pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 41
971k
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__cc
| 0.573831
| 0.426169
|
Buses Replace Trains For 12 Hours
This Saturday buses will replace trains for 12 hours between Hempstead & Garden City. Here is more via press release:
On Saturday, March 29, buses will replace trains between Hempstead and Garden City for twelve hours. The substitution, which will last between approximately 1:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., is being made while track workers use the track between Garden City and Hempstead to prepare for concrete tie installation.
Customers should expect up to an additional 13 minutes travel time depending on destination.
Eastbound
Customers on trains scheduled to arrive at Country Life Press between 1:30 a.m. and 12:33 p.m., or at Hempstead between 1:34 a.m. and 12:37 p.m., will transfer to a bus or van at Garden City for transportation to their destination.
Customers looking to board trains scheduled to depart Hempstead between 1:49 a.m. and 1:11 p.m., or trains scheduled to depart Country Life Press between 1:52 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., will instead board buses or vans to Garden City for connections to regularly scheduled westbound trains. Buses/vans will depart up to 13 minutes prior to the scheduled train departure times. To catch the buses, customers should arrive at Hempstead or Country Life Press 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled train departure time.
The following table shows the westbound bus schedule from Hempstead and Country Life Press.
Hempstead Normal Train Arrival Time – Bus Arrival Time:
10:11 AM – 9:58 AM
12:11 PM – 11:58 AM
Country Life Press Normal Train Arrival Time – Bus Arrival Time:
LIRR, Service Alerts, Service Diversions
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line548
|
__label__wiki
| 0.58033
| 0.58033
|
Air cargo tax to protect the environment
In a push to make aviation "greener and more sustainable" the Dutch coalition government is considering the implementation of a tax on cargo and passenger flights, effective from January 1 2021.
Currently under review by the House of Representatives, the bill could generate annual revenues of EUR200 million (US$227.47 million), Freightweek, London reported.
If passed into law, the tax for all-cargo aircraft from 2021 would depend on their noise levels. The noisiest planes would pay EUR3.85 per tonne and the quietest a rate of EUR1.925 per tonne. According to the proposal, the tax would be based on the overall weight of the aircraft, therefore cargo transported in the bellyhold of a passenger aircraft could also be taxed.
"Unlike travel by car, bus or train, international flights from the Netherlands are not in any way taxed by the Dutch government," said State Secretary for Finance, Menno Snel. "This is a key reason for introducing a flight tax."
The proposal includes measures to prevent a potential negative impact on Amsterdam Schiphol's role as a hub and on its international network of connections. The bill is part of efforts by the Dutch government to charge consumers and businesses for environmentally polluting behaviour.
In response to the new proposal, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said its research indicates that air passengers want governments to foster the development of new technologies and sustainable aviation fuels to lower aviation carbon emissions, rather than impose what it calls "ineffective environmental taxes".
"Public opinion has a clear message to governments: work with aviation to encourage investment in clean fuels, and new hybrid and electric technology. This will help airlines cut emissions in half by 2050," said IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line549
|
__label__cc
| 0.576997
| 0.423003
|
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 30
The writing prompt this week is Colorful. I feel like I have already written about the most colorful people in my family. I don’t know of any who were artistic, and can’t think of any who had a color as their name or a place of residence. So I looked in my genealogy program for someone with a colorful last name. My inner 12 year old always snickers when I see the name Cocke in the tree.
First I have to add the disclaimer that this name is only in the tree if I can find the link between Thompson Hightower and his potential father, George Hightower, Jr. George’s wife was Frances Ann Hall, whose great-grandmother was Anne Cocke. Anne was born in 1686 in Petersburg, Dinwiddie, Virginia to Richard Cocke and Elizabeth (Littlebury) Cocke. Yes, someone actually named their son Richard Cocke. His father was also named Richard Cocke, so perhaps he wanted someone else to feel his pain.
Bremo
The senior Richard was born on 13 December 1597 in Stottesdon, Shropshire, England. Stottesdon is located about 141 miles northwest of London. He arrived in Virginia around 1633, and patented 3,000 acres of land on 6 March 1636. It was located on the James River in Henrico County, Virginia, and he called it Bremo. The location is about 12 miles east of what is now Richmond. Richard served as a member of the House of Burgesses, and was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the County of Henrico. He was later Sheriff of Henrico County. By his death in1665, he had land grants totaling around 10,000 acres.
potential Cocke cousins
When I was in Richmond several years ago, I visited Bremo and adjacent Malvern Hill, which was owned by Richard’s son Thomas. At a National Parks Service Museum located nearby, I was speaking to an employee and explaining why I was there. As it turns out, he is a Cocke descendant as well. Are we cousins? That is yet to be determined, but he did say that I look very much like his sister.
So what is the origination of the surname Cocke? There are several theories. One is that it is literally a nickname from the bird - the cock - which was then given to a young lad who strutted about proudly like a cock. Another is that it was applied to a natural leader, an early riser, or a lusty or aggressive individual. Whatever its meaning, you have to admit that it is a colorful name that leads to sudden interest in genealogy when brought up at family reunions.
Posted by Kim Wolterman at 7:32 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: 52 Ancestors, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, ancestors, blogging, Bremo, cock, Cocke, colorful, family, family history, genealogy, Hightower, Malvern Hill, virginia, writing, writing challenge
With the writing prompt being music, I have to write about my dad, LeRoy Kubler. Music was an important part of his life. He came from a musical family, in that his father Joseph Kubler owned a bar when my dad was in his late teens or so. My father told me that he and my grandfather both played musical instruments in a band at the bar.
My father’s real love was singing though. Often he and my mom, Catherine, would sing around the house together, or while we were driving in the car. He had a wonderful voice, and his whistle was nothing short of a musical instrument itself.
After he retired in 1984, he and my mom moved from Des Moines, Iowa back to Cincinnati, Ohio where they had both been born and raised. After settling in Delhi Township, they immediately heard about the Delhi Seniors organization, which met nearby at the Delhi Township Community and Senior Center.
Dad directing the chorale group
Dad soon formed the Delhi Senior Chorale group, of which my mother was one of the first members. He arranged all the music for their numerous performances, and was the musical director. He also began to write songs for the group to perform, composing both the music and the lyrics. He file the songs with the U.S. Copyright office to protect his work. Copies of his music are in my files, and are a great treasure to me.
Mom in the chorale group
Being able to attend a couple of his concerts was a thrill for me, and I’m grateful for the photographs and videos I have of those performances. The fact that 8 members of that chorale group dressed in their concert attire to escort my mom’s casket into the church when she died in 1989 is a moment I’ll never forget. They sang “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” as they entered, and there were no dry eyes in the church after that.
While I wish I had a thimbleful of my dad’s musical talent, I do believe that being raised in a musical household has played a big part in the fact that I have a great appreciation for many different kinds of music and for the artists who create them.
Labels: 52 Ancestors, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, ancestors, blogging, chorale, cincinnati, Des Moines, family, family history, genealogy, music, seniors, singing, writing, writing challenge
Elsie Metz 1902
The writing prompt for this week is Travel. While most of my ancestors traveled great distances to emigrate to the United States, and many more migrated across this country after they arrived, I have found no one in the family who traveled as extensively as my 2nd cousin, twice removed, Elsie Lauretta Metz. I wrote about Elsie, who was born in Cincinnati in 1880, and the wild weather she experienced while on a ship in 1912 earlier this year when the writing prompt was Storms. You can find that post here. I also had written about her family and attendance at the University of Cincinnati back in 2013, and the link for that post is here.
in December of 1911, Elsie applied for a passport at the age of 30 in preparation for some travel she was planning to do the next year. While I knew a lot about her 1912 trip due to a journal that was returned to our family, I had no idea of the extensiveness of her adventures until I was preparing for this post. Through a list tucked into her journal and also searches on ancestry.com I was able to find the following travel and passenger information about Elsie. I suspect that the list is missing some entries as well.
1889 traveled to Rome, Italy, according to her journal.
1893 traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair, according to her journal.
1899 and 1905 traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to her journal.
1906 traveled to Quebec and Saguenay, Canada, according to her journal.
1907 traveled to Europe, according to her journal.
1908 traveled to Cairo, according to her journal.
27 August 1909 sailed on the SS Kaiserin Augusta Victoria from Cherbourg, France to New York, New York, arriving on 3 September 1909. She spent the summer touring Europe with friends.
1910 and 1911 traveled to the Adirondacks in New York, according to her journal.
9 May 1912 sailed on the SS Cincinnati from Hamburg, Germany to New York, New York, arriving on 20 May 1912. (Her diary indicates that she left on the trip 30 January, 1912, so this ship’s list is only from the last leg of her journey.)
7 July 1914 sailed to Europe for extensive trip.
5 August 1914 applied for an emergency passport at the American Embassy in Berlin to immediately return to the U.S due to the outbreak of WWI.
22 August 1914 sailed on the SS St. Paul from Liverpool, England, arriving in New York, New York on 30 August 1914.
3 October 1914 sailed on the SS Lusitania from Liverpool, England, arriving in New York, New York on 8 October 1914. (This trip is puzzling to me - in light of the war, why would she have gone back to Europe that fall?)
1916 traveled to Lake Placid, New York, according to her journal.
1918 traveled to Chillicothe (Illinois? Missouri?), according to her journal.
1920 traveled to Luddington (England? Michigan?), according to her journal.
8 March 1921 sailed on the SS Fort Victoria from Hamilton, Bermuda to New York, New York, arriving on 10 March 1921.
1922 traveled to Ogunquit, Maine, according to her journal.
5 March 1923 sailed on the SS Fort Hamilton from Hamilton, Bermuda to New York, New York, arriving on 7 March 1923.
1923 traveled to Colorado, according to her journal.
1924 traveled to Alaska, according to her journal.
26 August 1925 sailed on the SS Paris from Plymouth, England to New York, New York.
1926 traveled to Ocean City, New Jersey, according to her journal.
27 August 1927 sailed on the SS Paris from Plymouth, England to New York, New York, arriving on 1 September 1925.
29 July 1930 sailed on the SS St. Louis from New York, New York to Cherbourg, France.
2 October 1930 sailed on the SS Milwaukee from Boulogne, France to New York, New York, arriving on 11 October 1930.
22 March 1932 sailed on the SS Florida from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida, arriving on 22 March 1932.
15 August 1938 traveled the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, New Jersey with a friend.
1939 traveled to New York City for the World’s Fair.
16 March 1949 sailed on the SS Lurline from Los Angeles, California to Honolulu, Hawaii, arriving on 21 March 1949. On 10 April 1949 flew on United Airlines from Honolulu, Hawaii to San Francisco, California.
30 March 1952 flew Trans World Airlines from New York, New York to Lisbon, Portugal. On 30 April 1952 flew on Trans World Airlines from Madrid, Spain to New York, New York.
27 March 1953, travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and received a temporary immigration card there.
25 September 1954 flew on Royal Dutch Airlines from Amsterdam, Netherlands to New York, New York.
5 July 1955 flew on British Airways from New York to London, England, where she spent a month touring Scotland with a friend. From there they went to London to meet up with some friends before touring Ireland. She returned 19 August 1955 on British Airways from London, England to New York, New York.
17 June 1956 flew on Scandinavian Airlines from New York, New York to Stockholm, Sweden.
29 July 1956 flew on Pan American Airways from London, England to New York, New York.
31 March 1957 sailed on the SS Homeric from Havana, Cuba, arriving in New York, New York on 2 April 1957.
27 April 1958 flew from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
8 September 1958 flew on British Airways from London, England to New York, New York.
July 1959 flew Pan American Airlines from Nassau, Bahamas to New York, New York.
29 August 1960 flew on American Airlines from place unknown to San Antonio, Texas.
8 October 1959 flew on SR Airline from place unknown to New York, New York.
13 June 1962 sailed on SS Italia from Nassau, Bahamas to New York, New York, arriving on 16 June 1962.
one of Elsie's travel talks
Elsie never married, so much of the time she had traveling companions with her. In the early years it was her mother and her unmarried brother, though the extended trip she took in 1912 was done in the company of family friends. She was a woman of many interests, with both bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Cincinnati. She was extremely active in the Cincinnati social scene, and was a patron of the arts as well as an amateur actor and director of community plays. She frequently appeared in the Society Page of The Enquirer, Cincinnati’s daily newspaper, and on several occasions gave presentations about her travels. With at least 40 trips spanning 73 years, she certainly would have had a lot to talk about!
Posted by Kim Wolterman at 6:00 AM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: 52 Ancestors, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, ancestors, blogging, elsie metz, family, family history, genealogy, Metz, travel, writing, writing challenge
Since we celebrated the 4th of July this week, the writing prompt was Independence. My mind immediately went to 1776. To date I have identified one relative who served in the American Revolution. My 6 times great-grandfather Jacob Christopher Kern was born in 1742 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest child of Johann Georg Kern and Catharine Elisabeth (Fraudhueger) Kern, who were married in Niedersteinbach in 1723. Niedersteinbach is in Northeastern France near the border of Germany.
About 1770, Jacob married Catherine Elizabeth Utt in Northampton, a Pennsylvania county that was carved off of Bucks County in 1752. Jacob and Elizabeth went on to have 8 children, two of whom were born prior to the Revolutionary War.
As Bucks County was very near Philadelphia, Jacob would have been at ground zero when the first and second Continental Congresses took place in 1774 and 1775. The second Continental Congress formed the Continental Army by resolution on 14 June 1775 to coordinate the military efforts of the thirteen colonies in their revolt against Great Britain. It is no wonder that he ended up serving in the war.
Jacob was commissioned by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Spyker, who commanded the 2nd & 6th Philadelphia battalions. Jacob was a 2nd Lieutenant under Captain Phillip Hetrick’s company from Berks County in 1776. He then served as a 1st Lieutenant in Captain Henry Shepler’s company, also in Berks County. As 1st Lieutenant, his job duties may have included teaching the soldiers discipline, order and fearlessness. As most men had no military experience prior to enlisting, he would have taught them military formations and how to be soldiers. In the event of the captain’s death, Jacob would have stepped in to take over the company. The last information I could find on Jacob indicated that he was a Corporal under Captain Philip Hahn in the New Hanover township company as of December, 1778.
It is written in military articles that Corporals were not often with their regiments as they were off performing other duties, which perhaps explains how Jacob and his wife had a daughter who was born in December of 1778. Five more children followed, the last of whom was born in Pennsylvania in 1792. By 1793, the family had moved to Hamilton County, Ohio. Jacob died shortly after the move, leaving Catherine on her own with the eight children.
Labels: 52 Ancestors, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, ancestors, blogging, family, family history, genealogy, kern, military, ott, pennsylvania, Revolutionary War, soldier, war, writing, writing challenge
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line559
|
__label__cc
| 0.51203
| 0.48797
|
Self Screening Tests
Dr. Fred Penzel's Blog
Samuel Johnson: A Patron Saint of OCD
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)
A Patron Saint of OCD?
By Fred Penzel, Ph.D.
When I survey my past life, I discover nothing but a barren waste of time, with disorders of the mind very near to madness.
- Samuel Johnson
Having recently returned from a brief personal OCD pilgrimage while in London, I thought I would take the opportunity to share it with the OCD membership. Yes, there really are OCD shrines, if you care to look for them. This one is located in a small, well-hidden square in the heart of the City of London, just off Fleet Street. It is a place you have to really be looking for. It was the home of one of the great minds (perhaps the greatest) of the eighteenth century, a noted literary figure, and the author of the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language: Dr. Samuel Johnson. The good doctor was considered such an important figure, that the second half of the eighteenth century is referred to as "The Age of Johnson." Dr. Johnson, by the way, also happened to be a person who suffered from rather serious cases of both OCD and Tourette's Syndrome.
He was born in 1709 in Lichfield, England, just outside of Birmingham. His father, Michael Johnson, was a bookseller of modest means. He attended Oxford University, beginning in 1728, but after thirteen months, was forced to drop out because he was too poor to continue. Following this, he experienced a period of depression. This is not surprising, since as an academically brilliant man; he had to end his college career simply due to poverty, while less intelligent children of the wealthy were able to continue theirs.
Johnson went on to attempt a career as a schoolmaster, but was hampered in this by his lack of a college degree. Also, his numerous compulsions and tics, which were quite evident, made it difficult for him to keep up a dignified appearance and earn the respect of his students.
In 1737, Johnson set out for London to make a fresh start, accompanied by one of his students, David Garrick, who would later go on to become the best-known actor/director of his time. Johnson began a literary career that would continue until his death in 1784. During that time, he produced plays, biographies, political satires, reports on parliament, works of fiction, and most notably, the most important dictionary of the English language until that time. By the time of its publication in 1755, Johnson had personally crafted over 40,000 definitions, and until the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, it was to stand out as 'the' dictionary. One of his other more significant achievements was his eight-volume edition of the works of Shakespeare, which he published in 1765.
Much of what we know of Johnson is thanks to James Boswell, who published his famous biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson in 1791. Boswell met Johnson in London in 1763 and the two became friends, traveling to northern Britain together. Dr. Johnson's symptoms were well known to those acquainted with him, and were well documented, particularly by Boswell. In one instance, Boswell noted one of Johnson's movement rituals -
"He had another particularity, of which none of his friends ever mentioned to ask an explanation. It appeared to me some superstitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or left foot, (I am not certain which) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or passage. I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness, and when he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself in a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and having gone through it, break from his abstraction, walk briskly on, and join his companion."
Nearly everyone with OCD and/or Tourette's has had the experience of saying about his or her symptoms, "I know this sounds crazy, but I have to do it anyway." It must have been especially maddening for a man as brilliant as Johnson to find himself trapped in a web of complex and illogical rituals and tics. In the eighteenth century, there were no diagnoses for these disorders, nor was there any form of real treatment. Neither was there any understanding of these disorders on the part of the public. Such behaviors were commonly referred to as bad habits, fits, or even madness. Sufferers were either ridiculed, shunned, or both. A Miss Frances Reynolds, the sister of the renowned English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a friend of Dr. Johnson's, wondered as to the cause of his strange behaviors:
"What could have induced him to practise such extraordinary gestures who can divine: his head, his hands and his feet often in motion at the same time. Many people have supposed that they were the natural effects of a nervous disorder, but had that been the case he would not have sat still when he chose, which he did, and so still indeed when sitting for his picture, as often to have been complimented with being a pattern for sitters, no slight proof of his complaisance of his or his good nature."
Obviously, Miss Reynolds could not be aware of the fact that those with tics and compulsions can, at times, successfully resist them, at least for some period of time. Her brother, Sir Joshua, had his own views on the origins of Johnson's behaviors, theorizing that,
"It proceeded from a habit which he had indulged himself in, of accompanying his thoughts with certain untoward actions as if they were meant to reprobate some part of his past conduct The great business of his life (he said) was to escape from himself, this disposition he considered as the disease of his mind, which nothing cured but company."
Those with OCD know that distraction can sometimes help to temporarily relieve obsessions, and fortunately for Johnson, he was a frequent guest in many social circles. It was perhaps Johnson's brilliant wit and creativity that won him the acceptance of so many of those around him in an age where behaviors such as he displayed could easily have been labeled as insanity. Johnson, himself, lived in lifelong fear of going mad.
On the day I chose to visit Dr. Johnson's home (now a museum), I went late in the afternoon, when it was not very crowded, and soon found myself alone there. Walking through the three stories of the small townhouse, I tried to imagine the difficulties he had had to overcome, unaided by such things as therapy, medication, or even a personal understanding of what was happening to him, in order to do even the most minor everyday tasks. I thought of my own patients, and how much harder it can be for them to do the things most of us 'neurotypicals' take for granted. As I stood in the attic where the famous dictionary was composed, I reflected upon how much greater were Johnson's achievements because of the numerous obstacles he faced daily. Surrounded by pictures of Dr. Johnson, I could almost visualize this tortured, highly intelligent man vigorously hopping back-and-forth over the thresholds of the doors, repeatedly walking up and down the two flights of stairs while counting his steps, constantly touching the floor, and mumbling repetitive prayers to himself, as he walked to his upstairs to begin work on some of the most brilliant writings of his day.
In addition to what may have been compulsive ritualizations, Johnson appears to have also suffered from obsessions involving guilt, religion, and responsibility. Comments about mental problems can be found among his writings, and it would appear that he was, in reality, speaking from personal experience. In Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, published in 1759, he made the following revealing observations,
"Disorders of the intellect happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state. No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannise, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability. It is not pronounced madness but when it [be]comes ungovernable, and apparently influences speech or action."
In this same work, he goes on to state,
"No disease of the imagination is so difficult of cure, as that which is complicated with the dread of guilt: fancy and conscience that act interchangeably upon us, and so often shift their places, that the illusions of one are not distinguishable from the other. If fancy presents images not moral or religious, the mind drives them away when they give it pain, but when melancholick notions take the form of duty, they lay hold on the faculties without opposition, because we are afraid to exclude or banish them. For this reason, the superstitious are often melancholy, and the melancholy are always superstitious."
He may have also have indulged in compulsive prayer rituals to deal with his religiously scrupulous or superstitious thoughts. Boswell wrote of him,
"Talking to himself was, indeed one of his singularities ever since I knew him. I was certain that he was frequently uttering pious ejaculations; for fragments of the Lord's Prayer have been distinctly overheard."
Johnson's numerous tics were also quite well known to his acquaintances, not to mention anyone who happened across him in public. Boswell provides a description of some of his vocal tics:
"In the intervals of articulating he made various sounds with his mouth, sometimes as if ruminating, or what is called chewing the cud, sometimes giving a half whistle, sometimes making his tongue play backwards from the roof of his mouth, as if clucking like a hen, and sometimes protruding it against his upper gums in front, as if pronouncing under his breath too, too, too: all this accompanied sometimes with a thoughtful look, but more frequently with a smile."
Miss Frances Reynolds also took note of some of his motor tics, reporting that
"His mouth is continually opening and shutting, as if he were chewing something; he has a singular method of twirling his fingers, and twisting his hands; his vast body is in constant agitation, see-sawing backwards and forwards; his feet never a moment quiet; and his whole great person looked often as if it were going to roll itself, quite voluntarily, from his chair to the floor."
Describing a walk she had taken with him one day, Miss Reynolds notes
"I well remember that they (his gestures) were so extraordinary, that men, women and children gathered around him laughing and they nearly dispersed when he pulled out of his pocket Grotius' De Veritate Religionis, over which he see-sawed at such a violent rate as to excite the curiosity of some people at a distance to come and see what was the matter with him."
One further observation by Miss Reynolds was that,
"The manoeuvre that used the most particularly to engage the attention of the company was his stretching out his arm with a full cup of tea in his hand, in every direction, often to the great annoyance of the person who sat next to him, indeed to the imminent danger of their cloaths sometimes he would twist himself round with his face close to the back of his chair, and finish his cup of tea, breathing very hard, as if making a laborious effort to accomplish it. "
Johnson's numerous witty quotes fill whole sections of books, and he appears to never have been at a loss for words. One anecdote that Boswell recounts indicates Johnson's ability to cope with the remarks and questions of others concerning his odd behaviors in public
"I am happy, however, to mention a pleasing instance of his enduring with great gentleness to hear one of his most striking peculiarities pointed out. A very young girl, struck by his extraordinary motions said to him, "Pray Dr. Johnson, why do you make such strange gestures?" "From bad habit," he replied. "Do you, my dear, take care to guard again bad habits."
In actuality, Johnson rarely spoke of his compulsive and ticcing behaviors, but was apparently able to speak up in his own defense. When, at a dinner, he accidentally knocked a fellow guest's shoe off her foot with one of his hand movements, he responded to the laughter that inevitably followed, saying
"I know not that I have justly incurred your rebuke. The motion was involuntary, and the action not intentionally rude."
From my nearly twenty years experience as a clinician, I can only imagine what this man endured, both in public and in private. Those with OCD and Tourette's have made great strides in the last twenty years in terms of gaining public understanding and the finding of more effective treatments. It is saddening to look back on those in the past who had no choice but to painfully face life each day in the face of the overwhelming odds their seemingly mysterious symptoms presented them with. No doubt, Dr. Johnson was having one of those symptom-filled days when he came up with the quote that opened this article. It is uplifting and inspiring, however, to also look back upon what some of them were able to accomplish in spite of their problems. They serve as great examples to all who suffer. Perhaps there really are patron saints of OCD, and if so, Dr. Samuel Johnson may have been one of them. I will leave you with one last quote of Dr. Johnson's, perhaps a thought that helped him to sustain himself (and one more optimistic than the quote this article began with)
"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."
Dr. Fred Penzel is a licensed psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of OCD and related disorders since 1982. He sits on the Science Advisory Board of the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation, and is a frequent contributor to the newsletter. He is the author of the self-help book "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide To Getting Well And Staying Well." You can find out more about this book at www.ocdbook.com, and can contact him at:
penzel@attglobal.net
Please Note: Then information in this site is presented as a public service to our patients and friends. It is not a substitute for a careful evaluation by a qualified mental health professional. If you are already under treatment, do not make any changes in your regimen without consulting your doctor.
Behavioral Treatment of Body Dysmorphic Disorder
The Boy Who Didn't Know Who He Was (Teen Obsessions About Homosexuality)
Acceptance and OCD
But I Love My Kids (Parents With Thoughts of Harming Their Children)
Call Me Irresponsible (OCD and hyperresponsibility)
Coming To Terms With The Lost Years
Contamination and OCD ("Stronger than Dirt")
Do-it-Yourself Therapy: Self-Directed Treatment
Fight for Your Rights: Getting Insurance to Pay for an OCD Specialist
Getting the Right Treatment (Finding proper CBT treatment for OCD and BFRBs)
Here's Looking At You, Kid: People With OCD Who Notice Things Too Much
How Clean is Clean? (Compulsive cleaning and ordering)
How Do I Know I'm Not Gay? (Homosexuality obsessions)
How I Treat Violent Obsessions
How Much Is Too Much? (Taking a more humane approach to behavioral therapy)
How to Manage Your Parents When You Have OCD (a guide for teens)
In Search of the Elusive Behavior Therapist
Inositol and OCD
Intensive vs. Self-Directed OCD Treatment
Langley Collyer: The Mystery Hoarder of Harlem
Let He Who is Without Sin (Religious obsessions)
Loves Me? Loves Me Not? (Relationship obsessions)
Morbid Obsessions
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (General information)
Obsessive Love (When People Become "Obsessed" with Other People)
Panic Disorder (General information)
Saving the World (Compulsive Hoarding)
Teens With Morbid Obsessions
Ten Things You Need to Know to Overcome OCD
A Touching Story (Touching and movement compulsions)
Treating Morbid Obsessions
Very Superstitious (Magical and superstitious obsessions)
What Do You Say After You Say You're Sorry (Coming to terms after you recover from OCD)
What The Heck Is "Obsessive Slowness?"
When Epidemics Collide: OCD and AIDS
Your Number is Up! ("Magical" numbers and OCD)
Advice for Significant Others (Dealing with a TTM sufferer)
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Trichotillomania
Coming to Terms With Your Child's Hair Pulling
Childhood Trichotillomania (Dealing with the reluctant child's pulling)
Fight for Your Rights: Getting Insurance to Pay for Your Treatment
Inositol and Trichotillomania
A Stimulus Regulation Model of Trichotillomania (Why people pull)
Trichotillomania (General information)
Unconditional Self Acceptance and Trichotillomania
What Cognitive Therapy Can Do for TTM
Skin-Picking and Nail-Biting - Related Disorders
Anxiety Disorders: More Than "A Bad Case of Nerves"
Common Questions, Myths and Misconceptions About Psychiatric Medicine
Medications that Treat OCD and OC Spectrum Disorders
OCD and Managed Care
PANDAS: The OCD - Strep Connection
Depression: from Children through Adults
How Do I Know I'm Not Really Gay - Part 2
How To Defeat OCD By Surrendering
Living With Your Loved One's OCD: Some Advice For Significant Others
NAC and Trichotillomania
Stimulation Substitutes for Trichotillomania
To Be Or Not To Be. That Is The Obsession: Existential And Philosophical Obsessions
25 Tips For Succeeding In Your OCD Therapy
My Parents Don't Believe I Have OCD
Both Ends Against The Middle: When OCD Tries To Disrupt Its Own Treatment
Driven To Distraction: Hit and Run OCD
Western Suffolk Psychological Services
755 New York Avenue, Suite 200, Huntington, New York 11743
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line560
|
__label__cc
| 0.549093
| 0.450907
|
Slideshow Pictures Home
Banquet 2014-2015 (viewing #24 of 63)
1 of 63 2 of 63 3 of 63 4 of 63 5 of 63 6 of 63 7 of 63 8 of 63 9 of 63 10 of 63 11 of 63 12 of 63 13 of 63 14 of 63 15 of 63 16 of 63 17 of 63 18 of 63 19 of 63 20 of 63 21 of 63 22 of 63 23 of 63 24 of 63 25 of 63 26 of 63 27 of 63 28 of 63 29 of 63 30 of 63 31 of 63 32 of 63 33 of 63 34 of 63 35 of 63 36 of 63 37 of 63 38 of 63 39 of 63 40 of 63 41 of 63 42 of 63 43 of 63 44 of 63 45 of 63 46 of 63 47 of 63 48 of 63 49 of 63 50 of 63 51 of 63 52 of 63 53 of 63 54 of 63 55 of 63 56 of 63 57 of 63 58 of 63 59 of 63 60 of 63 61 of 63 62 of 63 63 of 63
1 file attached to this page:
WYSA Award Winners April 8, 1970 (459 KB)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line562
|
__label__wiki
| 0.944341
| 0.944341
|
XO Romance is XOUM Publishing's new romance imprint and brings you exciting new works of contemporary romance fiction.
Congratulations to Penelope Janu whose novel On the Same Page has won the 2017 XO Romance Prize!
Guest judge Alexandra Nahlous called On the Same Page “A wonderful, captivating story about a writer desperate to keep her identity hidden, and the man determined to expose her – in every way.”
Penelope Janu says, “It’s an honour to have been selected as the 2017 winner of the XO Romance Prize, particularly given the strengths of the other writers in the shortlist. I am happy that On the Same Page, a very Australian novel, has found a home with Brio Books, a very Australian publisher.”
Penelope receives a $5000 advance and a publishing contract with XO Romance. On the Same Page will be released later in 2018
The inaugural XO Romance Prize winner Jean Flynn received extensive media coverage, including TV and radio interviews, on publication of her debut, Lovesick, in August 2017 and a very positive response from booksellers.
XO Romance would also like to congratulate all the shortlisted entrants.
Penelope Janu
Penelope Janu has six children (rapidly growing up) and two large dogs, and lives on the coast in Sydney. She had a long career as a solicitor and legal academic before her debut novel, In at the Deep End, was published by Harlequin Mira in January 2017. She writes full-time, except for voluntary legal work, and completed On the Same Page while studying an MA in Creative Writing at UTS, Sydney.
See past winners
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line563
|
__label__cc
| 0.606952
| 0.393048
|
About Alumni | Webster University
Home Department Of Art, Design, And Art History Why Dadah? > Alumni
Graduates of DADAH programs are well positioned to pursue whatever path they choose, whether in the arts or in any other field.
Our DADAH graduates have attended graduate schools such as California Institute of the Arts, SUNY–Albany, Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury England, the Savannah College of Art and Design, the University of California–San Diego, Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, Christie's in New York, Indiana University, University of Missouri–Columbia, University of Texas, and Hunter College; they have been accepted into further programs at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Colorado–Denver, and Boston University, among others.
Our DADAH graduates have found positions as art directors, curators, designers, graphic designers, illustrators, product designers, assistant professors, K–12 teachers, high school art teachers, UX designers in companies to including Ancestry.com, Apple, Arnold Worldwide (Boston), Caesar's Entertainment Corporations (Las Vegas), Checkmark Nestle Purina North America, Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio), Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Finish Line (Boulder, Colorado), Fleishman Hillard Inc, Hiradelli Chocolate Company (Los Angeles), Hunter College Art Galleries, Momentum, Momentum OKC, Mooslyvania, Norman Arts Council, Phoenix Creative, Shaughnessy, PGAV, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis Regional Arts Center, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Switch, and the American Lung Association.
They have been granted internships at institutions such as the St. Louis Art Museum curatorial departments, Laumeier Sculpture Department, the National Archives and Records Administration conservation department, White Flag Gallery, and Bruno David Gallery.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line564
|
__label__cc
| 0.64599
| 0.35401
|
WILLIAM HANNIGAN
American Amusement Parks
Night Photographs
© William Hannigan 2019
American Amusement Parks Night Photographs Other Photographs About Contact
After receiving a B.F.A. in photography Bill moved south from Montreal to New York City. His early work experience was with two great photography collections, The Time-Life Picture Collection and the archive of the New York Daily News. Through his experience at the Daily News Bill published the book, New York Noir: Crime Photos from the Daily News Archive. He continued to work with several prestigious archives, including the Condé Nast Archive. He is also the co-author of Picture Machine: The Rise of American Newspictures. Bill has more than fifteen years of experience in the photo industry and in 2005 was named number nineteen to American Photo's list of the "100 Most Important People in Photography." Bill has written several books on photography, and is a contributing writer to Hotshoe and 125 magazine, and was the publisher of Pond Press from 2006 until 2013. He is also the owner of the agencies: AUGUST and OTTO.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line566
|
__label__wiki
| 0.550016
| 0.550016
|
Tag: lake minnetonka
Invasives: Some People Just Don’t Give a Damn
There have been some frightening interesting news stories lately dealing with some new ($$$) ideas for dealing with Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS).
Bass Parade referenced a Facebook post by Lindner’s Angling Edge, where the Linder’s talk about the potential implementation of “Boat Baths” to stop the spread of AIS.
Then there is the Star Tribune article about the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and how they are suggesting a system of Green / Red Sticker permits for boats. Green Sticker means you can put your boat on Non-Infested waters, a Red Sticker means you must have your craft professionally cleaned before launching on another body of water.
Look at the MN DNR map of Zebra Mussels they found in Lake Minnetonka in 2010. They first were spotted on the East side of the lake, presumably from the Grey’s Bay launch. Grey’s Bay is a notorious Recreational Boater launch. From there the Zebra Mussels are found moving westward to many of the popular Marina’s and Party Beaches.
Posted by Tom Harkman
Author adminPosted on February 12, 2011 February 14, 2017 Tags invasive species, lake minnetonka
Zebra mussels in Lake Minnetonka
TOM MEERSMAN, Star Tribune
Zebra mussels have invaded Lake Minnetonka, a breach of the state’s defenses against invasive species that threatens to dramatically change the character of Minnesota’s 10th-largest lake within just a few years.
Department of Natural Resources biologists confirmed Wednesday that a small number of mussels are attached to rocks along the shore, and their size suggests that a reproducing population has been in the lake for at least a year.
In places where they’ve become established, the fingernail-sized mussels proliferate by the millions, consume food needed by fish, clog water intake pipes, ruin fish spawning beds and litter beaches and shallow areas with razor-sharp shells.
The mussels were found on the east side of Wayzata Bay near Hwy. 101. That’s not far from the lake’s outlet to Minnehaha Creek, raising fears that the mussels may spread into that waterway, or may have done so already. Minnehaha Creek is connected to lakes Nokomis and Hiawatha in Minneapolis.
For years DNR officials have worked with the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District and others to educate boaters and anglers to prevent the spread of zebra mussels. They also inspected boats and trailers and directed owners to remove plants, mussels and water from bait buckets and vessels that traveled in infested lakes and rivers. The efforts may have bought some time, but they didn’t stop the mussels’ entry into Minnetonka.
“Unfortunately, zebra mussels still found their way to the lake,” said Luke Skinner, supervisor of DNR’s invasive species program.
The discovery was dreaded news for Dick Osgood, president of the Lake Minnetonka Association, which represents about 600 lakeshore owners and businesses.
“This has been our fear all along, and keeping them out has been our top priority for the last ten years,” said Osgood.
Lake Minnetonka is the most heavily used lake in the state, he said, with an estimated 200,000 boats plying its channels, bays and open water annually.
With that amount of exposure, the discovery of mussels was not unexpected, said Osgood, but it was still a major disappointment.
“Bottom line is, I think they’re here to stay,” he said. “Not that we won’t do everything possible in rapid response, but I think it’ll change the lake forever.”
Osgood and representatives of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District plan to do a quick assessment of the lake to see if they can find mussels in other places. There’s a chance, he said, that if they are only in one area, the mussels could be removed or killed before they spread further.
DNR officials said that the number of zebra mussels found was very low and that they would investigate the situation this week and beyond, including an extensive survey of the lake later this summer.
Osgood advocates limiting boat traffic in the infested waters, at least until the extent of the invasion is better understood.
In other places, he said, the discovery of zebra mussels is usually followed by 1 to 3 years of “lag time” in which a few more infested areas are found. At some point, usually about five years after the initial discovery, he said, the populations explode and the lakes start to change, sometimes unpredictably.
In some areas the numbers of different fish species increase or decrease, seeking a new balance as habitat and food sources change. Native mussels usually die out. And because zebra mussels constantly filter sediment and nutrients, water often becomes noticeably clearer.
That may please some, said Osgood, but it also means that light will penetrate deeper, boosting the growth of plants such as Eurasian water milfoil, an invasive that’s already a major nuisance and expense to control in Lake Minnetonka.
Resident spotted mussels
A local resident found the mussels in the lake early this week and reported them to the DNR. Skinner said that anyone else who finds mussels should contact the agency.
Zebra mussels are native to Eastern Europe and western Russia, and likely came to the Great Lakes in ballast water of ocean-going ships that traveled up the St. Lawrence Seaway. They were discovered near Detroit in 1988. Their first appearance in Minnesota was in 1989 in Duluth harbor, and they subsequently spread to 17 inland lakes, including Mille Lacs, Prior, and Le Homme Dieu and to portions of the Mississippi, St. Croix and Zumbro rivers.
Udai Singh, senior hydrologist and water quality specialist for the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, said plans for what to do next are still very preliminary. If the mussels are firmly in the lake, he said, the district may install equipment at various locations downstream in Minnehaha Creek to check for them. The discovery in Minnetonka is “really unfortunate,” Singh said, and has already jump-started a new array of activities.
“Now since prevention is out the window, we will be more working in terms of control and management of them,” he said.
Tom Meersman •StarTribune
Author adminPosted on August 3, 2010 February 14, 2017 Tags lake minnetonka, lake minnetonka association, lmcd, minnesota zebra mussels, minnetonka zebra mussels, zebra muscles, zebra mussels, zebra mussles
Zebra Mussels Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line568
|
__label__cc
| 0.622755
| 0.377245
|
West Coast 123s
Jocey Asnong
Fixed layout ?
Fixed-layout ebooks retain the layout and typography of the original document. Therefore, they are very suitable for comic books and recipe books, for example, and can sometimes include enhanced or interactive content. Note that ebooks in the fixed layout EPUB format are fully supported by Cantook Station Web Reader and Adobe Digital Editions. However, they are incompatible with e-readers and reading applications, and do not adapt to screen size, making them difficult to read on devices with smaller screens.
Borrow EPUB West Coast 123s (Borrow EPUB)
Hooray! Time for a new and colourful 123 adventure with bestselling children's author and illustrator Jocey Asnong, along the remarkable west coast of Canada.
Jocey Asnong’s vibrant and whimsical illustrations take readers kayaking through Cowichan Bay, surfing with starfish and sea otters at Tofino, and swimming with sea wolves in the Great Bear Rainforest. From carving through fresh powder at Whistler Blackcomb to treasure hunting at the bottom of the Salish Sea, this early concept board book in number recognition and counting is an excellent companion to Asnong’s West Coast ABCs, as she continues showcasing the diverse marine mammals, ocean organisms, birds and other species that are unique to this region.
About Jocey Asnong
Jocey Asnong is the author and illustrator of Nuptse and Lhotse in Nepal (winner of a Purple Dragonfly Award), Nuptse and Lhotse Go to the Rockies, Nuptse and Lhotse Go to Iceland, Nuptse and Lhotse Go to the West Coast, Rocky Mountain ABCs, Rocky Mountain 123s, West Coast ABCs and West Coast 123s. She lives in Canmore, Alberta, and is currently at work on her next picture book, Nuptse and Lhotse in the Land of the Midnight Sun, which will be published by RMB in the autumn of 2019.
Nuptse and Lhotse Go To the Rockies
RMB | Rocky Mountain Books
Counting & Numbers, Canada, Travel
ISBN Paper
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line570
|
__label__wiki
| 0.935857
| 0.935857
|
Tag: Authentic Baker Mayfield Jersey
Before his final game for Lake Travis High School, Charlie Brewer felt colossal pressure.
The standard had been set. His older brother, Michael, had met it twice before, winning a pair of Texas high school state championships. Before that, the Cavaliers had won three. The wait for title No. 6 was longer than the community preferred, and Charlie came close as a junior, but didn’t quite close the deal.
Dec. 17, 2016, was his last shot.
“I was like, ‘Man, I better win this one,'” Brewer, now the starting quarterback at Baylor, recalled jokingly. “If I don’t win this game, I’m not welcome back in Lake Travis.”
Lake Travis already had produced a Heisman winner, an Orange Bowl winner and another quarterback ranked second best in the country. Winning state championships was customary.
“That’s just how it’s supposed to be,” Cleveland Browns quarterback and Lake Travis alumnus Baker Mayfield said, “and you have to live up to it.”
Fortunately for Brewer, he found the finish line. Looking back on it, he called it a “relief.” When you produce a Division I quarterback every couple of years — as Lake Travis has with every starter in its program since 2004 — you learn to live with high expectations.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you why there’s been so many Division I quarterbacks,” Brewer said. “It’s kinda crazy.”
It is, but it hasn’t happened simply by chance.
If you follow recruiting, you’ve probably heard of Lake Travis. It was once was the home of the No. 2 quarterback prospect in the country in 2009, Garrett Gilbert. It also produced a quarterback who won an Orange Bowl at Kansas (Todd Reesing). Oh, and there’s that guy who won the Heisman Trophy (Mayfield).
All told, the past eight Lake Travis starting quarterbacks have moved on to Division I programs. Seven signed letters of intent (one as an athlete). One, famously, walked on (Mayfield, again). Current Lake Travis starter Hudson Card, the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback recruit in the ESPN Junior 300, will make it nine straight when he signs as part of the 2020 class (he’s verbally committed to Texas).
The Cavaliers’ junior varsity quarterback, 2021 prospect Nate Yarnell, already has a scholarship offer from Houston.
But it wasn’t always that way.
When Reesing was a freshman in 2002, it was a “sleepy little lake community” in suburban Austin that had virtually no gridiron success. The varsity went 1-19 combined in 2001 and 2002.
“Football was kind of a laughingstock,” he said. “No one really cared. People were much more concerned with going to the lake or listening to music or checking out what the next concert was as opposed to, ‘Where’s the football team playing this week?'”
When a new coach, Jeff Dicus, arrived in 2003, things changed. He and his offensive coordinator, Jerry Bird, installed a more wide-open spread offense. Dicus aimed to better align the middle-school programs with what the high school ran. An emphasis on 7-on-7 competition was placed. Expectations were raised.
“He kinda got the guys off the lake in the summertime and got them in the weight room and got a program going,” said former Lake Travis offensive coordinator Michael Wall, now the head coach at Willis (Texas) High.
Success wasn’t instant, but there was improvement. Dicus’ first team went 3-7, which was three more wins than Lake Travis had the year prior. The team’s quarterback, Nick Bird (Jerry’s son), performed well enough to earn all-district honors and a chance to play at then-Division II Abilene Christian (the Wildcats are now FCS).
“[Nick Bird] was the catalyst that really got everything going there,” Dicus said. “He got kids out throwing and catching and we got involved with 7-on-7. … I give him a lot of credit.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line571
|
__label__wiki
| 0.593837
| 0.593837
|
#266: Blood, Sweat & Tears, "Child is Father to the Man" (1968)
As the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump approaches, many citizens are wondering how Trump’s policies will affect the lives of everyday Americans. The administration has already created a flurry of question marks surrounding issues like foreign policy, healthcare, domestic spending, the environment, etc. As Americans brace for dramatic change, one question has emerged above all others: What does the election of Donald J. Trump mean for the future of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ 1968 debut album, Child is Father to the Man?
In an attempt to offer guidance on this, the most pressing issue of our time, I offer the following 20 potential outcomes:
1. Horns will likely be reduced in mix as horn players tend to have large, dexterous hands.
2. The Harry Nilsson-penned song “Without Her” will be reimagined by Ted Nugent as a Hillary Clinton diss track. In it, Nugent will rhyme “she-male” with “e-mail.”
3. In 2018, the album will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Rhino Records will release a 10-CD deluxe Child is Father to the Man: Complete Studio Recordings box set. Critical reception will be mixed as Pitchfork names the record Best New Reissue while Rolling Stone, Paste, and All Music are destroyed by global thermonuclear war.
4. David Fricke will upload his consciousness to the internet. It will then begin bombarding millions of cellphones with 1,000-word SMS think pieces about how John Simon’s production style changed from his work on Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends to Child is Father to the Man and how this shift mirrors our own interior shifts under a newly oppressive regime.
5. Prior to the 2018 mid-term elections Russian hackers will once again breach the DNC and expose e-mails in which Bernie Sanders calls Al Kooper’s arrangements “weak af.”
6. The song “My Days Are Numbered” will become even more ominous.
7. Smooth, chill saxophone solos will sound more like nervous, sad saxophone solos.
8. Due to a reduction in federal income tax rates, Kanye West will have enough money to not simply sample this record but buy the entire thing and release it as a whole under his own name as Kanye is Father to Man. This same tax cut will destroy public education.
9. A newly resurgent Boomer generation will send Child is Father to the Man and Viagra sales skyrocketing.
10. To avoid name confusion, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Earth,Wind & Fire will be merged into one super group: Blood, Earth, Sweat, Wind & Fire & Tears. Experts agree this will save us all time.
11. White people will continue to overestimate the diversity of the group Blood, Sweat & Tears.
12. Something will be done about the name. A child cannot be father to a man. It would be like saying Eric was Donald’s father. Such frivolity will likely not be tolerated in the Trump administration.
13. In 2019, Metallica will sue Apple Music and effectively destroy the current streaming model. In the wake of CD players being all but obsolete, vinyl sales for Child is Father to the Man will eclipse their 1960’s totals. However, it will be difficult for most Americans to hear music as Amazon will be beaming advertisements directly into their cerebral cortex.
14. Digital renderings of the album will lose audio fidelity as your phone or computer will be unable to maintain audiophile sound output while simultaneously recording your thoughts and actions.
15. Teens will discover that if you play the opening track, “Overture,” backwards and light a candle, you’ll hear messages from Satan about how student loans are a good idea.
16. Donald Trump, Jr. will dismissively refer to the group as “Buttsweat and Tears” during a controversial appearance on SportsCenter.
17. The United States Senate will label the post-Sgt. Pepper 1960s an unfortunately decadent era of sonic expression. The eclectic Child is Father to the Man will gain increased underground popularity as Mike Pence publicly laments Al Kooper and Steve Katz’s stylistic shift away from their formerly conventional “The Blues Project.” Steely Dan will be named the national band of the United States of America.
18. The song “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” will be renamed “I Love You. It’s Tremendous. You Can’t Even Imagine. So Much.”
19. High-level Democrats will call an emergency session of Congress and attempt to pass a joint resolution condemning President Trump for using his entire first State of the Union speech to practice the Blood, Sweat & Tears track “Just One Smile” on guitar live from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The resolution will fail as House Republicans jockey to back up Trump on bass.
20. Blood, Sweat & Tears will be all you have left.
—Steven Casimer Kowalski
Written by Brad Efford On January 2, 2017
← #265: Ray Charles, "The Genius of Ray Charles" (1959)#267: The Who, "Quadrophenia" (1973) →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line576
|
__label__cc
| 0.601561
| 0.398439
|
It's about the space between the buildings.
Like you, I love cities. Always have. Nanaimo, British Columbia is home now and has been for about the last 20 years, preceded by about 25 years in Vancouver. I've lived in or gotten to know some great neighbourhoods in this country: Toronto's Kensington Market, Montreal's Main, Halifax' Spring Garden Road, Vancouver's Commercial Drive, Main Street and Strathcona/Chinatown.
In 2004 my wife and I and our daughter who was then completing her Bachelor of Education studies here at Vancouver Island University moved from a North Nanaimo suburb to the downtown "Old City", an isolated pocket of walkable urbanism in an expanse of sprawl, malls and busy arterial roads.
At that time the City was preparing for its 10 Year Official Community Plan Review. The "review" in fact was the formalizing by the City of its intent to eliminate the Plan's Urban Containment Boundary and greenlight low density subdivisions and big box retail and a fantasy destination golf course resort across the previously protected greenfields across the southern extremity of the city. Mercifully, none of these foolish fantasies were ever built, tho the Urban Containment Boundary is long gone. I decided then I should perhaps pay a little more attention to civic affairs.
Title graphic and avatar from Curbside Haiku, a New York City Department of Transportation collaboration with artist John Morse that takes poetry to the streets via traffic safety signs throughout New York City.
www.stardogstudio.com. John Morse is an artist and writer who lives and works in Atlanta and New York City.
"She was not afraid to shatter settled thought, bu...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line577
|
__label__cc
| 0.648818
| 0.351182
|
New Tool to Track Think Tank "Dark Money"
The Center for Public Integrity released a new tool this week that allows searches of "dark money" grants between nonprofit groups, including think tanks.
Using the new tool, Think Tank Watch has searched a number of the largest, most powerful think tanks to help track down often undisclosed sources of money. Following are some of our findings so far:
The Brookings Institution has received millions of dollars over the past five years from other nonprofits, including a number of universities such as University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University. Brookings has also received money from the Financial Services Forum, Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Unite Here, Jewish Communal Fund, and Carter Center. Most interestingly, the think tank has also received funds from Good Ventures for support of research projects and events on marijuana policy.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank, has received large amounts from the Jewish Communal Fund, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), and Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). It has also received grants from American Petroleum Institute (API), American Insurance Association, and the Charles Koch Institute, among others. Interestingly, AEI has received a $74,000 grant from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP).
The Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, has received more than $10 million from the Sandler Foundation over the past five years. It has also received money from the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Steelworkers, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), AFL-CIO, Oxfam-America, National Association of Letter Carriers, and the Aspen Institute.
Stay tuned for more...
Posted by Think Tank Watch at 3:37 PM
Labels: think tank, Think tank dark money, think tank funding, think tanks
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line578
|
__label__wiki
| 0.966212
| 0.966212
|
Queen + Adam Lambert Kick Off ‘Crown Jewels’ Las Vegas Residency: Set List + Video
Michael Loccisano, Getty Images
As they prepare to have a movie released about their life, Queen + Adam Lambert began a three-week, 10-show residency at the Park Theater in Las Vegas last night (Sept. 1).
With a production called The Crown Jewels, Queen began with a fast version of "We Will Rock You" and proceeded through a series of greatest hits. Late frontman Freddie Mercury was present in video playback during "Love of My Life" and in his taped "Day-Oh" singalong that started the encore, after both guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor had taken solos. Part of the set was performed entirely on the catwalk, with new instruments in place, while a descending stage appeared towards the end of the show.
At one point, Lambert sang from on top of the head of Frank, the robot from the News of the World cover, then invited the crowd to say hello to it. He then paid tribute to May and Taylor, calling them "rock and roll legends," before telling the crowd: "Some of you might be like, ‘This is great but he’s no Freddie.’ No shit! There can be only one… Do you love Freddie? Do you miss Freddie? Me too. I’m exactly the same as you guys. I’m a fan too."
On Nov. 2, Queen will release Bohemian Rhapsody, the long-awaited Mercury biopic starring Rami Malek as the band's iconic original singer. The film, which has been in the works for more than a decade and has had several stops and starts along the way, began production in fall 2017, and the studio has since unveiled two trailers.
The Park Theater, located at the Park MGM (formerly known as the Monte Carlo), is the same venue where Aerosmith will play 18 shows between April 6 and July 9, 2019 to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Cher also has a residency at the 5,200-seat theater, and Lady Gaga will begin a year-long run there in December.
Queen + Adam Lambert, 'The Crown Jewels' Set List
1. “We Will Rock You” (fast version)
2. “Tie Your Mother Down”
3. “Somebody to Love”
4. “Fat Bottomed Girls”
5. “Killer Queen”
6. “Don’t Stop Me Now”
7. “Bicycle Race”
9. “Another One Bites the Dust”
10. “I Want It All”
11. “Love of My Life”
12. “Heartbreak Hotel”
13. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
14. “Under Pressure”
15. “Who Wants to Live Forever”
16. “The Show Must Go On”
17. “Radio Ga Ga”
19. “We Will Rock You”
20. “We Are the Champions”
Everything You Need to Know About Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Movie
Next: Top 10 Queen Songs
Source: Queen + Adam Lambert Kick Off ‘Crown Jewels’ Las Vegas Residency: Set List + Video
Filed Under: Adam Lambert, Queen
Categories: Concerts, News
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line580
|
__label__wiki
| 0.703611
| 0.703611
|
War cemeteries in Indonesia
Not only members of the armed forces are buried in the Dutch war cemeteries in Indonesia but also civilian victims. Men, women and children of different nationalities; Christians, Jews, Moslims and Buddhists.
Originally there were 22 war cemeteries spread across the whole archipelago, built between 1946-1952 by the War Graves Commission of the Royal Dutch Indies Army. Earth from these 22 war cemeteries was collected in one urn, which was mounted on the National Monument on the Dam, Amsterdam, behind the stone bearing the Dutch coat of arms. (see also Indies Monument – History).
After the transfer of sovereignty, the number of war cemeteries was reduced at the request of the Indonesian government. The human remains affected were taken to the war cemeteries which had been built on Java and were maintained by the War Graves Commission.
The graves of military personnel from the British Commonwealth and 185 Dutch nationals are buried in the Galala-Tantui war cemetery on Ambon. This cemetery was maintained by the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as were all other war cemeteries in South-East Asia outside Indonesia.
In 2005, an urn with earth from the eight war cemeteries in Indonesia was placed in the small column at the Indies Monument.
Menteng Pulo, Jakarta
In addition to many civilians, members of the armed forces are buried here, among them Generaal S.H. Spoor. A total of 4,270 dead are interred here, including those removed from other war cemeteries in Banjarmasin, Tarakan, Menado, Palembang, Balikpapan, Makassar en Cililitan. The ashes of 728 dead were transferred in urns from Japan and reburied in this cemetery.
Ancol, Jakarta
Ancol is the war cemetery of the executed, those men and women who had taken part in the resistance. They were executed on this spot and buried in unmarked graves. The dead, whose remains were impossible to identify, were buried in mass graves. It was decided that all those executed both here and elsewhere should find their last resting place here. In total, 2,118 dead are buried here, including those re-buried from Banjarmasin, Medan, Makassar en Mandor.
Pandu, Bandung
Buried in this war cemetery are soldiers from the KNIL who fell while defending the Tjiaterstelling, the last stronghold for Bandung, and also those who having surrendered were murdered by the Japanese. Total number of dead: 3,988 including those re-buried from Muntok, Palembang en Makassar.
Leuwigajah, Cimahi
Leuwigajah became the war cemetery with the largest number of graves due to the many reburials there. In total, 5,181 dead are buried here, including those reburied from Muntok, Padang, Tarakan, Medan, Palembang and Balikpapan. Here also is the Junyo Maru memorial stone in remembrance of the torpedoing of the Japanese transport ship which killed 1,600 prisoners of war and around 4,000 Romushas (forced labourers).
Candi, Semarang
Only members of the armed forces are buried in this war cemetery. 1,088 in total. It was built on the initiative of the first contingent of Dutch troops, which arrived in Semarang in March 1946. It includes reburials from Palembang and Makassar.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line581
|
__label__cc
| 0.605523
| 0.394477
|
MISSED DRIVE WITH REGRET
Pte. J. Beasley Was Killed in the Next Big Push
Although the name is not yet in the casualty list, office word has been received that John Beesley, formerly of 1530 and 1544 Danforth avenue and later of 47 Chester avenue, was killed in action on September 29th. Jack Beesley was an Englishman, who came from the Mildands, four and a half years ago. Excepting for a few weeks when he lived in Aurora, he had been an employee of the Consumer’s Gas Company, and lived in the east end of the city. He enlisted in the 83rd Battalion (C) Company, and when he left for overseas in April last, was station at Riverdale Barracks, in England he was drafted to a second contingent unit, with which he was serving at the time of his death. In recently-received letter, he stated with regret that he had not been in in the latest drive, having been on other duties. He has now made the supreme sacrifice. He leaves a family of three children, all boys, under the age of four. The widow and the children are living at 47 Chester avenue. This is the second wife who has been widowed from the same house.
Toronto Star, October 11, 1916.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line582
|
__label__cc
| 0.502907
| 0.497093
|
Credit Suisse Positive on Some Biotechs, Very Cautious on Others
By Chris Lange September 3, 2014 11:50 am EDT
Credit Suisse has launched new biotech coverage on Wednesday with two analysts at the firm. The biotech sector has been a wealth-creation engine in recent years. What is interesting here about the Credit Suisse view is that, while some of the calls were started favorably with Outperform ratings, there were some that were also cautious with Neutral ratings. We even saw the equivalent of “Sell” ratings, which Credit Suisse officially categorizes as “Underperform” in its ratings system.
24/7 Wall St. has included a summary of each analyst call in the new reports, as well as adding snippets from what catalysts were driving the call. We have also added in consensus price targets and historical trading ranges to keep a reference point in mind.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) was given a Neutral rating by Credit Suisse with a target price of $179. Asfotase Alfa is assumed to be approved in early 2015 in both the United States and United Kingdom, and its NMO/MG Phase II recruitment will be finished by the end of 2015. The Credit Suisse target price is based on an equal weighting of discounted cash flow and relative price-earnings to large-cap biotechs. Alexion shares closed on Tuesday at $169.14, versus a consensus price target of $197.05 and a 52-week range of $100.89 to $185.43.
READ ALSO: Credit Suisse’s Top Pharmaceutical Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2014
Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) was started with an uninspiring Underperform rating, and with a target price of $3.50. That is down from a closing price of $4.15 on Tuesday. Koon Ching speculates that it will continue to commercialize Belviq in the United States throughout 2014. Credit Suisse explains that its target price of $3.50 on Arena is derived from a standard discounted cash flow model based on Belviq royalties on U.S., EU and “rest of world” sales, annual cash flows until 2026, and no terminal value. Arena has a consensus price target of $7.06, and it has a 52-week range of $4.05 to $7.97.
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) was started as Outperform with a target price of $74. By the second quarter of 2015, some results from its BMN 111 (dwarfism) Phase 1/2 are expected to come out, Ravi Mehrotra projects roughly $850 million by 2020. In the second half of 2015, BMN 190 (Batten disease) and PEG-PAL are due to give results but seem to be lower-expectation products. Credit Suisse’s $74 target is based on discounted cash flow, using a standard 10% discount rate and a post-2020 terminal growth rate of 3%. The company on last look was trading at $71.23. The consensus price target for BioMarin is $83.13, and it has a 52-week range of $55.04 to $84.25.
Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) was started as Neutral with a target price of $1.50, hardly higher than the $1.40 closing price from Tuesday. Its commercialization of Provenge in the United States and European Union in 2014, and its granularity of debt restructuring in 2014 and 2015, are catalysts for the Neutral rating. Credit Suisse’s $1.50 target was derived via a standard discounted cash flow modeled to 2020, using a terminal growth rate of 3% and a discount rate of 10%. Dendreon has a consensus price target of $1.90, and its 52-week range is $1.24 to $3.52. For a reference point, we recently pointed out how Dendreon’s wording of an SEC filing might signal an impending implosion. This may delay how impending that is now, but the issues remain.
READ ALSO: ETF Rebalance Could Make 5 Biotech Stocks Shoot Higher
Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) was started as Outperform with a target price of $98. Xtandi, which treats metastatic prostate cancer, is set for a PDUFA review date by the FDA on September 18, 2014. EMA approval is expected in late 2014 or early 2015. Topline TERRAIN Phase 2 data are expected to come out in the fourth quarter of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015. Credit Suisse derived the target price of $98 from a standard discounted cash flow based on Xtandi revenues from pre-chemo and post-chemo metastatic prostate cancer settings, annual cash flows until 2027 with no terminal value, and a 10% discount. The stock recently traded at $91.05. Medivation has a consensus price target of $97.06, and its 52-week range is $48.15 to $92.48.
Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX) was started with an Outperform rating and target price of $10. The company will have Contrave reviewed by the FDA on September 11, 2014, for PDUFA. Also there is a possible EU approval for Contrave in the second half of 2014. Credit Suisse says that its $10 target price on Orexigen is based on a discounted cash flow of Contrave royalties on U.S. and EU sales, annual cash flows until 2025 with no terminal value, and a 10% discount rate. As of Tuesday’s close, the company’s share price was $5.72. Orexigen has a consensus price target of $9.75, and its 52-week range is $4.60 to $7.82.
VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) was started as Neutral with a target price of $5. Qsymia’s retail launch and potential partnership agreement are catalysts for this coverage. Also Stendra label updates were noted. Credit Suisse explains its $5 target price for the company is based on a standard DCF on Qsymia U.S. and EU sales, Stendra/Spedra royalties, annual cash flows until 2026 with no terminal value, and a 10% discount rate. VIVUS shares recently traded at $4.31. The stock has a consensus price target of $6.13, and its 52-week range is $4.06 to $12.90.
READ ALSO: J.P. Morgan’s Top Telecom and Tower Stocks to Buy Now
By Chris Lange
« Chevrolet Drags GM Sales to a Disappointing August
Toyota and Chrysler Lead Automaker Sales in August »
Read more: Healthcare Business, Analyst Downgrades, Analyst Upgrades, biotech, pharmaceuticals, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN), Dendreon Corp (NASDAQ:DNDN), Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDVN), Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OREX), VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line584
|
__label__cc
| 0.737229
| 0.262771
|
Elijah Monroe
Eli is one of the Co-Founders of the 360Plus Leadership Collective. He was part of the group that conceptualized the idea and put it into action. 2019 will be his fifth trip to India with a group of Leadership Collective learners. Eli has spent much of his career living and working in India and is a seasoned world traveler.
Having lived through several climate change-fueled disasters, including the loss of his family’s home in California to wildfire, Eli holds a firm belief that the future of the world rests in our ability to transition decision-making power to today’s youth. His professional role-models are often over a decade younger than him.
Eli holds an M.A. in International Studies and Diplomacy from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and a B.A. from the Evergreen State College. He spent the last year in Cape Town, South Africa, but is now based between Mexico City and Redwood Valley, California.
Sridar Iyengar
Sridar’s passion is to work with young people and entrepreneurs. He is co-Founder of the 360Plus network focusing on providing “learning through travel” opportunities to students in the US and India.
He is an active mentor of and investor in early stage ideas and companies. He started his career with KPMG in 1968 and worked with them in the UK, US and India until he took early retirement in 2002. Post retirement he has served and continues to serve on the Boards of major companies in India. He was Past President of TiE Silicon Valley and TiE Global, one of the largest entrepreneurial networks. His interest in promoting good citizenship and governance saw him serve as President of Foundation for Democratic Reforms in India and as a governing board Member of Janaagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy, where he co-created the www.ipaidabribe.com website.
Caitlin Ferguson
Caitlin has lived and worked across India for over five years working in the nonprofit and technology sectors. She has led and supported student groups in Nicaragua, South Africa, and India. Currently, she helps run the Leadership Collective among a number of other project management-related roles. Prior, Caitlin worked in Mumbai as a consultant to implement technologies for social impact organizations.
She was also a William J. Clinton Fellowship in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh at a social enterprise managing solid waste. She holds a BA from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Caitlin is originally from Colorado, and is happiest when in the mountains, especially if there is a dog by her side.
Support Team & Trip Leaders
Rorujorona Ferrell
Rorujorona is passionate about serving as a cultural liaison. As a social worker and educator, she has lead programs, taught, and served organizations in the US, India, and the Dominican Republic for over fifteen years. She enjoys the tranquility of the color turquoise, the leisure of quality time with friends in a good coffee shop, the adventures of a good book, and the culinary joy that is sushi.
Rorujorona holds an M.Ed. from Arcadia University (Pennsylvania), an MSW with a macro concentration from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in mathematics and English from the University of Michigan. This is Rorujorona’s second year as a trip leader with the 360Plus Leadership Collective.
Ana Alí Simón Gutiérrez
Ana is from Mexico and is a biologist specialized in wildlife conservation and recently finished a Master on Climate Change & Development in South Africa. She has over 10 years of experience in research, sustainability, conservation, climate change, public policy, and quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Ana has worked with the private sector, non-profits, and the government, including international leadership experience in multidisciplinary teams. She like exploring the world and learning new things. Respect is what Ana values above any other thing, and she is always up for sharing a big laugh.
Cedric Nukeri
Cedric was born and bred in Orlando East, Soweto, South Africa. He works for Grassroot Soccer as a Programs Manager and is studying for Higher Certificate in Human Resource Management. He holds a Diploma in Business Administration and Management and Higher Certificate in Business Management. Cedric is married has two children.
Cedric lives by principles and rules and is very consistent and dependable. When interacting with others, he is quiet, reserved, steadily dependable, and caring in his relationships. He enjoys the process of objective analysis, with the outcome often of less importance. He is aesthetically appreciative, values quality, and enjoys art, music, and food. This is Cedric’s second year traveling with the 360Plus Leadership Collective.
India Hosts
Mohit Raj
Mohit has more than nine years of work experience in the development sector, designing, implementing and monitoring the impactful projects in the streams of education, livelihoods and youth empowerment with the focus on children, women and persons with disabilities, incarcerated youth with both social and entrepreneurial capabilities.
In 2010, Mohit with his best friend and college mate, began name ‘Turn Your Concern Into Action’ (TYCIA) Foundation with a dream of bringing 100 out of school children into mainstream education. With a limited resources and immense enthusiasm, he jumped in the ocean of development space which was never in the plan. TCYIA Foundation has grown since, and has helped facilitate numerous 360Plus programs.
He holds Post Graduation in NGO Management from Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi, an MBA degree in finance and marketing from a reputed Delhi Institute, professional leadership programs with the University of Chicago and Duke University.
Tabish Bilal
Tabish graduated from Jamia Millia Islamia where he studied Human Resources Management. After a short experience in the corporate world, he quickly understood that it was the development sector that moved him. He joined TYCIA as a fellow of the Transforming Tihar program and is now in charge of Youth Empowerment.
He is currently engaged in providing learning opportunities to young national and international high school students through the 360Plus Leadership Collective. He is also engaged in APV School Project in Anjanisain Village, Uttarakhand. In his free time, he likes playing and watching football and is a Chelsea FC supporter.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line585
|
__label__cc
| 0.718649
| 0.281351
|
Dan Berger
CEO in Washington, DC
Dan Berger is the Founder, VP, and General Manager of the Washington, D.C.-based Social Tables.
Founded in 2011, Social Tables provides event sales, marketing, and operations software which have enabled over 250,000 planners and 5,000 hotel & venue professionals to execute 4.5 million events.
The company has served organizations and hospitality brands, including Hyatt, The Venetian, ClubCorp, Under Armour, Live Nation, Forbes, amongst many others. Backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, QuestMark Partners, Thayer Venture Partners, and other investors, Social Tables raised a total of $22.6 million before being acquired in October 2018 by Cvent, a Vista-backed company, for a reported $100mm.
Dan has been recognized as an industry and tech leader by BizBash, Catersource, Washingtonian, MeetingsNet, and other publications. He is the recipient of the Pacesetter Award from the Events Industry Council and was named one of the most influential leaders in the meetings industry in Successful Meetings for two years in a row. He volunteers with several industry organizations, including the Events Industry Council and Catersource. Dan chairs the Capital Tech Coalition and the Georgetown Tech Alliance's DC Chapter. He is an active member in YPO.
Prior to Social Tables, Dan worked in management consulting, ran a large association, worked for a Member of Congress, and built websites for several startups.
Dan, 37, has a BA from Hunter College and an MBA from Georgetown. He was born in Israel, grew up in NYC, and lives in DC with his dog, Leroy.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line591
|
__label__wiki
| 0.820499
| 0.820499
|
Los Angeles Theater: How To Make A Mecca | Alexander Westerman
Posted on: November 23, 2018 Last updated on: July 8, 2019 Written by: Alex Westerman Comments: 0 Categorized in: Featured, Musical Theater, Performing Arts, Theater Tagged as: featured post los angeles musicals theater
When people think of visiting Los Angeles, theater isn’t exactly on the top of their lists.
Search around the Internet and you’ll find there’s a genuine consensus why tourists come to L.A.
Venice Boardwalk
The Farmer’s Market & The Grove
Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Getty Center
Griffith Observatory
Philippe’s (French Dip Sandwich)
Watts Towers
“L.A. Theater” doesn’t come close to landing on this list. It not only gets trounced by moist roast beef sandwiches but also Pink’s Hot Dogs and Langer’s pastrami! But let’s face it. We’re not New York City or London. And yet, there’s an awful of lot theater happening here.
By golly, we even have a “Theater Row!”
While touring company musicals like “Hamilton” and “Book of Mormon” have traditionally dominated the L.A. theater scene, on any given night there are a slew of productions happening all over town, the bulk of which take place in smaller venues. By golly, we even have a “Theater Row!” You may have even driven past it and didn’t even notice the nine theaters that run along the 6000-block of Santa Monica Boulevard.
Yep. This ain’t New York’s “Great White Way” with its 39 theaters packing in tourist crowds every night (except Monday.) And it’s not even close to London’s West End where, on any given night, you can see shows that will eventually make their way to Broadway… and then two years later to L.A.
To get a perspective, here’s what Broadway has grossed from 1984 to 2016. The 2016-17 season grossed $1.449 billion, 90% of which came from musicals.1
(*BEGINNING WITH THE 2009-10 SEASON, “GROSS” REPRESENTS GROSS AND “ATTENDANCE” REPRESENTS TOTAL ATTENDANCE.)
And in London, younger people are flocking to the theater. In fact, a higher proportion of people went to the theatre last year then attended a music concert or sporting event, with teenagers saying they are more likely to go than older people.2
Los Angeles has the creatives
So why can’t we replicate this kind of success and enthusiasm? Los Angeles may have the largest conglomeration of actors, directors, producers, designers, and overworked key grips than any other city in the world (with the possible exception of Bollywood). Nearly 1 in 8 of all private wage and salary workers in the L.A. Region (759,000 jobs) work directly or indirectly in the creative industries.3
We’re swimming in culture
True, most of these creatives come here because of film and TV; and it’s also true that there’s a lot of bad theater (and I have witnessed some of the worst) populated by Hollywood hopefuls who wouldn’t know their Pinter from a pint of craft beer. Why waste one’s time seeing off-off-awful theater when you can see “Our Town: On Ice” at L.A. Live?
But still! Why must theater continue to be the bastard step-sister of movie-making Hollywood? Is there a way, apart from divine intervention, to make Los Angeles a mecca for good theater?
So why not a theater renaissance?
After all, Los Angeles is no cultural wasteland. We’re swimming in culture, like happy streptococci in your kombucha. The Broad, our newest contemporary art museum and home to Eli and Edythe Broad’s collection of 2,000 post-war works, is packing them in. Nearby, REDCAT, housed at magnificent Walt Disney Concert Hall, offers new works of dance, theater, multimedia performance and music by leading artists. Downtown’s Grand Avenue has never been so grand.
But it’s not just downtown. Communities throughout the L.A. Region, from Burbank to Santa Monica, from Glendale to Inglewood, are actively developing arts and cultural plans.3
Just take a look at the skyline of L.A. and you’ll see a gaggle of cranes looming over the horizon. There’s been a lot of building and renovating going on, and a good deal of it expands our cultural opportunities: The Marciano Art Foundation, the new LACMA building, The Wallis, and the Theater at the Ace Hotel. And in 2019, the Academy Museum (Oscars anyone?) will add to the mix.
As the trite yet true aphorism goes: “If you build it they will come.”
And, not so “far, far away in a not-so-distant galaxy,” the highly-anticipated (George) Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will break ground in Exposition Park in January 2018 with an official opening in 2021.
This is what the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will look like when it opens its doors in 2021. Light sabers, anyone?
Indeed, Los Angeles is experiencing a visual art renaissance (we have an Arts District for god’s sake!) and our music scene is more vital than ever, with much better strains of cannabis available than the ‘70’s. Cultural events and venues large and small are popping up all over Downtown.
Los Angeles has had quite a few World Premieres that eventually made their way to Broadway; but only these four plays were critical and commercial successes:
Tourists Visiting Los Angeles
And that begs the question: “Is L.A. destined to be theater’s Triple-A farm team?” Perhaps. But while we may never draw a multitude of tourists to our theaters, we can at least be competitive.
How many tourists? A lot. Much more than London that’s for sure. And we’re closing in on New York. Take a look at this chart: (London is orange; Los Angeles is turquoise; New York is purple)
42.2 million tourists!4 So how do we get Bill and Martha from Columbus, OH flocking to our theaters?
A good way to begin would be to open a highly-publicized new musical here with no intention of taking it to Broadway no matter how successful it becomes. Imagine if “Hamilton” had premiered here and was now in its 5th season at the Ahmanson. New Yorkers would have to wait until the first touring company came to them. Touché.
Los Angeles Musical Festival
Then another new musical opens and then another and suddenly L.A. starts to get some press as a “surprising new mecca for theater.” Then writers and actors and directors, when they’re not working on some great TV show on Netflix, start to think about the possibilities of doing something theatrical that people from all over the world would want to see. I’d be one of the first in line to see a musical penned by Shonda Rhimes. “How to Get Away with Murder, The Musical” is a hit!
But as it stands now, actors like Jason Alexander, Al Pacino, Helen Mirren return to the stage in New York because of the cache and prestige. It’s a kneejerk reaction. Los Angeles is an afterthought.
Another idea that could spark a revival would be a Los Angeles Musical Festival. Yes, I keep harping on musicals, but take a look at Broadway box office from week to week. All the biggest-grossing shows are musicals. So, if something akin to The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) could be successfully replicated, hundreds of first-time musical writers and composers, whose shows were accepted into the festival, would have a chance to see their shows professionally produced all over the city. Maybe the show that garners the most acclaim will find backers and have its World Premiere at the Mark Taper Forum.
Thinking way outside the proscenium
It’s all about thinking way outside the proscenium and not accepting the notion that big theater is not meant for Los Angeles. It will take the backing of theater-loving Los Angelenos with deep pockets to get the ball rolling. And there are plenty of them here.
But mostly, what’s required is a change of perception. And that’s an even more difficult hurdle. Much like New York’s iconic “I love New York! campaign, L.A. theatre should have a multi-million dollar promotional campaign that will attract tourists from all over the world. TV spots should be bought with movie and TV stars extolling the greatness of L.A. Theater. Maybe a campaign like:
Los Angeles is Dramatic.
Los Angeles is Musical.
Los Angeles is Theater.
And, if that doesn’t work… well, I hear “Cats” will be at the Pantages next year. Can’t wait. Meow!
1The Broadway League
2Survey of Theatre-going Intentions Throws up Surprising Results
32017 Otis Report on the Creative Economy of Los Angeles
4 World Tourism Organization 2017
0 comments on “Los Angeles Theater: How To Make A Mecca”
Previous Post Iran – a Poem for Reza – my guide
Next Post Spinning in the Court of the Lions
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line593
|
__label__wiki
| 0.75883
| 0.75883
|
Adventure Racing World Series
The AR World Series is a collection of around ten adventure races staged around the world, one of which is nominated the world championship race for the given year. Races are for mixed teams of four and they tend to last between four and six days, and consequently they are at the extreme end of adventure racing. Member races come from as far afield as Australia, China, South Africa, France, Spain Paraguay and the United States (which staged the World Championship for 2017, at Cowboy Tough in Wyoming in early August) and each varies in character according to the terrain of the country. The 2018 final will be Raid in France in the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. The AR World Series website is at ARWorldSeries.com. Image courtesy of XPD/Geocentric.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line595
|
__label__cc
| 0.729377
| 0.270623
|
Bjorn Lenhard and the Transcontinental Race 2018
Courtesy Camille McMillan
Bjorn Lenhard, an accomplished ultra-distance cyclist, entered the Transcontinental Race for the third time in 2018. The event, approximately 3800 kilometres long, is non-stop and unsupported, and crosses Europe via just four checkpoints. It took Bjorn 10 days and 36 minutes to cover the distance.
TCR 2018 ran in a zig-zag pattern from Geraardsbergen in Belgium to Meteroa in Greece, setting off south to Austria on one side of the Alps, then crossing to Slovenia (just across the border from Italy) on the other side. Next it went north to Poland (just over the border from Czech) and then south to Bosnia, before a final run down to Greece. Cyclists must decide on their own route between checkpoints and canny road choice can make all the difference. It is reckoned that competitors covered approximately 4000km and ascended some 35-40,000 metres in all. As an unsupported race riders cannot receive outside support, resupply or lodgings that are unavailable to other competitors.
In 2017 Bjorn Lenhard placed second in the Transcontinental Race. He would love to have improved on this, but in the way of these races, as well as some pieces of good luck, he had two major problems and in 2018 he placed third. Here he talks through the ups and downs of his race.
For more information about the Transcontinental Race, see their website here. Photographs courtesy Camille McMillan and Max Libertine. Björn Lenhard has been a brand ambassador for Canyon Bikes, Apidura and 7Mesh clothing since 2018
What was Transcontinental 2018 like?
Bjorn Lenhard: It’s a really tough race anyway, but the Transcontinental 2018 was much cooler than last year, when it got to 45 degrees in the day. This time it only reached 35, which is still warm but manageable, though it got cold in the mountains. The level of the competition was about the same as in previous years.
Were you as prepared as you needed to be?
I think so. I didn’t suffer as much as I have in previous years. The only time I really suffered in this year’s event was mentally, first in Czech and then when I was in Bosnia, where I ended up on an unsafe road and I had to ride an additional 200 kilometres to get back onto a usable road.
I had the usual minor problems. I got some chafing, though actually that wasn’t too bad. I should have stretched a bit more before going to sleep. I have been to a physio this year and this has really helped me to get over a problem with my back. Finally I ended up with no feeling in my fingers and toes, but that’s usual. It will return to normal around Christmas. It’s funny how your body manages to hold it all together during the event, but then as soon as you finish a race things everything falls to bits.
Courtesy Max Libertine
What was the race organisation like?
Perfect. They did a great job with everything. It’s important for riders to know there is a good structure behind them in a race like this. Last year, after the death of Mike Hall in Australia, they were a bit worried. This year it was great. Registration was smooth and we went through our bike-checks in about 45 minutes.
Obviously we don’t expect much of a fanfare at the end of the race as we all arrive at such different times. They keep it small and simple. I finished at about midnight and there were just a couple of people at the bar.
How did your race go?
It took me two or three days before I really got into the race, but in fact the first two checkpoints, down to the Alps, were fine. I got three hours’ sleep each night.
I hit my first big problem between Checkpoint 2 and 3. I found myself on a Czech road where there should have been a hard shoulder but there wasn’t - it was really busy and basically too dangerous. I had to choose another road and then I got caught up with roadworks and it all began to go wrong. I ran out of water and food and I had no Czech money to buy anything - I carry just Euros and a credit card. I really suffered.
I couldn’t think straight any more and I was absolutely at my end. I made the decision to stop and I slept for 10 hours. The result was that Checkpoint 2 to Checkpoint 3 took two days and I probably lost six or seven hours. Also, I was only about 200km away from home in Dresden. I considered throwing the race in – staying for a few days to watch the other competitors come through CP3 and then just cycling home - but I couldn’t do it. After that I had a little problem with a rear tyre near Checkpoint 4, but I was lucky and it was sorted out very quickly.
In Bosnia I hit my second big problem. I chose a road marked on google maps which turned out to be gravel after about 25 kilometres. It was already dark but I kept going for a bit, asking about the surface of the road wherever I could, but nobody could speak any German. I climbed to 1200 metres and it got really cold. In the end I had to turn around and return to the village, then head for another road, which turned out to be closed. And then the next road, down to Sarajevo, that was far too busy with traffic. I did about 200 extra kilometres and that really hurt.
Bjorn on the long haul up to CP4 in Bjelašnica, Bosnia, Camille McMillan
What of Sleep and Nutrition?
I slept between three and five hours a night. It’s unpredictable, and it doesn’t necessarily depend on what happened the day before. Sometimes I set the alarm for four hours and I wake up early and I feel strong enough to get back on the bike. Other times I try to get up and I need another hour before I can get going again.
I didn’t have a problem with food. I found all I needed in petrol stations. Of course it’s nice to have some fresh fruit, but in the end I visited only one supermarket during the whole race.
My discipline was pretty good. I didn’t waste much time while I was out there. I ate on the bike a lot and I didn’t stop much either. It gets harder towards the end of the race and of course when things are going against you, then it is definitely harder to keep good discipline – drinking and eating properly.
What were the good moments?
There was a really nice moment when I was forced to stop in Bosnia. I was in a restaurant, chatting to the people there and it felt great after my problems. The other fantastic moment was to see the scenery around CP4 near Sarajevo. That was spectacular.
There were just a few things. I will carry a bit more foreign currency after my problem in Czech and I will carry a spare valve after my problem at CP3. I will also carry a bit more food with me in future.
A Life of Adventure would love to keep you posted with stories ideas and tips about well... adventure. Sign up and we'll send occasional inspiring, pithy and hopefully funny messages about how to find adventure and the people involved. We promise not to bombard you and will never sell your email address on.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line596
|
__label__cc
| 0.512834
| 0.487166
|
Paul Gilbert And His Legacy
Andrew Catania June 6, 2017 No Comments Andrew CataniaFrontiers RecordsIbenezJimi HendrixJimmy PageMr BigPaul GilbertRacer Xrandy rhoadsTony Iommiyngwie malmsteen
A former member of ‘Racer X,’ and the co-founder of ‘Mr. Big’, Paul Gilbert has much more to his stake his claim, that eventually saw him rank 4th, in the Guitar One Magazine’s list of the Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time. He has also made into the Guitar World Magazines, the list of the 50 Fastest Guitarists of All Times.
Paul Gilbert is a prominent, and sound name in the music sphere, specifically in the rock and heavy metal genre. His penchant for veering off from the conventional techniques, trying improvisations and his natural curiosity to experiment outside the prevalent, and well-grounded trends, compels him to test his expertise in a variety of genres.
Having a firm knowledge of the tactics, techniques, and intricacies of a variety of instruments, such as bass, keyboard, harmonica, and percussion, Paul Gilbert eventually settled to play the guitar. His techniques are finely calculated, intricate, have great depth, and utmost attention to detail. It is this precision of his shredding style, that makes even the loudest of tones fall smoothly onto the eardrum, and makes one experience ultimate musical ecstasy.
Paul Gilbert’s playing style is unique and unbelievably complexed to be true. His one mere shred occurs with such force that few can match. Playing on fretboards, similar to those used by his contemporaries, his exceptional command over the chords sets him a class apart from the rest.
Lightning fast, dense, dynamic and fluctuating with aesthetic and carefully-handled nuances, Paul Gilbert has enchanted millions of rock, and metal enthusiasts worldwide, through his vibrant and addictive tones. His technique is neat and has a ferocious frequency which is squeezed out at an overwhelming speed. Besides that, his immense control over the length, the graduation of tones, and prolonged picking without taking an anchor or bridge is a worthy testament to his incredible and extraordinary skills. No wonder he is ranked among Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Rusty Cooley and other legendary names that have redefined the rock and heavy metal genre.
Paul Gilbert’s signature style has evolved through his self-taught, and experimental approach. He mentions the work of notable legendaries including Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kim Mitchell, Steve Clark, Akira Takasaki, Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, and much more as his inspiration. Being a keen observer and a quick learner, he attempted to learn, and master each’s technique, and improvised to include a fusion of his own. It is because of this, that he’s equally famous among the fandoms of other heavy metal legends, as his style reflects a flavor of his prime influences while maintaining its signature essence, and uniqueness.
While he’s ranked at an unparalleled stature among other heavy metal virtuosos, Paul Gilbert, experiments and composes his music in a variety of genres, including pop, metal, rock, funk, and blues. The speed, versatility, efficiency, timeliness, and seamless control visibly rule over all genres that he plays. His fusion of fast picking, combined with legato, and his precise-to-perfect staccato-picking, is a powerful depiction of his nonpareil excellence and is a sure-tell sign that the milestones he has set in the heavy metal genre, will demand a lot from his predecessors to come close to matching his legacy.
Mr. Big’s new record, Defying Gravity, will be released on July 7th, 2017 via Frontiers Records.
Previous Previous post: Zakk Wylde: Why I Was Asked To Rejoin Ozzy
Next Next post: Iced Earth Hammering Back With Incorruptible Out June 16th
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line597
|
__label__wiki
| 0.528036
| 0.528036
|
Microsoft Releases Beta Version of its High-Performance Computing OS
By Matthew Schwartz, Enterprise Systems
At a keynote speech to Supercomputing 2005, Microsoft’s Bill Gates said Microsoft has released the beta 2 version of Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, the company’s first high-performance computing OS, and is funding joint research projects at 10 academic centers worldwide.
