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Author: Jon Russell
Kencko chugs down $3.4M to help you get more fruit and vegetables in your diet
This post is by Jon Russell from TechCrunch
Kencko, a company that wants to help people eat more fruit and vegetables in their daily life, is entering feast mode after it announced a $3.4 million seed round for growth and product development.
We profiled the company last year, but — for those who missed it — Kencko develops plant-based products that help people eat healthy without having to suffer the pain of horrible tasting food or other extreme eating. That’s to say that its fruit drinks, the company’s first product, include the pulp and vitamins absent in pressed juice but come in a convenient sachet that has been flash-frozen and slow-dried to retain all the goodness. The company says that each packet, which is 20g and mixes with water, contains two of the five-a-day recommendation for fruit and vegetable servings.
Right now, Kencko — which means health in Japanese — is selling the fruit drink
Continue reading “Kencko chugs down $3.4M to help you get more fruit and vegetables in your diet”
Spotify Lite for Android gets an official launch in 36 countries
Spotify’s Lite app is now official. The app has been in beta since last year, and now Spotify is officially releasing it in 36 countries worldwide.
The app is designed to work on patchy or weak internet connections and, at just 10MB, it is small enough to cater to lower-end devices that have limited storage or older phones. Spotify Lite is limited to Android devices running version 4.3 or newer, and it is open to both paying and non-paying users. For those worried about maxing out their data plan, the app comes with an optional limit that can tell you when you are close to hitting that buffer.
Spotify claims that 90 percent of the features of the main app are available in Lite, in particular areas around multiple — including video and cover artist — are omitted as they are not critical to the core experience.
Continue reading “Spotify Lite for Android gets an official launch in 36 countries”
Uber CTO says competing with Didi is ‘very healthy’ despite their complicated relationship
Competing with a company that counts you as an investor is hardly conventional — some might call it strange — but for Uber it’s a situation that is not only normal but essential.
That’s according to the ride-hailing giant’s CTO, Thuan Pham, who talked about the complicated rivalry Uber has with China’s Didi Chuxing, which counts each other as investors. Uber famously exited China in 2016 — it has since left Southeast Asia and merged with a rival in Russia, too — and part of that deal saw it take nearly six percent of the Chinese company’s business while Didi got equity in Uber. Yet, years later, the two compete in the growing Latin America market, where Didi is making aggressive moves, and also in Australia.
“If you don’t have competition then you can become complacent because there’s no competition to challenge,” Pham said during an interview at
Continue reading “Uber CTO says competing with Didi is ‘very healthy’ despite their complicated relationship”
Waresix hauls in $14.5M to advance its push to digitize logitics in Indonesia
Waresix, one of a handful of startups aiming to modernize logistics in Indonesia — the world’s fourth most populous country — has pulled in $14.5 million to grow its 18-month-old business.
This new investment, Waresix’s Series A, is led by EV Growth — the growth-stage fund co-run by East Ventures — with participation from SMDV — the investment arm of Indonesia corporation Sinar Mas — and Singapore’s Jungle Ventures . The startup previously raised $1.6 million last year from East Ventures, SMDV and Monk’s Hill Ventures. It closed a seed round in early 2018.
Waresix is aiming to digitize logistics, the business of moving goods from A to B, which it believes is worth a total of $240 billion in Indonesia.
A large part of that is down to the country’s geography. The archipelago officially has over 17,000, but there are five main ones. That necessitates a lot
Continue reading “Waresix hauls in $14.5M to advance its push to digitize logitics in Indonesia”
PayU, Naspers’ global fintech firm, enters Southeast Asia with acquisition of Red Dot Payment
PayU, the Naspers owned fintech firm that specializes in emerging markets, is broadening its global reach into Southeast Asia after it announced a deal to buy a majority stake in Singapore-based Red Dot Payment.
Naspers is best known for its payments and fintech business in markets like India, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, but now it will enter Southeast Asia, a market with over 600 million consumers and rapidly rising internet access.
PayU plans to tap that potential through Red Dot, an eight-year-old startup founded by finance veterans which offers services that include a payment gateway, e-commerce storefronts and online invoicing across Southeast Asia. PayU said it has acquired “a majority stake” in the business. It did not specify the exact size but it did disclose that the deal values Red Dot at $65 million.
It isn’t clear exactly how much Red Dot had raised from investors overall —
Continue reading “PayU, Naspers’ global fintech firm, enters Southeast Asia with acquisition of Red Dot Payment”
Stranger Things 3 is now available on Netflix
July 4 is American Independence Day, but it also marks the arrival of Stranger Things season three — a release that might just be the most-anticipated in the history of Netflix.
Season three dropped at 12:01 PDT which means, dear reader, that it is now online and ready for your viewing pleasure.
The series has been an enormous hit for Netflix. Beyond a litany of awards, it has proven to be a smash with Netflix subscribers. More than 15 million watched the season 2 opener within three days of its release, while every episode of the second season had racked up more than four million views within that early window.
Netflix has gone to town promoting season three — with teasers in popular Roblox and Fortnite and an international promotion campaign — so you can expect that the numbers will be even higher this time around. The only question
Continue reading “Stranger Things 3 is now available on Netflix”
The previous fund made over 40 investments, Sony said, and now IGF is taking over with the goal of writing bigger checks than Sony typically manage by itself and paying closer
Continue reading “Sony announces a new $185M fund to invest in tech startups”
To be clear, Kyash isn’t a bank. Yet. But it is currently applying for a host of licenses in Japan that could allow it to offer banking-style features including checking accounts, ATM withdrawals and money remittance. Right now, it is a payment app that offers a connected Visa card in the style of Monzo, N26, Revolut (which has a Japan license) and others of that ilk.
The startup was founded in 2015 in Shinichi Takatori, a former banker and management consultant who saw the potential to merge tech and finance.
“I really noticed that information and communication has become ubiquitous but money itself hasn’t changed for a long time,” Takatori told TechCrunch in an
Continue reading “Kyash, a would-be challenger bank in Japan, raises $14M”
Sweet Escape, a platform for booking photographers, raises $6M
Sweet Escape, a startup founded in Indonesia that helps connect photographers with customers, is all smiles today after it announced a $6 million Series A round.
The company — which was profiled by TechCrunch last year — said that the investment was led by Singapore-based funds Openspace Ventures and Jungle Ventures with participation from Burda Principal
Investments. Existing investors, which include Beenext, SkyStar Capital, and GDP Venture, also took part. The startup previously raised $1 million in seed funding.
Founded in 2017 by David Soong and Emile Etienne — whose previous startup was recently acquired by Indonesian travel unicorn Traveloka — Sweet Escape was initially aimed at helping travelers to connect with photographers to take great holiday photos, and get them back quickly. Now, however, that mission has broadened and the company is billing itself as a platform to reach and book photographers.
“A photographer for every need, anywhere in
Continue reading “Sweet Escape, a platform for booking photographers, raises $6M”
Nexon takes control of emerging game studio Embark via a $96M investment
Six months ago Korean games giant Nexon seemed headed for a management change, but now it seems very much back to business as usual. Days after founder Kim Jung-ju was reported to have called off selling his near-50 percent share in the firm, Nexon has snapped up a controlling stake in seven-month-old game developer Embark for $96 million.
Sweden-based Embark was founded by former EA executive Patrick Söderlund last year. Nexon was its sole early investor, having paid a reported $41 million for around one-third of the business. Today, Nexon said it had agreed to double its ownership to reach a total of 66 percent. The Korean firm revealed it is paying $96 million for the deal.
Nexon isn’t a stranger to M&A but this is an uncharacteristically early move. That’s likely down to the company’s high regard for Söderlund — who already sits on the Nexon board —
Continue reading “Nexon takes control of emerging game studio Embark via a $96M investment”
Huawei can buy from US suppliers again — but things will never be the same
U.S. President Donald Trump has handed Huawei a lifeline after he said that U.S. companies are permitted to sell goods to the embattled Chinese tech firm following more than a month of uncertainty.
It’s been a pretty dismal past month for Huawei since the American government added it and 70 of its affiliates to an “entity list” which forbids U.S. companies from doing business with it. The ramifications of the move were huge across Huawei’s networking and consumer devices businesses. A range of chip companies reportedly forced to sever ties while Google, which provides Android for Huawei devices, also froze its relationship. Speaking this month.
All told, Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei said recently that the ban would cost the Chinese tech firm — the world’s third-larger seller of smartphones — some $30 billion in lost revenue of the next two years.
Now, however,
Continue reading “Huawei can buy from US suppliers again — but things will never be the same”
Grab raises more money — again
Southeast Asia’s highest-capitalized startup is sitting on even more money from investors today after ride-hailing Grab announced it has raised $300 million from Invesco.
The deal takes Singapore-based Grab $7.5 billion raised to date. The money is part of its ongoing — feels-like-everlasting — Series H round which was started last June via a $1 billion capital injection from Toyota.
The round swelled to $4.5 billion thanks to contributions from a range of partners throughout 2018 and early 2019, then Grab said in April that it would add a further $2 billion to reach a $6.5 billion close before this year is out. This investment from Invesco is the first piece of that newest tranche to be announced, but there’s plenty happening under the surface, including a potential investment from PayPal, Ant Financial and others in a spinout of Grab’s financial services.
Grab declined to comment
Continue reading “Grab raises more money — again”
Warburg Pincus announces new $4.25 billion fund for China and Southeast Asia
Warburg Pincus, the private equity fund with over $60 billion under management, is doubling down on Asia after it announced a $4.25 billion fund dedicated to China and Southeast Asia.
The firm has been present in China for 25 years, and it has invested over $11 billion in a portfolio of over 120 startups that includes the likes of Alibaba’s Ant Financial and listed companies NIO (a Tesla rival), ZTO Express (a courier firm)among others. The new fund will work in tandem with the firm’s $14.8 billion global growth fund which was finalized at the end of last year.
What’s particularly interesting about the new fund is that it has expanded to include Southeast Asia, where internet adoption is rapidly expanding among 600 million consumers, for the first time. It is the successor to Warburg Pincus’ previous $2.2 billion ‘China’ fund and, with the addition of Southeast
Continue reading “Warburg Pincus announces new $4.25 billion fund for China and Southeast Asia”
Splyt wants to connect the world’s ride-hailing apps for easy international roaming
The vision of a universal global ride-hailing service is over. Uber’s decision to exit markets like China, Southeast Asia and Russia coupled with the failure of its rivals to develop a proposed roaming system, means that global travelers must install multiple apps if they are to take advantage of on-demand taxis. That’s unless a little-known startup can turn a bold plan into reality.
In the world of ride-hailing and its billion-dollar investment checks, an $8 million capital raise may not be a big deal but it does represent a coming-out for Splyt, a UK-based startup that is aiming to help make global ride-hailing roaming a reality — and not just within ride-hailing apps.
The four-year-old company announced this week that it closed an $8 million Series A round from a range of undisclosed (and existing) family offices and angel investors. In addition, the round included participation from Southeast
Continue reading “Splyt wants to connect the world’s ride-hailing apps for easy international roaming”
Indonesia’s Kopi Kenangan raises a sweet $20M to expand its coffee business
Kopi Kenangan, a startup that wants to make quality, fresh coffee affordable to Indonesian consumers, has raised $20 million as it begins to consider overseas expansion in Southeast Asia.
The round comes courtesy of Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, via the $695 million investment fund it closed last year. Kopi Kenangan previously raised $8 million from Alpha JWC Ventures.
Started in 2017 by Edward Tirtanata and James Prananto, the company aims to bridge the gap between cheap street vendor coffee and drinks priced at the higher end of the spectrum from international chains such as Starbucks — the ‘sweet spot,’ you might say. That delta is a major reason why Indonesia, which is the world’s fourth-largest coffee exporter, has Southeast Asia’s lowest coffee consumption per person, Tirtanata argued.
Kopi Kenangan is also unashamedly local. Rather than lattes, mochas or flat whites, its top-selling drink is ‘Es Kopi Kenangan Mantan,’ a
Continue reading “Indonesia’s Kopi Kenangan raises a sweet $20M to expand its coffee business”
Carrefour sale shifts the balance of power in China’s new retail battle
Hot on the heels of Amazon’s decision to shutter its local marketplace, Carrefour — another global commerce giant — is switching up its approach to China, and shifting the balance of power between the country’s tech giants.
Carrefour, which is Europe’s largest retailer, sold a majority 80% stake in its China-based business to Chinese retailer Suning, according to an announcement made this weekend. The deal is worth €620 million — that’s RMB 4.8 billion or $705 million — and it is set to close by the end of this year.
Beyond a retail story, the news also has a strong tech angle given the convoluted relationships of the parties that are involved, and it’s a reminder of the power that Chinese tech giants have grown to command.
Ties to Alibaba
Suning has had close links to Alibaba. The e-commerce giant owns a 20% stake in Suning courtesy of
Continue reading “Carrefour sale shifts the balance of power in China’s new retail battle”
Xiaomi’s new Mi CC brand will develop ‘trendy’ smartphones for young people
Huawei may be on the ropes as it battles sanctions from the U.S. government, but fellow Chinese smartphone rival Xiaomi is in expansion mode with the launch of a new brand that’s aimed at winning friends (and sales) among the young and fashionable.
“Mi CC” is the newest brand from Xiaomi. Unveiled on Friday, the phone-maker said it stands for “camera+camera” in reference to its dual-camera feature, but that apparently also segues into “a variety of meanings including chic, cool, colorful and creative.”
The end goal of that marketing bumf is a target customer that Xiaomi describes as “the global young generation.”
Essentially, what Xiaomi is doing here is breaking out a dedicated set of phones for those who care more about aesthetics than performance. To date, the company has built its brand on developing phones that are as good — well, nearly as good — as
Continue reading “Xiaomi’s new Mi CC brand will develop ‘trendy’ smartphones for young people”
Indonesia’s EV Hive raises $13.5M and expands into co-living and new retail
WeWork’s battle to win co-working in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is intensifying after one of the U.S. firm’s key rival announced a slew of announcements to double down on its business.
EV Hive, an Indonesia-based co-working startup, said today that it has raised $13.5 million and expanded into new verticals. The company is putting off plans to foray into new countries in order to prioritize growth opportunities at home.
The four-year-old company, which started out as a project for seed stage VC firm East Ventures, has rebranded to CoHive as part of the strategy to diversify its business. That’ll see it add new services for living spaces (CoLiving) and retailers (CoRetail), in addition to its core co-working and events businesses.
“We’re the number one player in the market and our goal now is to use the capital and offer more services and products,” Jason Lee,
Continue reading “Indonesia’s EV Hive raises $13.5M and expands into co-living and new retail”
GuestReady raises $6M to help hosts on Airbnb and other services manage their property
GuestReady, a three-year-old service that lets shared-economy hosts manage their business on Airbnb and other rental sites, has announced a $6 million Series A round.
The investment was led by existing backer Impulse VC — the Russian fund that is backed by billionaire Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich — and new addition VentureSouq from Dubai. Other past backers also took part, including Boost Heroes, Aria Group and 808 Tech Ventures. GuestReady raised $3 million in 2017 and this round takes it to nearly $10 million from investors to date.
GuestReady’s property management platform helps owners manage the intricacies of operating a shared-economy house, such as cleaning, laundry, and check-in and out services. It claims to cover over 2,000 properties across six countries: the UK, France, Portugal, UAE, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Airbnb is the obvious platform to work with, but a sizeable volume of business comes from Expedia’s HomeAway business
Continue reading “GuestReady raises $6M to help hosts on Airbnb and other services manage their property”
Alibaba proposes share split ahead of reported $20B Hong Kong IPO
Alibaba is being heavily linked with a public listing in Hong Kong, which could reportedly happen in Q3 and raise up to $20 billion. The firm is keeping quiet on those rumors, but it did let slip a major hint after it announced plans for a stock split.
Filings uploaded today (but originally released Friday) announced a proposal for a one-to-eight stock split.
Shareholders are invited to vote on the offer ahead of the company’s annual general meeting on July 15. The initiative has already been approved by Alibaba’s board, which is recommending that shareholders follow suit.
The particularly interesting part of the filing is where Alibaba explains the reasons behind the stock split.
“The Board of Directors is proposing the Share Subdivision to increase the flexibility for the Company in future capital market activities. Among other reasons, the one-to-eight share subdivision will increase the number of shares available
Continue reading “Alibaba proposes share split ahead of reported $20B Hong Kong IPO”
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Tag Archives: Robert F. Kennedy
Paid In Full!
Taylor Swift has been seen in the last few weeks shopping for property in Rhode Island and it appears she has settled on a mansion officially listed at $20million.
But the pop singer is apparently a savvy negotiator and got the new home for much less than its asking price.
Taylor is said to have purchased the property in full for $17.75million with a single payment via wire transfer.
Real estate insiders told the gossip website that movers were seen as early as Saturday at the beachfront property, located in the upmarket seaside community of Watch Hill, Rhode Island.
But whether the mansion is a new home for the willowy blonde is questionable – the purchase may simply be a smart investment.
Taylor bought a home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, which allegedly was intended to keep her close to then-boyfriend Conor Kennedy.
But the Red singer put the house on the market in the wake of her September split with the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and sold it last month.
The sale was reported to be a $1 million profit.
A source told Vanity Fair that the house in Massachusetts was ‘like a house-flip’ and was a ‘good short-term investment.’
But Taylor, whose earnings last year topped $57 million according to Forbes, could certainly afford to live in the home.
The white mansion is reported to be over 11,000-square-foot and sits atop more than five acres – and would make an excellent vacation home for her famously close family.
Although, the country singer already owns a home in Beverly Hills, California and a penthouse duplex in Nashville, Tennessee, which she considers her main residence.
Posted in Taylor Swift
Tagged Beverly Hills California, Celebrity, Gossip, Hollywood, Hyannis Port Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Robert F. Kennedy, Showbiz, Taylor, Taylor Swift, Watch Hill Rhode Island
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Tag: Get Out
Storytelling Geekery
IWSG: Twenty Abandoned Drafts
March 7, 2018 March 7, 2018 David Stringer
This is an entry for the Insecure Writers’ Support Group, a way for writers to discuss their writing anxieties. Writers who take part in IWSG write about our writing anxieties and check in on each others’ posts on the first Wednesday of each month.
At the weekend’s Oscars Jordan Peele won the award for Best Original Screenplay for Get Out. A racially charged horror-comedy was a brave choice for the subject of only his second feature film script, and Peele admitted in his acceptance speech that he stopped writing it around twenty times. It’s interesting that even someone as experienced and successful as Jordan Peele could have this kind of loss of faith – for those who aren’t familiar with his work, Jordan Peele is half of the hit sketch duo Key and Peele, and had been writing sketch comedy for MADtv since 2003.
Continue reading “IWSG: Twenty Abandoned Drafts” →
Tagged Get Out, Insecure Writers' Support Group, insecurity, IWSG, Jordan Peele, Key and Peele, Oscars, self-doubt, writing, writing advice, writing tips14 Comments
Film & Television Opinion, Opinion
Samuel L. Jackson and the Politics of Self-Representation
March 16, 2017 March 15, 2017 David Stringer
Recently Samuel L. Jackson made headlines by apparently arguing that black British actors shouldn’t take as many black American roles. This was inspired by Daniel Kaluuya being cast in the political horror-comedy Get Out, which premieres in the UK this week.
Speaking to the US radio station Hot 97, Jackson said that
“I tend to wonder what would that movie have been with an American brother who really understands that in a way. Because Daniel grew up in a country where they’ve been interracial dating for a hundred years. Britain, there’s only about eight real white people left in Britain… So what would a brother from America made of that role?”
Continue reading “Samuel L. Jackson and the Politics of Self-Representation” →
Tagged Daniel Kaluuya, David Harewood, Get Out, Idris Elba, John Boyega, Johnny Depp, Jordan Peele, Key and Peele, Ridley Scott, Samuel L. Jackson, The Lone RangerLeave a comment
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Home / Shop / ALL TITLES - Click here to display titles by category / Carbon Neutral By 2020
Carbon Neutral By 2020
When I show people this book, the title alone is often enough to launch them into a uncontrollable tirade about how it's not possible. But carbon neutrality is quite straight forward, and something very possible indeed. The three steps - 1. Account for your carbon footprint 2. Reduce your carbon footprint 3. Purchase off-sets that bring you to zero. Carbon Neutral by 2020, How New Zealanders can tackle climate change is a collection of sixteen essays by leading experts about how their specific industries can achieve this seemingly lofty goal. Each essay is a road-map for one sector - how to get there on time. It's a silver bullet for the normal reaction - the one that presumes impossibility - to read Thinking outside the car: How we can achieve carbon neutral transport, Responsible Investing, Carbon neutral living in the typical New Zealand house and Schools in a carbon neutral world together. I've met Dr. Nikki Harre, who co-edited the book with Dr. Quentin D. Atkinson. Like the book, she was approachable, well informed and clear about the message: Being carbon neutral doesn't mean going backwards on anything, it's a method of moving the whole planet forward. This book does more than just present solutions to the problem of climate change. It also presents visions for a better society, one that is cleaner and fairer and encourages people to be their best. The authors have tried to be realistic in their visions - they understand that you cannot unpick all the deeply interwoven practices and ways of thinking that have got us into this predicament in one fell swoop. But they also understand that you have to take a few risks and have faith that people are willing to give up some of their dubious luxuries for the sake of a healthier world. What Carbon Neutral by 2020 doesn't present is the concept of an enforced global movement or liken the required course of action to the re-configuration of society during war. Each chapter assumes, for the most part, that existing framework will remain the same as it is today - an expectation that I find very realistic. It's also heartening - that a carbon neutral country can be achieved by 2020 and be quite recognisable as a futuristic city. The only conclusion I don't agree with in this book is stay put - in relation to where you live. While most people live in suburbs - no thanks. There are much better places to live than the place you probably live now. At Worldchanging we often talk about residential solutions such as green building, urbanisation and density. Realistic predictions say that by 2030, about half of the buildings in America will have been built after 2000. New Zealand can match that - and we can build it all green - and find our carbon neutral lives much richer for it. There will be a process of moving in to these new homes - dense, comfortable, walkable and near the other places we go - and that process will make homeowners and the planet better off in the short run and the long run. My advice - find a good place to live and move there. Then stay put. The New Zealand Government has committed six departments to becoming carbon neutral by 2012, with all other departments on the path to carbon neutrality by that date. We've written about other New Zealand carbon neutral operations here before, including a power company and an airport. It's possible for the rest of New Zealand to follow, and become carbon neutral by 2020. - Craig Neilson
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Devices Radiology Oncology
News Release - February 4, 2019
Elekta: New Study to Learn From Every Cancer Patient Treated With Magnetic Resonance Radiation Therapy
The MOMENTUM study is a transformative approach to evaluating innovative medical technology
UTRECHT, The Netherlands, Feb. 4, 2019 -- (Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network) -- Today, the international MR-linac Consortium announced the launch of the MOMENTUM study. The study is designed to generate data that enable safe, fast and, above all, 'evidence-based' introduction of magnetic resonance radiation therapy (MR/RT) into clinical practice. The MOMENTUM study represents the next step in the development of the Elekta Unity MR/RT system; the study will be focused on building a robust body of real-world clinical evidence and insights made possible by this technology. Information gained through the MOMENTUM study will guide the use of MR/RT to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
"Each treatment session on this innovative system is an opportunity to gain insight into the benefits that this technology provides and, critically, to determine which patients benefit from MR/RT therapy," said Dr. Helena Verkooijen, Professor of Evaluation of Innovation at University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) and a member of MOMENTUM's Management team.
Radiotherapy is an important component many cancer treatment regimens and approximately 50% of all cancer patients receive radiation during their treatment journey*. As with most medical therapies for cancer, radiotherapy is associated with short- and long-term side effects that can be treatment-limiting and/or reduce patients' quality of life during and after therapy. Many of these side effects result from radiation-related damage to healthy tissue. The MR-linac system is designed to address this challenge by allowing improved targeting of radiation to the tumor and reduced exposure of nearby tissues and organs.
Dr. William Hall, Assistant Professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin noted. "We believe that this kind of rigorous and coordinated approach has tremendous potential to improve patient outcomes and change radiotherapy."
Cancer centers participating in MOMENTUM will ask patients if they are willing to share de-identified information about their treatment and subsequent experience, including tumor control rates and quality of life. This information will be aggregated into repositories that will allow researchers to assess outcomes, enhance the product and evaluate alternative treatment approaches.
"The MR-linac Consortium includes some of the world's most talented and dedicated cancer researchers," said Dr. John Christodouleas, Vice President of Medical Affairs and Clinical Research at Elekta and a member of MOMENTUM's management team. "By collaborating on the MOMENTUM Study, we expect to accelerate clinical innovations enabled by this breakthrough technology."
Elekta Unity makes it possible to visualize the tumor with high-resolution images during treatment through combining high-field MRI technology with a linear accelerator. This allows extremely precise delivery of the radiation dose, enabling higher dosing to the tumor bed while better sparing the surrounding healthy tissues. While this is expected to lead to better tumor control and fewer side effects it is crucial to show that the advanced technical capabilities of MR/RT translate into real benefits for the patient, such as prolonged disease-free survival and better quality of life.
The innovative MR-linac technology was developed by Elekta in collaboration with the MR-linac Consortium, which comprises experts in oncology, radiation therapy, epidemiology and medical physics from leading cancer centers around the world.
Elekta Unity has CE-mark and 510(k) clearance but is not commercially available in all markets.
*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298009/
About the MR-Linac Consortium
The Elekta MR-linac Consortium is a collaborative industrial-academic partnership that Elekta founded with seven centers and our technology partner, Philips in 2012 to provide an evidence-based introduction of the MR-linac to the medical community, and to support the advancement of the technology. The institutions that participated are: (Founding members) University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands; The Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, the Netherlands; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA; the Institute of Cancer Research, working with its clinical partner The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, UK; Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center at Froedtert Hospital, USA; The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, UK; Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Canada. Lygature, The Netherlands, provides the public-private partnership management of the MOMENTUM study.
About Elekta
For almost five decades, Elekta has been a leader in precision radiation medicine. Our nearly 4,000 employees worldwide are committed to ensuring everyone in the world with cancer has access to – and benefits from – more precise, personalized radiotherapy treatments. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Elekta is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm Exchange. Visit elekta.com or follow @Elekta on Twitter.
Source: Elekta
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Healthcare Industry NewsFeed More Devices
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Tag: marceline day
The Cameraman (1928)
Man With A Movie Camera
The Cameraman is my 2nd favourite Buster Keaton feature after Sherlock Jr. A film which manages to hit every beat and even MGM themselves believed in the film enough that it became their comedy training film for new writers as the example of a perfect comedy; I can’t argue with that. Like the aforementioned Sherlock Jr, The Cameraman reflects a fascination with filmmaking in which Keaton has to act like he doesn’t know anything about the anatomy of a camera.
Once again Keaton (playing a character conveniently called Buster) is competing for dominance and the love of a woman in a world of alpha males. What makes the relationship between Buster and love interest Sally (Marceline Day) work so well? Her sympathy, or the fact that she is one of the few people in the film who doesn’t act like a complete jerk towards Buster, even the bell boy at the fictionalised MGM newsreel department is a jerk to him when Buster simply asks about the woman in his photograph despite him being a super sweet guy. Does MGM want people thinking their newsreel department is full of pricks? Or is it the little things such as her first encounter with Buster when he first bumps into her he smells her hair and goes into a trance without her noticing. You can feel the chemistry between them from their body language and even from close-ups of the two starring at each other. Likewise, there is the relatability of any man who has tried to impress a girl only for his effort to be a failure by the presence of a bigger, stronger man. – Plus there is the adorable factor from seeing the two of them together. When Buster gets a kiss from Sally as he leaves her off at an apartment and then walks away in the rain with a sense of elation has Singin’ In The Rain vibes; was Gene Kelly inspired by this?
The Cameraman is one of those rare films which is comprised of one great moment after another. The scene in Yankee Stadium, for example, has no effect on the rest of the plot but there’s no justification required in order to watch Keaton’s athletic prowess as he pretends to play baseball by himself. Likewise, the sequence on the stairs is a wonder of Keaton’s ability to use the frame in what looks like to modern eyes as a 2D platforming video game. Another superb use of this comes in the pool sequence in which Sally walking by the poolside in a swimsuit then suddenly all of the men get out of the pool entering from the bottom of the frame out of nowhere. Likewise, keep an eye out for the on-screen nudity. This sequence also gives arise to possibly the most bizarre moment in The Cameraman in which Keaton after losing his bathing suit in the pool begins eyeing a woman wearing an excessive bathing suit and starts approaching her while Jaws-like music plays (as part of the wonderfully quirky modern score by Arthur Barrow). Off-screen he steals the suit but we never see how; just what exactly did he do to her? It’s both creepy and funny at the same time.
I have to ask if automobiles back then were designed for use in comedy such as an open top double decker bus which creates so many possibilities for physical comedy. However the most oddly designed vehicle present in The Cameraman has to be the 1927 LaSalle Convertible Coupe Fisher with its seat on the back of the car separate from the main seats of the vehicle. The seat is already inherently de-emasculating by itself, even worse when your girl is at the front with another guy and you’re completely cut off from them because the roof is up to protect them against the rain. Oh yeah, that’s another thing, when it rains you have no protection. Again I have to ask, was this vehicle designed for use in comedy?
The Tong War is among one of the greatest of Keaton spectacles with its large-scale carnage and extras galore; plus I do love the fascinating underworld of the tongs and opium dens as a setting. The moment in which Keaton is confronted by gangsters and is cornered is one of those oh so glorious “how is he going to get out of this?!” moments. By the end of the film, Keaton goes through so much misfortune that you badly want to see him succeed in the end. In the end, he gets his sweet, satisfying revenge while the douche who takes credit for rescue Sally from the out of control speedboat gets his comeuppance. The revenge is unintentionally obtained but more than very well deserved.
Author MichaelPosted on April 6, 2018 November 8, 2018 Categories Movie ReviewsTags 1920's, 1928, buster keaton, Comedy, edward sedgwick, harold goodwin, harry gribbon, marceline day, physical comedy, sidney bracey, silent, the cameramanLeave a comment on The Cameraman (1928)
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Re: Branding those who profess love for the Ahlul Bayt “Shi’ite” in a negative light
Q. You are accused by a post on eShaykh.com of being influenced by Shi’ite propaganda and your status as an authorized Deputy-Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order is being put to question. What is your response to this?
A. I am authorized to speak, and guide people to the correct path by Mawlana Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi, who told me that our GrandShaykh also authorized me to speak, and teach, and initiate people into the path of Ihsan. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim approves of my views. It is not strange for a Shaykh to disagree with certain hadiths found in the Siha Sitta, although the vast majority of Ahlus Sunnah may agree on them. For example, according to both Bukhari and Muslim, Hadrat Abu Talib died an unbeliever, and is in the fire (Allah forbid!). However, Mawlana Shaykh Nazim openly rejects such ahadith as forgeries, and declared Hadrat Abu Talib to be an Imam and in Paradise. Does this mean Mawlana is a Shi’ite as well? Mawlana Shaykh Nazim declared by the authority of Sultan ul-Awliya Mawlana Shaykh ‘Abd Allah Daghestani that Hadrat Mahdi is not Sunni, nor Shiite.
In Fiqh, I follow the Hanafi madhab, and this is not a secret. Love for the Ahlul Bayt is a sign of goodness, while the opposite is a sign wickedness. We are not obliged in anyway to those who mock us, and cast doubt on our authority, to do anything other than pray for them. Perhaps they are like the brothers of Yusuf (alaihi salam), who threw him into a well, and cast him aside, due to fear. They were still his brothers, and they did repent eventually, and come to believe in him.
We hope those persons will stop making dishonest statements and spreading fear for what they cannot control nor subdue. We are not speaking without authority, nor do we simply make things up to amuse ourselves.
Rather, I speak from inspiration, and am made to speak. We hope such brothers attain guidance and higher levels of understanding.
In one of his speeches on the merits of the Ahlul Bayt, Shaykh ul-Islam Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri identifies the behavior of individuals who rally people against others who profess love for the Ahlul Bayt, declaring them to be Shi’ite in a negative light, as a hallmark of Kharijism, not Sunni heroism.
Translation: “…[04:11-] Kharijism has had a significant impact on the Muslim world, and the Sunni world has been affected by this negative impact, those who claim to be Sunni…the Kharijites have targeted love for the Ahlul Bayt, and spread amongst Sunni’s that love for the Ahlul Bayt, and to side with them is a sign of Shi’ism. This form of thinking was developed by the Kharijites as they first directed their rebellion and opposition towards our Master ‘Ali (peace be upon him), it was from them that this thinking developed. Anyone who lacks love for the Ahlul Bayt is not, nor will ever be, nor has any right to claim to be Sunni. He whose faith is not based on love for the Ahlul Bayt is not from Ahlus Sunnah…”
May Allah forgive them.
This entry was posted on September 11, 2011 by ASFC in Politics.
https://wp.me/puy2C-VT
Regarding Baalbek of the Phoenicians and their Identity According to the Arabs by Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin
Eight Naqshbandi GrandShaykhs of the Mughal Empire
“The Second Chain of the Naqshbandiyya is traced through Imam ‘Ali ibn Musa al-Rida radiAllahu anhu” – Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi
Should Naqshbandi Sufi Muslims Who Reside in Democratic Societies Vote? By Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin
Primary Documents -Proclamation of the Ulema Regarding Independence from Turkey, March 1917
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This biographical article needs more citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Unsourced, or poorly sourced material, about living persons that could cause arguments, could be libelous or harmful, must be removed very quickly.
Find sources: (Omid Djalili – news, books, scholar) (March 2012)
This article needs to be updated. You can help Wikipedia by updating it. (November 2011)
Omid Djalili, 2007
(1965-09-30) 30 September 1965 (age 53)
Chelsea, London, England, U.K.
Iranian, British
Actor, Comedian, Writer
Annabel Knight (m.-present)
Omid Djalili (Persian: امید جلیلی) (born 30 September 1965) is a British-Iranian Comedian, Actor and Writer.
Early life[change | change source]
He was born in Chelsea, London, to Iranian Bahá'í parents. He is a member of the Bahá'í religion. He went to Holland Park School and then the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, to study English and Theatre Studies. As a Bahá'í, he signed a letter to the leaders of Iran saying that they way they treated Bahá'í people was very bad.
Career[change | change source]
His first good comedy job was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1995, with his act "Short, Fat Kebab Shop Owner's Son". His next success was in 1996 with "The Arab and the Jew". He said he was the only Iranian comedian, which was still "three more than Germany". His jokes are often about different religions and the funny differences. He has energy on stage and his good pretend voices, together with political jokes mixed with strange belly dancing.
Some countries he has performed in include Australia, Denmark, Canada, Ireland and the United States. The Observer said he was one of the top 50 funny people in British comedy. In 2005 he went on the British car television programme Top Gear as a special guest driver. The same year he also did stand up comedy for Comic Relief, a British TV programme where people are funny to raise money for poor people. Also that year he had the biggest number of tickets sold for the Edinburgh Festival box office, which was 16,500 sales.
On 17 November 2007, his own TV programme started on BBC One, which is a mix of him talking and showing short funny films. A second series started on 20 April 2009.
Omid Djalili on IMDb
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Omid Djalili.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Omid_Djalili&oldid=6092345"
Actors from London
British stand-up comedians
Comedians from London
English movie actors
English television actors
English television writers
Iranian actors
People from Kensington and Chelsea (London borough)
Writers from London
BLPs needing more sources from March 2012
All BLPs needing more sources
Articles to be updated
Infobox person using ethnicity
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Hugo Award 2016 Winners Feature The Sandman: Overture and The Fifth Season
August 23, 2016 Sharmistha Dey Gadgets
It rewards best works in science fiction, fantasy
The Fifth Season was adjudged the best novel
Folding Beijing is among the winners too
The 2016 Hugo Awards have been announced and as usual the list of winners (and nominees) features a whole bunch of books you definitely should read. For those unfamiliar with Hugo Awards, these are awarded to exemplary works in science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. These are chosen by fans of these genres, and to vote all you need is a Worldcon membership that costs $40 (roughly Rs. 2,700).
The best novel award went to N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season. The novel is definitely worth checking out if you like fantasy. It’s set in a world called Stillness, that has one sole continent. Humanity is under constant threat of extinction – an event referred to as the fifth season. The tale is a battle for survival and Jemisin has been praised for the lore and the way characters interact with each other.
Another one of the winners that caught the eye was Folding Beijing by Chinese author Hao Jingfang and translated to English by Ken Liu. Folding Beijing was adjudged the Best Novelette (between 7,500 and 17,500 words) and is the tale of an odd world divided into three “Spaces”. The richest people live in the First Space, and the poor – 30 million of them – live in the Third Space. One man undertakes the risky task of travelling between spaces to escape poverty. The tale is a lot more complex than that, not least because Spaces keep folding into themselves and residents go into an induced sleep during these transition periods. You can read the full story here.
Finally, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Overture won the Hugo for Best Graphic Story. If you love Gaiman’s epic The Sandman graphic novels, this is a must-read. If you haven’t heard of it, then you are missing out on possibly the best graphic novel series ever written. This book is a return to the Sandman story and you should definitely check it out.
You can check out the list of all winners on the Hugo Awards website. This year five categories received no award, which is good news because it thwarts a group of people known as Sad Puppies (and their crazier cousins – Rabid Puppies) who’ve sworn to derail the Hugo Awards. These groups have been trying to game the voting system to make certain books win and it looks like this year their attempts have failed. The future of Hugo Awards could be dark, but this year some of the picks have definitely piqued our interest. Which books do you plan to read? Let us know via the comments.
Share a screenshot and win Samsung smartphones worth Rs. 90,000 by participating in the #BrowseFaster contest.
[Source NDTV]
Tagged 2016: and Award Feature Fifth Hugo Overture Sandman: Season the Winners
Microsoft Will Pay You to Use Its Edge Browser
Facebook Live Gets Touted 2-Person Broadcasting Feature
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The Lost World of Mr. Hardy
Mister Jim’ is how the employees respectfully addressed their boss Jim Hardy, the last Hardy to work in the family business and now retired. It was Jim’s Grandfather and Greatuncle, who in 1873 opened a small shop in the far north of England. Both passionate fisherman, they invented fishing tackle and began to sell it. Their skill, devotion, and innovative marketing strategies allowed them to conquer the world. The name Hardy’s has now been synonymous with fishing for 130 years. Vintage Hardy’s handmade tackle stirs the heart of many a fisherman with Prince Charles amongst the enthusiasts, these are now prized collectors items. Today the skills involved in hand made fishing tackle are dying although the company does survive.
Genre : Documentary
Actors :
Director : Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier
Country : UK
Quality: CAM
Vivian Maier’s photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she’d collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof’s discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.
Genre: Biography, Documentary, Mystery
Hue: A Matter of Colour
A documentary that weaves together personal journeys, historical facts and expert analysis to show the world through the eyes of those touched by the issue of “colourism”.
Country: Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Jamaica, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, USA
Farewell Ferris Wheel
Farewell Ferris Wheel explores how the U.S. Carnival industry fights to keep itself alive by legally employing Mexican migrant workers with the controversial H-2B guestworker visa.
Country: Mexico, USA
Hillary: The Movie
Released during her 2008 bid for the U.S. presidency, this provocative documentary examines the political foibles of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton through interviews with more than 30 journalists and politicians. Delving into the senator’s involvement with the futures market, her Senate race and her Senate record, the film includes appearances by Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Robert Novak, Bay Buchanan and more.
When Jews Were Funny
From the 1930’s to the 1970’s, pretty well every comedian or comic you might see on TV or the movies was Jewish. Jews came to dominate the world of western‐society comedy on radio, stage and screen alike.Why did Jews dominate comedy in this period? And why did that domination end? Were Jews just funnier back then? And if so, did that extend to your average Jew on the street? In this 90 minute documentary acclaimed director Alan Zweig will examine these questions and many others in this exploration of 20th century humour, cultural decay, and a search for a missing heritage.
More Art Upstairs
If you ever find yourself traveling down Interstate 49 through Missouri, try not to blink—you may miss Rich Hill, population 1,396. Rich Hill is easy to overlook, but its inhabitants are as woven into the fabric of America as those living in any small town in the country. This movie intimately chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in said Midwestern town and the fragile family bonds that sustain them.
Rammstein in Amerika
The concert film celebrates the band’s legendary show in New York’s Madison Square Garden – Rammstein’s return to the US after a ten-year absence. In HD and 5.1 surround sound.
Country: Germany, United States of America
Genre: Documentary, Music
Questioning Darwin
Literal and creationist interpretation of the Bible is the fastest-growing branch of Christianity in the U.S. This film takes an in-depth look at the views of these Christians who reject Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution–while also examining how Darwin handled the question of God himself as he developed his theory of natural selection in the mid-1800s.
CT Fletcher: My Magnificent Obsession
The life and career of the power lifter.
Genre: Documentary, Drama, Sport
The Strange Name Movie
Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven year old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and goes to New York in search of Elena. She only has a few clues about her: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and letters. At any moment Petra hopes to find Elena walking in the streets in a silk blouse. Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we no longer know one from the other. When Petra finally finds Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go.
Country: Brazil, United States of America, USA
Genre: Biography, Documentary, Drama, Family
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How to Make Money on Etsy
Amelia Josephson Dec 18, 2015
If you love crafting, making handmade treasures or hunting for vintage finds, you may be wondering how much money you could make on Etsy. Perhaps you already have a side hustle in handmade items and you’d like to take that business full-time. Here’s what you should know about the economics of Etsy and how to make money on Etsy.
Check out our cost of living calculator.
The Rise of Etsy
Between its launch in 2005 and its IPO in 2015, Etsy built a name for itself as an e-commerce powerhouse. Etsy is a household name, and its third-quarter earnings report for 2015 showed revenue of $65.7 million.
Back in 2007, the company was pulling in $26 million in annual sales, with 450,000 registered sellers. Today, the site has over a million active sellers, and almost 20 million buyers. In 2014, Etsy reportedly achieved $2 billion in global gross sales.
Robert Kalin, Etsy’s founder and original CEO, is no longer at the helm. Current CEO Chad Dickerson took the reins in 2011 and worked toward taking the company public. Etsy’s April 2015 IPO received mixed reviews. In June, Etsy’s stock price fell below its $16 offering price.
While the first day of trading went swimmingly, Etsy stock has struggled since then. At the end of Etsy’s April IPO day, the company’s stock was up 119%. Etsy stock opened at $31 and hit prices as high as $35.67.
That looked like a promising start, considering the stock had an initial asking price of $16 per share. By May, however, Etsy stock had sunk to $15.70. As of December 2015, the stock is hovering around $9 per share.
There are a few things undermining investor confidence in Etsy. For one thing, the company’s earnings reports have under-performed relative to analysts’ expectations. For another, Amazon recently launched Handmade at Amazon, a craft and art e-commerce site that’s a direct rival for Etsy.
Handmade has more stringent requirements for the items it will accept on its site, setting a maximum number of employees and strict standards for what counts as hand-made. Plus, it has the weight of Amazon’s logistics empire behind it.
Finally, Etsy has been subject to investor accusations of fraud. Some customers have complained that the items they’re receiving after Etsy purchases are not up to their standards, are counterfeit or are mass-produced. That’s led some to call for Etsy to increase its quality control and crack down on bad-apple sellers. Some investors fear that items on Etsy may violate trademark law. These factors have combined to cast doubt on Etsy’s investment worthiness.
Related Article: The Economics of Craft Fairs
How Etsy Works
How does Etsy work for sellers and makers? First, you have to register to sell on Etsy. Each item you list on your new Etsy store will require you to pay a $0.20 listing fee to Etsy. Listings expire after 4 months, so you’ll need to re-pay the fee if you re-list an item that hasn’t sold at the end of the four-month period.
When you sell an item, Etsy will charge a 3.5% transaction fee and, if you use their payment processing, a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee. Etsy ensures secure transactions and does not charge sellers a monthly fee for their shops.
That’s the minimum. If you want to take advantage of other tools and services that Etsy offers, you can do so. These include discounted rates on USPS shipping and shipping labels you can print straight from the Etsy site. You can also pay for built-in promotional tools from Etsy.
Now that you know the fees involved with selling on Etsy you can start to think about the profit margin you’ll need if you want to make money on Etsy. For one thing, you should know what constitutes success in Etsy land.
According to a Handmadeology list of the top Etsy sellers of 2014, the Etsy shop with the highest sales in 2014 netted $119,180 per month in sales. The #100 seller on that list made $30,203. Those are sales figures, though, so they don’t account for the cost of materials, shipping and promotion.
If you’ve been on Etsy lately, you may have noticed some items that seem unlikely to be handmade. Plenty of Etsy items sell for prices so low that it’s hard to believe they could be handmade. Since Etsy opened the site to a broader range of merchandise, some sellers have been accused of re-selling mass-produced items imported from abroad.
Any seller who wants to earn a good living from Etsy without resorting to resale will have to find the right balance between price and volume. In other words, with Etsy, as with most businesses, you can either sell fewer things at a higher price point or more things at a lower price point.
You’ll also need to find a way to cut through the noise. There are over 30 million items for sale on Etsy right now. As anyone who has shopped on Etsy lately will know, it can be tough to find what you’re looking through among all those items.
Here’s a contradiction in the Etsy model: Any seller who grows truly successful on Etsy may grow out of the need for the site. If you’ve built a recognizable brand and a sizable following you could always strike out on your own and save yourself Etsy’s 3.5% transaction fee.
How to Market on Etsy
As with any business, marketing is key to making money on Etsy. Some of the most successful shops are the ones that have been featured on Etsy’s homepage and on other blogs around the internet.
Some makers have succesfully expanded from Etsy to other e-commerce sites that specialize in the handmade, like Food52’s Provisions store. Get your item featured on a wishlist from an influential blogger and your page views can soar.
Etsy offers “Shop Stats” that help you see how many people are visiting your site and where they’re coming from. You’ll be able to see which pages get the most views and favorites, the traffic sources that are bringing you page views, the top keywords people are searching when they find your store and more.
Related Article: How to File Taxes
Etsy vs. the Competition
One alternative to Etsy is Shopify, which charges $29/month for its basic plan. Like Etsy, Shopify has a payment processing fee. Shopify’s fee is $2.9% + $0.30. Want to see a spreadsheet of how fees as a percentage of sales vary across Etsy, Shopify and other platforms based on different sales numbers and prices? Check out this chart.
Your break-even point between Etsy and another service like Shopify will depend on the dollar amount of your sales and on the number of transactions. That’s because Etsy charges per transaction, while Shopify and some other sites charge a monthly fee.
One strategy might be to start out on Etsy since you won’t have to pay a monthly fee, you’ll only pay the 20 cents for each item you list. See how you can grow your sales before you run the numbers and consider a move to another platform.
Leaving Etsy
Let’s take a closer look at one former Etsy seller. According to a 2013 profile of Alicia Shaffer, the owner of Three Bird Nest was selling 3,000 items per day on Etsy, earning $65,000 per month.
When Shaffer opened her Etsy shop in 2011 she already owned a brick-and-mortar shop selling women’s clothing. She decided to design complementary headbands and sell them on Etsy. Within 18 months her Etsy shop Three Birds Nest had become so successful that she decided to sell her physical storefront.
This year, however, Three Birds Nest and Etsy parted ways. Shaffer now sells her wares on a dedicated Three Birds Nest site, citing differences with Etsy. Three Birds Nest is not the only store to leave Etsy.
One former Etsy seller wrote a piece explaining why she left Etsy, saying “In practical terms, scaling the handmade economy is an impossibility. So while Etsy maintains a hipster façade, they lost their indie cred years ago.”
That quote exposes another of the contradictions inherent in the economics of Etsy. Etsy built its reputation as the home of small-batch crafts and tiny boutiques. That very ethos is seemingly incompatible with the scaling up necessary for making a lot of money on Etsy.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the pressure to scale, some Etsy sellers have even been accused of buying cheap, manufactured goods made in China via the Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba and then selling those goods as authentic, handmade items on Etsy.
The Future of Etsy
Some analysts worry that Etsy’s future growth prospects aren’t so hot. That 2015 third-quarter revenue report? It showed a net loss of $6.89 million (6 cents per share). Since its April 2015 IPO, Etsy is beholden to shareholders, which means it may take strides to turn share prices around.
It’s not all bad news for Etsy. Wired reports that the number of active Etsy buyers increased 25% in 2015 to 22.6 million. The e-commerce site also saw a 20% increase in active sellers to 1.5 million.
Whether you’re interested in selling on Etsy as a side hustle or your sole income, it’s a good idea to work out a plan for how you’ll make your Etsy shop stand out. Will you focus on selling a high volume of less-expensive goods or carve out a niche with high-cost, high-value items?
Like its sellers, Etsy will also need to think about how to position itself. In 2014, Etsy’s gross merchandise volume was $2 billion. A lot of money, sure, but that’s dwarfed by other sites. In the same year, eBay hit the $83 billion mark.
Photo credit: © iStock.com/alexrvan, © iStock.com/Vampirica, © iStock.com/ngkaki
7 Situations When You Need a Financial Advisor Most
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Fishing Families Left High and Dry by Amazon Dams
July 14, 2015 sndden
InterPress Service
By Mario Osava
People from a fishing community on the Banks of the Xingú River in the Brazilian Amazon, at one of the meetings on the local impacts of the construction of the giant Belo Monte hydropower dam, held at the behest of the public prosecutor’s office. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS
ALTAMIRA, Brazil, Jul 10 2015 (IPS) – Small-scale fisherpersons were among the first forgotten victims of mega construction projects like the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingú River in the Brazilian Amazon.
“I’m a fisherman without a river, who dreams of traveling, who dreams of riding on a boat of hope. Three years ago it looked like my life was over; but I still dream of a new river,” said Elio Alves da Silva, referring to the disappearance of his village, the Comunidade Santo Antônio, the first to be removed to make way for the construction of the dam.
Now, he lives on an isolated farm 75 km from his old village, and works in the construction industry “to keep hunger at bay.” He misses the river and its beaches, community life, the local church that was demolished, and playing football on the Santo Antônio pitch, which is now a parking lot for the staff on the Belo Monte construction site.
His account of the eviction of 245 families from his rural village was heard by representatives of the office of the public prosecutor, the National Human Rights Council, the government, and different national universities, who met in June in Altamira to inspect Belo Monte’s impacts on communities along the Xingú River.
Altamira, a city of 140,000 people, is the biggest of the 11 municipalities in the northern state of Pará affected by the mega-project that got underway in 2011.
“Riverbank communities, although they are an expression of a traditional way of life…were invisible in the Belo Monte tendering process and today are finding no solutions in that process that address their particular needs,” says the report containing conclusions from one of the 55 meetings held to assess impacts.
The company building the dam, Norte Energía, offered indemnification and individual or collective resettlement to families living on riverbanks or islands on stretches of the Xingú River affected by the dam, who depended on fishing for their livelihood. But in no case has an attempt been made to replicate their previous living conditions, as required by Brazil’s environmental regulations. The company only offered to resettle them far from the river. And the indemnification, in cash or credit, was insufficient to enable them to afford more expensive land along the river.
Abandoned fishing boats on the banks of the Xingú River, in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city of Altamira in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, whose inhabitants were removed because the area is to be flooded when the Belo Monte reservoir is filled. Credit: Mario Osava/IPSBut in no case has an attempt been made to replicate their previous living conditions, as required by Brazil’s environmental regulations. The company only offered to resettle them far from the river. And the indemnification, in cash or credit, was insufficient to enable them to afford more expensive land along the river.
Norte Energía has failed to recognise that many local fishing families actually have two homes: one on the river, where they live for days at a stretch while fishing, and another in an urban area, where they stay when they sell their catch, and where they have access to public services such as health care.
The report said that when the families are forced to choose indemnification for their rural or their urban home, they have to renounce one part of their life, and they receive reduced compensation as a result. They are only given compensation for their other home as a “support point”, for the building and simple, low-cost equipment.
Of the hundreds of fishing community families who were evicted, most have chosen cash – even though the indemnification was insufficient to ensure their way of life – because there was no satisfactory resettlement option, according to the inspection carried out at the behest of the public prosecutor’s office.
But many are still fighting for more. One of them is Socorro Arara, of the Arara indigenous people. She is from the island of Padeiro, which will be flooded when the main Belo Monte reservoir is filled.
“Norte Energía offered us 28,000 reais (9,000 dollars), but we didn’t accept it – that’s too little for our seven families” – who include her parents, three children, two sisters and their husbands – she told IPS.
José Nelson Kuruaia and Francisca dos Santos Silva, a couple who were displaced from their fishing community by the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, in their new home in the neighbourhood built by the company constructing the dam, which resettled them far from the banks of the Xingú River in the Amazon jungle, separating them from their way of life. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS
Arara’s struggle took her to the capital, Brasilia, where she talked to Supreme Court judges, officials in government ministries, and presidential aides, to seek redress.
But it is an uphill battle. The company only allowed her to register her nuclear family for compensation, rather than collectively relocating the seven family units. Furthermore, Arara is demanding that they be allotted plots of land large enough for growing small-scale crops and harvesting native fruits – activities on which they depended on the island.
Another indigenous fisherman, José Nelson Kuruaia, and his wife Francisca dos Santos Silva had better luck. They used to live in an Altamira neighbourhood that will be flooded when the reservoir is filled.
They were assigned one of the 4,100 housing units built by Norte Energía for families displaced in urban areas.
The couple also received 20,700 reais (6,700 dollars) in compensation for a shanty and equipment they had on the island of Barriguda, upstream of Altamira, where they used to fish from Monday through Saturday, hauling in 150 kg a week.
Today Kuruaia, who is 71 years old and retired, says he “sometimes” goes fishing. “I really love the river and if I don’t work, I get sick,” he told IPS, explaining why he goes out despite the opposition of his six children and his wife, “a good fisherwoman” who used to work with him until her knees started bothering her.
Jatobá, the new neighborhood where they were resettled, is on a hill far from the river. It costs the relocated fishermen 30 reais (almost 10 dollars) to transport their motors to the riverbank, where they have to leave their boats, despite the risk that they will be stolen. They all used to live in neighbourhoods prone to flooding on the banks of the Xingú River.
In response to the pressure from the fishing communities, resettled or facing relocation, Norte Energía decided to build another urban neighbourhood near the river, for some 500 families who fish for a living. But only urban fishing families will be settled there, not people from riverbank communities, like Socorro Arara.
A bridge under construction on the Trans-Amazonian Highway. The waters from the Belo Monte dam will run under the bridge before flowing into the Xingú River in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil. The explosions, strong lighting at night and modifications of the course of the river have scared off the fish, according to people who depended on fishing for a living. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS
The battle being waged by the relocated families is not limited to their homes or work environments. Many want to be paid damages for losses suffered in the last four years, due to the construction of the dam.
“In four days, from Thursday to Sunday, I only caught 30 kg of peacock bass. I used to catch 60 to 100 kg in just one day, and a variety of fish: pacú, peacock bass, hake, toothless characin and filhote (juveniles of the largest fish of the Amazon, the giant piraíba catfish), which could be found year-round,” said Giácomo Dallacqua, president of the 1,600-member Vitória do Xingu fishing association.
“The explosions on the riverbank are a headache for us, because they scare off the fish,” he told IPS, referring to the use of explosives to break rocks and prepare the area for what will be the third-largest hydroelectric plant in the world in terms of generating power (11,233 MW).
To that is added the strong lighting used all night long near the construction site, the cloudy water, the dredging of the beaches to use the sand in the construction project, the damming up of streams and the traffic of heavy barges bringing in the equipment that will be used to generate electricity, biologist Cristiane Costa added.
These impacts are especially strong near Belo Monte, a district of the municipality of Vitória do Xingu, where the main plant, capacity 11,000 MW, is being built, and where the most productive fishing grounds in the region were found.
But it also occurs in Pimental, in the municipality of Altamira, where the other plant – which will generate 233 MW – is being installed, and where the dam that will flood part of the city of Altamira is being built.
Norte Energía has not acknowledged that the construction of the dam has reduced the fish catch. It argues that there is no scientific evidence, despite the complaints of local fishermen, some 3,000 of whom have been directly affected.
But the company announced seven million dollars in investment, in a cooperation agreement with the Fisheries Ministry, to create an integrated environmental fishing centre in Altamira – which will have fish farm laboratories, will breed ornamental fish, and will train local fishermen.
Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes
Belo MonteDamsFishing IndustriesHydroelectric energy
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Cash and burn - the truth behind the Volkswagen scandal
Volkswagen have been caught trying to rig emissions tests to make their diesel cars seem “cleaner”. The scandal has exposed how car manufacturers bend and break the rules in the drive for profit. But, as Simon Basketter argues, corruption and con tricks aren’t about bucking the system—they’re part of it
Published Tue 29 Sep 2015
The People's Car? A 1946 Volkswagen Kommandeurwagen Typ 877 (Pic: Georg Sander/flickr)
The exposure of a con trick by giant car maker Volkswagen (VW) could be the biggest in the industry’s history. And considering the industry has repeatedly and systematically put profit and power before people and planet that’s quite an achievement.
In the banking industry’s rigging of the Libor interest rate, nine banks have so far paid out a total of £9 billion. VW could be hit for more than that in fines alone.
And there are countless law suits to come.
The company plan was simple if unoriginal—to make VW the world’s biggest car manufacturer by 2018. And its ambition to overtake Toyota and General Motors (GM) was succeeding. It was based on trebling sales in the US. And vitally by developing scams to lie about how clean the fuel was.
VW used a “defeat device”, a programme in its diesel cars’ software.
The programme identifies whether the vehicle is running on a rolling road in laboratory conditions and ensures the car is running in its cleanest mode, limiting particulate emissions.
VW was trying to show diesel was as clean as petrol alternatives. In fact VW diesel cars were emitting 40 times the amount of legally allowed levels of nitrogen oxides.
In an inevitably opaque corporate statement the company admitted to the software being in other VW Group diesel cars.
Those “discrepancies” affect some 11 million vehicles. The company confirmed “a noticeable deviation between bench test results and actual road use”.
VW has been fiddling the figures for years on both sides of the Atlantic. But so have other manufacturers. Tests run by one consultancy, Emissions Analytics, found that emissions levels in 395 out of 400 cars were higher than claimed.
Even when they don’t break the rules, it’s bad. Car manufacturers are allowed to submit heavily modified prototype cars into the EU’s fuel-efficiency and emissions-testing regime.
Weighty features such as a car’s sound system are often removed before tests.
Tyres are filled with a special gas to enhance the miles that can be covered per gallon of fuel. And cars are run at the maximum permitted temperature of 29C because engines are more efficient in hot conditions.
The car industry is a serial offender. Recent years have seen a series of scandals in which auto companies lied and cheated to cover up gross negligence or lawlessness.
For over a decade, GM hid a problem with ignition switches that resulted in engine cut-offs, the disabling of steering mechanisms and the deployment of air bags.
Some 2.6 million vehicles had the defect. GM did not begin to recall them until at least 124 people had been killed and 275 injured because of it.
Barack Obama’s administration in the US announced a deal with GM effectively foregoing any criminal penalties and imposing a fine.
Japanese supplier Takata equipped tens of millions of vehicles around the world with defective air bags. At least eight people were killed and more than 100 injured.
Toyota had to pay £800 million in fines in the US and recall millions of vehicles that accelerated on their own. At least five people died as a result of the defect.
People who defend capitalism and the market say scandal and corruption are down to a few individuals who get carried away.
But the problem is more fundamental. It is caused by the way capitalism works.
The logic of the system is to keep profits high and costs low. And that means that there is little need for bosses to issue specific instructions. But it does mean increasing profit makes cutting corners not just likely but necessary.
Firms expand production hoping to rake in more profit. Each wants to outdo its rivals.
Share prices soar on the expectation that profits will roll in.
These inflated share values mean companies can borrow heavily to expand their production even further—and we pay the price.
An industry that's bad for your health - and the planet
The motor industry is a major contributor to global warming—and premature death.
But many people use cars because public transport is unreliable, underresourced, overcrowded or expensive.
It’s estimated that some 50,000 people in Britain die prematurely because of nitrogen oxide emitted by diesel vehicles.
Diesel vehicles produce 15 percent less CO2 than petrol ones do, but four times more nitrogen dioxide pollution and 22 times more particulates.
These tiny particles can penetrate human lungs, brains and hearts. New research has shown that diesel fumes can trigger cancers and heart attacks. They can stunt children’s growth.
A European Commission agreement in 1998 committed passenger car makers to cut CO2 emissions by 25 percent over ten years.
Simon Birkett, director of the Clean Air London group, said this was “practically an order to switch to diesel”.
He said, “Britain, along with Germany, France and Italy, offered subsidies and sweeteners to persuade car makers and the public to buy diesel.”
Diesel was made cheap, encouraging people to choose diesel cars over petrol ones. In 1995 the market share of diesel vehicles in Britain was under 10 percent. By 2012 it had shot up to over 50 percent.
There are now nearly 12 million diesel cars in use in Britain.
The Volkswagen fiasco has been portrayed as a “mistake” made by politicians who put dealing with climate change over people’s health. The truth is those at the top care little for either.
We can protect human health and the environment.
But this would require pumping resources into expanding public transport, choosing renewable energy sources over fossil fuels and tackling the enormous waste of capitalist society.
Ding ding went the trolley
Scams have always been at the heart of the motor industry.
A group called National City Lines was formed in the 1920s to buy up streetcar systems around the US. It was made up of several firms including General Motors, Firestone, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum.
Although National City Lines was found guilty of conspiracy to monopolise public transit, it was only fined £3,500. But it had smashed the local public transport system across the country.
This set a method that still exists in transport today—including the last 40 years in Britain.
Spending on transport means building roads for private cars to go on. In reality it’s a multibillion dollar subsidy of the car industry.
The 'People's car' that never was
Before the Second World War, Germany was one of western Europe’s least motorised societies. This was partly because its public transport system, before the Nazis got hold of it, was quite good.
The car, Hitler declared, responded to the individual will, unlike the railway, which had brought “individual liberty in transport to an end”.
So he ordered the building of motorways and the government introduced The People’s Car—Volkswagen.
More than a quarter of a million people enrolled in the scheme to buy the new car. But not one saver got a Volkswagen—the money all went into arms production.
More than 200 managers dismissed by denazification tribunals had the verdicts overturned by the British.
Heinrich Nordhoff had worked for General Motors but he was banned from employment for using slave labour to make trucks for the Nazis. So the British put him in charge of Volkswagen.
The company had a head start on its rivals. And the Volkswagen became a symbol for post-war Germany.
Massive fraud lies at the heart of this corrupt system
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International became known as the Bank of Cocaine and Criminals International in 1991 due to money laundering and widespread fraud. It went bust owing more than £10 billion.
This year multinational Toshiba was plunged into scandal after it overstated operating profits by about £780 million. The company saw a drop in sales from £36 billion to £25 billion after the financial crisis and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But it kept profits high by fixing the figures.
Enron went bankrupt in 2001 after its obscuring of huge debts was revealed. The energy trader imploded—wiping out £49 billion of shareholder funds, and the pensions and jobs of thousands.
In 2002 Tyco International’s bosses were found to have siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars out of the maker of electrical, healthcare and safety equipment. Much of it funded the lavish lifestyle of Tyco boss Dennis Kozlowzki.
A £1.4 billion fraud at camera makers Olympus was unearthed in late 2011 after management had simply buried losses for 13 years.
The credit crisis of 2007 and 2008 saw the biggest collective financial scandal. But the leaders of banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Lehman Brothers were deemed to be incompetent, deluded or victims of events. We’re still paying for the bailouts.
Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, last year revealed it had overstated estimated profits by £263 million by overestimating revenues paid to it by suppliers.
Tue 29 Sep 2015, 15:59 BST
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As one of the largest student cities in the country, Leeds can be a daunting place to try and find accommodation. We have compiled a portfolio of over 3000 properties in Leeds for you to search through, but if you have any more questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.
The University of Leeds is one of the most popular universities in the country, receiving the second highest number of applications per year. It also has one of the largest single campuses in the UK (98 acres) just one mile from the city centre. There have also been huge investments in the facilities on campus, such as their £12m fitness centre and pool; their £12.5m Energy Research building and their £42m Enterprise and Innovation Centre.
Leeds Beckett University's historic Headingley campus is located among woodland just a few miles outside of the city, whilst its impressive Broadcasting Tower in the city centre was judged the best tall building in the world by a council of global architects in 2010. Contributing an amazing £477 million to the economy, the University is renowned for its work with local businesses and employers, and boasts a 95% graduate employment rate.
An inner city area of Leeds, Burley is situated north-east of the city centre. It is a very popular area amongst students and boasts a wide range of shops, restaurants and bars to keep everyone fed and entertained. Many of the properties in the area are red brick Victorian terraces and small back-to-backs. There are larger properties to be found though, particularly around Burley Wood and Kirkstall. There are also a few private student halls in the area for students with a larger budget.
As the name suggests, Harehills is set on a south-facing slope in the north east of the city. It is densely packed with terraced houses and offers many cheaper accommodation options to students on a lower budget. The area is well serviced by the 'Leeds Overground' bus system, making it a solid option for students who have to commute across the city to campus.
Headingley is a suburb of the city that is notable as being the home of Headingley stadium as well as the home of Leeds Beckett’s Beckett Park campus. Due to this Headingley is one of the most student-dense areas of the city and receives quite a bit of investment as a result. Public transport to and from the area is some of the best in the city. The suburb is also one of the oldest in the city with a diverse array of historical buildings, some of which are now renowned restaurants and pubs.
Hyde Park is an inner city area sandwiched between the city centre and Headingley, the boundaries of which are rather vague. If you're searching for property near Victoria/Alexandra/Burley or Cardigan Road it's likely you’re searching within the Hyde Park area. Expect to find a large density of students as well as a strong multi-cultural vibe. The area is constantly in a process of renovation as much of the local infrastructure and property was built in Victorian times, although there are plenty of modern accommodation options on offer.
On the eastern side of the River Aire, Kirkstall is a pretty self-contained suburb about 2 miles from the city centre that is close to both major universities. Of the many notable historical sites in the area, Kirkstall Abbey is the most famous. An annual music, arts and crafts festival is held in its grounds every July.
A largely residential area, Woodhouse is also home of the University of Leeds, making it an extremely convenient place of residence. The area offers a selection of accommodation ranging from older terraces and back-to-backs up to modern purpose-built student digs.
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If you're unsure about where to start, try Headingley, the main student area of Leeds, packed with shops, bars and those all important takeaways. Other specific areas include Hyde Park, Burley, and Woodhouse, all of which are easily commutable to both universities.
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Jason Holder joins in the call to fight England and Kolpak
By Paul-Andre Walker March 02, 2019
Jason Holder
Windies skipper Jason Holder is again at odds with English cricket and the way it’s structure, which allows players to take lucrative deals under what is known as a Kolpak deal is achieved.
Kolpak deals come at the cost of a player’s international cricket career, with the most recent example being Duanne Olivier, a South African who earned his ODI debut last year.
Olivier shocked South Africa when he announced his retirement from International duty in favour of a three-year deal with Yorkshire.
The move prompted former South Africa batsman, Albie Morkel, who joined Surrey after ending his international career, to voice his hope that Cricket South Africa (CSA) does something to stop any possible ‘drain’ on the country’s major cricket resources, it’s talent.
"They [CSA] have to sit down and come up with plans because they're going to lose a lot of players in the near future and they need to protect against that.
"Do you structure the contracting a little bit better? What security do you give the guys [for] life after cricket? You talk about investing, but once a guy retires, they sort of drift away. I can name a number of players who they have invested a lot of money in, but you don't see them coaching, you don't see them involved with our academies.
"Give those guys a platform and say, 'We've invested in you for so many years, when you're thinking of settling down or moving on, this is where we see a role for you'.
"I think that communication is not great at the moment so that's something they can improve on.
"I was settled in the team so, for me, it was easier to put offers aside and focus on playing with South Africa.
"It's harder for those guys who are in and out of the team. If the communication channels aren't great and you're not sure where you fit in, that's where the biggest challenge comes in. Communication is the key in any business.
"It's never nice…it always paints a bad picture of cricket in South Africa. But that's unfortunately part of our DNA and the struggles we have in South Africa."
Oliver’s move came just two years after Kyle Abbott and Rilee Rossouw signed deals with Hampshire.
Holder has gone one step further than his South African counterpart, the Windies captain looking toward the International Cricket Council to protect other nations from the possibility of losing all their talent to the English game.
"It's really sad to see another quality player lost to Kolpak cricket," Holder said. "Until something is properly done to keep players a little bit more grounded financially I don't know how much longer you can continue putting up the front,” said Holder.
"People still want to see international cricket being at the forefront. I just think, going forward, we need to find a way to keep players playing for their country so we can have an attractive product,” said the Windies Captain, who oversaw a drawn ODI series against England on Saturday.
"Probably the ICC and FICA needs to get together and institute a substantial minimum salary so that players will feel comfortable coming home to represent their country,” he said.
"Test cricket is something that has picked up in the last year and a half. West Indies beating England; Sri Lanka beating South Africa: these are significant things. These can continue to spark Test cricket. There's so much prestige behind it and so much work behind it. I can only hope we can find some common ground where players are properly compensated and encouraged to play Test cricket as opposed to running off to domestic leagues.
"Personally I have had a few conversations with people at FICA. They are doing a hell of a job trying to get a level playing field for everyone and trying to have a fair standard for players and for leagues to be able to attract players. I don't want to speak of a figure at this time but I've had discussions with people at FICA and we are trying to find solutions to these problems.
