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Culture and heritage of Formentera
In a piece of land as small as Formentera, where land and marine resources have had a significant influence on life on the island, the border between cultural value and natural value is often blurred. Evidence of this is the extent of our ethnological heritage, which constitutes a compendium of sustainable use of the different natural resources of the island.
Formentera has three historical sites: Sant Francesc Xavier, Sant Ferran de ses Roques and Pilar de la Mola. In all of them the most significant landmark is the respective parish church. Radiating out from these there is a whole network of squares and roads, most of which coincide with the old roads that linked the scattered villages with the churches.
The cultural heritage of Formentera also includes elements of coastal defence and signalling (watchtowers and lighthouses), historical sites (Ses Salines, Formentera penitentiary colony), paths and territorial divisions (Camí de sa Pujada, Mojones, dry stone walls) as well as houses, flour mills, cisterns, wells, waterwheels, unique trees, or escars (boathouses), among other assets.
In the field of intangible heritage, the ballades and cantades stand out, musical forms that played an important role in island society until the middle of the 20th century. It is also important to mention the Caramelles, songs performed by men with instrumental accompaniment that are closely linked to two key celebrations of the liturgical calendar: Christmas and Easter.
More information in the Heritage Catalogue.
Exhibition halls and museums
Heritage Catalogue
Formentera Half Marathon
Gastronomic weekends (May)
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Marcos Diaz / Eclipse
Sean Teale began his career on the hit U.K. series “Skins.” He also was featured in the period dramas “Mr. Selfridge” and “Reign.” He appeared in the cable miniseries “The Bible” and most recently starred in the cable sci-fi series “Incorporated,” produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. On film, Teale appeared in “The Red Tent,” opposite Rebecca Ferguson and Morena Baccarin; “Survivor,” with Pierce Brosnan, Emma Thompson and Milla Jovovich; and Justin Edgar’s independent comedy, “We are the Freaks.” He most recently starred in the independent thriller “B&B.” He currently resides in London.
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Home Organisation Activities Working Groups NEWS Contact us
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The recovery of State Aid, time to rethink some concepts?, by Miguel Muñoz
As it is well known, State aids are, basically, measures attributable to a member State, in a very broad sense, that affect competition in the internal market by giving an unjustified advantage to certain market operators against their competitors.
By way of foreword to this brief note, I would like to congratulate FIDE for the initiative of launching the English version of their website, and thank them FIDE for the trust placed in me when they invited me to participate. Hopefully, once the reader has finished reading this brief note such trust will not have been betrayed.
One of the main problems that corporations, and therefore the legal professionals that assist them, face when they are confronted to a Decision by the European Commission (EC) declaring the existence of a State aid is the recovery procedure. As it is well known, State aids are, basically, measures attributable to a member State, in a very broad sense, that affect competition in the internal market by giving an unjustified advantage to certain market operators against their competitors. That is the reason why the basic obligation that a negative Decision by the EC imposes to the member States is to immediately recover the aid granted, as a mean to guarantee the reestablishment of the level playing field as soon as possible. But this idea, even if it makes complete sense in abstract, raises many issues that are worth to reconsider, since it may in many cases, impose great burdens to beneficiaries of the aid.
Before analyzing some of the mentioned problems, there is a basic idea that the reader should bear in mind. When the EC announces the adoption of a negative decision, it is very common that the media inform about it emphasizing the infringement committed by the beneficiaries. In fact, it is very common, especially in cases when the beneficiary of the aid is a concrete single corporation, e.g. some of the fairly recent Decisions related to tax rulings, to read or hear that the EC has fined this or that company or that the beneficiary of the aid has not paid the taxes legally due. But despite this wide habit, that kind of remarks are completely wrong, since the only infringer of EU law in State aid cases is the State itself. In fact, the only addressee of the EC Decision is the State.
Having said that, one may agree on the principle of immediate recovery of the aid granted in clear cut cases, i.e. when there is no discussion about the fact that the measure is constitutive of State aid. But there is much more to say about the topic when the relevant players engage in long and complex legal struggles before the various judicial bodies that have competence on the subject.
If we, for instance, take the example of the Spanish goodwill tax amortization, we find that the measure was implemented by Spain back in 2002, the EC decisions were adopted in 2009, 2001 and 2014, the General Court delivered its first judgement related to the first and second by the end of 2014, the Court of Justice solved the appeal in December 2016, and we are still waiting for the judgement by the General Court in the resend procedure. In parallel there are many procedures pending with the General Court in relation to the third Decision and probably hundreds of recovery procedures before national authorities and courts at different stages.
Given the described landscape, it is obvious that we are facing an extremely complex case and that the recovery of the aid will be anything but immediate. Therefore, one can only wonder why the relevant authorities, no matter if national or European, judicial or administrative, do not accept the suspension of the obligation to recover, i.e. the obligation imposed to the beneficiaries to immediately revert the amortization applied, with all the complex calculations that this operation implies, the effects that it has on past and future tax returns and the clear possibility that, once the European jurisdiction has delivered it final judgement, the decisions are annulled and everything has to be replaced to the original situation. And, besides that we should, once again, not forget that the taxpayers, or at least the average tax payer, that applied the goodwill amortization were everything but aware that they were benefiting from a State aid.
I have to admit that the example is quite extreme, since the goodwill case is particularly complex, but despite that it can be perfectly reproduced in other files, and the Spanish tax lease case seems to be a good example of this statement.
Taking all this into account, I sincerely believe that the EC and the Court of Justice should revisit their doctrine on the possibility to suspend the obligation to recover in this cases. Unfortunately if they do not do so, the margin for manoeuver for the national authorities is practically non-existent, since they could easily be confronted to an infringement procedure or a fine.
It is true that, in order to estimate the suspension of the EC Decision, the Court of Justice has to consider the balance between the particular interest of the appellant and the general interest of the EU but one of the possible qualifications of the jurisprudence that could be introduced is the consideration of the economic damages that the immediate execution of the EC Decision would imply for the beneficiaries, i.e. if the case is clearly complex, and particularly if there is a strong evidence of the invalidity of the EC Decision, the Court should not simply disregard the economic damages alleged by the beneficiary, but accept them if they are significant.
This fairly simple solution, even if it would imply the obligation for the beneficiary to bring an action for annulment and request the adoption of an interim measure, would prevent the uncertainty and damages caused by an early execution of a clearly questionable EC Decision.
There are of course many other issues raised by the obligation to recover and, in general, in the field of State aid measure. I hope that FIDE’s staff will be so kind to invite me in the future to share them with all the readers.
Miguel Muñoz
Miguel Muñoz is Associate Partner in EY Abogados office in Madrid, leader of EU tax controversy. He is State Lawyer (Abogado del Estado), currently in voluntary leave. Prior joining EY, Miguel has been Head of the Legal Service of the Secretary of State for Finance, Director of the Legal Service of the former Spanish Energy Regulator (Comisión Nacional de Energía), and member of the Spanish Legal Service before the Court of Justice of the European Union. Miguel is Permanent Professor at the Master in European Union Law Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, and member of its Academic Council.
Destination of technology investment flows from large investment funds and hedge funds: financial and socially responsible investment criteria
The Brexit Policy paralysis: what next? with Christopher Muttukumaru
Susana del Río Villar A Europe that unites. Salzburg March 1st and 2nd, 2019.
The Value of Joint Sessions – Dynamic and Engaging, by Eileen Carroll
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HomeGrid, HomePNA Alliance merge under one umbrella
The HomeGrid Forum and HomePNA have merged into one large group that will be focused on promoting the G.hn "any wire" technology standard for home networks.
Set to take on the HomeGrid Forum name, the newly combined group will promote the transition of the entire existing wireline-based home networking technology to the ITU-T's G.hn standard.
This merger comes as G.hn-based products are starting to ship. The new organization will serve as a guide for service providers that have G.hn network deployment plans or are migrating from previous-generation technologies. The new group will continue to support the installed base of over 40 million certified HomePNA devices during the transition.
Service providers such as AT&T (NYSE: T), which uses HomePNA to distribute its U-verse video and broadband services inside consumer homes, support the merger.
"As an active member of both the HomePNA Alliance and the HomeGrid Forum, AT&T sees the merger of these two industry organizations as a great step towards advancing and harmonizing these standards-based home networking technologies," said Eric Puetz, director of industry standards for AT&T, in a release.
HomeGrid Forum will now have 70 members, including 28 service providers such as AT&T and BT (NYSE: BT), and some of the largest OEMs, ODMs and retailers.
G.hn may have gained considerable interest as a way to integrate multiple wiring technologies, but it still trails more established approaches such as MoCA and HomePlug, which use existing coax and power wires. Regardless of the approach that comes to each home, a new report by IHS has forecast that the number of households deploying no-new-wire technologies will rise to 250 million in 2017 from under 70 million last year.
- see the release
'No-new-wire' home networks to reach 250 million households by end of 2017, says IHS
Homeplug advocates focus on built-in network adapters; Peru's fiber backbone tender attracts 10 companies
CEA to spotlight WiFi, MoCA, HomePlug
Marvell's silicon gets G.hn certification
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Every record will give you a transcript and an image of the original sacramental register. The detail found in each transcript can vary depending on the nature of the document. You will find a combination of the following facts:
Event year
The image will provide you with additional detail about your ancestor. By viewing the image you will gain a greater understanding of why your ancestor’s name appeared in this particular type of document. The documents in this collection include anniversary books, confirmation lists, congregational lists, lists of benefactors and converts, parish diaries, and more.
These are some examples of the type of records you will find in this collection. The majority of the records come from the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Most records from the Westminster Diocesan Archive are records of confirmations.
Anniversaries – These records are from Harvington and Kenilworth parishes in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The parish priests recorded anniversaries in the parish. Anniversaries of individuals’ deaths were recorded in order for them to be remembered in the mass and prayed for. In Kenilworth, the parish priest kept anniversary dates daily along with a quote from scripture or a poem every day. For example, on 4 April 1881, he records, ‘Let us be patient. These severe afflictions, not from the ground arise, but often times celestial benedictions assume this dark disguise’, which are lines from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Benefactors – Records are from Solihull parish and Coventry at the Most Holy Sacrament & St Osburg. The two books are different, but most entries will include the name of the benefactor, the amount given, and the anniversary of the benefactor’s death.
Confessions – These records are from Leek parish in North Staffordshire. It is a monthly record of which children were going to confession. The register also includes a list of the whole congregation of Leek.
Confirmations – Confirmations is the largest record type in this collection. The lists will provide your ancestor’s name, age, and residence, as well as the name of the bishop who performed the confirmation.
Monks – The lists of monks come from Coventry, the Most Holy Sacrament & St Osburg. Among the names of monks you will find William Bernard Ullathorne, who became the first bishop of the Archdiocese of Birmingham when it was formed in 1850. He had immense influence on the growth of the Catholic Church in the 19th century and established a number of free elementary schools in Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Prior to becoming Birmingham’s bishop, he was the vicar general of Australia.
Parish diary – The parish diary is from St Mary in Walsall. The diary recorded which masses were said and by whom, the names of any sick parishioners, and the names of those who have died. It also recorded bann announcements and had a section for additional notes such as if there was a lecture that week or a special procession.
The records in this collection have been made available by the Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives and Westminster Archdiocesan Archives. Findmypast is dedicated to adding further dioceses to this collection of Roman Catholic records. There are records available from 1657 until 1907. The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales placed a 110-year closure period on all sacramental records. Most of the records available here are from the 19th century.
As of 2001, there were approximately 4.2 million Roman Catholics in England and Wales. The religion has flourished since the 18th and 19th centuries. Prior to that time, Catholics endured persecution and restriction of their religious life in England for centuries. In the late 18th century, Parliament began to pass relief acts, which ended restrictions on Roman Catholics in England. In 1791, the Roman Catholic Relief Act legalised the practice of Catholicism. Further acts were passed and barriers removed, such as the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit as Members of Parliament, and the Universities Test Act of 1871, which allowed Catholics to enter universities.
After the reestablishment of the Catholic hierarchy in 1850 by Pope Pius IX, the dioceses of Birmingham and Westminster were formed. Westminster diocese includes Greater London boroughs north of the River Thames and across to the River Lea in the east. Westminster is one of the smallest dioceses in geographical size but one of the largest in population. At the time of its creation, the Archdiocese of Birmingham had 73 missions with about 35,000 parishioners. It did not take long for both dioceses to grow with the arrival of Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Poland, Ukraine, and Italy, as well as with large numbers of English converts to Catholicism.
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The Diversity Nominee
by Robert P. George 7 . 3 . 18
In the old days, an unwritten understanding, honored by presidents of both political parties, had it that certain groups—Jews, Catholics, Southerners—got a “seat” on the Supreme Court. For many years, Felix Frankfurter occupied “the Jewish seat,” William J. Brennan “the Catholic seat,” Hugo Black “the Southern seat.” Later an African-American seat was added. Thurgood Marshall, who was nominated by Lyndon B. Johnson, held it until his retirement, when he was replaced by Clarence Thomas, a George H. W. Bush nominee.
There’s not much need these days for special “Jewish” and “Catholic” seats. Of the nine Supreme Court Justices currently sitting, three are Jewish and six are baptized Catholics. The most glaring absence is that of a Protestant in what is still a Protestant-majority country, though the Catholic Neil Gorsuch attends an Episcopal Church with his wife, who is British and a member of the Church of England.
So, should President Trump, a Protestant himself (“I’m Presbyterian,” he declared during a presidential primary debate, “that’s right down the middle”), nominate a Protestant to fill the slot being vacated by (the Catholic) Anthony Kennedy?
Well, I’d be very happy to see a Protestant—especially an evangelical Protestant—join the Court. I’d also be happy to see a member of the Latter Day Saints faith among the Justices, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh. Religious diversity among people in positions of influence and authority—including on the bench—is all to the good in this nation of many faiths.
The overriding consideration, however, is that our justices be faithful constitutionalists—and by that I mean, jurists whose decisions are guided by the text, logic, structure, and original public meaning of the Constitution. These are people who do not pretend that things that are not in the Constitution are there (lurking, perhaps, in “penumbras formed by emanations” or in the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments interpreted “substantively”), or that things that actually are in the Constitution are not there.
Due in no small measure to thirty years of remarkable work in legal education by the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, presidents today who are looking for true constitutionalists to nominate for appointments to the federal judiciary at every level, including the Supreme Court, have an outstanding pool of possible nominees. From this pool, President Trump selected Neil Gorsuch—a jurist of high intellect, exceptional learning, impeccable integrity, and admirable temperament. The question now: Who should be next?
By all accounts, the president has five or six possibilities in mind. All are sitting judges (though a nominee need not be a current or even former judge—Elena Kagan, for example, was not). All are people of intellect, learning, integrity, and sound temperament. All are constitutionalists. All would, I believe, be fine Supreme Court justices. Still, one person on President Trump’s list stands out, in my view, for the valuable diversity she would bring to the Court: Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Although Judge Barrett has not served for a lengthy period of time—she was appointed last year—there can be no doubt of the quality of her mind, the scope and depth of her learning, the excellence of her character, or the suitability of her temperament. She is the equal of the others on the president’s “short list” on all of these criteria. She has experience in the practice of law and has spent the bulk of her career as a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, of which she is a graduate. After completing her legal education, she clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then at the Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia, who held her in the very highest esteem.
Judge Barrett, as a Catholic, would not bring religious diversity to the Court, as some of the other “finalists” would, but I’m sure President Trump would be glad to be the second Republican president to nominate a female Supreme Court Justice (the very first woman to be nominated was Sandra Day O’Connor—by Ronald Reagan). And it would be good to have a Republican-appointed woman on the Court, to serve alongside the three women currently serving, who were appointed by Democratic presidents. It would also be good to have on the Court a woman who truly is guided by the text, logic, structure, and original public meaning of the Constitution. Because Justice O’Connor was too often willing to depart from these sources of constitutional meaning, a Justice Amy Coney Barrett would represent another “first.” The three Democratic-appointed female Justices are, alas, of the penumbral emanationist school of constitutional interpretation. What’s more, there is no doubt that the Supreme Court will, in the coming months and years, be hearing more cases concerning laws enacted to protect the life the child in the womb by restricting abortion, and it would be good to have among the faithful constitutionalists an outstandingly qualified Republican-appointed woman. The fate of Roe v. Wade itself, a case of the most dubious constitutional standing, is likely to be considered sooner or later, and there is no doubt as to where the three Democratic-appointed women who currently constitute the Court’s left wing will stand on that. A Republican-appointed woman who is willing to consider what the Constitution actually says and doesn’t say would, in the current highly politicized environment, be a good thing.
It would also be a good thing for people to see that female jurists, no less than their male counterparts, have and are fully entitled to have a variety of opinions in debates over questions of constitutional law, including those pertaining to abortion and unborn human life. Defeating the “expectation” that women and other minorities “think alike” (at least if they have been decently educated) or “should” hold this or that particular view on abortion or anything else would in itself be salutary.
Every Justice currently serving attended either Harvard or Yale Law School. All attended Ivy League or equivalent undergraduate institutions. Three went to Princeton. Now, we certainly want the best people on our courts, especially the Supreme Court. So if that means getting them all from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, then I would say so be it. But the obvious and undeniable truth is that there are plenty of excellent jurists out there who do not have Ivy League educations. Amy Barrett is one of them. She was graduated from Rhodes College in Tennessee before going to law school at Notre Dame. Partial as I am to the Ivies—I myself am a graduate of the Harvard Law School and have made my career as a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton—I don’t think it would be at all bad for the country to see a bit of diversity of educational background on the Court. Quite the contrary.
It would be a mistake to interpret my points here as suggesting that we should return to having a “this” seat and a “that” seat for different “demographics.” Nor would I want, or does Judge Barrett need, “affirmative action”—for Republican women, non–Ivy League people, Midwesterners, people born in New Orleans, or anything else. She’s top of the top. But in choosing from the top of the top, presidents do—legitimately—take various considerations into account, including the value of having a Court whose membership includes people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
And there is one more thing. When Judge Barrett was nominated for the judicial appointment she currently holds, she was the victim of flagrant anti-religious bigotry, including at the hands of Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and (the since disgraced) Al Franken. Barrett’s Catholic faith, of which she has the temerity to speak freely, caused Senator Feinstein, infamously, to deride her with the words, “the dogma lives loudly within you”—an egregious dog whistle for anti-Catholic animus. Others attacked her for her and her family’s membership in a charismatic religious organization, People of Praise, which includes Catholics and non-Catholics, even suggesting that it was a “cult.” (Shamefully, these attacks have already started again.) So although a Barrett nomination would not enhance the Court’s religious diversity, it would drive a stake through the heart of what has aptly been described as “the last acceptable prejudice among American elites.”
Of course, it might be that, in fact, prejudice against Catholics and other traditional religious believers is not the last acceptable prejudice. There is one more: prejudice against large families, and especially against women who have large families. (Do you doubt me? Just ask any mother of five or more children about the abusive comments to which she is subjected, sometimes by complete strangers, when out in public with the kids.) Amy Coney Barrett is the mother of seven children—one is a special needs child, and two are adopted (from Haiti). Defying that prejudice while giving the country a top-class Supreme Court justice drawn from a superb pool would be another merit of the president’s choosing Judge Barrett.
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, where he teaches constitutional interpretation and philosophy of law.
Image via CSPAN.
More on: Religion, Public Life, Supreme Court, Courts, Diversity
Articles by Robert P. George
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The Grim Cost of the "Oslo War"
by Guy Millière
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12999/oslo-war
Twenty-five years after Oslo, the balance sheet is more like what in 2003 the historian Efraim Karsh called the start of the "Oslo war". In this war, he wrote, Israel had conceded from the beginning a major victory to its worst enemies by giving them a respectability they did not deserve, and thus placed itself in a losing position from which it never fully recovered.
"Contrary to Rabin's slogan, one does not 'make [peace] with very unsavory enemies' but rather with former very unsavory enemies. That is, enemies that have been defeated... Wars end, the historical record shows, not through goodwill but through defeat. He who does not win loses. Wars usually end when failure causes one side to despair, when that side has abandoned its war aims and accepted defeat, and when that defeat has exhausted its will to fight. Conversely, so long as both combatants still hope to achieve their war objectives, fighting either goes on or it potentially will resume." — Daniel Pipes, Commentary, January 2017.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism." — PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen , interview in Trouw, March, 1977.
September 13, 1993: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shakes hands with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, while President Bill Clinton looks on, at the signing of the Oslo Accord. (Image source: Vince Musi / The White House)
September 13, 1993. Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the lawn of the White House. They have just officially signed the document that was supposed to start Peace: the Oslo Accord. The cogs of this machine began their work.
Overnight, Yasser Arafat was no longer the leader of a defeated terrorist organization. He had suddenly become the President of a quasi-state; his Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had been transformed into the "Palestinian Authority".
Terror attacks against Israelis attacks during this "peace" grew even more bloody and more profuse, and soon were being perpetrated at a frantic pace. Some deliberately targeted children and youths, such as the Dolphinarium discotheque massacre and the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing. Arafat condemned none of them.
In September 2000, the Palestinian Authority launched a full scale guerrilla war that lasted four years and killed more than 1,000 Israelis.
It soon became clear that Arafat was not going to give up being a mass murderer. His successor, Mahmoud Abbas, was no better. Murders of Jews did not stop. Israel finally decided to build a security barrier. Palestinian leaders continued untiringly to make demands that no country could satisfy without committing suicide. These included retreating to indefensible 1949 armistice lines and allowing into Israel millions of people sworn to the Jews' destruction:
While it is true that Hamas is expert at getting innocent Palestinians killed, it has made it very plain, in word and deed, that it would rather kill Jews. The following blood-freezing statement is from the group's charter: "The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: 'The day of judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say 'O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."
This is a frank and open call for genocide, embedded in one of the most thoroughly anti-Semitic documents you'll read this side of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Not many people seem to know that Hamas's founding document is genocidal.
Israel, meanwhile, was constantly summoned to negotiate and make ever more concessions.
And make concessions it did. In 2005, Israel forcibly and unconditionally evacuated every last Jew from the entire Gaza Strip -- a move that resulted in Hamas swiftly seizing power there. Israel also offered, in a plan proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008, to abandon the eastern half of Jerusalem, and almost totally to withdraw from the West Bank and the Jordan Valley -- a move that led to the breakdown of negotiations by the Palestinian side. Even so, Israel continued to be defined internationally as the guilty party.
Although the Palestinian Authority never hid that it was still the same old genocidal PLO, it steadily gained widespread recognition: many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and even the Holy See, recognize a "Palestinian state" that simply does not exist. "Palestine" obtained a seat at the UNESCO, was granted a Permanent Observer status at the United Nations.
Despite the fact that a large part of the foreign subsidies given to the Palestinian Authority were being used to reward terrorism and finance incitement to anti-Jewish hatred, foreign subsidies increased.
Palestinian propaganda gained ground internationally, and even in Israel. A growing number of Israeli Arabs became radicalized; some committed attacks.
Extremist organizations that had been established in Israel, but financed from abroad in the name of "peace," showed their true colors as openly hostile to the existence of Israel. The recent passing of a law that defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and stipulates what has been in evidence since the founding of Israel in 1948 (the Declaration of Independence does not exclude anyone and speaks of the "development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants"; it also explicitly speaks of the "natural right of the Jewish people to be, like all other nations, master of their destiny on the soil of their own sovereign state") led some of these organizations to try to provoke anti-Israel anger among the Druze minority and to organize protests in Tel Aviv.
Twenty-five years after Oslo, the balance sheet is more like what, in 2003, the historian Efraim Karsh, commenting on the Rabin-Arafat handshake, called the start the "Oslo war". In this war, he wrote, Israel had conceded from the beginning a major victory to its worst enemies by giving them a respectability they did not deserve, and thus placed itself in a losing position from which it never fully recovered. In a comprehensive study published in 2016, he reasserted his analysis and said that the 1993 handshake and the document signed then had been the "starkest strategic blunder in Israel's history".
In January 2017, the historian Daniel Pipes, founder and president of the Middle East Forum, explained in detail the urgent need of a deep change in Israel's behavior before it would be too late. The Palestinian population, he stressed, is imbued with a "genocidal obsession towards Israel." He emphasized that:
"Contrary to Rabin's slogan, one does not 'make [peace] with very unsavory enemies' but rather with former very unsavory enemies. That is, enemies that have been defeated...
"...Wars end, the historical record shows, not through goodwill but through defeat. He who does not win loses. Wars usually end when failure causes one side to despair, when that side has abandoned its war aims and accepted defeat, and when that defeat has exhausted its will to fight. Conversely, so long as both combatants still hope to achieve their war objectives, fighting either goes on or it potentially will resume."
In 2003, Joel Fishman, a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs, wrote that, before any further action concerning the Palestinian issue, the Israeli government would have to stop treating the Palestinian Authority (PA) as what it is not and start treating it as what it is and has never ceased to be: a terrorist organization – and one that should be treated as such. The U.S. and Israeli governments are now going in that direction. On March 6, 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Abbas must "stop paying terrorists to murder Jews". The statement not only amounted to designating Abbas as a terrorist leader; it also reminded the public that money incentivizes murder. A few weeks ago, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman noted that Abbas "pays NIS 100 million ($27 million) in salaries to terrorists and murderers" and added "a clear message: No more".
Those who support the Palestinian Authority are supporting terrorism. One can only conclude that in doing so, they have shown themselves as enemies of Israel. Saying that to some governments might be unpopular, but less so non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGO Monitor was founded in 2002 to counter organizations that use the appearance of "defending human rights" to support often harmful goals. In July 2016, the Knesset passed a law demanding that NGOs receiving more than half of their funding from abroad indicate it in their financial reports and disclose the fact in advertising and publicity, and while lobbying officials. How would you like it if more than half of the funding to shape the policies of your country were coming, undisclosed, from openly hostile nations?
Another task that needs urgent attention is exposing, refuting and rejecting the falsifications of history that the PA and its supporters proliferate. The Israeli government's decision to withdraw from the UNESCO after a vote that falsely denied the Jewish connection to Jerusalem's Temple Mount and Western Wall was essential and overdue. When Prime Minister Netanyahu refers to the West Bank, he speaks only of Judea and Samaria, states that Judea is named precisely for the Jews' presence there thousands of years ago, and explains that expelling Jews from Judea and Samaria should be called by its name: ethnic cleansing.
In a March 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen stated:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."
The same fact was reconfirmed in a video posted by the invaluable resource MEMRI: a Hamas minister of the interior in 2012 states that Palestinians are "just Saudis and Egyptians."
For eight years, the Obama administration took positions to undermine Israel. Those policies culminated with the December 23, 2016 decision not to veto a UN resolution that demanded the return of Israel to "1967 borders", in reality not borders at all but just an armistice line. The policies also defined "East Jerusalem" and the Old City as "occupied Palestinian territory". President Trump on the other hand recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14 and by those moves took Jerusalem off the negotiating table. Guatemala helpfully followed by moving its embassy to Jerusalem, too. When President Trump asked Palestinian leaders to stop paying stipends to terrorists imprisoned in Israel, and to the families of dead terrorists, and the Palestinians refused, he cut more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority.
President Trump's administration also regarded extending "refugee" status to millions of descendants of the approximately 500,000 original Arab refugees as unjustifiable. According to a classified State Department document, only 30,000 of the original refugees remain today. So the president cut all outstanding funding, roughly $300 million, to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). He added that UNRWA had been "vulnerable to misappropriation and corruption" and that it aggravated the problem instead of contributing to solving it. On September 9, he also decided to freeze $25 million in funding to Palestinian hospitals in Jerusalem for refusing to participate in peace efforts, and on September 10, he decided to close the Palestinian delegation's office in Washington D.C.
The Sunni Arab regimes know that Israel could be their greatest ally against the Iranian threat in the region. Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, said in New York in April that Palestinians will have to "accept the proposals made by the Trump administration or keep quiet". On August 12, Walid Sadi, a former Jordanian diplomat, wrote in the Jordan Times (a newspaper that depends directly on the kingdom's government) that the Palestinian Authority must "resign itself to an imperfect solution". The statement should lead one to reflect on what, in the Palestinian Authority's view, the perfect solution would be.
Israel has always been facing the unrelenting hostility of the European Union, France and Germany, which today are among the most ardent supporters of the corrupted "Palestinian cause". The Israeli government knows it has nothing to expect from them, except being undermined. In July 2016, Mahmoud Abbas, after making openly anti-Semitic remarks in the European Parliament, received a standing ovation. In July 2017, Emmanuel Macron kissed Abbas and with a straight face thanked him for his "tireless work in favor of non-violence". In April 2018, Hams leader Ismail Haniyeh was on the cover of one of the main French news magazines, Paris Match, and that several pages of the magazine were dedicated to a hagiography of a man who can only be described as an anti-Semitic murderer. In April 2017, while on a diplomatic trip to Israel, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel met with groups that slander Israeli soldiers as "war criminals". The European Union, France and Germany will apparently not stop funding the Palestinian Authority and dozens of radical anti-Israel organizations, and are doing everything they can to save the "Iranian nuclear deal" and the mullahs' regime.
The number of Israelis who think that a peace agreement is possible is dwindling. The number of Israelis who think that no additional concessions should be made is growing. The number of Palestinian Arabs supporting terrorist attacks is also growing.
In a recent survey ranking countries on the basis of their alliances, influence and leadership, Israel, despite its small size, was ranked the eighth most powerful country in the world.
Hamas, a crumbling terrorist entity, has been trying to make the brutally governed population of the Gaza strip into a horde of bloodthirsty fanatics. The Palestinian Authority is a corruption-ridden autocracy that survives only thanks to massive aid, mostly from the gullible West – a bribe that not only has failed to work, but, as in most extortion, has only led to further demands for more money with no noticeable change in behavior.
It is has been truly tragic that the people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been held hostage for so long by Palestinians leaders who feed them on a dream, impede their progress and lead them to incite against Israel to seek its destruction.
In February 2017, US Ambassador John Bolton, now President Trump's National Security Advisor, said he did not see any viable institutions on the "Palestinian" side and added that he thought the best option could be a "three-state solution", whereby Gaza would join Egypt, and a part of the West Bank would join Jordan. The Israeli government did not disagree.
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
Related Topics: Israel, Palestinian Authority
Recent Articles by Guy Millière
France: The Real Emmanuel Macron, 2019-07-03
"Europe Will Not Be Europe", 2019-06-09
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Terrorist Organizations and Should be Treated as Such, 2019-05-21
The Burning of Notre Dame and the Destruction of Christian Europe, 2019-04-22
Christchurch Murders: The Real Accomplices, 2019-04-02
Meir Sprecher • Sep 18, 2018 at 08:53
When will we understand that the "two States" solution is a farce. From the moment Jews started to yearn for an own nation, Muslims started to attack and murder Jews and destroying Jewish communities.
They will never except a non Muslim nation between the Sea and the River. We have to accept this as the basic power moving Muslim society. So there can only be one solution:
"One state between the Sea and the River"
If the Jews prevail, no wholesale murder will happen, but if the Muslims prevail, The 40-45 Holocaust will be the first act in a contest between Christians and Muslims. Who will murder most Jews and how fast.
Steven Greenman • Sep 17, 2018 at 09:58
I enjoyed the clear thinking in this article until I read the most distressing last sentence which implies giving up Gaza to Egypt and large portions of the West Bank to Jordan is a good idea. The plan of (retired) Colonel Mordechai Kedar which employs the concept of 8 Palestinian "emirates" (city-states) is a far better idea. In Col. Kedar's plan these city-states (one of which would be Gaza) would have limited sovereignty and would integrate into Israeli society rather than Jordanian and Egyptian societies. The Kedar plan, if successful, (and it should be) also can evolve over time into an even better permanent solution as the present hostility and closed-mindedness evolves into acceptance and ultimately into good will between Arabs and Jews.
Hannah W • Sep 16, 2018 at 21:01
Reading the summary of the first Oslo agreements, which then-PM Rabin presented to the Knesset in 1995, you get the feeling that no one today even knows what was originally agreed:
"The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines."
"We came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth."
Rabin also noted that the PLO had not kept a 2-year-old promise to amend their Charter clauses that call for Israel's removal and advocate violence against the Zionists. Fulfilling this promise was something he called "a supreme test" of Palestinian sincerity which would determin "the continued implementation of the agreement as a whole".
Over the next years, the PNC enacted a farce of "annulling" the offensive text without actually changing it... then promising to change it without actually following through. To this very day, the wording of that Charter remains the same as in 1968. Yet some like Yossi Beilin still can't admit that the "supreme test" failed.
Doctormhl1 • Sep 16, 2018 at 16:30
In the past, Israel won all the military battles while the PLO won all the political battles. Since Pres. Trump assumed office, the political landscape has changed dramatically and Israel has finally been given the "breathing room" to be able to win the political battles as well.
Israel finally has a true friend and ally in the White House.
David • Sep 16, 2018 at 11:06
There will never be peace there. My mother who lived there in the 30's and 40's (British Palestine Mandate), spoke of the random acts of violence (stabbings or shootings) by Arabs against Jews. There was no Israel at that time. It is all a big ruse; most of them just hate Jews.
robert davis • Sep 16, 2018 at 08:46
Excellent article by Guy Milliere as usual. "One makes peace with FORMER unsavoury enemies". This is what I keep saying since years. Rabin was a good soldier but a totally stupid politician, a non-leader. Arabs should be FIRST transferred to Egypt and Jordan and THEN peace with Arab States will come NATURALLY such as ripe fruit.
Simon Smith • Sep 15, 2018 at 23:23
Bravo Dr. Milliere. This article is a must read for all of us who love and support Israel.
jeb • Sep 15, 2018 at 09:39
I remember Israel in 2000, the "Intifada" came before or after the Israeli government offered Arafat more than he asked for to start up a Palestinian State. They have always declined the reality of a two-state solution and attempts at peace is just as likely to escalate into violence as the "occupation". The PA, Hamas etc. are not interested in peace and a state called Palestine, unless it is built from the loot and ashes of Israel and that has always been true.
Robert • Sep 15, 2018 at 03:19
I blame Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin for the Oslo debacle.
William Hausman • Sep 14, 2018 at 14:52
I'm teaching a course on the Rise of Political Islam. Nonetheless, I must somehow include this small essay as required reading even if tangential. It is altogether accurate in its antecedents to the conflict; the sundry comments regarding its dynamics; the insights of credential references; and the only possible cessation of the conflict. What more could be said...? It will likely never end even if it continues peripherally and underground. That's Political Islam.
Cool Pete • Sep 14, 2018 at 14:32
Excellent article. A 'must read' for every politician.
So-called "Palestinians" are Arab Muslims, originating from [Trans]Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.
Gazans are Egyptians. They can all go back there; and try to build this countries.
Israel has the historic rights to the land, including Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea. Since 3 - 4000 years ago.
Peace can only be built on historic grounds, facts and achievements.
G. Donovan • Sep 14, 2018 at 14:04
This is an excellent article and illustrates so well what happens when people refuse to see that when terrorism is rewarded (as it certainly seems to be in so many of our countries) it's giving permission to those who wish to destroy us.
I admire the courage of the Israeli people and I hope that others will find inspiration in their example and stop condemning those who have suffered and continue to suffer incredibly at the hands of the ones who will not work to create what Israel created but simply want to steal it from them.
Michael Fortunato • Sep 14, 2018 at 13:02
. The Palestinian Authority is a corruption-ridden autocracy that survives only thanks to massive aid, mostly from the gullible West
They are not gullible. They are complicit.
Geoff Trescott Michael Fortunato • Sep 16, 2018 at 23:30
The 'Leftist' Western governments have formed a dangerous alliance with Islam. They have been conned into believing all the lies Muslims put out about that they are 'victims' of the West and other related rubbish and they continue to turn a blind eye to Islamic intolerance and daily Islamic murder of anyone who does not follow the line of "Allahu akbar".
Of course, Jews, Christians and homosexuals are also 'fair game' for the "religion of peace.
The accommodations the West continues to make with Islam, and the Islamic usury of the West, brings an old saying to mind, "He who rides a tiger can never get off".
CeCelia Squires • Sep 14, 2018 at 11:30
Personally I think Israel should retake Gaza and the West Bank to unite the country as a whole. The Arabs can live peacefully with the Jews, or immigrate to a Muslim country.
Bisley CeCelia Squires • Sep 14, 2018 at 17:18
Your suggestion is really the only practical solution, but leftist politics has such a firm hold in Israel through the Knesset and the courts that no government would be allowed to take the actions necessary to crush the terrorists and take control. They weren't able to suppress the terrorists when they governed in the past, mostly because of politically driven legal and human rights constraints, and they can't do it now without a drastic change in Israeli politics. It would take a rather harsh imposition of law, and liberal use of the death penalty for terrorism and violent crime, to break the power of the terrorists, and there isn't enough support to allow it to be done.
What might bring about the necessary change is war. If Hezbollah and Iran make war on Israel (which seems to be their intention), and the Palestinians join in, then there is an opportunity for the IDF to be sent in to wipe out the terrorist organizations without too much political resistance in Israel -- if there is a government with the will to do it. However things go, Daniel Pipes is right that there can be no peace until one side is thoroughly defeated, knows they're defeated, and has no choice but to accept a peace dictated by the victor.
Ron Thompson • Sep 14, 2018 at 09:58
Why Doesn't It Make Any Difference?
I agree with everything Professor Milliere says. But then the question is, why doesn't it make any difference in the locked-in view that refuses to view the "peace process" with the Palestinians as brutally unfair to Israel, and ultimately to the Palestinians too?
Here's a stab at an answer: because these comments, while utterly correct, don't go quite far enough, by concluding that Islam is the final reason - that Palestinians and other Arabs can't give up the genocidal goal of destroying Israel as long as the dominant reality of their cultural lives is adherence to the genocidal religion of Islam.
As long as it is regarded as too impossible to THINK this, to discuss this truth, and to figure out how to act on it, the unconfronted hatred and suicidal/genocidal thought and behavior will go in. The Daniel Pipes quote is right - you can only deal with a DEFEATED unsavory opponent. And to do that you have to defeat Islam, or at least to defeat its respectability.
Incidentally, to do this, it must be recognized that Islam, adhered to by perhaps 20% of the world's population, is an immediate menace to Israel, a near term menace to Western Europe, and an ultimate menace to the other 80% of humanity, as well as an ongoing menace to most of the 20% of Muslim humanity, as shown by the ongoing slaughter of Muslims by other Muslims, for islamic reasons (!), in so many majority-Muslim countries.
Admittedly, this is a tall order of reality to take in.
Geoff Trescott Ron Thompson • Sep 16, 2018 at 00:21
Spot on, Ron. While Islam continues to mandate the total destruction of the Jewish people worldwide, there will be NO peace coming from the primitive members of this barbaric ideological cult.
Incredible that EU country 'leaders' have joined in the anti- semitism. After all, Muslims KNOW ( read, brainwashed into this thinking), that the "Day of Judgement" won't occur until Islam's mandate against Jews has been fulfilled.
gerald m serlin • Sep 14, 2018 at 09:07
Finally, a clear and factual commentary of the situation as it currently exists! This article can be cited as a primary reference for what is wrong in the Middle East. Having done that, the world can now move forward towards a solution of the conflict. I agree with the author, only a total military victory by one side, or the other, will result in ultimate peace. War is always a last resort and the situation has worked itself to the point where that last resort must be resorted to.
Excellent article which shows the terrible stupidity of Rabin's words and deeds. Frankly he deserved his fate. Of course a war ends only when the enemy is defeated and bears the consequences of his defeat. Defeating him on the ground and then glorifying him is a total idiocy which can't bring peace to anyone. As to three states, it's another absurdity worse that present situation: once again the enemy would not bear the consequence of its defeat. Not only the fake Palestinian genociders would still squat the Jewish provinces, but on top of that the whole scheme would depend on Egypt and Jordan!!! WORSE than now! The enemy's defeat must be complete and its population must be transferred to Egypt and Jordan. ONLY THEN WILL PEACE BE POSSIBLE not one minute before.
myshlev robert davis • Sep 15, 2018 at 00:01
I agree that the Oslo Accords secretly negotiated by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres turned out to be a terrible mistake. They were implemented without even a plebiscite so that the Israeli public could give their opinion on the matter. However, for you to suggest that Prime Minister Rabin "deserved his fate" is absurd. Yigal Amir is a vile murderer worthy of contempt. It is never appropriate to assassinate a nation's chief executive under any circumstances.
Ora robert davis • Sep 17, 2018 at 09:54
Robert Davis, what kind of a "person" are you to say that Rabin deserved his fate! You may disagree with him but to say he deserved his fate is beyond the pale. He was a great general and a good leader. Your comment reflects on what you are but I will not use the words that come to mind to describe what I think you are!!!
David G • Sep 14, 2018 at 08:08
Are not the German (!!) and French bureaucrats ashamed of their countries' histories of anti-semitism (anti-Israelism being a thinly disguised form of that despite the denials) and its consequences ?
Yet they persist. Why ?
What are the huge gains they expect from their unholy alliances with known terrorist rogue regimes ? After all, the French alliance with the Nazis in the Vichy government didn't pay off for the 'French People'. The 'Palestinian' connection will pay off equally. And the 'Iran Connection' will be an utter disaster as their untrustworthy companions desert them.
When will the rest of Europe wake up ?
The resurgence of anti-semitism in Europe (in progress) is a leading indicator of the collapse of civilization. That has been proven over and over again.
Solomon Balas • Sep 14, 2018 at 07:29
The UN remains dominated through Arab Oil and allies they bought, so as to render it totally useless. Oslo and aftermath should never have happened. Unless Trump keeps control of Congress and gets a chance to reform the UN and the Media, We will quickly regress to an abyss with intolerable stench.
Hamish MacDonald • Sep 14, 2018 at 07:25
The US president's decision has all the hallmarks of sincerity. It is just. How can he face those who support him but are targets of the hotbed of hate that Yasser Arafat spawned?
The story of Israel is biblical also. "The desert will bloom like a rose." By planting Australian Eucalypts which can survive on salty water conditions more easily than other trees, the Israelis managed to change the water cycle. This biblical brilliance is completely lost on their opponents.
Arafat could never be trusted to keep a treaty. He broke them easily to suit his own ends. It is incredible that Clinton who is supposed to know lots knew so little about Islam.
Albert Reingewirtz • Sep 14, 2018 at 07:01
Wow! No one that I know wrote so clearly about the results of the Oslo agreements that brought back to life the PLO from retirement in Tunis to be back at the throat of the Jewish state of Israel. The river of blood is still flowing and the E.U. of course is supporting this Islamic terror gang now called the PA.
Daniel Less Albert Reingewirtz • Sep 15, 2018 at 22:40
The EU support the this Islamic terror gang because they or at the very least many of them have most likely been bought by some of the oil rich countries in exchange for looking the other way while their countries are turning into dumping grounds for Muslim garbage no Muslim countries want to take care of! That's what I'm beginning to believe now. I refuse to believe that even the dumbest Socialist/Communist politicians such as for instance those in countries like Sweden still believe in their own fantasies anymore! They must have been bribed or bought, I can't conceive of any other plausible explanation anymore!
IRAN'S SILENT EXECUTIONS: DEATH BY DEPRIVATION
Sharokh Zamani was jailed and tortured for 11 years for criticizing the Iranian regime and prison conditions. Iran also deprived his family of an autopsy. (See also: 2012 letter from Sharokh Zamani)
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The Supreme Court of the United States Temporarily Blocks Citizenship Question; Our Fight for an Accurate Count Continues
Home > The Supreme Court of the United States Temporarily Blocks Citizenship Question; Our Fight for an Accurate Count Continues
By Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and Philanthropy California
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States blocked, for now, the citizenship question from being added to the 2020 Census. While this decision is an important victory for fairness, justice, and democracy, there is still significant work ahead to ensure a fair and accurate count of all Californians – and the future of our state.
Despite today’s decision, unprecendented challenges remain to counting all California residents. The prospect of a citizenship question, along with this administration’s hostile immigration policies, threaten to seriously dampen Census participation by immigrants and refugees of all statuses, regardless of the question’s inclusion. To counteract this toxic climate, funders across the state and nation have already united to ensure that every person is counted. Many are investing millions of dollars in Census efforts and advocating for a fair and accurate count.
Philanthropy California, in partnership with the Bauman Foundation and Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, led and signed onto an amicus brief with 30 philanthropic institutions to highlight the harm an undercount would have on philanthropy’s mission. Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) is leading the California Census 2020 Statewide Funders’ Initiative, a collaborative of over forty funders coordinating efforts to ensure hard-to-count populations are counted and to strengthen the movement infrastructure throughout the state.
Yet California’s sprawling geography and massive immigrant population—one in four residents is foreign-born and half of the state’s children have an immigrant parents—makes our state very difficult to count. The current level of California’s investment in the Census, although unprecedented, is not sufficient to reach all our communities. Philanthropy California and GCIR will continue to work together to ensure that all Californians, regardless of their immigration status, are counted. Whether your foundation has been supporting Census efforts or is new to the fight, we urge you to support the significant opportunities that remain:
Register for a post-decision funder debrief on July 1 at 4pm ET, hosted by Funders Census Initiative, Democracy Funders Collaborative Census Subgroup, and United Philanthropy Forum
Increase funding to current partners and grantees working to encourage full participation, particularly of hard-to-count communities, in the census
Invest in litigation and advocacy work, including both rapid response grants to support ongoing legal challenges and a broader proactive strategy to ensure that Census data remains protected and confidential.
Contribute to a pooled fund(s) that targets hard-to-count geographic regions
Philanthropy California
Philanthropy California is an alliance of Northern California Grantmakers (NCG), Southern California Grantmakers (SCG), and San Diego Grantmakers (SDG). Our combined membership represents more than 600 foundations, corporate funders, philanthropic individuals and families, giving circles, and government agencies who invest billions every year to support communities across the state, the country, and worldwide.
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) is a network of local, state, and national funders who seek to leverage their grantmaking to expand opportunities for and address challenges facing immigrants, refugees, and their communities. GCIR's work is guided by a fundamental belief in equal opportunity and justice, as well as a recognition that communities thrive when all of their members have the opportunity to contribute to the economic, cultural, social, and civic fabric.
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AJC.com Publishes Op-ed on ESAs by Foundation’s Kyle Wingfield
March 7th, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment
Maureen Downey’s “Get Schooled” blog on AJC.com published, “Opinion: New study suggests vouchers may help Georgia public schools,” an op-ed by Kyle Wingfield, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, on March 3, 2019. The op-ed is published below. Access the op-ed online at https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/opinion-new-study-suggests-vouchers-may-help-georgia-public-schools/hnoULPdg9z0XZ2Zgq8HGTN/?.
Opinion: New study suggests vouchers may help Georgia public schools
Kyle Wingfield, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion columnist, is president and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute. In this guest column, Wingfield says legislation in the Georgia House and Senate allowing tax dollars to go toward private school tuition may help public education’s bottom line.
Senate Bill 173 passed out of committee Thursday in a 9-3 vote. It would establish “scholarship” accounts enabling parents to use the portion of the money their local school district gets from the state to pay private school tuition or to other providers for things such as textbooks and tutoring. There’s been no financial analysis of the Senate version, but a similar bill in the House, House Bill 301, would require about $48 million in the first year, rising to a maximum of about $543 million in a decade as more students participate, according to state auditors.
Wingfield says a new study by a senior fellow at his conservative policy foundation points to a financial upside to such proposals. (For another view on vouchers, go here.)
By Kyle Wingfield
Most complaints about school-choice programs eventually come down to money, and the misguided notion there isn’t enough to go around for Georgia’s public schools and the other educational options students and families want.
History demonstrates otherwise: In 2018, Georgia lawmakers voted to fully fund the QBE formula for public schools while also raising the cap on the state’s popular tax-credit scholarship.
This year, they are poised to raise teacher’s salaries by more than $2,500 per year while also weighing proposals to create new Educational Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) for students. Even in the past, when QBE wasn’t fully funded, education funding held steady as a percentage of total state spending. The “austerity cuts” to education owed to a sluggish economy, and ending school-choice programs wouldn’t have come close to making up the difference.
All of that said, is there any merit to the idea that ESAs – which are different from vouchers because students can use them not only to pay private school tuition but for homeschooling materials, tutoring or even college tuition – would put a financial burden on public school districts? Actually, it’s quite the opposite.
A new study by Jeffrey Dorfman, an economics professor at the University of Georgia and a senior fellow for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, finds county school districts would in fact save money at the margin if some of their students chose to leave and use an ESA, or a traditional voucher for that matter. (Due to a lack of available data, Dorfman was not able to examine Georgia’s city school districts.) Dorfman determined the financial impact by calculating the marginal cost of educating one more (or fewer) student in each county district, as well as the average variable cost.
“Voucher and ESA programs that provide funding in amounts equal to a district’s state funding per pupil actually raise the district’s financial capacity to educate its remaining students because the programs would remove less money than the district saves by having fewer students to educate,” Dorfman writes. “In addition, this report reveals that in all except the smallest districts, vouchers or ESAs could be funded up to the level of average variable cost and leave more than enough money to educate the remaining students at the same expenditure level as before.
The differences may surprise or even shock some observers. The difference between the marginal cost of educating a student and the state’s portion of per pupil funding was more than $5,000 in 20 of the state’s 159 county school districts, more than $3,000 in 121 districts, and more than $1,000 in all but four of them. The difference in half of the districts was more than $3,825. It was a net positive for all 159 county districts.
It’s worth noting we are talking about an average marginal cost. After all, at any given moment, a district might be able to take one more student without incurring much additional expense – or that last student may force the district to hire an additional teacher. The average takes account of both possibilities, plus all the ones in between.
Both ESA proposals this year – House Bill 301 and Senate Bill 173 – tie the funding level to each district’s state funding, so county districts should be better off financially, not worse, if some of their students decide to choose ESAs. Opponents of these bills will have to find another argument for why Georgia’s students and families shouldn’t be able to choose the education that’s best for them.
Posted in Commentaries Education Foundation in the News The ForumTagged GeorgiaGeorgia policyGeorgia Public Policy Foundation
Friday Facts: March 1, 2019
…One of the best things about the Georgia Public Policy Foundation is that it has such a broad membership base.
Dr. Wendy L. Gramm, Former Chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more quotes
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HomeBollywoodBollywood 2018Zero (2018)
Zero (2018) Zero is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film, written by Himanshu Sharma and directed by Aanand L. Rai. It was jointly produced by Colour Yellow Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment’s Gauri Khan, and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif. It follows Bauua Singh, a short man from Meerut who, after having […]
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Zero (2018)
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Zero is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film, written by Himanshu Sharma and directed by Aanand L. Rai. It was jointly produced by Colour Yellow Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment’s Gauri Khan, and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif. It follows Bauua Singh, a short man from Meerut who, after having difficulty finding a marriage partner, finds a companion in Aafia Bhinder, a NASA scientist with cerebral palsy. However, leading superstar Babita also gets close with him, testing his first relationship. This love triangle takes them to far-off cities, and thrusts Bauua on an adventure to discover both his true love and completeness in a life lived to the fullest.
Produced on an budget of ₹200 crore (US$28 million), Zero is Khan’s most expensive film. The film was conceived by Rai in 2012, after he was inspired by the superhero genre. Pre-production began in 2016. Initially having a working title of Katrina Meri Jaan, Zero went through numerous title changes before arriving at the final title in early 2018. Principal photography of the film began in Mumbai on May 2017. It marked the last film appearance of Sridevi, who died shortly after completing the film. Filming concluded in 2018 at Orlando. The film’s soundtrack is composed by Ajay-Atul with lyrics written by Irshad Kamil, under the label T-Series.
It was released on 21 December 2018, to mixed reviews from critics. Critics particularly praised the film’s visual effects and the performance of Khan, but the screenplay was criticised for its inconsistency. It earned ₹20.14 crore nett in India on its first day.
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Tigmanshu Dhulia
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Anushka SharmaKatrina KaifShah Rukh KhanTigmanshu Dhulia
Photograph (2019)
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HomeBollywoodHappy Ending (2014)
Happy Ending (2014) Happy Ending (2014) – latest movies streaming Happy Ending is a 2014 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. The film is produced by Illuminati Films. The film stars Saif Ali Khan and Ileana D’Cruz The theatrical trailer launched on October 10, 2014.[ Cast: Govinda, Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz, Kalki […]
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Happy Ending (2014) – latest movies streaming
Happy Ending is a 2014 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. The film is produced by Illuminati Films. The film stars Saif Ali Khan and Ileana D’Cruz The theatrical trailer launched on October 10, 2014.[
Cast: Govinda, Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor Khan,
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GovindaIleana D’CruzKalki KoechlinKareena Kapoor KhanPreity ZintaRanvir ShoreySaif Ali Khan
Mumbai Delhi Mumbai (2014)
ROY (2015)
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SABO, JR., LESLIE H.
Rank and Organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company B, 3d Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Place and Date: May 10, 1970, Se San, Cambodia
Citation: Specialist Four Leslie H. Sabo Jr. distinguished himself by conspicuous acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty at the cost of his own life while serving as a rifleman in Company B, 3d Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division in Se San, Cambodia, on May 10, 1970.
On that day, Specialist Four Sabo and his platoon were conducting a reconnaissance patrol when they were ambushed from all sides by a large enemy force. Without hesitation, Specialist Four Sabo charged an enemy position, killing several enemy soldiers. Immediately thereafter, he assaulted an enemy flanking force, successfully drawing their fire away from friendly soldiers and ultimately forcing the enemy to retreat. In order to re-supply ammunition, he sprinted across an open field to a wounded comrade. As he began to reload, an enemy grenade landed nearby. Specialist Four Sabo picked it up, threw it, and shielded his comrade with his own body, thus absorbing the brunt of the blast and saving his comrade's life. Seriously wounded by the blast, Specialist Four Sabo nonetheless retained the initiative and then single-handedly charged an enemy bunker that had inflicted severe damage on the platoon, receiving several serious wounds from automatic weapons fire in the process.
Now mortally injured, he crawled towards the enemy emplacement and, when in position, threw a grenade into the bunker. The resulting explosion silenced the enemy fire, but also ended Specialist Four Sabo's life. His indomitable courage and complete disregard for his own safety saved the lives of many of his platoon members. Specialist Four Sabo's extraordinary heroism and selflessness, above and beyond the call of duty, at the cost of his life, are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Company B, 3d Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, and the United States Army.
RODELA, JOSE
Rank and Organization: Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3312. Entered Service at: Corpus Cristi, TX. Place and Date: September 1, 1969
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.
Sergeant First Class Jose Rodela distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the company commander, Detachment B-36, Company A, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces during combat operations against an armed enemy in Phuoc Long Province, Republic of Vietnam on September 1, 1969.
That afternoon, Sergeant First Class Rodela’s battalion came under an intense barrage of mortar, rocket, and machine gun fire. Ignoring the withering enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodela immediately began placing his men into defensive positions to prevent the enemy from overrunning the entire battalion. Repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, Sergeant First Class Rodela moved from position to position, providing suppressing fire and assisting wounded, and was himself wounded in the back and head by a B-40 rocket while recovering a wounded comrade.
Alone, Sergeant First Class Rodela assaulted and knocked out the B-40 rocket position before successfully returning to the battalion’s perimeter. Sergeant First Class Rodela’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
ROBERTS, GORDON R.
Rank and Organization: Sergeant (then Sp4c.), U.S. Army, Company B, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. Place and Date: Thua Thien Province, Republic of Vietnam, 11 July 1969. Date of Issue: 03/02/1971
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.
Sgt. Roberts distinguished himself while serving as a rifleman in Company B, during combat operations. Sgt. Roberts' platoon was maneuvering along a ridge to attack heavily fortified enemy bunker positions which had pinned down an adjoining friendly company. As the platoon approached the enemy positions, it was suddenly pinned down by heavy automatic weapons and grenade fire from camouflaged enemy fortifications atop the overlooking hill. Seeing his platoon immobilized and in danger of failing in its mission, Sgt. Roberts crawled rapidly toward the closest enemy bunker. With complete disregard for his safety, he leaped to his feet and charged the bunker, firing as he ran. Despite the intense enemy fire directed at him, Sgt. Roberts silenced the 2-man bunker. Without hesitation, Sgt. Roberts continued his l-man assault on a second bunker.
As he neared the second bunker, a burst of enemy fire knocked his rifle from his hands. Sgt. Roberts picked up a rifle dropped by a comrade and continued his assault, silencing the bunker. He continued his charge against a third bunker and destroyed it with well-thrown hand grenades. Although Sgt. Roberts was now cut off from his platoon, he continued his assault against a fourth enemy emplacement. He fought through a heavy hail of fire to join elements of the adjoining company which had been pinned down by the enemy fire.
