pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 134
1.01M
| source
stringlengths 39
45
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.926148
| 0.926148
|
Home » Hi-Tech
Galaxy Note 9 launch date: when the re-imagined S Pen arrives
12 July, 2018, 23:50 | Author: Sammy Rose
A source with a respectable track record has leaked what appears to be promotional material for the Galaxy Note 9. Earlier leaks have suggested that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 9 could come in five colour options- Blue, Grey, Lavender, Black, and Brown.
Obviously we won't find out for sure until the Galaxy Unpacked event on 9th August, but for the time being we can gawp at things like this and seemingly not notice that we've seen all of this information a dozen times before. The smartphone will be arriving with a Bluetooth enabled S Pen stylus.
That's because the invite and Twitter posting thereof showed a bright yellow S Pen. That's actually about three weeks earlier compared to the September release of the Galaxy Note 8.
Trump says allies agreed to increase defence spending - but did they?
The US President accused Germany of being a "a captive of the Russians" because of its dependence on energy supplies. No more nuclear weapons anywhere in the world, no more wars, no more problems, no more conflicts ...
Emmy nominations: 'Game of Thrones' leads with 22 nods
If Legend wins, he'll join the rarified club of "EGOT" performers who've won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. She earned a nomination herself for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series previous year .
Croatian footballers mobbed the photographers' pit after beating England last night
As the extra period started Croatia struggled to maintain their intense pressure but continued to threaten the England defense. The Three Lions managed their 1-0 lead for more than an hour of playing time.
Moving up, we can see the Samsung logo resting right below the fingerprint sensor, which is located in a central position under a horizontal dual-lens rear camera. It will keep doing that with the new flagship which may offer additional productivity features courtesy of the new S Pen. It's expected that the S-Pen will receive several upgrades that will allow it to control the Galaxy Note 9's functions and aid business users.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is due to launch on August 9 in New York City, but rumors and leaks are flooding in thick and fast, with the latest potentially giving us our most convincing look at the handset to date.
How the British media reacted to England's World Cup exit
You see what's happening. "No trophy this time but it feels like the start of something every Englishman could get used to". I said this in the group stages and I'm thinking, quarter-finals England will get knocked out.
Fossils suggest giant dinosaurs lived millions of years earlier than previously thought
According to one of the researchers, "As soon as we found it, we realized it was something different". Although it has a much shorter neck and more theropod-like feet, the family resemblance is clear.
‘I think they like me a lot in the UK’
Trump will travel by helicopter once there, making it unlikely he'll see protests firsthand. Later, Trump will go to Windsor Castle for tea with 92-year-old Queen Elizabeth.
My Work Has Never Been Tainted by Political Bias — FBI Agent
The sharp tone of Strzok's statement set the stage for a contentious hearing following hours of closed-door questioning last week. But the report said it found no evidence of political bias in the FBI's decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton.
London pub renames itself The Trump Arms ahead of presidential visit
Police said the blimp would not be allowed at the course as an air exclusion zone was in place during the president's visit. The US Embassy warned American citizens in the United Kingdom to "keep a low profile".
Papa John's founder resigns as chairman
Papa John's stock dropped almost 5 percent by the close of the stock market Wednesday, the lowest it's been in almost two years. Papa John's pizza founder John Schnatter has had a long history of running his mouth off and it has finally caught up to him.
London mayor says anti-Trump protests must be peaceful
Both of those accords were the result of years of painstaking diplomacy by European leaders - and Trump unilaterally trashed them. US President Donald Trump arrives in Britain on Thursday for talks with the leader of the United States' closest ally in Europe.
Alleged XXXTentacion Gunman Michael Boatwright Arrested
Late last month, police charged Dedrick Williams, 22, of Pompano Beach with first-degree murder in the rapper's death. On Wednesday, the Broward County Sheriff's Office announced that they arrested 22-year-old Michael Boatwright .
Trump dodges London protests for tea with Queen Elizabeth
Some British citizens are even more distressed about Trump than they are about the U.K.'s own feverish political turmoil. They are scheduled to spend Thursday night at the US Ambassador's home Winfield House, which is in Regent's Park.
Prince Louis' Godparents Revealed After Queen Elizabeth Announces She Would Not Attend
However, Meghan proved that she is not a conventional royal by sharing her thoughts about the abortion rule in Ireland . The 92-year-old monarch has a busy week ahead, marked by a visit from US President Donald Trump in Windsor on Friday.
Florida man with no arms accused of stabbing man with scissors
Police said there were no indications that Crenshaw was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the incident. Coronado told investigators he stopped to ask Crenshaw for directions before he jumped up and stabbed him.
Partisan Divide Deepens Over Trump’s Supreme Court Pick
They see that as concerning amid the ongoing special counsel probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. But even past champions of lawsuits against ObamaCare say the law appears safe, regardless of Kavanaugh .
Apple releases new, faster MacBook Pro laptops
As mentioned in our previous report, the 13-inch MacBook Pro can now be obtained with up to quad-core 8th Gen Intel Core i7. Thunderbolt 3 via USB-C, support for up to two 5K displays or up to four external GPUs, and a sleek aluminum unibody design.
Jurgen Klopp praises Dejan Lovren's World Cup exploits
Dejan Lovren claims he is one of the best defenders in the world after Croatia beat England to reach the World Cup final. He said: "It feels incredible, especially after everything that was said about us before the game ".
Gas EXPLOSION completely destroys buildings in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, USA
Sun Prairie Fire Chief Christopher Garrison said the firefighter who was killed had served more than 10 years with the department. Konopacki said the firefighters were taken to a hospital, while the officer was treated at the scene.
Man discovers wife, her mechanic lover dead following sex, reports say
Law enforcement leaders told the station they think the woman was paying for work on a vehicle by having sex with the mechanic. Sources say the wife and the mechanic were having sex in a auto in the garage when they were both killed by the poison gas.
Trump releases letter from Kim Jong Un, touts "great progress"
According to estimates from the Pentagon, 7,700 USA troops are still unaccounted for from the Korean War. The last return of U.S. remains between 1990 and 1995 involved just over 200 caskets.
Arsenal boss Unai Emery Transfer business complete
Guendouzi is Unai Emery's fifth signing as Arsenal manager since his arrival in June. I want to know with my direct opinion, with my direct conversations with the player.
Trump says he'll bring up election meddling with Putin
Trump said there had been "tremendous progress" and that allies were "going to up it at levels they've never seen before". Trump wants the spending to go up to 4% of GDP, which is more than even the USA now spends on defense.
Trump Administration Will Not Meet Deadline for Reuniting Young Children
On June 26, Sabraw set deadlines of Tuesday to reunite children under 5 with their families and July 26 for older children. Trump said Tuesday that he has a solution to the missed deadline: "Tell people not to come to our country illegally".
See a glacier spawn an iceberg in this dramatic video
Such events could help researchers understand how glaciers will respond to natural variability and human-induced changes. Scientists have managed to capture on film the moment a huge iceberg breaks away from a glacier in eastern Greenland.
Apple censorship code for China crashed iPhone apps
This is not the first time United States company has made diplomatic changes to its devices on behalf of the Chinese government. And given the relationship China has with Taiwan, the company might be appeasing the Chinese government with its flag blockade.
Anti-Trump FBI lawyer snubs congressional subpoena
First images emerge of boys rescued from Thailand cave
American Idiot, Protest Anthem in the UK Ahead of Trump's Visit
Heartbroken Samira Mighty has left the Love Island villa
England boss Gareth Southgate
Kerber books place in a second Wimbledon final
Get an Amazon Prime account FREE for Amazon Prime Day - here’s how
Maurizio Sarri to Chelsea: Bookies pull the plug after major development
Harry Kane: we could have done better
Stormy Daniels has been arrested at a strip club
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line0
|
__label__wiki
| 0.871744
| 0.871744
|
"I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me."
[195] "Love is the way I walk in gratitude."
The Holy Spirit is my only Guide.
He walks with me in love. And I give thanks
to Him for showing me the way to go.
201: [181] "I trust my brothers, who are one with me." 211: [191] "I am the holy Son of God Himself."
202: [182] "I will be still a moment and go home." 212: [192] "I have a function God would have me fill.
203: [183] "I call upon God's Name and on my own." 213: [193] "All things are lessons God would have me learn.
204: [184] "The Name of God is my inheritance." 214: [194] "I place the future in the hands of God."
205: [185] "I want the peace of God." 215: [195] "Love is the way I walk in gratitude."
206: [186] "Salvation of the world depends on me." 216: [196] "It can be but myself I crucify."
207: [187] "I bless the world because I bless myself." 217: [197] "It can be but my gratitude I earn."
208: [188] "The peace of God is shining in me now." 218: [198] "Only my condemnation injures me."
209: [189] "I feel the Love of God within me now." 219: [199] "I am not a body. I am free."
210: [190] "I choose the joy of God instead of pain."
220: [200] "There is no peace except the peace of God."
<< Home ~ Next Lessons>>
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line2
|
__label__cc
| 0.577588
| 0.422412
|
Porter's Rule Series
Lost Soul - Immortality
author@adam-alexander-author.com
Start Reading Now Watch Trailers
Adam Alexander's Latest Release
Nothing to do with music.
Everything to do with getting even.
Watch the Trailer Start Reading Garage Band Free
"...There is no slow intro here, you've got your character introduction and then BOOM we're straight into the story. I was desperate to fast forward to the last page...Even though I couldn't wait to get to the end, I didn't want it to end."
-Blythering Bibliomanics Reviewer
After helping to build the Eastland Insurance company for 17 years, Lanthus Trilby is retrenched without warning, to make way for te new generation. Angry and betrayed, the passive actuary wants to let his boss feel his rage. His initial plans of keying his boss’s car escalate beyond merely blowing it up. Lanthus is going to take the entire company down.
His plan needs a team with special skills. The hacker, the daredevil, the explosives expert and the acrobatic pair join Lanthus to pull off the most daring caper the world has ever seen which will bring Eastland Insurance to its knees.
But as soon as the plan is in motion, trouble sets in. The police are closing in, and someone else wants a piece of the action. Can Lanthus keep it together long enough to pull off his master plan?
“witty, often sarcastic and even heart warming…Lanthus’ dialogue had me in stitches”
- The Blityering Bibliomaniacs
“Adam Alexander deserves the applause readers will give Garage Band.”
- Readers' Favorite
"Now we’re talking! Witty and amusing ... a thundering good caper filled with crime and good fun.”
- Books and Everything
Get It Now:
More Titles by Adam Alexander
Adam Alexander is a multi-talented writer who has demonstrated his skill across multiple genres. His characters are just real enough to fall in love with, and just dark enough to doubt. His books have begun to gather international acclaim. Garage Band was among only a handful of titles to be nominated as runner up in the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book of the Year competition, and the same title received a glowing Reader-s Favorite 5-Stars.
for giveaways, new releases, promotions, book signings and Adam Alexander's blog updates.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line6
|
__label__cc
| 0.748324
| 0.251676
|
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins,...
Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
by Anthony Doerr
Anthony Doerr rides his bicycle home from the delivery room
where his wife has just given birth to twin boys. He opens the
mailbox to find a letter from the American Academy of Arts, stating
that he has won the Rome Prize, a coveted honor for which he had
been anonymously nominated four months prior.
Six months later he arrives in Rome with his wife and six-month-old
children, determined to work on his novel about the German
occupation of Normandy in the 1940s. Day after day the pages stare
blankly before him, and instead his interest is captured by his
immediate surroundings, a first-century Roman book titled NATURAL
HISTORY by Pliny the Elder, and the daily wonderment of his twin
boys.
Doerr attempts to grab hold of this foreign language and lifestyle
that is Rome. He approaches Rome with no pretension or flip of the
hand, but instead with a feeling that he is an outsider looking in,
a child struggling to survive in a complex environment. Learning
the correct words to order from the neighborhood grocer gives Doerr
as much satisfaction as seeing his boys take their first step. In
this way man and child together must navigate their way through the
unknown, armed only with blundering curiosity.
Doerr sees not only Rome’s four seasons, but witnesses the
death of one Pope and the election of another. Subsequently, a
once-in-a-lifetime Roman event happens in the small fragment of
time that Doerr graces its soil. He sees the childlikeness of an
entire country as it mourns the death of its father and rejoices in
coming of its new one, while holding his own sons in his
arms.
FOUR SEASONS IN ROME is a love letter to a nation, written by a
true poet of prose. Doerr captures everyday scenes and turns them
into beautiful paintings in the mind’s eye. He is aware not
only of the sky and the architecture, but of things as intangible
as the wind coming over from the east. He describes characters on
the street so vividly that we can believe we’ve met them
ourselves, and he does it all with such humility that it is as if
we were having a conversation with the guy next door.
In fact, Doerr’s “guy next door” quality is
probably a large part of his charm. With an award he has not
strived for and two children who have been bestowed upon him by the
forces of nature, Doerr is merely a thoughtful observer of his own
life, knowing full well that he has little or no control over how
it plays out. His sentence stating “You find your way through
a place by getting lost in it” sums up both his experience in
Rome and that of caring for his children.
It’s this humor-filled and reverent acceptance of his
day-to-day existence that makes him an “everyman,” and
it’s his constant analysis of the wonders of the world that
make him a poet of a higher plane. Doerr brings that plane down to
us, and we are grateful to see the world through his eyes.
Reviewed by Shannon Luders-Manuel (www.shannonluders.com) on January 22, 2011
Genres: Nonfiction
Publisher: Scribner
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line7
|
__label__cc
| 0.593309
| 0.406691
|
An Introduction to International Arbitration
$42.99 (P)
Author: Ilias Bantekas, Brunel University
Date Published: August 2015
$ 42.99 (P)
Request examination copy
Instructors may request a copy of this title for examination
This concise yet comprehensive textbook introduces the reader to the law and practice of international arbitration. Arbitration is a complex field due to the variety of disciplines involved and necessitates an approach that takes nothing for granted. Written by a renowned scholar and practitioner, this book explains the divergent issues of civil procedure, contracts, conflict of laws, international law amongst others in an accessible manner. Focusing mainly on international commercial arbitration, the book also features a distinct chapter on consumer and online arbitration and an equally comprehensive chapter on international investment arbitration.
Short, concise and accessible - ideal for students and practitioners without prior expertise in arbitration
First two chapters explain the foundational concepts and provide a holistic view of arbitration
Footnotes contain sources, not references to further reading
1. Introduction to international arbitration
2. The laws and rules applicable to arbitration
3. The agreement to arbitrate
4. The arbitral tribunal
5. Arbitration and the courts
6. The conduct of arbitral proceedings
7. Arbitral awards and challenges against awards
8. Recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards
9. Consumer and online arbitration
10. Investment arbitration.
Copyright Information Page (260 KB)
Table of Contents (117 KB)
Ilias Bantekas, Brunel University
Ilias Bantekas is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Brunel University and a senior fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. He has advised law firms, governments and international organisations in most areas of international law, including international arbitration. Alongside his academic career he served as head of international law and arbitration at a Legal500 law firm.
An Asia-Pacific Perspective
The Principles and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration
UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration
A Commentary
Foreign-Related Arbitration in China
Commentary and Cases
The UNCITRAL Model Law and Asian Arbitration Laws
Implementation and Comparisons
International Human Rights Law and Practice
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line8
|
__label__cc
| 0.533343
| 0.466657
|
I want this title to be available as an eBook
The Secret Rules That Govern our Digital Lives
Author: Nicolas P. Suzor, Queensland University of Technology School of Law and Digital Media Research Centre
Date Published: July 2019
availability: Not yet published - available from September 2019
Please email academicmarketing@cambridge.edu.au to enquire about an inspection copy of this book
Rampant abuse, hate speech, censorship, bias, and disinformation - our Internet has problems. It is governed by technology companies - search engines, social media platforms, and infrastructure providers - whose hidden rules influence what we are allowed to see and say. In Lawless, Nicolas P. Suzor presents gripping examples of exactly how tech companies govern our digital environment and how they bend to pressure from governments and other powerful actors to censor and control the flow of information online. We are at a constitutional moment - an opportunity to rethink the basic rules of how the Internet is governed. Suzor offers a vision of a vibrant, diverse, and flourishing internet that can protect our fundamental rights from the lawless rule of tech. The culmination of more than ten years of original research, this groundbreaking work should be read by anyone who cares about the internet and the future of our shared social spaces.
Includes clear, practical advice for technology companies, civil society organizations, and government regulators
Explains the complexities of regulating the Internet
Critiques how social media companies, search engines, and telecommunications providers shape our social lives
'Lawless is realistic but optimistic about how things on the Internet got so bad and what it will take to fix them. Suzor compellingly describes how constitutionalism and the rule of law can adapt to digital spaces.' James Grimmelmann, Cornell University, New York
'In Lawless, Nicolas P. Suzor doesn't just raise questions about the power tech companies wield, he sets out to answer them, with urgency and care. He offers a lucid, ambitious, wide-ranging, and cautiously hopeful analysis of how platforms govern – and how they should – that comes at just the right moment.' Tarleton Gillespie, Microsoft Research New England and author of Custodians of the Internet
'Suzor's book is a critically important account on the cutting edge of a global sea change in how we imagine our rights will be protected – or not – in a world connected by networked technology.' Kate Klonick, St John's University, New York
'Suzor takes readers on a journey through the challenges and pitfalls of Internet governance. His book is a thoughtful examination of why the constitutional values of legitimacy, transparency and due process are the touchstones we need for a better internet.' Primavera De Filippi, author of Blockchain and the Law
'Suzor's book is a truly thorough look at one of today's most pressing issues and provides real guidance on how we can move forward, together.' Jillian York, Director for International Freedom of Expression, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Part I. A Lawless Internet:
1. The hidden rules of the Internet
2. Who makes the rules? 3. The Internet's abuse problem
4. Legal immunity
5. How copyright shaped the Internet
6. Censorship
Part II. A New Social Contract – Constitutionalizing Internet Governance:
8. Constitutionalizing Internet governance
9. Constitutionalizing intermediaries
10. What should we expect of intermediaries? 11. The role of states and binding law
12. Conclusion.
Front Matter (98 KB)
Marketing Excerpt (94 KB)
Nicolas P. Suzor, Queensland University of Technology School of Law and Digital Media Research Centre
Nicolas P. Suzor is Principal Research Fellow in the Queensland University of Technology's School of Law and Digital Media Research Centre, where he leads a program of work on the governance of digital platforms and internet intermediaries. He has published over forty articles and book chapters in international law reviews and in media and communications journals. He is Deputy Chair and a founding Board Member of Digital Rights Watch in Australia.
Jurisdiction and the Internet
Regulatory Competence over Online Activity
Ethics in an Age of Surveillance
Personal Information and Virtual Identities
Monitoring Laws
Profiling and Identity in the World State
Proof, Policing, Privacy, and Audiovisual Big Data
The Fight over Digital Rights
The Politics of Copyright and Technology
Internet Co-Regulation
European Law, Regulatory Governance and Legitimacy in Cyberspace
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line9
|
__label__cc
| 0.543352
| 0.456648
|
American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences
Vol. 3, Issue 4-1, Jul.
Vol. 3, Issue 2-1, Mar.
Vol. 3, Issue 2-3, Apr.
Vol. 2, Issue 6-1, Dec.
Volume 7, Issue 2, April 2019, Page: 31-35
The Insecticidal Activity of Neem (Azadirachataindica) Against Weevils in Stored Bambara Nuts (Vignasubterranea) and Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)
Mbah-Omeje Kelechi Nkechinyere, Department of Applied Microbiology and Brewing, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Agbani, Nigeria
Received: Nov. 23, 2018; Accepted: Mar. 18, 2019; Published: May 6, 2019
DOI: 10.11648/j.ajbls.20190702.11 View 92 Downloads 28
This study was undertaken to examine the insecticidal properties of Neem plant. Powder and aqueous extracts of Neem, Azadirachata indica leaves were evaluated as grain protectants against the bambara nut weevil (Callosobruchusmaculatus) and bean seed weevil (Acanthoscelidesobtectus), in the laboratory at 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 (%v/w) concentrations per 20g of bambara nut and bean seeds respectively. Aqueous and powder extracts of Azadirachataindica leaves were applied to the bambara nut and beans seed using the contact method of application in the laboratory. Results revealed that 2.0%v/w (p=0.014) and 2.5% v/w (p=0.008) had significant increase in adult mortality of C. maculatus and A. obtectus in aqueous treatment of A. indica on beans and bambara nut after 72h at p<0.05. Similar results were obtained for beans and bambara nuts using powdered A. indica treatment. Percentage grain weight damage in bambara nut powder treatment of A. indica decreased significantly (p=0.002) at (P<0.05) in a proportionate, dose dependent manner and there was no adult emergence for either of bambara nut weevil or bean weevil. The 1.5 (%v/w) concentration was the least effective when compared with other concentrations. There was significant difference between A. indica treated grains and the control. There was no observed discoloration of the treated seeds. A. indica (aqueous and powder) extracts effectively reduced the weight loss of the treated bambara nut and seeds with 2.5% concentration being the most effective after 168hours. Phytochemical analyses of the extracts revealed presence of alkaloids, tannins, phenols, terpenes, saponins, cardiac glycosides, steroids while reducing sugars, carbohydrates and anthraquinones were absent. This study shows the insecticidal effects of A. indica against crop pests and at such there is need to further exploit Neem in order to maximize the potential. Farmers in developing countries can use A. indica as an alternative to chemical pesticide in rural grain storage.
Azadirachataindica, Cowpea, Callosobruchusmaculatus, Acanthoscelidesobtectus and Bambara Nuts
To cite this article
Mbah-Omeje Kelechi Nkechinyere, The Insecticidal Activity of Neem (Azadirachataindica) Against Weevils in Stored Bambara Nuts (Vignasubterranea) and Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences. Vol. 7, No. 2, 2019, pp. 31-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbls.20190702.11
Copyright © 2019 Authors retain the copyright of this article.
This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
F. M. Abou-Tarboush, H. M. El-Ashmaoui, H. I. Hussein, D. Al-Rajhy and M. Al-Assiry. Effect of azadirachtin of neem x-4.5m SWR/Juice. Saudi J BiolSci; 16 (2009) 69-76.
R. B. Raizada, M. K. Srivastava, R. A. Kaushal and R. P. Suigh. Azadirachtin , a neembiopesticide: sub chronic toxicity assessment in rats. Food chem. 39 (2001) 477-83.
A. J. Mordue (Luntz), E. D. Morgan and A. J. Nisbet. Azadirachtin, a natural product in insect control In: Gilbert, L. I. Latrou, K. J. Gill, S. S. (Eds), comprehensive molecular science. Elsevier, Oxford; 6 (2005) 117-135.
P. Sinimons and H. D. Nelson. Insects on Dried fruits 1975. Agriculture Handbook. USD. Agricultural Research Service (1975).
J. P. Morrissey and A. E. Osbourn. Fungal Resistance to plant antibiotics as a mechanism of pathogenesis. MicrobiolMolBiol Rev; 63 (1999) 708-24.
S. Gus-Mayer, H. Brynner, H. A. Schneider-poetsh and W. Ruidiger, Avenscosidase from oat: purification, sequence analysis and biochemical characteristization of a new member of the BGA family of beta-glucosides. Plant MolBiol; 26 (1994) 909-21.
T. Hooper. “Push-pull” Using Plants as natural pesticides,” The naked Scientists: Science Interview (2008).
Neem: A tree of solving Global Problems. Board of Science and Technology for International Development at the Natural Research Council. Washington D. C.: Natural Academy of Sciences (1992).
A. A. Bajwa and A. Ahmed. Potential applications of Neem based products as biopesticides. The Health; 3 (4) (2012) 116 – 120.
R. O. Uddin, II. andR. W. Abdulazeez. Comparative efficacy of neem, false sesame, Endl and the physic nut in the protection of stored cowpea. (Vignaunguiculata) L. walp against the seed beetle Callosobruchusmaculatus (F); (6) (2003) 827-834.
S. O. Emosairue and U. B. Ubana. Field Evaluation of Neem for the Control of some Cowpea Insect Pests in Southern Nigeria. Global Journal of Pure and Applied Science, 4 (1998) 237-241.
G. Ntoukam, L. L. Murdock, R. E. Shade, L. W. Kitch, C. Endondo, B. Ousmane and J. Wolfson. Storageof Bean/Cowpea, Midcourse 2000 Research Meeting, April 9-14, (2000). Senegal. P 3-4.
Addor, R. W. Insecticides In: Agrochemicals from Natural Products. Godfrey, C. R. A (Ed). Marcel Dekker, Inc. (1995) Pp1-62.
Profit, M. Bruchid Research at Royal Holloway, University of London. (1997) Pp 1-3.www.rhul.ac.uk/biosci/credland/bruchid.htm.
Singh, B. Improving the Production and Utilization of Cowpea as Food and Fodder. Field Crops Research., 84 (2003) 149- 150.
Schmutterer, H. The Neem Tree, Azadirachtaindica A. Juss and Other Meliaceous Plants: Sources of Unique Natural Products for Integrated Pest Management, Medicine, Industry and Other Purposes. VCH, Weinheim, Germany (1995).
A. A Bajwa and A. Ahmad. Potntial applications of Neem based Products as Biopesticides. the Health; 3(4) (2012)116-120.
A. K. Tiwari and J. M. Rao. Diabetic mellitus and multiple therapeutic approaches of phytochemicals. Present status and future prospects. Current Science. 83 (1) (2002) 30-31.
W. C. Evans and G. E. Trease. Pharmacognosy (15th edition) W. B. Saunders company Ltd. London. (2002) 191-393.
G. E. Trease and W. C. Evans. Pharmacognosy. 4th edition, W. B. Saunders company, USA (1996) 243-283.
A. Sofowara. Medicinal plants and traditional medicine in Africa Rep. Spectrum books Ltd. Ibadan. (2006) 150.
F. M. Madaki, A. Y. Kairu, M. T. Bakare-Odunola, S. C. Msailafiya, R. U. Hamzah and Janet Edward. Phytochemical and proximate analysis of methanol leaf extract of neemAzadirachtaindica. European Journal of Medicinal plants 15 (2) (2016) 1-6.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line12
|
__label__cc
| 0.628956
| 0.371044
|
Cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma_CESC_TCGA-VS-A8QF-01A-21R-A37O-07 Gene Set
Dataset TCGA Signatures of Differentially Expressed Genes for Tumors
Category transcriptomics
Type tissue sample
Description tissue sample derived from Cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma_CESC (The Cancer Genome Atlas)
363 genes with high or low expression in Cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma_CESC_TCGA-VS-A8QF-01A-21R-A37O-07 relative to other tissue samples from the TCGA Signatures of Differentially Expressed Genes for Tumors dataset.
high expression
ABCC2 ATP-binding cassette, sub-family C (CFTR/MRP), member 2
ABCF2 ATP-binding cassette, sub-family F (GCN20), member 2
ACAA1 acetyl-CoA acyltransferase 1
ACBD6 acyl-CoA binding domain containing 6
ACRC acidic repeat containing
ACTL8 actin-like 8
ACTN4 actinin, alpha 4
ADAM15 ADAM metallopeptidase domain 15
ADIG adipogenin
ADRB1 adrenoceptor beta 1
ADRBK1 adrenergic, beta, receptor kinase 1
AGAP2 ArfGAP with GTPase domain, ankyrin repeat and PH domain 2
AGK acylglycerol kinase
AGPS alkylglycerone phosphate synthase
AKR1B1 aldo-keto reductase family 1, member B1 (aldose reductase)
AKR1B15 aldo-keto reductase family 1, member B15
ALDH3B2 aldehyde dehydrogenase 3 family, member B2
AMIGO1 adhesion molecule with Ig-like domain 1
AMMECR1 Alport syndrome, mental retardation, midface hypoplasia and elliptocytosis chromosomal region gene 1
ANKRD13D ankyrin repeat domain 13 family, member D
ANKRD2 ankyrin repeat domain 2 (stretch responsive muscle)
ANXA9 annexin A9
AP3S2 adaptor-related protein complex 3, sigma 2 subunit
AQP9 aquaporin 9
AQR aquarius intron-binding spliceosomal factor
ARHGEF4 Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) 4
ASB13 ankyrin repeat and SOCS box containing 13
ATXN7L2 ataxin 7-like 2
AVEN apoptosis, caspase activation inhibitor
B4GALT2 UDP-Gal:betaGlcNAc beta 1,4- galactosyltransferase, polypeptide 2
BCAP31 B-cell receptor-associated protein 31
BCL2L10 BCL2-like 10 (apoptosis facilitator)
BCR breakpoint cluster region
C15ORF26 chromosome 15 open reading frame 26
C1ORF123 chromosome 1 open reading frame 123
C1ORF21 chromosome 1 open reading frame 21
C2CD2 C2 calcium-dependent domain containing 2
CALML5 calmodulin-like 5
CAMK2G calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II gamma
CAPN2 calpain 2, (m/II) large subunit
CASC10 cancer susceptibility candidate 10
CASP8 caspase 8, apoptosis-related cysteine peptidase
CCDC150 coiled-coil domain containing 150
CCDC23 coiled-coil domain containing 23
CCL7 chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 7
CCR3 chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 3
CD79A CD79a molecule, immunoglobulin-associated alpha
CDYL chromodomain protein, Y-like
CENPL centromere protein L
CIART circadian associated repressor of transcription
CIB2 calcium and integrin binding family member 2
CLCC1 chloride channel CLIC-like 1
CLCN1 chloride channel, voltage-sensitive 1
CLEC5A C-type lectin domain family 5, member A
CNOT4 CCR4-NOT transcription complex, subunit 4
COA7 cytochrome c oxidase assembly factor 7 (putative)
CPNE7 copine VII
CPTP ceramide-1-phosphate transfer protein
CREG1 cellular repressor of E1A-stimulated genes 1
CSK c-src tyrosine kinase
CSTF2 cleavage stimulation factor, 3' pre-RNA, subunit 2, 64kDa
CUL1 cullin 1
CWC22 CWC22 spliceosome-associated protein
CWH43 cell wall biogenesis 43 C-terminal homolog (S. cerevisiae)
CXORF40B chromosome X open reading frame 40B
CXORF56 chromosome X open reading frame 56
CYB561D1 cytochrome b561 family, member D1
CYCSP52 cytochrome c, somatic pseudogene 52
CYP20A1 cytochrome P450, family 20, subfamily A, polypeptide 1
CYP2C8 cytochrome P450, family 2, subfamily C, polypeptide 8
CYP2E1 cytochrome P450, family 2, subfamily E, polypeptide 1
CYP2J2 cytochrome P450, family 2, subfamily J, polypeptide 2
CYP4F29P cytochrome P450, family 4, subfamily F, polypeptide 29, pseudogene
CYP4F8 cytochrome P450, family 4, subfamily F, polypeptide 8
DAP3 death associated protein 3
DARS2 aspartyl-tRNA synthetase 2, mitochondrial
DEDD death effector domain containing
DENND4B DENN/MADD domain containing 4B
DGCR11 DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 11 (non-protein coding)
DHCR24 24-dehydrocholesterol reductase
DHX57 DEAH (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp/His) box polypeptide 57
DLL3 delta-like 3 (Drosophila)
DMKN dermokine
DNAJB6 DnaJ (Hsp40) homolog, subfamily B, member 6
DPH2 DPH2 homolog (S. cerevisiae)
EBNA1BP2 EBNA1 binding protein 2
ECH1 enoyl CoA hydratase 1, peroxisomal
ECHDC2 enoyl CoA hydratase domain containing 2
EFTUD1 elongation factor Tu GTP binding domain containing 1
EID2 EP300 interacting inhibitor of differentiation 2
EIF3K eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3, subunit K
ELOVL1 ELOVL fatty acid elongase 1
EMC4 ER membrane protein complex subunit 4
ENOX2 ecto-NOX disulfide-thiol exchanger 2
ERCC6L excision repair cross-complementation group 6-like
ERI3 ERI1 exoribonuclease family member 3
ETFA electron-transfer-flavoprotein, alpha polypeptide
EXOSC7 exosome component 7
FAH fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (fumarylacetoacetase)
FAM103A1 family with sequence similarity 103, member A1
FAM189B family with sequence similarity 189, member B
FAM199X family with sequence similarity 199, X-linked
FAM58A family with sequence similarity 58, member A
FAM86C1 family with sequence similarity 86, member C1
FAM98C family with sequence similarity 98, member C
FBXO22 F-box protein 22
FGGY FGGY carbohydrate kinase domain containing
FLJ41941 uncharacterized LOC100192420
FOXC1 forkhead box C1
GABRE gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, epsilon
GBA glucosidase, beta, acid
GDPGP1 GDP-D-glucose phosphorylase 1
GLA galactosidase, alpha
GPR143 G protein-coupled receptor 143
GPSM2 G-protein signaling modulator 2
GRK6 G protein-coupled receptor kinase 6
GSTK1 glutathione S-transferase kappa 1
GTF3C3 general transcription factor IIIC, polypeptide 3, 102kDa
HACL1 2-hydroxyacyl-CoA lyase 1
HAL histidine ammonia-lyase
HBBP1 hemoglobin, beta pseudogene 1
HBZ hemoglobin, zeta
HDAC8 histone deacetylase 8
HEXA-AS1 HEXA antisense RNA 1
HSF5 heat shock transcription factor family member 5
HYKK hydroxylysine kinase
IDH3A isocitrate dehydrogenase 3 (NAD+) alpha
IER5 immediate early response 5
IKBKG inhibitor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells, kinase gamma
IL13RA1 interleukin 13 receptor, alpha 1
IMP3 IMP3, U3 small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein
INGX inhibitor of growth family, X-linked, pseudogene
IPO13 importin 13
IRAK1 interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 1
KCNIP2 Kv channel interacting protein 2
KCNK18 potassium channel, two pore domain subfamily K, member 18
KCNK6 potassium channel, two pore domain subfamily K, member 6
KCTD18 potassium channel tetramerization domain containing 18
KIAA1024 KIAA1024
KIF4A kinesin family member 4A
KLK5 kallikrein-related peptidase 5
KRT23 keratin 23, type I
KRT4 keratin 4, type II
KRTAP4-1 keratin associated protein 4-1
KTI12 KTI12 homolog, chromatin associated (S. cerevisiae)
LAS1L LAS1-like (S. cerevisiae)
LELP1 late cornified envelope-like proline-rich 1
LEP leptin
LGALS7 lectin, galactoside-binding, soluble, 7
LGALS7B lectin, galactoside-binding, soluble, 7B
LIMK1 LIM domain kinase 1
LINC00244 long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 244
LOC100132111 uncharacterized LOC100132111
LOC148696 uncharacterized LOC148696
LRP8 low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 8, apolipoprotein e receptor
LRRC42 leucine rich repeat containing 42
MAGEA4 melanoma antigen family A4
MAGOH mago-nashi homolog, proliferation-associated (Drosophila)
MAPK11 mitogen-activated protein kinase 11
MAPK8IP2 mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 interacting protein 2
MAPKAPK2 mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinase 2
MARCH2 membrane-associated ring finger (C3HC4) 2, E3 ubiquitin protein ligase
MBOAT2 membrane bound O-acyltransferase domain containing 2
MED29 mediator complex subunit 29
MED8 mediator complex subunit 8
MFSD6 major facilitator superfamily domain containing 6
MMP23B matrix metallopeptidase 23B
MOB4 MOB family member 4, phocein
MORC4 MORC family CW-type zinc finger 4
MOSPD1 motile sperm domain containing 1
MRPL37 mitochondrial ribosomal protein L37
MRPS12 mitochondrial ribosomal protein S12
MTCP1 mature T-cell proliferation 1
MUS81 MUS81 structure-specific endonuclease subunit
MYBPHL myosin binding protein H-like
MYD88 myeloid differentiation primary response 88
MYL12A myosin, light chain 12A, regulatory, non-sarcomeric
MYL12B myosin, light chain 12B, regulatory
MYOM1 myomesin 1
NABP1 nucleic acid binding protein 1
NANOS1 nanos homolog 1 (Drosophila)
NAT8B N-acetyltransferase 8B (GCN5-related, putative, gene/pseudogene)
NCCRP1 non-specific cytotoxic cell receptor protein 1 homolog (zebrafish)
NCKAP1 NCK-associated protein 1
NDC1 NDC1 transmembrane nucleoporin
NDUFB3 NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquinone) 1 beta subcomplex, 3, 12kDa
NEBL nebulette
NFKBIB nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer in B-cells inhibitor, beta
NIF3L1 NIF3 NGG1 interacting factor 3-like 1 (S. cerevisiae)
NIT2 nitrilase family, member 2
NKRF NFKB repressing factor
NOS1AP nitric oxide synthase 1 (neuronal) adaptor protein
NOTCH2NL notch 2 N-terminal like
NOX5 NADPH oxidase, EF-hand calcium binding domain 5
NSDHL NAD(P) dependent steroid dehydrogenase-like
NUP35 nucleoporin 35kDa
OMA1 OMA1 zinc metallopeptidase
OR10V1 olfactory receptor, family 10, subfamily V, member 1
OR2A12 olfactory receptor, family 2, subfamily A, member 12
OR2A2 olfactory receptor, family 2, subfamily A, member 2
ORC2 origin recognition complex, subunit 2
ORMDL1 ORMDL sphingolipid biosynthesis regulator 1
OSER1 oxidative stress responsive serine-rich 1
OTP orthopedia homeobox
OXSM 3-oxoacyl-ACP synthase, mitochondrial
PAF1 Paf1, RNA polymerase II associated factor, homolog (S. cerevisiae)
PAK4 p21 protein (Cdc42/Rac)-activated kinase 4
PARP6 poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase family, member 6
PARS2 prolyl-tRNA synthetase 2, mitochondrial (putative)
PCED1B PC-esterase domain containing 1B
PEA15 phosphoprotein enriched in astrocytes 15
PEX19 peroxisomal biogenesis factor 19
PITRM1 pitrilysin metallopeptidase 1
PLA2G2F phospholipase A2, group IIF
PLB1 phospholipase B1
PMS1 PMS1 postmeiotic segregation increased 1 (S. cerevisiae)
PNPLA1 patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 1
POGK pogo transposable element with KRAB domain
POLR3C polymerase (RNA) III (DNA directed) polypeptide C (62kD)
PPIH peptidylprolyl isomerase H (cyclophilin H)
PPM1F protein phosphatase, Mg2+/Mn2+ dependent, 1F
PRKRA protein kinase, interferon-inducible double stranded RNA dependent activator
PRPF38A pre-mRNA processing factor 38A
PRR32 proline rich 32
PRSS38 protease, serine, 38
PSMD10 proteasome (prosome, macropain) 26S subunit, non-ATPase, 10
PSMD8 proteasome (prosome, macropain) 26S subunit, non-ATPase, 8
PSRC1 proline/serine-rich coiled-coil 1
PVRL4 poliovirus receptor-related 4
RALGPS2 Ral GEF with PH domain and SH3 binding motif 2
RBM15B RNA binding motif protein 15B
REC114 REC114 meiotic recombination protein
RFWD2 ring finger and WD repeat domain 2, E3 ubiquitin protein ligase
RGS21 regulator of G-protein signaling 21
RHEB Ras homolog enriched in brain
RINL Ras and Rab interactor-like
RITA1 RBPJ interacting and tubulin associated 1
RNF220 ring finger protein 220
RPP25 ribonuclease P/MRP 25kDa subunit
RUSC1 RUN and SH3 domain containing 1
S100A7 S100 calcium binding protein A7
S100A7A S100 calcium binding protein A7A
SAMD4B sterile alpha motif domain containing 4B
SATL1 spermidine/spermine N1-acetyl transferase-like 1
SBSN suprabasin
SCAMP2 secretory carrier membrane protein 2
SCAP SREBF chaperone
SCP2 sterol carrier protein 2
SDHC succinate dehydrogenase complex, subunit C, integral membrane protein, 15kDa
SH3TC2 SH3 domain and tetratricopeptide repeats 2
SIPA1L3 signal-induced proliferation-associated 1 like 3
SLC10A3 solute carrier family 10, member 3
SLC13A4 solute carrier family 13 (sodium/sulfate symporter), member 4
SLC5A11 solute carrier family 5 (sodium/inositol cotransporter), member 11
SLC6A11 solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter), member 11
SNORA36A small nucleolar RNA, H/ACA box 36A
SNORA59B small nucleolar RNA, H/ACA box 59B
SNORA66 small nucleolar RNA, H/ACA box 66
SNORD89 small nucleolar RNA, C/D box 89
SNUPN snurportin 1
SNX12 sorting nexin 12
SORT1 sortilin 1
SPDYE3 speedy/RINGO cell cycle regulator family member E3
SPESP1 sperm equatorial segment protein 1
SPINT2 serine peptidase inhibitor, Kunitz type, 2
SPRR2A small proline-rich protein 2A
SPRR2B small proline-rich protein 2B
SPRR2G small proline-rich protein 2G
STK17B serine/threonine kinase 17b
STRADB STE20-related kinase adaptor beta
STRIP1 striatin interacting protein 1
SUMO1 small ubiquitin-like modifier 1
SUMO1P3 SUMO1 pseudogene 3 (functional)
SUPT5H suppressor of Ty 5 homolog (S. cerevisiae)
SVIL supervillin
SZT2 seizure threshold 2 homolog (mouse)
TACSTD2 tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2
TAF7L TAF7-like RNA polymerase II, TATA box binding protein (TBP)-associated factor, 50kDa
TARS2 threonyl-tRNA synthetase 2, mitochondrial (putative)
TBC1D3H TBC1 domain family, member 3H
TCEANC2 transcription elongation factor A (SII) N-terminal and central domain containing 2
TCHP trichoplein, keratin filament binding
TDRKH tudor and KH domain containing
TGIF1 TGFB-induced factor homeobox 1
TIMM50 translocase of inner mitochondrial membrane 50 homolog (S. cerevisiae)
TLE3 transducin-like enhancer of split 3
TMC3 transmembrane channel-like 3
TOMM20L translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 20 homolog (yeast)-like
TSEN2 TSEN2 tRNA splicing endonuclease subunit
TSKS testis-specific serine kinase substrate
TTC4 tetratricopeptide repeat domain 4
TUBB7P tubulin, beta 7, pseudogene
UBC ubiquitin C
UBE2A ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2A
UBE2E3 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2E 3
UBE2Q1 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2Q family member 1
UBL7 ubiquitin-like 7
UBQLN4 ubiquilin 4
ULK3 unc-51 like kinase 3
USP21 ubiquitin specific peptidase 21
UTP14A UTP14, U3 small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein, homolog A (yeast)
VANGL1 VANGL planar cell polarity protein 1
VSIG10L V-set and immunoglobulin domain containing 10 like
WDR12 WD repeat domain 12
YBX1 Y box binding protein 1
YIF1B Yip1 interacting factor homolog B (S. cerevisiae)
YIPF1 Yip1 domain family, member 1
ZAR1L zygote arrest 1-like
ZDHHC3 zinc finger, DHHC-type containing 3
ZFP69 ZFP69 zinc finger protein
ZMYND12 zinc finger, MYND-type containing 12
ZNF212 zinc finger protein 212
ZPBP2 zona pellucida binding protein 2
low expression
BTN2A1 butyrophilin, subfamily 2, member A1
CSTF2T cleavage stimulation factor, 3' pre-RNA, subunit 2, 64kDa, tau variant
PRKD3 protein kinase D3
VAPA VAMP (vesicle-associated membrane protein)-associated protein A, 33kDa
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line19
|
__label__cc
| 0.508232
| 0.491768
|
The Vilh. Pedersen edition
1862: The Vilh. Pedersen edition
6th - 21st October
In Granada. Sees Alhambra and witnesses the festivities in honour of the arrival of Queen Isabella II in the town. Is invited out to look at ladies and feels his blood churning, as also happened earlier during the stay in Spain.
Reads Søren Kierkegaard's work Begrebet Angest (The Concept of Fear) and is offended by the fact that Kierkegaard labels the genius as unchristian.
Gets into a heated discussion with Jonas Collin on the topic of faith in God and Christianity:
"I then was told in a direct manner about God's expelling of Christianity in favour of the new God Christ"
(the diary, 13th).
The first booklet of a series of 3 which together make up: H.C. Andersens Eventyr og Historier. Med Illustrationer efter Originaltegninger af V. Pedersen. Første Bind. Med 91 Illustrationer. (Hans Christian Andersen's Tales and Stories. With Illustrations Based on Original Drawings by V. Pedersen. First Volume. Including 91 Illustrations). The following two booklets were released on 3rd November and 15th December. This, as well as the second volume (1863), includes all the fairy-tales and stories illustrated by Vilh. Pedersen, in chronological order.
Return via Loja to Málaga, where they stay from 22nd - 29th October.
Arrival by ship to Gibralter. Receives a letter from Sir John Drummond Hay, English Consulate General and Danish Consul to the empire of Morocco, who is married to the sister of Georg Carstensen. The letter invites them to stay with the Drummond Hay family when they arrive in Tangier.
They sail to Morocco, to Tangier and ride out to Ravensrock, the country house of Sir Drummond Hay. They are the guests of the consul both here and in Tangier. The consul is their guide to the Pascha. An invitation is received to visit the home of a rich Jewish family.
Aboard the French steam-powered battleship 'Titan' to Cádix.
Via Jeres to Sevilla, where on the first evening in the town he is inspired to write a poem about the cigar! Here he meets the Swedish painter E.S. Lundgren and the Scottish painter John Phillip, who bring him along to the Art Academy. One of the halls is home to 24 works by the painter Murillo from Sevilla. HCA is very impressed with Murillo and thinks more highly of him than of Rubens:
"Like Southern sunlight from the world of spirits [...] No-one outdoes him. Every one of these paintings is a great pleasure to behold"
(In Spain).
Does not get to see the tobacco factory but notes in his travel journal that:
" Snuff from the Seville factory rains and snows over the entire peninsula; five hundred people, mostly women, work in that great tobacco tin".
Is worried about talk of cholera.
By train to Cordoba. On to Madrid on 25th.
26th November - 2nd December
In Madrid. Visits the poet and literary historian Juan Hartzenbusch.
To Toledo. Return to Madrid on 7th December.
7th - 19th December
In Madrid. Goes to the bull-fighting once again, as Jonas wishes to see it. Would have preferred to spend the money going to the opera.
Is introduced to the Duke of Rivas, who is a politician and writer, by the Swedish Ambassador Bergman. Sees the Real museum.
Goes to see a translator by the name of Jacobo Zobel de Zangroniz, who works for a magazine in Madrid. Zobel wishes to write a piece about HCA's stay there, and HCA takes the opportunity to suggest he translate "The Story of a Mother" for the magazine. In Madrid, as elsewhere in Spain, HCA meets only a few people who have heard of him, and then only through English or German translations. The young Zobel, who HCA spends some time with during the last few days in Madrid, wishes to write about his life.
Visits, whilst in Madrid, La exposicion nacional de bellas artes de 1862. There he sees, amongst other things, a statue of the recently deceased politician and poet, Martinez de las Rosas, who had lived in exile in Paris for some time. HCA had met him there in 1843 and had been looking forward to seeing hem again during the visit to Spain.
Via St. Chidrian to Búrgas, where they lodge in a hotel where the girls are very brash towards them, as though it were a brothel:
"The girls in this house are quite like prostitutes, they almost threw themselves at Jonas and I, laid their hands on us, had many excuses and would stop at nothing to please us".
The travelling companions find the winter weather gruelling.
On from Búrgos through San Sebastián and Irún into France to Bayonne.
23rd - 27th December
In Bayonne, where they spend Christmas at the hotel with cake, champagne and cognac. A wax candle from Rome is placed in the champagne bottle and serves as their Christmas tree. In the window of a book-store, HCA sees a copy of his work Billedbog uden Billeder (Picture Book without Pictures), as well as a book by Oehlenschläger. Departure from Bayonne on 27th-29th for an outing to Biarritz. The trip continues on 29th via Bayonne to Dax and on to Bordeaux.
Arrival in Bordeaux, where they celebrate the New Year, once more with champagne and cake. Here, as had also been the case earlier on during the trip, HCA is very displeased with his young companion:
"From him I never receive any thanks, although surely from his parents"
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line21
|
__label__wiki
| 0.509314
| 0.509314
|
Living room bout V 12.04.2014
Last weekend the Berlin Bombshells welcomed an opponent to a living room bout for the first time this season.
This time our guests were the girls from Kallio Rolling Rainbow from Helsinki.
KRR was facing off against the ladies from the Berlin A-Team, who are training hard for the Beach Brawl International Tournament in beautiful Florida.
Last year both teams were able to win their respective national championships.
The Berlin Bombshells showed up with 4 jammers, while Helsinki brought 3.
The bout had a hectic start for Berlin, with 3 of the Bombshells jammers landing in the penalty box during the first 10 minutes of the game. Kallio, on the other hand, played very calmly and effectively held back our jammer during a power jam in our favor. This power jam proved to be enough though to motivate the Berliners to gain the lost points and even out the score. 25:26 for Kallio. But Kallios jammers remained focused and ran laps around the Bombshells, while our own jammers faced a struggle exiting the pack. The score is 25:45 for Kallio. Berlin slowly started catching up to the point lead.
Time out for Berlin.
Berlin took care of delivering a very exciting first period. Typical Bombshells! The jammers from both teams took turns with lead jammer status. It was a thrilling first half where Kallio dominated a bit more, although in the end they did lose some points.
During the break the score is at 95:80 for the Berlin Bombshells. Kallio´s support system consisted of only a handful of fans, but they managed to rock the sports hall anyways!
After a well-deserved break the game continued as exciting as it had started. Already in the first jam Kallio gained lead jammer status but had to call it off because the Berlin jammer was hot on her heels. Kallio seemed to be getting tired and Berlin brought a strong defense that continued draining the Kallio Rolling Rainbow jammer´s strength.
Time out for Kallio.
The finnish players managed to catch up a bit in points because the Berlin jammers ended up in the penalty box two times in a row. The score is 136:120 for Berlin. And yet again another Berlin jammer had to make her way to the box because of a back block. Kallio caught up and took a small lead over Berlin. 136:140 for Kallio. It turned into a tough battle for both sides with constant catching up, passing and overtaking. The leader in points switched between both teams.
Then came a short interruption. Paulina Pocket of the Berlin Bombshells had injured herself. The jam had to be called off. It was the 10th jam from the second period. Everybody took a short breath, nothing bad happened!
Slowly it was becoming critical. A Berlin jammer landed in the box again, alongside 2 other Berlin blockers. Kallio had all players on track while Berlin sparkled with penalties. The score is 166 to 186 for Kallio.
At this point also the Berlin fans were awake and cheering their team on full force! There was an official time out. Directly afterwards, a Kallio jammer ended up in the box, which allowed the Berliners to catch up in points. Now the score is just 180:186 for Kallio.
After this the Kallio jammers started to end up in the box regularly, having to sit out penalties 3 times in a row.
Time out Kallio. The score is 202 for Berlin and 186 for Helsinki. And another Berlin jammer landed swiftly in the box. 205:195 for Berlin.
But close to the end the Bombshells managed to regain their focus and score point after point. The Kallio Rolling Rainbow jammers were struggling and couldn´t get through the Berlin walls, preventing them from scoring any points. Berlin effortlessly ran lap after lap taking in all the points! Even though Kallio didn´t give up the end result is 256:199 for the Berlin Bombshells!
It was a hard battle and close call for both teams! A special thank you to the Kallio Rolling Rainbows – it was our pleasure as always!
We gave it our all in Berlin and now we want to do the same in Florida. Please support us on our journey!
It´s a long way to Miami and going by float is sadly not an option.
Every donation counts, regardless of the amount!
The Heat Is On: Florida Tour 2014
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line26
|
__label__wiki
| 0.743913
| 0.743913
|
‘Every 28 Hours’ Is Powerful ‘Black Lives Matter’ Theater
Home / Culture / ‘Every 28 Hours’ Is Powerful ‘Black Lives Matter’ Theater
By Richard Green
In Culture, Feature
‘Every 28 Hours’ Is Powerful ‘Black Lives Matter’ Theater2016-10-182016-10-18http://www.alivemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo_header.pngAlivehttp://alivemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/every28hours.jpg200px200px
A lot of good is still coming out of the Black Lives Matter movement, and one clear example is Every 28 Hours. Like the movement itself, the collective performance is part of a nationwide event created here in St. Louis, a year after the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Your next chance to see it will be Oct 24, at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.
This two-hour series of 64 very short one-minute plays looks at the fate of different black men killed by police, security guards and vigilantes in this country “every 28 hours” as the common statistic goes, but it also examines modern black life in general in light of this deadly phenomenon. The astonishing finale “Unknown Thousands,” staged by Black Rep founder Ron Himes, is the most powerful thing I think I’ve ever seen on stage.
But far from being a harangue, this show is frequently poetic.
It’s true that the characters — written by playwrights across the nation, including many St. Louis-area authors — sometimes begin their short scenes in a state of anguish or with a stunned sense of betrayal. And some of the mini-stories end that way instead, to devastating effect. But as often as not, the black characters are also challenged by their own flaws or by a kind of immobility at a tragic crossroads. Good, true theater is always center-stage here.
Many of the playlets also reveal the invisible wall of white privilege, sometimes as thick as a fortress battlement, other times almost imperceptible—at least to the white character on stage. And, in spite of the occasionally unbearable tension, there are also things to laugh about. Aaron Jafferis’ “Giving Thanks” puts a family around their Thanksgiving dinner, prompting one young man to ask (humorously) what the turkey did to get shot, while Kristoffer Diaz’ “All Ears” poses all the questions a black woman might have about urban decay to a seemingly helpful white man, who walks away when a solution is sought.
History repeats itself in unexpected ways in “Live Here,” a story of pre-1964 racial covenants in real estate, and modern “sorting,” in a script by Chelsea Gregory. “The Tree Story” by Keith Josef Adkins pits one man against a tree removal service as he remembers his great-great-grandfather’s lynching.
So many facets of black life and history go flashing past, it’s hard to keep track of them all. And while your local policeman is never vilified, the whole question of racial identity and racial profiling by all Americans, of all races, is constantly in play.
Ferguson, St. Louis, Theater
Songbird Cafe Concert Series Celebrates Five Years In St. LouisCulture, Interviews
Two Historic Buildings in St. Louis Offer Memorable New Event SpacesCulture, Sponsored
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line29
|
__label__wiki
| 0.811621
| 0.811621
|
Drumshanbo Links
Weather / General / Brochures
Hill Walking
Hidden Ireland
Language & Music School
Our Centre
O Connors Island ( Inisfale )
Sailing Centre
Allen Centre
Drumshanbo Co Leitrim
Comments Off on O Connors Island ( Inisfale )
16January2017
Some history in relation to O’Connors Island ( 1903)
Click on map to enlarge
In Bleak House, Mrs Jellyby is a caricature of the English philanthropist Caroline Chisholm, celebrated for her work for female emigrants from Britain and Ireland to Australia. She is portrayed as obsessed by good causes in far-away places – characterised by Dickens as “telescopic philanthropy” – and, as a result, she neglects her person, her family and her household.
Her work for Irish emigrants is noted in the “Queenstown story” exhibition at the Cobh Heritage Centre in Co Cork. She made a well-publicised visit to Cork and Dublin in 1852 to encourage Irish emigration to Australia.
She is better known today in Australia than in Britain or Ireland, not least because she was depicted on the Australian $5 banknote in issue between 1968 and 1991.
Her daughter, also named Caroline, married Edmund Dwyer Gray, owner of Dublin’s Freeman’s Journal newspaper and Irish Party MP at Westminster from 1877 until his death at an early age in 1888. Their family home was in Upper Mount Street, Dublin.
Mrs Gray effectively controlled the Freeman after her husband’s death, but she sold out her interest in the paper in 1892 after its profitability had been undermined by the Parnell split. She remarried, her second husband being Maurice O’Conor, a captain in the Connaught Rangers and a cousin of the O’Conor Don. They lived on Inisfale Island in Lough Allen, near Drumshambo, Co Leitrim. – Yours, etc,
Source FELIX M LARKIN,
Vale View Lawn,
Cabinteely, Dublin 18.
© 2019 Allen Centre Powered by WordPress | Charles Gibbons
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line30
|
__label__cc
| 0.670746
| 0.329254
|
IT Infrastructure Services
Notable Client Solutions
Hungarian pharma leader saves time and money with MFA
2019-05-13 /in Uncategorized @hu /by Kardos Eszter
Securing access for its global team used to involve the complex purchase, shipping and management of thousands of physical tokens for this large Central and Eastern European pharma leader. But a smart move to multi-factor cloud authentication with Azure has removed all that admin and cost.
Egis Pharmaceuticals is a leading generic pharmaceutical company that does everything from basic research through to production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products to sales and marketing in more than 70 countries.
To ensure secure access to important applications for employees, it had used an older on-premises security solution, but was looking for a better alternative. “We wanted to move to cloud-based delivery of this functionality instead, as we did not want to work with tokens anymore and preferred the idea of a centrally-managed way of doing this,” says the company’s IT Operations Manager, Tamás Hierholcz. “We also wanted to offer a solution that would help users working in the field with their own device, so they don’t have to use a separate device to operate as a token. Microsoft Azure Multi-Factor Authentication offered us the flexibility we wanted, as there was no financial investment needed in the beginning, and we could create the test environment in a few days.”
120 staff days saved per year
Working with trusted local implementation partner ALPHANET, Hierholcz now has 1,000 users worldwide working in a whole new way. “ALPHANET understood our needs very quickly, and offered us great advice about technology we were unfamiliar with,” he says. “They worked fast and in a very flexible way; I’d recommend them to others.”
“At Egis, home-office is a very popular way of working and there are a lot of employees who need to travel extensively for their jobs. But as they are now always secured by Azure Multi-Factor Authentication, users can very easily connect to internal Egis systems.”
It also helps the IT budget, as its pricing offers clarity and predictability, and it doesn’t require any physical infrastructure investment or management, or the purchase of any more tokens, saving a lot of money. “Deploying a traditional physical token-based multi-factor authentication solution would have cost us days of setup, shipping and handling of tokens and their day-to-day management. Using the Azure approach, on the other hand, all that time is saved; we estimate as much as 120 staff days.”
Finally, the move to cloud security also aligns well with other strategic moves at the company. “We are in the middle of a digital transformation, based on moving to Microsoft cloud based on Office 365, so using multi-factor authentication is a separate, but integrated step towards what we want to achieve.”
Featured Reference:
Egis Pharmaceuticals – MFA Customer Story
http://alphanet.hu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Egis_pic4_web-e1557766566654.png 373 519 Kardos Eszter /wp-content/uploads/2018/01/alphanet_feher.svg Kardos Eszter2019-05-13 15:55:322019-05-31 14:35:05Hungarian pharma leader saves time and money with MFA
Server devices
Data storage and recovery devices
Network and Mobile Communications Devices
Disclaimer | GTC | Impressum | Privacy and Data Protection Statement
2018 All rights reserved! - ALPHANET Informatikai Zrt. Készítette: DOPPIO Creative Online Marketing Ügynökség
We have achieved Dell EMC Gold Partner status!
We use cookies on this website to provide the best possible user experience. To find out what cookies we use, and options to disable them, you can read the Data Protection Statement. If you continue to use our website, we assume you are okay with our use of cookies.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line32
|
__label__cc
| 0.586179
| 0.413821
|
KAZAKHSTAN - Rio Tinto to invest US$13 million
Published: Tuesday, 26 November 2013 10:09
Written by ASIA Miner News
Rio Tinto is planning an estimated spend of US$13 million for the initial phase of geological exploration at its operations in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s Minister of Industry and New Technology Assets Issekeshev says, “Before the end of the year we will have a total of four agreements with major international companies. One of them is Rio Tinto. Investments of the company will reach $13 million at the initial stage. There are also another three agreements with Japanese and South Korean companies.”
According to the minister, the biggest challenge for the industry and the company as well would be train the workforce to apply new technology approaches and facilitate transfer of technology. The minister also revealed that the country is contemplating cooperation with other mining giants such as KORES, JOGMEC and Iluka Resources.
He said: “We have thoroughly studied mining industry practices of other countries such as Australia and Canada. We have developed a model based primarily on Australia’s practices to attract investment into the geological exploration sector. Australia has issued 23,000 licences for geological exploration.
“There is a huge number of smaller exploration companies, whereas in Kazakhstan there are only 400 contracts. Our task is to change the situation in order to attract investors.”
KYRGYZ REPUBLIC - Centerra has little room to move...
MONGOLIA - Viking Ashanti and Auminco to merge...
PHILIPPINES - Further delay at new Co-O mill...
INDONESIA - Pan Asia gains loan extension from Kopex...
PRODUCTS - ALS CoreViewer incorporates PANalytical TerraSpec...
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line39
|
__label__cc
| 0.728511
| 0.271489
|
Exclusive Flat for Sale
займ на карту кредит онлайн
Bangladesh Economy
Events Abroad
Events in Bangladesh
Bangladesh Politics
Amor Ekushey 2012
Bangladesh Elections, December 30, 2018
Bangladesh Elections, January 5, 2014
Bangladesh In Crisis 2013
BDR Mutiny
Eid ul Fitr 2012
Fobana 2012
Pohela Boishakh 2012
Locarno Open Doors: Sourav Sarangi’s CHAR, THE ISLAND WITHIN
March 6, 2013 | Filed under: Arts & Leisure | Posted by: yazdan
Locarno Open Doors will be held alongside the 64th Locarno International Film Festival from August 6-9, 2011. Open Doors 2011 that focuses on India has selected 12 projects for its co-production lab. Sourav Sarangi’s Char, The Island Within is one of them. His documentary Bilal won the National Award for Best Non-Feature Film in 2010. In the sixth in the series, DearCinema brings to you details about the filmmaker and the project, in the words of the filmmaker:
Many moons ago a deluge with fishes and tortoises descended from heaven called river Ganga!
Today the river acts as the international border between India and Bangladesh.
Rubel lives on this border. His family shifted to a tiny and fragile island called CHAR within the river after their home got eroded years back. The fourteen years kid smuggles rice to survive by crossing the border.
In summer, wind blows strong in this changing landscape, the clouds roll and monsoon arrives. And at some distance stands the colossal barrage built by India. The grand plan did not help Rubel; he lost his home to the hungry tides of the river goddess.
Rubel dreams to join a school across the river. And live in the mainland where cars move on gas and electric lamps burn much brighter.
I travel with Rubel to the cracking edge of the island. Will Char erode too? This is what my project CHAR, THE ISLAND WITHIN which is under production now, is about.
At Locarno co-production lab, I wish to meeting industry professionals and explore co-production opportunities for this project.
After graduating from the Presidency College, Kolkata, I joined the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune specializing in editing.
My debut film ‘TUSUKATHA’ (1997) received accolades from many leading international film festivals. It is an observational film representing traditional Indian rural life of women engaged with harvesting and related ritual called Tusu.
Since then I have been editing, writing, directing and producing in both fiction and nonfiction genres, and have also been teaching in various film schools.
Currently I am involved in international co-productions as an independent producer and director. My recent award winning work is an international co-production documentary titled ‘BILAL’. The film is based on observations about a three year old kid growing up with blind parents in Kolkata. BILAL travelled over fifty international festivals winning fifteen top awards. It also won the National Award for Best Non-Feature Film in 2010.
I have worked as the chief editor in an Indo-Italian co-production in Rome and Naples. I have also extensively worked in private television channels in India as chief programming director. I’ve supported and executed a number of productions on popular entertainment as well as social issue films which are still considered important works in regional television industry.
I have also served as jury in international film festivals.
Source: Dear Cinema
Man of integrity, politician of conviction
Transboundary river flow: The future of Bangladesh depends on it
Mercury pollution poses big threat
Alleged Indian spy’s Death sentence in Pakistan: Rivals both claim victory as ICJ orders review
Stocks decline as investors take cautious stance
Developing Asia set to meet growth outlook despite trade war: ADB
How Bangladesh fared in Cricket World Cup
GM Quader new chairman of Jatiya Party
Parliamentary committee discusses arrest of Refat’s wife Minny
Pass rate up on good show in English
ARCHIVES Select Month July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 July 2011
AL Awami League Barack Obama BDR BDR mutiny BNP Corruption cricket Dr. Yunus Ekushey energy environment garments hillary clinton human rights Humayan Ahmed Independence India international mother language day Iran Iran-Israel Israel journalist harassment Journalist killed Khaleda Zia Kutub Bagh language movement Muslim Myanmar nuclear Pakistan power RAB rmg Rohingyas Sagar-Runi Saudi Arabia Sheikh Hasina Suranjit Sen Gupta Teesta transit War Crimes water world bank Yunus
The Bangladesh Chronicle
Log in - Powered by WordPress - Designed by Mir Hossain
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line42
|
__label__cc
| 0.707675
| 0.292325
|
AMS Council Speaks Out on Federal Government Shutdown
At its meeting this morning in Phoenix, the AMS Council has released the following statement on the Federal government’s ongoing shutdown:
Those of us who study and predict the atmosphere are familiar with the impacts of uncertainty. Americans rely on weather forecasts, and they trust them to be reliable. Lives and livelihoods are saved or lost based on the timeliness and accuracy of a single weather warning.
Unfortunately, the current U.S. government shutdown—and the associated uncertainty—is now beginning to seriously set back efforts to better understand and forecast our environment and protect the nation’s health and prosperity. National Weather Service forecasters who work without pay during a shutdown, like their peers in other essential government services, experience mounting financial and emotional stress. Years of research are jeopardized when federal scientists cannot collect uninterrupted data. When government researchers no longer maintain collaborations with their peers in academia and industry, our nation, and each and every citizen, loses out.
The uncertain length of a shutdown adds to its costly and corrosive effects. Like a chain reaction, the impacts of a government shutdown ripple far beyond those who are furloughed and can impede development of new scientific technologies that are vital to our nation. Many non-government contract employees are already on forced time off without pay, and experiencing severe financial and personal hardship; we may lose the benefit of their knowledge and capabilities as a result.
Within days, the current shutdown may become the nation’s longest on record. Virtually all other nations have mechanisms to keep partisan disagreements from closing major segments of their governments for days or weeks. Without such a backstop, every shutdown means that the U.S. loses more ground to overseas competitors, as other nations take the lead in scientific leadership.
Our nation cannot afford to undermine its scientific enterprise for the sake of policy disagreement. The AMS urges our elected officials to come together and restore normal federal government operations as soon as possible, and we strongly suggest that partisan differences of opinion be given the time and attention they deserve without the unintended consequences of holding scientific research and related activities hostage.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line45
|
__label__cc
| 0.587076
| 0.412924
|
John Conway's Life
There is a new book out about a mathematician, and as usual he is portrayed as a mentally ill misfit. Here is the WSJ review:
Even Mr. Conway’s darkest points somehow take a sharp veer into whimsy. In 1993, suffering from heart disease and somehow flat broke on a Princeton salary, he attempted suicide by pills. Upon recovering, he wore a T-shirt around campus that read “SUICIDE” in large block letters, apparently with the intent of diffusing rather than generating awkwardness. (“I wore it for 2 or 3 days until it got too sweaty,” he recalls.) ...
Mr. Conway typifies a popular stereotype of the mathematician: prone to wild enthusiasms, sweaty and wild-bearded, inattentive to the mundanities. Ms. Roberts, to her credit, reminds us that he is as much a social outlier among his colleagues as he would be in the general public; that when he forgets to show up to deliver a lecture, it’s annoying, not charming; that the sincere and profound admiration Mr. Conway enjoys is often tinted with exasperation. This is most notable in the only slightly touched-on subject of his romantic life. “I think John is the most selfish, childlike person I have ever met,” one of his three ex-wives tells Ms. Roberts. “One of the reasons I find that so intolerable is that I know damn well he can be human if he cares enough to bother.”
Hollywood usually treats mathematicians as mentally ill also.
A new physics biographical essay writes:
In the early 1970s, Yuri Golfand was among the discoverers of theoretical supersymmetry, a concept which completely changed mathematical physics in the 21st century. After his discovery, his research institution in Moscow fired him. He knew the humiliations of the Brezhnev regime firsthand, blacklisted and unemployed for the rest of the decade due to his desire to emigrate to Israel.
It calls supersymmetry a "revolutionary concept in theoretical physics". Supersymmetry certainly caused a lot of excitement, but it has been a gigantic dead end. Nothing has come out of that work that has any bearing on the real world. No Nobel Prizes have been given for any work related to supersymmetry. The world is not supersymmetric.
I don't want to minimize his hardships under Communism, but no one else got exit visas either.
NSA is cautious about quantum computers
Latest quantum spookiness experiment
Hawking has new black hole info theory
Autism discoveries not independent
Bekenstein black hole area and entropy
Relativity forbids rigid objects
What quantum feature killed the classical picture?...
Deutsch defends many-worlds philosophy
Where are the extraterrestrials?
Newton studied alchemy
Theories of Everything, Mapped
Wave function can be just our knowledge
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line49
|
__label__wiki
| 0.503947
| 0.503947
|
Monks Do What Monks Do.
'We monks should do what monks do. Here.'
- Abbot Placid Spearritt, Sixth Abbot of New Norcia
New Norcia needed 12 million dollars to maintain its heritage buildings.
One of my jobs was to help the monks to fund it.
The businessman was offering us lots of money in return for the use of the New Norcia brand to market his product.
'I'll need to take it to the brethren of course,' the Abbot said after I'd briefed him. 'I should warn you that I'll be voting against it. The proposal doesn't fit with our European, Aboriginal or Monastic heritage. I also need to be mindful not to distract the brethren away from their prayers. There are plenty of worthy tourist icons that could do with the money. As for us, we monks should do what monks do. Here.'
Widget Thinking.
The Abbot of a Benedictine Monastery, the Air Officer Commanding Western Australia, the Chief of the Defence Force; each had clarity of Purpose - their Widget - to guide them when faced with a right-versus-right decision.
Monks seek God - therefore they pray. Yet they interrupt their prayer to find Him in each visitor to their monastery.
The Air Officer Commanding WA seeks to develop positive relationships with the local civilian community to ensure its support of his jets screaming over its homes - therefore he allows families onto his Air Force Base to cool off in the taxpayer funded swimming pool built to to train military jet pilots to survive a ditching into the ocean.
The Chief of the Defence Force seeks to defend Australia and her interests - therefore he deploys forces beyond our shores.
Teachers should teach.
Doctors should heal.
Bakers should bake.
Leaders of the above - principals, medical directors, bakery owners - should create the space and hire managers to keep it free of distractions from teaching or healing or baking.
Decision makers and their advisers faced with right versus right decisions should ask themselves: What's my Widget? Which decision will build it?
Good decision making begins with Widget clarity. Knowing where we want to be helps us to focus our time and attention, and that of those who support us, on making decisions that get us there.
The Abbot did approve another proposal - the New Norcia Abbey Ale. 'Monks have always brewed beer,' he said.
In Decision Making, Five Steps, Leadership, Military, Step 1, SPEAR, Teaching, Widget, Words Matter
Our Process Serves our Widget.
February 24, 2015 Bernard Hill
'That's how I make decisions. I draw how I approach a lot of issues from aviation when it comes to the management of ideas. One of my favourite sayings is that if you muck up the approach you muck up the landing.'
- The Hon. Sussan Ley, Minister for Health & Sport
‘Check wheels,’ the Air Traffic Controller would radio to the student military pilot as he commenced his approach to land.
'Wheels down,’ the student would reply by rote and habit as he continued his descent with undercarriage fully retracted and the ‘Wheels Up’ alarm in the cockpit blaring.
Process is important.
We get good at it.
We turn up to our desk.
Read and type emails.
Attend meetings.
Write reports.
Repeat.
The routine of our working day becomes the Thing We Do. The process gradually replaces our Widget as the Thing We Make.
We attend staff meetings and professional development days and listen and nod to sincerely but falsely acknowledge we’ve heard and responded to the 'Check Wheels' and cockpit alarms as our boss and peers and consultants and guest speakers and strategic papers and Ted Talks and even our own little voice warn us that we’ve forgotten to engage our Widget.
Our knowledge worker rituals and the clatter of weasel words that herald them deafen us to the feedback on our process and progress and obscure the Widget it is meant to serve.
If you tapped the student pilot on the shoulder at 500 feet from violently colliding with the runway and asked whether he was doing his job he would say 'Of course. I'm flying. Now let me get on with it.'
Tap any office worker on their shoulder and ask what their Widget is and in my experience, few can answer or even see it as relevant. 'I'm too busy being busy.'
The curt voice of the vigilant Air Traffic Controller radioing 'Go Around!' would interrupt the student's doomed approach and save him from belly landing in a shower of sparks and grinding metal.
Like monks being called away from their manual labour seven times a day to pray, bosses must regularly call 'Check Widget' and force us back into conscious, engaged, mindful recitals of our decision making process and the Widget it's ultimately serving.
In Decision Making, Five Steps, Learning, Military, Mistake, Widget, Words Matter
How to Succeed Every Time.
'If you do something every day, its a system. If you're waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it's a goal...Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good everytime they apply their system. That's a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction.'
- Scott Adams.
Integrity - doing what you said you were going to do.
Leaders with integrity apply a system of decision making that advances them towards their Widget, for the world to see, emulate, and learn from.
In Decision Making, Five Steps, Leadership, Learning, Teaching, Team, Trust, Widget
Good Decision Making Lite.
January 16, 2015 Bernard Hill
Following Five Steps to a Good Decision too steppy?
Choose one then.
Step Back before making your decisions,
Name the Issue before making your decisions,
Assess the information before making your decisions,
Check for Bias before making your decisions,
Give a Hearing before making your decisions,
Apply just one.
You'll be a step closer to where you want to be.
In Change, Decision Making, Five Steps, Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, Step 5
Step Back and Sit a Little Closer.
January 6, 2015 Bernard Hill
The fox fell silent and looked steadily at the little prince for a long time.
'Please,' he said, 'tame me!'
'I should like to,' replied the little prince, 'but I don't have much time. I have friends to discover and many things to understand.'
'One only ever understands what one tames. People no longer have the time to understand anything. They buy everything ready-made from the shops. but there is no shop where friends can be bought, so people no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!'
'What do I have to do?' said the little prince.
'You have to be very patient,' replied the fox. 'First, you will sit down a short distance away from me, like that, in the grass. I shall watch you out of the corner of my eye and you will say nothing; words are the source of misunderstandings. But each day you may sit a little closer to me.'
- The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Step 1 in the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Step Back.
We yield to the emotions triggered by information.
We sit with them. Wallow in them. Surrender to them.
Seconds. Minutes. Days. Months. However long we have.
The longer we sit, the less frightening the feelings become.
We tame them.
We understand them.
They become our friends. Teachers.
Our emotional responses to events aren't to be feared or ignored or avoided or overcome or denied.
They aren't to be crushed or suppressed as the Leadership Lore would have us believe.
Sit. Tame. Learn.
Become who you are.
In Decision Making, Five Steps, Learning, Step 1, Teaching
The Mind Watching Itself.
'An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.'
- Albert Camus.
Step 4 of the Five Steps to a Good Decision is to Check for Bias.
This is the mind watching itself.
'Hey! Preconceived assumption not supported by the evidence from Step 3! Get outa here!'
'Oi! Prejudice! Get off my neural pathways!'
'You! Yes you! Fight-or-Flight Reflex! Grow up!'
Indeed - so are Steps 1, 2, 3 and 5.
In two:
Watch yourself.
In Decision Making, Five Steps, Leadership, Step 4
Leave the Idiot Work to the Idiots.
December 18, 2014 Bernard Hill
'Leave the idiot work to the idiots.'
A bishop's answer when asked to define Subsidiarity - so the story goes.
The blunt interpretation is proof that even the noblest values can be demeaned and misappropriated.
Subsidiarity is the principle that says a decision should be made at the lowest appropriate level.
Subsidiarity allows each person their dignity.
It is a principle of social justice that, while used by the Roman Catholic Church, is wrongly attributed to it (and therefore possibly ignored!) It predates the Church and has universal application to good decision making. Its universality is demonstrated in the fact that it is part of the Treaty on European Union.
'Subsidiarity' stems from the Latin subsidies, which means 'help, assistance'. And here, as with all good ideas, is where it goes wrong.
The person who is interested in power, practices subsidiarity by choosing what power to delegate to those below him in the hierarchy. To him, subsidiarity is throwing crumbs from the decision making table. This apparent act of generosity and power sharing upon which most organisations operate has its sinister side. The person receiving the crumbs becomes dependent on the person throwing them.
The other version of where subsidiarity comes from is subsidiaries, which means 'of or belonging to the reserves'. In the Roman army, the reserves waited in the rear in case the front line army needed them to overcome a superior enemy. The reserve army did not initiate action, it waited to be called up. It strengthened, reinforced and perfected an act already begun.
In good decision making, subsidiarity presumes that a person should be left to make their own decisions - even 'wrong' ones - without interference from a superior authority. That 'superior' authority can be in a family, a community, an organisation, a state, or the world.
A person will concede part of their individuality as part of their membership of one of those groups. They may also concede some of their decision making authority. But only to the extent necessary to benefit the whole, from which they benefit.
If the authority that the person has conceded as part of their membership of the group is exercised 'beyond the necessary', then the group begins to destruct. The reason is that the person is unable to exercise the talents that they have brought to the group. As the group can only define itself by its works - the sum of each person's talents - then the loss of part of those talents means that the group is not able to function.
In short - subsidiarity requires that each person has as much autonomy and responsibility as possible, and as much control or intervention by a higher authority as necessary.
Individual initiative should only be limited where it is absolutely unavoidable.
The benefit of subsidiary to the higher authority is that it can focus with greater freedom and energy and effectiveness to tasks belonging to it, and to which it alone can accomplish.
Ironically, subsidiarity is one of the reasons to have a higher authority. Such authority exists to create the space to enable people to discover their potential. If the higher authority moves into that space then it contradicts its reason for being. If the boss starts interfering - for well meaning or other reasons - in the decisions and actions of the workers, the boss isn't doing his job.
The higher authority assists by removing obstacles to the person that the person can't remove themselves, or that are otherwise more effectively removed by the higher authority so that the person can focus on their core business.
A Leader practises subsidiarity when they create the space; when they define the purpose and invite the right person to stretch their potential towards it; when they equip the person with the tools that they need to leverage their talents, when they affirm without intervention, when they retreat...
Sadly, it is a perversion of subsidiarity that is most commonly practised. It is that a worker starts as an empty vessel - a human resource. The worker is loaded with information and authority and power by the boss to the extent that the boss feels necessary. The boss adds or removes that cargo as he thinks fit. The boss sets that vessel adrift, attached to a rope.
In short - the worker's power only exists in as much as it has been given to him by the boss. This is what most people mean by 'delegation'.
A healthy organisation recruits people who have existing talents that the organisation needs. It then lets them get on with the job. The boss's job is to remove the obstacles.
And stay out of the way.
In Decision Making, Five Steps, Leadership, Learning, SPEAR, Team, Widget, Words Matter
Challenge Them Into the Future.
Dr Fiona Wood, AM is one of the world's leading plastic surgeons who specialises in burns patients. Earlier this year she was interviewed about what she had learned from her surgical research and practice about Good Decision Making and Leadership.
She started where all Leadership and Good Decision Making begins - the Widget - or 'purpose' as Dr Wood described it:
'I think decision making is something that you have to really take on - I was almost going to say a level of aggression - but a level of purpose might be a better term. Because you have to make a decision. There is someone in front of you that needs your help - you have to make a decision.
Dr Wood acknowledged that decision making is cumulative - that each decision informs the next:
'That decision may not be right – you have to take that. You have to understand that the decision you've made, the action you've taken, has led to then making the next decision. Sometimes it will be right, sometimes wrong. You've just got do deal with it with a level of purpose. And so you bring to the table all your experience - the knowledge that brought you to that point. And it's a question really of visualising the outcome.'
Her Widget focus is paramount in her thinking, and relies on the systems that have been developed to support it:
'I see this individual....If you meet me as a professional you're having a bad day. So they are damaged, and now I want to use everything in my power, in our systems that we work in, in our systems and the knowledge that is out there to make their path to the outcome the very best it can be.'
Even though in each operation she is focussed on the person before her on that day, she maintains her disciplined focus on a more strategic Widget. Each patient illuminates the path to her Widget, yet in such a way that nether the immediate needs of her patient, or the longer term Widget journey is compromised:
'And the outcome that I've visualised for many, many years is scarless healing. We've changed the goalpost. We've inched doggedly there...are we there all the time? Absolutely not. But we're making progress. So it's visualising that outcome and making every play such that you can move it closer to that outcome day by day. And it's learning. It's always taking the blinkers off and learning so that whatever the decisions you've made today, you make sure that you make better ones tomorrow. And that has been actually an entrenched coping strategy to make sure that you critically analyse the work of today to make sure that tomorrow is better.'
Dr Wood's focus does not mean that she is blind to other new information that can serve her Widget:
'I see people out there that do nanotechnology, or genetics or all sorts of different things - psychology, neuroscience and they've got parts of my jigsaw. I need to get parts of that jigsaw and bring it in to play here. And therefore you have to make decisions on lots of different levels. But when you pare that all away you look at the person in front of you, you've got to get the removal of the dead tissue without them bleeding out such that you can repair them the best you can with today's technology such that you set them up for the best outcome.'
Her Widget focus allows her to quickly engage a surgical team with the needs of each patient:
'I teach my guys: As you walk in you make sure you connect with everybody in the room and if there's people you've never seen before you write everything on the board that you're going to do. You should not be making the decisions while you're doing it. You should have visualised it - you go in knowing what you're going to do and knowing your escape routes. So all of that has to be in your mind. And you have to see the landscape. What is it that you've got to work with in terms of your human resources - and engage them. Make sure they understand what you're trying to do and feel the passion - feel that for that period of time the only focus is for that individual. And that's a really important part of the whole. Engaging everyone.'
Dr Wood explained how the path towards the Widget is a meandering one, and that we should not measure our progress on the result of one decision alone:
'The outcomes have got to get better every day. And it's not linear. I don't live in an environment where every day that passes your chance of survival increases. It's not linear - it's a roller coaster. The waves of infection come relentlessly over, unless we've completely sealed - the person weakens and weakens and weakens. A third of the patients who don't survive will survive somewhere around three months. And they're hard days.'
Dr Wood affirmed Step 1: Step Back as being important in good decision making:
'We have this concept that 'Oh, it's macho to keep going'. But it isn't macho to keep going if your performance falls away. And so for a long, long time I've been very aware of people around me and trying to work out who needs to be rotated out...and so it's having that awareness and as I've got older, I don't stay in and so part of it is rotating yourself out, so that it becomes acceptable....
Dr Wood's ideas on leadership are consistent with Creating the Space and Defining the Purpose and inviting people into that space and using the focus on the Purpose as vehicles to reach their potential:
'I think leadership…Vision...is really interesting. Because I believe that everybody can dream. I think leadership is giving people permission to dream. Because I think if you take the time to listen to people you'd be amazed at what they dream. And then you encompass that dream into a vision.'
Yet always the laser Widget focus:
'I saw a child in 1985 and it changed my life. I thought 'That child is so badly injured from a cup of coffee?' We've got to be able to do better. I've carried that photograph around with me for a long time.'
Dr Wood addressed the potential for conflict between Widget focus and learning where we are in relation to our Widget, and the need to get the day-to-day work done. She described the importance of being disciplined in routine and preparation in order to be creative:
'What we want to be is innovative problem solvers but we want to generate outcomes on a regular basis. In every field of endeavour that is a conflict - on the surface of it. But when you start to dig a little bit deeper… I indicated that it is not appropriate to be making decisions about where you cut when it's right there in front of you. You've made those decisions previously. You've visualised. you've gone to the table - whatever table it is - with your outcome in mind and understanding the opportunities you've got to get there. So there’s an element of planning almost on the run all the time. It's getting into the habit.'
She affirmed the idea that good decision making is being confident enough about what you know, to be attentively curious about what you don't:
'What is it that I bring to the table? What's my experience? What's my knowledge? The lawyers do it all the time with precedent, looking back at old cases. Get into the habit that it's always ticking over. Questioning the landscape. And I think underpinning that is a fundamental belief that today is not as good as it gets. Not in that you criticise today. It's not bad. It's the best it can be - today.'
Dr Wood's approach to learning is to seek out feedback. She goes beyond a healthy belief in relying on the power of complaints to provide it. In fact, why wait for a complaint to inform you, and assume that if there is none that you are doing okay? She advocates declaring your understanding of your Widget to the world and inviting it to comment:
'As you've finished, as you've closed up and you walk away, you don't strut. You actually think 'Okay - given that same situation happens tomorrow, how could I have analysed it better, and then you go through the whole exercise again…the debrief. That's not specifically surgery, It's not specifically sport. It's part of exercising your mind. And the next step is doing that in public. Because that's when it starts getting exciting because there's absolutely no doubt we're in an environment where you need multiple minds to solve problems. And so you have to have that level of inquiry and sort of ticking over and then you connect. And you start to develop a language of innovation and visualisation. So you can push forward.'
Dr Wood shared her belief in the value of 'trauma' as a stimulus to growth, extending the literal trauma to her patients' longer term recovery and resilience, to a metaphor about character:
'I can track periods of my life where I went through post traumatic growth. And it wasn't painless. The hardest thing for me post Bali was that people wanted to know my name. Yet I recognised that as part of that I became stronger. And I became able to engage in this positive energy, in this positive good news stories. And I had my blinkers taken off such that i engaged with the community in a broader sense....How we can use energy that is so profoundly negative and turn that around - I think that's fascinating. It's tiring sometimes. And it's hard. But part of that post traumatic growth is having the infrastructure around you, having the people and connectivity around you that give you the ability to lead.'