"It's just ongoing discussions. I don't know if we'll find a middle ground as soon as we like. Hopefully in the not too distant future we can find common ground where players are playing for their countries and also have time to play in domestic leagues."
international cricket council
duanne olivier
« Holder likely to be named captain of unchanged Windies squad for T20 series against England Skerritt cries conspiracy involving Barbados, Guyana and Windward Islands »
Paul-Andre Walker
Paul-Andre is the Managing Editor at SportsMax.tv. He comes to the role with almost 20 years of experience as journalist. That experience includes all facets of media. He began as a sports Journalist in 2001, quickly moving into radio, where he was an editor before becoming a news editor and then an entertainment editor with one of the biggest media houses in the Caribbean.
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West Indies fast bowling legend Andy Roberts has blasted the captaincy of Jason Holder following a disappointing showing at the recently concluded ICC World Cup in England.
The regional team was tipped by a few pundits and fans to be capable of causing issues for the more fancied teams at the tournament but failed to live up to expectations.
The same could be said for the 27-year-old Holder who headed into the tournament in a rich vein of form but failed to deliver a telling performance. In his opinion, Roberts believes one of the biggest issues the team faced during the tournament was a lack of organisation and leadership.
“I don’t think too much of Jason Holder’s captaincy. He speaks well, but in terms of tactics on the field, I think he is found wanting and I don’t think he has the backroom staff. They weren’t experienced enough to help him so you have to look at a number of reasons why we did not go further in the tournament,” Roberts said in a radio interview.
“They had no plans because you had to have plan A, B, and then plan C; but their only plan was to bowl short and it showed throughout the entire tournament that they felt they could win based on the amount of – I can’t say fast bowlers – the amount of people they had with long run-ups and no head,” he added.
Dhoni to be dropped for India, Windies tour - reports
India legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni is not expected to travel to the Caribbean for the team’s tour against the West Indies.
According to reports, the team has opted to groom new wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant after Dhoni came under criticism for his performance during the ICC World Cup.
“MS [Dhoni] will not go to the West Indies,” a source with knowledge of the situation told Times Now News said.
“Going forward, he will not travel with the team within India or overseas as the first-choice wicketkeeper. Rishabh Pant will take over and there will be a grooming window for him until he settles down,” he added.
“During this time, MS will help in the transition. For all you know, he could be part of the 15 but not part of the 11. This team needs a guiding hand on multiple fronts and wishing MS away is clearly unhealthy.”
The tour will include 3 T20 Internationals, 3 ODIs and 2 test matches in the Caribbean. The tour kicks off with the T20 internationals on August 3 and carries on until September 3, which marks the fifth day of the second test match.
Gower backs Jason Roy Test call-up: He is a real talent
Former England captain David Gower supports the decision to hand Jason Roy a Test call-up with the Ashes looming.
After starring at the top of the order in his country's victorious Cricket World Cup campaign, Roy was named in England's Test squad for the first time on Wednesday, as part of a 13-man party to face Ireland at Lord's next week.
The 28-year-old Surrey batsman, who averages 38 in first-class cricket, now looks certain to open in the first Test against Australia, starting on August 1, having earned selection through his excellent form in limited-overs cricket.
Gower told Omnisport: "Detractors will say that Jason Roy's first-class career has been nothing like his one-day international career. I put something out on Twitter weeks ago now saying 'the talent this man is, can we not adapt him to Test cricket?'
"There are people like David Warner who have successfully become great Test players having been one-day players; there are people like Rohit Sharma who will never play a Test match for India again despite the fact he's just got five hundreds in the World Cup, so it doesn't work for everyone.
"But we [England] don't have particularly great alternatives. My view is that if it works it will be fantastic. If it takes a while to get going, or if it takes him a while to learn the ropes of being a Test match player, then actually we're no worse off than we are at the moment.
"I would happily endorse him as a real talent, who with a bit of luck and hard work could knuckle down to it."
Fast bowler Jofra Archer - another standout member of England's victorious World Cup team - has also been tipped to play a role in the Ashes, although he will miss the Test against Ireland due to a side strain.
"Again, Jofra is an extraordinary talent, he's a brilliant talent," added Gower, a member of the England team that reached the 1979 World Cup final.
"While one would be careful maybe about his workload, as they are about all England's bowlers, which is only sensible, again he is such a beautiful raw talent that I would have him in the side."
- David Gower is touring theatres in October and November with his sell-out show 'On The Front Foot'. Buy your tickets from www.david-gower.com.
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How our millennial Indiana Jones became a global health warrior
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Home / News & opinion / News / August / How our millennial Indiana Jones became a global health warrior
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“In today’s world, an outbreak here is an outbreak everywhere”
Captain Sophie Hollingsworth has accomplished more in her quarter-of-a-century than most people do in a lifetime. With every door open to her, why did she decide to study a Master of Health Security at the University of Sydney?
Captain Sophie Hollingsworth
At 24, Captain Sophie Hollingsworth has sailed across the Pacific Ocean, danced with the Moscow Ballet and her work has been featured at the United Nations and National Geographic. She was the youngest woman to obtain a 200-ton MCA Yachtmaster Captains License and was named New Explorer of the Year in 2017.
But it was an illness deep in a remote part of Central American jungle that set her on the path towards a Master of Health Security at the University of Sydney.
After two weeks in the Nicaraguan jungle, Sophie returned to her home in the United States violently ill with a Tropical Neglected Disease and found staff at her local hospital ill equipped to handle her case.
“From that day forward, I knew a new generation of health professionals was required to meet the challenges of a more globalised world,” she says.
“I chose the University of Sydney because it is the only university in the world to offer a Master of Health Security program. In today’s hyper-connected world, an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.”
Sophie shares her story.
Being awarded the Fulbright Anne Wexler Scholarship in Public Policy in 2016 was the impetus for Sophie to begin her Master of Health Security, and is allowing her to explore a passion for sustainability and public health that she has had since childhood.
“As a young girl, I devoured articles in National Geographic about deforestation and tribes disappearing at alarming rates, and I remember feeling this immense sense of urgency along with the realisation that I could be a part of the last generation to live in a world where such places exist,” she says.
“I knew that if I was going to see the world’s remote places before they disappeared, I was going to have to act fast. So, at an unreasonably young age I set out on my own to work in places others had written off, as too remote, too wet or too dangerous.”
AquaAid delivers safe, fresh water to schools
At 16, Sophie secured work as a deckhand on a private superyacht off the coast of Panama, where she dreamed of becoming the boat’s captain.
During this time, she met a single father in a dugout canoe with two little girls who were looking to trade coconuts for fishing hooks. She talked to the girls who mentioned they were really excited to be starting school.
Sophie chats with the local community.
“I was curious why they were only just starting primary school - they looked too old. The girls told me there was a new underwater pipeline supplying their home island with clean water, so they no longer had to spend all day paddling to the mainland to collect water. I was shocked because access to water was something I had never really thought about.”
Inspired by this meeting, Sophie started researching the water crisis. She found that one in nine people don’t have access to clean water. There were few water charities that worked with the world’s most remote communities – often those the most in need of help.
“I was determined to help bring access to clean water to communities that other companies had written off as ‘too remote’ – and by ‘too remote’, I mean those that take at least three days of hiking, horseback riding, and paddling in dugout canoes to get to. Quintessential pith helmeted adventure coupled with attempts to build a more sustainable and just world.”
Captain Sophie Hollingsworth teaches the local community about safe water as part of AquaAid International.
She says those around her doubted that she could do it: “Almost everyone around me said my idea was impossible - I was too young, female, and I didn’t have the necessary experience.”
To date, Sophie’s company AquaAid International has provided more than 800 people with access to water, installed water art installations in schools, and taught thousands of kids about the importance of water in the environment across Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
click to show image
Sophie’s next move
Sophie is currently launching an immersive adventure-style cooking guide on her website The Sofia Log.
“Kitchen(less) Cooking is Indiana Jones-meets-Martha Stewart, inspired by the remote communities I work with,” she says.
She came up with the idea on a solo four-wheel drive expedition across Australia.
“I was determined to nourish myself outside, with meals cooked on a fire without the convenience of a kitchen or the ability to Google recipes. What initially felt like restraints, provided an opportunity for creativity to flourish and inspired me to come up with unconventional cooking methods.”
Her ever-increasing library of recipes include fire-smoked bacon, winter cocktails, kangaroo balls and swagman’s shoelaces - her bush version of spaghetti and meatballs.
“It’s an unconventional way to connect people to the outdoors and cultural diversity through food,” she says.
In the future, Sophie hopes to use her Health Security qualifications to combat infectious disease outbreaks and biodefense and take on her next big challenge, “to get a desk job.”
Captain Sophie Hollingsworth will speak at the American Chamber of Commerce of Australia’s NEXT: Network for Future Leaders breakfast on Friday 17 August.
Study Health Security
Want more news?
Charlotte Moore
Assistant Media and PR Adviser (Humanities)
luke.oneill@sydney.edu.au
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E-commerce platform scores academic place on Forbes ‘30 Under 30’
Dr Olga Oleinikova, Director of the Ukraine Democracy Initiative, has been recognised as a leader in retail and e-commerce in this year's Forbes '30 Under 30' Asia list.
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Living in Taiwan, Voices From TaiwanHiking, Interview, September, Taipei
Moving Mountains: An Australian Hiker Moves in Taipei
Article: Taiwan Scene
Photos: April Chen
We met up with Nathan Ray in a small park on Heping West Road (和平西路), just across the street from the MRT Guting Station (捷運古亭站). It’s the sort of public green space you’ll find in nearly any Taipei neighborhood if you know where to look, and it seemed an appropriate spot to chat about movement and the myriad outdoor activities offered by Taipei City.
Hailing from a small coastal town on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia, Ray relocated to Taiwan two and a half years ago to work on developing what he calls “movement education and physical culture.”
Moving to Taipei
Naturally, our first question was “What do you mean by movement education and physical culture?” “It goes beyond a specific modality or sport,” Ray told us. “It‘s really more of a lifestyle, or a perspective on life. I believe that the better you move, the more you improve physically, the better a person you’ll be.”
Ray relocated to Taipei two and a half years ago with his wife, a Taiwanese citizen who he’d met in Australia. “I’d moved around Australia for the first half of my twenties, but you know, wherever you go in Australia, it’s still Australia. But in Taiwan, everything is different.”
Earlier visits to Taipei didn’t quite prepare Ray for the intensity of life in the city, which is understandable for a man who claims to be “not a city person by nature.” According to Ray, he continues to find life in Taipei life-challenging. But it’s a struggle for which he came prepared.
“I arrived with an open mind, and I knew that I’d struggle with things like differences in language and culture, adjusting to a different climate and different types of food. So much is different in Taipei compared to where I come from, and I’ve realized that I’ve had to change who I am to survive.”
Favorite Taipei Day Hikes
Key to Ray’s being able to stay balanced in Taipei is the taking advantage of the city’s unique connection with nature. Indeed, it’s safe to say that next to his wife and family, “nature” is what keeps Ray grounded in Taipei. And one of the things Ray appreciates most about living in Taipei is how easy it is to get out of Taipei without technically having to even leave the city.
Xiangshan is one of Nathan’s favorite hiking trails in Taipei.
“I live pretty much in the center of town, the Xinyi District, not far from Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101. From where I live I can pretty much be hiking up Xiangshan (象山) and in the jungle within ten minutes. And that’s just scratching the surface. There are tons of other great hiking spots within walking distance of an MRT station. Muzhishan (拇指山), Zhongyongshan (忠勇山) and Jinmianshan (金面山).”
The latter hiking trail Ray mentioned has become popular with Taipei’s urban hiking crowd over the last few years with good reason. Located in Neihu (內湖), close to both the MRT Xihu Station (捷運西湖站) and the popular Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園) (known for its rooftop ferris wheel), Jinmianshan offers opportunities for bouldering close to the top.
“That’s one of my favorite hikes in Taipei. Once you’ve crossed over and you’re on the downside towards the National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), you’d really have no idea that you were still technically inside of Taipei City.”
If it weren’t for Taipei’s amazing access to hiking, Ray says, he’d have a difficult time living in the city. Though he doesn’t necessarily subscribe to the whole “forest bathing” trend, Ray says there’s both a physical and spiritual benefit to getting out of the city regularly.
“I need to be outside, we all do. Having easy access out of this crazy huge city and into the jungle is key to my well-being. I go hiking fairly regularly, whether planned with friends or just on a moment’s notice. Back home I’d head to the beach, but that’s not quite as easy to do from Taipei city. But the mountains are close by, and a great option. You can see mountains from pretty much everywhere in the city. There’s nowhere in Australia that you can see such a landscape and it always strikes me when I see them in the distance.” (Read also: Sky High-Climbing Up to the Roof of Taiwan: A Wushe to Mt. Hehuan Excursion)
Movement Training in Taipei
Though getting out into the jungle is important to Ray, he says he’s also impressed with what the city’s parks have to offer for the physical fitness enthusiast.
Nathan Ray gives movement training classes in a neighborhood park.
“There are parks everywhere in Taipei, and most of them have really good, beautifully maintained exercise equipment. Chin-up bars everywhere! In Australia, the equipment would probably be vandalized, in disrepair, or more likely nonexistent. You can also find small parks on top of many of the mountains. There are plenty of 70-year-olds stretching, lifting weights or doing Taichi. This is very impressive. The elderly people here are badass. They clearly know something the rest of us do not.”
With a baby on the way, Ray plans to stick it out in Taipei, to continue building his reputation as a movement teacher. “I teach physicality from a movement perspective. Meaning, our aim is to improve our movement capacity. Not muscles, not “fitness”–movement. My teachings are greatly influenced by the world-renowned movement coach, Ido Portal, from who I studied under in Melbourne. I found no one in Taipei thinking or ‘moving’ in this way, so I decided to get the ball rolling.”
With his local partner, XiaoXien Chen (陳孝賢), Ray hosts the monthly Taipei Movement Meeting where they share different concepts and tools people can add to their movement practice. Calling themselves “Human: Movement Project,” they intend on teaching the people of Taipei how moving better can change their lives.
To readers who may consider taking advantage of Taipei’s growing reputation as one of the most consistently livable cities for expats in Asia, Ray offers a few suggestions on choosing neighborhoods for those who may be “reluctant” city dwellers.
“Even from the center of the city it’s just a short MRT ride to the edge, so you’ve got many options. But if I had to move from where I’m currently at, I’d chose Neihu. The district itself feels a bit different than some of the older parts of town. The buildings aren’t as high, the mountains are closer. It’s newer, it’s greener. But there are plenty of other good neighborhoods as well. Basically if you live anywhere near a mountain you can just walk out of your front door and be hiking ten minutes later.”
Ray is also a big fan of Taipei’s YouBike system, which he says is key to making Taipei such an amazing place both to get around in and in which to live in general. “I use the YouBike system often, and if you combine YouBikes with buses and the MRT, you can get pretty much anywhere. You don’t need a car to live in Taipei, which is another big change from where I’m from.” (More on YouBikes: Summertime City Cycling and Unstable Weather)
So while life in Taipei may be a challenge for a self-described small-town boy, moving around inside the city is anything but. And, perhaps even more importantly, being able to move outside of it whenever the mood strikes.
This article is reproduced under the permission of TAIPEI. Original content can be found at the website of Taipei Travel Net.
More voices from Taiwan: Herban Kitchen & Bar: A Western Vegetarian Oasis in Taipei
Beautiful Island: Taiwan is a Dream Location for Student Travel
Eight Great Taipei Hole-in-the-wall eateries
2 replies to Moving Mountains: An Australian Hiker Moves in Taipei
Pingback: Eight Amazing Ways to Celebrate New Years in Taiwan – Taiwan Scene | Online Travel Magazine
Pingback: A Perfect Day in Taipei’s Xinyi District – Taiwan Scene | Online Travel Magazine
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April 20, 2013 by joecarro in Action (Movies), Adventure (Movies), Comic Book Movies, Crime (Movies), Movie Reviews and tagged 2000's, 2005, Action, Adventure, Alfred, Arkham Asylum, Average JOE, Bat, Bat Cave, Batman, Batman Begins, Batmobile, Bob Kane, Bruce Wayne, Caped Crusader, Carmine Falcone, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, Comic Books, Comics, Crime, Crime-Fighter, Criminal, Crook, Dark Knight, David S. Goyer, DC, DC Heroes, DC Universe, Dead Parents, Detective Comics, Evil, Fear, Flass, Flasse, Gary Oldman, Gotham, Gotham City, Guns, Henri Ducard, Jim Gordon, Joseph Carro, Justice League, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, League of Shadows, Liam Neeson, Linus Roache, Lucius Fox, Mark Boone Junior, Mentor, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Murder, NaNaNaNaNa, Ninja, Orphan, Police, Police Chief, Ra's Al Ghul, Rachel Dawes, Reboot, Rutger Hauer, Scarecrow, Symbol, Terror, Thomas Wayne, Thug, Tom Wilkinson, Training, War | 2 Comments
Original Theatrical Release: June 15, 2005
Director: Christopher Nolan
Billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), was made an orphan when his parents were brutally murdered in the streets by a common thug. Vowing revenge, as an adult he began training himself to fight before ending up as a student of Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) – both in a shadowy group dedicated to eradicating evil called the League of Shadows. When Bruce disagrees with their methods, he takes what he’s learned and finances himself as a vigilante superhero called Batman. With enemies from his past and present arrayed against him, Batman has a lot of work to do to clean up Gotham.
This isn’t your 1989 Batman, that’s for sure.
This movie starts and ends with a bang. There isn’t much time to think about anything except for the awesomeness up on the screen, but there are just a couple of scenes that are a little too slow or bog down the action.
The acting is all top-notch (aside from how anyone looks at Christian Bale’s Batman voice) and the characters from Batman’s canon were all brought to life, more vibrant than any incarnation that came before it. We had the amazing Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Michael Caine as Alfred. Not as great was the wooden Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, but hey, she’s still easy on the eyes.
Nolan’s vision ties everything together and by the end of the film, we see a story that has been artfully pieced together that leaves us nodding our heads in appreciation as the credits roll. I still think the second film, The Dark Knight is the best in the trilogy, but this is a close second.
All in all, this is a wonderful start to the Batman Trilogy by Christopher Nolan, and I’m glad that we’ve gone away from the campy nature of the Batman films of the 1990’s.
Batman is pretty damned serious.
Movie Trailer For Batman Begins
The Cleaners: Absent Bodies (2010)
April 19, 2013 by joecarro in Book Reviews, Comic Book Reviews and tagged 2010, 2010's, Absent Bodies, Average JOE, Blood, Bodies, Books, Cleaning, Comic Books, Comics, Crime, Dark Horse, Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse Universe, Death, Evil, Hazmat, Issues, John Graef, Joseph Carro, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Mark Wheaton, Monster, Noir, Rahsan Ekedal, Rating, Review, Supernatural, The Cleaners, The Cleaners: Absent Bodies, TPB, Trade Paperback | Leave a comment
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Creative Team: Mark Wheaton, Joshua Hale Fialokov, Rahsan Ekedal, Jon Graef
Robert Bellarmine, an ex-surgeon with a shady past, lives in the LA Basin and leads a skilled team of trauma-scene cleaners who are independently contracted. However, this is no ordinary crack team of cleaners…they have a knack for the supernatural side of things, and when signs start pointing to a supernatural force that may be responsible for a recent string of deaths and disappearances, Robert and his team must intervene and stop it if they can.
The Cleaners: Absent Bodies collects issues #1-4 of the Dark Horse Comics series of the same name, The Cleaners. Mark Wheaton and Joshua Hale Fialkov did the writing, while art and colors were done by Rahsan Ekedal and Jon Graef respectively.
Initially, this seemed like a really cool premise. People who have to go clean up crime scenes, who then encounter supernatural elements in their work. Indeed, during the time I read this noir-type trade paperback collection, I did enjoy the story…but unfortunately the artwork didn’t shine enough for me to enjoy the book to its full potential.
The artwork wasn’t awful or anything, but many of the characters, both men and women, were hard to tell apart. The panels with blood and the large splash panels were great but everything was sort of confusing for the smaller panels.
I felt like the script could stand on its own two feet and I think this would actually make a pretty cool television series or movie, as it has a sort of CSI-meets-Fringe type of feel to it. I liked that aspect.
I might check out later installments, but this first volume hasn’t really enticed me enough to do it right away.
JOE Rating: ★★
Check Out This Sample Page From The Cleaners: Absent Bodies!
April 18, 2013 by joecarro in Adventure (Movies), Fantasy (Movies), Movie Reviews and tagged 2010's, 2012, Adam Brown, Adaptation, Adventure, Aidan Turner, Andy Serkis, Author, Average JOE, Azog, Barry Humphries, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bilbo Baggins, Blog, Bolg, Bret McKenzie, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Conan Stevens, Corruption, Dean O'Gorman, Dori, Dragon, Dwarves, Elijah Wood, Elrond, Elves, Epic, Erebor, Fantasy, feet, Film, Fire, Flame, Frodo Baggins, Galadriel, Gandalf, Gandalf The Grey, Goblin King, Goblins, gold, Gollum, Graham McTavish, Great Goblin, Group, Hobbit, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKellan, Ian McShane, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Nesbitt, Jed Brophy, Jeffrey Thomas, John Callen, John Rawls, Joseph Carro, Ken Stott, Lee Pace, Lindir, Lonely Mountain, Lord of the Rings, LotR, Manu Bennett, Mark Hadlow, Martin Freeman, Michael Mizrahi, Middle Earth, Mountain Home, Necromancer, One Ring, Orcs, Ori, Peter Hambleton, Peter Jackson, Precious, Radagast, Reluctant, Review, Richard Armitage, Riddle, Ring, Ring of Power, Saruman, Sauron, Shire, Smaug, Song, Stephen Hunter, Sting, Sylvester McCoy, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Thief, Thorin Oakenshield, Thrain, Thranduil, Thror, Tolkien, Tricks, Troll, William Kircher, Wizard, Yazneg | 1 Comment
Original Theatrical Release: December 14, 2012
Director: Peter Jackson
Before Bilbo Baggins’ (Martin Freeman) nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood) ever set his hairy hobbit feet outside the Shire, Bilbo had an adventure of his own, and this was its beginning. Approached by the mysterious wizard, Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellan), Bilbo is enlisted as a thief and lockpick because of his diminutive size to aid in the reclamation of Erebor for the Dwarven war party that comes crashing into his home. Along the way, Bilbo and his party must overcome great obstacles before reaching the mighty dragon, Smaug.
Okay, so this is a Lord of the Rings/Peter Jackson movie. I had extremely high hopes, and I will tell you that I wasn’t disappointed.
Overall, the film kept me engaged. The visuals were the same great quality I came to know while watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sweeping vistas, interesting creatures (especially a compelling encounter with Ian McShane as the Goblin King). We also got to see some neat tie-ins to the later movies, and I think when they’re all finished it will all fit together very nicely.
I know some purists will take issue with the content of the film’s story structure. That’s fine, but you must remember that the films and the books are still two separate entities no matter how close they get to the original source material.
The story moved a little bit slow, and I am not sure I liked the comedic aspect of the dwarves very much. Some of the dwarves looked like they were wearing prosthetic face applications while others looked like male models…not sure what the reasoning behind that was. Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) was also maybe a bit too silly, to be taken seriously as well. I know The Hobbit was more of a children’s tale, but it still had a serious heart. The dwarves were actually very unlikable in the film’s opening sequence, to be honest.
As the story unfolds, though, you are swept up in it and I think the coming sequels are going to be worth the wait.
Movie Trailer For The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
April 18, 2013 by joecarro in Action (Movies), Adventure (Movies), Comic Book Movies, Fantasy (Movies), Movie Reviews and tagged 2000's, 2005, Action, Adventure, Astronaut, Average JOE, Baxter Building, Ben Grimm, Benjamin Grimm, Blog, Chris Evans, DNA, Doctor Doom, Doom, Dr. Doom, Experiment, Fantastic Four, Fantasy, Film, Genetics, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Johnny Storm, Joseph Carro, Julian McMahon, Marvel Comics, Marvel Heroes, Marvel Movie, Marvel Superheroes, Marvel Universe, Michael Chiklis, Movie, Mr. Fantastic, New York, Nip/Tuck, Pilot, Reed Richards, Research, Review, Science, Scientist, space, Spacecraft, Stan Lee, Superheroes, Superpowers, Susan Storm, Team, The Thing, Thing, Tim Story, Victor Von Doom | 1 Comment
Original Theatrical Release: July 8, 2005
Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), brilliant scientist, has a theory that there are clouds of cosmic energy that move through space which can trigger evolution. Convinced that one of these clouds will come close enough to Earth to observe and analyze from a relatively short distance away in space, he enlists the help of his longtime friend Benjamin Grimm (Michael Chiklis) to help him convince billionaire Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) to let them use his private space station. He allows it, but only if the research is under his control. Doom then brings aboard his own genetics researcher Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) and her younger brother Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) who complete the team. When something goes unaccording to plan, everyone aboard the space station aside from Doom is hit directly with the cosmic energy cloud, granting them amazing abilities and altering their DNA structures. Becoming media darlings after a rescue, the four researchers must struggle with their newfound abilities and fame as the Fantastic Four.
Being a Marvel movie, I was pretty excited for this film when it came out. Up until then, we’d had a pretty decent Spider-Man movie as well as Blade and X-Men. I thought the Thing looked a little cheesy, but figured it’d be okay up on the big screen because he was being played by Michael Chiklis. Chris Evans seemed perfect for the character of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. Jessica Alba didn’t initially sell me on being Susan Storm, but she’s hot so I figured I’d give it a chance. The guy who played Reed looked like he’d do well enough.
I was right about most of those initial thoughts. Michael Chiklis DID play Ben Grimm exactly how I’d want him to be played, but regardless of how well he acted…I have to say, that rubber suit was kind of atrocious. Not saying I wouldn’t love to wear it as a cosplay or something like that. It’s made really well but for the big screen in a movie that SHOULDN’T be full of camp, it added a sort of cheese factor that carried through to the rest of the film. Chris Evans was perfect for the role of Johnny Storm. Jessica Alba was hot, but was not Susan Storm (and there was some controversy because of her being cast as Susan Storm and the fact that she’s not mixed-race in the comic books). Ioan Gruffudd (crazy name!) was just okay as Reed Richards.
I loved Julian McMahon’s acting and presence in the show Nip/Tuck, but as Victor Von Doom…not so much. I never really thought of Doom as a whiny socialite, like Tony Stark from Iron Man without the class. It didn’t work.
On top of that, we had a story that while initially starting out not that bad meandered all over the place and didn’t really provide much in the way of action for an action film. The end battle with Doom was extremely anti-climactic and I didn’t feel like I’d used my time well by watching the film, aside from my unhealthy obsession with Jessica Alba.
I mean, how can you go wrong with this?
Give it a watch if you haven’t….see how it is compared to the upcoming 2015 reboot by Seth Grahame-Smith and Josh Trank. It’s still Marvel, after all. (Just don’t watch the second one with Silver Surfer…Jesus, that was bad).
Movie Trailer For Fantastic Four
The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes & Nocturnes (1991)
April 15, 2013 by joecarro in Book Reviews, Comic Book Reviews and tagged 1980's, 1988, 1990's, 1991, 2010, 2010's, Abel, art, Author, Average JOE, Azazel, Beelzebub, Black Magic, Blog, Book, Cain, Canon, Choro, Choronzon, Collection, Comic Books, Comics, Daniel Vozzo, Dave McKean, DC, DC Comics, DC Heroes, DC Universe, Death, Detective Comics, dream, Dreams, England, Etrigan, Evil, God, Hell, Hellfire Club, Immortality, Imprisoned, John Constantine, Joseph Carro, Karen Berger, Life, Lucifer, Malcolm Jones III, Martian Manhunter, Mike Dringenberg, Morpheus, Mortal, Neil Gaiman, Nightmare, Preludes & Nocturnes, Review, Sam Keith, Sandman, Satan, The Sandman, Todd Klein, TPB, Trade Paperback, Vertigo, Volume 1, Wesley Dodds, Writer | Leave a comment
Publisher: DC/Vertigo
Creative Team: Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III
Set in the DC Universe, The Sandman Volume 1 collects issues 1-8 of the comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Sam Keith, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III.
A wizard who wants to live forever attempts to summon and trap Death, but inadvertantly traps her younger brother, Dream (aka Morpheus). Fearing retaliation, the wizard and his cohorts keep Morpheus imprisoned in a magical cell for a couple of lifetimes. When his captors make a mistake and Morpheus breaks free, he is weak from his time in imprisonment and also finds that his captors have stolen and have sold three of his possessions which help give him power. His helm, his bag of dust and his ruby pendant. With these items he will be close to full strength again, so he sets out to find them…but they are spread wide and though he is a god, Morpheus finds that some of them are guarded more closely than he would think. Teaming with well-known DC Comics characters like John Constantine and Martian Manhunter, Morpheus must go to Hell and back to find his things. Literally.
While this is not the strongest entry in the Sandman series, issues 1-8 are a great introduction to the world Morpheus inhabits and is a good set up to the wonderment that follows in later volumes. The artwork is great, but the colors in the collection versus the originals are a little bit off, a little bit darker. This might be problematic for some purists, but I think for the tone of the piece, the colors suit it well. Then again, the original colors were more dreamlike. It’s a coin toss on which you’ll like better.
This beginning collection is a story about starting over. Morpheus was content with where he was and with his station, overconfident that he had everything nailed down. When this was proven false by his imprisonment by a bunch of mortals, it shook him up a little. Weakened and forced to find alternate ways to deal with things, Morpheus becomes a compelling character. Though a god, he is still fallible.
The characters are all really interesting. We get to meet the perky character of Death, we get to see a new and frightening/sad interpretation of Cain and Abel. There are dangerous and fantastical dream creatures and lots of magic thrown in.
If other DC characters weren’t tossed into the mix, you wouldn’t even think of it as a comic book story that exists in the world of superheroes, but Neil Gaiman has seamlessly integrated Morpheus and his mythos into the existing DC canon.
Give this a read, and especially the later collections.
Check Out This Sample Page From Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes!
Pineapple Express (2008)
April 13, 2013 by joecarro in Action (Movies), Comedy (Movies), Crime (Movies), Movie Reviews and tagged 2000's, 2008, Action, Amber Heard, Angie Anderson, Arthur Napiontek, Average JOE, Bill Hader, Blog, Car Chase, Clark, Comedy, Cops, Craig Robinson, Crime, Crooked Cops, Dale Denton, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Dealer, Drug Dealer, Drugs, Ed Begley Jr., Film, Gary Cole, General Bratt, Government, Guns, James Franco, James Remar, Joe Lo Truglio, Joseph Carro, Judd Apatow, Kevin Corrigan, Marijuana, Matheson, Movie, Mr. Edwards, Murder, Nora Dunn, Officer, Pineapple Express, Pot, Pot Dealer, Private Miller, Process Server, Rare, Red, Review, Robert, Rosie Perez, Saul Silver, Seth Rogen, Shannon, Stoner, Strain, Ted Jones | Leave a comment
Original Theatrical Release: August 6, 2008
Director: David Gordon Green
When a lazy, stoner process server named Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) witnesses the murder of a Chinese drug dealer at the hands of Ted Jones (Gary Cole), the guy he was supposed to serve, he flees the scene of the crime and heads back to the guy who sells him pot (and his only friend) Saul Silver (James Franco). When it comes to light that Ted Jones is a major drug dealer, and the same guy who gave Saul a highly-rare strain of pot called Pineapple Express, the hapless duo realize that a couple of roaches left at the scene of the crime can be traced back to them. The two set out on the run from crooked cops and hired thugs, and all of them want the stoners dead.
I recently rewatched this, wondering if my original opinion had changed, and it did not. If anything, I think I like it more now than I did a couple years ago when I first saw it.
This is a stoner comedy done right. It has the appropriate amount of “touching” moments, without being sappy (like many of Adam Sandler’s comedies), has a lot of hilarious dialogue and stoner situations and, of course, has a lot of comedic talent.
Seth Rogen’s witty, sarcastic Dale Denton is a great character and we also see James Franco really dig in with his vapid, carefree portrayal of Saul Silver. Then, we have Danny McBride, who is hilarious as usual. There are lots of other cameos by other really funny people, too, like Bill Hader and Craig Robinson. It’s just a great ensemble cast.
The movie clipped along at a nice pace. Nothing really got too bogged down. There were plenty of chase scenes and awkward situational humor. I knew the inevitable rift between the main characters would come, and I disliked the way it was done in this film only because it was phoned ahead and it was hard not to see it coming when it did.
Many folks will prefer other movies by Team Apatow, like Knocked Up or Superbad. Those are great movies, too, but I think this one should be compared more to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back or Dude, Where’s My Car?. Next to those last two stoner flicks, I really think Pineapple Express can hold its own. If you don’t enjoy this movie, chances are, you don’t really like stoner flicks in general.
For a “stupid-humor” film, though, this has a pretty smart screenplay and some really great direction by David Gordon Green.
Movie Trailer For Pineapple Express
Gentlemen Broncos (2009)
April 13, 2013 by joecarro in Adventure (Movies), Comedy (Movies), Movie Reviews and tagged 2000's, 2009, Adventure, Author, Average JOE, Benjamin, Blog, Bronco, Chevalier, Comedy, Don Carlos, Fantasy Writer Convention, Film, Gentlemen Broncos, Halley Feiffer, Hector Jimenez, Home School, Jared Hess, Jemaine Clement, Jennifer Coolidge, Jerusha Hess, John Baker, Joseph Carro, Judith, Loner, Michael Angarano, Movie, Novelist, Pliagarism, Review, Ronald Chevalier, Sam Rockwell, Science Fiction, Seminar, Teenager, Writer, Writing, Writing Camp, Yeast Lords | 1 Comment
Original Theatrical Release: May 27, 2010
Benjamin (Michael Angarano) is a withdrawn, socially awkward home-schooled student with a love of science fiction. While at a writing camp for young authors, Benjamin gets to see his favorite sci-fi author, Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement), who is one of the judges of a writing contest. Hoping to win the contest, and Chevalier’s respect, Benjamin submits a manuscript. When he sees extreme similarities between Chevalier’s new novel and his own manuscript, he decides to fight back.
I really, really wanted to like this.
I mean, it was made by Jared Hess, the same guy who made another movie I loved; Napoleon Dynamite.
It had Sam Rockwell in it, along with Jemaine Clement.
It was about science fiction writing and writing in general, which is something I’m very interested in right now. (I’ve been to writing workshops and seminars lately just like the one in the film)
It had all of the ingredients to be a great film but it ended up falling short.
I think the film’s first mistake was to under-use the main draw of the movie, for me, which was Jemaine Clement. He was hands-down the funniest part of the movie. Sam Rockwell was great as Bronco, too, but we at least got a decent amount of scenes of him between the various versions of the story used in the movie.
Michael Angarano wasn’t super-charismatic on screen and thus didn’t keep me as interested as the other characters in the movie. I felt he didn’t have much of a voice in the film.
On top of that, there weren’t a ton of hilarious parts in a supposed-to-be-hilarious movie like this. With Napoleon Dynamite we still had the kitsch, but there were a ton of laughs. This one was just very drawn-out and unfocused, moving between a film-within-a-film concept in addition to alternate versions of the original story both altered by Chevalier and Benjamin as well as the overall arc of the story that was going on simultaneously. Too much, too fast.
It had some good heart and a lot of ambition, but it wasn’t executed to its fullest extent.
Movie Trailer For Gentlemen Broncos
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Tag Archives: Claire Simone
The Monuments Men (2014)
December 1, 2014 by joecarro in Action (Movies), Drama (Movies), Movie Reviews, War (Movies) and tagged 1940's, Action, America, Army, art, Art Expert, Art Historians, Average JOE, Bill Murray, Blog, Bob Balaban, Burning Painting, Cate Blanchett, Child Sniper, Church, Claire Simone, Culture, Dimitri Leonidas, Donald Jeffries, Drama, Europe, FDR, Film, Fine Art, France, Frank Stokes, French Woman, George Clooney, Germany, Grant Heslov, Historians, History, Hitler, Hugh Bonneville, James Granger, Jean Claude Clermont, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Joseph Carro, Liberate, Mankind, Map, Matt Damon, Michelangelo, military, Movie, Nazi, Platoon, President, Preston Savitz, Religious Artifact, Repatriation, Rescue, Review, Richard Campbell, Russia, Sacrifice, Sam Epstein, Smoking, Soldiers, Statue, Stolen Art, TAJRB, Thieves, Treasure Hunt, True Account, True Story, Walter Garfield, War, World War II, WWII | Leave a comment
Original Theatrical Release Date: February 7, 2014
Director: George Clooney
Frank Stokes (George Clooney) is tasked by FDR to assemble a team of art experts – The Monuments Men – to retrieve stolen artwork from the Nazis during World War II and return the masterpieces to their respective owners. Once behind enemy lines, Stokes and his crew come to realize what they are truly fighting for – the history and culture of all mankind.
To be honest, I’d never even heard of this film. My girlfriend and I decided to rent it on a whim while we were browsing the RedBox outside our local convenience store. We were sort of on a Bill Murray kick (he plays Richard Campbell in The Monuments Men) and that was what prompted us to try it out.
First off, this is based on a true story. I’m not exactly sure how faithful the movie was in terms of historical accuracy but judging by the photos of the real operation they show during the end credits, it seems to be pretty legit.
The cast choices were all pretty solid – George Clooney, Bill Murray, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bob Balaban – can’t really go wrong with any of those people. Clooney is the only one who just seems to constantly play the same character in different movies and this one is no exception.
Though the story was interesting enough from a historical point of view, the excitement didn’t really build a lot in movie form, meaning that while I enjoyed very much learning about this facet of World War II that I had never heard of, I think I would be more interested in reading about it and getting every single detail, historically accurate, than watching this film. There was no real drive that I could feel within the narrative. The film is mostly propelled by the star power of the actors, which can sometimes be okay – but not here. The characters were never really fleshed out. Not even the main character, played by Clooney himself. We get the idea that it’s a bunch of dudes who aren’t really meant to succeed as soldiers and that they risked a lot by going out into a warzone, but there is no real urgency.
As it is, the film is a sort of impressionistic account of a very intriguing story that could have been fleshed out into something even more amazing. Don’t expect to be blown away by this one, people.
Movie Trailer For The Monuments Men
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Zune bug explained in detail
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Girly guitar controller for PS2
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Amazon isn't the only one smiling over holiday sales
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Start your own internet business for $399
<img src="http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/internet-business.jpg" /> If you're bored or out of a job in these difficult times, or if you've always dreamed of becoming an entrepren
The Day the Zunes Stood Still: Update
<img src="http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/2k98.jpg" /> As you guys well know, there are zillions of Zunes out there stricken with a mysterious malady. According to a new statemen
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Rumor: Quad-core MacBook Pro at MacWorld
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A new report entitled “2008 Mobile Banking Security Standards” by Javelin Strategy & Research finds that less than 10% of U.S. consumers use mobile banking tools. 47% of those survey
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Metropolis of the Month, Mexico City, Unique Content
The Radiant City: Public Housing in Modern Mexico
May 17, 2017 themetropoleblog 2 Comments
Plans for Multifamiliar Alemán, Mexico.
Architect Mario Pani, 1948
At the end of the 1940s, Mexico City was at a crossroads. Massive waves of migration from the countryside doubled the city’s population in less than ten years.[1] The city’s old tenements (vecindades) began to buckle under the weight of overcrowding and talk of a “housing crisis” became commonplace. The problems surrounding Mexico City’s housing crisis emerged at a time when the post-revolutionary government began to envision a modern social welfare system as a key step towards national progress. Nowhere was this convergence more vividly expressed than in Mexico’s first public housing complex – the Multifamiliar Alemán.[2]
The Multifamiliar Alemán was a collaboration between the government’s civil pension department and architect Mario Pani. Born into a powerful family, Pani returned to Mexico City after studying architecture at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the 1930s. As a student, he attended a lecture on social housing by Swiss architect Le Corbusier and was profoundly influenced by Le Corbusier’s modernist vision of a “radiant city.” Le Corbusier’s call to “build the city vertically” in order to increase both population density and available green space appealed to Pani, offering a viable means to create a more rational, ordered urban landscape. After Pani was commissioned to design the Multifamiliar Alemán in 1947, the young architect was confronted with the challenge of finding a synthesis between the modernist “internationalist style” and Mexico’s postrevolutionary nationalist ethos. At the time, government officials were apprehensive about Pani’s proposal and questioned if it represented the continuation of a dominated society forced to import ideas from Europe due to a lack of national identity.
Multifamiliar Alemán, 1948. Photo courtesy of the “Centro de Documentacion Sobre la Ciudad”/ UAM
Fortunately for Pani, he was given the freedom to experiment and design the Multifamiliar Alemán far from the confines of the bustling city center. The Department of Civil Pensions acquired a large plot of undeveloped land to the south of the city in an area that would become known as Colonia Del Valle. In a sign of things to come, the Multifamiliar Alemán was not the product of urban renewal but a harbinger of urban sprawl.
Due to a tenuous alliance between historic preservationists, the tourism industry, and Mayor Ernesto Uruchurtu who took a firm stance against urban growth, Mexico City experienced relatively few slum clearance campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s (the Nonoalco-Tlatelolco complex being a notable exception). The first residents of the Multifamiliar Alemán were not drawn from impoverished slum dwellers displaced by the wrecking ball, but the more formally educated migrants who were flooding into the ranks of Mexico’s expanding public employee sector. In midcentury Mexico, housing would serve as a visible marker of social distinction in a growing divergence between Mexico City’s rising middle-class (la gente decente) and the informal masses relegated to the distant shantytowns.
Aerial photo of Multifamiliar Alemán
Cia Mexicana Aerofoto, S.A, 1949
Before the Multifamiliar Alemán was inaugurated on September 2, 1949, aerial photographers were hired to capture “the grandeur” of the complex from above. The image of six towering buildings rising out of a barren field was quite striking. The six high-rise buildings were laid out in a diagonal “zig-zag” pattern in order to maximize greenspace and sunlight. At the center of the complex was a swimming pool, surrounded by gardens and walls that featured pre-Hispanic symbols. Although a relatively minor feature, the pre-Hispanic symbols can be seen as a precursor to Pani’s next housing project – the Multifamiliar Juárez – where a pre-Hispanic aesthetic was more prominently featured through a collaboration with Guatemalan artist Carlos Mérida. The designs reflected Pani’s attempt to synthesize the international and the local, in what can be called a form of mestizo modernism.
Image from film “La Bienamada” (1951), dir. Emilio Fernández
The government viewed the housing complex as a “grand human experiment.” It was conceived as a “city outside of the city” equipped with its own daycare centers, medical facilities, stores, and laundromat. Social workers visited mothers to instill the values of keeping a clean, hygienic home. One government official proclaimed “tenements were places just to sleep…husbands used to spend their free time in bars and pool halls, now they go to work and return to their collective home, where they have everything.”[3] The success of the government’s state-led socialization campaigns in public housing complexes remains an unresolved question for scholars. Nevertheless, the material benefits and social capital bestowed upon residents living in public housing during the 1950s and 1960s ultimately proved to be key factor in the ruling party’s consolidation of political support among Mexico’s urban middle-class.
Photo by Jean Paul Rocafort, 2010
David Yee is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American History at Stony Brook University. His current research explores the historical ties between housing and inequality in Mexico City.
[1] Mexico City’s population grew from roughly 1.6 million in 1940 to 3.4 million in 1950.
[2] The full name for the building complex is the Conjunto Urbano Presidente Alemán, but it is commonly referred to as the Multifamiliar Alemán. A multifamiliar is broadly defined as a large-scale, mixed-use housing complex where each unit is designated for one family.
[3] Quote is cited from speech by Antonio Acevedo Escobedo in Mario Pani, Los Multifamiliares de Pensiones (Mexico City: Arquitectura, 1952), 45.
Member of the Week: Alexia Yates
May 16, 2017 themetropoleblog Leave a comment
Alexia Yates
Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Department of History, University of Manchester
Also an affiliate at the Manchester Urban Institute and the Center for History and Economics, Harvard University
@alexia_yates
I’ve just finished an article that I’ve been working on for some time about the way people in nineteenth-century France – principally lawyers, bankers, legislators, and some ubiquitous anonymous pamphleteers – tried to understand and change the relationship between land and money. My current research is continuing to pursue the intersection of property, politics, and space that influenced my first book but turns to a study of how finance became a routine part of daily life for French people in the first age of global capital. It might not seem urban, but there’s a strong spatial component to the project: tracing how people conceive of national and international financial networks, as well as how local financial districts were constructed. Scale is a crucial element of the exploration – for example, the idea that the police at the Paris Stock Exchange might influence the international economy by regulating the distribution of seats on the exchange floor. Like many others working on the history of economic life, I am attracted to the task of interrogating and reconfiguring our ideas about how the economy works, about how the production, circulation, and redistribution of wealth is effected, and for me the spaces and stuff of economic practice are both crucial technologies and entry points.
I’m lucky to work in a place that is so enthusiastic for European history. I’m currently teaching a first-year seminar on nineteenth-century Paris as the capital of modernity, which is a fun introduction to urban studies and European history for new history students. I’m also teaching a masters course on the Landscapes of Modernity, in which I really get to dig deep into urban theory across transnational case studies. (I also got to teach Nature’s Metropolis, which is such a pleasure to introduce to students.) Happily I get to work out the economic history side of things in a second-year survey on Crisis and Prosperity, which tackles twentieth-century European history from the perspective of economic change and inequality in the modern era. I hope to develop my new research with a special third-year seminar on property and wealth in transnational perspective soon.
The list of new books about money, finance, and property awaiting me this summer is outstanding! I’m excited for Fahad Bishara’s Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1750-1840 (Cambridge, 2017), as well as Noam Maggor’s Brahmin Capitalism (Harvard, 2017). As for those recent ones I’m behind on, I’ve had both Rosemary Wakeman’s Practicing Utopia: An Intellectual History of the New Town Movement (Chicago, 2016) and Jacob Remes’s Disaster Citizenship: Survivors, Solidarity, and Power in the Progressive Era (Urbana, 2016) on my desk for too long, and Charles Maier’s Once within Borders: Territories of Power, Wealth, and Belonging since 1500 (Harvard, 2016) is getting a second read. Once those are out of the way, I’ll be ready for forthcoming works from Andrew Israel Ross, The Pleasures of Paris: Sex and Urban Culture in the Nineteenth Century, Michael Mulvey’s The Moral Moment: Catholics and the Housing Question in Postwar France, Pete Soppelsa’s Fragility of Urban Modernity on Parisian infrastructure, Catherine Clark’s Paris and the Cliché of History, as well as Desmond Fitz-Gibbon’s Particulars of Sale on the property market in nineteenth-century Britain.
What advice do you have for graduate students preparing a dissertation project related to urban history or urban studies?
Be comparative, move across scales, but stay locally embedded and make sure there are people in your story. Every history takes (and makes) place.
What’s your favorite street (or block) in Paris, and why?
Like choosing a favourite child. I’ll cut things short and say either the rue de Belleville or the rue de Ménilmontant – both are meandering, climbing above the city and making excellent routes to chase the sunset up through the streets; both take you through some of the sites of infamy of the Paris Commune (crossing the rue Haxo, in particular); and they end up nearly at the Archives de Paris, still one of my favourite places to work.
Friday’s ICYMI Roundup
This week, many of the emails we have received from UHA members have included sighs of relief–we’ve heard reports that classes are done, final exams have been administered, grading is complete, and the academic year has officially drawn to a close. The editors of The Metropole wish you all a relaxing and productive summer, in equal measure. In case you missed it in the chaos of end-of-semester work, we’ve rounded up recent news and blog posts for you to catch up on:
This week on the blog, recently-minted Ph.D. Barry Goldberg described his fascinating research on Jewish-Puerto Rican relations on the Lower East Side and offered up some newly published books on New York City’s history that he’s excited to read now that his dissertation is done. As part of our Metropolis of the Month coverage of Mexico City, we also posted travelogues that share two first-time visitors’ impressions, through text and especially via photographs, of the Distrito Federal.
Over on the UHA website, several new opportunities have been posted to the “News” section. Notably, Columbia University invites applications for a tenured position to fill the Bernard Hirschhorn Professorship of Urban Studies. We have also recently posted CFP’s for the CityLAB V Summer School, the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and the Gerda Henkel Foundation Summer School, and the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.
And on the web this week:
New York Times Magazine‘s Talk Column features UHA President Elect and Pulitzer Prize winner Heather Ann Thompson this week! Thompson concluded the interview with this powerful statement:
Sometimes I hear from people who have served time who say that prison was a place where they could finally get help, and that has been hard for me to process. I realized that one reason that’s the case with a lot of people is because it’s an institution and, for some people, they actually have health care for the first time, or housing for the first time. That’s what’s so powerfully sad about this whole story: It isn’t that we don’t know how to help people, but that we continue to do it through a prison, as opposed to other institutions. It could be so much better.
For the PBS Newshour’s weekly series, Making Sen$e, correspondent Paul Solmon reported from Columbia, SC–the city hosting the 2018 Urban History Association Biennial Conference–on why men are avoiding feminized jobs and industries.
Frontline investigates affordable housing.
And the tweet of the week:
One thing is to study history and another to live it. We are in very strange times.
— Toni Salazar L. (@MexHistorian) May 9, 2017
Metropole Travelogue Part II: The DF in the Rearview Mirror
Outside Parque Espana near Condesa DF; it’s like the movie “Big” but you know actually religious
In 1933, the visionary designer Charles Eames absconded from St. Louis to Mexico, in an effort to “[take] stock of and ultimately [change] his approach and situation in life,” notes his grandson Eames Demetrios. Charles spent about ten months traveling in San Luis Potosi and Monterrey, now and then dipping into more rural areas of the Mexican countryside. He got by doing occasional manual labor and selling sketches and paintings for sustenance. When he returned, in 1934, he brought with him numerous depictions of churches and vistas, which so impressed his fellow Midwesterners that the St. Louis Museum deployed them as an exhibit; much of this art work later appeared in the color rotogravure section of the St. Louis Dispatch. Clearly, as one friend confided, Eames ate up “the visual culture of Mexico, the colors and textures, and all the materials things that one has there to see.” His Mexico trip remains, according to his grandson and biographers, a moment of demarcation in his personal and professional life.[1]
While I would never compare Eames’s apparent Mexican epiphany with my own recent experience in Mexico, a trip to the nation’s capital can surely inspire even the most quotidian of us.
Five days in Mexico City put myself, to quote Raising Arizona, in “the proverbial catbird seat” of life. The food, the neighborhoods, and the history combined to create a vibrant atmosphere. The walking paths that extend down the middle of Mexico City’s numerous boulevards — populated by joggers, dogwalkers, and others — allow for moonlight strolls and morning constitutionals. Numerous parks dot the city as well. The mix of colonial architecture and hyper post modern monstrosities simultaneously emphasize the city’s history and modernity. It might be sinking several inches a year, but its international esteem seems to only treble annually.
District Federal (Distrito Federal more accurately), or the DF as Mexico City is often referred, remains one of the truly great cities of North America. I know Georgia State’s Alex Sayf Cummings (ASC) recently compared the DF to New York City but I have to respectfuly disagree and suggest Professor Cummings might be guilty of a touch of East Coast bias. Mexico City reminds this former SoCal resident of Los Angeles. Sure, it’s less racially diverse and has existed as an influential metropole for much longer, but the flora, the spatial layout, and the weather all scream Los Angeles. Besides, L.A.’s preponderance of Latin American residents juxtaposes neatly with the DF’s own brimming reserve of Central and South American citizens.
Parque Espana, across the street from the notorious Condesa DF
Nor is it all about the now. You can visit pre-Aztec ruins; Teotihuacan is not more than 90 minutes outside the city, where one can climb the intimidatingly tall steps to the top and take in the majesty of what is considered the lesser of ancient ruins located in Mexico. Of course, some of this will depend on your tour guide. Mine believed in numerology and kept trying to convince his skeptical audience that the Mayans and Aztecs predicted Jesus Christ, Hitler, and the atomic bomb.
Still, for an American, the nation’s emphasis on its indigenous heritage offers an insight into the United States’ own shameful history of the same. Granted, most North American Native Americans did not construct the kind of awe inspiring cities that their Meso American counterparts did, but the most indigenous peoples in the U.S. get are the occasional Kevin Costner flick or a film like The Last of the Mohicans in which a white guy adopted by Native Americans serves as the film’s protagonist. Sure, you get the once-in-a-blue-moon Smoke Signals (1998), but even 1992’s Thunderheart featured a very white Val Kilmer as the hero. In any case, I’m getting off the subject. Mexico embraces this history, or at least it does to a much greater extent, which is still miles and miles ahead of its neighbor to the north.
Teotihuacan, a pre-Aztec Mesoamerican city just outside of the DF
To be fair, this was not always so. When the aforementioned Charles Eames showed up in one Mexican town with a book devoted to pre-Columbian art, the local police locked him up. The book depicted the nation’s “primitive” phase and insulted the general body politic, the police informed him. Though Professor Cummings correctly notes that inequalities remain, to some extent this dynamic has clearly changed over the ensuing decades.
Parque Espana at night; Watch out for PDA; it runs rampant in the park after sunset
We checked into the very designer oriented Condesa DF and stayed five nights and four days, using it as a central node for exploration of the city. While it had a great rooftop bar (if you happen to be in the DF, definitely check it out for drinks/eats), the rooms were small and apt to bleed noise. One night the room adjacent to ours had an all out drug-induced shindig (or it at least sounded drug-induced; I have no evidence and need none in the game of conjecture).
Needless to say, sleep was not to be had and much resentment harbored by this writer. The next night they were filming some sort of interview/video and asked that all the floor’s peons hush. That said, very cool layout, solid breakfast and so on. From CDF, we branched out to various sites around the city ranging from Frida Kahlo’s crib to Leon Trotsky’s surprising large abode nearby (judging from the mural pictured below in the photo essay, Trotsky loved big butts on the level of Sir Mix A Lot; note also PRI scrawled into his forehead).
One doubts the historical efficacy here
In the hipsteresque neighborhood Roma, we visited the Museo del Objeto del Objeto for a pretty great exhibit dedicated to Mexican wrestling.
I could go on, but I’ll spare you the commentary. As an addendum to Cummings’ recent photo essay, the Metropole would like to provide a second opinion on the DF, one that doesn’t stray too widely from ASC’s take but offers some different scenes and commentary from the ancient city.
From the ancient to the colonial to the frighteningly post modern modern
Relics from the Aztecs appropriately enough under the shadow of a colonial cathedral; actually located right in the DF
Okay, outside the city proper: Teotihuacan has several temples, most able to be scaled but admittedly not for the weak of heart. Totally dug Teotihuacan despite the bat#$% crazy tour guide
More Teotihucan
Alright I’ll stop with Teotihucan now, but there’s a reason it’s a UNESCO site
Spain’s influence runs deep through the city
It’s cool but what exactly is it?
It’s got boxes
Trotsky before the Stalinist ice pick
Totally checked out Frida Kahlo’s blue house but regrettably they charge money for photos — not that much but my inner miser pretty much always kicks in during those moments. Still, definitely check out her home, very cool part of the city as well, Colonia de Carmen section of Coyoacan. Plus, it just so happens a certain Soviet exile lived just around the corner.
One forgets Leon Trotsky called Mexico City home while in exile from his beloved Soviet Union; you know who didn’t forget? That @#@hole Stalin.
Trotsky’s home has what one might call ephemera; though this is in the museum section not really the home.
One thing you know about Trotsky’s story: it has a sad ending
The National Museum of Anthropology is pretty dope
Not much to critique at Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology; I’d be snarky here but it’s just a really great museum that lays out the nation’s history better than most U.S. counterparts
If that’s not the goofiest smile in the pre-Columbian world I’m not sure what is
The museum goes out of its way to recreate architecture of the pre-Columbian period; it’s appreciated
Remnants of the “ball game”; a truly frightening sport played in the ancient world but one that one finds represented at the Museum and at Chichen Itza in Cancun
The museum runs up to the present day and includes more modern works of art like this example and a second one pictured below
La Lucha Libre in Roma
Writing in The Mexico City Reader, José Joaquín Blanco described the Roma neighborhood as having “fallen on hard times.” In the 1950s, Roma had an air the aristocratic but by 1979, “despite the persistence of a handful of antique, emblazoned apartment building and mansions”, its famed Avenida Álvaro Obregón proved little more than a “seething track of people and vehicles between hotels, baths, trade academies, gyms, taco holes, and luncheonettes, cantinas, Chinese cafes, and all manner of stores…” Yet, for the most part, today, Roma falls somewhere in between those two poles: it’s aristocratic buildings refurbished, sometimes transformed into small museums or hipster enclaves; the dizzying, incoherent businesses more organized and middle class than Blanco’s depiction of the neighborhood.
Few things demonstrate its quirky, charm than Museo del Objeto del Objeto (MODO). If you’ve ever seen Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, and I’ll spare you the ubiquitous insight about it’s shift from fiction to fact, former porn star and pro-wrestler, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho serves as commander in chief. Mexico’s long tradition of wrestling and the possibility of future political leadership rising from such ranks (take the U.S. for example) meant I had to visit MODO’s “La Lucha Libre De Todos Los Dias” exhibit in Roma.
It kind of explains itself doesn’t it?
Half wrestler, half porn star, Love Machine! Coming to a U.S. presidential campaign near you!
I could totally fit into that … when I was 19
The Battle Royale to end all Battle Royales
The best of the rest
Metropolis of the Month, Mexico City
Metropole Travelogue Part I; Ciudad de Oro y Plata: Impressions of Mexico City
I am not exactly the world’s most cosmopolitan traveler. I never got on a plane until I was twenty years old, and I’ve only really visited a handful of countries. When my wife and I decided to go to Mexico City for a week this Fall, we went into it with some unwarranted assumptions. The biggest city in the Western hemisphere, we thought, would likely be a dense, chaotic metropolis akin to Karachi or Bangkok. The stereotype of the overcrowded and congested Third World city loomed large in our minds, and Mexico City seemed like it would fit that pattern.
Evidently, we were not alone in our assumptions. As journalist David Lida recalled in his 2008 book First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, The Capital of the 21st Century:
I was afraid of the capital, influenced by the propaganda dismissing it as a teeming, overpopulated, polluted bedlam, full of horrific testimonies of insuperable poverty. I imagined the armless beggars of Calcutta brandishing their stumps in tourists’ faces, hoping the display would result in a handout.
As it turns out, our expectations were very far from the truth. The small slice of Mexico City that we saw, in any case, was affluent and orderly compared to, say, Karachi. Undoubtedly much of Mexico is poor and rural, but the capital appeared to lack the evident and inescapable signs of extreme poverty that one finds in other megacities of the developing world. (As Lida points out, the city “has eighty-four hundred people per square kilometer, while Mumbai, Lagos, Karachi, and Seoul have more than double that figure.”) There were beggars and homeless people, of course, but one finds as many or more in American cities like New York or San Francisco.
The foremost financial and cultural center of Latin America was more distinguished by other hallmarks–those of capitalist prosperity and gleaming skyscrapers, gentrification and hip urbanism, tourism and historic preservation. Indeed, more late model cars clogged its crowded highways than we see at home in Atlanta, a sign of growing affluence, at least, among the population of the urban core, if not the poorer districts that surround the capital.
A few scattered observations of the city:
A mind-bogglingly extensive and accessible public transit system, that stretched over a vast urban landscape encompassing as many as 20 million people.
A remarkable predilection for PDA (public displays of affection), with couples kissing, groping, and practically dry-humping everywhere from escalators to subway cars to Starbucks.
Lots of pizza places.
A rich history as a destination for artists, writers, and political radicals, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Leon Trotsky.
A large number of bookstores and even a surviving Blockbuster Video.
Bootleg media, albeit seemingly not as prevalent as in many Asian cities.
Piracy is the real reason Von Trier is so depressed
A visible legacy of radicalism, embodied in the ubiquitous paintings of Diego Rivera and other artists who contributed leftist depictions of class, race, and historical struggle to the nation’s iconography and mythology–as well as contemporary graffiti denouncing the murder of 43 students at the hands of government authorities and crime syndicates in 2014.
The utterly comprehensive embrace of American popular culture–fashion, food, entertainment, and technology–by the urban middle class (if not necessarily everyone else), in a way that surpasses even the zeal for all things American in South Asia. The affluent shopping mall we visited in Coyoacan/Copilco featured every American brand imaginable, from Skechers to Burger Fi to Quizno’s, with few local or national retailers to speak of. (“While foreigners here, principally Europeans, complain about the proliferation of Starbucks and Wal-Marts,” Lida notes, “middle-class Mexicans revel in the First World status bestowed by these establishments.”)
And while notions of race, class, and ethnicity clearly function differently in Mexico than the United States, it was impossible to miss a gradation of economic inequality shading from European to indigenous ancestry. In the most lavish new shopping malls, consumers were overwhelmingly fair-skinned and middle-class, sporting designer clothes from America and Europe. In the metro (disdained by some affluent residents as a form of transit), darker faces were numerous–except, of course, in the nicer, newer train line (the one that had air-conditioning) where we noticed (surprise!) whiter ones.
In the end, we found a profoundly beautiful and varied built environment, from the grand Baroque structures of Zocalo, the historic downtown district, to the Spanish colonial architecture of Coyoacan and San Angel to the more contemporary commercial landscape of the city’s younger neighborhoods. Like New York–the metropolis that Mexico City most reminded me of–a visit of a week is far too brief to get a sense of its vast and heterogenous social geography. But, as the great urban historian Ken Jackson once said, you don’t have to drink the ocean to know it’s salty. Here is a brief taste of the sights and textures of the capitol of Latin America, as seen from Copilco looking out.
FloRida’s Crib
Cardinal Ratzinger: Let me hear you say HOOOOOOOO!
The glorious global ubiquity of the Suzuki Swift/Geo Metro
Guerilla marketing for CBS Sunday Morning
Not to be taken literally
Kahlo’s body braces, in ethereal light
Kurt on, fittingly, the sign for Insurgentes Metro stop
The joys of parenting
The appropriately named “Progressive Bar”: Blah Blah
The Illuminati is real
Alex Sayf Cummings is an associate professor of History at Georgia State University. His work deals with media, law, and the political culture of the modern United States. He has previously received a Consortium for Faculty Diversity fellowship, an ACLS-Mellon postdoctoral fellowship, and the American Baptist Historical Society’s Torbet Prize, among other awards. His work has appeared in Salon, the Brooklyn Rail, the Journal of American History, Technology and Culture, HNN, Pop Matters, OUP Blog, Al Jazeera Americaand the edited volume Sound in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction from the University of Pennsylvania Press. His first book, Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century, was published by Oxford University Press in 2013. He is the Senior Editor of the blog Tropics of Meta.
Member of the Week: Barry Goldberg
May 9, 2017 themetropoleblog Leave a comment
Barry Goldberg, Ph.D. (2017)
Department of History, CUNY Graduate Center
@bpg269
My project examines Jewish politics on the Lower East Side since the 1960s. I utilize congressional and municipal papers, court records, articles from the ethnic press, and quantitative voting data to examine how an influential network of Jewish elected leaders, civic institutions, and voters – residing on Grand Street and largely Orthodox — shaped the trajectory of civil rights activism, new education and antipoverty policy, and urban renewal on the Lower East Side during the last third of the twentieth century. In all, I make three central claims: first, that the Lower East Side remained an important site for the development of, and ideological fissures within, American Jewish politics after World War II; second, that Jewish-Puerto Rican relations became a central feature of both local and citywide politics at this time; and third, that Orthodox Jews helped shape American conservatism in the postwar period.
I am broadly interested in questions of race, political power, and neighborhood change. I became interested in my specific topic after researching a longtime Jewish congressional representative on the Lower East Side. Though he was not the original subject of my research, he provided a gateway into looking at the neighborhood’s larger Jewish community. I was surprised to learn that no one had written a postwar history of this community, or Lower East Side politics more generally, despite several factors that set it apart from other urban neighborhoods. Recent high-profile stories on the neighborhood have also spurred my research, and, as the descendant of a Lower East Sider, I feel a certain emotional connection to the area.
I teach the second half of the U.S. history survey at Queens College. My research has led me to cover more local (primarily New York City) history in the survey. Earlier in the semester, my students learned about redlining by perusing the Mapping Inequality online database. We also talked about the 1964 Harlem Riots and debates over police brutality (I blogged briefly on this here).
At the same time, my dissertation has also made me more attuned to congressional history. In my dissertation, I examine Lower East Side redistricting and judicial debates over enforcing the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). As a result, I devote more time to discussing the VRA in class.
Three in particular: Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics by Kim Phillips-Fein; In the Heat of the Summer: The New York Riots of 1964 and the War on Crime by Michael Flamm; Radical Imagination, Radical Humanity: Puerto Rican Political Activism in New York by Rose Muzio
I have two connected suggestions. First, keep an open mind. I had broad interests at the start of graduate school and did not expect to research the Lower East Side, or urban history more broadly. But here I am. Trial and error is OK. Be patient, and keep working. My second suggestion is to prioritize archival research. Obviously, you need to know what others have said about your topic (or potential topic), but the archives will lead you in new and exciting directions.
Describe your most exciting archival find!
One of my favorite archival finds was the Board of Election reports and assembly district maps from the New York Public Library. Using these in combination allowed me to trace how people voted in different sections of the Lower East Side and break those sections down by a number of social factors. This quantitative data allowed me to show how political divisions, primarily around race and ethnicity, unfolded on the ground in the neighborhood and provided a needed element of social history to my work.
Ethnicity and ImmigrationNew York CityRaceUrban Politics
Crime in Mexico City
May 4, 2017 themetropoleblog 2 Comments
[Dia contra la reacción; police break up a communist protest in front of the U.S. Embassy], Tina Modotti, May 1929, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
In City of Suspects, published in 2001, I tried to understand crime as an urban phenomenon, a product of the interactions between actors and institutions suddenly brought together by the rapid expansion of Mexico City in the late nineteenth century. The most important sources for that project were the judicial records kept by the city’s judicial power in the basement of one of its main penitentiaries, which I consulted around 1995.
In the years since, those trial records were moved to the Archivo General de la Nación and, paradoxically, became harder to consult, at least for the decades following those covered by the first book. When I decided to return to the history of crime, starting the project that resulted in A History of Infamy, I tried to understand the urban setting of crime in different way.
While in the first book I looked at the spatial and demographic expansion that produced the capital’s colonias, neighborhoods often built during the late 1920s and 1930s on expropriated urban land for workers, the new book focused on the debates about crime and justice that took place in courtrooms, newspapers and crime fiction. These were also essentially urban settings, but they reflected the realities of crime and punishment in different ways. Judicial records demonstrated, for example, that the lack of interest of the Porfirian state in the welfare of urban working classes forced urban communities to deal in their own terms with the problems of theft and interpersonal violence. Thus, neighbors and relatives could intervene to negotiate the return of stolen property, or fights could be arranged in order to solve long-standing disputes—all of this without the disruptive intervention of the police.
By the mid twentieth century, however, the tabloid newspapers centered on crime (the publications were known in Mexico as the nota roja) became a record of the critical views of urban dwellers toward the police and the judiciary. While crime rates declined, reflecting the diminishing frequency of people’s use of violence to solve conflicts, the pressure of public opinion became the most important driver in the pursuit of justice. Newspapers reflected, and shaped, the emergence of the urban publics that demanded investigations and the solution of the most egregious crimes.
Newspapers became the main, although not the only, source for what I call criminal literacy–the knowledge that any inhabitant of the city had to possess in order to navigate the dangers of modern life. This knowledge included a map of the dangerous areas of the city, the colonias where it was better not to walk at night, the practices of thieves and con men, and the risky attractions of night life. At the heart of criminal literacy were the stories of famous criminals, like Goyo Cárdenas, the man who killed four women and buried them in the backyard of his house, in a new working class neighborhood north of the city.
[Los sangrientos sucesos en la ciudad de Puebla, la muerte del jefe de policía Miguel Cabrera; A Mexico City newspaper reports the killing of the city of Puebla’s Chief of Police], Jose Guadalupe Posada, 1910, Caroline and Erwin Swann collection of caricature and cartoon, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
One piece of criminal literacy of particular importance required to understand the transformation of the city between the turn of the twentieth century and the 1950s was the emergence of the pistolero. This was the name given to the gunmen who worked for politicians, usually under the guise of bodyguards, and were charged with intimidating, beating and in some cases eliminating adversaries.
Pistoleros became a highly visible component of post-revolutionary politics with their violent interventions in strikes, agrarian conflicts, and elections. People knew about them and their threat, but they also knew that they were protected by powerful interests and seldom faced punishment. Impunity also allowed pistoleros to maintain other profitable activities on the side: they could extort prostitutes, protect drug traffickers, engage in robberies and, in some cases, murder for money. For the inhabitants of Mexico City, pistoleros embodied the corruption of post-revolutionary politics but also the legacy of the revolution itself. They were perceived as a byproduct of the violent rural politics that in the second decade of the century exploded with the civil war and invaded the city after the end of the conflict. With their brutality and ostentatious impunity, pistoleros seemed to represent the occupation of the respectable spaces of the capital by strong men from the countryside. Yet pistoleros also evoked the dizzying pace of modernization: with their tailored suits, Texan hats, shiny cars, and general similarity to U.S. movie gangsters, they were only appropriating the goods that all city dwellers aspired to have.
Looking beyond the judicial and police records, in other words, allowed me to appreciate how crime and justice, or the lack thereof, became central aspects of urban life in modern Mexico. Newspapers and crime fiction reflected on impunity, a key shortcoming of the state that emerged out of the revolution. Public debates involving actors from all social backgrounds proved that the concern about violence and corruption was a constant of everyday life for city dwellers, even as violence was, in general terms, becoming less frequent. The city that I had initially explored as a space for social practices was also, I realized, the virtual space of a public sphere where crime and justice were central themes.
Pablo Piccato (B.A. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1989; Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, 1997) is professor at the Department of History, Columbia University. His research and teaching focus on modern Mexico, particularly on crime, politics, and culture. His books include City of Suspects: Crime in Mexico City, 1900-1931 (2001) and The Tyranny of Opinion: Honor in the Construction of the Mexican Public Sphere (2010).
