plant simply because it had a relatively lengthy period of use. Case law has always been clear on the point. Indeed the locus classicus for plant, Yarmouth v France, spoke of plant including ‘whatever apparatus is used by a businessman for carrying on his business ... which he keeps for permanent employment in his business’.
By way of illustration, the dry dock in CIR v Barclay Curle & Co Ltd was held to be plant despite the fact that it was agreed it might last for 80 to 100 years. Against this background the most logical interpretation of Mr Justice Hoffman’s fourth consideration is that it aimed simply to suggest that a relatively short period of use would indicate that an asset has prima facie not become part of the premises.
An alternative test
The Hoffman ‘tests’ clearly point to the panelling not being part of the premises. And yet the Commissioners appear to have erred in law by ignoring this result and substituting a new test of their own. This appears only in the Commissioners’ published decision. It was not put forward by the taxpayer or HMRC and had not been debated.
This test was whether the panels were ‘an unexceptional component which would not be an unusual feature of premises of [this] type’. In other words, it is apparently not unusual to find wall panelling in pubs, so they must be part of the premises.
This ‘test’ seems wholly inappropriate. Among other fixed assets which are ‘unexceptional components which would not be an unusual feature of premises of [this] type’ would be heating systems and sanitary ware, not to mention bar counters, and carpets – by this test, they would all be part of the premises. The same would apply to a lift in an office building. And yet they are all accepted as plant; indeed proposed changes to the Capital Allowances Act from April will put this on a statutory basis for assets such as electrics, central heating and lifts.
Put another way, the test is proposed as embodying a general principle to be applied to a range of assets but when applied to many common assets gives results which are unequivocally wrong. One assumes an appeal is pending.
Alterations incidental to the installation of plant and machinery
The second matter under consideration related to building alterations ‘incidental to the installation of plant and machinery’. Both in its present form and under earlier Acts this phrase has been open to differing interpretations. The narrow definition (argued by HMRC) is that the alterations must be incidental to the physical act of installation; the wider definition is that they must merely be consequential, or related to that installation.
Intention of legislation
This provision was introduced in the Income Tax Act 1945 and the Hansard debate from the time makes clear that it was aimed at works such as modernising hotels, which required the installation of hot and cold water, bathrooms, lifts, and air-conditioning, etc. The provision was intended to allow incidental works to qualify, such as partitioning larger rooms to install bathrooms, or fitting double-glazed windows to make air-conditioning effective. The intention was therefore for the legislation to apply quite widely.
In Barclay Curle Lord Reid said in the House of Lords when considering ICTA 1952, s 300 (a predecessor to CAA 1990, s 66 and CAA 2001, s 25) ‘“Incidental” is a wider word than necessary … it may be that the exigencies of the trade require that, when new machinery or plant is installed in existing buildings, more shall be done than mere installation in order that the new machinery of plant may serve its proper purpose. Where that is the case this section enables the cost of the additional alterations to be included.’
Application in this case
The Commissioners took the example of wipe-clean wall tiling in a kitchen, which the taxpayer argued was required due to the volume of steam, etc, produced by cookers, but which the Commissioners held did not have a sufficient nexus with the installation of those cookers. A cooker could be used perfectly well (‘serve its proper purpose’, in the words of Lord Reid) without the tiling.
The other assets considered were drainage (which was held to be obviously plant due to the substantial capacity required – just like the cold water tanks and pipework in Wimpy) and toilet cubicles. It has long been a source of amazement and indeed humour that HMRC believed surrounding partitions or cubicles were not needed in order for toilets to serve their proper purpose – there are stories, probably apocryphal, of clients plying inspectors with tea, then seeing how keen they were to use an ‘open plan’ toilet! The Commissioners on this occasion found that the erection of cubicles was incidental to the installation of plant. It is perhaps a matter of degree – without tiles in the kitchen, the cookers could still have been used, whereas without cubicles, the toilets would probably have been left untouched. It is not wholly clear, however, that the precepts of Barclay Curle regarding the ‘exigencies of the trade’, and the guidance of Hansard, have been followed, and this remains a grey area.
Preliminaries and professional fees
HMRC’s Valuation Office has for many years sought to arbitrarily disallow aproportion (typically 50%) of preliminaries (for example, site management, security or plant hire) and professional fees, before any allocation to the constituent parts of a project, including plant – the so-called ‘Newstead formula’. Such an approach has had no basis in law and has generally been disputed by taxpayers, and a compromise reached.
The Commissioners recommended an eminently sensible approach. Insofar as items claimed as preliminaries or fees can be properly attributed to or apportioned to a qualifying or non-qualifying item, they are part of the cost of that item. Any allocation should be as accurate as possible, but where (as in JD Wetherspoon) there is a multiplicity of items, a pro-rata apportionment is reasonable in principle.
The question of expenditure ‘incidental to the installation of plant’ was decided largely, but not entirely, in favour of HMRC. Nonetheless, many advisers will have sympathy with the approach outlined, which is to allow the expenditure only where the relationship between the expenditure and the installation of plant is sufficiently close. The problem is that this is a question of degree, and consequently a large grey area remains. It is to be hoped that any appeal would consider more fully the original intention and scope of the legislation, as shown by Hansard.
On preliminaries, the decision will be a blow to HMRC. Again, however, the decision appears sensible, and one would hope it marks the end of HMRC seeking to arbitrarily disallow a proportion of such costs.
The Commissioners are to be applauded for the way they dealt with the matters above. However, on the remaining question, essentially a consideration of the ‘premises test’, it is hard to conclude other than that they appear to have come to a wrong decision as a result of erring in law.
This was in part due to not attaching sufficient importance to a key comment in Wimpy that ‘when Lord Lowry referred to “something which becomes part of the premises”, he ... must have been expressing in other words the point made by Oliver LJ in Cole Brothers v Phillips about something which “performs simply and solely the function of housing the business”.’
The resultant misunderstanding of the term ‘premises’ meant that the Commissioners’ deliberations were inherently flawed. Having answered the appropriate questions from case law (which, in this case, clearly suggested that wood panelling was plant), they ignored those answers and substituted instead a wholly inappropriate test of their own, one which when applied to other assets gives answers which are not only unexpected but which are at variance with statute.
One has every sympathy for the Commissioners, who appear to have been given wholly inadequate time for dealing with such complex issues. Nonetheless, this part of the decision, which of course does not form binding precedent and is merely persuasive, seemingly fails to apply House of Lords and Court of Appeal decisions and is therefore unlikely to carry much weight.
Neither party will have been wholly satisfied with the decision and one suspects an appeal (or two) may be made.
View and save JD Wetherspoon plc v HMRC as a PDF file.
Tags for this article: capital allowances, plant, machinery, tax tribunal, JD Wetherspoon, pubs, premises, incidental expenditure, preliminaries, professional fees
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Cato Policy Report
Conference on forfeiture abuse
Policy Forum: Forfeiture Reform Unites Left and Right
At the May 3 Cato Institute conference, “Forfeiture Reform: Now, or Never?” Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that he was introducing the Civil Asset Forfeiture Act of 1999.
In his keynote address, Hyde built on the introductory remarks of conference director Roger Pilon in setting forth the details of his bill, which had first been discussed in his 1995 Cato book, Forfeiting Our Property Rights: Is Your Property Safe from Seizure? Hyde said that modern forfeiture laws were originally directed at drug dealers. Now, however, they are routinely used to confiscate the property of innocent citizens. Among other things, Hyde’s bill would shift the burden of proof to the government. Today, government seizes property believed simply to have been “involved” in crime, and the owner, where permitted, must prove the property’s innocence. The owner is often never even charged with a crime.
The roots of forfeiture stretch back to antiquity and to early American customs law, said E. E. (Bo) Edwards and Samuel J. Buffone, cochairmen of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Forfeiture Abuse Task Force. But during Prohibition the use of forfeiture increased, and, more recently, with the War on Drugs, its use has exploded. Today its use reaches well beyond the drug war. People involved in ordinary businesses and professions have had theirs cars, homes, bank accounts, and businesses seized simply because the property was suspected of “facilitating” a crime. And the police get to keep the assets, which only encourages further seizures.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg argued that many forfeiture abuses have been eradicated. Stefan Cassella, who heads the Justice Department’s Asset and Money Laundering Section, said that property is forfeited so the user won’t be able to commit further crimes with it. He also defended the law because it enables the government to reach property used by someone other than the owner to commit a crime.
James H. Warner of the National Rifle Association drew on the early history of forfeiture and Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties Union looked at recent constitutional theory in arguing that modern forfeiture law has no place in a free society governed by the rule of law. Shortly after the conference, Hyde’s bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 27 to 3.
The conference, broadcast live on the World Wide Web, is available for viewing online along with other Cato programs. Excerpts from the remarks made by Hyde are also available on the May edition of CatoAudio.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 1999 edition of Cato Policy Report.
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Category Archives: Legal Language and Legal Writing
6th SEM Legal Language and Legal Writing Including Proficiency in General English 2017 Question paper CCS UNIVERSITY LLB
Category : Legal Language and Legal Writing
6thSEMLegallaunguage2017
6thSEMlegalEnglish2018
Legal Language and Legal Writing Including Proficiency in General English previous paper
Need and Importance of Legal Language
Words are the essential tools of the law. In the study of law, language has great importance; cases turn on the meaning that judges ascribe to words, and lawyers must use the right words to effectuate the wishes of their clients. It has been said that you will be learning a new language when you study law, but it’s actually a bit more complicated. There are at least four ways in which you encounter the vocabulary of law.
Learning new words
that you probably have not encountered before. These words and phrases have meaning only as legal terms. Words or phrases such as res judicata, impleader, executory interest, demurrer and mens rea,oblige students to acquire some new vocabulary. Learning the meaning of these words is essential to understand any case or discussion which uses them.
Some recognizable words take on different or new meanings when used in the law.
Malice, for example, when used in the law of defamation, does not mean hatred or meanness; it means “with reckless disregard for the truth.” Similarly, “consideration” in contract law, has nothing to do with thoughtfulness; it means something of value given by a party to an agreement. When a party is “prejudiced” in the law it usually means that the party was put at some disadvantage, not that the party is bigoted. “Fixtures” in property law are much more than bathroom and kitchen equipment. There are many words like this in the law, and students must shake loose their ordinary understanding of a word to absorb its legal meaning. Words that have distinct or specialized meanings in the law are sometimes called “terms of art.”
Words whose meaning expands, contracts or changes, depending on the context or the place in which it is used.
In one context (divorce, for example), a person may be considered a “resident” of a state if she has lived there for 6 months. In another context (getting a driver’s license) a person may be considered a “resident” after just a few days. In one state, a person may be said to “possess” a firearm if it is within his/her reach in an auto. In another state, that person might have to be in control of the firearm to be considered in possession of it. Thus, the same word can have a different meaning depending on what question is being asked, and where it is being asked.
Legal doctrine, and act as shorthand terms for complex concepts.
The terms “unfair competition,” “due process of law,” “foreseeable,” and “cruel and unusual punishment” are a few examples. These terms have been subject to interpretation by judges in many cases over long periods of time, and there is little hope of finding a clear and concise definition that can serve in all contexts.
Finally, students need to develop a heightened respect for linguistic precision. Because the meaning of words is so crucial to the craft of lawyering, students will be expected to use words carefully and precisely. You will learn, for example, that there are legally significant differences between “Sally lives in the United States,” “Sally resides in the United States,” “Sally is domiciled in the United States,” and “Sally is a citizen of the United States.” Even grammar and punctuation can be crucial: a person who leaves $50,000 “to each of my children who took care of me,” has a different intention than a person who leaves $50,000 “to each of my children, who took care of me.” The lawyer drafting the will needs to know how to wield that comma, or better yet, how to avoid any confusion in the first place.
Once you have learned the legal meanings of words, you are expected to use them with precision. Substituting one for another can result in serious errors and misunderstandings. The legal meanings of words constitute the common language of lawyers and judges, who rely on this language to communicate efficiently and effectively.
WHAT IS CITATION? WHEN DO I NEED TO CITE?
System for Citing Documents in Written Work
(a) Various systems of citation
(Numeric System, Harvard System, Harvard Law Review Association System and
Indian Practice)
WHAT IS CITATION?
A “citation” is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again, including:
• information about the author
• the title of the work
• the name and location of the company that published your copy of the source
• the date your copy was published
• the page numbers of the material you are borrowing
WHY SHOULD I CITE SOURCES?
Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people’s work without plagiarizing. But there are a number of other reasons to cite sources:
• citations are extremely helpful to anyone who wants to find out more about your ideas and where they came from
• not all sources are good or right — your own ideas may often be more accurate or interesting than those of your sources. Proper citation will keep you from taking the rap for someone else’s bad ideas
• citing sources shows the amount of research you’ve done
• citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas
DOESN’T CITING SOURCES MAKE MY WORK SEEM LESS ORIGINAL?
Not at all. On the contrary, citing sources actually helps your reader distinguish your ideas from those of your sources. This will actually emphasize the originality of your own work.
WHEN DO I NEED TO CITE?
Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge their source. The following situations almost always require citation:
• whenever you use quotes
• whenever you paraphrase
• whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed
• whenever you make specific reference to the work of another
• whenever someone else’s work has been critical in developing your own ideas.
HOW DO I CITE SOURCES?
This depends on what type of work you are writing, how you are using the borrowed material, and the expectations of your instructor.
First, you have to think about how you want to identify your sources. If your sources are very important to your ideas, you should mention the author and work in a sentence that introduces your citation. If, however, you are only citing the source to make a minor point, you may consider using parenthetical references, footnotes, or endnotes.
There are also different forms of citation for different disciplines. For example, when you cite sources in a psychology paper you would probably use a different form of citation than you might in a paper for an English class.
Finally, you should always consult your instructor to determine the form of citation appropriate for your paper. You can save a lot of time and energy simply by asking “How should I cite my sources,” or “What style of citation should I use?” before you begin writing.
In the following sections, we will take you step-by-step through some general guidelines for citing sources.
IDENTIFYING SOURCES IN THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER
The first time you cite a source, it is almost always a good idea to mention its author(s), title, and genre (book, article, or web page, etc.). If the source is central to your work, you may want to introduce it in a separate sentence or two, summarizing its importance and main ideas. But often you can just tag this information onto the beginning or end of a sentence. For example, the following sentence puts information about the author and work before the quotation:
Milan Kundera, in his book The Art of the Novel, suggests that “if the novel should really disappear, it will do so not because it has exhausted its powers but because it exists in a world grown alien to it.”
You may also want to describe the author(s) if they are not famous, or if you have reason to believe your reader does not know them. You should say whether they are economic analysts, artists, physicists, etc. If you do not know anything about the author, and cannot find any information, it is best to say where you found the source and why you believe it is credible and worth citing. For example,
In an essay presented at an Asian Studies conference held at Duke University, Sheldon Geron analyzes the relation of state, labor-unions, and small businesses in Japan between 1950s and 1980s.
If you have already introduced the author and work from which you are citing, and you are obviously referring to the same work, you probably don’t need to mention them again. However, if you have cited other sources and then go back to one you had cited earlier, it is a good idea to mention at least the author’s name again (and the work if you have referred to more than one by this author) to avoid confusion.
Citation styles differ mostly in the location, order, and syntax of information about references. The number and diversity of citation styles reflect different priorities with respect to concision, readability, dates, authors, publications, and, of course, style.
There are also two major divisions within most citation styles: documentary-note style and parenthetical style. Documentary-note style is the standard form of documenting sources. It involves using either footnotes or end notes, so that information about your sources is readily available to your readers but does not interfere with their reading of your work.
Professor Scott asserts that “environmental reform in Alaska in the 1970s accelerated rapidly as a pipeline expansion.”: (Scott 1999,23)
This is generally considered an abbreviated form of citation, and it does not require footnotes or endnotes, although it does require the equivalent of a “Works Cited” page at the end of the paper. It is easier to write, but might interfere with how smoothly your work reads.
With so many different citation styles, how do you know which one is right for your paper? First, we strongly recommend asking your instructor. There are several factors which go into determining the appropriate citation style, including discipline (priorities in an English class might differ from those of a Psychology class, for example), academic expectations (papers intended for publication might be subject to different standards than mid-term papers), the research aims of an assignment, and the individual preference of your instructor.
If you are a teacher or instructor, you may also wish to distribute examples of plagiarism and legitimate citation, and then go over the differences together with your classes. This will clarify some of the common misconceptions about plagiarism and reduce the likelihood of “honest mistakes,” while at the same time showing how serious you are about the issue.
If you want to learn more about using a particular citation style, we have provided links to more specific resources below.
Harvard system (author and date)
In the text use the surname(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
References should then be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the work, with the year of publication placed immediately after the author’s name.
• When referencing more than one work by the same author you can distinguish between them by adding letters after the year eg (Turner, 1998a) and (Turner, 1998b)
• When citing a particular quote put quotation marks around the quotation. You must include the page number(s) of the quotation, e.g. Treatments for cancer “can disrupt economic and social function” (Fallowfield 1990, p. 92).
Only use direct quotations when necessary. It is usually preferable to re-word (paraphrase) information.
Example of Harvard referencing
A typical piece of text might read:
Searcy and Whatley (1984) also found evidence for functions in Thermoplasma. They do not seem to form de novo in the cytoplasm (Opperdoes and Michels 1989; Tabak and Diestel 1989). This is symbiant-like behaviour, but there is no trace of a genome in microbodies.
The reference list would arrange references in alphabetical order of author, e.g.
• OPPERDOES, F. R. and P.A.M. MICHELS, 1989. Biogenesis and evolutionary origin of peroxisomes. In: J. M. TAGER, Organelles in Eukaryotic Cells. New York: Plenum, pp.5-10.
• SEARCY, D. G. and F. R. WHATLEY, 1984. Thermoplasma acidophilum cell membrane. Zentralblatt fur Bakteriologie Mikrobiologie und Hygiene 1 Abteilung Originale, C3, 245-257.
• TABAK, H. F. and B. DIESTEL, 1989. Biogenesis of peroxisomes. In: J. M. Tager, Organelles in Eukaryotic Cells. New York: Plenum, pp.5-10.
When referencing more than one author the first author is listed by surname first, followed by their initials. The second author is listed by initials first, followed by surname.
Notice that when using the Harvard system, the year of publication is positioned after the author names.
Numeric system
In the Numeric system of referencing, numbers inserted in the text refer to a numerical sequence of references at the end. The first reference is numbered 1, the second 2, and so on. The numbers can be written in superscript or in brackets
• When citing a particular quote put quotation marks around the quotation. You must include the page number(s) of the quotation, e.g. Treatments “can disrupt economic and social function” (2, p. 92).
Example of numeric referencing
Searcy and Whatley1 also found evidence for functions in Thermoplasma. They do not seem to form de novo in the cytoplasm2,3. This is symbiant-like behaviour, but there is no trace of a genome in microbodies1.
The reference list would give each reference in numerical order:
1. SEARCY, D G. and F. R. WHATLEY. Thermoplasma acidophilum cell membrane. Zentralblatt fur Bakteriologie Mikrobiologie und Hygiene 1 Abteilung Originale, 1984, C3, 245-257.
2. OPPERDOES, F. R. and P. A. M. MICHELS. Biogenesis and evolutionary origin of peroxisomes. In: J. M. Tager, Organelles in Eukaryotic Cells. New York: Plenum, 1989, pp. 5-10.
3. TABEK, H. F. and B. DIESTREL. Biogenesis of peroxisomes. In: J. M. TAGER, Organelles in Eukaryotic Cells New York: Plenum, 1989, pp. 5-10
Notice that the year of publication has now been positioned towards the end of the reference for books and before the volume, part/issue and page number details for journals.
(b) First Footnote References
(Books, Journal, Electronic sources etc.)
WHAT ARE FOOTNOTES?
Footnotes are notes placed at the bottom of a page. They cite references or comment on a designated part of the text above it. For example, say you want to add an interesting comment to a sentence you have written, but the comment is not directly related to the argument of your paragraph. In this case, you could add the symbol for a footnote. Then, at the bottom of the page you could reprint the symbol and insert your comment. Here is an example:
This is an illustration of a footnote.1 The number “1” at the end of the previous sentence corresponds with the note below. See how it fits in the body of the text?
1 At the bottom of the page you can insert your comments about the sentence preceding the footnote.
When your reader comes across the footnote in the main text of your paper, he or she could look down at your comments right away, or else continue reading the paragraph and read your comments at the end. Because this makes it convenient for your reader, most citation styles require that you use either footnotes or end notes in your paper. Some, however, allow you to make parenthetical references (author, date) in the body of your work. See our section on citation styles for more information.
Footnotes are not just for interesting comments, however. Sometimes they simply refer to relevant sources — they let your reader know where certain material came from or where they can look for other sources on the subject. To decide whether you should cite your sources in footnotes or in the body of your paper, you should ask your instructor or see our section on citation styles.
WHERE DOES THE LITTLE FOOTNOTE MARK GO?
Whenever possible, put the footnote at the end of a sentence, immediately following the period or whatever punctuation mark completes that sentence. Skip two spaces after the footnote before you begin the next sentence. If you must include the footnote in the middle of a sentence for the sake of clarity, or because the sentence has more than one footnote (try to avoid this!), try to put it at the end of the most relevant phrase, after a comma or other punctuation mark. Otherwise, put it right at the end of the most relevant word. If the footnote is not at the end of a sentence, skip only one space after it.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOOTNOTES AND END NOTES?
The only real difference is placement — footnotes appear at the bottom of the relevant page, while end notes all appear at the end of your document. If you want your reader to read your notes right away, footnotes are more likely to get your reader’s attention. Endnotes, on the other hand, are less intrusive and will not interrupt the flow of your paper.
IF I CITE SOURCES IN THE FOOTNOTES (OR END NOTES), HOW’S THAT DIFFERENT FROM A BIBLIOGRAPHY?
Sometimes you may be asked to include these — especially if you have used a parenthetical style of citation. A “works cited” page is a list of all the works from which you have borrowed material. Your reader may find this more convenient than footnotes or end notes because he or she will not have to wade through all of the comments and other information in order to see the sources from which you drew your material. A “works consulted” page is a complement to a “works cited” page, listing all of the works you used, whether they were useful or not.
(c) Subsequent Footnote References and other Terms used in the Footnotes.
Following Terms shall be explained:
Ibidem/Idem, Supra, Infra, Et.seq., Op.cit., Loc. cit., Cf., See, See also,
See generally, But see, contra, In re etc.
Ibid. (Latin, short for ibidem, meaning “in the same place”) is the term used to provide an endnote or footnote citation or reference for a source that was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote. This is similar in meaning to idem (meaning something that has been mentioned previously; the same), abbreviated Id., which is commonly used in legal citation.[1] To find the ibid. source, one must look at the reference preceding it.
Ibid. may also be used in the Harvard (name-date) system for in-text references where there has been a close previous citation from the same source material.[2][3]The previous reference should be immediately visible, e.g. within the same paragraph or page. Many academic publishers now prefer that “ibid.” should not be given in italics, as it is a commonly found term.[4]
Notice that ibid. is an abbreviation where the last two letters of the word are not present; thus, it commonly takes a period (full stop) in both American and British usage, as do all abbreviations.
[Latin, Below, under, beneath, underneath.] A term employed in legal writing to indicate that thematter designated will appear beneath or in the pages following the reference.
West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
prep. Latin for “below,” this is legal shorthand to indicate that the details or citation of a case will come later on in the brief. Infra is distinguished from supra which shows that a case has already been cited “above.” The typical language is Jones v. McLaughlin, infra, meaning the exact citation of the case, including volume and page number, will follow later in the document. (See: citation, cite)
[Latin, Above; beyond.] A term used in legal research to indicate that the matter under current consideration has appeared in the preceding pages of the text in which the reference is made.
(sooh-prah) Latin for “above,” in legal briefs and decisions it refers to the citation of a court decision which has been previously mentioned. Thus a case when first cited will be referred to as Guinn v.United States, (1915) 238 U. S. 347, meaning it can be found in volume 238 of the United States Reports (of the Supreme Court) at page 347 and was decided in 1915. The next time the case is cited as Guinn v. United States, supra.
Et Seq.
An abbreviation for the Latin et sequentes or et sequentia, meaning “and the following.”
The phrase et seq. is used in references made to particular pages or sections of cases, articles,regulations, or statutes to indicate that the desired information is continued on the pages or in the sections following a designated page or section, as “p. 238 et seq.” or “section 43 et seq.”
The abbreviation et seq. is sometimes used to denote a reference to more than one following pageor section.
op. cit. abbreviation. a Latin phrase meaning in the work already cited, used when referring to a text, especially a legal, academic, or otherwise authoritative text.
The abbreviation is used in an end note or footnote to refer the reader to a previously cited work, standing in for repetition of the full title of the work.[1] Op. cit. thus refers the reader to the bibliography, where the full citation of the work can be found, or to a full citation given in a previous footnote. Op. cit. should never therefore be used on its own, which would be meaningless, but most often with the author’s surname,[1] or another brief clue as to which work is referred to. For example, given a work called The World of Salamanders (1999) by Jane Q. Smith, the style would typically be “Smith op. cit.”, usually followed by a page number, to refer the reader to a previous full citation of this work (or with further clarification such as “Smith 1999, op. cit.” or “Smith, World of Salamanders, op. cit.”, if two sources by that author are cited). Given names or initials are not needed unless the work cites two authors with the same surname, as the whole purpose of using op. cit. is economy of text. For works without an individually named author, the title can be used, e.g. “CIA World Fact Book, op. cit.” As usual with foreign words and phrases, op. cit. is typically given in italics. The variant Loc. cit., an abbreviation of the Latin phrase loco citato meaning “in the place cited”,[1] has been used for the same purpose but also indicating the same page not simply the same work; it is now rarely used or recognized.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, considers that op. cit. and loc. cit. are “rightly falling into disuse”, and “instead uses the short-title form”,[1] e.g. the form World of Salamanders, to use the example above.[2] Various different styles call for other alternatives, such as a reference to the author’s surname and publication year, e.g. “Smith 1999”.
Op. cit is contrasted with ibid., an abbreviation of the Latin adverb ibidem, meaning “in the same place; in that very place”[3][4] which refers the reader to the title of the work in the preceding footnote. The easily confused idem (sometimes abbreviated id.), the Latin definitive pronoun meaning “the same”[5] is also used on occasion (especially in legal writing) within footnotes, and is a stand-in for the last-cited author, rather than title.[5] The Latin adverb supra, meaning “above” means simply “see above” and can therefore be somewhat imprecise.
Loc. cit. (Latin, short for loco citato, meaning “in the place cited”) is a footnote or endnote term used to repeat the title and page number for a given work (and author). Loc. cit. is used in place of ibid. when the reference is not only to the work immediately preceding, but also refers to the same page.
The abbreviation cf. (short for the Latin: confer, meaning “compare”) is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed.
See also may refer to:
• Citation signal, reference formats which often appear in technical, scientific, and legal documents
• cf., an abbreviation for confer, meaning “compare” or “consult”
“See” indicates that the cited authority supports, but does not directly state, the proposition given. Used similarly to no signal, to indicate that the proposition follows from the cited authority. It may also be used to refer to a cited authority which supports the proposition. For example, before 1997 the IDEA was silent on the subject of private school reimbursement, but courts had granted such reimbursement as “appropriate” relief under principles of equity pursuant to 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(C ). See Burlington, 471 U.S. at 370, 105 S.Ct. 1996 (“[W]e are confident that by empowering the court to grant ‘appropriate’ relief Congress meant to include retroactive reimbursement to parents as an available remedy in a proper case.”); 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(C ) (“In any action brought under this paragraph, the court … shall grant such relief as the court determines is appropriate.”).
This indicates that the cited authority constitutes additional material which supports the proposition less directly than that indicated by “see” or “accord”. “See also” may be used to introduce a case supporting the stated proposition which is distinguishable from previously-cited cases. It is sometimes used to refer readers to authorities supporting a proposition when other supporting authorities have already been cited or discussed. A parenthetical explanation of the source’s relevance, after a citation introduced by “see also”, is encouraged. For example, ” … Omitting the same mental element in a similar weapons possession statute, such as RCW 9.41.040, strongly indicates that the omission was purposeful and that strict liability was intended. See generally State v. Alvarez, 74 Wash. App. 250, 260, 872 P.2d 1123 (1994) (omission of “course of conduct” language in criminal counterpart to civil antiharassment act indicated “Legislature consciously chose to criminalize a single act rather than a course of conduct.”) aff’d, 128 Wash.2d 1, 904 P.2d 754 (1995); see also State v. Roberts, 117 Wash.2d 576, 586, 817 P.2d 855 (1991) (use of certain statutory language in one instance, and different language in another, evinces different legislative intent) (citing cases).” Source: State v. Anderson, 141 Wash.2d 357, 5 P.3d 1247, 1253 (2000).
Cf.[edit]
Main article: Cf.
From the Latin confer (“compare”), this signals that a cited proposition differs from the main proposition but is sufficiently analogous to lend support. An explanatory parenthetical note is recommended to clarify the citation’s relevance. For example, it is precisely this kind of conjecture and hair-splitting that the Supreme Court wanted to avoid when it fashioned the bright-line rule in Miranda. Cf. Davis, 512 U.S. at 461 (noting that where the suspect asks for counsel, the benefit of the bright-line rule is the “clarity and ease of application” that “can be applied by officers in the real world without unduly hampering the gathering of information” by forcing them “to make difficult judgment calls” with a “threat of suppression if they guess wrong”).
See generally[edit]
This signal indicates that the cited authority presents background material relevant to the proposition. Legal scholars generally encourage the use of parenthetical explanations of the source material’s relevance following each authority using “see generally”, and this signal can be used with primary and secondary sources. For example, it is a form of “discrimination” because the complainant is being subjected to differential treatment. See generally Olmstead v. L. C., 527 U.S. 581, 614, 144 L. Ed. 2d 540, 119 S. Ct. 2176 (1999) (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment) (the “normal definition of discrimination” is “differential treatment”).
Contra[edit]
This signals that the cited authority directly contradicts a given point. Contra is used where no signal would be used for support. For example: “Before Blakely, courts around the country had found that “statutory minimum” was the maximum sentence allowed by law for the crime, rather than the maximum standard range sentence. See, e.g., State v. Gore, 143 Wash.2d 288, 313-14, 21 P.3d 262 (2001), overruled by State v. Hughes, 154 Wash.2d 118, 110 P.3d 192 (2005); contra Blakely, 124 S.Ct. at 2536-37.”
But see[edit]
The cited authority contradicts the stated proposition, directly or implicitly. “But see” is used in opposition where “see” is used for support. For example: “Specifically, under Roberts, there may have been cases in which courts erroneously determined that testimonial statements were reliable. But see Bockting v. Bayer, 418 F.3d at 1058 (O’Scannlain, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc).”
But cf.[edit]
The cited authority contradicts the stated proposition by analogy; a parenthetical explanation of the source’s relevance is recommended. For example: But cf. 995 F.2d, at 1137 (observing that “[i]n the ordinary tort claim arising when a government driver negligently runs into another car, jury trial is precisely what is lost to a plaintiff when the government is substituted for the employee”).
“But” should be omitted from “but see” and “but cf.” when the signal follows another negative signal: Contra Blake v. Kiline, 612 F.2d 718, 723-24 (3d Cir. 1979); see CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT, LAW OF FEDERAL COURTS 48 (4th ed. 1983)
In re is a Latin phrase meaning “in the matter of.” When in re appears in the title of a court case, it means that the judicial proceeding may not have formally designated adverse parties or is otherwise uncontested. The use of in re refers to the object or person that is the primary subject of the case.
(d) Preparation of Bibliography
WHAT’S A BIBLIOGRAPHY?
A bibliography is a list of all of the sources you have used in the process of researching your work. In general, a bibliography should include:
• the authors’ names
• the titles of the works
• the names and locations of the companies that published your copies of the sources
• the dates your copies were published
• the page numbers of your sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes)
OK, SO WHAT’S AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?
An annotated bibliography is the same as a bibliography with one important difference: in an annotated bibliography, the bibliographic information is followed by a brief description of the content, quality, and usefulness of the source.
IF I CITE SOURCES IN THE FOOTNOTES (OR ENDNOTES), HOW’S THAT DIFFERENT FROM A BIBLIOGRAPHY?
Sometimes you may be asked to include these — especially if you have used a parenthetical style of citation. A “works cited” page is a list of all the works from which you have borrowed material. Your reader may find this more convenient than footnotes or endnotes because he or she will not have to wade through all of the comments and other information in order to see the sources from which you drew your material. A “works consulted” page is a complement to a “works cited” page, listing all of the works you used, whether they were useful or not.
ISN’T A “WORKS CONSULTED” PAGE THE SAME AS A “BIBLIOGRAPHY,” THEN?
Well, yes. The title is different because “works consulted” pages are meant to complement “works cited” pages, and bibliographies may list other relevant sources in addition to those mentioned in footnotes or endnotes. Choosing to title your bibliography “Works Consulted” or “Selected Bibliography” may help specify the relevance of the sources listed.
(e) Abbreviations
(i) Common abbreviations used in footnotes and general legal writings
(ii) Abbreviation used for Indian and foreign legal periodicals
Term or phrase Literal translation Definition and use English pronunciatio
a fortiori
from stronger An a fortiori argument is an “argument from a stronger reason”, meaning that because one fact is true, that a second related and included fact must also be true. /ˌeɪ fɔːrtiˈoʊraɪ/, /ˌeɪ fɔːrʃiˈoʊraɪ/
a mensa et thoro
from table and bed Divorce a mensa et thoro indicates legal separation without legal divorce. /ˌeɪ ˈmɛnsə ɛt ˈθoʊroʊ/
from later An argument derived from subsequent event. /ˌeɪ ˌpɒstiːri.oʊraɪ/
from earlier An argument derived from previous event. /ˌeɪ praɪ.oʊraɪ/
a quo from which Regarding a court below in an appeal, either a court of first instance or an appellate court, known as the court a quo. /ˌeɪ ˈkwoʊ/
ab extra from outside Concerning a case, a person may have received some funding from a 3rd party. This funding may have been considered ab extra. /ˌæb ˈɛkstrə/
from the beginning “Commonly used referring to the time a contract, statute, marriage, or deed become legal. e.g The couple was covered ab initio by her health policy.”[1]
/ˌæb ɪˈnɪʃi.oʊ/
absque hoc
without this “Presenting the negative portion of a plea when pleading at common by way a special traverse.”[1]
Actori incumbit onus probatio
on the plaintiff rests the proving The burden of proof falls to the plaintiff, claimant, or petitioner according to Roman law.
actus reus
guilty act Part of what proves criminal liability (with mens rea).
/ˌæktəs ˈriː.əs/
ad coelum
to the sky Abbreviated from Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad infernos which translates to “[for] whoever owns [the] soil, [it] is his all the way [up] to Heaven and [down] to Hell.” The principle that the owner of a parcel of land also owns the air above and the ground below the parcel. /ˌæd ˈsiːləm/
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Lyft's COO, a former Tesla exec, is the latest expert to throw cold water on Elon Musk's plan to have 1 million robo-taxis on the road by 2020
Graham Rapier and Shana Lebowitz
Apr. 26, 2019, 10:24 AM
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Lyft CEO Logan Green, right, John Zimmer, the company's president, center, and Jon McNeill, Lyft's chief operating officer.
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Lyft's chief operating officer, a former Tesla executive, is the latest expert to throw cold water on Elon Musk's plan to have 1 million robo-taxis on the road by next year.
"I just don't know if that's possible to do," Jon McNeill told Business Insider in an interview.
While Lyft is also researching autonomy, McNeill said the company is counting on having human drivers for plenty of years to come.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Plenty of people are skeptical of Elon Musk's vision of 1 million self-driving Tesla robo-taxis on the streets by next year, even one of his former executives.
Jon McNeill, Lyft's chief operating officer and former president of global sales and service, didn't go so far as to compare Musk to the great showman P.T. Barnum, but he did express plenty of doubt for the billionaire's plan.
"I just don't know if that's possible to do," McNeill said in an interview with Business Insider. "What we spend our time thinking about is we've got a future that is driver-based."
Lyft, like Tesla and its major competitor Uber, is investing in self-driving cars, too. The company's autonomous shuttles have facilitated more than 35,000 rides in Las Vegas as part of Lyft's partnership with Aptiv, it said in its initial-public-offering (IPO) filings earlier this year. However, a wider rollout of that could be years away, and until then, the company is focused on its human drivers.
"What our research shows is that even with autonomy happening over the next few years — or starting to be deployed over the next few years — we'll need more drivers in five years than we have today," McNeill said. "And we'll need more drivers in 10 years than we need in five years. So we're in the long-term driver business."
Lyft said it has barely scraped the surface of its potential market, which includes not just the hundreds of billions of car trips Americans take every year, but also people's trips on bikes, scooters, and public transit. Shifting all of those to autonomous vehicles won't happen overnight, McNeill said.
"If you add up the overall bookings of Uber and Lyft, let's say we're $30 to $35 billion dollars into that $1 trillion opportunity," he said. "So over the next five to 10 years that $30 to $35 billion, or 1% of miles traveled today, grows into that trillion-dollar opportunity. And it grows faster actually, we believe, than the penetration of autonomy."
"If autonomy is serving 5% of rides, you still need 95% of ride service by drivers," McNeill said.
More Lyft news:
Uber spent $3.3 billion on acquisitions in 2018 and 2019 — 10-times more than Lyft
Major Wall Street analysts are all bulled up on Lyft, but investors don't seem to care
Lyft might eventually make money — but it could take 7 years to get there, analyst says
SEE ALSO: These 5 charts show how Uber and Lyft compare financially as they fight to win the ride-hailing race
More: Tesla Lyft Elon Musk Autopilot
There’s a deepening divide among Google workers: Those who get free meals and those who don’t
This tech exec quit his job so he could invest in 'sexual wellness' startups and he says cannabis investors showed him how to do it
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What it's like using the Apple Watch's biggest competitor
Steve Kovach
Christian Storm/Business Insider
In the spring of 2012 the startup Pebble wasn't much more than a few people with a Kickstarter page.
But the vision laid out there proved there was a hunger for a viable smartwatch, even if it did come from a company no one had heard of before. (Over 68,000 people donated to the project.) And this was a year before the news even leaked that Apple was working on a watch of its own and everyone from LG to Motorola scrambled to beat Apple to market. Samsung alone launched six smartwatch models within a year and they were all duds.
But Pebble was there first, and it was doing it better than some of the biggest names in tech.
The company's newest device is the Pebble Time, a smartwatch that works with both the iPhone and Android phones. It's the first Pebble with a color screen. It's waterproof. Its battery lasts longer than any other smartwatch. And it starts at $199, or $150 cheaper than the cheapest Apple Watch.
The Pebble Time is far from perfect, but then again, so is the Apple Watch. The question today is whether or not you want a smartwatch — no one really needs one — and the Pebble Time is a good option if you don't want to spend a fortune.
The Pebble Time connects to your Android phone or iPhone using Bluetooth. There's a companion app stored on your phone for managing basic settings, installing apps, and changing the customizable watch faces.
Unlike the Apple Watch's sharp, full-color touchscreen, the Pebble Time can only show limited colors on its "e-paper" display. It's kind of like looking at a children's picture book.
The screen looks dated, but the upside is you get several days of usage on a single charge and it always stays on. Pebble claims the Time lasts up to seven days, but I only got a little over four days out of a charge. Still, that's four times longer than the Apple Watch's battery can last.
Once you're all set up, the Pebble Time mirrors all the notifications that hit your phone. If you don't want to receive a certain type of notification, you'll have to switch it off in your phone's settings. I tested the Time with an iPhone, which doesn't allow you to interact with notifications like you can on the Apple Watch. Instead, you can only glance at incoming texts, tweets, news alerts, etc. You have to go back to the phone if you want to respond or get more information.
The Pebble companion app on your phone doubles as an app store, which has a bunch of third-party apps and customizable watch faces that you download to your Time. Most of the apps are pretty bad, either dopey games or useless utilities like battery monitors. But I did find a few diamonds in the rough like Foursquare's Swarm app, which lets you check into locations from the Time.
I also liked Misfit, an app that unlocks the Time's fitness-tracking capabilities, but the Time is limited compared to other fitness trackers. You'll need to install multiple apps from different developers like RunKeeper in order to get the most out of the Time as a fitness trackers. And, of course, the Pebble Time doesn't come equipped with a built-in heart rate monitor like the Apple Watch, which is a key piece of technology for measuring how hard you're working during exercise.
But for the most part, I didn't use too many apps on the Time. As is the case with the Apple Watch, most Pebble developers haven't figured out how to simplify their apps and make them useful for a tiny screen. The watch is best used to quickly glance at the time and incoming notifications.
Finally, there's the timeline view, which you access by pressing the bottom right button on the watch. The timeline shows you upcoming events in your calendar, and third-party apps can integrate with it by letting you "pin" upcoming events. For example, the ESPN app plugs into the timeline so you can check when your favorite team is playing next.
It's not a looker
My biggest complaint with the Pebble Time is the way it looks.
It's made of plastic with four chunky buttons that bulge out from the sides. The bezel around the screen is really wide too, so it feels like the watch is taking up a lot of unnecessary space on your wrist. Pebble also has the Time Steel, which costs $100 more and has a nicer-looking metal casing, but I'm still not crazy about the overall design.
The Pebble Time Steel looks a bit better than the plastic Pebble Time.
The Pebble Time's design makes me feel like I'm using a kid's toy, something you'd get out of a cereal box or as a prize at a carnival, not a serious piece of technology. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who will dig the look — thousands of people have already preordered the Time without even seeing it in person — but I don't. If I'm going to spend $200 or more on something that's strapped to my body and in plain view all day, I want it to look good too.
But the upside to the design, especially for watch enthusiasts, is you can swap out the bands with any standard watch band. Pebble may not give you something beautiful right out of the box, but at least you can customize it a bit to distract from that.
Ahead of its time
Design quirks aside, I think Pebble has pulled off something none of the big companies exploring smartwatches have been able to do. The company understands the philosophy behind the smartwatch better than anyone else.
The Time acts as a watch first and foremost, and there are layers of "smart" stuff — apps, notifications, fitness tracking — beneath that. Pebble isn't trying to cram the smartphone experience into a tiny screen on your wrist. It built a watch that happens to do a few other things pretty well.
My biggest criticism with the Apple Watch is that it does too much and is best used when you strip out or ignore a lot of its features. The Pebble Time may seem limited and simple out of the box, but that's its greatest advantage.
Some bugs
I tested a near-final version of the Pebble software, but there were still a few bugs. The most recent software update causes my Time to randomly unpair itself from my iPhone, forcing me to restart the watch in order to get it to connect again. I also couldn't get the music controller, which lets you play, pause, and skip tracks you're listening to on your phone, to work. Pebble tells me these bugs will be ironed out in time for the product's public launch.
Should you get one?
Smartwatches are still in their infancy. The question today isn't really which one you should buy, but whether or not you should buy one at all.
I've been wearing a smartwatch for the past month — first the Apple Watch, and now the Pebble Time — and I'm starting to see the value. I let a colleague borrow my Pebble Time the other day so he could shoot a video demo. As I left my office to grab lunch, I found myself glancing at my wrist several times to check the time, weather, and any missed notifications out of habit.
I think that's the real advantage to smartwatches, at least in the near term. The wrist is a natural location to turn to in order to see what's going on. For decades, that just meant the time, but today we carry around a computer in our pocket that's constantly pinging us with alerts. A smartwatch is the perfect filter for those nuggets of information, and I've enjoyed using one.
If you have an Android phone, the Pebble Time is easily the best smartwatch you can buy today, much better than Google's Android Wear watches. iPhone owners will get a better experience out of the Apple Watch, but the Pebble Time makes a decent companion to the iPhone if you don't want to spend too much and can look past the awkward design.
NOW WATCH: The new Pebble is out — here's how it stacks up to the Apple Watch
More: Innovation Reviews Pebble
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Signet Announces Chief Financial Officer Transition
Chief Financial Officer Michele Santana to leave in 2019 following appointment of a successor and an orderly transition period
August 30, 2018 06:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time
HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Signet Jewelers Limited (“Signet”) (NYSE:SIG), the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry, today announced that Chief Financial Officer Michele Santana will leave the company in 2019 after eight years of service to pursue other opportunities.
Signet has initiated an external executive search and expects to appoint a new CFO by the end of the company’s fiscal year. Santana will continue as CFO until her successor is appointed and will remain with Signet in an advisory role until next year to ensure a smooth transition.
“Since 2010, Michele has been a highly valued member of our Senior Leadership Team and has played a central role in many of our major strategic initiatives that lay the foundation of our future success,” said Virginia C. Drosos, Chief Executive Officer. “As Signet advances on its path to becoming a share-gaining, omni-channel jewelry category leader, we’re very grateful to Michele for her financial leadership and her many contributions, and look forward to continuing to benefit from her financial acumen and deep institutional knowledge through the transition period.”
Santana joined Signet as Senior Vice President and Financial Controller in 2010 and was appointed CFO in 2014 where she was responsible for Signet’s financial strategy and planning, including tax, treasury, accounting, financial services, investor relations, and internal audit. She oversaw the acquisitions of Ultra Stores, Inc., Zale Corporation and R2Net, and most recently executed Signet’s strategic priority of outsourcing credit financing, allowing the company to focus on its core retail business. In addition, she led the development of the financial foundation, including the three-year cost optimization program, for Signet’s Path to Brilliance transformation plan.
“I am proud to have been part of Signet and am particularly gratified that, alongside my talented colleagues, we have positioned the business for success through on-going execution of Signet’s transformation plan,” said Santana. “I see this as the right time for me to move on to new challenges, and I look forward to facilitating a smooth transition. I am confident that Signet is well positioned to reach exciting new heights.”
About Signet and Safe Harbor Statement: Signet Jewelers Limited is the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry. Signet operates nearly 3,500 stores primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, H.Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples, Piercing Pagoda, and JamesAllen.com. Further information on Signet is available at www.signetjewelers.com. See also www.kay.com, www.zales.com, www.jared.com, www.hsamuel.co.uk, www.ernestjones.co.uk, www.peoplesjewellers.com, www.pagoda.com, and www.jamesallen.com. This release contains statements which are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, based upon management’s beliefs and expectations as well as on assumptions made by and data currently available to management, appear in a number of places throughout this document and include statements regarding, among other things, Signet’s results of operation, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the industry in which Signet operates. The use of the words “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “believes,” “should,” “potential,” “may,” “forecast,” “objective,” “plan,” or “target,” and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, our ability to implement Signet's transformation initiative, the effect of federal tax reform and adjustments relating to such impact on the completion of our quarterly and year-end financial statements, changes in interpretation or assumptions, and/or updated regulatory guidance regarding the U.S. tax reform, the benefits and outsourcing of the credit portfolio sale including technology disruptions, future financial results and operating results, the impact of weather-related incidents on Signet’s business, the benefits and integration of R2Net, general economic conditions, potential regulatory changes or other developments following the United Kingdom’s announced intention to negotiate a formal exit from the European Union, a decline in consumer spending, the merchandising, pricing and inventory policies followed by Signet, the reputation of Signet and its banners, the level of competition in the jewelry sector, the cost and availability of diamonds, gold and other precious metals, regulations relating to customer credit, seasonality of Signet’s business, financial market risks, deterioration in customers’ financial condition, exchange rate fluctuations, changes in Signet’s credit rating, changes in consumer attitudes regarding jewelry, management of social, ethical and environmental risks, the development and maintenance of Signet’s omni-channel retailing, security breaches and other disruptions to Signet’s information technology infrastructure and databases, inadequacy in and disruptions to internal controls and systems, changes in assumptions used in making accounting estimates relating to items such as extended service plans and pensions, risks related to Signet being a Bermuda corporation, the impact of the acquisition of Zale Corporation on relationships, including with employees, suppliers, customers and competitors, an adverse decision in legal or regulatory proceedings, deterioration in the performance of individual businesses or of the Company's market value relative to its book value, resulting in impairments of fixed assets or intangible assets or other adverse financial consequences, including tax consequences related thereto, especially in view of the Company’s recent market valuation and our ability to successfully integrate Zale Corporation’s operations and to realize synergies from the transaction.
For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement, see the "Risk Factors" section of Signet's Fiscal 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on April 2, 2018 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. Signet undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law.
Signet Jewelers Limited
Randi Abada, +1 330-668-3489
SVP Corporate Finance Strategy & Investor Relations
randi.abada@signetjewelers.com
David Bouffard, +1 330-668-5369
VP Corporate Affairs
david.bouffard@signetjewelers.com
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Kim Kardashian Endorsed Hillary Clinton & Here's How We Imagine She's Handling This News
By Hope Racine
Rick Diamond/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
During a talk yesterday at San Francisco's esteemed Commonwealth Club of California, Internet-breaker Kim Kardashian West endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The Q&A session was hosted by Judge LaDoris Cordeel, the first female African American judge in Northern California, and spanned a wide variety of subjects, from gun control to Spanx. According to the Daily Beast, when asked if she thought Clinton could become the first female president, Kardashian West responded, "I hope so!" The conversation later turned to a discussion of the maternity Spanx that Kardashian West was wearing to conceal her cellulite.
The reality TV superstar now joins the ranks of other celebrity Clinton supporters such as 50 Cent, Snoop Dog, Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Wilde, and (possibly) Beyoncé. Celebrity endorsements are beginning to roll in for Clinton, who has begun to gain a reputation not only as an experienced politician, but also as a celebrity in her own right.
However, Kardashian West's endorsement is a big one. With a social media following of more than 94 million people, the Daily Beast estimates her fan base is larger than the populations of Egypt, New Zealand, and Australia combined. Though much of that 94 million are likely below the legal voting age, Kardashian West still holds sway over a formidable voting bloc.
So how does Clinton feel about her newest supporter? After all, Clinton was once compared to Kardashian West by Newt Gingrich, the father of asinine comments. It was meant to be an unfavorable comparison, to undermine Clinton's authority. And let's be real. It's Gingrich, so it was probably intended to be horribly sexist as well. After being insulted with the comparison, I imagine it's a little awkward to now count Kardashian among her voters. Here's how we imagine Clinton's reaction went.
Stage 1: Disbelief
"Wait, wait, you're trying to tell me that Kim is in favor of gun control, same-sex marriage, and me being president? Very funny Frank. Go get me an iced tea."
Stage 2: Awkward Sheepishness
"Oh, whoa, the article is up on Politico. She really did say those things. You know, she makes kind of a good point. And I am awesome."
Stage 3: Acceptance
"She has how many social media followers? Do you think she'd be willing to do some twittering for me?"
Stage 4: Excitement
"Does anyone have her number? Do you think we could get Kanye on board? Do you think I could make an appearance on the show? You know, Bill absolutely loves it. He watches it every week."
Stage 5: Planning
"Did we ever get official word from Beyoncé? Someone follow up with her."
Images: Giphy (5)
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Allergies & Mental Health Are Related In This Surprising Way, According To A New Study
By JR Thorpe
It's spring, which means sunshine, flowers and — for those of us who happen to have hay fever — sneezing inelegantly all over the shop. However, springtime and its associated allergies may have another interesting consequence, according to a new study just published in Frontiers In Psychiatry — allergies and mental health may in fact be related. The study found that hay fever and asthma may increase your likelihood of a psychiatric disorder. It's an interesting link and we're not quite sure what lies behind it, but it's opened up a new realm of ideas about the relationship between allergens and psychological health.
The study itself was conducted in Taiwan over a period of 15 years using 186,588 people, 46,647 of whom have allergies of some kind. The cherry blossoms across Taiwan are famously beautiful in spring, but they don't exactly make life easy for people who have pollen allergies. The study looked at a broad range of allergy patients who suffered from several combinations of bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis. Bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammation of the airways, allergic rhinitis is classic hay fever (snuffly, inflamed nose), and atopic dermatitis is better known as eczema, which flares up in response to a variety of allergens, as well as stress. Pollen isn't the only trigger here; asthma and eczema can also flare up in response to things like laundry detergents and air pollution.
Leon Neal/Getty Images News/Getty Images
The 15-year study found that, when it comes to your allergies, it's not having them that counts — it's what combination you have that seems to affect your mental health. People who just had eczema, or had a combination of hay fever and eczema (which is pretty common), weren't at increased risk of having a psychiatric disorder. But having asthma or hay fever on their own or together, asthma and eczema, or all three at once was "associated with a higher risk of psychiatric disorders." 10.8 percent of the allergic study subjects had a psychiatric issue, compared to 6.7 of allergy-free people. That's an interesting and sizable difference.