She had some powerful advice to give on how to deal with criticism and how innovation challenges conventional thought about 'the way things are done':
'There's an element of inertia in practice. Whether that be clinical practice or business practice...This level of inertia is really quite an interesting animal. Because it's useful, but it's also a hindrance. We need to have a level of capacity to maintain things moving forward at a pace that can be managed. And equally, we have to have people testing out the front. And so I have engaged with surgical inertia up front and centre and I've had to make the decision not to engage in that negative energy but to continue to be driven by the positive outcome, collect the data, present the data. And as the things roll forward, the data will speak for itself. And so that inertia starts to be overcome. And I think that the challenge when you're in a situation with that level of inertia is to understand you've got a choice. You turn around and you fight it…and it's bigger than you. Or you stay out the front and you wait for them to catch up. And they get there.'
Yet always returning to the supremacy of the Widget - and the need for a leader to be clear about defining it to the team, regardless of how clear it is to her or how passionate she is about it:
'I had a really interesting lesson in leadership inadvertently in the early 90s. 1991 I hit the ground running. I was very focussed on time to healing. Every day in a burns unit is a day too long. I aggressively engaged in a skin culture programme....the social worker at the time who was a bit older than the rest of us came and said 'Stop!' I thought 'What do you mean, Stop? ‘Sit down. I need to talk to you. I've been asked to come and speak with you. Well you're too intimidating.’ (Give me a break! )‘We understand that what you're doing has got to be right. It's got to have some real benefit. But we don't know what it is. We can feel your passion. We have no idea how we can explain it to the parents, to the patients, to their relatives, to the new nurses when they come on. We're all at sea…’
Dr Wood learned the definition that a leader is someone who makes good decisions that others choose to follow:
'Leadership 101. No team - no leader. Done. The elastic was at breaking point and almost snapping behind me. And had I not had that energy that they all got caught up in, it would have snapped well and truly. So that's the point when I said 'Right. Everybody who's at this table is here for a reason. You've got to be able to be leaders in your own right....Passion on its own doesn't cut it. The communication bit has to be strong.'
A Leader retreats:
There is absolutely no point in me being so entrenched that as I get through my final kick, everything fades away. Succession is so important. It's not because I want to be remembered. It's because the people need treating! And they need to be treated better and better and better. So for me, it's delegation. But delegation with meaning. Empowerment in a real sense. I need to let them deliver. Such that I can get out of my head, get it on paper and challenge them into the future. But in a way that is not intrusive. Not imposing my surgical inertia on them. But allowing them to grow.
Dr Wood leads a team in Good Decision Making in life and death situations. It's not just theory to her. She is still able to use the language of 'dreams', 'visualisation', 'mistakes', 'passion', 'innovation' and 'personal growth' while literally operating at the leading edge of science.
If Dr Wood can save lives while still creating the space for these ideals that allow others to become who they are, then most workplaces have no excuse.
In Change, Complaint, Confidence, Conflict, Decision Making, Five Steps, Leadership, Learning, Listening, Mistake, SPEAR, Step 1, Step 5, Teaching, Team, Trust, Widget, Words Matter
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line50
|
__label__cc
| 0.616164
| 0.383836
|
When We Ask.
'Life is not a straight line. Life is a zig-zag.'
- Maira Kalman
I was 13 and Widgetless.
I glanced at the Daily Bulletin pinned askew to our classroom noticeboard as I was leaving for lunch. I stopped to read the anonymous poem:
When we ask:
'Why am I?'
'What am I to become and be?'
'What is the meaning of my life?'
Then we are exploring
The region of our experience
Where God may be found.
I re-read those lines once, and have never forgotten them.
It was okay to not know my Widget. Indeed, it was a good thing.
Not knowing - and knowing it - were the beginning of Knowing.
Next - were questions.
A deliberate process of inquiry that would lead me to knowing.
And Knowing.
The Widget.
In Decision Making, Learning, Widget
Crime and Punishment.
'The sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident shall be the prevention of accidents and incidents. It is not the purpose of this activity to apportion blame or liability.'
- Clause 3.1 to Annex 13 to the International Convention on Civil Aviation
Vengeance. Retribution. Revenge.
Deterrence. Punishment. Justice.
We have a powerful longing for these outcomes from decisions that follow errors.
Maybe its a carryover from our childhood. Parents. School. Discipline.
If there's an error and no-one gets publicly named and shamed, it's like an enthusiastic waiter has cleared our coffee cup from our table before we've drunk the last mouthful.
Perhaps we're trained in our thinking and expectations by stories from books, movies, and the news about the adversarial winner-loser criminal justice system that relish arrest, prosecution, trial,confession, admission, guilt, judgment, verdict, conviction, sentencing, penalty.
There are no blockbuster movies where the hero rises to her feet in the middle of an Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing and shouts 'You can't handle procedural fairness and natural justice and correct or preferable decision making in the inquisitorial process!' It's Crime and Punishment that is the classic bestselling literary novel. Not Ultra Vires and Certiorari.
Listen for assumptions about blame and punishment lurking ominously just beneath the surface of the benign, dull, haze-grey drone of our organisational language. 'Accountability' doesn't mean 'We'll celebrate and reward you and eagerly learn from you when it all goes well.' We know it really means 'Don't you screw it up - or you'll pay for it.'
Laws that were designed as shields to protect people are brandished like swords and waved menacingly towards us. Or instead of serving as cobblestones meant to pave society's streets of mutual progress, laws are seized by an aggrieved person grasping for reasons for some calamity and prised loose from their intended legal context to be used as missiles to hurl and draw blood from anyone deemed at fault.
The inquisitorial system is so alien to our thinking compared to the adversarial one, and our Whodunnit expectation so strong that it must be managed. Watch and listen to Datuk Kok Soo Chon, the Investigator in Charge of the Malaysian Airlines MH370 disappearance, solemnly repeat word for word Clause 3.1 to Annex 13 of the ICAO Convention as part of his Interim Report on the investigation as he looks down the barrel of the camera at you and me. 'You'll not find blame here,' he's saying. 'We're not going to give you a head on a platter,' he's warning us in more austere bureaucratic language. 'There's nothing more to see here except lessons for a better future.'
To paraphrase Clause 3, the sole purpose of a good decision should be to make a better decision next time.
There's also a lot of learning between 'It fell' and 'I dropped it'.
We don't become who we are on the back of the shamed and fallen.
In Conflict, Decision Making, Learning, Mistake, Words Matter
That's a Good Question.
'The people who do ask a question have demonstrated to themselves that they have good enough judgement to be able to put something into the world that hasn't been said before. That's what makes it a good question. And that practice is something that we should learn and we should teach our kids and we should teach our colleagues how to do it.'
- Seth Godin
In Decision Making, Learning, Trust, Teaching
The Decision is Superior to the Decision Maker.
'The poem has an intelligence that the poet does not have.'
- Jane Hirshfield
Decision making is an act of creation with its own Muse.
Decision makers who serve a process and engage with others along the way, summon forth ideas, creativity, options, perspectives, insights, wisdom and outcomes that were invisible when they were presented with the need to make a decision.
Good decision making has an intelligence that the decision maker does not have.
In Decision Making, Learning, Teaching, Words Matter
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line51
|
__label__cc
| 0.58577
| 0.41423
|
Tag Archives: south africa
Engagement Centres, living legacies engagement centre
Diverse Perspectives on a Global Conflict: Migrant Voices and Living Legacies of WWI
October 23, 2018 ahrcww1 Leave a comment
In this latest Blog Post, Philip McDermott talks through an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on ‘Diverse Perspectives on a Global Conflict: Migrant Voices and Living Legacies of WW1’.
Via the Living Legacies WW1 Engagement Centre, Philip has worked closely with migrant communities in Northern Ireland on questions of identity. Their partner on this project was the North West Migrants Forum in Derry,
Bacadine from Guyana with her panel
In 2016, I was fortunate enough to engage in a conversation with Lilian Seenoi, Director of the North West Migrants Forum in Derry~Londonderry. Lilian noted, “Understanding a place and its history is vital for any migrant but we also need to look closely at the difference and, most importantly, the similarities in our experiences”. This interaction led to a joint project between Ulster University and the North West Migrants Forum funded under the Living Legacies 1914-1918 Engagement Centre to explore this very perspective through the story of World War One.
Participants at the Intercultural Dialogue Day in the Millennium Forum Derry, March 2018
The resulting project, “Diverse Perspectives on a Global Conflict: Migrant Voices and Living Legacies of World War One”, sought to provide a platform for the wider storytelling of WW1 from the perspective of migrants living in Northern Ireland. At the same time the project aimed to provide a means through which to broaden the debate on WW1 in this region, a story which has often been framed amidst competing narratives of Britishness and Irishness – thus hiding global elements of the story.
Boy reading panel (photo Gerry Temple)
Through the North West Migrant Forum’s membership participants from Poland, Romania, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Italy, Guyana, Cameroon, Congo, China and South Africa approached the project in order to prepare a panel exhibition telling their countries’ experiences of the conflict. Individuals attended a number of workshops and, with the help of a history/heritage facilitator, drafted a short text about the story of WW1 in their country, whilst reflecting on its contemporary legacy.
Whilst some participants were acutely aware of the impact of WWI on their own country, others were surprised when they uncovered how deeply their region had been involved. Whilst some places actively ‘remembered’ others consciously ‘forgot’ – as later stories of independence had become the most prominent acts of commemoration.
Hope from South Africa reads her panel with her son. Intercultural Dialogue Day March 2018
In Summer and Autumn 2017 the participants continued to work with the project team to acquire images for the exhibition which will tour Northern Ireland in 2018. The first launch event was held at the Millennium Forum in Derry~Londonderry as part of the intercultural festival and attracted more than 400 participants. Following this, the exhibition will be on display at Ulster University before touring locations in Northern Ireland.
Participants discuss the impact of World War One and Prepare their Panels May 2017
In reflecting on the memory of WWI one participant noted the resonance of the project for a post-conflict region like Northern Ireland. She said: “We must remember the events that helped shape today’s world. How can we understand the present if we do not know the past? Especially in a place like Northern Ireland. If we remember our shared past our children can learn about the price for division.”
Participant Feza from Democratic Republic of Congo with her Panel (photo Gerry Temple)
Commenting on the project Lilian Seenoi noted “through this project our members have in some instances revisited histories they were aware of, whilst others have engaged with these sad stories for the first time. Projects like this are important in so many ways in that they show community organisations like ours how subjects like history and social science can help us in our own aims of promoting positive dialogue between migrants and the wider population”.
“Diverse Perspectives of a Global Conflict” will next be on display at the Belfast Campus of Ulster University from 5th-9th November. Ulster’s heritage research cluster will also host a special event on 7th November (17:30) in the foyer of the Belfast Campus to mark the exhibition and the launch of “Heritage After Conflict: Northern Ireland” (Routledge), edited by Professor Elizabeth Crooke from Living Legacies and Dr Tom Maguire. Speakers will include Paul Mullan the head of Heritage Lottery Fund, Northern Ireland.
The exhibition will then begin a tour with the Northern Ireland Library Service starting in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 19th November.
Dr Philip McDermott is a lecturer in Sociology at Ulster University. He continues to work closely with migrant communities in Northern Ireland and welcomes comments, via the Blog.
Participants at Workshop at North West Migrants Forum in Derry – May 2017
Photos of Millennium Forum Showcase Event are attributed to Gerry Temple.
Exhibition Entrance
annie fezabritishnesscameroonchildrenchinacommunity organisationsconflictcongoDerrydivisionelizabeth crookeengagement centreethiopiaexhibitionFezaforgotGerry Templeglobal conflictguyanahistoriesindependenceinterculturalintercultural dialogueinvolvedirishnessItalyivory coastlegacyLilian SeenoiLiving LegaciesLondonderrymigrant communitiesMigrant VoicesmigrantsMillenium ForumNorth West Migrants Forumnorthern irelandparticpantspaul mullanphilip mcdermottplatformpolandprojectregionrememberedromaniasouth africastory-tellingtom maguireUlster UniversityWorld War Oneww1
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line53
|
__label__wiki
| 0.629233
| 0.629233
|
Minutes - October 2015
MINUTES OF BORTH COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD IN THE COMMUNITY HALL ON MONDAY 5 OCTOBER 2015 AT 19.00 HRS
Present: Chairperson: J Hulse
G Ashley
R Dalton
N Salmon
In Attendance: County Cllr: R P Quant
2 Members of the Public.
176. Cllrs C Bainbridge, M Griffiths, J James and Cllr L Moore. The Clerk has received a letter of resignation from Cllr Griffiths due to work commitments.
PRESENTATION ON A WATER PIPE PROJECT BY KATE DOUBLEDAY
177. Ms Kate Doubleday attended the meeting to give a presentation to members on her proposed water pipe project as part of “Cymerau”. She has been invited by Hydrocitizenship to take part in an artist based water project. Her aim is to work alongside young people to work with rope on the outfall pipe by the RNLI station. Kate hopes to organise workshops and will carry out a feasibility study to determine the best source of material to use and ultimately whether her initial idea of using rope would be considered the right material. Concerns were raised over the use of rope as it may encourage youngsters to climb onto the outfall pipe and could lead to accidents and therefore whilst Borth Community Council fully supports the project there are safety considerations. The Chairman invited Kate to keep the Council up to date with the progress of the project and to return to address the Council when things are more advanced.
178. To remind Cllrs concerning of any matters of interest that may arise during the meeting.
179. It was resolved to confirm the minutes of the Council meeting held on 7 September 2015 as being a true record.
180. World War 1 Centenary. Minute 126. Ongoing.
181. Defibrillators. Minute 127. Ongoing.
182. Disposal of Waste on Common Land. Minute 129. The works are now completed and the bill has been received from CB Environmental Ltd.
183. Knotweed. Minute 130. Ongoing,
184. Land Registry West End House. Minute 131. Ongoing.
185. Welsh Government. Details of Appointment of Chair for Sports Wales.
186. One Voice Wales. Details of the Arts Council of Wales Night Out Scheme.
187. Road Closure. Information by CCC on a temporary road closure in Tre’rddol between 28 September and 2 October.
188. Ceredigion County Council. Details of a Strategic Equality Plan 2016-2020 Consultation. The plans are concerned with eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations between people. The closing date is the 9th October.
189. Ceredigion County Council. Details of a Consultation on Active Travel Mapping. The Welsh Government are asking local authorities in Wales to map, plan and make continuous improvement to its active travel networks for both pedestrians and cyclists.
190. One Voice Wales. Agenda for the next meeting of the Ceredigion Area Committee which will be held on the 14th October at Penmorfa.
191. Welsh Government. Details of the Draft Statutory Guidance for the Well Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 which helps public bodies to respond positively to the duties and powers they now have under the Act.
192. Gambling Policy. Each Licensing Authority has to prepare and publish a Statement of Gambling Policy which sets out the basis upon which the Authority will make its licence application decisions and CCC draft statement can be viewed online. Observations must be made in writing by the 18th October.
193. Public Toilets. A copy of the Service Level Agreement from Ceredigion County Council for the beachside toilets covering the period 1 November 2015 to 31 March 2016 to be signed by the Chair of Council.
194. Ceredigion County Council. A copy of the advert placed in the local newspaper calling for expressions of interest in being included in a list of Supplementary Snow Clearing Services and Other Emergency Related Services for 2015-16.
195. Came & Co. The Council insurance is due for renewal and the premium for this year is £1813.77. The Long term Agreement (LTA) is due to expire on the 30th September 2016 and if the Council wishes to enter into a new LTA the premium can be reduced by 5% to £1723.08 to expire on the 30th September 2018. Members resolved to pay this year’s premium of £1723.08 and to enter into a new three year LTA.
196. Donation Request. Urdd Gobaith Cymru.
197. Other Correspondence. Play for Wales, Glasdon leaflet and a leaflet on compliant outdoor gyms from Wicksteed playgrounds.
198. David Beale. An e-mail requesting information on the situation regarding the sea wall at Ynyslas.
199. Golf Course Car Park. A complaint in respect of the “pot holed road” to the car park and the £2 charge. The clerk forwarded the correspondence on to the Golf Club and requested that they write to Mr Howes and copy the Council in on the response. To date Borth Council has received no communication from the Golf Club. Members discussed the issue and agreed that Cllr Hulse and Salmon would get together to write a letter to CCC with their concerns.
200. Elin Jones AM. Latest news including an update on the local NHS.
201. The Pensions Regulator. An update on the automatic enrolment of employees.
202. Mental Health Project. An update on a mental health project and proposals for improved access to services.
203. Wales Audit Office. Details of the external audit arrangements for 2015-16. The Auditor General for Wales will become the Council’s statutory auditor following the amendment of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004 by section 11 of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2013 and the completion of the 2015-15 audit by BDO.
204. Ceredigion County Council. A letter of complaint has been sent to Ceredigion County Council regarding the painting of a seat adjacent to the bus stop by It’s A Gift. CCC is asking whether Borth Community Council has authorised the works as they have not commissioned the work themselves. Painting of the seat was on the bus stop appraisal for works to be carried out and therefore was painted as part of the works. The Clerk said she had spoken with the builders who assured her that a sign had been placed by the seat and Cllr Billy Williams confirmed he had seen the sign. She was then asked to contact CCC with this information.
205. One Voice Wales. Details of the BBC Charter review process.
206. Ayla Hulse. A letter of thanks for the donation to assist in enabling the group to enter the World Street Dance Championships and an update on their achievement in finishing joint 5th in the finals.
207. Balance of Accounts at 13 September 2015
Community Acct 500.88
Business No Notice – gross int to 3 September 6.29
Morris & Bates – Landfill & CAS rent 4616.50
Came & Company – council insurance 1,723.08
Post Office Ltd – clerk PAYE July, Aug, Sept 108.00
M Walker – clerks salary 537.30
C B Environmental Ltd 908.16
210. Members resolved to request that Cllrs Jill Hulse, Gwenllian Ashley and Rona Dalton be added to the list of signatories on the HSBC accounts following the resignation of Cllr Griffiths who was an existing signatory.
211. No planning.
BORTH ENGAGMENT EVENING
212. The Chairman informed Council that the evening had been very successful. It was suggested that the Council holds a similar event during September 2016 but possibly limit the time to two hours instead of three.
213. Cllr Hulse confirmed that she had attended the formal opening of the 2nd phase of Borth sea defences on 10th September and the Community Engagement evening on 23 September.
The table of Councillors contact details and responsibilities as part of the Access to Information on Community and Town Councils Statutory Guidance (2015) has been completed. These details can now be made available on the Borth Community website, noticeboards and Facebook and is now compliant.
Cllr Hulse has prepared an overview of Councillors Responsibilities and how they relate to the Borth & Ynyslas Community Survey 2015, and in particular the top 5 priorities to ensure a lead for all areas. Additional leads suggested for Sustainability, Litter & Recycling and Volunteering.
Community Emergency Plan. Distributed existing plan to NRW, Coastguard, CCC Civil Contingencies, RNLI, Councillors and Flood Wardens for any suggested changes that needed to be made. The document has been updated (including Coastguard approval, NRW updates to Floodline number 0345, some Warden changes) it will be circulated as an October 2015 updated version.
NRW are still working on the flood warning service for the River Leri at Borth, despite significant difficulties with BT’s Openreach service at the river level station in Talybont. Talybont flood group have brought this to the attention of Elin Jones AM who has agreed to chase up.
It would be helpful to understand the river and leat responsibilities, maintenance and ownership further and suggest this is an area to focus on to complement the flood plan.
Next notable natural high tide will be 27th-30th October (local half term week). Cllr Willcox will put the storm boards back in before this.
Geoffrey Main (MA at Aber Uni) shared the summary report from his thesis: 'The changing nature of Ceredigion emergency management post-2012 and 2014 storms’. Usefully flagged up value of training, testing and practicing and role of youth.
Recirculated Borth Community priorities paper with Councillors for additional content, now ready for Councillors with responsibilities to look at their areas and see what could be done.
Updating Facebook as information arises. Usually between 100-300 access a post and a recent post of the beach looking bright and beautiful attracted 1162 people, demonstrating that posting positive info about the local areas is welcomed as well as notices.
Cllr Hulse said she would like to discuss with Council the possibility of setting up a youth advisory group to BCC. The group could include local people between (16-21, possibly wider age bracket) but representing a wider group of people to enable views to come through from the youth and children of Borth & Ynyslas, also to encourage others to help look after our area and help us make connections to other groups (e.g. explaining apps and tablets etc) with a possible meeting every 3 months.
214. Cllr Salmon had received two complaints in respect of the campervan leaflets and those were from local residents who owned campervans. She also suggested putting a notice on Facebook stating that Borth Community Council had covered the cost of clearing the common land site and members agreed to follow up with a comment about the extent of the rubbish tipped by the bottle bank.
Cllr Williams had contact with people who used the coastal path. This was an excellent facility and suggested a cycle or footpath across the Dyfi.
Cllr Ashley asked whether the Council could consider inviting Dafydd Morgan from the Workers Education Association to give a presentation on Adult Learning classes. Members asked Cllr Ashley to invite him to the December meeting. She had also spoken to PSCO Dave Goffin at the Engagement Evening and he confirmed that Borth was the only village to take up the offer to participate in the Speed Watch Scheme. Cllr Ashley said that knotweed was blocking the leat to the rear of the houses. Cllr Hulse said that NRW would provide maps and she would map out the known area of knotweed. Cllr Ashley asked whether there had been any progress made to carry out repair works to the bench at the foot of Francis Road. Cllr Quant advised that neither BCC nor CCC were responsible for the bench.
Cllr Willcox mentioned the grass cutting to the playground. Several complaints had been received that the grass isn’t cut short enough or regular enough. It was suggested that it was only being topped. The Clerk was asked to contact Mr Norrington-Davies to ask whether he would give the grass another cut and to cut it shorter. Cllr Jones and Cllr Ashley were given the task to create a detailed spec for the grass cutting next year before it goes out to tender.
Cllr Jones had applied for renewal of his dispensation application when dealing with matters relating to Borth United Football Club. Cllr Jones gave an update on a recent Planning Aid workshop with several changes to the planning system in Wales.
215. Cllr Quant asked members to resolve to proceed with remedial works to the playground as some areas were deemed High Risk. Members resolved to give Cllr Quant authority to proceed. It was also agreed to lock the small gate permanently. Cllr Quant gave an update on the arrangements for winter collection of rubbish from the street bins. Cllr Willcox asked whether it would be possible to have at least two of the bins currently on the sea wall to be placed on the pavement below. The next PACT meeting is scheduled for the 26th November. The car park gate opposite Brynowen is consistently left open by the Water Board. The area of land behind the Medical Centre is being advertised as For Sale by Raw-Rees Estate Agents. Borth Community Council is not interested in buying the land behind the surgery in Borth at the price of £25000 as advertised by the selling agent, however, it is claimed that an offer has been received from someone within the community and is near to the asking price. Cllr Salmon suggested paying an independent valuer to value the land, review the site and ask for more detail.
216. There being no further business the Chairman closed the public meeting at 9.45pm. Agenda items for the next meeting to be held on Monday 2 November 2015 to include a visit by PCSO Dave Goffin. Any other items are to be notified to the Clerk.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line60
|
__label__wiki
| 0.591797
| 0.591797
|
Response, tweaking of concepts, and core game play modes- XP and optional micro-management
First to Jason:
Copy, Open word (or whatever), Paste, Read. ;) Much easier on one's eyes. This one is long too.
Thanks for your comments, both of you- very useful feedback.
*fix* I figured out how to change the wormhole thing.
For one, it's just as viable to have the second worm hole collapse than to have both of them do so, which would prevent grieving- grievers would just lose their own wormholes.
Worm holes, as instantaneous transit, imply a time difference, and I've figured out a very simple way to achieve that and account for relativity in simultaneous space.
Basically, one part of space is the future, and one part of space is the past. You travel back in time through a worm hole to the part of space that is in the past.
Lets say a worm hole spans 500 light years. You travel through it instantly, reaching the other side in the past- 500 years in the past (due to the length of the worm hole). Then, to return, you have to travel using a warp drive, at a paltry light speed, and take 500 years to do it, arriving back in the present.
By explaining it in that way, it becomes more obvious why a worm hole cannot go back the way it just came (time paradox- you could travel back in time and affect your own past).
Anyway, as far as the game play is concerned, it provides an instant link between two places- there are advantages and disadvantages to each kind of transit- with a worm hole, it's fast, but you're limited to worm hole paths- where people put them, or where they were naturally- which cannot travel in any direction (only from the future into the past). With a warp drive, you have to stop and make detours around star systems and the like, but you can travel from wherever you like- no need to have a worm hole present.
"With the currency, why not go with the good ol' USAs approach of just saying money is worth what it is without any real backing"
That's governmental backing, which is quite unstable in a free market.
We could make wormholes natural and immovable things, but there should be some things that have particular value based on pragmatism. *control* of existing worm holes could even work- if it were the case that they just existed there, those who controlled the areas could charge a fare for people to pass through them.
"But it doesn't actually say that the four human-player factions fight “each other”, not quite sure where that came from. "
From the online PVP mode of game play. If the factions are not fighting, and all players are official members of the factions, then that kind of PVP mode in online play would not make sense.
"I think the ‘more intelligent’ players will agree that diamonds will not be worth much for the reasons you imply; but as for the rest, what will they say about diamonds not being worth much? Will they believe you?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond#Extraterrestrial_diamonds
They will when they mine and ruin their drill bits on chunks of rough diamond. For their sake, we won't even need to call it diamond- we can just call it "dense carbon grit" to discourage them from picking it up and trying to sell it in ignorance. They may later discover that it is diamond, but only after long knowing it is comparatively worthless (and one of the worst hardships a miner can suffer).
We can create some other very cool and beautiful looking things of great value.
"I used the concept of records and guitars from being valuable in another of my futuristic game ideas,"
I like that. I think a bustling antique aspect to artifacts would be pretty cool.
"I wanted to pick a time for when people on earth, are likely start to inhabit space, do we think that it will take more than 70 years from now?"
It's not so much about inhabiting space as the massive social and political changes that would need to take place, and the migration of that kind of population.
Just as the railroad had to be built before "settlers" could conquer the Western interior of North America, there's a certain level of infrastructure one needs to have a level of true space civilization- The U.S.A. with her current boundaries wasn't settled as soon as we developed the steam engine.
"Is a simple attack and defense attribute really over-simplified to cause “Most scifi fans” to “drool”? "
I think maybe you misunderstood me; in my context, drooling was good. I mean that the details would make scifi fans drool (like people do when presented with good food).
"Either you aim for the hard core sci-fi fans or the casual; or try to cater to both with different modes, incentives and levels of detail."
I would tend towards the latter- catering to each by providing optional micromanagement, wherein the player can choose to micro-manage an area, or spend XP on good crew who will offer advice that can be taken by default.
That is, say you, as a player, really enjoy twinking out a ship with specific combinations of weapons and armor- and many people really enjoy power gaming these gritty details. You'd appreciate the details about different kinds of lasers, plasma weapons, armor, ballistics, and missiles. Because you enjoy doing that, you can spend your XP to recruit or level up an NPC crew member who specializes in navigation- that way you don't have to do it.
On the other hand, a player who loved navigating could spend XP on getting or leveling an NPC crew member as an arms and armor specialist, who would provide purchasing recommendations and outfit your ship(s) for you so you don't have to worry about it.
Say a player only likes flying around and shooting things- doesn't care about interstellar navigation, and doesn't want to bother about what kind of weapon or armor the ship has- well, that player spends XP on both kinds of NPCs, and focuses exclusively on flying around, shooting things, and gaining XP.
All of these players end up being equal.
The weapons fan divided his time between weapons and missions, gaining 500 XP, and spending it all on the navigator.
The navigation fan divided time between navigating and missions, gaining 500 XP, and spending it all on the weapons master.
The grinder who just likes to shoot things spent all of his time on missions, gaining 1,000XP, spending half on a navigator and half on a weapons master to have a ship equal in potency to the others'.
You could even be an all around person, spending 350 XP on two NPCs, and doing a bit of tweaking on each to get your ship up to snuff. More missions than either of the first two, but a bit less than the third person.
Optional micromanagement like that, where a player can focus on his or her favourite aspect of game play, I believe is the key to balance between detail and shallowness.
Posted by - at 9:30 PM
I2B Web Search
I2B Site
Previous Works
I2B Group
EZOwens
Garrett Hoofman
Zachary Turner
dustprog
hollywoodjae
mcmattila
vijesh
Menu concept
Improved Explosions
Widening our vision
How much science should we pour in?
Response, tweaking of concepts, and core game play...
Regarding Really Long Posts >=| and the Current De...
Regarding Blakes proposal; let's all post our opin...
Lasers and optical shielding
Commentary on design doc and preliminary science w...
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line65
|
__label__wiki
| 0.540572
| 0.540572
|
Service of a Crack in the Surface of E-Commerce
Photo: physics.aps.org
A Wall Street Journal article about traditional retailing and E-commerce made clear that those who see the latter annihilating traditional retail shouldn’t order the funeral flowers just yet. Some retailers of both luxury and discount goods are spending big bucks on their brick and mortar stores. In a second article the same day the Journal reported that WalMart has started to refuse to ship heavy items–because of the cost– by claiming they are out of stock. This approach may be temporary and therefore, potentially less significant in the long run.
What’s In Store?
Photo: pinterest.com
Target was also a focus of John D. Stoll’s Wall Street Journal article, “Tiffany’s $250 Million Bet on a 78-Year-Old Store.” He wrote “It turns out that all over the ravaged retailing sector, companies are rethinking the mantra that the future is digital, and pouring money into actual brick-and-mortar stores.” Target plans to spend $7 billion. It doesn’t break down the superstore’s expenditures though “a spokeswoman said stores are an ‘incredibly important linchpin.’”
Why this confidence in physical stores? Stoll wrote: “Because the bulk of America’s retail is still done the old-fashioned way. Target has consistently increased online sales, but ecommerce represents less than 6% of its revenues. Online sales are closer to 7% at Home Depot but under 4% at Walmart.” Tiffany’s stores produce 90 percent of its revenue.
Photo: logos.wikia.com
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ annual Consumer Insights survey showed weekly purchases from stores has risen from 36 percent four years ago to 40 percent in 2015 and 44 percent this year. Stoll wrote: “Retailers are smart to better integrate the physical shopping experience with people’s online habits, but now is not the time to give up on making stores better.” On a recent Wednesday, he reported, Tiffany’s new café in its NYC flagship had 1,000 on a waiting list for 40 seats.
Cupboard is Bare
So what about Walmart’s shipping policy? People need the products involved such as household cleaners, nonperishable groceries, pet food and cosmetics so they will buy them somewhere.
I marvel at how CVS often covers the cost of shipping heavy items with no minimum purchase required, in conjunction with a sale many times, and wonder how long the windfall will last.
Photo: walmartcareers.com
Sarah Nassauer in her Wall Street Journal article wrote that the Walmart “has begun telling online shoppers that some products in its warehouses are ‘out of stock’ after the retailer changed its e-commerce systems to avoid orders deemed too expensive to ship.” Some suppliers were surprised. To address the policy they’ll “stock their products at more Walmart warehouses around the country to keep sales steady, according to an executive at a large food company.
“The shift is part of a test, Walmart said, to see if it can deliver more products via ground shipping, a cheaper option than air shipping, in two days or less.” Spokesman Ravi Jariwala “said shoppers shouldn’t notice a big increase in out-of-stock items because walmart.com will suggest similar products from nearby warehouses.”
Do you think retailers like Tiffany’s and Target are throwing away their money in this retail climate by upgrading their traditional stores? Is there an aura about some stores—like Tiffany’s—that compels shoppers to visit? Will retailers figure out cheaper ways of shipping heavy goods or will customers increasingly pick up in stores their online orders deemed too heavy/expensive to ship? Walmart says it’s a test but if profitable, don’t you think the “shortages will be permanent, potentially impacting online sales? When you buy online, do you stick to your shopping list more than you do when you’re in a store?
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line66
|
__label__cc
| 0.667424
| 0.332576
|
Searching for "resume"
7 errors in a resume
categories: information literacy
A former HR exec who reviewed over 40,000 résumés says these 7 résumé mistakes annoy her.
https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider/videos/10154445061804071/
more on resume writing in this IMS blog
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=resume
employment, job hunting, resume writing
« left or right-handedness
coding and math »
change your resume
categories: instructional technology, Millennials, social media, writing skills
Changes in resume structure
http://www.businessinsider.com/nina-mufleh-airbnb-resume-2015-4
besides being proactive and employing social media to land an interview, here are some practical suggestions on how to restructure your “regular” (old-fashioned?) resume
job finding, job search, resume, vita, vitae
« tabletop games in library
Video Storytelling in Social Media Marketing »
microcredentials concerns
categories: badges
As students flock to credentials other than degrees, quality-control concerns grow
Policymakers try to bring consistency to what “microcredentials” actually mean
by MATT KRUPNICK November 16, 2018
Degro took the course and earned the badge that turned out to be a way to list his new skill in an online resume with a digital graphic that looks like an emoji.
Such non-degree credentials have been growing in popularity.
“We do have a little bit of a Wild West situation right now with alternative credentials,” said Alana Dunagan, a senior research fellow at the nonprofit Clayton Christensen Institute, which researches education innovation. The U.S. higher education system “doesn’t do a good job of separating the wheat from the chaff.”
Thousands of credentials classes aimed at improving specific skills have cropped up outside of traditional colleges. Some classes are boot camps, including those popular with computer coders. Others are even more narrowly focused, such as courses on factory automation and breastfeeding. Colleges and universities have responded by adding non-degree programs of their own.
some 4,000 colleges and other providers issue industry certifications, according to the Lumina Foundation, but fewer than one in 10 are reviewed by a regulatory body or accreditor.
That companies need trained employees is uncontested: More than three-quarters of U.S. manufacturers told the National Association of Manufacturers this year that they had trouble finding and keeping skilled workers.
Despite those hiring and retention concerns, industry appears reluctant to discuss the topic of policing new credentials. The National Association of Manufacturers declined to answer questions.
“If an organization wants to grant a badge, there’s nothing stopping them from doing that,” Richardson said. “It’s important for consumers to do their due diligence.”
more on microcredentials in this IMS blog
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredentialing
digital badges, digital microcredentials, micro, MICRO CREDENTIALING, Microcredentials
« Teaching history with technology
use of AR »
Teacher Brand and Digital Reputation
categories: digital citizenship, Digital literacy, educational technology, technology literacy
Rise and Shine! How to Boost Your Teacher Brand and Digital Reputation
By Kasey Bell Apr 5, 2016
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-04-05-rise-and-shine-how-to-boost-your-teacher-brand-and-digital-reputation
Five tips to help you create a personal brand and a positive digital reputation
1. What will they find when they Google you?
2. What is branding?
Your brand is what you represent, the content that you share, your audience, your Personal Learning Network (PLN), and your teaching philosophy. You want your brand to demonstrate that you are trustworthy, and offer quality content, insightful comments, and experience. Your brand tells your audience that what you offer is of value. Together, the elements that create your brand should communicate a distinct, cohesive story. For instance, when you visit any of my social media profiles, you will see a consistent message. The avatar and logo for my website Shake Up Learning are more recognizable than my face, and that’s intentional. That isn’t to say that every brand needs an avatar. But do find a creative way to tell your personal story.
3. Choose the right platforms
There is no right or wrong platform. Choosing where you want to build your online presence depends on the audience that you want to engage. If you want to reach parents and school community stakeholders, Facebook is a strong bet. If you want to reach other educators, Twitter and Pinterest are big winners. The bottom line is that you don’t have to use them all. Find and connect with your audience where your audience resides.
4. Claim your social media real estate
Before you settle on a username, check that it’s available on all of the social media platforms that you want to use—and then keep it consistent. You will lose your audience if you make it hard to find you. Also keep your handle simple and short, and try to avoid special characters. When a new platform arrives, claim your username early even if you aren’t sure that you will maintain a presence there.
5. Optimize your social media profiles
Guy Kawasaki, co-author of The Art of Social Media, khas nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter alone, and he offers effective social media tips in his book. Here are the basics:
Add a picture of your face or logo. Your picture validates who you are. No more eggheads! Using the default egg avatar on Twitter says you don’t have a brand, and doesn’t tell your audience that you are trustworthy.
Use your real name. Sure, you can lie, but that isn’t going to help you build a brand and online presence. Many platforms allow you to show your name as well as your handle.
Link to your website, blog or About.me page. Don’t have one? Get one! You may not be ready to start a blog, but anyone can easily set up an About.me page—which is like an online resume.
Compose a meaningful bio, which will help others find and follow you. It should describe your experience in the field of education and highlight topics that you follow like Maker Ed, Google Apps, or edtech.
Add a cover image. Choose an image that tells your story. Who are you? What do you do that sets you apart? Canva is a graphic design tool that makes creating a cover image easy. It offers ready-made templates in the right size for all of the major social media platforms.
Be consistent across all mediums. You want your followers to see the same brand on all of your social media profiles. This also means you shouldn’t change your profile picture every five minutes. Be recognizable.
Tools to build your brand and online presence
About.me: A quick and easy personal homepage that shows your audience who you are and how to connect with you.
Canva: An easy-to-use design tool for creating images, with templates for social media.
Fiverr: A marketplace for services that you can use to commission a logo, avatar, or web design.
Wix: A free website builder.
Weebly: A free website builder.
Buffer: A free web tool for sharing and scheduling content across multiple social media platforms.
Nuzzel: A free web tool that lets you see the content trending among the people you follow.
The Art of Social Media: A guide to creating a compelling social media presence, by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick.
What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube: Tips for preserving your digital reputation, by Erik Qualman.
What Happens on Campus Stays on YouTube: Advice for students on protective their digital reputations, by Erik Qualman.
more on digital citizenship in this IMS blog
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+citizenship
branding, Buffer, Canva, definition, digital reputation, erik qualman, fiverr, nuzzle, social media cheat sheet, weebly, wix
« human nature cybersecurity
social media manuals »
digital badges in academic libraries
categories: Digital literacy, e-learning, educational technology, gamification, gaming, information technology, instructional technology
David Demaine, S., Lemmer, C. A., Keele, B. J., & Alcasid, H. (2015). Using Digital Badges to Enhance Research Instruction in Academic Libraries. In B. L. Eden (Ed.), Enhancing Teaching and Learning in the 21st-Century Academic Library: Successful Innovations That Make a Difference (2015th ed.). Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2882671
At their best, badges can create a sort of interactive e-resume.
the librarian may be invited into the classroom, or the students may be sent to the Iibrary for a single research lesson on databases and search tem1s- not enough for truly high-quality research. A better alternative may be that the professor require the students to complete a series of badges- designed, implemented, and managed by the librarian- that build thorough research skills and ultimately produce a better paper.
Meta- badges are s impl y badges that indicate comp letion o f multiple related badges.
Authentication (determining that the badge has not been altered) and validation/verification (checking that the badge has actually been earned and issued by the stated issuer) are major concerns. lt is also important, particularly in the academic context, to make sure that the badge does not come to replace the learning it represents. A badge is a symbol that other skills and knowledge exist in this individual’s portfolio of skills and talents. Therefore, badges awarded in the educational context must reflect time and effort and be based on vetted standards, or they will become empty symbols
Digital credentialing recognizes “learning of many kinds which are acquired beyond formal education institutions .. . ; it proliferates and disperses author- ity over what learning to recognize; and it provides a means of translation and commensuration across multiple spheres” (Oineck, 2012, p. I)
University digital badge projects are rarely a top-down undertaking. Typi- cally, digital badge programs arise from collaborative efforts “of people agi- tating from the middle” (Raths, 2013).
Assessment and Evaluation, badges, digital microcredentials
« student success technology
data visualization for librarians »
blockchain credentialing in higher ed
categories: gamification, gaming, Project Based Learning
2 reasons why blockchain tech has big, tangible implications for higher ed
By Jami Morshed September 27th, 2017
https://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/blockchain-tech-higher-ed/
blockchain is a database or digital ledger. The data in the ledger is arranged in batches known as blocks, with each block storing data about a specific transaction. The blocks are linked together using cryptographic validation to form an unbroken and unbreakable chain–hence the name blockchain. As it relates to bitcoin, the blocks are monetary units, and the chain includes information about all past transactions of that monetary unit.
Importantly, the database (i.e., the series of blocks) is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers, meaning that it has no one central repository. This not only means that the records are truly public, but also that there is no centralized version of the data for a hacker to corrupt. In order to make changes to the ledger, consensus between all members of the group must be obtained, further adding to the system’s security.
1. Blockchain for the Future of Credentialing
With today’s technologies, graduates and prospective employers must go through a tedious process to obtain student transcripts or diplomas, and this complexity is compounded when these credentials are spread across multiple institutions. Not only that, but these transcripts can take days or weeks to produce and send, and usually require a small fee be paid to the institution.LinkedLinek
This could be a key enabler to facilitate student ownership of this data and would allow them to instantly produce secure and comprehensive credentials to any institute or employer requesting them, including information about a student’s performance on standardized tests, degree requirements, extracurricular activities, and other learning activities.
Blockchain could play a major role in Competency-Based Education (CBE) programs and micro-credentialing, which are becoming ever more popular across universities and internal business training programs.
various companies are currently working on such a system of record. One of the most well-known is called “BlockCert,” which is an open standard created by MIT Media Lab and which the institute hopes will help drive the adoption of blockchain credentialing.
imagine the role that LinkedIn or a similar platform could play in the distribution of such content. Beyond verification of university records, LinkedIn could become a platform for sharing verified work history and resumes as well, making the job application process far simpler
2. Blockchain’s Financial Implications and Student debt
how could blockchain influence student finances? For starters, financial aid and grants could be tied to student success. Instead of students and universities having to send over regular progress reports on a recipient’s performance, automatic updates to a student’s digital record would ensure that benchmarks were being met–and open up new opportunities for institutions looking to offer merit-based grants.
Electronic tuition payments and money transfers could also simplify the tuition process. This is an especially appealing option for international students, as bitcoin’s interchangeable nature and lack of special fees for international transfers makes it a simpler and more cost-effective payment method.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
more on credentialing in this IMS blog
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=credentialing
more on blockchain credentialing in this IMS blog
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/10/03/blockchain-credentialing/
assessment, badges, blockchain credentialing, digital microcredentials, LinkedIn, micro credentials, MIT Media Lab
« Maslow hierarchy for edtech
MLPP Academic COI »
categories: Digital literacy, educational technology, gamification, instructional technology, student-centered learning
#appsmashing must be the evolution of the ~ 2010 #mashup
from: http://www.zigzagstech.com/app-smashing
http://k12technology.weebly.com/app-smashing.html
App Smashing is the process of using multiple apps to create projects or complete tasks. App Smashing can provide your students with creative and inspired ways to showcase their learning and allow you to assess their understanding and skills.
6 Amazing App Smash Examples to Inspire Creativity
http://edtechteacher.org/unleashing-creativity-greg-kulowiec-app-smashing-from-beth-holland/
https://padlet.com/lmoore4/72nzkwdipo5y
Why App Smash?
What is an App Smash?
Content created in one app transferred to and enhanced by a second app and sometimes third. Preferably the final product is then published to the web – remember, digital presence is the new résumé (CV).
Reasons to App Smash:
It demands creative thinking
It demands more from the technology (value for money)
It turns the issue of not having a ‘wonder app’ into a positive
It removes any restrictions to take a topic as far as it can be taken.
It often results in more engaging learning products
It’s a fun challenge for ‘digital natives’
Key rules for successful App Smashing:
Use the Camera Roll as your main conduit between apps
Leave the app choice to the students
Have a list of apps capable of smashing content together (See below)
19 Apps to Bring App Smashing to Your Classroom
TELLAGAMI,
GREEN SCREEN DOINK
YAKIT KIDS AND CHATTERPIX
EDUCREATIONS AND DOCERI
GOOGLE DOCS, SLIDES
STRIP CREATOR
SCOODLEJAM
HELLO CRAYON
GOOGLE DRAWING
TOONTASTIC
thinglink, youtube, padlet, seesaw, realtimes,
appsmashing, BOOK CREATOR, EDUCREATIONS AND DOCERI, Google Docs, GOOGLE DRAWING, GREEN SCREEN DOINK, HELLO CRAYON, mashup, padlet, realtimes, SCOODLEJAM, seesaw, SLIDES, STRIP CREATOR, TELLAGAMI, Thinglink, TOONTASTIC, YAKIT KIDS AND CHATTERPIX, youtube
« K12 cyber incidents
textbook model »
globalization economy democracy
categories: digital citizenship, information technology
Caldwell, C. (April, 2017). Sending Jobs Overseas. CRB, 27(2).
http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/sending-jobs-overseas/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_Institute
Caldwell’s book review of
Baldwin, Richard E. The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016. not at SCSU library, available through ILL (https://mplus.mnpals.net/vufind/Record/008770850/Hold?item_id=MSU50008770850000010&id=008770850&hashKey=cff0a018a46178d4d3208ac449d86c4e#tabnav)
Globalization’s cheerleaders, from Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, made arguments from classical economics: by buying manufactured products from people overseas who made them cheaper than we did, the United States could get rich concentrating on product design, marketing, and other lucrative services. That turned out to be a mostly inaccurate description of how globalism would work in the developed world, as mainstream politicians everywhere are now discovering.
Certain skeptics, including polymath author Edward Luttwak and Harvard economist Dani Rodrik, put forward a better account. In his 1998 book Turbo-Capitalism, Luttwak gave what is still the most succinct and accurate reading of the new system’s economic consequences. “It enriches industrializing poor countries, impoverishes the semi-affluent majority in rich countries, and greatly adds to the incomes of the top 1 percent on both sides who are managing the arbitrage.”
In The Great Convergence, Richard Baldwin, an economist at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, gives us an idea why, over the past generation, globalization’s benefits have been so hard to explain and its damage so hard to diagnose.
We have had “globalization,” in the sense of far-flung trade, for centuries now.
ut around 1990, the cost of sharing information at a distance fell dramatically. Workers on complex projects no longer had to cluster in the same factory, mill town, or even country. Other factors entered in. Tariffs fell. The rise of “Global English” as a common language of business reduced the cost of moving information (albeit at an exorbitant cost in culture). “Containerization” (the use of standard-sized shipping containers across road, rail, and sea transport) made packing and shipping predictable and helped break the world’s powerful longshoremen’s unions. Active “pro-business” political reforms did the rest.
Far-flung “global value chains” replaced assembly lines. Corporations came to do some of the work of governments, because in the free-trade climate imposed by the U.S., they could play governments off against one another. Globalization is not about nations anymore. It is not about products. And the most recent elections showed that it has not been about people for a long time. No, it is about tasks.
his means a windfall for what used to be called the Third World. More than 600 million people have been pulled out of dire poverty. They can get richer by building parts of things.
The competition that globalization has created for manufacturing has driven the value-added in manufacturing down close to what we would think of as zilch. The lucrative work is in the design and the P.R.—the brainy, high-paying stuff that we still get to do.
But only a tiny fraction of people in any society is equipped to do lucrative brainwork. In all Western societies, the new formula for prosperity is inconsistent with the old formula for democracy.
One of these platitudes is that all nations gain from trade. Baldwin singles out Harvard professor and former George W. Bush Administration economic adviser Gregory Mankiw, who urged passage of the Obama Administration mega-trade deals TPP and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on the grounds that America should “work in those industries in which we have an advantage compared with other nations, and we should import from abroad those goods that can be produced more cheaply there.”
That was a solid argument 200 years ago, when the British economist David Ricardo developed modern doctrines of trade. In practical terms, it is not always solid today. What has changed is the new mobility of knowledge. But knowledge is a special commodity. It can be reused. Several people can use it at the same time. It causes people to cluster in groups, and tends to grow where those groups have already clustered.
When surgeries involved opening the patient up like a lobster or a peapod, the doctor had to be in physical contact with a patient. New arthroscopic processes require the surgeon to guide cutting and cauterizing tools by computer. That computer did not have to be in the same room. And if it did not, why did it have to be in the same country? In 2001, a doctor in New York performed surgery on a patient in Strasbourg. In a similar way, the foreman on the American factory floor could now coordinate production processes in Mexico. Each step of the production process could now be isolated, and then offshored. This process, Baldwin writes, “broke up Team America by eroding American labor’s quasi-monopoly on using American firms’ know-how.”
To explain why the idea that all nations win from trade isn’t true any longer, Baldwin returns to his teamwork metaphor. In the old Ricardian world that most policymakers still inhabit, the international economy could be thought of as a professional sports league. Trading goods and services resembled trading players from one team to another. Neither team would carry out the deal unless it believed it to be in its own interests. Nowadays, trade is more like an arrangement by which the manager of the better team is allowed to coach the lousier one in his spare time.
Vietnam, which does low-level assembly of wire harnesses for Honda. This does not mean Vietnam has industrialized, but nations like it no longer have to.
In the work of Thomas Friedman and other boosters you find value chains described as kaleidoscopic, complex, operating in a dozen different countries. Those are rare. There is less to “global value chains” than meets the eye. Most of them, Baldwin shows, are actually regional value chains. As noted, they exist on the periphery of the United States, Europe, or Japan. In this, offshoring resembles the elaborate international transactions that Florentine bankers under the Medicis engaged in for the sole purpose of avoiding church strictures on moneylending.
One way of describing outsourcing is as a verdict on the pay structure that had arisen in the West by the 1970s: on trade unions, prevailing-wage laws, defined-benefit pension plans, long vacations, and, more generally, the power workers had accumulated against their bosses.
In 1993, during the first month of his presidency, Bill Clinton outlined some of the promise of a world in which “the average 18-year-old today will change jobs seven times in a lifetime.” How could anyone ever have believed in, tolerated, or even wished for such a thing? A person cannot productively invest the resources of his only life if he’s going to be told every five years that everything he once thought solid has melted into ait.
The more so since globalization undermines democracy, in the ways we have noted. Global value chains are extraordinarily delicate. They are vulnerable to shocks. Terrorists have discovered this. In order to work, free-trade systems must be frictionless and immune to interruption, forever. This means a program of intellectual property protection, zero tariffs, and cross-border traffic in everything, including migrants. This can be assured only in a system that is veto-proof and non-consultative—in short, undemocratic.
Sheltered from democracy, the economy of the free trade system becomes more and more a private space.
+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+
Caldwell, C. (2014, November). Twilight of Democracy. CRB, 14(4).
Fukuyama, Francis. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. SCSU Library: https://mplus.mnpals.net/vufind/Record/007359076 Call Number: JC11 .F85 2011
http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/twilight-of-democracy/
Fukuyama’s first volume opened with China’s mandarin bureaucracy rather than the democracy of ancient Athens, shifting the methods of political science away from specifically Western intellectual genealogies and towards anthropology. Nepotism and favor-swapping are man’s basic political motivations, as Fukuyama sees it. Disciplining those impulses leads to effective government, but “repatrimonialization”—the capture of government by private interests—threatens whenever vigilance is relaxed. Fukuyama’s new volume, which describes political order since the French Revolution, extends his thinking on repatrimonialization, from the undermining of meritocratic bureaucracy in Han China through the sale of offices under France’s Henri IV to the looting of foreign aid in post-colonial Zaire. Fukuyama is convinced that the United States is on a similar path of institutional decay.
Political philosophy asks which government is best for man. Political science asks which government is best for government. Political decline, Fukuyama insists, is not the same thing as civilizational collapse.
Fukuyama is not the first to remark that wars can spur government efficiency—even if front-line soldiers are the last to benefit from it.
Relative to the smooth-running systems of northwestern Europe, American bureaucracy has been a dud, riddled with corruption from the start and resistant to reform. Patronage—favors for individual cronies and supporters—has thrived.
Clientelism is an ambiguous phenomenon: it is bread and circuses, it is race politics, it is doing favors for special classes of people. Clientelism is both more democratic and more systemically corrupting than the occasional nepotistic appointment.
why modern mass liberal democracy has developed on clientelistic lines in the U.S. and meritocratic ones in Europe. In Europe, democracy, when it came, had to adapt itself to longstanding pre-democratic institutions, and to governing elites that insisted on established codes and habits. Where strong states precede democracy (as in Germany), bureaucracies are efficient and uncorrupt. Where democracy precedes strong states (as in the United States but also Greece and Italy), government can be viewed by the public as a piñata.
Fukuyama contrasts the painstaking Japanese development of Taiwan a century ago with the mess that the U.S. Congress, “eager to impose American models of government on a society they only dimly understood,” was then making of the Philippines. It is not surprising that Fukuyama was one of the most eloquent conservative critics of the U.S. invasion of Iraq from the very beginning.
What distinguishes once-colonized Vietnam and China and uncolonized Japan and Korea from these Third World basket cases is that the East Asian lands “all possess competent, high-capacity states,” in contrast to sub-Saharan Africa, which “did not possess strong state-level institutions.”
Fukuyama does not think ethnic homogeneity is a prerequisite for successful politics
the United States “suffers from the problem of political decay in a more acute form than other democratic political systems.” It has kept the peace in a stagnant economy only by dragooning women into the workplace and showering the working and middle classes with credit.
public-sector unions have colluded with the Democratic Party to make government employment more rewarding for those who do it and less responsive to the public at large. In this sense, government is too big. But he also believes that cutting taxes on the rich in hopes of spurring economic growth has been a fool’s errand, and that the beneficiaries of deregulation, financial and otherwise, have grown to the point where they have escaped bureaucratic control altogether. In this sense, government is not big enough.
Washington, as Fukuyama sees it, is a patchwork of impotence and omnipotence—effective where it insists on its prerogatives, ineffective where it has been bought out. The unpredictable results of democratic oversight have led Americans to seek guidance in exactly the wrong place: the courts, which have both exceeded and misinterpreted their constitutional responsibilities. the almost daily insistence of courts that they are liberating people by removing discretion from them gives American society a Soviet cast.
“Effective modern states,” he writes, “are built around technical expertise, competence, and autonomy.”
http://librev.com/index.php/2013-03-30-08-56-39/discussion/culture/3234-gartziya-i-problemite-na-klientelistkata-darzhava
#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+#+
Williams, J. (2017, May). The Dumb Politics of Elite Condescension. NYT
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opinion/sunday/the-dumb-politics-of-elite-condescension.html
the sociologists Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb call the “hidden injuries of class.” These are dramatized by a recent employment study, in which the sociologists Lauren A. Rivera and Andras Tilcsik sent 316 law firms résumés with identical and impressive work and academic credentials, but different cues about social class. The study found that men who listed hobbies like sailing and listening to classical music had a callback rate 12 times higher than those of men who signaled working-class origins, by mentioning country music, for example.
Politically, the biggest “hidden injury” is the hollowing out of the middle class in advanced industrialized countries. For two generations after World War II, working-class whites in the United States enjoyed a middle-class standard of living, only to lose it in recent decades.
The college-for-all experiment did not work. Two-thirds of Americans are not college graduates. We need to continue to make college more accessible, but we also need to improve the economic prospects of Americans without college degrees.
the United States has a well-documented dearth of workers qualified for middle-skill jobs that pay $40,000 or more a year and require some postsecondary education but not a college degree. A 2014 report by Accenture, Burning Glass Technologies and Harvard Business School found that a lack of adequate middle-skills talent affects the productivity of “47 percent of manufacturing companies, 35 percent of health care and social assistance companies, and 21 percent of retail companies.”
Skillful, a partnership among the Markle Foundation, LinkedIn and Colorado, is one initiative pointing the way. Skillful helps provide marketable skills for job seekers without college degrees and connects them with employers in need of middle-skilled workers in information technology, advanced manufacturing and health care. For more information, see my other IMS blog entries, such as: http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/01/11/credly-badges-on-canvas/
badges Colorado, democracy, economy, employment, globalization, jobs, political philosophy, political science, skillful
« media education differentiated instruction
mindfulness storytelling heal »
more on badges
categories: assessment, Bring Your Own Device BYOD, Digital literacy, educational technology, gamification, gaming, instructional technology, mobile learning, mooc, open learning, Project Based Learning, student-centered learning, technology literacy
Badging: Not Quite the Next Big Thing
While badging and digital credentialing are gaining acceptance in the business world and, to some extent, higher education, K-12 educators — and even students — are slower to see the value.
By Michael Hart 07/20/16
https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/07/20/badging-not-quite-the-next-big-thing.aspx
That’s when the MacArthur Foundation highlighted the winning projects of its Badges for Lifelong Learning competition at the Digital Media and Learning Conference in Chicago. The competition, co-sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation, had attracted nearly 100 competitors a year earlier. The winners shared $2 million worth of development grants.
Evidence of Lifelong Learning
A digital badge or credential is a validation, via technology, that a person has earned an accomplishment, learned a skill or gained command of specific content. Typically, it is an interactive image posted on a web page and connected to a certain body of information that communicates the badge earner’s competency.
Credly is a company that offers off-the-shelf credentialing and badging for organizations, companies and educational institutions. One of its projects, BadgeStack, which has since been renamed BadgeOS, was a winner in the 2013 MacArthur competition. Virtually any individual or organization can use its platform to determine criteria for digital credentials and then award them, often taking advantage of an open-source tool like WordPress. The credential recipient can then use the BadgeOS platform to manage the use of the credential, choosing to display badges on social media profiles or uploading achievements to a digital resume, for instance.
Finkelstein and others see, with the persistently growing interest in competency-based education (CBE), that badging is a way to assess and document competency.
Colorado Education Initiative, (see webinar report in this IMS blog http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/06/20/colorados-digital-badging-initiative/)
There are obstacles, though, to universal acceptance of digital credentialing.
For one, not every community, company or organization sees a badge as something of value.
When a player earns points for his or her success in a game, those points have no value outside of the environment in which the game is played. For points, badges, credentials — however you want to define them — to be perceived as evidence of competency, they have to have portability and be viewed with value outside of their own environment.
More on badges in this IMS blog:
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=badges
BadgeOS, badges, BadgeStack, Credly, definition, grants, lifelong learning, WordPress open source
« Communication Tool for Teachers and Parents
tech practices for K12 educators and administrators »
categories: gamification, gaming
Case Study 6: Mozilla Open Badges
http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/case-study-6-mozilla-open-badges
Badges can play a crucial role in the connected learning ecology by acting as a bridge between contexts, making these alternative learning channels and types of learning more viable, portable, and impactful. Badges can be awarded for a potentially limitless set of individual skills—regardless of where each skill is developed—and a collection of badges can begin to serve as a virtual résumé of competencies and qualities for key stakeholders, including peers, schools, or potential employers. Specifically, badges support capturing and communicating learning paths, signaling achievement, motivating learning, and driving innovation and flexibility, as well as building identity, reputation, and kinship. Thus, badges can provide a way to translate all types of learning into a powerful tool for getting jobs, finding communities of practice, demonstrating skills, and seeking out further learning.
Peer badges were also built around the peer-to-peer interactions and were awarded directly from one peer to another. Finally, participation badges were based on stealth assessment and data-tracking logic built into the learning environment. While the sample size was small due to constraints of the course cycles, the pilot resulted in a solid proof-of-concept of the potential for badges and these approaches to assessment.
How Badges Really Work in Higher Education
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/06/20/how-badges-really-work-in-higher-education.aspx
The badges have several layers, Wisser says. While the top level signifies that you completed elements of the coursework, the badges have stripes for other accomplishments such as leading a discussion or teaching peers. “These badges are visible to other students, and if you are struggling in one area, you could turn to someone more accomplished–as shown by their badge–for help. Or if you were strong in a certain area and saw someone else was struggling, you could reach out to that person.”
More in this IMS blog on badges:
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/?s=badges
« Fusking
LinkedIn groups »
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line69
|
__label__cc
| 0.697191
| 0.302809
|
Trade-A-Plane Blog – Aviation News & Information Piston, Helicopters, Jets & Turbines The Best of the Aircraft Industry News, Products, & Events
Trade-A-Plane Blog - Aviation News & Information… | Press Releases | Garmin International | Garmin® Team X Introduces Three New Products and…
Garmin® Team X Introduces Three New Products and Adds New Capabilities
New GPS 20A Provides Cost-Effective Path For Meeting ADS-B Requirements In EAB/LSA
OLATHE, Kan. /July 16, 2015/Business Wire — Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), today announced the GPS 20A, an ADS-B Out compliant WAAS GPS position source for experimental amateur-built (EAB) and light sport aircraft (LSA). For experimental aircraft owners that already have a Mode S Extended Squitter (ES) transponder such as the GTX 23ES, the non-certified GSP 20A provides aircraft owners with a simple, rule-compliant WAAS position source, which meets the TSO performance requirements set forth by the FAA. Additionally, the new, more capable GMC 307 autopilot control panel provides complete autopilot mode control, now including heading and altitude select knobs, while the GSU 25B ADAHRS provides high-performance aircraft with highly accurate air data, attitude and heading information for display on G3X™ and G3X Touch. In addition to these three new products, new software for the GTN™ 650/750 touchscreen series products also enables pilots to tune the GTN COMM/NAV radio(s) from the G3X Touch display.
“We continue to be aggressive in this market by developing innovative products that our customers are asking for and are excited about,” said Carl Wolf, vice president of aviation sales and marketing. “We’re also thrilled to take advantage of our heritage in developing rule-compliant WAAS GPS systems to bring the GPS 20A to this market. This simple, cost-effective solution is ideal for thousands of VFR pilots who own experimental and LSA aircraft that need to meet ADS-B Out requirements.”
GPS 20A ADS-B WAAS Position Source
The GPS 20A provides thousands of experimental amateur-built and LSA customers with a simple, low-cost ADS-B Out position source. Highly accurate WAAS/SBAS position information is provided by the GPS 20A and is compatible with a wide range of 1090 ES transponders, so customers have an economical path to meet the ADS-B Out position requirements of 14 CFR 91.227. Aircraft owners looking for a simple path to 2020 compliance are provided a timely solution that meets the necessary performance requirements.
Garmin and G3X Touch customers who have incorporated the GTX 23ES Mode S transponder or a GTX 330ES transponder in their EAB/LSA aircraft, can easily install the GPS 20A by connecting a single RS-232 interface to provide Garmin ADS-B data to the transponder to make their system ADS-B Out compliant. The GPS 20A communicates with all installed G3X and G3X Touch displays to provide a source of high quality WAAS GPS data to the system.
The GPS 20A may also be paired with compatible third-party Mode S transponders. Additionally, a secondary interface can optionally provide industry standard GPS data to third-party systems, which can be utilized as a highly accurate WAAS GPS data source.
The GPS 20A is not an FAA-approved product and thus is not eligible for installation in certified aircraft.
GMC 307 Autopilot Control Panel
Expanding upon the popular GMC 305, the new GMC 307 autopilot control panel gives pilots additional features most-requested by customers. The addition of heading and altitude select knobs combines all of the autopilot controls into one efficient control panel to reduce pilot workload. Similar to the GMC 305, a built-in control wheel also supports pitch, vertical speed, altitude and airspeed adjustments. Standard functions with the autopilot control panel include airspeed hold, yaw damper, independent flight director and an advanced Level (LVL) mode button, which helps restore the aircraft to straight and level flight. Contributing to an easy upgrade path, the GMC 307 connector and wiring is identical to a GMC 305, so customers who have provisioned for the GMC 305 can easily upgrade to the new GMC 307 autopilot control panel. Because the autopilot servos interface directly with the ADAHRS, the GMC 307 allows for standalone operation of the autopilot as part of the G3X and G3X Touch system.
GSU 25B High-Performance ADAHRS
For high-performance aircraft that exceed 300 knots indicated airspeed, the new GSU 25B provides highly accurate air data, attitude, heading and angle of attack information for display on G3X and G3X Touch systems. Airspeed up to 465 knots indicated is supported by the GSU 25B. For added redundancy, G3X customers may optionally install up to three ADAHRS systems.
Additional G3X Touch Functionality
In addition to these new products, pilots receive added functionality between G3X Touch and the GTN 650/750 touchscreen navigators. The latest GTN software provides G3X Touch owners the option to tune the COMM/NAV frequency, control radio volume and swap active/standby COM frequencies of the GTN, from the G3X Touch display.
Team X is committed to offering industry leading avionics and ADS-B solutions to the experimental market, which are backed by Garmin’s award-winning aviation product support team. The GPS 20A WAAS GPS is expected to be available for $845*. The GPS 20A, GA 35 WAAS antenna and install kit is available for $1,225*. Additionally the GMC 307 is expected to be available for $1,099* and the GSU 25B is expected to be available for $1,499*. All three new products are anticipated to become available Q3 2015. For additional information, visit: www.garmin.com/experimental.
Garmin’s aviation business segment is a leading provider of solutions to OEM, aftermarket, military and government customers. Garmin’s portfolio includes navigation, communication, flight control, hazard avoidance, an expansive suite of ADS-B solutions and other products and services that are known for innovation, reliability, and value. For more information about Garmin’s full line of avionics, go to www.garmin.com/aviation.
For more than 25 years, Garmin has pioneered new GPS navigation and wireless devices and applications that are designed for people who live an active lifestyle. Garmin serves five primary business units, including automotive, aviation, fitness, marine, and outdoor recreation. For more information, visit Garmin's virtual pressroom at garmin.com/newsroom, contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200, or follow us at facebook.com/garmin, twitter.com/garmin, or youtube.com/garmin.
About Garmin
Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN). Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Garmin is a registered trademark and G3X and GTN are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.
All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Garmin International, Press Releases
Garmin, Team X
Garmin® Introduces New, All-Digital Bluetooth® GMA™ 350c Audio Panel
Garmin® Expands Connext™ Wireless Cockpit Ecosystem
diyala coehuman - June 4, 2018
... [Trackback]
[...] Read More on|Read More|Find More Informations here|Here you can find 40575 more Informations|Infos to that Topic: blog.trade-a-plane.com/press-releases/garmin-team-x-introduces-three-new-products-and-adds-new-capabilities/ [...]
iPhone usati - June 27, 2018
[...] Find More here|Find More|Read More Informations here|Here you will find 75874 additional Informations|Infos on that Topic: blog.trade-a-plane.com/press-releases/garmin-team-x-introduces-three-new-products-and-adds-new-capabilities/ [...]
law and political - July 2, 2018
[...] Read More on|Read More|Find More Informations here|There you will find 42827 additional Informations|Infos to that Topic: blog.trade-a-plane.com/press-releases/garmin-team-x-introduces-three-new-products-and-adds-new-capabilities/ [...]
토토사이트 - July 5, 2018
[...] Find More here|Find More|Find More Infos here|There you will find 8739 additional Infos|Informations to that Topic: blog.trade-a-plane.com/press-releases/garmin-team-x-introduces-three-new-products-and-adds-new-capabilities/ [...]
klocki lego friends latarnia morska - December 15, 2018
[...] Find More here|Find More|Find More Infos here|Here you can find 12252 more Infos|Infos to that Topic: blog.trade-a-plane.com/press-releases/garmin-team-x-introduces-three-new-products-and-adds-new-capabilities/ [...]
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line71
|
__label__wiki
| 0.562425
| 0.562425
|
Dubai Weather Forecast
Current 34 °c
Dubai Current weather report
Local Time: Fri 19th Jul 6:15 am
Dubai International Airport Dubai Sharjah Al Maktoum International Airport
Wind: 13 km/h from ENE
Rain: 0 %
Pressure: 996 mb
Cloud: 0%
Phase: Waning Gibbous with 83 % illumination.
Moon phase: Waning Gibbous
Illumination: 83 %
Today's weather is turning out to be partly cloudy. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 997 mb . The daytime temperature is going to reach 38 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 30 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 4% of the sky, the humidity will be around 64%.
17 km/h ENE
19 km/h NNE
14 km/h N
6 km/h ESE
Rain(%)
Hour by hour 3 Hourly Interval
Tomorrow weather is forecasted to be partly cloudy. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 998 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 38 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 32 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 9% of the sky, the humidity will be around 62%.
24 km/h E
24 km/h WNW
13 km/h SE
Moon phase: Last Quarter
On Sunday weather will be partly cloudy with daytime temperature reaching 39 °c. Night time temperature are expected to be 32 °c.It will be dry with no precipitation. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 998 mb. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 1% of the sky, the humidity will be around 59%.
19 km/h ESE
12 km/h NE
Monday seems to be partly cloudy. Dubai, United Arab Emirates visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 997 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 39 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 30 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 5% of the sky, the humidity will be around 59%.
Partly cloudy will be the weather pattern for the Tuesday. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 996 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 38 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 31 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 3% of the sky, the humidity will be around 55%.
14 km/h W
Weekly Weather Report for Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Looking at the weather in Dubai, United Arab Emirates over the next 7 days, the maximum temperature will be 39℃ (or 102℉) on Monday 22nd July at around 1 pm. In the same week the minimum temperature will be 30℃ (or 85℉) on Thursday 25th July at around 10 pm.
Looking at the world weather radar, national weather service and satellite images, Dubai, United Arab Emirates weather forecaster is reporting little or no rainfall over the next 7 days. So make most of it while you are on vacation in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The windiest of all days will be Saturday 20th July as wind will reach 17mph (or 28kmph) at around 1 pm.
Dubai Weather Video
» Watch All Weather Videos
Dubai Today, Tomorrow and next 14 day Weather Forecast
10 Day Weather Forecast Dubai
Hourly Weather Forecast >>
28 km/h S
27 km/h SSE
24 hr Precip
Waning Crescent
HOLIDAY WEATHER Dubai
Dubai is one the hottest holiday destinations in the world, with its sub-tropical climate spread across two lengthy seasons of summer and winter.
Summer starts in April and lasts until October in Dubai, with the season bringing extreme warm and humidity to the city.
April sees the average high temperature rise to 32.9°C, while throughout June to October the temperature regularly crosses 40°C, with some tourists often looking for excursions that can limit the strain of the heat.
Between May and early July sandstorms can hit the city, although rainfall, despite being quite irregular in Dubai, is mainly prevalent during the cooler months.
Rainy seasons
Throughout November and December, Dubai experiences an autumn of sorts when the rainfall vastly increases. This is massively enhanced come January and February, which are the wettest months of the year.
The temperature still remains in the mid-20s throughout these months, with the rain often proving a nice respite from the blistering heat for some tourists.
Winter in Dubai occurs between January and March, where the highest temperature can still reach 30°C, although the minimum temperature drops down to around 15°C.
Rainfall is a feature of winter, but Dubai still witnesses the sun for more than eight hours a day, with winter a popular choice for visitors to enter Dubai.
15 Day Temperature Chart
Temperature chart displays the maximum and minimum temperature over next 15 days.
Show All Charts
Dubai, United Arab Emirates Yearly Monthly Climate Weather Averages
View Full Yearly Averages >>
About Dubai
Dubai is one of the most important cities in the world and it has become the most attractive holiday destination amongst all Middle-Eastern cities.
The most populous city in the United Arab Emirates is famous for its growth and luxurious surroundings, with sunny beaches, luminous skyscrapers and superb sights all features of Dubai.
Dubai weather remains hot and humid with a high daily average of sun hours per day.
Dubai has become one of the most attractive holiday destinations amongst all Middle-Eastern cities. The city is also known as the “Venice of the Gulf” due to its recent rapid development.
Dubai hosts some of the world’s finest shopping malls, including the renowned Wafi Shopping Mall and the Dubai Mall.
Other attractions include the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, which has the honour of being the tallest building in the world at a staggering 2,722 feet.
Otherwise there is no shortage of water-based attractions including Wild Wadi Waterpark, Palm Islands and Dubai Fountains.
Dubai is home to a magnificent range of Gulf and Middle Eastern Cuisine, with “stuffed camel” a multi-layered stuffing of chicken, eggs, fish and sheep in a whole camel. The meal is claimed to be a Bedouin wedding dish.
More affordable delicacies in Dubai include falafel and hummus, while among the more spectacular restaurants include Armani and Indego By Vineet, hailed as Dubai’s best Indian restaurant.
Dubai can be quite an expensive place to dine, but there are plenty of budget restaurants available for visitors as well.
Aryaas serves delicious food in an intimate setting, while Calicut Paragon is renowned for their steaming parathas.
Dubai is home to over 150 nationalities, with a seemingly endless variety of languages spoken across the city, although Arabic is the national language.
Arabic and English are the main business languages spoken, while English, Urdu, Hindi and Farsi are also widely spoken across Dubai.
When to visit Dubai?
The cooler winter is when tourists mostly flock to Dubai as the summer weather can be far too hot for many.
Be careful when visiting Ramadan, which normally occurs at the end of June and lasts for about a month. During this time, which is the fasting month for Muslims, you cannot eat, drink or smoke in public places.
What to pack for Dubai?
Summer clothing should be worn largely throughout the year, but is it important to dress in a fashion that will not hurt local Muslims.
In hotel swimming pools and at the beaches, women can wear swimwear with their top on. For men, there is no problem with any dress, but they should not walk on streets without a shirt on.
Sun cream and sun glasses will also be essential companions for navigating the Dubai heat.
Latest Weather Blogs
Ruined architecture of Greece: remains of history
Ruined architecture of Greece: remains of history The heritage of ancient Greece had a tremendous impact on the subsequent development of world archit
Weather Forecast ( 07.01-14.01) for the UK and the USA
The UK and the USA Weather Forecast (07.01-14.01) Weather Forecast for the UK The first half of the month in…
Milan: 5 myths about the city
Milan: 5 myths about the city Milan is considered the world capital of fashion and the modern part of Italy.…
Why is it worth visiting Prague?
Why is it worth visiting Prague? Where can you simultaneously walk through the filming locations of world movie premieres, drink…
Free Weather Widget for Website
Free weather widgets could be easily added to any website or content management systems (CMS) like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. If your website caters for areas in and around then our modern and responsive weather widgets will enhance your user experience by providing weather information.
10 day hour by hour Dubai weather
<div id="wwo-weather-widget-1"></div><script type='text/javascript' src='https://www.worldweatheronline.com/widget/v5/weather-widget.ashx?loc=384&wid=1&tu=1&div=wwo-weather-widget-1' async></script><noscript><a href="http://wsi5.worldweatheronline.com/dubai-weather/dubai/ae.aspx" alt="Hour by hour Dubai weather">10 day hour by hour Dubai weather</a></noscript>
Please also visit Dubai Historical Weather, Text Weather and Weather Charts pages. Historical or past weather forecast page provides historical weather forecast from 1st July, 2008 till now in 3 hourly interval. Text weather page will allow you to get a weather text summary for next 14 days and weather chart page displays weather pattern like temperature, wind speed, gust, pressure, etc. in graphical mode for next 14 days. We hope you like it.
If anything is not correct on our website or you have any feedbacks or queries then please do get in touch. We are waiting for your valuable feedbacks.
| Abu Dhabi || Dubai || Fujairah || Ras Al Khaimah || Sharjah || Umm al-Quwain |
Looking to buy past/historical weather for Dubai, please visit Buy Historical Weather Data section.
Fort Dabei
Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium
Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
Emirates Gc, Dubai
Football Stadiums
Al Shabab Al Arabi Club
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line85
|
__label__wiki
| 0.699169
| 0.699169
|
‘A Quiet Passion’ Review: More Than a Routine Biopic
by Brian Formo April 12, 2017
Cynthia Nixon excels as Emily Dickinson and Terence Davies ('Sunset Song') resists the boilerplate biopic template.
Cynthia Nixon Plays Emily Dickinson in the First Trailer for ‘A Quiet Passion’
by Chris Cabin August 17, 2016
Terence Davies' second masterwork of 2016 will screen at Toronto International Film Festival, and will be released in UK theaters in November.
‘Fargo’ Is Changing Time Periods Again for Season 3
by Chris Cabin December 6, 2015
"Palindrome," the Season 2 finale of 'Fargo', will air on December 14th on FX.
AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS Review
by Matt Goldberg February 10, 2015
[This is a re-post of my review from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints opens today in limited release.] David Lowery‘s confident feature Ain’t Them Bodies Saints lives between old life and a new beginning; between past …
First Trailer for AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS Starring Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, and Ben Foster
by Adam Chitwood May 24, 2013
The first trailer for the Sundance hit Ain’t Them Bodies Saints has been released online. The film centers on a young outlaw couple played by Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck who are apprehended by the law and must deal with …
Sundance 2013: AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS Review
by Matt Goldberg January 25, 2013
David Lowery‘s confident feature Ain’t Them Bodies Saints lives between old life and a new beginning; between past crimes and future punishment; between the intimate and the distant. But for me, the emotions fall through the beautiful cinematography, lyrical music, …
Sundance 2013: First Images from AFTERNOON DELIGHT, AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS, C.O.D., and CONCUSSION
by Adam Chitwood November 29, 2012
The Sundance Film Festival recently announced the promising lineups for a few of the festival’s categories, and we’ve now got the first images from some films that will be playing in competition as part of the U.S. Dramatic category. Briefly: …
TNT Western Series GATEWAY Casts Keir O’Donnell, Keith Carradine and More; ABC Developing U.S. Remake of U.K.…
by Ethan Anderton October 7, 2011
Cam Gigandet is already set to take a lead role as Jake Flynn, one of three brothers in the new TNT western drama Gateway (formerly known as Tin Star), but Deadline has word on four more actors joining the cast. …
COWBOYS & ALIENS Review
by Matt Goldberg September 15, 2011
Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens is the equivalent of putting chocolate and peanut butter together and getting a rice cake. Westerns can be great, sci-fi can be wonderful, and yet the attempt to bring them together has resulted in a …
Quentin Tarantino’s Next Film Is a Spaghetti Western Starring Christoph Waltz [Updated]
Quentin Tarantino has left the world wondering how he would follow his masterful Inglourious Basterds. Would it be an adaptation of The Shadow? A medieval movie starring Helen Mirren? Tarantino said it wouldn’t be a prequel to Basterds or a …
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line90
|
__label__wiki
| 0.548984
| 0.548984
|
Postoperative Empirical Antibiotic Use for Uncomplicated Perianal Abscess and Fistula
Riyadh Mohamad Hasan 1 , *
1 Department of Surgery, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad
* Corresponding author: Riyadh Mohamad Hasan, Department of Surgery, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, E-mail: riyadhmoh57@gmail.com
Annals of Colorectal Research: March 2017, 5 (1-2); e40795
Published Online: December 28, 2016
Article Type: Research Article
Received: July 14, 2016
Revised: December 4, 2016
Accepted: December 22, 2016
DOI: 10.5812/acr.40795
To Cite: Mohamad Hasan R. Postoperative Empirical Antibiotic Use for Uncomplicated Perianal Abscess and Fistula, Ann Colorectal Res. 2017 ; 5(1-2):e40795. doi: 10.5812/acr.40795.
Background: Perianal abscesses remain one of the most frequent surgical cases encountered by both general and colorectal surgeons. The use of broad-spectrum empirical antibiotics for perianal abscesses after drainage also remains common, although with questionable benefit.
Objectives: The aim of the study conducted was to evaluate the role and efficacy of intra- and post-operative empirical antibiotic combination with a wide antibacterial spectrum for the treatment of perianal abscess and fistula-in-ano.
Methods: An observational longitudinal study consisted of 150 patients; 50% of them underwent incision and drainage of their perianal abscess. The rest had fistula-in-ano and were treated with fistulotomy. Patients were prescribed a course of empiric antibiotics at the time of diagnosis. The prescribed antibiotic consisted of two regimes. The mechanism of the first regime was based on inhibiting bacterial cell wall synthesis, whereas the second regime included antibiotics inhibiting protein synthesis of the bacteria. Afterwards, analysis of the effect of postoperative use of empiric antibiotics was performed regarding symptom assessment, recurrence rate of abscess, fistula formation, cellulitis, bacteremia and sepsis.
Results: Among 150 patients included in the study, 92% were male and 8% were female. The age range was 20 to 66 years (mean 39.97 ± 0.16 years). Seventy-five of them had perianal abscess and the rest had fistula-in-ano. They were prescribed a course of empiric antibiotics. Patients who had perianal abscess showed an abscess recurrence rate of 10% and 5% after six and twelve months respectively. Perianal fistula formation occurred at the rate of 25% and 5% after six and twelve months respectively when Lincomycin treatment was used. Patients with perianal fistula treated with both fistulotomy and Lincomycin were followed up for six and twelve months. Follow-up showed an 11.42% rate of abscess formation after six months, however no recurrence of fistula was found.
Conclusions: The results of this study concluded that antibiotics administered after incision and drainage had reduced the rate of fistula formation, abscess recurrence, cellulitis and sepsis. Our limited patient sampling does not provide a definite conclusion, although it is clear that fistula formation is of clinical importance in the role of empiric antibiotics in preventing recurrence and merits further study.
Keywords: Perianal Abscess; Antibiotic; Empiric; Fistula
Perianal abscess (PA) is the acute manifestation of perianal infection requiring immediate surgery (1, 2). It manifests as severe pain, tenderness and swelling (3). Cryptoglandular infections are the main cause of perianal abscesses, as suggested for the first time in 1878 by Chiari (4). This results in stasis, colonization, suppuration and abscess formation (5). The principal management is incision and adequate surgical drainage (ID) (6). The use of routine intra-operative swab for cultures and sensitivity and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics for perianal abscesses post-drainage remains commonplace in surgical practice, although the role of antibiotic therapy as an adjuvant to incision and drainage is yet unclear with questionable benefit (7). Studies performed in 1980 demonstrated that results of pus culture for detecting the type of bacteria was essential in determining further action (8), in the same way that the presence of gut organisms on a swab was sensitive in detecting the presence of anal fistula (9). In addition to that, most surgeons do not tend to review swab culture results (10). The routinely use of antibiotics is not satisfactory and does not improve healing times in Crohn’s disease (11). Their use should be limited to the treatment of patients with impaired resistance to infection such as immunosuppression, diabetes and extensive cellulitis (12). Regarding a fistula, it is a tiny tract with the presence of inflammation and infection. Its treatment is usually surgical. Antibiotics, antipyretics and analgesics are provided (13). Antibiotics should be reserved for patients presenting with systemic symptoms such as cellulitis and sepsis (14). Another study demonstrated that certain antibiotics (metronidazole and ciprofloxacin) had merely a short-term benefit in the closure of fistulas (15). Like any type of treatment, treatment for anal fistulas carries a number of risks such as infection, which requires a course of antibiotics (16). Brook and Martin (1980) (17) have described the types of bacteria involved in abscess formation and found a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Enteric bacteria are more common in PAs (18). Lohsiriwat et al., 2010 (19) and Afsarlar et al., 2011 (20) showed that the use of antibiotics reduces the development of fistula-in-ano. Another study found that 98% of positive swab cultures have been sensitive to routine empirical antibiotics (21).
This is our knowledge about the antibiotic usage so far. The advantages of broad-spectrum antibiotics for treating perianal abscesses after drainage and fistulae after fistulotomy as well as its effect on management and outcome remains unknown and with questionable benefit. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the role and efficacy of postoperative empirical antibiotics for the treatment of perianal abscess and fistula-in-ano analyzing outcome measures regarding remission, recurrence, sepsis, cellulitis and bacteremia.
An observational longitudinal study consisted of 150 patients; 75 of them underwent incision and drainage of perianal abscess at Al-Kindy Teaching hospital and private hospitals in Baghdad from January 2012 to December 2015. The rest (75 patients) had fistula-in-ano and were treated with fistulotomy. The main symptoms of the patients were perianal pain exacerbated by movement and increased perianal pressure from sitting or defecation, discharge of pus, fever, malaise and sleep pattern disturbance. The inclusion criteria were adults aged eighteen years and above who presented with a first attack of perianal abscess (superficial ischiorectal), absence of identifiable fistula for a duration of 2 to 3 days or anal fistula that is actively draining for at least one month and a negative past history for previous healed anal fistula or perianal skin rupture or infection. The exclusion criteria included patients younger than eighteen years, complex fistula, necrotizing fasciitis, tuberculosis, Crohn’s disease, immunosuppression, malignancy and pyodermal skin infections.
2.1. Ethics Statement
The scientific and ethical committee of Al-kindy medical college-Baghdad university, Al- Kindy teaching hospital and private hospitals had approved this study. Written informed consent was obtained from all patients.
Patients were assessed by a senior surgeon who also performed the operation, either under general or local anesthesia. The patients underwent a general clinical physical examination in the lithotomy or prone jackknife position in order to inspect the extent of the abscess, to evaluate its induration and the presence of any previous scar tissue and external or internal fistula. Then, the perianal skin was disinfected with alcohol solution followed by the application of 10% povidone onto the skin. Afterwards, a cruciate incision over the abscess was made and drainage was carried out. All necrotic tissues were debrided and all septations were broken down paying attention to not injure the sphincter of the anus. A drain was applied for drainage of the pus and to prevent premature closure of the abscess cavity. Lastly, a protective dressing was applied to absorb any purulent discharge from the abscess cavity and to protect the open wound. Patients were prescribed a course of empiric antibiotics at the time of diagnosis. Patients were discharged from hospital based on the surgeon’s decision, received advice for daily dressing and were followed up in the outpatient surgical clinic every two weeks postoperatively. Patients were advised to continue? their activities after the surgery.
Patients with intersphincteric fistula were treated with fistulotomy. The preparation of the patients was the same as above. Under anesthesia, the entire fistula track was defined from the internal to external opening with identification and obliteration of the tracks by probing it. The fistula was laid open by cutting out the whole tract after which all infected tissue was curetted. The fistula tunnel was opened and converted to a groove, which allows the fistula to heal from the inside out. The resulting wound is generally not closed and is packed, after which the wound heals by itself. Same as above, patients were discharged from hospital based on the surgeon’s decision, received advice for daily dressing and were followed up in the outpatient surgical clinic every two weeks postoperatively.