Although continually exposed to hostile fire, he assisted in moving wounded personnel from exposed positions on the hilltop to an evacuation area before returning to his unit. By his gallant and selfless actions, Sgt. Roberts contributed directly to saving the lives of his comrades and served as an inspiration to his fellow soldiers in the defeat of the enemy force. Sgt. Roberts' extraordinary heroism in action at the risk of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
RAY, RONALD ERIC
Rank and Organization: Captain (then 1st Lt.), U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 35th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and Date: la Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam, 19 June 1966. Date of Issue: 05/14/1970
Capt. Ray distinguished himself while serving as a platoon leader with Company A. When 1 of his ambush patrols was attacked by an estimated reinforced Viet Cong company, Capt. Ray organized a reaction force and quickly moved through 2 kilometers of mountainous jungle terrain to the contact area. After breaking through the hostile lines to reach the beleaguered patrol, Capt. Ray began directing the reinforcement of the site. When an enemy position pinned down 3 of his men with a heavy volume of automatic weapons fire, he silenced the emplacement with a grenade and killed 4 Viet Cong with his rifle fire. As medics were moving a casualty toward a sheltered position, they began receiving intense hostile fire. While directing suppressive fire on the enemy position, Capt. Ray moved close enough to silence the enemy with a grenade.
A few moments later Capt. Ray saw an enemy grenade land, unnoticed, near 2 of his men. Without hesitation or regard for his safety he dove between the grenade and the men, thus shielding them from the explosion while receiving wounds in his exposed feet and legs. He immediately sustained additional wounds in his legs from an enemy machinegun, but nevertheless he silenced the emplacement with another grenade. Although suffering great pain from his wounds, Capt. Ray continued to direct his men, providing the outstanding courage and leadership they vitally needed, and prevented their annihilation by successfully leading them from their surrounded position. Only after assuring that his platoon was no longer in immediate danger did he allow himself to be evacuated for medical treatment. By his gallantry at the risk of his life in the highest traditions of the military service, Capt. Ray has reflected great credit on himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army .
RASCON, ALFRED V.
Rank and Organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Reconnaissance Platoon, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry,173d Airborne Brigade (Separate). Place and Date: Republic of Vietnam, 16 March 1966. Date of Issue: 02/08/2000
Citation: Specialist Four Alfred Rascon, distinguished himself by a series of extraordinarily courageous acts on 16 March 1966.
While assigned as a medic to the Reconnaissance Platoon, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade (Separate). While moving to reinforce its sister battalion under intense enemy attack, the Reconnaissance Platoon came under heavy fire from a numerically superior enemy force. The intense enemy fire from crew-served weapons and grenades severely wounded several point squad soldiers. Specialist Rascon, ignoring directions to stay behind shelter until covering fire could be provided, made his way forward. He repeatedly tried to reach the severely wounded point machine-gunner laying on an open enemy trail, but was driven back each time by the withering fire.
Disregarding his personal safety, he jumped to his feet, ignoring flying bullets and exploding grenades to reach his comrade. To protect him from further wounds, he intentionally placed his body between the soldier and enemy machine guns, sustaining numerous shrapnel injuries and a serious wound to the hip. Disregarding his serious wounds he dragged the larger soldier from the fire-raked trail. Hearing the second machine-gunner yell that he was running out of ammunition, Specialist Rascon, under heavy enemy fire crawled back to the wounded machine-gunner stripping him of his bandoleers of ammunition, giving them to the machine-gunner who continued his suppressive fire.
Specialist Rascon fearing the abandoned machine gun, its ammunition and spare barrel could fall into enemy hands made his way to retrieve them. On the way, he was wounded in the face and torso by grenade fragments, but disregarded these wounds to recover the abandoned machine gun, ammunition and spare barrel items, enabling another soldier to provide added suppressive fire to the pinned-down squad. In searching for the wounded, he saw the point grenadier being wounded by small arms fire and grenades being thrown at him. Disregarding his own life and his numerous wounds, Specialist Rascon reached and covered him with his body absorbing the blasts from the exploding grenades, and saving the soldier's life, but sustaining additional wounds to his body.
While making his way to the wounded point squad leader, grenades were hurled at the sergeant. Again, in complete disregard for his own life, he reached and covered the sergeant with his body, absorbing the full force of the grenade explosions. Once more Specialist Rascon was critically wounded by shrapnel, but disregarded his own wounds to continue to search and aid the wounded. Severely wounded, he remained on the battlefield, inspiring his fellow soldiers to continue the battle.
After the enemy broke contact, he disregarded aid for himself, instead treating the wounded and directing their evacuation. Only after being placed on the evacuation helicopter did he allow aid to be given to him. Specialist Rascon's extraordinary valor in the face of deadly enemy fire, his heroism in rescuing the wounded, and his gallantry by repeatedly risking his own life for his fellow soldiers are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
PROM, WILLIAM R.
Rank and Organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company 1, 3d Battalion, 3d Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and Date: Near An Hoa, Republic of Vietnam. 9 February 1969
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machinegun squad leader with Company 1, in action against the enemy.
While returning from a reconnaissance operation during Operation TAYLOR COMMON, 2 platoons of Company 1 came under an intense automatic weapons fire and grenade attack from a well concealed North Vietnamese Army force in fortified positions. The leading. element of the platoon was isolated and several marines were wounded. L/Cpl. Prom immediately assumed control of 1 of his machineguns and began to deliver return fire. Disregarding his safety he advanced to a position from which he could more effectively deliver covering fire while first aid was administered to the wounded men. Realizing that the enemy would have to be destroyed before the injured marines could be evacuated, L/Cpl. Prom again moved forward and delivered a heavy volume of fire with such accuracy that he was instrumental in routing the enemy, thus permitting his men to regroup and resume their march.
Shortly thereafter, the platoon again came under heavy fire in which 1 man was critically wounded. Reacting instantly, L/Cpl. Prom moved forward to protect his injured comrade. Unable to continue his fire because of his severe wounds, he continued to advance to within a few yards to the enemy positions. There, standing in full view of the enemy, he accurately directed the fire of his support elements until he was mortally wounded. Inspired by his heroic actions, the marines launched an assault that destroyed the enemy. L/Cpl. Prom's indomitable courage, inspiring initiative and selfless devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
PITTMAN, RICHARD A.
Rank and Organization: Sergeant (then L/Cpl.), U.S. Marine Corps, Company 1, 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein) FMF. Place and Date: near the Demilitarized Zone, Republic of Vietnam, 24 July 1966. Date of Issue: 05/14/1968
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.
While Company 1 was conducting an operation along the axis of a narrow jungle trail, the leading company elements suffered numerous casualties when they suddenly came under heavy fire from a well concealed and numerically superior enemy force. Hearing the engaged marines' calls for more firepower, Sgt. Pittman quickly exchanged his rifle for a machinegun and several belts of ammunition, left the relative safety of his platoon, and unhesitatingly rushed forward to aid his comrades. Taken under intense enemy small-arms fire at point blank range during his advance, he returned the fire, silencing the enemy position. As Sgt. Pittman continued to forge forward to aid members of the leading platoon, he again came under heavy fire from 2 automatic weapons which he promptly destroyed.
Learning that there were additional wounded marines 50 yards further along the trail, he braved a withering hail of enemy mortar and small-arms fire to continue onward. As he reached the position where the leading marines had fallen, he was suddenly confronted with a bold frontal attack by 30 to 40 enemy. Totally disregarding his safety, he calmly established a position in the middle of the trail and raked the advancing enemy with devastating machinegun fire.
His weapon rendered ineffective, he picked up an enemy sub-machinegun and, together with a pistol seized from a fallen comrade, continued his lethal fire until the enemy force had withdrawn. Having exhausted his ammunition except for a grenade which he hurled at the enemy, he then rejoined his platoon. Sgt. Pittman's daring initiative, bold fighting spirit and selfless devotion to duty inflicted many enemy casualties, disrupted the enemy attack and saved the lives of many of his wounded comrades. His personal valor at grave risk to himself reflects the highest credit upon himself, the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Naval Service.
PATTERSON, ROBERT MARTIN
Rank and Organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Troop B, 2d Squadron. 17th Cavalry. Place and Date: Near La Chu, Republic of Vietnam, 6 May 1968. Date of Issue: 10/10/1969
Sgt. Patterson (then Sp4c.) distinguished himself while serving as a fire team leader of the 3d Platoon, Troop B, during an assault against a North Vietnamese Army battalion which was entrenched in a heavily fortified position. When the leading squad of the 3d Platoon was pinned down by heavy interlocking automatic weapon and rocket propelled grenade fire from 2 enemy bunkers, Sgt. Patterson and the 2 other members of his assault team moved forward under a hail of enemy fire to destroy the bunkers with grenade and machinegun fire. Observing that his comrades were being fired on from a third enemy bunker covered by enemy gunners in l-man spider holes, Sgt. Patterson, with complete disregard for his safety and ignoring the warning of his comrades that he was moving into a bunker complex, assaulted and destroyed the position.
Although exposed to intensive small arm and grenade fire from the bunkers and their mutually supporting emplacements. Sgt. Patterson continued his assault upon the bunkers which were impeding the advance of his unit. Sgt. Patterson single-handedly destroyed by rifle and grenade fire 5 enemy bunkers, killed 8 enemy soldiers and captured 7 weapons. His dauntless courage and heroism inspired his platoon to resume the attack and to penetrate the enemy defensive position. Sgt. Patterson's action at the risk of his life has reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
O'MALLEY, ROBERT E.
Rank and Organization: Sergeant (then Cpl.), U .S. Marine Corps, Company 1, 3d Battalion, 3d Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division (Rein). Place and Date: Near An Cu'ong 2, South Vietnam, 18 August 1965. Date of Issue: 12/06/1966
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against the communist (Viet Cong) forces at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.
While leading his squad in the assault against a strongly entrenched enemy force, his unit came under intense small-arms fire. With complete disregard for his personal safety, Sgt. O'Malley raced across an open rice paddy to a trench line where the enemy forces were located. Jumping into the trench, he attacked the Viet Cong with his rifle and grenades, and singly killed 8 of the enemy. He then led his squad to the assistance of an adjacent marine unit which was suffering heavy casualties. Continuing to press forward, he reloaded his weapon and fired with telling effect into the enemy emplacement. He personally assisted in the evacuation of several wounded marines, and again regrouping the remnants of his squad, he returned to the point of the heaviest fighting.
Ordered to an evacuation point by an officer, Sgt. O'Malley gathered his besieged and badly wounded squad, and boldly led them under fire to a helicopter for withdrawal. Although 3 times wounded in this encounter, and facing imminent death from a fanatic and determined enemy, he steadfastly refused evacuation and continued to cover his squad's boarding of the helicopters while, from an exposed position, he delivered fire against the enemy until his wounded men were evacuated. Only then, with his last mission accomplished, did he permit himself to be removed from the battlefield. By his valor, leadership, and courageous efforts in behalf of his comrades, he served as an inspiration to all who observed him, and reflected the highest credit upon the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.
NORRIS, THOMAS R.
Rank and Organization: Lieutenant, U.S. Navy, SEAL Advisor, Strategic Technical Directorate Assistance Team, Headquarters, U.S. Military Assistance Command. Place and Date: Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 10 to 13 April 1972. Date of Issue: 03/06/1976
Citation: Lt. Norris completed an unprecedented ground rescue of 2 downed pilots deep within heavily controlled enemy territory in Quang Tri Province. Lt.
Norris, on the night of 10 April, led a 5-man patrol through 2,000 meters of heavily controlled enemy territory, located 1 of the downed pilots at daybreak, and returned to the Forward Operating Base (FOB). On 11 April, after a devastating mortar and rocket attack on the small FOB, Lt. Norris led a 3-man team on 2 unsuccessful rescue attempts for the second pilot. On the afternoon of the 12th, a forward air controller located the pilot and notified Lt. Norris. Dressed in fishermen disguises and using a sampan, Lt. Norris and 1 Vietnamese traveled throughout that night and found the injured pilot at dawn.
Covering the pilot with bamboo and vegetation, they began the return journey, successfully evading a North Vietnamese patrol. Approaching the FOB, they came under heavy machinegun fire. Lt. Norris called in an air strike which provided suppression fire and a smoke screen, allowing the rescue party to reach the FOB. By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, undaunted courage, and selfless dedication in the face of extreme danger, Lt. Norris enhanced the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
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The Global Warming God Strikes Again
Who’s to blame for Typhoon Haiyan? You are!
Daniel Greenfield
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin said that the storm was divine punishment for "being in Iraq under false pretenses."
Not only was a Liberal deity taking a position on WMDs and punishing George W. Bush by evicting a lot of black people from their homes, but the Democratic divinity was paradoxically also committed to progressive housing policies.
"This city will be a majority-African American city. It's the way God wants it to be," Nagin promised.
Bush is out of office. America is no longer in Iraq. And Democrats have been forced to search for new theological explanations for hurricanes, typhoons and volcanoes.
In response to the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan; the green prophets of the left are prophesying that their liberal deity is angry over capitalism and industrialization.
"Whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. This year the messenger was Haiyan," The Nation wrote.
"That it was climate change creating the super typhoons that were taking weird directions was a message from Nature not just to Filipinos but to the whole world," The left-wing magazine claimed.
For those infidels questioning whether Nature (capital N) was really speaking through a struggling lefty publication begging readers for money to pay its postal bills, its expert on typhoon theology had an answer.
"Is it a coincidence, ask some people who are not exactly religious, that both Pablo and Yolanda arrived at the time of the global climate negotiations?"
It is of course the very definition of religious faith to assume that a bearded woman in the sky is sending storms to threaten global climate negotiators (while missing them by two hemispheres and 6,000 miles). A more cynical person might suspect that climate negotiations are arranged around storm season for maximum effect.
The Nation, which regularly condemns "Bible Thumping," had switched over to "Whole-Earth-Catalog Thumping"; building a religion around a Mother Nature who communicated her wishes through hurricanes and bankrupt liberal magazines.
Pacific Islanders used to believe that volcanic eruptions were angry notes from their volcano gods. The Yaohnanen tribe in Vanuatu on contact with civilization modernized their beliefs, and after encountering a younger Prince Philip decided that he had come from the volcano and that they ought to worship him.
And so the Prince Philip Movement was born. The islanders are modest in their requests of their god. "If he can't come perhaps he could send us something," the Yaohnanen Chief suggested, "a Land Rover, bags of rice or a little money."
The Philippians may seem absurd, but their religion actually took a step forward from worshiping a volcano, which did nothing constructive and just destroyed things leaving the tribesmen to wonder whether the volcano was angry at their unjustified presence in Iraq or the waste carbon emitted by their cooking fires, to worshiping the Duke of Edinburgh, who can do constructive things like send them autographed photos. And perhaps one day a Land Rover.
While the savage tribesmen were approaching the margins of civilization; Prince Philip's son was reverting to savagery and blaming everything wrong with the world, from local weather to the Syrian Civil War, on the great volcano god of Global Warming.
After some winter storms, Prince Charles announced that, "severe weather conditions in our country are, I have no doubt, the consequences of man-kind's arrogant disregard of the delicate balance of nature." It was the sort of statement that would have been commonplace a century ago. The only difference was that "Nature" had replaced "God."
The Yaohnanen tribe had moved on from worshiping a volcano god only capable of destruction; but the son of the living god they worshiped seemed eager to find a volcano god to worship. The savages were trying to become civilized, while civilized men were trying to become savages.
At the Washington Post, the Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a former president of the Chicago Theological Seminary and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, gathered the tattered remains of her religion around herself and argued that Typhoon Haiyan was caused by human sin and needed to be atoned for by "confessing" that human beings cause typhoons.
But then Thistlethwaite, displaying less faith in whatever god she believed in than Ray Nagin had in his Chocolate City divinity and The Nation in its typhoon-hurling Mother Nature, added that "These 'superstorms' aren’t an 'act of God', but an act of willful disregard for God’s creation."
That is to say, God is dead. Instead Republicans must confess to the liberal theologians who speak for the superstorms, that they were the ones who made the winds blow. And if they don't, then the speakers-to-superstorms will also hold them responsible for the next hurricane.
What miracle is the Rev. Dr. Thistlethwaite's faith in superstorms founded on? Like the storms themselves, it's a bit circular. "The fact that we are having to invent new language to describe such massively destructive storms, like 'Super Typhoon Haiyan' or 'Superstorm Sandy' suggests we need to take a different look at such violent storms today and theologically assess the human responsibility for them."
Using the Rev. Dr. Thistlethwaite's reasoning, the fact that we have a word for Superman suggests that we need to seriously investigate whether there are superhuman beings among us who can leap tall buildings in a single bound. But worshipers of the liberal God of Global Warming who hates the War in Iraq, white people living in New Orleans and carbon have a looser relationship with facts than Pacific Islander tribes.
The term Superstorm isn't new. And neither are superstorms. In a listing of storms from 1932 onward, the first one shows up in 1940. In 1991, Tropical Storm Thelma killed over 5,000 people in the Philippines. The President of the Philippines has estimated that the death toll from Super Typhoon Haiyan will be less than half that.
Despite the Rev. Dr. Thistlethwaite's faith in a superstorm apocalypse derived from spending too much time watching the Weather Channel, there is no actual pattern of increased storm activity. Nor is Mother Nature targeting UN climate negotiations with typhoons. The only pattern here is the one that a liberal religion that believes in little except human evil assigns to storm patterns.
If the God of Global Warming worshiped by The Nation and the Rev. Dr. Thistlethwaite seems senselessly malicious, it is because it exists in their minds as a reflection of human evil. The left proclaimed the death of God only to find themselves in need of some entity to inflict ruthless punishment on those who did not believe in their left-handed path; which in the absence of the Gulags they were no longer able to do.
Liberalism built the God of Global Warming in its own image. Like liberals, their deity can destroy, but not create.
The God of Global Warming is the embodiment of liberalism and holds all the politically correct beliefs while carrying out brutal atrocities in the name of the left's favorite political causes. With a moral logic as flawed as that of its worshipers, it is a deity that kills people in the Philippines for the carbon crimes of Americans and kills people in New Orleans because Bush bombed Iraq.
Global Warming is the worship of the left. It elevates its petty biases against industry and the middle class to the status of a religion. It insists on their right to act as the mediators between individuals and the economy or else the God of Global Warming will unleash her superstorms on the bourgeois infidels.
Don't miss Jamie Glazov's video interview with Daniel Greenfield about Obama's Destructive Agenda, his Muslim Brotherhood Romance, the Anthony Weiner-Huma Abedin saga, and much, much more:
Tags: Global Warming, Left, philippines, hurricane katrina
About Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
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There there now, everything's okay!
There’s not been many Splot updates here recently and I’m sure quite many of you are interested to know how that small blue creature is doing! I can honestly say the guys are working like crazy to get the story started, but sadly the exact release date is still waiting.
At first Splot will be released on iOS (iPad, iPhone) and in Facebook, and after that the second wave will cover releases on other platforms.
So, we wish you to be patient and trust that when Splot is finally released he will be something great.
Here’s a small pat on the head for all of you (and for all of us) while we’re waiting.
– Mikael
tags: Tags: Splot
7 comments on “There there now, everything's okay!”
S. M. Das on February 7, 2012 at 6:09 pm said:
Your HIB customers (like me) are probably Linux/Windows/Mac customers… and may not be on Facebook or own an Apple device. This feels a little like buying a pre-order and having the release occur somewhere else 🙁
Would it be possible to also do an update to the Humble Preview of Splot? Even if it’s not the full game (which I fully understand!), then it would be great to have something special to tide us over until the second wave.
(full disclosure… Ubuntu Linux, Android on Galaxy S2, and Google+ here)
Yair on February 14, 2012 at 5:41 pm said:
I support what S. M. Das said. Releasing a Facebook and an iOS versions of the game when the Humble Bundle still has the pre-order costumers on hold is disappointing and somewhat annoying.
I am a big supporter of you guys, and I’m waiting for Splot almost as eagerly as I waited for Trine 2, but making a Facebook release before a PC (includes Windows, Mac and Linux, obviously) one? That makes me a sad panda. Calling the PC an “other platform” makes me even sadder.
Andrej on February 15, 2012 at 8:58 pm said:
This isn’t even remotely fair. Humble Bundle buyers funded (probably) the development of this game, but now they are getting it last? I sure hope there will be a Humble Bonus content or many people will be angry (including me :P).
Stefan on February 16, 2012 at 10:30 pm said:
I really don’t see a problem here. From a commercial point of view it’s actually the only reasonable approach to take.
On that note I feel like your definition of “pre-order” is inherently flawed. You’ve pre-ordered the game for PC, and you’ll get it as soon as it is released for that very platform. But spending a few bucks (and let’s be honest here: how many of you actually paid two figures or more for the bundle?) really doesn’t entitle you to anything more than that.
That being said, Frozenbyte is one of the very few development studios which in my opinion are still worth supporting. And you’ve got nothing better to do but to complain about something other studios wouldn’t even have offered in the first place?
Seriously, lower your expectations, or you will find nothing but disappointment on the road ahead.
I bought the bundle for more than the Linux average, but this is not important. Each Humble Bundle buyer gave something for the game. Even if it’s a tiny $1, it’s something. What did the Facebook and iOS users give to FrozenByte? Probably nothing yet.
LauriFB on February 17, 2012 at 4:41 pm said:
We will aim for very near-ish releases of all platforms, so rest assured no-one will be left without Splot 🙂
Matt on April 27, 2012 at 4:08 am said:
As Pepé Le Pew once said,
Le Sigh…
A late release like this can be fatal for a game if they don’t pick up a good following quickly. Facebook might help that issue from a business stand point. While I am disappointed that it will be a bit more time to wait I am content that it isn’t vaporware. I hope this game blows my socks off and puts two holes in my wall behind my computer. On a positive note however I am still having tons of fun with the other games from the humble bundle. I know this game will be good, but don’t duke nukem forever it. Sure DNF came out eventually, but it was handled very irresponsibly. In fact it bankrupt the original developers and it took legal action to get it going and to get it released. (read it up it’s no joke)
Leave a Reply to LauriFB Cancel reply
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Kamala Harris confronts Joe Biden during Democratic debate
Joe Biden, the frontrunner in the race to be the Democratic US presidential candidate for 2020, has come under attack from his younger colleagues during a fiery televised debate which saw him subjected to his toughest scrutiny of the campaign so far
Footage from Reuters.
You can enable subtitles (captions) in the video player
KAMALA HARRIS: I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe-- and it is personal. And I was actually very-- it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.
And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.
So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly.
JOE BIDEN: That's a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one.
Number two-- if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports Civil Rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that. I was a public defender. I didn't become a prosecutor. I came out and I left a good law firm to become a public defender, when in fact-- when in fact, when in fact my city was in flames because of the assassination of Dr King. Now in terms of busing, the busing-- I never. You would've been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city council. They--
KAMALA HARRIS: Vice President Biden, do you agree today-- do you agree today-- that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then?
JOE BIDEN: No.
KAMALA HARRIS: Do you agree?
JOE BIDEN: I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That's what I opposed.
KAMALA HARRIS: Well, there was a failure of states to integrate public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate-- Berkeley, California Public Schools, almost two decades after Brown v Board of Education.
JOE BIDEN: Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision.
KAMALA HARRIS: So that's where the federal government must step in.
JOE BIDEN: [INAUDIBLE]
KAMALA HARRIS: That's why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. That's why we need to pass the Equality Act. That's why we need to pass the ERA, because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people
JOE BIDEN: I have supported the ERA from the very beginning when I ran--
INTERVIEWER: OK, enough. Vice President Biden, 30 seconds.
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GTM-TBPPNXH
South & East Africa
About Fujitsu in South Africa
Exco Members
Corporate-Responsibility
New public Wi-Fi network for Transport of London
"Thanks to meticulous planning and collaborative working with Fujitsu’s team, we were able to successfully deliver wireless internet to over 210 stations in a very tight time frame and within budget, with an average of 800,000 user sessions per day in the first six months"
Steve Townsend, CIO, TfL
TfL was created in 2000 and is responsible for implementing the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy. Its transport network is responsible for 30 million journeys every day across London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, London Overground, buses, Barclays Cycle Hire, Tramlink, the Congestion Charge as well as 580km of main roads. TfL is also responsible for all the traffic lights and regulating the City’s taxis and private hire trade.
Transport for London (TfL) wanted to introduce wireless internet access in as many Underground stations as possible in the run up to the London 2012 Games. The logistics of designing and installing infrastructure up to 200ft underground demanded an agile and collaborative strategic partner.
TfL appointed Fujitsu to design its wireless underground network in an innovative way that balanced its operational requirements for data while simultaneously providing a great Wi-Fi experience to the public and delivering value for money.
The wireless network enables trains to send near real-time data allowing proactive maintenance to take place, increasing reliability and minimising delays to customers.
It also supports London Underground employees to securely connect to the network, giving them enhanced mobility and improving performance at work.
The public Wi-Fi helps TfL to enhance the passenger experience throughout each station with download speeds typically twice as fast as the average UK home connection.
Download the full Transport for London case study (159 KB/A4, 2 pages)
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Press Release / Feb. 22, 2007
New survey shows US jewelry retailers are not doing enough to combat blood diamonds
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For Immediate Release Contact: Suzanne Trimel at Amnesty: 212-633-4150
Thursday, February 22, 2007 Corinna Gilfillan at Global Witness: 202-721-5670
NEW SURVEY SHOWS U.S. JEWELRY RETAILERS ARE NOT DOING ENOUGH TO COMBAT BLOOD DIAMONDS, SAY GLOBAL WITNESS AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
(NEW YORK) -With the Oscar night ceremony drawing renewed attention to blood diamonds, a new survey by Global Witness and Amnesty International USA shows the $33 billion-a-year American jewelry retail industry is failing to take adequate measures to help consumers avoid conflict diamonds. The Oscar-nominated movie "Blood Diamond" whose stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou are best actor contenders, illustrates the horrors of a brutal civil war in Sierra Leone funded by the trade in diamonds.
In a survey conducted between December 2006 and February 2007, the human rights groups surveyed the 37 jewelry retailers listed by National Jeweler magazine as the $100 Million Supersellers. The main findings include the following:
Half of these leading American jewelry retailers failed to respond to the requests to provide information about their policies on blood diamonds.
Fifty six percent of those who did respond reported having no auditing procedures in place to combat blood diamonds, despite the recommendation to do so by the trade association Jewelers of America.
Fifty seven percent of the top jewelers do not have any public information posted on their websites about their policies on blood diamonds.
The survey also noted that a few industry leaders such as Helzberg Diamond Shops, Sterling (Signet) and Tiffany & Co. have taken stronger measures to combat conflict diamonds, including third-party auditing.
The survey is being released amid new reports of diamond smuggling and as blood diamonds from West Africa are reaching the international diamond marketplace. On February 4, 2007, two men in Tucson, Arizona, were arrested for smuggling 11,000 carats of diamonds from Africa in violation of the U.S. Clean Diamond Trade Act. These and other reports of illegal diamond trafficking from Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Ivory Coast clearly highlight the loopholes in the Kimberley Process, the government-run diamond certification scheme designed to eliminate the trade in conflict diamonds. Blood diamonds have fuelled conflict in Angola, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Liberia, leading to millions of deaths and egregious human rights abuses.
"Americans buy half of the diamond jewelry sold worldwide-$33 billion a year in U.S. sales," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "We feel that this industry has an obligation-and consumers should demand-that the diamonds that are bought and sold are conflict-free."
"It is completely reasonable to demand that this industry give consumers adequate assurances that the diamonds they buy are conflict-free, given the devastating human toll of blood diamonds," says Charmian Gooch, Founding Director of Global Witness. "With such huge profits, retailers should be willing to do more to solve this problem."
To help ensure that the diamond industry is living up to the necessary standards, Amnesty International and Global Witness are calling for the following action:
- All sectors of the diamond industry, including the diamond jewelry retail sector, should implement third-party audit measures and responsible sourcing policies;
- The U.S. and other governments should carry out stricter oversight of the diamond industry and strengthen and improve enforcement of the Kimberley Process and the Clean Diamond Trade Act.
- Jewelry retailers should make their policies on conflict diamonds prominently accessible on their websites.
"Blood Diamond," directed by Ed Zwick, is set during Sierra Leone's civil war; In addition to Hounsou and DiCaprio, the film features Jennifer Connelly, who is Amnesty International USA's Ambassador for Human Rights Education and has shot Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to help build awareness of the conflict diamond problem.
(To request copies of the full report, contact Suzanne Trimel at Amnesty International USA, [email protected], or Corinna Gilfillan at Global Witness, [email protected] or go to www.blooddiamondaction.org)
Global Witness campaigns to achieve real change by highlighting the links between the exploitation of natural resources and the funding of conflict and corruption. Through a combination of covert investigations and targeted advocacy, Global Witness has changed the way the world thinks about the extraction and trading of natural resources, and the devastating impact their unsustainable exploitation can have upon development, human rights and stability. Global Witness was co-nominated for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for its work on conflict diamonds and awarded the Gleitsman Foundation Prize for international activism in May 2005.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 1.8 million members worldwide. Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave human rights abuses, including violations of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.
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11 of the best Android and iOS apps to download to your new phone or tablet
There's plenty more to choose from
Justin Connolly
Tom GibbonHead of Online
These are 11 of the best apps to download now
If you're tearing off the wrapping to reveal a brand new smartphone or tablet this morning, then where to even start with what to download to it?
Our sister title the Manchester Evening News has pulled together 11 of the best Android and iOS apps on the market at the moment as some suggestions.
BBC Sounds (iOS and Android, free)
The BBC’s iPlayer Radio was, apparently, not cool enough for youngsters to “engage with”. Old people like me got on with it just fine, however, so I was a bit perturbed when it was replaced with the much “funkier” Sounds app. I need not have worried - it’s an excellent way to enjoy all the BBC has to offer audiowise. You can listen in live to radio shows, or catch up later with things you’ve missed. The BBC’s prodigious podcast output is also accessible, bringing it all together in a nice, neat, and simple package.
Headspace (iOS and Android, free with in-app purchases)
If you’re going down the yoga route to fitness, you might also consider a bit of yoga for the mind, and Headspace is the clear winner in this, erm, space. Again, it is not cheap to subscribe (£9.99-a-month or £74.99-a-year), but you do get a lot for your money, and you can try out the introductory course for free to see if you like it. There’s a vast array of help available, tackling all kinds of what Headspace like to refer to as obstacles - lack of sleep, lack of confidence, worry, boredom… it’s all in there, and there’s a soothing voice just waiting to help you meditate your way out of virtually any corner.
Things 3 (iOS, £9.99)
Things is a task manager that is as beautiful as it is useful. Its developers also have not rested on their laurels after its initial release and are actively adding features and improving Things as we speak. So if you find your mind brimming over with too many things to do, just pour them into this app where you’ll find they become a lot easier to manage, organise and, ultimately, actually get done.
Manchester Evening News (iOS and Android, free)
The popular Manchester Evening News app for iPhone and Android phones is available to download - and best of all it's FREE. The app's slick, clean interface showcases our strong content and features picture galleries, videos, local traffic updates and engaging interactive functions. You can also personalise your experience on the app and customise the news that matters to you. Select area-specific news to appear on your homepage, follow up-to-the-minute news on United and City , and get the low-down on things to do around the region.
Monument Valley II (iOS and Android, £4.99)
We all need a game on our phones for those idle moments in the supermarket queue - the second instalment of the beautiful puzzler Monument Valley is perfect for such occasions. It’s like a living Escher illustration that you have to manipulate to work out the route from A to B - and it’s a lot harder than it sounds. When you add in sprinkles of charming personality and some beautifully drawn artwork, you’re onto a real winner.
Adobe Rush (iOS, free)
Despite already having a few video editing apps on the go, the king of creative software Adobe is having another go with Rush. It’s a fairly straightforward affair, and does all the things you’d expect it to do, but has a bit of an advantage over some of its rivals - it can edit portrait videos, and so is perfect for those looking to make a name for themselves on Instagram TV. It ties into the wider Creative Cloud community (which includes desktop apps like Photoshop and Illustrator), and while you don’t need a CC subscription to use Rush, its capabilities are expanded if you do. An Android version is in the works.
Duolingo (iOS and Android, free with in-app purchases)
I won't’ stop telling people about Duolingo, despite the fact that it’s been around for ages and everyone should already know about it. It’s simply the most fun way to learn a new language on the app stores. If you’ve tried it before, give it another chance - it’s just had a bit of a visual makeover that makes it more appealing than ever.
VSCO (iOS and Android, free with in-app purchases)
VSCO - short for Visual Supply Company, since you ask - is a great photo editor from a very cool company that used to specialise in lightroom plug-ins that emulated classic film looks of yore. These have found their way into this app, which is one of the toppest knotch photo editors around. To get the full set you have to subscribe to VSCO X for £19.99 a year, but you also get access to some “experimental” features, like video editing, for that. As well as the camera and editor, though, VSCO also features its own fully-fledged social platform for sharing images that is about as far away from the noise and nastiness of other platforms as you can imagine.
CityMapper (iOS and Android, free)
For Mancunians, this app offers door-to-door guidance for commuters using any kind of public transport you can think of to get you home as fast as possible and with the minimum drama. Beats carrying around a load of bus timetables in your pocket, that’s for sure.
Streaks (iOS, £4.99)
Streaks is iOS-only, but might be one of the best reasons to bag yourself an iPhone this winter. It’s a simple habit forming app - you tell it what you want to do, or not do, every day, and check off the task when it’s done. The app records when you do the thing you want to do, and counts ‘streaks’ of consecutive completions. Once you’ve hit a streak, the desire not to break it keeps you on target, and the longer you go, the less likely it is you will fail. It’s a great idea, beautifully executed, and has the potential to bring real change to your life.
Asana Rebel (iOS and Android, free with in-app purchases)
There are a gazzillion yoga apps on the various app stores, more if you count the ones that offer other kinds of workouts, too. Some of them are rubbish, some of them are OK, and some of them are excellent. Sadly, the excellent ones usually require the most outlay in terms of cash. But, you get what you pay for, as they say. Asana Rebel is one of the very best, with all kinds of yoga routines to meet all kinds of needs, but it costs a few bob - £58.99 a year to be precise. For an app this well-made, it’s worth it.
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Cheltenham Town midfielder Conor Thomas: I was totally out of the picture, but you have to stay mentally strong
25-year-old has been reliable from spot
Joe Shepherd
Although he won’t read deeply into it, Conor Thomas scored two important penalties which contributed to Cheltenham Town progressing on two fronts.
He was the first to score in the 7-6 penalty shootout win in the Checkatrade Trophy match against Newport County AFC last Tuesday as the Robins sealed their place in the last 16 of the competition.
But that spot-kick couldn’t have topped Thomas’ last-minute winner in Saturday’s game against Grimsby Town and having conceded a late goal to draw against Mansfield Town in November, the midfielder was delighted with his side’s change in fortune.
“The game on Tuesday against Newport, unfortunately they (penalties) don’t count on your goal tally, but it was nice to get the win on Saturday – which was important for the boys,” said the 25-year-old.
From being chased by Chelsea to being blinded in one eye at Gloucester City - the Steve Portway story
“Against Mansfield we conceded late on, so it was nice to be on the other end of it. It’s three points, but the way it happened in the last couple of minutes does make it sweeter.”
Saturday’s win meant that Cheltenham had won three consecutive league games at home for the first time this season.
Manager Michael Duff has clearly started to build foundations at the Jonny-Rocks Stadium, with his side unbeaten in their last seven home matches in all competitions.
However, Cheltenham did have to wait 18 games before their first league win at home and although confidence was low going into matches, Thomas was delighted to find that winning feeling.
“Momentum’s a big thing so it can get to a point where when you lose, then lose and you’re getting a bit edgy for a win but it’s nice to get a win and hopefully we can get that feeling a lot more this season.”
Prior to the Checkatrade game against Arsenal Under-21s at the end of October, the former Coventry City player hadn’t made an appearance for two months and although Thomas thankfully overcame this hurdle to force his way back into the mix, it didn’t come without its difficulties.
“It was tough when he (Duff) came in I was totally out of the picture,” said Thomas.
“I had to take baby steps and take it day by day; training well, doing everything right off the pitch, then biding my time and letting my football do the talking.
“Eventually I did speak to him and he said you’re going in the right direction. It was just hard work every day, and you’ve got to stay mentally strong so thankfully I got back in the mix.”
There’s no doubting that Duff’s preferred 3-5-2 system has benefited, not just Thomas’s chances, but the likes of Ben Tozer, Chris Clements and Alex Addai who’ve also given the Robins boss something to think about – and it appears the feeling is mutual with Thomas revealing the newfound expectations he’s been set under Duff’s guidance.
Cheltenham Town Ladies held at home by Brislington
“If you look at the players who we’ve got it does fit in with their positions instead of putting people where they’re not comfortable," he said. But I think with the more games we play in it we’re getting more familiar.
“I think he says it how it is, and you know where the land lies with him. We as players know what’s expected of us and it’s good to have a clear idea of your role and responsibility.”
Cheltenham Town FCEvery word of Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff's interview after the 2-2 pre-season friendly draw at Hereford FCHereford FC 2 Cheltenham Town 2
Forest Green Rovers FCForest Green Rovers unveil former Birmingham City player as latest new signingHe was born in Gloucester
Cheltenham Town FCRECAP: Hereford FC 2 Cheltenham Town 2, Will Boyle and George Lloyd on target in pre-season friendly draw at Edgar Street Hereford FC 2 Cheltenham Town 2
Cheltenham Town FCFormer Charlton Athletic defender set to make first appearance for Cheltenham Town at HerefordDebut at Edgar Street D
Bishop’s Cleeve FCKey man signs on for Bishop's Cleeve's 2019/20 Hellenic League Premier Division campaignForward retained
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Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail
Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail is one of the finest long-distance cycle rides in England. This guidebook describes the route over four days, making this a great mini-adventure that should appeal to all sorts of cyclists.
The complete 205 mile route from Southport on Merseyside to Hornsea in East Yorkshire is fully described, including fascinating accounts of its rich industrial heritage and details of many opportunities to explore its glorious natural history. This guidebook includes detailed route maps, detailed listings of accommodation, places to eat and drink, local bike shops and advice on how to prepare yourself and your bike for the trip.
Published in January 2015, this Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail guidebook will be of great interest to cyclists of all abilities, as well as tourists from UK and overseas. It is fully illustrated with 50 colour and archive photographs of all the sights along the way, 25 route maps and 5 elevation graphs.
Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail is one of the finest long-distance cycle rides in England. This guidebook describes the route over four days, making this a great mini-adventure that should appeal to all sorts of cyclists. The complete 205 mile route from Southport on Merseyside to Hornsea in East Yorkshire is fully described, including fascinating accounts of its rich industrial heritage and details of many opportunities to explore its glorious natural history. This guidebook includes detailed route maps, detailed listings of accommodation, places to eat and drink, local bike shops and advice on how to prepare yourself and your bike for the trip. Published in January 2015, this Cycling the Trans Pennine Trail guidebook will be of great interest to cyclists of all abilities, as well as tourists from UK and overseas. It is fully illustrated with 50 colour and archive photographs of all the sights along the way, 25 route maps and 5 elevation graphs.
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Eric Thibault
Bookstore launches digital textbook program
By Eric Thibault August 31, 2009
A new eTextBooks program offered by the GW Bookstore lets students buy a digital version of a limited number of textbooks and save an average of 40 percent over the hard copies, GW Bookstore manager Bob Blake said last week. Through the program – which began this semester for about 100 textbooks – a student […]
Columbian College votes to reduce number of GCRs
By Eric Thibault April 6, 2009
Faculty in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences voted to cut the school’s General Curriculum Requirements nearly in half Friday afternoon, a decision that will significantly alter the course load for future students in the University’s largest college. CCAS students are now required to take 42 to 44 credit hours in seven different areas […]
CCAS faculty to vote on fewer GCRs
By Eric Thibault March 12, 2009
Faculty members in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences will soon vote on a proposal that could significantly reduce the school’s course requirements, administrators said this week. New measures being proposed could decrease the school’s number of required classes, offer new courses and restructure existing ones. Faculty members in CCAS are expected to vote […]
GW celebrates namesake’s birthday
By Eric Thibault February 23, 2009
University President Steven Knapp kicked off George Washington’s 277th birthday celebration Sunday night with three loud chants of “Whoo-zah! Whoo-zah! Whoo-zah!” The celebration, which was moved inside for a third consecutive year due to weather conditions, featured a pie-eating contest, a live band and a mock bonfire. Wind gusts of 35 miles per hour forced […]
Professors limit laptop use in classes
By Eric Thibault February 5, 2009
Facebook, video-chatting and instant messaging may soon be a thing of the past – at least in some GW classrooms. A growing number of professors are banning or restricting the use of laptop computers in their classrooms in an attempt to get students to pay attention and engage in classroom discussions. “It’s a question of […]
A front row seat to history
By Chris Gregory and Eric Thibault January 15, 2009
Plenty of GW students are planning to battle the unprecedented inauguration crowds to take advantage of their proximity to the historic events taking place around the city. Sophomore Kimberly Davis was one of the lucky 240,000 people to win a ticket to the swearing-in ceremony in a lottery from her congressman’s office. Davis said her […]
Faculty discuss science center
By Eric Thibault November 17, 2008
Members of the Faculty Senate presented a controversial plan on Friday to build a multimillion-dollar science center in the middle of campus, in one of the first concrete discussions about a project that would radically alter GW’s academic focus. The discussion comes almost two years after the body voted to make the facility their top […]
Elliott School alum becomes U.S. ambassador to NATO
A graduate of the Elliott School of International Affairs was named the 19th U.S. ambassador to NATO this month. Kurt Volker, a 1987 graduate of Elliott School’s graduate program, said he attributes much of his success to the experiences he had while at GW. “I chose George Washington University for my master’s degree because I […]
Officials question double majors
By Eric Thibault September 29, 2008
About 15 percent of GW students pursue a double major, a growing trend nationwide, but several administrators say the practice has few benefits after college. The number of students double majoring in America has risen 85 percent in the past 10 years, according to statistics reported by the Los Angeles Times in June. Cheryl Beil, […]
School of Business will record classes
Students enrolled in the Master of Science in Project Management program will soon be able to watch a professor’s lecture without having to leave their homes or residence halls. University officials in the Graduate School of Business announced their plan last week to integrate a “TiVo” style system called “Lecture Capture” into their program in […]
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What we talk about when we talk about the circular economy
Carol J. Clouse
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 - 2:00am
It isn't enough to track revenue. The impact of circularity must include metrics more commonly used for track production, such as pounds or kilograms.
Roughly a year and a half ago, when the Dutch materials company DSM examined where its businesses stood in terms of circular practices, the company’s leadership wasn’t particularly happy with the process for doing so.
They’d created their own system to evaluate the company’s adoption of bio-based ingredients, its use of recycled materials and its production of fully recyclable or reusable products. Using revenue as the metric, DSM found that 26 to 27 percent of its value chain met its definition of circular, but revenue didn’t seem like the best way to measure progress, said Jeff Turner, the multinational’s vice president of sustainability.
"It was easier for us to do because it’s how we track internally, but circularity is about resources, and you measure resources in terms of pounds and tons and kilograms," Turner said.
In other words, it was important that DSM use a weight and volume-based system of measurement when it came to tracking its progress toward circular models of design and production.
The other missing piece was how to measure the impact of collaboration. "When we did the work, we weren’t entirely satisfied because it was just us, it was our definition, and we wanted to be sure that a metric for measuring circularity would work not only for us but for our customers, our suppliers and for other industries," Turner said.
There are countless ways to look at circularity, depending on the company and the industry, which makes creating a common framework for measurement tricky.
So when the World Business Council for Sustainable Development last year began conducting analysis with the goal of creating a framework for measuring circularity, DSM signed on as co-chair. The company is one of roughly 20 WBCSD members from various industries — including chemicals, forestry, waste management, consumer brands and electronics — that worked with the organization to develop a draft framework.
These companies and more are pilot testing the latest draft, with testing expected to wrap up around mid-March. A public comment period will follow in late spring and early summer. The organization aims to have finalized guidelines by end of year.
"With this framework, we’re trying to provide a common language and a consistent way for companies to measure the circularity of the resources they depend on and the products they put out onto the market," said Brendan Edgerton, WBCSD director of circular economy. "It’s really a three-part process that we’re putting together. The first goal is to understand the resource and material flows across the company, the second is to understand the financial implications of that, and the third is looking forward at what the risks and opportunities are."
The reason it’s important to share a common language and definitions is that when it comes to circularity, collaboration is key.
"It’s very important for companies to be able to communicate with each other. Circularity is not something you can do on your own, you need your value chain partners," said Suzanne Kuiper, a senior consultant on the Dutch sustainability team at KPMG, who’s been working closely with the WBCSD on the framework. "And in order to collaborate, you need to speak a common language. What do I mean when I say, ‘I’m closing the loop?’ And what does my client or my supplier mean?"
The circular economy is defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as "gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources and designing waste out of the system."
"It’s very much related to a company’s business model," Kuiper said. "If I have a traditional business model, I generate more revenue by either raising the price of my products or selling more products. So I have an incentive to stimulate consumption by getting more products out there."
With circularity, the ultimate goal for a company is to rethink its "linear" business model. This can mean moving from a product to a service or subscription model, for example, or creating a buyback model where the company collects a product when the customer is done with it and then refurbishes and resells it.
One example of a subscription service is Bundles, a Dutch startup that rents high-end washing machines and dryers. Rather than shell out a large sum upfront, the customer pays a monthly fee for a machine, which an engineer installs in their home. And Bundles deals with any maintenance issues.
Models such as this incentivize manufacturers to design an efficient, long-lasting product, which reduces waste and cuts costs, because maintaining a product is typically less costly than building a new one from scratch. Customers benefit because they share in the upside of using a well-made product (rather than opting to buy a cheaper, less efficient model), and they avoid the cost of repairs and hassle of disposal.
We’re conscious that there are steps we need to go through, and that we can’t try to run before we can walk.
Moreover, a circular business model greatly can reduce the risks that come with a linear model. These include resource supply and price volatility, which can be affected by both natural supply limits and geopolitical conflicts.
For example, many critical raw minerals — such as aluminum, graphite, iron, lead, salt, tin, mercury and zinc — are found in China. This makes the current trading tensions between China and the United States a potential risk for both the suppliers and end users of those minerals. Other risks include an increasing number of environmental regulations and harm done to a company’s brand or reputation. As consumers become more environmentally aware and conscious of the impact of the products they buy, they’re demanding less destructive options. The global movement against single-use plastics is an example of this.
The flip side of risk is, of course, is opportunity. In addition to cutting costs, a company that shifts to circularity may gain customers and find it easier to recruit talent.
Of course, there are countless ways to look at circularity, depending on the company and the industry, which makes creating a common framework for measurement tricky. "We aspire to something that does work for all kinds of industries," Turner said. "But we’re also conscious that there are steps we need to go through, and that we can’t try to run before we can walk."
Turner, Kuiper and Edgerton are part of the panel "Measuring Progress in the Circular Economy" Feb. 27 at GreenBiz 19.
@caroljclouse
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Essential Guide to Lighting Retrofits & Upgrades
Laying the Groundwork For A New Level of Power Over Ethernet
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HomeResearchResearch TopicsImmune ResponseExperimental ImmunologyOur Research
Experimental Immunology
Every day we are attacked by a large number of different pathogens that our immune system tries to repel by using various strategies. To combat these, cells of the immune system have learnt to distinguish between harmless self structures and potentially dangerous foreign ones. Sometimes, however, immune cells are generated, which are falsely programmed and can attack structures in their own body. Learn more about the body`s protection against these cells and how we can use this mechanism in therapy.
Prof Jochen Hühn
Jochen Hühn
Technology Offers
Bacteria adhering to regulatory T cell
No matter where we are, we are surrounded by pathogens – bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are everywhere. The human immune system has developed various strategies to control the spreading of pathogens within the body and to prevent their pathogenic effect to keep us healthy. On a random basis, our body produces highly specific immune cells (T and B lymphocytes) to specifically recognize and attack the numerous pathogens. Certainly, this random process bears the risk that cells are generated that recognize molecules of the own body instead of pathogens and thereby might cause autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes or multiple sclerosis.
Regulatory T cells, the "Blue Helmets" of the immune system
The vast majority of those self-reactive immune cells are already eliminated during the process of their generation by a control procedure called "central tolerance". However, a number of self-reactive cells escapes the elimination and exists in any human. In order to prevent an attack on the body's own cells and thus the generation of autoimmune diseases, the immune system has developed various regulatory mechanisms, so-called "peripheral tolerance mechanisms".
As an important part of the peripheral tolerance regulatory T cells (Tregs) are produced, which belong to the group of T lymphocytes. One can imagine these cells as “blue helmets” of the immune system. Their function is to prevent immune reactions against the body's own tissues. Additionally, Tregs interfere in a de-escalating way within the body's defense against invading pathogens and prevent excessive immune reactions, which in worst case can cause severe organ damage. However, if Tregs are present at too high numbers, wanted immune responses against pathogens and tumors as well as responses towards vaccinations might be suppressed. Thus, an optimal balance of Tregs is essential for a fully functional immune system.
In order to apply or modulate Tregs for therapeutic purposes, we have to extend our knowledge about their origin, functional properties and mechanisms of action. This is the focus of the Department of Experimental Immunology.
How bacteria imprint the intestinal immune system in newborns
The regulatory T cells (or "Tregs" for short) play a very important role in our immune system: They teach other immune cells which dangerous invaders to attack and which harmless to ignore. In doing so, the Tregs enable the immune cells to be tolerant to foreign antigens such as components of certain foods, pollen, animal hair, but also harmless microorganisms. In the…
Joining forces for immune research
“What we have learned about the immune system and its role in many widespread diseases over the last ten years opens up countless perspectives for research," says Prof Martin Lohse, Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), the centre that coordinates the initiative.“Our initiative's projects combine the centres’ research topics,” says Prof…
Empowering scientists to make a difference in translational medicine
One highlight of the course was the lecture from Rodger Novak, the co-founder and president of CRISPR Therapeutics who shared the story of the development of the company CRISPR Therapeutics and stressed the importance of credibility for start-ups. As most participants were from biomedical science, the course also highlighted how biomedical science fuels and contributes to the…
Immunologists for the 21st century
The new Marie Curie training network for immunologists called ENLIGHT-TEN (European Network Linking Informatics and Genomics of Helper T cells) commenced on October 9 with a kickoff meeting of 20 experts from seven European countries. The aim of the network is to develop an interdisciplinary training for young researchers in T cell immunology and big data analysis. The ENLIGHT-TEN…
A life-changing decision
A proper immune response relies largely on the right balance between effector and suppressor T cells. This balance is needed to fight off pathogens while at the same time avoiding tissue damage. Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig have now proposed a model that explains how and when the decision which T cell takes over which function within…
Using math to better understand the immune defence
Due to their highly effective suppression mechanism, regulatory T-cells are important for the regulation of the immune system. For their effect, exactly the right number of cells must be present in exactly the right place in the body. Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig were the first to develop a mathematical model that describes the…
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US plans to bolster South Korean naval defenses: report
The US military is planning a long-term program to bolster South Korea's naval defenses after the sinking of a South Korean warship, allegedly by North Korea, The New York Times reported.
The US military is planning a long-term program to bolster South Korea's naval defenses after the sinking of a South Korean warship, allegedly by North Korea, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The newspaper said the March 26 incident revealed that years of spending and training had still left the country vulnerable to surprise attacks.
A torpedo attack on the 1,200-tonne Cheonan corvette killed 46 South Korean sailors. International investigators reported on May 20 their conclusion that a North Korean submarine had fired the torpedo to sink the warship.
The North has denied involvement and responded to the South's reprisals with threats of war.
It has cut all ties with the South, scrapped pacts aimed at averting accidental flare-ups along their disputed sea border and vowed to attack any intruding ships.
In an interview with The Times last week, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a planned joint training exercise with South Korea planned just off the country's coast represented only the "near-term piece" of a larger strategy.
The longer-range effort would be finding ways to detect, track and counter the miniature submarines, which he called "a very difficult technical, tactical problem," he added.
"Longer term, it is a skill set that we are going to continue to press on," he told the paper.
That would involve greatly expanding South Korea's anti-submarine network to cover vast stretches of water previously thought to be too shallow to warrant monitoring closely -- with sonar and air patrols, for instance, the report said.
It would include costly investment in new technologies, as well as significant time spent determining new techniques for the South Korean military, The Times noted.
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Tuesday Datebook March 5, 2019 at 3:00 a.m.
Civic clubs
South Hot Springs Lions will meet at 5:30 p.m. today for dinner in CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs cafeteria, 1 Mercy Lane. The meeting will follow at 6:30 p.m. Visiting Lions are welcome.
Hot Springs National Park Rotary will meet at noon Wednesday at Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa, Central and Fountain streets, for lunch. A meeting will follow at 12:30 p.m. Visiting Rotarians are welcome.
HSV Evening Lions Club meets the first and third Thursday of the month in Room 6 at the Coronado Center, HSV. Social hour begins at 5 p.m. with dinner served at 5:30 p.m. followed by a business meeting, including a guest speaker. Call Club President Jack Wells at 501-984-3175 or the Membership Chair Ed Smith at 214-738-4362. Visit the club website at http://hsvelions.org.
HSV Breakfast Lions meet at 7:45 a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month at the HSV Townhouse Association, 1 Perralena Lane, Hot Springs Village. Call President Bob Peterson, 574-360-2499, for information.
Hot Springs Lions Club meets at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at Colton's Steak House & Grill, 120 Crawford. Members are welcome. Call Debbie DeLee, 762-9530, for more information.
Fraternal Order of Eagles 4369 Aerie and Auxiliary, 817 Hobson Ave., will hold a joint officers meeting at 6:30 p.m. today. The regular aerie and auxiliary meetings will follow at 7 p.m. All members are welcome to attend both meetings. The aerie is open from 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Call 318-1599 or 922-2988 for information.
Hot Springs Village Optimist Club meets at 8:30 a.m. the first and third Tuesdays of the month at Village Church of Christ, 210 Balboa Road, Hot Springs Village. Social time is at 8 a.m. On the second Tuesdays, there is a dinner meeting with entertainment. The club serves Fountain Lake, Jessieville and Mountain Pine school districts. Optimists visiting Hot Springs are welcome. Call Rosetta Dubose, 922-6839, for information.
Hot Springs Emblem Club No. 194 will hold its monthly at 7 p.m. today. Refreshments will be offered after the meeting.
Narcotics Anonymous meets at noon, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. today at 919 Hobson Ave. This is a 12-step recovery program for people for whom drugs have become a major problem. The Help Line number is 321-8700.
Alcoholics Anonymous meets at noon and, 6 and 8 p.m. today at 411 Sellers St. Call 623-6328 for information.
Narcotics Anonymous, SOS Group, meets at 6 p.m. today at 315 W. Grand Ave. All meetings are open. Call 866-754-2579 for information.
Multiple Sclerosis Support Group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at CHI St. Vincent Rehab, 1636 Higdon Ferry. Check in at the front desk, the meeting is in the staff dining room. Question and answer forum. Call Charles Culpepper, 624-6033, for information.
Narcotics Anonymous, Square Peg, Round Hole, will meet at 8 p.m. today at 315 W. Grand Ave. Call 866-754-2579 for information.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Last House on the Block, meets at 6 and 8 a.m. today at 315 W. Grand Ave.
Celebrate Recovery is held Tuesdays at Hot Springs Baptist Church, 144 Weston Road. A free fellowship dinner is held at 5 p.m. followed by large group at 6 p.m. and open share groups at 7 p.m. with Solid Rock Cafe at 8 p.m. Step study groups are available for men and women, call for specific times. Contact Shane Robertson, 760-4744 or shane@hotspringsbaptist.org, for information. Free child care is available.
Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous support group of Union Missionary Baptist Church, 219 Gulpha St., meets from 5-6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. The discussion will be on what some of the causes of substance abuse are and ways to solve them. On the fourth Wednesday of the month, there is be a dinner to celebrate those who have been sober for 30 days or more. They will receive awards for this achievement.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Rockhouse, will meet at 7 p.m. today for a closed Big Book Study at Jessieville Fellowship Hall, 7415 Highway 7 north, 4 miles north of Hot Springs Village gate.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Malvern Group, will meet at 8 p.m. today at 211 W. 3rd St., Malvern, in the upstairs Chamber of Commerce Building. Doors open at 7 p.m. Call 501-467-5409 or 501-231-9518 for AA information, or 501-623-6328 for Hot Springs Intergroup.