So what's going on here? There are various explanations afoot, but the study didn't look at any in detail; it just established the link. One possible reason that people with these allergy combinations might be more vulnerable to psychological disorders is that being allergic is actually pretty stressful. Eczema is painful, asthma and rhinitis are physically unpleasant, and both the conditions themselves and the treatments take up time and energy. It's still difficult to deal with serious allergies, particularly in combination. Plus, people with sensitivity to environmental allergens, like pollen and air pollution, might isolate themselves inside, which is never a good thing for mental health.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Another potential explanation is inflammation, which is part of the body's natural immune response to threats. Allergies set off tissue inflammation inside the body, and high inflammation levels themselves have been tied to a higher likelihood of mood disorders, though it's not clear whether they're cause or effect. A study in 2017 found that people with depression tend to have far higher levels of a particular inflammation marker in their blood, and inflammation has also been linked to anxiety. It's possible that people with allergies are experiencing spiked inflammation levels that are somehow also interfering with mood, but it's not really clear how that link works just yet.
It's important to remember that a relationship isn't necessarily a cause. That's science 101. So just because people with allergies are more likely to have mental illness doesn't mean that one is necessarily causing the other; there could be certain other factors in play we don't know about. And mental health issues have been linked to the immune system in many complex ways. It's a big and interesting puzzle. But if you're feeling low after a dose of antihistamines and a coughing fit, it's worth considering that it's not just a bit of annoyance.
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NZ Budget 2017
Budget 2017 – “More responsible than a pure lolly scramble.”
Unsurprisingly for an election year, today’s Budget has something for everyone, says Peter Vial, New Zealand Country Head of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
“However, it is more responsible than a pure lolly scramble.
“It continues this Government’s focus on maintaining surpluses, reducing debt, growing the economy and supporting the most vulnerable in society via targeted ‘social investment’ spending,” Vial said.
“Finance Minister Stephen Joyce’s first Budget achieves a balance between continued careful fiscal management and sharing the benefits of sustained economic growth across the community.”
A tax reduction package will address the effects of tax bracket creep. Changes to Working for Families and the Accommodation Supplement will assist low income families and renters. Low and middle income New Zealand was clearly going to be in the Government’s sights but the tax package applies to almost everyone.
Vial said it was a responsible Budget. “It signals surpluses for the next four years (starting at $2.9 billion in 2017/18 and rising to $7.2 billion by 2020/21) and reductions in net Government debt.”
He said it was also a fair Budget. “It certainly provides most working New Zealanders with a tax cut. It also signals continued commitment to social investment and that is laudable, but does it have a real plan for reducing inequality and sharing prosperity?”
But he questioned whether it was a bold Budget. “It lacks bold ideas. For example, out of the box thinking for enhancing our skill base, decongesting our urban road network, reducing our prison population and addressing widely acknowledged housing supply and affordability issues.
“The Government has now ‘got’ the money and is expecting to do so for the foreseeable, so what is it spending it on? Principally, tax reductions, debt repayment, and infrastructure (including roads, rail and housing) and of course education, health and welfare.”
“It’s no surprise that Steven Joyce has included in his first Budget a $2 billion a year ‘Family Incomes Package’ that includes tax reductions,” Vial said. “The Government has been teasing us with the prospect of tax cuts since 2014 and now they’re here.
“Although it’s called a Families Income Package, it won’t be lost on anyone that the package benefits all taxpayers earning over $14,000 (2.5 million Kiwis), including those without families to support.”
The increases in the bottom two marginal tax rate thresholds – from $14,000 and $48,000 to $22,000 and $52,000 respectively - will benefit everyone earning more than $14,000.
From 1 April 2018 a taxpayer earning $52,000 or more will have $1,060 more in the hand on an annual basis, or just over $20 per week. A person earning $22,000 will receive an additional $560 a year or nearly $11 a week. The Government can’t be accused of ‘chewing gum’ tax reductions – these are meaningful reductions that will make a difference for many people.
Vial said the fact that there are no changes to the top threshold of $70,000, or to the two top tax rates of 30 and 33 percent, means that middle income New Zealanders such as many nurses, teachers and police officers (including those paying high housing costs in our cities) will continue to pay tax on some of their income at the top rate of 33 percent.
“This is inconsistent with the approach generally adopted internationally, whereby only high income earners pay tax at the top rate.”
Debt repayment
Net debt is expected to decline further to 19.3 per cent by 2020/21. The Government’s revised debt targets (net debt to GDP ratios of 10-15 percent by the mid-2020s) are laudable and seem attainable, all going well. Paying down debt is just as important for a government as it is for a household.
In a pre-Budget announcement Joyce confirmed an $11 billion boost for new capital infrastructure taking the spend to $32.5 billion over the next four years, with $4 billion being spent this year.
“This sounds like a lot of money,” Vial said. “It is … but in reality we have decades of catching up to do.
“The most critical projects are being funded. By all means the Government should fast track these key projects but it should also address basic infrastructure all around the country.
“Anyone stuck in Auckland or Tauranga traffic every day or tourists trying to drive in Queenstown will not be short of suggestions for prioritisation of less ‘sexy’ but vital infrastructure. Different funding options need to be regularly on the table."
Read more of our New Zealand Budget coverage
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in CST's Courtyard Theater
directed by Gary Griffin
Matt Raftery
Matthew Raftery returns to Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where he choreographed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and Sense and Sensibility (Old Globe production). Other Chicago credits as director/choreographer include: Godspell, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Guys and Dolls, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty (Marriott Theatre); and All Shook Up (Northwestern University). His credits as a choreographer include: Cabaret, 9 to 5, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Now and Forever, Pirates of Penzance, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, The Bowery Boys, Les Misérables (Marriott Theatre); Stage Kiss (Goodman Theatre); Funny Girl (Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook); The Christmas Schooner (Theatre at the Center); The Bowery Boys and Godspell (Northwestern University). As an actor, he has appeared on Broadway, national tours and in numerous regional productions. Mr. Raftery received his BFA in music theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Back to A Midsummer Night's Dream
Additional Sponsors
Additional support provided by the Gayle and Glenn R. Tilles Music Fund.
Team Shakespeare arts-in-education activities for A Midsummer Night's Dream made possible by Sheila Penrose and Ernie Mahaffey.
A Midsummer Night's Dream was presented in the Jentes Family Auditorium.
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Seminary in the Jungles of Ecuador
Joshua J. Perkey Church Magazines
In a remote jungle, seminary is making a huge difference for these youth.
East of Quito, Ecuador, past the volcanoes and Andes Mountains, the terrain drops swiftly to the Amazon jungle. There you’ll find thick forests, abundant rivers, monkeys, toucans, and even pink dolphins.
You’ll also find a city called Puerto Francisco de Orellana. It’s a long ways from, well, everything else in Ecuador. Fifteen years ago, there were relatively few people in the area. But the discovery of petroleum brought industry, people seeking jobs, and members of the Church.
Seminary in a Small Branch
A few of the youth, like Oscar R., were already members when the branch was formed, but most are recent converts. And a fire burns in their hearts. “We are strong,” Oscar says.
In September 2010, just a year after it was created, the branch started a seminary program. “When we first started gathering a few years ago,” says Oscar, “there were very few of us. I was the only youth. But we kept growing. Soon we had 6, then 10, and now even more youth.”
Because some of the youth attend school in the morning and others in the afternoon, they organized two seminary class schedules—one in the morning from 8:00 to 9:00 and one in the afternoon from 4:30 to 5:30.
There may not be a lot of youth in the program, but for those youth who attend, seminary has changed their lives.
“Seminary is a great blessing for me,” says Luis V., a recent convert. “It helps prepare me to be a good missionary. I have faced many challenges and temptations since I joined the Church, but I have been able to keep myself strong because I know I’m doing what’s right.”
And it’s not just Luis who feels that way. “I have been a member of the Church for just a short while,” says Ariana J., “but I have been attending seminary since I was baptized. I’m happy attending because I’m learning many true things regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ that fill my heart with hope and my mind with understanding.”
Attending seminary has helped ground Ariana in the gospel. “For me, it is a blessing to be a part of these classes,” Ariana says. “They strengthen my spirit and help me prepare so that one day I can be a good spouse, mother, leader in the Church, and perhaps a full-time missionary.”
Ariana’s brother, Gerardo, feels the same. “I’m grateful because seminary has become an important part of my life,” he says. “It’s preparing me to serve a mission someday. There I have learned about the plan of salvation that God prepared for me. Each class I attend gives me hope that I can inherit the celestial kingdom and gives me the certainty that I have received the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Gerardo is pretty tired during class sometimes. He has to take his little brother to school first and then return home quickly to pick up his sister so they can go to seminary. But he doesn’t mind.
“All of this is so new for me, but I am full of happiness,” says Gerardo. “I know I am on the correct path that will give me the opportunity to see my Heavenly Father again. The Holy Spirit gives me this assurance. I just have to make an effort and persevere unto the end.”
No Need to Be Nervous
For Walter A., seminary was initially a little intimidating. “I was nervous the first time I came,” he says. “But when I entered the class, I felt special because I felt the love you feel when you study the scriptures. And when I left, I felt strengthened with happiness in my heart for what I had learned. One of the greatest blessings Heavenly Father has for the youth is seminary.”
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has changed my life,” says Abel A., who is also preparing to go on a mission. “I’m learning about the teachings of the prophets. I love Joseph Smith. He was valiant in bringing to pass the Restoration of the true Church in spite of all the problems this caused him. I want to be valiant like he was.”
A lot of youth have to make sacrifices to attend seminary. It’s not always easy, but for the youth in Puerto Francisco de Orellana, Ecuador, it’s worth the effort.
“When I think about pressing forward, like the scriptures say,” Abel explains, “I think it means to set our priorities for life. Seminary is one of these. Just as it has changed my life, it can do the same for other youth.”
Even in the deepest reaches of a jungle in Ecuador, the Church of Jesus Christ and its seminary program for youth are thriving and changing lives for those who choose to let them.
Topics: Education, Seminary
An Eternal Perspective
Great Day in Guyana
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'Keep waiting for her to contact me, to call me': Best friend on woman killed in Florence
Amanda Webster's best friend shares what she knows about the murder of her best friend.
'Keep waiting for her to contact me, to call me': Best friend on woman killed in Florence Amanda Webster's best friend shares what she knows about the murder of her best friend. Check out this story on cincinnati.com: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/12/06/best-friend-woman-killed-florence-hotel-always-there-me/2213642002/
Jennie Key, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 10:50 a.m. ET Dec. 6, 2018 | Updated 6:39 p.m. ET Feb. 5, 2019
Amanda Dakota Webster of Cameron, Arizona, was murdered in a Florence hotel Dec. 1, was the mother of three children.(Photo: Keevana Dan/Provided)
Amanda Dakota Webster came to Erlanger, Kentucky, to work. It was a contract job doing mechanical work, mostly night shift, for General Electric.
Home was Cameron, a town of less than 1,000 people on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona, 32 miles east of the Grand Canyon.
The 26-year-old left behind what was most precious to her: three sons, 10, 2 and 3 months. She worked as a traveling contractor in construction to provide for them and looked forward to a time she could be a stay-at-home mom.
That was her dream, according to her best friend, Keevana Dan. It ended with Webster's death in a Florence hotel room Dec. 1.
Amanda and Keevana met at Coconino High School in Flagstaff, Arizona, in their sophomore year.
More: Police: Man admitted killing woman found dead at Florence hotel
"She was always there for me. And I was always there for her," Dan said. "She was my sister. My person. I can't believe this has happened."
Amanda, born on Christmas Eve, 1991, was like a sister to Keevana Dan. She was maid of honor when Keevana married. The pair traveled together for work and roomed together when on the road. "She suggested the Kentucky job, and I agreed," Dan said. "We worked hard. And she was so much fun."
Amanda Webster was a traveling construction worker. Her friends said she was a hard worker and had a fierce personality. (Photo: Keevana Dan/Provided)
Dan describes her bestie as fierce. Proud. Independent. A provider for her children. An optimist. "She never got discouraged. She was a good person. A real good person."
She says her best friend was smart.
"We always said 'Stranger-Danger.' We don't talk to people we don't know," she said. "That's why this blows my mind. She would never do that."
The pair worked a 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. night shift. Dan said it was early Dec. 2 when Amanda said she was going down to the firepit at the Home2 Suite Hilton in Florence, Kentucky, where they roomed next to each other.
"It was probably 5 or 6 in the morning. Before she left, she gave me a hug and kissed my forehead. "She said I love you and she left. I went to sleep."
Keevana Dan, left, and her best friend, Amanda Dakota Webster. (Photo: Keevana Dan/Provided)
When Dan woke, she went to see if Amanda was hungry. There were police at the hotel but no sign of Amanda. Dan tried calling and texting her friend.
No response.
"I realized her wallet, shoes, and jacket were still there. I was worried," Dan said. "I went to the front desk and said my sister was missing."
She said police asked if she had a picture. She did. After looking at it, they sent her back to her hotel room and said they would come and talk with her. When they did, they had a picture of a tattoo. It was Amanda's.
"They told me my best friend was murdered that morning. I saw photos. I identified her."
Keevana Dan and her best friend, Amanda Dakota Webster. (Photo: Keevana Dan/Provided)
A 32-year-old man with a history of mental illness is accused in Amanda's murder. Police arrested Jesse James of Burlington, Kentucky, charging him with murder, tampering with evidence, theft of identity and providing false identifying information.
He confessed Dec. 1, police said.
"I killed her and I meant it," he told the detective, according to the police report. On Dec. 3, he pleaded not guilty according to the Associated Press and is being held on a $1 million bond.
Dan said no one knows where, when, and especially why Amanda crossed paths with her killer.
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Dan headed to share what happened with Amanda's family. She carried Amanda's belongings in her car, driving almost 1,800 miles home alone. A GoFund Me account is set up to pay to bring Amanda's body back to Arizona and pay for funeral expenses. She said any remaining money will go to Amanda's sons.
The funeral is Friday, Dec. 7, in Flagstaff, the same day James is scheduled to appear in a Kenton County courtroom for a preliminary hearing.
Dan urged indigenous women working out of state as welders, riggers, pipe fitters, welders helpers, construction workers and ironworkers to wear their hard hats and welding hoods with pride and post a photo on Friday with the hashtag #JusticeforAmanda.
She asked those who work in offices to wear something purple or a purple ribbon on Friday and to show support on social media with the same hashtag.
Dan says there is "no coming back from the nightmare" of Amanda's death.
"I never expected this," she said. "It still doesn't make sense. I keep waiting for her to contact me, to call me. She didn't deserve this. No one deserves this."
Why are Native American women going missing and facing violence at disproportionate rates? Is it racism, lack of resources, mistrust, a confusing jurisdictional maze _ or all of the above? (Sept. 5) AP
Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/12/06/best-friend-woman-killed-florence-hotel-always-there-me/2213642002/
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Saila Susiluoto
Saila Susiluoto (Finland, 1971) has published seven books of poetry and one experimental and voluminous iPad poetrywork application Antikythera (2015). She has been awarded the Kalevi Jäntti Prize 2001, The Suomi Prize 2005 and the Einari Vuorela Prize in 2011. Her collection of poetry, Carmen was nominated for the Nordic Literature Prize in 2012.
Susiluoto is a performance poet whose productions highlight an interest in a dialogue between the arts, and
collaborative working. She is now working with her poetry book Metropolis – notes from the lost city, and an auditive, city-located poetry collection, Oratorio.
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Home News City Obama’s Final State of the Union Address
Obama’s Final State of the Union Address
Anna Nelson
Congress members sat in the House Chamber as President Barack Obama took the podium on Tuesday to give his final State of the Union address. The tradition, outlined in the U.S. Constitution, allows the president to address Congress and the public regarding the nation’s current state of affairs.
After greeting members of Congress and Vice President Joe Biden, Obama made a pointed joke about the upcoming presidential elections before easing into a more serious discussion about the future of the nation.
“America has been through big changes before — wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, movements to expand civil rights […] We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more people. And because we did, because we saw opportunity where others saw peril, we emerged stronger and better than before.”
Obama continued his address by acknowledging “four big questions” the United States needed to answer, no matter what partisanship our nation holds.
“First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us , especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman? And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?”
Obama said there was job growth and economic progress over the last seven years. However, he also acknowledged that facets of the economy like education, healthcare and social security require repair for advancement.
“A great education isn’t all we need in this new economy. We also need benefits, and protections that provide a basic measure of security. It’s not much of a stretch to say that some of the only people in America who are going to work the same job, in the same place, with a health and retirement package, for 30 years, are sitting in this chamber. For everyone else, especially folks in their 40s and 50s, saving for retirement or bouncing back from job loss has gotten a lot tougher. Americans understand that at some point in their careers, they may have to retrain, but they shouldn’t lose what they’ve already worked so hard to build in the process.”
The president addressed the duality of technology and that it has the capability to address climate change, enhance medical care and prevent potential fatalities. But he also noted the danger of other technologies, like guns, and how we must continue to examine the magnitude of power we possess. He also announced an initiative to make the U.S. the first nation to cure cancer under Vice President Joe Biden’s leadership.
“Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You will be pretty lonely because you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it.”
U.S. Safety
Safety has been a contentious subject for the United States, both at home and when addressing threats from overseas. Obama noted the complexities of the military system, asking Congress and the American people to “take a vote” on the way in which foreign policy addresses threats from ISIL and Al-Qaeda. He also said our stereotypical views of others can pose a threat, especially in terms of prejudicial judgments in skin color and religious affiliation.
“I told you earlier all the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air. Well, so is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker. Let me tell you something. The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth, period. Period.”
Obama acknowledged the difficulty of accommodating people from multiple backgrounds while attributing this as a strength of the nation as a whole. He addressed the fact that the presidency is not the only facet of government dictating politics, but that it serves alongside the congressional and judicial branches that are intended to serve the nation, with its 319 million people.
“If we want better politics, it’s not enough to just change a congressman or change a senator or even change a president. We have to change the system to reflect our better selves.”
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Home Culture Arts & Entertainment Survivors stitch together long-lost memories
Survivors stitch together long-lost memories
Susan Minuk
Elly Friedman and Ruth Smith hold their memory quilts depicting themselves as young children with their birth mothers. (Susan Minuk photo)
Lingering memories of a time that was, for the longest time, too painful to remember, have found a comforting place in the hearts of two Holocaust survivors.
Ruth Smith, 86, and Elly Friedman, 76, are grandmothers who have never before spoken of their courageous journey of survival. Smith was born in Germany and moved to Belgium in 1938. Friedman was born in Amsterdam. As young girls, they were hidden: Smith by a nun and Friedman by a farmer’s wife. They were lucky enough to survive the war with their personal memories carefully tucked away alongside treasured photographs of the brave women who risked their lives to save them.
Now, Smith and Friedman have brought those faded photographs to life. Under the leadership of Stephanie Kepecs, and as part of the Golden Hands Quilting Club at Toronto’s Adath Israel Congregation, the two survivors sewed these hauntingly beautiful portraits of themselves as young children with their adoptive and birth mothers into intricately stitched memory quilts.
In partnership with Holocaust Education Week, Adath Israel Congregation is inviting the community to meet and speak with the artists on Nov. 6, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in an event called Bringing Memory to Life.
“This story is unique because the artistry is linked with these women’s dedication to preserve their family memories. They were weaving both story and threads to make the quilts live on,” said Nancy Goldstein, Adath Israel Congregation’s director of membership services and development.
In 1948, under the auspices of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Smith, then 16, travelled to Canada with her two younger sisters and eventually settled in Toronto, where she was adopted.
“My grandmother, Frieda Kahn Silberstein, survived the war and gave me photographs of my mother, Lotte Silberstein Klein,” said Smith. “I had a beautiful picture of us hidden away in my cupboard for many years.”
Friedman described her journey: “On the day I was born – May 5, 1942 – all Dutch Jews began wearing the yellow star. (When) I was just nine months old, against the will of my father, Sallie Meibergen, my mother gave me to a non-Jewish family to protect me from the Nazis. Dr. Tini V.D. Bilt worked with the underground in Holland and placed me with farmers for the duration of the war. I was reunited with my mother in 1945. We were the only members of our family that were spared from Nazi death camps. Yad Vashem recognized Dr. V.D. Bilt as a Righteous Gentile, planting a tree in her honour.”
READ: ISRAELI ORGANIZATION WORKING TO EMPOWER YOUNG GIRLS
Friedman was 15 when she travelled with her mother, Chaja Meibergen, to Canada, where they settled in Montreal.
“We came on a freighter, nobody brought us over. My mother always told me because of that picture of us, she had the will to live and to see me after the war,” said Friedman.
The memory quilt project took the pair almost three months to complete.
“I was working with skilled women,” said Kepecs. “Elly and Ruth have been working with their hands all their lives. Quilting is not for someone who has never worked with fabric before. Elly was the first to volunteer. She showed me her photograph and said, ‘This is my Catholic mother and I’d like to do this project.’ ”
“Once Ruth saw Elly’s completed quilt, she said, ‘I want to do one of my mother,’ ” said Kepecs.
Portrait quilting is an art form that requires oodles of patience. The women met weekly to stitch the pieces, layer the quilts and bind the edges.
“It’s almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” said Kepecs. “You have the picture. You have to cut it apart and then put it together again.”
It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. As weeks passed and the quilts became more and more detailed, the group noticed that both women bore a strong resemblance to their respective mothers. That was a tipping point. Tentatively, Friedman shared her long-repressed personal story of her family life and her time on the farm.
“Ruth was hesitant,” Kepecs explained. “But when we finally finished, I held her quilt up to her and she started to cry. She had spent so many hours working on her mother’s face. It was very emotional.”
Smith and Friedman’s painstakingly, and lovingly, created works of art are their legacies. They will live on for their children, grandchildren and future generations, so that they may never forget.
Adath Israel Congregation
Bringing Memory to Life
Canadian Jewish Congress
Elly Friedman
Holocaust Education Week
Ruth Smith
Stephanie Kepecs
Nazi hunter to address Toronto audience
Farber: Looking back at the CJC on its 100th anniversary
Rabbi Schild’s ‘crazy angel’
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« Hong Kong health department moves decisively to protect the cigarette trade
Minister for Public Health or Chief Medical Officer: who is right about e-cigarettes? »
The letter England’s Minister for Public Health should now write
The letter the minister should write, not one she did….
If I was England’s Minister for Public Health, this is the letter I would write today, just as the proposed UK implementation of the EU Tobacco Product Directive is announced for consultation. The EU directive may be an anti-scientific, unprincipled and unlawful mess, but there is still plenty that can be done in the UK or England. One thing would be to have all the agencies involved in delivering tobacco harm reduction / e-cigarette policy aligned and maximising the opportunity. This is the letter that would do that:
Minister for Public Health
Richmond House
Whitehall, London
Sir Michael Rawlins, Chair, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency
Professor David Haslam CBE, Chair, National Institute for Clinical and Healthcare Excellence
Professor David Heymann CBE, Chair, Public Health England
Dame Sally Davies DBE, Chief Medical Officer for England
Professor John Ashton CBE, Chair and President, Faculty of Public Health
Dear colleagues
Alignment of agencies and partners in delivery of tobacco harm reduction
As we advance towards implementation of the EU Tobacco Products Directive, including new regulations for e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems to be introduced in May 2016 under Article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive, I thought this would be a good time to set out what the government expects from the bodies involved in delivering this important opportunity for public health.
Overall we expect our agencies and partners to work together towards maximising the public health opportunity, while addressing any residual risks in a way that is proportionate and evidence based, and with awareness of the potential for unintended consequences – primarily arising from protecting the cigarette trade from competition from products that offer nicotine users far lower risks than cigarette smoking.
1. MHRA
1.1 Building trust and credibility. As the proposed competent authority and therefore responsible for the protection of consumers, MHRA needs to work hard to earn the trust and confidence of those whose interests it is there to protect. The MHRA lost trust after its 2010 attempt (Public consultation MLX 364: The regulation of nicotine containing products) to classify all e-cigarettes as medicines, require marketing authorisation and so remove them all products from the market in 21 days. The strong response from around 1000 consumers was so compelling that was abandoned and the MHRA asked to think again. While it may have been a mistake to ask a medicine regulator whether a consumer product should be regulated as a medicine, that should not have been justified undertaking the rethink behind closed doors with insiders detached from the consumer experience and with negligible engagement with the consumers who had actually precipitated the rethink. We were advised by MHRA to reiterate its original policy and on 12 June 2013 we again announced our intention to regulate the products as medicines – only to have this idea defeated again by consumers in the European Parliament four months later. The appointment of the MHRA as competent authority will convince many that we are acting in bad faith and simply trying to re-introduce medical licensing by the back door and over the heads of consumers. I expect the Agency to take concrete steps to engage consumers, to learn from their insights and to recognise the strength of their view: nothing about me without me. I hope you will convene a consumer panel, appoint a consumer champion or something similar to bring consumer insight to your work and to explain your approach more considerately than MHRA has done in the past. I look forward to receiving your proposals.
1.2 The importance of appeal and the challenge of pleasure. If we regulate to have the safest and most precisely calibrated nicotine delivery devices, but smokers do not wish to use them then we will not have achieved anything for public health. For this to work for public health, smokers must find them appealing as an alternative to smoking. This market is quite different to the ones that the MHRA is more familiar with regulating – it involves pleasure, some frivolity, branding, a huge diversity of products and niches, rapid consumer-driven innovation and consumers who do not consider themselves to be patients or in treatment. Many of these characteristics will be unfamiliar to the Agency and its assessors. To succeed we will need the Agency to understand and assimilate the basic value proposition of these products as alternatives to smoking and to ensure that regulation does not damage these products as competitors to smoking. The last thing this government wants from MHRA is regulatory protections for the cigarette trade and excessive regulatory barriers to entry to the e-cigarette market that will mean only tobacco companies can compete in it.
1.3 Pragmatic implementation of bad law. As you may be aware, my predecessor was not especially focussed on this section of the directive, and appears to have thought e-cigarettes had ‘fallen out’ of the text when she agreed to earlier drafts without due scrutiny in Parliament. While our officials should have avoided agreeing yet more bad law that feeds the Brexit tendency, we have the directive we have unless Totally Wicked do us all a favour and succeed in striking it down. Nevertheless, I would like MHRA to approach this pragmatically, and to recognise the many deficiencies in Article 20 of the Directive. The government will always uphold the law, but I would like MHRA to exploit the flexibilities and ambiguities in the language of the directive and implementing regulations to the greatest extent possible to create a liberal light touch regime for regulating these products. The approach to regulation should be proportional to risk; evidence based; and non-discriminatory – recognising these products compete with cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products. So far we have been unable to find much going wrong with these products that is not quickly corrected by market forces, through which consumers are determining what products are effective. The figures collected by ASH for adults and young people and in the Smoking Toolkit suggest much is going well and that e-cigarette use is overwhelming concentrated in adults and smokers. Given the the TPD is unlikely to improve on the current situation, it is important therefore that new EU regulation does as little damage as possible, building trust and confidence in the products, but not reshaping the market or substituting the government’s opinion of what is a good product for the preferences of consumers.
2. NICE
2.1 Bring guidance up to date. The pace of innovation in the market, and in policy and regulation, means that the NICE guidelines [PH45] Smoking tobacco harm reduction approaches are now out of date and creating counterproductive confusion, hostility or excessive caution in clinical practice. Understandable concerns about ‘unlicensed products’ have not hardened into material risks to consumers, while it appears that thousands of users have found these products to be successful alternatives to smoking. We also have good examples of creative approaches to e-cigarettes in Stop Smoking Services and these products hold out considerable promise in some of most challenging settings. There is also evidence that these products are more effective than licensed products, at least in the over-the-counter setting:
People attempting to quit smoking without professional help are approximately 60% more likely to report succeeding if they use e-cigarettes than if they use willpower alone or over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapies
This finding rather challenges the implicit assumption that licensed products will inevitably be more effective, and we need to recognise that in revised guidelines.
2.2 Practical guidelines for real world settings. We also need to find a way for Stop Smoking Services to embrace the technologies that smokers wish to use, or they will become less relevant, more expensive and in continued decline. The rise of vaper products, and the evident consumer preference to use them, should be recognised as a great opportunity for prevention of ill-health in all settings, exactly as envisaged by the NHS Chief Executive, who believes we should be “getting serious about prevention“. I believe updated NICE guidance could be usefully informed and harmonised with the work of National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, which has taken an excellent pro-active stance in its E-cigarette briefing for Stop Smoking Services. Guidelines should address the needs of primary care, hospital staff and those working in mental health institutions, for example. A more innovative approach could also include evidence-based officially sanctioned guidance for use by vendors and in retail settings, including pharmacies, convenience stores, vape shops and on the internet – recognising that these products may appeal to smokers who do not define themselves as patients and who would not ordinarily engage with health services for advice.
3. Public Health England
3.1 Addressing misperceptions of risk. The government is dismayed that the Smoking Toolkit Survey 29 April 2015 show that only a minority of current smokers (44%) believe e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes. A different study undertaken by ASH show that few adults (17%) understand e-cigarettes to be a lot less risky than smoking. However, the UK’s foremost experts have expressed the relative risk as follows:
From analysis of the constituents of e-cigarette vapour, e-cigarette use from popular brands can be expected to be at least 20 times safer (and probably considerably more so) than smoking tobacco cigarettes in terms of long-term health risk
There is clearly a large and harmful disparity between the expert understanding of relative risk and the at-risk public’s perception of relative risk. I would like PHE to assume the responsibility for defining, measuring and correcting this disparity, so that the public over time has perceptions of risk that are better aligned with reality, and people are therefore able to make better informed health-related decisions.
3.2 Embracing e-cigarettes in public health campaigns. There is no reason to exclude e-cigarettes from public health campaigns such as Stoptober, Change 4 Life, No Smoking Day or NHS Smokefree. Where we have control or influence I would like to ensure that the government is not missing opportunities to provide sound advice and motivation to smokers on e-cigarettes.
3.3 Policy implementation. We expect PHE to provide well formulated advice and guidance that is of practical value to practitioners, within a framework agreed by ministers. One such example, is the principles for managing vaping in public places – a model of reasoned and reasonable advice:
4. Chief Medical Officer for England
4.1 Trust and credibility. We welcome the advice of the CMO on a range of matters, provided this is dispassionate, scientifically reasoned, reality-based and within her areas of competence. On the subject of e-cigarettes, the CMO has not always met these expectations. I welcome advice from the CMO, but in future I would like officials to ensure that advice that reaches ministers and the public is rigorously evidence-based and grounded in what is actually happening in the market place and among users, not on hypothetical concerns for which no evidence exists.
5. Faculty of Public Health
5.1 Quality of advice. We are increasingly frustrated by advice and lobbying coming from the Faculty of Public Health. When one of the UK’s leading specialists on tobacco policy and smoking cessation is moved to describe prominent representatives of the Faculty of Public Health in the following terms, we should acknowledge a problem:
Public health activists and bodies who are not experts in the field of tobacco control, who misunderstand what is relatively complex evidence and present their misunderstandings to the wider community
5.2 Attitude to the public. The Faculty appears to see is role as attacking and antagonising the very people we are trying to help, sometimes in a torrent of abuse, sometimes by implying they are ‘astro-turf’ and misrepresenting them, always without any apparent understanding of vapers and vaping, and without actually engaging with its critics other than through the safety of its supporters in the media. I wish to make it clear that my department has no truck with this attitude. If there is evidence that vapers are part of an internet based conspiracy please produce it, or stop making these accusations. For the record, we expect professionals in public health to abide by the seven principles of the UK Public Health Register, Code of Conduct:
Make the health and protection of the public your prime concern
Maintain high standards of professional and personal conduct
Be honest and trustworthy
Protect confidentiality
Respect the dignity of individuals and treat everyone fairly
Know the limits of your competence and act within them
Cooperate with the teams with which you work and interact
5.3. Authoritative body for consultation? While I recognise that FPH is a registered charity and independent of government, it does seek “to act as an authoritative body for the purpose of consultation in matters of educational or public interest concerning public health“. That charitable purpose would be valuable providing it takes a rigorous approach to evidence and conducted itself professionally. Until then, we will seek authoritative e-cigarette advice from the Royal College of Physicians itself, and review our grant funding accordingly.
The government wishes to exploit to the greatest extent possible the opportunity to prevent ill-health through the new vapour technologies. This offers the prospect of a market-based approach to one of the most serious public health problems – at no cost to the taxpayer and without consuming scarce NHS or local authority resources. To do this, we need all the delivery agencies to take a coherent, innovative and open minded approach to the challenges. I do not want to see the entrenched risk-aversion of public bodies have the effect of increasing risks to the public, by denying or compromising their access to safe and attractive products as alternatives to smoking.
NOT the real Minister for Public Health
July 2nd, 2015 | Category: Health, Politics, Science
5 comments to The letter England’s Minister for Public Health should now write
Tobacco Products Directive – what next and what can be done? « The counterfactual
21st September 2015 at 2:39 pm · Reply
[…] for the utter mess they have made – and getting them to play a more positive role (see here). That is the starting point for change and should be a period of intense activity from 1 Oct to […]
Vince Wooll
3rd July 2015 at 10:13 am · Reply
Keep it up Clive, you’re doing a grand job. Now let’s hope the sods are listening.
The letter England’s Minister for Public ...
3rd July 2015 at 7:47 am · Reply
Jay R
2nd July 2015 at 8:04 pm · Reply
why oh why can’t you be the current Minister For Public Health
BakerB (@bakerbee1)
Keep doing what you’re doing Clive )
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China to bring gigabit Internet speeds to key cities by 2020
China wants 3G and 4G penetration to reach 85 percent by 2020
Michael Kan (IDG News Service)
China plans to bring gigabit Internet speeds to its major cities by 2020, part of its effort to expand broadband among households in the nation.
The Chinese government set out the target in its new broadband strategy announced on Saturday. By 2020, Internet speeds will need to reach 50 Mbps (mega bits per second) in the country's cities, and 12 Mbps in China's rural areas.
In addition, gigabit Internet service, which can reach 1000 Mbps, will be available in the country's more developed cities, according to the government.
China has the world's largest Internet populace at close to 600 million. But average Internet speeds in the country currently reach 1.7 Mbps, putting China far behind many of its peers in Asia, according to a report from Akamai Technologies, a content delivery and cloud infrastructure services network.
South Korea, for example, has speeds of 14.2 Mbps, while Japan's Internet reaches 11.7 Mbps. In the U.S. Internet speeds average at 8.6 Mbps.
China aims to change this by delivering broadband to 400 million households by 2020. The nation also wants to bring 3G and 4G mobile use to 85 percent of the population. Currently, only about 27 percent of China's mobile phone customers use the faster 3G networks.
China announced its broadband strategy after the government announced it would launch a stimulus program to further develop its IT industry. The program may not only boost domestic sales of smartphones and PCs, but also drive more investment to IT companies in the nation.
At the same time, the country is also planning to issue licenses for commercial 4G networks later this year. The upcoming 4G networks are expected to have speeds of over 100 Mbps.
China has previously set out goals to increase Internet speeds in the nation. In 2011, the authorities also launched an anti-monopoly investigation against state-controlled broadband providers China Telecom and China Unicom for keeping prices for Internet access high. In response, the two companies have pledged to raise Internet speeds for their customers, while keeping prices low.
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A Short History of Coupar Angus
Coupar Angus is a small town at the centre of the rich agriculturally heartland of Strathmore, situated on the southern side of the River Isla, some 14 miles north east of Perth and 12 miles north west of Dundee. The Grampian Mountains are a short drive to the north; while to the south lie the Sidlaw Hills. The town was known as the Queen of Strathmore at the height of its success reflecting both it’s thriving economy and the quality of its architecture and setting.
The earliest evidence of human settlement in Coupar Angus is cist burials from the Bronze Age period. Archaeological fieldwork in the 1990s indicated that the Strathmore area supported a sizeable Iron Age population, but knowledge of activities during the Roman occupation of Strathmore is limited. There are recordings of a temporary Roman camp at Lintrose, south of Coupar Angus.
While no firm evidence is available in relation to settlement in the Coupar Angus area in the early 12th century, there was a royal manor by at least the reign of King David I (1124-53). This suggests some form of settlement, the area already being known around that time as Coupar – ‘a confluence’.
The Cistercian Abbey
In 1159, King Malcolm IV (1156-65) allocated land for the foundation of a Cistercian monastery at Coupar Angus, on the advice of his uncle, Waltheof, abbot of Melrose.
The Abbey at Coupar Angus was built in 1233 and would have consisted of the normal conventional buildings : church, cloister, residence for the abbot, sleeping accommodation for the monks, refectory, guesthouse and sundry offices. It seems likely that the Abbey complex at Coupar Angus also included a range of further buildings, such as stables, brew-houses, bake-houses and metal-working premises.
The Cistercian monks were famous for their ability to reclaim and improve land : a legacy that provides the basis for the fertile agricultural land of Strathmore to this day. Under their industrious occupation both the Abbey and surrounding countryside became rich. Gifts of further land were made to the monks and by the early 14th century the Abbey owned 8000 acres. By the time of the Reformation, Coupar Angus was said to be the wealthiest Cistercian Abbey in Scotland.
Townships grew up next to Cistercian Abbeys. A small medieval settlement was situated by the Coupar Burn and in Abbey times a market was held every Friday at the Market Cross. The market cross was a focus marking the centre of the Burgh of Barony.
Coupar Angus seems to have been a significant market town, situated as it was at the intersection of important thoroughfares from Perth, Dundee and from the north via a ferry- boat crossing or fording point across the Isla.
The majority of Scottish medieval towns and early modern towns have an axial main street with back lanes running parallel and plots set in a herring-bone pattern from the main street. The radial pattern of Coupar Angus streets from the market cross was therefore unusual, although not unique.
The Abbey buildings were partially destroyed in 1559 during the Reformation and the Abbey was dissolved in 1607 during the reign of the Protestant King James VI and I.
Today there is little remaining on site other than a small wall fragment and gateway arch : on the southern edge of the town adjoining the A923 road to Dundee. The stone having been used by local folk in the construction of many other buildings in the town including the present church immediately to the north of the former Abbey site. The characteristic red sandstone used in the buildings was quarried locally from the extensive Devonian old red sandstones.
The 17th century saw the ongoing evolution of the town with records relating to the construction of churches and the growth of trades. A number of streets led or stood near the market cross, these being referred to as ‘causeys’ – causeways or cobbled streets.
The Georgian Era
Significant building and development in the 18th century include the Cumberland Barracks which, while its date of construction is unclear, was in use at the time of the 1745 campaign by Government forces against the Jacobites. Coupar Angus seems to have been an important stopping off point for troops on the route north or south.
Building work in the town during this century, however, attests to more generally peaceful times and growing prosperity. A number of buildings still standing are reminders of this era. The former Royal Hotel in the centre of the town (recently converted into flats) was originally called the Defiance Inn. It took its first name from the stage-coach that stopped there daily on the Edinburgh-Perth-Aberdeen run. The White House or White Horse Inn, aka the Strathmore Hotel, was also a hostelry for travellers. Sadly it has lain empty and boarded-up for 10 years.
The Steeple, or tolbooth tower, was built by public subscription in 1762 and completed in 1769. The Steeple was to serve as a gaol on the ground floor and as a meeting house for local courts on the upper floors.
Visitors to Coupar Angus from the north found their journey much improved after 1766 with the construction of the Couttie Bridge across the Isla.
There had been a considerable increase in the population of the town during the 18th century, largely as a result of linen manufacture. From a parish population of 1,491 in 1755, the figure rose to 2,076 by 1793.
Coupar’s contacts with the rest of Scotland were much easier after the opening of the railway in 1837. The railway was to have an impact not only on the life of residents, but also on the townscape. The line cut straight across the top of the High Street, where level crossing gates operated.
Victorian Progress
The 18th century restored church was replaced by the present Victorian church in 1859, built to the design of local architect John Carver. By 1886, there were a number of other churches, including the Free Church, United Presbyterian, Evangelical Union, Original Session and the Episcopalians. A new school had also been built in 1886-87 with accommodation for 502 children. In 1887, the Town Hall, a symbol of civic pride, was built at a cost of £4,000, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s jubilee.
By 1900 the railway had stimulated trade with 85 shops, two bake-houses, three linen works, a tannery, farina works (production of flour from dried potatoes), a brewery and steam sawmills. In 1835 William Culross Printing business was established to make use of the recently built sawmill. There were weekly grain markets on Thursdays, which brought in the local farming population, and cattle fairs in September and October. Coupar was renowned for its annual horse fair held in March. Although it began to peter out after the 1920s it continued well into the second half of the 20th century and was recalled for years in the gingerbread horses made by local bakers.
The Red House Hotel on the A94 was formerly called the Station Hotel and was built beside the old railway station in 1849 by banker David Anderson. It served residents and visitors until the railway closure in 1967 when the last train pulled out of town. The hotel was been altered and extended, with the modern work seeking to emulate the red stone character of the original.
Blairgowrie Road marks the start of a Victorian expansion of many fine residential buildings that testify to the wealth of some of Coupar Angus’ 19th century community.
During the 20th century the linen trade declined. One of the manufactories, the Strathmore Linen Works, was a quality building, demolished as recently as 1984. The home of the owners, the McFarlanes, built in 1875, still stands, although much altered and extended as Enverdale House Hotel.
The area around Coupar Angus is famous for its berry growing. The Preserve Works at the end of George Street was where local grown soft fruit was made into jam. The ‘Jellyworks’ as they were known in Coupar Angus operated until the 1960’s. The area remains one of the UK’s most important soft fruit production areas, though most is now sold fresh through the supermarkets. The 2 Sisters factory site at the western end of the town continues the large-scale industrial presence established during the Victorian period by the preserve works and linen works. Food processing businesses, such as Denrosa Apiaries, still, however, flourish in the town.
With the demise of the railway, the motor car became the pre-eminent means of transport, reflected in the A94 relief road that follows the former line of the railway through the town.
On the eastern edge of the town, Larghan Park, once known as Larghan Victory Park, was opened shortly after the Second World War. Larghan provides a welcome and peaceful oasis and recreation area for walkers, children and sports enthusiasts. Plans are being laid to regenerate the Park to include a range of adventure play equipment, new paths and a variety of planting schemes to attract wildlife.
Today, the town has a population of just over 2000. While residents still find local employment, many folk now commute to the nearby towns, including Perth, Dundee and Blairgowrie. A recent influx of young people from East Europe has brought a new mix and vitality.
The architectural and historic importance of Coupar Angus was recognised in 1989 through the designation of a Conservation Area. This covered many of the fine buildings of the Georgian and Victorian eras at the Cross and adjoining streets. Several town centre buildings have been renovated following the successful Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) grant award including Cumberland Barracks, The Royal Hotel and former Co-op building on George Street.
Following the THI initiative, Perth and Kinross Council extended the Conservation Area, incorporating a small area on both sides of George Street west of The Cross and a much larger area south of Burnside Road. This brings the Tolbooth Tower, Strathmore Hotel, north side of Abbey Road, the Abbey Church itself, its graveyard and the scheduled monument area of the Cistercian Abbey within the Conservation Area.
The Coupar Angus and District Historic Association has an office at 8 George Street in the town with a wealth of information and exhibits on the town and its surrounding area. A beautifully illustrated, historic town walk brochure ‘Jewels of Stone’ produced by Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust is available for sale from the office.
A more detailed history of the town can be found in ‘Historic Coupar Angus’ by E Patricia Dennison and Russel Coleman, that forms part of the Scottish burgh survey published by Historic Scotland in association with Scottish Cultural Press. Information on the history of the town and activities can also be obtained from the Library in the Town Hall.
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More millennials own a home than rent in these 8 US cities
Here are the eight U.S. cities where more than 50 percent of millennials own their homes rather than renting.
More millennials own a home than rent in these 8 US cities Here are the eight U.S. cities where more than 50 percent of millennials own their homes rather than renting. Check out this story on courierpostonline.com: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2019/03/03/buying-house-cities-where-more-millennials-own-home-than-rent/38989461/
Jon C. Ogg, 24/7 Wall Street Published 6:00 a.m. ET March 3, 2019
It's not exactly a new observation that millennials haven't been very aggressive when it comes to buying homes.
Millennials may no longer be living with their parents, but home-ownership trends remain weak for people under 35 years old. SmartAsset has analyzed the homeownership rates among adults under age 35 in the 200 largest U.S. cities.
Of the top 200 cities analyzed, only 42 of those cities saw millennial homeownership rise. Overall, their homeownership rate is down 4.4 percent. While millennial homeownership is lower on average, there is another side of this trend. There are pockets where more people under the age of 35 own their homes versus those who do not.
The SmartAsset study looked at the current rate of millennial homeownership in 2017 and compared the change in the millennial homeownership rate from 2008.
Before thinking this is an issue based on home values, note that it doesn't seem to be the only factor. The top 25 cities where millennials are buying homes have a $294,000 average median home value, and the 25 cities where millennials aren't buying homes have an average median home value of $284,300.
More than 50 percent of millennials own their homes than rent in eight cities in the U.S. (Photo: monkeybusinessimages / Getty Images)
The study created an index value from data taken from the Census's American Community Surveys that combined the 2017 millennial homeownership rate from 2017 with 2018 and showed the change. While this study showed that high home values are one issue muting homeownership by younger adults, it cited other issues, like stagnant incomes, mounting student debt and what was the largest economic downturn in a century.
24/7 Wall St. wanted to focus on the positive trends of the study, where more millennials are homeowners rather than renters. Instead of using the SmartAsset index ranking, our look was solely at the housing markets with the highest absolute rates of millennial homeownership rates above 50 percent. It turns out that only eight housing markets out of the top 200 in America had more than 50 percent of people under 35 owning their homes.
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Also, 24/7 Wall St. has made some basic observations about each city to offer some perspective on why homeownership might be so high among millennials. Here are the eight U.S. cities where more than 50 percent of millennials own their homes.
8. Gilbert, Arizona
• Millennial ownership rate in 2017: 51.2 percent
• Change over time: −5.7 percent
• Median home value: $320,000
Gilbert is still above the 50 percent threshold for millennial homeownership, but it also showed a larger percentage contraction from 2008. It is to the southeast of Phoenix and is a part of that metropolitan area, and it is the sixth-largest municipality in Arizona.
7. Joliet, Illinois
Joliet actually saw a drop in the homeownership rate of those under 35 years of age, but it was still well above 50 percent. The town is located 30 miles southwest of Chicago and is considered part of the broader Chicago sprawl. A 2018 population estimate of 150,495 people would make it the third largest city in the state. Also worth noting is that Joliet had the lowest average median home value of all eight cities where those aged 35 and under own their own home.
5 housing takeaways: What should you expect from home sales in 2019?
6. Port Saint Lucie, Florida
• Millennial ownership rate in 2017: 53.05 percent
• Change over time: 1.26 percent
Located on Florida’s eastern coast, about 50 miles to the north of West Palm Beach and halfway between Miami and Orlando, Port Saint Lucie counts itself as the eighth largest city in Florida, with over 189,300 residents. It is the third largest city in South Florida. While the rate of those under 35 is above 50 percent, the city's own website showed that Port Saint Lucie also had the highest homeownership rate in the nation (as of 2012) and was the only major market with a homeownership rate above 75 percent.
5. Olathe, Kansas
• Change over time: −11.0 percent
Olathe is located on the southwest side of Overland Park by Kansas City. It is Johnson County's seat and is considered to be the fourth largest city in the Kansas City metropolitan area and Kansas. The Census data showed that its 2010 population was 125,872 people, but that was projected to have risen to 137,472 by the year 2017.
4. Chesapeake, Virginia
• Change over time: 11.85 percent
In the SmartAsset ranking, Chesapeake actually ranked first as the change of homeownership for those under 35 rose so it had the index rank of metro areas in its study. The City of Chesapeake also had a population estimate of 242,336 people per the city's own estimate as of January 2018. It is located immediately west of the Virginia Beach area.
3. Peoria, Arizona
Peoria is a major suburb of Phoenix located northwest of the larger city, and its population is over 170,000, making it the sixth largest city in Arizona at the last Census count. Its Peoria Sports Complex is the spring training home for the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres baseball teams.
2. Thornton, Colorado
Any city in Colorado might bring up the question about legalized marijuana and more people moving there, but Thornton still had more than half of its people under 35 as homeowners a decade earlier. The average median home value in the area was also high. Thornton is now part of the Denver-area metroplex and is located north of the city and southeast of Boulder. Several miles to the east of Thornton is Denver International Airport.
1. Elk Grove, California
Elk Grove is located 15 miles south of Sacramento, the state capital, and it is about 90 miles northeast of San Francisco. Its neighboring areas include Sacramento County’s Vineyard area and the rural communities of Wilton, Sloughhouse, Franklin and Rancho Murieta. Its 2015 population was listed as 162,899, and its median household income was $82,784.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2019/03/03/buying-house-cities-where-more-millennials-own-home-than-rent/38989461/
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Since 1988, Craig Davis Properties (CDP) has specialized in the acquisition, development, leasing and management of commercial property in the Research Triangle area. The company’s “need-based development” approach has allowed CDP to serve some of the nation’s premier tenants such as IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, ABB, Bell+Howell, the US Department of Agriculture and BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina. CDP has developed over six million square feet of real estate, including some of the most successful commercial properties in the Research Triangle.
CDP’s success can be attributed to the commitment behind the company’s mission statement: “Real Estate… We Make the Difference.“
Craig M. Davis
Jim Lepley
Debbie Estrada
Greg Jonczyk
Craig Davis Properties, Inc.
8000 Weston Parkway
Cary, North Carolina 27513
© Copyright - Craig Davis Properties, Inc.
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Flagstar to acquire mortgage banker Opes Advisors
Kurt Nagl
Flagstar Bancorp Inc. has signed a deal to acquire certain assets of Opes Advisors Inc. and plans to operate the mortgage banking business as a separate division with its own brand, the bank announced Monday.
Terms of the transaction, expected to close in the next 30 days, were not disclosed.
"They're a strong fit with our strategic goal of growing our retail mortgage business and a good fit culturally," Alessandro P. DiNello, Flagstar's president and CEO, said in a news release.
Opes Advisors has 39 locations in California, Oregon and Washington. In 2016, it produced about $3 billion in mostly purchase originations, according to the news release.
Troy-based Flagstar, a $14.1 billion savings and loan holding company, provides commercial, small business and consumer banking services through 99 branches in the state.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods served as financial advisor to Opes and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP served as its legal counsel. BuckleySandler LLP served as legal counsel to Flagstar.
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Music Festivals and Regional Development in Australia
Chris Gibson, John Connell
April 29, 2016 by Routledge
Throughout the world, the number of festivals has grown exponentially in the last two decades, as people celebrate local and regional cultures, but perhaps more importantly as local councils and other groups seek to use festivals both to promote tourism and to stimulate rural development. However, most studies of festivals have tended to focus almost exclusively on the cultural and symbolic aspects, or on narrow modelling of economic multiplier impacts, rather than examining their long-term implications for rural change. This book therefore has an original focus. It is structured in two parts: the first discusses broad issues affecting music festivals globally, especially in the context of rural revitalisation. The second part looks in more detail at a range of types of festivals commonly found throughout North America, Europe and Australasia, such as country music, jazz, opera and alternative music festivals. The authors draw on in-depth research undertaken over the past five years in a range of Australian places, which traces the overall growth of festivals of various kinds, examines four of the more important and distinctive music festivals, and makes clear conclusions on their significance for rural and regional change.
Professor Chris Gibson is at the GeoQuest Research Centre, University of Wollongong, Australia and Professor John Connell is at the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia
'Music Festivals and Regional Development in Australia provides an extremely welcome and highly readable contribution to our understanding of how events contribute to regional economies and communities. Although Australian in focus, the book is internationally relevant. Via a series of excellent case studies as well as a general overview of the field, the book is essential reading for any regional economic or tourism organisations that seeks to harness the attraction of music and the arts for regional development.' C. Michael Hall, University of Canterbury, New Zealand 'Gibson and Connell have produced a must-read book for students and fans of music festivals, indeed of festivals in general. They demonstrate how music festivals contribute to local and regional development, not merely by attracting tourists, but by engaging people in acts of creation, invention and sustaining of place identity, and community capacity building. There are answers in this book to the global question: can festivals revitalize and sustain rural communities?' Don Getz, University of Calgary, Canada 'This volume is an exemplar of what a research monograph should be, an academic masterpiece providing a turning point in an intellectual current that speaks far beyond its immediate audience. The authors should be commended for making their landmark contribution in an open, accessible, and ultimately intellectually satisfying way.' LSE Review of Books
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Extras! SA to get movies sooner, That interstellar show, Justice League go to war, Expendables 3 shows championship form, Explore the cosmos with a family guy and Captain America is a bridge?! Plus much more
By Kervyn Cloete
Welcome to The Extras! A daily dose of all the smaller movie related news, clips and just plain cool stuff that you might have missed!