A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in Mexico (University of California Press, 2017) explores the broken nexus between crime, justice, and the truth in mid-twentieth century Mexico. Facing the violence and impunity that defined politics, policing, and the judicial system in post-revolutionary times, Mexicans sought truth and justice outside state institutions. During this time, the criminal news beat and crime fiction flourished. Civil society’s search for truth and justice lead, paradoxically, to the normalization of extrajudicial violence and neglect for the rights of victims. Ordinary people in Mexico have made crime and punishment central concerns of the public sphere during the last century, and in doing so have shaped how crime and violence took form over time.
Disciplining the City: Policing and Incarceration in Urban Space
May 3, 2017 themetropoleblog 1 Comment
Photographed by Tiziana Matarazzo
The Metropole is excited to debut a new series on urban policing, edited by Matthew Guariglia, a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at the University of Connecticut.
“The basic mission for which police exist is to prevent crime and disorder as an alternative to the repression of crime and disorder by military force and severity of legal punishment.” With this statement, British politician Robert Peel began his “Principals of Law Enforcement,” often considered the foundational text of modern policing. The nine points, published in 1829, create the framework for a system of coercive governance that relied on “persuasion, advice, and warning,” and sometimes the state’s monopoly on violence, to protect the developing liberal capitalist state. “The police at all times should maintain a relationship with the public,” Peel writes, “that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police.”[1] In a society that declared civil liberties sacred, police were to be a constant reminder of what the consequences could be when an individual failed to maintain “public respect.”
[Squad of Chicago Mounted Police], Geo. R. Lawrence Co., 1907, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
The history of urban policing, however, is plagued by a continuity of brutality. The recent highly publicized killings of urban residents of color by police and the international Movement for Black Lives that arose in response have made more people around the world aware of a problem many people of color have always known. Almost as quickly as Peel wrote that police should operate by “offering individual service and friendship to all members of society without regard to their race or social standing,” police across the Atlantic world and its colonies were deployed to create and enforce legal and extralegal regimes of control in the name of public safety and with the full support of less vulnerable members of society.
This continuity also obscures a long history of change and experimentation as police departments across the world developed and shared new tactics to control urban spaces and new rationales to justify that control. Technology changed, the racial and gendered makeup of police departments became more diverse, crimes were invented or disappeared from enforcement, and a fearful public continually renegotiated its relationship to policing in exchange for the promise of protection and safe streets. “The institution of the police,” said Michel Foucault, “which is so recent and so oppressive, is only justified by that fear. If we accept the presence in our midst of these uniformed men, who have the exclusive right to carry arms, who demand our papers, who come to prowl on our doorsteps, how would any of this be possible if there were no criminals?”[2]
[Detroit, Michigan. Police officers removing sit down strikers from Yale and Towne manufacturing plant], March 1937, Farm Security Administration Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Disciplining the City: Policing and Incarceration in Urban Space is open to historians from all fields and time periods, and will explore the multifaceted and complex history of policing, crime, and incarceration in urban and suburban spaces. We are soliciting submissions to the series concerned with a number of topics, including: analysis of both change over time and continuity in the history of policing; the relationship between policing and racial and gender formation and sexuality; the classed, ethnic, racial, and gendered make up of the police force; policing as labor; the act and challenges of policing specific spaces and populations within the urban landscape; the technology and material culture of policing; urban incarceration; medicine and criminality; crime and the law; methods of preserving law and order in slave and colonial regimes; activism, police reform, and prison abolition; and, finally, the history of policing cities through an international or global lens.
[Mexico City, Mounted Police], Harris and Ewing, 1913, Harris & Ewing Collection, Prints and Photographs, Library of Congress
Studying the history of policing in urban spaces is a complicated endeavour filled with ambiguous and often purposely-obscured archives. The series is therefore interested not just in publishing original research, but also posts that involve archive stories and close readings of specific primary sources central to one’s research. Historiographies and bibliographies of topics related to the history of policing, crime, and incarceration, book reviews, and author interviews are also encouraged in order to help readers follow the emerging field of carceral studies.
Submissions should follow The Metropole’s submission guidelines and should be sent to Matthew Guariglia.
[1] Emphasis in the original
[2] Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-1977, New York: Vintage Books, 1980, 47.
Policing and Incarceration
Member of the Week: Timothy Lombardo
Timothy J. Lombardo, PhD
Department of History, University of South Alabama
Twitter: @TimLombard0
I am currently finishing my first book. It is a study of post-World War II Philadelphia and the blue-collar supporters of 1960s police commissioner turned 1970s mayor, Frank Rizzo. The book examines white, blue-collar Philadelphians’ engagement with the politics of law enforcement, education, employment, and housing and traces the establishment of an urban, class-conscious variant of populist conservatism. I came to the project for a number of reasons. The first is because I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I had long known of Rizzo’s reputation, but never really thought about it in a broader context until graduate school. I didn’t initially set out to write a dissertation on my home town, but I took a seminar on Conservatism in the Modern United States that piqued my interest. I also thought I recognized a gap in the literature. The majority of the urban history books we read in that seminar covered the Sunbelt or Suburban communities in the South and West (think Lisa McGirr, Becky Nicolaides, Matthew Lassiter, Kevin Kruse, Robert Self, etc.). These were all great books, but they didn’t seem to account for the kinds of urban conservative politics I was familiar with at home. I quickly decided to change my dissertation topic and spent the next few years chasing resources from the white, working- and middle-class neighborhoods that provided Frank Rizzo with his most enthusiastic support. Years later, the book is now under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press under the title Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and the Politics of the Urban Crisis.
I just finished my second year at the University of South Alabama. In addition to my modern US survey courses, this past year I also taught a writing seminar on post-World War II US history and a research seminar on 20th century US History. In the next academic year I will offer an honors class on American urban history called “The Urban Crucible: Cities and Suburbs in Modern America” and another course on America in the Sixties. All of these classes relate to my scholarship in a number of ways. My post-1945 US, urban history, and Sixties classes all take up the intersecting themes of race, class, and American political development that I write about in my book. I also try to integrate bits of my research into every class I teach, from surveys to research seminars.
Since you’ve already given me the space to make a shameless plug about my own book, I will say that I’m most looking forward to (finally) reading Ansley Erickson’s Making the Unequal Metropolis. It’s been on my to-read list for a while, but the recent controversy over the book’s treatment by the American Historical Review has reinvigorated my interest. I had actually chosen the book as one of my course readings in my upcoming urban history class well before the AHR review came out, so now I’m really looking forward to figuring out how I’m going to incorporate it into the class.
Be flexible. Be flexible with your research, with your reading, with your writing, and with your career path. Urban history/studies is a growing field with a lot of possibilities, but young scholars shouldn’t let it also be a limitation. I think the flexibility to read across specialties and disciplines, to publish in different forums, and to research beyond what we usually consider urban history are important parts of scholarly development and maturation. I didn’t start out doing urban history; my research took me in that direction. It also helps to be flexible in where young scholars think they can do urban history. I’m pretty sure there was never a point when I was growing up in Philly, or at any point thereafter, that I told myself that I wanted to end up in Mobile, Alabama. But I remained open to different possibilities and followed them when they opened up. Now I’m lucky to be forging a career at a good university, with great students, and excellent colleagues.
What museum or historical site would you recommend to urban historians visiting Mobile, Alabama?
First of all, more urban historians need to visit Mobile, Alabama, where I’d be happy to show them around when they get here! We have a really good museum in the History Museum of Mobile. For those interested in the city’s architecture, I would direct them to some of Mobile’s historic neighborhoods like the Oakleigh Garden District, De Tonti Square, and Church Street East Historic District. I would suggest they visit Africatown, which is the community built by the last group of African slaves captured and brought to the United States, illegally smuggled in through Mobile Bay in 1860. And, finally, I wouldn’t want an urban scholar to leave without touring Mobile’s lively and growing downtown entertainment district. Like a lot of cities, Mobile’s downtown suffered from disinvestment and decline in the late 20th century, but a concentrated effort in the last decade or so began rejuvenating the area. Current planning documents call for future redevelopment that should allow for more walkability, bikeability, and green spaces. All in all, downtown Mobile offers urban scholars and students an excellent opportunity to see urban renewal in action.
ConservatismMobileALPhiladelphia
Bibliography, Metropolis of the Month, Mexico City
All Roads Lead to the DF: A Modest Bibliography of Mexico City
[Map of Mexico City Region], G.T. Beauregard, 1847, Geography and Maps Division, Library of Congress
“The city has become a monster, an urban disaster, a planner’s nightmare,” wrote Ruben Gallo.[1] “Glorious Mexico City, once known as the city of palaces, is now gasping for breath in a sea of people, poverty, and pollution,” Diane Davis bemoaned in the opening to her deeply influential history of the city, Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century.[2] Indeed, over the course of the twentieth century, countless scholars offered similar assessments of the Mexican capital; Octavio Paz assailed Mexico’s leaders for their technocratic modernizing efforts which failed to solve the overcrowding and rampant expansion that had “converted Mexico City into a monstrous inflated head, crushing the frail body that holds it up.”
For some, even revisiting the city’s establishment and place at the center of the Aztec empire provoked deep ambivalence. Jorge Ibargüengoitia characterized the city’s founding as a mistake, only “one of the most belligerent tribes in history” would think to build a city “in the middle of the lake,” he opined. Once the lake “dried up” and the surrounding tribes and Aztecs came into close proximity, local hostilities abated. “What remained was mud, unstable ground, and dust clouds. So our first conclusion can be that the city is here because it was put here, although there’s no good reason for its continued presence on this spot.”[3]
“And yet not everything in Mexico City is all that bad,” Gallo later admitted. The city’s history as the magnet of MesoAmerican Empire in the pre-Columbian period, a colonial metropole, and later a capital of Latin America—culturally, economically, and politically—undoubtedly bestows upon Distrito Federal no small measure of gravitas. The DF can claim “influential publishing houses”, “a booming film industry, a lively music scene”, “spectacular museums … And above all it is one of the most vibrant urban spaces in the world.” Gallo paraphrases Juan Villoro, “we have fallen in love with the bearded lady.”[4] It might be a mess, but no other city matches its chaotic charm.
Consider its centuries of importance; an echo over the North American landscape that shaped not only policy in Latin America and Mexico, but brought dollars, culture, and politics to the Yankees up North. The city witnessed Aztec conquest, the unimaginable wealth and exploitation of Colonial Spain, the dizzying liberation of independence, the struggle of revolution, and the burgeoning modernism of the 20th century. Trotsky, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo called it home for periods; the Menshevik communist famously died at the hand of Stalinist assassin in the DF.
[Communist youth, Mexico City 1929], Tina Modotti, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Anyone who has ever visited the city marvels at the architecture, a compelling mash up of colonial, modernist, and post-modernist styles. Its people hail from across the Americas, Europe, and even on occasion Asia; indigenous faces and culture are sewn into is fabric. Like many cities, the DF struggles with inequality, poverty, and corruption, but to focus only on its problems misses the point.
As with every Metropolis of the Month, The Metropole has compiled a bibliography for anyone interested in reading more about the history of Mexico City. Our list leans heavily toward the modern and the English language, a weakness that can undoubtedly be ascribed to our own specialization in the twentieth century history and our sadly inadequate language skills. As always, we hope readers can improve upon our start here by providing further suggestions in the comments.
Over the course of May, several scholars will publish posts with The Metropole on various aspects of the city’s history. First up will be Columbia University’s Pablo Piccato, who provides some perspective on crime and justice in the DF while also giving readers a taste of his new work, A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in Mexico. Several other posts will follow including travelogues by non-specialists such as Georgia State Professor and Tropics of Meta Senior Editor, Alex Sayf Cummings on his 2016 visit to the city.
Thanks to Matthew Vitz, Michael Lettieri, Jorge Nicolás Leal, Megan C. Strom, James Shrader, Sharon Glasco, and Toni Loftin Salazar for their help with the bibliography.
[Cargo of Vegetables, Viga Canal, City of Mexico], Keystone Viewing Company, circa 1900, Prints and Photographs Division Library of Congress
John Kandell, LA Capital: The Biography of Mexico City, (New York: Random House, 1988) – L.A. Times review
Eds. Linda A. Newson and John King, Mexico City Through History and Culture, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) – H-Net review
David Lida, First Stop in the New World: Mexico City and the Capital of the 21st Century, (New York: Riverhead Books, 2008) – NYT review
[The Aztec Calendar Stone, located at the base of the bell tower of the Cathedral, Mexico City, Mexico], William Henry Jackson, before 1885, Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Pre-Columbian Era
Edward E. Calnek, “Patterns of Empire Formation in the Valley of Mexico, Late Post Classical Period 1200-1521”, in Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800: Anthropology and History, Eds. George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, John D. Wirth, (New York: Academic Press, 1982), 43-62.
Christopher P. Garraty, “Aztec TeotihuacaÌn: Political Processes at a Postclassic and Early Colonial City-State in the Basin of Mexico,” Latin America Antiquity 17.4 (December 2006): 363-387.
Inga Clendinnen, Aztecs: An Interpretation, (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Barbara E. Mundy, The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015) – CAA review
[Tomb of President Benito Juarez, Mexico City – covered with wreathes from the Mexican states], Underwood and Underwood, circa 1901, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Eighteenth – Nineteenth Century
Anna Rose Alexander, City on Fire: Technology, Social Change and the Hazards of Progress in Mexico City, 1860 – 1910, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
Claudia Agostoni, Monuments of Progress: Modernization and Public Health in Mexico City, 1876-1910, (Mexico City: UNAM, 2003) – Bulletin of the History of Modern Medicine review (via project muse)
Linda Arnold, Bureaucracy and Bureaucrats in Mexico City, 1742-1835, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988)
Silvia Maria Arrom, Containing the Poor: The Mexico City Poor House, 1774 – 1871, (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000) – Social History review (via Jstor)
Jurgen Buchenau, Tools of Progress: A German Merchant Family in Mexico City, 1865 – Present, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004) – EH.net review
Vera S. Candiani, Dreaming of Dry Land: Environmental Transformation in Colonial Mexico City, (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2014) – H-Net review
Donald B. Cooper, Epidemic Disease in Colonial Mexico City, 1761-1813: An Administrative, Social, and Medical Study, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014)
R. Douglas Cope, The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994) – Scholar Commons University of South Carolina review
Linda A. Curcio, The Great Festivals of Colonial Mexico City: Performing Power and Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004) – Journal of Social History review
M.E. Francois, A Culture of Everyday Credit: Housekeeping, Pawnbroking, and Governance in Mexico City, 1750 – 1920, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007) – AHR review
Sharon Glasco, Constructing Mexico City: Colonial Conflicts Over Culture, Space, and Authority, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) – H-Net review
Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Crime and Punishment in Late Colonial Mexico City, 1692-1810, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999) – The Americas review (via project muse)
[Seller of Water Bottles, Mexico City, Mexico], circa 1910-1915, George Grantham Bain Collection, Prints and Photographs, Library of Congress
Katherine Elaine Bliss, Compromised Positions: Prostitution, Public Health, and Gender Politics in Revolutionary Mexico City, (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001) – Hispanic American Historical Review (via project muse)
Ann Shelby Blum, Domestic Economies: Family, Work, and Welfare in Mexico City, 1884-1943, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009) – H-Net review
Luis Castañeda, Spectacular Mexico: Design, Propaganda, and the 1968 Olympics, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014) – H-War review
Felipe Correa and Carlos Garciavelez, Mexico City between Geometry and Geography, (Brooklyn: Applied Research and Design Publishing, 2015) – Archdaily review
John C. Cross, Informal Politics: Street Vendors and the State in Mexico City, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998) – H-Urban review
Diane E. Davis, Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994) – Review by SDSU’s Lawrence Herzog (though the review is incorrectly linked on his page)
George F. Flaherty, Hotel Mexico: Dwelling on the ‘68 Movement, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2016)
David William Foster, Mexico City in Contemporary Mexican Cinema, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002) – Review Arizona Journal of Hispanic Studies via project Muse
Ed. Ruben Gallo The Mexico City Reader, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004)
Mathew C. Guttman, The Romance of Democracy: Compliance and Defiance in Contemporary Mexico, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002) –
San Diego History Center review
Matthew C. Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City, (University of California Press, 1996, 2006) – H-Net review
[Mexico City, Mexico – National Palace], circa 1910-1915, George Grantham Bain Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Daniel Hernandez, Down and Delirious in Mexico City: The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty First Century, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2011) – Kirkus review
Michael Johns, The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz. (Austin: University of Texas, 1997) – H-Net review
John Lear, Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico City, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001) – Hispanic American Historical Review (project muse)
Larissa Lomnitz, Networks and Marginality: Life in a Mexican Shantytown, (New York: Academic Press, 1977)
[Mexico City, Mexico – Soldier Guarding Palace], February 10, 1913, George Grantham Bain Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Carol McMichael Reese, “The Urban Development of Mexico City” in Planning Latin American Capital Cities, 1850-1950, edited by Arturo Almondoz Marte, 139-169. London: Routledge, 2002.
Julio Moreno, Yankee Don’t Go Home! Mexican Nationalism, American Business Culture and the Shaping of Modern Mexico, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003) – EH.net and H-LatAm review
Patrice Olsen, Artifacts of Revolution: Architecture, Society and Politics in Mexico City, 1920-1940, (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) – Review by University of Tulsa’s Andrew Grant Wood
Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings, (Mexico City: Grove Press, 1950)
[Teatro National under construction], circa 1920, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Kathryn E. O’Rourke, Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation and the Shaping of the Capital, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017)
Jaime M. Pensado, Rebel Mexico: Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties, (Stanford: Stanford University, 2014) – Journal of Latin American Studies review
Keith Pezzoli, Human Settlements and Planning for Ecological Sustainability: The Case of Mexico City, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998) – Review by UCSD’s Mark Spalding
Pablo Piccato, A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in Mexico, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2017)
Pablo Piccato, City of Suspects: Crime in Mexico City, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001) – Review by Professor Carlos Aguirre (University of Oregon)
Jeffery Pilcher, The Sausage Rebellion: Public Health, Private Enterprise, and Meat in Mexico City, 1890-1917, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico press, 2006) – Latino America blog and AHR review
Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico, (Missoula: University of Missouri Press, 1975). – short review at blogcritics.org
Ageeth Sluis, Deco Body, Deco City: Female Spectacle and Modernity in Mexico City, 1900-1930, (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2016)
Tovar de Teresa, The City of Palaces: Chronicles of a Lost Heritage, (Mexico: Vuelta, 1990)
Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo, I Speak of the City: Mexico City at the Turn of the Century, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012) – AHR review
Germán Vergara, 2015,“Fueling Change: The Valley of Mexico and the Quest for Energy,” 1850-1930.” Ph.D. diss., UC-Berkeley.
[Making cigarettes in the great factory, “El Buen Tono”, Mexico city Mexico], Underwood and Underwood, circa 1903, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Matthew Vitz, ““To Save the Forests”: Power, Narrative, and Environment in Mexico City’s Cooking Fuel Transition,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos. Vol. 31, No. 1 (Winter 2015): 125-155.
Matthew Vitz, “’The Lands with Which We Shall Struggle’: Land Reclamation, Revolution, and Redevelopment in Mexico’s Lake Texcoco, 1910-1950,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 97.1 (February 2017).
[Visiting Soviet delegation with international communists, Mexico City, Mexico], Toni Modetti, circa 1927, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Notable works of fiction on Mexico City
Jessica Abel, La Perdida, (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006) – Kirkus review.
Robert Bolano, The Savage Detectives, (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007) – Slate and NYT review (note the book was originally published in Spanish in 1998 but not in English until 2007)
Carlos Fuentes, Where the Air is Clear, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1958).
Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, The Uncomfortable Dead, (London: Serpent’s Tail, 2006) – Guardian and NYT review (hint one liked it much more than the other)
Michael Nava, The City of Palaces: A Novel, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014) – LaBloga review
Juan Pablo Villalobos, I’ll Sell You a Dog, (High Wycombe, England: And Other Stories Publishing, 2016) – NPR review
[1] Ruben Gallo, “Introduction”, The Mexico City Reader, Ed. Ruben Gallo, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), 5.
[2] Diane Davis, Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), 1.
[3] Jorge Ibarguengoitia, “Call the Doctor” in The Mexico City Reader, Ed. Ruben Gallo, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), 196.
[4] Gallo, The Mexico City Reader, 5-6.
BibliographyMexico City
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IPPE: A Look at the Global, Economic Impact of Egg Legislation
Company/products Egg layers Government and regulatory Poultry welfare Conferences and events Housing and equipment IPPE
4 February 2013, at 10:03am
US - In his presentation on the 'Global Impact of Animal Welfare Legislation', Professor Hans-Wilhelm Windhorst, International Egg Commission economist, described the effects of the conventional layer cage system ban in Germany in 2010.
Professor Windhorst was speaking at the Future of the US Egg Industry education program, held during the 2013 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE). The program was sponsored by United Egg Producers and US Poultry & Egg Association.
Professor Hans-Wilhelm Windhorst, International Egg Commission economist, presenting at 'The Future of the US Egg Industry' education program, held during the 2013 IPPE.
According to Professor Windhorst, the ban resulted in a loss of egg production, necessitating that eggs for consumption be imported. The ban also forced many farms into foreclosure and took some time for the egg industry to recover. Professor Windhorst further remarked that "the cost of transforming to new housing in Germany was 1.2 billion," and encouraged the egg industry to be transparent and show consumers that birds are not being harmed.
As part of his presentation on the 'Economic Impact of Egg Legislation', Tom Early, vice president of Agralytica Consulting, described a study conducted last year related to the submission of the bill on egg legislation to the Senate. He also projected the economic impact of the new legislation, production costs, and consumer prices. Early stated that capital investment over the next 18 years would be $5.7 billion dollars, production costs would be up slightly with average costs increasing 1.5 cents per dozen eggs, and consumer price impact would be modest.
"It is challenging to estimate what is going to happen under this law, because you have such a wide variety of layer houses out there - different sizes, different configurations, some are still high rise, some are not," said Mr Early.
Eric Benson, president of JEM Eggs, described his company's experience with two enriched colony cage houses the company built. Each colony houses 150,000 birds, and the steel used and building costs per square foot are almost the same as conventional housing, as well as other fixed costs. Mr Benson considers the life of the buildings to be similar to conventional ones, around twenty years. The cost of enriched colony enclosures is $24.50 for each hen, while conventional housing is $14 to $15.
"We have found that performance of the birds during their lives is a little bit better than it has been for our average flock. Mortality is a little bit better or comparable. We have put in three flocks so far, and each one has outperformed the standards. We are very pleased with the results of our colony systems," Mr Benson remarked.
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PUBLISHED March 4, 2019 IN Research, Medicine
$50 Million Grant Looks to Propel the Sciences With New Hires
Duke Endowment grant to support targeted hiring for university and Duke Health
By Duke Today Staff
DURHAM, N.C. -- A $50 million grant from The Duke Endowment will accelerate and expand the recruitment of research scientists who specialize in the applied and basic sciences at Duke University, officials announced Monday.
The grant from The Duke Endowment, a private foundation based in Charlotte, will support the hiring of more than a dozen junior- to senior-level faculty in fields of science, medicine, technology, engineering and mathematics. This will allow Duke to expand areas of research and prepare students as future leaders in current and emerging professions.
“At the most important moments in this university’s history, we have benefited from the support and guidance of The Duke Endowment,” said Duke President Vincent E. Price. “Today is no different -- this transformational grant will allow us to recruit the brightest and boldest thinkers and provide them with the infrastructure they need to solve the world’s most pressing challenges. We are so very grateful to The Duke Endowment, and we look forward to all that we can accomplish together in the years ahead.”
The new faculty hires will advance research and scholarship at Duke that contribute to the betterment of humanity -- both regionally and worldwide -- by addressing such critical challenges as climate change and epidemic disease.
“Our shared purpose is to improve the overall quality of the sciences across Duke,” said A. Eugene Washington, M.D., chancellor for health affairs and president and chief executive officer of the Duke University Health System. “Recruiting the best and most promising scientists will propel us to even higher levels of scientific discovery and education, and will translate into improved health for communities in North Carolina and beyond.”
To deliver on the university’s commitment to fostering connections, the new scientist-scholars will work with colleagues in multiple disciplines in Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Pratt School of Engineering and School of Medicine.
“The proximity of our basic, clinical and biomedical sciences on Duke’s West Campus remains a huge competitive advantage for us to further Duke’s renowned interdisciplinary culture of collaboration and the ease with which people can work seamlessly across traditional academic disciplines,” said Provost Sally Kornbluth.
With The Duke Endowment’s investment, Duke will launch a targeted effort to recruit scientist-scholars who fit within a strategic vision of the institutions’ greatest needs and potential. The hiring effort is expected to be complete within three years.
“Our goal is to continue to build these intellectual bonds between Duke Health and the university, creating entirely new constellations of faculty, ideas, and applications that will take us to higher levels of insight and excellence,” said Mary E. Klotman, M.D., dean of the Duke School of Medicine. “We will be looking for exceptional candidates who are asking the most interesting questions in key areas of fundamental science, and who share Duke’s commitment to pursuing innovative, impactful research.”
Minor Shaw, chair of the Endowment’s Board of Trustees, said The Duke Endowment’s founder, James. B. Duke, was a visionary leader in business and philanthropy who seized opportunities to experiment and innovate. “In this golden era for research and discovery, we believe this grant will help Duke University break new ground in scientific research and strengthen its potential for lasting impact,” Shaw said.
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and established in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke, The Duke Endowment is a private foundation that strengthens communities in North Carolina and South Carolina by nurturing children, promoting health, educating minds and enriching spirits. Since its founding, it has distributed more than $3.7 billion in grants. The Endowment shares a name with Duke University and Duke Energy, but all are separate organizations. For more information, go to https://dukeendowment.org/.
Published July 1, 2019 IN Campus
Duke University Names Five New Trustees
As the university's governing body, the Board of Trustees is responsible for the school's educational mission and fiscal policies
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TTU K-12 to Offer Discounted Rates to Students Affected by Hurricane Harvey
Amanda Castro-Crist
Administrators within the university's independent school district said the 50 percent discount will be available to students the entire academic year.
TTU K-12, formerly known as Texas Tech University Independent School District (TTUISD), is offering 50 percent discounted program rates to students in areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The storm devastated many communities along the Texas coast after making landfall Aug. 25 and dropping catastrophic amounts of rain over a four-day period.
"While the total damage and loss of life is still not finalized, authorities agree that it will take years for Texas to restore and rebuild due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey,” said Justin R. Louder, associate vice provost of Worldwide eLearning. "This deadly storm impacted countless students, families and loved ones. TTU K-12 is committed to helping those affected by the storm however we can.”
Jim Taliaferro, TTU K-12 superintendent, said those in areas and regions identified by FEMA as impacted by the storm will receive the discounted rate on all TTU K-12 fees and courses. The rate will be available the entire 2017-18 academic year.
"As with our current student population, we will also be providing all reasonable accommodations to students who may be without internet access or email,” Taliaferro said.
Since its inception in 1993, TTU K-12 has grown to serve more than 359,000 students from 63 countries. Students receive a comprehensive K-12 education with access to more than 150 different online and print courses. The well-rounded curriculum is written to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), which have been determined by the Texas State Board of Education as the important standards of education for students to learn and apply throughout a course.
Accredited by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), TTU K-12 offers two tracks for students – a full-time diploma program or an individual course supplemental program – for all grades K-12, along with credit by exams (CBEs), homeschool curriculum and bulk testing services for Texas public school systems.
Those eligible for the discounted rate can contact the TTU K-12 office to discuss their individual circumstances and determine how Texas Tech can best assist them with their academic needs.
"Our primary concern is always for the safety of our students and their families,” Taliaferro said. "We are here to assist and speak with them about their needs and concerns regarding their education during this difficult time.”
For more information about TTU K-12, visit the website.
tags: Academics, eLearning, Provost, Stories
TTU K-12
TTU K-12 provides a comprehensive K-12 education.
Accredited by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the elementary, middle and high schools provide a well-rounded curriculum written to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
If you are homeschooling or are unable to attend a public or private school and need a full-time K-12 distance learning option, consider TTU K-12. A helpful, knowledgeable staff will guide you every step of the way.
For those who want to attend Texas Tech University after graduating from TTU K-12 also are eligible for a $1,000 renewable scholarship, sponsored by TTU K-12.
What is TTU K-12?
© 2019 Texas Tech UniversityMay 21, 2019 10:44 AM
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Allardyce turns down Newcastle approach to return as manager
FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - England & Soccer Aid World XI Training - Motspur Park, London, Britain - June 7, 2018 Sam Allardyce during training Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers/File Photo
(Reuters) - Former England boss Sam Allardyce says he turned down an opportunity to take the vacant manager’s job at Newcastle United.
Allardyce, who was Newcastle boss from 2007 to 2008, said he rejected the chance to replace Rafa Benitez, who quit St James’ Park last month at the end of his contract.
“I was very flattered that I was considered but it’s that thing... don’t go back,” Allardyce, who has been out of a managerial job since leaving Everton last year, told talkSPORT.
“It never got to the type of talks people are suggesting - but it wasn’t for me. I politely said ‘no’.”
British media reported former Manchester United defender Steve Bruce is among the frontrunners for the Newcastle hot seat and Allardyce believes the Sheffield Wednesday manager would relish the opportunity to take up a fresh challenge on Tyneside.
“If he gets offered the job I’ll think he’ll jump at the chance,” Allardyce said. “I think it would be one of his dreams to manage his hometown club.”
Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis
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Surprising New Causes for UTIs and Best Prevention Strategies
Sherry Torkos, B.Sc.Phm., R.Ph.
Urinary tract infections (UTI) were once a sensitive topic. Burning, pain and frequent urination were not symptoms that women liked to openly discuss. But that is now changing.
UTIs are becoming an all too common problem and affecting a new generation of women. Recent articles in popular magazines like Vogue and Shape have helped raise awareness and warn women of a surprising new cause of persistent UTIs—consuming chicken and eggs polluted with antibiotic resistant E. coli bacteria. UTI is the second most common infection that affects women. About 50 percent of all women will experience a UTI in their lifetime and many women suffer recurrent UTIs. In the United States alone, about 8.3 million doctor visits per year are attributed to UTIs and they are the second leading cause of lost workdays for women. UTIs can become dangerous if not addressed; they can lead to kidney infections or even death.
Women are at greater risk of UTIs for several reasons. In women, the urethra is closer to the rectal area making it easier for bacteria to get to the bladder. Pregnancy increases a woman’s risk because the growing baby presses on the bladder, which may prevent it from completely emptying. Menopause also increases UTI risk because lower estrogen levels lead to thinning of the urinary tract, making it easier for bacteria to enter. Sexual intercourse is the most common cause of UTI in women ages 20 to 40. During sex, bacteria can be pushed from the rectal area toward the vagina and can then enter the urethra and ascend into the bladder. Women are not alone with this health problem. According to the American Urological Association, 12 percent of men will experience at least one symptomatic UTI during their lifetime. Those with an enlarged prostate, diabetes, or cancer and those under stress are at increased risk.
Consuming contaminated chicken and eggs represents a new and alarming risk factor for development of resistant UTIs. A study in the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases found a genetic match between the E. coli bacteria that causes UTIs in humans and the E. coli in chicken coops1. And about 17 percent of the E. coli found in raw chicken is the type that can cause UTIs according to a study published this year in Consumer Reports2. If you handle contaminated chicken and then go to the bathroom, you could be transmitting the bacteria to your body via your hands. Eating contaminated chicken or even eggs treated with antibiotics can also be a cause.
The typical treatment of a UTI most often involves antibiotic therapy, which is associated with various health and societal risks. Side effects of antibiotics may include nausea, diarrhea, gas, stomach cramps and increased risk of secondary infections such as C. difficile and yeast infections. Plus, the overuse of antibiotics is now recognized as a major factor in the development of antibiotic resistance—the bugs are becoming stronger than the drugs, leaving people vulnerable for attack by dangerous bacteria. Antibiotic therapy is also expensive. Some of the newer broad-spectrum drugs can cost $80 or more for a week supply. As with most health problems, prevention is the key.
While antibiotics may be necessary for acute treatment, when UTIs are recurrent it’s important to address the underlying causes and adopt preventative measures. Here are some strategies to consider:
Go Organic: Until more rigorous laws are enforced on antibiotic use with livestock, choose organic meats and eggs and make sure your meat is thoroughly cooked (chicken should always be cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit). Also designate a cutting board solely to be used for raw meat and poultry and wash it immediately after use with hot, soapy water.
Supplement with Cranberry: Cranberry has long been revered for its bladder benefits. Modern research has validated its ability to prevent UTI. Cranberry works by preventing bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall. The active components responsible for this effect are the condensed tannins or proanthocyanidins (a type of flavonoid). These compounds adhere to the tiny hairs of the bacterial surface, change the structure of the bacteria and prevent the bacteria from implanting in the bladder wall. Thus the bacteria are flushed out of the body in the urine.
The majority of the research on cranberry has involved a concentrated cranberry supplement called Cran-Max. This supplement ingredient is unique in that it contains all the vital parts of the cranberry: the fruit, seeds, skin and juice, in a special delivery system called Bio-Shield, that protects the active compounds from destruction by stomach acid. In one notable study, published in the Canadian Journal of Urology, researchers compared the effects of pure cranberry juice (not cocktail juice), Cran-Max and a placebo in the prevention of UTI in a group of 150 women with a history of recurrent UTIs. Both the pure juice and Cran-Max had a significant impact on reducing UTI, but the Cran-Max provided the most effective method3. Other research has found Cran-Max comparable to antibiotic therapy for the prevention of UTIs.4 Look for supplements that contain Cran-Max in your pharmacy or health food store. Look for supplements that contain Cran-Max in your pharmacy or health food store.
FDA Putting the Breaks on Antibiotic Use
Last year the US Food and Drug Administration announced that antibiotics in meat are a threat to public health and its plans to eventually phase it out of livestock, making it illegal. Did you know?
Each year in the United States, 48 million people become sick and 3,000 die from eating tainted food5.
Contaminated poultry is the leading cause of tainted food deaths according to the CDC6.
Americans eat on average 87 pounds of chicken annually, most of which has been treated with antibiotics7.
A 2013 study found that potentially harmful bacteria was found in 97 percent of chicken breasts sold in stores across America, a significant portion of which were contaminated with E. coli8.
Be Cautious with OTC Drugs: Any time your bladder holds onto urine, rather than completely voiding, you’re putting yourself at risk for a UTI because the longer urine sits in your bladder, the more time bacteria has to grow. Some medications can cause the bladder to retain urine such as antihistamines and cold medications. Whenever you are taking these types of over-the-counter medications, talk to your pharmacist about potential side effects and contraindications.
Drink Plenty of Water: Inadequate intake of water can lead to dehydration and also increased concentration of urine. Follow the Institute if Medicines Guidelines for water consumption: Three liters a day for men and 2.2 liters for women. Void regularly and especially before and after sex.
Shape magazine "4 Surprising Causes of Urinary Tract Infections" (November 2014)
Consumer Reports (February 2014)
Stothers L. A randomized trial to evaluate effectiveness and cost effectiveness of naturopathic cranberry products as prophylaxis against urinary tract infection in women. Can J Uro. 2002 Jun;9(3):1558-62.
McMurdo, M, Argo I, Phillips, G, et al. Cranberry or trimethoprim for the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections? A randomized controlled trial in older women. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 2009 63(2):389-395.
Consumer Reports, news release (12/19/13)
Vouge "Chicken Coup" (May 2014)
Sherry Torkos, RPh
Sherry Torkos is a pharmacist, author, certified fitness instructor and health enthusiast who enjoys sharing her passion with others. Sherry graduated with honors from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1992. Since that time she has been practicing holistic pharmacy in the Niagara region of Ontario. Her philosophy of practice is to integrate conventional and complementary therapies to optimize health and prevent disease. Sherry has won several national pharmacy awards for providing excellence in patient care.
As a leading health expert, she has delivered hundreds of lectures to medical professionals and the public. Sherry is frequently interviewed on radio and TV talk shows throughout North America and abroad on health matters.
Sherry has authored 18 books and booklets, including The Canadian Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Saving Women’s Hearts, and The Glycemic Index Made Simple. Full Bio
Website: www.sherrytorkos.com
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Home Breaking Bitcoin News Maersk and IBM Form Blockchain Joint Venture
Maersk and IBM Form Blockchain Joint Venture
The Danish shipping company MAERSK and the American technology group IBM yesterday announced their intention to form a joint venture. The goal is to provide more efficient and secure methods for global commerce through the use of blockchain technology. The new company’s mission is to provide a co-developed digital platform for global commerce, based on open standards and tailored to the global shipping ecosystem.
The cost and complexity of global trade flows continues to grow. More than $ 4 trillion of goods are shipped annually and over 80% of all goods consumed daily come over the sea. The maximum cost of the necessary documents to handle the trade for many goods one-fifth of the actual physical transport costs. The World Economic Forum estimates that by removing barriers in international supply chains, world trade could grow by almost 15%, which would mean higher economic output and more jobs.
The capabilities of Blockchain technology provide an ideal foundation for large networks with many different partners. They work much like a shared ledger and provide shared, unalterable records of all transactions occurring within that network. In addition, they allow authorized partners access to the trusted data in real time. With the use of this technology, a completely new system of instructions and consents can be introduced into the flow of information. It allows the different trading partners to get a common view of the transaction that has been adopted by all and that also ensures trustworthiness and privacy.
Maersk, the world leader in container logistics, and IBM, the leader in blockchain, supply chain visibility, and enterprise interoperable solutions, will be using blockchain technologies, cloud-based open source technologies, artificial intelligence, IoT, and analytics Applications for the new platform deployed through IBM Services. It aims to help companies track the path of their goods across international borders. Manufacturers, shipping companies, hauliers, ports, terminals and customs authorities can benefit – and ultimately consumers.
“This new company represents a milestone in our strategic efforts to drive the digitization of global commerce. The potential of having a neutral, open digital platform for secure and easy information sharing is great, and everyone along the suppy chain can benefit from it. By combining our knowledge of trading in IBM’s blockchain and enterprise technology capabilities, we believe that this new company can make a real difference to the future of trading, “
says Vincent Clerc, Maersk’s Chief Commercial Officer and future Chief Executive Officer of the joint venture.
“The great progress IBM has made on blockchain shows that this technology can spur the emergence of new business models and play an important role in how the world will work together to build smarter business relationships in the future. Our joint venture with Maersk also means that we can now increase the speed of making this exciting technology available to millions of organizations that play an important role in one of the most complex and important networks – the global supply chain. We are confident that Blockchain will be the leading technology in this market for unlocking new business opportunities, “
says Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Industries, Solutions and Blockchain.
IBM and Maersk launched a collaboration in June 2016 to jointly develop new blockchain and cloud-based technologies. Since then, various parties have tested the platform. These include DuPont, Dow Chemical, Tetra Pak, Port Houston, Rotterdam Port Community System Portbase, the Netherlands Customs, U.S. Patents. Customs and Border Protection.
The joint venture will enable IBM and Maersk to market their solutions and provide them to a larger group of global companies. Many of them have already expressed their interest and are now looking for ways to use the new platform. These include General Motors and Procter and Gamble, to simplify their own complex supply chains. As well as the transport and logistics company Agility Logistics, which would like to improve its customer service including customs clearance.
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Critical ‘Monsieur Bitcoin’ Appointed Head of French Crypto Regulatory Task Force
France’s Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire has appointed an open Bitcoin critic to head a task force examining...
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Rapper Travis Scott performs at Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Jan. 25. Andrew Chin/Getty Images
Is Travis Scott’s Super Bowl performance a misstep, a crowning jewel or history repeating itself?
From James Brown to Sammy Davis Jr. and now Travis Scott, the backlash from artists crossing metaphorical picket lines is not new
Up Next From Culture
By Justin Tinsley @JustinTinsley
Travis Scott has a legit case for being music’s 2018 MVP and is already one of its front-runners for the crown in 2019. From hit records of his own to hit features to his own signature Air Jordans to curating the soundtrack (as executive producer) of NBA 2K19, the world’s most popular basketball video game, he impacts culture daily. He’s been interviewed by LeBron James — and performed at James’ wedding anniversary celebration.
To understand the world Scott operates in is to be a willing (or unwilling) participant in the eclectic range of his sound. It’s unhinged, yet harmonious — as with “Oh My Dis Side.” It’s rageful, yet calculated — as with the Grammy-nominated (and unofficial song of 2018) “SICKO MODE” featuring Drake. He can also be Woodstockian, yet current — as with “Pick Up the Phone,” featuring Young Thug and Quavo. This is also the supernova of his Billboard No. 1 pop album Astroworld. The album had the third-best debut week of the year, after Drake and Post Malone.
There was also a massively successful domestic tour. The giant gold Scott heads that captured the world’s attention. The birth of his first child with girlfriend Kylie Jenner. And, most recently, accepting an invite to perform at Super Bowl LIII alongside Maroon 5 (Scott and Maroon are both repped by Irving Azoff’s Full Stop Management) and special guest/native Atlantan Big Boi, of iconic hip-hop duo Outkast. Scott, born in Missouri City, Texas, basks in a green light similar to that of James Harden, another Houston MVP.
“Travis has been huge this year,” David Creech, Jordan Brand’s vice president of design, said of Scott’s crossover appeal. “All of our athletes and entertainers are selected because they represent a certain greatness in their field or craft. … Travis helps authenticate [Jordan Brand] … for today’s generation. It’s been a fun ride.”
Every ride, though, comes with some turbulence. And for the “goosebumps” rapper it comes in the form of the Super Bowl, just a week before he strolls into the 2019 Grammys with three nominations — including one for best rap album. Since it was announced Dec. 20 that Scott would play the Super Bowl, he has been accused of breaking what some had deemed a de facto boycott by black performers of the NFL’s biggest stage.
Scott, born in Missouri City, Texas, basks in a green light similar to that of James Harden, another Houston MVP.
There were immediate reactions from artists such as Freddie Gibbs, Soulja Boy, Meek Mill and Jay-Z. Meek Mill opposed Scott’s decision. Jay-Z reportedly attempted to dissuade Scott from taking on the high-profile gig. And Scott had a public and odd disagreement with exiled quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a champion to many in the rap community in the wake of his kneeling protests during the 2016 NFL season that brought to light issues in the criminal justice system, including police malpractice and brutality. Plus, there hasn’t been a nonwhite Super Bowl main performer since Beyoncé and Bruno Mars in 2016 — Kaepernick’s last professional season.
Scott’s reported conversation with Kaepernick has been characterized by an unnamed source as one of “mutual respect and understanding.” It has also been characterized by NYC’s Hot 97 radio personality Nessa Diab, who is Kaepernick’s girlfriend, as one with “NO mutual respect and … NO understanding.” Scott and the NFL’s agreement to donate $500,000 to the nonprofit Dream Corps, a social justice organization founded by Van Jones in 2014 with an emphasis on economic, prison and environmental reform initiatives, has done little to quell the backlash. Dream Corps is the organization that the Players Coalition supported — the one critics say was founded more to cease peaceful protests than to address issues.
“Being an artist … it’s in my power to inspire,” Scott said in a statement in January. “So before confirming the Super Bowl Halftime performance, I made sure to partner with the NFL on this important donation. I am proud to support Dream Corps and the work they do.”
Big Boi — perhaps because of his status as an architect of rap, perhaps because Scott is the one with the most current cultural momentum — seems immune to critique. Maroon 5’s canceled news conference has also stoked the fires. Speculation immediately ran rampant that some sort of homage to Kaepernick could be in play. Reports say Maroon 5 would prefer that their performance do the talking. Contracts can be signed, but until the performance is over, the NFL is truly at the mercy of the artists. Anything can happen: surprise guests, surprise statements, a marriage proposal from Scott to Jenner, people performing in Kaepernick jerseys — or, more realistically, nothing beyond the music, at all.
In truth, Scott is but the latest of many black celebrities over time to cross a metaphorical picket line. It wasn’t quite football (although NFL owners do “overwhelmingly funnel their political contributions to candidates in the Republican Party”), but James Brown and Sammy Davis Jr. experienced similar forms of backlash in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as they both endorsed and supported Republican President Richard Nixon.
Scott’s time is coming. How he chooses to use it, and how it will be remembered, is up to him.
Brown’s music and presence at the Boston Garden the night after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination helped heal a city drenched in uprising and unbridled anger. He endorsed Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey’s bid for the White House later that year. Yet, after Nixon’s victory in 1968, Brown, the “I’m Black and I’m Proud” hero, performed at Nixon’s inauguration. “I accepted,” Brown told Jet in early 1969,” because I want to give our new President a chance to bring the people of this nation together in every aspect of our national life.”
Team Nixon understood the power of black celebrity to temporarily camouflage policies and tactics detrimental to black communities. Nixon played Wilt Chamberlain like a fiddle. Jackie Robinson helped Nixon campaign in a failed 1960 bid for president, a decision that caused Malcolm X to wage a public war of words with the baseball icon up until his death in 1965.
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When it came time for Nixon to run for re-election, Brown was again there even as Nixon’s “black capitalism” stance all but crippled calls for resistance. “I’m endorsing President Nixon,” Brown said, “because I believe the future of the country lies with President Nixon. … Some of the things he’s done has been very close to my heart, as a minority.” By then, Soul Brother No. 1’s association with Nixon had come to affect his own career. Democrats weren’t the only ones infuriated by Brown. His record sales and touring income dwindled.
By the time of Nixon’s second inauguration, Brown was a no-show. A year later, with Watergate the American story of its time, Brown’s stance changed. 1973’s “You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I’ll Be Straight” and 1974’s “Funky President (People It’s Bad)” revealed a political evolution in Brown — or at least a weariness of the backlash from his own community.
And then there was Sammy Davis Jr. Around the same time of Brown’s “You Can Have Watergate,” Davis was looking to dissociate himself from Nixon as well. Many black and white celebrities such as Eartha Kitt, Steve McQueen, Dick Gregory and Jane Fonda loathed Davis’ support of Nixon. But what truly damaged the Rat Pack legend was a single picture of Davis enthusiastically embracing Nixon at a youth rally in 1972. Davis, like Brown, believed Nixon’s policies were good for blacks. But Davis, unlike Brown, had a longer, more storied and more emotionally intertwined relationship with Nixon. They played on each other’s insecurities and used the other’s platforms. Hate mail poured in. There are stories of black people refusing to even look at Davis on elevators.
Kitt, a staunch Nixon critic, cursed Davis out at an airport. Georgia state House of Representatives member Julian Bond called Davis’ kinship with Nixon “unbelievable … an irrational act.” Davis is, after all, the same man who gave financial support to the Black Panther Party, raised money for Angela Davis’ legal defense and endorsed Panther Bobby Seale for mayor of Oakland, California.
By the time Davis stood onstage with the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago in 1973 for an Operation PUSH anti-poverty event, the backlash was in full roar. Davis’ team reportedly donated $25,000 and awaited Jackson’s public endorsement — only it didn’t work. The Windy City crowd pelted Davis with boos as he began his trademark “I’ve Gotta Be Me.” Davis finished the song, left the event, got drunk and cried himself to sleep. By the late ’70s, Davis endorsed Democrat Ted Kennedy for president.
Scott’s halftime performance on Sunday won’t elicit the same kind of backlash. Although the NFL wields decent amounts of mainstream cultural power in American life, it is fair to say Brown’s and Davis’ decisions directly affected more lives than Scott’s performance will. It’s most likely that Scott’s “Wish You Were Here” tour will continue to be one of the most sought-after tickets. His Rolling Loud festival performance is already being anticipated as an early summer highlight. And it’s hard to imagine how Scott doesn’t walk away with at least one Grammy next month, given the vise-grip “SICKO MODE” had on the charts for the last half of 2018. Scott’s music is a requirement on Super Bowl weekend playlists in Atlanta everywhere from the most exclusive invite-only parties to Blue Flame and Magic City.
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Regardless of how Scott’s actual halftime set goes, though, 2019 will be a history-altering year for the NFL. Kaepernick’s collusion case is expected to be heard sometime this year and is the most important sports-related legal case since baseball player Curt Flood’s lawsuit brought free agency. The sentiment, nearly unanimous in the world of black music, is that Kaepernick has been blackballed for his protests of systemic injustices devouring black communities. NFL players reflect this sentiment too. A recent poll conducted by The Athletic showed that more than 95 percent of defensive players surveyed believe Kaepernick should be on an NFL roster.
Scott will see the customary Super Bowl spike in YouTube views and streams. But with the benefits comes the parallel reality of his association with the NFL at this point in history. The cost of being one of the world’s most recognizable stars is that sometimes stuff is bigger than just you. Scott’s definitive year coincides with the NFL’s chickens coming home to roost.
Is he comfortable with that alignment? Will Scott, along with Maroon 5 and Big Boi, use the worldwide platform to build an indelible memory? And is Scott prepared for how that asterisk, similar to Brown’s and Davis’ political asterisks, could affect him even as his professional career reaches new heights? On Sunday, Astroworld crash-lands in Atlanta — fittingly, the mecca of rap for at least the past 15 years. But there comes a point in time when worlds temporarily stop on their axes. Scott’s time is coming. How he chooses to use it, and how it will be remembered, is up to him.
Justin Tinsley is a culture and sports writer for The Undefeated. He firmly believes “Cash Money Records takin’ ova for da ’99 and da 2000” is the single-most impactful statement of his generation.
This Story Tagged: Hip-Hop Music Rap Super Bowl LIII Travis Scott
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The Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) is a species of requiem shark, belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. It is found in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Brazil, and is the most commonly encountered reef shark in the Caribbean Sea. With a robust, streamlined body typical of the requiem sharks, this species is difficult to tell apart from other large members of its family such as the dusky shark (C. obscurus) and the silky shark (C. falciformis). Distinguishing characteristics include dusky-colored fins without prominent markings, a short free rear tip on the second dorsal fin, and tooth shape and number.
The Caribbean Reef Shark, also called the Carcharhinus Perezi in the scientific community, is a member of the requiem shark species. They are mostly found on the East coast of America (Atlantic coast) and southwards. The structure of this shark is streamlined and robust and can be easily confused with other sharks in its family. When you look up close, they have an extra rear tip on the second dorsal fin. The first dorsal fin is slightly angled or curved and the gills slits are also longer than most other varieties of sharks.
Barcode of Life ~ BioOne ~ Biodiversity Heritage Library ~ CITES ~ Cornell Macaulay Library ~ Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) ~ ESA Online Journals ~ FishBase ~ Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department ~ GBIF ~ Google Scholar ~ ITIS ~ IUCN RedList (Threatened Status) ~ Marine Species Identification Portal ~ NCBI (PubMed, GenBank, etc.) ~ Ocean Biogeographic Information System ~ PLOS ~ SIRIS ~ Tree of Life Web Project ~ UNEP-WCMC Species Database ~ WoRMS
Walk through an amazing tropical entryway and be transported to a Long Beach hideaway. Fresh seafood, prime cuts, and innovative fare with a subtle Polynesian twist, The Reef on the Water puts a classy and delectable spin on California’s surf and turf cuisine. Bask in the beautiful California sun by day and experience the twinkling lights of the Long Beach Harbor by night. The Reef offers an unforgettable culinary experience with unmatchable views of the Long Beach skyline that is sure to impress.
The Reef story started 25 years ago when two brothers from Argentina Fernando and Santiago Aguerre acted on an idea to produce high quality, comfortable yet stylish sandals. Inspired by their love of the California lifestyle and surfing culture, the brothers moved to California in the early 80's and found Reef sandals. With a tiny amount of start up capital of $4000 and after lots of hard work Reef is now widely considered to be the number one sandal brand in the world.
Grey reef sharks are often curious about divers when they first enter the water and may approach quite closely, though they lose interest on repeat dives.[4] They can become dangerous in the presence of food, and tend to be more aggressive if encountered in open water rather than on the reef.[13] There have been several known attacks on spearfishers, possibly by mistake, when the shark struck at the speared fish close to the diver. This species will also attack if pursued or cornered, and divers should immediately retreat (slowly and always facing the shark) if it begins to perform a threat display.[4] Photographing the display should not be attempted, as the flash from a camera is known to have incited at least one attack.[3] Although of modest size, they are capable of inflicting significant damage: during one study of the threat display, a grey reef shark attacked the researchers' submersible multiple times, leaving tooth marks in the plastic windows and biting off one of the propellers. The shark consistently launched its attacks from a distance of 6 m (20 ft), which it was able to cover in a third of a second.[14] As of 2008, the International Shark Attack File listed seven unprovoked and six provoked attacks (none of them fatal) attributable to this species.[29]
Reef’s® 30-year heritage was born out of an idea by Fernando and Santiago Aguerre, entrepreneur brothers from South America with a love of surf and beach culture, to create a high-quality active lifestyle sandal. To bring their vision to life, the brothers moved to Southern California to manage the Reef brand, and they set up production in Sao Paulo Brazil in 1984, where they first produced the iconic sandal that made Reef the leader in open-toe footwear.
Based on morphological similarities, Jack Garrick in 1982 grouped this species with the bignose shark (C. altimus) and the sandbar shark (C. plumbeus), while Leonard Compagno in 1988 placed it as the sister species of the grey reef shark (C. amblyrhynchos). A phylogenetic analysis based on allozyme data, published by Gavin Naylor in 1992, indicated that the Caribbean reef shark is the sister taxon to a clade formed by the Galapagos shark (C. galapagensis), dusky shark (C. obscurus), oceanic whitetip shark (C. longimanus), and the blue shark (Prionace glauca). However, more work is required to fully resolve the interrelationships within Carcharhinus.[3]
$eaworld biodiversity bluefin tuna Climate Change clownfish coral reefs crabs cuttlefishes deep sea dolphins endangered extinction fins fishes frogfishes ghost pipefish global warming Indonesia jellyfish mantas mantis shrimp marine biology Marine Conservation Marine Mammals Marine Protected Areas Marine Science morays nudibranchs octopuses oil spill orca overfishing Papua New Guinea phytoplankton plastics polar bears pollution scuba seafood sea horses sea level rise sea turtles sharks shrimp whales
Despite its abundance in certain areas, the Caribbean reef shark is one of the least-studied large requiem sharks. They are believed to play a major role in shaping Caribbean reef communities. These sharks are more active at night, with no evidence of seasonal changes in activity or migration. Juveniles tend to remain in a localized area throughout the year, while adults range over a wider area.[7]
Every year, Reef Check trains thousands of citizen scientist divers who volunteer to survey the health of coral reefs around the world, and rocky reef ecosystems along the entire coast of California. The results are used to improve the management of these critically important natural resources. Reef Check programs provide ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions to save reefs, by creating partnerships among community volunteers, government agencies, businesses, universities and other nonprofits.
Blacktip reef sharks, Carcharhinus melanopterus (Quoy and Gaimard, 1824), are small sharks measuring up to 1.8 m with short, bluntly-rounded snouts, oval eyes, and narrow-cusped teeth. They have 2 dorsal fins and no interdorsal ridges. Juveniles (< 70 cm) are yellow-brown on their dorsal (upper) sides, white on their ventral (under) sides; adults are brownish-gray and white, respectively. All their fins have conspicuous black or dark brown tips, and posterior (rear) dark edges on their pectoral fins and their upper lobe of their caudal (tail) fins. The prominent black tips of their first dorsal fin contrasts with a light band below it; a conspicuous dark band on their flanks which extends to their pelvic fins. Maximum weight: 24 kg; frequents depth ranges from the surface to 75 m.
Grey reef sharks are fast-swimming, agile predators that feed primarily on free-swimming bony fishes and cephalopods. Their aggressive demeanor enables them to dominate many other shark species on the reef, despite their moderate size. Many grey reef sharks have a home range on a specific area of the reef, to which they continually return. However, they are social rather than territorial. During the day, these sharks often form groups of five to 20 individuals near coral reef drop-offs, splitting up in the evening as the sharks begin to hunt. Adult females also form groups in very shallow water, where the higher water temperature may accelerate their growth or that of their unborn young. Like other members of its family, the grey reef shark is viviparous, meaning the mother nourishes her embryos through a placental connection. Litters of one to six pups are born every other year.
A profitable ecotourism industry has arisen around this species involving organized "shark feeds", in which groups of reef sharks are attracted to divers using bait. Some US$6,000,000 is spent annually on shark viewing in the Bahamas, where at some sites a single living Caribbean reef shark has a value between US$13,000 and US$40,000 (compared to a one-time value of US$50–60 for a dead shark).[14] This practice has drawn controversy, as opponents argue that the sharks may learn to associate humans with food, increasing the chances of a shark attack, and that the removal of reef fishes for bait may damage the local ecosystem. Conversely, proponents maintain that shark feeds contribute to conservation by incentivizing the protection of sharks and educating people about them. Thus far, there has been little evidence that shark feeds have increased the risk of attack in the surrounding area.[8][15] Shark feeding has been outlawed off the coast of Florida, but continues at other locations in the Caribbean.[4]
A heavy-bodied shark with a "typical" streamlined shape, the Caribbean reef shark is difficult to distinguish from other large requiem shark species. It usually measures 2–2.5 m (6.6–8.2 ft) long; the maximum recorded length is 3 m (9.8 ft) and the maximum reported weight is 70 kg (150 lb).[5][6] The coloration is dark gray or gray-brown above and white or white-yellow below, with an inconspicuous white band on the flanks. The fins are not prominently marked, and the undersides of the paired fins, the anal fin, and the lower lobe of the caudal fin are dusky.[2][4]
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J.W. Marriott Jr. Leads Topping Off Ceremony of Marriott Marquis Washington DC
Marquis Hotel will serve as the convention center’s anchor hotel and is scheduled to open May 1, 2014.
J.W. Marriott, Jr., executive chairman of Marriott International, Mayor Vincent Gray, and other dignitaries celebrated the topping off of 15-story Marriott Marquis Washington, DC property.
Located directly across the street from Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the 1,175-room property will serve as its anchor hotel.
Joining Mr. Marriott and Mayor Gray for this momentous occasion were city officials, community leaders, representatives from Marriott International, Inc., Quadrangle Development, Capstone Development, Destination DC and Events DC.
J.W. Marriott, Jr., executive chairman of Marriott International, and Washington D.C. city officials celebrate the topping off of the 1,175-room Marriott Marquis Washington D.C.
Unveiling its new name and logo for the first time officially, the Marriott Marquis Washington DC will be one of only five Marriott Marquis properties in the country. After the ceremony, Mr. Marriott hosted invited guests for a sneak peek of the hotel’s lobby atrium area where the soon-to-be iconic centerpiece of the hotel – a 56-foot sculpture named “The Birth of the America Flag” created by Baltimore-based artist Rodney Carroll is located. Carroll’s sculpture will be the largest piece of art in any Marriott hotel.
When it opens on May 1, 2014 the $520-million, four-star hotel will have 1,175 rooms including 49 suites, and over 105,000 square feet of function space, as well as five separate restaurant spaces.
Meeting space will include a 30,000-square-foot Marquis Ballroom, two 10,800-square-foot ballrooms, more than 53,000 square feet of superior meeting rooms, an 18,800-square-foot indoor event terrace and a 5,200-square-foot rooftop terrace.
The hotel is being developed by Quadrangle Development Corporation and Capstone Development and will be operated by Marriott International. Designed by Cooper Carry Architects, Atlanta, and TVS Architects, Atlanta, in a joint-venture collaboration, the building features an innovative top-down construction method, with 15 stories above ground and 94 feet below – nearly as deep as the hotel will be tall.
For more information on the Marriott Marquis Washington DC please visit www.dcmarquis.com.
Tagged Anchor Hotel, Convention Center, Marriott Marquis Washington DC, Washington DC, Washington Marriott Marquis
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Lieberman: ‘There’s No Reason’ To Deal With The Uninsured Until After The Recession
Ben Armbruster Aug 23, 2009, 3:10 pm
Last week, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), the most conservative member of the so-called bipartisan “Gang of Six” working on the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill, stated that he preferred that Congress deal with reform incrementally. “I think the only way it will happen is we need to break it down into smaller parts than we have now and put it through one at a time,” he said.
Today on CNN, Sen. Joe Lieberman (CT), an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, embraced Enzi’s idea. “Great changes in our country often have come in steps. The Civil Rights movement occurred, changes occurred in steps,” he argued. Lieberman added that Congress should address the nearly 50 million uninsured at some point down the road:
LIEBERMAN: Morally, everyone of us would like to cover every American with health insurance but that’s where you spend most of the trillion dollars plus, or a little less that is estimated, the estimate said this health care plan will cost. And I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy is out of recession. There’s no reason we have to do it all now.
Later, host John King asked Lieberman if he would vote with the Democrats if the reconciliation process is used to pass health care. “I think it’s a real mistake to try to jam through the total health insurance reform,” Lieberman said, adding, “It’s just not good for the system. Frankly, it won’t be good for the Obama presidency.” Watch it:
Noting that the insured currently pay for the uninsured through rising premiums, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) challenged Lieberman’s approach. “We’ve got to bring down the cost of health care,” he argued. “It’s difficult to do that by ignoring those who don’t have health insurance today.” A New York Times editorial today agreed:
If nothing is done to slow current trends, the number of people in this country without insurance or with inadequate coverage will continue to spiral upward. That would be a personal tragedy for many and a moral disgrace for the nation. It is also by no means cost-free. Any nation as rich as ours ought to guarantee health coverage for all of its residents.
Yet, Lieberman still sides with the Republicans on health care reform. “Joe Lieberman is not some right-wing nutcase,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said last November defending Lieberman against anger over his support for John McCain’s candidacy for president. “Joe Lieberman is one of the most progressive people ever to come from the state of Connecticut.”
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Awakened Leadership
Are you prepared to master your inner being?
Justine Clement, Founder of @thelifeadv @HappyPrizeCo & Selsey Sea Bathing Society
Here’s an advance warning. I may mention the word ‘feminine’ a few times later on in this article. But before you raise your eyebrows and hit the back button, this is not a feminist push. It’s not a gender thing at all. This is about the future. Our future. And if you think I’m scaremongering, take a look at the article I read last week in New York’s Daily Intelligencer (1), which is in reference to one of the topics I’ll be referring to, and which, if we stay on our current trajectory, will undoubtedly jeopardise the future of many a living thing (including us).
Depending on where you choose to hang out when it comes to the books, articles and media you consume, you may or may not be aware that things are getting just a little serious when it comes to the future of the human race. Some say it’s not a matter of whether our planet survives, but whether we do, as a race.
I know. It sounds rather too dramatic for most of us. Too big a concept to grasp. Perhaps most of our brains aren’t built to cope with such enormity, who knows. So we mostly turn away and hope it’s not true, or diminish it. We laugh, raise our eyebrows, or usually just do nothing. Take my Mum as an example. She recently used a phrase to describe the people who came out in protest against the Tidal Lagoon project in Swansea(2). During an account of her visit to the marina, she mentioned there were protesters there, calling them “do-gooders”, which rather shocked me. Yet my parents are amongst the most environmentally conscious people I know. They grow their own veg, waste very little, recycle everything, walk everywhere and save water for the precious resource that it is. So why the dismissal of people who want to make a stand for our environment? Scratch away at the surface and we find lots of possible answers.
Fear & Denial
What do we fear? What is it that still makes the majority of the mainstream populous shun the idea of demonstrating against the damage we are doing to our planet? What is it in us that allows others to make huge, irreversible decisions on our behalf and on behalf of all future generations? Is it fear of standing still? Being left behind as each nation clings to the idea of power and competition? For short-term profit and gain? Apathy? Or is it our lack of connection to nature, to our own hearts and to each other? We’ve surely never consumed more nature programmes on TV as we do now, yet in the last 50 years the earth has been more radically changed then by all previous generations of humanity combined (2). So why are we still in denial and will the human race pay the ultimate price for this?
Rather than get into an argument with my Mum on the topic, I decided to put it down as a generational thing. That isn’t what it is, but it was the best I could come up with in the heat of the moment. After all, activism is actually pretty cool nowadays amongst Gen Y and beyond. Everyone from big fashion brands (3) to Marie Claire have taken activism under their wing and it’s now seen as pretty cool to join a march, or sign up to an online 38 Degrees pledge, joining millions of others in doing so.
We are beginning to find our voice, there is no doubt. And in the main, most people sign up because they genuinely feel a grievance against political systems, politicians, women’s rights, climate change, war, nuclear power and gay rights (to name a few) and not just to latch onto activism because it’s the latest trend. Nowadays, certainly amongst the younger generations at least, it seems it’s becoming that little bit safer to stand up for what you believe in, without being judged or typecast as ‘do-gooders’. Sorry, Mum, you’re out-dated.
When we talk about how we’ve rapidly destroyed huge swathes of the planet, we tend to categorise this as climate change, yet there are many other roads we’ve taken as a species which are slowly destroying us. These decisions and actions have come from a state of mind, of being, which is no longer tenable.
Outdated systems & the need for change
Much of it comes from the patriarchal system we’ve adopted for over 3000 years. And it’s this system of power and decision-making that has caused such devastating results. Ones that we can no longer ignore. Yes, it’s brought us advances in science and technology, but the domination has also led to an imbalance of masculine and feminine principles (regardless of gender), creating a distorted way of doing things that exclude or marginalise essential aspects of human intelligence. And it’s here that I draw you back to my opening point on feminism. This is not a gender discussion, as in many instances we may include women in some of these unsustainable masculine traits, as much as we may men. We must all take responsibility for where we are now, whether it’s in adopting or allowing the decisions we’ve made, to get to this point.
We’ve lost sight of the more profound and life-nurturing gifts of the masculine. Such as the passion to protect life and the vulnerable, the sense of honour in duty to the community, the depth of brotherhood, courtesy, modesty and chivalry. And in devaluing the feminine, we have lost some of the essentials of living and being, such as listening, nurturing, intuition, empathy, compassion and reverence for the sacredness of our bodies (4).
On this very subject, I am currently reading a book that I can’t put down. Called ‘Pioneering the Possible — Awakened Leadership for a World That Works’(4). It’s one of those books that takes over your every waking thought. When I’ve not picked it up for a few hours, I can feel myself aching to return to it, like a comfort blanket. I can’t entirely say why that is, because it’s a book filled with some of most frightening statistics I’ve ever read — agonising first-hand stories of the greed, dominance and aggression that has pervaded the human race for all these centuries. Yet it’s also a book of great hope. It’s a book of possibility and potential. In its simplest form, it’s about the leadership required from each one of us, as individuals, to save ourselves and save our beautiful planet. And it’s this leadership that now requires an altogether different approach. One that re-instates the feminine principles we so lack in the world. It also happens to be written by a woman I greatly respect and admire.
I was introduced to the author, Dr Scilla Elworthy, just over a year ago. We met, along with her equally pioneering business partner, Karen Downes, in the back of a small coffee shop in Kew. We were there to discuss the possibility of creating and filming a video workshop together for the wellbeing platform I run. Amongst the many qualities Scilla is so passionate about when it comes to pioneering leadership, the one that particularly stands out to me in her book (as well as at their brilliant event they ran last month called Femme Q)(5) is preparation — know your stuff. Feminine qualities are all very well, but if you are not prepared and not equipped with the facts, then you’re dead in the water. Yet I hadn’t prepared for the meeting at all. Rather, I’d brought with me an open mind, heart, optimism and boundless energy for my venture. Of course, I’d had a little look into their careers, but mostly I viewed it as a meeting of hearts, in the spirit of seeing what evolved. It was the phase of life I was in at the time. A ‘seeing what emerged’, exploratory, phase. Yet on arrival I immediately felt like a little girl. I was in the presence of wise women indeed.
I could so easily have felt small, yet Scilla’s energy immediately enveloped me. There was an openness, a kindness, an acceptance. She reminded me of an aunt I adored and hugely admired, who too, had spent her life devoted to giving others a better chance. Scilla is wise, strong and intelligent, yet warm and compassionate. She could be grandiose (you’ll her accolades below), but there’s not a drop of it. There’s a presence to her that is almost inadequate to even attempt to explain. I can’t fully describe the essence; you have to experience it for yourself.
Scilla Elworthy’s Story
Scilla’s story begins a long time ago. She’s been campaigning for most of her life and felt deep compassion for others from a very young age. At 11, she felt utter shock and disgust at herself for shooting a bird whilst playing with her brother’s shotgun. That struck a cord with me, as I‘ve ’had exactly the same experience and it has never left me. Then at 13 she watched the Soviet invasion of Budapest on TV and immediately rushed to pack her suitcase so she could run and help the children she saw throwing themselves against the Russian tanks. She’s an activist, it’s in her blood — which makes her rather on-trend in today’s world — a true model to us all. I don’t need to point out the obvious to you, but it’s clearly a vast cry from the unhealthy celebrity culture that has dominated our culture for the past 10 years or more. How we look is top of the agenda. It’s now, more than ever that we so desperately need this kind of female role model for the younger generation.
In 1982 she founded the Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics, work which included a series of dialogues between Chinese, Russian and western nuclear scientists and military, for which she has been three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She also founded Peace Direct to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas; an organisation that was voted ‘Best New Charity’ in 2005. In 2003 she was was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize, and was adviser to Peter Gabriel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Branson in setting up ‘The Elders’. More recently, she also co-founded Rising Women Rising World, advising the leadership of selected international corporations and teaches young social entrepreneurs. Her TED talk on non violence, which I recommend you watch, has been viewed by over 1,100,000 people and is called Fighting with non-violence(6).
Masculine & Feminine Principles
Now, back to the coffee shop, where we took a few moments of stillness between us, to voice what we were most passionate about in life. Women like Scilla and Karen have big, big visions. Brave visions, lofty visions, plans to reshape the future, all our futures, for the better. And they, along with FemmeQ, an organisation which they were just in the throes of birthing at that point, fully embody the belief that in order to re-shape the future we so desperately need, means bringing into balance the masculine and the feminine. They believe our issue is this:
We are out of balance.
