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__label__wiki	0.673413	0.673413	Church Historyadmin_netrepid2019-03-27T13:07:00-04:00 In the thirteenth year of the baby known as Cumberland County, (the precise date is not known), six lots were purchased at 142 to 154 South Hanover Street. A log church was erected and ground consecrated as “a last resting place for their dead.” The church at that time was known as the “German Reformed Church.” The Germans loved to sing but there was no organ or choir until 1840. John Conrad Bucher was the first pastor and his first sermon containing a date was March 20, 1763. He is interred in the old Reformed Cemetery in Lebanon. A second church was erected around 1807 on the site of the old Dickinson College gym, now known as the Weiss Center for the Performing Arts. Believe it or not, the cost of the building was covered by funds from a public lottery! $9,000, more than enough, was raised. The first Sunday school in Cumberland County flourished here-the second oldest in Pennsylvania. In 1828 a third location for the congregation was selected on the southeast corner of High and Pitt Streets under the guidance of the Reverend John S. Ebaugh. Harmony within the congregation left much to be desired and this building was sold to the Methodists at a nice profit. With the proceeds of the sale a new church was built on West Louther Street, just across from the west end of the present post office. Reverend Henry Aurand served as pastor during these tumultuous times for an annual salary of $300! The building was remodeled in 1879. By 1914 the congregation, with Reverend Coblentz the pastor, had outgrown its home. A deed dated April 3, 1918, indicates that the present site was purchased for a new home on North Pitt Street. The congregational family of 1st UCC – Carlisle has been worshiping at this North Pitt Street since it was built. In addition, to holding worship on a regular basis, the congregation has made an intentional decision to stay in the downtown area and reach out to the community, and build relationships with individuals and local organizations.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line0
__label__wiki	0.568834	0.568834	Arkansas State Archives Arkansas History Lesson Plans Supplementary Materials Home Arkansas History Lesson Plans Supplementary Materials Page 5 Adeline Blakeley, Ex-Slave Interview Title Adeline Blakeley, Ex-Slave Interview Creator Work Projects Administration Biographical/Historical Note The Works Progress Administration became the Work Projects Administration (WPA) and was the largest and most ambitious of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies. It began its official work in Arkansas on July 8, 1935, taking over from the Arkansas Emergency Relief Administration (ERA). Also in 1935 the Arkansas Federal Writer's Project was created to focus on the history of Arkansas as part of the American Guide series. Publications such as these would give points of interest from each state. Topics on agriculture, geography and geology, history, Indians, industry, place names, and transportation were covered. Bernie Babcock became the first director of the Arkansas Federal Writer's Project program; she also served as the first director of the Historical Records Survey in Arkansas until it became a separate program in October 1936. The Work Projects Administration's final report for Arkansas was completed on March 1, 1943. During its operations, it expended more than $116,000,000 on employment programs, paved over 11,000 miles of roads, built over 600 new public schools, and repaired many others. The programs were scaled down shortly after the United States' entry into World War II and liquidated in 1943. Arkansas’s records were retrieved by Dr. John L. Ferguson from the basement of the State Capitol building with the permission of Kelley Bryant, Secretary of State, Little Rock, Arkansas, about 1963. One of the avenues of focus for the Federal Writer’s Project was collecting and transcribing oral histories from former slaves living in the southern and border states. From 1937 to 1939 interviewers covered seventeen states in an effort to document as many histories as possible. Working under the direction of Bernie Babcock, twenty interviewers worked to record the lives of former slaves living in Arkansas. The entire ex-slave narrative project generated over 2,300 related documents. Arkansas provided thirty-three percent of the narratives, far exceeding any other state participating in the project. The interviews conducted in Arkansas included representation from every slave state, providing insight not only into the conditions within the state of Arkansas, but also a more complete picture of slavery within the South as a whole. Description Interview of ex-slave, Adeline Blakeley, by Mary Hudgins with the Work Projects Administration, about Blakeley's life as a slave. Physical Description 14 typed letter-sized pages Subjects slavery; American Civil War; Education; Freedom; Treatment Geographical Area Arkansas; Tennessee Local Identifier MS.000149, Adeline Blakeley Digital Resource Documents Digital Collection Arkansas History Lesson Plans Supplementary Materials Contributors Mary Hudgins Publisher Arkansas State Archives Preferred Citation Work Projects Administration: Federal Writers' Project, Ex-Slave Narratives, MS.000149, Adeline Blakeley, Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas Rights and Usage Use and reproduction of images held by the Arkansas State Archives without prior written permission is prohibited. For information on reproducing images held by the Arkansas State Archives, please call 501-682-6901 or email at state.archives@arkansas.gov. Arkansas's Multicultural Heritage Arkansas Constitutions Arkansas History Lesson Plans Arkansas State Archives Resource Guides Arkansas Women's History Collection Every Front is the Home Front - Arkansas in the Civil War From Ballots to Bills – A History of Politics in Arkansas From Swamps to Farms - A History of Farming in Arkansas Go, Fight, Win! A History of Sports in Arkansas Ozark Folk Life and Culture Strolling Down Main Street Arkansas Tales from the Vault - Celebrating 110 Years Territorial Arkansas Collection The Great War – World War I at Home and Abroad The World We Live In - A History of African Americans in Arkansas Time for Class - Arkansas Schools Through the Years Wish You Were Here - Postcards from Arkansas's Past You Fought Prejudice and Won - Japanese-American Internment Camps in Arkansas	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line4
__label__wiki	0.726204	0.726204	SHERWOOD: Goodbye Gaza – our correspondent reflects on her time in the Middle East 27Jan14 January 27, 2014 by Harriet Sherwood - The Guardian - 26 January 2014 Hazem Balousha was uncharacteristically despondent when he greeted me recently at the end of my long walk through the open-air caged passageway that separates the modern hi-tech state of Israel from the tiny, impoverished, overcrowded Gaza Strip. Hazem has been a colleague and a friend for three and a half years, a relationship built over more than 20 visits I’ve made to Gaza. He arranges interviews and provides translation; but most importantly he helps me understand the people, the politics and the daily struggle of life in Gaza. We have talked for hours in his car, over coffee, at his home. He has accompanied me to grim refugee camps and upmarket restaurants; to the tunnels in the south and farms in the north; to schools and hospitals; to bomb sites and food markets; to the odd wedding party and rather more funerals. In the face of Gaza’s pressure-cooker atmosphere and bleak prospects, he – like so many I’ve met here – has always been remarkably good-humoured. But not this time. As we waited for Hamas officials sporting black beards and bomber jackets to check my entry permit, I asked Hazem: “How’s it going?” He shrugged, and began to tell me about the many phone calls he’d had to make to find a replacement cooking gas canister recently, and how his small sons whine when the electricity cuts out for hours each day, depriving them of their favourite TV shows. “This is what we have come to. We wake up in the night worrying about small things: cooking gas, the next power cut, how to find fuel for the car,” he said dejectedly. “We no longer care about the big things, the important things, the future – we just try to get through each day.” The people of Gaza are reeling from a series of blows that have led some analysts to say that it is facing its worst crisis for more than six years, putting its 1.7 million inhabitants under intense material and psychological pressure. Israel’s continued blockade has been exacerbated by mounting hostility to Gaza’s Hamas government from the military regime in Cairo, which sees it as an extension of Egypt’s deposed Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptians have virtually cut off access to and from Gaza, and as a result Hamas is facing crippling financial problems and a new political isolation. Power cuts, fuel shortages, price rises, job losses, Israeli air strikes, untreated sewage in the streets and the sea, internal political repression, the near-impossibility of leaving, the lack of hope or horizon – these have chipped away at the resilience and fortitude of Gazans, crushing their spirit. This was my last visit to Gaza before returning to London to live and work. I moved to Jerusalem in May 2010, to report principally on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also social and cultural issues and the regional upheavals that erupted three years ago. Since I first came here almost 10 years ago, I had been fascinated by the place, its people, its history and its compelling complexity. I arrived eager to learn more about what is frequently called the world’s most intractable conflict, and to try to understand the powerful feelings of historical injustice on both sides. I am leaving angry about an occupation that has lasted close to half a century, weary of Israel’s grinding oppression of the Palestinian people, cynical about the political leadership on both sides and in the international community, and pessimistic that a fair resolution will be reached. Before heading home, I needed to say goodbye to Gaza, an extraordinary and unforgettable place. David Cameron once described it as a prison camp, which is exactly how it feels, hemmed in by walls and fences on three sides. On the fourth side, the Mediterranean, Israeli war ships patrol the horizon; overhead, F16s roar and drones buzz around the clock. “They are exercising their engines,” said Hazem with a wry smile, as a plane screeched over us. But they also unleash missiles on weapons stores, military training sites and militants’ homes in response to rockets launched at civilian targets in Israel. Not many outsiders get to see Gaza. As a foreign journalist, holding an Israeli-issued press card and a Hamas-issued Gaza residency permit, I can enter relatively easily. Israeli journalists are banned by their own government, which means their readers are rarely exposed to first-hand reports. Israel allows diplomats, UN staff and accredited aid workers to cross Erez, the border crossing at the northern tip of Gaza which it controls, and issues special permits to Palestinian officials and foreign delegations. Pretty much everyone else is barred. Consequently, the vast hangar-like terminal on the Israeli side echoes to the footsteps of these few, plus a tiny number of Palestinians, nearly all of whom are going to or returning from business trips or hospital visits. Since a number of suicide bombings at Erez a decade ago, the Israeli border and military personnel remain in offices high above the ground level, watching through blast-proof glass and CCTV, and issuing instructions via speakers. It is an eerie and unsettling experience, however many times you do it.Once you have passed through Israeli passport control, arrows direct you down a high-walled narrow corridor and through a series of turnstiles that take you to a remotely operated steel door in the vast concrete wall built along the border. The other side of the wall is Gaza, but you are confined to a long caged corridor through the Israeli-designated “buffer zone”. For the fit and healthy, it’s a 15-minute walk to the official Palestinian Authority office, where your passport is checked again. Attesting to the bitter political divide between the Fatah-run PA and the Hamas government in Gaza, Hamas officials run a separate entry process in a handful of shabby Portakabins half a mile down the road. Here you need to present your Hamas entry permit and have your bags checked for contraband, including alcohol. Booze-smuggling is not tolerated; if found, it is immediately poured into the ground. Inside Gaza, there are few restrictions imposed on foreigners. I’ve often been asked if I have to wear a headscarf on Hamas-controlled territory. Only once have I been asked to cover my hair, when visiting the Islamic university which operates a strict dress code for women students and staff – but I do have a “Gaza wardrobe” of trousers and long-sleeved, loose-fitting shirts. The vast majority of women in Gaza wear the hijab, but not all; and among those who do, there is a cheering amount of fashionable creativity and individuality on display. Another question I’m frequently asked is if I feel safe. The answer is yes and no. I’ve never felt in danger from any Palestinians in Gaza, Hamas or otherwise, except from customary gunfire at funerals. But I’m constantly aware of the risk of being inadvertently caught in an Israeli airstrike. During Operation Pillar of Defence, the eight-day war in November 2012, I lay awake at night listening to shells launched by Israeli warships whizz past my hotel window, the sound of overhead bombing, and the whoosh of Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets being fired out of Gaza. I was very frightened – and acutely aware that Palestinians faced a far bigger risk. Fourteen months after that mini-war, on this last visit, Hazem and I talked of the hope – now long faded – that swept Gaza when the Israeli army and Jewish settlers pulled out in 2005. The sense of liberation at the time, and the dream that Gazans might be free to determine their own future, and become a model of a future state of Palestine, was swiftly dashed on the rocks of Israel’s political actions and military operations, and the rise of Hamas. Another brief moment of hope came in May 2010. Under intense international pressure following the killing of nine pro-Palestinian activists on board a flotilla of boats attempting to break the blockade of Gaza, Israel eased its draconian siege which had been in force since Hamas took control of the strip. Then, I talked to factory owners who were desperate to begin importing raw material and exporting finished goods, fishermen impatient to take their boats beyond a three-mile limit imposed by Israel; families who longed to visit relatives in the West Bank without having to travel through Jordan. But now, eight and a half years and two wars since Israeli “disengagement”, Gaza is still blockaded and hope is rare. Israel controls most of its borders, deciding who and what can get in and out. Almost all exports are still banned; fishermen are regularly shot at by the Israeli navy; families are still separated. And in recent months, Egypt has destroyed hundreds of tunnels which had been Gaza’s life support system, and has locked down the sole border crossing at the southern end of the strip, cutting Gazans off from the outside world.Inevitably, the consequences of the policies of Israel and Egypt – plus the continued political enmity between Hamas and Fatah – have had their most acute impact on ordinary people. In Gaza City, Hazem and I passed long queues of vehicles, whose drivers were waiting for hours to buy fuel. One, his face filmed with stress-induced sweat, suddenly leapt from behind the wheel of his yellow taxi to yell at another motorist. Omar Arraqi had waited in line for two hours to partially fill his near-empty fuel tank, and there was no way he was going to allow the interloper to push in front. Yelling and finger-jabbing have become routine at Gaza’s gas stations; sometimes punches are thrown. “People have fights all the time,” said Arraqi, whose income has dropped by 70% since Gaza’s fuel shortages took hold. The government fixes rates for taxi journeys – the only form of public transport in Gaza – while the cost of fuel, when available, has rocketed. Arraqi said it was becoming increasingly hard to buy food as prices of basic provisions were also rising. But he was most worried about the health of his two-year-old daughter, who was born with hydrocephalus. After two failed operations in Gaza, she had surgery in Egypt – but since the Cairo regime closed the border crossing last summer she has had no further treatment. “Without help, she will be disabled,” said Arraqi, worry etched across his face. His story was one of many accounts of daily small-scale struggles I heard during my last visit. The manager of a family-owned clothes shop told me he’d reduced his staff from 25 to 12, as well as cutting their wages by 10%. Families whose breadwinners are among the tens of thousands who have lost their jobs, or whose pay has been cut, told me they have less money to spend in the markets, where prices have shot up as a result of higher transport costs and the absence of cheap Egyptian goods. The price of a kilogram of tomatoes has quadrupled, along with steep hikes in the cost of essentials such as flour and sugar. Electricity is rationed, currently eight hours on followed by eight hours off. Some families are cooking indoors on open fires, at considerable risk of injury. Children are forced to study by candlelight. People set alarms for the early hours in order to be able to take a shower or charge their phones or send an email. Mealtimes are now determined by power supply rather than tradition. Gaza’s hospitals have to take into account the vagaries of the power supply when scheduling surgery; pharmacies are running low on medicines. Roadworks and half-finished buildings – new homes, hospitals, schools – are abandoned as the lack of materials makes completion impossible. Last month, a devastating storm swept through the Middle East bringing chaos and destruction to Gaza. At least 10,000 families were made homeless by flooding; children had to wade through rivers of rainwater mixed with raw sewage to reach school. The storm wiped out fruit and vegetable crops. “After almost seven years of siege, we were simply unable to cope,” a local aid worker told me. An indication of personal desperation and social unravelling lies in an unprecedented rise in property crime, previously almost unheard of in Gaza. Domestic violence is also increasing. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is feeding more than 800,000 Gazans – almost half the population, and a record number. But UNRWA is also facing a catastrophic 20% drop in income while need is rising. “So much pressure has built up,” Robert Turner, UNRWA’s director of operations, told me. “How far can Gaza bend before it snaps?” Gaza has come close to breaking point before – especially during the brutal three-week war with Israel in 2008-9. But I’ve always been impressed by the resilience, creativity and humour of ordinary people, despite their adverse circumstances and repeated setbacks. Memories of many individuals I met will stay with me for a long time. In June 2012, I visited the artist Maha al-Daya at her home just after she returned from a four-month stint as artist-in-residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, leaving her three young children in the care of her husband amid some disapproval. As she showed me her colourful seascapes and vivid abstracts, she laughed when I asked her how she found inspiration in the dust and destruction of Gaza. “This is what I see,” she said, adding that if I looked for colour and vibrancy against the grey backdrop of Gaza, I would also find it. Long before he shot to global fame after winning Arab Idol last year, I met singer Mohammed Assaf at a wedding party at which he was performing. He told me he had been arrested more than 20 times by Hamas security forces, who demanded he stop singing in public. He refused to be deterred: “My message as a Palestinian is that we not only speak or fight or shoot, but we also sing,” he said. I spent a glorious day on the beach – Gaza’s one magnificent natural asset – with 12-year-old Sabah Abu Ghanim, a passionate surfer who regularly hogged the single ancient board shared between friends and family and who studied surfing techniques on the internet. She told me she felt “freedom and happiness” in the waves that crash into Gaza’s coastline. Yet she accepted without resentment the conservative social mores that would require her to give up her beloved sport when she reached puberty.I cooked maftoul, a type of couscous, and made cheese- and herb-filled pastries with the women of the Zeitun Kitchen, who run a successful collective business catering for weddings and parties from premises that regularly lack power. Along with a tightened waistband, they left me with an indelible memory of cheerful gossip and laughter as they worked in the gloom and stifling heat. I had the privilege of meeting Dr Izzeldin Abuelaish, a remarkable obstetrician whose three daughters were killed in an Israeli airstrike in January 2009. His anguished telephone call moments after their death to an Israeli television presenter and friend was broadcast live to shocked audiences. His book, I Shall Not Hate, was a testimony to an extraordinary capacity to overcome. “Hate is a poison, a fire which burns you from the inside,” he told me at his family’s home, which then still bore the scars of the shelling, in Jabalia in northern Gaza. “It’s easy to destroy life but very difficult to build it.” These and others belie the demonic image of Gazans, often promoted by Israel. Rather, they are overwhelmingly decent people who simply want food on the table, a better life for their children, dignity, respect and freedom. But not all my encounters were positive. I also met grieving mothers who expressed fervent hope that their infant sons would grow up to avenge their dead fathers or siblings by killing Jewish children, a profoundly depressing illustration of the cycle of violence here. I listened to Hamas officials saying the bloodshed of their own civilian population was necessary in the fight to the death with the “Zionist entity”. I witnessed the funerals of children, saw the destruction of homes, felt growing despair and the near-extinguishing of hope. And – despite’s Israel’s intentions when it tightened its siege following the Hamas takeover in Gaza in 2007 – I’ve seen the Islamic party’s power become more entrenched during my time here. Hamas was elected on a wave of revulsion against the corrupt Fatah old guard and on a track record of providing practical support and services to the population, as well as a pledge to lead the resistance against the Israeli occupation. It has since suppressed political opposition, enforced an Islamic code of social conduct and, with its repeated rocket attacks, provided Israeli politicians with a useful justification for some of their more extreme rightwing policies. Now, after the brutal crackdown on Hamas’s ideological parents, the Muslim Brotherhood, in next-door Egypt, the faction is facing a crisis. It is unable to ease the harsh living conditions of the people of Gaza, thanks to the calamitous loss of income and cash flow following the closure of the tunnels. It is now politically isolated in the region, and its unpopularity at home is growing. Yet its power is unchallenged. “This is Hamas’s hardest moment, its worst crisis since it won the election in 2006,” Mkhaimer Abusada, professor of political science at Gaza’s Al Azhar university, told me over sweet mint tea. “But we are very afraid. Hamas does not allow any protests, any opposition. We’re sick and tired of Hamas, but we don’t have an alternative.” Gazans, he added, had become “hostages to Hamas and Fatah, Israel and Egypt – they are all gambling with our lives. I think the worst has not yet come. There will be more miserable days ahead.” The UN recently warned that Gaza was rapidly becoming uninhabitable. But this is not as a result of a natural disaster – an earthquake, say, or a typhoon – but of destruction, de-development, suffocation and isolation caused by the deliberate policies of Israel and Egypt, with significant contributory factors from both Hamas and Fatah. And the material and psychological siege of Gaza has profound consequences not just for the population, but also for regional security. On my last morning in Gaza, the terrace restaurant of the beachfront hotel I have frequented over recent years was almost empty. Few journalists and diplomats come to Gaza these days, as attention – understandably – has swivelled to crises elsewhere in the region. “The world has forgotten us,” one Gazan told me. After breakfast, Hazem drove me back to the Erez border crossing, through streets in which donkey-drawn carts are replacing fuel-thirsty vehicles, and men while away their lives sipping coffee on plastic chairs for the want of a decent day’s work. I left a place that I have grown to care deeply about with a profound sense of gloom about its future. After Hamas officials gave me permission to go, Hazem and I risked a socially unacceptable parting hug and he wished me good luck. But it’s he and the people of Gaza who need luck, and a lot of it. Next Post: VLAZNA: Colonial partners in Israel’s crimes 27Jan14 Previous Post: Germany excludes settlements from high-tech science grants 26Jan14	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line5
__label__cc	0.695133	0.304867	BalloFlex Fitness (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the https://balloflex.com and https://balloflex-fitness.myshopify.com website (hereinafter referred to as the “Service”). We use your data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, the terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions, accessible from https://balloflex.com and https://balloflex-fitness.myshopify.com Service Service is the https://balloflex.com and https://balloflex-fitness.myshopify.com website operated by BalloFlex Fitness. Personal Data Personal Data means data about a living individual who can be identified from those data (or from those and other information either in our possession or likely to come into our possession). 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__label__wiki	0.592411	0.592411	Helder Moutinho March 17, 2009 Helder Moutinho was born in 1969, in Oeiras, where the Tagus meets the Ocean, and maybe it was from this daily intimacy with the sea that came the major characteristic of his career: a multiple capacity of understanding and living his music, by singing, composing, producing, managing, constantly probing wider horizons, of solid and neat banks and rich, steady stream. From his family of old fado lovers, and from accompanying them to the traditional fado circles, he got not only his taste for this kind of song, but above all his determination to sing it, and so entering in fado's unique universe. It was in Moutinho's late teens that, after getting familiar to other musical styles, fado began to take an increasing importance in his life. This is perhaps the reason to explain his enduring, inevitable relation with Lisbon… After the lifelong calling of the sea, now is Tagus River that requests him, revealing him Lisbon, the city of passions, of poetic and nostalgic nights, of high flying gulls that he will forever on sing and write about. He initially sang only to friends, but his gift could not remain hidden, and he soon got his first invitation to sing in one of Bairro Alto's fado bars. By this time, Moutinho's all latent talents began to show themselves. In reunions of fado singers, all night long, among other fado lovers, he began to sing his own lyrics that he would later include in his first album, Sete Fados e Alguns Cantos (Seven Fados and Some Songs). Concurrently, Helder Moutinho began revealing himself in other and important activities: those of a manager, agent and music editor. The transition from singing in fado bars and in concerts - one must mention his participation in projects like Fados Mãe de Água, organized by Lisbon City Hall and included in "Lisbon 94 - European Capital of Culture," the Festima Festival at "Expo' 98," along with performances throughout Portugal and abroad - is a process that Moutinho himself can't explain - but soon the stress-free approach of his beginnings turned to become a deeper, compromised one. His first record, released by Ocarina in 1999, got flattering notice from magazine "Strictly Mundial" (of the "World Music International Exibition"), and very good reviews from Portuguese and international press. From all these motives, his new release was eagerly expected, knowing that its lyrics were written, in their vast majority, by the singer himself, and that its process of creation and recording was like in Moutinho's first one: in the middle of tours, reunions, planning, and an enterprise of his own to manage. For this is like Helder Moutinho is: a man of many talents, with a voice and a soul he must absolutely share with us. Official Website: http://www.yoshis.com Added by Yoshis on March 2, 2009 Interested 1	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line11
__label__wiki	0.690051	0.690051	THE RUBINOOS: An EXCLUSIVE Q&A with Jon Rubin, Tommy Dunbar, and Chuck Prophet! SPAZ: FROM HOME is just about to be released. How are you feeling about the album and the reaction you’ve had to it so far? JON RUBIN: I love the record and the way it was recorded and I think it sounds exciting. I am completely blown away by both fan reaction and the reaction from people less familiar with The Rubinoos. TOMMY DUNBAR: It might be a little early to gauge the response, but I’ll say it was super fun making the record! Writing with Chuck Prophet was a total pleasure, and the rehearsals were a joy as always. But what really set it apart for me, was that we got to set up and play in a really great studio, with minimal overdubs. Also, Chuck introduced us to our wonderful engineer, Mr. Paul Kolderie. It’s a rare thing to be able to only worry about playing and singing, at least these days. SPAZ: This is the first time you’ve worked with a high-profile label in the U.S. (Yep Roc). How did that deal come about? JON: Two words: Chuck Prophet. He has been our champion through the entire process. TOMMY: Chuck introduced us to Yep Roc, and them to us. I really didn’t know how it would be to work with them, but they’ve been great. Their enthusiasm has exceeded my expectations. I mean, they’re a real record company! Who’da thunk? SPAZ: The album was produced by Chuck Prophet (Green On Red/solo). How did you hook up with him, and did you know him personally before you decided to work together on FROM HOME? JON: I have known Chuck for years but hadn’t really hung out with him until this project. I think all this was driven by his co-writing with Tommy (not specifically for The Rubes) and his fandom for The Rubinoos. We got to know each other a lot better as the project progressed. TOMMY: We’d known Chuck peripherally from growing up in Berkeley. Chuck played in a band called Bad Attitude, and we’d see him hanging out at Subway Guitars occasionally. But we didn’t know him well. Fast forward a decade or two, and I started receiving mix tapes from Gary Phillips, our mutual friend (and producer of the Rubinoos’ first couple albums.) Every time there would be a Chuck Prophet song on there, it would be something great! That kid is making some really good records! Anyway, I saw that Chuck was playing somewhere near Sacramento where I live, so I went to the show. It was really, really good. We chatted afterwards and left saying, “we should write together sometime”… This happened a few times and so we finally put a date on the calendar to write. We wrote two songs (which both appear on the new album) and we were off to the races. A bit of a drive between Sacramento and San Francisco, but we managed. Chuck introduced us to Yep Roc, they offered us a deal, and suddenly we were planning an album! SPAZ: The album has a warm and spacious feel to it although it retains the classic Rubinoos sound. Did Chuck encourage you to play a little looser on the album? JON: I think the main thing different about this album is that we rehearsed our asses off preparing and we played together for the tracking. This is something we have not had the luxury to do since the first three albums. Chuck was very adamant that I play guitar on the tracks. I haven’t done that since the second LP. Preparation leads to a more relaxed atmosphere and the option to take chances and “loosen up” if you will. Our vocals will always sound like The Rubinoos but I am very happy Chuck encouraged a lot of risk taking. TOMMY: If by looser, you mean more like a real band playing live, then yes. The fact that we had an actual budget meant that we could put in the time to really rehearse until the songs were ready, and then go into the studio. When everyone has really worked on their parts, and we really have the vocals down, then going into the studio is much more like trying to capture a performance. And that’s what we got to do on this record. Minimal overdubs! CHUCK PROPHET: They were always tight but loose in the right places. We just needed to get them into a place where they could all play together. And hear each other. That’s where all those conversational things start to happen. You can hear it on their early records where a drum fill would take over where a vocal stopped. A four-piece band. There’s nothing like it. You didn’t long for more. They didn’t need overdubs. You could close your eyes and see the band. But making a record old-school like that in 2019 actually takes some doing. Although they’ve cobbled records together in Pro Tools studios over the years, and those records are great. It took some doing to make this happen in the tradition of what I consider to be the classic Rubinoos records. Initially, Al and Donno were happy for the band to use session musicians in the interest of efficiency as the band had done here and there in the ’90s. Al said, “I can come in later and overdub my vocals.” It took some convincing to get it through everyone’s heads that the goal was to make this record like the first two records. I had dogged Tommy for the details on how those records were made again and again. Tommy repeatedly reminded me that the band was so incredibly well-rehearsed that by the time they got in there they were ready to chew through the tape. And Tommy pointed out that a setback for them since the ’90s was that when they would stack his and Jon’s vocals in the interest of getting it done, it wasn’t ever the same. Like the Beach Boys, you need all that color in there. That would include Mike Love. So, to have Donno’s voice in there along with the other three really made it sound like the Rubinoos. And that was the goal. To own it. To embrace anything that sounded like the Rubinoos. More than sounding like the Rubinoos. The goal was to be the Rubinoos. The band worked hard at that stuff. To reiterate, Tommy was saying that when they moved to L.A. they lost something . . . because it wasn’t the four voices anymore. They fell into Tommy and Jon multitracking voices. And it wasn’t the same. Donno has a rough kind of growl to his voice and can go really high, and he is sort of the Mike Love ingredient. You can’t take one card out of the card house. Take it out and the whole thing crumbles. There were a mess of living room rehearsals and full-band rehearsals and vocal rehearsals. And Jon got back on electric guitar. Even as he kicked and screamed that he sucked. There is a distinct feel to his eighth notes. There’s no substitute. I took notes. In fact, for the first rehearsal I went up to Sacramento and we rehearsed in Tommy’s basement. Jon, Donno and Tommy, and Al . . . and me. Literally knee to knee. Just a couple guitars and Donno beating time with sticks on his knees. And we mowed through some 13 new songs, and it was kind of amazing. With Tommy at times breaking into these kind of what I call Ferrante and Teicher elevator music versions where he’d play the melody on guitar as well as the chords, which kind of burns the melodies into your psyche. They had already worked out the three- and four-part harmonies to most of the songs, and there were times when it just sounded like a record. BAM! POW! Very exciting. Anyway, the thing I love about the Rubinoos is that they were always true to their school. I am not necessarily a Power Pop nerd or candy boy. But I think what made the Rubinoos – and Jonathan Richman as well – my heroes is, to me, they were true to their school. They are just a few years older than me. I saw them when I was in high school. And what I saw was a band laying it on the line by playing the music they loved onstage. And in that respect, they were totally fearless. There were other artists I saw around that time like Sammy Hagar or Greg Kihn. They were good in their own way. But in other ways, they were just selling cheeseburgers. There wasn’t anything dangerous about what they were doing. Everybody loves cheeseburgers. As far as the songs go, when Tommy and I wrote the record I knew that all the clues and signposts we needed to guide us were imbedded in those first two records. And if we followed those clues logically to their conclusion we could make a great record. And I think that’s what we did. We might have even written a song that can knock “Hard to Get” out of the set after some 40 years! As I often say, in 2019 we are living in difficult times. I mean, as far as new music goes? Spend enough time in studios with the Tape Op magazines lying around and you’re forced to watch these young engineers tune the vocal with some software with all the passion they would put into playing Dungeons and Dragons online. Do that enough and it can make you cynical about the process. And it can make you very cynical about new records. But when these four singers stand around one mic and blend themselves? Wow. It’s something else. Everyone sits up in their ergonomically designed studio swivel chairs and leans into the speakers. What they do is magic. And my job was to capture as much of that magic on tape as we could. It really wasn’t that complicated. SPAZ: Did you already have a stockpile of songs ready to go when you started planning the recording of the album or did you write this batch specifically for FROM HOME? TOMMY: No stockpile of songs, just songs that Chuck and I had been writing over the last year or so. We probably wrote 25, and then ran them by the guys in the band to see what clicked. SPAZ: The album opens with the Garage Rocker “Do You Remember.” From there, the album incorporates a lot of influences including Glam (“Rocking In Spain”), Pure Pop (“Honey From The Honeycombs”, “Phaedra”, “Miss Alternate Universe”), ‘70s Soul (“Do I Love You”) and even a few lovely ballads (“Heart For Sale” and “Watching The Sun Go Down”). Were all of these tracks written with a certain ‘sound’ in mind or did they organically evolve into their finished form? JON: Songs find themselves with repetition. The more you play it the more apparent the direction becomes. I don’t think we always had a preconceived notion of how to approach each song but we are always The Rubinoos. TOMMY: If by a certain ‘sound’ you mean the production, then I would say no. I mean, when you’re writing you just kind of throw ideas out there, sort of a “free write” and when something catches your ear, you follow it. Your antennae might tell you that it reminds you of a Hollies song, or a Stones song, or whatever as you’re going along. A basic style that might pull you in a direction. But it’s usually not, like, “let’s write something that will be a Phil Spector sound”, or a “Grass Roots sound”. That sort of thinking usually comes (if at all) later. That can useful in arranging, asking yourself, “what would the Motown guitar player do?” “What kind of drum fill would Dave Clark play?”