In addition to computational modeling and clusters, Gates addressed the transformation resulting from the availability of massive amounts of real-world data from low-cost sensors. This powerful combination creates new opportunities, but also new challenges, particularly with how to manage, search, analyze and publish that data and the resulting conclusions, he said.
Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is scheduled for release in the first half of 2006. The company is working with software partners across the manufacturing, life sciences and geosciences, and other industries to create apps for the new OS. This effort includes integrating applications with the Microsoft Message Passing Interface and the Microsoft job scheduler, and offering performance-tuning technologies to run on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Microsoft also is working with Intel to provide software vendors with 64-bit hardware, software and tools from both companies, and joint on-site engineering assistance.
Gates said Microsoft has made multiyear, multimillion-dollar investments in joint research projects at high-performance computing centers at universities in the United States, Russia, Japan, England and Germany.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line604
|
__label__cc
| 0.56447
| 0.43553
|
SUDANESE PRESIDENT OMAR AL-BASHIR WILL NOT BE ARRESTED IN SOUTH AFRICA
News24 reported that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir cannot be arrested while in Sandton, the area hosting the African Union summit, as the area is still under the jurisdiction of the organisation, quoting the South African Institute of International Affairs.
“As we know, because the AU was holding a conference in Sandton, that area has been declared as belonging to AU which is standard,” spokesperson Hopewell Radebe said.
“So this means no SA police members can go there and arrest anyone for the duration of the conference.”
Radebe said if Al-Bashir was to be arrested it would either be once he had moved out of the Sandton area or after the summit had been declared over, depending whether he was still around by then.
The High Court in Pretoria will on Monday hear an application on whether South African authorities can arrest him.
On Sunday, Judge Hans Fabricius ordered that the Department of Home Affairs ensure that all points of entry and exit be informed that Al-Bashir was not allowed to leave until the SA Litigation Centre’s (SALC) application that South Africa arrest him, is concluded.
The SALC wants South Africa to enforce two warrants for Al-Bashir’s arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 and 2010 relating to alleged war crimes and genocide.
Al-Bashir is in South Africa to attend the AU summit.
However. there have been conflicting reports about whether al-Bashir was still in South Africa or not.
Sudan’s Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told Bloomberg on Sunday evening that al-Bashir had left South Africa and was on his way home.
“The president finished his business and is coming back home.
“Al-Bashir went to South Africa with complete guarantees that it will respect the African position regarding the ICC,” he reportedly said.
A Sudanese presidency official said Al-Bashir was still in Johannesburg on Monday morning and would leave later in the day.
Africa Thisday condemns any attempt to arrest any African leader attending the African Union Summit by the West as we consider it disrespectful from the west. No more shall the West waste Africa.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Africa THisday, africa union summit, news24, President Jacob Zuma, PRESIDENT OMAR AL-BASHIR, Sudan.
BUHARI WON BUT JONATHAN IS CELEBRATED
LEAKED: Nigeria’s CAC Withdraws The Assemblies of God Church’s Certificate of Incorporation
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line606
|
__label__wiki
| 0.948596
| 0.948596
|
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time due in March
Square-Enix has added another title to its healthy stable of Q1 titles for …
Frank Caron - Jan 27, 2009 5:30 pm UTC
While Capcom may have the most robust first quarter offerings for 2009, Square-Enix has quite a few games up its sleeves as well. In addition to the excellent port of Star Ocean 2: Second Evolution, the company has a number of big titles due out before the quarter's end. Square-Enix has revealed that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time will be among those titles, as the game is set to launch on March 24.
Not to be confused with the other Wii Crystal Chronicles title, The Crystal Bearers, Echoes of Time is a cross-platform Wii and DS action game that continues the Crystal Chronicles tradition of focusing on four player dungeon-crawling. Four gamers, playing together on the Wii and DS in assorted configurations, will tackle a treasure trove of giant monsters in the quest for loot and experience points. The game will retail for $39.99 on both platforms, and owners of the Wii version will be able to import their Miis.
With the Dragon Quest V DS remake and a DS Valkyrie Profile title, as well as the highly-anticipated Xbox 360 debut of the Star Ocean series with Star Ocean: The Last Hope, there seems to be no shortage of Square-Enix gaming to be found early this year--and that's a good thing. We'll need something to occupy our time until the Final Fantasy XIII demo arrives, after all.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line611
|
__label__wiki
| 0.940727
| 0.940727
|
DeSean Jackson #11 wide receiver during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Tom DiPace/Athlon Sports
Mike Evans #13 wide receiver during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Eli Manning during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Brandon Marshall #15 wide receiver during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Eli Manning.#10 quarterback during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Cameron Brate #84 tight end during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Nick Folk #10 kicker during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Odell Beckham Jr.#13 wide receiver during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Eli Apple #24 cornerback during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Sterling Shepard.#87 widereciever during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Wayne Gallman.#22 running back during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Jameis Winston #3 quarter back during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Evan Engram #88 tighten during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
Buccaneers cheerleader during the New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL football game in Tampa, Florida, October 1, 2017.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line616
|
__label__wiki
| 0.979579
| 0.979579
|
Falsettos Will Return to Broadway
February 5th, 2015 | By Ryan McPhee
Falsettos—the much-loved musical by William Finn and James Lapine, will return to Broadway! The landmark tuner will play the Great White Way in spring 2016. Further information, including dates, casting and additional creative team, will be announced later. Lapine, who directed the original production, will return to direct the revival.
"I am part of a large club of theater lovers who were changed by this show, who passionately believe that Falsettos is ‘our show.’ I can’t wait to have our show on Broadway again,” producer Jordan Roth said in a statement.
The musical follows Marvin who struggles to create a “tight knit family” out of his eclectic array of core relationships (including his ex-wife, his new boyfriend, his adolescent son, his psychiatrist, and his neighbors). Amidst a series of monumental life changes, he is forced to reckon with his own views on love, responsibility, and what it means to be a man.
Finn took home the 1993 Tony Award for Best Score and shared Best Book with Lapine for the 1992 production. The cast included Michael Rupert as Marvin, as well as Chip Zien, Carolee Carmello, Barbara Walsh, Heather MacRae, Jonathan Kaplan and Stephen Bogardus.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line617
|
__label__cc
| 0.5742
| 0.4258
|
the dark enlightenment
The end of conservatism as we know it
I've staked my ground on the thesis that ideology is no longer the primary driver of US politics, and here's somebody who agrees with me:
Is ‘Classical Liberalism’ Conservative?
Trump didn’t divide the right. Centuries-old philosophical divisions have re-emerged.
American conservatism is having something of an identity crisis. Most conservatives supported Donald Trump last November. But many prominent conservative intellectuals—journalists, academics and think-tank personalities—have entrenched themselves in bitter opposition. Some have left the Republican Party, while others are waging guerrilla warfare against a Republican administration. Longtime friendships have been ended and resignations tendered. Talk of establishing a new political party alternates with declarations that Mr. Trump will be denied the GOP nomination in 2020.
Those in the “Never Trump” camp say the cause of the split is the president—that he’s mentally unstable, morally unspeakable, a leftist populist, a rightist authoritarian, a danger to the republic. One prominent Republican told me he is praying for Mr. Trump to have a brain aneurysm so the nightmare can end.
But the conservative unity that Never Trumpers seek won’t be coming back, even if the president leaves office prematurely. An apparently unbridgeable ideological chasm is opening between two camps that were once closely allied. Mr. Trump’s rise is the effect, not the cause, of this rift.
As I put it, conservatism now finds itself polarized between the End-Of-History camp and the Clash-Of-Civilizations camp. Yoram Hazony distinguishes between the Enlightenment-era classical liberalism that came to suffuse so much of modern conservative thought, and WASP-American pragmatism.
In his “Second Treatise on Government” (1689), Locke asserts that universal reason teaches the same political truths to all human beings; that all individuals are by nature “perfectly free” and “perfectly equal”; and that obligation to political institutions arises only from the consent of the individual. From these assumptions, Locke deduces a political doctrine that he supposes must hold good in all times and places.
The term “classical liberal” came into use in 20th-century America to distinguish the supporters of old-school laissez-faire from the welfare-state liberalism of figures such as Franklin D. Roosevelt. Modern classical liberals, inheriting the rationalism of Hobbes and Locke, believe they can speak authoritatively to the political needs of every human society, everywhere. In his seminal work, “Liberalism” (1927), the great classical-liberal economist Ludwig von Mises thus advocates a “world super-state really deserving of the name,” which will arise if we “succeed in creating throughout the world . . . nothing less than unqualified, unconditional acceptance of liberalism. Liberal thinking must permeate all nations, liberal principles must pervade all political institutions.”
Friedrich Hayek, the leading classical-liberal theorist of the 20th century, likewise argued, in a 1939 essay, for replacing independent nations with a world-wide federation: “The abrogation of national sovereignties and the creation of an effective international order of law is a necessary complement and the logical consummation of the liberal program.”
Classical liberalism thus offers ground for imposing a single doctrine on all nations for their own good. It provides an ideological basis for an American universal dominion.
By contrast, Anglo-American conservatism historically has had little interest in putatively self-evident political axioms. Conservatives want to learn from experience what actually holds societies together, benefits them and destroys them. That empiricism has persuaded most Anglo-American conservative thinkers of the importance of traditional Protestant institutions such as the independent national state, biblical religion and the family.
As an English Protestant, Locke could have endorsed these institutions as well. But his rationalist theory provides little basis for understanding their role in political life. Even today liberals are plagued by this failing: The rigidly Lockean assumptions of classical-liberal writers such as Hayek, Milton Friedman, Robert Nozick and Ayn Rand place the nation, the family and religion outside the scope of what is essential to know about politics and government. Students who grow up reading these brilliant writers develop an excellent grasp of how an economy works. But they are often marvelously ignorant about much else, having no clue why a flourishing state requires a cohesive nation, or how such bonds are established through family and religious ties.
Hazony points out that modern conservative unity was, in retrospect, a product of the times, specifically the great and defining Cold War. Then the Cold War ended (we won) and a certain class of thinker waited expectantly for the rest of the world to join us at the Eschaton. Thus imagine the shock, the anger when, as it turned out, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Muslims remained stubbornly parochial. For the true-believing classical liberal, it was the equivalent of continued heresy in the face of the physically incarnate Christ. This same aggrieved shock and anger manifests in the reactions to Trump, who casually tore up the ideological rule book and beat a whole bench of well-funded political pros at their own game.
As I've mentioned before, it's useless to talk about fiscal prudence in a country where half the people are net tax-consumers and the government prints all the money it wants. It's dishonest to lecture people about the free market when the central bank will backstop Goldman Sachs' and AIG's bad investments. And if Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, India, Greek Cyprus, the Vatican, and lots of other places can have border fences well, why can't we? Principled Conservatism doesn't really have a response. The Left, of course, is completely honest about its aims: white people are systemically, irredeemably racist, sexist, and just all-around awful and their social and economic clout must be reduced via immigration. Whites outside coastal socio-economic bubbles quite naturally voted for the billionaire who tells them he won't let that happen. Why wouldn't they?
Labels: amerika politics Republicans the dark enlightenment
Bert said…
Honestly you're getting very boring and repetitive.
The Anti-Gnostic said…
I keep seeing the themes I write about here pop up elsewhere. I'll try to hit some different topics.
Major7 said…
Miss your posts AG.
Maguro said…
I think this line of thought is worth exploring at some length. So many aspects of modern conservative ideology are just vestigial remnants of the compromises and coalition-building necessary to win the Cold War. But of course there's no Cold War anymore and hasn't been for almost 30 years, so the insistence on adhering to Cold War era dogma has left mainstream conservatism unable to deal intelligently with issues like immigration and trade. History casts a long shadow.
There have been two significant and bizarrely under-remarked political phenomena in my lifetime. The first was the Left tiptoeing away from the working class's economic issues to identity politics beginning in the 1960's. The second is happening at present: the schism on the Right between the End-Of-History and the Clash-Of-Civilizations paradigms. Historically unprecedented demographic changes, among other inputs, drive both. Modern ideological conservatism is simply not equipped for this fight, so we've lost all the institutions. I can't stress that last point enough.
A third smaller but significant development: the utter failure of libertarianism/minarchism, also driven by demographic change and the sheer scale of a technologically advanced State with an enormous tax base.
A fourth development, from my perspective: the diminution of Christianity in the public consciousness and orthodox Christianity's impotence in the face of the new realities.
A comprehensive and historical treatment of all four phenomena would fill four books, hence my repetitive posting.
"Hazony points out that modern conservative unity was, in retrospect, a product of the times, specifically the great and defining Cold War."
Perhaps. My sense is that the country, and Western Society in general, are still (only barely) living in a post-WW2 world. The centralization of the federal state, the federal government's presumed responsibility for X (X= everything), the dominant international situation whereby the US is the superpower and Europe are its little buddies, the values conflict between 'conservative' (i.e. Hitler) and 'liberal' (i.e. good guys like us), the social and economic centralization (good jobs are those with a big corporation in big cities, bad jobs are those in small towns), etc etc.
This is only ending now. And I admit that big C conservatism may have been borne of the Cold War. But I believe our overall culture was borne of WWII. We're slowly shedding that (and I'm not implying we are going back-to small town America, to rural America). What comes next (post-WW2 and post American Empire), I don't know. Either a better balanced society between centralization (Federal Government) and atomization (state/local government), or a Federal Superstate, I'd guess.
A lot of foreign policy is explainable by efforts of the victors to maintain the immediate post-WW2 status quo. I think the two points can be synthesized, as the foreign policy ends up driving a lot of domestic policy as well.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line619
|
__label__wiki
| 0.555089
| 0.555089
|
OTI Lumionics Partners with Rigetti on Quantum Computing Initiative for Materials Discovery Applications
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/oti-lumionics-partners-with-rigetti-on-quantum-computing-initiative-for-materials-discovery-applications-692706651.html
TORONTO, Sept. 7, 2018 /CNW/ — OTI Lumionics, a leading developer of advanced materials and manufacturing processes for OLEDs, today announced that it is partnering with Berkeley and Fremont, CA-based company Rigetti to further the development of quantum computing for materials discovery applications using Rigetti’s new Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform.
“As a leading developer of advanced materials, we are constantly looking for new methods to accelerate our computational materials discovery platform, and we’re excited to be partnering with Rigetti,” said Michael Helander, President & CEO of OTI Lumionics. “The unique scaling advantage of quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize the field of materials science, and we see it as a source of competitive business advantage.”
As one of Rigetti’s QCS Developer Partners, OTI Lumionics will use the QCS platform for developing and distributing quantum computing-based materials discovery methods and to help collaboratively develop the first generation of practical quantum computing applications.
“This partnership builds on our previous success working with Rigetti’s full-stack quantum computing platform and our collaborators at the University of Toronto, including Artur Izmaylov, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, to develop one of the largest and most accurate molecular simulations on a quantum computer to date,” said Helander.
The results were published in an article earlier this year: https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.00461.
For more information about OTI Lumionics, please visit https://otilumionics.com.
About OTI Lumionics
OTI Lumionics is a venture-backed advanced materials engineering company that is using its proprietary materials discovery platform, and innovative process and manufacturing technologies, to solve large-scale industrial manufacturing challenges. The company has developed next-generation electrode materials and processes for flexible and transparent OLED displays and lighting, and is driving critical industry advancements to help build larger, brighter, thinner, and lower cost OLED panels for a wide array of innovative commercial and consumer products.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line620
|
__label__wiki
| 0.518402
| 0.518402
|
HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1910s → 1912 → March 1912 → 14 March 1912 → Commons Sitting → ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.
HC Deb 14 March 1912 vol 35 cc1272-4 1272
§ Mr. JOYNSON-HICKS
asked whether the Prime Minister's attention has been called to the decision of the Amalgamated 1273 Society of Railway Servants to call in the mortgages of such of their members as remained faithful to their employers in the railway strike of last year; and whether he will introduce legislation to deal with the matter?
Mr. FRED HALL (Dulwich)
asked the right hon. Gentleman if his attention has been called to the terms of a circular letter issued by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants giving instructions with a view to the calling in of mortgages granted to members of the society who declined to withdraw their labour in the railway strike of August, 1911; whether, in view of the policy disclosed thereby, he will consider the necessity for requiring that trade union ballots shall be conducted in a manner to secure secrecy; and whether, in view of the services rendered to the public by certain railway servants at the time of the strike, the Government will compensate them for any injury which they in ay suffer through the action of the officials of the Railway Servants Society?
I have seen in the Press a copy of a circular letter, stated to have been addressed to branch secretaries of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in November last. The circular referred to a Resolution passed at the September meeting of the society to the effect that the mortgages of all members who failed to join in the strike last August should be called in, but I understand that no such mortgage has been called in, and I should hope that no step of that character will be taken. I fail to see that the question raised by the hon. Member for Dulwich of conducting trade union ballots in a manner to secure secrecy has any connection with this matter.
§ Mr. J. H. THOMAS
May I ask the hon. Gentleman whether he is aware that these statements originated in a notorious Conservative morning newspaper, and was supported by the Conservative candidate for Derby, and that both statements are wholly without foundation; and whether he will take steps to protect trade unions from such wicked and malicious attacks?
§ Lord CLAUD HAMILTON
Is the hon. Gentleman aware that at a meeting held in September at Unity House of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the following resolution was moved by Billett and seconded by Henderson: "That this committee hereby instructs the trustees to foreclose the mortgages of 1274 those who blacklegged during the strike." That is contained in the report of the Amalgamated Society.
I think that is a matter for debate.
Back to Home Rule Bill.
Forward to Small Landholders Act (Scotland).
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line621
|
__label__wiki
| 0.734106
| 0.734106
|
HANSARD 1803–2005 → 2000s → 2001 → April 2001 → 4 April 2001 → Commons Sitting
HC Deb 04 April 2001 vol 366 cc341-84 341
l3.—(1) This paragraph applies if—
(a) a Motion for the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 24 (Adjournment on specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration) has been stood over to seven o'clock; but
(b) proceedings to which this Order applies have begun before then.
(2) Proceedings on that Motion shall stand postponed until the conclusion of those proceedings.
14.—(1) No Motion shall be made to alter the order in which any proceedings on either of the Bills are taken.
(2) No dilatory Motion with respect to, or in the course of, proceedings to which this Order applies shall be made except by a Minister of the Crown; and the Question on any such Motion shall be put forthwith.
(3) No debate shall be permitted on any Motion to recommit either of the Bills (whether as a whole or otherwise), and the Speaker shall put forthwith any Question necessary to dispose of the Motion, including the Question on any amendment.
15. Standing Order No. 82 (Business Committee) shall not apply to this Order.
16.—(1) The Question on any Motion m tde by a Minister of the Crown for varying or supplementing the provisions of this Order shall be put forthwith.
(2) Standing Order No. 15(1) (Exempted business) shall apply to any proceedings to which this Order applies.
(3) If the House is adjourned, or the sitting is suspended, before the time at which any proceedings are to be brought to a conclusion under this Order, no notice shall be required of a Motion made by a Minister of the Crown for varying or supplementing the provisions of this Order.
17. Proceedings to which this Order applies shall not be interrupted under any Standing Order relating to the sittings of the House.
§ Those who are experts in the number of guillotine motions that have been before the House since the war—those who are not experts are recommended to read the research document available, as ever, in the Library—will know that it is not unusual for a single allocation of time motion to be moved in respect of two Bills. However, the circumstances of this allocation of time motion are unusual, although they are not unprecedented.
§ Most allocation of time motions arise because of the Government's difficulties in getting a normal Bill through all its proceedings, owing to problems in securing the Opposition's co-operation. That is a timeless verity, and it is true regardless of which party fills the Treasury Benches. [Interruption.] The right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) says from a sedentary position, "Oh yes, quite routine." It was routine for guillotine motions to be moved in the 1980s, and some of us remember those.
§ Miss Ann Widdecombe (Maidstone and The Weald)
Fewer than three.
§ Mr. Straw
No, there were not fewer than three guillotine motions in the 1980s. The number of guillotine 342 motions is principally a function of the way in which an Opposition behave. There were a large number of guillotine motions in the 1980s, because the then Opposition, of whom I was a Front-Bench member, decided that they were not willing to co-operate in sensible informal understandings about the timetabling of motions. For reasons that I fully understood, although I sometimes vociferously disagreed with them at the time, the Government therefore decided, rightly, that they were entitled to get their business through, and tabled guillotine motions accordingly.
There were far fewer guillotine motions in the latter part of the 1992 to 1997 Parliament, because by that stage, after 15, 16 or 17 years in opposition, the Labour party had learned a lesson—that it made a great deal more sense to spend time debating the heart of a Bill, agreeing sensible timetables, ensuring that they could be delivered by effective internal party discipline, and then getting out to campaign.
§ Mr. Eric Forth (Bromley and Chislehurst)
I shall give way in a moment.
That strategy was far more impressive. The hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) shakes his head, but if he studies the facts, he will see that to have been the case. He will also see that, at greater length than I propose to do so today, I have offered gratuitous but, I hope, welcome advice to the Opposition in their current predicament. It would be against my interests for them to accept that advice, but it is available to them.
§ Mr. Forth
I shall give way to the right hon. Gentleman in a moment. I always do.
Two of the guillotine motions during our time in opposition were ones with which we agreed. Those included the Prevention of Terrorism (Additional Powers) Act 1996, which passed through all its stages during Easter 1996.
Does the Home Secretary's research tell him how many guillotines were introduced during the glorious period of Conservative Government to ensure that Bills passed through all their stages within one hour? Does he not recognise that the Government's introduction of such a requirement is not only extraordinary and exceptional, but is an insult to our parliamentary process? What is the precedent for their actions?
I could while away the time, but I draw the right hon. Gentleman's attention to the precedent that was set only a few days ago in the other place, where, without timetabling, every single stage of the Bill's consideration was completed in 24 minutes. That was achieved because the Bill was agreed in terms by the three main parties and because the Government had introduced it at their request. If the Opposition in this House were capable of even a modicum of the discipline that is possible in the other place, a guillotine motion would not be needed. The right hon. Gentleman wears a badge of honour. His party is so deeply divided that it is absolutely impossible for its leader or Whips ever to gain the agreement of their Back Benchers, and he knows it, as he 343 is one of the rebels. Indeed, he is one of the many Opposition Back Benchers who hold their Front-Bench colleagues in almost utter and undisguised contempt, and who will lose almost no opportunity to embarrass them.
§ Miss Widdecombe
After that long diatribe, will the Home Secretary please answer the question that was asked by my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth)? When have any Government taken a Bill through Second Reading, Committee, Report and Third Reading in 60 minutes flat?
I have just answered the right hon. Lady's question by referring to the other place, which recognised that the Bill was agreed on. It is widely known that the other place usually takes rather longer to complete such deliberations, as it has no guillotine arrangements. However, as it was understood that the Bill had been agreed on because it sought to remedy—
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Will you confirm that, in your wisdom, you have selected two amendments for discussion in relation to this Bill whose consideration will be limited to one hour? As the Home Secretary is seeking to misinform us, it would be helpful to know that that is the case and that the amendments are relevant.
The amendments to which the right hon. Gentleman refers will be considered in Committee. I did not select them for consideration; they were selected by the Chairman of Ways and Means.
Let me deal with the reasons for introducing the Bill, after which—[Interruption.]
Order. The right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) is bad tempered today—very bad tempered indeed.
The right hon. Lady is bad tempered every day, Mr. Speaker, but we all get used to it. It is a bit like the weather. Life would not be the same without her sedentary mutterings, for which we have come to show so much affection.
§ Rev. Ian Paisley (North Antrim)
The Home Secretary said that the Bill was passed in the other place by agreement, but I understand that there was opposition. The speeches made by the former leader of the Ulster Unionist party could not in any way be said to have commended the Bill. In this House, can smaller parties from Northern Ireland now take it that we are not considered at all? We did not receive the Elections Bill in good time, and we have received apologies for that, which we have accepted. How is three-way agreement achieved when the main part of that Bill, which we will discuss today, is to do with Northern Ireland? Surely representatives from Northern Ireland should have been properly consulted and given time for proper debate.
With respect, I was talking about the second Bill, the Election Publications Bill, because I had been led on to that subject. I shall return later to the main 344 Bill before the House, to which more time has been allocated, although I accept that the time is limited. In that Bill, by far the greatest number of words is related to Northern Ireland, and of course I will take any interventions from the hon. Gentleman in respect of that.
§ Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)
Will the Home Secretary give way?
If the hon. Gentleman will allow me to proceed on the Election Publications Bill, I will take an intervention later.
The publications Bill is a short, three-clause Bill that has been introduced following representations from all three main parties. All parties have many thousands of prospective candidates throughout the country and are likely to be in the same difficulty regarding the new imprint requirements, and we need to regularise the position as soon as possible. The fact that local elections are to be postponed for five weeks does not alter the need to proceed expeditiously. I have already explained that last week the other place took 23 minutes to give the Bill a Second Reading, and the remaining stages were taken in two minutes flat.
I want to deal with the suggestion made last week by the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning), the shadow Leader of the House, and now by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald, that the need for the Bill has arisen because of flawed drafting in the original Bill. That is not the case. The original Bill was the subject of considerable discussion by the parties. There was then further consultation with the parties about the commencement order, which could have made effectively the same provisions as this Bill: a phased introduction of the new sections and the continuation for a period of the existing section 110 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. I consulted all the parties, and none of them noticed—neither did I, but I am in good company—that the consequence of the commencement order was to place every potential candidate in a situation where any material that had been printed but not formally published in advance of the new sections coming into force could technically have put them, their agents and, possibly, their printers at risk of criminal proceedings. Obviously, that was unacceptable.
Discussions rapidly took place between the parties in a different atmosphere from the one that the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton has tried to generate. We agreed not that the new Bill would repeal those words but that it would provide for them to be phased in in a different way and that the original section 110 would be deemed to have taken effect. [Interruption.] It has to be deemed so to be enforced. It is not the first time that such words have been used in amending the law and it will not be the last. We reinstated section 110 and suspended the operation of the new Act and there will be further consultation about bringing the provisions into force after the forthcoming elections.
§ Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton)
Before the beginning of the Second Reading of the publications Bill, will the Home Secretary place in the Library the documentation appertaining to the consultation that lie says he carried out? I am aware that on 4 November 1999, a senior Home Office official 345 consulted about matters to do with the hiring of hackney carriages, committee rooms and planned changes to election law petitions, but there was no mention of the imprint in that consultation. On 17 January 2000, the same official wrote to 100 registered parties to say that the Home Office aim to issue regular bulletins to registered parties on the Bill's progress. No such progress has been the subject of consultation with any political party.
I shall do my best to comply with the hon. Lady's—
§ Mr. Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Allow me to finish my answer to the shadow Leader of the House. I shall do my best to comply—
§ Mr. Hogg
No, I shall not give way to the right hon. and learned Gentleman until I have dealt with his hon. Friend's question. He should show more manners than he usually does in debates.
I shall do my best to comply with the hon. Lady's request, and if we cannot get the documents, I shall ask my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary to give her a more detailed response. My clear recollection is that the parties were consulted about the bringing into force of parts of that Act, and we consulted about the orders. In any case, I shall get back to the hon. Lady about that.
§ Mr. Patrick McLoughlin (West Derbyshire)
Will the Home Secretary tell the House how the new wording "promoting of a candidate" helps to enhance the electorate's understanding of the documents? What was wrong with the old wording "printed and published by"?
Some people may say that there was nothing particularly wrong with the old wording. It was put to the House that we should make it clearer on whose behalf—[Interruption.] I shall give the hon. Gentleman an explanation if he wants one, otherwise I shall not bother to take interventions and we shall just plough on. It is quite straightforward.
The formula "printed and published" has been used for locally produced publicity for decades, and works satisfactorily. In material printed and published on behalf of a candidate, it is obvious who the candidate is. The new provisions aim to deal with two problems. First, in material published on behalf of third parties, it is not always obvious on whose behalf it is published. The material may attack a candidate, or it may ask people to vote for candidates who support one proposition rather than another. The second matter, which was not dealt with under the Representation of the People Act 1983, concerns nationally produced material.
Order. We are now going into the detail of the Bill rather than the allocation of time.
The timetable motion is necessary because we have had to amend the original provisions in the 346 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Furthermore, in the past there have been no requirements in respect of material produced nationally. Now that we have a regime for expenditure, it is important that we know on what that expenditure has been based.
§ Mr. Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield)
In view of your strictures, Mr. Speaker, I shall make some progress, and then accept a few more interventions. As ever, I have taken a large number of interventions.
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way on this point?
No, I shall not give way. I shall come back to that matter later.
As Conservative Members are concerned about precedents, I have been told that in 1989 the Gaming (Amendment) Bill went through Second Reading and remaining stages without debate.
Was there a guillotine?
There was almost certainly not a guillotine, because there were not people like the right hon. Gentleman.
What about Bob Cryer?
Bob Cryer was an infinitely better parliamentarian than the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth). As I remember, at the time the right hon. Gentleman had taken the Queen's shilling and with that a Trappist vow of silence to obey the Whips, so we did not have anarchist interventions from him.
§ Mr. Bercow
§ Mr. Blunt
I shall now make some progress, because other hon. Members want to speak.
I took representations on the new provisions that have been brought into force. I can tell the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton that letters were sent to a variety of people consulting them on the orders. A letter dated 12 December 2000 was sent to Mr. Stephen Gilbert in the Conservative party and to equivalent people in other parties. [Interruption.] I gather from the hon. Member for Buckingham Mr. Bercow that he is a great man, so at least we know he exists and that some people have a high opinion of him. That makes it even more odd that he was not able to impart that information to the shadow Leader of the House. Anyway, I had representations about the effects of the proposals.
At this point, I must declare an interest. At about the time when representations were being made by the national parties, I was going through my cellar and my attic in Blackburn, and came across a large stock of posters, some dating back to the 1980s.
We shall be looking at your election expenses!
No, that will all be taken into account.
347 The posters bore messages such as "We back Jack", "Get Jack back" and "Let's back Jack". They have always worked in the past, and I look forward to their working in the future. We have been careful never to put a time or a date on the out-slips. We have not gone quite so far as going to collect them back—[Interruption.] They do in other parts of Lancashire, according to my Parliamentary Private Secretary, who I am pleased to see is with us again. I thought it ridiculous, however, for us to be prevented from using such messages by a technicality. I am sorry that the arrangements were introduced in the way that they were; I did not spot the error and neither did my officials, but nor, it must be said, did the other parties.
I shall give way to the hon. Member for Buckingham, as he has been straining at the leash.
The Home Secretary's tutorial on succinct slogans for deployment in Blackburn is doubtless very illuminating, but I am rather more concerned about the deplorable way in which he has rewritten history. Is he unaware that—to name but one example—my right hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Maclean) has emphasised several times that when he was a Minister in the last Government, he did not even consider talking to either the Leader of the House or the Government Chief Whip about the possibility of a guillotine motion until debate on the Bill for which he was responsible had lasted for at least 100 hours?
I think it was 80 hours, but we can argue about that. There was a convention, but it was sometimes left in abeyance when the Conservatives were in power. Moreover—I have a list here—it was extremely rare, certainly after my right hon. Friend the current Prime Minister had become Leader of the Opposition, for any Bill to be guillotined. That was because the Opposition changed the way in which they behaved.
There was no necessity for the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border to consult the Leader of the House or anyone else about a guillotine when I was shadow Home Secretary, because, with two exceptions, the welter of Home Office legislation contained no Bills that we forced to a guillotine. We sensibly agreed a timetable, in a much shorter time than 80 hours.
Yes, we had our disagreements about Bills. Some were very strong disagreements; in other cases we may have agreed with the overall purpose of the Bill, but disagreed with parts of it. We got on with things and did the business, however, and we represented our constituents better than we would have done by keeping ourselves here until the small hours and making life incomprehensible to the voters. The two exceptions that I mentioned were the guillotine on the Bill that became the Prevention of Terrorism (Additional Powers) Act 1996, which I agreed to because I was supporting the then Home Secretary—others may have thought that those powers were not necessary—and the guillotine on what became the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, which was 348 introduced in the wake of the massacre at Dunblane. We supported that Bill, although we did not think that it went far enough. My recollection is that the guillotine was introduced very quickly, well in advance of the 80-hours rule. The concern was that the Bill would be disrupted by people who did not want firearms controls.
§ Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich)
I confess that I am now totally bewildered. We are discussing a timetable on the Elections Bill. May I enter a little caveat? I disagree with everything that the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) says, but in this instance he has a point. It is terribly important that the House of Commons should not rush through legislation without being clear what it is doing. Does my right hon. Friend accept that some of the Bills that he has mentioned, particularly that on prevention of terrorism, are clear examples of what happens when this House accepts legislation in one day? It then has to spend considerable time amending it.
I accept that it will be far better—it makes for much better debate, too—if there can be agreements between the parties. It is sometimes necessary—on this occasion, it is palpably necessary—for there to be a timetable motion. Sometimes, timetable motions are short, but agreement between the parties requires that the parties themselves are able to maintain some discipline. We were not in that position in the 1980s. We were in that position in the 1990s. I regret to say—although, in the end, it is their problem, not ours—that the current Opposition are not in that position.
I promise to give way to the right hon. and learned Gentleman in a few minutes, after I have had made some further progress.
I come to the reason for the timetable on the Elections Bill. The case for the Elections Bill was made at some length, as was, to some extent, the case against it, so far as one could understand it, during the exchanges on my statement on Monday. When I looked at Hansard, I noticed that the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald went on for twice as long as I had in my original statement and it still was not particularly clear what exactly she was saying.
Although there is argument about the date to which the elections should be deferred—the Opposition say that they should be deferred without date and we say, as I believe do the Liberal Democrats, that they should be deferred until 7 June—there is no argument between the main parties that they should be deferred from 3 May. That being the case, they must be deferred very quickly. Otherwise, the electoral process will simply continue. It has to. Money has to continue to be spent unless and until the Bill is passed by the House and by the other place.
On Monday, I went into detail—I will go into further detail on Second Reading—to explain why we believe that it is inappropriate in terms not only of the process of elections, tourism and other factors, but of the conduct of local councils and their ability to represent their electors, to defer the elections for any significant time past 7 June. There is an argument about whether the date should be 7, 14 or 21 June. That is a choice, but it was plain to me when 349 I was explaining the matter in the House on Monday that many Opposition Members simply had not worked out what the consequences would be of an indefinite deferral of local elections. In making the case for the urgent timetable motion, I will briefly spell that out.
If the elections are deferred indefinitely, one of two consequences will follow. One is that all by-elections will be deferred indefinitely. If that happens, with increasing frequency, existing members of councils, who I am sure will be willing to serve for an extra five weeks, but who were to have resigned on 3 May, or were not seeking renomination on 3 May, will resign because they have decided—or their party has decided on their behalf—not to serve for a further term. As I explained to the House, at each election—it is a surprisingly high figure—there is a turnover of about a quarter of councillors. They go. Therefore, over the coming months, we would find that 10, 15 or 20 per cent. of councillors had resigned. Sadly, some vacancies result from deaths.
As vacancies arose, for inevitable reasons, such as illness and death, the control of councils would start to shift as the balance changed randomly between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, or Conservatives and independents, simply because of resignations and deaths and not through the decision of the electorate. That must be wrong and would cause chaos in the administration of councils.
The alternative would be to continue to allow by-elections to take place, but we would then have a stream of by-elections, which have to be called within 35 days of a vacancy arising and to take place within 25 working days of that declaration—there is little of the flexibility that we have in respect of parliamentary by-elections—in the very rural areas where the disruption caused by foot and mouth is at its greatest.
If that course—logically and administratively, the better course—were followed, the weekly or bi-weekly by-elections in Cumbria and Devon would be more disruptive to rural life there and to the focus on foot and mouth than having a single day for the local elections, as we are proposing.
I apologise for taking the Home Secretary back to what he was saying earlier on the Election Publications Bill and why the errors were made. Does that not illustrate why it would be helpful if we resorted more often to Special Standing Committees, allowing evidence to be taken and problems to come to light before a Bill is considered in detail?
As a health warning and caveat to my remarks, let me say that these are matters for my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House, but personally I think that there is a lot in what the right hon. and learned Gentleman says. He will forgive me if I remind him that in opposition we used to argue for Special Standing Committees, and one was used for the Children Act 1989—
No, it was—
Order. I remind the right hon. and learned Gentleman that he must be quiet when he is seated.
I am sorry, Mr. Speaker. You are absolutely right. I was trying to correct the Home Secretary, but you are right.
I am always right.
May I say how pleased I am to know that?
I am sometimes wrong, and the right hon. and learned Gentleman may be right that it was not the Children Act but a special education measure on which we had a Special Standing Committee. Leaving that aside, I introduced a Special Standing Committee for the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and it was the better for it, so I accept that point.
§ Mr. Dale Campbell-Savours (Workington)
It would be a very useful development if a Cabinet Minister such as my right hon. Friend gave an undertaking to the House that in future all Bills from his Department would be treated under that procedure. Once one Cabinet Minister took that decision in principle, others would follow. It is not only a matter for the Leader of the House.
Order. How we treat Bills is nothing to do with the allocation of time motion. We must restrict ourselves to that.
In the light of what you have said, Mr. Speaker, I will have to talk to my hon. Friend in the Tea Room.
§ Mr. Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire)
I am concerned that we will not have time to reach clause 2, which relates to Northern Ireland. Is the Home Secretary confident that we will be able to have a proper debate on Northern Ireland, because some issues need to be discussed that make us nervous about the potential change of date?
I accept the concern of the hon. Gentleman, who is the Liberal Democrat spokesman on Northern Ireland matters. I have also had representations from my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on the provisions as they affect Northern Ireland. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State will deal with those matters when he replies.
I have explained the case for both Bills—with a bit of luck, to the satisfaction of both sides of the House—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."] Opposition Members have been shot down in flames by their request for a precedent. The Gaming (Amendment) Act is a great precedent. The fact that it was not guillotined is neither here nor there; it was passed. My guess is that that legislation was far more significant to far more people than the Election Publications Bill will ever be, as it will affect only the small minority of those who are candidates or agents for elections. That is the precedent.
§ Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate)
No, I will not.
I should also add that, in the other place, the official representatives of the other parties were happy to co-operate in the consideration of the Election Publications Bill.
351 The Elections Bill will defer the date of the elections. As I said, there is widespread agreement on both sides of the House that they have to be deferred. Although there is disagreement on the date to which they should be deferred, that does not affect the need for urgency. What does affect the need for urgency is the fact that, if we do not produce certainty and ensure that everyone is given the legal certainty that 3 May is no longer the date for the elections and that another date has been inserted, we will simply waste a great deal of money and the time of local government staff, candidates, agents and their helpers.
For those reasons—although I understand the concerns about guillotine motions and I do not like introducing them—I hope that the House will accept my arguments.
I have to say that, even for the Home Secretary, that speech was preposterous. The last time he moved a guillotine motion, he concluded his speech by saying: I look forward to the embraces and kisses of the Opposition."—[Official Report, 29 November 2000; Vol. 357, c. 994.]
Of you, Ann.
Well, he said the Opposition.
The right hon. Gentleman received neither embraces nor kisses on that occasion, and he will certainly not receive any from Opposition Members today. There is no justification whatsoever for what can be described only as an outrageous and absurd guillotine motion, tabled by the Home Secretary and the Leader of the House. The motion will hinder the interests of democracy and of our constituents, who send us here to hold the Government to account and to ensure that the laws passed by Parliament are in good order, well thought through and properly scrutinised.
It is only a couple of weeks since three Members of the Conservative Whips Office and I were sufficiently incensed by the lack of true accountability by the Government to try to bring the issue to wider public attention. Today, we have two more justifications for that sit-in.
Later, in one hour flat, we shall put a Bill through all its stages in the House—a Bill that would never have been necessary if the House had been allowed to scrutinise the original Bill properly. The amendment that it seeks to correct was never put to the House for debate and was introduced at a late stage in the other place. Yet, undeterred by having created such a mess that an emergency Bill is now necessary, the Government still push it through without any attempt at serious scrutiny.
I challenge the right hon. Gentleman—I have challenged him before and I challenge him again—to tell me of any other occasion, under any Government, when a Bill on the constitution was taken through Second Reading, Committee, Report and Third Reading in 60 minutes flat at the behest of a Government on an imposed guillotine.
Not only that, but the Bill was published yesterday without any pre-publication discussion or consultation.
My right hon. and learned Friend is right: that only makes the situation vastly worse.
352 Does the Home Secretary acknowledge that he is insulting this Holm and the British people? They are being governed by tranches of law that have never been debated by the House, much less voted on.
The matter is even worse than my right hon. Friend suggests. As it happens, an amendment that I tabled to the Elections Publications Bill has been selected. It was known to have been selected, yet the Government tabled this vicious guillotine, allocating one hour for all stages, in the knowledge that the Chairman of Ways and Means had selected an amendment. Since then, another amendment tabled in the name of an hon. Member from another party has been selected. Does not that compound the matter beyond all endurance?
It certainly does. Large numbers of amendments to both Bills will not be debated tonight. We have already seen the consequence of such an approach. We would not have had to debate the Election Publications Bill today if there had been proper scrutiny of the original Bill.
I remind the Home Secretary of his words to the House on 4 April last year, of which today's debate may be considered to be the anniversary: It is in the nature of Home Office Bills, particularly constitutional ones, that they are subject to amendment. That is an important part of the process.—[Official Report, 4 April 2000; Vol. 347, c.928.] On 29 November last year, the Home Secretary said: I thank individual Opposition Members as much as my right hon. and hon. Friends for the way in which every Bill in which I have been involved has been improved as a result of the parliamentary process."—[Official Report, 29 November 2000; Vol. 357. c. 987.] Yet it is that important part of the constitutional process, which has resulted in the improvement of every Bill with which the Home Secretary has been involved, that the right hon. Gentleman is dispensing with this evening.
What is the justification for the guillotine motion? It is not as though the Opposition are trying to delay or frustrate the Elections Bill. As I made clear in response to the Home Secretary's statement on Monday afternoon, the Opposition welcome the fact that the Government have decided—albeit belatedly—to provide for a postponement of the local elections, which were due to take place on 3 May. Indeed, it was the Opposition who first called, more than two weeks ago, for such a measure to be introduced.
The Election Publications Bill is also the subject of cross-party consensus, as the Home Secretary has acknowledged, and as he knows full well. There is not a shred of evidence to support the contention that, without a guillotine, the Opposition would attempt to delay or frustrate the Bill, yet these days the House cannot expect much more from a Home Secretary and a Leader of the House who had the audacity only a few weeks ago to deem that the Committee stage of a major Bill had been completed, despite the fact that more than half its text had never been considered.
So what is the real reason for the motion? The House, and especially my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg), will recall the attitude of Labour Members during the Committee stage of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Bill—and of one Labour Member in 353 particular. During that Committee, which also sat on the Floor of the House, my right hon. and learned Friend, together with my hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Sir P. Cormack), who at the time graced the Opposition Front Bench, made some extremely powerful points about the Government's proposals on referendum rules. The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien), refused to respond to the debate. In justification, he said: Hon. Members in all parts of the House will understand that some hon. Members want to go home. One can understand that."— [Official Report, 16 February 2001; Vol. 344, c. 1071.] The Minister made those remarks at midnight. One can therefore understand perfectly well why the guillotine motion will cut short debate this evening at 11 pm: Labour Members will want to go home, rather than stay here and ensure that the legislation being considered by the House, which goes to the very heart of our democracy, is in good order.
The right hon. Gentleman is again moving a guillotine motion on constitutional legislation, which shows exactly what the Government think about both these important constitutional measures and about the need for consensus and agreement on them.
What happened to the right hon. Gentleman? He said in February 1995: You can only move for constitutional change by consensus, by consent, and you've got to get these things right. When the House considers the Elections Publications Bill later tonight, right hon. and hon. Members will see exactly how the right hon. Gentleman failed to get things right in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning) will have more to say on that subject when the time comes.
The guillotine motion means that the House will have very little time, if any, in which to consider the important amendments that have been tabled on a range of crucial electoral issues. Indeed, when the Government amendments are made in Committee and the House proceeds to consideration on Report, the farcical procedure that applied to the Football (Disorder) Bill in the previous Session will apply again. [Interruption.]
Order. The right hon. Member for North-West Durham (Ms Armstrong) must be calm. [Interruption.] Order. The right hon. Lady will withdraw that remark. [Interruption.] Order. The right hon. Lady will get to her feet and withdraw that remark.
§ The Minister for Local Government and the Regions (Ms Hilary Armstrong)
I was simply saying—[Interruption.]
Order. I heard the right hon. Lady talk about misleading the House.
§ Ms Armstrong
I said that I was concerned that the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) was not going to mislead the House. I withdraw everything.
Does the Home Secretary recall the proceedings on the Football (Disorder) Bill, when the 354 House was forced to consider amendments on Report that had not been printed to a Bill that had not been reprinted? Furthermore, although my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr. Matins) wanted to retable his Committee amendments, which had not been discussed in Committee because of the guillotine, he was not able to do so because in waiting to discuss them in Committee he missed the deadline for Report.
I described the procedure as a farce, and that is exactly what it was. The hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) commented: The House has been asked to consider amendments on Report to a Bill that was not even before us simply because it had not been printed as amended in Committee. People who had not been here would not have been able to follow debate on the Bill that we were amending, and those of us who were here all day have found it difficult to follow the implications of each and every amendment.— [Official Report, 17 July 2000; Vol. 354, c. 176.] Even the Minister of State, Home Office, the hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke), said: I am acutely aware of criticisms about the time taken to address the Bill and consider its various aspects."—[Official Report, 17 July 2000; Vol. 354, c. 173.]
Yet, despite that experience and the Minister's comments, the guillotine motion before the House today takes no account of those criticisms and no account of the experience on that Bill.
§ Rev. Ian Paisley
One of the Bills before us contains a reference to schedule 1 of the Elections (Northern Ireland) Act 2001. There is no such Act. As a good parliamentarian, I asked to see all the Acts, and I was told that there is no such Act. The Bill provides for the amendment of an Act that does not exist.
I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his close scrutiny. The point of having a debate is that the House can provide close scrutiny, but it will be denied to us today. Before the Government produce a flawed Bill, perhaps they will very hastily consider the hon. Gentleman's important contribution.
There is not even a provision for a five-minute delay in which to allow right hon. and hon. Members to table amendments for Report or to allow the Bill to be reprinted. In a few hours, the House will be faced with the same unacceptable situation. Indeed, it will be even more unacceptable, because only one hour will be allowed for Report and Third Reading, so there will almost certainly be no Third Reading debate.
It is all the more important for the House to have adequate time to consider the Elections Bill, above all in view of the hasty way in which it has been put together. I believe that it has been even more hastily drafted than the Football (Disorder) Bill, which was considered and consulted on for almost a week, if I remember correctly, yet a large number of improvements were subsequently made to it, several of which resulted from matters first raised in Opposition amendments.
The Elections Bill has been cobbled together in what must have been a matter of hours. Throughout last month, the Government, mostly through the Prime Minister's official spokesman, made it clear not only that they had no proposals to introduce legislation of this nature but that they were not even working on contingency plans—so we all know how much notice the Cabinet, above all the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, had of the reversal of that decision.
355 Hon. Members from all parties have already identified parts of the Bill that could be improved, and the hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) has identified where the Bill is just plain nonsense. It is important that the House has time to consider the points that have been made, but even if the debate on the guillotine motion does not run for three hours, which is what the Government have allowed, the House will not get far past the Second Reading debate and, if it is extremely lucky, a couple of groups of amendments, before the guillotine falls. Important issues such as limiting the compensation scheme to independent candidates, as we have proposed, will not be debated. Nor will we debate the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr. Ross) on compensation for the expenditure incurred by the chief electoral officer in Northern Ireland.
Other important amendments tabled by hon. Members representing Northern Ireland constituencies will not be discussed, including those on combining polling cards for the local and national elections and those tabled by Ulster Unionist and Democratic Unionist Members on whether counting agents should be allowed to be present when ballot papers placed in the wrong box are sorted out.
The Home Secretary will recall the words of my right hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Mr. MacKay), who spoke for the Opposition on the guillotine motion that the Home Secretary moved on 29 November. He said: We value the Home Secretary's reputation as someone who is serious about this place. He is in such stark contrast to the Prime Minister and others who treat the Chamber in a cavalier way."—[Official Report, 29 November 2000; Vol. 357, c. 994.] My right hon. Friend then commented that the Home Secretary was tarnishing that reputation by moving the guillotine on that occasion. Today, the Home Secretary has no reputation for taking this place seriously. In the past, his guillotines have produced chaos in the Chamber and, as the House will see later when it considers the Election Publications Bill, botched legislation that need not have been a mess had this arrogant and dictatorial Government had any respect for the usual democratic processes.
The motion is an affront to the House and to the people who sent us here, who expect us to spend more than a few minutes on important proposals: that we will not do so is testament to the arrogance of the Government—an arrogance that will not be forgotten in the coming weeks as the guillotine falls on this contemptuous, arrogant, incompetent, out-of-touch, control-freak Government when the election comes, if it does come, on 7 June.
§ Mr. Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove)
Like the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats broadly support both the Bills that are the subject of the guillotine motion. The Government, having weighed the matter up carefully, have decided that the local government elections should be deferred from 3 May to 7 June, and my party supports them. Equally, the issue of the imprints and the introduction of the new regulations is an important one for the political parties. The Home Secretary is right to point to the fact that all three political parties were in favour of that change, and indeed urged that it should be made.
356 As far as I can understand it, all three major political parties in the House agree that the legislation is fit and proper for the House to consider and that it ought to be passed without unreasonable delay.
§ Mr. Robert McCartney (North Down)
Does the hon. Gentleman appreciate that large sections of the Elections Bill that refer to Northern Ireland have nothing to do with such supervening factors as foot and mouth, which bring the three major parties into agreement to support the principle of the Bill?
§ Mr. Stunell
I fully understand the hon. and learned Gentleman's views on that matter. I was careful to make it clear that I was speaking on behalf only of the Liberal Democrats—I have made clear my views on that point. Several issues of detail in both Bills attracted the attention of my colleagues and me. Were the debate to be of sufficient length and thoroughness, we would want those matters to be included.
Given the broad consensus in the House and the willingness on both sides that progress be made with reasonable speed, the guillotine is out of place, unnecessary and probably counter-productive. Apart from any other consideration, even if such a guillotine were thought appropriate, the time allocated is ridiculously short for debate on inch serious issues.
The House and one of its Committees—the Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons, on which I serve—have spent a great deal of time working out how the House could be more effective in the examination and rectification of legislation. In pursuit of that aim, I put questions to the Leader of the House. She assured me that one characteristic of the Labour Government was that they were improving the first drafts of Bills—the quality of measures when they are first put before the House is so much better that she wants to claim some credit for that.
I tabled a parliamentary question to establish the ratio of clauses, as introduced, to subsequent Government amendments in legislation under the previous Conservative Government and under the Labour Government. I thought it appropriate to set up some quality control to judge whether the claim made by the Leader of the House was soundly based. The answer was that the cost of working out the figures would be disproportionate. That is a circumlocutory way of saying that there is no evidence whatever to support the claim that the quality of legislation is better—or, indeed, worse—under the Labour Government than under the Conservative Government.
Is not the truth that the quality of legislation improves only to the extent that there is discussion and consultation before publication? In cases such as these Bills—by definition—there is neither.
I strongly support the right hon. and learned Gentleman's argument—indeed, I am probably ahead of him, because I have deployed such an argument in the Modernisation Committee, although not all his hon. Friends felt as confident of it as me.
That brings us to the question of whether the time allowed under the guillotine is anything like sufficient to accommodate the issues raised by the Bills. I did not hear the Home Secretary suggest that he believes for a moment 357 that the range of amendments submitted—nor those selected by either the Speaker or the Chairman of the Committee—is outrageous, perverse or out of order. A total of 50 amendments to the Elections Bill have been selected for debate. Approximately 50 others were not selected—I have not made an exact count. That is a large number of amendments covering substantial and important issues. Even after the latest list was printed, a further seven manuscript amendments were submitted but, of course, the House will not really have an opportunity to evaluate their importance.
Some of the issues for debate might be dismissed quite quickly by the House. It might decide that they are matters solely for debate, not for serious consideration, but one or two issues are clearly above the threshold of being available merely for debate. Compensation for candidates, which is dealt with in the Bill, is a matter on which my right hon. and hon. Friends have commented very unfavourably. Will there be an opportunity to debate that and to take a decision on it?
The hon. and learned Member for North Down (Mr. McCartney) raised with me the issue of Northern Ireland. In fact, a substantial proportion of the Elections Bill relates to Northern Ireland, and issues have been raised about the difficulties that might be caused by holding the local elections and the general election simultaneously and about the fact that—at least, at present—we can give thanks that there is no foot and mouth in Northern Ireland, and so on. Will there be time for those issues to be discussed?
I understand that the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) has proposed in some amendments that the elections might be deferred to different dates in different areas. Those important issues might be dealt with quickly, but they certainly merit debate.
The Bill contains errors. For example, in deferring the annual meetings of councils as a consequence of deferring the local elections, police and joint fire authorities were overlooked, so we find that the dates of their annual meetings are not in synchronisation with the new timetable. Surely that needs to be discussed and rectified.
I noticed, by the new magic medium of e-mail, that the Home Office has today had to reissue its circular to returning officers, drawing their attention to an error in the timetable that it had included in the circular that it issued yesterday. Yet again, that shows not just the haste and speed—all of which is desirable, as we want all these things to be done—but the fact that there are issues before the House that even the Home Office has not squared and got ready to go.
Surely the right way forward is to allow not only reasonable time to debate those issues, but reasonable time to elapse for people to get their thinking caps on, so that they can anticipate and steer around the difficulties that may be thrown up. To advocate doing that is not to say that the Bill should not be passed, nor that it should be delayed, but simply to say that the Bill should receive proper scrutiny in the first place, so that we get it right first time.
I shall comment for a moment or two on the Election Publications Bill, with which the House will also deal tonight as a result of the guillotine. I served on the Standing Committee that considered the original Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Bill, and I spoke on 358 behalf of the Liberal Democrats at each stage of the debate. The Committee was unusual. My experience of such matters is that Standing Committees are sometimes blessed with a few experts in the particular topic, but seldom is 100 per cent. of the membership made up of experts—yet every hon. Member on that Standing Committee was an expert. The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien), will remember that we crawled over the detail of that Bill perhaps almost to excess, but such matters were not at the forefront of our consideration.
I understand that the Bill is intended to ensure that third-party endorsements of particular candidates—or, more likely, third-party attacks on them—are properly attributed in future. Clearly, all political parties would understand the need for, and the desirability of, that proposal, but they would also understand that is not practical to introduce it now, given the very compressed timetable that is proposed.
I remind the Home Secretary and the Minister that one of the questions that was persistently asked of the Home Office team in Committee was whether they thought that electoral commissioners could be put in place and produce their rulings and guidance in time for a general election that, even then, was widely expected to take place about now. Home Office Ministers were sure that everything would be put in place and that we would be satisfied. However, that has not been possible.
We will have only an hour to debate the Election Publications Bill. That may be sufficient, because only two amendments have been tabled. They cover exactly the same point even though they propose slightly different mechanisms to deal with it. In due course, I hope that we shall have an opportunity to debate them. However, the amendments refer to the Home Secretary's capacity—alone and unaided—to reintroduce the proposals that I mentioned entirely without consultation. Therefore, it is important to the House that we debate that issue, so that either the amendments are accepted or we receive cast-iron assurances from the Government and the Home Secretary about their future behaviour. It is one thing to suspend the provisions almost without notice, but it might be another to introduce them—or perhaps deliberately to fail to introduce them—when it is appropriate to do so entirely on the fiat of the Home Secretary.
Liberal Democrats believe that the Government should lift the guillotine and withdraw the motion. They should let the debate take its course, because they would be pleasantly surprised at the outcome that that would produce. If a vote takes place when expected, we shall have only a little over two hours to debate the Second Reading and Committee stages of the Elections Bill and we shall have one hour to debate the Election Publications Bill.
The first debate is the most serious and we shall have only two minutes to debate each amendment, and that assumes that we have no votes. The guillotine, as imposed out of the blue in an unnecessary and counterproductive fashion, is wrong in principle, but I hope that even the Government can see that it is wholly inadequate in practice. I ask the Minister to make a concession on the issue of time. I hope very much that we can have a comparatively short debate on this motion, so that we can use the maximum amount of time on real scrutiny of the Bills.
359 We have been jammed into an uncomfortable and wholly unsatisfactory and unnecessary position. The solution lies with Ministers, and we look very much to them to provide us with that solution.
I wish to speak about the Elections Bill, which is particularly significant for Northern Ireland. It is important that procedures that limit the time that the House has to consider any Bill be used sparingly; but when the Bill affects the constitutional rights of electors and may influence their future, such a procedure must be used even more sparingly.
The greater part of the Elections Bill is taken up with matters relating to Northern Ireland. Because of the effects of foot and mouth, it is understandable that there may be a great deal of agreement about the Bill's contents among the parties that are largely concerned with the United Kingdom mainland, but that consideration does not affect Northern Ireland. At present, we are free from foot and mouth, so there is absolutely no objection to local government elections taking place in Northern Ireland in accordance with extant legislation. They could be held on 16 May, with a general election to follow once a date is determined.
We should have a full debate on aspects of the Bill that pertain to Northern Ireland. It should not be time limited. There is a grave suspicion that those provisions are being included for no reason whatsoever. They do not appear to be connected with the general election or foot and mouth. It has been common knowledge for some time that, to further their policies and objectives in relation to the peace process or the Belfast agreement, the Government have made moves to ensure that the Ulster Unionist party and the Social Democratic and Labour party should gain an advantage by a change in electoral arrangements. It was at first suggested that the local government elections in Northern Ireland should be postponed from 16 May 2001 to an indefinite future date, while local government was possibly reorganised. The agreement of the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP could not be obtained for that.
Long before the issue of foot and mouth arose in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, there were rumours in political circles in Northern Ireland that local government elections and the general election would be held on the same day. Fundamental constitutional issues are at stake and should be debated at length, including whether the principles of democracy and electors' rights are best served by having elections which use two systems on the same day. In Northern Ireland, voters will be expected to follow the general election procedure of first past the post, which allows them simply to put an X against the name of the single candidate for whom they want to vote, and the local government election procedure, which is based on proportional representation. Under that system, the voter marks his preference for one, two, three, four, five, six or more candidates on a list. It is not a matter of applying the same electoral principles as obtain for the election on the mainland, which will always use the first past the post system.
The capacity for engendering confusion, difficulty, misunderstanding and protests about the validity of votes is protean in Northern Ireland. Indeed, some of the 360 proposals plainly provide for the boxes that contain the votes to be opened at the discretion of the returning officer, without the scrutiny of party representatives, to allow general election votes to be separated like the wheat and the tares from the votes cast in the local government elections. By making provisions that recognise the substantial mistakes that will be made and the mix-ups and confusion that will occur, on which the returning officer will have to decide, the Bill acknowledges my concern, which I hope I have put with some force. It is absolutely ludicrous, in purely electoral terms, to have two elections on the same day for two different sets of candidates that operate under two fundamentally different voting procedures.
I am amazed that the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland dissents from what the hon. and learned Gentleman has been saying—I hope that the Under-Secretary is listening. The schedule to the Electrons Bill states: Nothing in these rules or the local elections rules requires the counting agents to be given facilities for overseeing the proceedings mentioned". What are those proceedings? Are they that the boxes should be opened, every vote be taken out, the coloured votes separated into one pile and the white votes into another, all with no public scrutiny? Are those votes then to be wrapped up in a parcel and sent out with an outrider—we realise that local government people have employed outriders to go on motorbike to deliver parcels of votes to other places—without scrutiny? The Under-Secretary needs to face up to that.
§ Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Sylvia Heal)
Order. I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman is going wide of the debate.
§ Mr. McCartney
I return to my general theme. For reasons that have nothing to do with the emergency in the United Kingdom at large, which has made it necessary for us to consider both Bills, the Government have decided to incorporate in one of them provisions that are not required by any exigency in Northern Ireland, and to import a system of voting that guarantees confusion. Indeed, the Bill recognises and provides for the sorting out of anticipated difficulty.
The Government are imposing a guillotine on a Bill that provides for the exercise of fundamental democratic and constitutional rights that any citizen may enjoy—the right to cast his vote in circumstances in which there is no confusion about the validity of its casting, in which there is no mix-up with any other election, and in which, in confidence and certainty, he can cast a vote for those by whom he wishes to be represented in local government or the House. It seems to me—and, I hope, the House—that the essential falseness and weakness of the proposed legislation, so far as it bears on that part of the United Kingdom known as Northern Ireland, is that it incorporates measures that are in no way induced, caused or generated by the fundamental emergency that has led to the introduction of both Bills. I hope and trust that, even at this late stage, Ministers will consider that, in relation to Northern Ireland, that is such a fundamental, democratic and constitutional issue as to require—nay, demand—a full and comprehensive debate.
361 4.58 pm
I beg to move, as an amendment to the motion, in paragraph 1(1), after "on Second Reading," to leave out in Committee and on consideration and Third Reading". I hope that the hon. and learned Member for North Down (Mr. McCartney) will forgive me if I do not respond directly to what he said or follow on directly from his arguments. I hope that you will forgive me, Madam Deputy Speaker, if I say that he raised issues that disturb people like me, who are not familiar with the background in Northern Ireland. The hon. and learned Gentleman made points that need to be properly addressed by Ministers and which add weight to the general unease that many of us feel about the timetable motion.
My purpose in speaking is, first, to express my opposition to, and deep anxiety about, the timetable motion, and secondly, to speak to the manuscript amendment which Mr. Speaker kindly selected. My manuscript amendment is confined to the Elections Bill, not the Election Publications Bill, and would enable the House to consider all stages of the Elections Bill over two days, rather than one day. We should have Second Reading today, ending at 10 pm, and we should deal with the Committee, Report and Third Reading tomorrow, ending at a fairly late hour—say, 12 midnight. In any event, we should debate the Elections Bill over a two-day period.
The argument that we have heard from all parts of the House is that there is a need for emergency legislation. I make two observations about that. First, the fact that we may need legislation rapidly does not mean that we should pass it without proper scrutiny. Secondly, the phrase "emergency legislation" is probably not properly descriptive of what we are discussing. We are speaking of rapid legislation.
Panic legislation.
I am speaking of rapid legislation. My right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) and I approach the matter from different points of view. My right hon. Friend is addressing the motives of those on the Government Front Bench when he uses the phrase "panic legislation". My argument is that the legislation must be passed rapidly. We do not disagree, but I do not want to use the phrase that my right hon. Friend used.
The guillotine motion relates to two Bills. I propose to concentrate exclusively on the Elections Bill, save to say in respect of the Election Publications Bill that the fact that we shall have to consider that Bill under a timetable motion, or at all, arises because the principal legislation amended by the Election Publications Bill was itself not properly discussed. That ought to make us very chary of using the mechanism set out in the timetable motion.
I repeat the point that I made to the Home Secretary. I am a serious believer in the procedure whereby a Standing Committee can take evidence. There is a great deal in what the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours) said about a Cabinet Minister deciding as a matter of principle that all legislation introduced by that Department should be the subject of evidence taking, either through a Select Committee, which was the procedure adopted in the context of the Adoption 362 and Children Bill, or, as I would suggest—although I do not want to be dogmatic—by the Special Standing Committee procedure, which has been in place for yonks but is rarely used. It should be.
I turn to the Elections Bill and the timetable motion. We need to understand what we are discussing. As I understand the effect of the timetable motion, I think that the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Mr. Stunell) misspoke himself, if he will forgive my saying so. We must finish the Second Reading and Committee stage by 9 pm. In other words, we have about four hours to go through a process which, in the ordinary course of events, would take very many hours.
That is pretty surprising, and it is not implausible to say that there is a strong presumption that it is thoroughly undesirable, too. It is all the more undesirable when one bears in mind that the Elections Bill was published only yesterday. I did not see it at all until 3.45 pm, and my constituents will not have seen it even now.
As I understand it from the Prime Minister's official spokesman, Mr. Campbell, who often seems to be in the dominant position in No. 10, until very recently, probably Monday, no work was being done on the Bill. That, by definition, means—if he was telling the truth, and I am prepared to give him credit for doing so—that no work was done, and there was no pre-drafting consultation. If he was telling the truth—let us assume that he was—it must necessarily follow that there was a lack of consultation. How could pre-drafting consultation have occurred if no work had been done? Thus the Elections Bill was published yesterday and was not the subject of consultation, but we are being asked to bang it through by 10 o'clock. That strikes me as a pretty remarkable state of affairs.
Does my right hon. and learned Friend consider that, when the Government decided the adequacy of the motion, they may have been influenced by the expectation—or even intention—that no Labour Member would seek to speak during this three-hour debate? Only one of their Back Benchers—the hon. Member for Cleethorpes (Shona McIsaac)—has eventually had the courtesy even to attend.
I suspect that my hon. Friend is right, to the extent that the Government Whips are trying to keep their Benches clear. He has, however, done a slight injustice to the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mrs. Dunwoody), who expressed earlier her grave anxiety about procedure such as that with which the motion deals. The House will know that the hon. Lady is deservedly of high reputation and is jealous of the reputation of the House. Her views carry weight, and it was clear that she did not like the process that we are considering. I should point out that I now see another Labour Member in the Chamber, although I do not immediately recognise him.
Having made it clear that we are engaged in a thoroughly undesirable exercise, I should like to speak in more detail. I observed that 10 groups of amendments appeared in the preliminary selection. As I have taken advice, I know that more amendments are being added to those groups, probably even as I speak. More amendments will appear on Second Reading, and perhaps in Committee. There is an ever-expanding number of 363 amendments, many of which are substantive. My right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) tabled important amendments relating to the process for selecting a date. I tabled an amendment suggesting that the local authority elections should be delayed until the end of this year. Amendments dealing with a range of procedural matters have been tabled by the Liberal Democrats and by Unionist Members. I also thought that the hon. and learned Member for North Down made points of particular importance.
The plain truth is, however, that we shall consider none of those amendments. By 9 o'clock, we will barely have finished even a partial Second Reading, let alone a detailed discussion. Important amendments that Mr. Speaker has selected for consideration in relation to a Bill of constitutional importance will remain untouched. We cannot take representations or consult outside interests on the technicalities. Furthermore, my constituents cannot express a view through me to the House. I am bound to say that that is not only remarkable, but scandalous. If the legislation were absolutely essential, then all right, we could accept the need for urgency, but it is not absolutely essential.
I have provided a solution, albeit a partial one: a two-day debate. That time scale would enable us to debate Second Reading until the ordinary time—10 o'clock tonight—and take time for reflection. Perhaps the e-mail system, faxes and so on would then communicate representations of one sort or another. A more informed debate would then follow tomorrow. What on earth is wrong with that? God knows that it would be a truncated debate, but it would be a lot better than what we are now talking about.
It is nice to see the Home Secretary back in his place. He has his correspondence, so no doubt he will be signing away and looking through all the documents from the last general election which he has fished out of his attic. I shall certainly give way to him, although he found it difficult to give way to me. I note that he does not want me to give way to him. So be it; I will not do so for the moment. In any event, I expect a proper response from a Minister at the close of this debate, explaining why we cannot consider the Elections Bill over two days, and I look forward to that. If the House adopts the solution that I have recommended—a two-day debate—that will leave adequate time in this place and the other place to finish consideration of the Bill in time to allow local elections to take place on 7 June, if that is what is resolved.
I move now from the particular to the general, and I want to make five points. Most importantly, the House does not need to be treated in the way we are tonight being treated. If the Government had heeded the wise words of my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague), an enabling Bill would have been introduced some two or three weeks ago, and the deferment of the local elections would have been triggered by a statutory instrument provided for in that legislation. If the Government had adopted my right hon. Friend's wise suggestion, we would not have been in the jam that they tell us we are in today. The truth is that the Prime Minister dithered, talked to his political advisers, considered what was in his party's interests and made a rapid, urgent and unmeritorious decision.
364 Assuming that the Government could not have been persuaded to do what was so manifestly sensible and enact an enabling Bill, they could at least have published a draft Bill some two or three weeks ago, so that interested parties could have considered it and expressed their opinions and it could have been improved if necessary. The Government chose not to do that either.
I am not particularly in favour of late nights, but God knows I have been in this place long enough: some would say too long—[HON. MEMBERS: "No!"] That was the reaction that I expected from my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst but not from my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald. We are perfectly capable of sitting late when necessary, and if we must, we should. We have done so on many occasions during this Parliament, albeit when it has suited the Government.
I remember, for example, the proceedings on the Football (Disorder) Bill, fathered by the Home Secretary. It may have been a great Bill, but I thought it was lousy. I have a lot to say about it, but I said it at 11, 12 and 1 o'clock, which was a perfectly sensible time to say it. We could sit late if we really wanted to. The fact that we are not doing so raises serious questions about the propriety of what we are doing.
I have also tabled another manuscript amendment. It has not been selected, but I can make my point none the less. The Bill—I refer to the Elections Bill, not the Election Publications Bill—refers to England, Wales and Northern Ireland; it does not refer to Scotland, so why should Members who represent Scottish constituencies vote on the Bill? It is no conceivable business of theirs. It is the business of Northern Ireland Members and Welsh Members, although I do not see one here, and it is certainly our business.
Did the right hon. and learned Gentleman take a similar view, even privately, when the Bill to establish a poll tax in Scotland alone came before the House? Did he say that the Bill should be voted on only by Scottish Members?
The right hon. Gentleman is missing the essential consequences of devolution. Before devolution, ours was a unitary state, whereas since devolution, affairs in Scotland have been explicitly and exclusively the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament. I shall not proceed with this line of argument, Madam Speaker. Even the Home Secretary will understand the folly of his intervention.
My amendment to prevent Scottish MPs from voting on the Bill has not been accepted. However, it is within the Home Secretary's competence to advise those of his colleagues who come from Scottish constituencies that it would not be inappropriate for them to vote, and I hope that he will do so.
I am sure that my right hon. and learned Friend is right in supposing that the reason why the Government do not want to sit late is that most Ministers and Labour Members cannot wait to scurry home to consume their Ovaltine and tuck themselves up as early as possible. Does he acknowledge that one of the main bases of Government objection to his tabled amendment is that if debate took place over two days, and so continued 365 throughout tomorrow, it would gravely affront the Minister for the Cabinet Office and her colleague the Parliamentary Secretary, who want to push through that wretched constitutional monstrosity called the Regulatory Reform Bill?
My hon. Friend may well be right, but I have never consulted the interests of the Minister for the Cabinet Office—and she has never consulted mine either. We are at least ad idem on that.
There is a legitimate discussion about whether local government elections should be held on 7 June or at some other date. I believe that they should be held at a later date: probably in the middle or latter part of October, by which time foot and mouth will certainly be under control. It is doubtful that the disease will be under control by June. It is absolutely clear that if—with the exception of Northern Ireland—local government elections are to be deferred because of foot and mouth, we should be able to receive representations from our constituents and other interested groups before fixing on the date of 7 June.
The guillotine and the procedure that we are adopting prevent us from hearing the technical and other arguments about an appropriate date. I may be right or wrong in saying that the appropriate date is October, not June, but I would feel much happier if the House had had proper time to receive representations from constituents who are most affected by these matters.
I am against the motion, and if it is pushed to a Division I shall vote against it. In any event, I am strongly in favour of my amendment, which would enable the House to consider the Elections Bill over two days. If you will permit me, Madam Deputy Speaker, and if I am so enabled, I shall call a Division on that amendment.
§ Mr. Christopher Chope (Christchurch)
I support the comments of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg) and his amendment. I want to confine my remarks to the implications of having only one hour in which to discuss the Election Publications Bill. At least the Elections Bill will be discussed in the other place. I hope that the other place will be more intent on scrutinising it than it was on scrutinising the Election Publications Bill.
The Home Secretary used that fact against us. He said that the other place spent only 23 minutes discussing the Election Publications Bill. I doubt very much that the other place would have spent only 23 minutes discussing the Bill had it known that the House of Commons would be allowed only one hour in which to discuss all its stages. That arrangement is without precedent: it is constitutionally outrageous, and it shows that we have an increasingly tyrannical Government.
The fact that the Home Secretary had to use a wholly specious precedent in a lame attempt to prop up his case reveals how desperate he is. He cited the precedent—as he described it—of the 1989 Gaming (Amendment) Bill. Because I do not take everything that the Home Secretary says at face value, I then slipped out of the Chamber and went to the Library to look up the history of that Bill. In fact it is the Gaming (Amendment) Act 1990, which was introduced in the House of Lords as a private Member's Bill in 1990.
366 The Bill was debated in the House of Lords, where its Second Reading took place on 15 February. It was introduced by Lord Allen of Abbeydale. The Committee stage took place in the House of Lords on 1 March; there was a formal Report stage on 22 March, and Third Reading took place on 2 April in the House of Lords. The Bill then came to the House of Commons, where it was given a formal Second Reading on 8 June. It is true that it was not debated; there was a vote, and it was allowed a Second Reading. Significantly, however, there was then time for Members of the House of Commons to decide whether they wanted to table amendments, because the Bill was considered again on 6 July. As no amendments had been tabled and there was no discontent with the Bill, it passed into law. That is a very different proposition from what we are discussing now.
In a throwaway line, the Home Secretary—again, perhaps badly briefed—said he assumed that the Gaming (Amendment) Act must have been of much greater concern to many more people than the Election Publications Bill. The Gaming (Amendment) Act, however, refers only to the narrow issue of applications for casino licences. I submit that many more people are interested in the imprints of election literature than are interested in that subject.
I too will go to the Library, but I have been informed that the 1990 Gaming (Amendment) Bill was different from the 1989 Bill.
§ Mr. Chope
Indeed, because the 1989 Bill does not exist. Taking what the Home Secretary had said at face value, I asked the Librarian to look up the 1989 Bill. When he could not find it, I said "I am sure it must be there, because the Home Secretary has said it is there." We looked at the books and there was nothing, so we then thought that the date must be wrong—and indeed the date is 1990. I do not know what disciplinary action the Home Secretary wishes to take against those who advised him. Perhaps he will take full responsibility: in fact, I am sure that he will.
There is a serious point here. If we have only an hour in which to debate the Bill from beginning to end, how will we have a chance to conduct research and investigate the accuracy of arguments deployed by the Government in support of their legislation—and how will those outside have a chance to discuss the issues and verify what Ministers say?
I am sure that the Home Secretary spoke in good faith, but he is man enough to admit that he made a fundamental error in referring to the 1989 Gaming (Amendment) Bill. I hope that it will not be used again as a specious precedent for even more draconian curtailments of debate.
In any event, the Election Publications Bill is unusual because clause 2 is effectively a Henry VIII clause giving the Home Secretary absolute power to amend primary legislation in the form of section 110 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. [Interruption.]
It is important that the sedentary chunterings of the Home Secretary should be placed 367 firmly on the record. Did I hear the Home Secretary correctly when he said a moment ago that the Bill was "scarcely draconian"?
§ Madam Deputy Speaker
Order. Will the hon. Gentleman please address the Chair?
I apologise profusely. There was no intentional discourtesy. Did my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) hear, as I did, the Home Secretary say that the measure was "scarcely draconian"? If he did—my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) is signalling that he heard it—can he tell me what exactly the Home Secretary would regard as draconian?
Once we have got to the stage of saying that we can deal with Government legislation in the House by forcing it through within one hour, without any chance to debate it further, that is draconian.
I am grateful to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) for raising the matter. He is right: I did say that the Bill was scarcely draconian. I was also muttering that Draco was the chief magistrate in Athens in the 7th century BC. The reason why he is remembered is because he introduced capital punishment for virtually every criminal offence.
An excellent man.
The right hon. Gentleman says that Draco was an excellent man. That is not a tradition that I have sought to follow in any particular whatever. Nor do I believe that one can in any sense describe the Bill, which is about election publications, as within the compass of what Draco had in mind when he gave his name to an immortal adjective.
The Home Secretary is desperately trying to argue the point. He says that the Bill is scarcely draconian. What he is saying is that it is not very draconian—not by his standards. We will see what sort of punishment regime is in operation when some of his hon. Friends seek to try to divide the House or vote against the legislation, particularly the timetable motion. We will see whether he wishes to impose the equivalent of capital punishment on their parliamentary careers. I suspect that that is exactly what he and his friends have in mind.
The Bill, the debate on which is to be limited to one hour, is unusual not just because it has a Henry VIII clause, but because it seeks to keep on the statute book two sets of laws. The helpful note produced by the Library says: The Election Publications Bill [HL] is fairly unusual in that it ensures that both the pre-16 February and the post-16 February provisions of s110 are in effect in force at the same time. It is also unusual because it does not result from a court case or new legal advice where the interpretation of the law has been brought into question, but simply by the inability of certain political parties"—
Order. The hon. Gentleman is now debating the content of the Bill, rather than the motion that is before us.
I am seeking not to debate the content of the Bill, but to explain why we should have the chance to 368 debate the content of the Bill. It is an unusual Bill. It is without precedent and deserves proper scrutiny. If I had been attempting at this stage to read the whole of the Election Publications Bill briefing from the Library, obviously, I would be out of order. All I am saying is that the Bill, on which the Government are trying to curtail debate, is very unusual. We should have proper scrutiny.
I am very worried by the Home Secretary's remark that it would not have been necessary to curtail debate on the Election Publications Bill if it had not been made clear that there was some opposition to it among Conservative Members. I think that he meant that someone—my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth)—had had the temerity to table an amendment.
The Bill was on the Order Paper for debate on Monday, and there was ample time to scrutinise it then. There is no reason to suspect that the Chair would not have allowed a closure motion at a reasonable time if it seemed that the debate was being prolonged unnecessarily. I came to the House on Monday prepared to debate the substance of the Bill, and now we will have only a very short time to raise matters of concern.
It is wholly unnecessary to treat us in this way. The Home Secretary seems to take the view that the whole purpose of Parliament is for Front Benchers to come to agreements and push everyone else out of the equation. What future role do Back Benchers have if debate is so curtailed that there is time only for speeches from the Front Benches before the guillotine falls? We are getting to that stage, and it is very serious indeed.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst has been assiduous in ensuring that private Members' legislation is properly scrutinised. If one were to apply to such legislation the precedent that the Government are now setting, we might have six or 10 one-hour Second Reading debates on a Friday. The Government might find that rather uncomfortable, because it could give Back Benchers more power to introduce legislation. Fridays might then become rather more burdensome for them.
If it is reasonable for a Second Reading debate on a Bill covering quite a narrow issue to run from 9.30 to 2.30 on a Friday, why is it necessary to restrict to one hour the debate on a significant Bill that is retrospective, contains a Henry VIII clause and sets the intriguing precedent of putting two contradictory pieces of legislation on the statute book at the same time? This is appalling, and I strongly oppose it.
Northern Ireland Members and our constituents are in a very difficult position. The Elections Bill has sprung from the womb of the tragedy that has afflicted the larger part of the United Kingdom—the foot and mouth plague—but we do not have that plague in Northern Ireland. The plague can be isolated, and the European Community has declared Northern Ireland plague-free, except for one local government area.
The Bill has been introduced to postpone elections because of foot and mouth, but there is no ground for that whatever in Northern Ireland. The people of Northern Ireland are enraged by the fact that the Bill is almost wholly concerned with us: there are a couple of lines on England and Wales, then on page 2 we find the clause 369 heading "Postponement of local elections in Northern Ireland". Schedule 1, on page five, also deals with Northern Ireland. Almost the whole Bill deals with Northern Ireland.
For some reason or other, local government elections that could have been held on 16 May will not be held on that date but postponed to a date to be chosen on which both elections can be held. If we in Northern Ireland had ever heard of such a proposal, perhaps we would have treated this Bill with more respect. There has been a large argument in Northern Ireland about when local elections should be held.
Order. May I remind the hon. Gentleman that we are discussing the allocation of time motion?
I am making the point that I object to the guillotine because it is part of a solution to a situation that did not need to arise. It is legitimate for me to make that very special point, as my colleague the hon. and learned Member for North Down (Mr. McCartney) did in his speech. That is what I am seeking to do.
The Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland—who is now in control of the Treasury Bench—knows the discussions that he has had in past months on local government elections. Those discussions have had nothing whatsoever to do with the foot and mouth plague. Two parties in Northern Ireland—the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister—want something to be done about those local government elections. One party—the First Minister—wanted the elections to be postponed for a long time, perhaps one or two years. It did not suit him to consult the people because the people would have rejected what he said. He therefore decided, "Let us postpone them. They are going to be unpleasant for me."
The First Minister's Deputy wanted something to be done about the elections, but he did not want to be so drastic. As the two parties could not agree, they could not present an agreement to the Government. However, they decided to propose that both elections should be held on the same day, as they felt that that would be a great advantage to them. Therefore, the House is being asked to pass this Bill not because of foot and mouth disease—according to Europe, which seems to be the supreme potentate in these matters, there is no foot and mouth disease in Northern Ireland—but because the Government have decided that we shall go with the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, who feel that it would be good to delay the elections.
Hon. Members will notice, however, that not one Ulster Unionist Member is in the Chamber. Ulster Unionist Members do not want what their leader wants; they do not want it at all. Therefore, they have not attended the debate, although they may attend for debate on Second Reading, if we have time for that.
The Minister is smiling graciously because he knows all of that very well. He and my party had long meetings on the matter. I am holding a very long letter on the matter that I sent to the Prime Minister. I am glad that, yesterday, I mentioned in the House that I had not received a reply to it from the Prime Minister because, this morning, I received a hand-delivered reply from him. I will bear that in mind in future when he does not reply to my letters.
370 No decent democrat could agree with some of the Bill's provisions. Even the Alliance party is opposed to the Bill. Although it is one of the pro-agreement parties, it cannot stomach the Bill, which strikes at—
Order. I really must remind the hon. Gentleman that we are discussing not the Bill's content, but the allocation of time for considering it.
Should we not have time to discuss a matter that cuts across basic democracy? I happen to believe in free elections. I happen to believe that, when the boxes are opened, they should be scrutinised by the candidates and by the scrutineers. I lost my first election because an election box went missing. I would have been elected had the box been found. My hon. Friend the Member for South Antrim (Dr. McCrea) lost the election in the Mid-Ulster constituency because of fraud. Everyone admitted that there was fraud in that election, even members of the Social Democratic and Labour party.
The Bill under consideration provides a way for fraud to be carried out. Interestingly enough, it used to be that the electoral officer had to perform certain duties when votes were counted. The Bill does not require him to do anything. The word used is "may", rather than "shall". He cannot be forced to do anything. That cuts at the heart of democracy.
What is more, scrutineers and candidates will be prevented from seeing the boxes opened for the first time.
§ Mr. Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield)
Is the hon. Gentleman arguing that the programme motion will allow insufficient time to represent the interests of the thousands of people in Ulster who vote for him and his party?
There will be no time for that. Once debate on this motion is complete, we will move on to the next motion. I have been told that perhaps one person from my party will be able to make a short speech, and then it will be all over. We have gone through the Bill and have tabled amendments to it. I do not want to raise this matter continually, but my party has been treated shamefully in not being told about the Bill. We have received an apology for that.
When we were eventually told about the Bill, we were given a draft version. I went to the Vote Office and asked for all the relevant Acts, but the office could not supply them, so I was not able to give full consideration to all the papers mentioned in the Bill. I had to wait until late last night before I got the necessary papers.
How could I have had time to look at all the papers? I worked hard on the matter, and discovered that one of the papers—Elections (Northern Ireland) Act 2001—could not be found because it does not exist. The Vote Office wrote to me, stating: The N. I. Office have informed us that there is no such act as the Elections (N.I.) Act 2001.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr. George Howarth)
I thank the hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) for giving way. His normal eagle-eyed scrutiny has revealed a drafting mistake in the Bill. If he looks at the amendments selected for debate, he will note that the Government have 371 [The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland] tabled an amendment to put the matter right. We spotted the error as well, but of course the resources available to us are far greater than those available to him.
The Minister is not revealing all the facts. He spotted the problem because he received a letter from the Vote Office. However, the argument remains the same.
I represent, both here and in Europe, more people in Northern Ireland than are represented by any other hon. Member. My party represents a majority of the Unionist electorate. It is right for me to tell the House that I must oppose the guillotine. We cannot reasonably discuss a matter when there is no time to consider it. The relevant parliamentary offices lack the necessary information, and the Minister is forced to reveal that a drastic mistake had been made.
There have been two drastic mistakes. As the hon. Member for Belfast, South (Rev. Martin Smyth), the spokesman for the Ulster Unionist party, said yesterday in the House, Northern Ireland representatives have been unable to get hold of the papers in time. When we finally got them, a paper that was not relevant held up the supply of the other papers.