Too much masculine and not enough feminine. I wrote about this myself some time ago here. If you can, take a moment to read through these and you’ll find that it’s easy to recognise these qualities in ourselves, both men and women. There is much crossover. We talk about the women in power or at the top of organisations adopting these inauthentic masculine qualities, too, in order to survive. If you watched the recent brilliant TV series called Broken, you will have seen this in action. A young black man is shot by a white police officer and the events that lead to the killing included a female police officer ‘taking control of the situation’ by firing tear gas into the boy’s eyes. The officers cover up for each other’s mistakes, for her fatal mistake, but it’s in one line delivered by an officer who feels compelled to tell the truth, that we truly understand. He tells us how hard it must have been for her to compete in a man’s world. The only female officer. How she has to prove herself tough enough, on a daily basis in order to survive and be respected by her male officers. How she must demonstrate her power and assert her independence amongst her male colleagues. That, he says, is why she made the mistakes she did. She lost sight of patience, her intuition and trusting her instincts, all qualities which would have saved the boy’s life and the ensued suffering felt by so many after the event.
Do you recognise yourself in the inauthentic areas of this chart? I know I do. The impatience, independence, control and at times, fear. You may, as I, feel ashamed at this. You’ll no doubt laugh, but when I look at the authentic masculine qualities I’ve listed here, I think of Poldark! He is fallible of course, as we all are, but he is also a marvellous example of a man in his authentic masculine. It seems unlikely that most women would adopt many of authentic masculine principles you see on the chart, but importantly, it is easy to imagine that men, as well as women, could (and do) adopt so many of the authentic feminine qualities. FemmeQ says:
“All over the world, in all systems, we see the devastation caused by the old patriarchal system, and the global consequences that cut across societies, geographies and generations. The feminine intelligence that exists in both women and men is now needed to face the current crises and bring a radical shift in the way we live and lead.”
FemmeQ’s strapline is the same as Scilla’s book: ‘Pioneering the Possible’ and to date, has comprised of a summit in Berlin last year, and then last month, a magnificent pop-up event held in Gloucestershire. Attended by both men and women, it felt uplifting. A medley of talks and workshops to help us understand the problems we face and the qualities we need to adopt to help turn the tide of change. Change we so desperately need in the world, such as compassion, active listening, inclusivity, intuition and regeneration.
Out of destruction comes hope
Scilla’s book, in my opinion, is a modern bible for life. And whether the topics I discuss here are new or familiar to you, I urge you to read it. It’s a book where if followed, will help lead us to an altogether different future. One of hope, rather than hopelessness. Which would be rather ironic, as Scilla highlights in her book, it has been our interpretation of parts of another bible, the Book of Genesis, which has, for so long, contributed to much of the destructive thinking and behaviour in so many parts of the world. Take, for example:
“The Earth Is Ours” (i.e. humans have the right to do as we like with the earth).
It’s these, along with other historical constructs, beliefs and value systems (“maximise profits” — endless economic growth) which need massively updating if we are to make this leap in consciousness.
And it’s here I will leave you to ponder. Could you adapt to be the change you want to see in the world? Do you have what it takes to be an authentic leader — a leader in any capacity, in any area of your life? Are you prepared to look at, and challenge, every part of yourself — do the inner work required? If the answer is yes, then begin with reading this book. And if you are willing to throw yourself into the “radical mastery of your inner being” which Scilla suggests is the only route to authentic leadership (I would strongly agree), then we can indeed, pioneer the possible and provide the awakened leadership required for a world that works.
(1) The Daily Intelligencer — http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html
(2) Swansea Tidal Lagoon: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38571240
(3) http://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/03/09/fashion-activism-feminist-tshirts/
(4) Pioneering the Possible, Scilla Elworthy: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneering-Possible-Awakened-Leadership-Activism/dp/1583948627
(5) FemmeQ: http://femmeq.org/
(6) Fighting Violence with non-violence Ted Talk by Scilla Elworthy: https://www.ted.com/talks/scilla_elworthy_fighting_with_non_violence
Peace Direct: https://www.peacedirect.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjw47bLBRBkEiwABh-PkfpbaHaz9uSp8q53ygW9GfpZ1omVGcarrVBwb2Mkv0NBhuKDCt9GyRoCv30QAvD_BwE
Dr Scilla Elworthy: http://www.scillaelworthy.com/
Inauthentic & authentic — explaining masculine & feminine traits: http://learnshedlive.com/explaining-masculine-and-feminine-authenticity/
Karen Downes: http://femmeq.org/portfolio-items/karen-downes/
— Published on August 14, 2017
Decision Making,
Redefining Masculinity,
Community// April 5, 2018
Ensure You Leave A Leadership Legacy
by Mindful Bob
// April 25, 2019
7 Lessons On Failure From Thousands of Businesses
by The Our Shawn McBride
6 Most Common Mindset Traps and How To Avoid Them
by Mindset Mentor | Michelle McClintock
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15-night British Isles Cruise
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London (Greenwich)
Greenwich is a borough of London in southeastern England. It is most known for being the site of the prime meridian, or 0 longitude, which passes though the Greenwich Observatory.
This medieval harbor of Fowey is crowded with trawlers and yachts, giving the town a brisk purposeful character and allowing visitors and residents alike to experience the best of Cornwall.
St. Mary’s is a beautiful island belonging to the Islas of Scilly archipelago. This island is home to roughly 1,800 friendly locals. It is hosts some of the most beautiful pristine blue beaches in Europe, which for this reason makes it a popular destination for tourist. There is so much to do in St. Mary’s, enjoy a day partaking in one of many water activities, go horseback riding near the ocean with a loved one or simply have an evening dinner enjoying the one of a kind sunsets Scilly has to offer.
Dunmore East (Waterford)
Dunmore East is a picturesque village which attracts all those who love fresh Atlantic fish and who enjoy the gourmet restaurants who know how to prepare and present it. Above the village the wooded park offers lovely walks. It was presented for public use by Lord Waterford in 1926. In the center of the village is an Anglo-Norman castle which was erected in the 12th Century. The Church of Ireland/Church of St. Andrew was built in 1815 and the spire and tower were added in 1881. Built as a mail packet terminal between 1814 and the late 1820's Dunmore East's harbor shifted the focus of the village. Mail for Waterford came to Dunmore from Milford Haven in Wales. The beautiful thatched houses and attractive buildings now in evidence mostly date from this period. Dunmore East was surrounded by big houses, where wealthy merchant families and navy officers made their homes during the British occupation. The Haven Hotel was one such house. Formerly the Villa Marina it was a holiday home for the Malcomsons, who had shipping and cotton interests.
Dublin enjoys one of the loveliest natural settings in Europe. Dublin attracts visitors from around the world with its old world charm and friendly atmosphere. Most of the architecture dates from the 18th century, when Dublin enjoyed great prominence and prosperity. Also of interest are stately Georgian houses which front Merrion Square. O'Connell Street is considered the commercial center of Dublin. Perhaps the most memorable feature of Dublin is the traditional pub, where visitors can enjoy conversation over fine Irish brew. The city also offers many fine parks, including St. Stephen's Green and Phoenix Park. National Gallery's renowned collection includes works by such famous masters as Rembrandt and Monet. Trinity College's Old Library is home to the most cherished treasure, the Book of Kells, a manuscript of the Gospels. Admire Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Enjoy the exhibits in impressive National Museum. Self-guided walking tours include Old City Trail, Georgian Heritage Trail and the Cultural Trail.
Dublin: Highlights of Dublin City - 8 hours
Dublin - Dublin City & Powerscourt - Full Day Tour
Dublin: An Introduction to Dublin - 4 hours
Belfast is popular with travelers who come to discover the city’s physical beauty and renewed tranquility. Enjoy performances at the Grand Opera House, shopping along trendy Donegall Place and visiting numerous pubs along The Golden Mile. St. Anne’s Cathedral, also known as Belfast Cathedral, is the principal church of the Anglican Church of Ireland and contains stones from every county in Ireland. Located next to Europa Hotel, the Grand Opera House boasts an impressive mix of large productions of opera, ballet, musicals and drama. Known as the Big Ben of Belfast, the Albert Memorial Clock Tower was built in 1869 to commemorate the Prince Consort. Built in 1849 as one of Queen Victoria’s colleges, Queens University is one of the foremost universities in the British Isles. The classical-style building of Stormont, erected in 1928-32 to house the Parliament of Northern Ireland, stands 3.5 miles outside the city. The Prince of Wales Avenue is exactly one mile long and is bordered by rose beds containing 600 of the famous Korona roses noted for their scarlet blooms.
Belfast - Tour of Antrim Coast - Full Day Tour
Belfast: Cultural Belfast - 8 hours
Belfast: Highlights of Belfast - 6 hours
Greenock - a town slightly west of Glasgow - has a waterfront surrounded by hills and is composed of a bustling industrial area and a residential area with a 19th-century flavor. Glasgow's top attraction, the Burrell Collection, was amassed by wealthy industrialist Sir William Burrell before it was donated to the city and is now housed in a prize-winning museum in Pollok Country Park. This collection includes everything from Chinese porcelain and medieval furniture to paintings by Renoir and Cézanne. Visit the granite cross above town, a proud memorial to French sailors who fought in the Battle of the Atlantic and lost their lives. Enjoy a short ferry ride to the Scottish Highlands. Explore the statue, scientific library, museum, and the Watt School of Engineering, Navigation, Radio, and Radar that commemorate James Watt (discoverer of steam power) who was born in Greenock. Travel to Glasgow and visit George Square, Glasgow's oldest public square. Shortbread is a traditional recipe of Scotland and should not be missed.
Inverarary and Loch Fyne
Scotland in Minature
Tucked into a bay at the top of the Argyll Peninsula on the central west coast of Scotland, Oban is a ferry port for the islands and a center for Gaelic history and culture. McCaig's Tower, a replica of the Colosseum of Rome, was built in 1900 by a local banker. Argyll, home of the Clan Campbell, was once the ancient Scottish Kingdom of Dalriada. In mist-shrouded Kilmartin Glen, one of the most beautiful in Scotland, are the ruins of Dunadd Castle, where a weathered rock inscribed with a boar head marks where Scottish kings were crowned until the 11th century. Nearby, stone circles attest to a civilization dating back 5,000 years. Loch Fyne is where the present head of the Campbells, the Duke of Argyll, makes his home at Inverary Castle. The 19th century castle was admired by Sir Walter Scott as a fine example of the Scottish baronial style.
Holyhead is the largest town on the island of Anglesey and a busy ferry port. The town has a number of interesting attractions and is a bustling shopping and visitors area. Around Holyhead there is excellent fishing, golfing and,of course, sailing facilities. Couple this with wonderful scenery, walks and beaches and you can easily lose yourself and relax for a few days. A day trip by ferry to sample the wonderful Dublin is easily achievable.
Anglesey has a number of both historic and prehistoric sites close-by. The maritime museum in Holyhead is well worth a visit with exhibits on 100 or so shipwrecks that have taken place in the vicinity. Stroll' down to South Stack Lighthouse.
Fishguard
Fishguard is a fishing village in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Fishguard is located in the back of Fishguard Bay where the River Gwaun meets the sea, and this coastal town enjoys a mild climate due to its protected position. Wildlife abounds including dolphins, porpoises, seals and other sea life.
Falmouth (Cornwall)
Falmouth is a resort and port in south-western England. The harbor is popular with pleasure craft and Falmouth has several boat-building yards and a major ship repair yard. The Pendennis and St Mawes castles face each other across the Roads. They were built by Henry VIII in the 16th century to guard the entrance to the Roads; the protection they offered played an important part in Falmouth's development as a port. Falmouth was one of the most important ports in Great Britain after 1698, when packet ships, fast, heavily armed sloops, sped across the oceans from Falmouth carrying post, royal messages, and bullion to all parts of the world. The packet service brought great prosperity to Falmouth, and the town's fortunes declined when it was transferred to Southampton. However, after the construction of the railway in 1863, Falmouth gained a new lease of life as a resort town.
Portland Harbour
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Home Abby Martin Show
Empire Files: Abby Martin In Venezuela – Supermarkets To Black Markets
Abby Martin talks to Venezuelans on the streets of Caracas and investigates the main claim that there’s no free press, and that there is no food in the supermarkets.
Using hidden cameras, she takes you through local grocery stores and the underground black market currency exchange, the main source of inflation in the country.
Abby sits down with economist Pasqualina Curzio to learn more about the nature of the black market and chronic shortages of goods. Knowing that world leaders are calling for foreign intervention, Abby finds out if locals agree.
http://theempirefiles.tv/
Abby Martin is a journalist and presenter of The Empire Files, a weekly investigative news program on teleSUR English. She was formerly the host of Breaking the Set on RT America network, working from the Washington, D.C. bureau. Abby also is an artist and activist who founded the citizen journalism organization Media Roots. She serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored. Abby appeared in the documentary film Project Censored The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News (2013), and co-directed 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013). Follow her on twitter @AbbyMartin
Lobby Groups Pouring Money Into Judicial Races & EPA Weakens Rules For Defense Department
Jeffrey Epstein Allegedly Continued Abusing Victims While Serving Florida Prison Sentence
Michael Avenatti FLIPS OUT After Farron Calls Him Out On Twitter
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Men of Marietta, Book 4
More From Kaylie →
Falling for the Ranger
Kaylie Newell
When Todd Harris makes the move from the mean streets of Chicago to the sleepy roads of Marietta, Montana, it’s not just his career that’s changing… it’s his entire life. Going from police officer to forest ranger isn’t too much of a stretch, but getting used to how things work in a small town is. As he settles in, Todd realizes he loves the slower pace of the countryside, but then… an Olympic gold medalist comes to town and shatters his hard fought peace.
But the town’s new forest ranger doesn’t like attention and he sure as hell isn’t looking for any kind of relationship with someone who does. When Molly Cordero gets lost in the woods though and Todd is the one who saves her, the spark he’s been trying to ignore smolders and ignites. It’s then that he realizes there’s a lot more to Molly than ambition and public adulation.
When Todd signs up for the Men of Marietta calendar shoot to raise money for Harry’s House, a place for children to commemorate a fallen firefighter, Molly realizes the kind of man he is. With the shoot wrapping up, she faces a painful decision–return to her old life, or give her new life with Todd a fighting chance.
Marin Thomas
R. C. Matthews
Molly Cordero wasn’t much for hiking. Never had been. But her new boots were cute—a plus, even if they were giving her a gigantic blister on her pinkie toe.
She stepped around a boulder the size of a VW bug and looked up at Copper Mountain towering in the distance. The sun was bright this morning, and the sky was the exact color of Miracle Lake below—an infinitely deep blue that hurt her eyes and made her heart ache a little.
Montana. She never would’ve thought she’d end up anywhere close. But it had seemed like the only safe place. The only place out of the giant, overwhelming, and now deeply judgmental public eye that she’d come to hate. Thank God for Becky. If it weren’t for her, she really didn’t know where she’d be. Probably on a fast track to jail, or somewhere just as bad.
Molly shielded her eyes from the sun and felt her mouth go slack. Damn, that thing was big. Craggy and steep, with plenty of patches of icy snow left over from winter. It looked like a place to get killed, was what it looked like. But it was beautiful, and beauty was what she’d craved this morning. A hike had sounded nice and the boots had seemed like a good idea at the time. So here she was. Out in nature, in the middle of Nowhere, Montana.
She slapped at a bug and caught the faintly comforting scent of sunscreen coming from her skin. It smelled like summer, like childhood. It smelled like swimming at the community pool with her friends from the old neighborhood.
It smelled like diving.
She put her head down and began climbing again before that particular thought could take hold. One foot in front of the other. Just shut up and hike, girlfriend.
She walked like that for the next ten minutes, maybe fifteen, before the blister inside her brand-new boots began screaming her name. With a few expletives thrown in for good measure.
Limping to the nearest rock, she plopped down and took her backpack off, digging around for the bottled water she’d stuffed in at the last minute. In her own defense, she wasn’t used to exertion these days. And she certainly wasn’t used to the weather here. It was downright cold leaving Becky’s house this morning and she hadn’t thought she’d be out long enough to need water anyway. But she’d taken some regardless, and now she was glad. Her throat was parched and the water felt delicious going down.
She looked up at the sound of a twig snapping. The thought of bears or any other wild animals hadn’t occurred to her until now. Of course it hadn’t. Mentally, she was still in San Diego. Standing on a podium and blinking at the flash of cameras in her eyes. Not sitting in the shadow of a mountain that looked like something out of The Land of the Lost.
Lowering the bottle, she swallowed a sudden knot in her throat and tried to remember what to do in case of a bear encounter. Raise your hands over your head and yell like a lunatic? She frowned. No, that was a mountain lion. For a bear, you were supposed to play dead, weren’t you? Well, that was easy enough, since she’d probably be dead soon anyway.
Another twig snapped, then the bushes to her right rustled. And footsteps. Definite footsteps. Not the kind a bear would make, unless it was the circus kind, walking on its hind legs.
Molly craned her neck. “Hello?”
After a second, a man, not a bear, walked through the vegetation a few feet away. And not just any man. A forest ranger man, by the looks of his army green cargo pants and taupe campaign hat. And a hot forest ranger man, on top of that. Dark eyes, darker hair, strong jaw with a five-o’clock shadow at ten thirty in the morning. Heavy jacket that did nothing to mask a broad set of shoulders underneath.
Molly didn’t let any of this throw her, as some of her trademark entitlement came bounding back with a vengeance.
“I thought you were a bear,” she said, pushing herself up off the rock and wincing at the pain in her toe, which felt like someone was pinching it with tweezers. “You could’ve said something.”
Forest ranger guy took a few more steps, then stopped with his hands on his hips. Trim hips, tapering from a thicker, muscular core. He tipped his hat back and studied her with furrowed brows.
“Did you hear what I said,” she bit out, “or are you ignoring me to make a point?”
He nodded, then pulled something out of his back pocket. “Making a point.”
“Fabulous.”
“Is this yours?” he asked, his voice a rich, deep baritone that matched his looks perfectly.
She let her gaze drop to what he held between his fingertips. Disdainfully. Like it was poison.
Her granola bar wrapper. It must have fallen out of her backpack. “I don’t know. I guess.”
“You guess.”
“That’s what I said. But I’m sure there are other hikers out here who enjoy Quaker Chewy bars, too.”
“But this particular one is yours.”
Was it possible that he hadn’t recognized her yet? Her hair had grown some and she’d gained a little weight, but still…
“Do you know the fine for littering in Montana?” he continued.
It was like a bad movie. She was the heroine, and he was the hero from hell. She laughed before she could help it. Probably not the best idea since he was wearing a badge.
“No, I don’t, officer. But I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”
“Up to two hundred dollars. You have two hundred dollars you feel like flushing down the toilet?”
No, she most definitely did not.
“Give me a break. It fell out of my backpack.”
“Ordinarily, I might believe that. But in this case I don’t.”
“Don’t you have anything better to do? Like stop a forest fire or something?”
Reaching inside his coat, he nodded again while watching her with those smoky brown eyes.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Well, here’s the thing. I was going to give you a warning. But you’ve got quite a mouth on you and I’m in a piss-poor mood. So that means a ticket.”
“I don’t kid.”
Molly felt her neck heat in that old, familiar way. Followed by her cheeks, and then her ears. She knew she probably looked like a cherry tomato, and she forced a deep, even breath. It was something she’d learned in the anger management classes. Calm yourself down when you begin to feel upset. Express your feelings and needs assertively, but not aggressively…
She put up a hand and smiled her best smile. It used to charm the socks off people, even the crustiest ones. But she and charm school had recently had a parting of ways, so there was no telling how this would go.
“Look,” she said. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here. I’m Molly Cordero. I’m new to this area, just out on a hike. I’d never think about defacing this lovely trail with trash.”
He flipped open the ticket book and clicked his pen, not bothering to look up. “I know who you are.”
So he had recognized her, but wasn’t going to show it. No smile or awkward request for an autograph. She supposed the Molly Cordero as of late didn’t command as much attention as the old one with the tight body and cute pixie cut. And that was depressing as hell.
With as much dignity as she could muster, she lifted her chin. She could thank her attitude for this one. Again. She’d once been sweet, she had. But now she was as bitter as a bad grape.
Before she could feel any more guilt, she shoved it aside. Who cared what people thought of her? Especially this dreamy, if somewhat standoffish, forest ranger.
If this was what people expected, this was what she’d give them.
Todd wrote slowly and methodically in his ticket book. Something he knew drove people batshit crazy, but he did it just the same. It messed with them a little, and that part was fun.
Molly Cordero didn’t know it yet, but she was getting a warning after all. It was true that he was hardened by those years in Chicago. He didn’t have much time for excuses, and even less for people who felt sorry for themselves. But as much as he wanted to throw the book at her—and let’s face it, there wasn’t much of one to throw for littering—he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He concentrated on filling out the warning, well aware that those sharp blue eyes were boring a hole right into his skull. She was even more beautiful than she’d been on TV. She’d gained some weight, but he found the curves looked good on her. Like she might be comfortable for the first time in a while. Her hair was different, though. Gone was the short, blonde cut that so many girls had tried to copy after the London Olympics. It had grown into a chin-length number that she kept pushing out of her face.
Every now and then he heard her pull in a breath. Maybe trying to calm herself down. Or maybe she was just winded from the hike up the side of the mountain. Rabbit Loop wasn’t nearly as strenuous as some of the trails on the other side, but still. Although he had a hard time believing someone who’d been in such great shape just a few years ago would have trouble with anything like this.
“Are you almost finished?” she said. “I have things to do.”
At that, he looked up and glanced casually around. “Have a meeting or something?”
She scowled at him. There was that look he and his fellow Americans had grown so used to on the news lately. That holier than thou, get out of my face, I’m much more of a badass than you think I am look.
But underneath that hard line, those lips appeared full and soft. Her eyes, so strikingly blue they reminded him of Miracle Lake in the winter. Her face was flushed pink from anger, but he could tell her skin was normally pale and smooth.
Yeah, Molly Cordero was a looker, all right. Too bad she had the temperament of a rattlesnake with the tongue to match.
He tore the small, yellow piece of paper from his ticket book and handed it to her. She took it and shoved it into her pocket.
“You know, I’m just staying with my cousin for a while. I’m not going to be here forever, so if this requires anything but a fine, I’ll probably have to skip it.”
“And deny us more of your charming personality?”
A shadow passed over her face and was gone before he could tell what it had been. She squared her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. She wasn’t very tall, so that required looking up. By a lot.
“What’s the easiest way down?” she asked. “My toe’s about to fall off.”
He looked down at the boots that probably hadn’t been broken in until an hour ago. “Turn around and go back the way you came.”
“That’s the best you can do?”
“You’ll live.”
“It’s killing me. I can barely walk.”
“A little dramatic, don’t you think?”
She leaned down and untied the boot, then wiggled her foot out. Son of a bitch, if the pristine white sock didn’t have a smudge of blood on it.
She sucked in a breath. “See?” Leaning forward, she squinted at his name tag. “If I bleed out, Officer Harris, I’m blaming you. Then you’ll have to live with the guilt of knowing you helped kill me.”
He stopped himself before smiling at that, reminding himself she was a spoiled brat. He knew what she’d done to land herself in Montana, and it wasn’t “exhaustion” like her publicist said. She’d been major tabloid fodder for weeks. Her life had begun to spin out of control and she’d finally had to find somewhere soft to land.
All of Marietta knew that Molly was staying with Becky and Calvin Reese just outside of town. But nobody had spilled to the press so far, so she was successfully under wraps. For the time being. Todd guessed she had a love-hate relationship with the paparazzi. She craved the attention, even if it made her miserable.
She leaned back and shielded her eyes with her hand. The sun was making her hair glow like a halo, which was misleading at best.
And then she smiled. Even, white teeth, small dimples at the corners of her baby pink lips. For a second, she was that audacious spark of a woman leaning forward to accept her gold medal in front of a country of adoring subjects. She was the girl on the Wheaties box, who came home to guest star on Thursday night sitcoms. She was the biggest wet dream of every man in the world.
And he couldn’t quite believe she was standing there smiling at him. The realization made him nervous. But what made him more nervous was the knowledge that his emotions had betrayed him for a second. His carefully crafted guard had been let down a little to allow her access, and he could see it on her face. She knew she’d affected him.
He didn’t smile back. Instead, he brought his hat down low over his eyes and put the ticket book back in his jacket pocket. He’d only been up here for a routine look around. Never in a million years could he have prepared himself for an interaction like this. It was giving him a headache. And all of a sudden, he couldn’t wait for this day to be over with so he could go back to the cabin and have a beer with Bug. Bug didn’t give a shit about anything. And that was just the kind of mind-set Todd wanted to adopt right now. He’d had enough of people for the day. For the whole goddamn month, for that matter.
“Have a nice day,” he said more gruffly than he meant. He touched his brim, and caught the change in her expression. The unmistakable sting in her eyes. She probably wasn’t used to being dismissed so quickly.
He turned to make his way back to his truck, but before he could take two steps, she cleared her throat.
“Officer?”
Stopping, he turned back.
“The guitar thing?” she said, her voice surprisingly soft. “That wasn’t me. That’s not who I really am, you know.”
He watched her for a second. The way her hair moved with the faint breeze, the way her head was tilted so that she looked like she was trying to protect herself.
He didn’t know why, but he wanted to believe that.
Falling for the Ranger is available in the following formats:
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Burning with Desire →
← Flirting with Fire
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Emperor's seal sells for $11.8 million
Wednesday, April 06, 2016 - 01:07
A Chinese Emperor's seal fetches $11.8 million when it goes under the hammer in Hong Kong.
ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION STORY: The largest imperial seal used by Chinese emperor Kangxi went under the hammer in Hong Kong on Wednesday (April 6) and fetched $11.8 million (USD). Sotheby's said an Asian buyer won the bid and that it set the third highest price for any Chinese imperial seal sold at an auction. It added that the price also set a world auction record for a seal carved for Emperor Kangxi, who ruled China from 1661 to 1722. Deputy Chairman of Sotheby's Asia and International Head and Chairman of Chinese Works of Art, Nicolas Chow, says the seal is the most important Chinese historical object ever to be offered at auction. He added that it's challenging to value a work that is being sold for its symbolism. "Well this is the largest seal ever carved for Emperor Kangxi, who was the longest reigning monarch in the history of China. The four characters on the base say 'jingtian qinmin' which means 'revere heaven, and serve thy people'. It really crystallizes the political theory in China whereby heaven bestows its power upon the ruler who is righteous and benevolent," Chow said. The "pig dragon" on the seal, a supernatural beast, symbolizes the link between heaven and earth, Chow added. Wednesday (April 6) concluded Sotheby's Spring Sales. Its rival Christie's is hosting their Spring auctions from May 27 to June 1.
http://reut.rs/25LV83u
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John Weber: Immigration Reform, Guest Workers, and Poorly Understood History
Posted by Connie Chia on 13 October 2015, 12:25 pm
We welcome a guest post by John Weber, author of From South Texas to the Nation: The Exploitation of Mexican Labor in the Twentieth Century. In the early years of the twentieth century, newcomer farmers and migrant Mexicans forged a new world in South Texas. In just a decade, this vast region, previously considered too isolated and desolate for large-scale agriculture, became one of the United States’ most lucrative farming regions and one of its worst places to work. By encouraging mass migration from Mexico, paying low wages, selectively enforcing immigration restrictions, toppling older political arrangements, and periodically immobilizing the workforce, growers created a system of labor controls unique in its levels of exploitation.
Ethnic Mexican residents of South Texas fought back by organizing and by leaving, migrating to destinations around the United States where employers eagerly hired them—and continued to exploit them. In From South Texas to the Nation, Weber reinterprets the United States’ record on human and labor rights. This important book illuminates the way in which South Texas pioneered the low-wage, insecure, migration-dependent labor system on which so many industries continue to depend.
In today’s post, Weber cautions against the flawed arguments of those who wish to reinstate guest worker programs like the Bracero Program as a means of immigration reform.
As the next presidential election looms on the horizon, the familiar screeching of immigration alarmists has started to grow in volume (if not in coherence). Public dialogue about immigration issues rarely rises above the race-baiting dispatches from the lunatic fringe of Donald Trump, Pat Buchanan, and Ann Coulter (or their slightly more respectable brethren, Victor Davis Hanson, Mark Krikorian, and the late Samuel Huntington).
While little oxygen remains for useful discussions on immigration reform, some self-styled “serious” thinkers have sought to take a different path toward solving the “immigration crisis,” a phrase which is often invoked but never actually explained. William McGurn, a writer for the Wall Street Journal and former speechwriter in the George W. Bush White House, provided one example of this line of argument in an op-ed in the WSJ from March 23, 2015, entitled “Bring on the Guestworkers.” In many ways, McGurn’s essay is a predictable one coming from the WSJ, eschewing the extreme cultural conservatism of Rupert Murdoch’s other media properties for a seemingly more moderate, business-friendly solution to immigration reform. McGurn argues that no Republican politician can support legislation that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants without incurring the wrath of Republican voters. The solution, he explains, is simple: “So if citizenship is the sticking point, why not start with something that by definition is not about citizenship: guest workers?” This strategy would allow Republicans to blunt the most xenophobic wing of their own party while also providing the credible fiction of managed migration that they could use as a bludgeon against reform initiatives like the DREAM Act or deferred prosecution of illegal entry (cue screams of “amnesty”).
McGurn turns to history as one justification for this plan. He lauds the Bracero Program, the two-decade-long guest worker program that brought Mexican agricultural laborers to the United States starting during World War II, as “one of the most successful programs of all time,” though he provides no explanation of what this means. It ended in 1964, he argues, because of unjustified complaints from labor unions that the program was abusive. McGurn points at the decision to end the Bracero Program as the moment that the United States lost control of immigration, as “the Mexicans who had worked under it legally kept coming to the U.S. to do the work that needed to be done—but now illegally.” Simply resuscitate the Bracero Program, he argues, and the “immigration crisis” will disappear.
This enthusiasm for guest workers—temporary laborers stripped of the right to choose employers, bargain for higher wages, or remain within the United States past the expiration date of their labor contract—ignores a few basic problems. McGurn’s oversimplified history of the Bracero Program bears no resemblance to the growing scholarship on the binational contract labor scheme and its many problems. A quick glance at the work of scholars like Mae Ngai, Cindy Hahamovitch, Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Deborah Cohen, Don Mitchell, Peter Andreas, Kitty Calavita, or the older work of Ernesto Galarza would reveal a much more problematic history of efforts to manage labor migration. The most glaring falsehood put forward by McGurn, however, is the one that undergirds his central point in recommending guest workers. Rather than a solution to undocumented labor migration, the Bracero Program encouraged many who were unable to migrate through the binational labor scheme to travel north on their own.
The Mexican government had hoped to use the Bracero Program as a way to keep its citizens from entering the United States without authorization, but those hopes were dashed throughout the life of the program by apathetic U.S. enforcement efforts and employer indifference to the legal status of the workers they hired. The growth of undocumented migration actually accelerated through much of the life of the program. So even if we ignore the rampant evidence of abuse and fraud that characterized the post-World War II labor scheme, we should be able to see past the argument that guest-worker programs eliminate or even decrease rates of undocumented migration.
It is fine to lavish McGurn and others like him with the faint praise of being less objectionable than the Ann Coulters and Pat Buchanans of the world, but their simplistic cries of “Bring on the Guestworkers” should be viewed for what they are. These are serious solutions to immigration reform only in the sense that they are less ridiculous than calls for “self-deportation” or widespread expulsion. McGurn and his ilk stopped short of learning this history, but their poor understanding of the past should not allow them to dictate the terms of this debate. In the end, their only goal is a system built on denying the basic rights of workers, especially non-white workers, something that the real Bracero Program did throughout its existence.
John Weber is assistant professor of history at Old Dominion University. His book From South Texas to the Nation: The Exploitation of Mexican Labor in the Twentieth Century will be published later this month.
Filed under American History, American Studies, Author blog entry, Guest Bloggers, History, Labor Studies, Latino Studies, Politics | Tagged from south texas to the nation, immigration reform, john weber | Permalink
« Angela Pulley Hudson: The Myth of Historical Intimacy
Interview: Sherie M. Randolph on Black Feminist Radical Florynce “Flo” Kennedy »
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Camila Cabello on her bond with Shawn Mendes and the beauty of growing up together
Dating or not, these two are as thick as thieves!
July 12, 2019 by Tionah Lee
Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes no doubt share a special chemistry in their Señorita video, but off-screen the duo’s relationship is much stronger. “I’ve never had a lot of friends. I’ve always just had a few people in my life that I trust. I feel like it’s so rare to meet someone in this industry and find a person of that quality, and I feel like Shawn is that person for me,” she told Clash magazine. “I just trust him, and no matter the level of intensity that he has around his career or I have, he is just normal, and that is so rare and precious to find in this industry.”
CLICK FOR MORE PICTURES OF SHAMILA'S RELATIONSHIP
VIEW GALLERY Camila Cabello opens up about her relationship with Shawn Mendes
She continued: “To be able to hang out with someone and you don’t really care that they’re Shawn Mendes, you know what I mean? You’re just people, and that is definitely something that is rare.” Romance rumors have surrounded the 22-year-old Havana singer and the In My Blood crooner since the release of their sexy new single. Their friendship, which has been going strong since 2015, help contribute to the song’s magic.
A LOOK AT CAMILA CABELLO AND SHAWN MENDES' RELATIONSHIP IN PHOTOS
“It’s one of the most natural things in the world for he and I to do a song together. I think I’ve actually known him the longest out of anybody in the music industry - we’ve been in each other’s lives for like four or five years, and it’s been really beautiful to kinda grow up together… It’s actually a really beautiful feeling to know that this person is always going to be in my life, we’re always going to love each other.” Although there has been no official relationship confirmation, Shawn, 20, and Camila are keeping fans on their toes.
VIEW GALLERY The Señorita singers sparked relationship rumors earlier this month
MORE: See Camila Cabello's reaction after Shawn Mendes drops her on the set of Señorita
Earlier this week, photos surfaced of the two walking hand-in-hand through Los Angeles. The day before, eagle-eyed fans caught them snuggling up in a booth during a 5am date. Fans threw the Nervous singer for a loop when they asked him to confirm the status of their relationship. During his tour Q&A, Shawn coyly shrugged his shoulders and shook his head when a fan asked if he and Camila were dating. Are they or aren't they? We have to stay tuned to find out.
FaceApp: See how celebrities are transforming with the app's dramatic aging effect
Leonardo DiCaprio talks about that 'Titanic' death scene and Margot Robbie has feelings
Blue Ivy Carter stars alongside her mother Beyoncé in 'Spirit' music video
Margot Robbie is the face of Chanel's new fragrance
Brazilian supermodel Isabeli Fontana reveals her secret beauty weapon
Did Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello just confirm their relationship status?
Cardi B shares hilarious throwback pics of these hit artists - can you guess who they are?
Watch: Camila Cabello's incredible a capella skills as she composes with Ed Sheeran
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← Inua Ellams: ‘Musical and delicious to the ear’
Norway: A Writer’s Dream? →
Posted on March 15, 2012 by waxings
By Tamara Hunter
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY!
Who knew pretzels could hold so many shades of meaning? As Elaine, George, Jerry and Kramer demonstrated in the Seinfeld episode which catapulted the phrase into the vernacular, the slightest change in context, emphasis and tone has the power to give one simple sentence a dozen different subtexts.
In George’s hands the phrase – Kramer’s sole line in the Woody Allen movie which forms the backdrop to the episode – became an expression of rage; in Elaine’s, resignation.
In much the same way, the subtlest changes can make all the difference to whether an author nails or blows their character’s ‘voice.’ Use swear words or don’t, omit punctuation, slavishly interpret an accent or just hint at it – all are decisions which can completely change the way a character comes across.
When writing his latest novel The Life, Walkley Award-winning journalist-turned-author Malcolm Knox wanted to find a way to translate the classic Australian male grunt to the page. The book, about an ageing surfer dreaming of a comeback, has been compared to Tim Winton’s much-lauded novel, Breath.
However Knox told the Perth Writers Festival session, ‘Hearing Voices’, that while Winton’s book – also about a surfer – was beautiful, he’d been shooting for something else.
“(Breath) is a beautifully written novel but it is a written novel. I wanted to do something a bit different – a spoken novel. The voices I heard around me, the Australian male grunt – that has a lot of silences and limitations but also its own music. I wanted to somehow capture that music.”
In doing so, Knox had to make a decision about how many expletives to include. Even though it would have been truer to the surfing scene to have far more of them in central character DK’s dialogue, Knox knew it would be counter-productive.
“If you tried to reproduce that on to the page, not only is it extremely offensive to many readers, but it becomes extremely limiting to the writer,” he said. “And I just feel like you are wasting a lot of ink on that word.
“Yes I knew the voice but I took this one word away from that voice and as often happens in anything, the power of suppression can be a very creative power. Denying that voice the ability to say ‘fucken’ every second breath was challenging him to say something else other than ‘fucken’, which he does every now and then. But he’s not a swearer and that’s something I hope liberated him to express himself.”
Knox said his chief rule of thumb when trying to achieve his character’s voice was to get himself out and the character in.
“I’m not DK and the work is finding ‘me-worms’ and removing them and replacing them with ‘DK-worms’ – finding my accent and rhythms and ways of speaking and getting them out and his in.”
Fellow Australian author Wayne Macauley likened the business of finding a character’s voice to an actor’s routine when preparing for a stage performance. Much like the actor, the author had to remove his or her ego and become the character for the duration.
“The difference when writing a book is it happens not over two hours but two years,” Macauley told the same session. “What you are trying to do is find the method to enter that character – to find a way into that voice as if you were an actor about to step on stage and inhabit a character. (They find) one line that is the essence of their character and use that.”
For Macauley, that one defining line is always the first of the book. In his novel The Cook, he had to find the voice of an ambitious and unusual young man from the wrong side of the tracks. Macauley wanted to capture the adrenaline and speed of the character right away and so chose, like Peter Carey in The True History of the Kelly Gang, to have no punctuation other than a full stop at the end of his very first sentence.
“I think the critical thing was getting the first sentence of my first paragraph down that had some written hint of the character. That is your touchstone and will be your touchstone thereafter for who this person is. If I strayed off into my indulgent writer’s voice later it would be a matter of testing it against that first sentence and realigning the prose.”
Sometimes, Knox added, nailing voice really was as technical and bland as taking the commas out. Although he’d had a voice he wanted to capture, he hadn’t bothered too much with it in the first draft.
“In the first draft I was more concerned with the story and the development of characters. When I read that first draft…it didn’t ring true. It wasn’t authentic. But the reason for me was not anything mystical – it was something like I should have taken the commas out and I should have done search and replace with certain words or grammatical formulations and, as I said before, gotten me out and him in.
“It’s always just interplay between gut feeling and what you can do with your hands. That is probably what any artist, any woodworker or sculptor, will say to you is at the heart of the matter of getting the uniqueness of what you are trying to get down. You are trying to match-make between what is going on in your gut and what is going on with all those tools of punctuation and keystrokes.”
Canadian author Michael Crummey’s biggest challenge in his latest novel, the fantastical tale Galore, was nailing the notoriously elusive, almost mediaeval accent of his Newfoundland home.
“Part of what I am trying to do when writing a book set in Newfoundland is trying to reveal the characters but the place itself as well,” Crummey said. “The Newfoundland accent is a really hard one for people who aren’t from there to do well. In movies, American actors butcher the accent. When people write it down it sounds cartoonish – it looks cartoonish on the page but that’s not how they sound. It’s a challenge to get it down on the page without cocking it up.”
Crummey spent a year researching the novel and had a clear idea of how he wanted it to feel. “A big part of that was the voice. I didn’t start until I felt it was present. It sounds very airy fairy but from the moment I started the book I felt like I had the voice I wanted.”
He said it was impossible to get dialogue right without first knowing your characters properly.
“If I am having a problem (getting two characters to speak to one another) it’s usually because I don’t know them well enough or there is something about the characters that doesn’t fit the story and therefore when they open their mouths what comes out just doesn’t belong. Once I have nailed the characters I have a clear sense of who they are. It’s similar to putting two people in a room and having them talk. I don’t feel like I am making it up. There’s that feeling of just letting them go and talk amongst themselves.”
Crummey added that good dialogue in fiction was not necessarily realistic dialogue.
“If you just take two people having a normal conversation and transcribe it on a page…it would be boring, even if they’re saying something interesting. Normal conversation does not wear well on the page. So it’s trying to create the illusion of real conversation that gets across what you want it to get across. It’s kind of a conjurer’s trick.”
Knox said he had often been asked if he knew how ‘brave’ he was being when he chose to write his book in the way he had, with DK’s distinctive, poorly punctuated voice such a dominant feature.
“If you are a writer sitting down to please everybody I think you are lost at page one,” he said. “Equally if you try to please nobody you are lost. We are trying to walk some fine lines. When people say to me they are reading this book and enjoying it I have to say ‘What page are you up to?’ If they’re inside the first 20 pages I say ‘Let’s have another conversation later’. If they say they’re up to or past page 40 or 50 I know I have got them. There will be people who drop off because they can’t stomach poor punctuation and repetition and all the tics of this character’s voice. But it’s not their book.”
Macauley agreed, saying some readers had told him they had struggled with the first 10 pages of his book but then become swept up in it, unable to stop reading – “which of course is a huge compliment. It’s the compliment I want.”
He said he had been conscious of walking a fine line but believed literature did not exist simply to massage the reader.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t as writers occasionally set challenges for readers and give them rewards. That would be wrong if there was no rewards. But literature that has touched me in the past has often been the kind of literature that I have started reading and thought ‘Oh my God, this is really quite different and quite tough’, but once you are into it you go to some other place.
“We are mindful of our readers. It’s a conversation. It’s a dialogue. That doesn’t mean you can’t raise the bar.”
Malcolm Knox is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and author of Summerland, A Private Man and Jamaica, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award and won the Colin Roderick Award. His latest book is The Life.
Michael Crummey was born and grew up in Newfoundland before moving to mainland Canada for 12 years. He returned to Newfoundland in 1999 and has published three books of poetry, a collection of stories, and three novels. His latest book is Galore.
Wayne Macauley is a widely published Melbourne short story writer and novelist. He won The Age Short Story Competition in 1995, was runner-up in the 2001 HQ Magazine Short Story Contest and was anthologised in Best Australian Stories 2001. The Cook is his latest novel.
Tamara Hunter is a freelance journalist with 24 years’ experience, most of that time spent working for The West Australian newspaper across both news and features. She spends her time wrangling either children or deadlines (sometimes both at once!) and uses creative writing like Polyfilla – to fill the gaps and keep herself sane. It’s almost working.
More reports from the 2012 Perth Writers Festival >
This entry was posted in 2012 Perth Writers Festival, Blogwax, The Buzz and tagged breath, character, Galore, Malcolm Knox, Michael Crummey, perth writers festival, The LIfe, Tim Winton, voice, Wayne Macauley, writing. Bookmark the permalink.
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Verbo Ardiente: la bitácora de David
Key address by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, president of the Republic of Cuba,at the opening of the great combative peoples march to oppose terrorism. May 17, 2005
Fellow Cubans:
For 137 years, from October 10, 1868 until today, the Cuban people has been fighting for its independence, first against Spanish colonialism and then against the imperialist, expansionist policies of US governments.
During that period, we achieved full political sovereignty for the first time on January 1, 1959 when, after sweeping away the bloody tyranny imposed from abroad, the Cuban people began governing the nation. Since then, this noble and heroic people have not failed one single day to defend its right to development, justice, peace and liberty.
Because of this fair and unremitting aspiration, our people have been subject to the longest economic war in history and to a pervasive, ferocious campaign of terrorism which has lasted more than 45 years.
One of the first and bloodiest of such acts was the bombing of the ship La Coubre in the Havana harbor killing 101 people and wounding hundreds more.
The April 17, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by a military force, organized, trained and equipped by the US government, was preceded by a surprise, treacherous air strike dealt by US bombers, with the Cuban air force insignia painted on them. The invading troops were brought to Cuba escorted, guarded and accompanied by US naval and air units and troops, which would wait for the mercenaries to establish a beachhead and then, with the complicity of the OAS, support a provisional government that did not even have the time to take off from a Florida airport.
Similarly, from the very first years of our triumph, armed groups were spread throughout the length and breadth of our land killing farmers, workers, teachers and literacy teachers, burning houses and destroying agricultural and industrial facilities. Acts of sabotage with white phosphorous and explosives were carried out against our countrys population and economy. Our ports, merchant and fishing ships were subject to constant attacks. Diplomatic legations and personnel abroad were the targets of attacks with explosives and fire arms.
Diplomats were killed, vanished or maimed. Passenger planes were blown up before they took off or in midair like the Barbados airliner on October 6, 1976, full of passengers whose remains lie beyond recovery on the bottom of the sea, hundreds of meters deep.
More than once, diseases affecting the life of human beings or that of domestic animals and plants necessary to provide food for the people were introduced into our country.
These acts were devised by US governments and their special services, and perpetrated by individuals trained by these.
The most up-to-date and dramatic conception of terrorism involving sophisticated techniques and high powered explosives was created and developed by US governments to destroy our revolution. Such terrorism has continued unrelenting, both inside and outside Cuba, for more than four decades.
Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles, the most bloodthirsty exponents of the imperialists terrorism against our country, committed dozens of atrocious acts in numerous countries of this hemisphere, including the territory of the United States. Thousands of Cubans either lost their lives or were maimed as a result of these cowardly, loathsome acts.
The same US agencies and services which trained Cuban-born terrorists also carefully trained, as is common knowledge, those who organized the brutal attack on New Yorks Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 in which some thousands of Americans lost their lives.
Posada Carriles, together with Orlando Bosch, who was then the boss of the CORU, a CIA-created organization was not only involved in destroying the Cubana airliner but for many years since then has organized dozens of attempts to assassinate the Cuban Revolutions top leadership and was behind the numerous bombs that exploded in Cuban tourist hotels.
Meanwhile, Orlando Bosch, apparently a fugitive from US authorities, worked in conjunction with Augusto Pinochet's repressive forces to kidnap and murder well-known Chileans like Carlos Prats and Orlando Letelier, and to arrange the disappearance of numerous anti-fascist fighters in Chile as well as the kidnapping and death of Cuban diplomats. From his prison in Venezuela, he ordered his hired assassins to execute terrorist plans.
Such sinister characters always took orders from US governments and their special services; however, they have been illegally relieved of all charges and punishment. That is the case of the pardon granted to Orlando Bosch by President George Bush, sr. Likewise, the current US President has tolerated the presence of Posada Carriles on US soil for weeks in what constitutes a flagrant violation of that countrys own laws by those with the highest responsibility for protecting the US people from terrorist attacks.
All of Posada Carriles terrorist activities, including the bombs in Havana hotels and the assassination plans, were financed by US governments through the notoriously famous Cuban American National Foundation, from the time of its inception by Reagan and Bush in 1981. Never have people behaved with so much dishonesty and hypocrisy.
This is not a march against the people of the United States. As we have said before, and we insist here today, this is a march against terrorism and in favor of our peoples life and peace as well as that of our American brothers and sisters in whose ethical values we trust.
Down with terrorism!
Down with Nazi doctrines and methods!
Down with genocide!
Long live solidarity, fraternity and peace among the peoples!
Long live truth!
Lets go forward, brave defenders of noble ideas, despising fear and the enormous power of the adversary, despising dangers; humanity yearns for justice!
← Palabras del Presidente de la República de Cuba, Fidel Castro Ruz, al inicio de la gran Marcha del Pueblo Combatiente contra el Terrorismo, el 17 de mayo de 2005
Allocution de Fidel Castro Ruz, président de la République de Cuba, au début de la grande marche du peuple combattant contre le terrorisme, le 17 mai 2005 →
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School chiefs could get raises in new budget
By Shelby Perea / Journal Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 13th, 2019 at 11:35pm
The hefty $7 billion budget plan that is looking to boost New Mexico spending – primarily for public schools – includes funding for school administrator raises, which could result in thousands of dollars worth of pay hikes for top personnel.
The legislation, which is for the fiscal year that starts in July, sets aside $37.7 million for districts to provide an average 6 percent salary increase for all other employees who are not teachers, principals and assistant principals. That could apply to superintendents and central office staff.
The bill sets aside other moneys for teachers and principals.
Bill Valdes, chief of staff for House Appropriations and Finance, said when the bill was crafted, superintendents and school chiefs were not the focus.
Yet, the way it is written, the central office positions are included in the pay bumps, legislative staff and Senator Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, told the Journal.
“We didn’t specifically discuss superintendents,” Valdes said about crafting that section of the bill.
While he said he was unsure about district superintendents because they are on contract, he said they “could apply.”
He added the bill’s intent is ultimately for all school personnel to see a raise and it’s up to the districts’ Boards of Education to implement that.
If the districts’ superintendents and other central administrators were to get a 6 percent raise, it would mean thousands of dollars in pay bumps.
For the superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools’ Veronica Garcia, who makes $184,500, a 6 percent raise looks like a roughly $11,000 increase. For Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Raquel Reedy, the increase would be closer to $15,000 because her salary is $248,727.
Reedy’s contract was approved in December and it included an $8,000 salary increase, which the district said at the time was to mirror raises other APS employees got that fiscal year.
“The intent is for all school employees to get at least 6 percent, that’s the intent of the House,” Valdes added.
The bill which had originally been approved by the House made it through the Senate on Wednesday with amendments.
Lawmakers have stressed the need to boost teacher salaries, and the bill that passed both chambers includes about $84 million to fund raises for teachers and principals.
The original budget bill passed by the House called for “at least” 6 percent raises for teachers and principals, but the Senate has pitched “an average” of 6 percent raises, instead.
During Wednesday’s debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, questioned why the Senate had changed the budget language on the teacher pay raises, suggesting it could lead to some teachers getting raises that are smaller than 6 percent.
In response, Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said a debate over how to best issue such raises has been playing out for years.
“When push comes to shove, superintendents would prefer an average over a set amount,” Smith said.
These raises are separate and prior to any pay tier bumps.
Valdes noted it will be up to local districts to decide how the raises are implemented.
Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein, who will be the first to say that school staff should make more money, said her objection with the raises in the bill is that it uses the same proposed percentages across the board from bus drivers to administration.
She argued positions like education assistants and cafeteria workers should get a bigger raise than department chiefs, and one that’s higher than 6 percent, noting that education assistants, for instance, are among the lowest paid school workers.
“I don’t think anybody who works as a public servant in our school should make less than poverty level wages,” she said.
According to Albuquerque Public Schools data, the average education assistant in that district makes $16,523 a year.
Bernstein said she doesn’t necessarily disagree with higher-ups getting a boost.
“I have a hard time begrudging them a raise just like everybody else this year. Except, I wish that (the Legislature) would stop appropriating exact percentages that are the same for the highest paid and the lowest paid,” she said.
But she also noted, under the Senate’s proposal, districts would have the “flexibility to pay attention to the lowest paid people” as there is some leeway in the bill on how they implement the raises.
Valdes echoed this, saying the way the Senate proposal is drafted could create several scenarios.
“‘On average’ means it’s possible some will get 8 percent and some will get 4 percent or any range of those numbers,” he said.
Bernstein said much is still in flux, and it’s hard to say how districts will handle the raises when the time comes.
This was also the sentiment of local school districts.
SFPS spokesman Jeff Gephart said the district would need to wait until a bill is officially signed by the governor and until the state Public Education Department gives guidance before it can say how the pay increases would play out. Similarly, APS Board of Education President David Peercy said it would be premature for the district to weigh in before things are official.
And Rio Rancho Public Schools is watching the progression of the budget, but said there haven’t been discussions on how the funds would be allotted.
Journal Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Boyd contributed to this report.
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RAMBOLL EXPANDS ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH DIVISION WITH SIX NEW STAFF
Global engineering, design and consultancy company Ramboll has announced six new senior hires in its environment and health practice following a year of significant growth. Joining the compliance, strategy and transaction practice (CST) as a principal in Manchester is Rob Steer, while Dr Richard Bewley has been appointed as senior managing consultant within site solutions in Manchester.
Joining the team from ERM, Steer has over 26 years of experience in delivering support in safety and risk management, particularly in the energy sector. With extensive expertise in offshore drilling and production, as well as in liquefied natural gas, Steer further expands Ramboll’s offering in CST and will be providing support to a wide variety of clients.
Dr Richard Bewley, joining from AECOM, brings over 35 years’ worth of experience in in-situ and ex-situ soil and groundwater remediation, particularly in the practical application of environmental microbiology and chemistry for soil and groundwater clean-up. He is a globally recognised expert in the contaminated land community with over 50 publications in his field and is widely known for his work on remediating chromium contamination. He advises clients across a range of sectors, particularly industrial and manufacturing, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and oil and gas. He is a recognised expert in the contaminated land community.
In addition, Ramboll has also announced that Richard Wood and Jeffrey Franklin have been appointed as senior managing consultant and managing consultant of Ramboll’s CST practice in Leeds and London respectively and Graham Harker and Dr Philip Rogers join as senior managing consultants in Birmingham’s air quality team and London’s impact assessment team as ecology and biodiversity team lead respectively.
Commenting on the new hires, Matt Davies, UK managing director for Ramboll Environment and Health said: “These new hires signal a period of considerable growth for Ramboll’s environmental and health division. With his extensive experience, it is great to welcome Rob on to the team, and he is in a great position to help Ramboll continue to assert itself as one of the leading environmental consultancy businesses in the market.
“Richard is a recognised expert in his field. Having someone with his reputation and calibre within the business reinforces our position as a global leading environmental and health consulting business. We are also extremely pleased to have alongside Richard, Jeffrey, Philip and Graham joining us. With considerable expertise in their respective areas, they will all be incredibly valuable members of our team.”
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EMPTYING THE MAGAZINE: Trump Blasting At FED — Dollar VICTIMIZED!
TOPICS:BankingCurrencyGoldHousingInvestingLior GantzSilverThe Fed
We Bring You This Critical Alert, Contributed By WealthResearchGroup.com and Their Founder, Lior Gantz, Who I regard as an expert on investing in these critical times.
There’s absolutely no doubt that the United States of America has dramatically changed from the country it was half a century ago. The transformation is so massive that once the evolution is completed in ten years from now, you will not recognize it at all.
In the past decade, after nearly 8 million Americans lost their homes in the recession, the restrictive lending requirements imposed by banks caused cash buyers and institutional funds to swarm like ants on the bankruptcy inventory of homes, knowing full well that renters were TRAPPED. The rebound in homes prices back to historical norms has put ownership out of reach for most. The homeownership rate has fallen to about 60% from close to 70%, just 15 years ago. America is beginning to resemble Europe, where the majority are lifetime renters.
By owning real estate, the net worth of Americans has been rising over the centuries, but it’s one equity position that most do not enjoy anymore. The majority don’t buy land, homes, timber or mini-storage units; they do not benefit from neither cash flow or appreciation. 2009 cleared out the path for the rich to capitalize on the housing crisis.
Couple that with the fact that only HALF of middle-class America doesn’t own stocks, which is far less than a decade ago. The rich are, what I call, TRIPLE-DIPPING, which means that they’re enjoying rising wages, real estate equity, and stock market gain, while the majority are TRIPLE-SCREWED, suffering from declining wages, no real estate holdings, and very minimal market exposure.
It takes a second to even find them on this chart:
Courtesy: BrookingsInstitute.edu
The United States’ economy is set up to benefit from globalization, not from domestic manufacturing or from its tech dominance. After all, many of Google’s, Apple’s, Qualcomm’s, and Oracle’s employees, for example, reside outside of U.S. borders. Microsoft is spread all over the globe, as well as Intel and Cisco.
Walmart is America’s largest employer, apart from the government. That’s not encouraging.
The acceleration of wealth concentration at the top echelons of society is hard to fathom. In Los Angeles alone, there are $50M homes, while 25 minutes away are people who can’t even make it by. Adapting to the globalization of America has benefited those who made the appropriate switch to their careers, and it demolished the majority who couldn’t zig and zag, or weren’t aware of the process even occurring, until it was too late.
Courtesy: Brookings.edu
The wealth concentrated with the wealthy is so great that it would put to shame all of the monarchs that have ever ruled the earth.
From 1979 (the year that gold covered the entire currency supply) to present day, the top 1% have gone from earning 9% of the income to 22%. More than 50% of the income growth since the mid-seventies has landed in the bank accounts of the top 1%. Just think about the corporations that are listed in the S&P 500, in which the CEO earns more than 300-times the salary of the average employee. This means that the bottom 20% earn less than 1% of total income.
The problem is that the globalization tide hasn’t lifted all boats. The wealthy have become far richer, while the rest are experiencing an erosion of their net worth. It wasn’t an inclusive wealth creation era in the United States.
In the past decade, the top 1%’s wealth grew by about $16T, which is a third of the equity that was created. Therefore, we’re seeing proposals to tax the rich by 2% (rich being defined as a net worth of over $50M).
Last year, U.S. households owned over $113 trillion in assets. If you spread that evenly, each person will clear just over $340,000. The other main issue is that the baby boomers are benefiting from globalization much more than millennials.
The division is not only between rich and poor, therefore, but between races, various age groups, and even between the 50 states.
These issues are rooted deeply into society’s discontent with the present situation and Trump is taking full advantage of them. Look at the aggressive language he’s using when addressing what up until recently was considered a sacred cow: the Federal Reserve.
The need to lower rates to zero in order to inflate real debt away is driving this movement. For gold, I’ve calculated that the upside potential from today’s price of $1,399 is more than 600% if the same 750% price gain repeats itself like in the 2000-2011 bull market.
For silver, the opportunity is even more astronomical; especially upon realizing that it’s the ONLY commodity in the world that is priced for less than it was in 1980.
Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today!
You will not recognize America 10 years from now. I expect the millennials to plead to the government for some sort of a baby credit – same as the Boomers receive Social Security and healthcare. I also expect the rich to be taxed, which will probably prompt them to find shelters and hold their wealth in corporate structures, instead of as individuals.
The reality is that income inequality kills societies and the U.S. is the most divided of all developed nations.
The next recession will no doubt expose the pain of the masses. The result will be money printing, not austerity measures. Silver will SKYROCKET – IT’S MY LARGEST BET!
ActivistPost.com absolutely loves the articles, contributed by WealthResearchGroup.com
Be the first to comment on "EMPTYING THE MAGAZINE: Trump Blasting At FED — Dollar VICTIMIZED!"
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Artist With Big Local Presence Picked To Paint President Obama’s Official Portrait
Photo: LL Cool J by Kehinde Wiley, National Portrait, Smithsonian Institution
On Friday, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery announced that it has commissioned the museum’s official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Artist Amy Sherald has been chosen to paint Mrs. Obama, while the portrait of President Obama will be created by Kehinde Wiley — an artist who has a sizeable local presence.
According to 21c’s chief curator Alice Gray Stites, the museum has five works by Wiley in its permanent collection — two of which are on-view in Louisville right now as part of “Pop Stars,” and one that is included in a current exhibition at 21c Lexington.
“His portraits are vibrant, vividly-colored renditions of African-American men and women, presented often larger than life-size and often in the guise of figures from 18th and 19th century art history,” Gray Stites says.
But Gray Stites says Wiley’s work is not just conceptually beautiful.
“He has transformed, in a sense, portraiture in the 21st century from being a practice that is focused upon highlighting someone’s likeness or their role in politics in society, to making portraiture a platform for examining a wide-range contemporary issues and conditions,” Gray Stites says.
Wiley’s work in the past has dealt with issues like representation of people of color in art history and how media depictions differ across race.
“He is probably one of the most influential American painters today,” Gray Stites says. “The interesting thing and the inspiring thing about [the Obamas] making that choice is that they are not only choosing great figurative painters, but they are choosing great American artists.”
Barack Obama’s presidential portrait will be unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. in early 2018.
More information about 21c’s current exhibits can be found here.
21c Kehinde Wiley michelle obama president obama visual art
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Skinny Puppy live at the Vic Theatre in 2014
Industrial [1]
EBM [2]
electro-industrial [3]
industrial rock [4]
techno [5]
1982–1995, 2003–present
Metropolis, Subconscious Communications, Synthetic Symphony, Nettwerk, American Recordings, Play It Again Sam, Capitol/EMI
ohGr, Download, Doubting Thomas, W.E.L.T., platEAU, Psyche, The Tear Garden, Front Line Assembly, Ministry, KMFDM, Hilt, Cyberaktif, RX, Images In Vogue, Pigface
www.skinnypuppy.com
Nivek Ogre
Mark Walk
Justin Bennett (touring band)
Matthew Setzer (touring band)
Dwayne Goettel
Dave "Rave" Ogilvie
Al Jourgensen
Wilhelm Schroeder (Bill Leeb)
William Morrison
Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial music group formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1982. The group is widely considered to be one of the founders of the electro-industrial genre. [6] Initially envisioned as an experimental side project by cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton) while he was in the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy evolved into a full-time project with the addition of vocalist Nivek Ogre (Kevin Ogilvie). Over the course of a dozen studio albums and many live tours, Key and Ogre have been the only constant members. Other members have included Dwayne Goettel (1986–1995), Dave "Rave" Ogilvie (long-time associate, producer, and "unofficial" fourth member until 1995), Mark Walk (2003–present), and a number of guests, including Bill Leeb (1985–1986, under the pseudonym Wilhelm Schroeder), Al Jourgensen (1989), and many others.
Industrial music is a genre of experimental music which draws on harsh, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments and punk provocation". The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by members of Throbbing Gristle and Monte Cazazza. While the genre name originated with Throbbing Gristle's emergence in the United Kingdom, concentrations of artists and labels vital to the genre also emerged in America, namely in Chicago.
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2016 census recorded 631,486 people in the city, up from 603,502 in 2011. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2,463,431 in 2016, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada with over 5,400 people per square kilometre, which makes it the fifth-most densely populated city with over 250,000 residents in North America behind New York City, Guadalajara, San Francisco, and Mexico City according to the 2011 census. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada according to that census; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English. Roughly 30% of the city's inhabitants are of Chinese heritage. Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city.
British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. With an estimated population of 5.034 million as of 2019, it is Canada's third-most populous province.
Formation and first releases (1982–1985)
Dwayne Goettel and stylistic transition (1986–1987)
Subsequent success (1988–1989)
Too Dark Park (1990–1991)
Last Rights (1992)
The Process, Goettel's death and breakup (1993–1999)
Reunion, The Greater Wrong of the Right and Mythmaker (2000–2008)
In Solvent See tour and HanDover (2009–2012)
Weapon and subsequent tours (2013–present)
Influence and legacy
Guantanamo Bay torture allegations
After the self-release of their first cassette in 1984, Skinny Puppy soon signed to Vancouver label Nettwerk, anchoring its early roster. From their Nettwerk debut EP Remission in 1984 to their 1992 album Last Rights , Skinny Puppy developed into an influential band with a dedicated cult following, [7] fusing elements of industrial, funk, noise, new wave, electro, and rock music and making innovative use of sampling. Over the course of several tours of North America and Europe in this period, they became known for theatrical, horror-themed live performances and videos, drawing attention to issues such as chemical warfare and animal testing.
Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk Management, and Nettwerk One Publishing.
Last Rights is the seventh studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released in March 1992 as the group's final record distributed through Nettwerk. Last Rights saw the band experimenting with two opposite extremes: cacophonous heavy music and gloomy melodies, resulting in moments of industrial weight as well as moments of uncharacteristic softness. Along with containing some of the band's most impenetrable walls of sound and an eleven-minute track composed almost entirely of manipulated and distorted samples, Last Rights also features Skinny Puppy's first ballad.
A cult following comprises a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a work of culture, often referred to as a cult classic. A film, book, musical artist, television series or video game, among other things, is said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fanbase. A common component of cult followings is the emotional attachment the fans have to the object of the cult following, often identifying themselves and other fans as members of a community. Cult followings are also commonly associated with niche markets. Cult media are often associated with underground culture, and are considered too eccentric or subversive to be appreciated by the general public or to be commercially successful.
In 1993, Skinny Puppy left Nettwerk and long-time producer Rave, signing with American Recordings and relocating to Malibu, California, where drug problems and tension between band members plagued the recording of their next album, The Process . Ogre quit Skinny Puppy in June 1995, and Goettel died of a heroin overdose two months later. The album was completed with Rave and released in Goettel's memory in 1996. Key and Ogre, already active in a number of other projects, went their separate ways, reuniting for a one-off Skinny Puppy concert at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden, Germany, in 2000. Reforming Skinny Puppy in 2003 with Mark Walk, they released the album The Greater Wrong of the Right the following year and toured extensively. Since their reunion, they have released a further three albums, the most recent release being 2013's Weapon .
Dave "Rave" Ogilvie is a Canadian record producer, mixer, songwriter and musician. The former member of bands Skinny Puppy and Jakalope started his recording career in Vancouver working as an engineer at Mushroom Studios.
Malibu is a beach city in western Los Angeles County, California, situated about 30 miles (48 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its 21-mile (34 km) strip of the Malibu coast, incorporated in 1991 into the City of Malibu. The area is known for being the home of Hollywood movie stars, people in the entertainment industry, and other affluent residents. Most Malibu residents live within a few hundred yards of Pacific Coast Highway, which traverses the city, with some residents living up to a mile away from the beach up narrow canyons. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,645.
The Process is the eighth studio album by Canadian industrial band Skinny Puppy. Released through American Recordings on February 27, 1996, The Process was the band's final album before reforming in 2000 and releasing The Greater Wrong of the Right in 2004. Skinny Puppy's keyboardist, Dwayne Goettel, died near the end of The Process's creation, and the album was fraught with difficult production and record label intrusion.
Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 as a side project for Kevin Crompton in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [8] Crompton was dissatisfied with the pop direction of his then-current band Images in Vogue, and began Skinny Puppy with the intention of doing something more compelling and experimental. [9] Images in Vogue had become a popular act in Vancouver, achieving several radio hits [10] and opening for groups such as Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and Roxy Music. [11] Initially Crompton had planned Skinny Puppy to be a side project while he continued his work in Images in Vogue; however, when Images in Vogue later relocated to Toronto, Crompton made Skinny Puppy his full-time project. [12] Crompton had already created the name for the project and recorded several songs when he asked Kevin Graham Ogilvie to join. Ogilvie had been a roommate of Images in Vogue member Gary Blair Smith and had met Crompton at a party in late 1982. [8] To avoid the confusion of having two people named Kevin in one band, the pair created stage names, with Crompton becoming cEvin Key and Ogilvie becoming Nivek Ogre. [13]
Images in Vogue was a Canadian new wave group from the 1980s.
Duran Duran are an English new wave band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band were one of the most successful acts of the 1980s, but by the end of the decade, membership and music style changes challenged the band before a resurgence in the early 1990s. The group were a leading band in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US in the 1980s. They achieved 14 singles in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the US Billboard Hot 100, and have sold over 100 million records worldwide.
Depeche Mode are an English electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The group currently consists of a trio of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher (keyboards).
Using Key's apartment as a makeshift studio, the duo began recording songs [13] and in 1983 with the help of Images in Vogue recording engineer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie (no relation to Ogre), [10] Skinny Puppy released the EP Back & Forth . [14] This was the beginning of a long partnership between Skinny Puppy and Rave, who would serve as their producer until 1993, and again in 1995, [15] and was occasionally listed as a member of the band in album liner notes. [8] [16] Though only 35 copies were ever printed, the self-released Back & Forth drew the attention of Vancouver startup label Nettwerk, who signed the band later that year. [17] The first live Skinny Puppy show was held at the Unovis art gallery in Vancouver in February 1984; the British group Alien Sex Fiend were among the 300 people in attendance. [18]
Back & Forth is the self-published debut EP by Skinny Puppy, released in 1984. It was supposed to be a limited edition of 50 copies but only 35 were actually made. The first 15 copies were dubbed at a normal speed, while the remaining 20 were dubbed at a high speed, making them slightly inferior to the first 15. This album was remastered and rereleased in 1992 as Back and Forth Series Two, with additional tracks.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
Alien Sex Fiend are an English gothic rock band, formed in London, England in 1982. The current lineup of the band consists of Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend. Five of the group's albums and 12 of their singles reached top 20 positions in the UK charts in the period up to 1987.
"Assimilate"
Assimilate went on to become one of the most popular Skinny Puppy songs. This track is from Bites .
Ogre has said that Skinny Puppy acted as an escape for Key, who wished to distance himself from Images in Vogue: "He was looking for something to break out of [Images in Vogue], and maybe I was it". Key would continue to drum for Images in Vogue until the group relocated to Toronto in 1985. [13] Key's concept behind Skinny Puppy came from the group's first song ever recorded, "K-9". The idea, according to Key, was to create music which explored "life as seen through a dog's eyes". [13] [19] Skinny Puppy also incorporated the use of "B-grade horror movie visuals", including fake blood and props, into their live performances. [20] Key justified these "shock gore" antics with the following:
What we're presenting isn't much different from what [the audience] is subjected to in everyday life. For example, a commercial is a very plastic view of existence and reality. When you watch a TV show and see a world with picture-perfect endings, all you have to do is switch the station and watch the news. [21]
Bill Leeb contributed to several early Skinny Puppy recordings
Having scored a record deal with Nettwerk and with interest surrounding the Back & Forth EP growing, Skinny Puppy was invited to Vancouver's Mushroom Studios to work on new material. [18] It was here that the group recruited Bill Leeb to perform bass synth and backing vocals. [18] [21] Like Ogre and Key before him, Leeb created a stage name, Wilhelm Schroeder; "my real name is Wilhelm" said Leeb, "Schroeder we picked out from the guy playing the piano in the Charlie Brown cartoon". [22] Skinny Puppy released their second EP, Remission in December 1984, almost a year following Back & Forth.