Living Restorations Anger Management, a 15-week course, is being taught at Garage Church, 122 Sanford, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 4:30 p.m. Sundays at no charge. For information, call 282-3515.
First Presbyterian Church Bargain Box, 213 Whittington Ave., is open from noon-3 p.m. Wednesdays. All proceeds support families and community charities in Garland County. Donations of good, clean usable items are accepted from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Call 767-5844 for information.
Habitat ReStores are open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Locations: Hot Springs, 350 Malvern Ave., 321-4241, HSReStore@GarlandCountyHabitat.org; Lake Hamilton, 2817 Airport Road, 767-4483, LHReStore@GarlandCountyHabitat.org; and Hot Springs Village, 3825 Highway 7 north, 624-3333, HSVReStore@GarlandCountyHabitat.org. All profits go to Garland County Habitat for Humanity in order to build houses. Donations of all household items, including appliances, furniture and building supplies, are accepted during store hours. Call or email for information or large item pickup.
Jackson House Thrift Store Too, 623 Albert Pike, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Accepting clean household items, small appliances, furniture, jewelry and accessories. All donations are tax-deductible, receipt provided. Proceeds benefit this community crisis intervention ministry. Every dollar received buys $3-$5 in food that is distributed locally. Call 625-7467 for information about volunteering and for pickups, private yard sales or estates.
Humane Society of Garland County Thrift Store, 2026 Central Ave., in the Freeman Center, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Stop in and shop in-store specials, with new arrivals, daily. Donations of gently worn, clean clothing and shoes, jewelry, purses, antiques, home décor, household items, books and furniture in good condition are accepted. All proceeds contribute to the care, veterinarian fees and shelter for dogs and cats at the kennel facilities at 1249 Ault Loop, Lonsdale. Donations of dog and cat food and other pet supplies may be dropped off at the store. Anyone interested in volunteering at the store may call 321-9604 for information.
Abilities Unlimited Thrift Store, 1819 Albert Pike, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. It has a selection of clothing for men, women, children and plus sizes; shoes, household items and furniture are available. Tax-deductible donations, which help individuals with disabilities in Garland County and surrounding areas, are accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the back door; or call 624-5757 for pickup of donations.
The Salvation Army Family Store, 4652 Highway 7 north, Village Plaza Shopping Center, Hot Springs Village, is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Donations are appreciated. Proceeds benefit The Salvation Army programs.
Potter's Clay Thrift Shop, 1013 Malvern Ave., is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Tax-deductible donations of good reusable clothing and furniture are accepted. Proceeds benefit Potter's Clay Ministries, a Christ-centered shelter for abused women and children. Call 620-4405 for information.
United Methodist Thrift Store, 304 Albert Pike, is open from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday and Saturday. The store stocks men's, women's and children's clothing and accessories, household items, fabric and books (in good condition). Clean, usable donations of clothes, housewares and small furniture are appreciated. Proceeds are used to assist needy families in Garland County.
RPM Thrift Store, 815 Albert Pike, is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Articles include household items, appliances, furniture, TVs, women's accessories, toys and more. Items donated are tax deductible. Proceeds benefit Recovery Point Ministry, a faith-based, nonprofit organization which provides a nurturing environment to help women step out of their pain from destructive habits and begin to rebuild their lives through the life-changing power of Jesus Christ.
John & Sue Anthony Vintage Mall, 1679 Highway 7 north, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday; and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Proceeds benefit Teen Challenge of Arkansas. Call 624-2446 or email storemanager@teenchallengear.org for information.
Duplicate bridge will be held at 12:30 p.m. today at The Bridge House, 300 W. Louis St., for all bridge players with stratified scoring. Need a partner? Come early, one is on-site. Call 525-8780 or 984-1384 for information.
Mountain Valley Sportsman's Association holds International Defensive Pistol Association matches at 9 a.m. on the second Saturday and U.S. Practical Pistol Association matches at 10 a.m. the fourth Saturday of each month. Rimfire matches are held on various Sunday afternoons. Trap and Skeet fields are open at 9 a.m. Saturdays; and 1 p.m. Sundays and Tuesdays. Cowboy Action matches are the first Saturday. Civilian marksmanship matches are the third Saturday. All are held at Valley Range. From the intersection of Highway 70 east and Millcreek Road, take Millcreek and drive 6.5 miles to the gravel pit, turn right on the dirt road, go 1.9 miles to the range. Call 620-0601 for information and directions.
Busy Hookers Crochet Club meets from 1-2:30 p.m. Wednesdays in Room B at Garland County Library. New members are welcome to learn to crochet, work on projects, share patterns or visit. There is no charge.
Bingo is played at 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Quapaw Community Center, 500 Quapaw Ave. Doors open at noon. QCC offers packet games, progressive coveralls, lucky balls, hot balls and a variety of extra games. Concessions begin at noon. Call 623-9922 for information.
Clogging and line dance lessons are held Tuesdays and Thursdays at Quapaw Community Center, 500 Quapaw Ave. Beginner clogging starts at 9 a.m., advanced clogging at 10 a.m. Beginner line dance starts at 11 a.m. Call 623-9922 for information.
Water workout classes are held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Quapaw Community Center, 500 Quapaw Ave. Water exercise is a low-impact way to work out. Call 623-9922 for information.
Quarterback Club will meet at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at Oaklawn Church, 2110 Seventh St., for men's Bible study and fellowship. This is a nondenominational organization which uses sports analogies applied to scripture in the Holy Bible. Its mission is "Turning men into winners by passing the ball of integrity to the next generation in the game of life ... the biggest game on earth."
Ageless Bikers Club has 10 bike rides that are 16-35 miles. No one is left behind and members stop often to regroup and socialize. Several rides are "out and back," so the beginner can turn back for a shorter ride. The start times are seasonal. For a time, routes and information, call Dave OBrien, 830-285-5129, or email djob1947boom@gmail.com.
Classic/Sit-and-Tone, on land rather than water, is held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursday at Quapaw Community Center, 500 Quapaw Ave. Call 623-9922 for information.
Water aerobic classes are held at 9 a.m. Monday-Friday at Quapaw Community Center, 500 Quapaw Ave. Water exercise is a low-impact way to a workout. Call 623-9922 for information.
Extension Get Fit meets from 9-10 a.m. Monday-Thursday at Hot Springs Baptist Church. Strength and core training is offered Tuesday and Thursday, and circuit and aerobic training Monday and Wednesday. Prevent bone loss, increase balance and strength. Cost is $20 per year. Call Julia Lamb, 501-276-2983, for information.
Central Baptist Church Clothes Ministry has free clothes for all ages from 1-3 p.m. Thursdays at 1035 Central Ave. Call 623-1658 for an appointment.
Vinyasa Yoga is held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays with Karen Reeves and 5:30 p.m. Thursdays with Cindee Franklin at the Hot Springs Family YMCA, 130 Werner St. Vinyasa yoga coordinates movement with breath to flow from one pose to another.
Beginning Tai Chi for Arthritis classes are held at 10 a.m. Tuesdays at the CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs Senior Center, 301 Broadway St., by senior tai chi trainer Jerry Matlock. For information or to enroll in the free program, call the UAMS Oaklawn Center on Aging at 623-0020.
Spa City Bop and Swing Dance Club welcomes all ages to dance lessons from 6:15-7 p.m. Friday at Elks Lodge 380, 132 Abbott Place, with dancing from 7-10 p.m. Cost is $4 for members and $8 for guests.
Society on 03/05/2019
Print Headline: Tuesday Datebook
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HOWARD 100/101
Anal Sex Expert Tristan Taormino Gives Tips for Men & Women
The former porn star thanked her parents when she won an AVN award
Howard had anal-sex expert, Tristan Taormino, into the studio to talk about the second edition of her book, "The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women."
Tristan noted that she considers herself an expert on the topic of anal sex because she's done "lots and lots of research," including starring in a porno that featured her having anal sex with three men.
When Tristan added that she won the Adult Video News Award in 2000 for "Best Anal Video of the Year," Howard, who had a clip of her acceptance speech, asked her why she thanked her parents in it.
Tristan replied that her father knew what she did for a living before he recently passed away and that her mother has always been extremely supportive of her career.
Tristan commented that most people make the mistake of "going too fast" when it comes to anal sex. Tristan then explained that women should start "with a finger" and eventually graduate to toys that are smaller than their partners' penis. This led Tristan to compare a person's anus to a camera and that the best time for a woman to be introduced to anal sex is when her sphincter is "winking." When Howard went on to report that he's felt feces while engaging in anal sex with women, Tristan informed him that, while the rear end isn't "always sparkling clean," it's not as messy as most people think it is either. Tristan added that as long as people who engage in anal sex have "regular bowel movements," excess feces should never be a problem.
Tristan claimed that people who engage in anal sex don't have to worry about e-coli unless they've consumed food or water outside of the country. She also explained that she has the ability to shave her own rear end without using a mirror. Howard pointed out that, according to his notes, Tristan's father was gay, so he wondered if her obsession with anal sex was a way of identifying with her dad. Tristan replied that she's been seeing her therapist for 10 years and that the topic has come up several times.
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Shannon Sevier
Vice President for Advocacy, National PTA
Shannon Sevier is the vice president for advocacy for National PTA, where she leads advocacy efforts for National PTA positions at federal, state and local levels. She also assists National PTA staff in promoting increased participation in advocacy opportunities among PTA members.
Sevier has been an active community volunteer for more than 20 years and a PTA member for 14 years to include serving on the national board of directors, as the European PTA president, as well as the vice president for legislation. She earned her Master of Arts degree in teaching from the College of Charleston and a juris doctorate from St. Mary’s
University School of Law.
Associations Sevier has served throughout her volunteer
career include Army Community Service, the Child Support Division of the Office of the Texas Attorney General, St. Mary’s Women’s Law Association, Phi Alpha Delta,Kappa Kappa Gamma, the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo ”Go Rodeo”
Committee and the Texas Valero Open.
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D.D.A. guide: The ins and outs of access
Friday 14 December, 2012
A person with a disability has a right to have access to places used by the public.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) makes it against the law for public places to be inaccessible to people with a disability.
Places used by the public include:
Public footpaths and walkways
Shops and department stores
Banks, credit unions, building societies
Parks, public swimming pools, public toilets, and pedestrian malls
Cafes, restaurants, pubs
Theatres and other places of entertainment
Lawyers' offices and legal services
Social and sporting clubs
Public transport including trains, buses, ferries, boats, ships and planes
Dentists' and doctors' surgeries
Hairdressers and beauty salons
Travel agents, and
Government-run services
This applies to existing places as well as places under construction. To comply with the DDA existing places may need to be modified to be accessible (except where this would involve "unjustifiable hardship").
What is expected?
Every area and facility open to the public should be open and available to people with a disability. They should expect to enter and make use of places used by the public if people without a disability can do so.
Places used by the public should be accessible at the entrance and inside
Facilities in these places should also be accessible (wheelchair-accessible toilets, lift buttons within reach, tactile and audible lift signals for people with vision impairments)
Rather than being confined to a segregated space or the worst seats, all areas within places used by the public should be accessible to people with a disability.
Information available to uers of the premises should be accessible.
Examples of changes which have already taken place at the request of people with a disability include:
A local council built footpath ramps, altered stair areas, widened some path areas, and relocated post boxes and traffic signs to create a clear passage and access to three local shops.
A ramp was installed at the front door of a bank to enable a local customer to independently conduct her financial transactions.
Furniture in a college canteen was rearranged to enable a student easier access. The new arrangements meant improved traffic flow for everyone.
A shopping complex provided wayfinding information on how to get to the lifts.
A lift was adapted to provide tactile and audio information about floor numbers.
While changes may not happen overnight, people with a disability should expect that changes will be made. A person with a disability has every right to complain when they are discriminated against because a place used by the public is inaccessible.
What if providing access is too difficult?
The DDA does not require the provision of access to be made if this will cause major difficulties or excessive costs to a person or organisation. This is called "unjustifiable hardship".
But before deciding that providing access is unjustified, a person or organisation should:
thoroughly consider how access might be provided
discuss this directly with the person involved, and
consult relevant sources of advice.
If adjustments cause hardship it is up to the organisation to show that they are unjustified.
Where can you find out more?
The Commission has produced Advisory Notes on Access to Premises to assist people to better understand their rights and responsibilities in relation to access to premises. See also the Frequently asked Questions material and conciliated complaint outcomes available on our web site and in other formats on request.
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Untangling the links between biology and behaviour
Suzanne O'Sullivan
We live in frightening times.
Acts of terror carried out by the individual are becoming more frequent and more inventive. Whenever I read about the latest atrocity I find myself asking the same two questions:
What drives a person to be both capable of, and willing to, direct a gun (or a vehicle) at a group of defenceless people?
And what would my reaction be if I were there to see it?
These are just the sort of questions Robert Sapolsky sets out to address in Behave: the Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst. In it, he tracks human behaviour from the moment it occurs, back in time, through the personal, generational and evolutional influences that affect everything we do.
I’ll admit that I approached the book with trepidation. Sapolsky is a neuroendocrinologist and I have concerns about explanations of behaviour that rely too heavily on descriptions of neurotransmitters and the release of ions. Purely biological explanations for our ugliest impulses tempt us to distance ourselves from responsibility for our actions. Reducing anger to a coloured dot on an MRI brain scan really says nothing at all about the source of that anger.
Fortunately, my trepidation was unwarranted. Sapolsky’s account of the science of what drives our worst impulses turned out to be a truly all-encompassing one.
Sapolsky quite rightly starts by saying that all behavioural responses are biological. Of course they are. There is nothing a person can think or feel that does not come with the activation of brain circuitry. He is also quick to add that understanding those processes does not have to exclude the wider influencers of behaviour. Psychological factors are mediated by biological factors so both must be understood together.
The early focus of the book is on the brain’s immediate response to threat. Central to the story is a small almond-shaped region of the brain – the amygdala. 21st-century imaging is able to demonstrate that the amygdala bursts into action during acts of aggression. But no brain region is exclusive. The amygdala is also linked to the experience of fear, anxiety and depression. So if the amygdala is associated with both fight and flight, how do we decide which to choose?
As sophisticated as the human organism may be, in our immediate reactions to threat we secrete the same hormones as a frightened fish. Yet our potential array of responses are far more nuanced than that of any animal, gill-bearing or otherwise. How do we over-ride our animalistic primitive reactions? The answer, we learn, lies in our frontal lobes. Human frontal lobes are larger and far more complexly wired than those of even the most intelligent of other primates. It is the frontal lobes that temper and refine the amygdala’s instantaneous and ill-considered response to fear.
Behave then takes us through the intricate interplay between amygdala and frontal lobes by looking at studies of human and animal behaviour in all its aspects. The studies cited in this detailed, but still accessible, account are fascinating. In one, subjects are asked to imagine that they are in an out-of-control vehicle; if they pull the brake, they will certainly kill one person, but save 20 others.
Would they do it? Most would.
Then the scenario is changed. The subjects are faced with the same runaway vehicle, but this time the only way to stop it is to push somebody into its path. The person they pushed would certainly die, but the 20 on board would be saved.
Would they do that? Most wouldn’t.
Sapolsky is frank in letting us know that understanding these sorts of responses is a messy business. Emotional reactions are subject to great variability, both within a person and across individuals. The activation of a particular cortical region is not associated with any one function: place a person in an MRI scanner and ask them to contemplate either caring for somebody who is injured or shooting an alien invader, and the same part of the brain is seen to be engaged in both scenarios. Nor does the release of any one hormone produce a single prescriptive response: testosterone could make one person aggressive and the next magnanimous. So what are the factors that determine these differences? To answer this question, Salposky pulls the camera back so that we see more of the person and their environment.
Some influencers of behaviour are purely physiological. Our frontal lobes are not fully matured until we are in our 20s. Since we rely on them to censor our behaviour, it is not surprising that adolescents are prone to poor judgment: an underdeveloped sense of responsibility is innate. Or consider oxytocin, the hormone produced after childbirth, which makes a woman less aggressive and more socially attuned. Or remember that stress overloads our frontal lobes and makes it hard to make a decision.
Other influences are external. That the frontal cortices are still developing into early adulthood means that they are vulnerable to change. The care we receive in infancy will affect our hormone levels, and they in turn will affect brain development and thus learning and memory. Orphans who grew up in Ceausescu-era Romania suffered both emotional and physical neglect, and their brains have been shown to be relatively small in size compared to other adults, while their crucial amygdala is relatively enlarged.
But it would be a mistake to think that extreme deprivation is required to affect how our brains develop. We are all influenced by our childhood experience. What’s more, even the genetic determinates of behaviour are not set in stone. Our genes have “on” and “off” switches. During development, the pattern of genes activated depends on stress hormones and diet and on all aspects of our internal and external environments. On the never-ending nature-nurture debate, Sapolsky points out that, while genes do have a strong influence over behavioural traits, their effect depends entirely on context: “Stimulating environments, harsh parents, good neighbourhoods, uninspiring teachers, optimal diets – all alter the genes in the brain.”
Our frontal lobes help us to navigate social rules, but it is our external influences that teach our frontal lobes what those rules are. Cultures do not need to be worlds apart for differences to become noticeable. In a study comparing men from the south and north of the United States, those from the south were more easily provoked to aggression in response to a personal insult than those from the north. On the other hand, southerners have been shown to be generally more hospitable and chivalrous. As Sapolsky says, “brains shape cultures which shapes brains.”
It is our interpretation of our own culture that helps us to decide who it is OK to kill: an animal, an enemy soldier, a convict, somebody with an unfamiliar ideology.
Through a truly comprehensive amalgamation of research, Behave draws together all the possible factors that might help us understand the biology of violence, aggression and competition. Skinner’s ideas of behaviourism and Bowlby’s attachment theory sit comfortably alongside a clear explanation of the genetics of the dopamine receptor and how it may have impacted migration.
Behave is also a humorous book, told in a conversational style. Tonally, this did threaten to alienate me: case in point the terms “pissy” and “horny”. But once I had found a way to put aside my own cultural influencers and tolerate the occasional “bad-ass” to get at the nuggets of science that litter this book, it was worth it. Sapolsky is unafraid. He moves from religion to politics to race, describing how our brains have an instantaneous reaction to people of a different colour. Whatever our upbringing, education and beliefs, we are designed to divide the world into “them” and “us”, even if we don’t want or mean to.
This book brings together disparate brain research in a way that is easy to read. Do not be put off by the sheer size of it. It can be dipped into. Each chapter could be understood by itself. Want to know the difference between the brains of people whose politics are right and left wing? Try chapter 12. (Hint: this may not be your favourite section if you are right of centre.) You will never be short of dinner party conversation again.
Did you know that male monkeys instinctively prefer to play with “masculine toys” like trains, while the females prefer dolls? And that the reward hormones in our brains are at their happiest when we are in pursuit of a goal rather than when we accomplish it?
We behave the way we do because our genes and brains are pliable. They have been shaped by our personal experiences but also by those of our ancestors and by evolution.
Genes aren’t about inevitabilities; they are about potentials and vulnerabilities. A biological explanation of behaviour does not obviate our personal responsibility. When faced with the ideological differences in the world, our genes will never mean that the choices of forgiveness and gentleness are closed to us.
Feature Image: Shutterstock
This article has be republished from Sydney Morning Herald, but is originally from The Telegraph, London.
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Women’s Health Week: Wired and Tired
By Georgia Parry
Manage Your Stress With Apps
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"Pearl Harbor Revisited: USN Communications Intelligence"
Pacific Typhoon, 18 December 1944
Admiral Nimitz's Pacific Fleet Confidential Letter on Lessons of Damage in Typhoon
List of Commands and Ships Involved
Personnel Casualties Suffered by Third Fleet, 17-18 December 1944, Compiled from Official Sources
Aircraft Losses Suffered by Third Fleet, 17-18 December 1944, Compiled From Official Sources
Extracts Relating to the Typhoon from Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet Report
Pacific Typhoon, June 1945 - Reports
Extracts from Commander Carrier Division Six Report
Extract from Report of Task Group Thirty-eight point one
Extract from Third Fleet Report
Pacific Typhoon October 1945 - Okinawa
Peacekeeping and Related Stability Operations: Issues of U.S. Military Involvement
The Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941 - Overview
Pearl Harbor Navy Medical Activities
Notes on Sources
Pearl Harbor Salvage Report 1944
Pearl Harbor Submarine Base 1918-1945
Pearl Harbor: Survivor Reports
USS Arizona - Reports by Survivors of Pearl Harbor Attack
USS California- Reports by Survivors of Pearl Harbor Attack
USS Maryland - Reports by Survivors of Pearl Harbor Attack
USS Oklahoma - Reports by Survivors of Pearl Harbor Attack
USS Tennessee - Report by Survivor of Pearl Harbor Attack
USS West Virginia - Reports by Survivors of Pearl Harbor Attack
Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal
Pentagon 9/11
Personal Identification Tags or "Dog Tags"
BUREAU OF NAVIGATION CIRCULAR LETTER NO. 57-41
BUREAU OF NAVIGATION CIRCULAR LETTER NO. 152-41
Perspectives on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques
Philadelphia Experiment: ONR Information Sheet
Phonetic Alphabet and Signal Flags
Piracy Off the Horn of Africa
The Pivot Upon Which Everything Turned
Plea in Favor of Maintaining Flogging in the Navy
Pocket Guide to Hawaii
Pocket Guide to Japan
Pocket Guide to Netherlands East Indies
Pocket Guide to New Guinea and the Solomons
Port Chicago, CA, Explosion
William S. Parsons, Memorandum on Port Chicago Disaster
Station Order 10-45
Court of Inquiry
Wartime History
Wartime History cont.
Press and Radio Release
Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: A Sketch
Post Mortem CIC [Combat Information Center] Notes
Potato Famine of 1847
Precisely Appropriate for the Purpose
Preserving an Honored Past
Priceless Advantage by FD Parker
Propaganda Foreign Military Studies 1952
Public Law 333, 79th Congress
Parker, Frederick D. 1994. Pearl Harbor revisited United States Navy communications intelligence, 1924-1941. [Fort George G. Meade, MD]: National Security Agency, Center for Cryptologic History.
Pearl Harbor Revisited: United States Navy Communications Intelligence 1924-1941
Introducing "Purple"
In February 1939, only a few months after discovering the JN-25 and Black Code on naval communications, another shock struck the U.S. cryptanalytic community when the Japanese introduced the Type B machine on their high-level diplomatic circuits. Know as the "Purple" machine, it was eighteen months before the efforts of William Friedman's staff at the U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Navy Yard Machine Shop succeeded in producing full translations of intercepted diplomatic messages and the first prototype deciphering machine.
The prolonged delay resulted primarily from the complexity of the new Japanese machine. Its impending introduction had been anticipated for several months in 1938, when distribution of the equipment was noted in intercepted messages. Only the more important Japanese embassies received the new machine, including Rome, London, Washington, and Berlin. Those which did not received the Purple equipment continued to use the Type A machine. In fact, when maintenance was required on the new equipment, a Japanese embassy frequently reverted to the Type A machine.58
Recovering from their initial confusion, U.S. cryptanalysts quickly began to exploit the new machine despite its complexities. By 10 April 1939, Frank B. Rowlett and Robert O. Ferner had produced partial texts based on similarities between the A and B systems.59 However, on 1 May 1939, apparently recognizing the vulnerability of their new system, the Japanese introduced significant complications to the recovery process. By 27 November 1940, however, U.S. Army analysts produced two translations which represented the first solutions to the B Machine.60 OP-20-G played a minor but
important role during this period. Purple analog machines, based on wiring designs developed by the Army, were made at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., and distributed to the War and Navy Departments, i.e., to SIS and to OP-20-G, and by mid-1941, to Admiral Thomas C. Hart, CINCAF. The British in London were given equipment originally intended for Hawaii. After the Army solved the system, Navy and Army cooperated in recovering the daily changing keys. Messages from both the Purple and Red machines were known as MAGIC.61 Once the Purple machine became readable and the need for translated current Japanese diplomatic messages became urgent, the War Department requested additional Navy assistance in the form of cryptanalysts and linguists.
Disarmament: Paying the Price
The events of 1938 and 1939, which virtually devastated -- if only temporarily -- the U.S. cryptanalytic efforts against Japan, were only the latest in a series of setbacks and disappointments which had begun with the decade. As the war in Europe expanded and Japanese behavior toward China, the United States, England, and France grew more intransigent, a realization developed in Navy circles that budgetary decisions since the end of World War I, and particularly since 1929, had almost crippled the U.S. fleet. The most severe suffering was felt in manpower-intensive activities such as the COMINT effort. While German and Japan openly rebuilt their military establishments during the depression years, the U.S. Congress, preoccupied with disarmament and rebuilding the nation's economy, consistently imposed harsh fiscal constraints on the Navy. In the name of disarmament, Congress called for reductions in both capital expenditures and manpower. For OP-20-G the manpower restrictions had such a severe impact that Safford was to feel their effects up until the eve of the Japanese attack.62 Moreover, the lack of money for investment meant that not only the operational structure but the support framework also would suffer. For example, a secure electrical communications network could not be built. This meant a continuation of those interminable delays in the exchange of cryptanalytic data and intercepted traffic because surface shipments from and to China and the Philippines (and Hawaii) customarily took weeks and even months. Finally, as if these problems were not enough, Congress, in 1934, passed the Communications Act, which declared communications intelligence an illegal activity.63
Confusing Diplomacy
The same sort of frustrating inconsistencies appeared in U.S. foreign policy toward China and Japan with far more serious consequences, particularly in their impact on Navy planning. Until 1939, the U.S. government followed a pattern of conflicting policies regarding the two nations. Committed on the one hand to an Open Door Policy toward China, the U.S. conversely recognized in 1908 and again in 1917 that Japan had special rights and interest in eastern Asia because of its "territorial propinquity." The Lansing-
Ishii Agreement of 1917, in fact, specifically recognized Japan's special position in Manchuria and on the Shantung Peninsula. Moreover, until 1941 the U.S. consistently supplied Japan with the war materials necessary to undertake and sustain operations not only against China but against the Netherlands and France as well. At the same time, the United States maintained a naval rivalry with Japan which, because of various factors, had already begun to tilt in Japan's favor following the end of World War I.
To the U.S. Navy these policies contained serious strategic implications. In the early 1920s the United States was faced with the unpleasant prospect not only of the continuation of a prewar Anglo-Japanese alliance with unfavorable balance of power implications, but with the equally distressing prospect of a superior Japanese fleet in the Pacific, occupying the German islands which lay astride U.S. lines of communication to Australia and making defense of the Philippines virtually impossible. Aided by Canada and Australia at the Washington Conference in late 1921, the U.S. succeeded in replacing the Anglo-Japanese alliance with a four-power treaty with Britain, France, and Japan. This treaty unfortunately limited U.S. and U.K. base building in the Pacific in return for reluctant Japanese acceptance of apparently unfavorable ratios in naval strength. Although not at first seen as an advantageous treaty for Japan, several factors conspired to make it so. Among these were an obsolescent British dreadnought fleet which effectively eliminated the British Asiatic Fleet as a force; a moratorium on battleship construction which saw the United States scrap twenty-eight vessels including eleven capital ships in various stages of completion;64 a U.S. commitment to a two-ocean navy which meant that not all new ships joined the Pacific Fleet; and the base-building restrictions of the four-power treaty. Collectively these measures left Japan in a position of local superiority and in a dominant position regarding the coast and approaches to China, the treaty notwithstanding.65
Forced by domestic economic considerations to cut back on military spending, the U.S. continued to adhere to arms limitations agreements and self-imposed building moratoriums well into the 1930s while the Axis powers skillfully circumvented them by modernization programs and new construction. By 1939 both the U.S. and British navies had fallen behind the Japanese Navy, not just in numbers of modern vessels but particularly in the technology of naval architecture and naval armaments, ship design, hull speeds, torpedoes, and the caliber of ships' guns. One bright spot during this period, as noted earlier, was that the U.S. was quick to react to the COMINT-derived information concerning battleship speed revealed in late 1936. Regrettably, there was no corresponding move to upgrade the Navy's COMINT program.
Struggling for Resources
Throughout this period, while struggling to establish a presence in the Navy, OP-20-G had failed to find a method of assuring a steady supply of manpower. Until the 1930s, when students began to graduate from the intercept operators' school in Washington, OP-20-G drew its enlisted manpower from two career fields -- communications specialists and
yeomen. Accordingly, since these students were not given career field designators appropriate to their unique role in naval communications (i.e., intercept operators), it was not unusual for almost twenty years to see correspondence from OP-20-G to naval district commanders rescuing these people from being assigned duties in their ostensible fields.
Until late 1941, the number of intercept operators in the Pacific was never very high, thus making their daily availability a matter of some concern to the resident officer-in-charge (OIC). In the Philippines in 1933, for example, it reached an unusually large total of eighteen men whose orders of assignment to the 16th Naval District carried the caveat "only for intercept or RI [radio intelligence] research work." Ordinarily, from 1930 to 1936, when the first DF site opened at Sangley Point on Luzon, the average assigned strength was only nine. Lack of numbers, however, did not reduce either the amount or nature of the work required. In 1937, a fifteen-man work force at Station C was divided into four three-man watches. "Other duties" for this group included electronic and typewriter maintenance, translation, and traffic indexing.66
The number of officers involved in radio intelligence in the Philippines was even smaller. For the eight years between 1934 and 1941, it was typically limited to two Washington-trained cryptanalysts. To extend their presence in the fleet for as long as possible, they would usually serve two tours: the first as OIC of Station C, followed by the job of radio intelligence officer on the staff of the Asiatic Fleet. In the staff assignment the RI officer worked with an ONI officer trained in the Japanese language who was usually senior in grade, a situation which, under certain operational circumstances, could prove awkward. To forestall any rank-generated problems, an agreement was struck in the Asiatic Fleet which placed final COMINT responsibility on the OIC of Station C.67
OIC Station C
CINCAF RI Officer
Lieutenant Thomas B. Birtly July 31-Oct 31
Lieutenant Bern Anderson Apr 32-Oct 32
Lieutenant Joseph N. Wenger Oct 32-Jun 34
Lieutenant JG Thomas A. Huckins Aug 34-Nov 35
Lieutenant JG E.S.L. Goodwin Jun 34-Nov 35 Nov 35-Mar 37
Lieutenant JG Roy S. Lamb Nov 35-unk unk-Dec 37
Lieutenant Jack S. Holtwick unk-Nov 37 Dec 37-Mar 39
Lieutenant J.A. Williams Nov 37-Feb 39 Mar 39-Jan 40
Lieutenant Jefferson R. Dennis Feb 39-Jan 40 Jan 40-unk
Lieutenant Bernard F. Roeder Jan 40-unk unk-Oct 41
Lieutenant Rudolph J. Fabian unk-Feb 42
Lieutenant J.M. Leitwiler Feb 42-Apr 42
The method of selecting an officer as a trainee in cryptanalysis was slightly different though colored with the same sort of influences and priorities found among enlisted men. Between 1920 and 1940, a career as a naval line officer (e.g., gunnery officer) in the fleet was the prime pathway to success for Academy graduates. Naturally, the fleet had first priority on any and every line officer. Normally, an Academy graduate spent his first seven years at sea, two years ashore, then three years at sea.68 Tours in gun turrets on battleships and cruisers usually led to more responsible positions on board ship (such as navigator) and eventually a command, particularly after a two-year shore assignment at the postgraduate school in Annapolis. On the other hand, tours in intelligence or in radio intelligence, often given to people who had failed to obtain the assignment of choice, were viewed as dead-end assignments leading to poor efficiency reports upon reassignment to the fleet.69 This situation had a noticeably chilling effect on career decisions for officers, and by 1936 had come to the attention of Admiral William H. Standley, CNO. Standley, one of the few officers of his time aware of the importance of radio intelligence, advised his personnel chief that some action must be taken to eliminate the stigma of such assignments.70 Nevertheless, it is clear that, with few exceptions, both officers and enlisted men preferred almost any other assignment when faced with the prospect of an assignment in radio intelligence.71 Although communications officers did enter the COMINT field, and some, such as Wenger and John R. Redman, did eventually become admirals, most of the officers who led the Navy's COMINT effort in 1941 were either reservists or line officers who had willingly or unwillingly given up their chance for flag rank to serve in the obscurity of radio intelligence assignments.72 Moreover, until Safford's appointment as head of OP-20-G in 1936, the Code and Signal Section had not had a permanent, full-time chief through there is little doubt that Safford retained control while on detached sea duty. In an attempt to fill the officer-cryptanalyst quotas spelled out in war plans at theater level, the Navy conducted an elementary cryptanalysis training program for reservists in several naval districts between 1934 and 1939. The numbers over the five-year period, however, amounted to less that 119 throughout the entire Navy.73
Planning for War
Another aspect of the perennial manpower problem concerned the capability of OP-20-G to perform in wartime, particularly during a war with Japan. While it has proven virtually impossible to trace, the following discussion of strategic planning strongly suggests that the impact of a new naval strategy in 1940-41 on COMINT resources in the Pacific was pervasive, overpowering, and largely negative. The Japanese scenario had existed since the turn of the century when the United States, after its war with Spain, found itself in possession of many islands in the Pacific Ocean, most notably the Philippines and Guam, which it could neither administer nor adequately defend. The military aspects of the situation called for close cooperation between the Army and Navy and in 1903 led to creation of the joint Army-Navy Board, usually known as the Joint
Board. From its inception the board concerned itself with prospects of war with Japan, particularly after Japan emerged victorious from the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-05. A fundamental assumption by the board was that the Philippines would always be Japan's first wartime objective.
Adopting a series of colors to identify its plans, the board developed the first Japanese war plans (Orange) in 1904-05. The usual pattern was for the joint plan to be augmented by individual service plans which were constantly reviewed and refined each year depending on military necessity, the moods of Congress, and the international situation. As the plans grew in complexity, the service plans themselves were augmented by individual service plans such as Naval Communications and Naval Intelligence.
The version of the Navy's Orange War Plan which was current in 1941 actually had its inception in May 1929 as WPL13. Changed eight times in ten years, Orange number six in May 1937 brought the Navy's plan into line with the Joint Army-Navy Basic War Plan Orange. From the point of view of OP-20-G, this change was unique since, for the first time in section 7, chapter II, part I (The Strategic Plan), ONI was tasked to plan for the "collection, evaluation, and dissemination of all information of military and economic value." This language appears to have inspired extensive revisions to the Communications Service plan, Appendix 4 of which pertained to COMINT.
Addressing issues such as wartime organization and subordination of communications intelligence within the naval establishment, the responsibility for dissemination of COMINT, the subordination of translators attached to COMINT activities, and U.S.-U.K. relationships, the DNC plan now provided for COMINT as an integrated service under the Chief of Naval Operations. The provisions of Appendix 4 also provided for dissemination of COMINT by the Naval Intelligence Service and, not surprisingly, stated that the COMINT organization "worked for the DNI under the DNC."74 Organizationally, the 1937 plan more than reinforced the decentralized wartime operation visualized originally by DNC planners. Appendix 4 was revised again in 1939, and the COMINT function was somewhat streamlined by the proposal to drop the COMSEC function of OP-20-G into another appendix. Accordingly, a revised Appendix 3 for COMSEC was completed in 1939, although it would be 1942 before OP-20-G was actually relieved of COMSEC responsibilities.
After the war plan review of 1937, OP-20-G commissioned a study of its current posture.75 This study was probably intended to measure the current COMINT organization against the needs of the war plan. The results reflected a work force quite inadequate to the tasks as outlined in the war plan. Instead of a required seven "intercept nets," only five were found to exist and a total of only eighty-seven radiomen served the intercept and direction finding function of these nets.76 To be faced with a totally inadequate collection structure was one thing, but OP-20-G found it necessary immediately to enhance its commitment to a research effort. Characterizing it as the "nucleus" or a wartime organization, OP-20-G proposed to enlarge its current research manpower (i.e., purely cryptanalyst) authorizations worldwide to a total of forty-three.77
The resource review acknowledged that the foremost operational problems facing OP-20-G were manpower shortages, an expanding and increasingly complex Japanese cryptographic environment, and the resulting cryptanalytic backlogs which continued to engulf the small work force. All of these problems focused on research manpower. Having recognized the susceptibility of Japanese cryptography to machine exploitation, an immediate solution was to recommend the installation of IBM tabulating equipment in all research units as rapidly as funds would permit. The idea was that this equipment would enable fewer people to do more work. By equipping these units with the latest IBM equipment in peacetime and developing other machines to meet improvements in Japanese cryptography, OP-20-G believed that necessary cryptanalytic techniques could be developed and the people properly trained before hostilities began. Theoretically, no delays would occur after war began in exploiting the Japanese cryptographic systems, at least not through lack of equipment.
It is both interesting and instructive to follow the vicissitudes of War Plan Orange (WPL13) from 1937 to 1941 because of the bearing they may have had on the resource decisions made concurrently in DNC and OP-20-G and because they will provide a revealing insight into the events at Pearl harbor on 7 December 1941.
A familiar and fundamental feature of WPL13 in 1937 was a U.S. Navy offensive into the western Pacific from Pearl Harbor. The initial objective of this operations was to either relieve its defenders or recapture Manila Bay. Although the Army thought the offensive aspects of this Orange plan in 1937 were "an act of madness," they could not argue that Manila Bay was the best and possibly the only base from which to conduct future offensive operations in support of other U.S. interests in the Far East. Here was an obvious area for future compromises.
The Navy Base War Plan Orange for 1938 contained three new assumptions inspired by extensive Army revisions to the Joint Plan, which eliminated all references to offensive warfare: (1) outbreak of war would be preceded by a period of strained relations; (2) Orange would attack without warning; and (3) a superior U.S. fleet would operate west of Hawaii.
The eighth and final change to WPL13 was made in March 1939. This change reflected the initial shift in U.S. strategic thinking from the Pacific to events in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, away from offensive operations toward a concept of defensive operations and readiness. At the same time a new planning system replaced the colors adopted over thirty years before with the Rainbow Plans described briefly as follows:
Rainbow 1 (WPL42): Limited action in order to prevent a violation of the Monroe Doctrine as far south as 10 degrees south latitude. This plan was approved by the Secretaries of War and Navy on 14 August 1939.
Rainbow 2: Rainbow 1 in first priority followed by concerted action by the United States, Great Britain, and France against the Fascist powers. U.S. forces responsible solely for the Pacific.
Rainbow 3 (WPL44): Rainbow 1 in first priority followed by projecting American forces into the western Pacific.
Rainbow 5 (WPL46): Rainbow 1 in first priority followed by U.S. armed forces into east Atlantic or Europe and Africa in concert with Great Britain and France. (Modified to conform to the course of the war in Europe during 1940 until December 1941.)
Planning for WPL13 appears to have continued during 1919 and into early 1940. Attempting to add realism, planners in September 1939 assumed that Japan would dominate the Asian coast and adjacent waters as far south as Indochina. They rejected a hypothesis that Japan already controlled the Netherlands East Indies and was poised to take over Singapore and the Philippines. The planners also considered a third alternative -- than Japan had not yet moved southward from Formosa -- since the central issue was at what point the United States would intervene. The planners rejected this alternative because they could not decide whether it would necessitate intervention and were not certain that the American people would support such preventive measures as early movement of the U.S. Fleet to the Philippines, to the East Indies, or to Singapore. Rainbow 2 for 1939 described solely a naval war in which the United States had made no commitment to China. The plan concentrated on measures necessary to keep pressure on Japanese overseas lines of supply and communication. It did contain for the first time a specific COMINT-related task levied on the Naval Communications Service. The service was to intercept enemy communications and locate enemy units (using DF) and turn over the information to ONI for "dissemination as advisable." Although many concerned voices were raised over the inherent weaknesses of WPL13 and the Pacific war features of Rainbow 2, this is the last recorded activity in Pacific war planning until June 1941.
Rainbow 2 was the final Pacific-first strategic plan. It was never adopted by the Joint Board or published. Beginning in early 1940, the entire focus of American strategy changed following Germany's easy victories in Norway and Denmark. The shift in focus was signaled by a letter from the joint Planning Committee to the Joint Board on 9 April 1940, recommending that planning begin immediately under Rainbow 5, leaving Rainbow 3 and 4 in skeletal form. With this letter, Pacific-first strategic thought and planning was virtually at an end. The fall of France in June 1940 and the subsequent Battle of Britain raised serious questions about the security of the United States itself, whether or not the British Isles would fall as France had, and the fate of the British Navy. Suddenly, the fate of England and control of the Atlantic Ocean were the most vital planning issues in American policy.
The brief but interesting evolution of Rainbow 5 from being one among equals to the preeminent U.S. war plan is also instructive. It not only involves the final stages of the other four plans, but its details, too, lend insight to the events of December 1941.
After the fall of France in June 1940, General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, and Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, submitted to President Roosevelt a draft entitled "Bases for Immediate Decisions Concerning National Defense." As amended after the president's views were obtained, it became on 27 June 1940 a plan for national defense. Its six provisions were as follows:
Assumption of a defensive posture by the U.S.
Provision of support for the British Commonwealth and China.
Implementation of Rainbow 4 actions for defense of the hemisphere.
Cooperation with certain South American countries.
Undertaking of "progressive" mobilization including a draft and other measures to accelerate production of war material and training of personnel.
Beginning of preparations for the "almost inevitable conflict" with totalitarian powers.78
Although planning for war with Japan was not extinct, the end was now near. On 25 September 1940, a memorandum prepared by Army planners for their boss, Major General George V. Strong, examined U.S. prospects in the event of a British defeat in the Atlantic in the context of the American commitment in the Pacific (i.e., Rainbow 3 vs Rainbow 4) and concluded that they were incompatible policies. Army planners went one step further and warned against a more active policy of pressure toward Japan. They recommended rapid U.S. rearmament, aid to Great Britain, refraining from antagonizing Japan, remaining on defensive in the Pacific, and finally, moving to ensure the security of the western Atlantic.
In a similar study two month later, Navy war planners under Captain Richmond K. Turner discovered that realistic Pacific operations under Rainbow 3 would be impossible if the naval detachment required under Rainbow 4 were transferred to the Atlantic. With the forces available, they reported, the U.S. Navy could operate in only one theater. This discovery led Admiral Stark to write his famous "Plan Dog" memorandum to Secretary Knox on 12 November 1940. The ideas contained in his memorandum had not changed significantly between June and November, although they did reflect some of General Strong's thoughts from September. His conclusion, however, was remarkable: the United States might "do little more in the Pacific than remain on a strict defensive." Clearly, the first U.S. priority was to the British war effort and to prevent the war in Europe from spreading to the Western Hemisphere. Still it is startling to see the Chief of Naval Operations, in the fall of 1940, advocating a policy of avoiding even a limited war with Japan after over thirty years of planning for an unlimited offensive war. The only concession Stark would make was to leave the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor because of the U.S. diplomatic commitments in the Far East. His firmness in this purpose was to cost Admiral James O. Richardson, Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, his job.79
Cause and effect relationships are often difficult to establish, particularly in resource decisions in Naval Communications and OP-20-G. Frequently one must work backwards from the end result. Using this method, it is clear that manpower resources in OP-20-G were adversely affected by the CNO shift in policy and planning from Pacific-first to Germany-first. Chart B graphically displays the fact that in December 1941 over 60 percent of all COMINT manpower had been concentrated in Washington where the only current mission was Japanese diplomatic and Atlantic DF. It is also clear in Chart B that two thirds of the officer cryptanalysts available to OP-20-G were also assigned to discussions of Japanese naval systems, it was noted that the year before only from two to five people could be spared to work on JN-25. There is moreover, ample reason to believe that emphasis had not changed materially by December 1941. Given the new Germany-first policy, how interested were naval decision makers in OP-20-G, War Plans, and Operations in the Pacific-related intelligence being pumped out by Pearl Harbor, Corregidor, and OP-20-G? These units were individually and collectively flooding the desks and in-baskets of Navy officials in Washington with alarming reports of Japanese war preparations, some of which must have read like cribs from a Rainbow 2 planner's wastebasket. Yet, as became painfully clear throughout 1941, only readable messages were bankable, and only Japanese diplomatic messages were being deposited. On 11 June 1941, Admiral Stark formally canceled WPL13.79
Chart B
Distribution of Navy Comint Personnel
Atlantic:
Navy Dept.
Pacific:
Asiatic:
Officers/
Cryptoclerks
Intercept Stations/DF Control
Outlying DF Stations
Closely aligned with the planning function are war games. Games are invaluable for testing all elements of a plan. Their scenarios are a mixture of capabilities and objectives which may be deliberately arranged to test a specific plan as a whole or a single element within a plan.
War games were introduced into the U.S. Navy in the late nineteenth century by Lieutenant William McCarty Little, a member of the staff of the Naval War College. As a result, early in the twentieth century, the War College virtually backed into a war planning relationship with the Navy's General Board. The board was to designate a country for which a Naval War Portfolio was to be prepared; ONI would provide the necessary information, and the board would prepare a plan aided by the staff of the War College. In fact, the College did most of the work.
Before World War I, students at the War College raised the issue of planning for wars without guidance from the political establishment. They felt that trying to plan without the answers to such questions as, What are the intentions of the United States in China, Japan, the Monroe Doctrine? was an exercise in futility. Their questions found willing listeners on the board, at ONI, and even in the Secretary of the Navy. The Navy proposed various remedies to both the legislative and executive branches based on the premise that "plans not based on the interrelation of the enemy's and our own motives are of little value" -- but to no avail."
In March 1912, the General Board, under its chairman, Admiral George Dewey, broke with the College over its objections to the vague and narrow terms of a war plan request. In his decision Admiral Dewey dictated that military men should limit their curiosity to "purely military questions. A plan can be prepared for a specific purpose...without reference to any matter not bearing directly on the purpose in view....A commander in chief should, therefore, rarely be influenced by ulterior motives."
The effects of this decision were apparent at the War College as recently as the 1960s, when the curriculum was described as "not focusing on the specific political consequences past, present, or future of military actions." In the context of the events of 1940 and 1941 both in the Pacific and in Washington, the effects produced planners whose perceptions of Japanese naval capabilities and national intentions may have been seriously flawed by war planning doctrines which ruled out enemy intentions altogether as unreliable and subject to rapid change. Under these circumstances, COMINT producers who provided strategic warning beginning in September 1941 that Japan was preparing for war should not have been surprised that their warnings were ignored until the eleventh hour.80
58. Interview Frank B. Rowlett, 26 November 1974, by Vincent Wilson, Henry Schorreck, David Goodman and Earl Coates, OH-01-74, NSA (classified).
60. Friedman monograph Preliminary Historical Report on Solution of the B Machine, 14 October 1940, Series IV.I.2.28, CCH History Collection (classified).
61. SRH-305, RG 457, NA.
62. Part of OP-20-G's workload is described in SRH-149, RG 457, NA and SRH-305, RG 457, NA. See also the history of OP-20-GY, Series IV.W.I.5.10, CCH History Collection (classified.)
63. History of Signal Security Agency, Vol. III (classified), contains a copy of appropriate portions of the act, Series III.hh. See also W.J. Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets (New York; Berkley Books, 1981), 13-14, which states that this act prohibited a commercial radio company in Honolulu in early 1941 from sharing daily Japanese ship position data inherent in commercial weather messages with COM-14's intelligence collection effort.
64. Prange, Verdict of History, 7.
65. H.P. Willmott, Empires in the Balance (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982), 30-51. The actual ratios: battleships and heavy cruisers, 5.5.3; light cruisers and destroyers, 10.10.7; and submarines, 1.1.1. See also Prange, Verdict of History, 7. By standing aloof from the League of nations, the U.S. had rejected collective security, yet it had refused to provide for itself an adequate unilateral national defense system. Prange also asserts a weak argument supported by several quotations that blame for Pearl harbor actually lay with the American people who, because of complacency, idealism and a false sense of security based on racial arguments, failed to insist that Congress provide for adequate military strength after World War I.
66. "U.S. Naval Pre-World War II Radio Intelligence Activities in the Philippine Islands, 1931-1942," SRH-180, RG 457, NA.
67. SRH-355, 421, and Appendix VII, 289-90. The linguist in at least one instance was also head of the Diplomatic section in Station C.
68. Ibid., 311. RG 457, NA.
69. Interview, Thomas H. Dyer, Captain USN (Ret) January-March 1982, by Robert Farley, OH-01-82, CCH, and NSA interview Rudolph T. Fabian, Captain, USN (Ret) 4 May 1983 by Robert Farley OH-09-83, CCH (classified). Hereafter Dyer interview, Fabian interview.
70. SRH-355, 167-168, RG 457, NA.
71. Dyer interview.
72. Dyer interview; interview Wesley A. Wright, Captain, USN(Ret), 24 May 1982, by Robert Farley and Henry Schorreck, OH-11-82, CCH; interview Edwin T. Layton, February 1983, by Robert Farley, OH-02-83, CCH.
74. Ibid., 218-222, RG 457, NA.
75. Military Study, SRH-151, RG 457, NA.
76. Asiatic (1), Mid Pacific (2), West Coast (3), Cavite-18*, Heeia-17*, Astoria-7, Guam-10*, Shanghai-7, Augusta-1, (*: includes 2 for HFDF). East Coast-U.S. Fleet (4), East-West Coast DF (5), Winter Harbor-7, CINCUS-10, Navy Dept.-2, Students-8, Total 87. "A Military Study of the Radio Intelligence Organization," June 1937, Series IV.W.X.11, CCH History Collection (classified).
77. Cavite, a minor research center, 6; Flagship Asiatic Fleet, an advanced mobile unit, 3; Flagship U.S. Fleet, a mobile unit, 4; Pearl Harbor, a major research unit, 5; and Washington, a major research unit, 25, including administrative personnel. Ibid.
78. On 3 July 1940, the COMINT unit aboard the USS Trenton was transferred to the USS Omaha in Squadron 40T and began covering Italian naval circuits in the Mediterranean. Naval battles between Italian and British forces during July and August and the attack on Rhodes in September 1940 were reported by this unit. SRH-355, 372, RG 457, NA.
79. The material in this section concerning U.S. strategic planning is based on several sources: "War Plan Orange; Evolution of Strategy," Lewis Morton, World Politics, January 1959, 221-250; "Naval Contingency War Plans 1891-1945," Scholarly Resources, Wilmington Delaware, 1979; "The U.S. Navy: Strategy, Defense and Foreign Policy 1932-1941," Michael Kedian Doyle, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 1977, University Microfilm International, Ann Arbor, MI, and London; "The U.S. Navy and War Plan Orange 1933-1940: Making Necessity a Virtue," Michael K. Doyle, Naval War College Review, May-June 1980; and "Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare 1941-1942", Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell, Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. of the Army, Washington, D.C., 1953.
80. "Professors of War: The Naval War College and the Development of the Naval professions," Ronald Spector (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1977), 71-2, 108-111.
Published: Mon Jul 06 15:34:09 EDT 2015
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Naval Shopping
About MultiEducator
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This Month in Naval History
Pennewill DE-175
Pennewill
(DE-175: dp. 1,240; 1. 306'; b. 36'8"; dr. 8'9"; s. 21 k.; cpl.
186; a. 3 3", 2 40mm, 8 20mm, 3 21" tt., 2 act., 8 dcp., 1
dcp. (hh.); cl. Bostwick)
Pennewill (DE-175) was laid down 26 April 1943 by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newark, N J
launched 8 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Lucie Reilly Pennewill; and commissioned 15 September 1943, Lt. John Edward Allen, USNR, in command.
After shakedown, Pennewill steamed to Trinidad, British West Indies, for convoy escort duty. On 20 November 1943, she departed Trinidad as part of the escort for convoy TJ-15 arriving Recife, Brazil, 5 December.
Pennewill was engaged in operations with Task Group 42.2 from December 1943 to April 1944, escorting convoys from Trinidad to Recife, Brazil, and return. She also completed several special missions. From 25 to 27 December 1943 she escorted U.S. Army transport State of Maryland from Trinidad to San Juan, Puerto Rico. lt'rom 21 to 22 January 1944, she was escort for British tanker Destiny out of Recife to rendezvous with Task Group 41.4.
Pennewill arrived at Bahia, Brazil 26 April. During the following months she operated with Memphix, conducting patrol and escort duty off the coast of Brazil and engaged in training operations in the Bahia-Recife area. On 28 July she sailed from Recife to Natal, Brazil, where she decomcommissioned and was leased to the Government of Brazil 1 August 1944. She was transferred to Brazil 30 June 1953 and was struck from the Navy List 20 July 1953. Her Brazilian name is Bertioga, (BE-1).
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9.7 score
[Editors rating (9.7)] = (Hombre Golf Club) score (9.7)/10
Editor rating: 9.7 / 10
User's rating: based on 0 user ratings
By Ashleigh Morris
Take your next round of golf up a notch with the G400. This incredible club works towards improving your range on the course and offers incredible forgiveness too. Already this club promises to be an incredible addition to your golf equipment.
Providing you with astounding feedback, the creators of this incredible club have prioritized user-friendly features that many golfers of all abilities will benefit from.
There only really appears to be one negative side of this club, and that rests in solely in its looks. The appearance of this club isn’t exactly the best, especially in comparison with its peers that are currently available on the market.
The main goal of many hybrids is to launch your ball higher than any iron you may have in your bag. They try to do this with a simple and easy hit on the head, which means it lands steeply enough that it lands on the green. Thankfully, the G400 hybrid does just that.
As I mentioned, the G400 aims to help you maximize your ball flight and tighten your dispersion pattern. Ping has managed to achieve this with the use of Maraging Steel. This has majorly reduced the thinness of the club’s face, which results in an increased ball speed of 2 miles per hour.
With a thinner face, the creators of this club have been able to save weight, relocating it elsewhere in the head. This then increases MOI, reduces twist to help you create straighter shots and tighter dispersion patterns.
As you can see so far, the PING G400 hybrid is already establishing itself to be an updated version of its predecessor, the G Hybrid.
Editor's Pros & Cons
The range gained with some assistance of this Hybrid is astounding.
This is an amazingly forgiving club and provides good feedback on your hits.
There is a lot of potentials, chiefly with longer hybrids.
The audible feedback is quiet yet sturdy. This is great for creating a seamless transition between clubs.
The unusual design isn’t initially alluring, especially when contrasted to different hybrids that are obtainable at the moment.
As you can see, the club’s head is softened, more rounded when you first look at it. You’ll also be able to see that the turbulators have been enlarged and placed on the crown.
While this doesn’t hold any particular aerodynamic benefits in the head (especially one of this size), this design choice does match the aesthetics of the G400 by framing the shot on the address.
While this style and arrangement may not be to everyone’s taste, for some golfers it will certainly hit the spot. The white and black grooves work to develop alignment and do a good job of this, while the rough face surface decreases spin.
This club has a small gold weight which is located towards the rear. This hybrid is made from 30% denser materials, so the weight helps to increase efficiency and weight placement.
The weight is also removable, leaving its place within the club to your discretion.
The changes within the club, especially in terms of technical changes, can be seen almost immediately. Because of the use of Maraging Steel, this club is 11% thinner, 35% more flexible upon impact, and 10% lighter. It also helps you gain an increased ball speed of up to 1.5 miles per hour.
This is one of the first instances where the creators have used Maraging Steel within the face, combined with 0.48mm thin 14-4 Stainless Steel. This choice allows you to save weight within the top of the crown, positioning it lower and towards the rear of the sole, increasing launch and forgiveness.
The depth of this head is exceptional, which means it will suit players of different abilities.
Control & Performance
When investing in a new golf club you need to ensure the end result itself is going to be a relatively successful one. Particularly in terms of how it handles on the green and getting the results you want. Higher speed and greater distance.
The G400 promises to deliver on the course. It even proves itself to be a life-changing club which works towards developing your skill set as a golfer. Who wouldn't want that?
As previously stated, the goal of hybrids is to improve your ball launch. The G400 is certainly becoming well known for its consistently impressive and successful outcome. Regardless of the environment or position, most golfers and testers have found no problem with thrusting the ball into the air. Though there were some who found the trajectory of the ball to be moderately sharp.
There are some players out there who substitute their larger irons with a combination club, this is due to the fact that some golfers have grapple with their irons in order to get them high. As a result, they’re unable to hit the ball as far away as they’d wish to. The G400 Hybrid promises to help players to gain some much-needed range and trajectory.
Remarkably the ball’s reach and height held itself to be true, despite moments when the strike itself has been a bit thin, underpinning its high level of forgiveness. The ball speeds produced by this club are steady. You’re even able to gain a few additional yards (5-10) in terms of distance.
Both the noise and feel of this club are impressive, falling somewhere between a solid thud sound and a volcanic crack. This pleasing feedback is also incredibly detailed and essential.