The prescribed antibiotics were selected that cover G+ and G-bacteria, divided into two regimes according to their mechanisms of action:
1- Those inhibiting bacterial cell wall synthesis: Penicillin; Ampiclox (Ampicillin 250 mg and Cloxacillin 250 mg) capsule four times a day orally (Ajanta Pharma Limited-India) and Augmentin (Amoxicillin 875 mg and Clavulanate 125 mg) tablet thrice daily orally (Smithkline Beecham PLC-UK) + Metronidazole (Flagyl) (500 mg thrice daily) orally (Sanofi-France). The other antibiotic used is a Cephalosporin which was of the fourth generation Cephalosporin (Cefepime, one gram twice daily) by slow intravenous infusion (Bristol-Myers Squibb- USA) or a third generation Cephalosporin (Ceftriaxone, one gram twice daily intravenously (Roche-Switzerland) or Cefixime 400 mg capsule once daily) orally (Medico Labs-Homs-Syria) or first generation Cephalosporin (Cephalexin 500 mg capsule four times a day) (Glaxo Wellcome- UK) orally with metronidazole (500 mg thrice daily) (Sanofi-France) orally for seven days.
2- Antibiotics which inhibit protein synthesis of the bacteria include Lincocin 600 mg twice daily orally (Upjohn- United States). Other antibiotics used were Gentamicin 80 mg twice daily intramuscularly (Roussel- France) + metronidazole (500 mg thrice daily) (Sanofi-France) orally. Clindamycin HCL 150 mg (two capsules four times daily) (Taj pharmaceuticals -India) orally for seven days.
Analysis of the effect of postoperative use of empiric antibiotics after 6 and 12 months was performed by the same senior surgeon and consisted of observation of the recurrence rate of abscess, assessing rate of fistula formation by clinical examination, MRI and ultrasound, cellulitis, complications from antibiotic use, for example, diarrhea associated C. difficile colitis, allergy and resistance to antibiotics, bacteremia and sepsis after ID of perianal abscess and fistulotomy. These factors were used to assess the benefits of using empiric antibiotics postoperatively in reducing the recurrence rate of abscess and fistula formation. The limitations, however, are the small sample size and the follow-up of the patients.
Data was statistically analyzed using:
Descriptive statistics: frequencies for tables, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Calculations were performed using MiniTab statistical software program 13.20.
Among 150 patients included in the study, 92% were male and 8% were female. The age range was 20 to 66 years (mean 39.97 ± 0.16). Patients were experiencing anal pain, swelling and tenderness since 4 to 10 days (6.93 ± 0.23). Half of them had perianal abscess and the other half had fistula-in-ano as shown in Table 1. The patients with diabetes mellitus, whether on diet or oral hypoglycemic drugs, formed 9.33% of the total group (14/150).
Table 1. Patients’ Demographic Data
No. = 150
Mean ± SEM 39.97 ± 0.16
Range (20 - 66)
Males, No. (%) 138 (92.00)
Females, No. (%) 12 (08.0)
Duration of symptoms, No. (%)
Mean ± SEM 6.93 ± 0.23
Range (4 - 10)
Duration of follow-up (months)
Patient diseases
Perianal abscess, No. (%) 75 (50)
Fistula-in-ano, No. (%) 75 (50)
Concurrent disease, No. (%)
Diabetes mellitus 9.33% (14/150)
Sixty-one (81.33%) patients with perianal abscess were prescribed a course of empiric antibiotics at time of diagnosis and seven days postoperative on discharge. The prescribed antibiotic regime to patients with perianal abscess was regime 2 consisting of the inhibition of protein synthesis of the bacteria; this group represented 52% (No. = 39). Patients treated with Lincomycin 600 mg represented 26.66% (No. = 20) followed by Garamycin 80 mg + metronidazole (500 mg) (13.33%) and Clindamycin 150mg (12.00%). The other regime of antibiotic treatment (regime 1) played a role in inhibiting bacterial cell wall synthesis and includes penicillin (24%) and cephalosporins (24%). The type of Penicillin used was Ampiclox (Ampicillin 250 mg and Cloxacillin 250 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg), constituting 12% followed by Augmentin (Amoxicillin 875 mg and Clavulanate 125 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg) (12%). Regarding cephalosporins, the Ceftriaxone, one gram) + metronidazole (500 mg) is used (8%) then Cefepime (one gram)+ metronidazole (500 mg), Cefixime 500 mg capsule) + metronidazole (500 mg) and Cephalexin 500 mg)+ metronidazole (500 mg) that represents (5.33%) as shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Regimes of Empiric Antibiotic Treatment of Patients with Perianal Abscess According to Their Mechanisms of Action
Regime No. 1
1- Antibiotics which inhibit cell wall synthesis 36 48.00
A- Penicillin 18 24.00
1- Ampiclox (Ampicillin 250 mg and Cloxacillin 250 mg)+ metronidazole (500 mg) 9 12.00
2- Augmentin (Amoxicillin 875 mg and Clavulanate 125 mg)+ metronidazole (500 mg) 9 12.00
B- Cephalosporins 18 24.00
1- Cefepime (one gram) + metronidazole (500 mg) 4 05.33
2- Ceftriaxone, one gram) + metronidazole (500 mg) 6 08.00
3- Cefixime 500 mg capsule) + metronidazole (500 mg) 4 05.33
4- Cephalexin 500 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg) 4 05.33
Regime No. 2 No. %
2- Antibiotics which inhibit protein synthesis 39 52.00
1- Lincomycin 600 mg 20 26.66
2- Garamycin (80 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg) 10 13.33
3- Clindamycin 150 mg 9 12.00
Table 3 demonstrates the patients with fistula-in-ano (50%) who were treated with empiric antibiotics that inhibit protein synthesis of the bacteria (52%). Lincomycin 600 mg was used in treatment constitutes (46.66%) followed by Clindamycin 150 mg (5.33%). The other regime used was antibiotics which inhibit the cell wall synthesis (24%) and includes Penicillin and cephalosporins.
Table 3. Regimes of Empiric Antibiotic Treatment of Patients with Fistula-In-Ano According to Their Mechanisms of Action
1- Augmentin (Amoxicillin 875 mg and Clavulanate 125 mg)+ metronidazole (500 mg) 18 24.00
1-Ceftriaxone (one gram)+ metronidazole (500 mg) 18 24.00
2-Antibiotics which inhibit protein synthesis 39 52.00
3- Clindamycin 150mg 4 05.33
These patients were followed up for a period of six to twelve months as shown in Table 1. The outcome measures of this empiric antibiotic treatment are shown in Table 4. About 26.66% of the patients with perianal abscess who were treated with Lincomycin had a recurrence of the abscess at a rate of 10% and 5% after six and twelve months respectively. Development of fistula during the follow-up of perianal abscess postoperatively was 25% and 5% after six and twelve months respectively. Other regimes of empiric antibiotics are shown in Table 4. About 10% of the patients developed diarrhea following the use of Lincomycin and Clindamycin, which was probably due to pseudomembranous colitis and it stopped shortly after cessation of antibiotic administration and was further not of clinical significance.
Table 4. Outcome Measures of Different Postoperative Empiric Antibiotic Regimes Used in the Treatment of Patients with Perianal Abscess
Types of Empiric Antibiotics Used
Patients with Perianal Abscess
Recurrence Rate of Abscess After 6 Months
Recurrence Rate of Abscess After 12 Months
Fistula Formation After 6 Months
Fistula Formation After 12 Months
Cellulitis And Sepsis
Complication Due to Antibiotic Use (allergy, C. difficile Colitis, Antibiotic Resistance)
No. (%)
Lincocmycin 600 mg 20 (26.66) 2 (10.00) 1 (5.00) 5 (25.00) 1 (5.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (10.00)
Clindamycin 150 mg 9 (12.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 9 (100.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (10.00)
Garamycin 80 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg) 10 (13.33) 5 (50.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Ampiclox (Ampicillin 250 mg and Cloxacillin 250 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg 9 (12.00) 3 (33.33) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Augmentin (Amoxicillin 875 mg and Clavulanate 125 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg 9 (12.00) 0 (0) 3 (33.33) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Ceftriaxone, one gram) + metronidazole (500 mg) 6 (08.00) 0 (0) 3 (50.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Cefepime, one gram)+ metronidazole (500 mg) 4 (05.33) 1 (25.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Cephalexin 500 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg) 4 (05.33) 0 (0) 1 (25.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Cefixime 500 mg capsule) + metronidazole (500 mg) 4 (05.33) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (25.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Out of the patients with perianal fistula, 46.66% of them were also treated with the empiric regime of Lincomycin. Follow-up for six and twelve months did not show any fistula recurrence but did show a percentage of 11.42% of abscess formation occurring after six months, as demonstrated in Table 5. The only complication due to antibiotic use was diarrhea. About 5.71% of the patients developed diarrhea following use of Lincomycin and Clindamycin, which was probably caused by pseudomembranous colitis due to Clostridium difficile. The diarrhea stopped shortly after cessation of the antibiotics and was further not of clinical significance.
Table 5. Outcome Measures of Different Postoperative Empiric Antibiotic Regimes Used for Treating Patients with Fistula-In-Ano
Patients with Fistula-In-Ano
Abscess Formation After 6 Months
Abscess Formation After 12 Months
Fistula Recurrence After 6 Months
Fistula Recurrence After 12 Months
Lincomycin 600 mg 35 (46.66) 4 (11.42) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (5.71)
Clindamycin 150mg 4 (05.33) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Augmentin (Amoxicillin 875 mg and Clavulanate 125 mg) + metronidazole (500 mg 18 (24.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Ceftriaxone, one gram) + metronidazole (500 mg) 18 (24.00) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Other patients were treated with other regimes of antibiotics. None of the patients, neither with perianal abscess nor fistula-in-ano, developed cellulitis, sepsis or bacteremia. Thus, these results demonstrate that empirical antibiotic use leads to the prevention and decrease of recurrence of perianal abscess and fistula formation.
Anorectal abscess is a potentially debilitating and devastating condition that may result in considerable discomfort and fever. Extensive research in the field of perianal treatment and antibiotic usage has been investigated. There is however, a controversy; one study reported that routine swab cultures are unnecessary and do not affect treatment or outcome and that the use of postoperative empiric antibiotics may reduce the rates of recurrence of abscesses and fistulae (21). Others have shown that antibiotics are not effective in the treatment and prevention of abscesses or fistulae. We agree that antibiotics are not effective in the treatment and prevention of abscesses, including perianal abscesses, as a whole, but we are however investigating the role of empiric antibiotics in recurrence of abscess after incision and drainage. Management of perianal diseases has been mentioned in the guidelines of the American society of colon and rectal surgeons (ASCRS) in 2011 (22) which reported that a perianal abscess should be treated by incision and drainage and that antibiotics have a limited role in the treatment of uncomplicated anorectal abscess and may be considered in patients with significant cellulitis, underlying immunosuppression or concomitant systemic illness. In our study, empiric Lincomycin used in patients with perianal abscess (26.66%), showed an abscess recurrence rate of 10% and 5% after six and twelve months respectively while fistula formation after six and twelve months was 25% and 5% respectively. Despite the small sample size, other regimes of empiric antibiotics showed a higher recurrence rate and fistula formation. The other group consisted of patients with fistula-in-ano and about 46.66% of them were treated with the empiric regime of Lincomycin. Follow-up for the detection of complications during six and twelve months showed no fistula recurrence but did display abscess formation in 11.42% of the patients after six months. Thus, we agree with the principles outlined by the ASCRS, suggesting that incision and drainage is still the mainstay of treatment. In addition, our results support the fact that administering preoperative empiric antibiotics decreases the resulting fistula and number of recurrences resulting from incision and drainage of the perianal abscess. Hence is it to say that empirical antibiotic usage prevents fistula formation and the prognosis of anal fistula (23). Fistula formation is worrisome for both the patient and the surgeon and the requirement for repeated surgical intervention may prolong the patient’s hospital stay and increase the costs. Various studies have demonstrated that the recurrence of anorectal abscesses and frequency of anal fistula development range between 25% and 50% (24), which is higher than found in our study. This may be due to the type of antibiotic used postoperatively, duration of treatment, sample size, sample patients’ criteria and selection. It has been found that patients’ criteria are important; patients with neutrophil counts less than 500 - 1000/mm3 and/or lack of fluctuance on examination have been successfully treated with antibiotics alone in 30% to 88% (25) while this was found to be 50% in patients with perianal abscess and 50% in patients with fistula in our study. The cause of recurrence could be explained due to technical reasons such as inadequate drainage and an unnoticed abscess (26). A study by Akkapulu et al. in 2015 showed that age, sex, types of abscess, presence of fistula or drain usage were not associated with recurrence (27). The American Heart Association recommends preoperative usage of antibiotics before any operation in patients with prosthetic valves, previous bacterial endocarditis, congenital heart disease and heart transplant recipients (28).
Postoperative antibiotic use is important because of the emergence of community-acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in anorectal abscesses (29). In our study, Lincomycin used in the treatment for abscess and fistula postoperatively as empiric antibiotic resulted in less recurrence of abscess or fistula development. This also prevents or treats bacteremia, cellulitis and sepsis. Another regime used antibiotics which inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis like Ceftriaxone and Cefepime. Cheng and Tsai, 2010 (23) showed that the most common aerobic bacteria were E.coli and anaerobic bacteria were B. fragilis. E.coli were sensitive to amoxicillin-clavulamic acid (84.6%), cefazolin (84.6%), ciprofloxacin (69.2%). For anaerobic bacteria (Bacteroides species and Clostridiumperfringens), the antibiotic sensitivity rates were determined to be 100% for metronidazole. They found that fistula development at the 12-month follow-up were 11.42% and 0% in patients who had mixed flora and a pure aerobic infection. Thus, this study is in agreement with our study regarding empirical use of antibiotics and that the first choice of oral antibiotics for the treatment of perianal abscess should be metronidazole combined with a cephalosporin. Ommer et al., 2012 (30) showed that antibiotics should be used in the presence of immunosuppression. A randomized, controlled, multi-center clinical trial study showed that the use of antibiotics could not prevent the development of fistulas after ID of PA (31). Therefore, antibiotics should be combined with surgical measures. Assessment of perianal abscess and fistula was done by dynamic-contrast enhanced MRI, which is the most important advantage of this technique (32) and the DWMRI, which is a useful technique for evaluating activity of fistulas with abscess. Regarding perianal fistula, visibility is greater with combined T2WI and DWMRI than T2WI alone (33).
The results of this study conclude that antibiotics administered after incision and drainage reduce the rate of fistula formation, abscess recurrence, cellulitis, sepsis and bacteremia without any side effects of the drugs such as antibiotic resistance and diarrhea. In this study, administration of the empiric antibiotics was well tolerated and has shown a good response. Thus, in the role of empiric antibiotics in preventing recurrence, fistula formation is of clinical importance.
Conflicts of Interest: There is no conflict of interest.
Funding/Support: There is no funding for this research.
1. Rizzo JA, Naig AL, Johnson EK. Anorectal abscess and fistula-in-ano: evidence-based management. Surg Clin North Am. 2010; 90(1): 45-68[DOI][PubMed]
2. Fielding MA, Berry AR. Management of perianal sepsis in a district general hospital. J R Coll Surg Edinb. 1992; 37(4): 232-4[PubMed]
3. Di Falco G, Guccione C, D'Annibale A, Ronsisvalle S, Lavezzo P, Fregonese D, et al. Fournier's gangrene following a perianal abscess. Dis Colon Rectum. 1986; 29(9): 582-5[PubMed]
4. Parks AG. Pathogenesis and treatment of fistuila-in-ano. Br Med J. 1961; 1(5224): 463-9[PubMed]
5. Whiteford MH, Kilkenny J3, Hyman N, Buie WD, Cohen J, Orsay C, et al. Practice parameters for the treatment of perianal abscess and fistula-in-ano (revised). Dis Colon Rectum. 2005; 48(7): 1337-42[DOI][PubMed]
6. Malik AI, Nelson RL, Tou S. Incision and drainage of perianal abscess with or without treatment of anal fistula. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010; (7)[DOI][PubMed]
7. Stewart MP, Laing MR, Krukowski ZH. Treatment of acute abscesses by incision, curettage and primary suture without antibiotics: a controlled clinical trial. Br J Surg. 1985; 72(1): 66-7[PubMed]
8. Eykyn SJ, Grace RH. The relevance of microbiology in the management of anorectal sepsis. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1986; 68(5): 237-9[PubMed]
9. Lunniss PJ, Phillips RK. Surgical assessment of acute anorectal sepsis is a better predictor of fistula than microbiological analysis. Br J Surg. 1994; 81(3): 368-9[PubMed]
10. Leung E, McArdle K, Yazbek-Hanna M. Pus swabs in incision and drainage of perianal abscesses: what is the point? World J Surg. 2009; 33(11): 2448-51[DOI][PubMed]
11. Llera JL, Levy RC. Treatment of cutaneous abscess: a double-blind clinical study. Ann Emerg Med. 1985; 14(1): 15-9[PubMed]
12. Dajani AS, Taubert KA, Wilson W, Bolger AF, Bayer A, Ferrieri P, et al. Prevention of bacterial endocarditis. Recommendations by the American Heart Association. Circulation. 1997; 96(1): 358-66[PubMed]
13. Dejaco C, Harrer M, Waldhoer T, Miehsler W, Vogelsang H, Reinisch W. Antibiotics and azathioprine for the treatment of perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2003; 18(11-12): 1113-20[PubMed]
14. Nunoo-Mensah JW, Balasubramaniam S, Wasserberg N, Artinyan A, Gonzalez-Ruiz C, Kaiser AM, et al. Fistula-in-ano: do antibiotics make a difference? Int J Colorectal Dis. 2006; 21(5): 441-3[DOI][PubMed]
15. Solomon MJ, McLeod RS, Connor BI. Combination ciprofloxacin and metronidazole in severe perianal Crohn's disease. Can J Gastroenterol. 1993; 7: 571-3
16. NHS Choices.
17. Brook I, Martin WJ. Aerobic and anaerobic bacteriology of perirectal abscess in children. Pediatrics. 1980; 66(2): 282-4[PubMed]
18. Niyogi A, Agarwal T, Broadhurst J, Abel RM. Management of perianal abscess and fistula-in-ano in children. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2010; 20(1): 35-9[DOI][PubMed]
19. Lohsiriwat V, Yodying H, Lohsiriwat D. Incidence and factors influencing the development of fistula-in-ano after incision and drainage of perianal abscesses. J Med Assoc Thai. 2010; 93(1): 61-5[PubMed]
20. Afsarlar CE, Karaman A, Tanır, G. , Karaman, I. , Yılmaz, E. , Erdog an, D. , et al. Perianal abscess and fistula-in-ano in children: clinical characteristic, management and outcome. Pediatr Surg Int. 2011;
21. Seow-En I, Ngu J. Routine operative swab cultures and post-operative antibiotic use for uncomplicated perianal abscesses are unnecessary. ANZ J Surg. 2014; [DOI][PubMed]
22. Steele SR, Kumar R, Feingold DL, Rafferty JL, Buie WD, Standards Practice Task Force of the American Society of C, et al. Practice parameters for the management of perianal abscess and fistula-in-ano. Dis Colon Rectum. 2011; 54(12): 1465-74[DOI][PubMed]
23. Cheng SF, Tsai WS. Microbiological analysis of perianalabscess and its treatment. J Soc Colon Rectal Surgeon. 2010; 21: 37-42
24. Yano T, Asano M, Matsuda Y, Kawakami K, Nakai K, Nonaka M. Prognostic factors for recurrence following the initial drainage of an anorectal abscess. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2010; 25(12): 1495-8[DOI][PubMed]
25. Buyukasik Y, Ozcebe OI, Sayinalp N, Haznedaroglu IC, Altundag OO, Ozdemir O, et al. Perianal infections in patients with leukemia: importance of the course of neutrophil count. Dis Colon Rectum. 1998; 41(1): 81-5[PubMed]
26. Onaca N, Hirshberg A, Adar R. Early reoperation for perirectal abscess: a preventable complication. Dis Colon Rectum. 2001; 44(10): 1469-73[PubMed]
27. Akkapulu N, Dere O, Zaim G, Soy HE, Ozmen T, Dogrul AB. A retrospective analysis of 93 cases with anorectal abscess in a rural state hospital. Ulus Cerrahi Derg. 2015; 31(1): 5-8[DOI][PubMed]
28. Wilson W, Taubert KA, Gewitz M, Lockhart PB, Baddour LM, Levison M, et al. Prevention of infective endocarditis: guidelines from the American Heart Association: a guideline from the American Heart Association Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis, and Kawasaki Disease Committee, Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, and the Council on Clinical Cardiology, Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia, and the Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Interdisciplinary Working Group. Circulation. 2007; 116(15): 1736-54[DOI][PubMed]
29. Albright JB, Pidala MJ, Cali JR, Snyder MJ, Voloyiannis T, Bailey HR. MRSA-related perianal abscesses: an underrecognized disease entity. Dis Colon Rectum. 2007; 50(7): 996-1003[DOI][PubMed]
30. Ommer A, Herold A, Berg E, Furst A, Sailer M, Schiedeck T. German S3 guideline: anal abscess. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2012; 27(6): 831-7[DOI][PubMed]
31. Sozener U, Gedik E, Kessaf Aslar A, Ergun H, Halil Elhan A, Memikoglu O, et al. Does adjuvant antibiotic treatment after drainage of anorectal abscess prevent development of anal fistulas? A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter study. Dis Colon Rectum. 2011; 54(8): 923-9[DOI][PubMed]
32. Spencer JA, Ward J, Beckingham IJ, Adams C, Ambrose NS. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging of perianal fistulas. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1996; 167(3): 735-41[DOI][PubMed]
33. Bakan S, Olgun DC, Kandemirli SG, Tutar O, Samanci C, Dikici S, et al. Perianal Fistula With and Without Abscess: Assessment of Fistula Activity Using Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Iran J Radiol. 2015; 12(4)[DOI][PubMed]
Featured Image:
Riyadh Mohamad Hasan: [PubMed] [Scholar]
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line92
|
__label__cc
| 0.554999
| 0.445001
|
About Aliya Bonar
Author Archive | Aliya Bonar
Conflux Festival Begins Tomorrow!!
By Aliya Bonar on October 19, 2012 in 2012 Blog, Info
As a reminder, the Festival is happening this Saturday and Sunday! It is an all-day affair: 12-6pm both days, free and open to the public, with a reception from 6 to 8pm on Saturday.
The festival is chock full of discussions, events, off-site projects, video presentations and even more surprises. Check out the schedule page here to make sure you don’t miss your favorite talks or events — even though we encourage you to attend all of them (we will)!
Definitely check our Twitter feed as Conflux Festival Co-Founder David Mandl will be live-tweeting from the center of it all. We’d love for you to tweet your experiences at the Festival as well — please use the hashtag #confluxfestival.
See you tomorrow at the NYU Barney Building (34 Stuyvesant Street, New York, NY) where all the magic starts at 12:45pm.
The Conflux Team
PARTICIPANT INTERVIEW: Daniel Bejar
By Aliya Bonar on October 17, 2012 in 2012 Blog, Participants
Right now I’m working on a few projects, but the immediate one is “Rec-elections” which are site-specific performances, which question Conservative Presidential advertising strategies, which weaponize nostalgia as a political tool of manipulation. In Conservative advertising you find a lot of references to the past, always with an eye looking back. I recently returned from the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL where I appropriated their strategy by using historical campaign posters from past elections, such as from Romney’s father campaign when he ran in 1968. I performed in protest marches and rallies by utilizing the historical campaign posters and handing them out to fellow protesters. “Rec-elections” is similar to my project “Get Lost!” which will be part of Conflux in that they both utilize history as tool to question the present, and both open up a space to envision alternate possibilities.
My interest in public space is that first and foremost it is “public”, something we all share, and have the ability to contribute to. Public space is more, and more becoming a contested site, and as a site of contention I find it something to question and push back against. And finally public space is a place we all have access to regardless of wealth, social status, race, religion, sex, etc. there are no social barriers which exclude an audience, I find this very appealing in making socially conscious work. As for challenges, I think the biggest challenge of working in public space is the variable of not knowing what can happen in public, you really can’t plan every aspect of a project in public space. I’ve come to embrace this variable of chance, and found that amazing things can happen that weren’t even thought of.
I was recently at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL. It wan an intense week spent in a legalized police state. Protests and marches were allowed, but only during sanctioned times, and places, all of which were blocks away from the actual convention where the actual target audience was. It was a marginalizing experience. Not sure if it was great, but it was definitely an adventure.
Check out more here: www.danielbejar.com @dabejar
PARTICIPANT INTERVIEW: Naomi Miller
For Iron Maiden Artist Tours this past spring, I worked with the artist Sean Fader to make the Guided Blind Dates tour. It was an incredible experience that began with a date with two gay men playing bocce in the lawn of a museum mansion in Pelham Bay Park at 10:00 am, and ended at midnight in Coney Island after taking the Cyclone on its 85th birthday with a straight couple. The logistics of planning seven dates for various combinations of seven people throughout the day and four boroughs were mind scrambling, but amazingly everything went pretty much according to plan. And several people went on second dates afterwards! That wasn’t even in the cards of our plans, so we were pretty pleased with that. This project has opened the city up to me in ways I could never have imagined. And I’ve worked with some great artists, too.
I’m planning the 2013 spring season of Iron Maiden Artist Tours, which I hope to make more accessible to a broader range of audience. And I’m working on a performance in November in which this persona I’ve created—Naomi Miller, Public Intellectual—will be interviewed in front of an audience. A cast of four others and myself will rotate through the two roles (NM and interviewer), exploring how and who creates such a persona and showing how anyone can don one. I’ve found that any idea I work on eventually becomes something involving collaboration, asking others for input on some random idea that’s been in my head for a few years.
Anything else you’d like to share about your recent work or involvement in Conflux?
I was circumspect about showing documentation of Iron Maiden Artists Tours. It could be so easy to dismiss or not engage with a few photos and some text. So I thought I’d solve that by making the tour office and being the tour agent, exhorting visitors to learn more about the project, its artists, the tours, and experiences. And it’s super aligned with reality because I have to sell these tours every season and it’s a challenge!
Hear Naomi speak at the Conflux Festival on Sunday, October 21 at 2pm. She will also have a booth set up all weekend at the Festival Site to discuss her project further!
Check out more : www.naomiller.com, @hotfruitcompote
Off-Site Project: Gravity Ace On The Move
This project by LD and Ro Lawrence is going to be happening concurrently with the Festival this weekend — here’s a sneak peek! More information about how to participate in this off-site project is available at www.h-e-r-e.com/gravityace and will also be available during Ro Lawrence’s presentation at the Festival itself — 1:50pm on Saturday October 20th.
LD Lawrence + Ro Lawrence
Gravity Ace On The Move: Sign Transport Report Sequence
On Sunday Oct. 21 beginning at noon in various locations from Whitehall St, along the South Street Viaduct and the East River Bikeway to the South Street Seaport, inviting white shapes appear. Upon closer inspection people discover that they are not painted tags, but rather thin sheets held to the metal surfaces by magnetic attraction. The small QR code on the back of each piece directs to a webpage inviting anyone to move the shapes about, and encouraging people to transport them to a distant magnetic surface and send a geo-tagged photo to the project website. Once every two months for one year the shapes will be renewed at the original installation site. In this way 7 generations of magnetic shapes will be launched into transport at this site during the year. Gravity Ace On The Move is the first collaborative project of sibling team Ld and Ro Lawrence, with a bit of help from NJ Lawrence, their 80-year-old mother, as these three artists find themselves together in their native New York for the first time in 50 years.
PARTICIPANT INTERVIEW: Brian House
What are you working on now and how does the piece in Conflux relate? Recently, I’ve been writing a lot of music. Or rather, I’ve been using musical structures to listen to data that I’ve gathered as I move about the city. I’m interested in how we understand data and what its relationship is to actual embodied experience. That’s a theme that’s definitely reflected in the Joyride piece; a mobile phone, an individual, LA, Google, and this list of lat/longs dance around each other leaving traces but never quite coalescing into a definitive story. I’m hoping sound and performance might be another way to play in the middle of all that, especially in regard to how we relate to time and our daily rhythms. I’m also hoping to further develop the OpenPaths platform to facilitate other artists who work with geolocation.
What interests you in working in public space? what are some of the challenges you face making public work? My work involves things that move — spatially, temporally, and through those liminal zones between public and private activity. What kinds of politics do you create with those movements? What role does serendipity play? Can you ‘compose’ and ‘interpret’ your everyday behavior? How is it represented, and how do those representations work recursively to create behavior? Questions like these are experiments that take place with the world and which inevitably comprise the process and challenges of a subject that doesn’t sit still.
Any great adventures you’ve been on recently? I’m spending most of my time now in Providence, after having NYC as a base for 14 years. That is an adventure! It’s a whole new set of rhythms to wake up to.
Check out more here: http://brianhouse.net @h0use
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line93
|
__label__cc
| 0.741076
| 0.258924
|
Underground Bases, Celebrity Cloning, Breakaway Civilizations, Consciousness Transfer, DNA Activation
Spiral's Conspiracy Café :: NWO, Social Engineering, & Psy-OPs
by Ria on Sun May 29, 2016 6:00 pm
aug tellez Underground Bases, Celebrity Cloning, Breakaway Civilizations, Consciousness Transfer, DNA Activation
Beautiful Person
ive read all uv written above but id say only a fraction sunk in
Aug Tellez
By staying in peace and connection with the truth and the original spirit we bridge the gaps and heal the confusion.
All one can do is keep working with the ideas to get more information. Take it like an object, rotate it, pull it apart, put it back together. I can add each time you take it apart and say, “well what is that?”
But I can’t guess what you don’t understand.
so are u saying that u were born in a different time and u time traveled here
You did just the same, everyone did, I just remember it.
No humans are from here.
This is a programmed artificial timeline that can only collapse by the time the end of the programming is reached/runs out.
This is higher dimensionality. https://www.facebook.com/intergalacticshamanic.mysticangel/posts/1124639324254935
For much more go here:
https://augtellez.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/earth-situation-part-2-artificial-timelines-and-sub-quantum-interaction/
Re: Underground Bases, Celebrity Cloning, Breakaway Civilizations, Consciousness Transfer, DNA Activation
by Ria on Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:51 am
CLONING / UNDERGROUND BASES
Underground Bases, Cloning and Torture
JUNE 13, 2016 OMNIPULSELEAVE A COMMENT
This is the part of the underground bases that you need to understand first.
It is a people torturing facility where they can pull the essences of life out of a human through rape, abuse, torture, psychological trauma, drugging, psychedelics/sedatives/hypnotics, operations/surgeries, clone fighting, games, bets, misery, etc etc etc.
It is a 100% depiction of what has been described as “hell” throughout the ages of humanity.
People are kidnapped, DNA is taken, they are cloned and because of current laws on cloning, they are allowed to be repeatedly tortured, raped, drugged and used for personal profit. Nothing is given back to the individual.
These operations are carried out by the elite, wealthy individuals, who feel it is their duty to torture humans because humans are essentially not good enough for them.
These people have no understanding of human empathy or harmony and are devoured by darkness, thus their internal core of self becomes a black hole void which relies on the energies of innocent beings in order to remain. They become vampires.
This is what has become of the secret operations in the underground bases.
They say it was a race of vampires that infiltrated the Earth using timeline hopping technology hoping to escape the destruction of their own timeline.
JP Norris -quote from LoreeGarett
June 9 at 6:50am · Renton, WA ·
[From what I’ve seen, a lot of the “clones” are pretty happy with their cloning lives and existences. The govt. gives them money and supports them and many of them have even become rich, others seem to be comfortable. Meanwhile, another smaller group of clones has been repeatedly enslaved, cloned over and over to only be murdered, raped, and tortured, and we’re forced to work and support all of the other shits. Not only that, in my case, I saw massive violence because of the greed over my songwriting and profits. It was expected I’d be pretty, so they started selling me for sex when I was just a little girl, and they sold me to British Royals too, who never really expected me to be a trillion-dollar producer of songs, I don’t think…or maybe they did and have enslaved others over the same thing–but many people acted like no big deal, just another kid to torture and rape and then one day, some of these people freaked out and got worried I had become ‘too big’ for them to control. Not only that, I was rich. That was short-lived bc they stole from me. Some of these same people who had raped me violently and tortured me, started pretending with me, just in “case” I ever made it out, or escaped, or managed to control my own assets and profitablility and they were scared and nervous, and more determined than ever to pretend they’d never been so bad, while working behind scenes to bribe and pay off everyone they could think of, who they were worried I might go to for help and maybe even get help.
My cloned sons told me, in the early 1980s, “I don’t have any friends”. They never had friends and I’ve never had friends. In fact, the U.S. prevented me from having and making friends, by isolating me at my house and telling me I was allowed to have only “one friend”–Stephanie Maiers, who was someone already stealing from me and involved in murders of my kids and older clone of myself.
I need to find work somewhere in this country, enough to leave this country, and live somewhere where I can have a normal life and “friends” and my kids feel like they can have friends]
~LOREE Garrett
“I am looking for people who want to expose human cloning as in existence since at least WWII and a little earlier. Many of the clones who tried to talk about it were murdered by the U.S. government. The U.S. government has c…”
Off my Google+ email traffic flow.
#LoreeGarrett
— with Laura Coffey.
by Spiral on Tue Jun 14, 2016 1:25 pm
I have removed the links from the above post, this is a site for conspiracies & so forth, this is clearly the work of a deranged person & the content of the links was disgusting; graphic sex, violence & profanity.
If the people are real that are having such claims made against theml then it is also a punishable crime to post such material.
» Transfer and Transmission of Shares
» transfer in articleship
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line94
|
__label__wiki
| 0.707793
| 0.707793
|
Keeler Johnson’s Preakness 144 Selections
By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman
From a sporting perspective, Saturday's $1.5 million Preakness Stakes (gr. I) at Pimlico isn't particularly exciting. The first four horses to cross the finish line in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) are all skipping the Preakness, so for the first time since 1996, there won't be a Triple Crown quest on the line at Pimlico.
But from a handicapping perspective, the Preakness is shaping up to be a fantastic betting race with a large field and plenty of options for bettors to consider. Let's go through the field in horse-by-horse fashion and come up with some selections....
#1 War of Will: All things considered, this son of War Front ran a huge race in the Kentucky Derby. Breaking from the rail, he was reluctant to settle after being beaten to the lead, and when he tried to shift out and rally on the far turn, he ran up on the heels of Maximum Security when the latter ducked out sharply. Despite these obstacles, War of Will regrouped and was just one length off the lead at the eighth pole before weakening late to cross the wire in eighth place.
Unfortunately, War of Will has drawn the rail again in the Preakness, which leaves him with few options for working out a clean trip. After the Derby debacle, I expect jockey Tyler Gaffalione to aggressively send War of Will to the front, but then War of Will figures to be hounded by pressers and stalkers from start to finish, not exactly an ideal trip for a colt whose best efforts have come when employing outside stalking tactics. You can also argue War of Will's Derby performance was enhanced by racing over a sloppy, sealed track, which he clearly relishes.
I have a lot of respect for War of Will's talent, and his Derby performance was a big step forward off his troubled ninth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby (gr. II). But drawing the rail again is a tough blow, so I'll limit his inclusion on my tickets to the trifecta and superfecta.
#2 Bourbon War: As a one-run deep closer, Bourbon War is reliant on a fast pace (or at least an honest pace) to set up his late rally. Two starts back, he got a perfect setup in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) and produced a big run to finish second, beaten less than a length by the eventual Kentucky Derby runner-up Code of Honor.
But in the Florida Derby (gr. I), Bourbon War was compromised by a slow pace and a remarkably fast finish, which made it impossible for him to rally and challenge the front-runners. RacingFlow.com assigned the race a Closer Favorability Ratio of 2 on their 1-to-100 scale, indicating a race that fell within the top 2% of speed-favoring events.
To his credit, Bourbon War did churn on against this impossible scenario to finish fourth behind Maximum Security (who crossed the wire first in the Kentucky Derby), Bodexpress, and Code of Honor. For the Preakness, Bourbon War will add blinkers in an effort to stay more involved early on, but just an honest pace should be enough to get him back in the mix. Considering his deceptively good Florida Derby effort and the possibility for a better setup on Saturday, I view Bourbon War as a top contender to hit the board in the Preakness.
#3 Warrior's Charge: Talk about a wildcard! After finishing third in his first three starts for trainer Brad Cox, Warrior's Charge stepped up his game significantly in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight at Oaklawn two months ago. Previously a mid-pack closer, Warrior's Charge set the pace that day and powered clear in the homestretch to win by six lengths over Rotation, who broke his own maiden at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby.
Then Warrior's Charge tackled an allowance optional claiming race (again going 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn) and won with complete authority, widening under his own power around the far turn before cruising to an unchallenged 6 ½-length triumph. For that effort, he earned a 97 Beyer speed figure, which would put him thoroughly in contention for victory in the Preakness.
Can Warrior's Charge repeat that performance while stepping up in class and distance? He's been winning so easily that there's no way to gauge how good he might be. He'll certainly face pace pressure in the Preakness, but if he can rate behind the leaders—and judging from his first three starts, there's no reason to think he can't—he could be a dangerous contender at a nice price. He'll pick up the services of the two-time Preakness-winning jockey Javier Castellano, so at 12-1, I'm tempted to use Warrior's Charge on all my tickets, even multi-race wagers.
#4 Improbable: In terms of Beyer speed figures, Improbable is the fastest horse in the Preakness field, and he's also the highest-finishing Kentucky Derby starter continuing on to Pimlico, having crossed the wire in fifth place at Churchill Downs.
But throughout the winter and spring, I've been concerned by Improbable's tendency to race sluggishly during the opening furlongs of his races. It didn't affect him much as a juvenile, when he was clearly superior to the rivals he was facing, but against tougher company this year it's become a bigger issue. I'd argue it cost him victory in the first division of the Rebel Stakes (gr. II), and it certainly didn't do him any favors in the Kentucky Derby. In the Derby, he broke just fine, but couldn't accelerate fast enough to secure good position and wound up boxed in behind and between horses for the majority of the race.
As a result, drawing post four in the Preakness could be problematic for Improbable. With fast horses scattered both to his inside and outside, he risks getting buried in traffic again. The rider switch to Mike Smith could make a difference, since Smith tends to be aggressive in securing good early position, but considering how Improbable has been the cause of his own problems this year, I'm not sure I want to rely on him winning at a short price. For the exotics, he's a must-use contender, but for win purposes I think he's vulnerable.
#5 Owendale: Visually speaking, Owendale looked fantastic in the Lexington Stakes (gr. III) at Keeneland last month, unleashing a sweeping rally from off the pace to win by 1 ¾ lengths with a career-best 98 Beyer speed figure. But take note, the rail at Keeneland was dead on the day of the Lexington, so outside closers like Owendale enjoyed a distinct advantage throughout the afternoon. That doesn't mean Owendale isn't a talented colt, and his Lexington performance was a nice improvement off his previous form, but considering the advantage he enjoyed I'm reluctant to play him in the Preakness, except perhaps in the trifecta or superfecta.
#6 Market King: He ran well enough when finishing third behind Omaha Beach and Game Winner in the second division of the Rebel Stakes (gr. II) at Oaklawn this winter, but he subsequently faded to eleventh place in the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. II) at Keeneland. Market King does have speed and should be a pace presence, but this is a tough spot and he might find the waters too deep against a field of this caliber.
#7 Alwaysmining: What do we do with this local Maryland-bred sensation? Alwaysmining has won his last six starts by an average margin of six lengths, and he's been particularly dominant in two-turn races, most recently winning the 1 1/8-mile Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park by 11 ½ lengths.
But it's fair to question the caliber of competition Alwaysmining has defeated. He did beat fellow Preakness contender Win Win Win by 1 ½ lengths in the seven-furlong Heft Stakes last December, but Win Win Win endured a trouble trip that day and has improved a lot since then. This year, Alwaysmining's best rivals have been Gray Magician (runner-up in the UAE Derby but last in the Kentucky Derby), Joevia (who crossed the wire seventh in the Wood Memorial), and Trifor Gold (who was defeated in three allowance races prior to finishing second in the Federico Tesio).
Granted, Alwaysmining has been much the best in his recent starts, and the 96 Beyer he posted while winning the Private Terms Stakes would put him in the mix at Pimlico. But for a horse winning easily, he's been ridden harder down the lane than you might expect, and he's also benefited from setting or tracking slow fractions in small fields. As a racing fan, I'm fond of Alwaysmining and would be happy to see him score a victory for the locals. But he'll be facing much tougher company on Saturday and figures to be part of a faster early pace, so from a handicapping perspective, I plan to oppose him.
#8 Signalman: You have to admire Signalman's unwavering willingness to run inside and between horses. Ask him to rally through a practically non-existent opening, and he'll battle his way through. But this year, the son of General Quarters seems to have hit a form ceiling, with a mild third-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. II) suggesting he might not be fast enough to hold his own in a race like the Preakness.
Still, he could show improvement while making his third start of the season, and if a fast pace unfolds, you know Signalman will do his best to slice through the pack and pass tiring runners. He'll be a big price in the wagering, so I wouldn't be opposed to including him on deep trifecta or superfecta tickets.
#9 Bodexpress: He benefited from the race shape when chasing Maximum Security to a second-place finish in the Florida Derby (gr. I), and when faced with more challenging circumstances in the Kentucky Derby, he was weakening when squeezed out of contention on the far turn and ultimately crossed the wire fourteenth. This son of Bodemeister is still a maiden after six starts, and his typical pace-pressing tactics could lead to a wide trip in this speed-laden Preakness field. For these reasons, I'll play against him.
#10 Everfast: This stoutly-bred son of Take Charge Indy has shown flashes of promise, most notably when finishing second in the Holy Bull Stakes (gr. II) at 128-1, but with a career-best Beyer of 83 and a nine-race losing streak in tow, he'll be among the longshots in the Preakness and would need to step up his game to hit the board.
#11 Laughing Fox: Trained by Steve Asmussen, who sent out longshot Tenfold to finish a close third in the 2018 Preakness, Laughing Fox was no match for the likes of Omaha Beach, Game Winner, and Improbable in the Rebel Stakes (gr. II) and Arkansas Derby (gr. I), but found a drop in class for the 1 1/8-mile Oaklawn Invitational Stakes to be a recipe for success.
On paper, it appears Laughing Fox produced quite a late rally to win the Oaklawn Invitational, gaining three lengths in the final furlong to prevail by a neck. But viewing the replay, it appears Laughing Fox's running line is incorrect; he was actually just a length off the pace with a furlong to go and was all-out to catch the runner-up while posting a Beyer of just 91. Since there are other late runners that I like better (Bourbon War, Owendale, maybe even Signalman), I'll side against Laughing Fox in the Preakness.
#12 Anothertwistafate: From a visual perspective, I'm not sure any three-year-old has made a greater impression on me this year than Anothertwistafate. This talented son of Scat Daddy has a professional, powerful way of running that can't be discovered by a glance at his past performances. You have to see him in action to understand the potential he has.
Anothertwistafate first came to my attention when he dominated a one-mile allowance optional claiming race at Golden Gate Fields on January 4th, winning by five lengths in gate-to-wire fashion. This performance made him the favorite for the February 16th El Camino Real Derby going 1 1/8 miles, and once again he dominated on the front end, powering clear in the homestretch to defeat Bob Baffert's next-out stakes winner Kingly by seven lengths.
What struck me most about Anothertwistafate's performance wasn't his eye-catching margin of victory or his solid 94 Beyer speed figure. It was the way he ran down the homestretch—straight as an arrow, focused and powerful, sprinting the final furlong in :12.08 seconds. He didn't look wasn't your typical El Camino Real Derby winner—he looked like something greater, something special.
Unfortunately, rating tactics backfired in the Sunland Derby (gr. III), though it wasn't due to any shortcomings on Anothertwistafate's part. The colt was perfectly content to settle behind the leaders, but unfortunately, he got boxed in behind horses and had to wait in traffic at a key point on the far turn, losing ground while the eventual winner Cutting Humor swept by unimpeded on the far outside. It was a discouraging bit of bad luck, but Anothertwistafate didn't give up, shifting outside in the homestretch and charging through a final furlong in about :12 flat to fall just a neck short of catching Cutting Humor. Once again, Anothertwistafate ran straight and true down the homestretch—he just ran out of ground.
Three weeks later, Anothertwistafate tackled the Lexington Stakes (gr. III) at Keeneland in a last-ditch effort to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, but if anything, he received a worse trip than in the Sunland Derby. On a day when the inside at Keeneland was noticeably dead, Anothertwistafate spent the entire race boxed in behind and between horses, running closer to the rail than most of his rivals while unable to settle into his own rhythm and put his stride to good use.
Once again, Anothertwistafate had to wait in traffic while the eventual winner (this time Owendale) swept to the front with a clean outside run on the far turn. When a seam opened up turning for home, Anothertwistafate actually shifted closer to the dead rail, where he had little chance to match the momentum of Owendale, who sprinted the final sixteenth of a mile in :06.09 seconds while remaining outside. But to Anothertwistafate's credit, he did close the gap a little bit despite his unfortunate trip and posted a career-best 95 Beyer.
Perhaps Anothertwistafate's luck will turn around on Saturday. He already received a bit of good fortune when he drew post twelve, which should ensure that he finally receives a clean outside trip and can run his own race without getting boxed in behind horses.
Call it an educated hunch (or just a crazy hunch if you prefer), but I'm siding with Anothertwistafate to win the Preakness Stakes. Simply put, he looks like a special horse and I don't think we've seen the best he has to offer yet. I'm excited to see how he runs on Saturday.
#13 Win Win Win: He's shown flashes of brilliance while sprinting, but since stretching out around two turns his late rallies have lacked the same sparkle. He was aided by slow finishing fractions when rallying to finish second in the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. II), and in the Kentucky Derby, he didn't produce much of a run and split the field to cross the wire tenth. Part of Win Win Win's problem is his tendency to break slowly, and while the addition of blinkers might help him get into the race sooner, the winner's circle could prove elusive until he cuts back in distance. I think he could be a beast in one-turn races up to a mile in distance.
First: Anothertwistafate
Second: Improbable
Live Longshot: Warrior's Charge
Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Preakness Stakes?
Want to test your handicapping skills against fellow Unlocking Winners readers? Check out the Unlocking Winners contests page—there's a new challenge every week!
J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, blogger, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. He is the founder of the horse racing website www.theturfboard.com.
Is Maximum Security Vulnerable in the Haskell?
Saratoga Stakes Plays for Opening Saturday
Will Newspaperofrecord Rebound in the Belmont Oaks?
Picks for the Debutante and Bashford Manor
J. Keeler Johnson
Keelerman
Thoroughbred racing
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line97
|
__label__wiki
| 0.813109
| 0.813109
|
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, Longbourn tells the story of those who served the Bennet household. While Mr and Mrs Bennet commit themselves to the task of marrying off their five daughters, a quite different story unfolds below stairs.
Jo Baker, already an upcoming literary star, has penned the tale that Austen never revealed. Mrs Hill, the Bennet housekeeper, remains the central figure below stairs in the servant’s quarters, but Baker has embellished and added characters to assist Mrs Hill in her duties. Sarah, the maid, becomes the heroine of the story with Austen’s famous characters fading into the background.
Rather than Elizabeth being the heroine for scampering about the countryside with her petticoats six inches deep in mud, Sarah is the heroine for having to wash them out. Elizabeth’s spontaneous, heady behaviour is not revered by Baker, but rather shown to be quite an imposition on poor Sarah.
In Austen’s great novel much is made of the Gardiner’s three-week tour of Derbyshire. It is of course during this tour that Elizabeth discovers Pemberley, Mr Darcy’s great estate. But while the Gardiners and Elizabeth are enjoying all the pleasures that the countryside has to offer the four Gardiner children have been left at Longbourn to cause havoc as they run through the Bennet home with all the energy young children can muster. Sarah’s workload has increased and her hands are blistered from washing out the nappies of the youngest Gardiner child.
The original Austen story of Elizabeth and Darcy continues in the background, but it is Sarah and James Smith, the mysterious footman, who are the heroes of this story. Their love story blossoms as the Bennet girls go about their business of finding husbands.
Longbourn has caused quite a stir with Focus Features having already secured the film rights to the book. Baker’s new twist on a much-loved story is beautifully told staying true to the original Pride and Prejudice story, which remains the undercurrent for her tale below stairs. With so many retellings of Austen’s most famous novel it is enlightening to read a book that looks at unexplored territory. Baker remains respectful of the original with her reimagining of life below stairs steeped in Regency times and traditions. She has taken hints from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice such as the flogging of a soldier and turned these small clues into her own story.
Longbourn is a fascinating and compelling read which shines a new light on the Bennet household. The beauty and intelligence of the writing makes this book a must read for all Austen devotees.
The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan
Run to Me by Diane Hester
Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon
Kylie Kaden selects Five Books of Influence
Kylie Kaden was raised in Queensland and spent holidays camping with her parents and two brothers at the Sunshine Coast, where much of her first book Losing Kate is set....
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line100
|
__label__cc
| 0.630722
| 0.369278
|
The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton
Lupton’s debut novel Sister was one of the bestselling novels in 2010. Her third novel, The Quality of Silence, is a tale of beauty and suspense. Set to the backdrop of the dark but striking Alaska, Lupton weaves a tale of intrigue.
Yasmin is meeting her documentary filmmaker husband Matt in Alaska in a bid to save her deteriorating marriage. With Ruby, her deaf 10- year-old daughter, by her side Yasmin arrives to be greeted by a police officer with the worst news. There has been a fire at Anaktue, the village Matt was staying at, and all 23 occupants have been found dead plus one Caucasian who the police say is Matt.
Yasmin is handed his wedding ring that she puts on her finger next to her own wedding ring. She manages to keep the worst from her daughter but is convinced that Matt is still alive. A phone call and emails give her hope. The police have none of it as they attempt to convince Yasmin that her hope is misguided. Ruby too is sure her father is out in the darkness alone.
Together they set out for Deadhorse in the hope of making it to Anaktue to discover the truth behind the fire. Rumours of oil and fracking spark Yasmin’s suspicion.
Soon Yasmin and Ruby find themselves in a truck alone with an outside temperature of minus 55. Yasmin attempts to drive along the Dalton Highway in freezing temperatures with zero visibility and a storm threatening. Lupton astutely observes the relationship between Yasmin and Ruby as they spend time together with on one but each other to communicate with.
Despite the desperate circumstances, Lupton’s description of Alaska will make you want to go to see the beauty for yourself.
A gripping read that takes you into the darkness of Alaska.
Reese Witherspoon to adapt two books for the screen
Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine is to adapt Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman into film.
Author Louise Millar selects the book that, for her, captures London
With the world focused on London as we count down to the Olympics, we decided to ask a few notable British authors to select the book that, for them, best...
Twilight celebrates 10 years with special edition
It hardly seems possible that Twilight is turning ten. To celebrate, a special double-feature book is being released. It includes the bestselling Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life...
The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker
What are you reading this week?
We are currently reading Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line101
|
__label__wiki
| 0.81676
| 0.81676
|
Participation Code
Senior Men Islanders
Girls U16-U19
Mini Rugby U12
Mini Rugby U8
Junior Women
Mini Rugby
Games & Events
Post Pictures
CW Girls Facebook Page
CW Womens Facebook Page
MLR CHAMPS in TOWN
December 21, 2018 Posted in CW Rugby / Giving Back / Line-ups / Prems / Rugby Club / Victoria BC / News / Girls Rugby / Coaching / Fifteens / NSMT / Clinics / Senior Men / Boys Rugby
"CW's" Ray Barkwill Jubilantly Hoists the Spoils!
VIRU CRIMSON TIDE Vs SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
Seattle Seawolves will take on Vancouver Island’s Crimson Tide tomorrow afternoon, 4:00 p.m. kickoff at Westhills Stadium. The Tide, an amalgam of Island Premier teams has not been assembled for some time and it is great to see players from all five of the Premier clubs in the selection. At time of this upload, it is a squad that has been named for the locals rather than starters. CW as top of the heap Premiers at 7 – 0 at this mid-point, is well represented with John Braddock (prop), Clayton Thornber (hooker), Mike Finnemore (lock), Nathan Stewart and Kelton Dawe (loose forwards). In the backs we have Cam Hall and Brandon Schellenberger in the mix. CW’s Doug Fraser has recently signed a pro contract with the Austin Elite team, based in Texas and along with the signing of James Bay’s, Noah Barker, will create some unexpected voids in the Tide lineup. We wish both players well as they embark on an exciting new phase in their rugby lives. For the Visitors, inaugural winners of the first MLR Championship, we expect to see assistant coach, Phil Mack in uniform along with other B.C. boys, CW’s Cam Polson, Westshore’s Nakai Penny, Brock Staller and Cowichan’s George Barton. Ray Barkwill will be missing from the Wolves lineup as his “papers” are still being worked out. As a matter of interest, we were able to catch up with Ray this past week and have a chat about the overall picture of professional rugby in North America. Stay posted for an upcoming interview.
The Seawolves will be running a FREE Clinic for youth (10 – 15) on Saturday morning, 10:00a.m. – 11:00a.m. at Juan de Fuca Arena. There is NO registration, just show up and be prepared for FUN. Learn from the Major League Rugby Champs!
To wind up today, we include a hilarious article from American comedian, Josh Pray after his first ever game of rugby. Actor and YouTube sensation Josh Pray, from Naples in Florida, posted a video about his first rugby game on Wednesday - and it has since been viewed over 20,000 times. In the video, titled Rugby Football Players are secretly Spartan, Pray shares his chance encounter with a group of Australians playing rugby in a Naples Park.
I said, "I'm an American, I can play football. How hard can rugby possibly be? It's just football," Pray says, before listing what he calls proof that rugby is "the toughest sport on earth". These include "some of the fastest white boys in the world play rugby football", needing "shoulders like a well-built highway. This was Forrest-Gump-running-from-the-kids-throwing-rocks fast," Pray says of the speed of the players, before adding that scrummaging or, as refers to it "locking together and pushing back and forth" nearly caused him serious injury. "I realised my neck was bending in a way it had never bent before. Your spine, your shoulders, your collarbone, your vertebrae ain't built for this kind of intensity." Pray was also surprised by the size of a rugby ball. "This ball is like holding a VCR. These strong Australian, New Zealand, English type dudes be tossing it like it's a … it ain't that easy."
LAST CALL FOR STOCKING STUFFERS
Wednesday's Ruck & Maul
Average Joes Win William's Lake
CW Rugby (961)
Canada Rugby (642)
B.C. Rugby (584)
Rugby Club (456)
Prems (442)
Senior Men (431)
Victoria BC (423)
NSMT (377)
Sevens (355)
Fifteens (316)
Senior Women (310)
Men's Reserve Div (255)
Game Reports (244)
Juniors (223)
Girls Rugby (220)
NSWT (190)
Giving Back (156)
Minis (105)
Girls U16-U18 (97)
Boys U18 (97)
Line-ups (90)
Refereeing (84)
Boys Rugby (74)
RWC (71)
Men's Second Div (49)
C.R.C's (42)
Club Dinner (42)
Girls U14 (37)
Under 20 (37)
VIRU Tide Rugby (30)
Clinics (24)
Mini Rugby U12 (17)
ARC's (16)
Mini Rugby U8 (9)
Boys U10 (7)
CW Postings (5)
Castaway Wanderers Rugby Club in Victoria, BC
Pride of Program has CW looking towards the future, building on our history, continuing to improve and maintaining our status as one of the top rugby clubs in British Columbia and in Canada. To us it is about more than just eighty minutes on the pitch.
2200 Oak Bay Ave
Victoria , BC V8R 6T4
© 2019 Castaway Wanderers Rugby Club in Victoria, BC - All rights reserved. Squareflo.com.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line102
|
__label__cc
| 0.633302
| 0.366698
|
Elephant outed, Monahan gets credit.
In a nutshell, Blogger Joe Monahan wondered if Martinez Administration would treat the press fairly. His wonder is the result of Gubernatorial Candidate Susana Martinez' decision to not meet with certain members of the press. The Martinez campaign has an earned reputation for discrimination against at least some of the press. Lt Gov Diane Denish's campaign has the same reputation; equally earned.
The elephant in the room is that both candidates promise transparency and neither is offering it.
Who ya gonna believe, the candidates or you lyin' eyes?
Monahan gets credit for being the first legacy journalist to wonder out loud, why should we believe they will behave any differently after election than they do before.
Everyone has been pointing to the current lack of honest transparency, but Monahan is the first and the only one of the heavy hitters to draw the connection to the inevitability of things getting even worse, when the winner is even more insulated from, and less beholden to the people and their press.
Isn't past a solid predictor of future performance?
Now if the rest of the "legacy" press will step up and point to the disconnect between the talk and the walk with respect to real transparency; we might actually end up with some.
Brooks stiffs FOG, gets award anyway.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government
has asked nicely, and still, APS Supt Winston Brooks,
dba APS Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez,
refuses to surrender public records of corruption in the
APS Police Department.
And now, he isn't even responding to their emails.
The NM FOG still plans to give Brooks a Dixon Award;
their highest honor for champions of transparency in government.
They will honor their champion at the next School Board Meeting, November 3rd.
One can forgive most of the leadership of the NM FOG for
allowing their most prestigious award to be conferred upon
a man who is mocking their impotency. They were, I think,
hoodwinked by the likes of Marty Esquivel and Kent Walz.
The rest of the board let their guard down and got bamboozled.
One can forgive them their misplaced trust.
One cannot forgive so easily that, they found out they were
misled, they're going to pretend nothing happened and
give him the award anyway.
They cannot summon the character and the courage to admit
they make a mistake, and then rectify it. Instead they will
allow the Dixon Award to be dishonored.
Their names can be found here; link.
Brooks thinks he can sue taxpayers for more money for the APS
APS Supt Winston Brooks is contemplating suing the legislature for more money for the APS.
On top of that outrage; he steadfastly refuses to prove to taxpayers, that he is spending efficiently, the tax dollars he already gets.
How arrogant is that?
No efficiency audit; no more money.
No standards and accountability audit, no more money.
APS Audit Committee Agenda not posted
APS' Audit Committee is meeting tomorrow, and the agenda is still not posted.
I honestly cannot remember seeing an agenda for any board meeting, that was posted before the very last minute under the law, many have been posted with fewer than the 24 hour notice required by law, and in clear violation of the law.
When the agenda is posted, it will not include a discussion of whistle blower complaints. Board Policy requires the Audit Committee to "review and approve" any whistle blower complaint. They have yet to review and approve of even one.
It is logical to assume that most of the hundreds of complaints were filed against administrators. The complaints were adjudicated their fellow administrators. Executive (School Board) review of administrative self policing, is a critical check and balance. The refusal of the Audit Committee to live up to its responsibilities and obligations under School Board Policy amounts to a monumental betrayal of the trust placed in them by the community and every single person who filed a whistle blower complaint against an administrator.
If APS Supt Winston Brooks was confident that the claims had been handled ethically, he wouldn't need to hide the adjudications.
Just as, if he was confident that the APS Police Department had handled their investigation of corruption in their own senior leadership, he wouldn't need to hide the report from the independent investigator.
Just as, if he were not ashamed of his failure to step up as a role model of the student standards of conduct, he wouldn't have to hide APS' entire character education effort.
APS is hiding a lot of information from stakeholders.
There is only one reason to hide the truth. They are ashamed of, embarrassed by, and lack the simple courage to acknowledge the truth about their conduct and competence.
If there were a reason to hide the truth, beyond their lack of character and courage, they would point to it. It does not exist.
If Journal Editor Kent Walz could offer any excuse what so ever, for the Journal's failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, he would. If for no other reason, than to get me off his back.
If he could look his readers in the eye, and tell them there is no ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, why wouldn't he?
Marty Esquivel really is a coward!
The face of a coward; APS School Board President Marty Esquivel.
It was only fair to send a link to the following post to the subjects of the post; Marty Esquivel, Winston Brooks and Kent Walz. After all, I do accuse them of cowardice and corruption and they have a right to refute or rebut my allegations.
They can't of course, because the allegation is true. Neither Winston Brooks nor Marty Esquivel can summon the character or the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!, the APS student standards of conduct. And their crony Journal Editor Kent Walz hasn't ordered an investigation and report upon this particular scandal, nor upon the global ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
Esquivel responded in a true coward's fashion;
"Don't send these to me, Ched."
He would rather hide from the truth than address it.
His position;
failing to step up as a role model of the same standards of conduct he enforces upon students,
denying due process to whistle blowers, and
covering up corruption in the APS Police Department,
is indefensible.
The only defense for an indefensible position is to hide.
So he hides like a coward.
And his buddy, and fellow NM FOG Board of Directors member Journal Editor Kent Walz will help him do it.
Esquivel still refuses to defend his naked abuse of power in
"revoking my privilege" to attend board meetings and his
unlawful ordering of APS' publicly funded private police force
to deny my right to speak freely and petition my government.
I will of course respect his demand, however cowardly,
that I not copy him on posts wherein I point to his lack of
character and courage. Being one of the kind of lawyers that
give the rest a bad name, he would probably sue me for
harassment if I did not.
What a despicable man. Is this really the best we can do for our School Board?
He stands for re-election in February.
Character Counts! week; everywhere but APS
Students in the APS have celebrated Character Counts! Week, link, every year since it was unanimously adopted by the APS School Board in 1994. But not this year.
This year, no mention of the nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, despite the fact that it is still the APS Student Standard of Conduct.
It was not mentioned because neither the senior most administrative role model of the student standards of conduct, Supt Winston Brooks nor the senior most executive role model School Board President Marty Esquivel can summon the character or the courage to step up and show students what moral courage looks like.
Their is no community outrage because the community is being kept in the dark about their abdication as role models. They are being kept in the dark by Journal Editor Kent Walz who is keeping stakeholders in the dark about a lot of things;
the abdication of senior role models,
the cover up of corruption in the APS Police Department, and
the denial of due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints against APS administrators.
It's a regular rogues gallery of cowardice and corruption.
The coward Winston Brooks, the coward Marty Esquivel
and the corrupt Kent Walz
cc Walz, Brooks, Esquivel upon posting
Please help to inspire young voters (by pandering to their ignorance)
There are, I suppose, at least two ways you can inspire young voters; appeal to their intellect by explaining issues and their importance and hoping to motivate them, or, by appealing to their ignorance by defining the election in caricature; link.
The Justice League PAC, link, would like you to donate money to them, in order that they may continue their travel along the high road.
FYI, their travel along the high road apparently permits the shameless ripping off of DC Comics' copyrights, wikilink.
Can you imagine how the founding fathers would feel,
knowing what their dream has become?
Denish. Rules are for fools
Apparently, there was an agreement between the parties in the debate last night, that no "props" would be brought on stage.
At approximately 24 minutes after the hour, Lt Gov Diane Denish pulled out a folded piece of paper that she had secreted in her jacket pocket, and then introduced its contents into the debate.
Were this egregious disregard for the rules not bad enough, she then pretended to be reading from the paper, when in fact, she was substituting her own pejorative terms for the ones that were actually on the paper.
When Susana Martinez called her on her blatant breach of the rules, Denish ducked and did not respond.
Moderators Tom Joles and Nicole Brady, sadly, ignored the breach and their duties as moderators.
Although Denish did this in plain sight and unashamedly,
there will be no consequences to her or her candidacy.
Which begs a question, if her disregard for the rules is so blatant when she is "vulnerable" as a candidate, what heights will her disregard reach if she finds herself invulnerable behind the power of the Office of the Governor?
Walz and the Journal covering up APS' abandonment of character education
If you go to APS' website and search for any evidence that students are the objects of any concerted effort to help them develop their character, you will find none.
If you go to the Journal's website, and search for any evidence that they have investigated and reported upon the fact that all efforts to develop character in students have been abandoned, you will find none.
I think Journal Editor Kent Walz, seen here explaining why Winston Brooks deserves a Dixon Award as a champion of transparency, is fully aware of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. The reason(s) he will not report upon it, are known only to him.
I suspect that he is covering the asses of Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks, APS' senior most role models of the student standards of conduct.
In 1994, the APS School Board unanimously adopted a resolution that included the phrase
"... the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing art of school instruction." (emphasis added)
At that point character education became an integral and inextricable part of the curriculum in the APS, binding on all parties, including the Board. In order to change board policy, it must be formally removed or replaced; it doesn't have a shelf life. It is as binding now as it was in 1994.
Also in the unanimous resolution;
"... the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to
creating models of ethical behavior among all adults
who serve students and schools." (emphasis added)
There in lay the rub; the obligations of role modeling.
Walz and the Journal did not report it to stakeholders when the leadership of the APS removed from their own standards of conduct, a role modeling clause. It used to read;
In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.
The leadership of the APS cannot summon the character and the courage to admit that, they have no intention of holding themselves honestly accountable as role models of the student standards of conduct.
Walz will not out his buddies; Esquivel and Brooks. He will not have investigated and reported upon, their abdication as role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!
If there is any other reason the Journal will not investigate and report upon the abandonment of character education in the APS; Walz has every opportunity to share it. He has barrels of ink to explain to stakeholders, why 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters are being denied an opportunity to develop the character that will enable them to become a positive influence in our future.
He could point to good and ethical reasons to remove the role modeling clause from the standards of conduct that apply to administrators and board members.
While he is at it, he could point to good and ethical reasons to cover up corruption in the APS Police Department for more than 3 1/2 years.
He could also point to good and ethical reasons to deny whistle blowers the due process guaranteed by school board policy.
He could; if there were any. There aren't.
Which leaves us with a cover up orchestrated by Brooks, Esquivel, and Walz.
If there is any other explanation at all, someone point to it.
cc Walz upon posting
frame grab Mark Bralley
A few Tampa junket facts
Though the information is still not available on APS' "award winning" website; it is in the Journal this morning, link.
Bottom line; cost is supposed to total around $20K, though there is some confusion apparently about from what account, exactly, the money will come, though we do know, they are tax dollars.
APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, who did not get to go, defended the trip;
"Money spent on professional development directly impacts student success."
In general, that statement is true but only as it applies to people who actually meet with students; the further the training takes place from a classroom, the less likely the impact on student success.
School Board President Marty Esquivel also defended the junket;"
"I can understand how it may appear in (financially) troubled times, but I also trust my colleagues to assess the value it brings to the district in terms of attending the conference."
The actual value will become apparent when the traveling board members return and
"give presentations to the full board about what they learned and gained from the conference".
Don't expect much. This is not the first conference and it will not be the last. No one, ever, has come back from any conference with game changing insight. Conference after conference after conference has not solved the fundamental problems that stymie educators.
Has it occurred to anyone, if there really were magic bullet cures for what ails public education, that someone could have, would have, and should have pointed to them?
Board Members on the trip include, Delores Griego, Lorenzo Garcia, David Robbins and David Peercy.
Senior administrators along for the ride; Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter; Executive Director of Technology Tom Ryan; Capital Master Plan Director Kizito Wijenje; and Executive Director of Instruction and Accountability Rose-Ann McKernan.
Supt Winston Brooks, of course, is along for the ride. Part of his bill is being underwritten by the conference. He sits on the Executive Council of the Council of the Great City Schools whose conference it is.
Not surprisingly, Brooks' name is in the hat for another "excellence in urban education" award. Apparently, it is "excellent practice" to cover up corruption, deny whistle blowers due process, and to hide from obligations as a senior most administrative role model of student standards of conduct.
Noteworthy; though the Journal has reported a few of the facts surrounding the Tampa junket, they steadfastly refuses to investigate and report upon Brooks' cover up, denial of due process, and abdication as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!; the APS student standards of conduct. Nor will they report that Board Members Robbins and Esquivel are integral to the denial of due process to whistle blowers, nor that Board Members Peercy and Esquivel are suppressing discussion of student standards of conduct and of executive and administrative responsibilities as role models.
Nor will the Journal report on the conflict of interest involving Journal Editor Kent Walz and Esquivel, Brooks, the NM FOG and their recognition of Brooks as a champion of transparency".
They will report, I suppose, on Brooks' acceptance of an award for "excellent leadership".
Not your average kid
These are a few of the students on APS Supt Winston Brooks' SuperSAC, link; his Student Advisory Council.
None appear to be members of a gang.
None look like they will drop out before graduation.
None appear to be armed, stoned, or chronically disruptive.
None appear to be suffering from any of the ailments of
the students who are being failed by the APS.
Honestly, they look more like the kind of kids who bullies pick on because they're taking their educations seriously.
They will look great in photographs with Winston Brooks.
As far as getting council from those who might offer some
real insight into the issues of public education, Brooks has
chosen to not have; a Parents Advisory Council,
Citizens Advisory Council, or Teachers Advisory Council.
Perhaps his SuperSAC advisors know some students who are struggling, and can therefore advise Brooks on how best to address their needs. Else, they will be of little constructive use.
Too much corruption to cover?
I sent an email to R. Braiden Trapp, the Managing Editor of the Rio Grande SUN. I had been steered toward him as a man who was unafraid of exposing corruption.
In fact, he was recently honored by the NM FOG, with the same Dixon Award being given to APS Supt Winston Brooks.
The difference being that, Trapp actually deserves his award.
I asked him if he had any interest on doing a story on the corruption in the APS. I forewarned him that the investigation would illuminate problems in the leadership of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, who is currently honoring Brooks as their champion of transparency, in utter disregard of the reality of his obstruction of transparency.
Trapp sits on the Board of Directors of the NM FOG.
He responded;
"Sorry, I can't cover all the corruption in our area.
I can't go to Albuquerque."
I reminded him that I had offered to make my way up to Espanola to meet with him.
He did not respond.
School Board Junket still secret
A quorum of the APS Board of Education is in Tampa, Florida attending a conference.
If you go to APS's award winning website, you will not find the names of those who are attending, the cost of their travel, or the identity of those who are paying for the trip.
If you contact the School Board Office and ask them, they will refer you to APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez for answers.
If you ask him, he will not respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly.
If you go to a "public forum" at a school board meeting, and ask who went, who paid, and how much did it cost?, you will be told that you are not allowed to ask questions at school board meetings. If you persist in exercising your right to ask questions according to your constitutionally protected human rights to free speech and to petition your government, you will be taken into custody by members of their publicly funded private police force and removed from the meeting.
If you look on APS' award winning website, to find out how much you're paying Rigo Chavez to not answer legitimate questions candidly, forthrightly and honestly, you won't find that either.
As matter of fact, you won't find any administrative salaries, even on the page entitled "administrative salary schedule", link.
NM FOG looking for fair pricing
Unscrupulous Custodians of Public Records use weakness in the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, to gouge record seekers with unjustifiable costs, as a means to discourage requests for public records.
The NM FOG has published a press release illuminating their effort to end the practice.
FOG Executive Director Sarah Welsh writes;
“We’ve seen an uptick in complaints regarding excessive charges for electronic copies, particularly at the local level,” New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Sarah Welsh said. “These include big bills to receive routine documents as e-mail attachments, and big bills for the privilege of making your own copies with a scanner or digital camera. Whatever the situation, unreasonable copy fees violate open-government laws and strongly discourage public access to information.”
Under state law, every person has the right to inspect public records for free. If a person wants copies, records custodians may charge “reasonable fees” not exceeding $1 per page for legal-size or smaller paper.
The law doesn’t explicitly address e-mailed documents or documents burned onto digital media like CDs and DVDs. However, the law’s “reasonable fee” provision has long been interpreted as a mechanism for recovering actual copying costs. New Mexico Attorney General Gary King’s office, which conducts sunshine-law training seminars throughout the state, routinely counsels public agencies to determine and pass along the actual cost of copying public records – regardless of their form or format.
In the case of an e-mailed document, that might include any staff time needed to scan, attach and send the document. If the agency provides the document on a CD, the cost of the blank CD could be added to any staff copying time. When a requester brings his own equipment to make a scanned or photographed copy, the agency pays nothing and so should charge nothing for the copies.
“Documents are evolving, but the principle remains the same,” Welsh said. “The public has the right to inspect public records and copy them for a reasonable fee. If it takes a public employee 30 seconds to attach a document to an e-mail, the cost to the agency is virtually nothing. And that’s how much it should cost the requester.”
Welsh said agencies are often relying on old policies that were enacted to deal with paper copies, and paper copies alone.
“I would encourage any records custodian or government attorney who is unsure of how to deal with electronic copies to consult with the Attorney General’s office,” Welsh said. “There is usually a reasonable way forward that works for everyone.”
Welsh said copy charges have long been an issue for open-government advocates and a key part of the effort to ensure freedom of information.
“There are already a host of practical barriers to obtaining public information,” Welsh said. “As a citizen, I have to know what I’m looking for and who’s holding it, and I have to take the time and effort to request it. Sometimes I’ll need to study the law and argue my case for weeks or months on end. If I’m successful, copying charges often represent one final barrier to access. Citizen requesters will balk at paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for information, and that’s harmful to the public interest in government transparency and accountability.”
It would be nice if the NM FOG has some success in this endeavor, but that is unlikely. The Foundation is well intentioned, but feckless.
Their fecklessness will only get worse when it starts to soak into the political consciousness of the state, that the FOG is giving APS Supt Winston Brooks their transparency award, while at the same time Brooks is stiffing the FOG over the surrender to public knowledge, of the results of an independent investigation into corruption in the APS Police Department.
The NM FOG to date, has offered no explanation of the disconnect between their recognition Brooks as a "champion of transparency" while at the same time fighting with him over his steadfast efforts to hide public records from public knowledge.
Liar!
Some political pundits say Lt Gov Diane Denish went beyond the pale, an action that is regarded as outside the limits of acceptable behavior, when during their last debate, she turned to Susana Martinez, pointed at her, and called her a "liar".
Whether Martinez "lied" about plea bargaining down the consequences for drunk drivers, is open to conjecture. The allegation that Martinez "lied" about plea bargaining, may well be a "lie" in itself.
That said, if someone is a liar, if someone is deliberately
misleading voters by any means, why not call them a liar?
Why not tell it like it is?
I think sometimes political correctness and diplomacy
stand in the way of learning the whole truth.
Secret fight between State Offices
There is a fight going on in State Court, link, between the
State Auditors Office and the Attorney General's Office.
Or, is the fight between the State Auditor and the Attorney
General. We don't know because the whole thing is
taking place behind closed doors.
It is difficult for me to believe that the people are legitimately any access to information about this case; if for no other reason than that both men are standing for re-election.
What if the facts of the case would affect the outcome of the election?
This situation points to the need to re-examine governmental transparency laws. It is clear that the line between the truth that should and should not be public knowledge is not only misplaced but muddy.
The Government Restructuring Task Force should have taken up the issue of transparency as a fundamental component of restructuring. They did not.
They chickened out.
As a result, we are left with those having to most to hide, being the ones who decide what gets hidden and what does not.
Brooks gets leadership award
APS Superintendent Winston Brooks has been recognized for his "leadership in education", link. The award was made by "De Colores, an Albuquerque non-profit which organizes a number of events during Hispanic Heritage Month ..."
Aside from the fact that Gov Bill Richardson was also recognized, we know nothing about the award. No mention is make of who else was in the running or what the criteria were that differentiated Brooks from the also ran. There was no mention of anything he or Richardson might have done to actually earn any award.
If Brooks is a leader at anything, it is at getting good press for a floundering school district; not much of an accomplishment considering the cover the local media is willing to give him. Since that endeavor is dishonest at its heart, an award for such can't be worth much in the over all scheme of things; just like the NM FOG's Dixon Award for "champions of transparency". It may have been prestigious once, but with its award to Brooks, it is no longer.
All these awards are beginning to stink; just a bunch of good ol' boys taking turns slapping each other on the back, independent of any real accomplishment with regard to the subject of the award.
Rigo Chavez is not going to email to me, the identity of the School Board members on the Tampa junket.
He tells me, in a phone message, that he wrote the names down on a piece of paper and he had the paper. Further, he told me, he would be willing to read the list to me over the phone or, I could arrange to visit him inside the Castle keep, and read the list for my self.
He will not email their names.
He doesn't respond by email.
He refuses to surrender public
records electronically.
It "... isn't his practice ..."
He is a records obfuscation
wizard, and well paid for it.
I expect that the answer to my other questions;
how much is the Tampa junket costing? and
who's paying for it?
will be just as hard to come by.
I could sue for them I suppose, but why should I have to?
Not to mention that the Courts are their home field;
it's hit or miss even with the best possible case.
Trust me; there is nothing in the law that will allow any APS administrator or board member to be held accountable for obfuscating the surrender of public records.
With Modrall lawyers and a large bore pipe line to public education dollars to underwrite their litigation, it is a certainty.
So is Rigo a rogue administrator; is he out of control;
or does he do what Champion of Transparency
Winston Brooks tells him to?
And Journal Editor Kent Walz still sees nothing,
hears nothing, and reports nothing.
Why won't the Journal report that there is corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS?
Or, in the alternative;
why won't the Journal write that there isn't corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS?
Why is the quality of the standards not newsworthy?
Why is the system of accountability not newsworthy?
Why won't the Journal/Kent Walz assure us that
there is honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in the leadership of the APS?
if they honestly is, and then
show us the proof that there is, if there is actually any.
If there actually is
inescapable accountability
to unequivocal standards of conduct and
competence in the leadership of the APS;
they could be pointing to it;
they should be pointing to it;
they would be pointing to it.
NM FOG Board of Directors appearance of a conflict of interest.
Appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety abound on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.
One not yet on the table; Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President Teri Cole's endorsement of Winston Brooks' award and the cover up of Character Counts! scandal in the Albuquerque Public Schools.
There is the appearance that she is in support of a Dixon Award in order to lend undue credibility to APS Supt Winston Brooks and his cover up of his abdication as a role model of the standards of conduct he established and enforces upon students; the Pillars of Character Counts!, link.
Teri Cole and the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce were early supporters of Character Counts!, in the 90's when it was all the rage; before people realized what they were getting into.
What they were getting into was; honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.
What they were getting into was accountability as role models of a higher standard of conduct than the law.
When I asked Teri Cole to step up as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!, she ran.
And took the Chamber of Commerce with her. Where is the Chamber's support for Character Counts! in the APS now?
If you think about character education in general, and Character Counts! education specifically; it doesn't require a great deal of thinking to come to two conclusions.
The first is that;
Because our children have an absolute right to role models,
we are inexorably obligated to step up as role models
of any standard of conduct that we enforce upon children.
Character is not taught, except by personal example.
The second is;
there is no getting out of the first.
If we really want students to grow into adults
who embrace character and courage and honor,
someone has to show them what it looks like.
Before that became a sticking point, public figures were falling all over themselves to be counted among those who would be models of Character Counts!
One of the early jumpers on the bandwagon, was the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and its President, Teri Cole.
Then I asked her to join me in the effort to hold APS administrators and board members actually accountable as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!. At which point she bailed.
As did Character Counts! Founding Father Senator Pete Domenici.
As did Character Counts! Founding Father Michael Josephson.
As did Character Counts! Founding Father Marty Chavez.
As did Character Counts! Leadership Council President Paula Maes.
As did Mayor Richard Berry.
As have every single member of the leadership of the APS including school board members.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Journal Editor Kent Walz once endorsed Character Counts! and now no longer will.
Sidebar;
It bears notice; Richard Romero, when asked to step up as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!, did not bail. He offered to hold himself, as Mayor, honestly accountable to the same standard of conduct as his student constituents.
Kent Walz' paper didn't report it.
Is there a politician or public servant anywhere, who will stand up and hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence?
Is there no politician or public servant who will promise to tell us the truth, the whole ethically redacted truth, and nothing but the truth?
We tell students; their character depends on their willingness to do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows, and no one is willing to show them what that looks like.
We tell them their character depends on their holding themselves honestly accountable for their conduct.
We tell them to respond to legitimate questions by answering candidly, forthrightly, and honestly. We tell them that when the don't, they do so at the forfeit of their good character.
The highest and most powerful role models have simply abandon their obligations as role models, and no one is holding them accountable.
Teri Cole once stood up for Character Counts!
She does not now, and has never explained to 90,000
students in the APS, why they are expected to "model
and promote a higher standard of conduct than she.
Someone needs to explain, in words that a child can understand,
why adults will not have in their own code of conduct,
a promise which reads;
be lower than the standards of conduct for a child.
Cole once supported Character Counts! and now supports Winston Brooks in his battle to remain unaccountable as a role model of a higher standard of conduct than the law.
She will have forgotten all of this.
I haven't.
In any case, on the Board, the following appearances of a conflicts of interest and impropriety;
Marty Esquivel, who has also abdicated from his obligation as the senior most executive role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!, and who would not like the subject discussed.
Kent Walz, who should be reporting on the abdication by the leadership of the APS, has not. Difficult, if not impossible to explain.
Teri Cole, former Character Counts! advocate, who along with the Chamber of Commerce itself, abandoned all support of the APS Student Standards of Conduct.
Pat Rogers, who is guilty by association with the Modrall law firm which has made millions , using loopholes, technicalities and legal weaslry, to litigate exception to the law for APS administrators and board members.
Noteworthy; three of the above mentioned four,
make up 3/4ths of the Executive Board of the FOG.
If Esquivel had been given the President's seat,
it would have been four out of four.
Add to this; Winston Brooks will be handed a Dixon Award for
hiding evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, and
pointing to the NM FOG's inability, or unwillingness, to do anything about it.
The FOG is feckless, or lackin the will, to compel the surrender of public records; the independent investigation of the public corruption in the APS Police Department.
William Dixon must be spinning in his grave.
If not, he will be the evening of November 3rd
when they present the award with his name on it
to Winston Brooks.
Kent Walz is responsible
The Journal has failed stakeholders as a watchdog over their
interests in the Albuquerque Public Schools.
I hold Journal Editor Kent Walz personally accountable for the Journal's steadfast refusal to investigate and report upon the lack of executive and administrative standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.
I hold him personally responsible for the fact that voters don't know about the ongoing corruption in the APS Police Department and that evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators is being kept from prosecutors.
I hold him personally responsible for the fact that voters don't know that due process is being denied to hundreds of whistle blowers in an effort to hide the truth about an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
I hold him personally responsible for the fact the voters don't know that the leadership of the APS has abdicated as role models of the student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.
I hold him personally responsible for the fact that 30 fourth graders, who would have thrived in an "all boys" class, will be denied the education they want and deserve.
I hold Kent Walz personally accountable for the fact that APS Supt Winston Brooks is being honored as a "champion of transparency" when in fact, both of them are quite the opposite.
I will give Walz credit for printing a few letters to the editor, link, from other people who find the actions of the leadership of the APS as disturbing as I do.
Fill it, or kill it.
There once was an elective class for boys who believed they would thrive in an all boys classroom, link.
By any good and ethical measure, the class was successful;
it was hugely successful.
Because it was an elective class, the teacher was obligated to find students to fill seats. If an elective teacher cannot fill all the seats, the class is killed. It is killed independent of whatever success it had, or would have.
I pay pretty close attention to the APS, and I don't remember any effort made by the leadership of the APS to recruit students to this golden opportunity. I would not hesitate to bet that, had any attention at all been paid to the empty seats on APS expensive new website, the class would have filled. It might have over filled. There might now be two classes, or more.
Does anyone really believe that there are not 30 ten year old boys in the entire APS who would make their way to this class? (Update, according to an op-ed from the leadership, he only needed 22 to make his class)
The Journal has not reported the whole truth about this,
I believe, in deference to APS senior administrators who
would rather not be held accountable for their indefensible
APS Board off on Florida Junket
Four APS Board Members, a quorum, are going to Tampa Florida to attend "training", link.
My questions about who is going and who is paying for the junket, were ducked and have been referred to APS Director of Communication Rigo Chavez.
I have emailed for his assistance;
Mr Chavez,
I am told it is you who will tell me about the board training in Tampa.
I would like to know;
who is going; executive, administrative, and staff,
who is presenting, and
who is paying? how much?
I prefer that you answer by email and at your earliest convenience.
Since it is "not his practice" to answer legitimate questions timely, candidly, forthrightly and honestly; it may be some time before the truth is finally revealed.
In the meantime, I would like to know if there are board members whose terms will end in February, Marty Esquivel, Robert Lucero, and Delores Griego, who are helping themselves to a little trip to Florida, knowing the "training" they receive will leave with them in four months.
The Justice League a la New Mexico
The Justice League, wikilink, wore white hats; they were the good guys.
Enter the new Justice League (I assume this, link, is they).
(It is unclear whether they have gone through any of the steps
one goes through to avoid copyright infringement;
no one seems to want to answer that question.)
They are trying to affect the outcome of the Gubernatorial election by putting together, clever little ads, link, that play to voters' ignorance and naivete.
Can you imagine the effect, had this creative energy been
spent, not in manipulating voters by distorting issues,
but rather, spent instead on illuminating the issues of in the election?
And how much prouder they might have been of their body of work?
Questions beforehand!
If you watched the Gubernatorial Debate Sunday night,
you probably said to yourself, more than once,
... she's not answering the question.
Were you impressed with even your champion's answers?
Was either of them entirely candid, forthright and honest?
It is only by their own deliberate choice that they present
themselves for questions in forum where they can then duck
inconvenient questions.
By some good and ethical process; compile a list of (nearly)
every legitimate question of a candidate for Governor.
Put them to the candidates well in advance of a forum.
Then they sit down, sit still, and answer the damn questions;
one by one, and candidly, forthrightly and honestly.
Voters are being played for fools by political operatives
who are ruining the election.
Serrano, "The time has come to split up APS."
In the Journal this morning, link, west side leader Dan Serrano argues in favor of putting an APS split on the ballot in the school board election in February. Serrano sees splitting the APS as the solution to APS' accountability problems.
The leadership of the APS is not accountable to the people.
They are not accountable to meaningful standards of conduct
and competence. The truth is, they are not even accountable
to the law.