The people of Northern Ireland cannot be expected to ask us to ram this measure through, because it is not needed. We could go ahead and have our elections on 16 May. It is a terrible thing when politicians are afraid of an election result. What is more, the Bill opens the way for cheating and fraud on the part of every criminal in the country. All they have to do is run down one motorbike rider carrying a bundle of votes from one station to the other. If those votes are lost, the whole election has to be declared null and void. The Minister knows that there are people in Northern Ireland who would do that gladly. If the big bomb in Londonderry yesterday had exploded it would have blown up many police officers, so we know that that is a reality.
How could the Government expect me to say, "Go ahead, rush it through."? I must make my protest. I have found it very difficult to do so. I was held up yesterday because I was told that I was out of order. I know that there will be no time to speak on Second Reading today, so I am making my point strongly now.
There is no need for the Bill. Northern Ireland does not have foot and mouth disease, according to the European Union, which is the supreme potentate. It examines the innards of the animals and declare whether they are clean or unclean. It has taken the place of the Aaronic priesthood. As Europe has declared Northern Ireland clean, we should be able to hold the local government elections on the proper day without any change.
We must surely have reached the depths of parliamentary despair—the slough of parliamentary despond—in the point to which the Government have brought us today. I follow in the spirit of the remarks of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg) and strongly support his amendment.
We must ask ourselves why we, as the House of Commons and a Parliament, are in this intolerable position. The reason is that we are caught between the 372 vacillation of the Prime Minister and the arbitrary date of the Easter recess, which has been decided, essentially, by the Government. The Prime Minister is the Government—no other part of the Government appears to function in any sense—and even he cannot make up his mind. The one thing that the Government have decided on, to which the House has agreed, is the date of the Easter recess.
The Government have said that these two rather grubby Bills must be passed immediately, with no effective scrutiny or consideration. Why? Because of the indecision of the Government, who, nevertheless, have a mysterious ability to decide positively about the date of the Easter recess. We cannot therefore have the proper time normally available for considering a Bill of this kind.
The Home Secretary tried to draw an analogy with the deliberations in another place. I have always thought it proper and good for the two Houses of Parliament to take a completely different view of the way in which they deal with legislation. Therefore, the fact that the members of another place saw fit to allow one of the Bills to go through quickly, without much debate and without amendment, is neither here nor there. It is for this House to decide how it will deal with matters. The fact that the Election Publications Bill was originally on Monday's Order Paper and that the Chairman of Ways and Means kindly accepted and selected my amendment to the Bill—since when another amendment has been tabled and selected—suggests that this House was looking at the Bill in a very different way from the other place. For the Home Secretary to come along and say, "The Lords let it go through very quickly and therefore so should the Commons" is a distressing example of a misunderstanding by the right hon. Gentleman of the way in which Parliament works. I should have thought that he was on top of these things, but it seems that he has slipped of late. He now apparently says that if something happens in another place, it should happen here. I refute that argument.
The Home Secretary tried to suggest that there was a precedent. I asked whether there was a precedent for a Government, under a guillotine, seeking to restrict all stages of a public Bill to one hour. He came up with a precedent that was, as my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) demonstrated, a spurious and unlike example. In other words, there is no precedent. Yet again the Government are breaking new parliamentary ground by having the gall and arrogance to say that the law of the land should be made after one hour's consideration in total by the House of Commons. That is the prospect which we face tonight, and it is surely unacceptable.
Let us take a different approach, again following the spirit of what my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham said. Why could we not sit later tonight? Presumably, it is because the babes on the Labour Benches do not want to be here too late. They do not feel that it is right to be detained at a late hour to do something as trivial as legislating, scrutinising or holding the Government to account. The delicate babes on the Government Benches feel that it is inappropriate to be delayed overlong in the House of Commons. Surely if it is a matter of emergency—which I doubt—and a matter of panic, which it certainly is for 373 the Government, they could say to their babes, "Can't you just stay a bit late for one night to allow us to consider the matter?"
Order. The right hon. Gentleman is surely aware that that is not the language that we expect to be used in the Chamber in reference to hon. Members.
I am sorry if I have offended the delicacy of Labour Members. I shall try to remember that I should address them as honourable but largely absent Members. That perhaps would be a more accurate description of them. I shall try to remember to use it in future.
My right hon. Friend expresses himself in his customarily restrained and understated fashion with which the House is familiar. While I do not in any way dissent from the important point that he has made in his emollient style, may I ask whether he agrees that another reason that the Government do not want substantial debate on this matter any more than on any other is that they know that most of the people who would contribute to the debate from the Back Benches, including their own, would be potent speakers largely critical of the Government? Surely my right hon. Friend accepts that what the Government want is for their Back Benchers to be craven lickspittles of the Patronage Secretary.
The Government may already have achieved that objective early in this Parliament. The point is whether those who are still keen on our role of scrutinising and attempting to hold to account should be given a proper opportunity so to do.
The Chairman of Ways and Means has selected a large number of amendments and a new clause which are deemed to be suitable and appropriate for debate and consideration by the House. They cover some important matters, and they have been tabled by members of more than one political party. As Northern Ireland Members have said, the amendments bear substantially on matters that are the proper concern of Northern Ireland.
So we have on the one hand the Government's self-imposed need or desire to deal with the matter in the most peremptory and panicky fashion and on the other the acknowledgement by the Chairman of Ways and Means that legitimate amendments have been tabled, even to the extent that the manuscript amendment tabled by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham has been selected. As my right hon. and learned Friend said, there may be further amendments to come. Against that background, the Government say that the amount of time available to the House is to be arbitrarily and unnecessarily restricted to 10 o'clock this evening, in the case of the Elections Bill. That has been done for no given reason. Perhaps the Minister will tell us why the matter must be dealt with by 10 o'clock this day and why it must be dealt with on this day in any case.
The Elections Bill will have to go to another place. One asks whether the normal period will be allowed to elapse between the end of consideration by the House of Commons and when the other place is asked to pick it up. I should have thought that that was an important consideration. As far as I know, the House of Lords will sit tomorrow. It could sit on Friday, if it is not already 374 due to do so. It will almost certainly sit on Monday and Tuesday. There is ample scope for the amendment tabled by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham to be accommodated, or even to go further and allow more time for consideration. No reason has been given in the case of the Elections Bill, never mind an adequate or acceptable one, for the deadline of 10 o'clock this evening, or for allowing only one day's consideration of a Bill to which a large number of amendments and new clauses have already been selected.
When it comes to the Election Publications Bill, about which my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch spoke a moment ago, and to which I am happy to say that my own modest amendment has been selected, the waters get murkier. It is a grubby little Bill introduced with an even grubbier all-party consensus to conceal some all-party cock-ups. What worse motivation could there be for changing the law of the land? I shall hope to catch your eye later, Madam Deputy Speaker, and expose the Bill for what it truly is. This is not the time or the place to do so.
§ Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley)
If time is so crucial, why are we wasting three hours in debating the programme motion?
What a typical and representative view from a Government Member. They think that the debate is a waste of time, Madam Deputy Speaker. A Government Member who has drifted into the Chamber opines that the debate is all basically a waste of time. Nothing could sum up better the attitude of—I was going to say new Labour, but I will not insult the hon. Gentleman by using that label. I do not think that he would welcome it. A senior member of the Labour party and a generally respected Member of the House gives us his view that the debate is a waste of time. I am sure that if you shared that view, Madam Deputy Speaker, you would have put a stop to it long ago. This is an important debate, and one that I can well see that the Government want to shut down or ideally avoid altogether.
I will not say more on the Election Publications Bill at this stage, and I may not be able to say much later because the Government have allowed only one hour to change the law of the land—one hour in total for the House of Commons to consider a matter of widespread interest. Were I to catch your eye later, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would refer briefly to the reasons given for the Bill in its brief passage through another place. They reveal some interesting aspects of it, but this is not the occasion on which to do any such thing. Suffice it to say that there are several reasons why the House should reject the motion, not least that one hour in total for consideration of a Bill is utterly unacceptable and outrageous. It is without precedent because the Home Secretary and all the might of his Department were unable to produce a precedent.
Unless I am contradicted by the Minister, this is new ground. This is something that has not happened before. Law is being made by a Government imposing themselves on the House of Commons and saying that all stages of a Bill must be completed in one hour. Let us understand what that means. Let us say—I was going to say 659 Members of Parliament, but I will exclude the 375 payroll—instead, let us say that more than 500 Members of Parliament may wish to speak. They will be given a total of one hour—
§ Mr. Don Foster (Bath)
Or less.
The hon. Gentleman reminds me that Divisions could reduce that time. I am being generous to the Government. I said that it is just possible that there will be as much as one hour for debate, but, of course, it could be 45 minutes or even less.
§ Mr. Pike
It could be more.
It certainly could be, if the hon. Gentleman's dearest wish were granted and we completed consideration of the Elections Bill before 10 o'clock this evening. Presumably, the hon. Gentleman suggests that we get through 50 amendments before 10 o'clock, so that we can get on to the Election Publications Bill earlier than that.
I have great respect for the right hon. Gentleman, but we could have started debate on the Elections Bill at 3.40 pm, so we could have had much more time on it.
Of course. If we debated nothing at all in the House, we could all go home immediately. That is the logic of the position increasingly taken by Labour Members.
§ Mr. Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath)
In support of my right hon. Friend's argument, has he considered the fact that, earlier, the Home Secretary advised the House that it might be a good idea if, on certain matters, we followed the other place? Has my right hon. Friend considered that Her Majesty's Government apparently anticipate that the other place will consider the Elections Bill for two days—continuing into next week?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that information. However, we do not know it officially—it is not public knowledge. In any case, I do not think that should alter our attitude to our consideration of the Bill. The fact that Members in another place saw fit to deal with the Election Publications Bill in a few minutes is a matter for them—properly. However, I see it differently in this place. My hon. Friend's helpful advice does not alter by one iota my view of the motion or of the Bills.
§ Mr. Don Foster
The right hon. Gentleman might reflect further on the intervention of his hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Mr. Hawkins). Although Members in another place have longer to discuss the Bill, they will not be allowed to discuss matters relating to its financial consequences. They have thus been given a significantly longer time to deal with far less.
That is so. What makes it all worse is that, according to the section of the motion headed "Consideration of Lords Amendments to the Elections Bill", the Government suggest that, if their lordships are wise enough to make amendments to the Bill, we shall then be given one hour to consider those amendments 376 when the Bill comes back to this place. I hope that amendments will be made in the other place, because we certainly shall not have time to amend the Bill, based on the admirable selection made by the Chairman of Ways and Means.
I hope that their lordships scrutinise the measure carefully and amend it—I doubt that we shall have the opportunity to do so. It will then be interesting to see what we do during the one hour that the Government are allocating for our consideration of the Lords amendments that I hope will be made. The viciousness of the motion is compounded the further one looks ahead to future proceedings.
The combination of the comments of my right hon. and hon. Friends and my own modest contribution should surely be enough to persuade the House to reject the motion. I hope that we shall accept the amendment tabled by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham, although I do not think that it goes far enough. However, it certainly goes in the right direction, so I am prepared to support it. I hope, too, that the Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for Knowsley, North and Sefton, East (Mr. Howarth), will at least attempt to answer some of the many questions that have been put. Before we decide how we will vote, he will have one last chance to persuade us—as his right hon. Friend the Home Secretary failed to do—that the motion is appropriate, acceptable and proper.
I am about to conclude, but I will give way to my hon. Friend once more.
My right hon. Friend's generosity of spirit invariably gets the better of him—as Members on both sides are well aware. I invite him to consider this rather simple, prosaic but, I hope, valid point: does he not think that it is significant that during this afternoon's debate, one lacuna in the Bill has already been identified and that the Home Secretary has made a mess of matters in respect of gaming legislation? As we have found two Government errors in the space of two and a half hours, is it not reasonable to anticipate that the danger of the procedure recommended by the Government is that several further errors will be discovered—but only when it is too late?
I agree with the thrust of what my hon. Friend says; it would certainly be too late in this place, if the House passes the motion—as I fear we must anticipate. The Government will wheel in the terracotta army; they will go through the Lobby—I was going to say "like sheep", but that might be rather an unfortunate description at present—and, no doubt, the motion will be passed. However, I can hold out this hope to my hon. Friend: the more errors, lacunae and cock-ups that are identified in the Bill at present—we have already had a hint of some and, no doubt, more will emerge during the next few hours—the greater will be the incentive for another place to look at length and in depth at the matter, in order to carry out the job that we have been denied the opportunity to do. That is my fervent hope.
§ 6.5 pm
§ Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport)
I am shocked by the motion. The proposed legislation is extremely complicated. My reading of the selection made by the Chairman of Ways and Means is that 50 amendments will be discussed during different stages in the passage of the Bill. It will be completely impossible for the House to give those amendments proper consideration. How can we think otherwise than that politics is in disrepute if the House is treated in that manner?
In this week's edition of The House magazine, I read the thoughts of some Members who will be leaving the House at the next general election and was struck by the fact that all of them said that the House had changed—and changed for the worse—and that Parliament was being treated with contempt. Yesterday, I held a conversation in the Corridor with a Cabinet Minister, who shall be nameless. I said, "I was pleased to see you sitting in the Chamber for a few minutes earlier, because it's good to see Cabinet Ministers supporting their junior Ministers—if only briefly—when legislation is going through the House, but you weren't there for very long". To which the Cabinet Minister replied, "I can't sit in there, we have a country to run".
Surely, the place for elected Members of Parliament and Ministers is in the House, if they can find the time to be here. It is shocking that the Government routinely introduce timetable motions on significant issues that should be debated at some length
Sometimes, we are accused of creating artificial obstacles and of seeing artificial problems when we urge that legislation should be given more time. However, on many occasions during my long period of membership of the House, constituents and others have written to me at, perhaps, Third Reading stage or even when legislation has been passed, pointing out that they had not appreciated the significance of the measure and asking us to do something about it. Quite often, the answer is, "No, we can't do anything about it, because it has already been passed."
The individual Members of Parliament who contribute to debates on measures are not the only people who should be part of the discussion process. There should be a decent interval between the introduction of a Bill, its consideration on Second Reading, in Committee, on Report and Third Reading, so that people outside the House who may be affected by the legislation have a decent opportunity to consider it, discuss it with others who are concerned and to make representations through their Members of Parliament. My experience is that legislation is often improved by the representations made by trade associations, by individuals and by bodies such as the Hansard Society, who are concerned about our democracy.
I am not aware that any of my colleagues has urged that we should rise for the Easter recess on Tuesday. Like other hon. Members, I receive criticism about the long Easter break—I see no reason for such a long break. I see no reason, either, for legislation to be pushed through in such a precipitate manner. It is bad government and the Government should be ashamed of pushing the measure through so hurriedly. In my experience, that will lead to mistakes that we shall regret. The Government should be ashamed that they have introduced the motion.
In winding up for the official Opposition on this important debate on the Government's extraordinary guillotine, I should like to start by looking back at what has led them to introduce such a panic guillotine motion. I go back just a couple of weeks to 21 March, when, at Prime Minister's questions, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) asked: having the option to delay some local elections requires legislation quickly, is the Prime Minister absolutely sure that he will not regret later doing nothing now? The Prime Minister's response was very interesting, and all hon. Members ought to be remember it. He said: I simply ask the right hon. Gentleman this: postpone until when? For one month, two months, six months?"—[Official Report, 21 March 2001; Vol. 365, c. 338.] Only a fortnight later, the Government have moved this extraordinary guillotine motion, seeking to curtail debate in a way that will, as so many hon. Members have said, lead to all the most significant parliamentary scrutiny being squeezed into no more than an hour.
When the Home Secretary moved the guillotine motion he gave a discursive and long preamble, which revealed only too clearly to all Opposition Members how embarrassed he is. We know perfectly well that he was one, in common with almost all the Cabinet, who said that he did not want to delay the local elections. There is no doubt that his reluctance to deal with the specific guillotine and the fact that he spent the vast bulk of his speech talking about other guillotines in earlier Parliaments—as the Official Report will confirm—reveals, once again, how uncomfortable he is at having to move a guillotine that he never wanted to introduce.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) pointed out all the inconsistencies in the Government's position. She rightly said that there is no justification whatever for this outrageous and absurd guillotine motion. As she said, it will hinder the interests of democracy and those of our constituents, who sent us here in the first place to hold the Government to account and to ensure that the laws passed by Parliament are in good order, well thought through and properly scrutinised.
The hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Mr. Stunell), who spoke for the Liberal Democrats, supports the official Opposition and shares our concerns. The hon. and learned Member for North Down (Mr. McCartney) raised particular concerns about how the truncated debate on the Bill will affect Northern Ireland.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Mr. Hogg), in moving his amendment, which we on the official Opposition Front Bench support, wanted to ensure that this constitutional measure receives proper debate and scrutiny. He made an extremely powerful and, in intellectual terms, an unanswerable case, as he does so often.
My hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) referred to the opportunities that there should be to debate matters properly on Second Reading, as well as managing to catch out the Home Secretary on one of several errors in some gaming legislation, for which the right hon. Gentleman gave the wrong date.
The hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) set out the difficulties that he has with the Elections Bill. As he rightly said, the circumstances are very different in 379 Northern Ireland, because of the different election dates and the fact that, happily, foot and mouth does not currently affect the Province. Even more significantly, he spotted a drafting error, which the Public Bill Office had to point out to the Government.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) said in a powerful intervention, two errors have emerged during this short debate—one in the drafting of the measure, which refers to a non-existent Act, and the other when the Home Secretary referred to the wrong legislation in the wrong year. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) said in his usual powerful contribution, there are particular dangers in the guillotine. My hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Mr. Viggers) referred to the need for decent intervals between the stages of any Bill, so that those outside the House can contribute their thoughts and reactions.
I was considering which factor of the Government's attitude to this guillotined Bill was particularly relevant to the debate. I was reminded that so many Opposition Members have regarded this Government's version of elective dictatorship, their bypassing of all democratic scrutiny and their contempt for the House as Orwellian. It is perhaps especially important to remember one of George Orwell's greatest works. It is sadly redolent of a debate on the introduction of emergency legislation under a tight guillotine because of a foot and mouth epidemic affecting animals. It is, of course, "Animal Farm".
All hon. Members will remember that Napoleon, the leader of the pigs, changed the rules under which the others operated. Instead of "two legs bad, four legs good", as the pigs became more human, the slogan became "two legs better". That is precisely what the Government are doing in their guillotine. They interpret words in the way that suits them. They have a complete contempt for Parliament and all democratic scrutiny, and they change the rules as they go along. Truly, this is an Orwellian Government and this is an appalling guillotine, of which any Government should be ashamed.
We should remind ourselves that we are having this debate because of the concern, which is shared on both sides of the House, about the great suffering being caused to so many by foot and mouth disease and about the proper democratic process, of which elections are, of course, a central part. I think that that is agreed, but we find ourselves in a situation that is almost without precedent.
Frankly, postponing local elections is not a step that any of us takes lightly, but we have introduced a Bill that is generally acknowledged to be in the national interest. It is a matter of urgency because the elections were due to take place in England and Wales and, indeed, in Northern Ireland, during May. So we must ensure that there is clarity for the candidates who are standing in those elections and for the councils, which need to make the necessary arrangements for the elections and for what happens afterwards.
The need for clarity is one of the reasons why we introduced the allocation of time motion. If this House and the other place do not pass the Bill, what we shall 380 have is an aspiration, rather than clarity about what should definitely happen. That argument must be weighed in the balance and taken seriously.
I want to comment on the argument used by the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe), who opened the debate for the official Opposition. As she is well aware, I personally have some affection for her. Nevertheless, she occasionally has the capacity to go somewhat over the top, and others have commented on that trait. I do not think that I shall be misrepresenting her if I say that the burden of her argument, as I understood it, was that both Bills involve enormously important constitutional matters and, as such, should not be subject to a timetable motion at all. That was mote or less the burden of her speech. Indeed, she was supported by the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning), who is sitting next to her, who complained, on behalf of the Opposition, about a lack of consultation.
Let me examine the points that the right hon. Lady made and explain what we are doing. The Election Publications Bill will do precisely what the Conservative party requested we do. On 16 March, the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Mr. Prior) wrote to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary. The hon. Gentleman is described in the letter as the chief executive and registered treasurer of the Conservative party, and his letter concludes: I look forward to hearing from you and I know that you will understand the urgency of this matter. The subject is a matter of urgency and the chief executive and registered treasurer of the Conservative party recognises that the matter not only needs addressing, but needs addressing urgently. Those were his words.
Is the Minister not confusing two issues: the urgency and speed with which a Bill should be introduced and the degree of speed with which it should be carried through the House? There is common ground that both Bills had to be introduced with great urgency, but the common ground breaks up because we believe that great urgency should not be used as an excuse for no scrutiny.
§ Mr. Howarth
The right hon. Lady has set out an argument and is determined to maintain it in all circumstances. That is an understandable debating position to take. However, she should have listened carefully to what I said a moment ago. I said that political parties, local authorities, candidates and agents and everyone involved in the electoral process needed clarity. If we are to have clarity, it is urgent not only that we address the issue but that we get provisions on to the statute book as quickly as possible.
§ Mr. Hawkins
I want to develop my point, but I shall give way in a minute I ask the right hon. Gentleman and the hon. Gentleman to exercise a little patience.
Let me explain the purpose behind the Election Publications Bill. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 introduced new requirements for 381 the posters, leaflets and so on that political parties and others use in campaigns. Those new requirements were brought into effect, along with the main provisions of the Act relating to election spending and donations, from 16 February 2001. With hindsight, that was too soon for the particular provisions covered by the Election Publications Bill. Political parties and candidates all over the country were left with insufficient time to rework their election material. They are very familiar, as we all are, with the old requirements and it is right that they should be allowed to work to those requirements for a period.
The right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald said that that is an important constitutional change. It is not—the Bill will put right a problem that emerged as a result of the outworkings of the Act. That is all that we are doing.
I am grateful to the Minister for his characteristic courtesy in giving way. If the matter is as urgent as he says, how was it that, although the Election Publications Bill was on the Order Paper on Monday when it could have been dealt with perfectly adequately, for some mysterious reason, the Government withdrew it and have brought it back to the House two days later under a one-hour time constraint? What sort of urgency is that?
The short answer is that, since the Bills contain some common characteristics and cover some common issues, it was considered convenient to bring them together—[Interruption.] If Opposition Members will allow me to proceed, I shall come to the other point that the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald made.
The right hon. Lady said that the Elections Bill had major constitutional implications and suggested that debate on it should be subject to an almost open-ended procedure. As she and the House know, the Bill will delay the date of the local elections. That is precisely what the Leader of the Opposition has been asking for, and precisely what, after due consideration, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister decided was appropriate in the national interest. To describe that as a major constitutional change leaves the right hon. Lady open to the normal accusation that is made against her—she is again guilty of hyperbole.
In the light of the Minister's remarks and the fact that, in another place, Baroness Jay of Paddington has allowed for two days of debate, how can he justify the fact that the Government have provided this House only the rest of this evening for debate on the Elections Bill and only one hour for the important Bill that my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) mentioned?
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary made the issue abundantly clear in his opening speech. Circumstances in the other place are as they are because the Opposition there are far more disciplined and better organised than they are in this House. I have a sneaking admiration for the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth), as he well knows. However, he and one or two of his colleagues have the capacity, while remaining in order, to stretch out the business of the House to sometimes ludicrous proportions. Frankly, that point has to be factored into any considerations about the business of the House.
382 I wish to deal with some of the arguments that have been made by Members representing constituencies in Northern Ireland. The hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) said that the Government were planning to combine the polls in any event and that foot and mouth disease was used to provide just another excuse. That was the burden of his argument. Two separate issues are involved, and I think that he would acknowledge that.
First, we need to take a UK-wide approach to the outbreak of foot and mouth. Therefore, to defer until June elections across the UK seems to us to make sense. As the hon. Gentleman acknowledged, Northern Ireland has not been foot and mouth disease free. There has been one case, but I am sure that everyone wants to keep it at that. He is chairman of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Northern Ireland Assembly, so I am sure that he would agree that it is important to take all the necessary precautions to ensure that Northern Ireland remains reasonably free from foot and mouth.
Secondly, although it obviously depends on when my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister calls the general election, there is a case for combining the elections. The argument for combining the two polls relates to the effect on voter turnout. There is evidence that, if two polls are conducted on one day, turnout is higher. Surely that is good for democracy.
The Minister is well aware of the regionalisation in Northern Ireland. The supremo of Europe has declared that we do not have foot and mouth disease in any council area except one. That is the legal position. He should not keep saying that we have foot and mouth disease where we do not. On voter turnout in local government elections, Northern Ireland has a good record on that compared with the rest of the United Kingdom. If the Labour party had all those people turning out to vote, it would not be changing the law.
The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the turnout for local elections in Northern Ireland is far better than it is on the mainland, especially in inner-city areas in England and some wards in my constituency. My point is that it could be even higher.
§ Mr. Robert McCartney
Until Monday, it was a line-ball decision whether the Prime Minister would go ahead with the council elections on 3 May. Northern Ireland has had one outbreak of foot and mouth, and that was a month ago. Is the Minister seriously suggesting that the disease is a relevant consideration for changing the established date in Northern Ireland?
Had the hon. and learned Gentleman exercised a little patience, I would have addressed that issue. However, before I do, let me say that I do not want to exaggerate the problem; I accept that the level of foot and mouth is very low in Northern Ireland. I am simply trying to take notice of what people are saying about keeping it that way.
§ Mr. Öpik
I apologise for not being present for much of the debate. I have been dealing with problems associated with foot and mouth and have returned because we were assured that the Minister would resolve why the date is to be changed in Northern Ireland. Is he going to explain why so little time has been allocated to discuss 383 such important matters? I have a great deal of sympathy with the concerns of hon. Members who represent constituencies in Northern Ireland. He might have a plausible defence by pleading the problems of foot and mouth, but I am not sure that he can defend the time that has been allocated to discuss it.
Having been candidates, all hon. Members must accept—even if they are not prepared to acknowledge it in public—that people who stand in elections for local government or Parliament need to be clear about the procedures involved. To be honest, if the Bills were not agreed to quickly, we would not have the necessary clarity.
As for foot and mouth in Northern Ireland, let me make the position clear. Only one case has been confirmed there and, as has been rightly said, the export ban has been eased. However, extensive precautions remain in place because of the importance of agriculture to the Northern Ireland economy, where 5 per cent. of jobs are in agriculture compared with only 1.6 per cent. in the UK as a whole. Hon. Members who represent constituencies in Northern Ireland will be aware that the Northern Ireland Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has called for a fortress farming approach, with movement on and off farms kept to an absolute minimum. In addition, 19 road blocks are in place in and around a 10 km surveillance zone in Newry and Mourne. Although there is a low incidence of foot and mouth in Northern Ireland, the conditions that have been applied have kept it that way. Some severe restrictions on movement are still in place in the Newry and Mourne area.
§ Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South)
I appreciate the Minister graciously giving way, especially as my constituency of Belfast, South is not greatly affected by foot and mouth. Does he acknowledge that the fortress approach is to allow Northern Ireland to maintain its disease-free status? Is he suggesting that if the election were held in Northern Ireland on 16 May, that would spread the disease? It seems to me that the only foot and mouth disease is in the Chamber today, where hon. Members are constantly putting their foot in their mouth as they mix electioneering with legislation.
The hon. Gentleman will forgive me if I do not get drawn into the implications for his constituency. As he rightly says, it is not affected by foot and mouth, except with regard to the new date for local elections. However, restrictions are in place in Newry and Mourne. Heaven forbid that the situation should get worse in coming weeks—I do not anticipate that—but there could be additional problems.
On the issue raised by the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Mr. Öpik), the hon. Member for North Antrim and others have raised concerns about the procedures. All arrangements for colour coding of ballot papers and so on have been considered in great detail, as has the issue of security. I am confident that measures to combat possible confusion will be implemented. In addition, the hon. Gentleman knows that the chief electoral officer goes to great lengths to ensure that ballot boxes are secure. He will continue to do that.
§ Mr. Grieve
I am finding it difficult to follow the Minister's logic on Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister 384 and the Home Secretary explained the postponement of local elections in England. Their reason was not that it was impossible to have free and fair elections, but that their commitment and heavy involvement in fighting the outbreak made it difficult to concentrate on holding an election. That is not the case in Northern Ireland because the outbreak is not on the same scale.
I can only apologise if the hon. Gentleman has not been able to follow my argument. My simple point is that Northern Ireland has a low level of foot and mouth infection. We intend it to stay that way. Despite yesterday's easement, some restrictions remain in place and the change is desirable.
The Bill has a clear purpose: it postpones for a short time elections that were due to take place next month.
The hon. Gentleman has been good enough to be in the Chamber for most of the debate and will know that I have moved an amendment to consider the matter over two days. Will he be good enough to give the Government's response to that suggestion?
I urge my hon. Friends to reject the amendment.
The reasons for the course of action have been fully and responsibly set out by my right hon. Friends the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister. From a practical perspective, it is possible for the elections to go ahead, but that would not be right in the circumstances. The Government are acting in the best interests of the rural community, the electorate and the nation. I commend the motion to the House.
§ Question put, That the amendment be made:—
§ The House divided. Ayes 185, Noes 320.
Division No. 177] [6.39 pm
AYES
Ainsworth, Peter (E Surrey) Cash, William
Amess, David Chope, Christopher
Ancram, Rt Hon Michael Clappison, James
Arbuthnot, Rt Hon James Clark, Dr Michael (Rayleigh)
Atkinson, Peter (Hexham) Clarke, Rt Hon Kenneth (Rushcliffe)
Baldry, Tony
Ballard, Jackie Collins, Tim
Beggs, Roy Cormack, Sir Patrick
Beith, Rt Hon A J Cotter, Brian
Bell, Martin (Tatton) Cran, James
Bercow, John Curry, Rt Hon David
Beresford, Sir Paul Davey, Edward (Kingston)
Blunt, Crispin Davies, Quentin (Grantham)
Body, Sir Richard Davis, Rt Hon David (Haltemprice)
Boswell, Tim Day, Stephen
Bottomley, Peter (Worthing W) Donaldson, Jeffrey
Bottomley, Rt Hon Mrs Virginia Duncan, Alan
Brady, Graham Duncan Smith, Iain
Brake, Tom Emery, Rt Hon Sir Peter
Brazier, Julian Evans, Nigel
Browning, Mrs Angela Fabricant, Michael
Bruce, Ian (S Dorset) Fallon, Michael
Bruce, Malcolm (Gordon) Fearn, Ronnie
Burnett, John Flight, Howard
Burns, Simon Forth, Rt Hon Eric
Burstow, Paul Foster, Don (Bath)
Butterfill, John Fox, Dr Liam
Cable, Dr Vincent Fraser, Christopher
Campbell, Rt Hon Menzies (NE Fife) Gale, Roger
Garnier, Edward
George, Andrew (St Ives) Nicholls, Patrick
Gibb, Nick Norman Archie
Gidley, Sandra Oaten, Mark
Gill, Christopher Öpik, Lembit
Gillan, Mrs Cheryl Ottaway Richard
Gorman, Mrs Teresa Paice, James
Gray, James Paisley, Rev Ian
Green, Damian Paterson, Owen
Greenway, John Pickles, Eric
Grieve, Dominic Portillo, Rt Hon Michael
Gummer, Rt Hon John Prior, David
Hague, Rt Hon William Redwood, Rt Hon John
Hamilton, Rt Hon Sir Archie Rendel, David
Hammond, Philip Robathan, Andrew
Hancock, Mike Robertson Laurence (Tewk'b'ry)
Harvey, Nick Robinson, Peter (Belfast E)
Hawkins, Nick Roe, Mrs Marion (Broxbourne)
Hayes, John Ross William (E Lond'y)
Heald, Oliver Ruffley, David
Heath, David (Somerton & Frome) Russell, Bob (Colchester)
Heathcoat-Amory, Rt Hon David St Aubyn, Nick
Hogg, Rt Hon Douglas Sanders, Adrian
Horam, John Sayeed Jonathan
Howard, Rt Hon Michael Shepherd, Richard
Howarth, Gerald (Aldershot) Simpson, Keith (Mid-Norfolk)
Hughes, Simon (Southwark N) Smith, Sir Robert (W Ab'd'ns)
Jack, Rt Hon Michael Smyth, Rev Martin (Belfast S)
Jackson, Robert (Wantage) Soames, Nicholas
Jenkin, Bernard Spelman, Mrs Caroline
Johnson Smith, Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Spicer, Sir Michael
Spring, Richard
Jones, Nigel (Cheltenham) Stanley, Rt Hon Sir John
Keetch, Paul Streeter, Gary
Kennedy, Rt Hon Charles (Ross Skye & Inverness W) Stunell, Andrew
Swayne, Desmond
Key, Robert Syms, Robert
King, Rt Hon Tom (Bridgwater) Tapsell, Sir Peter
Kirkbride, Miss Julie Taylor, Ian (Esher & Walton)
Laing, Mrs Eleanor Taylor, John M (Solihull)
Lait, Mrs Jacqui Taylor, Matthew (Truro)
Lansley, Andrew Taylor, Sir Teddy
Leigh, Edward Thomas, Simon (Ceredigion)
Letwin, Oliver Thompson, William
Lewis, Dr Julian (New Forest E) Tonge, Dr Jenny
Lilley, Rt Hon Peter Tredinnick, David
Lloyd, Rt Hon Sir Peter (Fareham) Trend, Michael
Llwyd, Elfyn Tyler, Paul
Loughton, Tim Tyrie, Andrew
Luff, Peter Viggers Peter
Lyell, Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Walter, Robert
McCartney, Robert (N Down) Waterson, Nigel
McCrea, Dr William Webb, Steve
MacGregor, Rt Hon John Wells, Bowen
McIntosh, Miss Anne Whittingdale, John
MacKay, Rt Hon Andrew Widdecombe, Rt Hon Miss Ann
Maclean, Rt Hon David Wilkinson, John
Maclennan, Rt Hon Robert Willetts, David
McLoughlin, Patrick Willis, Phil
Madel, Sir David Winterton, Mrs Ann (Congleton)
Maples, John Winterton, Nicholas (Macclesfield)
Mates, Michael Yeo, Tim
Maude, Rt Hon Francis Young, Rt Hon Sir George
Mawhinney, Rt Hon Sir Brian
May, Mrs Theresa Tellers for the Ayes: Mr. John Randall and Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.
Michie, Mrs Ray (Argyll & Bute)
Moss, Malcolm
NOES
Adams, Mrs Irene (Paisley N) Atkins, Charlotte
Ainger, Nick Austin, John
Allen, Graham Bailey, Adrian
Anderson, Rt Hon Donald (Swansea E) Banks, Tony
Barnes, Harry
Armstrong, Rt Hon Ms Hilary Barron, Kevin
Ashton, Joe Battle, John
Atherton, Ms Candy Bayley, Hugh
Beard, Nigel Eagle, Angela (Wallasey)
Beckett, Rt Hon Mrs Margaret Eagle, Maria (L'pool Garston)
Bell, Stuart (Middlesbrough) Edwards, Huw
Benn, Hilary (Leeds C) Efford, Clive
Benn, Rt Hon Tony (Chesterfield) Ellman, Mrs Louise
Bennett, Andrew F Ennis, Jeff
Benton, Joe Field, Rt Hon Frank
Bermingham, Gerald Fitzpatrick, Jim
Best, Harold Fitzsimons, Mrs Loma
Betts, Clive Flynn, Paul
Blackman, Liz Follett, Barbara
Blears, Ms Hazel Foster, Rt Hon Derek
Blizzard, Bob Foster, Michael Jabez (Hastings)
Blunkett, Rt Hon David Foster, Michael J (Worcester)
Boateng, Rt Hon Paul Foulkes, George
Bradley, Keith (Withington) Fyfe, Maria
Bradley, Peter (The Wrekin) Galloway, George
Bradshaw, Ben Gapes, Mike
Brinton, Mrs Helen George, Rt Hon Bruce (Walsall S)
Browne, Desmond Gerard, Neil
Buck, Ms Karen Gibson, Dr Ian
Burden, Richard Gilroy, Mrs Linda
Burgon, Colin Godsiff, Roger
Caborn, Rt Hon Richard Golding, Mrs Llin
Campbell, Alan (Tynemouth) Gordon, Mrs Eileen
Campbell, Mrs Anne (C'bridge) Griffiths, Jane (Reading E)
Campbell, Ronnie (Blyth V) Griffiths, Nigel (Edinburgh S)
Campbell-Savours, Dale Griffiths, Win (Bridgend)
Cann, Jamie Grocott, Bruce
Casale, Roger Grogan, John
Caton, Martin Hain, Peter
Cawsey, Ian Hall, Mike (Weaver Vale)
Chapman, Ben (Wirral S) Hall, Patrick (Bedford)
Chaytor, David Hamilton, Fabian (Leeds NE)
Clapham, Michael Hanson, David
Clark, Rt Hon Dr David (S Shields) Harman, Rt Hon Ms Harriet
Clark, Dr Lynda (Edinburgh Pentlands) Healey, John
Henderson, Ivan (Harwich)
Clark, Paul (Gillingham) Hendrick, Mark
Clarke, Charles (Norwich S) Hepburn, Stephen
Clarke, Eric (Midlothian) Heppell, John
Clarke, Rt Hon Tom (Coatbridge) Hesford, Stephen
Clarke, Tony (Northampton S) Hinchliffe, David
Clelland, David Hodge, Ms Margaret
Clwyd, Ann Hood, Jimmy
Coaker, Vernon Hope, Phil
Coffey, Ms Ann Hopkins, Kelvin
Cohen, Harry Howarth, Rt Hon Alan (Newport E)
Colman, Tony Howarth, George (Knowsley N)
Connarty, Michael Howells, Dr Kim
Cook, Frank (Stockton N) Hoyle, Lindsay
Corbett, Robin Hughes, Ms Bevertey (Stretford)
Corbyn, Jeremy Hughes, Kevin (Doncaster N)
Corston, Jean Humble, Mrs Joan
Cousins, Jim Hutton, John
Cranston, Ross Iddon, Dr Brian
Crausby, David Illsley, Eric
Cryer, John (Hornchurch) Jackson, Ms Glenda (Hampstead)
Cunningham, Rt Hon Dr Jack (Copeland) Jackson, Helen (Hillsborough)
Jamieson, David
Cunningham, Jim (Cov'try S) Jenkins, Brian
Curtis—Thomas, Mrs Claire Johnson, Alan (Hull W & Hessle)
Dalyell, Tam Johnson, Miss Melanie (Welwyn Hatfield)
Davidson, Ian
Davies, Rt Hon Denzil (Llanelli) Jones, Rt Hon Barry (Alyn)
Davies, Geraint (Croydon C) Jones, Jon Owen (Cardiff C)
Dawson, Hilton Jones, Dr Lynne (Selly Oak)
Denham, Rt Hon John Jones, Martyn (Clwyd S)
Dismore, Andrew Jowell, Rt Hon Ms Tessa
Dobbin, Jim Joyce, Eric
Dobson, Rt Hon Frank Kaufman, Rt Hon Gerald
Donohoe, Brian H Keeble, Ms Sally
Doran, Frank Keen, Alan (Feltham & Heston)
Drew, David Keen, Ann (Brentford & Isleworth)
Drown, Ms Julia Kelly, Ms Ruth
Dunwoody, Mrs Gwyneth Kennedy, Jane (Wavertree)
Khabra, Piara S Prescott, Rt Hon John
Kidney, David Primarolo, Dawn
Kilfoyle, Peter Prosser, Gwyn
King, Andy (Rugby & Kenilworth) Purchase, Ken
King, Ms Oona (Bethnal Green) Quinn, Lawrie
Kumar, Dr Ashok Radice, Rt Hon Giles
Lammy, David Rammell, Bill
Lawrence, Mrs Jackie Rapson, Syd
Laxton, Bob Raynsford, Nick
Leslie, Christopher Robertson, John (Glasgow Anniesland)
Levitt, Torn
Lewis, Ivan (Bury S) Robinson, Geoffrey (Cov'try NW)
Lewis, Terry (Worsley) Rooker, Rt Hon Jeff
Linton, Martin Rooney, Terry
Lloyd, Tony (Manchester C) Ross, Ernie (Dundee W)
Lock, David Rowlands, Ted
Love, Andrew Ruane, Chris
McAvoy, Thomas Ruddock, Joan
McCabe, Steve Russell, Ms Christine (Chester)
McCafferty, Ms Chris Sarwar, Mohammad
McCartney, Rt Hon Ian (Makerfield) Sedgemore, Brian
Shaw, Jonathan
Macdonald, Calum Sheldon, Rt Hon Robert
McFall, John Shipley, Ms Debra
McGuire, Mrs Anne Short, Rt Hon Clare
McIsaac, Shona Simpson, Alan (Nottingham S)
McKenna, Mrs Rosemary Skinner, Dennis
Mackinlay, Andrew Smith, Rt Hon Andrew (Oxford E)
MacShane, Denis Smith, Angela (Basildon)
McWalter, Tony Smith, Miss Geraldine (Morecambe & Lunesdale)
McWilliam, John
Mahon, Mrs Alice Smith, Jacqui (Redditch)
Mallaber, Judy Smith, John (Glamorgan)
Marsden, Paul (Shrewsbury) Smith, Llew (Blaenau Gwent)
Marshall, David (Shettleston) Soley, Clive
Marshall, Jim (Leicester S) Spellar, John
Martlew, Eric Squire, Ms Rachel
Maxton, John Starkey, Dr Phyllis
Meacher, Rt Hon Michael Steinberg, Gerry
Merron, Gillian Stevenson, George
Michael, Rt Hon Alun Stewart, David (Inverness E)
Michie, Bill (Shef'ld Heeley) Stewart, Ian (Eccles)
Miller, Andrew Stinchcombe, Paul
Mitchell, Austin Stoate, Dr Howard
Moffatt, Laura Strang, Rt Hon Dr Gavin
Moonie, Dr Lewis Straw, Rt Hon Jack
Moran, Ms Margaret Stringer, Graham
Morgan, Ms Julie (Cardiff N) Stuart, Ms Gisela
Morris, Rt Hon Ms Estelle (B'ham Yardley) Taylor, Rt Hon Mrs Ann (Dewsbury)
Mountford, Kali Taylor, Ms Dari (Stockton S)
Mowlam, Rt Hon Marjorie Taylor, David (NW Leics)
Mudie, George Temple-Morris, Peter
Murphy, Denis (Wansbeck) Thomas, Gareth (Clwyd W)
Murphy, Rt Hon Paul (Torfaen) Thomas, Gareth R (Harrow W)
Naysmith, Dr Doug Timms, Stephen
Norris, Dan Todd, Mark
O'Brien, Bill (Normanton) Touhig, Don
O'Brien, Mike (N Warks) Trickett, Jon
O'Hara, Eddie Truswell, Paul
Olner, Bill Turner, Dennis (Wolverh'ton SE)
O'Neill, Martin Turner, Dr Desmond (Kemptown)
Organ, Mrs Diana Turner, Dr George (NW Norfolk)
Palmer, Dr Nick Turner, Neil (Wigan)
Pearson, Ian Twigg, Derek (Halton)
Pendry, Rt Hon Tom Twigg, Stephen (Enfield)
Perham, Ms Linda Tynan, Bill
Pickthall, Colin Vis, Dr Rudi
Pike, Peter L Walley, Ms Joan
Plaskitt, James Ward, Ms Claire
Pollard, Kerry Wareing, Robert N
Pond, Chris Watts, David
Pound, Stephen White, Brian
Powell, Sir Raymond Wicks, Malcolm
Prentice, Ms Bridget (Lewisham E) Williams, Rt Hon Alan (Swansea W)
Prentice, Gordon (Pendle)
Williams, Alan W (E Carmarthen) Worthington, Tony
Williams, Mrs Betty (Conwy) Wright, Anthony D (Gt Yarmouth)
Wills, Michael Wright, Tony (Cannock)
Winnick, David
Winterton, Ms Rosie (Doncaster C) Tellers for the Noes: Mr. Jim Dowd and Mr. Greg Pope.
Wood, Mike
Woodward, Shaun
§ Question accordingly negatived.
§ Main Question put.—
Adams, Mrs Irene (Paisley N) Clwyd, Ann
Ainger, Nick Coaker, Vernon
Allen, Graham Coffey, Ms Ann
Anderson, Rt Hon Donald (Swansea E) Cohen, Harry
Colman, Tony
Armstrong, Rt Hon Ms Hilary Connarty, Michael
Ashton, Joe Cook, Frank (Stockton N)
Atherton, Ms Candy Corbett, Robin
Atkins, Charlotte Corbyn, Jeremy
Austin, John Corston, Jean
Bailey, Adrian Cousins, Jim
Banks, Tony Cranston, Ross
Barnes, Harry Crausby, David
Barron, Kevin Cryer, John (Hornchurch)
Battle, John Cunningham, Rt Hon Dr Jack (Copeland)
Bayley, Hugh
Beard, Nigel Cunningham, Jim (Cov'try S)
Beckett, Rt Hon Mrs Margaret Curtis—Thomas, Mrs Claire
Bell, Stuart (Middlesbrough) Dalyell, Tam
Benn, Hilary (Leeds C) Davidson, Ian
Benn, Rt Hon Tony (Chesterfield) Davies, Rt Hon Denzil (Llanelli)
Bennett, Andrew F Davies, Geraint (Croydon C)
Benton, Joe Dawson, Hilton
Bermingham, Gerald Denham, Rt Hon John
Best, Harold Dismore, Andrew
Betts, Clive Dobbin, Jim
Blackman, Liz Dobson, Rt Hon Frank
Blears, Ms Hazel Donohoe, Brian H
Blizzard, Bob Doran, Frank
Blunkett, Rt Hon David Drew, David
Bradley, Keith (Withington) Drown, Ms Julia
Bradley, Peter (The Wrekin) Dunwoody, Mrs Gwyneth
Bradshaw, Ben Eagle, Angela (Wallasey)
Brinton, Mrs Helen Eagle, Maria (L'pool Garston)
Browne, Desmond Edwards, Huw
Buck, Ms Karen Efford, Clive
Burden, Richard Ellman, Mrs Louise
Burgon, Colin Ennis, Jeff
Caborn, Rt Hon Richard Field, Rt Hon Frank
Campbell, Alan (Tynemouth) Fitzpatrick, Jim
Campbell, Mrs Anne (C'bridge) Fitzsimons, Mrs Loma
Campbell, Ronnie (Blyth V) Flynn, Paul
Campbell—Savours, Dale Follett, Barbara
Cann, Jamie Foster, Rt Hon Derek
Casale, Roger Foster, Michael Jabez (Hastings)
Caton, Martin Foster, Michael J (Worcester)
Cawsey, Ian Foulkes, George
Chapman, Ben (Wirral S) Fyfe, Maria
Chaytor, David Galloway, George
Clapham, Michael Gapes, Mike
Clark, Rt Hon Dr David (S Shields) George, Rt Hon Bruce (Walsall S)
Clark, Dr Lynda (Edinburgh Pentlands) Gerrard, Neil
Gibson, Dr Ian
Clark, Paul (Gillingham) Gilroy, Mrs Linda
Clarke, Charles (Norwich S) Godsiff, Roger
Clarke, Eric (Midlothian) Golding, Mrs Llin
Clarke, Rt Hon Tom (Coatbridge) Gordon, Mrs Eileen
Clarke, Tony (Northampton S) Griffiths, Jane (Reading E)
Clelland, David Griffiths, Nigel (Edinburgh S)
Griffiths, Win (Bridgend) Mackinlay, Andrew
Grocott, Bruce MacShane, Denis
Grogan, John McWalter, Tony
Hain, Peter McWilliam, John
Hall, Mike (Weaver Vale) Mahon, Mrs Alice
Hall, Patrick (Bedford) Mallaber, Judy
Hamilton, Fabian (Leeds NE) Marsden Paul (Shrewsbury)
Hanson, David Marshall, David (Shettleston)
Harman, Rt Hon Ms Harriet Marshall, Jim (Leicester S)
Healey, John Martlew, Eric
Henderson, Doug (Newcastle N) Maxton, John
Henderson, Ivan (Harwich) Meacher, Rt Hon Michael
Hendrick, Mark Merron, Gillian
Hepburn, Stephen Michael, Rt Hon Alun
Heppell, John Michie, Bill (Shef'ld Heeley)
Hesford, Stephen Miller, Andrew
Hinchliffe, David Mitchell, Austin
Hodge, Ms Margaret Moffatt, Laura
Hood, Jimmy Moonie, Dr Lewis
Hope, Phil Moran, Ms Margaret
Hopkins, Kelvin Morgan, Ms Julie (Cardiff N)
Howarth, Rt Hon Alan (Newport E) Morris, Rt Hon Ms Estelle (B'ham Yardley)
Howarth, George (Knowsley N)
Howells, Dr Kim Mountford, Kali
Hoyle, Lindsay Mudie, George
Hughes, Ms Beverley (Stretford) Murphy, Denis (Wansbeck)
Hughes, Kevin (Doncaster N) Murphy, Rt Hon Paul (Torfaen)
Humble, Mrs Joan Naysmith, Dr Doug
Iddon, Dr Brian Norris, Dan
Illsley, Eric O'Brien, Bill (Normanton)
Jackson, Ms Glenda (Hampstead) O'Brien, Mike (N Warks)
Jackson, Helen (Hillsborough) O'Hara, Eddie
Jamieson, David Olner, Bill
Jenkins, Brian O'Neill, Matin
Johnson, Alan (Hull W & Hessle) Organ, Mrs Diana
Johnson, Miss Melanie (Welwyn Hatfield) Palmer, Dr Nick
Pearson, Ian
Jones, Rt Hon Barry (Alyn) Pendry, Rt Hon Tom
Jones, Jon Owen (Cardiff C) Perham, Ms Linda
Jones, Dr Lynne (Selly Oak) Pickthall, Colin
Jones, Martyn (Clwyd S) Pike, Peter L
Jowell, Rt Hon Ms Tessa Plaskitt, James
Joyce, Eric Pollard, Kerry
Kaufman, Rt Hon Gerald Pond, Chris
Keeble, Ms Sally Pound, Stephen
Keen, Alan (Feltham & Heston) Prentice, Ms Bridget (Lewisham E)
Keen, Ann (Brentford & Isleworth) Prentice, Gordon (Pendle)
Kennedy, Jane (Wavertree) Prescott, Rt Hon John
Khabra, Piara S Primarolo, Dawn
Kidney, David Prosser, Gwyn
Kilfoyle, Peter Purchase, Ken
King, Andy (Rugby & Kenilworth) Quinn, Lawrie
King, Ms Oona (Bethnal Green) Rammell, Bill
Kumar, Dr Ashok Rapson, Syd
Lammy, David Raynsford, Nick
Lawrence, Mrs Jackie Robertson, John (Glasgtow Anniesland)
Laxton, Bob
Leslie, Christopher Robinson, Geoffrey (Cov'try NW)
Levitt, Tom Rooker, Rt Hon Jeff
Lewis, Ivan (Bury S) Rooney, Terry
Lewis, Terry (Worsley) Ross, Ernie (Dundee W)
Linton, Martin Rowlands, Ted
Lloyd, Tony (Manchester C) Ruane, Chris
Lock, David Ruddock, Joan
Love, Andrew Russell, Ms Christine (Chester)
McAvoy, Thomas Ryan, Ms Joan
McCabe, Steve Sarwar, Mohammad
McCafferty, Ms Chris Sawford, Phil
McDonagh, Siobhain Sheldon, Rt Hon Robert
Macdonald, Calum Shipley, Ms Debra
McFall, John Short, Rt Hon Clare
McGuire, Mrs Anne Simpson, Alan (Nottingham S)
McIsaac, Shona Skinner, Dennis
McKenna, Mrs Rosemary Smith, Rt Hon Andrew (Oxford E)
Smith, Angela (Basildon) Truswell, Paul
Smith, Miss Geraldine (Morecambe & Lunesdale) Turner, Dennis (Wolverh'ton SE)
Turner, Dr Desmond (Kemptown)
Smith, Jacqui (Redditch) Turner, Dr George (NW Norfolk)
Smith, John (Glamorgan) Turner, Neil (Wigan)
Smith, Llew (Blaenau Gwent) Twigg, Derek (Halton)
Soley, Clive Twigg, Stephen (Enfield)
Spellar, John Tynan, Bill
Squire, Ms Rachel Vis, Dr Rudi
Starkey, Dr Phyllis Walley, Ms Joan
Steinberg, Gerry Ward, Ms Claire
Stevenson, George Wareing, Robert N
Stewart, David (Inverness E) Watts, David
Stewart, Ian (Eccles) White, Brian
Stinchcombe, Paul Wicks, Malcolm
Stoate, Dr Howard Williams, Rt Hon Alan (Swansea W)
Strang, Rt Hon Dr Gavin
Straw, Rt Hon Jack Williams, Alan W (E Carmarthen)
Stringer, Graham Williams, Mrs Betty (Conwy)
Stuart, Ms Gisela Wills, Michael
Taylor, Rt Hon Mrs Ann (Dewsbury) Winnick, David
Winterton, Ms Rosie (Doncaster C)
Taylor, Ms Dari (Stockton S) Wood, Mike
Taylor, David (NW Leics) Woodward, Shaun
Temple-Morris, Peter Worthington, Tony
Thomas, Gareth (Clwyd W) Wright, Anthony D (Gt Yarmouth)
Thomas, Gareth R (Harrow W) Wright, Tony (Cannock)
Timms, Stephen
Todd, Mark Tellers for the Ayes: Mr. Jim Dowd and Mr. Greg Pope.
Touhig, Don
Trickett, Jon
Ainsworth, Peter (E Surrey) Donaldson, Jeffrey
A[...]ess, David Duncan, Alan
Ancram, Rt Hon Michael Duncan Smith, Iain
Arbuthnot, Rt Hon James Emery, Rt Hon Sir Peter
Atkinson, Peter (Hexham) Evans, Nigel
Baldry, Tony Fabricant, Michael
Beggs, Roy Fallon, Michael
Berth, Rt Hon A J Feam, Ronnie
Bell, Martin (Tatton) Flight, Howard
Bercow, John Forth, Rt Hon Eric
Beresford, Sir Paul Foster, Don (Bath)
Blunt, Crispin Fox, Dr Liam
Body, Sir Richard Fraser, Christopher
Boswell, Tim Gale, Roger
Bottomley, Peter (Worthing W) Garnier, Edward
Bottomley, Rt Hon Mrs Virginia George, Andrew (St Ives)
Brady, Graham Gibb, Nick
Brake, Tom Gidley, Sandra
Brazier, Julian Gill, Christopher
Browning, Mrs Angela Gillan, Mrs Cheryl
Bruce, Ian (S Dorset) Gorman, Mrs Teresa
Bruce, Malcolm (Gordon) Gray, James
Burnett, John Green, Damian
Burns, Simon Greenway, John
Burstow, Paul Grieve, Dominic
Butterfill, John Gummer, Rt Hon John
Cable, Dr Vincent Hague, Rt Hon William
Campbell, Rt Hon Menzies (NE Fife) Hamilton, Rt Hon Sir Archie
Hammond, Philip
Chope, Christopher Hancock, Mike
Clappison, James Harvey, Nick
Clark, Dr Michael (Rayleigh) Hawkins, Nick
Clarke, Rt Hon Kenneth (Rushcliffe) Hayes, John
Heald, Oliver
Collins, Tim Heath, David (Somerton & Frome)
Cormack, Sir Patrick Heathcoat—Amory, Rt Hon David
Cotter, Brian Hogg, Rt Hon Douglas
Cran, James Horam, John
Curry, Rt Hon David Howard, Rt Hon Michael
Davey, Edward (Kingston) Howarth, Gerald (Aldershot)
Davies, Quentin (Grantham) Jack, Rt Hon Michael
Davis, Rt Hon David (Haltemprice) Jackson, Robert (Wantage)
Day, Stephen Jenkin, Bernard
Johnson Smith, Rt Hon Sir Geoffery Roe, Mrs Marion (Broxbourne)
Ross, William (E Lond'y)
Jones, Nigel (Cheltenham) Ruffley, David
Keetch, Paul Russell, Bob (Colchester)
Key, Robert St Aubyn, Nick
King, Rt Hon Tom (Bridgwater) Sanders, Adrian
Kirkbride, Miss Julie Sayeed, Jonathan
Laing, Mrs Eleanor Shepherd, Richard
Lait, Mrs Jacqui Simpson, Keith (Mid-Norfolk)
Lansley, Andrew Smith, Sir Robert (W Ab'd'ns)
Leigh, Edward Smyth, Rev Martin (Belfast S)
Letwin, Oliver Soames, Nicholas
Lewis, Dr Julian (New Forest E) Spelman, Mrs Caroline
Lilley, Rt Hon Peter Spicer, Sir Michael
Lloyd, Rt Hon Sir Peter (Fareham) Spring, Richard
Llwyd, Elfyn Stanley, Rt Hon Sir John
Loughton, Tim Streeter, Gary
Lyell, Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Stunell, Andrew
McCartney, Robert (N Down) Swayne, Desmond
McCrea, Dr William Syms, Robert
MacGregor, Rt Hon John Tapsell, Sir Peter
McIntosh, Miss Anne Taylor, Ian (Esher & Walton)
MacKay, Rt Hon Andrew Taylor, John M (Solihull)
Maclean, Rt Hon David Taylor, Matthew (Truro)
Maclennan, Rt Hon Robert Taylor, Sir Teddy
McLoughlin, Patrick Thomas, Simon (Ceredigion)
Madel, Sir David Thompson, William
Maples, John Tonge, Dr Jenny
Mates, Michael Tredinnick, David
Maude, Rt Hon Francis Trend, Michael
Mawhinney, Rt Hon Sir Brian Tyler, Paul
May, Mrs Theresa Tyrie, Andrew
Michie, Mrs Ray (Argyll & Bute) Viggers, Peter
Moss, Malcolm Walter, Robert
Nicholls, Patrick Waterson, Nigel
Norman, Archie Webb, Steve
Oaten, Mark Wells, Bowen
Öpik, Lembit Whittingdale, John
Ottaway, Richard Widdecombe, Rt Hon Miss Ann
Paice, James Wilkinson, John
Paisley, Rev Ian Willetts, David
Paterson, Owen Willis, Phil
Pickles, Eric Winterton, Mrs Ann (Congleton)
Portillo, Rt Hon Michael Winterton, Nicholas (Macclesfield)
Prior, David Yeo, Tim
Randall, John Young, Rt Hon Sir George
Rendel, David
Robathan, Andrew Tellers for the Noes: Mr. Peter Luff and Mr. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.
Robertson, Laurence (Tewk'b'ry)
Robinson, Peter (Belfast E)
§ Question accordingly agreed to.
§ Ordered,
§ That the following provisions shall apply to the proceedings on the Elections Bill and the Election Publications Bill [Lords]—
Back to Reasons Committee for the Election Publications Bill [Lords]
Forward to Timing of proceedings on the Elections Bill
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line622
|
__label__wiki
| 0.737653
| 0.737653
|
CUSTOMS ACT AMENDMENT — THE TARIFF.
HL Deb 28 July 1842 vol 65 cc728-30 728
§ The Earl of Ripon
moved the third reading of the Customs' Act Amendment Bill.
§ Lord Monteagle
said, that it must be a matter of pride and satisfaction that this, which claimed the first rank amongst commercial nations, should, with the approval of each party in the State, adopt such changes in the tariff as favoured the exten- 729 sion of trade, the removal of prohibitions, site, and by which he should conclude his and the diminution of duties. There were two articles on which, however, according to the principles of the tariff itself, and certainly in consonance with the interests of our manufacturers, the duty on the raw material should have been abolished—he meant cotton and wool. He should say a word on the article of corn. They knew that a considerable amount of foreign corn was now in bond, and it was calculated by noble Lords opposite that a considerable portion was likely to be released for home consumption. He should rejoice if that were the case; but he should rejoice at it still more if it came out through the natural operations of trade, and not when it was subjected to little or no duty. Any man who looked at the subject dispassionately must see that, whether the 1,200,000 quarters in bond paid duty or no duty, the result to the consumer must be the same; because the price would be regulated not by the amount or the absence of duty, but the amount of corn in the market as compared with the means of the people to purchase it. The difference in the amount of duty could have no effect on the price to the consumer, but would go into the pockets of the holders of the corn, whether foreigners or not. All their Lordships, particularly those connected with the agricultural interest, contemplated the admission of foreign corn when the price was high, as more endurable than when it was low. In the one case it tended to mitigate the evils of a scarcity, and in the other it was regarded as an unmixed evil. Now, what was the consequence of the present duty? Why, it produced just the opposite results to those which he had mentioned. If there should be an anticipation of a rise in price, not a single quarter would be introduced; but, if the state of things were such as to show the probability of a fall in price, whether from an abundant harvest or any other cause, the market would be glutted by the introduction of this foreign corn. So that the English producer must contend with two impediments to a high price—the state of the harvest at home, and the importation of corn from abroad. There could not be a more complete refutation of the principles on which the existing Corn-law was founded, though he must admit that his objections did not apply to the present Corn-bill, but to every measure founded on the principle of a sliding-scale. There were some questions which he should like to have answered by his noble Friend oppo- 730 site, and by which he should conclude his remarks. He wished to know in what state our treaty with Portugal stood. It was well known from public information that a treaty was to be entered into. He thought such a treaty not only important in itself, but as it affected our relations with other countries. His second question related to the expiration of our treaty with Brasil. He knew not whether the two Governments agreed on the construction of the treaty with regard to that event, but he wished to be acquainted with the interpretation which our Government put on it. He next wished to know whether the Government had made any remonstrance in consequence of the steps taken by the King of Belgium, in accordance with the scale of prohibitory duties imposed on English linens by the French?
§ The Earl of Ripon:
As to the mode in which foreign corn was taken out for consumption, the noble Baron would soon have an opportunity of ascertaining the point exactly; for the noble Earl behind him had moved for a return, which must show in what proportion, and under what circumstances, the corn, which had hitherto paid duty, had been brought into consumption. It was perfectly true that her Majesty's Government were in negotiation with Portugal, with the object of placing all the essential branches of our trade with that country on a satisfactory footing. He could only say, that if our Government was disposed to act in a spirit of perfect fairness, and as they were likely to be met in a reciprocal manner, he bad great gratification in anticipating a satisfactory result. As to the question respecting the period of the termination of our treaty with Brazil, the present Government, as well as the late, thought it would not cease until November 1844, while the Brazilian Government contended that it would expire in November, 1842. Our commercial regulations with that Government were the subject of pending negotiations, to which he could not further allude. As to the representations on the subject of the French ordonnance, our Government had made such as the circumstances of the case seemed to require. Though the King of Belgium seemed to act in accordance with the measures taken on the part of France, his measures were not decisive without the confirmation of the legislature.
§ Bill read a third time.
Back to PREPARATION OF EXCHEQUER-BILLS.
Forward to COUNSEL—MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line623
|
__label__wiki
| 0.641679
| 0.641679
|
HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1970s → 1970 → November 1970 → 12 November 1970 → Lords Sitting
LEGAL AID (FINANCIAL CONDITIONS) REGULATIONS 1970
HL Deb 12 November 1970 vol 312 cc827-39 827
§ 4.27 p.m.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR rose to move, That the Legal Aid (Financial Conditions) Regulations 1970 be approved. The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, I fear that in rising to move these Regulations I have a somewhat technical story to tell. In case noble Lords are subject to what I now must 828 learn to call "narcolepsy" as a result of my noble friend's answers yesterday, I can reassure them by giving them two facts in advance. The first is that this set of Regulations has been passed by the Special Orders Committee as containing nothing which ought to arouse the special animadversions of the House. The second fact is that although, technically, this set of Regulations is different from the set of Regulations which the noble and learned Lord who preceded me on the Woolsack laid a little earlier in the year, the effect will be almost exactly the same, with some administrative advantage; some people marginally better off and nobody any worse off.
§ These Regulations are made under the provisions of subsections (1) and (2) of Section 1 of the Legal Aid Act 1960. Those subsections, in turn, amended Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949. Having increased the limit for free and contributory legal aid laid down in 1949, the amending sections of 1960, to which I have referred, provided that further increases might be prescribed by Regulations subject to an Affirmative Resolution of both Houses of Parliament. This is the first occasion on which that power has been exercised. However, I should warn the House that the present proposals, which I am about to describe, should be read together with the Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources) Regulations 1970, which also were laid by me but which are subject to the Negative Resolution procedure. So read, the present proposals will benefit a considerable number of people.
§ In the first place: Regulation 4 of the Financial Conditions Regulations make transitional provisions for re-assessing contributions in current cases. All those whose "period of computation" (which in the jargon of the art means the twelve months period covered by the assessment of an applicant's resources) has more than two months to run will be reassessed under the transitional provisions, so that there will be an immediate improvement for current cases, except where that immediate improvement so calculated would be minimal. The effect will be immediately, and as a result of the transitional provisions, to reduce contributions in approximately 50,000 current cases.
§ As regards future cases, the effect of the new Regulations will be to bring about 16,000 more people every year within the limit within which they will have to pay nothing at all for legal aid. In addition to these 16,000 people, about 40,000 people a year will pay less contribution in future when they make their applications than they would have had to pay had the present Regulations remained unaltered. Moreover, about 7,000 people a year who would now be outside the financial limits for legal aid altogether will in future qualify for legal aid.
§ I come to the actual provisions. First, the Regulations increase the financial limits within which people are eligible for legal aid, both the financial limits within which they are eligible for legal aid without payment or without charge, and those financial limits for people who are eligible for legal aid with a contribution. I should however say that they only increase the income limits; the capital limit is not altered. The figures are as follows: First of all, for free legal aid the present limit is £250 a year; the new limit, up 20 per cent., by £50, will be £300 a year. Next, contributory legal aid. The present limit is £700 a year, as a result of the new Regulations I am proposing, the limit will be raised by 35.7 per cent., to £950 a year. In each case the figures per annum which I have just given are figures relating to what is technically called "disposable income"—that is, income which the applicant can be expected to receive over the twelve months following the date of the application after making certain specified deductions. These deductions are maintenance of dependants, repayment on loans, income tax, expenses of employment, rates, rent, and other matters for which provision can reasonably be made. These deductions are provided for in the Regulations of 1960, as amended, and the Supplementary Benefits Commission are responsible for calculating the disposable income on these lines.
§ As I have said, the present Regulations, which are subject to Affirmative Resolution, cannot be read alone. They have to be read in conjunction with the second set of Regulations subject to the Negative Resolution procedure, but will, subject to that, come into force at the same time as these Regulations. These second Regulations require the Supplementary 830 Benefits Commission to disregard £104 of the disposable income of every applicant for legal aid. On an average this will have the practical effect of raising the financial limits that I have been mentioning by a further £50. The result of this happens in this way. The provision in the second group of Regulations replaces what in the former Regulations was a general mopping-up provision requiring the Commission to allow. such amount as is just and equitable in respect of any other matter for which the person concerned must or reasonably may provide. The curious can find the phrase which I have just quoted in Rule 12 of the First Schedule. The most frequent allowance under this provision is for hire-purchase payments and insurance premiums. The average overall amount allowed has been £54, so that the average applicant will now be allowed £50 more than previously. A person with no special commitments will of course get the benefit of the full £104 and will be better off still. The person with special commitments of exactly £104 will get the rise in the basic rates covered by the Regulations I am now discussing, but will not get the benefit of the further £50, although if his commitments exceed £104 a further allowance can be made.
§ This method of increasing the financial limits was suggested by the Legal Aid Advisory Committee in their Nineteenth Report which was laid before Parliament on May 28, 1970, just before the General Election. They advocated it because it would save administrative costs involved in confirming the exact amount to be allowed in every case. It will benefit a number of applicants fortuitously, but advantageously to them, and I think no one will be worse off. It will now be necessary only to confirm the comparatively small miscellaneous expenditures in the small minority of cases where the special commitments are likely to exceed £104. The Government accepted this recommendation and therefore withdrew the Legal Aid (Financial Conditions) Regulations laid before Parliament by my predecessor, which proposed increases in the financial limits to £350 for free and £1,000 for contributory aid respectively, replacing them by the present two sets of Regulations, which, as I say, in the average case have 831 exactly the same effect but reduce administrative expense.
§ The effect of the two Regulations combined is as follows. Taking the worst case—that is, where the special commitments amount to £104 or more, the contribution paid being one-third of the difference between the free limit and the disposable income, the effect will be to reduce contributions by one-third of £50, or £16 13s. 4d. Take the average case with disposable income of £600: the contribution is again one-third of the difference between the £600 and £250, £116 13s. 4d., if the Regulations are unaltered. In future the contribution will be one-third of the difference between £600 and £300; that is, £100.
§ The applicant with average special commitments is rather better off—he will gain a further £50 as a result of the new allowance. The new free legal aid limit will be effectively £350 instead of the £300 (that is a 40 per cent. increase) and the new contributory limit will be £1,000 (42.9 per cent. increase)—the figures which the previous Government proposed. Contributions will be reduced by up to £33 6s. 8d. Again, taking the £600 as the datum, the contribution will in future be £83 6s. 8d. instead of £116 13s. 2d. In the best case, where there are no special commitments, contributions would be reduced by up to £51 6s. 8d., which will be £65 6s. 8d. compared with £116 13s. 4d.
§ My Lords, the cost of the proposals will be divisible into short term—the immediate cost—and the long term. In the short term there will be to the Fund an immediate loss of contribution, in some cases through refunding amounts already paid and in others by collecting less. This loss is estimated to amount to £960,000 in the next twelve months. This loss, however, will be offset by the acquisition of contributions from the 7,000 new users of legal aid who are expected to contribute about £800,000. The immediate net cost in the ensuing year, to November 17, 1971, is thus £160,000. The effect in a full year on the actual cost to the Legal Aid Fund will not, of course, be felt until the Law Society begins to make payments to solicitors and counsel in respect of work done on behalf of the new users. This will come gradually as their cases are completed and the costs 832 are taxed. Eventually it is estimated to reach about £483,000 net a year. To this must be added the loss of contribution in the other cases referred to. But some of the £960,000 lost to the Fund will in any event have been repaid to the assisted persons, on receipt of costs from the other side, and the net reduction is estimated to be £643,000 making a total cost of £1,126,000 in a year altogether.
§ My Lords, there is a second set of Regulations, relating to Scotland, which I will move should the House think fit to approve these Regulations. I do not propose to make a separate speech in relation to the Scottish Regulations since they only translate the same thing into the decent obscurity of a learned language. My Lords, I beg to move that the first set of Regulations be agreed to.
§ Moved, That the Legal Aid (Financial Conditions) Regulations 1970 be approved.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ LORD GARDINER
My Lords, the whole House will be grateful to the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor for his lucid explanation of these Regulations. I and my noble friends strongly support them and hope that they will be passed by your Lordships. I confess that when at Question Time I saw no less than nine right reverend Prelates present I hardly thought that they had come to support the Army Act. I thought that possibly their interest was in poor people getting proper legal aid and advice, or perhaps in the Animals Bill. As eight of them have now left the Chamber, I can only conclude that I must have been wrong.
My Lords, I welcome these and the associated Regulations because they mean that our position in regard to legal aid is in effect what it was about nine years ago, the principal object of them being to restore the figures so as to allow for the intervening fall in the value of money. I should like, I hope not improperly, to take this opportunity to ask the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor what the proposals of the Government are in a field which, as he knows, is giving great concern to everybody who is familiar with it. I refer to the wholly inadequate provision that we make for legal advice—advice which, if given at an early stage, might well save 833 a great deal of the money which is paid out in respect of legal aid.
Your Lordships may remember, because I referred to it in a debate in this House in May of this year, that the Conservative Lawyers' Association had deplored the gross inadequacy of our provision for legal advice in a publication called Rough Justice, and the Society of Labour Lawyers said the same, but making rather different proposals, in their publication, Justice for All. The Law Society, while equally deploring the situation, made their own proposals. It was in those circumstances that I asked the Advisory Committee on Legal Aid and Advice for their assistance as to which of these schemes they thought the best. They gave the matter thorough consideration, and on May 28 their Report was published, advocating what has come to be known as the £25 scheme, and I need not detain your Lordships with the details of that, Of course, their Report was actually made before it was printed and published. Therefore, about a fortnight before the Report was published I was able to say in this House that the Government welcomed the Report as to the £25 scheme, but that it would be impossible to put through the necessary legislation in that Session of the last Parliament—and indeed the General Election followed within two or three weeks.
My Lords, if that Government had been returned, they would, I hope, have carried through the necessary legislation in this Session. It is for those reasons, and because of the very general concern, which, as the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor knows, is shared by the entire legal profession and quite regardless of political views, that I venture to hope that when he replies he will be able to tell us what the Government proposals are in this regard.
This morning I opened the current issue of the Law Guardian, and I saw a letter from a solicitor which said: So far as can be judged, the Law Society's £25 legal aid scheme is everywhere applauded, but still we find yet another Lord Chancellor being forced to say to us in effect: 'Sorry boys. A jolly good idea, but it would cost £1.5 million per annum. We must think about it'. I cannot think that they can have read what I said in this House in May, when I fully accepted the scheme in principle 834 and made no such excuse. I merely pointed out that the necessary legislation could not be passed in the last Session. The letter goes on: This in the face of the astronomic sums, by comparison, which are spent annually on all other forms of social services. How much longer must we endure the role of a Cinderella service? Fine words do no good—only deeds will cure the worsening situation, to which more and more: solicitors daily allude. My Lords, I hope very much that the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor will tell us what prospects there are of dealing with this worsening situation.
§ BARONESS EMMET OF AMBERLEY
My Lords, it requires temerity to speak on this matter after both the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor and the previous Lord Chancellor, but as Chairman of the Legal Aid Committee I should like to make one or two comments. In the first place, my Committee will be pleased that these Regulations are to be made, which are in accordance with the recommendations that we made last year. I know that in quoting the figures that this will cost, your Lordships may think that a great deal more money is being spent on legal aid. I should like to point out, if I may, that the amount of legal aid money that the civil authorities spend is infinitesimal compared with what is spent on the criminal side, and I think perhaps one might get a little better proportion between the two if the criminal side was closely investigated.
With regard to the £25 scheme, my Committee has this very much at heart. We had hopes of getting it through last year and we realise that at the present time the economic situation will make it extremely difficult. But I hope that the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor will lend his weight—and his weight is considerable—to help us get further with this scheme which we believe will in the long run not only help a great many distressed people who find it difficult at the present time to make use of the system, but will ultimately end in some saving in money and a great deal of saving of time. My Lords, I will convey to my Committee what has been said, and I know that they will be delighted to hear that these Regulations are coming into force.
LORD JANNER
My Lords, I should like to intervene for just a few moments, because as a practising solicitor one meets these problems in relation to legal aid very frequently. I should like to thank the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor for having introduced these Regulations, but I would point out, and perhaps underline, what has been said by my noble and learned friend Lord Gardiner in respect of legal advice.
A considerable difficulty arises when a person of slender means is not able to take advice, or has to spend a considerable amount of money in relation to his own income in order to obtain advice. Very frequently, men and women are deterred from going to lawyers because they cannot afford to seek the advice that is necessary. I hope I am not entirely out of order—in fact I am sure that following my noble and learned friend Lord Gardiner I must be in order. I believe that the important thing is that a person should feel that access to the law is available to him. In many cases people are disturbed for years by grievances, or imagined grievances that could be dealt with if they took advice, and it seems to me that not only would it be of benefit to individuals to seek that advice, sometimes before entering into litigation which is costly for them, but also that it would and could relieve the courts of very many cases which are now taken before them. In these circumstances I hope that the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor will take note of what has been said in this regard and do what he can to help this necessary assistance to be available.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I am extremely grateful to those noble Lords on both sides of the House who have contributed to this short discussion, and I am also grateful to them for the general welcome they give to these particular Regulations. If I may come straight to the question which was posed from the Opposition Front Bench by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Gardiner, I of course recognise that there is a gap in the Legal Aid Scheme at present in the field of legal advice. I told him, I think on the occasion of the Queen's Speech or at any rate about that time, that of the various schemes which are put forward 836 to fill that gap the one which attracts me most is the one which was recommended by the Legal Aid Advisory Committee, namely, the so-called £25 scheme. On the other hand, I cannot myself offer any hope for this Session of Parliament, or at any rate for this financial year—it may be that the Session will last rather longer than some Sessions have done.
The noble and learned Lord, Lord Gardiner, said that he hoped that had a different complexioned Government been returned it would have passed the scheme this Session. Well, one could always hope. My own judgment of the matter is that the noble and learned Lord's hopes would probably have proved false. It has turned out to be the case—whatever may be the cause, and I suppose we shall be debating that next week, and therefore I do not want to say anything particularly controversial now—that for one reason or another public expenditure has been going up very fast. There have been a number of inflationary wage settlements, one last week which would affect Government expenditure in the local and public field by more than the total possible cost of this new proposal. I rather doubt whether a Labour Government would have been bold enough to give this scheme the priority in this Session which the noble and learned Lord hoped it would have been given in the conditions which we are now facing in the economic and financial field.
I can assure the noble and learned Lord that I say this with some regret, and I say it not without sympathy for the scheme, because I accept that there is a gap and that any Lord Chancellor would be pleased to sponsor a scheme of this kind. On the other hand, a Lord Chancellor is a member of an Administration and must share financial responsibility for the total claims which the Administration makes on the public purse. I would have said, quite frankly, that in the present financial year it would be a difficult thing to give this scheme priority. We are going to discuss next week the needs of school children, the needs of the old and the needs of the Health Service. It is a question of priority.
The one thing which, with great respect to the noble and learned Lord, I would not accept is the housemaid's baby argument: it is only a little one. If 837 we are going to take seriously the threat posed by inflation we cannot afford to make little additions to what we take from the public purse. Every Department must bear its own share of the hair shirt we have got to wear, if I may use a mixed metaphor. We have to take seriously this battle against inflation, and that means the Lord Chancellor with his family of small children just as much as the Secretary of State for Social Services with his family of very rapidly growing children. I am afraid I could not put the claims of this particular individual social provision as high as some of the others which excite human sympathy more.
I am not prepared to say, simply because the legal aid system makes one of the smallest claims on the public purse, that it is necessarily a Cinderella. That has not been so in the past. However long legal aid goes on, if it goes on a hundred years, it will never be comparable to the old age pension or the public education system. It does not follow that because the pounds spent on it are less it is a Cinderella at all. On the contrary, it was one of the first social provisions proposed after the war by a Committee of which, unless my memory has misguided me, my noble and learned friend Lord Dilhorne was a member. Therefore I do not think it can be called a Cinderella simply because one cannot add to it relatively small sums when other social services are being reviewed as stringently as is now necessary.
I was very glad that the noble Baroness, Lady Emmet, took part in the debate, because it gives me an opportunity of saying how grateful we are to her for the work the Committee does and how very much we value its advice. She made the very good point that the cost of legal aid is far more severe in the criminal field than in the civil. As she knows, and as the noble and learned Lord knows, the Lord Chancellor has to watch his step when he talks about criminal legal aid, because under the division of responsibility in, I think, both Labour and Conservative Governments, at the moment criminal legal aid is the responsibility of the Home Office, and the Lord Chancellor meets a barbed wire fence if he seeks to encroach upon it. But I will say, with some delicacy, because I think it needs to be said, that I agree with a good deal of what my noble friend said about it.
838 When I was at the Bar, which is not very long ago, I felt it my duty to take a certain number of legal aid cases in the criminal field. Although the courts, and I think the profession, on the whole would give legal aid in an even wider range of cases than those in which it is being given now, I am quite sure that some money in the criminal field is not now being very wisely spent. That is nobody's fault. I should like to be perfectly candid with the House. When counsel accepts instructions to defend a person who is charged with a criminal offence, he has to treat that client just as well and just as honourably as he does a paying client; that is to say, his duty is owed to that client and not in any form to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He has therefore to apply exactly the same criteria of professional ethics to that client as to a paying client. It so happens that as a result of this undoubted fact, from which there is no escape, one sometimes finds oneself defending a case in which the wiser counsel would have been, had one been entitled to pursue it, to make a plea in mitigation on a plea of guilty, rather than to take up a fortnight of the court's time in emphasising the gravity of the client's offence on a plea of not guilty. I want to be perfectly candid about that, and I sympathise with my noble friend in what she says about it. But it is not an easy dilemma from which to escape, because I do not think that the profession would accept obligations different in aided cases from those in non-aided cases. Although I have some idea as to how it might be done, so far as I am concerned it is not going to be done in terms of any diminution in the standards of honour pursued by the Bar and the solicitors' profession. I do not think it is at all an easy way out.
The noble Lord, Lord Janner, whose speech I also appreciated, made the point which was made by my noble friend; namely, that there would be some claw-back if the £25 scheme were adopted. Of course I accept that; but it is difficult to quantify and I doubt whether you could make out a case that it would actually claw back more than it cost. A great deal of the legal advice given in the £25 scheme, if that scheme were adopted, would, I suppose, be, "For Heaven's sake! do not go to law, because you will not win." That would be a quite valuable piece of advice if people 839 were willing to take it; indeed, it is the advice one has been constantly giving all one's professional life.
But the test of whether it would be a saving, on balance, to the Legal Aid Scheme would depend not upon the number of cases where that advice was given, but on the number of cases where that advice was given under the £25 scheme and otherwise the person would have become legally aided under the existing scheme. This will be a relatively small number of cases, because before a person can get legal aid under the existing scheme that person has to persuade some kind of committee that he has some kind of case. Therefore, you have to cancel out the frivolous cases at both ends. I do not know what the end of the equation would be, but I think that if you are going to go in for the £25 scheme—I hope I have not spoken unsympathetically about it at all; certainly, I did not intend to—you will have to reckon that it will cost a few million pounds odd net to the Exchequer in order to implement it.
Having said that, I do not want to indicate for a moment that when the time comes, and if I can persuade my colleagues that it has sufficient priority in relation to other demands, it is not something which I would gladly see carried out. But I cannot give the noble and learned Lord the comfort for which he asked. I hope I have also been extremely candid with the House.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
Back to AIR FORCE ACT 1955 (CONTINUATION) ORDER 1970
Forward to LEGAL AID (SCOTLAND) (FINANCIAL CONDITIONS) REGULATIONS 1970
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line624
|
__label__wiki
| 0.697493
| 0.697493
|
Jane Austen kick
Jan. 7th, 2010 at 12:48 AM
Jane Austen today: Sense & Sensibility: A head-to-head comparison This!
The author writes about two different screen adaptations of Austen's Sense & Sensibility: the 1995 big screen version, and the 2008 Masterpiece Theatre adaptation.
I whole-heartedly agree with the author about the actors who played Elinor, Edward, and the Colonel. Emma Thompson as Elinor was just too old for the role, and Hugh Grant? Not fitted. Most especially I agree about the men who acted as the Colonel. Ye gods, Alan Rickman - though I absolutely love his acting - was NOT right for that role.
But I have to disagree with her on the respective actresses who played as Marianne and Mrs. Dashwood.
I much think that Gemma Jones looks old enough to be the girls' grandmother, rather than mother, and I certainly don't think that Janet McTeer "towered over the girls" the slightest bit.
As for Willoughby, I really can't say. I think they're really equal, although I do have to agree that Dominic was a tad bit on the unsmiling side. However, the only reason that he could look at all sinister is because we, the readers, already know that he's up to no good. But in the perspective of the story, and in Marianne's perspective in particular, she doesn't know that he's up to no good. She's a 16-year-old, fresh from home and the school-room, taken in by a handsome face and the virtual embodiment of what she believes she wants from a man in a romantic relationship. In that light, it is entirely believable that she would still fall for a guy like Dominic's portrayal of Willoughby, just as much as she would for Greg's portrayal.
All in all, I have to say I very much prefer the Masterpiece Theatre version.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line626
|
__label__wiki
| 0.596797
| 0.596797
|
OMA reveals design for sports complex around RFK Stadium
vents D.C., the city’s semi-independent convention and sports authority, has unveiled plans to replace the ocean of surface parking that fronts the soon-to-be-demolished stadium with recreation space and a food market.
Grid Ironed-Out
By Audrey Wachs (@gridwachs) • January 11, 2017
Even if the Redskins keep their name and leave D.C., the city is taking steps to ensure the area around RFK Stadium offers ample space for residents to play, too.
Events D.C., the city’s semi-independent convention and sports authority, has unveiled plans to replace the ocean of surface parking that fronts the soon-to-be-demolished stadium with recreation space and a food market. The whole scheme, pictured in the gallery above, is designed by New York–based OMA.
The estimated $500 million proposal includes three ballfields (two for baseball, one for youth soccer), a 350,000-square-foot recreation and sports complex, and a 47,000-square-foot market selling groceries and concessions. According to the Washington Post, the sports center will host bowling, go-kart, and video-game facilities; a memorial to Robert F. Kennedy will be installed nearby, as well. To tie the programming together, three pedestrian bridges will connect the site to Kingman and Heritage islands.
“The RFK Stadium Armory-Campus—currently under-utilized—is poised to be transformed into a vibrant place that connects D.C. to the Anacostia River,” OMA partner Jason Long told the Washington Business Journal. “Working together with Events D.C., we have formulated a plan that strategically locates new facilities that will draw people to and through the site, while refining the vision for larger redevelopments in the years ahead.”