The creators have also put a lot of attention onto the club’s potential, especially in terms of stopping power. This club has incredible stopping power, especially in comparison to other clubs that are available at the moment.
This was accomplished using a new substance within the face, Maraging C300. Alongside this, they also used a unique center of gravity anchor which is not only profound but depressed as well. This way you are able to get a more effective launch. The finished product is a greater trajectory, allowing golfers to operate from longer distances.
The bottom of the club has a golden weight, which is significantly smaller than its black equivalent, which can be found on other hybrids. This difference is the result of the use of denser material. As we’ve previously mentioned, this weight is removable. But it’s important to leave any modification or changes to the hands of an expert.
It’s the first hybrid that uses Maraging Steel within the construction, which is 11% slimmer than it’s predecessor. It also has increased flexibility and is lighter in comparison.
The use of 17-4 steel also streamlines the appearance of the club, creating a thinner aesthetic. Not only does it create a sleeker and thinner appearance, but it also creates additional flexibility within the club face.
Because the weight is positioned deep within the head, this lowers the center of gravity, adding additional forgiveness to the club. Golfers who use the G400 will also see an improvement in terms of ball speed and additional forgiveness.
The incredible performance of the G400 is completely down to the incredible design, innovations used within its construction. The combination of all of these things works towards developing and improving your skill set on the green, as well as achieving incredible ball speeds, launches, and distance.
Ball Speed
Compared to its predecessors, the G400 Hybrid promises additional range and quickness, ranging within 1.5 to 2 miles per hour. This incredible advancement in terms of ball speed is the result of the creators using Maraging C300.
This is one of the best and toughest materials in the world. Upon impact with the face of the hybrid, it is 35% more flexible. The increased faced flex produces greater trajectory and faster speeds for many players, regardless of their skill set when it comes to golfing.
What makes the G400 so incredible is its constructions. You can tell that the creators spent long and hard focusing on the construction of this club. Working hard to create something that will benefit you and your performance on the green. With this particular product, you can see and appreciate all the advancements incorporated into it.
Using the latest available to them in terms of design and technology, the designers of the G400 hybrid have been able to create something truly innovative and beneficial to golfers of all abilities.
To create more flexibility and a sleeker finish, the designers have used innovative maraging steel within the face. This creates a higher ball speed, alongside greater distance. It also has an incredibly thin crown, which utilizes 17-4 stainless steel for a weight saving feature. This optimizes and lowers the center of gravity, increasing your total MOI and forgiveness. The turbulators and groove formation also provide a captured look.
Reduced spin is achieved through the face’s unique texture, while the cascading sole optimizes the flexibility of the face for a grander launch.
Alongside that the back weight also works to increase the MOI and forgiveness of the club, maximizing stability and enabling you to customize your swing weight.
The last key piece of technology used is the Alta CB Shaft. This is a unique counterbalance design which allows for more mass in the head, thus increasing energy transfer.
With all the incredible features and benefits of the G400 Hybrid, there's no wonder why so many people are raving over this club. It’s a considerable step up in terms of technological advancements and performance. Ping has once again done an incredible job creating a perfect, yet elusive balance between feel and forgiveness.
The G400 Hybrid is worth investing the money, especially if you’re searching for a club you can depend on time after time.
The G400 Hybrid is a solid club, which is no surprise when you consider how incredible it’s predecessors within the G400 family have been in the past.
It’s small structure and traditional aesthetics, alongside its low-key graphics, finish this beautiful form. With a lot of incredible tech, innovative design, you’ll make short work of lengthier approaches, plays from tough lies and tee shots.
The G400 promises to be the ideal game-developing club suitable for golfers of all abilities.
This Machined Back Weight is thick and works to enhance your MOI, maximizing stability. It also enables you to customize your swing influence.
The incredible thin head, created with 17-4 Stainless Steel, maintains density and improves the center of gravity, boosting MOI.
Slimmer and amenable Maraging Steel Face produces distinguished ball speeds and range.
The use of a textured clubface works to decrease turn, which also works to develop face flexing which ultimately creates an exceptional launch.
Ping claim that the G400 Hybrid is the only one of its kind that you’ll ever need in your golf caddy. It proves to be stable, sturdy and designed to increase range and launch.
As previously mentioned, it was created using a wide range of technology, including maraging steel. This steel is a toughened steel alloy which, when you hit the ‘sweet spot’ your shots will go further and be more consistent and accurate.
The most noticeable feature of this club is the interchangeable weight system within. This allows you to customize the center of gravity to fit your playing style. All you need to accomplish this is additional weight and screw. Within seconds you’ll be able to change the weight distribution of the club, remarkable isn’t it?
However, please be advised that it can be easy to affect how the weight distribution feels. Particularly if you are uncertain of what you are doing.
This club may not be ideal for some beginners, but it’s generally perfect for many others.
Overall, the G400 Hybrid prove themselves to be a worthy investment and an absolute must-have for anyone looking to develop their skills on the course and enhance their performance. With its long list of incredible features, higher ball speed, improved distance and much more, this club is a game changer.
9.3 PING G400 Crossover PING G400 Crossover
9.9 Cleveland RTX-4 Wedges Cleveland RTX-4 Wedges
Best offer on: Jul. 18. 2019
$249.98See Deal
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About Hoover ›
Hoover Fellows Shultz and Perry Lead, with Kissinger and Nunn, Nuclear Nonproliferation Discussion
In Nuclear Tipping Point, a film featuring Hoover distinguished fellow George P. Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former US secretaries of state; Hoover senior fellow William Perry, former US secretary of defense; and Sam Nunn, former US senator, the four men share the experiences that led them to write the now famous Wall Street Journal op-eds that describe their efforts to reduce reliance on nuclear weapons, to prevent their spread into potentially dangerous hands, and ,ultimately to end them as a threat to the world.
In January 2007, Wall Street Journal published their op-ed titled “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons.” In it, the call for a drawdown on nuclear weapons by the well-known defense hawks—from different administrations and different political parties—invigorated their discussions. The op-ed, the first of three on the subject by the same authors, which also ran in the Wall Street Journal, followed a conference in October 2006 at the Hoover Institution marking the twentieth anniversary of the Reykjavik summit between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
At the 2006 conference, the participants deliberated on the continued threat of nuclear weapons, identifying it as a matter of vital importance. Presentations from the 2006 and 2007 conferences, Implications of the Reykjavik Summit on Its Twentieth Anniversary and Reykjavik Revisited: Steps toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, respectively, are available through the Hoover Institution Press. Other publications include A World without Nuclear Weapons: End State Issues and Toward a Diplomatic Action Plan on Nuclear Issues (both Hoover Institution Press).
The 2010 conference on November 11 and 12, cosponsored by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, brought together noted experts to address various aspects of deterrence. The conference also featured speeches by Kissinger and Admiral Michael “Mike” Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. For Mullen’s complete remarks, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMpmh_-bwDM to view a video; for a transcript of the speech go to http://www.jcs.mil/speech.aspx?id=1491.
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June & July 2012
The Many Faces of Islamist Politicking
by Camille Pecastaing
Much has been made of the recent success of Islamist parties in national elections that followed the Arab Spring. While some praise Islamism as the first genuine expression of popular sovereignty in a long time, others warn of an Islamic winter. They read Islamist candidates as a fifth column for a fundamentalist theocracy, or at best for an illiberal democracy where individual liberties suffer under the overbearing presence of religion in the public sphere. Both readings are wrong because history is not yet written, and the Islamists know no better than anyone where their recent success might take them. And while their ascent appears almost universal — they are now in government in many Arab countries — their accession to the highest levels of power has been contextual. Starting from common origins, they followed different routes to get there. More than anything, what they showed over the decades in the wilderness was pragmatism and adaptability to challenging environments, characteristics that they will have to draw upon to move from the conquest to the exercise of power in the post–Arab Spring era.
The constraints imposed on Islamists were not just the authoritarian regimes that suppressed them, and the downfall of the autocrats will not hand over a quiescent society to the supporters of sharia. The temptation of doctrinal social engineering may exist, but the actual impact Islamists will have will be limited by the kind of society they inhabit, the resources they have to work from, and the choices forced upon them. The challenges are numerous. They have to maintain decent diplomatic relations with a West deeply suspicious of fundamentalist agendas. They have to prevent a smoldering culture war between minorities and liberals on one hand, and the socially ultraconservative Salafis on the other, from tearing apart the social fabric. And they have to address daunting socioeconomic issues inherited from decades of inadequate developmental models, compounded by a youth bulge that cannot find productive employment.
The Arab Spring has brought on calls for a new economic order, for a rupture with a capitalism seen as Western and exploitative.
Many observers have missed the leftist, populist core of the Arab Spring. Worriers dread Khomeini and bin Laden when they should be looking for Nasser or Hugo Chavez. Protesters demanded democracy: elections not intended as an end but as a vehicle for transparency and accountability, for the eradication of corruption and nepotism. There are demands for jobs and higher wages and income redistribution, and feminist demands — starting with wage equality for women. There are also calls for a new economic order, for a rupture with a capitalism seen as Western and exploitative, as an economic system uniquely designed to benefit the elites. In the confusion of the new era, the Islamic green blurs with the socialist red, as the religion carries the calls for justice and equity that were once a staple of the left. This affords Islamists a wide scope of populist claims that rake in the votes. But conceptual contradictions will be hard to reconcile over the long term after Islamists get to rule. Mainstream Islamists convey the economically liberal instincts of a socially conservative mercantile class. They are anchored in the global economy, which really means they want to preserve foreign economic aid and especially trade relations with the European Union.
Equally daunting is the looming culture wars between the Salafis and the leftists, feminists, and religious minorities. The Salafis are reactionary social vigilantes whose ranks spawned a militant minority known to the world as jihadis. The Salafis have often winked at the violence of the jihadis, as both share revolutionary aspirations, but unlike their brethren engaged in armed struggle, Salafis generally eschew the political for the ethical. They preach and outbid each other in virtuous signaling, intruding in the public space but not trying to take it over. With the Arab Spring, the public space became more fluid, especially with regard to the highly symbolic place of women in it. In Saudi Arabia, some have demanded to be able to drive; in Egypt, others have claimed the right to expose the female body, all of which is anathema to profoundly conservative segments of society. And so the Salafis came to the barricades.
This is not good news for the group of Islamist activists who rose to power on the wave of the Arab Spring. Those men have been deeply scarred by oppression, which has meant for some torture and decades in prison — a history of suffering that garnered much sympathy and votes in the recent elections. As they now stand on the wreckage of autocracy, they seem genuinely wary of states’ unfettered authority. But whatever their personal tolerance for individual liberties, the need for internal order will force them to referee between their right and their left. They might even have to impose on both, racking up adversaries in the process.
Its demise has often been proclaimed, but Islamism lives on because it is adaptable and adaptive.
Political Islam is not the new thing. Its demise has often been proclaimed, but Islamism lives on because it is adaptable and adaptive. A century of activism shows no pattern in the relation to power. If some have taken violent shortcuts to seize it, most have been patient social organizers, learning through experimentation and hardship the merits of strategic compromise. They had advantages. Political Islam was a natural way for people to transition from the disappearing structures of an agrarian society — under the last Sultans-Caliphs, who relied on clerics for local administration — to the crowded anonymity of a modern urban environment. Islamism gratified followers with familiar narratives of hope and salvation, anchoring a society swept away by an exploding demography and epochal change in a tradition that imagines itself virtuous. It was the same with the puritanical breakout of the West’s 19th century; a world torn asunder by the industrial revolution and all the drinking and gambling that wages afforded the laborious classes. The Christian bourgeoisie then sought refuge in a snobbish morality of the Victorian era and in racist nationalism.
An insecure present leads the mind to romanticize the past, and to overshoot its normative paradigms. This is the dark side of the Islamic revival, when the missionaries turned into vigilantes, when the Salafis formed militias. Like the Mormons in the time of Brigham Young, the Salafis have sought to create a society purified from the corruption of the world. Minorities — and often the wealthy — were crisply outlined as the corrupt “other” against which the community imbued its distinctive identity with collective pride. And there was security in numbers. The mass movement grew from its own gravitational expansion. Islamists excelled at creating a collective dynamic, and in a stressed society that was not well-protected by the rule of law, the collective had a tendency to impose on the individual.
The Islamist surge was a child of its time: Born at the turn of the 20th century, it really got going in the 1930s, the heyday of communism and fascism. Islamism imbibed the reactionary zeal of Western nationalism along with its antithesis: the revolutionary passion of Western socialism. It saw itself as a transnational conservative revolution aimed at recreating a global Ummah (Muslim community) ruled by sharia. From its Western peers, Islamism also learned that it could not rely on ideological appeal only. The quest for power demanded structures and institutions that are material rather than spiritual affairs. There are costs, and people to be fed, demands to be accommodated. Long-term development requires efficient and accountable management, responsiveness to the needs of members, and ultimately solvency. Early on, Islamists left the field of ideology and moved into institutionalization.
Tithing, racketeering, and rents
In theory, ideological movements live off contributions from their followers — dues in the secular sphere, tithes in the religious one. The very motor of proselytizing is a redistributive Ponzi scheme: The resources of existing members are pooled to lure in new members. This has been the work of Dawa, of religious social work: Muslims have connected to the new Islam through faith-based institutions providing free health care, counseling, and schooling. Like any such scheme, ideologies spread until numbers grow and enthusiasm wanes. Success will attract newcomers less and less interested in contributing and more and more interested in the entitlements that come with membership — a job, or a stipend, or a free ride to redemption. The tide turns when receipts equal expenditures, and an ideological movement in that situation has reached its limits if it is to rely on tithing only. Islamist movements have all faced those constraints, and the only way to overcome them is to acquire power.
Power allows shifting from voluntary to coerced tithing, which would be more aptly called racketeering. One contemporary example is the al-Shabab movement in Somalia. Originally the youth movement of local Islamic courts, al-Shabab’s militiamen rose to prominence fighting the Ethiopian troops who invaded Somalia in late 2006. Militarily successful, they have since imposed through violence a fundamentalist utopia, racketeering a vulnerable population. But the vulnerability of the Somalis was also that of the al-Shabab, and when famine hit the region in the summer of 2011, and people started dying or migrated in droves across the border to refugee camps and the foreign aid they could find there, the al-Shabab fragmented. Their dwindling resource base could not sustain their existing level of organization, and all the Islamist fervor on the ground, never that high to begin with, could not make up for it.
The most durable form of racketeering is that executed by a sovereign eager to see its resource base thrive, if only to have more to tax from. In a few cases Islamist movements have either taken over a state, or lived in such close association with one that their resources became those of the state. State-building in Arabia has been from the start, in the mid-18th century, a material affair carried out on the shoulders of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist narrative that gave meaning and justification to the worldly project of Saudi rulers. It is at times difficult to distinguish where Wahhabism ends and Saudi realpolitik begins. This longstanding association, often betrayed or remodeled, still stands in the 21st century. The mutaween, the religious police, are paid to enforce appropriate public behavior. The sentences of antiquated laws — an embarrassment for Saudi diplomacy — have to be executed as a matter of national sovereignty. Mosques, madrassas, and religious universities are built by the state, clerics and educators are employed by the state, while their counterparts across the Muslim world are at the receiving end of Saudi generosity.
The ideological fortunes of Wahhabism went hand in hand with the material fortunes of the al-Sauds. The Arabian business model has always paid close attention to revenues: from withholding tribute owed to undeserving overlords to looting, from foreign aid to oil sales. By the 1950s, royalties from oil companies filled the treasury of what would become a fundamentalist rentier state, giving permanence to the Saudi enterprise, even sparing it from further taxation. It could be argued that oil is the single most important factor to explain the rise of Islamism since the 1970s. Muslim migrants who flowed to the oil-rich countries of the Gulf were exposed to the local forms of the faith (as were some Christian converts), and returned home a more fundamentalist lot. Petrodollars financed conservative congregations throughout the Muslim world and in the diaspora. Whether through governmental or nongovernmental channels, petrodollars paid for the Afghan Jihad against the Soviet Union, which formed the future cadres of al-Qaeda.
The Iran connection
If saudi arabia has been an essential if partly unwitting financial backer of radical Islam, Iranian sponsorship has been more purposeful. The radical fringe of the Iranian clergy that imposed itself in the wake of the 1979 revolution has been a poor administrator of the national economy, and 30-some years later popular rancor abounds because of poor standards of living and the self-inflicted wounds of an international pariah status. Nonetheless, there are enough revenues from energy exports for the Iranian theocracy to get by, buying off a segment of the electorate and putting thousands of Basiji — street thugs protecting the regime — on state payroll. From the early days of the revolution, the brutality of the Islamic Republic has had less to do with religious doctrine than with a tenuous grip on power, what with the liberal opposition, the war with Iraq, and the persistent economic failings. The state of emergency imposed in the 1980s after Saddam Hussein’s aggression became addictive for the regime, and when that war ended Tehran artificially maintained the pressure with a game of cat and mouse with the United States. Iran’s nuclear program and the occasional seizure of weapon shipments from Iran to neighboring militias opposed to American designs are reminders that, for all its fiduciary shortcomings, this is a middle income country with enough of a surplus to meddle in regional affairs.
The idea that “big” spenders like Hamas and Hezbollah could ever be financially selfsufficient defies the imagination.
Then again, Tehran’s real contribution to the treasury of movements like the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas is anybody’s guess, and it is the treasury that matters. Hezbollah took control of the Lebanese government in the summer of 2011, and Hamas has alone run Gaza since 2007. It is well known that they did not get there on the basis of ideological seduction only, but by spending big money on their constituents, which got them elected. Both provide an array of social services — schools, clinics, counseling, employment in “security forces” — to populations grossly neglected by official authorities and exposed to the devastation of wars those two movements are paradoxically accused of having provoked. If it is easy to understand the material appeal of Hamas and Hezbollah, it is more arduous to follow the money trail that made their success possible. There is a degree of tithing, of semi-extortion from the local business class, and foreign remittances. In a September 2010 interview with Thanassis Cambanis, Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of Hezbollah’s politburo, admitted that while his movement hoped to develop independent revenue streams, it had not reached 50 percent self-sufficiency yet. Iranian aid is openly acknowledged by Hezbollah. It is a cash operation.
Given the tight blockade of the Gaza Strip, Tehran’s support of Hamas is more complicated. Syria, an Iranian ally, harbors Hamas-in-exile, but Damascus is far from Gaza. Official foreign aid to Gaza has been restricted since Hamas took over, specifically to prevent the blacklisted Islamist movement from diverting those funds. Nevertheless, the imf has reported a double-digit growth rate for Hamas-run Gaza, twice that of the West Bank — a high growth figure which has to do with postwar reconstruction. Hamas’s financial resilience is puzzling given the stunted and introverted nature of the economy of Palestine, where a first-rate business consists of bottling sodas for the local market. The main exports of Palestine are not goods but emotions, and foreign aid and remittances are almost the exclusive sources of financial inflows. The money the vastly unemployed population of Gaza receives from abroad has fed traffic in the tunnels under the border with Egypt, allowing Hamas to skim off and redistribute revenues through its social works. Sara Roy, who closely studied Islamic charities in Gaza, is discrete about sources of funding: She points to donations from the community. Lately, Hamas’s Islamic Foundation has even started investing in for-profit business ventures ranging from amusement parks to bakeries. Hamas’s inevitable divorce from a Syrian regime busy crushing Islamist insurgents — Sunni insurgents who share a pedigree with Hamas — is likely to strain whatever relationship exists between Tehran and Gaza, and will demonstrate the degree of Hamas financial autonomy.
The idea that “big” spenders like Hamas and Hezbollah could ever be financially self-sufficient defies the imagination, but the pattern has been observed with other nonstate actors in conflict zones, like Kurdistan and Somalia. A strong demography amidst political chaos creates masses of refugees, who send remittances back home. Those remittances, and other foreign aid, pay for smuggled goods. That makes for a runt local economy, but large enough to be “taxed” by an armed group. At the very least, money buys the weapons that protect and, at the same time, intimidate the people. In the most advanced nations, the ratio of public expenditures to gdp is in the range of 40 to 50 percent. There are no reliable figures for areas where militias have carved out a territory, but the most forward-looking and solvent militias seem to have enough going around to pay for basic services that earn the loyalty of the population, creating over time a symbiotic relationship similar to that between nation and state. That even gets them the votes to legitimize their authority if they bother with the finesse of electioneering.
The electoral route
Islamist movements of Pakistan have tried the electoral route, but their rise came about through an evolving symbiosis with a weakening military state. Islamist nongovernmental organizations that issued from the Deobandi and Ahle-Hadith movements were a palliative for the shortcomings in educational and social services, in the same way that the militias coming from those movements were a palliative for the shortcomings of the military. In a page taken from Iran’s textbook, Pakistani security forces nurtured organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Haqqani Network, and the Afghan Taliban to pursue strategic goals. Thanks to diversified revenue streams, the creatures escaped in part the control of their creator.
While the Afghan Taliban would never have emerged around 1994 from Deobandi madrassas without funding and equipment from the Pakistani government, a diversified resource base has protected them from subsequent policy reversals from Islamabad. When they ruled Afghanistan until 2001, the Taliban could “tax” the busy truck trade between Central Asia and Karachi. Some were then, and still are, involved in lucrative opium trafficking, which binds them to local growers and allegedly builds shadowy bridges with Pakistani state officials. Like the Khmer Rouge in its time, the Taliban are the worse kind of financially solvent ideologues. The abuse they have visited on the Afghan population is directly related to their financial autonomy, all the more impactful that Afghanistan is so poor and their opponents, a ragtag assemblage of warlords, are themselves so brutal and corrupt.
Running for office has been a constant ambition for many Islamist movements, for that was the natural route to power.
Running for office has been a constant ambition for many Islamist movements, for that was the natural route to power and money. Political parties were spun off from social works whenever the regimes allowed it, which was an infrequent occurrence. In Turkey, a strong military core garbed since the 1950s by a constrained democracy kept communists and Islamists at bay. But Islamists patiently built a political machine, fed by the contributions of rural migrants and emigrants disenfranchised by a fragmented party system dominated by fickle and corrupt elites. Following a financial collapse that shook the establishment, the Islamist ak party was elected to power in 2002, and has since defanged the military and crushed the secular opposition. With a public debt at 50 percent of gdp, and a structural budget deficit, the Islamists in power have been anything but frugal. But they have sustained a strong rate of growth, reaping the benefits of genuine liberalizing reforms started in the 1980s. Hardball players in a merciless democratic game, they have used the courts to harass critics and competitors, all the while using public spending and patronage to satisfy their constituents. It is hard to see a transition of power there unless a large scandal or an economic bust brings them down to earth.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has been severely repressed since the mid-1940s, and particularly so under the regime of Abdel Nasser in the 1950s. An arrangement of sorts was reached after the military defeat of June 1967, and the Brotherhood was allowed to operate in the social sphere as long as it did not engage in politics. If members ran in parliamentary elections, it was as unaffiliated candidates, and they never competed for all the seats. But Egyptian society was allowed to become more religious, the regime sometimes winking at the reactionary judgments of sharia courts. The Brotherhood was useful for the military regime. First, its social activities palliated the lack of state welfare, whether in rural Upper Egypt or in the slums of Cairo’s overgrowth. Second, it lived on the same turf as the traditional left, eating away at the communists. Third, the ubiquitous social-minded Islamists of the Brotherhood were lumped together with the jihadis — who had challenged the state militarily in the 1990s — and presented to the West as a pretext to maintain military rule.
Few in the West believed that the Brotherhood was al-Qaeda, but few dared to test that hypothesis either. This relationship of convenience between the officers and the Islamists carried until the Arab Spring forced the army to jettison Mubarak and to revisit the terms of their arrangement with the Brotherhood. In the immature political landscape of post–Arab Spring Egypt, the Brotherhood stands out as a powerful faith-based machine, well-funded and capable of efficient grassroots work. Its financial firepower comes from contributions of the domestic middle class and from the community of Egyptian expatriates. It counts wealthy individuals in its top ranks, like Khairat el-Shater, a businessman and the movement’s number two. When the rolling elections began in November, the Brotherhood’s newly founded Freedom and Justice Party exceeded all expectations, as did the al-Nour party — a rare instance of Salafis competing electorally. As this success translates into seats in the government, with ministries will come budgets, contracts, and more money for social works — and help greasing the wheels of reelection. If Turkey is an example, there are many ways to play that game. If the Islamists wanted a share of the perks of government, they were reluctant to take full responsibility for Egypt. It is only after being faced with their own success, or rather with the vacuum that is the opposition, that the Brotherhood resigned itself to field a candidate for the presidency. They first ran al-Shater, quickly disqualified because of a recent stint as a political prisoner, and then more comfortably ralled behind Abdelmonem Abolfotoh, a physician and moderate Islamist who had taken a safe distance with the Brotherhood.
In Yemen, the Islamist al-Islah has been the main opposition party since the 1990 reunification of North and South. It is an odd alliance of religious fundamentalists and tribal interests — the leader of al-Islah is always the sheikh of the largest tribal confederation. Fundamentalism has been doing well in Yemen; its imams are said to be well-funded by regional charities, and they can tap into a vast impoverished and illiterate population. Fundamentalism has allowed the Saudis to keep in check the elusive Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who himself let them be because proselytizing was a way to bind the formerly socialist south to his realm. But relations soured, and for the last two presidential elections, al-Islah allied with their former socialist nemesis to oppose the bid of Saleh and his kin to remain indefinitely in power. The Arab Spring sealed the divorce, and from March to November the leaders of al-Islah have been fighting it out with forces loyal to Saleh in the streets of the capital Sana’a. When a Saudi-brokered compromise was finally implemented at the end of the year, the Islamists of al-Islah were brought into the new government.
Up from repression
Other regimes never tolerated Islamists, bringing to bear against them the full force of authoritarianism. In Baathist Syria, the city of Hama was shelled by artillery in 1982 following years of unrest from the local Muslim Brotherhood. In Tunisia, leaders of Ennahda, an Islamist party that professed nonviolence, were sentenced to death and spent years in prison. For two decades, under President Ben Ali, the police monitored mosque attendance, and too observant young men could be arrested and detained for extended periods. In Qaddafi’s Libya, almost 1,300 prisoners, mostly Islamists, were reportedly massacred following a 1996 riot in Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison. Islamists who escaped the repression of those regimes were forced into exile, some in London, where they reconciled their ideology with liberalism, others in Afghanistan, where they connected with the mujahedeen milieu from which al-Qaeda emerged. This scorched-earth legacy makes the Islamist resurgence in Syria, Libya, and Tunisia the great surprise of the Arab Spring.
The most striking rebirth took place in Tunisia, where Islamist Ennahda inherited a revolution in which it didn’t participate.
In Libya, the Islamist current remains ill-defined. Qaddafi was killed by a mob chanting “Allah Akbar” — the same hymn that accompanied the hanging of Saddam Hussein — but such sentiments do not reveal a focused political agenda. Abdelhakim Belhadj, a former mujahedeen arrested in Bangkok in 2004 and rendered to Qaddafi’s jails, famously led a rebel unit in the conquest of Tripoli. But Belhadj went out of his way to explain that his days as a jihadi were over. In Syria, the protest movement issued from the Arab Spring, and brutally repressed by Assad’s security forces, has struggled to escape a Sunni sectarian character, despite insistent appeals to minorities. In the first few months, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood morphed from a skeleton of exiles to a front for the rebellion within the newly-formed Syrian National Council, a shadow government in exile. But the longer the civil war drags on in Syria, the more diverse the breeds of Islamists who find there a terrain to thrive, including old-fashioned jihadis.
The most striking rebirth took place in Tunisia, where Islamist Ennahda inherited a revolution in which it did not participate. The aftermaths of revolutions are volatile periods, with fragile regimes hijacked by radical, authoritarian factions: the French Jacobins, the Russian Bolsheviks, the Iranian Komitehs. In Tunisia, the soul-searching, post-revolutionary phase saw the formation of an abundance of new parties. During those months, the historical leader of Ennahda, Rashid al-Ghannushi, returned from London and mobilized local supporters and donors. Rumors of funding from conservative Arabia were belied by the strict monitoring of the electoral agency. The Islamists were funded by local businessmen, like Nejib Gharbi, a wholesaler and spokesman of the movement. Their natural constituency was the hinterland, bypassed by the two decades of economic growth, and its unemployed or underpaid children amassed in the suburbs of the rich coastal cities. Their long suffering at the hands of the despised regime also appealed to the coastal middle class, which they courted by claiming as their own the more liberal, progressive culture familiar to the Tunisian bourgeoisie. The verdict of the October elections was unequivocal: The government was theirs.
With power came the responsibility to quickly formulate a policy to respond to the economic predicament. In their first months in power, Ennahda walked a tightrope between indulging popular demands and preserving macro accountability. Their plan to boost growth in the short term through a phase of government spending before achieving self-sustaining growth at some point in the future seems lifted right out of a Keynesian-inspired imf policy paper. There is no doctrine here; they are not driven by Quranic injunction but by the need to placate and reassure. Everyone gets something: public sector jobs for the poor, investment opportunities for the rich, and a plan of action for the imf. The instinct of the Islamists is to let people make money and use charity as a means of redistribution, but policies that create growth and jobs rarely deliver greater equality. In the end, the most religious aspect of their economic orthodoxy is its wishful nature: The inherent prayer for everything to go well, because there are so many ways in which things could go wrong. Free elections were not enough to placate the street, and the Islamists have struggled to restore order, having no choice but to betray the spirit of the revolution and send forces to beat up the protesters.
The Arab world once flirted with socialism; the legacy of social reformers was picked up by monarchies and Islamists.
Countries in the region had been doing relatively well in the decade that preceded the Arab Spring, thanks in part to a controlled liberalization of their economies that brought foreign investments to selected sectors — deals often directed toward those blessed with political patronage. The liberal opening allowed cronies of the regimes to open local sweatshops and beach resorts that thrived on low wages, as well as to run commodity monopolies that skimmed off the surplus of a suffering middle class. Add to that the oil boom and real estate speculation, and you have good growth numbers but not the kind of developmental model needed by countries experiencing a youth bulge, with half of the population under 30, and which is said to need to create 50 million jobs within a decade. This model of unequal growth, with upward social mobility biased toward the politically connected, was forcefully rejected in the streets of Tunis and Cairo.
Before it became Islamist, the Arab world once flirted with socialism, and the paradox is that the legacy of great social reformers like Nasser and Bourguiba was picked up by the conservative monarchies and the Islamists. It is the conservative regimes imbued with Islamic legitimacy — either as descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (the dynasties of Morocco and Jordan) or as custodians of the Holy Mosques (the Saudis) — that for all those years kept their eyes on social and economic indicators and invested in their people. In Morocco, the Arab Spring was answered with a constitutional reform followed by a general election, which brought the Islamists of the Party of Justice and Development to form the government. Monarchal rule hardly skipped a beat through all of it. In Saudi Arabia, the welfare tap was turned up. The revolution passed them by. Monarchy is no panacea: Bahrain’s was saved by foreign military intervention, and Jordan’s horizons remain clouded. But the Arab juntas, with their tired revolutionary (Algeria, Libya) and military (Egypt, Syria, Yemen) rhetoric, faltered. The abundance of natural resources was not even a factor: Libya had a greater endowment per capita than Saudi Arabia, but the lazy regimes that relied on rents of all kinds to maintain a debilitating status quo were wiped out one after another.
The Arab community
The contagious nature of the Arab spring reveals a degree of community across the region, based on Islam and the Arabic language, as well as on a shared imaginary and economic predicament. The pan-Arab Ummah was not as dead as once thought, but commonality is not uniformity. The Islamist political parties are the children of their nations, and when in government they will have to contend with their own social conservatism, which will not be to everyone’s liking in a pluralist society. An Islamist winter will not easily smother the calls for individual liberty and dignity that were so spontaneously and stridently expressed in the Arab Spring. And Islamists face a greater challenge than a controversial social agenda. The Muslim world is poised to grasp the benefits of its demographic dividend: a vast population of working age. If the Islamists really want power, they should understand that they are only as strong as the society over which they preside. It is time to put their reputation for hard work and probity to work in the pursuit of economic growth.
Camille Pecastaing is the author of Jihad in the Arabian Sea, and contributor to the Hoover Institution’s working group on Islamism and the International Order.
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Europe’s Struggle To Take Its Destiny Into Its Own Hands
by Josef Joffe
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Division of Floriculture and Landscaping
Dr. S. S. Sindhu
Phone: 011- 25841929
E-mail: head_fls[at]iari[dot]res[dot]in
Floriculture is increasingly regarded as a viable diversification from the traditional field crops because of higher returns per unit area and the increasing habit of "Saying it with flowers" during all the occasions. Though the art of growing flowers is not new to India, but large-scale commercial cultivation, protected cultivation is relatively new in India. Enormous genetic diversity, varied agro climatic conditions, versatile human resources offer India a unique scope for diversification in new avenues which were not explored to a greater extent. With the opening up of international market in the WTO regime there is a free movement of floriculture products worldwide. In this context each and every country is having equal opportunity for trade in each other’s territory. Globally, more than 140 countries are involved in cultivation of floricultural crops. Among various countries Germany continues to be the highest consumer followed by Japan. India is having a better scope in the future as there is a shift in trend towards flowers and this can be gainfully exploited by country like India with high amount of diversity in indigenous flora.
Flowers are intricately entwined in the social fabric of our nation and no function is complete without flowers. The domestic industry is growing at annual rate of 7-8% per annum. The area under flowers has crossed to 1.91 lakh hectares during 2011-12 which is concentrated mostly in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute is a pioneer in scientific research on floricultural crops spearheaded by luminaries like Dr. B.P.Pal who laid a foundation for scientific breeding of flower crops in late 50’s and early 60’s. The work on flower crops was initiated in the Division of Genetics and later in the Division of Horticulture. Ever since its inception as a separate identity in the year 1983, the Division of Floriculture and Landscaping heralded an articulated and comprehensive research programmes on crop improvement using conventional and biotechnology tools, production in open and protected environments, technology dissemination for the benefit of farming fraternity. The Division has following mandates:
To carryout basic and applied research for crop improvement and development of production technology in important flower crops.
To impart Post Graduate teaching and human resource development
Dissemination of information and transfer of technology through outreach programmes.
Research Programmes & Services
Trainings / Extension Activities
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Virtu Ferries Rolls Out Largest Hi-Speed Catamaran In The Mediterranean For Malta-Sicily Route
by Johnathan Cilia
The Saint John Paul II is a technological marvel – and the second largest catamaran to travel at over 70km/hrs in the world.
Virtu Ferries has announced the newest catamaran to be joining its fleet – and it’s quite the badass boat. The M/V Saint John Paul II is headed to Malta from Incat shipyard in Hobart, Tasmania. The vessel will be given to Virtu Ferries on the 24th of January, and, just a few days later, will commence a 9,600 nautical miles (17,780 kilometres), 20 day journey to Malta. The vessel’s maiden voyage will see her crossing the Indian Ocean, calling at the ports of Fremantle in Western Australia and Colombo in Sri Lanka for refuelling, before passing Somalia, at the Eastern tip of Africa, to transit the length of the Red Sea where she will call at the last refuelling port of Jeddah before entering the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. The last leg of the journey, Port Said to Valletta, should be covered in 30 hours.
The vessel will be deployed on the Malta-Sicily route in March 2019
Saint John Paul II is being built to conform not only to the obligatory International Maritime Organisation High-Speed Craft Code 2000 but also to The EU Directive 1999/35/EC of the European Maritime Safety Agency of the European Commission. The newbuild also conforms with the EU Maritime Green Policy, the European response to the new generation of ocean strategies based on science, technology and innovation. The shipbuilders, Incat, are acknowledged world leaders in design and construction of high speed vessels, who pride themselves in building the fastest, efficient, environmentally clean, high speed vessels in the world.
Saint John Paul II is powered by four MTU engines, generating a total of 36.4 Megawatts
These state of the art engines meet IMO Marpol Annex VI Tier II standards which regulate exhaust gas emissions, with the aim of reducing local and global air pollution. Four Wärtsilä waterjets give the vessel a cruising speed in excess of 38 knots (over 70.4 km/hour). With a deadweight of 1000 tons, capacity for 900 passengers in five lounges, and a garage that takes 167 cars or 23 trailers, Saint John Paul II will be the largest High Speed RoPax Catamaran operating in the Mediterranean and the second largest in the world.
Saint John Paul II is the fifth new-build and 11th high speed vessel delivered to Virtu since the commencement of the high-speed ferry service between Malta and Sicily in 1988
The company has invested more than €175 million in high speed vessels that have, at some time, been operated on the Malta/Sicily route, effectively revolutionising the carriage of passengers and cargo between the neighbouring islands. Virtu Ferries currently also operate high speed vessels on international routes between Venice and Adriatic Ports in Slovenia and Croatia as well as Tarifa, Spain to Tangier in Morocco.
Virtu Ferries have been known to let their vessels be used in crises
In times of humanitarian crisis, Virtu have operated their vessels on time-charter to the Governments of Australia, the USA, Italy, and Malta and international corporations and institutions such as the International Red Cross and Medicins Sans Frontier.
The vessel’s name echoes a memorable moment in the company’s history
Virtu Ferries had the honour of welcoming HH Pope John Paul II on board ACC San Frangisk on that momentous return voyage between Grand Harbour, Valletta, St Paul’s Islands and Gozo on 27th May 1990. Of course, like all other Virtu high speed vessels, the Saint John Paul II will fly the Maltese flag.
https://lovinmalta.com/lifestyle/travel/virtu-ferries-rolls-out-largest-hi-speed-catamaran-in-the-mediterranean-for-malta-sicily-route
Filed Under: ARTICLES OF INTEREST
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Kartik Aaryan reveals he almost gave up on Bollywood dreams
Kartik Aaryan revealed on a chat show that there was a time when he almost gave up on his dreams of being an actor.
UPDATED: May 29, 2019 11:57 IST
With the back-to-back successes of Luv Ranjan's Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Laxman Utekar's Luka Chuppi, Kartik Aaryan is hot property in Bollywood right now. But he has seen his share of struggles before he became a star. In fact, there have been times when he almost gave up on his acting dreams.
On a chat show, Kartik said, "There have been situations in my life where I thought that it's not working out. During my struggling days also, I used to think, 'I don't know what's going to happen.' Because there is no particular way ki yeh film mujhe mil payegi ya first film bhi milegi ki nahi kabhi life mein. 'What am I going to do if it doesn't happen?'"
Kartik revealed that even after his debut film, Luv Ranjan's Pyaar Ka Punchnama, was a hit, "things weren't that great". He also talked about the uncertain nature of their profession.
"Every Friday, it changes. My mom says it's a gamble. Woh waise industry ke baare mein waise galat advice deti hai, but ek cheez unhone humesha sahi bola hai ki it's a gamble. So you never know ki agle Friday kya hone wala hai... The biggest of films don't work and the smallest of films bohot zyada achcha kar jaati hai. The only thing you can do is work on yourself," he said.
When Kartik first came to Mumbai, he did not have any money at all. "I didn't have a place to stay when I came to Mumbai. I stayed in a hostel. I have stayed with 12 guys in a flat. That was something I never thought I would do because I hail from Gwalior, which is not an expensive city to live in, but Mumbai is really expensive," he said.
The 28-year-old actor added, "We had our share of struggles. We used to go to auditions, wahaan pe 'not fit' ho jaata tha. I used to travel without tickets in local trains from Navi Mumbai to Mumbai when I was auditioning. I didn't even have that much money."
On the work front, Kartik has been busy shooting for Imtiaz Ali's next, which is a sequel to Love Aaj Kal. The film, which also stars Sara Ali Khan and Randeep Hooda, will hit the theatres on February 14, 2020.
ALSO READ | Ananya Panday on Kartik Aaryan: It is normal to have a crush on someone
ALSO WATCH: Ayushmann Khurrana opens up on being an outsider
Posted bySamrudhi Ghosh
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AkzoNobel to develop coated resin applications at UK pilot plant
By Kasia Patel
Published: Thursday, 03 September 2015
AkzoNobel’s Felling location is its biggest R&D hub for performance coatings in the world, and the company’s €1.3m investment into a resin coating pilot plant is part of its strategy to focus on the development of new products.
Dutch paints and coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel is planning to invest €1.3m ($1.4m*) in building a pilot plant for coating resins at its Felling performance coatings R&D site in the UK.
The pilot plant, which will become operational in Q1...
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Advances and Perspectives in the Field of Auscultation, with a Special Focus on the Contribution of New Intelligent Communicating Stethoscope Systems in Clinical Practice, in Teaching and Telemedicine
By Emmanuel Andrès
Submitted: November 25th 2011Reviewed: May 3rd 2012Published: September 12th 2012
Home > Books > eHealth and Remote Monitoring
Emmanuel Andrès
*Address all correspondence to:
eHealth and Remote MonitoringEdited by Amir Hajjam El Hassani
eHealth and Remote Monitoring
Edited by Amir Hajjam El Hassani
The stethoscope and the semantic of auscultatory findings were invented more than 200 years ago by Dr. Laennec (Traité de l’Auscultation Médiate, Paris, 1819 [Figure 1]) and over the years very few changes have been made to both the stethoscope itself and the way in which it is used [1]. However, the ability to differentiate between normal and abnormal sounds or noises (vesicular sounds, wheezes, crackles, etc) remains essential in clinical practice for correct diagnosis and management.
Over the past two decades, much of the progress made in this area has resulted primarily from improvements made to the stethoscope itself [1]. More recently, we have seen advances in the techniques used to process auscultatory signals as well as in the analysis and clarification of the resulting sounds [2,3]. The availability of novel representations of the sounds, with phono- and spectrograms, also opens interesting perspectives in the context of diagnostic aids, but also in education and pedagogy [4].
This chapter aims to review recent technological advances, evaluate promising innovations and perspectives in the field of auscultation, with a special focus on the development of new intelligent communicating stethoscope systems in clinical practice, and in the context of teaching and telemedicine.
2. Current semantic of auscultatory findings and characterization of sounds
The physical characterization of physiological and pathological sounds in humans is still at a fledgling stage and has not yet resulted in reliable documentation, especially not so in the field of pulmonary auscultation [2]. In cardiology, the situation is somewhat similar. However, more precise data, essentially based on phonocardiography, are available, outdated as they may be [1]. Analysis and characterization of auscultation sounds have been totally neglected by practicing physicians and any major improvements have been made were primarily in auscultatory tools, i.e., the new intelligent communicating stethoscope systems [4].
Portrait of René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec. Front cover of the first edition of the “Traité de l’Auscultation Médiate”, Paris, France, 1819. Note the handwritten Latin dedication to his uncle Guillaume Laennec in Nantes: “A mon excellent oncle, mon autre père” ("To my great uncle, my other father"). The original Laennec stethoscope, in wood, retains in the Museum of the History of Medicine, in Paris, France.
Whilst conventional stethoscope auscultation is subjective and hardly sharable, the characterization and identification of sounds by computer-based recording and analysis systems provide objective and early diagnostic help along with better sensitivity and reproducibility [2]. The precise definition of these physical characteristics and the availability of new visual representations of sounds constitute exciting perspectives for teaching and pedagogy, as we shall see later in this chapter [5].
Thus, as we have hypothesized, the new intelligent communicating stethoscope systems will also possibly contribute to a new auscultatory semiology, based on reliable methods of signal analysis and on visual display, and will be complementary to the acoustic signals perceived by the practitioner [2,6].
Breath sounds or noises are produced by airflow in the respiratory system as well as the work of the breathing apparatus. These sounds are characterized by a wide spectrum of different sounds - the average frequency depends on the site of auscultation [3]. It is generally accepted that the frequency of lung sounds ranges between 50 and 2500 Hz, while tracheal sounds can reach up to 4000 Hz [2,3,5]. In terms of respiratory pathology, it should be emphasized that, only a small number of sounds are currently well identified and documented in regard of physical characteristics (for review see the reference [2]).
Table 1 gives a description of various auscultatory findings - normal breath sound, namely the vesicular murmur, and abnormal (pathological) - use clinically according to international literature [3,4].
Type of lung sounds according to international nomenclature Clinical Features Pathological circumstances
Vesicular murmur Very soft noise, audible throughout the entire phase of inspiration and during early expiration.
Detected in antero-lateral areas of the chest and in the back, it consists in a continuous, soft low intensity murmur, heard throughout inspiration The vesicular murmur is weakened in the following circumstances:
extensive thickening of the wall, for example, in obesity), for example, in cases of emphysema (chest hyperinflation.
It is abolished when :
the lung is collapsed by the pressure of fluid or air in the pleural cavity, such as in cases of pneumothorax or pleurisy
absence of ventilation in the affected lung area, for example, in cases of lung compression, especially in atelectasis with retraction
after pneumonectomy, on the operated side.
Wheezes and whistles Of bronchial origin and variable intensity, wheezes are heard at a distance from the patient.
They include inspiratory wheezes, as well as sibilant wheezes heard during both phases of breathing. In cases of localized wheezing, it can be heard during inspiration or during both phases, with similar pitch, caused by partial obstruction of the trachea or bronchi, due to the presence of a tumor or foreign body.
In cases of diffuse wheezing, it is most often in the form of bilateral wheezing, of various tonalities, heard especially at the end of expiration and encountered in instances of bronchial asthma. In chronic obstructive bronchitis (bronchial pneumonia), there is also diffuse expiratory wheezing, due to vibration of the bronchial walls which tend to collapse at expiration.
Rhonchi or snoring Also of bronchial origin, sonorous rhonchi are low-pitched, in both inspiratory and expiratory phases, and altered by coughing. They are encountered in acute or chronic bronchitis accompanied with bronchial hypersecretion.
Usually cleared by coughing, the so-called fixed rhonchus on the other hand does not disappear after coughing effort and is generally associated with downstream bronchial obstruction.
Coarse crackles (or rales) Also called mucous rales, bubbling rales are discontinuous and of short duration. Emitted sounds are irregular, uneven, intense, observed in both phases of respiration and altered by coughing. They make a gurgling noise in the large airways often associated with bronchial congestion due to hypersecretion of mucus. They are predominantly observed in bronchitis.
Fine crackles (or rales) Also called fine rales or crepitations, they emit discontinuous, thin, dry noises, high and evenly pitched, occurring in spells during inspiration. They become more distinctive after coughing and usually point to an alveolar disease process. Due to alveolar wall detachment and their pathological features, they are observed primarily in cases of pneumonia, interstitial alveolar or pulmonary edema subsequent to heart failure, but also in pulmonary fibrosis and in certain interstitial pneumonias.
Bronchial or tubular breathing
Bronchial sound A coarse, high intensity and high-pitch noise that can be heard in both inspiratory and expiratory phases, although predominantly inspiratory. It can be heard over the thorax suggesting pneumonia-induced pulmonary consolidation and is typically accompanied by a series of crackles
Pleural breathing sound A soft, distant, veiled expiratory sound. It is heard at the upper limit of moderate pleural effusion. Like (bronchial or tubular) breathing, it is determined by pulmonary consolidation complicated by pleurisy. Although attenuated by the latter, it nevertheless exhibits different features than (bronchial, tubular) breathing.
Amphoric breathing A high-pitch expiratory metallic sound It is caused by the resonance of normal breath sounds in an air pocket, for example in cases of pneumothorax (with a persistent pleural breach).
Pleural rub or Pleural friction rub Dry grating and superficial sounds, unchanged by coughing. Their Intensity may be discrete, like the «rustle of silk paper», or intense, such as the «creaking sound of new leather». They are due to the two inflamed pleural layers rubbing against each other. They occur at the onset of pleurisy, at its upper limit or after fluid evacuation.
The differential diagnosis with that of coarse crackles may be difficult, but unlike the latter, pleural rubs appear soon after the start of inspiration.
International semantic on normal and abnormal lung sounds use in clinical practice [2,7,8].
The generation of heart sounds is essentially related to cardiac muscle contraction, the functioning of the valves and turbulence generated by blood flow. The spectrum of heart sounds is between 20 and 100 Hz for baseline signals and higher frequencies for murmurs: 500 Hz and above [1,2]. S1, corresponding to the closure of the mitral and tricuspid valves, incorporate frequencies ranging from 10 to 100 Hz. S2, resulting from the opening of the aortic and pulmonary sigmoid valves, is of higher frequency, generally between 150 and 200 Hz. It should be noted that additional heart sounds (S3 and S4) may be heard and additional diastolic noises originating from the valves can also be observed with mitral opening snap, pericardial (friction) rub or knock, etc. Lastly, we can also detect so-called “organic murmurs” which are related to alterations of the mitral or tricuspid atrioventricular valves (inlet valves) or ventriculo-aortic or pulmonary valves (ejection valves) (for review see the reference [4]).
Figure 2 depicts the chronological and morphological characteristics of heart murmurs, illustrating how the practitioner makes a diagnosis by taking into account these elements when analyzing the auscultatory signal perceived [2].
Schematic representation of breaths during the cardiac cycle.
3. Advances and perspectives in documentation and characterization of sounds
In practice, auscultation diagnoses are often made based solely on past experience of the practitioners, and rely more on intuition than on rigorous and systematic classification systems [1]. However in recent years, various studies have endeavored to characterize, identify and describe sounds in greater detail, especially in the respiratory field [5-8].
It is in this context that an innovative project known as ASAP: “Analyse de Sons Auscultatoires et Pathologiques” (Analysis of Auscultatory and Pathological Sounds) was developed by the French national agency for research (ANR 2006 - TLOG 21 04, headed by Professor E. Andrès) [5]. This project was supported by the development and the provision of a new intelligent communicating stethoscope system.
The main objective of this project was to bring pulmonary auscultation into the era of evidence-based medicine, based on the identification of sounds using innovations in technology, mathematics and computer science in order to "rediscover" the clinical significance of respiratory sounds [5]. The ASAP project allowed us to documented physically characterized these sounds in more detail.
To date, we have collected over 500 auscultations, well-documented clinically (Figure 3), and began an analysis of its physical characteristics of the sounds. Thus, physically-speaking, crackles correspond to a characteristic wave whose appearance is shown in Figure 4, a representation revisited and detailed elsewhere [4,9]. Note that it is generally accepted that the duration of crackles is less than 20 ms and their frequency is between 100 and 200 Hz [10]. A sibilant wheeze, on the other hand, is characterized by a waveform with a dominant frequency usually above 100 Hz and a duration exceeding 100 ms. In terms of physics, wheezing sounds are longer than 50 or 100 ms but less than 250 ms [4,9,10]. The frequency of wheezes ranges between 100 and 2500 Hz with a characteristic peak frequency of 100 or 400 Hz and 1000 or 1600 Hz.
Clinical documentation and physical characterization of sounds collected through the ASAP project. These data includes: characteristics of the patient; auscultation type; acoustic data; diagnosis; sounds (data collected in the ASAP project) [5].
Representation of a breathing cycle in a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, along with respective phases of inspiration, expiration and respiratory pause in the form of a phonopneumogram (2a) and a spectrogram (2b). Presence of numerous coarse crackles especially visible on the spectrogram (2b) (indicated by arrows) (data collected in the ASAP project) [5].
The ASAP project is complementary to other work conducted locally at the University Hospital (CHRU) of Strasbourg in collaboration with the research team led by Doctor C. Brandt, notably the project: “Perspectives et apports du développement d’un stéthoscope communiquant à l’ère de la telemedicine” (Perspectives and contributions of the development of a communicating stethoscope in the era of telemedicine) (PRI HUS - No. 4179, headed by Doctor C. Brandt and Professor E. Andrès, Strasbourg, France) [6].
The objectives of this project were: validation of a new communicating stethoscope we have developed (see a next section of this chapter); comparison of conventional (acoustic) auscultation with this new communicating stethoscope system; creating an auscultatory library; and development of expert systems for real-time analysis of signals from cardiovascular and pulmonary auscultation for diagnosis assistance.
Forward, the ASAP and PRI projects aims at making evolve the auscultation technics:
first, by the development objective tools for the analyse of auscultation sounds: electronic stethoscopes paired with computing device;
by the creation of an auscultation sounds’ database in order to compare and identify the physical characteristics, the acoustical and visual signatures of the pathologies;
and lastly, by the capitalisation of these new auscultation techniques around the creation of a teaching unit and a school of auscultation on the web (http://www.websound.fr) [5,6]. This auscultation’s school, potentially hosted on the web, will be destined to the initial and continuous formation of the medical attendants (Figure 5).
4. Advances in the field of sound representation and perspectives in teaching
Whereas conventional auscultation is subjective and interpreted by a single clinician, the characterization of sounds through recording, analysis and auscultatory signal processing systems provides in several studies better sensitivity and specificity when interpreting findings [4,11]. The availability of new technologies opens up interesting perspectives in the field of diagnostic tools, but also in education [4,12].
In fact, as well as providing a reliable addition to routine clinical diagnosis, these "tools" should ultimately lead to improvements in auscultatory training, based on the "physical" characterization of signals and sounds, as well as a visual representation in the form of:
phonopneumogram or phonocardiogram: a tool providing simultaneous representation in time of the respiratory phases (Figure 2a) or the cardiac cycle and the auscultation signal (Figure 6a);
spectrogram: a tool where time is indicated on the abscissa, frequency on the ordinate and the intensity of the signal is represented by a color palette for the respiratory (Figure 2b) or heart signal (Figure 6b).
Potential teaching contributions of advances and innovations in the field of auscultation with the creation of a school of auscultation on the web [4,5]. This school of auscultation includes several components: Patient follow-up, Collection of sounds, Consultation, Transmission, Listening, Analysis, Validated and classified respiratory sounds, Automated analysis, Sound database, Secured access, Students, Initial training, School of Auscultation, Physicians, Diagnostic aid, Continuing Education, Specialists, Certification Validation.
Representation of a recording of a cardiac auscultation in an individual with aortic stenosis with a systolic ejection murmur (indicated by a white arrow) in the form of a phonocardiogram (6a) and a spectrogram (6b) (data collected in the PRI project) [4,5].
To have a sort of proof of concept of the “plus value” of our intelligent communicating stethoscope system, we conducted a preliminary study at the University Hospital of Strasbourg with the aim of evaluating the diagnostic "performance" of these new visualization tools (phono- and spectrogram). We asked a cohort of medical graduate students (n = 30) to listen to 10 sounds in order to diagnose heart and lung pathology [13].
They were then asked to tick the appropriate box corresponding to the diagnosis relating to the sound they had just heard (as with an acoustic stethoscope). The correct response rate was 40 to 60 %. The same exercise was then carried out again with the addition of a visual representation of the sound (phonopneumogram or phonocardiogram and spectrograms). In this second phase of the trial, the rate of correct diagnosis reached 70 to 90%. Table 2 presents the detail of these data. Analysis of this table shows that the improved performance (rate of correct diagnosis) is particularly significant for cardiac pathology.
Thus in our experience, addition of visual representation of sounds has significant implications in terms of medical medical education, and also in term of decision-making, potential patient safety, and cost control. In the field of teaching, a recent well designed study conducted by Sestini et al. supports the results of our work, concluding that an association between the acoustic signal and the image is highly useful for learning and understanding the basis of respiratory sounds [12].
To date, several stethoscopes on the market are already accompanied by specialized software providing the physician with a "visual representation of sounds", using various time-frequency representations, in the form of images. These can then be used in conjunction with the auditory information obtained from a stethoscope to achieve a diagnosis [6]. This “second channel” of information allows the practitioner to strengthen his clinical findings, and is likely to result in a more reliable diagnosis [14]. Figure 7 illustrates this concept by using the example of aortic insufficiency (confirmed by cardiac ultrasound scan) which was not heard with the acoustic stethoscope but was visualized using our intelligent stethoscope prototype from the ASAP project [4]. This is a major achievement, using advances in medical technology to facilitate the work and training of practitioners.
Aortic insufficiency (indicated by white arrows) not heard with the acoustic stethoscope but visualized using our intelligent stethoscope prototype and confirmed by echocardiography (data collected in the ASAP project) [4].
(n = 30)
Without tools With tools
% of “good” diagnosis (n = 10) 64% (191) 80% (239)
% of “good” diagnosis in respiratory auscultation (n = 5):
normal respiratory auscultation
crackles (chronic bronchitis)
crackles (interstitial pneumonia)
wheeze sibilants (acute crisis of asthma)
stridor (lung carcinoma) 61% (92)
70% (21) 70% (105)
% of “good” diagnosis in cardiac auscultation (n = 5):
normal cardiac auscultation
aortic regurgitation (minimal murmur)
arrhythmia (auricular fibrillation) 66% (99)
Results of the use of new tools as phono- and spectrogram for visualizing sounds in 30 medical students [13].