The leadership of the APS shows little to no respect for stakeholder's input. Their entire effort to allow stakeholder input consists of an opportunity to speak at a nearly inaccessible public forum for two minutes, twice a month.
Stakeholders are "not allowed" to ask questions at public forums. The leadership insists that questions be put in writing, a format that is easier for them to ignore. In fairness, they don't totally ignore them; those who submit questions will receive a post card thanking them for submitting a question. The question itself will be ignored unless the answer to the question would look good in the Journal.
Serrano and the Citizens Advancing Student Achievement, think splitting a large district into smaller districts will increase accountability.
Their argument rests on a specious premise; the smaller a school district is, the more responsive the leadership will be to input from stakeholders. The argument has a nice ring to it, but little in the way of empirical evidence to support it.
Serrano, et al, would be far better off confronting a recalcitrant leadership where they find them, than to create another set of leadership who could be every bit as recalcitrant.
West siders routinely re-elect
Robert "the weasel" Lucero
as their representative on the
APS School Board.
This despite the fact that
Lucero speaks regularly in
favor of limiting public forums
even further than they already are.
What makes Serrano think that
Lucero would act any differently
if he were a board member in a smaller district?
The answer is for stakeholders to take back control over power and resources that belong fundamentally to them. That can be done just as easily in a big district as in a small one. All it requires is "enough" people to show up at a public forum demanding transparent accountability and accepting nothing less.
In the meantime, Serrano et al, should be looking for someone else to support when Lucero stands for re-election in February.
Fascinating perspective on public education
I highly recommend that you invest eleven minutes and forty seconds in watching this fascinating perspective on changing paradigm for public education; link.
Cemetery seating;
five rows of six student desks, wherein sit 30 children
with nothing in common except the date of their
manufacture; who are expected to move as one;
staying on the same page in same book on the same day
as the other 29; for twelve long years.
There has to be a better way.
You cannot have at once, individualized education and standardized testing. You cannot at once, meet the needs of individual students and the requirements of NCLB; the single worst stumbling block restraining public education.
"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance ..."
... and a people who mean to be their own governors must
arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
Brooks' blinders
APS Supt Winston Brooks is going to invest a considerable amount of time visiting with high school students; they are to become some of his most important advisers, link.
Brooks says, ... we really want to get their input.
The students he will be meeting "... were chosen by their principals, who were asked to choose a diverse group of students who are leaders and can influence their peers."
Likely not among them;
students carrying weapons,
students high on drugs, or
any who drop out this year.
Nor will there be even one
student with a chronically
disruptive disposition.
The impression Brooks will gain
will be skewed because
his sample is skewed.
He is also not gathering input from parents; APS' Citizen's Advisory Council was dissolved by the leadership of the APS in lieu of a "better idea". So far they have not come up with a better idea.
He is also not gathering input from his teachers, who between them share more than 70,000 years of current and on going teaching experience.
He surrounds himself with sycophants who are as long out of the real world classroom as he. As far as I know, their is not one year of teaching experience on the entire school board.
I have often suggested that board members and senior administrators should work occasionally as substitute teachers. And not just in the honors classes; they need to get their fingers dirty dealing with the learning disabled and the unmotivated, the stoned, the dangerous and the chronically disruptive.
Then, they can tell everyone else what to do with some
actual credibility.
Brooks seeks advice from students.
The Journal reports, link, that APS Superintendent Winston Brooks has assembled a bunch of teenagers to guide his decision making. Students were not deemed capable of electing their own representatives to the group, which was instead, appointed by administrators.
The Journal did not report it when the leadership of the APS
dissolved the Citizens Advisory Council,
promised to replace it with "something better" and,
replaced it with nothing at all.
The Journal has not reported that there is no Teachers Advisory Council, never has been, and never will be. This despite the fact that APS teachers share between them, more than 70,000 years of teaching experience.
The Director of the APS Research Development and Accountability Division freely admits that the leadership of the APS has never surveyed teachers and asked them; what is wrong and, how what can the administration do to help.
Now, we have an otherwise completely powerless group of people, from whom Brooks will take his lead.
"Brooks said the group will soon undertake the serious business of advising him on budget cuts and other topics."
And now, the money line. Brooks admitted said;
"My experience is that school board members will probably listen to (students) more than they listen to me,"
Which begs a question; if school board members listen to
students more than they listen to their superintendent,
whom they pay more than $250K a year,
does this point to a problem in the leadership of the APS?
duh! !!
OK here's proof
I am asked always to point to 20 second soundbites that prove my case. It is a challenge.
One has popped up.
There is the appearance of
conflicts of interest regarding
School Board President
Marty Esquivel's
and his service to Bruce Malott
and his Meyners +Co.
I will ask for all public records that reflect Esquivel's conduct with respect to disclosing all of his conflicts of interest, and whether he has recused himself appropriately from votes that benefit his friends and clients.
If past practice is any indicator of future performance, APS Custodian of Public Records, Director of Communications Rigo Chavez will;
ignore the return receipt request that accompanies the emailed Request for Public Records, and
he will refuse to communicate by email; he uses snail-mail as a matter of "practice", then
he will insist that I have to come to his office in order that he can watch me inspect them, but only after,
the APS police show up to hassle me a little, and then
he charges 50 cents a page, though the law limits his take to "legitimate costs" of copying. That is assuming the records are actually there,
he often feigns ignorance of the law in order to stall.
He rarely produces the records specifically identified in the request. In response to request for audio or video recordings, he routinely surrenders blank or otherwise unusable information.
He once gave me a recording of a TV playing the recording I had asked for.
As a recently joined member of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government I would like to nominate Mr Rigo Chavez as the foundation's Dixon Award as their next true champion of transparency.
I will ask for the public records which pertain to Esquivel's conflicts of interest and response to them.
The will either respond to a legitimate question candidly, forthrightly and honestly, as required by their obligation to "... model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!"
It will be one week Friday
since I stood in front of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Board of Directors meeting and informed them that;
two of theirs where giving a Dixon Award to a man who during the day is making a mockery of the impotence.
As far as I know, they intend to go through with it.
The entire Board of Directors will sit and do nothing while;
Marty Esquivel deliberately denies due process to whistle blowers
Winston Brooks hides evidence of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators, and
Kent Walz refuses to investigate and report upon any of it.
NM FOG Executive Director Sarah Welsh is "trying" to get Brooks to hand over the ethically redacted results of an independent investigation into public corruption in the APS Police Department, link;
... fectlessly.
For awhile, the board members could claim that they were
only asleep at the wheel when the Brooks Dixon Award
was slipped by them.
Now it is something worse.
And it's getter worser, every day.
APS/Esquivel to extend Malott contract
The APS School Board will vote tomorrow, link, to extend a contract, link, with Meyners + Co, link, a local firm.
Meyners has been tied to the pay to play scandal in Santa Fe, link.
Meyners is led by one Bruce Malott.
Malott is a friend and client of APS School Board President Marty Esquivel.
Esquivel is defending Malott, link, against allegations stemming from the corruption and incompetence in the investment of state pension plans. Malott is being sued by Frank Foy, former New Mexico Educational chief investment officer, on behalf of the state.
This represents two conflicts of interest for Esquivel,
about which he is apparently unwilling to answer legitimate questions; link, link.
The conflicts of interest should have compelled Esquivel to recuse himself from any votes to steer APS' business to his friend and client's accounting firm.
I suspect that Esquivel has not, and will not, recuse himself,
though proof will be as hard to find as are any public records
in the hands of the leadership of the APS.
Friends of Marty Esquivel, step up.
And friends of Winston Brooks and Kent Walz.
I submit that Brooks and Esquivel and Walz will not tell stakeholders the truth about the corruption in the APS Police Department, and about the School Board's denial of due process to more than 200 whistleblowers.
And further, the reason they will not, is that not one of them
can summon the character and the courage to tell the truth,
the whole ethically redacted truth, and nothing but the truth.
If any of you friends and supporters,
can think of any good and ethical reason at all,
to suppress testimony, evidence, and public records
in blatant violation of the law, or to deny due process
to whistleblowers,
please share it, now, ___________________________
Marty? Winston? Kent? Did you boys chop down that cherry tree?
According to the standards of conduct that apply to students in the APS, young George Washington did the right thing when he held himself honestly accountable for his conduct.
According to the standards of conduct that apply to administrators and board members, young George should have hired himself a Modrall lawyer.
It would appear that School Board President Marty Esquivel, APS Supt Winston Brooks, and Journal Editor Kent Walz are hiding something.
The question is; are you boys hiding the truth about public corruption in the leadership of the APS?
Winston, are you hiding evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators?
Marty, are you really denying due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints?
Have you both, abdicated as role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!?
And Kent, are you really going to
show up at an APS School Board
Meeting and give NM FOG's most
prestigious award,
the Dixon Award
for Champions of Transparency
to Winston Brooks?
Are you really going to try to keep the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, secret through yet another school board election?
George Washington reportedly, would fess up.
We tell the 90,000 of our sons and daughters in the APS;
their character depends upon their responding to any
legitimate question by, answering candidly, forthrightly
and honestly.
If we really want students to grow into adults who
embrace character and courage and honor,
photos and frame grab Mark Bralley
It's our truth.
In the Journal this morning, link.
"Brutal attacks at the jail last year triggered public outcry and a call from Bernalillo County commissioners for an independent review of jail operations."
The results of the review are being kept secret from public knowledge.
Commissioners are ultimately responsible for whatever is revealed. Commissioners are the only public servants who are actually directly accountable to the people. If we are to hold them accountable for their conduct and competence, we have to know the truth about their conduct and competence; the ethically redacted truth, non the "massaged" truth.
If power corrupts, absolutely, the corrupting influence is the ability to deliberately manipulate the truth without accountability. The fundamental abuse of power is dishonesty.
To hear them tell it; they would love to tell us the ethically redacted truth about their spending of our power and our resources.
County Attorney Jeff Landers said in an interview.
"I can't go into detail on what they are because that information is protected by attorney-client privilege."
Landers would have you believe that, because of "attorney client privilege" he is prohibited from telling the truth.
The truth is, "attorney client privilege allows him to not tell the truth. They ran the investigation through an attorney deliberately in order that they could then hide the results under the loophole.
There is a trend; more and more independent investigations will be handled through attorneys who are paid by taxpayers but not accountable to them.
Its how they hid and are hiding from public knowledge,
an ethically redacted version of the independent investigation of the MATS scandal.
Another common dodge, by politicians and public servants who want to protract the surrender of ethically redacted public records real time, is to refuse to deliver any requested records until they can deliver them all simultaneously. They find one to nitpick over, with their loopholes and legal weaselry, and the people are told nothing about how their power and resources are act.
This investigation has been going on for nearly a year and a half. Are we really to believe that there is nothing our $106,930 has bought us nothing that we have a right to know?
It isn't just the county.
APS Supt Winston Brooks and School Board President Marty Esquivel are sitting on top of a three and a half year old "investigation", and hiding public records of felony criminal misconduct.
NM FOG is no longer a player; they still intend to show
up in APS' million dollar boardroom on November 3, and
give their most prestigious award to Winston Brooks
while is mocking their impotency.
This despite the many apparent discrepancies between the
the supposed goals of the NM FOG and the manifest behavior
of their Champion of Transparency Winston Brooks
including his on going cover-up of corruption in the APS
Police Department.
The FOG is proving less than useful in getting Brooks to hand over the ethically results of an independent investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators.
The Journal will be of no use. Editor Kent Walz must continue his part in the cover-up, because it was he who actually nominated Brooks for the award. If he exposes Brooks, he exposes his obligation to answer a few questions like,
wtf were you thinking?
The power belongs to the people.
The resources belong to the people.
The ethically redacted truth about how they're being spent belongs to the people.
Duneesh ad; right on the money
There is an ad being aired that shows Lt Gov Diane Denish endorsing Bill Richardson.
She argues that, the ad shows that the Republicans are running against Richardson not against her.
Au contraire; the ad shows one of a few things about Diane Denish at the time she cut the ad.
Since we now know, the Richardson administration wasn't doing well at the time; she either believed all the stuff she was saying about one of the most corrupt administrations in recent memory; meaning she was incompetent, or,
she did know what was going on and was willing to lie to people in order to get elected, meaning she was corrupt.
Which begs an answer to a question that has been asked an awful lot of times; If Denish knew about the culture of corruption, why didn't she champion a campaign against it?
If she didn't know about it, then why didn't she?
Was she complicit, compliant, complacent,
... or what, exactly?
It's a fair question.
Walz; no comment
Kent Walz has either not received my email, or chose to
not respond.
When the question is; will you tell me the truth?
my question and email to him;
I am wondering if you will offer any explanation for the fact that the leadership of the APS has completely abandoned any concerted effort to offer character education to APS students, and that the Journal has not investigated or reported upon that situation.
grateful for your time and attention
He is yet to respond; I have no idea why; I have my suspicions.
When the question is will you tell the truth;
No, Journal Editor Kent Walz
is not willing to offer any candid,
forthright and honest explanation for his ongoing failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
I will offer one; he doesn't want to be exposed as the person who nominated Winston Brooks for his Champion of Transparency Award.
Right after he exposes his "champion" as an utter fraud.
The biggest obstacle for the Journal to overcome in investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, is their own credibility. Before Walz can investigate and report credibly upon on the current scandal, he must report credibly on his failure to report credibly on the scandal in the 16 years heretofore.
The leadership of the APS has been hiding from their obligations role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!; ever since they were unanimously adopted by the board, as the Student Standards of Conduct, in 1994.
Walz reported to stakeholders when the Board adopted the Pillars of Character Counts! as the student standard of conduct, and consequently, as their own.
He did not report it when they abdicated as role models when they removed from their own code of conduct, the words;
"In no case, shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students."
He will not now report that his buddies Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks are hiding public records and evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.
He will not now report that his buddies Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks are denying due process to every single one of more than 200 whistle blower complaints.
He will not now report that his buddies Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks, the senior most role models of the student standards of conduct, have renounced their own accountability to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students, even for the measly few hours a day that they hold students accountable.
Most of all, Journal Editor Kent Walz is not going to report to you, why he is not going to report to you.
His position is indefensible.
The only defense for an indefensible position is, to hide it.
He is hiding his answer to a legitimate question;
Will you tell us the truth about the (alleged) ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS?
He means, no.
He will not tell the truth, even through the next school board election; just as he did in the ones before.
"Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink and his silence,
by the barrel." - Twain I believe
Journal extolls bullying website
The Journal is quite pleased with APS' new bullying website, link.
The site, link, should be of use to the victims of bullying,
assuming their eyes are not swollen too shut to read along.
The Journal chose to not mention that,
the site represents no threat to bullies, at all.
The greatest threat to bullies, would be some meaningful
character education, district wide.
The Journal chooses also to not mention that
there is no concerted character education in the APS, link, at all.
APS Supt Winston Brooks superficial repair is newsworthy, apparently, his underlying fundamental failure is not.
APS abandons character education.
The leadership of the APS has decided to abandon character education in terms of any concerted effort.
The leadership of the Albuquerque Journal has decided that, that isn't newsworthy.
I will bow to controverting fact.
Brooks walkabout expensive and feckless
The Journal gives APS Supt Winston Brooks free space on a regular basis, to write whatever he wants without fear of contradiction or rebuttal.
Today, link, Brooks writes about his walkabout, wikilink, the 1230 square miles that encompass the APS. He did not write about the cost; hourly wage x hours at each school x 163 schools, but if he makes it to every school and spends a couple of hours going, being, and coming, we're paying north of $40K for his little adventure.
$40K is a pittance when compared to the district's more than $1B budget.
It is also nearly the salary of another teacher, two teachers aides, another 1000 textbooks, etc.
Brooks writes;
"Although the school administration sets the agenda for
these visits, they aren't staged."
Right, and a pint of Häagen-Dazs serves four.
It is hard to believe that a man in a position of such authority could be so naive. How much more likely is it, that he is simply being dishonest?
Imagine you are a school principal. Imagine the Supt is coming to visit your school. Imagine you set the agenda for his visit. Imagine which classrooms you would lead him toward, and which classrooms you would avoid.
This isn't about "wasting" 40 grand, it's about building APS' image in the community to lessen the sting of the egregious failure to meet the educational needs of 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters.
Brooks' time would be better spent;
addressing the corruption in the APS Police Department, or
providing due process to more than 200 whistleblowers, or
finding a code of conduct for students, of which he is not afraid to speak, or
beginning an honest and independent audit of administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence, and accountability to them.
Instead, he and the Journal, will continue to hide the problems and tout the successes.
Brooks thinks he can sue taxpayers for more money ...
Please help to inspire young voters (by pandering ...
Walz and the Journal covering up APS' abandonment ...
Rigo Chavez is not going to email to me, the ident...
Why won't the Journal report that there is corrupt...
NM FOG Board of Directors appearance of a conflict...
Marty? Winston? Kent? Did you boys chop down that ...
"America's ruling class"
Monahan asks the $64K question
APS to lower Student Standards of Conduct
Sunshine Portal closed.
Brooks accepts Esquivel/Walz Hypocrisy Award
Denish and Colón; tied to corruption
End of an era for NM FOG?
APS anti-bullying effort falls short
Martinez draws ire
Wiener standing on shaky ground
Free speech ain't free
When will state workers get their survey?
Is Esquivel the new FOG President?
the State Auditor's race
So what's up with the AFSCME?
Cop against cop at Eldorado High School
Still nothing in the Journal
APS ignores records request
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line106
|
__label__cc
| 0.678119
| 0.321881
|
Ursula von der Leyen Confirmed as First Female President of the European Commission
Greek man admits to murder of US biologist in Crete
New Democracy leads by 3.8% in poll
ilias1 Mar 20, 2016 20 March 2016
According to a poll conducted by ALCO to published in newspaper ‘Proto Thema’, opposition party New Democracy (21.1%) lead by 3.8 percent margin against ruling left SYRIZA party (17.3%).
The SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government recorded historical lows in acceptance rate by the respondents in the poll, as only 22% think the current government should continue to run the country compared to 21% who say it prefers elections.
72% of those polled estimate the situation in Greece will deteriorate in the next 6 months.
Apart from the two leading parties, far right Golden Dawn party came in third with 6.1% saying they would vote for it, followed by the communists (KKE) with 5%, Democratic Alignment of PASOK-DIMAR with 3.6%, Union of Centrists with 2.6% and Popular Unity and ANEL with 2.2%.
Last came centrist party To Potami (River) with 1.8%.
NDpollSYRIZA
SEV says over-taxation threatens middle class in Greece
Delays in police response due to deployment at metro stations
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line107
|
__label__cc
| 0.743786
| 0.256214
|
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 'Grace Engine' | Photo Julieta Cervantes
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet: What Just Happened?
There was no visible smoke signal leading up to Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet‘s closing. When I saw the announcement on my Facebook feed last night, I grabbed my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fools—a little misguided prank from the companies new summer intern – two glasses of rosé…
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in "Violet Kid" | Photo Juileta Cervantes
REVIEW: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at the Joyce
Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance held court with a captive, hometown audience last week, like an impossibly hip and worldly friend that fascinates with tales from abroad. For the past year and a half, Cedar Lake has been performing everywhere but the Big Apple, taking up with Europe’s presenters as often…
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in "Violet Kid" | Photo by Juileta Cervantes
Cedar Lake Finally Dances in New York
For a year and a half, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has performed almost everywhere but New York City. But from May 15-27 they are back at the Joyce Theater with two programs. They’ll feature six pieces by six different choreographers, five NYC premieres, and one world premiere. Ana-Maria Lucaciu, one…
Cedar Lake's 360º Installation | photo: Darrell Wood
REVIEW: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Intensive Students Perform 360º Installation
Last night, students of the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet summer 2011 Intensive Program, performed in an interactive installation piece entitled 360º at Cedar Lake’s homebase in NYC. Drew Jacoby and I joined the audience, circling the action rather than in rows of neat seats. In the current performance trend of audience…
VIDEO: Harumi Terayama
Discovering Contemporary Dance Season 1: Episode 24 | 16:21 Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet dancer Harumi Terayama talks about how her experiences at Juilliard and opened her eyes to the world of contemporary dance, compares dance in the U.S. and Japan, and describes the challenges of working at Cedar Lake.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line108
|
__label__wiki
| 0.555052
| 0.555052
|
LE CAS DE L’INTERDICTION DES LANGUES PARLÉES À LAVAL PASSE À L’ENQUÊTE PAR LA COMMISSION DES DROITS DE LA PERSONNE
Montréal, 26 février 2018 — L’interdiction par l’Office municipal d’habitation de Laval (OMHL) imposée aux employés d’origine latino-américaine et anglophones de converser dans leurs langues maternelles pendant les heures de travail, même dans les conversations privées, fera l’objet d’une enquête par la Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse.
LAVAL HOUSING OFFICE LANGUAGE BAN CASE GOES TO CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION
Montréal, July 26, 2018 - A case involving the Laval Municipal Housing Office’s prohibition to Latin American and English-speaking staff from speaking in Spanish or English among themselves during office hours, even in private conversations, is heading to investigation by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission.
DISABLED WOMAN WITH SERVICE DOG MISTREATED AT CHÂTEAUGUAY WALMART: BETTER POLICY AND TRAINING NEEDED
Montreal, July 22, 2018 — A disabled woman in her fifties is charging that the Châteauguay Walmart has violated her rights and failed to follow its own policy on service animals when a store employee stopped and publicly treated her in a vexatious manner.
SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATION AGAINST ENGLISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES: PARENTS TO FILE COMPLAINT
Montréal, July 19, 2018 - The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) is being taken to the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission for engaging in systemic discrimination based on disability, language and social condition towards children with learning disabilities and autism and their families.
SUPERIOR COURT TO HEAR APPEAL BY CHÂTEAUGUAY BLACK DRIVER WHO WAS PEPPER SPRAYED IN A DRIVING WHILE BLACK CASE
Montréal, July 6, 2018 — A Châteauguay Anglophone Black man, John Chilcott, who was tailed, stopped, pepper sprayed by a police officer and then arrested while driving his daughters to school in December 2015, will appear in court this coming Monday to present his appeal.
SHOPPING WHILE BLACK: BLACK WOMAN STILL TRAUMATIZED AFTER BEING MISTAKENLY ARRESTED AT THE BRICK STORE IN THE WEST ISLAND
Montréal, July 3, 2018 — One year after being arrested and handcuffed while shopping at The Brick in the West Island, an English-speaking Black woman still experiences intense trauma as her complaints of consumer racial profiling proceed through formal channels.
L’AMIE DU CONDUCTEUR NOIR DEMANDE UNE ENQUÊTE SUR L’USAGE DE LA FORCE POLICIÈRE À L’ENDROIT DES PERSONNES RACISÉES
Montréal, 28 juin 2018 — Après que son ami ait été aspergé de poivre de cayenne à bout portant et arrêté par des policiers de Montréal lors du week-end du Grand Prix, une femme noire dépose actuellement des plaintes et demande une enquête sur l'incident et sur la problématique du lien entre la race et la force policière excessive déployée par des policiers du SPVM.
BLACK DRIVER'S GIRLFRIEND CALLS FOR INQUIRY INTO EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE AGAINST RACIALIZED CITIZENS
Montréal, June 28, 2018 - After her boyfriend was pepper-sprayed at close range and arrested by Montreal police during Grand Prix weekend, a Black woman is now filing formal complaints and calling for an inquiry into the incident, including the link between race and excessive use of force by SPVM officers.
BANKING WHILE BLACK: MAN MISTAKEN FOR THIEF, DETAINED AND OFFERED $50 BY NATIONAL BANK
Montréal, June 14, 2018 - After being offered $50 and then $500 in compensation for being wrongly accused of theft by National Bank employees and detained by four security guards at his workplace, a Black man has taken his bank to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for racial discrimination.
DISABLED BLACK VICTIM OF HATE CRIME TURNS TO CROWDFUNDING AFTER BEING DENIED REPRESENTATION BY HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Montréal, June 11, 2018 - A GoFundMe campaign for Harold Acquah, a disabled unilingual English-speaking Black victim of a racist hate crime, has been launched to raise money for his legal action against his aggressor after the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission’s decision not to represent and support him before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal where he now has to go at his own expense.
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: NOT “IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST” TO HELP DISABLED POOR BLACK HATE CRIME VICTIM AT RIGHTS TRIBUNAL
Montréal, June 1st, 2018 - The Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission issued a decision last week that raises disturbing questions about access to justice for victims of racism and hate crimes who are unilingual English-speaking, poor, disabled and older.
A BRIDGE TOO FAR: SOUTH SHORE AUTISTIC MAN DENIED ENGLISH SERVICES, CONSIDERS COMPLAINT AGAINST SYSTEMIC DISCRIMINATION
Montréal, May 27, 2018 - An autistic 47 year-old Anglophone man and his family are accusing the Quebec government of discrimination for failing to provide services in English in the Montérégie and for refusing to allow him access to services in English in Montreal.
SYSTEMIC RACISM AGAINST LIVE-IN CAREGIVERS: EMPLOYER ASKED TO PAY FILIPINA MONTREALER $41,600 FOR CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Montréal, May 21, 2018 - A Filipina live-in caregiver has finally won the first round of her case against her former employer, who has been asked by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to pay $41,600 in damages for violation of her civil rights.
DES GROUPES DU QUARTIER CHINOIS DEMANDENT À LA MAIRESSE PLANTE D’ANNULER LES TOILETTES PUBLIQUES ET DE CONSULTER LA COMMUNAUTÉ
Montréal, 15 mai 2018 — Les principaux commerçants et résidents du Quartier chinois demandent maintenant à la mairesse de Montréal, Valérie Plante, d'annuler l'installation de toilettes publiques dans le parc Sun-Yat-Sen et de mettre en place une procédure pour consulter la communauté sur toutes les questions concernant le quartier.
CHINATOWN GROUPS ASK MAYOR PLANTE TO SCRAP THE PUBLIC TOILET AND TO CONSULT THE COMMUNITY ABOUT FUTURE PLANS
Montreal, May 15, 2018 — Key Chinatown merchants and residents are now calling on Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to cancel the public toilet installation in Sun-Yat-Sen Park and to set up a procedure to consult the community on all Chinatown matters.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line113
|
__label__cc
| 0.530149
| 0.469851
|
CCI University Lecturer judges Poetry Slam
The Head of School for Media and Performing Arts, Esther Sonnet, was recently invited to be a judge for the first ever Poetry Slam held by the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
On Thursday 9th October poets and guests gathered at the National Museum of the Royal Navy to listen to and recite poems as part of the HMS – Hear My Story exhibition. The event was part of the Museum’s community engagement, led by Daniel Ball and Deborah Hodson, and aimed to bring aspiring poets in the city together to focus their creative work on the Museum’s Navy collections around the themes of memory and remembrance.
In her introductory welcome to the evening, Esther stated ‘as a Pompey girl with deep family connections to the Navy, I am fascinated to maintain a dialogue with the past through creative practices such as poetry and to see how new stories keep history alive through personal remembrance and commemoration’.
Ten or more poets performed their poems to a live audience while a panel of judges had the very difficult task of selecting the winning poem. The range of styles, formats and content entered provided a challenge to the judges as the quality was very high though a stand-out winner was found.
The highly personal poem written by Joy Dean, the widow of a sailor who died in the Falklands conflict in the 1980s, won with her poem ‘Two weeks from home’. This was closely followed by Carolyn King with ‘Fall and Rise’ and Liz Neal and Elizabeth Davies with ‘War’.
The event was also filmed by a small group of BSc (Hons) TV and Broadcasting 3rd Year students from the University of Portsmouth, who recorded the proceedings and interviewed some of the poets and audience members. The resulting film will be shown on the Big Screen in the Guildhall Square.
Images from CCI TV and CCI student Jack Johnstone.
Tags #poetrydockyardlecturermuseumportsmouthroyal navyslam
A Story of Revolutions, an exhibition by Patrick Altes
Print room technician creates superb blog
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line114
|
__label__cc
| 0.651962
| 0.348038
|
Alessandro Melis was invited to several Architectural conferences in Italy
CCI‘s Alessandro Melis, from the School of Architecture at the University of Portsmouth, was invited to several important architectural conferences in Italy last month.
Alessandro was the keynote in Alghero, on May 16th at the National Conference of Medicine: “The humanisation of hospitals”. Allessandro was the only non-medical doctor invited.
On May 25th Alessandro was invited to Asti-Torino, where Fabio Musso, president of the Ordine Architetti Asti (the Italian version of RIBA, Asti section) awarded him the Prize of the Asti Festival of Architecture (dedicated to Arch. Fabrizio Gagliardi) “for the constant effort in the research on architectural sustainability as a global mission: academic, professional and disseminative”.
And on May 27th, he went to Milano and lectured for the PhD school of the Politecnico di Milano: Supercities. About the research done through the Portsmouth School of Architecture Media Hub.
On May 30th Alessandro travelled to Venice where he was the keynote speaker at the conference of the Ordine degli Architetti Venezia in the series Foreign Office about international successful Italian architects. It was a “double lecture” which included his practice Heliopolis 21 and EcologicStudio (Bartlett UCL).
Tags Alessandro MelisItalykeynoteSchool of architecture
Jonny Smart
CCI’s Graham Spencer shares his recent academic success
Call for Contributions at the Engage Conference
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line115
|
__label__wiki
| 0.684377
| 0.684377
|
AlanReads: THE DARK STREETS by John Shannon
Posted by Alan Cranis on May 21, 2007 at 11:30am
It is so tempting to start this consideration of THE DARK STREETS, the latest Jack Liffey novel from John Shannon, by resorting to The Rant. The Rant, as most fans of Shannon's work know, is our howl at the injustices of an ignorant and uncaring universe where John Shannon's superb work slips into oblivion shortly after publication when it ought to be on national best-seller lists and the subject of breathless critical evaluations and appreciations of what the modern crime novel ought to be. Like I said, it's tempting...but instead I direct the curious or uninitiated to Keven Burton Smith's passionate but perceptive essay that opened his recent review of this new book for January Magazine: http://januarymagazine.com/crfiction/darkstreets.html . Take a quick jump on over to it. I'll wait here.
So. THE DARK STREETS, the ninth in the Jack Liffey series, masterfully displays all of the traits that make this series -- and Shannon's work overall -- such an enriching joy to read. There's the fully developed characters, the pitch-perfect dialogue, the intriguing plot structures, and some of the finest writing about contemporary Los Angeles to be found anywhere today. Take as an outstanding example of this last feature, this stunningly accurate description of L.A. as "this big melting pot where nobody melted any longer" that appears right on the first page:
--with the marginal day-labor Latinos fifteen to a house, professional white couples peering out from behind their armored gates, African Americans escaping in dribs and drabs out to Riverside and Palmdale on the periphery to cling to thr ragged edge of the dream. Not to menton the many thousands of angry grandchildren of the dust-bowl refugees, who'd earned their tract homes and then tacked on sweat-equity family rooms only to be laid off for good from aerospace and steel and auto.
Jack Liffey is one of those laid off from aerospace -- a former technical writer who has fallen into finding missing children. It's a vocation that takes him deep into the complex maze of family relationships, as well as into the lesser known, lesser celebrated ethnic communities that make up today's L.A.
In this story, it is a Korean father who hires Liffey to find his missing daughter. That daughter, Soon-Lim Kim, is a politically outspoken college student and filmmaker. Her latest project is a documentary comprised of interviews with eldery Korean women who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II (known as "comfort women"). As it happens, the assisted living home where many of these women live out their days is owned by the same corporation that forced these women into sexual slavery, and now wants to demolish their home. But as Liffey digs deeper into Soon-Lin's life and work, it becomes painfully obvious that all is not as it seems.
But Liffey has other problems, closer to home. His seventeen-year-old daugter, Maeve, is abourt to take a head-first dive into womanhood by way of a charismatic but dangerous gangbanger living next door to the woman police officer Jack is involved with. In the hands of a lesser author, such domestic episodes could easily become distractions to the main narrative. But Shannon's protrayal of Maeve's painful longing is so involving that her story carries as much weight and anticipation as Jack's search for Soon-Lin.
Everything builds to a stand-off confrontation in the concluding chapters that is perhaps the most gut-wrenching suspense found in the entire series. Yet, owning again to Shannon's skills, these same moments offer insight, commentary, and heartache, along with their action and inevitable violence.
THE DARK STREETS is a stunner, all right. And word from Shannon's website (www.jackliffey.com) is that his earlier works are slowly being reissued as trade paperbacks. So who knows?--There might be hope for the world yet! In the meantime, read this new work and join the ranks of us who fall into The Rant whenever the topic of excellent but underappreciated authors comes up.
You need to be a member of CrimeSpace to add comments!
Join CrimeSpace
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line116
|
__label__wiki
| 0.652312
| 0.652312
|
Tag Archives: financial management
The Crofting Bat Phone
Commissioner Gordon and Batman didn’t have a look in to the lines of communication available between the Crofting Commissioner(s) and their Grazings Constable!
There have been quite a few comments of late about the difficulties of getting a statement from the Convener of the Crofting Commission, Colin Kennedy. He is elusive to say the least and seldom represents the views of the Board to the general public despite this being one of his “particular responsibilities” .
Other Commissioners have been thin on the ground of late as well with no Commissioner replacing the Convener when he failed to attend the Scottish Government Crofting Stakeholder Forum in Inverness on Tuesday. This left the Chief Executive, Catriona Maclean, representing the views of the Commission in front of BBC Alba after the meeting.
Getting clear and unambiguous information out of Commissioners when you can pin them down is also often a challenge.
One person who seems to have direct access without difficulty to Commissioners (which might include, or indeed mean, the Convener) is the Grazings ‘Constable’ of Upper Coll, Colin Souter. He certainly appears to be in possession of information that only Commissioners would have and that well in advance of such information being made available to anyone else outside of Great Glen House.
One example of that became clear at the meeting of the Scottish Government Crofting Stakeholder Forum in Inverness on Tuesday.
I had been aware from the published Agenda that the Board of the Commission had considered a paper at their meeting on 17th August on ‘Grazings Committees – A Practical Approach to the Management of Common Grazings’. There was no mention of that at the Stakeholder Forum so I enquired about it.
I was advised that the Crofting Commission was setting up a Stakeholders’ Working Group to advise on the revision of common grazings regulations and guidance. This paper from 17th August would be considered by that group at a meeting on 20th September. Only after that meeting would the paper in question (possibly after refinement? – but that was not made clear) be circulated to the wider Stakeholder Forum.
So at the moment members of the Stakeholder Forum had no knowledge of or access to what the paper in question said. A stark contrast to the access to that paper apparently afforded to Grazings ‘Constable’ Colin Souter.
In the letter issued by Colin Souter to Shareholders of the Upper Coll Common Grazings on 29th August he states:-
The Board of Commissioners at a recent meeting, considered a submission along the lines I set out at the July meeting, whereby Committees can operate within a defined financial framework which allows retention of funds (from any legitimate source) in the bank, up to a maximum agreed by shareholders, taking account of any commitments under Schemes and projects ongoing and an Emergency Reserve (set at perhaps 3-4 times the 3-year average annual maintenance costs) and exceeding that amount automatically triggers payment to shareholders, three or four times a year. In doing so, the administrative burden is minimised for the Committee and they are seen to be operating within an agreed and better regulated financial framework. Whilst the Commission has a clear role, as regulator, in ensuring feu monies are distributed to shareholders, I understand it does not otherwise seek any direct involvement in other areas of finance affecting shareholders. The proposal tabled is seen as an initiative worthy of testing, for the benefit of Upper Coll and the wider crofting community but it is a choice for shareholders to make.
So even before the Commission has had the first meeting of its new Stakeholders’ Working Group, to advise on the revision of common grazings regulations and guidance, Colin Souter is seeking to impose the guidance so far produced (that no one other than Commissioners, Commission Officials and Colin Souter have seen) upon one particular Common Grazings, namely Upper Coll.
The same is true about his access to an Opinion from Queen’s Counsel which it is presumed was instructed by the Crofting Commission. In his said letter to shareholders at Upper Coll he said:-
Following receipt of legal opinion from Queen’s Counsel, the position of Grazings Committees being able to register for VAT as trading entities in order to reclaim VAT has come under scrutiny. The dialogue with HMRC regarding VAT status remains ongoing and once concluded, I will be able to advise on the outcome.
When I asked about this opinion at the Crofting Stakeholder Forum there was “no comment” from the Chief Executive of the Crofting Commission on behalf of the Board.
It is highly unusual for the Crofting Commission to publish legal advice received by them in any event.
On the topic of legal advice: Colin Souter seems very ready to challenge what he considers to be illegal activities at Upper Coll. It would be very unusual for a clerk in a common grazings (that is effectively what Colin Souter is had he been legally appointed) to appear so sure about crofting law without having sought legal advice. Not that I would give much weight to any advice that Colin Souter is getting given, in my view, a clear misunderstanding on his part as to what the law actually is.
We know that he thinks that legal advice cannot be paid for from grazings funds. So where is he getting his crofting law advice from? Is it likewise coming from Commission officials and/or from Commissioners and/or from a Commissioner? An organisation with a Board that has been shown to ignore the law and lawyers.
Why and how did one grazings clerk (i.e. Colin Souter) get privileged access to all of this information before any other grazings clerk in the land and before the members of the Crofting Stakeholder Forum? In the case of the opinion from Queen’s Counsel this may never be divulged to any other grazings clerks or to any members of the Crofting Stakeholder Forum.
The only explanation can be direct and special contact between him and a Commissioner and/or Commissioners and/or officials within the Crofting Commission.
So much for the assertion that he is acting at arms length and independent from the Commission.
It also again highlights the fact that he is under the control of and acting at the behest of the Crofting Commission. A reader of this blog having referred to him as a “maor” (or ground officer).
Serious questions must be asked by the Scottish Government about this arrangement and, in the circumstances, the validity of any pronouncements by the Crofting Commission and/or their ‘Constable’ over the situation at Upper Coll.
The Crofting Commission will no doubt say that the Scottish Government cannot investigate the situation when it is subject to on going court proceedings. Those court proceedings may touch upon the legality of the appointment of the Grazings ‘Constable’ in the first place.
But even if we take it that the appointment was legal (although that is denied) then the Scottish Government should be looking at the propriety of the relationship that exists between such a legally appointed grazings constable and the Crofting Commission.
Is it correct and proper that he has been given an investigative remit? Is it correct and proper that he is being supplied with the information that he has been? If it is not then who gave that remit and/or supplied that information?
If that was a Commissioner are they therefore, in all the circumstances, “unable or unfit to exercise the functions of a member” or “unsuitable to continue as a member”? As such should the Scottish Ministers remove them from office under and in terms of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993?
Even worse if it were to transpire that it was the Convener who was embroiled in all of this. After all he has, for some time, been the subject of complaints about his handling of the affair at Upper Coll and so should not be involving himself in matters concerning Upper Coll until the relevant complaints process has been completed. To do so would be a clear conflict of interest. But there again that has not stopped him before.
Image Credit: The Bat Phone from Batman (TV Series) © Greenway Productions / 20th Century Fox Television
This entry was posted in Common Grazings, Crofting Commission and tagged BBC Alba, Catriona Maclean, Chief Executive of the Crofting Commission, Colin Kennedy, Colin Souter, Common Grazings, Common Grazings Committee, conflict of interest, conflicts of interest, Convener of Crofting Commission, Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993, crofting bat phone, Crofting Commission, Crofting Commission Board, Crofting Commissioner, Crofting Commissioners, crofting law, crofting lawyers, crofting legal advice, crofting regulation, crofting stakeholders, financial management, Grazings Committee, Grazings Constable, Great Glen House, Ground Officer, illegal grazings constable, Inverness, Maor, QC, Queen's Counsel, Scottish Government, Scottish Government Crofting Stakeholder Forum, Scottish Ministers, Upper Coll, Upper Coll Common Grazings, Upper Coll Common Grazings Committee on September 9, 2016 by Brian Inkster.
Not a Grazings ‘gamechanger’
The new, badly programmed, Robotic Grazings Cop introduced by the Crofting Commission unfortunately did not prove to be a gamechanger!
This week’s front page headline in The Scottish Farmer is Grazings ‘gamechanger’.
The news item by Gordon Davidson states that:-
New evidence has been revealed that appears to justify the Crofting Commission’s unpopular intervention in the financial affairs of a common grazings committee.
Colin Souter, the constable controversially appointed to replace the grazings committee at Upper Coll, on the Isle of Lewis, this week wrote to all its shareholders itemising examples of that committee’s “arbitrary decision making” on how shareholders money was spent.
Quite the contrary is in fact the case.
A proper analysis of the ‘findings’ of Colin Souter demonstrates his complete lack of understanding of (a) what the role of a legally appointed grazings constable is (he, of course, being illegally appointed); (b) crofting law; and (c) duties and responsibilities that a grazings constable has towards shareholders in the common grazings.
It also, alarmingly, exposes the true relationship between Colin Souter and the Crofting Commission. More significantly it also exposes a new scandal to hit the Crofting Commission, namely (assuming that Colin Souter is not solely behind it) their attempt to deprive common grazings of finance by seeking to prevent them being VAT registered.
This follows hot on the heels of revelations that the Convener of the Crofting Commission, Colin Kennedy, was seeking to prevent common grazings from receiving SRDP funding!
This attempt by the Crofting Commission and/or their Convener to meddle once more in matters that have nothing to do with their role as a regulator and seek, in so doing, to deprive crofters of finance is the real story here. That is the story that should have made front page news in The Scottish Farmer had Gordon Davidson been tuned into the actual facts involved or had contacted myself or former committee members at Upper Coll for a truer picture. Instead he appeared to rely only on the word of Ivor Matheson (the aggrieved crofter who originally complained to the Crofting Commission) and the misguided ‘findings’ of an illegally appointed grazings ‘constable’.
In subsequent posts on this blog I will consider some of the more salient ‘findings’ by Colin Souter and expose them for what they really are. I will also look at the cosy relationship that Colin Souter appears to enjoy with the Crofting Commission and the real significance of what could easily be referred to as Crofting VATgate.
Image Credit: Robocop © Orion Pictures
Update – 4 September 2016: Crofters and Lawyers + The Wrong Grazings Committee!
This entry was posted in Common Grazings, Crofting Commission and tagged Colin Kennedy, Colin Souter, Common Grazings, Common Grazings Committee, common grazings shareholders, Convener of Crofting Commission, crofters, Crofting Commission, Crofting VATgate, financial management, Gordon Davidson, Grazings gamechanger, illegal grazings constable, Ivor Matheson, Robotic Grazings Cop, shareholders in the common grazings, SRDP, SRDP funding, The Scottish Farmer, Upper Coll, Upper Coll Common Grazings, Upper Coll Common Grazings Committee, VAT, VAT registered, VATgate on September 3, 2016 by Brian Inkster.
Reports from a ‘Grazing Constable’
The ‘Grazings Constable’ was under the false impression that he was a Police Constable come Court Reporter!
One of the more surprising episodes of ‘The Common Clearances‘ has been the issuing of press releases by the ‘Grazing Constable’ (illegally appointed, in my opinion and the opinion of others) of the Upper Coll Common Grazings.
To my knowledge that ‘Grazings Constable’, Colin Souter, has issued three such press releases to date. I now reproduce those here, with my comments on each added.
‘Grazing Constable’ Report #1 – 12 June 2016
I write briefly in connection with the Common Grazings at Upper Coll, having been appointed as Constable in recent weeks, by the Crofting Commission.
I should firstly stress such appointees are independent of the Commission. One of the main functions is to assume the role and responsibilities of the former Committee, representing the interests of the Crofters, whilst moving as swiftly as possible back to a situation of normality, with crofters being collectively in control of managing their own interests.
I am confident readers will appreciate the resolution to current difficulties will not be achieved overnight. I note there has been much interest, speculation and comment made on behalf of individuals who, I acknowledge, feel genuinely aggrieved with decisions the Commission has made.
On the other hand, it is only right and proper that the Commission, as a public body, should not comment on the specifics of any individual case.
Preliminary legal proceedings are currently underway at the Scottish Land Court, where it remains to be decided if the Appeal against Commission decisions will progress to the next stage. An Interim Interdict application at Inverness Sheriff Court to prevent the appointment of a Constable and further action by the Commission, was heard and refused.
It is likely that the process of the Land Court Appeal, if progressed, will take some considerable time to conclude. I will not be formally commenting in the media on the specifics of matters at Upper Coll, nor in relation to any single individual.
I do however wish to publicly acknowledge and thank those individuals at Upper Coll and elsewhere who have already contacted me since my appointment, to firstly share a collective view that there are matters at Upper Coll which need to be addressed and secondly to voice their support for a co-operative resolution over the coming weeks and months. All impartial observers must surely agree it is in the best interests of all parties to co-operate, to ensure the interests of all the crofters at Upper Coll are and continue to be properly protected.
Comment on ‘Grazing Constable’ Report #1by the Crofting Law Blog
Why, I wonder, did Colin Souter feel it necessary to issue such a statement? Was it because the Crofting Commission were staying silent on the matter? Did they sanction/encourage this statement?
How independent can Colin Souter really be? Did the Crofting Commission not provide him with a list of their ‘concerns’ for his investigation?
He has apparently stated to the shareholders at Upper Coll that his role is an investigative one. Nothing in the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 gives him such power other than, perhaps, the duty to report to the Crofting Commission on the condition of the Common Grazings and crofts with a share in the Common Grazings.
If investigations were required concerning any alleged financial impropriety on the part of the former grazings committee that would have been a role for the actual boys in blue and not for a retired police Chief Inspector who appears to think he, once more, has powers he once did. He does not.
If legally appointed, which is disputed, Colin Souter simply has to take on the role of committee and clerk. He is responsible to the shareholders. His role is purely administrative.
On the evening of 22 June the Constable of the Upper Coll Common Grazings chaired a meeting of shareholders at Tong Village Hall. The meeting, which was well attended, discussed a number of issues and during the closed part of the meeting, the Constable, Mr Colin Souter shared a level of detail around issues and concerns which was clearly unknown to many of those present, prior to the meeting.
Mr Souter, a retired police Chief Inspector explained to the meeting that his appointment followed a communication to the Commission by the former Clerk to the Grazing, highlighting that 12 points of business needed to be addressed as soon as possible.
Mr Souter also explained that the Crofting Commission, as a public body, is unable to comment in the media on issues relating to specific individuals and their conduct but that being independent of the Commission, it was appropriate for him to share more information with the shareholders affected. At the meeting, he received further joint intimation in writing from Upper Coll shareholders, of their dissatisfaction with the conduct of the former Committee and will determine in due course whether that should be considered separately from other matters currently under investigation.
The meeting acknowledged the current position as laid out and discussed a constructive way forward, with a revised set of draft local Grazing Regulations being circulated by the Constable to all shareholders at Upper Coll to replace the current Regulations which date back to 1987. Mr Souter is also inviting contributions and comment more widely, from the Scottish Crofting Federation and National Farmers Union Scotland, as representative bodies, in an effort to secure a wide consensus of agreement. He intimated to the meeting that he was, very reluctantly, being forced to consider Court action as a last resort, in order to recover the Committee records from the former Grazings Clerk. A large number of those shareholders present expressed the view that withholding the records was not helping, declaring that it was acting against the interests of the shareholders and instead invited former Committee members to bear the cost of the Court action, should it go ahead.
The meeting closed on a positive note with an expression of thanks to Mr Souter, from the floor, for an open, informative and well-run meeting.
Mr Souter later said, “I appreciate there is a wide body of interest in events here at Upper Coll. I would like to publicly express my own thanks and appreciation to Upper Coll shareholders able to attend the meeting tonight, for their positive contributions and their willingness to begin moving forward to the point where a new Grazing Committee can be elected. Whilst that outcome is still in the distance, it has moved significantly closer, with a clearer path now defined, and shareholders having a better understanding of the concerns and the issues which brought us to where we are now.”
Note to Editor – the Upper Coll Grazings Committee was removed from office by the Crofting Commission on 15 April after failing to adequately address concerns raised by the Crofting Commission about the manner in which aspects of its business were being conducted, including the content and presentation of financial information reported to shareholders. On 16 May, some former committee members made an unsuccessful attempt to interdict the Crofting Commission from further action at Upper Coll. This was followed by submission of papers to the Scottish Land Court, seeking to Appeal against the Commission’s decision to remove them from office. The Land Court is currently awaiting submissions on jurisdiction from both sides, to help determine whether it can hear the Appeal. If the jurisdiction argument is won, the case will become sub judice until eventually concluded.
Comment on ‘Grazing Constable’ Report #2 by the Crofting Law Blog
I wonder if Mr Souter thinks that all grazings clerks should be issuing press releases about shareholders meetings held throughout the crofting counties? Local newspapers could have sections devoted to ‘Common Grazings Reports’ instead of, or in addition to, their usual ‘Court Reports’!
Where did the “issues and concerns” that Mr Souter had to share come from? I trust not from the Crofting Commission that he is apparently independent of?
Interesting that the Crofting Commission cannot comment on matters arising to the media but Mr Souter can. Has he therefore become their spokesman and if so how does that enable him to retain the supposed independence that he claims to have?
Mr Souter refers to “matters currently under investigation”. As commented on by me in connection with his first Report, his role is not an investigative one but merely an administrative one and then only if his appointment was legal which I, and others, maintain it is not.
Why was Mr Souter circulating new Grazings Regulations and who had drafted them and on what basis?
It would seem unusual for a Grazings Clerk to seek views from the Scottish Crofting Federation or the National Farmers Union Scotland on Grazings Regulations specific to a particular grazings.
Court action by a potentially illegally appointed ‘Grazings Constable’ to recover documentation he might have no right to hold would have made for interesting debate in the Sheriff Court! A suggestion that those against whom such an action was to be raised should fund the raising of the action is absurd to say the least.
Why is the election of a new Grazings Committee in the distance? What is preventing that happening sooner rather than later?
Is it perhaps in Mr Souter’s personal interest to delay the election of a new Grazings Committee. The longer he remains in ‘office‘ the longer he receives an income from the arrangement – albeit potentially an illegal arrangement that he should not actually be receiving a penny for.
Mr Souter states that “the Upper Coll Grazings Committee was removed from office by the Crofting Commission on 15 April after failing to adequately address concerns raised by the Crofting Commission about the manner in which aspects of its business were being conducted, including the content and presentation of financial information reported to shareholders.”
However, the only reason actually given by the Crofting Commission for the ultimate removal from office of the grazings committee was the failure to produce to them five years ‘audited’ accounts. The grazings committee produced financial statements produced by accountants. The irrationality, inconsistency and departure from legal advice obtained by the Crofting Commission on this point is one I will return to in future posts on this blog.
‘Grazing Constable’ Report #3 – 12 July 2016
Upper Coll shareholders met again on 11 July at a meeting chaired by the Grazings Constable, Colin Souter, who was appointed by the Crofting Commission in May. At this second meeting, shareholders covered a busy Agenda on a range of topics, including the resolution of a long-standing issue on the access of a bull owned by two shareholders, on the common grazings. Shareholders accepted the pragmatic resolution suggested by the Constable, which preserves shareholders rights to graze livestock but at the same time, acknowledges the responsibilities that go with these rights.
Shareholders also voted in favour of a revised set of Grazing Regulations which would encompass key elements of the previous regulations which dated back to 1987. Mr Souter hoped the final draft of the document which had already been subject to wide-ranging consultation would be ready to send to the Crofting Commission for approval, in the next few weeks. During a candid and honest discussion, some of those present, including former Committee members advised they had been entirely unaware of the existence of the 1987 Regulations.
After the meeting, Mr Souter said, “The key to progress here is an acceptance from shareholders that good Regulations make it easier for shareholders and for Committees to interact and minimise the potential for friction or conflict. We are nearly there, in terms of a finished product and whilst there are still a number of other issues for me to resolve with shareholders, we are steadily moving in the right direction. I am grateful for the support shown by shareholders this evening, in voting to move ahead.”
A number of other issues, including finances and areas of activity permissible for a Grazings Committee or Constable on behalf of shareholders, under the 1993 Crofting Act were explored in a closed session. No date was set for the next meeting, with Mr Souter indicating he would distribute a final updated draft set of Regulations amongst all shareholders. And once approved by the Commission, every shareholder would receive a personal copy of the revised Regulations.
Note – Mr Souter is a retired police Chief Inspector, appointed to the role of Constable at Upper Coll after the previous Committee were removed from office by the Crofting Commission. Following their removal, it was reported to the Commission that shareholder business remained outstanding and unresolved. Whilst he is appointed by the Commission, Mr Souter has successfully gained acceptance that he is independent of the Commission in all his decision-making.
I asked shareholders of the Upper Coll Common Grazings for their views on this latest Report from Colin Souter. Here is a selection of comments received from them:-
The new regs would certainly have to come before shareholders again before being submitted. There will be nothing to stop us bringing in further changes at a full meeting of shareholders at a later date if that is needed.
The Grazings Regulations are at the “discussion” stage and still have much work to be done on them. There was no revised Regulations issued with no mention of changes some of us suggested. They are far from being at a stage for presenting to the Commission.
The constable has thus far refused to protect the interests of shareholders by bringing any scrutiny to bear on the Commission’s own dubious actions of the recent past. This goes to prove that he is not wholly independent of the Commission and shows that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
The majority of shareholders are still of the view that the position of Constable has been illegally imposed on the Upper Coll Grazings. These shareholders do not have any personal prejudice against Mr Souter but it is his position they question.
Shareholders were of the view that the Constable should be working “for” the shareholders and should therefore be working to see that some of the injustices done to the previous Committee are redressed. As he seems to be investigating the work of the previous committee then this “investigative” role should also be targeted at the Crofting Commission’s actions.
The minute of meeting of the 11th should also clearly show that we considered that the Commission had erred greatly in dismissing a democratically elected voluntary committee when they had legal obligations instead to advice and support it in the first instance. We suggested that this is going to be costly to the Commission.
The meaning of “audit” given by the Constable is not one shared by the vast majority of shareholders.
It is felt by the majority of shareholders that the term “financial irregularities” used by the Commission in relation to the Upper Coll Grazings Committee should be withdrawn and an apology issued to the committee by the Commission.
Mr Kennedy’s continued presence as Convenor of the Crofting Commission is in the opinion of the majority of shareholders untenable.
So clearly a different slant on things from the propaganda issued by the ‘Grazings Constable’. This demonstrates the nonsense of the whole situation.
Why is Colin Souter seeking to introduce new regulations? What is wrong with the existing ones other than perhaps the use of the word “audit”, which has caused much of the problems encountered by the former committee in their dealings with the Crofting Commission?
The former grazings committee were actually in the process of amending their regulations prior to being removed from office by the Crofting Commission. Why did the Crofting Commission not allow them to amend the regulations as they wished to do so?
Are the Crofting Commission influencing the new regulations proposed by Colin Souter? Do these new regulations follow the latest template promoted by the Crofting Commission which do not actually reflect the law as set out in the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993?
Mr Souter refers to his “decision making”. What ability does he actually have to take decisions that are contrary to the wishes of the shareholders?
Mr Souter states:-
No date was set for the next meeting, with Mr Souter indicating he would distribute a final updated draft set of Regulations amongst all shareholders. And once approved by the Commission, every shareholder would receive a personal copy of the revised Regulations.
This suggests that Mr Souter is going to finalise the draft Grazings Regulations without necessarily calling a meeting to approve them. He appears to simply be planning to get the approval of the Crofting Commission. If this is indeed the case it is outrageous.
However, it should always be borne in mind that Mr Souter’s appointment was, in my view and the view of others, illegal and any action taken by him is simply null and void.
This entry was posted in Common Grazings, Crofting Commission and tagged appeal, audit, audited, audited accounts, Colin Kennedy, Colin Souter, Common Clearances, Common Grazings Committee, Common Grazings Regulations, common grazings shareholders, condition of the common grazings, Convener of Crofting Commission, Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993, Crofting Commission, crofting propoganda, duty to report, financial irregularities, financial management, Grazings Clerk, Grazings Constable, interim interdict, investigations, NFU Scotland, propoganda, retired Chief Inspector, Scottish Crofting Federation, Scottish Land Court, shareholders, shareholders in the common grazings, Sheriff Court, Tong Village Hall, Upper Coll Common Grazings, Upper Coll Common Grazings Committee on July 16, 2016 by Brian Inkster.
You might think that, I couldn’t possibly comment
There comes a point where actions speak louder than words
To date the Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity with responsibility for Crofting, Fergus Ewing MSP, has not said much on the question of ‘The Common Clearances‘.
Rhoda Grant MSP asked the Scottish Government:-
whether it is satisfied with how the Crofting Commission has acted in all matters relating to the dismissal of the Mangersta grazing committee.
Fergus Ewing MSP answered:-
The Crofting Commission is a non-departmental public body that takes regulatory decisions within the bounds of its duties and powers. Such decisions are taken independently and at arm’s length from Scottish Government.
Rhoda Grant MSP also asked the Scottish Government:-
whether it will establish an inquiry into the workings of the Crofting Commission.
The Scottish Government has no current plans to do so.
In addition Rhoda Grant MSP asked the Scottish Government:-
whether it has confidence in the convener of the Crofting Commission.
The Scottish Government is confident that the Crofting Commission board is able to deliver the functions of the commission.
That may have been the Scottish Government’s position on 27 June 2016. The massive U-turn taken by the Crofting Commission on 29 June 2016 should change that stance.
That U-turn and the manner in which it was executed demonstrates that the Crofting Commission got it wrong. They handled the whole Mangersta affair very badly indeed from start to finish. In light of this there can be no confidence that the board or their Convener is able to deliver the functions of the Commission.
The watershed moment was reached on 29 June. The Scottish Government can no longer sit on the fence. There has been as good an admission as any that the Crofting Commission failed the shareholders of Mangersta. In so doing they failed in their regulatory duties and should be made to account for those failings.
A day before the U-turn representatives of the Scottish Crofting Federation met with Fergus Ewing MSP. Commenting on that meeting the Chair of the Federation, Fiona Mandeville, said:-
We also had constructive discussion on the Crofting Commission crisis. We are very supportive of a majority elected Commission and fear that the common grazings debacle can jeopardise this. We therefore asked Mr Ewing to consider a procedural review of the Commission. At his request, we will send him a note outlining details of our recommendations forthwith.
In the wake of the U-turn, Fergus Ewing MSP should take heed of that request for a procedural review and actually now instigate it.
The Scottish Government can no longer hide behind suggestions that the Crofting Commission are at “arm’s length” from the Scottish Government.
The fact is that the Crofting Commission and their Commissioners are answerable to the Scottish Government.
Under and in terms of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993:-
The Crofting Commission shall discharge their functions in accordance with such directions of a general or specific character as may from time to time be given to them in writing by the Scottish Ministers. [Section 1(3)]
The Scottish Ministers may (a) confer functions on; (b) remove functions from; (c) otherwise modify functions of, the Crofting Commission, where they consider it appropriate to do so to ensure that the Crofting Commission carry out their functions efficiently and effectively. [Section 2A(1) and (2)]
In so doing Scottish Ministers may modify any enactment (including the 1993 Act). [Section 2A(3)(b)]
The Scottish Ministers may remove a member of the Crofting Commission from office if satisfied that the member is unable or unfit to exercise the functions of a member or is unsuitable to continue as a member. [Paragraph 9(1)(e) of Schedule 1]
The Crofting Commission must provide the Scottish Ministers with such information in respect of the exercise, or proposed exercise, of the Crofting Commission’s functions as the Scottish Ministers may, from time to time, require. [Paragraph 20 of Schedule 1]
So, far from being a body that the Scottish Government should consider to be at arms length from it, the Crofting Commission is one that is directly accountable to and ultimately under the control of the Scottish Ministers.
That being the case the Scottish Government should not, like the Crofting Commission, ignore the law involved. They should apply the law, as set out above, as necessary to make the Crofting Commission accountable for their actions over the Mangersta debacle.
Following the U-turn by the Crofting Commission, former members of Mangersta Common Grazing Committee stated:-
We continue to believe that there should be an inquiry into the functioning of the Crofting Commission.
An inquiry is necessary to answer questions such as:-
Why did the Crofting Commission reopen a case investigated, resolved and closed by the Crofters Commission?
On whose insistence and on what evidence was the case reopened?
Was there undeclared conflicts of interest by Crofting Commissioners involved in the matter?
What legal advice was sought by the Crofting Commission on the matter? From whom, when, on whose insistence and on what basis? Was such legal advice followed?
Why were inconsistencies applied by the Crofting Commission to the handling of this case compared to others being dealt with contemporaneously?
Why was the removal from office of the Grazings Committee at the time deemed justifiable and necessary?
Why did the Crofting Commission ignore and not respond to the legal position put forward on behalf of members of the dismissed Grazings Committee?
Why did the Crofting Commission refuse to revisit their decision (saying that they could not in law do so) but ultimately did just that?
Why did the Crofting Commission ignore their own guidelines on the investigation of questions of financial impropriety which they had stated were a matter for the civil or criminal courts?
Why did the Crofting Commission purport to appoint a Grazings Constable when there is no basis in law to do so and then sought to extend that appointment, again when there is no basis in law to do so?
Why was the particular Grazings Constable in question appointed, on what basis and was a conflict of interest declared by any Commissioners relative to that appointment?
Was the Grazings Constable really independent and impartial or was he provided with instructions for the discharge of his appointment by the Crofting Commission?
Why did the Convener of the Crofting Commission, Colin Kennedy, attend a meeting of the shareholders of the Mangersta Common Grazings and refuse to leave when a conflict of interest had been declared by him?
Why and on what basis in law, when shareholders questioned the legality of the Commissioners proposals at that meeting, were they told that if all shareholders did not accept them, the Commission would not allow shareholders to reform a committee?
Did the Crofting Commission’s handling of the matter result in the resignation of William Swann as a Commissioner?
Why did the Crofting Commission issue guidelines on the management of grazings funds, then delete those guidelines and claim that they had never said what they had said in them?
Why did the Crofting Commission insist that funds had to be paid out by Grazings Clerks to shareholders “immediately” when Roseanna Cunningham MSP, on behalf of the Scottish Government, clarified on 21 June 2016 that “the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 does not require the immediate disbursement of funds by a grazings committee”?
Why did the Crofting Commission insist on common grazings funds being managed in a way that defied logic and was not set out anywhere in law?
Why did the Crofting Commission not take cognisance of the statement by Minister of State for Scotland, Lord Kirkhill, in the House of Lords on 6 April 1976 regarding the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill that “there would seem to be nothing [in the bill] to prevent a voluntary arrangement being made whereby any crofter’s share would be diverted to the grazings committee”?
These are questions that the Scottish Ministers can no longer ignore following the recent U-turn by the Crofting Commission. The Scottish Ministers must comment properly on them and, if necessary, take appropriate action under and in terms of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993.
The only way that they will be able to properly pass such comment and take such action is following a focused and detailed investigation into how and why the Crofting Commission handled the Mangersta situation in the manner that they did.
That case is no longer ongoing and is not subject to court proceedings. The Crofting Commission therefore cannot hide from, prevent or delay an investigation specifically focussed thereon. Fergus Ewing MSP must now instigate just such an investigation for the future stability, survival and sustainability of crofting in Scotland.
Image Credit: House of Cards © BBC
This entry was posted in Common Grazings, Crofting Commission and tagged Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity, Chair of Scottish Crofting Federation, Colin Kennedy, Common Grazings Funds, conflicts of interest, Convener of Crofting Commission, Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993, Crofters Commission, crofting, Crofting Commission, Crofting Commissioner, Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 1976, Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill, Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill 1976, Fergus Ewing, Fergus Ewing MSP, financial management, Fiona Mandeville, Grazings Constable, Guidelines, House of Lords, immediately, inquiry, legal advice, Lord Kirkhill, Mangersta Common Grazings, Mangersta Common Grazings Committee, resignation, Rhoda Grant, Rhoda Grant MSP, Scottish Crofting Federation, Scottish Government, Scottish Ministers, sub judice, U-turn, William Swann on July 4, 2016 by Brian Inkster.
Ignore the law and the lawyers
Hear no crofting law, See no crofting law and Speak no crofting law
I have been blogging for some time about the Crofting Commission ignoring the law.
They have done so in relation to, amongst other things:-
The Removal of Common Grazings Committees from office
The appointment of Grazings Constables
Management of Grazings Funds
They have, however, this past week made a massive U-turn which could just mean they now actually accept that they did in fact completely ignore the law.
It also, unfortunately, transpired at the meeting of the Cross Party Group on Crofting on Wednesday that they are now simply ignoring lawyers who take a different viewpoint from them and/or represent crofters challenging their stance.
When Commissioner Murdo Maclennan announced that he “thought we have a conclusion” on Mangersta and there was “no grazing constable in place at the moment“, I asked how this could be when I thought that the Commission had purported to extend the appointment of the Grazing Constable (illegally appointed in my opinion and in the opinion of others) for a further six months from and after 6 June 2016.
Chief Executive of the Crofting Commission, Catriona Maclean, interjected that:-
there is no constable at present, the case is over and the people of Mangersta will be advised.
I questioned why they had not advised the solicitor acting of this (i.e. me) and she responded:-
We have been in correspondence with the people of Mangersta and that is who we will respond to.
I pointed out that they had been in correspondence with a solicitor representing former members of the (unlawfully in my opinion) removed grazings committee and they should be responding to that solicitor.
There then appeared to be a reluctant acceptance that I might hear from them!
Astounding.
The Crofting Commission appear to think they can simply bury their ignorance of the law by taking a U-turn and not responding to questions raised by a solicitor concerning that ignorance of the law. The fact that they have acted contrary to the law remains and they do require to answer outstanding points in correspondence that sits unanswered on the desk of their Chief Executive.
They still need to answer, amongst other things:-
Where in law it is stated that the Crofting Commission cannot revisit its own decisions.
Where in law it is stated that the Crofting Commission has the power to appoint a Grazings Constable when they remove members of a grazing committee from office.
Where in law it is stated that the Crofting Commission can extend the appointment of a Grazings Constable.
Why the Crofting Commission is ignoring its own guidelines on the investigation of financial irregularities.
Perhaps they do now accept, given that U-turn, that nowhere in law is any of this stated and therefore they are unable to answer my questions. They should, if that is the case, at least have the dignity to say so.
I will let you know if and when the Crofting Commission deign to respond to me.
This entry was posted in Common Grazings, Crofting Commission and tagged Catriona Maclean, Chief Executive of the Crofting Commission, Common Grazings, Common Grazings Committee, Common Grazings Funds, crofters, Crofting Commission, Crofting Commissioner, crofting lawyers, Cross-Party Group on Crofting, financial management, Grazings Constable, lawyers, Murdo Maclennan, U-turn on July 2, 2016 by Brian Inkster.
The deleted Crofting Commission post
The Crofting Commission did not bank on the Rebel Alliance of Crofters having the technology to store and retrieve data
In the last post on this blog reference was made to the Crofting Commission deleting its history. The possible purpose for this historical revisionism will become apparent in subsequent posts on this blog. For now we reproduce, for posterity, that deleted post from 25 April 2016 (the Crofting Commission clearly not being technologically savvy enough to completely cover their tracks):-
COMMON GRAZINGS THE RIGHTS OF CROFTERS AND THE DUTIES OF
GRAZINGS COMMITTEES AND THEIR GRAZINGS CLERKS
It seems to me like a very good time to remind shareholders in Common Grazings
what their rights are and what the duties of the Grazings committee and their
Grazings clerk are. The following is a brief overview of the key points that everyone
involved should understand. Many people reading this may think that this is not what
happens in their village and may feel that it is overly bureaucratic but this is what is
contained in the Crofting Acts. If this process is not what is now required then the
only way to address it would be to ensure that any new Act reflects current
requirements. Until then the Commission have a responsibility for regulating crofting
within current legislation.
Crofters who share in a common grazing have certain rights over the land. These
rights, or pertinents, include the grazing of stock, access to a house or pier or
foreshore, an area for laying up a boat, the right to collect seaware, the right to cut
peat, the right to use heather and grass for thatching. These rights, shared with
others, are over the whole area comprising the common grazing. There are also
certain common Grazings used as arable machairs, particularly in the Western Isles,
where the crofters may have a right of cropping. The crofting acts state that the only
way this can be changed is:-
If the landlord resumes an area of the Grazings for a reasonable purpose and
the shareholders are compensated for their loss and obtain a share of the
development value of the resumed land.
An individual gets an apportionment when his souming may be adjusted.
If shareholders enter into a forestry project in terms of section 50 or 50A of the
crofting Act.
If the land court has agreed to a scheme for development under section 19A
which is binding on all parties.
If the majority of the shareholders voting and the Grazings committee or
constable have obtained the Commission’s consent to use part of the
Grazings for some other purposeful use under section 50B.
Through Compulsory purchase by an acquiring authority with powers of
compulsory purchase under section 37 of the Act, subject to compensation
and share in the development value as with resumption.
By a reorganisation scheme.
Any other local Grazings arrangement is not binding on shareholders who, if they
choose to do so retain the right to graze stock equivalent to their souming over the
whole Grazings and the committee and clerk should ensure that any shareholder
wishing to use the Grazings is accommodated.
Grazings Committees
The most important thing that shareholders in a common Grazings need to
understand is that the Grazings committee act as trustees of the shareholders. The
Land Court has stated that:-
..they (that is the Grazings committee) have clear duty to act as trustees of
the WHOLE shareholders in the Grazings and therefore it is their duty to act
impartially and judicially, keep in view what is their paramount consideration
– how the common Grazings can best be administered to the greatest
advantage of ALL of the tenants sharing in the Grazings….
The general responsibilities of the Committee are to:-
Make regulations (which require the consent of the Commission and) which
should in the spirit of their primary duty to accommodate the requirements of
all shareholders. Regulations cannot themselves curtail the right of any
shareholder to graze his souming across the whole Grazings other than in the
circumstances detailed under the paragraph entitled ‘Shareholders’ or to meet
any specific environmental designations.
Hold an annual general meeting and the clerk should give the meeting an
account of the work of the committee and of the financial position. At this
meeting the committee should answer the questions of the shareholders
whom they represent.
MAINTAIN the Grazings and any fixed equipment. That is clearly any existing
fixed equipment such as fences. They can do this without reference to the
shareholders and they should claim back any costs INCURRED from each of
the shareholders whether they are actively using the Common Grazing or
Should the committee wish to carry out any IMPROVEMENTS to the Grazings
they cannot do so unless they have served notice on each shareholder and
told them how much the shareholder’s proportion of the cost will be. This
gives the shareholder the opportunity to make representations against any
such proposal to the Commission.
As trustees any money received by the committee belongs to the shareholders and
should be distributed to them as soon as is reasonably practicable. It is NOT the
township’s or the committee’s money and as such it is the duty of the Grazings Clerk
to distribute any money received from whatever source, but in particular
resumptions, according to each individual shareholder’s share entitlement whether or
not they are active crofters.
When the Grazings Committee require monies to maintain the common Grazings
and the fixed equipment or to carry out works for improvements, the committee must
levy and recover the required monies directly from the shareholders for onward
payment to any third parties.
The rights of crofters have been detailed above and there is no explicit provision
in the crofting acts for the Grazings committee or clerk to be involved in the
administration or coordination of schemes falling within the provisions of
IACS regulations. So any involvement or concern regarding this should be directed
to the scheme administrators. Notwithstanding that fact, as the committee are acting
on behalf of the shareholders, any monies received and lodged in the Grazing
Committee Bank Account belongs to shareholders and must be distributed to each
shareholder in accordance with their share entitlement. It is important that all monies
are distributed to all shareholders timeously in order to assist correct financial
accounting by each individual shareholder should they require to make an annual
return to the HMRC.
There is nowhere in the Crofting Acts that allows a Grazings Committee to retain and
spend shareholders’ money on projects, village improvement works, or make gifts or
donations no matter how altruistic the purpose for which that money is to be spent.
Should townships wish to do this they should set up a separate, appropriate,
mechanism to do so and gather in any necessary funds from those willing to
Finally, I would like to say that the Crofting Commission is keen to see, wherever
possible, that crofting communities regulate themselves. It may be that shareholders
in your Common Grazings were unaware of the law and your committee has not
been being run in line with the requirements of the Crofting Act. If this is the case it
is important that shareholders and the committee hold a meeting to discuss this and
work together to ensure your Grazings Committee functions within the requirements
of the Crofting Acts.
Colin N Kennedy
Image Credit: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope © Lucasfilm Ltd
Update: Is this why the post was deleted?: Oh yes you did!
This entry was posted in Common Grazings, Crofting Commission and tagged apportionment, Colin Kennedy, Common Grazings, Common Grazings Committee, Convener, Convener of Crofting Commission, crofters, Crofting Commission, financial management, forestry, Grazings Clerk, Guidelines, history revisionism, resumption, resumption money, scheme for development, Scottish Land Court, shareholders on June 16, 2016 by Brian Inkster.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line117
|
__label__wiki
| 0.749088
| 0.749088
|
NPA to incorporate CRFFN into its web portal
-Promises enabling environment for Council’s operation By Foster Obi To facilitate access to operational information, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has agreed to integrate the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) transaction Portal into the Authority’s Web Portal. The Managing Director, HadizaBala Usman who disclosed this while receiving members of the […]
Passengers stranded at Abuja airport
Passengers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, have expressed disappointment in Dana airline meant to fly them from Abuja to Port-Harcourt. A cross section of the passengers who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday at the airport described their experience as unfortunate. One of the passengers, Mr Waribo Kuku, said […]
Ethiopian Airlines to establish international carrier for Nigeria
Ethiopian Airlines on Friday announced that it had been meeting with the Federal Government and private sector players on plans to establish an international carrier for Nigeria. According to the airline, the lack of a national carrier in Nigeria that could compete favourably with other international brands was not good for the country and for […]
MMA Sets Up Task Force to manage vehicular traffic
July 5, 2019 July 5, 2019 Isaac UmunnaComment(0)
By Foster Obi The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said in a bid to foster effective landside traffic management, the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos has constituted a task force to ensure improvement in the flow of vehicular traffic. A press statement signed by Yakubu Henrietta, General Manager Corporate Affairs said that the objective of […]
NAGAFF Team Visits NPA Management in Lagos
By Foster Obi Representatives of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) recently paid a courtesy call at the corporate headquarters of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Marina Lagos. In the pix, L-R: Gen. Manager Corporate & Strategic Communications, NPA, Jatto Adams, National Publicity Secretary, NAGAFF Stanley Ezenga, Manager Pollution Control, NPA, Sharon […]
Port Harcourt International Airport Reopened For Operations
June 23, 2019 Isaac UmunnaComment(0)
By Foster Obi Following a skidding incident yesterday involving an Air Peace flight with registration number 5N BRN, flying from Abuja to Port Harcourt, the Port Harcourt International Airport runway has been cleared and the airport is now reopened for normal flight operations. A press statement signed by Yakubu Henrietta, General Manager Corporate Affairs Federal […]
Air Peace plane overshoots runway in Port Harcourt
June 22, 2019 June 22, 2019 Isaac UmunnaComment(0)
By Foster Obi An Air Peace flight numbered 5N BRN, flying from Abuja to Port Harcourt Saturday skidded off the Port Harcourt International Airport runway at about 1500hours. A statement signed by Yakubu Henrietta, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Federal Airports of Nigeria (FAAN) said the incident occurred during a heavy downpour at the airport. “There […]
NPA redeploys Port Managers, Appoints New Technical Assistant to Managing Director
By Foster Obi The Nigerian Authority (NPA) has said that in a bid to reposition the nation’s seaports for improved service delivery in line with next level mantra of the Buhari led administration; the Management has approved the immediate redeployment of some Port Managers along with the appointment of a new Technical Assistant (Administration) to […]
Marie Koffi elected PMAWCA New Secretary General
By Foster Obi Ports Management Association in West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) has elected Jean Marie Koffi from the Port of Abidjan, Cote D’voire as her new Secretary General. Mr. Jean Marie Koffi defeated two other contestants, Iliyasu Idrisu from the Port of Duola, Cameroon and Semie Pere from the Port of Togo. The election […]
NPA MD hails Navy for producing first navigational chart of Nigerian waters
-Says hydrographic knowledge of waters key to effective maritime operations By Foster Obi The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA) Hadiza Bala Usman has eulogized the high command of the Nigerian Navy for taking the lead in producing the first navigational chart of the Nigerian waters. A press statement signed by. A.A. Jatto, […]
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line118
|
__label__cc
| 0.689389
| 0.310611
|
14-05-1972 - current
componist, contemporary classical music
www.maykenas.nl
“It's wonderful if there's a moment in a piece that can possibly undermine everything. Deathly serious with a wink.” Humour and irony are often components of Nas's compositions, like a pleasant element of confusion. Nas has written commissioned works for, among others, the Nieuw Ensemble, Schönberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Royal ...
1996 Louis Toebosch
2005 Egidius Kwartet
Biography Mayke Nas
“It's wonderful if there's a moment in a piece that can possibly undermine everything. Deathly serious with a wink.” Humour and irony are often components of Nas's compositions, like a pleasant element of confusion. Nas has written commissioned works for, among others, the Nieuw Ensemble, Schönberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, and Ensemble Aleph. She has composed more than 35 pieces, most on commission, and lives in Tilburg.
Mayke Nas is born on May 14 in Voorschoten to a musical family. Her mother is a recorder player and her grandfather, Louis Toebosch (1916-2009), was a composer, organist and conductor. After completing her secondary schooling in The Hague she decides to enter the conservatory.
Louis Toebosch Moniek Toebosch
“Until 1994, Nas studies composition with Daan Manneke at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. She simultaneously studies the piano in Amsterdam and Tilburg with Alexandre Hrisanide and Bart van de Roer. Immediately after, she studies composition in The Hague with Martijn Padding and Gilius van Bergeijk.
She receives the Matthijs Vermeulen Encouragement Prize for '(W)here', for tuba and ensemble (2002).
Together with Wouter Snoei, Nas composes 'I delayed People's Flights by walking slowly in narrow Hallways', for 4 players, 4 chairs, 4 amplified blackboards, and live electronics. The piece is an arrangement of Peter Handke's play 'Self-Accusation'. She is awarded the Anjer Music Prize for 'La chocolatière brûlée' (2005), written for the Nieuw Ensemble. For the 2,000th anniversary of the city of Nijmegen in 2005, she composes 'To Hell!' for Susanne van Els and the Schönberg Ensemble.
On a commission from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, she composes 'No Reason to Panic', to be performed during the stage change preceding a piano concerto, specifically, as the piano is slowly hoisted by tackle from the basement to the stage. For the Festival November Music, she breathes new life into the concept of audience participation with 'Anyone can do It', for 6 unprepared players who are not necessarily at all musically gifted.
Photos Mayke Nas
Audio/Video Mayke Nas
Video Mayke Nas
NTR Podium Première Mayke...
Does this page contain inappropriate material? Click here to report this.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line122
|
__label__cc
| 0.590288
| 0.409712
|
Special Edition Top Ten 2: Brussels
Okay, where were we again? Oh, yeah... Brussels.
As soon as we hit the ground, we could tell this was our kind of town: great brasseries and cafés, tons of street food of all sorts, loads of lovely pâtisseries and confiseries,
and no shortage of intriguing restaurataurants.
1. Dandoy, 31 rue au Beurre, 02 511 0326
Speculoos were right at the top of the list of delicacies we were in search of heading into AEB's European Vacation 2008. They were maybe not positioned quite as high as, say, "beer," but they were pretty close. Suffice to say, we ate our fair share of speculoos while we were in Belgium, we even tried a Nutella-like speculoos spread that's something of a sensation in Flanders,* but the very best speculoos we found were at the legendary Dandoy.
They also looked great.
And the back room of the original Rue de Beurre shop was like a museum.
The front room was all business, however, and Dandoy's speculoos dominated the scene.
We were particularly fond of their cats.
2. Les Brassins, 36 Keienveldstraat, 32 2 512 69 99
We never did find the commemorative plaque, but apparently Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston, the artist later to be known as Audrey Hepburn, was born just down the street from this neighborhood bistro. No matter, Les Brassins was reason enough to venture into Ixelles.
The food was excellent, with highlights including a mammoth jambonneau à la dijonnaise, a roasted canard de pékin, and such bruxellois classics as stoemp saucisse, but almost as big a draw was Les Brassins' impressive selection of beers.
And we loved that you could order them in 750-ml bottles. Dinner for two with a 750-ml bottle (or two) of some of Belgium's finest beers (like Saison Dupont)... How can you go wrong?
3. Cantillon, Rue Gheude 56 Straat, 00 32 2 521 49 28, www.cantillon.be
The day started off with a visit to the Marché de l'Abattoir in the Anderlecht district. We'd thought that we'd be going to the much more famous Marché du Midi, but it was a Saturday and the Marché du Midi only runs on Sunday. So there we were, wandering around Gare du Midi, looking for a Saturday market, when a helpful gent pointed us in the direction of another market, and when we got there we were glad he had. The Marché de l'Abattoir maybe isn't as friendly as the Marché du Midi, but it's big and sprawling and fascinating.
As the name suggests, the grounds are the site of a former slaughterhouse complex/meat market. These days there's much more to the marché than just meat. It reminded me of a largely Moroccan market situated in Köln that I frequented a few years back, except it was about ten times as big.
Anyway, from there we made our way to our primary destination: the Cantillon brewery.
Cantillon (founded in 1900) is the site of the last traditional brewery in Brussels. The city once had hundreds of breweries; then it had dozens; now it only has one. But it's a gem. Not only is it the last remaining traditional brewery in Brussels, but it just may be the most traditional brewery in all of Belgium. (No small feat, given the fact that there are some 700 beers brewed in Belgium and quite a few of them are brewed by religious orders.) Cantillon specializes in lambic and in gueuze--the former an ancient type of "grain wine" ("the most mysterious beer still existing," according to the folks at Cantillon) that's fermented using only spontaneous fermentation, the latter a "grain champagne" derived from Cantillon's lambic that is fermented a second time in-bottle, and therefore is carbonated.
I've had some pretty mysterious beers in my day, but nothing could have prepared me for Cantillon's lambic. Complexly flavored and totally uncarbonated, it was like a trip through time, to an era long before the Pilsener method revolutionized beer production. As intriguing as I found the lambic, whose charms depend on a profound appreciation of the flavors of grain (all of which have been organic at Cantillon since 1999), I preferred its lightly fizzy relative, gueuze. Cantillon's was more complex than any other gueuze I'd ever tasted, but its depth and its balance were fantastic.
Anyway, the Cantillon brewery doubles as the Brussels Gueuze Museum, so not only did we get to taste Cantillon's superlative product, but we got to tour the brewery/museum. We were fascinated by Cantillon's propensity of cobwebs (in the all-natural ecosystem of spontaneous fermentation, spiders serve an important function), and by its brewmaster's maxims ("Le temps ne respecte pas ce qui se fait sans lui."), but more than anything, we loved Cantillon's cat.
Just as spiders occupy an important role in a spontaneous-fermentation brewery like Cantillon (hence the cobwebs), so does the house cat. Someone's got to keep a close eye on the granary, and at Cantillon the job has been given to this feisty little fellow. Maybe we were a little homesick for our own cats, maybe we're just a couple of crazy "cat people"--whatever the case, we instantly took a shine to minou and spent a great deal of our tour palling around with him and trying to get him to settle down for just an instant so that we could snap his picture. To no avail.
We also liked Cantillon's caves and their dusty, old vintage bottling machine.
But the highlight of the tour and of the visit may have been Cantillon's wonderfully tart and subtle kriek (as opposed to the syrupy sweet dreck that sometimes passes as kriek), made with real Schaerbeek cherries. Just look at that color!
[If you'd like to know more about traditional Belgian brewing, we highly recommend Edward Behr's "Real Beer in Belgium, the Greatest Brewing Country" from The Art of Eating No. 57 (Spring 2001). Behr's article starts at Cantillon, and with good reason.]
4. ABC Mateos, 46 rue Sainte-Catherine, 02 512 75 47, www.abc-mateos.com
We went to Place Ste-Catherine in search of a street vendor who was reputed to have a heavenly fish soup.
Instead, we found ABC Mateos, a fishmonger that just happened to have a bar set up out front selling freshly prepared Spanish-style seafood dishes, and glasses of wine to wash them down with.
The highlight: Mateos' spicy pimentón-laced clams.
Oh, yeah: they're also celebrating their 50th anniversary this year (!).
5. Greenwich, 7 rue des Chartreux + Lucien Cravat, 24 rue des Chartreux (a.k.a., "the littlest store")
We'd promised someone that we'd pay a visit to Greenwich and its shabby-chic ambiance, complete with legions of chess aficionados, and we were glad we did. We found the atmosphere wonderfully relaxed, and the early-twentieth-century bathrooms were worth the price of admission (free) alone.
Plus, visiting Greenwich led us to Lucien Cravate, perhaps the littlest store in all of Brussels, very likely the cutest one, and conveniently located almost directly across the street. There, Michelle made an important find: a Melitta coffee pot, in pastel green, like the blue one (R.I.Pieces) she got long ago in Vancouver and the yellow one she picked up in Berlin that sits cracked on the shelf. This wasn't the only find to be had at Lucien Cravate--its tiny space is chock-full of 20th-century treasures--but it was the only one Michelle had to have. It's not just about those pastel shades--they also have a special no-drip spout.
6. L'Archiduc, 6 rue Antoine Dansaert, 02 512 06 52 + Cirio, 18 rue de la Bourse
In close proximity to both Greenwich and Lucien Cravate, you'll find the 1930s Art-Deco jazz bar splendor of l'Archiduc. We'd been warned that l'Archiduc had turned into an even bigger meat market than the Marché de l'Abattoir. At 5:00 in the afternoon we ran into no such problems.
Just a gorgeous, surprisingly intimate interior, some "cool jazz," and some drinks to match.