. That’s more arranging than writing though. Personally, I think people do a bit too much of that, instead of just listening to their own instincts. Not everything has to be a reference to what has come before! But that can be fun too. There are no rules…. SPAZ: Were there other songs recorded during the sessions that didn’t make the album? JON: There are a few songs that will come out as bonus tracks at some point. It’s very hard to make the cut when you have so many well written songs. TOMMY: Yes, there were three others (one being a cover of Gene Pitney’s “It Hurts To Be In Love”.) I’m sure they’ll all wind up being released at some point. Maybe as bonus tracks. SPAZ: When the four of you get together to rehearse and record, does the chemistry come back instantly or does it take a while for you to connect again? JON: Instantly, no question. TOMMY: Oh man, our main problem is that we wind up yakking and swapping stories (did you know that Eric Clapton was the xylophone player on ‘Kick Out The Jams’ by the MC5?!”) as much as playing! We’ve been out on quite a few tours, mainly of Spain in the last couple of decades (Spanish tour number 15 coming up in January!), and we always rehearse before any gigs. So, we do see each other, just not as much as we’d like. It’s always a party. So, yes, the chemistry is always there. And personally, it’s just such a joy to play and sing and hang out with those guys. SPAZ: Jon and Tommy formed the band nearly 50 years ago yet the joy and passion is still there and evident on FROM HOME. How do you keep things so fresh and exciting after all these years? JON: What’s that TV show? Arrested Development! I love nothing more than to go to rehearsal with my best friends for the last 50 (and 40) years. We always laugh our asses off and we have a great time playing together no matter what we are doing. I just love it… TOMMY: It’s not hard to keep things fresh when it’s the funnest thing you do! My spell check says “funnest” is not a word, but I disagree! Funnest! Funnest! Funnest! SPAZ: What’s next for the Rubinoos? JON: Touring, touring and more touring… and then relaxing. Next year is our 50th anniversary and we hope to release a definitive box set of the first 2 LPS (and maybe more). TOMMY: We go back to Spain (there’s even a song about it on the new record!) in January 2020. Probably London as well. We hope to play in lots of new places as well if they’ll have us. Maybe even in the U.S. – stranger things have happened! Also, talking about more house parties, since we love doing those. Can we raid your ‘fridge? We’re all crashing at your pad! SPAZ: What are you currently spinning on your CD and record players? (Can be old or new) JON: Song right now: “Pretty Flamingo” by Manfred Mann. General listening: ‘60s Instrumentals and movie music ala Mancini, TJ Brass, Kaempfert, Morricone, etc. and LSUG (Little Steven’s Underground Garage) in the car. TOMMY: Hmm….My favorite new band is Pyramidos. They’re from Japan but sing in Greek, and they have the greatest YouTube videos. Who else? A guitar player from Israel named Aris San who was big in the ‘60s I guess. Moved to New York and opened a nightclub and met tragedy. But plays guitar like a bazouki, really great! On my turntable? WPLJ by the 4 Deuces, the 45 is sitting there as we speak. I’m always listening to Italian pop records from the ‘60s by Mina, Gianni Morandi, Nico Fidenco, Sergio Endrigo, don’t get me started! I’ll drag you down into the Italian pop vortex! Thanks to Jon Rubin, Tommy Dunbar, and Chuck Prophet Special thanks to Steve Dixon and Dave Rayburn (Yep Roc Records) August 15, 2019 Steve Schnee	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line14
__label__cc	0.680225	0.319775	THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY PRESENTS Music by Jeanine Tesori Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel Directed by Robert Kelley October 3 – 28, 2018 Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View To download one of these high-resolution files, click on a thumbnail image below. You may then download the full-size image by right-clicking in the image window, and selecting “save picture as.” Please contact us directly if you have any difficulties. PLEASE NOTE: Thumbnails below are not full images. Click to determine portrait/landscape orientation. CAST CHANGES! Please note there are two casts of children – to match your photo to a particular performance see caption information. For press release, please click here. Small Alison (Lila Gold) wants to play airplane in a memory from Alison’s (Moira Stone) childhood in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Photo credit: Kevin Berne Small Alison (Lila Gold) and her father, Bruce (James Lloyd Reynolds), examine potential treasures from a neighbor’s barn in a memory from Alison’s (Moira Stone) childhood in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Small Alison (Lila Gold) feels like Superman as she plays airplane with her father Bruce (James Lloyd Reynolds) in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Life is busy at the Bechdel house (shown l to r: Jack Barrett, Lila Gold, Billy Hutton, Crissy Guerrero, James Lloyd Reynolds, Moira Stone) in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: These children appear in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. The Bechdel family (l to r: Billy Hutton, Jack Barrett, Crissy Guerrero, and Lila Gold) prepares to be perfect for father Bruce (James Lloyd Reynolds) as they welcome an important guest to their home in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: These children appear in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Medium Alison (Erin Kommor) calls home from college in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. The Bechdel children (clockwise from left: Lila Gold, Jack Barrett, and Billy Hutton) play in the family-owned funeral home despite their father Bruce’s (James Lloyd Reynolds) wishes in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: These children appear in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. The Bechdel children (l to r: Jack Barrett, Lila Gold, and Billy Hutton) fantasize a commercial for their family-owned funeral home in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: These children appear in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Joan (Ayelet Firstenberg) and Medium Alison (Erin Kommor) talk about Alison’s coming out in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Small Alison (Lila Gold) shares a school project with her mother Helen (Crissy Guerrero) in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Small Alison (Lila Gold) receives advice on how to improve her school project from father Bruce (James Lloyd Reynolds) in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Small Alison (foreground: Lila Gold) fantasizes about her favorite TV show coming to life in her living room, complete with singers and dancers (l to r: Ayelet Firstenberg, Michael Doppe, Erin Kommor) in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. Alison (Moira Stone) remembers a car ride with her father Bruce (James Lloyd Reynolds) in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. 14: Medium Alison (Erin Kommor), Small Alison (Ruth Keith), and Alison (Moira Stone) remember playing airplane with their dad in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Ruth appears in performances on October 2, 4, 7 (2pm), 10, 13 (2pm), 14 (7pm), 16, 18, 20 (2pm), 21 (7pm), 24 (2pm), 10/25 (8pm), 28 (2pm). Medium Alison (Erin Kommor), Small Alison (Lila Gold), and Alison (Moira Stone) remember playing airplane with their dad in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: Lila appears in performances on October 3, 5, 6, 7 (7pm), 9, 11, 12, 13 (8pm), 14 (2pm), 17, 19, 20 (8pm), 21 (2pm), 24 (7:30pm), 25 (2pm), 26, 27. The Bechdel children (l to r: Dylan Kento Curtis, Oliver Copaken Yellin, and Ruth Keith) fantasize a commercial for their family-owned funeral home in “Fun Home,” presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley October 1-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. NOTE: These children appear in performances on October 2, 4, 7 (2pm), 10, 13 (2pm), 14 (7pm), 16, 18, 20 (2pm), 21 (7pm), 24 (2pm), 10/25 (8pm), 28 (2pm). With over 30 years of experience, Carla Befera Public Relations has managed public relations, marketing, media buying, and promotions for hundreds of regional theatre companies, national Broadway tours, dance, opera, symphony, and other arts organizations, in addition to various events and businesses. info@cb-pr.com 3600 W Bayshore Rd, Ste 201 Palo Alto, CA, 94303 Tweets by CarlaBeferaPR © Carla Befera & Company 2017	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line19
__label__wiki	0.64484	0.64484	Home » New York: Jon Kessler 'The Blue Period' at Salon 94 Bowery through March 10 New York: Jon Kessler 'The Blue Period' at Salon 94 Bowery through March 10 All installation views of The Blue Period via Salon 94. In his installation The Blue Period, artist Jon Kessler creates a space so heavily mediated, under surveillance by almost countless video cameras and televisions arranged, that the act of watching becomes intricately ensnared with the act of participation. Now, for the first time, the well-known installation artist has brought the piece to Salon 94 Bowery for a one month viewing. Obfuscating the line between real and imagined, The Blue Period alters the nature of the gallery experience. Huge walls soaked with blue paint pair up with the images of various rooms, rarely in conjunction with a perceived camera position, beamed in by closed-caption television, and placed alongside manipulated film footage and other imagery. Frequently in motion, the cameras underline the act of viewing in the piece, while also forcing the gallery-goer to evaluate their position in the overall installation. Countering the informal array is a number of pensive, clearly spectatorial cut-out characters, often in the act of appraising some work of art in front of them, echoing the inquiring glance of gallery goers, but scaled down to only two dimensions. In the center of the room is a “mini-gallery “of sorts, a microcosm for the room above the main gallery space, as well as for the spectacle of the piece. This diorama again reiterates the nature of watching paired against the reality of existing in this particular space, continually serving as a balance between the two states Kessler seems so fascinated with. Walking a fine line between formal experiment, and closely observed anarchy, Kessler’s installation creates dualities of viewing that draws comparisons to the observations of Guy Debord, reminding us that especially now, society is still a spectacle. —D. Creahan Exhibition Site [Salon 94] Artist Site [Jon Kessler] AT&T U-verse TV Football Fans Score With Unique College Football Content, Fantasy Football App. Telecommunications Weekly September 9, 2009 AT&T U-verse(SM) TV customers can kickoff the football season with new content and features that make watching their favorite teams even better. AT&T* announced the availability of “College Football Extras,” a new On Demand category featuring content from several top college football programs, and the return of the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football application — both available at no extra cost. “AT&T U-verse customers know that there’s really only one way to watch TV, especially the big game,” said Jeff Weber, vice president of video services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Our new football content and fantasy application improve how you can stay on top of your college teams and fantasy football leagues. These latest upgrades are yet another example of how we continue to bring our customers more and more.” Alumni and college football fans from across the country can now follow their teams with a new “College Football Extras” On Demand category that features free, unique content from top college programs, including Georgia Tech, The University of Connecticut, The University of Kansas, The University of Southern California, The University of Texas and all of the Big Ten Conference teams. “College Football Extras” will offer 2008 season highlights, a 2009 season preview, and more content throughout the season from each university. site att yahoo login Fantasy football die-hards are able to manage their fantasy teams right from their U-verse TV with the return of last year’s popular Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football application. The app allows you to simply and conveniently track your fantasy football team and receive customized information on your favorite professional football teams through the AT&T U-bar. Additionally, to coincide with the start of football season, AT&T U-verse has launched a new “Classic Sports Movies” On Demand category which features some of the most popular sports movies of all time. The titles will range from $2 to $6 per rental, and are available in Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD) or both. website att yahoo login These features are the latest examples of standard AT&T U-verse services and applications that improve the viewing experience for football fans and all customers. With fast channel change, U-verse TV football fans can channel surf without the delay experienced on other digital TV services, and all U-verse TV customers enjoy picture-in-picture browse capability that lets you preview games on other channels. Sports junkies can also follow their favorite sports teams through the AT&T U-bar by setting up their personalized team, weather, traffic and stock preferences through the AT&T portal with their U-verse High Speed Internet account. U-verse TV customers can also enjoy the exclusive ability to watch and manage recordings from a single DVR on any connected TV in the house with U-verse Total Home DVR, the ability to record up to four programs (or can’t-miss games) at once, an extensive High Definition (HD) channel lineup with access to 110 HD channels, and more. AT&T U-verse TV is the only 100 percent Internet Protocol-based television (IPTV) service offered by a national service provider, making AT&T U-verse one of the most dynamic and feature-rich services available today. AT&T U-verse TV ranked “Highest in Residential Television Service Satisfaction in the North Central, South, and West Regions,” according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study(SM). AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. Games telecast locally may also be included in the ESPN GamePlan. Game schedule, number of games and actual match-ups are subject to change. Games subject to local blackout. Subscriptions subject to applicable sales tax. This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Art News, Go See. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line20
__label__wiki	0.622677	0.622677	Our Solar System is an immense and amazing place. Between its eight planets, 176 moons, 5 dwarf planets (possibly hundreds more), 659,212 known asteroids, and 3,296 known comets, it has wonders to sate the most demanding of curiosities. Our Solar System is made up of different regions, which are delineated based on their distance from the Sun, but also the types of planets and bodies that can be found within them. In the inner Solar System, we find the “Inner Planets” – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – which are so named because they orbit closest to the Sun. In addition to their proximity, these planets have a number of key differences that set them apart from planets elsewhere in the Solar System. For starters, the inner planets are rocky and terrestrial, composed mostly of silicates and metals, whereas the outer planets are gas giants. The inner planets are also much more closely spaced than their outer Solar System counterparts. In fact, the radius of the entire region is less than the distance between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. This region is also within the “frost line,” which is a little less than 5 AU (about 700 million km) from the Sun. This line represents the boundary in a system where conditions are warm enough that hydrogen compounds such as water, ammonia, and methane are able to take liquid form. Beyond the frost line, these compounds condense into ice grains.Some scientists refer to the frost line as the “Goldilocks Zone” — where conditions for life may be “just right.” Generally, inner planets are smaller and denser than their counterparts, and have few to no moons or rings circling them. The outer planets, meanwhile, often have dozens of satellites and rings composed of particles of ice and rock. The terrestrial inner planets are composed largely of refractory minerals, such as the silicates, which form their crusts and mantles, and metals such as iron and nickel which form their cores. Three of the four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to generate weather. All of them have impact craters and tectonic surface features as well, such as rift valleys and volcanoes. Mercury: Of the inner planets, Mercury is the closest to our Sun and the smallest of the terrestrial planets. This small planet looks very much like the Earth’s Moon and is even a similar grayish color, and it even has many deep craters and is covered by a thin layer of tiny particle silicates. Its magnetic field is only about 1 percent that of Earth’s, and it’s very thin atmosphere means that it is hot during the day (up to 430°C) and freezing at night (as low as -187 °C) because the atmosphere can neither keep heat in or out. It has no moons of its own and is comprised mostly of iron and nickel. Mercury is one of the densest planets in the Solar System. Venus: Venus, which is about the same size as Earth, has a thick toxic atmosphere that traps heat, making it the hottest planet in the Solar System. This atmosphere is composed of 96% carbon dioxide, along with nitrogen and a few other gases. Dense clouds within Venus’ atmosphere are composed of sulphuric acid and other corrosive compounds, with very litter water. Only two spacecraft have ever penetrated Venus’s thick atmosphere, but it’s not just man-made objects that have trouble getting through. There are fewer crater impacts on Venus than other planets because all but the largest meteors don’t make it through the thick air without disintegrating. Much of Venus’ surface is marked with volcanoes and deep canyons — the biggest of which is over 6400 km (4,000 mi) long. Venus is often called the “morning star” because, with the exception of Earth’s moon, it’s the brightest object we see in the sky. Like Mercury, Venus has no moon of its own. Earth: Earth is the third inner planet and the one we know best. Of the four terrestrial planets, Earth is the largest, and the only one that currently has liquid water, which is necessary for life as we know it. Earth’s atmosphere protects the planet from dangerous radiation and helps keep valuable sunlight and warmth in, which is also essential for life to survive. Like the other terrestrial planets, Earth has a rocky surface with mountains and canyons, and a heavy metal core. Earth’s atmosphere contains water vapor, which helps to moderate daily temperatures. Like Mercury, the Earth has an internal magnetic field. And our Moon, the only one we have, is comprised of a mixture of various rocks and minerals. Mars is the fourth and final inner planet, and also known as the “Red Planet” due to the rust of iron-rich materials that form the planet’s surface. Mars also has some of the most interesting terrain features of any of the terrestrial planets. These include the largest mountain in the Solar System – Olympus Mons – which rises some 21,229 m (69,649 ft) above the surface, and a giant canyon called Valles Marineris. Valles Marineris is 4000 km (2500 mi) long and reaches depths of up to 7 km (4 mi)! For comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is about 800 km (500 mi) long and 1.6 km (1 mi) deep. In fact, the extent of Valles Marineris is as long as the United States and it spans about 20 percent (1/5) of the entire distance around Mars. Much of the surface is very old and filled with craters, but there are geologically newer areas of the planet as well. At the Martian poles are polar ice caps that shrink in size during the Martian spring and summer. Mars is less dense than Earth and has a smaller magnetic field, which is indicative of a solid core, rather than a liquid one. Mars’ thin atmosphere has led some astronomers to believe that the surface water that once existed there might have actually taken liquid form, but has since evaporated into space. The planet has two small moons called Phobos and Deimos. Beyond Mars are the four outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line21
__label__cc	0.551565	0.448435	We work with others and believe in the power of working together We are volunteering in a fast changing world, and it is increasingly important that we have effective partnerships with other organisations. Our partnerships include: The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London provides Apprenticeships, Entry to Advanced Level Vocational courses, Access to Higher Education courses, Higher National Certificates and Diplomas equivalent to first and second year degree study, as well as graduate and postgraduate qualifications, particularly in Teaching and Counselling. CONEL’s courses and apprenticeships provide routes to higher education or into work. All of the college’s programmes are designed to introduce ambitious students to the real world of work, and most include work based assignments and work experience. The lecturers have many years’ experience in industry and will help students develop their skills on up-to-date equipment and facilities. www.conel.ac.uk The National Strategic Partnership Forum (NSPF) The NSPF's role is to help the voluntary, community and public sectors work effectively together to deliver responsive, high quality health and adult social care services for patients, service users and carers. The NSPF addresses the challenge of building a partnership at national level, and supporting local partnership working through a programme of project work that forms the work plan and is presented to ministers. It also reviews the Making Partnerships Work Strategic Agreement between the DH, NHS, social care and the VCS, as this is one of its objectives assigned by the Secretary of State for Health. Meeting four times a year, the NSPF has working conferences with wider stake-holders, enabling them to hear and feedback messages about the practical issues around partnership working. VITA (Volunteering in the Third Age Steering Group) VITA aims to promote the value and impact of older volunteers and to increase the number of volunteers over the age of 65 by removing barriers across the voluntary and community sector. In addition, VITA aims to promote best practice within organisations and encourage older people to value their skills enough to want to use them within their communities. VITA provides a national focal point for volunteering, works to provide support and information to organisations who want to recruit older people, raises the profile of older volunteers and promotes their value to voluntary and community organisations and identifies barriers to recruiting older volunteers and works to remove them. www.wrvs.org.uk The National