As the 190-acre site is owned by the federal government, federal and local agencies must approve the plan before any shovels hit the soil. Half of the project will be funded by Events D.C. while the city, hotel tax revenue, and team leases will pay for the rest.
Although the Redskins moved to the suburbs years ago, the team is scoping sites for a move—maybe to D.C., or maybe not, if the team refuses to change its racist name. Regardless, the D.C. Zoning Commission gave its initial blessings to the BIG-designed stadium last month, and the commission is expected to give its final okay for the project at its February meeting. Right now, Major League Soccer’s (MLS) D.C. United plays at the stadium, and it will continue to play tournaments on-site until the new stadium is complete in 1–2 years.
This article appears on HoverPin, a new app that lets you build personalized maps of geo-related online content based on your interests: architecture, food, culture, fitness, and more. Never miss The Architect’s Newspaper’s coverage of your area and discover new, exciting projects wherever you go! See our HoverPin layer here and download the app from the Apple Store.
Audrey Wachs (@gridwachs)
Audrey Wachs writes about buildings, old buildings, and cities. You can find more of her work at audreywachs.com
OMA RFK Memorial Stadium Stadiums Washington D.C.
Newseum News!
The Evidence Room embodies the architecture of Auschwitz at the Hirshhorn
Mallcore
OMA to convert historic Houston post office into mixed-use bonanza
Allied Works designs a stadium for “Soccer City, USA”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line628
|
__label__wiki
| 0.639877
| 0.639877
|
Game reviews: the ugly path from publisher to publishing
In the world of game writing, reviewers have few ways of fighting the control …
Ben Kuchera - Jun 2, 2008 2:02 am UTC
For some sites, reviewing video games isn't about helping consumers make better decisions, nor is it about serious criticism of the art form. Game reviews, and the process of writing them, is a scramble to get the first review out—an exclusive if possible—in order to get the most readers to sell the most ads. Reviewers will do a lot to get their hands on a game as early as possible, and with the very real financial reward given to sites that get the reviews out the quickest, the publishers have more power over the process than most readers probably realize.
When reviewers can't speak freely
Reviewing games in general is a tough process, simply because it can take upwards of 20 hours to fully play a title, and that may or may not include multiplayer time. It's not as simple as listening to an album or watching a film; there is a substantial time commitment. Games often come with "review guides" for this purpose, and the packets can come with cheat codes, descriptions of key scenes, and even "advice" on what should be pointed out in the review's editorial.
In many cases, there are things that the publisher asks you not to mention the review. In the vast majority of cases, this isn't ethically troubling: who wants to give away plot twists in a review anyway? In other cases, things get slippery: for sites running reviews of Metal Gear Solid 4, there is apparently a long list of things that reviewers can't mention. The issue is that we're not talking about plot, it has been rumored that reviewers are being asked not to comment on the length of cut scenes or the size of the game's install on the PlayStation 3's hard drive.
The review on IGN UK is frank about this. It begins, "In return for letting us play Metal Gear Solid 4 before its release, Konami issued us with a list of things that we're not allowed to discuss. This list of prohibited topics is pretty long, and even extends as far as several facts that the company itself has already made public." Later the reviewer notes that "One of those things that Konami doesn't want us to talk about is the 'total length of cut-scenes'."
These aren't small omissions, but relevant information gamers would probably want included in a review. Would you sit through an hour-long cut scene? Would a 30-minute cut scene be any better? Until the game is released, you won't know much information about these movies; in order to get access to the game, reviewers agreed not to give you that information. Financially, it's a good move. It's the gamers that miss out.
The value of exclusive reviews
The next issue, and this is perhaps even more troubling, is the act of handing out exclusive reviews. This is basically the only way that print can compete with the online media these days: the writer gets to play the game, write the review, and then the rest of the sites have to hold their reviews until the time is up on that exclusive. Whenever you see the words "exclusive review," keep in mind that the outlet in question was essentially handed a check. Exclusive reviews are huge business, draw in huge numbers of readers—and that's worth a whole lot of money and prestige. Keep in mind that the rush of readers isn't the only power of exclusive reviews: gaming blogs like Kotaku, Destructoid, and, yes, Opposable Thumbs, often work as chop-shops when it comes to reviews. If the review talks about the game's length, or includes a list of weapons or interesting features, that data will then be talked about across the blogs. Since everyone will link back to the original review, the Google score goes up, the site gets weighted heavier in searches, and the review gets an even longer tail. It's very literally impossible to put a dollar amount on the value of an exclusive review.
Imagine you have a hot game, and most of the gaming media wants to get that exclusive review; they know the money they are worth for their sites or magazines. The publisher then gets to pick and choose whom to give that gift to. The criteria for that choice? No one who wants to keep their job will ever say, but with so much at stake, the publisher has a huge stick to wave, and even without an exclusive, reviewers seem more than happy to withhold important information from readers. Imagine what temptations are there when there is all that money to be made?
Other pitfalls
These aren't the only things you have to look out for; in some cases games that aren't finished are reviewed. You may hear about what the developer promises to fix or change before launch—or you may not. Sometimes members of the development team are in the room when this goes on. It's hard to know how to take a review like that. After all, it's not the game you'll be buying at release, and if the reviewer says it's easy to jump in and play, will it be easy for those of us who don't have the guy who designed the control scheme telling us exactly how to play?
Exclusive reviews of big-name titles like Grand Theft Auto IV are worth a large dollar amount
Game reviews are a lot like laws and sausages: the process of creating them is rarely pretty. The difference is, with reviews, you do want to know what went into them. Is this an exclusive? Was the game reviewed a finished version? Did a developer walk the reviewer through the game? What aren't people allowed to say? I will say that I've never been asked to do anything I've been troubled by when writing a review, but we've also never dealt with the exclusive issue. We often buy games at retail and spend more time than other sites playing them—which is not to say that other sites don't write thorough, honest, and informative reviews.
It's not that there is much direct evidence that the system is corrupt, but when all the major players are this defensive about the process of reviewing games, and there is this much money at stake, it's important to read reviews critically and try to figure out what could have influenced that all-important final score. Gaming is one of the few art forms where being able to critically review a release is this political, and if people are becoming more distrustful of professionally-written reviews, that could be a healthy reaction. The publishers control the careers and fates of review sites in a very real way; with everything from ad revenue, to access to future games, and even your job being on the line, it's not surprising that high review scores are so common.
The Cut Scene: Exclusive reviews are ethically troubling
MTV Multiplayer: Sources: Konami Asked ‘Metal Gear Solid 4′ Reviewers Not To Mention Cut Scene Length And Installation Time
MTV Multiplayer: Video Game Company To Wii Reviewer: Save The Panning For Later, Okay?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line629
|
__label__cc
| 0.578862
| 0.421138
|
The Young Teachers
Set in the mountains and villages of Northern Italy near the end of World war 2nd, “The young teachers” (I piccoli maestri)shows the difficult situation of the period. The only allowed ideology was fascism and nobody could oppose Mussolini’s dictatorship.
The country was under the fascist dominion and controlled by the German troops led by Hitler. The people who declared to be against Fascism had serious social problems and not only: German troops did not care about Italian population, the people who did not side with them were eliminated. This uneasy and difficult situation made a lot of people reflect on their conditions. But nobody had the courage to tell their ideas against the war and the events which were happening around them except for a group of young people, mainly university students, (but not prepared to fight in a war). They were against Fascism and Nazism and tired of the war, at first they tried to help people in need offering them support and food (which they stole from the rich)but a lot of people refused their help because they feared for their lives since the Germans killed anyone who accepted the partisans’ help. But soon the Germans got to know about the existence of these rebels (the partisans)and started to chase and arrest or kill them.
In order not to be caught, the partisans lived in the mountains both in summer and winter, but soon they realized that they needed weapons to defend themselves and fight Fascist and Nazis. They managed to get some guns from a companion who knew a shelter abandoned by the British. They were chased by the German troops and some of them died but they did not lose their hope and enthusiasm. More and more young people joined them and at last they decided to leave the mountains and go to Padoa to free the town from the German invaders. After a fierce struggle and the surrender of the German troops, they managed to free the town before the arrival of the American allies.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line630
|
__label__wiki
| 0.836096
| 0.836096
|
Tag Archives: streetcars
Florida, History, Railroad, Transit
Streetcars of Florida’s First Coast by Robert W. Mann
This is a companion to all the Florida rail issues we write. Great to know about the streetcars of Florida too.
In the late 1800s, a new method to power streetcars ushered Florida’s First Coast cities into the modern era. Earlier travelers moved around town on hay burners, but after the very first electric-powered trolley cruised up Jacksonville’s Main Street in 1893, railways cropped up throughout the region. When the new railroad terminal opened in 1919, it handled millions of passengers, becoming the hub of the streetcar system and the largest railroad station in the South. With almost sixty miles of track, the Jacksonville Traction Company was the largest streetcar system in Florida. Award-winning author and historian Robert W. Mann chronicles the story behind Florida’s bygone streetcar epoch and the dramatic history of city builders, financiers, organized labor, civil rights, fire, fever, nabobs and railway men.
Publisher: History Press, The
Publication date: 11/4/2014
Series: Transportation
Robert Mann is a co-publisher of metrojacksonville.com, which is partnered with Jacksonville’s channel 4, and a semi-retired transportation consultant who grew up in Jacksonville’s historic Ortega neighborhood. He is co-author of “Reclaiming Jacksonville.” Bob owned his own small trucking business in Los Angeles and then launched his local transportation career at Jacksonville International Airport with Piedmont Airlines.Glorious is a well-known motivational speaker and former professor. Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Jacksonville University and has two master’s degrees, one from Nova University in school administration and supervision, and the other from Columbia University’s Teachers’ College in educational administration/organizational leadership. She works as a mental health therapist with her certification in psychology from Edward Waters College.
Find out about Action Engine and Fairpromise
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line631
|
__label__wiki
| 0.888576
| 0.888576
|
← Free Philistine!
The Fat Lady is Singing →
The Full Starr v. Ward Judgment.
by Anna Raccoon on July 10, 2015
Neutral Citation Number: [2015] EWHC 1987 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
Before :
MR JUSTICE NICOL
Between :
Frederick Leslie Starr – and –
Karin Ward
Case No: HQ13D04680
Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Claimant Defendant
Dean Dunham (instructed by Debello Law) for the Claimant
David Price QC of David Price Solicitors and Advocates for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 15th – 19th June, 22nd – 24th June 2015 ———————
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE NICOL
Mr Justice Nicol :
1. This has been the trial of claims for slander and libel brought by the comedian and entertainer, Freddie Starr, against Karin Ward. They arise out of an interview which Ms Ward gave to the BBC in November 2011 and to ITV in October 2012 and the subsequent broadcasts of parts of those interviews and also out of online publications made by Ms Ward.
1974: the background
Ms Ward was born on 25th March 1958. She had a troubled family background including, she says, sexual assault by her step father. She also shoplifted on a number of occasions. When she was about 14 she was sent to Duncroft Approved School (‘Duncroft’) in Surrey. There were about 25 girls at the school. The Headmistress was Margaret Jones.
While Ms Ward was at Duncroft she met Jimmy Savile (‘Savile’). She says that she and other girls at Duncroft were sexually abused by Savile. In return they were given cigarettes and also the opportunity to attend Savile’s TV shows. Savile was particularly known for a show called ‘Jim’ll Fix It’. But another show was a programme called ‘Clunk Click’ on which guests appeared with Savile in front of a studio audience. ‘Clunk Click’ was not broadcast live, but recorded in advance of transmission.
One episode of ‘Clunk Click’ was filmed on 7th March 1974. Ms Ward and about 4 other girls from Duncroft attended as part of the studio audience. On that date Ms Ward was 15. One of the guests on that episode of ‘Clunk Click’ was Freddie Starr. He was 32 at the time and was well known as a comedian and entertainer.
After the show, Ms Ward says that she and the other girls from Duncroft were able to meet with Savile and others connected with the show including Mr Starr. Precisely what took place then is hotly disputed between the parties and I will need to return to it but, in very brief terms, Ms Ward’s case is that Mr Starr felt her bottom. She protested vigorously. She says that he then made a crude remark referring to the flatness of her chest. She found this deeply humiliating. Mr Starr denies touching or attempting to touch Ms Ward. He denies saying anything humiliating.
The publications complained of
6. Ms Ward wrote an account of some of the incidents in her life on a website called ‘FanStory’. She says that she started this exercise in 2008. For that reason it is convenient to take it first. However, the Particulars of Claim pleaded that the words were only defamatory of the Claimant after 8th October 2012, by which time the Defendant says she had taken this part of her account down from the website. In the course of his closing submissions, Mr Dunham, on the Claimant’s behalf, accepted that he had no evidence to contradict what the Defendant said about the date when the story was taken down. He accepted that this part of the Claimant’s case could not succeed.
Nonetheless, what the Defendant said in ‘FanStory’ is relevant to other parts of the evidence and so it is still useful to set it out. What are conveniently called ‘the FanStory words’ were as follows:“The first time we were taken to London there were eight of us. All the rest of the girls had gone home for the weekend. We were escorted into Television Centre and taken to see Sir Jimmy in his ‘dressing room’.The air hung thick with his foul cigar smoke. He laughed and joked with Miss Jones, Theo and every girl close enough to speak to. We were to be introduced to some of his guests on the show before it began.
Now my recollections of meeting with these guests are very vivid, not least because at least one of them has since been prosecuted for sexual misconduct with minors. Don’t get me wrong. Not every celebrity we met was a closet paedophile.
Over several weeks, I met a great many male and female celebrities, some of whom I remember fondly for their intelligence, wit and general pleasant demeanour. However, of those who had similar tastes to Jimmy Savile – a liking of under-age girls, I can only recall vague disgust and horror.
One particular celebrity, a very popular comedian of the time, whom I shall simply refer to as ‘F’, absolutely stank of booze and sweat. His hands wandered incessantly; he had absolutely no qualms whatever about any one of the girls seeing what he was doing to any of the others. The fact that we sat in his dressing room with him, drinking vodka or Bacardi rum whilst he blatantly selected which girl to humiliate amazes me. I cannot recall where Miss Jones and Theo were. Surely, they must have known what was going on?
Even so there were no acts of violence or threats. No-one was hit or taken against their will. I refused ‘F’ because getting anywhere near him made me heave. He smelled far too much like my step-father for my liking. ‘F’ made some rather cruel remarks about my lack of breasts by way of getting back at me for refusing him. Everyone laughed whilst I burned with humiliation.”
On 14th November 2011 the Defendant was interviewed by Liz MacKean of the BBC. In the course of the interview, the Defendant spoke these words:“That’s when the other guests on the show would come in, generally after the show had finished they would come in and they clearly saw girls and, well, kids, male and female, as being there to be used. I had a famous person who would try, he smelled awful, he smelled of sweat and alcohol and it made me heave just to be near him, so I certainly didn’t want him to do anything to me.”
For this publication the Claimant relies on words spoken by the Defendant. It is therefore a claim in slander1. He pleads that the words were defamatory of him in an innuendo meaning. An innuendo meaning is one which is dependent on certain facts being known to the person or people to whom they were published. In this case, the Claimant alleges that Ms Ward told Ms MacKean that the famous person in question was him. It is also alleged that Ms Ward told Ms MacKean that she had visited Savile’s dressing room when she was a 14 year old schoolgirl and that the Defendant’s words were in answer to the question ‘What sort of things happened in Jimmy Savile’s dressing room?’
With the knowledge of those facts, it is alleged that these words were defamatory of the Claimant in that they meant that he saw children in Savile’s dressing room as being there to be sexually abused and that he had tried to abuse the Defendant when she was a fourteen year old schoolgirl. I will refer to this publication as ‘the BBC words’.
Savile had died on 29th October 2011. Liz MacKean had interviewed the Defendant for the purpose of an item which she was helping to make for BBC ‘Newsnight’ on Savile’s sexual offending. The BBC decided not to go ahead with the item before it was completed. The interview with the Defendant was not therefore broadcast on ‘Newsnight’ or anywhere else immediately after it was recorded. A part of it was broadcast later (see below).
One of the people who had helped to work on the ‘Newsnight’ report was a consultant called Mark Williams-Thomas. In the autumn of 2012 he was preparing a programme on Jimmy Savile for ITV which was to be called ‘Exposure: the Other Side of Jimmy Savile’ (‘Exposure’). The Defendant and Mr Williams-Thomas were in contact and she agreed to give him an interview which took place on 2nd October 2012. Ms Ward said in her interview, the following:“I was horribly, horribly humiliated by Freddie Starr who had a very bad attack of wandering hands and had groped me and I didn’t like him because he smelled like my step-father and it frightened me and freaked me out and I rebuffed him and he humiliated me in front of everyone in the dressing room.”
I will refer to these as ‘the ITV words’. Since they were spoken by the Defendant to Mr Williams-Thomas, the Claimant’s claim in respect of them is again in slander2. Again the Claimant relies on an innuendo meaning. He alleges that Ms Ward told Mr Williams-Thomas that she was a fourteen year old schoolgirl at the relevant time and, with the knowledge of that, the ITV words meant to Mr Williams-Thomas that the Claimant was a paedophile who had groped and thereby sexually assaulted the Defendant when she was a fourteen year old schoolgirl and that he had humiliated and frightened her.
‘Exposure’ was broadcast on 3rd October 2012. Mr Williams-Thomas explained that its focus was Jimmy Savile. The programme did not include the ITV words.
1 At one point in his closing submissions, Mr Dunham suggested that words spoken which were recorded on film could, alternatively, be treated as a libel, but on reflection he accepted that they were pleaded as slander and he did not apply to amend to plead them as libel in the alternative.
2 As with the BBC words, Mr Dunham accepted that the claim for the ITV words was pleaded in slander and he did not apply to amend to plead libel in the alternative.
In order to explain how, nonetheless, the ITV words and BBC words came to be broadcast, it is necessary to interpose an account of further developments.
Others within ITV had access to the material which Mr Williams-Thomas had accumulated, including his interview with the Defendant. On 3rd October 2012, a senior news editor at ITN emailed the Claimant’s solicitor (Mr Dunham) and asked him to respond to the allegation that the Claimant had groped and humiliated a 14 year old girl in Jimmy Savile’s changing room in the 1970s. Shortly afterwards, Mr Dunham responded by saying that the allegation was false and defamatory and he asked ITN to confirm that they would not report it, failing which the Claimant would seek an injunction. ITN responded by saying that it did not intend to identify the Claimant and it was carrying out journalistic inquiries. If circumstances changed, Mr Dunham would be notified. That evening (3rd October 2012) the Claimant applied without notice for a temporary injunction. This was granted by Cox J. A hearing on notice took place the following day (4th October 2012) before Tugendhat J. who discharged the injunction and ordered the Claimant to pay costs on an indemnity basis. Tugendhat J. was careful in his judgment not to set out the allegation as to what the Claimant was said to have done. Nevertheless, his judgment was public and the Claimant’s unsuccessful attempt to obtain an injunction was widely reported.
The Claimant then gave media interviews in which he denied meeting the Defendant, let alone groping her. He also denied being with Jimmy Savile on BBC premises. He said that he had only met Savile twice and those were quite different occasions. His remarks were widely reported.
On 8th October 2012 Channel 4 News obtained footage of the episode of ‘Clunk Click’ which had been filmed on 7th March 1974. The Claimant could be seen as one of the guests on the show. The Defendant could be seen in the audience on the set.
That same day, 8th October 2012, Channel 4 News broadcast part of the interview which Mr Williams-Thomas had conducted with the Defendant on 2nd October and which included the ITV words. It did so as part of its coverage of developments following ‘Exposure’. It included the apology of the Director-General of the BBC to victims of Jimmy Savile’s abuse. It also included a report of the Claimant’s attempts to obtain an injunction (initially successful, but then unsuccessful), his denial that he had ever met the Defendant or appeared on a Savile show, and the ‘Clunk Click’ footage showing the presence of both the Claimant and the Defendant. It also included a statement by Mr Dunham that the Claimant accepted he had been mistaken about appearing on the Savile show, but that he maintained his denial of the Defendant’s allegation.
On 10th October 2012 the Claimant was interviewed on an ITV show, ‘This Morning’ together with his fiancé Sophie Lea. An extract of the Defendant’s interview with Mr Williams-Thomas (which included the ITV words) was played. The ‘Clunk Click’ footage was also played. The Claimant was allowed to give his response to both. He denied the Defendant’s allegation.
On 1st November 2012 the Claimant was arrested on suspicion of sex abuse. An extract from the Defendant’s interview with Mr Williams-Thomas (again including the ITV words) was broadcast on ITV News. The broadcast also included the Claimant’s full denial.
It is helpful to refer to these three broadcasts as ‘the ITV broadcasts’. The Claimant has not sued ITV. He alleges that the Defendant is responsible in law for the harm which they caused him by two alternative routes. First, he submits it is a consequential loss flowing from the original slander in the ITV words and that the Defendant is liable for this further loss since she knew or should have known that there was at least a significant risk that the ITV words would be broadcast to a wide audience. Secondly, he submits, the Defendant is liable for them as a co-publisher since, he alleges, she intended or authorised the ITV words to be broadcast. He argues as well that, even if the Defendant did not intend or authorise these further broadcasts, the reasonable foreseeability that they might occur would be sufficient to make her liable as a co-publisher of them.
The 8th October broadcast was preceded by the words ‘Karin Ward was a schoolgirl when she claims she was assaulted.’
The natural and ordinary meaning which the Claimant attributes to the ITV broadcasts is that the Claimant was a paedophile who had groped and thereby sexually assaulted the Defendant when she was a schoolgirl and that he had humiliated and frightened her. A defamatory publication by TV broadcast is a form of libel and, so far as the Claimant relies on the ITV broadcasts as giving rise to an independent cause of action, it is therefore in libel.
On 22nd October 2012 BBC broadcast a ‘Panorama’ programme. It included footage of the Claimant. A narrator then said,‘Among the guests on Clunk Click were young people from hospitals and other institutions, including girls from Duncroft. Karin Ward, aged just 14, was one of them. After the show, she was invited with other young people to join more famous guests in the dressing rooms. She told Newsnight about this 11 months ago in the interview that was dropped’.Liz MacKean was then heard to say,
‘What sort of things happened in Jimmy Savile’s dressing room?’
The BBC words were then broadcast. They were followed by footage of the notorious paedophile, Gary Glitter and these words,
‘Gary Glitter also appeared on Clunk Click. He, too, would join Jimmy Savile and his young guests in the dressing room after the show.’
I shall refer to this as ‘the BBC broadcast’.
The Claimant says the BBC broadcast had the natural and ordinary meaning that he saw children in Jimmy Savile’s dressing room as being there to be sexually abused, and that he had tried to abuse the Defendant when she was a fourteen year old schoolgirl.
The Claimant has not sued the BBC. As with the ITV broadcasts, the Claimant alleges that the Defendant is liable for the harm which flowed from the BBC broadcast either because it was reasonably foreseeable that there was a significant risk that the BBC words would be broadcast and she is liable for the harm which flowed from the broadcast as consequential loss from her slanderous BBC words, and/or because she is a co-publisher of the broadcasts since she intended or authorised them, or, because the broadcast was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of her interview with Liz MacKean.
28. On 13th October 2012 the Defendant published an eBook for the Kindle device. It was entitled, ‘Keri Karin: the shocking true story of a child abused, continued’ and included the following words:
“The first time we were taken to London there were eight of us. All the rest of the girls had gone home for the weekend. We were escorted into Television Centre and taken to see JS in his ‘dressing room’.
The room was large and well appointed. The air hung thick with his foul cigar smoke but most of us were smoking cigarettes as well so it all combined into a kind of hazy fog at ceiling height. JS laughed and joked with Miss Jones, Theo and every girl close enough to speak to. We were to be introduced to some of his guests on the show before it began.
Now some of my recollection of meeting with these guests are very vivid, not least because at least one of them has since been prosecuted for sexual misconduct with minors. Don’t get me wrong. Not every celebrity we met was a closet paedophile.
Over several weeks, I met a great many male and female celebrities, some of whom I remember fondly for their intelligence, wit and general pleasant demeanour. However, of those who had similar tastes to JS – a liking for under- age girls, I can only recall vague disgust and horror.
One particular celebrity, a very popular comedian of the time, whom I shall simply refer to as ‘F’, absolutely stank of old sweat and the same cologne my step-father used to use. His hands wandered incessantly; he had absolutely no qualms whatever about any one of the girls seeing what he was doing to any of the others. The fact that we sat in JS’s dressing room with both of them, being encouraged to drink vodka, gin or Bacardi rum whilst they blatantly selected which girl to humiliate amazes me. I cannot recall where Miss Jones and Theo were. Surely, they must have known what was going on?
Even so, there were no episodes of violence or threats. No-one was hit or taken against their will. I refused ‘F’ because getting anywhere close to him made me heave. He smelled far too much like my step-father for my liking. ‘F’ was furious that I dared refuse him; he made an exceptionally cruel remark about my lack of breasts by way of getting back at me for refusing him. So that everyone could hear, he said loudly, ‘I wouldn’t touch you anyway, you’re a titless wonder!’ Everyone laughed while I burned with humiliation. I carried that humiliation for the rest of my adult life because I was always stick thin and never, ever had any breasts; I could barely fill a double A cup bra.”
I shall refer to these as ‘the eBook words’.
The Claimant alleges that, although he is not named in the eBook words, he could be identified as the popular comedian (which is what he was) whose name began with ‘F’ (which his did) and because of the ITV broadcasts and (after 22nd October 2012) the BBC broadcast.
The Claimant alleges that the eBook words meant that he was a paedophile with a sexual liking for underage girls; that he groped and thereby sexually assaulted underage girls; that he, with Jimmy Savile, encouraged a group of underage girls to drink alcohol while blatantly choosing which of them to humiliate; and that he humiliated the Defendant in front of other girls.
The Claimant has claimed general damages for harm to his personal and professional reputation and because of the distress, upset and embarrassment which the Defendant’s publications have caused him. He has also alleged that he suffered special damages in the form of lost earnings when a number of venues cancelled his previously booked appearance with them.
The Defendant’s defences in outline
The Defendant takes issue with the meanings attributed to each of the different publications and the facts relied on to support the innuendo meanings of the BBC words and ITV words.
She accepts that she spoke the ITV words and the BBC words. She argues that to be actionable slander the Claimant would have either to prove special damage or he would have to show that the publications came within one of the specific categories of case where proof of special damage is unnecessary. Although the Claimant pleaded that he had suffered special damage in the form of lost bookings, she had provided evidence which disputed each of them and the Claimant had not challenged any of that evidence. Accordingly, the Claimant could not show special damage. His Particulars of Claim did not allege that any of exceptional cases where slander was actionable per se (i.e. by itself and without proof of special loss) applied to either the ITV words or the BBC words. She does not accept that she is liable for the ITV broadcasts or the BBC broadcasts, whether as consequential loss or as co-publisher.
She denies that the eBook words identified the Claimant.
For each of the publications, the Defendant pleads in the alternative that the words were true in the meanings which she sets out.
In the further alternative, the Defendant says that she is entitled to rely on the same privilege as was established in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd [2001] 2 AC 127 (‘Reynolds’), or that each of the publications was on an occasion of qualified privilege since there was a duty and interest relationship between herself and those to whom each publication was made. She says also that the claims (except the ones based on the BBC and ITV broadcasts) are an abuse of process.
She argues that the claim in relation to the BBC words is time barred because the claim was issued on 23rd September 2013, which was more than 1 year after her interview with the BBC on 14th November 2011.
The Claimant denies that Reynolds privilege is available to a person such as the Defendant who is not a journalist, but the source of the allegations in question. In any case, he denies that the necessary foundation for a Reynolds privilege has been established. The Claimant does not accept that any of the publications were on an occasion of qualified privilege since she had no duty to publish and the journalists had no interest in receiving her communications. He disputes that any of the Defendant’s allegations are true.
The oral evidence
The Claimant gave evidence. He also called Susan Bunce who had also been at Duncroft. She was 15 when she, too, went with the Defendant and other girls from the school to the recording of ‘Clunk Click’ on 7th March 1974. She recalled meeting Freddie Starr after the show. I will return to other parts of her evidence.
The Defendant gave evidence. She also called Meirion Jones. He was the nephew of Margaret Jones, the headmistress of Duncroft at the time the Defendant was there. He worked as an Investigations Producer for the BBC on ‘Newsnight’ in 2011 and the proposed item on Jimmy Savile in particular. He made contact with the Defendant and encouraged her to give an interview on camera (primarily about Savile). Liz MacKean conducted the interview with the Defendant for the ‘Newsnight’ item. She, too, gave evidence. Mark Williams-Thomas was a consultant for ‘Newsnight’ and then worked on the ‘Exposure’ programme for ITV. He, also, was called by the Defendant.
Another of the girls who had been at Duncroft had also been in contact with Ms MacKean. She was unwilling to give evidence voluntarily but she was witness summonsed by the Defendant. Before she was called, I heard an application made on her behalf that she should be able to conceal her name from the public and press in court. I agreed for reasons which I gave orally in a judgment on Monday 22nd June 2015. Accordingly, I will refer to her as ‘Witness C’ in this judgment.
Applications by the Claimant
42. In the course of his closing submissions on behalf of the Claimant, Mr Dunham made two applications: (a) to amend the Particulars of Claim and (b) to disapply the ordinary period of limitation in respect of the claim in slander for the BBC Words. Both applications were opposed by Mr Price QC for the Defendant and I said that I would give my decision on them in my Judgment. Since they raise discrete issues, it is convenient to deal with them now.
Extension of time to bring the claim in slander for the BBC Words
43. As I have noted, the BBC Words were spoken by the Defendant in her interview with Liz MacKean on 14th November 2011. The Claim Form was issued on 23rd September 2013. That is more than the 1 year which is the ordinary limitation period for defamation claims – see Limitation Act 1980 s.4A. Mr Dunham’s application was for the limitation period to be extended pursuant to the Court’s power in s.32A. This says,
“(1) If it appears to the court that it would be equitable to allow an action to proceed having regard to the degree to which –
(a) the operation of section 4A of this Act prejudices the plaintiff or any person whom he represents, and
(b) any decision of the court under this subsection would prejudice the defendant or any person whom he represents, the court may direct that that section shall not apply to the action or shall not apply to any specified cause of action to which the action relates.
(2) In acting under this section the court shall have regard to all the circumstances of the case and in particular to –
(a) the length of, and the reasons for the delay on the part of the plaintiff;
(b) where the reason or one of the reasons for the delay was that all or any of the facts relevant to the cause of action did not become known to the plaintiff until after the end of the period mentioned in section 4A –
(i) the date on which any such facts did become known to him, and
(ii) the extent to which he acted promptly and reasonably once he knew whether or not the facts in question might be capable of giving rise to an action;
(c) the extent to which, having regard to the delay, relevant evidence is likely –
(i) to be unavailable, or
(ii) to be less cogent than if the action had been brought within the period mentioned in section 4A.
The Claimant was arrested by the police on 1st November 2012 on suspicion of having sexually assaulted the Defendant. The Amended Defence pleads (and the Re-Amended Reply admits) that some 14 additional complainants made similar allegations to the police. The Claimant was on police bail until May 2014 when the CPS announced that he was not to be charged with any offence.
The letter before claim was written by the Claimant’s solicitors on 2nd September 2013. The letter began by saying,
‘Please note that this letter has nothing to do with the current police investigation in relation to your allegations and therefore that it relates to a civil matter, not criminal.’
The letter concluded, ‘Please note that this letter is in no way meant to interfere with the current police investigation relating to you and our Client. In this respect we can confirm that we have fully informed the police of the action that our Client is taking against you and provided them with a copy of this letter.’
Mr Dunham submitted that section 32A conferred a broad discretion on the Court. The Claimant could not have known about the interview with the BBC until the broadcast took place and he had issued proceedings less than a year after that. The limitation defence was only applicable to one of the Claimant’s causes of action. In consequence, the Defendant would anyway have had to face a trial in respect of the other causes of action and these covered broadly the same territory. It was obvious that the Claimant was inhibited from taking action by the police investigation. The final paragraph of the letter before claim showed that he had, properly, liaised with the police before proceeding.
Mr Price accepted that the Claimant could not have known about the Defendant’s interview with the BBC until ‘Panorama’ was broadcast on 22nd October 2012. However, it was obvious from ‘Panorama’ that the Defendant had been interviewed. The words she had spoken – the BBC words – in the course of that interview were included in the programme. In addition, the commentator in the programme had said precisely when the Defendant had been interviewed – 14th November 2011. Consequently, the Claimant had all the information he needed for his claim in slander for the speaking of the BBC words as from 22nd October 2012. Section 32A(2)(b) directed the court to have specific regard to the date when the Claimant became aware of the necessary facts and the extent to which he acted promptly when he had that knowledge. But, this paragraph began with the words, ‘where the reason or one of the reasons for the delay was that all or any of the facts relevant to the cause of action did not become known to the plaintiff until after the end of the period mentioned in section 4A.’ Mr Price emphasised the words I have italicised because the Claimant could not satisfy this opening condition. He knew about the BBC words on 22nd October 2012, which was less than a year after the interview on 14th November 2011.
The Re-Amended Reply pleaded that the Claimant had acted promptly after he did become aware of the interview but, Mr Price submitted, that was not so. He would have been aware of the interview from the ‘Panorama’ broadcast on 22nd October 2012. His solicitors did not write their letter before claim until 2nd September 2013, some 9 months later and the Claim Form was issued on 23rd September, over 10 months after ‘Panorama’ was broadcast. This was not the prompt action which s.32A(2)(b)(ii) expected. The letter before claim did refer to the Claimant’s liaison with the police, but it did not say when this took place or why it could not have occurred earlier. The police investigations had, of course, been ongoing, but they were still continuing when the Claimant’s solicitors did write on 2nd September 2013 and they were still continuing when the Claim Form was issued on 23rd September 2013. Nor was there any evidence at all from the Claimant to explain or expand on the reasons for the delay.
I turn to the specific matters to which I must have regard in accordance with s.32A(2):
i) The length of the delay is a little over 10 months beyond the 1 year ordinary limitation period.
ii) I accept that until 22nd October 2012 the Claimant was unaware of the BBC interview, but, as Mr Price submitted, the ordinary limitation period had not by then expired. If ‘delay’, as I believe, refers to the time which elapsed after the expiry of the ordinary limitation period and before proceedings commenced, then there is no explanation at all. When a claimant is seeking to have an ordinary limitation period disapplied, the absence of an explanation for the delay can be of great importance – see for instance Steedman v BBC [2002] EMLR 318 (CA) per Brooke LJ at [45].
iii) Because all the facts relevant to the cause of action arising out of the BBC words were known before the ordinary limitation period expired, s.32A(2)(b) is not applicable. I accept that I must take account of all the circumstances, but particular regard must be had to the matters referred to in sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) and they do not assist the Claimant. The date on which the facts were known to the Claimant was 22nd October 2012. Waiting 9 months thereafter to write a letter before action and almost another month before issuing the Claim Form was not in my judgment an example of acting promptly or reasonably. When the Claim Form was issued the sensible course was taken of staying proceedings until the police investigation was concluded. There is no evidence before me as to why a similar procedure could not have been adopted if the Claim Form had been issued earlier.
iv) The Defendant has not suggested that evidence is unavailable or less cogent because of the delay.
Those are the specific matters to which I must have regard, but the essential test is in s.32A(1), namely whether it would equitable to allow the action to proceed having regard (I paraphrase) to the degree to which the Claimant would be prejudiced if this claim is time barred and the degree to which disapplying the time bar would prejudice the Defendant. In my view, the prejudice on either side would not be very great. The Claimant will lose the opportunity of obtaining redress (assuming, as I must, that the claim in slander for the BBC words would otherwise be a good one) for the BBC words. The immediate audience for the BBC words were few – probably only Liz MacKean and the camera operator. I appreciate that the Claimant alleges that the Defendant is liable as well for the onward broadcast by ‘Panorama’ on 22nd October 2012. As I have already said, he does so on two bases. If he is right in his contention that the Defendant is liable as a co-publisher of her words on ‘Panorama’ then he will still recover because that cause of action is not time-barred. If he is right only in his contention that the Defendant’s liability is for consequential loss caused by the broadcast then, I recognise, he will lose compensation for that loss as well if the action for slander in the BBC words is barred by limitation. This is not a situation where allowing the ordinary time bar to operate will preclude the Claimant from seeking vindication of his reputation. He has his other causes of action which will be a vehicle by which he can seek to achieve that end. Conversely, this is not a case where if the time bar operates the Defendant will be free of litigation worry. I recognise, of course, that the features of each of the causes of action differ somewhat, as do the defences advanced by the Defendant.
I have considered all of these matters, but what seems to me to be of particular importance is the absence of any evidence as to why the Claimant delayed. ‘Time is always “of the essence” in defamation claims’ – see the Defamation Pre-Action Protocol paragraph 1.4. It is for the Claimant to persuade the Court that the equitable jurisdiction which he invokes under s.32A ought to be exercised. In my judgment he has failed to do that. I will not disapply the ordinary time limit.
52. This has the consequence that his claim in slander for the BBC words is time barred. That in turn means that the Defendant is not liable for any consequential loss caused by the ‘Panorama’ broadcast. I will consider below his case that the Defendant is liable as a co-publisher of the BBC words in the ‘Panorama’ broadcast.
Amendment of the Particulars of Claim to plead that the ITV words and BBC words were actionable without proof of special loss
There is no dispute that, ordinarily, slander is only actionable on proof of special damage which means, in essence, some financial loss. The Particulars of Claim did allege that the Claimant had suffered such loss because bookings for his appearance were later withdrawn. The Defendant served a witness statement from Helen Morris of David Price Solicitors and Advocates, the Defendant’s solicitors, which explained why, in each case, it was not accepted that the bookings had been withdrawn as a result of the publications on which the Claimant was suing the Defendant. Mr Dunham in his closing submissions accepted that the Claimant had put in no evidence in response. He accepted that the claim for special damage must fail.
There are, though, four categories of case where slander is actionable without proof of special damage. In those cases, as with all libels, the slander is said to be actionable per se (by itself). In their current form, the Particulars of Claim do not allege that the slanders on which the Claimant sues (i.e. the ITV words and the BBC words) were actionable per se. Mr Dunham accepted in his closing submissions that, in order for the Claimant to make a case out that the slanders were in one of these exceptional categories, the Claimant would need to plead the necessary facts. This concession prompted Mr Dunham to apply to amend the Particulars of Claim so as to rely on two of the exceptional cases where slander is actionable per se.
I will concentrate on the ITV words since my decision above means that the claim in relation to BBC words is anyway time barred.
The Defamation Act 1952 s.2 provides,‘In an action for slander in respect of words, calculated to disparage the plaintiff in any office, profession, calling, trade or business held or carried on by him at the time of publication, it shall not be necessary to allege or prove special damage, whether or not the words are spoken of the plaintiff in the way of his office, profession, calling, trade or business.’
Mr Dunham wishes to add to the pleading of the ITV words that ‘[they were] calculated to disparage him in his profession as an entertainer and comedian’.
A second category of case where slander is actionable per se is where the words impute a criminal offence that is punishable by imprisonment.
In the paragraph of the Particulars of Claim which allege the meaning of the ITV words, Mr Dunham wishes to add that the words complained of ‘impute a criminal offence namely s.14 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 for which the Claimant could have been punished by imprisonment.’
By Section 14 of Sexual Offences Act 1956 it is an offence for a person to make an indecent assault on a woman. Section 14(2) provides that a girl under 16 cannot in law give any consent which would prevent an act being an assault for the purposes of this section. Where the victim was over 13 and the offence was committed prior to 1985, the maximum sentence was 2 years imprisonment. Section 14 of the 1956 Act was repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. There was no specific transitional provision preserving the 1956 Act for historic offences in either the 2003 Act itself or the commencement order bringing it into force. However, the Interpretation Act 1978 s.16 is regarded as having that effect – see Archbold 2015 paragraph 20-1.
Mr Dunham argued that the ITV words alleged that the Claimant had ‘groped’ the Defendant and that would amount to an indecent assault which was punishable with imprisonment. For this reason as well, he submitted, the ITV words were actionable per se.
Mr Price opposed the application to amend. He accepted that an accusation of groping would be an allegation of sexual assault under the present law (Sexual Offences Act s.3). He submitted that it was rather more ambiguous as to whether the ITV words alleged an ‘indecent’ assault which was necessary for the words to impute an offence under s.14 of the 1956 Act. He submitted that the alternative relied upon by Mr Dunham was not arguable. The pleaded audience for the ITV words was the journalist, but the journalist in question, Mr Williams-Thomas was already aware of the Defendant’s account of what Freddie Starr had done to her through having read her online account on FanStory and because he had learned from the Defendant that ‘F’ referred to the Claimant. So far as he was concerned, therefore, the allegation could make no difference to the Claimant’s reputation, whether in connection with his business or otherwise. Mr Price refers me to Andre v Price [2010] EWHC 2572 (QB) in which Tugendhat J. considered a case of slander before a studio audience (in relation to words which were not subsequently broadcast). Tugendhat J commented that ‘calculated’ in Defamation Act 1952 s.2 meant ‘likely’ and this meant something less than ‘more likely than not’. ‘Disparage’ could cover a wide range. It should be interpreted flexibly, but it meant something more than minimal. There had to be a degree of seriousness to justify imposing liability consistent with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights – see [98] and [103]. Tugendhat J. also said that the effect of s.2 had to be considered, not just by reference to the words themselves. Their context was also important – see [99].
Mr Price argued as well that it would not be fair to allow the amendments to be made. He had prepared for the case on the basis that there was an obvious answer to the claims in slander: there had been no special loss proved and slander per se was not pleaded. In a case where the Claimant relied on multiple causes of action, the Defendant was entitled to adopt a proportionate approach to preparation for trial. It was notable as well that the Claimant had provided no evidence as to why this application was made so late in the day. That was a significant obstacle in the Claimant’s path –see Swain-Mason v Mills and Reeve [2011] 1 WLR 2735 (CA) at [82], [104] – [106].
At this stage, I am only considering whether the Claimant should be permitted to amend his Particulars of Claim rather than ruling on whether the pleaded case can succeed. If it was hopeless, there would be no point in allowing the amendment, but I do not consider that to be so. The imputation of a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment is plainly arguable.
I also consider that the Claimant can arguably allege that the words were likely to disparage him in his profession. Mr Price’s argument based on the limited audience for the ITV words is in my view flawed. If the Claimant in a slander claim cannot come within one of the special cases and has to prove special damage, the damage in question can arise from the repetition of the words by others, if that is the natural and probable consequence of the original publication – see Gatley 12th edition paragraph 5.9. That is the common law. However, I see no reason why the test of ‘calculated’ (for which read ‘likely to’) in Defamation Act 1952 s.2 should not be viewed in a similar way. If it was likely that the interview with the Defendant would be broadcast and so seen by a much wider audience and that was in turn likely to disparage the Defendant in his profession, I find it difficult to see why the test in s.2 would not then be satisfied. This issue did not arise in Andre v Price either because the words in question were not in fact broadcast or because the point was not argued.
While I understand that a legal representative in Mr Price’s position has to make choices as to how to prepare for a trial, an argument based on prejudice has to be rather more clearly particularised. I could not discern in Mr Price’s submissions any particular questions which he would have wished to put to any of the witnesses if the Particulars of Claim had stood as Mr Dunham wishes to amend them. In the course of the argument on the application to amend, Mr Price has taken the opportunity to make his submissions as to why amendments do not assist the Claimant. I accept that there is no evidence to explain why the application is made so late in the day, but I accept as well the point made by Mr Dunham, that this amendment is very different from what was being considered in Swain-Mason. The present amendment is clear and straightforward (which was plainly not the case in Swain-Mason – see [107]). It was also a position anticipated by the Defendant since her Amended Defence in terms denied that the ITV words were actionable per se (see paragraph 5 of the Amended Defence).
I shall give permission to the Claimant to amend the Particulars of Claim in the way sought in paragraphs 3 and 5 (which are the ones relating to the ITV words). I will refuse permission in relation to paragraphs 9 and 10 (which are the ones relating to the BBC words) since the claim in slander arising out of the BBC words is anyway time barred.
The ‘Panorama’ broadcast
I have found that the slander for the BBC words is time barred. That means that the Claimant cannot recover for the ‘Panorama’ broadcast as consequential loss. He does, though, rely as an alternative on his claim that the Defendant is responsible for the repetition of the BBC words in ‘Panorama’ as a co-publisher of that part of the broadcast. I turn to that claim now.
A publication is only actionable in defamation if it is ‘of the claimant’. Another way of putting this requirement is that it must be apparent to the readers or audience of the words in question that it is the claimant who is identified as the subject of those words. In her BBC interview the Defendant spoke only of what ‘a famous person’ had done. That would not be enough to identify the Claimant.
Identification does not have to be by name. The makers of ‘Panorama’ showed footage of the Claimant immediately before they broadcast the extract from the Defendant’s interview with the BBC words. In combination the resulting broadcast was, I accept, ‘of the Claimant’. But the question is whether the Defendant is liable as a co-publisher of what I will call that composite broadcast.
Mr Price accepts that she would be so liable if she intended or authorised the BBC to put out the composite broadcast. But, he submits, she neither intended it to do so, nor authorised it to do so.
Her evidence was that she did not intend Freddie Starr to be identified in what the BBC put out. That was why she referred to him as a ‘famous person’ rather than naming him. That approach was consistent with the fact that she had not named him in the FanStory words. She said the BBC promised her that Freddie Starr would not be identified. This evidence is corroborated by Liz MacKean and Meirion Jones. I accept their evidence. Of course, at the time of the Defendant’s interview with the BBC, Mr Jones, Ms MacKean and their team were preparing an item for ‘Newsnight’. The focus of the item was the behaviour of Jimmy Savile. Ms Ward had a great deal to say about the sexual abuse which she had suffered from Savile. What she had to say about Freddie Starr was of some relevance (because it had taken place on the occasion of a Savile TV show), but it was by no means certain that it would be included in an item which anyway was expected to last only about 10 minutes. It may be that no great thought was given by anyone to what use might be made of the interview if, as happened, the item was not included in ‘Newsnight’. Nonetheless, given the content of the BBC words (deliberately not naming the Claimant) and the promises which the Defendant received (that the Claimant would not be identified) it seems to me impossible to infer or imply an intention on the part of the Defendant that a composite broadcast should take place which did identify the Claimant. For the same reason, it cannot be said that she impliedly or inferentially authorised the BBC to put out such a composite broadcast.
Mr Dunham argued that the Defendant would also be liable as a co-publisher if it was reasonably foreseeable that her words would be subsequently broadcast.
There are, though, several reasons why this argument is not open to the Claimant.
First it is not how the claim is pleaded. Paragraph 11 of the Particulars of Claim pleaded liability for the ‘Panorama’ programme. The Defendant served a Part 18 request which asked the Claimant to, ‘Confirm that the broadcast referred to in paragraph 11 is merely being relied on as consequential damage arising from [the BBC words].’ The Claimant responded, ‘The publications referred to in paragraph 11 were intended and/or authorised by the Defendant and are therefore sued upon as an independent torts for which the Defendant is liable; further or alternatively they were a sufficiently foreseeable consequence of the publication of [the BBC words] such that the Defendant is liable for the enormous damage that the publications caused to the Claimant…’ The emphasis is mine and shows that the claim that the Defendant was a co-publisher was premised on intention or authorisation. Reasonable foreseeability was put forward as the basis for liability for consequential loss, consequent on the original slander.
Second, the law does not support this alternative. It is sufficient to say in the circumstances that I share the views of Laws LJ in Berezovsky v Terluk [2011] EWCA Civ 1534 at [27] – [28]. He expressed his views tentatively because it was not necessary to reach a conclusion on the facts of that case. I also follow his views tentatively because in this case, as well, it is not necessary to reach a firm conclusion on the law.
The third obstacle in Mr Dunham’s way is that his argument fails on the evidence. Once again, it is necessary to emphasise that it is only if one has regard to the composite broadcast that the Claimant is able to say the ‘Panorama’ broadcast was ‘of him’. The Claimant therefore has to prove that the composite broadcast was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the interview which the Defendant gave to the BBC. He cannot do that. Far from it being reasonably foreseeable that the BBC would broadcast the Defendant’s interview in such a way as to identify the Claimant, the exact opposite was the case. The Defendant, Ms MacKean and Mr Jones expected that, if the BBC words were broadcast, the Claimant would not be identified.
For all of these reasons, I conclude that the Defendant is not liable as a co-publisher of ‘Panorama’. Accordingly, the Claimant’s claim for libel against the Defendant for that BBC broadcast fails.
The ITV words
I remind myself of what the Defendant said in her interview with Mark Williams- Thomas on 2nd October 2012. It was,“I was horribly, horribly humiliated by Freddie Starr who had a very bad attack of wandering hands and had groped me and I didn’t like him because he smelled like my step-father and it frightened and freaked me out and I rebuffed him and he humiliated me in front of everyone in the dressing room.”
Unlike with the BBC words, the Defendant did name Freddie Starr in this interview. There is, therefore, no dispute that these words were spoken by her ‘of the Claimant’. The pleaded natural and ordinary meaning of the words is not really disputed. In any event, I accept that they meant that the Claimant groped the Defendant. This would be taken to mean that he had touched her in a sexual way and, in this sense, had sexually assaulted her. I also accept that the words meant that he had humiliated and frightened the Defendant.
The Claimant also argues that the words had an innuendo meaning. He has pleaded that the ITN journalist was told by the Defendant that at the relevant time she was a fourteen year old schoolgirl. With that knowledge, the words which the Defendant spoke meant to him that the Claimant had groped and thereby sexually assaulted a fourteen year old schoolgirl whom he had also humiliated and frightened and, for this reason, he was a paedophile.
The ITN journalist was Mark Williams-Thomas. He says that he cannot recall the Defendant telling him that she was 14 at the time. He does remember knowing that she was still at school at the time and was under 16. He was not cross examined about this evidence.
While this means that the Claimant has not proved precisely the facts on which the innuendo meaning is based, in my judgment he has established sufficient for an innuendo meaning which is more serious than the natural and ordinary meaning. Frightening and humiliating a girl who is under 16 is more serious than doing the same to an adult. Groping and thereby sexually assaulting a girl who is under the age of consent is also more serious than doing the same to an adult woman. The allegation that the words also meant that the Claimant was a paedophile adds nothing to the meaning that he had sexually assaulted a girl who was under 16. So far as they do, that is not an additional meaning which I consider the words bore with the limited additional facts known to Mr Williams-Thomas that the Claimant was able to prove.
The Claimant has sued in slander for the ITV words. Mr Dunham has accepted that he cannot prove financial loss. By his amendments to the Particulars of Claim he relies on two categories of slander which are actionable without proof of special loss. He need only establish one. In my judgment he can rely on both.
i) I accept that the words were calculated (for which read ‘likely’) to disparage him in his profession as an entertainer and comedian. I have, in considering the application for permission to amend, referred to Mr Price’s argument that Mr Williams-Thomas was already aware of the Defendant’s account of what Freddie Starr had done (from his work on the ‘Newsnight’ item) and her repetition of that account in the ITV words could have had no impact on the Claimant’s reputation so far as he was concerned. In my view, though, in deciding whether words are likely to have the relevant effect, it is permissible to take into account any repetition which is reasonably foreseeable. Whether or not the Defendant authorised or intended the ITV words to be broadcast (and I return to this below in the context of the ITV broadcasts), it was in my judgment reasonably foreseeable that they would be. The Claimant was about 69 when the Defendant was interviewed, but he was still performing and still active as a comedian and entertainer. The ITV words did not allege the most serious form of sexual assault, but I accept that they were likely to disparage the Claimant in his profession.
ii) In considering the application to amend, I explained that even in 2012 and long after the repeal of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, a person was still amenable to prosecution for something which was an offence under that Act at the time it was done. Section 14 of the Act prohibited an indecent assault on a woman. The prosecution would have to establish that the assault was ‘indecent’, but I am not concerned with whether the prosecution would necessarily succeed, but whether the words imputed that the Claimant had committed that offence. In my judgment, they did. To be relevant for these purposes, the imputed offence has to be punishable with imprisonment. An offence under s.14, committed in 1974, would have been punishable with a maximum of 2 years imprisonment. It is not necessary, as I understand it, for the Claimant to show that he was actually likely to be sent to prison if convicted of the particular act which was imputed.
It follows that the ITV words are actionable even without proof of special damage.
Mr Price argued that the claim in slander for speaking the ITV words was an abuse of process. Since that publication was only to Mark Williams-Thomas and he already knew of the allegation, it could have had no adverse impact on the Claimant’s reputation.
As I have said above, it seems to me plain that it was at least reasonably foreseeable that the ITV words would be broadcast. If that is so, it is wrong to confine attention to the immediate audience of the ITV words at the time the interview was filmed. They had a potential for a much wider audience which was reasonably foreseeable. I would not dismiss the claim based on the ITV words as an abuse of process.
The remaining defences on which the Defendant relies for this claim (justification, Reynolds privilege, qualified privilege) are more conveniently dealt with when I consider the claim based on the ITV broadcasts.
The ITV broadcasts
These were the Channel 4 News on 8th October 2012, ‘This Morning’ on 10th October 2012 and ITV News on 1st November 2012. On each occasion, ITV played a clip from the interview which the Defendant had given to Mark Williams-Thomas. On each occasion the clip included the ITV words and a statement to the effect that she had been a schoolgirl when she claims she was assaulted.
The Claimant alleges that the Defendant intended or authorised the ITV words to be broadcast. In her witness statement the Defendant said that she agreed to be interviewed by Mr Williams-Thomas for the ‘Exposure’ programme. This was essentially about Jimmy Savile and his sexual abuse. As I have already noted, the Defendant had a good deal to say about how she had been sexually abused by Jimmy Savile. She claimed that, while she had been a pupil at Duncroft, he had visited and encouraged her to perform oral sex on him on several occasions. She accepted that, in the course of the interview, she was also asked about the Claimant. She spoke the words complained of, but said, in her witness statement that she did not know or intend that they would be broadcast. In her evidence she said that she had understood from Mr Williams-Thomas that he was building up a dossier on Freddie Starr and her comments on him were for that purpose. She agreed that she did not know what particular part of her interview was going to be included in the broadcast. She agreed that anything which she said to him in the course of the interview was ‘broadcastable’.
In his evidence Mr Williams-Thomas confirmed that the focus of ‘Exposure’ was Jimmy Savile. The programme had been largely completed when he had interviewed the Defendant on 2nd October 2012 and she was told that this was so. However, they still wanted to gather supporting information regarding Savile. He was asked what authorisation the Defendant gave for the interview to be broadcast. He said that there would either have been a written authorisation or (which was more likely since this was an interview for a news, rather than a current affairs, programme) she would have signified her agreement on camera. In one way or another the Defendant had indicated that she was happy for him to use the material in any way he saw fit.
I accept Mr Williams-Thomas’s evidence which is consistent with the Defendant’s. It is also consistent with her evidence that there were several takes of the interview and that at various times he asked her to express herself more clearly (including in what she was saying about the Claimant). All of this is compatible with Mr Williams-Thomas wanting (and obtaining the Defendant’s authorisation for) film which could potentially be broadcast.
The Defendant will not have known the precise circumstances in which her interview would be broadcast, but I accept that she was prepared to leave that to the discretion of ITV. She had made no secret of the fact that she was a school girl at the time of the incident with Freddie Starr and I accept that she impliedly authorised her interview to be accompanied by a statement to this effect.
It follows that I agree she was a co-publisher of the ITV broadcasts.
The meaning of the ITV broadcasts was that the Claimant had groped the Defendant when she was a schoolgirl and that he had thereby sexually assaulted her. It also meant that he had frightened and humiliated her.
Justification and the ITV words and ITV Broadcasts
In essence the meanings which I have said the ITV words and the ITV broadcasts bear are meanings which the Defendant has said are true. Thus she is relying on the common law defence to a claim in defamation (whether libel or slander) of ‘justification’. This defence is abolished and replaced with a statutory defence of ‘truth’ by Defamation Act 2013 s.2, but that provision only came into force on 1st January 2014 and is not relevant to the claims which I am considering.
It is for the Defendant to establish that the meaning of the words she published was true. The parties were agreed that I must apply the ordinary civil burden of proof. Thus I must consider whether it is more likely than not that they are true. I bear in mind that the words, as I have found, imputed a criminal offence. That does not change the standard of proof. It does mean that I must look rather harder at the evidence to see whether that standard is satisfied since ‘the more improbable an allegation the stronger must be the evidence that it did occur before, on the balance of probabilities, its occurrence will be established.’ Chase v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2002] EWCA Civ 1772 at [35] per Brooke LJ. That said, the sexual assault which was imputed was not, as I have said, of the most serious kind.
The Defendant’s evidence was that her allegations were true. She had been a pupil at Duncroft since she was 14. On 7th March 1974 she was 15. She was among a group of about 5 girls from the school that went to a recording of an episode of ‘Clunk Click’ which was a programme hosted by Jimmy Savile. She can be seen among a group of young people on the stage in footage of the programme. One of the guests on the show was Freddie Starr. He, too, can be seen in the footage.
The Defendant says that, after the show, she with the other Duncroft girls and some other people met with Savile. Freddie Starr joined them. She says that there came a point where he grabbed or squeezed her bottom. She says that this was something she commonly experienced at the time from men, despite her age. In her evidence she said that she recognised it as the first stage in what was called a ‘goose’. The next stage of a goose was that the man would grab or touch the woman or girl’s breasts. That, too, had often happened to her. On this occasion, though, she was repelled by Freddie Starr’s smell. It was a male smell, a mixture of stale sweat, halitosis and stale cologne. The smell strongly reminded her of her step-father who had sexually assaulted her since the age of 4. She recoiled and made a fuss. Freddie Starr then said ‘I wouldn’t touch you anyway. You’re a titless wonder.’ She says she was frightened. She was also humiliated. Her breasts were small. She was self-conscious of them. To have attention drawn to them in this manner was deeply hurtful.
The Claimant said that nothing of this kind took place. He had not touched the Defendant. He had said nothing of the kind which she attributes to him. As I have mentioned previously, when first asked about the occasion in 2012, he denied that he had ever appeared on television with Jimmy Savile. He agreed that that was a mistake. He had been in business for 55 years and had done about 3,000 – 4,000 television shows in the course of his career. In the interview which he gave on camera for ‘This Morning’ on 10th October 2012, he said that he had shot straight off with his manager after the show. He added, ‘We never stayed behind’. In his evidence he said that he and his manager, stayed behind for 10 minutes in the Green Room. When he was asked about what he had said on ‘This Morning’ he responded, ‘That night we did go straight off, after we finished a coffee or something.’ A little later in his evidence he said that his wife had also been with him (this was his second wife, Sandy). His witness statement had made no mention of his wife being present. He explained, that this was because he had been trying to get her to come to court but her present husband would not let her come. After hearing Mr Starr give evidence, my conclusion is that he has very little, if any, recollection of that night at all.
The Claimant’s case is that the Defendant is mistaken. Either these things never occurred or they were done by someone completely different. In a Part 18 Request of his Particulars of Claim he was asked whether it was alleged that the Defendant knew her allegations were false. He replied,‘The Claimant does not need to and does not make any allegation about whether the Defendant knew that her allegations were false.’In her Amended Defence the Defendant has relied on qualified privilege. In his Re- Amended Reply, the Claimant has not pleaded that the Defendant was malicious. While malice may be demonstrated in a number of ways, a classic form is where the Defendant knew that what was said was untrue. That, as I say, was not pleaded by the Claimant. There is little scope for a plea of malice in response to a defence based on Reynolds privilege. The Amended Defence does rely on Reynolds, but it does also plead qualified privilege of the duty/interest kind. To this malice would be an answer since the privilege is only qualified. Because of this state of the pleadings, I agreed with Mr Price that it was not now open to the Mr Dunham to cross examine the Defendant on the basis that she had made her allegations about the Claimant knowing them to be untrue or that she had deliberately manufactured a false account. He did not do so.
He did put to the Defendant that she was mistaken. She accepted that these events had taken place over 40 years ago, but she said that the insult about her breasts and what led up to it had been particularly hurtful and had stayed with her. She agreed that she had been prescribed Lithium at the time and her memory of some of the surrounding circumstances was hazy, but she said, of the core elements – the grabbing of her bottom, the expression ‘titless wonder’ and the fact that it was Freddie Starr who had done these things she was certain. She agreed that she could not be certain if the smell which came from the Claimant included alcohol (the Claimant does not and did not drink alcohol), but she was sure that the odour had reminded her of her step-father. She denied that she had changed her story from saying that the Claimant had attempted to molest her to saying that he had succeeded in grabbing her bottom. She said he had succeeded in touching her bottom. He had attempted to go further with the ‘goose’ but he had not been able to do so because of her protests.
Susan Bunce gave evidence for the Claimant. As I have said, she was another of the Duncroft girls who attended the recording of ‘Clunk Click’ on 7th March 1974. She, too, was 15 at the time. She recalls that, after the show, they were taken to a room behind the theatre. There were 15-20 people present. She remembers that the Defendant was wearing rather old-fashioned clothes which led to her being teased by the other girls. At one point, while the Claimant was in the room, one of them said aloud to him, ‘she [i.e. the Defendant] wants to know if she is attractive and if you would fancy her.’ The Claimant went towards her in a playful manner and inspected her as if he was an army parade sergeant. Ms Bunce says the Claimant did not touch the Defendant and was not even within touching distance, but suddenly the Defendant jumped back as if a wasp had flown in her face and waved her hands in front of her. There was no obvious cause for this behaviour. The Claimant did not insult the Defendant. I will need to return to this and other aspects of Ms Bunce’s evidence later.
Witness C gave evidence that when she was 15 and also a pupil at Duncroft she went to the BBC. There was only one occasion when she made such a trip. A Jimmy Savile programme was filmed. Afterwards they went to a room and Freddie Starr came in. She asked him for something to remind them of the trip. He said that she could have a lock of his hair. He then put his hand down the front of his trousers and said, ‘you can have a lock of my pubic hair.’ Jimmy Savile was there and he laughed.
In his evidence the Claimant denied doing any such thing as Witness C described. He said that he had been wearing tight trousers and a wide belt, as can be seen in the footage of the ‘Clunk Click’ recording, and it would have been physically impossible for him to do what Witness C alleged. However in her evidence, Ms Bunce had said that after the show when Freddie Starr came into the room, she asked him for a cigarette. He said she could help herself from a packet in his pocket. She recalls reaching into his trousers’ pocket and the trousers were loose. I agree with Mr Price that the likely explanation is that the Claimant had changed after his appearance on the show. The Claimant said that it would be standard for him to be allocated a dressing room when he appeared on TV. Ms Bunce had no recollection of an incident of the kind which Witness C described and thought that Witness C had attended a different episode of ‘Clunk Click’, yet Freddie Starr appeared on only one BBC show with Jimmy Savile. The Defendant’s evidence makes no mention of this incident either.
Witness C accepted that her memory of this visit was incomplete. She could not recall the name of the show or the celebrities who appeared on it or the month in which it had taken place. She was not sure if Freddie Starr had been on the show itself. However, she was sure that it had been Freddie Starr who offered her some of his pubic hair as a memento of the occasion.
Witness C had first been contacted by Liz MacKean on 16th November 2011 (and so two days after Ms MacKean interviewed the Defendant). As part of her investigation on Jimmy Savile, Ms MacKean tried to make contact with as many of the girls who had been at Duncroft as she could. She had succeeded in contacting 45-60 of them, mostly through the Friends Reunited website. When Witness C spoke to Ms MacKean she remembered Jimmy Savile coming to the school. She recalled as well that a number of girls had said that he had encouraged them to perform oral sex on him. She did not say this had happened to her. But she did mention the incident with pubic hair which had taken place in Jimmy Savile’s presence and Savile had laughed. She did not name Freddie Starr but she said he was ‘A certain person who is now in the celebrity Jungle.’ Ms MacKean said that made it obvious that she was referring to the Claimant since he was on that show at the time that she was in contact with Witness C.
I said I would return to another aspect of Ms Bunce’s evidence. Before the recording of the show, she said she bumped into Freddie Starr in the corridor and recognised him. He came and joined a group that was waiting for the show to start. There was a jocular atmosphere. Ms Bunce who says that she was particularly small was picked up by the Claimant and held in the air. One of the Duncroft girls then said ‘why don’t you kiss him?’ Ms Bunce did. In her interview with the police subsequently on 9th May 2013, she said,
‘”Well I’m up for it” he said …
So I kissed him. Still, he’s still holding me, and, but instead of just like, erm, just a kiss, and he did actually, looking back, it could wrong, it did actually linger on rather, it was a bit of, er, you know, the tongues tangled up there, and it was an extended long kiss.’
Later in her interview she described it as, ‘one of the more passionate kind of kisses that people would do in private.’
She said that the Claimant offered to give her a lift home after the show, but she declined.
The Claimant has no recollection of kissing Ms Bunce. He said the entire thing was fiction and lies. He says he did not offer her a lift because, after the show, he had to go elsewhere urgently.
Ms Bunce also recalled a conversation with the Claimant about her age. She had asked him to guess. He suggested 18. She said he was good at guessing and left him with the impression that she was older than her true age at the time of 15. In her police interview, she said that this conversation took place after her kiss with the Claimant. In her evidence she said it was before.
In the end I have to decide whether the Defendant’s account is true on the balance of probabilities. I must do so, taking account of the oral evidence of these witnesses (which, necessarily, I have only summarised above), the documentary evidence that has been put before me and the submissions of Mr Price and Mr Dunham. In my judgment the Defendant’s account is true.
i) It is, of course, a matter which took place a long time ago. But I find that the Claimant’s remark to the Defendant, ‘you’re a titless wonder’ was a striking one. It lodged in her memory. She was sensitive about her appearance (as are many teenage girls) and this remark in a crowded room which included some of the other girls at her school was understandably humiliating. I reject the submission by Mr Dunham that the Defendant had confused the Claimant with some other celebrity.
ii) I find as well that the Defendant’s account of what led up to this remark by the Claimant is also more likely to be true than not, that is the Claimant touched or grabbed her bottom and she recoiled. The recoil, at least, was seen by Susan Bunce. Ms Bunce did not see what caused the Defendant to behave in this fashion. I have considered Mr Dunham’s submission that it may have been the Claimant’s smell which the Defendant associated with her step-father, but I have decided that it was more likely than not the smell, plus the sexual advance which grabbing of the Defendant’s bottom was.
iii) The Defendant was being given Lithium at Duncroft at this time. She has accepted that this affected her memory. On peripheral matters her account has varied. Thus she said at some points that the Claimant’s smell included a component of alcohol. She has accepted that she may have been wrong about that. In her BBC interview she said she was 14 at the time. We know that she was in fact 15. But in its core elements, her account has been consistent.
iv) In her BBC interview the Defendant had said ‘I had a famous person who would try, he smelled awful, he smelled of sweat and alcohol and it made me heave just to be near him, so I certainly didn’t want him to do anything to me’. Mr Dunham emphasised the word ‘try’ and suggested that the Defendant had later in her ITV interview sexed up what was previously described as an attempt to an actual grope. I reject this argument. In the first place, in the BBC interview she did not go on to explain what was ‘tried’. In her evidence she said that the Claimant had tried to complete the ‘goose’, but got no further than grabbing her bottom. Secondly, the account which the Defendant gave in her FanStory words (and which was written in about 2008 so well before the BBC interview) was that the Claimant’s hands ‘wandered incessantly’ and the meaning attributed to this in the Particulars of Claim was that the Claimant had groped and sexually assaulted her. Next, I do not accept that Mr Williams- Thomas encouraged the Defendant to elevate an ‘attempt’ to a ‘grope’ for the purpose of the ITV interview. I agree with his response that that would have been unprofessional. Mr Williams-Thomas, like Ms MacKean and Mr Jones, impressed me as a professional reporter and broadcaster. It would also be a curious thing to do in relation to a person who was not the focus of the programme he was making and where the difference between an attempted grope and an actual grope was not of the highest magnitude. I do not attach significance to the Defendant’s omission to use the word ‘goose’ until she gave evidence. It is not a common idiom now and she would be right to consider that her audience (whether readers of FanStory, watchers of ‘Newsnight’ or viewers of the ITV interview) would be mystified if she used it.
v) As I have said, I find that in truth the Claimant has no recollection of what actually happened on this evening. He originally said that he could not remember being on a show with Jimmy Savile at all. I accept that the Claimant has appeared on several thousand TV shows and he could not be expected to remember each one, but his response when initially approached was to deny his appearance categorically – not to say he could not remember. He then said that he had left immediately after the show. In his evidence he said he may have stayed for a short time with him manager, Mr Cartwright. Later in his evidence he said that his wife remained as well with him and Mr Cartwright. There has been no evidence from either Mr Cartwright (whose absence in the USA would not have prevented him providing a witness statement) or the Claimant’s wife at the time (who could have been witness summonsed if she was unwilling to attend voluntarily).
vi) In his evidence, Mr Starr accepted that he had a voracious sexual appetite in 1974. Slapping a girl’s bottom is what people did in the 1970’s, he said. It did not mean anything and was acceptable. He revelled in the reputation of being a ‘cheeky bastard’ as he put it in his autobiography. He agreed that he did make jokes about women’s breasts. ‘Every man does it, even my 15 year old son’, he said in evidence. He was asked about a passage in his autobiography which recounted his first meeting with Sandy, whom he later married in the mid- 1970s. The book recorded him as saying to this woman to whom he had not previously spoken and, when learning her name, ‘Hello Sandy. Can I play with your fur purse?’ He said in his evidence this was inaccurate. In fact he had asked if he could play with her fur clitoris.
vii) In his witness statement, the Claimant said ‘my humour was and remains the opposite of humiliation.’ That is difficult to reconcile with an extract which Mr Price played from one of the Claimant’s shows in which he takes two women from the audience on to the stage: one beautiful; the other, not so. The audience is repeatedly invited to laugh at the latter. Mr Starr emphasised that this was an adult show to which children were not admitted. That may be and it may explain why the jokes could be sexually frank. But it also showed that the Claimant felt free to raise a laugh at another person’s embarrassment about her body.
viii) The Claimant’s response was to say that his behaviour towards young girls was different. He said he didn’t like younger women. In his interview for ‘This Morning’ he had said ‘I always kept away from girls because I knew it spelt trouble.’ In his evidence he said the cut off point was 22 or 23. However, his behaviour on the very same occasion as the Defendant spoke about tells a different story. Susan Bunce was a small 15 year old. He picked her up, held her in the air and gave her a long passionate kiss. Later in the evening he offered to drive her home. There was, according to Ms Bunce, a conversation about her age in which she allowed the Claimant to believe that she was 18. In her evidence she said that this took place before the Claimant had kissed her. Even if this was the case, it would mean that the Claimant’s cut off below which he avoided girls was lower than he was prepared to admit. However, I prefer the account which Ms Bunce gave in her more detailed interview with the police. In this she said the conversation about her age took place only after the incident in which she and the Claimant had kissed. I also accept the evidence of witness C. When she, also a 15 year old school girl, asked for a memento, he offered her a tuft of his pubic hair. I reject the claim that this was impossible because of the tightness of his trousers or the width of his belt. Ms Bunce had described him as wearing loose trousers when he invited her to look in his pocket for a packet of cigarettes. He had obviously changed from the trousers he had been wearing during the ‘Clunk Click’ show.
ix) The accounts of the Defendant, Witness C and Ms Bunce appear to be independent of each other. There is no evidence to the contrary. Indeed, Ms Bunce was called in the Claimant’s support. Ms Bunce did not see what the Claimant did and said to Witness C. Witness C and the Defendant gave no evidence about what took place between Ms Bunce and the Claimant. I do not find this surprising. There were lots of people in the room. Each of these three remembered most clearly what happened to her. The accounts of Ms Bunce and Witness C however, provide support as to the Claimant’s behaviour towards 15 year old girls that night. They contradict the Claimant’s evidence that below 22 or 23 was the cut off for his interest in women. They support the Defendant’s account that it included girls of 15.
111. The ITV words also meant that the Claimant had frightened the Defendant. She said in her evidence that it was his smell which frightened her because it resembled her step-father. In my judgment the ITV words made the same link. It may be that in this sense the words were not defamatory of the Claimant, but, to the extent that they were, I find they were true.
Other defences for the ITV words and ITV broadcasts
Justification is a complete defence to a claim for slander or libel. This means that it is not necessary for me to rule on the Defendant’s alternative defence of Reynolds. A further reason not to do so is that the Reynolds defence has been abolished by Defamation Act 2013 s.4(6) and replaced with the statutory defence of publication on a matter of public interest. It is sufficient for me to record that Malik v Newspost Ltd [2007] EWHC 3063 (QB) would in my view have been a formidable obstacle to the Defendant succeeding in the Reynolds defence despite Mr Price’s submissions to the contrary.
It is a disputed issue as to whether a defendant who fails on Reynolds can succeed on qualified privilege – see Hays plc v Hartley [2010] EWHC 1068 (QB) at [69] and Seaga v Harper [2009] AC 1, 15. Since I am not reaching a concluded view on the applicability of Reynolds it would not be right for me to consider the hypothetical applicability of a residual qualified privilege defence.
However, for the reasons which I have given the claims based on the ITV words and ITV broadcasts fail.
The eBook
In view of my conclusions in relation to justification above, I can be relatively brief in relation to this claim.
The words are not identical to the ITV words but the sting of the libel in the eBook is the same. Assuming that the reader would recognise the Claimant as ‘F’ (as to which see below), the essential allegation is that the Defendant when an under-age girl refused a sexual advance from the Claimant who then humiliated her by making the same remark as was alleged in the ITV words. I have found that the Defendant has proved these allegations to be true. I do not accept that the words meant that the Claimant assaulted underage girls in the plural. However, as it happens, I have also found that he did engage in a passionate kiss with another underage girl and did offer yet another underage girl a tuft of his pubic hair.
I accept that the eBook words also meant that the Claimant and Jimmy Savile had encouraged underage girls to drink alcohol. The Defendant has not shown this to be true. However, as Mr Dunham realistically accepted in the course of his closing submissions, this allegation was put in the shadows by the others. This is another way of saying that although the Defendant has not proved the truth of this particular matter, the Claimant’s reputation was not materially affected because of the truth of the remaining charges. I find that the Defendant is thus able to rely on s.5 of the Defamation Act 1952.
There are, though, two interconnected matters which Mr Price raises which mean that the Defendant does not need to rely on the defence of justification to the eBook publication.
The first concerns identification of the Claimant. He is not named, but referred to as ‘F’, a popular comedian of time. The Claimant pleads that this refers to him because (a) he was a popular comedian in the time referred to, (b) his name begins with ‘F’, and (c) millions of people saw the ITV broadcasts and (after 22nd October 2012) BBC Panorama and, when they read the eBook, would make the link between the person to whom the Defendant referred.
There are a number of difficulties in the way of the Claimant making good this case:
i) The eBook does not say that the name of person concerned began with ‘F’, simply that was the code which the Defendant was going to use. But, even if I assume that some readers made the (correct) assumption that it did mean that the comedian’s name began with F (a) and (b) alone give insufficient clue as to the identity of the person about whom she was speaking. The evidence of Ms MacKean, Mr Jones and Mr Williams-Thomas was that none of them knew who F was until the Defendant told them. Mr Dunham argued that a reader of the eBook could have consulted the internet and found that the Claimant was a popular comedian in the 1970’s whose name began with F. However, there is no pleading or evidence to this effect. Nor do I know how many other comedians whose names began with F would have been thrown up. The size of that group would make a difference as to how realistic it would be for a reader to assume that ‘F’ was the Claimant.
ii) The Claimant relies as well on (c), but a reader of the eBook who was able to identify the Claimant as F because of the broadcasts would have learned that he vigorously denied the Defendant’s allegations. Furthermore, Channel 4 News broadcast the item because of the Claimant’s actions in applying unsuccessfully for an injunction and because of his denials in the media of the Defendant’s allegations (which had not at that stage been published by her). Mr Dunham acknowledged the force of these points which had been made by Mr Price. He responded by saying that there would be some readers of the eBook who had not seen the broadcasts. However, that brings him back to the difficulty which I mentioned in (i) above.
iii) The numbers of those who read the eBook in this jurisdiction is uncertain. The Claimant pleaded that there was a significant number. This was not admitted and he called no evidence in support of the contention. In cross examination the Defendant said she had sold 100 copies of Part 1 of her book (an earlier part than the eBook which contained the words complained of). At least some of those were to the United States of America and there is no claim in respect of publications outside the jurisdiction. There was no cross examination and no other evidence in relation to sales of the eBook.
The related point is that a claim in defamation will be an abuse of process if it did not seek redress for a real and substantial tort because the publication within the jurisdiction was minimal or the damage to the Claimant’s reputation by the publication was insignificant – see Jameel v Dow Jones Inc [2005] QB 946 (CA). That seems to me to describe the position in relation to the eBook, given (at most) the very small number of copies sold in the jurisdiction and that readers of them would only have identified the Claimant if they had seen the broadcasts for which I have held the Defendant is not liable, but which anyway would have included the Claimant’s denials of the Defendant’s allegations.
For all of these reasons the claim in relation to the eBook fails.
The claim in slander based on the Defendant’s interview to the BBC is time barred. I have refused to disapply the ordinary limitation period. Accordingly, the claim fails.
The claim in libel based on the broadcast of a clip from the BBC interview in ‘Panorama’ was only recognisably about the Claimant because the BBC also included footage of the Claimant. The Defendant did not authorise or intend the BBC to broadcast a section of her interview in conjunction with material which identified the Claimant as the ‘famous person’ about whom she spoke. Accordingly, she is not liable for this composite broadcast and this claim fails.
The interview which the Defendant gave to ITV did name the Claimant. He sues her for this in slander. He has accepted that he cannot establish any financial loss in consequence, but that in itself is not an obstacle to this claim since the Defendant’s words imputed that he had committed a criminal offence (indecently assaulting a woman) and was likely to disparage him in his profession as a comedian and entertainer. However, she has proved that it was true that he groped her (an under-age school girl) and humiliated her by calling her a ‘titless wonder’. His behaviour and smell also frightened her because it reminded her of her step-father who had sexually abused her as a child. Because her words were true, this claim fails.
A clip from the ITV interview was broadcast three times. The Defendant authorised its broadcasting and she is therefore to be treated as a co-publisher of those broadcasts. However because her words were true, this claim also fails.
The Claimant has sued the Defendant for publication of her memoir on FanStory only after 8th October 2012. He has not been able to prove that it was still available after this date. He accepts, therefore, that this claim fails.
The Claimant has also sued the Defendant for the publication of her eBook. The essential allegations were the same as she had made in the ITV interview. They were true. Her eBook also alleged that the Defendant (along with Jimmy Savile) had encouraged her to drink alcohol, although she was underage. This was not true, but in view of my finding that she has proved the more serious allegations, this matter did not seriously injure the reputation of the Claimant. In consequence, she can successfully defend the claim against her in relation to the eBook. In any event, no evidence was called as to the readership of the eBook which, at most, was very small. The eBook did not name the Claimant but referred only to ‘F’, a popular comedian. On their own, there is not the evidence that these matters would have been sufficient to identify the Claimant as ‘F’ to a significant number of readers. Those who saw the ITV broadcasts might have been able to join the dots, but if they saw the broadcasts they would, inevitably, have also seen the Claimant’s denials of the allegations. Putting all of this together, the claim in relation to publication of the eBook does not represent a real and substantial tort. For this reason as well, the claim in relation to the eBook fails.
I have found that all of the Claimant’s claims fail. It follows that judgment must be entered for the Defendant.
I wonder how much ****** & ****** paid Nicol for this absurd judgement?
I’m afraid that I have seen appallingly bad judgements in civil courts too.
Jonathan Mason
Like Harris denying he had ever been to Cambridge, Starr shot himself in the foot when he denied ever having met Savile and then recanted.
Perhaps the mistake is the opposite because when it all first began he too described Jimmy Savile as a disgusting pervert, seemingly oblivious to the inevitable logic that if Jimmy was guilty then so was everyone else involved in the Jimmy stories. Abandon the truth at your own peril.
Anne Pyke
Karin Ward proved that Freddie Starr assaulted her an called her a titles wonder…….erm where? How? Explain yourself Mr Nichol!
That’s the bit I don’t get at all, I thought it was only me that was too dim to understand the ruling. Where the hell does it prove that he did what she claimed?
It’s the bit where the judge says that in his own opinion, Starr did what she claimed. This is the basic problem with civil “balance of probabilities”, it’s a polite euphemism for “whatever the judge thinks”. There is no standard of proof of anything.
According to the original listing for this case a jury was anticipated. My understanding is that the Plaintiff would have had to have agreed that the judge would hear the case on his own judgement. The media reported that the judge would sit alone but not why, or whether this was agreed to, or was rquired to be “agreed”, or was simply within the purview of his Honour. Not that I wish to suggest a jury would have been any more advantageous to the plaintiff because I can imagine a jury might have been deemed no help at all.
eric hardcastle
Nary a mention of the fact that for 12 months Starr was facing the dreadful stress of the Yewtree interrogators and this alone should have been enough to allow him to extend the period of his claim which is possible in certain circumstances.
So in effect this judge is saying someone can be accused by anyone in the media of a heinous act and they have no recourse if they have no money to sue.
This is a shocking judgement not because it’s cruel to Starr, with the judge outlandishly making the idiotic inference that the defendant’s claims are true (but not proved), it’s a green light to the media that the less powerful can be defamed whilst the rich will always have financial protection.
I wasn’t sure Starr would win but I did not expect what is a damning judgement. Another nail in the coffin of British justice, a green light for certain crusaders who I expect are crowing already and what appears to me a common trick by some gutless judges : a judgement that would probably be overturned upon appeal but at a cost of another few hundred thousand quid.
Margaret Jervis
Unfortunately ‘similar fact’ evidence worked against Starr re his own witness. Susan Bunce did not have the protection of anonymity, but she has been found to be a ‘victim’ by extension with her evidence used to support Ward and undermine Starr.
There’s more to the law than justice m’dears.
http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/law-n-order.html
Ted Treen
The British legal system has everything to do with the law (as interpreted by some bewigged geriatric) and almost nothing to do with justice.
‘Twas ever thus.
Re: “However, she has proved that it was TRUE that he groped her (an under-age school girl) and humiliated her by calling her a ‘titless wonder’ ”
Really? Because she wasn’t able to ‘prove’ to the police that it was ‘true’ or they would have charged him, and they didn’t, despite being so eager to find enough evidence to charge him that he was kept on bail for 18 months.
How has she managed to ‘prove’ that it happened? Can she prove her accusation against Gary Glitter happened too?
So Freddie kissed her and said something a bit tasteless. She repeated a true story therefore she is not guilty of defamation. But it doesn’t mean Freddie is guilty of anything particularly serious. When is he going to sue the Daily Sport for saying he ate a hamster?
Yes. perhaps he should have stuck to his original plan and sought a judicial review of his bail and arrest pattern by the CoPS.
On the other hand, if you browse even a little on the world-wide web I think you’ll find he’d generally dissed to be a paedo.
It’ll get worse now I guess.
JonM
Are there grounds to appeal this?
The logic here seems to be if you repeat the same false accusation over and over again to enough people that’s the same as having ‘proved’ that the incident actually happened.
We know this episode of Clunk Click was aired in April ’74 and her 16th birthday would have been 25th March ’74, but when in April ’74 and how far in advance were these shows filmed?
* The logic here seems to be if you repeat the same false accusation over and over again to enough people that’s the same as having ‘proved’ that the incident actually happened. *
I think the logic is that if nobody steps forward to defend or support an accused person then the allegations are treated as proved. The only person I can think of who stepped forward to defend Freddie was Jim Davidson and look what happened to him.
I’m speaking of la-la land of course, the mass media/political/legal bubble where all this swirls around and operates within.
Hat duly doffed to Mme Raccoon, the outsider.
Anna Raccoon
Did you notice that no-one had the wit to challenge your bête noire – ‘BBC TV centre’?
According to the judgement the show was recorded 7th March, so she was less than three weeks away from her sixteenth birthday. The judgement also states that:
“On peripheral matters her account has varied.”
And one of those ‘peripheral matters’ was the age she claimed to be at the time. Given the implication that Starr was a paedophile, I would have thought her age – and her truthfulness regarding it – would have been of primary importance.
* Given the implication that Starr was a paedophile, I would have thought her age – and her truthfulness regarding it – would have been of primary importance. *
One of the most celebrated Savile victims was the bum-pinch on TotP. She was acknowledged to be at least 18; there was suggestion she may even have been 19. Made no difference to the legend being drummed up.
You would think it would have been of importance to the esteemed child protection expert – Good God, she could have been under 13 for all he knew….but he never asked her…
Mark Williams-Thomas told The Needle following the verdict; “As I told the court I had no doubt that Karin Ward was telling the truth. If I had concerns , even the slightest, I would not have done the interview with her and exposed her through it to national and international media scrutiny and attention. I am very pleased with the outcome.”
https://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/freddie-starr-loses-libel-case-against-karin-ward/
The bum pinch that she said, remember, ruined her entire life and caused her marriage to fail 30 years later.