Remission marked the first time Skinny Puppy would collaborate with artist Steven Gilmore, who created the album artwork. [23] The EP was initially only released in vinyl, but was later given a cassette release in 1985. [16] According to Nettwerk promoter George Maniatis, Remission "grabbed everybody by the you-know-whats" and, for Nettwerk Records, brought with it an association with industrial dance music. [24] The EP was supported by music videos for the songs "Far Too Frail" and "Smothered Hope", [21] the latter of which being the closest thing to a hit song any North American industrial act had achieved at the time. [17]
Skinny Puppy released its first full-length album, Bites , in 1985 and was produced by Key and Dave Ogilvie. Tom Ellard of the Australian electronic act Severed Heads lent a hand to the production of Bites, acting as a producer and performing various sampling and mixing duties. [25] Described by Billboard magazine as "techno dance...a la Kraftwerk", [26] Bites yielded the underground hit "Assimilate". [21] Key and Ogre opened for Chris & Cosey on their 1985 Canadian tour as Hell 'O' Death Day; some of the material the duo had performed would appear on Bites a bonus tracks. [27] One of these bonus tracks, a song called "The Centre Bullet", featured lyrics by Legendary Pink Dots founder Edward Ka-Spel. [16] [28]
While Skinny Puppy had become well received by underground audiences in most major urban areas, due in part to their anti-consumerist themes and Cure like aesthetics, not everyone was friendly to the group. Key described Skinny Puppy as the antithesis of "the Bruce Springsteen mentality of music", rejecting "Top 40 conformity". [29] Toronto based music journalist and DJ Greg Clow recalled Michael Williams, who was a VJ for MuchMusic, [30] introducing him to Skinny Puppy, describing them as "Canada's answer to Depeche Mode". [21]
In 1986, Nettwerk made a distribution deal with Capitol Records, allowing Skinny Puppy and others in Nettwerk's roster to expand their respective audiences. [31] Capitol manager Stephen Powers stated that signing groups such as Skinny Puppy gave the company "a real credibility" with the alternative and college music scenes. [32] Skinny Puppy also signed to Play It Again Sam, allowing the group's music to expand into Europe. [33] It was this expansion into the European market that would help to make Skinny Puppy a "cash cow" for Nettwerk in the early years. [31] In a 2007 interview with CraveOnline, Ogre commented on Skinny Puppy's time with Capitol, saying:
We’re so lucky to have gotten here, and if we look back on the fact that we were on Capitol Records at a certain point, being distributed and making these albums under budget… there was one year when we were the only band on the label to profit, when MC Hammer lost a shitload of money. I can still appreciate how odd it was that we had the chance to do that because it doesn’t really happen in a lot of cases. [34]
Bill Leeb left Skinny Puppy in 1986 to pursue his own musical project, Front Line Assembly. [1] Leeb gave his reasons for leaving the group stating that his bandmates expressed different ideas from his own and that he had been interested in singing. [35] Leeb's replacement would be quiet Alberta native Dwayne Goettel. [31] A classically trained musician, Goettel had been in a duo named Water with vocalist Sandy Weir and had previously worked with the synthpop band Psyche, among others. [36] [37] [38]
Skinny Puppy's production values improved with the addition of Goettel, with Key remarking that "Dwayne brought us a whole new sense and aesthetic that we didn't have. Up to that point, we were really punk rock in our approach". Key continued on that "he [Goettel] had an incredible knowledge of equipment and at a very early stage was really the master of sampling, which had really just begun". [37] [39] Goettel's contributions to Skinny Puppy's second full length effort, 1986's Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse , helped to propel the band towards the style of their "chaotic future masterworks". [40] To promote the album, the band made an appearance on CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program in September 1986, [41] and released their first single, "Dig It". [42] A music video for "Dig It" was produced and received extensive airplay on MTV. [43] [44]
Further promotion for the album came from a world tour with the band Severed Heads. The tour proved to be a vital learning experience for the group, having encounters with, according to Key, "tour managers and agents that didn't pay us". [19] In 1987, the song "Stairs and Flowers" was released as a single, as was a new song titled "Chainsaw". [45] The group attracted the attention of the Parent Music Resource Center (PMRC), which named Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse one of several albums believed to be "violent, sexually explicit, or condoning substance abuse". [46] The album was named by Melody Maker magazine as one of the best releases of the year. [47]
Later in 1987 came Skinny Puppy's third full-length album, Cleanse Fold and Manipulate . Described as "a turning point, where experimentation is just beginning to gel with innovation", [48] the album marks the point where the group began to explore more political themes, delving into topics such as the AIDS epidemic and the Vietnam War. [49] A song from the album, "Addiction" was released as a single. [50] The group later went on tour, with a performance at Toronto's Concert Hall being released on VHS in 1989 and CD in 1991 as Ain't It Dead Yet? . [51] Also released in 1987 was Bites and Remission (through Capitol Records) and Remission & Bites (European release, through Pay It Again Sam), both compilations of Skinny Puppy's first two Nettwerk releases. [52]
Skinny Puppy's live performances had become increasingly more elaborate, with Ogre interacting with an onstage crucifix and other "crudely constructed" stage props. [51] Craig MacInnis of the Toronto Star described their new stage show as "neo-dadaist shock theatre", [53] while Tom Lanham of the San Francisco Chronicle referred to it as "grotesque". [54] The band continued to tour in 1988 with the European Head Trauma tour, supported by Edward Ka-Spel. [55] Following the tour, the group returned to the studio to record what Ogre described would be the band’s most critical statement regarding animal testing. [56]
A blood-soaked Ogre performing live
Skinny Puppy released their fourth album, VIVIsectVI , in 1988; [57] the album's name is a pun intended to associate vivisection with Satanism (i.e. the "666 sect"). [58] The group's primary aim with the album was to bring attention to the topic of vivisection and other issues regarding animal rights. [59] The album's subject matter also deals with subjects such as chemical warfare, [60] environmental waste, [61] and disease. [56] Lead track "Dogshit" was released as a single in 1988 under the name "Censor"; the name change was made by the band when it was decided that the single would not sell well with its original name. [58] The single "Testure", which denounced the testing of animals for research purposes, [56] reached No. 19 on Billboard 's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1989. [62] [63] According to Ogre, "Testure" was intended to be accessible in the hope of spreading their "anti-vivisectionist" message. "It's the only song I think they will be able to play on the radio", he said. "I hope they do play it because it's the only way we can go beyond our ranks and our loyal fans who already understand the message". [61] "Testure" also featured several well-chosen samples from the film The Plague Dogs , [64] an animated adventure about two dogs who escape from a research laboratory. [65] Melody Maker named VIVIsectVI one of the best albums of 1988. [66]
Skinny Puppy toured in support of the album, featuring an early incarnation of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails as their opening act. [67] [68] The concept for the live show revolved around a vivisectionist (played by Ogre) who is eventually transformed into a tortured animal; the idea was to portray the "inner workings of the mind under the strain of vivisection". [59] The stage show included the mock vivisection of a stuffed dog the band had named Chud. [69] Following a show in Cincinnati, Ohio, Key, Ogre, and tour manager Dan McGee were arrested for "disorderly conduct" when an audience member, believing the stuffed animal Ogre was "vivisecting" to be a real dog, called the police. [70] Two plainclothes officers entered the group's dressing room demanding they inspect the prop. Following a heated argument, the trio spent the night in jail, but were released the following day after paying a $200 fine. [71]
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band members began working on various side projects. Key and Goettel were involved with The Tear Garden (a collaboration with The Legendary Pink Dots) [72] and Doubting Thomas (an outlet for their non-Skinny Puppy instrumentals). [73] The band Hilt, a collaboration between Key and Geottel, and Al Nelson, also started when Nettwerk challenged the group to produce an album for as little money as possible. [74] Ogre struck up a friendship with Ministry's Al Jourgensen, having first worked together during the recording of the PTP song "Show Me Your Spine" (featured in the 1987 film RoboCop ). [75]
For Skinny Puppy's fifth album, Rabies , released in 1989, Jourgensen joined Rave as producer. [76] The album, featuring Jourgensen's electric guitar work and backing vocals, drew mixed reception from fans. [77] Despite these reactions, the album was a commercial success, selling 150,000 copies [78] and receiving extensive airplay on college radio. [79] [80] The single "Worlock" - which featured samples of Charles Manson singing parts of the song "Helter Skelter" from The Beatles' White Album , accompanied by a fragmented portion of the songs guitar introduction [81] - helped to bring the band "massive popularity". [78] A video produced for the song, featuring spliced-together footage from dozens of horror films and a statement denouncing censorship of the genre by the MPAA, was circulated widely as a promotional and bootleg item. [82] The song "Tin Omen" was also released as a single [83] and "Hexonxonx" received some airplay on alternative radio. [84] In spite of the album's initial mixed reception, Brad Filicky in a 2003 issue of CMJ magazine named Rabies as a classic album, calling it "a masterpiece of the industrial genre". [85]
This period marked the beginning of divisions within the band, [39] as rather than tour in support of Rabies, Ogre joined Ministry while they toured in support of their album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989); Ogre contributed guitars, keyboards, and vocals during the tour. [86] Ogre had also begun working with the Ministry side project Revolting Cocks. [87] Key was later quoted saying of Ogre's involvement with Ministry and, later on, Martin Atkins' Pigface that he sometimes felt "like a wife that's been cheated on". [88]
Following the production of Rabies, a divide grew between the group members, [89] with Key and Goettel often siding against Ogre, feeling he was more interested in solo work. [39] The group were ultimately disappointed with the outcome of Rabies, with Goettel saying that the completed product was "less within the Skinny Puppy vision", and Key being displeased with Jourgensen's involvement. [89] Ogre also expressed his disapproval for the album, claiming that he had "flopped". "The work and artistic environment really weren't there at all either. It was completely negative". [87]
Key and Goettel completed work on some of their side projects such a Hilt, releasing their first effort, Call the Ambulance (Before I Hurt Myself), which was produced by Rave. [90] Key also reunited with Bill Leeb to form the project known as Cyberaktif; Goettel acted as an assistant producer and provided some instrumentation. [91] Jourgensen offered Ogre the chance to tour with the Revolting Cocks, having provided vocals on their previous tour. [92] Ogre refused the offer, citing some occurrences during his time with Ministry which led him to question his friendship with Jourgensen. [89]
Ogre performing during the Too Dark Park tour, 1990
The group, having finished work on their various side projects, returned to the studio and released their sixth studio album, Too Dark Park , in 1990. [93] Goettel said in a radio interview that the major intentions behind the album were to reevaluate what Skinny Puppy was and create a new style of music to mark the beginning of a new decade. [94] This reevaluation included hiring Jim Cummins (I, Braineater) to design the cover artwork, feeling that their longtime designer Steven Gilmore had lost his creative spark. [95]
Described as "forceful and consistently abrasive", [96] Too Dark Park was what Key referred to as the true successor to "the last pure" Skinny Puppy album, VIVIsectVI. [97] Critics such as Staci Bonner of Spin magazine applauded the use of sampling and stated that the album was a "return to the bloodbath" for the group. [98] The album yielded the singles "Tormentor" and "Spasmolytic", the latter of which spawned a music video directed by Jim Van Bebber. [99] Billboard called "Spasmolytic" a "delicious mind-altering affair", [100] a sentiment shared by Wil Lewellyn of Treblezine who included the song in a list of the best underground songs of the 1990s. [101]
Environmental degradation was a major theme on both the album and the North American Too Dark Park tour. [89] For the tour, Key took on the role of drummer, leaving Goettel as lead keyboardist. Key told Alternative Press that "we could very well have a backing tape and stand behind synths playing two notes on the keyboard, but we've decided to physically strain ourselves and learn additional parts along with what we've already written". [89] Onstage theatrics included a segment with ogre performing on stucco stilts and pneumatic crutches, [102] Ogre being hoisted from the stage by cables, and a backing film featuring scenes of graphic violence, [89] most notably sequences from the Japanese film series Guinea Pig . Ogre later gave insight on the backing film’s conception, saying:
We did an experiment ... We've always been accused of celebrating violence for idiotic reasons. [So] we used some images in our show from a film called Guinea Pig. They're these incredibly realistic, but simulated, Japanese snuff films. We inserted them into this roller-coaster ride of violent images and people were quite disgusted. People were vomiting in front of the stage. People came up to me after the show, saying I was the most disgusting human being-until they found out what it was all about. The whole reason we did that was to see if there was a difference. Will people react differently to something that's real as opposed to something they know is staged? They will. There's a whole different set of emotions people go through. It doesn't look like it looks on TV. It's quite sickening. [103]
Ogre, who considered the tour to be a high point in his career, compared the band's performances to something like intense car races. "People go there expecting an accident to happen ... I was really running off that car-crash energy". [104]
Following the tour, Ogre became involved with Martin Atkins' project Pigface in 1991, for a short time becoming the group's lead vocalist. [105] Pigface included talent from several other industrial groups such as William Rieflin of Ministry and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, [95] who helped record the song "Suck". [106] Ogre and Reznor performed the song together in the live album Welcome to Mexico... Asshole . Also on the album was a cover of the song "T.F.W.O." from Too Dark Park, led by Ogre. [107]
In 2003, Alexander Chow of Spin magazine named Too Dark Park an essential industrial album, stating that "schizophrenic beats, manic-depressive mumblings, and just the right dose of fist-raising choruses" made for a dance floor favorite. [108]
Following Too Dark Park, Skinny Puppy was commissioned by the dance group La La La Human Steps to compose several songs for their 1991 production Infante C'est Destroy, a duty shared alongside the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten. [109] It was also during this time that Ogre made a concerted effort to rid his drug addictions. In an interview with CiTR-FM, Ogre discussed his ordeals with hepatitis A and subsequent hospilization; he also thanked Pigface for looking after him during his "hour of need". [110]
Pigface: Nivek Ogre (center) with Chris Connelly (left) and Martin Atkins
Skinny Puppy released their seventh studio album, Last Rights , in 1992. [111] It was the last album the band released under Nettwerk/Capitol. [112] Relationships between the band members during the album's production were "tense and unhealthy", with Ogre, under the supervision of Rave, coming into the studio at night to perform vocals for the music Key and Goettel composed earlier in the day. [113] Ogre said that the production of Last Rights acted as a form of therapy which he used to help him come to terms with his addictions. "It's painful for me to be reminded of certain things, but for me to say it never happened is wrong. I'll be glad to put it behind me, but I had to do this". [112]
Described by Entertainment Weekly as a "nonstop stretch of horrific soundscapes", [114] Last Rights became the first Skinny Puppy record to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 193. [115] The album remained on Billboard's Heatseekers album chart for several weeks, peaking at No. 10. [116] The track "Inquisition" was released as a single and included several alternative cuts of the song, as well as the b-side "LaHuman8" (one of the tracks produced for La La La Human Steps [117] ). A second single, "Love In Vein", was never released, although an unfinished remix intended for it later appeared on Brap: Back and Forth Series 3 & 4 in 1996. [118] A music video for the song "Killing Game", which featured a student dance troupe performing in "high-contrast black and white". [113]
A track titled "Left Handshake" was excluded from Last Rights, leaving a blank track 10 on some copies of the album. Clearance for a lengthy vocal sample from Timothy Leary's Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out , was approved by Leary, but denied by the copyright holder, Henry G. Saperstein. [82] Commenting on the ordeal, Key said, "We tried to convince him, but he [Saperstein] said, 'it doesn't matter what Leary said, he doesn't own his own work'". [119] The song, in which Ogre provides commentary to Leary's instructions for avoiding a "bad trip", [120] was eventually released on the initial European edition of Brap: Back and Forth Series 3 & 4 in 1996, and on a limited edition single called "Track 10" sold at the Skinny Puppy reunion concert in 2000 at Dresden. [121]
The stage show for the Last Rights tour in North America, much like the album itself, was built around a detailed narrative inspired by Ogre's past ordeals with drug abuse. [112] [103] The show involved Ogre interacting with a backing film by way of a virtual reality machine, a tree made of human heads and fetuses, and numerous other props and costumes. [103] For this tour, Key once more focused exclusively on live drumming, leaving Goettel on keyboard duty. [122] One incident that occurred at a show in Boston involved several concert goers climbing on stage and grabbing at Ogre's various masks and props, several of which were stolen. The band's manager, Tim Gore, pursued the thieves but was punched by a security guard. Following the punch, Gore began having issues breathing and was taken to a hospital; the guard was fired as a result of the incident. [123]
In 1993, Skinny Puppy contributed the song "Ode to Groovy" to the compilation album In Defense of Animals, released through Restless Records. The album was named after the animal rights group of the same name. [124] Though the track is credited to Skinny Puppy, Ogre and Rave were the only people to work on it. [125]
Ogre, Key, and Goettel signed a contract with American Recordings [126] and moved to Malibu, California to record The Process , a concept album inspired by 1960s cult The Process Church of The Final Judgment, with Roli Mosimann producing. [127] The recording sessions were beset by everything from fires and floods, to the Northridge earthquake. Mosimann was eventually replaced with Martin Atkins. [128] Atkins' presence exacerbated the rift that was forming between Ogre and the rest of the band. [129] The band's bickering and excessive drug use made the recording process so long and costly that American reduced Skinny Puppy's contract from three albums to one. In 1994, Key and Goettel returned to Vancouver with the master tapes, but Ogre remained in Los Angeles and quit Skinny Puppy in June 1995. [128] Goettel was found dead of a heroin overdose in his parents' home two months later. [39] [130]
The Process was eventually completed with Rave and released in 1996. It was dedicated to the memory of Goettel. [131] [132] It was an overall stylistic departure from their previous albums, prominently featuring untreated vocals, guitar, and more accessible song structures. [133] The liner notes that accompanied the CD included thank-yous to "Electronic Music Lovers" and "Puppy People", followed by the words "The End" in bold type. [132] The album charted on the Billboard 200 at No. 102 [134] and reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Heatseekers album chart. [135]
During the Process era, a loose-knit art/philosophy collective also known as The Process was formed, with early contributions from Ogre and Genesis P-Orridge, among others. [136] P-Orridge and Chris Carter, among others, jammed with Skinny Puppy during this period, a recording of which was eventually released as Puppy Gristle on a limited basis in 2002. [137] The creation of the Download project, which Key and Goettel formed with Mark Spybey and Phil Western, also occurred at this time. [138] [139] Download explored everything from electronic improvisation with spoken vocals to techno, and toured in 1996. [139] [140]
Earlier, in 1993, Goettel and Western had issued a breakbeat hardcore single (under the name aDuck) on their own label, Subconscious Records. After Goettel's death, Subconscious evolved into a recording studio and record label imprint that Key used to release a number of his own and Skinny Puppy's recordings. [138] Key also continued to work with The Tear Garden, [141] produced industrial/trance music with Western in the side project platEAU, [142] and released his first solo album in 1998. [143]
"Smothered Hope (Ogre & Mark Walk remix)"
from remix dystemper (1998)
Ogre had toured extensively with Martin Atkins' industrial supergroup Pigface since 1991, and toured with them again after leaving Skinny Puppy. He recorded material for his side project W.E.L.T. with Ruby's Mark Walk before quitting Skinny Puppy, but due to legal issues with American Recordings, [144] this would not see release until 2001 under the new name, ohGr. [145] In the meantime, he toured with KMFDM, and released an album with Martin Atkins under the name Rx (also known as Ritalin). [146] The ohGr and Rx releases included some of Ogre's most positive [147] and forward-thinking [148] songwriting to date. Several collections were released while Skinny Puppy was dormant, including Brap: Back and Forth Series 3 & 4 [118] in 1996, and The Singles Collect and B-Sides Collect [149] in 1999. Nettwerk commissioned a remix album in 1998; titled remix dystemper , it featured various Skinny Puppy tracks re-worked by artists including Autechre, Deftones, and Guru. Ogre and Walk also took part, contributing a remix of "Dig It" and an updated version of Remission's "Smothered Hope" with new vocals by Ogre. [16]
In August 2000, at the insistence of German promoters, Ogre and Key reunited and performed live as Skinny Puppy for the first time since 1992 at the Doomsday Festival in Dresden. [150] The show was meant to be a continuation of the Last Rights tour, with the stage design taking influence from those performances. Rather than find a replacement for Goettel, the band simply left the keyboard station on stage empty. [151] The performance was filmed and recorded, and a live album, Doomsday: Back and Forth Series 5: Live in Dresden , was released in 2001; a DVD release was planned but canceled by Nettwerk. [16] Live clips of "Testure" and "Worlock" as well as a behind the scenes interview with the band were broadcast on Crazy Clip TV in Germany [152] and "Worlock" was included on a VCD compilation by German magazine Sonic Seducer in 2002. [153]
Key joined ohGr on drums for its 2001 tour, while Ogre appeared on the track "Frozen Sky" on Key's 2001 album The Ghost of Each Room . When asked by Terrorizer magazine about the future of Skinny Puppy, Key responded:
Our goals for the future are to combine everything, take the best of what we can do with Ogre, and the best of what we have from our past, as well as the future stuff that we can do, and put it into one touring situation which I'm sure will stroll back into bloodville. [154]
Skinny Puppy performing live at the London Astoria in 2005
The first new Skinny Puppy track in several years, "Optimissed", appeared on the Underworld soundtrack in 2003. [155] Ogre, Key, Mark Walk and various guests, including Danny Carey of Tool and Wayne Static of Static-X, [156] recorded the band's ninth studio album, The Greater Wrong of the Right , released in 2004 on Synthetic Symphony, a sub-label of SPV. [157] The album, described by Key as being based in "pseudopop", [158] received generally favorable reviews from critics [159] and landed on several Billboard charts. [160] A music video was made for the song "Pro-Test" which featured a style unlike many of the group's previous work, so much so that some were unsure if it was an official video. [161]
Skinny Puppy toured North America and Europe in support of the album in 2004, joined by William Morrison on guitar and Justin Bennett on drums. [162] Shows in Toronto and Montreal were filmed for the live DVD Greater Wrong of the Right Live , which was released in September 2005. The DVD included Information Warfare, a documentary made by Morrison about the U.S.-led wars in Iraq. [163] The anti-Bush administration stance taken by the band at their live shows drew the ire of PABAAH (Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood), which attempted a boycott of college radio stations that played Skinny Puppy. [164]
Skinny Puppy toured Europe again in 2005, [165] and returned to the studio to complete their next album, Mythmaker , which was released in January 2007. The album reached No. 4 on the Independent Albums Chart, No. 5 on the Dance/Electronic Albums Chart, and No. 17 on the Heatseekers Chart, but barely broke the Billboard 200. [166] The band's 2007 North American and European tour, titled Mythrus, began in May 2007. [167] While some fans longed for the sounds of their earlier days, Ogre, speaking with Electronic Musician, stated the band’s intention was to move forward rather than dwell in the past. “Some people think that the stuff we do now is a pale imitation of the past. All of the older stuff had a time and place, and we decided to move forward to where we are now”. [37]
According to a news posting on the official Skinny Puppy website, the band's next studio album was originally slated for release in October 2009, [168] but the release of this album was delayed due to insolvency issues with the SPV label (thus leading to Ogre naming the 2009 tour the "In Solvent See" tour). These issues were not expected to be resolved until the end of 2009. However, the "In Solvent See" Tour took place as planned, and began on October 30. [169]
In October 2010, there were reports that the new Skinny Puppy album would be released in February 2011. [170] [171] In May 2011, Skinny Puppy announced that they finished recording a new album titled HanDover , and that they were soliciting it to other record labels for a September 2011 release date. [172] On August 27, 2011, HanDover was officially confirmed as having an October 25, 2011, release in the United States and an October 28, 2011, release in Europe. [173] Steven R Gilmore created the artwork for the album once again. [174] The album landed on a number of Billboard charts, including a spot at No. 168 on the Billboard 200 and No. 9 on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. [175]
Skinny Puppy were scheduled to perform at numerous European festivals in the summer of 2010, including the Amphi Festival in Germany, [176] the 2010 Waregem Gothic Festival in Belgium, [177] and the Recession Festival in Denmark. [178] A live album, titled Bootlegged, Broke, and In Solvent Seas and recorded on the band's 2010 European tour, was released on June 12, 2012. [179]
Skinny Puppy during the Live Shapes for Arms tour
Skinny Puppy announced that a new album, entitled Weapon , would be released on May 28, 2013. [180] The album was inspired by news brought to the band by a former guard at Guantanamo Bay that their music had been used to torture inmates. [181] Inspiration also came from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and from Ogre's personal views on the human species; in an interview with Vice , Ogre stated that he "view[s] the human being primarily as a weapon, and a lot of the things that we’ve created have had disastrous effects on us as a species". [182] The album was released to generally favorable reviews from critics, [183] several noting the 80's-esque musical style, [184] [185] and included a re-hashed version of the Remission-era track "Solvent". [186]
Key told the Phoenix New Times that the band had been dissatisfied with HanDover's production schedule, noting that it had taken them several years to produce the album. For Weapon, they made a return to the fast-paced, one-song-a-day style of their early years. The decision to remake the song "Solvent" helped to set the album's quickened pace; Key said that the music they were making for the album wouldn't sound correct "If it didn't sound like something we had just made quickly, like in the old days". [187]
At Primavera Sound, 2017
The band released a music video for the song "Illisit" [188] and in October 2013, announced their Live Shape For Arms Tour, a North American tour starting in January 2014 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA. [189] In early 2014, Ogre and Key sent an invoice of $666,000 to the US government for the use of their music at Guantanamo Bay, bringing the issue to the attention of mainstream media outlets. [190] Later in 2014, the Alliance of Sound tour was announced, with performances by Skinny Puppy, VNV Nation, Haujobb, and Youth Code. [191] However, in early November, Front Line Assembly replaced VNV Nation and the tour was renamed Eye vs. Spy, which was a 17-city North American tour between November 28 to December 20, 2014. [192]
In June, 2015, Skinny Puppy performed at the Amnesia Rockfest in Montebello, Canada, alongside acts such as Ministry and The Dillinger Escape Plan. [193] Following two successful tours with Weapon, the band yet again embarked with Youth Code, this time to play shows across North America in 2015 and across Europe in 2017 under the Down the SocioPath tour, [194] which dropped all Weapon tracks and instead introduced many songs from the band's 1996 album, The Process, which had not been accompanied by any live performances due to the death of Goettel in 1995. [195] Unlike the previous tours for Weapon, Down the SocioPath scaled back the theatrics and introduced Matthew Setzer as a live guitarist. [196] Ogre began these concerts in a white hooded robe which was removed to reveal a suit into which a stagehand inserted oversized needles. [197] The Down the Sociopath Too Euro 2017 leg lasted from May 30 to June 16, 2017. [198] The tour included stops at the Download Festival in France, [199] Primavera Sound, [200] and Wave-Gotik-Treffen. [201]
"Morter"
"Morter", from The Process , demonstrates the band's departure from the style of previous albums.
Inspired by the music of Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome, Throbbing Gristle, [39] Nocturnal Emissions, Portion Control, and The Legendary Pink Dots, [82] music which had been accessible to the band primarily via tape exchange, [202] Skinny Puppy experimented with analog and digital recording techniques, composing multi-layered music with synthesizers, drum machines, acoustic percussion, tape loops, samplers, and conventional rock music instruments to create what they called "audio sculpture". [38] [203] [204] [205] Their extensive use of sampling from horror films and radio broadcasts served to "clarify or obscure" song meanings, [206] and they applied liberal amounts of distortion and other effects to Ogre's vocals, [207] which are often delivered as a stream of consciousness. [208] [209] Lyrics commonly reference social and political topics including animal rights, environmental degradation, [210] drug addiction, [187] suicide, [211] war, [212] privacy, [213] and self-determination. [214] They have also used their music to draw attention to events such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, [208] the AIDS epidemic, [212] and the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. [215] Skinny Puppy's often informal, improvisational approach to musical composition is indicated by use of the term "brap", coined by them and defined as a verb meaning "to get together, hook up electronic instruments, get high, and record". [216]
Initially a dark synth-pop group, Skinny Puppy took on a more industrial sound following the inclusion of Dwayne Goettel in 1986, [217] and later came to be recognized as pioneers of the electro-industrial genre. [218] [6] Their music has been described as encompassing a range styles including ambient music, [39] avant-funk, [219] noise rock [206] and industrial metal. [220] The music that followed Goettel's death has been likened to genres such as glitch [221] and intelligent dance music. [222] The Village Voice described Skinny Puppy's early work as "dark electro-pop", [223] while Billboard's Bill Coleman thought of them as a "moody techno-outfit" with an "aggravating" musical delivery. [5] People magazine called Ogre's vocals "incomprehensible", and likened the group's use of sampling to noises heard on "a TV set in an adjoining hotel room". [224] AllMusic referred to Skinny Puppy's music as "primal" and "Kraftwerk gone netherworld", going on to say that unlike the bands that followed in their wake, "Ogre and Key knew how to craft tunes and marry them to the most ingenious of sound patterns". [225] Ogre told the Windsor Star in 1986 that "in some sense our music, or the feeling expressed by our music, is felt by a lot more people" than had been anticipated. [226]
Ogre said in an interview with Auxiliary Magazine in June 2013, "there is a very military side to Industrial music, and we are far more in the psychedelic side." [227]
Due to their graphic nature, the majority of the Skinny Puppy's videos received limited commercial airplay, or were outright banned from broadcast. [19] [228] The music video for "Stairs and Flowers" was banned by the Canadian Censorship Bureau because of scenes depicting "an excrement-covered woman being beaten by soldiers"; the woman in question was Ogre soaked in mud. [229] The letterbox effect used in the video for "Dig It", which portrayed stock market footage, was accused by both the bureau and MuchMusic to instead be showing pornography. [230] Also banned was the video for "Testure", an action resulting from a viewer poll held by CityTV, [19] as was the video for the song "Worlock", which was banned from MTV. [19] [231] Ogre, a self-described horror fan, [232] defended the "Worlock" video by saying "I knew there was no way they'd play "Worlock' there [the United States]. But I went out to make that video so no one would play it!"; [228] he affirmed that the video was meant to draw attention to censorship in horror films. [228] Some of the band's videos have received airplay, such as those for the promotional songs "Killing Game" [233] and "Pro-test"; [234] "Dig It" was also regularly played on MTV. [235] [43] A 30-second television promo was produced for the band by Capital Records in 1987, featuring a mix of scenes from the "Stairs and Flowers" and "Dig It" videos. [236]
In a 1990 radio interview, Goettel explained the group's outlook on music videos, stating that "it's great to do videos when you have the money to do them, but for Skinny Puppy's part it's less of a promotional tool". He said that touring and word of mouth were their preferred avenues of promotion. "When a video gets made its not like 'OK we're going to spend $50,000 and it's going to sell this many more records'... it doesn't sell any more records". [237]
Skinny Puppy is noted for theatrical and controversial live performances which blend performance art with music. [37] Ogre has been critical of the band's early performances, telling Spin magazine in 1992 that "I would do things on stage that would blow-they just wouldn't work". [238] Live performances involved periods of musical improvisation, film projections, and elaborate stage props and machines, many of which are designed and built by Ogre himself. [239] While discussing Skinny Puppy's performances, Ogre remarked that "our shows combine images with theater. It works better than just coming out and doing a horror magic routine". [238] He explained to the Vancouver Sun in 1988 that he wanted his act to have "that grey area where anything could happen - where I can cut my head off by accident and people will go, 'wow, that's great'". [240]
Nivek Ogre and cEvin Key performing live in 2014
On-stage theatrics have included Ogre being suspended from racks and cables, [89] play with a hangman's noose, [241] use of an angle grinder, [242] and mock executions of Ogre and George H.W. Bush. [164] Following the 2004 United States presidential election, promoters began to ask the band to refrain from using fake blood during their performances. This reaction was prompted by the performance of a mock execution on stage, during which Ogre was "decapitated" by actors dressed as then U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. [230] The band was also asked by Samsung (who had been asked by Ogre to sponsor the band with a large flat screen) to "not insult the president" while performing on stage. [230] In a 1987 television interview with Kim Clarke Champniss, Key explained that while Ogre follows a "rough guideline" during a live performance, a majority of his on-stage theatrics are thought up of spontaneously. Key told Champniss that Ogre's demeanor on stage could "range from just a sort of laid back kind of lurking to a rampant psycho". [243] Ogre once remarked that touring was, for himself, like "dating hydrogen peroxide", referencing the numerous injuries which he would acquire over the course of touring. [228]
Though Ogre and Key have remained the only constant members of Skinny Puppy's live act since Goettel's death, the pair have hired various other musicians to assist them onstage. They include drummer Justin Bennett, [244] guitarist William Morrison, [245] and guitarist Matthew Setzer. [246]
"Testure"
One of the more influential Skinny Puppy songs, "Testure" was the most successful single from VIVIsectVI .
Despite little mainstream airplay, several Skinny Puppy releases have charted in North America and Europe, and their influence on industrial and electronic music is considerable. [247] [248] Widely considered originators of a unique sound and live performance style, [38] [217] [249] Skinny Puppy are also known as pioneers of the industrial rock [250] and electro-industrial genres. [251] They were one of the earliest groups to help popularize industrial music, with the Los Angeles Times calling Ogre the "first industrial rock star". [252] They used their gloomy and androgynous aesthetic to attract attention from the goth scene, from which they were able to draw a larger female audience than any previous industrial group. [253] By the end of the 90s, they had sold some two million records for Nettwerk worldwide, [31] and two of their releases, Remission [254] and Bites, [255] were certified gold in Canada.
Their music has spawned "a litter of like-minded bands", [38] extending from independent acts like Tin Omen, to industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails, who opened for Skinny Puppy for a short time on their 1988 VIVIsectVI tour. [256] Trent Reznor also acknowledged that Skinny Puppy's "Dig It" inspired the very first Nine Inch Nails track written, "Down in It". [257] :38 Canadian synth-pop artist Grimes includes Skinny Puppy as an influence on her music, having grown up in Vancouver's industrial music scene. [258] [259] Sara Taylor of the EBM group Youth Code has said that the song "Worlock" was "one of the most influential songs" she had ever heard. [260] Other artists that have been impacted by Skinny Puppy's music include Marilyn Manson, [261] [262] Chester Bennington, [263] Jonathan Davis, [264] Daron Malakian, [265] 3Teeth, [266] Foals vocalist Yannis Philippakis, [267] Al Jourgensen, [11] Chris Vrenna, [268] John Grant, [269] Blush Response, [270] Death Grips vocalist MC Ride, [271] X Marks the Pedwalk, Wumpscut, Haujobb, [272] Orgy, [273] [274] Filter, [275] [276] Front Line Assembly, [277] Orphx, [278] Crystal Castles, [279] AFI side project Blaqk Audio, [280] and Mayhem vocalist Attila Csihar. [281]
The band inspired a tribute album, Hymns of the Worlock: A Tribute to Skinny Puppy published by Cleopatra Records, which features groups such as Crocodile Shop and The Electric Hellfire Club. [282] Skinny Puppy's remix album Remix Dystemper includes contributions from a wide array of musicians such as electronic music DJ Josh Wink, Guru, KMFDM, Deftones, and former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna. [283] Vrenna's solo project, Tweaker, opened for Skinny Puppy during their 2004 North American tour. [284] [285] Danny Carey from Tool and Wayne Static of Static-X provided drums and backup vocals, respectively, for the song "Use Less" from The Greater Wrong of the Right . [286]
Ogre worked with KMFDM on several occasions, touring with them in 1997 [287] and providing vocals on the song "Torture" from their album Symbols (the song also features production from Dave Ogilvie) [288] as well as for the songs "That's All" and "Full Worm Garden" from 1999's Adios . [289] Skinny Puppy also provided a remix for the Mötley Crüe song "Hooligan's Holiday"; Nikki Sixx reported that the band "just dumped the whole song in the computer and went off". [290]
Skinny Puppy's music has been included in the soundtracks of films such as Bad Influence , [291] An American Werewolf in Paris , [292] The Blair Witch Project , [293] Underworld , [155] and Saw II , [294] among others. The group was given a brief role as the "gang of goons" in the 1995 dark comedy film The Doom Generation . [230] The 1996 Video Game Descent II included original music from Ogre and Mark Walk, [295] while the 2014 PlayStation exclusive LittleBigPlanet 3 featured the song "Rodent" from the album Rabies. [296]
While discussing the possibility of Nine Inch Nails being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Richard Patrick of the band Filter remarked "what about Skinny Puppy?", going on to say that while Nine Inch Nails is the more famous of the two, Skinny Puppy were one of the first groups to craft "scary and mean" industrial music. [275]
Main article: List of Skinny Puppy side projects
ohGr performing live in Chicago, 2008
Key and Ogre are active in a number of other projects besides Skinny Puppy. Key has released several solo albums including Music for Cats and The Ghost of Each Room in 1998 and 2001, respectively. [143] [297] Doubting Thomas, a project led by Key and the late Dwayne Goettel, was an outlet for mostly instrumental compositions (save for several film and television samples). [298] The projects only releases were Father Don't Cry in 1990 and The Infidel in 1991, both released through Wax Trax! Records. [299] Download was founded by Key and Goettel in 1995 and included the assistance of frequent Skinny Puppy contributors Ken Marshall and Anthony Valcic. [139] The group has released a number of records since its formation [300] and notably provided the soundtrack album Charlie's Family in 1997 for the film The Manson Family , directed by Jim Van Bebber; the film was released six years after the album. [301] Bebber had approached Key to produce the soundtrack, having previously directed several Skinny Puppy videos as well as the short horror film Chunk Blower, which starred Goettel and Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly. [301] [302] Other notable projects include The Tear Garden with Edward Ka-Spel for The Legendary Pink Dots, [141] platEAU with Phil Western, [303] and Cyberaktif with Goettel and Leeb. [304] Key also works as Scaremeister, his film scoring alter ego, having previously contributed to John Debney's score for End of Days . [305] Scaremeister composed the album 31 Spirits, a collection of short musical pieces which have been used in the trailers of numerous films such as Inglorious Basterds , My Bloody Valentine , and The Book of Eli . [306] [307]
Ogre's main project outside Skinny Puppy is ohGr, which has released five albums, Welt (2001), SunnyPsyOp (2003), Devils in my Details (2008), UnDeveloped (2011), and TrickS (2018). [308] In the mid-nineties, Ogre and producer Martin Atkins created the project known as Rx (formerly known as Ritalin). [309] Rx released only one album, Bedside Toxicology, in 1998. [148] He also toured extensively with Pigface (1991–1995) [105] and Ministry (1987–1990) [75] and appeared on a number of Pigface and Ministry-related recordings. [310]
"VX Gas Attack"
A clip from the bootlegged version of "VX Gas Attack" that was used for torture.
Main article: Weapon (album) § Background and concept
Skinny Puppy have accused the US military of using their music to torture inmates at their Guantanamo Bay detention facility, without the band's knowledge or permission. In response, the band have sent an "invoice" to the Pentagon. [311]
Nivek Ogre – vocals, keyboards (1982–1995, 2003–present)
cEvin Key – drums, guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers (1982–1995, 2003–present)
Mark Walk – guitars, bass guitars, drums, keyboards, synthesizers (2003–present)
Dwayne Goettel – keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, bass guitar (1986–1995; died 1995)
Bill Leeb (Wilhelm Schroeder) – bass synth, backing vocals (1984–1986)
Justin Bennett – drums
Matthew Setzer – guitar
William Morrison – guitar
Main articles: Skinny Puppy discography and list of songs
Bites (1985)
Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse (1986)
Cleanse Fold and Manipulate (1987)
VIVIsectVI (1988)
Rabies (1989)
Too Dark Park (1990)
The Greater Wrong of the Right (2004)
Mythmaker (2007)
Ain't It Dead Yet? , 1991, VHS/DVD
Live performance at The Concert Hall, Toronto, Ontario, May 31 and June 1, 1987.
Video Collection (1984-1992) , 1996, VHS/DVD
Includes videos for "Dig It", "Stairs and Flowers", "Far Too Frail" (live footage 1985), "Smothered Hope" (live footage 1985), "Deep Down Trauma Hounds" (live footage from the 1987 Ain't It Dead Yet? performance), "Testure", "Spasmolytic", and "Killing Game".
Brap: Back and Forth Series 3 & 4 , 1996, 2-CD
Includes a number of video clips on those editions which included a CD-ROM portion.
Greater Wrong of the Right LIVE , 2005, 2-DVD
Live performances in Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec in late 2004. Also includes videos for "Pro-Test", "Spasmolytic" (live footage 1990), and "Love In Vein" (live footage 1992).
A number of other, promo-only videos were released, including "State Aid" (live footage 1988), "Worlock" (1990), "Candle" (1996), "Curcible" (1996), "Hardset Head" (1996), and "Haze" (2007).
Music of Canada portal
Go Ask Ogre
List of bands from British Columbia
Music of Vancouver
Nivek Ogre is a Canadian musician, performance artist and actor, best known for his work with the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded with cEvin Key. Since 1982, he has served as Skinny Puppy's primary lyricist and vocalist, occasionally providing instrumentation and samples. Ogre's charismatic personality, guttural vocals and use of costumes, props, and fake blood on stage helped widen Skinny Puppy's fanbase and has inspired numerous other musicians.
Dwayne Rudolph Goettel was a Canadian electronic musician, best known for his work in the industrial music group Skinny Puppy. Starting his career playing for a variety of acts around Edmonton, he joined Skinny Puppy in 1986 following the departure of keyboardist Bill Leeb. A classically trained pianist, he helped to broaden Skinny Puppy's sound with his extensive knowledge of equipment and sampling. He assisted bandmate cEvin Key on a number of side projects such as The Tear Garden and Doubting Thomas, and helped form the experimental electronic group Download. He also created the independent record label Subconscious Communications with friend and colleague Phil Western as a means to release his solo work.
Rabies is the fifth studio album by Skinny Puppy. It was released on November 21, 1989 through Nettwerk. The album notably features Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen who performed electric guitar and vocals on several songs. The album spawned two singles, "Tin Omen" and "Worlock", the latter of which becoming one of the band's most recognizable songs. The cover art was made by longtime Skinny Puppy collaborator Steven R. Gilmore. In 1993 the CD edition was reissued by Nettwerk to correct mastering errors in the original release.
cEvin Key is a Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. He is best known as a member of the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded in 1982 with singer Nivek Ogre. Initially a side project while he was with the new wave band Images in Vogue, Skinny Puppy quickly became his primary musical outlet following a record deal with Nettwerk Records in 1984.
VIVIsectVI is the fourth studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released on September 12, 1988 through Nettwerk. Despite tackling controversial topics like animal rights, chemical warfare, and environmental waste, VIVIsectVI was well-received. It spawned two singles, "Censor", which was released on the album as "Dogshit", and "Testure", which was Skinny Puppy's only song to chart on Billboard's Dance Club Songs. VIVIsectVI was followed by a theatrically involved tour with Nine Inch Nails as the opening act.
Remission is a 1984 EP by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy, their record label debut and first release with Nettwerk. The 12-inch EP originally featured with six tracks, then, a year later in 1985, it was released on cassette with five additional songs that lengthened the release to a full album. This expansion became the default version of Remission.
Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse is the second studio album by Skinny Puppy, released on September 5, 1986. It contained the single "Dig It", which inspired several industrial music contemporaries, including Nine Inch Nails. "Dig It" received extensive airplay on MTV and was listed by Billboard as a recommended dance track. The song "Stairs and Flowers" was also released as a single.
Too Dark Park is the sixth studio album by the industrial music group Skinny Puppy. The album cover features the debut appearance of the band's "SP" logo. The cover art was created by Vancouver based artist Jim Cummins. The artwork for this album and its associated singles was inspired by cosmic horror stories such as the Cthulhu Mythos.
The Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy has released twelve studio albums and two extended plays along with a number of live albums, compilations, and singles. The group formed in 1982 and released its debut EP, Back & Forth, in 1984. Later that year, Skinny Puppy was picked up by Nettwerk and released another EP, Remission, in December 1984. The band's first studio album, 1985's Bites, was its last with the original lineup of vocalist Nivek Ogre and producer / multi-instrumentalist cEvin Key; Dwayne Goettel joined in 1986, and the band released its next two albums, Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse and Cleanse Fold and Manipulate, in 1986 and 1987 respectively.
"Censor" is a song by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy, taken from its 1988 album VIVIsectVI and released as a single in the same year. "Censor's" original title was "Dogshit", which was changed for this release's marketability.
Chainsaw is a single by the band Skinny Puppy. It contains new material, as well as additional material taken from their albums Bites and Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse.
"Addiction" is a song by the band Skinny Puppy, taken from their 1987 album Cleanse Fold and Manipulate. It was released on vinyl in 1987 and released on CD in 1991 (Canada) and 1997. The lyrics of the song quote the 19th century Gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin.
"Testure" is a song by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy, taken from its 1988 album VIVIsectVI and released as a single in 1989. "Testure" was the group's first and last song to chart on Billboards's Dance Club Songs, and it was accompanied with a controversial music video.
Mythmaker is the tenth studio album by electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released on January 30, 2007 through Synthetic Symphony. Lead vocalist Nivek Ogre said the band took a simplified approach, but that it was a difficult record to make. It charted on a number of billboard charts, and received mostly positive reviews, with critics focusing on whether it was stylistically similar to previous albums.
"Track 10", originally titled "Left Handshake", is a song by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy created for its 1992 album Last Rights. The track was meant to close Last Rights, but it was ultimately cut due to threatened legal action from the owner of a sample that appears in the song. "Track 10" did not see individual release until August 20, 2000, when it was sold at Skinny Puppy's reunion performance in Germany.
Weapon is the twelfth studio album by Canadian electro-industrial band Skinny Puppy. It was released on May 28, 2013 through Metropolis Records. Skinny Puppy received mainstream media attention when the band billed the U.S. government for using its music as torture in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which was a primary source of inspiration for the album. Musically, Weapon's sound is reminiscent of Skinny Puppy's earliest releases, Remission (1984) and Bites (1985), due to the employment of old equipment and simplified songwriting.
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↑ "Bad Influence - Original Soundtrack". AllMusic . All Media Network. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
↑ "An American werewolf in Paris - Original Soundtrack". AllMusic . All Media Network. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
↑ "The Blair Witch Project: Josh's Blair Witch Mix [Enhanced Disc]". AllMusic . All Media Network. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
↑ "Saw 2 - Original Soundtrack". AllMusic . All Media Network. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
↑ "Descent II (Video Game) Soundtrack". Discogs. Discogs.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
↑ Clark, Justin. "LittleBigPlanet 3 Review: Knitting Lessons". Engadget. AOL Tech. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
↑ "The Ghost of Each Room by cEvin Key". Metropolis Records. metropolisrecords.bandcamp.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
↑ Jeffries, Vincent. "AllMusic Review: The Infidel". AllMusic. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
↑ "Doubting Thomas Discography". Discogs. discogs.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2016.
↑ "Download Discography". Discogs. discogs.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
1 2 Kelly, Kim. "Skinny Puppy's Cevin Key Looks Back at 'The Manson Family,' Stream the Soundtrack Here". Noisey: Music by Vice. noisey.vice.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
↑ Hall, Oliver. "'Chunk Blower,' the unfinished horror movie starring members of Skinny Puppy". Dangerous Minds. dangerousminds.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
↑ "Plateau". Metropolis Records. metropolis-records.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
↑ Prato, Greg. "Cyberaktif Biography". AllMusic. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
↑ "Scaremeister, "31 Spirits"". I Die : You Die. idieyoudie.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
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Continuing Power of Attorney (Scotland)
You can use this pack to appoint a person as your attorney to look after your financial affairs in the event that you lose capacity to do so yourself. This particular Power of Attorney is only for use if you live in Scotland and will only permit your attorney to look after your financial affairs. If you would like to appoint an attorney to look after your welfare, i.e. your health and social needs, use the Welfare Power of Attorney, or if you would like to have the same attorneys look after your financial affairs and your personal welfare, use the document Continuing and Welfare Power of Attorney. Your attorney can either take up this power immediately or, if you choose, not until two doctors certify that you are incapable of making these decisions for yourself. This Power of Attorney will allow you to appoint up to three attorneys, or a sole attorney in combination with a substitute attorney.
Continuing Powers of Attorney must be registered with the OPG in Scotland for them to be brought into effect. You must complete a registration form and send it to the OPG Scotland. See more on the OPG Scotland website.
There is a separate fee for registering a Power of Attorney which must be enclosed when a Power of Attorney is sent to the OPG (Scotland) for registration. Details of the fee can be found on the OPG (Scotland) website.
Please note that this document is only suitable for people who live in Scotland.
How to complete your Which? Wills Continuing Power of Attorney Pack
Continuing power of attorney (Guidance Notes)
You can use this pack to appoint someone as your attorney to look after your financial affairs and personal welfare (health and social needs) in the event that you were to lose capacity to do so yourself.
Your attorney can either take up the financial power immediately or, if you choose, not until two doctors certify that you are incapable of making these decisions for yourself.
The welfare part of this Power of Attorney will only come into effect with the medical certification.
This Power of Attorney will allow you to appoint up to three attorneys, or a sole attorney in combination with a substitute attorney.
Start by completing the document ‘Continuing and Welfare Power of Attorney’ and then use our document ‘Certificate for Scottish Powers of Attorney’. Both of these documents are included in this pack. Please note that the completion of the Certificate is an essential requirement of granting a Continuing and Welfare Power of Attorney in Scotland and your Continuing and Welfare Power of Attorney will not be registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) unless a solicitor or doctor has signed the appropriate Certificate attached to the Continuing and Welfare Power of Attorney.
The solicitor or doctor may charge a fee for completing the Certificate.
Continuing Powers of Attorney and Welfare Powers of Attorney must be registered with the OPG in Scotland for them to come into effect. You must complete a registration form and send it to the Public Guardian’s Office. See more on the Public Guardian Scotland website.
There is a separate fee for registering a Power of Attorney which must be enclosed when a Power of Attorney is sent to the Public Guardian’s Office for registration. Please see our Guidance Notes for further details on registration.
This particular Power of Attorney is only for use if you live in Scotland and where you would like the same attorney(s) to look after your financial affairs and your personal welfare.
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Molina, Ozuna homer as Cards top Dodgers 7-2 for 4th in row
Molina, Ozuna homer in Wednesday's win against Los Angeles. (Source: @Cardinals)
By Jared Goffinet | April 11, 2019 at 10:15 AM CDT - Updated April 11 at 10:15 AM
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Yadier Molina and Marcell Ozuna homered, Jack Flaherty tossed six effective innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 on Wednesday night.
The Cardinals have won four in a row and will try to sweep the four-game series Thursday. They have outscored their opponents 19-6 during the winning streak.
Max Muncy and Joc Pederson homered for the Dodgers, who have lost three straight after a five-game winning streak.
Paul DeJong had three hits and drove in a run with a triple in the sixth. DeJong extended his career-best hitting streak to 11 games. He is tied with San Francisco's Brandon Crawford for the longest current streak in the National League.
Flaherty (1-0) gave up three hits and one run in his 99-pitch effort. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter. He has permitted one run over 11 innings in his last two starts.
Molina, who drove in three runs, homered off Kenta Maeda (2-1) in the sixth to push the lead to a 5-1. Ozuna, who had three hits, added a two-run drive in the eighth.
Maeda gave up five runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Pederson's one-out shot in the sixth brought the Dodgers to 2-1. Los Angeles has gone deep in 11 of 13 games this season.
EVEN UP
The Cardinals and Dodgers have played each other 2,074 times since 1892. The series is even at 1,029-1,029 with 16 ties.
KERSHAW ON TRACK
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to make his season debut Sunday or Monday, according to manager Dave Roberts.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner, bothered by shoulder inflammation during spring training, completed his second effective rehab appearance Tuesday night for Double-A Tulsa against Springfield. He went six innings and allowed two runs on five hits. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.
"He felt good coming out of it," Roberts said. "He's lined up for Sunday or Monday, whichever makes the most sense."
Dodgers: Placed C Russell Martin on the 10-day injured list with lower back inflammation and recalled C Rocky Gale from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Gale was 2 for 6 with three runs scored at Oklahoma City. He went 0 for 2 as a September call-up last season.
Cardinals: Ozuna was in the starting lineup after he tumbled off the outfield fence while trying to catch a long drive Tuesday. Ozuna scaled the left field wall, but the ball came up short and he hit the warning track face first.
Los Angeles RHP Walker Buehler (1-0, 6.75 ERA) will face RHP Michael Wacha (0-0, 1.54) in the series finale Thursday afternoon. Buehler has not allowed a run in two career starts against St. Louis, yielding five hits over 15 innings with 18 strikeouts. Wacha walked a career-high eight in a 6-4 loss to San Diego on Saturday.
(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Turkish woman’s murder trial makes waves in public opinion
Jasper Mortimer February 25, 2019
When a female university student fell to her death from an office tower in May 2018, police were initially inclined to believe her male hosts' version of the story, but a trial has brought to light new evidence against the men.
ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images
Women protest before the trial regarding the death of Sule Cet, who was allegedly killed by being thrown off the 20th floor of a luxury building in Ankara, Turkey, Nov. 8, 2018.
ANKARA, Turkey — One night in May 2018 two men dined with a female university student who had worked for them part-time as a cashier. Afterward they invited her for drinks in one of Ankara’s distinctive office towers.
She agreed, and photographs taken with one of the men’s cellphones show her drinking a bottle of beer in an office on the 20th floor, the lights of the city shining through the window. She appears to be happy.
Sometime later the guards in the ground-floor reception of the Yelken Plaza heard a loud bang. A security video shows it startled them. They asked each other what happened. The time was 3:50 a.m. What they had heard came from a first-floor terrace, a few meters above their heads. The bang was the sound of the young woman hitting concrete after a fall of 66 meters.
The two men are now standing trial in the Turkish capital, charged with detaining Sule Cet (pronounced Shule Chet), 23, against her will, raping and murdering her. Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence for murder and a total of 39 years imprisonment on the lesser charges.
The men — Cagatay Aksu, 34, and Berk Akand, 35, both businessmen — deny all charges. Their defense is that Cet threw herself out the window, with Aksu trying to pull her back in, tearing the tendons in his arm in the process.
The death of Cet has become a cause celebre. Scores of female activists held posters of her face outside the Palace of Justice when the trial began earlier this month. Representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition parties asked the judge to accept them as “parties to the case.” The judge refused, but he did grant such status to the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.
Social media users are making heavy use of the hashtag #SuleCetIcinAdalet (Justice for Sule Cet). Aksu and Akand are effectively on trial in two places: Criminal Court 31 and the court of public opinion.
Ozden Oz of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform (Kadin Cinayetlerini Durduracagiz Platformu) told Al-Monitor that 440 women were killed by men in Turkey in 2018, and 409 women were killed in 2017. “This case symbolizes the terrible face of femicide in Turkey,” Oz said.
The defendants deny killing Cet. On the first and only day of the trial so far, they persuaded the judge to refer to the death as the “falling incident.” Very quickly somebody tweeted: “It is not a falling death. It is femicide.”
Aksu told the police that while he was tidying up the office, preparing to leave, and Akand was dozing in a chair, he noticed Cet go into another room. Moments later Aksu entered the room to find Cet halfway out the window, shouting, “I don’t want to live anymore.” He tried to stop her, grabbing her ankle, but failed.
Akand told the police he did not hear Aksu shout for help to pull Cet inside, as he was sleepy and loud music was playing.
Initially the police accepted their version of events. The prosecutor closed the case as a suicide. But Cet’s family did not believe that Sule was suicidal.
Then the first of four forensic reports arrived. It found Cet’s vagina and anus had been torn and bruised, and her vagina contained saliva and PSA, a protein released by the penis. Unfortunately, the PSA and saliva were not found in concentrations sufficient to allow for DNA testing.
But DNA testing could be conducted on Cet’s fingernails, and the third and fourth fingers of her right hand bore Akand’s DNA.
A friend of Cet’s came forward with a text message that Sule sent her from the office. It said: “I can’t get out of here. This man doesn’t let me go. He is obsessed with me.”
A third piece of evidence made the prosecutors think again. The police obtained security camera footage from the lobby of the 20th floor. The video, which Al-Monitor has seen, shows the accused leaving the office after Cet’s death.
As soon as he enters the lobby, Akand crouches down on the floor. When Aksu enters, Akand rises and walks unsteadily to the elevator, where he presses the button to summon the elevator. Akand then buries his face in his hands, apparently overcome by emotion. He remonstrates with Aksu, shaking his right hand as if to say “Why?”
Aksu, whose back is to the camera, appears to be calm. He is smoking a cigarette, but Akand seems to be in severe shock.
The video shows that the accused left the office at 4:08 a.m., 18 minutes after Cet’s body hit the terrace.
What the two men did during those 18 minutes is a mystery. The indictment states that after Aksu told Akand of Cet’s suicide, they had an argument and Akand punched Aksu. The indictment accuses them of tampering with evidence, washing the drinking glasses and cleaning the window frame of fingerprints.
Aksu denies this, but Akand says the glasses were washed. The two men have fallen out. They have engaged different lawyers. Both are in jail.
What is clear about those 18 minutes is that neither man dialed 155, the emergency number in Turkey. A human rights lawyer who is following the case, Gunal Kursun, told Al-Monitor: “If something bad has happened, I expect a normal human being to call immediately the police or ambulance, or at least call somebody, but they didn’t.”
The lawyer for Aksu, Levent Ekmen, told Al-Monitor the court had not yet asked the accused why they didn’t call 155.
Eventually the guards at reception called the police. The fire brigade brought a ladder that enabled them to reach the first-floor terrace. Cet’s body was found clothed, but with her socks and shoes removed. Strangely, the tip of one shoe was under her right arm. Umur Yildirim, the Cet family's lawyer, told Al-Monitor this shows that her shoes were thrown out before her body.
Mehmet Akif, a guard, told the police that when Aksu and Akand were leaving the building, he asked them where the young woman was. Both replied to the effect: “She has gone. Didn’t you see her go?”
If the guard is telling the truth, the conversation would have been unreal. Aksu had told Akand that Cet had jumped out the window and, minutes later, they are telling the reception that Cet had left in the normal way.
The trial has been adjourned to May 15. The three judges, one of whom is a woman, face several other issues that may be difficult to reconcile.
For instance, Aksu’s lawyer, Ekmen, pointed to fact that although the prosecution alleges rape, no sperm was found in Cet. He told the court that since PSA and saliva could survive in the vagina for seven days, it was possible that any traces belonged to an earlier sexual encounter. Cet’s “hymen was broken” before the day of her death, he said.
The comment generated outrage. It was seen as Ekmen trying to mobilize public opinion against Cet. Three days later, Ekmen issued a statement to the press, saying he had merely “repeated sentences” in the forensic reports.
His statement showed he was well aware of how large numbers of Turks would view Cet’s behavior. “Sule Cet’s virginity, her drinking alcohol — with whom, where and at what time — is neither the subject of the trial nor the business of anybody else,” Ekmen said in the press statement.
Ekmen spoke with Al-Monitor at length, saying he despaired of the “trial by media” that was underway. “Our demand is the case must be decided by an objective court,” he said.
Yildirim, for the Cet family, was equally generous in giving time to Al-Monitor, but he sees the media as a vital ally in his campaign to overturn a perceived bias toward men in Turkey’s judicial system. “We are going to win this case by telling people what has happened,” he said. “If it were not for that, they would have closed this case.”
Found in: Women’s rights
Jasper Mortimer is a South African-trained journalist who works for France24 TV and GRN. While traveling the world, he was waylaid in the Middle East, married a Turkish woman and settled in Ankara in 2007. He covers the Kurdish issue, the Syrian war and Cyprus.
Will Iraq cut a deal to prosecute foreign IS fighters?
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Can Turkey correct human rights record with new justice reform strategy?
Some Palestinians up in arms over weapons proliferation
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All About Jesus Christ
Where Was Jesus Crucified
QUESTION: Where Was Jesus Crucified?
Where was Jesus crucified? We find the answer in Scripture. This information is recorded in all four of the gospels. However, three of the gospels use one Greek word and one gospel uses another.
"And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull" (Matthew 27:33).
"And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull" (Mark 15:22).
"And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha" (John 19:17).
In these three gospels the Greek word "Golgotha" is used and it means as we read in Matthew "a place of a skull." The Hebrew and the Greek word were the same and therefore it was a commonly known name.
Luke uses the Greek word "Calvary" rather than Golgotha. "And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left" (Luke 23:33). This word in Greek means cranium, or skull and all four gospels identify this spot outside of the gates of Jerusalem as the place where Jesus was placed on a cross. Therefore, the place where Jesus was crucified was a knoll or hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem that was made up of rock shaped like a man's skull and both the Romans and the Jews knew this place by the same name.
Why here? There were several reasons. For the Romans, this spot outside the gates of the city was a place where they crucified criminals as a sign to those who would visit the city that they did not tolerate criminality. In other words, it was capitol punishment used as a deterrent for crime. It was a usual practice for those crucified to be left on the cross for days and they often became rotting corpses that were food for the carrion eaters. Only those criminals who were Jewish or had someone to claim the body were taken down and placed in graves. Jesus' body was buried in the grave belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea (Matthew 27:57-60). Others were sometimes left to rot on the cross and then their bones were cast into a potter's field.
Another reason that the crucifixions took place outside of the city was because of the strict Jewish laws regarding the proximity of dead bodies to the living. Coming into contact with a dead body meant a period of ritual cleansing for uncleanness (Numbers 19:11-22). The Pharisees took this very seriously and all tombs in the city were white washed so that no one could accidentally come into contact with them and be ceremonially unclean. In addition, there was the fact that anyone who "hung on a tree" was cursed. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13).
This is a quote from Deuteronomy. "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance" (Deuteronomy 21:23). Therefore, the body of any Jew that was hanged or crucified had to be taken down before the beginning of a new day or there was defilement. This practice was accepted by the Roman government as a way to keep the peace with the Jews.
Where was Jesus crucified? Golgotha is where Jesus was crucified by the Romans and it was a place where capitol punishment was meted out. If the Jews had punished Jesus, He would have been stoned. Therefore, the sovereignty of God and the fulfillment of Scripture were perfectly accomplished at the "place of the skull."
Learn More about the Crucifixion.
We have all sinned and deserve God’s judgment. God, the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus, the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried, and rose from the dead according to the Bible. If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving Jesus alone as your Savior, declaring, "Jesus is Lord," you will be saved from judgment and spend eternity with God in heaven.
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House of Lords EU Committee report on Brexit and financial services
Brexit insights
Last month, the House of Lords European Union Select Committee published a report "Brexit: financial services" which sets out some initial findings on the impact of Brexit on the sector, which will be used by the House of Lords for further consideration and debate. The UK is the world's largest exporter of financial services and insurance, contributing more than 7% of UK GDP. Nearly two thirds of those employed in financial services in the UK reside outside London. Given the size of the industry, its importance to the wider UK and EU economies, and the potential impact of Brexit, the House of Lords says that financial services should be the first issue to be investigated. We set out a short summary of the report below.
Financial services relocating from Britain as a result of Brexit are more likely to move to New York than elsewhere in the EU because New York has a highly evolved finance "ecosystem" like London, which would be very difficult to replicate in the EU.
The extent to which UK financial services firms currently rely on passporting needs to be determined: some firms themselves did not have a clear idea of their reliance on passporting.
If the current passporting regime is not maintained post Brexit, the UK Government should seek a deal to bolster the current equivalence framework, to cover gaps in that framework and ensure the continuation of equivalence decisions as financial services regulation develops.
Avoiding disruption in financial services is a high priority. There must be a clearly defined and adequate transition period, avoiding a "cliff edge", both at the moment of withdrawal following the Article 50 process and as the UK and EU move toward a new relationship.
The report is structured via a number of chapters, with a more detailed assessment, some data, and input from participants who appeared before the House of Lords.
Passporting and equivalence
The legislation underpinning access to the EU is based on the regulation of activities, and does not map easily onto the business structure of many firms. Better data and evidence needs to be collected to understand how firms are likely to be affected by changes to the rights of access to the EU.
Some UK firms were not aware of the extent to which they relied on passports.
The EU equivalence framework is narrow and potentially unreliable. The process of determining equivalence is complex and fraught with risk and uncertainty for firms. For example, there is currently no time limit within which the EU Commission must make an equivalence decision.
Although the UK would lose direct influence in setting the EU regulatory regime post Brexit, the UK was, and would remain influential at the international level where an international framework was in place, and for those areas of the financial services sector subject to such a framework, this would mean the UK would still have influence over the direction of travel for the EU.
The UK financial "ecosystem"
Such is the size, complexity and interconnectedness of the UK financial services sector, many have described it as an ecosystem: it is not possible to consider different parts of financial services in isolation – they need to be considered holistically.
EU firms rely heavily on the services provided by the UK financial services industry and there are interdependencies between financial services and other EU businesses – efforts to draw services away from the UK to the EU could be as harmful to the wider EU economy as to the UK economy.
Any assessment of Brexit on financial services must take this into account and it makes that assessment particularly complicated. The interconnectedness of the financial system presents serious difficulties in determining the impact of Brexit. The 2 year period of the Art 50 negotiations is insufficient. A considered and orderly transition is required.
The UK has a number of advantages as a financial services hub – which allows for economies of scale and depth of capital market activity that cannot be easily replicated, except possibly in New York. Evidence submitted suggests it would be to the EU's advantage that such a system remains intact.
In relation to euro clearing activities, the UK is dominant in this area. The ECB previously attempted to require euro clearing to be conducted within the Eurozone, which the UK successfully challenged. Post Brexit, there has been a renewed suggestion this activity should be conducted within the Eurozone, even though this would have an negative impact on both EU and UK firms. The question is whether any Eurozone location could provide the same benefits to the wider economy as London (or New York), and whether a politically driven attempt to "repatriate" euro clearing to the Eurozone would invite retaliation by other non-eurozone states, leading to a breakdown of the system of multi-currency clearing.
Free movement and Fintech
The ability of the UK to continue to access highly qualified staff and transfer them between the UK and EU is a key issue for the financial services industry. Currently the UK financial services sector employs over 1,000,000 people of whom around 60,000 are EU nationals and 100,000 are non EU nationals.
FinTech relies on foreign staff to a greater degree than the wider financial services sector and would be impacted by any restrictions on movement of people post Brexit.
Access to data is vital for the FinTech sector. The UK would need to continue to observe similar data protection standards as those under the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The same applies to the account data and third party access requirements being introduced under PSDII.
Although the FinTech industry has thrived in London, it could potentially move elsewhere.
The House of Lords considered what a bespoke deal for the UK's relationship with the EU might look like post Brexit. In the context of financial services, they assert that any agreement should supplement the current equivalence regimes. To negotiate effectively, the government should model the different scenarios as accurately as possible. This is still to be done.
In relation to planning and transition, the House of Lords observed that negotiations with the EU on the UK's new relationship are likely to take longer than the withdrawal negotiations under Article 50. A transitional period will be required in relation to financial services following completion of the Art 50 process. The length of that period may need to be extended in the light of subsequent negotiations on a new long term relationship with the EU.
Uncertain times require resilience and preparation.
We at AG are here to help.
New Transport Report – Backing Northern Powerhouse Rail
Build to Rent Report 2019 – Britain's Quality Rental Market
Energy Brexit report
View all Brexit insights
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UnReal’s Producers Explain How the Show Will Rebound From Season 2’s Backlash
Co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro puts her agency background to use
Even after a rocky second season, UnReal's co-creator says the show will continue taking "big swings."
After UnReal’s critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated debut in 2015, the Lifetime drama—about two women who produce a Bachelor-like reality show called Everlasting—weathered a backlash during its bumpy sophomore season. The show lost ratings and alienated critics with polarizing storylines including a Black Lives Matter-inspired police shooting and an assault on lead character Rachel by her drunk ex-boyfriend.
Now co-creator Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, and new showrunner Stacy Rukeyser, are hoping to get the series back on track with Season 3, which premieres on Monday. In 2005, Shapiro fled her job as a field producer on The Bachelor and started working at Wieden + Kennedy as a content producer. The agency later helped her make the independent short film (and UnReal’s inspiration) Sequin Raze and then turn it into a TV series.
Shapiro, joined by Rukeyser, talked about what she learned from Season 2, working with brands again and what she misses most, and least, from her Wieden days.
Adweek: What’s your take on what went wrong in Season 2, and what did you learn from that experience?
Sarah Gertrude Shapiro: The show takes big swings, period, and I don’t think we’re ever going to shy away from that. We definitely heard the feedback and the criticism: We heard it all, we read it all and we talked about it all. But at the end of the day, we’re still making the Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and Rachel (Shiri Appleby) show, and we’re eyes on the prize and we keep going forward. There’s some stuff we wish we had followed up on more, like emotional through lines that hadn’t been carried through, that we were interested in paying off in Season 3. And recalibrating the show back to its basic principle: It’s about the battle for Rachel’s soul and this relationship between Quinn and Rachel.
In the new season, Quinn and Rachel are fighting to save Everlasting, which seems to parallel what you’re going through as well.
Shapiro: Yeah, it’s kind of meta.
You had a year-and-a-half hiatus in between seasons. Do you feel like the longer break was good or bad for the show?
Rukeyser: It’s been hard for us, because we’ve had shows that we’re really excited about that we want to share with people, that we haven’t gotten to share it. It was very encourage that they ordered a fourth season [last summer] before they even saw how Season 3 did with the critics or in the ratings. That was such a vote of confidence, that it made us feel even better about this season.
Sarah, now that you’re three seasons into the show, what has your advertising background helped the most with?
Shapiro: Succinct storytelling is always useful. Learning how to tell a story in 30 seconds is a very powerful skill to have. Dedication to excellence, no matter what, was also something I took away from Wieden + Kennedy. We always go for the very best, all the time, and that’s what we strive to do at UnReal.
It’s been four years since you left Wieden. What do you miss most—and least?