Leadership Network for Health and Social Care (NLN) The NLN replaces the NHS Modernisation Board which advised and supported Ministers through the first phase of reform as part of the NHS Plan. Promoting shared values across the whole NHS and social care system, the NLN will work together with Ministers over the next five years to deliver lasting improvements in health and social care for people in the country. To do this, the NLN identifies and removes barriers to progress and ensures rapid and frank communication to and from patients, service users, staff and the public. Additionally, it promotes shared values across the whole NHS and social care system, champions successful national and local improvements, and offers early advice on emerging policy. www.nationalleadershipnetwork.org The England Volunteering Development Council (EVDC) The England Volunteering Development Council is a high-level representative mechanism for volunteering, engaging both with government and opposition parties in order to capture the collective intelligence of volunteer-involving organisations, volunteering infrastructure providers, and of volunteers to provide a powerful, coordinated lobby to steer government policy and community action. The EVDC has responsibility for the monitoring and development of Building on success: strategy for volunteering infrastructure in England 2004-2014, has agreed to act as the Volunteering Hub Advisory Group and has established a Commission on the Future of Volunteering in England, which will report in 2007. www.volunteering.org.uk/EVDC Volunteering England Volunteering England is the integrated national volunteer development organisation for England. Volunteering England works across the voluntary, public and private sectors to raise the profile of volunteering as a powerful force for change. www.volunteering.org.uk	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line23
__label__cc	0.733379	0.266621	Top 10 List: Gimmicks Pre-Meds Use to Stand Out After a few years in the game you start to hear more and more stories of what to do and what not to do. In case you're having trouble deciding which of the following strategies to adopt (or regret not adopting), I've conveniently ranked each gimmick with a patented, easy-to-understand ranking system (in lieu of the customary "top 10" ranking). Submitting cookies with their application They better be peanut-free. Rating: 3 dozen batches of shame out of 12. Submitting their application on scented paper Rating: 2 garage-sale antique perfume bottles with the little puffer balls (atomizers, I think they were called) out of 29. Showing up 15 minutes late for the interview, while the interviewer waits for them to show up. I actually saw this happen, and I heard the interviewer ask, "Why were you late?" The response? "Oh, I thought my interview was at 11:45." I can't decide whether this applicant was extremely honourable for being honest or extremely stupid for not at least making up a better excuse. Rating: 4 white lies out of 11. Drawing a cartoon of Mickey Mouse instead of writing an application essay. Even worse: Labeling your cartoon "This is what I think of the admissions process." Rating: 99 spots on the Hollywood Walk of Lame out of 100 (because this is a true story). Answering the "Why do you want to be a doctor?" interview question with a one-sentence response. These are the kinds of people that a) have limited common sense and b) the interviews are designed to weed out. Rating: 56 times having to listen to "Because I Like Science and Helping People" as the lyrics of a polka song, out of 941. Not following simple directions regarding the application, resulting in their first and last name ending up in the "First Name" box. Pathetic, though unintentional, I assume. Rating: 65 misread directions out of 143. Including a spelling error in the first sentence of my application essay Uh... oops.... well, it got me an interview... Rating: 10 honest mistakes out of 10. Writing their admissions essay from the perspective of the applicant's pencil. Not a bad idea. I wish I thought of it. Rating: 49 well-deserved spots in medical school out of 50. Wearing a The Simpsons tie to their interview. I saw this one done by a guy who interviewed at the same time I did last year. He's not in my class. Rating: 1 desperate, unsuccessful plea for attention out of 64. Showing up at the admissions office wearing a Tarzan leopard-skin outfit and singing Portuguese love songs to the dean I don't think this one has been attempted yet, so give me credit for the idea if you use it. I guarantee you will stand out. Rating: Negative 16 rock-bottom shameless sells out of 612. This list came about after a conversation with my school's director of admissions as we were killing time and chatting up a storm during interview weekend (I was helping out). She told me that giving gifts to the admissions office simply doesn't work. First of all, the dean of admissions doesn't dictate who gets in and who doesn't; it's a committee decision, based on the accreditation policy. Secondly, gifts aren't accepted by the department; they're either given away, or in the case of larger gifts, sent back. My advice? Instead of using a gimmick, try being a great person with a stellar personality. But hopefully you didn't need to hear that if you're indeed applying to medicine. Posted at 00:45 2 readers cool enough to comment Labels: funny, pre-med, top 10 lists Vitum Medicinus: An epic announcement... It's a turning point in the history of Vitum Medicinus. Update your links! Vitum Medicinus now has its own place on the web! The URL for Vitum Medicinus has now changed to: http://www.VitumMedicinus.com E-mail can now be directed to vitum at VitumMedicinus dot com. Premedasaurus extinctus When I started my undergrad, I wanted to become a doctor, so I simply signed up for the "pre-med" major at my university. I didn't realize that I was jumping on to the last glimmers of a dying wave. Musings of a Dinosaur is hosting Grand Rounds v3.23, and in an attempt to fit with the theme and thus get listed, I'm writing about the one thing that, this early in my medical career, I know about which has gone the way of the dinosaur: the "pre-med" degree. Most "pre-med" students are aware that "pre-med" degrees don't actually exist anymore. My degree program wasn't even technically that; it was a B.Sc. in Biology, Pre-Med stream, or simply a collection of courses in and extraneous to the Biology degree requirements which happened to be common prerequisites for medical school. As a matter of fact, it was discontinued in my second year or so, leaving me slightly embarrassed and feeling without compass or sense of direc.... no, actually, I didn't really even notice. That didn't keep me from shamelessly using "I'm in Pre-Med" to try and pick up members of the female gender. Surprisingly, this was so unsuccessful that I abandoned it in favour of pursuing getting struck by lighting while holding a winning lottery ticket and getting mugged by Chuck Norris at the same time. I figured my chances were better for the latter, and hey, who needs a girlfriend when they can say they were mugged by Chuck Norris, anyways? In actual fact, I soon lost all enjoyment in introducing myself as a "pre-med." I found that common responses to this declaration were: "Oh, so you're going to be a doctor?" "You must be smart!" [pointing and shouting] "Hey, look, Mom, a nerd!" These were combined with that which anybody in pre-med has had to deal with... the one thing that dominates every action you as a pre-med do: the thought of "getting in." Almost every pre-med wonders about everything they do, "Will this help me get in?" (ie. regarding a summer job) or worse, "Oh no, will I still be able to get in now?" (ie. regarding getting busted for what you thought was a harmless prank and then finding out that your high school's administration has less of a sense of humour than you first expected... uh, fictional situation, of course). It ends up being in the back of your mind all the time and soon gets pretty annoying. Take that and add a bit of humility (ok, fine, insecurity), a bit more not wanting to let down people who thought you were smart, and a a lot of realistic awareness regarding the admissions process and the brutal odds that are involved, and you soon find that you'd much rather not tell people that you're 'pre-med.' By my second year of undergrad I told everyone that I was taking a Biology major. I hadn't even realized that by this time my university had pretty much phased out the 'Pre-Med' stream. Clearly, though, Vitum avoiding the term 'Pre-Med' didn't drive it into extinction. So why isn't it offered any more, and what's the alternative now? Well, I'll take this opportunity to answer a question from Carrot Juice, who took the time to get in touch with me via e-mail and ask for advice about applying for medicine. I'll start here and continue to address this question in a few other posts. Med schools are more and more in favour of diversity these days. People with diverse backgrounds make a better medical school class, so the story goes. This, in fact, is the driving factor behind allowing 43-year-olds to begin medical school, something which a lot of people are a little confused about because after all, there's a good chance they won't have many years to practice after they graduate. So now you can have a math major who becomes a surgeon, or a economist who becomes a general practitioner. Our class has engineers, a nurse, a paramedic, a school teacher, an Olympic athlete, an entrepreneur, a city councillor; we've also got PhDs alongside students who didn't even finish undergrad. In fact, the first semester of our curriculum is in a sense a compressed physiology undergrad degree, to catch up everyone to the same science level despite their diverse backgrounds. Thus, no longer can you get through with your basic 'pre-med' combo of biology, biochem, organic chem and expect to be an A-1 applicant. Nowadays it's all about standing out. What else would you expect, though? With Canadian med school acceptance odds of something like 1 in 11, that's what has to be your focus; making your admissions essay, your interview, your application stand out from the other 1000-3000 applicants (depending on where you apply). It's all about diversity; being one more 'pre-med' in a pile of 3000 'pre-meds' doesn't cut it anymore. And so, as can be expected, the 'pre-med' degree ended up where most of those bland, un-unique applications end up: in the 'gone forever' pile. Labels: admissions, advice, M-bomb, paramedics, politics, pre-med Talking with an autistic person... who can't speak How can an autistic person be described as "brilliant" and having "a great sense of humour" if they can't even put together sounds that resemble words, let alone use language?! "I find it very interesting that failure to learn your language is seen as a defecit, while failure to learn my language is seen as natural," says Amanda Baggs, a 26-year old woman with autism, with the aid of a computer keyboard and a voice modulator. "The thinking of people like me is only taken seriously if we learn your language." Amanda has a language and way of seeing the world that is entirely her own. Watching the videos and reading Amanda's story on CNN's website has entirely fascinated me, blown me away, and forever changed the way I view people with autism. Click on the video link, "Watch Amanda communicate in her own way." I value my abilities to communicate and think rationally so highly that I figure being in a situation like this would torment me. Similarly, I have an insecurity as well as a tendency to avoid people with autism based upon my ignorance and limited interactions with autistic persons. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, but I'll admit that I do...albeit ashamedly. I guess the biggest surprise for me was, "Wow, just because she can't speak our language, doesn't mean she can't understand it." The interviewer was asking her questions in perfectly normal English and she was processing and answering them as quickly as any 'normal' person would. Again, I haven't really ever been 'taught' or learned how to interact with autistic people, so this was a new thing for me; but I now know not to 'talk down to' a person with autism, or to speak to them as if they think 'slower' than I do. Watching these videos and reading the article have helped me realize that my insecurity is entirely unfounded. Just because someone isn't capable of speaking to me, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with them or they're anything less than me. Labels: autism Heart in my Hands for Valentine's... literally... This week we studied congenital heart defects. For our case-based learning assignments, we were to look up heart murmurs and congenital heart defects. "That's easy," I thought. "Murmurs... whatever, there's probably 1 or 2 types, and congenital defects, I've heard about that before. Hole in the heart. Good as done." I was in for a surprise. The list I ended up with had over twenty separate congenital heart defects that presented with murmurs. Apparently anything and everything about them can go wrong; thickening of the blood vessels (aorta, pulmonary artery); hole in the atrial septum; hole in the ventricular septum; valve issues; the vessels get switched around; portions get enlarged; or combinations of the above. The list goes on. It turned out to be one of those things that you think you understand, but never really put much thought into, and then you realize there's way more to it than you ever imagined. I ended up feeling like I learned a whole lot just from lecture this week (a rare feeling; usually I have to sit down and start going over stuff myself). After our five or so weeks of microbiology, infections diseases and the like, a block that was poorly organized and not so motivating, it's nice to finally feel like we're learning something applicable and medical (I think I've said that a couple times over the year but it's getting better and better). The climax of the week ended up on Friday afternoon. Everyone was bitter because up until now we'd had Friday afternoons off, so nobody was impressed that we had to go across town to the teaching hospital to do a pathology 'lab' in the small group rooms there. While there was a bit of variability in the groups (and 3 of the groups had tutors who were on call and thus did not show up), it turned out it was actually really interesting. Each group was given six pathological specimens of human hearts taken from infants that had died in their first few weeks of life (aww, yea it was a bit sad but babies do die and I suppose this is a way that they can help others in a huge way even though nobody was able to help them). Each heart had a congenital defect, and given the specimen we donned gloves and went through the chambers of the heart looking for it. For me, it was neat enough to be given specimens in formalin in glass jars and being allowed to actually handle them. Most times when you see things in glass jars they're not to be touched. I felt special. Besides that though, which I'm not entirely sure I should've admitted, it was really neat being able to investigate and problem-solve in a way that was applicable and solidified the content we'd learned that week. Being a visual learner, as well, seeing the defects in front of me, and being able to put in a probe into the vessels to see where it came out made a lot more sense for me than the description we'd had in lecture. For those who are as nerdy as I am, here's a bit more. We had one specimen that displayed a congenital defect called Transposition of the Great Vessels, where the major vessel leading from the heart to the body (the aorta) is switched with the major vessel to the lungs (you might remember that the left of the heart pumps the blood to the body and the right side pumps it to the lungs). I figured the best way to repair this surgically would be to switch these vessels; but supposedly that's too tough when the hearts are small, so instead they do a Mustard procedure, where they put in a baffle, a piece of synthetic material that switches the inputs of the heart rather than the outputs. That way these people's hearts end up backwards; the right side pumps blood to the body, and vice versa. It was interesting to see how this little heart had compensated for the change; instead of the left ventricular wall being thick and muscular, the right side had this morphology. Fascinating. Seeing these hearts with surgical repairs and synthetic materials sutured in definitely gave us an appreciation for the minute surgical procedures that are involved in fetal surgery, and for the remarkable way in which surgical interventions can be a lot like rewiring a car engine. It was all kindof solidified when a lecturer did something that doesn't happen often enough in our classes. The prof brought in a former patient who was born with transposition of the great vessels, and who had had the mustard procedure done when he was a kid, and interviewed him in front of the class. Other than shortness of breath for a few days if he exerts himself too much, he lives a normal life and owns a successful company and has a few kids. Nice to see a human face rather than just being lectured about a condition. I'm still in awe at how much they're teaching us, and it seems like every week I find out a whole other pile of things that doctors know that I'll have to learn as well. What I thought was just one possibility for heart defects quickly turned into 20+, each with a different pathophysiology, set of signs and symptoms, treatment and prognosis. Not only am I learning medicine, I'm learning a lot about medicine, and how much there is to know, and that it doesn't necessarily line up with what my expectations were in every way. Fortunately, though, finding this out is more exciting for me than anything. So far. Labels: cardiology, heart, lab, pathology The Politics and Red Tape of Paramedics Riding along with the paramedics was indeed thrilling, though at about 11:00 am on the day of my ridealong, that would've been a hard sell. "My friends think this job is all blood and guts," said Jim, the paramedic I was shadowing. It was funny because we were in our second hour of waiting around at a hospital. If there are no beds in the emergency ward for the patients that paramedics bring, then there is no nursing coverage for those patients, so the paramedics are required to stand around and wait at the hospital. "At some hospitals, there will be an ambulance crew standing around for entire shifts." This pulls ambulances off the roads, and if someone needs help, the nearest ambulance is then called in. "Nearest" is used loosely - the next community over may be fifty kilometers away. I got another glimpse into the red tape tangle that is the ambulance service. While there are transfer ambulances, glorified taxicabs dedicated specifically to transfer patients who can't get a ride on their own to get simple tests done, (ie. patients in nursing homes and the like), there aren't enough of those cars, so the load invariably spills over into the lap of the paramedics who are trained to save lives. Some provinces / regions have private transfer ambulances but apparently we don't. This means that instead of being able to respond to a call within minutes, the paramedics are taking Papa to his stomach ultrasound. Well, I shouldn't make generalizations; it's not all old people that are transferred. One of the people we transferred was a young man of about 35. He was involved in a car accident years ago, and had no family or insurance to really take care of him. So, he spends his days in a nursing home surrounded by geriatrics, paralyzed, unable to get out of bed on his own or do anything for himself. My heart went out to him. At one point the paramedics told me, "When you're a doctor, don't order an ambulance for people who clearly don't need it." Doctors apparently have this power. The paramedics were getting pretty frustrated taking this old woman home from the ER who clearly could have just gone in a cab. I could see their annoyance... they could've been out doing a real call instead of playing cabbie. "I thought taxicabs were supposed to be yellow," I joked. The best example of red tape, which had the paramedics I was shadowing hopping mad, was the time we dropped off a patient at a hospital for a test. When we pulled in, there were 4 other ambulances plus a supervisor car. "Is there something going at St. Sickkus Hospital that we should know about?" radioed in the driver. Turns out the hospital was closing down the ward, so they brought a bunch of ambulances to bring the patients out. Eight paramedics and a supervisor milling about waiting to be told which patients they would take. It turned out there were only eight patients in that ward. "They could've just double-stretchered and gotten the transfers done in one trip." The politics don't end at paramedics, though; I've got some good times to look forward to, apparently. My friend shadowed in the ER the other day and told me that they had a patient who was bleeding from his rectum after his surgery. The ER docs called surgery, who sent down their first-year resident - a doctor of, oh, perhaps six months - to deal with the problem. Surprise surprise, he had no idea. He suggested they call GI. "Not my problem," said the GI doc, and wouldn't show up. "Call internal" somebody suggested - no dice. Frantic, they called trauma surgery as a last resort, and pretty much got laughed at as they tried to advocate for the patient and explain how this could be considered trauma. The ER doctor ended up having to deal with the situation on his own. But I suppose every job is like that. I interned in an office where you couldn't go elsewhere for your graphic design needs because everything had to have a uniform look, but then again, the graphic design department there took weeks to get even a simple invitation or notice done. People caught wind of my knack for composition and I started getting a lot of requests to help other departments with their design needs. The funniest part was having to be discreet about it. Can't let the designers catch on. Don't want to get a talking-to. You think I would have learned my lesson working in one office... perhaps I haven't. In a feeble attempt to figure out what I want to do this summer, I put in an application this week to work for the national medical association as an intern. I have a funny feeling that such a job just might end up being laden with politics as well. Labels: er, internship, paramedics, politics "Please do not frighten the applicants." Interview weekend is fast approaching and I've offered to help out in a few areas. I particularly enjoyed the guidelines we were given. We keener helpers have been specifically instructed to "not frighten the applicants." Medical Breakthrough: Effects of Chronic Masturbation The things we learn in med school... Well, this actually wasn't covered in class. It was passed on to me by a fellow classmate. Nonetheless, I found it just too... unique... to not post immediately. Chronic penile oedema secondary to chronic masturbation. Int J STD AIDS. 2004. Jul;15(7):489-90. *Added 15 Feb in response to comment: Oedema, more commonly spelled edema, is swelling of tissues due to excessive fluid accumulation. Thank goodness it's only two pages. 