Similar to Harris’s anonymous 8 year-old (I think it was) who was groped (in some way) at a secret location in front of an audience, and whose life was ruined because she never trusted men thereafter.
More to the point – there were exactly 43 days between Operation Outreach’s agreed ‘first visit to Duncroft’ and Karin’s first visit to Clunk-Click. 43 days in which Karin had allegedly given Savile a blow job ‘more than once’. And 43 days in which Savile had allegedly ‘groomed’ Ms Jones to allow him to spend time alone with Karin to deliver said blow jobs – and to allow him to select which girls went to clunk-click….cobblers.
‘He was the fastest groomer in the west’…..
….I shall have to keep reading to find out how she managed to ‘prove’ that the incident she claimed happened happened, up till now the only ‘evidence’ i’ve seen is that she sat in the audience of a show that Freddie Starr was on when she was 15, not that he actually sexually harassed/assulted her.
….also i’m sure I read somewhere, I think the Pollard report transcript, that she said that she and her friend were both ’14’ during the Gary Glitter episode of Clunk Click, when that can’t have been the case if the Gary Glitter episode and Freddie Starr episode where filmed little more than a month and a bit apart and she was almost 16 at the Freddie Starr filming….
March 7th.
I lost faith in the legal systems, media and governments in most countries earlier this year when Amanda Knox was found ‘not guilty’ – she was originally found guilty based on, from what I can see some very strong evidence and none of the nonsense that ensued afterwards, over turning the conviction (why?), then others that hadn’t been let in on the scam upholding the conviction, then eventually others finding her ‘not guilty’ (despite all the evidence against her and many murders in America being convicted on far less evidence) if it hadn’t been from media lies, propaganda and pressure from America, why I don’t know. It’s bloody disturbing though.
Ho Hum
Funny that. I lost some of my faith in the same because she had been found guilty.
Although one probably shouldn’t lose faith in anyone else’s institutions or processes just because their counterparts in Italy are screwed up. There’s nothing really too surprising in that, if you look more deeply
Ho Hum,
To me, although it happened in a different country, it’s the same nonsense going on in America, and them putting pressure on the Italians, that got Amanda Knox off, that has created the whole Jimmy Savile scandal from nothing. Media hysteria and nonsense.
Won’t get in to the whole Amanda Knox thing here but there was a lot of lies and bs published with an aim at discrediting the the police investigation and the trial, but it’s mostly dishonest bs.
Imo if she was Italian she’d still be in jail. And people in America have been convicted on far less evidence. Her parents had money and she was adopted by the feminists to spout out a lot of bs about why she wasn’t guilty.
Never mind, I was just disappointed at seeing such bs either accepted or actually believed by people who are supposed to have power and authority, but it’s not upto me….
I read right through the (translated) judgements and a lot of the other (again translated) background to the case, as that was put forward contemporaneously by those who sounded very much like the Italian equivalents of Ms Raccoon. When compared to the Press reports etc here, as put forward by the two or three UK and US journalists who seemed to be making a living off the whole story – does that sound at all familiar? – they told a completely different story.
But above all, justice itself was being done a disservice. No-one could prove beyond reasonable doubt that she did – or didn’t – do it. And, on that basis, I’d rather see the odd guilty person go free, rather than the innocent being banged up to satisfy the pollies vote tallies, or to sate witch hunters and their foaming vengeance, or the SJW’s being given another lever with which to propagate their endless demand for the subjugation of all that disagree with their revealed truth, or even just so that the tabloids can fill their pages with dross by beguiling, and their coffers with gold at the expense of, the ignorant and stupid
I read a lot of the transcripts (translated in google translate) of police statements, testimony in court etc, i’m convinced she was involved in the clean up and attempted cover up, which is a crime. The BBC documentary last year summed up the evidence pretty well, but that and the newspapers was not where I got most of the info to make me reach that conclusion, the BBC doc was shown after that anyway. So i’ll agree to disagree with with you.
Thank you, Anna, for publishing this. I look forward to your insights.
It does appear that Mr Starr could have been better advised.
I couldn’t possibly say. In print. Mr Dunham might get confused as to whether I’d Libelled him or Slandered him.
Beautifully put.
If so, that’s really depressing.
But still, tomorrow’s a new day. Maybe the headlines might read ‘Famous Person eats Lawyer’.
So, in short, we seem to be expected to believe that …..
– the claimant’s legal team spent a long time displaying their ineptitude
– as the old bloke they were acting for doesn’t really reliably remember anything about anything any more, what he says happened can’t be allowed to count for much
– the claimant’s main supporting contemporary witness, who is stated as categorically denying that what was alleged to have happened didn’t, isn’t really to be believed in that regard
– the claimant’s main supporting witness’s other evidence is to be believed, though, when it goes to provide some support as to why it might be the case that the claimant might have done what was alleged
– the defendent’s main contemporary witness, who had almost to be dragged to court, is to be believed insofar as their otherwise uncorroborated evidence gives an account of an event which provides some support as to why it might be the case that the claimant might have done what was alleged. Even when they otherwise say that they could not recall the name of the show or the celebrities who appeared on it or the month in which it had taken place or even be sure if Freddie Starr had been on the show itself.
…and, based on those things, conclude that on the balance of probabilities, the claimant really did what has been alleged, and that’s therefor now, and forever after, the incontrovertible truth of the matter?
Anyone else left with a feeling that, somehow, there’s something wrong with that, even if, like me, they can’t quite put their finger on what that might be?
Leaving that aside, what does bother me a bit though, is why the claimant didn’t produce other contemporary witnesses. Why not Miss Jones or other Duncroft staff, for instance? Anyone any idea – that can, reasonably and responsibly, be aired here?
Otherwise, I suggest that none of us fart too often in anyone’s general direction these days. It may bring back bad memeories.
I think you have summed it up perfectly.
Having now had chance to read the ream of legals (what little of it I could understand) I have to ask the more erudite here if Starr’s legal team weren’t morally/ethically/duty-of-care bound to inform their client from the get-go that he was probably on a hiding to nothing? And if they did so inform him and he still chose to press his claim then they would lay down their mandate ?
Not any surprise really, no way they could allow a story to be proved false in case the whole house of cards collapses.
It’s 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other so you can’t really blame anyone but Starr; he must have known the risk he was taking. I find it amusing though that a lot of this stuff is time barred.
Freddy might try suing his solicitor for not letting him know that this would be the obvious outcome – as long as he has got some more money to throw away.
Hubert Rawlinson
Starr Ward Episode IV A New Low.
From a Legal Universe far far away…
Under Imperial Justice all suspects are guilty, period. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be suspect would they? https://youtu.be/LvswNDAAZCU
So you only have twelve months to bring a claim of libel/slander but you’ve got for eternity to bring up claims of sexual abuse – very fair that ain’t it?
Junican
110: “In the end I have to decide whether the Defendant’s account is true on the balance of probabilities. I must do so, taking account of the oral evidence of these witnesses (which, necessarily, I have only summarised above), the documentary evidence that has been put before me and the submissions of Mr Price and Mr Dunham. In my judgment the Defendant’s account is true.”
There are several points that the Judge would have had in mind. First, he would have wished to be sure that a damaging slander had taken place before he ‘punished’ an ordinary member of the public. Secondly, the transcript shows that there was a massive amount of uncertainty. FS shot himself in the foot several times – 1) denying that he had been there, and, 2) saying that he and his manager had left immediately.
Secondly, amongst all the uncertainties about who did what and said what, the one certainty, as the Judge saw it, was that KD had stuck to her allegations – that he smelt like her step-father, that he touched/groped her bum and that he called her ‘a tit-less wonder’.
I’m not saying that FS had to prove that he did not do what was alleged. I am saying that he really ought not to have brought the action without a lot more substance to his case.
On the other hand, it was a good thing that he tried to clear his name by bringing this action. It might make other people who sling accusations about think twice before doing so, especially on TV.
Karen never made the claims on TV. “Newsnight the Exposure” never got made, never mind aired and she wasn’t in “Exposure the Movie” because at the time Freddie has a super-injunction against her. In fact I’m not sure Karin ever made the allegations in the mainstream in the ned, it was the news media saying she had made the allegations.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-804XqhHSNOI/VNuruiA4X7I/AAAAAAAAGVI/F_ryq-q5kyM/s1600/image002.jpg
It’s unsurprising that in its “core element her account was consistent” given that it has been repeated in interviews, print and fiction for what seems decades.
Rocky Racoon
From the ruling it seems MWT interviewed Karin Ward on the 2 Oct 2012 to late to appear in the Exposure programme. ITN contacted Starr’s reps for a comment presumably after MWT had informed them of his interview with Karin Ward. Then there was the injunction which the media had lifted the next day saying they had no intention of publishing the allegation.
A few days later an interview appeared in which Karin Ward named Freddie Starr and described the incident in the dressing room, I don’t know if it was broadcast but it definitely was on ITN’s website. At a later date the part mentioning Starr had been removed. Here’s newspaper report of the interview…”Last week, Karin — alleged on ITN News that Starr groped her in Savile’s dressing room…..”
So I’m a wee bit perplexed at Karin’s protestations that it wasn’t her who put Starr’s name out there.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217004/Jimmy-Savile-scandal-Karin-Ward-accuses-Freddie-Starr-pouncing-her.html
The interview with Karin Ward appeared online 4 Oct 2012, so I guess that was the one conducted by MWT on 2 Oct 2012 by 11 Oct 2012 the bit about Freddie Starr had been removed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9586562/Jimmy-Savile-gave-me-cigarettes-for-sex.html
TheyFearTheHare
They could have saved an awful lot of time and trouble and just tossed a coin to get the decision. At least there would have been a 50% chance of getting justice….
It’s just like reading Alice in wonderland, totally surreal
Bill Sticker
What repeatedly staggers me about this whole circus is how flimsy the evidence is that anything happened at all. All we have is one persons repeated assertion. Corroboration is shaky at best.
I know that this may be fatuous, considering some forty (!) years have passed since the ‘life ruining’ event allegedly took place, but a ‘ Civil burden of proof’ does not appear to have been established about the defendants claims. You need at least seven points of evidence, with photographs, to properly issue even a ‘decriminalised’ bloody parking ticket for goodness sake. Just in case anyone asks, these ‘points of evidence’ are : time, date, vehicle registration, make, colour, model, offence code, not to mention precise position and lack or presence of permit. If the issuing officer gets any of these wrong, the ticket can easily be challenged and binned.
These lawyery people, them silk knickers briefs and ‘que sees’…they charge by the hour, right?
*The Blocked Dwarf can see the deliberate mistake in your funny human ‘justice’ system there…right there*
On further reflection, it’s difficult to see how ‘the balance of probabilities’ measure used in a case like this can be based on a 50:50 weighting, unless someone can tell me otherwise, and that the law provides some basis for there being no winner
To depersonalise the outcome for a moment, is it at all realistic to suppose that anyone presiding in any case like this, with the attendant public interest and associated external pressures, is going to give a judgement in favour of any such claimant, against any similar defendant, when it’s a close call – ie if, say, the objective evidence came out as 51:49 call for the claimant?
It might not be unreasonable to suppose that the claimant’s required ‘pass mark’ is actually going to be some subjectively higher value, maybe 70 to 80, or even more, if it’s not actually an obvious total slam dunk. And if that were so, and the weight of evidence didn’t get to that, then, in explaining to the public and the failed claimant just why the claimant didn’t win, whoever is pronouncing judgement is then in the difficult position of having to demonstrate that what ‘is true on the balance of probabilities’, as that might be understood by the man in the street, is justified.
And in so doing they would have to make the best of the rest of whatever evidence that’s available to fill in, and justify, the gap that might lie between their subjective pass mark, and any contrary perception of the weight of the objective evidence held by the claimant, his or her legal team, and the public, and their expectation that the tipping point is a 50:50 one
And to be fair, the same would probably be true the other way also, ie at 49:51 to the defendant, although it might be likely that the subjective ‘pass mark’ threshold for a defendant might be a lesser value
So, in spite of all the other issues, is the outcome really that surprising?
Or am I maybe just being too kind, or too cynical?
Meant to write the second last para as:
So, in spite of all the other issues, is the outcome, and the rationale given for it, really that surprising?
The whole “balance of evidence” thing is meaningless; you can’t translate all these apples and oranges of evidence into a ratio. It basically just means, “the judge’s gut feeling”. Which is okay in some civil dispute where you’re just asking a third party to settle an argument; woefully inadequate on matters of criminality.
I know that, you know that, but he can’t write that down, can he?
Anyway, I’m just more interested in the mental gymnastics needed to justify the ruminations that the gut went through in producing the end product. I hate manure.
if you adopt the modern mind-set for what the Americans call “Gross Out Humour” and ally that with the notion that every male in the 1970’s was a Chauvinist Pig, then cat-calling young women as being titless or pretending to impressionable young girls that a lock of hair from your head actually came out your pants would seem nothing unexpected; and given Freddie’s entire act/image was based on “Gross-Out”humour from Hitler in wellingtons to hamster biting, then even if his Honour perhaps didn’t credit that Freddie meant any harm, he could probably still credit that the forms of words were used and the prankish jokes were played.
What might seem more surprising is that young women who claim to have been performing fellatio on Jimmy Savile for ciggies didnlt appreciate that plucking pubic hair “live” was not so easy as plucking a chicken (dead). It’s all academic now nayways.
Maybe we should buy His Honour a DeLorean…
“Marty, you got go over 88mph for the Flux Capacitor to kick in…. Marty, are doing over 88mph???
This basically illustrates why the Civil Court system shouldn’t be applied to matters which fall under the Criminal Law. The reason it has a different standard of judgement- “balance” versus “beyond reasonable doubt”- is that civil law is intended to moderate some dispute between two equal claimants who are in disagreement. Apply it to criminal acts, you get a travesty like this in which the judge gets to say his gut feeling on the matter.
The thing that intrigues me about this particular allegation, right from Day One of all this, when I saw the Savile revelations, did a Google for Karin Ward, and found her writings on Amazon, was that this allegation struck me the exact opposite way to how it struck the judge in his judgement. He found it “striking” (i.e. compellingly convincing) that she remembered the term “titless wonder” and being goosed. My first thought was the opposite- would a girl who, so she claims, was prostituted by her step father around a gang as an infant, viciously abused by her mother, gang raped on a work placement in a sheet metal factory while at Duncroft, and so on and so on, really be that concerned by being “goosed” and an insult? It’s like somebody who’s had their leg blown off complaining they stubbed the big toe on the other side. The idea as claimed that, after this litany of child abuse described in her book, it was being called a “titless wonder” that caused her three marriages to fail, is bizarre. As to the phrase itself, if she was both flat chested and insecure about it, she could remember the phrase from anywhere.
Mr Justice Nichol had little incentive to find in favour of Starr and face the opprobrium of his peers and the media. If he had found against Ward, the whole thing could have started to unravel. I fear that it might have been wiser for Starr to not take this court action. Whether or not the CPS go after him again, as the usual suspects are demanding, he’s now officially labelled a paedo by this judgement and the media reaction.
By the way, did Glitter’s charges include this supposed dressing room incident, or did that never come to court? Was the girl he was supposedly raping while Karin’s biggest concern was being called a titless wonder ever identified?
@ianB agree about the non-sequitur of the ‘striking’ memory of ‘titlesswonder’. Unfortunately that is precisely the kind of ‘evidence’ that features in criminal trials highlighted rhetorically by judges to sway juries in historical cases (‘would this be something she has invented? or is it something etched into her memory etc etc?).
But I did wonder about the Bunce evidence of remembering Ward recoiling for no reason and waving her arms. I can’t fathom why she would have remembered this, without more. Nicol took this ‘memory’ at face value and decided it must have been caused by something akin to what Ward claimed without Bunce being aware of the cause. Certainly not helpful to the claimant – and I would have questioned the reliability of Bunce on this.
Ian B,
Re: “Mr Justice Nichol had little incentive to find in favour of Starr and face the opprobrium of his peers and the media. If he had found against Ward”
Mr Justice Nichol probably didn’t want to put his job at risk.
I have a law degree – graduated in 2010, after commencing study in 2007, and gave up a steady £30K a year job in doing so.
It’s as much use to me as chocolate fireguard in this environment. If you want it, send me your adress and it’s yours.
http://retardedkingdom.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/shiny-happy-lawyers.html
Meantime, the geese continue to goose the ganders with impunity.
http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Groping-women-force-barmen-to-give-up-kilts-10072015.htm
Not that any self respecting Scotsman is likely to clipe to the polis about it, of course.
Oi you
Excellent piece dear landlady and excellent comments too. The customers at The Racoon Arms are an intelligent, witty lot and nothing gets past them. Reading their remarks quite restores my faith in human beings, until I remember who is in charge….
Poor Freddy. Feel for him.
The customers at The Racoon Arms are an intelligent, witty lot
“Most” Matey, most of the regulars are not only intelligent and witty but also very good writers (probably because most of them went to school before Education³) and then again there those of us of the belligerent, foul mouthed, drunk-tank candidate contingent what only comes in here to get out of the incessant Norfolk ‘liquid sunshine’, mush.
according to a certain ex-copper who is constantly confused about his career, we are “child abuse supporters” as the Landlady claims “Jimmy Savile was innocent” yet I have read this blog from back to front and cannot find this claim.
Henry the Horse
I’ll just comment on the time barring. I find it absurd that the police will investigate a complaint that someone’s bottom was touched in 1974 but a claimant only has a year to start proceedings if their reputation has been publicly trashed. This huge disproportion is massively unjust.
as I said previously- Starr was facing the stress of a Yewtree investigation which concluded that ward’s claims against him and Gary Glitter would not proceed to then being charged. That was over 12 months and should have been taken into account by the judge and he said nothing in what is not just a loss for Starr but one of the nastiest, and shallowest judgements I have ever read.
The Green Light is now on for false or real accusers to come forward & they will be equally supported in the media & the courts.
Vale British Justice.
The irony there is that the limitation on the lbel is perfectly sensible.
It is the lack of limitation on the other that is the foolishness.
Moor Larkin,
Re: “The irony there is that the limitation on the lbel is perfectly sensible”
The problem is he was under investigation for over a year, probably in shock and the overwhelming pressure from the media could have initially made him afraid to take action. He got enough criticism as it was when he did decide to take action.
The 12 month time limit does not mean action must be commenced within that time, just notice given that action will commence in the future. I feel Starr has been really badly advised legally.
Having worked in the lucrative insurance game for many years where fraud is prevalent either deliberately or by mistake (so many people make incorrect claims) , it was always a pleasure to be able to report that a claimant is genuine. But even when one is involved with an accident where they lose a limb or several or are blinded or receive atrocious injuries, the claimant only has a few short years to make a claim for compensation unless they can prove exceptional circumstances to the court if out of the legal time limit.
It’s extraordinary that claims for sex assault can be made 30 /40 /50 years later and nil proof is needed when those who suffer terrible and obvious injuries backed by expert and concrete evidence are time limited.
Surely, in any truly ‘Humane & Just’ supposedly modern culture.
If NO complaint was made to ANYONE (friend, family, medic, cops, media, etc) within say, 10 years of ANY alleged crime. Then there can be NO JUSTICE for anyone later accused?
E.G. ” My aged twin sister and I were stupidly swindled out of our priceless LARGE diamonds in 1955 but we were young, kept it secret and have since lost all proof. Though we and many similarly traumatised friends, can all name the EVIL man who’s now dead. So, can we now have the VERY popular Untrue Brit Justice, BIG compo & media FAT fees please. Delivered by bent-cops/media, MWTwat & Prats, Slater & Morons, Liz Crutch, Mr Dank-zuk (bless U), CPS AsSaunders. And all the usual mentally disordered mainstream suspect BIG hypocrites in deep denial ? “
Forget the diamond theft, just say the rogue goosed you and you are on a winner.
In other news, if you’re a woman who stabs a paedo to death in cold blood, it’s not murder. It’s his fault for being out on bail. He was asking for it. Etc.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11733046/Mother-who-killed-paedophile-cleared-of-murder.html
an amazing tale of how a woman did not mean to do him harm even though she went armed with a large carving knife after consuming a bottle of brandy and stabbed him many times and then boasted to police.
What a dilemma for the jury. So much doubt about her intentions.
Paul widdecombe
Her question “who houses a f*****g Pedo on a large estate” is probably a valid one though. I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t want a nonce with 24 previous on him next door.
Ironic, isn’t it, how the secular progressives rail against the Catholic Church as the epicentre of child abuse, when it appears that their beloved Socialist Clergy are far more accommodating of sinners…
Slightly OT, I’m afraid, but there is nowhere else recent to post it sensibly
Today’s SKY News. Article on fraudulent Insurance claims
‘Personal injury lawyers stress however that the vast majority of insurance claims are honest and legitimate.
Tristan Hallam, from Slater and Gordon’s Solicitors, told Sky News that the legal profession has a duty to its clients to filter out the fraudsters before they end up before the courts.’
Isn’t that excellent news?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line634
|
__label__cc
| 0.659033
| 0.340967
|
Tampa’s I-4 Worst in the Nation for Car Accident Fatalities
Posted by Jack G. Bernstein, ESQ. | April 30, 2018 in Car Accident
Florida is famous for many things. It holds the title for the oldest European settlement in the United States. Florida is known for its sunshine, tourism, and its leadership in the U.S. space program. The state also grows more citrus fruit than any other state. Floridians have a lot to be proud of.
However, there’s one title that Florida residents aren’t so happy to have. A recent study found that Florida’s I-4 is the most dangerous highway in the United States. Researchers based the study on deaths per mile during a six-year period. Those who have been injured in an accident on I-4 will need to work with a Tampa car accident attorney to protect their interests.
I-4 Is the Most Dangerous Highway in America
Online insurance marketplace EverQuote says that I-4 is the most dangerous highway to drive on in the United States. They say that in a 132-mile stretch of highway, there are 1.41 fatalities per mile. The stretch in question runs from Tampa to Daytona Beach.
Florida Has Three Highways in the Top 10
In addition to I-4, the State of Florida has two other highways in the top 10 for the most dangerous highways in the United States. Florida’s I-95 is in fifth place with .89 traffic fatalities per mile. I-95 runs 1,926 miles from Miami to Maine.
In seventh place is Florida’s I-10. The highway stretches 2,460 miles from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida. Behind I-4, the second-most dangerous highway in the United States is Texas’ I-45. It stretches from Dallas to Houston and averages 1.24 traffic fatalities per mile.
What Makes I-4 So Dangerous?
The study by EverQuote didn’t shed any light on why I-4 is so dangerous. There are several reasons that a road might be particularly hazardous:
Tourism: Some of the most popular travel areas in the world run through I-4. Florida eagerly welcomes tourists from all over the world. While Florida residents love welcoming visitors, tourists may be inexperienced on the local roads. In addition, these drivers may not be as cautious while driving on vacation as they might be at home.
Relationship to a City: If a stretch of highway runs through a major city, there may be more traffic fatalities compared to rural areas. Near a city, there are more entry points to the highway. There’s more start-and-stop city driving. The highway may run through town instead of around the city. When a busy highway runs through a city, traffic fatalities may increase.
Traffic Volume: In addition to a highway’s proximity to a city, traffic volume, in general, can also contribute to dangerous conditions. Many highways are more than 50 years old. In fact, I-4 opened for business in 1959. In that time, populations and traffic densities have grown. With more traffic on the highways, there’s an increasing chance of collisions.
Enforcement: It’s up to state and local police to enforce the traffic laws on a highway. Traffic enforcement can help prevent accidents. The amount, type, and quality of enforcement can play a role in the number of traffic accidents on the road.
Speed Limits: The posted speed limit can play a role in traffic crashes. A higher speed limit makes collisions more likely to occur. Also, a higher speed limit can make an accident more severe.
Distracted Driving: Failing to pay attention to driving can result in unnecessary traffic accidents. Talking on a cell phone, texting or even reaching for an object on the floor are all ways that distracted driving can play a role in a traffic crash.
What Do Florida Laws Say About Distracted Driving and Other Driving Habits?
Florida has a law that bans texting while driving. Under Florida law 316.305, it’s illegal to type into any wireless communication device while you drive. The law prohibits texting as well as emailing. There are some exceptions for law enforcement personnel and reporting an emergency.
Florida’s texting law is a secondary offense. That means that law enforcement can’t pull someone over just for texting and driving. Instead, they have to catch someone committing some other kind of traffic offense to issue them a citation for texting. Even though that’s the current state of Florida law, it may not be sufficient to deter distracted drivers.
However, Florida recently changed its seatbelt law to make it a primary offense. Florida law 316.614 prohibits driving a car unless the driver and all passengers under 18 are wearing a seatbelt. Also, all occupants of the front seat must wear a seatbelt. Florida’s seatbelt law used to be a secondary offense like Florida’s texting law. But, Florida lawmakers changed the law to make a seat belt violation a primary offense. That means law enforcement can detain a vehicle any time they see a seatbelt violation.
Driving in the United States
According to AAA, Americans drive an average of 17,600 minutes each year. That’s the equivalent of spending seven, 40-hour work weeks on the road, each year. And 87.5 percent of people who are of driving age drive in any given year in the United States. That’s a lot of driving and a lot of danger for motorists in America.
The Legend of I-4
No article on traffic accidents on I-4 would be complete without a mention of the legend of I-4 and the “Haunted Highway.” Some say that the frequency of crashes on the highway is more than just coincidence. Instead, they blame the traffic deaths on haunting.
The legend goes that a family of early settlers died of yellow fever in the late 1880’s. They were buried on what is now I-4. Believers say that paving over the burial site in 1959 when construction began on the highway is the real cause of the traffic accidents on the stretch of highway. They even say the haunting is to blame for hurricanes that hit the highway. Though the Haunted Highway is the subject of folklore, attempts to prove the theory have come up empty-handed.
How Can a Car Accident Attorney Help?
If you’ve been hurt in a car accident on I-4 or anywhere in Florida, contact Jack Bernstein, Injury Attorneys. With more than 40 legal professionals and decades of experience, we’re ready to go to work for you to protect your rights and interests under Florida law. Together, we can make a plan to help you earn the compensation that you deserve under Florida law.
Call us at (813) 333-6666 or fill out our contact form to schedule your free case evaluation. There is no fee unless we win.
Jack G. Bernstein, ESQ.
For more than 36 years, personal injury lawyer Jack G. Bernstein has protected the rights of individuals who have been injured in a variety of circumstances. Mr. Bernstein is a member of the Florida State Bar Association, the Hillsborough Bar Association and the Clearwater Bar Association.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line640
|
__label__wiki
| 0.760059
| 0.760059
|
Bible > 1 Kings > Chapter 7 > Verse 37
◄ 1 Kings 7:37 ►
After this manner he made the ten stands. All of them were cast alike, of the same measure and the same form.
After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one size.
After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.
After this manner he made ten bases, of one casting and measure, and the like graving.
1 Kings 7:37 Parallel
In 1 Kings 7:31 we have a description of the upper portion of the mechonah, which formed the pedestal for the basin, and therewith an explanation of לכּיּר מתּחת. "And the mouth of it (the basin) was within the crown and upwards with a cubit, and the mouth of it (the crown) was rounded, stand-work, a cubit and a half (wide), and on its mouth also there was engraved work, and its panels were square, not round." To understand this verse, we must observe that, according to 1 Kings 7:35, the mechonah chest was provided at the top with a dome-shaped covering, in the centre of which there was an elevation resembling the capital of a pillar (הכּתרת, the crown), supporting the basin, which was inserted into it by its lower rim. The suffix in פּיהוּ (its mouth) is supposed by Thenius to refer to the mechonah chest, and he questions the allusion to the basin, on the ground that this was so flat that a mouth-like opening could not possibly be spoken of, and the basins were never within the mechonah. But however correct these two remarks may be in themselves, they by no means demonstrate the necessity of taking פּיהוּ as referring to the mechonah chest. For פּה (the mouth) is not necessarily to be understood as denoting a mouth-like opening to the basin; but just as ראשׁ פּי in Exodus 28:32 signifies the opening of the clothes for the head, i.e., for putting the head through when putting on the clothes, so may פּיהוּ (its mouth) be the opening or mouth for the basin, i.e., the opening into which the basin fitted and was emptied, the water in the basin being let off into the mechonah chest through the head-shaped neck by means of a tap or plug. The mouth was really the lower or contracted portion of the shell-shaped basin, which was about a cubit in height within the neck and upwards, that is to say, in all, inasmuch as it went partly into the neck and rose in part above it. The פּיה (the mouth thereof) which follows is the (upper) opening of the crown-like neck of the lid of the mechonah. This was rounded, מעשׂה־כן, stand-work, i.e., according to De Wette's correct paraphrase, formed after the style of the foot of a pillar, a cubit and a half in diameter. "And also upon the mouth of it (the mechonah) was carved work." The גּם (also) refers to the fact that the sides of the mechonah were already ornamented with carving. מסגּרתיהם, the panels of the crown-like neck (כּתרת) and its mouth (פּיה) were square, like the panels of the sides of the mechonah chest. The fact that panels are spoken of in connection with this neck, may be explained on the assumption that with its height of one cubit and its circumference of almost five cubits (which follows from its having a diameter of a cubit and a half) it had stronger borders of brass to strengthen its bearing power, while between them it consisted of thinner plates, which are called fillings or panels. - In 1 Kings 7:32, 1 Kings 7:33, the wheels are more minutely described. Every stool had four wheels under the panels, i.e., not against the sides of the chest, but under them, and ידות, hands or holders of the wheels, i.e., special contrivances for fastening the wheels to the axles, probably larger and more artistically worked than the linch-pins of ordinary carriages. These ידות were only required when the wheels turned upon the axles, and not when they were fastened to them. The height of the wheel was a cubit and a half, i.e., not half the height, but the whole. For with a half height of a cubit and a half the wheels would have been three cubits in diameter; and as the chest was only four cubits long, the hinder wheels and front wheels would almost have touched one another. The work (construction) of the wheels resembled that of (ordinary) carriage wheels; but everything about them (holders, felloes, spokes, and naves) was cast in brass. - In 1 Kings 7:34 the description passes to the upper portion of the mechonah. "And he made four shoulder-pieces at the four corners of one (i.e., of every) stand; out of the stand were its shoulder-pieces." כּתפות are the shoulder-pieces already mentioned in 1 Kings 7:30, which were attached to the feet below, or which terminated in feet. They were fastened to the corners in such a way that they seemed to come out of them; and they rose above the corners with a slight inclination (curve) towards the middle of the neck or capital, till they came under the outer rim of the basin which rested upon the capital of the lid of the chest, so as to support the basin, which turned considerably outwards at the top.
1 Kings 7:37 Parallel Commentaries
2 Chronicles 4:14 He also made the stands and he made the basins on the stands,
1 Kings 7:36
And on the surfaces of its stays and on its panels, he carved cherubim, lions, and palm trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths all around.
2 Chronicles 4:14
He made the stands also, and the basins on the stands,
Alike Bases Cast Casting Design Form Identical Manner Measure Molds Shape Size Stands Ten Way
1 Kings 7:37 NIV
1 Kings 7:37 NLT
1 Kings 7:37 ESV
1 Kings 7:37 NASB
1 Kings 7:37 KJV
1 Kings 7:37 Bible Apps
1 Kings 7:37 Biblia Paralela
1 Kings 7:37 Chinese Bible
1 Kings 7:37 French Bible
1 Kings 7:37 German Bible
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line644
|
__label__wiki
| 0.636785
| 0.636785
|
Bible > Revelation > Chapter 12 > Verse 4
◄ Revelation 12:4 ►
Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
and his tail draws the third part of the stars of the heaven; and he cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, in order that when she brought forth he might devour her child.
His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.
and his tail doth draw the third of the stars of the heaven, and he did cast them to the earth; and the dragon did stand before the woman who is about to bring forth, that when she may bring forth, her child he may devour;
Revelation 12:4 Parallel
Clarke's Commentary on the Bible
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven - It is not unusual in Scripture, as Dr. Mitchell observes, to call the hindmost of an enemy the tail, as in Joshua 10:19 : Ye shall cut off the hindmost of them, which is literally in Hebrew, וזנבתם אותם "Ye shall cut off their tail." See also Deuteronomy 25:18. It is also observable that the word ουρα, in this verse, has been used by the Greeks in the same sense with the Hebrew word זנב already referred to. Thus ουρα στρατου, which we would translate the rear of an army, is literally the tail of an army. See the Thesaurus of Stephens, in loc. The tail of the dragon is therefore the heathen Roman power in its seventh or last form of government, viz., the imperial power; and is not, as Dr. Mitchell supposes, to be restricted to the last heathen Roman emperors. The heathen imperial power is said to draw the third part of the stars of heaven, by which has generally been understood that the Roman empire subjected the third part of the princes and potentates of the earth. But that this is not a correct statement of the fact is evident from the testimony of ancient history. The Roman empire was always considered and called the empire of the world by ancient writers. See Dionys. Halicar., Antiq. Romans lib. i., prope principium; Pitisci Lexicon Antiq. Roman., sub voc. imperium; Ovidii Fast., lib. ii. l. 683; Vegetius de Revelation Militari, lib. i. c. 1., etc., etc. And it is even so named in Scripture, for St. Luke, in the second chapter of his gospel, informs us that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that The Whole World should be taxed, by which is evidently meant the Roman empire. The whole mystery of this passage consists in the misapprehension of its symbolical language. In order therefore to understand it, the symbols here used must be examined. By heaven is meant the most eminent or ruling part of any nation. This is evident from the very nature of the symbol, for "heaven is God's throne;" they therefore who are advanced to the supreme authority in any state are very properly said to be taken up into heaven, because they are raised to this eminence by the favor of the Lord, and are ministers of his to do his pleasure. And the calamity which fell upon Nebuchadnezzar was to instruct him in this important truth, that the heavens do rule; that is, that all monarchs possess their kingdoms by Divine appointment, and that no man is raised to power by what is usually termed the chances of war, but that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." The meaning of heaven being thus ascertained, it cannot be difficult to comprehend the meaning of earth, this being evidently its opposite, that is, every thing in subjection to the heaven or ruling part. Stars have already been shown to denote ministers of religion; and this is more fully evident from Revelation 1:16 of this book, where the seven stars which the Son of God holds in his right hand are explained to signify the seven angels (or messengers) of the seven Churches, by whom must be meant the seven pastors or ministers of these Churches. The resemblance of ministers to stars is very striking; for as the stars give light upon the earth, so are ministers the lights of the cause they advocate; and their position in heaven, the symbol of domination, very fitly betokens the spiritual authority of priests or ministers over their flocks. Hence, as the woman, or Christian Church, has upon her head a crown of twelve stars, which signifies that she is under the guidance of the twelve apostles, who are the twelve principal lights of the Christian world, so has the dragon also his stars or ministers. The stars therefore which the dragon draws with his tail must represent the whole body of pagan priests, who were the stars or lights of the heathen world. But in what sense can it be said that the heathen Roman empire, which ruled over the whole known world, only draws a third part of the stars of heaven? The answer is: The religious world in the time of St. John was divided into three grand branches, viz., the Christian world, the Jewish world, and the heathen and pagan world: consequently, as a dragon, a fabulous animal, is an emblem of a civil power supporting a religion founded in fable; it necessarily follows that the stars or ministers of the Jews and Christians cannot be numbered among those which he draws with his tail, as they were not the advocates of his idolatry, but were ministers of a religion founded by the God of heaven, and consequently formed no part of the pagan world, though they were in subjection in secular matters to the pagan Roman empire. The tail of the dragon therefore draweth after him the whole heathen world.
And did cast then to the earth - That is, reduced all the pagan priests under the Roman yoke. The words of the prophecy are very remarkable. It is said the tail of the dragon draweth, (for so συρει should be translated), but it is added, and Hath Cast then upon the earth, to show that at the time the Apocalypse was written the world was divided into the three grand religious divisions already referred to; but that the tail of the dragon, or the pagan Roman power under its last form of government, had brought the whole heathen world (which was a third part of the religious world in the apostolic age) into subjection previously to the communication of the Revelation to St. John. It is the dragon's tail that draws the third part of the stars of heaven, therefore it was during the dominion of his last form of government that Christianity was introduced into the world; for in the time of the six preceding draconic forms of government, the world was divided religiously into only two grand branches, Jews and Gentiles. That the sense in which the third part is here taken is the one intended in the prophecy is put beyond all controversy, when it is considered that this very division is made in the first and third verses, in which mention is made of the woman clothed with the sun - the Christian Church, the moon under her feet, or Jewish Church, and the dragon, or heathen power. Thus the heathen Imperial government is doubly represented, first, by one of the seven draconic heads, to show that it was one of those seven heathen forms of government which have been successively at the head of the Roman state; and secondly, by the dragon's tail, because it was the last of those seven. For a justification of this method of interpretation, see on the angel's double explanation of the heads of the beast, Revelation 17:9 (note), Revelation 17:10 (note), Revelation 17:16 (note).
And the dragon stood before the woman, etc. - Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine, abandoned the absurdities of paganism, and treated the Christians with great respect. This alarmed the pagan priests, whose interests were so closely connected with the continuance of the ancient superstitions, and who apprehended that to their great detriment the Christian religion would become daily more universal and triumphant throughout the empire. Under these anxious fears they moved Diocletian to persecute the Christians. Hence began what is termed the tenth and last general persecution, which was the most severe of all, and continued nearly ten years; (see Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History of the Third Century); and as it was the Divine pleasure that, at this time, a great deliverer should be raised up in behalf of his suffering people, the woman, or Christian Church, is very appropriately represented as overtaken with the pangs of labor, and ready to be delivered. Before the death of Constantius, the heathen party, aware that Constantine would follow the example of his father, who so much favored the Christians, beheld him with a watchful and malignant eye. Many were the snares that, according to Eusebius, were laid for him by Maximin and Galerius: he relates the frequent and dangerous enterprises to which they urged him, with the design that he might lose his life. When Galerius heard of the death of Constantius, and that he had appointed Constantine his successor, he was filled with the most ungovernable rage and indignation, notwithstanding he did not dare to take any steps contrary to the interest of Constantine. The dread of the armies of the west, which were mostly composed of Christians, was a sufficient check to all attempts of that kind. Thus the dragon, or heathen power, stood before the woman, or Christian Church, to devour her son, or deliverer, as soon as he was born. See Dr. Mitchell's Exposition of the Revelation, in loc.
his tail.
Revelation 9:10,19 And they had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months...
Daniel 8:9-12 And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east...
of the.
Revelation 17:18 And the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.
the dragon.
Revelation 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Exodus 1:16 And he said, When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the stools; if it be a son...
Matthew 2:3-16 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him...
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning...
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:
Prevailing Prayer.
Text.--The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.--James v. 16. THE last lecture referred principally to the confession of sin. To-night my remarks will be chiefly confined to the subject of intercession, or prayer. There are two kinds of means requisite to promote a revival; one to influence men, the other to influence God. The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer to move God. When I speak of moving God, I do not mean that God's mind is changed by prayer, or that his …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion
refers to Exodus. The promise is, "I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it" (ii. 17). It is in this third Epistle, which refers to the wilderness period and Balaam's counsel, that we have a special reference to the manna, the wilderness sustenance, of which Exodus contains the record. "Bread from Heaven" and "Angels' food" (Ps. lxxviii. 24,25) are set over against the lusts of the …
E.W. Bullinger—Commentary on Revelation
In the Days of Queen Esther
Under the favor shown them by Cyrus, nearly fifty thousand of the children of the captivity had taken advantage of the decree permitting their return. These, however, in comparison with the hundreds of thousands scattered throughout the provinces of Medo-Persia, were but a mere remnant. The great majority of the Israelites had chosen to remain in the land of their exile rather than undergo the hardships of the return journey and the re-establishment of their desolated cities and homes. A score or …
Apostles To-Day?
"Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are ye not my work in the Lord?"--1 Cor. ix. 1. We may not take leave of the apostolate without a last look at the circle of its members. It is a closed circle; and every effort to reopen it tends to efface a characteristic of the New Covenant. And yet the effort is being made again and again. We see it in Rome's apostolic succession; in the Ethical view gradually effacing the boundary-line between the apostles and believers; …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit
In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword-- his fierce, great and powerful sword-- Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.
It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them.
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water--
Bear Birth Born Cast Child Dashed Delivered Devour Dragon Drawing Drew Earth Flung Forth Front Ground Heaven Mother Order Part Pulling Ready Sky Soon Standeth Standing Stars Stood Swept Tail Third Threw
Revelation 12:4 NIV
Revelation 12:4 NLT
Revelation 12:4 ESV
Revelation 12:4 NASB
Revelation 12:4 KJV
Revelation 12:4 Bible Apps
Revelation 12:4 Biblia Paralela
Revelation 12:4 Chinese Bible
Revelation 12:4 French Bible
Revelation 12:4 German Bible
Revelation 12:4 Commentaries
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica®.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line645
|
__label__wiki
| 0.941797
| 0.941797
|
City officials decide to give seized building back to former owners
Abigail Curtis | BDN
The National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped-Crosby in Belfast was foreclosed upon the city of Belfast for failure to pay a $700 sewer bill, but the group and the city are working together to repair the building for its future use.
By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff • May 19, 2011 10:09 pm
Updated: May 19, 2011 11:26 pm
BELFAST, Maine — After seizing the deteriorating National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped building on Church Street last summer for the nonpayment of a $700 sewer bill, the city of Belfast this week decided to return the structure to the nonprofit organization that had owned it.
Officials said their tough-love approach to what they perceived to be the abandonment of a major downtown landmark has worked, citing the theater organization’s efforts this spring to repair and maintain the three-story former Crosby High School. The Belfast City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to return the title to the theater group.
“We never had any intention of depriving a nonprofit of their resources for $700. We never did,” City Manager Joseph Slocum said Wednesday. “But we saw the building in disrepair, being vandalized and unattended to and with broken windows. We said, ‘Look, we want to be reasonable. But we want you to be reasonable, too.’”
The workshop was founded by Rick Curry in 1977 in New York City to provide professional theater skills to the disabled. The group established a Belfast branch in 1996 as a seasonal adjunct, and purchased the former school from the city for $200,000.
Curry, who has since become a Jesuit priest, invested an estimated $3.5 million in the building, according to the organization. It was last assessed by the city in 2003 at $3.6 million.
A few years ago, activity at NTWH-Crosby began to taper off, as Curry shifted the nonprofit’s focus toward helping disabled veterans in Washington, D.C.
Then, last year the building became the property of the city of Belfast as per the state’s automatic lien foreclosure statute, city attorney Bill Kelly explained in an email sent to the BDN on Thursday. He said title to the property automatically transferred to the city of Belfast after the theater workshop failed to pay its assessments in a timely fashion after a lien for the sewer bill was filed in the registry of deeds.
“When nobody’s answering the phone and nobody’s paying the bills, bad things can happen,” Slocum said.
If the city had wanted to use or sell the building, it could have filed a suit to “perfect” its title, the attorney said, which means asking a judge to order that the foreclosure had happened in a timely fashion.
But that’s not what the city wanted, according to Slocum, who said that after the foreclosure, communication significantly improved between Belfast and NTWH officials.
“They have responsibly stepped forward. They have cleaned up the building, mowed the lawn, done mold remediation and fixed broken windows. They now have a regular caretaker,” the city manager said. “Based upon that, the city is now prepared to get the title back in their hands.”
Efforts this week to reach Jack Barry, a spokesman for NTWH and Curry’s longtime assistant, were unsuccessful. Slocum said Barry has been the city’s primary contact with the group.
“We’re happy and we think they’re happy,” Slocum said.
The city manager wasn’t sure if NTWH officials intend to use the building again or sell it. But he’s very hopeful that the questions that plagued him and the councilors last summer will not be asked again.
“I would like to go through a whole summer and not have citizens calling me up and saying, ‘Can’t you get them to mow that hayfield?’” Slocum said. “Last August, I really panicked. And I’m really glad, the way it worked out.”
Bangor wants more feet on the ground to fight homelessness — and no more tents
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line652
|
__label__wiki
| 0.993472
| 0.993472
|
NASA Orders Additional Launch from Boeing Delta Rocket Program Anniversary year of achievements, orders, launches paves the way for Boeing Delta IV
A decision yesterday made by NASA to exercise an existing contract option to launch the Mars Exploration Rover 2 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket in 2003 capped a banner year for the Boeing Delta program.
The spacecraft is scheduled for launch on a Delta II during a 21-day window that opens on June 27, 2003. The option being exercised is part of the NASA Launch Services (NLS) contract awarded to Boeing [NYSE: BA] in June.
The contract includes three firm launches and five options for launch services, along with a 10-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract for Delta II, Delta III or Delta IV launch services. This is the first of the five options to be exercised. The 40th year of operation for the Boeing Delta team was full of major milestones for the entire Boeing Delta family.
"Looking back on the year, we are extremely pleased with the accomplishments of the Delta team," said Gale Schluter, vice president and general manager of Boeing Expendable Launch Systems.
"Our people, and our industry partners around the world, have made the Delta name recognizable as a leading space transportation program. As we move forward into next year, we not only have a full launch manifest, but we will be readying ourselves for the first Delta IV launch in early 2002."
According to Schluter there are 11 Delta II launches scheduled for 2001. Included in next year's manifest are seven NASA launches, three launches for the U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning System and one commercial launch.
The Delta II team began the year with the successful launch of four Globalstar satellites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), Fla. The launch concluded a two-year effort in which Delta II rockets carried 28 of the 52 satellites launched for the system.
The launch team continued its string of successes with three launches for the U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning System and two launches for NASA.
The final launch of the year involved a new dual payload attach fitting system in which the Delta II team integrated and launched two unique primary payloads for the first time, enabling Delta II to compete for payloads usually reserved for smaller launch vehicles.
The Delta III reached full operational status with the successful launch of a data- gathering mission using a simulated payload. Designated as the DM-F3, the launch included a 9,480-pound satellite to serve two purposes. First, the satellite, developed to match various characteristics of common communications satellites, allowed the Delta III team to evaluate payload/vehicle compatibility during flight for future Delta III missions. Second, the U.S. Air Force and the University of Colorado are utilizing the satellite to conduct tests to evaluate and improve satellite technology. The successful Delta III flight also provided valuable data being used to develop Delta IV systems.
Delta IV
Progress with the Delta IV program was non-stop with many significant milestones being achieved at facilities across the country. The first fully integrated common booster core (CBC) was unveiled at the new Boeing manufacturing facility located in Decatur, Ala. The facility will produce all Delta IV CBCs.
A new Boeing facility at NASA's Stennis Space Center located in Mississippi was inaugurated and will co-locate production and test facilities for the RS-68 engine. Each engine will be fully tested prior to shipment to the Delta rocket factory in Decatur, Ala.
Boeing also made significant news within the U.S. rocket industry by completing its first Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at CCAFS. The company also broke ground on a second HIF at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The new facilities will assemble Delta IV rockets horizontally rather than vertically increasing safety, quality and efficiency. Horizontal integration of the Delta IV will also allow the Delta team to process multiple launch vehicles in parallel, increasing flexibility to deal with customer scheduling changes, while decreasing "time on pad." Current Delta launch vehicles, which are integrated on the launch pad, spend approximately four weeks on the pad. By utilizing the HIF, the Delta IV team will reduce that time to approximately one week.
With the promise of success for the Delta IV, the Air Force gave Boeing approval for production and mission integration of a Delta IV for the first Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) launch for the Defense Satellite Communications System.
As 2000 draws to a close, the Delta IV team is busy starting its multi-phased test program of the common booster core at Stennis. This will be highlighted by a static test firing of the CBC with its fully integrated engine and related subsystems in a simulated flight scenario. During the testing, the CBC will undergo all of the stresses associated with launch while carrying out the commands of a typical flight profile. The test program is typical of the approach the Delta IV team is taking to prove out the launch vehicle's completed systems prior to flight.
Launch Services Orders
NASA Launch Services (NLS) - NASA awarded Boeing three firm launch services contracts and five options. The award included a 10-year ID/IQ contract for Delta II, Delta III and Delta IV launch services. RADARSAT II - MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, awarded Boeing a Delta II launch contract for the world's most advanced synthetic aperture radar system, on board a Delta II rocket in 2003.
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle -- The Air Force revised the Initial Launch Services contract for the EELV program by awarding Boeing two additional launches. Boeing has now been awarded 21 of the 28 launch services contracts for the EELV program. The Air Force also authorized a Delta IV Heavy demonstration flight in 2003.
Mars Rover 2003 - NASA exercised its first option under the NLS contract by awarding Boeing a Delta II launch for the Mars Rover 2003 mission.
Delta Web site
Robert Villanueva
Delta Launch Hotline
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line654
|
__label__cc
| 0.540284
| 0.459716
|
(+44) - 0 - 2030264251
Vol. 18 Nbr. 1-2, March 2010
'Indenture': labour for miserable reward, a fifth of all households.
Author: Dorling, Danny
How would you answer the following question?
Which of these phrases would you say comes closest to your feelings about your household's income these days? Living comfortably, coping, finding it difficult to manage, or finding it very difficult to manage on present income. Excluding those who responded 'don't know' or who did not answer, the typical response to such a question, as recorded over the course of about two decades, has not been that positive (1).
On average around a fifth of the population (21 per cent) routinely find it either 'difficult' or 'very difficult' to get by on their income. This proportion varies between affluent countries and over time. There is no rule set in stone that it should be a fifth, but it is a fifth on average. This particular proportion is the figure for the United Kingdom; the proportion is much higher in the United States, and much lower in Japan. International statistics are hard to compare as language and meaning vary so greatly. Finding it 'difficult to manage' is a very British euphemism for not managing. Those doing better than this, almost half the population in Britain (48 per cent), describe themselves as only just 'coping'!
In recent decades less than a third (31 per cent) of people in households in Britain described themselves as 'living comfortably', and all this before the crash of 2008. In all affluent countries governments do not like to admit how hard most households find it to get by. Members of the governing party in Britain have taken great pride in pointing out how, just before the financial fall, the share who appeared to be finding managing most difficult was falling, and the number of those who said they were living comfortably was rising (Dorling, 2007). The figures just given were released in 2006 in the official publication of Britain's Office for National Statistics, Social Trends (ONS, 2006).
The following year Social Trends 37 showed how those gains had been achieved by borrowing; total lending in Britain had, we later found out, peaked in 2004 (ONS, 2007, Figure 6.13). Personal insolvencies were rising exponentially by 2004 (ONS, 2007, Figure 6.14). The next year Social Trends 38 revealed that even the wealthiest, those who had property they could borrow against, the bulk of the 'comfortable', had been getting that little extra and managing to be comfortable mostly by borrowing yet more money against their property. This was then called 'equity withdrawal' and it was responsible for over 8 per cent of all personal income in Britain by 2004 (ONS, 2008, Figure 6.14). Again the peak had been in 2004, but it was not obvious until 2008 that even the minority who were a little wealthy had been increasing their borrowing to maintain their comfortable lifestyle. In hindsight even the minority who said they were living comfortably were increasingly only living comfortably partly on tick.
People who read journals such as Renewal know the story well now. They know how the British Chancellor of the Exchequer was surprised to pick up a copy of the Financial Times while on holiday in late August 2008 and read that the European Central Bank had begun what amounted to panic measures to try to curtail the crash (Johnson, 2009). They know that just five months later, in mid January 2009, an unnamed member of the British Government's Cabinet, with apparently a little economic savvy, was reported to announce: 'The banks are fucked, we're fucked, the country's fucked' (Wintour, 2009).
They read here that in the 1970s labour's share of output had been much greater following decades of, on aggregate, successful union organisation, but that gain was then lost over the subsequent decades (White, 2008). They know that the United States medium wage of full-time workers fell in absolute terms from 2001 to 2004 by $7 a week (or by about 1 per cent) and that it was debt which was used by people to make up for real falls in income and a decline in the proportion of GDP going to wages (Turner, 2008). Most now accept how bad it was that we were living this way. But what made all that debt so necessary was modern indentured labour, and that indenture, and the prejudice which justified it, we have yet to address.
Borrowing money to maintain a comfortable lifestyle is far from good, but a comfortable lifestyle is not even imaginable by those who are finding it difficult or very difficult to get by, those who are doing worse than just coping. For the fifth of the population that are not managing, debt is and has been a necessity to keep going. It is this fifth who have the fewest real choices in life in Britain and similar countries. They have few choices over what kind of work they do; they take any job they can get. Having to work at a job that you do not choose to do is as demoralising as being formally indentured to labour for a fixed term to pay off debts, although in the later case at least the term of indenture tended to be known. In the past indentured labour was often reserved for people thought of as being of a different racial group to those who employed them. Today we tolerate a similar type of indenture, and fear it enough for the affluent among us to also have to seek debt to avoid appearing to be like those who might fear indenture.
I believe that despite all that we know, we tolerate modern indenture, the state of having no choice over toil, because enough of us still see others as sufficiently different, akin to racially different, that we do not see that for a fifth of the population to be failing to manage is unjust, or that it is unnecessary to have nearly a majority who are only coping. All these proportions are about life in the supposedly good times before the 2008 crash. Those times were mostly only a good life for a very small minority.
Being unable to manage in...
dismissal for want of prosecution
quantitative analysis for management solution manual
barges for sale
fodder beet for sale
police checks for employment
certificate of origin sample
change of job title letter
price of land per acre
Enhanced Redundancy Payments
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line655
|
__label__cc
| 0.58953
| 0.41047
|
He Came to Set the Captives Free: by Rebecca Brown, M.D.
Author: Rebecca Brown, M.D.
Elaine became one of the top witches in the U.S. and almost killed Dr. Brown before turning her life over to Jesus Christ. This is a shocking exposé of Satan's activities in Christian churches and a manual on how to fight back.
For 17 years Elaine served her master, Satan, with total commitment. Then she met Dr. Rebecca Brown, who served her master, Jesus Christ, with equal commitment. Elaine, one of the top witches in the U.S., clashed with Dr. Brown who stood against her alone. In the titanic life and death struggle that followed, Dr. Brown nearly lost her life. Elaine, finding a power and lover greater than anything Satan could give her, left Satan and totally committed her life to Jesus Christ.
Features: Table of Contents
Physical Info: 0.78" H x 9.14" L x 6.06" W (1.01 lbs) 288 pages
Publisher: Whitaker House
US SRP: 14.99 US
Pub Date: March 1993
1. Enter Rebecca
2. Enter Elaine
3. Entering the Brotherhood
4. Rise to Power
5. Life as a High Priestess
7. Discipline within the Brotherhood
8. The Black Mass and Human Sacrifice
9. Turning Points
10. The Meeting
11. Entering Spiritual Warfare
12. The Battle
13. Doorways
14. The Human Spirit, Standing in the Gap, and the Spirit World
15. Why Should We Fight?
16. How to Fight
17. Destruction of Christian Churches
18. Demonic Illnesses
19. Straight Talk to Those Who Want to Come out of the Occult
Chapter 1 Enter Rebecca
From the first moment she crossed through the doorway into that building, she sensed that there was something different about the place. A hovering of darkness, as it were. Something she could not define, but knew was there. She knew also that it was something that she had never experienced before.
Rebecca is a doctor. She was just entering Memorial Hospital for the first time to begin her training in internal medicine. She had finished medical school the previous month and had now moved away from home really for the first time in the 30 years of her life. She had no idea that the tragedies she would see in that hospital would forever change both her and the course of her life. The brooding darkness she sensed in her spirit seemed to be watchfully waiting . . . waiting. Suddenly it would strike, plunging Rebecca into a series of events that would test to the utmost her commitment to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The first test was quick to come - Rebecca had been working as a doctor at that hospital for about 2 months. One night while she was working in the Emergency Room, a man in his 30's was brought in about 2 A.M. Rebecca recoiled in horror as she viewed his mangled and torn body. She had 6 years of experience working in Emergency Rooms (E.R.) in large inner city hospitals as a Registered Nurse prior to becoming a doctor, but she had never seen anything like this! As she worked rapidly with the other personnel in the E.R. to save the young pastor's life, her mind raced. How could this be? Who would do such a thing? He had obviously been tortured. His body was partially skinned, he had multiple burns, stab wounds, lashes from whips, and most horrifying of all, holes in the palms of his hands from spikes being driven through them. He was unconscious and in deep shock.
After the initial medical care was done, the patient stabilized and then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, Rebecca looked for the police officers who had brought him in. They had little to say other than the fact that this was a kidnapping case. They had found the body and at first thought he was dead. They refused to talk about the incident any further and left quickly, mumbling something about having to file their report.
Everyone else in the E.R. went on with their work as if nothing unusual had happened. No one seemed particularly surprised or upset about the condition of the patient. Again, Rebecca felt overwhelmingly that brooding darkness. She was greatly puzzled and concerned, but was, herself, quickly caught up in the pressure of the work at hand. Nothing in her background could possibly have prepared her for the shock of that young pastor's testimony of what -had happened to him prior to coming into the Emergency Room that night. She did not know that the next blow would come to one of her own patients who was very dear to her.
But first, let us trace the training the Lord gave Rebecca to prepare her for all that was to happen.
Rebecca had the tremendous privilege and blessing of being born to faithful Christian parents who prayed daily for her. She had accepted Jesus as her Savior at a very young age, but knew nothing about a personal walk with Him. She was raised in a very tight and narrow religious group and was not permitted to form friends or interact with anyone outside the group. She was rejected both within the group and without - mocked and ridiculed at school and by the other members of the religious group; she grew up very lonely. She also had much illness, spending her childhood in and out of the hospital. Then as she got older, she was discovered to have an incurable and debilitating neuromuscular disease. But her loving parents provided stability in her life and their prayers surrounded and protected her, no doubt keeping her from entering the occult world that snares so many other young people with similar backgrounds.
During the first year of medical school she came to the point of finally committing her life to the Lord in all areas, making Jesus the master in her life as well as Savior. The four years of medical school were an intense struggle because of the neuromuscular illness and also because of the lack of fin lances. During those four years Rebecca learned to trust the Lord, to walk with Him day by day, to hear Him speak to her in her spirit, to follow His guidance, and to experience His provision for her every need.
Before medical school she had been a Registered Nurse for seven years. Then, as a result of the Lord's powerful working in her life, and a whole string of miracles, she left nursing, returned to school and then on to medical school.
At the time Rebecca entered Memorial Hospital she knew absolutely nothing about Satanism or of Elaine, a powerful witch who lived near by. Rebecca never dreamed that her walk with Christ in that hospital would cause such shock waves in the spirit world that the forces of darkness would become enraged. She became involved in a titanic struggle as Elaine, one of the top witches in the U.S., led an organized attack by many witches using all of their powers and skills of witchcraft to try to kill Rebecca.
The internship year is the first year of training that a doctor receives after graduating from medical school, if he or she is going to specialize in something. It is by far the most intense year of training, and the most frightening one. It was no different for Rebecca at Memorial than anyone else except that she was constantly aware of something so strange but undefinable about that hospital. No one else seemed to notice it, including her few Christian colleagues. From the first she found an overwhelming atmosphere of hatred, back-biting and Fighting within the whole department, and indeed, within the whole hospital itself. It was an extremely cold atmosphere. This on top of the tremendous physical and emotional pressures of the year were used by the Lord to greatly increase her closeness to Him.
She found almost from the beginning that there was an unusual resistance to the gospel. Over and over people with whom she tried to share Jesus would flatly refuse to even listen. In fact, within six months of the start of her training at that hospital, the hospital administration had all the
Gideon bibles removed from the patient rooms and a memo was posted on each nursing unit stating that the hospital would fire, on the spot, any employee who was caught "evangelizing" the patients. Also, any minister that was coming to the hospital to visit patients was not permitted to visit with anyone except their own private parishioners, and, if the nurses found them "evangelizing" other patients they were to have them escorted from the hospital by security and asked not to return again. A chaplaincy service was not permitted, which was also unusual. Indeed, it seemed as if an effort was being made to wipe away any mention of Christianity within the walls of the hospital.
Rebecca was first assigned to the intensive care unit and immediately was plunged into a whirl-wind of activities. She spent up to 120 hours per week working at the hospital. Because of this schedule she attributed the steady worsening of her physical condition to her exhaustion.
Then the Lord began steadily laying upon her heart that she must go into the hospital early each morning to spend an hour in prayer before work asking the Lord for that institution and that city, that the gospel would be proclaimed and bear fruit. As she began obeying the Lord and praying each morning an hour before work, repeatedly she found herself compelled by the Holy Spirit to pray asking the Lord to restrain the powers of darkness in that place. Again and again she found herself quoting Numbers 10:35 where Moses said:
" Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee."
She did not know why she was praying in this manner, and indeed sometimes thought that it was strange to do so, but over and over the Holy Spirit compelled her to pray in such a manner.
As the Lord steadily increased the burden on her heart for the souls in that place she began to pray daily asking the Lord to permit her to stand in the gap for the hospital and the city, as in Ezekiel 22:30-3 1 "And I sought for a man among them, that, should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God."
She was not sure just what was involved in "standing in the gap" but asked the Lord to use her if He could.
During Rebecca's first few months at Memorial, God taught her a very valuable lesson in total dependence on Him in her medical work. Late one night a patient was admitted to the Coronary Care Unit with severe chest pain, high blood pressure and a possible heart attack. It was Rebecca's responsibility to examine the patient and care for him that night. He gave her a list of the medicines that he was taking and among them was a particularly good one to use for lowering blood pressure while simultaneously taking the work load off of the heart. He adamantly stated that he was taking a particular dose and Rebecca accepted his word. She elected to give him that dose in an effort to lower his blood pressure and to relieve the work load on his heart in hopes of preventing a heart attack. What she did not know was that that dosage is very dangerous to give unless she had herself gradually worked the patient up to that amount.
One hour later, the nurses called her and told her that the patient's blood pressure had dropped very low, that he was in shock and looked as if he were dying. Pure terror and dismay overwhelmed her. She called her superior and told him about the situation and asked what could be done to reverse the effects of the medicine she had given. He coldly told her that she had made a stupid mistake and that there was absolutely nothing that could be done, except to see if the patient lived or died. No medicine was available that could be used to reverse the effects of the one she had given. He went on to add that he, too, had made a similar mistake as an intern and that his patient had sustained greatly extended damage to his heart as a result of that period in shock and had nearly died.
Many thoughts were madly racing through Rebecca's head as she walked down the lonely, dark halls to the CCU (Coronary Care Unit) that night to see the patient. Guilt and fear and self-chastisement were uppermost amongst them. Cold sweat ran down her back as she anguished over the fact that in all probability she had killed the patient. Suddenly the Holy Spirit showed her the error of the thoughts uppermost in her mind. She had been thinking, "God made an orderly universe where cause and effect take place
in an orderly manner. Because of your stupid mistake this man will probably die. Since this medicine is absolutely irreversible, the effect will take place, so there is no need even to pray or to expect God to break into his orderly universe just for you and your stupidity."
Gently the Holy Spirit flooded into her entire being the sure knowledge that she was different! She was a child of the King! And, in so being, had a special privilege that the other doctor had not had. She had the right to ask God the Father, in Jesus' name, to correct her mistake. That was one of the many things for which Jesus had died on the cross.
She abruptly turned and ran to the chapel and fell on her knees before the Lord and prayed earnestly asking the Lord to correct her mistake, laying claim to the fact that she was a child of the King and standing on Hebrews 4:16:
"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
She arose from her knees and went back down to the CCU. When she arrived she found that the patient's blood pressure had returned to normal and he was pain free! A new Electrocardiogram showed his heart had returned to normal. He was discharged two days later without any heart damage at all.
Rebecca also learned to hear the Lord's guidance more acutely on an hour-to-hour basis. Time after time He would speak in that soft voice in her spirit, bringing a mistake to her attention before it could be carried out, or bringing to her attention something she had forgotten or overlooked, or something that she had read or learned about in the past. She learned to fast and pray, asking the Lord to reveal to her the key to the diagnosis of particularly obscure cases. She also learned to rely on the Lord to give her skill in her hands, and never performed any procedure on any patient without first praying and asking the Lord Jesus, the Great Physician, to put His hands within hers and guide them with His skill. In all of her years so far, the Lord has continuously been faithful and she has never had a serious complication resulting from any procedure she has done.
About six months into her internship, just as Rebecca was again assigned to the intensive Care Unit (ICU), the young pastor she saw in the emergency room finally recovered enough to talk. Rebecca had followed his progress closely, constantly praying for him and was drawn by the Lord to frequently stop by his room to talk with him. One day he told her what had to the hospital.
Bob was the pastor of a small Christian church in that city. He had become involved in ministering to some people who worshiped Satan. He told Rebecca that there was a very large satanic community in a town close by, and that Satanism was rampant in that state. He had, at the Lord's leading, been steadily bringing a number of these people to Jesus. They had turned from serving Satan and made Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior. He also helped them cast out the demons that they had asked to dwell in them to gain powers of witchcraft. The night Rebecca first saw him, he had been kidnapped by the satanists and taken to one of their meetings. He was taken up on stage in front of the group and tortured. They were in the process of nailing him to a cross when one of the members shouted out that someone had seen something suspicious and called the police. (The satanists had a police scanner radio and monitored all the calls.) Bob had passed out while being crucified and knew nothing more until he awoke in the hospital bed.
Rebecca was astounded, she had never heard of such a thing. Perhaps this was the explanation of the brooding darkness she could feet in that hospital? The next revelations were quick to follow.
As she started into her second rotation in the Intensive Care Unit, her uneasiness continued to grow. Each night she was on call, she had the responsibility for all of the patients in the critical care units. She began noticing as she really happened just prior to his admission was prayerfully working with the patients that there were many deaths which, to her, were unexplainable.
There is normally an orderly traceable sequence of events in the illness and/or death of any patient. For example, if someone went into shock (low blood pressure) because he was bleeding somewhere, once the bleeding was stopped by surgery or whatever and the blood volume he had lost replaced by blood transfusions, the patient's blood pressure should not suddenly drop unless he started bleeding again, or developed some other complication such as an overwhelming infection.
However, many of the patients Rebecca worked with would just reach a stabilized condition and then suddenly, for no traceable reason, take a turn for the worse. Their heart would suddenly stop beating, or they would stop breathing, or their blood pressure would drop to zero. Many of these died shortly despite all measures taken medically to save them. Rebecca followed up on the autopsies of many of these patients, and was even more puzzled when no cause for their death was found other than the original problem which had brought them into the hospital.
The other problem which greatly concerned her was the frequency and content of what is called, in the medical field, an "acute ICU psychosis." When patients undergo the great stress of a critical illness, they are placed in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for a number of days, usually with the lights on 24 hours a day, monitors going, and no window to look out of. Because of this a certain percent will become disoriented and start to have hallucinations. (That is, see things that are not real.) However, in this hospital, the incidence of ICU psychoses was many times more than anything Rebecca had experienced in any of the several other hospitals she had worked in, both as a R.N. and a medical student.
Rebecca felt led by the Lord to take the time to talk to many of the patients about just what they were "seeing." Much to her surprise, almost all of them told her that they had seen demons in their rooms!
Greatly concerned about all of this, Rebecca started mentioning the incidence of deaths and ICU psychoses in the medical conferences held with all the interns and residents each morning. Nobody else seemed concerned, or even to believe her. After her third attempt to discuss the problem she was called down to the office of the director of the training program and told to shut her mouth on the subject, that she was not experienced enough to know what she was talking about. When Rebecca pointed out that she also had ten years experience as a R.N. in addition to medical school, she was told that if she continued to create trouble she would be kicked out of the training program.
Her morning prayer sessions took on a new intensity as she earnestly sought a revelation from the Lord as to what was going on. The first break-through came through one of her own patients.
Pearl was an elderly black lady from the Southern United States who had been under Rebecca's care for about six months. Pearl was a very strong Christian and Rebecca had come to know her well and love her very much. One evening Pearl came to the hospital very ill and Rebecca admitted her to the Intensive Care Unit. The next morning as Rebecca went to the ICU to start making rounds the nurses told her that Pearl was having an ICU psychosis. Rebecca was somewhat startled, because she knew Pearl was a very strong Christian, a lady who had suffered much and didn't panic easily.
As she went into Pearl's room she found her crying. When she asked her why, Pearl told her that if she did not transfer her out of the ICU that day that "that night nurse would kill her." Then Pearl told Rebecca about how the night shift nurse caring for her had come in and talked to her and told her that there was no need for her to fight to stay alive, that she could so easily be reincarnated into her next life. The nurse also told Pearl that she would call on "the higher powers" to come and escort Pearl into her next "beautiful life." When the nurse laid her hands on Pearl and spoke words of a foreign sounding language, Pearl recognized it to be an incantation. Pearl knew from her own heritage about voodoo and black magic and demons, and she declared that she had seen demons in the room. She told Rebecca that she was too weak to right anymore and if the same thing would happen tonight she knew she would die.
Rebecca was astounded! She knew Pearl well enough that she didn't think she was lying and she was sure that she wasn't disoriented in any way. The nurse Pearl was referring to happened to be the nurse in charge of the ICU on the night shift. She was an older lady, pleasant, attractive and an excellent nurse. She was well organized, knowledgeable and saw to it that the patients got good care. She was highly respected by the medical staff and the rest of the nursing staff. Rebecca had always found her a bit cold and withdrawn, but had thought it was the pressures of her work load. She could not find fault with her work in any way.
Rebecca knew she could not talk to any of her colleagues about the problem because they would all say that she was crazy. Neither could she accuse the nurse of anything because she had no proof. At that time Rebecca had very little knowledge of witches and almost no knowledge about demons. There was only one thing she could do. She took the problem to the Lord in prayer. Every spare moment she had that day was spent on her knees in prayer down in the chapel. (She always had the chapel to herself because no one else ever used it.) Late in the day, the Lord confirmed to her heart that Pearl was telling the truth. The Lord also commanded Rebecca to go and sit at Pearl's bedside all night that night as Pearl was too ill to be safely transferred out of the ICU. This was possible as Rebecca was not on call that particular night.
What happened that night was to change Rebecca's life forever. As she sat at Pearl's bedside, not really expecting anything to happen, she felt direct demonic oppression as she had never felt it before. Helen, the nurse in charge of the ICU, did not come into Pearl's room at all that night. Rebecca felt an incredible unseen power coming against her. She felt as if there was a giant unseen hand trying to squash her into a little grease spot on the floor and as if some unseen force was trying to suck the very life out of her. She tried to scientifically reason the feeling away, tried to convince herself that it was just her own imagination, but none of this helped. She felt her body beginning to weaken to the point where she could hardly sit up. Pearl felt it too. So, she and Pearl joined hands, and Rebecca prayed quietly asking the Lord to cover them with a shield of the precious blood of Jesus.
"And they overcame him [Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Revelation 12:11
9780883683231 Paperback 0883683237 X $ 10.95
This is a shocking exposé of Satan's activities in Christian churches and a manual on how to fight back.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line657
|
__label__cc
| 0.537883
| 0.462117
|
Blind Dog to the Rescue! Amazing!
Julie Hunt
By Julie Hunt
Many of us believe in miracles. This story is certainly one of incredible fate. Norman was in a shelter scheduled to be euthanized when he was adopted two days after his he was set to die. His human just knew he was meant to be her dog. Soon after, she noticed that Norman was bumping into things. It was discovered that he was going blind and it would be a fast process. Although Norman was totally blind, he loved to play at a nearby beach. There, he could run and play and not worry about objects in his way.
One day, his human decided to take Norman to the beach when she normally was at work. I guess it was fate calling them there. At the same time, a young girl was swept up by the sudden tide and was quickly drowning. Her screams alerted Norman and he dove in to save her. With the sound of her voice, he swam to her. Once she was able to hold onto him, he towed her to shore with the sound of his human’s voice calling him in. Her life was saved by a blind dog! What a miracle!
https://youtu.be/xx5d4gZTfdw
Julie Hunt Julie resides in Northern New Jersey with her two kids, two dogs, cat and partner. She has two published books which make excellent trivets if you aren't a fan of poetry. She tolerates people but LOVES animals. If she isn't blogging, she's most likely cuddling with her pups, Paisley and Skyler.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line668
|
__label__cc
| 0.675738
| 0.324262
|
What Are My Artificial Turf Infill Options?
Infill today is more than just crumb rubber
There was a time when choosing the type of artificial turf for an athletic playing surface was easy. In fact, there was no choice at all.
Originally sold under the name ChemGrass after it was invented in 1965, the renowned product changed its name to AstroTurf after it was installed at the Houston Astrodome a year later. The original product was a short-pile synthetic product that looked more like a rug than grass.
Over the years, the technology surrounding artificial turf has progressed immensely, and there are much more advanced and safer products on the market. These new surfaces have long blades that mimic the look, feel and performance of real grass, with the added benefit of extra durability and lower maintenance.
This is why artificial turf has grown substantially in popularity for athletic playing fields for not just professional and collegiate teams, but for high school and youth leagues as well.
When people are weighing their choices of artificial turf options, they often concentrate on just the playing surface, but doing so is very short-sighted. That’s because one of the most important parts of artificial turf is the infill.
Infill is the dense, fine particle materials that are located at the base of an artificial turf system. Infill is the base that holds the entire system together – from supporting the blades of artificial grass to acting as the ballast, footing and shock absorption for the athletes running on top.
In fact, if an artificial turf system is installed correctly, 90 percent of it by weight should consistent of infill, with the rest comprised of the turf and pad. Infill has a greater impact on the performance of the artificial grass system than any other component, and pound for pound, there is significantly more infill than any other component.
Since infill was first introduced in the late 1990s, most artificial turf systems used crumb rubber as the primary material. Over time, though, it became apparent that crumb rubber just wasn’t good enough for many field owners.
Today, there are a number of different options for artificial turf infill that provide a multitude of benefits to the system and to the athletes that play on them. In addition, artificial turf systems can be designed specifically for geography, sport and maintenance concerns.
Here are some of the most popular options for artificial turf infill.
Coated Sand
Coated sand is one of the best infill options for artificial turf surfaces because of its superior durability and consistent performance. In this category of infill is our USGreentech Envirofill Sports product. It’s made of round granules of sand that are coated with an acrylic polymer that helps avoid compaction while also inhibiting the growth of bacteria in the infill.
Among infill products, Envirofill provides low maintenance, high durability and excellent performance, and is a proven, clean and safe product.
While coated sand can be perceived as more abrasive than other infill products, if the product is used with the recommended turf specification, the abrasion levels will be similar to crumb rubber. The initial perception sometimes is that it’s too firm. Gone are the days when a soft and spongy-feeling surface meant it was safe. The firmness of Envirofill will enhance performance for the ball and athletes, while the shock pad works underneath the surface to ensure safety.
There are plenty of other advantages to using this type of infill as well. First, it’s a combination of natural and synthetic materials made just for artificial turf. It’s also very sustainable, as it can be used for two lifecycles and has a 16-year warranty. It has limited migration, and provides a consistent Gmax and playing surface over the turf’s lifecycle.
Organic infill products are becoming very popular for obvious reasons. They are mostly made from walnut shells, cork and cork/coconut blends, and are all-natural, free of chemicals and can be composted.
Some of the downfalls of using an organic product for artificial turf infill is it may require additional maintenance and some irrigation for optimum performance, and may tend to float and migrate with heavy rains. However, organic infill products do play more like a natural surface.
USGreentech Safeshell is one of the best organic infill products available. It is an all-natural product made in the U.S. that provides all the benefits of organic infill with much lower maintenance than other products in the category. Safeshell doesn’t break down or change in hot and/or wet climates, and its round shape prevents it from floating and performing the same whether the artificial turf surface is wet or dry.
Unlike many other infill products, Safeshell is one of the only natural infills that doesn’t require irrigation for the warranty to stay intact. In addition, it helps reduce the surface temperature of the artificial turf system, especially when compared to rubber products.
Crumb Rubber
Crumb rubber is a widely used infill product because it’s readily available, is a relatively low-cost product and is non-abrasive. However, the benefits don’t go much further than that.
Crumb rubber is made from ground up car and truck tires, which is combined with raw silica sand to make the final product. Some have concern about the health risks associated with crumb rubber because there are more than 90 chemicals in the product.
It also might have an offensive odor and be dirty, and must be properly disposed of at the end of its life. In addition, a crumb rubber infill will retain a significant amount of heat, further adding to health concerns about the product.
Virgin Polymer
Virgin polymers are similar to crumb rubber systems. This infill category is made specifically for athletic playing surfaces, with the two main types being EPDM and TPE.
The main advantage it has over crumb rubber is it is a virgin product, meaning it is made from known components that can be modified to enhance the product and avoid specific chemicals.
Other advantages of a virgin polymer infill is it’s resilient, consistent, non-abrasive and designed to include safe chemicals. Some of the downfalls is it is more expensive than other infill options, and it can be an issue to control the quality of the foreign-sourced material.
Paying particular attention to the infill you choose is essential in getting the best artificial turf system for your athletic playing surface. Infill is perhaps the most important component of the system. Whatever product you choose, make sure it fits your needs the best while also taking into consideration what the product is made from and what impact it will have on the environment.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line669
|
__label__wiki
| 0.725488
| 0.725488
|
Caitlin Lynagh -Local Press for ANOMALY Launch
← Hall of Fame
ANOMALY: The Soul Prophecies OUT NOW →
Local Press for ANOMALY Launch
Book, News
I received press this week in Lytham St Annes Express and The Blackpool Gazette
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/caitlin-finds-formula-for-novel-debut-1-7701212
A science graduate has made the most of her expertise to celebrate the publication of her debut novel.
Anomaly, the first book by Caitlin Lynagh, is described as paranormal fantasy. It’s set in the after-life and primarily aimed at young adults.
Caitlin, 24, who lives in Lytham with mum Hazel, graduated from Keele University in 2013 with a BSc degree in biology and geology and has long had a passion for writing.
In Anomoly, she draws on her science knowledge to create an emotional story which queries whether the possibility of an afterlife lies in science rather than faith.
A former pupil of Heyhouses Primary, St Annes and the former Arnold School, Blackpool says she is ‘more nervous than excited’ about her book hitting the shops - and explianed how the opportunity, via Liverpool-based Outlet Publishing. came about.
“I have always enjoyed writing stories and showed this to a friend one day,” said Caitlin.
“She suggested that I send it to Outlet and I was delighted when they said they wanted to publish it.
“It is a standalone story but could also work as the start of a series and I am already well on with my next book.”
Caitlin, who works from home as a research assistant, runs a book review blog, The Book Igloo, and already has thousands of followers on Twitter and Tumblr. She has recently started her own Facebook group, which she hopes will become a discussion platform for the science in her book.
In Anomaly, character Alice Lynam has been dead for two years. Deceased souls have important information concerning humanity’s future, certain individuals are set to change the world and Alice’s childhood sweetheart, Kyle, happens to be one of them. However, Kyle’s grief has set him on a path that can only bring frustration and unhappiness. On Kyle’s 21st birthday, he receives an unusual notebook which once belonged to Alice. Two pages are missing, and after a freak accident, Kyle is forced to revisit his past and concludes that his life is not as coincidental as it seems. Alice needs to find a way to get through to Kyle and place him on the right path.
Read more: http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/caitlin-finds-formula-for-novel-debut-1-7701212#ixzz3ypj08jfF
I received press this week in Lytham St Annes Express and The Blackpool Gazettehttp://www.blackpoolg
My Thoughts & Ideas Behind ‘Anomaly' (The Soul Prophecies) by Caitlin Lynagh
Ok, so please accept my apologies, this blog has turned into an essay and it has been a long time c
Press Updates and Reviews
I have been honoured with some wonderful reviews from Book-Bloggers and have had various interviews
COVER REVEAL for LOST FREQUENCIES
THE SOUL PROPHECIES SERIES
ANOTHER PATH
*NEW BOOK* HIDDEN VARIABLES
Anomaly is One-Year-Old
Hall of Fame update
Diary of a Young Writer
ANOMALY: THE SOUL PROPHECIES
Copyright © 2019 Caitlin Lynagh - Design by Crimson Computers
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line673
|
__label__cc
| 0.541746
| 0.458254
|
Dabo Swinney expects Deshaun Watson to start against Pitt
Josh Sanchez | Nov 9, 2016 3:17 pm
Clemson star quarterback Deshaun Watson was forced from last weekend’s shellacking of Syracuse with a shoulder injury and did not return. There is some good news for Tigers fans, however, with head coach Dabo Swinney saying he expects Watson on the field this weekend against Pitt.
“He’s doing good. We expect him to go,” Swinney told Andrea Adelson of ESPN. “We’ve got a good little plan in place for how we are going to practice him for this week, and he was great last night.”
If Watson is unable to start as expected or suffers a setback, backup quarterback Nick Schuessler will once again see extended time.
This season, the 6-foot-3 quarterback has recorded 2,497 yards, 24 touchdowns and ten interceptions as he looks to make a late push for the Heisman Trophy.
No. 3 Clemson and Pitt are set to kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC at Memorial Stadium.
ACC,FootballClemson football,Clemson Tigers
Josh SanchezCAMPUSSPORTS Writer
Josh studied journalism at Seton Hill University. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Campus Sports. Josh is currently a member of the FWAA and USBWA. His work has been featured on Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com, FOXSports.com, CBSSports.com and many others. CONTACT: josh.sanchez@teamcoed.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line674
|
__label__cc
| 0.612119
| 0.387881
|
‘Mean Girl’ Syndrome Is a Myth — Here are 5 Ways to Fight It
“There’s a very special place in hell.” Madeleine Albright once said, “for women who don’t support other women.” It’s a nice sentiment. And yet if it were true, most of us would be burning at the fiery gates. That’s because most of us have been a Mean Girl at one point or another. According to a 2011 survey by the American Management Association, 95 percent of women have felt undercut by another woman at work. Which means that… most of us have likely been the ones doing the undercutting, too.
It’s not entirely our fault. Women are taught to compete against each other from a young age — first for romantic partners, and then later for jobs. It’s understandable, in a way: if there are only few spots for women at the top, and only a few token women, then why wouldn’t we view those other women as the competition? But here’s the rub: We don’t have to be Mean Girls. It’s possible to overcome our urge to compete with other women — and start working together. Here’s how:
Don’t Assume It’s a Catfight
Yes, women do sometimes undercut each other. And research tells us that conflict between women is also perceived differently than conflict between men. You know what I’m talking about…when two women have an issue at work, it’s a “catfight” — irreparable and worthy of a grudge. But when men have conflict? It’s simply a disagreement, or part of doing business. Also, despite studies showing that men engage in things like gossiping and social exclusion at similar or even higher rates than women, we are still widely stereotyped for being meaner to one another. So: next time you see two women with a conflict, don’t assume it’s not something they’ll come back from!
Support Female Bosses
Americans may think they prefer male bosses — by an average of 33 percent, no matter their gender or education level, according to a recent Gallup poll. And yet if you dig deeper into that data you’ll find a revealing caveat: that the majority of people who say they prefer having a male boss have never actually had a female boss. Those who had worked for a woman before in fact preferred reporting to women! So help your fellow woman out and give her the benefit of the doubt.
Treat Women As Allies, Not Enemies
The only way that we truly break down the tendency of women to compete against one another is to get more of them in power. (Imagine, if the workplace was entirely female, wouldn’t it be men who would be the ones competing?). Do your part when you can: Hire women. Promote women. Mentor women. Remind yourself that the more women there are in your office, the better off women and men will be. (Yup, companies with more women on their boards have more female executives; more female CEOs or chairs means women in leadership — and better paid female leaders, at that. And the more female leaders there are, the more supported both junior and senior women feel.) See? The problem isn’t other women. It’s a system that pits us against one another.
Practice Shine Theory
It’s what besties Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, call “Shine Theory” — the idea that another woman’s success, or shine, is going to make you look brighter, not duller, by comparison. So instead of competing with awesome women or feeling jealous of their success, surround yourself with them — and bask in their glow.
Address Conflict Daily
Even if you don’t like her, show her that you’re there for her like an underwire bra. If you find yourself in a mean girl’s bull’s-eye, address conflict directly. Did you get off on the wrong foot? Invite her out for a drink. Tell her you want to be on the same team. Ask if you can clear the air. Make her your ally, not your enemy. Let’s try and remember to lift each other up, because when we do — we all benefit.
By Jessica Bennett
Jessica Bennett is the author of Feminist Fight Club: A Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace, from which this essay is adapted. Check it out in the Bumble Bee-Tique for more workplace tools and tips!
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line678
|
__label__wiki
| 0.833642
| 0.833642
|
Tag Archives: Lottie Lyell
Performers, Rebels
Lottie Lyell – the sentimental girl
July 8, 2013 Michael Burge 6 Comments
SENTIMENTAL FAVOURITE Silent screen star Lottie Lyell (1890-1925). (Photo: ScreenSound Australia).
A Writer explores an untimely death.
LIVING in Australia’s Blue Mountains, it’s hard to ignore one tragic element of the locality’s heritage – the tuberculosis epidemic.
Situated at almost 1000 metres above sea level, the area spawned an industry of public and private sanatoria for countless people who retreated from Sydney in an attempt to recover from this infectious disease in the years before antibiotics provided an effective cure.
Previously unexplored insights into the tale of one tuberculosis patient who convalesced in the Blue Mountains – Australia’s great silent film actress Lottie Lyell – formed part of this feature about her story, published in Blue Mountains Life in 2011.