5. Advances and innovations in the field of auscultatory signal analysis
To date, there has been very little research on the analysis of auscultatory signals. In terms of signal automation and processing, research is limited to detection of frequency peaks, sound duration measurements, etc [15,16].
In cardiology, little work has been conducted to render the stethoscope "intelligent" by allowing it to provide the clinician with an advanced diagnostic tool, as, for example, that provided by ECG systems which offer the practitioner a plot analysis as a diagnostic aid [14,17].
Of note is the work by Mint and Dillard who developed a stethoscope capable of diagnosing systolic or diastolic sounds present between B1 and B2 beats, and which measured the heart rate using a simple time-frequency analysis of the time periods of interest [14].
We also should acknowledge the work carried out by Murphy, who worked towards developing an "intelligent" stethoscope for which the technology is both interesting and innovative. These studies are reviewed, appended and presented in detail in reference [2].
In terms of respiratory medicine, the automated analysis of pulmonary auscultatory signals remains a challenge, especially compared with the cardiac field. The European Community-funded CORSA project, conducted between 1990 and 2000, provides an overview of the technical advances in respiratory sound analysis using signal processing tools [8,18].
Several studies have also provided an update on the various techniques used for the capture and digitization of respiratory sounds as well as giving an overview of analytical methods based on more standardized semantics [17-20]. A summary of the techniques and characteristics of the leading methods used to assess each type of respiratory sound is provided in references [2,16,17].
As part of the ASAP project mentioned above [5], the team led by Professor C. Collet of the Image Sciences, Computer Sciences and Remote Sensing Laboratory (LSIIT) of the University of Strasbourg (in Strasbourg, France), developed a novel approach in automated analysis of pulmonary auscultation signals [20-22]. As a second step, we then validated this approach on a small number of patients presenting with either: an auscultation defined as "normal", COPD with numerous crackles or asthma with wheezing.
The methods developed by C. Collet’s team involve multiresolution signal analysis through the use of Bayesian tools in the wavelet packet domain, associated with multimodal Markovian modeling adapted for the analysis of lung sounds (high intra and interpatient variability, low signal to noise ratio SNR) (http://lsiit-miv.u-strasbg.fr/lsiit/perso/collet/) [21,22]. Innovative vagueness (fuzzy) and uncertainty (probability) concepts on the observed data were developed and implemented successfully and resulted in the defining of an early statistical marker of asthma. These studies also focused on the detection of crackles using a deconvolution method (Bernoulli Gaussian model) allowing the density of the crackles to be quantified [4].
It should be mentioned that, in collaboration with the team led by Professor A. Dieterlen (University of Haute Alsace, Mulhouse, France), our team at the University Hospital of Strasbourg are also trialing a complementary approach in the field of cardiac signal analysis (PRI project [see above]).
Ultimately, there is scope for these different innovations to be combined in the future after refining and re-valuation of the procedures involved (using strict protocols similar to those used for drug development), to create new "communicating," "intelligent" stethoscopes.
6. Advances and innovations in the realm of the stethoscope
Today’s technology, along with developments in modern medicine means that in the near future a communicating, wireless stethoscope will soon become available. This stethoscope will enable the recording, automated analysis and visualization of auscultatory signals [6,9].
INFRAL, a company (with whom we collaborate) based in Strasbourg, France, has developed several prototypes, with the aim of creating an intelligent communicating stethoscope system, which combines a diagnostic aid with tools for visualization and automated analysis [4].
This diagnostic aid is not only a helpful tool which assists physicians in making rapid decisions, but it will also allow developments in the field of telemedicine, for example; by the establishment of a database of auscultation sounds, by enabling the exchange of sounds between physicians and by allowing auscultation to be performed “from a distance” e.g. when seeking further expertise, etc. More importantly, it will allow auscultation to enter the field of fact-based medicine [6,9].
Figure 8 depicts one of the intelligent stethoscope prototypes, which uses Bluetooth to communicate with a PC, hand held computer or smartphone. This prototype was developed initially in the ASAP project (input of ALCATEL LUCENT), than by INFRAL, combining our expertise from several research projects as well as in the field of human sounds analysis, electronic stethoscope, e-health, e-teaching [4].
Several prototypes of intelligent (automatic signal analysis) communicating (Bluetooth) stethoscope system developed by our team in Strasbourg, France in different research projects, in collaboration mainly with LANNEXT, ALCATEL LUCENT, and currently with INFRAL [4].
In practical terms, a certain number of modern stethoscope models already feature functions for recording, storing and transmitting sounds. Table 3 presents an overview of the major “electronic” stethoscope models currently available on the market and those, which we have tested [4,23]. The following section outlines two examples of new intelligent communicating stethoscope systems that we tested in clinical practice in our Department.
Frequency bands and implemented filters Communication mode Additional Information Ref Price
Andromed Presence of filers (high-pass at 200 Hz) Wired connection [Andromed 08a] [Andromed 08b]
Jabes Diaphragm mode (lung): 200 to 500 Hz
Bell mode (heart) : 20 to 200 Hz
Wide mode : 20 to 1000 Hz Wired connection [Jabes 08] $299- $389
Stethoflux Coupling of acoustic stethoscope and integrated continuous wave doppler [Stethoflux 08] $960
Welch-Allyn 20 - 20000 Hertz ; although two modes are present : the bell mode (heart) 20-420 Hz, and the diaphragm mode (lungs) 350-1900 Hz Wired connection Integrated ECG [WelchAllyn 08] $225 - $240
3M Littmann Bell mode (20-200 Hz), diaphragm mode (100-500 Hz) and extended mode (20-1000 Hz). Infrared Transfer and display of sounds require additional time and investment by the physician conducting the auscultation
Differed viewing and not in real time [Littmann 08] $465 - $674 (4100WS model)
Thinklabs Filter for adjusting sound in bell/diaphragm mode, and acoustic mode. Analysis software derived from Audacity [Thinklabs 08] $400 - $500
Cardionics 8 filters enabling the attenuation or amplification of 8 different frequency bands Wired (jack) Also has a complement system enabling ECG capability [Cardionics O8a][Cardionics O8b] $335 - $575
Cardionics – Stethographics 8 filters enabling the attenuation or amplification of 8 different frequency bands Wire (jack) Multi probes [Stethographics 08] $279 - $489
Principal characteristics of electronic stethoscopes currently available commercially [4].
The JABES Life Sound System is an auscultatory system composed of the JABES Electronic Stethoscope and JABES Life Sound Analyzer software. JABES hold the patent to this stethoscope technology, which consists primarily of an analog amplifier that can amplify body sounds up to 20 times. Hand tremor and ambient noise is minimized using information provided by the manufacturer, but in reality noise from the chest piece is very important.
The stethoscope offers various modes of auscultation: Bell, Diaphragm or Wide, each with 7 levels of volume control. Auscultation modes are reported to imitate the behavior of an acoustic stethoscope. Moreover, the system includes filters that reject certain frequency ranges in order to focus on lung or heart signals.
The JABES Life Sound System software allows the physician to record the body sounds of the patient directly onto his PC in order to view the phonocardiogram. In addition, heart and lungs sounds as well as the heartbeat can be visualized in real time.
The connection between the stethoscope and the PC or external recording equipment comprises a cable connected to the PC or external recorder jack socket. Sounds can be recorded on the PC in MP3 format, but are not documented. In particular, the sample sounds are not accompanied by tags (i.e. basic information such as the area over which the sample was taken).
It is also significant that sounds cannot be transmitted in “real-time” – hence simultaneous auscultation from a distance is not possible: the signal must first be recorded on the PC, before it can be transferred via email, CD or USB flash drive (for a second opinion). Thus because of these limitations, in our opinion it is not suitable for teaching purposes.
The 3MTM LITTMANN stethoscope (LITTMANN 08) is an electronic stethoscope that allows to 6 different sound recordings during auscultation. The sounds are stored directly in.wav format in the internal memory of the stethoscope.
The practitioner can then, through an analog connection to the PC (i.e. external microphone jack), or via an infrared link, transfer the sounds onto his PC for viewing using specific software provided by 3M.
This stethoscope allows sound to be amplified up to 18 times. It has several features including: ambient mechanical noise reduction technology, configurable filters with 3 frequency response modes for listening to the heart, lungs and other human body sounds: bell mode (20-200 Hz), diaphragm mode (100-500 Hz) and extended mode (20-1000 Hz).
The features are very similar to those of the JABES stethoscope; however this system is much more expensive. The stethoscope allows the physician to view the auscultatory sounds; although the display image is delayed and not in real time. Moreover, the transfer of sounds and their display require both additional cost and time. During auscultation it is not possible to visualize how the frequency spectrum of the signal changes with time, making the examination unsystematic, complicated, and invariably much longer.
It should be noted that the electronic stethoscopes currently on the market all have analog amplifiers, providing the option of connecting to a PC through the analog microphone jack socket [4]. In order to simulate "defects" introduced by acoustic stethoscopes, these electronic stethoscopes all offer analog filters that supposedly mimic the behavior of the bell or chest piece of the acoustic stethoscope. Finally, the wired connection between the stethoscope and the storage/processing device (PC or hand held computer or smartphone) is a major handicap in terms of user ergonomics.
7. Perspectives for the use of the new intelligent communicating stethoscope system in telemedicine in the field of chronic pathologies
Moreover, applications, including diagnosis establishment, monitoring and data exchange through Internet are obviously complementary tools to objective and automatic auscultation sounds analysis. Sensors devices will allow long duration monitoring for patient at home or at hospital. It could also be a useful solution for less-developed countries and remote communities... In addition, this type of system has the great advantage to keep the non-invasive and less expensive characteristics of auscultation.
The European based project, known as E-PERION, aims to develop telemedicine by using a platform which enables "secure" home support for fragile patients and/or those with chronic diseases (LEAD-ERA tender, 2010) (Figure 9). An intelligent communicating stethoscope system is one the deployed devices, especially in patients with respiratory and/or cardiac failure. This project is developped by INFRAL company (based in Strasbourg, France), in association with our team in Strasbourg.
This company is actively involved in the design and manufacture of modular and portable devices, which enable the transfer of essential medical data (http://infral-systems.com/). Such devices use innovative concepts to register and transmit vital parameters from medical devices.
In clinical practice, the most interesting and immediate advantages offered by this tool include:
the ability to strengthen clinical evidence in favor of a particular diagnosis by visualization of the acoustic “pattern” of the sound;
the ability to monitor the evolution of a pathology, by recording findings in a given individual;
and the ability to share data, allowing the exchange of data between health care professionals (using an infrastructure similar to that of the ASAP project)).
Prototype of a telemedicine platform enabling the "secure" home support of frail subjects and patients with chronic diseases, and integrating a “communicating” and “intelligent” stethoscope (with the permission of INFRAL Company).
Conventional auscultation is subjective and not easily shared. Modern medical technology allows us to optimize ausculatory findings and hence achieve a correct diagnosis by physically characterizing sounds through recordings, visualization and automated analysis systems. The development and availability of novel tools based on innovations in science and communications technology provide the clinician with an invaluable aid in order to achieve an early objective diagnosis, as well as offering increased sensitivity and reproducibility of auscultatory findings. Such advances have not only led to the development and use of new intelligent communicating stethoscope systems, but they have also significantly contributed to the revival of telemedicine, particularly as a diagnostic and teaching aid, e-teachnig and pedagogy.
2.Current semantic of auscultatory findings and characterization of sounds
3.Advances and perspectives in documentation and characterization of sounds
4.Advances in the field of sound representation and perspectives in teaching
5.Advances and innovations in the field of auscultatory signal analysis
6.Advances and innovations in the realm of the stethoscope
7.Perspectives for the use of the new intelligent communicating stethoscope system in telemedicine in the field of chronic pathologies
8.Conclusions
Emmanuel Andrès (September 12th 2012). Advances and Perspectives in the Field of Auscultation, with a Special Focus on the Contribution of New Intelligent Communicating Stethoscope Systems in Clinical Practice, in Teaching and Telemedicine, eHealth and Remote Monitoring, Amir Hajjam El Hassani, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/48402. Available from:
Phonocardiogram Signal Processing Module for Auto-Diagnosis and Telemedicine Applications
By Ali Moukadem, Alain Dieterlen and Christian Brandt
By Bishnu Pal
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TOP CLIMATOLOGIST: OUR MODELS CAN’T BE TRUSTED – Warming predictions not even close to reality
May 24, 2019 by IWB
via wnd:
A leading climatologist is warning that nearly all of the computer simulations at the heart of the predictions of catastrophic, man-made global warming cannot be trusted with respect to a key measure.
At a meeting in the Palace of Westminster in London, Professor John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville told MPs and peers the climate models are way off in their predictions of rapid warming at high altitudes in the tropics.
“They all have rapid warming above 30,000 feet in the tropics – it’s effectively a diagnostic signal of greenhouse warming,” he said. “But in reality it’s just not happening. It’s warming up there, but at only about one third of the rate predicted by the models.”
Christy’s remarks were highlighted by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in London. The group says that while it is “open-minded on the contested science of global warming,” it is “deeply concerned about the costs and other implications of many of the policies currently being advocated.”
Read a paper presenting Christy’s key findings
Christy said a similar discrepancy between empirical measurements and computer predictions has been confirmed at the global level.
“The global warming trend for the last 40 years, starting in 1979 when satellite measurements began, is +0.13C per decade or about half of what climate models predicted,” he said.
But Christy says climatologists aren’t paying attention to the real-world data.
“An early look at some of the latest generation of climate models reveals they are predicting even faster warming. This is simply not credible,” he said.
Many other scientists have pointed to failed predictions based on the models, noting a “pause” for the past two decades in the rise of average global temperatures.
Scientists who promote the theory of anthropogenic climate change contend a rise in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to human activity is causing catastrophic warming.
But a new scientific study found that the current CO2 levels of 410 parts per million were last seen on Earth 3 million years ago. Researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research concluded that temperatures were up to 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer globally and sea levels were 65 feet higher.
Meanwhile, the millennial generation in America apparently is taking the climate models to heart. Two-thirds have nothing saved for retirement, and there are indications that the predictions of doom by politicians and many climatologists are to blame.
Tags climatologist, close, models, predictions, reality, trusted, warming Post navigation
Trump won 2662 counties. Hillary only won 487. The importance of the electoral college…
MARK DICE:Tony Robbins vs BuzzFeed
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Workout fanatic has all his fingers and toes amputated after catching the flu – despite having had the vaccine shot
by: Tracey Watson
(Natural News) Horror stories of death and serious complications have been broadcast across most media outlets this flu season. Thousands of people, young and old, have been admitted to hospitals with severe complications after contracting the flu, and USA Today reported that as of 23 February, influenza had already claimed the lives of 97 children.
Most media outlets have zealously preached the message to “get out there and get your flu shot,” and thousands of unsuspecting readers have obediently done just that, not realizing that they were putting themselves in serious danger for a vaccine that has been proven to only provide 36 percent protectionagainst this year’s prevailing flu strains.
One such unsuspecting reader was Joei Smith, a 33-year-old gym fanatic from Dallas, Texas, who describes himself as a “gym head,” who was very fit, healthy and who ate “extremely well.”
After hearing reports about the severity of this year’s flu outbreak, Smith decided to get the influenza vaccine. As the Daily Mail reported, the H3N2 strain which has ravaged the country this year is known to be particularly dangerous, and the medical community has advised that “the best approach is to be aware of the symptoms, stay clean, and get the flu shot.”
Smith did just that, and even scheduled a full physical days after getting the shot just to be on the safe side.
In spite of being given a clean bill of health, Smith says he started feeling weak and dizzy a few days later and had to leave work. When he didn’t feel any better at home, he called a friend, who rushed him to the urgent care section of a hospital in North Dallas.
It would seem Smith got there just in time, because he was diagnosed with the flu, sepsis, kidney failure and pneumonia. Doctors fought to stabilize him for three hours but warned him that they didn’t think he would survive more than one more day.
As a last-ditch attempt the doctors gave him blood pressure lowering medications which saved his life but caused other devastating problems.
The drugs caused reduced blood flow to his extremities, leaving him with blackened fingers and toes. Doctors amputated Smith’s fingers on the 7th of February, and removed his toes later in the month.
Smith is grateful to be alive, saying, “I’m just so fortunate, that I’m able to share my story. But at the same time, my heart hurts for those that didn’t make it.”
Perhaps he would be less grateful and more angry if he knew that this year’s flu shot is virtually useless and should never have been pushed on the public in the first place.
Quartz recently reported:
A number of factors aligned this flu season, including the fact that the vaccine against the main strain of the flu is particularly ineffective. A paper from Canadian scientists published last week suggests that the vaccine is only 17% effective against H3N2, the strain that’s causing 80% of flu infections. Worse, in those aged 20 to 64, it’s only 10% effective.
And yet, somehow, doctors and the mainstream media continue to push its use.
Even worse, the flu vaccine is not just useless; it’s also dangerous, and very likely weakened Smith’s incredibly healthy body, making him vulnerable to the very disease he was trying to prevent by getting the shot.
Dr. Suzanne Humphries, a respected nephrologist and vaccine expert, discussed this issue in an interview with Mike Adams, the Health Ranger and editor of Natural News. She explained:
“There’s one great study that showed that after you take an influenza vaccine, you are 4-5 times more likely to get either a different strain of influenza infection or a non-influenza viral infection that can be very nasty, like coxsackievirus and echovirus – they can actually paralyze you. They can be really nasty, nasty viruses … .”
So, getting the shot which only provides “protection” against the wrong strain of the virus makes people four to five times more susceptible to catching the strain that is circulating – a strain which has proven deadly this year.
The best way to beat the flu is to prevent it. Joei Smith would likely have been better off just keeping up his excellent health regimen. We wish him a speedy recovery. (Related: Don’t be gullible; get the true facts at Medicine.news.)
Tags amputated, catching, fanatic, fingers, flu, shot, toes, vaccine, workout Post navigation
Youtube account that originally posted this video got TERMINATED
TRUTH – The Florida High School Shooting – Innocent Until Proven Guilty Requires Evidence.
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East Asia: Intense water surpluses forecast for southern China
The 12-month forecast for East Asia through June 2019 indicates widespread intense surpluses for Northeast China in Heilongjiang, Jilin, and northern Inner Mongolia; along the Ordos Loop and Upper Reaches of the Yellow River; in Qinghai and Sichuan; and in Tibet, including along the Yarlung River (Brahmaputra). Surpluses of somewhat lesser intensity are forecast for the Pearl River watershed in the south.
Severe deficits are forecast for western Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang along with conditions of both deficit and surplus as transitions occur. Primarily moderate deficits are forecast for central provinces including Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei.
In Japan, surpluses are forecast for southern Honshu and Kyushu, and in western Hokkaido. Deficits are expected around Fukushima. Some moderate deficits are forecast for South Korea. A patchwork of anomalies is forecast for Mongolia with surpluses along rivers in the north and pockets of deficit scattered across the south.
The 3-month time series maps below show the evolving conditions in more detail.
Immediately apparent in the October through December forecast is the emergence of widespread surpluses south of the Yangtze River and through much of the Pearl River watershed. Surpluses may be exceptional at the intersection of Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi. Widespread surpluses will persist in Sichuan, Qinghai, and Tibet. Deficits are expected to increase and intensify from western Inner Mongolia through Xinjiang, with conditions of both deficit and surplus in areas of transition. Moderate to severe deficits will emerge from the North China Plain to the Yangtze River. Deficits are forecast for Taiwan.
Extreme surpluses are forecast for southern Japan, but some pockets of intense deficit are expected in Hokkaido. On the Korean Peninsula, moderate to severe deficits are forecast for southern North Korea reaching into South Korea. Deficits of varying intensity are expected spanning southern Mongolia and surpluses are forecast along rivers in the north.
From January through March widespread surpluses will persist from the Yantgze south; in Northeast China; and in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Tibet. Widespread deficits will persist from western Inner Mongolia through Xinjiang reaching extreme or exceptional intensity and will re-emerge in some areas where both surplus and deficit were forecast in prior months. Deficits will also persist from the North China Plain to the Yantgze, with intensity increasing to severe in the Plain. Conditions on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan will transition to near-normal, and anomalies in Mongolia will remain much the same as in the forecast for the prior three months with some increase in deficits.
The forecast for the final three months – April through June – indicates that conditions south of the Yangtze will normalize overall, with some surpluses persisting in the western Pearl River region. Surpluses in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Tibet will downgrade somewhat but remain widespread, as will deficits in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. Some deficits are forecast for Japan but nearly normal conditions are expected in Korea.
Typhoon Jebi hit western Japan in early September as the strongest typhoon to hit the Japanese mainland in 25 years, killing ten people and injuring more than 400 others. The storm dumped up to 20 inches of rain and caused storm surge which flooded airport runways and part of an airport terminal. High wind gusts smashed a tanker into a bridge connecting Kansai Airport with the mainland, cancelling hundreds of flights.
In late September, Typhoon Kong Rey weakened from a Category 5 storm before brushing Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and then making landfall in South Korea, killing at least two people. The ninth tropical system to hit Japan since early July, Kong-rey dropped over 15 inches of rain on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Over 60,000 people on the Korean island of Jeju lost power, and hundreds of homes were flooded.
Typhoon Trami struck the western city of Osaka, Japan in early October, killing two people and injuring at least 120. The storm cancelled more than 1,000 flights and cut power to over 750,000 homes.
Typhoon Mangkhut struck the Chinese coast near Jiangmen city in Guangdong Province last month, causing extensive wind damage and 12 feet of storm surge in some places. Over 2.5 million people evacuated in Guangdong and on Hainan Island. Hundreds of people were injured, and over 900 flights were cancelled at Hong Kong International Airport. A Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm estimated insured losses in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau to be between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Damages in key banana producing prefectures, resulting in as much as 70 percent crop loss, in Guangdong Province heightened already-rising banana prices in the country. Prices rose from $0.61 per kilo in June to $0.76 per kilo in late September.
NOTE ON ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES
There are numerous regions around the world where country borders are contested. ISciences depicts country boundaries on these maps solely to provide some geographic context. The boundaries are nominal, not legal, descriptions of each
entity. The use of these boundaries does not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of disputed boundaries on the part of ISciences or our data providers.
Posted in East Asia
tagged with Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Ordos Loop, Yellow River, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Yarlung River, Pearl River, Xinjiang, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Japan, Honshu, Kyushu, Hokkaido, Kukushima, South Korea, Mongolia, Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi, North China Plain, Yangtze River, drought, flood
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Snowbombing
For the second time in four years, Snowbombing was recently voted 'Best Overseas Festival' at the UK Festival Awards 2013, beating a shortlist that included a host of overseas festivals including Exit Festival (Serbia), Tomorrowland (Belgium) and Outlook (Croatia).
Snowbombing founder Gareth Cooper said: “We are delighted that Snowbombing has won best overseas festival for the second time in four years.
“It is great for our team who put so much effort into making Snowbombing the huge success that it is. They continue to push the boundaries of what we can do to keep the festival fresh for all our festival goers”
This year’s event saw the likes of Kasabian who performed on a mountain top stage built especially for the occasion, Carl Cox who made his Snowbombing debut and Mercury nominated Disclosure and Rudimental take to the slopes. Hans the Butcher sold more than 24,000 sandwiches and a countless number of Jager Bombs were consumed which possibly all contributed to making Snowbombing 2013 the best to date!
Next year’s event looks set to be even bigger and better with the best line up to date including the Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers (DJ Set), Chase & Status, Groove Armada, Four Tet and many more. For more info, check: www.snowbombing.com
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Home Other News Vatican News Emerging Papal Schedule for 2010
Emerging Papal Schedule for 2010
Video – www.romereports.com
Calendar Filling up With 4 International Trips and Mideast Synod
2010 promises to be the busiest yet for Benedict XVI’s pontificate, as the almost-83-year-old-Pope is planning four international trips and a synod on the Middle East.
The Holy Father will visit Malta, Portugal, Cyprus and the United Kingdom during 2010. He will also preside over the first synod on the Middle East, and his several pilgrimages within Italy will include celebrations as momentous as a visit to the Shroud of Turin.
It also promises to be a year when the expected will come to pass: Pope John Paul II might be beatified (though the Vatican has repeatedly reiterated that his cause must follow the normal path leading to beatification), and the second part of Benedict XVI’s bestseller “Jesus of Nazareth” could be published. As well, his apostolic exhortation taking up the conclusions of the 2008 synod on the Word of God could be released.
The year beginning today is also expected to bring forward causes that the German Pope has made a priority: advances in Christian unity, and unity with other religions, particularly Islam and Judaism.
In fact, one of the most symbolic events of the year will be his Jan. 17 visit to the Synagogue of Rome. That trip will take place just weeks after some Jews have protested the Holy Father’s official recognition of the heroic virtues of his predecessor, Pope Pius XII.
In reviewing 2009 with the Roman Curia, Benedict XVI observed that last year developed in the light of Africa. The synod on Africa in Rome and the Holy Father’s first trip to the continent as Pontiff marked 2009. In this regard, 2010 will be a year in the light of the Middle East, given that the synod to discuss that region is scheduled for Oct. 10-24.
The Pope will officially present the working document for the synod during his visit to Cyprus from June 4 to 6.
That trip is symbolic for other reasons because it will bring to light certain central themes of the pontificate, such as dialogue with the local Orthodox Church. That Church, since the 2006 election of Chrysostomos II, has become a leader in ecumenical efforts, as well as a promoter of interreligious dialogue with Islam, due to Turkish presence on the divided island.
Benedict XVI’s first 2010 trip out of Italy will bring him to Malta, April 17-18. The visit will mark the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul’s shipwreck there, which tradition holds to have taken place in A.D. 60. Paul was headed to Rome, but instead was welcomed by the local population and spent three months evangelizing the archipelago, which is still majority Catholic.
Then the Pontiff will head to Portugal in May, a visit that includes a pilgrimage to Lourdes — one more stop on what has become his world tour of Marian shrines including Loreto, Italy; Alt�tting, Germany; Mariazell, Austria; Aparecida, Brazil; Lourdes, France; Mvolye, Cameroon; and Pompeii, Italy.
The fourth international trip will bring the Pope to the United Kingdom. Though the dates have not been officially announced, it is expected that he will be in England between the 17th and 19th of September.
While there, it is expected that the Pontiff will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), an intellectual Anglican convert. That visit will obviously have decisive ecumenical repercussions in light of last year’s Oct. 20 announcement that paves the way for Anglicans to come to full communion with the Holy See in groups.
There are also four apostolic trips within Italy already on the papal agenda. The first is to Turin on May 2, during the extraordinary exposition of the Shroud that will take place from April 10 to May 23. In July, the Holy Father will visit the region affected by last April’s earthquake. That visit will mark the 800th anniversary of the birth of Pope Celestine V (who died in 1296), one of the few popes to abdicate.
In September, Benedict XVI will visit Carpineto Romano, a small town of the Roman province, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Pope Leo XIII.
And finally, in October, the Holy Father will visit Palermo to participate in meetings with families and youth.
Not to be overlooked in 2010 is the closing of the Year for Priests, with June 9-11 events in Rome. The Holy Father has invited the priests of the world to participate in the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney. But he has also asked the faithful of every walk of life to include themselves in the celebrations by expressing the Church’s love for its priests.
(Zenit.org)
KandLe Team
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Tyson giving one-time bonuses to thousands of workers in Kansas, Missouri
By: Sean Hirshberg
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tyson foods announced Monday, it will give one-time bonuses to thousands of workers in Missouri and Kansas. The company cites savings from the new tax law for issuing the bonuses.
A Tyson spokesman told 41 Action News, the company employs 5,800 workers at five locations in Missouri and 5,700 workers at five locations in Kansas.
The Kansas locations include Kansas City, Olathe, Hutchison, Holcomb and Emporia. The Missouri locations include St. Joseph, Sedalia, Monett, Noel and Dexter.
The spokesman said the "vast majority" of those employees are eligible for the one-time bonus. Those 11,000 employees are not alone. The company says 100,000 employees across the nation will receive the bonus.
In a release on the company's website, the President and CEO of Tyson, Tom Hayes said, "Yesterday, I shared with the team our plans for investing our tax savings, including our plan to provide one-time bonuses to frontline workers whose compensation does not include an annual bonus. These employees are the backbone of our business and we’re happy to show them our appreciation."
In a letter to employees , Hayes said, "eligible full-time team members will receive $1,000, and eligible part-time team members will receive $500."
Tyson is the latest company to give bonuses citing savings from the new tax law.
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A Game of Russian Roulette
Chip Gibbons
Couching opposition to Trump in anti-Russia language will only end up benefiting the Right.
A Russian telecom company's switchboard, which included a direct line to Vladimir Putin, in 2007. Dmitry Komarovsky / Flickr
With many still puzzling over how Donald Trump could have won the election — and grasping at ways to resist his agenda — the claim that the president is an agent of Russian influence has grown popular in liberal circles.
Some blame Trump’s victory on Russian interference. Others question who Trump really takes orders from, implying that it is Russian president Vladimir Putin, not Trump, who will be calling the shots in the White House. Still others decry Trump’s praise for Putin, going so far as to label it “treasonous.”
While Trump is the target of most of these accusations, many of the most vociferous hunters of Russian influence are now casting their nets much wider, ensnaring elements of the Left. Writing at the Daily Beast earlier this month, Casey Michel informed readers that the Kremlin plot to elect Trump included not just the “alt-right,” but “Bernie bros, Greens, and anti-imperialists.” For good measure, he reminded us that the now-defunct Soviet Union once funded the Communist Party, USA.
Over the weekend USA Today devolved into outright red-baiting, published a column excoriating organizers of the Women’s March for their inclusion of black liberation activist Angela Davis — “a proud tool . . . of Putin’s former employer, the Soviet Union.”
The convergence of anti-Russia rhetoric and Cold War style red-baiting has trickled down to some grassroots activists as well. Last week in Washington, DC, as an act of street theater, a number of anti-Trump protesters, wearing Soviet flags as if they were capes, carried signs labeling the new president the “KGB employee of the month.” At protests across the country, signs decrying Trump’s ties to Russia at times veered not just into homophobia, but red-baiting tropes (references to “Comrade Trump,” signs adorned with hammers and sickles).
As Trump pushes through a nightmarish whirlwind of executive orders, the urge to undermine his presidency is more than understandable — it’s absolutely essential. But organizing against Trump in an anti-Russia idiom ignores the xenophobic right-winger’s most serious problems — and it makes it easier for the state to crack down on left dissent and ideas.
Delegitimizing Dissent
Accusations of Russian meddling may seem like a throwback to the days of McCarthyism. But although the red-baiting may be, such charges are also the culmination of a much more recent trend of repression, one that has gone largely unnoted.
In 2014, then–NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen leveled the charge that opposition to fracking was part of a disinformation campaign funded by Russia. Hillary Clinton, in her secret speeches to Goldman Sachs, similarly asserted that Russia was fostering anti-fracking sentiment by funding “phony environmental groups.”
The claim then found its way into the heavily publicized Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) report on Russian interference in the presidential election. In a two-page annex on RT, the Kremlin-funded English language news channel, the ODNI noted that RT reported on the environmental and health impacts of fracking, attributing the coverage to Putin’s desire to defend Russian oil interests.
Given that the FBI has repeatedly spied on environmental groups, from Greenpeace to opponents of the Keystone Pipeline, as part of “counterterrorism” investigations, the insistence that the anti-fracking movement is connected to a perceived foreign adversary opens the door for all kinds of repressive and disruptive actions.
The ODNI report’s annex on RT is particularly alarming, not because of what it says about Russian propaganda efforts inside the US, but because of what it says about the propaganda efforts of the US intelligence community inside the US. Put bluntly, the intelligence community is actively working to equate domestic dissent with nefarious machinations from the Kremlin.
There are legitimate criticisms to be made of RT and the way it covers the actions of the Russian state, just as it is right to regard Putin as a reactionary, authoritarian leader.
Putin uses social conservatism and nationalist rhetoric to deepen his authoritarian rule — hence his support for anti-LGBT legislation that criminalizes “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors and statements that jailed members of the feminist, anticapitalist punk band Pussy Riot “got what they asked for.”
In addition, while Putin is clearly is no fan of US hegemony, his objections spring from a desire to build a strong Russian state that projects its influence globally. This is evident in his brutal repression of Chechen independence groups and his denunciations of parts of the opposition as “Bolsheviks” (whom he considers traitors for opposing Russian participation in World War I). While there’s much to oppose about the US’s policy in Syria — as well as its regional allies funneling money into armed Salafist groups — a government that is willing to go to such lengths to prop up a murderous dictator like Bashar al-Assad is not a bulwark against imperialism or an alternative to the prevailing capitalist order.
But the report didn’t focus on Putin’s anti-democratic tendencies. It mostly assailed RT for giving a platform to left-wing movements in the US. By way of evidence, the government agency cited RT’s repeated airing of a documentary about Occupy Wall Street, which depicted the movement as opposed to the “ruling class” (quotations in the report). RT, the report further lamented, covered infringements on civil liberties in the US and “alleged” Wall Street greed. Of additional concern was that RT had hosted a third-party presidential debate and claimed that the US’s two-party system did not represent “29%” of the population. Lies only the Kremlin could tell, indeed.
Before the ODNI tried its hand at media criticism, PropOrNot sounded the alarm about Russian propaganda. The organization — which regards itself as an expert outfit but about which little is known since its members are anonymous — released a McCarthyite blacklist of news sites it deems “propaganda.”
PropOrNot included outlets that do receive Russian funding, but it also flagged a broad range of other sites and institutions — right-wing websites, the Ron Paul Institute, even one website that appears to be about UFOs. More troublingly, the original list also named a number of venerable progressive media outlets (at least one of which has since been removed) and reputable blogs like Naked Capitalism.
Of course, the Internet is filled with cranks, and an obscure report by a shadowy organization isn’t necessarily cause for concern. However, a few weeks after the election, the Washington Post cited PropOrNot’s research in a widely circulated story, giving the previously unknown organization both newfound attention and the illusion of credibility.
That opposition to the election of a far-right populist has given rise to an attempt to conflate left-wing dissent with treason may cause some to scratch their heads.
So what is going on here?
The “Russian Menace”
Writing in the French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, Serge Halimi has observed that an ill wind is blowing across the nations of the West (“Un vent mauvais souffle sur l’Occident”). Almost every election is observed through the prism of Russian influence.
While Halimi notes the bizarre ideological diversity of those branded pro-Putin, the attacks on the Left are illustrative of how the “Russian menace” is used. Across the world — from Jeremy Corbyn in the UK to Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France to pre-austerity Syriza in Greece — left voices have been branded as Putin sympathizers.
It’s a clever rhetorical move. Denouncing opponents as fellow travelers of Putin allows political and media elites to delegitimize critics of the neoliberal order, scrubbing public debate of any mention of the root causes plaguing the advanced capitalist world. It is not austerity that drives opposition to the European Union, but a Russian plot to weaken Western European institutions. It is not the legacy of colonialism that is re-emerging in the program of the European far right, but bad thoughts the Kremlin has put into people’s minds.
This is particularly dangerous in the US. Trump enters the White House after running a campaign infused with bigotry and fear mongering, while promising to bring back torture, surveil Muslims, and undermine what little progress has been made in restraining police brutality. Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they want defund Planned Parenthood, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and go after Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. All of these are very pressing dangers.
Yet earlier this month, at Donald Trump’s first press conference in six months, he was not asked a single question about Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.
Worse yet, in some cases it appears the Russia fixation is not merely a distraction, but a deliberate cudgel to use against those who oppose attacks on the welfare state or civil liberties.
Eric Garland, the Twitter game theorist who dazzled some in the media, praised Sanders’s opposition to “economic inequality, ” but argued that such a problem would take years to fix. In the immediate future, he insisted, Sanders needed to weigh in on the “greatest crisis”: Russian interference.
In a similar vein, after Trump came under fire for nominating former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin to his cabinet, the neoconservative David Frum took to Twitter to complain that many “patriotic” people worked at Goldman Sachs and it was “[w]eird to be more alarmed by [Goldman Sach’s] influence than, say, Vladimir Putin’s.”
Thus, not only are wide sectors of the media and political class focusing on Russia to the exclusion of actual issues, those who do focus on actual issues are chastised for not forming a popular front with people like Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham — two men who have yet to locate a country on a map they didn’t wish to bomb.
For the “never Trump” conservative crowd, Russia plays a convenient role. It lets them cling to the delusion that Trump is somehow not truly conservative or the outgrowth of the Republican Party’s decades-long strategy of exploiting racism. Castigating Trump as tantamount to a foreign adversary is one way they can argue Trump isn’t one of them.
It is less clear what liberal Democrats have to gain from hopping on this bandwagon, other than a talking point against Trump. One possibility: as Doug Henwood has pointed out, fixating on Russia allows establishment Democrats to avoid asking any hard questions about why Hillary Clinton lost. Not only can they ascribe Clinton’s loss to Russian hacking — instead of her ties to Wall Street or her tone deafness to populist outrage — they can argue that focusing on anything but Russia distracts us from the most pressing issue: the Kremlin’s hijacking of our democracy.
The Russia framing helps them justify staying the course rather than finding fault with the party. Sanders, though now formally independent, is currently leading the only meaningful opposition to Trump among federally elected Democrats. He is doing so by hitting Trump on the same themes that drew millions to his campaign in the first place.
But while defending the most popular pillars of the actually existing US welfare state is one of the best ways for the Democrats to attack Trump, the party is fundamentally a capitalist one with deep ties to Wall Street. Populist mobilizations are anathema to its class interest.
So expect more histrionics about Russia.
A Perilous Game
Trump’s election has helped normalize white supremacy. He has nominated noted bigots like Jeff Sessions to his cabinet after campaigning on policies like mass deportation, a Muslim registry, and restoring “law and order.” He has aligned himself with forces that wish to restrict women’s access to health care and are deeply hostile to LGBTQ rights. Populist flourishes notwithstanding, his program will accelerate the upward redistribution of wealth.
None of these policies or prejudices are foreign ideas — racist and right-wing movements have a long history in the US. Clinging to the view that it is Trump’s alleged Russian backing that makes him beyond the pale fails to counter his noxious agenda.
This is to say nothing, of course, about the way that accusations of Putin sympathies are used to impugn left criticism of the neoliberal order or US militarism or the intelligence community. RT’s partiality toward an Occupy Wall Street documentary doesn’t negate people’s real grievances. There are legitimate reasons to question NATO’s role in the world and oppose the increasingly confrontational and bellicose attitude towards Russia. The CIA is not a force for democracy, has a history of lying, and has given very little public evidence to support the claim that Russia “hacked” the election.
Yet when anyone points out these facts, or calls for the CIA to present more evidence, they run the risk of being tarred as pro-Putin. Thus, we have a conspiracy where little evidence is given, but merely asking for more evidence makes one party to the conspiracy in question.
Left-leaning people who choose to participate in this game do so at their own peril. While charges of Russian inference are still largely being used to excoriate Trump, the Left is quickly becoming a target. If we decide to play into it, we’ll not only fail to score any meaningful victories against Trump and the GOP’s reactionary agenda — we’ll fashion the very tools by which we’ll ultimately be repressed.
Chip Gibbons is a journalist, whose work has been featured in Jacobin and the Nation . He is also the policy and legislative counsel for Defending Rights and Dissent, but the views expressed here are his own.
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A Marxist in the European Parliament
Marc Botenga
David Broder
Last week’s elections produced grim results for the Left across most of the continent. But in Belgium, the Workers’ Party made a historic breakthrough.
A Workers' Party of Belgium climate demonstration on December 2, 2018. Marc Botenga / Facebook
Of orthodox Marxist-Leninist background, the Workers’ Party of Belgium has in recent years begun to look like one of the most dynamic forces on the European left. Sunday’s elections only confirmed this picture. While the vote for the EU Parliament in Brussels saw setbacks for the radical left across most of the continent — the GUE/NGL group fell from fifty-two seats to just thirty-eight in the 751-member assembly — the leading exception was in Belgium itself.
The far right is, here as elsewhere in Europe, a dangerous force. The Flemish-nationalist Vlaams Belang made strong gains in Sunday’s regional, national, and European elections, which were held simultaneously after the right-wing government fell in a dispute over migrant numbers. Yet just as big a story on election night were the advances for the Workers’ Party (PTB), which scored almost 9 percent of the vote nationally, more than doubling its support.
As well as increasing its number of MPs from two to twelve and electing a host of members in Belgium’s regional assemblies, the PTB also made a breakthrough in the European election, as Marc Botenga became its first member of the EU Parliament. Jacobin’s David Broder spoke to Marc about the reasons for the PTB’s success, building a social alternative to the far right, and the wider difficulties for the European left.
You campaigned as “La gauche qui pique contre l’Europe du fric” — “the Left with a kick, against the Europe of big money.” Your campaign especially highlighted the revolving door between politics and business, for instance how former European Commission president José Barroso immediately went to work for Goldman Sachs.
But if the institutions of the European Union are opaque, that also means citizens don’t take an interest in what their representatives (MEPs) are doing. What do you think you can do as an MEP to expose what’s going on in Brussels?
First, I’ll note that the slogan against the Europe of big money has three dimensions. There is the revolving door and the high salaries of the European Union’s own officials – it’s obscene that a public servant could be paid €30,000 a month when one in three people in Brussels itself are living in poverty.
Then there is the priority of economic freedoms over social and ecological measures — every law has to be checked to ensure it complies with the free movement of capital and services. Giving priority to the law of the market shows what kind of Europe you’re building. And then there is austerity — it makes the people pay while the rich benefit.
But yes, looking at how the European Union functions, when we go around the country on the campaign trail we see people’s first reaction is they say they don’t follow it, or they don’t care. That’s no coincidence — the European Union is difficult to understand. But what we see in our meeting and discussions with voters is that you can achieve a lot when you make clear what is at stake.
Take the case of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a complex trade treaty — no voter is going to read a 1700 page document. But by talking about chlorinated chicken or taking a Trojan horse through the streets of Brussels, you can break it down into symbolic issues. And again with the revolving door, if you look at the EU climate commissioner who had been an owner of two oil companies and sold the shares to a family holding only when he became commissioner, no one can doubt that is a problem.
This kind of practical illustration of what is at stake also helps stimulate mobilization. That is how we succeeded in stopping the multilateral investment agreement, and it almost happened with CETA. That kind of movement, and not just tabling the best amendment in the European Parliament, is what is going to make a difference in the battle of ideas.
You mention the priority to free movement of capital and services in the European Union as an issue, and we could mention other treaty provisions that enshrine privatization and competition. Looking for a way out of this, some on the radical left some talk of “breaking out of the European treaties,” others of rewriting them or disobeying them. Given the difficulty changing the EU treaties, what do you think is the way out?
We can’t do everything and are very humble — we have a vision, a strategy we hope is useful to people, and we hope to contribute to a wider change. But we have a lot to learn, too.
At the same time, these strategies are not all mutually exclusive. We want to break with the logic of the treaties — the prioritization of competition and competitiveness — and this can be done in different ways. For instance, in the case of the Fourth Railway Package, which liberalizes passenger train services and imposes similar measures for freight train services.
Faced with such a package, we think Belgium should disobey it. That isn’t just a national response in one country, but also makes it possible to build European solidarity movements. As we saw with the strikes against privatization on the French railways last year, there would be a lot of support for such a position there, too. The important thing is to create a type of disobedience that can spread and win, even if not necessarily in all twenty-eight countries at once.
And indeed, I always quote the example of the European dockworkers. In the 2000s they succeeded in defending their working conditions by organizing pan-European strikes, building a more favorable power balance through their mobilization and forcing the Commission to withdraw the liberalization proposals.
That doesn’t come from nowhere — the marvelous strike movement in France, the worker involvement and passenger support took months of work to build. But it’s about building solidarity rooted in those kinds of struggles.
The Socialists fell back slightly here as around Europe, but your rise in vote share was much greater. Where are the new voters from the PTB coming from — are they disaffected Socialists, people who didn’t vote before? And what mobilized them?
At this stage it is difficult to ascertain the precise movements of voters. The Socialists did particularly badly in the north of the country [Flanders], in the south [Wallonia, French-speaking] they lost but remained the leading party. Doubtless we won some voters disappointed by their record.
In Belgium voting is compulsory, but that doesn’t mean that people necessarily do — in cities like Charleroi as many as 20-25 percent don’t vote. People often register their disgust with politics by issuing a blank vote — casting an unmarked ballot. So going door to door or campaigning in markets we made a special effort to say: we feel your distrust with politicians, and we here to change things, not to fill our pockets or serve ourselves. That is why a PTB representative takes an average worker’s wage, not whatever salary is proposed for that office.
As for mobilizing voters, we drew the debate onto issues where the other parties were forced to copy us. Take pensions — the average is €1200 a month and just €900 for women, whereas being in a retirement home can easily cost €1600. The pension age has also been raised from sixty-five to sixty-seven. We made a demand for a €1500 minimum and then the other parties sought to imitate us — the Socialists especially “copy-pasted” our program.
Another case would be energy — in Belgium the value-added tax (VAT) is 21 percent for luxury goods and 6 percent for basic ones, yet home energy is counted as a “luxury” and thus has the same VAT as champagne. But if you don’t have electricity you’re not doing a lot in your flat!
So, we make radical but fundamental demands that are, at the same time, “normal” common sense. Whereas the far right want to talk only about immigration we are the ones talking about social themes, and unlike the Socialists our promises don’t expire on election day itself.
At the same time, we’re not just saying, “vote for us.” We already planned meetings for after the elections, with people we’ve met; for while our MPs will do a great job, we also need to stimulate a different balance of power in the streets. Even the most basic democratic demands were won by class struggle, not by well-meaning politicians, and that applies also to winning social demands.
And how about who’s joining your party?
Today our party is growing very fast — we need to count up who joined during the campaign, but the total membership surpasses sixteen thousand. One thing we’re very happy about is that we have elected workers into parliament, for normally it’s a place you don’t see many. On Sunday for example we elected a former airplane cleaning worker Maria Vindevoghel and, Roberto D’Amico, a former worker from Caterpillar to the federal parliament and also a former bus driver, Youssef Handichi, to the regional parliament in Brussels. All of them also have a trade union background.
In French-speaking Belgium, for the European election, six of our fourteen candidates were trade unionists and a majority are workers. We are a party of labor but also have small traders coming to us because the liberals, who always claimed to be on the side of small and medium businesses, are in fact organizing tax evasion for multinationals.
Strikingly, there are also a lot of young people from the climate movement, among others, and the party is also culturally diverse. That’s no miracle — it’s the result of grassroots work that’s going on in working-class neighborhoods. If with last October’s local contests and now the regional, federal, and European elections on Sunday, electoral work has taken center stage, it’s also important to be active outside of election time, to be part of working-class communities.
The PTB also elected twelve members to the Belgian parliament, up from two seats, and were one of the biggest winners of the federal election. You got over 13 percent in both Brussels and Wallonia and over 5 percent in Flanders, but there the Vlaams Belang was much stronger. Indeed, Wallonia seems to be one of very few parts of Europe where the far right isn’t on the rise. What explains this difference — and are you competing with the far right for similar voters?
The strength of the far right owes to many factors. Two are that when social democracy started to decline in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, disappointing its own working-class base, we were perceived — probably rightly — as too small and radical as to be an alternative. The previous incarnation of the far right, Vlaams Blok, gobbled up support in those years. Flanders has always had a certain Flemish nationalism which does have an important cultural influence, and the radical right has been able to capitalize on this.
N-VA — an alt-right and nationalist Flemish party which presents itself as not on the far right, and indeed an obstacle against it — has succeeded in waging a cultural battle that draws the whole political terrain to the right and opens the way to far-right themes and vocabulary. This has helped Vlaams Belang become the second biggest party in Flanders.
Yet in this election, we also saw that this region is no monolith. Electing members to the Flemish parliament, and to the federal Belgian parliament from Flanders, we have broken through the far-right’s claim that there is “no place” for Marxists or leftists in Flanders, resisting their violent rhetoric against “rats” on the Left.
We faced difficult circumstances — the far right has been normalized, including even being invited on children’s TV shows to dance along with other politicians, and had maybe twenty times more media coverage than us. But taking people’s social concerns and fears seriously is the necessary condition for breaking through the far right’s appeal and providing a locomotive that can pull things to the left. Indeed, we especially invested effort in Antwerp, because it was important to elect people in different parts of the country.
In Wallonia, it is true, the far right has made no breakthrough. This has to do with our work. But we shouldn’t idealize this as if it were a racist-free paradise. In the local elections, in some cities far-right forces scored double figures, if taken together, and the potential does exist.
But we struggle against this and have succeeded in denying the space for such a party to emerge in Wallonia. We have had success in mobilizing an anti-establishment vote, by talking about people’s wages, their future, their jobs, but there’s also a cultural battle to be had against the far right. At the same time, if we do get an “anti-establishment” vote, people are becoming more aware of our specific program with around 840 concrete proposals and alternatives.
The results across Europe were disappointing for the radical Left — the GUE fell from fifty-two seats to thirty-eight, and parties like Podemos and France Insoumise did particularly poorly. Having long given up its anti-austerity agenda, this election also marked the final demise of the Syriza government in Greece. But while the centrist blocs lost ground, overall we don’t get the impression the Left is taking advantage of the crisis in the European Union. Why do you think the PTB bucked the trend?
Evidently Syriza couldn’t present itself as the alternative because it was in government and had accepted the framework imposed upon it. But it would be hard to draw out any one factor that explains the (perhaps temporary) setbacks for Podemos or France Insoumise.
When I spoke before of us having a lot to learn it wasn’t just etiquette — I really meant it. We are a structured party and not a movement, but the current situation also involves growing pains — our situation shouldn’t be idealized. At the same time, every national situation is different and I’d be wary of over-generalizing. Some people say that our situation today is a bit like the First International with its variety of forces, I think maybe that’s true. We know more or less what the differences are between parties, and need to find what we can learn from each other.
But I would say that I think one of the successes we have had is to have a rhetoric and practice of rupture, insisting that we’re not like other parties while also offering concrete solutions.
Positively, we believe in grassroots work. We are impatient for change but also build patiently, recognizing and saying that the vote for the PTB is just one step in building a counter-movement.
You recently took part in the Plan B summit in Stockholm. Without doubt there is a body of thought on the Left critical of the European Union’s treaties, for instance the barriers they pose to state aid and borrowing for investment. But there doesn’t seem to be an actual plan B: a collective proposal that unites the parties of the European Left. Do you see any possibility of a process by which that might come about?
We want to break with the logic of the treaties. We do not necessarily need a blueprint for the perfect society, though we do have our vision of what a different society should be: socialism. We know this vision is not shared by all the parties on the European left. Indeed, it’s not so much just the European treaties that are the issue as it is the economic system as a whole — the treaties set those dogmas in stone, for sure, but if you want to break with this logic then going back to national law is not necessarily a solution.
Multinationals are more or less unified internationally, as are the European institutions (built, indeed, by the member states). So there remains the question of how to find European solutions, which doesn’t necessarily mean from Iceland to Turkey or in all twenty-eight EU member states, but build or reinforce social movements that span multiple countries and challenge the logic of handing everything over to the market.
Examples of international workers’ struggles like the dockworkers or Ryanair are an example of the solidarity we need, and the counter-power against these multinationals and institutions. The Left’s role is to amplify these struggles. In securing victories, like against a socially unjust tax on electricity (Turteltaks), we can build the feeling that it is possible to create another society that puts social needs and the planet at its core. Hope is, indeed, really important to mobilizing people. Certainly, in the youth climate march, we see that: they are clear that they want a society that puts the planet first, even if they don’t have the plan written in tiny detail.
But here again, we see the need to make the social question central. Multinationals plan for what should be produced where and when, and the planet deserves planned solutions too.
The important thing, though, is who pays for a Green New Deal and who controls it. The climate skeptics will have an easy time of things if they can say that ordinary people will be made to pay for the climate transition. And indeed, we need to cut emissions by 10 percent a year in Belgium. That’s not something that the market is going to take care of.
Diem25 or AOC or the Greens will all have their different vision of the Green New Deal, but the important thing is to assert democratic public planning over energy, for instance. There’s a nice line in JK Galbraith’s Predator State where he says either the ecological transition will be planned by a public authority with public power or planned away by private enterprises with nothing at heart but selling more oil and gas. I think that’s the dilemma we face.
Marc Botenga is a member of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) and political advisor to the European United Left (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament.
About the Interviewer
David Broder is a historian of French and Italian communism. He is currently writing a book on the crisis of Italian democracy in the post-Cold War period.
About the Translator
International Elections
Workers’ Party of Belgium
2019 European Parliament election
Of orthodox Marxist-Leninist background, the Workers’ Party of Belgium has in recent years begun to look like one of the most dynamic forces on the European left. Sunday’s elections only confirmed this picture. While the vote for the EU Parliament in Brussels saw setbacks for the radical left across most of the continent — the […]
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CHP releases new details about fatal Highway 46 crash near Shandon
Published April 3rd, 2017 | Posted in Car Accident
One person was killed Friday, March 31, 2017, in a five-vehicle crash near Shandon that left an overturned semi-truck stretched on its side across Highway 46 East, according to the California Highway Patrol
New details have been released about the fatal five-vehicle accident near Shandon on Friday on Highway 46 East.
According to a California Highway Patrol news release, the driver of a semi-truck was traveling 55 to 65 mph when the truck drifted onto the right shoulder of Highway 46 heading east about 2:15 p.m. When the driver, Charles S. Celaya, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, attempted to direct the big rig back to the road on a right-hand curve, he crossed the center divider and clipped a 2001 Dodge Dakota, police said.
The big rig then collided head-on with a westbound 2014 GMC Sierra, causing major damage to both vehicles, police said. The semi-truck, swerving left and right, tipped on its side and spilled its contents, mushy grain that it was hauling from Firestone Walker Brewing Co. in Paso Robles.
The driver of the GMC died from blunt force trauma, police said. His name has not been released, pending notification of his family.
Authorities said the man driving the Dodge — Alfaro Rafael Mendoza, 49, of Salinas — crashed into a 2016 Ford F-150, driven by Jeffrey Wayne Fisher, and a 2013 Honda Odyssey, driven by Brian Garard Kelly. Kelly, 61, of Buellton, received minor injuries to his left arm. Mendoza and Fisher, 53, of Bodfish, were not injured.
Police do not believe drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.
Our sincere sympathies go out to the family and friends of the deceased. We wish them courage during these trying moments of losing their loved one.
If you have lost a loved one due to someone’s wrongful conduct or negligence in Lompoc, CA, you may have a right to a wrongful death claim against the negligent party. James McKiernan Lawyers encourages anyone who may find him or herself in such a difficult situation to contact an experienced Santa Maria personal injury attorney at 1-800-200-HURT (4878) for a free case evaluation. We only get paid if you get paid. Our offices are conveniently located throughout California.
At James McKiernan Lawyers, We work tirelessly to deliver accurate news about the California accidents that impact our readers and clients most. Although our goal is to keep people as informed as possible, we’d like to note the information we aggregate is obtained from a wide variety of nonaffiliated secondary sources. These include but are not limited to: Law enforcement agencies, press release, News articles, and websites.
As we publish and share accident information, we make all possible efforts to ensure its correctness, but for the aforementioned reasons, we cannot guarantee that our content is completely accurate. Although we generally respond to inquiries and requests to change, update or amend the content and articles that we publish, we cannot promise that we’ll be able to do so within a given time frame.
The articles and blogs that we share or post here and on social media are designed to serve solely as general information. They should not be taken to constitute legal, medical or any other form of express or implied advice. Similarly, they may not be applicable to your personal circumstances, situation or case. Any information referring to specific laws, statutes or legal actions reflects legal principles, but the laws that apply to you may differ based on your situation, jurisdiction or other factors.