10,000 Hits to Vitum Medicinus So Vitum Medicinus has hit a bit of a milestone - 10,000 hits! Thanks so much to everyone who reads this blog - my friends, family, and the 'regulars.' And special thanks to everyone who posts comments! - vm Top 10 list: Things I learned by watching House, M.D. Special thanks to Comrade for his joint authorship of this post. 1. Things will only go wrong when the doctor is in the room (unless it's before the patient enters the hospital). 2. X-ray, MRI, CT scan, and ultrasound technicians don't exist. Attractive, high-profile doctors do all the work. 3. Real hospitals don't have nurses, unless the doctor is making a snappy remark to them, or they are extras walking around in the background. 4. Patients are rarely ugly. 5. House doesn't need a mask in the OR, he has sterile breath. 6. There is entertaining music every time a doctor thinks up a correct diagnosis. 7. Harassment and manipulaiton aren't inappropriate; rather, they are funny. 8. If you want to do a procedure on a patient and they or their family says no, you simply aren't smart enough to get them to change their mind. There is a way, figure it out. 9. The smartest doctors use vicodin. 10. Everyone lies. Labels: house, top 10 lists "Congratulations, Vitum, you started his heart again." I couldn't believe it. We had been having a thrilling morning (no, they wouldn't let me drive). After sitting the first two hours of the shift in the ambulance shooting the breeze and watching the Saturday morning news and discovering new ways to be annoyed by whomever was reading the headlines / sports / weather, we got our first call of the day - a motor vehicle accident. We left a guy having chest pain who refused to go to the hospital, took a guy having neck pain who tried to refuse having to lay on the spine board, and proceeded to wait at the hospital for two and a half hours once we took them there (it's all politics... post on that stuff will be on here soon). And then it happened. The dispatcher's calm voice came over the radio. Sixty-seven bravo, Code 3, cardiac arrest, 22416 Church Hill Road, file 3026702. The attending paramedic (as opposed to the driving paramedic) wrote down the details on the little white pad attached to the dashboard, and the driver hit the four switches on the console to activate as many as possible of the flashing red and white lights stuck to the white box we were driving. He turned the knob under those switches from "OFF" to "WAIL." Off we went. It's funny, albeit a bit sad, watching drivers with a screaming ambulance on their tail. Most have a general idea to let the ambulance through and pull over to the left or right. Some people stop dead in the middle of the road. Paramedics are required to stop briefly before going through any intersections where the light was red, and in doing so, one oncoming driver (this is not the place for gender generalizations or debate on who drives better so I'll omit her gender) thought that meant she/he could complete her left turn in front of the ambulance, almost plowing into us when we started moving again. Despite the numerous other vehicles that were apparently working hard to oppose us, we made it to the call scene. The advanced care paramedics were just walking in, and the firefighters were already inside. We grabbed our stretcher and bags of supplies and went inside the group home. In the fairly spacious common area / tv lounge right through the doorway, there was an sixty-something gentleman laying with his back on the floor. His lips were blue, like nothing I'd ever seen before. He was mostly bald but the hair he did have was neatly trimmed. The firefighters were pumping on his chest and stopped for just a second to let the advanced care paramedics cut off the patient's shirt. I was surprised at how deep into his chest they were going, and how the patient's huge bloated stomach ballooned up with every pulse. I was amazed at the efficiency and controlled environment in the midst of the fact that a man was laying dying. It was like a well-choreographed dance. One firefighter was getting information from the home staff, another was timing out two-minute intervals for CPR - "switch, whether or not you feel tired." One of the advanced care paramedics had defibrillator leads on his chest within seconds and were seeing if his heart rhythm was shockable or not, and while another was putting a breathing tube down his throat, one of the regular paramedics was starting an IV in the patient's right arm. As soon as they had the IV line, the advanced paramedics started whipping out bottles of epinephrine and atropine, popping off the tops with their thumbs, and plunging the drugs into the man's arm. I stood as far away from the situation as I could while still having a good view. Not only did I not want to get in the way, but it had been made pretty clear to me that except for the times when the paramedics called upon me 'to assist as a bystander,' I was forbidden to touch anything, and would be held liable for anything I did touch. "Have you ever seen a cardiac arrest before?" was a question I got a few times as well. For that one, the answer was no - I'd seen one (though it was a Do Not Resuscitate) while volunteering five or six years ago. As soon as the patient's heart started to do something that resembled beating, they worked together to scoop him up and in a few seconds we were outside, somebody bagging the patient (breathing for them), somebody pumping on his chest, a few people steering the stretcher. "One of you drive," said the advanced paramedics to the ones I was shadowing. "Okay - We have a medical student with us today," they replied. "Sure," said the advanced paramedics, looking at me. "Hop in." We were on our way to the hospital a few seconds after that. Even though we were in a hurry, nothing seemed frantic, disorganized, or really even that rushed. It takes experience to keep a level head when you know that valuable seconds are ticking by. "So, Vitum, can you bag the patient for us?" they asked. "Press in the bag about one third of the way every three seconds or so." I was happy to help. I was doing something and felt significant for a change. In the car his heart rhythm decided to go down the tubes again and the paramedics started CPR and pumping more drugs into him. From my view at the head of the patient I was watching two people that were keeping this man alive, and I was playing a role too! SNAP went a rib or two while the paramedic kept pumping on the patient's chest. When the car swayed around a corner or screetched to a stop at an intersection, CPR form was sacrificed for balance and I watched a neat little ditty they must call 'one-handed CPR' while the paramedic's other hand held onto the bars on the walls or roof. They didn't teach me that one in CPR class. Fortunately they taught me plenty in CPR class, though, and when the paramedics turned to me and said "want to do CPR?" I was able to jump right in there, not missing a beat, and soon I was pumping this man's heart for him. SNAP went another rib. I pumped away. "Have you ever done CPR before?" the paramedics asked. "No, only on a dummy in class..." I replied. "Oh come on," replied the paramedic. "I know the patient is from a group home, but you don't have to call him a dummy..." He was making a joke. I know and completely understand the stress of a job where you're surrounded by death and dying, and that black humour is a common coping mechanism (I have read The House of God, after all). I was a little caught up in the situation, though, and I didn't find it funny. But I was suddenly aware that my not laughing made the paramedic obviously uncomfortable and I felt bad for that. He leaned towards the unconscious patient's head and said, "Sorry, pal." After about a minute or two of pumping, they asked me to stop so they could check the rhythm. "He's got a heart beat! Congratulations, Vitum, you started his heart again." I had saved a life. Maybe it was beginner's luck. Maybe it was the immediate actions and CPR of the care home nurses, the expertise of the firefighters, the cool organization of the first responders, the quick IV placement, the copious amounts of epinephrine and atropine administered, the rapid on-the-scene intubation by the advanced care paramedics, the continuous CPR given to the patient by somebody from every department listed above. Okay, so I played a small part. And I didn't necessarily save his life - he still had a long way to go. I just happened to be helping out right when the combined efforts of everybody who attended started paying off. It still feels incredible, though. I know not every day as a doctor is like this, and that getting a heartbeat back after CPR isn't usually the way things go... but still, it was a good seeing what paramedics do before patients arrive at the hospital, and I have a huge new level of respect for paramedics now. And I had a blast. I think I might enjoy doing this medicine thing for a living. - Postlogue - The patient kept his heartbeat for the rest of the ride to the hospital, and there I learned a good lesson about one of the huge disadvantages of being a paramedic - as soon as we had relayed the information, and the doctors took over, the paramedics left the room. I lingered but soon I had to leave too. I still don't know if he made it or not. Grand Rounds v3.20 Grand Rounds v3.20 - It's a gooder this time, even though they misspelled my name as "Victum Medicinus." Actually, that's kindof funny. I wish I'd thought of that. That's all there is to this post! Too bad I can't get the stupid "Read more..." thing to go away when I don't want it there... Fumbling with the Tools of the Trade: Empathetic Statements "... So I pulled out this empathy comment in front of a patient at my Family Practice class on Wednesday. I figured I hadn't used one in a while. I tried hard to mean it but I guess I didn't really, and so soon after I started saying it I began hoping the patient wouldn't catch me. It was slightly misplaced, and a little bit out of context. I felt really phony and I hated myself for it for a brief few seconds..." I sometimes feel a little awkward using my new set of tools of the trade. I'm not talking about the otoscope, or the opthalmascope, or the stethoscope, or the rectoscope (I can't wait!), or the tongue blade (apparently the technical term for 'tongue depressor'; the public caught on and started using the medical term 'tongue depressor,' so 'they' had to change the medical term to something more scientific and dangerous sounding. "Tongue blade should suffice," said the men in the white coats in the dimly-lit strategic medical equipment naming room.) Yeah, I'm all thumbs with all those tools still (as is my classmate who inflicted great pain on me whilst using one of the above scopes in a Clinical Skills learning session), but those aren't exactly the tools I'm referring to. The 'tools' I'm referring to are the tools we learned during Communications Skills class, or "We Have A Past History Of Taking Crap for Our Graduates Being Socially Awkward And Insensitive To Patients So We Will Mandate That All Of Our Medical Students Take This Class On How To Talk To Patients Without a) Them Thinking The Doctor Hates Them, b) Them Thinking That They Will Sue The Doctor, Or Worse Still, c) That They Should Stop Donating Money To The Medical School From Which The Doctor Graduated." (That's the course title. Look it up.) These 'Tools' are the Sit Down, the Get Consent or Die a Painful Immediate Death, and the most difficult to master secret ancient ninja maneuver, the Empathetic Statement. The first two are pretty easy. "Sit down to create the impression of spending more time with the patient," we were told. Funny, I figured I'd just create that impression by spending more time with my patients. Shows how much I know. Moving on. The second tool, Get Consent or Die a Painful Immediate Death, is pretty self explanatory and consists of making sure that the patient is willing to be interviewed by me. I have to get permission to talk to the people and I still don't even examine them on my own yet. Even if I screw this one up, my Medical School has covered their legal bases by layering - the patients are told when they book their appointment that medical students will be there, there is a "This Doctor is Teaching Medical Students" slash "Go Easy on the Medical Students, We Can't Have Them Quit On Us This Far In" certificate in the waiting room, the doctor asks them if it's OK to be questioned by a rookie, and finally I, the Medical Student of whom the patients have heard so much and are by now wondering why they have to be so sure they want to talk to me, ask them if it's OK. (On a bit of a side note, in case there aren't enough side notes already, there are patients who decline to have their appointment on Wednesday afternoon once they find out that there are medical students in the office then. I'm collecting names so that I can decline to treat them or their children in the future. Just kidding, there are still some things that I don't mind putting off seeing in real patients until I've had a chance to be trained with standardized patients. You may recall what I'm referring to.) Back to the tools. While the first two could be mastered by any layman, the final one, the Empathetic Statement, has pretty much become one of those things that haunts you even when you've punched your clock and have left work. It's awkward to wield, and takes a while to master, and at times you just close your eyes and hope it's working and you're not just embarrassing yourself, but when it is effective, man is it a deadly blow. It's kindof a secret weapon of new doctors, too, so don't tell anyone I told you this, we're sworn to confidentiality (which is why I'm sworn to anonymity)... I'll tell you, but I just don't want you, in your next doctor's appointment, to start wondering if a doctor is genuinely nice, or they have had to receive training on being nice to patients and are whipping out a full blown Empathetic Statement assault on you. Assume the former. So I pulled out this empathy comment in front of a patient at my Family Practice class on Wednesday. I figured I hadn't used one in a while so I should get some more experience. I tried hard to mean it but I guess I didn't really, and so soon after I started saying it I began hoping the patient wouldn't catch me. I was interviewing this patient about her painful urination, now on my list of afflictions that I hope to treat rarely and acquire never, and I then chose to pull out an Empathetic Statement. It was slightly misplaced, and a little bit out of context. I felt really phony and I hated myself for it for a brief few seconds. If she wasn't so busy trying to make sense of my questions while I asked her to describe her pain in terms of its location, intensity, nature, character, mood, demeanor and favourite food and color, she might have noticed that my Empathetic Statement, "That must've been difficult," isn't exactly the most ideal interviewer response to "But the pain got better when I drank cranberry juice." Okay, it wasn't actually that bad. I think what actually happened was that she told me that the pain was worse than ever before and I said that it must have been difficult. But I still felt phony saying it. This is what I'm talking about when I say that work stays with you even after you punch out. You see, it's rough when I do say something like "That must've been really frustrating!" spontaneously, even in normal conversations, because I feel like people - especially if the conversation is with someone in my class - they think I'm just pulling that out of my ass(ignment book for Communications Skills class). We joke around enough with FIFE (ie. Classmate approaches me and tells me they locked their keys in their car; I respond, "Awwww, how is this affecting your functioning? What are your fears?") so it's logical for them to think that I'm pulling out an Empathetic Statement because we were taught to, and not because I actually mean it. Fortunately it doesn't usually go that bad. I have never actually gotten in trouble or accused of brash falsehood when I have used an empathetic statement, genuine or not. But I still hope this will stop being so awkward soon, and that when I actually do mean the statement, or even on those rare times that I don't and am just trying hard to be a bit more human, that my efforts will be appreciated nonetheless. Labels: clinic, communication skills, family doctor, FIFE, lawsuits, patients, standardized patients, taking over "Aboriginals and Preferential Treatment in the Med School Admissions Process" This is a response that I posted to a forum post entitled "Aboriginals and Preferential Treatment in the Med School Admissions Process," which can be found here. This issue is one that just five or six months ago, I wouldn't have had a single idea about. In fact, back when I was naïve to the condition and many aspects of the history of Aboriginal peoples, I wondered a lot of the same things that were posted in the initial post. I was raised in a religiously sheltered home and had never had the chance to get to know personally people in the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transvestite community, people of other racial descent, or people of other religious beliefs, Aboriginals included. Now that I am in a medical school class I have been blessed to get to know some people of Aboriginal descent. I have only begun to address some of the misconceptions I had. Everyone has a basic understanding about the "we're on their land" concept. However, poor treatment of Aboriginals has occurred more recently than you might think. Lack of the most basic human needs (ie. clean water) on Canadian reserves has happened only a few months ago, with the Canadian government directly to blame. But most people know about that too. One of these things that I had no idea about just a few months ago concerns the residential school system. In the last few months I have been horrifed to learn about this despicable part of Canadian history. A description can be found at CBC Archives or on Wikipedia. I have heard stories of Aboriginal students abused in every way, from being forced to use only the English language, to being forced to sleep in human excrement under outhouses. I began to realize that for these horrors, any amount of money in the world wouldn't fix or help having to grow up with parents or grandparents who suffered through this and are still emotionally scarred by it. Then I found out that people I know were old enough to have gone to these schools. The last one closed in 1996, during your lifetime. I didn't realize that 'benefits' for Aboriginal people weren't just for things that happened hundreds of years ago. Another misconception I had was about the medical school admissions standards for Aboriginal applicants. I've been in your position, so you might be surprised - as I was - to hear that Aboriginal applicants don't 'have it made' as much as I thought they did. Yes, while some medical schools have different requirements or admissions subcommittees for Aboriginals, still a huge percentage of declared Aboriginal applicants are turned away each year. I can't find the exact numbers, but unlike how I first thought it was, being of Aboriginal descent isn't a 'free pass' into medicine. Therefore, I believe that anyone who thinks that Aboriginal students might use their 'status' to 'abuse the system' or 'skip the queue' needs to realize that this isn't easy to do. Aboriginal applicants will be interviewed on ethics and integrity just like every other medical applicant there is, and don't try to tell me that there are no other medical applicants who have ruined other peoples thesis experiments, misconstrued themselves, or told a lie just to get into medicine. Admissions offices have filters for these bad seeds, and they come from every background. One of my most memorable classes to date was held in an Aboriginal longhouse. We had an Aboriginal physician and speakers from the Aboriginal community talk to us about Aboriginal health issues. We learned some basic things like the medicine wheel, which relates to the four directions of life (more on that at here). Good health, according to Aboriginal tradition, can be achieved by finding balance between the four areas. Knowing things like this, they told us, will help us relate to our Aboriginal patients even better in the future. I felt honoured a few weeks later when my Aboriginal friend's father was telling me about a man of whom he thought very highly. "He's very balanced," he told me. I knew exactly where he was coming from. I couldn't help but smile and realize that I had finally learned something of real meaning in my medical school class. You're not the only person who doesn't understand these things fully. I didn't. I still don't. One of my Aboriginal friends has even told me that she has had people ask her to her face, "Why do you people get it so good? Why don't you have to pay taxes, etc." and the pain that a misinformed question like this causes is horrible, and could be avoided if we simply overcame our misunderstandings. I still have a long way to go, and am hoping that I didn't say something ignorant or offensive even in this post. But give me credit for trying to increase my awareness, and while you may have offended some people in the way you phrased your comments, I hope you're going down that path as well. Talking with an autistic person... who can't speak... Medical Breakthrough: Effects of Chronic Masturbat... Top 10 list: Things I learned by watching House, M... "Congratulations, Vitum, you started his heart aga... Fumbling with the Tools of the Trade: Empathetic S... "Aboriginals and Preferential Treatment in the Med...	