The sentimental girl
Unravelling the Blue Mountains Mystery of film maker Lottie Lyell.
Widely regarded as Australia’s first international film actor, Lottie Lyell had been a star for a decade by the time The Picture Show of February 1921 revealed she was recovering from “A serious illness”, but that she would: “… appear on the screen again.”
Convalescing in the Blue Mountains in the same month, Lottie had a very good reason for keeping the true nature of her condition from the press.
Since her 1890 birth in the working class suburb of Balmain, Lottie had been in the path of one of the most serious illnesses of her age – tuberculosis (TB).
The tuberculosis industry of the Blue Mountains is the subject of two new books which shed light on how TB defined family fortunes and caused social stigma.
When considering the case of Lottie’s family, author Dr. Brian Craven says that on the basis of her sister Rita’s death of TB in 1911, they would have been “In serious trouble”. Due to TB’s chronic nature, Brian suggests Rita might have carried infectious TB bacteria for a considerable period of time.
“In a community where TB was rife, you could get it from anywhere,” Brian outlines, explaining how Balmain’s colliery would have added to the risk of contracting the disease. “One group who got TB was coal miners of any sort. Once you got silicosis, your lungs were stuffed up and it was very easy for TB to take over.”
Brian proposes that since Lottie’s father Joseph Cox was a real estate agent, collecting rents in a close-knit community, he would have been in regular proximity to TB sufferers.
Valerie Craven (research assistant to her husband Brian) explains why many sufferers kept their illness a secret – “TB was socially unacceptable in the sense that it was considered something the underprivileged got. If the family was poor, they usually couldn’t afford to do anything about it.”
Charlotte Cox took elocution and acting lessons in her mid teens. By nineteen she was in regular paid acting work onstage using her stage name Lottie Lyell.
Her meeting with Raymond Longford has become the stuff of legend. They were colleagues in the 1909 theatrical tour of An Englishman’s Home in which Lottie played his daughter, despite being only 12 years his junior.
Longford and Lyell probably began their relationship then. He was a married father, but divorce was not an option.
The stage careers of both actors dwindled once they embraced the opportunity and innovation of film production. Longford acted in and directed movies from 1911, creating a spectacular lead role for Lottie with The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole in the same year.
“For picture work you must be pretty good at all sorts of athletic sports,” Lottie recounted of the shoot to The Theatre magazine. “I had, in the depth of winter to jump into the water from a cliff thirty feet high, and then swim some distance out of range of the camera … handicapped by old period, masculine attire.”
The movie was praised for its unique Australian qualities, and its home-grown production team.
The deaths of Lottie’s sister and father at the time her screen career took off must have had a tempering effect on a close family who accepted Lottie’s unorthodox lifestyle.
The survivors moved by 1913 to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, where Longford moved in with Lottie and her mother. The relocation suggests an attempt to escape the risks of TB in Balmain.
SCREEN CLASSIC Lottie Lyell as Doreen in Raymond Longford’s The Sentimental Bloke (Photo: ScreenSound Australia).
Lyell and Longford worked together on a string of films over the next decade. Their greatest surviving collaboration was The Sentimental Bloke, released in 1919.
Based on C.J Dennis’ best-selling poem, directed by Raymond and filmed on the streets of Sydney’s dockside Woolloomooloo, the film tells the romantic comedy of Bill, a larrikin who falls for Doreen, a working class girl (played by Lottie).
The movie set box office records in Australia and was distributed in Britain, New Zealand and the United States.
Lottie must surely have been Raymond’s choice for a lead role in his next production, an adaptation of Steele Rudd’s Dad & Dave comedy On Our Selection (1920). But she didn’t appear before the camera, she co-wrote the screenplay. The explanation given was her “serious illness”.
Brian Craven’s book reveals that symptoms of TB meant compulsory notification to health authorities in NSW at this time. The persistent cough, and the coughing-up of blood, would have been very hard for Lottie to conceal.
“You were never cured of TB,” Brian outlines. “The disease was only arrested, encapsulated in the lungs. Life was not too hard. Rest and good food, the removal of worry, light duties. These were important factors in your survival.”
“If you were a poor person you had to wait, wait and wait on someone’s death to obtain a place in a TB asylum,” Valerie adds.
There is little doubt Lottie convalesced in a private hospital – an option providing more anonymity to those who could afford it. A telegram from the Melbourne premiere of On Our Selection in February 1920 was sent to Lottie at a private address in Katoomba.
Far from the favourable response to Lottie’s newest movies (including her reprisal as Doreen in Ginger Mick), she seems not to have dwelt on what TB kept her from. Instead, what happened next suggests Lottie saw great possibilities in being holed up in Katoomba.
While convalescing throughout 1920, Lottie probably adapted her next screenplay The Blue Mountains Mystery from a novel (The Mount Marunga Mystery by Harrison Owen). Raymond and Lottie directed it together in 1921.
The Cravens explain that TB sufferers were advised to recover at a high altitude, allowing less atmospheric pressure to work on their lungs. It might have been for this reason that the movie wasn’t shot at a studio in Sydney, but entirely on location one thousand metres above sea level at Katoomba. The Blue Mountains were a stand-in for Harrison’s fictitious rural setting.
Key scenes for the murder mystery were filmed at the Carrington Hotel, including the iconic ballroom. Production stills show the studio-like scale of the rooms, allowing heavy-duty film lighting and a sizeable crew.
Apart from production stills, The Blue Mountains Mystery does not survive, unless, like The Sentimental Bloke (mis-labelled The Sentimental Blonde in the United States until 1973), a surviving reel comes to light.
Lottie’s appearance in these stills show a healthy-looking woman very much at the heart of the action. One journalist (writing in The Picture Show) pondered why she was co-directing and not acting.”I love the acting,” Lottie said, “but I was too interested in the directing work to get in front of the cameras myself.”
Despite her condition, Lottie was not pessimistic about her chances. “Ten years I have been in pictures … and I hope to be always connected to them in some way or another”. An admission of the need to slow down, or the desire to embrace her skills as a writer-director?
SKILLED HORSEWOMAN Did Lottie Lyell’s stunt performances contribute to her untimely death?
Production remained at high altitude in the Megalong Valley for the filming of Rudd’s New Selection. Lottie played Nell Garvin, working stunts for the camera on horseback.
There was a saying about surviving TB – “If you can sit down don’t stand. If you can lie down don’t sit.” Brian Craven agrees – “If you didn’t do anything stressful, then you could recover, otherwise, you’d go down with the symptoms.”
Lottie explained what horseback stunts required for her earlier role as Margaret Catchpole – “It is not simply a matter of sitting a trot or a canter … I have often had to take a three feet hurdle.”
Her return to acting took its toll. Stills from Rudd’s New Selection show her appearance had dramatically worsened.
The Cox family’s 1921 move to Roseville on the bushy outskirts of Sydney suggests another attempt to accommodate Lottie in a place better suited to worsening TB.
Far from avoiding stress, she and Longford embarked on an ambitious business plan with the Longford-Lyell Picture company, for which Lottie wrote more screenplays and acted in The Dinkum Bloke (1923). There were no stunts this time, only the supporting role of Nell Garvin, for which Lottie played a deathbed scene.
Life imitated art two years later. Only months after her younger sister Linda succumbed to TB, Lottie also died in December 1925. Her death certificate revealed she suffered from pulmonary and laryngeal tuberculosis. She was 35.
Tragically, Longford’s divorce was finally granted just weeks later. Lottie had appointed him her executor and primary benefactor. His later career never re-captured the prolific years of collaboration with Lottie, and over three decades later he was buried beside her.
Lottie Lyell defined the roles of women in Australia’s film industry very early – as actors, but also as writers, directors and producers. She was one example amongst thousands of TB sufferers who convalesced in the Blue Mountains, but did not allow chronic illness to define them.
Photo Play Artiste by Marilyn Dooley.
The Shoulders of Giants by Dr. Brian Craven.
The Healing Mountains by Gwen Silvey.
This article appears in Michael’s eBook Pluck: Exploits of the single-minded.
Lottie LyellPluckRaymond LongfordThe Blue MountainsThe Blue Mountains MysteryThe Sentimental BlokeTuberculosis
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line679
|
__label__wiki
| 0.618932
| 0.618932
|
Photogallery Archive
Republic 100
Republic News
Home/Eka Beselia
Eka Beselia
20/06/2019 - 19:46 | News - Former GD Lawmakers Inaugurate New Political Party
27/05/2019 - 16:43 | News - GD Splinter MPs Plan a New Party
28/03/2019 - 16:01 | News - Watchdog Slams Authorities for Mishandling Sex Tape Investigations
27/03/2019 - 16:58 | News - One Arrested for Uploading Politician’s Sex Tape
22/02/2019 - 14:44 | News - MP Beselia Quits Georgian Dream, Announces ‘New Political Platform’
20/02/2019 - 16:07 | News - GD Leaders Reject MP Beselia’s Bill on Suspending Lifetime Appointment of Judges
01/02/2019 - 15:00 | News - Sixteen Persons Arrested over Alleged Sex Tape Leak
29/01/2019 - 17:04 | News - Rights Groups Concerned over Alleged Sex Tape Leak
28/01/2019 - 22:32 | News - MP Beselia Speaks of ‘Moral Terror’ After Alleged Sex Tape Leak
25/01/2019 - 12:56 | News - GDDG Leader Assembles MP Caucus to Discuss Judicial Reform
21/01/2019 - 10:00 | News - Stakeholders Ponder Reform of Supreme Court Appointment Procedure
14/01/2019 - 17:14 | News - MP Beselia Says Mission Accomplished, For Now
12/01/2019 - 18:34 | News - Parliament to Develop New Rules for Selecting Supreme Court Judges
11/01/2019 - 14:58 | News - Ivanishvili’s Statement Draws Contradictory Reactions
10/01/2019 - 15:40 | News - Ivanishvili Comments on Supreme Court Appointments Dispute
09/01/2019 - 12:23 | News - Ruling Party MPs Divided Over Supreme Court Appointments
04/01/2019 - 10:30 | News - Georgian Dream Recalls MP Popkhadze from Legal Affairs Committee
31/12/2018 - 15:04 | News - Legal Affairs Committee Elects First Deputy Chair
Enter search string
Select a date range
Select category/ies
Analysis(1,304)
Interviews(144)
News(30,452)
Republic 100(24)
Republic News(19)
War Chronicle(19)
Weekly Tripwire(28)
2018 Presidential Polls (238) Abkhazia (149) Conflicts (88) Drug Policy (50) Georgian Dream (67) Girgvliani Case (194) Grigol Vashadze (50) Mamuka Bakhtadze (83) May 17 (58) NATO (78) Parliament (65) Prime Minister (59) Rustavi 2 (77) Salome Zurabishvili (557) Tbilisi protests (62) Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia (101) United National Movement (63) United Opposition (50)
Browse by month Select Month July 2019 (51) June 2019 (90) May 2019 (83) April 2019 (73) March 2019 (89) February 2019 (72) January 2019 (68) December 2018 (69) November 2018 (129) October 2018 (125) September 2018 (90) August 2018 (82) July 2018 (81) June 2018 (82) May 2018 (89) April 2018 (62) March 2018 (81) February 2018 (76) January 2018 (63) December 2017 (82) November 2017 (96) October 2017 (108) September 2017 (75) August 2017 (93) July 2017 (96) June 2017 (82) May 2017 (84) April 2017 (78) March 2017 (97) February 2017 (93) January 2017 (82) December 2016 (77) November 2016 (77) October 2016 (109) September 2016 (71) August 2016 (56) July 2016 (77) June 2016 (81) May 2016 (64) April 2016 (54) March 2016 (70) February 2016 (55) January 2016 (59) December 2015 (79) November 2015 (87) October 2015 (115) September 2015 (71) August 2015 (63) July 2015 (76) June 2015 (85) May 2015 (81) April 2015 (57) March 2015 (80) February 2015 (78) January 2015 (68) December 2014 (83) November 2014 (100) October 2014 (71) September 2014 (65) August 2014 (85) July 2014 (110) June 2014 (132) May 2014 (109) April 2014 (90) March 2014 (99) February 2014 (93) January 2014 (61) December 2013 (94) November 2013 (103) October 2013 (147) September 2013 (99) August 2013 (81) July 2013 (95) June 2013 (94) May 2013 (128) April 2013 (99) March 2013 (107) February 2013 (99) January 2013 (93) December 2012 (111) November 2012 (92) October 2012 (129) September 2012 (114) August 2012 (108) July 2012 (108) June 2012 (116) May 2012 (126) April 2012 (94) March 2012 (119) February 2012 (97) January 2012 (78) December 2011 (115) November 2011 (124) October 2011 (111) September 2011 (88) August 2011 (80) July 2011 (130) June 2011 (122) May 2011 (180) April 2011 (97) March 2011 (101) February 2011 (96) January 2011 (76) December 2010 (95) November 2010 (106) October 2010 (30) September 2010 (13) August 2010 (45) July 2010 (87) June 2010 (95) May 2010 (129) April 2010 (103) March 2010 (105) February 2010 (97) January 2010 (84) December 2009 (115) November 2009 (104) October 2009 (101) September 2009 (110) August 2009 (95) July 2009 (132) June 2009 (151) May 2009 (198) April 2009 (182) March 2009 (153) February 2009 (131) January 2009 (132) December 2008 (170) November 2008 (173) October 2008 (224) September 2008 (270) August 2008 (469) July 2008 (198) June 2008 (202) May 2008 (277) April 2008 (235) March 2008 (245) February 2008 (208) January 2008 (302) December 2007 (239) November 2007 (307) October 2007 (231) September 2007 (210) August 2007 (172) July 2007 (162) June 2007 (155) May 2007 (149) April 2007 (148) March 2007 (182) February 2007 (157) January 2007 (141) December 2006 (180) November 2006 (221) October 2006 (273) September 2006 (269) August 2006 (196) July 2006 (289) June 2006 (238) May 2006 (249) April 2006 (201) March 2006 (278) February 2006 (279) January 2006 (222) December 2005 (183) November 2005 (164) October 2005 (204) September 2005 (196) August 2005 (176) July 2005 (203) June 2005 (226) May 2005 (258) April 2005 (252) March 2005 (263) February 2005 (270) January 2005 (218) December 2004 (249) November 2004 (218) October 2004 (272) September 2004 (206) August 2004 (190) July 2004 (233) June 2004 (193) May 2004 (221) April 2004 (205) March 2004 (247) February 2004 (189) January 2004 (216) December 2003 (212) November 2003 (367) October 2003 (202) September 2003 (174) August 2003 (171) July 2003 (214) June 2003 (179) May 2003 (189) April 2003 (158) March 2003 (171) February 2003 (181) January 2003 (151) December 2002 (152) November 2002 (94) October 2002 (5) September 2002 (110) August 2002 (242) July 2002 (200) June 2002 (272) May 2002 (202) April 2002 (91) March 2002 (304) February 2002 (240) January 2002 (178) December 2001 (191) November 2001 (221) October 2001 (270) September 2001 (125) August 2001 (48) July 2001 (102) January 1970 (22) May 1919 (4) March 1919 (3) June 1918 (1) May 1918 (11)
We deliver reliable news about Georgia and put them in the relevant context since 2001. Civil.ge is proudly associated with our parent non-profit - UNA-Georgia.
2 Dolidze st, Tbilisi 0183
Tel: (995 32) 33 25 16
e-mail: civilgeorgia@una.ge
© Copyright: Civil.ge 2019
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line681
|
__label__wiki
| 0.947556
| 0.947556
|
W.G. Ramirez
Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes: an online Barber Shop, with a smattering of sports chat straight outta Vegas
Follow W.G. Ramirez on WordPress.com
Former NFL veteran Mike Pritchard talking football, including: Vegas’ improved talent, a potential franchise and Super Bowl 50
Former Desert Oasis and UNLV standout enjoying Super Bowl experience as member of Denver Broncos’ practice squad
Bikini and Physique competitors ready to strut stuff at Saturday’s Cutler Classic
Former UNLV point guard Mark Wade says Tarkanian’s coaching resembled spirit
Faith Lutheran’s Molchon knew all along Boise State was a perfect fit at the next level
Categories Select Category BOXING (5) Fitness (1) General (78) March Madness (4) GOLF (3) HORSES (1) MLB (13) NBA (26) NCAAB (7) NCAAF (24) NFL (27) Preps (18)
Follow W.G. on Twitter:
Catch W.G. on INSTAGRAM
Posted: February 7, 2015 in General
John Molchon, Tyler Mahan and Austin Prather signed their letters of intent on National Signing Day. Molchon will play at Boise State, Mahan will be attending Colorado School of Mines and Prather will be playing Pomona College.
By W.G. Ramirez
Faith Lutheran senior John Molchon knew all along.
Faith Lutheran coach Vernon Fox knew as well.
There was no question about where the 6-foot-6, 275-pound lineman was going.
The only team that was skeptical, call it worried, about his commitment, was Boise State.
Faith Lutheran’s John Molchon signed his letter of intent on Feb. 4. He will play football for Boise State.
That early morning fax Wednesday morning killed all concerns, as Molchon inked his name to a letter-of-intent to play football for the Broncos.
“He took a trip there mid-season and made a decision and never changed his mind,” Fox said. “He cancelled all other visits and never ever entertained one other opportunity. I told them they had nothing to worry about and yet they still called all the time and visited like every other week during his basketball season.”
The yearn to have Molchon battling in the trenches on Boise State’s blue turf further cemented what he already knew: Boise State was the perfect spot for him.
“I just loved the way they kept the pressure on me, it was a positive pressure, it was something where it was inviting,” Molchon said, Wednesday morning at a staged press conference for he and two other teammates who also signed their letters of intent. “It was a family like environment, and I just loved it and I embraced it and that’s really why I didn’t think of another school besides Boise State.”
Also signing were offensive lineman Austin Prather, who will play for Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.), and defensive back Tyler Mahan, who will play at the Colorado School of Mines.
Molchon, who said he was recruited by most of the Mountain West Conference schools, and Utah and Cal out of the Pac 12, is a two-time Division I-A all-Nevada selection. He was named the D-IA Lineman of the Year in 2013, when the Crusaders won their first-ever state title. This past year, he was name Lineman of the Year in the Sunset Region.
After spending time as a tight end and defensive end, Fox and assistant coach Nate Knight suggested he move to offensive tackle and how he could help out on the line.
“We felt his greatest potential for success – for himself and for our program – would be as an offensive lineman,” Fox said. “We made the change and talked to him and he embraced.
“He had schools from all over coming into see him, bringing a new level of attention and exposure here to Faith. He had over 10 offers. Many of those being at the Division I level. When he made his decision, he never turned back.”
And it’s that type of character it appears the Broncos and Boise State coach Bryan Harsin have inherited from Fox and Faith Lutheran.
“We identified him early,” Harsin said. “I was watching his film way back, and we really liked him. Coach (Andy) Avalos went out and saw him in spring. We got him up for camp, we liked him at camp and offered him. He came on his official visit and committed after that. He truly went through the whole process.
“We wanted to get bigger, in length, on the offensive line, and that’s exactly what we did. If you look at these guys when they come in here…(guys like) John Molchon, they look the part. These guys are going to get bigger, they all can bend and they all can run.”
Molchon said he’s not only excited about furthering his football career with the Broncos and in the Mountain West Conference, but also excelling at the academic level, something he credits his parents with, as they’ve instilled a certain level of priority and set the standard for him when it comes to his academic achievement.
“I learned about academics through sports,” Molchon said. “My parents set that in me, from the first time I was here in 6th grade, all the way up to senior year. That’s been the biggest thing for me, and sports have just enhanced the importance of academics.”
On the field, Molchon said he’s become a student of the game in the two years since Fox has taken over, mainly because of the position change, saying both Knight and Fox taught him how to understand the game better, giving him a sense of comfort on the field.
“My senior year allowed me to hone in on my craft,” he said. “I (don’t have to) worry about what I was supposed to do on the line, and was able to just dominate and just do my job.”
And though he couldn’t close out his senior year with a second-straight state title, he’s couldn’t be any happier with how his career ended, thanks to close bonds and a scholarship to Boise State.
“We grew as a team, it was a team effort and I will know these guys forever,” Molchon said. “I feel like that’s the biggest thing I can take from it. My experiences with the team and how guys got us here is amazing and that’s what strengthened us.
“And now, this Boise State experience and being a part of the team officially, it really makes me want to have the desire to continue with success.”
Also signing from Faith Lutheran
AUSTIN PRATHER, who chose Pomona because of its excellent medical program and because he felt at home after visiting the campus.
Said Coach Fox: One of those kids who is a stand-up young man. Excellent character, and more importantly, one of the hardest workers you would meet – he’s an outstanding student. From day one that’s kind of been the thing, his ability to get it done in the classroom translates to him being able to get it done on the field. He has a relentless attitude, that never give up attitude.
TYLER MAHAN, who chose Colorado School of Mines because he meshed well with the players when he visited the campus and felt it was best suited for his academic needs at the college level.
Said Coach Fox: Tyler is a two-time all-state defensive back who is a hard-hitting kid. Not real big, but just the heart of a lion. From the day I got here, I didn’t know much about him because he doesn’t talk much, doesn’t open up his mouth, but his play does all the talking for us. He’s been a great leader for us. A quiet guy who leads by example. He’s been productive two years in a row, and will definitely be a big loss for us, but a kid we’re definitely happy about his abilities. A smart kid, too. He wants to be an engineer and that lent precedence to his decision as well.
Former UNLV star, AFL Hall of Famer Gatewood likes Pats to win; celebrities favor ‘Hawks
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line682
|
__label__wiki
| 0.592596
| 0.592596
|
Latest News Peter Finney Jr. Columns
Chiseling, talking to St. John Paul, one-on-one
Posted By: Jonelle Foltz City of New Orleans, Franco Allesdandrini, Pope Francis, St. John Paul II statue, Tricentennial
They called it a monumental journey, and with good reason.
At 2,700 pounds, St. John Paul II has put on a little weight since his historic visit to New Orleans in 1987, but he returned with a Florentine flourish outside St. Louis Cathedral last Sunday, flashing his warm smile and tender gaze, silent but profound gifts to the City of New Orleans on the occasion of its 300th birthday.
The Carrara marble statue of St. John Paul II was fashioned by Italian-born sculptor Franco Alessandrini, a New Orleanian for 50 years now, and commissioned by the American Italian Cultural Center. The statue of the pope rests a few paces from the front door of the cathedral, where Pope John Paul II waved to the crowds before entering to speak to hundreds of clergy and religious inside.
The statue, which was blessed by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in November, emerged in three months within Alessandrini’s Italian studio from an 8,000-pound block of white Carrara marble. There were times Alessandrini was unsure if he could meet his deadline, which is when he tried to focus on the eyes he was creating.
“I was there when John Paul came in 1987, and I was like one of the crowd,” Alessandrini said. “So, then, I found myself sculpting him and being able to talk to him while I was sculpting him. I was kind of feeling like it was one-on-one. Instead of being so far away, I was right there, talking to him.”
As the days approached for the statue to be finished so that it could be taken to the Vatican for the papal blessing, Alessandrini looked down at his calendar and then continued to look up at St. John Paul’s face.
“The most challenging point is when I was working on the portrait of John Paul II, trying to get the similarity and mostly the feeling and expression that he used to have,” Alessandrini said. “There’s a smile, a very pleasant smile. Everybody loved him because of the kind of feeling he would transmit to people. That is why I put two young people around him. He was the pope of children and young people.”
An artist can’t be rushed, but the clock never stopped moving. Alessandrini kept talking to his friend, often into the early morning.
“Sometimes, if you let what you’re doing transport you, you get the inspiration,” Alessandrini said. “John Paul had a force in the sense that people didn’t have to talk to him. He looked at you, and you could feel, behind the man, there was a spiritual force.”
Alessandrini never complained to the pope that he needed to work overtime to get the job done.
“The pope was a man of work, too, you know,” Alessandrini said. “He worked in the mines. He did a lot of physical labor, so I know he understood me. He broke his shoulder one time working. He had a lot of experience with physical work, so that was a good relationship for me while I was working physically on him. We were one-on-one, and it was good.”
Frank Maselli, chairman of the American Italian Cultural Center who sang in the 200-member choir at the outdoor papal Mass at UNO in 1987, said the statue’s trip to the Vatican for Pope Francis’ blessing on Nov. 15 came with a few surprises.
“They told us they were going to put the statue to the left and in the back of St. Peter’s Basilica,” Maselli said. “Then, the next day, the statue got there two hours early, and we weren’t around. The Vatican people somehow told them to drive the statue to the front and stick it right in front of the basilica. It worked out perfectly. We were on the 50-yard line.”
After Pope Francis’ general audience, he walked over to the statue and gave it his blessing. The pope could be seen remarking that he loved Pope John Paul’s face, the face Alessandrini had created.
Alessandrini was too far away to greet the pope, but he soaked in his gesture of artistic approval.
“You could see him say, ‘I like the smile,’” Alessandrini said. “He was really excited about the statue. When he was leaving, he kind of patted it on the arm. That made me feel really good. It was wonderful. This is why you do what you do, to hear people say, ‘I like what you did.’ That’s what your reward is, more than the money or other stuff.”
Baggage claim: Can you find a ton-and-a-half statue?
The statue still had to make the final leg to New Orleans, which became the mother of all airline lost-luggage stories. Carefully crated, the statue was flown from Pisa, Italy, to London, where it went nonstop to New Orleans on British Airways.
But when the plane landed in New Orleans on Dec. 26, workers could not open the cargo hold. Because the British Airways flight had to make a quick turnaround back to London, Pope John Paul flew back across the Atlantic with 250 passengers.
“I think he got like 18,000 frequent flyer miles,” Maselli said.
The statue returned two days later, the cargo door magically opened, and St. John Paul II was placed on his pedestal in front of the cathedral on Jan. 4. It’s not going anywhere for a century or three.
Maselli is doing a documentary on the saga. “‘A Monumental Journey’ is what we’re calling it,” he said. “The pope went across the ocean twice before he came here. I was never nervous, but now I can breathe.”
Alessandrini says he will enjoy being anonymous, walking with his wife Margaret as they stop in front of the St. John Paul II statue and watch people say a prayer or take a picture.
“I don’t want anybody to know who I am,” Alessandrini said. “I will get to see somebody taking pictures of themselves or selfies with the kids, sometimes one after the other. And then I get to walk away.”
Just maybe, a set of eyes will follow him.
May God continue to bless New Orleans
Salvation: The goal of every Catholic
A Catholic response to disturbing climate report
10/21/2018 Jonelle Foltz Comments Off on A Catholic response to disturbing climate report
Singing, dancing, evangelizing: Daughters of St. Paul can do it all
11/13/2017 Jonelle Foltz Comments Off on Singing, dancing, evangelizing: Daughters of St. Paul can do it all
In ancient Lithuania, a babe’s view of the diaconate
07/31/2018 Jonelle Foltz Comments Off on In ancient Lithuania, a babe’s view of the diaconate
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line683
|
__label__wiki
| 0.876482
| 0.876482
|
Actor Profiles Film Film Features Filmoria Published Work
Actor Profile: Chloe Grace Moretz
From a foul-mouthed, kick-ass superhero to a fresh-faced, telekinetic Carrie White, Chloe Grace Moretz has been acting since the age of 7, winning an impressive total of 15 various young talent awards over her eight years on the silver screen.
With her first two appearances in two episodes of the TV series The Guardian (2001), her first movie role was in Heart of the Beholder (2005), but it wasn’t her later performance in The Amityville Horror (2005) remake that she earned some greater recognition.
Since then, Moretz has worked with the likes of Martin Scorsese in 2011’s Hugo, was the voice of the Darby in the popular children’s animated TV series My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and has had a number of recurring TV roles including Kiki George in Dirty Sexy Money and Sherri Maltby in Desperate Housewives.
With her latest film, If I Stay, based on Gayle Forman’s 2009 young adult novel, set to be released on 29th August, we’re going to take a look at five of Moretz’s best performances and roles.
5. Carrie (2013)
One of Moretz’s most recent roles, and one that saw her return to the horror genre that made her famous, was in Kimberly Peirce’s remake of the classic horror, Carrie. Many of us dreaded the remake having loved Brian De Palma’s 1976 original based on Stephen King’s novel, but with Moretz in the lead it wasn’t all that bad. I can’t help but think she was far too pretty for the role, but I suppose that’s never a bad thing. The film was a perfect example of how well remake can be done, and how enjoyable one can be if you haven’t seen the original, but the De Palma’s film was still too much to live up to. Pierce’s version was a lot more American teen high school than psychotic scare-fest, but Moretz suited the modernised remake perfectly.
4. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
The film that brought my attention to Moretz was Marc Webb’s rom-com 500 Days of Summer, which stars Zooey Deschanel as a woman who doesn’t believe in true love, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young man who falls for her. A favourite of mine, Moretz plays Gordon-Levitt’s young sister who consoles him with vodka in times of need and tells him to stop being a pussy when he cries to her for advice. It’s a brilliant character, and one that first introduced us to Moretz love of bad language.
3. The Amityville Horror (2005)
Moretz’s first stand-out performance was in Andrew Douglas’ remake of another classic horror, The Amityville Horror, which she was nominated the Young Artist Award for. Moretz was only 8 years old when filming this film, and despite how difficult it is for young stars to give believable performances in such horror films, she did a brilliant job. For me, this is one of the most memorable performances over the past decade from a young actor in such a film, because it really is that hard to get right when trying to come across as convincing and serious enough. This is yet another performance from Moretz where she sets the standard high.
2. Kick-Ass (2010)
And where would we be without mentioning Moretz’s performance as Hit-Girl in Matthew Vaughn’s superhero action film, Kick-Ass? This is the role that Moretz is most well-known for, and there’s no surprise there. Kick-Ass isn’t a film that I particularly enjoyed, but there’s no denying Moretz’s ass-kicking ability. And that’s why you’ve got to love her.
1. Let Me In (2010)
To finish things off, my personal favourite role from Moretz is in Matt Reeves’ remake of the Swedish horror, Let The Right One In, which is in turn based on the 2004 novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Like the Carrie remake, this is another example of how remakes can be done right, but Let Me In is a much better stand-alone film and horror in general. Starring alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee and Richard Jenkins, Moretz stars as a vulnerable young vampire, as Reeves perfectly combines horror with romance, mystery, and drama. Horror certainly seems to be the genre Moretz is most comfortable in, but over the years she has undoubtedly shown an awful lot of diversity in her acting, and things are only going to keep going up.
If I Stay follows Chloe Grace Moretz’s lead character Mia Hall, whose life changes in an instant after a car accident puts her in a coma. During an out-of-body experience, she must decide whether or not to wake up and live a life far different from what she had imagined. Watch the trailer below.
#500 Days Of Summer#Carrie#Chloe Grace Moretz#Gayle Forman#If I Stay#Kick Ass#Let Me In#The Amityville Horror
← The Rise of Young Adult Dystopias
Letterboxd Reviews: August 2014 →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line687
|
__label__wiki
| 0.833137
| 0.833137
|
Week Ending January 8th 2005
Lethal Bizzle Steve Brookstein
Quiet here isn't it? Welcome to 2005 and of course as is traditional a singles chart that sits unattended and unloved. The reason for this, of course, is simple. Just as every other business in the country takes two weeks off for the holiday period, so too does the record industry. In any event trying to promote music at this time of year would be pretty pointless. Radio stations are too busy filling their holiday schedules with listener surveys or year end retrospectives to be in the business of actively promoting, you know, new music whilst at a consumer level the pennies in record shops are more likely to be spent on discounted winter sale copies of Greatest Hits collections and back catalogue (one glimpse at the albums chart this week will show just how true that is).
In actual fact, things never used to be even this quiet until a few years ago. In 1999 with nobody really quite sure whether any Millennium Bug chaos was going to hit, the record industry effectively shut down for three weeks, thus cancelling what had become a traditional rush to cash in on the new year quiet period. When this had no noticeable effect on sales or the ability to pick things up once everyone went back to work for real, they pretty much stopped bothering.
All of this makes the one big new release that did happen over the Xmas period even more of a standout. Steve Brookstein began his Christmas by being crowned the winner of X Factor, the latest attempt to squeeze more life out of the talent show format, the concept this time being that there were no restrictions on age or the kind of act that would emerge victorious. In that sense, the series can only be judged to have been half successful as whilst Brookstein is no spring chicken in music terms, he is still another middle of the road male balladeer and represents no more of a musical step forward than the original Fame Academy winner David Sneddon did exactly two years ago.
Still, MOR ballads play rather well at this time of year so the release of his debut single was still going to be an event. Released in Christmas week itself (and so just slightly too late for the Christmas chart), his cover version of Phil Collins' 1984 Oscar-nominated ballad Against All Odds charged Ronan and Yusuf out of the way to land the Number 2 slot behind Band Aid. Seven days later and this week sales of Do They Know It's Christmas inevitably took a post-season tumble, leaving the way clear for Brookstein to ascend to the very top of the charts.
His is actually the second version of Against All Odds to hit the top, following nobly in the footsteps of Westlife and Mariah Carey who teamed up for a painful version which still rode the Westlife bandwagon to spend a fortnight at the top in September 2000. Phil's original version could only reach Number 2 when first released, thus giving Against All Odds the strange honour of topping the charts twice in two different cover versions but never in its original form. The only other modern track to share this honour is Lady Marmalade which has been taken to the top by All Saints (in 1998) and the all-star Moulin Rouge version (in 2001) whilst Labelle's 1975 original could not even make the Top 10. Finally, Steve Brookstein's track also has the notable honour of being officially the 998th Number One single since the birth of the UK charts in 1952, thus giving the music industry a wonderful peg to hang its new year rebirth on - just what record will go down in history as number 1000?
One record that it won't be but which deserves an honourable mention anyway is Pow (Forward) by Lethal Bizzle which was also boldly released in Christmas week. The single sneaked in at Number 11 and fell back this week to Number 14. Lethal Bizzle is a collective of some well-known names on the underground "grime" hip-hop scene in the UK, the track featuring vocal contributions from Fumin, D Double E, Napper, Jamaki B, Forcer, Flowdan, Neeko, Ozzy B and Demon [well that's utter bollocks, and clearly a case of conflating Lethal Bizzle (who is a bloke) with the rest of the More Fire Crew of which he was a part before setting out solo]. The track was first heard blasting out of sound systems at the Notting Hill carnival back in the summer and after months on white label sneaked out commercially. Pow (Forward) is designed as a kind of rallying call to the whole grime community to push its connotations with violence to the background and to literally move forward (although entertainingly possibly apocryphal tales emerged that the track found itself blacklisted in many East London clubs for provoking crowd reactions that were just a little too energetic for nervous security to deal with). Hey, it makes for a good story and for an underground rap track to make Number 11 in Christmas week is no mean feat.
On that note, big up 2005 from me and everyone else at Launch. I'm out of the country for the big flood of new entries on the chart next week so be patient...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line688
|
__label__cc
| 0.503128
| 0.496872
|
A Molecular Depot: Human Serum Albumin Carries Essential Cu and Zn in Serum
[ "article:topic", "Human Serum Albumin", "showtoc:no" ]
Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN
CHEM 342: Bio-inorganic Chemistry
Metals in Biological Systems (Saint Mary's College)
Human Serum Albumin
Human serum albumin (HSA) is a 66.5 kD protein found in human blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid. In fact, it is the most abundant protein in human blood, constituting over half of plasma protein with a concentration of 0.6 mM under normal physiological conditions.1
HSA is a heart-shaped molecule comprised of three homologous domains (referred to as I, II, and III). Each domain contains two helical subdomains (referred to as A and B) connected by a random coil.2 The structural arrangement of HSA engenders it’s extraordinary ligand binding capacity. Various classes of ligands, including fatty acids (ie. myristate), drugs (ie. ibuprofen or warfarin), hormones (ie. thyroxine), and metal ions are bound and transported by albumin.3-5 Thus, HSA is commonly referred to as a “molecular depot.”
Metal binding to HSA has been extensively explored in various contexts. For example, HSA is an important transporter of essential metal ions, like Cu(II) and Zn(II), but it can also bind toxic metals, such as Ni(II) and Cd(II). Furthermore, HSA-metal binding has been exploited in the development of anticancer drugs due to its ability to bind soft Pt(IV) and Au(I).6 For a comprehensive review of metal ion interactions with HSA, see reference 6. In this lesson, we will focus on only the interactions between HSA and two metals which are key components in many biological processes: copper and zinc (see figure below).
This is a ribbon diagram of human serum albumin with both Cu(II) and Zn(II) bound in their high-affinity binding sites. This structure was created by merging the protein crystal structure of HSA bound to Zn(II) at pH 9.0 (PDB 5IJF) and the small molecule crystal structure of the DAKH model peptide bound to Cu(II) (CCDC-809109). You can print or download a 3D model of this image on the Bioinorganic 3D Shapeways workshop.
Copper is an essential metal ion involved in a variety of metabolic processes, including mitochondrial respiration, melanin synthesis, cross-linking of collagen, quenching of reactive oxygen species, neurotransmitter development, and more.7 Its utility in these various systems is oftentimes attributed to its unique ability to cycle between the Cu(I) and Cu(II) oxidation states. Thus, it can act as an electron donor or acceptor as redox cycling occurs.
As copper is absorbed by our digestive system, it enters the bloodstream bound by copper carrying proteins such as ceruloplasmin or HSA. The majority of serum copper (70-95%) is bound to ceruloplasmin; however, this copper is not readily exchangeable. HSA, on the other hand, is capable of exchanging copper with cellular copper acquisition proteins, such as the human copper transporter, Ctr1. Once the exchange occurs, Ctr1 can transport Cu(I) across the plasma membrane, for its involvement in intracellular metabolic processes, like the ones mentioned above.
Cu(II) binding to HSA involves the well-characterized ATCUN (amino terminal copper and nickel) binding site, made up of its first three amino acids, Asp-Ala-His. (Figure below) Characteristic of this site are four donor atoms coming from a free -NH2 terminus, a Histidine in the third position (XXH), and two contributing peptide backbone nitrogens. In aqueous environments, the far coordination sphere also includes an axial water molecule as a fifth ligand, which is oftentimes ignored due to its lability and rather long distance from the Cu center. This water molecule is usually undetectable by spectroscopic techniques other than crystallography. The multidentate characteristic of this binding site contributes to highly stable complexes with Cu(II).
The HSA’s Cu(II) binding "ATCUN" site from crystal structure CCDC-809109: Made of the first three amino acids DAH, this site coordinates Cu(II) and Ni(II) in a square-planar 4-N coordination geometry. Axial coordination of a labile H2O molecule is shown, however is often not considered as part of the stable coordination geometry.
According to Ligand Field Theory (LFT), all of the backbone nitrogen donor atoms at the Cu(II) binding site are classified as sigma donors, which means they are capable of sigma bonding with the metal. The N-terminal amine, and backbone amides are also pi donors, which means they are capable of forming pi bonds with the metal. Pi donors are weak field ligands and favor small Δ. The deporotonated amides are especially strong bases that stabilize the bonding interaction despite that they are weak field ligands. The imidazole nitrogen is both a sigma donor and a pi acceptor, due to its double bonded pi system. This means that the imidazole donor is capable of accepting electrons from the metal ion into its pi* orbitals. Pi-acceptors are strong field ligands and favor large Δ. Therefore, the ATCUN site contains both pi-donor that are strong bases and a pi-acceptor. The presence of both types of ligands helps in making this complex more stable.
LFT predicts that the N-ligands are coordinated around the Cu(II) center with square planar geometry. With four ligands (ignoring the axial H2O), geometry is typically square planar or tetrahedral. A d9 metal, like Cu(II) prefers square planar arrangements due to LFSE. A comparison of tetrahedral and square planar splitting diagrams for d9 metals is shown below.
Comparison of LFSE for d9 metals with 4 coordinating ligands. In the case of d9, the square planar arrangement, with a more negative LFSE is more energetically favorable.
Shown above is a comparison of the d-orbital splitting diagrams of two possible geometries for 4 donor groups around a metal center, as we see in the ATCUN site of HSA. From LFSE calculations, it is clear that in this case, the square planar arrangement is more energetically favorable. (LFSE calculations are shown with an energy scale relative to Δo.) Because Cu(II) is a d9 metal and will always have one unpaired electron, it does not have distinct high or low spin states. However, it should be noted that all square planar complexes favor low spin, because of the large Δ that is a consequence of square planar geometry.
In the presence of ascorbate, a biological reductant, HSA can facilitate Cu reduction from Cu(II)-->Cu(I) oxidation state (Figure below). The precise location of HSA’s Cu(I) binding site is currently unknown, but details of its coordination environment have been elucidated through X-ray absorption spectroscopy.15 This protein’s bidentate Cu(I) binding site is comprised of two Histidine residues, oriented 180° apart approximately 1.89 Å from the Cu center. Although two-coordinate geometry are not usually observed for other first-row transition metal ions, it a common geometry observed when Cu(I) is bound to polypeptides. Since Cu(I) is a d10 metal with no LFSE, it can be oriented in any coordination geometry. Because Cu(I) has a relatively low charge, two ligands can apparently be enough to satisfy it electrostatically.
Reduction of Cu(II) bound to HSA: Scheme of Cu(II) reduction to Cu(I) in the presence of electron donor, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid or ascorbate). The Cu(II) complex at the NTS has Jahn-Teller distorted square planar geometry, and the Cu(I) complex has linear geometry. The Cu(II) complex has a measurable d-d transition, while the Cu(I) complex does not.
In the reaction shown in the figure above, Cu(II) gains an electron via the weak reducing agent, Vitamin C. UV-vis spectroscopic techniques are oftentimes employed to monitor Cu(II)-->Cu(I) reduction such as this. This is possible because as a d9 metal, Cu(II) has a d-d transition which absorbs radiation in the UV-vis range. This transition yields a measurable signal. Cu(I), on the other hand, does not have any d-d transitions because all d orbitals are filled, and it is therefore spectroscopically silent. During experimentation, Cu(I) presence is measured by the disappearance of a signal given by Cu(II)’s d-d transitions.
In terms of kinetics, Cu(II) exchanges ligands faster than Cu(I), but Cu(I) is still labile. Both oxidation states allow for little or no LFSE, and both oxidation states have d electrons occupying antibonding molecular orbitals. Both of these factors contribute to increased ligand exchange rate.
Zinc is the second-most abundant transition metal in living systems (iron is the most abundant but does not bind significantly to HSA; rather Fe binds tightly to transferrin in serum).11 Because Zn(II) is effectively a Lewis acid, it serves as a cofactor in many enzymatic reactions. For example, Zn(II) is found at the active site of carbonic anhydrase, which regulates CO2 balance in blood and other tissues.12 Moreover, Zn(II) provides structure to some proteins, as in the case of “zinc fingers.” Zinc fingers are part of transcription factors, which recognize and bind a specific DNA sequence during DNA transcription and replication. Zn also functions in the brain, playing a role in synaptic plasticity and learning. However, it has also been recognized as a neurotoxin in high concentrations; thus, Zn homeostasis is important in sustaining life.11
HSA is involved in Zn homeostasis, and is the primary Zn transport protein in the human circulatory system.8 In many cases, HSA acts as a “zinc buffer,” controlling the amount of free Zn(II) that is available for cellular uptake.10 Interestingly, HSA-Zn binding and HSA-fatty acid binding is interdependent. Upon fatty acid binding, HSA undergoes a conformational change which disturbs the preformed Zn(II) binding site. Therefore, researchers suggest that HSA might facilitate the interplay between extracellular Zn speciation and energy metabolism.14
Zn(II) binds to HSA at what is referred to as the multi-metal binding site, or MBS. This site gets its name for its ability to coordinate a variety of metals including Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II). Thorough spectroscopic investigation of Zn(II) binding to the MBS indicates that the first ligand shell includes two imidazole N’s of His 67 and 247, two carbonyl oxygens of Asn 99 and Asp 249 and a third oxygen from a coordinating water molecule at pH 7.4.9 However, crystal structure data collected at pH 9.0 and representing HSA with a bound Zn ion does not show coordination of Asn 99. (Figure below, pdb.5IJF) Differences in pH are known to result in conformational changes to HSA and could explain the discrepancy in coordinating atoms observed in the crystal structure and in spectroscopic data.
Structure of Zn(II) bound to HSA from PDB 5IJF: Close up of HSA’s Zn(II) binding site at pH 9.0, located at the interface of domains I and II. Other spectroscopic data (collected at pH close to 7) indicates coordination through His 67, His 247, Asp 249, Asn 99, and H2O. In PDB entry 51JF, above, binding is similar, though not involving Asn 99.
The HSAB character of Zn(II) and its coordinating ligands can explain this site’s metal preference. Imidazole nitrogens are borderline bases, and carbonyl groups are hard bases. Zn(II) is typically considered a borderline acid, so it makes sense for these ligands to prefer Zn(II) over a softer acids such as Cu(I) or Cd(II).
Because Zn(II) is a d10 metal, it has zero LFSE. Therefore, LFSE is not a contributing factor when determining the geometry of this binding site. Instead, geometry is determined by the most sterically favorable arrangement of ligands. In the case of 4 coordinate ligand arrangements, tetrahedral geometry, with bond angles of 109.5°, is more sterically favorable than square planar geometry, with bond angles of 90°. It is worth noting that steric factors may also include the structural constraints of the protein itself due to folding or otherwise. Another consequence of zero LFSE is increased lability or rate of ligand exchange, which is essential considering the biological implications of HSA-Zn binding.
As mentioned previously, metal binding to HSA is not only relevant for normal physiological processes, but also in pharmaceuticals. HSA is a target for a variety of metallodrugs, including some for the treatment of cancer.13 Such metal binding occurs at the Cys-34 residue, which is the only Cysteine out of 35 in the protein that is not involved in disulfide bridging.6 Therefore it provides a S-donor that can attract metallodrugs, especially those containing soft metals like Au(I) and Pt(II). Unlike the other metal binding sites, this one is not stabilized by the chelate effect, and binds metals via a single metal-sulfur bond.
(1) Carter, D. C.; Ho, J. X., Structure of Serum Albumin. Advances in Protein Chemistry 1994, 45, 153-203.
(2) He, X. M.; Carter, D. C. Atomic Structure and Chemistry of Human Serum Albumin. Nature 1992, 358 (6383), 209–215.
(3) Bhattacharya, A. A.; Grüne, T.; Curry, S. Crystallographic Analysis Reveals Common Modes of Binding of Medium and Long-Chain Fatty Acids to Human Serum albumin11Edited by R. Huber. Journal of Molecular Biology 2000, 303 (5), 721–732.
(4) Sudlow, G.; Birkett, D. J.; Wade, D. N. The Characterization of Two Specific Drug Binding Sites on Human Serum Albumin. Mol Pharmacol 1975, 11 (6), 824–832.
(5a) Fasano, M.; Curry, S.; Terreno, E.; Galliano, M.; Fanali, G.; Narciso, P.; Notari, S.; Ascenzi, P. The Extraordinary Ligand Binding Properties of Human Serum Albumin. IUBMB Life 2005, 57 (12), 787–796.
(5b) Petitpas, I.; Petersen, C. E.; Ha, C.-E.; Bhattacharya, A. A.; Zunszain, P. A.; Ghuman, J.; Bhagavan, N. V.; Curry, S. Structural Basis of Albumin–thyroxine Interactions and Familial Dysalbuminemic Hyperthyroxinemia. PNAS 2003, 100 (11), 6440–6445.
(6) Bal, W.; Sokolowska, M.; Kurowska, E.; Faller, P. Binding of Transition Metal Ions to Albumin: Sites, Affinities and Rates. Biochim. Biophys. Acta-Gen. Subj. 2013, 1830 (12), 5444–5455.
(7) Stern, B. R.; Solioz, M.; Krewski, D.; Aggett, P.; Aw, T.-C.; Baker, S.; Crump, K.; Dourson, M.; Haber, L.; Hertzberg, R.; Keen, C.; Meek, B.; Rudenko, L.; Schoeny, R.; Slob, W.; Starr, T. Copper and Human Health: Biochemistry, Genetics, and Strategies for Modeling Dose-Response Relationships. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B 2007, 10 (3), 157–222.
(8) Stewart, A. J.; Blindauer, C. A.; Berezenko, S.; Sleep, D.; Sadler, P. J. Interdomain Zinc Site on Human Albumin. PNAS 2003, 100 (7), 3701–3706.
(9) Blindauer, C. A.; Harvey, I.; Bunyan, K. E.; Stewart, A. J.; Sleep, D.; Harrison, D. J.; Berezenko, S.; Sadler, P. J. Structure, Properties, and Engineering of the Major Zinc Binding Site on Human Albumin. J. Biol. Chem. 2009, 284 (34), 23116–23124.
(10) Lu, J.; Stewart, A. J.; Sadler, P. J.; Pinheiro, T. J. T.; Blindauer, C. A. Albumin as a Zinc Carrier: Properties of Its High-Affinity Zinc-Binding Site. Biochemical Society Transactions 2008, 36 (6), 1317–1321.
(11) Frassinetti, S.; Bronzetti, G. L.; Caltavuturo, L.; Cini, M.; Croce, C. D. The Role of Zinc in Life: A Review. JEP(T) 2006, 25 (3).
(12) Keilin, D.; Mann, T. Carbonic Anhydrase. Purification and Nature of the Enzyme. Biochem J 1940, 34 (8-9), 1163–1176.
(13) Espósito, B. P.; Najjar, R. Interactions of Antitumoral Platinum-Group Metallodrugs with Albumin. Coordination Chemistry Reviews 2002, 232 (1), 137–149.
(14) Barnett, J. P.; Blindauer, C. A.; Kassaar, O.; Khazaipoul, S.; Martin, E. M.; Sadler, P. J.; Stewart, A. J. Allosteric Modulation of Zinc Speciation by Fatty Acids. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects 2013, 1830 (12), 5456–5464.
(15) Sendzik, M.; Pushie, M. J.; Stefaniak, E.; Haas, K. L., The Structure and Affinity of Cu(I) Bound to Human Serum Albumin. Inorg. Chem. Manuscript ID: ic-2017-02397f. Submitted Sept 18, 2017
This work was originally written by Madison Sendzik, Fall 2017: Madison is currently (as of 2017) a senior chemistry major at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN. She is the first author on Reference 15 and plans to pursue her Ph.D. in chemistry beginning in Fall 2018.
This work was originally edited by
Modified by Kathryn Haas (khaaslab.com)
, Assistant Professor at Saint Mary's College.
Antioxidant: Cu/Zn Superoxide dismutase (SOD1)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line690
|
__label__wiki
| 0.795175
| 0.795175
|
Ohio union bill speeds toward passage
admin Contributor
March 03, 2011 2:10 AM ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With barely a whimper of the protests that have convulsed Wisconsin, legislation to curb public employee unions is speeding toward passage in Ohio, an even bigger labor stronghold.
Labor experts said the greater tumult in Wisconsin reflects the state’s long history of progressive political activism; the Statehouse’s location in Madison, the famously liberal home of the University of Wisconsin; and perhaps a feeling of hopelessness among Ohio’s working class, which has been hit particularly hard by the recession.
Days of protests in Columbus haven’t added up to the numbers seen in a single day in Madison. The rallies there have topped more than 70,000 people, compared with roughly 8,500 on the largest day of demonstrations at the Ohio Statehouse. When the Ohio bill passed the Senate 17-16 on Wednesday, the crowd was estimated at 450.
“Madison is kind of a perfect storm of factors for this,” said Don Taylor, assistant professor of labor education at the University of Wisconsin School for Workers in Madison. “It’s an extremely progressive city in terms of politics. It’s one of those places in the country where people will refer to it as a ‘People’s Republic.'”
Wisconsin’s measure remains in limbo in the GOP-controlled Legislature after the 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois two weeks ago to deprive the chamber of a quorum. In Ohio, though, the Republicans hold big enough majorities in both chambers to vote on the bill and pass it even if the Democrats walk out.
Ohio’s bill could go to House committee hearings as early as next week. The measure is likely to receive strong support from the full chamber and Republican Gov. John Kasich.
Ohio’s bill would restrict the bargaining rights of roughly 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees. They would no longer be able to negotiate health care benefits or certain working conditions, and they would be barred from striking.
Wisconsin’s measure would affect about 175,000 workers but would exempt police and firefighters. Under the bill, public employees would be allowed to negotiate wages only. And even then, they could not get raises higher than the inflation rate without a public referendum. Wisconsin already outlaws strikes by public employees.
The speed with which the Ohio bill cleared the Senate is energizing Republicans as they push to break what they see as labor’s stranglehold on state and local governments, schools and public safety departments.
Political observers at the Ohio Statehouse were flabbergasted by how fast the legislation was moving in a longtime labor stronghold like Ohio. The state has 655,000 union members, who constitute 13.7 percent of the workforce, compared with 335,000 members, or 14.2 percent of the workforce, in Wisconsin, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“For as far-reaching this thing is and how many lives it will affect, I can’t believe how fast it moved,” said Columbus Police Sgt. Shaun Laird.
Many union backers were also clearly disappointed by the turnout in Columbus given the high political stakes in Ohio, a political battleground state that decided the 2004 presidential election.
A law undercutting Ohio’s unions could kneecap the state’s Democratic Party ahead of the 2012 race for the White House by depriving it of a major source of contributions and organizational muscle. Or, as some union members argue, the battle could backfire on the GOP by galvanizing the Democratic Party and its working-class base.
Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute, said the walkout by the Democrats in Wisconsin slowed down the process there and allowed the opposition to organize. He called what was happening in Ohio “a blitzkrieg.”
Wisconsin was the first state to allow collective bargaining for public employees, in 1959, and is the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation’s largest public employee union.
In Ohio, despite a long union tradition among steel and auto workers, the right to collective bargaining was not extended to state employees until 1983. A Gallup survey released in August showed Ohio with the lowest proportion of government employees in the U.S. — 12 percent of the state’s workforce.
Wisconsin’s capital, Madison, is more liberal than Columbus. Were Ohio’s bill debated in one of its blue-collar bastions — say, Cleveland, Akron or Toledo — the demonstrations might have been far larger, said Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder.
Ohio State University is only a couple of miles from the Ohio Statehouse, but the tens of thousands of students there have played little part in the pro-labor rallies.
By contrast, passionate student demonstrators from the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison —”up there with Berkeley” in its liberalism, according to Vedder — have been bolstering the Wisconsin fight. The campus is right next to the Capitol.
“There has always been a sympathy for collective approaches to labor problems in Wisconsin, and you don’t have that as much in Ohio,” Vedder said. “It doesn’t have that same progressive reputation or history.”
John Russo, labor studies professor at Youngstown State University, said the low numbers of people protesting in Ohio reflect the hurt that has been inflicted by the recession in the state, where unemployment is 9.5 percent versus 7.5 percent in Wisconsin.
“There’s a sense of hopelessness,” he said. “Some people feel like ‘If we’re not going to go anywhere, I’m going to make sure nobody else is going anywhere.'”
Associated Press writer Sam Hananel in Washington contributed to this report.
Tags : debate labor ohio wisconsin
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line697
|
__label__cc
| 0.683746
| 0.316254
|
Seattle.gov
Daily Plan It Office of Planning & Community Development
The Daily Plan It Blog
A OPCD Blog
Departments | Services | Staff Directory
In a Significant Step toward Creating A More Affordable Seattle, Mayor Durkan Signs Mandatory Housing Affordability into Law
March 20, 2019 by Seattle OPCD
Joined by affordable housing advocates and other community members, Mayor Jenny A. Durkan signed into law the ordinance to implement Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) in Seattle’s 27 urban villages and all other commercial and multifamily residential areas.
“Today, Seattle took another step toward more affordable housing choices and a more affordable, welcoming city for all,” said Mayor Durkan. “We need more affordable housing as quickly as possible because too many people are being priced out of our city. We want a city where people who work in Seattle can afford to live and raise a family in Seattle. This legislation is one way we can build a more affordable future for all. Even as we celebrate this step, we have a lot of work to do to make Seattle more affordable and build more affordable housing options. We must listen to community and continue our investments in our housing levy, renew the Multi-Family Tax Exemption program, invest in parks and green spaces, and continue to have critical investment from our state, regional, and federal partners. Working with community members, business, labor, and City Council, in 2019 we must double down on our commitment to building more affordable housing as quickly as possible.”
“MHA has been shaped by years of community input and engagement. For three years running, my days have been filled with discussing how to reach our goal of creating more units of housing in the next decade. As such, I view MHA as one of the primary strategies to create more affordable housing, as well as address the legacy of ‘redlining’. And today’s vote is an exclamation point on our recognition of its impact on housing inequality for all Seattleites,” said Councilmember Rob Johnson (District 4, Northeast Seattle)
On Monday, after more than a year of Council meetings and public hearings, the City Council unanimously approved implementing MHA’s affordable housing requirements citywide. The ordinance will generate an estimated 3,000 new affordable homes over 10 years, doubling the number of anticipated new affordable homes created through the 2017 implementation on new developments in the University District, Downtown, South Lake Union, Chinatown-International District, along 23rd Ave in the Central Area, and Uptown, helping the City to meet the 10-year goal of 6,000 new affordable homes generated by MHA.
Today over 45,000 Seattle households spend more than half of their income on housing. Under MHA, the cost of a rent-restricted two-bedroom apartment for a family of four earning $60,200 would be $1,353. For an individual making less than $42,150, a one-bedroom would cost $1,128.
“I am delighted to be here to witness Mayor Durkan sign the Mandatory Housing Affordability ordinance addressing the demand for housing that is affordable as our City continues to grow,” said Faith Pettis, a Partner at Pacifica Law Group and the Co-Chair of the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) Advisory Council. “MHA was a cornerstone proposal of the task force and was crafted to harness affordability to growth. We recognize we still have more work ahead to ensure an inclusive and affordable city, but this is a big step towards a better future for Seattle.”
Mayor Durkan signed the legislation at 12th Avenue Arts, a mixed-use, affordable building developed and owned by Capitol Hill Housing. The City of Seattle provided $7.6 million in funding for the building, a portion of which was from the Incentive Zoning program, a voluntary precursor to the MHA program. In addition to 86 studio, one- and two-bedroom affordable homes, the building provides community amenities including two Black Box performance theaters, office space for Capitol Hill Housing, retail space for local restaurants, and secure parking for Seattle Police Department vehicles. MHA payments will be used to create more buildings like 12th Avenue Arts throughout the city.
“Mandatory Housing Affordability will create affordable homes for our neighbors who struggle to meet housing costs in our neighborhoods across Seattle,” said Marty Kooistra, Executive Director of the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County and Co-Chair of the Seattle for Everyone Coalition. “This long-awaited new law will mean people who work as pre-school teachers, medical assistants and retail workers that are vital to our local economy will be able to live in our community near high-quality schools, transit and their jobs.”
The MHA affordable housing requirements take effect as the City adopts new zoning that adds development capacity. With today’s action, all designated urban villages (neighborhood centers) and multifamily residential and commercial zones will see zoning changes, allowing slightly larger or taller buildings. Additional development capacity is focused near transit centers, allowing more people to live or work near light rail stations and frequent bus service.
With MHA, developers have two options when creating new buildings:
The performance option includes affordable housing in the development;
The payment option allows developers to contribute to the Seattle Office of Housing to support the development of affordable housing.
MHA requirements vary based on housing costs in each area of the city and the scale of the zoning change, with higher MHA requirements in areas with higher housing costs and larger zoning changes. With the performance option, between 5 percent and 11 percent of homes in new multifamily residential buildings are reserved for low-income households. With the payment option, development will contribute between $5.00 and $32.75 per square foot.
The City has balanced the requirements of the two options, with the goal of half of new projects selecting each option. The City will provide regular reports to Mayor Durkan beginning September 2019 with program performance, and data that may be used to suggest changes to program requirements.
In addition to signing the new ordinance expanding MHA to create more affordable housing, since 2017, Mayor Durkan has announced more than 2,000 new affordable homes coming online by 2022. In January, Mayor Durkan launched the city’s first-ever Affordable Middle-Income Housing Advisory Council, to address the housing needs of middle-income earners. In February, Mayor Durkan announced her Executive Order addressing affordability and residential displacement.
Filed Under: Daily Plan It, News Release Tagged With: Affordable Housing, MHA
Categories Select Category Daily Plan It News Release
Archives Select Month July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016
RSS Feed - Log in
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line698
|
__label__wiki
| 0.576376
| 0.576376
|
Kshama Sawant Presents Open Letter to Chinese President Xi
SEATTLE – Councilmember Kshama Sawant held a press conference today denouncing the systematic violation of democratic rights, human rights in general, and workers’ rights in particular by the Chinese government and US corporations operating in China. In an open letter to President Xi, Councilmember Sawant called on Mayor Ed Murray and Governor Jay Inslee to discuss these issues with the Chinese President. The letter was signed by:
Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Councilmember
Dawn Gearhart, Teamsters Local 117
Paul Bigman, Executive Board, Martin Luther King County Labor Council (for identification purposes only)
Reverend Rich Lang, District Superintendent, Seattle/King County United Methodist Church
The letter is available online, and the full text is below.
An Open Letter to President Xi of the People’s Republic of China
President Xi,
We note that during your visit to the United States, starting here in Seattle, your itinerary is monopolized by discussions with representatives of big business such as Uber, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Cisco, Dow Chemical, DuPont, GM, Pepsi and Berkshire Hathaway.
We believe the problems facing working people in both China and the US should be given attention, instead of being pushed to the side by politicians and corporate leaders, with their sole focus on maximizing profits.
We strongly protest the systematic violation by your government of democratic rights, human rights in general, and workers’ rights in particular. We are deeply concerned about the global race to the bottom, pitting workers and environmental standards in each country against each other. Throughout the US and here in the Seattle region we see a constant loss of unionized, well-paid jobs and a proliferation of low-wage jobs where poverty pay is enabled by the brutal denial of democratic rights such as the right to organize and go on strike. We urge Mayor Murray and Governor Inslee to publicly discuss these important issues with President Xi, in support of workers and the environment globally.
It is the workers of China who have been the source of its rapid economic expansion. But Chinese workers still enjoy few of the benefits, instead working long hours for low wages and with minimal safety or welfare protection. US-owned multinational corporations are among the most egregious violators of workers’ rights as shown by scandals involving Apple, Nike and New Balance.
Drivers working for the Uber multinational corporation are being exploited both in Seattle and in China. Seattle’s Uber drivers are pushing the City Council to enact pro-worker legislation. Their success will be of significance to Uber drivers worldwide.
According to official figures, in 2013 only 242 million workers, out of China’s total workforce of around 770 million, had a basic pension. Last year 68,061 workers were killed in workplace accidents. This included 146 workers killed in an explosion at a supplier to General Motors. The majority of the manufacturing labor force is made up of migrants who are deeply discriminated against when it comes to healthcare, schools and housing in the cities where they live and work. These conditions have led to 1,622 strikes so far this year in China – of which 1,211 were over non-payment of wages.
Union rights are under attack around the world, including in the US. In China, workers are not allowed by law to join an independent trade union or to organize freely. The All China Federation of Trade Unions, which is controlled by the Chinese government, has a very poor record of either being silent or siding with the employers during labor disputes.
We are completely opposed to all anti-immigrant rhetoric, and condemn right wing and racist statements that seek to pit workers in one country against workers in another. We defend the rights and dignity of ALL workers, regardless of ethnicity or national origin.
We stand in solidarity with the workers of China in their struggle for democratic rights, including the right to organize in independent trade unions. Multinational corporations exploiting the present sweatshop conditions in China, enforced by your government, will be confronted with our opposition and resistance.
For these issues not to be raised during your visit, President Xi, would only add further injustice.
In protest,
Reverend Rich Lang, District Superintendent Seattle/King County United Methodist Church
Paul Bigman, Executive Board, Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council*
*for identification purposes only
Posted: September 23rd, 2015 under Councilmember Sawant, News Releases.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line700
|
__label__wiki
| 0.702354
| 0.702354
|
46. LinkedIn Men
On several occasions, Kevin told me that men who claimed to know me were contacting him on LinkedIn. When I asked him to name them, he would say, “I can’t remember”. I was curious and concerned because if he was saying that men who claimed to know me were contacting him, then I would want to know who they were and what the purpose was. It was strange because whenever it happened, he would never tell me immediately. He would either say it happened a few days ago or a few weeks ago whereas in a real situation, he should bring something like this to my attention immediately. Whenever I asked him to show me these messages, he would sometimes say, “I’ll show you later” or “I’ll try to find these messages” or “I deleted them”. I don’t believe that there ever was a group of men that contacted Kevin claiming to know me. It was such a bizarre scenario. He had no evidence and he couldn’t even remember their names. I don’t know what game he was trying to play but it was an absolutely sick and twisted game.
Kevin even told me that an ex-boyfriend of mine, Dan (who is fortunately a perfectly normal person), was regularly viewing his LinkedIn profile. Firstly, how would Dan know of Kevin? Secondly, Dan was not even viewing my profile, so why would he be viewing Kevin’s? Thirdly, how did Kevin know about Dan? I actually asked Kevin how he knew Dan’s name. Kevin said that I had told him but I never did. I know that for sure. I made sure that I never mentioned Dan’s name to Kevin. I personally don’t feel it is necessary to reveal too much about past relationships and so I don’t usually reveal the names of past boyfriends. It is still a mystery as to how Kevin knew about Dan. I believe Kevin did some snooping to find out and then said that I had told him, which is more gaslighting.
I also asked Kevin how Dan would know of him if Dan was viewing his profile. He said, “I don’t know. He must’ve found us through Facebook”. He was using the same reason from the day when he was searching his ex-girlfriend on Facebook using our joint mölkky account (Chapter 12). The account name was Novalike Mölkky and it did not reveal either of our full names. It was a bullshit reason. However, he tried to use the same pathetic reason to explain how Dan had discovered who he was. Dan would not have discovered the Novalike Mölkky Facebook account because the name of the account was Novalike Mölkky, neither of our full names were on the page, and I was not even friends with Novalike Mölkky on my personal Facebook page so nobody could have known about it. Kevin did some digging into Dan and invented the whole story I believe.
45. Manipulation Of Language
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line701
|
__label__cc
| 0.741098
| 0.258902
|
Corequity
Independent Valuations for Today's Investors
Stock Buybacks Equal Simple Interest
This article originally appeared on Seeking Alpha
Share buybacks are a poor asset allocation decision.
Buybacks reward share sellers not shareholders.
Buybacks can’t compete with investment returns.
Conclusion: From the shareholders’ perspective, most stock buybacks produce little benefit when compared to investing the same funds in the company. They produce a one-time gain in earnings per share (usually small) but contribute nothing to the growth of the net profit or market capitalization. If a company is truly unable to successfully invest the buyback funds in its business, it would be much better for the majority of shareholders to receive a special dividend.
For the twelve months ending September 2016, total share buybacks were close to $600 billion for the S&P 500 companies. This is an enormous amount of money being 66% of the earnings and only slightly less than fixed capital expenditures in the same period. The average buyback program resulted in a “buyback yield” just shy of 3%. This resulted in a very modest annual decline in the shares outstanding which led to an equally modest one-time gain in earnings per share for shareholders, i.e. the vast majority who did not sell their shares.
Because buybacks and dividend yield are considered to be returns to the shareholder, they tend to be lumped together in statements like “total shareholder yield is currently close to 5% comprised of a 2% dividend yield and a 3% buyback yield”.
“Buyback yield” is very misleading. As the source of funds for buybacks is operating cash, it should be first and foremost compared to what they would have achieved if invested.
A 3% “buyback yield” is greatly inferior to investing in the company’s business, acquisitions, or even a special dividend, which would be shared by all shareholders in hard dollars as opposed to soft dollar benefits attributable to fewer shares.
Here is an example of a typical S&P 500 equity. It has a market cap of $15 billion; its shares are at 15x earnings and it buys back 3% of its outstanding shares. This is compared to a hypothetical, but very conservative investment producing 3% in the 1st year, 8% in the 2nd and 10% thereafter. (This analysis is independent of the underlying profitability of the company.)
This entry was posted in Buybacks and tagged Buybacks, Equity Valuation, INDUSTRY ANALYSIS on February 28, 2017 by robertlcolbygmailcom.
Undervalued Screens outperform Overvalued by 22% since June 30 last year
January adds another 4 % to the spread between the Undervalued (UV) and Overvalued (OV) screens performance since 6/30/16. This chart shows the relative performance to the average of our universe.
Here are summary tables showing which Sectors contributed to the superior performance of the Undervalued and the poor performance of the Overvalued.
The methodology is to add up the cumulative monthly Relative Strength[1] of the screened equities by company, industry and sector and rank the Sectors (in this case) by the total contribution to their performance over the period.
[1] The percent change in price relative to the S&P 500
For more detail email corequity@gmail.com
(c) 2017 Robert L. Colby
This entry was posted in Performance on February 9, 2017 by robertlcolbygmailcom.
The Mechanics of Stock Buybacks
Conclusion: From the Shareholders perspective most Stock Buybacks produce little benefit when compared to investing the same funds in the company. They produce a onetime gain in Earnings per Share (usually small) but contribute nothing to the growth of the Net Profit or Market Capitalization. If a company is truly unable to successfully invest the Buyback funds in its business, it would be much better for the majority of shareholders to receive a Special Dividend.
For the twelve months ending September 2016, total share buybacks were close to $600 billion for the S&P 500 companies. This is an enormous amount of money being 66% of the earnings and only slightly less than Fixed Capital Expenditures in the same period. The average buyback program resulted in a “buyback yield” of just shy of 3% [1] . This resulted in a very modest annual decline in the shares outstanding which led to an equally modest one time gain in Earnings per Share for the Shareholders, i.e. the vast majority who did not sell their shares.
Because Buybacks and Dividend Yield are considered to be returns to the Shareholder they tend to be lumped together in statements like the “Total Shareholder Yield is currently close to 5% comprised of a 2% dividend yield and a 3% buyback yield”.
A 3% “buyback yield” is greatly inferior to investing in the company’s business, acquisitions, or even a Special Dividend which would be shared by all Shareholders in hard dollars as opposed the soft dollar benefit attributable to fewer shares.
Here is an example of a typical S&P 500 equity. It has a market cap of $15 billion; its shares are at 15x earnings and it buys back 3% of its outstanding shares. This is compared to a hypothetical but very conservative Investment producing 3% in the 1st year, 8% in the 2nd and 10% thereafter. (This analysis is independent of the underlying profitability of the company.)
The share purchase of 3% of the float produces a 3.5% pop in the EPS on day one. Annualized that is 3.5% in the first year, 1.7% per annum in the second and so on declining each year. By the second year, the Investment produces a higher return. By year 8, the Investment led to a Net Profit of $985m which is almost double the first year’s investment while the Buyback produced zero contribution to Net Profit.
Were the stock price reduced by half and the Buyback amount kept the same you would get the following result.
The original gain in EPS is increased to 7% but it soon pales by comparison to the Investment.
Using the original price of $15 and twice the buyback funds ($1,000m), the result would be the same as in the previous example but the dollar gain in the Net Profit from Investing would double as twice the funds were used.
These hypothetical examples illustrate the mechanics of stock buybacks. Now let us look at two actual examples.
The first is Apple as it is listed as the most aggressive in terms of dollar amount of funds spent on buybacks in the last 12 months.[2]
Despite Apple having spent the over $30 billion, it confirms the disadvantages of Buybacks compared to Investments. In this case we used the average Return on Capital that they earned from 2009-15.
Now let us look at one of the most aggressive buyback programs in terms of the percentage of stock that was bought. Corning Inc. purchased over 20% of their outstanding shares in the last 12 months [3] which produces an initial gain of 27% in EPS on day one.
However, even this aggressive program fails by beat the Investment after year three even though Corning’s Return on Capital is only averages at 10.3% over the 7 years. This illustrates that even massive amounts of buybacks can’t change the fundamental disadvantage compared to investing.
One of the reasons that investors are not more critical of management for stock buyback programs may be because, by doing it year after year, it creates the illusion that it is compounding. As shown here, each year’s transactions is still the equivalent of getting simple interest.
The proof of this is found in the Net Profit Test[4]. It answers the question:
What is the Required Rate of return on an Investment of the funds, that would grow the Net Profit at the same rate that the EPS grew due to fewer shares. Like Apple, the answer is surprisingly low in most instances. We analyzed 30 stocks[5] whose buyback programs resulted in a median decline of 25% of their outstanding shares from 2008 to 2015. The median Required Return would have been only 4.9%.
The median growth rate for their EPS was 7.7% pa while the Net Profit grew only at 2.4%. Instead, by investing at less than 5%, the Net Profit would have been 42% higher in the 7th year. Over the seven years the cumulative gain in Net Profit would have been 1.8x the original investment.
It makes no sense to put the growth of Earnings per Share ahead of the growth of Net Profit and as a result, the growth of the Market Capitalization.
A Simple Test to Dispel the Illusion Behind Stock Buybacks
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON AUG. 12, 2016
“Mr. Colby has developed an illuminating analysis that identifies a crucial difference between many truly successful companies and their underperforming counterparts. The exercise highlights the growth mirage that buybacks have on earnings-per-share measures. In addition, it shows that returns on investment need not be that large for a company to generate growth rates exceeding the evanescent earnings-per-share gains associated with buybacks.”
1.Factset Buyback Quarterly December 19, 2016. Defined as the buyback funds divided by the market capitalization.
2.Factset
4.The Net Profit Test: Comparing Buybacks to Investment
5.Stocks with significant buybacks between 2008-2015
© 2017 Robert L. Colby
This entry was posted in Buybacks and tagged Buybacks, Equity Valuation, INDUSTRY ANALYSIS, NET PROFIT TEST, OVERVALUED STOCKS, SECTOR ANALYSIS, STOCK BUYBACKS, TOTAL SHAREHOLDER RETURN, UNDERVALUED STOCKS on February 7, 2017 by robertlcolbygmailcom.
Buybacks
Comment on articles
Equity Valuation
Gretchen Morgenson, NY Times
Guide to the Corequity Analysis
Industry Experts I Follow
Gretchen Morgenson: New York Times
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line710
|
__label__cc
| 0.542714
| 0.457286
|
Well over 30 years in the punk scene, there’s very little that Teeside-based Snide Remarks haven’t seen or done. Remaining focused on their core strengths, the band continue to put out inspired new material and play live shows with severe energy and passion. Damian Robinson caught up with Snide frontman Barry Walker to talk about their upcoming shows and upcoming record.
Hi Barry, you’ve got a number of shows coming up in the next couple of months. Do you find that your reputation as a one-to-watch band is a help or a hindrance?
To be honest with you, we’d play the same set and with the same enthusiasm whether there was 1, or 1000, people in the audience. What we play is energetic, in your face, rock and roll. It has meaning and when we play we try to make sure we capture that meaning. A long time ago we literally did the show with one man and his dog in the audience, I remember we really went for it. Punk, or energetic rock and roll as I prefer to define our music, should always be about giving your all. As it happens, sometimes the smaller shows are the best shows.
For people who’ve never seen Snide before, what can they expect from a show?
We try to play every show as if it was our first ever show. If you’ve seen the history of the band, you’ll know that it’s definitely not (laughing). We’d like to think we’re an entertaining band, with lots of energy and also a one who tries hard to bring in audience participation and something unexpected. As it happens for our next few gigs there will be something unexpected, but I can’t say too much now, just watch this space.
We’ve noted that you’re in the recording studio now, will we hear some new tunes in the show?
As a band we’ve just finished our new album ‘Life is hell’ which is getting mixed as we speak. Hopefully it’ll be ready for our Rebellion show in August. We’re really happy with the record and it’ll be very different from our last with more dimensions. We may do some new tracks yes.
That sounds interesting, are there any particular themes on the record?
There’s continuing ideas across all of our records to be honest. One of the tracks I’ve written is called ‘punks unite’. It was written at the time of the Scottish referendum as a plea for us to stay together and stay united. It seems that now people think it’s about Brexit, which in a way it could be, but it was written well before the Brexit vote. To my mind, punk still means something today and if you look closely you’ll see there’s a pretty lively underground scene throughout the North East. Some of the bands, I feel, don’t get the recognition they deserve but they’re there and they’re still saying interesting things.
Snide Remarks play a number of shows throughout July and August. A full tour guide, as well as details about their new music, can be found on http://www.snideremarks.co.uk/
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line711
|
__label__cc
| 0.586759
| 0.413241
|
Irish Citizenship
February 14, 2012 by David Miller
I visited a friend’s house recently in Co. Wicklow, someone who I’ve known off and on over the years (more off than on), and who’d generously invited our family to have lunch with his family on Sunday. Talking about emigration from Ireland in the context of the crippling current economic tidal wave that has subsumed Ireland over the last 3 and a half years, he asked me if I was ‘homesick’. I didn’t quite understand the question; till I realized that we really had seen very little of each other in the last few years, and when he first met me I was a young British man still in college, at the time dating a young Irish girl who I’d met at the same college; and that he therefore assumed that for me home was somewhere other than Ireland.
Fast forward 13 years from when I’d first met him – and 10 years of marriage to that young Irish girl from college, with the joy of two young boys as well – and of course I realized that there was no reason why he should have known that 2 years ago I’d applied for Irish citizenship – and that home for me was always going to be the community I’d first set my foot in 13 years ago, the community of Enniskerry in north Wicklow.
But it was a good question, and one that got me thinking a little more about what it is to be Irish today.
I started the ball rolling on the road for Irish citizenship 2 years ago, knowing that the bureaucratic lethargy that can seem to prevail in certain sectors of the Irish public sector would trigger a totally unnecessary 24 month toing and froing of correspondence designed less to facilitate and more to hinder the process. I was right (more in another post).
Fast forward (again) to last November, and I found myself in a packed Bray District Court, full to the rafters with people waiting to hear when their cases would be listed for hearing before the judge. My reason for being there was simple: to swear a declaration of fidelity to the nation, and loyalty to the state.
Having practiced litigation law over a number of years and in a number of jurisdictions I’m quite used to being in a court room. This was my first time in the witness box. With about a dozen or so other applicants in the same position as me, and none too keen to go first, I stepped up, took the oath, and was pleasantly surprised when, on finishing, the rather harassed looking judge congratulated me and proceeded to applaud me, prompting the packed courtroom to follow suit (though the cynic in my suspects that this was probably more out of deference to the judge than at any particular delight in another citizen joining the nation).
Not to make it any easier, the Irish Nationality Immigration Service then asked me to send them a cheque for €950 for the pleasure of them issuing me with my naturalization citizenship certificate. I’ll have to learn what it says as, other than my name, it’s entirely printed in Irish (it seems bi-lingual requirements only stretch so far).
But there it was: I’d been granted Irish citizenship, and could finally vote in a Presidential election (something which as a UK passport holder I’d previously been denied); but, more importantly, it put the cap on my pledge to a country that has welcomed me with open arms, and which has, since I first set foot in it, made me feel like I was home.
Category: Other | Tags: irish citizenship
Ogilvy on Advertising | Email Marketing & the Father of Online Advertising »
« #DWS7 Tweet Diary Day 1 by @DavidEBMiller
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line713
|
__label__wiki
| 0.564311
| 0.564311
|
Christ and Holy Trinity in Winter
Willmott, Alfred D.
Alfred D. Willmott, age 83, a 50-year resident of Westport, died at home of complications from melanoma on Saturday, April 29, 2006. Born as the youngest of seven children on September 25, 1922, Mr. Willmott was the son of Harold Willmott and Minnie Shout Willmott, who operated a poultry farm in Huntington, Long Island, N.Y. A 1939 graduate of Huntington High School, Mr. Willmott flew in the Air Transport Command and the United States Naval Air Corps in World War II and later worked as a navigator for American Overseas Airlines, based out of New York's LaGuardia Airport. After marrying Helenanne Frederick Willmott in 1952, graduating from the Whitney School of Art, and moving to Westport in 1956, he set up Al Willmott Associates, an independent commercial art agency, which he ran for more than 40 years. An accomplished fine artist, he was best known locally for his pen-and-ink scenes of Westport, which he drew and distributed as Christmas cards for three decades and which today decorate the homes of many Westport families. Mr. Willmott was a member of the Westport Y's Men and was a member of both the Silvermine Golf Club in Norwalk and The Patterson Club in Fairfield. He also served on The Patterson Club's Board of Directors. An avid gardener and amateur landscape architect, he created his own small golf course at home, and in winter he often crafted large snow sculptures to the delight of friends and neighbors. They were pictured many times in the pages of local newspapers. Mr Willmott is survived by his wife of 53 years, Helenanne Frederick Willmott; his three children, Ellen Willmott of New Canaan, Don Willmott of New York City, and Andrew Willmott of Bridgeport; two brothers, John Willmott of Florida and Walter Willmott of New York; one sister, Alice Grange of New Jersey.
Westport Historical Society
Pen and ink drawing (print)
Signed, lower right
Willmott, Alfred D. , “Christ and Holy Trinity in Winter,” Westport Public Schools Digital Collections, accessed July 18, 2019, https://collections.westportps.org/items/show/1825.
This Item dcterms:creator Item: Alfred D. Willmott
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line716
|
__label__cc
| 0.663736
| 0.336264
|
Tag Archives: clothes
The well-dressed anarchist
How does an anarchist dress? One image is the hippy, with long hair, sandals and sloppy, colourful, unkempt clothes. Another image is the punk, with nose rings and pink hair. Yet another image is the subversive, wearing all black.
And what is this mythical anarchist doing? A common idea is shouting and making threatening gestures, perhaps throwing bricks or maybe even a bomb.
An anarchist?
Is it possible for an anarchist to be well dressed in a conventional sense? Imagine an anarchist wearing a fashionable dress, or suit and tie, in smart casual clothes with a stylish haircut, almost indistinguishable from an advertisement for trendy garments.
Could an anarchist talk politely, be friendly and always avoid the slightest hint of violence? If so, how can anyone tell whether a person walking down the street is an anarchist? Maybe anarchists are in disguise, looking just like other people!
Anarchism as a political philosophy has been seriously misunderstood for most of its existence. In the media, “anarchy” is treated as a synonym for “chaos.” The word is used to suggest that order has broken down, and people are doing all sorts of things — violence and mayhem, perhaps — that are normally forbidden. This meaning leads to images of anarchists being strange and threatening in appearance and behaviour.
Anarchists?
But what is anarchism really? Just looking at dictionary definitions gives a different picture. For example, the online Oxford Dictionary gives this definition: “belief in the abolition of all government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion.”
Among anarchist groups, especially those familiar with anarchist writings and theory, anarchism has several dimensions. One is opposition to all forms of rule or domination. Anarchists historically have opposed the state, namely systems of government with rulers at the top, whether popularly elected or dictators. Anarchists are opposed to government as a system. But they oppose more than just government; they reject other forms of domination, including capitalism, state socialism, patriarchy, organised religion, bureaucracy, heterosexism and human chauvinism (domination of nature and non-human animals).
If this is what anarchists are against, what are they for? The short answer is “self-management,” which means people organising their own lives through cooperative processes. Self-management occurs when members of a string quartet decide for themselves what music to play. It occurs when students help decide what and how they will learn. It occurs when workers collectively make decisions about what to produce and how to do the job. Self-management can also be called participatory democracy, a type of democracy not requiring elections of officials, but instead using methods involving everyone’s participation to reach agreements.
So, anarchists are against domination and instead want people to cooperate to make decisions about social arrangements. This sort of participatory decision-making is found within many families, groups of friends, some clubs and some workplaces. But it is not common within governments, large corporations or militaries.
Anarchism or anarchy, as properly understood, is not chaos at all. It is not the absence of order, but rather is a different sort of order. Rather than a social order involving hierarchy and authority, it is a social order involving respect, cooperation, and struggle over priorities that tries to avoid creating new forms of domination.
The popular image of anarchism is thus almost the opposite of what it should be. It is easy to see the source of the image. Anarchists are opposed to domination, which means they are a threat to powerful groups. Government leaders do not like anarchism, because it means the loss of their power and status. For them, anarchism is a threat to order, namely the traditional order of hierarchy and authority. It is a short step from thinking that anarchism threatens the system of government to thinking that it causes chaos — because, for those who think government is order, any different sort of order is almost impossible to imagine.
Corporate leaders also do not like anarchism. If workers can run workplaces themselves, in a cooperative fashion, then owners and managers are not needed. This is the reason why, when workers try to take control, they are so fiercely opposed by owners and their government allies. For capitalists, workers’ self-management feels like chaos, because the familiar order of managerial control is lost. A different type of order, organised by workers, is almost impossible to imagine.
Many socialists and Marxists do not like anarchism. In socialism, the government has more power. It is said to be exercised in the name of the workers and the people, but it is still government, and government leaders often have great privilege and power. For many socialists and Marxists, anarchism seems like chaos, because their idea of social organisation is undermined. A different sort of order, without parties and party leaders, is almost impossible to imagine.
Anarchism has been caught in a pincer movement, attacked by the traditional authorities in the state and corporations and attacked by socialists. Karl Marx was just as opposed to anarchists as were factory owners. So perhaps it is not surprising that anarchists have been so misrepresented.