Among the many geek hats I wear, you’ll find that space geek is one of those I doff with the most pride. I just love space. Which is why I thoroughly geeked out at this first trailer for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the new Seth MacFarlane (yes, that one) produced, Neil deGrasse Tyson narrated “reboot” of Carl Sagan’s highly acclaimed 1980 TV series Cosmos: A Personal Journey.
Playing out like Terence Mallick made an episode of Doctor Who, this is just gorgeous stuff and if your screen and bandwidth allows it, you need to watch this with all the p’s at your disposal, preferably 1080 of them.
When it comes to the The Expendables, muscles is the name of the game. So it’s no surprise that meatheaded Twilight star Kellan Lutz has joined the cast for Sylvester Stallone’s 3rd go-round with his motley crew of action heroes. However, the Expendables 3 casting news doesn’t stop there as Stallone has also revealed the addition of two more cast members who normally put their muscles on display for sporting purposes: UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey and ex-WBC Welterweight Champion Victor Ortiz.
Ronda Rousey will show championship form in Expendables 3! So will multi champion Victor Ortiz!
— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) July 24, 2013
Following on from the mech-tastic first image, we have a brace of new Edge of Tomorrow posters, with stars Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise modelling the latest in futuristic battlefield fashion.
Remember that whole debate we recently had about delayed movie release dates? Well it seems that Ster Kinekor is doing something about it. In a recently issued press release, the cinema chain revealed that they have begun upgrading all 438 of the cinemas to the latest digital technology. Due to no longer needing to ship film reels from across the world, this means that more movies can be released on the same day locally as across the world. There will also be the additional improvements to quality.
“With these latest technological advancements, the entire cinema experience is set to undergo a profound change. The picture quality is heightened while the state-of-the-art surround sound greatly enhances the overall viewing experience, as each cinema now comes standard with the very latest digital technology and superior equipment.”
Unfortunately, what isn’t mentioned here, is that with the proliferation of digital projectors, expect even fewer venues offering films in 2D.
There have been so many stories over the last couple of years about the long mired Ghostbusters 3, that its hard to know what’s true and what’s not. What we do know for certain, is that Bill Murray is not playing along, as original director Ivan Reitman clarified to Slashfilm.
“Bill Murray has never actually read anything. He may have read ten pages at some point, but he’s never read a script. But he’s never been interested, either. That part is true. It wasn’t Ghostbusters in particular, it’s just, he’s been carrying on his life in a different way, in terms of the kind of parts that he’s wanted to pursue. I mean, he’s a really brilliant actor, comedian, personality. I’ve worked with him now five times, and I would love to work with him again. I’d hope that he could be in this film. He could be, he might not be, I really don’t know.”
“[I]f we can find a way to make a film that’s somewhat as magical as [Ghostbusters] finally turned out to be, then it’s worth making. If we can’t, then we probably won’t do it. And I think that’s really what’s been taking so damn long. We had a couple of scripts that were quite good, that we just didn’t think quite had it. And one of them was particularly centric to Bill, and we just couldn’t get him to read it. And so that one didn’t get made, even though it was pretty damn good. So we’ve been thinking of alternatives, and we’re actually making some real progress, and we’ll see what happens. That’s the most honest answer I can think of.”
And now the news that you’ve all been waiting for all day: Here’s the first look at Lindsey Gort as Samantha Jones (originally played by a maneating Kim Cattrall) in the upcoming Sex and the City prequel TV series, The Carrie Diaries. Your life is now complete. You may now die as happy men/women.
Timur Bekmambetov, fresh from turning Abraham Lincoln into vampire hunter, is now looking to work his re-imaginations on L. Frank Baum’s classic Wizard of Oz. The Wanted and Night Watch director is developing a rebooted sci-fi/fantasy TV series based on the beloved tale for SyFy, titled Warriors of Oz, which will see “a warrior from present day Earth transported to a post-apocalyptic future Oz where he must team up with three other warriors: Heartless, Brainless, and Coward, in order to defeat the evil Wizard who has enslaved the land.”
The new animated offering from DC\Warner, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, is out now – we’ll have a review up as soon as Darryn takes some time out from making his Wonder Woman costume for RAGE (he fills out that star-spangled bustiere quite well, I must say). Featured on the Blu Ray release of the film is actually a sneak peek for the next animated feature film, Justice League: War, but since I know that you’re a bunch of cheapos who don’t spend money on anything unless they really need to, here’s that preview totally for free, gratis, vir niks.
Looks like there’s a pretty good reason to watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Okay, three good reasons if you include Scarlett Johansson’s cleavage. Much like this seems to be the most direct follow-up to The Avengers, it looks like it would also be setting up The Avengers: Age of Ultron, at least according to co-director Joe Russo.
“There’s a very strong connection in the narrative between the events of the end of “Avengers” that drive this film — and there’s a very strong hand off to “Avengers 2″ at the end of this movie. And Kevin Feige’s whole thing is that this is the biggest bridge of all of Phase 2 movies; it really is. It does involve the most amount of Avengers of any of the films in Phase 2, and it has sort of a, you know, there’s a very big shift in the universe at the end of this movie.”
Here’s what we know about Chris Nolan’s Interstellar: Something about wormholes… I think. Here’s what we know about the cast of Chris Nolan’s Interstellar: It’s bloody impressive. And it may just have gotten a bit groovier. Joining Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Casey Affleck and more, That 70’s Show star Topher Grace has also joined the upcoming sci-fi thriller in a supporting role. As is par for the course on a Nolan production, we have no idea who/what that role is.
If you’ve read my review for The Wolverine, you’ll know that there’s a lot that I love about it. One little moment occurs during a fight when a yakuza thug tries to punch Logan in the face, and instead of the usual meaty thud you hear a metallic clang followed by Yakuza In Pain #2 writhing in agony as he holds his hand. I had never thought about it before, but the moment immediately made me ask “Yeah, how the hell have people been punching Wolverine with his adamantium bones all these years?!”
Now I don’t know whether this revelation was also the catalyst for CinemaSins’ latest hilarious video, Everything wrong with X-Men in 5 Minutes or Less, but they’ve clearly noticed this as well.
Previous article In Other News – 24 July 2013
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A man of many passions - but very little sleep - I've been geeking out over movies, video games, comics, books, anime, TV series and lemon meringues as far back as I can remember. So show up for the geeky insight, stay for the delicious pastries.
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Los Angeles County will consider new system to…
NewsCrime + Public Safety
Los Angeles County will consider new system to rescue abused, neglected children
Four county workers have been fired in the wake of 8-year-old Palmdale boy Gabriel Fernandez’s death due to beating and torture. His mother and her boyfriend have been charged in connection with his death.
By Christina Villacorte | christina.villacorte@dailynews.com |
PUBLISHED: June 9, 2014 at 6:31 pm | UPDATED: September 6, 2017 at 6:27 am
A year after county social workers bungled the case of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy who was tortured to death, the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday will consider a sweeping overhaul of its system for rescuing abused and neglected children.
Supervisor Gloria Molina filed a motion Monday urging the board to approve the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection, which include creating a new entity that can marshal different county departments’ personnel and resources for a united effort to save the most vulnerable among us.
“The recommendations are feasible, practical and will improve child safety,” Molina’s motion said.
An analysis by the county’s Chief Executive Office and lawyers, however, indicated that implementing the proposals would require changes in not only county ordinances but state laws, over which the board has no authority.
“In certain instances, state law may need to change in order for some child-related services to be reallocated from some county departments to an Office of Child Protection,” CEO William Fujioka said in a report issued Monday.
“To the extent the duties of various county departments could be redistributed, ordinances, civil service rules and memoranda of understanding (labor contracts) would need to be amended,” it read.
But David Sanders, chairman of the commission, said the existing system is in a “state of emergency” and that reforms are imperative in the Department of Children and Family Services and in all departments and agencies that work with abused and neglected children.
“This is not just about DCFS,” Sanders said. “It’s not just about individual social workers going out and investigating abuse and neglect. It really is about a system and a community.
“It requires all hands on deck,” he added. “Everybody in the county has to have this as a priority, and the board can set that in motion.”
DCFS Director Philip Browning agreed his department needs more support, but hedged on whether a new entity is needed.
“I think there’s no magic bullet, and that all large jurisdiction across the country have very similar problems,” he said. “LA County actually compares favorably with most of large urban jurisdictions – we, I think, have fewer child fatalities per 100,000 population.”
“I agree that no one department can be totally responsible for child protection in this county, but I do think DCFS has made a lot of progress (with reforms).”
The commission was created in the wake of public outcry over social workers’ failure to take Gabriel Fernandez into protective custody, even after receiving numerous reports that his mother and her boyfriend were abusing him.
After an eight-month investigation, it recommended in December and May a combined total of 55 reforms that stressed better coordination within the DCFS, as well as with the departments of Public Health, Mental Health Services, Public Social Services, Housing, Probation and Sheriff. Streamlined communication with the Office of Education, dependency courts, First 5 L.A. and various child-related commissions was also urged.
Fujioka suggested a new interdepartmental Los Angeles Child Welfare Council, staffed by expert advisers to create a strategic plan for the entire county.
Molina, meanwhile, advocated a “transition team” to monitor the implementation of reforms.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who authored the motion to create the commission, will convey to the board the urgent need for a pilot program partnering social workers with public health nurses to handle cases of infant abuse, as well as the creation of a medical hub for those babies. “What is important, from my perspective, is that they begin to act now,” he said.
“These can be done immediately and would have far-reaching implications for child safety and protection.”
Christina Villacorte
House condemns Trump’s ‘racist’ tweets in extraordinary rebuke
Rep. Katie Hill leads her Republican challengers in early 2020 campaign fundraising
‘Many people agree with me’: Trump digs in on racially charged tweets
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'I was in two American concentration camps': George Takei talks about time at Japanese internment camp aged 5 and says outrage at AOC's Mexico border comments should be directed at Trump admin
George Takei, 82, said on Tuesday: 'I know what concentration camps are'
Actor tweeted that he was 'inside two of them, in America' and they still exist
Takei has previously spoken about being in an internment with his parents, age 5
But he said thankfully he wasn't separated from them during World War II
It was after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on her charge that President Donald Trump created 'concentration camps' on U.S.-Mexico border
AOC faced backlash from Republican politicians for the bold online posts
Takei said Thursday: 'It is sad that there is so much outrage vented toward' her
He said AOC would not have to be 'speaking out on behalf of others' if it wasn't for Trump's admin and the zero tolerance policy that separated children in 2018
By Leah Simpson For Dailymail.com and Emily Goodin For Dailymail.com
George Takei on Thursday rushed to the defense of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once again, just two days after saying that he has been inside two concentration camps in the US.
'I know what concentration camps are. I was inside two of them, in America. And yes, we are operating such camps again,' the American actor tweeted Tuesday.
It was in in response to the New York Congresswoman earlier this week charging that President Donald Trump had created 'concentration camps' on the U.S.-Mexico border with his zero tolerance policy.
In reference to an Esquire article Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: 'This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.
'This is not hyperbole. It is the conclusion of expert analysis.'
George Takei said on Tuesday: 'I know what concentration camps are. I was inside two of them, in America'. He's pictured right as a young boy and left in September 2018. Takei has previously spoken about being in an internment with his parents during World War II aged 5
Takei- tweeted to his 2.9 million followers: 'And yes, we are operating such camps again'
Takei said thankfully he wasn't separated from his mother and father during World War II
Los Angeles-born Takei was sent to a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II.
He previously opened up about his time there when he wrote an op-ed for Foreign Policy magazine last June.
The Star Trek actor divulged details about being 5 years old in the 1940s and shared that he wasn't fully aware of what was going on because at that time children were separated from their parents.
'At least during the internment, my parents were able to place themselves between the horror of what we were facing and my own childish understanding of our circumstances,' he explained in the article.
Takei - who is married to actor-and-producer Brad Takei - stood up for AOC again on Thursday as he mentioned how she was the target and anger following her social media post.
The 82-year-old also showed sympathy for Taylor Swift who has faced a backlash for asking people to sign her Equality Act for LGBTQ Americans on Change.org. It's something presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren obliged to.
On Thursday Takei added: 'It is sad that there is so much outrage vented toward [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and [Taylor Swift] for speaking out on behalf of others, when that same energy and passion could be directed at those who made it necessary to speak out in the first place. Get your priorities right, folks.'
It was in in response to US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week charging that President Donald Trump had created 'concentration camps' on the U.S.-Mexico border with his zero tolerance policy
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: 'This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized'
Takei - who is married to actor-and-producer Brad Takei - stood up for AOC again on Thursday as he mentioned how she was the target and anger following her social media post
George Takei on Thursday rushed to the defense of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Taylor Swift for her LGBTQ Equality campaign
AOC defied critics Wednesday saying she would 'never apologize' for accusing Donald Trump of building 'concentration camps' at the border despite critics accusing her of trivializing the Holocaust.
The firebrand Democrat said she was 'calling these camps' what they are after Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House minority leader, became the latest to tell her she should withdraw the term.
Reacting to his demand, she instead tweeted: 'DHS ripped 1000s of children from their parents & put them in cages w inhumane conditions.
'They call their cells "dog pounds" & "freezers." I will never apologize for calling these camps what they are. If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps - not the nomenclature.'
And she also received political cover from the most senior Democrat as Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans of trying to 'exploit' and 'misrepresent' her words.
Asked by DailyMail.com at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday whether she had spoken to Ocasio-Cortez about the Holocaust controversy, she said: 'I’m not up to date with her most recent remarks.
'I saw them on the news, but I haven’t spoken to her about that.
'Understand that while Republicans have no interest in holding the president accountable for his words, they will misrepresent anything that you say, just if you have one word in a sentence they can exploit.'
Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned her party Republicans would exploit their words
McCarthy had used his weekly press conference as minority leader to tell Ocasio-Cortez to apologize 'not only to the nation but to the world.'
'She does not understand what is going on at the border at the same time. There is no comparison. To actually say that is embarrassing,' he said.
'To take somewhere in history where millions of Jews died, and equate that to somewhere that's happening on the border, she owes this nation an apology.'
Ocasio-Cortez continued to argue President Trump has built concentration camps on the southern border after her war of words with Republicans resulted in them accusing the Democrat from New York of demeaning victims of the Holocaust.
'The US ran concentration camps before, when we rounded up Japanese people during WWII. It is such a shameful history that we largely ignore it. These camps occur throughout history. Many refuse to learn from that shame, but here we are today. We have an obligation to end them,' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after she set off a fire storm with Republicans with her original accusation.
The liberal Democrat also argued the Department of Homeland Security should not be funded if the camps were kept in existence. Lawmakers are in the appropriations process right now, setting budgets for next year for the federal agencies.
'Not one dime should go to DHS for building these camps as they detain children & families. Congressional appropriations season is now. That means it’s $ time - we‘re voting to fund federal government programs. We should not fund the caging of kids & families. Pretty simple,' she wrote.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in a war of words with Republicans after she accused President Trump of building 'concentration camps' at the border during an Instagram live video
Children and workers are seen at a tent encampment recently built near the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 19, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas
The lawmaker, who's a star on social media, originally discussed the matter Monday in an Instagram live, where she claimed the administration is building 'concentration camps' on the southern border to detain illegal immigrants.
'The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps,' she said.
'This is a crisis on if American will remain America … Or if we are losing to an authoritarian and fascist presidency,' Ocasio-Cortez said in reference to President Trump.
'I don't use those words lightly. I don't use those words to just throw bombs. I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is. A presidency that creates concentration camps is fascist and it's very difficult to say that.'
Prominent Republicans took to their own social media accounts to attack back.
'Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this,' tweeted GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House leadership.
'People like @AOC -- who are not lifting a finger to solve the problem -- comparing the men and women serving our country to concentration camp guards do the Congress and country a great disservice,' charged Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Venezuelan President Maduro 'no longer feels safe' and is... 'Appreciate the shout-out': The ABC's cheeky response to...
But Ocasio-Cortez defended herself, arguing concentration camps were different from Nazi death camps or extermination camps, where more than 3 million were estimated to have been killed during World War II.
'And for the shrieking Republicans who don't know the difference: And that's exactly what this administration is doing,' she wrote on Twitter.
'Concentration camps are considered by experts as "the mass detention of civilians without trial." And that’s exactly what this administration is doing.'
WHO'S RIGHT ABOUT CONCENTRATION CAMPS?
Republicans and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are at war over whether calling facilities being built to house new arrivals at the Mexican border 'concentration camps' is demeaning the victims of the Holocaust.
The term predates the Holocaust by decades, first creeping into the English language from the 'reconcentrados' set up by Spanish troops in Cuba in the late 1890s to put rural civilians on the borders of towns.
But it was British use of concentration camps in the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 in what is now South Africa which made the term widely used.
The idea was to put Boer civilians in camps to stop them supplying guerrillas fighting British colonial troops.
The reality was that thousands died of disease and malnutrition and Britain's opposition leader accused the government of a policy of exterminating the Boers.
German colonial troops in modern Namibia adopted the camps, and their name, before World War One as part of a genocide campaign against rebels.
The rise of Hitler saw the Nazis establish concentration camps for the people they rounded up. The first was Dachau, in March 1933, for Communists and other enemies. Jews quickly became the official enemy.
The number of camps exploded in Germany and then from 1939 the regime spread them across the countries they invaded.
Prisoners lived in appalling conditions, were used as slave labor, starved, subject to disease and used as human guinea pigs.
The names were to enter infamy: Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, and many others.
In 1942, the SS set up a network of extermination camps - Vernichtungslager - across Nazi-held territory. They were built beside existing concentration camps with new arrivals sent to one or the other; Auschwitz was to become the most infamous.
So technically, Ocasio-Cortez is right that concentration camp does not mean the same as the most notorious of the extermination camps but it is a fine distinction - the term concentration camp has become inextricably linked with the Holocaust and even before then was linked to accusations of extermination policies.
She also retweeted a post from author and Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, who wrote: 'Ok, Internet. Time to learn the difference between concentration camps and death ('extermination') camps. Germany started with concentration camps in 1933. Death camps started in 1941. Never again is now.'
Ocasio-Cortez came under fire from conservatives in November after she used the Holocaust analogy to point out that applying for refugee status should not in itself be considered a crime.
'Asking to be considered a refugee and applying for status isn't a crime,' the 29-year-old posted on Twitter. 'It wasn't for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn't for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn't for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn't for those fleeing violence in Central America.'
According to NBC, as of early June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was detaining more than 52,500 immigrants every day in a network of more than 200 detention centers.
The outlets reports that 24 immigrants have died in ICE custody during the Trump administration, while at least four others died shortly after being released.
That number also does not include those, including five children, who died in the custody of other federal agencies.
Ocasio-Cortez' latest statement came as President Trump threatened to remove millions of people living in the country illegally on the eve of formally announcing his re-election bid.
In a pair of tweets Monday night, Trump said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would next week 'begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.'
'They will be removed as fast as they come in,' he wrote.
An administration official said the effort would focus on the more than 1 million people who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges but remain at large in the country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to explain the president's tweets.
It is unusual for law enforcement agencies to announce raids before they take place.
Some in Trump's administration believe that decisive shows of force - like mass arrests - can serve as effective deterrents, sending a message to those considering making the journey to the U.S. that it's not worth coming.
Trump has threatened a series of increasingly drastic actions as he has tried to stem the flow of Central American migrants crossing the southern border, which has risen dramatically on his watch.
He recently dropped a threat to slap tariffs on Mexico after the country agreed to dispatch its national guard and step-up coordination and enforcement efforts.
A senior Mexican official said Monday that, three weeks ago, about 4,200 migrants were arriving at the U.S. border daily. Now that number has dropped to about 2,600.
Immigration was a central theme of Trump's 2016 campaign and he is expected to hammer it as he tries to fire up his base heading into the 2020 campaign.
President Trump who is due to formally announce his re-election bid tonight, yesterday tweeted threatening to remove millions of people living in the country illegally
George Takei talks about Japanese internment camp with parents in America when he was aged 5
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Work starts on plans for HUGE development of 3,000 homes near Truro
The aim is to work on a masterplan for the area at Langarth, near Threemilestone, where a whole 'new town' of up to 8,000 residents is expected to be built near the Stadium for Cornwall site
Jeff Reines
What the new development around the planned Stadium for Cornwall at Threemilestone will look like
Work is getting under way on planning a huge development of 2,700 homes near Truro.
The aim is to work on a masterplan for the area at Langarth, near Threemilestone, where a whole 'new town' of up to 8,000 residents is expected to be built near the Stadium for Cornwall site.
Cornwall Council said it has pledged to bring forward a high-quality housing scheme with community facilities for the benefit of residents and to take the lead in its design and how it will be delivered over the coming years.
Cornwall Live recently reported that the Government has granted £47 million towards a link road connecting the area with Treliske - you can read that full story here.
The new Stakeholder Panel, which includes representatives from partners and community organisations such as Threemilestone Primary School, the Threemilestone Business Estate and cycling and environmental groups, will work alongside with planners and developers on the masterplan for the development of 2,700 new homes and community facilities on different parcels of land at Langarth.
Minister drops huge hint that the Government will pay towards Stadium for Cornwall
Chaired by Dulcie Tudor, Councillor for Threemilestone and Gloweth, with Councillor for Chacewater, Kenwyn and Baldhu John Dyer as vice chairman, the panel will meet monthly to discuss the development of the masterplan. The panel will have input into the design and quality of the new homes, transport links, community facilities including new schools, health, leisure, play, faith and emergency facilities, green spaces and a new community centre.
“This development will inevitably have an impact on Threemilestone and the wider Truro area” said Councillor Tudor. “We want to make sure that this is a positive impact which provides a vibrant and sustainable new community where people want to live, not just a series of housing estates. When Cornwall Council took the decision to become involved in the scheme, there was a commitment to improve community facilities in Threemilestone and surrounding areas as part of the overall project. We will be making sure that this commitment is honoured.
“People have naturally asked why there has to be any development on this site. The reality is that there are already 14 different planning consents for 2,700 new homes on six parcels of land. This means it is inevitable that some development will take place in the future. Cornwall Council’s involvement means we have the opportunity to prevent these developments coming forward in an uncoordinated basis and instead create high quality, well designed housing which is truly affordable for local people.
Where hundreds of homes are being built to plug Cornwall's affordable housing gap
"We can also ensure that key infrastructure such as schools and health facilities are provided at the start of the scheme rather than at the end when all the houses have been built.
The development adjoins the site for the Stadium for Cornwall could, which already has planning permission
“Our aim is to protect the interests of the local community by ensuring that the scheme creates positive benefits for both existing and future residents. We recognise the concerns which have expressed over the quality of some new homes, the impact on existing traffic congestion on the A390 and increased pressures on local schools and health services.
"We will be working together to address these concerns and will not hesitate to stand up and speak out to ensure that the scheme provides a sustainable community, a more attractive place to live and good quality homes serving Truro."
Council to pour £16m into ANOTHER stalled private housing development
The other members of the panel are:
Ian Holroyd, chairman of Kenwyn Parish Council
Ken Hart, from Kenwyn Parish Council
Suzanne Teagle, head teacher of Threemilestone Primary School
Jeremy Putman and Dr Alan Stanhope, from Truro Churches Together
Damien Richards, Threemilestone resident
Allan Williams, representing Threemilestone Business Park
Jack Richards, representing sports/ health/environment
Sarah Wetherill, representing transport and the environment.
A whole new road will be built for a new town near Truro after £47m grant
Members at this week’s panel meeting were given a short presentation by AHR Architects who are leading a consortium, including local companies, to develop the masterplan.
Councillor Dulcie Tudor is chairman of the new panel moving forward with the huge development masterplan (Image: Dulcie Tudor)
Bob Egerton, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for culture, economy and planning, said: “Community involvement in the plans to develop the sites at Langarth is important as we work together to ensure the needs of residents are front and centre.”
Government says Stadium for Cornwall business case isn't good enough yet
Members of the Panel had also been asked to put forward three things they wanted to see included in the development.
Suggestions included:
Ensuring that the new development also meets the needs of Threemilestone and its residents, and connects with surrounding areas, including the city
Providing well designed affordable homes with low energy costs, which are easily adaptable to meet the changing needs of families
Encouraging innovative design and self-build projects
Creating a site with generous green spaces and an open community space for music and arts events where people can join together to express themselves
Ensuring adequate parking provision, with electric charging points and secure parking for people running their own businesses
Open spaces to provide a healthy environment for all ages, including well equipped play areas, walks, and cycle ways
Sustainable transport schemes which prioritise cycling and walking, and promote alternatives to car use, including park and ride and car and bike clubs
Creating distinct settlements which embrace rural living
Creating communities – not just a housing development - where people can work and live together, with easy access to surrounding areas.
Protecting the local environment and creating quiet corners where people can enjoy nature and wildlife
Supporting people working from home, with access to technology and hubs where they can get together to prevent isolation
Making the best use of community spaces so all parts of the community can join together
Providing health led indoor and outdoor facilities, including health centres, cafes, marked walks, bike trails, and a community hub
Using the stadium as a local community hub to provide sports and leisure facilities, work spaces, community meetings and culture and arts events
Ensuring that plans for the new school make the most of the natural environment, and promote outside learning for pupils, as well as working alongside and complementing the existing Threemilestone School.
Cornwall Council is moving ahead with plans to kick start developments which could lead to the creation of a new town of 8,000 residents at Langarth, near Truro
Ms Tudor added: “We want to ensure that the masterplan reflects the vision and values of the local community. We will be holding a series of events and drop in sessions in Threemilestone and in Truro over the next few months so we can make sure that the voice of local people is heard clearly at every stage of the process."
Cornwall Council has turned 10 and has some huge projects over the next 10 years
Details of the engagement events will be published on the Love Truro website and on the websites of Cornwall Council, Truro City Council and Kenwyn Parish Council and publicised as they are confirmed.
The 22 massive multi-million plans that could change the face of Cornwall by 2025
Truro City Council
Truro City
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Frank Turner - Rock & Roll EP (Xtra Mile Recordings)
Jim Pusey | Sunday, 26 December 2010
Frank Turner's prolific work rate continues with new EP Rock & Roll. The 5 distinct songs contained within are a taste of what's to come from the forthcoming follow up to Poetry Of The Dead. If that's the case, then 2011 could be a very promising year for Frank.
'I Still Believe' kicks of this brisk 20 minute musical journey. Reportedly it's the only one of these songs that will be featured on the album, however it's not quite the strongest of the tracks here. Featuring an up tempo guitar and piano led melody that recreates the live experience by sampling crowds for a call and response chorus, there's a certain joyous feeling to the track. "Who'd have thought, that after all, something as simple as Rock & Roll would save us all", essentially it's a love letter to a life on the road.
That sentiment continues into 'Pass It Along', which pays homage to small sweaty venues and the friendships formed along the way. Name checking among others Chuck Ragan and Jonah Matranga, Turner paints a romanticised vision of musical camaraderie with a backdrop of acoustic guitars. As the song reaches an electric climax, the dedication in the lyrics to Bob Dylan becomes even clearer: "cast a long shadow in the evening sun, and when the morning comes pass it along". Frank's pointing out the musical heritage of folk singers and the power of their songs on younger generations.
A solitary guitar backs the sweet and hushed vocal of 'Rock & Roll Romance', but there's also a wry sense of humour on show in the midst of this love song. "We could sleep in our pants", Turner sings to illustrate this less then glamorous romance. Suddenly 'The Next Round' ushers in guitars with a distinctly punk vibe, it changes the mood instantaneously bringing to mind some of his earlier solo work.
Finally the highlight of the songs featured here packs a emotional punch that had been absent elsewhere. "I'm not yet quite 30, but I feel like I'm dying" Turner sings on the melancholy ode to alcohol 'To Absent Friends'. Stuffed full of ideas Rock & Roll is a promising omen for future material and deserves to be listened to, it stands up well on it's own and may well contain some of Turner's finest material to date.
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Jaka Skapin - creative musician
Jaka Skapin joined Danielle Teale Dance in 2015 as a creative musician and collaborator. Jaka is a Slovenian composer, conductor and community music artist based in London where he achieved a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Performance and Production and Masters of Arts degree in Creative Entrepreneurship - Music at LCCM London.
As a choral singer (tenor) he has been performing with London Philharmonic Choir and Tenso European Chamber Choir, working under conductors such as Paul Hillier and Sir Mark Elder as well as training in music leadership with Voces Academy in collaboration with Oxford University.
As a freelance musician in popular music industry he has worked extensively with Jazz / R’n’R / Pop artists as well as developing his leadership approach to group music making, most notably as a collaborator on the Danielle Teale Dance, Dancing with Parkinson’s programme.
Jasmine Hall - dance mentee and supporting dance artist
Jasmine Hall joined Danielle Teale Dance in 2018 as Dancing with Parkinson’s dance mentee and now works with Danielle as a supporting artist. She is a Community Artist based in Essex, previously working with The Dance Network Association as their Lead Artist and now delivering a range of projects independently as Jasmine Hall Dance. She has supported Green Candle Dance Company's older people and those living with Dementia programmes, led her own classes of Dancing with Parkinson's and worked closely as a mentee of Danielle Teale's, supporting her Dancing with Parkinson's programme at St. Joseph's Hospice in Hackney.
Jasmine is also a choreographer and dance filmmaker. She performs with Essex based dance company, Flux Dance Collective and has created and produced dance films, such as 'RECLAIM' (2018), in collaboration with filmmaker Dominic Munson.
julie foord - Dancing with Parkinson’s administrator and dance mentee
Julie Foord joined Danielle Teale Dance in 2019 as Dancing with Parkinson’s administrator and dance mentee. Julie has enjoyed working in community and education settings as a dance practitioner and project manager for a number of years for organisations including RAD, Royal Opera House, People Dancing and Trinity Laban. She has danced with a variety of people from young children through to adults in residential settings. Her particular focus is in working with older adults and those living with neurological conditions such as dementia. Julie graduated with a PgDip. Community Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire and also holds an undergraduate degree in dance.
jack benjamin
Jack Benjamin joined Danielle Teale Dance in 2018 as a creative musician. Jack is an actor and musician and has been working as part of the St George’s and Queen Mary’s Hospital Arts team since 2014. His work includes beside music, music workshops for neurorehabilitation and music for the Danielle Teale Dance, Dancing with Parkinson’s programme. Jack also composes and performs his own music playing piano, trumpet and guitar as a member of the newly formed folk/jazz duo ‘Delight & Disorder’. As an actor, Jack trained at Drama Studio London where he was a winner of the Laurence Olivier Bursary Award. His work includes shows at the Royal Court Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse, along with television appearances on ITV’s ‘Mr. Selfridge’. Jack is currently writing his first play after receiving a grant from the Polka Theatre as one of their ‘PolkaLab’ artists.
Felicity sparks
Felicity Sparks joind Danielle Teale Dance in 2018 as a creative musician. She is an actor and musician, touring theatre productions across the UK and the world. When at home, she spends much time working as a musician in numerous contexts, including working with Disney to deliver musical theatre workshops for their West End productions, working as a bedside musician for St. George’s Hospital in Tooting, and teaching private piano and singing lessons. She is also resident composer and musical director for Tea Break Theatre, whose inaugural album was funded by Arts Council England in 2017. Felicity has been working with Danielle and the Dancing with Parkinson’s programme since April 2018, enjoying the sheer privilege of working alongside so many inspiring dancers, and wholeheartedly sharing Danielle’s philosophy that it’s always time for a boogie!
georgia heighway
Georgia Heighway joins Danielle Teale Dance in 2019 as Dancing with Parkinson’s supporting artist. Georgia was a founder member of Shoreditch Youth Dance Company and collaborated with numerous artists to perform in platforms and festivals internationally. After graduating from Trinity Laban, Georgia joined VERVE, touring works throughout the UK and Europe. Since, she has performed with Grov Productions, Sara Dos Santos, Second Hand Dance and Ceyda Tanc Dance. Georgia regularly teaches across a range of community and educational settings. Passionate about promoting the arts to wider communities, Georgia is Communications and Engagement Coordinator for Performing Arts at Breathe Arts Health Research, and was formerly in Digital Marketing and Administration for Dance Umbrella. Facebook.com/GeorgiaHeighwayDance
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Turkey urges China to close Uighur camps
Turkey has condemned China's treatment of its Muslim ethnic Uighur people as "a great cause of shame for humanity" and asked it to close the "concentration camps".
In a statement on Saturday, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said that China has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uighurs.
He said the Turkic Muslim population faced pressure and "systematic assimilation" in western China.
"It is no longer a secret that more than one million Uighur Turks, who are exposed to arbitrary arrests, are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in concentration centres and prisons," Aksoy said
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/ ... 15688.html
China has hit back at claims by Turkey over its treatment of Uighur people and denied reports a prominent poet and musician from the ethnic Muslim minority was tortured to death in prison.
The Chinese embassy in Turkey said in a statement that the poet, 57-year-old Abdurehim Heyit, was in good health after reports claimed he had died while serving an eight-year prison sentence.
Chinese Embassy to Turkey has announced that the country’s general-consulate in Izmir was closed as of Feb. 28 due to general arrangements with regard to consular activities. The move comes amid an ongoing row between Ankara and Beijing over the Uighur problem in which the former has harshly criticized Chinese government of assimilating the Muslim Turkic minority.
The announcement on the closure of the general-consulate, which exists since 2015, was made through a written statement posted on the website of the Embassy of China in Ankara on Feb. 28.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/china- ... row-141573
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Both sides open to it, but still no extension talks between Tigers, Castellanos
Tigers GM Al Avila talked on a variety of issues Thursday, including where Casey Mize will open the season.
Both sides open to it, but still no extension talks between Tigers, Castellanos Tigers GM Al Avila talked on a variety of issues Thursday, including where Casey Mize will open the season. Check out this story on detroitnews.com: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2019/03/21/both-sides-open-it-but-still-no-extension-talks-between-detroit-tigers-nick-castellanos/3233005002/
Chris McCosky, The Detroit News Published 11:43 a.m. ET March 21, 2019
Tigers' 2019 preview with Chris McCosky, Bob Wojnowski and Tony Paul The Detroit News
Lakeland, Fla. – Earlier this spring, Tigers right fielder Nick Castellanos indicated a willingness to discuss a contract extension with the Tigers.
Castellanos, 27, will be a free agent this offseason.
“I think both sides know a conversation would be welcome,” he said earlier this month. “That’s where it’s at now. There’s been no talking.”
Nick Castellanos (Photo: Chris O'Meara, AP)
No formal talking, that is. But Castellanos’ agent David Meter has attended a few Grapefruit League games the last couple of weeks, as has Castellanos’ father. Tigers general manager Al Avila has had general conversations with both.
The contract extension was apparently just the elephant in the room – it was there but nobody wanted to comment on it.
“I can’t say we’ve engaged in that kind of conversation,” Avila said Thursday morning. “I have told him these are things we discuss (internally) on a regular basis. But we haven’t made any formal offers, nor have we talked formally about anything like that.
“But he knows it’s on our mind, as it is on his mind.”
So, it remains just an option that both sides are keeping alive. The Tigers have had Castellanos on the trade block going back to last trade deadline. To this point, what the club considers credible offers have been scarce.
It is possible both sides are willing to wait to see how things shake out in the first half of the season. A hot start by Castellanos could dramatically alter the dynamics of the situation. Either way, Castellanos, who has repeatedly said he would like to play his whole career with the Tigers, seems resigned to letting it play out.
“That’s Plan A,” he said. “How many of us end up with Plan A? You have to be very lucky, talented and fortunate, really. Lot of things need to be there. But whatever is going to happen, man, is supposed to happen. I am not stressed about it.”
Avila talked on a variety of issues Thursday:
Miguel Cabrera (Photo: Chris O'Meara, AP)
► On controlling Miguel Cabrera’s work load at first base.
“Gardy (manager Ron Gardenhire) and his staff will monitor that on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “I don’t think you can plan it out to X-amount of games because it can change three weeks from now. We have to make decisions on a day-to-day basis.”
Asked if there was a proactive percentage he had in mind, Avila said, “I have it in my own mind, what I am hoping for, but I am not saying it publicly.”
► On if it’s best for left-hander Daniel Norris to start the season in the Triple-A Toledo rotation or the Tigers’ bullpen.
“A lot of things come into play,” he said. “One is if your pitching coach believes you can keep him stretched out at the big-league level if he’s in the bullpen. The other thing is, whatever you decide at the beginning doesn’t mean it can’t change a few weeks into the season.
“We haven’t made a final determination on that.”
The Tigers starting pitching depth has taken a hit with Michael Fulmer needing season-ending Tommy John surgery. It seems counter-intuitive at this point to put Norris in the bullpen.
Unless it's just a short-term decision.
“Guys could be sent to Toledo after camp and without anybody being told, we could have a plan of bringing guys back up already,” Avila said. “We know certain dates. And we know we start the season with eight straight games. We’re probably going to need some pitching when we get to New York.”
Casey Mize (Photo: Robin Buckson, Detroit News)
► On where Tigers top prospect Casey Mize will start the season.
“It’s not set in stone, but we’re thinking he would start in (High-A) Lakeland,” Avila said. “A couple of reasons: One is the weather. We’d have more control of getting him on a regular routine as opposed to starting off in bad weather.
“Once he gets hot and the weather breaks up north, we will move him to Erie (Double-A).”
Avila said the same plan is in place for No. 3 prospect Franklin Perez, who is healthy now and pitching regularly on the back fields. Avila said the last report had Perez hitting 96 mph consistently.
► On his first impression of Mize, having put him through his first big-league camp.
“We feel really good about it,” he said. “He came in so focused, focused like a big-leaguer. For most first-round picks when they get here, and we’ve gone through this, there is a learning process of what to do. How to prepare for a game and your day-to-day routine.
“He already had a day-to-day routine. He already knew how to prepare for a game. He came in here and he’d never been in this scenario, so, is it any different from what he’d been doing? Quite frankly, no. This guy is the ultimate pro.”
Twitter @cmccosky
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How the Black Sox World Series-fixing scandal unfolded 100 years ago
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Time is up for Yawkey Way
By Bill Forry
The Boston Red Sox, who have initiated a public process to change the name of Yawkey Way, are getting plenty of push back from prominent apologists for the late Red Sox owner who claim that he has been unfairly portrayed as a racist.
His defenders note that the Yawkey Foundation, a charity that he and his wife created, has been a force for good since their deaths. Some, like former Sox hurler Jim Lonborg, say that Yawkey “changed” over the course of his life, presumably meaning that after he deliberately kept blacks from working for him for many years, he became less of a bigot.
Yawkey’s most passionate defenders include leading Bostonians who have a connection to the foundation. Some are trustees, like Rev. Ray Hammond, who has become the most outspoken opponent of the name change. He and others, like Cardinal Sean O’Malley, whose various Catholic missions are aided by the fund’s largesse, signed a letter to the Boston Public Improvement Commission opposing the street name change that said: “The name on the street that honors Tom Yawkey’s long and successful ownership – not to mention his philanthropy – is synonymous with the name of the Foundations. They are inseparable.”
O’Malley, Hammond, and company added: “We believe it is not overstating things to say that removing his name from Fenway Park will forever taint his legacy, both as the historic owner of the Red Sox and throughout the city of Boston.”
With respect, that is overstating things. There has been no suggestion that the Yawkey Foundation change its name or that funders should be forced to change the name of any buildings or programs.
The current Red Sox ownership under John Henry has acknowledged the good works of the Yawkey charities, but it isn’t happy that Yawkey’s decidedly poor record on racial integration — both on and off the playing fields during his ownership years— hamper their present-day efforts to make Fenway welcoming to everyone, especially people of color.
Nor should they be.
The Yawkey name is on their letterhead and their entrances. It’s intertwined with their identity in a way they don’t want it to be. The Red Sox — and their abutters— have every right to seek to present their property, their team, and their brands to the public in a new way.
Yawkey’s boosters also grossly understate the impacts of the former regime’s well-documented and deeply disturbing practice of discrimination over many years. This history is not just about being the last to call up an African-American player (12 years after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers.) It’s about an insidious, institutionalized brand of racism that polluted the team for years and helped further cement Boston’s national reputation as a hostile environment for black Americans.
Last Thursday’s hearing of the BPIC included testimony from Walter Carrington, 88, a former member of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD). An Army veteran who also served in the Peace Corps and as US ambassador to Senegal, Carrington felt compelled to share his story about his own investigations into Yawkey’s business practices in the 1940s and ‘50s.
Carrington was called in to probe Yawkey and his front office and not only because they wouldn’t field black players, but, he said, because they didn’t have any black employees at any level. It was a disgraceful record that was well known to black Bostonians and people across the nation.
Carrington’s testimony was that the Red Sox and Yawkey only begrudgingly agreed to bring up their first black player, Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, in 1959 after his MCAD investigation found chronic wrong-doing and forced the issue. For Carrington, there was an immediate price to be paid for doing his job.
As an MCAD commissioner, he served at the discretion of the governor and the Governor’s Council, which at the time (1950s and ‘60s) was chaired by Dorchester’s Sonny McDonough. In his testimony, Carrington said that after his hearings on the Red Sox, McDonough called him into his office and “reamed me out."
“He told me that Mr. Yawkey and others were unhappy and he was going to see that I was not re-appointed," said Carrington.
Rev. Hammond, who also testified on Thursday and called the Red Sox behavior at that time “sad, painful, and a reality that Red Sox and Boston have to own”— dismisses the idea that this outrageous pattern by Yawkey’s company should “unfairly tarnish the legacy of [the] man.”
What’s unfair — then and now— is the revisionism of the Yawkey apologists who would hold powerful men blameless for installing a systematic and sustained period of Jim Crowism in one of our town’s most important institutions. It is offensive for Cardinal O’Malley and his co-signers to suggest to modern-day Bostonians— so many of them families of color who look to them for leadership— that Yawkey’s southern-styled discrimination was somehow “the norm” back then, and so should thus be ignored.
Perhaps they will choose to ignore it — and that’s surely their right. But the Red Sox have every right to acknowledge it — to “own it,” as Rev. Hammond has said—and to then choose to move away from it. Henry’s ownership group has certainly earned that right over their remarkable tenure as stewards of Fenway and our beloved home team. They should be applauded, not chastised, for doing so.
We hope the Red Sox will take steps to put the Yawkey era in the proper context— as a big part of the team’s history, but not necessarily one to be so elevated in a current-day depiction of what the Red Sox are all about. And we hope that the city's Public Improvement Commission will accept the request to change Yawkey Way back to Jersey Street.
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American Horror Story: Asylum
American Horror Story: Asylum is the second season of the American FX horror television series American Horror Story, created by Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy (GLEE, NIP/TUCK, FEUD, POSE). It originally aired from October 17, 2012 to January 23, 2013. The premise of the second season marked a departure from that of the series’ first season, featuring all new characters and a new location, thus marking American Horror Story as an anthology series at the time.
The season begins in 1964 at the fictional mental institution, Briarcliff Manor, following the stories of the staff and inmates who occupy it, and intercuts with events in the past and present. Returning cast members from the previous season of the series include: Zachary Quinto (STAR TREK), Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters (X-MEN: APOCALYPSE), Lily Rabe, Jessica Lange (FEUD), Dylan McDermott, and Frances Conroy (SIX FEET UNDER), along with new cast members Joseph Fiennes (THE HANDMAID’S TALE), Lizzie Brocheré, and James Cromwell. Like its predecessor, Asylum was well received by television critics and fans, though they noted numerous plot holes and inconsistencies. The performances of Jessica Lange, James Cromwell, Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, and Lily Rabe were particularly praised.
The season garnered seventeen Primetime Emmy Award nominations, more than any other show, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie and four acting nominations for Lange, Paulson, Cromwell, and Quinto, with Cromwell winning for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. In addition, Quinto and Paulson won their respective supporting categories at the 3rd Critics’ Choice Television Awards. This piece was designed in collaboration with FX Creative. © FX Networks. This project was completed under the name of Iconisus L&Y. It is part of the Iconisus portfolio. Dreamogram is a new separate entity and not a continuation of Iconisus.
Click to watch the trailer
American Horror Story: Hotel
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Why Merchant?!!?!
"Why are you doing The Merchant of Venice?" "Isn't that the racist play?"
I'm writing to answer some of those questions.
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is not performed as often as many of his other plays – largely because in a post-Holocaust world it's really difficult for us to witness the reality of race and status in an Elizabethan world. Shakespeare still gets his other plays mounted again and again because many of the facets of the human condition, which are still prevalent in today’s society, are explored so thoroughly and movingly. Arguably this play explores many of those facets in the most well rounded way.
Shakespeare didn't mean to write Shylock as a sympathetic character but today he's viewed that way - or played to be some sort of gangster or deformed monster. Gratiano was meant to be a humorous character but by today's standards he's often viewed as a racist menace. Portia is often thought of as cruel because of how we're first introduced to her. Then she delivers the 'quality of mercy' speech and the audience suddenly loves her. My point being people think of this play in a specific way. They remember it for a character who isn't even meant to be the focus of the play. Or they remember two speeches and think there's nothing in between. I have to admit - I didn't think much of the play either. I'd read it. I remember thinking it was interesting but then every version I've seen staged made me angry. I always tend to think it's been handled poorly.
These characters are some of the most understandable, flawed and wonderfully human characters that Shakespeare has written (in my opinion). Every character has moments of cruelty, every character has moments of frustration. They all have moments when we cheer for them and moments when we beg them not to do it. Honestly, the more I read the text, the more I love the play and think it's highly underrated and misunderstood. It was meant to be entertainment and it truly is a wonderful vehicle for it. It feels a bit like a tennis match - just watching morality, insults, jokes and, of course, love, fly around the stage.
If you don't believe me just ask the other 5 theatre companies (that I've counted) in North America putting the play up this season. Talk about the collective consciousness.
What's different about what we're doing? We're ignoring every preconceived notion that we or you have ever had about this play and focusing on the humanity of each character. We've cast the characters to be much closer in age to each other which makes for an interesting and different dynamic. We've cross cast some of the roles. AND we've made some of the male characters female. Why? The status of women in Shakespeare’s time was, as we know, unequal to that of their male counterparts and, reflecting the inequity of his era, Shakespeare’s plays often have 30 male characters and 3 or 4 females, more often than not, the men are in a position of power. What we’ve done with our play is increased the presence and power of the female characters and unashamedly changed the sexes of quite a few roles For instance, in our production, we have the Duchess of Venice instead of the Duke - she is in a seat of power during the court scene. Furthermore, Salerio & Solanio are woman too!
The human condition is well on display in The Merchant of Venice. This play explores love, race, politics, economy, business, money, status. Merchant also has the key ingredients to Shakespearean comedy: the wise clown, witty double entendres, wonderful insults and (of course) the heroine dresses as a boy... and yes, the play really was written as a comedy. I know, I know!
We open May 31st and run 2 weekends with a possible extension. More details coming soon!!
Happy Birthday Will! Thank you for giving us this play!!
The Edge Team
Everyone who works for The Edge can contribute here. We'll let you know who's posting what!
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What happens to incident information: The analyst’s perspective
In this episode of the Humanitarian Incidents podcast we speak to Frances Nobes, Security Operations and Research Analyst for World Vision International.
Frances discusses what we mean when we talk about ‘analysis’, why it matters, and the role incident information can play in it, as well as some of the common challenges that analysts face and ways for organisations to overcome them.
Frances is responsible for leading analytical support for security operations for World Vision, one of the world’s largest INGO’s, dedicated to providing life in all its fullness to over 100 million sponsored children, their families and communities in over 90 countries worldwide. Frances works with a wide range of stakeholders across multiple functions in support of key projects and conducts analysis that ensures end-to-end security capability and delivery to the field. She plays a key part in shaping and influencing areas of organisational strategic risk and readiness while also providing an interface between the World Vision security operations team and the wider humanitarian security research and analysis community.
Prior to joining World Vision, Frances spent five years in the private sector. During this time she worked as an intelligence analyst, writing reports on transnational security issues such as kidnapping, terrorism and civil and political unrest, as well as supporting security risk management consultancy functions. In addition, she produced and delivered bespoke training to organisations on the topics of travel safety and crisis management. Frances holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, and a Master’s Degree in Intelligence & International Security from King’s College London.
The Humanitarian Incidents podcast is supported by the European Interagency Security Forum, Insecurity Insight and RedR UK and is funded by EU Humanitarian Aid.
You can download this episode here, or listen on Spotify here.
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TOP STORIES / World / Europe
Turkish academics fear further restrictions on freedom of opinion
Following Turkey's detention of several academics on Friday, many university teachers are apprehensive about what ongoing investigations could mean for them. And they also fear for their intellectual liberty.
Marmara University in Istanbul
"We weren't particularly worried before last Tuesday," a part-time lecturer at a university in Istanbul - who requested to remain anonymous - confided, sipping on a latte in a trendy cafe on the Asian side of Istanbul.
The lecturer is one of 1,128 signatories to a petition titled "We Will Not Be a Party to This Crime," condemning the ongoing violence in the southeast of Turkey, and calling upon the Turkish government to return to peaceful negotiations with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). While the lecturer initially thought it was just another petition - he signs several on a weekly basis - its potential consequences became apparent when 27 academics were detainedFriday morning, and several others, including him, had investigations opened into their political activities.
"Now we're worried about our personal lives," he said. "What happens if we are arrested? What happens to our families, our loved ones? Our future?"
Many of those detained and under investigation are accused of insulting the Turkish nation and promoting terrorist propaganda - charges that, if the detainees are brought to trial and found guilty, could carry jail sentences of up to five years.
Criticism of the petition
Several leading politicians - including Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu - criticized the petition for its allegedly incendiary language and one-sidedness, saying it ignored civilian casualties from terrorist actions of the PKK and should be directed at the Kurdish militants. President Erdogan said that the academics should “dig trenches and go to the mountains” if they didn't wish to negotiate politics in parliament.
However, the signatories claimed that, with a petition produced largely by Turks, it is the Turkish government - not the PKK - that they should address.
"Why should I sign a petition which is addressing the PKK? They are not the organization I should speak to," the lecturer went on. "I'm a citizen of Turkey - and this is why I am trying to talk to the state."
In addition to concern for the civilian casualties in the southeast, many are also concerned that, if left unchecked, the violence could spread to cities in the west, like Istanbul.
The fight against the PKK has claimed many civilian lives
"What worries me is that this is going to be a terror war," he continued. "I am worried that the violence will come to the big cities - it is already in Diyarbakir, but in the west. I am worried that there will be attacks in the metro stations and on the ferries."
While the violence is currently contained in the southeastern region of the country, western cities have experienced isolated incidents of PKK terrorism as recently as last year.
"I use the metro everyday, and I'm using the ferries every day," he said. "This is why I'm supporting a return to negotiations."
Changing politics, changing speech
"Erdogan's government negotiated with the PKK's imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan for two and a half years," Behlul Ozcan, an assistant professor at Marmara University in Istanbul, echoed.
"It was a groundbreaking attempt to solve the Kurdish issue, and many intellectuals supported it."
However, in the summer of 2015, these negotiations dissolved, causing the region to devolve into armed conflict that resulted in dozens of civilian casualties on both sides. The worsening political environment made it more difficult to speak freely about the Kurdish issue, which, due to the on-again-off-again conflict of almost three decades, was already a sensitive issue.
"When I write, and speak publicly, I think, not twice, but three, four, or five times," Ozcan continued. "There is not a free environment in Turkey to speak academically about these issues."
Future of academic freedom in Turkey
However, the ongoing government pressure on academics - with the arrests being just the most recent example - has left some wondering about their future in the academy.
"The fact that everything can be this arbitrary has troubling consequences, especially for young researchers," Yusuf Salman, a researcher at Koç University whose academic work focuses on minority media and speech policies, told DW.