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line25
__label__wiki	0.788935	0.788935	← Stunning hurricane flood risks in NJ Earth Day: See new ‘Anti-Environmental Archives’ → Earth Day: Ocean dumping, other memories A rally against ocean dumping on Sandy Hook in 2000 (Photo by Brian Ferreira) Today is my 30th anniversary at the Asbury Park Press – fitting because it’s the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. I did not become the paper’s environmental writer on April 22, 1985. My beat included Red Bank, Little Silver, Shrewsbury Township, the NAACP and Red Bank Regional Board of Education, according to the “Red Bank Buro Revised Beats” list in my desk. We worked out of our former Red Bank Bureau on Monmouth Street. Solar powered Asbury Park boardwalk show set for Earth Day But my tour as a municipal reporter ended early. I became the environmental writer in August 1985. However, I wrote numerous environmentally oriented stories in my four-plus years at The Home News in New Brunswick. In fact, the first story I wrote as a full-time reporter in December 1980 centered on a controversial proposal for a sewer pipeline in the bucolic Riva Avenue section of East Brunswick. As the East Brunswick reporter and then general assignment/medical writer at The Home News, I often wrote about the Edgeboro Landfill and a proposed Wheelabrator-Frye garbage-to-energy incinerator there. The burner never materialized. I also wrote stories about hazardous waste and tainted wells. Why Barnegat Bay’s rescue plan is dead in the water After decades of reporting about environmental issues, I have countless memories. So here’s a Top 6 list, in no particular order, that focuses on visual memories after 34-plus years on the job: 1. Landfill leachate: In the early 1980s, I recall seeing purplish ooze – leachate – next to the Monroe Township Landfill in Middlesex County. The landfill landed on the federal Superfund list of the country’s worst hazardous waste dumps in 1983. I recall going to the dump area with a Middlesex County Health Department staffer who showed me the ooze. The closest residence is about 50 feet from the dump, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report. The 86-acre landfill, which opened in 1955, was taken off the Superfund list in 1993. Why wait so long to address Barnegat Bay hazards? Sewage sludge dumping in the ocean (Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) 2. 106-mile sewage sludge dump site: I visited its vicinity, more than 100 miles off the Cape May coast, with other reporters and photographers in 1991. The trip took about six hours on a large powerboat, but it was well worth it. The Atlantic Ocean is nearly 9,000 feet deep that far offshore, and its deep blue hue was stunning. After we reached our destination, Fred Grassle, former director of Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, hosted a show and tell for reporters on a research vessel. Grassle served as chief scientist during a 10-day research voyage at the site and its environs. From 1987 to 1992, New York and New Jersey sewerage authorities dumped millions of “wet tons” of sludge at the site, after dumping tens of millions of tons at a site 12 miles off Sandy Hook from 1924 to 1987. All told, more than 200 municipalities, including New York City, dumped sludge off the Jersey Shore over the decades. Here’s an excerpt from my story on the trip, headlined Robot begins deep-sea mission near dump: The 106-mile sewage sludge dump site and the predicted rate of sludge particles on the seafloor near the site (Source: NOAA) In the 1980s, federal scientists predicted that measurable quantities of sludge, which contains almost all the chemicals society uses, would not reach the bottom there. The prediction missed the mark, according to Grassle, who along with colleagues from a half-dozen institutions launched a federally funded research project in 1989…. “So little is known about the deep sea in this region,” he said. “Since many of the organisms live a long time, we want to see what the long-term impact is on the organisms.” Grassle said he “personally” doesn’t believe that the dumping will have a permanent impact. But “we shouldn’t be thinking of any place on the planet as some place where we can just throw our waste and not worry about it,” he said. $50M taken from NJ child protection fund 3. Hurricane Gloria. I remember driving to work on Sept. 27, 1985, and seeing trees swaying back and forth on Route 18. I and many other newsroom staffers were in our new Neptune office as Gloria cruised north, just off the Jersey Shore. Two stories I wrote nearly a year later had prescient information that evokes superstorm Sandy. Here are excerpts from one than ran on Aug. 24, 1986. It was headlined Don’t think Gloria means New Jersey can’t be hit hard: Track of Hurricane Gloria (Source: NOAA) Although she heightened the awareness of emergency management personnel, “I’m afraid the general attitude of the public before and after Gloria is somewhat complacent,” said Clark D. Gilman, New Jersey’s flood hazard mitigation coordinator. Some Monmouth Beach residents, for instance, felt weather forecasters overreacted a bit to Gloria and “regretted having to leave” their homes, said Patrick J. McConville, a borough patrolman and emergency management coordinator. And that’s not a healthy attitude, said Robert A. Case, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, Coral Gables, Fla. People who say, `”you don’t have to worry in Jersey,’ well that’s foolish,” Case said. “The best policy when you’re dealing with hurricanes is to be on the safe side.” The odds are very low, but hurricanes like Gloria could be blocked by a high pressure system over New England and then abruptly turn and head into the Jersey Shore with devastating results, he said. A low pressure system over the Great Lakes could draw a hurricane in that direction and through New Jersey, he said. Or, a hurricane “could very easily come in at an angle … in a northwestern direction and slam into Cape May without any major changes in direction,” Case said. Another story, headlined Shore faced devastation if hurricane had veered, ran on Sept. 26, 1986. Excerpts: IF HURRICANE GLORIA had passed last Sept. 27 during high tide and her eye had been just 40 miles west of her path, nearly all of Sandy Hook and most of New Jersey’s barrier islands would have been under water, a new federal report says…. “The destruction would’ve been phenomenal,” said David A. Wert, a weather service meteorologist in Newark and report co-author. “She probably would’ve been one of the most, if not the most, destructive storms of all time” because the metropolitan area is so densely populated and heavily developed, he said. Substantial flooding would have occurred even if Gloria had stayed on her actual track but arrived at high tide instead of nearly low tide, the report says. Sandy Hook, for example, would have become an island, it says. A storm worse than superstorm Sandy? 4. Tours around New York-New Jersey Harbor: In the 1980s and 1990s, the Interstate Sanitation Commission hosted fascinating tours around the harbor for officials, journalists and environmental activists. We drove to Sheepshead Bay in New York City and boarded a large party fishing vessel for the hours-long tours. Here’s an excerpt from a July 13, 1988, story I wrote headlined Group sees `common’ problem during oily tour of waterways: A sunken gasoline barge in the Arthur Kill in 2003 following an explosion while the vessel offloaded fuel at the Port Mobil terminal in Staten Island, New York (Photo by Jason Towlen) ABOARD THE SUPER RANGER – The oily sheen appeared suddenly to the starboard side of this swift, 105-foot party fishing vessel. Then, the pungent odor of petroleum wafted into the nostrils. “Don’t throw a match!” said Cynthia A. Zipf, coordinator of Clean Ocean Action, a Sea Bright-based coalition of nearly 400,000 people. “This is a major spill. … This would heat my kiln for a couple of months.” The Super Ranger, hired yesterday by the Interstate Sanitation Commission, a small tri-state environmental agency, was heading up the Arthur Kill past southern Staten Island. It was the first leg of the commission’s annual tour of polluted waters and both breathtaking and disturbing vistas…. Ms. Zipf and others seemed surprised to see the oily slick, which appeared to be heading toward the Raritan Bay. But Alan I. Mytelka, the commission’s director, estimated that probably several hundred of them a year can be seen on the grossly polluted kill. “It’s not a massive spill,” he said. “The problem we have here … it’s the hundreds of them added together that creates the degradation.” Several other oily patches were spotted a short while later. “If that’s a common occurrence, it’s alarming to me because what it takes to call in the Coast Guard (and a private cleanup firm) would have to be much more significant than that,” Ms. Zipf said. Attack of the venomous jellyfish at Shore 5. Superstorm Sandy aftermath: A week after Sandy, I visited beaches in Asbury Park, Loch Arbour and Allenhurst and took lots of photos and video. In Asbury Park, a front-end loader piled up sand in a parking lot. Another loader was busy in Loch Arbour. A huge pile of debris was on the Loch Arbour beach and lots of debris was in the water near a bridge in Deal Lake. Mr. C’s Beach Bistro in Allenhurst was a shell of its former self. Here’s an excerpt from one of my recent stories, which ran in print last September and had this APP.com headline: The $100 billion hurricane: Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 (Source: NOAA) Imagine a major hurricane far more devastating than superstorm Sandy. The hurricane strikes Cape May, speeds up the Garden State Parkway area and hammers New York City, causing 50 percent more damage along the East Coast than the October 2012 storm. Losses linked to the hurricane’s storm surge and wind damage potentially top $100 billion — roughly twice Sandy’s toll. Such a storm already has hit us — in 1821 — and Tropical Storm Irene took a similar track in 2011, according to Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, which released its study Wednesday. “It very well could happen again,” said Megan Linkin, a meteorologist and author of “The Big One: The East Coast’s USD 100 Billion Hurricane Event.” “People need to be prepared for a powerful storm-surge event and a powerful wind event at the same time impacting the East Coast,” said Linkin, who rode out Sandy in Edison and is a natural hazards expert at Swiss Re, which is based in Zurich, Switzerland. The $100 billion hurricane? 6. Rampant littering: I remain appalled at all the litter I see in New Jersey. As I’ve written before in this space, no one should ever throw anything out their car windows, especially burning cigarette butts, cigars or other flammable items. Here’s an excerpt from an Aug. 27, 2000, story headlined Crusader: Anti-litter enforcement lax: Litter off Stanley Blvd. in Howell in 2009 (Photo by Mary Frank) CHRIS REIDEMEISTER eases his 22-foot Aquasport away from the dock at Bahrs Restaurant and Marina in Highlands and begins cruising down the Shrewsbury River. Soon, he spots a plastic bag and pulls it out of the water. It’s one of several items Reidemeister, a muscular, 46-year-old Rumson resident, removes from the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers that day, including a life preserver, more plastic bags and a cookie wrapper. “Just the sight of anyone throwing garbage where there is no garbage makes me sick to my stomach,” he said. “I try to pick up as much as possible, but I would be out there for my entire life doing this. It would be never-ending.” Reidemeister said he’s been on an anti-littering crusade for more than a decade, and he’s extremely frustrated with the flagrant littering he sees and what he views as lax enforcement of littering laws. He’s pressed littering charges against at least two dozen litterbugs, he said, but most of the cases were thrown out of municipal court. He’s even seen three police officers toss cigarette butts out their patrol car windows, he said. It’s a dangerous littering offense that could cause a fire and could bring fines of $200 to $1,000. “Like every time I drive, I can’t go around the corner without seeing someone litter,” said Reidemeister, a technician for Cablevision. Dangerous jellyfish may come back to Jersey Shore Please stop littering and Happy Earth Day! About Todd B. Bates This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged 106-mile site, Allenhurst, Asbury Park, Clean Ocean Action, Deal Lake, dump, Earth Day, East Brunswick, Edgeboro Landfill, Environment, hazardous waste, Hurricane Gloria, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Interstate Sanitation Commission, litter, littering, Little Silver, Loch Arbour, Monroe Township Landfill, Mr. C's Beach Bistro, NAACP, New Brunswick, New Jersey, ocean dumping, Red Bank, Red Bank Regional Board of Education, Riva Avenue, Rutgers University, sewage sludge dumping, Shrewsbury Township, Superfund, superstorm Sandy, The Home News, Wheelabrator-Frye. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line26
__label__cc	0.684543	0.315457	Indian aviation sector's growth may drop to 12 pc in 2018: Boeing Article Posted on : - Jan 19, 2018 NEW DELHI (PTI): The Indian aviation sector could see a drop of 12 per cent in its growth rate due to the rising jet fuel prices, a senior official of aerospace major Boeing said on Thursday. Domestic air traffic has shown a consistent growth of 20-25 per cent throughout 2015 and 2016. However, the domestic travel demand petered out and stayed under 20 per cent in 2017. "We think the growth rate will be around 12 per cent. The reason I have scaled down is due to the oil prices. We are seeing it touch high 60s (oil price in dollars per barrel). It is the highest in four years and it has gone up by 60 per cent in the last 8 months," said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of sales Asia-Pacific and India at the Boeing Commercial Airplanes. He told reporters at an event that though there could be the impact of an increase in the jet fuel prices, it could be offset due to a stronger rupee. Boeing had earlier said that India is expected to take deliveries of 2,100 new planes worth US$ 290 billion in the next 20 years, and therefore, account for more than 5.1 per cent of the total global demand of 41,030 aircraft. Keskar reiterated that Boeing's forecast of 2,100 airplanes for the country is "somewhat constrained" due to infrastructural limitations of Indian airports. India Aviation Asia Pacific Boeing Aircraft Infrastructure	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line27
__label__wiki	0.707813	0.707813	For California farmworkers, future holds little prospect for change Philip L. Martin , Department of Agricultural, UC Davis. J. Edward Taylor, Resource Economics, UC Davis. California Agriculture 54(1):19-25. https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.v054n01p19 P.L. Martin is Professor Department of Agricultural, UC Davis. J. E. Taylor is Professor, Resource Economics, UC Davis. Agriculture is a major employer in California. Some 800,000 to 900,000 people work for wages at some time during a typical year on California farms. Only about half of those work year-round so that farmworkers represent just 3% of California's average 14 million wage and salary workers. Most farmworkers in California are seasonally employed on one farm for less than 6 months each year, and earn a quarter of the average factory worker's annual salary. The vast majority are Hispanic immigrants. During the next quarter century, these trends are likely to continue, with the farm labor market becoming increasingly isolated from the mainstream. An alternative scenario is that strong unions and government regulations could transform farm work into an occupation that can provide a career and support a family. Immigration policy will play a critical role in determining the characteristics of California farmworkers in the 21st century. Despite advances in technology, agriculture remains laborintensive. Thousands of workers are still required for tasks such as picking and pruning Most major farm labor debates at the dawn of the 21st century involve arguments about the proper role of government in the farm labor market. How should trade and research policies influence farmer decisions on what crops to grow and how to harvest them? How easy should it be for farmers to employ foreigners as guest workers? What labor and immigration laws should apply to the farm labor market, and how active should governments be in enforcing these laws? Current debates about the farm labor market can be framed by two extremes. One scenario imagines that hired farmworkers will increasingly be recently arrived immigrants, so that the farm labor market will be further isolated from other U.S. labor markets. Under this scenario, the seasonal workers of 2020 are being born today in Mexico and Central America. The other extreme imagines unions or government regulation making farm work an occupation that can provide a career and support a family. The actions of farmers, workers and government will determine where the reality is likely to fall between these extremes. This paper surveys the farm labor market at the beginning of the 21st century and outlines its likely evolution. The number and characteristics of farmworkers played a major role in shaping 20th-century agriculture and the farm labor market, and the farm labor supply is likely to continue to do so in the 21st century. At the beginning of the 20th century, farmers worried about whether Chinese and Japanese farmworkers would continue to be available; at the end of the 20th century, farmers worry about the future availability of Mexican farmworkers. During a typical year, the 35,000 farm employers in California, including crop growers, livestock farmers, custom harvesters and farm labor contractors (FLCs), hire 800,000 to 900,000 individuals. Most farm employers are native-born, non-Hispanic whites, while most farmworkers are Hispanic immigrants. Farmworkers' average hourly earnings are about half of average manufacturing wages, $6 to $8 versus $12 to $14 per hour. The average hourly earnings reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Farm Labor publication include the earnings of supervisors, which raises average hourly earning figures (USDA 1999). In 1999, for example, average hourly earnings for all hired workers in California were $7.88. However, average hourly earnings for field workers were lower: $7.18. Farmworkers average about 1,000 hours of work per year, about half as many as manufacturing workers. As a result, farmworkers in California have annual earnings that are one-fourth of the $24,000 to $28,000 average of factory workers. Farm labor market characteristics Four characteristics distinguish the farm labor market in California: The farm labor market is dominated by specialized enterprises with highly seasonal labor demands — peak employment can be 20 to 30 times greater than trough employment. Since 1960, labor-saving technologies have not reduced the overall demand for low-skill farmworkers. Instead increased production of labor-intensive crops and the shift of some nonfarm packing work to the fields (for example, field packing) increased the average monthly employment of farmworkers in the 1990s. Most farmworkers are immigrants, and virtually all new entrants to the farm work force were born abroad. U.S.