Shapiro: It was such an incredible, creative incubator, and such a collaborative place to be. I miss Portland so much, and I miss the hell out of my friends there. I don’t miss clients. [laughs] I really, really enjoy being able to make something that is our voice, and that is just about the creative and not about a product. It’s incredibly liberating.
You’ve done product integrations on UnReal, so what has it been like to work with brands again?
Shapiro: On an episode I directed [in Season 2], we had a Samsung placement, so we were working with [W+K client] Samsung again. We’ve very grateful to have those partners—that’s not even lip service—so it’s not that big of a deal. The funny part is seeing other TV writers getting really pissed off about it—“Do we really have to show this product?”—where it’s another day at the office for me. I’m like, “This is nothing compared to what I used to have to do!”
Rukeyser: It depends how egregious it is. Not on this show, but I’ve had the write the scene where it’s like, we’re going to go home, but first let me pay for the check with my Mastercard debit card!
Will you be incorporating a storyline based on last summer’s Bachelor in Paradise scandal?
Rukeyser: That happened just before we were starting to talk about Season 4, so it may or may not infuse the storyline in Season 4. But again, we start with Quinn and Rachel, and where are their heads and their hearts at? Because if you’re trying to catch a story that’s in the news, we have no idea when these things are going to air, so who knows? We’re just trying to write for what is interesting to us, and what feels important to us, and for these characters too.
Could we see a version of something like Bachelor Winter Games in a future season of UnReal?
Shapiro: Every season when we’re breaking [the storylines], we come up with a reality show based on what we need to have happen for Rachel and Quinn. So the reason why there’s a suitress [in Season 3] is because they need to have an avatar to project all their shit onto. We choose the show within the show based on what we need for those characters, so Winter Games … maybe!
Click for more from this issue
This story first appeared in the Feb. 26, 2018, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.
http://adweek.it/2Hxg8UK
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History of origins
BAMAG
On 28/09/1872, Dessau company Arendt & Beselin and the company Oechelhaeuser & Blum Berlin joined to form Berlin - Anhaltische Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (B.A.M.A.G.). With a machine factory in Berlin and in Dessau factory I, as well as a grey iron and steel foundry in Dessau factory II, BAMAG quickly rose in prominence in the German industry’s leading group. At the beginning of the 20th century, BAMAG began specialising in driving mechanisms (transmissions). After 1933, the production programme became more and more oriented towards defence requirements, for which factory III was built in 1935. This factory was 80% destroyed in the air raids of the 7th March 1945.
VEB Elektromotorenwerk Dessau
Following the nationalisation of BAMAG on 30th October 1946, the factory began producing dual piston hand pumps , and various other devices. Following this, in October 1948, the VVB (German Association of Publicly Owned Enterprises) operation also took up the manufacture of electric motors began focussing on electrical engineering. From that point on, the operation operated under the name VEM Elektromotoren- und Kompressorenwerk Dessau, before becoming VEB Elektromotorenwerk Dessauin 1951. By 1949, 3250 electric motors had already been manufactured at the Dessau location. In 1953, the manufacture of self-excited synchronous generators was also added. Two synchronous generators from 1954 were still being used for power generation at the listed Zülow hydro-electric power plant in Mecklenburg until the autumn of 2005, when they were replaced by new and much more powerful AEM SE 630 S16 generators.
VEM-Antriebstechnik AG Dresden
On 5/04/1990, following the German reunification, VEB Kombinat Elektromaschinenbau, to which Elektromotorenwerk Dessau was also associated, established the GDR’s first capital company: VEM Antriebstechnik AG Dresden. Elektromotorenwerk Dessau began operating under the name VEM-Elektromotorenwerk Dessau GmbH on 26/6/1990. It changed its name again on 30/3/1992 to VEM-Elektromotorenwerk Dessau, a branch office of VEM-Antriebstechnik AG Dresden.
To avoid VEM’s threatened closure of the Dessau plant (VEM was still managed at that time by the trust), four of the company’s former employees founded AEM-Anhaltische Elektromotorenwerk Dessau GmbH in April 1993 via MBO/MBI. After lengthy negotiations with VEM-Antriebstechnik AG, the purchase agreement was signed on 29/09/1993, and 1/06/1993 was appointed the official takeover date.
Using an unfinished investment project from the year 1989, a completely new plant with 150 employees was set up by the end of 1995 with an investment of 21.5 million DM.
In order to continue to obtain the necessary electrical engineering skilled worker knowledge in Dessau, AEM recruits an average of 8 trainees per year in up to 8 different career paths.
In order to be able to continue to meet the increasing requirements on quality and flexibility and to manage increasing order volumes, construction began on a new factory in the summer of 2006. At the heart of the investment project is the newly electrical sheet manufacture using 4 ultramodern laser cutting systems. A few months after the completion of this building, the next investment was already received: A spacious logistics centre with integrated, environmentally colouring system was built to eliminate the space problems resulting from the partial transfer of products to larger shaft heights in the installation.
In 2009, a third new factory was built for the construction of a highly productive machining complex, including the restructuring of technological processes.
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MEDIA ROOMOperations
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "The Political and Security Crises in Burundi"
Testimony of Dr. Joseph Siegle, Director of Research, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, presented to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, Dec. 9, 2015.
By Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense UniversityWashington, D.C.Dec 15, 2015
1 photo: Africa Center for Strategic Studies logo
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Testimony of Dr. Joseph Siegle, Director of Research, Africa Center for Strategic Studies
United States Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, December 9, 2015
[Download PDF]
Chairman Flake, Ranking Member Markey, and fellow members of the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the crisis in Burundi.
While frequently characterized in ethnic overtones pitting the majority Hutu population against the minority Tutsi, the crisis in Burundi today is not an ethnic conflict. This is a political crisis—an outcome of a political leader and a small cadre of allies aiming to perpetuate their hold on power past constitutionally-mandated term limits. This has triggered a breakdown in Burundi’s popular and heretofore effective process of building a multi-ethnic democratic transition since the conclusion of the country’s 12-year civil war in 2005 in which an estimated 300,000 Burundians lost their lives.
While there are pathways to resolving this crisis, it is important that a resolution be found quickly, before the situation deteriorates to a point of fragmentation and self-perpetuating ethnic conflict such that any solution becomes much more difficult and costly.
The Current Security Situation
The crisis in Burundi was triggered on April 25, when incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would seek a third term in office, despite a two-term limit in the country’s constitution. Popular, peaceful protests organized by a multi-ethnic coalition of civil society organizations ensued. So too did an orchestrated campaign of intimidation by a youth militia, the Imbonerakure, which was established, trained, and armed by the ruling CNDD-FDD party for at least a year in advance. The repression escalated following an attempted military coup in May. Opposition strongholds, civil society representatives, and media were especially targeted.
This has led to the deaths of an estimated 500 people and the displacement of 280,000-350,000. Underscoring the political origins of this crisis—and the repercussions for dissent—many senior government officials from the CNDD-FDD opposed to Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term have also fled to exile.
In the face of this intimidation and exodus, peaceful protests have waned and violent reprisals have emerged. In early August, a well-coordinated rocket attack killed the most feared military figure in the country, General Adolphe Nshimirimana. Reflecting an apparent decapitation strategy, several other senior military figures have also been assassinated or targeted. Several dozen police officers have also been attacked. In apparent retaliation, civil society and opposition political leaders or their family members have been killed.
Despite calls from African and international leaders to delay elections until the term limit controversy could be resolved through regional mediation efforts and stability restored, the CNDD-FDD held parliamentary and presidential elections in July. The elections were boycotted by opposition parties and were deemed to lack credibility by the United States, the African Union, the East African Community, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Catholic Church in Burundi.
Keeping track of these fluid developments has been all the more difficult because Burundi’s independent media outlets have been shuttered by government forces since May. Access to independent and corroborated sources of information has become more difficult.
The Fear of Genocide
Raising the stakes further, in an effort to mobilize support among the Hutu majority, the CNDD-FDD has been increasingly employing ethnically polarizing tactics. Purges among senior military and government officials have largely been ethnically based. In November, CNDD-FDD leaders began invoking ethnically incendiary language, recalling the pattern employed in the Rwandan genocide. Emblematic of this was a speech Burundian Senate President Reverien Ndikuriyo gave to supporters in Kirundi on November 3: “…on this issue, you have to pulverize, you have to exterminate—these people are only good for dying. I give you this order, go!” Similar statements were made by other senior government leaders including Pierre Nkurunziza. These remarks triggered a new surge of refugees toward Burundi’s borders.
Swift international condemnation of such language, notably by President Obama, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and an open letter by International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that any invocation to ethnic violence would be used as evidence in a future ICC investigation, have led to the tempering of such inflammatory remarks. Nonetheless, the intimidation and targeted killings continue.
In short, the foundation for genocide – the mindset, climate of fear, and polarization – has been laid. Some Burundians have said the level of apprehension is now worse than during the civil war. Then, most of the killing was between armed combatants. Now civilians are also being targeted, causing a greater sense of vulnerability.
Various mediation efforts have been underway since April, led primarily by the African Union and the United Nations. These have been unsuccessful in dissuading Nkurunziza from his determination to hold onto power at all costs, however.
Nkurunziza’s determined resistance to diplomacy and reason, even at risk of precipitating a new civil war and overturning all of the progress Burundi had made over the past decade, has led many Burundians to conclude that the only pressure he will respond to is military force.
Regional Implications
Finding a resolution in Burundi has broader implications than for the country itself. Already the Burundi crisis has placed a burden on its neighbors with 223,000 refugees—mostly in Rwanda and Tanzania. During the 1993-2005 civil war there were 870,000 Burundian refugees, exacting a prolonged economic burden on the region.
Africa’s Great Lakes region has also been host to some of the most prolonged, vicious, and complicated conflicts on the continent over the past two decades—from which the region has only recently been moving past. Further escalation against the population in Burundi could at any time precipitate a military intervention by neighboring Rwanda, where the memories of genocide remain fresh. This, in turn, may spark a military response from other neighbors worried about Rwanda’s influence in the region and recalling previous conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Likewise, there have already been reports of Rwandan Hutu rebel groups operating out of the DRC, notably the Interahamwe, coming into Burundi in support of government-aligned militias.
The outcome of the term limits battle in Burundi also has political implications for the rest of Africa. Since 2000, a dozen African leaders have tried to circumvent term limits that were instituted to limit the monopolization of power and foster a culture of democratic transitions in Africa. Half of those leaders were successful in extending their time in office. The other half, facing concerted domestic and international opposition, were not. In fact, the trend since 2010 has been to block such attempted circumventions. The outcome in Burundi, therefore, will shape the norm on the continent where 19 of 54 African leaders have been in power for more than a decade (and four for more than 30 years). Furthermore, the tactics used in pursuing a third term in Burundi – overriding the constitution, bullying opponents, and then holding rump elections – are a particularly dangerous precedent for Africa if allowed to stand.
Underlying Factors to the Burundi Crisis
Given the devastating social and economic costs to Burundi caused by Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to pursue a third term in office, as well as strong opposition from within his own party, it is reasonable to reflect on what some of the underlying motivations for this course of action may be.
In addition to the natural desire of many leaders in positions of authority to extend their time in power, Nkurunziza’s efforts to retain control of the presidency likely stem from a Burundian political economy that rewards senior officials financially. Access to political power in Burundi allows for considerable control over public procurement processes, the mining sector, international financial assistance, and reimbursements for peacekeeping deployments. Moreover, presidential power affords control over state-owned monopolies, land and property sales, privatization procedures, as well as import and export restrictions. Burundi scores 159th out of 175 countries on Transparency International’s ranking of most corrupt countries in the world. Furthermore, the government has forcibly intervened when its own anticorruption watchdog has inquired too deeply or publicly.
Another motivation for attempting to stay in power is the desire by some Hutu hardliners in the CNDD-FDD to break out of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi (referred to as the Arusha Accords). Their position is that the Accords are overly restrictive to Hutus, who comprise a strong majority in Burundi. The avoidance of term limits is a violation a key feature of the Accords. If this is accepted, it then offers prospects to renegotiate the entire political framework in Burundi in a manner that will be more conducive to hardline Hutu interests.
A Framework for Stability
Despite the serious challenges involved, this is a political crisis and is amenable to resolution. It is not rooted in deep structural differences within Burundian society. Moreover, a framework for resolution already exists in the Arusha Accords that has guided the country out of its civil conflict since 2000. This includes the precedent of political transitions. Burundi has experienced two peaceful transitions in power under the Accords, first in 2003 and again in 2005. Indeed, one of the greatest tragedies of the current crisis is the obscuring of the exemplary progress within Burundian society that has been made over the past 15 years. By stipulating that political power would not be dominated by either Hutus or Tutsis, the Arusha Accords promoted inter-ethnic political coalition building. This was true for nearly all of the major Burundian political parties including the CNDD-FDD.
Similar patterns took hold within civil society with the result being the fostering of an inter-ethnic national identity—a dramatic departure from the polarization of the past. Revealingly, the protests against Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term were organized by these inter-ethnic civil society alliances involving more than 200 non-governmental organizations who were mutually motivated to upholding Burundi’s fledgling democratic processes.
Perhaps the greatest headway was made within Burundi’s military. Historically Tutsi-dominated, the military embarked on a comprehensive reform program in the mid-2000s that embodied the multi-ethnic principles of the Accords. Trust-building exercises were held at all levels of the military, Hutu and Tutsi recruits were trained together, and values of apolitical military professionalism were inculcated. While incomplete, the process demonstrated dramatic changes in attitudes about ethnicity within the military. Burundian troops also came to play a significant role in peacekeeping missions, especially through their contributions to the African Union’s Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Its five rotating battalions equate to more than 5,000 troops stationed in Somalia throughout the year. The result has been a relatively strong level of pride and military professionalism.
This professionalism has been on display during the political crisis. Despite extraordinary political pressures, the Burundian military has largely stayed neutral during the crisis. During the protests, soldiers regularly acted as a buffer between protesters and police and government-affiliated militias. Nkurunziza’s inability to depend on the military for domestic political ends has constrained his behavior. That said, the ongoing efforts to politicize the military by arresting and purging Tutsi or moderate Hutu troops have placed great strains on this institution. Defections have ensued with as many as 300 military members having absconded with their weapons as a result.
The enormous value of Burundi’s security sector reforms is underscored by how poorly the police, gendarmerie, and intelligence services have behaved in comparison to the military. These groups are made up mostly of former combatants from Burundi’s civil war who were ineligible for integration into the military. Burundi’s police and intelligence services, therefore, have remained politicized and are collaborating with the CNDD-FDD’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, in cracking down on opposition and spearheading the pro-government violence.
The extent to which the Arusha Accords have become a part of the political fabric in Burundi is evidenced by the serious rift within the CNDD-FDD caused by Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third term and mobilization of support on an ethnic basis. Some 130 senior CNDD-FDD officials signed a petition in April requesting Nkurunziza to respect the Constitution and the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement. When this was rejected, over 140 CNDD-FDD members, including two senior vice-presidents, left the party (for safety concerns sometimes departing the country clandestinely before voicing their opposition). In July a coalition of opposition parties, senior defectors from the ruling party, and civil society leaders met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to form the National Council for the Restoration of the Arusha Accords (CNARED). It is leading a broad-based effort to engage in externally facilitated negotiations to establish an Inter-Burundian National Dialogue.
Role for External Actors
Given the high levels of distrust among political parties and limited space for free expression, resolving the conflict in Burundi will require engagement by external actors. Diplomatic efforts in the region should continue to be the focal point for mediation efforts. The United States can support and enhance these initiatives in several ways:
1. Support creation of a multi-party transitional government in Burundi
As part of its commitment to a political settlement in Burundi, the United States should support the creation of a transitional government in Burundi whose purpose is to oversee a political course back to a constitutional framework and a free, fair, and participatory electoral process. As the institutional mechanisms for a political transition were already in place earlier this year, the objective of this transitional phase would be to reestablish a path for this democratic trajectory. This transitional government of technocrats should be comprised of all leading political parties as well as representatives of civil society. Members of the transitional government would be barred from competing for political office in the succeeding elections. Having fulfilled his constitutionally mandated second term, Pierre Nkurunziza would not be eligible to participate in this transitional government or the subsequent presidential elections.
2. All parties in Burundi must renew their commitment to the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement
Diplomatic efforts should make clear that the starting point for any political arrangement must be founded on the Arusha Accords. The Accords represent a social contract among Burundi’s ethnically diverse population to end 12 years of civil war and, at times, genocidal massacres that dated back to Burundi’s independence in 1960. The Arusha Accords were intended specifically to prevent future ethnic conflict and its provisions were included in Burundi’s constitution. The highly popular Accords have become no less than a part of the fabric of Burundian national identity and its vision of a multiethnic, democratic society.
Under the Accords no single ethnic group can constitute more than half of the defense and security forces. Similarly, no ethnic group can hold more than two-thirds of local, county, and municipal positions. Across cabinet ministries, the diplomatic service, and the institutions supporting democracy such as the National Electoral Commission, Constitutional Court, National Assembly, and National Commission on Human Rights, no party in power can enjoy more than 60 percent representation.
3. Support deployment of international peacekeeping force
In order to support a political resolution and foster a stable transition to the Burundi crisis, the United States should logistically and financially support an international peacekeeping force (likely comprising 3,000-5,000 troops) under the auspices of the African Union and United Nations. As at the end of the civil war, such a force would serve as a buffer between rival armed groups to minimize the risk of escalation, enhance civilian protection, as well as to serve as a deterrent to provocations that could trigger mass atrocities. Deploying a peacekeeping force would also serve as a confidence-building measure for all sides, which would help provide assurances to those in exile and among all parties to the conflict that their return and participation in the political dialogue will be supported by institutional safeguards. The African Union has previously called on its members to be prepared to support such a mission. UN Security Council Resolution 2248, furthermore, reminds all of the ICC’s jurisdiction and welcomes the deployment of African Union monitors and military experts.
4. Sanction Spoilers
The White House’s decision to issue targeted sanctions on four individuals most responsible for the political violence—from both the government and opposition—is an effective way of demonstrating to Burundi’s political elites the personal costs of their actions. The European Union and African Union have also imposed sanctions on a list of individuals and entities.
The United States has also suspended Burundi from eligibility for the preferential trade benefits that come from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The EU is debating whether to suspend Burundi’s trade privileges. Belgium and other European bilateral donors have suspended aid to a number of development projects and stopped cooperation with the Burundian police. This is particularly significant since aid accounts for 54 percent of Burundian government expenditures.
The United States should be prepared to expand the scope and breadth of these targeted sanctions as a means of exerting greater pressure on Burundi’s political actors to restore the Arusha Accords and demonstrate a sustained United States commitment to a political resolution. With this aim in mind, the United States should offer its cooperation in evidence- gathering to any International Criminal Court investigation that is undertaken.
5. All non-statutory forces must be disbanded and forensic accounting should identify those responsible for funding them.
Given the central (and unaccountable) role that militias, particularly the Imbonerakure, are playing in intimidating and inflicting violence on the civilian population in Burundi, the United States should support the disbanding of these groups as part of any peacekeeping mandate. The United States should also make available any information, including the forensic accounting of financial flows to these groups, so as to hold responsible those political actors who are sponsoring these militias.
6. The free and independent flow of information should be restored
A prerequisite to a genuine domestic dialogue and a participatory political process in Burundi is the restoration of independent media and protections for freedom of expression. Independent reporting and access to information are also essential ingredients to maintaining domestic and international accountability. The United States should call for the restoration of all independent print, broadcast, and digital media outlets that have been closed by the Burundian government. Until that time, the United States should expand funding to the Voice of America and exiled Burundian journalists who can tap their networks to report on events inside of Burundi.
The Government of Burundi should be called on to immediately release all journalists who have been arrested. In the absence of any domestic mechanisms to investigate the harassment and violence against journalists, the United States should also sponsor an independent fact-finding mission by the African Union and United Nations regarding the circumstances and parties responsible for journalists who have been killed or imprisoned in the course of trying to do their jobs of informing the general public.
The crisis in Burundi today is political—manufactured by a relatively small number of individuals who do not want to play by the democratic rulebook through which they came to power. In the process, they are attempting to undermine the multi-ethnic political framework that has provided Burundi a pathway away from cycles of genocide to peace and stability. Active international engagement at this point is critical to restoring the Arusha Accords before the cycle of violence and fragmentation accelerates and finding a political solution becomes much more difficult and costly to Burundi, the region, and the international community.
All views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect an institutional position of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies or the Department of Defense.
All Testimonies:
Panel One
The Honorable Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs
Washington , D.C.
Download Testimony
Panel Two
Dr. Joseph Siegle
Director of Research, Africa Center for Strategic Studies
National Defense University
Mr. Sixte Vigny Nimuraba
Dean’s Assistant and Director of Violence Prevention Program, The School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
Arlington , VA
Mr. Thierry Vircoulon
Central Africa Project Director
Nairobi , Kenya
- See more at: http://africacenter.org/2015/12/the-political-and-security-crises-in-burundi/#sthash.bATEXjr2.dpuf
Journalists African Union United Nations Africa Center for Strategic Studies Security AFRICOM Africa WHO Burundi Rwanda Genocide Somalia Mission Rule of Law United States DRC European Union military Civil Society
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AFRICOM and DOJ hosts first DOJ - Africa Symposium
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2019 Passenger Choice Awards crowns Norwegian the ‘Best Low-Cost Carrier in Europe’ at the
Norwegian has been named ‘Best Best Low-Cost Carrier in Europe’ at the prestigious 2019 Passenger Choice Awards.
The APEX Passenger Choice Awards represent one of the highest accolades in the industry as winners are directly voted for by passengers and take into account factors such as seat comfort, cabin service, food and beverage, entertainment, and Wi-Fi.
Norwegian was the first airline to offer passengers free in-flight Wi-Fi on all European flights in 2011. The airline became the first to introduce live television over the skies of Europe in 2015 and in late 2018 it took delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner equipped with inflight Wi-Fi. In 2019 Norwegian became the first low-cost airline to offer customers free Wi-Fi for the full duration of intercontinental flights. Customers can choose the service that suits their requirements between a completely free package to a premium service allowing the streaming of video and other multimedia content.
Bjorn Kjos, Chief Executive Officer at Norwegian said: “It is truly an honour to receive such recognition from our passengers who value not only the excellent service, product and network that Norwegian offers but also the benefits such as free Wi-Fi that put us ahead of the competition. We would like to thank everybody who voted for us and for choosing to fly Norwegian. We will continue to innovate and invest in our passenger journey to provide an industry leading benchmark for others to follow.”
The APEX Passenger Choice Awards are based on passenger feedback gathered through APEX’s partnership with TripIt® from Concur®, the world’s highest-rated travel-organizing app. Using a five-star scale, more than one million flights were rated by passengers across nearly 500 airlines from around the world between 1 July 2017 and 31 June 2018. First, passengers rated their overall flight experience from one to five stars. On the same screen, passengers were given the opportunity to provide anonymous ratings in five subcategories: seat comfort, cabin service, food and beverage, entertainment, and Wi-Fi. The single screen rating allows airline passengers to easily rate their flight in less than 15 seconds. The Passenger Choice Awards were independently certified by a professional external auditing company hired by APEX.
Norwegian was one of the world’s most awarded low-cost airlines in 2018 taking home Most Fuel-Efficient Airline on Transatlantic Routes by the ICCT; World’s Best Low-Cost Long-Haul Airline for the fourth consecutive year and Europe’s Best Low-Cost Airline for the sixth consecutive year by Skytrax; Value Airline of the Year by Air Transport World Favourite Budget Airline by Global Travel Magazine; Best Wi-Fi in Europe and Best Overall Passenger Experience Low Cost Carrier Europe at the Passenger Choice Awards; Airline Programme of the Year Europe and Africa at the Freddie Awards in recognition of the airline’s customer loyalty programme – Norwegian reward; and Europe’s Leading Low-Cost Airline 2018 at the World Travel Awards.
The airline operates a young and therefore more environmentally friendly aircraft fleet with an average age of just 3.8 years. The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has voted Norwegian the most fuel-efficient airline on Transatlantic routes for two consecutive years which further demonstrates the airline’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
Norwegian is the world's fifth largest low-cost airline operating 500 routes to 150 destinations in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, Thailand, the U.S and South America. In 2018 the airline carried more than 37 million passengers.
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Home > English > NEWS AND ANALYSIS > Oil Colonialism
Oil Colonialism
“Cooperating with Iran’s energy industry” is not the sole reason for the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company.
Sunday 26 June 2011, by John Cherian
VENEZUELA has become the latest country to be put under economic sanctions by the United States for doing business with Iran. In the last week of May, the Barack Obama administration announced that it was imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) “for cooperating with Iran’s energy industry”.
The U.S. State Department spokesman said dealings with Iran’s oil industry violated the Iran Sanctions Act enacted by the U.S. Congress way back in 1996. “We are sending a clear message to companies around the world. Those who continue to irresponsibly support Iran’s energy sector or help facilitate Iran’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions will face significant consequences,” said the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinberg.
The Iran Sanctions Act, which goes much beyond the sanctions mandated by the United Nations Security Council on Iran, is similar to the Helms-Burton Act, which penalises countries trading with Cuba. In 2010, President Obama further toughened the Iran Sanctions Act, penalising firms that supplied refined gasoline to Iran. Although Iran exports huge amounts of crude, it faces a gasoline crunch owing to the sanctions imposed by the West on the country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Refineries that were due for upgradation decades ago are in a decrepit state because of the inability to access essential spare parts and machinery.
Source: Frontline
Photo: Canon in 2D (flickr)
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Between Worlds
A down-on-his-luck truck driver, haunted by the memory of his deceased wife and child, meets a spiritually gifted woman who enlists him in a desperate effort to find the lost soul of her comatose daughter. But the spirit of the man’s dead wife proves stronger, possessing the young woman's body and setting out to settle her unfinished business with the living
1 hr 31 minR
PENELOPE MITCHELLActor
Penelope Mitchell is an Australian actress best known for playing the role of Letha Godfrey on the American horror television series Hemlock Grove and Liv Parker on The Vampire Diaries. Born in Melbourne, Victoria to a French-born artist mother and Australian entrepreneur father, Mitchell spent most of her childhood in Australia with her two older brothers. She studied ballet from age 4 to 16. Mitchell finished in the top 1% of her graduating year, with an International Baccalaureate diploma. She attended Melbourne University, with the intention of becoming a lawyer. During her time there she continued to perform and wrote prolifically for various publications. Mitchell completed her undergraduate degree in Arts: Media Communication, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She is a cousin of actress Radha Mitchell. She began acting a few years before she landed her role on Hemlock Grove, appearing on shows including Toon Time, an Australian kids show, the ABC (Australia) show Next Stop Hollywood, which followed six Australian actors (including Penelope) who move to Hollywood to audition for pilots, and an episode of Australian police drama Rush. In the United States, Mitchell is known for her roles on the television series The Vampire Diaries and Hemlock Grove. She was also recently cast in the films The Fear of Darkness and Zipper.
FRANKA POTENTEActor
Franka Potente was born on 22 July 1974 in the German city of Münster, to Hildegard, a medical assistant, and Dieter Potente, a teacher, and raised in the nearby town of Dülmen. After her graduation in 1994, she went to the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule, a drama school in Munich, but soon broke off to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. After a notable debut in Nach Fünf im Urwald (1995), the role of the heroine in Run Lola Run (1998), directed by her then longtime companion Tom Tykwer was her national breakthrough. After some other successful movies in Germany, she starred in several Hollywood productions, most prominently The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and lived one year in Los Angeles. After her return to Berlin, she continues working with German and international directors.
Nicolas CageActor
LYDIA HEARSTActor
BRIT SHAWActor
Garrett ClaytonActor
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Court Grants Permanent Injunction For Infringement Of Amgens Repatha Patents
Court Grants Permanent Injunction For Infringement Of Amgen's Repatha® Patents
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced that the United States District Court in Delaware granted Amgen's request for a permanent injunction prohibiting Sanofi and Regeneron from infringing two patents that Amgen holds for Repatha® (evolocumab) by manufacturing, using, selling or offering alirocumab for sale in the United States. The injunction will not take effect immediately as the court has delayed its imposition for 30 days to allow defendants the opportunity to seek expedited review of this decision. The judge's decision follows a jury verdict in March 2016 in Amgen's favor in a trial on the validity of two Amgen patents that describe and claim monoclonal antibodies to proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9).
"We are pleased with today's decision that recognizes Amgen is entitled to an injunction against further infringement of our patent rights. Sanofi and Regeneron admitted that they had infringed our patents, and the jury upheld our patents as valid. Protecting intellectual property is essential to our industry as it reinforces the incentives for the large and risky investments we make in innovation to bring forward new medicines to treat serious diseases," said Robert A. Bradway, chairman and chief executive officer at Amgen. Bradway continued, "Heart disease is the biggest health care challenge for society today and Repatha aims to help address this challenge by providing a profound reduction in LDL-cholesterol."
Amgen has the ability to supply all potential Repatha patients and will work to ensure a smooth transition for patients who wish to switch to Repatha.
About Repatha® (evolocumab)
Repatha® (evolocumab) is a human monoclonal antibody that inhibits proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). Repatha binds to PCSK9 and inhibits circulating PCSK9 from binding to the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor (LDLR), preventing PCSK9-mediated LDLR degradation and permitting LDLR to recycle back to the liver cell surface. By inhibiting the binding of PCSK9 to LDLR, Repatha increases the number of LDLRs available to clear LDL from the blood, thereby lowering LDL-C levels.1
The FOURIER outcomes trial is designed to evaluate whether treatment with Repatha or placebo on top of optimized statin therapy, reduces the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with clinically evident atherosclerotic disease. The trial completed patient enrollment in June 2015. The primary endpoint for the FOURIER trial is major cardiovascular events defined as the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina or coronary revascularization. The key secondary endpoint is the composite of cardiovascular death, MI or stroke. The trial is planned to continue until at least 1,630 patients experience the secondary endpoint, thereby providing 90 percent power to detect a relative reduction of 15 percent in this endpoint. Top-line results from the approximately 27,500-patient event-driven FOURIER study are anticipated in the first quarter of 2017.
Repatha is approved in more than 40 countries, including the U.S., Japan, Canada and in all 28 countries that are members of the European Union. Applications in other countries are pending.
Important U.S. Product Information
Repatha® is indicated as an adjunct to diet and:
Maximally tolerated statin therapy for treatment of adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) or clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), who require additional lowering of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
Other LDL-lowering therapies (e.g., statins, ezetimibe, LDL apheresis) in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) who require additional lowering of LDL-C
The effect of Repatha® on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has not been determined.
The safety and effectiveness of Repatha® have not been established in pediatric patients with HoFH who are younger than 13 years old.
The safety and effectiveness of Repatha® have not been established in pediatric patients with primary hyperlipidemia or HeFH.
Important U.S. Safety Information
Contraindication: Repatha® is contraindicated in patients with a history of a serious hypersensitivity reaction to Repatha®.
Allergic reactions: Hypersensitivity reactions (e.g. rash, urticaria) have been reported in patients treated with Repatha®, including some that led to discontinuation of therapy. If signs or symptoms of serious allergic reactions occur, discontinue treatment with Repatha®, treat according to the standard of care, and monitor until signs and symptoms resolve.
Adverse reactions: The most common adverse reactions (>5% of Repatha® -treated patients and more common than placebo) were: nasopharyngitis, upper respiratory tract infection, influenza, back pain, and injection site reactions.
In a 52-week trial, adverse reactions led to discontinuation of treatment in 2.2% of Repatha® -treated patients and 1% of placebo-treated patients. The most common adverse reaction that led to Repatha® treatment discontinuation and occurred at a rate greater than placebo was myalgia (0.3% versus 0% for Repatha® and placebo, respectively).
Adverse reactions from a pool of the 52-week trial and seven 12-week trials:
Local injection site reactions occurred in 3.2% and 3.0% of Repatha® -treated and placebo-treated patients, respectively. The most common injection site reactions were erythema, pain, and bruising. The proportions of patients who discontinued treatment due to local injection site reactions in Repatha® -treated patients and placebo-treated patients were 0.1% and 0%, respectively.
Allergic reactions occurred in 5.1% and 4.7% of Repatha® -treated and placebo-treated patients, respectively. The most common allergic reactions were rash (1.0% versus 0.5% for Repatha® and placebo, respectively), eczema (0.4% versus 0.2%), erythema (0.4% versus 0.2%), and urticaria (0.4% versus 0.1%).
Neurocognitive events were reported in less than or equal to 0.2% in Repatha®-treated and placebo-treated patients.
In a pool of placebo- and active-controlled trials, as well as open-label extension studies that followed them, a total of 1,988 patients treated with Repatha® had at least one LDL-C value <25 mg/dL. Changes to background lipid-altering therapy were not made in response to low LDL-C values, and Repatha® dosing was not modified or interrupted on this basis. Although adverse consequences of very low LDL-C were not identified in these trials, the long-term effects of very low levels of LDL-C induced by Repatha® are unknown.
Musculoskeletal adverse reactions were reported in 14.3% of Repatha® -treated patients and 12.8% of placebo-treated patients. The most common adverse reactions that occurred at a rate greater than placebo were back pain (3.2% versus 2.9% for Repatha® and placebo, respectively), arthralgia (2.3% versus 2.2%), and myalgia (2.0% versus 1.8%).
Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH): In 49 patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia studied in a 12-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 33 patients received 420 mg of Repatha® subcutaneously once monthly. The adverse reactions that occurred in at least 2 (6.1%) Repatha®-treated patients and more frequently than in placebo-treated patients, included upper respiratory tract infection (9.1% versus 6.3%), influenza (9.1% versus 0%), gastroenteritis (6.1% versus 0%), and nasopharyngitis (6.1% versus 0%).
Immunogenicity: Repatha® is a human monoclonal antibody. As with all therapeutic proteins, there is a potential for immunogenicity with Repatha®.
Please contact Amgen Medinfo at 800-77-AMGEN (800-772-6436 ) or 844-REPATHA (844-737-2842 ) regarding Repatha® availability or find more information, including full Prescribing Information, at www.amgen.com and www.Repatha.com.
About Amgen Cardiovascular
Building on more than three decades of experience in developing biotechnology medicines for patients with serious illnesses, Amgen is dedicated to addressing important scientific questions to advance care and improve the lives of patients with cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.2 Amgen's research into cardiovascular disease, and potential treatment options, is part of a growing competency at Amgen that utilizes human genetics to identify and validate certain drug targets. Through its own research and development efforts, as well as partnerships, Amgen is building a robust cardiovascular portfolio consisting of several approved and investigational molecules in an effort to address a number of today's important unmet patient needs, such as high cholesterol and heart failure.
About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.
Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.
For more information, visit www.amgen.com and follow us on www.twitter.com/amgen.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations and beliefs of Amgen. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial metrics, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, reimbursement activities and outcomes and other such estimates and results. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, including those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by Amgen, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Unless otherwise noted, Amgen is providing this information as of the date of this news release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those we project. Our results may be affected by our ability to successfully market both new and existing products domestically and internationally, clinical and regulatory developments involving current and future products, sales growth of recently launched products, competition from other products including biosimilars, difficulties or delays in manufacturing our products and global economic conditions. In addition, sales of our products are affected by pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny and reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers, including governments, private insurance plans and managed care providers and may be affected by regulatory, clinical and guideline developments and domestic and international trends toward managed care and healthcare cost containment. Furthermore, our research, testing, pricing, marketing and other operations are subject to extensive regulation by domestic and foreign government regulatory authorities. We or others could identify safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with our products after they are on the market. Our business may be impacted by government investigations, litigation and product liability claims. In addition, our business may be impacted by the adoption of new tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities. If we fail to meet the compliance obligations in the corporate integrity agreement between us and the U.S. government, we could become subject to significant sanctions. Further, while we routinely obtain patents for our products and technology, the protection offered by our patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors, or we may fail to prevail in present and future intellectual property litigation. We perform a substantial amount of our commercial manufacturing activities at a few key facilities and also depend on third parties for a portion of our manufacturing activities, and limits on supply may constrain sales of certain of our current products and product candidate development. In addition, we compete with other companies with respect to many of our marketed products as well as for the discovery and development of new products. Discovery or identification of new product candidates cannot be guaranteed and movement from concept to product is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guarantee that any particular product candidate will be successful and become a commercial product. Further, some raw materials, medical devices and component parts for our products are supplied by sole third-party suppliers. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of our products that implicate an entire class of products could have a material adverse effect on sales of the affected products and on our business and results of operations. Our efforts to acquire other companies or products and to integrate the operations of companies we have acquired may not be successful. We may not be able to access the capital and credit markets on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. We are increasingly dependent on information technology systems, infrastructure and data security. Our stock price is volatile and may be affected by a number of events. Our business performance could affect or limit the ability of our Board of Directors to declare a dividend or our ability to pay a dividend or repurchase our common stock.
CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks
Kristen Davis, 805-447-3008 (media)
Kristen Neese, 805-313-8267 (media)
Arvind Sood, 805-447-1060 (investors)
Repatha® U.S. Prescribing Information. Amgen.
World Health Organization. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) fact sheet. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs317/en/. Accessed August 2016.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/court-grants-permanent-injunction-for-infringement-of-amgens-repatha-patents-300386927.html
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Mexico: Torture victim released after two decades behind bars
19 March 2015, 18:06 UTC
A Mexican Supreme Court judgement ordering the immediate release of a man jailed more than two decades ago on the basis of a confession extracted under torture is an important victory for justice, Amnesty International said today.
The Supreme Court ordered Alfonso Martín del Campo Dodd’s release on 18 March. He spent nearly 23 years in prison after being convicted in 1992 for the murder of his sister and brother-in-law, crimes he only confessed to after being arbitrarily detained and tortured in Mexico City.
Alfonso Martín del Campo Dodd’s release is a long-overdue victory for justice. His case should have been thrown out decades ago after torture was used to extract his confession – a clear violation of international human rights law.
Perseo Quiroz, Executive Director of Amnesty International Mexico
“Alfonso Martín del Campo Dodd’s release is a long-overdue victory for justice. His case should have been thrown out decades ago after torture was used to extract his confession – a clear violation of international human rights law,” said Perseo Quiroz, Executive Director of Amnesty International Mexico.
“This Supreme Court ruling again underscores the urgency of tackling the widespread use of torture in Mexico’s justice system, something highlighted earlier this month by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.”
Alfonso Martín del Campo was arbitrarily detained on 30 May 1992 in Mexico City and agents of the local Prosecutor General’s office beat, smothered and threatened him. Years later, a police officer admitted that he and other police officers had tortured him. But the authorities ignored this and other evidence of his torture, including medical reports.
Amnesty International believes the case is emblematic because it demonstrates the multiple flaws within Mexico’s criminal justice system which continue to allow arbitrary detention and evidence extracted under torture.
The organization has documented many cases in which judges continue to accept testimonies obtained under torture. Meanwhile, allegations of torture are not adequately investigated. Official forensic reports are often deficient and those carried out by independent experts are often ignored.
Even though Alfonso Martín del Campo was seen by an independent expert who confirmed he had been tortured, the local and federal justice system ignored this evidence for more than two decades.
“Torture victims in our country deserve, at the very least, for judges to take into consideration any independent expertise proving that they were tortured,” said Perseo Quiroz.
Numerous international bodies documented Alfonso Martín del Campo’s case and confirmed his torture, including the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Amnesty International urges the Federal District Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the murder of Alfonso Martín del Campo’s sister and brother-in-law and bring those responsible to justice. Alfonso Martín del Campo also has a right to reparation from the State for the human rights violations he suffered.
Read Amnesty International's report Out of control: Torture and other ill-treatment in Mexico
More about our global Stop Torture campaign
Unlawful Detention
UN Convention Against Torture
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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Receive Pope Benedict XVI in Constantinople November 29 - 30, 2006
Print Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Receive Pope Benedict XVI in Constantinople November 29 - 30, 2006
From the Press Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
www.patriarchate.org
Rev. Dositheos Anagnostopoulos
Patriarchal Press Officer
Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos
Tel. (617) 680-7222 (cell)
ISTANBUL, Turkey - His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of over 300 million Orthodox faithful worldwide, will receive Pope Benedict XVI on November 29 - 30, 2006 at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul.
Pope Benedict's three-day visit to Istanbul comes at the personal invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch on the occasion of the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the older brother of Saint Peter. Saint Andrew traveled across Asia Minor and is considered the founder of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the former name for present-day Istanbul. Both prelates are noted throughout the world as peacemakers and for their extraordinary efforts to create bridges of truth and love across religious, ethnic, environmental and political divides.
"We are awaiting the Pope's visit with fraternal love and great anticipation," said Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, "it will be very important for our Country and Orthodox-Catholic Relations."
Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in Istanbul, on Wednesday afternoon, November 29, to be received by His All Holiness and will participate in a Doxology of Peace at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George. The prayer service will include a mutual veneration of the Holy Relics of Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint John Chrysostom, the Predecessors of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and will be followed by a private meeting between the two Church leaders.
On Thursday morning, November 30, Benedict XVI will participate in the Divine Liturgy at St. George Cathedral where both prelates will deliver official addresses, exchange the Kiss of Peace and jointly bless the faithful present. After the Divine Liturgy, a common declaration of ecumenical solidarity will be read and signed. Following the signing, Pope Benedict will join the Ecumenical Patriarch for lunch at the Patriarchate.
After receiving the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit and celebrating the Papal Holy Mass, Pope Benedict will depart for Vatican City on Friday, December 1.
His All Holiness Bartholomew is the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarch. He is the 269th successor of the 2,000-year old local Christian Church founded by St. Andrew. The Ecumenical Patriarch is a living witness to the world of Orthodoxy's painful and redemptive struggle for religious freedom and to the innate dignity of humankind. As a citizen of Turkey, His All Holiness's personal experience provides him a unique perspective on the continuing dialogue among the Christian, Islamic and Jewish worlds. For his inspiring efforts on behalf of religious freedom and human rights, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was heralded as a Bridge Builder and Peacemaker and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the U.S. Congress in 1997.
Additional information about the visit of Pope Benedict to the Ecumenical Patriarchate may be found online at: http://www.patriarchate.org
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FVI Sample Exam Questions
Becoming a volunteer on a vision clinic
FVI EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
Written exam questions
(1) Approximately how many people worldwide are blind or visually-impaired (i.e. suffer from low vision)?
(a) 5 million
(b) 10 million
(c) 50 million
(d) 150 million or more
Answer: Worldwide, it is estimated that at least 38 million people are blind and that an additional 110 mission have severely impaired vision. In all, about 150 million people are severely visually disabled – Source: Vision 2020 The Right to Sight http://www.v2020.org/main_page.asp; DiStefano, A, Optometry, vol.72(10): 619-621, October, 2001; see also reference list from FVI handout
(2) The prevalence of visually disabling refractive error worldwide is difficult to estimate; however, it is thought that severe refractive errors account for approximately how many blind people worldwide?
(a) Approximately 1 million.
(b) Approximately 3 million.
(c) Approximately 5 million.
(d) Approximately 50 million.
Answer: Severe refractive errors have been estimated to account for approximately 5 million functionally blind people, according to the Vision 2020 website (http://www.v2020.org/Eye_disease/refractive_error.asp); see also the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79)
(3) The number of blind is increasing at a rate such that:
(a) There will be a 2 times increase by the year 2020.
(b) There will be a 10% increase by the year 2020.
(c) There will be a 20% increase by the year 2020.
(d) There will be a 50% increase by the year 2020.
Answer: The estimate is that there will be a doubling of world blindness by the year 2020 unless aggressive intervention is undertaken. Source: Thylefors, B. (see reference list to accompany FVI handout); also, http://www.v2020.org/right_to_sight/index.asp
(4) Where do most blind people live?
(a) India
(b) Africa
(c) Asia
(d) Latin America
Answer: India – it is estimated that 9 million blind people live in India, 7 million live in Africa and 6 million people live in China, although it is feared that these figures are in fact much higher; see FVI references; also, Thylefors, B et al., Global Data on Blindness, Bulletin of the WHO, 1995, vol 73(1): 115-121
(5) Which of the following is correct regarding geography and the major causes for blindness and visual impairment?
(a) For industrializedcountries in North America, Europe, and Australasia blindnessis mainly due to disorders of the posterior segment of the eye(for example, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy); however, in Africa, Asia, and parts of South America it is disorders of theanterior segment of the eye (cataract, corneal scarring fromvarious causes) that predominate.
(b) For industrializedcountries of North America, Europe, and Australasia blindnessis mainly due to disorders of the anterior portions of the eye(for example, cataract, corneal scarring); whereas, in Africa, Asia, and parts of South America it is disorders of theposterior segment of the eye (e.g. macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy) that predominate.
(c) There is no geographic difference in the major causes of blindness worldwide.
(d) The major geographic differences are latitude dependent only, and independent of industrialization.
Answer: A – Source: Foster A., Patterns of blindness. In: Tasman W, Jaeger E, eds. Duane’s clinical ophthalmology Vol 5. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1991:1-7; see also: Potter AR, Preventing Blindness Worldwide. BMJ, September 17, 1994, 309:682-683 (this reference may be found on the internet, as well)
(5) It has been stated that up to what percentage of blindness found in developing countries is, in principle, avoidable or curable?
(a) 20%
(b) 40%
(c) 50%
(d) 60% or more
Answer: Depending on which source is quoted, the figures vary, but most assume at least 66% or greater; Thylefors has stated that “more than 2/3rds of all blindness is avoidable (either preventable or curable)” (Thylefors, B, Editorial – A global initiative for the Elimination of avoidable blindness, American Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 125(1):90-93, January, 1998); Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the WHO has stated: “Up to 80% of global blindness is avoidable: it either results from the conditions that could have been prevented, or can be successfully treated with the sight restored.”
(6) VISION 2020 has chosen 5 major ophthalmic conditions or categories as priorities “because they are the most significant contributors to the economic, social, and public health burdens of countries throughout the world, and because they offer cost-effective interventions for prevention and treatment”. Please list them.
(a) _________________
(b) _________________
(c) _________________
(d) _________________
(e) _________________
Answer: Cataract; refractive error/low vision; trachoma; onchocerciasis; xerophthalmia/childhood blindness – Source: DiStefano, A., VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, JAOA, volume 72(10):619-621, October,2001; however, see also Vision 2020 website (http://www.v2020.org/Eye_disease/index2.asp) and Thylefors, B, Editorial – A global initiative for the Elimination of avoidable blindness, American Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 125(1):90-93, January, 1998
(7) Please list 5 specific challenges (not diseases) which need to be addressed and overcome in developing a successful strategy for the prevention of world blindness:
Answer: Geographic maldistribution of resources (e.g. manpower and technical equipment) vs. disease distribution; sheer lack of manpower and technical resources; need for financial resources; understanding of epidemiology and etiology; cultural issues; inadequate infrastructure (e.g. clinics, hospitals, sanitation systems, etc.); inadequate public health programs/education; aging of the world population – Source: see FVI reference list articles; also, the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79)
(8) Please describe 5 methods for determining refractive error to dispense glasses:
Answer: retinoscopy; autorefractor; focometer; subjective refraction; photoscreeners; wavefront technology could also be included as an answer – Source: the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79)
(9) Please list 5 other international NGOs involved in the delivery of eye care worldwide.
Answer: multiple NGOs can be found on the web, of which any could be possible answers; some of the more well-known would be those which are included as members of the WHOs VISION 2020 Task Force: International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness; Agenzia Internazionale per la Prevenzione della Cecita; Christoffel-Blindenmission (Christian Blind Msn Inter.); Helen Keller Worldwide; ORBIS International; Sight Savers International; Al Noor Foundation; International Federation of Ophthalmological Societies; Lions Club International Federation; Organisation pour la Prevention de la Cicite; Operation Eyesight Universal; The Carter Center; The Fred Hollows Foundation; International Centre for Eyecare Education. Others might include S.E.E., Unite for Sight, etc., etc.
(10) What is a “Focometer”?
Answer: this device, which was invented by Drs. Ian Berger and Larry Spitzberg, was presented at the VOSH/International annual meeting in New Orleans by Dr. Berger. It is also described in the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79), which can be found online; also, by visiting the Focometer website at: http://www.infocusonline.org/focometerinfo.html
(11) Please describe the “Richmond Eyeglass Inventory Matching System (REIMS)” in use by VOSH chapters and developed by legendary VOSHer.
Answer: this, too, has been discussed at VOSH/International meetings and will be familiar to attendees. However, it may also be found on the web at: http://www.friendsofasaprosar.org/manual.html
(12) Please describe the idea of “barefoot optometry”, a phrase coined by Dr. Eric Weissberg of the New England College of Optometry.
Answer: See Dr. Zeltzer’s lecture “VOSH/International: Update and Models of Humanitarian Eye Care Delivery” presented at Oxford University, August 7-9, 2004
(13) Please describe the World Health Organization’s global initiative VISION 2020 – The Right to Sight.
Answer: see the website: http://www.v2020.org/main_page.asp as well as articles listed in the FVI references.
(14) What is a significant cause of childhood blindness throughout the world?
Answer: Vitamin A deficiency; however, other causes include childhood diseases, such as measles, and ROP. See: http://www.v2020.org/Eye_disease/childhood_blindness.asp, as well as FVI references
(15) Approximately what is the ratio of the world’s blind who hail from developing countries vs. those who live in industrialized nations:
(a) 9:1
(b) 7:3
(c) 6:4
(d) 5:5
(e) 1:9
Answer: Approximately 90% of all blind people live in developing countries. See Thylefors, B, Editorial – A global initiative for the Elimination of avoidable blindness, American Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 125(1):90-93, January, 1998, as well as FVI references.
(16) Onchocerciasis, or river-blindness, is endemic in 30 countries, and is found mostly in:
(a) Latin America
(b) Europe
(d) Africa
(e) China
Answer: about 90% of the disease occurs in Africa, but can also be found in six countries in Latin America and in Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula – Source: the VISION 2020 website, which is located at http://www.v2020.org/Eye_disease/onchocerciasis.asp
(17) Which of the following is NOT TRUE, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) report on the “Elimination of Avoidable Visual Disability Due to Refractive Errors”:
(a) A lack of refractive care and spectacle availability has important negative consequences in terms of lost educational and employment opportunities.
(b) The refractive error situation varies greatly throughout the world; however, it is clear that countries in the Third World require improvement, while those in the developed world do not.
(c) Cultural barriers exist, even to the simple use of spectacles.
(d) The need for near spectacles (e.g. reading glasses) for close work after the age of 45 is almost universal, although this need may develop earlier in countries nearer the equator.
(e) There is a wide variation in magnitude of refractive error across age, gender, and even ethnicity.
Answer: (b); it is NOT TRUE that “those in the developed world do not” require improvement; in fact, there remain significant barriers to availability of refractive care and spectacles even in affluent, developed countries such as the U.S. See the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79); also see the Helen Keller Worldwide Childsight Program website at: http://www.childsight.org/, as well as many other easily found sources regarding the status of healthcare to the poor and underserved in this country
(a) The level of visual impairment considered significant for children is binocular vision of worse than 20/40.
(b) It is recommended that children should NOT even be screened for refractive error if no appropriate resources for follow-up refraction and delivery of spectacles exist.
(c) The use of an auto-refractor (e.g. Retinomax, Sure Sight, etc.) for rapid, accurate refraction is considered an appropriate basis on which to prescribe glasses for children.
(d) Subjective refraction alone is NOT recommended as an appropriate basis on which to prescribe glasses for children.
(e) Visual acuity, measured binocularly and in each eye separately, is the most appropriate screening test to identify children with visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error.
Answer: (c); the use of “objective refraction by itself not considered an appropriate basis on which to prescribe spectacles (to children) as a routine” – Source: the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79)
(a) It is not enough to provide refractive services to those in need; there needs to be a mechanism in place to monitor whether patients are using their glasses after they are dispensed.
(b) In some countries, there may be a lack of public awareness regarding the importance of eye care and the availability of vision correction.
(c) Refraction examination of children should ONLY be carried out by eye care personnel skilled in objective and subjective refraction, eye movement assessment, and ocular disease evaluation.
(d) WHO encourages the practice of using trained health care workers to distribute cheap, ready-made spherical near vision glasses to those over 45 who present with near vision problems and distance vision of at least 20/60 in each eye.
(e) Experience has demonstrated that collection, recycling, and redistribution of used spectacles is a well-intentioned, cost-effective strategy for correcting uncorrected refractive error, and it is endorsed by the WHO
Answer: (e); the WHO does NOT endorse the use of recycled glasses as a cost-effective strategy for correcting uncorrected refractive error, despite the well-intentioned efforts of individuals and NGOs, such as VOSH. See WHO report “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79)
(20) Which of the following is NOT true:
(a) Retinoscopy is a rapid, objective, cheap, mobile method of determining refractive error, but requires a skilled operator, as well as a power source.
(b) Portable autorefractors provide a rapid, objective, but expensive method of determining refractive error; they are relatively mobile, but require a power source.
(c) Focometers are relatively inexpensive, mobile devices which can be used by an unskilled, but trained assistant to obtain an objective measure of refractive error, and do not require a power source.
(d) Phoropters are relatively expensive devices which can be used by trained operators to obtain a subjective measure of refractive error, and do not require a power source.
(e) Photoscreeners are relatively mobile, easy to use, camera-based instruments that give an “indication” of the refractive state of the eye, as opposed to accurately measuring refractive error.
Answer: (c); the Focometer, while a relatively inexpensive and mobile device which does not require a power source, is NOT an OBJECTIVE method for the determination of refractive error, but rather a subjective technique. See the WHO document “Elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive errors” (WHO/PBL/00.79), which can be found online; also, the Focometer website at: http://www.infocusonline.org/focometerinfo.html
Open-ended, “philosophical” questions for oral discussion
(1) “Cultural sensitivity” may play an important role in the delivery of health care to unfamiliar people, whether in communities domestic or foreign. How do you perceive socio-cultural factors to be important in the delivery of health care?
(2) Can you describe for us an example or instance in which cultural issues played an important role in one of your missions?
(3) Cultural sensitivity requires a cohesive set of values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and policies so that providers and teams can function ethically and effectively within a cross-cultural setting. Would you please describe for us what actions you might take, both as an individual and as a team leader, to ensure that issues of cultural competency are addressed during a mission?
(4) One philosophy in medical mission work is to screen only for what you can potentially help, and not for conditions for which you can offer no treatment or hope. What are your thoughts regarding the scope of VOSH missions, what should be tested for, screened for, and treated by a team?
(5) In what ways do you feel VOSH / International can improve to better achieve its stated mission?
(6) Why do you want to be a Fellow of VI? What do you perceive the role of a Fellow to be?
(7) You have no doubt heard the quote: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”. How do you see this quote as applying to VOSH chapters and the missions that we do each year?
(8) Do you feel that we need to change the way in which we deliver care? If so, in what ways do you think we might alter our approach to the underserved so that we may have a greater, longer-lasting impact toward eliminating global blindness?
(9) Please imagine yourself on an international mission. Your worksite is visited by a team of reporters (us) from your host country. We ask you to tell us about your organization, its “mission”, and “agenda” (e.g. why are you here, why are you “really” here, what are your motivations) – how do you reply? We would like also to know about the origin and history of VOSH – what information do you have to offer us?
(10) What is your thought on the establishment of permanent clinic sites vs. the present approach of providing “hit and run” missions? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of each?
(11) The WHO notes that more research needs to be done to successfully achieve the goals set forth for VISION 2020. What do you see as some ways in which VOSH may contribute to research, particularly with respect to elimination of avoidable visual disability due to refractive error?
(12) Do you feel public health education should be an important component to what we do on a VOSH mission? Have any of the missions which you have been involved with incorporated any public health education efforts? How might you do so in the future?
(13) Please describe from beginning to end the steps involved in planning and carrying out a VOSH mission.
(14) Some of the most disheartening situations that many of us face during our mission work are when we’re confronted by patients for whom we cannot offer any help. For example, the glaucoma patients whom we know will go blind for lack of necessary treatment; the cataract surgery patients for whom no care is available, or affordable; even those “simple” refractive patients with difficult eyeglass prescriptions for whom we have no glasses to offer. How do you handle these situations in which you find yourself without any help to offer? What do you say to your patient? How do you “prepare” your “teammates” to deal with these situations? What type of preparations do you make when planning your missions in order to minimize these situations?
(15) Please discuss what these words mean to you: “humanitarianism”; “charity”; and, “paternalism”. How do you see these concepts in relation to the mission of VOSH and the work we do?
(16) The WHO report on the “Elimination of Avoidable Visual Disability Due to Refractive Errors” notes that “recycled spectacles are not helpful in developing a sustainable process, as they perpetuate dependency of the community on outside resources”; rather, “the establishment of sustainable systems for the delivery of spectacles is an important part of the integrated refractive eye care system.” How do you respond to this in light of what most VOSH chapters and LIONS organizations presently do?
(17) The WHO report on the “Elimination of Avoidable Visual Disability Due to Refractive Errors” also notes that “short-term visits of NGO clinics to countries and areas in need should be complemented by training of local personnel to ensure sustainability.” Do you agree? Has this been a part of missions on which you have gone? Why, or why not?
(18) Some VOSH chapters utilized progressive addition lenses on their missions, while others do not. What has been done on your missions? How do you feel about the use of progressive addition lenses when dispensing recycled glasses?
(19) In order to survive and grow as an organization, VOSH / International (as well as its individual chapters) needs to increase its visibility. What suggestions might you have to increase public and corporate awareness of our mission, as well as improving our recognition amongst major international organizations such as the WHO, the WCO, and major NGOs?
(20) In order to survive and grow as an organization, and to continue to pursue its stated altruistic mission, VOSH / International (as well as its individual chapters) may wish to look for external sources of funding. Do you feel, philosophically, that VOSH should undertake such a venture; or, do you worry that our organization’s mission and/or ideals may become compromised? What suggestions, techniques, target audiences might you offer to implement a viable fund-raising effort?
Respectfully submitted, Stuart Frank, Seattle, WA, Frank.s@ghc.org, (206) 527-6588
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Bond denied for teen in pregnant girl's slaying
Adam Folk
Loviet Nushawn Edwards, 15, accused last week in the fatal shooting of a pregnant teenager in Pepperidge subdivision, was denied bond Friday.
Wearing a blue jumpsuit and red sandals with socks, Edwards stood quietly as Assistant District Attorney Pittman Morris described how a fight between the defendant and the pregnant victim, 16-year-old Tykiah Palmer, ended in her death.
The incident occurred in the 2100 block of Ramblewood Drive on Feb. 17. Morris said Palmer was taken to the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and an emergency cesarean section was performed in an attempt to save the child. Palmer was 28 weeks pregnant.
She died at 7:15 p.m., and the child died 30 minutes later.
Edwards, a freshman at Butler High School, was a friend of the victim's 15-year-old brother and it was an argument between the two that eventually led to the fatal shooting. Edwards and the victim's brother had been play fighting when it escalated. Palmer and Edwards exchanged words; then Palmer slapped Edwards, who pulled a gun and shot her in the chest.
Neither the victim's nor the defendant's families were in the courtroom for the hearing. Edwards' attorney, Penelope Donkar, said the accused lived with his mother and grandmother. She said Edwards was a freshman at Butler High School. She told the judge she believed her client did not mean to shoot Palmer.
"It was a case that I truly believe will come out to be an accident," Donkar said.
Edwards surrendered to authorities Feb. 17 and is facing two counts of murder.
Judge Albert Pickett denied bond, calling Edwards a threat to the community.
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Where Cruising Is Headed: Meeting In A(G)MSTERDAM
Queen's Day in Amsterdam last week.
Last week as Amsterdam prepared for the lively celebrations on Queen’s Day, members of Cruise Europe gathered at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) to discuss the future of cruising in Northern and Western Europe.
AGM organizers Dick de Graaff, the commercial manager of Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, and Ron Maes, general manager of the Felison Cruise & Ferry Terminal in the Port of IJmuiden, managed to attract an impressive roster of speakers, including the key decision-makers for deployment and shore operations at Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Seabourn Cruise Line, and Disney Cruise Line. The speakers’ collective message was a clear one: The sun is shining on “Cruise Europe Land.”
Indeed, cruising in Europe is experiencing unprecedented growth. Not only are more ships being deployed in Europe than ever before but also Europeans are taking to cruising like ducks on water.
Introducing the speakers, Chris Ashcroft, publisher of the trade magazine Dream World Cruise Destinations, told AGM delegates that the number of Continental Europeans who took cruises last year increased by nearly 16 percent when compared to 2008. During the same time period, the number of North Americans taking cruises grew by only 1 percent. As a whole Europeans cruised in numbers that reached nearly 5 million in 2009, compared to slightly more than 10 million for North Americans.
Representatives throughout Northern and Western Europe attended Cruise Europe's AGM
What do the numbers mean? That Europe is where North America was 15 years ago, when cruising was just beginning to hit its stride in the United States and Canada. In 1995, the number of all passengers who had cruised worldwide was just a tad under 5 million. North Americans dominated, accounting for 90 percent of those passengers.
Today, North Americans still dominate, but Europeans are catching up quickly. That’s particularly evident in Cruise Europe destinations. “We’ve seen a shift from 95 percent North American passengers to 50 percent in the past 10 years,” says Valerie Dubuc, cruise coordinator for the Port of Le Havre, France. And in Copenhagen this coming summer, German passengers will outnumber Americans for the first time ever, according to Ole Andersen, senior director sales & marketing for Wonderful Copenhagen.
Europeans not only are cruising in record numbers but also European destinations are benefitting from cruise lines marketing Europe as a prime cruise destination.
The total number of bed days featuring European destinations and marketed to North Americans saw nearly 23 percent growth last year compared to only a 4 percent increase of Caribbean/Bahamas bed days and negative growth in Alaska (-1.5 percent) and Western Mexico (-14.3 percent). The message: Cruise lines are moving the bulk of their capacity to Europe.
Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein said in his blog recently that his company would deploy 10 of its 22 ships in Europe in the summer of 2011. “Just a few years ago we would not have imagined such a scenario,” Goldstein wrote. [Note: Since Goldstein’s missive, Royal Caribbean has announced that Mariner of the Seas also will be redeployed in Europe, bringing the total to 11 of 22 ships in Europe for 2011.]
During the current cruise season, Princess will carry more passengers to Cruise Europe ports than ever before, Bruce Krumrine, vice president of shore operations for Princess Cruises, told AGM delegates. “And 2011 will surpass 2010,” he added.
Holland America Line has started beefing up it Europe presence, with seven ships in Europe, including its newest vessel, the upcoming Nieuw Amsterdam.
Three years ago, the upward momentum prompted David Dingle, chairman of the European Cruise Council and Carnival U.K.’s CEO, to proclaim Europe to be “cruising’s new center of gravity.”
Indeed, the Queen’s Day celebrations that coincided with the conclusion of the AGM seemed to underscore the upbeat mood in Amsterdam and throughout Europe. Anyone charting the course for the cruise industry in Europe can clearly see blue skies and smooth sailing ahead.
Amsterdam and a sea of orange hats.
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Fees at 17 Popular National Parks May Soon Be Rising Sharply
On October 24, Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a proposal to begin charging higher peak-season fees for five months per year at 17 national parks, including some of the country’s most beloved. Affected parks include Acadia; Arches; Bryce Canyon; Canyonlands; Denali; Glacier; Grand Canyon; Grand Teton; Joshua Tree; Mount Rainier; Olympic; Rocky Mountain; Sequoia & Kings Canyon; Shenandoah; Yellowstone; Yosemite; and Zion. Under the proposal, entrance fees could rise from $25 to $70 per private, non-commercial vehicle. Fees for individual motorcyclists would be $50, and per person on bike or foot, $30.
Roxanne Blackwell
Congress has a better solution.
The administration states that the fee increases are needed to address the nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog of National Park Service (NPS) projects. However, the increased park fees would only raise around $70 million annually — just a tiny fraction of what our national parks need to address the maintenance backlog. Congressional leaders have called foul, expressing concerns that the proposal would hinder working families and some underserved communities from taking advantage of these public spaces.
“Many of my constituents woke up to, literally, shock over the fact that these exorbitant rates would be charged in our parks systems,” said Senator Maria Cantwell (WA), whose state includes two of the 17 impacted parks, Mount Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (AK) stated that she is “concerned about the proposed doubling of national park entrance fees and will be looking into holding a hearing on the proposal.”
Bipartisan legislation is moving through Congress that would nearly eliminate NPS’s maintenance backlog. The National Park Service Legacy Act of 2017 (S. 751, H.R.2584) aims to reduce the maintenance backlog at the NPS by establishing a dedicated backlog fund, which will be housed at the Department of Treasury and will receive financing from mineral royalties not otherwise dedicated to other purposes. Under this legislation, $11.3 billion of the approximately $12 billion maintenance backlog would be eliminated by the year 2047. ASLA, along with its coalition partners, endorsed and is advocating for passage of this measure that would comprehensively address the NPS’s maintenance backlog.
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Financial regulations 28 Aug 2017
What did they talk about in Jackson Hole?
Paula Reig López
Carmen Álvarez
Once more this year, the symposium of the most important central bankers in the world was held in Jackson Hole from August 24 to 26. Under scrutiny were Janet Yellen, the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank. Their words gave no indications of any changes with respect to the future of monetary policy.
Representatives from central banks, the financial industry, finance ministers, academics and experts in economics and finance, meet every year in Jackson Hole. For 40 years it has been one of the most publicized forums for debate on the economy.
The title theme of this year’s symposium was “Fostering a Dynamic Global Economy”. However, what generated most interest was listening to the two principal central bankers in the world, to see whether they gave any hints about the outlook for monetary policy in the United States and the Eurozone. Neither of the speakers, however, revealed any major new points. Their words did trigger a rise in the euro to its highest levels since January 2015, at over 1.19 dollars.
Ten years of crisis in 24 key events
In 2007, one of the biggest financial crisis in modern history started, one that has brought drastic changes to the world’s economy.
The bursting of the financial bubble caused by subprime mortgages triggered a deep economic recession, especially in countries such as Spain. The crisis also resulted in record-high unemployment rates that still affect large segments of the population. This is how the crisis that started a decade ago has evolved and affected people and the economy.
Janet Yellen began her speech with a reference to the decade that has passed since the financial crisis that affected the global economy, outlining the reforms that were carried out. She also stressed the current resilience of the banks and the importance of the role of financial regulatory reform for economic growth. However, in her opinion, the problem has not yet been fully resolved, and she undertook in the name of the Fed to continue with the supervision of financial stability.
“Loss-absorbing capacity among the largest banks is significantly higher, with Tier 1 common equity capital more than doubling from early 2009 to now,” she said.
Yellen stressed that experience has made the financial system substantially safer, as can be seen in the latest stress-testing exercises on banks in the United States. In short, the economy is better protected. She also commented on Donald Trump’s current policy with respect to the Dodd-Franck Act, which limits risks through greater transparency and financial stability. For his part, the U.S. President has hinted at who Yellen’s replacement at the Fed could be: Gary Cohn.
In his speech, Mario Draghi stressed the importance of multilateral cooperation. He also focused on the effect on global growth of the threat being posed to open trade. “The euro area experienced first-hand the risks of a diverging supervisory and regulatory framework for cross-border finance… Safety was restored by elevating supervision and resolution to the European level with the banking union,” he explained.
We should not repeat the mistakes of the crisis, according to Draghi. To do so, we have to ensure constant growth through a dynamic global economy.
Reactions have varied. According to the Financial Times, the speech by the ECB President on the strength of the euro was eclipsed by Yellen’s words. The British daily also highlights the mutual support provided by the two on some of the issues such as financial regulation and free trade.
The Wall Street Journal notes that the interest generated by Jackson Hole has been dissipated by other issues such as the economic consequences of Hurricane Harvey, which include falling oil prices due expectations of short-term changes in demand.
Financial markets and monetary economics
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Conveyancing solicitors in Derby
If you are looking for a conveyancing solicitor in Derby we can help you. Our conveyancing solicitors offer a convenient, efficient, and friendly conveyancing service to clients in Derby, throughout Derbyshire and all over England, Wales and beyond.
If you are buying a house in Derby, selling a house in Borrowash, downsizing to a bungalow in Duffield, or buying to let in Little Eaton, we can help you with your conveyancing.
Why you should use Bird and Co Solicitors for your conveyancing in Derby
We offer a friendly, modern and efficient service. If you want to deal with fully qualified lawyers who are friendly and approachable, our team can help you.
You will have a direct line straight through to your legal team, and direct email addresses for the people handling your conveyancing. You can guarantee that your query will reach the right people, whether you want to ask about search fees, drainage and water fees or anything else related to your property deal.
We're a Conveyancing Quality Scheme accredited firm providing conveyancing to clients in Derby. This is a guarantee that our processes and procedures have been approved as meeting the highest legal and professional standards by the Law Society, the body representing solicitors throughout England and Wales.
We are on the panel for most major lenders, and many smaller ones too. Whether you want to use your local Building Society in Derby or one of the larger corporates, chances are we have you covered.
Why you don't need a conveyancer based in Derby
In the past, most people tended to use their local solicitor for their conveyancing. You would visit their nearest office and all documents would be hand-produced and posted or delivered by hand.
That service came at a price, however, and the truth is that it is no longer needed. With modern technology such as scanning, emailing and even Skype or Facetime video calls there is no need to use your local solicitor. Your conveyancer can be based anywhere and still provide a great service - even if he or she is in an office many miles away from Derby.
We have successfully dealt with thousands of conveyancing transactions all over the country, even with clients from the other side of the world. It is not unknown for us to talk to clients outside the UK using Skype – we even once had clients in Thailand talking to us through an interpreter in New Zealand!
There will be no need for you to visit our offices or hand deliver documents – in fact you need never leave your home. Our conveyancers will talk you through the whole conveyancing process via phone and email, and everything works just as smoothly as it would if we were just down the road.