CALL JAMES McKIERNAN LAWYERS (800) 200-HURT (4878) for a FREE CONSULTATION
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Angebote zu "Whitburn" (2 Treffer)
Joel Whitburn - Joel Whitburn´s Top Pop Albums 1955-1996
Gebundene Ausgabe - 1060 Seiten- Record Research Inc. - 1996 - Englisch AUTHOR´S NOTE How do you condense several tons of record albums and CDs, plus 41 years of weekly Billboard charts and an extensive artist biography file into something that weighs less than five pounds? With 100,000 man hours and fine print! All of the separate elements of this book not only take up a tremendous amount of computer space, but also a good chunk of our record vault and offices. At the onset, the task of converting it into a single tome appeared daunting. But it´s well worth the effort once you hold the finished product in your hands. With an unknown amount of words and numbers, this fourth edition of our Top Pop Albums book chronicles every one of the 18,594 albums and 4,484 artists that have appeared on Billboard´s Pop albums charts since 1955. Without any essays or analyses, the Billboard chart data tells the story of 41 years of the album in America. The Billboard Pop albums chart is a direct tally of the public´s favorite albums week to week. It is based entirely on sales figures. Anything can make the chart, from death metal to Contemporary Christian. Radio airplay can be inconsequential to an album´s placement on the chart as long as enough fans buy it. This is precisely what makes Billboard´s Pop albums chart so fascinating. It hosts artists from every musical genre, from Beverly Sills to Black Uhuru. Study Billboard´s Pop albums charts and you´ll observe significant pop culture truisms not easily evident on the singles charts. Note the development of stereo with the early ´60s proliferation of percussive albums. Witness the fruitful output of artists like Joni Mitchell, Grateful Dead, Joan Armatrading, Led Zeppelin, John Prine and Roy Ayers whose longtime successes on the albums chart far eclipses their singles chartings. Find out each era´s popular comedians from Shelley Berman to Jeff Foxworthy. Mark the long history of jazz artists like Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis or Weather Report. Contrast the abundant annual turnout of albums by ´60s artists with many of today´s artists´ three-year spans between albums. Just as an artist endeavors to make an album a complete work, we strive to take each new edition of our Top Pop Albums book forward in its content and presentation. Our primary aim of accuracy requires endless fact checking. With our complete album collection as the backbone of our research, we again proofed each chart entry against the actual album. We mined our record vault for more interesting title notes and supplemented band bios with the names and instruments of each member, if known. We brought all of the album prices up to date; you will notice some drastic price increases since our last edition. Of the several new features, one of the most enlightening is the bolding of album artists in bios and title notes which serves as an immediate cross reference and is especially helpful when looking at British bands like Black Sabbath. So, whether you choose to scrutinize certain artists or scan the big picture, the information on the next 1,000+ pages yields countless insights into America´s taste in music over the years. Best of all, you don´t need 1,500 square feet to house this information. It fits on your coffee table. JOEL WHITBURN
Les Docks - American Premium Record Guide 1900 - 1965
Taschenbuch 461 pages Books Americana Inc.; 4th edition (Sep 1991) Englisch INTRODUCTION There is nothing ´´official´´ about this or any other price guide. It, like other books on collectibles reflects the opinions of the author, based upon lengthy experience buying selling and trading records, consulting countless auction lists, sales lists, record publications, discographies, record company promotional literature, and collectors´ want lists. Also important are the contributions of those who have supplied information, opinions on pricing, and photographs. Undoubtedly, many errors and omissions will be noted by knowledgeable collectors; it is hoped that these will be brought to my attention by writing to: L.R. DOCKS, P.O. Box 691035, San Antonio, Texas 78269. Here, in a single volume, are listed thousands of desirable records in the most widely collected categories: Jazz, Dance Bands, Celebrity, Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, Hillbilly, Rockabilly, and Rock and Roll. Included are 78s, 45s, EPs, and LPs. Emphasis is given to categories heretofore neglected and/or inadequately treated, such as early jazz, blues and country 78s. As in previous editions, the majority of records listed are unfamiliar to non-collectors. Indeed, many are so obscure as to be unfamiliar even to sophisticated collectors. Quick now: Who were Dubin´s Dandies? Very few of the records listed are top-selling hits. This book is intended to be a guide to scarce, sought-after, and otherwise desirable discs that ought to be recognized as collectible. It is not meant to afford readers a ´´nostalgia trip,´´ by listing thousands of familiar old favorites, complete with titles. (Those seeking documentation and information about hit, or ´´charted´´ records should consult other references, such as those by Joel Whitburn, listed in the Bibliography.) Those treasured (when was the first time they were dug out of the cellar and played?) records by Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Glenn Miller, et al., even if they are indeed ´´originals´´ are probably not discs that are saleable to a knowledgeable collector, and certainly not at more than a nominal sum. Common sense ought to suggest that records which sold in the largest quantities remain relatively common and inexpensive today. But common sense sometimes seems uncommon: ´´I have an original ´´White Christmas´´ by Bing Crosby; what will you give me for it?´´ Oh, well! I don´t really expect to get many calls offering me a store stock of 8000 series Okeh records. Readers of previous editions will note, however, the inclusion this time of many more relatively common and inexpensive records, i.e. records valued at two to five dollars, by the more familiar artists, and on commonly found labels such as red Columbia. They may well ask, ´´Has Docks sold out?´´ The answer is a resounding ´´no.´´
Whitburn´s
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LawsCurrently selected
Home > Laws > Revised Edition (Current) > Employment of States of Jersey Employees (Jersey) Law 2005
Employment of States of Jersey Employees (Jersey) Law 2005
Showing the law as at 1 January 2019
This is a revised edition of the law
PART 1 7
PRELIMINARY MATTERS 7
1 Interpretation. 7
2 Meaning of “States’ employee”. 8
3 Chief Executive Officer 9
PART 2 10
STATES EMPLOYMENT BOARD 10
4 States Employment Board. 10
5 Membership of States Employment Board. 10
6 Meetings of States Employment Board. 10
6A Advisors to States Employment Board. 11
7 Liability. 12
EMPLOYMENT OF MEMBERS OF PUBLIC SERVICE 12
8 Functions of States Employment Board. 12
9 Powers of States Employment Board. 13
10 Delegation. 13
10A Compliance with codes of practice concerning States’ employees. 13
11 Annual Report 14
12 Only States Employment Board to employ persons on behalf of States. 14
13 Statutory offices. 14
JERSEY APPOINTMENTS COMMISSION 14
Application of Part 14
14 Interpretation. 14
15 Extension of Part 4 to independent bodies. 15
16 Senior States’ offices. 15
Establishment of Jersey Appointments Commission 15
17 Jersey Appointments Commission established. 15
18 Membership of Commission. 16
19 Removal from office of member of Commission. 17
20 Deputy Chairman and Secretary and Executive Officer of Commission. 17
21 Meetings of the Commission. 17
22 Minutes of meetings of the Commission. 18
Powers and function of Commission 18
23 Function of Commission. 18
23A Duty to advise on preparation of codes of practice for recruitment of States’ employees 19
24 Guidelines for recruitment of States’ appointees. 19
25 Audit of recruitment practices. 19
26 Recruitment of persons to senior States’ offices. 20
26AA Recruitment to the post of Chief Executive Officer 21
26A Power of intervention in recruitment of States’ employees. 22
27 Report to be made to States Employment Board in certain circumstances. 22
28 Reports. 22
29 States may direct Commission. 23
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF STATES’ EMPLOYEES 23
Interpretative provisions 23
31 Meaning of “politically eligible States’ employee” and “politically ineligible States’ employee” 24
Political classification of States’ employees 24
32 Request by politically ineligible States’ employee for re-classification of political status 24
33 Request by Chief Officer for re-classification of political status of politically eligible States’ employee 25
Politically eligible States’ employees 26
34 Political activities of politically eligible States’ employees. 26
35 Re-employment of politically eligible States’ employees. 26
36 Where politically eligible States’ employee intends to stand for election. 27
37 Position of politically eligible States’ employee when elected. 27
37A Position of politically eligible States’ employee when not elected. 28
Politically ineligible States’ employees 29
38 Politically ineligible States’ employees not to take public part in political matters 29
39 Political behaviour of politically ineligible States’ employee may be considered in determining whether to re-employ him or her 29
40 Where politically ineligible States’ employee intends to stand for election. 30
41 Employment terminates before politically ineligible States’ employee campaigns or is nominated 30
Amendments to other enactments 30
42 Repeal etc. Regulations. 30
CONCLUDING PROVISION 31
43 Citation. 31
SCHEDULE 1 32
classes of politically eligible states’ employees 33
classes of politically ineligible states’ employees 34
Endnotes 35
Table of Legislation History. 35
Table of Renumbered Provisions. 36
Table of Endnote References. 36
A LAW relating to the establishment of the States Employment Board, the employment under contract of persons by that Board on behalf of the States or an administration of the States, the determination by the Board of the terms and conditions of such contracts of employment, the establishment of the Appointments Commission to oversee the appointment of persons to significant public positions and determine procedures for the appointment of certain persons employed by other persons on behalf of the States, the regulation of certain political activities of certain States’ employees, to amend various enactments and for connected purposes.[1]
Commencement [see endnotes]
PRELIMINARY MATTERS
In this Law, unless the context otherwise requires –
“administration of the States” means –
(a) a department established on behalf of the States; and
(b) a body, office, or unit of administration, established on behalf of the States (including under an enactment),
the employees of which are employed by the States Employment Board;
“Chief Executive Officer” has the meaning assigned by Article 3;
“Commission” means the Jersey Appointments Commission established by Article 17;
“Commissioner” means a person appointed under Article 18 to be a Commissioner and includes the Chairman of the Commission appointed under that Article;
“contract of employment” includes a contract of apprenticeship;
“independent body” means an office, or a Tribunal, Commission, trust, fund, council, panel, committee, or other body of persons (apart from the States Employment Board) –
(a) that is an office or body established or maintained by or on behalf of the States; and
(b) that is an office or body –
(i) which employs persons under contracts of employment, or
(ii) in relation to which persons are appointed, or elected, on terms and conditions that are determined otherwise than in a contract of employment (whether or not other persons also hold the office, or are also appointed or elected to the body, under terms and conditions that are determined in a contract of employment);
“member”, in relation to the States Employment Board, means any of the persons who constitute the Board under Article 5;
“ordinary election” means an ordinary election for Deputies held under Article 6(2) of the States of Jersey Law 2005[2];
“public service” means the service consisting of States’ employees;
“recruitment” includes, but is not limited to including –
(a) the determination of the duties, responsibilities and pre-requisites for employment or appointment as the holder of an office;
(b) the determination of the publications in which advertisements seeking applications for employment or appointment as the holder of an office are to be placed or other methods by which applicants for such employment or appointment are to be sought, and the timing of placement in such publications or the use of such methods;
(c) the timing and conduct of interviews of prospective candidates for employment as the holder of an office; and
(d) the selection of a person to be employed or appointed as the holder of an office;
“States’ employee” has the meaning assigned by Article 2.[3]
2 Meaning of “States’ employee”
(1) In this Law, unless the context otherwise requires, “States’ employee” means –
(a) a person who is employed under a contract of employment made between the person and the States Employment Board; and
(b) a person who is within a class of persons prescribed under paragraph (2),
but does not include a person who is within a class of persons prescribed under paragraph (3).
(2) The Chief Minister may prescribe by Order a class of persons to be States’ employees for the purposes of this Law.
(3) The Chief Minister may prescribe by Order a class of persons to not be States’ employees for the purposes of this Law.
(4) A person shall not be a States’ employee for the purposes of this Law if he or she is –
(a) the holder of an office specified in Schedule 1;
(b) appointed by the Crown;
(c) a member of the States of Jersey Police Force; or
(d) otherwise an officer of the Crown.[4]
3 Chief Executive Officer
(1) There shall be a Chief Executive Officer.
(2) The Chief Executive Officer shall be the person employed under this Law as the Chief Executive to the Council of Ministers and Head of the Public Service.
(3) As the Head of the Public Service, the Chief Executive Officer shall lead chief officers in –
(a) the administration and general management of the public service; and
(b) the implementation of corporate and strategic policies.[5]
(4) In so leading chief officers, the Chief Executive Officer shall have the power –
(a) to require a chief officer to account for the matters in paragraph (3)(a) and (b), so far as the Ministerial department for which he or she is the chief officer is responsible for them; and
(b) to direct a chief officer as to the duties to be undertaken by him or her in the course of his or her employment as a States’ employee.[6]
(5) The powers in paragraph (4) –
(a) do not override a chief officer’s accountability under –
(i) deleted
(ii) Article 38(1) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005[7], or
(iii) Article 10A of this Law; and
(b) cannot be used to direct or seek to influence a chief officer –
(i) in the discharge of a function delegated to him or her by a Minister, or
(ii) in the discharge of a function imposed on him or her by any enactment.[8]
(6) In this Article –
“chief officer” means the senior States’ employee in a Ministerial department;
“Ministerial department” means an administration of the States for which a Minister is assigned responsibility.[9]
STATES EMPLOYMENT BOARD
4 States Employment Board
(1) The States Employment Board shall be established.
(2) The States Employment Board shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and may –
(a) sue and be sued in its corporate name; and
(b) so far is as possible for a body corporate, exercise the rights, powers and privileges and incur the liabilities and obligations of a natural person of full age and capacity.
5 Membership of States Employment Board
(1) The States Employment Board shall be constituted by –
(a) the Chief Minister, or another Minister who is nominated by the Chief Minister to be a member of the Board in his or her place;
(b) 2 other persons, each of whom –
(i) is a Minister or an Assistant Minister, and
(ii) is appointed in writing by the Chief Minister to be a member of the Board; and
(c) 2 elected members of the States, each of whom –
(i) is neither a Minister nor an Assistant Minister, and
(ii) is elected by the States to be a member of the Board.[10]
(2) The Chief Minister or, if the Chief Minister nominates a person under paragraph (1) to be a member of the Board in his or her place, that person, shall be the Chairman of the States Employment Board.
(3) A member of the States Employment Board shall hold office until a Chief Minister is appointed to office, under Article 19(7) of the States of Jersey Law 2005[11], following the next ordinary election, unless the member of the Board resigns or is removed from office earlier.[12]
6 Meetings of States Employment Board
(1) At a meeting of the States Employment Board –
(a) the States Employment Board may appoint a person to be the Vice-Chairman;
(b) the quorum of the States Employment Board shall be constituted by 3 of its members;
(c) the Chairman, or, in the absence of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman, or in the absence of both the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman, another member of the States Employment Board who is present at the meeting and is elected by the members of the States Employment Board who are present, shall preside;
(d) each member shall have one vote on each matter for deliberation;
(e) a decision shall be made by a majority of the votes of the members of the States Employment Board present at the meeting at which the decision is made; and
(f) if a vote is tied, it shall be taken to have been lost.[13]
(2) A resolution shall be a valid resolution of the States Employment Board, even though it was not passed at a meeting of the States Employment Board, if –
(a) it is signed or assented to by a majority of the members of the States Employment Board; and
(b) notice of the proposed resolution was given in accordance with paragraph (6) to all the members of the States Employment Board.
(3) The States Employment Board shall keep minutes of its proceedings.
(4) The States Employment Board shall meet when convened by the Chairman.
(5) The Chairman –
(a) may convene a meeting of the States Employment Board of his or her own motion; and
(b) shall convene a meeting of the States Employment Board if requested to do so by notice in writing signed by at least one of the members of the States Employment Board.
(6) Subject to this Law, the States Employment Board may regulate its own proceedings (including the period of notice to be given of any meeting of the Board) and may adopt or amend rules for that purpose.
(7) The States Employment Board may invite any person to attend, and to speak at, a meeting of the States Employment Board.
6A Advisors to States Employment Board[14]
(1) The States Employment Board may appoint one or 2 advisors.
(2) An appointment shall be on such terms as the States Employment Board determines, but shall end upon the Chief Minister being appointed to office, under Article 19(7) of the States of Jersey Law 2005[15], following the next ordinary election, unless the advisor resigns or is removed from office earlier.
(3) An advisor has the right to attend and speak at a meeting of the States Employment Board.
(4) The Chairman shall convene a meeting of the States Employment Board if requested to do so by notice in writing signed by an advisor.
7 Liability
(1) No person to whom this Article applies shall be liable in damages for anything done or omitted in the discharge of any functions under this Law, unless –
(a) it is shown that the act or omission was in bad faith; or
(b) liability arises in respect of an act or omission that is unlawful as a result of Article 7(1) of the Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000[16] (acts of public authorities incompatible with Convention rights).[17]
(2) This Article applies to the States Employment Board, any member of the States Employment Board, any advisor to the States Employment Board, or any person who is under this Law a delegate of the States Employment Board or the Chief Executive Officer or otherwise acting with the authority of the States Employment Board.[18]
EMPLOYMENT OF MEMBERS OF PUBLIC SERVICE
8 Functions of States Employment Board[19]
(1) The States Employment Board shall –
(a) employ persons on behalf of the States and administrations of the States;
(b) ensure that the public service conducts itself with economy, efficiency, probity and effectiveness;
(c) ensure the health, safety and well-being of States’ employees;
(d) determine any other matter that may reasonably be considered necessary for the proper administration and management of States’ employees; and
(e) discharge any other function conferred on it by or under any enactment.
(2) The States Employment Board shall, for the purpose of the discharge of the functions described in paragraph (1)(a) to (c) –
(a) give directions regarding consultation or negotiation with States’ employees, or with representatives of States’ employees, concerning the terms and conditions of employment of States’ employees;
(b) issue codes of practice concerning –
(i) the training and development needs of States’ employees,
(ii) the procedures for recruitment of States’ employees,
(iii) the procedures for appraisal of the performance of States’ employees,
(iv) the procedures for disciplining, suspending and terminating the employment of States’ employees, and
(v) interventions by the Commission under Article 26A.
(3) The States Employment Board may issue codes of practice concerning any other matter relating to the employment of States’ employees.
(4) In paragraph (2)(b)(ii), “States’ employees” includes a person who is to be treated as a States employee by virtue of Article 15(2).
(5) The functions referred to in paragraph (1)(e) include the functions conferred by Article 8(1) of the Departments of the Judiciary and the Legislature (Jersey) Law 1965[20], Article 3 of the Loi (1864) concernant la charge de Juge d’Instruction[21] and Article 41(5) of the States of Jersey Law 2005[22].
9 Powers of States Employment Board
(1) The States Employment Board has the powers necessary to perform its functions.
(2) Without limiting the generality of paragraph (1), the States Employment Board has the power to enter into contracts of employment of persons and to enter into contracts for the provision of services, including by consultants.
10 Delegation
(1) The States Employment Board may, by instrument in writing, delegate to any of its members, or to the Chief Executive Officer, any of its powers or functions under this Law.
(2) If a power or function has been delegated under paragraph (1) to a member of the States Employment Board, the member may, with the approval of the States Employment Board, delegate by instrument in writing the power or function to the Chief Executive Officer.
(3) If a power or function has been delegated under paragraph (1) or (2) to the Chief Executive Officer, he or she may, with the approval of the States Employment Board, delegate by instrument in writing the power or function to another person who is –
(a) a person approved by the States Employment Board; or
(b) a member of a class of persons approved by the States Employment Board.
10A Compliance with codes of practice concerning States’ employees[23]
(1) The accountable officer in a States funded body (including a non-Ministerial States funded body) shall be accountable for ensuring that codes of practice issued under Article 8 are complied with in the recruitment and employment of States’ employees to work within that body.[24]
(2) Any person to whom a power or function is delegated under Article 10 shall, when exercising the power or discharging the function, comply with codes of practice issued under Article 8.
(3) In this Article, “accountable officer”, “States funded body” and “non-Ministerial States funded body” have the same meanings as in the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005[25].[26]
11 Annual Report
The States Employment Board shall provide to the States, within 3 months after the end of each calendar year, a report in respect of the States Employment Board’s activities under this Law during the year.
12 Only States Employment Board to employ persons on behalf of States
(1) Subject to any other enactment, whether in force before or after this Law comes into force, no person or body other than the States Employment Board may enter into contracts of employment with persons on behalf of the States or an administration of the States.
(2) The States may, by Regulation, specify that paragraph (1) shall not apply in relation to the employment of a person or persons to an office, or a class of offices, prescribed by the Regulation.
13 Statutory offices
Nothing in this Law apart from Part 5 shall be taken to affect a power, if any, under an enactment of the States to appoint a person to an office or to terminate under such an enactment the appointment of a person to an office, including but not limited to an office specified in Schedule 1.[27]
JERSEY APPOINTMENTS COMMISSION
Application of Part
In this Part –
“former Appointments Commission” means the Appointments Commission established by Act of the States on 28th May 2002;
“senior States’ office” means an office listed under Article 16(1);
“States’ appointee” means a person who is, by virtue of Article 15(4), a States’ appointee;
“States’ employee” includes an employee who is, by virtue of Article 15(2), to be treated as a States’ employee.[28]
15 Extension of Part 4 to independent bodies[29]
(1) The States Employment Board and the Commission may, for the purposes of paragraph (2), agree a list of offices, or classes of office, being offices in which persons are employed by independent bodies.
(2) A person employed in an office, or class of office, listed under paragraph (1) is, for the purposes of this Part, to be treated as a States’ employee.
(3) The States Employment Board and the Commission may, for the purposes of paragraph (4), agree a list of offices, or classes of office, being offices to which persons are appointed or elected in or with independent bodies.
(4) A person appointed or elected to an office, or class of office, listed under paragraph (3) is, for the purposes of this Part, a States’ appointee.
(5) If the States Employment Board and the Commission cannot agree a list under paragraph (1) or (3), the opinion of the States Employment Board shall prevail.
(6) The States Employment Board shall ensure that a list produced under paragraph (1) or (3) is available for viewing by any person.
16 Senior States’ offices[30]
(1) The States Employment Board and the Commission may agree a list of offices of States’ employees or States’ appointees, or classes of offices of States’ employees or States’ appointees, that are to be senior States’ offices for the purposes of this Part.
(2) A list under paragraph (1) shall further specify whether, under Article 26, the Commission is required to observe a recruitment to a senior States’ office or has a discretion to observe a recruitment to the office.
(3) However, if the States Employment Board and the Commission cannot agree a list under paragraph (1), the opinion of the States Employment Board shall prevail.
(4) The States Employment Board shall ensure that a list produced under paragraph (1) is available for viewing by any person.
Establishment of Jersey Appointments Commission
17 Jersey Appointments Commission established
(1) The Jersey Appointments Commission shall be established.
(2) The Commission shall consist of –
(a) a Chairman; and
(b) not more than 5 other Commissioners,
appointed under Article 18.[31]
(3) The former Appointments Commission shall cease to exist on and from the date on which this Article comes into force.
18 Membership of Commission
(1) Commissioners shall be appointed by the Chief Minister.[32]
(2) The Chief Minister may only appoint a person under paragraph (1) with the approval of the States Employment Board.[33]
(3) The States Employment Board may only approve a person for the purposes of paragraph (2) if it is of the opinion that the person has expertise and experience in –
(a) recruitment within the public or private sectors;
(b) management at a senior level in the public, private, academic or voluntary sectors; or
(c) other matters relevant to the powers and functions of a Commissioner.
(3A) Article 2 of the States of Jersey (Appointment Procedures) (Jersey) Law 2018[34] shall apply to the appointment of a Commissioner.[35]
(4) Subject to paragraph (5), a Commissioner shall not hold office for a period exceeding 9 years regardless of whether, during the period of holding office, the Commissioner holds office for a term that is less than 9 years and is re-appointed and regardless of whether during all or any part of that period the Commissioner holds office as Chairman.[36]
(5) In exceptional circumstances, a Commissioner’s appointment (whether or not as Chairman) may be extended by a period of not more than 12 months beyond the period of 9 years referred to in paragraph (4) for the purpose of facilitating a transition period before a replacement is appointed.[37]
(5A) Where paragraph (5) applies, the total period for which a Commissioner holds office shall not, in any event, extend beyond a period of 10 years.[38]
(6) A person shall not be appointed to be a Commissioner if he or she is a member of the States or a States’ employee.[39]
(7) [40]
(9) Any period before the commencement of this Law during which a person was a Commissioner, or the Chairman, of the former Appointments Commission shall be taken to be a period of appointment as a Commissioner, or the Chairman, as the case may be, under this Law.[42]
(10) A Commissioner shall be appointed on the terms and conditions specified by the States Employment Board.
(11) The remuneration of a Commissioner shall not be reduced during the period of his or her appointment.
(12) No term or condition of the appointment of a Commissioner shall be altered during the period of the appointment without the agreement of the Commissioner.
19 Removal from office of member of Commission
(1) The Chief Minister may terminate the appointment of a Commissioner on such grounds as the Chief Minister thinks fit.[43]
(2) The Commission may notify the Chief Minister that it is of the opinion that the Chief Minister should terminate the appointment of a Commissioner because –
(a) the Commissioner, without reasonable cause and without giving reasonable notice to the Commission, failed to attend 3 consecutive meetings of the Commission;
(b) the Commission is of the opinion that the Commissioner is incompetent or incapable of carrying out the Commissioner’s functions under this Law; or
(c) the Commission is of the opinion, on reasonable grounds, that the Commissioner is not capable of exercising independent judgment in relation to the appointment of States’ employees or States’ appointees.[44]
(3) The Chief Minister shall inform the States of an opinion of which he or she has been notified under paragraph (2).
(3A) Article 3 of the States of Jersey (Appointment Procedures) (Jersey) Law 2018[45] shall apply to the termination of the appointment of a Commissioner.[46]
(4) A person shall cease to hold the office of Commissioner if he or she becomes a member of the States or a States’ employee.[47]
(5) A Commissioner may, by notice in writing to the Chief Minister, resign as a Commissioner.
20 Deputy Chairman and Secretary and Executive Officer of Commission
(1) The Commission shall appoint one of its members to be the Deputy Chairman, to act as the Chairman in the absence of the Chairman.
(2) The Commission shall appoint a person to be the Secretary and Executive Officer of the Commission.
21 Meetings of the Commission
(1) The Commission shall meet at least 4 times each year.
(2) At a meeting of the Commission –
(a) the quorum shall be constituted by 3 Commissioners;
(b) one of the Commissioners at the meeting shall be –
(i) the Chairman,
(ii) in the absence of the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman, or
(iii) in the absence of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman, a person nominated at the meeting to carry out the functions of the Chairman at the meeting;
(c) the Chairman, or, in the absence of the Chairman, the Deputy-Chairman, or in the absence of both the Chairman and the Deputy-Chairman, the person nominated under sub-paragraph (b)(iii), shall preside;
(d) each Commissioner shall have one vote on each matter for deliberation;
(e) a decision of the Commission shall be made by a majority of the votes of the Commissioners present at the meeting at which the decision is made; and
(3) A decision under paragraph (2) at a meeting is of no effect unless each Commissioner was given at least 24 hours prior notice of the meeting of the Commission or all the Commissioners are present at the meeting.
(4) The Commission may invite any person to attend at, and to speak at, a meeting of the Commission.
22 Minutes of meetings of the Commission
(1) The Secretary and Executive Officer of the Commission shall prepare draft minutes of each meeting of the Commission and ensure they are laid before the Commission at its next meeting.
(2) The Commission shall, at the next meeting of the Commission, adopt minutes of the previous meeting.
(3) The Secretary and Executive Officer of the Commission shall retain copies of minutes adopted under paragraph (2) and ensure that the minutes may be examined, on demand, by a Commissioner.
Powers and function of Commission
23 Function of Commission
(1) The function of the Commission is to oversee the recruitment of States’ employees or States’ appointees so as to ensure that, as far as practicable –
(a) the recruitment of persons as States’ employees or States’ appointees is fair, efficient and conducted in accordance with best practice principles and procedures;
(b) States’ employees or States’ appointees are appointed on merit;
(c) members of the States are only involved in the recruitment of States’ employees in accordance with codes of practice issued under Article 8; and
(d) members of the States are only involved in the recruitment of States’ appointees in accordance with guidelines made under Article 24 or otherwise in circumstances where, in the opinion of the Commission, it is appropriate that they be involved.[49]
(2) The function in paragraph (1)(d) is subject to any direction by the States Employment Board that, in its opinion, it is appropriate for a Minister to participate in a recruitment of a States appointee.[50]
(3) The Commission may, if requested by any person or body conducting a recruitment in connection with which the Commission does not have any functions under this Part, oversee, observe or participate in the recruitment, on such terms as the Commission agrees with the requesting person or body.[51]
23A Duty to advise on preparation of codes of practice for recruitment of States’ employees[52]
(1) The Commission shall advise the States Employment Board on the preparation of codes of practice under Article 8 concerning the procedures for recruitment of States’ employees.
(2) The Commission shall inform the States Employment Board if, in its opinion, a new code of practice concerning the procedures for recruitment of States’ employees should be prepared or an existing code of practice for such procedures amended or revoked under Article 8.
(3) The States Employment Board shall have regard to advice given under this Article.
24 Guidelines for recruitment of States’ appointees[53]
(1) The Commission shall from time to time produce and review guidelines that are to apply in relation to the recruitment of States’ appointees.[54]
(2) Guidelines produced under paragraph (1) shall contain details as to –
(a) how recruitment of States’ appointees is to be performed;
(b) the grounds on which States’ appointees are to be selected; and
(c) the circumstances in which a member of the States may be involved in the recruitment of States’ appointees.[55]
(3) The Commission shall ensure that guidelines produced under paragraph (1) are available for viewing by any person.
(4) The Commission shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that guidelines produced under paragraph (1) are followed in relation to the recruitment of States’ appointees.[56]
25 Audit of recruitment practices
(1) The Commission shall, as required by paragraph (1A), carry out, or order to be carried out, audits of recruitment practices in relation to States’ employees and States’ appointees.[57]
(1A) Audits shall be carried out –
(a) of a sample of recruitments that are representative of the recruitments described in paragraph (1);
(b) of recruitments where the Commission has cause to believe that –
(i) codes of practice issued under Article 8 have not been complied with, or
(ii) guidelines produced under Article 24 have not been complied with.[58]
(2) The Commission may require a person to provide information to the Commission, or to another person, carrying out an audit under paragraph (1).
(3) The Commission shall, within 3 months of the completion of an audit under paragraph (1) in relation to States’ employees of an administration of the States, produce a report in relation to the audit and provide a copy of the report to –
(a) the States Employment Board;
(b) the Chief Executive Officer; and
(c) the head of the administration of the States.[59]
(4) The Commission shall, within 3 months of the completion of an audit under paragraph (1) in relation to States’ employees, or States’ appointees of an independent body, produce a report in relation to the audit and provide a copy of the report –
(a) to the head of the independent body to which the audit relates; and
(b) if an administration of the States is accountable to the States in relation to the independent body – to the head of the administration of the States.[60]
(5) A report under paragraph (3) or (4) may contain recommendations arising from the audit conducted under paragraph (1) to which the report relates.
(6) A person who fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with a requirement under paragraph (2) commits an offence and shall be liable to a penalty of level 2 on the standard scale.
26 Recruitment of persons to senior States’ offices
(1) The Commission –
(a) shall give a notice under this paragraph in relation to the recruitment of a person to a senior States’ office, or an office that is in a class of offices that are senior States’ offices, where a list under Article 16(1) requires the Commission to observe a recruitment to the office; and
(b) may give a notice under this paragraph in relation to the recruitment of a person to a senior States’ office, or an office that is in a class of offices that are senior States’ offices, where a list under Article 16(1) confers a discretion on the Commission to observe a recruitment to the office.[61]
(1A) A notice under paragraph (1) shall be given to –
(a) the Chief Executive Officer;
(b) the head of an administration of the States; or
(c) the head of an independent body.[62]
(2) A notice under paragraph (1) shall require the person to whom it is given to give, to a person nominated by the Commission in the notice to be an observer, 14 days notice before a recruitment to the office commences.[63]
(3) The head of an administration of the States, or of an independent body, to whom a notice is given under paragraph (1) shall, unless otherwise advised by the Commission, ensure that the person nominated in the notice to be an observer is informed of any meeting taking place relating to the recruitment of a person to be employed or appointed as the holder of a senior States’ office to which the notice relates.[64]
(4) A person nominated by the Commission in a notice under paragraph (1) to be an observer is entitled to attend any meeting that takes place relating to the recruitment of a person to be employed or appointed as the holder of a senior States’ office to which the notice relates.[65]
(5) In this paragraph, “meeting” includes, but is not limited to including –
(a) a meeting at which persons decide who is to be interviewed or who is to be employed or appointed as the holder of an office; and
(b) a meeting at which a candidate for employment or appointment as the holder of an office is interviewed or assessed following an interview.[66]
26AA Recruitment to the post of Chief Executive Officer[67]
(1) This Article applies –
(a) when a recruitment is carried out for the appointment of a person to the post of Chief Executive Officer; and
(b) notwithstanding anything in Article 26 to the contrary.
(2) The States Employment Board shall require the Commission to nominate a Commissioner or Commissioners who are to be involved in the recruitment to that post.
(3) The Commissioner or Commissioners nominated under paragraph (2) shall be involved in deciding –
(a) which candidates for recruitment shall be interviewed;
(b) which candidates following interview have met the required standard for recruitment; and
(c) which candidate is to be offered the post.
(4) The States Employment Board shall nominate a person other than a Commissioner who shall be responsible for overseeing the recruitment to ensure that –
(a) it is fair, efficient and conducted in accordance with best practice and principles; and
(b) the successful candidate is appointed on merit.
(5) The person nominated under paragraph (4) shall chair any meeting at which candidates are interviewed but shall not be involved in deciding any of the matters referred to in paragraph (3).
26A Power of intervention in recruitment of States’ employees[68]
(1) The Commission may intervene in the recruitment, on behalf of the States Employment Board, of a States’ employee, or States’ employees, if the Commission believes that any code of practice issued under Article 8(2)(b)(ii) is not being complied with.
(2) The intervention shall be in accordance with any code of practice issued under Article 8(2)(b)(v).
(3) The Commission shall notify the States Employment Board and the administration of the States conducting the recruitment on behalf of the Board, of its decision to intervene and the reasons for it.
27 Report to be made to States Employment Board in certain circumstances
(1) The Commission shall produce a report, and provide a copy of the report to the States Employment Board, if the Commission is not satisfied that –
(a) the recruitment of a States’ employee or States’ appointee was in accordance with the principles set out in Article 23; or
(b) Article 26 has been complied with.[69]
(2) A report under paragraph (1) shall set out the reasons why the Commission is dissatisfied and the facts on which those reasons are based.
(1) The States may direct the Commission –
(a) to prepare a report in relation to a matter specified in the direction within the period specified in the direction; or
(b) to include in a report for the purposes of paragraph (4) a report in relation to a matter specified in the direction.
(2) The Commission shall comply with a direction under paragraph (1).
(3) A report prepared in accordance with a direction under paragraph (1)(a) shall be delivered to the States Employment Board.
(4) The Commission shall, within 3 months after the end of each calendar year, prepare and deliver to the States Employment Board, a report on –
(a) the Commission’s activities during that calendar year;
(b) any matter in relation to which a report has been given under Article 25 or 27 during that calendar year;
(c) any matter specified in a direction under paragraph (1)(b) to be a matter that is to be included in the Commission’s report for that calendar year; and
(d) other matters the Commission thinks fit.
(5) The Chief Minister shall, within 30 days after a report is delivered to the States Employment Board in accordance with paragraph (3) or (4), lay the report before the States.
(6) The Commission may, at any time, prepare and deliver to the States’ Employment Board a report upon the recruitment of one or more States’ employees, where the Commission is of the opinion that a code of practice issued under Article 8(2)(b)(ii) has not been complied with or that there has been any impropriety in the recruitment process.[70]
(7) If the Commission is of the opinion that the States Employment Board has not taken any or appropriate action in response to a report under paragraph (6) –
(a) the Commission may request the Chief Minister to lay the report before the States, together with any addendum subsequently prepared by the Commission; and
(b) the Chief Minister shall comply with the request within 30 days.[71]
(8) If the States Employment Board and the Commission cannot agree a list, as described in Article 15(1) or (3) or Article 16(1) –
(a) the Commission may prepare a report upon the failure to agree and request the Chief Minister to lay it before the States; and
29 States may direct Commission
(1) The States may direct the Commission to carry out under this Part any of its functions, or exercise any of its powers, in relation to –
(a) an administration of the States specified by the States in the direction; or
(b) an independent body.
(2) A direction under paragraph (1) may specify the action that the Commission shall take under this Law.
(3) The Commission shall comply with a direction of the States under paragraph (1).
PART 5[73]
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF STATES’ EMPLOYEES
Interpretative provisions
30 Interpretation[74]
(1) In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires –
“politically eligible States’ employee” has the meaning assigned to that expression by Article 31;
“politically ineligible States’ employee” has the meaning assigned to that expression by Article 31.
(2) In this Part, a reference to a States’ employee taking public part in a political matter includes, but is not limited to including, a reference to the employee –
(a) speaking publicly on a political matter;
(b) writing letters to newspapers, or writing pamphlets, leaflets or books, in relation to political matters;
(c) standing for election as a Senator, Deputy or Connétable; or
(d) publicly supporting any other person standing for election as a Senator, Deputy or Connétable,
but does not include –
(i) taking part in any activities organized by a trade union; or
(ii) expressing the legitimate interests of members of a trade union or trade unions, when acting as a representative of a trade union.
31 Meaning of “politically eligible States’ employee” and “politically ineligible States’ employee”[75]
(1) In this Part, a States’ employee is a politically eligible States’ employee if he or she –
(a) is a member of a class of States’ employees specified in Schedule 2;
(b) is a member of any class of States’ employees not specified in Schedule 2 or 3; or
(c) holds a position as a States’ employee that is classified under Article 32(2) as a position occupied by a politically eligible States’ employee.
(2) In this Part, a States’ employee is a politically ineligible States’ employee if he or she –
(a) is a member of a class of States’ employees specified in Schedule 3; or
(b) holds a position as a States’ employee that is classified under Article 33(2) as a position occupied by a politically ineligible States’ employee.
(3) In this Part, a person who is a politically ineligible States’ employee in respect of a position occupied as a States’ employee shall be a politically ineligible States’ employee in respect of all positions he or she occupies as a States’ employee.
Political classification of States’ employees
32 Request by politically ineligible States’ employee for re-classification of political status[76]
(1) A States’ employee who is a politically ineligible States’ employee may apply to the States Employment Board for his or her position as a States’ employee to be classified as a position occupied by a politically eligible States’ employee.
(2) The States Employment Board, may, after receiving an application from a States’ employee under paragraph (1) in relation to a position, classify, or refuse to classify, the position as a position occupied by a politically eligible States’ employee.
(3) The States Employment Board may, under paragraph (2), only classify a position as a position occupied by a politically eligible States’ employee if it is satisfied that –
(a) the nature of the information to which the States’ employee has access;
(b) the degree to which the States’ employee is involved in the determination or deliberation of policy at a ministerial level;
(c) the extent, if any, to which the position requires the holder to regularly speak to members of the public on behalf of a Minister or a department or unit of administration; and
(d) the degree of contact that the States’ employee has with elected members of the States,
are such that to enable the holder of the position to take public part in any political matter would not inhibit, or appear to inhibit, loyal and effective service to a Minister or the States.
(4) The Chief Minister shall notify the States of any classification made by the States Employment Board under paragraph (2), at the next sittings of the Assembly after the classification is made.
33 Request by Chief Officer for re-classification of political status of politically eligible States’ employee[77]
(1) The Chief Officer of a department or a unit of administration may apply to the States Employment Board for the position of a politically eligible States’ employee who is employed in the department or unit of administration to be classified as a position occupied by a politically ineligible States’ employee.
(2) The States Employment Board, may, after receiving an application under paragraph (1) in relation to a position, classify, or refuse to classify, the position as a position occupied by a politically ineligible States’ employee.
(3) The States Employment Board may, under paragraph (2), only classify a position as a position occupied by a politically ineligible States’ employee if it is satisfied that –
are such that to enable the holder of the position to take public part in any political matter may inhibit, or appear to inhibit, loyal and effective service to a Minister or the States.
Politically eligible States’ employees
34 Political activities of politically eligible States’ employees[78]
(1) A politically eligible States’ employee may take public part in any political matter.
(2) However, the States’ Employment Board may, by notice in writing to a States’ employee who is a politically eligible States’ employee, discipline the employee, or terminate his or her employment as a States’ employee, if the employee has engaged in behaviour that constitutes gross misconduct within the meaning of paragraph (3).
(3) A politically eligible States’ employee shall be taken to have engaged in behaviour that constitutes gross misconduct if while he or she is a States’ employee he or she has, in the course of taking public part in any political matter –
(a) commented on existing States’ policies in an immoderate manner;
(b) engaged in personal attacks on members of the States; or
(c) used for political purposes information that the person was only able to obtain because the person is a States’ employee.
35 Re-employment of politically eligible States’ employees[79]
(1) Nothing in this Part, apart from paragraph (2), shall be taken to prevent the re-employment as a States’ employee of a person who was a politically eligible States’ employee.
(2) The States Employment Board may refuse to re-employ as a States’ employee a person who was a politically eligible States’ employee if the Board determines that –
(a) the person engaged in behaviour while a States’ employee that constituted gross misconduct under Article 34; and
(b) the behaviour is such that the person ought not be re-employed as a States’ employee.
36 Where politically eligible States’ employee intends to stand for election[80]
(1) A politically eligible States’ employee who intends to stand for election as a Senator, Deputy or Connétable shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, notify the Chief Officer of the department or unit of administration in which the employee is employed.
(2) A politically eligible States’ employee shall take leave for the period commencing with the day of his or her public nomination for office and ending with whichever is the earlier of –
(a) the termination of his or her employment as a States’ employee; or
(b) his or her return to work under Article 37A(4).[81]
(2A) If –
(a) a politically eligible States’ employee has insufficient annual and other leave accrued, in accordance with the terms of his or her employment, that the employee may take to comply with paragraph (2); or
(b) the employee does not wish to take all or any of that leave to comply with paragraph (2),
the employee shall be granted unpaid special leave (subject to Article 37(1)(a)) for so much of the period described in paragraph (2) for which the employee does not take annual or accrued leave.[82]
(3) If a politically eligible States’ employee who is required to make contributions under any pension scheme established under the Public Employees (Retirement) (Jersey) Law 1967, the Public Employees (Pensions) (Jersey) Law 2014[83] or the Teachers’ Superannuation (Jersey) Law 1979 is granted unpaid special leave under paragraph (2A) –
(a) notwithstanding any requirement of the pension scheme, neither the employee nor his or her employer shall make contributions under the pension scheme whilst the employee is on such leave; and
(b) the period for which the employee is on such leave shall be disregarded in determining the employee’s period of pensionable service for the purposes of the pension scheme.[84]
(4) In this Article, the date of public nomination for office in relation to a States’ employee is the date on which –
(a) the employee is nominated for election as a Senator or Deputy at a nomination meeting held under the Public Elections (Jersey) Law 2002[85]; or
(b) public notice is given of his or her nomination for election as a Connétable.
37 Position of politically eligible States’ employee when elected[86]
(1) If a politically eligible States’ employee is elected Senator, Deputy or Connétable –
(a) the employee shall be granted paid special leave for any part, falling after the day on which the announcement of the results of the election is made, of any period for which he or she would (but for the operation of this sub-paragraph) have been granted unpaid special leave under Article 36(2A); and
(b) the employee’s employment as a States’ employee shall terminate on the day before he or she is sworn in to that office.
(2) Termination of employment under paragraph (1)(b) –
(a) takes effect by operation of law, despite any other provision of any enactment or of the employee’s contract of employment, including any requirement for notice; and
(b) for the avoidance of doubt, is not to be treated –
(i) as a dismissal for the purposes of the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003[87], or
(ii) as operating to prevent any prior termination occurring otherwise than under that paragraph.
37A Position of politically eligible States’ employee when not elected[88]
(1) This Article applies if a politically eligible States’ employee is not elected to an office mentioned in Article 37(1), in an election for which he or she has been nominated as a candidate.
(2) For the purpose of this Article –
(a) the relevant date is the seventh day after the day on which the announcement of the results of the election is made; and
(b) the relevant Chief Officer is the Chief Officer of the department or unit of administration in which the employee is employed.
(3) If, before the relevant date, the employee notifies the relevant Chief Officer that he or she does not intend to return to work, his or her employment as a States’ employee shall terminate immediately.
(4) If paragraph (3) does not apply and, before the relevant date, the employee notifies the relevant Chief Officer that he or she intends to return to work, he or she shall be entitled (subject to Article 34(2)) to return to work –
(a) on a date, agreed with the relevant Chief Officer, that is within the period of 4 weeks after the day on which the announcement of the results of the election is made; and
(b) to the position that he or she held before giving notification under Article 36(1) of intention to stand.
(5) If neither paragraph (3) nor (4) applies, the employee’s employment as a States’ employee shall terminate on the relevant date.
(6) If paragraph (4) applies, but the employee fails without reasonable excuse to return to work on the agreed date, his or her employment as a States’ employee shall be taken to have terminated on the relevant date.
(7) Article 37(2) applies to termination of employment under this Article as it does to termination under that Article.
Politically ineligible States’ employees
38 Politically ineligible States’ employees not to take public part in political matters[89]
(1) A politically ineligible States’ employee shall not take a public part in any political matter.
(2) The States’ Employment Board may discipline a politically ineligible States’ employee who has contravened paragraph (1).
(3) The States’ Employment Board may terminate the employment of a politically ineligible States’ employee if –
(a) he or she has contravened paragraph (1); and
(b) the Board determines that the contravention is such that the person ought not continue to be employed as a States’ employee.
39 Political behaviour of politically ineligible States’ employee may be considered in determining whether to re-employ him or her[90]
(1) Nothing in this Part, apart from paragraph (2), shall be taken to prevent a person who was, before his or her employment shall be taken to have terminated under Article 41, a politically ineligible States’ employee, being re-employed as a States’ employee.[91]
(2) The States Employment Board may refuse to re-employ as a States’ employee a person who was a politically ineligible States’ employee, if –
(a) the Board determines that the person contravened Article 38(1) while he or she was a politically ineligible States’ employee and the contravention is such that the person ought not be re-employed as a States’ employee; or
(b) the Board determines that –
(i) the person, during the relevant election period, engaged in behaviour that would have constituted gross misconduct for the purposes of Article 34, had the person been a politically eligible States’ employee when the behaviour occurred, and
(ii) the behaviour is such that the person ought not be re-employed as a States’ employee.
(3) In this Article, “relevant election period”, in relation to a person, means any period that –
(a) begins on the day on which –
(i) he or she began to publicly campaign for election as a Senator, Deputy or Connétable,
(ii) he or she is nominated for public election as a Senator or Deputy at a nomination meeting held under the Public Elections (Jersey) Law 2002, or
(iii) public notice is given of his or her nomination for election as a Connétable; and
(b) ends on the day after the day on which any election for which he or she had nominated is held.
40 Where politically ineligible States’ employee intends to stand for election[92]
(1) A politically ineligible States’ employee who intends to stand for election as a Senator, Deputy or Connétable shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, notify the Chief Officer of the department or unit of administration in which the employee is employed.
(2) If a Chief Officer is given notice under paragraph (1) by a States’ employee, the Chief Officer shall determine whether it is, in all the circumstances, appropriate for the States’ employee to continue to carry out, until his or her employment shall be taken to have terminated under Article 41, the functions that he or she was carrying out before the notice was given.[93]
(3) If a Chief Officer determines that it is not, in all the circumstances, appropriate for the States’ employee to continue to carry out, until his or her employment shall be taken to have terminated under Article 41, the functions that he or she was carrying out before the notice was given under paragraph (1), the Chief Officer may direct the States’ employee to carry out, instead, other functions specified by the Chief Officer.[94]
41 Employment terminates before politically ineligible States’ employee campaigns or is nominated[95]
(1) On the day before the start of a relevant election period, as defined in Article 39(3), in relation to a politically ineligible States’ employee, his or her employment as a States’ employee shall be taken to have terminated.
Amendments to other enactments
42 Repeal etc. Regulations[97]
The States may by Regulations –
(a) amend this Law; and
(b) make such repeal, amendment, transitional and savings provisions in relation to other enactments as are necessary or convenient upon the coming into effect of this Law.
CONCLUDING PROVISION
43 Citation[99]
This Law may be cited as the Employment of States of Jersey Employees (Jersey) Law 2005.
SCHEDULE 1[100]
(Articles 2(4) and 13)
OFFICES THE HOLDERS OF WHICH ARE NOT STATES’ EMPLOYEES
Deputy Bailiff
Deputy Viscount
Judicial Greffier
Deputy Judicial Greffier
Greffier of the States
Deputy Greffier of the States
Master of the Royal Court
Information Commissioner
(Article 31)
classes of politically eligible states’ employees
(a) Airport Electricians;
(b) Members of the Airport Rescue and Fire-fighting Service;
(c) Educational, Technical and Support staff, who are of Grade 11 or below;
(d) Members of the Emergency Ambulance Service;
(e) Family Support Workers;
(f) Industrial workers;
(g) Members of the Fire and Rescue Service;
(h) Lecturers at Highlands College;
(i) Manual Workers;
(j) Medical staff;
(k) Nurses and Midwives;
(l) Postal Workers;
(m) Prison Officers;
(n) Prison Managers;
(o) Residential Child Care Workers;
(p) States’ employees (other than industrial or manual workers) who are of Grade 11 or below;
(q) Teachers;
(r) Youth Workers.
classes of politically ineligible states’ employees
(a) Chief Officers;
(b) Area Managers of the Fire Service;
(c) Head Teachers;
(d) Prison Governor or Deputy Prison Governor;
(e) States’ employees (other than industrial or manual workers) who are of Grade 12 or above.
Table of Legislation History
Year and No
◦Projet No
(where applicable)
L.26/2005
28 October 2005, Articles 1, 39 and 40, 9 December 2005, remainder (R&O.156/2005)
P.99/2005
Employment of States of Jersey Employees (Consequential, Amendment, Repeal, Transitional and Savings Provisions) (Jersey) Regulations 2005
R&O.155/2005
P.243/2005
Employment of States of Jersey Employees (Amendment) (Jersey) Regulations 2007
Employment of States of Jersey Employees (Amendment No. 2) (Jersey) Regulations 2007
R&O.45/2008
P.7/2014
Public Employees (Pensions) (Jersey) Law 2014
(R&O.143/2015)
P.11/2017 (re-issue)
R&O.7/2018
Data Protection Authority (Jersey) Law 2018
L.4/2018
States of Jersey (Appointment Procedures) (Jersey) Law 2018
Machinery of Government (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Jersey) Law 2018
◦Projets available at www.statesassembly.gov.je
Table of Renumbered Provisions
Spent, omitted
40(2) and (3)
Table of Endnote References
[1] Long title amended by R&O.118/2007, R&O.81/2015
[2] chapter 16.800
[3] Article 1 amended by R&O.155/2005, R&O.44/2010, R&O.81/2015
[4] Article 2(4) amended by R&O.118/2007
[5] Article 3(3) substituted by R&O.81/2015
[6] Article 3(4) added by R&O.81/2015
[8] Article 3(5) added by R&O.81/2015, amended by L.18/2018
[10] Article 5(1) amended by R&O.44/2010
[11] chapter 16.800
[12] Article 5(3) added by R&O.81/2015
[14] Article 6A inserted by R&O.81/2015
[19] Article 8 substituted by R&O.81/2015
[23] Article 10A inserted by R&O.81/2015
[24] Article 10A(1) amended by L.18/2018
[27] Article 13 amended by R&O.118/2007
[28] Article 14 amended by R&O.155/2005, R&O.81/2015
[29] Article 15 substituted by R&O.81/2015
[31] Article 17(2) amended by R&O.7/2018
[32] Article 18(1) amended by L.13/2018
[35] Article 18(3A) inserted by L.13/2018
[36] Article 18(4) substituted by R&O.41/2017
[38] Article 18(5A) inserted by R&O.41/2017
[39] Article 18(6) amended by R&O.155/2005
[40] Article 18(7) deleted by R&O.41/2017
[42] Article 18(9) amended by R&O.41/2017
[43] Article 19(1) substituted by L.13/2018
[44] Article 19(2) amended by R&O.155/200, L.13/2018
[49] Article 23(1) amended by R&O.155/2005, R&O.81/2015
[50] Article 23(2) added by R&O.81/2015
[53] Article 24 heading amended by R&O.81/2015
[67] Article 26AA inserted by R&O.41/2017
[73] Part 5 inserted by R&O.118/2007
[74] Article 30 inserted by R&O.118/2007
[81] Article 36(2) substituted by R&O.11/2010, amended by R&O.24/2014
[82] Article 36(2A) inserted by R&O.11/2010, amended by R&O.24/2014
[84] Article 36(3) substituted by R&O.11/2010, amended by L.18/2014
[96] Part 6 renumbered by R&O.118/2007
[97] Article 42 renumbered by R&O.118/2007
[100] Schedule 1 renumbered by R&O.118/2007, amended by R&O.119/2007, R&O.81/2015, L.4/2018
[101] Schedule 2 inserted by R&O.118/2007
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Tel Aviv Diary - December 3-7, 2013 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
When I lived through Watergate, and when I saw the film of Frost/Nixon, I could only think of how much i disliked Nixon and how I left the U.S. because of him. In fact, when it was announced that my graduation ceremony, in 1966, Richard Nixon would be speaking, we raised such a ruckus that the president of the university announced that whoever didn't attend the ceremony would not receive a diploma. So we planned to stand up and demonstrate - and then another warning of punishment came back us. We had to be there, be quiet, and stay seated. So, chicken that we were, we didn't even act on our alternative plan to stand up, turn our chairs around, and sit down again with our backs to the speaker.
But as I watched the Frost/Nixon play in Cameri theater last night, the more dominant feeling was of the responsibility of the press in relation to politics. The play was followed by a discussion about this subject with people from the press, the play, and academia. In our time in Israel we are so worn out with political scandals we don't even react when news is released about the corruption of the politicians. Nixon's little contretemps is small potatoes to us. We don't even react when our leaders rob us personally.
I may be away for a few days. I may not.
Tell you about what i'm doing later, but right now - put December 28 on your calendar - Una Selva is performing "The Love of Clothes and Nakedness" at Tmuna - Soncino Street - Tel Aviv. exact hour of performance and price of tickets to be announced shortly.
The sadness of the passing of Nelson Mandela is overwhelming. Even though he has been around so many years, it just means we've gotten used to having him around.
If there is any chance that Kerry is right when he quoted Mandela today, and said: "The naysayers are wrong to say peace in this region is impossible. It always seems impossible until it is done." Any chance at all. We absolutely must go for it. We need it for our souls. We also need it for our security.
We just got back from Eilat for for 4 days. While I was gone i cancelled the paper so i don't even have a copy of the article i didn't know was coming out this Friday in Haaretz in Hebrew, and it is only available to subscribers so i can't share the entire online version. Here's a peek at the piece I wrote about Allen Ginsberg's grave. It isn't even all of it because the last paragraph was cut. But it's about how he's buried in the B'nai Israel cemetery in Elizabeth, New Jersey and how committed he was to that place. I wrote it in Hebrew but Ezi raged and raved about how bad my Hebrew was that he couldn't even fix it up. (I think it hurts him that I don't sound as intelligent in my Hebrew writing as I do in my English). So I asked my friend Mira Zakai to look at it and with a very few twitches she made it palatable. The only problem is that the editor took off my title and the last paragraph. Maybe because he knew it would only be understandable to an American audience but it kills me anyway.
Now I'll have to write it in English.
And what of Eilat? It seems like a dream world - or maybe a nightmare. It is gorgeous, luxurious (We stayed at the Royal Beach) and there is no sign of a problem anywhere. Most of the people (including staff) spoke no Hebrew or English - Most of the signs are in Russian with Hebrew underneath, and I think i would have enjoyed the shopping more if I too were an Oligarth.
We're waiting with bated breath for Obama's address to us. Our government has been unable to even accept the possibility that the impossible can be created with fear and deprecation. At least we have Herzog.
Oh the difference between our blustering prime minister and the quiet, considered, thoughtful US president. Oh my heart.
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LafargeHolcim on track
By Joe Malone2016-08-23T15:33:00+01:00
Eric Olsen, CEO of LafargeHolcim
LafargeHolcim believes it is delivering on its commitments despite seeing its half-year revenues fall 1.1% year-on-year.
The company recorded six-month revenues of CHF13.34 billion (€12.25 billion), from 1 January to 30 June, but LafargeHolcim insists it remains on track to achieve its 2016 targets, despite the marginal loss.
The Swiss-based company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), however, was CHF2.35 billion (€2.16 billion), which is an increase of 4.7% year-on-year.
Eric Olsen, CEO of LafargeHolcim, said, “Our focus on pricing and synergies is delivering visible earnings momentum.
“Without the effect of Nigeria, where our plants were affected by gas shortages, adjusted operating EBITDA would have increased by 13% in the second quarter. Nigeria is a high-growth market and we are adapting our plants to reduce our dependency on gas to restore supply and capture growth. We expect these measures to take effect by the end of the year.
Olsen added that, with the recent divestments announced in India, Sri Lanka, China and Vietnam, the company had exceeded its CHF3.5 billion (€3.21 billion) commitment for the whole of 2016 in a little over seven months.
He said that these transactions also helped LafargeHolcim to streamline and simplify its operations and allow the company to maximize synergies in countries like Morocco, China and India.
He said, “Following the successful execution of our divestment program to date, we are extending the program to CHF5 billion (€4.59 billion). We expect to complete the remainder of this by the end of 2017.