-born workers have almost entirely disappeared from the farm labor market. Farmworker earnings are among the lowest of any segment of the U.S. work force, reflecting relatively low wages and less than full-time employment. Relatively few farmworkers receive fringe benefits such as health insurance so the farm-nonfarm gap in total compensation (earnings plus fringe benefits) widened in the 1980s and 1990s. California farming is often compared to manufacturing, with open-air enterprises converting raw materials into finished products. Farming in California is often compared to manufacturing. Most farmworkers in California are employed in open-air enterprises that turn raw materials into finished products. A “farm factory” brings together people, land, water and machines to transform seeds into crops. Because the agricultural production process is biological, farm factories face risks that do not arise in manufacturing production processes governed by engineering relationships. California agriculture is dominated by specialized enterprises that often hire hundreds of workers for a 3-week harvest. Unlike the typical Midwestern family farmer, who does most of his own farm's work, the managers responsible for California's labor-intensive crops rarely hand-harvest themselves. A familiar adage captures many of the differences between California agriculture and Midwestern family farms: California agriculture is a business, not a way of life. California fruits and vegetables do not ripen uniformly, so the peak demand for labor shifts around the state in a manner that mirrors harvest activities ( see box, p. 22 ). Harvest activity occurs year-round, beginning with the winter vegetable harvest in Southern California and the winter citrus harvest in the San Joaquin Valley and ending with late olive and kiwi harvests in October. In late fall and early winter, some workers migrate to Southern California and Arizona for the winter vegetable harvest, and others return to Mexico, but most remain in the areas where they did farm work, jobless and waiting for a new season to start. Workers willing to follow the ripening crops can find 8 to 10 months of harvest work each year. However relatively few workers follow the ripening crops in California. A 1965 survey found that 30% of the workers migrated from one of California's farming regions to another (California Assembly 1969), and a 1981 survey of Tulare County farmworkers found that only 20% had to establish a temporary residence away from their usual home because a farm job took them beyond commuting distance (Mines and Kearney 1982). The National Agricultural Workers Survey, conducted annually, reported that 20% to 40% of California crop workers interviewed would be willing to or had traveled beyond daily commuting distance from their homes to do farm work (USDOL 1998, Gabbard 1994). The number of farm jobs in California has been remarkably stable since the 1960s, and it rose in the 1990s (fig. 1). The loss of jobs due to picking a crop by machine rather than by hand in many commodities has been offset by the growth of jobs in other farm commodities and the substitution of hired workers for family workers on many farms. During the 1960s, when the processing-tomato harvest was mechanized, it was widely expected that most crops grown in California would be harvested mechanically by 1975. This did not happen, largely because workers were generally available and because of the costs involved in adapting plants and machines for hand-harvesting some perishable commodities. Labor in the 1990s Most California farmworkers are Hispanic immigrants. The National Agricultural Workers Survey interviewed 1,885 crop workers employed in nine California counties between 1995 and 1997, and found that 95% were foreign-born, including 91% who were born in Mexico (fig. 2). About 53% of those interviewed had been in the United States for less than 5 years, and 26% for less than 2 years. About 48% were legal immigrants and 42% were unauthorized (USDOL 1998). Most farmworkers are young men with families. In 1995 through 1997, about 82% of California crop workers were men. The median age of farmworkers was 30, 31% were under 24, and 63% were under 34. About 61% of crop workers were married, and most married workers had families, with an average of three children each. About 60% of farmworkers in the mid-1990s had their families living with them while they did farm work in California; 40% left their families outside the United States. Two-thirds of the workers interviewed had less than 8 years of education, which they usually acquired abroad. Their median years of schooling is 6 (USDOL 1998). California farmworkers averaged 23 weeks of farm work a year in the mid-1990s, 3 weeks of nonfarm work, and 26 weeks without farm work. In most cases, time not working is spent outside the United States. Most of the workers interviewed (91%) were employed in fruits and vegetables. Of the jobs performed by sample workers in the previous 12 months, about 70% were pruning, irrigating and other nonharvest operations, and 31% were harvesting. Hours of work averaged 42 a week, and average hourly earnings were $5.69. Most interviewed workers had low incomes; 55% earned less than $7,500 in 1996 (USDOL 1998). A century of farm work These characteristics of farmworkers are not new. Farmworkers have generally been newcomers to the state with few nonfarm job options because they lacked the language, skills and contacts to move out of the farm labor market. California farm-labor history is the story of waves of newcomers entering the state to do farm work, and then returning to their country of origin or moving into nonfarm jobs. Farmworker 's children who are educated in California generally refuse to follow their parents into the fields, so that most entry farmworkers have been raised outside the state (Martin 1996). The state's growers have had a keen interest in U.S. immigration policy since labor-intensive fruit and vegetable farming developed in the 1880s. Farmers feared that they would have to slow the planting of trees and vines in the 1880s, after the federal government ended Chinese immigration in 1883. However, labor became available from Japan, and plantings of labor-intensive crops tripled in the 1890s. Worries about unskilled immigrants in cities led the United States in 1917 to exclude immigrants over 16 who could not read in any language. California farmers asked the U.S. government to exempt Mexicans coming to work on farms and railroads, and Mexicans soon dominated the farm work force in many areas. Mexicans stopped migrating to the United States to do farm work in the 1930s, and many already in California were forced to return to Mexico during the Depression. After 1935, small farmers from the Midwest and South began arriving in California, hoping to begin as hired-hand farmworkers and work their way up the agricultural job ladder to become farmers in their own right. Most did not, and the conditions under which some lived inspired an outpouring of farm-labor literature, including John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath in 1940. By 1942, many farmworkers were drawn into the armed forces and industry, and growers fearing labor shortages persuaded the U.S. and Mexican governments to sign the first of what would become 22 years of bracero agreements that permitted Mexicans to enter the United States to work on farms. As rising incomes and population growth increased the demand for fruits and vegetables, and transportation improvements enabled California growers to produce commodities that could travel to the East Coast, the availability of bracero workers facilitated the expansion of agriculture. When the bracero program ended in 1964, many growers feared that lack of labor would force them to mechanize or stop growing labor-intensive crops. Fig. 1. Numbers of California farmworkers, 1992–1997. Source: Employment Development Department. Fig. 2. Characteristics of California farmworkers, 1992-1997. Source: National Agricultural Workers Survey. UC received special funding to accelerate labor-saving research by redesigning plants and machines, as with processing tomatoes. Meanwhile the absence of bracero workers enabled Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) union to obtain a 40% 1-year wage increases from some grape growers in 1966. There were predictions that the day of the unskilled farmworker was fast coming to a close, prompting the federal government to launch a series of programs that helped farmworkers, especially migrants and their children, to “escape” from farm work (Martin 1998). A year in the fields Up to 50,000 workers are hired in late summer and early fall to harvest 300,000 acres of California raisin grapes. Farm work changes throughout the year in California. Seasonal work includes the following activities: January/February. Branches and vines are pruned to promote the growth of larger fruit. For peaches, pruning accounts for 10% to 20% of the seasonal labor, but because it occurs over several months, fewer workers are involved than in harvesting. During the winter months, employment on farms is only half of its peak September levels. March/April. Harvesting moves northward into the coastal plains, with workers harvesting lemons and oranges in Southern California, working flower and nursery crops, and thinning and weeding vegetable crops in the Salinas area. Picking of strawberries and vegetables begins on the coastal plains, and continues throughout the summer. A statewide minipeak in the demand for labor occurs in June. Tree fruits such as apricots, peaches, plums and nectarines must be thinned in the San Joaquin Valley, with workers removing some fruit buds to provide larger harvested fruit. Some tree fruits, such as cherries, are ready to be harvested in late spring, as are table grapes and vegetables in the Coachella Valley and Southern California produce. July/August. During the summer months, vegetables continue to be harvested in the coastal valleys. In the Central Valley, up to 150,000 farmworkers harvest tree fruits as well as cantaloupes, melons, tomatoes and Valencia oranges. Thousands of farmworkers are also hired to irrigate crops and to weed field crops such as cotton. Farmworker employment reaches its peak with a series of short and labor-intensive harvests, including the 40,000 to 50,000 workers needed to harvest 300,000 acres of raisin grapes. Peach and melon employers worry about whether “their workers” will remain to finish the harvest, while raisin growers worry that too few workers will show up before rain threatens to ruin the drying grapes. Only a few late harvests remain, including olives and kiwi fruit. Most of the food processing and packing workers are laid off, and these nonfarm operations shut down for the year. November/December: Some harvesting of winter vegetables takes place in Southern California and Arizona, but most workers are idle or return to Mexico. Farm wages/prices index Predictions of a mechanized agriculture proved premature. Americans increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables in the 1970s and 1980s, and Mexican workers continued to enter the state to do farm work legally and illegally. By the early 1980s, when the United States discussed imposing sanctions or fines on employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers, farmers feared that immigration reforms would lead to labor shortages. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which was intended to give agriculture a legal labor force and set in motion gradual wage increases, instead led to new wave of authorized and unauthorized immigrant farmworkers (Martin et al. 1995). IRCA created two legalization programs: a general program that granted legal status to 1.7 million illegal aliens who had resided continuously in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982, and the Special Agricultural Worker or SAW program, which granted legal status to 1.1 million illegal aliens who did at least 90 days of farm work in 1985-86; half of the SAWs legalized were in California. In addition, IRCA gave farmers two guest-worker programs under which they could obtain legal farmworkers if there were farm labor shortages. According to the federal Commission on Agricultural Workers, appointed by the president and Congress to review the effects of immigration reforms on U.S. agriculture the SAW program legalized about a million young Mexican men, equivalent to one-sixth of the adult men in rural Mexico in the mid-1980s (CAW 1992). The expectation was that these now legal immigrant farmworkers would continue to leave their families in Mexico, where the cost of living was lower, and commute seasonally between homes in Mexico and farm jobs in the United States. The fact that legal SAW farmworkers could take nonfarm jobs, it was thought, would force U.S. growers to increase wages and improve working conditions. Both assumptions proved to be false. First, many of those legalized under the SAW program moved their families to the United States in the early 1990s. Second farm wages and working conditions did not improve as expected because unauthorized workers continued to be readily available. Third the farm labor market changed. As the percentage of unauthorized workers rose in the 1990s, the risks that an employer would be sanctioned for labor-law and immigration violations also increased. Farm labor contractors (FLCs) emerged as risk buffers between farmers and farmworkers. FLCs proved willing to assemble crews of workers and to assume the payroll and other risks associated with farm employment. Above, In the late 19th Century, Chinese field hands worked extensively in California agriculture, Right, In the 20th Century, Hmong and other Southeast Asian refugees took up farming in the Central Valley. Farm labor contractors. Every year, hundreds of thousands of farmworkers are assembled into crews of 20 to 40 for jobs that typically last for a few weeks on a particular farm (Taylor and Thilmany 1993; Rural Migration News 1998). FLCs and foremen or crew bosses have been described as the glue that holds the farm labor market together, because they serve as intermediaries between workers and farmers. In some cases, foremen or crew bosses are employed year-round by the farmer, and they recruit seasonal workers as needed. (In the scramble for workers, vans driven by raiteros act as a private transportation system in agricultural areas, ferrying workers between the farmworker sections of cities and fields.) Each of the 1,300 FLCs registered in California in 1995 was required to obtain a license that costs $350 a year, post a $10,000 bond and pass a test on labor and pesticide laws (Rural Migration News 1999). Many FLCs are accused of taking advantage of vulnerable workers, levying unlawful charges for tools and rides to work, or not paying workers promised wages. Federal, state and local governments have erected an elaborate regulatory framework that attempts to encourage contractors and foremen to learn about and abide by labor and immigration laws, but there is considerable doubt about the efficacy of these laws. Between 1992 and 1995, a coordinated federal-state enforcement effort, the Targeted Industries Partnership Program (TIPP), found major violations committed by 90% of California FLCs inspected. A TIPP inspection of 23 FLCs with crews pruning vineyards in January and February of 1998 found that 52% of the FLCs were not paying their workers the minimum wage of $5.75 an hour (Rural Migration News 1999). Unions. Unions have been active in California agriculture throughout the 20th century, but most have proved to be short-lived. For example, the Industrial Workers of the World was active before World War II, the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union was active in the early 1930s and the UFW has been active since the mid-1960s. In 1975, California became the first major agricultural state to enact a farm-labor-relations law under which farmworkers could choose, under state oversight, whether they wanted to be represented by a union. If farmworkers voted for union representation in state-supervised elections, farm employers were legally obliged to bargain with the union the workers selected. The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) has supervised 1,600 elections on farms and certified 10 unions to represent farmworkers on about 800 farms since 1975 (Martin 1996). However, there were fewer than 300 union contracts in 1999, and about 200 of the contracts cover fewer than 10 workers each on the state's dairies. The best-known farmworker union today is the UFW, which had a peak of 67,000 workers employed sometime during the year under 180 contracts in 1973. The UFW shrank to fewer than 10,000 members by the time Cesar Chavez died on April 23, 1993. Chavez was praised as the “Latino Martin Luther King,” and was the 1994 recipient of a posthumous U.S. Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, presented by the president to honor those “who contribute significantly to the quality of American life.” Fig. 3. Twenty-five rural California towns with the highest unemployment rates. Percent unemployed shown in parentheses. Map by Rusty Scalf. Chavez's son-in-law, Arturo Rodriguez, became president of the UFW. In 1994, the UFW repeated its 1966 Delano-to-Sacramento march and announced that it would once again become active in the fields, organizing farmworkers, as it had done from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. The UFW launched its campaign to organize strawberry workers in 1996, and targeted Coastal Berry, the largest strawberry grower in the United States. A competing union, the Coastal Berry Farmworker Committee, received 725 votes in a June 1999 election, versus 616 for the UFW. It is not yet clear what impact the apparent Coastal Berry defeat will have on the resurgent UFW. Since 1994, the UFW has been certified as a bargaining representative for California farmworkers on 15 farms that involve a total of about 3,500 farmworkers. The UFW represents about 50% of cut-rose workers in the Central Valley and 70% of mushroom workers along the Central Coast. In addition to the UFW, there has been a significant increase in the activities of self-help farmworker groups. As more migrants from southern Mexico and Guatemala arrive, there has been a proliferation of ethnic organizations, some of which have been recognized as unions by the ALRB. For example, the Mixtec and Zapotec Indians in California from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have formed “civic committees” in a number of California towns. Guest workers. In the early 1980s, the percentage of unauthorized workers among California farmworkers was 20% to 25%, and farm wages and benefits were flat or declining. In the late 1990s, the percentage of unauthorized workers among California farmworkers was 40% to 50%, and farm wages and benefits flat or declining. Farmers in the early 1980s and the late 1990s feared a new round of immigration controls, and argued that before such controls could be implemented or improved, a new guest-worker program would be needed. California farmers argue that they need an alternative to the 50-year-old H-2/H-2A program, which requires employers who want to have guest workers legally admitted to work for them to first receive a certification from the U.S. Department of Labor that U.S. workers are not available, and that the presence of the foreign workers will not adversely affect U.S. workers. Growers prefer a different admission procedure, called “attestation,” under which the farmer attests or asserts that he tried and failed to find U.S. workers; this attestation serves as a permit to admit foreign workers. Enforcement would come after the workers arrived in the United States. Unemployment data seem to belie the need for a new guest-worker program. Unemployment rates in the California cities in which many farmworkers live are very high, often 20% to 35%, even in September when farm employment peaks (fig. 3). With one in three workers unemployed even at the peak of the harvest season, and experience that “in the past, many temporary guest workers stayed permanently — and illegally — in this country,” President