According to the Higher Education Council, political activity is essentially forbidden on university campuses. Multiple universities have been accused of intensely surveilling and documenting the political activities of students, and even categorizing academic candidates based on non-academic criteria. If a politically-oriented complaint is launched against a faculty member, the university has to launch an investigation.
"Considering the issues I work on and talk about, my chances of holding an academic post at a state university in the future seem to be diminishing," Salman said.
Police in Turkey detain 18 academics for denouncing military operations against Kurdish rebels
Turkish police have detained 18 academics who were among 1,000 scholars who signed a declaration denouncing military operations last month. The academics also called for peace with Kurds in the south-east of the country. (15.01.2016)
Turkey's southeast heats up as Erdogan clamps down
Against the backdrop of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) congress which starts on Friday, Turkey is grappling with the aftermath of a series of terror attacks. Anna Lekas Miller reports from Istanbul. (15.01.2016)
Hundreds of Kurdish militants killed since December, says Turkey's army
More than 32 PKK militants have been killed in one of the deadliest weekends since the Kurdish insurgency erupted. A human rights monitor says more than 70 civilians have been killed in curfew-hit towns. (10.01.2016)
Author Anna Lekas Miller, Istanbul
Related Subjects Turkey
Keywords Turkey, Erdogan, Davutoglu
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1Hez5
'A gift of god for Erdogan' 15.07.2019
Journalist Can Dündar talks about the consequences of the coup attempt in Turkey three years ago. The former editor-in-chief of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet says that President Erdogan used the incident to gain more power and smash his political opponents.
Turkish journalists acquitted of terrorist propaganda charges 17.07.2019
Erol Onderoglu, the national representative for Reporters Without Borders, was one of three facing 14 years in jail. 140 journalists are currently in prison in Turkey, despite international demands that they be set free.
Reporters in Turkey adopt a new beat: Imprisoned journalists 15.07.2019
Three years ago, a failed coup in Turkey led to a media crackdown. Since then, journalists have banded together to document the cases of reporters imprisoned or charged with crimes against the state.
Turkish journalists acquitted of terrorist propaganda charges
Turkish consul employee killed in Iraq's Kurdish capital, Irbil
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Technology and Tyranny: Social Media and the End of the Liberal World Order
Jean-Marie Chenou, Nov 22 2018, 905 views
Image by Pixabay
In 2009, the term “Twitter revolution” was coined to describe the way in which protesters used Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and especially social media, to rally and publicize their causes in different contexts such as the Moldovan parliamentary election and the Iranian presidential election. In the following years, the Arab spring and the Euromaidan events in Ukraine provided further evidence for the importance of social media in the organization and diffusion of social protests. While the role of social media was sometimes exaggerated in journalistic and academic accounts of the mobilizations (Mejia, 2010), there was a general trend to acknowledge the democratizing potential of ICTs. However, five years after Euromaidan, the tide seems to have turned. In 2016, Oxford dictionaries chose “post-truth” as the word of the year. In a single year, social media were accused to have promoted the election of President Trump in the US and the victory of the leave campaign in the Brexit referendum, among other political events. Not only were these results in contradiction with the liberal values that were supposed to be promoted by social media, but they also questioned the very idea of a democratic political campaign. The diffusion of fake news, the meddling of foreign powers, and the sometimes illegal use of political micro-targeting were instrumental in both campaigns and may have affected the close results in both cases.
What happened in the last five years? Were we collectively wrong and naive about social media in the early 2010s as they were paving the way toward tyranny? The relationship between ICTs, democracy and tyranny is complex. The current pessimistic wave is as deterministic as the earlier wave of techno-optimism. The remainder of the article presents a more nuanced analysis. First, there is no determinism in the relationship between technology and society. Second, ICTs and social media contribute to the advent of tyranny in the classical sense of the term. However, they are also instruments of resistance. Finally, the relationship between technology and tyranny has to be understood in the context of the faltering of the global liberal order.
The relationship between technology and society
Social media, like all technologies, are not fundamentally good or bad for democracy. The techno-optimistic vision that prevailed from the 1990s until 2016 saw in the popularization of the internet, the web 2.0, and social media an unstoppable technological progress toward democratization. This discourse was based on the fallacious comparison between the distributed and horizontal nature of the technological infrastructure of the internet and the necessarily horizontal social relationships that would emerge from its use.
Since 2016, a pessimistic discourse on the relationship between technology and democracy predominates in the public debate. Like the techno-optimistic discourse of the 1990s, the current pessimistic discourse assumes a deterministic vision of technology. Algorithms used by social media and internet platforms are described as “weapons of math destruction” (O’Neil, 2016) or “algorithms of oppression” (Noble, 2018). While it is necessary to acknowledge the agency of technology in current transformations, it is also important to stress that this agency does not operate in abstraction from pre-existing social structures.
Science and Technology Studies can contribute to the understanding of the relationship between technology and world politics (McCarthy, 2017). The analysis of the co-construction between technology and society helps avoid social and technological determinisms and describes the plasticity of technological change. Technology “both embeds and is embedded in social practices, identities, norms, conventions, discourses, instruments, and institutions – in short, in all the building blocks of what we term the social” (Jasanoff, 2004, pp. 3-4).
As described in the following sections, the same ICTs and social media are used by authoritarian regimes and in the rise of tyrants, as well as as instruments of resistance. In both cases, they participate in the redefinition of the world order.
ICTs and tyranny
An interesting parallel exists between the current political situation in several countries around the world and the description of the rise of tyranny as described by Plato almost 24 centuries ago in The Republic (Plato, 2006). First, tyranny springs from democracy. As Plato puts it, “the insatiable desire of [freedom] and the neglect of other things introduces the change in democracy, which occasions a demand for tyranny” (Plato, 2006, p. 559). In his modern reinterpretation of The Republic, Badiou (2006) insists that this excess of freedom is actually the excess of one limited type of freedom, reduced to the “compulsory gratification of personal desires through the objects available on the market” (Badiou, 2006, p. 274).
“Disregard for everything that’s not your own little self is called ‘the autonomy of the human subject’. Being rid of every principle connected with collective life is called ‘personal freedom’. The most ruthless careerism adopts the sweet name of ‘social success’. Being even the least bit concerned about workers, lower-level employees, or small farmers is denounced as ‘populism’. Advocating outrageous inequalities, the competition of all against all, and police repression of the poorest people in society is called ‘the courage to start from realities’.” (Badiou, 2006, p. 272)
Against this background, the tyrant emerges as a protector of the people against “drones” (the plague of an inactive class taking advantage of democracy) and against the excesses of freedom. However, the protector eventually converts into an autocratic ruler. Three elements of the tyrant’s method described by Plato are worth mentioning in order to analyze the current role of ICTs and social media in the advent of tyranny. First, the tyrant has “a mob entirely at his disposal”. Second, he uses “false accusation” as his favorite method. Third, “he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” (Plato, 2006, p. 566). ICTs are powerful tools to gather a mob of followers, throw false accusations, and stir up conflicts with opponents, critiques, and foreign leaders. The use of Twitter by President Trump immediately comes to mind as an illustration of these three methods (see tweets below), although many other examples exist.
The direct relationship between leaders that present themselves as protectors of the people against democratic elites through social media and internet platforms allows for the diffusion of false information, accusations, and threats. The absence of mediation between the “protectors” and their followers facilitates the implementation of tyrannical methods of campaigning and ruling in a context of democratic crisis. This is why it can be said that ICTs are instrumental in the advent of tyranny worldwide.
ICTs and resistance
Against dominant uses of ICTs, a myriad of alternative and resistance practices flourishes. The very same technology that allows for the control of a mob by anti-democratic leaders also offer new tools for activism, social movements, and emancipatory politics.
Transnational online mobilizations have been able to affect the global political agenda over the last few years. The most striking example from the recent past is the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, spreading virally since October 2017. The global movement had translations in over 85 countries. The #MeToo movement illustrates the global importance of what Kira Cochrane analyzed as a fourth wave of feminism “defined by technology”.
Organization and coverage of protests through social media did not disappear in the last five years. In 2016, for example, while commentators focused on Brexit and the US Presidential election, students from many different universities in Colombia used social media to organize massive marches to defend the peace agreement with the FARC guerilla after the failure of the ratification plebiscite. The communication channels established in 2016 among universities are still instrumental in the current mobilizations to support public higher education in 2018.
The use of ICTs for emancipatory purposes creates alternative political spaces and alternative meanings for the digital revolution (Chenou & Castiblanco, 2018). The democratizing potential of ICTs still exists. One error was to think that this democratizing potential was the main feature of ICTs when the dominant practices and discourses were aimed toward the digitization and the deregulation of capitalism and the perpetuation of pre-existing power structures (Morozov, 2011).
The end of the liberal order
The different technological practices mentioned in this article have to be understood in the context of the current redefinition of the world order. More precisely, they help analyze the co-production between digitization and the end of the liberal world order.
The digitization of everything started in the 1990s, during the golden age of globalization and liberalism. Digital technology was a powerful vehicle for the globalization of capitalism and the diffusion of liberal ideas and practices. Internet governance, and later the regulation of digital markets, corresponded to a synthesis between neoliberalism and cyber-libertarianism (Chenou, 2014). With a “hands-off” approach toward state regulation and the cult of “permissionless innovation”, the development of cyberspace contributed to the disentanglement of freedom from other purposes of politics.
While dominant economic uses of digital technology still abide by this logic and internet giants, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, are still reluctant to accept any type of regulation, the crisis of the liberal order prompted reactions in the discourses around – and uses of – digital technologies. On the one side, alleged “protectors” of the people emerge in the context of the crisis of the liberal order and use ICTs and social media to win elections. By doing so, they implement what Plato described as the tyrants’ methods and question the principles of democratic rule. On the other side, digital technologies are also used for the formulation and promotion of emancipatory politics.
These two reactions illustrate how technology responds to “the social” (in this case, the crisis of the liberal world order), but they also evidence how different uses of technology compete in order to give new directions to “the social”. The most recent events in global politics hint towards the rise of tyranny as the most probable outcome of the redefinition of the world order. However, as we have seen in this article, alternative uses of technology have yielded results and shown some potential to weigh in the redefinition of the world order.
Badiou, Alain. 2015. Plato’s Republic: A Dialogue in Sixteen Chapters. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chenou, Jean-Marie. 2014. ‘From Cyber-Libertarianism to Neoliberalism: Internet Exceptionalism, Multi-Stakeholderism, and the Institutionalisation of Internet Governance in the 1990s’. Globalizations 11 (2): 205–23.
Chenou, Jean-Marie, and Rodulfo Armando Castiblanco Carrasco. 2018. ‘#CompartirNoEsDelito: Creating Counter-Hegemonic Spaces Online for Alternative Production and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge’. In Networks, Movements and Technopolitics in Latin America: Critical Analysis and Current Challenges, edited by Francisco Sierra Caballero and Tommaso Gravante, 177–97. Palgrave Macmillan.
Jasanoff, Sheila. 2004. States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and the Social Order. Routledge.
McCarthy, Daniel R. (ed.) 2017. Technology and World Politics: An Introduction. Routledge.
Mejias, Ulises. 2010. ‘The Twitter Revolution Must Die’. International Journal of Learning and Media 2 (4): 3–5.
Morozov, Evgeny. 2011. The Net Delusion. The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Noble, Safiya. 2018. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: NYU Press.
O’Neil, Cathy. 2016. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. New York: Crown.
Plato. 2006. The Republic. San Diego: ICON Group.
About The Author ( Jean-Marie Chenou):
Jean-Marie Chenou is an Assistant Professor at the department of Political Science at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, where he has worked since 2016. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and a MA in International Relations from the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). His research focuses on internet governance and the global political economy of the digital age.
Editorial Credit(s):
Fernanda Brandão
Tags: #MeTo, Arab Spring, brexit, democracy, Euromaidan, internet, Liberal World Order, technology, Trump, Tyranny
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Home Board Games General Board Games 221b Baker Street
221b-baker-street
221B Baker Street is the London address of the world's most celebrated fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his dedicated companion, Dr. Watson. In this game you start at 221B and travel through the streets and alleys of London picking up clues and attempting to solve the most intriguing cases Holmes and Watson have ever faced.
Each player assumes the role of Holmes and matches wits with the other players to determine who possesses the most skilful powers of deduction. Each case is represented by a card that features a crime told in story form, a selection of probable suspects and a list of locations involved in that crime.
Clues are hidden throughout London, one in each of fourteen locations. Players must collect clues from each location, noting them down on their check-lists as they attempt to find the answers to the questions listed on the case card.
Naturally, the crime scene will often contain vital clues, and a prudent detective always checks with the neighbours. Still, you can learn something vital almost anywhere in town. The first player to figure out the correct answers to a particular mystery or crime, return to 221B and announce the solution, is the winner.
Hive £21.99
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Joshua Moore
Cuban Entrepreneurs Urge President-elect Trump to Maintain Relations with Cuba
Fox News World
By: Nikki Abrego
A group of entrepreneurs from Cuba is urging President-elect Donald Trump to keep the changes in trade and travel that began almost two years ago and which they say are improving life on the long-isolated island.
On Wednesday, the group of Cuban entrepreneurs released a letter signed by over 100 Cuban private business owners sent to Trump in which they said: “Over a half of million people now work in the private sector, earning considerably more money than state jobs and offering more autonomy in business decisions. We’re hopeful that our government will make additional changes to the legal framework and market conditions in the future.”
“Reforms made by the U.S. government to allow for increased travel, telecom services and banking have helped substantially as we attempt to grow our businesses,” the letter said.
“We’re confident that you understand the importance of economic engagement between nations. Small businesses in Cuba have the potential to be drivers of economic growth in Cuba and important partners of the U.S. business community.”
Four entrepreneurs participated in a press conference on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., along with groups that favor lifting the U.S.-Cuba embargo.
When Fidel Castro died, Trump tweeted, “If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban-American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal.”
That created concern among proponents of restored diplomatic relations that Trump would undo all the changes the Obama administration undertook, by easing trade and travel restrictions.
“As a businessman, Mr. Trump would be proud of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Cuban people,” James William, president of Engage Cuba, a national advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the U.S. embargo on Cuba, said. “These changes have helped Cuba's private sector grow and are widely supported across the island.”
At the press conference Marta Elisa Deus Rodriguez, one of the entrepreneurs, said “I now own three businesses, and I want to grow all of them, and that’s why I hope the new administration does not change this policy.”
She fears that if the policy does change, her business will suffer.
Julia de la Rosa and her husband have run a bed and breakfast more than 20 years. And when the U.S. and Cuba re-established relations and Airbnb came to Cuba, their business was able to grow. They have had hundreds of visitors in the past 18 months, and increasing their staff to 17 people.
“I hope that President elect-Trump recognizes how much these changes have helped us. We want to improve our relations with the U.S. and think about the future and what our two countries can accomplish together,” de la Rosa said.
According to Reuters, private businesses still have no access to wholesale stores and can only import or export goods via government agencies.
Newer PostCuban Business Owners Ask Trump to Keep the Peace With Cuba
Older PostNorwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Win Approval to Sail to Cuba
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Obituary: Thomas Anthony Geis – Independent Rep in Arizona
Jim Lucy Blog | Apr 18, 2017
Thomas A. Geis passed away peacefully with his lifelong love Beverly at his side on Jan. 31 at age 83. He was born Feb. 3, 1933 in Dayton, OH. His family moved to Phoenix in 1949 when his father, Walter Geis, realized they could play golf 365 days a year there. Tom was a passionate golfer with a low handicap who had eight holes in one.
Tom got into the electrical industry soon after graduating from Arizona State University in 1956 when he took a job with a local utility as an engineer. He and Beverly started Geis Sales Inc. and grew the independent rep agency to be one of the largest and most respected agencies in Arizona, New Mexico and southern Nevada.
He sold his agency in 1997, thinking it was time to play a bit more golf, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that staying home was not for him. To stay involved, he went to work in electrical distribution and eventually returned to the agency business with a long-time friend and competitor where he spent almost 10 years until his passing. Along the way, Tom made more friends than can be counted as he called on all parts of the industry. Tom was active in the Electric League of Arizona, NAED, NECA, IECA and was a member of NEMRA (National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association). He will be missed by his many friends in the electrical industry.
TAGS: Global
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Debbie Allen on Grey's Anatomy, Her Trailblazing Career, and the Increasing Diversity in TV
The legendary actress and director will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Gracie Awards.
By Emily Zemler
Gabriel OlsenGetty Images
On June 6, the multitalented Debbie Allen will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 42nd annual Gracie Awards Gala, hosted by The Real's Jeannie Mai. But if you're thinking that someone who has appeared on everything from Fame to The Love Boat to Grey's Anatomy (which Allen also directs) would be blasé about this kind of recognition, you'd be wrong.
"This is really exciting for me," Allen tells ELLE.com. "I don't get much time to look back and celebrate myself because there's always something to do or a fire to put out or a project to start. There's always so much to do. So it's a nice moment for me."
Allen, 67, got her start on Broadway as a dancer, singer, and actress, and has since become instrumental in television shows both as an actor and behind the scenes as a director and producer. She became the first African American woman to receive a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series—Musical or Comedy in 1983 for her work on Fame, and today Allen is credited with mentoring dozens of young directors and creatives.
Debbie Allen in
"I don't think about that," Allen admits when asked about her contributions. "I'm too busy working to pat myself on the back. I don't think about that ever. I know I've touched a lot of people and I've inspired them. There have been so many wonderful young people who I've touched or trained."
"I'm too busy working to pat myself on the back."
Allen has directed everything from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Family Ties and Jane the Virgin. So what ties it all together? She says it all comes back to dancing. "The cohesive thing is the spirit of the dance, because it's helped me twirl through all of it," Allen says. "When you come up as a dancer, you come up with a tremendous amount of discipline. You are used to pain. You are born on criticism. Your every accomplishment comes out of criticism. You're tough. So coming out of that world in my own manner of creative curiosity and passion has remained a very interesting thing for me."
When Allen first stepped behind the camera in the early '80s to direct an episode of Fame, she knew that she was breaking new ground. Nobody else on the show's crew looked like her, and she could do thing no one else could: "I had been directing quite a few of the dance numbers for directors who couldn't understand how to shoot [them]." Despite her determination, her uniqueness was starkly obvious: "There were no other women. There were no women anywhere. That's what I came up in. I was often the only woman in the room and the only Black person in the room. That was often the case. But things have changed now."
On the set of
Allen says she first started noticing changes when she went to work on A Different World in 1988. There were more women on set and she even started a makeshift day care center because so many of the crew members were mothers. In the years since, Allen has seen a slow, organic shift toward more diversity in television—particularly when she joined Shondaland.
"It'd be hard to say there's a failure in diversity right now on TV," Allen says. "Shonda, the real khaleesi of the entertainment industry, is a Black woman. I see all the young women that are coming up as directors and I see so much diversity in the casting. I see that there has been major, major movement in a very natural way."
Debbie Allen (Dr. Catherine Avery) and Jesse Williams (Dr. Jackson Avery) on
Having played Dr. Catherine Avery on Grey's Anatomy since 2011, Allen is pretty much a Shondaland fixture. "Grey's Anatomy has turned into a whole other movement in my career," she says. "You never know when you say yes to something where it's going to lead, or if you say no to something where it didn't go," she says. "Working in Shondaland has been great. The opportunity to become executive producer and director [on] was great."
20 Things You Didn\'t Know About Grey\'s Anatomy
Shonda Rhimes\' Planned Parenthood Speech
The 12 Best Movies to Watch This Summer
As she celebrates the growing diversity in the entertainment industry, Allen emphasizes the importance of earning each opportunity.
It can't be a lay-up. need to hire people whose work speaks to me and who work for the opportunity. The way to push it is for people to go and do the work and put in the time and gain the skill. It's not a given because you do an independent film on your iPhone and it gets some attention that you can direct. That doesn't mean you can come and tell Ellen Pompeo what to do.
As for Allen, she's certainly earned that right. There are only a few more episodes left in this season of Grey's Anatomy, and she says the finale—which she, of course, directed—will be a stunning cliffhanger: "There are some seeds that are planted that may leave you a little stunned and thinking: What's going to happen when we come back?" Any clues? "All I can tell you is it's hot. Don't miss it."
Emily Zemler Emily Zemler is a freelance writer based in London.
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Movies & TV 2019
15 Most Gut-Wrenching 'Grey's Anatomy' Moments
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A Timeline of All the "Grey's Anatomy" Cast Drama
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Good News for "Grey's Anatomy" Fans
Tonight's 'Grey's Anatomy' Title Breaks Tradition
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Community: Events & Opportunities
Webinar - Women Entrepreneurs in the Future of Work
Online via GoToWebinar
WE EMPOWER Programme
Did you miss the webinar? Please see the recorded version below.
The webinar will explore the considerations that women need to take, in light of the changing world of work. How should they prepare? What sectors will be most impacted and how? The webinar will explore the series of decisions critical to anticipating future trends and how and where to invest critical resources. What does the current economic climate mean for small businesses in the United States and European Union? And how can women leverage unique opportunities to build and sustain their services and goods, especially when the market could suffer?
This webinar is tailored for WE EMPOWER Programme stakeholders, particularly those based in the United States.
Click here to register and join the webinar.
Opening remarks:
Anna Fälth, Manager “WE EMPOWER through responsible business conduct in G7 countries” Programme, UN Women
Alice Clavel, Lead Teacher,Le Wagon
Sarah Gammage, Director of Gender, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods, The International Center for Research on Women
Alice Clavel, Le Wagon
Born and raised in Paris, Alice spent most of her school years in France and entered a business school after graduating. Frustrated by her lack of hard skills, she looked for a quick way into computer science and attended Le Wagon in 2015. She discovered the beauty of web development and immediately felt empowered by her technical knowledge. She worked as a backend developer for a French startup first and joined Le Wagon a few years later to found/build/kickstart the bootcamp in Berlin. She is now working as a full stack developer and taught over 220 students in 11 different batches.
Le Wagon:
Le Wagon is a coding bootcamp that teaches students to develop web applications from scratch. Their curriculum and teachers give students all the skills and tools needed to kick-start their tech career, land a job as software developers, product managers, or launch their own startup. They've been ranked #1 coding bootcamp worldwide for three years in a row. Launched in Paris only 5 years ago by ex-Google and ex-HSBC Engineer who wanted to make coding accessible and relevant for everyone, Le Wagon is now running in 32 cities worldwide and has more than 4,200 alumni. In addition to their intensive 9-week bootcamp, Le Wagon has also just launched their first part-time bootcamp in London, enabling students to retain their job while learning. The first cohort kicks off April 6th for 24 weeks!
Anna Fälth, UN Women
As such, Anna heads the Secretariat of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), EmpowerWomen.org, that promotes online collaboration, learning and innovation to advance women’s economic empowerment in over 190 economies; and the WeLearn, a virtual skills school that will tackle some of the skills gaps faced by women and girls for the jobs of the future. An economist, Anna has more than 20 years of experience as economic advisor within the UN system, including UNCTAD, UN-DESA, UNDP and UN Women. She has a MSc in Economics from Lund University, Sweden, and a Masters in Law and Economic from Hamburg University, Germany.
Sarah Gammage, The International Center for Research on Women
As Director of Gender, Economic Empowerment and Livelihoods, Sarah Gammage leads the organization’s work on women’s economic empowerment with a particular focus on the care economy, time use and time burdens and intra-household processes. She has more than 25 years of experience as researcher and feminist economist, providing policy advice and supporting strategic advocacy on gender equality in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Sarah currently leads a research project at ICRW funded by the Hewlett Foundation to explore the policies, programs and interventions that promote reproductive and economic empowerment looking at those reproductive health services, labor market institutions and social protection policies that have successfully supported women’s transition from informal to formal work. Sarah is an associate editor of Feminist Economics and a member of Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing. She has also taught a number of graduate and undergraduate courses in gender and development, gender and labor markets, multidimensional poverty analysis, and social protection in the United States, Mexico and Chile.
ICRW
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a global research institute with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and regional offices in New Delhi, India and Kampala, Uganda. Our research evidence identifies women’s contributions as well as the obstacles that prevent them from being economically strong and able to fully participate in society. ICRW translates these insights into a path of action that honors women’s human rights, ensures gender equality and creates the conditions in which all women can thrive. ICRW works with non-profit, government and private sector partners to conduct research, develop and guide strategy and build capacity to promote evidence-based policies, programs and practices.
The webinar is organized by WE EMPOWER Programme Team.
Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women at Work through Responsible Business Conduct in G7 Countries (WE EMPOWER Programme) is a programme funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by UN Women and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Over the next two years, the WE EMPOWER Programme will convene stakeholders dialogues in the EU, Canada, Japan and the US to exchange knowledge, experiences, good practices and lessons learned in the context of the changing world of work. The EU is also funding a sister programme in six Latin American and Caribbean countries: Win-Win, Gender equality means business together with UN Women and ILO and is considering a possible future EU action with strategic partner countries in Asia. The Asia project is currently being conceptualized in cooperation with UN Women.
Abraham koleng 13 March, 2019 09:13 AM
thanks for note i wish you all of you the best in your life
Scholastica Njozi 15 February, 2019 08:30 AM
Thank you for the notice
Ontario Inclusive Innovation (I2) Action Strategy Conference
Women Deliver Partner Side Event on “Future of Work: Women in the 21st Century Workplace”
Women, International Trade and Technology Panel Session
The Age of Women: Why Feminism also Liberates Men
Online Course on Trade and Gender
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The great divide
Virginia Bourke
‘Equality of parenting is the greatest remaining barrier to equality between the sexes’ claimed Pru Goward in The Age (11 August 2003). Having recently read The End of Equality—Anne Summers’ lament to the deplorable level of progress made towards equality between women and men in Australia—I still see an astounding number of obstacles in the way. The list makes for depressing reading: unequal rates of pay; social policy skewed against working mothers; increasing rates of domestic violence; an inadequate child care system; the vast under-representation of women at executive and board level of almost every major company and the largely ineffective representation of women by women in federal and state parliaments.
In the face of these many issues, equality of parenting has received little media attention. It is as if there is no further progress to be made in the movement—started in the 1970s—towards the greater involvement of fathers in the care of children. Certainly huge inroads were made into the remarkably durable belief that only a mother could properly care for young children. In 1979 the Family Court cast aside the assumption in favour of the biological mother which had operated in custody cases finding, with a somewhat ill-founded optimism, that ‘there has come a radical change in the division of responsibilities between parents’ (Gronow v. Gronow). As commentators noted at the time (and many more have pointed out since) the real picture was that despite the ‘new’ paradigm of fatherhood, women maintain responsibility for the majority of household tasks including the care of children, even when employed outside the home.
Nonetheless the profile of the father had shifted—the role of fathers in the care of children had increased in importance. The reality of the situation was that while many men subscribed to the new archetype of fatherhood, most continued in their role as provider. As Goward noted in her article, the work of raising children falls heavily, and in many cases solely, upon women. Mr Mom, or even a modified part-time version of him, is most certainly the exception not the rule.
Many barriers have remained in the way of a truly shared parenting role, not the least of which is the structure of the workplace and current social policy. Frank Castles (Eureka Street, April 2004) notes that Australian social and public policy is anachronistically and unfairly geared towards a family comprised of a male breadwinner and female homemaker. Goward also suggests other obstacles in the issue of mothers gatekeeping their roles, positioning themselves as all-knowing repositories of parenting knowledge and in the reluctance of many men, within the confines of the present workplace structure, to take up ‘family friendly’ work options.
Underpinning these policies and ideas are some deeply rooted cultural assumptions about the roles of mothers and fathers. The most powerful of these has been the belief that men and women have biologically predetermined, gender specific roles as parents. This belief found a ‘scientific’ basis in the work of British psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby during the 1950s and 1960s. Bowlby took an evolutionary approach to the behaviour of the (non-human) primates he studied, finding that the dominating aggressive behaviour of males and the caring and nurturing behaviour of certain females were biological imperatives. In attributing the behaviour of certain species of monkey to humans, Bowlby established the ‘fact’ that to deprive a child, particularly an infant, of his or her mother’s presence endangers a child’s physical, emotional and intellectual development. This finding profoundly influenced maternal attachment theories in psychology and has as its concomitant the relegation of the father to a secondary role in terms of his inherent capacity to parent. How can a father compete with the truly primal and exclusive bond between mother and child?
Modern sociobiologists have skittled much of Bowlby’s theory. Aside from the issue of whether monkey behaviour can be directly attributed to humans, researchers have found less than benevolent maternal instincts in some primate species and other species of monkey where the father undertakes all caregiving activities for the infant other than feeding. In her enlightening book Fatherhood Reclaimed: The Making of the Modern Father (1997, Random House), Adrienne Burgess describes the more recent studies establishing the wide variation in parenting behaviours amongst males: they are ‘far from fixed … they do not so much vary in response to biological imperatives as to changing circumstances.’ Attachment theory has also had its challenges. Recent bonding literature producing evidence of the capacity of human infants to form strong attachments with five or even more caregivers, where one attachment does not undermine the strength of, or potential for another.
One could be forgiven for thinking that Bowlby’s theories had never been debunked. Despite the real, if slow, progress made since the 1970s towards the greater participation of men as parents, the idea that the father’s capacity to parent is inherently inferior to, and different from, that of the mother is deeply entrenched in Western culture. It surfaces frequently in advertising, in government family policy, in family law cases (despite the introduction of gender-neutral terminology) and in everyday conversation. More broadly, it is reinforced and perpetuated in popular culture each time the differences, rather than similarities, between men and women are presented as immutable. If men and women are to equally share in the parenting of children, it is time to abandon a mindset which embraces Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. It is surely time to focus upon Burgess’s refreshing conclusion that ‘in terms of biology the difference between men and women is shatteringly small’.
True equality of parenting requires a radical refiguring of these gendered ideas of parenting: it calls for a rethinking of motherhood and fatherhood not as biologically predetermined roles, but as roles requiring the real work of caring for and nurturing a child. We may be born with some protective instincts towards our children but we are not born with the inherent skill to parent. It is an art born of the hard work of raising children. It is learnt in the time spent soothing a cranky baby, in mulling over a child’s behaviour, in mediating between siblings, in juggling competing demands. It calls for patience (knock-knock jokes), judgment (when to let go of the bike), energy (AFL Auskick football drills for sadly unskilled parents) and self-sacrifice (Rugrats in Paris versus Taggart). Parenting is not about being the mother or being the father, but about doing the work of nurturing a child.
Mothers do not inherently and automatically understand their child’s needs. The Australian sociologists, Lupton and Barclay note that differences in caregiving capacities between mothers and fathers may be a consequence of the more limited opportunities fathers have to be the principal caregiver for their child: ‘It may be because mothers generally engage as the primary carer from the start that this is how they come to “know” what the child “needs”’. Mothers become skilled through the sheer constancy and intensity of the work of anticipating and attending to the demands of a child. There is then no reason why fathers might not, with the same opportunity to spend time with the child, attain the same skill.
All of this points to the need to restructure the workplace in such a way as to foster opportunities for fathers to equally engage in parenting. It raises the need to address the relatively few opportunities for men to work part-time and the reluctance of men to avail themselves of such opportunities for fear of being perceived as not truly committed to their jobs.
In discussions of work and family the issue of equality of parenting should be no barbecue stopper. Most mothers would welcome an easing of the load. For policy makers obsessed with a solution to the ‘fertility crisis’ in Australia, equality of parenting deserves serious consideration. Women, especially those who wish to work, are far more likely to consider having children if they are not alone and unsupported in the real work of parenting. Social policy aimed almost entirely at women remaining in the home while their children are young, serves to economically disempower women and to deprive men of the opportunity to share in the invaluable experience of parenting their children.
Virginia Bourke is a lawyer.
Recent articles by Virginia Bourke.
Romance v. reality
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Garnering international recognition for his talent and versatility, Daniel Brühl continues to deliver striking performances.
Even before audiences worldwide took note of his scene-stealing turn in Quentin Tarantino’s smash Inglourious Basterds, Mr. Brühl was an established actor in Europe, and had been in movies since he was a teenager. His breakthrough had come with the starring role in Wolfgang Becker’s multi-award-winning sleeper hit Good Bye Lenin!, for which he won the European Film Award and the German Film Award for Best Actor.
Fluent in several languages, Mr. Brühl then made his first English-language film, Ladies in Lavender, with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith for director Charles Dance. His subsequent films included Christian Carion’s Joyeux Noël; Hans Weingartner’s The Edukators, for which he was again a European Film Award nominee; Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in Paris, 2 Days in New York, and The Countess; and Paul Greengrass’ The Bourne Ultimatum, which won three Academy Awards.
His portrayal of Formula 1 champion driver Niki Lauda in Ron Howard’s Rush earned Mr. Brühl Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, among other honors.
His recent films also include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman; Simon Curtis’ Woman in Gold, with Helen Mirren; John Wells’ Burnt, opposite Bradley Cooper; Me and Kaminski, reteaming him with director Wolfgang Becker; Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate; Florian Gallenberger’s The Colony; Vincent Perez’s Alone in Berlin; Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel; and, as part of the Marvel Universe, Anthony and Joe Russo’s blockbuster Captain America: Civil War.
Mr. Brühl will soon be seen in the J.J. Abrams-produced 2017 Cloverfield movie, alongside Elizabeth Debicki, Chris O’Dowd, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ziyi Zhang, and David Oyelowo for director Julius Onah; and in the untitled feature thriller based on the true story of the 1976 Entebbe plane hijacking, in which he stars with Rosamund Pike for director José Padilha, also for Focus Features release.
Mr. Brühl is currently at work filming The Alienist, starring in the title role of the television series adaptation of Caleb Carr’s celebrated book.
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Why American Eagle Outfitters Stock Plunged 18% in May
Two wrongs don't make a right.
Joe Tenebruso
(TMFGuardian)
Jun 17, 2017 at 6:28AM
Follow @@Tier1Investor
Shares of American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) fell 18.4% last month, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
AEO data by YCharts
American Eagle's May swoon began on May 10, when The Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) that it was in talks to acquire rival apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF). American Eagle is believed to be working with private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management on a joint bid for Abercrombie. Yet judging by the stock's reaction to the news, investors don't like the idea of one struggling retailer further leveraging its balance sheet to buy another struggling retailer.
Investors apparently aren't too excited about American Eagle Outfitters' reported merger talks with Abercrombie & Fitch. Image source: Getty Images.
Worse still, the decline in American Eagle Outfitters' stock price accelerated in response to its disappointing first-quarter results. The company reported tepid sales growth of just 1.7%, and its adjusted earnings per share declined to $0.16 from $0.22 in the prior-year quarter.
American Eagle's stock price is currently trading right around where it ended June, yet further declines are certainly possible, particularly if the company does move to acquire Abercrombie & Fitch.
While a merger of these two businesses would allow management to cut costs, such a deal would also bring a multitude of challenges. American Eagle Outfitters would be acquiring about 900 Abercrombie & Fitch stores, many of which are located in malls that are suffering traffic declines as consumers increasingly shift their shopping to online channels. Purchasing those stores -- and even worse, the approximately $3 billion in operating leases attached to them -- at a premium just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
In the end, American Eagle Outfitters' investors should hope that it decides against acquiring Abercrombie & Fitch, and focuses its efforts on improving its own operations.
NYSE:AEO
NYSE:ANF
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Why American Eagle Outfitters Stock Plunged 18% in May @themotleyfool #stocks $AEO $ANF Next Article
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Nita Ambani speaks on Indian Football with ET Sports
by Siddharth Yadav July 17, 2017
With the fourth season of Indian Super League (ISL) on its way in a couple of months, Chairperson of Football Sports Development Ltd, Nita Ambani discussed Indian Football in an exclusive interview with ET Sports. She spoke on ISL, FIFA U-17 World Cup and the future of Football in India.
Is ISL where you wanted it to be today four years ago? What’ve been the challenges?
ISL was launched to rekindle India’s love for the Beautiful Game. The first three seasons have established football as the common language, provided an international platform for our footballers to perform, and brought global attention to India. We’re committed to making India a footballing nation. But this is just the beginning ISL will have two new clubs and will be longer.
What are the plans for Season 4?
This year, ISL has expanded to ten cities. The Tatas, who have a rich legacy in Indian football, are one of the two new teams and play from Jamshedpur. The Jindals, with their strong fan base in Bengaluru, are the second.
The Chinese Super League (CSL) is trying its best to get top international players in their prime. Is it a model ISL is following, considering that CSL played a role in China’s participation in the 2002 World Cup?
CSL has developed their strategy on the basis of the needs of their local markets. For India, ISL has brought global attention to Indian football, and it is a journey. We will be delighted when India makes it to the World Cup in the not-too-distant future. But for that, we need continuous investments in both grassroots and infrastructure. We’ve been focused on enhancing the love for football in traditional regions such as the Northeast, Bengal, Kerala and Goa. And at the same time, we’ve been taking it to other parts of India. For example, the engagement levels for ISL in Chennai and Tamil Nadu is heart-warming.
How important is spectator popularity of football in India correlated to the playing of the game? And does the ISL need to throw up some homegrown stars?
Both need to go hand in hand. You need fans for support. But you also need well-organised events and a quality display on the field. The ISL is trying to provide a balanced mix. We’re delighted that players like Romeo Fernandes (FC Goa), Sandesh Jhingan (Kerala Blasters), Jeje Lalpekhlua (Chennaiyin FC), Mandar Rao Desai (Bengaluru FC), Jerry Lalrinzuala (Chennaiyin FC), Eugeneson Lyngdoh (FC Pune City), CK Vineeth (Kerala Blasters), Rino Anto (Bengaluru FC), Souvik Chakraborty (Delhi Dynamos), Rowlin Borges (NorthEast United) and Jewel Raja Shaikh (Atletico de Kolkata) are becoming stars, in addition to established ones like Sunil Chhetri (Bengaluru FC). At Reliance Foundation, we’re investing in grassroots programmes and youth development activities. Two of Reliance Foundation Young Champs, Kshitij Kumar (U13) and G Balaji (U15) had two rounds of trials with Dutch Clubs PSV Eindhoven and NEC Nijmegen. NEC has confirmed they’ll sign both of them.
India’s Fifa ranking has been rising recently. Reasons for this?
It has taken two decades for India to achieve its best ranking of 96. They deserve every bit of the credit. We’ve been working with AIFF towards defining the Indian football calendar to provide our national team with more international matches and exposure. As a result, India has played a number of international friendlies in the last ten months.
What are the elements of the football ecosystem you’re working on?
First was to have a defined 12-month calendar for Indian football. With ISL and I-League to run concurrently, we’ve created a clear window for the national team to explore international matches and friendlies. This helps India in its quest for improving its Fifa rankings. We’ll see over 350 competitive football games live, including Champions Cup, Super Cup and Women’s League. In addition, we’re planning to introduce League 3, a tier-3 professional competition, and other tournaments based on age groups. Then, there is ISL’s grassroots initiative and Reliance Foundation Youth Sports that has already reached out to over 3.3 million children across India.
India is to host the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in October. What’s your view on its impact on Indian football?
The timing is perfect for India to host it. The world is keenly watching us and they all want India to succeed. India’s improved Fifa ranking and ISL’s high impact has contributed to a positive Indian football story. The World Cup will give a huge boost to grassroots football.
AIFF clarifies on foreign players rule in U13 and U15 I-league
WIFA to conduct pre-qualifiers to select teams for Indian Women’s League
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Will New York Finally Consider Legalizing Cannabis This Week?
Janet Burns Senior Contributor
I cover AI, cybersecurity, culture, drugs, and more.
Jordan Michelle vapes CBD oil made from hemp at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo on June 16, 2017 in New York City. (Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
This week, Vermont and New Hampshire moved to legalize cannabis for adult use, signifying a major step in states' acceptance of the plant along the East Coast, and in their opposition to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' tenacious stance.
In New York, where legislators have largely left drug laws unchanged since the '70s, and where marijuana arrest rates continue to lead the nation, a panel of lawmakers will now hear testimony from some of the state's most experienced--and patient--advocates for reform.
On Thursday morning, the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Health, and Alcohol and Drug Abuse will convene a public hearing to discuss the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), aimed to legalize the use, distribution, and production of cannabis for adults aged 21 and over.
As part of their research on the bill, which was floated to little effect in previous assembly sessions, the legislative panel will hear testimony from a range of medical, legal, and policy experts in the state who are calling for an end to the ban (with livestreamed video available from 10:30 EST, and after the fact here).
According to the Drug Policy Alliance, a national nonprofit focusing on drug reform advocacy and education, and which helped to build and promote the bill, MRTA would create a system to tax and regulate marijuana in a similar way to alcohol, and "effectively end marijuana prohibition in New York State."
On the whole, New Yorkers have increasingly indicated that they're ready to 'green-light' the state's cannabis industry. Late last year, a poll found that around 62% favored legalization, while more than 60% supported its taxation and regulation for the sake of addressing New York's budget deficit.
See also: WHO Report Finds No Public Health Risks Or Abuse Potential For CBD
As the country's leader in marijuana arrests, New York was estimated to have spent over $1 billion on enforcement between 2002 and 2012, and $675 million in 2010 alone. Experts have also estimated that the state spends between $1,000 and $2,000 in police, court, and jail costs to process each arrest for simple marijuana possession.
Today's testimony comes from representatives of such legal, immigrant, and human rights groups as LatinoJustice, the National Action Network, Brooklyn Defender Services, the Legal Aid Society, VOCAL-NY, and the Partnership for the Public Good, as well as numerous medical professionals and researchers.
In addition to the cost of enforcing prohibition and the benefits and relative safety of marijuana, speakers will emphasize the enormous impacts that New York drug laws have had on immigrants, communities of color, young people, and state residents as a whole.
Since 1997, New York State has performed more than 800,000 arrests related to cannabis, with the vast majority being for small-scale possession or use in public (not distribution), as is the case with arrests in the rest of the U.S., according to Start SMART NY. Today, the state's population is close to 19.75 million, meaning marijuana arrests have occurred at a rate of nearly 1 per 25 residents in the past two decades.
See also: CEO To Fellow Leaders: Standing Up To Hate Is Our Job, And Good Business
Cannabis plants grow in the greenhouse at Vireo Health's medical marijuana cultivation facility on August 19, 2016 in Johnstown, New York. (Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
While possession is now considered a ticket-able violation in New York, and not a crime, nearly 23,000 people were nevertheless arrested across the state in 2016, close to a 2300% increase from 1990, according to research compiled by the DPA. And while New York's Black and Latino populations account for just over a third of the state's total residents, more than 80% of people arrested annually for marijuana possession in the state belong to those groups, researchers say.
For Black New York residents, marijuana arrests rates are approximately 4.5 times that of white residents, despite the fact that use patterns hold steady across ethnic groups, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report. Predominantly, those arrested are teens and young adults in some of the state's poorest areas. In many documented cases, marijuana enforcement has led to arrestees' and bystanders' deaths.
Kassandra Frederique, New York State Director for the DPA, said her testimony today will address the massive scope of marijuana prohibition in New York to date, which has forced thousands of mostly Black and Latino residents to lose access to work and social benefits, accept strict plea bargains, and get stuck on Riker's Island in lieu of costly bail, among other things.
Frederique commented by email, “New York’s marijuana arrest crusade has resulted in significant harms for those who are most vulnerable and has been used as a justification for the hyper-policing of communities of color, funneling tens of thousands of New Yorkers into the maze of the criminal justice system every year and putting people at risk of deportation, losing custody of their children, and barring them from employment and housing for nothing more than possessing small amounts of marijuana.”
She continued, “As New York finally sheds its embarrassing distinction of being the marijuana arrest capital of the world, we must repair the harms of prohibition and end the biased policing practices that have ruined the lives of so many young Black and Latino New Yorkers. Ultimately, the best way to address the disparities and challenges posed by prohibition is to legalize and regulate marijuana in New York.”
See also: Iran's Women Need The Internet Right Now, And You Can (Really) Help
Juan Cartagena, President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, also plans to tell legislators that New York can no longer wait on the sidelines, and continue to jail residents at the highest national rates, while other states are tackling the work of meaningful drug reform.
“It is time that New York State joins the cadre of progressive states that are acting smart on marijuana regulation," Cartagena commented by email. "We need to pivot and address the pressing needs of regulation while simultaneously eliminating the criminal consequences of marijuana possession and restoring the previous harms that prohibitionist modalities created. In short, we need New York State to help lead a marijuana revolution, because it’s just, it’s rational, and it’s time."
Shaleen Title, Commissioner with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission and founding board member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, will also be on hand to emphasize the need for one of the country's most populous and well-known state to get its cannabis laws and enforcement plans in good order. Speaking on her own behalf, Title commented by email, “With marijuana legalization we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be honest and intentional in addressing the past harms conducted by our respective states in the name of the war on drugs.”
“The worst thing we could do right now would be to regress to a time when prohibition and regressive policies like the Rockefeller Drug Laws took root," Title continued. "I hope New York will join Massachusetts instead in creating the future that most Americans want--an equitable, safely regulated industry with new jobs and tax revenue.”
In acknowledgement of longstanding U.S. myths about cannabis as a dangerous, 'gateway' drug, which a handful of top lawmakers still promote, medical experts will seek to finally put these ideas to rest at today's hearing, too.
See also: Study Explores Chemical Links Of Cannabis, Exercise, And Sexual Bliss
Dr. Julie Holland, a psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology who operates a private practice in New York City, explained by email, “The vast majority of adults are unharmed by the responsible use of cannabis, [while] health risks of cannabis misuse are significantly less than those of alcohol and tobacco."
Importantly, Holland added, "Evidence does not support a causal ‘gateway’ relationship between the use of cannabis and the later use of more harmful drugs.” However, public health and safety are indeed crucial considerations in this matter, she noted.
“Legalization and regulation benefits public health by enabling government oversight of the production, testing, labeling, distribution, and sale of cannabis," she continued. To this end, Holland said, "I encourage the state of New York to join the growing number of states that are embracing the future, to legalize, tax, and regulate the sale of cannabis for adult use."
It will ultimately be up to state legislators to decide how to handle this massive issue going forward, of course, but witnesses at today's hearing hope that the evidence and experiences they share will help New York lawmakers' state of mind of the subject to finally evolve. Given the decisions of several nearby states to overhaul their cannabis stances, Albany may currently be feeling more pressure than ever to keep up with the Joneses, or at to least see what all the fuss is about.
When it comes to acknowledging voters' demands and the recommendations of legal and medical experts, at least, it seems that a certain kind of peer pressure may not be such a bad thing.
Gallery: NYC Cannabis Parade and Rally, May 6, 2017
Janet Burns
I'm a freelance writer covering tech, media, science, and culture. My background includes the areas of writing, editing, and education, and I received Bachelor and Maste...
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Google's Project Loon Internet Balloons Coming To U.S. - Eventually
Robert Hof Contributor
I cover the collision of advertising and the Internet.
Project Loon, the once seemingly crazy idea of floating giants balloons into the stratosphere to provide Internet access to remote areas, is coming to the United States.
Not right away, but Project Loon head Mike Cassidy said Monday that Google will conduct tests in the Northern Hemisphere starting later this year. He made the comments at MIT Technology Review magazine's EmTech Digital conference in San Francisco.
The U.S. isn't next on the list for Loon coverage, if only because all but about 10 million people here have Internet access--though Cassidy noted that "even in my house, I don't have a cell signal."
Google's chief goal for Loon remains to provide access to much more underserved areas of the world such as Africa, where only 10% of people have Internet access, and Brazil, where kids often climb high in trees with cell phones to get a better signal. Overall, most 4 billion people worldwide have no Internet access and most of them don't even have the capability to get it because there's absolutely no coverage.
Loon can help solve that problem, Cassidy said, because a balloon 60,000 up in the stratosphere can provide Internet coverage to 5,000 square kilometers, the size of Rhode Island, far more cost-effectively than cell towers on the ground.
Google is aiming to make them even more cost-effective by having balloons communicate with each other, beaming signals via radio frequency using precisely aimed gimbals--something Loon is still experimenting with. But if Google can make it work, a series of balloons could cover 800 kilometers between necessary ground stations, 10 times as much as currently.
The project, conceived in Google's "moonshot factory" Google X, has had to make a number of breakthroughs. For one, it has relied on a fairly elegant way to move the balloons. "Our approach was instead of fighting the wind, we work with the wind," he said. Because strata of wind currents go in opposite directions in the stratosphere, Google simply needs to move the balloons up or down to catch winds going left or right. Small fans pump air into a small balloon inside the big helium balloon to make it go down, since air is heavier than helium.
Google also had to make breakthroughs in balloon science. It wanted them to last 100 days, but the first 60 balloons popped almost immediately upon reaching altitude. "Then we solved that one, but they leaked," he said. Partner Raven Aerostar, which makes balloons for NASA , helped produce a balloon that could last 187 days. Others have lasted 150 days.
Closer to home for Google, it also made advances in computer science, working out ways to determine wind speed and direction at every point they steered the balloons around. Seven of last eight flights in the Southern Hemisphere came within 500 meters of a target after flying 10,000 kilometers, Cassidy said.
Google had to improve launch procedures as well, coming up with a huge building-sized "Birdhouse" that allows balloon to be launched in 15 mile-per-hour winds. Not least, the company has negotiated landing zones around the world with governments, both to prevent accidents and to retrieve payloads for reuse.
Interestingly, when asked about whether drones, which Facebook and Google itself also are exploring for large-scale remote Internet access, Cassidy replied that while balloons may not be the only way to do that, they are proving "very cost-effective.
Robert Hof
I write about the Internet technologies and upstarts that are disrupting advertising and media faster than ever. I'm living this disruption, so I might as well write abo...
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Since 2004, we have facilitated, or led, economic development efforts in the Fort Mill Township, and we are continuing to increase our scope of work and projects.
To stimulate economic growth and development in the Town of Fort Mill by creating a symbol of progress while preserving the community’s charm and uniqueness.
To build a mutually supportive structure within Fort Mill property owners, business owners, citizens, and the Fort Mill Town Council, with the intent to further the interests of all businesses, while creating a strong leadership to ensure on-going economic success of the entire Town of Fort Mill.
FMEC has worked to revitalize the downtown district and provide quality assistance to new and existing businesses within the township.
— Cody Gibson, Director
Fort Mill Economic Council was originally established in 2004 as the Fort Mill Downtown Association which consisted of community volunteers helping to improve the look, feel, and experience of the Fort Mill historic downtown area. At the end of 2007, a merger took place between Move Fort Mill Forward and the Fort Mill Downtown Association. These two organizations came together, merged talents and goals, and moved forward as a much stronger organization with a broader area of interest. The emphasis was to maintain a strong focus on our historic downtown, but the overall vision was to create and develop a strong working relationship between the community, retailers, local government, future investors, and the "next workforce generation."
At the end of 2010, a transition occurred rebranding the name from Move Fort Mill Forward to the Fort Mill Economic Council and established the following economic related mission statement for the Town of Fort Mill.
Since the beginning of the Fort Mill Economic Council, and establishment of its initial goals, the face of our town has continued to change, due mainly to the immense growth in the Fort Mill Township. As change continues in Fort Mill, so does the focus of the Fort Mill Economic Council.
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Fox Theatre
1135 13th St. Boulder, CO 80302
FOX THEATRE TICKET EXCHANGE
Boulder Theater
2019 Chautauqua Summer Concert Series
Aggie Theatre
Mishawaka Amphitheatre
Double Deal!
Ticketing / Public Event
FREE TICKETS!
88.5 KGNU Presents
*BRANDON 'TAZ' NIEDERAUER
Jaden Carlson Band
Ages 15+ without a parent
All tickets are non-exchangeable and non-refundable following purchase
Listed price does not include tax and service charge
Price is the same online, over the phone, or in the Box Office.
NO BAGS
All tickets are General Admission (GA) with limited seating available. If you require accessible seating or other accommodations, please purchase your GA tickets and reach out to Daniel@z2ent.com to help us make your visit as enjoyable as possible.
https://www.foxtheatre.com/event/1871573/
Brandon Niederauer
Sixteen-year-old Brandon Niederauer, nicknamed “Taz” for his ferocious guitar playing, is living proof that dreams really do come true. Having performed in some of the most legendary venues in America with many of the most prominent musicians of our time, the young guitarist, singer, and songwriter has already earned himself quite the reputation.
It all started at eight years old, when Brandon watched the movie School of Rock. Already inspired by his father’s record collection, Brandon instantly realized he was destined to play guitar. From that moment on, his guitar rarely left his hands. Just four years later, Brandon was cast in the principal role of guitarist “Zack Mooneyham” in the Tony Award-nominated Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway production, School of Rock the Musical.