Home values in Derby
Derby house prices
Online Conveyancing in Derby
Online conveyancing refers to the fact your conveyancing can now be carried out entirely over the internet thanks to technology such as email and video chat. This means there is no longer any need to meet face-to-face for your conveyancing as you can get exactly the same quality of service by handling the entire process online.
The advantage of online conveyancing is it lets you choose the best, most competitively priced conveyancing firm in the country, while also being able to deal with your conveyancing at your convenience. There is no need to take time out of work or go out of your way – you can do everything from your own home in your own time.
When dealing with your conveyancing online, we have exactly the same legal obligations to you as if we were meeting in person. The conveyancing process is exactly the same and involves all the same checks, searches, insurance and protections to ensure you get a safe, reliable conveyancing service.
Search Fees in Derby
Every local authority is different. We use an excellent, trusted national search provider, which means we can offer reliable property checks and searches to clients in Derby and all over the country. As a result, we can provide a service we are happy with and which we know is properly insured and protects your interests.
First, fill in our conveyancing quote form for conveyancing in Derby. You can find the links at the top of this page.
Our helpful conveyancing support team will then guide you through the initial stages and, once your conveyancing file is opened, your Derby conveyancing solicitor and their small team will deal with the legal side of the conveyancing transaction. You'll be given direct contact details for your conveyancing lawyers and they'll keep in touch with you every step of the way.
Whether you're moving to Derby or away from Derby, our conveyancing team can help you do so with the minimum of fuss and inconvenience.
Fees for conveyancing in Derby
All our conveyancing fees are dependent on the nature and value of the transaction, so we naturally charge a bit more for more complicated and high value work. However, the fee charged will be the same for a customer in Newcastle as it would be for someone in London, or indeed in Derby.
There are some aspects of our conveyancing fees we can't change. Fees charged by other bodies such as HM Land Registry, or by HMRC for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) are out of our control and should be the same whichever conveyancing company you use.
Introduction to Derby
Derby is a city in the East Midlands on the banks of the River Derwent, in the south of the county of Derbyshire. The city had a population of 248,700 at the time of the 2011 census. Nearby cities include Nottingham, around 15 miles east of Derby, Sheffield, around 35 miles to the north and Birmingham, around 38 miles to the south west, while London is around 125 miles south east of Derby.
Derby can trace its history back to the Romans, but it was a fairly minor settlement until the industrial revolution, when it saw rapid growth as a major hub of the UK’s new industrial economy. Derby remained a major manufacturing centre during the 20th century and was awarded city status on 7 June 1977 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to mark her silver jubilee.
Manufacturing continues to play a strong part in the city’s economy, with Derby hosting the world’s second largest aero-engines company, Rolls-Royce, while Derby Litchurch Lane Works is the UK's only remaining train manufacturer. Toyota Manufacturing UK’ automobile headquarters are found just south of the city at Burnaston and the company is a major local employer.
Derby station is operated by East Midlands Trains and the city is served by trains to London, the North East and South West. The M1 passes around 10 miles east of the city, linking Derby to major cities, including London, Sheffield and Leeds.
East Midlands Airport is situated 14 miles form Derby city centre. Its proximity to Derby, the fact that the airport is actually in Leicestershire and the rivalry between the three cities (Derby, Leicester and Nottingham) meant that there was controversy concerning the airport's decision to prefix its name with Nottingham in 2004. In 2006, East Midlands Airport reverted to its previous name. The airport is served by budget airlines, including Ryanair, EasyJet, BMI Baby and Jet2, with services to domestic and European destinations and also some long haul destinations.
Shopping in central Derby is spread across three main areas. These are the Cathedral Quarter, the St Peters Quarter and the Intu Derby shopping centre. The St Peters Quarter is Derby's second Business Improvement district brought into effect in the summer of 2011. Its boundary with the Cathedral Quarter follows Victoria Street, beneath which flows the underground course of the Markeaton Brook.
The quarter boasts a diverse range of retail outlets many of them, in Green Lane, Babington Lane, Osmaston Road and elsewhere, independent traders. St Peters Street, London Road and East Street also include a large choice of national and local independent retailers along with pubs, restaurants, banks and offices. The quarter includes the historic St Peters church and, on St Peters Churchyard, the Ancient Derby School building. Nearby is the Old Courthouse and several other notable buildings. At the eastern end of the quarter is the bus station along with the Hilton Hotel and Holiday Inn, part of the prestigious Riverlights Development on the banks of the Derwent.
Intu Derby is the city's main indoor shopping centre. It opened in 2007 after a £340 renovation and contains a food court, a 12-screen cinema and a wide range of different retailers.
Meanwhile, The Friar Gate area is the hub of Derby’s nightlife with a good mixture of clubs, bars and restaurants. Derby is particularly well known for its large number of pubs, which include many well-regarded real ale outlets.
Derby follows a non-selective primary and secondary education system with no middle schools. Derby Grammar School was founded in 1994 and was for boys only, until 2007, when they accepted girls into the sixth form for the first time. They aim to continue the work and traditions of the former Derby School, which closed in 1989, and was one of the oldest schools in England. Derby High School is for girls-only at secondary level and for boys at primary level.
The University of Derby has its main campus on Kedleston Road. There is another campus in north Derbyshire at Buxton. The University of Nottingham also operates a graduate-entry medical school at the Royal Derby Hospital, as well as its School of Nursing and Midwifery.
Bird & Co Solicitors LLP are well situated to serve their clients in Derby and the surrounding villages. We have large, well-equipped conveyancing offices in nearby Newark (38 miles away), Lincoln (55 miles away) and Grantham (40 miles away). Bird & Co Solicitors LLP, Conveyancing Solicitors in Derby, are adept at dealing with conveyancing transactions at a distance and can work with you entirely by phone, email and video conferencing if required, allowing us to offer a highly convenient service wherever you are.
Derby Urban Area
Also known as the Derby Built-up Area, Derby Urban Area is the 29th largest in the UK and is made up of the city of Derby and several nearby villages. These villages all have strong connections with the city, with many of the local residents commuting to work in Derby. Derby Urban Area had a population of 270,468 at the time of the 2011 census, the overwhelming majority of which live in the city.
Borrowash
Borrowash is a village in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, located immediately to the east of Derby. The civil parish goes by the name of Ockbrook and Borrowash. The village had a population of 7,335 at the time of the 2011 census, making it the largest settlement in the Derby Urban Area after the city itself.
The village has a number of amenities, including a supermarket, Post Office, library, butcher, chip shop, hardware store and several hairdressers. There are also two pubs, several restaurants and a number of takeaways. Borrowash has a playground and nursery school, as well as an infant and junior school.
There are several bus services connecting the village to locations including Derby, Chaddesden, Spondon, Ockbrook, Long Eaton, Chilwell and Nottingham. Borrowash is also connected to Derby by Route 6 on the National Cycle network.
Duffield is a village in south Derbyshire around 5 miles north of Derby with a population of 5,046 according to the 2011 census. The village is on the west bank of the River Derwent and at the mouth of the River Ecclesbourne. Duffield’s location places it within the southern foothills of the Pennines and also within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Area.
The village has two primary schools – William Gilbert Endowed School and Duffield Meadows Primary School – as well as a secondary school – Ecclesbourne School. Duffield is also home to a number of popular sports teams, including a squash team, cricket club and both adult and junior football clubs.
Little Eaton
Little Eaton is a village and civil parish in south Derbyshire with a population of 2,430 according to the 2011 census. The village is around 3.5 miles to the north of Derby and close to the A38, connecting Little Eaton to Derby and northern Derbyshire.
Ockbrook
Ockbrook is a village in south Derbyshire with a population of around 1,700. It is contiguous with Borrowash and is part of the same civil parish – Ockbrook and Borrowash. The village has a playground, primary school and secondary school, providing education for all ages.
Breadsall
Breadsall is a small village around 2.5 miles north of Derby city centre. The village is popular with retirees and is served by regular buses to the city centre as well as having local amenities such as a village shop, community centre, a large village green and sportsfield and a cricket club.
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The Department of Strategy and International Business
Director of MSc Management and MSc International Business (Singapore)
n.s.potter@bham.ac.uk
Nick Potter was Group Development Manager for Smiths Crisps and Tudor Foods until 1980 and then Managing Director of the PCS Group until 1993, during which time he also completed an MBA at Birmingham. He has taught on a range of post graduate programmes since 1993 and combines this with his work as a consultant, facilitating strategy formulation at board level. From 1997 to 2000 he was a main board director with English Churches Housing Group and Non-Executive Chairman of ECHG Services Ltd. He was then Chairman of Optimal Ventures Ltd and a Non-Executive Director of Quantum Computers Ltd from 2006 to 2010. Nick's research interests include organisational capabilities, corporate strategy and the role of the centre and he completed his M. Phil in this area in 2006.
Working Papers:
Strategic Management: A More Balanced Approach
New Perspectives on the Corporate Role in the Strategy Making Process
VISION AND MISSION : Combining Focus and Lateral Thinking
Defining, Enhancing and Valuing Organisational Capabilities
Organising for Coherent Strategy Formulation
Strategy, Structure and Performance of UK Manufacturing and Service MNCs : A Comparative Analysis
Generating Strategic Options, Evaluation and Decision Making
Corporate Governance and Board Development.
Case Study: The BMW acquisition of the Rover Group inJohnson, G. and Scholes, K., Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th Ed.,1999, London, Prentice Hall.
Case Studies published by the European Case Clearing House at Cranfield
News Corporation and Star TV in Asia (1999).
The Global Financial Services Industry (1999 with Eleana Stamaticou).
BMW and the Rover Group: The first five years (1998).
The Global Car Industry (1996, updated 1999, amended 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2012).
Department of Strategy and International Business
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Jerusalem Dateline: Israel-White House Relations at All-Time Low [VIDEO]
By Chris Mitchell March 29, 2015 , 9:30 am
“Do not say, ‘I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.'” (Proverbs 24:29)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama meeting at the White House, October 1, 2014. (Photo: Avi Ohayon/ GPO)
Israel’s relationship with the US is at an all-time low. Following the reelection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, many critics are saying that US President Barack Obama is out for revenge.
Amid accusations of Israeli spying and threats to isolate Israel, some US Congressional leaders are saying it’s all just a presidential temper tantrum.
Next, meet the women who is one of the fiercest critics of Islam. This former Muslim woman talks about jihad, Sharia and Islam’s abuse of women, making her a target of radical Jihadists wishing to silence her.
Plus, on the front lines against the Islamic State. Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq are fighting off the jihadi army. However, to win, they need more help from the US.
Chris Mitchell from CBN News takes you inside these stories and more.
Chris Mitchell is the CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief.
By Chris Mitchell
Jerusalem Dateline: Iran vs. Saudi Arabia – Is War on the Way? [VIDEO]
4 Things You Need to Know About the Middle East [VIDEO]
Jerusalem Dateline: 2015…What a Year! ISIS, Russia, Iran, Terror [VIDEO]
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Philippine presidential candidate attacked over rape remarks
Manila (AFP) – Leading Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, whose campaign promises a ruthless war on crime, was condemned on Sunday after a video surfaced of him apparently joking about a murdered Australian rape victim.
Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, appears in a video uploaded on YouTube making the remarks about the female Australian missionary.
The woman, who was ministering in a prison in Davao in the southern Philippines, was raped and killed during a riot by inmates in 1989.
Duterte was the city’s mayor at the time.
“They raped all of the women… There was this Australian lay minister… when they took them out… I saw her face and I thought, ‘Son of a bitch. what a pity… they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first,” Duterte is shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally.
Duterte, who boasts of the extra-judicial killings of suspects by vigilantes during his time in Davao, is leading in the run-up to the May 9 election, according to the latest opinion survey on April 3.
His rivals, women’s groups and commentators on social media quickly denounced his remarks but Duterte denied any levity.
President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman Herminio Coloma said the comments show “lack of fitness for the presidency” and his “utter lack of respect for women”.
Aquino, who under the constitution cannot seek a second term, is supporting another candidate, his former interior secretary Mar Roxas who trails Duterte in opinion surveys.
Rival presidential candidate Vice President Jejomar Binay called Duterte’s remarks “simply revolting”.
“You are a crazy maniac who doesn’t respect women and doesn’t deserve to be president,” Binay told Duterte in a statement.
Another candidate Senator Grace Poe, who is just behind Duterte in the surveys, said his comment was “distasteful and unacceptable, and reflects his disrespect for women”.
In a response also uploaded on YouTube, Duterte insisted he had just been recounting the events of 1989 and was not making a joke about them.
“It was not a joke. I said it in a narrative,” he said.
“I was very angry when I spoke. I said ‘Sons of whores, she is as pretty as an American movie star. They got to her before me. So kill them all’.”
Duterte refused to apologise for his remarks, insisting: “This is how men talk.”
One Filipino remarked on Twitter: “I broke down after watching Duterte on Aussie rape. I can’t fathom how his followers can laugh at it.”
Women’s group Gabriela also attacked the remarks, saying rape or any other form of sexual abuse was not “something to be trivialised in a joke”, especially by someone seeking the presidency.
Many Filipinos have embraced Duterte for his vulgarity-laced speeches, his boasts of sexual conquests and his promised war on crime.
Even when he called Pope Francis a “son of a whore,” in a speech last November, his followers in the devoutly Catholic nation quickly forgave him.
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The evolution of Porsche's iconic 911 sports car
There are very few cars that have been in continuous production for 50 years.
The Porsche 911 is one of them.
In fact, if the lineage of the 911 is traced to its roots, you will find that it is actually related to the original 1930s Volkswagen Beetle.
While a few aspects of the 911 have changed over the years, even more have stayed the same. The engine hanging over the rear axle is the most obvious hallmark that has remained the same for the entire production run. Such a heavy weight should act like a pendulum and throw the Porsche off balance, but instead this Porsche is one of the best handling cars on the road today.
The distinctive shape has also changed very little in the last 50 years, but that is what makes the car an icon.
The Corvette, 10 years older than the 911, has changed completely since it was introduced in 1953 and would be unrecognizable to someone who has only seen a first generation car.
An owner of the original 911 could teleport 50 years into the future and still instantly recognize a new car on the road as an evolution of his own.
Have a look at how this icon has evolved.
[An earlier version of this article was written by Travis Okulski.]
The Beetle is the grandfather of the 911. Ferdinand Porsche Sr. designed the "People's Car" in the late 1930s. It was not fast, but basic design elements like round headlamps and a engine in the rear made their way to Porsche's next car.
If the Beetle was the grandfather, the 356 is the father. Porsche once again used a rear-engine layout, but the 356 was lower, wider, and faster than any Beetle on the road in 1948. It stayed in production until 1965.
jcornelius via flickr
The original 911 entered production in 1963 as a more usable and refined alternative to the 356. The round headlamps and distinctive profile are readily apparent. The five spoke Fuch's wheels also became closely associated with the 911; a replica version is still made today.
The 911 continued to evolve, getting more and more powerful. The 1974 RSR variant shown here was a terror on the race track. The turbo version came in second at Le Mans and started another Porsche tradition.
That tradition was the 911 Turbo. The first 911 Turbos hit the street in the mid 70s. They were actually called the Porsche 930, in deference to the 3.0 liter engine on board. These were the fastest cars available in Germany at the time.
The original 911 was in production for 16 years, finally stepping down in 1989.
It made way for its replacement, the subtly different 964. Even Porsche fans would be hard pressed to see the differences when looking at one.
The 964 Turbo also looked quite similar to the previous generation car on the outside as well as mechanically.
In 1993, the 911 underwent its biggest change yet as the 964 went away and the 993 took over. A more aerodynamic body with smaller, angled headlamps and narrow rear lights were the key differences.
Some 993 variants, like the Turbo and GT2 (seen here) have maintained their value incredibly well. The 993 Turbo can still be found for sale in the $100,000 range.
The 996 was the biggest departure for the 911. Oval headlights were gone, replaced by units that were on the lower priced Boxster. This caused an uproar with owners who wanted the provenance of their cars to be shown in the looks. But the biggest change was under the skin. The traditional air-cooled flat six engine was replaced with a new water-cooled version to meet emissions regulations as well as provide added refinement.
The headlights were changed over time to differentiate the 996 from the Boxster and appease owners.
The 996 became the 997 in 2005. It seems the headlight change for the 996 was too aggressive, so the familiar rounded shape returned.
The 997 also spurred over 20 different variants. They ranged from a base Carrera to a 620 horsepower, $200,000+ GT2 RS. Shown below is one of the last editions, the GT3 RS 4.0, which was a version of the GT3 RS, itself a version of the GT3.
Damian Morys Foto via flickr
The 911 is still going strong. There are currently 22 different versions on the road
Newspress USA
In fact, here's a field guide to all 22 of them ...
DON'T MISS: Porsche now sells 22 versions of the 911 — here they are
More: Features Porsche Germany Luxury Cars
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Home Apps Every summary from UK Parliament’s Mobility as a Service Inquiry
Apps Data & Expense Events News Opinion
Every summary from UK Parliament’s Mobility as a Service Inquiry
Back last year, the UK Parliament announced it was opening an inquiry into Mobility as a Service and how it could be applied to help reduce congestion, improve health and be rolled out across the population. The Transport Committee opened up submissions for evidence from experts and companies in the industry in the hope that they could collect as much data, information and opinion as possible to start off a plan.
As there’s over 40 different items to download and read through we’ve compiled just the summary from each company (where a summary has been provided by the author) into one easy to read post.
Fleetondemand / Mobilleo
The current definition of MaaS is incorrect and fails to recognise the impact and influence of the business sector on travel, transit, congestion and air quality
Current inquiry discussions and submissions have been predominately more focused on public sector led initiatives. The inquiry should recognise that MaaS tech in the private sector is already more advanced and under development after years of research and development
There is no other MaaS project under development as unified and true to Mobility as a Service as our current Mobilleo application – it serves both consumer and business usage
It is our belief that due to the infancy of MaaS there have been no true evidence of global adoption of Mobility as a Service on a large scale
App technology is vital to the success of MaaS but needs to be developed in a way that it is scalable for major operations, multiple users, with advancing technology and to keep in line with current data connectivity technologies
Connectivity in UK cities could slow MaaS’ rise and adoption rates
A true MaaS solution needs to leverage open API access with both publicly and privately available data. This may require successful commercial partnerships with some of the country’s leading travel providers
Read our Mobilleo – Parliamentary Inquiry for more information.
Getting from A to B should be seamless, and we know that Uber is only one solution available to people. It is high-capacity public transport – which moves thousands of people at a time – that should remain the backbone of a city’s transport infrastructure, and policymakers are right to promote active travel as a means of healthy living and greener, less congested streets. No one option will work for all people or all cities, but rather the future is multi-modal. Ridesharing apps and other mobility services – from bike sharing to car sharing to public transport – must work together and further integrate to compete with private cars and offer a future of low-cost, low-emission, low-hassle travel.
Yet the reality is that encouraging people to give up their cars and take multi-modal journeys via a single platform can be difficult in practice. There is the logistical challenge involving different timetables, different tickets, different payment systems and so on. At Uber we believe we can play a role in overcoming these challenges, so at a European level we have joined the board of the MaaS Alliance, a public-private partnership established to promote the integration of shared mobility services and provide a sustainable and affordable alternative to owning a car across the EU. Members range from national transport ministries and public transport operators to car manufacturers and cities.
Affordable and reliable on-demand services like Uber are core to the movement towards multi-modality, and we are open to partnering in the UK with like-minded organisations to make cities better places to live in and get around. It is within that context that we support efforts to understand the potential – and pitfalls – of Mobility as a Service, and will be an increasingly active participant in the debate.
At its simplest, MaaS is the provision of multimodal, demand-driven mobility services whereby customers are offered tailor-made travel options via a digital platform (e.g. a mobile app) based on real-time information. The app handles transactions and includes payments.
However, putting even such a “generation 1.0” version into practice is much more difficult. While several commercial providers (such as auto manufacturers, independent players) provide part of the solution, and many cities have trialled pilots (e.g. Vienna, Gothenburg), no provider—except for Helsinki—offers a fully-fledged, integrated multi-modal solution as yet.
Consumers can use journey-planner apps (e.g. Citymapper) to identify and even arrange some mobility options into a trip chain, but they must click through to each mode of transit’s app and make payment for each leg on an ‘a la carte’ basis, and not as a single payment. The end result is a collection of different interfaces, customer service levels, and terms of use.
The true value in MaaS comes from economies of scope—all modes of transportation through a common interface –and a single, seamless payment system that can accommodate all users, even those without credit cards or smart phones.
A tremendous opportunity exists in consolidating the various single-mode transport providers and matching it to a critical mass of users through data infrastructure and transaction processing. Doing this successfully will result in more efficient use of transport options, for more people, at less cost.
MaaS has huge potential to deliver significant benefits to the provision of transport services. Key to successfully delivering MaaS are three central principles : It requires a customer-centric system approach to design and implementation. It requires full and equivalent integration of multiple transport network services to provide fair and accessible choice. It requires live, real time, accurate information.
MaaS should be a personal account-based service, accessed via an app, that delivers real time mobility opportunities to an individal that focuses on getting them from their origin to destination based on preferences. MaaS should be modally agnostic i.e. delivering whatever options meet the specific requirements of an individual at any given point. The individual preferences may be to prioritise time, cost, quality, emissions or any other variable that might influence the selection of a mobility opportunity.
The key principles are that the service being offered is focused on answering the needs of any individual at any given moment in time and in any place by whatever means are available. Therefore the requirements that it is customer-centric, provides access to multiple modes of transport and uses real time information to enable rational decisions.
We consider that MaaS will enable a number of positive outcomes : MaaS can encourage the use of public, shared and active transport. If MaaS is deployed as a personal account-based system, then it can provide greater awareness of, and access to, alternative opportunities to travel, for example better knowledge of bus routes, local cycle hire schemes, or ridesharing opportunities. Through a personal account system, pricing can be used to incentivise use of public, shared or active transport instead of driving – as a means of addressing the challenges of congestion and emissions.
MaaS can be used as a policy instrument to deliver wider social, economic and environmental policy objectives. Deploying MaaS can be used to address social exclusion issues, provide increased access to employment and skills opportunities, and to incentivise use of cleaner forms of transport thus reducing emissions and improving air quality. Transport authorities can play a key role in developing mobility opportunities through deployment of a MaaS system designed and managed to deliver such wider policy objectives.
MaaS can improve travel for everyone. By aggregating mobility opportunities and providing the range of options to a passenger through a single interface (presumably a mobile phone app), every passenger is able to select the best possible option to travel with greater information on price, speed and quality of service.
Viaqqio
Viaqqio is active in designing and piloting Mobility as a Service solutions. This has given a deep insight into the opportunities and barriers facing the Mobility as a Service market in the short and longer term. Discussed in this submission:
Barriers to MaaS include: limitations to operators’ willingness to participate; data availability and consistency; and existing ticketing arrangements.
The Bus Bill can be expected to ease some of these barriers, but central government may also be able to utilise regulation and obligation to ensure participation of authorities and operators in MaaS schemes.
With its MaaS solutions, Viaqqio is already facing up to tangible concerns about digital exclusion. Their resolution to ensuring MaaS does not add to inequalities focuses on facilitating access to services via multiple channels, including offline/ non-technical solutions. Furthermore, a focus on making MaaS work in rural areas is being pursued.
ACFO
ACFO is a members’ organisation that is made up of companies that operate vehicle fleets for their business. Its aim is to provide a voice for members and support them in operating their fleets. We hope to share best practice and act as an industry expert.
ACFO is completely independent and has no service or product to sell or any financial interest in any company selling these services.
ACFO is submitting to the Committee as it believes that Mobility as a Service (MaaS) should be imperative for companies to assist travel, in both business and as part of a benefit package solution. It sees the evolution of the company car for perk fleets moving into this arena.
Businesses operate fleets for two main reasons.
One is company critical to furthering their business requirements. These can be subdivided into light commercial vehicle (LCV) fleets that are a business requirement, to cars of a job-need basis for sales teams etc
The second requirement is as part of their benefits packages for employees as part of a structured salary package for employment.
Some of our members’ organisations are looking to incorporate their fleet and travel in a wider ranging position with the creation of a ‘mobility manager’ who has the responsibility for ground transportation within a business. Ground transportation in a company can cover everything from rail, company and private/grey car usage, taxi, mini cab, car hire, car share, tube, bus, coach, cycle, and even short haul flights.
ACFO believes that the remit for this new post of ‘mobility manager’ would be truly enhanced with the wider adoption of a fully integrated MaaS operation. This could be crucial in the provision of general ground transportation for employees on company business. MaaS should be at the forefront of how businesses should be travelling to ensure they are using the best options for the journey, for environment, cost, safety and employee reasons.
Demand responsive transport is a key part of the work of community transport operators. These services are often door-to-door, dial a ride type services. Our members provide these services on a not-for-profit basis and always for a social benefit.
Developments in transport have often not realised an era of increased mobility for some of the UKs most isolated residents. The deregulations of the bus system in 1985 led to pockets of isolation where the transport network will never reach. Although deregulation has encouraged the development of bus services in London this has not been seen elsewhere; where services have declined year on year. This is coupled with a failure to engender a modal shift away from the car use.
Mobility as a Service has been presented as the means to solve the decline in the bus network, enable modal shift, and usher in a new era of personalised mobility. Missing from this conversation is how we can use MaaS to make transport more accessible for all. Apps, new technology, and new approaches to transport, may bring benefits to those who can already get around, but it is important to look at how MaaS can improve access for those who cannot currently access the transport network.
In this light, we have looked at four areas to encourage the development of a MaaS ecosystem which improves mobility and enhances existing services. The first is that we describe a new model which looks at how we can converge improving current travelarrangements while enabling there to be new trips, the second part is that we look at how MaaS can be made sustainable, thirdly we examine the role of community transport specifically within MaaS, and finally we look at where current transport developments can better converge with MaaS.
London TravelWatch
London TravelWatch believes that central government has a key role to play in ensuring that negative consequences of Mobility as a Service systems are mitigated. Effective regulation, either by central government or an arms length body such as the ORRor by a strategic transport body such as Transport for London (TfL), is key to ensure that MaaS will work for all Londoners. Therefore, those who cannot use technology, or those who cannot afford it, will still be able to access public transport.
The most vulnerable consumers of public transport in London have plenty to gain, but also to lose from the introduction of Mobility as a Service technology.
For London TravelWatch the key questions to be answered on future transport revolve around the benefit to passengers of Mobility as a Service. These should include:- Does it improve journey time? What will the costs be to consumers? Will these increase or decrease over current fare levels? Will it serve the places people need it to? What will be the level and expectation of customer service? Who will own the rights over data, systems and safety?
Given the rapid development of these new technologies, much is expected of transport system providers to step up to the challenges of meeting new demands of users through easier-to-access, more enjoyable, and a wider choice of transport solutions. New partnerships must be formed, not only between private sector operators, but between the public and private sector themselves. However, for MaaS to be a success, there are areas in which the Government must take action.
Firstly, an open platform with free and open competition between road, rail and other forms of transport must be guaranteed. For this reason, private vehicle-based solutions – such as car rental, leasing and car clubs – should have the ability to join new and existing transport networks, such as the Oyster Card system in London, or the Swift system in Birmingham. In ensuring that this is a viable option, local authorities must also make parking space available for these vehicles, particularly in areas of expected demand.
In participating in such networks, it is vital that all operators within MaaS networks are able to access data generated and recorded throughout users’ journeys. In doing so, safeguards must also be in place to prevent larger or more established operators from misusing this data to restrict or push other operators out of the MaaS market. Similarly, users themselves must be confident that their data is recorded and stored in a secure manner. Furthermore, to ensure fair and even access on the part of users themselves, the Government must ensure the roll–out of the latest broadband standards to all potential users, as it guaranteed at the previous General Election. Finally, to ensure that the benefits offered by Mobility as a Service are realised, and any potential negative impacts are guarded against (or are addressed at the earliest opportunity), and to formulate effective interventions where necessary, policy makers should continue to engage with MaaS operators following implementation. As well as ensuring that MaaS continues to deliver and improve upon the stated targets and objectives, this will also ensure a strong understanding of the various economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits at all levels.
ofo UK
ofo are responding to this inquiry because dockless bike sharing is a perfect example of what Mobility as a Service (MaaS) can achieve by providing new mobility solutions which benefit cyclists and towns and cities.
Non-docking bike sharing allows for people to navigate towns and cities with ease, and without the necessity to own bicycles, an option which is neither feasible nor affordable for many.
ofo has committed to sharing its data with local authorities and working with mapping companies to assist with transport planning and a range of other Mobility as a Service solutions.
Rail Delivery Group
Rail is fundamental to Britain’s prosperity. After enormous growth over the last 20 years, Britain’s railway is increasingly important in connecting workers to jobs, businesses to markets, and people to their families and friends.
In October 2017, the RDG launched In Partnership for Britain’s Prosperity – the industry’s long-term plan for Britain’s railway. This landmark coming together of passenger train operators, freight train operators, Network Rail and rail suppliers means industry-wide commitment to a plan for a changing railway. More than £50bn is being invested into the railway over the next few years and analysis by Oxera forecasts that the combination of public and private investment going into the railway will secure almost £85bn in extra economic benefits across the country and 100,000 job opportunities[1], as well as enabling further investment in the network. In partnership, both private and public sectors will be working together on four commitments for change. One of these commitments for change is to improve customer satisfaction, by delivering simpler ticketing, better information and value for money when selecting a fare, along with more transparency.
Through the development of the Industry’s Customer Heartbeat (a new model to identify and measure delivery against customers’ expectations) the industry knows that customers want easy travel from door-to-door without the need to understand complex rules about tickets, pricing or travel restrictions. They want to be kept informed during their journey and given timely, helpful advice, especially when things go wrong. If disruption does occur, customers expect dynamic re-planning by the industry, to help them get to their destination.
MaaS uses emerging technologies and data to enable smarter, greener and more efficient travel and movement of goods across the country. It allows the integration of transport services into a single personalised mobility service accessible on demand. The overall aim is to provide the best way for any individual to travel that responds to their needs and wider environmental, congestion and sustainability objectives. The industry believes the railway should form the backbone of this national, multi-modal experience.
Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation
Mobility as a Service needs better understanding of the transport network to be successful
Mobility as a Service should support wider ambitions of government and society
Mobility as a Service must provide wider community benefits and cohesion
Mobility as a Service must have a strategic approach to avoiding exclusion
Mobility as a Service should be delivered by both the public and private sector
The competitive nature of public transport makes sharing data complex
There is limited technical or regulatory assistance in sharing data between providers
MaaSLab
Many definitions for MaaS are in operation as the concept is constantly changing. We define Mobility as a Service as “a user-centric, intelligent mobility distribution model in which all mobility service providers’ offerings are aggregated by a sole mobility provider, the MaaS provider, and supplied to users through a single digital platform” [1]. Seamless mobility would be provided through MaaS with the integration in three areas: payment & ticketing, mobility packages, and ICT.
While completely integrated MaaS products are yet to be tested, integration of certain areas provides parallels to some of the benefits which can be achieved through MaaS. It has the potential to change how we use transport removing various pain points and enabling easier use of multiple modes. It could help to reduce reliance on private cars and increase public transport patronage, both of which would contribute to lower congestion and better air quality levels. MaaS needs to be supported by investment in infrastructure, so that journeys can be made easier and more pleasant for consumers.
Barriers to the implementation of MaaS can be separated into four categories: regulatory, business/market, social/end-user, and technological. These barriers vary in their impact depending on the city. To some degree, the barriers are a result of a knowledge gap and lack of sufficient testing of MaaS alternatives (e.g. most appropriate business models). Others are a result of new technologies being tried in the private sector before legislators have a chance to react to them.
Government is in a strong position to address some of these barriers directly, while on others it must work together with the private sector to ensure a consistent and “fair” service for users. Regulation around passenger rights and interaction between services is needed to support MaaS operators. Data sharing and standardisation is one of the most important issues to tackle so that MaaS operators can provide a complete service to users. Government support (for publicly provided services, as well as requirements of private operators) is integral to the success of MaaS services.
Pilots and demonstrations are needed to test the potential MaaS operating models and develop the evidence base. Through comprehensively testing MaaS solutions, the true potential of the model could be better understood and achieved in practice. Quantifiable evidence is needed so that the UK is ready to become a leader on regulating and implementing a new, connected paradigm of seamless mobility.
We identify three key barriers to Mobility as a Service (MaaS) implementation; a lack of data sharing; siloed operations that tend to discourage cross-functional innovation; and fragmentation across the market, both by domain and by geography.
Realising the full potential of MaaS will require leadership and regulation by the public sector. Examples from the construction sector illustrates how a directive approach can stimulate significant private sector innovation.
Data standards and frameworks are crucial foundations for encouraging data sharing and reducing fragmentation. The Digital Twin approach to data, advocated by the National Infrastructure Commission, represents a significant opportunity for the UK in this regard.
Government should take a lead in providing the regulatory direction to stimulate cross-silo collaboration. It should encourage the development of open data standards and data exchange infrastructure, and work with the private sector to develop new business models that ensure that the exchange of curated, maintained, trusted and valued data can be sustained.
MaaS Global
MaaS Global is the world’s first Mobility as a Service operator, providing live commercial service in Helsinki and in beta in the West Midlands region of the UK.
Initial customers in Helsinki reduced their private transport use by 50%, with most journeys transferring to public transport.
MaaS Global have found that the local transport authority and transport service operators in the West Midlands very willing to engage with us to develop and deliver a pilot MaaS project.
Key potential barriers to MaaS operators are access to operators’ booking/ticketing systems, addressing concerns regarding the ownership of customer data and the sharing of aggregated data and active support of relevant from local and national government organisations.
National and local government have a role in acting as a facilitator of MaaS operators who want to enter the UK market, using their existing relationships with transport service providers to bring people together to develop new commercial partnerships.
The government should consider changes to Concessionary Fares regulations to recognise the role of Mobility as a Service operators in providing mobility solutions to citizens who hold a Concessionary Travel permit.
There may be a role for government in establishing regulations to support Mobility as a Service in the UK. The UK government may wish to seek information from the Finnish government regarding their new transport code, which aims to facilitate Mobility as a Service operators in Finland.
MaaS Alliance
Currently the transport sector is mode-specifically regulated which does not always favour the implementation of Mobility as Service. Development of the MaaS market will rely on access and openness of data, open APIs (Application Programming Interface) and access to ticketing and payments. An imperative requirement is thehigh quality of data which being exchanged.
While designing and establishing the MaaS ecosystem, the principles of openness and inclusivity should be fully respected, meaning that the ecosystem should be open to all service providers and inclusive for all different kind of users, including persons with reduced mobility or disabilities. In order to build attractiveness and public acceptance for MaaS services, the whole value chain should meet the high expectations related to ecological and financial sustainability.
When defining regulatory principles for a rapidly developing digitalised transport system, it is important to encourage the participation of all market players – both existing and new players – and to avoid stifling innovation.
This response focuses on three of the terms of reference:
Overcoming the barriers to implementation – We recognise the operational, physical, digital and commercial barriers to implementation
The role of central government – We agree that central government has a key role in creating the conditions for a safe and controlled evolution from existing transport arrangements to new mobility approaches
Overcoming concerns about digital exclusion – We’re committed to making Mobility as a Service an inclusive capability in the UK
Stagecoach Group
The MaaS concept offers exciting opportunities which are starting to be exploited.
Those best placed to deliver MaaS are transport operators together with digital technology experts, these partnerships are already emerging.
The private sector, with its existing strong customer relationships, is best suited to creating innovative MaaS solutions and reacting quickly to changing customer needs.
The investment required to exploit MaaS can best be made by private transport operators acting as mobility integrators, who can build on existing expertise and knowledge gained internationally
Data is the key to success of MaaS and transport operators already hold the data. Nevertheless, the development of MaaS needs the appropriate support from national government to ensure that data is available and flows effectively.
There are some examples of MaaS already delivering benefits, not all currently use an app but one will be a natural progression.
TravelSpirit Foundation
This response from the Travelspirit Foundation — a global, independent network of technologists, policy makers, activists, academics and transport planners — recommends to the Committee that it seeks as open an implementation of Mobility as a Service (hereinafter referred to as MaaS) as possible to ensure that:
The greatest economic and social benefits accrue from MaaS; and
Those that might otherwise be excluded — those living in rural areas, the disabled, the elderly and the poorest in society — are protected from narrow, self-interest service implementations.
The response proposes the adoption of an Internet of Mobility framework to govern and provide a common ruleset for the implementation of Mobility as a Service and the use of an Openness Index to measure potential MaaS services, implementations and components against.
The response then looks at potential blockers to implementation and recommends solutions. It then examines the role of government, particularly the Department for Transport, in raising awareness, building the evidence base, and harnessing the potential of MaaS. Finally it looks at the risks of exclusion and how an open implementation can avoid this.
Campaign for Better Transport
By harnessing digital technology and developing better sharing of transport information, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) provides exciting opportunities to enhance local transport provision. Well-planned MaaS can improve social inclusion, cut traffic and pollution and help reduce dependency on private car ownership, by filling gaps in existing services, and providing liberating mobility for people excluded from mainstream options.
However there is a risk that poorly-planned MaaS, with a proliferation of private services competing for a relatively agile and affluent urban customer base could simply lead to more vehicles on the road, adding to congestion and pollution, while reinforcing existing damaging patterns of social exclusion in poorer and more isolated communities.
MaaS needs good regulation and planning to maximise its potential and good integration with existing provision, sharing data and working closely with local and regional transport authorities as part of a high quality network.
To maximise the benefits of MaaS, local authorities or a lead regulated operator should have the role to oversee the development, deployment and co-ordination of MaaS provision in their area, supported by appropriate policy frameworks and funding from central Government.
Addison Lee
Transport demand is changing, but continues to be dominated by car journeys with low occupancy rates, which are a significant contributor to congestion, pollution, and reduced road space due to parking.
As urban populations increase, major cities like London are under growing pressure to ensure people move around in more efficient and environmentally sound ways.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS), specifically AV and ride-sharing models, could provide an ideal solution for cities, if integrated with existing public transport systems. The combination of this new technology and emerging business model has the potential to bring about exciting benefits to the consumer and transport authorities in the form of safety, greater accessibility, reduced parking and higher vehicle utilisation, reducing congestion and emissions.
Addison Lee’s experience of providing mobility services and knowledge of and investment in technology solutions means we are well placed to be at the forefront of the growth of MaaS provision.
Aberdeen City Council
Enabling the correct environment for a Mobility as a Service solution both transport infrastructure and connectivity
Recognition of the potential role of Mobility as a Service and journey app in bringing about health benefits and improving air quality
Some of the barriers to implementation which have been identified in this response include;
Ownership & Maintenance Costs
Sharing of Data and Data Protection issues
Car Club Integration & Bike Hire Scheme
Fare Structure, Integrated Ticketing & Payment Engines
Data Standardisation
Payment engine
Public Trust & Digital Inclusion
Advancement of technology
There is a role for academia to evidence impacts of poor air quality on those undertaking active travel means, potential package bundles for Mobility as a Service and data standards required
There is a role for Government for creating policy on data standards and best practice, as well as funding to help develop research and solutions.
Hayfield Sustainable Travel
There is significant scope for Mobility as a Service to create new transport provision that costs less than private car use, generates more employment than conventional public transport and increases the overall sustainability of transport.
Current gaps in transport provision and a high level of car ownership create practical and financial disincentives to using MaaS.
If an individual is to replace a car with Mobility as a Service then all the gaps they currently use their car to fill, need to be filled by alternatives.
To affect a significant modal shift, MaaS needs to build network capacity. A 10% shift away from cars, for example, would require a 35% increase in the use of alternatives (as 78% of journeys are made using private cars link).
An effective MaaS marketplace could facilitate development of new transport provision that fills gaps and builds capacity. However, MaaS currently focusses on coordinating existing transport provision and does not address the problems of filling gaps and building capacity.
MaaS developers currently put faith in ‘on-demand’ transport to fill gaps. On-demand solutions, in turn, put faith in the analysis of transport demand data. The weakness of this approach is that unless MaaS coordinates sources of data and on-demand services, people with compatible journeys will be found in separate data sets and will not be combined. The key question is how can all transport demand data be aggregated and analysed in a way that is practical and legal?
We present evidence to suggest that the problems of ‘transport provider unwillingness to share data, customers and revenue’, can be avoided by approaching transport providers from the demand side of the MaaS marketplace and actively involving users in arranging the newtransport provision they need. This would change the development of new transport provision; from top-down, by providers who know little about who is going where or when, to bottom-up, by people know a lot about it.
Our recommended approach is to examine the components required to coordinate demand in the MaaS marketplace and mirror the existing efforts by MaaS Mobility Operators to coordinate supply. Addressing this has the potential to balance what might otherwise become a dysfunctional marketplace.
We are on the cusp of a profound change in how we move people, goods and services around our towns, cities and countryside. This is driven by extraordinary innovation in engineering, technology and business models. That is why the Government identified “The Future of Mobility” as one of four Grand Challenges in the Industrial Strategy.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a term used to describe digital transport service platforms that enable users to access, pay for, and get real time information on, a range of public and private transport options. These platforms may also be linked to the provision of new transport services.
MaaS could improve passenger experiences by better integrating modes in multimodal journeys, offering more bespoke and personalised journeys, simplifying ticketing and payment procedures, and providing guaranteed service level commitments.
Some commentators believe wider changes in consumer preferences, such as the growing move towards the ‘sharing economy’ over asset ownership, will influence the development of MaaS,. The sharing economy could provide a better user experience through enabling greater flexibility and the opportunity to personalise new services.
Another such trend is ‘on demand’ transport. This combines traditional public transport offerings with real time information and service provision. Developments in some information technology have allowed some operators to optimisetheir systems and reduce operating costs.
The impact of Mobility as a Service platforms is not yet understood. The Department is keen to work closely with companies and Local Authorities (LAs) developing MaaS platforms and new business models, and help to shape their evolution to meet government policy goals as well as business objectives.
A potential barrier to the implementation of MaaS platforms is transport providers’ willingness to join platforms and develop commercial agreements with a wide range of parties. While some commentators have suggested Government could overcome this barrier through intervention in the market, the Department believes it would be premature to consider this at this stage.
MaaS platforms will rely on open data and the ability to send ‘tickets’ for travel directly to mobile devices. The Department has recognised the challenges in these areas and has developed work programmes to address them.
The Government will continue to place the user at the centre of policy decisions. Mobility as a Service has the opportunity to deliver more sustainable transport, improve UK productivity, enhance journey experience for users, and help to enable greater social inclusion. At the same time, this change to the existing model also presents potential risks which will need to be managed. Strengthening our understanding of the public’s attitudes to MaaS will be essential to achieving these benefits and overcoming these risks.
The Government has an ambition for Britain to remain at the forefront of the technological revolution. To help ensure this, we intend to publish a strategy on the Future of Urban Mobility within the next 12 months.
To read all of these submissions in full please visit the UK Parliament inquiry for Mobility as a Service page.
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Vision system for autonomous vehicles watches not just where pedestrians walk, but how
View original post.The University of Michigan, well known for its efforts in self-driving car …
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Angelina Jolie Hails New Bosnia Anti-Rape Military Training, And It's About Time The United States Listened
By Lulu Chang
Handout/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Looks like Bosnia has set the new global standard in comprehensive military training with its inclusion of sexual violence prevention. The anti-rape training as part of military exercises, lauded by British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Angelina Jolie, has been called a "groundbreaking" move, and should become the standard for U.N. peacekeeping missions.
Bosnia is no stranger to sex-assault controversy, but has continued to make strides in a positive direction. During the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, it's estimated that up to 50,000 women were raped. However, in an incredible show of strength, these survivors later sued at a U.N. war crimes tribunal, which led to the imprisonment of wartime rapists for the first time in history.
Now, with the newly implemented sexual violence prevention training, it seems, as Angelina Jolie says, that Bosnia is helping to "redefine soldiering in the 21st century."
The weaponization of rape has become perhaps the most despicable and truly repugnant methods of terrorizing a population. A form of ethnic cleansing, The Telegraph reports that rape seems to be increasingly used as a "part of an attempt to destroy a way of life, erase support for rebel groups and maybe even wipe out the tribes."
A report by Amnesty International has mapped a disturbing trend that seems to suggest that women's bodies have become, in and of themselves, a warzone — an area to be conquered. The raping and pillaging of villages is not a thing of the past, but has rather reemerged as "an orchestrated combat tool," Gita Sahgal of Amnesty International told the BBC News,
If one group wants to control another they often do it by impregnating women of the other community because they see it as a way of destroying the opposing community.
Rape, in short, becomes not only a matter of personal control, but a matter of strategic ethnic control. No soldier has a right to a woman's body.
The victimization of women's bodies is a crime that too often goes unaccounted and unrecognized. The casualties of war are counted in lives lost on the battlefield, but very rarely in the lives destroyed away from smoke and gunfire. Though there is undeniable loss in combat, there is also loss in the private sphere. The Bosnian training mandate begins to ameliorate these issues.
Within the United States, it is no secret that the issue of rape is painfully present. While we may not live in a warzone, that does not translate to safety from the same abhorrent crimes, and the issue of sexual assault in our armed forces must be addressed. The blocking of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-NY) bill earlier this month, which would have "removed the chain of command from prosecuting sexual assaults and other major military crimes," proves that there is still a distinct lack of consensus regarding how best to deal with a painful subject.
And although the Senate unanimously passed Senator Claire McCaskill's (D-MO) bill, which would eliminate the statute of limitations on assault and rape cases, as well as the "good soldier defense," the bill's fate is still unclear as it heads into more turbulent waters in the House of Representatives.
It's high time that the United States demonstrates a firm commitment to protecting the men and women who protect their fellow citizens — by making it unequivocally clear that sexual violence amongst and by military members (or civilians, for that matter) is unacceptable. Bosnia's training program has sent a clear message to the rest of the world that sexual violence cannot and will not be tolerated. It is high time that the United States sends the same message.
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Why ‘Ben Is Back’ Made Lucas Hedges Break His Rule About Not Working With His Writer/Director Dad
By Tatiana Tenreyro
Lucas Hedges has become one of the most prolific young actors in Hollywood, appearing in numerous dramas in the past year: Lady Bird, Boy Erased, Mid90s, Three Billboard Outside Ebbing Missouri…chances are that even if you don’t recognize his name, you’d know his face. But Ben Is Back, out Dec. 7, is one of his most powerful roles yet. In the film, Hedges plays 19-year-old ex-addict Ben, who returns home for Christmas. Julia Roberts is his mom Holly, who does everything in her power to make sure her son stays drug-free and safe. But part of what makes Hedges' role so special is that it feels full-circle: it reunites him on-set with his dad, writer-director Peter Hedges, who gave him his first film role back in 2007 in Dan In Real Life.
To Hedges, this unexpected father-son project took on a great deal of significance. “It ended up being really powerful and meaningful to get to make a movie with him that is about a subject matter that is very personal to our family,” explains the actor as we chat at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York City. “At one point it stopped feeling like we were doing something as a [director and actor]... It felt like we were doing something for our family, as a father and son, and yet at the same time I feel like I needed to forget he was my dad in order to do a movie. So it was sort of contradictory at times.”
Hedges tells me he has family members on his father’s side who have struggled with addiction, making this an intimate story for the father-son duo to tell. But besides drawing from his family’s own experience, Hedges prepared for his role by attending Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, connecting with others who share similar stories to the experience Ben goes through in the film.
“[I] spoke to a lot of people who had similar stories to Ben, and it just felt like the more research I did, the more I felt like, ‘Okay, this is a really important story that I have to tell,’” recalls the actor. “The immediacy of it being real to my family made it that much more important to me.”
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In order to create a more formal atmosphere, Hedges would refer to his dad as “Peter” during the making of the film, marking a distinction between work and their family life. And the father-son duo had to navigate how to make sure Hedges would feel comfortable on set, while also having the same experience as any other actor would’ve had.
“My dad sort of thinks everything I do is great, because he's my dad. So to some extent I discredit his opinion," notes the actor. “But when it came to making this movie, I feel like he did a good job of disconnecting from that support system to be able to say, ‘OK, this needs to be like this for it to work, and this needs to be like that,’ so that it wasn't just like, "Everything you do is amazing' ... I felt like he was direct and honest, which was valuable.”
But when Peter Hedges wrote the film, he hadn’t pictured having his son in it — at least, not initially, according to an interview with The New York Times. Early on in his career, Hedges decided he didn’t want to appear in any of his dad’s movies. Instead, he wanted to focus on growing as an actor on his own, working alongside well-known filmmakers Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom), and Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). But reading the Ben Is Back script changed his mind.
“I love my dad's work, and I feel like I just couldn't imagine wanting to be in that environment with him,” notes the actor. “I'm already uncomfortable when I watch the monitors. When I read the script I thought it was so f*cking beautiful. And I felt like it would be a big mistake to miss the opportunity.”
But besides becoming enamored with the script, it also helped that his co-star Julia Roberts specifically requested to work alongside him. “That was very flattering, very flattering, and definitely helped me want to do it more,” says Hedges. “It's really weird being appreciated and wanted by somebody who I grew up watching, it's a very bizarre feeling. But it felt very validating and exciting.”
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
In the film, their chemistry as mother-son is palpable. Roberts’ intense, heartbreaking scenes with Hedges make the story feel so believable, as Holly grapples with not being able to control Ben’s impulses that put him at risk of relapsing. Besides being seasoned pros, part of what made their dynamic onscreen so seamless was their bond off-set. Roberts developed a motherly bond with Hedges, even having Thanksgiving dinner with him. “It felt less like it was a relationship on screen, despite the fact that we're obviously being filmed, and it's scripted ... It felt more like we were just hanging out together,” notes Hedges. “It didn't feel as much like we were making a movie when it was just the two of us.”
One of the most touching moments in the film is the ending, showing how strong Ben and Holly’s bond is. And Hedges knew how powerful that scene would be from the beginning, crediting it as one of the main reasons why he decided to play Ben. “The ending is one of the things that drew me most to the part,” recalls the actor. “It was a straight shot to the end, and I didn't relax until I finished the script. And even then, I don't know, I had to take a moment, because it kind of blew my mind. And I'm very hard to please and I have high standards, so I was really impressed that my dad delivered that.”
Ben Is Back will make you experience intense emotions, as you follow both Holly and Ben’s struggles. Hedges acknowledges that many of his recent roles have been emotionally intense, with many fans going as far as joking that if they see Hedges is in a film, they know they’re going to cry. But there’s a powerful reason why Hedges feels so connected to these intense characters, though he's also ready for a change. “I think I need to choose lighter films. I really do. And I think what's exciting about doing these really dark movies is that it helps me immediately face the really dark aspects of my life,” explains Hedges.
But rather than having these roles take an emotional toll on him, Hedges sees them in a positive light. “I don't see it as taking a toll as much as relieving and releasing something. It's therapy, it's really therapeutic for me," he says.
Hedges might not have initially intended to star in Ben Is Back, but this father and son collaboration created one of his most powerful performances to date.
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The community steps up to help Kana
March 14, 2019 at 6:00 am | By MANDI BATEMAN Editor
Volunteers serve spaghetti at the fundraiser for Makana Zito Hashimoto (Kana).
Photos by MANDI BATEMAN Makana Zito Hashimoto, aka Kana, (in orange) visits with friends at Saturday’s spaghetti feed. The event, hosted at South Boundary Fire Station No. 1 in Naples, will help fund the autistic young man’s housing.
South Boundary firefighters served up side items to go with the spaghetti.
Photo by MANDI BATEMAN Joyce Tedford and Carroll Walkup had items available for donation at the spaghetti fundraiser.
Photo by MANDI BATEMAN Dessert spread at the fundraiser.
Photo by MANDI BATEMAN Helping Hands of Naples volunteered to help at the fundraiser.
Photo by MANDI BATEMAN The spaghetti feed fundraiser on Saturday, March 9 was help at the South Boundary Fire Station No. 1 in Naples.
NAPLES — Boundary County residents have a sense of community that far surpasses many other areas. People wave at friends and strangers alike as they drive down the road; motorists are not often left stranded on the side of a road for long before someone stops to help; people help their neighbors shovel snow or chop firewood.
The situation that Makana Zito Hashimoto, known to his friends as Kana, found himself in, was a tough one — and the community stepped up to help.
Hashimoto was diagnosed at an early age with autism and is now 25 years old. He was raised by his grandmother, living a semi-independent life with her. Tragically, a series of events unfolded at the end of 2018, and he lost his grandmother first to cardiac problems. Then his aunt, who was in line to take care of him, took her own life.
Hashimoto was suddenly alone.
“Kana was my next door neighbor. The call came in when the aunt committed suicide and I knew the family well,” said South Boundary Fire Chief Tony Rohrwasser. “The grandmother employed a lot of people around the area. She was a real nice, nice lady.”
Rohrwasser was first on scene that night.
“At that point nobody really had a definite plan of what do we do with an adult that can’t look after himself,” he said. “I know from seeing the house that he pretty much does his own thing, but I didn’t know how much he could take care of himself.”
Rohrwasser took action and reached out to Candy Beck, who runs Bonners Ferry Adult Social that works with adults with developmental disabilities.
“The day after Christmas the officers brought him to my house,” said Beck. “Instantly his life changed. He lost his family, his natural support.”
Although Hashimoto had great care there, he was used to living a semi-independent life, and living among a group of people was difficult for him to adapt to. People stepped up to help him. Aspen Personal Care has a hand in watching over him, while Rohrwasser also takes time to take him shopping for food and checking in on him while he is at home.
“From those of us who have been working with him, we feel that he would do well by himself, or would do just as well with another person in a home, but in a group home he just wouldn’t do well,” said Rohrwasser. “He has been subject to a lot of new stuff in the last little while.”
While the eventual goal is to find a house for him to live, the plan relies on selling his grandmother’s house, and currently it is stuck in probate, leaving him without many options. Hashimoto must move out of the house so it can be cleaned and sold.
“The estate isn’t settled. We are still going through probate and meeting with the attorneys and the crisis team from Coeur d’Alene,” said Beck. “He has got a lot of support but at this point it is not looking like he’s going to be able to hang onto the home.”
Rohrwasser took action and the South Boundary Firefighters Association, with help from the Helping Hands of Naples, threw a spaghetti feed fundraiser on Saturday, March 9, at the South Boundary Fire Station No. 1 in Naples.
People were treated to a full spaghetti meal with a large array of desserts, all for a donation of their choice. People even showed up before the dinner began to drop off donations to help Hashimoto.
When the dinner ended, $3,200 had been raised to help Hashimoto find an apartment for a few months. Beck explained that it will be very important to find him a place to stay in Boundary County.
“With an adult affected with autism, everything is very ritualized and a transition is very difficult,” said Beck. “He wants to remain in his town, and that is what we are doing — we are supporting our community and our people within our community, and we are going to make it happen for him.”
The community proved again that they are their to reach out a hand to those that need it.
“There is a lot of people who want to continue to support him even after we get him established in a home, which is wonderful,” said Beck.
If you have any questions or would like to assist, please contact Tony Rohrwasser at 208-290-2613.
Locals finish third in division
July 11, 2019 at 6:00 am | Bonners Ferry Herald BONNERS FERRY — During June 26-29, local residents Josh Friedman, retired U.S. Navy Seal, and Julie Kirk, owner of Mountain Mike’s Health Food store, participated in the Yukon River Quest race for th...
Free avian flu testing for the fair
July 11, 2019 at 6:00 am | Bonners Ferry Herald BONNERS FERRY — As the Boundary County Fair approaches, entrants are getting their ducks in a row — or any other poultry — that may be competing this year. One of the steps for this is getting the po...
Eastport Parade draws record crowd
July 11, 2019 at 6:00 am | Bonners Ferry Herald EASTPORT — It always amazes me the number of people that come out for the fun of the Eastport Parade. It’s on the very border of Canada and the U.S., too tiny for anything to thrive, but a little pos...
Discover the wonderful world of bats
July 11, 2019 at 6:00 am | Bonners Ferry Herald Learn the facts about these misunderstood, yet beneficial creatures of the night from Jenny Barnett, Zone Inventory and Monitoring Biologist. The event, organized by The friends of the National Wild...
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Excerpt from The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes, plus links to reviews, author biography & more
by Julian Barnes
May 2016, 224 pages
Donna Chavez Buy This Book
And so, it had all begun, very precisely, on the morning of the 28th of January 1936, in Arkhangelsk. He had been invited to perform his first piano concerto with the local orchestra under Viktor Kubatsky; the two of them had also played his new cello sonata. It had gone well. The next morning he went to the railway station to buy a copy of Pravda. He had looked at the front page briefly, then turned to the next two. It was, as he would later put it, the most memorable day of his life. And a date he chose to mark each year until his death.
Except thatas his mind obstinately argued backnothing ever begins as precisely as that. It began in different places, and in different minds. The true starting point might have been his own fame. Or his opera. Or it might have been Stalin, who, being infallible, was therefore responsible for everything. Or it could have been caused by something as simple as the layout of an orchestra. Indeed, that might finally be the best way of looking at it: a composer first denounced and humiliated, later arrested and shot, all because of the layout of an orchestra.
If it all began elsewhere, and in the minds of others, then perhaps he could blame Shakespeare, for having written Macbeth. Or Leskov for Russifying it into Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. No, none of that. It was, self-evidently, his own fault for having written the piece that offended. It was his opera's fault for being such a successat home and abroadit had aroused the curiosity of the Kremlin. It was Stalin's fault because he would have inspired and approved the Pravda editorialperhaps even written it himself: there were enough grammatical errors to suggest the pen of one whose mistakes could never be corrected. It was also Stalin's fault for imagining himself a patron and connoisseur of the arts in the first place. He was known never to miss a performance of Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi. He was almost as keen on Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko. Why should Stalin not want to hear this acclaimed new opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk?
And so, the composer was instructed to attend a performance of his own work on the 26th of January 1936. Comrade Stalin would be there; also Comrades Molotov, Mikoyan and Zhdanov. They took their places in the government box. Which had the misfortune to be situated immediately above the percussion and the brass. Sections which in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk were not scored to behave in a modest and self-effacing fashion.
He remembered looking across from the director's box, where he was seated, to the government box. Stalin was hidden behind a small curtain, an absent presence to whom the other distinguished comrades would sycophantically turn, knowing that they were themselves observed. Given the occasion, both conductor and orchestra were understandably nervous. In the entr'acte before Katerina's wedding, the woodwind and brass suddenly took it upon themselves to play more loudly than he had scored. And then it was like a virus spreading through each section. If the conductor noticed, he was powerless. Louder and louder the orchestra became; and every time the percussion and brass roared fortissimo beneath themloud enough to knock out windowpanesComrades Mikoyan and Zhdanov would shudder theatrically, turn to the figure behind the curtain and make some mocking remark. When the audience looked up to the government box at the start of the fourth act, they saw that it had been vacated.
After the performance, he had collected his briefcase and gone straight to the Northern Station to catch the train for Arkhangelsk. He remembered thinking that the government box had been specially reinforced with steel plates, to protect its occupants against assassination. But that there was no such cladding to the director's box. He was not yet thirty, and his wife was five months pregnant at the time.
Excerpted from The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes. Copyright © 2016 by Julian Barnes. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
The Cult of Personality
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Girl Online: On Tour
Description - Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg
Penny's bags are packed. When Noah invites Penny on his European music tour, she can't wait to spend time with her rock-god-tastic boyfriend. But, between Noah's jam-packed schedule, less-than-welcoming bandmates and threatening messages from jealous fans, Penny wonders whether she's really cut out for life on tour. She can't help but miss her family, her best friend Elliot . . . and her blog, Girl Online. Can Penny learn to balance life and love on the road, or will she lose everything in pursuit of the perfect summer?
Buy Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, Boomerang Books.
Children's & young adult fiction & true stories »
Romance & relationships stories (Children's/YA)
Imprint: Puffin Books
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date: 20-Oct-2015
Other Editions - Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg
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Book Reviews - Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg
» Have you read this book? We'd like to know what you think about it - write a review about Girl Online: On Tour book by Zoe Sugg and you'll earn 50c in Boomerang Bucks loyalty dollars (you must be a Boomerang Books Account Holder - it's free to sign up and there are great benefits!)
Book Review: Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg - Reviewed by Rosalynd (29 Apr 2016)
This book is cute, sweet and very much like Zoe, so I think that her fans will, like I did, enjoy reading it a lot.
I liked how realistic the tour life is in this book. While Zoe has never really toured herself, it's evident that she knows a lot about this life and I'm glad it wasn't too good-looking. Penny's reaction to it was realistic, too, because anyone would be confused and have a hard time adjusting to this train of life, especially someone with anxiety. This part reminded me of Zoe a lot, because she's known to have difficulties when she's under a lot of pressure or surrounded by many people. As someone who can get panicky sometimes, I could relate to Penny when she started panicking, especially since it's well depicted.
Penny's character is nice, funny and relatable for teenage girls. I enjoyed reading about her and I liked seeing her grow in this book, even more than in the first one. She matured a lot and by the time the book ended, she was more of a young adult than a teenager, which I thought was very nice, since I'm older than her and there were times when I couldn't really relate before. I did think she was too forgiving and didn't stand up for herself at the beginning and I hated seeing her keep quiet and then pity herself when she was alone, but I think it's where she grows the most. In fact, I was proud of her at the end of the book, when she realized she had to live for herself and say out loud what she really thinks instead of bottling it all up.
I really disliked Noah at some point in this book, because I thought he acted like a complete weirdo. He was part of the reason why Penny couldn't enjoy her life on tour with him, which I thought was really sad, seeing as he's the one who invited her. However, I'm glad he tried to make up for it, because it shows how deeply he cares about Penny and their relationship. I enjoyed seeing them together (which wasn't often, I must admit) and I think that overall, they have a cute relationship.
It's great that we get to know more about Elliot's life, because he's an adorable character, although I must admit he's quite stereotypical. His importance in this book shows how close he and Penny are, even though they're both in a relationship. Their constant texting was heartwarming and I absolutely hated seeing them sad because they're such nice character.
As much as I hate endings like these in books, it still really sums it up. But I really wish that in the end of the book Penny and Noah were still really close together not totally drifted apart.
I don't know if there will be another book in this series, but I will buy it if there is. Last thing I can say is: awesome book!
Author Biography - Zoe Sugg
Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella, is a vlogger from Brighton, UK. Her beauty, fashion and lifestyle vlogs have gained her millions of YouTube subscribers, with even more viewing the vlogs every month. She won the 2011 Cosmopolitan Blog Award for Best Established Beauty Blog and went on to win the Best Beauty Vlogger award the following year. Zoe has also twice received the Best British Vlogger award at the 2013 and 2014 Radio 1 Teen Awards and the 2014 and 2015 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice award for UK's Favourite Vlogger, and she was named Web Star for Fashion and Beauty at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards.'
Boomerang Books customers who bought Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg also bought the following titles:
Paperback / softback, July 2015
In the Skin of a Monster
Books By Zoe Sugg
Girl Online 3
Cordially Invited: A seasonal guide to celebrations and hosting, perfect for festive planning, crafting and baking in the run up to Christmas!
Girl Online: Going Solo
View All Books By Author Zoe Sugg
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Tyrone Peachey will take on more than just Cronulla in Friday night's NRL semi-final. He'll be going head-to-head with most his family and friends. A former product of Cronulla's junior system, Peachey made his NRL debut at the Sharks in 2013 and his name is forever associated with the club through his uncle David. Most of Peachey's extended family still follow Cronulla, to the point where the majority of his 10 allocated tickets at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night have been given to Sharks fans. "I think maybe the thing that drives me as well is I've got a lot of mates and family who still go for Cronulla," Peachey told AAP. "Having them there supporting Cronulla fires me up a little. I don't want to lose so I can rub it in their face otherwise they'll give it to me. "Dave still goes for them and his little son. All my mates grew up in Cronulla and are all Sharks fans, so it will be tough going back to Cronulla if we lose. "But if we win I'll be going (and visiting) there for no reason." Peachey's future at the Gold Coast from next season is unknown, after he indicated on Wednesday he'd wait until after this year's finals before deciding if he wanted to honour his three-year deal at the club or push for a release. But there are no hard feelings about his past at Cronulla, where he played seven games in 2013 before moving to the Panthers the following year. However he said he didn't see a future at the club when offered a deal at the time, as he was stuck behind the likes of Anthony Tupou, Jason Bukuya, Luke Lewis, Chris Heighington, Paul Gallen and Wade Graham in the back row. "I went and had a dinner with Gus Gould and he seemed keen to get me to Penrith," Peachey said. "I think just having dinner with Gus sold me, so I told my manager the next week I wanted to go to Penrith," Peachey said. "They didn't really fight for me or anything. There wasn't any need for them to have me at Cronulla. "I think having Penrith really want me made the decision a lot easier. It's good to be wanted. I've come here and loved every year here." Australian Associated Press
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/90b5e7d5-17f2-4605-b737-60d8246fe5d1.jpg/r0_74_800_526_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
September 13 2018 - 3:31AM
Peachey's personal NRL battle with Sharks
Tyrone Peachey still has plenty of ties to Cronulla.
Tyrone Peachey will take on more than just Cronulla in Friday night's NRL semi-final. He'll be going head-to-head with most his family and friends.
A former product of Cronulla's junior system, Peachey made his NRL debut at the Sharks in 2013 and his name is forever associated with the club through his uncle David.
Most of Peachey's extended family still follow Cronulla, to the point where the majority of his 10 allocated tickets at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night have been given to Sharks fans.
"I think maybe the thing that drives me as well is I've got a lot of mates and family who still go for Cronulla," Peachey told AAP.
"Having them there supporting Cronulla fires me up a little. I don't want to lose so I can rub it in their face otherwise they'll give it to me.
"Dave still goes for them and his little son. All my mates grew up in Cronulla and are all Sharks fans, so it will be tough going back to Cronulla if we lose.
"But if we win I'll be going (and visiting) there for no reason."
Peachey's future at the Gold Coast from next season is unknown, after he indicated on Wednesday he'd wait until after this year's finals before deciding if he wanted to honour his three-year deal at the club or push for a release.
But there are no hard feelings about his past at Cronulla, where he played seven games in 2013 before moving to the Panthers the following year.
However he said he didn't see a future at the club when offered a deal at the time, as he was stuck behind the likes of Anthony Tupou, Jason Bukuya, Luke Lewis, Chris Heighington, Paul Gallen and Wade Graham in the back row.
"I went and had a dinner with Gus Gould and he seemed keen to get me to Penrith," Peachey said.
"I think just having dinner with Gus sold me, so I told my manager the next week I wanted to go to Penrith," Peachey said.
"They didn't really fight for me or anything. There wasn't any need for them to have me at Cronulla.
"I think having Penrith really want me made the decision a lot easier. It's good to be wanted. I've come here and loved every year here."
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Naperville's replica Vietnam Wall honors 'vets and their sacrifice'
By David Sharos
| Naperville Sun |
Visitors to the Healing Fields in Naperville check the replica of the Vietnam wall for names. (David Sharos / The Naperville Sun)
Rotary Hill in Naperville once again provided a stunning backdrop Saturday morning for the Healing Field of Honor, which boasted thousands of U.S. Flags as well a special offering to commemorate the Vietnam war.
The theme for this year's event, "50 Years of Healing" was reflected in the official unveiling of Naperville's replica of the Vietnam Wall found in Washington, D.C., a project produced by Ray Kinney, owner and partner of Blooming Color in Naperville, and a member of the Healing Fields committee.
"We had discussions about getting a traveling Vietnam exhibit here, but the cost and logistics made that too difficult, and with a cost of $25,000 and no guarantee we'd have in for Veteran's Day, we decided to build our own," Kinney said.
A crowd of at least 200 came to Rotary Hill for the official unveiling of the Vietnam Wall replica built in Naperville. A total of 2015 flags were also placed on the grounds. (David Sharos / Naperville Sun)
An exact replica of the wall, including 72 panels with 58,000 names of those who died was erected this week by staff from the Naperville Park District. Director of recreation for the Naperville Park District Brad Wilson, who also served as the volunteer coordinator for the Healing Filed project, said the project would have been impossible without Kinney and dozens of volunteers' help.
"The wall is outstanding and is the width of the entire Rotary Hill, and last week we had 100 volunteers work to assemble it and another 75 yesterday who put up all the 2015 flags we have in just 45 minutes," Wilson said. "This project certainly reflects the great volunteerism we have in Naperville and is also a great opportunity to show our appreciation for those that have served us then and now."
A couple hundred people gathered in Rotary Hill Saturday, which featured sunny skies and fall-like temperatures. Many were seen strolling along the wall looking at names before the ceremony began.
Susan and Brit Taylor of Naperville described the scene as "peaceful" and Susan noted it made her feel "more connected."
"My dad was in Vietnam and it's important to remember those who fought as the younger generation today has parents that weren't even born then," she said. "This reminds me of being in Washington, D.C. and the first time the wall was put up."
Brit Taylor described the scene Saturday as "hallowed ground."
Rich Yndestad, also of Naperville, said he was a member of the local American Legion Post 43 and would be performing as a bugler in the brief ceremony Saturday.
"I look at this as a great day to honor vets and their sacrifice, and I've been honored to have played in Washington, D.C. for the traveling wall," Yndestad said. "I look at what has been done here and it's a tremendous tribute."
The day before Saturday's program, Sawn Swenson, program director for Colonial Flag Foundation who help coordinate and support Filed of Honor Programs, said Naperville "continues to go above and beyond to make us look good."
"There are so many stars working there in terms of raising funds as well as awareness," Swenson said. "The most important thing for us is seeing the community involvement, which in Naperville is incredible. We think the Vietnam replica idea is incredible and feel it's about time Vietnam vets were recognized throughout the country for their sacrifice."
Keynote speaker Allen Lynch waits to address a crowd of at least 200 that came to Rotary Hill Saturday in Naperville. (David Sharos / Naperville Sun)
Saturday's keynote speaker was Allen Lynch, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, who spoke about the important role of Vietnam vets, both during and after the war.