“Macroeconomic risks continue to affect some of our markets, however, we are delivering on our commitments and we remain on track to achieve our 2016 targets.”
LafargeHolcim said 2016 would be a year of progress towards its 2018 targets.
The company added that, in light of developments in selected countries during the first half, it expected demand in its markets to grow at between 1 and 3% for the full year.
Eric Olsen
LafargeHoclim
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May Birthday
Ancient Legend
Emerald, the gem of spring, has traditionally been associated with immortality and incorruptibility. It was the favored stone of Venus who, according to legend, detected the infidelity of lovers by its changing color.
Emerald's soothing green has no doubt contributed to the belief in the curative powers of this precious gem. Throughout the ages it has been used extensively as an antidote against sickness and evil of all kinds. It is especially noted for its beneficial effect upon the eyes.
The ancient Egyptians mined emeralds nearly 4,000 years ago, and Cleopatra was an avid collector. South America's rich bounty of emeralds was discovered by 16th Century Spanish explorers who found large emeralds in the possession of the Aztecs and Incas.
Believed by the ancients to empower the owner with foresight into the future, emerald is regarded as an amulet for good fortune.
Emerald, to many, symbolizes rebirth and the abundance of the life force. The rich green hue brings to mind the regeneration of life in spring and hope of new possibilities. Emerald is the birthstone for May and a talisman for Gemini.
Spring can also be seen in the network of inclusions in the depth of the emerald that the French call the jardin, or garden, because it resembles foliage. The inclusions are like a fingerprint, giving each emerald a distinct personality and distinguishing them as truly natural gemstones.
Round EmeraldToday, most of the world's emeralds are mined in Colombia, Brazil and Zambia. Emeralds can be cut in a variety of different shapes, ranging from the traditional rectangular step-cut, known as the "emerald cut," to rounds, ovals, squares and cabochons.
Early gemstone merchants sought to purify the transparency of their emeralds by immersing them in clear oils or paraffin. They found that clear oils and waxes rendered surface fissures less visible to the eye. Today, we have many sophisticated technologies with which to clarity-enhance emeralds. In addition to the oils and waxes of ancient methods, we now use clear resins to penetrate the open fissures surfacing in the stones. Hardeners are often added to solidify these liquids. This step prevents the resin from evaporating, thus making the clarity enhancement more permanent than oiling or waxing the gem. Although emerald itself is quite durable, the garden of inclusions may make individual gems vulnerable to damage if handled roughly.
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Leafly : https://www.leafly.ca
Tunisia’s Ban on Rapping About Cannabis Could Soon Change: The Leafly Legalization Roundup
Posted By Lisa Rough On February 16, 2016 @ 10:36 pm In Politics | No Comments
On the docket this week: Legalization measures are taking one step forward in Connecticut, one step back in New Mexico. Louisiana is thinking positively, Ohio has the best-laid plans for medical marijuana, and Rhode Island is trying to expand qualifying conditions. Beyond the borders, Australia is hoping to become a new global cannabis leader, Tunisia seriously needs to relax their laws, and one brave British politician is standing up for legalization. Here’s the latest:
State Rep. Juan Candelaria (D-New Haven) introduced a bill to legalize possession and use
of cannabis for adults 21 and older. Candelaria then joined a group of legislators, including Rep. Eszequiel Santiago (D-Bridgeport), in supporting another, more comprehensive proposal that includes specs on tamper-proof packaging, regulatory oversight, banning public use, and more. Under Candelaria’s proposal, medical marijuana dispensaries could grow cannabis for recreational use, with an allowance for more producer licenses in the event that demand exceeds supply. Unfortunately, Gov. Dannel Malloy says he isn’t comfortable with legalization, although he would support decriminalization.
A group of community members will hold a public forum
to discuss opinions and concerns about the possible legalization of cannabis in the Bayou State. A representative from the group Legalize Louisiana are to speak Tuesday afternoon in an effort to educate the public about the benefits of legality, such as the revenue generated from legal cannabis sales. Currently, Louisiana has a strict medical marijuana law that allows patients who qualify under three qualifying conditions to access non-smokable forms of cannabis, such as oils and tinctures, which will be available through ten distribution centers tentatively scheduled to open June 2017.
New Mexico senators voted down a measure, 24–17, that would have legalized recreational marijuana
. If it had been approved, the measure would have gone to voters in November. Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque), who authored the proposal, has vowed to continue advocating for legalization in future legislative sessions.
In other news, doctors will be treating the youngest-ever epileptic child
ever in a case study about the benefits of hemp oil in Colorado. The child, Amylea Nunez, is just a few months old, but when she was born in Albuquerque in December, it was immediately apparent that she needed specialized care. She suffered from 15 seizures a day and her heart stopped twice. Nunez has only just started her regimen, but her parents are hoping to wean her off other medications and replace them with hemp oil.
Ohio’s new constitutional MMJ amendment
is planned for the November ballot, but the language hasn’t yet been officially drafted. We’re starting to hear details, though. The amendment would establish a standard infrastructure of businesses to grow, process, test, distribute, and sell medical marijuana. Qualifying patients would obtain a registry card to buy and possess cannabis. Amendment authors are envisioning two types of cultivation licenses, one for smaller grow operations and another for large-scale, industrial production. An Ohio political action committee, Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, chose Michael Revercomb, Lissa Satori, and John Pardee to lead the campaign. To qualify for the November ballot, they’ll need to collect 305,591 signatures between April 2 and July 6.
The state Senate Health and Human Services Committee is considering legislation that would expand the qualifying MMJ medical conditions to include post-traumatic stress disorder
. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Archambault (D-Smithfield), would also accelerate the issuance of a medical marijuana card if the patient is eligible for hospice care. A report from the Veterans Administration found that nearly 30 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan now suffer from PTSD. The condition is currently included as a qualifying condition in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, and New Mexico.
The Liberal Party has introduced a draft bill in the Australian parliament to amend the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967
, and the measure seems all but guaranteed to pass. The proposal includes regulations for licensing national companies to supply medical cannabis to patients with painful and chronic illnesses as part of state-run clinical trials. New South Wales and several other states have passed laws allowing clinical trials on the effectiveness of cannabis as medicine, but current laws severely restrict cultivation. Researchers have found it all but impossible to find a reliable international source. Access to cannabis is currently limited to researchers and patients in clinical trials, but lawmakers will decide by the end of March whether to allow access for all qualifying patients.
Tunisian rapper Kafon is facing charges under a draconian law that criminalizes any public discourse of cannabis
, including arguments, verbal statements, and even song lyrics. In this case, Kafon’s song “Chakchak” contained a violation that put him in prison for nine months before he was released due to pressure from international media. Kafon is hardly the first person to fall victim to the law. Tunisian prisons are overflowing with young, poor, low-level offenders jailed for possession of “zatla,” a low-quality cannabis usually smuggled in from Morocco and Algeria. In December, a proposal to revise the law was approved
and sent to parliament. The reform measure would allow first-time offenders to pay a fine rather than serve a year in jail, and it would reduce the maximum penalty for repeat violations from five years down to one.
Tim Farron became the first leader of a British political party, the Liberal Democrats, to openly endorse the legalization of cannabis
for recreational use. Farron plans to propose a motion in support of legalization for both medicinal and recreational use. Those subjects will be debated after the release and analysis of the findings from an expert panel appointed by the party to examine how a legal marijuana market would function in the U.K. The panel so far has found that legalization could save the criminal justice system between £200 million and £300 million annually and could generate between £400 milliion and £900 million in yearly tax revenue.
Maine Could Be First State to OK Medical Cannabis to Treat Addicts
Polish Rapper-Turned-Politician Introduces Medical Cannabis Bill: The Leafly Roundup
Changing Perspectives: A Q&A With Vermont’s Cannabis-Friendly Former Lawman
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Article printed from Leafly: https://www.leafly.ca
URL to article: https://www.leafly.ca/news/politics/legalization-roundup-2-16-2016
[1] Politics: https://www.leafly.ca/news/politics
[2] Lisa Rough: https://www.leafly.ca/news/author/lisa-rough
[3] : #dsq-app1
[4] : https://www.leafly.ca/news/politics/legalization-roundup-2-16-2016/print/
[5] introduced a bill to legalize possession and use: http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Bill-would-legalize-weed-in-Connecticut-6823919.php
[6] will hold a public forum: http://klfy.com/2016/02/16/community-members-hosting-open-forum-to-discuss-legalizing-marijuana/
[7] voted down a measure, 24–17, that would have legalized recreational marijuana: http://krqe.com/2016/02/15/new-mexico-lawmakers-kill-marijuana-legalization-measure/
[8] doctors will be treating the youngest-ever epileptic child: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/02/12/history-made-childrens-hospital-colorado-treats-first-baby-with-hemp-oil/
[9] Ohio’s new constitutional MMJ amendment: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2016/02/ohio_medical_marijuana_amendme.html
[10] include post-traumatic stress disorder: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/02/16/senate-committee-mulling-bill-to-treat-ptsd-with-marijuana.html
[11] amend the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-cannabis-idUSKCN0VJ05C
[12] criminalizes any public discourse of cannabis: https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/30/joint-joint-tunisias-repressive-drugs-law
[13] a proposal to revise the law was approved: https://news.vice.com/article/smoke-weed-everyday-jail-tunisia-rappers-drug-law-marijuana
[14] openly endorse the legalization of cannabis: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/11/tim-farron-legalisation-cannabis-recreational-use
[15] Australia: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/australia
[16] connecticut: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/connecticut
[17] louisiana: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/louisiana
[18] new mexico: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/new-mexico
[19] ohio: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/ohio
[20] rap: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/rap
[21] rhode island: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/rhode-island
[22] Tunisia: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/tunisia
[23] United Kingdom: https://www.leafly.ca/news/tags/united-kingdom
[24] Image: https://www.leafly.ca/news/politics/maine-could-be-first-state-to-ok-medical-cannabis-to-treat-addict
[25] Image: https://www.leafly.ca/news/politics/leafly-cannabis-legalization-roundup-2-1-2016
[26] Image: https://www.leafly.ca/news/politics/qa-with-former-vermont-ag-kimberly-cheney
[27] Close: #sailthru-signup-widget
[28] Leafly: https://www.leafly.ca
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ST-C327-5-63. President John F. Kennedy Speaks at Presentation Ceremony of the Robert J. Collier Trophy to Mercury Seven Astronauts
President John F. Kennedy (at microphones) delivers remarks prior to presenting the 1962 Robert J. Collier Trophy to astronauts Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter, Major L. Gordon Cooper, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., Major Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Commander Walter M. Schirra, Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Major Donald K. “Deke” Slayton. Also pictured: Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Dr. James E. Webb; President of the National Aeronautic Association, Martin M. Decker; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene M. Zuckert; Secretary of the Navy, Fred Korth; Cdr. Schirra; Cdr. Shepard; Maj. Cooper; Maj. Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn; Maj. Grissom; Lt. Cdr. Carpenter; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay; Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency, Najeeb Halaby; Cdr. Schirra's wife, Jo Schirra; Maj. Slayton's wife, Marjorie Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn's wife, Annie Glenn; Cdr. Shepard's wife, Louise Shepard; Maj. Grissom's father, Dennis Grissom; Maj. Grissom's wife, Betty Grissom; Senator Clinton P. Anderson (New Mexico); Lt. Cdr. Carpenter's wife, Rene Carpenter; Maj. Cooper's wife, Trudy Cooper; Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr.; White House Secret Service agents, Jack Ready and Bill Payne; and National Park Service (NPS) Photographer, Abbie Rowe. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy (at microphones) delivers remarks prior to presenting the 1962 Robert J. Collier Trophy to astronauts Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter, Major L. Gordon Cooper, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., Major Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Commander Walter M. Schirra, Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Major Donald K. “Deke” Slayton. First row (L-R): Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Dr. James E. Webb; President of the National Aeronautic Association, Martin M. Decker; President Kennedy; and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Second row (L-R): Secretary of the Navy, Fred Korth; Cdr. Schirra; Cdr. Shepard; Maj. Cooper; Maj. Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn; Maj. Grissom; and Lt. Cdr. Carpenter. Third row (L-R): Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay (partially hidden); Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency, Najeeb Halaby (in back); Cdr. Schirra's wife, Jo Schirra; unidentified (in back); Maj. Slayton's wife, Marjorie Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn's wife, Annie Glenn; Maj. Grissom's mother, Cecile Grissom (in back); Cdr. Shepard's wife, Louise Shepard; Maj. Grissom's father, Dennis Grissom (in back); Maj. Grissom's wife, Betty Grissom; Senator Clinton P. Anderson of New Mexico (in back); Lt. Cdr. Carpenter's wife, Rene Carpenter; and Maj. Cooper's wife, Trudy Cooper. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy (at microphones) delivers remarks prior to presenting the 1962 Robert J. Collier Trophy to astronauts Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter, Major L. Gordon Cooper, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., Major Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Commander Walter M. Schirra, Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Major Donald K. “Deke” Slayton. Standing right of the trophy, first row (L-R): Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Dr. James E. Webb; President of the National Aeronautic Association, Martin M. Decker; President Kennedy; and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Second row (L-R): Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene M. Zuckert (mostly hidden, behind trophy); Secretary of the Navy, Fred Korth; Cdr. Schirra; Cdr. Shepard; Maj. Cooper; Maj. Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn; Maj. Grissom; and Lt. Cdr. Carpenter. Third row (L-R): unidentified; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay; Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency, Najeeb Halaby (in back); Cdr. Schirra's wife, Jo Schirra; unidentified (in back); Maj. Slayton's wife, Marjorie Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn's wife, Annie Glenn; Maj. Grissom's mother, Cecile Grissom (in back); Cdr. Shepard's wife, Louise Shepard; Maj. Grissom's father, Dennis Grissom (in back); Maj. Grissom's wife, Betty Grissom; Senator Clinton P. Anderson of New Mexico (in back); Lt. Cdr. Carpenter's wife, Rene Carpenter; and Maj. Cooper's wife, Trudy Cooper. Also pictured: Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr.; White House Secret Service agents, Jack Ready and Bill Payne; and National Park Service (NPS) Photographer, Abbie Rowe. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy (at microphones) delivers remarks prior to presenting the 1962 Robert J. Collier Trophy to astronauts Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter, Major L. Gordon Cooper, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., Major Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Commander Walter M. Schirra, Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Major Donald K. “Deke” Slayton. Standing right of the trophy, first row (L-R): Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Dr. James E. Webb; President of the National Aeronautic Association, Martin M. Decker; President Kennedy; and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Second row (L-R): Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene M. Zuckert (mostly hidden, behind trophy); Secretary of the Navy, Fred Korth; Cdr. Schirra; Cdr. Shepard; Maj. Cooper; Maj. Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn; Maj. Grissom; and Lt. Cdr. Carpenter. Third row (L-R): unidentified; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay; Administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency, Najeeb Halaby (in back); Cdr. Schirra's wife, Jo Schirra; unidentified (in back); Maj. Slayton's wife, Marjorie Slayton; Lt. Col. Glenn's wife, Annie Glenn; Maj. Grissom's mother, Cecile Grissom (in back, partially hidden); Cdr. Shepard's wife, Louise Shepard; Maj. Grissom's father, Dennis Grissom (in back); Maj. Grissom's wife, Betty Grissom; Senator Clinton P. Anderson of New Mexico (in back); Lt. Cdr. Carpenter's wife, Rene Carpenter; and Maj. Cooper's wife, Trudy Cooper. Also pictured: Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr.; White House Secret Service agents, Jack Ready and Bill Payne; and National Park Service (NPS) Photographer, Abbie Rowe. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.
Honors, medals, and awards (4)
(-)Carpenter, M. Scott (Malcolm Scott), 1925-2013 (4)
(-)Cooper, Gordon (Leroy Gordon), 1927-2004 (4)
(-)Halaby, Najeeb (Najeeb Elias), 1915-2003 (4)
Anderson, Clinton P. (Clinton Presba), 1895-1975 (4)
Carpenter, Rene (Rene Louise Price), 1928- (4)
Cooper, Trudy (Trudy B. Olson) (4)
Decker, Martin M. (4)
Glenn, Anna Margaret Castor, 1920- (4)
Glenn, John Herschel, 1921-2016 (4)
Grissom, Betty (Betty Moore), 1927- (4)
Grissom, Dennis D. (Dennis David), 1903-1994 (4)
Grissom, Gus (Virgil Ivan), 1926-1967 (4)
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973 (4)
Korth, Fred (Frederick H.), 1909-1998 (4)
Schirra, Jo (Josephine Cook Frasier), 1924- (4)
Schirra, Walter M. (Walter Marty), 1923-2007 (4)
Shepard, Alan B. (Alan Bartlett), 1923-1998 (4)
Shepard, Louise Brewer, 1922?-1998 (4)
Slayton, Donald K. (Donald Kent), 1924-1993 (4)
Slayton, Marjorie (Marjorie Lunney), 1921-1989 (4)
Webb, James E. (James Edwin), 1906-1992 (4)
Grissom, Cecile King, 1901-1995 (3)
Payne, William B. (3)
Ready, Jack (John David), 1927-2014 (3)
Rowe, Abbie, 1905-1967 (3)
Zuckert, Eugene M. (Eugene Martin), 1911-2000 (3)
Collier Trophy (4)
National Aeronautic Association (U.S.) (4)
Project Mercury (U.S.) (4)
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| 0.862143
| 0.862143
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ST-C422-26-63. Military Officials Arrive at St. Matthew’s Cathedral for Requiem Mass of President John F. Kennedy
Military officials arrive at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle for the requiem mass in the state funeral of President John F. Kennedy; honor guard pallbearers hold the flag-draped casket of President Kennedy at right in background. Walking toward stairs: Commanding General of the Military District of Washington, Major General Philip C. Wehle; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Maxwell D. Taylor; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis E. LeMay; Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Earle G. Wheeler; Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral David L. McDonald; Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, General David M. Shoup (mostly hidden); Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Edwin J. Roland; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton; Air Force Aide to President Kennedy, Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell Shepard. Also pictured: Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, Richard Cardinal Cushing; Archbishop of Washington, Patrick A. O’Boyle; Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Bishop Philip Hannan; White House Secret Service agents, Floyd Boring, John Campion, Rufus Youngblood, and Tom Wells. Pallbearers include: Lance Corporal Jerry J. Diamond (USMC), Yeoman George A. Barnum (USCG), Lieutenant Samuel R. Bird (U.S. Army), Seaman Hubert Clark (USN), Sergeant James L. Felder (U.S. Army), Lance Corporal Timothy F. Cheek (USMC), Sergeant Richard E. Gaudreau (USAF), Seaman Larry B. Smith (USN), and Corporal Douglas A. Mayfield (U.S. Army). Washington, D.C. [Blemishes in lower left portion of image are original to the negative.]
ST-C422-20-63. President John F. Kennedy’s Casket Arrives at St. Matthew’s Cathedral
The flag-draped casket of President John F. Kennedy arrives at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, prior to the requiem mass in the state funeral of President Kennedy; Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, Richard Cardinal Cushing, receives the casket at right. Also pictured: Archbishop of Washington, Patrick A. O’Boyle; Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Bishop Philip Hannan; White House Secret Service agents, Floyd Boring, John Campion, Rufus Youngblood, and Tom Wells; honor guard pallbearers, Lance Corporal Jerry J. Diamond (USMC), Yeoman George A. Barnum (USCG), Lieutenant Samuel R. Bird (U.S. Army), Seaman Hubert Clark (USN), Sergeant James L. Felder (U.S. Army), Lance Corporal Timothy F. Cheek (USMC), Sergeant Richard E. Gaudreau (USAF), Seaman Larry B. Smith (USN), and Corporal Douglas A. Mayfield (U.S. Army). Washington, D.C.
The flag-draped casket of President John F. Kennedy arrives at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, prior to the requiem mass in the state funeral of President Kennedy. Those pictured include: Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, Richard Cardinal Cushing; Archbishop of Washington, Patrick A. O’Boyle; Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Bishop Philip Hannan; White House Secret Service agents, Emory Roberts, Floyd Boring, John Campion, Rufus Youngblood, and Tom Wells; honor guard pallbearers, Lance Corporal Jerry J. Diamond (USMC), Yeoman George A. Barnum (USCG), Lieutenant Samuel R. Bird (U.S. Army), Seaman Hubert Clark (USN), Sergeant James L. Felder (U.S. Army), Lance Corporal Timothy F. Cheek (USMC), Sergeant Richard E. Gaudreau (USAF), Seaman Larry B. Smith (USN), and Corporal Douglas A. Mayfield (U.S. Army). Washington, D.C.
ST-C422-102-63. President John F. Kennedy’s Casket Arrives at St. Matthew’s Cathedral
The funeral procession of President John F. Kennedy arrives at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, prior to the requiem mass in the state funeral of President Kennedy; honor guard pallbearers carry the flag-draped casket of the late President. Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, Richard Cardinal Cushing, walks toward cathedral, accompanied by Archbishop of Washington, Patrick A. O’Boyle, and Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Bishop Philip Hannan. Also pictured: White House Secret Service agents, Stu Stout, Emory Roberts, Floyd Boring, John Campion, Rufus Youngblood, and Tom Wells; honor guard pallbearers, Lance Corporal Jerry J. Diamond (USMC), Yeoman George A. Barnum (USCG), Lieutenant Samuel R. Bird (U.S. Army), Seaman Hubert Clark (USN), Sergeant James L. Felder (U.S. Army), Lance Corporal Timothy F. Cheek (USMC), Sergeant Richard E. Gaudreau (USAF), Seaman Larry B. Smith (USN), and Corporal Douglas A. Mayfield (U.S. Army). Washington, D.C.
The flag-draped casket of President John F. Kennedy arrives at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, prior to the requiem mass in the state funeral of President Kennedy. Members of the clergy pictured include: Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, Richard Cardinal Cushing; Archbishop of Washington, Patrick A. O’Boyle; Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Bishop Philip Hannan. Also pictured: White House Secret Service agents, Stu Stout, Emory Roberts, Floyd Boring, John Campion, Rufus Youngblood, and Tom Wells; honor guard pallbearers, Lance Corporal Jerry J. Diamond (USMC), Yeoman George A. Barnum (USCG), Lieutenant Samuel R. Bird (U.S. Army), Seaman Hubert Clark (USN), Sergeant James L. Felder (U.S. Army), Lance Corporal Timothy F. Cheek (USMC), Sergeant Richard E. Gaudreau (USAF), Seaman Larry B. Smith (USN), and Corporal Douglas A. Mayfield (U.S. Army). Washington, D.C.
ST-C107-6-63. President John F. Kennedy Attends Boston College's Centennial Ceremonies
President John F. Kennedy takes part in the processional walk from Roberts Center to Alumni Field at Boston College, prior to a convocation ceremony commemorating the school’s centennial anniversary. Walking (L-R): British economist and author, Lady Barbara Ward Jackson; President of Harvard University, Dr. Nathan M. Pusey; Senator Leverett Saltonstall (Massachusetts); Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts); Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing; Speaker of the House of Representatives, John W. McCormack (Massachusetts); chief of the Boston office of the United States Secret Service, Frank V. McDermott (head turned); President Kennedy; Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton; White House Secret Service agent, Floyd Boring (head turned); others unidentified. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
President John F. Kennedy takes part in the processional walk from Roberts Center to Alumni Field at Boston College, prior to a convocation ceremony commemorating the school’s centennial anniversary. Walking (L-R): Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing; Speaker of the House of Representatives, John W. McCormack (Massachusetts); President of Boston College, Reverend Michael P. Walsh, S.J.; President Kennedy; Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton; White House Secret Service agent, Floyd Boring. Police officers in background are unidentified. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
ST-C107-1-63. Centennial Ceremonies at Boston College
President John F. Kennedy and other honored guests walk towards the stage on Alumni Field at Boston College, during a convocation ceremony commemorating the centennial anniversary of Boston College. Those walking with President Kennedy include: Representative Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, Jr. (Massachusetts); President of Georgetown University, Reverend Edward B. Bunn; British economist and author, Lady Barbara Ward Jackson; Governor of Massachusetts, Endicott “Chub” Peabody; President of Harvard University, Dr. Nathan M. Pusey; Senator Leverett Saltonstall (Massachusetts); Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts); Archbishop of Boston, Richard Cardinal Cushing; President of Boston College, Reverend Michael P. Walsh, S.J.; Speaker of the House of Representatives, John W. McCormack (Massachusetts); Military Aide to the President, General Chester V. Clifton; White House Secret Service agent, Floyd Boring. Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Religious matters (5)
(-)Boring, Floyd M., 1915-2008 (8)
(-)Cushing, Richard J. (Richard James Cardinal), 1895-1970 (8)
Barnum, George A., 1939- (5)
Bird, Samuel Richard, 1940-1984 (5)
Campion, John E. (John Edward), 1909-1983 (5)
Cheek, Timothy F., 1943- (5)
Clark, Hubert, 1946?- (5)
Diamond, Jerry J., 1944-2011 (5)
Felder, James L., 1941?- (5)
Gaudreau, Richard E., 1936?- (5)
Hannan, Philip M. (Philip Matthew), 1913-2011 (5)
Mayfield, Douglas A., 1942- (5)
O'Boyle, Patrick A. (Patrick Aloysius), 1896-1907 (5)
Smith, Larry B., 1945- (5)
Wells, Tom (Thomas H.), 1933- (5)
Youngblood, Rufus W., 1924-1996 (5)
Clifton, Chester V. (Chester Victor), 1913-1991 (4)
McCormack, John (John William), 1891-1980 (3)
Roberts, Emory P., 1915?-1973 (3)
Jackson, Barbara Ward, 1914-1981 (2)
Kennedy, Edward M. (Edward Moore), 1932-2009 (2)
Pusey, Nathan M. (Nathan Marsh), 1907-2001 (2)
Saltonstall, Leverett, 1892-1979 (2)
Stout, Stewart G., d. 1974 (2)
Walsh, Michael P., 1912-1982 (2)
Bunn, Edward B. (Edward Bernard), 1896-1972 (1)
McDermott, Frank (Francis V.), 1910-1971 (1)
McDonald, David L. (David Lamar), 1906-1997 (1)
McHugh, Godfrey T., 1911-1997 (1)
O'Neill, Tip (Thomas Phillip), 1912-1994 (1)
Peabody, Endicott, 1920-1997 (1)
Roland, Edwin John, 1905-1985 (1)
Shoup, David M. (David Monroe), 1904-1983 (1)
Taylor, Maxwell D. (Maxwell Davenport), 1901-1987 (1)
Wehle, Philip C. (Philip Campbell), 1906-1978 (1)
Wheeler, Earle G. (Earle Gilmore), 1908-1975 (1)
Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle (Washington, D.C.) (5)
Boston College (3)
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Showing 1 - 25 of 250 Records
6-7: Cuba: Cuban Crisis, 1962: State Department (2 of 3 folders)
Textual folder
1962: 23 October-28 November, undated
Papers of Robert F. Kennedy. Attorney General Papers
Memoranda, 1961-1964 (1 of 3 folders)
10 January 1961-20 January 1964
United States Information Agency Records
20 February 1961-9 September 1964
ST-388-2-63. President John F. Kennedy Meets with Alliance for Progress Representatives from Latin America
President John F. Kennedy (center, at microphone) meets with Alliance for Progress (La Alianza para el Progreso) representatives from Latin America in the Fish Room, White House, Washington, D.C.; President Kennedy delivered remarks for the occasion. Standing behind the President, from left to right: U.S. Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, Teodoro Moscoso; Argenil Plazas García of Colombia; Francisco Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; unidentified; Alicia Navarro of Chile; four unidentified; Chairman of the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), Gonzalo J. Facio Segreda; and Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. José Mora. The eight representatives who met with the President are: Fadrique Muñoz of Bolivia; Mr. Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; Ralfo Rezende Decourt of Brazil; Ms. Navarro of Chile; Mr. Plazas García of Colombia; Fernando Fernández Tapia of the Dominican Republic; Dr. Menandro Alcibíades Canelo of El Salvador; and Filiberto Antonio Trujillo of El Salvador.
ST-388-1-63. President John F. Kennedy Speaks to Alliance for Progress Representatives from Latin America
President John F. Kennedy (center right, at microphone) delivers remarks to Alliance for Progress (La Alianza para el Progreso) representatives from Latin America in the Fish Room, White House, Washington, D.C. Standing behind the President, from left to right: U.S. Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, Teodoro Moscoso; Argenil Plazas García of Colombia; Francisco Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; unidentified; Alicia Navarro of Chile; four unidentified; Chairman of the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), Gonzalo J. Facio Segreda; and Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. José Mora. The eight representatives who met with the President are: Fadrique Muñoz of Bolivia; Mr. Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; Ralfo Rezende Decourt of Brazil; Ms. Navarro of Chile; Mr. Plazas García of Colombia; Fernando Fernández Tapia of the Dominican Republic; Dr. Menandro Alcibíades Canelo of El Salvador; and Filiberto Antonio Trujillo of El Salvador.
AR8079-F. President John F. Kennedy Meets with Alliance for Progress Representatives from Latin America
President John F. Kennedy (center right) visits with Alliance for Progress (La Alianza para el Progreso) representatives from Latin America in the Fish Room, White House, Washington, D.C. Left to right: unidentified (in back); U.S. Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, Teodoro Moscoso (in profile); Argenil Plazas García of Colombia; two unidentified (one mostly hidden behind Mr. Plazas García); President Kennedy; Chairman of the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), Gonzalo J. Facio Segreda (hidden behind the President); and Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. José Mora. The eight representatives who met with the President are: Fadrique Muñoz of Bolivia; Francisco Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; Ralfo Rezende Decourt of Brazil; Alicia Navarro of Chile; Mr. Plazas García of Colombia; Fernando Fernández Tapia of the Dominican Republic; Dr. Menandro Alcibíades Canelo of El Salvador; and Filiberto Antonio Trujillo of El Salvador.
AR8079-D. President John F. Kennedy Meets with Alliance for Progress Representatives from Latin America
President John F. Kennedy (center, at microphone) meets with Alliance for Progress (La Alianza para el Progreso) representatives from Latin America in the Fish Room, White House, Washington, D.C.; President Kennedy delivered remarks for the occasion. Left to right: Francisco Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; unidentified; Alicia Navarro of Chile; two unidentified; President Kennedy; two unidentified (one mostly hidden behind the President); Chairman of the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), Gonzalo J. Facio Segreda; and Secretary General of the OAS, Dr. José Mora. The eight representatives who met with the President are: Fadrique Muñoz of Bolivia; Mr. Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; Ralfo Rezende Decourt of Brazil; Ms. Navarro of Chile; Argenil Plazas García of Colombia; Fernando Fernández Tapia of the Dominican Republic; Dr. Menandro Alcibíades Canelo of El Salvador; and Filiberto Antonio Trujillo of El Salvador.
AR8079-C. President John F. Kennedy Meets with Alliance for Progress Representatives from Latin America
President John F. Kennedy (center right) visits with Alliance for Progress (La Alianza para el Progreso) representatives from Latin America in the Fish Room, White House, Washington, D.C. Left to right: three unidentified; Argenil Plazas García of Colombia; U.S. Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, Teodoro Moscoso (back to camera); unidentified (in back); President Kennedy; and two unidentified. The eight representatives who met with the President are: Fadrique Muñoz of Bolivia; Francisco Calazans Fernandes of Brazil; Ralfo Rezende Decourt of Brazil; Alicia Navarro of Chile; Mr. Plazas García of Colombia; Fernando Fernández Tapia of the Dominican Republic; Dr. Menandro Alcibíades Canelo of El Salvador; and Filiberto Antonio Trujillo of El Salvador.
ST-207-2-63. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
President John F. Kennedy stands with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Members of the press observe. White House, Washington, D.C.
KN-C27992. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. Members of the press observe, including White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI), Helen Thomas. White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. Also pictured: White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI), Helen Thomas; White House Secret Service agent, Bill Payne. White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. Members of the press observe, including newsreel photographer for United Press Movietone, Thomas J. Craven, Sr. White House, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. Also pictured: White House correspondent for United Press International (UPI), Helen Thomas; Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Dr. Jerome Wiesner. White House, Washington, D.C.
AR7826-G. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
AR7826-F. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Those pictured include: Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Dr. Jerome Wiesner; White House photographer, Captain Cecil Stoughton; newsreel photographer for United Press Movietone, Thomas J. Craven, Sr.; White House Secret Service agent, Emory Roberts. White House, Washington, D.C.
AR7826-E. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
AR7826-C. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. White House, Washington, D.C.
AR7826-A. President John F. Kennedy with Latin American Health Ministers
President John F. Kennedy visits with Ministers of Health of Latin American republics in the Rose Garden. Visitors present include: Minister of Welfare and Public Health of Argentina, Dr. Tiburcio Padilla; Director of the National Public Health Service of Bolivia, Dr. Francisco Torres Bracamonte; Minister of Health of Brazil, Dr. Paulo Pinheiro Chagas; Minister of Public Health of Chile, Dr. Benjamín Cid; Minister of Public Health of Colombia, Dr. José Félix Patiño; Minister of Public Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Max Terán Valls; Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Samuel Mendoza Moya; Minister of Social Welfare and Public Health of Ecuador, Dr. Luis Pallares Zaldumbide; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of El Salvador, Dr. Ernesto R. Lima; representative of the Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Guatemala, Dr. Roberto Arroyave; Under Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Honduras, Dr. Carlos A. Javier; Secretary of Public Health and Welfare of Mexico, Dr. José Alvarez-Amezquita; Vice Minister of Public Health of Nicaragua, Dr. Constantino Mendieta Rodríguez; Minister of Labor, Social Welfare, and Public Health of Panama, Dr. Bernardino González Ruiz; Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Dr. Dionisio González Torres; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Peru, General Dr. Víctor Solano Castro; Minister of Public Health of Uruguay, Dr. Aparicio Méndez; Minister of Public Health and Welfare of Venezuela, Dr. Arnoldo Gabaldón; Ambassador of Haiti, Dr. Louis Mars; Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Dr. Luther L. Terry; Assistant Administrator for Human Resources and Social Development for the Agency for International Development (AID), Dr. Leona Baumgartner; Assistant Surgeon General of the USPHS, Dr. James Watt. Also pictured: Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Dr. Jerome Wiesner; New York Times photographer, George Tames. White House, Washington, D.C.
AR7634-L. President John F. Kennedy with President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez
President John F. Kennedy walks with President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, through the West Wing Lobby, following their meeting at the White House. Standing in back: U.S. State Department interpreter, Fernando van Reigersberg; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carlos Martínez Sotomayor. Washington, D.C.
ST-549-4-62. President John F. Kennedy Attends Luncheon in Honor of President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez
President John F. Kennedy and President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, stand in front of the Grand Staircase prior to a luncheon in honor of President Alessandri Rodríguez. Standing behind the Presidents, in front row (L-R): U.S. Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carlos Martínez Sotomayor; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr. Back row (L-R): Ambassador of Chile, Walter Müller; U.S. Under Secretary of State, George Ball; United States Ambassador to Chile, Dr. Charles W. Cole. Military personnel flank the staircase. Entrance Hall, White House, Washington D.C.
President John F. Kennedy and President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, stand in front of the Grand Staircase prior to a luncheon in honor of President Alessandri Rodríguez. Standing behind the Presidents, in front row (L-R): U.S. Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr. Middle row (L-R): U.S. Under Secretary of State, George Ball; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carlos Martínez Sotomayor. Back row (L-R): Ambassador of Chile, Walter Müller; United States Ambassador to Chile, Dr. Charles W. Cole. Military personnel flank the staircase. Entrance Hall, White House, Washington D.C.
KN-C25743-F. President John F. Kennedy Attends Luncheon in Honor of President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez
President John F. Kennedy and President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, stand in front of the Grand Staircase prior to a luncheon in honor of President Alessandri Rodríguez. Standing behind the Presidents, in front row (L-R): U.S. Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr. Middle row (L-R): U.S. Under Secretary of State, George Ball; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carlos Martínez Sotomayor. Back row (L-R): Ambassador of Chile, Walter Müller; United States Ambassador to Chile, Dr. Charles W. Cole; U.S. State Department interpreter, Fernando van Reigersberg. Military personnel flank the staircase. Entrance Hall, White House, Washington D.C.
KN-C25579. President John F. Kennedy Attends Luncheon in Honor of President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez
President John F. Kennedy and President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, stand in front of the Grand Staircase prior to a luncheon in honor of President Alessandri Rodríguez. Standing behind the Presidents, in front row (L-R): U.S. Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton; Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carlos Martínez Sotomayor; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr. Back row (L-R): Ambassador of Chile, Walter Müller; U.S. Under Secretary of State, George Ball; United States Ambassador to Chile, Dr. Charles W. Cole; U.S. State Department interpreter, Fernando van Reigersberg. Military personnel flank the staircase. Entrance Hall, White House, Washington D.C.
President John F. Kennedy and President of Chile, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, stand in front of the Grand Staircase prior to a luncheon in honor of President Alessandri Rodríguez. Standing behind the Presidents (L-R): U.S. Chief of Protocol, Angier Biddle Duke; Military Aide to President Kennedy, General Chester V. Clifton; U.S. Under Secretary of State, George Ball (in back); Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Carlos Martínez Sotomayor; Naval Aide to President Kennedy, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr. Military personnel flank the staircase. Entrance Hall, White House, Washington D.C.
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Cayman Islands News
Cayman Compass News
eVersion
Home Business Building increased competitiveness for Cayman
Building increased competitiveness for Cayman
Basia McGuire
London-based International Financial Crime Prevention and Compliance Training recently held a financial training week in Cayman geared at helping the financial services industry focusing on hedge funds, trusts and banking, reports Journal columnist Basia Pioro.
Sponsored by the Cayman Islands Financial Services Association, the week afforded an opportunity to hear from local regulators, legislators and experts, as well as IFFCT faculty members.
In his opening address CIFSA Chair Eduardo Silva took the time to outline some of the challenges Cayman will need to meet in the immediate future.
“In our relatively short history as a global financial centre the Cayman Islands has come under attack from a number of sources. But never before have so many forces been aligned against us as they seem to be today,” he said.
Mr. Silva noted the timeliness of topics like enhancing competitiveness, preparing for imminent legislative changes, and developing practical strategies and plans to mitigate risks topics being presented at the conference.
He said the Cayman Islands has been able to build itself into a global offshore financial centre in part due to the strong partnership existent between private sector and Government.
“This allowed for a very responsive business environment that could quickly capitalize on opportunities and stay ahead of the curve in adopting new products and services,” he said.
Because the lines of communication are more open between the public and private sector here, and everyone is working in the best interests of building and maintaining the jurisdiction’s reputation for integrity and compliance, Cayman has been able to establish new legislation in a timely manner while maintaining high standards of compliance.
Mr. Silva said that maintaining this relationship is a vital part of CIFSA’s role. While many residents just assume that Cayman will always remain a major player in global financial services, CIFSA and the Government are both well aware of the potential challenges facing the industry.
These include the development of other offshore financial centers and the threat of legislation from on-shore jurisdictions like the US, France, and Germany that could severely impact the ability of businesses in those countries to work with the Cayman Islands.
“The reality is that these businesses are portable,” said Mr. Silva.
“In fact, they first came to Cayman in the 1960’s because of policy mistakes made elsewhere in the Caribbean. That opened the door for Cayman to begin building our financial centre and to attract top industry people who participated in our growth. So we know how fast these things can change and turn on us if we are not vigilant in our defense of the industry.”
“Developing relationships with foreign governments has become an essential part of our business,” said Mr. Silva.
He said that looking beyond Cayman’s borders CIFSA must constantly monitor the international political and financial landscapes to stay on top of emerging trends and assess the potential opportunities and threats that lie ahead.
“Cayman’s greatest threat remains the misinformation being spread about the Cayman Islands Financial Services industry, exacerbated today by the desire for politicians to identify a villain, preferably a foreign one, for the recent crash in global financial markets,” he said.
“If we are going to fight against the perceptions of secrecy and unethical business practices we must become more open and proactive with our communications.”
He commented that CIFSA has made great strides recently in developing positive relationships with the foreign press and we have had several positive results from independent reports on our adherence to international standards, including a very positive report from the Government Accounting Office of the US Government.
“These efforts protect and build our reputation for professionalism and integrity across the globe,” he said.
Making the offshore business case
In order to counteract the negative arguments being put forth about the Cayman Islands, Mr. Silva argued for putting forth a strong business case that educates people about the benefits offshore centres provide to employers, pension funds, unions, shippers, airlines, and other organizations.
“We must stand up and say ‘This is who we are, this is why you need us, and this is how we benefit the global economy’,” said Mr. Silva.
“We have to explain our function as an integral part of the global financial system. In doing so we sometimes have to make strong statements denouncing the false, misleading, and harmful comments that some politicians, competitors and uninformed media make about our industry and our country.”
He observed that while Cayman’s efforts are proactive, they are done in the spirit of cooperation and partnership.
“We are looking for friends, not enemies,” he said.
Effective oversight
Mr. Silva noted that there is much more emphasis being placed on oversight these days with the current global financial crisis.
“Jurisdictions that are perceived to have stronger controls and oversight will benefit going forward. This is one area that being a first mover can build a competitive advantage for a jurisdiction,” he said.
Mr. Silva observed the most recent edition of the Global Financial Centres Index, or GFCI, revealed that the regulatory environment has now become the most important factor in assessing the competitiveness of financial centres, taking over from availability of skilled professionals.
“The Cayman Islands has always been seen as a safe and well regulated jurisdiction due to its UK ties. This is something we need to continue to stress in our messaging,” said Mr. Silva.
“We believe that self-regulation is the most effective and efficient means of oversight.”
He noted that due to the current global financial crisis there is a real risk that reactionary legislation is passed that could have the affect of stifling the flow of capital and decreasing efficiencies in the global financial system.
“This would work against the very goals of recent government efforts to inject liquidity and prop up the banking sectors worldwide,” he said.
“By proactively taking steps to strengthen oversight within the private sector Cayman’s financial services sector can potentially move ahead of other jurisdictions that are slower to develop such standards or who are faced with overly burdensome government regulation.”
Product offerings and support services
Being a tax efficient jurisdiction is obviously a major advantage that the Cayman Islands has over other financial centres. Another competitive advantage that Cayman has enjoyed is the large, experienced base of support services, which include accounting, legal, banking, insurance, and investment services firms.
This makes business processes quicker and more efficient than many competing jurisdictions, especially for complex, multi-national transactions.
“But these advantages mean little unless we are able to translate them into a line-up of products and services that add value to the customer’s experience doing business in Cayman,” said Mr. Silva.
“Creativity, innovation and excellence of service will always be the drivers of our success and we can never take our position for granted. We need to stay alert to inefficiencies in the markets, and take the lead in developing solutions that open new markets to us by creating positive outcomes for our clients.”
High caliber industry workers
“In order to attract and retain top industry people it is necessary to either pay them more than other jurisdictions can pay or make your jurisdiction as appealing as possible to them and their families through softer services and quality of living,” said Mr. Silva.
He noted businesses are looking for reliable power, water, telecom, and transportation infrastructure, as well as available office space at reasonable prices before they consider opening a Cayman branch.
“The skilled individuals our businesses require are concerned about housing, personal safety, transportation, quality schools, friendliness of the society toward ex-pat workers, and a vibrant social scene,” said Mr. Silva.
“Until recently, quality of workforce has been the top factor in assessing global competitiveness for financial centres. As a result we cannot overlook the many factors that determine the willingness of top industry minds to come and work in Cayman. Our weather is a great advantage but we cannot count on that alone.”
Effective Marketing and Public Relations
Mr. Silva said that, at last having obtained a critical mass in its membership over the past year or so CIFSA is now an international voice that demands recognition.
“Our input is being sought more and more regularly by international news agencies and competitive jurisdictions in dealing with global financial issues,” he said.
“Creating a ‘brand’ for Cayman as a financial centre is something that CIFSA and the Government must address going forward. Other centres are promoting themselves aggressively in New York and London and other major markets. We need to compete on the marketing and promotional front to ensure that new centres do not pass us by,” he continued.
“Challenges will always present themselves to Cayman’s financial centre, this tiny country that had the nerve, foresight and keen instincts to build a globally respected financial center where only a single bank stood before.”
He concluded by noting that CIFSA remains confident that the current storms will pass if the industry and government continue to do their part in working with international regulators, facilitating the flow of accurate information, and meeting the needs of their various clients through continued innovation and flexibility.
cayman islands financial services association
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The Journal is an authoritative broadsheet, featuring in-depth reviews on local and international business and finance issues that have an impact on Cayman Islands.
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Herschel and Planck Share Ride to Space
News | May 5, 2009
A Universal Art Form: NASA's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
Designed and built by JPL, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 has been the workhorse camera on NASA's Hubble Space telescope's since it was added to the observatory in December of 1993. The camera has produced most of the stunning images that have been released by Hubble during its 15-plus years of service. Its high image resolution and quality are some of the reasons the camera became the space telescope's most requested instrument.
Throughout history, humanity has been moved by the work of the great artists of their age. Wielding brush, chisel or baton, these masters of expression have been able to interpret the environment around them in innovative ways, providing their public new avenues to explore their own senses and emotions. But as with so many career fields, the role and tools of the artisan are changing.
NASA's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is one such new tool of artistic expression. The name may be unfamiliar to you, but more likely than not, you know of -- and have been moved by -- its iconic tableaus. For this camera is the implement by which humans first bore witness to some of the most inspiring and thought provoking vistas in the known universe.
"I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people tell me how much this picture or that image has meant to them," said John Trauger, principal investigator of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "After a while, I began to realize what we have achieved reached beyond the scope of pure science and became something more."
Born as a clone, a safeguard, to be used only in the most dire circumstances, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, or WFPC2, as it's known to the team, was employed under exactly those conditions. Since its arrival aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope 15-and-a-half years ago, the baby grand piano-sized camera has been collecting and analyzing the photons of deep space, and redefining our cosmos.
"The WFPC2 image I remember most is of the Eagle Nebula," said Ed Weiler, acting assistant administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "It has these pillars of gas and dust that are trillions of miles long. You know there are new stars and planets being formed in there, and the colors are just so intriguing. But what really got me was not my reaction to the picture, but the reaction of the American public."
Imaged by the camera on April 1, 1995, the Eagle Nebula, 7,000 light-years away, is composed of dense, towering clusters of interstellar hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Emerging from these towers of cosmic material can be seen newborn stars. It is, in essence, an interstellar nursery.
"After we released the image during a press conference, CNN continued to cover the story live," said Weiler. "People felt compelled to call in with their reactions to this one picture. They were seeing the faces of famous people. One person thought he saw Elvis. Others called it the pillars of creation. I mean this picture touched Americans in a way I have never seen an astronomical picture do."
Another famous portrait by the camera reached out and touched people by peering back almost to the very beginning of the universe itself.
"The original Hubble Deep Field was the deepest image mankind had ever taken out across the universe, literally back in time," said Dave Leckrone, senior project scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "That was the first time we really drove the Hubble Space Telescope to its limits in terms of its ability to see extremely faint objects extremely far away."
Over 10 consecutive days in December 1995, Hubble and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 stared at a speck of sky no bigger than a grain of sand held at arm's length. Soaking in the paltry traces of light (four-billion times fainter than can be seen by the human eye), the camera generated 342 separate images. When all 342 were combined, the resulting image pulled back the curtain on a part of the universe no one had seen before and few had imagined.
"You have got to appreciate that the Hubble Deep Field was taken of a part of the sky that was purposefully chosen to be as empty as people could imagine," said Leckrone. "Astronomers looked at ground-based images of that little part of the sky and said it was basically black - there wasn't anything there. And then you take this Hubble Deep Field and suddenly you see that it is not empty at all. It is filled with thousands of galaxies of every kind imaginable.
"It was just so beautiful," Leckrone added. It produced an emotional response in people saying we are part of something bigger, and more complicated and more beautiful than we ever thought before as human beings."
"One of my personal favorites is of a planetary nebula called MyCn18," said Trauger. "This image has been widely reproduced in settings as diverse as the cover of National Geographic [April 1997] and the cover of Pearl Jam's "Binaural" CD.
The hourglass-shaped nebula has an intricate pattern of "etchings" in its walls. A planetary nebula is the glowing relic of a dying, sun-like star. Scientists theorize the hourglass-shape of this particular nebula is produced by the expansion of a fast stellar wind within a slowly expanding cloud of interstellar gas, which is denser near its equator than its poles.
While the star in one of Trauger's favorite images may be dying, the camera itself is not. With more than 185,000 images of the cosmos under its belt, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is providing the kind of art astronomers, scientists and other people around the world love, right up to the end. And as much as he values his camera's time in the spotlight, the principal investigator knows when to put the brushes away.
"That camera is the grandpa, the oldest, longest-lasting instrument aboard Hubble," said John Trauger. "But with all that history comes its fair share of radiation damage and plain old obsolescence. It is tired, it is time for it to be brought home."
The camera replacing it, the Wide Field Camera 3, is equipped with state-of-the-art detectors and optics. The new imager is expected to improve Hubble's discovery efficiency and extend its outstanding imaging performance.
"We can only guess what that new camera will discover," said Trauger. "But history tells us that every increase in our reach will uncover new wonders. We will learn still more about the life cycles of galaxies, stars and planetary systems, and the unique astronomical setting of our Earth, and to me that means a lot. WFPC2 helped us see the light."
The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Media contact: DC Agle/JPL
› JPL's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 site
› NASA's Hubble Servicing Mission site
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This multipanel image might look like cosmic pop art, but it is actually a showcase of how different wavelengths of light can reveal different features of a cosmic object.
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The creators of this infrared workhorse never imagined it would still be running 15 years after launch. What is its secret? A little luck and a great engineering team.
How NASA's Spitzer Has Stayed Alive for So Long
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European Hezbollah combat recruits depart for Syria
Political science expert says participating in conflict gives European Muslims a feeling of purpose, identity and heroism.
By Benjamin Weinthal
Hezbollah members carry mock rockets.. (photo credit: REUTERS/Ali Hashisho)
BERLIN – The Lebanese militia organization Hezbollah recruited combatants in Europe to bolster Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in its war against rebel fighters.
According to an article in the Beirut- based The Daily Star last week, officials from March 14 – a largely pro-Western Lebanese political coalition opposed to Assad’s interference – had received security information about new Eastern European mercenaries arriving at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, in groups, on their way to Syria, presumably to fight alongside Assad’s regime.
“According to the one Eastern European country’s intelligence unit, most of these fighters have professional military experience and have fought in Chechnya.”
The report appears to be the first article to document links between Hezbollah’s operations in Europe and its military support for Assad. The material and combatant support would likely be a violation of EU anti-terrorism laws banning Hezbollah military aid.
Prof. Gerald Steinberg, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that “this is another example of the difficulties that the EU and its member states have in responding realistically to Hezbollah. The EU’s fiction that distinguishes between ‘political’ and ‘military’ wings left Hezbollah’s infrastructure, including fund raising, largely intact in Europe. This in turn facilitated the recruiting and dispatch of thousands of terrorists from Europe to Syria to fight with Hezbollah for the Assad regime. And given the painfully slow process with which the EU corrects foreign policy mistakes, it is probably too late to avoid further damage, particularly when these terrorists return to Europe.”
The Daily Star wrote the fighters originated from Eastern European countries.
The paper did not identify the names of its sources and it is unclear which Eastern European countries are supplying mercenary combatants for Hezbollah.
Last July, the European Union designated Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist entity.
It isn’t clear if the EU has cracked down on Hezbollah recruitment in Europe. Germany has over 1,000 Hezbollah members.
Suspected Hezbollah members are responsible for the 2012 bus bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria and had used Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic as their transit routes. The attack resulted in the deaths of five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver.
According to The Daily Star, “last January saw the arrival of the first of these batches, which included approximately 23 fighters, who then traveled in vans belonging to Hezbollah to Chtaura and then on to Nabi Sheet in east Lebanon. The leader of the group also held a meeting with a Hezbollah military official, Habib M., known as Abu Hussein, who hails from the town of Ali al-Nahri in the Bekaa Valley. The fighters then headed to the Syrian town of Serghaya near Damascus.”
The paper added that “the second batch arrived at Rafik Hariri International Airport individually so as not to draw attention to themselves. This group included approximately 11 fighters, three of whom hailed from Russia’s southern Dagestan province.”
The combatants from Eastern Europe were “wearing Hezbollah military uniforms as well as yellow bands on their heads to show their loyalty.”
According to the paper, M Security Group, a prominent Eastern European organization, recruited men with the specific intention of sending them to aid the Syrian regime. They offered these recruits monthly salaries as well as insurance for their families.
The hub of the European recruitment process for Hezbollah goes through an “Eastern European officer known as Maximov,” according to The Daily Star. The paper says he leads several cells and coordinates between them and Hezbollah’s fighters from his current location, a Damascus suburb in which Hezbollah is battling Syrian rebels.
Emmanuel Navon, director of the political science and communications department at the Jerusalem Orthodox College and teacher of International Relations at Tel Aviv University and at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, told the Post that “this phenomenon is both the result of a radical Muslim education, funded by Saudi Arabia and Iran, but [is also due to the fact] that European Muslims feel hopeless, and like second class citizens [and] this gives them a feeling of purpose, identity and heroism.”
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Bahrain to host conference to discuss Iranian naval security threats
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Drew Doggett
drewdoggett.com
Mount Pleasant, SC, United States
Photo Associations & Memberships:
American Society of Media Photographers
Professional Photographers Association
About Drew Doggett
Drew Doggett is an award-winning photographer, director, and producer who focuses on places, objects, and cultures at risk of disappearing. His practice is characterized by his passion for exploring and telling stories while utilizing the discipline and sympathies he learned working in fashion photography. Through dramatic tonal range and an established affinity for finding hidden textures and designs, Drew’s work celebrates the world’s diversity while also drawing attention to current, timely issues. His photographic work can be found in private and public collections globally, notably the Smithsonian African Art Museum (DC) & the Mariners’ Museum (VA). He has also been featured in many publications such as Photographer Magazine and Outside Magazine, and has partnered with brands like Hasselblad and Leica.
Drew Doggett's Projects on LensCulture
Drew Doggett's Books
Sail: Majesty at Sea by Drew Doggett Photography
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Egon Schiele, Portrait of Wally Neuzil
Most likely the best-known portrait of his partner Wally Neuzil, Egon Schiele painted this as a counterpart to his Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant. This harmoniously composed likeness shows Wally Neuzil with her slightly-lowered head, auburn hair, and oversized, bright blue eyes looking directly at the viewer. Particularly impressive are Schiele’s use of geometric shapes and the harmony of colors: orange and blue, white and black, red and green. The portrait exudes intimacy and tenderness, thus revealing the lovers’ closeness.
Egon Schiele’s painting Portrait of Wally Neuzil was the personal property of Lea Bondi Jaray (b. 1880 in Mainz – d. 1969 in London), a Jewish art dealer and owner of the Galerie Würthle in Vienna. After she was forced to turn the gallery over to art dealer Friedrich Welz in April 1938, Lea Bondi Jaray fled to London in 1939 to escape the Nazis. The Painting became the subject of court proceedings in New York City from 1998 to 2010, after it was loaned in 1997 to the Museum of Modern Art in New York by the Leopold Museum as part of an exhibition of Schiele works from the Leopold Museum's collection. In 1999 the United States Government commenced a civil forfeiture action in New York, alleging that the Painting was stolen from Lea Bondi Jaray during the Nazi era by Friedrich Welz, and was imported into the United States in 1997 by the Leopold Museum in violation of U.S. law. The Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray asserted a claim to the Painting in the proceedings, and the U.S. Government agreed that upon forfeiture of the Painting, it would transfer to the Estate all right and title to the Painting.
Based on the evidence presented during the case, the United States District Court in New York concluded in 2009 that the Painting had been the personal property of Lea Bondi Jaray and that it was stolen from her in Vienna in the late 1930's by Friedrich Welz, a member of NSDAP and Nazi collaborator, when he took over the Würthle Galerie from Lea Bondi Jaray as part of the “Aryanization” process. The Court found that the Painting had been seized from Welz by the U.S. Forces in Austria after the War and delivered in 1947 to the Austrian Federal Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (the »Bundesdenkmalamt«), along with paintings Welz had acquired from Heinrich Rieger, a Jewish art collector who was murdered in 1942 at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In 1950 the Bundesdenkmalamt delivered artworks to an agent for the Rieger heirs and included Portrait of Wally Neuzil in the delivery. Later that year, the Rieger heirs sold their works to the Austrian National Gallery (the »Belvedere«), with Portrait of Wally Neuzil among these works. In 1954, the Belvedere traded the Painting to Rudolf Leopold. In 1994 Rudolf Leopold transferred the Painting to the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.