Cirio, on the other hand, which sits right next the Bourse, is just about as big a tourist-draw café as you're going to find at 5:00 in the afternoon (or any time, for that matter). The outlandish fin-de-siècle interior and the matching ambiance keep 'em coming. But we were told we simply had to try one of the their half-and-half cocktails (half champagne, half wine), and we were glad we did. Only 3 euros a pop, too.
7. Viva M'Boma, 17 Vlaamsesteenweg, 32 2 512 15 93
Speaking of interiors... Get a load of this one.
Viva M'Boma (loosely: Long live Grandma!, in bruxellois dialect) was a-buzz with late-night diners when we sat down to look over their menu. Highly traditional, the menu read like something of a Belgian food primer: waterzooi, stoemp and sausage, Ghent stew, sweetbreads with mushrooms... (Okay, I don't know if that last one's particularly Belgian or not, but it sure looked good.) What to choose? Well, they were out of Waterzooi, thanks to a table of six which had just ordered six of 'em (Damn you!), so we went with the sausage and stoemp, and the Ghent stew, both of which were excellent contributions to our ongoing survey. Dessert consisted of speculoos ice cream and raspberries: delicious.
8. Marché du Midi, adjoining Gare du Midi, Sundays
Having missed the Marché du Midi the day before, we decided to return the next day to see if it lived up to all the hype. In short: yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Just the hubbub and the produce alone were hugely impressive. Michelle almost started crying--poor dear!--when we passed crates of red currants for 4 euros each. She could barely restrain herself.
But the true coup was the Moroccan crêpe we'd been tipped off to. Our friend P.K. has a weekly ritual on Sundays that begins with a trip to the Marché du Midi with his kids for Moroccan crêpes. Our expectations were high, but frankly we just weren't prepared for this taste sensation. You get these delicacies from a large Moroccan olives and cheese specialist right next to the train station. Off to the side, they've got a couple of griddles working at high capacity, producing big, beautiful, fresh crêpes for the throngs. You step up, you place your order, and then you get your choice of fillings. The classic is a combination of spicy olives, a soft, ricotta-like cheese, and honey. Yes, olives, cheese, and honey. Sounds crazy, but it really was just about the best thing either of us had ever tasted. Ever. Fresh Moroccan mint tea sweetened the deal even further.
Afterwards, Michelle was so excited when we passed this monumental bullhorn on Place Rosa Luxemburg, that she stepped up and harangued the passing crowds for a good ten minutes or so.
When I finally wrestled her away from the bullhorn, we continued on our way to the flea market, where, for a second or two, I thought I'd found a portrait of my grandmother.
9. Place Flagey and environs
What can we say about Place Flagey? It's a little off the beaten path, and it doesn't have the reputation that Brussels' flea market does, but in some ways it's just as much of a treasure trove.
First (and foremost), there's Frit Flagey, right across the street from the Place. Our ongoing survey of Brussels friteries is still very much in progress, but so far the best we've found are those at Frit Flagey. The permanent line-up says it all.
We lined up for a good 20-30 minutes for our lovely cones, but we never once questioned the decision (even with an ominous-looking storm brewing). We knew these were worth waiting for, and we were right.
Then there was the Flagey repertory cinema (part of the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique family) housed in a gorgeous Art Deco arts complex (that was formerly a broadcasting center). We just happened to stroll by to see what was playing, and when we found out that The Third Man (one of our all-time favorites) would be starting in about 45 minutes, we settled into a cozy neighborhood bar and wrote some postcards for a spell.
We thought about going back to Frit Flagey again after the film, and it wasn't easy to pull ourselves away (frites for lunch, frites for dinner--what's the problem?), but there was another place nearby that we wanted to check out: Mamma Roma (5 Chaussée de Vleurgat). Aside from the film reference, we were intrigued by rumors of breathtaking pizza al taglio. And Mamma Roma delivered.
I don't know if Mamma Roma's slices quite qualify as "grandma slices", but they're awfully close and, more importantly, they were just phenomenal. Seriously. It's official: Brussels has great pizza. Our two favorites were the pachino piccante with sweet cherry tomatoes, lots of garlic, and lots and lots of crushed red chilies, and the crema di zucca, which added pancetta and smoked caciocavallo to its delicate squash purée. Unreal. Great operation, too. The pizzaiolo looked like some entrenched Italian hippie, and they sold their slices by the kilo.
10. Comus & Gasterea, 86-88 Quai aux Briques, 02 223 43 66
Last, but certainly not least... Actually, it's funny. Comus & Gasterea was the very first find we made in Brussels. We stepped out of the Place Sainte-Catherine metro station, started to make our way towards our lodgings, and we walked right past Comus & Gasterea, and we knew, we knew. (Of course, the huge queue out front was a bit of a tip-off.)
So we dropped off our bags and we rushed right back to try what appeared to be some superlative artisanal ice cream. And it was, friends. Comus & Gasterea draws comparisons to Maison Berthillon in Paris, and with good reason. Our two favorites? Michel Comus's dark, luscious cherry and his lovely vanilla, which Michelle promptly declared was the very best she'd ever had, bar none.
* Does this mean that children all across Flanders are essentially spreading cookies on their bread as an afterschool snack?
Labels: Belgium, Brassins, Brussels, Cantillon, Comus and Gasterea, Dandoy, Frit Flagey, Greenwich, l'Archiduc, Mamma Roma, Marché du Midi, Moroccan crêpe, pizza, Viva M'Boma
Eric Boyer said...
Il est toujours plaisant de vous lire et je me demande ce que vous allez nous faire découvrir de nouveau prochainement!
Merci particulièrement pour ces "Top Ten" de Belgique. Je prévois y aller dans 2 ans et je suis convaincu qu'ils me seront précieux...
Au plaisir de vous lire et merci encore pour ce que vous faites!
Eric Boyer
P.S.: Votre maïs au curcuma est très bon sur des nachos...
rich said...
I know it's a cliche, but the last time I spent a long weekend in Brussels, I had mussels three nights running and a lobster on the fourth. Such is life.
Bonjour, Eric,
Merci pour le beau commentaire. Malgré ce que M. Charles Baudelaire a dit sur le sujet, la Belgique est vraiment un petit trésor.
Hi, Rich,
We certainly didn't skip the mussels of Brussels because it's a cliché or something. We didn't have any mussels because they weren't in season and the mussel specialists we wanted to check out refuse to sell them unless they're in season. We did have maatjes (brined herring filets), though, because the new ones were in season. I loved them, but Michelle wasn't so sure.
I'm going back in December. You can expect a report on mussels soon afterwards.
Mark Slutsky said...
SPECULOOS!!
So jealous!
Well, of everything. But especially those spiffy speculoos.
lovely post as always. Glad you visited Cantillon - nice to see it in AEB.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line123
|
__label__wiki
| 0.62304
| 0.62304
|
LOCAL NEWS Fiordland Advocate Page 4 | 28 August, 2009 South Island tourism operator Real Journeys has helped its nature guides towards gaining a Diploma in Ecotourism, by funding a residential training course run by Tai Poutini Polytechnic. Earlier this month, 12 guides from different areas of the company completed the week-long course at Deep Cove, Doubtful Sound. The training course, which covered interpretation techniques, meteorology, geology and plant and animal biology, fulfilled the first credits towards a full-year Diploma in Ecotourism. Real Journeys Milford Sound operations manager Angus Small said the company intended to assist the guides to continue their studies part-time, with the aim that they would eventually graduate with a full diploma. “The aim is two-fold: to ensure that we provide the very best quality guiding, and also to encourage our staff to stay with the company by providing them with wider opportunities. I am a firm believer in training and up-skilling staff.,” he said. “The investment always pays for itself.” Mr Small said the guides’ response to the course was overwhelmingly positive, and many of them were excited about the opportunity to gain an education while working in remote locations. “We’ll look at running another residential next winter and offer another part of the Diploma... I am hoping we can offer a new unit each winter so that over time they can complete the Diploma. They also have the option of carrying on with the units in their own time and completing it earlier.” Outdoor classroom for guides Real Journeys nature guides during their residential training course at Deep Cove. New Zealand Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar is the guest speaker at next week’s Fiordland Tourism Awards. Tickets for the formal dinner and awards ceremony are on sale now at $55 per person which includes a three-course meal and entertainment by the Kingston Rover. Among the accolades to be handed out is the long-standing and prestigious “Tourism Personality of the Year” award. This will recognise an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the tourism industry in Fiordland. The AWS Legal “Operator of the Year Award” recognises an outstanding business that has played a significant role in the local tourism industry. It also acknowledges increasingly sustainable tourism practices, contributions back to the environment and also to social and cultural causes within the community. Also being awarded is the Bradley Cup “Excellence in Retail” Award, while certificates will also be presented to those who have completed the Sustainable Tourism South programme. Making a popular return to the awards this year is the Friendly Service Award, now to be known as the “Service Plus Award”. Sponsored by the Fiordland Motel Association, it will recognise an individual who, in their work environment, not only provides great service but also goes that extra mile for their customers. The Fiordland Tourism Awards Dinner will be held at the Te Anau Club on Saturday September 5, beginning at 6pm. Tickets are available from the Destination Fiordland Office (info@fiordland.org.nz or 03 249 7959). Tourism head guest at awards dinner NZ Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar They might be dab hands on the court but in the quest to prove it the Fiordland College senior boys’ basketball team members have had to turn their hands to almost anything off court. On Monday the team lines up in Westport for the zone 4 National Qualifying Tournament for schools with under 600 students. This will involve six games over three days with the final being played on Friday. Twelve students from the college will be participating. They are: Jim Robins (captain), Mark Still (vice-captain), Nick Dainty, Alec Sanders, Marcus Pearce, Luke Henward, Hayden Pearce, Blake Kemper, Marcel Robson, Philip Crouchley, Samuel Taberner and Jalen Salomen. To get there has been no mean feat. Fundraising activities have included car washes, a mother’s choice meal for 40 people, turning a boat and delivering phone books. Most recently they took on the unenviable task of brick cleaning and managed to complete 500 in only about two hours. Coach Shona Salomen said helping them over the final hurdle were 12 businesses who each sponsored a player to the tune of $200 after a grant application was declined. Fiordland College would like to thank Anchorage Motels, Te Anau Pharmacy, Caltex/Subway Te Anau, Fiordland Electrical, Rosie’s Backpackers, La Toscana, Distinction Hotels Te Anau, North Gore Dairy, Sandfly Cafe, Southern Discoveries, WHK and Aden Motels for their support. Bricking it before the tournament The Fiordland College Senior Boys’ Basketball team hard at work cleaning 500 bricks as part of their fundraising effort (from left) Samuel Taberner, Andrew Taberner, coach Shona Salomen, Marcel Robson, Philip Crouchley and Nick Dainty.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line133
|
__label__wiki
| 0.525847
| 0.525847
|
Episode 5 – Welcome to the Counseling
– January 13, 2014Posted in: Anime, Episode Guide, Welcome to the NHK
Sato’s first lady friend
At heart, Welcome the the NHK has a series of very dodgy relationships. Central is, of course, Sato and Misaki, a 23 year old man and a 17 year old girl. A naive, sweet, maybe kind of crazy 17-year-old girl, and a man who has broken apart from society for no real reason. Then there’s Sato and Yamazaki, who have only renewed their friendship to make a pornographic game to show a 17 year old girl so that she won’t think he’s a hikikimori and have to try to save him.
New to the picture is Hitomi, who used to be the only other member of the literature club with Sato, and was the girl he tried to impress by rescuing Yamazaki from bullies (which, recall, did not work out for Sato at all.) She spies him in the mall, and the two go for a coffee, where he hints to her he has some problems. Out come her pills, all different kinds for whatever ails you, all easy to get from her three different doctors – which leads right to Sato’s confession. He tells her everything, even shows her the creepy things that he bought in the Holy Land of Otakuness to show how he’s messed up, too.
Sato, pensive
The connection between these two does not seem wholesome. They are old friends, kind of, but the extent of their friendship was playing cards inside the literature club, a club that only had the two of them as members. Hitomi recalls, and we see, Sato sitting in the club room alone, curled up on his chair, looking terrified and lonely. Whatever it is that damaged Sato, it has been with him for a long time. His latest 4 year and 4 month (he counts) bout of Hikikimoridom is just the latest, most lasting manifestation.
Hitomo is also revealed, way back in high school, as the person who brought the notion of a Conspiracy to poor Sato’s excuse-seeking mind. In the literature club, she tells him she thinks there are no bad people, just bad things brought about by the Conspiracy that make people act badly toward each other. (she says this right before it is implied she fully seduces old Sato, so that might have made it make more of an impression on him than otherwise) It also makes no sense, but it gives Sato the excuse that he requires to thoroughly fail in life. No more hopes, no more dreams. The Conspiracy keeps him down. What Sato would be accomplishing without it, who knows. Great, important things, no doubt.
But he does seem to go through some kind of change after the visit with little druggy Hitomi. He admits to Misaki he’s not a creator (and accidentally slips that he was making an eroge, a term she was happily not familiar with.) So, Misaki’s sessions begin.
When Sato asks her who she is, she says, “I’m just a kind-hearted girl who wants to rescue young people.” Whatever the truth is, it isn’t that. But she’s not some kind of weird conniver, either. She just has no idea what they’re doing. When they have their first counseling session, she’s woefully unprepared, and has a pretty low opinion of what Sato might know. She’s like a lot of precocious young people, who doesn’t know that her specialized knowledge is actually general knowledge, and everyone else has already heard all she has to say.
So when she insults Sato’s intelligence by telling him all about this interesting Freud guy and his methods of dream analysis, Sato feeds her the most phallic and vaginally symbolic dream he could come up with. A giant snake lifts up out of the ocean, a sword jams into an apple. Sato’s carrying around a big, long gun. Please, Misaki, look up what these things mean.
It’s a funny scene, but it also points to the weirdly corrupt nature of these two’s relationship. She’s too young to be spending this time with him. He’s too old to be toying with a young girl.
But, in a weird way, her therapy works, too, because it gets him to write a script for Yamazaki. Which might not be the best thing for him, but hell, it’s better than being a creepy Hikikimori.
Tags: 2006, anime, episode guide, welcome to the nhk
Episode 10: Mellow Maromi
Assault On Precinct 13
Tenchi Universe vol. 2
Ghost – Opus Eponymous
Episode 3: Cursor II
Nick Drake – Bryter Layter
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line146
|
__label__wiki
| 0.886016
| 0.886016
|
california. legislature. assembly (1)
stanton, mary (1)
1961 october 24 (1)
1962 july 17 (1)
1 photograph: black and white (1)
3 leaves ; 28 cm (1)
9 pages (1)
andrew bobola saints chapels stained glass college campuses -- california -- los angeles (1)
choirs (music); women's choirs college students (1)
community chest (los angeles, calif.); alliance of social agencies (los angeles, calif.); council of social agencies (los angeles, calif.); (1)
federations, financial (social service) -- history -- california -- los angeles community welfare councils -- hist (1)
legislation -- california water rights -- california -- owens valley water rights -- california -- los angeles california. legislature. assembly (1)
loyola marymount university (1)
loyola university of los angeles (1)
metabolic studio los angeles aqueduct la aqueduct acquaduct (1)
welfare planning council, los angeles region -- history welfare council of metropolitan los angeles -- history welfare council of metropolitan los angeles. research dept. -- history alliance of social agencies (los angeles, calif.) -- history council of so (1)
All fields: Metropolitan
Welfare Planning in Los Angeles
Welfare Planning Council, Los Angeles Region--History; Welfare Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles--History; Welfare council of metropolitan Los Angeles. Research dept.--History; Alliance of Social Agencies (Los Angeles, Calif.)--History; Council...
A 6-page typewritten narrative on the history of the Welfare Planning Council of Metropolitan Los Angeles, later renamed the Welfare Planning Council, Los Angeles Region. The history begins with the first charity founded in Los Angeles in 1854 and...
Loyola 3rd Annual Spring Sing, college women choral group
Choirs (Music); Women’s choirs; College students
[Memo from Mary Stanton to George Wyman regarding the History of Social Welfare in Los Angeles, July 17, 1962]
Community Chest (Los Angeles, Calif.); Alliance of Social Agencies (Los Angeles, Calif.); Council of Social Agencies (Los Angeles, Calif.);
A 3-page, typewritten memo from Mary Stanton to George Wyman identifying and correcting perceived innacuracies in the contents of the History section of a 1962 orientation booklet for the Welfare Planning Council, Los Angeles Region. She notes...
Assembly Bill No. 298
Legislation--California; Water rights--California--Owens Valley; Water rights--California--Los Angeles; California. Legislature. Assembly
St. Andrew Bobola and Fairfield University of St. Robert Bellarmine, Fairfield, Connecticut
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line148
|
__label__cc
| 0.716968
| 0.283032
|
Microbial dolomite crusts from the carbonate platform off western India
Rao, V.P.; Kessarkar, P.M.; Krumbein, W.E.; Krajewski, K.P.; Schneider, R.J.
Citation: Sedimentology, Vol.50; 819-830p.
URI: http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/1257
The occurrence of Late Pleistocene dolomite crusts that occur at 64 m depth on the carbonate platform off western India is documented. Dolomite is the most predominant mineral in the crusts. In thin section, the crust consists of dolomitized microlaminae interspersed with detrital particles. Under scanning electron microscopy, these laminae are made up of tubular filaments or cellular structures of probable cyanobacterial origin. Dolomite crystals encrust or overgrow the surfaces of the microbial filaments and/or cells; progressive mineralization obliterates their morphology. Well-preserved microbial mats, sulphide minerals (pyrrhotite and marcasite) and the stable isotope composition of dolomite in the crusts indicate hypersaline and anoxic conditions during dolomite formulation. The crusts are similar to dolomite stromatolites, and biogeochemical processes related to decaying microbial mats under anoxic conditions probably played an important role in dolomite precipitation. The dolomite is therefore primary and/or very early diagenetic in origin. The dolomite crusts are interpreted to be a composite of microbial dolomite overprinted by early burial organic dolomite. The results of this study suggest that a microbial model for dolomite formation may be relevant for the origin of ancient massive dolomites in marine successions characterized by cryptalgal laminites. The age of the crusts further suggests that the platform was situated at shallow subtidal depths during the Last Glacial Maximum
Copyright: Copyright [2003]. It is tried to respect the rights of the copyright holders to the best of the knowledge. If it is brought to our notice that the rights are violated then the item would be withdrawn.
Name: Sedimentology_50_ ...
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line155
|
__label__cc
| 0.721823
| 0.278177
|
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
Category->Ethnic Studies
By Tim J. Wise Flipping John Howard Griffin's classic Black Like Me, and extending Noel Ignatiev's How The Irish Became White into the present-day, Wise explores the meanings and consequences of whiteness, and discusses the ways in which racial privilege can harm not just people of color, but also whites. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and yet scholarly; analytical and yet accessible. ReadHowYouWant (2010), English, Paperback: 388 pages.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line157
|
__label__wiki
| 0.675506
| 0.675506
|
Geek Guru
Geek People
OnePlus 6 India launch date set for May 17th, Marvel Avengers Limited Edition confirmed, early access sale on May 21st
Posted by Ashwin Karthik April 26, 2018 in Phones
It’s official now, the OnePlus 6 India launch date is set for May 17th, at an even in Mumbai. Based on the teasers which the company has been releasing over the past few weeks, it is not really surprising that the device would be launched earlier than the company’s usual June routine.
Here’s what we know about the OnePlus 6 so far:
The OnePlus 6 will have a full screen 18:9 display with a notch, and a chin. The phone will feature dual rear cameras, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC. Leaked OnePlus 6 case photos indicate dual rear cameras, and a fingerprint scanner on the back panel. The company’s traditional Alert Slider is present on the new phone too,
While the base variant of the OnePlus 6 is expected to come with 6GB RAM and 64GB of storage, there will be an 8GB RAM variant with 128GB of storage
The back panel of the OnePlus will be housed in a glass cover, according to the company’s latest teaser. Does this mean it will support wireless charging in addition to Dash Charging?
The OnePlus 6 will be sold exclusively on Amazon India. Rumours floating around have suggested that the phone will be priced a bit higher than the OnePlus 5T, at about Rs. 35,000. OnePlus has been steadily increasing the prices of its devices year after year, so this is not exactly new either.
OnePlus is partnering with graphic novel/movie company Marvel, to promote the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War movie which will be released in theaters on 27th April. The OnePlus 6 Avengers Limited Edition has been confirmed to be launched on May 17th, at 3PM in India. That’s the same as the OnePlus 6 India launch date. So, it is likely that users may have a choice to select between the two phones.
The OnePlus 6 will be available for purchase at 12PM on May 21st, in an exclusive early access sale for Amazon Prime subscribers.
Android India news OnePlus OnePlus 6 Phones
Vivo NEX–Pre order started
Samsung Galaxy On6 launched in India with 5.6-inch Infinity Display, 4GB RAM for Rs. 14,490
About the Author: Ashwin Karthik
2018 iPhone X Plus 6.5-inch dummy model photos leaked along with 6.1-inch variant
Jio 594 Rupees plan for 6 months of unlimited voice and data announced for JioPhone
How to fix ads not loading on websites when using Kaspersky Internet Security 2018
How to recover data after LockCrypt Ransomware attack
Notes is a note taking app with auto save, available for Windows, Linux and macOS
How to get your lost Flipkart invoice bill
OnePlus 6 notch design confirmed and here is what it looks like
Spec Ops: The Line is free on Humble Store for the next 36 hours
Jio Prime extended for a year for free for existing subscribers, here’s how to get it
About Geek Guru
Copyright © 2019 Geek Guru. All rights reserved.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line162
|
__label__wiki
| 0.780256
| 0.780256
|
Home » 2018/19 FPL Tips » Gameweek 24 Review – FPL Tips – Fantasy Premier League Tips
Gameweek 24 Review – FPL Tips – Fantasy Premier League Tips
Following a round of FA Cup action, gameweek 24 would take place over Tuesday and Wednesday, which would certainly test the squad depth of sides at the top and bottom ends of the table. Manchester City knew that a slip against Newcastle United may see them out of the title race, while Cardiff City knew they would face an uphill battle against Arsenal. Elsewhere Fulham hosted Brighton and Hove Albion in a massive game for the Londoners. Liverpool would look to continue setting the pace as they hosted Leicester City. Anyway, here’s the FPL Updates gameweek review…
Artur Boruc – It’s not been an easy season for Bournemouth stopper Artur Boruc, having played much of the season as backup to Bosnian international Asmir Begovic. However, the former Chelsea man was unable to face his former side. This meant that Boruc was drafted in, and he may just have given manager Eddie Howe some food for thought as he turned in an excellent performance on the night, making some important saves that would make all the difference as his side ran out 4-0 winners at Dean Court.
Romain Saiss – Having started the season largely as a bit part player, versatile midfielder Romain Saiss will be delighted at his recent playing time, which has seen him deployed on the left side of a back three. The Morocco international, who featured for his country in the past summer’s world cup, opened the scoring for Wolves as they hosted West Ham United on Tuesday night. The Hammers have been in poor form of late, which has likely put pay to any hopes of a potential European place come May.
Victor Lindelof – One of the standout players at Manchester United under the new management of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been Sweden international centre-half Victor Lindelof. Having impressed regularly of late he found a stoppage time equaliser as his side trailed at home to Burnley on Tuesday. Goals from Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood looked to have sealed a famous win for the Clarets, however a Paul Pogba penalty pulled one back, before Lindelof found the net deep into stoppage time to salvage an unlikely point.
Michael Keane – Having enjoyed a difficult time of late under Marco Silva, Everton recorded a vital victory at the John Smith’s as they beat struggling Huddersfield 1-0 on Tuesday night. In a relatively tight contest it would be decided by a solitary Richarlison goal after just a couple of minutes. The Toffees had to soak up some pressure, and it was more difficult when Lucas Digne was dismissed with twenty-five minutes remaining. However, Michael Keane starred as Silva’s side returned to Goodison with all three points.
David Brooks – One of the finds of the season in the Premier League has undoubtedly been AFC Bournemouth’s capture of David Brooks from Sheffield United. The signing raised eyebrows somewhat but the Wales international has enjoyed excellent form since his move to the South Coast club. He was in superb form as the Cherries hit a sorry Chelsea for four at Dean Court on Wednesday night. The summer signing scored and assisted on the night and was arguably the best player on the pitch in a stunning display.
Joao Moutinho – Wolverhampton Wanderers secured a big three points on Tuesday night as a late showing against West Ham United saw the newly-promoted side into seventh place upon their return to the Premier League. Joao Moutinho had a fine game, assisting twice. Fellow summer signing netted a brace to take his personal tally to eight in the league this season. His goals are so often the difference for a Wolves side that look to be set to survive comfortably come the end of the season. Nuno Santo will be delighted with his side’s efforts thus far.
James Ward-Prowse – Southampton have improved massively under Ralph Hasenhuttl but found themselves a goal down to Crystal Palace as Wilfried Zaha broke the deadlock shortly before half time at St. Mary’s. It looked like a big victory for Palace, until James Ward-Prowse levelled towards the end. The afore mentioned Zaha was then sent off with ten minutes remaining. Despite Mamadou Sakho spurning two glorious chances to score both sides will have to settle for a point in the relegation six-pointer.
Heung-Min Son – South Korea’s loss was Spurs’ gain as Heung-Min Son returned relatively early from the Asian cup after missing just two matches. He proved to be a game changer when he was introduced from the bench against Watford on Wednesday night. Craig Cathcart stunned the Wembley faithful when he put the Hornets ahead late in first half. Watford were more than holding their own, and against a weakened Spurs side you started to think they would hold on for a brilliant win…
Joshua King – One man who can always provide a cutting edge or a moment of quality for AFC Bournemouth is former Manchester United man Josh King. On Wednesday night his side dismantled Mauricio Sarri’s Chelsea side, and King was at the forefront of everything, netting two and assisting one on the way to a famous victory for Eddie Howe’s side. The pressure continues to mount on Sarri, as the Blues continue to flounder in the Premier League. The Blues will be hoping that Gonzalo Higuaín can hit the ground running on the back of his loan spell from Juventus.
Aleksander Mitrovic – Fulham were starting to run out of time to gain ground on the sides outside the drop zone, and when they went 2-0 down to Brighton at Craven Cottage courtesy of two Glenn Murray goal, you wondered whether it was curtains for Claudio Ranieri’s side. However, they struck back in style when Callum Chambers netted prior to an Aleksander Mitrovic brace. Luciano Vietto added a fourth to keep the West London side’s hopes of survival alive. Brighton will be disappointed and should have been out of sight by half time.
Fernando Llorente – The much-lamented Fernando Llorente came up with a late winner as Spurs secured a big win against Watford at Wembley on Wednesday night after being a goal down. Heung-Min Son equalised for Mauricio Pochettino’s side with just ten minutes remaining when he hammered home from twelve yards to delight the home crowd. They then went in search of winner and found it when Fernando Llorente headed home his first league goal of the season to leave the Hornets fans wondering what might have been.
Written by Ryan Nevin (@RNevin7)
Next story Fantasy Premier League Preview – Gameweek 25 – FPL Tips
Previous story FPL Updates Gameweek 24 – Fantasy Premier League Tips
Midfielders – Bargain FPL Options – Fantasy Football Tips
Captaincy Analysis – FPL Gameweek 37 Tips – Fantasy Premier League Tips
FPL Dilemma – Sergio Aguero vs Harry Kane – Fantasy Football Tips
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line167
|
__label__wiki
| 0.700852
| 0.700852
|
Home ▸ Catalog ▸ Greek Coins ▸ Geographic - All Periods ▸ Anatolia ▸ Caria ▸ KosView Options: | 1 Item3 Items10 Items25 Items50 Items | Sort by price △Sort by price ▽Sort by date |
Ancient Coins of Kos, Caria
Kos is a Greek island 40 by 8 kilometers, 4 km off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey, and ancient Caria. In mythology, the island was visited by Hercules. The island was home to a famous sanatoria of Asclepius. Other chief sources of wealth were its wines and silk manufacture. Aristotle mentions silk weaving by the women of the island. Silk garments were manufactured in large factories by women slaves. During the Greco-Persian Wars it twice expelled the Persians. In the 5th century, it joined the Delian League. After the revolt of Rhodes, it served as the chief Athenian station in the south-eastern Aegean. In 366 B.C., a democracy was instituted. After helping to weaken Athenian power, in the Social War (357-355 B.C.), it fell for a few years to the king Mausolus of Caria. In 366 B.C., the capital was transferred from Astypalaia to the newly built town of Kos. In the Hellenistic age, Kos attained the zenith of its prosperity. Its allies the Ptolemies used it as a naval outpost to oversee the Aegean. As a seat of learning, it arose as a provincial branch of the museum of Alexandria, and became a favorite resort for the education of the princes of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Among its most famous sons were the physician Hippocrates, the painter Apelles, the poets Philitas and, perhaps, Theocritus.
Kos, Carian Islands, c. 345 - 340 B.C.
Herakles was traveling by sea when Hera, who hated him, sent a storm, sinking his boats. Hercules and only a few friends survived, swimming to Kos. Once ashore they asked a shepherd for food and shelter. The shepherd refused and insulted Hercules and they fought. People from nearby Antimachia joined the fight against Hercules. Hercules and his friends slipped into a house, disguised as women, and escaped. Another town welcomed Hercules and declared war on Antimachia. Hercules killed the king of Antimachia and married the newly elected king's sister, Halkiopi. Their son, Thessalos, would later be the king of Kos and Nisyros.SH53580. Silver didrachm, Pixodarus Hoard p. 234, 2a (A1/P23, this coin); SNG Keckman 287; BMC Caria p. 195, 19; SNG Cop 619; HGC 6 1305 (R1), Choice gVF, toned, nice style, struck in high relief, well centered, tight flan cutting off ethnic, weight 6.850 g, maximum diameter 20.0 mm, die axis 0o, Kos mint, c. 345 - 340 B.C.; obverse bearded head of Herakles right, wearing Nemean lion scalp headdress; reverse veiled female (Halkiopi?) head left, AΓ[H] (magistrate) behind, [KΩION] below; ex Garth R. Drewry Collection; ex Coin Galleries auction 14 April 1993, lot 317; ex Superior Galleries auction 31 May 1989, lot 6081; ex Pixodarus Hoard; rare; SOLD
Herakles was traveling by sea when Hera, who hated him, sent a storm, sinking his boats. Hercules and only a few friends survived, swimming to Kos. Once ashore they asked a shepherd for food and shelter. The shepherd refused and insulted Hercules and they fought. People from nearby Antimachia joined the fight against Hercules. Hercules and his friends slipped into a house, disguised as women, and escaped. Another town welcomed Hercules and declared war on Antimachia. Hercules killed the king of Antimachia and married the newly elected king's sister, Halkiopi. Their son, Thessalos, would later be the king of Kos and Nisyros.SH75288. Silver tetradrachm, Pixodarus Hoard, Cos, p. 232, 3a (A2/P2), pl. 37; SNG Keckman 286; SNG Cop 619 var. (Herakles left); SNGvA 2751 var. (same); HGC 6 1303 (R2), VF/aVF, corrosion on reverse, weight 14.675 g, maximum diameter 22.9 mm, die axis 0o, Kos mint, 345 - 340 B.C.; obverse bearded head of Herakles left, wearing Nemean lion scalp headdress; reverse KΩION, veiled female (Halkiopi?) head left, HP (magistrate) behind, KΩION below; ex Naville Numismatics (London), auction 14 (12 Apr 2015), lot 87; ex NAC, auction 78 (26-27 May 2014), lot 1508 (from a private Australian collection and privately purchased in 1999); very rare variety of rare type; SOLD
Augustus, 16 January 27 B.C. - 19 August 14 A.D., Cos, Carian Islands, Ex John Quincy Adams Collection
Ex John Quincy Adams Collection, 6th President of the United States, and His Descendants, ex Massachusetts Historical Society Collection, ex Stack’s Sale, 5-6 March 1971.JA47620. Bronze AE 16, RPC I 2733, F, weight 2.776 g, maximum diameter 15.6 mm, die axis 0o, Caria, Cos mint, Nikagoras Da, c. 10 B.C. - 10 A.D.; obverse ΣEBAΣTOΣ, head of Augustus right; reverse KΩIΩN NIKAΓO, head of Herakles right laureate in lion skin; comes with a John Quincy Adams Collection tag from the Stack's Sale; very scarce; SOLD
Ashton, R., et al. "The Pixodarus Hoard" in Coin Hoards IX. (2002), pp. 159 - 243, pls. 21 - 41.
Barron, J. "The Fifth-Century Diskoboloi of Kos" in Kraay-Mørkholm Essays.
Babelon, J. Catalogue de la collection de Luynes: monnaies greques. (Paris, 1924-1936).
Babelon, E. Traité des Monnaies Grecques et Romaines. (Paris, 1901-1932).
Brett, A. Catalogue of Greek Coins, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (Boston, 1955).
Grose, S. Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Greek Coins, Fitzwilliam Museum, Vol. II: The Greek mainland, the Aegaean islands, Crete. (Cambridge, 1926).
Head, B. A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Caria, Cos, Rhodes, etc. (London, 1897).
HNO - Historia Numorum Online Database - http://hno.huma-num.fr/
Hoover, O. Handbook of Coins of the Islands: Adriatic, Ionian, Thracian, Aegean, and Carpathian Seas, 6th to 1st Centuries BC. HGC 6. (Lancaster/London, 2010).
Jameson, R. Collection R. Jameson. Monnaies grecques antiques. (Paris, 1913-1932).
Klein, D. Sammlung von griechischen Kleinsilbermünzen und Bronzen. Nomismata 3. (Milano, 1999).
Kroll, J. "The Late Hellenistic Tetrobols of Cos" in MN XI (1964).
Lindgren, H. Lindgren III: Ancient Greek Bronze Coins from the Lindgren Collection. (Quarryville, 1993).
Requier, P. "Les premiers tétradrachmes hellénistiques de Cos" in SNR 75 (1996).
Sear, D. Greek Coins and Their Values, Volume 2, Asia and Africa. (London, 1979).
Stefanaki, V. E. KΩΣ I. (Athens, 2012).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Denmark, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Vol. 5: Ionia, Caria and Lydia. (West Milford, NJ, 1982).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, München Staatlische Münzsammlung, Part 22: Caria. (Berlin, 2006).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Münzsammlung Universität Tübingen, Part 5: Karien und Lydien. (Berlin, 1994).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Sammlung Hans Von Aulock, Vol. 2: Caria, Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia. (Berlin, 1962).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Finland, The Erkki Keckman Collection in the Skopbank, Helsinki, Part 1: Karia. (Helsinki, 1994).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Turkey I: The Muharrem Kayhan Collection. (Istanbul, 2002).
Waggoner, N. Early Greek Coins from the Collection of Jonathan P. Rosen (ANS ACNAC 5). (New York, 1983).
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line169
|
__label__cc
| 0.708751
| 0.291249
|
Humana sale to Aetna
TP Lowe
by TP Lowe » Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:02 am
And so the promises begin - "retain a significant corporate presence in Louisville." I'm sure we all dearly hope that to be true, but we also know that costs have to be wrung out of these deals for them to work. Rarely does 1+1=3.
So, what's does Humana do for the community that you most hope will be continued?
John Greenup
Re: Humana sale to Aetna
by John Greenup » Thu Jul 09, 2015 1:26 pm
Long term, Humana's future in Louisville will be whatever Aetna determines it will be.
"We took their money - they own us." -- Bert Cooper ("Mad Men")
"I want to go where the hand of man has never set foot."
-- Samuel Goldwyn
by Steve P » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:42 pm
Having witnessed varying degrees of this same type of corporate/community drama in other places I have lived, I would be shocked if the same level of corporate citizenship exists here in Louisville two or three years from now.
Stevie P...The Daddio of the Patio
Robin Garr
Crescent Hill
by Robin Garr » Tue Jul 14, 2015 11:43 am
People said similar things when Brown & Williamson Tobacco left, but it seems that others took up the slack.
It's interesting that the corporate "citizens" who profited from tobacco and then from working the medical-hospital-pharma complex (not to mention other contributors from the distilling industry) have been among the biggest supporters of the arts and charities. It's not hard to come up with some theories about why it works that way.
by TP Lowe » Wed Jul 15, 2015 7:48 am
Actually, we're still suffering in a few areas from the B&W departure. For example, they were big supporters of dance, both sponsoring locals and underwriting guest artists. We've never gotten funding back to the levels that B&W provided.
In general, the change in corporate support for the arts in general has been very negative in the past decade - all props to Brown-Forman, Humana and others that continue to be generous.
by Robin Garr » Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:09 am
TP Lowe wrote: Actually, we're still suffering in a few areas from the B&W departure. For example, they were big supporters of dance, both sponsoring locals and underwriting guest artists. We've never gotten funding back to the levels that B&W provided.
Let me clarify, because certainly I agree with you: Any loss in funding hurts. I'm trying to express the other side of the coin, the reality that this is a generous community and that no single corporate source, no matter how large, is indispensible. We can't afford to get to the point where we rely on a single sponsor who might not always be there.
Robin Garr wrote: We can't afford to get to the point where we rely on a single sponsor who might not always be there.
I couldn't agree more. This is a remarkably generous community, as shown in several recent campaigns (Speed Museum, James Graham Brown Cancer Center), but reliance on too few of those funders is dangerous. But it is a constant challenge in the nonprofit community to "unearth" the next wave of donors who may not be trained/educated in the need to be philanthropic. Whew. This is a discussion we've probably all had a hundred times!
by Gordon M Lowe » Sat Sep 19, 2015 10:19 am
I remain optimistic that Humana's Medicare and Military business units will stay here, and actually grow, but I'm not happy about Louisville losing the notoriety of a Fortune 500 HQ.
I'm hoping there's some local entrepreneurial spirit and energy to create something like Wendell Cherry and David Jones did.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line172
|
__label__wiki
| 0.682366
| 0.682366
|
Bond takes on a North Korean leader who undergoes DNA replacement procedures that allow him to assume different identities. American agent, Jinx Johnson assists Bond in his attempt to thwart…
Twenty-eight days after a killer virus was accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from…
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Former Special Forces officer, Frank Martin will deliver anything to anyone for the right price, and his no-questions-asked policy puts him in high demand. But when he realizes his latest…
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion,…
Country: Germany, Japan, USA
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Xander Cage is your standard adrenaline junkie with no fear and a lousy attitude. When the US Government “recruits” him to go on a mission, he’s not exactly thrilled. His…
Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Thriller
John Anderton is a top ‘Precrime’ cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they’re committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for…
Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
Wounded to the brink of death and suffering from amnesia, Jason Bourne is rescued at sea by a fisherman. With nothing to go on but a Swiss bank account number,…
Country: Czech Republic, Germany, USA
Working-class waitress Slim thought she was entering a life of domestic bliss when she married Mitch, the man of her dreams. After the arrival of their first child, her picture…
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn’t set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Irreversible
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass. Her…
NATO operative Jacques Kristoff (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is summoned into action—on his birthday, no less—to track down Galina Konstantin (Laura Harring), who has stolen an extremely valuable and dangerous top-secret…
Country: Aruba, USA
Connie is a wife and mother whose 11-year marriage to Edward has lost its sexual spark. When Connie literally runs into handsome book collector Paul, he sweeps her into an…
Country: France, Germany, USA
Murder by Numbers
Tenacious homicide detective Cassie Mayweather and her still-green partner are working a murder case, attempting to profile two malevolently brilliant young men: cold, calculating killers whose dark secrets might explain…
Trapped in their New York brownstone’s panic room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman and her young daughter Sarah play…
Blade II
A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community – The Reaper. A vampire so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans, transforming…
Edmond Dantés’s life and plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes are shattered when his best friend, Fernand, deceives him. After spending 13 miserable years in prison, Dantés escapes with the…
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in…
Country: Spain, USA
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Thriller
Less than 24 hours into his parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean is already rolling out his next plan: In one night, Danny’s hand-picked crew of specialists will attempt to steal…
Veteran spy Nathan Muir is on the verge of retiring from the CIA when he learns that his one-time protégé and close friend, Tom Bishop, is a political prisoner sentenced…
Country: France, Germany, Japan, USA
A sheriff’s deputy fights an alternate universe version of himself who grows stronger with each alternate self he kills.
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn’t what he appears.
After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture…
Nayak: The Real Hero
TV reporter Shivajirao gets a chance to be the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for a day, after being challenged by incumbent Chief Minister Balraj Chauhan. After his successful one-day stint,…
It’s vacation time for Carter as he finds himself alongside Lee in Hong Kong wishing for more excitement. While Carter wants to party and meet the ladies, Lee is out…
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp
Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins…
Country: France, Italy, Spain, USA
After a spectacular crash-landing on an uncharted planet, brash astronaut Leo Davidson finds himself trapped in a savage world where talking apes dominate the human race. Desperate to find a…
Genre: Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Led by a strange dream, scientist Aki Ross struggles to collect the eight spirits in the hope of creating a force powerful enough to protect the planet. With the aid…
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller
A college-age brother and sister get more than they bargained for on their road trip home from spring break. When the bickering siblings witness a creepy truck driver tossing body…
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
English aristocrat Lara Croft is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and in the middle of a battle with a secret society. The shapely archaeologist moonlights as a tomb raider to recover…
Country: Germany, Japan, UK, USA
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Thriller
When a teacher kidnaps a girl from a prestigious school, homicide detective, Alex Cross takes the case and teams up with young security agent, Jezzie Flannigan in hope of finding…
Country: Canada, Germany, USA
A romantic thriller based around the World War 2 project to crack the codes behind the Enigma machine, used by the Germans to encrypt messages sent to their submarines.
Country: Germany, Netherlands, UK, USA
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, War
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line183
|
__label__cc
| 0.635564
| 0.364436
|
Case Study: My Experience With Donating
by aebi · June 27, 2019
New Plexus Campaign: Ending World Hunger One Purchase at a Time
Plexus is one of the most popular companies these days that cater to the specific healthcare needs of people. This company focuses on the healthcare needs of people by providing with products that include health supplements, personal care items and even products that help them with their weight loss journey. Yet are you aware of the fact that it is not only their customers that concern Plexus? Recently, Plexus started a campaign in the hopes of helping end world hunger by giving out packs of groceries to poor areas in certain communities where tons of households are financially challenged. However, Plexus also allows their customers to take part in this campaign because for every purchase they made on certain products, they can contribute such portion to the Plexus charity which enables the customers to give back to those who are in need without even doing a lot of effort and going through inconveniences.
According to the President of Operations and International at Plexus, Christopher Pair Garza, they are doing this in pursuant to their company’s common goal which is to give back to the people who are in need. According to Garza, they have thought of this campaigned because they wish to provide for the needs of the least fortunate members of the community when it comes to their financial struggles as he himself grew up in a family that was also having a hard time when it comes to their finances. This is why they are making this campaign possible so that they can provide grocery items to families who might have been struggling to provide for their households. Yet this is not alone the only objective of Garza because as much as possible, he also tries to talk to these families and providing them with inspirational talks and speeches so that they can hopefully lift them up and he even welcomes them to try small business opportunities to teach them a potential livelihood.
There are a lot of people who have to acknowledge Garza’s efforts into making this campaign a reality for he insists that this will never really be a success without the efforts of Plexus as a company. Garza also takes the opportunity to thank the people who have continuously supported this campaign to the present as it will never be a success without their help. Plexus conducted this campaign where for every purchase of a certain product, Plexus charities donate the monetary equivalent of one meal to their global partners in an effort to help them fight hunger. The campaign is by far a successful one because from its humble beginnings to give aid to the neighboring communities, they are now helping fight world hunger by providing for the needs of international communities worldwide. This campaign sure is the pride of Plexus most especially of the people who have helped in making it happen.
Click here to visit the Plexus website now to learn more about this campaign and how this company has done its part in helping fix world hunger in its simplest ways.
Tips Tips for The Average Joe
A Beginners Guide To Charities
6 Facts About Automobiles Everyone Thinks Are True
What You Should Know About Massages This Year
Next story The Best Advice on Brakes I’ve found
Previous story 5 Takeaways That I Learned About Cars
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line187
|
__label__wiki
| 0.502579
| 0.502579
|
Troopers investigating hit and run bicycle crash near Frankford
Location: Omar Road west of West Road, Frankford, DE
Date of Occurrence: Tuesday July 16, 2013 at approximately 6:40 a.m.
Operator and Vehicle Information:
Operator #1: Unknown
Vehicle #1: Unknown
Bicyclist: Wayne Thomas Blanks Jr., 38, Baltimore, MD
Resume:
Frankford, DE - The Delaware State Police are currently investigating a hit and run crash near Frankford that sent a bicyclist to the hospital with serious injuries.
The incident occurred around 6:40 a.m. this morning as Wayne Thomas Blanks Jr. was bicycling eastbound on the improved shoulder of Omar Road, just west of West Road. An unknown vehicle was also traveling eastbound on Omar Road approaching the bicycle from behind when the passenger side mirror struck the cyclist. Blanks was thrown from the bicycle and into a wooded area southeast of the roadway. The vehicle, which has not been identified, continued eastbound and failed to stop.
Wayne Thomas Blanks was removed from the scene and airlifted by State Police Helicopter to Christiana Medical Center where he was listed in fair condition. His bicycle was equipped a rear light that was set to flash.
Troopers are continuing their investigation into this crash. If anyone has any information in reference to this incident, they are asked to contact Master Corporal L. Dick at 302-856-5850 ext. 328 or by utilizing the Delaware State Police Mobile Crime Tip Application available to download at: http://www.delaware.gov/apps/. Information may also be provided by calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, via the internet at www.tipsubmit.com, or by sending an anonymous tip by text to 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword "DSP."
Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement arrest man accused of tobacco smuggling
Former Dover airman arrested for rape
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line189
|
__label__cc
| 0.7242
| 0.2758
|
CFP: Stedelijk Studies 10 (Spring 2020)
Spring Issue 2020: Imagining the Future of Digital Archives and Collections
THEME OUTLINE
The web of digitized collections and archives in the field of arts and culture is expanding rapidly. As with any technological burst, the digital imperative evokes promises for an improved functionality, but also brings about new challenges and perils. Many museums, like other memory institutions, embrace the digitalization of their archives and collections as means to attract new audiences, for instance, and further their participation and engagement in their collections, their program of activities, and their research. At the same time, these digital transformations challenge existing modes of knowledge production and dissemination, requiring new competencies and new forms of collaboration.
This issue of Stedelijk Studies investigates how we imagine those transformations, and how they affect cultural and academic practices. We invite manuscripts that critically investigate how practices of digitization of collections and archives transform knowledge production and knowledge exchange across academia, museums, and archives. This question ties in with recent scholarship in the fields of digital heritage, digital art history, and digital humanities, but is also addressed in other fields, such as science and technology studies (STS), artistic practices, and design theory.
Scrutinizing existing digitization practices allows us to identify and challenge the forceful imaginaries that often kick-start and drive large-scale and costly digitization projects. Socio-technological imaginaries are part of new technological developments, but as social theorists (c.f. Castoriadis 1997; Marcus 1995; Flichy 1999; Jasanoff and Kim 2015) have argued, such imaginaries are not innocent; they shape our perceptions and elicit our actions, even if we may not realize they do. With this issue we therefore aim to explore how interdisciplinary scholarship on the effects and challenges of digitalization may enhance a deeper understanding of past and current projects concerned with the digitization and new usages of archives and collections in the field of arts and culture, such as Stedelijk Text Mining Project, Time Machine, and Accurator. To start the discussion, we identify three dominant promises associated with such digitization projects. Contributions addressing other possible promises are equally welcome.
Promise 1: Towards increasing inclusivity Projects involving digital archives and collections are often presented as challenging traditional forms of knowledge production and consumption, and by extension, as questioning our cultural canons (Ciasullo, Troisi & Cosimato 2018). Through co-creation and participatory designs, such projects promise a less hierarchical form of knowledge production in which practitioners, academics, and, increasingly, citizens or niche experts are considered equal contributors to knowledge production (Ridge 2016). The development of more inclusive and diverse digital “pipelines” that include crowdsourcing and folksonomies, however, also warrants practical, moral and epistemological concerns over biases, authority and accuracy, and issues of multiple interpretations and narratives.
Promise 2: Towards complete connectivity Many heritage and cultural institutions are adopting linked open data as a way to organize and disseminate their collections, archives, and research data (Jones & Seikel 2016; Van Hooland & Verborgh 2014). The advent of linked open data would allow unlimited aggregation of materials from disparate geographical locations. It promises a transition from specialized and siloed information in archives and museums to a web of cultural data. Yet the operationalization of linked open data comes with many questions and concerns, ranging from web standards and domain-specific ontologies, loss of contextual information, presentation of provenance, and user interfaces, to legal and ethical considerations related to copyright and privacy.
Promise 3: Towards unlimited and easy access Online resources provide access to tens of millions of items from thousands of cultural institutions. In an ideal world, these increasingly democratic and connected institutions will offer unlimited and easy access to data that are personalized and meaningful, but also reusable for academic research. In reality, the myriad interfaces and smart digital techniques notwithstanding, many users and producers still experience difficulties in accessing, interpreting, and presenting online archival and collection data (Kabassi 2017). This may in part be the result of lagging digital literacy skills, and evokes concerns about, for instance, the aptness of the methodologies researchers employ in analyzing this data. It also raises questions about how diverging interests of developers, cultural organizations, and audiences affect the affordances of human-centered designs in graphical and conversational user interfaces.
This issue of Stedelijk Studies aims to reflect on these kinds of promises, encouraging practitioners and academic researchers to revisit past and current digitization efforts. We particularly invite discussions of good practices as well as failed projects in order to assess indicators of success and failure against the backdrop of such promises. Contributions can be submitted in the form of text with images, but with this issue we also seek to explore innovative digital publication formats. We welcome theoretical, methodological, and practice- or case-based contributions focusing on questions such as:
- What kinds of imaginaries can be identified in the digitization of archives and collections? How are future imaginaries about the digital enacted in archiving practices?
- How do diverging expectations of developers, content producers, volunteers, niche experts, and computer scientists affect digital projects involving collections and archives?
- How can we assess the processes and outcomes of digitization projects of memory institutions in light of presumed promises? What are examples of good practices, and what can we learn from failed attempts?
- Which new imaginaries may emerge from scrutinizing past and current projects in the realm of digital archives and collections?
The thematic issue Imagining the Future of Digital Archives and Collections will be edited by Dr. Vivian van Saaze (Maastricht University), Dr. Claartje Rasterhoff (University of Amsterdam), and Karen Archey (Stedelijk Museum).
ABOUT STEDELIJK STUDIES
Stedelijk Studies is a high-quality, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The journal comprises research related to the Stedelijk collection, exploring institutional history, museum studies (e.g., education and conservation practice), and current topics in the field of visual arts and design.
Deadline for the abstract (max. 300 words) and CV is June 14, 2019.
Deadline for the article (4,000–5,000 words) is October 15, 2019.
Publication of the issue will be in May 2020.
Please send abstracts and other editorial correspondence to:
Esmee Schoutens
Managing Editor, Stedelijk Studies
stedelijkstudies@stedelijk.nl
ICOM Schweiz - Jahreskongress 2019
ICOM Palmyra-Talk at the ICOM GC in Kyoto
Wandernde Objekte
Kaisergruft und Klostersuppe. 400 Jahre Kapuziner in Wien
Mehr Events
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line192
|
__label__cc
| 0.732168
| 0.267832
|
"One of the first people we campaigned for [at IHRC] was Mu'allim Ibrahim Al-Zakzaky and 1000 of his supporters which were put in prison. All his comrades were put in prison and then eventually all their wives were put in prison and then all their children were put in prison including a three year old child who was ill in the prison and then what the Nigerian authorities were saying is that they should receive money to feed the prisoners when they have put the whole family and whole community in prison.."
Massoud Shadjareh
Chairman, Islamic Human Rights Commission
Islamic Human Rights Commission 10th Anniv. Nov 2007 [7min / 3Mb]
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line207
|
__label__cc
| 0.629114
| 0.370886
|
Elle Fanning in a Light Blue Coat Was Spotted Out in Manhattan, NYC 05/03/2019
May 5, 2019 Ethan
The 21-year-old actress Elle Fanning, who made her film debut when she was two years old alongside Sean Penn in “I Am Sam”, in a light blue coat was spotted out in Manhattan, NYC.
Elle Fanning Attends 2019 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles 07/10/2019
Elle Fanning in a Floral Yellow Blouse Was Seen Out in LA 06/06/2019
Elle Fanning in a Black Pants Leaves the Martinez Hotel in Cannes 05/24/2019
Elle Fanning in a White Dress Arrives at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes 05/20/2019
Elle Fanning Attends the Kering Women in Motion Awards During the 72nd Annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes 05/19/2019
Elle Fanning in a White Floral Suit Was Seen Out in Cannes 05/18/2019
Elle Fanning Attends the Les Miserables Screening During the 72nd Annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes 05/15/2019
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line212
|
__label__cc
| 0.568277
| 0.431723
|
Film Maker Natasha Kelly Hosts Screening For Modern Languages Students
Atlanta, GA | Posted: February 28, 2019
No contact information submitted.
No sidebar content submitted.
Summary Sentence:
Award-winning film maker shows screening at Midtown's Art Cinema for GT students.
Full Summary:
No summary paragraph submitted.
Natasha Kelly
(image/jpeg)
On February 25th, director, writer, curator, and scholar activist, Natasha Kelly, hosted a film screening inviting Georgia Tech students at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema. Natasha A. Kelly’s documentary feature Milli’s Awakening (Millis Erwachen), which premiered at the 10. Berlin Biennale in 2018, and won the 2018 Black Laurel Award, immerses in the thought and emotions of “Milli” by zooming in on eight Black female artists living in contemporary Germany. These women of various generations discuss their challenges in and with German art institutions, visual representation, and political and social exclusion. Their biographical narratives moreover show to what extent art can serve as a means to form a self-determined identity, and as a ‘remedy’ to alleviate lived emotional isolation and social oppression. Natasha A. Kelly is a writer, curator, and scholar activist. In her works, she portrays collective experiences of Black Germans contrary to the usual formats of German mainstream society. The documentary was shown in German with English subtitles and was followed by a Q&A with the director.
Atlanta Global Studies Center (AGSC), Global Media and Cultures (GMC), Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, School of Modern Languages, School of Modern Languages Student Blog
No categories were selected.
Related Core Research Areas
No core research areas were selected.
Newsroom Topics
No newsroom topics were selected.
No keywords were submitted.
Created By: esnelling3
Workflow Status: Published
Created On: Feb 28, 2019 - 3:16pm
Last Updated: Mar 8, 2019 - 11:52am
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line215
|
__label__cc
| 0.524742
| 0.475258
|
Home » Entities » Robert Barrett
Profile: Robert Barrett
Robert Barrett was a participant or observer in the following events:
August 28, 1974: Nixon Lawyer Argues for Pardon; ‘It’s a Done Deal’
Leonard Garment. [Source: Spartacus Educational]Former President Nixon’s White House counsel, Leonard Garment, delivers a three-page handwritten memo to the White House outlining his arguments in favor of a pardon (see August 27, 1974). Garment writes that the time for a pardon is now, otherwise President Ford risks “losing control of the situation.” Calls for indictment will increase, Garment says, and “the whole miserable tragedy will be played out to God knows what ugly and wounding conclusion.” Once the initial negative reaction to a pardon blows over, Garment argues, Ford will be viewed as “strong and admirable.… There will be a national sigh of relief.” Garment also argues that Nixon well may not survive a prosecution because of his physical debilities and near-suicidal depression. Ford does not immediately see the memo, but his ad hoc chief of staff Alexander Haig does. Ford and Haig discuss the pardon in private, and though Ford will later write that Haig did not try to argue for a pardon, after the meeting Haig calls Garment to tell him, “It’s a done deal.” For his part, Ford doesn’t think the country wants to, in his words, “see an ex-president behind bars.” Nixon’s suffering is enormous, Ford believes: “His resignation was an implicit admission of guilt, and he could have to carry forever his burden of guilt.” Moreover, Ford worries that the nation is essentially overdosing on the political drama. Everyone has become “Watergate junkies,” as one of Ford’s military aides, Robert Barrett, tells him. “Some of us are mainlining, some of us are sniffing, some are lacing it with something else, but all of us are addicted,” Barrett says. “This will go on and on unless someone steps in and says that we, as a nation, must go cold turkey. Otherwise, we’ll die of an overdose.” [Werth, 2006, pp. 212-214]
Entity Tags: Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Leonard Garment, Robert Barrett
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line216
|
__label__wiki
| 0.784454
| 0.784454
|
Joachim came through the youth system at Leicester City, and went on to score the club's first ever Premier League goal on the opening day of the 1994–95 season in a 3–1 home defeat to Newcastle United.[2]
He was sold to Aston Villa in 1996 for £1.5 million, making his debut for them as a substitute against Wimbledon on 24 February 1996.[3] He was cup-tied for their victory in the 1996 Football League Cup Final having played in the competition for Leicester City earlier that season.
Mail List Registeration
I am interesed in
Sending you a breif
Etiam pretium turpis ut vulputate.
Fan Channel Partnership
Quisque at erat auctor.
Influencer Outreach
I don’t know but we need to talk
Player Trader
True fans
Invest11
Professional educational making for engaged pupils. Give your duty to industry professionals, actually buy special essays, and help save valuable time. Superior quality assured of. custom writing
get investment or fundraise
player representation
© Copyright Player Trader 2019 | Terms and conditions | Privacy and Cookie policy
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line219
|
__label__cc
| 0.695054
| 0.304946
|
WikiSpam
Revision 11 as of 2012-03-27 17:05:27
Clear message
More Actions: Raw Text Print View Render as Docbook Delete Cache ------------------------ Check Spelling Like Pages Local Site Map ------------------------ Rename Page Delete Page ------------------------ Subscribe User ------------------------ Remove Spam Revert to this revision Package Pages Sync Pages ------------------------ Load Save SlideShow
Rendezvous with Geostationary Destinations
Geostationary orbits are nontrivial to maintain. They are perturbed by non-round-earth forces represented by the J_{22} term in the spherical harmonics of the gravity field, forming attractors at 75 degrees east (above a point slightly east of the Maldives and south of India) and 105 west (west of the Galapagos, directly south of Denver, Colorado). Evading these attractors can take as much as 1.715 m/s delta V per year.
The North-South Perturbation
The north/south perturbation by the moon and sun are much larger.
For the following analysis, I will approximate both the orbit of the Earth and moon as circles. I also assume that R_S \gg R_M \gg R_G and approximately equal tidal forces at near and far sides of the orbit. A more exact analysis suitable for precision rendezvous would numerically compute the actual multibody elliptical orbits, the spherical harmonic gravity terms for Earth and Moon, gravitational contributions from Jupiter and Venus, and optical perturbations. For now, we are looking for an approximation of maximum \Delta V , but do not forget that the launch, position, and velocity for vehicle in a mature launch loop system will be timed and optically measured to nanoseconds and micrometers, and continuously measured and controlled to this precision throughout the transfer orbit.
R_G
4.216 e4 km
geostationary orbit diameter
\mu_M
4.903 e3 km3/s2
moon's standard gravitational parameter
R_M
moon/earth semimajor orbit radius
\mu_S
1.327e11 km3/s2
sun standard gravitational parameter
R_S
earth/sun semimajor orbit radius
Lunar North-South Perturbation
The moon's orbit takes it above and below the equatorial plane, which causes out-of-plane tidal forces. The Moon's orbital plane is inclined 5.145 degrees from the ecliptic plane (the plane of the earth's orbit), and precesses over a nodal period of 18.6 years. The earth's axial tilt is 23°26'21" or 23.439°, so the moon's orbital plane is inclined between 18.294° and 28.584° with respect to the equatorial plane, varying sinusoidally between one and the other over the nodal period.
According to Boden (in Larsen and Wertz) , counteracting these tidal forces on a geostationary object requires a \Delta V budget of as much as 102.67 \cos{ \alpha } \sin{ \alpha } m/s per year ( \equiv ~ 51.335 \sin { 2 \alpha } ), where \alpha is the angle between the equatorial (geostationary orbit) plane and the and the Moon's orbital plane. Boden claims the worst case is 36.93 m/s per year, which implies an \alpha of 23.00°. Actually, the worst case \alpha is 28.584°, so using assuming the first "102.67..." formula and its double-angle "51.3345 ..." equivalent, the worst case annual \Delta V budget is more like 43.13 m/s per year. Let's see if we can derive that 102.67 m/s/y number.
Over the course of a month, the moon moves north of the equatorial plane, through it, then south of the equatorial plane, and back. When the moon is on the equatorial plane, there is no perturbation north or south, though there are tidal forces radially on an object in geostationary orbit. The in-plane tidal acceleration is approximately 2 ~ R_G ~ \mu_M \sin{ \theta } / {R_M}^3 , where \theta is the orbital angle difference between the orbiting object and the moon.
As the moon moves around its orbit, it moves north or south. This puts a northerly component of R_M ~ sin ~ \omega on the moon's position, where \omega is the argument of periapsis, the angle around the moon's orbit from the ascending node relative to the equatorial plane. We can approximate the tidal acceleration as 2 ~ R_G ~ \mu_M \sin{ \theta } \sin{ \omega } \sin{ \alpha } / {R_M}^3 . Perhaps a more accurate analysis would have a \sin{ \alpha } \cos{ \alpha } ~ \equiv ~ { 1 \over 2 } ~ \sin{ 2 \alpha } factor like Boden. Let's just see if we get in the ballpark.
The thrust needed to counteract the acceleration is the absolute value of the acceleration, and that absolute value can be integrated over time:
Integrated ~ thrust ~ = ~ \int{ \left| 2 ~ R_G ~ \mu_M ~ \sin{ \theta } \sin{ \omega } \sin{ \alpha } / {R_M}^3 \right| dt }
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ = ~ 2 ~ R_G ~ \mu_M ~ / {R_M}^3 ~ \int{ \left| \sin{ \theta } \sin{ \omega } \sin{ \alpha } \right| dt }
\sin{ \alpha } varies slowly, over the 18.6 year nodal period. We are more interested in its maximum, as that is what we must design the thrust our north and south correction thrusters and fuel supply for, assuming frequent resupply. For the monthly \sin{ \omega } and daily \sin { theta } terms, we can assume the maximum of each ( = 1 ) for the maximum correction thruster thrust, and the average of each ( = 2 / \pi ) for fuel supply.
So the maximum thrust per second ( at maximum \alpha } is:
Maximum thrust \approx ~ 2 ~ R_G ~ \mu_M ~ \sin { \alpha_{max} } / {R_M}^3 ~ = ~ 3.48e-6 m/s2
And the average thrust per year ( at maximum \alpha } is:
Average thrust \approx ~ \left( 8 \over \pi^2 \right) ~ year~ R_G ~ \mu_M ~ \sin { \alpha_{max} } / {R_M}^3 ~ = ~ 44.5 m/s/y
That is 3% above the Boden value (after correction), so we are close. If we use the sin*cos correction from Boden, we come in 10% low, 39.1 m/s/y , so there is still something slightly wrong in my analysis. Use the Boden numbers.
Solar North-South Perturbation
The perturbation from the sun is simpler; the inclination of the equatorial plane to the ecliptic plane ( \gamma = 23.439° ) does not change much over a few decades. By similar reasoning, the maximum solar thrust per second is:
Maximum thrust \approx ~ 2 ~ R_G ~ \mu_S ~ \sin { \gamma } / {R_S}^3 ~ = ~ 1.33e-6 m/s2
And the average solar thrust per year is:
Average thrust \approx ~ \left( 8 \over \pi^2 \right) ~ year~ R_G ~ \mu_S ~ \sin { \gamma } / {R_S}^3 ~ = ~ 17.0 m/s/y
The latter number is 18% lower than Boden, so there is something more than slightly wrong. Again, use the Boden numbers.
Correction Delta V for an off-equator Launch Loop
For a launch loop exactly on the equator, the destination GEO station will be easy to rendezvous with, requiring at most a few meters per second \Delta V for rendezvous.
Launch loops to GEO may be sited 5 degrees south of the equator to avoid equatorial weather. That means the minimum equatorial inclination is 5°. A geostationary transfer orbit to a geostationary CaptureRail has an apogee velocity of 1335 m/s, and we must have zero north-south velocity for that to work right (unless the rail is spinning diagonally). So, the vehicle's north-south velocity must be corrected by approximately 1335 m/s sin( 5° ) or 116 m/s in the 18500 seconds transfer fractional orbit time, an acceleration of 6.3e-3 meters per second per second. Assuming a 5 ton vehicle, that is a thrust of 31 newtons. If that is made with a laser ablative thruster with an effective exhaust velocity of 5000 meters per second, that is a propellant rate of 6.3 grams per second, or about 120 kilograms of propellant expended, and a power delivery rate of 80 kW . A planar thrust panel will be inefficient, so both the power and the propellant expended will be higher than that.
Off-equator launch loops will require some as-yet-unimagined modification to capture rail, or expend a lot of propellant, to arrive. This is bothersome, and violates the "minimal propellant in orbit" goal. More invention needed.
MORE LATER
Larsen and Wertz (1999). Space Mission Analysis and Design, Kluwer, 3rd Ed., Page 157 (Chapter Author Daryl G. Boden, PhD, USNA). (?) Soop, E. M. (1994). Handbook of Geostationary Orbits. Springer
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line225
|
__label__wiki
| 0.743815
| 0.743815
|
[A.M. No. RTJ-02-1724. June 12, 2003.]
RODOLFO O. MACACHOR, Complainant, v. Judge ROLINDO D. BELDIA JR., Assisting Judge, Regional Trial Court, Branch 272, Marikina City, Respondent.
R E S O L U T I O N
PANGANIBAN, J.:
Judges should dispose of court business promptly within the period prescribed by law or the extended time granted them by this Court. Undue delay in resolving a notice of appeal and a pending motion constitutes gross inefficiency.chanrob1es virtua1 1aw 1ibrary
In a sworn Complaint 1 received by the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) on June 25, 2001, Judge Rolindo D. Beldia Jr. — assisting judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Marikina City, Branch 272 — was charged by Rodolfo O. Macachor with gross ignorance of the law and neglect of duty.
In 1996, complainant and his wife were plaintiffs in a case for the rescission of a contract of sale entitled Spouses Maria Isabel Macachor and Rodolfo Macachor v. Libella Dimaano and Unique Star Agri-business Corporation. The Complaint was docketed as Civil Case No. 2000-611-MK before the RTC of Marikina City, Branch 272 on January 29, 2001. It was dismissed by Judge Beldia because, allegedly, no substantial breach had been committed by defendant to warrant the rescission of the agreement. Respondent likewise held that Defendant Libella Dimaano, as corporate officer, could not be held personally liable, because, in issuing the check that was subsequently dishonored, she had not exceeded her authority. Moreover, in accordance with Section 5 of PD No. 902-A, jurisdiction over the case rested with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), not the regular courts.
Thereafter, plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA) by filing a Notice of Appeal 2 with the RTC on February 28, 2001. They paid the appellate fees on the same day.
However, after more than three months, the Notice of Appeal remained unresolved and the case records were not elevated to the CA. On May 22, 2001, complainant filed with the RTC an Urgent Ex Parte Motion to Transmit Original Records to the Court of Appeals. 3 Respondent again failed to act upon this Motion. His intransigence impelled complainant to file this administrative case.
Complainant contends that respondent was grossly ignorant of the law, because Section 5 of PD No. 902-A had already been repealed by RA No. 8799 (the Securities Regulation Code on July 19, 2000). His Honor allegedly erred in dismissing the case, because RA No. 8799 had in fact conferred jurisdiction to the RTC over cases listed under Section 5 of PD No. 902-A. He likewise disregarded evidence attesting to a substantial breach of the agreement. Furthermore, by his failure to act upon the Notice of Appeal and the subsequent Motion, he violated complainant’s right to due process.
In his Comment 4 dated July 31, 2001, respondent maintained that complainant’s allegations were the proper subjects of an appeal. According to him, he should not be administratively sanctioned for whatever errors in judgment he may have committed. The proper remedy was an appeal of the case. However, he was silent on the charge regarding his inaction on the Notice of Appeal and the Urgent Motion.
Report and Recommendation of the OCA
In its August 28, 2002 Report, 5 the OCA argued that respondent could not be held administratively liable for his alleged errors of judgment. Because a judicial remedy was available, the filing of an administrative complaint was not the appropriate action to correct his Decision. It also noted that complainant, as the appellant in the appealed case, had not even filed his brief before the CA.
The OCA, however, faulted respondent with undue delay in the issuance of the Order approving the Notice of Appeal and directing the transmittal of the case records to the CA. He issued the Order only after the lapse of 106 days from the day the appeal had been perfected.chanrob1es virtua1 1aw 1ibrary
Accordingly, the OCA recommended that respondent be admonished to be more circumspect in the performance of his duties and sternly warned that a repetition of the same or a similar act in the future would be dealt with more severely. 6
This Court’s Ruling
We agree with the OCA that respondent is guilty of gross inefficiency. However, the recommended penalty should be modified pursuant to the Rules on the matter.
Administrative Liability of Respondent
Not every error or mistake of judges can be sanctioned unless it is soiled with fraud, dishonesty, corruption or malice. They may not be subjected to disciplinary action for errors of judgment unless these are shown to have been done with deliberate intent to cause an injustice. 7
In the same vein, disciplinary proceedings against judges do not complement, supplement or substitute judicial remedies. Their civil, criminal and administrative liability arising from alleged gross errors of judgment may be ascertained only after the available judicial remedies have been exhausted and decided with finality. 8
Respondent’s alleged errors of judgment are proper subjects of an appeal. Evidently, no final ruling on the case of complainant has been reached, because his appeal is still pending before the CA. Thus, his contention that respondent was grossly ignorant of the law is premature.
Nevertheless, respondent cannot totally escape administrative liability. The unexplained delay in his action on the Notice of Appeal and Urgent Motion constitutes gross inefficiency.
When cases decided by the RTC in the exercise of its original jurisdiction are appealed to the CA, the Rules of Court require the transmittal of the case records within 30 days from the day the appeal is perfected. 9 Clearly, respondent failed to comply with this Rule. His failure to offer any explanation for the delay is an admission of the negligence charge. Moreover, we have carefully reviewed the records and found no satisfactory reason for the delay.
In Seña v. Villarin, 10 we held that a judge’s undue failure for four months to resolve a notice of appeal and a motion to execute was sanctionable. Verily, the failure of a judge to act upon a motion with reasonable dispatch constitutes gross inefficiency. 11
We have often reminded members of the judiciary that undue delays erode the people’s faith and confidence in our justice system and bring it into disrepute. 12 The failure to resolve pending motions and incidents within the prescribed period constitutes a violation of Rule 3.05 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which requires judges to dispose of court business promptly. 13
Respondent’s negligence constitutes a less serious charge that is punishable under Section 9 of Rule 140 14 of the Rules of Court, which reads as follows:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph
"SEC. 9. Less Serious Charges. — Less serious charges include:chanrob1es virtual 1aw library
1. Undue delay in rendering a decision or order, or in transmitting the records of a case;
x x x."cralaw virtua1aw library
Section 11 (B) of the same Rule provides the penalty as follows:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph
"B. If the respondent is guilty of a less serious charge, any of the following sanctions shall be imposed:chanrob1es virtual 1aw library
1. Suspension from office without salary and other benefits for not less than one (1) nor more than three (3) months; or
2. A fine of more than P10,000.00 but not exceeding P20,000.00."cralaw virtua1aw library
WHEREFORE, this Court finds Judge Rolindo D. Beldia Jr. of the Regional Trial Court of Marikina City, Branch 272, guilty of gross inefficiency and imposes upon him a FINE of P11,000, with a STERN WARNING that a repetition of the same or a similar act shall be dealt with more severely.chanrob1es virtua1 1aw 1ibrary
SO ORDERED.
Puno, Sandoval-Gutierrez, Corona and Carpio-Morales, JJ., concur.
1. Rollo, pp. 1–3.
2. Id., p. 18.
3. Id., pp. 20–21.
7. Rallos v. Gako Jr., 328 SCRA 324, March 17, 2000; Tolentino v. Camano Jr., 322 SCRA 559, January 20, 2000; Enojas Jr. v. Gacott Jr., 322 SCRA 272, January 19, 2000.
8. Caguioa v. Laviña, 345 SCRA 49, November 20, 2000.
9. Section 12 of Rule 41 of the Rules of Court reads:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph
"SECTION 12. Transmittal. — The clerk of the trial court shall transmit to the appellate court the original record or the approved record on appeal within thirty (30) days from the perfection of the appeal, together with the proof of payment of the appellate court docket and other lawful fees, a certified true copy of the minutes of the proceedings, the order of approval, the certificate of correctness, the original documentary evidence referred to therein, and the original and three (3) copies of the transcripts. Copies of the transcripts and certified true copies of the documentary evidence shall remain in the lower court for the examination of the parties."cralaw virtua1aw library
10. 328 SCRA 644, March 22, 2000.
11. Bascug v. Judge Arinday Jr., RTJ-00-1591, April 11, 2002; Martin v. Guerrero, 317 SCRA 166, October 22, 1999.
12. Bascug v. Judge Arinday Jr., supra; Sanchez v. Eduardo, 361 SCRA 233, July 17, 2001; Atty. Ng v. Judge Ulibari, 355 Phil 76, July 30, 1998.
13. Floro v. Paguio, 346 SCRA 1, November 27, 2000; Heirs of Crisostomo Sucaldito v. Cruz, 336 SCRA 469, July 27, 2000; Office of the Court Administrator v. Salva, 336 SCRA 133, July 19, 2000; Martin v. Guerrero, supra; Atty. Ng v. Judge Ulibari, supra.
14. In AM No. 01-8-10-SC dated September 11, 2001, the Court resolved to approve the amendment of Rule 140 of the Rules of Court regarding the discipline of Justices and Judges.
HomeJurisprudenceSupreme Court Decisions1957 : Philippine Supreme Court DecisionsFebruary 1957 : Philippine Supreme Court DecisionsTop of Page
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line227
|
__label__wiki
| 0.837903
| 0.837903
|
Al Qaeda chief, Ayman Al-Zawahiri threatens India over Kashmir
Posted on July 10, 2019 July 10, 2019 by Editor-Online
Share the post "Al Qaeda chief, Ayman Al-Zawahiri threatens India over Kashmir"
Terror group Al Qaeda’s Chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has told “Mujahideen in Kashmir” to inflict “unrelenting blows” on the Indian Army and government in Jammu and Kashmir in a message released by the outfit’s media wing, as per the Foundation for Defence of Democracies’ (FDD) Long War Journal.
He also brought to light Pakistan’s involvement in fuelling cross-border terrorism in Kashmir in the message titled “Don’t Forget Kashmir,” released by As Shabab.
Thomas Joscelyn, in his article for the journal, wrote that Al Qaeda has been grooming an upstart group to wage jihad against the Indian forces in Kashmir.
“(I am)of the view that the Mujahideen in Kashmir- at this stage at least- should single-mindedly focus on inflicting unrelenting blows on the Indian Army and government, so as to bleed the Indian economy and make India suffer sustained losses in manpower and equipment,” Zawahiri said.
While Zawahiri did not explicitly mention deceased terrorist Zakir Musa, a picture of the dead Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind’s (AGH) founder flashed on the screen as the terror outfit’s chief spoke on Kashmir.
Joscelyn speculated that Zawahiri and al-Qaeda’s Kashmir cell, AGH, are coordinating their messages as he drew similarities between the terror outfit chief’s message and a speech given by Musa’s successor, Abdul Hameed Lelhari, recently.
While both Musa and Lelhari admitted to Pakistan’s role in training Kashmiri jihadists, they cautioned that the “ Pakistanis are not trustworthy.” Zawahiri called both the Pakistani Army and government as “toadies of America” in his message.
He claimed that Pakistan prevented the “Arab Mujahideen” from “head[ing] to Kashmir after expelling the Russians from Afghanistan,” — which was countered by the author by quoting the 9/11 Commission.
Joscelyn stated that the United States had learned of the presence of Pakistan’s military intelligence service at one of al Qaeda’s camps in Afghanistan, which was struck in retaliation for the August 1998 US Embassy bombings. The Pakistanis were training Kashmiri jihadists at the camp, according to the author.
The writer also highlighted the “double-game” played by Pakistan after the gruesome 9/11 terror attacks in the US. While Pakistan did conduct counter-terrorism operations against Al Qaeda following the 2001 attacks, it also harboured the Taliban’s senior leadership, including members of the al Qaeda-allied Haqqani Network.
“All the Pakistani Army and government are interested in is exploiting the mujahideen for specific political objectives, only to dump or persecute them later,” Zawahiri claimed, highlighting Pakistan’s role while casting them in a negative light.
Pakistan’s “conflict with India is essentially a secular rivalry over borders managed by the American intelligence,” the terror outfit’s chief further alleged.
In his message, Zawahiri also claimed that the “fight in Kashmir” is not a separate conflict but instead is part of the worldwide Muslim community’s jihad against a vast array of forces. He further called on “unnamed” scholars to spread this point.
“You (the scholars) must clearly state that supporting the jihad in Kashmir, the Philippines, Chechnya, Central Asia, Iraq, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, Somalia, the Islamic Maghreb and Turkistan is an individual obligation on all Muslims, until sufficient strength is achieved to expel the disbelieving occupier from Muslim lands,” he said.
Zawahiri also told his terrorists not to target “mosques, markets, and gathering places of Muslims” in Kashmir during his message.
Even though the Al Qaeda has attacked several locations which have claimed the lives of innocent Muslim civilians, amongst others, the terror outfit’s chief claimed that “absence of sharia guidelines,” could turn the mujahideen into “murderers.”
He also claimed that the terror outfit’s “Jihad against America in Afghanistan” is an “individual obligation” of all Muslims.
“Esteemed scholars! It is your duty to preach to the Ummah that the Jihad against America in Afghanistan today is an individual obligation (fard ayn), just as the jihad against Russia was three decades earlier,” Zawahiri said.
“Clarify to the people that we are a single ummah, and our jihad is one jihad,” he added. The terror chief also told the scholars to explain that “support of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan is an individual obligation on the people of Afghanistan and those in their proximity, and after them on all Muslims, until sufficient strength is achieved to defeat America, its allies, and its agents,” as per the article on the journal’s website.
Posted in WorldTagged Al Qaeda chief, Ayman Al-Zawahiri threatens India over Kashmir
Gazans bury dead after bloodiest day of Israel border protests
In brewing Kashmir Crisis, India and Pakistan brace themselves for new turbulence
Ready to return IAF pilot if it leads to ‘De-escalation’; Pakistan, No deal on IAF pilot captured by Pak, return him immediately; India
Tougher days ahead if military onslaught is not stopped: Syed Ali Geelani
Civilian flights from Awantipora airfield got Defence Ministry node
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line230
|
__label__wiki
| 0.804245
| 0.804245
|
Human Rights in Ukraine. Website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
About KhPG
Political persecution in modern Ukraine
Сampaigns
Our reports to international bodies
Monthly bulletin Prava Ludyny (Human rights)
Some publications KhPG
Hide menu X
On refugees
18.06.2019 | Halya Coynash
Another fighter for Ukraine threatened with deportation to Russia
Russia ua.info
Fighter for Ukraine savagely beaten after being treacherously handed over to Russia
Lutsenko admits asylum seeker who defended Ukraine in Donbas was handed over to Russia “by mistake”
Ukraine hands asylum seeker Timur Tumgoev over to FSB to face certain torture in Russia
UN rights watchdog stops Ukraine from extraditing asylum seeker to Russia
Ukrainian Prosecutor’s strange attempt to help Russian FSB foiled
Ukraine re-arrests asylum-seeker in danger if extradited to Russia
Ukraine’s Security Service’s strange collaboration with Russia in its political persecution of opponents
Less than a year after Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office treacherously sent an asylum seeker who had fought for Ukraine in Donbas back to certain persecution in Russia, another Russian citizen could be facing the same fate.
A court in Zhytomyr has upheld the Ukrainian Migration Service’s decision to forcibly return Ruslan Omarov to the Russian Federation, although Omarov took part in the military action in Donbas from 2014 to 2016, as a member of a Ukrainian Right Sector volunteer battalion. That alone would mean that he faced torture and persecution in Russia.
Russia has placed Omarov on its wanted list, on suspicion of helping illegal armed formations, with the Zhytomyr branch of the SBU having recommended that Omarov be forcibly returned because of alleged involvement in the so-called ‘Islamic State’. Omarov was scathing in his account of the court proceedings to Kavkaz.Realii, saying that the SBU “had babbled some kind of nonsense about ISIS.”
Omarov’s lawyer, Hlib Norov, points out that the resolution part of the Migration Service’s decision, adopted in April 2018, contained a number of infringements of Ukrainian legislation.
Back in 2018, Omarov applied to the Migration Service for Ukrainian citizenship. His application was rejected, although he was born in the Luhansk oblast and lived in Ukraine until 1997. According to Ukrainian legislation, as a person born in the Ukrainian SSR, he does have the right to Ukrainian citizenship.
In this case, as in others, it is not clear what proof, if any, Russia has given the SBU to back their claims regarding support for an illegal armed formation, or involvement in ISIS. There have been many instances where there is no proof at all, or even, as in the case of Ruslan Meyriev, a lawyer originally from Ingushetia, where Russia only brought criminal charges after Meyriev acted as a volunteer, helping Ukrainian soldiers.
What is clear is Omarov’s involvement in the war in Donbas on Ukraine’s side from 2014 to 2016. This alone, and especially where the involvement was in a formation linked with the Ukrainian nationalist Right Sector, has been enough for Russia to imprison Russian citizens. Russia has also abducted and sentenced a Ukrainian citizen, Olksandr Shumkov, to four years’ imprisonment on charges of involvement while in Ukraine, in an organization which is totally legal in Ukraine, and doing so before Russia declared the organization illegal (details here).
It is to be hoped that the Ukrainian authorities will keep the promise made in August 2018, and not send another Russian citizen who fought for Ukraine back to face torture and reprisals in Russia.
The promise was issued with cause, given the shameful treatment of Timur Tumgoev who was handed over to Russia on 12 September 2018.
The FSB had provided no proof to justify their allegations against Tumgoev, and there was every reason to fear he would face torture and an unfair trial because he had fought for Ukraine in Donbas.
After initially trying to claim that this was part of an ordinary exchange of ‘criminals’ between Ukraine and Russia, the Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko finally admitted that Tumgoev, as a person who had fought for Ukraine, could have been handed over “by mistake” and promised a proper investigation.
More details about this appalling betrayal, and the reports that Tumgoev was beaten up in a Russian prison and is facing up to life imprisonment here
Recommend this post
to post any message or commentary, you need to login »»
Chronicle Elections Politics and human rights Terrorism Implementation of European Law The right to life Against torture and ill-treatment The right to liberty and security The right to a fair trial Privacy Freedom of conscience and religion Freedom of expression Access to information Freedom of peaceful assembly Freedom of movement Prohibition of discrimination Social and economic rights Human trafficking The right to health care Environmental rights Children’s rights Women’s rights On refugees Interethnic relations Court practices Law enforcement agencies Penal institutions Army Self-government Civic society Human rights protection NGO activities Point of view Victims of political repression Dissidents and their time Deported peoples News from the CIS countries Miscellaneous The troubled times New publications We remember Announcements Human Rights Violations associated with EuroMaidan Human Rights Abuses in Russian-occupied Crimea
The constitution and human rights Against torture and ill-treatment The right to liberty and security The right to a fair trial The right to privacy Access to information Freedom of expression Freedom of peaceful assembly Prevention of discrimination and inequality Prisoners´ rights he Security service in a constitutional democracy Analysis of the human rights situation in Ukraine Human rights and civil society History of the dissident movement in Ukraine
KhPG in social networks
Website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
forgot the password
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line234
|
__label__wiki
| 0.841515
| 0.841515
|
+ Hiram College Site Map Library Home » SG Book Review Articles
Reviews are relatively short evaluations or discussions of new books, films, or recordings by a critic or a journalist. As such, they appear in periodicles and newspapers. The six databases listed below are the most likely resources for reviews, but you may want to consider an appropriate subject database as well; for example, Business Source Complete for a review of a business book.
Academic Search Complete. Multidisciplinary database that indexes and abstracts some 9,300 periodicals, both popular and scholarly. Provides full-text to more than 5,300 journals.
Connect to Academic Search Complete
On Campus Access
MasterFILE Premier. Provides full-text to more than 1,900 general periodicals and indexing to more than 2,500. Similar to Academic Search Premier, but more oriented to popular magazines such as People and Ladies Home Journal. Updated daily with some coverage back to 1975. Also includes photos, maps, and flags.
Connect to MasterFILE Premier
Newspaper Source. Full-text coverage of more than 225 newspapers, newswires, and other news sources. Includes 177 U.S. newspapers, 18 international newspapers, and 12 news wires.
Connect to Newspaper Source
Film and Television Literature Index. Indexes and abstracts some 600 periodicals related to film, film writing, and television. Includes reviews.
Connect to Film and Television Literature Index
RILM. Indexes more than 3,500 periodicals covering music topics worldwide. Covers publications from 1969 to the present.
Connect to RILM
JSTOR. Fully searchable full-text of nearly 1,000 scholarly journals. JSTOR provides back files to the first issue of a journal, but stops 3 to 5 years before the current publication year. Covers all disciplines.
Connect to JSTOR
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line238
|
__label__cc
| 0.744485
| 0.255515
|
Want a Standout Brand? Take an Unexpected Position
by Lisa | 0 comments
Bored with your brand?
Feel like the magic is gone from your copy?
Or like you’re just a (forgettable) face in a sea of competition?