Clinton on June 23, 1995, issued a statement saying, “I oppose efforts in Congress to institute a new guest-worker or bracero program that seeks to bring thousands of foreign workers into the United States to provide temporary farm labor.” In July 1998, the U.S. Senate approved the Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 1998 (AgJOBS). AgJOBS would have substituted a registry run by the U.S. Employment Service for labor certification by DOL, and permitted farmers to obtain guest workers in an attestation-type procedure. Legally authorized farmworkers seeking farm jobs would have to register with local Employment Service offices. Growers would request workers from these registries and, if a farmer requested 100 workers and the register had only 50 available, the farmer would receive permission to have 50 guest workers admitted. Guest workers could stay up to 10 months in the United States, often shifting from one farm to another; if they did a certain number of days of farm work each year for 5 years — the suggestions are 90 to 150 days — they could earn an immigrant status under bills pending in Congress. The current H-2A certification program is growing slowly. In 1997, DOL certified the need for 23,352 H-2A foreign farmworkers, up from 17,557 in 1996 and 12,173 in 1994. In 1997, 62% of the jobs certified were in Southeastern tobacco, another 18% were in Northeastern apples and 7% were in Western sheep herding, including California. Many of the H-2A sheep-herders in California are from Peru, Mexico and China. Most are paid $700 to $750 a month and provided with a trailer and food. They usually receive 2 weeks paid vacation each year, and group health and worker's compensation insurance. Each shepherd is usually assigned about 800 sheep. Future in focus: No major changes expected One remarkable feature of the California farm labor market is how little change there has been in basic parameters over the past century — using bilingual middlemen to hire crews of seasonal workers, and worrying about whether enough workers will be available next year. A farmer from 1900 would be baffled by laser land-leveling, drip irrigation, vacuum cooling and the widespread use of computers, but would be very familiar with the use of bilingual contractors and crew bosses to assemble immigrant farmworkers to perform seasonal harvesting tasks. The CAW final report (1992) called for an end to “agricultural exceptionalism,” or special immigration and labor laws for agriculture; a renewed effort to reduce illegal immigration; and better enforcement of the labor laws that protect farmworkers. Six of the 11 CAW commissioners were from California. The commission surprised many observers by not recommending a new guest-worker program, instead calling for additional federal and state services for farmworkers, including more housing and services to assure equal opportunities for farmworker children. How these workers and their children fare in their new communities will depend on government policy decisions, especially critical while the economy is strong. Immigration policy is the wild card in shaping the future of the California farm labor market. If new entrants to the farm work force continue to be immigrants from abroad, then U.S. immigration policy will determine the number and characteristics of farm workers in the 21st century. Farmworker numbers and characteristics, in turn, will determine pressures for wage increases and benefit improvements. Immigration policy, a federal government decision, is the key variable affecting how immigrant workers and their children are likely to fare in California's rural and agricultural areas. Top, During the mid-1940s, prospective braceros lined up for farm work in the United States at a Mexico City soccer stadium. Below, Cesar Chavez, who died in 1993, was a powerful advocate for the rights of farmworkers. California Assembly Committee on Agriculture. The California farm work force: A profile. Sacramento. April 1969. p.146. [CAW] Commission on Agricultural Workers. Final Report. 1992. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Gabbard S, Mines R, Boccalandro B. Migrant farmworkers: Pursuing security in an unstable labor market. 1994. Washington, DC: 34p. US Department of Labor, ASP Research Report 5, May. Martin P., Duignan P, Gann L. The endless debate: Immigration and US agriculture. The Debate in the United States over Immigration.. 1998. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution. p. 79-101. Martin P. Promises to Keep: Collective Bargaining in California Agriculture.. 1996. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. 416p. Martin P, Huffman W, Emerson R, et al. Immigration reform and US agriculture. Berkeley, CA: Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Publication 3358 1995. p.580. Mines R, Kearney M. The health of Tulare County farmworkers. Mimeo April 1982. p.46. Rural Migration News. California: Enforcement, Workers Comp. 1999. January5 http://migration.ucdavis.edu . Rural Migration News. Enforcement: Children, FLCs, MSPA. 1998. July4 http://migration.ucdavis.edu . Taylor J, Thilmany D. Worker turnover, farm labor contractors and IRCA's impact on the California farm labor market. Am J Ag Econ. 1993. 75(2):350-60. https://doi.org/10.2307/1242919 [USDA] US Department of Agriculture. National Agricultural Statistics Service. Quarterly. Farm Labor 1975–1999. http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/other/pfl-bb . [USDOL] US Department of Labor. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy. National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS). 1991–1998. Annual, www.dol.gov/dol/asp/public/programs/agworker/naws.htm . Martin P, Taylor J. 2000. For California farmworkers, future holds little prospect for change. Calif Agr 54(1):19-25. https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.v054n01p19. Philip L. Martin, J. Edward Taylor	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line30
__label__cc	0.715518	0.284482	Your Perfect Neighborhood About Charlie Lewis on Apple Podcastson Androidby Emailon Google Podcastson Stitcheron TuneInvia RSSMore Subscribe Options Exhibition – Their Own Harlems The Studio Museum in Harlem Presents Their Own Harlems by over Fifteen Artists including Dawoud Bey, Jacob Lawrence, Julie Mehretu, Wardell Milan, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. In honor of the centennial of the birth of Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), Their Own Harlems examines the ways in which the urban landscape has influence Lawrence’s artistic practice, as well as that of other artists. Known primarily for his bodies of work that depict historical figures, Lawrence was also a keen observer of contemporary life, drawing inspiration throughout his career from the years he spent living in Harlem. He thought of Harlem in a broad sense, acknowledging the powerful and positive experiences people of African descent across the country could find in “their own Harlems.” The works in this exhibition thus consider different aspects of urban life, such as the ritual of moving through the city and the direct observation of scenes on the street, to illustrate how the city has served as a source of inspiration for artists across generations. Their Own Harlems is organized by Connie H. Choi, Associate Curator, Permanent Collection For more information about the event, please click here. July 20, 2017 – January 7, 2018 Wed 5 pm — 7 pm* Thu 12 pm — 9 pm Fri 12 pm — 9 pm Sat 10 am — 6 pm Sun 12 pm — 6 pm Posted in Art & CULTURE Episode 0: “Who Is Charlie Lewis?” » « Living in America: Frank Lloyd Wright, Harlem, and Modern Housing © Charlie Lewis \| Love The Way You Live. All Rights Reserved	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line32
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A graduate of St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota and a member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Miller is remembered for his generosity, courage, and zeal to serve the children of Central America.… Duluth’s Bishop Sirba dies of cardiac arrest at 59 – Christian Article DULUTH, MN– The Diocese of Duluth announced Sunday that Bishop Paul Sirba died suddenly of cardiac arrest. According to the Diocese of Duluth, he was at St. Rose Church in Proctor when he suffered the health condition. He was taken to a Duluth hospital where life-saving measures were were unsuccessful, Diocesan officials wrote. He was pronounced dead around 9 a.m. Sunday. “Words do not adequately express our sorrow at this sudden loss of our Shepherd,” Father James Bissonette shared in… Venerable Fulton Sheen to Be Beatified Dec. 21 in Peoria – Christian Article Venerable Fulton Sheen to Be Beatified Dec. 21 in Peoria The Diocese of Peoria, Ill., said, ‘It seems entirely fitting that the Beatification will take place at the end of this 100-year anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.’ PEORIA, Ill. —The Diocese of Peoria announced Monday that Venerable Fulton Sheen will be beatified Dec. 21 at the city’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Archbishop Sheen had been ordained a priest of the diocese in that cathedral… Australian High Court Allows Cardinal Pell to Appeal Sex-Abuse Conviction – Christian Article Appeal to the supreme court was his last legal avenue. MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian High Court announced Tuesday that Cardinal George Pell has been granted leave to appeal an August decision by the Court of Appeal in Victoria to uphold his conviction for child sexual abuse. Cardinal Pell’s appeal to the High Court in Canberra, Australia’s supreme court, was his last legal avenue to overturn a conviction that has divided opinion in the country and internationally. The cardinal was… St. Paul Announced Christ to ‘Idol Worshippers’ Without Attacking Them – Christian Article Pope Francis: St. Paul Announced Christ to ‘Idol Worshippers’ Without Attacking Them The focus of the weekly catechesis on the Acts of the Apostles was inculturation of the faith in Athens. VATICAN CITY — St. Paul announced Jesus Christ to “idol worshippers” in Athens without attacking them, but by building bridges, Pope Francis said Wednesday. “We also ask the Holy Spirit today to teach us to build bridges with culture, with those who do not believe or with those who… Pope Francis Adds New Marian Feast to Roman Calendar – Christian Article Pope Francis addresses pilgrims outside the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto on March 25. (Vatican Media/National Catholic Register) Papal decree states that the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Loreto will be celebrated on Dec. 10. VATICAN CITY— Pope Francis has decreed that the feast of Our Lady of Loreto be included in the Roman Calendar as an optional memorial to be celebrated on Dec. 10. “This celebration will help all people, especially families, youth and religious, to… Vatican Bank Lands in Regulatory Hot Seat – Christian Article St. Peter’s Basilica (Bohumil Petrik/CNA) Sources say a controversial U.S. grant was requested in order to balance the central bank’s books after the hospital was unable to repay the money. VATICAN CITY — The head of the Vatican’s central bank appeared to admit this week to a transaction that could be a violation of European regulatory commitments, namely a loan of 50 million euros to finance the purchase of a struggling Italian hospital. Sources say a controversial grant from the… Pro-Abortion Ford Foundation Major Funder of Key Synod Organizations – Christian Article ABOVE: Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho, Brazil, addresses the media conference following the Synod assembly session Oct. 17 at the Vatican (Edward Pentin/National Catholic Register). INSET: Screen image captures from the Ford Foundation database detail grants given to the Indigenous Council of Roraima, COICA, COIAB and CIMI between 2006-2018. BELOW: The Ford Foundation Building in New York City (Stakhanov/CC BY 3.0/Wikimedia Commons). The Register has learned that organizations belonging to REPAM, which has held the primary role in organizing… Prince of Wales on eve of Cardinal Newman’s canonization: “In the age in which he attains sainthood, his example is needed more than ever…”… – Christian Article The Prince of Wales said Saturday that the canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman is a cause for celebration among all Britons, those who are Catholic and those who “cherish the values by which he was inspired.” “His faith was truly catholic in that it embraced all aspects of life. It is in that same spirit that we, whether we are Catholics or not… This is Only a Snippet of a Christian Article written by null@newadvent.org (null) Read Full Article Pope Francis Prays for ‘Daring Prudence’ During Amazon Synod – Christian Article Pope Francis presides at the opening Mass for the Amazon synod Oct. 6. (Daniel Ibanez/CNA) At the opening Mass for the synod Sunday, the Holy Father prayed that the Holy Spirit would help the Church in the Pan-Amazonian region be renewed by the fire of faith. VATICAN CITY — At the opening Mass for the Amazon synod Sunday, Pope Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit would give the bishops prudence, wisdom and discernment to help the Church in the Pan-Amazonian… At special Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Pope laments countries that sell weapons but refuse refugees… – Christian Article Pope Francis on Sunday said that Christians cannot be indifferent and insensitive to the “tragedy” of poverty, “our hearts deadened” before the misery of innocent people. “We must not fail to weep,” Francis said. “We must not fail to respond.” Francis, the son of immigrants himself, also lamented that today’s world is increasingly “more elitist and crueler towards the excluded… This is Only a Snippet of a Christian Article written by null@newadvent.org (null) Read Full Article True wealth is found in friendship, not things – Christian Article Vatican City, Sep 22, 2019 / 05:13 am (CNA).- People and relationships are more valuable than things and the truly wealthy are those who are rich in friends, Pope Francis said during the Angelus Sunday. “Wealth can encourage the erection of walls, create divisions and discrimination,” the pope said Sept. 22, adding that “Jesus, by contrast, invites his disciples to change course: ‘Make friends with riches.’” “It is an invitation to know how to transform goods and riches into relationships,… Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Be Beatified – Christian Article Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. (Youtube) Pope Francis approves miracle attributed to his intercession following the conclusion of a legal tussle over where to keep his remains. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified after the Vatican announced today that Pope Francis had approved a miracle attributed to his intercession. In a statement, the Vatican said the Holy Father had authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate a decree regarding: “- the miracle attributed to the intercession… US Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Montana School Choice Case – Christian Article Outside the United States Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. (Pixabay) According to the Department of Education, the tax credit program could mean “a historic investment in America’s students, injecting up to $5 billion yearly into locally controlled scholarship programs that empower students to choose the learning environment and style that best meets their unique needs.” WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case addressing the question of whether states can deny tax credit programs to parents and… Blessed John Henry Newman to be Canonized on October 13 – Christian Article Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. (Cardinal Newman Society) The 19th century English theologian will be canonized in Rome this fall along with four other blessed. Pope Francis has formally approved the canonizations of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman and four other blessed, and decreed that these canonizations will take place in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Oct. 13. The Holy Father made the announcement at a July 1 ordinary public consistory of cardinals on causes of canonization at the Vatican. The… U.S. bishops gather in Baltimore for June meeting… – Christian Article Under normal circumstances, the June meeting of the US bishops travels to a different city each year, staffed by a skeleton crew and with barely a quorum of prelates on hand. Of course, however, these days are anything but normal, so the bench has returned to its usual November site in Baltimore for two reasons – first, the level of business at hand requires a larger presence of the DC-based staff… This is Only a Snippet of a Christian Article… New Vatican Document Says Gender Theory is ‘Cultural and Ideological Revolution’ – Christian Article New Vatican Document Says Gender Theory is ‘Cultural and Ideological Revolution’ The document says it aims to set out an intellectual framework “towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education.” VATICAN CITY – A Vatican department has issued a sweeping denunciation of so-called gender theory, and affirmed the principles of human dignity, difference, and complementarity. “In all such [gender] theories, from the most moderate to the most radical, there is agreement that one’s gender… New ‘Declaration of Truths’ Affirms Key Church Teachings – Christian Article The document, whose signatories include Cardinal Raymond Burke, upholds key doctrines in areas ranging from the Eucharist and marriage to capital punishment and clerical celibacy. VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Raymond Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider are among a small group of cardinals and bishops to sign a “declaration of truths” reaffirming key Church teachings at a time they describe as “almost universal doctrinal confusion and disorientation.” Published on June 10, Pentecost Monday, and entitled “Declaration of the Truths Relating to… Fulton Sheen remains will move to Peoria, NY archdiocese says – Christian Article Peoria, Ill., Jun 8, 2019 / 03:14 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of New York will work to help transfer the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a spokesman for the archdiocese told CNA Saturday. The decision is the conclusion of a long legal battle over the late archbishop’s burial place. “We have been informed that the New York Court of Appeals has denied further appeal of the New York Supreme Court decision upholding Joan Cunningham’s petition to disinter Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s…	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line33
__label__wiki	0.622308	0.622308	Published on CityEthics.org (http://www.cityethics.org) Home > The Conflicts of Holding an Elected Local Position and a State Job According to an article in yesterday's Baltimore Sun [1], the Baltimore County Council narrowly failed in its attempt to change the county charter to allow council members to work for the state of Maryland. Five of seven council members voted for the charter amendment (the charter currently forbids this), including one who "inadvertently" worked for the state for five months in 2003. According to a council member, and former state's attorney, who opposed the charter amendment, "the change in the charter might have left people employed by both the county and the state 'open to the potential for political abuse' and conflicts of interest." He was particularly concerned that "council members might 'get political hack jobs' as state employees." He also countered the amendment supporters' argument that the change would allow more people to run for council: there are more than enough people interested in the position. The former state's attorney is right on target. The council member who once worked for the state argued that council members could just recuse themselves if something relating to their job came up. But this sort of double position-holding goes well beyond this sort of simple conflict. Allowing council members to work for the state will make it look like they used their position to get the job (often a job where they have to do little or no work), trading favors that may not have benefited the county and making it seem that the state favors elected officials for its jobs. In other words, it's about patronage more than conflicts relating to particular matters. And it's about an appearance of impropriety that cannot be fixed by recusal; in fact, the odds are that there will not be situations where such a council member would have to recuse himself. City Related [2] County Related [3] In the news [4] The City Ethics website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://www.cityethics.org. Source URL: http://www.cityethics.org/node/553 [1] http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-charter1106,0,4657983.story [2] http://www.cityethics.org/taxonomy/term/5	cc/2020-05/en_head_0003.json.gz/line39

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