Based in New York City, Brandon has had the opportunity to play with many of his musical idols. In recent years, he’s shared the stage with multiple members of the Allman Brothers Band, including Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Butch Trucks, and Oteil Burbridge, as well as a variety of other notable musicians, including Buddy Guy, Stevie Nicks, Lady Gaga, Slash, Jon Batiste, Dweezil Zappa, Eric Gales, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Dr. John, Gary Clark Jr., Col. Bruce Hampton, Eric Krasno, George Porter Jr., Robert Randolph, Karl Denson, Doug Wimbish, and John Popper. He has also performed with Tedeschi Trucks Band, The String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee, The Revivalists, Dumpstaphunk, Blackberry Smoke, Galactic, and countless other bands.
Since making his national television debut on The Ellen DeGeneres Show at just ten years old, Brandon has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Good Morning America, and The View.
In 2018, Brandon reunited with Andrew Lloyd Webber, performing in January with Sarah Brightman at The Phantom of the Opera’s 30th Anniversary celebration, and in April alongside Sara Bareilles, Alice Cooper, and John Legend in NBC’s live broadcast production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Brandon is currently featured in Spike Lee’s Netflix series, She’s Gotta Have It, and performs concerts for audiences across the country and around the world.
With one foot in the funk world and the rest kicking through the retro, fusion, and dance doors, the Jaden Carlson Band are a four-piece "funksion" ensemble from Boulder, Colorado led by female guitarist, vocalist, keyboardist and producer, Jaden Carlson. The group is comprised of some of the best talent to be heard, with varied backgrounds coming together from all over the country on bass, drums and keys.
Jaden Carlson, the front of JCB, with her oft face-melting prowess on the guitar as well as thought-provoking lyricism, has led many to tag her as an "old soul" and "well beyond her years." Low in age but tour-mature, Jaden leads the music with the poise and character of a highly accomplished professional.
Chris Hunnicutt brings his low-end rhythm from years of gigging in the hotbed of Minneapolis gospel, funk, blues, jazz and hip-hop.
Eric Imbrosciano's depth of experience in blues, hip-hop, funk and jazz stems from his early years beating his drums around the New York scene before making his musical home in Colorado.
Adam Revell's versatility from multi-genre influences and years of gigging with many different bands shines through in his playing the keys while providing soulful and melodic harmony on piano, organ and synthesizer.
The band has been appearing at some of the nation's most notable festivals: Summer Camp, The Friendly Gathering, The Vertex Festival,80/35, Bumbershoot, LEAF Festival, The Werkout Music and Art Festival, Jazz Aspen Snowmass, ARISE Festival, Bohemian Nights, and many others.
The Jaden Carlson Band has headlined major venues all over Colorado, as well as played direct support for national touring bands Twiddle, The Revivalists, The Werks, DeVotchKa, Robert Cray, Anders Osborne, and Marco Benevento just to name a few.
"Polychromatic", an 11-song cd of all originals, is Jaden's fourth album and was released in October 2014, to both highly regarded journalistic and musician/peer reviews.
Jaden is the youngest musician to play legitimately on the the Red Rocks Stage at age 11 with Michael Franti and Spearhead, and again the next night with Blues Traveler; and has also played numerous sit-ins with Umphrey's McGee, The Revivalists, Lettuce, Dumpstaphunk, The Main Squeeze, The Nth Power, Twiddle, The Werks, TAUK, Zoogma, The Motet, Dopapod, members of Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck, Big Gigantic, and many more.
http://www.foxtheatre.com
BOWREGARD - Fri Nov 15
VINYL DESTINATION 45 TOUR FEATURING DJ JAZZY JEFF & DJ SCRATCH - Wed Sep 25 On sale Fri Jul 19
RANDOM RAB - Fri Oct 11
ELEPHANTE - Thu Nov 21 On sale Fri Jul 19
SONGHOY BLUES - Tue Oct 15
COM TRUISE - Wed Oct 30
THE JAPANESE HOUSE - Sun Oct 20
J.WAIL LIVE BAND FT CHUCK MORRIS [LOTUS], CASEY RUSSELL [MAGIC BEANS], KITO BOVENSHULTE [PARTICLE] & MORE TBA! - Sun Oct 27
JERRY GARCIA'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION - Thu Aug 1
MOON BOOTS LIVE - Tue Oct 1
Sat Jul 20 - BOB SCHNEIDER
Wed Jul 24 - THE DEER
Thu Jul 25 - *ORCHARD LOUNGE
Fri Jul 26 - *BUTCHER BROWN
Tue Jul 30 - *THE DIP
The Fox Theatre
Inside The Fox
THE FOX THEATRE IS...
premier live music club in Boulder, Colorado. Recently voted 4th best music venue in the country by Rolling Stone Magazine, the Fox offers top-notch talent, a world-class... View Our History
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HomeU.S. AgricultureUtahUtah Local
Winds of Change in Utah
By John McBryde -
Family Farms
The way Shawn Peterson sees it, today’s agriculture is not your grandfather’s farm.
In fact, it might even be a big, yellow school bus.
As the founder and executive director of the Green Urban Lunchbox in Salt Lake City, Peterson is looking at ways to ensure that farming continues for current and future generations. It’s a matter of thinking outside the box – or the 40-acre field, for that matter.
“Farming is really changing a lot,” says Peterson, who planted and harvested his own garden at the age of 12. “It’s become competitive and is really a tough business. I wanted to look at farming from a different approach and look at possibilities for urban agriculture, to look at how people could be creative in order to make a living at farming.
“Our organization started (in 2011) with a 35-foot school bus that we turned into a mobile greenhouse. We used that to get people thinking about creative ways to grow some of their own food, to get them thinking about eating more local foods, and just starting a conversation around food and local agriculture.
“So from there, we’ve just grown as a way to meet needs.”
A Place For Young Farmers
One of the ways Green Urban Lunchbox has met needs is through its Incubator Farm Project, a community garden it established on land that has been leased from the Utah Department of Transportation. It’s 37 acres, formerly a fruit tree orchard, that had gone unused for years. Peterson’s group has transformed it into a working farm for young farmers trying to establish themselves.
In addition to providing 13 farmers with land to grow produce, the program has given them access to training, business planning support, and tools and equipment. Peterson says the number of farmers could grow to 25 in 2015.
See Also: Ewes in Utah
“A lot of people who are really interested and really passionate about agriculture haven’t inherited a farm,” he says, “So how do they get started? That’s why we started our community farm program.”
Land Investment
Through a partnership with the International Rescue Committee and Salt Lake County, a program known as New Roots has created a similar farming effort for refugees who have relocated to Salt Lake City. The program provides a community garden, food access through farmstands and farmers markets, and training.
“The farm training program focuses on refugees who have a background in commercial agriculture, have grown and sold produce before, and are interested in starting farm-based businesses here in Salt Lake County,” says Grace Henley, New Roots program manager. “It’s an urban farm incubator program.”
In addition to growing domestic fruits and vegetables, the farmers also plant and harvest produce native to their countries.
“Some of those crops have become very interesting to restaurants,” Henley says, “and we’ve been able to sell a variety of unusual vegetables to restaurants in the county.”
Salt Lake County is also finding ways to bring farming to land that is otherwise unused. Through the county’s Urban Farming program, officials found county-owned space that was vacant and could be used to grow produce. The county then leased the land to area farmers.
“We keep sharing the message about how successful this partnership has been with other cities and communities and planners in various cities,” says Julie Peck-dabling, the county’s Open Space & Urban Farming program manager. “We’d like to see other cities and counties use this model, because it’s a very effective and efficient way to use land that is sitting idle.”
See Also: Dynamic Dairies
Green Urban Lunchbox
John McBryde
Utah Agriculture and Food 2015
More in Utah Local
What’s Growing in Utah?
See what’s in season with this helpful produce calendar.
Utah Local Food Revolution
The Beehive State
Utah’s Own: The Taste of Success
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Aby Warburg and the Image in Motion (New)
by Michaud, Philippe-Alain
Publisher: MIT Press
Aby Warburg (1866-1929) is best known as the originator of the discipline of iconology and as the founder of the institute that bears his name. His followers included such celebrated art historians of the twentieth century as Erwin Panofsky, Edgar Wind, and Fritz Saxl. But his heirs developed, for the most part, a domesticated iconology based on the interpretation of symbolic material. As Phillippe-Alain Michaud shows in this important book, Warburg's own project was remote from any positivist or neo-Kantian ambitions. Nourished on the work of Nietzsche and Burckhardt, Warburg fashioned a "critical iconology" to reveal the irrationality of the image in Western culture.
Opposing the grand teleological narratives of art inaugurated by Vasari, Warburg's method operated through historical anachronisms and discontinuities. Using "montage-collision" to create textless collections of images, he brought together pagan artifacts and masterpieces of Florentine Renaissance art, ancient Near East astrology and the Lutheran Reformation, Mannerist festivals and the sacred dances of Native Americans. Michaud insists that for Warburg, the practice of art history was the discovery within the art work itself of fracture, contradictions, tensions, and the energies of magic, empathy, totemism, and animism. Challenging normative accounts of Western European classicism, Warburg located the real sources of the Renaissance in the Dionysian spirit, in the expression of movement and dance, in the experience of trance personified in the frenzied nymph or ecstatic maenad.
Aby Warburg and the Image in Motion is not only a book about Warburg but a book written with him; Michaud uses Warburg's intuitions and discoveries to analyze other categories of imagery, including the daguerreotype, the chronophotography of Etienne-Jules Marey, early cinema, and the dances of Loie Fuller. It will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the origins of modern art history and the visual culture of modernity.
Philippe-Alain Michaud is the Film Curator at the Musee national d'art moderne at the Centre Georges-Pompidou.
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Expat Health Insurance News: Virus infections 'linked to higher rates of asthma in inner cities'
September 26, 2012 by Expatriate Healthcare
Expatriates raising a family in the inner city may wish to relocate to a more suburban location, following research that found children in denser urban areas are considerably more likely to develop asthma than the general populace.
Research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and undertaken by scientists at the University of Wisconsin indicated that this discrepancy could be the result of infections that urban youngsters develop in their early life.
Furthermore, the discovery could lead to the creation of innovative asthma treatments in children that might become available to international medical insurance policyholders.
Investigators led by Dr James Gern analysed nasal secretions from 500 infants in New York City, Baltimore, St Louis and Boston, before comparing these to samples from 285 children in the suburbs of Madison in Wisconsin.
They revealed that children from urban regions had lower levels of respiratory syncytal virus (RSV) and human rhinovirus (HRV) than their suburban counterparts, although they were more likely to test positive for adenovirus.
Scientists intend to continue analysing the urban youngsters in the study to determine if infection with the adenovirus can be linked to the reduced levels of lung function and higher rates of asthma seen in this demographic.
Adenovirus is known to cause persistent infections and the international healthcare specialists remarked that this could impact the development of the respiratory system.
Higher levels of adenovirus were found in all four urban locations in which the investigation was carried out and it is thought that the pervasiveness, mortality and morbidity of asthma in the inner city gives this investigation particular significance.
"This approach is likely to provide novel insights that will serve to guide the development of treatment interventions to decrease the prevalence and severity of asthma during childhood," Dr Peter Heymann and Dr Thomas Platts-Mills of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville said in an editorial that accompanied the story.
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sport, local-sport
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg has no plans to apologise to Mitchell Pearce despite admitting his 2016 punishment for a lewd video was "overcooked". Pearce, who was playing for the Sydney Roosters at the time, was suspended for eight NRL games and fined $125,000 for his drunken Australia Day antics in which he simulated sex with a dog. Greenberg first made the admission, that he believed the game had got the sanction wrong, when he visited the Roosters playing group several weeks ago. The game's boss said on Friday that he would not say sorry to the Newcastle No.7 despite admitting the governing body erred. "It's not about (apologising), I was asked what my views were and I answered those views," Greenberg said. "It's easy to look back with hindsight on some of these things. "I've said this regularly over my short time as CEO of the game, we're not going to get everything right. The game won't always make every decision that's perfect. "We work in a very complex environment. All we can do is do the best we can with the equations that are presented to us." Pearce's punishment was handed down in early March in 2016 and Greenberg succeeded Dave Smith as the game's boss a fortnight later. At the time, Roosters hierarchy were angered by the severity of the sanctions. The incident led to Pearce going into rehab in Thailand and he eventually left the club and was replaced by Cooper Cronk. The NRL on Friday told a meeting of the club's CEOs in Brisbane that it was seeking to put in place fixed sanctions for off-field indiscretions. "We're trying to put in place a framework and matrix of some sort so we can try to provide a bit more consistency," Greenberg said. "It's very difficult when you're dealing with different matters. No matter is ever the same." Greenberg said he had not spoken to Pearce but was open to sitting down with him during Magic Weekend in Brisbane this week. "I wasn't there at that time making that decision, with hindsight, with all of the information, which is always difficult when you go back, my view it was overcooked," Greenberg said. "We haven't done our visit to Newcastle. But when I visit Newcastle or see Mitchell over the weekend, I'm more than happy to see him directly. "I've always had a pretty good respect and relationship with Mitchell so I'd more than happy to talk to him face to face." Australian Associated Press
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/83f7272b-c01a-482a-b5e2-fb7fe4e26191.jpg/r0_74_800_526_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
NRL won't apologise to Mitchell Pearce
Steve Zemek
Mitchell Pearce will captain Newcastle against Canterbury in their Magic Round clash in Brisbane.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg has no plans to apologise to Mitchell Pearce despite admitting his 2016 punishment for a lewd video was "overcooked".
Pearce, who was playing for the Sydney Roosters at the time, was suspended for eight NRL games and fined $125,000 for his drunken Australia Day antics in which he simulated sex with a dog.
Greenberg first made the admission, that he believed the game had got the sanction wrong, when he visited the Roosters playing group several weeks ago.
The game's boss said on Friday that he would not say sorry to the Newcastle No.7 despite admitting the governing body erred.
"It's not about (apologising), I was asked what my views were and I answered those views," Greenberg said.
"It's easy to look back with hindsight on some of these things.
"I've said this regularly over my short time as CEO of the game, we're not going to get everything right. The game won't always make every decision that's perfect.
"We work in a very complex environment. All we can do is do the best we can with the equations that are presented to us."
Pearce's punishment was handed down in early March in 2016 and Greenberg succeeded Dave Smith as the game's boss a fortnight later.
At the time, Roosters hierarchy were angered by the severity of the sanctions.
The incident led to Pearce going into rehab in Thailand and he eventually left the club and was replaced by Cooper Cronk.
The NRL on Friday told a meeting of the club's CEOs in Brisbane that it was seeking to put in place fixed sanctions for off-field indiscretions.
"We're trying to put in place a framework and matrix of some sort so we can try to provide a bit more consistency," Greenberg said.
"It's very difficult when you're dealing with different matters. No matter is ever the same."
Greenberg said he had not spoken to Pearce but was open to sitting down with him during Magic Weekend in Brisbane this week.
"I wasn't there at that time making that decision, with hindsight, with all of the information, which is always difficult when you go back, my view it was overcooked," Greenberg said.
"We haven't done our visit to Newcastle. But when I visit Newcastle or see Mitchell over the weekend, I'm more than happy to see him directly.
"I've always had a pretty good respect and relationship with Mitchell so I'd more than happy to talk to him face to face."
Australian Associated Press
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← Railroad Tycoon
Opening the Gold Box, Part 5: All That Glitters is Not Gold →
What’s the Matter with Covert Action?
Covert Action‘s cover is representative of the thankfully brief era when game publishers thought featuring real models on their boxes would drive sales. The results almost always ended up looking like bad romance-novel covers; this is actually one of the least embarrassing examples. (For some truly cringeworthy examples of artfully tousled machismo, see the Pirates! reissue or Space Rogue.)
In the lore of gaming there’s a subset of spectacular failures that have become more famous than the vast majority of successful games. From E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial to Daikatana to Godus, this little rogue’s gallery inhabits its own curious corner of gaming history. The stories behind these games, carrying with them the strong scent of excess and scandal, can’t help but draw us in.
But there are also other, less scandalous cases of notable failure to which some of us continually return for reasons other than schadenfreude. One such case is that of Covert Action, Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley’s 1990 game of espionage. Covert Action, while not a great or even a terribly good game, wasn’t an awful game either. And, while it wasn’t a big hit, nor was it a major commercial disaster. By all rights it should have passed into history unremarked, like thousands of similarly middling titles before and after it. The fact that it has remained a staple of discussion among game designers for some twenty years now in the context of how not to make a game is due largely to Sid Meier himself, a very un-middling designer who has never quite been able to get Covert Action, one his few disappointing games, out of his craw. Indeed, he dwells on it to such an extent that the game and its real or perceived problems still tends to rear its head every time he delivers a lecture on the art of game design. The question of just what’s the matter with Covert Action — the question of why it’s not more fun — continues to be asked and answered over and over, in the form of Meier’s own design lectures, extrapolations on Meier’s thesis by others, and even the occasional contrarian apology telling us that, no, actually, nothing‘s wrong with Covert Action.
What with piling onto the topic having become such a tradition in design circles, I couldn’t bear to let Covert Action‘s historical moment go by without adding the weight of this article to the pile. But first, the basics for those of you who wouldn’t know Covert Action if it walked up and invited you to dinner.
As I began to detail in my previous article, Covert Action‘s development at MicroProse, the company at which Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley worked during the period in question, was long by the standards of its time, troubled by the standards of any time, and more than a little confusing to track in our own time. Begun in early 1988 as a Commodore 64 game by Lawrence Schick, another MicroProse designer, it was conceived from the beginning as essentially an espionage version of Sid Meier’s earlier hit Pirates! — as a set of mini-games the player engaged in to affect the course of an overarching strategic game. But Schick found that he just couldn’t get the game to work, and moved on to something else. And that would have been that — except that Sid Meier had become intrigued by the idea, and picked it up for his own next project, moving it in the process from the Commodore 64 to MS-DOS, where it would have a lot more breathing room.
In time, though, the enthusiasm of Meier and his assistant designer Bruce Shelley also began to evaporate; they started spending more and more time dwelling on an alternative design. By August of 1989, they were steaming ahead with Railroad Tycoon, and all work on Covert Action for the nonce had ceased.
After Railroad Tycoon was completed and released in April of 1990, Meier and Shelley returned to Covert Action only under some duress from MicroProse’s head Bill Stealey. With the idea that would become Civilization already taking shape in Meier’s head, his enthusiasm for Covert Action was lower than ever, but needs must. As Shelley tells the story, Meier’s priorities were clear in light of the idea he had waiting in the wings. “We’re just getting this game done,” Meier said of Covert Action when Shelley tried to suggest ways of improving the still somehow unsatisfying design. “I’ve got to get this game finished.” It’s hard to avoid the impression that in the end Meier simply gave up on Covert Action. Yet, given the frequency with which he references it to this day, it’s seems equally clear that that capitulation has never sat well with him.
Covert Action casts you as the master spy Max Remington — or, in a nice nod to gender equality that was still unusual in a game of this era, as Maxine Remington. Max is the guy the CIA calls when they need someone to crack the really tough cases. The game presents you with a series of said tough cases, each involving a plot by some combination of criminal and/or terrorist groups to do something very bad somewhere in the world. Your objective is to figure out what group or groups are involved, figure out precisely what they’re up to, and foil their plot before they bring it to fruition. As usual for a Sid Meier game, you can play on any of four difficulty levels to ensure that everyone, from the rank beginner to the most experienced super-sleuth, can be challenged without being overwhelmed. If you do your job well, you will arrest the person at the top of the plot’s org chart, one of the game’s 26 evil masterminds. Once no more masterminds are left to arrest, Max can walk off into the sunset and enjoy a pleasant retirement, confident that he has made the world a safer place. (If only counter-terrorism was that easy in real life, right?)
The game lets Max/Maxine score with progressively hotter members of the opposite sex as he/she cracks more cases.
The strategic decisions you make in directing the course of your investigation will lead to naught if you don’t succeed at the various mini-games. These include rewiring a junction box to tap a suspect’s phone (Covert Action presents us with a weirdly low-tech version of espionage, even for its own day); cracking letter-substitution codes to decipher a suspect’s message traffic; tailing or chasing a suspect’s car; and, in the most elaborate of the mini-games, breaking into a group’s hideaway to either collect intelligence or make an arrest.
Covert Action seems to have all the makings of a good game — perhaps even another classic like its inspiration, Pirates!. But, as Sid Meier and most of the people who have played it agree, it doesn’t ever quite come together to become an holistically satisfying experience.
It’s not immediately obvious just why that should be the case; thus all of the discussion the game has prompted over the years. Meier does have his theory, to which he’s returned enough that he’s come to codify it into a universal design dictum he calls the “the Covert Action rule.” For my part… well, I have a very different theory. So, first I’ll tell you about Meier’s theory, and then I’ll tell you about my own.
Meier’s theory hinges on the nature of the mini-games. He doesn’t believe that any of them are outright bad by any means, but does feel that they don’t blend well with the overarching strategic game, resulting in a lumpy stew of an experience that the player has trouble digesting. He’s particularly critical of the breaking-and-entering mini-game — a “mini-game” complicated enough that one could easily imagine it being released as a standalone game for the previous generation of computers (or, for that matter, for Covert Action‘s contemporaneous generation of consoles). Before you begin the breaking-and-entering game, you must choose what Max will carry with him: depending on your goals for this mission, you can give him some combination of a pistol, a sub-machine gun, a camera, several types of grenades, bugs, a Kevlar vest, a gas mask, a safe-cracking kit, and a motion detector. The underground hideaways and safe houses you then proceed to explore are often quite large, and full of guards, traps, and alarms to avoid or foil as you snoop for evidence or try to spirit away a suspect. You can charge in with guns blazing if you like, but, especially at the higher difficulty levels, that’s not generally a recipe for success. This is rather a game of stealth, of lurking in the shadows as you identify the guards’ patrol patterns, the better to avoid or quietly neutralize them. A perfectly executed mission in many circumstances will see you get in and out of the building without having to fire a single shot.
The aspect of this mini-game which Meier pinpoints as its problem is, somewhat ironically, the very ambition and complexity which makes it so impressive when considered alone. A spot of breaking and entering can easily absorb a very tense and intense half an hour of your time. By the time you make it out of the building, Meier theorizes, you’ve lost track of why you went in in the first place — lost track, in other words, of what was going on in the strategic game. Meier codified his theory in what has for almost twenty years been known in design circles as “the Covert Action rule.” In a nutshell, the rule states that “one good game is better than two great ones” in the context of a single game design. Meier believes that the mini-games of Covert Action, and the breaking-and-entering game in particular, can become so engaging and such a drain on the player’s time and energies that they clash with the strategic game; we end up with two “great games” that never make a cohesive whole. This dissonance never allows the player to settle into that elusive sense of total immersion which some call “flow.” Meier believes that Pirates! works where Covert Action doesn’t because the former’s mini-games are much shorter and much less complicated — getting the player back to the big picture, as it were, quickly enough that she doesn’t lose the plot of what the current situation is and what she’s trying to accomplish.
It’s an explanation that makes a certain sense on its face, yet I must say that it’s not one that really rings true to my own experiences with either games in general or Covert Action in particular. Certainly one can find any number of games which any number of players have hugely enjoyed that seemingly violate the Covert Action rule comprehensively. We could, for instance, look to the many modern CRPGs which include “sub-quests” that can absorb many hours of the player’s time, to no detriment to the player’s experience as a whole, at least if said players’ own reports are to be believed. If that’s roaming too far afield from the type of game which Covert Action is, consider the case of the strategy classic X-Com, one of the most frequently cited of the seeming Covert Action rule violators that paradoxically succeed as fun designs. It merges an overarching strategic game with a game of tactical combat that’s far more time-consuming and complicated than even the breaking-and-entering part of Covert Action. And yet it must place high in any ranking of the most beloved strategy games of all time. As we continue to look at specific counterexamples like X-Com or, for that matter, Pirates!, we can only continue to believe in the Covert Action rule by applying lots of increasingly tortured justifications for why this or that seemingly blatant violator nevertheless works as a game. So, X-Com, Meier tells us, works because the strategic game is relatively less complicated than the tactical game, leaving enough of the focus on the tactical game that the two don’t start to pull against one another. And Pirates!, of course, is just the opposite.
I can only say that when the caveats and exceptions to any given rule start to pile up, one is compelled to look back to the substance of the rule itself. As nice as it might be for the designers of Covert Action to believe the game’s biggest problem is that its individual parts were just each too darn ambitious, too darn good, I don’t think that’s the real reason the game doesn’t work.
So, we come back to the original question: just what is the matter with Covert Action? I don’t believe that Covert Action‘s core malady can be found in the mini-games, nor for that matter in the strategic game per se. I rather believe the problem is with the mission design and with the game’s fiction — which, as in so many games, are largely one and the same in this one. The cases you must crack in Covert Action are procedurally generated by the computer, using a set of templates into which are plugged different combinations of organizations, masterminds, and plots to create what is theoretically a virtually infinite number of potential cases to solve. My thesis is that it’s at this level — the level of the game’s fiction — where Covert Action breaks down; I believe that things have already gone awry as soon as the game generates the case it will ask you to solve, well before you make your first move. The, for lack of a better word, artificiality of the cases is never hard to detect. Even before you start to learn which of the limited number of templates are which, the stories just feel all wrong.
Literary critics have a special word, “mimesis,” which they tend to deploy when a piece of fiction conspicuously passes or fails the smell test of immersive believability. Dating back to classical philosophy, “mimesis” technically means the art of “showing” a story — as opposed to “diegesis,” the art of telling. It’s been adopted by theorists of textual interactive fiction as well as a stand-in for all those qualities of a game’s fiction that help to immerse the player in the story, that help to draw her in. “Crimes against Mimesis” — the name of an influential Usenet post written in 1996 by Roger Giner-Sorolla — are all those things, from problems with the interface to obvious flaws in the story’s logic to things that just don’t ring true somehow, that cast the player jarringly out of the game’s fiction — that reveal, in other words, the mechanical gears grinding underneath the game’s fictional veneer. Covert Action is full of these crimes against mimesis, full of these gears poking above the story’s surface. Groups that should hate each other ally with one another: the Colombian Cartel, the Mafia, the Palestine Freedom Organization (some names have been changed to protect the innocent or not-so-innocent), and the Stassi might all concoct a plot together. Why not? In the game’s eyes, they’re just interchangeable parts with differing labels on the front; they might as well have been called “Group A,” “Group B,” etc. When they send messages to one another, the diction almost always rings horribly, jarringly wrong in the ears of those of us who know what the groups represent. Here’s an example in the form of the Mafia talking like Jihadists.
If Covert Action had believable, mimetic, tantalizing — or at least interesting — plots to foil, I submit that it could have been a tremendously compelling game, without changing anything else about it. Instead, though, it’s got this painfully artificial box of whirling gears. Writing in the context of the problems of procedural generation in general, Kate Compton has called this the “10,000 Bowls of Oatmeal Problem.”
I can easily generate 10,000 bowls of plain oatmeal, with each oat being in a different position and different orientation, and mathematically speaking they will all be completely unique. But the user will likely just see a lot of oatmeal. Perceptual uniqueness is the real metric, and it’s darn tough. It is the difference between an actor being a face in a crowd scene and a character that is memorable.
Assuming that we can agree to agree, at least for now, that we’ve hit upon Covert Action‘s core problem, it’s not hard to divine how to fix it. I’m imagining a version of the game that replaces the infinite number of procedurally-generated cases with 25 or 30 hand-crafted plots, each with its own personality and its own unique flavor of intrigue. Such an approach would fix another complaint that’s occasionally levied against Covert Action: that it never becomes necessary to master or even really engage with all of its disparate parts because it’s very easy to rely just on those mini-games you happen to be best at to ferret out all of the relevant information. In particular, you can discover just about everything you need in the files you uncover during the breaking-and-entering game, without ever having to do much of anything in the realm of wire-tapping suspects, tailing them, or cracking their codes. This too feels like a byproduct of the generic templates used to construct the cases, which tend to err on the safe side to ensure that the cases are actually soluble, preferring — justifiably, in light of the circumstances — too many clues to too few. But this complaint could easily be fixed using hand-crafted cases. Different cases could be consciously designed to emphasize different aspects of the game: one case could be full of action, another more cerebral and puzzle-like, etc. This would do yet more to give each case its own personality and to keep the game feeling fresh throughout its length.
The most obvious argument against hand-crafted cases, other than the one, valid only from the developers’ standpoint, of the extra resources it would take to create them, is that it would exchange a game that is theoretically infinitely replayable for one with a finite span. Yet, given that Covert Action isn’t a hugely compelling game in its historical form, one has to suspect that my proposed finite version of it would likely yield more actual hours of enjoyment for the average player than the infinite version. Is a great game that lasts 30 hours and then is over better than a mediocre one that can potentially be played forever? The answer must depend on individual circumstances as well as individual predilections, but I know where I stand, at least as long as this world continues to be full of more cheap and accessible games than I can possibly play.
But then there is one more practical objection to my proposed variation of Covert Action, or rather one ironclad reason why it could never have seen the light of day: this simply isn’t how Sid Meier designs his games. Meier, you see, stands firmly on the other side of a longstanding divide that has given rise to no small dissension over the years in the fields of game design and academic game studies alike.
In academia, the argument has raged for twenty years between the so-called ludologists, who see games primarily as dynamic systems, and the narratologists, who see them primarily as narratives. Yet at its core the debate is actually far older even than that. In the December 1987 issue of his Journal of Computer Game Design, Chris Crawford fired what we might regard as the first salvo in this never-ending war via an article entitled “Process Intensity.” The titular phrase meant, he explained, “the degree to which a program emphasizes processes instead of data.” While all games must have some amount of data — i.e., fixed content, including fixed story content — a more process-intensive game — one that tips the balance further in favor of dynamic code as opposed to static data — is almost always a better game in Crawford’s view. That all games aren’t extremely process intensive, he baldly states, is largely down to the laziness of their developers.
The most powerful resistance to process intensity, though, is unstated. It is a mental laziness that afflicts all of us. Process intensity is so very hard to implement. Data intensity is easy to put into a program. Just get that artwork into a file and read it onto the screen; store that sound effect on the disk and pump it out to the speaker. There’s instant gratification in these data-intensive approaches. It looks and sounds great immediately. Process intensity requires all those hours mucking around with equations. Because it’s so indirect, you’re never certain how it will behave. The results always look so primitive next to the data-intensive stuff. So we follow the path of least resistance right down to data intensity.
Crawford, in other words, is a ludologist all the way. There’s always been a strongly prescriptive quality to the ludologists’ side of the ludology-versus-narratology debate, an ideology of how games ought to be made. Because processing is, to use Crawford’s words again, “the very essence of what a computer does,” the capability that in turn enables the interactivity that makes computer games unique as a medium, games that heavily emphasize processing are purer than those that rely more heavily on fixed data.
It’s a view that strikes me as short-sighted in a number of ways. It betrays, first of all, a certain programmer and systems designer’s bias against the artists and writers who craft all that fixed data; I would submit that the latter skills are every bit as worthy of admiration and every bit as valuable on most development teams as the former. Although even Crawford acknowledges that “data endows a game with useful color and texture,” he fails to account for the appeal of games where that very color and texture — we might instead say the fictional context — is the most important part of the experience. He and many of his ludologist colleagues are like most ideologues in failing to admit the possibility that different people may simply want different things, in games as in any other realm. Given the role that fixed stories have come to play in even many of the most casual modern games, too much ludologist rhetoric verges on telling players that they’re wrong for liking the games they happen to like. This is not to apologize for railroaded experiences that give the player no real role to play whatsoever and thereby fail to involve her in their fictions. It’s rather to say that drawing the line between process and data can be more complicated than saying “process good, data bad” and proceeding to act accordingly. Different games are at their best with different combinations of pre-crafted and generative content. Covert Action fails as a game because it draws that line in the wrong place. It’s thanks to the same fallacy, I would argue, that Chris Crawford has been failing for the last quarter century to create the truly open-ended interactive-story system he calls Storytron.
Sid Meier is an endlessly gracious gentleman, and thus isn’t so strident in his advocacy as many other ludologists. But despite his graciousness, there’s no doubt on which side of the divide he stands. Meier’s games never, ever include rigid pre-crafted scenarios or fixed storylines of any stripe. In most cases, this has been fine because his designs have been well-suited to the more open-ended, generative styles of play he favors. Covert Action, however, is the glaring exception, revealing one of the few blind spots of this generally brilliant game designer. Ironically, Meier had largely been drawn to Covert Action by what he calls the “intriguing” problem of its dynamic case generator. The idea of being able to use the computer to do the hard work of generating stories, and thereby to be able to churn out infinite numbers of the things at no expense, has always enticed him. He continues to muse today about a Sherlock Holmes game built using computer-generated cases, working backward from the solution of a crime to create a trail of clues for player to follow.
Meier is hardly alone in the annals of computer science and game design in finding the problem of automated story-making intriguing. Like his Sherlock Holmes idea, many experiments with procedurally-generated narratives have worked with mystery stories, that most overtly game-like of all literary genres; Covert Action‘s cases as well can be considered variations on the mystery theme. As early as 1971, Sheldon Klein, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, created something he called an “automatic novel writer” for auto-generating “2100-word murder-mystery stories.” In 1983, Electronic Arts released Jon Freeman and Paul Reiche III’s Murder on the Zinderneuf as one of their first titles; it allowed the player to solve an infinite number of randomly generated mysteries occurring aboard its titular Zeppelin airship. That game’s flaws feel oddly similar to those of Covert Action. As in Covert Action, in Murder on the Zinderneuf the randomized cases never have the resonance of a good hand-crafted mystery story. That, combined with their occasional incongruities and the patterns that start to surface as soon as you’ve played a few times, means that you can never forget their procedural origins. These tales of intrigue never manage to truly intrigue.
Suffice to say that generating believable fictions, whether in the sharply delimited realm of a murder mystery taking place aboard a Zeppelin or the slightly less delimited realm of a contemporary spy thriller, is a tough nut to crack. Even one of the most earnest and concentrated of the academic attempts at tackling the problem, a system called Tale-Spin created by James Meehan at Yale University, continued to generate more unmimetic than mimetic stories after many years of work — and this system was meant only to generate standalone static stories, not interactive mysteries to be solved. And as for Chris Crawford’s Storytron… well, as of this writing it is, as its website says, in a “medically induced coma” for the latest of many massive re-toolings.
In choosing to pick up Covert Action primarily because of the intriguing problem of its case generator and then failing to consider whether said case generator really served the game, Sid Meier may have run afoul of another of his rules for game design, one that I find much more universally applicable than what Meier calls the Covert Action rule. A designer should always ask, Meier tells us, who is really having the fun in a game — the designer/programmer/computer or the player? The procedurally generated cases may have been an intriguing problem for Sid Meier the designer, but they don’t serve the player anywhere near as well as hand-crafted cases might have done.
The model that comes to mind when I think of my ideal version of Covert Action is Killed Until Dead, an unjustly obscure gem from Accolade which, like Murder on the Zinderneuf, I wrote about in an earlier article. Killed Until Dead is very similar to Murder on the Zinderneuf in that it presents the player with a series of mysteries to solve, all of which employ the same cast of characters, the same props, and the same setting. Unlike Murder on the Zinderneuf, however, the mysteries in Killed Until Dead have all been lovingly hand-crafted. They not only hang together better as a result, but they’re full of wit and warmth and the right sort of intrigue — they intrigue the player. If you ask me, a version of Covert Action built along similar lines, full of exciting plotlines with-a-ripped-from-the-headlines feel, could have been fantastic — assuming, of course, that MicroProse could have found writers and scenario designers with the chops to bring the spycraft to life.
It’s of course possible that my reaction to Covert Action is hopelessly subjective, inextricably tied to what I personally value in games. As my longtime readers are doubtless aware by now, I’m an experential player to the core, more interested in lived experiences than twiddling the knobs of a complicated system just exactly perfectly. In addition to guaranteeing that I’ll never win any e-sports competitions — well, that and my aging reflexes that were never all that great to begin with — this fact colors the way I see a game like Covert Action. The jarring qualities of Covert Action‘s fiction may not bother some of you one bit. And thus the debate about what really is wrong with Covert Action, that strange note of discordance sandwiched between the monumental Sid Meier masterpieces Railroad Tycoon and Civilization, can never be definitely settled. Ditto the more abstract and even more longstanding negotiation between ludology and narratology. Ah, well… if nothing else, it ensures that readers and writers of blogs like this one will always have something to talk about. So, let the debate rage on.
(Sources: the books Expressive Processing by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and On Interactive Storytelling by Chris Crawford; Game Developer of February 2013. Links to online sources are scattered through the article.
If you’d like to enter the Covert Action debate for yourself, you can buy it from GOG.com.)
Posted by Jimmy Maher on March 24, 2017 in Digital Antiquaria, Interactive Fiction
Tags: covert action, meier, microprose, shelley
72 Responses to What’s the Matter with Covert Action?
Jason Lefkowitz
Meier had largely been drawn to Covert Action by what he calls the “intriguing” problem of its dynamic case generator. The idea of being able to use the computer to do the hard work of generating stories, and thereby to be able to churn out infinite numbers of the things at no expense, has always enticed him.
And not just stories — see, for instance, his 1994 title C.P.U. Bach, which was an engine for generating infinite numbers of Baroque compositions.
I love Covert Action, but I have to admit that your criticisms ring pretty true, more true for my experiences than Mr. Meier’s hypothesis on the game anyway. Procedurally generated plots sound like a great feature. As you said, though, they very quickly start to feel “game-like” and “the gears poke through.” I even have considered intentionally not foiling plots when I pay sometimes, so that I could play through the second stage of the plot and get to experience more of the templates, as it doesn’t take long to realize how few each difficulty level really has.
All that said, it’s still got some really enjoyable minigames as far as I’m concerned. I love doing the wiretapping and cryptography games, personally, and in spite of its flaws, it’s a game I still enjoy.
Thank you, as always, for a great article, Jimmy.
AguyinaRPG
Second paragraph, Meier is spelled “Meir”.
Also, “he baldly states”. For all I know that may have been the intention though!
I can’t say I’ve ever heard of Covert Action, though I might have to look a little deeper into it after watching a bit of footage for some context.
As to the whole ludology versus narrative divide, I’ve heard a lot of interesting arguments over the years. There’s a brief “History of Stealth Games” on Youtube where the guy makes the argument of both schools needing to be taken into account to define a Stealth Genre. I don’t necessarily agree with that,certainly in my own games and research I am a ludologist, but it’s a more nuanced point than I often hear where narrative becomes a stage just because people apparently can’t understand stories through -doing-. That’s not what you’re arguing, I can tell, but it’s the insinuation I get a lot.
I do think you’re too harsh on procedural generation, going all the way back to Murder on the Zinderneuf. I think that’s one of the greatest potentials for expressing the uniqueness of a story within a video game setting, None of these early games did it well when applying it to the narrative aspects, but I definitely think that it has been done well at some point (and perhaps you’ll cover that when we get there). I think the trick is not to randomly generate a *story* (yet) and instead alter certain aspects of it.
Your second correction was indeed as intended. Thanks for your thoughts!
Low blow Jimmy, low blow. (Though he deserves it)
Oh, I see what you mean. No pun was intended, although I could almost wish I was clever enough to have thought of that one. ;)
First, great as always. I played a lot of this game back in the day, and I’ve always *wanted* to like it more than I actually do.
It’s interesting to speculate/opine about what’s wrong with the game. Meier himself says it’s because both parts (the strategic game and the mini-game where you spend 90% of the playing time) are both involving, and the mini-game takes too long to play; Meier has mentioned the example of why, when two units fight in Civilization, you don’t go into a full tactical battle that takes half an hour to play. However, the X-Com example you mention (where, I think, it works perfectly) contradict that, as do other games such as the Total War series, which *does* have 30-minute battles when armies meet.
Why do these work while CA doesn’t? My best guess would be that the X-Com missions and the Total War battles are more directly connected to what you’re doing in the strategic game. In X-Com, you’re investigating a UFO you just shot down, or fighting a terror attack that just happened; in Total War, it’s an army that you need to defeat. In Covert Action… it’s almost as if you’re breaking into a building just because it’s there. Yes, it might have a suspect or item you need to progress in the game, but other than that, every building feels like the same, has the same challenges, has information relevant to the case even it’s the “wrong” building, and so on. It’s just something you need to do several times per case in order to progress.
Also, I think, as a mini-game, it was done much better in Microprose’s Sword of the Samurai (where it was far shorter, more action-based, and, again, more related to what was happening, instead of feeling “generic.”)
I agree with you about the “this is obviously randomly generated” you get from the game, but I wouldn’t actually go all the way in the opposite direction (a couple of dozen hand-crafted cases). It should be possible, I think, to achieve the best of both worlds: better “pieces” of content, more variety, and more unpredictability (e.g.. on each situation, the bad guys might do different things, instead of following a set path; also, plot types might be separated into “early game”, “middle game” and “end game”, so that the player wouldn’t be thinking “yawn, I already did five cases just like this.”
Typo: “Sherlock Homes”. Also (from re-reading), there’s a “Mier” here. :)
I have two pet examples of multi-genre games that illustrate the problem of mixing a good game blend. Dune (1991) for one is a real-time strategy game combined with a first-person adventure: you follow the storyline to gain new followers and powers with which to win at the strategic game so the story ends well. In other words, the two faces of the game support and complement each other (though I’m told much of the story can be skipped if you’re good at the strategy side and just want to make a speedrun).
On the other hand, Alien Legacy is an adventure game with a SimCity and shooter minigame thrown in for no good reason. And at least the shooter parts, based on the largely forgotten Star Raiders II (a favorite of mine, as it happens), work great. The strategy angle however is botched: I could never figure out how to make those little space colonies work at all, and without them you’re left hanging. Worse, the story is grand and elaborate enough that restarting the game if you get stuck feels like just too much trouble. So the whole thing falls flat, which is too bad because the story is awesome and I would have loved to see how it ends.
That said, I think RPGs are a bad example, because every single side quest in an RPG is based on the exact same mechanics as the bigger game. That those mechanics themselves consist of several minigames is less relevant, because 1) you play the same combination thereof to solve everything and 2) those mechanics can’t even work at all in isolation — each of them contributes part of an overarching experience. In a certain family of tabletop RPGs, mechanics are even used to build a frame for player-driven story building, so the two angles become not just inseparable but indistinguishable!
As for games being all about mechanics… oh dear, oh dear. Even in roguelikes, that revel in intricate clockworks of rules and formulae feeding off each other, a big part of the code is actually data: tables of monsters, weapons, spells, potions and other elements the game can recombine into something useful. And all the best examples also rely on prefabricated pieces to be inserted at key points into the game. As Fred Brooks Jr. famously said, “show me your code, and I still need to see your tables; show me your tables, and I don’t need to see your code”.
Regarding Mr. Crawford, with all due respect for his very real accomplishments, I suspect he never truly understood the point of stories. I remember exploring the question on my own blog — with your help — and failing to hit the mark myself. Stories, you see, need to be relevant: to have some sort of meaning for the audience. Some reason for the audience to give a damn about the characters and what happens to them. And in my experience, most people who try their hand at storytelling don’t get it. Many of them succeed anyway, simply by virtue of having a life they can draw from. A computer program however doesn’t; it’s just the proverbial million monkeys, banging away at their million typewriters. And it would take an infinite improbability drive for them to come up with another Hamlet.
Alex Freeman
“In a certain family of tabletop RPGs, mechanics are even used to build a frame for player-driven story building, so the two angles become not just inseparable but indistinguishable!”
Which family of RPGs would that be?
I also compared MicroProse’s enjoyable “Sword of the Samurai” to “Covert Action” in the last post before realising there would be a separate entry here, but now I realise the better comparison is between “Sword” and “Pirates!”. The former’s tactical games are more detailed (it’s physically stressful to wait in your castle as ninja appear), and the strategic game is more flimsy. It’s also possible that all these stories seem less silly when distant in time and space, and that people living in China or 2300 might not care about the differences between the Mafia and the Black Panthers.
I suppose ultimately, the thing that game creators need to remember is that process-heavy and data-heavy games are both valid approaches, just different ones, and the trick is to identify which works best with what you’re trying to achieve. Dwarf Fortress is a magnificent achievement in what it does, but it doesn’t mean that, say, Portal would be a better game if you could decide to just ignore GLaDOS and spend six months of real time building a Turing Machine instead.
On a related note – and I don’t mean to bash him too hard – I see Crawford states on his site that the next implementation of Storytron will likely leave out computer-controlled characters altogether and have them all run by players. Which seems to be missing the point somewhat, and leads to the unfortunate feeling that Crawford has spent three decades of his life and considerable sums of money just to reinvent the MUD.
A huge problem with Crawford’s approach, and one which I think he has consistently underestimated through all his decades of work on Storytron, is that of *communication* between the player and his interactive stories. We expect to be able to do that in language, but it’s very difficult to make a computer understand natural language, and if anything even harder to get it to output readable text from a pile of raw data. You can have the most compelling story in the world sitting in memory, but if you can’t *tell* it to the player what good does it do you? At least to some extent this problem might be conquerable with the benefit of modern developments in software engineering and modern hardware, but doing so would require great piles of cash — how much has Google poured into Google Translate by now, still with very imperfect results? — which Crawford doesn’t have. In lieu of being able to communicate in a natural way, he’s fallen back on arcane systems of symbols. The end results don’t have much resemblance to anything people think of when they think of a good story.
I think the player’s context factors in hevily… as 10-12 year old when I first played this game the procedural case generation issues didn’t really matter because I hadn’t developed a broad enough understanding of geopolitics and the like, and was more focused on the mini-games and individual missions. Sure, it has a bit of where in the world is carmen sandiego simplicity but still, as I’ve revisited the game more recently I think it holds up fairly well despite its short-comings. This is especially true when you compare it to the strict linear storylines of other “quest” type games of the same era. apple v oranges.
…also, this reminds me I have Covert Action installed on this machine. Might have to play a mission or two. Kind of difficult without a real keyboard though!
Good lord, global threat is outright impossible. Local is laughably easy. Played through National and Regional catching 6 masterminds without too much trouble. Switched to global for the last couple and now I remember why I quit playing this game as a kid — ha!
S. John Ross
My long-standing observation, similar to the oatmeal quote, is “whenever they promise X billion to the trillion combinations, it always feels like five.”
I’m fascinated by the ludologist/narratologist thing, since both sound so unsatisfying to me and run contrary to my own ideals in design – and they do so pretty much equally.
In terms of games like this vs. games like Civilization, I have an easy answer for my own tastes, which is that Civilization is an instrument of creativity … As a Civ player, I’m not just being asked to solve a procedurally-generated problem; I’m given a paintbox and a canvas and I’m creating according to rules, and my creation is challenged by procedurally-generated problems. That layer, being invited to MAKE, is what brings me back to Civ (in virtually all its incarnations) time and again. Ultimately, it means that every civilization I create is, in fact, a piece of hand-crafted, non-procedural content for me to enjoy.
You hit upon an interesting aspect of the ludologist/narratologist split, I think. Both agree that games are creative endeavors, but they tend to differ on where they place the most important source of creativity. Narratologists tend to take a more traditionalist approach, considering games to be authored works like books or movies; as with those other mediums, the creative force behind them is the designer. Ludologists see games as something entirely distinct from other forms, something which cannot be criticized using the same approaches. They place the creative emphasis on play itself, seeing the creators as the *players*.
As is not hard to discern from reading a few of my articles, I lean toward narratology in my own criticism and the types of games I mostly choose to criticize. But the reality in my view is that games taken as a whole are a little of both. So, while it’s hard to see something like Trinity as anything other than Brian Moriarty’s personal literary expression, your experience of Civilization is equally valid. And both games are in their own ways brilliant. I don’t care if people prefer one approach or the other. I only get annoyed when they start to say one approach or the other is *invalid*.
“You hit upon an interesting aspect of the ludologist/narratologist split, I think.”
Entirely accidental, I promise. My only intended comment on the ludologist/narratologist thing was (and remains) “they both sound awful.” I don’t think either sounds invalid.\
And I may just be misunderstanding the terms, but as described here, it sounds like “Game designers disagree on whether games should be miserably dull or wretchedly tedious.”
“whenever they promise X billion to the trillion combinations, it always feels like five”
Which is exactly why No Man’s Sky disappointed so many people — a bullet the creators of Elite! dodged by trimming the many billions of possible galaxies down to just eight. And we should have known, because they did have the ability to offer players billions of galaxies at the time, even on limited 8-bit machines. Hardware wasn’t the issue. But nowadays many developers allow themselves to be blinded by all this computing power we no longer know what to do with.
See, procedurally generated worlds suffer from the same issue as procedurally generated stories: not so much that they’re monotonous — the real world can be, too, and better PCG techniques can alleviate the problem — but that they’re inconsequential. What, after all, make my own neighborhood inherently more interesting than any other in the city? Nothing, of course, except for the fact that I lived in it for 32 years and the experiences I had here shaped me in ways that other people might learn from. A computer-generated locale, no matter how intricate and plausible the simulation, simply won’t be anything to anybody.
At least Minecraft allows you to take ownership of those humongous worlds (or rather, tiny slices thereof) by changing them in ways that are uniquely yours. And sure enough, it’s one of the most successful games ever. If only people have gotten the point instead of mindlessly trying to clone the superficial aspects of the original.
But then we wouldn’t be having this discussion, would we now?
Yeah, that was what I meant with my Civ comment … if it consisted only of procedurally-generated stuff, I’d tune out immediately. But, like Minecraft, it makes room for the player to bring some personality to something that would otherwise lack it.
It sounds like Covert Action had no interest in authorship on either side of the monitor … that the designers didn’t feel compelled to create much, and also didn’t leave room for the player to.
G Ozen
Reverting the roles could turn Covert Action into a paintbox maybe? As a good spy, you have no option but to figure out the procedurally generated one unique solution. But the mastermind can use different groups in different ways to accomplish his goals. That even makes cooperation between hostile groups sensible as you would be forcing/persuading them (via mini games) to work together.
Jimmy, great article. This one should go straight into the Hall Of Fame.
In support of your argument of why this game doesn’t work quite well, Activision did their own interpretation of the same spy-thriller concept with “Spycraft: the great game”. It was a fully story-driven collection of mini-games, some good, some average. It sure must have made Chris Crawford really mad at the time, since, as many titles from the era, it came on three CD’s full of Full-Motion-Video and photo-realistic backgrounds and props. As much as most of us have come to despise FMV nowadays, I remember actually having fun with Spycraft and getting sucked-in by the Clancy-esque plot. It was all done with solid production values and good writing. Microprose really went in the wrong direction and Meier was fully aware of the fact but, being a ludologist, drew his own strange conclusion about the length of the mini-games.
Regarding Crawford’s and Meier’s core arguments, if long mini-games are so toxic to game design, Why did SSI’s Gold Box series become so popular ? After all, some key battles (i.e. mini-games) could take hours and the main plot, very simple in its essence, was revealed through massive amounts of “fixed data” : maps, paragraphs, histories, static NPC’s, etc … , and we could say almost the same about Interplay’s Lord Of the Rings Trilogy, based on the most data-heavy works of fantasy in the history of literature.
Regarding “the divide” : for a successful example of a game designer striving for a perfect balance between process and story one should turn to Richard Garriott and his Ultima series, which have been addressed expertly by you in this blog. He started to tone down the “mechanical” aspects and flesh out a coherent fiction in III, managing a good balance and an engaging story in IV, and then went on to seek a more complex world model with V and VI with mixed results. As you pointed out in your post about it, V didn’t quite achieve Garriott’s ambitious goals for it -mainly due to him stubbornly clinging to the 8-bit platforms, in my opinion- but is perfectly balanced.
Finally, for me Ultima VI is a perfect example of everything you say in this post : its “process” side is as solid as can be for an RPG, even allowing the player to cook, repair weapons, etc … , the quintessential “sandbox” game, but its “story” side is also very impressive, with very detailed lore, NPC’s that are more like characters in a play and a complex plot that presents timeless issues in a very mature way, all of it dressed up in piles of gorgeous “data”. Nevertheless, almost everybody who has played it levels the same complaint at VI : its excessive characterization of the “Avatar” both during the intro and in-game breaks mimesis noticeably by not letting players cast themselves adequately in the lead role, only to “control” the protagonist. Maybe an extra disk full of portraits and garments and a sophisticated character creation sub-program would have been enough. Later RPG’s and even Remakes of Ultima V and VI offer this kind of thing.