Maybe you just need to rethink your positioning.
Trying something unexpected can make your audience look at you –and desire you! — in a whole new way.
Now I’m not talking about doing or saying something that is wildly out of character for your brand. That’s called violating your brand personality.
Stunts like these reek of inauthenticity, and at best all you can expect is confusion. Even if your attention-grab succeeds at first, it sets you up for a charade that would be a struggle to maintain.
But sometimes a brand that’s been around for a while, especially if me-too competitors abound, needs to do something out-of-the-box – yet still “on-brand”– to get people to take a fresh look.
My winner for smart use of positioning today is Snickers.
Yes, the candy bar with the peanuts that’s older than dirt.
Except, Snickers doesn’t position itself as just a candy bar, but instead as something you reach for when you’re “hungry.”
By doing this, Snickers has positioned itself against NOT other candy bars but:
Snacks like nuts and fruit and trail mix
Actual FOOD
How does Snickers have the right to do this?
It has peanuts in it… which technically does qualify as “real” food. And it’s true that when you eat a Snickers, it really does take the edge off your hunger between meals. (When I was a kid this was known as “spoiling your appetite.”)
In fairness, this idea isn’t new; it’s been part of Snickers’ brand for decades. Those of us of a certain age remember the dull but clear slogan, “Packed with peanuts, Snickers really satisfies.” But they’ve now taken this idea to a new level.
(Hats off to the ad agency BBDO for doing something creative that built on the brand heritage but at the same time repositioned Snickers against the kinds of things you’d expect to buy at Whole Foods.)
Because of the peanuts and the positioning, Snickers allows consumers to rationalize their impulse to scarf down a candy bar at 4PM.
The fact that it ruins their appetite is simply proof it “works.”
This is Genius.
As if chocoholics needed any more convincing, Snickers even upped the consequences of being “hangry” with their brilliant and multi-award-winning “You’re not YOU When You’re Hungry” campaign. If you don’t manage your hunger with a Snickers, you’re not on your game, and you turn into an Incredible Hulk-style grouch!
This concept has “legs”, as we say in the ad biz. Here’s the Snickers commercial that broke the campaign at the 2010 Super Bowl!
This campaign is still running strong. It’s so popular, they’ve even carried it over to their product packaging.
It’s inspired countless consumer-generated memes and tweets.
Sure it’s funny.
But Snickers’ “anti-hunger” positioning lasts because it plays into a truth that we’ve all experienced: people in our lives (ourselves included) who act out of character – usually rudely – when irritable because of a growling tummy.
So now, Snickers isn’t just a “healthy-ish” snack but also the heroic guardian of all those relationships you’d ruin if you let your hunger dictate your behavior.
It you eat a Snickers, you can save your friendship, your marriage, your career – all while excusing the behavior of the horrible person you become when peckish. So go ahead and indulge in that candy bar before dinner. It’s for everyone’s own good!
I know it sounds ridiculous. But it WORKS. It sells candy. It makes the consumer feel good about eating it. And – to the point of this article – it makes the brand distinct from all its “normal” competition. (Even the other candy bars made by the same manufacturer, Mars.)
So, what does this mean to YOUR brand?
I invite you to look for unexpected ways to reposition that work with your current brand but take a fresh angle:
1. Shake up the competition.
The best way to stand out from your competition is to change up who you SEE as your competition. Think of the people or brands you normally see as your competitors. They offer pretty much the same thing, in the same package, to the same people as you do.
Now think broader. Who or what else COULD be your competition? How else could your customers solve their problems besides working with or buying from you? If you are a relationship coach for single women, what if you positioned yourself against online dating? Singles cruises?
For one of my clients, a business coach, we positioned her 6-month business course for wellness practitioners against a year’s tuition at Harvard Business School. Suddenly, her course’s $4500 tuition –with its money-back guarantee – looked pretty good against the $84,000 of Harvard (which last time I looked does NOT offer its grads any guarantee they’ll recoup their investment!)
2. Think BIGGER
Sometimes we forget the larger purpose of our work and products. It pays to revisit when building your brand.
What are you REALLY selling? What is – or could be – the “end-end” emotional benefit? Think past the nuts and bolts.
Lowe’s did this, literally. Once just a hardware store, Lowe’s started selling “Home Improvement”. People who came in to buy screws weren’t just fixing something around the house, they were improving their home for themselves and their families. Suddenly, a chore became something like a grand project or an adventure. This new positioning also allowed them to sell more than hardware: things like plants and barbeques.
It also feels better. And when you make people feel better (or convince them that they will), it sells.
This is why you see insurance companies selling “peace of mind”, not insurance.
What’s the end-end benefit or ultimate truth behind what you are selling? A happy marriage? A life of vitality where the customer lives to play with their great-grandchildren? If you have your own business, why did you start it? What important emotional problem do you ultimately solve? Why does your brand truly exist?
3. Look for the Gap and Stand in It
What do you have that your competitors don’t? It could be something that seems trivial. For example, Snickers has peanuts. Hersheys and Heath Bars don’t. It’s just an ingredient, and not even a proprietary one. But it is a point of difference, and Snickers leaned on it.
Real Estate attorneys are dime-a-dozen. But how many also are chefs, surfers or race Formula 1 cars? What would happen if you leaned on your point of difference? How does what’s different about you give you a unique perspective, skill or perk that benefits your client?
What do your prospects complain about when trying to get their needs met another way — that you solve, or don’t have as a downside? Could this seemingly minor thing be the cornerstone of your brand story?
4. Be first and stake your claim.
Snickers has peanuts. So do peanut M&Ms, Payday, Baby Ruth and many more. But Snickers was first to claim the territory of “hunger-killer”. No other candy can now occupy that space the same way.
Don’t worry about who else could claim your space. If you do it, and do it first, it’s yours. They can try, but they’ll just look like copycats. You will have invented the category. That makes you the leader. It’s as simple as that.
If you are tired of being seen as a commodity (oh look—another life coach!) try positioning yourself unexpectedly, and leave your competition in the dust.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line241
|
__label__wiki
| 0.728224
| 0.728224
|
Photographs/Logos
Sportservice
Delaware North's team at Progressive Field created a giant “21” out of hot dogs to commemorate the team's historic 21-game win streak
Delaware North's team at Progressive Field created a giant “21”, made using 21 hot dogs, to commemorate the team's historic 21-game win streak
Our team at Lambeau Field rolls out the "Lam-Bowl" for the Packers' postseason
Company chefs from around the country come together to feed fans at Progressive Field during the 2016 World Series
Busch Stadium - Retail
Delaware North Companies Sportservice provides retail, concessions and fine dining services at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO. Home to the St. Louis Cardinals
Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO
Exterior shot of Busch Stadium - Opening 2009. Busach Stadium will be home to the 2009 MLB All Star Game.
The Grand Ballroom at The Plaza Hotel
The Grand Ballroom has been the setting for hundreds of lavish events including Truman Capote's 1966 "Black and White Ball," Mick Jagger's 50th birthday party, and countless weddings, galas, and celebrations. The Ballroom has been faithfully restored to retain the look and feel of its storied past while reflecting a contemporary spirit.
Sportservice peanuts
The sight, taste and smell of hot roasted peanuts fill Delaware North Companies Sportservice stadiums, including eight Major League ballparks across the country.
Sportservice food display
Delaware North Companies Sportservice Executive Chef Mark Szubeczak invites Detroit Tigers fans to taste the fruits of his labor.
Sportservice associate preparing pizza
From introducing new healthy, organic food selections and creative cuisine for twists on the traditional fare, Delaware North Companies Sportservice continues to innovate and enhance the fan experience.
San Diego's PETCO Park
Delaware North Companies Sportservice is the exclusive food service and retail provider of the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line256
|
__label__cc
| 0.633291
| 0.366709
|
What I Learnt Creating Guitar Dashboard: SVG, TypeScript and Music Theory.
Guitar Dashboard is a side project I’ve been working on occasionally over the past two years. It’s an open source web application (you can find it at http://guitardashboard.com/ and the code at https://github.com/mikehadlow/gtr-cof). It’s intended as an interactive music theory explorer for guitarists that graphically links theoretical concepts, such as scales, modes and chords to the guitar fretboard. It evolved out my my own attempts, as an amateur guitarist, to get a better understanding of music theory. It includes an algorithmic music theory engine that allows arbitrarily complex scales and chords to be generated from first principles. This gives it far more flexibility than most comparable tools. Coming at music theory from the point of view of software developer, and implementing a music theory rules engine, has given me a perspective that’s somewhat different from most traditional approaches. This post outlines what I’ve learnt, technically and musically while building Guitar Dashboard. There are probably things here that are only interesting to software developers, and others only of interest to musicians, but I expect there’s a sizable group of people, like me, who fit in the intersection of that Venn diagram and who will find it interesting.
Why Guitar Dashboard?
Guitar dashboard’s core mission is to graphically and interactively integrate music theory diagrams, the chromatic-circle and circle-of-fifths, with a graphical representation of the fretboard of a stringed instrument. It emerged from my own study of scales, modes and chords over the past three or four years.
I expect like many self taught guitarists, my main aim when I first learnt to play at the age of 15 was to imitate my guitar heroes, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Howe, Alex Lifeson and others. A combination of tips from fellow guitarists, close listening to 60’s and 70’s rock cannon, and a ‘learn rock guitar’ book was enough to get me to a reasonable imitation. I learnt how to play major and minor bar chords and a pentatonic scale for solos and riffs. This took me happily through several bands in my 20s and 30s. Here’s me on stage in the 1980’s with The Decadent Herbs.
I was aware that there was a whole school of classical music theory, but it didn’t at first appear to be relevant to my rock ambitions, and any initial attempts I tried at finding out more soon came to grief on the impenetrable standard music notation and vocabulary, and the very difficult mapping of stave to fretboard. I just couldn’t be bothered with it. I knew there were major and minor scales, I could even play C major on my guitar, and I’d vaguely heard of modes and chord inversions, but that was about it. In the intervening years I’ve continued to enjoy playing guitar, except these days it’s purely for my own amusement, but I’d become somewhat bored with my limited range of musical expression. It wasn’t until around four years ago on a train ride, that a question popped into my head, “what is a ‘mode’ anyway?”
In the intervening decades since my teenage guitar beginnings the internet had happened, so while then I was frustrated by fusty music textbooks, now Wikipedia, immediately to hand on my phone, provided a clear initial answer to my ‘what is a mode question’, followed soon after by a brilliant set of blog posts by Ethan Hein, a music professor at NYU. His clear explanations of how scales are constructed from the 12 chromatic tones by selecting certain intervals, and how chords are then constructed from scales, and especially how he relates modes to different well known songs, opened up a whole new musical world for me. I was also intrigued by his use of the circle-of-fifths which led me to look for interactive online versions. I found Rand Scullard’s excellent visualisation a great inspiration. At the same time in my professional work as a software developer I’d become very excited by the possibilities of SVG for interactive browser based visualisations and realised that Rand’s circle-of-fifths, which he’d created by showing and hiding various pre-created PNG images, would be very easy to reproduce with SVG, and that I could drive it from an algorithmic music engine implemented from the theory that Ethan Hein had taught me. The flexibility offered by factoring out the music generation from the display also meant that I could easily add new visualisations, the obvious one being a guitar fretboard.
My first version was pretty awful. Driven by the hubris of the novice, I’d not really understood the subtleties of note or interval naming and my scales sometimes had duplicate note names amongst other horrors. I had to revisit the music algorithm a few times before I realised that intervals are the core of the matter and the note names come out quite easily once the intervals are correct. The algorithmic approach paid off though; it was very easy to add alternative tunings and instruments to the fretboard since it was simply a case of specifying a different set of starting notes for each string, and any number of strings. Flipping the nut and providing a left-handed fretboard were similarly straightforward. I more recently added non-diatonic scales (access them via the ‘Scale’ menu). This also came out quite easily since the interval specification for the original diatonic scale is simply a twelve element Boolean array. Unfortunately the note naming issue appears again, especially for non-seven-note-scales. Moving forward, it should be relatively easy to add a piano keyboard display, or perhaps, to slay an old demon, a musical stave that would also display the selected notes.
For an introduction to Guitar Dashboard, I’ve created a video tour:
So that’s Guitar Dashboard and my motivation for creating it. Now a brief discussion of some of the things I’ve learnt. First some technical notes about SVG and TypeScript, and then some reflections on music theory.
The awesome power of SVG.
The visual display of Guitar Dashboard is implemented using SVG.
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an “XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics with support for interactivity and animation.” (Wikipedia). All modern browsers support it. You can think of it as the HMTL of vector graphics. The most common use case for SVG is simple graphics and graphs, but it really shines when you introduce animation and interactivity. Have a look at these blog posts to see some excellent examples.
I was already a big fan of SVG before I started work on Guitar Dashboard and the experience of creating it has only made me even more enamoured. The ability to programmatically build graphical interactive UIs or dashboards is SVG’s strongest, but most underappreciated asset. It’s gives the programmer, or designer, far more flexibility than image based manipulation or HTML and CSS. The most fine grained graphical elements can respond to mouse events and be animated. I used the excellent D3js library as an interface to the SVG elements but I do wonder sometimes whether it was an appropriate choice. As a way of mapping data sets to graphical elements, it’s wonderful, but I did find myself fighting it to a certain extent. Guitar Dashboard is effectively a data generator (the music algorithm) and some graphs (the circles and the fretboard), but the graphs are so unlike most D3js applications, that it’s possible I would have been better off just manipulating the raw SVG or developing my own targeted library.
Another strength of SVG is the tooling available to manipulate it. Not only is it browser native, which also means that it’s easy to print and screen-shot, but there are also powerful tools, such as the open source vector drawing tool, Inkscape that make it easy to create and modify SVG documents. One enhancement that I’m keen to include in Guitar Dashboard is a ‘download’ facility that will allow the user to download the currently rendered SVG as a file that can be opened and modified in Inkscape or similar tools. Imagine if you want to illustrate a music theory article, or guitar lesson, it would be easy to select what you want to see in Guitar Dashboard, download the SVG and then edit it at will. You could easily just cut out the fretboard, or the circle-of-fifths, if that’s all you needed. You could colour and annotate the diagrams in any way you wanted. Because SVG is a vector graphics format, you can blow up an SVG diagram to any size without rasterization. You could print a billboard with a Guitar Dashboard graphic and it would be completely sharp. This makes it an excellent choice for printed materials such as textbooks.
TypeScript makes large browser based applications easy.
Creating Guitar Dashboard was my first experience of writing anything serious in TypeScript. I’ve written plenty of Javascript during my career, but I’ve always found it a rather unhappy experience and I’ve always been relieved to return to the powerful static type system of my main professional language C#. I’ve experimented with Haskell and Rust which both have even stronger type systems and the experience with Haskell of '”if it compiles it will run” is enough to make anyone who might have doubted the power of types a convert. I’ve never understood the love for dynamic languages. Maybe for a beginner, the learning curve of an explicit type system seems quite daunting, but for anything but the simplest application, its lack means introducing a whole class of bugs and confusion that simply don’t exist for a statically typed language. Sure you can write a million unit tests to ensure you get what you think you should get, but why have that overhead?
Typescript allows you to confidently create large scale browser based applications. I found it excellent for making Guitar Dashboard. I’m not sure I am writing particularly good Typescript code though. I soon settled into basing everything around interfaces, enjoying the notion of structural rather than nominal typing. I didn’t use much in the way of composition and there’s no dependency injection. Decoupling is achieved with a little home made event bus:
export class Bus<T> {
private listeners: Array<(x:T)=>void> = [];
private name: string;
constructor(name: string) {
public subscribe(listener: (x:T)=>void): void {
this.listeners.push(listener);
public publish(event: T): void {
//console.log("Published event: '" + this.name + "'")
for (let listener of this.listeners) {
listener(event);
A simple event bus, is just a device to decouple code that wants to inform that something has happened from code that wants to know when it does. It’s a simple collection of functions that get invoked every time an event is published. The core motivation is to prevent event producers and consumers from having to know about each other. There’s one instance of Bus for each event type.
Each of the main graphical elements is its own namespace which I treated like stand alone modules. Each of which subscribe to and raise typed events via a Bus instance. I only created classes when there was an obvious need, such as the Bus class above and the NoteCircle class which has two instances, the chromatic-circle and circle of fifths. I didn’t write any unit tests either, although now I think the music module algorithm is complex enough that it’s really crying out for them. Guitar Dashboard is open source, so you can see for yourself what you think of my Typescript by checking it out on GitHub.
Another advantage of TypeScript is the excellent tooling available. I used VS Code which itself is written in TypeScript and which supports it out-of-the-box. The fact that VS Code has been widely adopted outside of the Microsoft ecosystem is a testament to its quality as a code editor. It came top in the most recent Stack Overflow developer survey. I’ve even started experimenting with using it for writing C# and it’s a pretty good experience.
What I learnt about music.
Music is weird. Our ears are like a serial port into our brain. With sound waves we can reach into our cerebral cortex and tweak our emotions or tickle our pleasure senses. A piece of music can take you on a journey, but one which bares no resemblance to concrete reality. Music defines human cultures and can make and break friendships; people feel that strongly about it. But fundamentally it’s just sound waves. It greatly confuses evolutionary psychologists. What possible survival advantage does it confer? Maybe it’s the human equivalent of the peacock’s tail; a form of impressive display; a marker of attendant mental agility and fitness? Who knows. What is true is that we devote huge resources to the production and consumption of music: the hundreds of thousands of performers; the huge marketing operations of the record companies; the global business of producing and selling musical instruments and the kit to record it and play it back. The biggest company in the world, Apple, got its second wind from a music playback device and musical performers are amongst the most popular celebrities.
But why do our brains favour some forms of sound over others? What makes a melody, a harmony, a rhythm, more or less attractive to us? I recently read a very good book on this subject, The Music Instinct by Philip Ball. The bottom line is that we have no idea why music affects us like it does, but that’s unsurprising given that the human brain is still very much a black box to science. It does show, however, that across human cultures there are some commonalities: rhythm, the recognition of the octave, where we perceive two notes an octave apart as being the same note, and also something close to the fifth and the third. It’s also true that music is about ratios between frequencies rather than the frequencies themselves, with perhaps the exception of people with perfect pitch. The more finely grained the intervals become, the more cultures diverge, and it’s probably safe to say that the western twelve tone chromatic scale with its ‘twelfth root of two’ ratio is very much a technical innovation to aid modulation rather than something innate to the human brain. Regardless of how much is cultural or innate, the western musical tradition is very much globally dominant. Indeed, it’s hard buy a musical instrument that isn’t locked down to the twelve note chromatic scale.
However, despite having evolved a very neat, mathematical and logical theory, western music suffers from a common problem that bedevils any school of thought that’s evolved over centuries, a complex and difficult vocabulary and a notation that obfuscates rather than reveals the structure of what it represents. Using traditional notation to understand music theory is like doing maths with Roman numerals. In writing the music engine of guitar dashboard, by far the most difficult challenges have been outputting the correct names for notes and intervals.
This is a shame, because the fundamentals are really simple. I will now explain western music theory in four steps:
Our brains interpret frequencies an octave apart as the same ‘note’, so we only need to care about the space between n and 2n frequencies.
Construct a ratio such that applying the ratio to n twelve times gives 2n. Maths tells you that this must be the 12th root of 2. (first described by Simon Stevin in 1580). Each step is called a semitone.
Start at any of the twelve resulting notes and jump up or down in steps of 7 semitones (traditionally called a 5th) until you have a total of 7 tones/notes. Note that we only care about n to 2n, so going up two sets of 7 semitones (or two 5ths) is the same as going up 2 semitones (a tone) (2 x 7 – 12 = 2. In music all calculations are mod 12). This is a diatonic scale. If you choose the frequency 440hz, jump down one 7-semitone step and up 5, you have an A major scale. Up two 7-semitone steps and down four gives you A minor. The other five modes (Lydian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Phrygian and Locrian) are just different numbers of up and down 7-semitone steps.
Having constructed a scale, choose any note. Count 3 and 5 steps of the scale (the diatonic scale you just constructed, not the original 12 step chromatic scale) to give you three notes. This is a triad, a chord. Play these rhythmically in sequence while adding melody notes from the scale until you stumble across something pleasing.
That, in four simple steps, is how you make western music.
OK, that’s a simplification, and the most interesting music breaks the rules, but this simple system is the core of everything else you will learn. But try to find this in any music textbook and it simply isn’t there. Instead there is arcane language and confusing notation. I really believe that music education could be far simpler with a better language, notation and tools. Guitar Dashboard is an attempt to help people visualise this simplicity. Everything but the fretboard display is common to all musical instruments. It’s only aimed at guitarists because that’s what I play and it also helps that guitar is the second most popular musical instrument. The most poplar, piano, would be easy to add. Piano Dashboard anyone?
Posted by Mike Hadlow at 2:57 pm 15 comments Links to this post
The Possibilities of Web MIDI With TypeScript
If you’ve ever had any experience with music technology, or more specifically sequencers, keyboards or synthesisers, you will have come across MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). It’s used to send note and controller messages from musical devices, such as keyboards or sequencers which are used to play and record music, and devices that produce sounds, such as samplers or synthesizers. It’s pure control information, for example, “play a c# in the 3rd octave with a velocity of 85”, there’s no actual audio involved. It dates back to the early 1980s, when a group of musical instrument manufacturers such as Roland, Sequential Circuits, Oberheim, Yamaha and Korg got together to define the standard. It soon lead to a huge boom in low cost music production and the genesis of new musical styles. It’s no accident that rap and electronic dance music date from the mid to late 80’s.
Web MIDI is a new W3C specification for an API to allow browser applications to access MIDI input and output devices on the host machine. You can enumerate the devices, then choose to listen for MIDI messages, or format and send your own messages. It’s designed to allow applications to consume and emit MIDI information at the protocol level, so you receive and send the actual raw message bytes rather the API providing the means to play MIDI files using General MIDI for example. Don’t let this put you off though, the protocol is very simple to interpret as I’ll demonstrate later.
The potential for a large new class of browser based musical applications is huge. The obvious examples are things like browser based sequencers and drum machines emitting MIDI messages and synthesizers and samplers on the consuming side using Web Audio, another interesting new standard. But it goes much wider than that, the MIDI protocol is ideally suited to any real-time parameter control. It’s already widely used for lighting rigs and special effects in theatrical productions for example. Also because it’s such an established standard, there is all kinds of cheaply available hardware controller interfaces full of knobs and buttons. If you’ve got any application that requires physical control outside the range of keyboard/mouse/trackpad, it might be a solution. Imagine a browser based application that allowed you to turn knobs on a cheap MIDI controller to tweak the parameters of a mathematical visualisation, or some network based industrial controller, or even as new input for browser based games. The possibilities are endless.
I’m going to show a simple TypeScript example. I’m currently working on a TypeScript application that consumes MIDI and I couldn’t find much good example code so I’m hoping this might help. I’m using the type definitions from here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@types/webmidi.
The entry point into the new API is a new method on navigator, requestMIDIAccess. This returns a Promise<MIDIAccess> that you can use to enumerate the input and output devices on the system. Here I’m just looking for input devices:
window.navigator.requestMIDIAccess()
.then((midiAccess) => {
console.log("MIDI Ready!");
for(let entry of midiAccess.inputs) {
console.log("MIDI input device: " + entry[1].id)
entry[1].onmidimessage = onMidiMessage;
.catch((error) => {
console.log("Error accessing MIDI devices: " + error);
I’ve bound my onMidiMessage function to the onmidimessage event on every input device. This is the simplest possible scenario, it would be better to provide an option to your user to choose the device they want to use. This allows us to process MIDI events as they arrive from MIDI devices.
MIDI events arrive as byte arrays with a length of 1 to 3 bytes. The first byte is always the ‘status’ byte. The four most significant bits are the status type. Here we’re only concerned with note on (9) and off (8) messages. The four least significant bytes tell us the MIDI channel. This allows up to 16 different devices, or voices to be controlled by a single controller device. If you ignore the channel, as we’re doing here, it’s known as OMNI mode. For note on/off messages, the second byte is the note number and the third is the velocity, or how loud we want the note to sound. The note number describes the frequency of the note using the classical western chromatic scale; good luck if you want to make Gamelan dance music! The notes go from C0 (around 8hz) to G11 (approx 12543hz). This is much wider than a grand piano keyboard and sufficient for the vast majority of applications. See the code for how to convert the note number to name and octave. See this page and the Wikipedia page for more details.
In this example we filter for on/off messages, then write the channel, note name, command type and velocity to the console:
let noteNames: string[] = ["C", "C#", "D", "D#", "E", "F", "F#", "G", "G#", "A", "A#", "B"];
function onMidiMessage(midiEvent: WebMidi.MIDIMessageEvent): void {
let data: Uint8Array = midiEvent.data;
if(data.length === 3) {
// status is the first byte.
let status = data[0];
// command is the four most significant bits of the status byte.
let command = status >>> 4;
// channel 0-15 is the lower four bits.
let channel = status & 0xF;
console.log(`$Command: ${command.toString(16)}, Channel: ${channel.toString(16)}`);
// just look at note on and note off messages.
if(command === 0x9 || command === 0x8) {
// note number is the second byte.
let note = data[1];
// velocity is the thrid byte.
let velocity = data[2];
let commandName = command === 0x9 ? "Note On " : "Note Off";
// calculate octave and note name.
let octave = Math.trunc(note / 12);
let noteName = noteNames[note % 12];
console.log(`${commandName} ${noteName}${octave} ${velocity}`);
Here’s the output. I’m using Vmpk (Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard) to play the notes. You’ll also need a MIDI loopback device such as loopMIDI if you want to connect software devices, but it should be plug and play with a hardware controller:
So there we have it. MIDI is now very easy to integrate into a browser based application. I’ve demonstrated this with just a few lines of code. It opens up possibilities for a new class of software and not for just musical applications. It’s going to be very interesting to see what people do with it.
Posted by Mike Hadlow at 12:17 pm 2 comments Links to this post
What I Learnt Creating Guitar Dashboard: SVG, Type...
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line263
|
__label__wiki
| 0.523753
| 0.523753
|
About NAMI
Does someone you love have a mental illness?
That's why there's NAMI.
You Are Not Alone - NAMI Chattanooga is here for you!
What is Mental Illness?
A mental illness is a brain disorder that causes severe disturbances in thinking, feeling and relating to other people. Mental illness can affect anyone, regardless of race, age, gender or intelligence. On any given day, 285,000 Tennesseans experience mental illness.
Depression is a very common illness. We all experience ups and downs, but a person with clinical depression feels so sad that he or she finds it hard to function at work, at school or in relationships.
Bipolar Disorder (also called Manic Depressive Disorder) is a mental illness that causes dramatic shifts in a person's mood. People with Bipolar Disorder experience high and low moods known as mania and depression which differ from the typical ups and downs that most people experience.
Schizophrenia damages a person's capacity to express feelings appropriately and think clearly. Someone with schizophrenia may hear voices, have terrifying thoughts and feel cut off from others.
Treatment Works! During recent years we've learned a great deal about medications and therapy that relieve the symptoms and suffering of mental illness.
If someone you love has a mental illness, treatment can help. And so can NAMI.
Contact NAMI Chattanooga, an Affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Contact Information is under the Tab "About NAMI".
copyright © 2014 by NAMI of Chattanooga
Home Page|
About NAMI|
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line265
|
__label__cc
| 0.696606
| 0.303394
|
Just Because We Need It: Dog Gets Great Gift, Everyone Happy
Cash, left, meets his new, young best buddy Jennings
at Christmas, making everyone happy
It's been a trying 2017 to say the least, so the last post of this year, or at least something close to the last post, should go like this one. Just ot make us feel better.
In Ortonville, Michigan, Cash, a 12-year-old Golden Retriever, also had a bad 2017. His best friend, a fellow dog in the household named Rosie, passed away.
Cash mourned. He was getting older and this was too much. He lost all his energy after Rosie's death, and pretty much slept close to 23 hours a day.
That is until Christmas. Cash's human companion, Marie Ahonen, decided Cash needed a new companion to get him back to his old self.
It was a Christmas present: "It'll be our Christmas present to our family - that was our first thought. Then it just kind of piqued in my mind that this will be Cash's present," Ahonen said.
The idea worked. "(Cash) just got so excited and his paws were going a million miles an hour and I'm so excited, like this is what he needed," Ahonen said.
The gift for Cash was a Golden Retriever puppy. In the video, Marie's husband, Jay, brings in a box and Cash immediately knows something cool is inside. Cash opens the box, and there's the puppy.
Cash immediately came back to life. The puppy looks confused at first, but then at the end decides he's game.
The puppy's name is Jennings (named after Waylon) At last report. Cash and Jennings were gettin along famously, and Cash was indeed back to his old, pre-2017 self
Let's hope the same for the rest of us.
Here's the fun, cute video:
Posted by Matt Sutkoski at 8:40 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: 2017, cute, dogs, good news, nice, viral video
Annual Google Search Video Reflects An Exhausting 2017
This wonderful woman was among the many iconic people
featured in Google's annual searches of the year video.
At the end of each year Google releases a sort of year-in-review video of top news events and top search subjects during the prior 12 months.
This year's Google search video which is at the bottom of this post, is surprisingly emotional, at least to me.
I guess 2017 was even more trying than I thought, what with the constant political upheaval; endless string of disasters; scandals, sexual and otherwise; and more encouragingly, a sharp uptick in citizen activism.
It seems we had only the Great Eclipse of 2017 to distract us from all the messes we endured.
The year was surely reflected in some of our most frequent Google searches:
"How far do North Korean missiles go?"
"How do wildfires start?"
"How to help flood victims"
"How to be a strong woman."
"How to make a protest sign."
"How to run for office."
"How to be fearless."
I think we all want to know the answer to that last Google search on the list you just read.
I like how toward the end of the video, Google tries to encourage to keep going, keep doing what's right, as other people in the video's closing half minute or so do.
I wish everyone a calm and happy 2018, and I hope we all find the best answer to the last and most poignant Google search question in the video you are about to see: "How to move forward."
Posted by Matt Sutkoski at 10:15 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: activism, disasters, Google, hope, news, perseverance, politics, searches, viral video, year in review
News Bloopers Of 2017 A Good Time Waster To Close Out The Year
As is always the case on live news programs, things go
wrong, like this uninvited furry guest on a news program.
At the end of December, I always welcome the inevitable video, which is the Top News Bloopers Of the Year.
I'm a news junkie, so I watch and read up on current events a lot. Much of the news is presented on live TV, which can always be dangerous.
You have missed cues, unprepared reporters, unanticipated gliches and eyewitness interviews that go awry when the interviewees themselves go seriously awry.
Some bloopers get famous intantaneously, like when the Weather Channel was trying to film the implosion of a sports stadium in Atlanta and a bus got in the way at just the wrong moment.
Eyewitness interviews are the most dangerous. You'll see in the video the most obnoxious one is a little brat at a fireworks retailer. A local reporter, who is also the television station's meteorologist, tries to ask him, "What's the best fireworks to buy?" Innocuous question.
But the little shit replies angrily, "Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy." Insulting, yes. But I think the reporter/meteorologist got the last laugh in that the kid is now exposed to the world as a real worthless jerk. Ha!
Here's the video. It's 15 minutes long, but worth it. Also NSFW, but why would you be watching a 15-minute time waster at work?
Labels: bloopers, comedy, news, television, viral video
Addams Family Dance To The Ramones, Making Everything Right In The World
The website Open Culture gave us this little gem recently: It's the 1960s television sitcom version of the Addams Family dancing to the Ramones' classic "Blitzkrieg Bop." I know, I know, it didn't really happen, the Ramones song was just dubbed over some Addams Family scenes.
But this is delightful. You HAVE to watch the video:
The Addams Family dancing Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones from Gabriel Magallon on Vimeo.
Labels: Addams Family, Blitzkrieg Bop, comedy, mashup, Ramones, video
Our Yearly Tradition: Darlene Love Gives Us "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
Darlene Love (left) performs "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
with Fantasia in this year's installment of a Christmas tradition.
We have to do our yearly Christmas Eve tradition today: Darlene Love singing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.)"
It's my favorite Christmas season song, mostly because it's not sticky sweet saccharine like most holiday songs, which are awful.
Most of them are so sentimental and icky that you go into a diabetic coma if you hear just 10 seconds of them. ("I'll Be Home For Christmas.") Or they're so deliriously happy that you wonder what kind of drug they're taking ("Santa Claus Is Coming To Town") Or they're so stupid and odious they make you want to throw up. ("Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer")
Not "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," popularized by Darlene Love. Musically it's an uplifting, take me to church melody. The lyrics are bittersweet. The emotional complexity of the song, at least compared to almost all other holiday songs, makes this one work
For 29 years, Darlene Love made it a tradition to sing this tune on David Letterman's show. Click on this mashup of her years on David Letterman for proof that Darlene Love sure isn't losing any of her glorious power as the hears go bh.
However, Letterman went off the air. So "The View" took it over, and now they're in their third year. Of course, as always, you will see and hear this year's video of her performance at the bottom of this post.
This year, Darlene Love got some help from Fantasia, the awesome R&B singer.
Love and her song have become such a national Christmas tradition that she's turned up elsewhere, too. Click on this link for a fun video of Darlene Love performing the song on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon" in which Love, Fallon, The Roots and Anna Kendrick perform the song accompanied by child classroom instruments, which is a regular feature on this show. It's a bit tinny but surprisingly good.
Without further delay, here's this year's Darlene Love's Christmas performance, with the fantastic Fantasia from this year. Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Labels: Christmas, Christmas Baby Please Come Home, Darlene Love, Fantasia, Jimmy Fallon, music, talent, The Roots, tradition
Woman Gets The BEST Help Decorating Her Christmas Tree
I'm sure you have your holiday decorating done by now, given that it's just two days before Christmas.
Next year, however, you ought to plan on hiring this woman's helper. She got her Christmas tree decorated in flash, thanks to her handy helper. Watch:
Labels: Christmas, decorating, dog, helpful, holiday, smart, viral video
Google Translate Really Improves Christmas Songs
Christmas carols are MUCH better after having been run
through Google Translate a couple times.
A fun trend on YouTube and elsewhere is to use Google Translate and convert song words in English to some other language and back to English again, with hilarious results.
Tis the season, so here's a couple videos that will let you know what I'm talking about, using holiday music. They're great time wasters, and I must say, the Google Translate versions of Christmas songs are a vast improvement over the original.
The first video is by Malinda Kathleen Reese. She uploaded it to YouTube a couple years ago, but it's still a great find. (In a none-holiday moment, check out Reese's Google Translate version of Adele's hit "Hello." It's worth it. Even the Defense Secretary is involved. (Watch and listen to it, you'll see.)
She has a great voice, but the translations to the songs are hilarious. My favorite part is one of the songs gets into Saudi Arabian monetary policy. Who knew Saudi Arabian financial rules make sentimental holiday wishes. After this video, I got another one, below this:
Next, we have a very recent episode of Jimmy Fallon teaming up with Rebel Wilson to do Google Translate versions of other Christmas songs. In "Deck the Halls," we learn that ancient sparrows fight with Carol. (I don't know who Carol is or why the old sparrows are mad at her.)
Oh, and "Walking In A Winter Wonderland" becomes much better, with an awesome new name: "I Ran Through The Land Of Cold Unknowns" Here it is:
Labels: Christmas carols, comedy, Google Translate, Jimmy Fallon, Malinda Kathleen Reese, Rebel Wilson, viral videos
Update: Awful Pit Bull Ban In Montreal Has Been Ditched
Izzy, pictured here, and other pit bulls are once again
welcome in Montreal, after a new mayor overturned
a bad breed-specific ordinance enacted last year.
Sometimes, elections bring welcome changes.
Montreal has a new mayor, and that new mayor's administration has lifted a year-old stupid municipal ordinance banning pit bulls.
The ordinance was put in place after an understandable outrage: a woman was mauled to death by a dog that happened to be a pit bull.
Rather than tightening restrictions on all dogs deemed dangerous, the city passed a law that pretty much banned all pit bulls from the city. This raised the threat of euthanizing perfect good, safe pit bulls were part of peoples' families, and exiling others away from their forever homes.
The new mayoral administration just pulled the plug on the pit bull ban, saying Montreal should be a welcoming city for all pet owners. The city still has tight restrictions on dogs deemed dangerous, which makes perfect sense. Breed-specific laws don't, though, so I'm glad Montreal listened to the SPCA on this one.
Labels: Canada, dogs, law, Montreal, news, pit bulls, repeal, sanity
2017 Wildlife Comedy Awards Delight As Always
"Laughing Dormouse" by Andrea Zampatti. Looks like
this little guy is having a GREAT time.
I've highlighted the annual Wildlife Comedy Awards in the past, but I cannot resist focusing on them again, because they are such a delightful distraction from the ills of the world.
The awards go to nature photographers who find usually inadvertent, but hilarious moments amont wild animals.
This year's winners don't disappoint. Go to this link to see this year's winners, and the winners from past years. It's SO worth the browse.
Meanwhile, see, below, a couple more of this year's wildlife triumphs. Click on the images to make them bigger and easier to see.
"Monkey Escape" by Katy Laveck-Foster. A very fun
outing on a motorbike, it looks like.
"Mudskippers Got Talent" by Daniel Trim. Not sure if these
frogs are in a televised talent competition or they just heard
something Donald Trump said.
"WTF" by George Cathcart. These California seals look like
they've been watching too much Fox News
Posted by Matt Sutkoski at 12:04 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: animals, distraction, fun, humor, photography, talent, wildlife, Wildlife Comedy Awards
Proof That I'm Right: Christmas Music Drives Us Crazy
There's a good reason why the Grinch loathed listening
to all those Christmas songs from the Whos down in Whoville.
I've always disliked most Christmas music.
Mostly because of its repetitiveness. How many times can you hear "Deck The Halls" before you deck the spacy store clerk in the mall?
A lot of us started hearing Christmas music everywhere starting in early November. Now that's less than two weeks before the actual holiday, we are Fed. Up. Most of us, anyway.
As CBS News and plenty of other news outlets reported recently, British clinical psychologist Linda Blair say listening to too much Christmas music, especially when it starts so early, stresses us out.
The incessant Christmas music, from which there is no escape, reminds us every minute of our waking hours that we have all this stuff to do to get ready for the holidays. Because, as every retail advertiser and every Christmas TV special reminds us, if we don't make the holiday absolutely perfect and the the most memorable event ever, we are abject failures.
Why wouldn't we be stressed under those circumstances?
Can you imagine the life of that spacey mall store clerk, the one you want to deck? She's probably spacey and out of it because she's been force to listen to that godforsaken Christmas music since October. Blair, the clinical psychiatrist, sympathizes with those mall workers. They struggle to tune out that awful "music."
"You're simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you're hearing," she said.
And what about the rest of us? We don't have it as bad as Spacey Mall Store Clerk, but we are all subject to this torture. We've seen Christmas decorations in stores as early as September, and the stores have been feeding us holiday "music" over the PA systems since early November, or even before that.
The Tampa Bay Times reported in November that one of the worst offenders, Best Buy, started playing Christmas music on October 22. That's before I even started to think about Halloween.
On a positive note, the Tampa Bay Times said some retailers have had a sense of mercy lately, interspersing Christmas music even now with non-holiday selections, to give us all a sense of relief.
Look, some holiday music is OK. But none of it's OK to pressure us to buy, buy, buy! Retailers are desperate. Desperation is unattraction, and makes us less likely to help those desperate retailers.
So give us a break, all you online and brick and mortar stores, and maybe we'll become a bit less Grinchy and give you a break. Try it!
Labels: Christmas creep, Christmas music, Grinch, news, stress, stupid
NSFW Citizen Journalist's House Fire Report Leads Her To Great Journalistic Scoop
Citizen journalist Rhoda Young, reporting on Facebook Live
from a Norfolk, Virginia house fire. gets a journalistic
scoop and reports it very colorfully.
As a former journalist, I still revel in scoops - the uncovering of a blockbuster fact or facts that nobody else has and presenting that new information for the world to see.
Rhoda Young recently had one of those moments.
As far as I can tell, Young is not a terribly experienced journalist. She's just a person who likes to tell others what's going on in her town.
So she sprang into action (with her husband as cameraman) when a house in her hometown of Norfolk, Virginia recently erupted into flames.
Young took to Facebook Live to give her full reports. In local journalism, raging house fires like the one Young encountered are given prominent display and are viewed, read, and clicked on by many people in the community. It's big news.
OK, Young isn't the best at maintaining her journalistic composure. She dropped a couple of big F-bombs when part of the burning house she was reporting on collapsed. But that's OK. We can all handle that.
Young does have a good journalist's curiosity and she does know the right way to ask questions, so she started asking questions and observing some interesting things when she spotted a man sitting on the grass across the street from the blazing house. The man was sipping on a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
She asks the man, "Is that your house?"
He said. "Yes"
"Oh, God bless you," Young replied. Then quick with the followup question: "Lemme ask you this: How did it catch on fire? Were you home?"
The man said something unclear, but it sounded like he said he wasn't home with the blaze began. He indicated he discovered the fire when he came back from the store, where he purchased his PBR.
Donald Stricker is charged with arson, in large
part to citizen journalist Rhoda Young's
colorful Facebook Live reporting from the scene.
A few minutes later, Young, undeterred, took a closer look at the man, who tried to wave her away. She noticed he had minor burns, and some of his hair was singed off. Turning to her Facebook Live camera, she delivered the scoop: The man was lying, he was there when the fire started, and did he set the fire?
Or as she put it, "I now discovered, his motherfuckin' hair was on fire....so he was right there when the fire started, and he's got a six pack of goddamn PBR. Now I gotta figure out how he started that goddamn fire."
Again, not the way your Eyewitless (ha) News team from your local television station would have put it, but she got the message across.
Then, on camera, she tells a fire official: "I did an investigation on the fire and I know how it started."
The fire official initially dismissed Young, as they were busy dealing with the fire. Young accepted that, as she could see the firefighters were pretty busy. She briefly points the camera at the guy, who tried to wave her away again.
Young then reports on camera: "Once again, that's the homeowner, drunk as a motherfucka, He burnt down the whole fuckin' house."
That's not how I or any other "real" journalist would report on an incident like this, but her style is what would be going through mine and every other journalists' head. We all wish - just a little bit - we could explain the situation like Young did.
Authorities at the scene, at the behest of Young, did turn their attention to the man, and Young captured, on camera, the man being arrested on arson charges. immediately suspected the same. And Young pointed the camera at the man, named Donald William Stricker III as we was arrested, handcuffed and charged with the burning of an occupied dwelling.
Awesome scoop Rhoda: Here's the highlight reel of Young's reporting. Again, it's NSFW, but it is so worth the watch, especially if your yearning for a local TV news report that tells it like it really is, bluntly:
Labels: arson, citizen journaist, Facebook Live, news, Rhoda Young, scoop, viral video
Anti-Trump Social Media Junkies Are Getting Scary Pro-Trump Robocalls
It's still unclear if this organization had anything to do with
robocalls threatening people who critcized Donald Trump
Gizmodo earlier this month reported on yet another dark side of social media and the internet.
Some people who are active on social media and are not Donald Trump fans have been getting weird, kind of threatening robocalls on their phones from what appears to be the pro-Trump crowd.
Nobody is quite sure if all this is a joke, a real threat, a harmless prank or just more social media bullcrap. But I have to admit it's unnerving.
Luckily, evidence is pointing toward the "harmless prank" theory, but the fact that this can be done is probably giving the evil alt right ideas even as I write this.
The robocalls warn the anti-Trumpsters to stop making "negative and derogatory posts about President Trump," said Brett Vanderbrook, who was driving for Uber when he got the call a few weeks back.
After Gizmodo first published the story, several readers said they recognized the voice in the recording as being from Ownage Pranks, a service that places automated prank calls. "Citizens for Trump" is a prank offered by the service, says Gizmodo, but the trouble is there is a real organization called "Citizens for Trump" that really are just that and active.
Gizmodo, and pretty much nobody else, is sure whether the real Citizens for Trump is behind these robocalls.
They are kind of cartoonishly scary. Here's part of the script:
A man's voice comes on. "We've been monitoring some of your posts and it does seem that you've beem making some rather negative comments about President Trump. Is that correct?"
Then there's a pause as if the voice is waiting for an answer. Then it continues: "Listen, we're going to have to ask you to lay off on the negative and derogatory posts about President Trump, OK?" Then another pause, then more: "What's your problem, anyway? Don't you want to make America great again? Well, you've been warned. We'll be keeping an eye on you. Have a nice day."
It doesn't sound like a lot of people have received this robocall, but it is chilling, even if meant as a joke.
They say Big Brother is watching you. So is obnoxious brother, apparently.
Labels: alt.right, Donald Trump, idiots, news, privacy, social media, spying
Debbie Harry And Joan Jett REALLY Let Us Have It With New Tune/Video
Joan Jett and Debbie Harry deliver an apocalyptic newcast
in a dark and funny video for the new Blondie tune "Doom or Destiny"
Blondie, with Debbie Harry of course, and Joan Jett have teamed up in a startling, but darkly funny video for Blondie's song "Doom or Destiny" and it's totally worth the watch. Especially since Harry and Jett have lost none of their considerable mojo over the decades.
In the video, Harry and Jett are off-kilter news anchors. The pair, as Rolling Stone puts it, "tease a series of foreboding headlines, referencing global warming, Russian election meddling, nuclear war and President Trump's 'grab 'em by the pussy comment from the leaked Access Hollywood tape."
Rolling Stone continues: "Harry said she wanted the video to comment on 'the bizarre state of media and news in the current 'idocracy' by addressing issues like 'environmental collapse, fossil fuels, bee population decline, global warming, sexism, patriarchy, Trump and Russia, feminishm, consumerism, the marketing of war and more.'"
Yes, that's a dark vision. And the video has that dark vision. It's not for bright and cheery Pollyannas. But those Pollyannas would be missing out if they didn't watch the "Doom or Destiny" video.
Harry, age 72, and Jett, 59, are still the no-holds-barred women they've alway been, thank goodness. In the video, they are disgusted, world weary and fuming as these two "news co-anchors" deal with dinasour men rejoicing amid money, a Trumpesque orange sock puppet screaming "Fake News!" vapid fragrance commercials, a weather segment that forecasts, among other things, seven plagues and thermonuclear winter, and a report by Harry regarding global warming, "Hot as fxxxing hell"
You have to watch the video several times to catch all the very quick jokes and dark humor throughout the piece.
The song "Doom or Destiny" itself is at once catchy, dark, cynical, driving and some of the best work I've heard from Blondie, Harry and Jett I've heard in years.
Here's the video, which is not really NSFW, if you dare. It's so worth it.
Labels: Blondie, commentary, Debbie Harry, Donald Trump, Joan Jett, music, news, satire, talent, video
Stupid YouTuber Cements Head In Microwave: Creative, Near-Fatal Idiocy
This idiot cemented his head inside a microwave oven,
apparently for fun and profit. A near Darwin Awards winner.
This report has been going around the Internet thingy, but I like Diggs' take on it. Here's their headline:
"Idiot YouTuber Cements His Head Inside Microwave, Deeply Annoyed Firemen Have To Free Him."
The saddest part is this headline is totally accurate and true.
Digg has the details about the exploits of this moron, known on YouTube as TGFBro. His real name is Jay Swingler. Or, feel free to call him moron, like I do.
It started whe TGF Bro's Jay Swingler filled a microwave with something called Polyfilla. deciding this would be a really cool and lucrative YouTube stunt.
According to the manufacturer, Polyfilla is a "ready to use filler excellent for filling small cracks, dents and fine imperfectios to ensure the ultimate smooth surface prior to painting."
This might be obvious to everyone except the morons in over at TGF Bros, but Polyfilla is not meant to trap your head inside a microwave. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would want to trap their head in a cement-filled microwave oven, even for fun and profit, but what do I know? These idiots apparently do profit handsomely from their stunts.
But it is free advertising for Polyfilla: Swingler proved Polyfilla hardens fast and nicely, and is difficult to dislodge. Somehow, I still don't envision Polyfilla using these idiots as their spokesmodels in advertising.
Inevitably, in this stunt things went (surprise!) awry. Swingler's friends, with mounting panic, tried to free this guy from the Polyfilla filled microwave. There was a rudimentary breathing tube, otherwise the Darwin Awards candidate would have died pretty quickly.
Finally, the West Midlands Fire Service in England was called in to complete the rescue. You can hear the sigh in the voice of whoever had to write the public statement for the West Midlands Fire Service:
"It took nearly an hour to free him. All the group was very apologetic, but this was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helpig someone else in genuine, accidental need."
Which indicates if the West Midlands Fire Service had their druthers, they'd have gladly dropped this Polyfilla rescue in favor of some elder gentleman having a heart attack somewhere. I totally agree with that.
Honestly, if you can make a buck or two putting silly stunts on YouTube, go for it. But you'd think there are limits. Apparently not. To make matters worse, Swingler put out a subsequent video whining about the online abuse he took for this stunt.
I'm reluctant to put this video up, because I kinda don't want to help them benefit from it. But in the interest of full disclosure, if you can stand it, here's the video of this whole stupid incident:
Labels: cement, Darwin Awards, microwave, rescue, stupid. viral video
Proof The GOP Wants The Poor To Just Shut Up And DIe Already
GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch seems to think children who
need government funded health insurance should
stop being so lazy and get a job, dammit.
The tax scam bill the Republican Senate passed last week is proof enough that the GOP, taking orders from their ultra rich donors, want to transfer all wealth to the 1% and take it all away from the lower and middle class.
They want us all to be serfs, essentially.
Two quotes from two Senators pretty much prove it to my mind, as they insist anyone not rich like themselves are just lazy jerks who want to sit on their butts and take government money so they can booze it up and gamble. This includes children, apparently.
Here's Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who was explaining that we can afford a trillion dollar deficit to give tax breaks to the wealthy, but we can't afford the to pay for the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP:
"I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves, won't lift a finger and expect the federal government to do everything."
Got that kids? If you're 10 years old and sick and your parents are poor, get yourself a f*$&ing job you lazy ass bum. Don't do things like go to school to better your future and help around the house. Just go make sub-minimum wages in some dangerous factory like kids had to do a century ago.
You owe it to your billionaire overloards to do that. So get to work!
GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley thinks everybody with modest
incomes is poor because they spend all their money
on booze and sex, rather than say, groceries or housing
Then we have GOP Sen. Charles Grassley, explaining why we have to get rid of the estate tax, which only makes the wealthy wealthier and has no effect on the rest of us:
"I think not have the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing - as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it's on booze or women or movies," Grassley told the Des Moines Register.
Yep. The reason why the single mom making minimum wage at McDonald's has not amassed a fortune and become a millionaire at least is because she's squandering her pay on cheap vodka, sex and probably porn movies.
Grassley seems to be suggesting that no low and middle class people are spending what little money they've got on things like groceries, putting a roof over their head, things like that.
To the GOP, we're all selfish as hell and not worth the time of day. We apparently owe the trillionaire class whatever pittance we have. Hand it over, I guess.
“I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing — as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies,” Grassley told the Des Moines Register i
Labels: GOP, government, morally bankrupt, news, Senate, taxes, villains
Be Glad This Wasp Nest Wasn't At Your House
This exterminator was engulfed in a cloud of angry wasps
as he got rid of a huge nest in a Louisiana shed.
An exterminator in Louisiana recently found the largest wasp nest he'd ever seen in a shed.
The homeowner had hired the exterminator to evict the wasps. The wasps were unhappy about the eviction.
According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Beekeeper Jude Varret set up his GoPro camera as he started work to evict the wasps, known as southern yellowjackets. This variety of insect is quite aggressive and their stings are quite painful.
The wasp nest was so huge that it engulfed tools and lawn furniture within the shed. Surprisingly the job took only 45 minutes to complete. Even more surprisingly, Varret was not stung even once. He said most of the time, he'll get stung once or twice while getting rid of wasp nests.
Here's the video, and a nightmare if you are afraid of bees and wasps:
Labels: exterminator, Louisiana, scary, viral video, wasps
OK Go, Kings Of Wild Music Videos, Are At It Again
The band OK Go in front of a wall of 567 printers and lots
of paper for their latest complicated but fun music video.
Every time the band OK Go releases a new music video, it ends up in this here blog thingy, because I always marvel at the creativity and how much work had to go into them. And I mean work.
OK Go first causes a sensation in 2010 with the video for their song "This Too Shall Pass," which involved an incredibly complicated Rube Goldberg setup.
They actually had an earlier song and music video, "Here It Goes Again" in which they got incredibly creative with treadmills.
The band has also followed that up with a variety of other wild videos, including one that involves zero gravity, the video for "Upside Down And Inside Out. Since I'm a dog lover, I really enjoyed "White Knuckles" which involved a lot of wonderful and talented trained dogs.
And they've teamed up with Pilobolus in the song. "All Is Not Lost."
Their latest video involves 567 printers and lots and LOTS of wasted paper. (which, we're told was all recycled.)
The song and music video is called "Obsession." OK Go's music videos are better than their music, in general, but this particular song is pretty catchy. The video itself, though, must have taken incredible organization skills on the part of the band and the crew. I'd also would have hated to be the person who had to create all those stacks of paper at around 2:25 or 2:30 into the video.
Here's the video. I hope it doesn't remind you too much of office clerical work:
Labels: complexity, creativity, music, news, OK Go, paper, printers, viral video, work
NSFW: I Wouldn't Trust This Saint With Kids
Something is a bit wrong with
this statue's design, don't you think?
The Blackfriars Priory School in Adelaide, Australia thought it would be neato to have a statue honoring Saint Martin de Porres.
This particular saint spent a lifetime helping the poor and downtrodden in Peru during the 16th century. The statue would depict Saint Martin de Porres handing a loaf of bread to a needy child.
Sounds lovely. But judging from the rather NSFW photo, maybe the school should have reviewed the statue's design before installing it.
Because of the obvious mockery, the school has covered up the statue and have not decided what to do with it.
My suggestion is to give it to embattled Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is accused of having sexual relations in the past with people as young as 14 years old.
Moore was famously kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court twice when he was a judge. Once for refusing to get rid of a statute of the 10 Commandments.
However, I wonder if maybe this statute is more towards Moore's taste.
Labels: art, Australia, bad taste, mistakes, Saint Martin de Porres, statue, weird news
Bus Drives Weather Channel Photog Crazy; Ruins Live Shot, But Funny Anyway
The Weather Channel tried to show us the Georgia Dome
implosion this week. It didn't go well.
The other day, crews conducted a controlled explosion to bring down the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
The former home of the Atlanta Falcons was demolished now that the adjacent Mercedes-Benz Stadium is now open.
The Weather Channel videographer set up his camera at a perfect angle to capture the implosion.
Then, a photobomber ruined it. Definitely an ARGGG!! moment, judging from the bleeped out words of the videographer in the video you are about to see, and funny for us.
Labels: Georgia Dome, implosion, photobomb, viral video, Weather Channel
Roy Moore Is Stupid, But You Knew That. Another Piece Of Evidence
Roy Moore wants to sue the Washington Post and Al.com
for their reporting on Moore's sexual harassment. Both
organizations hope he does sue.
Roy Moore is angry.
The embattled Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Alabama has been in the headlines for more than a week now.
As practically everyone knows, several woman have come forward to report sexual harassment and molestation by Moore decades ago. One of the victims was 14 years old at the time
This all started with a very well-sourced article in the Washington Post. Moore says it's all lies, and he would sue the Post. So far, no lawsuit. I thought somebody must have told him to shut up. A lawsuit would open Moore to a process called discovery, in which he'd have to spill a lot of beans under oath.
That would give the public possibly lots more horrible details about Moore's past.
But, nope. Moore is now threatening to sue Al.com, Alabama's largest news organization. Al.com has followed up on the Washington Post report with more well-researched reporting on Moore's past. Moore's lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to Al.com for its reporting and threatened a libel suit.
If you want to boil it down to the simplist terms, to win a libel suit, you need to show that someone said or published something about you that they knew was untrue and that they intended to harm you.
Both the Washington Post and Al.com were careful to source their stories, got people to talk on the record, and corroborated statements given to them by the women who said Moore assaulted or harassed them.
In other words, Moore's threats to sue are just bluster. Just like Donald Trump, who threatened to sue the women who said he harassed, it was just a weak attempt to scare them into shutting up.
Problem is, the women in the Trump and Moore cases know libel law, especially since they've been lawyered up. The Washington Post and Al.com, being journalism outfits, know libel law even more.
Right now, Al.com is begging, begging Moore to sue them. That way, Al.com could counter sue. We'd get discovery, and it would all be easy-peasy one stop shopping news reporting for them.
I wish I was the lawyer for Al.com, because it seems like such an easy job, defending the organization against dumb bunnies like Moore and his lawyers.
For now, Al.com has responded to Moore's cease and desist by saying it stands by its reporting, and that like every political candidate, Moore is subject to scrutiny and analysis by the media.
The ball is back in Moore's lawyer's court. And I join the chorus: Please, please try and sue the Washington Post and Al.com. Then we'll know for sure all the details.
Labels: Al.com libel suit, Alabama, journalism, law, news, Roy Moore, sexual harassment, stupid, Washington Post
A Little Bit Of Love And Cuteness To Stave Off The Ugliness In The World
The kids in this photo are not major breaking national
news, but the way things are going, we all need
to make them headliners. Very sweet.
Even just scanning the headlines exposes us to a dreadful, depressing tableau of hate, incompetence, meanness, pettiness and general bad vibes.
As I've pointed out before in this blog thingy, we need antidotes to this every once in awhile.
Today's dose of good vibe medicine comes in the form of a viral video that was first posted on Instagram by Verlonda Jackson, who used her smart phone to video a moment when her son Tariq, 5, came home from kindergarten and was greeted by his sister Ava, 3.
Verlonda Jackson told ABC News the two siblings used to bicker fairly frequently, but their bond strengthened when Tariq enrolled in kindergarten. Ava missed him.
The mom said she pulled out her phone to video the greeting to show her husband, "Look, we're doing something right."
Yep! The Jackson family is doing something right. Let's try to get a lot of other people to be like this.
Here's the video to make you feel better about things, like it did to me:
Labels: good news, kindergarten, love, news, siblings, viral video
Aurora Web Cam Captures Incredible, Bright Meteor Instead
This looks like a daytime photo of a winter scene in Lapland,
northern Finland, but it's in the middle of the night. It's
bright because a brilliant meteor is shooting through the sky.
A guy named Tony Bateman in Lapland, in northern Finland, has set up a web cam to capture the Northern Lights, a frequent feature in that neck of the woods on clear, long winter nights there.
On a recent night, the aurora was so-so. You could see a faint green haze far to the north over the snowy dark landscape.
Then there's a HUGE surprise. As you can see in the video below, there was a huge meteor that turned night into day. Who knew you'd briefly need sunglasses in the dark winter night in Lapland?
Experts said the object was either a meteor or space junk re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
The web cam proprietor said the meteor set off a nasty shock wave that shook his cabin. Much like an even bigger meteor in Russia that did the same thing with damaging results back in ??
In this case, people in and near Finland heard loud bangs with the meteor in an area with a radius of a few hundred kilometers.
Here's the Finland meteor video. It's really cool:
Labels: cool, Finland, meteor, viral video
Do Trumpsters Think Hillary Is Actually President
Here's one guy who thinks Hillary Clinton should be
impeached from an office she doesn't hold
Jimmy Kimmel's team pulled one of his stunts this week, sending a roving reporter out onto the streets to ask Trump supporters whether Hillary Clinton should be impeached.
Of course you and I know that she can't, because she's not president.
However, as you'll find out in this video, the fact that Clinton does not currently hold an elective office is not going to stop the impeachment bandwagon against her.
I will be charitable and assume that the people interviewed in this clip were confusing the definition of the word "impeach" with that of "prosecute." Because I suppose if Clinton or anybody else did something illegal, they could be prosecuted.
Watch the video and you be the judge of what these people were thinking:
Labels: comedy, Hillary Clinton, impeach, Jimmy Kimmel, sad, viral video
A Frazzled SNL HR Director Confronts Sexual Harassment
A frazzled HR director tries to explain sexual harassment
policy on Saturday Night Lie
During Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" a beleaguered HR director appeared on air to help the anchor navigate sexual harassment rules.
The anchor aced the quiz, but as "Claire" the SNL HR director and everyone else knows, nobody seems to understand the rules of the workplace.
I'm sure Claire isn't the only fed up HR director in the nation right now, given how so many men just can't keep it in their pants.
Here's a funny, frazzled Claire to help us out with this:
Labels: issues, news, Saturday Night Live, sexual harassment, trends, video
Stunning Hypocrisy In Roy Moore Scandal: Molesters "Better" Than Democrats?
National embarrassment Roy Moore still has lots of
deluded defenders who think nothing is worse than a Democrat
It's time for you to vote for your U.S. Senate candidate. You have the choice between two guys. Here they are:
1. This one, a former prosecutor, in the past won the conviction of KKK members who bombed a church and killed four young girls.
2. The other one, in the past, molested a 14 year old girl.
You'd think the choice would be obvious, but that's not how the world works anymore, apparently. I had thought there was nothing the extreme right wing of the Republic Party could do that would shock me anymore.
Yet once again, I was proven wrong. In Alabama, it appears the molester has an excellent chance of winning the election, not the former prosecutor. That's because pedophilia can be ignored if the molesting candidate hates gays, liberals and wants to turn Christianity into a mandatory nationwide religion.
To backtrack: You might have heard about the Washington Post bombshell about ultra-conservative Roy Moore, who is seeking the Alabama U.S. Senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions left the Senate to become U.S. Attorney General.
Apparently, decades ago, Moore sexually molested a 14 year old girl, who went on the record with the story for the Washington Post this week.
While many people, including quite a few GOPers, condemned Moore for this behavior, there are a number of his defenders who made the wildest excuses for Moore. These excuses are just scary.
Yeah, a little hypocrisy at work here, no? And while we gawk and mock this Republican hypocricy, this whole Moore thing totally sets in place Alabama's reputation as a weird, scary place, at least in the political and "religious" side of things. People are suffering because of the likes of Moore.
Moore has famously said that being gay is such an abomination that gay people should be in jail. But apparently, sexual contact between consenting adults is a high crime if the people involved are of the same gender, but sexual contact between non-consenting people, even when one of them is not an adult is A-OK.
The contortions Moore's supporters are going through to boost Moore are beyond belief.
This being Alabama, the state's auditor, Jim Ziegler, justified Moore's behavior this way: "Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus."
Oh, really? I thought it was the Virgin Mary, and Joseph didn't boink Mary, no matter what her age was. But logic doesn't matter when you want to elect a bigot.
The Cullman, Alabama Times reports that one state representative actually said Moore's accusers should be prosecuted. For what, I don't know.
And check out this tweet by some loser named Carroll Bryant: "I'd rather have a pedophile in office rather than a democrat any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Pedophiles only screw kids while democrats screw everyone."
Obviously not every Republican and not everyone conservative is on Moore's side. However, the true believers are.
Mother Jones points out how Moore, again, does his biblical imagery to keep his evangelical base.
Because apparently, some true believers are so easy to snow over.
Check out Moore's successful fundraising email that went out right after the latest scandal came to light last week. His missive read in part:
"We are in the midst of a spiritual battle with those who want to silence our message. The forces of evil will lie, cheat, steal - even inflict physical harm - if they believe it will silence and shut up Christian conservatives like you and me....
That's why I ust be able to count on the help of God-fearing conservatives like you to stand with me at this critical moment."
Got that? Anyone who doesn't buy my holier than thou bullshit is the devil, is the clear message here.
It's not that others aren't trying to shake so called Alabama "evangelicals" awake.
Here's part of an editorial from the Alabama Political Reporter:
"What's it going to take before you realize that your family values, my-sin-is-better-than-yours-sin, conservative voting approach has produced a state government filled with lying cheating, sexually assaulting, money-grubbing criminals who have embarrassed us countless times, and on top of everything, mismanaged the hell out of this place?
"........Take a look around you. We're terrible as a state. We're near the bottom in public education, medical care, infrastructure, economy and upward mobility and at the top in infant mortality, poverty, obesity and political corruption.
This is what the Roy Moore Republican Party has brought Alabama. A government built on greed and hatefulness, on shunning anything different and thumbing our nose at any hint of progress."
In the National Review, writer and attorney David French suggests that evangelicals are actually showing no faith in their own faith with this situation.
French writes:
"I keep hearing these words from evangelicals; We've got no choice. The Democrats are after our liberties. They're seeking to destroy our way of life Some even go as far as to say that even if the allegations against Moore are true, they'll still hold their nose and put him in office to keep (Democrat) Jones from serving three years in the Senate.
I'm sorry, evangelicals, but your lack of faithy is far more dangerous to the Church than any senator, any president, or any justice of the Supreme Court. Do you really have so little trust in God that you believe it's justifiable - no, necessary - to ally with, defend, and even embrace corrupt men if you think it will save the Church?
Apparently the answer is yes. And it's proof that at least among some of the wacko right wing conservatives, their so called religious faith is completely hollow.
Which brings their "morality" down to the level of Moore and his ilk.
Labels: awful, hypocrisy, morality, news, politics, Roy Moore, scandal, stupid
Watch This Amazing 12 Year Old Blues Guitarist
Blues guitarist Toby Lee, age 12. Wow!
It's always fun to listen to really good blues guitarists.
Most blues guitarists seem to be grizzled old veterans, with lots of experience under their belts.
Not this guy. I stumbled across a blues guitarist named Toby Lee, who is now at the ripe old age of 12.
Looks like he has a bright long future. Great stage presense, too.
Here's a couple videos of performances by this guy. First one is great, second one is wonderful rendition of the Prince classic "Purple Rain." It's all awesome:
Here's his "Purple Rain"
Labels: cool, guitarist, music, news, Toby Lee, young
Woman Drops Hat, People Return It To Her In Best Possible Way
A woman accidentally dropped her hat from an upper floor of
a Houston parking garage during a parade to celebrate the
Houston Astros win in the World Series. But she got her hat back.
People in Houston, Texas were justifiably thrilled and happy that the Houston Astros won the World Series last week.
During the inevitable, huge parade to celebrate, lots of people on several floors of a large parking garage viewed the parade from above.
A woman near the top floor - eight stories up - accidentally dropped her hat. Gone forever as it headed toward the street far below, right?
Nope. People cooperated nicely to get the hat back to the lady in the best possible way. It's a small victory of decency in a world where decency seems out of fashion. So I'm totally happy with this.
Labels: fun, hat, Houston Astros, kindness, news, parade, viral video, World Series
Wacko Kenyan "Moral Leader" Appalled By Gay Lion Sex
Paul Goldstein's photo of two male lions in a romantic
embrace has freaked out Kenya's film censor.
So a guy named Paul Goldstein took a picture of two male lions in Kenya seemingly having sex, and a Kenyan "moral leader" said human gay people must have taught the lions to do that.
Yes, I know the crazy train runs all over the world, doesn't it?
According to the New York Daily News, Ezekiel Mutua the head of Kenya's Film Classification Board has this theory:
"These animals need counseling, because probably they have been influenced by gays who have gone to the national parks and behaved badly."
Mutua said the lions must have seen two gay guys going at it, and decided to copy the feat.
I guess that puts new meaning into the term "lion tamer."
Mutua, who clearly does not know much about wildlife (there often are same gender encounters among animals) marveled:
"I mean where on earth have you heard something like this happening. The demonic spirits inflicting in humans seem to have now caught up with animals."
Or the demonic spirits have infected people so badly that they freak out over everything that suggests anything gay.
Mutua, who I mentioned heads the Film Classification Board, is also freaking out about gay themes in movies, no matter how benign.
His agency banned Disney's "Andi Mack" because the show added a gay character. "Any attempt to introduce gay programming in Kenya will be met with the full force of the law," Mutua said.
I guess Mutua never go to Kenya being a gay guy myself. Even if I promise not to teach lions how to have gay sex. Lions just aren't my type anyway.
Labels: gay, homophobia, Kenya, lions, strange, weird news
Halloween Proved Donald Trump Jr Is Stupid
Donald Trump Jr. took this Halloween pic of
his daughter Chloe to make a stupid political point,
and boy that did not go well at all.
I got a chuckle over the mini-uproar reacting to a Tweet sent out by Donald Trump Jr., son of our "illustrious" president.
He took a sad pic of his young daughter Chloe at Halloween with this message: "I'm going to take half of Chloe's candy tonight & give it to some kids who sat at home. It's never to (sic) early to teach her about socialism."
As many respondents and The Guardian pointed out, this was a, um, flawed analysis of socialism. Of course he was also using his young daughter as a political prop and demonstrating his own selfishness, but we've come to expect that from the Trump family.
A good response came from Elite Bear Agents:
"My man, 'socialism' was her getting that free candy in the first place. You taking half for reasons she can't understand is capitalism."
Then there's nice from Nick Pettigrew:
"Your kid went begging from hard-working people for candy. The kid who stayed home got theirs because their parents worked to pay for it. In your simile, if anyone's the socialist, it's Chloe."
I liked this response from Matt Blackwell, too:
"It's telling that junior thinks that 'walking around getting gifts from people' is a good metaphor for 'earning money.'"
The ever-reliable and wise J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, also responded beautifully with this sarcastic missive to Junior:
"Fill her bucket with old candy left by her great-grandfather, then explain that she has more because she's smarter than all the other kids."
I'll close with my favorite snipe at Junior, given the tax "reform" plan Junior's dad is pushing: Amir said this:
"Or you could just take 99% of Chloe's candy, eat it, and tell her to wait for it to trickle down."
Labels: capitalism, Donald Trump Jr. Trumps, Halloween, news, sarcasm, socialism, stupid, Twitter
Seth Meyers Helpfully Unpacks Manafort Indictments, Fox News Emojis
Seth Meyers ever so helpfully got us to wade through the
Manafort mess and how Fox News broke a major scandal
Leave it to Seth Meyers, in his "Closer Look" segment, to help us understand the rather confusing swirl of events involving Monday's Manafort indictment and the whole thing with possible Russian collusion in his campaign.
Fox News was NOT helpful in this regard, as Meyers points out, but Fox News did uncover another grim scandal of national importance. A Google emoji of a cheeseburger depicted the cheese UNDER the meat rather than on top.
Of course, this was much more important than the Manafort stuff, so I'm glad Fox got to the bottom of the cheeseburger scandal.
Without further ado, here's Seth Meyers unpacking the whole mess of news yesterday:
Labels: comedy, emoji, Fox News, Manafort, scandal, Seth Meyers, weird news
Vermont's Best Mugshot Of The Year
A teenager, home alone in the southern Vermont town of Marlboro, called police at around 3:30 this morning saying there was a strange man in the house, sleeping.
Which led to Vermont's best mug shot of the year, as you can see in this post.
According to NECN and other area media outlets, the strange man in the house turned out to be Sean J. Barber, 43, of nearby Wilmington. Police said they found Barber sleeping in the teen's house, in a clow costume, drunk and possessing cocaine.
So I guess he's in trouble, given the trespassing and drug possession charges he faces. Definitely a sad clown look, don't you think?
Plus the embarassment of the mug shot, of course.
Labels: arrest, clown, drugs, mug shot, Vermont, weird news
Spam, The Meat Product, Is One Of The Most Stolen Items In Hawaii
Spam is a popular choice of theft among
criminals in Hawaii lately.
The paradise state of Hawaii is being hit by a crime wave.
A weird one.
Thieves are making off with lots and lots and lots of Spam.
Of course we'd all like it if someone were to steal the spam junk that we get in our inboxes and take it away, but that's not what I'm talking about.
It's Spam the meat product, says television station KHON.
Thieves, a large proportion of them drug addicts, are stealing it so often that some stores have been locking up the Spam, like they do watches and medications to protect their stocks.
Apparently, there's two reasons why Spam is suddenly such a hot commodity on the crime circuit. For one, a lot of people in Hawaii love Spam for some reason, so it's easy to sell to gain cash to feed drug addictions.
Secondly, Hawaii lawmakers recently passed a law raising the threshold level for felony theft from $300 to $750, says KHON.
Thieves often try to stay just under that $750 threshold and they've discovered an easy way to do that is to just steal boxes or shopping carts full of Spam.
Of course, there are other items that are newly popular with thieves with the raised felony threshold, such as clothing, electronics and power tools.
But Spam seems to be the biggy. This would make a great weird episode of Hawaii Five-0 wouldn't it?
Worse, some of the criminals are getting more brazen. Instead of just running when confronted by store security, a few of them have increasingly been responding with fists, knives, even guns.
Which puts these thieves back into the felony category, but I guess they didn't think that through very well.
We hope this crime trend doesn't spread. I'm not a huge fan of Spam, but I'd hate to see stores hit with thefts like this.
Posted by Matt Sutkoski at 2:23 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: crime, Hawaii, Spam, weird news
Right Wing Wackos Have Interesting Theories On News Events
So here's one from the conspiracy kooks: One wacko
theory says that Ellen Degeneres was somehow involved
in the Las Vegas mass shooting. Um.....
It's been quite a week for extreme right wingers, nationalists, neo-nazis, and all wackos on the far right.
They've spent the week explaining things to us and proposing solutions to problems that are just stunning in their brilliance and creativity.
I'll offer just a few examples
1. ELLEN DEGENERES MASTERMINDED LAS VEGAS SHOOTING
Milo Yiannopoulous, the zany former Breitbart writer who we learned through Buzzfeed that he collaborated with white supremicists, has solved the big Las Vegas mass shooting mystery. The assault, the nation's worst in modern history, left 59 people dead, including the shooter, who committed suicide.
Milo's explanation is brilliant. Of course, he raises more questions than he answers. First, Milo said there is an "extraordinary lack of curiosity in the media" about the shooting because the guy who did it was white.
He also noted the media stopped asking about the security guard who first encountered the shooter in the hotel. He went "missing" and avoided the media until he appeared on Ellen Degeneres' show this week.
Milo noted that the guard was "sweating and panting like he'd been briefed to say certain things and not others" while being interviewed by Ellen. Moreover, Ellen supposedly has a "relationship with the hotel chain," and that, of course, proves that she was in on it, or maybe even masterminded it for all I know, but Milo didn't go quite that far.
Milo didn't offer a motive, but the right wing hates gay people, who they believe all are capable of unspeakable crimes. Ellen is gay. Then again, so is Milo, so this is a bit complicated.
2. JOURNALISTS SHOULD BE SHOT IF THEY ASK QUESTIONS/DO THEIR JOB
In May, then Montana Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte assaulted Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs because Jacobs was aggressively asking him questions, which reporters are supposed to do.
Gianforte won the election anyway, and ended up being convicted of misdemeanor assault. Gianforte apologized to Jacobs, and donated $50,000 to a press freedom group. It all ended well, right?
Well, Karen Marshall doesn't think so. She's with the Gallatin County, Montana Republican Women, and she said had Jacobs questioned her like he did Gianforte, she would have shot him.
Get that? If a journalist asks obnoxious questions, they deserve to be murdered. Why should the public, via the media, know what an elected official does or thinks? It's none of our business, right? Democracy, is stupid, Marshall seems to think.
So yeah, Marshall is creepy and someone to definitely stay away from.
3. ROY MOORE SAYS GAY MARRIAGE WORSE THAN SLAVERY
I learned this week I've been committing a crime against humanity since 2012. That's when I married Jeff, my same sex husband. We're happy, but Roy Moore came into the picture to set things straight.
We learned from Moore that gay marriage is worse than slavery.
First, some background. Moore just won the Alabama Republican primary for U.S Senate to fill the now empty seat of Jeff Sessions, who is now the very odious U.S. Attorney General. Moore won fame for, among many things, being kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal court orders to remove a 10 Commandments statue and for telling state judges to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell ruling legalizing gay marriage.
Moore is still very, very bitter about gay marriage. This statement by Moore came out last November, but there's no evidence that he's changed his mind.
"In 1857, the United States Supreme Court did rule that black people were property. Of course that contradicted the Constitution, and it took a civil war to overturn it. But this ruling in Obergefell is even worse in a sense because it forces not only people to recognize marriage other than the institution ordained by God and recognized by nearly every state in the union, it says that you now must do away with the definition of marriage and make it between two person of the same gender or leading on, as one of the dissenting justices said, to polygamy, to multi-partner marriages."
Of course, if you don't want to be gay married, and don't want such ceremonies in your church, you're free to avoid that. And since when did Obergefell legalize polygamy?
And two guys or gals marrying each other is worse than holding someone captive for a lifetime and forcing him to work endlessly for no pay?
Oh, well.
WACKIEST OF ALL: HOLLYWOOD FULL OF DEVIL WORSHIPPING CANNABALS
There's a so-called pastor names Rodney Howard-Browne who took part in a "laying of hands" prayer on Donald Trump in the Oval Office last summer. He's got some interesting ideas on what really goes on in Hollywood.
And he says it's much worse than the extremely icky revelations about Harvey Weinstein.
Howard-Browne informs us that Hollywood is rife with devil worshippers who conduct human sacrifices and drink the blood of children.
And I just thought most Hollywood actors were sort of narcisstic hedonists, but otherwise pretty harmless.
Labels: news, obnoxious, religion, silly, wackos, wild
Just Because We Need It: Dog Gets Great Gift, Ever...
Annual Google Search Video Reflects An Exhausting ...
News Bloopers Of 2017 A Good Time Waster To Close ...
Addams Family Dance To The Ramones, Making Everyth...
Our Yearly Tradition: Darlene Love Gives Us "Chris...
Woman Gets The BEST Help Decorating Her Christmas ...
Update: Awful Pit Bull Ban In Montreal Has Been Di...
Proof That I'm Right: Christmas Music Drives Us Cr...
NSFW Citizen Journalist's House Fire Report Leads ...
Anti-Trump Social Media Junkies Are Getting Scary ...
Debbie Harry And Joan Jett REALLY Let Us Have It W...
Stupid YouTuber Cements Head In Microwave: Creativ...
Proof The GOP Wants The Poor To Just Shut Up And D...
OK Go, Kings Of Wild Music Videos, Are At It Again...
Bus Drives Weather Channel Photog Crazy; Ruins Liv...
Roy Moore Is Stupid, But You Knew That. Another Pi...
A Little Bit Of Love And Cuteness To Stave Off The...
Aurora Web Cam Captures Incredible, Bright Meteor ...
A Frazzled SNL HR Director Confronts Sexual Harass...
Stunning Hypocrisy In Roy Moore Scandal: Molesters...
Woman Drops Hat, People Return It To Her In Best P...
Wacko Kenyan "Moral Leader" Appalled By Gay Lion S...
Seth Meyers Helpfully Unpacks Manafort Indictments...
Spam, The Meat Product, Is One Of The Most Stolen ...
Right Wing Wackos Have Interesting Theories On New...
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line282
|
__label__wiki
| 0.955906
| 0.955906
|
Tag Archives: Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Movie Online
Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Movie
Hector is a psychiatrist in London who runs a routine-life without surprises. He earns well, he has many patients, he has a girlfriend, a good home, everything is fine. But he feels restless, something gnaws at him, the question of whether he even knows what happiness means. And if he does not know that, how can he help his patients?
For Hector something has to change, he has to figure out how to be happy. Therefore, he embarks on a journey that takes him across China and Africa to the United States, always on the search for what makes people happy. What he learns, changed him, until he realizes what makes him happy – and how close to it he is to lose. Watch movies free online from virus less connection.
Had not Simon Pegg in the lead role, which is weird per se, his character and the situations in which they tackle, but also provide you with a humorous touch, then the film would run the risk of quickly slipping into too serious. But that does not mean that there would not be very serious moments. There is, after all, Hector is confronted on his quest with one’s own mortality. Now Download Full Movies online with high definition quality without pay any money.
Amusing this trip is mainly but also because in small roles act known stars like Jean Reno and Christopher Plummer. Wherever it verschlägt Hector, as a spectator one finds a familiar face. This is also helpful, since these figures are not particularly strongly developed but been awarded by their mime personality.
This entry was posted in 2014 Hollywood Movies, Adventure Movies, Comedy Movies, Drama Movies and tagged Best Movie Stream Online, free watch online movies, Hollywood Movie Streaming, Watch Action Movie Stream, Watch Adventure Movie Stream, Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Movie, Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Movie Online, Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Online Movie Stream, Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Online Stream, Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Stream, Watch Hector and the Search for Happiness Movie Stream, Watch online 2014 movies, Watch online 2014 movies stream, Watch Online Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Movie, Watch Online Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Movie Stream, Watch Online Hector and the Search for Happiness 2014 Stream, watch online movie stream, Watch Online movies, Watch Online Sci-Fi Movie Stream, Watch Thriller Movie Stream on August 1, 2014 by admin.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line284
|
__label__cc
| 0.574762
| 0.425238
|
Farkhunda and Lahore killings: Acts of violent sexual perversion by “out of control” men
by Carol Anne Grayson
Sun 22nd Mar 2015
Horrific assault by a frenzied mob violating the body of a female
Let’s call a spade a spade! The frenzied killing of a woman by a mob in Afghanistan, beating her to death and setting her body alight for allegedly burning a copy of the Quran was NOT an act to defend the honour of Islam. It had the effect of doing the exact opposite in a very public arena. The irony is, those who claim to be protecting their faith, think nothing of violating the principles of its teachings. The men who participated (there were no women visible on film taking part in this appallingly cruel incident) initiated crowd acts of sexual perversion, males clearly “turned on” by their “out of control” brutality in dishonoring the body of a female alleged to have mental health problems.
Perverted pleasure dragging the burnt remains of a man in Lahore following the bombings of 2 churches.
As someone who once worked in forensic psychiatry it is not difficult to recognize a sexual element to the pathological patterns of behaviour though perpetrators often refuse to recognize it in themselves. I also observed this in the crowd violence which led to the beating and burning to death of two men following the Lahore church bombing incidents in Pakistan last week. The males involved were charged up, excited and almost “orgasmic” in their celebrations and put Christianity to shame. In fact some did not even want me to discuss this killing such was the disgrace to their community and fear of violent backlash.
Men turned on by a blood and burning lust, the ponography of violence
The lynching of Naeem and Babar Noman was deeply disturbing to observe on film, watching faces revel in their perversity, see following article.
Farkhunda, (age 27) the victim of the prolonged and bloody assault in Kabul was alleged to have a history of mental illness according to her mother. Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty (RFERL) who highlighted the case wrote,
“a security official quoted the family of the victim as telling investigators that she had been suffering from mental illness for many years,
Footage obtained by RFE/RL shows a large crowd comprised mainly of young men repeatedly kicking and beating the woman. Some throw stones and buckets at her as she struggles to get off the ground.
The assault on the woman then continues as she lies on the ground, clearly unconscious and bleeding profusely.
Some men in the crowd can be heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”).”
Observing site where a woman’s body was burnt, many watched, no one intervened
The men who attacked Farkhunda and their supporters are deluded if they think their actions were in defence of Allah. The sick and mentally ill are vulnerable and must be protected. A society is judged by how it treats the ill and the poor in its midst. Compassion is a very important aspect of Islam, the word appearing many times within the Quran to remind us to uphold this practice.
The reality is, these men and those involved in this incident committed a serious criminal offence of a pathological nature which manifested itself in a form of violent pornography not acceptable in Islam. We must condemn such perverts for that is what they are, men who are so inadequate in their learning they clearly do not have even a basic concept of mental health issues, yet chose to act as judge, jury and executioner. These men along with those who pre-judged two men in Lahore are the sad failures of society, their mothers on learning of their proclivities would no doubt be horrified and ashamed of giving birth to such cruel and calculated individuals.
In Islam, men are taught to respect women, to lower their gaze so as not to be aroused by the female form. These men enjoyed violating a woman’s body, making physical contact with every area of her being and aroused themselves to ecstacy in doing so. Those in Kabul excelled in cruelty, scaling the heights of misogynistic depravity. We must condemn these lovers of violent porn and their despicable actions.
In Christianity, followers are taught to follow the teachings found in the parable of the Good Samaritan who goes to the aid of a stranger in need when others either engaged in violence or walked on by. The crowd in Lahore, beat, kicked, dragged and incinerated two innocent men to satisfy their blood lust. Both incidents showed the voyeuristic nature of individuals that watched, photographed, made their own “snuff” videos but no effort to intervene to stop the killing.
How many women would want to be in the company or feel safe with such sexual predators who get turned on by beating and burning a person to death. These men are the pits of society, the shit on the shoe, men unable or unwilling to control themselves yet so arrogant and self-deceiving they think they have the right to control and judge others! Society must hold them to account!
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad . She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.
This article first appeared at https://activist1.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/farkhunda-and-lahore-killings-acts-of-violent-sexual-perversion-by-out-of-control-men/
MORE FROM ASIA
Monsanto's 'Hand of God': Planned Obsolescence Of The Indian Farmer
Reflections on China’s South Sea Trouble Thomas Riggins
Cultural Zoroastrianism: The Commonality amongst the South-Central-West Asians
Pakistan government shames itself over Israeli drone connection… no friend to Gazans
Mutant Forms: The Problem of Cross-breeding in Pakistani Politics
MORE BY CAROL ANNE GRAYSON
Penrose Inquiry: “Bad Blood”, biological terrorism and cover-up under a failed western democracy
Newcastle Unites to give Pegida the push: One message “We’re black and white”
John Cantlie writes from within Islamic State captivity… what messages should we take from his article?
Two activists pay tribute to Palestinian minister killed at human rights day ceremony
“We Stand With Shaker”: Tortured, ill, detained in Guantanamo, join new campaign to bring him home
Carry out the legacy of Hugo Chavez!
Interview: Michael Albert on the Communal Councils in Venezuela
“The People Won the Vote, Now The People Must Become the Government”
The myths about Marxism
men lahore body crowd mental beating think sexual farkhunda islam burning such control must society violent incident themselves actions killing
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line287
|
__label__wiki
| 0.579933
| 0.579933
|
The 5.56 X 45mm “Timeline”
When Guns Are Outlawed. . .