Anarchists do not seek to take power and to impose their own views on others — that would be a perversion of the idea of self-management. This has meant that anarchists have never had the resources or desire to mount propaganda on their behalf, and therefore have been at the mercy of misleading descriptions from corporate and government leaders, whether neoliberal or socialist, and mass media serving government and corporate agendas.
The result is that anarchism is more misunderstood than just about any other major political philosophy or body of theory. The basic ideas of socialism, atheism, racial equality and feminism are widely understood, even if in a distorted sense. For example, many people do not like feminism, for example, and may misunderstand it, but they generally know it has something to do with women’s equality. Feminists have been more effective in spreading their ideas than anarchists — or perhaps anti-feminists have been less successful than anti-anarchists.
So to return to the vision of a well-dressed anarchist: there is nothing inherent in anarchist theory to say that an anarchist has to dress a particular way. Some do decide to dress alternatively, as hippies, punks or members of the black bloc. But others may use other dress codes, including conventional ones.
Some types of clothes involve exploitation or other undesirable consequences. Perhaps shoes are produced in sweatshops. Leather products may involve harm to animals. Maybe clothes manufacture causes environmental damage. Very expensive clothing might involve diverting resources away from human needs into fashion houses and advertising. Choosing clothing does have political implications. A sensitive dresser pays attention not only to personal appearance but to human and environmental impacts.
Still, it is possible to dress in an attractive fashion without spending huge amounts of money. Attention to colour and style can compensate for high prices. Second-hand clothes sometimes look as good as those for sale in regular shops.
The issue of clothes is not really all that important, but it points to a deeper question concerning anarchism: can a person be an anarchist and work or live in a hierarchical institution, for example in a corporation or government? Somehow it is assumed that being against domination means being outside the systems of domination — so an anarchist has to be out in the streets, not in the boardroom.
But this isn’t the way other liberation theories are treated. Feminists can join male-dominated workplaces. Some try to rise in governments and corporations. Marxists get jobs in factories or join social democratic political parties. They try to take their views into the system and to bring about change. There is no requirement that someone who wants the world to be better has to avoid interacting or participating in systems that need to be changed or abolished.
It is good that some people try to live a pure and principled life, but others make compromises in order to help create their ideal. That means that you might find an anarchist — or a person with anarchist sentiments, though unfamiliar with anarchist theory — just about anywhere. Maybe in an army or a small business or a government bureaucracy.
Can an anarchist be well behaved? A common image of anarchists is of throwing bricks through shop windows and forcibly clashing with police, like some members of the black bloc at alter-globalisation demonstrations. The stereotype of the violent anarchist has some historical basis: some anarchists supported assassination of rulers, and in the 1930s anarchists fought for the revolution in Spain against fascists.
But there has always been another side to anarchism, a side based on refusal to use violence. It includes resistance to conscription. It also includes commitment to nonviolent methods of struggle, using strikes, boycotts, rallies, sit-ins and a host of other methods that do not involve physical violence against opponents. Gandhi, the pioneer leader of nonviolent struggle, can be considered an anarchist: he opposed all forms of domination and advocated a type of village democracy that fits the model of self-management.
A classic anarchist principle is that the means should embody the ends or, in other words, the methods used should be compatible with the goal sought. Anarchists reject the Marxist-Leninist approach of destroying the capitalist state and creating a socialist state as a step on the road to a truly communist society (without a state), because the means, a socialist state, is not compatible with the goal of a society in which the state has withered away. Likewise, if the goal is a society without organised violence, then the most suitable means will not involve violence.
The stereotype of the anarchist as violent is hard to break. When there is a vigil, strike, boycott or occupation, not many viewers think, “Ah, a nonviolent protest — anarchists must be involved.” Not only is it possible to be an anarchist and reject violence, but many anarchists fit this picture.
What about an anarchist working in an organisation, maybe in an office? A common image might be of a person shouting at a meeting and rudely challenging the boss. This stereotype reflects an assumption that opposing domination means breaking the rules — in this case, the rules of polite behaviour. But it is quite possible to be a well-behaved anarchist.
What does an anarchist do inside an organisation? Promote self-management, of course! This can be in small ways, hardly noticed, such as helping less confident workers to assert themselves, resisting managerial impositions, advocating greater participation in decision-making and supporting organisational responsibility to the wider community. Lots of workers do these sorts of things, helping to make organisations more socially responsible and more tolerable to work in. Few of these workers would think of themselves as anarchists, but some of their commitments and efforts are compatible with anarchist principles.
So it is possible for anarchists to be well-dressed, well behaved and committed to nonviolence. In fact, there are quite possibly more anarchists like this than the number who fit the dishevelled, shouting, brick-throwing stereotype. Perhaps the respectable anarchists are just as effective too, or more so, by achieving change without drawing much attention to themselves. Maybe some of them are modest too.
London Edinburgh Weekend Return Group, In and Against the State (London: Pluto, 1980).
Pierre Guillet de Monthoux, Action and Existence: Anarchism for Business Administration (Chichester: Wiley, 1983).
Geoffrey Ostergaard and Melville Currell, The Gentle Anarchists: A Study of the Leaders of the Sarvodaya Movement for Non-Violent Revolution in India (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).
Acknowledgement Jørgen Johansen provided valuable comments on a draft.
anarchismclothes
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line717
|
__label__wiki
| 0.984162
| 0.984162
|
‘Titans’: Esai Morales Joins DC Universe As Deathstroke
By Geoff Boucher
Geoff Boucher
Genre Editor
@geoffboucher
More Stories By Geoff
‘The Untamed’: Prentice Penny Joins HBO Project As EP And Co-Writer
‘Arrow’: Ben Lewis Upped To Series Regular For Final Season
Emmy Nominations Reactions: Rachel Brosnahan, Christina Applegate, Jared Harris, Ron Cephas Jones, More
Josue Peña/DC Entertainment
EXCLUSIVE: The Titans just made a killer cast addition: Esai Morales will portray Deathstroke, the fan-favorite assassin and archenemy of Teen Titans leader Dick Grayson.
The Titans, the first original programming franchise for the DC Universe subscription steaming site, launched in September and finished its first season in December. The weekly show follows the superhero squad that’s led by Batman’s former sidekick, Robin, aka Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), and includes the hot-tempered alien princess Starfire (Anna Diop), the mysterious empath Raven (Teagan Croft), and the green-skinned shape-shifter Beast Boy (Ryan Potter).
That Titans line-up of characters was introduced with much fanfare in the pages of DC Comics back in 1980. The team, created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, didn’t have to wait long to find their signature antagonist: Deathstroke the Terminator was introduced in issue No. 2 of The New Teen Titans in December 1980.
DC Universe Brings 'Titans', 'Doom Patrol', 'Harley Quinn' And More To Comic-Con
The character bio from the show’s producers: “Slade Wilson is known for being DC’s deadliest assassin. While serving his country, Slade became an elite soldier before government testing enhanced his physiology to near superhuman levels, putting him on a path of darkness and revenge. To his family, Slade is a father and husband, but to the rest of the world, he is feared by many as the infamous Deathstroke; selling his services to the highest bidder as the ruthless assassin that never gives up and never misses.”
The character is well known to fans of the popular Teen Titans animated series from Cartoon Network as well as the show’s 2018 tie-in feature film Teen Titans Go! to the Movies. Deathstroke has also been portrayed by Manu Bennett in 36 episodes of The CW series Arrow while Joe Manganiello (True Blood) appeared as the assassin in the 2017 feature film Justice League but only with an uncredited cameo.
The DC Comics character represents an interesting footnote in Marvel Comics history. The character Deadpool, portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the popular R-rated Fox film franchise, was created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld in 1990 as a thinly disguised version of the DC villain. Not only do the characters share similar costumes, Deadpool’s alias is Wade Wilson, which in fact rhymes with Slade Wilson.
Adding a bit more confusion for casual fans, both Deadpool and Deathstroke have similar attributes to Deadshot, a DC Comics villain introduced in the 1970s and portrayed by Will Smith on the big screen in Suicide Squad in 2016.
Morales, a Brooklyn native and graduate of New York’s High School for the Performing Arts, began his acting career in El Hermano at the Ensemble Theatre Studio and at New York’s Shakespeare Festival In The Park in The Tempest. Morales found his feature film breakthrough role as Bob Morales in Taylor Hackford’s La Bamba, the landmark 1985 biopic about Ritchie Valens.
The actor’s feature film credits include Bad Boys, Rapa Nui, Mi Familia, Fast Food Nation, Paid in Full, The Line, Atlas Shrugged: Part II, Jarhead II: Field of Fire, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, and Gun Hill Road, a film he executive produced and starred in. Gun Hill Road was a grand Jury Nominee at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. Most recently Morales starred in Sony’s Superfly and the indie film The Wall of Mexico.
Morales’ recent television credits include Ozark (Netflix), Mozart In The Jungle (Amazon Prime), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO), and Chicago PD (NBC). Morales also had notable credits over the years on shows such as NYPD Blue (ABC), Miami Vice (NBC), Fame (NBC) Law and Order: SVU (NBC), Caprica (Syfy), and Criminal Minds (CBS).
Morales is repped by Innovative Artists, LINK Entertainment, and Eric Feig Entertainment & Media Law.
The executive producers of Titans are Greg Berlanti, Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Sarah Schechter, and Greg Walker.
Latest Hero Nation News
'The Untamed': Prentice Penny Joins HBO Project As EP And Co-Writer
Comic-Con: Seth MacFarlane Will Bring 'The Orville Experience' To San Diego
'Sleeping Beauties': Tale By Stephen King & Owen King Set For 2020 Comic Book Series
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line718
|
__label__cc
| 0.566408
| 0.433592
|
Patrick Rand, FAIA, DPACSA
Distinguished Professor of Architecture
Email: patrick_rand@ncsu.edu Phone: (919) 515-8319
Master of Architecture, University of Oregon
Bachelor of Architecture, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Patrick Rand is a Distinguished Professor of Architecture at in the College of Design at NC State University. He teaches Architectural design studios, thesis preparation seminar, architectural construction systems, and seminars regarding architectural detailing and innovative materials. His focus is on the relationship between design and building technologies. He joined the architecture faculty in 1977, and has since taught full time without interruption. He has been nurtured by a supportive and challenging setting, surrounded by some of the finest design educators in the country, and remarkable students who bring intelligence and ambition to every project that they engage.
Rand’s early research involved air-supported structures and other experimental construction strategies. He has since carried out funded research regarding innovation in masonry construction systems that has attracted national recognition. His expertise now spans a full range of architectural construction materials and systems. He maintains a small architectural practice and consults with other architectural firms. Patrick Rand co-authored Materials For Design with Victoria Ballard Bell in 2006, and a second volume with all new content in 2014. Patrick also co-authored with Edward Allen Architectural Detailing: Function, Constructibility, Aesthetics in 2007. He completed a substantially revised third edition of this book in 2016. He co-authored with Edward Allen and Thomas Ryan Detailing for Landscape Architects in 2011. His books have been critically acclaimed and have been published internationally in English, French and Korean.
Patrick Rand earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Virginia Tech, and his Master of Architecture from the University of Oregon. He is active in the American Institute of Architects and in The Masonry Society. He was elected to the College of Fellows of the AIA in 2007, and received the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award in 2014.
Materials For Design by Victoria Ballard Bell and Patrick Rand, 2006
Architectural Record Book Review, August 2007
Architectural Detailing: Function, Constructibility, Aesthetics by Edward Allen and Patrick Rand, 2nd Edition, 2007
Detailing for Landscape Architects by Tom Ryan, Edward Allen and Patrick Rand, 2011
Materials for Design 2 by Victoria Ballard Bell and Patrick Rand, 2014
Architectural Detailing: Function Constructibility, Aesthetics by Edward Allen and Patrick Rand, 3rd Edition, 2016
Architectural design, architectural construction and materials
Rand CV
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line721
|
__label__wiki
| 0.998161
| 0.998161
|
David Cassidy Confessed to Lying About Dementia, Drinking Prior to His Death
In the last year of his life, David Cassidy had started telling people he was suffering from dementia. But a new documentary reveals he had been lying to cover up the fact that he was still drinking.
The news comes via People, which outlines an upcoming program airing on A&E called David Cassidy: The Last Sessions. At one point two months before his death, Cassidy was taken to the hospital after he got sick during a recording session. He called producer Saralena Weinfield and confessed the real reason.
“I have a liver disease,” he said. “There is no sign of me having dementia at this stage of my life. It was complete alcohol poisoning."
In March 2017, Cassidy told an audience he was suffering from dementia and arthritis, which he said was the reason he had stopped touring. The new documentary claims he was hiding the truth from his family, which believed he became sober after a 2014 rehab stint.
"The fact is that I lied about my drinking," he said. "I did this to myself to cover up the sadness and the emptiness.”
Cassidy's Partridge Family co-star Danny Bonaduce, whose own battles with substance abuse made tabloid headlines in the early '90s, understood what Cassidy went through. “Part of alcoholism is lying," he said. "When you’re an addict, you know you can’t be honest with people. You say what you want them to hear. I can’t be mad at David for that, but it’s still a tragedy.”
David Cassidy: The Last Sessions will premiere at 9PM ET on June 11.
Next: Top 100 Classic Rock Artists
Source: David Cassidy Confessed to Lying About Dementia, Drinking Prior to His Death
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line723
|
__label__wiki
| 0.972635
| 0.972635
|
Five Reasons Todd Rundgren Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Nick DeRiso
Ethan Miller, Getty Images
Todd Rundgren once said his career was marked by "consistency of inconsistency," and there's perhaps no more apt description. In a weird way, however, his greatness is often obscured by those varied successes: Rundgren seems at once to be everywhere, and nowhere – a master of many things, but so easily bored that he never returns to them.
In keeping, any list of reasons Rundgren should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is similarly all over the map. What more would you expect from a figure who trafficked in psychedelia with the Nazz and then prog with Utopia, tried out DIY pop but also techno, cranked up arena rock and then dabbled in the blues?
In the end, Rundgren has had such a huge effect on popular music's content and form that narrowing the reasons down to just five was the most challenging part of all.
He's got more fan bases than anybody
It's not just that he's a singer and songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist and a studio whiz. Rundgren has taken more left turns than any NASCAR legend, and he's great at almost all of it. So, there are people who love him for his power pop, and others for his homey lo-fi songs. Some are crazy about his experimental machine music, others his openhearted Beatlemania as a longtime member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. You might know him from television (his self-directed and -produced clip for "Time Heals" was reportedly the eighth music video ever shown on MTV), or associate him with your favorite team (1983's "Bang the Drum All Day" has become a sports-stadium anthem).
Some of it, admittedly, didn't work. For instance, a 1993 detour into electronica and rap found Rundgren refashioning himself as "TR-i." Even then, however, he created a new subset of tech-loving followers who thrilled to the interactive capabilities surrounding No World Order. (He later recorded the entirety of albums like 2008's Arena on a laptop.) In the end, it didn't matter how it charted, not to Rundgren anyway. He fashioned a career that was meant to be pioneering, never limiting himself – even when he had the opportunity to cash in after 1972's Something/Anything? became a gold-selling Top 40 hit.
"If you end up repeating the formula, everything becomes a little less magical," told the Independent. "So, by the end of Something/Anything? I decided to do something different." And so it went, time and time again, as Rundgren confounded every expectation. Niches of entirely new fans came to love that too.
"What I intended was to do something nobody else was doing," Rundgren added. "From that point of view, my lack of commercial success was inevitable. It's better to know and fulfill your purpose in life, whatever that may be. It's somebody else's assumption that I was supposed to be a big pop star. I don't think I've ever done anything to sabotage my career. We did the shows, we made the records, and at one point in the '70s, we were huge."
He's a rebel in an age with too few of them
Don't call Rundgren a rock star. "I'm not a star," he told Guitar World. "I"m a musician." As such, he doesn't do what rock stars do, which is cash in.
He followed up Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren, an impressively varied set of songs recorded with future members of David Bowie's Tin Machine, with the tender balladry of Something/Anything? That in turn was followed by a drug-fueled stream-of-consciousness album called A Wizard, a True Star. Into the late '80s, he released the overdub-heavy vocal album A Cappella, did two consecutive albums with a live band, and then issued No World Order on a short-lived interactive CD-ROM format. Then there was his 1997 detour into bossa nova on With a Twist. The ballsy rock of Arena was immediately followed by that Robert Johnson-themed blues project.
"After Something/Anything?, I began to get even more aggressive about it because people started to compare me to Carole King," Rundgren told Rock Cellar in 2016. "They called me the male Carole King and while there's nothing wrong with Carole King, you don't want to be compared to somebody else. You want to be able to make your own sort of impression."
As someone who memorably ignored the age of stripped-down punk by taking the stage wearing Egyptian-style finery amid smoke from a fire-breathing replica dragon, Rundgren certainly achieved his goals.
He's behind many, many of your favorite records
Even if you never bought an album with his name on the front, you probably own some Rundgren. In fact, his approach in the studio provided a logical platform for a second career as a producer, even as production work directly fed into his maverick-like tendencies. For example, Rundgren meticulously layered in voices and guitars rather than employing strings on Something/Anything?, using every element of the studio from overdubs to echo chambers. He's the sole credited musician on 18 of that album's 25 songs.
It's no surprise then that acts like the Band (1970's Stage Fright), James Cotton (1970's Taking Care of Business), Badfinger (1971's Straight Up) and Sparks (1971's Halfnelson) had already tabbed him for production work. Later, Rundgren would helm studio projects by Grand Funk Railroad (1973's We're an American Band), the New York Dolls (1973's New York Dolls), Hall and Oates (1974's War Babies), the Patti Smith Group (1979's Wave), Rick Derringer (1979's Guitars and Women), the Psychedelic Furs (1982's Forever Now), Cheap Trick (1983's Next Position Please), the Tubes (1985's Love Bomb), XTC (1986's Skylarking) – and, perhaps most famously, Meat Loaf's 1977 epic Bat Out of Hell.
"That liberated me musically," Rundgren told Noisecreep. "For most artists, their careers are dependent on the success of the next project, so they only have to make considerations and accommodations that they think the audience will react to. And I had the great luxury of only having to apply that thinking to the artist I was producing. I could figure out their audience and not worry so much about my own audience. I was making so much money from production that I never had to worry about surviving in music. I never had to worry about having a hit."
He helped frame rock's incredible journey
Such a varied career was inevitably informed by a strikingly broad set of earlier artists, and Rundgren's roving sense of creativity helped bring all of them to new ears. The Nazz celebrated the sound of the '60s, including the Beatles and the Who. The Something/Anything? period owed no small debt the Beach Boys. Todd Rundgren's Johnson, released in 2011, reanimated age-old roots music through the lens of Cream, the Yardbirds and the early Rolling Stones. (Rundgren actually got his start in Woody's Truck Stop, a Philadelphia blues band.)
His 1973 album A Wizard, a True Star featured an R&B medley with songs by the Impressions and the Miracles, among others. He also covered Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix on 1976's Faithful. Rundgren later sang on a 2018 album by Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier called Reimagination. Perhaps his biggest influence went deeper still: singer-songwriter Laura Nyro.
"To hear someone deliver that material with such personal intensity was a total revelation," Rundgren told the Independent. "The way she played, the superlative musicality, really opened something up to me." Later, Rundgren met his hero, and Nyro actually invited him to become her band leader. "I seriously considered the offer," Rundgren said, "but in the end I was afraid to. It felt too big a responsibility."
His impact has been felt across an incredible spectrum
Without Rundgren, it's hard to imagine a market share for Daft Punk or Bjork. Prince supposedly sneaked backstage as a youngster just to meet Rundgren. Daryl Hall's singing was deeply influenced by him, as well. The New Radicals' 1998 hit "You Get What You Give" might just be the best Todd Rundgren song not by Todd Rundgren. The electro-pop group Hot Chip's 2008 single "Shake a Fist" featured a notable Rundgren sample, earning him a songwriting credit. More recently, Rundgren has done remixes for Tame Impala ("Elephant") and for Lindstrom ("De Javu"), had a clear influence on songs by Aimee Mann ("Invisible Ink"), Girl Ray ("Earl Grey") and Katie Von Schleicher ("Life's a Lie") and collaborated with Trent Reznor on 2017's White Knight.
These connections, Rundgren noted, also grew out of his oft-criticized restlessness. "The funny thing is, I put out an album like A Wizard, a True Star after Something/Anything? and that creates a big kind of stink because I’m not following up on the previous success," he told Greg Prato. "Then, as it turns out, that album is having some influence on a young generation of artists today. That's why I'm doing remixes for Tame Impala and Nine Inch Nails and stuff like that — almost solely because of people's fascination with that record. So, I've come to realize that maybe things don't succeed in the time period that you put them out, but a record is a record. A record is forever — at least in modern terms."
Never one to rest on his own laurels, Rundgren continues to absorb reciprocal sounds. His industrial-leaning 2013 album State was informed by newer acts like Skrillex, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean, Rundgren told Billboard.
See Todd Rundgren Among the ‘70s Very Best Songs
Next: Remembering Todd Rundgren’s ‘The Hermit of Mink Hollow’
Source: Five Reasons Todd Rundgren Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Filed Under: Hall of Fame Reasons, Todd Rundgren
Categories: Longform, Original Features
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line724
|
__label__cc
| 0.56992
| 0.43008
|
Grinnell College Libraries Special Collections (x)
Archer Depot, Archer, Iowa
Looking east at a two story wooden building with Archer printed on the side with railroad workers, including ticketmaster, on platform with trailer.
Arlington public school house, Arlington, Iowa
Two story brick building with bell tower.
Birds eye view of Arthur, Iowa
Looking northeast at the business district of Arthur, Iowa, including the Hoaglund and Son General Store with a water tower in background. The town was incorporated in 1897. A yellow and purple banner says Arthur, Iowa. "If You were Here in Arthur, Iowa Rain or Shine Any Old Weather Would be Fine."--title page. Number 2103.
Birdseye view of Anthon, Iowa
Looking east at the town of Anthon, Iowa, with the Little Sioux River in the far background. One can also see the school house rising above the town in the center of the picture. Handwritten date on postcard reads Aug. 15, 1907. 1907 postmark. Number 3.
C.R.I. & P. Railway Station, Atlantic, Iowa
The Rock Island Depot located at the north end of Chestnut Street in Atlantic was once listed as one of Iowa's most endangered properties, but was saved and restored. Located at 102 Chestnut Street, Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Number 12032.
Court house, Atlantic, Iowa
Looking northwest at the Cass County Court House. The fourth and final courthouse constructed of Indiana limestone and standing three-stories high cost $119,000. It was dedicated on December 26, 1934. It was one of 10 county courthouses built in Iowa during the New Deal Era as part of the federal Public Works Administration. Located at 5 West Seventh Street, Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa, Listed in the National Register of Historical Places. Number M-424.
Creamery at Artesian, Iowa
Started in 1887 by J.W. Matthias and Son, it became the Artesian Cooperative Creamery Co., in 1890 when 33 area farmers purchased the business from Mathias. this one-story stone building with large smokestack was located on US Highway 63. A motorcycle with sidecar is parked out front on left with chickens in the yard. Number 3.
Deluxe cabins, Highways 9 and 44, Armstrong, Iowa
One story wooden cabins with "cabins eat" sign in foreground.
Diving at Lake Okoboji, Arnold's Park, Iowa
Children diving off of wooden diving board in Lake Okoboji. Boat in the background. Number 26.
East side Main Street, Atkins, Iowa
Looking northeast at a one-story wooden post office on the right established in 1902 in Atkins, Iowa.
Cass County (Iowa) (12) + -
Atlantic (Iowa) (10) + -
Commercial facilities (9) + -
Vehicles (7) + -
Educational facilities (6) + -
Railroads, Illinois Central (6) + -
Stores & shops (6) + -
Commercial streets (5) + -
Government facilities (5) + -
40.949435, -94.21912 (1) + -
Historic Iowa Postcards (40) + -
Iowa Historical Postcard Collection (IHPC) (1) + -
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line727
|
__label__cc
| 0.712249
| 0.287751
|
Commercial facilities (x)
(All Cars Stop at Talbott's) Broad St. N. From 4th Ave., Grinnell, Iowa
Transposed photo of trolley (right) onto Broad Street photo. 1912 postmark.
1907 Fire in Iowa Falls, Iowa
Aerial view looking northwest from Maytag Hotel, Newton, Iowa
View of shops on North 2nd Avenue East and in background the Maytag plant. Number 65687. Series 408-D-5. Verso says:Newton is generally referred to as "The manufacturing center of the Middle West" and the Maytag Company seen in the distance is the world's largest manufacturer of washing machines."
Aerial view of Banker's Life, Des Moines, Iowa
Looking northwest. Verso says: Aerial view of Banker's Life, 4 of Des Moines, Iowa's 193 churches, the Telephone Building and Television towers looming in the background. St. Paul's Episcopal Church is circled in red. Number 65696.
Air view of Council Bluffs, Iowa
Looking northeast at an aerial view of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Bayliss Park is in the right-hand corner of the image. Verso: Council Bluffs, located in Southwestern Iowa, near the geographical center of the U.S.A. has a population of nearly 50,000. Its history goes back to 1804 when Lewis and Clark held council with the Indians on the high bluffs overlooking the Missouri River. 1964 postmark.
Alta State Bank, Alta, Iowa
A corner view of a two-story brick building with Doctor Johnson's office and a barber pole on the left and a telegraph office and shoe store on the right. Number 8.
Amana General Store, Amana, Iowa
Street scene showing the Main Office of the Amana Society, General Store and Post Office. The Amana colonies are old in the story of Iowa, almost as old as the state itself. The site for the colonies was chosen in 1854 by their inspired leader Christian Metz.--t.p. verso. Located at 4423 220th Trail, Amana, Iowa County, Iowa. Number 66660. Series A-4.
Amana Meat Shop, Amana, Iowa
Home of the Famous Westphalian Sugar Cured Hams and Bacons Shipped to Gourmets all over the World, and will keep indefinitely without spoiling because of their unique curing process.--t.p. verso. Number P97997.
Bank and Street Scene, Hawarden, Iowa
Bankers Life Company, home office building, Des Moines, Iowa
Looking northeast from High Street. Verso says: The Bankers Life Company, established in 1879 by Edward Temple, a pioneer Iowa banker in the best life insurance company west of the Mississippi River. Located at 711 High Street, Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. 1947 postmark. Number 0B-H565.
Grinnell College Libraries Special Collections (Supporting Host) (83) + -
Grinnell College Libraries Special Collections (8) + -
Baker, J.G., Columbus Junction, Iowa (photographer) (1) + -
Benedict, V.E. (photographer) (1) + -
Dalton (photographer) (1) + -
Helen Lewandowski (Scanned By) (1) + -
Hunt, Enos B. (Des Moines, Iowa) (photographer) (1) + -
Iowa Development Commission (photographer) (1) + -
Jones, Tom (Cincinnati, Ohio) (photographer) (1) + -
Stores and shops (214) + -
Dirt roads (116) + -
Stores & shops (112) + -
Vehicles (95) + -
Financial facilities (61) + -
Banks (47) + -
41.728745,-92.445445 (2) + -
Historic Iowa Postcards (605) + -
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line729
|
__label__wiki
| 0.534065
| 0.534065
|
Photograph (x)
1227 Broad Street
Photograph of the house at 1227 Broad Street built in 1882 for William Beaton, a piano tuner. His daughter became a national known pianist and the veranda visible in the photograph was hers. The house was taken down in 1934.
The house at 1303 Park Street was built by and for David R. Warburton, owner of the Warburton, Richardson, and Phelps lumberyard, about 1900. The Grinnell Herald of Jan 1, 1901, cited it as the "handsomest house built this past season...and one of the prettiest Grinnell affords and...certainly a model of attractive interior"
Exterior shot of one side of 1315 Park Street. No longer standing.
Photographs of the house at 1407 Sixth Avenue. Built in1868 for Mr. Hobart, a lumber man. Hobart Street is named for him. Hobart had been a soldier in the 46th Infantry (100 days) and a local musician. Other owners included the Clifton Family, Lois Clifton Meacham and her sister. Lois Meacham's grandmother (Clifton) took off the veranda, cupola, and cornices, replaced the original floor-length windows and added a front stoop and porch. The house now has a number of apartments.,
Photograph of the house at 1807 Fourth Ave. Originally owned by Luke Newton Sherman. Built in 1883 and first occupied on New Year's Day, 1884. Later owned by Kathy and Dan Tindall.
1882 Cyclone - Corner of 7th and Broad
Photograph of the aftermath of the 1882 cyclone that destroyed much of the town of Grinnell. 7th Ave. runs through the center of the photo, Broad Street is on the left.
Photograph of the damage to the business district caused by the 1889. The photo was taken from the railroad tower across Main Street. The Congregational Church is visible in the back center of the image. Main Street is on the left and Central Park on the far right. The fire started in two grain elevators next to the railroad around noon. The presumption is that a spark from the railroad ignited the very flammable contents of the elevators. The fire destroyed everything not constructed of brick. In 1891, the whole center of the block to the north burned.
1889 Fire Damage - 2
Photograph of damage to the business district caused by the fire of 1889. The scene is looking NE across the railroad to the Congregational Church. Central Park is on the right. The fire started in a grain elevator next to the railroad. The wind blew NE and then East. At the center of the photo, brick buildings are still standing. Some buildings on Main and 4th also remained. Lost to the fire were the post office, the implement store on Commercial Street (a replica was built at Living History Farms), the fire department, and other businesses As a result of the fire, the City Council then set up a fire zone and forbade the use of wooden awnings. The width of Commercial Street, which varied, was also made uniform.
1941 Overview of Town
Overview from a photograph taken in 1941 showing Main Street to Broad and 4th. Grinnell House (hotel) is in the lower lefthand corner.
1962 Varsity Soccer Team
1962 Varsity Soccer Team First Row: Al MacKnight, Bill Montfort, Jim Soble, Don Cook, Dave Scott, and Vince Anka. Second Row: Jim Ramsay, Ed Jones, Sandy Stern, Neil Weiner, Stu During, Ed Johnson, and Frank Chilingulo. Third Row: Coach Irv Simone, Dave Danley, John Johnson, Vance Opperman, Steve Brooks, Will Van Horne, and Steve Ellenwood. There is an additional photo of Bill Montfort controlling the ball in an undated scrimmage.
Henry, George T. (author) (26) + -
Mcmullin, Roger W. (author) (23) + -
Schultz, John (author) (23) + -
McMullin (author) (13) + -
Office of College Relations (supporting host) (13) + -
Information Service (supporting host) (10) + -
Robertson, Jack (author) (7) + -
Grinnell College. Communications Office. (supporting host) (5) + -
Grinnell (58) + -
Grant (53) + -
commencement (50) + -
Family Life (26) + -
New Student Day (21) + -
StillImage (2) + -
g (5) + -
Grinnell College Buildings (94) + -
Kleinschmidt Architectural History (51) + -
John Kleinschmidt Collection (51) + -
Poweshiek History Preservation Project (49) + -
Grinnell College Building History (5) + -
Abolition (1) + -
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line730
|
__label__wiki
| 0.762652
| 0.762652
|
On May 13, Disney Channel will host the premiere of the Russian fantastic animated series “Heroes of Envell”, produced by the animation studio “Parovoz”, commissioned by the company Digital Television Russia. Young viewers will be able to go on an exciting journey in the world of computer games, go through interesting quests and make incredible discoveries in the company of young guides through the maze of virtual reality.
The animated series “Heroes of Envell” tells about four schoolchildren from St. Petersburg addicted to computer games. Sixth graders Art, Vic, Phil, and Kira find a laptop with an unusual adventure game, "Heroes of Envell". The laptop unveils a secret portal to enter the game world. This alternate universe is overtaken by a villain, Morgarth, and his loyal witch assistant, Salamandra. The game realm is not enough; the villains want to take over the real one too. Our heroes are the only ones who can stop Morgarth’s invasion plan, as they can go in and out of both worlds.
The characters of the animated series “Heroes of Envell” have already managed to win the love of many fans, and the long-awaited showing of three final episodes of the project will be a wonderful gift for them. These episodes will not only dot the I’s in the fascinating plot of the first season, but also hint the audience what will happen to Art, Vic, Phil, and Kira in the continuation of “Heroes of Envell”.
The director and main author of the cartoon is Anton Lanshakov, whose portfolio includes work on such popular projects as “Be-Be-Bears” and “Fantasy Patrol”. The animated series “Heroes of Envell” was commissioned by the company Digital Television Russia and created by the “Parovoz” Studio. The second season, consisting of 26 episodes, is in production.
Watch “Heroes of Envell” from May 13 from Monday to Thursday at 19:05 on Disney Channel!
Find out more about the animated series “Heroes of Envell”
Disney Channel Premiere: May 13, 19:05
Production: Russia, 2019
Director and main author: Anton Lanshakov
Age marking: 6+
Plot: The action of the animated series takes place in our time in St. Petersburg. Four friends - Art, Vic, Phil, and Kira - the coolest gamers in the school. Once they find an unusual laptop that turns out to be a portal to the world of the computer game “Heroes of Envell”, where there is a place for both the style of the Middle Ages and the technologies of the distant future. Finding themselves in Envell, the kids initiated a fascinating quest. Passing it will not be easy, but the heroes will not be bored either!
Signal Media will take part at MIPTV and MIPDoc
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line731
|
__label__wiki
| 0.578437
| 0.578437
|
Tag Archives: 1980s
What to Watch in October
Posted by Chris Faupel on September 28, 2011
October appears to be the month of Hollywood uninspired remakes and throwbacks. Why is it so acceptable in the megabucks film industry to be unoriginal? Anyway, this installment of my “What to Watch” series shows you just how few amazing films are pumping out of the studios these days. Strikethroughs are strongly discouraged viewing.
Dirty Girl by Abe Sylvia. An interesting cast rounds out this indie-feeling teen road movie/comedy which was helmed by a former-Cats-dancer-turned-UCLA Film School Grad. I say give it a chance. With tinges of Raising Arizona and Easy A it appears to have a nice balance of comedy and drama.
The Ides of March by George Clooney. Political intrigue Clooney style looks to be light on the politics and heavy on the intrigue. Clooney’s smart-man genre has both stood out and fallen through the cracks in the past, but I’m looking forward to this one. The addition of the of-late, ever-present Ryan Gosling certainly can’t hurt either.
Real Steel by Shawn Levy. So the brilliant movie concept here was to make a film based on that game with the boxing robots 10-year old’s used to play in the 80s? Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Something or Other. What actually bothers me more though is that I’m fairly certain this idea has already been put to celluloid by Spielberg, Scott and/or Cameron at some point in the past 30 years. And while Michael Bay is my favorite summer movie director of the lot, I’m pretty sure any Transformers flick will overshadow this thing to a middle schooler.
Texas Killing Fields by Ami Canaan Mann. Is it wrong to wish you were related to a famous filmmaker? That seems to give a number of young filmmakers in recent years the power to write and direct and actually find backing for their projects. Oddly enough though their projects are many times not nearly as great as someone unrelated to a hit director. So this run-of-the-mill crime drama doesn’t really stand out, but the trailer is relatively taut and looks like it will fit right in between two more movies on Cinemax on a Friday night.
Toast by S. J. Clarkson. Standard British coming-of-age drama with Helena Bonham Carter and Freddie Highmore. Nothing to get to excited about, but it’s bound to be endearing.
The Way by Emilio Estevez. Ok, so we’re back to classic Hollywood nepotism in our October lineup. This time in a film starring Martin Sheen and directed by none other than Emilio Estevez! Interestingly though, even for a real life father and son to play off each other in the film, their acting almost comes across a little subpar. Check out the trailer, it almost feels like their conversation is scripted, when even if it was, you’d think they’d play off each other a little better. Anyway, it’s a cute, typical looking journey film, but nothing career defining.
The Big Year by David Frankel. Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson as comedic trio in a film about competitive bird watching? Yeah… I’m not really feeling it either. Sounds like a fun rental though!
Footloose by Craig Brewer. It pains me greatly to say that the stellar Brewer, coming off creating some of the best neo-exploitation films of the past ten years, would stoop to the level of a remake – already. In the realm of cult classic dance movies of the 80s, you’d not expect to see Footloose cropping up ahead of that other one… but, alas, here it comes. So kick off your Sunday shoes and get comfy.
The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodóvar. There’s no way I would miss any new film by th is Spanish auteur, but this one just looks gloriously dark, creepy and quite apropos for October. Antonio Banderas, working with Almodóvar for the first time since their last disturbing work together (the 1990 NC-17er Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), plays a sociopath/plastic surgeon who experiments on women he holds captive in his mansion. And, if you like this film, definitely check out the amazing short by filmmaker Sébastien Rossignol, Le Miroir.
The Thing by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Watch the red band trailer here. Ok, I admit, I’m kind of a 70s and 80s trashy film nerd, so yeah I love John Carpenter’s The Thing, and while it disheartens me to see that it’s being remade (like everything else lately), I’m a little excited underneath it all to see it in maybe a slicker, gorier version than before. I’ll have to go a little hypocrite here, and say I appreciate the facelift on this schlocky horror gem.
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey by Constance Marks. I really dig personal journey and inspiration documentaries like this, so I may be a little biased here, but I would recommend giving this film a shot.
Father of Invention by Trent Cooper. 2010 holdover and weak comedy about a Kevin Spacey character who is released form white collar prison life and has to shack up with his daughter and work at a Hollywood-type Walmart. Pass.
Margin Call by J. C. Chandor. High drama in the banking and investment world seems to be a theme of a lot of films lately (no surprise), this one is run of the mill and sports a 50/50 cast. This seems a genre better suited to the likes of Oliver Stone and/or David Mamet.
Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin. There’s a new Olsen girl in town! Her name’s Elizabeth. From the looks of it, she’s not interested in following in the footsteps of her sisters oeuvre, and instead has debuted her acting career in this indie Sundance word-of-mouther about the titular, multi-personaed girl who is part of a religious cult. See? Now here’s that originality I’ve been looking for!
Paranormal Activity 3 by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman. The first was relatively captivating, but two sequels since then? Paranormal stuff is better viewed on basic cable when it comes on without knowing after an Anthony Bourdain marathon.
Revenge of the Electric Car by Chris Paine. I can only hope this film makes some waves.
The Three Musketeers by Paul W.S. Anderson. Another unnecessary remake of a perfectly suitable classic. The story is one of those that really looks better in classic film form anyway, so upgrading this one seems a little gratuitous. On the other hand, Paul W.S. Anderson has been known to do some pretty decent action flicks, and the obvious addition of Milla Jovovich is more than welcomed.
Anonymous by Roland Emmerich. Summer movie maven Emmerich slows it down for the Fall and tries out Shakespeare instead of catastrophe. Same premise, of course: he wants to turn The Bard on its head (sort of like humanity). Yes, this film is of the position that Shakespeare did not actually write his world-renown plays, and that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford did. Pleasantly surprised; this appears to be a step up for Emmerich. Rhys Ifans’ and David Thewlis are always great, too.
In Time by Andrew Niccol. No stranger to this sub-genre, director Niccol creates a future where humans are genetically engineered and designed to die at the ripe old age of 25. In the cliched future-film/suspense genre there’s always one individual who breaks away from the mold and goes on the run, chased by whatever futuristic armed and uniformed drones the screenwriter has come up with – and, while this film doesn’t really look any different (despite the unique life-span concept), it does have the gorgeous Olivia Wilde playing a (…wait for it) mom. Commence dirty acronyms… now.
Johnny English Reborn by Oliver Parker. The inimitable Roman Atkinson dusts off the 007-parody character Johnny English and gives it another try after almost a decade.
Like Crazy by Drake Doremus. Director Doremus is a Sundance veteran now, but as I’ve said many times on this blog, don’t see a movie just because it played Sundance. Do, however, see Like Crazy because it’s heartfelt, realistic, humorous and painful all in one – and for me – it’s hits home all too much (but that’s for another blog, another day). This is solid work and great indication of what’s to come from this fledgling filmmaker.
The Rum Diary by Bruce Robinson. Okay, well you’ve got three things to consider here: 1.) Hunter S. Thompson; 2.) Bruce Robinson; 3.) Johnny Depp. Add them all together and you’ve got a winning combination in my mind, however I haven’t seen the film yet, but if Robinson’s cult classics How to Get Ahead in Advertising and Withnail & I are any indication, this film will be witty, effervescent, and full of colorful characters.
Sleeping Beauty by Julia Leigh. In a film “presented by” Jane Campion you can expect the material to be pretty raw and jolting, but Leigh’s film has the eerie, off-kilter presence of Dogtooth and the concept and tone of Eyes Wide Shut. Not to be confused with the children’s story, this is very adult-oriented material. A young college student (Emily Browning) takes a job as a “sleeping beauty” in a venue where men pay to watch her as she sleeps.
Leave a comment Posted in General Tagged 1970s, 1980s, Andrew Niccol, Anonymous, Being Elmo, Bruce Robinson, Cannes, coming soon, craig brewer, Dirty Girl, Drake Doremus, Elizabeth Olsen, England, Father of Invention, Footloose, George Clooney, Hunter S. Thompson, In Time, Jane Campion, John Carpenter, Johnny Depp, Johnny English, Johnny English Reborn, Julia Leigh, Kevin Spacey, Le Miroir, Like Crazy, Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Olivia Wilde, Paranormal Activity 3, Paul W.S. Anderson, Pedro Almodovar, Real Steel, remake, Revenge of the Electric Car, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Roland Emmerich, Rowan Atkinson, Ryan Gosling, Sebastien Rossignol, Shakespeare, Sleeping Beauty, summer movie, Sundance, Texas Killing Fields, The Big Year, The Ides of March, The Olsen Twins, The Rum Diary, The Skin I Live In, The Thing, The Three Musketeers, The Way, Toast
Posted by Chris Faupel on August 1, 2010
Growing up as a kid, Predator was one of my favorite films. Seeing it with my dad on cable and watching the lone Schwarzenegger tear through the Guatemalan jungle with his Gatlin gun and gusto, switching between predator and prey with the cloaking alien is pretty much grounds for an awesome film. It was simple and direct in its story and purpose that it allowed its audience to just enjoy.
Predators (not to be confused with Predator – the original film in this series from 1987 that I referenced above) is pretty similar stuff. Its sort of like a poor cross between a remake and a sequel, the problem is remakes (and sequels too) usually build on the cool factor of the previous film(s). You know, raise the bar, so to speak. Enhance the special effects, enhance the scale of the action sequences. Predators fails to do any of that. In fact, in a way it sort of actually regresses. Too disappointed to even put this in essay format, below are my bulleted thoughts on why.
Things I liked about Predators:
The heat-sensor look and “Predator-vision” POV wasn’t changed from the 1987 film.
Things I didn’t like about Predators:
The trailer implies that there are like an army of Predators lurking in the woods hunting the humans. In the film, it appears there’s only three.
Topher Grace just happens to be carrying a scalpel?
Lack of special effects. I mean come on, it’s a freakin’ alien movie. I understand wanting to remain true to the original film which was gunfire, explosions and fighting, but I’d rather watch the original for that then pay $10 for this.
Topher Grace’s fortuitous turn as a “bad” guy. I think I laughed aloud.
These are supposed to be the “top predators” from Earth, but only one of them seems to have any true predator-like skill.
What happened to the last Predator dog?
I don’t like rape jokes.
Was that supposed to be a “Lost” joke at the beginning?
Why would Royce (Adrian Brody) cover himself in mud (so as to hide his body heat), but then use fire to camouflage himself? Wouldn’t his body show up blue against the orange fire on the Predator’s heat-sensor vision? Logically, he was defeating his own purpose, yet the film would have us believe otherwise.
How come if they’re not on Earth, but on some other planet, the doctor knows what kind of flower the poisonous one is? And furthermore, why does everything look like Earth? And how can they have our atmosphere?
Leave a comment Posted in Action / Adventure, Film Reviews, Genre Films, Horror, Science Fiction Tagged 1980s, Adrien Brody, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Guatemala, Predator, Predators, Topher Grace
What We Do Is Secret
Posted by Chris Faupel on June 3, 2010
The L.A. punk rock scene in the late ’70s produced a lot of noteworthy bands and even more one-hit wonders. None was so “one-hit” though as The Germs. Punk, as a subculture, is no stranger to violence and self-destruction, but L.A. punk was more clean-cut in its appeal than East Coast punk. More… glamorous. If there’s one area in which this cult classic-aspiring film What We Do Is Secret does excel, it’s depicting the systematic destruction of a punk icon by his need to maintain image.
Let’s break it down. First there’s the blue circle: perfection; a branding; lead singer Darby Crash (played by Shane West) always wears it. But the idea of punk rock is to not subscribe to a branding or perfection, so it seems in direct opposition to any punk band’s way of life. I think that’s what bothers me most about The Germs and singer Darby Crash in general. What’s more, this (in places) badly acted biopic of the rise and fall of the band hints at this same concern of mine (whether or not they intended too).
The Germs basically are started in a fit of milquetoast boredom. They don’t know how to play any of their instruments, the singing is less than spectacular, but the lyrics of Crash are decent and youthfully powerful. On their first gig, Crash feels compelled to slash himself across the chest with a shard of broken glass, in maybe in an effort to appear violent or menacing, but all he ends up looking is disillusioned. At any rate, the crowds in the punk scene are looking for anything that involves cutting or bashing or breaking or beating, so Crash finds himself causing disarray and horror at many of their following gigs. Once they get a bad name for themselves (with club owners), they basically can’t play anymore in L.A.
Do they every consider going anywhere else? No. Or, at least not Darby. But just when you think punks don’t travel, he heads off to London in a vain attempt to forget the capitalist suckling he’s been doing on both his mother-figure of a groupie/manager and the whatever little reward came of The Germs’ debut album getting a release. He comes back from London (where he was impressed by music that would not appear to be his style, e.g. The Go-Go’s, Adam and the Ants) with a mohawk and plays one final show in L.A. (the only one that will book him). When no one at the L.A. gig gets the new image (which you’d think the idea of being different was part of a punk rocker’s joie de vivre) the next time we see him he’s changed his hairstyle.
This film doesn’t do anyone justice and certainly doesn’t make any great, defining points. The Germs were always overshadowed by their own scene, always concerned with their own appearance and style and many of the members (who stayed on the longest) wanted to do something more with the band. The film also lightly infers Crash was homosexual, but then suddenly seems to drop it. At the end we see where apparently Crash died on the same night as John Lennon, so of course he was overshadowed by that too. Oh well.
Shane West apparently garnered some appreciation somewhere in his role as lead singer of The Germs, as the band reunited and have been touring with him since. Too bad I’ll never see them.
Leave a comment Posted in BioPic, Drama, Film Reviews, Indie, Music, Punk Tagged 1970s, 1980s, Darby Crash, Los Angeles, punks, Shane West, The Germs, What We Do Is Secret
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line733
|
__label__wiki
| 0.616706
| 0.616706
|
Access to Knowledge
Digital IDs
Are we Losing the Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech on Indian Internet?
The article was published in DNA on March 10, 2016.
Last month, it was reported that National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) had proposed the setting up of a National Media Analytics Centre (NMAC). This centre’s mandate would be to monitor blogs, media channels, news outlets and social media platforms. Sources were quoted as stating that the centre would rely upon a tracking software built by Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, an Assistant Professor at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology in Delhi. The NMAC seems to mirror other similar efforts in countries such as US, Canada, Australia and UK, to monitor online content for the reasons as varied as prevention of terrorist activities, disaster relief and criminal investigation.
The NSCS, the parent body that this centre will fall under, is a part of the National Security Council, India’s highest agency looking to integrate policy-making and intelligence analysis, and advising the Prime Minister’s Office on strategic issues as well as domestic and international threats. The NSCS represents the Joint Intelligence Committee and its duties include the assessment of intelligence from the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and Directorates of Military, Air and Naval Intelligence, and the coordination of the functioning of intelligence agencies.
From limited reports available, it appears that the tracking software used by NMAC will generate tags to classify post and comments on social media into negative, positive and neutral categories, paying special attention to “belligerent” comments. The reports say that the software will also try to determine if the comments are factually correct or not. The idea of a government agency systematically tracking social media, blogs and news outlets and categorising content as desirable and undesirable is bound to create a chilling effect on free speech online. The most disturbing part of the report suggested that the past pattern of writers’ posts would be analysed to see how often her posts fell under the negative category, and whether she was attempting to create trouble or disturbance, and appropriate feedback would be sent to security agencies based on it. Viewed alongside the recent events where actors critical of the government and holding divergent views have expressed concerns about attempts to suppress dissenting opinions, this initiative sounds even more dangerous, putting at risk individuals categorised as “negative” or “belligerent”, for exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech.
It has been argued that the Internet is a public space, and should be treated as subject to monitoring by the government as any other space. Further, this kind of analysis does not concern itself with private communication between two or more parties but only with publicly available information. Why must we raise eyebrows if the government is accessing and analysing it for the purposes of legitimate state interests? There are two problems with this argument. First, any surveillance of communication must always be limited in scope, specific to individuals, necessary and proportionate, and subject to oversight. There are no laws passed by the Parliament in India which allow for mass surveillance measures. Such activities are being conducted through bodies like NSC which came into existence through an Executive Order and have no clear oversight mechanisms built into its functioning. A quick look at the history of intelligence and surveillance agencies in India will show that none of them have been created through a legislation. A host of surveillance agencies have come up in the last few years including the Central Monitoring System, which was set up to monitor telecommunications, and the absence of legislative pedigree translates into lack of appropriate controls and safeguards, and zero public accountability.
The second and the larger issue is that the scale and level of granularity of personal information available now is unprecedented. Earlier, our communications with friends and acquaintances, our movements, our association, political or otherwise, were not observable in the manner it is today. It would be remiss to underestimate the importance of personal information merely because it exists in the public domain. The ability to act without being subject to monitoring and surveillance is key to the right to free speech and expression. While we accept the importance of free speech and the value of an open internet and newer technologies to enable it, we do not give sufficient importance to how these technologies are affecting the right to privacy.
In the last few years, the social media scene in India has been characterised by extreme polemic with epithets such as ‘bhakt’, ‘sanghi’, ‘sickular’ and ‘presstitutes’ thrown around liberally, turning political discussions into a mess of ugliness. It remains to be seen whether the NMAC intends to deal with the professional trolls who rely on a barrage of abuse to disrupt public conversations online. However, the appropriate response would not be greater surveillance, let alone a body like NMAC, with a sweeping mandate and little accountability.
Link to the original here.
Filed under: Freedom of Speech and Expression, Surveillance, Internet Governance, Privacy
The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of their individual authors. Unless the opposite is explicitly stated, or unless the opposite may be reasonably inferred, CIS does not subscribe to these views and opinions which belong to their individual authors. CIS does not accept any responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the views and opinions of these individual authors. For an official statement from CIS on a particular issue, please contact us directly.
Freedom of Speech and Expression, Surveillance, Internet Governance, Privacy
Amber Sinha
DIDP #34 On granular detail on ICANN's budget for policy development process
The Impact of Consolidation in the Internet Economy on the Evolution of the Internet
Picking ‘Wholes’ - Thinking in Systems Workshop
Announcement of a Three-Region Research Alliance on the Appropriate Use of Digital Identity
Workshop on Feminist Information Infrastructure
Internet Speech: Perspectives on Regulation and Policy
SOTM Asia 2018
Workshop on Cybersecurity Illustrations
Roundtable on Cyber-security and the Private Sector
Symposium on India’s Cyber Strategy
Kusuma Trust
Kusuma Trust supports innovation, new developments in higher education, training and advocacy, all of which have enormous potential to benefit society.
Bengaluru: No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. Location on Google Map. 080 4092 6283.
Delhi: First floor, B 1/8, Hauz Khas, near G Block market, take the gate opposite Southy, New Delhi, 110016. Location on Google Map. 011 4050 3285
Please help us defend citizen and user rights on the Internet!
You may donate online via Instamojo. Or, write a cheque in favour of ‘The Centre for Internet and Society’ and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd ‘C’ Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071.
Follow our Works
Newsletter: Subscribe
Twitter (CIS): @cis_india
Twitter (CIS-A2K): @cisa2k
Request for Collaboration
We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil[at]cis-india[dot]org or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro[at]cis-india[dot]org, with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in.
In general, we offer financial support for collaborative/invited works only through public calls.
The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfiguration of social processes and structures through the internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa.
Through its diverse initiatives, CIS explores, intervenes in, and advances contemporary discourse and regulatory practices around internet, technology, and society in India, and elsewhere.
Organisational Policies
© Centre for Internet & Society
Unless otherwise specified, content licensed under Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line734
|
__label__wiki
| 0.557192
| 0.557192
|
Alison Wright Quotes
United Kingdom, Actress
Alison Wright (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. She is best known for her role on the television series The Americans, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2017. Wright's notable roles were in the film The Accountant (2016), as well as on the television series Sneaky Pete (2015–2018) and Feud (2017).
All I can say is in the world of 'The Americans,' like in life, if you're not dead, there's hope.
Alison Wright
Sometimes as an actor, it's really hard to give yourself permission to take your time and move slowly and not feel like you're holding people up or you should be going faster.
I'm very proud of the fact that the women on 'The Americans' are written to be equally complex as the men.
In a second, fate can send a bus crashing into you and change your life---or not.
C. J. Cherryh
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line735
|
__label__wiki
| 0.7368
| 0.7368
|
Quasi electrical contact behaviors of metal micro-contacts for micro/nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS)
dc.contributor.author Qiu, Haodong
dc.identifier.citation Qiu, H. (2015). Quasi electrical contact behaviors of metal micro-contacts for micro/nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS). Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
dc.description.abstract The electrical contact behavior of metal micro-contacts is of significant importance in various fields of science and engineering, and it has not yet been adequately understood compared to the bulk metal contacts. Specifically, in DC contact type of microelectromechanical (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) devices, the metal contact is one of the most crucial parts, as it determines the device performance and is closely related to the reliability issues. In order to investigate the degradation mechanism of the metal contacts under different testing conditions, load cycling tests have been performed using MEMS switches. The micro-contact behavior during a single load test has also been intensively studied. The electrical contact resistance (Rc) as a key parameter was characterized and analyzed to understand the contact behavior. In general, the relation between Rc and contact force Fc can be divided into three regions for a typical contact cycle. It starts from an unstable contact region (Region I) with drastic fluctuations of Rc, followed by a stable but gradual reduction of Rc in Region II and reaches a steady state with low Rc in Region III. A minimum contact force Fmin is required to establish the stable electrical contact. When the contact force exceeds Fmin (in Region II), the gradual reduction of Rc could be attributed to plastic deformation of surface asperities until the high force region (Region III), in which Rc is determined by film thickness effects on a macroscopic scale. The metal-to-metal contact behaviors have been widely studied by many different research groups. However, the unstable electrical contact behavior under low contact force (Region I) remains unexamined. In conventional MEMS switches, the contact force is believed to be larger than Fmin for most cases. Therefore, past studies of contact behavior mainly focused on the stable region, including the load cycling tests. On the other hand, there is an ongoing demand to scale down the MEMS components towards sub-micrometer and nanometer dimensions, in which the contact force could be drastically reduced. Therefore, it becomes necessary to look into the unstable contact region of metal micro-contacts. In this thesis, the electrical contact instability is investigated. A nanoindentation stage was utilized for the contact tests under precisely controlled experiential conditions (various combinations of applied voltage, contact material, surface treatment, etc.). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques were used to characterize the sample surface. The results reveal that the contamination film on the metal contact surface, which may originate from the residues of microfabrication process or absorption of air-borne species such as hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide, plays a critical role in determining the micro-contact behavior under low contact force. The rapid fluctuations of contact resistance in the unstable region could be explained under the framework of electron tunneling through the alien contamination film. The asperity deformation process, which was conventionally observed in the stable region, is also observed at the initial stage of contact formation. To better understand the unstable contact behavior, the electrical conduction noise of DC contact type MEMS switches has been analyzed. In the power spectral density (PSD) curve of the electrical conduction noise, Lorentzian and 1/f 2 components are clearly identified. The 1/f 2 noise can be attributed to the inhomogeneous local conductivity of the thin gold film, while the Lorentzian spectrum is closely related to the electrical contact instability in the unstable contact region. The contact voltage fluctuation shows a typical two-level RTS behavior with “on” and “off” states, which could be caused by the trapping and detrapping of electrons in the alien film. This is in good agreement with the Lorentzian component in the low frequency noise (LFN) spectrum. Moreover, the relaxation time extracted from the Lorentzian component is used to determine the trap density. The electrical contact formation process between metal contacts with an alien film was further investigated in detail with statistical means. It is unveiled that the electrical conduction in the contamination film follows the weakest-link principle. The occurrence of the switching event (fluctuation between “on” and “off” states) has an independent character, till the generation of certain “weak” spots close to the end of the unstable region. The electrical contact formation process is found to be electrical field enhanced and sensitive to the thickness of the contamination film by Weibull analysis. A geometrical picture could be used to describe the breakdown of the insulating alien film, in which the stable electrical contact is eventually established by overlapping “weak” spots that form a percolation path between the micro-contacts. The results provide further insights into the contact formation process in the MEMS/NEMS devices. In addition, a comparative contact study was conducted between Au-to-Au and Ru-to-Ru contacts, to investigate the effects of various stressing conditions on the quasi electrical contact behaviors. Time-to-stable contact formation tSCF is shown to be an effective indicator of the surface conditions. It is found that Au-to-Au contact is relatively stable upon cycling under the force level of conventional MEMS switches, as the contamination film on the contact surface is rather persistent. On the other hand, Ru-to-Ru contact is sensitive to the loading cycles as well as the applied voltage during cycling, which could be due to the partially filled d-band electron structures of Ru, and the surface chemical reactions related to localized joule heating at the contact spot. A new and effective in situ approach is demonstrated to study the degradation of metal contact surface during cycling, which is of great importance for the reliability of DC type of MEMS/NEMS devices. en_US
dc.subject DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Microelectromechanical systems en_US
dc.title Quasi electrical contact behaviors of metal micro-contacts for micro/nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) en_US
dc.contributor.supervisor Wang Hong en_US
dc.description.degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (EEE) en_US
Qiu Haodong_PhD Thesis.pdf 4.004Mb application/pdf View/Open
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line736
|
__label__wiki
| 0.536375
| 0.536375
|
Boccia Classification Rules 3rd Edition 2017
https://dragif.com/pdf/aH1B
Download: Boccia-Classifi…n-2017.pdf
navod na udrzbu oken a dveri vokno
Jak fotit železnici a vlaky
SuperDRIVE: Branch Manager
prez8 edit1
cenik EXPRO C1 2018.05.21
Boží plán spasení a soudu
Odhalení pomníku pí.Srbové 1
koniklec invitation A3
Časopis Sovak č. 1, 2018
Transcript text content of a PDF document Boccia-Classification-Rules-3rd-Edition-2017.pdf:
BOCCIA CLASSIFICATION RULES
rd Edition Jan 2017
BISFed Classification Rules – 3rd Edition, Jan 2017
. Purpose, Eligibility and Definitions .................................................... 4
1.1 Purpose .................................................................................................. 4
1.2 Eligible Participants ................................................................................ 4
2. Athlete Evaluation ........................................................................... 5
2.1 Purpose of Classification ......................................................................... 5
2.2 Classification Personnel ........................................................................... 5
2.3 National Classifications ............................................................................ 6
2.4 International Classification at Sanctioned Competitions .............................. 6
2.5 Classification: Scheduling, Substitutions and Preparation ............................ 7
2.6 Classification: Athlete Evaluation ............................................................... 7
2.7 Classification: Athlete Evaluation Process ................................................... 9
2.8 Classification: Sport Class and Sport Class Status ....................................... 10
2.9 Classification: Notification of Sport Class and Sport Class Status ............... 13
2.10 Classification: Identity Cards ………………………………………………................ 15
2.11 Classification: Master List ................................................................... 15
2.12 Classification: Athlete Failure to attend Evaluation .................................... 16
2.13 Classification: Suspension of Athlete Evaluation ..................................... 15
2.14 Classification: Intentional Misrepresentation ............................................. 17
2.15 Classification: Failure to Attend/Misrepresentation and Consequences
for Athlete Support Personnel ................................................................. 18
2.16 Publication of Penalties …........................................................................ 18
2.17 Medical Review …………………………………………………………………………………….19
3. Protests and Appeals ....................................................................... 19
3.1 Protests .................................................................................................. 19
3.2 Parties Permitted to Make a Protest .......................................................... 20
3.3 National Federation Protest ……………................................................... 20
3.4 National Federation Protest Procedure .................................................... 21
3.5 BISFed Protest ………………………………………………….................................. 22
3.6 BISFed Protest Procedure ......................................................................... 22
3.7 Resolving a Protest: The Protest Panel …………………………………………………… 23
3.8 Provisions Where no Protest Panel Available ………………………………………….. 24
3.9 Appeals ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24
3.10 Appeals Procedure ………………………………………………………………………………. 24
4. Classification and Sport Profiles ........................................................ 26
4.1 Methods of Classification ………………………………………………………………………. 26
4.2 Boccia Physical Profiles …………………………………………………………………………. 29
4.2.1 BC 1 ……….......................................................................................... 29
4.2.2 BC 2 …................................................................................................... 33
4.2.4 BC 4 ...................................................................................................... 38
4.2.5 BC 5 …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 43
4.2.6 Sport Class NE …………………………………………………………………………………… 48
5. Classification Personnel ……………….................................................... 49
5.1 BISFed International Classification Personnel.............................................. 49
5.2 Levels of Classifiers in BISFed …..……………................................................ 49
5.3 Responsibilities and Duties of Classification Personnel …………….................. 51
5.4 Classifiers Pathway ……….…................................................................ 53
5.5 BISFed Classifier Accreditation Process ………………………………………………….. 54
5.6 Maintaining Classifiers Accreditation ………………………………………………………. 56
5.7 BISFed Classification Workshops …………………………………………………………… 57
6. Classifiers Code of Conduct …………….………………………………………………. 57
6.1 General Principles ………………………………………………………………………………… 57
7. Classification Administration and Development ……………………………….. 60
7.1 BISFed Classification Committee ……………………………………………………………. 60
7.2 Competition Classification Administration ................................................... 60
8. Glossary ........................................................................................ 63
9. Appendix A: Assessment of Athetosis/Dystonia ………………………………… 68
10. Appendix B: Assessment of Ataxia …………………………………………………. 69
11. Certificate of Diagnosis ……………………………………………………..………….. 71
12. Consent for Classification ……………………………………………………………… 73
1. Purpose, Eligibility and Definitions
Classification refers to the on-going process by which athletes are assessed
to determine the impact of their physical impairment on sport performance
and to ensure that there is fairness for all athletes within the sport.
Classification provides a structure for competition and takes place on a
Club, State, National, Regional and International level.
Classification has two important roles:
a. To determine eligibility of athletes to compete.
b. To group athletes for competition.
Every athlete wishing to compete in a Boccia event or competition must be
allocated a Sport Class and a Sport Class status in accordance with the
BISFed Classification Rules. All athletes will be assessed individually to
determine the effect of their impairment functionally and on their sporting
1.2 Eligible Participants
BISFed provides an opportunity for individuals to compete in Boccia if they
present with
A permanent severe neurological impairment in the Central Nervous
System (CNS) affecting all four limbs, including:
• spastic hypertonia,
• dystonia,
• athetosis
• ataxia
A severe locomotor dysfunction in all four limbs of NON-Cerebral origin
such as muscular skeletal disorders and limb deformities, including:
• impaired muscle power
• impaired passive range of movement
• limb deficiency
All athletes must provide medical evidence of their underlying
condition and clinical diagnosis.
Eligible participants for international competition must be 15 years or older
on the first day of January in that competition year. Exceptions are made
for YOUTH EVENTS.
2. Athlete Evaluation
2.1 Purpose of Classification
The purpose of classification is to ensure that sporting success is a result of
Athlete's training, skill level, talent and competitive experience rather than
their degree of impairment. Classification will ensure that an Athlete meets
the Minimum Impairment Criteria (as detailed in each classification physical
profile) and assesses the functional impact of their impairment on sport
Principles of Classification
Classifiers utilise a sport-specific classification system developed for Boccia
that includes physical, technical and observation components.
Classification in Boccia is composed of three distinct parts:
1. Physical assessment or Bench testing
2. Technical assessment including a range of sport specific tests and non-
sport tests, and
3. Observation assessment consisting of observation of sport-specific
activities on court and during competition.
Allocation of sport class is based on types of impairment associated with
Neuromuscular, Central Nervous system and musculoskeletal conditions,
such as coordination, muscle power and limb deformities, and severity of
impairments affecting fundamental activities related to the sport,
independent of skill level or athlete training.
2.2 Classification Personnel
The following personnel have a key role in the process of Classification:
Head of Classification
The Head of Classification (HOC) is the person that is responsible for the
direction, administration, coordination and implementation of classification
matters for BISFed.
Chief Classifier
The Chief Classifier will be a Classifier responsible for the direction,
administration, co-ordination and implementation of classification matters
for a specific BISFed Competition.
A Classifier is a person authorised as a technical official by BISFed to
evaluate Athletes for a sanctioned competition, while serving as a member
of a classification panel.
Classification Panel
A Classification Panel is a group of 2-3 Classifiers, appointed by BISFed for
a particular Competition, to determine Sport Class and Sport Class Status.
The panel will generally consist of a Physiotherapist and a physician and/or
sports technical expert.
2.3 National Classifications
All Athletes eligible to participate in BOCCIA should receive an initial
classification from their National Federation. Classification should be
conducted in accordance with the guidelines set out in the BISFed
Classification and Sport Profiles, and, in particular, National Classifiers
should be trained according to BISFed Classification Rules.
2.4 International Classification at Sanctioned
2.4.1 “International Classification” refers to the process of classification
that is undertaken at, or before, a BISFed sanctioned international
Competition. It is required before an Athlete may compete at such
International Classifications must be carried out by a BISFed
accredited and appointed multidisciplinary panel comprised of a
Physiotherapist together with a physician (ideally specialising in
Rehabilitation or Neurology) and/or a sports Technical expert.
Members of Classification Panels should have no significant
relationship with an Athlete (or a member of Athlete Support
Personnel) that might create any actual or perceived bias or
Conflict of Interest, and have no involvement with any decision
being protested or appealed. Should conflict arise the parties
concerned should raise these with the Chief Classifier. Members of
a Classification Panel should not have any other official
responsibilities within a Competition other than in connection with
classification.
2.4.4 A major Competition should have two (2) Classification Panels and
one Chief Classifier.
At the discretion of the Head of Classification, one Classification
Panel of 3 classifiers may be deemed sufficient for smaller
Competitions. If one Classification Panel only is present, no
Protests will be dealt with and nations will be notified of this in
initial entry information.
At smaller Competitions, the Chief Classifier may also act as a
Classifier.
7dequate time must be allocated at the beginning of a
Competition for Athlete Evaluation. At major events, a minimum
of two (2) full days is recommended, depending on the number of
Athletes to be classified.
2.5 Classification: Scheduling, Substitutions and
2.5.1 The Head of Classification (HOC) appoints a Chief Classifier (CC)
for the event, ideally at least three (3) months prior to a
Competition. Classification Panels are to be appointed two (2)
months before the event.
The HOC may also act as the Chief Classifier at a Competition.
The HOC and the Chief Classifier are to work with the Local
Organising Committee (LOC) for the Competition to prepare
Athlete lists. A minimum of four (4) weeks prior to the first day of
the Competition must be allowed for Athletes names to be
submitted to the HOC.
The Chief Classifier should provide the LOC and National
Federation teams with a classification evaluation schedule on or
before their arrival at the Competition. After that time, any
substitutions must be approved by the Chief Classifier and
Technical Delegate for the Sport.
2.6 Classification: Athlete Evaluation
“Athlete Evaluation” is the process, conducted in English, by which an
Athlete is assessed so as to determine both Sport Class, and Sport Class
It is the responsibility of the National Federation/Team Manager
to ensure that the Athlete attends evaluation.
The Athlete must appear at Classification at the assigned time in the
appropriate attire with a recognised form of identification, such as a
passport or an ID Card.
The following matters should be noted in relation to Athlete Evaluation:
• All Athletes must sign an Informed Consent Form (which include
that the Athlete must comply with all reasonable instructions given
by a Classification Panel)
• All Athletes, by way of their National Body, must provide evidence
that establishes the existence of a Health condition that leads to an
Eligible Impairment by presenting a completed medical information
form before they may be evaluated;
• The Athlete may be videotaped for classification and education
purposes;
• If an Athlete does not appear in appropriate attire they will not be
classified;
• If an Athlete has a health condition that causes pain which limits or
prohibits full effort during evaluation, they will not be evaluated at
that time. The Chief Classifier may, time permitting, re-schedule the
evaluation;
• The Athlete must provide information to the panel regarding impair-
ment, medication, medical device/implant and any surgery that
affects sport performance. If an Athlete has an unusual or
complicated impairment, it is required that the Athlete brings
information about the impairment written in English. Athletes must
present a full list of medications to the Classification Panel.
• A Classification Panel undertaking Athlete Evaluation may at any
stage seek additional medical and technical information, with the
agreement of the Head of Classification and/or Chief Classifier if
necessary to allocate a Sport Class.
• The Athlete must present with all necessary sports equipment that
they use at Competition such as ramps, pointers and gloves or
• Athletes may have one person (and, if required, an interpreter
arranged by the National Body) to accompany them at the
evaluation. This person should have an understanding of the
Athlete's impairment and sport performance. If needed, the person
may be asked by the Classifiers to assist with communication. If
the Athlete is a minor, that Athlete must be accompanied by a
member of the respective National body.
• If an Athlete has a seizure disorder which is a secondary
characteristic of cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injury, they will be
permitted to compete provided that the condition is controlled.
2.7 Classification: Athlete Evaluation Process
The Athlete Evaluation must take place in a manner that respects the
provision of the International standard for Classification Data Protection
and consistent with the provisions of the International Standard for
Classification Personnel and Training.
The Athlete Evaluation process shall encompass the following:
2.7.1 Physical Assessment
The Classification Panel will commence by gathering information on the
athlete’s medical background and history in the sport. The panel will then
conduct a physical assessment of the Athlete in accordance with methods
of assessment stipulated in the Classification Rules of BISFed.
The physical assessment may include, but is not limited to the exami-
nation by the Medical members of the Classification Panel (Doctor,
Physiotherapist).
Classifiers must be confident that the Athlete has performed to the best
of his/her capacity during the Physical assessment.
2.7.2 Technical Assessment
The technical assessment may include, but is not limited to, evaluation in
a non-competitive environment of the specific tasks and activities that are
part of the sport in which the Athlete participates.
Classifiers may apply certain conditions to the Athlete in order to observe
how the Athlete performs the activity under simulated sport conditions.
of his/her capacity during the technical assessment.
2.7.3 Classification in Competition
The Classification Panel will observe the Athlete performing the specific
skills that are part of the sport during training practice, in an event and/or
during pool play (i.e. prior to elimination/knockout stages).
Classification in Competition shall not be deemed to have been completed
until the Classification panel has observed the Athlete sufficiently during
competition. If for any reason the Classification panel is not satisfied with
observations at a specific competition, the athlete may enter the next
competition with a Competition Review Status (CRS) and will be observed
at the next BISFed sanctioned event.
2.7.4 Completion of Athlete Evaluation
Athlete Evaluation will be deemed to have been completed once the
matters referred to in 2.7.1, 2.7.2 and 2.7.3 above have been
completed to the satisfaction of the Classification Panel.
If Athlete Evaluation is not deemed by the Classification Panel to have
been completed, the Athlete will not be given a Sport Class, and will not
be eligible to participate in any part of the relevant Competition.
2.7.5 Data protection
All Classification data such as Personal Information and/or Sensitive
Personal Information provided by an Athlete and/or a National Body
and/or a Third Party to the Classification panel and collected by the
Classification panel through assessments, Video footage and/or
photography taken that the Athlete consented to will be processed in
order to allocate a Sports Class.
The data processed will be accurate, complete and kept up-to-date in a
secured BISFed database.
Individual Classifiers may only use the Classification data collected during
the classification process including video and photographs, notes,
comments or records written in connection with the role as a classifier on
the panel and may not retain or disclose any of the Classification data
after Athlete Evaluation is completed.
Classifiers is allowed to publish any video or photograph,
obtained during or after the classification process, on any form
of social media no matter what the purpose or intention are.
Video footage and/or photography may be utilised by the
Classification Panel for all classification purposes connected to
the Competition and if the athlete consented, used for training
purposes.
2.8 Classification: Sport Class and Sport Class Status
2.8.1 Sport Class
A Sport Class is a category in which Athletes are categorized by reference
to an Activity Limitation resulting from impairment, and the degree to
which that impairment impacts upon sport performance. A range of
function will exist within each Sport Class.
PDF file: Boccia-Classification-Rules-3rd-Edition-2017.pdf
Microsoft Word - Boccia Classification Rules 3rd Edition 2017.doc
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line738
|
__label__cc
| 0.719351
| 0.280649
|
Nursing (x) ›
Thomas, Margaret (x) ›
Theories of second language acquisition: Three sides, three angles, three points
Thomas, Margaret
Post-print version of an article published in Second Language Research 21(4): 393-414. doi:10.1191/0267658305sr258ra.
Interview with Margaret Thomas on Fifty key thinkers on language and linguistics, by Margaret Thomas
The Child Language Data Exchange System in research on second language acquisition
Rutherford, William, Thomas, Margaret
Post-print version of an article published in Second Language Research 17(2): 195-212. doi:10.1177/026765830101700203.
Roger Bacon and Martin Joos: Generative linguistics reading of the past
Post-print version of an article published in Historiographia Linguistica 29(3): 339-378. doi:10.1075/hl.29.3.05tho.
Plato's problems and Plato's problem
Post-print version of an article published in Language & Communication 23(1): 81-91. doi:10.1016/S0271-5309(02)00023-X.
Names, epithets, and pseudonyms in linguistic case studies: A historical overview
Post-print version of an article published in Names A Journal of Onomastics 58(1): 13-23. doi:10.1179/175622710X12590782367982.
Two textbook representations of second language acquisition and Universal Grammar: "Access" versus "constraint"
Post-print version of an article published in Second Language Research 19(4): 359-376. doi:10.1191/0267658303sr229oa.
Development of the concept of the poverty of the stimulus
"Units of comparison" across languages, across time
Post-print version of an article published in Second Language Research 25(2): 325-333. doi:10.1177/0267658308100292.
The evergreen story of Psammetichus inquiry into the origin of language
Post-print version of an article published in Historiographia Linguistica 34(1): 37-62. doi:10.1075/hl.34.1.04tho.
Rutherford, William (1) + -
article (8) + -
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line741
|
__label__wiki
| 0.590255
| 0.590255
|
Justia Dockets & Filings Eleventh Circuit Alabama Northern District Daniel v. Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC Filing 1
Daniel v. Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC
Filing 1
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER directing the Clerk to Sever Cases. Signed by Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins on 7/19/2012. (JLC)
Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 FILED Filed 07/19/12 Page 1 of 12 2012 Sep-21 PM 01:12 2012 Jul-19 AM 09:51 U.S. DISTRICT COURT N.D. OF ALABAMA IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA EASTERN DIVISION CEDRIC D. BURROUGHS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. HONDA MANUFACTURING OF ALABAMA, LLC, Defendant. ) ) ) ) ) Case No.: 1:08-CV-1239-VEH ) ) ) ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER I. INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY This lawsuit arises under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) against Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC (“HMA”). The named plaintiffs in this action are Cedric Burroughs (“Mr. Burroughs”), Eddie Caldwell (“Mr. Caldwell”), and Angela Blake (“Ms. Blake”) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”). On April 6, 2009, the court conditionally permitted Plaintiffs to proceed as a collective action under the FLSA. (Doc. 67). Pending before the court is HMA’s Motion To Decertify the Collective Action and Dismiss Opt-In Plaintiffs’ Claims (the “Motion”) (Doc. 154) filed on September 6, 2011. The parties have filed numerous materials in support of and in opposition Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 2 of 12 to the Motion. (See Docs. 155, 158-164, 166, 172-76, 180-84). While this Motion was pending, a similar request for relief was decided in HMA’s favor by another district judge of this court on March 29, 2012, in the lawsuit of Briggins v. Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC, et al. (hereinafter “Briggins”), No. 1:08-CV-1861-KOB, (Doc. 166) (N.D. Ala. Mar. 29, 2012). See Briggins, Doc. 166 at 2 (“The court concludes that such collective action trial would be unmanageable and, more fundamentally, that the plaintiffs in this case are not ‘similarly situated’ to each other for the purpose of establishing liability under the FLSA.”)). On May 2, 2012, the court entered a show cause order in this litigation with respect to the decertification ruling in Briggins: The court has studied the Motion and all related materials preliminarily, including the Briggins opinion and agrees with the decertification analysis contained therein. While the undersigned is certainly not bound by Briggins, it is appropriate for this court to consider adopting the opinion as applicable persuasive authority. Accordingly, Plaintiffs are ORDERED to SHOW CAUSE no later than May 21, 2012, why the facts material to this lawsuit (as supported with pinpointed citations to the evidentiary record) are appreciably different or distinguishable from those at issue in Briggins such that the Briggins decertification decision should not persuasively apply here. (Doc. 185 at 2 (emphasis added)). Pursuant to this show cause order, Plaintiffs filed their response (Doc. 188) on 2 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 3 of 12 May 24, 2012. The court then entered an order requiring HMA to file a reply (Doc. 189), which it did on June 28, 2012. (Doc. 193). Accordingly, the Motion is under submission and for the reasons explained below is GRANTED. II. COLLECTIVE ACTION STANDARDS Section 206(d) of the FLSA provides: No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i)a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex. 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has endorsed a two-step approach to determining whether to certify a collective action under Section 216(b): The first determination is made at the so-called “notice stage.” At the notice stage, the district court makes a decision-usually based only on the pleadings and affidavits which have been submitted-whether notice of the action should be given to potential class members. Because the court has minimal evidence, this determination is made using a fairly lenient standard, and typically results in “conditional certification” of a representative class. If the district court “conditionally certifies” the class, putative class members are given 3 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 4 of 12 notice and the opportunity to “opt-in.” The action proceeds as a representative action throughout discovery. Hipp v. Liberty Nat’l Life Ins. Co., 252 F.3d 1208, 1218 (11th Cir. 2001) (quoting Mooney v. Aramco Servs. Co., 54 F.3d 1207, 1213-14 (5th Cir. 1995)).1 “Because the court has minimal evidence [during the first stage], this determination is made using a fairly lenient standard, and typically results in ‘conditional certification’ of a representative class.” Hipp, 252 F.3d at 1218. The second determination is typically precipitated by a motion for “decertification” by the defendant usually filed after discovery is largely complete and the matter is ready for trial. At this stage, the court has much more information on which to base its decision, and makes a factual determination on the similarly situated question. If the claimants are similarly situated, the district court allows the representative action to proceed to trial. If the claimants are not similarly situated, the district court decertifies the class, and the opt-in plaintiffs are dismissed without prejudice. The class representatives-i.e. the original plaintiffs-proceed to trial on their individual claims. In Dybach v. State of Fla. Dep’t of Corrections, 942 F.2d 1562 (11th Cir. 1991), the Eleventh Circuit set forth a two-part test for determining whether a collective action under the FLSA should be conditionally certified. The two judicial inquiries for the court to make are: (i) whether there are other employees of the employer who wish to “opt-in;” and (ii) whether these employees are “similarly situated” with respect to both there job duties and their pay. Dybach, 942 F.2d at 1567-68; see also Cameron-Grant v. Maxim Healthcare Servs., Inc., 347 F.3d 1240, 1247-49 (11th Cir. 2003) (detailing differences between collective actions under FLSA and class actions under Rule 23). 1 4 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 5 of 12 Hipp, 252 F.3d at 1218.2 Plaintiffs bear the burden of demonstrating a “reasonable basis” for their contention that collective action status is appropriate. Grayson v. K-Mart Corp., 79 F.3d 1086, 1097 (11th Cir. 1996) (citing Haynes v. Singer Co., Inc., 696 F.2d 884, 887 (11th Cir. 1983)). Also, “[t]he decision to create an opt-in class under § 216(b), like the decision on class certification under Rule 23, remains soundly within the discretion of the district court.” Hipp, 252 F.3d at 1219. The Supreme Court has identified the main benefits of a collective action under § 216(b): A collective action allows . . . plaintiffs the advantage of lower individual costs to vindicate rights by the pooling of resources. The judicial system benefits by efficient resolution in one proceeding of common issues of law and fact arising from the same alleged . . . activity. Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. v. Sperling, 493 U.S. 165, 170, 110 S. Ct. 482, 486, 107 L. Ed. 2d 480 (1989). Separate from determining the similarly situated issue, other district courts have “balance[d] these putative benefits against any prejudice to the defendant and any judicial inefficiencies that may result from allowing plaintiffs to Although Hipp involved a collective action brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Eleventh Circuit has made clear that the analysis set forth in that case applies with equal force to FLSA collective actions. Cameron-Grant , 347 F.3d at 1243 n.2 (11th Cir. 2003). 2 5 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 6 of 12 proceed collectively.” Bayles v. American Medical Response of Colorado, Inc., 950 F. Supp. 1053, 1067 (D. Colo. 1996); see id. (“Further, regardless of the potential benefits, plaintiffs still must meet their burden of showing that they are similarly situated.”). III. ANALYSIS Based upon the substantially similar nature of the material FLSA facts in Briggins with those at issue here, the court adopts the decertification decision in Briggins as persuasive authority and concludes, in its discretion, that Plaintiffs have not carried their second stage similarly situated burden and that, additionally, upon balancing the competing interests, collective adjudication of this dispute is no longer appropriate. In particular, the court finds that Plaintiffs’ response to the show cause order does not establish any appreciable factual distinctions between the Briggins record and this one, such that the decertification analysis utilized in Briggins should somehow be disregarded or discounted by this court. Instead, the court agrees with Briggins that the material differences among the various positions, zones, and departments that this FLSA lawsuit presents “will make it impractical to ‘resolve any significant issues on a class wide basis’” and that “[t]his impracticality becomes even more apparent when considering the individual defenses that the defendant can assert in this case.” (Doc. 166 at 31). 6 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 7 of 12 Additionally, the court is not persuaded by Plaintiffs’ record-keeping arguments as grounds for opposing the Motion. The Supreme Court’s burden-shifting decision in Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680, 66 S. Ct. 1187, 90 L. Ed. 1515 (1946), overturned on other grounds by statute as recognized in McKenna v. Champion Int’l Corp., 747 F.2d 1211, 1214 (8th Cir. 1984) (“Congress passed the Portal Act to overturn the effect of Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co., 328 U.S. 680, 66 S. Ct. 1187, 90 L. Ed. 1515 (1946), in which the Supreme Court held that certain preliminary and incidental activities not previously considered part of a compensable workday were subject to FLSA’s minimum-wage and overtime provisions.”), does not suggest, much less bind, this court to find that a “reasonable basis” for continuing the collective action status of this lawsuit exists. Critically, Anderson simply is not a decertification decision, but instead arises out of the context of potential FLSA liability when an employer’s records evidencing the hours worked by and compensation paid to its employees are lacking: When the employer has kept proper and accurate records the employee may easily discharge his burden by securing the production of those records. But where the employer’s records are inaccurate or inadequate and the employee cannot offer convincing substitutes a more difficult problem arises. The solution, however, is not to penalize the employee by denying him any recovery on the ground that he is unable to prove the precise extent of uncompensated work. Such a result would place a premium on an employer’s failure to keep proper records in conformity with his statutory duty; it would allow the employer to keep 7 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 8 of 12 the benefits of an employee’s labors without paying due compensation as contemplated by the Fair Labor Standards Act. In such a situation we hold that an employee has carried out his burden if he proves that he has in fact performed work for which he was improperly compensated and if he produces sufficient evidence to show the amount and extent of that work as a matter of just and reasonable inference. The burden then shifts to the employer to come forward with evidence of the precise amount of work performed or with evidence to negative the reasonableness of the inference to be drawn from the employee’s evidence. If the employer fails to produce such evidence, the court may then award damages to the employee, even though the result be only approximate. Anderson, 382 U.S. at 687-88, 66 S. Ct. at 1192 (emphasis added). Plaintiffs’ reliance upon other FLSA record-keeping opinions to counter HMA’s decertification efforts is similarly misplaced. In sum, this lawsuit contains a myriad of individualized inquiries coupled with a dearth of proof on commonality, e.g., an HMA plan, policy, or practice that is uniformly applied and well-suited for collective treatment. Consequently, akin to Briggins, this court discretionarily discontinues this case’s conditional collective course. IV. CONCLUSION Accordingly, the Motion is GRANTED, and the collective action previously permitted to proceed conditionally is HEREBY DECERTIFIED. Relatedly and consistent with guidance from Hipp as well as the FLSA decertification procedures 8 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 9 of 12 followed by this court in Collins v. Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (hereinafter “Collins”), No. 7:04-CV-0553-VEH, (Doc. 240) (N.D. Ala. Dec. 11, 2006), all the claims of the opt-in plaintiffs are HEREBY DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE to the right of each opt-in plaintiff to pay the required filing fee and initiate his or her own separate action against HMA no later than August 20, 2012. Collins, (Doc. 240 at 12). If any dismissed opt-in plaintiff fails to file his or her own lawsuit and pay the required filing fee on or before August 20, 2012, then such person will forego the opportunity to pursue any FLSA claims against HMA that form the basis of this litigation. (Id. at 2). The court further concludes, consistent with its decertification order in Fox v. Tyson Foods, Inc. (hereinafter Fox), No. 4:99-CV-1612-VEH, (Doc. 602) (N.D. Ala. Nov. 15, 2006), that there are variations among Plaintiffs’ work assignments and claims such that collective adjudication of them is also inappropriate. Fox, (Doc. 602 at 1). For example, while Mr. Burroughs has worked as a production employee for the same shift in the same zone of Assembly Frame within Building 1 or Line 13 for his entire career at HMA (Doc. 155 at 45; Doc. 56 ¶ 11; Doc. 163-6 at 7 at 18-19; Building 1 or Line 1 has produced the Honda Odyssey and occasionally the Ridgeline. (Doc. 161-1 (Linda Bailey Decl.) ¶ 3). 3 9 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 10 of 12 Doc. 62-5 ¶ 4), according to the complaint,4 Ms. Blake’s employment as a production worker has been primarily in Building 2 or Line 2.5 (Doc. 56 ¶ 12). As the Administration Division Manager for HMA explains although the Vehicle Quality, Engine Assembly, and Production Materials Control departments have a single department manager, each HMA production line is “separately managed and organized . . . .” (Doc. 161-1 ¶ 5). Additionally, while like Mr. Burroughs, Mr. Caldwell has been in Building 1 (Doc. 56 ¶ 13; Doc. 62-6 ¶ 4), he has worked in two different zones within Assembly Frame and has testified differently than Mr. Burroughs about HMA’s practices and procedures with respect to management of the workload within these zones. (See, e.g., Doc. 155 at 45-46 (contrasting Mr. Burroughs’ working through lunch allegations with no similar allegations made by Mr. Caldwell);6 id. (contrasting Mr. Burroughs’s 10-12 minute pre-shift allegations with those of Mr. Caldwell, whose The court has been unable to locate any declaration or deposition testimony from Ms. Blake that has been filed into the record. (See Docs. 158, 173, 173-1, 1732). Ms. Blake’s “Consent to Join Suit As Party Plaintiff” is part of the record, but this document does not identify the HMA department(s) and/or zone(s) in which she has worked. (Doc. 56 at 17). 4 Building 2 or Line 2 has produced the Pilot and periodically, the Odyssey and Accord. (Doc. 161-1 ¶ 3). 5 (See also Doc. 163-6 at 20 at 70-72; id. at 72 (“If you’re on a process make sure that process is completed before you leave it [for lunch].”)). 6 10 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 11 of 12 deposition testimony indicated that the time spent on pre-shift efforts depends upon the specific process being performed and also revealed that his personal restrictions prevented him from performing several processes)).7 Accordingly, Plaintiffs’ claims are subject to individualized determinations and are properly adjudicated in separate lawsuits. The clerk is, therefore, DIRECTED to sever the causes of Mr. Caldwell and Ms. Blake from this lawsuit, which will remain pending for Mr. Burroughs. Fox, (Doc. 602 at 2). The clerk is to electronically copy the second amended complaint (Doc. 56) and the answer (Doc. 59) filed in 1:08-CV-1239-VEH to the docket of the severed cases. Fox, (Doc. 602 at 2). Each severed plaintiff is to pay the filing fee for his or her severed case before August 20, 2012. Id. If any severed plaintiff fails to pay the filing fee as provided above, the said case will be dismissed with prejudice. Id. The clerk is further DIRECTED to assign the severed cases to the undersigned judge but to withhold drawing a case assignment card for the undersigned judge for such cases until the court can meet as a whole and decide the appropriate allocation (See also Doc. 163-6 at 15-16 at 53-54 (estimating time spent by Mr. Burroughs doing pre-shift work); Doc. 163-9 at 28 at 102 (Mr. Caldwell’s agreeing that “what needs to be done to start the process depends on the process”); id. at 12 at 41 (Mr. Caldwell’s indicating that there are 10-15 processes in rear suspension that he does not perform due to his restrictions)). 7 11 Case 1:08-cv-01239-VEH Document 194 Filed 07/19/12 Page 12 of 12 of case assignment credit. Fox, (Doc. 602 at 2). The litigation of Plaintiffs’ severed claims will proceed in conformance with the most recent scheduling order (Doc. 115) entered in this case on November 30, 2010, as further modified on May 6, 2011, by the court’s CM/ECF margin entry. Finally, the severed cases shall be consolidated for discovery purposes under 1:08-CV-1239-VEH, and all motions and other documents are to be filed in that litigation. Fox, (Doc. 602 at 2). DONE and ORDERED this the 19th day of July, 2012. VIRGINIA EMERSON HOPKINS United States District Judge 12
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line743
|
__label__cc
| 0.528331
| 0.471669
|
August 24, 2016 August 23, 2016 by Leo Suarez
Fayetteville Street
This is a shot of 224 (left) and 222 (right) Fayetteville Street. 224 Fayetteville Street, or the Lewis-Woodard Building, has a fresh new front door. This is a huge contrast to the white marble, colder feeling version it had before. You can see the previous version in this April 2015 Google streetview.