Ultima VI doesn’t quite get there for me, for reasons I’ll describe in a future article. (It feels rather stranded between the old way and the new, neither fully one nor the other.) Ultima VII, though, does everything you describe here to very good effect — even if that does include this increasingly strained and silly over-characterization of the Avatar.
That was a little too long, sorry ! (hope you and your readers don’t get bored halfway through)
It’s odd that Crawford ships so much criticism and hate from text adventure hobbyists, when from outside they’re clearly on the same side, ranged against the overwhelmingly more popular types of simulation games that set you as the only thinking person in the world – “you are a soldier / a fast driver / a dictator”.
This is sadness, not hate. The man’s a genius. I consider The Art of Computer Game Design to be required reading for any aspiring developer. And what he’s done in recent decades remains important as fundamental research. Still can’t help but feel it was a waste of his talents, quixotically focusing for so long on a single aspect that, as it turns out, simply doesn’t work. And all because he insisted to hold onto the — admittedly widespread — misconception that any random chain of events barely connected to each other somehow counts as a story.
I agree. I don’t think all that much of Crawford’s games as games. Most have been made as demonstrations of his theories, and have skipped the essential stage of the process which Sid Meier calls “finding the fun.” But his was a very important voice in getting game makers to take their craft seriously, and his ideas, even when I disagree with them, have always been provocative and eminently worthy of discussion. It’s been a shame to see him essentially remove himself from the discussion these past 25 years in favor of chasing his White Whale.
Might have something to do with his habit of repeatedly calling out text adventures as a betrayal of their medium’s potential. ;)
If you play as Maxine, do you also score with progressively hotter secretaries? I suppose it wouldn’t be prohibitive to create twice as many secretary art assets, male and female–I remember 1990 and am guessing that a mainstream game wasn’t going to allow you to choose your sexual orientation. But it seems like, even more so than allowing you to play as a woman, it would be progressive for all the secretaries to be male. I’m imagining that you work your way up to Chris Hemsworth’s character from the remake of Ghostbusters.
Also, are the secretaries procedurally generated? Seems like something that could certainly be done today.
I may owe you a serious comment after this one.
actually, yeah they’re dudes instead if you pick maxine — ha!
Are they still secretaries? I had thought that you were romancing secretaries in other organizations to get intelligence, but on further investigation it kind of looks like they’re from the pool at HQ at the end of every level–which is both more boring and somehow skeevier.
Your overall ranking combined with mission ranking determines the “eye candy” at the end of each mission, if memory serves. And it’s just eye candy, with no bearing on the game. The office gives way to a hotel bar, and then a casino, and then the beach, I think. The eye candy characters are progressively more attractive, but I don’t remember them being procedurally generated the way in game characters are. I don’t personally remember associating any except the first with “secretary,” but one’s mileage may vary.
I honestly didn’t know what happened if you played Maxine, so thanks for that. (Given the nature of games at the time, I kind of imagined you might get to join progressively better knitting clubs or something).
Nor, I’m embarrassed to say, am I at all certain that they’re all secretaries. Made some edits to that caption… okay, pretty much rewrote it. :)
I was looking around and found this screenshot saying “The stories of a secret agent can only be gossiped to secretaries with a clearence [sic] level of AA or above.” Which makes it sound kind of like they are secretaries at least at the beginning… and could it be that the better you do in the game, the higher the clearance level required for the stories you have to tell, and it just so happens that the NPCs with higher clearance level are also more attractive? Probably not, but clearly someone is going to have to do a deep dive into the game to refresh our collective memory.
Having tried to find that again by searching for things like “covert action secretaries aa clearance,” I expect they’ll be coming to take me away any time now.
For the record, this review has screenshots of a playthrough as Maxine, with a few of the eye candy guys… it’s the thought that counts, I guess. Blue-cardigan-over-black-turtleneck guy seems not to be an end of level reward but your actual secretary and in-game mechanic, Sam, who if you play as Maximilian is a woman with gold hoop earrings dressed in a tuxedo and black bowtie like a wedding bartender. I just don’t know, man.
David Boddie
That’s not a bad piece of box art, really. Certainly no worse than the one for Railroad Tycoon.
But “Max Remington”? I’m sure he must have been the master of close shaves in the spy world…
He’s based on a real person, actually. For instance, he was the artist in Railroad Tycoon, and his picture appears with Meier’s and Shelley’s in one of that game’s title screens.
That link appears to be miscoded or something, because though it’s turning link color it doesn’t seem to actually be pointing to any address.
I don’t know what Pedro was linking to, but here’s a mobygames page for Max Remington III.
Hmm, I was sure I linked to that same URL… weird. Maybe I mistyped something. Thanks!
Yeah, sometimes this happens to me–I miss a quotation mark (I think that’s what does it) and I get link-colored text with no link. Glad that was what you meant!
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Ricky Derocher
If you want to see bad box art – try the US release of “Lancelot” – http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/90461-lancelot-commodore-64-front-cover.jpg
whomever
OMG, that is absolutely hilarious.
I’m not familiar with the game, but that looks like deliberate parody to me. Inflatable stegosaurus (?), come on.
The game itself is actually serious – one may think that it a parody by the US box art.
Here is the European box art for comparison:
http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/256688-lancelot-commodore-64-front-cover.jpg
Geez Louise. I don’t know what they were thinking misrepresenting the game like that, then. I mean, the art for Covert Action is certainly a touch cheesy, but at least seems reasonably in line with the tone of the game.
Jason Dyer
This is one of the best articles you’ve written.
Agreed, this is a great posting. One of the best. Really interesting to get your analysis of Covert Action. I bought this game back in the 90s and found it rather lackluster and now I know why! I’m a big fan of espionage novels, movies etc, and Covert Action failed to deliver on those expectations. The minigames to me felt too arbitrary and removed from the story. I found Spycraft more compelling, but also somewhat long-winded. Anyways, great to give this genre it’s due.
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Chris Ogilvie
I want to thank you for this article – it’s crystallized some thoughts I’ve had about games for some time that I’ve not been able to properly express until now.
For years, I’ve found certain strategy games that I otherwise love to be somehow… lacking. Especially in the end-game. I’m talking about games like Master of Orion II or, fittingly enough, games from the Civilization series. I enjoy them well enough, but I always have an itch at the back of my head somehow wanting something more. And I’ve never been able to figure out just *what* that something would be.
But now I think I’ve nailed it.
Take MoO II for example. Playing it, I know I would often want more of a sense of exploring and settling the galaxy, of the politics of managing an interstellar empire, and of dealing with alien races in a meaningful way. And the game itself never really provided those things. In the end, it always came down to manipulating game elements and systems, rather than providing me the *experience* that I was hoping for.
I’ve known for years that I’m 100% an experiential gamer. So much so that I often find myself thinking “This game would be so much better of they stripped the gameplay out of it.” But I’d never made the link between that preference of mine and the deficiency (to me, anyway) in certain strategy games. Until just now.
It seems to me that, like Covert Action, my problem with games like MoO II is that they have a great many procedural elements and lack a hand-crafted narrative. It’s all ludology (and, in the case of Civ or MoO, *brilliant* ludology) and no narrative. And narrative is what would provide the subjective experience that I want out of the games.
Which means that what I *want* is MoO II, but with carefully-crafted narratives that support the *experience* of settling and managing a galactic empire. Instead, what I get is 10,000 unique galaxies to play in… each one of which is a perfectly serviceable, and nearly indistinguishable, bowl of oatmeal.
So, again, *thank you* for this article. It’s been years that I’ve not been able to figure out just what I found lacking in these sorts of games. Being able to put my finger on it, finally, is like being able to scratch an awful, persistent itch.
If you haven’t played them, you might want to look at the original X-Com and Alpha Centauri sometime. Both make an effort to inject some narrative elements into their grand strategy. Feel free to report back at some time in the future if you do get a chance to play them. ;)
Ah, Alpha Centauri has been a favourite of mine since it came out. Probably for exactly the reason you mention. There’s such a sense of history and world there… it’s wonderful. Brian Reynolds seems to have been exactly on my wavelength.
Have to give X-Com a go, though…
X-Com is really the refutation to Meier’s theories about game development. It’s two separate games woven into a coherent whole, with your actions in each having significant repercussions in the other. They’re each quite complex, much too much so to be called “mini-games”, and neither would be as much fun without the other to give it context. It is absolutely not the case that “one good game is better than two great games”, in X-Com’s case — they’re a perfect symbiosis.
Narratively, it’s also head and shoulders above games like Civilization or Railroad Tycoon. It’s not a wide-open sandbox — there’s a very specific story it’s telling, you have a goal and a well-defined endgame, there are timed events that lead up to that endgame, and once you get there it’s enormously satisfying. The specifics very from playthrough to playthrough, but the story is always the same. (Rather the opposite of what Covert Action attempted to do, where it tries to tell a variety of stories, but they all end up feeling bland and samey.)
Definitely give it a go. Really looking forward to when this blog gets up to X-Com!
So much so that I often find myself thinking “This game would be so much better of they stripped the gameplay out of it.”
I found exactly this when trying, at my sons’ insistence, to play Mass Effect, which apparently has an excellent story. I was just so irritated by the need to play through the tedious combat stuff before I could get back to the story, that in the end I stalled out completely.
Yeechang Lee
Jimmy, now that we’re rapidly approaching on Civilization, it would be great if you could look into why Computer Gaming World never published a review of the game!
They did publish an extended preview of the game, based on a late build. Probably didn’t think there was much a formal review could add. They did later publish a couple of strategy articles and awarded it Game of the Year, plus Allan Emrich and Johnny Wilson’s classic book Civilization or Rome on 640 K a Day. So it certainly got plenty of coverage.
Stephen Norris
Type – “never set well” should be “never sat well”.
“Sat” and “set” still get me every time. Thanks!
Captain Rufus
Thanks to this article it sent me to EBay looking for Murder on the Zinderneuf. Thanks to related tines I just dropped 38 bucks on old album boxed EA Atari 800 games. Good job!
But as to some of the article? Yeah eff procedurally generated style games. Roguelike is to RPGs what REAL TIME is to Strategy games. I know instantly it’s pretty much not for me. Instead of a well crafted dungeon it’s a pointless mire that really is like all the other ones. It gets even worse in something like Dungeon Hack which I reviewed for Felipepe’s RPG book on RPGCodex. They are just boring and generic slogs made worse given the AdnD ruleset and it being a single player game. (Then compare the masterfully created dungeons in Legend of Grimrock which are some of the best RPG puzzles ever. Because I feel dumb when I can’t figure one out and then seeing a solution just shows me it was my fault and not the designers going FULL SIERRA on me.)
The oatmeal analogy is the most perfect explanation as to why procedural generation games kind of suck.
As to games with multiple elements? Eh.. Depends on the game and the quality. Master of Orion 2 is a decent 4x but I am mostly there for the ship to ship combat. In fact all the more modern 4xs without tactical combat don’t grab me. But if Moo2’s over mode wasn’t good all the tactical crunch in the world wouldn’t matter. I’m sure some folks feel the opposite in the game’s modes.
Like a good sandwich even if you are merely there for the meat you need good condiments and bread. Otherwise it doesn’t work. This is also why I dislike Ultima 7 in spite of it being a technical achievement. Combat and inventory management and exploration are completely terrible to me and no amount of story and world simulation can fix it for me. I’d rather see it demade into U5’s computer version where the story also has a good game to go with it. The graphics and world realism don’t much grab me when I can’t enjoy the combat and I have to micromanage a party of constantly hungry babies whining for food while I have to manage one of the worst inventory systems in a game. Whereas 5 has proper turn based combat, party food and inventories as a number and a universal list in text plus exploration is made better with locations being a separate thing to the overworld which actually makes it feel like a world and not a small island with little communities in it. (6 also has these issues but turn based combat helps a bit, and Nuvie or the SNES port fixes the viewing window. It too would still be better in the U5 engine. I’m not sure anything is saving 8 and 9 however..)
Meredith Dixon
I’ve been playing Covert Action since it came out. I’ve won the game (I consider “winning” to be catching all 26 masterminds) at least three times, and I’ve played many, many more partial games over the years. I couldn’t have done that with any enjoyment if it had had hand-crafted plots. (One big disappointment of Covert Action, by the way, is that, just as in High Seas Trader a few years later, it’s obvious that the dev team never really expected you to finish the game. The only reward for winning is a small text box announcing that you have captured all 26 masterminds, or, in the case of HST, restored your family fortunes.)
I think the game failed, to the extent that it did, because so many of the minigames are unnecessary and even counterproductive. When I’m playing seriously (with an intent to solve cases and win), the only mini-games I ever play are wiretapping, car bugging (which is just a form of wiretapping with a stricter time limit) and invasion. Cryptography is fun in itself but it takes far too long (in game time) for far too little information gleaned. I’ve never been any good at the car chase, and car bugging accomplishes everything it does, much more easily.
I’ve always played as Maxine, and, no, the men aren’t obviously secretaries. A Maxis employee I once e-mailed about the game claimed that they were portraits of people who worked at Maxis; if he was telling the truth, he probably meant the office scene; the beach scene hunks look like Marvel superheroes in unconvincing civvies to me, and the four glamorous guys at the casino are definitely movie stars. (Specific superheroes, I mean, and specific movie stars).
David Ainsworth
The key problem, from my perspective, is that all the suspects and groups and masterminds are entirely interchangeable. What’s worse, they have no characterization or personality.
X-Com builds itself upon the distinct kinds of enemies you encounter. Alpha Centauri designs factions around characterization, then adds all the tech quotations to build a stronger and stronger sense of the characters, making you care about them, whether it’s to shut Yang up or give Lal a hand. Civilization uses the short-hand of history to partially develop its leaders, but in-game behavior drives your impressions of Montezuma or Gandi to such an extent that the designers opted to duplicate the Gandi nuclear weapons bug in sequels because it was central to player impressions of him.
Compare to Beyond Earth, whose faction leaders are essentially generic faces, or to Covert Action, which ought to be chock full of heels and villains but which can’t muster even one foe as compelling as Carmen Sandiego. You’re up against Random McFakename, who has random facial features and pursues a random sequence of plots until tracked down and caught. The game manual provides brief information about each group of interest, but in-game they are entirely interchangeable: the Mafia is no different from the Stassi in functional terms. Undifferentiated = no characterization.
Worse, your only foes when breaking into a hideout are faceless goons differentiated from group to group only by turtleneck color. They’re all equipped the same way. And the villains you’re tracking are all interchangeable on the tactical layer. That hacker you broke in to capture? Sitting in a chair. That expert assassin? Also just sitting in a chair.
Even a few small changes would make a big difference: have specific groups allied or opposed to other groups. Red September is a splinter group from the PFO, so maybe they hate each other. Have each group’s mastermind have a specific agenda and generate missions relating to plans advancing that agenda: even if the agendas repeat between or within games, working out which one is at play might help you steal a march on the enemy in a way that makes sense within the fiction, rather than being a pure metagame consideration. (One terrorist group plotting attacks in Columbia may proceed in similar ways to another plotting attacks in Israel.)
Even better, reduce the number of masterminds in a given game and determine the ones you’re up against based upon difficulty. State supported groups like the Revolutionary Guard would be foes at higher levels, with better equipped troops and more double-agents within your organization. On the easiest level, some of the tougher organizations might even help out with information or other support in order to use you to eliminate their rivals. Then run the grand campaign as a string of increasing difficulty levels: for example, the Mafia helps you block a plot by the Amazon Cartel to open a bigger market for their drugs in the US early on in exchange for a piece of information which gives you a hint about their agenda when you finally go up against them later in the campaign. That kind of campaign would also make your double-agents more useful, especially if you pull off a coup and get a minor mastermind as your double-agent.
“We could, for instance, look to the many modern CRPGs which include “sub-quests” that can absorb many hours of the player’s time, to no detriment to the player’s experience as a whole, at least if said players’ own reports are to be believed.”
From this RPG player’s perspective, CRPGs certainly do suffer from the straitjacket of the current formula (endless sub-quests while having no actual time pressure for the main quest, combined with allowing the player to make his “own” moral choices and skill improvement path choices, while preventing no-win situations from occurring down the line).
You often really don’t remember what was the main thing you were trying to accomplish. So you get quest journals, minimaps with symbols denoting “special” places, and so on. It all gets a bit pointless after a while, and makes it more and more difficult to appreciate the game world when you have go through the same kind of mechanical miniquests that you have done a zillion times before in another game – because if you skip the side quests, you will miss out on the needed levels, skills and items to proceed in the main quest.
This is the true legacy of Baldur’s Gate and Monkey Island? Bleh.
The specific problems you’ve pointed out can be fixed pretty easy without ripping out the generative component. Mafia can be marked as not working with ISIS, etc. The problem with generated text is solved by removing the specific texts and leaving the vague descriptions like “The decoded message states that the Mafia wants to acquire the floor plan blueprints for the US embassy.” Procedural generation works best when the text is sketchy enough so that the reader does not have any problematic generated details to fixate upon. IMHO the whole idea of generating prose is as intrinsically flawed as generating animation, music or art – humans are not robots and will discern formulas very easily after a couple of tries.
The solution you propose – “just throw some content creators on it, folks” was a cop out for game designers back then when the budgets were lower and game designers had more freedom to pursue what they wanted. That solution is also much more predictable and calculable and that’s why it dominates the modern gaming with its huge budgets and development teams.
himitsu
I don’t think that procedural generation is a problem, but that badly crafted games are a problem, and you cannot escape that with handcrafting. I think it is enough if we look at the Mass Effect series and its downfall to understand that.
Out of curiosity, what do you mean by “the Mass Effect series and its downfall”? I have my own criticisms of the progression of the original trilogy, but “downfall” seems a bit hyperbolic.
I wanted to share my opinion, but EA acted faster:
https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/10/15616726/bioware-montreal-restructuring-mass-effect-on-hold.
“At least some of the team at BioWare Montreal, the studio behind Mass Effect: Andromeda, is being retasked to other projects. Kotaku reports, citing anonymous sources, that the studio is being “scaled down” and that the Mass Effect franchise is going on “hiatus.” Reached for comment, studio director Yanick Roy spun things somewhat differently.”
That’s…unfortunate. I was looking forward to seeing where they would go with Mass Effect Andromeda.
What do you think the problems were, just out of curiosity?
Johannes Paulsen
Jimmy,
An interesting article, but I disagree with you, and instead believe that Sid Meier was correct in his analysis of the Covert Action problem.
The examples you put forth (CRPG sub-quests and XCom) don’t hold water. First off, I don’t think that many CRPG players really care much about the actual story. IMHO, most modern CRPG players are there PRIMARILY for the combat and exploration, and the storyline is just a rationalization for that activity. The game mechanics drive the story, not vice-versa. Since a typical subquest just lets the players go off and do more exploration and fighting, it’s essentially just one more goal to complete. Heck, take a look at Dragon Age — other than the fact that there’s fewer cutscenes, the subquests largely involve almost identical actions to any other ‘main storyline’ mission.
Because of that, there really isn’t anything for the player to forget. She’s focused on moving to the next goal and fighting the next enemy, most of which are pretty much the same as everything else, just with bigger weapons and stronger enemies as the game progresses. The arrows point her to the next thing to do. Reminders pop up if she’s on a timed mission.
Covert Action asked the player to keep track of a bunch of stuff that is no more or less memorable than anything in a modern CRPG story (for the life of me, I can’t actually remember at this moment who/what the big bad enemy in Dragon Age: Inquisition was despite putting 100 hours into a completionist play through when it came out.) The problem was that the subgames involved different skills and different tasks (car chase! Decryption! Breaking and entering! Wiretapping! Review background file for more information!) over an extended period of time (ten minutes is an eternity in video games if I only have an hour to play for a given session.) Worse, it didn’t have any of the little reminders that modern RPGs have.
(Regarding XCOM, I did not play the original, but did play the relatively recent remake, and found that the strategy aspect complemented the main game and, more importantly, didn’t take up that much time vs. the combat.)
I think a much better point of comparison is ALPHA PROTOCOL…which was a remarkably similar espionage RPG that had minigames. But it differed from COVERT ACTION by having those minigames appear while the player was in the functional equivalent of the breaking and entering mission, as opposed to while at the mission hub. (It was an underappreciated game with a good story that actually could change significantly depending on player choices….and failed for reasons completely different than COVERT ACTION.)
Horkthane
Reading this article made me realize how hard I come down on the ludologist’s side. I have always, almost without exception, played games for their mechanics. Often mechanics of a sophistication or time sensitive nature that render them impossible to play tabletop. From Tetris, to Mario, to Doom… to Doom.
I suppose my perspective is, with few exceptions, that I want computers to stick to doing what computers do.
I think I was listening to an interview with Frank Miller, and he was discussing how comics always had envy for more “respectable” mediums, and were constantly trying to ape them to show they were grown up too!
In a lot of ways games remind me of the same. I’ve almost without except ended up disliking games that try to be cinematic. Give me Tetris over a recent Telltale game any day. I’ll get through a game that’s pretending to be a movie (I’m looking at you Kojima), but it’s got to play well. I’m not sitting through Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Likewise, I’ll play through a game that has some literary ambitions (Planescape: Torment), but nothing bores me faster than the RPG that’s going for quantity over quality, showing how many words they’ve written, just like their favorite 10 book, 1300 page each fantasy epic.
But I could also just be getting old, and looking at my older games, and their constrained media space confining possible weak narrative excesses, with rose colored glasses. Your instructor in the tutorial for Mechwarrior 2 has the only spoken lines in the game, and set the tone for it masterfully.
Still, I think the best stories in games, are the stories you make youself by doing, in a world with a gamespace open enough that you might stumble upon something truly unique and worth telling. Instead of getting to the same scripted part, and conferring with your friend if they’ve gotten there yet… and that being about all the conversation you can have.
Sometimes I remember a games narrative as being specially impactful. Like the ending of Okami, or Ico. But most game stories as written fade from my memory after a few years. I’m not sure I remember the story from a single JRPG I played in my teenage years.
But the stories I remember of doing things in games really stick around. Like the game of Quake 3 at a LAN party where I was on an insane hot streak with my best friend, and we rail gunned absolutely every person who came near our flag. Or when I was playing Mechwarrior 2, took out the mission objective, and then spent the next 10 minutes beat to hell, nervously dodging PPC shots, zig zagging to the extraction point. One single shot would have put me down, but I just got into this perfect rhythm of dodging the shots as soon as the enemy’s weapon recharged.
And lets not forget the time I logged onto a community Minecraft server, sailed out into the middle of a lake, dug straight down, blocked myself in, and then spent the next weak in hiding, digging out a giant phallus. Then overnight I took the ceiling off my hiding place and thrust it into the sky. Good times.
I admit I chuckled out loud when I read about your extremely juvenile Minecraft exploit :-)
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Taapsee Pannu To Do A Sports Biopic Soon?
by Filmfare | July 3, 2019, 5:39 PM IST
After playing a hockey player in Soorma and a sharpshooter in the yet to be released film Saand Ki Aankh, Taapsee Pannu we hear is all set to play a cricketer on the big screen. The acclaimed actress has agreed to be a part of India’s most popular female cricketer Mithali Raj’s biopic. Mithali is the only woman cricketer to cross 6,000 runs in the ODIs. Last week, she completed twenty years in International Cricket. An official announcement will be made once Taapsee signs the agreement. As per a report in a daily, “The formalities will be done once the studio has a director. They have also locked the story but the script is still being developed.” Recently, when Taapsee was asked about the Mithali Raj biopic, she said, “The script is not in place so it’s too early to talk about it. Right now, they are collecting material and the script has not been written yet. If they offer me, I will be very happy. I really want to do a sports biopic.”
Known for doing intense roles, Taapsee Pannu had two releases in the first half of the year, Badla and Game Over. She has bowled over critics and the audience alike with her powerful performances in these films. Then, she will be seen in Mission Mangal where she will be sharing screen space with Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, and in Saand Ki Aankh where Bhumi Pednekar is her co-star.
More on: Taapsee Pannu
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Steven Soderbergh's Che Sells to IFC; The Hurt Locker to Summit
Two more major sales today from Toronto: Steven Soderbergh's Che sold to IFC and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker sold to Summit Entertainment. Both of these sales have been causing eyebrows to be raised and are interesting choices, especially Che. As everyone should know by now, Che is a two part epic about Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, that has been in constant debates over whether releasing both parts separately or together would be better. The Hurt Locker is an Iraq war film that has been receiving surprisingly very positive reviews up here in Toronto. This means we'll be seeing both of these films hit theaters sometime in the near future, but not necessarily in the full capacity that we initially expected.
I'm going to focus on Che, because I haven't seen The Hurt Locker yet and have so much more to say about it. Out of all the indie distributors, IFC is the last one that I thought would end up with Che. They're not a bad company, but they're not good either. None of their films ever hit big because they just don't have enough money to market to mainstream audiences. And with the Benicio Del Toro's early Oscar buzz, I would've expect someone with more money to pick up Che, especially because I think it deserves to have a solid release rather than just a throwaway small-time theatrical release. Early rumors pointed towards Mark Cuban's Magnolia picking up the two films, but apparently IFC ended up nabbing the rights.
Che is the most expensive film "by far" ever released by IFC in a simultaneous day-and-date theatrical and on-demand model. "After a one-week awards qualifying run in Los Angeles and New York in December, IFC will reopen the film in January through IFC on VOD and in theaters." Early reports from IFC execs suggest that the film will be released in two separate parts in its initial theatrical debut in December, but "that Soderbergh wanted back-to-back screenings in its initial limited run." I'll update this when I've seen Che and have an opinion on whether it'd be better separate or together, but for now, I think it'll make the most money being split. Do you plan on seeing either Che or The Hurt Locker in theaters?
Find more posts: Movie News
I want to see Che, i have been looking forward to this movie since the casting of Benico Del Toro as Che. Hopefully out here for its Los Angeles run they show it back to back. At least it did not turn out to be like Medellin.
Eric on Sep 10, 2008
I have been wanting to see Che ever since I saw the raw footage at NAB2008 this year. I am also a huge Steven Soderbergh fan, and I think Benecio Del Toro is an amazing actor. Should be quite an experience. I just hope they put it into theaters out here in Denver. 🙂
Emrys on Sep 11, 2008
I have no interest in seeing Che, but I will definitely be seeing The Hurt Locker. I am a big fan of Kathryn Bigelow and Jeremy Renner, so the combination of the two makes me more than happy to support the film. Summer of 2009 can't get here fast enough!
Elia on Sep 12, 2008
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Patio Bar
Our Sister Venue
1964 to 1985 – The Tradition Begins
Fishermen’s Inn is nearly 50 years old and is rich with history. Known for being a dining, banquet and wedding destination for not only the south and west suburbs but also the entire Chicago region, Fishermen’s Inn became a tradition for many when celebrating life’s special events. Orville Mercer and his family started Fishermen’s Inn at 43W901 Main Street Road, Elburn, Illinois in 1964, in a renovated barn built in 1898. The Mercers lived in a house across the street.
In 1972, the Mercers sold Fishermen’s Inn to Ralph and Anne Schleifer, a local family from Kaneville, IL. The Schleifers later built a home in the woods behind Fisherman’s Inn. The couple broke ground in June 1985 for a new banquet facility seating 200 to complement Fishermen’s Inn’s barn restaurant.
1985 – 2009 The Transition Years
A fire caused $1.4 million in damage to Fishermen’s Inn in October 1985. The blaze took firefighters nearly 24hours to extinguish, burned the barn beyond repair and caused extensive smoke and water damage to the new banquet facility. As a result, the restaurant closed. In fall of 1986, Fishermen’s Inn reopened, after a new barn was built and damage to the banquet facility was repaired during the summer. Following Ralph Schleifer’s death in 2005, Fishermen’s Inn was turned over to a trust at Old Second Bank, which named a restaurant employee as president of the business. Fishermen’s Inn closed December 21, 2009.
2012 – The New Fishermen’s Inn
In 2012 Fishermen’s Inn was purchased and has undergone a complete renovation. The new owners have taken a unique approach to renovating the inside and outside of the property to not only bring back its former charm, but to modernize the experience for every guest. Their vision for Fishermen’s Inn is making it “the” place for gatherings by offering a setting and services that will provide lifetime memories – as it did in the past.
Commitment to Conservation
The new owners of Fishermen’s Inn feel it is important to stress that their vision in restoring the Inn was twofold; to bring back the wonderful glory to a historic gathering destination and to provide great food, unparalleled service and memories for generations to come. Their other passion for this property is our commitment to land and wildlife conservation. With the natural spring fed lakes and the surrounding trees, Fishermen’s Inn is a unique setting allowing us to offer guests the natural beauty of the land and water by working to preserve the pristine nature through best-use land management and conservation efforts. We look forward to sharing the contribution this property offers to conservation.
Fishermen's Inn
43W901 Main Street Rd, Elburn, IL 60119
info@fishermensinnelburn.com
Fishermen's Inn © 2017
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Myklebustskipet
© Ruben Soltvedt
Sagastad, Nordfjordeid
© Sagastad
© Arkikon Steinart
You are here Top Attractions Vikings Sagastad - the Myklebust ship
The large Norwegian ship burials from the Viking Age are unique to Norway. The Myklebust ship from Nordfjordeid is the largest Viking ship whose remains have been found in Norway. It had an estimated length of 30 metres. Sagastad opens on May 10 2019, and will be a combined knowledge and activity centre located beside the fjord in the centre of Nordfjordeid. A central part of the exhibition in Sagastad is the Myklebust ship, the largest Viking ship whose remains have been found in Norway. A full-scale replica of the ship has been built – 30 metres long and 6.5 metres wide. The ship is seaworthy and able to sail on the fjord, but it will be exhibited for large parts of the year at Sagastad, where it is one of the main attractions.
The Myklebust ship
The burial mound, which is locally known as ‘Rundehåjen’ on the farm Myklebust in Nordfjordeid, was excavated in 1874, and the Myklebust ship was found several years before Gokstad (1880) and Oseberg (1904).
The Myklebust ship differs from the Oseberg and Gokstad ships in that it was burnt at the funeral. The custom of burning the ship at funerals was typical of Western Norway in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Myklebust ship is both the last and the largest ship to have been burnt at a funeral during the Viking Age.
We know the dimensions of the Myklebust ship because of the bed of ashes in the burial mound, the number of treenails (clinch nails) and the number of shield bosses that were found in the burial mound. The burial mound in itself is 30 metres in diameter and four metres high, with a wide trench around it (it was filled in in the 19th century). In autumn 2016, experienced boat builders from Bjørkedalen in Volda started to build the new Myklebust ship modelled on what we think it may have looked like.
There is reason to believe that King Audbjørn of the Fjords was cremated in the Myklebust ship. He is mentioned in Snorri’s saga about Harald Fairhair who fell in the battle of Solskjel in Nordmøre in the year 876. This fits well with the estimated age of the findings in the burial mound.
With the launch of the Myklebust ship, we are again able to sail on the Nordfjord in Norway’s most magnificent Viking ship for the first time since King Audbjørn and his men over 1,150 years ago.
Read more about Sagastad and the Myklebust ship, see the opening times and prices..
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For Detroit Dance City Festival, it's all movement and momentum
With live performances, workshops and film, Detroit Dance City Festival will have thousands grooving in Midtown this weekend.
For Detroit Dance City Festival, it's all movement and momentum With live performances, workshops and film, Detroit Dance City Festival will have thousands grooving in Midtown this weekend. Check out this story on Freep.com: https://on.freep.com/2M7y0KW
David Lyman, Special to the Detroit Free Press Published 6:00 a.m. ET Aug. 8, 2018 | Updated 9:42 a.m. ET Aug. 8, 2018
Detroit dancer Claire Call, a member of DDCDances (formerly Detroit Dance Collective) will perform as part of the 4 p.m. August 11 Choreographers Showcase in the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts. (Photo: John Sobczak, )
Joori Jung knew almost nothing about Detroit when she moved here in 2012. What she did know came from friends back home in Seoul. And it wasn’t good.
But after four years of trying to launch her choreographic career in New York City, she was ready for a change. Despite having some success as a performer, she ran into the stumbling blocks that all choreographers do in New York. Renting even the tiniest rehearsal space was prohibitively expensive – between $1,500 and $2,000 a month. Add to that the cost of hiring the dancers and technicians and all the other personnel necessary to stage a performance and it all felt overwhelming.
So when her then-boyfriend Aiden proposed to her and suggested moving to Detroit, she was open to the idea. Detroit may not be the center of the dance universe. But Aiden, now her husband, was a College for Creative Studies graduate and had a job as a GMC designer and knew the city well.
He was sure that Detroit would be filled with opportunities for her.
“When I visited, it was winter and so cold,” says Jung. “No one was walking on the streets. It was so weird. It was so different from New York or Seoul.”
For most of us, that would have been a deal-breaker. But Jung had a different vision of what she saw. To her, that bleak mid-winter Detroit was all the incentive she needed.
Modern Table, a South Korean dance company founded by choreographer Kim Jae-duk, will perform as part of the Detroit Dance City Festival’s “Dance and Celebration” performance at 4 p.m. August 12 in the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Also on the program are Marcat Dance (Spain), the ConTempus Ensemble and DDCF Kids Dance Camp students. (Photo: Kii Studio Photography, )
“I thought Detroit needed something,” recalls Jung. “And through dance, I thought I could do something for this city and this community.”
It sounds a little cocky. But Jung was as good as her word. Within months, she had opened a dance studio and launched a dance company. ARTLAB J, she called them. The following year, she parlayed all of that into her first Detroit Dance City Festival. She’s still at it. The sixth festival takes place Friday through Sunday.
“I think coming here was a perfect turning point in my life,” says Jung. An understatement, to be sure. What began as a smallish weekend gathering has grown into a sprawling event expected to attract upward of 10,000 people to Midtown Detroit.
The show will go on for Shakespeare in Detroit
Try Michigan-made foods at Leon & Lulu's event
The 2018 festival has all manner of dance activity. There is a wide range of performances, some at a professional level, others a couple of notches lower. There are companies from Spain and South Korea and New York City. There are master classes and after-dark, funk-on-the-streets performances. There is an evening of dance film. And a Kids Dance Camp.
It feels like nothing so much as a three-ring dance circus.
One of Jung’s first professional connections in Detroit was with Vince Paul, president and artistic director of the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. Paul, an avid supporter of dance, was welcoming and generous with his time.
What Jung remembers most, though, was a particularly poignant question he asked near the end of their conversation.
Joori Jung (Photo: Joori Jung, )
“He asked me: ‘Are you going to stay here?’” she says. “No one had asked me that before. I know that I look like a visitor to most people in Detroit. He said he wanted to help, but he wanted to make sure I was serious about the festival and that it wasn’t just a one-time thing.”
If you look at Music Hall’s calendar, it’s clear that Paul knows a thing or two about running a three-ring performing arts circus. Even during the normally slow month of August, Music Hall is hosting everything from the Motor City Tap Fest (Thursday to Saturday) to a sunset “hip-hop Yoga” session on the building’s rooftop venue on Aug. 20.
Paul saw a kindred spirit in Jung.
“Right away, I could see something in her drive,” says Paul. “Even though she came from very far away, her entrepreneurial spirit is the same as so many other people who came to Detroit and found a way to make the city work for them. Her success hasn’t surprised me at all.”
Some dance festivals find success in focusing on a single artistic niche. But Jung and the many volunteers she has working with her chose instead to create an artistic umbrella that accommodates many different aspects of dance.
That’s how dance film came to be an important element of the weekend. So important, in fact, that Screen Dance International has become the centerpiece of the festival’s opening night. (You can see brief trailers for all the films on the program here.)
“Film has become increasingly important to all the arts,” says Joanna McNamara, founder and creative director of Screen Dance International, a traveling screen dance festival. To experience arts creations in their natural habitats, you have to go to a specific venue at a specific time. You know, a museum during its opening hours. Or an opera at curtain time.
But when those art forms are adapted to video or, increasingly, created specifically for it, they are accessible anywhere at any time. They can be viewed in theaters, on televisions at home, on computers and, the most popular site for viewing these days, on mobile phones.
“In dance films you can be in several different environments,” says McNamara. “You can have five costume changes in 10 minutes. Depending on your level of technical expertise, you can do almost anything on film. The imagination and fantasy possible with dance film today is something that can’t be done in the same way on the stage.”
That’s not to bash stage dance. It’s just that dance created for the screen has expanded the art form in ways that many people never expected.
“All of this is dance,” says McNamara. “Watching it on a screen is just one more way to experience dance. What I love about this festival is that you can see dance in so many different ways; at night on a Woodward Avenue stage, in the park next to the DIA, in the Rivera Court or the DFT and, on Friday night, with these films. It’s all dance.”
Detroit Dance City Festival
Friday through Sunday
In and around the Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit.
www.detroitdancecityfestival.com
Dance Cat-alyst, a Brooklyn-based “soul-driven contemporary dance company,” has become a staple at the annual Detroit Dance City Festival. Here, the company is seen performing in the DIA’s Rivera Court as part of the festival’s 2017 Summer Stage presentation. This year, the group will be part of a 4 p.m. August 11 Choreographers Showcase in the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts. (Photo: Pamela MacIntyre, )
Editor's note: In a previous version of this story, a headline incorrectly named Detroit Dance City Festival.
Read or Share this story: https://on.freep.com/2M7y0KW
Fire breaks out at downtown Detroit restaurant
Greta Van Fleet's new producer? He's worked with Adele
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Detroit gets some Emmy respect, but not Kristen Bell
Post Malone headed to LCA, tickets on sale Fri.
NBC's ‘Dateline’ feeds hunger for true-crime stories
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Cover Story : Environmental Impact
Author: Paula L. Green
A rising tide: Companies are coming
under increasing pressure
from shareholders
As concern grows over the enormity of the corporate world’s energy demand, businesses are coming under increasing scrutiny over their readiness to deal with the flip side of that same coin: climate change. A recent move by more than two dozen institutional investors, managing $1 trillion in assets, to persuade US regulators that publicly traded companies should disclose the financial risks of climate change in their public documents is only the latest indication of investors’ escalating concerns, analysts agree.
“It’s only the tip of the iceberg. It’s the part you see,” says Tim Little, executive director of the Rose Foundation, a non-profit group based in Oakland, California. He was referring to the June letter sent by 28 members of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) to Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, DC. “But it’s indicative of the mass movement of investors and environmentalists that is trying to obtain greater disclosure of environmental risks. There’s a mounting groundswell around the world,” Little adds.
Launched three years ago by six US state treasurers, two state and city comptrollers and labor pension fund leaders to promote better understanding of the financial risks and investment opportunities posed by climate change, the investor network now has 50 members with $3 trillion in assets between them.
The June letter was the network’s second attempt to nudge the SEC into action. A similar letter signed by 14 INCR members and sent to former SEC chairman William Donaldson two years ago failed to spark any agency action. But investment experts are optimistic that the escalating global focus on climate change—from new scientific findings to the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to the Chinese government’s public commitment to increase its use of renewable energy sources—will induce federal regulators to take a closer look this time around.
“In the past year, there has been a sea change…a lot of noticeable events that have raised the level of attention on climate risk,” says Emma Stewart, research manager at Business for Social Responsibility in San Francisco. SEC officials must now weigh the greater attention being paid by the international business community to climate risk. Investment bank Goldman Sachs last November, for example, adopted a comprehensive environmental policy that acknowledges the scientific consensus on climate change and asks federal regulators to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Insurer AIG set up an Office of Environment and Climate Change four months ago as it adopted a policy explicitly addressing climate change. That follows General Electric’s decision last year to launch an “Ecomagination” strategy that aims to cut its output of greenhouse gases as it invests heavily in carbon-free technologies. In May of this year GE announced that sales of its energy-efficient and environmentally advanced products and services hit $10.1 billion in 2005, up from $6.2 billion in 2004.
A New Form of Risk
“We want more disclosure on climate risk. The Wall Street community needs the certainty of federal policy to do it,” says Chris Fox, director of investor programs at Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of environmental groups and institutional investors that coordinates the Investor Network on Climate Risk. “Our goal is to have the SEC clarify their guidelines so companies must include climate risk information in their reporting,” he adds. Interestingly, the investor network doesn’t want the SEC to place material reporting for climate risk in an environmental category. “We think climate risk is a new form of risk that is not being given adequate attention,” Fox adds.
Other experts see climate risk as just the latest corporate financial risk stemming from environmental hazards. “Climate risk has a deep financial impact on many industries and is just not an environmental risk; it’s a financial risk,” says Julie Gorte, a vice president at the Calvert Group, a Washington, DC, investment firm that set up the Calvert Social Investment Fund in 1982 as a way to help investors sink their money into socially responsible funds.
The immense financial risk of climate risk is not being lost on shareholders and the investment professionals that manage billion-dollar portfolios. “[Climate risk] has been on the table a long time. But institutional investors and money managers are increasingly saying, ‘Let me take a look at my portfolio and see what investments I have that are at risk from climate change,’” says Joanne Dowdell, vice president of corporate responsibility for Citizens Advisors in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “The industries at risk go up and down the food chain.”
Called To Account
Unlike asbestos liabilities, which began hitting asbestos manufacturers and insurers in a dramatic way in the early 1980s, or the Superfund legislation that affected property owners of polluted property, climate risk has an impact on a much wider range of industries. Oil and natural gas producers, utilities and manufacturing plants that produce carbon dioxide emissions are natural targets that will be affected by the growing number of government directives to reduce emissions. Simply put, the higher a company’s energy use, the greater the potential financial risk it faces.
Climate risk also will jolt the bottom lines of big-box retailers that have large warehouses along the Gulf Coast of the United States or in the path of windstorms in northern Europe. Real estate companies with large property holdings in susceptible areas and the financial institutions that lend to them will also be at risk.
Investors want the SEC to make sure corporations take these environmental risks into account and disclose them, says Meredith Miller, assistant treasurer for policy in the Office of the Connecticut State Treasurer, another signatory to the Ceres letter. “There’s a groundswell of support by investors to urge the SEC to do this. [Investors] want this information in the public domain,” says Miller, who sees the push as a coalescing of environmentalists with corporate governance experts. “It’s part of the issue of greater disclosure and transparency of risk. Investors simply don’t want to face more hidden risks.”
Little, of the Rose Foundation, notes that the investor network’s push to have climate risk woven into SEC regulatory filings is not the first or only initiative to ensure corporations lay out the costs of potential environmental hazards on their accounting ledgers. The Rose Foundation, for example, asked the SEC back in 2002 to clarify the intent of its material disclosure requirement with respect to financially significant environmental liabilities. And two years ago the group issued a report, titled “Fooling Investors and Fooling Themselves,” that identified aggressive accounting and asset management tactics by specific companies that could lead to environmental accounting fraud. It included recommendations for the SEC, the Financial Standards Accounting Board and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
“There’s no magic bullet,” says Little, of the investor and business community’s efforts to ensure regulators officially recognize that environmental sustainability is highly material to corporate profits and shareholder value. “It’s like a tidal wave,” he adds. “Investors are increasingly saying that these kinds of sustainability issues matter.
Paula L. Green
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ends 07 Apr 2019, 11:59 PM
We have all heard how Donggala, Central Sulawesi, was hit by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that ravaged the regency, in September 2018.
More than 2,200 were killed in the combined disasters in the cities of Palu, Donggala. Emergency relief efforts have been critical in the following weeks and early months. Rebuilding efforts are now under way - and we hope that you could be a part of it.
Perdaus is partnering with Lembaga Manajemen Infaq (LMI), an Indonesian-based charity and long-time collaborator of Perdaus, to help raise a portion of the funds to LMI's rebuilding project: a village centred around a mosque, houses, and other facililities in the capital city of Donggala, Palu.
Perdaus also hopes to provide the village with wells/water pumps, electric generators and loud-speaker systems, with the funds collected.
With this rehabilitation effort, LMI is committed to help restore and revive the faith, education and local economy of Palu, together with the people of Palu, in the long term.
Construction, estimated to take Rp 1.9 billion (SGD 182,000), has started in December 2018 and is set to be completed mid-April 2019. Alhamdulillah, LMI has succeeded in raising Rp 1 billion thus far and we are excited to extend our assistance to see to the success of this project.
Perdaus hopes to raise at least $15,000 to assist LMI in reviving the spirit of people of Palu. We appeal to your generosity in making this a worthwhile and noble effort, in sha Allah.
Perdaus has a 50-year history of providing educational and leadership development services to the community. Today, Perdaus is a Muslim non-profit organisation whose core programmes evolve around equipping the community with critical knowledge and skills that will shape the development of a virtuous and progressive society. Our services touch each member of the family, from the very young to those several generations older.
Empower the People of Palu through Rebuilding Efforts
by Perdaus
3% of $15,000 Expired
Noorulhuda Bte Sharun, Contact Person
www.perdaus.org.sg
perdaus.org/
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THE SUBSTATION LTD
Enter donation amount (Minimum $10) $
FUNDRAISE FOR THIS CHARITY
The Substation is Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre.
Founded in 1990 by the late Kuo Pao Kun, The Substation is known for its pioneering and experimental arts programming. Over the years, The Substation has worked with some of Singapore's most critically acclaimed artists, writers and intellectuals including Alvin Tan, Goh Boon Teck, Amanda Heng, Lee Wen and Kok Heng Leun.
Each year, The Substation presents an overarching artistic theme that informs the exhibitions, programmes and initiatives for the year. Each of these programmes explores in greater detail the questions posed by the artistic theme and the societal issues surrounding these questions. Through these annual artistic themes, The Substation expands, leads and supports cultural conversations in Singapore, engaging the general public and exposing them to the full possibilities of contemporary art in shaping public discourse.
Programmes include: Residencies, Workshops, Lectures, Exhibitions, Performances, Educational initiatives, Research, and Archiving Projects
Samantha Segar
www.substation.org
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Even Normal Old You Can Get Twitter's Blue Verification Badge Now
Bad news for anyone who’s recently earned a ‘blue tick’ (actually a white tick in a blue flower-shaped thing). Twitter’s badge of supremacy is to be made available to all users.
From today, you can request verification by filling out this online form. Unfortunately for Egg People and trolls, blue badges will only be awarded to accounts with profile and header photos, a confirmed phone number an email address and a website.
“Verified accounts on Twitter allow people to identify key individuals and organizations on Twitter as authentic, and are denoted by a blue badge icon,” wrote Twitter’s Tina Bhatnagar in a blog post. “An account may be verified if it is determined to be of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by public figures and organizations in music, TV, film, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas.
“Our goal with this update is to help more people find great, high-quality accounts to follow, and for creators and influencers - no matter where they are in the world - to easily connect with a broader audience.”
Hmm, sounds like your account still needs to be considered fairly interesting for the site to verify you, so there’s little chance of my application being successful. I feel a frustrated and confused mix of tweets about football and tech are unlikely to make the cut. Still, it’s worth a go.
And if that fails, I’ll just leak a sex tape, wait for the followers to flood in and reapply in 30 days.
blue ticks
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Movie Review: The Great Gatsby
By Adam Frazier | @ | May 10th, 2013 at 11:45 am
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton
Rated PG-13 | 143 Minutes
Directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby follows aspiring stockbroker and would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the Spring of 1922 to chase the American Dream.
Carraway ends up on Long Island, next door to a mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), and her philandering, old-money husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton).
Drawn into the mesmerizing world of the super-rich, Carraway finds himself engulfed by the passions and pleasures of the Jazz Age and the fantasies, romances, and deceits of those around him.
Based upon F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s 1925 novel, Luhrmann’s film adaptation is co-written by Craig Pearce, who penned the scripts for Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge! Influenced by Italian Grand Opera and Bollywood films, Luhrmann’s body of work is defined by lush, vibrant images bursting at the seams with life and bombastic soundtracks, often comprised of contemporary music.
Topics: Movie Reviews, Movies, Reviews
Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joel Edgerton, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby, Tobey Maguire
Watch This Red Band Trailer For The Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
By Adam Frazier | @ | May 8th, 2013 at 5:57 pm
Inside Llewyn Davis, the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen, screens in competition at the Cannes Film Festival next week, but you can check it out the trailer for it right now! The film stars Oscar Isaac (Drive) as a singer-songwriter playing gigs in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene.
Check out the brand new red band trailer set to Bob Dylan’s “Farewell” here below.
Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, and F. Murray Abraham also star in Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers’ follow-up to 2010’s True Grit.
Tags: Carey Mulligan, Coen Brothers, F. Murray Abraham, Garrett Hedlund, Inside Llewyn Davis, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake
The Great Gatsby: Nintendo Entertainment System Edition!
By Adam Frazier | @ | April 5th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
What’s that? You want to play an 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System version of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s immortal classic, The Great Gatsby? No problem, I can make that happen!
If you simply can’t wait for Baz Luhrmann‘s upcoming film adaptation (which opens May 10th), you can whet your whistle for Roaring Twenties mischef with this bad-ass retro game adaptation.
Play as Gatsby’s neighbor Nick Carraway and battle your way past butlers, flappers, and gangsters at one of Gatsby’s bacchanalian parties. In classic NES platformer fashion, collect coins and throw your hat (which acts as a boomerang) to clear a path through Gatsby’s grounds. But beware, if you die, you’re told, “Game Over, Old Sport!”
Topics: Games, Movies
Tags: 8-Bit, Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, Leonardo DiCaprio, NES, Nintendo, The Great Gatsby, Tobey Maguire
‘The Great Gatsby’ Trailer: No Amount Of Fire Could Challenge This Fairy Tale Dream
By eelyajekiM | @ | April 4th, 2013 at 7:00 pm
The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest American stories to ever be told. We all can learn a thing or two from Gatsby trying to achieve the American dream, and film director Baz Luhrmann plans to put all of that front in center, with all the colors, sounds, lights, and extravagant fashions of the 1920s in his adaptation of the acclaimed novel.
The film was originally scheduled for a release late last year but was pushed back for a summer release, and by now you may know that WB is in desperate need of a hit. Check out the newest trailer for The Great Gatsby below.
Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Joel Edgerton, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby, Tobey Maguire
Second Trailer For ‘The Great Gatsby’ Arrives Online
By The Movie God | @ | December 21st, 2012 at 12:00 pm
For those excited to see director Baz Luhrmann‘s take on literary classic The Great Gatsby, a second trailer has been released for your viewing pleasure.
If you’ve not yet seen the first trailer, you can find that right here as well.
To check out the brand new second trailer for The Great Gatsby, be sure to click on over to the other side now.
Topics: Books, Movies, News, Trailers
Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby, Tobey Maguire
Netflix Review: Drive
By cGt2099 | September 8th, 2012 at 8:55 pm
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, Kaden Leos
Originally Released: May 20, 2011
Let me just begin this article by pointing out the final paragraph of this post is the most important of the review.
Featuring Ryan Gosling amidst an impressive cast, the Nicholas Winding Refn-directed Drive is one of those rare films that become immediate classics. While touting some action and crime thriller material, the film is essentially a character study, with extraordinary technical work and some significant symbolism – all of which when combined demand your attention throughout the entire movie.
Drive focuses around an unnamed protagonist known only as The Driver, who leads a life of dichotomy involving cars – working as a mechanic and stunt driver by day, but by night works as a getaway driver for criminals in Los Angeles working heists. Moving to a new apartment, he lives next door to neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). The three develop a new friendship that seems to put The Driver onto a new passageway in life.
Topics: Features, Movies, Reviews, Streaming
Tags: Bryan Cranston, Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks, Drive, Kaden Leos, Netflix, Nicolas Winding Refn, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman, Ryan Gosling
New Photos From ‘The Great Gatsby’ Hits
By Cinemumra | December 14th, 2011 at 11:00 pm
Over the past few months, one of the most oddly intriguing films working its way to the big screen has been Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby.
Featuring a top notch cast, the film has been a previously unseen commodity. However, thanks to Sassisam (via The Film Stage), that’s now changed.
We’ve finally gotten some official photos from the film, and you can see them below.
Topics: Movies, News, Photos
Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby, Tobey Maguire
Set Pictures Of Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire In ‘The Great Gatsby’
By The Movie God | @ | November 19th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
A nice little collection of behind the scenes set photos from Baz Luhrmann‘s upcoming new take on F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, have found their way online.
The images show stars Leonardo DiCaprio, the lovely Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire on set and in full costume and looking prim and proper and perfectly adapted to the period. DiCaprio plays Jay Gatsby in the movie, while Mulligan plays Daisy Buchanan and Maguire plays Nick Carraway.