S-2Shop
The 5.56 X 45mm “Timeline” – 1983
A Chronology of Development by Daniel E. Watters
Colt, on behalf of JSSAP‘s Future Rifle Program, begins work on a flat-top M16A2. (This is not the first time that Colt has built flat-top M16-type rifles. In the 1970s, Colt produced a pair of prototype sniper rifles: the M16A1 Special High Profile (RO655) and the M16A1 Special Low Profile (RO656). The “High Profile” mounted its optics to the carrying handle while the “Low Profile” was of a flat-top configuration. Colt engineer Henry Tatro was involved in both the early and current projects.)
Under Secretary of the US Army Ambrose encourages TRADOC to update current doctrine based upon the plans for a caseless ACR.
Production and deliveries of the M231 FPW are complete.
The US makes a FMS of 21,000 M16A1 to Lebanon.
The US makes a FMS of 118 M16A1 and 18 M203 to Honduras.
Gabon purchases a mix of ~2,000 M16A1 and Model 653 carbines.
Elisco Tool Company purchases ArmaLite. Production of the AR-18 rifle by Sterling ends.
The SEALs remove the last of their Stoner LMGs from active duty.
RSAF Enfield is tasked with comparing the XL70 and XL73 to the requirements set down by GSR 3518. The IW is found to be longer than specified, both the IW and LSW weigh more than the stated requirement, the LSW has yet to meet its 8,000 MRBF target, and the LSW in automatic mode is inadequate for suppressive fire. On the positive side, the IW with SUSAT is found to be more accurate than the L1A1 SLR and L2A3 SMG. (However, the deck was stacked, as the SLR was reportedly not fitted with the SUIT during testing.)
IMBEL‘s Fabrica de Itajuba develops a prototype 5.56mm rifle using a number of FAL parts.
The Omani armed forces receive Steyr AUG.
Senegal purchases ~250 FAMAS.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) receives delivery of FAMAS.
The Czech military assigns creation of an AK-74 variant to the Prototypa design bureau.
The US provides 224 M203 to El Salvador as part of a military assistance package.
Early:
Colt terminates the South Korean license agreement for default. The South Koreans, in turn, rescind the license agreement, but request that the MOU remain in effect.
SIG‘s Bruno Schwaller files an US patent application for the co-joinable magazine design eventually used in the SG550.
The US Army deallocates $285,000 in a contract modification to Adventure Line Mfg. Co. Inc.
Aberdeen releases the report “Technical Feasibility Test of M16A1E1 Rifle.” Out of the 27 criteria used in evaluation, the M16A1E1 met 19, partially met 5, and failed 3. Some of the problems are blamed on the extremely poor quality of the Lake City XM855E1(FN) cartridges. The major criticism of the rifle centers on the ejection pattern, which results in firers to the right of the rifle being struck by hot cartridge cases. This characteristic was carried over from the M16A1, and there had been training incidents in the past where the adjacent shooter would lose muzzle awareness upon being struck by hot brass and negligently discharge his weapon. In some instances, this had resulted in neighboring shooters being shot, and in certain cases, killed. As a result, this characteristic is classified as a “Catastrophic/Occasional” deficiency. Also noted are marginal firing pin energy and buffer failure in cold temperatures. These are classified as shortcomings.
The US Army awards a $12,682,000 contract modification to FN related to the M249.
The Canadian government grants $1.7 million to Diemaco for the Small Arms Replacement Program (SARP). This paves the way for the eventual replacement of Canada’s 7.62mm NATO rifles and LMG with 5.56mm NATO counterparts.
The British ITDU evaluates Tascorama and Ring Sight optics as possible SA80 secondary sights.
The Swiss Federal Council selects the SIG SG541 over the W+F SG C42 to become the Swiss Army’s next service rifle.
The US Army awards a $3,360,000 delivery order to Colt related to the M16 for FMS.
A BRL representative attends a meeting with personnel of the Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) Project Office. The subject of the meeting is the unacceptably high lot rejection rates of early production M855 Ball and M856 Tracer manufactured at Lake City. The rejected lots fail to meet the accuracy specification, and Lake City has indicated to the SAW Project Office that they believe the government-furnished test barrels might be contributing to the problem. The result of the meeting is a joint recommendation, by the BRL and the SAW Project Office, to conduct a three-part test at the BRL free-flight range facility.
Picatinny awards a $1,140,000 contract modification to AAI for ACR caseless ammunition RDT&E.
The US Army awards a $1,211,000 contract modification to Cooper Industries Inc.
The US Army awards $84,000 and $29,000 contract modifications to Colt related to the M16 for FMS.
Phase B of British Ordnance Board Trials begins for the XL70E3 IW and the XL73E2 LSW. The LSW is now configured for closed-bolt firing only. The weapons have been fitted with 1-in-7″ twist barrels and the test ammunition is NATO spec.
With test materiel and funding provided by the SAW Project Office, the BRL begins the first phase of testing of the Lake City M855 and M856. An accuracy check is performed using the Kart-manufactured barrels supplied to Lake City. Testing includes rejected lots of M855/M856, control lots of the Belgian SS109/L110, and handloaded ammunition using 52 grain Sierra Benchrest bullets, in both Lake City cartridge cases and commercial match grade cases.
L. James Sullivan and Robert L. Waterfield, on behalf of CIS, receive US Patent #4,445,418 titled “Drum Magazine for a Gun.”
Rock Island Arsenal employee, Loren Brunton files a patent application for the design of a M16 upper receiver incorporating an improved case deflector.
The establishment of the US Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command (AMCCOM) recombines ARRCOM and ARRADCOM. AMCCOM is headquartered at Rock Island. The Picatinny R&D facilities are renamed the Army Armament Research and Development Center (ARDC).
USAIS publishes “Individual and Collective Training Plan (ICTP) for the Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW).”
Colt learns that Springfield Armory, Inc. is attempting to sell M16-type rifles to El Salvador.
Picatinny awards a $243,000 contract modification to AAI for ACR caseless ammunition RDT&E.
LEW completes construction of 100,000th R4 rifle.
The US Army awards a $437,000 contract modification to Adventure Line Mfg. Co. Inc. for FMS.
The British ITDU publishes a report on Radway Green-manufactured magazines for the SA80.
Orlite Engineering’s Azriel Kadim receives US Patent #4,391,055 titled “Ammunition Magazine.”
The US Army awards a $358,000 contract to Colt related to the M16.
The military specification for the M231 FPW, MIL-S-63348A(AR), is amended for the third time.
L. James Sullivan, on behalf of CIS, files another US patent application for the lockwork mechanism of the Ultimax 100.
The US Army awards a $4,849,000 delivery order and deallocates $1,410,000 in a contract modification to Colt related to the M16. The Army also deallocates $653,000 from a delivery order to Colt for FMS.
The BRL begins the second phase of testing of the Lake City M855 and M856. The tests consist of aeroballistic range firings to determine the aerodynamic and flight characteristics of the Lake City and FN ammunition, using downloaded propellant charges to simulate ranges out to 800 meters.
Colt files suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois against Springfield and its sister company Rock Island Armory, Inc. for patent infringement and infringement of federally registered and common law trademarks, false advertising and designation of origin, unfair competition, misappropriation, dilution of distinctive trademarks, and tortious interference with contracts. Colt alleges unauthorized use of Colt’s production trade secrets. Springfield responds claiming that it copied the weapon by reverse engineering.
A South Korean M16 sales agreement is concluded between Daewoo and a US company (Springfield?) to supply 12,500 spare parts for about $127,000. Delivery of the parts is stopped by a court injunction brought by Colt Industries against the US company.
ARRADCOM awards a $679,000 contract modification to HK for ACR caseless ammunition RDT&E.
The SIG SG541 is type-classified by the Swiss Army under the designation Stgw. 90. SIG receives a credit worth 85 million Swiss Francs for a pilot production run of 15,000 Stgw. 90 rifles. This is in hopes of a 1986 delivery date.
The British ITDU publishes the report “The Final Evaluation of Small Arms for the 80s to meet GSR 3518.” Of interest is the statement:
“During all activities the IW proved itself to be a robust, reliable weapon that suffered from few stoppages… The modifications that had been incorporated were, in the main, very successful and the majority of the problems previously noted have now been overcome. There are still a few points that require attention but these are all minor….”
Finding that Springfield Armory had copied Colt’s production secrets, the District Court grants a preliminary injunction. Springfield appeals the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Abandoning its reverse engineering claim, Springfield Armory now claims that the weapon cannot be reverse engineered. From this claim, Springfield argues that its inability to mass produce the M16 establishes the failure of Colt’s patents on rifle parts to comply with 35 U.S.C. Sec. 112 p 1.
Colt’s Seth Bredbury and Harold Waterman, Jr. file a patent application for the new M16A2-type forearms. Waterman also files a separate patent for the M16A2’s improved buttstock.
L. James Sullivan, on behalf of CIS, files an US patent application for the “Constant Recoil” design of the Ultimax 100.
The M16A2 is type-classified as “Standard A”. The USMC places an initial order for 26,028 rifles.
AMCCOM awards a $40,000 contract modification to Colt related to the 1967 Licensing Agreement.
The Canadian SARP plan receives final approval.
L. James Sullivan, on behalf of CIS, receives US Patent #4,416,186 titled “Sear Buffer.”
AMCCOM awards a $694,000 contract to Sanchez Enterprises Inc.
AMCCOM awards $29,000 and $26,000 contract modifications to Colt related to the 1967 Licensing Agreement.
AMCCOM awards $39,000 and $33,000 contracts to Cooper Industries Inc.
(Next: 5.56mm 1984)
by Daniel E. Watters, Small Arms Historian
Post questions or comments at The 5.56mm Timeline’s Facebook page.
« Return to Top of Page »
Publication: 12/10/1998
Last Revised: 05/17/2009
This article was originally published at The Gun Zone — The Gunperson’s Authoritative Internet Information Resource. My friend and mentor Dean Speir has graciously hosted my articles at TGZ for nearly 16 years. These articles would likely have never appeared online without his constant encouragement and assistance.
With TGZ’s closure in early 2017, Dean encouraged me to find a new home for my scholarship so it wouldn’t be lost in the dustbin of the Internet. Loose Rounds has welcomed me with open arms. In the future, I intend to expand my legacy TGZ articles and add new contributions here at Loose Rounds.
5.56mm Timeline Links
5.56mm 'Prologue'
5.56mm 1957
5.56mm Propellant
Fléchette / SPIW
Multiplex / SALVO
Daniel E. Watters' suggested syllabus
The Black Rifle by R. Blake Stevens and Edward C. Ezell. Second Edition. Collector Grade Publications, Toronto, Ontario, 1992.
The Great Rifle Controversy by Edward C. Ezell. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, 1984.
The M16 Controversies by Thomas L. McNaugher. Praeger Publishers, New York, NY, 1984.
The History and Development of the M16 Rifle and its Cartridge by David R. Hughes. Armory Publications, Oceanside, CA, 1990.
The SPIW: The Deadliest Weapon that Never Was by R. Blake Stevens and Edward C. Ezell. Collector Grade Publications, Toronto, Ontario, 1985.
Black Rifle II: The M16 into the 21st Century by Christopher R. Bartocci. Collector Grade Publications, Cobourg, Ontario, 2004.
The Last Enfield - SA80: The Reluctant Rifle by Steve Raw. Collector Grade Publications, Cobourg, Ontario, 2003.
Daniel E. Watters' other TGZ articles
Origins of the Dum Dum
M1 Carbine Wildcats
Miniguns and the Movies
© 2019 LooseRounds.com • Powered by GeneratePress
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line289
|
__label__cc
| 0.53616
| 0.46384
|
Kenneth Gerald "Jerry" Taylor, Sr.
Kenneth Gerald Taylor, Sr. “Jerry”, age 82 went to be with his Lord and Savior on Friday, June 28, 2019 in Odessa, TX. He was born Sunday, April 4, 1937 in Wichita Falls, TX. to George Allen Taylor and Helen Hayman Taylor.
Family members left to cherish his love and memory are his wife: Ernestine Nora Taylor; sons: Kenneth Gerald Taylor, Jr. “Kenny” of Tyler, TX, Jimmy Don Taylor “JD” and Tim Allen Taylor “Skeet”, both of Odessa, TX; brother: Jack Clint Taylor of Wichita Falls, TX; 9 grandchildren: Star Rothrock, Sarah Jan Lewellen, Jessica Erin Taylor, Sarah Mastin, Rachel Taylor, Dana Star Gerber, Alexander Holland Taylor, Ty Anthony Taylor and Andy William Taylor; 18 great-grandchildren: Sadie Rothrock, Laurel Rothrock, Sean Colton Martin, Russel Samuel Martin, Spencer Taylor Martin, Kaleigh Eve Lewellen, Addison Jewel Lewellen, Cross Taylor Lewellen, Cash Spencer Lewellen, Thomas Scott Driver, Mandy Grace Bunting, Margaret Beth Bunting, Ember Rain Hobson, Allie Mae Taylor, Aubrey Jade Taylor, Kaylee Ann Wells, Keaton Anthony Taylor, and Zachery Ryan Taylor; and great-great grandchildren: Hayden Ramirez.
He is preceded in death by both his parents; brother: Jim Allen Taylor; and sisters: Norma Sue Taylor and Marsha Ann Taylor.
Funeral Services will be 1:00 pm Wednesday, July 3, 2019 at Second Baptist Church in Odessa with the interment to follow at the Odessa II section of the Ector County Cemetery. Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel.
Karen K. Herrera
Karen K. Herrera, age 74, of Odessa, passed from this life on Monday, July 1, 2019. She was born in Des Moines, IA on June 10, 1945 to the late Chalmer and Velma (McIntosh) Efnor. She was a legal secretary for 40 years and until recently had worked as a medical records clerk at Basin Orthopedic Surgical Specialists.
Those left to cherish her love and memory are her son: Philip Snyder and wife Beverly and their daughter Elizabeth of Plano; daughter: Debbie Mossbarger and husband David and their children: Alice Frost and husband Chase of Odessa, Emily Mossbarger, and Aiden Mossbarger; daughter: Anne Greenlaw and husband Ronald of Friendswood and their two children; sister-in-law: Beverly Efnor of Phoenix, AZ; and numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her son: Paul Snyder; twin brother: Kent Efnor; and grandson: Joseph Snyder.
A Memorial Mass will be held at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Saturday, July 13, 2019 at 10:00 am and her remains will be inurned at the church.
Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel.
In lieu of flowers, donations to St. Barnabas Epsicopal Church, 4141 Tanglewood Lane, Odessa, TX 79762 or to Family Promise, 1354 E. 6th St. Odessa, TX 79761 are appreciated.
Michael Ray McClung
Michael Ray McClung, age 66, passed from this life Tuesday, July 2, 2019 in Odessa, TX. He was born Tuesday, December 16, 1952 in Odessa, TX to Annie Louise and Homer McClung, Jr. He was a retired machinist.
Michael was a hard worker and an honest man. He was a quiet person, but extremely caring. He loved his family and his grandchildren were his life.
Those left to cherish his love and memory are his son: Michael “Russell” Blazier and wife Anna of Elgin, TX; sisters: Peggy McClung Spruill of Odessa, Martha McGill of Dallas, Judy McClung Gray of Odessa and Jane McClung Mashburn of Alabama; grandchildren: Ayden Michael and Kyndra Elizabeth; and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.
He is preceded in death by his parents.
Graveside memorial services will be Saturday, July 6, 2019 at 1:00 pm at Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel.
Vicki Denise Felkins
Vicki Denise Felkins, age 52, passed away at her home in Odessa on Tuesday, July 2, 2019. She was born Tuesday, January 24, 1967 in Odessa to the late Luther McKinley and Reba Miller. She married Louis Felkins on April 10, 2009 in Odessa. Vicki was a jack of all trades and had worked as a cook and caretaker.
Those left to cherish her love and memory are her husband: Louis Felkins of Odessa; daughters: Victoria Hildebrand and husband Collin of Grand Junction, CO, Reba Manning and husband Justin of Odessa, Leanna Greer and husband Caleb of Odessa, and Erica Montoya and partner Gerry of San Antonio; step-daughters: Misty Hernandez and husband Mikey, Patty Villanueva and husband Alex, and Amber Gray and husband Oliver, all of Odessa; brothers: Charles DeWayne Bryant, Rodney McKinley, Terry McKinley and Donald McKinley, all of Odessa; and loved her grandchildren.
Her parents precede her in death.
The family will gather to celebrate her life and share memories on Sunday, July 7, 2019 at Acres West 24 Hour Chapel from 2:00 to 6:00 pm.
Della Phillips Bryant
Della Phillips Bryant, age 64, of Pflugerville, TX passed away at Cornerstone Hospital in Round Rock, TX on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. She was born in Lamesa, TX on Monday, September 20, 1954 to the late Charles Edward Jackson and Murl Maxine (Sanford) Toney Montgomery. The only child born to this union, Della was the youngest of eight children born to Murl Montgomery. She grew up in Odessa, TX where she was a member of the Church of God in Christ under the leadership of Rev. Elder Parks. Through the guidance of her grandmother, Ardella Jackson, she was a dedicated member of the Sunshine Band. At the age of 19, she moved her membership to Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church. She graduated from Ector Junior Senior High school in 1973 and worked as a Collection Supervisor for 10 years at the Odessa Women and Children's Hospital.
Della moved to Austin, TX in 1986, where she united with Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church and later moved her membership to Friendly Will Baptist Church where she was on the Usher Board. Shortly after the move to Austin, she began working at St. David's Hospital. In 1989, she moved on to the State of Texas at Austin State Hospital, starting in the billing department and later moving to Nursing Services. In 1993, she was hired by the City of Austin at Breckenridge Hospital as a Financial Counselor, then working as a Purchasing Clerk in the Purchasing Office beginning in 1995. In 2000, she moved to the Austin Energy Finance Contract Management Section as a Contract Compliance Specialist Senior, rounding out a career of over 30 years in professional public services.
Della attended Austin Community College and graduated in 2004 with an Associates of Applied Sciences in Management. As an Austin City employee, Della served on several committees such as the African American Heritage Committee and the Leadership, Education and Public Service Committee (LEAPS). She also attended the American Contract Compliance Association receiving her Certification and Masters as a Contract Compliance Administrator. In 2005, Della joined the St. John Regular District Association and served as the Recording Secretary for the Ushers, Nurses, and Greeters Auxiliary and a member of the Mission I Auxiliary. She was a member of New Light Ebenezer Baptist Church, under the leadership of Pastor Frank Cage and was elected Vice President of the Usher Board in 2009. A faithful member of New Light, she also served as the Chairperson for the Culinary Committee. She was the owner and operator of Granny's Catering and in her spare time she enjoyed shopping and loved cooking. She also owned "Little Rascals Daycare."
Those left to cherish her love and memory are her husband: Dennis E. Bryant of Pflugerville; her beloved children: Charlette and Charles Toney (the twins), both of Houston, Linda J. Jackson of Austin, Marcus Toney of Austin, Michelle Williams of Austin, Le'Asia Rios Redic of Austin; sister: Mary Toney of Arlington; brothers: Lee Toney of California, Charles Toney of Seattle, WA, Johnny L. Toney, Vance Montgomery and Tim Montgomery, all of Odessa; special niece: Dorothy Purvis of Odessa; fifteen grandchildren; twenty-two great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, family and friends.
She is preceded in death by her father: Charles Edward Jackson; mother: Murl Montgomery and her husband: Howard; siblings: Billy Joe Toney, Dorthy Shedwin, and Charles MackToney; granddaughter: Quin'Qualita Jackson.
Funeral services will be at 11:00 am on Saturday, July 13, 2019 at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Odessa, officiated by Rev. Frank Cage and Rev. Melvin Manor. Interment will follow at Odessa II Gardens section of Ector County Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations would be appreciated to the LeeLee's Lighthouse Foundation, as Della was a committed supporter.
Elvis Allen "Dusty" Hackworth
Elvis Allen "Dusty" Hackworth, age 93, of Odessa, passed away at Medical Center Hospital on Thursday, July 4, 2019. He was born in Curtis, AR on March 20, 1926 to the late Presley William and Mattie (Sublett) Hackworth. A Baptist, Dusty accepted Christ at the early age of 12. He entered the US Navy in 1942 and served during World War II for over three years. He was a member of the Moose Lodge, Veteran's of Foreign Wars, and the NRA.
He married Celia Dremus in 1945. They divorced and he married Carrie Ellen Commander in 1952. She passed away July 7, 1962. In 1976, he found love and companionship again with Shirley Ann Kincade Holmes. They were together for almost 14 years before her passing February 7, 1990. He is also preceded in death by his sisters: Sybil Schee and Louise Ramsey; brother: Pressley Hackworth; two grandchildren; his sons: Elvis Allen Hackworth II and Craig Allen Holmes; daughter: Kathy Marie Cowan; and great-grandson: Seamus Allen Meador.
Those left to cherish his love and memory are his son: Dale Hackworth of Ft. Stockton, TX; daughters: Cecelia Marie Quick of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Dorothy Sue Anderson of Sealy, TX, and Virginia Holmes of Odessa; eighteen grandchildren; thirty-two great-grandchildren; and four great-great grandchildren.
Memorial services with military honors will be at 10:00 am at Acres West Funeral Chapel on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, officiated by Pastor Mike Bartlett.
Mack Henry Williams
Mack Henry Williams, age 57, passed away at his home in Odessa on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. He was born in Phoenix, AZ on September 16, 1961 to the late Bernard Woody "Pete" Williams and Neva Mae (Milliken) Williams. Mack was a carpenter and auto mechanic.
Those left to cherish his love and memory are his son: Mack Williams II of Odessa; daughter: Stefanie Williams of Odessa; two brothers: Derral Williams and Peter Williams; one sister: Neva Qualls; and three grandchildren: Joslin Collette, Justyn Case, and Jace Carlton.
Memorial services will be privately held.
Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel and Crematory.
Jerry L. Treadwell
Jerry L. Treadwell, 61 of Odessa passed away the afternoon of Thursday, July 4th in Lubbock, Texas. His celebration of life will be held at Acres West Funeral Chapel in Odessa on Friday, July 19th at 10 A.M.
Mr. Treadwell was born on the 2nd of September 1957 in Hobbs, New Mexico to James “Shots” & Janice Treadwell. Jerry grew up in Hobbs where he graduated from Hobbs High School in 1975. In 1977 Jerry joined the United States Army where he honorably served for 20 years. During his service he went to optical school, flight school, and was promoted up through the ranks to Chief Warrant Officer 3. He retired from the United States Army in 1997.
Jerry met the love of his life, Marilee, while going through optical school in Aurora, CO in 1978, however it took them until October 14th, 2000 to get married. On that day he not only became a husband, but he became a father to Sara.
While Jerry enjoyed a number of hobbies he will be remembered by his family as a bronc rider and a biker.
Jerry is survived by his wife, Marilee, daughter Sara and husband Everett, grandchildren Madison and Caleb. As well as his siblings, Jim and wife Bess, Judith and husband Weldon, and Janie, along with a number of nieces and nephews.
Vivian Rea “Vicki” Peacock
Vivian Rea “Vicki” Peacock, age 64, passed from this life Saturday, July 6, 2019 in Odessa, TX. She was born Friday, July 16, 1954 in San Angelo, TX to Darrell and Nancy Evelyn Venable.
Vicki loved gardening and taking care of her garden and yard. She enjoyed watching web cams about eagles and wildlife. Vicki loved her dog “Miracle”. She enjoyed reading her Bible.
Those left to cherish her love and memory are her father: Darrell Venable; son: Anthony “Tony” Mayhar from Odessa; daughters: Margaret Hudson and husband David of San Antonio, and Pamela Berry and husband Michael of Odessa; grandchildren: Michelle Niver, Cade Stock, Stevi Hudson, Lilly Hudson, and Dylan and Jacob Berry; nephew: Matthew Jarrell; niece: Kourtney Bryant and numerous cousins.
She is preceded in death by her mother: Evelyn Venable; brother: Dwight “Doby” Venable; and sister: Traci Jarrell.
Funeral services will be 10:00 am Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at Acres West Funeral Chapel. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel.
Anthony Wayne “Tony” Norton
Anthony Wayne “Tony” Norton, age 53, passed from this life on Saturday, July 6, 2019 in Amarillo, TX. He was born August 11, 1965 in Memphis, TX to Larry Dewayne Norton and Ruby Darlene (Cagle) Norton.
Tony proudly served our country and was an Iraq War Veteran. He received several awards for his honorable service. Tony loved his family dearly and was an amazing dad, son, brother, papaw and uncle. He was a dare devil and loved living life to the fullest. He was an amazing friend to many and will be missed dearly.
Those left to cherish his love and memory are his parents: Larry and Darlene Norton; son: Kaiden Joe Wayne Norton; daughters: Tella Michelle and Taryn Nicole Norton; brother: Timmie Norton; sister: Tammie Boen; grandchildren: Rayleigh Nicole Duran and Ayden Ashton Gamboa; and a host of nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts and uncles.
Tony is reunited in Heaven with his infant sons: Brian Alexander Norton and Hadley Joe Norton.
A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 am, on Friday, July 19, 2019 at Carey First Baptist Church in Carey, TX. Pastor Randal Wilson will be officiating. An inurnment will follow at Kirkland Cemetery with military honors.
Adela Jimenez
Adela Jimenez, age 60, of Odessa, passed away at her home on Sunday, July 7, 2019. She was born to Alejandra Ornelas on August 24, 1958 in Balmorhea, TX. Adela was a homemaker and wonderful mother who was very special to her children. She loved her grandchildren dearly.
She was an artist and music lover, especially a fan of Bob Seger and Pitbull. Adela enjoyed watching wrestling and sports on TV.
Those left to cherish her love and memory are her mother: Alejandra Ornelas of Balmorhea; two sons: Lupe Jimenez and girlfriend Beverly and Oscar Jimenez and his girlfriend Valerie, all of Odessa; daughter: Crystal Garcia and husband Omar of Odessa; brothers: Juan Ornelas and Raul Ornelas, both of Odessa and Joe Ornelas of Balmorhea; sisters: Maria Duran and Santos Acosta, both of Odessa, Aurora Duran of Iraan, Irma Ornelas and Peggy Ornelas, both of Odessa, Martina Allen of San Angelo and Graciela Orrantia of Odessa; eight grandchildren: Isaiah Jimenez, Taisha Garcia, Lynda Garcia, Bryson Garcia, Grace Garcia, Amia Garcia, Julius Jimenez and Ezraen Garcia; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Memorial services will be held on Friday, July 12, 2019 at 1:00 pm at Acres West Funeral Chapel.
Hilaria Montoya Dominguez
Hilaria Montoya Dominguez, age 51, passed from this life on Monday, July 8, 2019 at her residence in Midland, TX. She was born on October 20, 1967 in Ojinaga, MX to Callentano Renteria Montoya and Jobita Carrillo Venegas. Hilaria married the love of her life, Enrique, in 1984.
Hilaria loved cooking and could cook just about anything. She was very spiritual and would pray and read her Bible daily. As an infant, her aunt Virginia Venegas and uncle, Gregorio Baeza took her in and loved her as their own. She was kind to everyone. Hilaria loved traveling and going on vacations with her son, who was her pride and joy. He was a true blessing, as it took Hilaria 17 long years to have him. She was a survivor, having dialysis for 3 years and a kidney transplant in 2011. She was a strong willed, mighty woman.
Those left to cherish her love and memories are her husband: Enrique M. Dominguez; son: Enrique Daniel Montoya Dominguez of Midland; brothers: Enrique Venegas Montoya of Odessa and Guadalupe Alejandro Montoya of Ojinaga;
She is preceded in death by her biological parents; her parents: Virginia Venegas and Gregorio Baeza; infant sister: Conchita Montoya Venegas; and infant brother: Eusebio Montoya Venegas.
Funeral services will be at Acres West 24 Chapel at 5:00 pm Wednesday, July 10, 2019. Rosary will be recited Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at Acres West 24 Hour Chapel at 7:00 pm. Burial will be Thursday, July 11, 2019 at Desert Hill Cemetery in Presidio, TX. Arrangements are entrusted to Acres West Funeral Chapel.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line296
|
__label__wiki
| 0.570946
| 0.570946
|
Updated Rocketship, the anatomy of a GET/PUT demo
Yesterday I unveiled chapter 22 cover the GET/PUT commands, and I hope I did them justice. Part of the chapter, was showing off my version of the chapter’s DIY challenge, create a spaceship, and have it blast off and fly through space.
I did what I thought was a fairly fancy version of that demo, I created a backdrop of planets, and used page flipping to simulate “spite” style animation where the spaceship did not “erase” the background. This involved having a backup copy of the entire graphics page, “getting” the area behind the spaceship, “putting” the spaceship on the screen, using PCOPY to “copy” the composited screen with background and superimposed spaceship to the visible page, restoring the original background in place, and repeating as it moved.
The results were good, but I felt it was a little “flat”, as my spaceship was essentially a line-art drawing with lots of “black” or “blank” space inside it’s frame, it could get lost “behind” some of the planets, the illustration below was my original demo, and when it first left the ground, it was hidden behind the white planet.
Spaceship Demo
So I decided I wanted to One-Up that demo, and have the spaceship always be in “front” of everything, and still keep it’s lineart wireframe look, although have the inside of it remain black, which is technically color 0, or an “off bit” so it’s hard to mask “nothing” onto a screen, but here’s the final version with this being accomplished;
Spacehip demo with reverse masking
Before I get into all the “how” of accomplishing this fancy feat, let’s step through the revised program and really did into the anatomy of this entire demo.
At the start of the program in Line 10, I PLEAR 8, which reserves RAM to use all 8 “pages” of graphics memory, giving me access to both the high res screens. I set the PMODE to 4, start on page 1, set the color set to “high” using the Black and White (vs black and green) mode, clear that screen, then “DIM” or “declare” the variables I’ll used to store graphics data, SP is the Spaceship, BG is the background, and RM is used to create the Reverse Mask. The extra steps I’ll be taking to get backgrounds, and do several levels of “pasting” images to composite the final frame took a heaver toll on the CPU, so in line 12, I introduced the CoCo BASIC programmer’s best friend, POKE 65495,0, this sets ROM into a “high speed” mode and BASIC actually runs faster!
Line 20 uses the DRAW command to draw out the spaceship, it it’s original lineart/wireframe mode, and I GET the primary ship’s graphical detail no line 30.
Line 31 and 39 are where I start to use some VooDoo magic, first I “paint” in the spaceship, so it’s solid white now, except for it’s window. I then “get” that painted image using the RM variable to have a “solid” ship. I then PUT that solid image back in the same place, but using the PSET option, which does a color reversal, everything white becomes black, and black becomes white. I now have a “black” solid spaceship, on a white solid background, a negative “cutout” of the spaceship, this is captured again using the GET command, in the same screen coordinates, and stored again in the RM variable for the now proper and truly “reversed” mask of the spaceship. I now have two copies to be used to apply special compositing effects to the screen, speaking of the screen, the image below from yesterday’s demo shows how the “AND” option created a reverse or “Ghost” circle against the yellow bar that was “blanked out” in just the shape of the object, the circle closest to the bottom was created as a “reverse mask”, it was a circle in green the low or “off” color against the red, which was the highest color.
put with the AND option
How did I make the planets in the background, and I did I mention I added stars?
Lines 40-70 create the outer space backdrop for the demo. Line 40 sets the graphics mode, and clears the screen. Line 45 is a bit of a “hack” because PMODE 4, is actually the high res monochrome mode of the CoCo with no “true” colors available or supported in that mode. However, NTSC televisions allowed for “artifacts” which were “false” colors that appeared on screen. We can force those artifact colors by setting the mode to PMODE 4, first, activating the “Screen”, and then switching to PMODE 3, which is medium res 4-color mode, and start producing stars and planets in color, which is triggered on line 45
Line 46 is a new routine I created today to generate 99 random stars on the screen before drawing the planets, each will be either red, white or blue (go USA!), I then go back to the original planet drawing routine I had from the first version of this demo, although the “number of planets logic” was tweaked to have a minimum of 3 planets at all time, originally it was based on a single RND(9) decision which would yield a number between 1 and 9, and I didn’t like having only a “few” planets, now I’m guaranteed at least 3, with a maximum of 11.
The planets are circles derived from random X and Y screen coordinates, a random radius of up to 50, and a random color, of either red, white, or blue again, and these are forced artifact colors by forcing the CoCo do produce graphics in PMODE 3, which supports these colors on the visibly PMODE 4 screen, which will then show them as artifact colors.
Line 55 generates the random variables, line 60 creates the circles, line 65 paints them in, and line 70 finishes the loop, and then sets the PMODE back to 4, on the top of page 1 and sets the screen mode to “1” again ensuring the high color palette vs the mute green one.
Now that the stage has been set, and the backdrop of stars and planets is complete, it’s time to start animating our spaceship and allowing it to fly through space!
We begin the process by taking a copy of the entire graphic screen of stars and planets we just finished producing. Using the PCOPY command copies the visible screen, consisting of 4 actual “pages” of memory, to the invisible/background screen, which is exactly 4 “pages” higher in memory. The PMODE 4,1 command sets the graphics screen to the top of screen 1, page 1, and pages 2-4 fill in the rest of the screen from top to bottom. When we want to work “behind the scenes”, keep the viewers eyes on PMODE 4,1 (page one) and we’ll switch over to PMODE 4,5 (page 2) and do all our dirty work 🙂
Line 80 is a nice little comment to explain that we’re about to do just that!
The bulk of this voodoo and black magic is in the image just above, line 90 sets the visible page to PMODE 4,1 screen 1,1, and that’s what the viewer sees. We then switch to PMODE 4,5, where we’ll do our work, but we don’t switch the screen again, so nobody will see what we’re doing, we also pick a random X coordinate for the spaceship between 1 and 200 as to where it will take off from.
Line 95 starts the animation loop by starting at vertical screen position 151 which is toward the bottom. Because my spaceship’s graphical data is exactly 40 pixels wide by 40 pixels tall, adding the 40 pixels to starting position 151 makes the bottom of the spaceship end at exactly pixel 191, which is the “highest” value, but appears to be on the “bottom” of the screen.
The CoCo PMODE 4 resolution is 256 x 192, so the X, or horizontal axis is from 0-255, zero being absolute left, 255 being hard right. The Y or vertical axis if from 0 (top) to 191 (bottom) so we start at the bottom (151+40=191) and we work our way to the top (1) and we “step” this by a -4 which means we’ll jump “up” 4 pixels on the screen for each count of this loop until we reach the top.
Line 96 “gets” the background of this page which would contain any potential stars and planets that were produced and copied here. This is the “undo” option we’ll restore when we’re done.
Line 97 then puts the reverse mask of the spaceship on the same spot, using the AND option, which only applies pixels to where pixels already exist in the background, so anything that was visible gets “blacked out” using that negative cookie cutter of the space ship. Once the background area, in the perfect shape of our space ship is blacked out, we can now paste the original line art vector “hollow” version of our ship in the same space, so we’ll see all of the outline detail, and the clear black internals to it’s shape, minus the window, I never painted or masked that (on purpose) so the window remains “clear” and we can see the stars and planets “Behind” the spaceship.
At this point, the final composited foreground and background elements have been combined, and line 98 does the reverse PCOPY routine to take what we just finished, and presents that to the visible page that’s currently being viewed, and we actually see the final product of this composition. This process is known as “page flipping” and some people refer to it as “double buffering”. After the page is copied, and before we continue to loop, and move up further, the last thing we do is to “PUT back” the original background image behind the spaceship, essentially restoring it to it’s original state, and removing all traces of the spaceship in that location. As we go “more next” through the loop, the Y coordinate will jump up 4 pixels, and the process will repeat. Putting the array variable “BG” data back is how we restore the background that we “got” before we started to “put” the two spaceship layers.
Line 99 was modified to allow an “any key” to be pressed to end the demo, as it loops forever. If no key is pressed, it continues the FOR/NEXT loop bringing the spaceship all the way to the top of the screen and the loop ends.
Line 100 basically starts the loop all over again, each time the loop starts, a new random value for X is generated so the spaceship will usually appear somewhere else on the bottom of the screen and start flying up again. To add variety to this, and prevent us from having to look at the same planets all the time, I included a random decision, where if the number 3 chosen from a 1-5 random decision, the program will loop back to line 40 and re-draw a whole new screen of stars and planets and then start the animation loop all over again.
This will continue to loop until you press a key, and greeted with the closing message:
When you press “any” key, the computer issues the slow down poke again, putting the system in normal speed (high speed can affect disk utilization), clears the screen and says “Thank you for trying the rocket demo”, “Visit ogsteviestrow.com for all kinds of cool coco stuff”
And there we have it, the anatomy of a CoCo demo program, including some pretty fancy trickery! Let me know what you think, and look for a YouTube video of this updated demo coming soon. In the meantime, if you want to download it to try yourself, download the Spaceship Disk Image by clicking the link.
The YouTube video explaining all this can be found here.
Tagged 8-bit coding, 8-bit computing, 8-bit developing, BASIC, coding, development, programming, retro computing, retro development, software
Chapter 22 – GET and PUT – it’s a wrap!
Optimizing my Spaceship demo with the FAST GET and PUT techniques
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line299
|
__label__wiki
| 0.972735
| 0.972735
|
Wendy Williams uncertain of next steps after divorce filing
(Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Vulture Festival)
In a candid moment with an audience member, Wendy Williams admitted to feeling unsure about the path forward after filing for divorce from Kevin Hunter after 21 years of marriage.
An audience member asked Williams how she was faring during Friday morning’s show. “I’m not sure,” the talk show host said, according to Page Six.
READ MORE: Victim shot with Nipsey Hussle arrested because of slain rapper’s gang ties
On Wednesday, Williams, 54, hit Hunter, 46, with divorce papers, citing “irreconcilable differences.” The papers were reportedly served at the studio where Williams films her show.
The news comes one month after Hunter’s alleged mistress, Sharina Hudson, gave birth to a daughter that is widely speculated to be Hunter’s, although he has neither confirmed nor denied he is the child’s father.
Williams is reportedly planning a move now that her marriage is over. The radio host may be relocating to New York from her longtime home in Livingston, New Jersey, TMZ reports. Since January, Williams has been receiving treatment at a sober living facility in Queens, following a relapse.
Sources say she plans to officially move to New York once her time at the sober house is up.
READ MORE: The Scene: Brokenhearted L.A. fans pay tribute to Nipsey Hussle at STAPLES Center
Williams married Hunter nearly 22 years ago and they have an 18-year-old son named Kevin, Jr. The couple had been plagued with rumors of Hunter’s infidelities over the years. The final straw appears to be the alleged baby with Hudson.
Page Six, which obtained the divorce filing, said Williams indicated that her marriage actually dissolved last year and that there was no chance she or Hunter could repair it. In the filing, Williams asks that the Court determine an “appropriate amount of child support” as well as “other further relief as the Court deems fair and equitable.”
On Friday’s show, outside of the question by the audience member, Williams didn’t address her divorce. Carol Durham, a guest of the show on Friday, told US Weekly that the atmosphere was energetic and upbeat. “The show taping was wonderful,” Durham reportedly told US Weekly. “I had a great time; it was like a party.”
The Jonas Brothers’ Dad Is Teaming Up With A Conservative Evangelical University
The patriarch of the Jonas Brothers’ family.
Harry Styles Might Play Prince Eric In Disney’s Live-Action ‘Little Mermaid’
Fresh off the success of his.
‘Bachelorette’ Fantasy Suites Week Takes An Extreme Turn
The hosts of “Here to Make.
Colbert Gives Trump A Reminder Of His Own Ugly History: ‘Racism Is Your Brand!’
Colbert delivered a quick summary of.
‘Modern Family’ Star Sarah Hyland Engaged To ‘Bachelorette’ Alum Wells Adams
“The Bachelorette” be damned, because Sarah.
Hey Upper East Siders, A ‘Gossip Girl’ Reboot Is Actually Happening
Make some room on the steps.
Katy Perry Opens Up About Taylor Swift And The Weird Thing That Ended Their Feud
Katy Perry revealed how she reconciled.
Joey King Was Afraid To Fail In ‘The Act.’ Now, She Could Win An Emmy.
Joey King was on her way.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ Writers Clear Up Lingering Questions
We’re in the … eh ….
Colbert Thinks Trump Accidentally Revealed Way Too Much About His Marriage
“The Late Show” host jokes about.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line304
|
__label__wiki
| 0.776914
| 0.776914
|
Search wildiaries.com using Google
wildiaries
Setting Sail
[From the trip BirdLife Suwarrow Rat Eradication Project]
The latest blog from wildlife filmmaker Nick Hayward as he joins a team from BirdLife and Te Ipukarea Society (BirdLife in the Cook Islands) eradicating rats from Suwarrow – a seabird mecca in the South Pacific.
Today the team have finally left Rarotonga’s main harbour and are heading north hoping to spy Sperm whales.
We are at sea. Finally, on late Wednesday afternoon the Southern Cross left Rarotonga. The rotund Captain Keith piloted us out of the harbour. His too-small life jacket (not quite able to be zipped at the front) didn’t hamper his very nimble leap into the pitching dingy. Graham Wragg will skipper us onwards to Suwarrow.
There is a small detour on route; we’re towing Martin’s runabout the Apii to Aitutaki, an island north of Rarotonga. There are 2000 residents on the island and it’s the second most visited place in the Cook Islands. Boat builder Martin has been helping with the renovations on the Southern Cross.
Due to family commitments Ina (Grumpy) couldn’t join the expedition. So there is a new addition to our crew: Iremia Samuel (Mia). He’s only 17 but his father was a ranger on Suwarrow for five years where he spent time as a child, so his local knowledge will be useful.
The strong winds meant we were greeted by a lumpy sea which no doubt played a large part in the number of passengers willing to steer the Southern Cross through the night. Either way it was a beautiful night illuminated by a full moon.
Between Aitutaki and Suwarrow we will be passing through Sperm Whale territory so we’ll be keeping an eye out for those majestic mammals.
From Left to Right
Ron Borstel (kneeling Crew member)
Graeme Wragg (Captain)
Ieremia Samuel (Ex-caretaker’s son, kneeling front)
Sialisi Rasalato (BirdLife International Pacific Secretariat)
Steve Cranwell (BirdLife International Pacific Secretariat)
NgatiPuna (National Environment Service, Suwarrow Caretaker)
Harry Papai (National Environment Service, Suwarrow Caretaker)
Ian Karika (Te Ipukarea Society)
Ben Tautu (National Environment Service)
View other experiences at Rarotonga - Cook Islands
About BirdLife
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. They're the World's largest partnership of conservation organisations.
The BirdLife Pacific Partnership comprises a network of six national conservation organisations as follows: BirdLife Australia – Australia; Te Ipukerea Society – Cook Islands; Société d’Ornithologie de Polynésie Manu – French Polynesia; Société Calédonienne d'Ornithologie – New Caledonia; Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society Inc – New Zealand, and; Palau Conservation Society – Palau. Together they are tackling the biggest threats to the region's threatened wildlife such as invasive species, habitat loss and climate change.
Acknowledgements: The expedition to remove rats from Suwarrow National Park is a joint project between BirdLife International, Te Ipukarea Society (BirdLife Partner in the Cook Islands) and the Cook Island National Environment Service. The project is being kindly supported by the European Community, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, SPREP, GEF and Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, and forms part of the BirdLife Invasive Alien Species Programme which is tackling this greatest of threats to wildlife around the world. BirdLife wishes to thank the efforts of many who are supporting the programme including Pacific Invasive Initiative, Pacific Invasive Learning Network, New Zealand Department of Conservation the University of the South Pacific, Landcare Research New Zealand, Island Conservation, Wildiaries and Nick Hayward. The BirdLife Invasive Alien Species Programme urgently needs your support to tackle more sites and save more species. To support our work and make a donation today, please go to www.justgiving.com/BirdLife-invasive-species. Thank you.
Nick Hayward
Jacqueline M.'s Diary, Simon Mustoe's Diary, BirdLife Pacific's Diary
Published To
BirdLife Pacific, Wildiaries | A new way to see rare creatures & wild places, Nature and Wildlife Films
[privacy statement]
About Us | Contact Us | Terms © 2008-2019 Wildiaries, owned by AES Applied Ecology Solutions PL. All rights reserved.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line305
|
__label__wiki
| 0.607796
| 0.607796
|
Timeline: Mark Zuckerberg's rise from child prodigy to Facebook billionaire
You know him as the man behind the mega social media site Facebook. But do you know about how he got there?
As his company prepares to go public, we wanted to take a look back on his life and how he ended up as one of the most prominent tech company founders.
CNNMoney is trying to buy Facebook IPO shares
Personal details:
* Birth place: Dobbs Ferry, New York
* Birth name: Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
* Parents: Edward, a dentist, and Karen, a psychiatrist, Zuckerberg
* Education: Phillips Exeter Academy, 2002
Harvard University, 2002 – 2004, dropped out
Facebook: Use it. 'Like' it. But, buy it?
Other Facts:
* Is red-green colorblind.
* Took a graduate computer course at Mercy College when he was eleven.
* Became captain of the fencing team at Phillips Exeter Academy.
* Considered a prodigy by his early computer tutor David Newman.
* Co-created a software program named Synapse, which learned a listener's music habits.
* Met long-term girlfriend Priscilla Chan during his sophomore year at Harvard University.
* 1996 – Creates an instant messaging service for his dad's dentist office called ZuckNet.
* 2003 – Creates facemash.com at Harvard, a website rating system to rank the physical attractiveness of those whose pictures he had downloaded from the school directory – without permission. The site garners lots of attention, both positive and negative, from the student body, and negative attention from the school administration. Zuckerberg is forced to take the site down.
* November 2003 – Harvard seniors, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra approach Zuckerberg about building a website named HarvardConnection.com.
* February 4, 2004 – Zuckerberg, roommates Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, and friend Eduardo Saverin launch thefacebook.com from Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room.
Life on planet Facebook
* February 2004 – Expands Facebook from Harvard to Stanford, Columbia and Yale by the end of the month.
* June 2004 – Over 40 schools and 150,000 members are involved in thefacebook.com. To generate revenue ads are sold on the website.
* September 2004 – The Winklevosses and Narendra file a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, claiming he stole the idea for Facebook from HarvardConnection.com. Zuckerberg claims the HarvardConnection was a dating site and not a social networking site.
* May 2005 – Expands Facebook access to more than 800 colleges and universities.
* August 2005 – The name is officially changed to Facebook.com
Why I won't be quitting Facebook
* September 2005 – Facebook expands into high schools.
* May 2006 – Select corporations, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and others, become first workplace members.
* September 2006 – Facebook is opened to any user.
* March 2007 – Million plus users in Canada and the United Kingdom
* Spring 2008 – Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra settle their lawsuit against Zuckerberg. The settlement is $20 million in cash and $45 million stock options.
* March 2008 – Is named the youngest self-made billionaire by Forbes.
* September 2010 – Donates $100 million to the Newark public schools system.
* October 1, 2010 – The Social Network is released in theaters. The film is an unauthorized version of how Facebook started.
* December 2010 – Is named Time Person of the Year.
* April 2011 – The Winklevoss twins petition to re-open their lawsuit and void the settlement agreement on the grounds their $65 million settlement wasn't enough based on the new valuation of the company. The company was valued at $15 billion at the time of the settlement and the twins believe the more accurate value is $50 billion, making their share worth over $100 million more. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denies their petition leaving the original settlement in place.
* July 6, 2011 – Announces a Skype video chat feature to Facebook.
* March 2012 – Ranked 14th on The Forbes 400: Richest People in America, his net worth is listed as $17.5 billion.
Post by: The CNN Library
Filed under: Facebook • Technology
HIDE BEHIND
Actualy I find his accomplishments qiite imteresting.
That he found a way to profit by combining human foibles and technology was indeed a stroke of genious
Like many innovative minds he took an initialy small idea of crotch level thinkers and seeing a much greater possibily left his old cronys sucking wind.
Without those innovative minds that dare to dream big life would be mighty boring.
Not all dreamers are realist but now and then an individual comes along that upsets the ho hum existence of many.
More should be expected from such minds and from his life so far it might be quite interesting to sre just what other thoughts are in the future.
California Progressive
Woohoo! Let's get this party started!
Facebook initial public offering sold 421.2 million shares for $38 each. At that price, the 503.6 million shares and options Zuckerberg owns are valued at $19.1 billion, making him wealthier than Google Inc. co- founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, 29th richest man in the world.
Looks like Moonbeam Jerry Brown and California won the lottery. We’ve got a $26 billion shortfall just this year. 9.3% tax rate on generous young Zuckerberg and we can keep this party rocking a little longer. Yeah, baby – make the rich pay their fair share!
baalsh
a person is judged by the amount of money he generates. was there any other reason for him to be time person? fb is a stolen idea
zachary gloege
is not
November 8, 2012 at 1:52 pm | Report abuse |
im doing a science fair project on facebook privacy problems and this helped me a good bit.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line307
|
__label__wiki
| 0.655821
| 0.655821
|
K-Pop Herald
The Investor
The Herald Business
The Herald POP
Real Foods
English Eye
National Politics Social Affairs Foreign Affairs Defense North Korea Science Diplomatic Circuit Education
Business Economy Finance Industry Technology Automode
Life&Style Culture Travel Fashion Food & Beverage Books People Expat Living Arts & Design Health
Entertainment Film Television Music Theater
Sports Soccer Baseball Golf More Sports
World World News World Business Asia News Network
Opinion Editorial Viewpoints
English Eye Podcast English Cafe
[Herald Interview] Yuji Hosaka on why Korea, Japan still spar over bygones
[Weekender] Palaces, fortress and historic sites at night
[Weekender] Better at night
[Around the Hotels] Packages and promotions
[Travel Bits] Festivals, sights across Korea
[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week
Man seriously injured after setting fire to his car near Japanese Embassy
Tracing the footsteps of democratization in Gwangju
S. Korea may review military info-sharing pact with Japan: Cheong Wa Dae of...
Moon, party leaders vow to work together to deal with Japan's economic repr...
[Kim Seong-kon] Remembering Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan
By Kim Seong-kon
Published : Mar 12, 2019 - 17:11
Updated : Mar 12, 2019 - 17:11
Ten years have passed since the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Soo-hwan sadly passed away, leaving a giant shadow on the Korean Peninsula.
Marked by outstanding charity, generosity, and integrity, he was indeed a saint in every sense, who endured severe ordeals of socio-political turmoil in his time, but not without forgiving smiles and a cheerful sense of humor.
In his memory, a remarkable book of reminiscence recently came out under the title “The Memoirs of a Cardinal.” The author of the memoirs is Theresa Oh Duck-choo, who was a close friend of Cardinal Kim and had ample opportunities to closely observe him in his everyday life.
The pleasure of reading this book primarily comes from its candid portrayal of the great man, whose weaknesses and soft spots only make him look more human, as opposed to a flawless saint.
According to Oh, Cardinal Kim was a truly courageous civil leader. During the military dictatorship, he always protected students who were in danger of being arrested for their anti-government demonstrations. To the riot-police, he boldly protested: “If you want to arrest the students, you must tread upon me first and then my priests and nuns.” Unfortunately, we no longer have such a great man in our society.
In her book, Oh also recollects that he always abhorred violence of all sorts, including the violence of self-righteous people in the name of justice. That was why he was harshly criticized by radicals during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, who felt they were betrayed by the cardinal when he reprimanded their violent behavior and political vendettas.
According to the author of the book, he also valued life so much that he preached, “Nothing is more precious than life.” Oh writes, “How could those who believe that political ideologies override everything understand Jesus Christ or Cardinal Kim, who would not hesitate to leave 99 sheep unattended in order to find the one who is lost?”
In her book, she recalls that he was also a man with an extraordinary sense of humor. When asked what was “sarm” or life, he cheerfully answered, “Salmeun gyeran” which means both “A boiled egg” and “Life is an egg.” in Korean.
When people dared not to approach him due to his high rank, he muttered, smiling, “Come on, I don’t have a contagious disease.” Once a reporter asked him, “How many languages do you speak?” The cardinal replied, “I speak Japanese, German and English.” The he paused a moment and said, “There is one more, though.” “Well, what is it, Cardinal Kim?” asked the reporter. “That’s a lie,” answered the cardinal, chuckling. It could mean both “I lied” and “I also speak a language called lies.”
Oh writes that his last will stated, “Thank you so much. Love one another.” When his consciousness was briefly back two months before he passed away, he reportedly said, “We Koreans are diligent. And yet, we are not honest or law-abiding, we do not care about others, we tend to blame others and not to keep promises. And we are not grateful. We should overcome these weaknesses.”
Indeed, we should be honest. If we are not, we cannot trust each other. People would not trust any statistics or pronouncements of the government, either. If we are not honest, our society will fall apart like a sandcastle. To make matters worse, we will not be trusted by the international community.
We also should abide by the law. Unfortunately, our judges risk their reputations and even jobs these days when sentencing political prisoners or sending them to jail, due to the threats and protests from the people and politicians. It is a shame because such a phenomenon cannot be found in advanced countries. If people try to overthrow a judge’s sentence, we are not living in a society governed by law.
We should care about other people, too. Instead of being selfish and egotistical, we should be thoughtful and considerate. We should not blame others and learn to assume responsibility. And we should keep promises so we can be reliable and trustworthy.
Most importantly, we should be grateful. When someone helps us, we should not take it for granted. As for me, I am eternally grateful to the United States, without whose timely intervention in the Korean War, I could not have survived and lived in an affluent, democratic country.
Also, without my education in the States, I could not have become what I am today. Besides, America has opened my eyes to the world from early on, with its cultural and ethnic diversity. I am also grateful to Spain for honoring me with a government medal, and offering me an opportunity of teaching and living in the great country of beautiful harmony of Christian and Islamic cultures.
I am also so grateful to the late Cardinal Kim for his teachings and wisdom that constantly enlighten me.
Kim Seong-kon
Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting professor at Kyunghee Cyber University. -- Ed.
[David Ignatius] America’s immediate challenge in Persian Gulf is maritime security
UNIST team develops world’s first ternary semiconductor
Designer dismayed at ‘sexy’ hanbok in beauty contest
Woman bites into raw chicken burger
Moon, party leaders vow to work together to deal with Japan's economic reprisal
[Trending] Teen soccer star Lee Kang-in entangled in ‘love-stagram’ incident
Former YG Entertainment chief booked for suspected arrangement of sex services
Former YG Entertainment head booked for procuring sex services
Seoul silent on Tokyo’s arbitration offer
BOK cuts key rate to 1.5% amid uncertainties
S. Korea may review military info-sharing pact with Japan: Cheong Wa Dae official
ABOUT KOREA HERALD
ABOUT HERALD CORPORATION
The Korea Herald by Herald Corporation Our Sites THE KOREA HERALD K-POP HERALD THE INVESTOR THE HERALD BUSINESS THE HERALD POP REAL FOODS INSPIRE
HERALD OMBUDSMAN
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line308
|
__label__wiki
| 0.896063
| 0.896063
|
Home » People/Companies, TV, Unions & Guilds »
In brief: WGC ratifies three-year IPA with CMPA
Plus: Technicolor launches L.A. studio, Letterkenny-inspired beer hits shelves in Alberta and Ontario, and more.
By Kelly Townsend
WGC ratifies IPA, attains platform neutrality
The Writers Guild of Canada and the CMPA have ratified the new 2019-22 Independent Production Agreement (IPA). Among the most significant changes to the agreement is the removal of the digital section of the former IPA under platform neutrality, meaning there is no longer a distinction between digital series found on Netflix or other SVODs and series written for linear cable. Previously, series deemed “digital” were not subject to the same minimum script fees. The WGC has expanded the “Low–Budget Television Incentive” to accommodate negotiable fees in the case of webseries.
There were also script fee increases for all writers, especially in animation, which will have a 14% rate raise over a three-year period. Live action script fees will see a 9% increase over three years. The new IPA will go into effect on July 1, 2019.
Just for Laughs selects finalists for 2019 pitch program
The finalists for Just For Laughs’ Stand Up & Pitch: The Comedy Content Search pitch program have been announced ahead of the ComedyPRO conference, being held from July 24 to 27. The projects for the CBC Comedy Original Pitch Program are Domesticate Me, created by Nthenya Ndunda and produced by Ndunda and Siobhan Baird; Far Out, created by Andrea Smith Peek and produced by Victoria Wescott; Kandu Attitude, co-created and co-written by Richard Young and Vas Saranga; Naked Nancy, written and directed by Marni Van Dyk and produced by Natalie Urquhart; and Rock Bottom TV, written by Rick Anthony and produced by Jason Truong. The finalists will pitch their digital and TV concepts to a CBC Comedy panel consisting of Michelle Daly, CBC’s senior director of comedy, scripted content, and Wendy Litner (How to Buy a Baby).
The chosen projects for the From Set to Screen: TV, OTT, SVOD and More pitch program are Big Game, written by Darrell Dennis and Katya Gardner; Back Doors, created by Blair Socci; Groceries, Created by Ron Eigen; Scoutmasters, created by Andrew Kimler and co-written by Keisha Zollar; and Young Money, co-created and co-written by Mookie Thompson and Nimesh Patel. Finalists will pitch their ideas to comedy experts from networks and streamers, including Bell Media, FOX Entertainment, Hulu, Amazon Studios, Comedy Central and Adult Swim. Ben Murray, president of Project 10 Productions, will serve as the moderator.
Letterkenny-inspired beer hits Alberta, Ontario
It’s time to crack open a tall boy. New Metric Media has partnered with Sudbury’s Stack Brewing Company to release a limited edition beer inspired by Letterkenny. Puppers Premium Lager will be sold in select LCBO locations in Ontario and Liquor Depots in Alberta beginning on June 27. Letterkenny was recently acquired by Hulu as an original for the streamer, which had previously picked up the rights to individual seasons.
Technicolor opens pre-production studio in L.A.
VFX company Technicolor has launched a new L.A. studio dedicated to development and pre-production. The studio will offer services in business development, concept art and visualization and prepare filmmakers for the VFX stage of production. It will be led by Kerry Shea, who worked in lead digital positions at companies such as Method Studios, Digital Domain and The Jim Henson Company. The company currently has a studio in Toronto.
Just For Laughs, Letterkenny, New Metric Media, Technicolor, Writers Guild of Canada
Thunderbird Releasing managing director to depart
Daisybeck Studios joins eOne’s roster
Lindsay Macadam to lead scripted development at Great Pacific
CRTC appoints Claire Anderson as B.C., Yukon commissioner
In brief: HGF’s new Manitoba-based short film program
2019 WIFTV Spotlight Awards Gala - Amanda Coles took home WIFTV\'s Please Adjust Your Set Award for her contributions towards gender equity in the screen-based industries.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line309
|
__label__cc
| 0.702205
| 0.297795
|
Home > Specialties > IVD Test Reagent/Kits, Serology, Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, Antibody
IVD Test Reagent/Kits, Serology, Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, Antibody
Definition : Serology reagents intended to detect antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii, a species of obligate intracellular coccidian protozoon parasite. These parasites cause toxoplasmosis, an acute or chronic disease transmitted by the feces of cats or via tissue cysts in infected meat. Most infections are mild and self-limited, but extensive damage (e.g., to the brain, eyes, cardiac muscle) may occur, especially in immunocompromised patients or in fetuses infected by transplacental transmission.
Entry Terms : "Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus and Herpes Simplex Antibody Detection/Identification Reagents" , "Toxoplasma gondii Total Antibody Detection/Identification Reagents" , "Toxoplasma Detection/Identification Reagents, Antibody" , "ToRCH Antibody Detection/Identification Reagents" , "ToRCH (Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus and Herpes Simplex) Antibody Detection/Identification Reagents" , "Reagents, Toxoplasma gondii Antibody" , "Reagents, ToRCH Antibody" , "Reagents, Serology, Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, Antibody"
1-7 of 7 Match(es).
Alere Inc
Alere Inc., a global healthcare company, announced a new partnership with Population Services International as part of the "Make (+) Positive More Positive Campaign.
Bio-Medical Products Corp
Bio-medical Products Corp. offers rapid diagnostic products for the clinics, physician office labs, hospitals, nursing homes, and facilities where transportation of urine specimens in screw cap labeled tubes/vials without leaking is important. The rapid diagnostic tests are for Pregnancy, drug testing, Strep A, H. pylori, CRP, Thyroid (TSH) Test, and Hemoglobin/Hematocrit Test.
BioGenex Laboratories Inc
BioGenex was incorporated in the year 1981 with the purpose of bringing affordable healthcare solutions for improved wellness of humanity. Today, BioGenex is a technology leader in Molecular Pathology and provides total solution for the complete automation of cell and tissue testing.
Biotecx Laboratories Inc
BIOTECX is a Houston Texas basted biotechnology company. Founded in 1984, the company's innovative product pipeline includes Immunology, Molecular Biology, and RNA and DNA isolation products.
Hemagen Diagnostics Inc
Hemagen Inc. was founded in 1985 by a group of scientists from the Boston University School of Medicine.
Innominata dba GenBio
Formed in 1994, GenBio is an experienced, fully integrated medical diagnostic company focused on infectious disease and autoimmune disease diagnostics. GenBio develops, manufactures and markets extensive lines of infectious disease and autoimmunity serology products under U.S. FDA and ISO 13485 standards.
Zeus Scientific Inc
ZEUS Scientific is a privately held corporation that was founded in 1976. The company began producing IFA (immunofluorescence assay) test systems followed ELISA and now multiplex (AtheNA Multi-Lyte) immunoassays. New products are developed to expand the menu which allows laboratories to run an increasing number of assays with common protocols and common reagents, as well as developing new tests to more accurately diagnose patients. In 1987 ZEUS Scientific was the first company to develop, receive appropriate regulatory clearance and bring to market a serological assay to test for Lyme disease – a condition with high prevalence in the local community where ZEUS Scientific is located.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line312
|
__label__wiki
| 0.788638
| 0.788638
|
http://tinyurl.com/koof6gy
This article was written on 24 Jul 2014, and is filled under News.
Jeffery Leving Presents on Fathers and Families at Howard University
U.S. Major General (retired) John Hawkins (left) lectured with Jeffery Leving at Howard University.
A father’s involvement is critical to his child achieving the best in school and the most out of life. That’s the message fathers’ rights attorney and advocate Jeffery Leving recently delivered at the Fatherhood & Healthy Families Conference at Howard University.
Leving, along with White House staff and national policy makers, presented during the three-day East Regional Conference of Fathers & Families Coalition of America, which sponsors events across the nation throughout the year to promote father involvement.
“The ultimate objective is to end mass incarceration of minority youth and young adults,” said James Rodriguez, Coalition president and CEO.
At Howard, Leving offered insights on the role fathers play in executing two of President Barack Obama’s initiatives: Race to the Top Equity and My Brother’s Keeper.
A coalition member, Leving said the conference was important because of the alarming negative consequences of father absence — increased poverty and higher crime — which are compromising the very future of the country. Leving’s lecture, Fathers, Keep your Sons in the Race, addressed the three ways fathers can improve academic, emotional and physical well-being of their children.
U.S. Major General (retired) John Hawkins also spoke at the conference and called the issues of fathers and families “a matter of national security.”
Video – NBC Black History Month Honoring Dr. King Jr. and the Tuskegee Airmen17 Feb 2014
Attorney Jeffery Leving Contributes to NBC Black History Month Special Honoring Dr. King Jr. and the Tuskegee Airmen17 Feb 2014
Rescuing Our Young Men: Raising Boys to Be Fathers25 Feb 2013
Daddies and Daughters05 Feb 2013
At the 2013 Inauguration, President Barack Obama’s Legacy Entwines with Martin Luther King’s19 Jan 2013
Jeffery Leving Donates Frederick Douglass’ 156-year-old Book to Chicago State University09 Mar 2012
Celebrate Black History with Stories of Caring Fathers09 Mar 2012
Welcome to Our Black Heritage24 Feb 2012
“The first lady of civil rights” Rosa Parks recognized by President Obama11 Dec 2015
Attorney Jeffery Leving Presents Emmett Till’s Family With Teen’s Obituary on Chicago Counterpoint TV02 Sep 2014
Jeffery Leving Presents on Fathers and Families at Howard University24 Jul 2014
Mr WordPress on Welcome to Our Black Heritage
© 2014 Our Black Heritage. All Rights Reserved.
Join Our Black Heritage on Facebook Read More »
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line315
|
__label__wiki
| 0.978811
| 0.978811
|
http://pakistan.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_pf/features/2019/07/11/feature-02
In photos: Chitral residents beat summer heat with glacier ice
Pakistani authorities arrest Hafiz Saeed in connection with terror financing cases
Afghan refugees in Pakistan rejoice over new bank accounts
UNHCR honors Peshawar, Gaziantep with 'sister city' status for sheltering refugees
Pakistan eyes renewed ties ahead of Imran Khan's US visit
In photos: Khewra Salt Mine draws throngs of tourists
Karachi police set sights on militants targeting officers
Iranian attack boats attempt to seize British oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz
Pakistan's faster, low-fare trains facilitate recreational, business travel
Tehran backing militancy in Balochistan, think-tank says
KP government, WHO tackle leishmaniasis outbreak
| Transportation
By Muhammad Shakil
Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad visits a section of the Peshawar Railway Station last December 22. Pakistani authorities have started an ambitious plan to revamp and improve railways. [Muhammad Shakil]
PESHAWAR -- The Pakistani government is stepping up efforts to upgrade the country's rail sector by launching more low-fare, high-speed trains on various routes.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is set to inaugurate the Lahore-Mianwali Niazi Express train on July 19, Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad announced on July 7.
The event will follow Khan's inauguration of the Jinnah Express in March and the non-stop Karachi-bound Sir Syed Express earlier this month.
Another express train, the Rehman Baba Express, also began operating last December with fares aimed at attracting low-paid workers. The train reduces the travel time from Peshawar to Karachi to 26 hours, compared to about 32 hours on slower trains.
Pakistanis are taking more trains to destinations in the country as security improves and as the government reins in extremists.
At the same time, the government is trying to redevelop sectors such as transportation that militancy has devastated.
Increasing the number of passenger trains is part of a plan to boost trade and benefit the business community, Ahmad said in an interview at the launch of the Rehman Baba Express in December.
"Eight to 10 fleet trains and freight trains will be launched for the trader community that often travels to the business hub of Karachi from Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar," he said. "It will strengthen the financial position of the railways by generating revenue to pay off debts incurred by the railway sector in Pakistan."
The government also plans to lay new track from Karachi to Peshawar, and an agreement with the interested parties should be signed this year, he said.
The line will reduce travel times among major destinations in the country, Ahmad added.
The focus on improving the country's rail system already is paying off.
The profit of the freight division of Pakistan Railways increased by Rs. 1.2 billion ($7.6 million), compared to one year earlier, in the initial 60 days of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, Ahmad said, referring to August to October 2018. That period's profit was Rs. 6.9 billion ($43.5 million), compared to Rs. 5.7 billion ($35.9 million) in the same period one year earlier.
New reservation system
New developments including stricter ticket monitoring have helped curb losses, and the savings will pave the way for the launching of new rail projects, said Ejaz Shah, the information officer for Pakistan Railways in Lahore.
Railway vigilance teams collected Rs. 320 million ($2 million) from passengers who were riding without tickets in the last quarter of 2018, said Shah.
Pakistan Railways' deficit shrunk from Rs. 36.62 billion to Rs. 32.59 billion ($232 million to $206 million) in 10 months, and authorities plan to spend Rs. 125 million ($791,000) on renovating the Karachi and Lahore railway stations, Shah said.
"To help and attract travellers, the availability of our reservation facilities has been increased to 24 hours, seven days a week," he added. "There has been an increase of 41,000 tickets sold by the railways in November due to these enhanced working hours."
Railway authorities have announced a free travel programme for senior citizens age 75 and older, while passengers age 60 to 74 can obtain fare cuts of 50%, he said.
These new developments reflect the ambitious plan initiated by the government to help ordinary Pakistanis use the trains, said Shah.
"We have started work on upgrading and rehabilitating major railway stations to provide better facilities for travellers," he said. "All major stations and train junctions like Rohri will be provided amenities that are available in stations of developed countries."
"Having a developed railway system is a factor that has always played a vital role in the promotion of trade and economic activities," said 35-year-old Rahim Dad, a businessman from Peshawar and a frequent traveller of Pakistan Railways.
"Time and the safe and economic transportation of goods are two aspects that are the top priorities of a businessman when ordering goods," he said. "These demands can be met only by a modern, speedy and affordable railway system."
It now takes about 32 hours minimum to travel overland from Peshawar to Karachi and businesspersons cannot afford to be away from work for so long, Dad said.
The launch of the low-fare, high-speed Rehman Baba express line has the appreciation of businesspersons who value time and cannot afford to fly, said Dad, who frequents Karachi to purchase fabric and hosiery from a factory situated in the SITE Industrial Area.
"We foresee prospects for better development ... that come from having speedy and on-time transportation of goods in the future," he said.
Do you like this article?
* Denotes required field Comment Policy * Comment
1500 characters remaining (1500 max) Captcha
Enhanced security makes Pakistan Railways travel safer
Terrorist attacks against Pakistan Railways have plummeted because of the presence of police and army forces, officials say.
With violence subsiding, Pakistan resumes passenger train service to Kohat, Mardan
The government is planning to extend services to more cities soon, officials say.
Bus Rapid Transit project meant to alleviate Peshawar's traffic woes
The BRT project was inaugurated October 19 and is expected to take six to nine months to complete.
Twitter discloses new trove of banned Iranian propaganda
Abbasi arrested on corruption charges Qureshi challenged about media freedoms at London conference Radical Pakistani cleric Sufi Muhammad dies after protracted illness France returns looted relics to Pakistan Punjab Police file terror financing cases against Hafiz Saeed Iran exceeds enriched uranium stockpile limit in violation of nuclear deal UN calls for justice in murder of Pakistani journalist Karachi police kill Sindh AQIS chief
How hopeful are you that the extension of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police force to tribal districts will help establish or maintain peace?
-Very hopeful
-Somewhat hopeful
-Not at all
-I don't know
Get Pakistan Forward in your Inbox
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line319
|
__label__cc
| 0.642253
| 0.357747
|
Thursday, August 30, 2012 by The Press in School
Monday, Sept. 3: No school. Labor Day holiday.
Tuesday, Sept. 4: Elem.: Oven-baked chicken nuggets or cheeseburger, tossed salad with low-fat dressing, steamed carrots, chilled pineapple, cereal meal. M.S.: Cheeseburger on whole grain roll or oven-baked chicken nuggets with whole grain roll, oven-baked fries, mixed vegetables, assorted fruits/ juices. H.S.: Oven-baked chicken nuggets with whole grain roll, whole grain cheeseburger, seasoned noodles, green beans, side spinach salad, assorted fruits.
Read more about Lunch menus
Thursday, August 30, 2012 by The Press in Breaking News
King George Inn, South Whitehall, closes unexpectedly.
Read more about Unexpected
Rap of the Gavel
Thursday, August 30, 2012 by The Press in Local News
Meetings are held in municipal buildings unless otherwise noted.
Upper Macungie Township Recreation Board, 7 p.m.
WEDNESDAY 5
South Whitehall Commissioners, 7:30 p.m.
THURSDAY 6
Upper Macungie Twp. Supervisors, 7 p.m.
North Whitehall Township Zoners, 7:30 p.m. to hear the appeal of Michael Selig for a special exception to establish a private airport/heliport at 5471 Route 309, Schnecksville.
Read more about Rap of the Gavel
Parkland Community Library offers Summer Reading program at Jordan Lutheran Church.
Read more about Summer reading
Barbara Anne Bokan
Thursday, August 30, 2012 by The Press in Obituaries
1960 Parkland graduate
Barbara Anne (Archer) Bokan of Fogelsville, died Aug. 26, 2012, in Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township.
She was 70 years old.
Born on Aug. 9, 1942, in Philadelphia, she was raised in Haddonfield, N.J., and Allentown.
She was the daughter of the late William E. and Antoinette (Linder) Archer.
She graduated from Parkland High in 1960, and attended St. Joseph's College, Emmitsburg, Md.
She was employed by Tiffany of Philadelphia in sales.
She was currently a pharmacy tech at Rite Aid.
Read more about Barbara Anne Bokan
New school reporter welcomes new school year, her senior year
Homecoming, the Mr. Parkland contest, the prom and post-prom party, and the last day of school, are just a few of the very important activities that go on at Parkland High School.
As the first day of school approaches, so will all these activities.
Your connection to all the events going on at the high school will be through me, Nadia Boekenkamp.
I am a senior and write not only for the Parkland Press but also for the school paper, The Trumpet.
Read more about New school reporter welcomes new school year, her senior year
PEOPLE SAY...By Debbie Galbraith
Thursday, August 30, 2012 by The Press in Opinion
Editor's note: Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died on Aug. 25.
Where were you when he walked on the moon and what was your reaction?
Read more about PEOPLE SAY...By Debbie Galbraith
·Special Olympics Bethlehem is in need of a training coordinator. Contact Robert Sehee at 610-419-3285 or bso.sehee@gmail.com.
·American Diabetes Association, Bethlehem, needs help to make the next diabetes walk in Bethlehem Oct. 13 the most fun and successful walk to date.
Contact Dawn Fernandez at 888-342-2383, ext. 4625 or dfernandez@diabetes.org.
Coco Foundation, Bethlehem, needs volunteers for its annual Tee Time for Coco Golf Tournament Sept. 29.
Contact Lisa Walker at 570-954-8024 or lisa@thecocofoundation.org.
Read more about Volunteer Opportunities
Parkland offers band and string camp for students.
Read more about Making music
Writer misses high school friend who died
Dora M. Lacy was a friend like no other person could be.
When I was injured in a motor scooter accident, Dora, her sister, Evelyn, and their brother, Richard, who was a classmate of mine for four years in the fantasic class of 1949 at Whitehall High School, stepped in to bolster my self-esteem at a time I needed it badly.
Frequent visits playing pinochle and board games, and cranking homemade ice cream were welcome treats to the boredom of waiting for broken bones to heal.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line321
|
__label__wiki
| 0.558765
| 0.558765
|
Top Audiobooks
The Land of Flickering Lights
By Michael Bennet
Genre: Political Science
$26.99 Buy Now PDF Book RTF Book DOC Book Epub Book
We had become the land of flickering lights, in which the standard of success was not what we were doing for the next generation of Americans, or to enhance our role in the world, but instead whether we had kept government open for another few minutes.”—Michael Bennet
The Land of Flickering Lights is a unique contribution to American political writing at this or any other time. Senator Michael Bennet lifts a veil on the inner workings of Congress to reveal, in his words, “through a series of actual stories—about the people, the politics, the motives, the money, the hypocrisy, the stakes, the outcome—the pathological culture of the capital and the consequences for us all.”
Bennet unfolds the dramatic backstory behind five episodes crucial to the well-being of all Americans. Each of them exemplifies the hyper-partisan politics that have upended our democracy:
The highly politicized confirmation battles over judicial nominations at all levels—epitomized by ugly and unprincipled fights over seats on the Supreme Court; The passage of the Trump tax law, which massively increased our national debt and widened economic inequality across the country; The shredding of the Iran nuclear deal, which undermined our national security, caused friends and foes alike to doubt America’s word, and made a mockery of the longstanding bipartisan tradition in foreign policy; The pervasive corruption unleashed by “dark money” in policies and how big donors have been able to stymie urgent action on climate change and many other issues; The sabotage by a congressional minority of the “Gang of Eight’s” bi-partisan deal to reform America’s immigration policies, a deal that would have comprehensively addressed the immigration issues that bedevil us to this day.
With frankness and refreshing candor, and in elegant prose, Bennet pulls the machinations behind these episodes into full public view, shedding vital new light on our political dysfunction today. Arguing that each of us has a duty to act as a founder, he will inspire Americans of all political persuasions to demand that the “winners” of our political battles be all the American people, nor one party or the other.
More by Michael Bennet
Michael Bennet
Do You Feel Called?
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line326
|
__label__cc
| 0.589073
| 0.410927
|
A new dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane 6 – Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity – embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship and save their home.
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Music
Director: Jayson Thiessen
Actors: Andrea Libman, Ashleigh Ball, Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Peña, Taye Diggs, Uzo Aduba
Smurfs: The Lost Village
In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting race through the Forbidden Forest leading…
The Ornithologist
Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, a hunky ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.
Country: Brazil, France, Portugal
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Gun Shy
A mega-platinum, aging rock star’s supermodel wife is abducted by pirates while vacationing in Chile.
Country: China, India, Nepal
When the pressure to be royal becomes too much for Mal, she returns to the Isle of the Lost where her archenemy Uma, Ursula’s daughter, has taken her spot as…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Music, TV Movie
Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need…
Of Gods and Warriors
A Viking Princess is forced to flee her kingdom after being framed for the murder of her father, the King. Under the guidance of the God Odin, she travels the…
Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
All About the Money
Two “down on their luck” buddies are convinced by a third to take a vacation. Only after landing in the third world country do they realize that they are there…
The Stolen
The story of a woman who must find her kidnapped son, navigating a world she doesn’t know, on the edge of danger with every heartbeat.
Country: Germany, New Zealand, UK, United Arab Emirates
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Western
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
In the year 2048, the human race is forced to leave Earth after decades of losing against Godzilla and other giant monsters. They take a twenty-year journey to another planet…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation, Science Fiction
Trailer: My Little Pony: The Movie
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line339
|
__label__wiki
| 0.826766
| 0.826766
|
All Movies Theatres People Cities
7/26 - Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (R)
8/2 - Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (PG-13)
8/9 - Dora and the Lost City of Gold (PG)
8/9 - Kitchen, The (R)
8/9 - Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark (PG-13)
8/9 - Art of Racing in the Rain, The (PG)
8/14 - Angry Birds Movie 2, The (PG)
8/16 - Where'd You Go, Bernadette (PG-13)
8/16 - Good Boys (R)
8/16 - 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (PG-13)
To get the full Quicklook Films experience, uncheck "Enable on this Site" from Adblock Plus
Lion King, The (PG)
From Disney Live Action, director Jon Favreau's all-new -The Lion King- journeys to the African savanna where a future king is born. Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub's arrival. Scar, Mufasa's brother -and former heir to the throne- has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba's exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.
Animation, Action/Adventure
Opens July 19th, 2019
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
Jeff Nathanson
home movies showtimes movie news movie reviews facebook twitter in theatres coming soon Privacy Policy Contact
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line342
|
__label__wiki
| 0.763939
| 0.763939
|
RussiaUkraineUnited StatesBelarusKazakhstanGermanyMoldovaEstoniaCzechiaLatviaUnited KingdomSwedenNorwayNetherlandsIsraelKyrgyzstanFranceCanadaUzbekistanArmeniaLithuaniaItalyPolandAzerbaijanBrazilChinaBelgiumBulgariaSpainGeorgiaTurkeyFinlandIrelandSlovakiaSloveniaSouth AfricaGreeceSerbiaPortugalJapanAustraliaTajikistanAustriaSwitzerlandHungaryIraqThailandDenmarkRomaniaCyprusUnited Arab EmiratesSouth KoreaTaiwanArgentinaSingaporeCroatiaTurkmenistanNew ZealandIranHong KongVietnamIndiaEgyptMontenegroSaudi ArabiaMexicoAlgeriaDemocratic Republic of the CongoBosnia and HerzegovinaMalaysiaIcelandPakistanColombiaDominican RepublicChileVenezuelaLebanonMongoliaSyriaIndonesiaBangladeshNigeriaCosta RicaEcuadorMoroccoPhilippinesMaltaKenyaNorth MacedoniaPanamaSri LankaJordanSudanAngolaCambodiaQatarBritish Virgin IslandsCubaReunionLibyaPeruGhanaLuxembourgUruguayDominicaKuwaitSenegalTunisiaBurmaRwandaKosovoNepalHaitiGuatemalaSomaliaMaldivesBahrainVirgin IslandsEthiopiaNicaraguaOmanAfghanistanGuineaAndorraUgandaAlbaniaFaroe IslandsCuracaoMaliMadagascarArubaLaosMozambiqueTanzaniaBurkina Faso
Lebanon Population: 6,237,738
Following World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French demarcated the region of Lebanon in 1920 and granted this area independence in 1943. Since independence the country has been marked by periods of political turmoil interspersed with prosperity built on its position as a regional center for finance and trade. The country's 1975-90 civil war that resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities, was followed by years of social and political instability. Sectarianism is a key element of Lebanese political life. Neighboring Syria has historically influenced Lebanon's foreign policy and internal policies, and its military occupied Lebanon from 1976 until 2005. The Lebanon-based Hizballah militia and Israel continued attacks and counterattacks against each other after Syria's withdrawal, and fought a brief war in 2006. Lebanon's borders with Syria and Israel remain unresolved.
Smallest country in continental Asia; Nahr el Litani is the only major river in Near East not crossing an international boundary; rugged terrain historically helped isolate, protect, and develop numerous factional groups based on religion, clan, and ethnicity
Location: Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Israel and Syria
Geographic coordinates: 33 50 N, 35 50 E
Area: total: 10,400 sq km
land: 10,230 sq km
water: 170 sq km
Size comparison: about one-third the size of Maryland
Land Boundaries: total: 484 km border countries (2): Israel 81 km, Syria 403 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: Mediterranean; mild to cool, wet winters with hot, dry summers; the Lebanon Mountains experience heavy winter snows
Terrain: narrow coastal plain; El Beqaa (Bekaa Valley) separates Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains
Natural resources: limestone, iron ore, salt, water-surplus state in a water-deficit region, arable land
Land use: agricultural land: 63.3% arable land 11.9%; permanent crops 12.3%; permanent pasture 39.1% forest: 13.4%
Irrigated land: 1,040 sq km (2012)
Natural hazards: dust storms, sandstorms
Current Environment Issues: deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air pollution in Beirut from vehicular traffic and the burning of industrial wastes; pollution of coastal waters from raw sewage and oil spills
International Environment Agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life Conservation
Nationality: noun: Lebanese (singular and plural)
adjective: Lebanese
Ethnic groups: Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1% note: many Christian Lebanese do not identify themselves as Arab but rather as descendants of the ancient Canaanites and prefer to be called Phoenicians
Languages: Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian
Religions: Muslim 54% (27% Sunni, 27% Shia), Christian 40.5% (includes 21% Maronite Catholic, 8% Greek Orthodox, 5% Greek Catholic, 6.5% other Christian), Druze 5.6%, very small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, and Mormons
note: 18 religious sects recognized (2012 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 24.65% (male 786,842/female 750,449)
15-24 years: 16.73% (male 534,040/female 509,663)
25-54 years: 44.44% (male 1,401,857/female 1,370,462)
55-64 years: 7.54% (male 220,020/female 250,288)
65 years and over: 6.64% (male 181,627/female 232,490) (2016 est.)
elderly dependency ratio: 12%
potential support ratio: 8.3% (2015 est.)
Birth rate: 14.4 births/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Net migration rate: -1.1 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Major urban areas - population: BEIRUT (capital) 2.226 million (2015)
total population: 1 male(s)/female (2016 est.)
Maternal mortality rate: 15 deaths/100,000 live births (2015 est.)
Infant mortality rate: total: 7.6 deaths/1,000 live births male: 8 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 7.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2016 est.)
Physicians density: 3.2 physicians/1,000 population (2011)
Hospital bed density: 3.5 beds/1,000 population (2012)
urban: 99% of population
rural: 99% of population
total: 99% of population
urban: 1% of population
rural: 1% of population
total: 1% of population (2015 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 2,400 (2015 est.)