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"We need to recognize the accomplishments of vets beyond their service in the war," Lynch said just before the ceremony began. "They've been responsible for the judicial review of VA claims, as well as environmental hazards that no one cared about before. They also are very active in the welcome home parades and supporting those who are serving now."
Lynch also spoke about why Vietnam vets are finally receiving their due.
"It comes down to our country being embarrassed by the war — we, as a nation, as used to doing the right thing, as well as by our President and the Congress," he said. "Vets from World War II saw these guys with long hair and maybe not keeping their mouth shut when they should have. But I think we finally understand it's not about the war but who fought it."
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
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By Vivienne Crow
Published 28 April 2018 6 minute read
Thinking of heading to Northumberland to enjoy the wide variety of walking the county offers? Vivienne Crow, author of the Cicerone guidebook, looks at what walkers can expect.
Where, exactly, is Northumberland?
Northumberland is England’s most northerly county. Sitting right up against the Scottish border, its English neighbours are Cumbria, County Durham and Tyne & Wear. Stretching from Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north-east to Haltwhistle in the south-west – two places that, even as the crow flies, are about 95km apart – it covers more than 5000 square kilometres. Not quite the biggest county in England, but it feels like it as you wander its hills, valleys, moors and beaches.
So, what’s so special about walking here?
That’s a tricky question to answer in just a few paragraphs, but I’ll try… It’s got a lot to do with all the history in the landscape – from cliff-top castles and the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site to long-abandoned prehistoric settlements hidden in the hills. It’s also got something to do with those big northern skies, largely free of pollution and unfettered by man-made constructions, which allow views that stretch on for miles and miles and miles… It’s undoubtedly got a lot to do with the landscape itself: remote hills, seemingly endless beaches, wild moors, dramatic geological features and valleys that are so mesmerisingly beautiful they defy description. It’s surely related to the wildlife, too – from the upland birds that are sometimes the walkers’ sole companions to the wildflowers, insects and reptiles that inhabit the coastal dunes.
There are wide, open spaces here like no others found south of the Scottish border. This is England’s most sparsely populated county – with just 62 people per square kilometre. To put that into perspective, it compares with 73 in neighbouring Cumbria with its large areas of uninhabited fell and moorland, or, at the other extreme, 3142 in the West Midlands and 5521 in Greater London. Want to escape from it all? This is the place to come!
Roughly 25 per cent of the county, including Hadrian’s Wall and the Cheviot Hills, is protected within the boundaries of the Northumberland National Park. The county also has two designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty – the Northumberland Coast and the North Pennines.
Bet you didn't know that...
The North Pennines and Cheviot Hills are important for a variety of bird species, including red grouse, some of England’s last remaining populations of elusive black grouse, and the heavily persecuted and extremely rare hen harrier, as well as merlin, kestrel, short-eared owl, peregrine falcon, ring ouzel, skylark, lapwing, golden plover, whinchat and wheatear.
What sort of walking can I expect in Northumberland?
Do you want the long answer or the short answer? The short answer is… expect variety. And the long answer?
The Cicerone guidebook Walking in Northumberland divides the county into five areas:
North-east Northumberland includes the coast and the area inland as far as the Cheviot Hills. The county’s North Sea strip is characterised by long, sandy beaches, dune systems and mudflats. The only significant area of cliffs is in the far north near Berwick-upon-Tweed. Just inland, you’ll find areas of low moorland such as Doddington Moor and the Kyloe Hills, where many of the county’s mysterious cup-and-ring-marked rocks can be found, as well as some of its sandstone crags.
National Park (north) takes in the Cheviot Hills and the area around Rothbury. If you love hill-walking, you’ll love this area. It’s home to Northumberland’s highest point, the Cheviot. This rises to 815m in a rolling range of mostly grass- and heather-covered hills that are home to enigmatic prehistoric remains and feral goats. But it’s not all about big days on big hills: the walks covered in this section range from just 6.5km to 21.6km.
The Kielder section includes walks on surfaced paths in the sprawling border forests and along the shores of the UK’s largest artificial lake, as well as a hike on the lonely moorland high above the trees.
Tyne Valley and National Park (south) covers Hadrian’s Wall and some of the most impressive Roman remains in the UK. In places, the wall runs along the apex of a roller-coaster ridge of dolerite formed by a magma flow about 300 million years ago. The combination of this striking natural feature and the enduring man-made structure, stretching ahead into the distance, makes for some memorable walking.
The North Pennines section takes in the spacious heather moorland of Allendale, Hexhamshire and Blanchland, dotted with the remains of the once lucrative lead mining industry.
What’s the best time of year for walking in Northumberland?
Although you’ll have a better chance of fine weather and more daylight from April to October, there are no good or bad times of year to visit. Each season holds its own delights – from the vibrant purple heather of the summer moorlands to autumn’s colourful displays; from the snow-covered slopes of the winter Cheviots to the calls of upland waders returning to the hills in the spring.
If it’s statistics you’re after, July and August are the warmest months, with a mean daily maximum temperature of about 18C. The coldest months are January and February, with a mean daily minimum of 1.5C. According to rainfall totals for Boulmer on the coast, the wettest period is from October to December, while April to July are the driest months. Obviously, these figures will differ according to altitude as well as latitude and longitude. And, don’t forget, they’re only averages.
As with any part of the world, being prepared is the key to ensuring you enjoy the walking experience, whatever the weather, and stay safe.
Where should I base myself for the best walking opportunities?
If you’re a Northumberland novice and fancy exploring the county, take your time and don’t bite off more than you can chew. Wooler and Rothbury are excellent bases for exploring both the Cheviot Hills and the coast, and much in between. For Hadrian’s Wall, head for Haltwhistle or Hexham, both of which are also well placed for the North Pennines. Other good bases for walking include Seahouses, Craster, Belford and Berwick-upon-Tweed for the coast; Kielder; Blanchland and Allendale Town for the North Pennines; or, for full immersion in the Cheviot Hills, head for remote Alwinton.
Tourism is an important part of Northumberland’s economy, so the county is relatively well served by accommodation providers and dining facilities, but some close for all or part of the winter.
Walking in Northumberland
36 walks throughout the national park - coast, Cheviots, Hadrian's Wall and Pennines
St Oswald's Way and St Cuthbert's Way
With the Northumberland Coast Path
The Reivers Way
The C2C Cycle Route
The Coast to Coast bike ride
An intro to... The Pilgrim's Way or 'England's Camino'
Ancient mysteries of Northumberland
Article · 1 Oct 2016
Cycling in Northumberland - the coast and castles tour
A couple of weeks of walking in the North East
An intro to... St Cuthbert's Way
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BREAKING: Striker returns to parent club
Campbell back with Magpies
Carlisle United Football Club can confirm that Magpies striker Adam Campbell has returned to Newcastle United today.
Campbell, 18, teamed up with the Cumbrians two-weeks ago and made his debut for the club when he came on as a second half substitute in the home game against Coventry City.
A return to action for Lee Miller meant that opportunities to add to that tally were limited and, following consultation between the clubs, it was felt that the best course of action for the player was to allow him to return to train with his parent club.
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Ontario supports mental health first responders
Ottawa, Feb 8 (Canadian-Media): Ontario's partnership with Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (OSCMHS) in Whitby to develop a mobile app is expected to provide information about mental health, help in self-assessment of symptoms, and Durham Regional Police Service's officers' staff would be able to find appropriate clinical services when needed, media reports said.
This project will reportedly receive up to $174,605 in support from Ontario and facilitate mental health support and treatment barriers, and is part of the Occupational Health Safety and Prevention Innovation Program (OHSPIP).
“Investing in the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences supports health and safety innovation. This project will help improve the lives of first responders in our communities and work to mitigate barriers to mental health support. I want to congratulate the Ontario Shores Centre for their leadership and ongoing commitment to workplace mental health for first responders,” said Granville Anderson, Ontario MPP for Durham.
Granville Anderson: Facebook page
OHSPIP supports workplace-focused innovation projects and collaborative partnerships for improvements in occupational health and safety in Ontario and improve awareness and acceptance of mental health issues among first responders.
“This year’s Occupational Health, Safety and Prevention Innovation Program projects are helping Ontario to make progress toward our goal of ensuring every worker goes home safe at the end of their shift. By working with excellent partners like Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences on advancing mental health support, we can make a positive difference in the lives of our workforce for generations to come,” Kevin Flynn, Ontario Minister of Labour was reported to state.
Kevin Flynn: Facebook page
To help the ministry in achieving the goals described in the strategy, these plans have been aligned with priorities identified in consultation with workplace health and safety system partners and stakeholders.
The priorities in the province’s Healthy and Safe Ontario Workplaces Strategy, according to official reports, are to assist the most vulnerable workers, promote occupational health and safety improvements in small businesses, build collaborative partnerships and integrate service delivery and system-wide planning.
Ontario’s annual rate of workplace injuries, since 2003, has dropped by more than 50 percent, making the province’s workplaces the safest in Canada and among the safest in the world.
OHSPIP received nearly $1.68 million in funding in 2017-18.
"Investing in programs like the Occupational Health, Safety and Prevention Innovation Program has helped to make Ontario the safest place to work in Canada and among the safest in the world,” said Joe Dickson, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Ajax-Pickering.
Real-time information reportedlywill be specifically tailored to individual needs and will be easily accessible to help improve well-being as well as to lead to reduced police service costs through reduced sick days and leaves of absence.
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Cape Jaffa Wines
Skin Contact
Cape Jaffa Chardonnay Pinot Noir
Style: Uncomplicated, fresh and easy-drinking.
The inspiration: Made in a charmat/tank-ferment method, which is typically used in Italian sparkling winemaking (such as Prosecco), despite its traditional Pinot Chardonnay base, this wine does not a try to emulate the French ‘méthode traditionnelle’ used in Champagne. This method makes for a sherbetty fruit-forward wine that still has a nice fine bead. About a 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay hand-picked from cooler sites of the Limestone coast.
Cellaring: This wine is drinking well now however it will evolve into a more tertiary and complex style in the bottle over up to five years.
Food pairing: Think palate cleansing here so don’t skimp on the strong, salty or creamy finger nibbles. All the naughty but nice things…paté or potato chips anyone? Also consider raw seafood like oysters and sashimi-style everything.
Blog: It's not champagne darling
SKU: 17CJ-SP-A1
Debbie Moran
(16/06/2018 at 7:34 PM)
A beautiful easy drinking sparkling, has become one of my favourites
Join Friends with Benefits to receive news, new release dates and special offers once in a while
Cape Jaffa Wines, 459 Limestone Coast Road
Mount Benson (via Robe), South Australia
All orders are processed and distributed by Cape Jaffa Wines. It is against the law to sell or
supply alcohol to, or obtain alcohol on behalf of, a person under the age of 18. ABN: 90848289048
© Copyright 2019 Cape Jaffa Wines
You must be of legal drinking age to enter.
Please enter your date of birth to continue.
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Mexico on the same page as World Cup draws near
Mexico will look for a second win when they face Croatia in Arlington Texas in another friendly match in preparation for the 2018 World Cup.
ARLINGTON, Texas - There is a palpable sense of unity and togetherness within the Mexican National Team at the moment.
And their timing couldn't be better.
With the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia now less than three months away, MF Marco Fabian believes that the Mexico squad is on the same page when it comes to their World Cup objectives.
"The confidence level is really high," said Fabian in a press conference on Monday ahead of Mexico's international friendly versus Croatia on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
"We're all on the same path, each day understanding more what the coach asks of us both on and off the field, both mental and physical aspects. On the field it's important that each day there is an improvement and that we're focused on the most important thing, which is the World Cup," added Fabian.
El Tricolor are coming off a 3-0 victory over fellow World Cup participants Iceland on Friday in San Jose, California in which Fabian scored the third and final Mexico goal.
Now another challenge awaits on Tuesday against Croatia, who will also be headed to Russia this summer.
It's just the type of match that will further Mexico's preparation for what they hope is a long World Cup run.
See also: Mexico TMexico member-associaton WCQ2018 Russia 2018
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A Simple Guide to Fair Use: How To Apply Fair Use to Your Copyright Scenarios
Understanding fair use in U.S. copyright law is essential for anyone using copyright-protected materials. Fair use is ambiguous and it can be overwhelming to apply it to your own situations. Inform yourself about the facts of fair use and how it works. Be an educated decision maker when determining whether fair use applies to your specific circumstances. This article provides essential information that you can immediately apply to your own situations and fair use analyses.
As a bonus, use this form to download the PDF A Simple Guide to Fair Use: How to Apply Fair Use to Your Copyright Scenarios.
A Simple Guide to Fair Use
Sign up and we'll send you our Simple Guide to Fair Use: How To Apply Fair Use to Your Copyright Scenarios.
Quick Navigation to A Simple Guide to Fair Use
Applying Fair Use Is a Judgment Call
Fair Use is Ambiguous
Fair Use Purposes and Factors
The U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index
Does Fair Use Apply Outside the U.S.?
5 Essential Facts About Fair Use
You don’t need to be a copyright law expert to understand fair use. What scares people away from applying fair use to their circumstances is that this principle isn’t clear-cut. It requires an analysis and application of the fair use factors to each particular set of circumstances.
Be aware, however, that the application of fair use is never a certain thing unless a judge in a court of law makes that fair use determination.
You need to become comfortable with the basics of fair use and making judgment calls on applying it to your particular use of copyright-protected materials. Applying fair use also requires understanding copyright risk management so you can minimize your risk of copyright infringement.
Fair use is a doctrine created by courts in the nineteenth century, but it only became codified and set out in law through the establishment of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act.
Many complain that fair use is ambiguous. But fair use is intentionally open and flexible. Its language allows you to apply the doctrine to a wide variety of circumstances.
That said, some organizations institute a policy of prohibiting the application of fair use because of its uncertain nature and the need to analyze each fair use situation. Other organizations designate certain key people such as a Copyright Specialist or Librarian to make all fair use application decisions. Others allow individuals to make their own fair use determinations. Know your organization’s position on applying fair use.
Fair use may be applied by individuals and corporations, by commercial and non-commercial entities, and in for-profit and nonprofit situations. It all depends on the facts of your situation and how these facts fit within the four fair use factors.
Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act states that the fair use of a copyrighted work isn’t an infringement of copyright, for purposes such as:
News reporting
Teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use)
Scholarship, or
The Copyright Act then states that in determining whether a use is fair use, the following four fair use factors must be considered:
The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
The nature of the copyrighted work
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and
The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
Section 107 also states “The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all of the above factors.”
Take the time to read the exact wording of the fair use provision in the Copyright Act. It’s a great starting point for understanding fair use.
Understanding the Fair Use Factors
You’ll need a deeper understanding of each of the four fair use factors to apply it to your situations. Here are some tips …
Purpose and character of use — Generally, use for a nonprofit educational or noncommercial purpose is more likely to be considered fair use than use for a commercial purpose. If the use adds something new or has a different purpose or character than the original use, then it may be considered a “transformative use.” Many transformative uses are fair use. Similar to fair use itself, whether a use is a transformative use is often unclear.
Nature of the protected work — Use of a factual work is more likely to be considered fair use than use of a fictional or more creative work. An unpublished work is less likely to be fair use than a published work.
Amount and substantiality of the portion used relative to the work as a whole — Both the quantity of the portion used and its quality — whether the copied portion constitutes the “heart” of the total work — are relevant. The Act doesn’t set out a threshold level of amount or substantiality. For example, the Act doesn’t state that using 3 or 10 percent of a work constitutes fair use. If the amount you use is quite small in relation to or insignificant in the context of the entire source work, then it’s more likely to be fair use.
Effect on the Protected Work’s Market or Value — At issue is whether the use of the copied portion competes with the copyrighted work. If the use diminishes the potential market for the copyrighted work, it’s less likely to be fair use.
To help you better understand how the four factors apply to specific situations, the U.S. Copyright Office provides a free Fair Use Index. The goal of the index is “to make the principles and application of fair use more accessible and understandable to the public by presenting a searchable database of court opinions.”
You can search the index by:
Category (e.g., literary, artistic, or musical work)
By your type of use (e.g., education/scholarship/research, parody, or internet/digitization)
The index tracks court decisions at various levels. However, it isn’t intended to be a comprehensive archive of all fair use cases ever decided. It’s user-friendly and designed for lawyers and nonlawyers alike.
The index sets out:
The jurisdiction
The year of the decision
Whether fair use was found by the court
Click on the case name/citation for a summary of the case, which includes the key facts, issue, outcome and more.
In the 177 countries that are members of the Berne Convention, the leading copyright treaty, international copyright law works by applying the law of the country where you’re using a work.
This means that whether you’re reproducing an image from the U.S. or France or India, you apply U.S. law if the reproduction takes place in the U.S., which means you could apply the principle of fair use. If the reproduction takes place in Italy, for instance, then you apply Italian copyright law and the principles set out in the Italian copyright act.
Five Essential Facts About Fair Use
To effectively apply fair use to your situations, you need to understand as much as you can about this doctrine, read court decisions about fair use, and gain practice in applying fair use to different scenarios.
The following five essential facts will help guide you through the fair use maze.
1. Fair use is intentionally open and flexible
The U.S. Copyright Act addresses fair use in Section 107, “Limitations on exclusive rights: fair use.” The Act’s language allows you to apply the doctrine to your own specific fact situations. Many who apply fair use complain that it’s ambiguous and should be more specific to specific uses. It’s intentionally open and flexible to apply to various situations. Every fair use determination must be carefully considered based on the particulars of the situation.
2. Fair use may apply to a variety of purposes
Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act states that fair use may apply to the use of a copyrighted work “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research ….” These are illustrative and other purposes may also fall within fair use.
3. There are four fair use factors to consider to determine if fair use applies
Fair use depends on the facts of your situation and how they fit within the four fair use factors set out in Section 107. The four fair use factors are the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
4. The ultimate determinant of fair use is a judge in a court of law
Fair use is never a certain thing unless a judge in a court of law makes that determination. It’s important to get comfortable with making fair use judgment calls, and to understand copyright risk management and your enterprise’s position on fair use.
5. Fair use applies to all users and both for- and nonprofit situations
Fair use applies to all users of content. It may apply in commercial or for-profit situations as well as nonprofit situations. It’s less likely that you can claim fair use in for-profit situations, but it’s still possible. And not all nonprofit uses of content are fair use.
Fair use decision making and lowering copyright infringement risks are key parts of
our Copyright Leadership Certificate online program.
Want more copyright tips and information?
Subscribe to our weekly email and grow your copyright knowledge.
Filed Under: Copyright Basics, U.S. Tagged With: fair use, infringement, U.S. Copyright Office, US copyright law
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Home > Vol 5, No 2 (2009) > Gare
Philosophical Anthropology, Ethics and Political Philosophy in an Age of Impending Catastrophe
Arran Gare
In this paper it is argued that philosophical anthropology is central to ethics and politics. The denial of this has facilitated the triumph of debased notions of humans developed by Hobbes which has facilitated the enslavement of people to the logic of the global market, a logic which is now destroying the ecological conditions for civilization and most life on Earth. Reviving the classical understanding of the central place of philosophical anthropology to ethics and politics, the early work of Hegel and Marx is explicated, defended and further developed by interpreting this through developments in post-mechanistic science. Overcoming the opposition between the sciences and the humanities, it is suggested that the conception of humans developed in this way can orient people in their struggle for the liberty to avert a global ecological catastrophe.
Full Text: HTML PDF
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Kevin Crow
Balance Number 5
Thursday Forecast
Soul Urge #11
Kevin Crow is a male celebrity.
He was born on Sunday September 17th 1961, in Unknown.
Kevin Crow has to try to focus on his problem, rather than avoiding it. He may try to avoid the issue by indulging his senses to keep from feeling the pain of a conflict.
Kevin must be careful not to escape into food, alcohol, and drugs.
Crow is capable of finding a highly-creative solution to any situation the minute he puts his mind to it. The answer lies well within his grasp.
You and Kevin
About Kevin's Balance number
Maturity and self-development help us to learn new and more effective methods of handling our world and the problems we confront, and Kevin Crow's Balance number provides him with the guidance on how best to deal with difficult or threatening situations.
Read more about our numerological interpretation of Kevin Crow's balance number . . .
Other celebrities with balance number 5 as Kevin Crow
Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
An American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor, who is called the King of Pop, and his contributions to music, dance and fashion, along with his publicized life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades
Karl Lagerfeld (1933)
A German fashion designer, artist, and photographer who is the head designer and creative director of the fashion house Chanel as well as the Italian house Fendi, and his own label fashion house Karl Lagerfeld
Stormy Daniels (1979)
An American adult-movies actress, stripper, and director, who has won numerous industry awards, and became involved in 2018 in a legal dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen
An American actor and producer who has been nominated for four Academy Awards, three for acting and one for producing American Sniper (2014), and one Tony Award, and was named the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine in 2011
Felicity Huffman (1962)
An American film, stage, and television actress, best known for her role as Lynette Scavo on the ABC TV series Desperate Housewives, and for her performance as a transgender woman in the independent film Transamerica, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award, Independent Spirit Award, National Bo
An American actor, producer, and musician who is regarded as one of the world's biggest film stars, became a teen idol with the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, and has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor
Brie Larson (1989)
An American actress and singer, best known for her role in the independent drama Short Term 12 (2013), and for portraying the troubled mother in Room (2015), winning her Academy, BAFTA, Critic's Choice and Golden Globe Awards
Jan-Michael Vincent (1945-2019)
An American actor, best known for portraying helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the television series Airwolf (1984–1986), for his role as the protagonist, Matt Johnson in the 1978 film Big Wednesday, and for starring as Byron Henry in The Winds of War
Charlize Theron (1975)
A South African and American actress, producer and fashion model, best known for starring in Monster (2003), North Country (2005), Young Adult. (2011), The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999)
An American fashion designer who encepted in 1968 the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., and has associated his name with wide range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry lines
Kevin Crow Numerology -- Balance Number 5 | © Copyright 2009-2019 Celebrities Galore and Master Numerologist Hans Decoz
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Honours for county pair at Festival of Learning Awards
Joyce Abumujor has won this year's Festival of Learning Outstanding Individual Learner Award
Published: 08:30 Updated: 08:58 Friday 15 June 2018
A woman from Sutton-in-Ashfield has won this year’s Festival of Learning Outstanding Individual Learner Award.
Joyce Abumujor won the award for her exceptional achievements in adult learning.
Andrew Humphries was highly commended in the Festival of Learning Awards Learning For Work category
At the same awards, Andrew Humphries, from Mansfield, was highly commended in the Learning For Work category, again for his achievements in adult learning.
Growing up in Nigeria, Joyce wanted to train as a mechanic, but was denied this opportunity because of her gender.
After fleeing her own country in search of safety, she settled in the UK and raised her family.
However, Joyce remained keen to get the education she always dreamed of and in 2016, she signed up for construction courses at Chesterfield College.
Having completed level one plumbing and level two bricklaying, Joyce is now studying for level two plumbing.
She has also started a law degree at the University of Derby and plans to access other courses to gain the skills she needs.
Joyce has set her sights on setting up and running an organisation that teaches construction skills to women and girls in Nigeria, enabling them to build a brighter future.
On a mission to help change the lives of vulnerable women and girls in Nigeria, Joyce returned to learning to develop her construction skills.
Joyce said: “Now I’m back in education nothing is going to stop me
I want to be part of making a change and my learning is giving me the tools to do that.”
Andrew, 45, had always found it difficult to read and write and struggled to pass his exams.
Mansfield's Berry Hill Park SAVED after council agrees to become 'corporate trustees'
While working at Mansfield Council, he attended a standard dyslexia screening appointment where he was diagnosed.
Armed with new motivation, Andrew undertook a series of learning and qualifications with support for his disability.
He achieved entry level one functional skills in reading, writing and maths and progressed to level one English and maths within two years.
Alongside this, he studied and achieved qualifications specific to his career goals such as horticulture, health and safety and team leading.
He is now studying a level three apprenticeship in horticulture and is working towards becoming a supervisor – his long-term dream.
He said: “Before diagnosis, I was frustrated, angry and sometimes depressed.
“Now I feel on top of the world.
“I have new hobbies, I’m more engaged with the community, but most of all I have proved that if you are positive and driven you can achieve your goals.”
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Nick Viall and 9 More Celebrities Who Feuded Over ‘Dancing with the Stars’
Nicole Weaver
There are many celebrities who have competed on Dancing with the Stars, and in many cases, the show has caused some celebrity drama. Sometimes it’s because a star was chosen over their costars to put on their dancing shoes. Other times it’s because the professional dancers just can’t get along with their celebrity dance partner.
Some of these feuds were shown on the show, while others were kept quiet as another one of the show’s secrets. So which celebrities reportedly got too competitive? Here are 10 celebrities who feuded over the show.
1. Leah Remini and Kirstie Alley
Left: Leah Remini | Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, Right: Kirstie Alley | Robin Marchant/Getty Images
Kirstie Alley competed on the show in Season 12 with her dance partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. They made it all the way to second place, eventually losing to NFL player, Hines Ward. The season didn’t have much drama, but things changed when it was announced that Leah Remini was cast on the show for Season 17.
The problem is that Kirstie Alley is an active member of Scientology. At the time, Remini had left Scientology and filed a missing police report for Shelly Miscavige, the wife of Scientology leader, David Miscavige. Remini also spoke out against the organization openly.
Alley was so angry that Remini was allowed on the show that she cut ties with her former dance partner, Chmerkovskiy. According to him:
Scientology happened. You can thank [my friendship with 2013 contestant and former Scientologist] Leah Remini for that. A note was sent to a friend telling me I was ‘disconnected,’ as in, I am no longer allowed to be Kirstie’s friend. I find it ridiculous for an adult human being to ‘disconnect’ from someone. But everyone is entitled to their own insanity.
2. Nick Viall and Kaitlyn Bristowe
Nick Viall and Kaitlyn Bristowe on The Bachelorette | ABC
The pair actually dated on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season of The Bachelorette. Nick Viall then went on to become The Bachelor. Close to the end of his season it was announced that he would compete on Dancing with the Stars. This news angered Bristowe because she said she wasn’t allowed to accept a role on the show when she was offered one.
Kaitlyn Bristowe’s tweet | Kaitlyn Bristowe via Twitter
After Bristowe’s tweet (above), it took some time but The Bachelor and The Bachelorette producer, Mike Fleiss eventually responded by tweeting to Kaitlyn that she would be allowed to compete if she wanted. But it was too little, too late.
3. Lisa Vanderpump and Brandi Glanville
Lisa Vanderpump and Brandi Glanville talking on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. | Bravo
Lisa Vanderpump from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills competed on the show in Season 16. She also notably fainted on the show, an event that was later questioned by her fellow housewife, Brandi Glanville on their reality show.
“There was a bit of controversy in the car over about whether you fainted for real or not,” said Glanville. Kim Richards also thought there was a motive behind Vanderpump’s fainting spell. “I don’t think she wanted to do it anymore. Some people are just not made out for fake faints.”
Vanderpump, of course, said the rumors weren’t true and that she was unwell at the time.
4. Nyle DiMarco and Val Chmerkovskiy
Left: Nyle DiMarco on Dancing with the Stars | ABC, Right: Val Chmerkovskiy on Dancing with the Stars | ABC
The America’s Next Top Model winner, Nyle DiMarco reportedly didn’t get along with most of the cast in Season 22. But things also got heated between DiMarco and Val Chmerkovskiy. This is because there was a reported love triangle brewing!
“Peta and her fiancé’s younger brother Val had it out because he told Maksim that Peta [Murgatroyd] was getting too emotionally attached to Nyle,” a source told Radar Online. DiMarco was also very open about feeling competitive with Chmerkovskiy.
“I think my competition right now is Val,” DiMarco said on an episode of the show. This was taken as a dig to the other competitors and judge Len Goodman called this statement “ridiculous.”
5. Tamar Braxton and her sisters
Singer Tamar Braxton performs onstage. | Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BET
Tamar Braxton got a spot on Dancing with the Stars, but not everyone in her family was happy for her. This was partially because her sister, Towanda was reportedly training for the show for two years.
“It is pretty much all of the sisters versus Tamar at this point and her signing up to do Dancing made their relationship worse,” a source told The Daily Mail. “When they announced on Good Morning America that she was a surprise addition to the cast lineup this season, it was the first her sisters had heard of it.”
Tamar ended up having to drop out of the show because of her health. She was hospitalized and told she had blood clots in her lungs.
6. Carrie Ann Inaba and Julianne Hough
Carrie Ann Inaba and Julianne Hough on Dancing with the Stars | ABC
It’s not just the competitors who get into feuds over the show! The former professional dancer, Julianne Hough started judging on the show which reportedly didn’t make Carrie Ann Inaba happy.
“Julianne is ruffling Carrie Ann’s feathers, and it doesn’t help that Julianne is now the center judge at the table, with all eyes on her,” a source told Life & Style magazine. “Carrie Ann is always rolling her eyes at Julianne.”
The feeling was reportedly mutual and both of the judges refused to talk to each other in between takes.
7. NeNe Leakes and Candace Cameron-Bure
NeNe Leakes and Candace Cameron-Bure during an interview. | ABC
The two actresses reportedly didn’t get along due to their very different beliefs. Candace Cameron-Bure mentioned her belief in the importance of being submissive to her husband, and her brother Kirk Cameron is notably anti-gay marriage.
NeNe Leakes feels the polar opposite on both of these stances.
“NeNe’s upset because she thinks Kirk runs his mouth against gays and that Candace is party to all that,” a source revealed to the National Enquirer. “And she’s let Candace know it.”
Producers reportedly had to talk to Leakes about it.
8. Amber Rose and Julianne Hough
Left: Amber Rose on Dancing with the Stars | ABC, Right: Julianne Hough on Dancing with the Stars | ABC
Amber Rose was on Season 23 of the show, but she wasn’t a big fan of Julianne Hough, who is a judge on the show. Rose revealed on her radio show, Loveline with Amber Rose, that one of Hough’s comments made her feel uncomfortable.
Last night was like, they did the commentary, and I, it was a point in the dance where I had to lift my leg up and Maks [Chmerkovskiy] dipped me and [Julianne Hough] said, ‘Oh, I’m uncomfortable,’ and instantly I felt, I did feel body shamed.
Hough later clarified that her comment was taken out of context. “To be clear, that was a produced package, not live coverage and they can put those sound bites anywhere. My ‘uncomfortable’ comment was about the fact that I felt like I wanted more out of the performance – when someone is doing a hot, sexy dance like that without the right amount of energy that is required, it can be uncomfortable to watch.”
9. Jaleel White and Kym Johnson
Kym Johnson and Jaleel White on Dancing with the Stars | ABC
The Family Matters star was partnered with professional dancer, Kym Johnson. But they didn’t get along and Jaleel White was even seen yelling at her during practice. The situation was reportedly so bad that other people had to intervene.
“Jaleel definitely was out of line,” a source told People Magazine. “It basically didn’t have anything to do with Kym or her foot – he was just stressed out and ready to snap.” The source continued, “Both Mark [Ballas] and Donald [Driver] wound up having words with him, mostly trying to get him to realize that he needed to just get a grip already.”
When asked about the drama, the actor said it was “completely exaggerated.” He said, “It’s not fair to us and that’s life, and I hope people can see through it. There’s no drama in my life.”
10. Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Mark Ballas
Left: Maksim Chmerkovskiy dancing on Dancing with the Stars. | ABC, Right: Mark Ballas on Dancing with the Stars | ABC
The two professional dancers were trash talking back and forth, but things reportedly got touchy when Chmerkovskiy dissed Ballas’ body. “Mark tried with my trainer,” the dancer said according to Xfinity. “That didn’t work. So — sorry, Mark!”
When asked for his response, Ballas said, “I don’t need to talk trash on Maks. I’ll just keep doing this.” He later continued, “I just don’t care!”
Follow Nicole Weaver on Twitter @nikkibernice
Check out Entertainment Cheat Sheet on Facebook!
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https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Sources-Sandy-Hook-911-tapes-reveal-cops-told-to-4996871.php
Sources: Sandy Hook 911 tapes reveal cops told to 'wait'
Sandy Hook: Sources say 911 tapes reveal inundated dispatchers as shooting unfolded
Updated 3:54 pm EST, Thursday, November 21, 2013
A memorial at a house near Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, Conn. on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 commemorates the lives of the 20 students and six staff members were killed at the school on Dec. 14.
Photo: Tyler Sizemore
UPDATE 1:30 p.m.
The head of the Newtown Police Union said that the order for first responders to wait before entering Sandy Hook Elementary School was directed toward ambulance personnel, not police officers.
Union president Scott Ruszczyk said it is "standard protocol not to send in unarmed people to a scene that is not secure."
Questions about the police department's response to the mass shooting surfaced after two sources told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers on Wednesday that 911 calls between the school and emergency dispatchers indicated someone at police headquarters ordered officers to "wait until you go into the building" where gunman Adam Lanza killed 26 people, 20 of them first-grade students.
Ruszczyk said he knows for a fact that the order was directed at medical personnel "because I spoke to the person who gave it." Ruszczyk said the person was a Newtown sergeant, but he declined to name him, saying he was not authorized to speak to that aspect of the investigation.
"I want to defend our union members," he said. "I know the quality of the people who were there."
Previously, a Newtown law enforcement source who was at the scene of the second-deadliest school shooting in the nation's history said officers who had entered the building told dispatchers they had found bodies, but not to send the EMTs in because they had not yet located the gunman.
NEWTOWN -- There are no anguished cries of children in the controversial 911 telephone recordings of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
But there is the sound of two apparent rifle shots, according to sources who have listened to about nine calls made to Newtown police on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012.
The most disconcerting sound between the school and Newtown police may be the apparent order from headquarters for police responders to "wait" before entering the school, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers has learned.
"Wait until you go into the building," one person says from police headquarters toward the end of the five-minute shooting spree. "I'm not going to send them in yet."
Both sources said it was unclear why the apparent order was given to delay police from going into the school.
A Newtown law enforcement source who was at the scene, however, said the order to wait was directed at ambulance personnel, and that police entered the school as soon as they arrived.
The law enforcement source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said officers in the building told dispatchers they had not yet located the shooter, so sending in medical personnel would have put more lives in danger.
Messages left for Danbury State's Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III and Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe were not returned. State police spokesman Master Sgt. Donna Tadiello said she couldn't talk about the 911 tapes and was unable to reach either Col. Dan Stebbins or Public Safety Commissioner Reuben Bradford Wednesday evening.
"At this point, I'm not able to make a comment," Tadiello said.
The first call came around the time Adam Lanza, 20, shot his way into the school at about 9:45 a.m.
"Somebody's shooting in here ... Sandy Hook School, please!" says one of the first calls to Newtown police headquarters at 3 Main St., located 3.1 miles from the school.
Another early call comes from a woman who says she's in a classroom at the front, left side of the building. In all, the sources said the recordings run about 40 minutes.
The flood of frantic calls from land lines -- cellphones automatically connected with the State Police in Southbury -- apparently deluged the two emergency dispatchers in Newtown. At one point in the recordings, the dispatchers fail to answer a call and the phone rings for 30 seconds or more, the sources recalled.
At another point, Rick Thorne, a school custodian who has declined comment on the shooting but who has been hailed for alerting staff to Lanza's assault-weapon rampage, is disconnected by dispatchers.
"It was weird that they hung up on him," said one source who listened to the recordings. Another source who heard the 911 recordings agreed.
Both sources said they were not sure of the context in which Thorne was disconnected.
"There's a shooting going on," Thorne says during one of the first calls to police. "I keep hearing shooting."
In one of the last calls, Thorne says, "I'm standing in a corner not knowing what to do. I'm a custodian. The shootings happened five minutes ago."
These recordings are among the historic record of the Newtown murders.
Recordings of 911 calls are routinely released after most major criminal incidents, but Sedensky is attempting to keep the recordings private in a case pending before Judge Eliot D. Prescott at state Superior Court in New Britain.
The 911 recordings from Newtown are the kind of information that public records advocates and the media say are crucial in examining the police response to the state's worst mass murder.
The 20 first-graders and six adults in the school were killed by multiple gunshots from Lanza's Bushmaster XM-15 military-style rifle before he shot himself with a 10-mm Glock handgun.
Lanza fired 154 bullets in the school, according to an interim report issued by Sedensky and Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane on March 28.
Last week, families of the slain children and educators reviewed a 40-page summary of the slaughter and were told that Sedensky will release the document to the media Monday.
But recordings of first responders at the scene, who described the carnage in graphic detail, will be kept secret until at least next May as part of a bill that passed on the last day of the legislative session in June.
There are also thousands of pages of investigative details in the possession of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
Prescott, who listened to the 911 recordings on compact disc, is scheduled to rule Monday on Sedensky's appeal of a September decision by the state Freedom of Information Commission, which ordered the release of the recordings.
The recordings remain under seal in the New Britain Superior Court clerk's office, pending a hearing on Monday in Prescott's courtroom, allowing members of the public to comment on the issue of releasing them.
Following the hearing, Prescott is expected to listen to the recordings and rule on the dispute.
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Nick Sharratt's Big Draw at the Story Museum
What have pants, sharks and some of the UK's best loved children's literary characters got in common? They've all been brought to life by award-winning illustrator Nick Sharratt! Fans of Nick's work can join him at The Story Museum on the 11th October as he talks about some of his favourite books, shows how to create a character on the page and shares some of his very best drawing tips. Best known for his 25 yearlong collaboration with the former children's laureate Jacqueline Wilson, Nick has brought to life some of the nation's favourite characters including Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather.
The event takes place as part of The Big Draw, which aims to encourage people of all ages to get involved in drawing. The festival, which was launched in Oxford earlier this month by Philip Pullman and Chris Riddell, sees venues up and down the country organise drawing events and activities.
Nick Sharratt’s Big Draw starts at 14:30 and tickets are £7.50 for adults and £5 for children. Tickets are available via Tickets Oxford at www.ticketsoxford.co.uk or on 01865 305305. All children must be accompanied by an adult, and both children and adults require an entry ticket. The event is suitable for ages 5-10 and tickets also include entry to the Story Museum and its exhibitions.
About The Story Museum
The Story Museum works to celebrate and demonstrate the power of stories to inspire learning, especially for the young. A charity and non-profit company, it is in the process of transforming a pumpkin project into a magical new world centre of children’s literature and storytelling in the heart of historic Oxford. The Museum celebrated the end of its first phase of building in April 2014, with the launch of a shop and café, and the interactive 26 Characters exhibition. The Museum continues to campaign for funds to complete the rest of its development. The Museum’s patrons are Kevin Crossley-Holland, Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman, Michael Rosen and Jacqueline Wilson.
www.storymuseum.org.uk
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deVere CEO: The pound is shackled by Brexit
By George Prior
The pound is shackled by Brexit drama, is locked in a holding pattern, and nothing is currently priced in, warns the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organizations.
The warning from Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, comes as sterling remains vulnerable to every twist and turn to the political saga over the UK’s exit of the European Union.
Mr Green comments: “The pound has been and remains the primary market bellwether since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. It has responded to each drama being played out on the political stage.
“But as the pressure ramps up, with tensions increasing ahead of the crucial vote on 11 December, in which parliament is likely to reject the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement, sterling has become less, not more, turbulent.
“It has been shackled by the Brexit uncertainty. It is locked in holding pattern, hovering for the last few weeks at about $1.27.”
He continues: ““Nothing is currently priced in because of the enormous question marks hanging over the many different outcomes.
“First, should Theresa May’s deal goes through, sterling will initially rally. But if the DUP hold firm on their refusal to back the government on future legislation, the government will be paralysed and an election must be held and Sterling’s rally would cease.
“Second, should the PM’s plan be voted down, there are several options, including a second referendum. This would, arguably, get Mrs May ‘off the hook’, but she would be regarded as a traitor by Brexiteers if she announced one. Sterling can be expected to rally in this scenario.
“An alternative is that the PM goes back to the E.U and asks for a new deal, based on EFTA membership, which is accepted and is then passed by the UK Parliament. This would also trigger a sterling rally.
“And third, a ‘No Deal’ scenario would happen if Parliament fails to vote through any deal by end of March 2019, and the UK is unable to extend Article 50, and there is no formal abandonment of Brexit. This would cause a sharp fall in the pound.”
Speaking to investors recently, Mr Green noted: “In terms of investment strategy, if investors are already invested broadly across asset classes, sectors and regions, for instance by having a global multi-asset portfolio, they should sit tight. There is too much uncertainty to be able to take strong bets on a region, asset class or even a currency.
“However, if they do not have such a portfolio, then they should consider taking action.”
deVere Group is one of the world’s largest independent advisors of specialist global financial solutions to international, local mass affluent, and high-net-worth clients. It has a network of more than 70 offices across the world, over 80,000 clients and $12bn under advisement.
Brexit Economics & Fundamentals Financial News
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Zubar Training With View To Signing On Loan
Bournemouth defender aiming to earn short-term deal
Crewe Alexandra can confirm that the Bournemouth defender Stephane Zubar is currently training with the club with a view to a loan deal. The 27-year-old Guadeloupe International played for Caen and Vaslui in France before embarking on a career in the United Kingdom with Plymouth Argyle in 2010.
His form for Argyle over a season saw him secure a move to Bournemouth in 2011 and he has made 24 appearances for the Cherries. He spent a brief spell on loan at Bury last season, making 6 appearances.
The club are planning to make a decision on Zubar as quickly as possible and may seek permission to play him as an over-aged player in our Under-21 match against Colchester on Monday evening.
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AAUP Defends Sham Scholarship in the Interest of Ideology
Stephen M. Krason
Recently, the American Association of University Professors’ Committees on Academic Freedom and Women in the Academic Profession issued a statement titled “The Assault on Gender and Gender Studies.” While criticizing the Hungarian government for defunding university gender studies programs, its main aim is to derail the Trump administration’s proposed clarification of Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination to not include gender identity. It could hardly have been a more classic example of twisting scholarship in the interest of promoting the very thing that corrupts true scholarship: ideology. In this case the ideology is sexual libertinism, and most specifically transgenderism and the broader homosexualist agenda of which it is a part. The statement even has the temerity to proclaim the fantasy—maybe lunacy is a better word—that “a biological basis for gender … has been thoroughly discredited by over fifty years of feminist, trans, queer, and critical race research and by lived experience.” This claim illustrates how ideology has crowded out genuine learning in many disciplines leaving instead only corrupt imitations of real scholarship.
The reality, of course, is that serious scholarship across the board takes into account common sense (which is routinely brushed aside by the ideologically driven academics of today) and, yes, “lived experience” when it recognizes the biological fact that men cannot become women or women men. The person who truly embraces reality knows that there are few things more obvious than this.
The statement makes false and delusional claims while characterizing opponents as enemies of truth when, by every rational yardstick, they are its enemies. The bitter irony is that these authors are post-modern proponents of epistemological skepticism who deny our ability to ever know the truth. They start by insisting that “gender” should not be “narrowly defined” as immutable and determined at birth, and claim that to say otherwise is “part of a broader attack on civil rights.” Besides never specifying what the broader attack is or providing any evidence that it exists, they never trouble themselves to explain how using biology to determine sexual identity is a violation of civil rights. It certainly doesn’t occur to them that such a “narrow” definition might just be part of the nature of things—but, then again, many intellectuals have long since embraced the view that man has no nature and that he is infinitely malleable. “Lived experience” thus justifies whatever life one wants to live regardless of how much of reality must be twisted to accommodate it.
The statement claims that scholars in biology, anthropology, history, and psychology “have repeatedly shown that definitions of sex and sexuality have varied over time and across cultures and political regimes.” It, of course, provides no evidence of this and could not. Who could think of a time when a culture believed that men and women were interchangeable? Maybe they have in mind “scholars” such as Margaret Mead and Alfred Kinsey whose claims about sex practices and human sexuality, upon closer examination, have been soundly discredited. In fact, some of the things that Kinsey said in his books are now so embarrassing that the institute that bears his name and holds the copyright to his works frequently refuses to allow authors to quote from them. Even Mead and Kinsey, however, didn’t go so far as to claim that the sexes were interchangeable. The fact is that biological science does not support the ideological claims of gender studies professors. This is why AAUP cannot cite any mainstream medical studies for support.
The statement excoriates the Trump Title IX initiative as “state-enforced preservation of traditional gender roles,” which is “authoritarian” and aiming “to protect patriarchal family structures.” The truth is that it signifies nothing more than public policy recognizing reality. It’s likely that the AAUP wouldn’t call out any of the more truly oppressive governmental initiatives that conform to its ideological agenda as authoritarian. When was the last time that the AAUP criticized statism or overcentralized governmental authority? Their predictable deployment of the “patriarchy” bogeyman underscores how eager they are to substitute ideologically charged rhetoric for the genuine scholarship they pretend to favor. It goes without saying that they provide no evidence for their patriarchy claim, nor do they even define what the term means—much less provide any analysis of why the nuclear family with the traditional roles of husband-father and wife-mother is problematical or defective. They go on to rebuke attempts by government to disfavor “nonnormative households,” like the “same-sex” ones “that deviate from established nuclear family norms.” They claim that on such things the policymakers’ “motives are ideological” pure and simple. The latter are “attempting to override the insights of serious scholars” and are acting “without factual support” and “for purely political ends.” This could be a case of the pot calling the kettle black except that the Trump administration has established law on its side since the Department of Health and Human Services is simply proposing to reverse the lawless policy impositions of the Obama administration.
It’s also interesting that after its full-throated condemnation of government authoritarianism in advancing a public policy that upholds the reality about males and females, the statement says that the same Title IX should be an “instrument for ending cultures of discrimination based on sex.” There is no hesitancy about using the full force of government for this purpose, and the context makes it clear that the sex discrimination to be eliminated would result in protecting homosexuality and transgenderism. The fact that it speaks about this in the context of encouraging universities and colleges to put gender studies and related programs, such as “queer and trans studies,” in place indicates that sexual libertinism is an important part of their agenda.
Further, the statement insists that these programs are particularly essential “for research into how differences are used to legitimize structures of power.” This seems to be another way of saying that they are needed to expose the supposed white male heterosexual power structure throughout society. With the left, it always seems to come down to power. True scholarship goes where the evidence leads but the authors are averse to such quaint notions as proof or facts. For all their crabbing about how policymakers who oppose gender studies have no scholarly credentials, there is no indication that this statement was authored by anyone interested in proving anything other than their own moral superiority.
For all its supposed concern with scholarship, one wonders what the AAUP’s reaction is to scholarship that shows—clearly, and with hard evidence—the value of the family as traditionally understood or casts any doubt on the claims of the homosexualists (i.e., the so-called “LGBTQ” agenda). They most likely would have no use for such sound carefully undertaken scholarship because its conclusions contradict their ideological agenda—as one would expect it would, since it confirms the wisdom of the ages and, yes, the human nature they want to deny. Has the AAUP defended the likes of Paul McHugh, Mark Regnerus, or Paul Sullins, who have faced ugly attacks for their research showing the harms of transgenderism and the damage to children of same-sex parenting? For that matter, in their zeal to defend alternative family forms, has the AAUP taken note of the consistent research across disciplines that has shown that children are more likely to thrive and grow up to be well-adjusted, responsible adults when they come from intact nuclear families (that is, the families that the AAUP identifies with the dreaded patriarchy)? Do they even take note of the diseases that evidence unmistakably shows active homosexuals are much more likely to contract? It becomes almost hilarious for the statement to say that the opponents of gender ideology—and, by implication, all that is related to it—are seeking to “impose their will in the name of a ‘science’ that is without factual support.”
Just as the statement was ready to invoke the evil of patriarchy, it also tossed out the left’s other ubiquitous snarl word, misogyny. As is typical with the left’s lexicon, such damning, indicting words are never defined. They are rhetorical tools with which to cast aspersion on people who don’t follow their party line. The correct definition of misogyny is a pathological hatred of women, something approaching a psychological condition. The fact that the AAUP is so ready to use words loosely and inaccurately further undermines its claim to be defenders of true scholarship. A serious scholar would not use terminology in dishonest ways for political purposes.
The statement also alleges that attempts to enshrine into public policy the reality of people being one sex or another from birth will cause “trans, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people” to “disproportionately suffer.” Apart from the fact that these categories are all concoctions of the homosexualist movement and its allies—they ignore the fact that those who suffer from gender dysphoria will only find healing from professional counselors and not through the adoption of false identities. Too often, activists use these people to further their political agenda.
A final point in the statement betrays clearly how it hides behind “scholarship” to promote ideology. It compares the supposed threat to academic freedom posed by the legal recognition of what men and women are by nature to “attacks on climate change.” In other words, any criticism or evidence—including sound scholarship—brought forth against the left’s views on climate change is to be disallowed as an attack on academic freedom. The agenda of the left is sacrosanct and must be protected even if that requires the denial of other people’s liberty.
In a statement two years ago, the AAUP commendably criticized the threats to academic freedom and campus free speech by false and irresponsible accusations of sexual harassment on campuses and the failure to provide due process to the accused—even while it was careful to uphold the supposed value of gender studies. Unfortunately, in this latest statement the lure of ideology was just too great for it to act as genuine scholars would by upholding truth.
Tagged as AAUP, Feminism, Gay Agenda, Gender Ideology, transgender (gender-identity disorder), Trump Administration
By Stephen M. Krason
Stephen M. Krason's "Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic" column appears monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) in Crisis Magazine. He is Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies and associate director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also co-founder and president of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. He holds a J.D. and Ph.D. (political science) and an M.A. in theology/religious education and is admitted to a number of law bars, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the author, most recently, of The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic (Transaction Publishers, 2012), and editor of three volumes: Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Child Protective System (Scarecrow Press, 2013) and The Crisis of Religious Liberty (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014); and most recently, Challenging the Secular Culture: A Call to Christians (Franciscan University Press). His latest book is Catholicism and American Political Ideologies (Hamilton Books). He is also the author of a new novel, American Cincinnatus. The views expressed here are, of course, his own.
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A supermarket complex in Woolwich, Southeast London that also contains housing. Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Pictures
Why Grocery Store Parking Lots Are Disappearing in London
For one, fewer residents are doing their shopping by car.
Anyone who thinks housing-starved inner London doesn’t have any space left to build on probably hasn’t been grocery shopping in the area recently. While inner London’s supermarkets aren’t as sprawling and vast as their suburban counterparts, they still take up large areas of prime land, including parking lots and buildings that are often single-floor. In an urban area where the number of drivers has been falling for some time, leaving parking spaces to gobble up valuable real estate like this is a real waste. And in fact, these spaces are in the midst of a big change.
Inner London is poised on the edge of a grocery store parking lot building boom, one that will see homes replace cars. Right now inner London has 15 major grocery store sites that have either just been sold, are coming to market or have residential planning permission agreed. Parceled together, that land could accommodate up to 7,500 housing units and have a market value of up to £3 billion ($4.33 billion). It’s not that the stores themselves are closing (at least not in London). They’re just shedding parking space that once seemed essential but increasingly looks like an overhang from another era.
Many commentators have been advocating this for some time. Indeed, a few London supermarkets have already built housing on the roofs of their existing stores. Now, however, the solution has moved on from being a speculative bright idea penciled in for the future to becoming an actual shift, with change-of-use permission attached, one that will soon help to re-shape inner London.
British stores aren’t doing this out of pure kindness, of course, but for two key reasons. Firstly, the value of the London land they own has shot up so much that selling the non-retail parts of it has become extremely tempting. Secondly, these companies have seen their profits plummet nationwide, and need to find some way to plug the gap.
Right now, British supermarkets are doing badly due to a mix of cross-sector business mistakes and changing consumer habits. As this article details, the U.K.’s major chains have over-expanded and have also suffered major write-downs of their property assets.
Other threats to their dominance are lifestyle related. The market has polarized, with a boom on either side of the shopping mainstream in both discount stores and farmers’ markets. Customers increasingly shop online, and many city-dwellers now prefer buying fewer items more frequently, meaning that the big once-a-week shop by car is gradually becoming a thing of the past.
For big stores built expressly around this weekly ritual, this is a rude shock that challenges their business model. It has also left them with huge amounts of land that they no longer need for retail space. The volume of un-built land that these chains now possess (albeit mostly of outside London) is staggering. As of last spring, the major chains owned around 43.8 million square feet of land where no development was taking place.
Meanwhile, on already developed sites, the decline of the weekly shop means that a large parking lot is no longer an essential asset for a successful store. In London at least, increasingly customers are walking out of stores bag in hand rather than driving. As the drivers leave, permanent residents will move in, fleshing out a city that, while still far short of meeting its future housing needs, is getting higher and denser by the month. And as supermarkets free up their urban parking lots, they’re ultimately liable to receive yet another boost: a new concentration of potential customers right on their doorstep.
@FeargusOSull
Feargus O'Sullivan is a contributing writer to CityLab, covering Europe. His writing focuses on housing, gentrification and social change, infrastructure, urban policy, and national cultures. He has previously contributed to The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times, and Next City, among other publications.
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Ivory Coast's Simone Gbagbo sentenced to 20 years in prison
By Marilia Brocchetto, CNN
Updated 4:02 AM ET, Tue March 10, 2015
Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone after their arrested on April 11, 2011.
Her husband is in ICC custody over similar charges
Ivory Coast refused to transfer Simone Gbagbo to ICC
(CNN) A court in Ivory Coast has sentenced former first lady Simone Gbagbo to 20 years in prison, the official AIP news agency said.
Gbagbo was convicted Monday for her role in carrying out crimes against humanity following post-election violence in 2010 which left more than 3,000 people dead.
Her husband, former president Laurent Gbagbo, is in the custody of the Hague-based International Criminal Court awaiting trial over similar charges.
The charges stem from the aftermath of Gbagbo's husband's election defeat in 2010.
Laurent Gbagbo, then the incumbent president, refused to step down after Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner of the election. The standoff sparked months of violence between supporters of the two sides, leaving thousands dead.
In 2012, the ICC issued a warrant against her, alleging that as a member of the president's inner circle, his wife was an "indirect co-perpetrator." She attended meetings where plans were discussed and carried out to persecute Ouattara supporters, according to the warrant.
Her husband surrendered to the ICC in December of that year, and is currently awaiting trial at The Hague on crimes against humanity for the civil unrest and deaths.
Both have denied the charges.
But Ivory Coast refused to transfer Simone Gbago, saying it would try her in a domestic court instead.
On Monday, it did.
CNN's Faith Karimi contributed to this report.
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Snow: Flight cancellations now stretch into Sunday
Airlines are already canceling flights ahead of a new winter storm forecast to bring snow and ice from the Great Plains to the Midwest and Northeast.
Snow: Flight cancellations now stretch into Sunday Airlines are already canceling flights ahead of a new winter storm forecast to bring snow and ice from the Great Plains to the Midwest and Northeast. Check out this story on coloradoan.com: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2019/01/18/snow-flight-cancellations-begin-winter-storm-harper-strengthens/2612919002/
Today in the Sky
Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY Published 7:08 a.m. MT Jan. 18, 2019 | Updated 7:30 a.m. MT Jan. 19, 2019
Passengers exit Southwest Airlines flight 1643 after the plane slid off the runway at Eppley Airfield Friday, Jan 18, 2019, in Omaha, Neb. (Photo: Ryan Soderlin, Omaha World-Herald via AP)
SATURDAY UPDATE: Flight headaches were on the rise Saturday as a potent winter storm moved from the Midwest into the Northeast. Airline cancellations were mounting, with some flights on Monday already off the books. In total, more than 2,400 flights had been canceled from Friday through Monday. That number was likely to grow as the storm moved into the Northeast. All big U.S. airlines were waiving change fees at many airports in the storm’s path. Full update: Airlines already canceling flights into Monday from latest storm
PREVIOUS UPDATE: Airlines are already canceling flights into Sunday ahead of a new winter storm that’s forecast to bring snow and ice from the Great Plains to the Midwest and Northeast.
Adding to Friday's flight headaches: all flights were suspended for several hours at Nebraska's Omaha airport after a Southwest Boeing 737 slid off a runway there. Icy conditions were reported in Omaha Friday afternoon, but it was not immediately clear if that was related.
For the weather, U.S. carriers were waiving change fees for customers traveling to airports affected by the storm, which was expected to begin dumping snow in the upper Midwest and Great Plains on Friday before moving east to the Atlantic Coast this weekend. Snow totals could hit 2 feet or more in interior parts of New York state and New England.
Several major hubs lie in the storm’s path, including Chicago O’Hare, Chicago Midway and Detroit. However, the storm’s biggest impact on air travel could come Saturday and Sunday, with a mix of snow, ice, rain and wind expected to move across the airports serving New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington and Baltimore.
Flight delays could last even after the storm, dubbed “Winter Storm Harper” by The Weather Channel. Bitter cold is predicted to blast into the Midwest and Northeast in the storm’s wake, bringing the possibility of de-icing delays at busy airports that could last into Monday.
On Friday, flight cancellations had already begun.
More than 485 flights had been canceled nationwide on Friday and another 4,079 delayed as of 5:35 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com. Another 433 had already been grounded for Saturday. Even on Sunday, more than two dozen flights were pre-emptively canceled, mostly on small regional airlines serving the Northeast.
TODAY IN THE SKY: Airlines expand change-fee waivers as new storms approach
Southwest accounted for 140 cancellations on Friday and another 73 for Saturday, by FlightAware's count.
"We’re making preparations to help keep people and bags moving throughout a snowy weekend in a swath of Southwest cities," Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said to USA TODAY's Today in the Sky blog. "That involves some strategic and proactive cancellations Friday afternoon and evening, primarily affecting travel tonight and early tomorrow morning in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Indianapolis."
TODAY IN THE SKY: Delta Air Lines’ newest destination: Hilton Head, South Carolina
Hawkins noted "additional cancellations (were) possible as we tactically react to evolving conditions created by the storm."
In Omaha, 16 total flights were grounded as of 7:10 p.m. ET.
Flyers on all airlines should brace for a spike in cancellations and delays through Monday. Using previous storms as a yardstick, flight cancellations seem likely to push into thousands by early next week if current forecasts hold.
By early Friday afternoon, pre-emptive Saturday cancellations also showing up for airlines like United, JetBlue, Air Canada and regional carriers that operate contract flights for American, Delta and United.
Saturday cancellations had begin to pile up at other airports by Friday afternoon. Among those was Chicago O'Hare, where more than 280 combined arrivals and departures for Saturday had been axed by 4:50 p.m. ET Friday, according for about 15 percent of the entire day's schedule there. By FlightAware's count, many of those appeared to be on American, United and their regional affiliates.
At Chicago Midway, about 40 arrivals and departures -- roughly 10 percent of Saturday's flights -- had been grounded by Friday afternoon.
Looking ahead to Sunday, more 26 flights had been canceled as of 7:10 p.m. ET on Friday. Among those, United Express affiliate accounted for nine, according to FlightAware. Portland, Maine, had a combined 12 arrivals and departures already canceled for Sunday while Newark Liberty had seven.
TODAY IN THE SKY: Allegiant: 16 new routes include first-ever Alaska flights
IN PICTURES: 33 cool aviation photos
33 cool aviation photos: Dreamliners, A350s, private jets and more
A yet-to-be-delivered Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-900 completes a test flight at Seattle's Boeing Field in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
The New York City skyline provides a dramatic backdrop as a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 taxies to the gate after landing at Newark Liberty International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Washington's Reagan National Airport is seen during the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 26, 2018. Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
A Qatar Airways Airbus A380 takes off from London Heathrow on Oct. 2, 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Rowers pass in front of a Kenmore Air seaplane in Seattle's Lake Union in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
An Air Astana Boeing 757-200 lands at London's Heathrow International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A British Airways Airbus A320 lands at London's Heathrow International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Air Tahiti Nui's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner as seen just before the carrier flew it away from Boeing's South Carolina assembly line on Oct. 9, 2018. Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
Bearing a small resemblance to Rudolph, a Hainan Airlines Boeing 787-9 lands at London's Heathrow International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
An SAS Airbus A320neo lands at London's Heathrow International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A flight attendant prepares a meal on the world's longest flight, Singapore Airlines Flight 21, between Newark and Singapore on Oct. 12, 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Singapore Airlines' business-class seat, seen aboard its Airbus A350-900ULR jet in Newark, New Jersey, on Oct. 12, 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A British Airways Boeing 777-200 lands at London's Heathrow International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A Delta Air LInes 757-200 pulls into a gate at New York's JFK Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
JetBlue aircraft at Boston Logan International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A logo for Boeing's South Carolina delivery center, where airline customers take possession of new jets, is seen on Oct. 9, 2018. Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
A Kenmore Air seaplane takes off from Seattle's Lake Union in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A British Airways Boeing 777 is readied for its next flight abroad at London Heathrow's Terminal 5 in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
The barren ice fields of northern Greenland make for stunning viewing from onboard Singapore Airlines Flight 21, the world's longest flight that flies between Newark and Singapore. The shot was taken from the Newark inaugural on Oct. 12, 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A quiet business-class cabin aboard the world's longest flight, Singapore Airlines Flight 21, between Newark and Singapore on Oct. 12, 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A Lufthansa Airbus A320 is prepped for its next flight in the early morning hours at the Frankfurt Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
A Gulfstream business jet takes off from Seattle's Boeing Field in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Workers unload cargo from an arriving Qatar Airways Airbus A350-1000 jet at Frankfurt Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Runway 22L at New York's JFK International Airport appears out the window of a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 as it lands at the well-known U.S. airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
The grand staircase of the Airbus A380 is seen aboard a Singapore Airlines' version of the jumbo jet at New York's JFK International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Aircraft come and go at Boston Logan International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Shrouded in heavy fog, an Alaska Airlines-branded Embraer E170 rolls out after landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in October 2018. 1900216002
Passengers await their next flight from London Heathrow's Terminal 5 in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Air Tahiti Nui showed off its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner before flying it away from Boeing's South Carolina assembly line on Oct. 9, 2018. Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
A jetBlue Airbus A320 takes off from Boston Logan International Airport in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
The German city of Frankfurt blurs by the window of a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 as it lands in the city following a 13-hour flight from Singapore in October 2018. Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren, special to USA TODAY
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2019/01/18/snow-flight-cancellations-begin-winter-storm-harper-strengthens/2612919002/
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24 July 2017: DoveVivo’s new home is ready!
“More than 10 years ago we could never have imagined the DoveVivo of today". These were the opening words of our CEO William, in his inauguration speech for the new offices in Viale Stelvio.
And indeed, his presentation was an opportunity to look back over our history, with all the many moves and various improvements the firm has undergone in ten years of successful business. From the first small office in Via Brioschi to the new premises in Viale Stelvio, by way of the Via Compagnoni offices, we’ve come a long way and together we’ve grown in terms of our objectives, the buildings we manage - today around 550 - and the number of people in the great DoveVivo team who work every day to share their common passion!
The slight sadness of leaving the last place that accommodated us has quickly been replaced by enthusiasm for our fifth home, the result of months of efforts which saw us creating a friendly and comfortable environment that truly reflects the DoveVivo approach!
The new premises in Viale Stelvio certainly constitute a great step in the growth of DoveVivo and are the starting point for a new chapter in the story of our firm, in an atmosphere of general enthusiasm.
Since one of the things we do best is celebrating, we began with a delicious welcome coffee on 24th July and continued, just three days later, with an evening of carefree fun and aperitifs in true Milanese style, which was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to continue the celebrations outside the office too, strengthen the group spirit that distinguishes us and welcome the new arrivals in our team, which is constantly growing!
The prevailing values that can be felt in every corner of our new offices are sharing, respect, teamwork and smartness in a fluid environment.
If you’re curious to find out what we’re talking about, come and see us! We’d be delighted to welcome you to the new DoveVivo offices and we’re sure you’ll feel at home! 😊
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Weekly Column_120 / August 16, 2012
Diet Detective Investigation: Muscle Recovery: Can Chocolate Milk Do the Trick?
By Charles Platkin, PhD
In a 2006 study that was published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, researchers compared Gatorade, chocolate milk, and a sports drink (with a carb and protein combination matching that of chocolate milk). Nine male cyclists biked until they were exhausted, rested, and then biked again. The researchers had the cyclists repeat the cycle, but this time they drank one of the three drinks during their rest period. The cyclists who drank the chocolate milk were then able to bike significantly longer than those who drank the sports drink, and for about the same time as those who drank the Gatorade.
The American College of Sports Medicine presented another chocolate milk study just last year at its annual meeting in Seattle. That study, conducted at James Madison University, compared chocolate milk to a high-carbohydrate recovery beverage with the same number of calories. In this study, 13 male college soccer players trained for one week, then drank either low-fat chocolate milk or the high-carbohydrate recovery beverage after intense training for the next four days. They took a two-week break, then repeated the cycle, and the researchers compared the degree of muscle recovery between the two groups.
According to this study, “All of the athletes increased their daily training times during the intensified training, regardless of post-exercise beverage, yet after two and four days of intensified training, chocolate milk drinkers had significantly lower levels of creatine kinase — an indicator of muscle damage — compared to when they drank the carbohydrate beverage. There were no differences between the two beverages in effects on soccer-specific performance tests, subjective ratings of muscle soreness, mental and physical fatigue and other measures of muscle strength.”
And yet another study, recently released at the American College of Sports Medicine’s 57th annual meeting in Baltimore, showed that chocolate milk might be a “worthwhile post-exercise recovery beverage.”
According to Kristine Clark, Ph.D., R.D., director of Sports Nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, the milk industry has gone to extreme efforts to convince the public, especially athletes, that chocolate milk is the “one and done” product for athletes to drink for muscle recovery. “And it’s not,” says Clark.
There are several important issues to understand about muscle recovery: “First and foremost, active individuals must ensure they are meeting their total energy intake needs in order to promote muscle recovery. Next, they need to appropriately time consumption of adequate amounts of fluids and electrolytes, carbohydrate for replenishing glycogen storage, and high-quality protein for repairing and rebuilding muscle protein,” says Jackie Maurer Abbot, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics. She suggests drinking water for fluids, some Gatorade for the electrolytes such as potassium and sodium (find out how much you need) and looking for carbohydrates that are high on the glycemic index such as a baked potato or brown rice, because they help move glucose into the cells. You also need protein, but not all protein sources are good choices. Choose good quality lean proteins (egg whites, fish, lean meats with no visible fat, white meat chicken and turkey without skin).
Research from the University of Texas that was published in Medical Science and Sports Exercise and the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism has demonstrated that carbohydrates alone are not enough. Amino acids are also critical for muscle recovery. Amino acids serve as the building blocks our muscles use to repair the damage that occurs with exercise as well as to support muscle growth (aka muscle hypertrophy). In fact, consuming as little as 6 grams of essential amino acids (from animal proteins and soy protein, which contain all nine of the essential amino acids) can aid the recovery process, says Abbot. And one specific amino acid, leucine, has been identified by researchers as potentially mediating greater maintenance of muscle mass. Leucine plays a key role in building new muscle protein, and 1 cup of chocolate milk has 778 milligrams of leucine.
The problem is that many people, including athletes, don’t need the extra calories. In fact, many are trying to reduce body fat, not increase it. According to Clark, an athlete — or anyone for that matter — can simply have a meal with whole foods that includes lean protein and whole-grain carbohydrates. “There is no rush. It’s about muscle recovery; you have time. The idea is to get ready for the next event.” Also, when you come to think about it, chocolate milk requires refrigeration — which means it is not so convenient after all.
Finally, Clark says that 8 to 12 ounces of chocolate milk will not be enough for recovery. An athlete working out for two to three hours would need more carbs and protein. In terms of protein, athletes engaging in endurance exercise typically need around 0.55 to 0.64 grams of protein per pound of body weight, while strength-training athletes may need 0.73 to 0.77 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Those doing recreational or moderate endurance and strength training only need 0.36 to 0.54 grams per pound of body weight. Clark also says that a college athletes training for two to three hours would need approximately 3 to 5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight to completely restore glycogen. While chocolate milk can contribute, it contains only 8 grams of protein and 36 grams of carbohydrates per 8 ounces.
The bottom line: The unique combination of carbohydrates and protein, and the fact that fat-free chocolate milk is also a liquid (as opposed to something like yogurt), make it a contender as a muscle-recovery drink. However, a real meal containing protein and whole-grain carbs would be better. And from a weight-loss perspective, it’s not a real option. Skip the fat-free chocolate milk and have a plain Greek yogurt (80 calories; 0 g fat; 6 g carbs; 15 g protein for more than 5.3 ounces) with a cut-up banana (1 medium = 105 calories; 0.39 g fat; 27 g carbs; 3 g fiber; 1.29 g protein). Read more about yogurt and bananas.
Diet Detective Investigation on Back Pain, Joint Pain and Being Overweight
The Buffet Huddle: The Annual DietDetective.com "Big Game" Eating Extravaganza
NY Post: The Plane Truth - Airline Meals Can Land You In Fat City
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Russia’s Channel One launches war victory celebration channel
Russia’s Channel One has launched a new service celebrating the country’s victory in the second world war, one year ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
Pobeda TV is a new free-to-air digital service that will broadcast Soviet-era films about the military and Russian films, TV series and documentaries about the war. Content includes new programmes based on archive video material, interviews with veterans, historians and experts, family memoirs and so on.
The channel will be distributed by service providers in Russia including Moscow region operator Akado, whose head of content, Pavel Karakhtintsev, said he was “delighted to offer our subscribers a new TV channel, the content of which is filled with the spirit of patriotism and love for the motherland”.
Karakhtintsev said that the launch of a channel dedicated to the Victory Day holiday would be “a gift not only for veterans, but for the younger generation, for those who are interested in the history of their country and are proud of the achievement of its people”.
Tags: Akado, Channel One, Perviyy Kanal, Pobeda TV, Russia
MTS adds to TV base
Akado adds channels to analogue tier in south-eastern Moscow
Akado launches new interactive TV service
Akado adds MTV Russia to line-up
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