You can check out the set images from The Great Gatsby by heading below now.
Carey Mulligan Joins The Next Projects From The Coen Brothers and Spike Jonze
By Cinemumra | October 21st, 2011 at 7:06 pm
With her star distinctly on the rise, if it hasn’t already gone through the roof, actress Carey Mulligan has now become one of the biggest names in the acting game.
Variety is reporting that both The Coen Brothers and Spike Jonze have tapped the actress to star as the female lead in their respective next pictures. For the pair of brothers, she’ll star opposite Oscar Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis, and opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Jonze’s next project.
Tags: Carey Mulligan, Charlie Kaufman, Ethan Coen, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel Coen, Oscar Isaac, Spike Jonze, The Coen Brothers
It’s DiCaprio Vs. DiCaprio On Christmas Day 2012 As ‘Great Gatsby’ Gets A Release Date
By Cinemumra | October 15th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Christmas 2012 just got a whole lot more interesting.
With Leonardo DiCaprio set to see the release of his Quentin Tarantino-directed slave picture, Django Unchained on Christmas Day next year, Box Office Mojo has revealed that another DiCaprio film has set the day as its debut date. The outlet reports that the actor’s turn as Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s long gestating take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story, The Great Gatsby will premiere on that date as well. Talk about a hunky way to spend Christmas.
Tags: Baz Luhrmann, Carey Mulligan, Christmas, Django Unchained, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Isla Fisher, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Great Gatsby, Tobey Maguire
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ASDA in equal pay PR disaster
It has recently come to light that ASDA is facing legal action from a large number of its workers, who are claiming that workers in ASDA’s distribution centres are being paid more than they are for checkout and other supermarket work. They argue that the work they are doing in the supermarkets themselves is of equal value to the work done at the distribution centres, and so they should be paid the same amount.
Leigh Day, the law firm representing the workers, has reported that it has received over 19,000 enquiries so far, mostly from female employees. Given that ASDA has roughly 175,000 employees, this could just be the tip of the iceberg, and if Leigh Day is successful in arguing that workers should be able to claim up to 6 years of lost pay (which ASDA dispute), ASDA could be ordered to make a massive pay-out. They would also have to provide a pay rise to affected staff to ensure that there is no repeat in the future.
To date, over 1,000 tribunal claims have been lodged against ASDA, but this number is expected to rise as the legal action gains more and more publicity, and more and more of ASDA’s workers realise that they might be in a position to bring a claim.
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Grace's Promise
Grace’s Promise Board of Officers and Directors
Michael Navin
Grace Anne Herrick
Founder, Vice President of Operations
Mandy Tolson
Vice President of Programming
Catherine Marie Herrick
Vice President of Sustainability
Majid Sadigh, MD
Michele Breen
Mitra Sadigh
G. Robert Wisner
Estherloy Katali
Director & Access LIAISON Coordinator
Meet our Partner's from ACCESS
ACCESS Uganda is a community-based organization in Nakaseke district, Uganda, which is dedicated to working with vulnerable groups in resource-limited settings through medical care, education and economic empowerment. ACCESS cares for and supports people living with HIV-AIDS (PLWAs) together with orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC).
The ACCESS Preschool program, supported by Graces Promise Inc., is part of the education initiative aimed at empowering the community from the grassroots. We believe that learning starts before birth and therefore, every opportunity should be created for children from rural areas to learn and play.
Dr. Robert Kalyesubula
He graduated from Makerere University College of Health Sciences with a degree in medicine. He completed his master of Medicine from the same University and later undertook a nephrology fellowship and special training in investigational medicine both from Yale University (USA). He also underwent and has training in program management from Manchester University (UK) and McMaster University (Canada).
Dr. Kalyesubula currently works as a consultant nephrologist in Mulago Hospital and a Lecturer in the departments of Medicine and Physiology, Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He is the deputy director of the postgraduate program in dept. of Medicine (MUCHs) and serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor for McMaster University, Canada. He has over 36 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of non-communicable disease as well as education and community-based care models.
He has worked with WHO and NIH on issues of hypertension, HIV and the kidney in Sub-Saharan Africa and is a member of the European Society of Hypertension Working Group on Hypertension and Cardiovascular Risk in Low Resource Settings. He is a principal investigator with the Medical Research Council on a GSK funded grant to characterize kidney disease in Africa. He is also the local PI for the NCD studies at ACCESS and has been involved in family planning research with a major interest in understanding how community health workers can contribute to improved health in rural areas.
She is a business and Information Technology Manager, a finance and administrative advisor at African Community Center for Social Sustainability and a lecturer with Makerere University Business School. Ms. Katali Estherloy has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Computing (Makerere University) and a Masters of Science in Information Technology from (ICT University in USA), a Postgraduate Diploma in ICT Policy and Regulations from Makerere University Business School, a Postgraduate Diploma in Business education from Makerere University Business School, and a diploma in system Networks (CCNA) from Makerere University College of Science and Information management.
Grace’s Promise, Inc.
Email: Gracespromise@gmail.com Phone (203) 917-8156
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Home › Young People are Disengaged with the Local Community
Young People are Disengaged with the Local Community
It used to be the case that the idea of community was ingrained in an individual through a lifetime spent in one place. Today, however, local populations are much more mobile. But does the more transient nature of modern communities mean that young people are disengaged with them? We don’t think so. That’s why we created the Pollinator Garden project to dispel this myth and others.
The community engagement project, created in conjunction with the environmental charity Groundwork UK, was carried out in West Gorton, Manchester. Through the building of a green space in this urban area we hoped foster a sense of community, and tackle some urban myths following the launch of our premium carpet range of the same name: Urban Myth.
Within our work in West Gorton we found that not only were young people actively engaged in the community, but they were helping to shape it for the future too. Perhaps most important, though, was the fact that they were enthused about their involvement. Community volunteer and primary school student, Reegan Booth, said: “I really wanted to come here, because I love plants. Maybe, when I can, I’ll come and water them when it’s sunny and hot.” Another junior volunteer, Maisie Booth, was equally excited by the project, adding: “You don’t get a lot of activities like this round here, and I’d like it if we did more.”
Anthony Roberts, Gradus Group Marketing Communications Manager, sees the potential that youngsters can bring to urban projects: “Our work in West Gorton has shown that, given the time and responsibility, young people positively shape communities.”
The part that young people play in communities has been demonised for too long. As we’ve seen with this initiative, younger people can have a truly beneficial effect on the areas they live in. It’s another urban myth that our project with Groundwork UK has helped to dispel.
Click here to view the video
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Industry Perspective
For Smart Buildings to Grow, IT and Building Automation Players Need to Work Together
Jim McHale looks at the split within the building internet-of-things sector.
Jim McHale June 09, 2015
The evolution of smart buildings has been painfully slow over the last 25 years. But we are now on the threshold of realizing a fully automatic system that could control all the building services without the intervention of humans. This we call the building internet of things (BIOT).
The BIOT industry is currently being driven by players in IT and the communications industry. The building automation systems (BAS) business is becoming more important; however, it will need to take on a more prominent role if the future of building control is to be realized, according to a new research report from Memoori.
The global market for BAS services at installed prices was shared between nine sectors from 2010 to 2014. These include access control, building environmental control systems, energy enterprise software, BAS integration services, intruder alarms, lighting controls, video surveillance, fire detection, and other safety features such as monitoring and metering.
The average compound growth from 2010 to 2014 was approximately 8 percent. Video surveillance took a 25 percent share of the BAS market, and of this, some 40 percent of all new projects are IP network-connected. It has more connections to other BAS services than any other category.
Through BIOT, all aspects of a building's technical performance could be brought together through one common IP platform -- linking sensors and devices and optimizing control automatically through the use of analytical software.
BIOT systems will become less expensive to install and operate. They will allow the system to expand by simply adding new sensors and devices onto the network. But we are not quite there yet, and building owners will have to wait to get their hands on many of these new toys.
The reason why is that we need to connect together some nine categories of building automation systems equipment -- from building energy controls to video surveillance equipment -- which today all operate on different communication protocols. Moving to one protocol for all systems will take a long time, even though many have already moved to using IP networking products.
Memoori forecasts that the market for BIOT, including all the BAS services at installed prices, was worth approximately $46 billion in 2014 and is forecast to grow to $155 billion in 2020. Growth is likely to accelerate further in the next five years as big data and cloud services increases their share of the BIOT business.
The value of the BAS hardware associated with BIOT projects in 2014 accounted for approximately 55 percent, while enablement hardware look a 13 percent share, network communication services took 17 percent and IOT data services secured 15 percent.
These numbers include IP connectivity across single and multiple BAS services. But we have yet to identify any complex building that uses one single platform to connect all BAS services, particularly controlling distributed power and demand response.
We have identified LED lighting control systems in new medium-sized office buildings that have achieved full connectivity across lighting control, energy control and access control.
At the moment, most of the investment in BIOT’s development is being made by the IT contingent. If this continues, they will become the dominant force in this business.
However, while the IT players hold all the new technology to deliver automated buildings, they often aren't as well versed when it comes to the design, installation, operation and servicing of buildings compared to BAS companies.
Over the last five years, the major companies in each camp have been working together and formed strategic alliances to develop products and services. Acquisition activity has also increased, helping to link the two sectors. We have tracked 45 acquisitions ranging from $3.7 million to $3 billion, and 171 investment deals relating to BIOT over the last four years.
The BIOT market is still split. But there are signs that the IT and BAS sectors are coming together. And as that happens, fully automated buildings will get closer to reality.
Europe’s Offshore Wind Market Continues Hammering Down Costs
07.09.19 Sponsored Media
The Challenge of Greening America’s Cannabis Industry
07.05.19 Grid Edge
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HomeNewsThe world's first smart train, which will run on the road, not on the track
The world's first smart train, which will run on the road, not on the track
In a few years, India is going to come up with a hyper lip train, which will make it even faster than air travel. In the case of speed, it will be much more than the rest of the trains. But the neighboring country of China is ahead of it. Let's say, China's bullet train is quite a famous. Now China has created a train that will run without rail. Yes, you do not believe, you do not believe. But something new has always made the train running on the virtual track. China is very excited about this train.
This train is without pollution
Tell us, China is quite disturbed by the pollution, so the metro is absolutely accurate for them. In the year 2013, China Railway Corporation started designing this kind of train. This smart train is first being run in ZhuZhou province with a population of approximately 40 million. However, later this railway service can be started in many other cities too.
Special things related to train
* This train can travel 300 passengers at a time.
* The train will run at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour.
* This train has been made like bus and tram. It can take more passengers than the bus.
* Three coaches have been given in the train; passengers can travel from one coach to another in the smart train.
* Cost of one kilometer is 17 to 23 million euros.
India News News
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Despite Global Criticism, Israel Approves Contentious 'NGO Law'
Critics say law, which mandates special requirements for NGOs that get most of their funding from foreign governments, disproportionately targets human rights organizations.
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Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked addressing the Knesset plenum ahead of the vote on the NGO bill, July 12, 2016.Lior Mizrahi
Israeli NGO law would apply almost solely to human rights organizations
List of non-profits that would be affected by proposed NGO bill revealed
Lieberman blocks Israeli pro-peace group from visiting Ramallah
Israel's Knesset voted in favor of the so-called "NGO bill" late Monday, after holding a marathon debate over whether to grant final approval to the contentious bill, despite massive criticism both at home and abroad.
The law, which passed its second and third readings 57-48, mandates special reporting requirements for nongovernmental organizations that get most of their funding from foreign governments, and, according to critics, disproportionately targets human rights organizations.
According to the Justice Ministry, there are only 27 organizations in Israel that get more than half their funding from foreign governments. Of these, 25 are human rights organizations identified with the left.
The law, sponsored by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked with full backing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, requires NGOs that receive more than half their funding from foreign governments to state as such in their reports to the registrar of nonprofit associations and in all their official publications. Such publications must also state that a list of the NGO’s donor countries appears on the registrar’s website. NGOs that violate these rules will be fined 29,200 shekels ($7,500).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the bill's passing into law, saying that it would "prevent an absurd situation in which foreign countries meddle in the internal affairs of Israel by funding NGOs and without the Israeli public's knowledge.
"Contrary to claims on the left, the bill's approval will increase transparency, will encourage the creation of a debate which truly reflects public opinion in Israel and will strengthen democracy."
The final version of the bill is considerably milder than the original, due to changes introduced by the Knesset Constitution Committee. For instance, the committee decided that the law won’t apply retroactively to donations made this year, but only to donations made as of January 1, 2017.
Moreover, the first report to the registrar of nonprofits will have to be made only eighteen months thereafter. The registrar will then have to publish a list of these organizations and the source of their donations on its website.
The committee killed a provision that would have required representatives of the NGOs in question to wear special name tags while attending meetings in the Knesset or government ministries. It also killed a provision requiring them to state their donor countries at the start of such meetings, but they will still have to provide this information when they register to attend the meetings. They will also have to respond if an MK questions them about their foreign donors.
The entirety of Monday’s plenary session was devoted to the bill. The debate began in the late afternoon and lasted over six hours, with the final vote taking place late Monday night. One after the other, opposition members accused the government of persecuting human rights groups and of trying to silence legitimate criticism of its conduct. MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) warned of the international repercussions Israel will suffer as a result of the bill, which she said "shows us to be worse than any NGO that is forced to say that it's funded by foreign governments."
Shaked, the last to address the plenum after the lengthy discussion, read out the funds transferred by foreign countries to several leftist NGOs. "Imagine if Israel had funded British organizations and encouraged them to back the exit from the EU," Shaked said. "Britain has national honor. It would not have allowed Israel to meddle in its internal affairs."
“Human rights organizations are completely transparent,” argued MK Dov Khenin (Joint List), one of the bill’s most vocal opponents. “All their contributions are reported, and therefore, there’s no real reason for the government’s NGO bill except to divert the discussion and incite the public.”
“Where is transparency really needed? In extreme right-wing organizations,” he added, noting that these organizations receive millions of shekels from private overseas donors, “but there, the government has chosen to impose secrecy and obscure the money trail.”
Many European parliamentarians have voiced grave concern about the bill and warned that it could undermine cooperation between Israel and Europe.
Haaretz Correspondent
NGO Bill
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Michael Solomon to Join Rockefeller Capital Management as General Counsel of the Broker-Dealer
Rockefeller Capital Management today announced that Michael Solomon will join as General Counsel of Rockefeller Financial LLC, the Firms broker-dealer.
As General Counsel of the broker-dealer, Solomon will lead the legal and compliance efforts across the Private Wealth Management and Strategic Advisory businesses. In this role, he will provide legal advice, address regulatory examinations and inquiries, and enhance the Firms compliance and surveillance systems.
We are building a world-class broker-dealer, and that requires a world-class legal and compliance team, said Gregory J. Fleming, President & CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management. Michael is a proven leader who brings a wealth of experience as a senior regulator and gifted lawyer, and is committed to the highest legal and ethical standards.
Prior to joining Rockefeller in March, Solomon will have spent more than seven years at FINRA, most recently as the senior regional director of FINRAs New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Woodbridge-NJ District Offices, responsible for the Examination and Surveillance Programs in the Northeast and overseeing a staff of 350 people. Prior to joining FINRA in 2011, he served as General Counsel for Litigation, Regulatory and Employment law at Jefferies & Co., and before that held senior positions with UBS Financial Services and Merrill Lynch.
At Rockefeller, Solomon will report to Jon Eisenberg, the General Counsel of Rockefeller Capital Management. He has a J.D. from New York University School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.
About Rockefeller Capital Management
Rockefeller Capital Management is a leading independent, privately-owned financial services firm offering global family office, asset management, and strategic advisory services to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, institutions and corporations. The Firm has offices in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, DC, Salt Lake City, and Wilmington, Delaware.
Stephen Cohen | Teneo Strategy | [email protected]
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SA gold miners form lung disease working group - BDlive
SOUTH African gold-mining companies, some of which are being sued for historical incidents of lung disease, formed a working group to pay compensation to affected workers and prevent new cases occurring.
The group, which includes AngloGold Ashanti, Anglo American SA and Sibanye Gold, plans to set up a so-called legacy fund to supplement compensation paid by the state, it said in an op-ed in Johannesburg-based City Press Sunday.
"While there rests a fiduciary obligation on company managements to vigorously defend the legal challenge they face, it is also within their remit to find a solution that could provide a mutually acceptable outcome for all parties concerned," they wrote.
Sufferers of silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling dust from mines, are planning a class-action lawsuit against mining companies, which they say provided unsafe working conditions. Anglo American Plc’s SA unit and AngloGold settled a separate case related to silicosis earlier this month for about R500m.
African Rainbow Minerals, Gold Fields and Harmony Gold Mining are also part of the working group.
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Find support that’s right for you
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We believe in a fair and equal society where people and communities can live the lives they choose
Help & Care has been working across South-Central England for over 30 years, promoting dignity and independence for all people, particularly people living with a long-term health condition, carers and those who are isolated and/or housebound. What makes us different is our person-centred approach. We understand that each individual has different needs, so we work closely with people to understand what really matters for them and to help them lead independent and fulfilling lives, for as long as possible.
Based in Bournemouth, we offer services across South-Central England.
We can speak up on your behalf, offer assistance to manage some day-to-day activities, provide support and advice, and much more. Together we will make your voice heard and find solutions that will help you be happier.
Find out more about our services, our values, and our life-changing stories.
OUR YEAR IN NUMBERS
These figures show how we have supported people and communities over the last 365 days
1,099 People received 1 to 1 support & health coaching sessions
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A little less than two weeks ago we organised a cream tea for our volunteers to celebrate their amazing contribution within the community.
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'Dream. Believe. Achieve.' This is the phrase used by one of Help & Care's 6 Marathon Runners who took part in the infamous London Marathon, April 2019.
We are delighted to announce that Help & Care have been awarded the Silver Award by Investors In People.
This service will use care & support planning conversations to enable people to feel confident about living with their long term health conditions or as a carer. This might be through coaching conversations, connecting them with local community based activities or helping them to navigate and access other services, resources and support.
Working in collaboration
Working with local and national organisations enhances our work at all levels, that's why Help & Care works in collaboration with more than 25 organisations from the public, private, and third sector.
Find out more about our collaborations.
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Obituary for Ronald Joseph Hall
Ronald Joseph Hall, age 55, passed away peacefully in his sleep due to natural causes Monday January 7th, 2019. Ron was born on September 20th 1963 in the town of Iowa City, Iowa. He was adopted at the age of three. Ron’s loving parents Herman and Lora Hall eventually settled down in the small town of Rogersville, Missouri where Ron would attend school and make many friends throughout the years. It was during high school where Ron met a woman he couldn't live without, Kelly Rogers. Love struck, a match made in heaven, Ron and Kelly would eventually move to Springfield Missouri, get married, start an extremely successful business, and have two beautiful children Kaylee and Kevin Hall.
Ron was a good man, leaving a lasting impression on everyone he came in contact with. He was outgoing, funny, reliable, fair, and always there in a time of need. He was the kind of man that would give the shirt off his back to a stranger if it would help that person out in any way. Ron was also a very skilled cabinet maker. Owner of Hallmark Woodworks, Ron build custom cabinets for a number of clients. Due to his reputation and skilled work, Ron specialized in high end cabinet work for TV celebrities, Branson Actors, 5-star hotels, Churches, and many businesses. With work spanning from Springfield MO, all the way to Chicago IL, Ron was known as the best custom cabinet builder in the area. In 2000, Ron lost his wife to a long struggle with breast cancer. This crushed him more than any of us will ever be able to fathom, and as a result he shut down his business but his work lives on. Built sturdy, strong, unique, and with a personal touch that only Ron had. Much of his work can still be seen in many places to date.
After retiring his business, Ron still kept his creative talent and desire to put smiles on people’s faces so as a result he began drawing/building personalized art work for many people he came into contact with. His art work then began to get attention in ways he didn’t think was possible, he actually started having people he never met requesting that he design artwork for them in exchange for a more than reasonable amount of money. Excited, he never turned down an opportunity to get to know someone and design a personalized, one of a kind, piece of artwork that reflected their personality. His favorite part of making art for people was a combination of two things. First and foremost, was the smiles on people’s faces, this was his drive in life, making people smile. The second part was telling his friends and family that he couldn’t take their money. All he ever wanted in life was to make others happy.
He leaves behind both parents, Herman and Lora Hall; his son and daughter, Kevin and Kaylee Hall; four brothers, Mike Hall, Raymond Felton, Thomas Felton, and Tracy Felton; one sister, Darla Felton; two grandchildren, Eadric Hall and Kynlee Clift; a number of nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, cousins, and many many friends.
We will all miss Ron very much but we also ask that everyone can rejoice in the name of our Lord, smile, for Ron is now in a better place. He has been reunited with his match made in heaven, he is pain free, and is now able to bless all of us with his presents in spirit. Watching over us, protecting us, and although we may not realize it in the moment, he will find ways to make us all smile.
Visitation is Saturday, January 12th from 10 am to 11 am at the Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home at 500 E. Walnut St. Springfield, MO 65806.
There will be a graveside service that follows the visitation. The procession will be from the funeral home in Springfield to Holland Cemetery, located 17 miles southeast in Rogersville, MO.
Services will be officiated by Reverend Alvin Blackard.
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Higher Education Leadership and the Importance of Place
By John Marx
John Marx is blogging about his year in the ACE Fellows Program in a series of posts centered on the idea of “place” in American higher education leadership. Marx, professor and chair of the English Department at University of California, Davis, is spending his year working with President Elizabeth Hillman at Mills College in Oakland, California.
If being president of a college or university can be the hardest job in the nation, leaders who move to a radically different place—in terms of sector, geography, or both—confront an added level of difficulty.
I reached out to presidents who have leapt across the lines that divide higher education to learn more about how “place” shapes the challenges of leadership. Their responses identified the difficulty of adapting to local culture while confirming that is the first step to building trust among constituencies on and off campus.
“After seven terms as president at five different institutions, I have observed American higher education from nearly every vantage point,” West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee told me. “The biggest shock I received was moving from one of the nation’s top public land-grant institutions—The Ohio State University—to the rarified Ivy League atmosphere of Brown University. During my opening press conference, I made the seemingly innocuous comment that private universities ought to be in the public service. From the ensuing criticism, you would have thought that I proposed turning Brown into a trade school.”
If there was any initial reluctance, Brown seems to have come around to the notion of being a private institution in the public service. Gee’s comment is memorialized in the last paragraph of the university web page devoted to his tenure, right before the sentence describing his departure.
To be clear, Gee left Brown to become president at Vanderbilt University (TN), then Ohio State for the second time, and now, West Virginia. His wide experience helped earn him the top spot in a recent ranking of college presidents, and he is widely recognized as an authority on the past and future of land-grant universities. Faced with the potential drama involved in moving from one type of institution to another, Gee’s career ably demonstrates that it is possible to land very much on your feet.
Martin Hall, one of the oldest buildings on the West Virginia University campus. Gordon Gee was first named WVU president in 1981 at age 36—at the time, among the youngest persons to ever serve as a university president. After tenures at Brown, Vanderbilt, and Ohio State, Gee returned to lead WVU in 2014.
It is a trick though, according to University of Minnesota, Morris Chancellor Michelle Behr.
“Because colleges and universities are both mostly the same and simultaneously unique products of place, a leader arrives with certain tools and experiences that form her general approach to leadership. At the same time, like an anthropologist it is crucial to develop local cultural expertise,” she said.
Behr knows of what she speaks, having moved to the Upper Midwest from the deep South—Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, to be precise.
The question of how and whether to embrace the role of academic leader as anthropologist is a pressing professional development matter for this year’s ACE Fellows, who are being hosted on campuses potentially very different from their own. It also gets at the heart of the Fellows Program as a whole, which asks institutions to invest in leadership training on behalf of the sector. In a recent assessment of the program, ACE discovered that the “motivating force behind mentoring a Fellow, for many mentors, was the opportunity to contribute to the field.”
In past years, some Fellows have found the experience of being hosted on a very different kind of campus affirming of their situation at home. Others have discovered that success as a higher education leader need not mean staying in your lane.
Consider the experience of Kenya Ayers, the newly named president of Tarrant County College’s Northeast Campus in Hurst, Texas.
Ayers was an ACE Fellow in 2015–16. Her home at the time was Harper College, a community college with around 14,000 students in Palatine, Illinois, in the Chicago suburbs. Her host was the University of Houston, where she worked with Renu Khator, chancellor of the four-university system (with a total of 70,000 students) and president of the flagship R1 campus (which itself enrolls about 42,000 of those students).
That year’s big move from community college to university system in itself does not encompass the range of Ayers’s experience, however.
“My career has taken me to Michigan (my home state) twice, to Florida, to Texas (twice, though I believe this third time will be the charm), to DC, and to Illinois,” she recounts. “Each setting has offered something entirely different in terms of state versus local autonomy, unionized vs. non-unionized environments, educational philosophies, private versus. public settings, four-year versus community college settings.”
Which of these differences matter the most? It depends who you ask. For Ayers, “When I think about moving from small private universities to the larger institutions (two-year or four-year) where I have been most recently, bench strength and politics are the biggest differentiators.”
For Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) President Michael Rao, the distinction of leading an institution with a hospital system stands out. He sees opportunities and “also challenges related to leading a nationally preeminent academic health center at a time when health care—as an industry—is becoming more and more complex.”
“We strive to provide health care to people who have had to rely on emergency rooms as their primary health care provider,” he said. But also, “We benefit from the close integration of our university, especially in terms of human health research” and in collaborations such as those across the School of Medicine and School of Arts.
Being part of a large state system caught the eye of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Chancellor Philip L. Dubois when he moved there from the presidency at the University of Wyoming (UW).
“As I used to say at my civic club appearances around the state [Wyoming], ‘UW is not just the flagship; it’s the whole fleet!’” In contrast, Dubois wrote, “In North Carolina, campus-based needs become part of a UNC system-wide budget request, with 17 institutions with unique missions, histories, cultural settings, enrollments, and regional constituencies competing for the available funding.”
There’s an added twist in Dubois’s case, however. Before going to Wyoming, Dubois was provost at UNC Charlotte. When he came back to Charlotte to become chancellor there, the place had changed: “The Charlotte I returned to was significantly larger than the one I left, both in terms of the university’s enrollment but also the community within which it sits.”
Place is not a static quality. Geographic locations change just as much as institutions of higher education can. And the stakes of understanding the dynamic relationship between institution and place have never been higher.
“As we think about the future of higher education and the rapidly evolving ecosystems within which institutions are operating, doing the groundwork necessary to bring one’s colleagues along is vital to success,” Behr observed. “Understanding place is an important component of the groundwork.”
Distinction is not necessarily something one grasps by comparing places with one another, noted Wake Forest University President Nathan O. Hatch. “There was a sense,” he remembered from his arrival at Wake from the University of Notre Dame, where he had been provost, that “the ways we were special were almost indescribable; that what made us different could not be explained, only experienced.”
As a result, Hatch identified the challenge of crafting a specific and expressive language. “By defining ourselves as a ‘collegiate university,’ for example,” he explained. “I think we have been able to more accurately describe the niche we inhabit and the type of education we provide: one that has the expanse of university but teaches like a college. This framing continues to provide a very useful strategic context for our thinking and planning.”
All the presidents I contacted prioritize such foregrounding of specificity.
For example, it is important to Rao’s understanding of VCU that this is “a public research university located in the heart of the city of Richmond.” Step on the campus and you immediately sense that location entails relationships. VCU’s growth has involved renovating rundown commercial real estate, as the university infuses itself into a confluence of neighborhoods. The opening of new facilities is an event for the city as well as the university. To mark the opening of its new art museum in 2018, VCU threw a celebratory block party.
Because location implies relationship, institutional fortunes hinge on the affordances of place.
“Wyoming’s historic dependence on agriculture and mineral extraction,” Dubois recalled, “leave [that] university far more vulnerable to more frequent economic downturns that UNC Charlotte can usually avoid or manage” in one of the country’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas.
Universities are not only embedded in ecosystems but also contribute to them. They drive resources to their surroundings and, in many places, are the biggest employers around. Becoming aware of place is vital to institutional leadership and it also helps leaders be responsible to the world just off campus.
Reflecting on a “career . . . come full circle” with his return “to the place where I first served as president,” Gee observed, “The biggest challenge we face here is harnessing the university’s power to improve citizens’ lives and overcome West Virginia’s immense economic challenges.” Moving from one institution to another makes those challenges snap into focus, giving a leader better purchase on what place can mean.
Lessons gleaned from the interviews for this column for making the most of place:
Start with listening carefully and looking for opportunities to build relationships.
Identify local economic and cultural challenges to which the college or university can contribute solutions.
Support and promote collaborations on campus that address local needs.
Develop relationships with local leaders to make clear that the college or university’s future is critical to their future.
Establish partnerships with other area institutions of higher education.
Remember that even private institutions should be in the business of public service.
Tags: ACE Fellows Program leadership
John Marx
John Marx is professor and chair of the English Department at the University of California, Davis. His new book Media U: How the Need to Win Audiences Has Shaped Higher Education, coauthored with Mark Garrett Cooper, is available from Columbia University Press. Marx and Cooper blog about higher education at coopermarx.net.
Women’s Colleges Hold the Key to Our Future
Looking Back and Looking Forward: A Review of the ACE Fellows Program
Western Governors University, Ohio Community Colleges Collaborate to Meet Needs of Adult Students
When the “Cure-All” for Creating a Global Campus Isn’t
Bringing “America’s Promise” to Rural Communities in West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia
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Princes William, Harry Commission Princess Diana's Statue To Mark Her 20th Death Anniversary
By Shreesha Ghosh @Shreesha_94
Britain's Princess Diana holds Prince Harry during a morning picture session at Marivent Palace, where the Prince and Princess of Wales are holidaying as guests of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, in Mallorca, Spain Aug. 9, 1988. Photo: REUTERS/Hugh Peralta
Princes William (the Duke of Cambridge) and Harry have commissioned a statue of their mother, the late Princess Diana, at the Kensington Palace to mark her 20th death anniversary.
The public gardens at Kensington Palace, the London home where Diana lived with her sons, will house the memorial. It will be paid for by public donations and not use taxpayer funds.
Princes William and Harry said in a statement: "It has been 20 years since our mother's death and the time is right to recognize her positive impact in the U.K. and around the world with a permanent statue. Our mother touched so many lives. We hope the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on her life and her legacy."
A palace spokesperson said work on the statue would begin soon, and that a sculptor was being decided.
The two princes were just 15 and 13 years old when Diana was killed in a car accident in a Paris underpass Aug. 31, 1997. Almost immediately after her funeral at Westminster Abbey, an event watched by millions around the world, Discussions began about how Diana should be remembered. Despite the years that passed since her death, William and Harry feel there is still no fitting memorial to her.
The princess's oldest sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale has been given the responsibility to appoint a sculptor and raise private funds to pay for the statue. The princes hope the statue will be unveiled before the end of 2017. It is expected to be the centerpiece of the 20th anniversary commemorations of Diana's death.
A royal source reportedly said: "This is very much their way of commemorating their mother. It's not really a reflection on anything that has gone before, it's just that they feel that now they are ready to do this."
Prince Harry Was A Troublemaker As A Boy, Diana Letters Show
Prince William Reveals How He Felt After Princess Diana’s Death
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Woman Leaves Baby In Hot Car To Celebrate Tequila Day
By Susmitha Suresh
A 26-year-old mom from Memphis, Tennessee, was arrested allegedly for leaving her baby inside a hot, unlocked car while she went inside a restaurant to take part in National Tequila Day celebrations on Tuesday, authorities said.
Rachel Vanwagner went inside Cazadores Mexican Grill in Arlington to have a drink while her baby remained in the car which was parked in the restaurant's parking lot, reports said.
Vanwagner was charged with child abuse and neglect. The baby was sent to a relative and the incident was notified to the Department of Child Service, Fox News reported.
The police were called to the restaurant on Highway 70 after the baby was spotted by a couple who were in the parking lot. They heard the baby wailing continuously and then noticed that it was in the back seat of a Ford which was not running, the report said.
The man and his wife, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Fox 40 that they were leaving the restaurant in the evening when they saw the baby.
"When you walk outside you don't expect to hear a baby in a car and when you do immediately as a parent you perk up," the man said. "The child was hot. We could tell that she was sweating but we knew she wasn't in immediate danger yet."
When the Shelby County sheriff’s deputies arrived, they saw the baby inside the vehicle which was unlocked. The windows were partially opened as well.
Officers took the baby from the vehicle and provided medical treatment. Seeing this, Vanwagner then ran out from the restaurant without her shoes on. She told the police the baby was hers and she had been inside the restaurant for about 30 minutes for one drink, the documents obtained by Fox 13, said.
"She seemed almost hysterical," the man who noticed the baby in the parking lot said. "Maybe that she got caught or maybe that her baby was in the arms of a paramedic. I don't know, tough to tell, hard to put yourself in the mind of someone that would leave a baby in a car."
According to the police, Vanwagner was unaware that she left her child inside the car with the engine turned off. Vanwagner refused to give further statements.
The temperature that day was above 90 degrees. This means that the temperature inside the car was much hotter, Dr. Jack Tsao with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center said to NBC 12.
"Children are actually at greater risk for overheating because their ability to regulate their body's temperature is actually less and the skin surface area is different from an adult’s,” Tsao said.
A chart based on a study from San Francisco State University shows that a vehicle left out in the open in 90-degree temperatures for about 30 minutes will be an estimated 124 degrees inside.
"It's very upsetting for me,” Ceselio Torres, co-owner of Cazadores Mexican Grill, said, adding that as a father, it was heartbreaking to hear about the incident. "I have little girls and I always think about them first then me.”
Woman Allegedly Put Dead Baby Inside Freezer
Mom Leaves Child in Rainy Night to Enjoy Drinks
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Lindsborg in McPherson County, Kansas — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)
The Swedish Pavilion
By William Fischer, Jr., June 11, 2016
1. The Swedish Pavilion Marker
The Swedish Pavilion.
The Swedish Pavilion, the largest building to the south, was originally the Swedish exposition building at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Modeled after traditional Swedish manor houses, the Pavilion was prefabricated in Sweden, shipped to America and reassembled in St. Louis. At the close of the World's Fair, it was presented to Bethany College. The building was again dismantled and then moved to Lindsborg where it was located on the campus of Bethany College. It housed classrooms for the domestic sciences and was home to the art department under the direction of Birger Sandzén. In 1969 the Pavilion was moved intact to its present location in Heritage Park at the Old Mill Museum and was restored by the Smoky Valley Historical Association.
During his visit to Lindsborg in 1976, King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden dedicated the Swedish Pavilion to all Swedes and Swedish-Americans. . This historical marker was erected by Dr. Duane and Nancy Frederickson. It is in Lindsborg in McPherson County Kansas
During his visit to Lindsborg in 1976, King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden dedicated the Swedish Pavilion to all Swedes and Swedish-Americans.
Erected by Dr. Duane and Nancy Frederickson.
Location. 38° 34.07′ N, 97° 40.474′ W. Marker is in Lindsborg, Kansas, in McPherson
2. The Swedish Pavilion and Marker
North (rear) elevation of the pavilion
County. Marker is on Lindsborg Street east of Main Street (Kansas Highway 4), on the right when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: Along the Valkommen Trail, Lindsborg KS 67456, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Home and Studio of Anton Pearson (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Sweadal 1869 (about 500 feet away); Steve W. Train (about 500 feet away); Otto Johnson (about 600 feet away); The Teichgraeber-Runbeck House (about 700 feet away); Smoky Valley Roller Mills (about 700 feet away); Runbeck Mill (approx. 0.2 miles away); "Methodist Mare" (approx. ¼ mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Lindsborg.
1. Swedish Pavilion. (Submitted on June 24, 2016, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
2. Swedish Pavilion National Register Nomination. (Submitted on June 24, 2016, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
3. Heritage Square and the Swedish Pavilion. (Submitted on June 24, 2016, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.)
Categories. • Arts, Letters, Music • Education • Man-Made Features •
More. Search the internet for The Swedish Pavilion.
Credits. This page was last revised on June 24, 2016. This page originally submitted on June 24, 2016, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania. This page has been viewed 124 times since then and 9 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on June 24, 2016, by William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
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Lura Bechtel
Joseph Braccio
Peter Godfrey
Lauren Hojnacki
New York State Legislature Passes Broad Overhaul of Workplace Harassment & Discrimination Protections
Labor & Employment Alert
On the heels of last year’s expansive legislative action directed at sexual harassment, the New York State Legislature has passed an even broader overhaul of the protections governing workplace harassment and discrimination. Although this bill has not yet been signed by Governor Cuomo, he is widely expected to do so soon. This bill, once it becomes law, will have serious repercussions for every employer in New York State.
The bill includes the following key provisions:
Lowers the Standard for Proving Discriminatory Harassment
Currently, harassment must be “severe or pervasive” to be actionable. The bill eliminates the “severe or pervasive” standard in favor of a less stringent standard: whether the conduct subjects an individual to “inferior terms, conditions or privileges of employment” based on his or her membership in a protected class.
This change will go into effect 60 days after the bill is signed into law.
Undermines the Internal Complaint Mechanism
Under the Faragher-Ellerth defense, an employer can defeat a harassment claim if (i) it attempted to prevent and correct the harassing conduct through, among other things, an effective internal complaint procedure; and (ii) the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of preventative and corrective opportunities provided by the employer. This bill includes a provision which states that the fact that an employee did not make an internal complaint about the harassment “shall not be determinative” of whether the employer is liable. The bill instead adds a narrow affirmative defense for employers that applies only if they can establish that “the harassing conduct does not rise above the level of what a reasonable victim of discrimination with the same protected characteristic would consider petty slights or trivial inconveniences.”
Punitive Damages and Attorneys’ Fees Are Recoverable
The bill will allow successful complainants to recover uncapped punitive damages from any private employer, but not the State or other public employers. Unlike the New York City Human Rights Law, the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) currently does not allow the recovery of punitive damages. Also, under the bill, an employee who prevails on any employment discrimination claim must be awarded attorneys’ fees. Currently, attorneys’ fees are available only for claims of sex discrimination, and even then they are discretionary. And while a prevailing employer may recover its attorneys’ fees from an employee, an employer must first establish that the employee’s case was “frivolous,” which is a high standard.
New Distribution Requirement for Sexual Harassment Policies and Training Materials
The bill requires that after each mandatory sexual harassment training, an employer must provide each employee with a copy of its sexual harassment policy and the information presented at the training in English and the primary language of the employee, provided that the State publishes translations of these documents in that primary language. So, like the New York Wage Theft Prevention Act’s requirement that written wage notices be provided in English and the primary language of each employee, many employers will have to provide some employees with additional documents in a language other than English. For employers that do not use the State’s model sexual harassment policy and training material, this means that they will need to obtain a translation of these materials for certain employees who identify a primary language other than English.
This change will take effect immediately after the bill is signed into law.
Extension of Protection to all Forms of Discriminatory Harassment
The bill adds a provision which expressly identifies harassment based on any of the characteristics otherwise protected by the NYSHRL as an unlawful discriminatory practice. The bill also makes it illegal to subject any individual to harassment because he or she opposed a practice forbidden under the law, or because they have filed a complaint, or testified or assisted in any proceeding under the law.
Extension of Statute of Limitations
Under current state law, a complainant must file a NYSHRL claim for sexual harassment with the Division of Human Rights within one year of the alleged unlawful discriminatory practice, but has three years to file in court. Under the bill, a sexual harassment complainant will have three years to file directly with the Division.
This change will take effect one year after the bill is signed into law.
New Restrictions on Non-Disclosure Agreements
Last year, a restriction prohibiting the inclusion of non-disclosure clauses in the settlement of sexual harassment claims was implemented. This provision limited the disclosure of the underlying facts and circumstances of the claim, unless the complainant’s preference was to include a confidentiality provision. The bill expands this prohibition to cover all types of discrimination claims. Further, any nondisclosure provision must be provided in writing in “plain” English and the primary language of the complainant.
The bill also explicitly provides that any non-disclosure agreement is void to the extent that it restricts a complainant from initiating, testifying, assisting, complying with a subpoena from, or participating in any manner with an investigation conducted by an appropriate federal, state, or local agency, or filing or disclosing any facts necessary to receive unemployment benefits, Medicaid, or other public benefits.
These changes will take effect 60 days after the bill is signed into law.
Also, for agreements entered into on or after January 1, 2020, they may not contain any provision which prevents the disclosure of factual information related to any future claim of discrimination, unless the provision notifies the employee or applicant that he or she is not prohibited from speaking with law enforcement, the EEOC, the Division of Human Rights, a local human rights commission, or the employee’s or applicant’s attorney.
Prohibition on Mandatory Arbitration of All Discrimination Claims
Last year’s extension of the law prohibiting mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment claims has been extended to cover claims involving any type of discrimination. Federal law, however, could preempt this extension given the Supreme Court’s recent decisions which have been supportive of arbitration agreements. But this issue will likely need to be resolved by the courts, at least one of which has recently indicated that this provision may be preempted by federal law.
Expansion of the Definition of Covered Employers
Currently, the NYSHRL applies only to employers with four or more employees, except with respect to sexual harassment protections and domestic workers. The bill modifies the definition of employer to cover all employers within the State of New York, regardless of size.
This change will go into effect 180 days after the bill is signed into law.
Broader Protections for Non-Employees and Domestic Workers
Unlawful discriminatory practices relating to domestic workers will now include all claims of harassment based on any characteristic otherwise protected under the NYSHRL. The bill also extends the state’s new anti-harassment laws to non-employees, including any contractor, subcontractor, vendor, consultant or other person providing services pursuant to a contract in the workplace, or the employees of any of the foregoing. This provision previously applied only with respect to sexual harassment claims of non-employees, but will now cover all forms of harassment.
Liberal Construction of Law Decoupled from Federal Civil Rights Laws
The bill requires the NYSHRL to be construed liberally and without regard to similarly worded provisions under the federal civil rights laws (e.g., Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, etc.). In addition, the bill adds a new mandate requiring exceptions and exemptions from the NYSHRL to be construed narrowly to maximize deterrence of discriminatory conduct. This new construction will require courts to analyze harassment claims separately under federal, state, and local civil rights laws, and are expected to lead to considerably more employee-friendly interpretations of the law.
These sweeping changes to New York law may lead to a significant uptick in workplace harassment claims and make it significantly more difficult to successfully defend against them once filed. And given the specter of uncapped punitive damages, this bill will likely increase the pressure on many employers to settle claims, even those of borderline or limited merit, rather than risk proceeding to trial. If signed by the Governor, New York employers should prepare to review and significantly revise their existing policies, training materials and procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and possibly their arbitration agreements, as well as their general human resource practices, to ensure they are compliant with these significantly heightened requirements.
If you have any questions regarding this new legislation or its impact on employers, please contact one of our Labor and Employment attorneys.
If you received this alert from a third party or from visiting our website, or would like to be placed on our Labor & Employment mailing list or any other of our mailing lists, please contact us at: https://contact.hodgsonruss.net/signup/BrandedFormNew.aspx.
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Higher operating EBITDA "like-for-like"
Better prices in all segments and in the four large
Group regions
Asia and Latin America continue to grow
Harsh winter dampens construction in Europe
Increasing demand in North America
Program to further strengthen market and cost leadership
Due to good economic conditions in Asia and Latin America and growing demand for construction materials in North America and Africa Middle East consolidated cement deliveries increased. Higher shipments were achieved particularly by the Group companies in India, the US, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia as well as in Russia and Azerbaijan.
However, in contrast to last year’s mild climate, the harsh winter brought many construction sites in Western and Eastern Europe to a temporary standstill in February. Hence, sales volumes decreased in this Group region in all segments and impacted first quarter results.
Holcim achieved better prices in various markets. Overall, the Group achieved an operating EBITDA close to last year, and like-for-like operating EBITDA growth reached 5.5 percent.
Table: Group January-March 2012 (including comparative numbers for 2011)
Consolidated cement sales increased by 6.2 percent to 35.2 million tonnes, and deliveries of aggregates were down by 7.8 percent to 31.6 million tonnes. Volumes of ready-mix concrete decreased by 0.3 percent to 10.4 million cubic meters, and asphalt sales declined by 18.4 percent to 1.4 million tonnes.
With shipments of cement up by more than 1.8 million tonnes, Asia Pacific was well ahead in terms of volume, mainly due to India. In aggregates, Group region Africa Middle East achieved the highest growth rate. In ready-mix concrete, North America recorded the highest volume growth, mainly due to the full incorporation of Lattimore Materials in Texas in March of last year, and the first-time consolidation of Ennstone in Virginia in November 2011.
A positive development is the fact that Holcim was able to mostly pass on cost increases through higher sales prices in all segments and in all Group regions, with the exception of Africa Middle East.
Consolidated net sales increased by 2.2 percent to CHF 4.8 billion. In absolute terms, Asia Pacific ranked first with net sales of CHF 2.2 billion.
Operating EBITDA was almost stable with a decline of 1.1 percent to CHF 745 million. The negative weather effects in Europe could be almost entirely absorbed. It is worthwhile to note that energy and transport costs somewhat stabilized.
With the exception of Europe, all Group regions performed better. The Group grew like-for-like by 5.5 percent.
Net income of CHF 116 million almost reached the previous year’s level, and Group net income attributable to shareholders of Holcim Ltd rose by 1.2 percent to CHF 10 million. Due to the seasonal pattern of the first quarter, cash flow from operating activities amounted to a negative CHF 474 million, an improvement of 11.8 percent compared to the previous year’s reporting period.
The last 12 months have seen net financial debt decrease 4.9 percent to CHF 11.8 billion. The sale of Holcim shares contributed an amount of CHF 296 million.
Holcim expects demand for building materials to rise in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, as well as in Russia and Azerbaijan in 2012. A slight improvement for North America can also be expected. In Europe, demand should remain stable, provided that the situation is not undermined by further systemic shocks. In any case, Holcim will accord cost management the closest attention, and pass on inflation-induced cost increases. Holcim’s approach to new investments will be cautious. Holcim expects that the Group will achieve organic growth at operating EBITDA level.
A program to further strengthen market and cost leadership will be announced next week, after the respective measures are concluded at the Group Management Meeting. The aim is to significantly improve operating profit and therefore to support a higher return on invested capital.
Key figures Group Holcim January-March
This media release is also available in German at www.holcim.com/news.
In order to unsubscribe, please enter your email-address at www.holcim.com/unsubscribe.
Conference call for media:
May 9, 2012, 09:00 a.m. CET (Europe: +41 91 610 7429; UK: +44 203 059 5862)
Conference call for financial analysts:
May 9, 2012, 12:30 p.m. CET (Europe: +41 91 610 5600; UK: +44 203 059 5862;
US toll free: +1 866 291 4166)
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Gardasil HPV vaccine is safe and effective and will prevent girls from developing cervical cancer in the future.
Every year in Ireland: 6,500 women need hospital treatment for a precancerous growth, 300 (many young) women get cervical cancer, and 90 women die from cervical cancer
The best way to prevent cervical cancer is by HPV vaccination and cervical screening.
Every year in Ireland over 6,500 women need hospital treatment for a precancerous growth and over 280 (many young) women need treatment (surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy) for invasive cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer screening detects pre cancer or cancer of the cervix.
Gardasil HPV vaccine prevents these precancerous growths and cancer developing.
Gardasil HPV vaccine provides protection against HPV types that cause 70% of precancerous growths and cancer.
However though the vaccine prevents cervical precancers if given before girls become sexually active cervical screening is still needed to detect pre cancer or cancer of the cervix caused by HPV types not in the vaccine.
WHO fact sheet on Human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs380/en/
Gardasil HPV vaccine prevents cancer developing.
Some HPV infections caused by high risk HPV types can progress to precancerous growths which may then progress to cervical cancer.
Gardasil HPV vaccine has been scientifically proven to prevent the HPV infection that causes 7 out of 10 cervical cancers.
Countries with high vaccine uptake rates have seen the best impact. Precancerous growths of the cervix have been reduced by up to 75% in countries such as Australia, Sweden and Scotland.
In Scotland research has shown there has been a 90% fall in cancer causing HPV infections in vaccinated girls. These new findings indicate that the positive impact of the HPV vaccine may be even greater than was initially thought. The HPV vaccination programme in Scotland has achieved a consistently high uptake of around 90% in 12- to 13-year-old girls.
Scottish Microbiological Society https://www.microbiologysociety.org/news/hpv-immunisation-campaign-causes-massive-reduction-in-prevalence-of-cancer-causing-virus-in-scottish-women.html (April 2017)
In June 2018, similar research in England has shown cancer causing HPV infections fell 86% among women aged 16 to 21 who were eligible for the vaccine during this time period reviewed. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiy249, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy249
Since the HPV vaccination programme began in Australia in 2007, infection with cervical cancer causing HPV types 16 and 18 in young women has also fallen dramatically, leading to a fall in the number of cervical pre-cancers.
HPV vaccine impact in Australian women: ready for an HPV-based screening program
Available at https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2016/204/5/hpv-vaccine-impact-australian-women-ready-hpv-based-screening-program (2016)
Gardasil HPV vaccine works best when given before the age of 15 years
There is a better immune response in young girls between 9 and 15 years of age compared with older teenage girls and young women (aged 16–26 years).
Comparison of the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of a prophylactic quadrivalent human papillomavirus (types 6, 11, 16, and 18) L1 virus-like particle vaccine in male and female adolescents and young adult women.
Block SL, Nolan T, Sattler C, Barr E, Giacoletti KE, Marchant CD, Castellsagué X, Rusche SA, Lukac S, Bryan JT, Cavanaugh PF Jr, Reisinger KS; Protocol 016 Study Group
Pediatrics. 2006 Nov;118(5):2135-45 See information at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17079588/
Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Recommendations and Reports August 29, 2014 / 63(RR05);1-30 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr6305a1.htm
HPV vaccine is recommended by the World Health Organization and is currently used in 84 government funded HPV immunisation programmes worldwide including the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to protect girls from cervical cancer
All national and international scientific and regulatory bodies recommend HPV vaccine including
the World Health Organization
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US
the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FIGO)
the American Society for Clinical Oncology
Gardasil HPV vaccine is currently used in over 25 European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Source: www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/VaccineIntroStatus.pptx
Over 100 million people have been fully vaccinated with Gardasil HPV vaccine worldwide including over 240,000 girls in Ireland
HPV vaccine has not been withdrawn in any country.
The Danish Health Authority has recommended HPV vaccine for girls as part of the national childhood immunisation programme since 2009.
The HPV vaccine used in Denmark changed from Cervarix to Gardasil9 in November 2017 following a commercial tender process.
Gardasil9 protects from HPV types that are responsible for almost 90% of cervical cancers.
In January 2018 the Danish health authorities reported that twice as many girls received HPV vaccine in 2017 as in 2016. https://www.ssi.dk/English/News/News/2018/2018%20-%2001%20-%20hpv.aspx
The Japanese government stopped active recommendation of HPV vaccination but has never banned the HPV vaccines.
Gardasil is still available in Japan.
In February 2018 a Japanese study reported no difference in the rates of a wide range of symptoms in vaccinated and unvaccinated girls. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405852117300708
In July 2017 the World Health Organization(WHO) reported the mortality rate from cervical cancer in Japan, where HPV vaccination is not proactively recommended, increased by 3.4% from 1995 to 2005 and is expected to increase by 5.9% from 2005 to 2015.
WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) Safety Update on HPV vaccines http://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/committee/topics/hpv/June_2017/en/
The Japanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JSOG) continues to actively campaign for the resumption of recommendations for HPV vaccination given the high rates of cervical cancer deaths in Japan. Declaration to Demand the Resumption of Recommendations for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination for Cervical Cancer Prevention available at http://www.jsog.or.jp/english/declaration_20150829.html
Article about HPV vaccine and Japan from The Lancet Medical Journal at - http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(15)61152-7.pdf
In 2010 the Indian Council of Medical Research suspended the HPV vaccine programme following unofficial reports of serious adverse reactions. Despite this the HPV vaccine remained available in India and continued to be endorsed by other advisory committees.
In March 2016 the Delhi government launched a HPV vaccine schools programme for girls.
The side effects of Gardasil HPV vaccine are mild and short lasting
Most girls have no problems after HPV vaccine. Side effects that are caused by the vaccine are:
1 in 10 girls will have pain, swelling and redness at the injection site and/or headache
These can be treated with paracetamol or ibuprofen.