Obesity - adult prevalence rate: 30.8% (2014)
male: 96%
Country name: conventional long form: Lebanese Republic
conventional short form: Lebanon
local long form: Al Jumhuriyah al Lubnaniyah
local short form: Lubnan
former: Greater Lebanon
etymology: derives from the Semitic root "lbn" meaning "white" and refers to snow-capped Mount Lebanon
Government type: parliamentary republic
Capital: name: Beirut
time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October
Administrative divisions: 8 governorates (mohafazat, singular - mohafazah); Aakkar, Baalbek-Hermel, Beqaa, Beyrouth (Beirut), Liban-Nord (North Lebanon), Liban-Sud (South Lebanon), Mont-Liban (Mount Lebanon), Nabatiye
Independence: 22 November 1943 (from League of Nations mandate under French administration)
National holiday: Independence Day, 22 November (1943)
Constitution: drafted 15 May 1926, adopted 23 May 1926; amended several times, last in 2004 (2016)
Legal system: mixed legal system of civil law based on the French civil code, Ottoman legal tradition, and religious laws covering personal status, marriage, divorce, and other family relations of the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian communities
Suffrage: 21 years of age; compulsory for all males; authorized for women at age 21 with elementary education; excludes military personnel
Executive branch: chief of state: President Michel AWN (since 31 October 2016)
head of government: Prime Minister Saad al-HARIRI (since 18 December 2016); Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan HASBANI (since 18 December 2016)
cabinet: Cabinet chosen by the prime minister in consultation with the president and National Assembly elections/appointments: president indirectly elected by the National Assembly with two-thirds majority vote in the first round and if needed absolute majority vote in a second round for a 6-year term (eligible for non-consecutive terms); (next to be held in 2022); prime minister and deputy prime minister appointed by the president in consultation with the National Assembly
election results: Michel AWN elected president; National Assembly vote in second round - Michel AWN (FPM) 83; note - in the initial election held on 23 April 2014, no candidate received the required two-thirds vote, and subsequent attempts failed because the National Assembly lacked a quorum to hold a vote; the president was elected in the 46th attempt on 31 October 2016
Legislative branch: description: unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Nuwab in Arabic or Assemblee Nationale in French (128 seats; members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by majority vote; members serve 4-year terms); note - seats are apportioned among the Christian and Muslim denominations note: Lebanon’s Constitution states the National Assembly cannot conduct regular business until it elects a president when the position is vacant
elections: last held on 7 June 2009 (next to be held in May 2017)
election results: percent of vote by coalition - March 8 Coalition 54.7%, March 14 Coalition 45.3%; seats by coalition - March 14 Coalition 71; March 8 Coalition 57; seats by coalition following 16 July 2012 byelection held to fill one seat - March 14 Coalition 72, March 8 Coalition 56
Judicial branch: highest court(s): Court of Cassation or Supreme Court (organized into 8 chambers, each with a presiding judge and 2 associate judges); Constitutional Council (consists of 10 members) judge selection and term of office: Court of Cassation judges appointed by Supreme Judicial Council, a 10-member body headed by the chief justice, and includes other judicial officials; judge tenure NA; Constitutional Council members appointed - 5 by the Council of Ministers and 5 by parliament; members serve 5-year terms
subordinate courts: Courts of Appeal; Courts of First Instance; specialized tribunals, religious courts; military courts
Political parties and leaders: 14 March Coalition: Future Movement Bloc [Sa'ad al-HARIRI] Kata'ib Party [Sami GEMAYEL] Lebanese Forces or LF [Samir JA'JA] Marada Movement [Sulayman FRANJIEH] Social Democrat Hunshaqian Party [Sebouh KELPAKIAN] Hizballah-led bloc (formerly 8 March Coalition): Amal Movement [Nabih BERRI] Ba’th Arab Socialist Party of Lebanon [Fayez SHUKR] Free Patriotic Movement or FPM [Gibran BASSIL] Hizballah [Hassan NASRALLAH] Islamic Actions Front [Sheikh Zuhair al-JU’AYD] Marada Movement [Sulayman FRANJIEH] Syrian Social Nationalist Party [Ali QANSO] Tashnag or Armenian Revolutionary Federation [Hagop PAKRADOUNIAN] Independent: Progressive Socialist Party or PSP [Walid JUNBLATT]
Political pressure groups and leaders: Grand Mufti of Lebanon [Sheikh Abdul Latif DERIAN] Maronite Church [Patriarch Bishara al-RA'I] note: most sects retain militias and a number of Sunni militant groups operate in Palestinian refugee camps
International organization participation: ABEDA, AFESD, AMF, CAEU, FAO, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, LAS, MIGA, NAM, OAS (observer), OIC, OIF, OPCW, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNRWA, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO (observer)
National symbol(s): cedar tree; national colors: red, white, green
National anthem: name: "Kulluna lil-watan" (All Of Us, For Our Country!)
lyrics/music: Rachid NAKHLE/Wadih SABRA
note: adopted 1927; chosen following a nationwide competition
Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaries Carla JAZZAR (since 28 January 2016)
chancery: 2560 28th Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
consulate(s) general: Detroit, New York, Los Angeles
Diplomatic representation from the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Elizabeth H. RICHARD (since May 2016)
embassy: Awkar, Lebanon (Awkar facing the Municipality)
mailing address: P. O. Box 70-840, Antelias, Lebanon; from US: US Embassy Beirut, 6070 Beirut Place, Washington, DC 20521-6070
telephone: [961] (4) 542600, 543600
FAX: [961] (4) 544136
Lebanon has a free-market economy and a strong laissez-faire commercial tradition. The government does not restrict foreign investment; however, the investment climate suffers from red tape, corruption, arbitrary licensing decisions, complex customs procedures, high taxes, tariffs, and fees, archaic legislation, and weak intellectual property rights. The Lebanese economy is service-oriented; main growth sectors include banking and tourism. The 1975-90 civil war seriously damaged Lebanon's economic infrastructure, cut national output by half, and derailed Lebanon's position as a Middle Eastern entrepot and banking hub. Following the civil war, Lebanon rebuilt much of its war-torn physical and financial infrastructure by borrowing heavily, mostly from domestic banks, which saddled the government with a huge debt burden. Pledges of economic and financial reforms made at separate international donor conferences during the 2000s have mostly gone unfulfilled, including those made during the Paris III Donor Conference in 2007, following the July 2006 war. Spillover from the Syrian conflict, including the influx of more than 1.1 million registered Syrian refugees, has increased internal tension and slowed economic growth to the 1-2% range in 2011-15, after four years of averaging 8% growth. Syrian refugees have increased the labor supply, but pushed more Lebanese into unemployment. Chronic fiscal deficits have increased Lebanon’s debt-to-GDP ratio, the fourth highest in the world; most of the debt is held internally by Lebanese banks. Weak economic growth limits tax revenues, while the largest government expenditures remain debt servicing, salaries for government workers, and transfers to the electricity sector. These limitations constrain other government spending and limit the government’s ability to invest in necessary infrastructure improvements, such as water, electricity, and transportation.
GDP (purchasing power parity): GDP (purchasing power parity): $85.16 billion (2016 est.) $84.32 billion (2015 est.) $83.48 billion (2014 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): GDP (official exchange rate): $51.82 billion (2015 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 1% (2016 est.) 1% (2015 est.) 2% (2014 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP): GDP - per capita (PPP): $18,500 (2016 est.) $18,500 (2015 est.) $18,500 (2014 est.)
Gross national saving: 2% of GDP (2016 est.) 1.1% of GDP (2015 est.) -1.6% of GDP (2014 est.)
investment in inventories: 0.6%
Agriculture - products: citrus, grapes, tomatoes, apples, vegetables, potatoes, olives, tobacco; sheep, goats
Industries: banking, tourism, food processing, wine, jewelry, cement, textiles, mineral and chemical products, wood and furniture products, oil refining, metal fabricating
Labor force: 1.628 million note: does not include as many as 1 million foreign workers, nor refugees (2013 est.)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: NA%
industry: NA%
services: NA%
Unemployment rate: NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%
Budget: revenues: $9.953 billion
Public debt: 161.5% of GDP (2016 est.) 147.6% of GDP (2015 est.)
note: data cover central government debt, and exclude debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data include debt issued by subnational entities, as well as in
Inflation rate (consumer prices): Inflation rate (consumer prices): -1% (2016 est.) -3.8% (2015 est.)
Current account balance: -$10.56 billion (2016 est.) -$10.65 billion (2015 est.)
Exports: $3.108 billion (2016 est.) $3.551 billion (2015 est.)
Exports - commodities: jewelry, base metals, chemicals, consumer goods, fruit and vegetables, tobacco, construction minerals, electric power machinery and switchgear, textile fibers, paper
Exports - partners: Saudi Arabia 12.1%, UAE 10.6%, Iraq 7.6%, Syria 7.1%, South Africa 6.6% (2015)
Imports - commodities: petroleum products, cars, medicinal products, clothing, meat and live animals, consumer goods, paper, textile fabrics, tobacco, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals
Imports - partners: China 11.5%, Italy 7.1%, Germany 6.8%, France 6%, US 5.7%, Russia 4.6%, Greece 4.4% (2015)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $47.74 billion (31 December 2016 est.) $48.6 billion (31 December 2015 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: $NA
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: $NA
Market value of publicly traded shares: $11.22 billion (30 December 2014 est.) $10.54 billion (30 December 2013 est.) $10.42 billion (28 December 2012 est.)
Exchange rates: Lebanese pounds (LBP) per US dollar - 1,507.5 (2016 est.) 1,507.5 (2015 est.) 1,507.5 (2014 est.) 1,507.5 (2013 est.) 1,507.5 (2012 est.)
Electricity - imports: 100 million kWh (2014 est.)
Electricity - installed generating capacity: 2.3 million kW (2014 est.)
Electricity - from fossil fuels: 90.2% of total installed capacity (2012 est.)
Electricity - from hydroelectric plants: 9.8% of total installed capacity (2012 est.)
Electricity - from other renewable sources: 0% of total installed capacity (2012 est.)
Crude oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2015 est.)
Crude oil - exports: 0 bbl/day (2013 est.)
Crude oil - imports: 0 bbl/day (2013 est.)
Crude oil - proved reserves: 0 bbl (1 January 2016 es)
Refined petroleum products - production: 0 bbl/day (2013 est.)
Refined petroleum products - exports: 0 bbl/day (2013 est.)
Refined petroleum products - imports: 139,900 bbl/day (2013 est.)
Natural gas - production: 0 cu m (2013 est.)
Natural gas - consumption: 150.1 million cu m (2010 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 150.1 million cu m (2010 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 0 cu m (1 January 2014 es)
Cellular Phones in use: total: 4.4 million subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 71 (July 2015 est.)
Telephone system: general assessment: repair of the telecommunications system, severely damaged during the civil war, now complete
domestic: two mobile-cellular networks provide good service; combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular subscribership almost 90 per 100 persons
international: country code - 961; submarine cable links to Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean); coaxial cable to Syria (2015)
Broadcast media: 7 TV stations, 1 of which is state owned; more than 30 radio stations, 1 of which is state owned; satellite and cable TV services available; transmissions of at least 2 international broadcasters are accessible through partner stations (2007)
Internet country code: .lb
Internet users: total: 4.577 million percent of population: 74% (July 2015 est.)
Airports: 8 (2013)
Airports (paved runways): total 5
under 914 m: 1 (2013)
Airports (unpaved runways): total 3
914 to 1,523 m: 2
Pipelines: gas 88 km (2013)
standard gauge: 319 km 1.435-m gauge
narrow gauge: 82 km 1.050-m gauge
note: rail system unusable due to damage sustained from fighting in the 1980s and in 2006 (2008)
Roadways: total 6,970 km
(includes 170 km of expressways) (2005)
Merchant marine: total 29
by type: bulk carrier 4, cargo 7, carrier 17, vehicle carrier 1
foreign-owned: 2 (Syria 2)
registered in other countries: 34 (Barbados 2, Cambodia 5, Comoros 2, Egypt 1, Georgia 1, Honduras 2, Liberia 1, Malta 6, Moldova 1, Panama 2, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2, Sierra Leone 2, Togo 6, unknown 1) (2010)
Ports and terminals: major seaport(s): Beirut, Tripoli container port(s) (TEUs): Beirut (1,034,249)
Military branches: Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF): Lebanese Army ((Al Jaysh al Lubnani) includes Lebanese Navy (Al Quwwat al Bahiriyya al Lubnaniya), Lebanese Air Force (Al Quwwat al Jawwiya al Lubnaniya)) (2013)
Military service age and obligation: 17-30 years of age for voluntary military service; 18-24 years of age for officer candidates; no conscription (2013)
Military expenditures: 4.04% of GDP (2012) 4.06% of GDP (2011) 4.04% of GDP (2010)
Disputes - International: lacking a treaty or other documentation describing the boundary, portions of the Lebanon-Syria boundary are unclear with several sections in dispute; since 2000, Lebanon has claimed Shab'a Farms area in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights; the roughly 2,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been in place since 1978
Refugees and internally displaced persons: refugees (country of origin): 452,669 (Palestinian refugees); 7,234 (Iraq) (2015); 1,033,513 (Syria) (2016) IDPs: 12,000 (2007 Lebanese security forces' destruction of Palestinian refugee camp) (2015)
stateless persons: undetermined (2014); note - tens of thousands of persons are stateless in Lebanon, including many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Syrian Kurds denaturalized in Syria in 1962, children born to Lebanese women married to foreign or stateless men; most babies born to Syrian refugees, and Lebanese children whose births are unregistered
Illicit drugs: cannabis cultivation dramatically reduced to 2,500 hectares in 2002 despite continued significant cannabis consumption; opium poppy cultivation minimal; small amounts of Latin American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin transit country on way to European markets and for Middle Eastern consumption; money laundering of drug proceeds fuels concern that extremists are benefiting from drug trafficking
RussiaUkraineUnited StatesBelarusKazakhstanGermanyMoldovaEstoniaCzechiaLatviaUnited KingdomSwedenNorwayNetherlandsIsraelKyrgyzstanFranceCanadaUzbekistanArmeniaLithuaniaItalyPolandAzerbaijanBrazilChinaBelgiumBulgariaSpainGeorgiaTurkeyFinlandIrelandSlovakiaSloveniaSouth AfricaGreeceSerbiaPortugalJapanAustraliaTajikistanAustriaSwitzerlandHungaryIraqThailandDenmarkRomaniaCyprusUnited Arab EmiratesSouth KoreaTaiwanArgentinaSingaporeCroatiaTurkmenistanNew ZealandIranHong KongVietnamIndiaEgyptMontenegroSaudi ArabiaMexicoAlgeriaDemocratic Republic of the CongoBosnia and HerzegovinaMalaysiaIcelandPakistanColombiaDominican RepublicChileVenezuelaLebanonMongoliaSyriaIndonesiaBangladeshNigeriaCosta RicaEcuadorMoroccoPhilippinesMaltaKenyaNorth MacedoniaPanamaSri LankaJordanSudanAngolaCambodiaQatarBritish Virgin IslandsCubaReunionLibyaPeruGhanaLuxembourgUruguayDominicaKuwaitSenegalTunisiaBurmaRwandaKosovoNepalHaitiGuatemalaSomaliaMaldivesBahrainVirgin IslandsEthiopiaNicaraguaOmanAfghanistanGuineaAndorraUgandaAlbaniaFaroe IslandsCuracaoMaliMadagascarArubaLaosMozambiqueTanzaniaBurkina Faso « Previous Country | Next Country » Back to Flag Counter Overview
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line347
|
__label__cc
| 0.616023
| 0.383977
|
Select other Saints Anzalone, Alex Apple, Eli Armstead, Terron Arnold, Dan Banjo, Chris Barrett IV, J.T. Bell, Vonn Biegel, Vince Brees, Drew Bridgewater, Teddy Bromley, Jay Bryant, Dez Bushrod, Jermon Campbell, Chris Carr, Austin Clapp, Will Cobbs Jr., Simmie Coleman, Kurt Crawley, Ken Davenport, Marcus Davis, Demario Davison, Tyeler Dural, Travin Ginn Jr., Ted Gray, J.T. Griffin, Garrett Hardee, Justin Hendrickson, Trey Hill, Josh Hill, Taysom Hoomanawanui, Michael Ingram, Mark Jefferson, Rickey Jordan, Cameron Kamara, Alvin Kirkwood, Keith Klein, A.J. Lasco II, Daniel Lattimore, Marshon Laulile, Tomasi LeRibeus, Josh Lewis, Tommylee Line, Zach Lutz, Wil Meredith, Cameron Morstead, Thomas Newton, Derek Okafor, Alex Ola, Michael Onyemata, David Peat, Andrus Ramczyk, Ryan Rankins, Sheldon Robertson, Craig Robinson, Josh Robinson, Patrick Sankey, Darnell Smith, Tre'Quan Stallworth, Taylor Te'o, Manti Thomas, Michael Tom, Cameron Unger, Max Walker, Tyrunn Warford, Larry Washington, Dwayne Watson, Benjamin Williams, Marcus Williams, P.J. Wood, Zach Wozniak, Nate Saints Roster
Sheldon Rankins
40 8.0 0
Team: New Orleans Saints Ht/Wt: 6-2/305
Position: DT Born: 4/2/1994 Birthplace: Covington, GA
College: Louisville Draft: 1st Round 12th pick by Saints (2016)
Nov. 3, 2016 7:31 AM PT8:31 AM MT9:31 AM CT10:31 AM ET14:31 GMT10:31 PM 北京时间7:31 AM MST9:31 AM EST8:31 AM CT18:31 UAE10:31 ETNaN:� - Saints coach Sean Payton sounds optimistic that Rankins will make his NFL debut in San Francisco this Sunday.
Analysis: Rankins, selected 12th overall out of Louisville and New Orleans' top draft choice last spring, fractured his fibula during training camp in August and began the season on injured reserve. Rankins began practicing two weeks ago and is now eligible to play.
Aug. 15, 2016 8:14 AM PT9:14 AM MT10:14 AM CT11:14 AM ET15:14 GMT11:14 PM 北京时间8:14 AM MST10:14 AM EST10:14 AM CT19:14 UAE11:14 ET14:14 - Rankins (hip) returned to Saints practice Wednesday and could return as soon as Nov. 6 against the 49ers.
Analysis: The rookie suffered a fractured fibula during practice in the offseason that landed him on IR. It was originally feared he could miss the entire season. The 12th overall pick was slated to be a starter on the interior line.
May 9, 2016 1:39 PM PT2:39 PM MT3:39 PM CT4:39 PM ET20:39 GMT4:39 AM 北京时间1:39 PM MST3:39 PM EST3:39 PM CT0:39 UAE (+1)16:39 ET19:39 - Rankins has signed his rookie contract with the Saints, general manager Mickey Loomis announced Monday.
Analysis: New Orleans took Rankins with the 12th overall pick of this year's draft to help upgrade one of the league's worst defenses last season. Wide receiver Michael Thomas, the team's second-round choice, also agreed to terms Monday.
Apr. 28, 2016 5:57 PM PT6:57 PM MT7:57 PM CT8:57 PM ET0:57 GMT8:57 AM 北京时间5:57 PM MST7:57 PM EST7:57 PM CT4:57 UAE (+1)20:57 ET23:57 - The Saints selected Rankins with the 12th overall pick in Thursday night's NFL draft.
Analysis: The 6-foot-1, 299-pound Rankins starred at Louisville, where he played defensive tackle and had six sacks, as well as 13 tackles for losses last season. The selection provides the Saints with help on a defense that ranked 31st in the NFL last season, and which struggled both to pressure quarterbacks and stop the run.
2016 NO 9 15 5 4.0 32.0 0 0 0 0 1 0
2017 NO 16 16 10 2.0 13.0 1 27 0 1 1 0
2018 NO 16 26 14 8.0 61.0 0 0 0 1 1 0
Totals 41 57 29 14.0 106.0 1 27 0 2 3 0
2017 NO 2 7 3 1.0 10.0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2018 NO 1 0 - 0.0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 3 7 3 1.0 10.0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2017 NO 2 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0
Totals 3 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line351
|
__label__wiki
| 0.660529
| 0.660529
|
More "What If"s + Important Questions
Author Topic: More "What If"s + Important Questions (Read 1871 times)
graciousserendipity
We know that Zane was one of Shay's friends, along with her, who didn't originally go to the Smoke. But we learn in the first manga that Zane was freaked out, because he learned Special Circumstances was real. Do you think, if Zane was never interrogated by Specials, that they both would have gone to the Smoke first, and not on the second try for Shay (even though David didn't originally want her to)?
Although Tally was quite tricky, even sneaking into a Pretty party, she always wanted, like most, to become pretty. We know from the Pretties novel that all Specials were tricky enough to stop being "bubble-headed". So do you think she would have still become a Special, being really tricky, even if she had never met Shay?
We know from the manga that David first didn't want Shay going to the Smoke just because she had started loving him, and that once she did go to the Smoke, she and David started having a relationship. But then David and Tally started loving each other. If Tally hadn't (accidentally) told the Specials where the Smoke was (and caused David's dad to die), how do you think Shay and Tally's relationship would have been, along with David and Shay's relationship? Do you think Shay would now just be David's friend? Do you think Tally and Shay would still have become "frenemies" because of deciding who "owns" David, or would they would have worked it out? In the other "What if..." topic post, someone said Tally might have been murdered by Shay...
« Last Edit: September 10, 2013, 04:06:31 PM by graciousserendipity »
Panzercrappitastica
Westerforum Resident Exalt
Re: More "What If"s + Important Questions
I think if Zane hadn't been interrogated by Special Circumstances, he would've gone the first time, but Shay wouldn't have, because, if I remember right, she didn't know that Zane hadn't gone until after all the others had left, so it wouldn't influence her decision.
I don't think she would have, because when she finally was made Special, it was for trying to escape New Pretty Town, which was a result of the pills she got from Maddy, who she never would have met if it weren't for Shay. Dr. Cable wasn't just looking for tricky Uglies, she was looking for people who could stay tricky after the surge.
I think Shay would be all bitter and still feel like Tally was 'stealing' him, but she'd still deny to herself and everyone else that she loved him, but it would certainly complicate their relationship. And don't worry, the other "What if..." thread is just silly, not like real answers. Most of the time, anyway.
Purple-handed peep Volger with a flash tattoo hoverboarding around the Lynx in the blue hour with adreneline coursing through his penguins while failing to own the sunset! In a hoop skirt.
Pan the Imperial Bucket Holder
"Early to bed, early to rise, early to plan the world's demise"
- Catvomitsky
Quote from: Panzercrappitastica on September 10, 2013, 11:36:04 PM
Even though Tally got those 2 pills, she took the one that didn't do anything to her brain, because she didn't take the other that Zane got, and she still cleared her brain. So even though, all because of meeting Shay and Maddy and getting the pills, she was determined to leave New Pretty Town, do you think there was still a slim chance of her becoming a Special? Or at least a "brain-cleared" Middle Pretty that had a serious job, such as a surgeon like Maddy and Az?
I still doubt it, because a) even if the pill was a placebo, it still worked and b) she never would have wanted not to be pretty if it weren't for the Smoke. She'd probably be completely happy as a pretty. Also, before anyone points out Zane: She met Zane through the Crims, who she met through Shay.
Technically, the pill, being a placebo, didn't work, but yeah, she most likely wouldn't have become Special, because she thought it was working, and the pills were all due to meeting Shay.
Another question: We know from that Pretties quote that Dr. Cable had been a tricky Ugly, going to the ruins and running even farther away, having to be found and brought back. Do you think that Dr. Cable, as an Ugly, had been trying to find and join the Smoke while running away?
Probably not. I don't think that the Smoke existed when she was an ugly, unless Maddy and Az are a lot older than they seem, and Cable a lot younger.
Well, we don't know Cable's exact age, since both the Pretty and Special operations give you beautiful, younger looks. So she could be younger than Maddy and Az...
Maybe. But that doesn't exactly make sense, because Cable would have to be younger than she seems, not older.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line352
|
__label__cc
| 0.632802
| 0.367198
|
2019 Seattle USk 10x10 Workshops
About USk
Places We've Sketched
Seattle USk Members
Meet the Correspondents
Upcoming Sketch Outings
Next Sketch Outing
Friday, July 12: First Hill/Freeway Park
More from Pioneer Square…
Posting a little late due to my offering a workshop in sunny Hawaii, but here are a few of the sketches I did at our last meeting.
Posted by Frank Ching
Labels: Frank Ching
Gail L. Wong April 28, 2010 at 9:10 AM
Great detail. I love how the architectural detail seems to emerge out of the stone. Great capture of the fireman!
Peggy April 29, 2010 at 5:27 AM
Frank, I am struggling with Baroque ornamentation and really appreciate your column!
gabi campanario April 29, 2010 at 8:21 PM
great seeing your take on the Interurban building! when i sketched it a couple of weeks ago i found the distance from across the street too far from the subject and struggled to find a good position
Dan Seng April 30, 2010 at 9:08 PM
I enjoy the urban jewelry in your Smith Tower sketch. The foreground context and the tower in the background really defines the space.
Should we have our next sketch outing in Hawaii? I'm game!
banner sketched by
Masthead sketch by Tim Tao
Seattle USk Events
our group on flickr
Follow Seattle Usk Blog Site
Join Our Google Group
Google Groups
Subscribe to Urban Sketchers Seattle
Join or follow us on Instagram #uskseattle
Urban Sketchers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising the artistic, storytelling and educational value of location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel. Sketchers from the Seattle area share their drawings on this blog.
Our Manifesto 1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. 2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel. 3. Our drawings are a record of time and place. 4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness. 5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles. 6. We support each other and draw together. 7. We share our drawings online. 8. We show the world, one drawing at a time.
Learn about our workshops program and contact instructors to come teach in your city.
Blog Archive July (9) June (9) May (9) April (9) March (18) February (11) January (7) December (9) November (10) October (16) September (15) August (19) July (14) June (13) May (12) April (14) March (17) February (15) January (14) December (13) November (15) October (17) September (15) August (19) July (14) June (19) May (18) April (17) March (16) February (18) January (22) December (14) November (15) October (24) September (13) August (21) July (28) June (23) May (15) April (16) March (27) February (26) January (19) December (10) November (19) October (23) September (22) August (25) July (34) June (29) May (24) April (32) March (22) February (28) January (35) December (32) November (18) October (18) September (22) August (29) July (30) June (29) May (38) April (22) March (27) February (26) January (31) December (30) November (33) October (22) September (34) August (37) July (38) June (34) May (34) April (23) March (25) February (38) January (43) December (35) November (34) October (41) September (32) August (39) July (45) June (15) May (47) April (24) March (40) February (30) January (32) December (23) November (20) October (24) September (17) August (26) July (34) June (36) May (27) April (22) March (37) February (24) January (35) December (26) November (19) October (39) September (29) August (11) July (15) June (18) May (13) April (17) March (20) February (22) January (22) December (20) November (23) October (11) September (13) August (19) July (20) June (22) May (5)
Bainbridge Island (10) Ballard (31) Ballard Locks (12) Ballard Market (4) boats (15) british columbia (7) buildings (5) Capitol Hill (33) Center for Wooden Boats (12) cherry blossoms (8) Chinatown (3) Chinese New Year's (4) coffee shop (7) Elliott Bay Bookstore (7) Farmers Market (12) Fisherman's Terminal (17) fishermen's terminal (15) Freemont (5) Fremont District (10) Gage Art Academy (4) Gas Works Park (15) Georgetown (37) Golden Gardens (2) harbor (3) Hing Hay Park (10) ink and gouache (7) ink drawing (9) International District (35) Japanese Tea Gardens (4) Lake City (6) Lake Union (9) Lake View Cemetery (2) moleskine (22) musicians (4) October '09 sketchcrawl (7) Olympia (34) Olympic Sculpture Park (21) Pacific Place (8) pen and ink (61) pencil (4) Pike Place Market (43) pioneer square (21) SeaTac (2) Seattle (315) Seattle Center (29) Seattle WA (21) sketchbooks (13) Snohomish County (4) Space Needle (13) St. James Cathedral (15) Sunday Ballard Farmers' Market (3) University of Washington (26) Volunteer Park (15) Volunteer Park Conservatory (10) Wallingford (14) Wallingford Center (5) waterfront (9) Woodland Park Zoo (3) Worldwide Sketchcrawl (10)
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line356
|
__label__wiki
| 0.558794
| 0.558794
|
Sergij Bozhko
Development of an Artist
SERHIY BOZHKO
Born on November 19, 2015 in Odesa.
Serhiy made his first steps in the art of painting through man-made stone, smalt. HE started creating his mosaic paintings under the supervision of the distinguished artist of Ukraine Anatoliy Kravchenko. Later he independently made a number of mosaic portraits of Odesa famous people – Leonid Utiosov, collectors Oleksandr Hrushevych and Mykhailo Knobel.
The mosaic period in Serhiy’s work is followed by a new stage – mural painting of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour in Odesa together with his father, Ihor Bozhko. “This work taught me incredible patience and attention. When we were painting on walls with our heads thrown back, standing on shaky scaffolds, while the builders working in the church were running by time and time again, our patience became monastic indeed,” says Serhiy.
The young artist started the third period of his work by easel painting. His paintings of that period cover the themes connected with primitive folk art in light of his own worldview. His childhood memories are reflected in his painting ‘Sledding’, in which a child rolls down the mountain followed by an angel. ‘A Forgotten Rocking-Horse’ is a nocturnal winter scene depicting a wooden children toy abandoned among the dark trees. Pictures ‘A River’ and ‘Winter’ feature a mill, a goat and a pregnant woman, and ‘A Holiday’ shows two old people sitting on a bench by a river. These fine lyrical works were displayed at all-Ukrainian exhibitions in the artist’s early easel period.
Later his figurative art became abstract. Odesa School of the non-figurative art is known for its southern warmth and special good temper. Famous artist like Volodymyr Tsiupko, Serhiy Savchenko, Vleriy Basanets, Vasyl Sad and Oleksandr Stovbur (all of them were friends of Serhiy’s father, Ihor Bozhko, from ‘Mamai’ artistic group) had an impact on the young artist until he managed to find his own motives and techniques in abstract painting. Serhiy Bozhko’s fourth artistic period started from that moment on. He creates paintings saturated with huge passion, freedom and expression. The young artist started painting abstract landscapes on the verge of subtle resemblance with reality. It became an important landmark in Serhiy’s exhibition activities. Many exhibition catalogues with his works were published, and he started receiving invitations to the most prestigious international plain-airs and workshops. It is hardly surprising, for Serhiy’s painting are original and modern. The pictures painted in 2013-2015 have some mystic powers, some, as Cezanne has it, ‘small soul of a painting’ owned by only prominent works of art.
Wooden decorative sculptures (later painted) take a special place in the artist’s work. They are one-of-a-kind. They are either peculiar strange plants or authentic living structures as though frozen in their movement upwards, to the light. Each one is general in form but peculiar in its colour scheme.
Leading research associate
Odesa Literature Museum
Hanna Streminska
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line359
|
__label__wiki
| 0.610146
| 0.610146
|
Tag Archives: Al-Waleed bin Talal
Tag Archives: "Al-Waleed bin Talal"
Judge Presiding Over Fusion GPS Case Richard Leon, Friends With John Podesta
By NWC, November 14, 2017
Well, there goes a fair trial. The Podesta family has an interest in the...
Judge Richard Leon
Al-Waleed bin Talal, Ari Emanuel, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Carl Marx, Clintons, communism, Fusion GPS, Greg Maffei, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, ISIS, Islam, John Podesta, Judge Richard Leon, Mossad, Pedophilia, Rahm Emanuel
Saudi Banks Begin Freezing Accounts of Arrested Royals, Private Jets Grounded
“Muruna was designed to catapult and advance Sharia by using Western means. If one thinks that Sharia, with its harsh code, is problematic enough, how about the elimination of the kinder, gentler laws? Muruna is literally accomplished by permitting behavior normally so eschewed by Sharia that Westerners logically assume a more moderate version of Islam...
Al-Waleed bin Talal
Al-Waleed bin Talal, Islam, Saudi Arabia
Arrested Saudi Prince Owns Top 5 Floors of Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. Guns Carried Down 3 Floors?
The top 5 floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel (35-39) is the Four Seasons Hotel. Since 2007, Bill Gates,...
Las Vegas Genocide
Al-Waleed bin Talal, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, CIA, Mandalay Bay, Rahm Emanuel, Stephen Paddock, Valerie Jarrett, Vegas Shooting
Vegas Mass Shooting: Orchestrated By Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Rahm Emanuel and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal?
"The allegations first surfaced in late March, when former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton told a New York cable channel that a former business partner who was “raising money†for Obama had approached him in 1988 to help Obama get into Harvard Law School. In the interview, Sutton says he first heard of Obama about...
69, 9/11, Al-Waleed bin Talal, Aleister Crowley, Barack Obama, Carl Marx, communism, George Soros, google, Greg Maffei, Hillary Clinton, ISIS, Islam, Live Nation Entertainment, Mandalay Bay, Mandalay Bay Genocide, Marco Rubio, Michael Rapino, Mossad, Occult, Oracle, Route 91 Harvest, satanism, Saudi Arabia, Stephen Paddock, Talmud, The Book of Lies, Valerie Jarrett
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line363
|
__label__cc
| 0.662455
| 0.337545
|
Adopt a House
supporting a|r|a
about a|r|a
Recently restored Ion Mincu House and OAR Garden (Romania's Chamber of Architects) are hosting the photographic exhibition "The Heritage of Rosia Montana in Pictures", opening on Tuesday, October 9th, 19.00.
We invite you to enter one of the important heritage buildings of Bucharest, the Ion Mincu memorial house, where the architect lived and worked and where you will discover, dispalyed against the beautifull interiors restored in an exemplary manner, another dimension of heritage : Rosia Montana seen through the lens of the photo artist.
The photographs displayed in this exhibition have been captured during a workshop staged in Rosia Montana in June - August 2012, with tha participation of photographers Stefan Angelescu, Catalin Chiriloi, Edmond Kreibik, Johannes Kruse, Manfred Mehrer, Radu Salcudean, Calin Suteu and Daniel Vrabioiu.
The exhibition was first presented in Rosia Montana during the FanFest/HayFestival, in August, and later, in September, it was on display in Cluj, at the Tailors' Bastion. After Bucharest, it will be itinerated to Vienna, Austria and then to other locations in or outside Romania.
Visiting hours: 9-14 October, 10.00 - 17.00, Sunday 10.00 - 14.00.
The project "Rosia Montana in pictures" aims to increase the visibility of cultural and natural heritage of Rosia Montana, in view of a better understanding of its exceptional value. The project will start a photographic catalogue of this heritage, with pictures taken by photo artists, displayed in a travelling exhibition.
The project is coordinated by the Association Alburnus Maior, in partnership with a|r|a - Architectrure. Restoration. Archaeology, EXTRAART and FORMATEST, with the financial support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN).
Arthur Verona St.
OAR Garden
Ion Mincu House - exterior
Ion Mincu House - interior
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line365
|
__label__wiki
| 0.845898
| 0.845898
|
The Man Who Emptied Death Row
Governor George Ryan and the Politics of Crime
James L. Merriner
Hardcover (Other formats: E-book)
224 pages, 6 x 9, 19 illustrations
Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology
George H. Ryan, Illinois governor from 1999 to 2003, became nationally known for two significant and very different reasons. The first governor in the United States to clear out his state’ s death row and put a moratorium on the death penalty, he was also convicted and sent to prison on corruption charges. The Man Who Emptied Death Row: Governor George Ryan and the Politics of Crime details the career of a man who both enhanced and tarnished the image of the highest office in Illinois and examines the political history and culture that shaped him.
Author James L. Merriner explores the two very different stories of George Ryan: the brave crusader against the death penalty and the petty crook. An extensive analysis of the official record, exclusive interviews, and previously undisclosed incidents in Ryan’ s career expose why the governor pardoned or commuted the sentences of all 171 prisoners on Illinois’ s death row before leaving office and how he later was convicted of eighteen counts of official corruption.
This biography traces Ryan’ s family history and the Illinois political climate that influenced his development as a politician. Although Ryan championed “ good-government” initiatives— organ donations, tougher drunken-driving and lobbyist disclosure laws— he never overcame a reputation as a wheeler-dealer, notes Merriner.
Merriner goes beyond Ryan’ s life and career to explore the politics of crime, highlighting the successes and failures of the criminal justice system and suggesting how both white-collar fraud and violent crime shape politics. A fascinating story that reveals much about the way Illinois politics works, The Man Who Emptied Death Row will help determine how history will judge Illinois governor George Ryan.
James L. Merriner covered Chicago and national politics for more than two decades as political editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Atlanta Constitution. He is the author of Mr. Chairman: Power in Dan Rostenkowski's America and The City Club of Chicago: A Centennial History, 1903-2003 and the coauthor of Against Long Odds: Citizens Who Challenge Congressional Incumbents. Mr. Merriner is president of the Society of Midland Authors.
“ Political junkies from all philosophical and political backgrounds will gobble up The Man Who Emptied Death Row. James Merriner analyzes George H. Ryan, the person and politician, revealing names, dates, places, and issues surrounding Ryan’ s career and the legal battle that ended his lifetime in politics.” — Paul M. Green, editor of The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line366
|
__label__wiki
| 0.63154
| 0.63154
|
Hollow Water: “Rainbow’s End” – For fans of progressive rock who appreciate stellar musicianship and production
By Jeena Johnson On June 21, 2016 No Comments
“Rainbow’s End” is a 12 track concept album by Hollow Water, made up of Huw Roberts (Guitars) and Alan Cookson (Keyboards). For the first time Hollow Water have brought in a vocalist, Mark Lock, who has sung the songs written by keyboardist Alan Cookson. “Having a singer on board completely changes everything,” says Alan. “Mark loves multi-layered harmonies and this elevates the music to a different level. Mark has taken some time out from his own project called Maintain Order.” Other changes that that have been introduced on the new project, includes the use of various session musicians such as the legendary Jair-Rohm Parker-Wells on bass and Siros Vaziri of the metal band Billion Dollar Man on drums.
Hollow Water
Listening to this “Rainbow’s End” reminds me of being a kid and so enchanted with my wind-up toy that I took it apart to see what makes it go. The band that Hollow Water has assembled here is really tight, and in the faster numbers you can appreciate how well the performers mesh together, as in the opening track, almost like an exercise, as the guitar lines begin to overlap and grow more complicated, then shift an accent or skip a beat to continually liven things up – wonderfully listenable.
“Mirror’s Frame” is one of my favorites though, two contrasting moods dominate, a hyperactive burbling bass, a very metallic-sounding guitar chiming in and downward cascading of drums, offset by the verse, keeping the same pulse, but with the instrumentation pared down and Mark Lock’s smooth, gliding vocals soaring above – a rest, and then it’s into the controlled chaos again, saxophone and all!
Honorary member Mark Lock Lock, as lead singer seems really right for this collective as well; his voice conveys a real intentness, whether it’s from the charge he gets from the other players, or the lyrical poetry he’s made to deliver – “Gathering Sunbeams for the Future” contains a lexicon of tight rhymes, – “We’re gathering sunbeams for the future, Energy for your computer, All of the gadgets you favour, Tablet, hoover and your shaver. We’re saving the planet for your children, Green power for your new kitchen, Appliances you may find useful, Necessary or even crucial.” A vocal exercise that is lyrical medicine easily digested for Lock.
All around, this is an ambitious project that is most accessible; great for guitar and keyboard freaks. There’s not one song on the album that disappoints, and they’re all terrifically executed. For all fans of progressive rock, or those who appreciate stellar musicianship and production, add this recording to your collection. Featuring skilled musicians, it is an exercise of precision turned into art. It is stunning in its complexity and layered sound.
The band logo
Huw Roberts on guitar revels in this arena as he gives us some extremely creative six-string work. His smooth transitions and intense biting tones are the perfect complement to the tight arrangements. Add to that the talents of keyboardist Alan Cookson who sculpts some of the most sumptuous soundscapes and you have a recipe for the absolute destruction of the conception that rock music is simplistic or just ear candy. For those old enough, this kind of sounds like Robert Fripp meets Keith Emerson – eclectic prog rock to say the least!
At times vibrant, frantic and delicious – “Rainbow’s End”, Illusions & Delusions” and “Immortal Portal”, and then more introspective, controlled and unflappable – “Trick of the Light”, “Solar Beacon” and “The Quantum Mechanic and the Map Collector”, the songs are all trussed together by spoken word interludes, while the album is correlated with a booklet containing the song lyrics and comic book descriptions.
“The Light Dimension”, has Lock’s voice at its best, and is another one of the more listener-friendly songs on the recording. Huw Roberts seems to be slamming the song forward as it bursts into high gear; his amazing guitar work intertwining with Alan Cookson’s dizzying keyboard notes. The recording finishes up with the track, “We Changed. This World Didn’t”, where these fine musicians strut their stuff in the truest meaning of the word. If there is a theory for the evolution of rock, then this signals the second apex since the seventies.
This album proves that the chaos of sound is a mere illusion. The instruments, the music arrangements and lyrics are outstanding. “Rainbow’s End” is intelligent, complex, technical, diverse, and unique progressive rock, in an era which has seen the rock genre turn into 3-minute pop songs with a simple dropped E tuning. Any serious rock fan, especially of progressive music should be looking elsewhere. And that ‘elsewhere’, dear friends, is Hollow Water!
“Rainbow’s End” Album Credits:
Voice talent: Velvet Jones, PG Bailey, Tarnia Jones & Darren Deans
Bass guitar: Jair-Rohm Parker Wells & Damjan Kapor aka Stryfer
Drums: Siros Vaziri
Guitar: Matt Quistorf, Federico aka Mrfedmusic
Lap Steel Guitar: Steve Giddings
Saxophone: Nate Madsen, Ilia Skibinsky
Graphics: Christian Paris & Aidan Kelly
Mixed and mastered by Joel Evenden
OFFICIAL LINKS: WEBSITE – FACEBOOK
Tags:Alan Cookson Hollow Water Huw Roberts Mark Lock Progressive Rock Rainbow’s End rock uk
Fay Kendel: “So Good” ft Spader MC – straight from her heart, raw and unedited
RnB and Soul singer-songwriter Fay Kendel is no ordinary girl …
Louis Goldwater: “To Whom It May Concern” – a stream of consciousness
Whoa. This cat is the real deal. Don’t worry if …
Joey Britton: “Edmonton Sessions” – fluorescent, acoustic-centric ambient atmospheres
Joey Britton started his journey in music at an early …
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line368
|
__label__wiki
| 0.839646
| 0.839646
|
Alexander Pope:
1820: Dr. John Aikin
1847: William Howitt
1876: Robert Carruthers
This illustrious poet was born at London, in 1688, and was descended from a good family of that name, in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the earl of Downe, whose sole heiress married the earl of Lindsey. His father, a man of primitive simplicity, and integrity of manners, was a merchant of London, who upon the Revolution quitted trade, and converted his effects into money, amounting to near �10,000 with which he retired into the country; and died in 1717, at the age of 75.
Our poet's mother, who lived to a very advanced age, being 93 years old when she died, in 1733, was the daughter of William Turner, Esq; of York. She had three brothers, one of whom was killed, another died in the service of king Charles and the eldest following his fortunes, and becoming a general officer in Spain, left her what estate remained after sequestration, and forfeitures of her family. To these circumstances our poet alludes in his epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, in which he mentions his parents.
Of gentle blood (part shed in honour's cause,
While yet in Britain, honour had applause)
Each parent sprang, — What fortune pray? — their own,
And better got than Bestia's from the throne.
Born to no pride, inheriting no strife,
Nor marrying discord in a noble wife;
Stranger to civil and religious rage,
The good man walked innoxious thro' his age:
No courts he saw, no suits would ever try;
Nor dar'd an oath, nor hazarded a lye:
Unlearn'd, he knew no schoolmen's subtle art,
No language, but the language of the heart:
By nature honest, by experience wise,
Healthy by temp'rance, and by exercise;
His life though long, to sickness past unknown,
His death was instant and without a groan.
The education of our great author was attended with circumstances very singular, and some of them extremely unfavourable; but the amazing force of his genius fully compensated the want of any advantage in his earliest instruction. He owed the knowledge of his letters to an aunt; and having learned very early to read, took great delight in it, and taught himself to write by copying after printed books, the characters of which he could imitate to great perfection. He began to compete verses, farther back than he could well remember; and at eight years of age, when he was put under one Taverner a priest, who taught him the rudiments of the Latin and Greek tongues at the fame time, he met with Ogilby's Homer, which gave him great delight, and this was encreased by Sandys's Ovid: The raptures which these authors, even in the disguise of such translations, then yielded him, were so strong, that he spoke of them with pleasure ever after. From Mr. Taverner's tuition he was sent to a private school at Twiford, near Winchester, where he continued about a year, and was then removed to another near Hyde Park Corner; but was in unfortunate as to lose under his two last masters, what he had acquired under the first.
While he remained at this school, being permitted to go to the play-house, with some of his school fellows of a more advanced age, he was to charmed with dramatic representations, that he formed the translation of the Iliad into a play, from several of the speeches in Ogilby's translation, connected with verses of his own; and the several parts were performed by the upper boys of the school, except that of Ajax by the master's gardener. At the age of 12 our young poet, went with his father to reside at his house at Binfeld, in Windsor forest, where he was for a few months under the tuition of another priest, with as little success as before; so that he resolved now to become his own master, by reading those Classic Writers which gave him most entertainment; and by this method, at fifteen he gained a ready habit in the learned languages, to which he soon after added the French and Italian. Upon his retreat to the forest, he became first acquainted with the writings of Waller, Spenser and Dryden; in the last of which he immediately found what he wanted; and the poems of that excellent writer were never out of his hands; they became his model, and from them alone he learned the whole magic of his versification.
The first of our authors compositions now extant in print, is an Ode on Solitude, written before he was twelve years old: Which, consider'd as the production of to early an age, is a perfect master piece; nor need he have been ashamed of it, had it been written in the meridian of his genius. While it breathes the most delicate spirit of poetry, it at the same time demonstrates his love of solitude, and the rational pleasures which attend the retreats of a contented country life.
Two years after this he translated the first Book of Statius' Thebais, and wrote a copy of verses on Silence, in imitation of the Earl of Rochcester's poem on Nothing. Thus we find him no sooner capable of holding the pen, than he employed it in writing verses, "He lisp'd in Numbers, for the Numbers came."
Though we have had frequent opportunity to observe, that poets have given early displays of genius, yet we cannot recollect, that among the inspired tribe, one can be found who at the age of twelve could produce so animated an Ode; or at the age of fourteen translate from the Latin. It has been reported indeed, concerning Mr. Dryden, that when he was at Westminster-School, the master who had assigned a poetical task to some of the boys, of writing a Paraphrase on our Saviour's Miracle, of turning Water into Wine, was perfectly astonished when young Dryden presented him with the following line, which he asserted was the best comment could be written upon it. "The conscious water saw its God, and blush'd."
This was the only instance of an early appearance of genius in this great man, for he was turn'd of 30 before he acquired any reputation; an age in which Mr. Pope's was in its full distinction.
The year following that in which Mr. Pope wrote his poem on Silence, he began an Epic Poem, intitled Alcander, which he afterwards very judiciously committed to the flames, as he did likewise a Comedy, and a Tragedy; the latter taken from a story in the legend of St. Genevieve; both of these being the product of those early days. But his Pastorals, which were written in 1704, when he was only 16 years of age, were esteemed by Sir William Trumbull, Mr. Granville, Mr. Wycherley, Mr. Walsh and others of his friends, too valuable to be condemned to the same fate.
Mr. Pope's Pastorals are four, viz.
Spring, address'd to Sir William Trumbull,
Summer, to Dr. Garth.
Autumn, to Mr Wycherley.
Winter, in memory of Mrs. Tempest.
The three great writers of Pastoral Dialogue, which Mr. Pope in some measure seems to imitate, are Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser. Mr. Pope is of opinion, that Theocritus excells all others in nature and simplicity.
That Virgil, who copies Theocritus, refines on his original; and in all points in which judgment has the principal part is much superior to his master.
That among the moderns, their success has been greatest who have most endeavoured to make these antients their pattern. The most considerable genius appears in the famous Tasso, and our Spenser. Tasso in his Aminta has far excelled all the pastoral writers, as in his Gierusalemme he has outdone the Epic Poets of his own country. But as this piece seems to have been the original of a new sort of poem, the Pastoral Comedy, in Italy, it cannot so well be considered as a copy of the antients. Spenser's Calendar, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, is the most compleat work of this kind, which any nation has produced ever since the time of Virgil. But this he said before Mr. Pope's Pastorals appeared.
Mr. Walsh pronounces on our Shepherd's Boy (as Mr. Pope called himself) the following judgment, in a letter to Mr. Wycherly.
"The verses are very tender and easy. The author seems to have a particular genius for that kind of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds the years, you told me he was of. It is no flattery at all to say, that Virgil had written nothing so good at his age. I shall take it as a favour if you will bring me acquainted with him; and if he will give himself the trouble, any morning, to call at my house, I shall he very glad to read the verses with him, and give him my opinion of the particulars more largely than I can well do in this letter."
Thus early was Mr. Pope introduced to the acquaintance of men of genius, and to improved every advantage, that he made a more rapid progress towards a consummation in fame, than any of our former English poets. His Messiah; his Windsor Forest, the first part of which was written at the same time with his pastorals; his Essay on Criticism in 1709, and his Rape of the Lock in 1712, established his poetical character in such a manner, that he was called upon by the public voice, to enrich our language with the translation of the Iliad; which he began at 25, and executed in five years. This was published for his own benefit, by subscription, the only kind of reward, which he received for his writings, which do honour to our age and country: His religion rendering him incapable of a place, which the lord treasurer Oxford used to express his concern for, but without offering him a pension, as the earl of Halifax, and Mr. Secretary Craggs afterwards did, though Mr. Pope declined it.
The reputation of Mr. Pope gaining every day upon the world, he was caress'd, flattered, and railed at according as he was feared, or loved by different persons. Mr. Wycherley was amongst the first authors of established reputation, who contributed to advance his fame, and with whom he for some time lived in the most unreserved intimacy. This poet, in his old age, conceived a design of publishing his poems, and as he was but a very imperfect master of numbers, he entrusted his manuscripts to Mr. Pope, and submitted them to his correction. The freedom which our young bard was under a necessity to use, in order to polish and refine what was in the original, rough, unharmonious, and indelicate, proved disgustful to the old gentleman, then near 70, who, perhaps, was a little ashamed, that a boy at 16 should so severely correct his works. Letters of dissatisfaction were written by Mr. Wycherley, and at last he informed him, in few words, that he was going out of town, without mentioning to what place, and did not expect to hear from him 'till he came back. This cold indifference extorted from Mr. Pope a protestation, that nothing should induce him ever to write to him again. Notwithstanding this peevish behaviour of Mr. Wycherley, occasioned by jealousy and infirmities, Mr. Pope preserved a constant respect and reverence for him while he lived, and after his death lamented him. In a letter to Edward Blount, esq; written immediately upon the death of this poet, he has there related some anecdotes of Wycherly, which we shall insert here, especially as they are not taken notice of in his life.
"DEAR SIR
I know of nothing that will be so interesting to you, at present, as some circumstances of the last act of that eminent comic poet, and our friend, Wycherley. He had often told me, as, I doubt not, he did all his acquaintance, that he would marry, as soon as his life was despaired of: accordingly, a few days before his death, he underwent the ceremony, and joined together those two sacraments, which, wife men say, should be the last we receive for, if you observe, matrimony is placed after extreme unction in our catechism, as a kind of hint of the order of time in which they are to be taken. The old man then lay down, satisfied in the conscience of having, by this one act, paid his just debts, obliged a woman, who, he was told, had merit, and shewn a heroic resentment of the ill usage of his next heir. Some hundred pounds which he had with the lady, discharged those debts; a jointure of four hundred a year made her a recompence; and the nephew he left to comfort himself, as well as he could, with the miserable remains of a mortgaged estate. I saw our friend twice after this was done, less peevish in his sickness, than he used to be in his health, neither much afraid of dying, nor (which in him had been more likely) much ashamed of marrying. The evening before he expired, he called his young wife to the bed side, and earnestly entreated her not to deny him one request, the last he should ever make. Upon her assurance of conferring to it, he told her, my dear, it is only this, that you will never marry an old man again. I cannot help remarking, that sickness, which often destroys both wit and wisdom, yet seldom has power to remove that talent we call humour. Mr. Wycherley shewed this even in this last compliment, though, I think, his request a little hard; for why should he bar her from doubling her jointure on the same easy terms."
One of the most affecting and tender compositions of Mr. Pope, is, his Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, built on a true story. We are informed in the Life of Pope, for which Curl obtained a patent, that this young lady was a particular favourite of the poet, though it is not ascertained whether he himself was the person from whom she was removed. This young lady was of very high birth, possessed an opulent fortune, and under the tutorage of an uncle, who gave her an education suitable to her titles and pretensions. She was esteemed a match for the greatest peer in the realm, but, in her early years, she suffered her heart to be engaged by a young gentleman, and in consequence of this attachment, rejected offers made to her by persons of quality, seconded by the sollicitations of her uncle. Her guardian being surprized at this behaviour, set spies upon her, to find out the real cause of her indifference. Her correspondence with her lover was soon discovered, and, when urged upon that topic, she had too much truth and honour to deny it. The uncle finding, that she would make no efforts to disengage her affection, after a little time forced her abroad, where she was received with a ceremony due to her quality, but restricted from the conversation of every one, but the spies of this severe guardian, so that it was impossible for her lover even to have a letter delivered to her hands. She languished in this place a considerable time, bore an infinite deal of sickness, and was overwhelmed with the profoundest sorrow. Nature being wearied out with continual distress, and being driven at last to despair, the unfortunate lady, as Mr. Pope justly calls her, put an end to her own life, having bribed a maid servant to procure her a sword. She was found upon the ground weltering in her blood. The severity of the laws of the place, where this fair unfortunate perished, denied her Christian burial, and she was interred without solemnity, or even any attendants to perform the last offices of the dead, except some young people of the neighbourhood, who saw her put into common ground, and strewed the grave with flowers.
The poet in the elegy takes occasion to mingle with the tears of furrow, just reproaches upon her cruel uncle, who drove her to this violation.
But thou, false guardian of a charge too good,
Thou base betrayer of a brother's blood!
See on those ruby lips the trembling breath,
Those cheeks now fading at the blast of death:
Lifeless the breast, which warm'd the world before,
And those love-darting eyes must roll no more.
The conclusion of this elegy is irresistably affecting.
So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
Which once had beauty, titles, wealth and fame,
How lov'd, how honoured once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;
A heap of dust alone remains of thee;
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!
No poem of our author's more deservedly obtained him reputation, than his Essay on Criticism. Mr. Addison, in his Specator, No. 253, has celebrated it with such profuse terms of admiration, that it is really astonishing, to find the same man endeavouring afterwards to diminish that fame he had contributed to raise so high.
"The art of criticism (says he) which was published some months ago, is a master-piece in its kind. The observations follow one another, like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity, which would have been requisite in a prose writer. They are some of them uncommon, but such as the reader must assent to, when he sees them explained with that elegance and perspicuity in which they are delivered. As for those which are the most known, and the most received, they are placed in so beautiful a light, and illustrated with such apt allusions, that they have in them all the graces of novelty, and make the reader, who was before acquainted with them, still more convinced of their truth and solidity. And here give me leave to mention, what Monsieur Boileau has so well enlarged upon, in the preface to his works that wit and fine writing do not consist so much in advancing things that are new, as in giving things that are known an agreeable turn. It is impossible for us, who live in the latter ages of the world, to make observations in criticism, morality, or any art and science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little else left us, but to represent the common sense of mankind in more strong more beautiful, or more uncommon lights. If a reader examines Horace's Art of Poetry, he will find but few precepts in it, which he may not meet with in Aristotle, and which were not commonly known by all the poets of the Augustan age. His way of expressing, and applying them, not his invention of them, is what we are chiefly to admire.—
"Longinus, in his Reflexions, has given us the same kind of sublime, which he observes in the several passages which occasioned them. I cannot but take notice, that our English author has, after the same manner, exemplified several of his precepts, in the very precepts themselves." He then produces some instances of a particular kind of beauty in the numbers, and concludes with saying, that we have three poems in our tongue of the same nature, and each a masterpiece in its kind: The Essay on translated Verse, the Essay on the Art of Poetry, and the Essay on Criticism.
In the Lives of Addison and Tickell, we have thrown out some general hints concerning the quarrel which subsisted between our poet and the former of these gentlemen; here it will not be improper to give a more particular account of it.
The author of Mist's Journal positively asserts, "that Mr. Addison raised Pope from obscurity, obtained him the acquaintance and friendship of the whole body of our nobility, and transferred his powerful influence with those great men to this rising bard, who frequently levied by that means, unusual contributions on the pubic. No sooner was his body lifeless, but this author reviving his resentment, libelled the memory of his departed friend, and what was still more heinous, made the scandal public."
When this charge of ingratitude and dishonour was published against Mr. Pope, to acquit himself of it, he called upon any nobleman, whose friendship, or any one gentleman, whose subscription Mr. Addison had procured to our author, to stand forth, and declare it, that truth might appear. But the whole libel was proved a malicious story, by many persons of distinction, who, several years before Mr. Addison's decease, approved those verses denominated a libel, but which were, 'tis said, a friendly rebuke, sent privately in our author's own hand, to Mr. Addison himself, and never made public, 'till by Curl in his Miscellanies, 12mo. 1727. The lines indeed are elegantly satirical, and, in the opinion of many unprejudiced judges, who had opportunities of knowing the character of Mr. Addison, are no ill representation of him. Speaking of the poetical triflers of the times, who had declared against him, he makes a sudden transition to Addison.
Peace to all such! But were there one whose fires
True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires,
Blest with each talent, and each art to please,
And born to write, converse, and live with ease;
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
Bear, like the Turk, no rival near the throne,
View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes,
And hate for arts, that caus'd himself to rise;
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And, without fretting, others teach to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
Alike reserv'd to blame or to commend,
A tim'rous foe, and a suspicious friend;
Dreading even fools; by flatt'rers besieg'd;
And so obliging, that he ne'er oblig'd.
Like Cato give his little senate laws,
And sit attentive to his own applause;
While Wits and Templars ev'ry sentence raise,
And wonder with a foolish face of praise.
Who but mull laugh, if such a man there be!
Who would not weep, if Atticus were he!
Some readers may think these lines severe, but the treatment he received from Mr. Addison, was more than sufficient to justify them, which will appear when we particularize an interview between these two poetical antagonists, procured by the warm sollicitations of Sir Richard Steele, who was present at it, as well as Mr. Gay.
Mr. Jervas being one day in company with Mr. Addison, the conversation turned upon Mr. Pope, for whom Addison, at that time, expressed the highest regard, and assured Mr. Jervas, that he would make use not only of his interest, but of his art likewise, to do Mr. Pope service; he then said, he did not mean his art of poetry, but his art at court, and protested, notwithstanding many insinuations were spread, that it shall not be his fault, if there was not the best understanding and intelligence between them. He observed, that Dr. Swift might have carried him too far among the enemy, during the animosity, but now all was safe, and Mr. Pope, in his opinion, was escaped. When Mr. Jervas communicated this conversation to Mr. Pope, he made this reply: "The friendly office you endeavour to do between Mr. Addison and me deserves acknowledgments on my part. You thoroughly know my regard to his character, and my readiness to testify it by all ways in my power; you also thoroughly knew the meanness of that proceeding of Mr. Phillips, to make a man I so highly value suspect my disposition towards him. But as, after all, Mr. Addison must be judge in what regards himself, and as he has seemed not to be a very just one to me, to I mull own to you, I expect nothing but civility from him, how much soever I wish for his friendship; and as for any offers of real kindness or service which it is in his power to do me, I should be ashamed to receive them from a man, who has no better opinion of my morals, than to think me a party man, nor of my temper, than to believe me capable of maligning, or envying another's reputation as a poet. In a word, Mr. Addison is sure of my respect at all times, and of my real friendship, whenever he shall think fit to know me for what I am."
Some years after this conversation, at the desire of Sir Richard Steele, they met. At first, a very cold civility, and nothing else appeared on either side, for Mr. Addison had a natural reserve and gloom at the beginning of an evening, which, by conversation and a glass, brightened into an easy chearfulness. Sir Richard Steele, who was a most social benevolent man, begged of him to fulfill his promise, in dropping all animosity against Mr. Pope. Mr. Pope then desired to be made sensible how he had offended; and observed, that the translation of Homer, if that was the great crime, was undertaken at the request, and almost at the command of Sir Richard Steele. He entreated Mr. Addison to speak candidly and freely, though it might be with ever so much severity, rather than by keeping up forms of complaisance, conceal any of his faults. This Mr. Pope spoke in such a manner as plainly indicated he thought Mr. Addison the aggressor, and expected him to condescend, and own himself the cause of the breach between them. But he was disappointed; for Mr. Addison, without appearing to be angry, was quite overcome with it. He began with declaring, that he always had wished him well, had often endeavoured to be his friend, and in that light advised him, if his nature was capable of it to divest himself of part of his vanity, which was too great for his merit; that he had not arrived yet to that pitch of excellence he might imagine, or think his most partial readers imagined; that when he and Sir Richard Steele corrected his verses, they had a different air; reminding Mr. Pope of the amendment (by Sir Richard) of a line, in the poem called The MESSIAH. "He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes." Which is taken from the prophet Isaiah,
The Lord God will wipe all tears from off all faces.
From every face he wipes off ev'ry tear.
And it stands so altered in the newer editions of Mr. Pope's works. He proceeded to lay before him all the mistakes and inaccuracies hinted at by the writers, who had attacked Mr. Pope, and added many things, which he himself objected to. Speaking of his translation in general, he said, that he was not to be blamed for endeavouring to get so large a sum of money, but that it was an ill-executed thing, and not equal to Tickell, which had all the spirit of Homer. Mr. Addison concluded, in a low hollow voice of feigned temper, that he was not sollicitous about his own fame as a poet; that he had quitted the muses to enter into the business of the public, and that all he spoke was through friendship to Mr. Pope, whom he advised to have a less exalted sense of his own merit.
Mr. Pope could not well bear such repeated reproaches, but boldly told Mr. Addison, that he appealed from his judgment to the public, and that he had long known him too well to expect any friendship from him; upbraided him with being a pensioner from his youth, sacrificing the very learning purchased by the public money, to a mean thirst of power; that he was sent abroad to encourage literature, in place of which he had always endeavoured to suppress merit. At last, the contest grew so warm, that they parted without any ceremony, and Mr. Pope upon this wrote the foregoing verses, which are esteemed too true a picture of Mr. Addison.
In this account, and, indeed, in all other accounts, which have been given concerning this quarrel, it does not appear that Mr. Pope was the aggressor. If Mr. Addison entertained suspicions of Mr. Pope's being carried too far among the enemy, the danger was certainly Mr. Pope's, and not Mr. Addison's. It was his misfortune, and not his crime. If Mr. Addison should think himself capable of becoming a rival to Mr. Pope, and, in consequence of this opinion, publish a translation of part of Homer; at the same time with Mr. Pope's, and if the public should decide in favour of the latter by reading his translation, and neglecting the other, can any fault be imputed to Mr. Pope? could he be blamed for exerting all his abilities in so arduous a province? and was it his fault that Mr. Addison (for the first book of Homer was undoubtedly his) could not translate to please the public? Besides, was it not somewhat presumptuous to insinuate to Mr. Pope, that his verses bore another face when he corrected them, while, at the same time, the translation of Homer, which he had never seen in manuscript, bore away the palm from that very translation, he himself asserted was done in the true spirit of Homer? In matters of genius the public judgment seldom errs, and in this case posterity has confirmed the sentence of that age, which gave the preference to Mr. Pope; for his translation is in the hands of all readers of taste, while the other is seldom regarded but as a foil to Pope's.
It would appear as if Mr. Addison were himself so immersed in party business, as to contract his benevolence to the limits of a faction: Which was infinitely beneath the views of a philosopher, and the rules which that excellent writer himself established. If this was the failing of Mr. Addison, it was not the error of Pope, for he kept the strictest correspondence with some persons, whose affections to the Whig-interest were suspected, yet was his name never called in question. While he was in favour with the duke of Buckingham, the lords Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Harcourt, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Prior, he did not drop his correspondence with the lord Hallifax, Mr. Craggs, and most of those who were at the head of the Whig interest. A professed Jacobite one day remonstrated to Mr. Pope, that the people of his party took it ill that he should write with Mr. Steele upon ever so indifferent a subject; at which he could not help smiling, and observed, that he hated narrowness of soul in any party; and that if he renounced his reason in religious matters, he should hardly do it on any other, and that he could pray not only for opposite parties, but even for opposite religions. Mr. Pope considered himself as a citizen of the world, and was therefore obliged to pray for the prosperity of mankind in general. As a son of Britain he wished those councils might be suffered by providence to prevail, which were most for the interest of his native country: But as politics was not his study, he could not always determine, at least, with any degree of certainty, whose councils were best; and had charity enough to believe, that contending parties might mean well. As taste and science are confined to no country, so ought they nor to be excluded from any party, and Mr. Pope had an unexceptionable right to live upon terms of the strictest friendship with every man of parts, to which party soever he might belong. Mr. Pope's uprightness in his conduct towards contending politicians, is demonstrated by his living independent of either faction. He accepted no place, and had too high a spirit to become a pensioner.
Many effects however were made to proselyte him from the Popish faith, which all proved ineffectual. His friends conceived hopes from the moderation which he on all occasions expressed, that he was really a Protestant in his heart, and that upon the death of his mother, he would not scruple to declare his sentiments, notwithstanding the reproaches he might incur from the Popish party, and the public observation it would draw upon him. The bishop of Rochester strongly advised him to read the controverted points between the Protestant and the Catholic church, to suffer his unprejudiced reason to determine for him, and he made no doubt, but a separation from the Romish communion would soon ensue. To this Mr. Pope very candidly answered, "Whether the change would be to my spiritual advantage, God only knows: This I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profess, as ever I can do in any other. Can a man who thinks so, justify a change, even if he thought both equally good? To such an one, the part of joining with any one body of Christians might perhaps be easy, but I think it would not be so to renounce the other.
"Your lordship has formerly advised me to read the best controversies between the churches. Shall I tell you a secret? I did so at 14 years old (for I loved reading, and my father had no other books) there was a collection of all that had been written on both sides, in the reign of King James II. I warmed my head with them, and the consequence was, I found myself a Papist or a Protestant by turns, according to the last book I read. I am afraid most seekers are in the same case, and when they stop, they are not so properly converted, as outwitted. You see how little glory you would gain by my conversion and after all, I verily believe, your lordship and I are both of the same religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another, and that all honest and reasonable Christians would be so, if they, did but talk enough together every day, and had nothing to do together but to serve God, and live in peace with their neighbours.
"As to the temporal side of the question, I can have no dispute with you; it is certain, all the beneficial circumstances of life, and all the shining ones, lie on the part you would invite me to. But if I could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for it; and besides it is a real truth. I have, if possible, less inclination, than ability. Contemplative life is not only my scene, but is my habit too. I begun my life where most people end theirs, with a disgust of all that the world calls ambition. I don't know why it is called so, for, to me, it always seemed to be rather stooping than climbing. I'll tell you my politic and religious sentiments in a few words. In my politics, I think no farther, than how to preserve my peace of life, in any government under which I live nor in my religion, than to preserve the peace of my conscience, in any church with which I communicate. I hope all churches, and all governments are so far of God, as they are rightly understood, and rightly administered; and where they are, or may be wrong, I leave it to God alone to mend, or reform them, which, whenever he does, it must be by greater instruments than I am. I am not a Papist, for I renounce the temporal invasions of the papal power, and detest their arrogated authority over Princes and States. I am a Catholic in the strictest sense of the word. If I was born under an absolute Prince, I would be a quiet subject; but, I thank God, I was not. I have a due sense of the excellence of the British constitution. In a word, the things I have always wished to see, are not a Roman Catholic, or a French Catholic, or a Spanish Catholic, but a True Catholic; and not a King of Whigs, or a King of Tories, but a King of England."
These are the peaceful maxims upon which we find Mr. Pope conducted his life, and if they cannot in some respects be justified, yet it must be owned, that his religion and his politics were well enough adapted for a poet, which entitled him to a kind of universal patronage, and to make every good man his friend.
Dean Swift sometimes wrote to Mr. Pope on the topic of changing his religion, and once humorously offered him twenty pounds for that purpose. Mr. Pope's answer to this, lord Orrery has obliged the world by preserving in the life of Swift. It is a perfect master-piece of wit and pleasantry.
We have already taken notice, that Mr. Pope was called upon by the public voice to translate the Iliad, which he performed with so much applause, and at the same time, with so much profit to himself, that he was envied by many writers, whose vanity perhaps induced them to believe themselves equal to so great a design. A combination of inferior wits were employed to write The Popiad, in which his translation is characterized, as unjust to the original, without beauty of language, or variety of numbers. Instead of the justness of the original, they say there is absurdity and extravagance. Instead of the beautiful language of the original, there is solecism and barbarous English. A candid reader may easily discern from this furious introduction, that the critics were actuated rather by malice than truth, and that they must judge with their eyes shut, who can fee no beauty of language, no harmony of numbers in this translation.
But the most formidable critic against Mr. Pope in this great undertaking, was the celebrated Madam Dacier, whom Mr. Pope treated with less ceremony in his Notes on the Iliad, than, in the opinion of some people, was due to her sex. This learned lady was not without a sense of the injury, and took an opportunity of discovering her resentment.
"Upon finishing (says she) the second edition of my translation of Homer, a particular friend sent me a translation of part of Mr. Pope's preface to his Version of the Iliad. As I do not understand English, I cannot form any judgment of his performance, though I have heard much of it. I am indeed willing to believe, that the praises it has met with are not unmerited, because whatever work is approved by the English nation, cannot be bad; but yet I hope I may be permitted to judge of that part of the preface, which has been transmitted to me, and I here take the liberty of giving my sentiments concerning it. I must freely acknowledge that Mr. Pope's invention is very lively, though he seems to have been guilty of the fame fault into which he owns we are often precipitated by our invention, when we depend too much upon the strength of it; as magnanimity (says he) may run up to confusion and extravagance, so may great invention to redundancy and wildness.
"This has been the very case of Mr. Pope himself; nothing is more overstrained, or more false than the images in which his fancy has represented Homer; sometimes he tells us, that the Iliad is a wild paradise, where, if we cannot see all the beauties, as in an ordered garden, it is only because the number of them is infinitely greater. Sometimes he compares him to a copious nursery, which contains the seeds and first productions of every kind; and, lastly, he represents him under the notion of a mighty tree, which rises from the most vigorous seed, is improved with industry, flourishes and produces the finest fruit, but bears too many branches, which might be lopped into form, to give it a more regular appearance.
"What! is Homer's poem then, according to Mr. Pope, a confused heap of beauties, without order of symmetry, and a plot whereon nothing but seeds, nor nothing perfect or formed is to be found; and a production loaded with many unprofitable things which ought to be retrenched, and which choak and disfigure those which deserve to be preserved? Mr. Pope will pardon me if I here oppose those comparisons, which to me appear very false, and entirely contrary to what the greatest of ancient, and modern critics ever thought.
"The Iliad is so far from being a wild paradise, that it is the most regular garden, and laid out with more symmetry than any ever was. Every thing herein is not only in the place it ought to have been, hot every thing is fitted for the place it hath. He presents you at first with that which ought to be first seen; he places in the middle what ought to be in the middle, and what would be improperly placed at the beginning or end, and he removes what ought to he at a greater distance, to create the more agreeable surprize; and, to use a comparison drawn from painting, he places that in the greatest light which cannot be too visible, and sinks in the obscurity of the shade, what does not require a full view; so that it may be said, that Homer is the Painter who best knew how to employ the Shades and lights. The second comparison is equally unjust; how could Mr. Pope say, 'that one can only discover seeds, and the first productions of every kind in the Iliad?' every beauty is there to such an amazing perfection, that the following ages could add nothing to those of any kind; and the ancients have always proposed Homer, as the most perfect model in every kind of poetry.
"The third comparison is composed of the errors of the two former; Homer had certainly an incomparable fertility of invention, but his fertility is always checked by that just sense, which made him reject every superfluous thing which his vast imagination could offer, and to retain only what was necessary and useful. Judgment guided the hand of this admirable gardener, and was the pruning hook he employed to lop off every useless branch."
Thus far Madam Dacier differs in her opinion from Mr. Pope concerning Homer; but these remarks which we have just quoted, partake not at all of the nature of criticism; they are meer assertion. Pope had declared Homer to abound with irregular beauties. Dacier has contradicted him, and asserted, that all his beauties are regular, but no reason is assigned by either of these mighty geniuses in support of their opinions, and the reader is left in the dark, as to the real truth. If he is to be guided by the authority of a name only, no doubt the argument will preponderate in favour of our countryman. The French lady then proceeds to answer some observations, which Mr. Pope made upon her Remarks on the Iliad, which she performs with a warmth that generally attends writers of her sex. Mr. Pope, however, paid more regard to this fair antagonist, than any other critic upon his works. He confessed that he had received great helps from her, and only thought she had (through a prodigious, and almost superstitious, fondness for Homer) endeavoured to make him appear without any fault, or weakness, and stamp a perfection on his works, which is no where to be found. He wrote her a very obliging letter, in which he confessed himself exceedingly sorry that be ever should have displeased so excellent a wit, and she, on the other hand, with a goodness and frankness peculiar to her, protested to forgive it, so that there remained no animosities between those two great admirers and translators of Homer.
Mr. Pope, by successful translation of the Iliad, as we have before remarked, drew upon him the envy and raillery of a whole tribe of writers. Though he did not esteem any particular man amongst his enemies of consequence enough to provoke an answer, yet when they were considered collectively, they offered excellent materials for a general satire. This satire he planned and executed with so extraordinary a mastery, that it is by far the most compleat poem of our author's; it discovers more invention, and a higher effort of genius, than any other production of his. The hint was taken from Mr. Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, but as it is more general, to it is more pleasing. The Dunciad is so universally read, that we reckon it superfluous to give any further account of it here and it would be an unpleasing task to trace all the provocations and resentments, which were mutually discovered upon this occasion. Mr. Pope was of opinion, that next to praising good writers, there was a merit in exposing bad ones, though it does not hold infallibly true, that each person stigmatized as a dunce, was genuinely so. Something must be allowed to personal resentment; Mr. Pope was a man of keen passions; he felt an injury strongly, retained along remembrance of it, and could very pungently repay it. Some of the gentlemen, however, who had been more severely lashed than the rest, meditated a revenge, which redounds but little to their honour. They either intended to chastize him corporally, or gave it out that they had really done so, in order to bring shame upon Mr. Pope, which, if true, could only bring shame upon themselves.
While Mr. Pope enjoyed any leisure from severer applications to study, his friends were continually solliciting him to turn his thoughts towards something that might be of lasting use to the world, and engage no more in a war with dunces who were now effectually humbled. Our great dramatic poet Shakespear had pass'd through several hands, some of whom were very reasonably judged not to have understood any part of him tolerably, much less were capable to correct or revise him.
The friends of Mr. Pope therefore strongly importuned him, to undertake the whole of Shakespear's plays, and, if possible, by comparing all the different copies now to be procured, restore him to his ancient purity. To which our poet made this modest reply, that not having attempted any thing in the Drama, it might in him be deemed too much presumption. To which he was answered, that this did not require great knowledge of the foundation and disposition of the drama, as that must stand as it was, and Skakespear himself had not always paid strict regard to the rules of it; but this was to clear the scenes from the rubbish with which ignorant editors had filled them.
His proper business in this work was to render the text so clear as to be generally understood, to free it from obscurities, and sometimes gross absurdities, which now seem to appear in it, and to explain doubtful and difficult passages of which there are great numbers. This however was an arduous province, and how Mr. Pope has acquitted himself in it has been differently determined: It is certain he never valued himself upon that performance, nor was it a task in the least adapted to his genius; for it seldom happens that a man of lively parts can undergo the servile drudgery of collecting passages, in which more industry and labour are necessary than persons of quick penetration generally have to bestow.
It has been the opinion of some critics, that Mr. Pope's talents were not adapted for the drama, otherwise we cannot well account for his neglecting the most gainful way of writing which poetry affords, especially as his reputation as so high, that without much ceremony or mortification, he might have had any piece of his brought upon the stage. Mr. Pope was attentive to his own interest, and if he had not either been conscious of his inability in that province, or too timid to wish the popular approbation, he would certainly have attempted the drama. Neither was he esteemed a very competent judge of what plays were proper or improper for representation. He wrote several letters to the manager of Drury-Lane Theatre, in favour of Thomson's Agamemnon, which notwithstanding his approbation, Thomson's friends were obliged to mutilate and shorten; and after all it proved a heavy play. — Though it was generally allowed to have been one of the best acted plays that had appeared for some years.
He was certainly concerned in the Comedy, which was published in Mr. Gay's name, called Three Hours after Marriage, as well as Dr. Arbuthnot. This illustrious triumvirate, though men of the most various parts, and extensive understanding, yet were not able it seems to please the people, tho' the principal parts were supported by the best actors in that way on the stage. Dr. Arbuthnot and Mr. Pope were no doubt solicitous to conceal their concern in it; but by a letter which Gay wrote to Pope, published in Ayre's Memoirs, it appears evident (If Ayre's authority may be depended on) that they, both assisted in the composition.
"DEAR POPE,
Too late I see, and confess myself mistaken in relation to the Comedy; yet I do not think, had I followed your advice, and only introduced the mummy, that the absence of the crocodile had saved it. I can't help laughing myself (though the vulgar do not consider it was designed to look ridiculous) to think how the poor monster and mummy were dashed at their reception, and when the cry was loudest, I thought that if the thing had been written by another, I should have deemed the town in some measure mistaken; and as to your apprehension that this may do us future injury, do not think of it; the Dr. has a more valuable name than can be hurt by any thing of this nature; and your's is doubly safe. I will, if any shame there be, take it all to myself, and indeed I ought, the motion being first mine, and never heartily approved by you."
Of all our poet's writings none were read with more general approbation than his Ethic Epistles, or multiplied into more editions. Mr. Pope who was a perfect oeconomist, secured to himself the profits arising from his own works; he was never subjected to necessity, and therefore was not to be imposed upon by the art or fraud of publishers.
But now approaches the period in which as he himself expressed it, he stood in need of the generous tear he paid,
Poets themselves must fall like those they sung,
Deaf the prais'd ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.
Ev'n he whose soul now melts in mournful lays,
Shall shortly want the generous tear he pays.
Mr. Pope who had been always subjected to a variety of bodily infirmities, finding his strength give way, began to think that his days, which had been prolonged past his expectation, were drawing towards a conclusion. However, he visited the Hot-Wells at Bristol, where for some time there were small hopes of his recovery; but making too free with purges he grew worse, and seemed desirous to draw nearer home. A dropsy in the breast at last put a period to his life, at the age of 56, on the 30th of May 1744, at his house at Twickenham, where he was interred in the same grave with his father and mother.
Mr. Pope's behaviour in his last illness has been variously represented to the world: Some have affirmed that it was timid and peevish; that having been fixed in no particular system of faith, his mind was wavering, and his temper broken and disturb'd. Others have asserted that he was all chearfulness and resignation to the divine will: Which of these opinions is true we cannot now determine; but if the former, it must be regretted, that he, who had taught philosophy to others, should himself be destitute of its assistance in the most critical moments of his life.
The bulk of his fortune he bequeath'd to Mrs. Blount, with whom he lived in the strictest friendship, and for whom he is said to have entertained the warmest affection. His works, which are in the hands of every person of true taste, and will last as long as our language will be understood, render unnecessary all further remarks on his writings. He was equally admired for the dignity and sublimity of his moral and philosophical works, the vivacity of his satirical, the clearness and propriety of his didactic, the richness and variety of his descriptive, and the elegance of all, added to an harmony of versification and correctness of sentiment and language, unknown to our former poets, and of which he has set an example which will be an example or a reproach to his successors. His prose-stile is as perfect in its kind as his poetic, and has all the beauties proper for it, joined to an uncommon force and perspicuity.
Under the profession of the Roman-Catholic religion, to which he adhered to the last, he maintained all the moderation and charity becoming the most thorough and consistent Protestant. His conversation was natural, easy and agreeable, without any affectation of displaying his wit, or obtruding his own judgment, even upon subjects of which he was so eminently a master.
The moral character of our author, as it did not escape the lash of his calumniators in his life; so have there been attempts since his death to diminish his reputation. Lord Bolingbroke, whom Mr. Pope esteemed to almost an enthusiastic degree of admiration, was the first to make this attack. Not many years ago, the public were entertained with this controversy immediately upon the publication of his lordship's Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism, and the Idea of a Patriot King. Different opinions have been offered, some to extenuate the fault of Mr. Pope, for printing and mutilating these letters, without his lordship's knowledge; others to blame him for it as the highest breach of friendship, and the greatest mark of dishonour. It would exceed our proposed bounds to enter into the merits of this controversy; the reader, no doubt, will find it amply discussed in that account of the life of this great author, which Mr. Warburton has promised this public.
This great man is allowed to have been one of the first rank amongst the poets of our nation, and to acknowledge the superiority of none but Shakespear, Milton, and Dryden. With the two former, it is unnatural to compare him, as their province in writing is so very different. Pope has never attempted the drama, nor published an Epic Poem, in which these two distinguished genius's have to wonderfully succeeded. Though Pope's genius was great, it was yet of so different a cast from Shakespear's, and Milton's, that no comparison can be justly formed. But if this may be said of the former two, it will by no means hold with respect to the latter, for between him and Dryden, there is a great similarity of writing, and a very striking coincidence of genius. It will not perhaps be unpleasing to our readers, if we pursue this comparison, and endeavour to discover to whom the superiority is justly to be attributed, and to which of them poetry owes the highest obligations.
When Dryden came into the world, he found poetry in a very imperfect state; its numbers were unpolished; its cadences rough, and there was nothing of harmony or mellifluence to give it a graceful of flow. In this harsh, unmusical situation, Dryden found it (for the refinements of Waller were but puerile and unsubstantial) he polished the rough diamond, he taught it to shine, and connected beauty, elegance, and strength, in all his poetical compositions. Though Dryden thus polished our English numbers, and thus harmonized versification, it cannot be said, that he carried his art to perfection. Much was yet left undone; his lines with all their smoothness were often rambling, and expletives were frequently introduced to compleat his measures. It was apparent therefore that an additional harmony might still he given to our numbers, and that cadences were yet capable of a more musical modulation. To effect this purpose Mr. Pope arose, who with an ear elegantly delicate, and the advantage of the finest genius, so harmonized the English numbers, as to make them compleatly musical. His numbers are likewise so minutely correct, that it would be difficult to conceive how any of his lines can be altered to advantage. He has created a kind of mechanical versification; every line is alike; and though they are sweetly musical, they want diversity, for he has not studied so great a variety of pauses, and where the accents may be laid gracefully. The structure of his verse is the best, and a line of his is more musical than any other line can he made, by placing the accents elsewhere; but we are not quite certain, whether the ear is not apt to be soon cloy'd with this uniformity of elegance, this sameness of harmony. It must be acknowledged however, that he has much improved upon Dryden in the article of versification, and in that part of poetry is greatly his superior. But though this must be acknowledged, perhaps it will not necessarily follow that his genius was therefore superior.
The grand characteristic of a poet is his invention, the surest distinction of a great genius. In Mr. Pope, nothing is so truly original as his Rape of the Lock, nor discovers so much invention. In this kind of mock-heroic, he is without a rival in our language, for Dryden has written nothing of the kind. His other work which discovers invention, fine designing, and admirable execution, is his Dunciad which, tho' built on Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, is yet so much superior, that in satiric writing, the Palm must justly be yielded to him. In Mr. Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, there are indeed the most poignant strokes of satire, and characters drawn with the melt masterly touches; but this poem with all its excellencies is much inferior to the Dunciad, though Dryden had advantages which Mr. Pope had not; for Dryden's characters are men of great eminence and figure in the state, while Pope has to expose men of obscure birth and unimportant lives only distinguished from the herd of mankind, by a glimmering of genius, which rendered the greatest part of them more emphatically contemptible. Pope's was the hardest task, and he has executed it with the greatest success. As Mr. Dryden must undoubtedly, have yielded to Pope in satyric writing, it is incumbent on the partizans of Dryden to name another species of composition, in which the former excells so as to throw the ballance again upon the side of Dryden. This species is the Lyric, in which the warmest votaries of Pope must certainly acknowledge, that he is much inferior; as an irresistable proof of this we need only compare Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, with Mr. Pope's; in which the disparity is so apparent, that we know not if the most finished of Pope's compositions has discovered such a variety and command of numbers.
It hath been generally acknowledged, that the lyric is a more excellent kind of writing than the Satiric; and consequently he who excells in the most excellent species, must undoubtedly be esteemed the greatest poet. — Mr. Pope has very happily succeeded in many of his occasional pieces, such as Eloisa to Abelard, his Elegy on an unfortunate young Lady, and a variety, of other performances deservedly celebrated. To these may he opposed Mr. Dryden's Fables, which though written in a very advanced age, are yet the most perfect of his works. In these Fables there is perhaps a greater variety than in Pope's occasional pieces. Many of them indeed are translations, but such as are original shew a great extent of invention, and a large compass of genius.
There are not in Pope's works such poignant discoveries of wit, or such a general know ledge of the humours and characters of men, as in the Prologues and Epilogues of Dryden, which are the best records of the whims and capricious oddities of the times in which they are written.
When these two great genius's are considered in the light of translators, it will indeed be difficult to determine into whose scale the ballance should be thrown: That Mr. Pope had a more arduous province in doing justice to Homer, than Dryden with regard to Virgil is certainly true; as Homer is a more various and diffuse poet than Virgil; and it is likewise true, that Pope has even exceeded Dryden in the execution, and none will deny, that Pope's Homer's Iliad, is a finer poem than Dryden's Aeneis of Virgil: Making a proper allowance for the disproportion of the original authors. But then a candid critic should reflect, that as Dryden was prior in the great attempt of rendering Virgil into English; so did he perform the task under many disadvantages, which Pope, by a happier situation in life, was enabled to avoid; and could not but improve upon Dryden's errors, though the authors translated were not the same: And it is much to be doubted, if Dryden were to translate the Aeneid now, with that attention which the correctness of the present age would force upon him, whether the preference would he due to Pope's Homer.
But supposing it to be yielded (as it certainly must) that the latter bard was the greatest translator; we are now to throw into Mr. Dryden's scale all his dramatic works; which though not the most excellent of his writings, yet as nothing of Mr. Pope's can be opposed to them, they have an undoubted right to turn the ballance greatly in favour of Mr. Dryden. — When the two poets are considered as critics, the comparison will very imperfectly hold. Dryden's Dedications and Prefaces, besides that they are more numerous, and are the best models for courtly panegyric, shew that he understood poetry as an art, beyond any man that ever lived. And he explained this art so well, that he taught his antagonists to turn the tables against himself; for he so illuminated the mind by his clear and perspicuous reasoning, that dullness itself became capable of discerning; and when at any time his performances fell short of his own ideas of excellence; his enemies tried him by rules of his own establishing; and though they owed to him the ability of judging, they seldom had candour enough to spare him.
Perhaps it may be true that Pope's works are read with more appetite, as there is a greater evenness and correctness in them; but in perusing the works of Dryden the mind will take a wider range, and be more fraught with poetical ideas: We admire Dryden as the greater genius, and Pope as the most pleasing versifier.
|
cc/2019-30/en_middle_0086.json.gz/line370
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.