A little background on the building from the Fayetteville Street Historic District registration form.
Lewis-Woodard Building
224 Fayetteville Street, ca. 1883, ca. 1925, 1957, 1985, Contributing Building
The three-story, Italianate style building has a brick exterior and extends the full depth of the block from Fayetteville Street to S. Salisbury Street. The facade has a remodeled storefront with original wall treatment surviving at the upper stories and at the cornice. The ground floor has a deeply recessed entry at the south end and a similarly recessed display window at the north end. Elsewhere, the ground-floor facade is covered with large tiles of white marble. The identical second and third stories are four bays wide with one-over-one, doublehung, segmental-arched wood sash windows. Decorative metal window hoods feature keystones and corbels. The elaborate bracketed pressed metal cornice has dentil molding and scrollwork with the same lionshead elements seen in the keystones on the Briggs Building. The three-bay-wide S. Salisbury Street elevation was also remodeled in 1985, when white marble panels were applied to the brick-clad building at the storefront, rising in vertical bands on either side of the center bay, and across the top of the third-story windows. Six-oversix double-hung wood-sash windows remain at the second and third stories; the first floor windows and centered
door were replaced in 1985.
The building appears as two separate structures on the 1884 Sanborn map: a three-story hardware store and office building fronting Fayetteville Street and a two-story tin shop and warehouse fronting S. Salisbury Street. Partners Julius Lewis and Nicholas West had purchased the parcel in two transactions in 1881. Lewis and West ran a hardware store located a few parcels north and across the street at 219 Fayetteville Street that had been in business since at least 1875, according to Raleigh City directories. The business remained at that location until 1883, when it moved to the 224 address, likely into a new building that Lewis and West had erected since their purchase. Lewis became the sole owner of the property in 1894; in 1906, he sold it to Moses Woodard, a local businessman. The building briefly housed the F. M. Kirby and Company Five and Dime before the F. W. Woolworth Company established a store in the building in 1913. Woolworth’s made alterations to the S. Salisbury Street elevation around 1925 and to the storefront on Fayetteville Street in 1957, merging it with the storefront of the Lumsden-Boone Building next door at 226 Fayetteville Street. Woolworth’s moved out of the building by 1972. In 1985, more changes were made to the building to house new owner Raleigh Federal Savings and Loan and other commercial tenants.
*Fayetteville Street Historic District registration form
Marriott Hotel Opening in July | January 5, 2013
Bigger, Bolder Signs In Downtown | April 30, 2010
Pic of the Week | December 13, 2009
← Previous Post Weekend Video: Capital Boulevard Makeover
Next Post → A Walk up South Street
Anthony August 24, 2016 at 8:02 am
Much, much better then Marble front. Very Nice!!!
Jake August 24, 2016 at 8:53 am
Future retail ????
Mark August 24, 2016 at 11:48 am
It’s a really nice new groundfloor, that blends well with the historic upper floors (unlike the old tiles…blech). FWIW, Matthew Brown’s newly released paper that updates the Oakwood historic district, lists 10 houses built by Julius Lewis (that I was able to count) that were built in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s. I’m glad, that like Briggs, the Lewis hardware store still exists. These often overshadowed buildings, are important components of our remaining historic fabric.
I may be wrong but I believe that the 1985 renovation that was recently replaced was the product of Norma DeCamp Burns, AIA. I never liked that project and I didn’t care for her as my professor either at the School of Design.
Mark August 25, 2016 at 11:51 pm
John I was about to say just that! I asked a coworker of mine, who is in his fifties, if he knew who did all the crappy tile redos of the old buildings downtown and he said Norma Burns. I am pretty sure 132 S Salisbury is her work too and there may still be others around
John August 26, 2016 at 12:25 am
@Mark, I m not so sure that 132 S. Salisbury was a Norma Burns project or not. It could be but it doesn’t quite look like it to me.
But, now that you mention that building, it’s time for a little restoration work there. Frankly, I am proud that so many buildings have been lovingly restored, one by one, in the very core of the city.
Anyone know the status of the hotels that have been discussed/proposed (Wilmington Street, Hotel at the old tire shop, hotel across from convention center and boutique hotel near warehouse district)?
Also, status of building(s) across from Campbell University?
Anyone know if discussions are taking place about the Convention Center expansion/Phase II?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line746
|
__label__wiki
| 0.555273
| 0.555273
|
The African Middle Class in South Africa 1910-1994
Roger Southall
Alan Cobley (1990: 3) has argued that no sustained interest was taken in the subject of class in South Africa until the arrival of a generation of radical historians in the 1970s, and then the focus of concern was largely with the origins and development of a black working class in whose revolutionary potential the future was, by many, deemed to lie. In contrast, Jeremy Seekings (2009) has proposed that class was long a concern, if not necessarily the central one, of liberal scholars from the 1940s. Nonetheless, even though it is true that an emergent black middle class attracted considerable interest from liberal historians, anthropologists and social observers, it is fair to say that it was dealt with spasmodically, and then very often largely as a subordinated appendage of the black proletariat. Arguably, therefore, it is only now that the history of the African middle class, notably as it participated in and shaped the African National Congress (ANC), is beginning to receive its due. In part, this is because the lot of the middle class is often deemed in ‘struggle history’ to have been unheroic: indeed in some tellings, the only way for the bourgeoisie to contribute to liberation was by subjecting itself to the leadership of the working class! Yet even while, today, there is a growing interest in the multi-faceted nature of the struggle against apartheid, there has been a failure to trace the holistic evolution of the black middle class. In what follows I provide an overview of the development of the specifically ‘African’ segment of the ‘black middle class’ in the pre-democratic era, even while recognizing that this places severe limitations upon how we portray past struggles against racial oppression.
Race, Gender and Growth of the Affluent Middle Class in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Exploring Unbalanced Growth in South Africa: Understanding the Sectoral Structure of the South African Economy
Human capital inequality and electoral outcomes in South Africa
An Economic Model of the Apartheid State
Agriculture and adaptation to climate change: The Role of wildlife ranching in South Africa
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line751
|
__label__wiki
| 0.709236
| 0.709236
|
Rusty Collins
X-Factor #1 (February 1986)
In-story information
Russell "Rusty" Collins
Human mutant
Team affiliations
Mutant Liberation Front
X-Terminators
Notable aliases
Firefist
"Pyromorphing" (Pyric Form or Fiery Form), Pyrokinesis
Russell "Rusty" Collins, formerly known as Firefist, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Firefist was portrayed in the 2018 film Deadpool 2, by actor Julian Dennison and Sala Baker.
2 Fictional character biography
2.1 "Inferno"
2.2 Brainwashed
2.3 Return
3 Powers and abilities
4 In other media
Publication history[edit]
Created by Bob Layton and Jackson Guice, Rusty Collins first appeared in X-Factor #1 (February 1986).
Fictional character biography[edit]
Rusty Collins was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Raised by his uncle, Rusty joins the US Navy at sixteen years of age. His mutant power, generation of fire, manifests itself violently, burning a woman. Rusty is arrested, but when a prison guard playfully threatens him with deadly harm, he bursts into flames again and escapes.[1]
X-Factor is alerted and comes to Rusty's aid, helping him to control his powers. He comes to live with X-Factor,[1] who are slowly gathering a small team of mutant wards. Rusty forms a relationship with Skids, a former Morlock.[2]
For a time, they all live upon Ship, a sentient being in the form of a long, rectangular spacecraft that towered over all other Manhattan skyscrapers. Rusty and the X-Terminators help X-Factor when an old booby-trap activates, threatening Ship's brain with a gigantic bomb. Ultimately, the bomb explodes harmlessly far above Manhattan.[3]
"Inferno"[edit]
During the 1989 "Inferno" storyline, Skids and the other wards, taking the name X-Terminators, the name their mentors used when traveling in their mutant guises, teamed up with the New Mutants to help rescue mutant babies from N'astirh, who was using them to help keep open a portal to Limbo.[4] Rusty himself had gone back into custody at the Navy but willingly goes with the group when he realizes his younger friends, Leech and Artie Maddicks have been captured by demonic forces.[5] At the conclusion of Inferno, with Artie, Leech and the even younger kidnapped children involved rescued from the demons, Rusty joins the New Mutants, along with Skids, Rictor and Boom Boom.[6]
Rusty and Skids help out when long time New Mutants member Danielle Moonstar loses control of her mystical powers. During the incident they are separated from the rest of the group. Mystique's Freedom Force attacks them at Liberty Island. Part of this conflict involves the ultimate fate of the children Rusty helped rescue; he believes that Freedom Force had wrongfully taken them into custody.[7]
Due to a fight with Nitro and Vulture, Rusty is brought back into the sights of Freedom Force. While attempting to escape, he was severely injured by the Blob.[8] While recovering in the hospital, he and Skids were contacted by members of the Mutant Liberation Front. With soldiers opening fire on them, they felt there was no other choice than to join them.[9]
Brainwashed[edit]
Shortly after, Rusty and Skids were brainwashed by Stryfe into being two of his soldiers. During this, Rusty is part of an MLF strike team sent to a museum to steal an ancient artifact. Cable, the man who took over the New Mutants soon after Rusty left, is there. Cable slays MLF member Sumo. He attempts to kill the rest of the group but only gets two of them in the arm, Rusty included.[10]
Due to the brainwashing, Rusty had no qualms about attacking former teammate Cannonball during the X-Cutioner's Song storyline.[11] At the end of this story, the Mutant Liberation Front are turned over to the authorities.
Shortly after, Rusty and Skids were kidnapped by the Friends of Humanity. While being transported, X-Force (the team created by the former members of the New Mutants), rescued them.[12] Arriving back to their base, X-Force was soon confronted by Exodus. He was inviting original New Mutants Cannonball and Sunspot to Avalon, a "safe haven" for selected mutants. Cannonball refused to go unless all former New Mutants present (Boom Boom, Rictor, Rusty and Skids) were invited also. While Exodus complained that Rusty and Skids were "damaged" due to their brainwashing, he finally acquiesced.[13]
Upon arriving at Avalon, the mutants were taken to "the Savior" (in reality Magneto), who used his powers to undo the brainwashing done to Rusty and Skids. When X-Force arrived to save their friends, Rusty and Skids decided they would stay with Magneto, feeling that they owed him. With this being done, they joined the Acolytes.[13]
When a mutant body belonging to Holocaust, a "survivor" from the Age of Apocalypse, was discovered floating in space near Avalon, it was brought on board. While on guard duty watching over the thought-to-be frozen body, Rusty's life force was drained by Holocaust, killing him.[14]
Return[edit]
Rusty is resurrected by means of the Transmode Virus to serve as part of Selene's army of deceased mutants. Under the control of Selene and Eli Bard, he takes part in the assault on the mutant nation of Utopia.[15]
Powers and abilities[edit]
Rusty Collins is a mutant with the psionic ability of pyrokinesis. He can control and manipulate fire, as well as turn some or all of his body into flames. He is immune to the effects fire would otherwise normally have on his body.
In other media[edit]
Russell Collins / Firefist appears in Deadpool 2, portrayed by Julian Dennison. In this adaptation he is a New Zealand child who possesses fire controlling abilities and was tortured at "Essex School" along with other mutant children. In killing the school's headmaster who was his primary tormentor, he becomes fascinated with killing and in the future he kills Nathan Summers / Cable's family. The events of the film portray how the timeline is altered after Wade Wilson / Deadpool convinces him to let go of his desire to kill the headmaster of the school and killing in general. Sala Baker portrays an older version of the character during Cable's flashback sequences, set in a post-apocalyptic future.
A much younger version of Rusty appears in the X-Men episode "No Mutant is an Island". An orphan who Cyclops met while visiting his old orphanage in Nebraska, Rusty finds it hard to control his pyrokenetic powers. A man known as Killgrave offers to help and adopts Rusty, seemingly out of charity. In reality, Killgrave, a mutant himself with telepathic abilities, wants to use the powers of Rusty, Skids, Boom Boom, and Whiz Kid to take over as governor. Cyclops is able to snap Rusty and the others out of Killgrave's hypnotic brainwashing.
^ a b X-Factor #1 (February 1986)
^ X-Factor #16 (May 1987)
^ X-Terminators #1-4 (October 1988-January 1989), The New Mutants #72-73 (February–March 1989). Marvel Comics.
^ X-Terminators #1 (October 1988). Marvel Comics.
^ The New Mutants #76 (June 1989). Marvel Comics.
^ New Mutants #80. Marvel Comics.
^ New Mutants #86 (February 1990)
^ The New Mutants #87 (March 1990). Marvel Comics.
^ Cable: Blood and Metal #1 (October 1992)
^ X-Men vol. 2 #15 (December 1992)
^ X-Force #24 (July 1993)
^ a b X-Force #25 (August 1993)
^ X-Men vol. 2 #42 (July 1995)
^ X-Force (3rd Series) #21, January 2010
Rusty Collins at Marvel.com
UncannyXmen.net Spotlight on Rusty Collins
Marvel Directory Character Bio-Rusty Collins
Bob McLeod
Original members
Danielle Moonstar
Later recruits
Bird-Brain
Magik
Rictor
Volume 2 members
Wind Dancer
Wither
Demon Bear
Donald Pierce
Emma Frost
Hellions
High Evolutionary
Cameron Hodge
Mindless Ones
N'astirh
S'ym
Shadow King
Silver Samurai
Tinkerer
Major storylines
"Mutant Massacre"
"The Fall of the Mutants"
"Inferno"
"Days of Future Present"
"X-Tinction Agenda"
"Necrosha"
"Second Coming"
The New Mutants (2020)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rusty_Collins&oldid=906357351"
Comics characters introduced in 1986
Fictional characters from Tulsa, Oklahoma
Fictional sailors
Fictional characters with fire or heat abilities
Deadpool characters
Marvel Comics mutants
Marvel Comics superheroes
Marvel Comics supervillains
Characters created by Bob Layton
Comics infobox without image
Character pop
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line755
|
__label__cc
| 0.524901
| 0.475099
|
Thirty pieces of silver
Judas receiving thirty pieces of silver for betraying Jesus, by Mattia Preti, c. 1640.
Thirty pieces of silver was the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15 in the New Testament.[1] Before the Last Supper, Judas is said to have gone to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins, and to have attempted to return the money afterwards, filled with remorse.
The Gospel of Matthew claims that the subsequent purchase of the Potter's field was fulfilment, by Jesus, of a prophecy of Zechariah.[2][3]
The image has often been used in artwork depicting the Passion of Christ. The phrase is used in literature and common speech to refer to people "selling out", compromising a trust, friendship, or loyalty for personal gain.
1 Biblical narrative
2 Types of coin
3 Theological interpretation
4 Relics and depiction in art
5 Literary references
6 Modern usage
Biblical narrative[edit]
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Judas Iscariot was a disciple of Jesus. Before the Last Supper, Judas went to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins.[4] Jesus was then arrested in Gethsemane, where Judas revealed Jesus' identity to the soldiers by giving him a kiss.[5]
According to Chapter 27 of Matthew's gospel, Judas was filled with remorse and returned the money to the chief priests before hanging himself. The chief priests decided that they could not put it into the temple treasury as it was considered blood money,[6] and so with it they bought the Potter's Field.[7] A different account of the death of Judas is given in Acts of Apostles; it describes Judas as using the money he had been rewarded with - no sum is specified - to buy the Potter's field, and then falling there, dying of the resulting intestinal injuries.[8]
Types of coin[edit]
The Antiochan tetradrachm is one possibility for the identity of the coins making up the thirty pieces.
A Tyrian shekel, another possibility for the type of coin involved.
The word used in Matthew 26:15 (ἀργύρια, argyria) simply means "silver coins,"[9] and scholars disagree on the type of coins that would have been used. Donald Wiseman suggests two possibilities. They could have been tetradrachms of Tyre, usually referred to as Tyrian shekels (14 grams of 94% silver), or staters from Antioch (15 grams of 75% silver), which bore the head of Augustus.[10] Alternatively, they could have been Ptolemaic tetradrachms (13.5 ± 1 g of 25% silver).[11] There are 31.1035 grams per troy ounce. At spot valuation of $17.06/oz (the closing price on Monday, December 12, 2016), 30 "pieces of silver" would be worth between $185 and $216 in present-day value (USD).
Type Purity Weight (g) Actual Silver Weight (ozt) ASW of 30 coins (ozt) Silver Value ($20)
Tyrian shekels 94% 14 13.16 12.69 $253.89
Antioch Staters 75% 15 11.25 10.85 $217.04
Ptolemaic tetradrachms 25% 13.5 3.375 3.26 $65.11
Athenian Tetradrachm 95% 17.2 16.34 15.76 $315.24
The Tyrian shekel weighed four Athenian drachmas, about 14 grams, more than earlier 11-gram Israeli shekels, but was regarded as the equivalent for religious duties at that time.[12] Because Roman coinage was only 80% silver, the purer (94% or more) Tyrian shekels were required to pay the temple tax in Jerusalem. The money changers referenced in the New Testament Gospels (Matt. 21:12 and parallels) exchanged Tyrian shekels for common Roman currency.[13][14]
The 5th century BC Athenian tetradrachm ("four drachmae") coin was perhaps the most widely used coin in the Greek world before the time of Alexander the Great (along with the Corinthian stater). It featured the helmeted profile bust of Athena on the obverse (front) and an owl on the reverse (back). In daily use they were called γλαῦκες glaukes (owls),[15] hence the proverb Γλαῦκ’ Ἀθήναζε, 'an owl to Athens', referring to something that was in plentiful supply, like 'coals to Newcastle'. The reverse is featured on the national side of the modern Greek 1 euro coin. Drachmae were minted on different weight standards at different Greek mints. The standard that came to be most commonly used was the Athenian or Attic one, which weighed a little over 4.3 grams. A drachma was approximately a day's pay for a skilled laborer.[16] So 30 pieces of silver (30 tetradrachm), at four drachmas each, would roughly be comparable to four months' (120 days) wages.
In the medieval period some religious institutions displayed ancient Greek coins of the island of Rhodes as specimens of the Thirty Pieces of Silver. The obverses of these coins showed a facing head of the sun god Helios, with rays projecting around the upper part of it. These rays were interpreted as a representation of the Crown of Thorns.
The extracanonical Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea records that Judas was paid 30 pieces of gold, not silver.[17]
Theological interpretation[edit]
In Zechariah 11:12–13, 30 pieces of silver is the price Zechariah receives for his labour. He takes the coins and throws them "to the potter". Klaas Schilder notes that Zechariah's payment indicates an assessment of his worth, as well as his dismissal.[18] In Exodus 21:32, 30 pieces of silver was the price of a slave, so while Zechariah calls the amount a "handsome price" (Zechariah 11:13), this could be sarcasm. Barry Webb, however, regards it as a "considerable sum of money."[19]
Schilder suggests that these 30 pieces of silver then get "bandied back and forth by the Spirit of Prophecy."[20] When the chief priests decide to buy a field with the returned money, Matthew says that this fulfilled "what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet." Namely, "They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me" (Matthew 27:9–10). Although many scholars see Jeremiah's name as included in error,[21] Jeremiah's purchase of a field in Jeremiah 32 may indicate that both prophets are in mind.[22] Craig Blomberg argues that Matthew is using typology in his quotation, rather than "any kind of single or double fulfillment of actual predictive prophecy." According to Blomberg, Matthew is telling his readers that, "like Jeremiah and Zechariah, Jesus attempts to lead his people with a prophetic and pastoral ministry, but instead he ends up suffering innocently at their hands."[23] William Hendriksen argues that Matthew is referring to Jeremiah 19.[24]
Blomberg also suggests that Matthew may also be saying that "Jesus' death is a ransom, the price paid to secure a slave's freedom," and that the use of the blood money to buy a burial ground for foreigners (Matthew 27:7) may hint at the idea that "Jesus' death makes salvation possible for all the peoples of the world, including the Gentiles."[25]
The 1877 Handy Book for Bible Readers states that "Argurion, argenteus, denarius. This word occurs in two passages--(A) the account of the betrayal of our Lord for "thirty pieces of silver" (Matt. xxvi. 15; xxvii. 3, 5, 6, 9). These have usually been considered to be denarii, but on no sufficient ground. The parallel passage in Zechariah (xi. 12, 13), is translated "thirty [pieces] of silver"; but which should doubtless be read, "thirty shekels of silver", whilst it is observable that "thirty shekels of silver" was the price of blood to be paid in the case of a servant accidentally killed (Exod. xxi. 32). The passage may therefore be explained as "thirty shekels of silver", not current shekels, but tetradrachms of the Attic standard of the Greek cities of Syria and Phoencia. These tetradrachms were common at the time of our Lord, and of them the stater was a specimen."
Relics and depiction in art[edit]
Rembrandt's Judas Returning the Thirty Silver Pieces, 1629.
Judas is often shown in narrative scenes from the Passion holding the silver in a bag or purse, where they serve as an attribute to identify him. As one of the "Instruments of the Passion" the Thirty Pieces by themselves often feature in groups of the Instruments, especially in the late Middle Ages, although they are one of the less commonly chosen elements of the group. Sometimes a money bag is used in depictions; otherwise a hand holding the coins, or two hands, showing the counting-out.[26]
The Basilewsky Situla (920) (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
A number of "Judas-pennies", ancient coins said to be from the original thirty, were treated as relics in the Middle Ages, and were believed to help in difficult cases of childbirth.[27][28] As a minor component of the Instruments, and one whose survival was hard to explain given the Biblical account of the use of the money, the relics, and their depiction in art, both appear from the 14th century, later than more important elements like the Crown of Thorns or Spear of Longinus. This was as a result of new styles of devotions, led by the Franciscans in particular, which promoted contemplation of the Passion episode by episode, as in the Stations of the Cross.[29] The stone on which the coins were said to have been counted out was in the Lateran Palace in Rome.[30]
A Syracusan decadrachm held at the Hunt Museum, Limerick is one such coin claimed to be one of the thirty: inscribed on the mount is Quia precium sanguinis est (Latin: "This is the price of blood").[31]
Literary references[edit]
The 30 pieces are used in Christian literature on the betrayal of Jesus, as in the poem Thirty Pieces of Silver by William Blane:
"Thirty pieces of silver"
Burns on the traitor's brain;
"Thirty pieces of silver!
Oh! it is hellish gain!"[32]
or as in the poem Matthew XXVII:9 by Jorge Luis Borges:
The coin fell on my hollow hand.
I could not bear it, although it was light,
and I let it fall. It was all in vain.
The other said: "There are still twenty nine."[33]
The phrase "30 pieces of silver" is used more generally to describe a price at which people sell out.[34] In Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, it is echoed in the 30 roubles which the character Sonia earns for selling herself.[35][36] In the folk-song King John and the Bishop, the bishop's answer to the riddle of how much the king is worth is 29 pieces of silver, as no king is worth more than Jesus. In Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2, the mistress of Falstaff asks "and didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings?"[34] The story "Treasure Trove" by F. Tennyson Jesse relates the rediscovery in modern times of the thirty pieces of silver and how they drive men to kill in varied forms including murder, manslaughter, homicide, euthanasia and suicide.
Modern usage[edit]
The phrase is used to accuse politicians and artists of selling out their principles or ideals, and is also used in literature as a symbol of betrayal. For example, in the aftermath of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, a number of residents of the street in which the Governor General John Kerr had been born sent the Governor 30 pieces of silver,[37] as Kerr was widely blamed for the crisis. Another usage was at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, a spokesman from Tuvalu criticised the final document by saying, "It looks like we are being offered 30 pieces of silver to betray our people and our future ... Our future is not for sale."[38]
The author Jim Butcher uses the coins in his Dresden Files series, in which each coin is the focal point of a fallen angel. This group of angels is known as the Order of the Blackened Denarius, or the Denarians.
The Belgian comic book series Blake and Mortimer had a two part story centered on the coins, titled The Curse of the Thirty Denarii (the English title being The Curse of The 30 Pieces of Silver).
In House M.D., when Dr Wilson betrays Dr House to detective Tritter in season 3 he opens his confession with the line "I'm gonna need thirty pieces of silver"
In film, the allegory of the silver pieces as a price for treason is used in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and in the title of a fourth-season episode of Daniel Boone.
In 2016, Texas Attorney General files a lawsuit to keep Obama's recommendations (via Education Dept) (re: public school bathroom access for transgender people) from being enforced. The directive states that schools risk their funding if they don't comply -- Texas Governor responds to the US Dept of Ed stating they can "keep their 30 pieces of silver"
In the Babylon 5 episode The Face of the Enemy from 1997, Michael Garibaldi remarks "I think the last guy got thirty pieces of silver for the same job." when he was pressured into betraying his best friend, John Sheridan
In the 2018 video game Just Cause 4, one of the Army of Chaos recruits opines, "Any man who would plant a bomb in the soil of his homeland deserves two bullets and 30 pieces of silver."
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 30 pieces of silver.
Bargain of Judas
Coins in the Bible
Kiss of Judas
Life of Jesus in the New Testament
Jews, Money, Myth
^ Matthew 26:15
^ Vincent P. Branick, Understanding the New Testament and Its Message, (Paulist Press, 1998), pp. 126–128.
^ Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary (Eerdmans, 2004), p. 710
^ R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007), 976–979.
^ France, The Gospel of Matthew, 1012.
^ https://www.biblica.com/bible/niv/matthew/27/
^ Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1991), 384–387.
^ Acts 1:18.
^ Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1889.
^ D. J. Wiseman, Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology (London: Tyndale Press, 1958), 87–89.
^ Michael E. Marotta (2001). "So-called 'Coins of the Bible'". Archived from the original on 18 June 2002. Retrieved 11 Sep 2010.
^ "Ancient Jewish Coins Related to the Works of Josephus". , citing David Hendin's Guide to Biblical Coins and Y. Meshorer's Ancient Jewish Coinage.
^ "The role of coins in the First Revolt". Archived from the original on 2008-10-29.
^ "Israel photos III".
^ γλαύξ in Liddell and Scott.
^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.17.4.
^ Ehrman, Bart; Plese, Zlatko (2011). The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 553. ISBN 9780199732104.
^ Klaas Schilder, Christ in His Suffering (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1938), 74.
^ Barry Webb, The Message of Zechariah (Bible Speaks Today; Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2003), 151.
^ Schilder, Christ in His Suffering, 71.
^ John Calvin, for example, says that "the passage itself plainly shows that the name of Jeremiah has been put down by mistake, instead of Zechariah, for in Jeremiah we find nothing of this sort, nor any thing that even approaches to it." John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke.
^ Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 657.
^ Craig L. Blomberg, "Matthew," in G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 96.
^ William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973), 948.
^ Blomberg, "Matthew,", 97.
^ Gertrud Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II (trans. Janet Seligman; London: Lund Humphries, 1972), 190–196.
^ G. F. Hill, "Coins and Medals (Western)," in James Hastings and John A. Selbie, (eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 6 (Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2003), 703.
^ Johannes A. Mol, Klaus Militzer, and Helen J. Nicholson, The Military Orders and the Reformation: Choices, state building, and the weight of tradition (Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2006), 287.
^ Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II, 190–191
^ Piero Della Francesca, Enigma of Piero, (2nd ed., trans. Martin Ryle and Kate Soper; London: Verso Books, 2001), 68.
^ http://www.huntmuseum.com/collection/collection-items/mg-034.aspx
^ William Blane, "Thirty Pieces of Silver," in The Silent Land and other Poems, (London: E. Stock, 1906), 149.
^ Jorge Luis Borges, "Matthew XXVII:9," in La moneda de hierro, (Buenos Aires: 1976).
^ a b David L. Jeffrey, ed. (1992). A Dictionary of biblical tradition in English literature. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 766. ISBN 978-0-8028-3634-2.
^ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and punishment, (Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 2000), 17. Note by Keith Carabine on p. 470.
^ William J. Leatherbarrow, The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevskii, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 98.
^ The residents of the street in Balmain where he had been born posted him thirty pieces of silver. http://www.australian-politics-books.com/ccp0-prodshow/the-real-joh-kerr-richard-hall.html
^ "Future not for sale: climate deal rejected". ABC News. 19 Dec 2009. Retrieved 11 Sep 2010.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thirty_pieces_of_silver&oldid=905406043"
Christian iconography
Passion of Jesus
Judas Iscariot
New Testament words and phrases
Articles containing Ancient Greek-language text
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line756
|
__label__wiki
| 0.913886
| 0.913886
|
Powell, Morgan Allen
Morgan Allen Powell (1901–1979)
Morgan Allen Powell was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who retired in 1957 to his native Independence County, where he researched local history.
Morgan Powell was born on March 2, 1901, in the McHue community south of Batesville (Independence County). His parents were John Thomas and Mary Morgan Powell; he had two sisters.
While he was still a student at Batesville High School, he joined the Army and served in World War I. He returned to Batesville in and graduated from Batesville High School in 1921. From there he went to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received a BS degree and was commissioned an ensign with the U.S. Navy in 1925.
Powell served two years in the Navy as a junior officer and then did graduate work at the University of California, American University, and Purdue University. In 1928, he married Martha Coleman Hazen of Dobbs Ferry, New York; they had one daughter.
When the United States entered World War II in 1941, he returned to active duty in the Navy. He received the Bronze Star in the Okinawa campaign, a special commendation, and nine battle stars. When he retired from the naval reserve in 1959, he held the rank of rear admiral.
At the end of the war, he became director of engineering development for Vulcan Detinning Company of Pittsburgh. As an officer of that firm, he designed, built, and supervised factories. A widower for some years, he retired in 1957 and later moved to Batesville, where he married Mary Beth Terry Griffith. He became a local history researcher and published six articles in the Independence County Chronicle on topics ranging from biographies to notes on slavery. He died on June 21, 1979, at Batesville and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
McGinnis, A. C. “Admiral Morgan Allen Powell.” Independence County Chronicle 21 (October 1979): 2–3.
George E. Lankford
Early Twentieth Century (1901 - 1940)
Individuals / Individuals and Units / Military Science
Morgan Powell
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line757
|
__label__wiki
| 0.578278
| 0.578278
|
The primacy of politics: the rise and fall of evidence-based public health policy?
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Clare Bambra
Accepted version [.pdf]
This editorial reflects on the apparent rise and the potential fall of the use of evidence in English public health policy. Over the last 20 years, there has been increasing reference to evidence within policy circles both nationally and locally. However, in 2013, a series of national decisions about plain packaging, alcohol pricing and the NHS Health Checks scheme, as well as the move of public health into local authorities, have acted as reminders of the long-standing cultural differences between researchers and policy-makers and the primacy of political priorities. This editorial reflects on these issues and concludes by discussing the future prospects of evidence-based public health policy and the normative relationship between evidence and politics in a democratic system.
Author(s): Bambra C
Publication type: Editorial
Journal: Journal of Public Health
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdt113
DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdt113
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line760
|
__label__cc
| 0.656216
| 0.343784
|
PDF Remediation Software
PDF Conversion Services
Accessibility Testing
Accessibility Consulting
Document Accessibility Services
VPAT Completion and Validation
Accessibility for Healthcare
For Professional Remediators
Equidox Accessibility Resources
State Accessibility Legislation
Equidox Team
Addressing California AB 434 – Accessibility for State Agencies
Florida Accessible Electronic and Information Technology Act
Accessibility Blog
Contact Equidox
Equidox Accessibility Pulse
May 10, 2019 | Nina Overdorff
Digital accessibility is not a destination to be reached but an ongoing process across a number of industries and fields. Since the beginning of the year, a number of new rules, lawsuits, and initiatives have popped up in the world of digital accessibility, moving the industry closer to the goal of reaching everyone.
Thousands of Fortune 100 Companies’ URLs Aren’t Accessible
http://www.theprogressnews.com/business/national/crownpeak-new-research-reveals-alarming-scale-of-wcag-accessibility-issues/article_dcfdfaa7-88af-59df-8c93-5c5b2a693602.html
Fortune 100 companies are good at a lot of things when it comes to business- they know how to create a desirable product or service, they know how to make their shareholders happy, and they know how to reach their consumers. But they may be missing a huge chunk of their target audience- up to 20% of it- by failing to make their digital resources accessible to those with disabilities.
A recent study conducted by Ovum and Crownpeak searched an average of 2,500 web pages for each Fortune 100 company and found 815,600 accessibility issues in total. Some of the most common issues included failure to indicate when a link will open in a new window, lack of accurate alt text for images, and inaccurate headings.
These compliance failures are often the result of a lack of in-house expertise, and a lack of standard accessibility procedures for content creators to follow. Often in large corporations there are so many people and departments creating content that it’s difficult to make sure everyone involved understands how to make content accessible, and a lack of standard accessibility procedures perpetuates this issue.
By neglecting to accommodate the needs of those with disabilities, who make up nearly 20% of the population and who have an annual discretionary spend of over $200 billion in the United States alone, companies are leaving billions of dollars in potential sales on the table. For companies who otherwise are at the top of their industry, this is a big loss, and offers enormous potential for improvement and growth.
Check out our blog The Business Case for Digital Accessibility for more information about how your business can benefit from becoming accessible to everyone.
CPA EXAM
https://www.ada.gov/cpa_exam_sa.html
Students with disabilities should have just as much of an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and pursue their chosen careers as those without. While many colleges have worked to become accessible and make all of their classes, materials, and resources usable by everyone, some of the professional exams that must be conquered after achieving a degree are less accessible.
One example was the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Exam, which did not offer tools to make questions accessible to those with blindness or low vision. A recent taker of the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Exam alleged that she experienced discrimination because the Exam was not made accessible to her due to her visual disability. In order to take the test, she would need to have a human assistant read her the questions and the Authoritative Literature supplement, which is a reference document to be used during the test, which she felt would hinder her performance.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) agreed to make necessary changes to the exam so that exam questions can be magnified and/or read aloud by screen reader technology. This allows exam takers independently access both exam and resources materials, and be accurately tested on their knowledge, not their disability.
MCA to make Art Accessible Blind/ Low Vision Patrons
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-open-source-software-museum-websites-accessible
In light of a barrage of recent lawsuits against fifty different art galleries in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is taking steps to make sure that everyone, regardless of ability, is able to enjoy their displays. Each work of art is being carefully described by text so that visitors to their website will be able to view, read about, or listen to a description of the piece.
Often, because observing and understanding art can be a very personal, subjective experience, it can be difficult to describe it without personal biases or interpretations. To help create the most effective, objective descriptions, they’ve developed a cloud-based software called Coyote, which “provides a system for creating, reviewing, and managing the language used to describe art,” according to artsy.com.
Once a description is entered, it must also be reviewed and approved by a different editor to prevent any unintentional personal biases. This software is a first of its kind and is currently free and living in the cloud so that any other art institutions can also use it to make their pieces accessible to those with visual disabilities as well.
According to current editors at MCA, the most difficult part is creating descriptions which are succinct, complete, and clear, while understanding that what is succinct, complete, and clear to one person may be different to another, especially in terms of the abstract art for which the museum is famous. To alleviate that concern, editors have developed a style guide for users to determine what information should or should not be included, and how to describe elements without using jargon or getting too unnecessarily specific.
Ideally, the current editors plan on developing two descriptions for each image- one short, default description for screen readers to pick up, and an alternative, longer, optional description including more nuance and a deeper understanding of the image.
Time’s up for Waivers- Video Games Must Now Be Accessible
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/video-games-cvaa-accessibility-law-1203099440/
While video games have technically been required to comply with 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) since Obama signed it into law in 2010, video game companies have been able to avoid compliance by using a series of waivers. However, the last of these waivers expired in December of 2018, meaning that compliance is now the law for all newly released or updated video games. Failure to meet these compliance standards “within reasonable effort and cost” could result in mediation and fines, as well as customer complaints.
These newly enforceable regulations specifically relate to communication between gamers within the video game itself, concerning mainly the chat functions. While this is a very narrow section of the industry to regulate, video game creators have been cognisant of the needs of those with disabilities in other ways thanks to AbleGamers, a nonprofit dedicated to the video game accessibility. AbleGamers have successfully encouraged game developers to look beyond the basic regulations and make video games accessible entertainment for all.
Even Queen Bey Isn’t Immune from Digital Accessibility Litigation
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/beyonces-parkwood-entertainment-sued-1172909
Beyonce’s company, Parkwood Entertainment, was hit with a class action lawsuit in January 2019. A blind New York woman experienced numerous difficulties while navigating Beyonce’s website, Beyonce.com.
A blind New York woman experienced discrimination when she was unable to successfully navigate around Beyonce’s website, Beyonce.com, using her assistive technology. Simple digital accessibility barriers like a lack of accessible drop-down menus, navigation links, and alt text for pictures make the site nearly unusable by fans who are blind or have low vision.
According to the lawsuit, website visitors who are blind or low vision were, “denied access to the enjoyment of goods and services offered by Beyonce.com, during the relevant statutory period.” Basic website tasks such as accessing information and purchasing tickets or merchandise are impossible, subjecting blind or low vision users to “unlawful discrimination.”
Music is one thing that can be enjoyed equally by those with and without sight, and the fact that Beyonce’s website is exclusively usable by sighted individuals is particularly hurtful to the plaintiff. While compensatory damages, court costs, and legal fees are also requested, the plaintiff’s main request was that the website be remediated to be fully accessible to those with disabilities.
This lawsuit is part of an increasing trend to use litigation to encourage companies with public-facing websites to make their websites fully compliant with ADA Section 508 and accessible to those with disabilities. While these charges don’t typically result in punitive damages, they do force companies into compliance so that others with similar disabilities no longer face discrimination.
Ready to become compliant? Check out our Accessibility Services to see how we can help.
Not sure if you’re compliant or not? Our Accessibility Testing Services will help you determine what your website needs to be accessible to all.
About Nina Overdorff
Nina comes to Onix with years of sales and marketing experience from a variety of industries, and holds a BS in Language Arts Education. Nina has a passion for words, storytelling, and information, which she believes everyone should have access to regardless of ability. After spending time as a teacher with a blind student, she became much more aware of the limitations and abilities of web accessibility, and how essential it is to those experiencing disabilities.
“Being able to access information equally ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity for education, employment, and success in life.”
Evaluating Tools for Professional PDF Remediators
July 3, 2019 | Tammy Albee
State Accessibility Laws: An Overview
June 28, 2019 | Nina Overdorff
Equidox’s Accessibility Mission
June 21, 2019 | Tammy Albee
Subscribe to the Web Accessibility Blog
Web Accessibility Blog Subscribe
Yes. Send me web accessibility news, events, insights and peer successes.
Accessibility News
Accessibility Tools and Law
Email: EquidoxSales@onixnet.com
Contact Onix
Copyright © 2019 Onix. All Rights Reserved.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line761
|
__label__wiki
| 0.866902
| 0.866902
|
Tag Archives: fleet
Australia: Penal Colony Turned Sovereign Nation
Fun Facts About the Founding of Australia
Captain Arthur Phillip
On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. After overcoming a period of hardship, the fledgling colony began to celebrate the anniversary of this date with great fanfare.
Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to establish an agricultural work camp there for British convicts. With little idea of what he could expect from the mysterious and distant land, Phillip had great difficulty assembling the fleet that was to make the journey. His requests for more experienced farmers to assist the penal colony were repeatedly denied, and he was both poorly funded and outfitted. Nonetheless, accompanied by a small contingent of Marines and other officers, Phillip led his 1,000-strong party, of whom more than 700 were convicts, around Africa to the eastern side of Australia. In all, the voyage lasted eight months, claiming the deaths of some 30 men.
HMS Sirius
The first years of settlement were nearly disastrous. Cursed with poor soil, an unfamiliar climate and workers who were ignorant of farming, Phillip had great difficulty keeping the men alive. The colony was on the verge of outright starvation for several years, and the marines sent to keep order were not up to the task. Phillip, who proved to be a tough but fair-minded leader, persevered by appointing convicts to positions of responsibility and oversight. Floggings and hangings were commonplace, but so was egalitarianism. As Phillip said before leaving England: “In a new country there will be no slavery and hence no slaves.”
Though Phillip returned to England in 1792, the colony became prosperous by the turn of the 19th century. Feeling a new sense of patriotism, the men began to rally around January 26 as their founding day. Historian Manning Clarke noted that in 1808 the men observed the “anniversary of the foundation of the colony” with “drinking and merriment.”
Finally, in 1818, January 26 became an official holiday, marking the 30th anniversary of British settlement in Australia. And, as Australia became a sovereign nation, it became the national holiday known as Australia Day. Today, Australia Day serves both as a day of celebration for the founding of the white British settlement, and as a day of mourning for the Aborigines who were slowly dispossessed of their land as white colonization spread across the continent.
Special thanks to History.com
Filed under Historical Events & Figures, Travel
Tagged as Aborigines, Arthur Phillip, Australia, Australia Day, British, Captain Arthur Phillip, celebration, climate, colonization, colony, convict, disastrous, dispossessed, drinking, egalitarianism, England, farmer, fleet, Flogging, founding, government, hanging, HMS Sirius, holiday, leader, Manning Clarke, Marine, merriment, mourning, national holiday, New South Wales, officer, patriotism, penal, poor soil, settlement, slave, slavery, sovereign nation, starvation, work camp, worker
The Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941: Living in Infamy
The Pearl Harbor Memorial rests atop the sunken USS. Arizona
Facts About the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese attack routes on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
Although the aerial attack was very successful, the submarines failed to finish off any wounded ship inside the harbour.
The attack’s success surprised the Japanese as much as the Americans.
The last part of the decoded Japanese message stated that U.S. relations were to be severed.
The Japanese attack force was under the command of Admiral Nagumo.
Japansese force consisted of six carriers with 423 planes.
At 6 a.m. the first Japanese attack wave of 83 planes took off.
Nickname for Pearl Harbor is “Gibraltar of the Pacific.”
Eighteen U.S. ships were hit.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy,” in reference to the attack.
Three prime targets escaped damage, the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, the Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga. They were not in the port when the attack took place.
Another target, the base fuel tanks also escaped damage.
Casualties included 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians.
1178 people were wounded.
The day after the attack the U.S. and Britain declared war on Japan.
Pearl Harbor is the Naval Base for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Pearl Harbor is the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Pearl Harbor has 10 square miles of navigable water.
The harbour is on the southern coast of Oahu.
Naval vessel placement at Pearl Harbor during the attack
The harbour is artificially improved.
The attack was the climax of a decade of worsening relations between the U.S. and militaristic Japan.
A U.S. embargo on necessary supplies for war prompted the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku planned the attack with great care.
All of the planes on the Japanese ships were fully fueled and armed.
The Japanese planes took off about 90 minutes from Pearl Harbor.
The president at the time of the attack was Franklin D. Rooselvelt.
The attack brought the United States into World War II.
The Japanese fleet had 30 ships.
The Japanese were interested in the Hawaiian islands since the islands were annexed by the U.S. in 1898.
An admiral said, “leaving aside the unspeakable treachery of it, the Japanese did a fine job.”
Japanese suffered just small losses.
The attack crippled the United States fleet.
The Japanese deceived the U.S. by saying false statements and expressed interest in continued peace.
Americans think of the attack as very dishonorable.
The attack was planned weeks in advance.
The main reason for the attack was over economic issues.
Because of the unpreparedness of the U.S. military, Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short were relieved of duty.
The attack severely crippled the U.S. naval and air strength in the Pacific.
Of the eight battleships, all but the Arizona and Oklahoma were eventually repaired and returned to service.
On December 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan with only one vote against it. The vote against it was of Represenative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who had also voted against U.S. entry into World War I.
Once the fleet was out of action, Japan would be able to conquest a great area.
A U.S. Army private who noticed the large flight of planes on his radar screen was told to ignore them because a flight of B-17s from the continental U.S. was expected at the time.
More than 180 U.S. aircraft were destroyed.
Pearl Harbor Memorial
During the attack the USS Arizona sank with a loss of more than 1,100 men.
A white concrete and steel structure now spans the hull of the sunken ship as a memorial.
The memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1962.
U.S. officials had been aware that an attack by Japan was probable, but did not know the time or place it would occur.
Pearl Harbor was not in the state of high alert when the attack started, Anti-Aircraft guns were left unmanned.
The Americans were taken completely by surprise.
The main targets for the first wave was the airfield and battleships.
The second wave targets were other ships and shipyard facilities.
The air raid lasted until about 9:45 a.m.
Special thanks to www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com and www.absoluteastronomy.com
Filed under Historical Events & Figures
Tagged as 1941, a date that will live in infamy, Admiral Husband Kimmel, Admiral Nagumo, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, aerial attack, air, air raid, air strength, aircraft, aircraft carrier, aircraft carriers, airfield, America, American, anti-aircraft guns, attack, attack wave, B-17, base, base fuel tanks, Britain, carrier, carriers, casualties, casualty, civilian, civilians, Congress, conquest, damage, December 7, economic, economy, embargo, FDR, fleet, force, Franklin D Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Walter Short, Gibraltar of the Pacific, harbor, Hawaii, headquarters, HI, honor, Husband Kimmel, Japan, Japanese, Japanese force, Jeannette Rankin, memorial, Nagumo, naval, naval strength, navigable water, Oahu, Pacific, Pearl Harbor, plane, planes, port, President Franklin D Roosevelt, President Roosevelt, radar, radar screen, servicemen, ship, shipyard, submarine, submarines, supplies, surprise, surprise attack, target, targets, U.S., U.S. Pacific Fleet, United States, USS Arizona, USS Enterprise, USS Lexington, USS Oklahoma, USS Saratoga, Walter Short, War, water, World War I, World War II, wounded
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line762
|
__label__wiki
| 0.977393
| 0.977393
|
Name: Witchblade
Abbreviation(s): WB
Creator: Ralph Hemecker, Richard C. Okie, Marc Silvestri and Michael Turner
Date(s): 2001-2002
Medium: Television
External Links: Official WB site
1 Interaction with TPTB
2 Witchblade Fandom
3 Fanfiction
Sara Pezzini, a New York City Homicide detective, is destined to wear the Witchblade, a semi-sentient mystical gauntlet. It's a supernatural cop show! Based on the comic of the same name, it ran for two seasons on TNT.
The ending of the first season is known as "The Great Rewind".[1] Many fans felt disappointed by the second season; others were creeped out by the fact that it was canon that part of Irons' body was in a glass ball jar on display, and that Ian Nottingham was shown caressing said jar.
Interaction with TPTB
The show's fandom was supported by Warner Bros with an official "Bladewielders" e-mail list that also generated an official, weekly episode preview; a Bladewielders forum, and several Yahoo!Groups mailing lists, including the still-active Witchblade list. Additionally, the producers of the show set up a website, Talismaniac.com, which was the name of the Internet-based business run by Gabriel Bowman, and set up Cyberfaust.net, a website mentioned in the show. Both of these sites remained under construction during the run of the series, but it showed that the producers were aware of the fannish interaction with the show on the Internet.
Fannish interaction as a whole was small from the beginning. Some of the comic book fans were unhappy with the way both the Wielder and the Witchblade itself was shown on the show, as the Wielder in the comic is a busty female (something Yancy Butler is not), and when the Witchblade manifests in the comic, it tends to rip off all of the Wielder's clothing and replace it with very revealing, alien-like, warrior-maiden armor. As a result, some comic fans called for a boycott of the show on message boards. A small concession to said fans was made in one of the first season episodes, when a similar-style armor was produced for the episode, which only resulted in many of the TV fans being divided as to which was the better armor.
The series was notable for its use of techno music to underscore the various scenes. One fan started a site to track all of the songs used in the series, including the instrumentals, and was able to get other fans to contribute both song clips and help identify the music before receiving a cease-and-desist order, which halted the uploading of the song clips but did not diminish the fannish contribution.
Witchblade Fandom
Since the initial support for the show was from official sources, fanfic as a whole was initially strongly discouraged in order to prevent the producers from any possible "bad" fannish interactions. However, non-sanctioned lists developed, including a slash list that focused in on the Ian/Irons pairing. Ian Nottingham's devotion to his boss/adoptive father gave rise to Ian/Irons slash, the most significant pairing in the fandom. Some Sara/Jake and Sara/Gabriel fic exists as well, although the canon pairing of Sara with her eternally destined lover, Conchobar, is also popular.
The show continues to enjoy "small fandom" status with a fan-based web page, Bladetv.com. Most of the fannish web sites related to the show vanished off the net by 2005. Fanfiction.net lists 550 titles of fic for the show, the largest single archive of WB fanfic on the Internet.
A Witchblade convention, Convergence, was held in Canada [need date] for which a zine was produced.
Witchblade fans also helped raise $10,000 for for charity.
Taking a page from other fandoms, Witchblade Central Station crusaded to save the Witchblade show. The site had launched a petition for season 3 well before news came down that the TNT network was not going to be renewing the show. In light of that announcement the website took out an ad in Variety encouraging other networks to pick up the show and amped up their campaign to transition from e-efforts to traditional mail-in. The effort was not successful.
Digitabulum Magae by MacGeorge is a Highlander crossover and one reviewer describes it as "the only fully developed Ian/Irons story I’ve found."[2]
↑ Near the end of the first season, the producers temporarily halted production in order to allow Yancy Butler to go into rehab for alcoholism for two months. There was some concern over whether or not the show could continue without its lead actress. Rumor held that part of the reason for the way the first season ended (with a reset of the entire year's events) was so that the writers could write a second season that didn't need the lead actress nearly as much in case she relapsed. Fans rallied with support for the actress and the production, sending emails of support.
↑ Media-cow.net: Fan Fiction and Video Recommendations, 13 June 2004. (Accessed 19 March 2011)
Retrieved from "https://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=Witchblade&oldid=640762"
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line763
|
__label__cc
| 0.584531
| 0.415469
|
HomeDoing The Right Thing.
September 14, 2014 fasab Crime, Current Events, Politics, Rants, Wara consequence of ethnic strife, a dumb war, admit, advisors, arrogance, barbaric beheadings, Barrack Obama, civil strife, civil war, claptrap, clean up the mess, closer to doing the right thing, conflicting statements, confusion, continue fighting, cornerstones of his campaign, criteria, Current Events, deceit, decisions, deployment of US forces, despicable and godless terrorists, destined to be a disaster, deteriorated, dream, dumb American and British politicians, electorates, eliminated, failed initiatives, first Presidential election campaign, follow ISIS to the gates of hell, genocide, harsh reality, heinous crimes, helpless with laughter, hold Iraq together, honesty, humility, invade, iraq, ISIS, junior varsity basketball team, lie, manufacture an excuse, military action in Iraq, monster, nightmare, no moral objection, not launching a sustained US campaign against ISIS, Obama, Obama Administration officials, occupying forces in Iraq, Opinion, politician to start telling the truth, politics, potential act of genocide, predecessors, President, Rants, ring mightily hollow, Saddam, slaughtered, sovereign stable and self-reliant Iraq, speeches laden with moral indignation, strategy, strike fear, strong leader, the Congo, the Sunday Sermon, troops, US withdrawal from Iraq, Vice President Joe Biden, Winston Churchill, withdrawal, You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else
The Sunday Sermon
Barrack Obama during his first Presidential election campaign
Seven years ago a young fellow called Barrack Obama was running for President. One of the cornerstones of his campaign was a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, which he called “a dumb war”.
In that much he was right. It was a dumb war, instigated by the dumb American and British politicians who preceded him and who had the deceit and arrogance to lie to their electorates in order to manufacture an excuse to invade that country.
It was always destined to be a disaster. Once Saddam had been eliminated there was no strong leader to hold Iraq together. He may have been a monster, no one is arguing he wasn’t, but without him, or someone like him, things have far from improved. That is just the harsh reality, like it or not.
Seven years ago Obama had no moral objection to the fact that a withdrawal of the occupying forces in Iraq might leave the way open to civil war and genocide. In fact to quote him from that period he said, “[If] that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done.”
He could have said the same about many other countries in the world where civil strife raged.
So today the speeches laden with moral indignation, telling the world that he has ordered military action in Iraq “to prevent a potential act of genocide,” ring mightily hollow.
It would be much better if Obama came clean.
I know it’s a bit of a reach for a politician to start telling the truth, but it would help.
Obama needs to tell the world that he will clean up the mess he and his predecessors made. He needs to admit that the “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq” that he said he had left behind, when U.S. troops pulled out, was a dream that has deteriorated into a nightmare. And he needs to remove the advisors who prompted him to compare ISIS to a junior varsity basketball team when he was interviewed on the subject in January this year. That was just another thing they got completely and tragically wrong.
Yes, I’m asking for a bit of honesty and humility, that’s all.
What I’m hearing instead, however, is more claptrap and confusion.
Vice President Joe Biden is telling everyone that the U.S. “will follow ISIS to the gates of hell”, while other senior Obama Administration officials are assuring us that America is, “not launching a sustained US campaign against ISIS…”
Journalist James Foley minutes before he was beheaded by ISIS terrorists
Conflicting statements like those, in the face of the continuing barbaric beheadings of men, women and even children, and other heinous crimes committed by these despicable and godless terrorists, will hardly strike fear into them. Perhaps the strategy is to have them so helpless with laughter that they cannot continue fighting?
Winston Churchill once said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”
After all this time and after all these failed initiatives we must be getting closer to doing the right thing – surely???
← Whoever Invented The Selfie Needs To Take A Good Look At Themselves.
It’s The Quiz Of The Week! →
2 thoughts on “Doing The Right Thing.”
I complained way back that President Obama was just following the policy of George Bush in the Middle East. I agree that he should be telling it like it is instead of pretending that we will not be back with combat troops. And I agree that we are sending mixed signals. Thanks for the Sunday sermon.
fasab says:
My pleasure. Thanks for reading it and commenting.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line764
|
__label__wiki
| 0.840798
| 0.840798
|
HomePosts tagged 'Ladies Singles Championship'
Ladies Singles Championship
July 13, 2015 July 13, 2015 fasab Questions, Tests actor, America, American Revolutionary War, Angkor Wat, Australia, Australian stockman, bathometer, battle, beverage, bird, Blithe Spirit, borough of Brooklyn, calypsos, cattle grid, cattle guard, China, citizens of Paris, Cobnuts, commemorated, convert alternating current to direct current, country, creature, deathbed, destination, Doctor Zhivago, education, Entertainment, filberts, flower, fruit juice, general knowledge, Geography, gives birth, Haber process, Hail to Thee blithe spirit, Harry Belafonte, history, Kzahkstan, Ladies Singles Championship, largest young, leisure, manufactured, movie, movies, National Park, nationality, nature, new york, novel, Old Man’s Beard, pealing of all the bells, peninsular, Percy Bysshe Shelley, planets in our solar system, play, questions, quiz, quizzes, rectifier, science, Shelley’s poem, silencing, soda water, songs, southwestern, species, sport, stock grid, suppressing, surrounded, Tajikistan, temple complex, test, tests, Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, Traveller’s Joy, tree, turning point, UK/Ireland, Uzbekistan, vegetable, Wimbledon 2015, young kangaroo
For those of you who find the title a little obscure Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport is one of the best-known and most successful songs from Australia, inspired by Harry Belafonte’s calypsos, it is about an Australian stockman on his deathbed.
It also provides a handy link to question one.
As for this and the rest of the questions, if you get stuck you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating.
Enjoy and good luck.
Q. 1. What is a young kangaroo called?
Q. 2. The temple complex of Angkor Wat is situated in which country?
Q. 3. What is commonly used in a rectifier to convert alternating current to direct current?
Q. 4. Which creature gives birth to the largest young?
Q. 5. What do you call the peninsular leisure/entertainment destination found in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, New York?
Q. 6. What is a bathometer?
Q. 7. Cobnuts and filberts come from what species of tree?
Q. 8. What country is surrounded by Kzahkstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China?
Q. 9. About which bird did Percy Bysshe Shelley write ‘Hail to Thee, blithe spirit!’?
Q. 10. Who wrote the play ‘Blithe Spirit’ which took its title from Shelley’s poem?
Q. 11. What is a ‘cattle grid’ (UK/Ireland), a ‘stock grid’ (Australia), or a ‘cattle guard’ (America) used for?
Q. 12. What recently deceased actor was ‘Doctor Zhivago’ in the 1965 movie?
Q. 13. What nationality was ‘Doctor Zhivago’?
Q. 14. ‘Old Man’s Beard’ and ‘Traveller’s Joy’ are names for a variety of which flower?
Q. 15. What is manufactured by the Haber process?
Q. 16. Which novel opens: “It was 348 years, six months and 19 days ago today that the citizens of Paris were awakened by the pealing of all the bells in the triple precincts of the City, the University and the Town”; and who wrote it? (A point for each correct answer.)
Q. 17. What are the names of the first and the fifth planets in our solar system?
Q. 18. No battle was fought here, yet, it was the turning point of the American Revolutionary War and is now commemorated as a National Park. What is its name and in which state is it located? (A point for each correct answer.)
Q. 19. Who won the Ladies Singles Championship at Wimbledon 2015?
Q. 20. This word can mean the name of a beverage made from fruit juice and soda water, part of the name of a well-known vegetable, a sport, or the act of silencing or suppressing – what is it?
A. 1. Joey.
A. 2. Cambodia.
A. 3. A ‘Diode’.
A. 4. Blue Whale – 8 metres and 2,700 kg at birth. In the first 7 to 8 months they reach 16 metres and weigh about 21,000 kg.
A. 5. It is called ‘Coney Island’.
A. 6. It is an instrument for indicating the depth of the sea beneath a moving vessel. You can have the point if you said depth gage or something to measure depth of water.
A. 7. From the Hazel tree.
A. 8. Kyrgzstan.
A. 9. A skylark (in To a Skylark).
A. 10. Noël Coward.
A. 11. It is used as a barrier that allows vehicles to pass, but not cattle.
A. 12. Omar Sharif.
A. 13. Russian.
A. 14. The Clematis.
A. 15. Ammonia.
A. 16. Notre Dame de Paris (also known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame) by Victor Hugo
A. 17. The first is Mercury (the smallest, now Pluto has been demoted) and the fifth is Jupiter (the largest).
A. 18. It is Valley Forge located approximately 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania.
A. 19. Serena Williams.
A. 20. Squash.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line765
|
__label__wiki
| 0.581475
| 0.581475
|
HomePosts tagged 'Ostrich'
The Monday Quiz Returns.
November 25, 2013 November 16, 2013 fasab Questions, Tests banana, Bangles, Beethoven, Beijing Square, Bond movies, Boris Yelzin, boss, Buster Keaton, Canaan, capital, cheetah, China, codenames, conflict, crushed by tanks, Dallas, Daryl Hannah, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dustin Hoffman, education, educational, Entertainment, famous actor, fastest, first WBC heavyweight boxing champion, French underground movement, Frodo Baggins, fruit, gadgets, Galileo, Gary Burghoff, general knowledge, Geography, German Chancellor, Germans, Gort, government, Grizzly bear, Guava, handicap, Harold Lloyd, history, human, I coulda been a contender, I coulda been somebody, I coulda had class, India, James Bond, James Doohan, Japanese 'bullet' train, Jerry Garcia, Jesse James, King Richard III, knowledge, largest city, legend, literature, Lucy Ewing, M*A*S*H, Manic Monday, Misc, Miscellaneous, movie, movies, music, new country, New Zealand, Newfoundland, nickname, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, o'clock, Orange, Ostrich, Pakistan, peace symbol, Peregrin falcon, pig, port city, protests, question, questions, quiz, quizzes, race of giants, Radar O'Reilly, robot, secret recipe for Drambuie, semaphoric letters, slowest, song, sport, television, Telly Savalas, test, tests, the Bible, Tony Iommi, trivia, tv, TV series, Ugli, Vikings, world war ii
Yes, the Monday Quiz returns.
No surprises there, but maybe one or two in the questions.
Let’s see how you do this week.
If you get stuck the answers are, as usual, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below – but please NO cheating!
Enjoy, and good luck!
Q. 1: What handicap did the composer Beethoven have?
Q. 2: According to legend, who rewarded a man for his loyalty by giving him the secret recipe for Drambuie?
Q. 3: Which two semaphoric letters are found on the famous anti war peace symbol from the 1960’s ?
Q. 4: In which movie would you find a robot called ‘Gort’?
Q. 5: What name did the Vikings give to Newfoundland?
Q. 6: What do all of the following have (or don’t have) in common?
Galileo, Jesse James, Jerry Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, James Doohan, Frodo Baggins, Tony Iommi, Telly Savalas, Boris Yelzin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Daryl Hannah and Gary Burghoff (‘Radar’ O’Reilly from M*A*S*H)
Q. 7: In literature, King Richard III was desperate and willing to pay a high price for what?
Q. 8: Which fruit is a port city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
a) Orange
b) Banana
c) Ugli
d) Guava
Q. 9: In China in 1989 in which Beijing Square were the protests against the government crushed by tanks?
Q. 10: What is the name of the race of giants mentioned in the Bible who lived in Canaan?
Q. 11: “I coulda had class, I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender”. What famous actor said the words and in which famous movie?
Q. 12: Who was the first WBC heavyweight boxing champion in 1978?
Q. 13: What is the name of the current German Chancellor?
Q. 14: Put the following in the correct order starting with the fastest and ending with the slowest:
Human, Nimitz class aircraft carrier, Grizzly bear, A common pig, Cheetah, Japanese ‘bullet’ train, Ostrich, Peregrin falcon.
Q. 15: Which new country was formed in 1971 at the end of the Pakistan / India conflict?
Q. 16: Who played ‘Lucy Ewing’ in the hit TV Series ‘Dallas’ and what was her rather unkind nickname?
Q. 17: What was the name of the French underground movement that fought against the Germans in World War II?
Q. 18: Name the capital and the largest city in New Zealand (a point for each).
Q. 19: In the ‘Bond’ movies what were the codenames for James Bond’s boss and the person responsible for the gadgets he used?
Q. 20: What ‘o’clock’ is mentioned in the Bangles hit song ‘Manic Monday’?
A. 1: He was hearing impaired.
A. 2: Bonnie Prince Charlie.
A. 3: N and D for Nuclear Disarmament.
A. 4: The Day The Earth Stood Still.
A. 5: Vinland.
A. 6: They are/were all missing a finger or fingers.
A. 7: “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse.”
A. 8: b) Banana
A. 9: Tiananmen Square.
A. 10: Nephilim.
A. 11: Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’.
A. 12: Ken Norton.
A. 13: Angela Merkel.
A. 14: The correct order, fastest to slowest, is:
1) Japanese ‘bullet’ train (361 mph); 2) Peregrin falcon (200 mph); 3) Cheetah (70 mph); 4) Ostrich (40 mph); 5) Nimitz class aircraft carrier (34.5 plus mph); 6) grizzly bear (30 mph); 7. Human (28 mph); 8. Common pig (11 mph)
A. 15: Bangladesh.
A. 16: ‘Lucy Ewing’ was played by Charlene Tilton and her nickname because of her lack of height was the ‘Poison Dwarf’
A. 17: The Maquis (If you are nice you can also claim a point for ‘French Resistance’)
A. 18: Wellington is the capital; Auckland is the largest city.
A. 19: They were known as ‘M’ and ‘Q’.
A. 20: 6 o’clock.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line766
|
__label__wiki
| 0.712004
| 0.712004
|
Hughes JUPITER Technology Chosen to Provide Satellite Broadband to Siberia and Far East of Russia
Russia Satcom Operators Extending High-Performance Ka-Band Service to Consumers
Germantown, Md. - Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite solutions and services, today announced that Russian integrator Ka- Internet has delivered a Hughes JUPITERTM System to the Russian Satellite Communication Company (RSCC) as RSCC’s platform for high-performance satellite broadband services in Siberia and the Far East.
A JUPITER Gateway was installed at the Satellite Communications Center (SCC) in Khabarovsk, and a Network Management System (NMS) was installed at the SCC in Dubna, Moscow Region. The JUPITER System will operate over the Ka-band capacity of the Russian Express AM5 satellite, launched and added to RSCC’s constellation in 2014. Services to the market will be delivered on a VNO (virtual network operator) model starting early Q2 this year.
“Satellite broadband is the ideal connectivity solution for Siberia and the Russian Far East,” said Sergey Pekhterev, general director, AltegroSky Group of Companies, parent company of Ka- Internet. “It is well suited to providing coverage over huge areas in the two regions, where maintaining a wired infrastructure is difficult, if not impossible. With the Hughes JUPITER System, we can deliver high-speed Internet access in Ka-band at affordable prices to the population of even the most remote regions of the Russian Federation.”
“Following a careful evaluation of the leading Ka-band ground system technologies, we consider the Hughes JUPITER System as one of the best available in the world market because of its advanced capabilities—including wideband DVB-S2 outroutes which enable maximum forward channel efficiency,” said Ka-Internet General Director Vitaly Vashkevich. “In addition, the JUPITER System has a very powerful VNO capability that will enable Russian service providers to easily structure a variety of custom service plans.”
“We are honored that Ka-Internet and RSCC have chosen Hughes technology to power a new world of media-rich Internet applications for consumers across one of the world’s largest land masses,” said Konstantin Lanin, head of Hughes Russia office. “Connecting people in Siberia and Russia’s Far East to the worldwide web is an important economic and social imperative that Hughes is uniquely qualified to help succeed—given its experience delivering services to more than one million subscribers in North America with JUPITER System technology.”
About Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC)
The Russian Satellite Communication Company (RSCC) is the Russian state satellite operator whose spacecraft provide global coverage. RSCC was founded in 1967 and is one of the ten largest satellite operators in the world in terms of satellites and orbital slots. The company owns the largest satellite constellation in Russia, located in the geostationary orbital arc from 14 West to 140 East and covers the whole territory of Russia, CIS, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific region, North and South America, and Australia.
As the national satellite operator, RSCC meets the important state tasks of providing mobile presidential and governmental communications, federal TV and radio signal transmission over the territory of Russia and most countries of the world. The company pays serious attention to implementing high-priority national projects and closely interacts with the Russian state authorities in the field of informational and telecommunications and broadcast systems development. RSCC provides a full range of communications and broadcasting services using its own terrestrial engineering facilities and satellite constellation, which includes state-of-the-art satellites Express-AM, Express-AT, Express-A, and a part of the French 36A satellite capacity. The company’s satellites offer wide opportunities for TV and radio broadcasting, including DTH, IPTV, and MPEG-4 services, broadband Internet access, data transmission, videoconferencing, VSAT network deployment, as well as departmental and corporate communications networks worldwide. RSCC has deployed a modern ground satellite management system that is used to control and monitor the company’s own satellites, as well as Eutelsat, Intelsat, etc. satellites. RSCC reports to the Federal Communications Agency (Rossvyaz).
The company includes five Satellite Communications Centers (SCC) located at Dubna, Bear Lakes, Skolkovo, Zheleznogorsk, Khabarovsk, and the Shabolovka Technical Centre in Moscow, as well as its own high-speed optical-fiber digital network. For additional information, please visit www.rcss.ru.
About Ka-Internet
CJSC Ka-Internet is the Russian commercial satellite communications operator, which started business activity in 2012, and belongs to AltegroSky Group of Companies. Ka-Internet provides broadband satellite Internet access services, data transmission, and satellite channels leasing services. The services are delivered in Ka-band via geostationary satellites “Ka-Sat” in 9oE orbital slot and “Express-AM5” in 140oE orbital slot. Total capacity operated by Ka-Internet systems is up to 150 Mbps. For additional information, please visit www.kainternet.ru.
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) is the world’s leading provider of satellite broadband for home and office, delivering innovative network technologies, managed services, and solutions for enterprises and governments globally. HughesNet® is the #1 high-speed satellite Internet service in the marketplace, with offerings to suit every budget. To date, Hughes has shipped more than 4 million systems to customers in over 100 countries, representing over 50 percent market share. Its products employ global standards approved by the TIA, ETSI and ITU organizations, including IPoS/DVB-S2, RSM-A, and GMR-1.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line767
|
__label__cc
| 0.504736
| 0.495264
|
Command Stations of Indian Air Force – General Awareness Study Material & Notes
Home/Study Material/General Awareness/Command Stations of Indian Air Force – General Awareness Study Material & Notes
Every proud Indian should have the knowledge of the bases of our prestigious and able Air Force. Therefore, here is a short compilation of the command stations located across the country which serve the Air force of India.
The Indian Air Force is divided into 5 operational and 2 functional commands. Each of these Command is headed by an Air Officer Commander-in-Chief who is a rank holder of Air Marshal.
The purpose of keeping an operational command is to carry out the military operations using aircrafts within its entrusted area of responsibility. While the responsibility of the functional commands is to maintain combat readiness at all times.
Apart from the Training Command located at Bangalore, there is a centre for primary flight training located at the Air Force Academy, Hyderabad. The Advanced officer training for command positions is conducted at the Defence Services Staff College. While specialised advanced flight training schools are located at Bidar in Karnataka, and Hakimpet in Andhra Pradesh. The Technical schools are located at a number of other locations. also.
Let us now look into different operational commands:
Central Air Command (CAC)- It is headquartered at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh ; operates Air Bases in Madhya Pradesh and surrounding states of central parts of India
Eastern Air Command (EAC)– It is headquartered at Shillong, Meghalaya; operates Air bases in Eastern and North-eastern parts of India
Southern Air Command (SAC)- It is headquartered at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; strategically important Air command protecting the vital shipping routes ; operates Air bases in Southern India and in the parts Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
South Western Air Command (SWAC)– It is headquartered at Gandhinagar, Gujarat ; front line of defence against Pakistan ; operates bases in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan region.
Western Air Command (WAC) – It is headquartered at Subroto Park, New Delhi: largest Air Command ; operates air bases from parts of Punjab to Uttar Pradesh.
The Functional Commands are located following places:
Training Command (TC)– It is headquartered at Bangalore, Karnataka
Maintenance Command (MC)– It is headquartered at Nagpur, Maharashtra
Furthermore, India also operates the Farkhor Air Base also known as the Ayni airbase hosting a Indian “military outpost” in Tajikistan (around 15 km from Tajik capital Dushanbe), though officialy both government donot comment much about the base.
About the Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty : recent developments
India in 18th Asian Games in Indonesia
September 1st, 2018 | 0 Comments
Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) scheme
NITI Aayog Health Index
April 23rd, 2018 | 0 Comments
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line770
|
__label__cc
| 0.658699
| 0.341301
|
« In The Crossroads | Main | In The Crossroads- A 'Brazen' New World »
Washington State Judge Says No Established Proof for 'Born-Gay' Theory, Rules to Protect Marriage
Worldwide Network of Former Homosexuals Applauds Judge & Nationwide Pro-Marriage Efforts
Orlando, FL- August 1, 2006 The nationwide effort to preserve natural marriage as between one man and one woman has seen recent victories in New York, Nebraska, Georgia, Connecticut and now Washington. The Washington Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision to uphold the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act last week became even more socially significant when one of the justices, Judge Barbara Madsen, publicly questioned the proof for homosexuality as an immutable trait.
"Laws challenged on the basis of race or sex discrimination are generally subjected to more searching review," stated Justice Madsen. She added that the plaintiffs were not entitled to such review because they had not demonstrated that homosexuality is an immutable characteristic like race or gender.
Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, responded, "Judge Madsen has publicly recognized what thousands of former homosexuals, like me, have experienced to be true. Change is a reality for so many and consequently, marriage is not a civil right to be granted to anyone who demands it.
"Public policy makers must continue to question the obvious lack of credible evidence for the 'born-gay' assumption," said Chambers. "As former homosexuals, we will continue to educate the broader public about the personal impact of this critical social issue. We continue to stand with the majority of Americans who want to preserve marriage as the unique, life-giving union that it is."
Exodus International is a resource and referral organization with over 135 member ministries across North America. The organization has been in existence for 30 years and offers help to the more than 400,000 people who contact the ministry each year.
Alan Chambers is available for interviews on this story. He is a national spokesperson on homosexuality and related policy matters. He has been interviewed by numerous mainstream media outlets across North America and Europe including TIME, the Los Angeles Times, ABC's Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline and MSNBC’s Buchanan & Press.
Founded in 1976, Exodus International is the largest resource and referral organization dealing with homosexual issues in the U.S. and throughout the world. With over 135 ministries across North America, Exodus is a growing network of former homosexuals dedicated to sharing the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
Powered by Qumana
Posted by Nancy Brown on Tuesday, August 01, 2006 | Permalink
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line771
|
__label__wiki
| 0.565251
| 0.565251
|
Displaying 26 - 50 of 539 items.
Gordon Watkins Douglas (1921-2000)
Gordon Watkins Douglas researched cervical cancer, breach delivery, and treatment of high blood pressure during pregnancy in the US during the twentieth century. He worked primarily at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, New York. While at Bellevue, he worked with William E. Studdiford to develop treatments for women who contracted infections as a result of illegal abortions performed throughout the US in unsterile environments.
Embryonic Differentiation in Animals
Embryonic differentiation is the process of development during which embryonic cells specialize and diverse tissue structures arise. Animals are made up of many different cell types, each with specific functions in the body. However, during early embryonic development, the embryo does not yet possess these varied cells; this is where embryonic differentiation comes into play. The differentiation of cells during embryogenesis is the key to cell, tissue, organ, and organism identity.
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) are cells derived from non-pluripotent cells, such as adult somatic cells, that are genetically manipulated so as to return to an undifferentiated, pluripotent state. Research on iPSCs, initiated by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 and extended by James Thompson in 2007, has so far revealed the same properties as embryonic stem cells (ESCs), making their discovery potentially very beneficial for scientists and ethicists alike.
"Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Somatic Cells" (2007), by Junying Yu et al.
On 2 December 2007, Science published a report on creating human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human somatic cells: "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Somatic Cells." This report came from a team of Madison, Wisconsin scientists: Junying Yu, Maxim A. Vodyanik, Kim Smuga-Otto, Jessica Antosiewicz-Bourget, Jennifer L. Frane, Shulan Tian, Jeff Nie, Gudrun A. Jonsdottir, Victor Ruotti, Ron Stewart, Igor I. Slukvin, and James A. Thomson.
Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are capable of dividing for long periods of time and can give rise to specialized cells under particular conditions. Embryonic stem cells are a particular type of stem cell derived from embryos. According to US National Institutes of Health (NIH), in humans, the term "embryo" applies to a fertilized egg from the beginning of division up to the end of the eighth week of gestation, when the embryo becomes a fetus. Between fertilization and the eighth week of gestation, the embryo undergoes multiple cell divisions.
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
The purpose of regenerative medicine, especially tissue engineering, is to replace damaged tissue with new tissue that will allow the body to resume normal function. The uniqueness of tissue engineering is that it can restore normal structure in addition to repairing tissue function, and is often accomplished using stem cells. The first type of tissue engineering using stem cells was hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), a surgical procedure in which hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are infused into a host to treat a variety of blood diseases, cancers, and immunodeficiencies.
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT) is a biotechnology company that uses stem cell technology to develop novel therapies in the field of regenerative medicine. Formed in 1994, ACT grew from a small agricultural cloning research facility located in Worcester, Massachusetts, into a multi-locational corporation involved in using both human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and human adult stem cells as well as animal cells for therapeutic innovations.
Ethics and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
The recent development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and related technologies has caught the attention of scientists, activists, politicians, and ethicists alike. IPSCs gained immediate international attention for their apparent similarity to embryonic stem cells after their successful creation in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka and in 2007 by James Thompson and others.
Subject: Technologies, Ethics
"Derivation of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Cultured Human Primordial Germ Cells" (1998), by John Gearhart et al.
In November 1998, two independent reports were published concerning the first isolation of pluripotent human stem cells, one of which was "Derivation of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Cultured Human Primordial Germ Cells." This paper, authored by John D. Gearhart and his research team - Michael J Shamblott, Joyce Axelman, Shunping Wang, Elizabeith M. Bugg, John W. Littlefield, Peter J. Donovan, Paul D. Blumenthal, and George R. Huggins - was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science soon after James A.
"Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Recombinant Proteins" (2009), by Hongyan Zhou et al.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are studied carefully by scientists not just because they are a potential source of stem cells that circumvents ethical controversy involved with experimentation on human embryos, but also because of their unique potential to advance the field of regenerative medicine. First generated in a lab by Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, iPSCs have the ability to differentiate into cells of all types.
"Generation of Germline-Competent Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells" (2007), by Keisuke Okita, Tomoko Ichisaka, and Shinya Yamanaka
In the July 2007 issue of Nature, Keisuke Okita, Tomoko Ichisaka, and Shinya Yamanaka added to the new work on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with their "Generation of Germline-Competent Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells" (henceforth abbreviated "Generation"). The authors begin the paper by noting their desire to find a method for inducing somatic cells of patients to return to a pluripotent state, a state from which the cell can differentiate into any type of tissue but cannot form an entire organism.
"Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Blastocytes" (1998), by James Thomson
After becoming chief pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin Regional Primate Center in 1995, James A. Thomson began his pioneering work in deriving embryonic stem cells from isolated embryos. That same year, Thomson published his first paper, "Isolation of a Primate Embryonic Stem Cell Line," in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, detailing the first derivation of primate embryonic stem cells. In the following years, Thomson and his team of scientists - Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, Sander S. Shapiro, Michelle A.
Subject: Experiments, Publications
"Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells without Myc from Mouse and Human Fibroblasts" (2007), by Masato Nakagawa et al.
In November 2007, Masato Nakagawa, along with a number of other researchers including Kazutoshi Takahashi, Keisuke Okita, and Shinya Yamanaka, published "Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells without Myc from Mouse and Human Fibroblasts" (abbreviated "Generation") in Nature. In "Generation," the authors point to dedifferentiation of somatic cells as an avenue for generating pluripotent stem cells useful for treating specific patients and diseases.
Subject: Publications, Experiments
Shinya Yamanaka (1962- )
Shinya Yamanaka gained international prominence after publishing articles detailing the successful generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, first in mice, then in humans. Yamanaka induced somatic cells to act like human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), allowing researchers to experiment with non-embryonic stem cells with a similar capacity as hESCs. The research involving iPS cells therefore offered new potential for research and application in medical treatment, without many of the ethical objections that hESC research entailed.
Michael D. West (1953- )
Michael D. West is a biomedical entrepreneur and investigator whose aim has been to extend human longevity with biomedical interventions. His focus has ranged from the development of telomerase-based therapeutics to the application of human embryonic stem cells in regenerative medicine. Throughout his eventful career, West has pursued novel and sometimes provocative ideas in a fervent, self-publicizing manner. As of 2009, West advocated using human somatic cell nuclear transfer techniques to derive human embryonic stem cells for therapeutic practice.
James Alexander Thomson (1958- )
James Alexander Thomson, affectionately known as Jamie Thomson, is an American developmental biologist whose pioneering work in isolating and culturing non-human primate and human embryonic stem cells has made him one of the most prominent scientists in stem cell research. While growing up in Oak Park, Illinois, Thomson's rocket-scientist uncle inspired him to pursue science as a career. Born on 20 December 1958, Thomson entered the nearby University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign nineteen years later as a National Merit Scholar majoring in biophysics.
Edwin Grant Conklin (1863-1952)
Edwin Grant Conklin was born in Waldo, Ohio, on 24 November 1863 to parents Nancy Maria Hull and Dr. Abram V. Conklin. Conklin's family was very religious and he seriously considered a theistic path before choosing a career in academics. Conklin's scientific work was primarily in the areas of embryology, cytology, and morphology, though many questions regarding the relationships between science, society, and philosophy had an influence on both his writings and academic lectures.
John D. Gearhart
John D. Gearhart is a renowned American developmental geneticist best known for leading the Johns Hopkins University research team that first identified and isolated human pluripotent stem cells from human primordial germ cells, the precursors of fully differentiated germ cells. Born in Western Pennsylvania, Gearhart lived on the family farm located in the Allegheny Mountains for the first six years of his life.
Edward Donnall Thomas (1920-2012)
Edward Donnall Thomas, an American physician and scientist, gained recognition in the scientific community for conducting the first bone marrow transplant, a pioneering form of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Bone marrow transplants are considered to be the first successful example of tissue engineering, a field within regenerative medicine that uses hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) as a vehicle for treatment. Prior to Thomas's groundbreaking work, most blood-borne diseases, including certain inherited and autoimmune diseases, were considered lethal.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0017.json.gz/line777
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.