Between 1 in 1000 and 1 in 10,000 girls will have an itchy rash or hives.
Occasionally girls faint after getting an injection. They will be advised to sit down for 15 minutes after vaccination which helps prevent fainting.
Severe allergic reactions are extremely rare. As usual seek medical advice if you are concerned.
You can read more information in the patient information leaflet (PIL)
http://www.medicines.ie/medicine/11535/PIL/GARDASIL/
There are no long term side effects after Gardasil HPV vaccine
Gardasil HPV vaccine is a safe vaccine with no known long term side effects.
All international bodies have continually reported that HPV vaccine is safe with no known long-term side effects.
The safety profile of Gardasil has been studied for over 13 years in over 1 million people during clinical trials and since the vaccine was licensed in 2006.
There has been no increase in the rates of any serious long term condition including autoimmune diseases and chronic fatigue syndrome in vaccinated girls.
An Overview of Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Safety: 2006 to 2015, available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26107345
Gardasil HPV vaccine does not cause any serious long term conditions including chronic fatigue syndrome and automimmune diseases
The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) in Ireland continues to monitor the safety of HPV vaccine.
All healthcare professionals and members of the public are encouraged to report any suspected adverse reactions associated with vaccination to the HPRA. The various methods of reporting are available at www.hpra.ie
Since the HPV vaccine Gardasil was authorised (i.e. licensed) in Ireland in 2006 and up to 30th June 2018
HPRA has received 1138* reports of suspected adverse reactions/events associated with its use
The majority of these reports have been consistent with the types of effects known to occur with the vaccine, as described in the product information.
19 reports received included the term ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’
13 reports received included the term ‘post viral fatigue’
7 reports received included the term ‘auto immune disorder’
*Please note that these figures are subject to constant change as new reports are received or information is provided that identifies an existing report as a duplicate of another case, leading to merging of reports etc.
Gardasil HPV vaccine does not cause premature ovarian failure
HPV vaccine does not cause premature ovarian failure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US have not found any scientific evidence that Gardasil HPV vaccine causes ovarian failure.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/hpv/hpv-safety-faqs.html#A6
Protection from Gardasil HPV vaccine is long lasting
Protection from Gardasil HPV vaccine is long lasting.
Gardasil HPV vaccine has been scientifically proven to prevent any infection with the HPV virus types 6, 11, 16 and 18 for at least 11 years without any loss of immunity.
Gardasil HPV vaccine like other vaccines such as hepatitis B vaccine is expected to provide life time protection from these viruses because the immune system develops antibodies to the virus after the vaccination.
See http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv-vaccine-young-women.htm
This page was updated on 9 August 2018
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13/09/2017 10:16 PM AEST | Updated 13/09/2017 10:34 PM AEST
First Pictures Of Italian Couple And Child Who Perished In Volcano
By The Huffington Post UK
The first pictures of an Italian couple and their 11-year-old son who were killed after falling into a volcanic crater have emerged.
Massimiliano Carrer, 45, Tiziana Zaramella, 42, and Lorenzo, 11, from Venice, died when a hole opened up in the ground at the bubbling Solfatara volcano near Naples, a popular tourist site.
The couple’s other son Alessio, 7, survived and called for help.
Tiziana Zaramella, 42, rushed to try and help her son but lost her life
A relative of the family told Corriere del Veneto of the tragedy: “The little ones wanted to see the volcanoes. They were curious, they had been studying them at school.”
Initial reports suggested Lorenzo walked into a cordoned off zone, fainted due to fumes emitted by the crater and fell into the boiling mud surrounding it, prompting his parents to try and save him.
Firemen on the scene said the three victims appeared to have died from asphyxia, possibly because of hot gases emanating from the ground. The official cause of death will be determined by an autopsy.
The couple's son Lorenzo, 11, was killed in the accident
National fire brigade spokesman Luca Cari told Reuters: “Either there was a small explosion, or the ground simply gave way from their weight, and they fell into this hole. It was inside a fenced-off area.”
The family had been on a short holiday before the boys were due to start school again on Wednesday.
One witness told La Repubblica: “I saw a child run crying. It was the worst tragedy I’ve seen in my life, I’m a father too.I think of that family and that poor baby crying and asking for help.”
Alessio is being cared for by his paternal grandparents in the wake of the tragedy.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The tragedy occurred at the crater of Solfatara di Pozzuoli, near Naples
The Solfatara volcano is one of many volcanic craters in the Campi Flegrei area, 20km west of Naples, which first opened up to tourists in 1900, according to its website. The accident happened at the Bocca Grande (Big Mouth), the largest of the fumaroles in the area, which the ancient Romans called the home of the God of fire.
The ground at the site emits water vapours of 160C and gases including poisonous hydrogen sulphide, the website said.
The Huffington Post UK .
MORE: Naples News quirk society Solfatara uk news Venice volcanoes
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2.87 Million Indians Don't Have Faith In Any Religion, Shows Latest Census
By Indrani Basu
An Indian devotee offers prayers as she watches a priest carry a goat for sacrifice during the Deodhani festival at the Kamakhya Hindu temple in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. During this festival devotees sacrifice goats and pigeons. (AP Photo/ Anupam Nath)
NEW DELHI -- There are over 28 lakh (about 2.87 million) people in India who do not subscribe to any religion. In a country that has given birth to some of the world's major religions, that's 0.24 percent of the total population of 1.2 billion, as per the latest estimate given by the 2011 Indian Census.
This is the first time that the Indian Census has included a "non-faith" category.
Interestingly, a majority (about 57 percent) of those who told census officials that they do not have faith in any organised religion belong to the country's rural areas. Even though roughly an equal number of men and women said they were atheists, or agnostic, or believed that an "unknown force" exists outside of religion, a much higher percentage of women appear to have to no faith in religion. According to latest estimates, there are 940 women for every 1000 men in India.
While perhaps it comes as no surprise that one of India's most populous states — Uttar Pradesh — has the highest number of people (almost six lakh) who don't identify with a particular faith, interestingly south India's Andhra Pradesh is close behind with over four lakh people without a religion. The state has a history of atheism, with the Vijayawada-based Atheist Centre founded as early as pre-Independence in 1940 by Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao) and his wife Saraswathi Gora, who fought against superstitions both during the freedom movement and after Independence and are engaged in the "promotion of atheism as a way of life".
Indrani Basu News Editor, HuffPost India
MORE: news politics India atheists India Census 2011 india religion
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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Lib/E (Compact Disc)
By David Wroblewski, Richard Poe (Read by)
HarperCollins, 9781504637671
Publication Date: July 14, 2015
Paperback, Large Print (9/19/2008)
Compact Disc (7/14/2015)
Compact Disc (9/1/2008)
Fall '09/Winter '10 Reading Group List
“This beautifully written family saga is set on a farm in Wisconsin, where Edgar -- born mute -- and his family raise prize dogs. This idyllic setting is upended when Edgar's Uncle Claude returns home and their world begins to fall apart. This is a coming-of-age story, a mystery, an epic novel, and, most of all, a story about the mystical relationship humans have with animals. You won't find a better read.”
— Karen Schwettman, Fox Tale Books, New Durham, NH
July 2008 Indie Next List
“This story of a modern-day Hamlet, set in the northern woods of Wisconsin, reaches depths of emotion rare in any novel, much less a debut. Driven by powerful characters, particularly the mute Edgar and the amazing dog Almondine, this story of a family's destruction will resonate with readers long after completion.”
— Bill Cusumano, Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, MI
Indie Next List Highlights 2008
“This beautifully written family saga is set on a farm in Wisconsin, where Edgar - born mute - and his family raise prize dogs. This idyllic setting is upended when Edgar's Uncle Claude returns home and their world begins to fall apart. This is a coming-of-age story,a mystery, an epic novel, and, most of all, a story about the mystical relationship humans have with animals. You won't find a better read.”
The extraordinary debut novel that became a modern classic
Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose remarkable gift for companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. Edgar seems poised to carry on his family's traditions, but when catastrophe strikes, he finds his once-peaceful home engulfed in turmoil.
Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the Sawtelle farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who accompany him, until the day he is forced to choose between leaving forever or returning home to confront the mysteries he has left unsolved.
Filled with breathtaking scenes--the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain--The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a meditation on the limits of language and what lies beyond, a brilliantly inventive retelling of an ancient story, and an epic tale of devotion, betrayal, and courage in the American heartland.
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16 October 2018 at 7:02pm
Foreign Office ‘deeply concerned’ about UK academic Matthew Hedges held in UAE over spying allegations
Matthew Hedges with his wife Daniela Tejada. Photo: PA
The Foreign Office has said it is “deeply concerned” about a British academic accused of spying in the United Arab Emirates after his wife called on the Government to say he was innocent.
Matthew Hedges, 31, a PhD student at Durham University from Exeter, was held at Dubai airport on May 5 after flying in to interview sources about the country’s foreign policy and security strategy.
He has been held in solitary confinement for almost six months, his family said, and they were concerned he will not have a fair trial as he has had limited access to his lawyer.
His wife, Daniela Tejada, 27, called on the government to deny he was spying for them.
In response, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We remain deeply concerned about Matthew Hedges and are in regular contact with the Emiratis regarding his health and wellbeing.
“We continue to press for consular access. We also remain in close contact with Matthew’s wife, Daniela.”
Earlier, Ms Tejada said: “I no longer know what to do to get Matt out of prison in the UAE.
Hunt 'seriously concerned' about student being held in UAE
Daniela Tejada has been fighting for her husband's release. Credit: PA
“I am calling on the UK government to clarify publicly that Matt is innocent of the charges and that there have been many falsehoods said about him.
“It is the duty of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to protect their citizens abroad.
“This horrifying situation has been going on for far too long.”
Ms Tejada said her husband only met his legal representative for the first time at court last week.
She said: “The entire hearing was in Arabic, with only the questions directed at Matt being translated into English.
“It has now been confirmed to us that Matt was told he was being charged with gathering information and sharing it with a foreign agency – the UK government.”
He will be back before the court on October 24 after the case was adjourned to allow him to prepare his defence.
She said: “The prosecution has therefore had over five months to come up with a case for trial and Matt’s court-appointed lawyer has been given two weeks with no further access to Matt.
“To call this a fair judicial process is, to say the least, highly inaccurate.
“Matt has never been allowed to speak about his case with anyone.
“He was never given the opportunity to look for a lawyer to represent him, especially as it was not known what he needed to be represented for.
“The charges against Matt are false and unsubstantiated, as is the purported evidence to support them.
“Matt continues to be denied appropriate medical care for his mental health and remains in solitary confinement.”
According to a profile on the Durham University website, Mr Hedges’s research includes Middle Eastern politics, the changing nature of war, civil-military relations and tribalism.
Amnesty International UK also called on the government to speak out on Mr Hedges’s behalf.
The group’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Polly Truscott said: “Matthew wouldn’t be the first person to be arrested in the UAE on baseless grounds and to be detained for a long period without access to a lawyer.
“If he’s been charged with espionage simply for having conducted academic research into the country’s security services, he should be released immediately.”
Last updated Tue 16 Oct 2018
Former British soldier with PTSD held in Dubai 'accused of selling drugs'
Calls for immediate government action after Durham PhD student jailed for life
Durham student accused of 'spying' in UAE released on bail
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Samuel Roth (1893 - 1974)
Related: the Roth case - American censorship - Ulysses
Samuel Roth (1893 - 1974) was an American publisher and writer.
In 1927, he published an unauthorized version of Ulysses by James Joyce in the United States which led to him being jailed for publishing obscene material. Joyce later secured a court injunction preventing Roth from the unauthorized use of his work.
Roth also published sections of Joyce's Work in Progress, later known as Finnegan's Wake, and material by D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy in his Two Worlds quarterly, also without the authors' permission.
In 1934, he wrote the anti-Semitic Jews Must Live which blamed his fellow Jews for his failures in business. By this time, he had been to jail three times. He served another prison term from 1936 to 1939.
In 1955, he was prosecuted for sending obscene material through the mail. In Roth v. United States (1957), which upheld Roth's conviction, the United States Supreme Court found that although obscene material was not protected by the First Amendment, art, literature and scientific research were protected, even if they had sexual content. Roth served five more years in prison as a result of his conviction. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Roth [Mar 2006]
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Cape Flats Stories: A Bleak Past and an Uncertain Future
by Shobha | South Africa | 2 comments
Cape Flats Stories is an exhibition currently on at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. Separated into 3 parts, it tells of the ongoing struggle of at-risk youth living in the townships of Cape Flats, one of the poorest areas of Cape Town.
Cape Flats is an area on the outskirts of Cape Town where non-Whites were dumped during the apartheid era. It was notorious for poor housing conditions and a lack of infrastructure.
map of Cape Flats and the different townships
The first room contains a photo mural of daily life in Cape Flats. Youngsters were given cameras and told to document their daily life. The images are very powerful, and occasionally bleak.
The second room tells the individual stories of some of the teenagers involved in the project. There is a wide range of stories mostly identifying the hardships the teenagers face such as abject poverty, diseases, or abusive relationships.
The third room looks to the future with artwork on the walls encouraging a positive approach towards life. People are encouraged to write their own messages of encouragement for the youth of Cape Flats.
We encouraged our children to think about what they wanted to say and to write a message.
The Cape Flats Stories exhibit made us realise that the stories of the people memorialised in the District 6 Museum do not remain in the past. If the District 6 Museum represented the history of apartheid, this exhibit examines its impact on the current generation.
The future may be uncertain but there are glimmers of hope.
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jenniferbgraham on 15th January 2015 at 7:37 pm
Problem is that throughout South Africa’s history the mixed-race people (Coloureds) have always been caught in the middle of the country’s political sandwich – forever marginalized.
nylonliving on 15th January 2015 at 7:49 pm
I didn’t realise that until I got there. I assumed it was the whites against everyone coloured. There are so many gradations of colour.
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The cellular cowboys, Marcus and Francesco, are ambushed at the opening of their new store. Meanwhile at the still unfinished icecream cafe, there's only 24 hours to go before the expensive launch party and it's all hands on deck. The stressed-out owners face a meltdown as all their freezers go…
How is a car manufactured? Alison Hammond, of "Big Brother" fame, goes inside BMW's factory in Oxford to provide a lively guide to the production process for its New Mini. PRODUCTION PLANNING: First comes production planning. Customers' orders are analysed by a program called "Kiss" - this is vital to…
Many UK products are now manufactured in China. But Arcam designed and manufactured its upmarket DVD player Solo Movie in Britain. This film explains why and how. CAD: A key decision was what components to use - and how to put them together. Computer-aided design allowed them to pinpoint many…
A printed circuit board is the electronic heart of the electrical products we use. But how is one made? This film follows a PCB for a DVD player through every stage of the production process in manufacturer Connor Solutions. CAD: It all starts with an electronic engineer, who designs the…
This film looks at the key systems used in a factory. It focuses on two case studies: the Glaxo Smith Kline toothpaste factory and plastic injection moulding company, Time RPS. How do they compare? TYPES OF PRODUCTION: GSK is an example of continuous flow production: they make a million tubes…
The Brompton is no ordinary bike. You ride it - you fold it up. Not so much a product - more a cult - and it's made in Britain! This is the story of how they make it - and why they're changing to a different approach to production. DESIGN:…
From the producers of the internationally acclaimed Design & Thinking, MAKER is looks into the current "Maker" movement in America - a new wave of Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-Together culture fueled by passion and powered by the advent of new technologies. Official Selection at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival and the…
This film tells the story of how a computer project drove one company almost to bankruptcy. Comic distributor Craven Books bought a new IT system with the aim of improving its efficiency. But the system was over-ambitious - they went for the "big-bang" approach. The result: disaster. Craven lost many…
The American craft beer industry is unlike any industry ever seen before in America. It began its rise during the worst economic crisis in America since the Great Depression. In 2012, as the craft beer movement was sweeping the country, a team of visionary young filmmakers with a passion for…
This film traces the dramatic rise and fall of workplace cooperation at Eastern Airlines. In so doing, the film uncovers the deep-seated assumptions which underlie our culture of industrial relations and prevent us from breaking out of our industrial impasse. COLLISION COURSE begins in 1983 with Eastern hurtling towards bankruptcy,…
The processes covered by this program are:
Thermosetting compression moulding
Thermosetting injection moulding
Extrusion of pipe
Crosshead extruder
Blown film
Extrusion blow moulding
Extrusion sheet material
Forming of fibres
Injection blow moulding
Production of flexible foams
Rotational moulding
Extrusion compression moulding
Stadium seat
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Investigation Discovery Bringing Real Hotel Horrors To TV With Director Joel Schumacher
Diana Price
American Horror Story already announced next season’s theme will be centered around the dark side of a hotel, but Investigation Discovery (ID) is bringing real hotel horror to the small screen with Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors. The true crime series debuts later this year and legendary Hollywood director Joel Schumacher will serve as an executive producer.
Schumacher is known for directing such films as The Lost Boys, St. Elmo’s Fire, and two of the films based on John Grisham’s novels, The Client and A Time to Kill. He’s also recently directed two episodes of the series House of Cards. Schumacher plans to give Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors a “highly-styled cinematic look.”
“I love true crime and I’m fascinated with the criminal mind because I have one, which is why I love ID. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to work on a show for them and we hit on this idea of murders in hotel rooms – so expect violence, sex, and all the scandal and twists ID fans want to see.”
The network is obviously thrilled to land such a respected talent for the series, and Henry Schleiff, Group President, Discovery Network, praised his addition to the project.
“It’s an honor to welcome distinguished Hollywood legend, and self-proclaimed ID Addict, Joel Schumacher to the Investigation Discovery family. ‘Do Not Disturb’ explores the dark aspects of the hotel experience we’ve all encountered – vulnerability, seclusion, and anonymity – so, we can’t wait to see what Joel’s creative genius adds to this psychological edge-of-your-seat thriller.”
According to the Investigation Discovery press release, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors will be a “real-life Bates Motel where guests check in… but, don’t always check out.” The network also compares the new series to such horror hotel classics as The Shining and Psycho.
Investigation Discovery is known for dramatic recreations of true crime stories, archival footage and first-person interviews with witnesses, family members, and even the criminals themselves involved in real cases. Fans of the network, dubbed “ID addicts,” will find themselves exploring crimes in hotels and inns across America in a very cinematic fashion for Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors.
Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors is produced for Investigation Discovery by Matador Content. In addition to Schumacher, Jay Peterson and Mark Marabella serve as executive producers. Investigation Discovery is a network dedicated to true crime programming and calls itself America’s favorite “guilty pleasure.” It’s also one of the few networks which stays on air 24 hours without infomercials, for all the night owls, insomniacs, and ID addicts.
[Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images]
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Meghan Markle Will Reportedly Attend Wimbledon To Support Pal Serena Williams
Clive Mason / Getty Images
Lucille Barilla
Meghan Markle will reportedly attend Wimbledon to support close pal Serena Williams, who will compete in the annual tennis event beginning July 1, claims a source close to the royal family who recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight.
It has been reported that the new royal mom, who gave birth to Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor last month, will once again sit for the tennis tournament to watch her longtime friend compete, although this has not yet been confirmed by the palace.
According to the website Historic UK, Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and arguably the most famous. Since the first tournament 125 years ago in 1877, the championships take place at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in late June and early July of each year.
Markle attended the event in July 2018 with her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, and the two women sat together in the royal box. Fresh off her new marriage to Prince Harry, which took place on May 19 of that same year, the royal wives appeared to enjoy the event together. Harper’s Bazaar reported that Markle turned out to support Williams, attending the women’s finals where she competed — and lost — against Angelique Kerber.
The source, according to Entertainment Tonight, claims that the one reason that could keep Markle from attending Wimbledon is if she is unable to leave her son “at the last minute.”
Markle was last seen in public for Queen Elizabeth II’s annual Trooping the Colour Parade, where she rode alongside Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Camilla Parker Bowles in a carriage. Trooping the Colour is an event held in honor of the queen’s birthday.
The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex travel along the Mall to Trooping the Colour, The Queen's Birthday Parade. Trooping the Colour has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for over 260 years. Regimental flags of the @BritishArmy were historically described as ‘Colours’ because they displayed the uniform Colours and insignia worn by the soldiers of different units. The name ‘Colour’ continues to be used to this day. The principal role of a regiment’s Colours was to provide a rallying point on the battlefield. This was important because, without modern communications, it was all too easy for troops to become disoriented and separated from their unit during conflict. If Troops were to know what their Regiment’s Colours looked like, it was necessary to display them regularly. The way in which this was done was for young officers to march in between the ranks of troops formed up in lines with the Colours held high. This is the origin of the word ‘trooping’. So, what today is a great tradition began life as a vital and practical parade designed to aid unit recognition before a battle commenced. ????PA @TheRoyalFamily #TroopingtheColour #HorseGuardsParade #QBP2019
Markle and Williams have been friends for around nine years. They reportedly met in 2010 at a Super Bowl party in Florida, according to The Independent. They have stayed close friends ever since, with Williams attending her friend’s marriage to the prince. The two women have remained bonded to one another throughout the many personal life changes they have experienced, including Williams giving birth to her own daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., and her marriage to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2017.
Today The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joined The Queen and members of The Royal Family at the annual Trooping the Colour, to celebrate Her Majesty’s official birthday. Trooping the Colour orginated from traditional preparations for battle and has commemorated the birthday of the sovereign for more than 250 years. In the 18th century, guards from the royal palaces regularly assembled to “troop" colours or flags down the rank, so they could be seen and recognised by the soldiers. In 1748, it was announced this parade would also mark the Sovereign’s official birthday. Trooping the Colour is performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies for The Queen’s birthday parade, allowing them to pay a personal tribute to Her Majesty. Today over 1400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians came together on Horse Guards Parade in London in a great display of military precision, horsemanship and fanfare. The parade concludes with a 41-gun salute fired by The King’s Troop, following which The Queen leads members of The Royal Family back to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the Royal Air Force flypast display. Photos credit: PA
A post shared by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (@sussexroyal) on Jun 8, 2019 at 8:44am PDT
Williams is reportedly on the shortlist to be one of the godparents to Markle and Harry’s son, but that has not yet been confirmed by the palace. Markle and Prince Harry are rumored to be christening their son sometime in July, which would coincide with Williams’ attendance at the yearly tennis match.
The couple’s first child, the seventh in line to the British throne, was born on May 6.
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Managing supply chain risk in franchise systems – proposed changes to insolvency regime
Franchising United Kingdom
Terminating the right to terminate – measures to protect distressed businesses
Retention of title and insolvency – how to best protect your position
Failures rates in franchising are typically much lower than non-franchised start-ups. However, the latest British Franchise Association/NatWest survey of the UK franchising sector cites franchisee underperformance as one of the three key concerns of franchisors, and franchise businesses are of course not immune from the economic headwinds and technological changes which are affecting various sectors.
Against the backdrop of a number of high-profile business failures in the UK retail sector, the government has issued a report on the insolvency regime, which will affect the operation of termination rights in supply agreements.
This article considers the proposals and provides a best practice recommendation for recovering goods in the possession of a franchisee once they have entered some form of insolvency protection.
The number of company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) is on the rise, driven by a number of factors, including increased costs and fierce competition from online sales. However, CVAs themselves are often not enough to save a failing business and this has led to the government stepping in and taking action. One of the proposed measures to support companies through a business rescue is the introduction of new rules to prevent suppliers terminating contracts solely by virtue of a company entering an insolvency process. This is relevant to franchisors, as most will also be the franchisee's principal supplier.
These measures are part of the government's wider response to its consultation on proposals to improve the corporate governance of companies that are in or are approaching insolvency.
Franchisors should take note of the following points contained in the government's response:
The government will legislate to prohibit the enforcement of termination clauses by a supplier in contracts for the supply of goods and services where the clause allows a contract to be terminated on the grounds of a party entering formal insolvency (eg, administration, liquidation or a CVA).
The supplier will need to seek permission from the court in order to terminate supplies. In rare cases where a supplier will be significantly and adversely affected by not being able to rely on a contractual termination clause, the supplier will be allowed to exercise such a right on the grounds of undue financial hardship. Only if a supplier's own solvency is threatened will the right be granted.
Personal guarantees will not be required (whether from a director or insolvency office holder) where a supplier continues to supply due to not being able to rely on insolvency-related termination clauses. Such suppliers will have 'super priority' for supplies made during a pre-insolvency moratorium period in the event of a subsequent insolvency (meaning that they are likely to be paid for any supplies that they provide).
However, franchisors will retain the ability to terminate contracts on any other ground permitted by the contract such as:
the non-payment of liabilities (eg, invoices) incurred following entry into a moratorium, restructuring plan or insolvency procedure;
giving notice in accordance with other terms of the contract (eg, a right to terminate on giving fixed notice); or
any other ground that gives rise to termination, save for those connected with the financial position of the debtor company or it entering into a moratorium, restructuring plan or insolvency procedure.
It will be a few years before the measures become law (not least because of the distraction of Brexit). However, this development is relevant to any business entering into long-term supply agreements, as it is likely that the new laws, when passed, will apply to existing agreements.
These changes highlight the need for franchisors to assess their supply terms and ensure that the rights for termination are sufficiently detailed, clear and broad to enable the franchisor to take the necessary action when it is faced with an insolvent buyer.
Franchisors should ensure that they have comprehensive and robust terms of supply (ideally in a separate document from the franchise agreement) which have effective retention of title clauses so that they can take action to recover goods in an insolvency situation. However, franchisors often overlook terms of supply and do not give them enough attention.
Retention of title claims are a regular feature of claims made against insolvent businesses. Many suppliers of goods must have an all monies retention of title clause enabling them to recover the goods held by the retailer when they go into insolvency or alternatively payment for those goods in full to the value of the goods held at the date of the appointment of the insolvency practitioner.
It is well established in English Law that a buyer of goods has the right to sell goods once they are in possession, notwithstanding the supplier having retention of title and ownership in the goods. By selling the goods to a third party, title effectively passes, thereby negating the benefit of the retention of title clause. Recovering the proceeds of sale of any goods supplied is impossible unless the supplier has obtained a legal charge over the company's assets to the value of the goods, which is unusual in normal supply relationships.
In addition, credit insurers usually insist on their insured clients having an automatic termination of the licence to sell in the event of an insolvency of the buyer.
This type of clause will give a supplier a contractual right to insist that the buyer and the insolvency practitioner stop selling the supplier's goods immediately on the practitioner's appointment. To back this up, writing immediately on their appointment revoking the licence to sell and demanding an inventory showing the value of the goods held at the time of their appointment are recommended so that the value of the retention of title claim can be calculated as it crystallises at that point.
If the buyer continues selling the goods after receipt of such a letter, the supplier is entitled to claim the value of all goods sold following termination of the licence to sell, together with any goods that are retained by the buyer. This enables the full valuation of the retention of title claim to be pursued and hopefully payment made in full if the business carries on trading.
In most cases, the administrator will resolve the retention of title claim by paying the full value of the goods held once the inventory is agreed. Stock controls systems are usually available to provide a printout from the retailer's IT system showing the amount of goods held and their value. This is essential in deciding whether to pursue a retention of title claim.
If this clause is not contained in the terms and conditions, a letter should be sent immediately to the administrator, terminating the licence to sell in any event. If no such letter is sent or if there is no such clause in the terms and conditions, the value of the retention of title claim will diminish with each day of continued trading as the stock is depleted and sold.
It is therefore essential to terminate the licence to sell and preferably incorporate such a clause into the applicable terms and conditions to avoid these problems arising.
Most franchisors will act as suppliers of goods and services. As a franchise network grows, so does the systemic risk to the franchisor of franchisee default and failure. It is therefore important that franchisors invest in proper legal advice and legal contracts to ensure that they have the contractual rights to act quickly and effectively if the need arises.
It is recommended that franchisors review the interrelationship between the franchise agreement and the standard terms of supply, paying close attention to termination rights and developing a clear process for dealing with franchisees that are in financial distress.
For further information on this topic please contact Gordon Drakes at Fieldfisher LLP by telephone (+44 20 7861 4000) or email (gordon.drakes@fieldfisher.com). The Fieldfisher LLP website can be accessed at www.fieldfisher.com.
The materials contained on this website are for general information purposes only and are subject to the disclaimer.
Gordon Drakes
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Home»Sport»GAA
Relaxed Stephen Rochford unfazed by Mayo’s critics
Stephen Rochford
John Fogarty
Neither last weekend’s opening defeat to Monaghan, nor Pat Spillane’s dim view of Mayo in the wake of that result was going to upset Stephen Rochford.
Saturday’s rudderless first-half display was a more pressing matter to him. His team’s performance after the interval compensated for it just as it belied some of the points made by Spillane a week earlier, although hardly a motivation.
“I’ll be blunt and honest, I haven’t seen them or heard them,” he said of the Kerry legend’s remarks.
“A colleague at work told me an expletive or two. I hadn’t heard a thing and it certainly wasn’t spoken about around the dressing room. That happens. I wouldn’t be in any way as concerned about it.
“Two games into the league, last week one game into the league, it was irrelevant as to what way the year will play out. We still have a lot of improving to do and there will be plenty to critique us. Last year we played poorly against Cork but played well in the following three games. We only had two points at the end of that run. So I’m quite happy to come out of Tralee with two points.”
There was solace for Éamonn Fitzmaurice in the display of his young players as there might have been in Dr Crokes’ All-Ireland semi-final win over Corofin earlier on Saturday, in that it increases the chances of Colm Cooper returning to the county fold for another season.
The Kerry boss agreed: “It’s probably a fair point but I just think it’s good for him to be enjoying his football and it’s good for him to have that All-Ireland club final and it brings him to the middle of March, which shortens the gap to the summer which is no bad thing.”
Mayo went into the 2016 break between round two and three with no points so it would be logical to suggest they are in a better position than last year.
Rochford concurred: “We are. We’re still trying a few things. We’re in better shape than we were this time 12 months ago; what’s not reflecting that is consistent performance levels. Over two games we’ve now played for 35 minutes at a standard that we would be happy with.”
Rochford hopes to have Westport pair Lee Keegan and Kevin Keane available for Saturday week, as well as Aidan O’Shea, Chris Barrett, and Brendan Harrison. Fitzmaurice mightn’t put as much of an onus on Darran O’Sullivan to come back for the visit of Monaghan after Glenbeigh-Glencar’s All-Ireland junior final, which takes place on Sunday.
“We expect Stephen O’Brien from Kenmare to be back next weekend. He had a bit of a hamstring injury out of that game as well. Darran, we’ll see. We’ll see how that goes. It would be good to have him available but we’ll see how next weekend’s game goes for him first of all and hopefully the lads who have been injured this week and last week we’ll have them available as well.”
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
gaaStephen Rochford
'Only get in cars with people you trust': Family's plea as man, 45, sentenced to 14 years for fatal crash
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Trump undermines journalists but he does not kill them
The focus on the US president’s threats to the media distracts from deadly challenges elsewhere
Sat, Jan 13, 2018, 05:00
Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
The Great Siege monument in Valletta, Malta, was turned into a shrine for journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia after she was killed by a car bomb last October. Photograph: Matthew Mirabelli/AFP/Getty Images
Donald Trump is many things, a lot of them bad, but he’s not among the world’s foremost oppressors of the media, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) appeared to designate him this week. In defence of the non-profit group, which named Trump the winner of its prize for “overall achievement in undermining global press freedom”, the wheeze was a response to the US president’s contemptible announcement about his planned “fake news” awards ceremony.
In other categories, the CPJ bestowed “awards” on Xi Jinping of China (“Tightest Grip on Media”), Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi (“Biggest Backslider”) and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, victorious in both “Most Thin-Skinned” and “Most Outrageous Use of Terror Laws Against the Press” categories. Runners-up included Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Poland’s Andrzej Duda.
Trump’s denigration of the media is dangerous, but to put him in the same bracket as all-out autocrats such as Putin, Erdogan or Xi on this count seems to me wrong-headed, or at least premature. It also distracts from those areas in which Trump poses a more immediate threat, and from those parts of the world where journalists risk their lives every day simply by doing their work.
For a sense of where the media is really up against it, read the latest annual report from Frontline Defenders, published this month. Among the cases it documents are those of the Maltese investigative journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb last October, or the Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynov, who was arrested and tortured by police because of his work documenting corruption within the ruling party.
The report notes that Turkey remains the top jailer of journalists in the world, with 158 media personnel imprisoned.
Deadliest places
According to Reporters Without Borders, 65 journalists were killed, 58 were taken hostage and 326 detained worldwide in 2017. One of the deadliest places for reporters was Mexico. In March last year, Miroslava Breach Velducea, a reporter for two newspapers in Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, was shot dead while in her car. A few days before her death, she wrote a story about an armed conflict between two leaders of a criminal group linked to the Juárez cartel.
World View: Brexit puts Irish diplomats centre-stage
World View: Will China’s progress help human rights record?
World View: Centenary of Russian revolution well worth marking
The investigation has stalled and her family have struggled to get access to details of the police inquiry.
At least five journalists were targeted last year by gunmen in the Philippines, whose president, Rodrigo Duterte, once said: “Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch.”
It’s true that Trump’s open undermining of the American media sets a bad example and sullies the reputation of a country that has long seen itself as a beacon of media freedom, but Putin, Erdogan and Xi hardly needed his imprimatur to stifle independent media.
The threats to media freedom in the US may get worse under Trump, but in general they predate his rise
In the United States itself, Trump’s craving for mainline media approval and his unprecedented private openness to reporters is accompanied by a public campaign of vilification against the trade. His vitriol certainly has real-world consequences, as reporters who received death threats after public denunciations from the president would attest.
But standing between Trump and the media are strong constitutional guarantees of press freedom and freedom of speech, and robust legislative and judicial systems that can resist executive over-reach. That’s one reason why Trump’s desire to harden the libel law is doomed: neither the courts nor Congress is amenable to the idea.
Indeed, Trump himself has given a jolt to morale in the industry by underlining its importance, delivering it a bigger audience and allowing it to showcase its strengths.
Media vulnerability
The threats to media freedom in the US may get worse under Trump, but in general they predate his rise. Stressed business models and a fracturing of the audience are long-established trends. The collapse of Gawker Media after a high-profile privacy action in 2016 showed the vulnerability of the media to lawsuits financed by rich third parties with ulterior motives. Barack Obama left behind a “flimsy legacy” on press freedom and access to information, argues Reporters Without Borders.
Revelations about mass surveillance by federal institutions, and a series of controversies over the government’s attempts to identify the sources of leaked information by monitoring reporters or applying legal pressure are long-standing causes for concern.
One of the most damaging trends, however – and one that Trump has certainly made worse – is what Index on Censorship, a campaigning group, has called the “widespread and low-level animosity that feeds into the everyday working lives of the nation’s journalists, bloggers and media professionals”.
Trump’s construction of his own parallel reality, with its “alternative facts” and its reflexive dismissal of awkward coverage as “fake news”, nourishes that animosity and in turn feeds off it. It’s an insidious trend, and one that will long outlast this disgraceful presidency.
Abdel El Sisi
Daphne Caruana Galizia
Miroslava Breach Velducea
9:37 Kathy Sheridan: Water crisis and Brexit mess show we are still living in 1977
Ireland’s housing market is stabilising, despite claims to the contrary
1:46 Why do immigrants vote for people like Donald Trump?
The Irish Times view on the CervicalCheck review: the need for answers
It’s vital, given the importance of the programme, that full clarity is provided
The Irish Times view on the tracker mortgage scandal: a partial reckoning
We still don’t know who made the key decisions and on what grounds they did so
Fintan O’Toole: The 2004 referendum on citizenship was a disgrace to Irish democracy
David McWilliams: Stop the recession talk. It’s not happening
Foreign investors have been made scapegoats for Ireland's housing crisis
Kathy Sheridan
Kathy Sheridan: Water crisis and Brexit mess show we are still living in 1977
Una Mullally
Una Mullally: Noel Whelan was a hero and an ally
Pat Leahy
Pat Leahy: Greens well-positioned for the next election
Citizenship and the Constitution
Change to census question on religion
The HSE and reorganisation
Budgeting and the health service
Trump’s Twitter outburst
Parking charges and Ranelagh
Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth
The price of insurance
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Search for Computing jobs on jobs.ac.uk.
At jobs.ac.uk you can search for computing jobs, including Computer Science, Software Engineering, Programming, Networks, Databases, Information Management, Web, Internet, E-business and Hardware jobs, in the UK and abroad.
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University of Leeds - Faculty of Environment
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Length of Contract: 3 years from start date The Institute of Cancer Research, (ICR) London, is one of the world’s most influential cancer research institutes, with an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. We provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation...
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Chemistry
University of Oxford - Department of Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
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Department of Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, South Parks Road, Oxford Grade 7: £32,236 - £39,609 p.a. Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Chemistry to work under the supervision of Professor Fernanda Duarte, on a research project funded by the John Fell Fund for a...
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Nazarbayev University
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Nazarbayev University's School of Engineering invites applications for full-time Head position in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department to begin in September/October, 2019. We are primarily interested in candidates with expertise in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. We seek candidates with a commitment to excellence in...
Cardiac MRI Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence
University of Sheffield - Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health - Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
Contract Type: Fixed-term for a maximum of two years full-time or three years part-time.Location: Academic Unit of Radiology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Glossop Road, Sheffield, S10 2JFSalary: Grade 8£40,792 - £48,677 per annum. Potential to progress to £54,765 per annum through sustained exceptional contribution. An...
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Associate Professor in Hearing Sciences, Translational Hearing Research
University of Nottingham - Clinical Neuroscience
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Applications are invited for the above post based at either Ropewalk House, 113 The Ropewalk, Nottingham, NG1 5DU or Hearing Sciences, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. The purpose of this role will be to provide significant leadership and responsibility for delivery of a distinct programme of translational research in the Hearing...
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2014-15 Opening Mass
Published on September 15, 2014 in Institute News
The Catholic News Agency interviewed several Institute students on the occasion of the 2014-15 Opening Mass, celebrated by Bishop Paul S. Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington:
In a countercultural turn, students confront the question of marriage
Natalie Plumb
The debate about the nature of marriage is rapidly unfolding. On the state level, this debate continues to garner attention from our religious and political leaders, same-sex marriage advocates, parents, professors and students.
On Sept. 10, in Washington, D.C. – a city that will continue to be the center of a political debate on the issue – a group of students began graduate degree programs that offer a specific concentration on the study of marriage and the family, in a hope to offer informed voices to the debate. In a countercultural turn, these students will be rigorously engaging in studies that support and promote the Catholic understanding of marriage – a union between one man and one woman for their good and the good of their children.
Nearly 80 students, professors, seminarians, priests, vocalists and laypersons gathered to celebrate the Opening Mass for the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America, presided by Bishop Paul S. Loverde of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. The Institute “provide[s] a comprehensive understanding of marriage and family faithful to Catholic magisterial tradition.” Students examine marriage in its authentic form by studying theology, biotechnology, psychology, sociology and by engaging contemporary challenges to Christian ethics.
At just 26 years of age, Caitlin Williams is a second-year Ph.D. student at the John Paul II Institute, who says she is driven by the challenge young Catholics face in witnessing to authentic marriage. [Read more]
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Attachment Theory as a Support for Foster Carers and Adoptive Parents
(published in Adoption & Fostering Vol. 31. No.2, Summer 2007)
Notes prepared by Kim Golding, Child Clinical Psychologist, Worcestershire Primary Care Trust.
Early in the 20th century, a four-year-old boy experienced a traumatic separation from the nursemaid who had been his primary caregiver since birth. This experience was deeply painful, but also pointed him towards his future lifetime’s work. Talking to his son many years later he recalled that he was ‘sufficiently hurt to feel the pain of childhood separation – but not so traumatised that he could not face working with it on a daily basis.’ (Bowlby, 2004, pp 12 – 13). John Bowlby, as an adult, would devote himself to the development of the theory of attachment. While many other experiences also shaped his thinking, the impact of separation and loss of caregiver on a child remained the question he most wanted to answer. This fact alone provides a reason why this theory is so important in helping us to understand and parent children growing up in foster and adoptive homes. All of these children share one thing in common with John Bowlby – they have suffered the loss of an early caregiver.
Attachment Theory is one among many theories that try to explain the progress of a child from pre-birth to adulthood. In these notes I am privileging Attachment Theory as important in helping us to understand the children who grow up in foster care or within adoptive homes. Attachment Theory is concerned with the early years of life, the time of life that is most troubling for fostered and adopted children. The impact of this early experience on later social and emotional development, and subsequently on cognitive development, is explained within the context of these early relationships.
Consultation for foster carers and adoptive parents drawing upon an Attachment Theory framework can be highly supportive. The parents often seek consultation with a mental health specialist because they are perplexed by the behaviour of the child or young person they are caring for, are concerned by the lack of progress they are making and find particular behaviours or attitudes of the child especially troubling. Often the parent is feeling a great sense of inadequacy or failure in their ability to parent. Others seek reassurance and an opportunity to fine-tune the way they are caring for the child. A consultation meeting can provide a forum for reflection on the day-to-day behaviour and progress of a child within the context of their early experience. This can provide new understanding of the impact of early and later experience on her or his current relationships. The carer may be left saddened by the depth of difficulty the child displays, but with a renewed conviction that they can make a difference even though progress may be slow.
Mr and Mrs Brown sought a consultation for their ten-year-old adopted daughter, Charlotte. They were feeling manipulated by her changeable attitude towards them. Sometimes she could be helpful, caring and compliant but would then switch to being difficult, defiant and rude. They could observe no particular triggers for these changes in behaviour and felt that their relationship with her was at the mercy of these changing moods.
Within the consultation we explored the development of this pattern of behaviour over the last four years. When Charlotte first arrived she appeared a cheerful child, always willing to please. Mr and Mrs Brown were delighted with how well she had settled with them. Gradually, however, she became more moody. She would demonstrate phases when she would be difficult and rejecting towards them.
Charlotte’s early history was one of severe neglect from mother and physical abuse by father, followed by a series of foster placements and failed rehabilitations home. The discussion within the consultation explored how this early attachment experience had led Charlotte to fear the loss of caregivers, a fear that was increased in intensity if she displayed her own need for care or nurturing. Charlotte learned to minimise her display of attachment needs and to present a falsely positive affective state to those caring for her (avoidant attachment style). Mr and Mrs Brown witnessed this when Charlotte first came to live with them. But over time Charlotte felt more comfortable with them and began to be more straightforward in the way she elicited care and comfort. It appears, however, that as she came to feel close to them she became more frightened that she might lose them. Careful thought and discussion identified a pattern of behaviour within which Charlotte would relax and feel comfortable leading to a developing closeness. This would then increase Charlotte’s anxiety, displayed via her more defiant, difficult behaviour. Mr and Mrs Brown would withdraw a little emotionally as they felt hurt and rejected by this change in behaviour. At times they became angry with her. Sensing this withdrawal and disapproval, Charlotte would become frightened. As this was more reminiscent of her early experience, she would again adopt the relationship strategies of compliance and cheerfulness that kept her safe as a young child.
Mr and Mrs Brown began to understand the cycle of behaviour Charlotte was displaying and how this related to her early experience. This insight led them to realise that this was neither an outcome of their failure with Charlotte nor indicative of Charlotte’s dislike for them. They had wondered whether their home was right for Charlotte; now they felt that they had a lot to offer and hoped to help her be more confident in them and able to trust that they would be there to support her when she most needed it.
Understanding the influence of early experience on the way children and young people respond to the parenting offered by their foster carers or adoptive parents can help us to make sense of the complex and often destructive relationship patterns that develop within these homes. The task for the parent is to adapt their parenting in a way that allows different patterns to take root, leading the child to be confident in the availability of care and support when needed, and able to elicit this care in a straightforward way.
Mrs Jones is fostering her five-year-old granddaughter, Kathy, because her daughter’s experiences with drugs and alcohol in the context of a relationship of domestic violence and abuse has meant that she is not able to be a safe parent. Mrs Jones is bringing up her granddaughter as she did her own children: she believes in firm boundaries and discipline and has high expectations of what Kathy will be able to do. However, she is struggling to manage Kathy who is increasingly needy of her attention. The more Mrs Jones encourages her to develop some independence the more Kathy is clingy, tearful and insecure.
Mrs Jones is attending a group about caring for children with attachment difficulties. As she learns about Attachment Theory she begins to recognise Kathy in the description of children with an ambivalent and resistant pattern of relating to caregivers. She also realises that her way of parenting is perpetuating this pattern. The more she encourages independence the more Kathy fears losing her availability. As she proceeds through the group, Mrs Jones learns new ways of helping Kathy to feel secure. While boundaries and discipline are still important she learns to provide this with more acceptance for Kathy’s needs. As well as being the disciplinarian, she also becomes her secure base, a base that is predictably available, allowing Kathy to relax her vigilance and begin to look outwards of the relationships. Mrs Jones still encourages some independence but she reduces her expectation of this, and learns to recognise when Kathy’s attachment needs are heightened – times when she needs more continuous attention and availability from her. Specific strategies, such as providing attuned responses to Kathy’s emotional state, paying attention to relationship repair following times when they get cross with each other and avoiding confrontation by providing empathy, alongside discipline, all strengthen the more secure relationship that Kathy is now experiencing. Kathy is responding well to this different approach and seems a generally more cheerful and confident girl, both at school and at home.
The attachment relationship is the foundation relationship of a child’s life. While later experience will influence and even alter the child’s developmental pathway, it is likely that the early relationship will continue to impact on this. For children living in foster care or adoptive homes these early experiences are likely to be difficult, as children experience separation and loss of biological parents, often following an experience of inadequate and sometimes frightening parenting.
Often these children grow up with attachment difficulties, making it harder for them to settle into their new homes. Attachment Theory can provide us with a framework for understanding the resulting behaviour of the children. It can also provide guidance about ways of parenting the children that fosters increased trust and feelings of security. Within environments of responsive, available care, the children can begin to recover from early experience and learn to organise their behaviour around their belief in the continued availability and trustworthiness of their foster or adoptive parent.
Bowlby R, Fifty Years of Attachment Theory: The Donald Winnicott Memorial lecture, London: Karnac, 2004
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Developers Anxious over Re-Opening of Fuel Terminals
Category: Business Law Updates
A potential clash between one of Britain’s biggest regeneration projects and the re-opening of fuel terminals alongside the Manchester Ship Canal came under the High Court spotlight as landowners argued that they were being kept in the dark about issues which could have a major impact on their development plans and public safety.
Peel Investments (North) Limited, The Manchester Ship Canal Company Limited and Peel Media Limited – all members of the Peel Group of companies – own tracts of prime development land in Salford and Trafford and have ambitious plans for large-scale residential, commercial and leisure developments in the area.
However, in the midst of their land-holdings stand the Manchester Fuel Terminals (MFT) which were operated by American oil company, Esso, until their closure in 2010. Valero Energy Limited has applied for permission to reopen the MFT and that has caused anxiety on the part of the landowners in respect of any ‘risks and dangers’ that could entail and the potential impact on their regeneration plans.
Valero’s proposals are under consideration by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA). The landowners asked the court to direct public disclosure of a safety report prepared by Valero and other information which it was argued that they needed so that they can understand the potential impact of the MFT re-opening and have a meaningful input into the decision-making process.
However, refusing to intervene and dismissing the landowners’ judicial review challenge, Mr Justice Underhill said that the Valero safety report had recently been disclosed, although only in redacted form to preserve commercially sensitive information. The judge emphasised that the contents of the safety report were, by necessity, highly technical and complex and its examination by the HSE and the EA was an expert process requiring detailed analysis of public safety issues.
Expressing doubt as to the utility of public consultation at this stage of the process, the judge said: “The difficulties for any member of the public prepared to pay for an expert consultant to be able to contribute and give an opinion on the consequences of a safety report are greater still because of the entitlement of the operator to redact what is sensitive information. The very information which is likely to be redacted, for reasons of industrial confidentiality or public security, will also be the information most likely to be necessary for a thorough analysis of the report.”
Also noting that a process of public consultation would inevitably cause substantial delay, the judge concluded: “In truth, I believe that this application for judicial review has no prospect of success. I will accordingly refuse permission.”
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Providing Opportunities for a Century: The Caney Creek Community Center
Jerri Whitner, Alice Lloyd College student
The work of Alice Lloyd, June Buchanan, and Ella Geddes started the Caney Creek Community Center 100 years ago, and established Alice Lloyd College
A frail, 40-year-old woman traveling to an isolated part of the country and establishing a community that has lasted for a century seems like a piece of fiction. However, it is not an imaginary tale but an amazing journey that has resulted in life-changing opportunities for thousands of people who call the Appalachian Mountains home. In the early 1900s, Alice Geddes Lloyd was stricken with spinal meningitis and polio, which greatly weakened her body. At the recommendation of her doctor, who had given her six months to live, she and her mother made the long, arduous trek from Boston to the hills of eastern Kentucky in hopes that the fresh mountain air would strengthen her weakened immune system. What she found upon her arrival in Kentucky was something more important than her physical well-being; she found a poor, yet proud, group of people who needed her. She found her purpose in life.
At the behest of a local resident, Abisha Johnson, who offered her land to build a structure in exchange for educating his children, Mrs. Lloyd and her mother moved to Caney Creek and established the Caney Creek Community Center Inc. in 1917. Emboldened by the mountaineers’ eagerness to better themselves and connect with the world around them, Mrs. Lloyd immediately reached out to these people that the rest of America had forgotten. She knew that such a project would need significant funding; so, with an Oliver #9 typewriter and great determination, Mrs. Lloyd began writing thoughtful and persuasive letters to the people she knew in New England asking for money, books, supplies, and teachers. The thousands of letters that Mrs. Lloyd wrote allowed the Caney Creek Community Center to grow substantially in the following years.
Caney Creek Community Center
The Center, as it was fondly called by local residents, enhanced the area in numerous ways. Mrs. Lloyd’s first efforts were to support better health and hygiene practices, along with improving the water supply and sanitation methods. She accomplished her first goal by constructing “Dream Houses,” which were small two- or three-room houses resembling Mrs. Lloyd’s own home that is still located on the property. After construction, Mrs. Lloyd then began to encourage the families to consider moving into the new well-built Dream Houses. Although many were hesitant, the prospects of work, prime hygiene care, and education for their children were the most appealing factors. Dream Houses began sprouting up all along Caney Creek despite the two requirements of a $10 monthly payment in either cash, produce, or labor, and a signed contract saying they would be supportive of the policies of the Center.
Mrs. Lloyd’s efforts, in conjunction with the mountaineers’ self-sufficient spirit, were instrumental in instituting the various programs of the Center, many of which are still operating today. The Caney Exchange provided everyday household necessities such as nails, windows, clothes, and other goods in exchange for labor, produce, or cash. Today, the Caney Exchange has been transformed into a clothing exchange that offers a wide range of donated clothes to local residents. Money was never readily available and nothing was given freely or as handouts except when Christmas came around. The Christmas Pretties program was started by Mrs. Lloyd’s mother, Ella Geddes, soon after the Center was established. Mrs. Lloyd would annually write letters to donors asking for “just any little ‘pretty’” that would bring joy to a child on Christmas. Over the years, countless gifts were donated and distributed to children throughout the area, quickly making Christmas the favorite time for those living on Caney. Today the tradition of the Christmas Pretties still continues along Caney Creek with presents given to several thousand children each year.
The Center also brought education for the first time to the hidden hills of eastern Kentucky with the assistance of June Buchanan, who volunteered her services to the Center after receiving one of Mrs. Lloyd’s letters. More than 100 schools were established throughout the mountains, beginning with an elementary and high school on Caney Creek that eventually developed into a college. In 1923, Mrs. Lloyd founded Caney Junior College, which was renamed in her honor following her death in 1962. Alice Lloyd College made its transition to senior college status in 1982. Through the many educational establishments, Mrs. Lloyd did more than teach the mountain folk how to read and write; above all, she sought to build character and produce leaders by teaching the Purpose Road Philosophy. The philosophy instilled purpose, goal setting, and character, tools that would enable the students to go out to other mountain communities and ultimately be the leaders that the area needed.
Despite tremendous challenges, including various health concerns, Mrs. Lloyd’s efforts, along with the support of faculty, staff, students, and community residents, resulted in one of the most unique institutions in America. Because of Alice Lloyd’s faithfulness and God’s providential care, the Caney Creek Community Center is celebrating its 100th year in 2017. A special ceremony will occur on October 14 during the Alice Lloyd College’s Appalachia Day Homecoming. Please join us in celebrating this centennial.
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