Following the Court's findings on these issues, the case was finally resolved in 2010 by the U.S. Government, the Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray and the Leopold Museum. The Leopold Museum agreed to pay the Estate a substantial sum and, in return, the Estate agreed to release its claim to the Painting and the Government agreed to dismiss the civil forfeiture action and release the Painting to the Leopold Museum.
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Famous lyrics by »
Hear'Say
Hear'Say were a short-lived British manufactured pop group. They were created through the ITV reality TV show Popstars in February 2001, the first UK series of the international Popstars franchise. The group, who were signed to Polydor Records, consisted of Danny Foster, Myleene Klass, Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, and Noel Sullivan. Hear'Say achieved instant fame, breaking chart records with their debut single "Pure and Simple" and the album Popstars. However, their second album failed to match the same success as its predecessor.
Update this biography »
Complete biography of Hear'Say »
Albums by Hear'SaySort:By AlbumA - Z
Everybody [2001]
Angel in My Heart
Back Down to Zero
Straight from the Heart
Music: Today's Definitive Hits, Vol. 2 [2001]
Pure & Simple 3:46
Now That's What I Call Music! 48 [UK] [2001]
Pure and Simple 3:46
Popstars [2001]
Another Lover 3:47
Breathe 3:35
Carried Away 3:40
Colourblind 3:41
I Didn't Want You Anyway 3:00
Make It Happen 3:43
Monday Monday 2:30
One 2:46
One Step Closer 3:33
Sweet Alibi 3:17
The Way to Your Love 3:15
Pure and Simple [2001]
Then and Now [Bonus Tracks] [2001]
Could It Be Forever [*]
w/ David Cassidy 2:31
Everybody 3:51
Share your thoughts on the Hear'Say Band with the community:
Missing lyrics by Hear'Say?
Know any other songs by Hear'Say? Don't keep it to yourself!
Hear'Say tracks
Think you know music? Test your MusicIQ here!
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Sweet Louisiana
Steven Tyler Buy This Song
Steven Tyler (born Steven Victor Tallarico; March 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his high screams and his wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his high-energy performances, he usually dresses in bright, colorful outfits with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand. In the 1970s, Tyler rose to prominence as the frontman of Aerosmith, which released such milestone hard rock albums as Toys in the Attic and Rocks. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tyler had a heavy drug … more »
Where'd you get that voodoo, you ain't from the Bayou
Where'd you learn to move like that
Go ahead and try me, and bring your poison ivy
Snakin' in the tall green grass
Why'd your mama name you Sweet Louisiana
'Cause you could be the devil's child
Glory hallelujah, love the way you do ya
It's never goin' out of style
Well, it must be so cool to be you
Makin' me a fool, yeah, like you do
You're like honey to the bees
Baby, won't you please
Sting me with a tease or two
Yeah, you're burnin' like a fire, sparkin' like a lighter
Sugar with a side of sass
Down and nitty gritty, like you own the city
Honey, how you so badass
Makin' me a fool, so cruel
Written by: CARY BARLOWE, NATHAN BARLOWE, HILARY LINDSEY, STEVEN TYLER
Lyrics © Spirit Music Group, BMG Rights Management
Discuss the Sweet Louisiana Lyrics with the community:
"Sweet Louisiana Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2019. Web. 18 Jul 2019. <https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/33049257/Steven+Tyler>.
Missing lyrics by Steven Tyler?
Know any other songs by Steven Tyler? Don't keep it to yourself!
We're All Somebody from Somewhere
Hold On (Won't Let Go)
It Ain't Easy
Love Is Your Name
I Make My Own Sunshine
Gypsy Girl
Somebody New
Only Heaven
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly & Me
Red, White & You
What Am I Doin' Right?
Janie's Got a Gun
Steven Tyler tracks
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The Real Deal:New York firm sells retail building in Wynwood for double last deal in 2014
Posted Thursday, Aug 4, 2016
2301 North Miami Avenue in Wynwood
New York-based Atlas Real Estate Partners has sold a corner retail building in Wynwood for more than double what it paid about two years ago.
AREP 2301 LLC sold the 13,353-square-foot building at 2301, 2305 and 2311 North Miami Avenue for $8.47 million, Metro 1 Commercial executive vice president Tony Arellano told The Real Deal.
Design District 4100 LLC paid about $634 per square foot for the fully leased building and $614 per square foot for the land, which is on the southeastern side of Wynwood. Arellano said the deal is a long-term, value-add retail investment with under-market leases and a 5.25 percent cap rate. Metro 1’s Andres Nava restructured, bought out and released about 6,700 square feet, bringing in furniture and design store Vondom.
Records show the 1940 building last sold for $3.58 million in July 2014. Atlas’s controller, Chris Sweeney, manages the selling entity. Atlas and real estate crowdfunding platform Fundrise partnered on the project after the real estate investment firm bought the property. It marked the first project in Florida for Fundrise, which has since shifted its focus to REITs.
The new owner is a Miami-based entity controlled by Nicolas Molina that owns two apartment buildings in Miami Beach. The deal closed on Wednesday, Arellano said. Metro 1’s Fabian Graff, an investment sales associate, also represented the buyer.
The property, which offers 97 feet of frontage along North Miami Avenue, could also be redeveloped in the long term. It sits on a roughly 13,800-square-foot lot zoned T6-8-0, which allows for an eight-story building with options, and about 47 residential units.
Wynwood has also undergone a slate of new zoning designations since October that encourage more density, mixed-use and residential developments. Just south of the building is the planned site of a 12-story office, retail and residential tower. Developer Jeronimo Hirschfeld will build Wynwood Square on the vacant land, which his company acquired in 2015 for $15 million, or $192 per square foot.
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Author: Steve Sweeney-Turner
Read all articles by Steve Sweeney-Turner
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 am
Cairnpapple Hill – A Symbol of All Prehistory
Few ancient monuments can claim anything like a life-span of 4,000 years. But in the Bathgate Hills of West Lothian, we find just such a place – Cairnpapple, in use at various points from the early-ish Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, from approximately 3,500 BC to 500 AD.
The earliest evidence of human activity here is, at first sight, pretty mundane. Merely a series of six vaguely burnt areas, along with two stone axe-heads of such tiny dimensions that they are practically useless – and, indeed, seem never to have been used as such. But a combination of archaeological and geological analysis of the axe-heads reveals a deeper meaning. Significantly, they were produced far away in famous Neolithic “axe-factories” in the mountains of Cumbria and North Wales, whose products have a remarkably-wide distribution in Neolithic Britain at sites similar to Cairnpapple. In this light, their impractical size and unused condition turns them from useless objects into high-status symbols whose real meaning seems to reveal wide-ranging connections within the mainstream cultural network of the period. And this is before any of Cairnpapple’s monuments were actually constructed – but perhaps they are there precisely to prepare the ground, in the most symbolic of senses.
Throughout the Neolithic, of course, our ancestors were gradually moving from a semi-nomadic “hunter-gatherer” lifestyle towards a more settled and technologically-advanced life in agricultural communities. Little remains of their domestic dwellings, which are generally assumed to have been made of wood. But all communities need their public spaces too, and here, the architecture was not only of more lasting construction, but monumentally so. At Cairnpapple – once the ground was prepared – the main story of the place begins with a henge. Most henges were not built on the summit of a hill, but Cairnpapple’s monuments often have rather innovative variations on the common themes of the mainstream. Here, the henge consists of a large elliptical ditch cut partly into the hard volcanic bedrock of the hill, surrounded by a raised ridge or “berm”. Two entrances led to the centre, one aligned to the north, the other slightly west of the south. The effect is to completely separate two spaces – the internal space of the structure, and the rest of the world beyond it. Aside from the two gaps in the berm, the henge formed an enclosed space marked off from the surrounding landscape – and not least from the routine toils taking place on the farms below. It suggests a space of difference, distinct from the everyday life, literally, and perhaps also symbolically, above it.
Of course, it’s hard to say what actually took place within that space. But the next sequence of structures certainly offers some tantalising clues. The earliest internal monuments include a type of structure found within some other henges, known as a “cove”, often at or near the centre. Cairnpapple’s “cove” was formed of three stones arranged as a rectangle open to the east. And immediately to its east, within the henge, there was also a curiously-angular arc of 7 pits, probably containing upright stones. There is growing evidence that these performed a calendrical function, marking the points of sunrise at the solstices and equinoxes, and several other key seasonal dates in between, calculated from the viewpoint of the “cove”. However, whatever the true function of these structures was, before the Neolithic era was over, they were taken down and replaced by a full-scale circle of 24 stones. Again, there is growing speculation about possible astronomical alignments of a more complex nature, marking out time in finer detail.
But towards the end of the Neolithic era, a new kind of monument was added – perhaps significantly, in the space previously occupied by the “cove”. Here, we find the first burial on the site, known as the “North Grave”. This is a rock-cut grave aligned east-west, covered over by an early example of a cairn. But again, Cairnpapple bends the rules with a little local variation. This first burial-mound has a standing-stone at the western foot of its grave, which would have stuck out of the side of the cairn, half-covered. This is particularly unusual in prehistoric Britain – standing-stones do not generally mark graves, and I know of no other example of one deliberately protruding from the side of a cairn. Perhaps it represents a physical conduit between the everyday world above ground and the realm of the dead below. But whether it has any deliberately-unique significance, or is simply an experimental form that never caught on, we’ll never know. One way or the other, the introduction of a cairn over a burial represents a transition from the last age of Stone to the Bronze Age, which is also the classic age of cairns per se.
Although monumental architecture seems to aim towards eternity, it’s a fact that monumental fashions change from time to time – and old forms can become obsolete. And the first properly Bronze Age cairn at Cairnpapple not only takes us towards a more classic form than that of the North Grave, but is built on top of, and completely covering it. At the same time, it seems that the cairn-builders here no longer had a taste for stone circles – there is good evidence that at least 21 of the circle’s stones were taken down to be re-used in the new great cairn’s low retaining wall, or “kerb”. Within the second cairn itself, two major stone-lined graves or “cist” burials were found, each containing artefacts of various kinds – presumably the necessary equipment for the journey beyond this life. But this second cairn was itself superseded by a third and truly massive cairn, again raised over and incorporating its predecessor – and also over the now in-filled western arc of the henge-ditch. But the apparent lack of respect shown by the Bronze Age cairn-builders to the Neolithic monuments of their predecessors should not blind us to the fact that both of the major cairns display a different kind of respect for the past – neither destroys the previous cairn, but in fact encloses it, almost protectively. This is not mere vandalism, but displays a certain continuity of ancestral tradition – even though the function of the monuments shifts from one mode to another, the place as a whole was still clearly considered to be a place of power and its public expression, and precisely because it was defined as such by the ancestors, whose tombs, if nothing else, were still to be honoured.
Following this remarkable tri-cairn sequence of the Late Neolithic through Bronze Age, no further major monumental work was carried out, although the great cairn that encapsulates the previous two probably remained in use as a place for additional burial deposits (there is certainly evidence of this custom from the second cairn). The final prehistoric chapter of Cairnpapple’s story comes at the end of the Iron Age, on the edge of the historical era as such. Again, there is continuity of tradition and function, although expressed within yet another change of style. On the internal eastern edge of the henge, there is a small cemetery of four rock-cut long-graves whose varied dimensions suggest a family burial-plot. No grave-goods were found within these, and this is unusual for pre-Christian custom. It could be that Cairnpapple’s final chapter represents the early conversion to Christianity, within the final moments of the Roman era. If so, then the choice of Cairnpapple as the place of burial for a Christian family might hint that they claimed some form of noble descent from the ancestors nearby under the cairns. One way or another, it is certain that none of the burials at such places represent the average members of the population, although these high-status tombs are clearly designed for public display on a grand scale. And it is more than likely that this public was the famous Celtic tribe called the Gododdin – whose story we will pick up at numerous other points in this series of articles.
Without doubt, there were far more chapters and paragraphs and footnotes in Cairnpapple’s story than have survived down to our day. And it is also true that the most visually-impressive monuments were taken down well before the prehistoric era was over. But following Stuart Piggott’s excavations of the late 1940s, a functional reconstruction of the layout was possible. Visiting Cairnpapple today, you can see a restoration of the Neolithic henge-ditch, along with minor remains of its enclosing berm. Within this, you can also see the reconstructed post-holes of most of the stone circle – the cairn sequence, of course, having been built over some of these. The outline of the third and greatest cairn can be traced by following its encircling kerb-stones (be careful not to confuse these with the vanished stone circle!). Within these kerb-stones, you can also still see the seven post-holes of the mysterious Neolithic arc. But the main attraction today is the grassed-over concrete reconstruction of the second cairn, artificially hollow to allow us to view one of its two cist-burials, along with the uncovered remains of the North Grave. And it is here that Cairnpapple’s single remaining upright monolith still guards over its empty grave. Overall, Cairnpapple is nothing short of a symbolic index of our early cultural development, a microcosm of our prehistoric story not only on the regional scale, but with echoes still resonating far beyond.
[ Link to Ancient Lothian: http://www.cyberscotia.com/ancient-lothian ]
(Visited 4026 times)
2 Responses to “Cairnpapple Hill – A Symbol of All Prehistory”
Vince Hackley Says:
December 8th, 2010 at 2:11 am
Are there tours or prearranged transport to visit cairnpapple if you are staying in Edinburgh? Approximately how long a bus or car ride is it from Edinburgh? I will be there on business in Sept 2011 and would like very much to visit the site, but will not have my own transport.
Steve Sweeney-Turner Says:
Hi, Vince!
Unfortunately, there are no officially pre-arranged tours or transport to Cairnpapple. Historic Scotland tends not to do that kind of thing for any of its monuments. However, you might find some information on visiting Cairnpapple on my Cairnpapple website – http://www.cyberscotia.com/cairnpapple.
Public transport (bus or train) will easily get you as far as Bathgate. But at which point, you’d either have to walk up (with an OS map) for an hour or two, or get a taxi (probably best to book the return taxi in advance, though!). Cairnpapple isn’t quite on the transport network, it has to be said!
However, feel free to contact me via my own website – we might be able to arrange a custom-made guided tour (with transport all-in, and maybe some other related monuments along the way) for a modest fee. 😉
Hope this helps. 🙂
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LoyolaMedicine.org
Advancements
Body + Soul
Brain Aneurysms Need Watching, not Worrying
Joseph Serrone, MD
A brain aneurysm is simply a balloon-like outpouching of a blood vessel within the brain. They are present in about 2 to 3 percent of the population and very commonly do not cause any symptoms in patients who harbor them. Why then would you or a doctor be concerned about a brain aneurysm?
The concern arises because aneurysms have the potential to rupture, or burst open, and cause bleeding around the base of the brain. This condition is called subarachnoid hemorrhage and represents the most disabling type of stroke. Patients experiencing a ruptured aneurysm require emergency evaluation at a stroke center to treat the aneurysm and be monitored in a critical care setting for 10 to 14 days after treatment.
Taking care of critically ill patients who have suffered a ruptured aneurysm is a significant portion of a neurosurgeon’s work. Even more commonly, doctors evaluate patients who have an aneurysm that hasn’t ruptured. These aneurysms nearly always are discovered accidentally on an MRI that was taken to evaluate a headache or other symptoms.
Once an aneurysm is found, it requires a careful evaluation by a specialist who understands the risk an aneurysm could pose to the patient. Medical studies show the risk of a brain aneurysm rupturing is quite low. In some cases, this risk can be less than half a percent per year and most brain aneurysms fall into this low-risk category. In these cases, neurosurgeons do not recommend treatment given the low risk to the patient. However, all aneurysms are followed with brain imaging studies over several years to ensure they are not growing.
Treatment is considered if the brain aneurysm is at increased risk of rupturing. The aneurysms that are at increased risk of rupturing are:
Larger than 7 mm
Located at the back of the brain
Irregularly shaped
Growing, based on a series of imaging studies
An aneurysm found in someone who has had a ruptured aneurysm before or has a family history of brain aneurysms has a greater risk of a rupture occurring.
The job of neurosurgeons and other specialists who manage aneurysms is to determine which ones pose a high enough risk to warrant treatment and which ones should be left alone.
The goal of treatment is to prevent blood from entering the aneurysm. This can be accomplished by either a surgical procedure or an endovascular procedure. The surgical procedure requires an operation in which a neurosurgeon makes a small opening in the skull and places a clip at the base of the aneurysm. This method has been used to treat aneurysms for over 50 years and remains the most durable method to permanently block the aneurysm. Patients typically spend three days in the hospital after surgery and are able to resume normal activities in two to three weeks.
The endovascular method of treatment approaches the aneurysm from inside the blood vessel, as opposed to surgery, which approaches the aneurysm from outside of the vessel. Endovascular treatment starts by accessing the femoral artery in the groin, and catheters are then navigated to the brain and placed inside the aneurysm. With a catheter inside the aneurysm, metal coils made of platinum are packed into the aneurysm, which prevents blood from entering the aneurysm and thus protect it from rupturing.
This form of treatment has been used for about 25 years and represents a less invasive way to treat the aneurysm. Patients typically spend one day in the hospital and return to normal activities within a few days. Although endovascular treatment is less invasive and offers a quicker recovery, it is less durable: About 15 percent of aneurysms need to be treated again within two years.
There are many nuances that doctors contemplate before choosing whether to recommend surgery or endovascular treatment. Our approach to evaluating aneurysms at Loyola Medicine is to bring together specialists from several medical disciplines, including neurosurgery, radiology, neurology and critical care, to have an open discussion of aneurysm cases. Such clinics allow doctors to draw from decades of experience and knowledge in making a sound recommendation to our patient
Now you have a foundation for understanding a complex condition that we take pride in treating.
Joseph Serrone, MD, is a neurosurgeon who specializes in minimally invasive endovascular treatment of stroke and other blood vessel disorders of the brain and spinal cord. Dr. Serrone sees patients at Loyola Outpatient Center.
Loyola University Medical Center Celebrates 50 Years
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Quinlan School of Business
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Jennifer Griffin
Title/s: Raymond C. Baumhart, SJ, Professor of Business Ethics
Office #: Schreiber 529
Dr. Jennifer J. Griffin is the Raymond C. Baumhart, S.J. Professor of Business Ethics and Professor of Strategy at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business (Chicago, IL). Engaged at all levels of learning (e.g. executive, doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate including online and experiential study abroad courses) Jenn examines how organizations continuously co-create value. Annually, she leads corporate strategy, social impact, and strategy-oriented CSR workshops for Australian, Chilean, and US executives as well as periodically in Brazil, India and Lebanon.
Award-winning author of the Academy of Management 2017 Best Book Award, SIM Division, for her Cambridge University Press book, Managing Corporate Impacts: Co-Creating Value, Jenn has received numerous research awards and grants. Among the research awards is the Best Paper Award in 20 Years for a co-authored article, ‘Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance: Twenty-five years of Incomparable Research.’ It remains among the most cited articles in Business & Society.
Her research is published in multiple disciplines: Journal of Business Ethics, Public Administration Review, Business & Society, Group & Organization Management, Business Ethics: An European Review, Business & Politics, Corporate Reputation Review, Journal of Public Affairs, and Public Relations Quarterly, among others. Co-author of several case studies on social entrepreneurship, she has written book chapters for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (UN PRME) series, the Doing Well by Doing Good series, the Handbook for Public Affairs, and The Accountable Corporation series, among others. Jenn is an associate editor of Business & Society, the North American editor for Journal of Public Affairs, and senior editor of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia.
Professor Griffin, an award-winning educator, received the School of Business highest teaching award, the Teaching Excellence Award as well as the Faculty of the Year award presented by full-time MBA students while at George Washington University. Eight times in the past decade doctoral students nominated her for the Peter J. Vaill Award for Best GWSB Doctoral Professor. She is most proud of the student-led nomination for the National Inspire-Integrity Teaching Award.
Jenn has been an invited speaker for various organizations: Larson & Toubro Ltd. (Pune, India), Oxford Uni Centre for Corporate Reputation/NYU Corporate Affairs Summit, Am. Assoc of Chambers of Commerce of Latin America (AACCLA, Mexico City), Calvert Funds (Bethesda, MD), BoardReady (DC), Georgetown Law Center (DC), Universidad de Chile (Santiago), Universidad de Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo), Uni of Saint Joseph-Kaslik (Lebanon), Tampere Uni of Technology (Finland), Uni of Ulster, Uni of Bath (UK), Uni of South Australia (Australia), Uni of Nottingham (UK), Yale University’s Program on Non-Profit Organizations, United Way (VA), Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD), Uni of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), Uni of Delaware, Centre for Corporate Public Affairs Institute (Melbourne), Australian Centre for Social Impact, Issues Management Council (DC), Public Affairs Council (DC), Canadian Conference Board, and President George H.W. Bush’s Points of Light Foundation (Washington, DC) among others. Jenn is also a Board Member, Keep America Beautiful.
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Quinlan School of Business · 820 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611USA · 312.915.7057 quinlan@luc.edu
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Duke Greco: Quintessential Aggie
By RICH CIRMINIELLO
There are coaches in college athletics who are inexorably linked to a particular university. Pat Fitzgerald will forever be synonymous with Northwestern, regardless of where his future career path winds. Ditto Frank Beamer and Virginia Tech and Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State. At the Division III level, Duke Greco is Delaware Valley University, and the Aggies couldn’t be happier with the portrayal.
Greco has been a prominent part of the DelVal landscape for nearly two decades, first as a player, then as an assistant coach and now as the head coach of one of the premier D-III programs in America. The Eastern PA native, who starred at Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, has not had to stray far to carve out an impressive coaching career that is just beginning to rev into high gear.
The Aggie community was first introduced to Greco at the turn of the century. The plucky kid with the no-quit attitude made an immediate impression with his work ethic and his determination to succeed. Initially a safety, Greco willed his way to the starting quarterback job. And while he ran the ground-based wishbone at Lower Moreland, he needed just 20 games under center at DelVal to graduate as the second most prolific QB in school history.
No one was going to outwork or outhustle Greco on the field, a mindset he has carried into the coaching profession.
Greco worked his way up the ranks at DelVal, beginning as a wide-eyed, eager-to-learn assistant in 2002. He grinded, much the way he did during his playing days, learning from the likes of head coaches G.A. Mangus and Jim Clements before landing the offensive coordinator job in 2006. In Greco’s eight seasons as the leader of the offense, the Aggies won four Middle Atlantic Conference crowns and three times reached the second round of the D-III playoffs. His attacks were perennially balanced, potent and well coached, so when Clements moved on to Division II Kutztown University four years ago Greco was the natural successor.
Replacing Clements, the winningest-ever coach in DelVal history was no small chore. Expectations were not going to be relaxed. But Greco embraced the challenge with his usual enthusiasm, grit and positivity, and he’s helped keep the bar as high as ever in Doylestown. In four seasons at the helm, he’s a stellar 39-7, seamlessly building a bridge to when Clements was in charge. And if 2017 is an accurate harbinger of what lies ahead, the Aggies have just started to ascend under their young head coach.
DelVal was the preseason favorite to win the MAC last fall. DelVal did not disappoint.
After going 9-2 for three consecutive years, the Aggies erupted in 2017 for one of the most dominating and memorable campaigns in program history. Looking past inferior opponents during the regular season? Not a chance. Not with Greco calling the shots.
Taking absolutely nothing for granted—and taking their lead from Greco—the Aggies took no prisoners last fall. They rolled from wire-to-wire, on both sides of the ball and in every imaginable fashion. After holding off ranked Wesley College, which wouldn’t lose another regular season game, DelVal went on an epic tear highlighted by 11 consecutive victories by at least 20 points. The Aggies didn’t just win a lot of games in 2017. They robbed opponents of their will in a calculated weekly assault that meshed neatly with the personality of their coach.
Greco is a player’s coach, to be sure, but his work ethic, passion for the game and constant pursuit of perfection was evident in the effort and execution of his kids.
“Coach’s philosophy is that you’ve got to be prepared to put in the work to be successful, in any walk of life,” offers all-league LB Nicholas DiGati, who amassed a team-high 101 stops last year. “Everything you get on this campus, you’ll have earned. He runs the program with an attention to the details, and I think it helps that he’s been in our shoes here. More than anything else, he’s taught me that anything is possible in life if you operate with the right attitude and the right amount of effort.”
Effort was never lacking with the Aggies, one of the trademarks of a Greco-coached squad. DelVal gave the other guys no weaknesses to exploit. The balanced offense, led by multidimensional QB Dashawn Darden and RB Devauntay Ellis, averaged almost 39 points per game. DiGati’s D yielded only 10 points per game, despite frequently using reserves late in blowouts. The secondary, headlined by All-American S Shawn Miller? Air-tight, picking off more than three times as many passes as touchdowns allowed. Greco spent his first three seasons as a head coach perfecting the program, before unleashing the refined product on the rest of the MAC in 2017.
DelVal’s steamroll through the 2017 schedule included a number of notable milestones. By the end of November, the Aggies had run their winning streak to 16 games, the longest in school history. They ended a three-year playoff drought, routing Western New England University and Husson University to reach the quarterfinal round of the Division III playoffs for the first time since 2005. And for his tireless teaching, Greco was named the 20th Tri-State Coach of the Year, joining Mangus and Clements in the exclusive fraternity.
“I have had the pleasure of knowing Duke Greco since he was one of my players in high school,” states Maxwell Football Club Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Mark Wolpert. “What stood out most to me at that time, and what still stands out, is his attention to detail. He understands the importance of being prepared and his detail-oriented approach is the foundation of what makes him successful. I am so proud to see one of my former players achieve the level of success that Duke has in the coaching world. He is one of the bright young stars in the coaching world today and I know the future holds great things for him and his Delaware Valley program”.
Last season ended painfully for Delaware Valley University, a crushing 31-28 loss to The College at Brockport on a field goal as time expired. It erased a valiant fourth-quarter rally, snapped the historic winning streak and ended hopes of a national championship. But heads around these parts didn’t hang for long. Too much left to be done. Too many goals yet to be reached. Too much fire in the coach’s belly. Greco is as DelVal as an A-Day weekend in Doylestown on a warm April afternoon. And that’s a green and gold partnership capable of turning this past season into the start of a trend.
Rich Cirminiello is the Director of College Awards for the Maxwell Football Club, and someone who revels in the opportunity to tell each award winner’s unique story.
Award Profile
Winner: TRI-STATE COACH AWARD -Delaware Valley University
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Cancer Proteomics
Julio E. Celis
Molecular & Cellular Proteomics April 1, 2004, First published on March 24, 2004, 3 (4) 297; https://doi.org/10.1074/mcp.E400001-MCP200
Following the publication of the first special issue on clinical proteomics, the editors of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics decided to launch a series of clinical issues focusing on the application of state-of-the-art proteomic technologies to the study of human disorders.
Today, the availability of tools for the rapid and efficient analysis of genes and their respective products promises to expedite the translation of basic research findings into routine clinical practice in the areas of diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. In particular, protein-based technologies are expected to play a key role in the study and treatment of human disorders, as they provide invaluable resources to define and characterize regulatory and functional protein networks both within and outside cells. In addition, proteomics provides the means to investigate, both in tissues and fluids, the precise molecular defect associated with a given disease and may expedite the development of specific reagents to detect different pathological stages of the disease. The main challenge today, however, is how best to apply these powerful and novel technologies to clinically relevant complex samples in a well-defined clinical and pathological framework.
Cancer, being a disorder that impinges on an important fraction of the world population, is at present the target of major interdisciplinary research efforts aiming at 1) elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying disease pathogenesis, 2) revealing new biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and response to therapy, and 3) developing effective therapeutic agents from the wealth of information generated from the “Omics” technologies. For these reasons, it seemed appropriate to devote the first issue in the series to this major disease.
This special issue highlights some relevant developments in the rapidly emerging field of cancer proteomics and provides a solid foundation for future research in this area. It includes invited reviews as well as articles selected from regular submissions that deal with the following topics: 1) clinical infrastructures, support initiatives, and proteomic resources for translational research, 2) biomarker discovery (sources, detection, and screening), 3) antibody-based targeted cancer therapy, and 4) protein profiling of tumor biopsies. In general, the articles highlight the problems and limitations one faces when searching for novel biomarkers and targets, and as a whole emphasize the need for creating integrated research environments in order to accelerate the translation of basic discoveries into the clinical practice.
My thanks to all the contributors for keeping the tight deadlines, and to the staff of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics for the quick and efficient handling of the manuscripts.
© 2004 The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
You are going to email the following Cancer Proteomics
Molecular & Cellular Proteomics April 1, 2004, First published on March 24, 2004, 3 (4) 297; DOI: 10.1074/mcp.E400001-MCP200
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Public support for outdoor smoking bans in Scotland
Should smoking be banned in public parks?
Published: 12:50 Friday 21 August 2015
The majority of people in Scotland think smoking should be banned in playgrounds.
And according to new research, many would welcome other outdoor smoke free places too.
Smoking is still a major cause of preventable disease and premature deaths in Britain
Dr Nitin Shori
Following proposals for up-weighted smoking bans in other parts of the UK, the survey has revealed an appetite for extended smoking restrictions in Scotland too - although some think it would be a step too far.
The independent research commissioned by the Pharmacy2U Online Doctor service found that two thirds (66%) of those from Scotland back bans in playgrounds, with many in favour of restrictions in outdoor restaurants (49%) and public parks (40%).
One in five (19%) said they would travel further to visit a smoke free beach.
However, smoking was not the only thing people from Scotland prefer not to see in happening in public places – 40 per cent thought drinking alcohol should not be permitted in parks and one in five (19%) think passionate displays of affection should be put a stop to.
Dr Nitin Shori, Medical Director of the Pharmacy2U Online Doctor service and a working NHS GP, said: “There does appear to be public support for more smoking restrictions – particularly where children are likely to be playing.
“Some parents worry about the impact of breathing in second-hand smoke, while others can be concerned about the litter aspect.”
The research also investigated the smoking habits and revealed that one in 15 (7%) of those who tried to stop smoking in the past 12 months decided to quit because the current smoking ban made it less appealing to smoke socially.
Dr Shori added: “The popularity of smoking has been on a downward trend since the risks became more widely understood in the 1970s.
“Smoking is still a major cause of preventable disease and premature deaths in Britain, so health worries tend to be a big driver for patients who decide to quit.
“Its addictive nature means it can be a tough habit to break and although some succeed through willpower alone, others find nicotine replacement or prescription medication is helpful.”
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Apple TV to play YouTube clips
By Elise Ackerman | Mercury News, Bay Area News Group
Apple will begin featuring YouTube videos on Apple TV within weeks, as the computer giant continues to explore ways to work more closely with Google, which bought the video-sharing site last year.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced the device’s new feature Wednesday at a technology conference in Southern California. Apple is also including Google’s search and mapping applications on the highly anticipated iPhone, which is expected to be released at the end of June.
In March, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who sits on Apple’s board of directors, told investors that the two companies “are doing more and more things together.”
Josh Bernoff, a vice president of Forrester Research, said Google and Apple are natural partners in the fight against Microsoft.
The more devices that are connected to the Internet that do not rely on Microsoft’s operating system, the more successful both Google and Apple can become, Bernoff said.
The YouTube feature was anticipated by Apple TV users, who already had started using a free plug-in created by programmer Jay Koutavas.
Koutavas – known online as “X Dog” – praised Apple for its quick response in an e-mail to the Mercury News. He said the move could potentially push YouTube to stream video at higher resolutions.
The set-top box, which was released in March, lets users watch videos that they purchase from the iTunes store or create using Apple’s software. Early reviews of the $300 device criticized the limited selection of content, as well as the device’s 40-gigabyte hard drive. The iTunes store offers more than 350 television shows and more than 500 movies, compared with 80,000 DVDs that are available on Netflix.
Wednesday, Apple said it would start selling Apple TVs with 160-gigabyte hard drives.
Alan Quatermain, a Canadian programmer who worked with Koutavas on his plug-in, said in addition to linking to YouTube, Apple’s program appears to be cleaning up the videos so they would be easier to view on the high-definition TVs that the device requires.
Contact Elise Ackerman at eackerman@mercurynews.com or (408) 271-3774.
Elise Ackerman
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Oroville Dam: Six months after disaster, a race…
Oroville Dam: Six months after disaster, a race to repair before next winter
Amid construction, concern persists over cracked gates and potential dam leak
Leveling concrete is placed on the upper chute of the Lake Oroville flood control spillway in Butte County, California. Photo taken July 31, 2017.
Leveling concrete is placed on the upper chute of the Lake Oroville flood control spillway in Butte County, California. Photo taken July 31, 2017. (Dale Kolke/California Department of Water Resources)
Leveling concrete is placed between the stay-forms on the upper chute of the Lake Oroville flood control spillway in Butte County, California. Photo taken July 31, 2017. (Dale Kolke/California Department of Water Resources)
More than 100 construction workers race to rebuild on the lower chute of Oroville Dam spillway in Butte County, California. Photo taken July 31, 2017.
Cranes and workers can be seen around the Lake Oroville Dam spillway as construction continues at the dam on Monday, July 17, 2017. (Bill Husa -- Enterprise-Record)
Lake Oroville and Bidwell Canyon Marina are seen during a flight over the Lake Oroville Dam spillway with Oroville pilot Gonzalo Pee Wee Curiel Friday May 26, 2017. (Bill Husa -- Enterprise-Record)
(Bill Husa -- Enterprise-Record)
Oroville Dam and damaged spillways are seen Friday May 26, 2017.
Construction on the Oroville Dam spillway photographed on Friday July 7, 2017 in Oroville, California. (Emily Bertolino -- Enterprise-Record)
Cranes and workers can be seen around the Spillway as construction continues at the Lake Oroville Dam Spillway Monday, July 17, 2017. (Bill Husa -- Enterprise-Record)
Cranes and workers can be seen around the main spillway as construction continues at Oroville Dam, July 17, 2017.
More than 180,000 people were forced to evacuate the Feather River corridor below Lake Oroville in February, and hundreds ended up at the Silver Dollar Fair evacuation center in Chico. Only a handful of people have filed claims for damages. (Emily Bertolino — Enterprise-Record)
Crews Monday wash loose material from the surface of roller compacted concrete recently placed into one of the voids that eroded from under the chute of the main Oroville dam spillway during the February emergency. (Dale Kolke — Department of Water Resources)
Crews work Monday on slab anchors placed and grouted into the leveling concrete on the bottom 350 feet of the chute of the main Oroville Dam spillway. Structural concrete will be poured over this portion of the spillway. (Dale Kolke — Department of Water Resources)
Heavy equipment works Friday on the bottom edge of the upper chute of the main Oroville Dam spillway. Plans were to remove 600 feet of the the upper chute, but the contractor now wants to take off another 240 feet. (Emily Bertolino — Mercury-Register)
A jackhammer mounted on an excavator works Friday on the main Oroville Dam spillway. (Emily Bertolino — Mercury-Register)
Work continues Friday on forms for the drainage system that will be in place below the lower chute of the main Oroville Dam spillway (Emily Bertolino — Mercury-Register)
The rock of below the lower chute of the main Oroville Dam spillway is power-washed Friday. (Emily Bertolino — Mercury-Register)
Overall look Friday at what’s left of the middle part of the main Oroville Dam spillway. (Emily Bertolino — Mercury-Register)
The drainage system takes shape Friday at the bottom of the main Oroville Dam spilway chute. (Emily Bertolino — Mercury-Register)
By Paul Rogers | progers@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: August 6, 2017 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: August 7, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Six months ago, relentless winter storms dumped nearly 13 inches of rain in four days on the Sierra Foothills, tearing an enormous hole in the spillway at Oroville Dam, the nation’s highest, and leading to an unprecedented emergency that prompted the evacuation of 188,000 people from nearby towns.
Today, what could have been ground zero for America’s worst dam disaster is now a hotbed of construction activity. Hundreds of construction workers are laboring 20 hours a day, six days a week with huge dump trucks, cranes, excavators, bulldozers, concrete pumps and other equipment to demolish and rebuild the 3,000-foot-long main spillway — a massive chute as wide as 15 lanes of freeway– by Nov. 1, before the next winter rain season begins anew.
“We are on target. We have done about 95 percent of the demolition that needs to take place, and we are already placing new concrete for the new spillway,” said Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources, which owns the dam. “Progress is pretty substantial.”
Concrete is placed on the upper chute of the Oroville spillway in Butte County, California. Photo taken July 31, 2017.
Led by Kiewit, a contractor from Omaha, Nebraska, that built Los Vaqueros Dam in Contra Costa County in the 1990s, construction workers are also shoring up Oroville’s emergency spillway, with a new underground retaining wall being built into its hillside and layers of concrete being poured to reinforce its top.
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In all, for both spillways, crews will install 8.5 million pounds of steel rebar, and 55,000 feet of drainage pipe, enough to stack 10 miles high. They will pour 946,000 cubic yards of concrete over the next year — enough to fill nearly 100,000 dump trucks.
But the crisis isn’t over. Major questions remain. And disaster could happen again.
An independent “forensics team” ordered by federal regulators to find what went wrong issued preliminary findings in May, citing defects from the dam’s construction in the 1960s to problems linked to poor maintenance and oversight by state and federal officials. Its final report is due this fall. A separate investigation by engineers at UC Berkeley concluded that construction workers laboring for former Gov. Pat Brown 50 years ago cut corners, building the main spillway on weak rock that should have been excavated, then constructing the structure as thin as four inches in some places and failing to anchor or reinforce it properly.
Those dangerous shortcomings were compounded, the Berkeley report found, by trees that were allowed to grow along the spillway walls, clogging its drainage pipes with their roots, and an attitude of “patch and pray” from Department of Water Resources crews when the main spillway repeatedly developed cracks in recent decades.
“It’s not that complicated,” said engineer Bob Bea, founder of UC Berkeley’s Center for Catastrophic Risk Management “It’s a tragedy of neglect. It was poorly built and poorly maintained.”
Meanwhile, the price tag is expected to reach at least $500 million. The state is hoping 75 percent will be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and most of the rest will come from the agencies that receive water from the State Water Project, which include the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles.
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Outside dam experts say the current repairs — which are scheduled to finish in 2018 — are only the beginning. The state Department of Water Resources needs to do far more to modernize other huge dams across California, they say, and to make additional fixes at Oroville, where the aging steel gates atop the dam’s main spillway have numerous cracks and a mysterious green spot in the face of the 770-foot-tall earthen dam has some people worried whether the dam is slowly leaking.
“There are safety issues that are still outstanding,” said Ron Stork, policy director with Friends of the River, a Sacramento environmental group. “They are going to need attention sooner or later.”
Residents of the area are watching nervously.
“In many ways things are back to normal because we don’t have an imminent threat,” said Larry Matthews, 66, who lives in Yuba City, south of Oroville. “But people have a real concern that maintenance wasn’t done correctly. They want it fixed correctly. There’s certainly some paranoia but you can’t blame people for that.”
Matthews moved to Oroville with his family from Los Angeles in 1963 when he was 12.
“I saw that dam being built when I was a teenager,” he said. “People were proud of it. You trust the people who built it. It lasted for 49 years without any major problems. When I saw all that concrete broken on the spillway, I said “it can’t be true. It looked like somebody photoshopped it.”
After the hole developed on Feb. 7, the issue became an international story. State officials closed the main spillway, and the lake level rose to the top. Five days later, on Feb. 12, as water poured over the emergency spillway, eroding so badly it threatened to collapse, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea issued an emergency evacuation order with phrases like “This is NOT a drill” spread across social media, radio and TV. Chaos ensured. Matthews, who three years ago wrote a book, “The Building of the Oroville Dam,” collected up birth certificates, passports and other vital documents in a garbage bag and prepared to flee with his wife and 93-year-old mother-in-law.
“I tried to evacuate,” he said. “But the roads were so congested I couldn’t even hardly get out of the driveway.”
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Stores closed. Gas stations were overwhelmed. Panicked motorists drove on the shoulders of Highways 70 and 99. Matthews sat up all night watching TV news, ready to make a run for it with his family if he saw reports that the emergency spillway was collapsing, releasing Lake Oroville, which is 10 miles long and California’s second-largest reservoir, onto the towns below.
State water officials made a gambit. They re-opened the badly damaged main spillway to lower the lake. They knew the water — flowing at 750,000 gallons per second — would rip it apart, and hoped the violently out-of-control flows would not start eroding away the face of the dam itself. The plan worked. The lake level dropped. Water stopped flowing over the emergency spillway. The dam held. And two days later the evacuation order was lifted.
“People are still concerned,” said Beth Bello, an office manager who lives in Oroville. “They are saying on Facebook ‘Is the dam leaking?’ The construction workers are doing the best they can. But I do wonder how much the state is really telling us. They should have done more in the past. It could have been prevented.”
John Laird, California’s secretary of natural resources, who oversees the Department of Water Resources, said the incident brought back memories of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which destroyed Santa Cruz’s historic downtown, where he once served as mayor.
“I knew that the dislocation I felt then,” he said, “was the dislocation being felt by the community evacuated in the Oroville area.”
Laird said the state, which has lowered the lake level by 110 feet, is committed to rebuilding the main spillway by this winter so it can handle new storms, and then finishing the job next year. The plan will be done in two stages, with the bottom 75 percent replaced now and the top replaced next year. He said the state plans to learn from the investigative reports.
“We must never let down our guard and we can always do better,” he said.
Bea, of UC Berkeley, also investigated levee failures in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and PG&E’s 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno. He said the entire hillside at Oroville’s emergency spillway should be armored with concrete, the steel gates on the main spillway should be replaced, and that the state needs to do an immediate, detailed investigation into the green spot on the dam, which state officials say is a harmless natural spring.
Bea said California needs a top-to-bottom change in dam safety, with much more preventative work to avert future disasters that could kill thousands.
“There is no free lunch,” he said. “You pay a little now, or one hell of a lot later.”
Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers has covered a wide range of issues for The Mercury News since 1989, including water, oceans, energy, logging, parks, endangered species, toxics and climate change. He also works as managing editor of the Science team at KQED, the PBS and NPR station in San Francisco, and has taught science writing at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.
Follow Paul Rogers @PaulRogersSJMN
Carolyn Hax: Mom wants me to lie to grandpa
More in Environment & Science
Sen. Rand Paul puts hold on 9/11 responders funding bill
"We need to at the very least have this debate. I will be offering up an amendment if this bill should come to the floor, but until then I will object," added Paul, who voted in favor of President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut. That tax cut is helping drive a deficit increase.
US braces for a dangerously hot weekend
More than 100 local heat records are expected to fall Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Most won't be record-daily highs but record-high nighttime lows, and that lack of cooling can be dangerous, meteorologists say.
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Can Government Keep Up in Race to 5G?
Jun 28, 2019 | 9:42 am
In the race to 5G dominance, the U.S. government might not have the capacity to handle the technology to lead the field, which could greatly impact information sharing, said a top intelligence official.
Speaking at the Defense One Tech Summit, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence William Evanina said that they’re treating 5G as something that can’t be handled right now because of how quickly it moves.
He says that the U.S. government should start prioritizing in two areas to help maintain leadership in the technology sector, globally. Evanina says to focus on protecting what we’re doing best and to find a way to reestablish the Federal government in the STEM community, starting with elementary schools.
It’s not all doom-and-gloom in striving for 5G dominance, though, even if it’s not something that the U.S. is prepared to implement just yet.
“There’s a great upside here for the consumers, for America, and the economy,” John Demers, assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice said. “I think we continue to have an edge in creativity and innovation,” he added.
While protecting the access and integrity to communications systems is important, government and industry should continue working together to produce 5G capabilities and not shy away from innovation.
Tags: 5G, DoD, ODNI, William Evanina
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Rhapsody of Fire > The Frozen Tears of Angels > Reviews > Pirate Of The Underground
The Frozen Tears of Angels
View all reviews for Rhapsody of Fire - The Frozen Tears of Angels
Reign Of Epicness - A Different Flavor Of Fire - 90%
Pirate Of The Underground, April 17th, 2015
This album is kind of a re-invention and a comeback for the band. On this album, it's the guitars that take center-stage, and I think it's definitely the right move. I haven’t heard guitar parts this epic and explosive from the band since "Emerald Sword." Furthermore, every member of the band is allowed to shine at one point or another on this dynamite album. I love symphonic metal, especially when each instrument is allowed a chance to stand out in the mix. In addition, "The Frozen Tears Of Angels" displays some other elements that are also quite unorthodox for the band's sound (e.g. harsh vocals, thrashing riffs, and more traditional power metal keyboard solos). This is one of my favorite Rhapsody Of Fire albums in my collection.
The album starts out with a cinematic intro with spoken lyrics by Christopher Lee. I've always liked hearing his voice on Rhapsody Of Fire tracks. Few things are as epic as having Saruman introducing a metal album. The next five tracks are especially strong ones. They are very well done songs; the guitar parts are masterful and melodic, the vocals are strong, the orchestral compositions are impeccable, the choruses are grand, and I really like Alex Staropoli's keyboard solo in "Sea Of Fate".
The real stand out song however, is "Reign Of Terror." The most notable aspects of this track are the dominance of guitar, thrashing drums, and… screamed vocals. Personally, I really like the heavy thrash-like feel and the experimenting with harsh vocals. It certainly is unorthodox for Rhapsody Of Fire, and the power metal genre as a whole. But despite whatever negative reactions there may be about this, I personally really like it and wish that Fabio Leone had done a bit more with it on the album and on the successors to this release.
I only have one real complaint with this album, and that is that sometimes parts of songs sound just like others among it. Listen to the beginnings of "Sea Of Fate," "Raging Starfire," and "On The Way To Ainor," and you'll see what I mean. However, listen past those intros and you will be very satisfied with what you hear.
Overall, this album does not disappoint. There are many strong and epic tracks in the list (my favorite being "Crystal Moonlight" for it's catchy choruses and inspiringly powerful guitar leads). "The Frozen Tears Of Angels" is a great chapter in this band's discography, harking back to former great albums such as "Symphony Of Enchanted Lands" or "Dawn Of Victory" where the guitars were an essential and reigning part of the mix. So let us raise our swords and honor the return of the metallic greatness that is Rhapsody (Of Fire).
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https://www.michigansthumb.com/news/article/Flames-Drive-Over-Devils-5-4-OT-7373935.php
Flames Drive Over Devils 5-4, OT
Published 7:00 pm EST, Tuesday, March 4, 2003
Martin Gelinas' second goal of the game, at 1:54 of overtime, gave the Calgary Flames a 5-4 come-from-behind victory Wednesday night over the New Jersey Devils.
Gelinas carried the puck down the left wing and into the corner where his attempted pass to Jarome Iginla banked off the back of defenseman Scott Stevens' leg and past goaltender Corey Schwab.
Gelinas, who now has 17 goals, extended his point streak to eight games.
Calgary tied the game 4-4 with 1:25 left in the third period when defenseman Robyn Regehr intercepted a clearing attempt at the New Jersey blue line and fired a quick shot that was deflected in by Oleg Saprykin.
Chris Drury and Rob Niedermayer also scored for Calgary. The Flames won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 18-20.
Scott Stevens, Brian Rafalski, Patrik Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner had goals for the Devils.
Calgary also won the earlier meeting between the two teams, 3-2 in New Jersey on Nov. 5.
New Jersey took a 4-3 lead with 4:33 remaining in the third period. Langenbrunner carried the puck down the left wing, beat sliding defenseman Denis Gauthier and fired a shot from the face-off dot that beat Roman Turek.
Drury scored at 7:33 of the third to give the Flames a 3-2 lead. He picked up the puck at center ice, skated over the blue line and let a quick shot go that beat Schwab just inside the goal post.
Elias replied 49 seconds later when he went to the net and steered in a shot by Brian Gionta.
Stevens scored in the first period, and the Devils made it 2-0 at 18:08 of the second when Rafalski gloved down a pass from John Madden and slid a backhander past Turek.
Calgary responded with goals 48 seconds apart.
Gelinas made it 2-1 with 1:06 remaining when his pass to the front intended for Drury caromed off the leg of defenseman Raymond Giroux and into the net.
Niedermayer tied the game with 18 seconds left when he broke in off the right wing and fired a shot into the top corner as he cut across the front of the net.
Notes@: Calgary beat New Jersey at home for he first time since March 13, 1993 breaking a six-game winless streak (0-2-4). … New Jersey LW Jeff Friesen had an assist to extend his point-scoring streak to 11 games (7 goals, 5 assists). … New Jersey hasn't lost two straight games in regulation since a three-game losing streak March 4-8, 2002….NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in attendance at the game. … Calgary entered the game tied for last in the NHL in overtime wins (1-4-10) while the Devils are the league leader in that category (8-4-6).
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Editorial: Big Ten Network holding a weak hand in game with Comcast
Watching the so-called negotiations between the new Big Ten Network and cable TV giant Comcast is like watching a poker game between a seasoned card shark and Andy Hardy.
There is fresh-faced Andy (a forever young, baby-faced Mickey Rooney), holding a pair of three’s, ever-optimistic that, by golly, he’s gonna win this one and bring home a pot of money. And on the other side of the table sits Comcast, holding a royal flush and fully aware that Andy is holding nothing but a pair of three’s. Andy can put on his best poker face all day and he’s not going to fool the old pro.
That’s how we see the situation between BTN and Comcast. As this game is being played now, though, there really isn’t any winner. Comcast — which controls the Midwest cable audience the Big Ten Network needs — has offered to place BTN on its sports tier of programming, where the NFL and NBA networks, and various other specialized sports channels, now reside. It costs extra to get this tier of service, but only those who really like some or all of the channels on it have to pay for it.
It seems pretty logical to us that a sports tier is an appropriate place for a new, specialized sports network like the Big Ten Network. After all, the NFL is the most popular sports entity in the country, and its network resides on the sports tier.
The Big Ten Network, however, does not share our logic. It argues that BTN is not a specialty sports channel to Midwest cable customers. It’s a channel that the vast majority of Comcast’s customers in the Midwest will want. Therefore, says the Big Ten Network, it should be on the expanded basic tier — alongside ESPN, Nickelodeon and many other channels now considered standard on any cable system.
If Comcast won’t put the network on its most popular level of service, it can’t have it at all.
BTN started negotiations asking Comcast for $1.10 per subscriber. That figure has since been reduced, though neither side will reveal where it stands now. Regardless, that cost eventually would be passed on to subscribers in the form of a rate increase. This, we think, would amount to a Big Ten tax on the vast majority of Comcast customers, whether or not they ever would watch the Big Ten Network.
Some observers, including the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board, have said this is a classic example of the need for ala carte programming, in which customers pick only the channels they want and pay only for those channels. We’re not so sure that would ever work. Sure, ESPN charges $3 a customer per month for large cable systems to carry its programming. But that’s a gigantic quantity discount given to systems that can provide millions of potential viewers. Without an overhaul of federal telecommunications policy and a major shift by the Federal Communications Commission, we doubt ala carte pricing would be the bargain many people envision.
As things stand now, The Big Ten Network is beginning its second day on the air without a cable TV contract to the biggest provider for its core audience. It’s holding a pair of three’s at this poker table. Comcast, meanwhile, has made a perfectly reasonable offer that will get BTN to those who most want it. Comcast has little to lose short of answering some phone calls from disappointed customers.
At the end of his movies, Andy Hardy always did the right thing, usually learning a valuable lesson from his dad, Judge Hardy, in the process. In this case, he’d throw in his weak hand and take the card shark’s offer to split the chips.
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mbg sex mbg_relationships
Interested In BDSM? Here's How To Protect Your Mental Health While Exploring
By Sara Sloan, Ph.D.
Image by Audrey Shtecinjo / Stocksy
Adventurous sex is no longer taboo or uncommon—on the contrary, it's actually a perfectly healthy way to explore one's sexuality, as long as you're being safe about it.
A particularly popular form of kink is BDSM, which refers to bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism. Over one-third of women and men in America have explored BDSM, and there is now scientific evidence that proves BDSM can be a healthy part of any relationship. In a recent study, BDSM practitioners were found to be less neurotic, more extroverted, more open to new experiences, more conscientious, and less sensitive to rejection, and they had a higher subjective well-being.
While this is good news, it's still important to keep in mind some key factors for maintaining your physical and mental health when incorporating BDSM into your sex life, especially if you're experimenting with it for the first time.
The neurobiology of BDSM.
The practice of BDSM physiologically triggers many of the same hormones that sky diving and other extreme sports may invoke. In particular, the stress hormone cortisol is often released, particularly by the receiver of the sensations, which helps to turn off the executive functioning area of the brain leading to feelings of euphoria and increased partner connection.
Heather McPherson, certified sex therapist and CEO of the Sexual Health Alliance (as well as my professional mentor), describes this state as "subspace." "Subspace is a state that some players attempt to accomplish, where you can tolerate more pain and sensation than usual," she explains. "Experienced players often call it, 'flying.'" These are the feelings that often tend to make couples feel more bonded following a session.
Unfortunately, the flip side of this euphoria is all too common in the hours and days following an intense experience, especially for those on the receiving end. For those new to BDSM with a history of anxiety and depression, this is an important fact to keep in mind. In addition to the increase in cortisol, participants have also had an increase in endorphins, which bind to the opiate receptors. The steep drop-off in these chemicals can create a state referred to as the "sub drop."
Sex therapist and erotica writer Dr. Donna Jennings explains that sub drop follows the "endorphin release after a BDSM scene, where the body works to move back to a normal chemical state." She says that chemical drop can create both a physical and emotional reaction. Physically, a person can feel fatigue, aches, and pains. Emotionally, McPherson adds, a person can experience a range of emotions including "sadness, numbness, disconnection, guilt, or shame."
Unfortunately, for those new to BDSM, sub drop can often get misinterpreted and misattributed to other aspects of the participant's life and relationship.
How to prevent the drop.
By understanding what happens in the mind and body during a BDSM session, you can better prepare for the intense psychological ups and downs.
According to certified sex coach Ginger Hart, it's best to mentally prepare ahead of time. Hart says there are two distinct phases people go through when they first begin exploring BDSM: the curious state and the adventurous state.
"The curious state is all about watching, learning, and gathering information to figure out what you'd like to explore, which builds confidence and excitement," Hart explains. "This state is fragile, and [people] should consider adopting the mantra, 'I would like to watch. I'm not ready to play.'"
She says that those new to BDSM shouldn't move from the curious phase to the adventurous state until "they feel secure in their desires and are able to articulate and define personal boundaries."
Once you've engaged in a session, you and your partner should participate in what's referred to as "aftercare" to help prevent and subvert negative feelings associated with sub drops. In aftercare, usually the dominant partner takes care of the sub by participating in caretaking activities. These might include one partner holding and caressing the other, falling asleep in each other's arms, giving a massage, running a bubble bath, or cooking their favorite meal following an intense scene. Participants can also plan to have self-care activities after they play to lessen the effects of sub drop (or top drop, which can also happen). Aftercare following a BDSM session should also help to increase the bond between partners.
If for some reason your partner is not offering you this type of care after your play session, you can still practice self-care on your own, including eating your favorite foods and indulging in your favorite Netflix shows—especially those that make you laugh.
Reaping the psychological rewards.
While BDSM might not be for everyone, McPherson explains, "This area of practice does contain great risks and rewards." Counter to what you might expect, "for those with sexual anxiety, they can feel relief and comfort in BDSM play because it requires in-depth communication about what might happen as well as negotiation about what will happen and what they do not want to happen, which can calm nerves."
Once you've decided to try out BDSM for yourself, it's important to properly educate yourself and to listen to your partner.
"The key to safely expanding and exploring new areas of sexuality such as BDSM is to be aware of your own needs and desires, as well as those of your partner," Hart says, "and to know when to push forward and when to remain curious."
#orgasm
Sara Sloan, Ph.D.
Sara Sloan, Ph.D., is a Marriage Family Therapist pre-grad intern at Respark, a couples and sex therapy practice in Austin, Texas. She is also working on her AASECT sex therapy...
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https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/mental-health-during-bdsm-sex-protect-yourself
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US ally in Syria says pullout will aid IS, Putin disagrees
FILE - In this file picture taken on Thursday, March 29, 2018, a fighter, second from right, of U.S-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council stands next to U.S. humvee at a U.S. troop's outpost on a road leading to the tense front line between Syrian Manbij Military Council fighters and Turkish-backed fighters, at Halawanji village, north of Manbij, Syria. The United States’ main ally in Syria on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that Islamic State militants have been defeated and warned that the withdrawal of American troops would lead to a resurgence of the extremist group.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
By ZEINA KARAM and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States’ main ally in Syria on Thursday categorically rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that Islamic State militants have been defeated, but Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Trump’s decision to withdraw forces from Syria, saying he agreed a U.S. military presence is no longer needed.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a strongly worded statement laced with bitterness that a premature U.S. pullout before IS is defeated would have dangerous repercussions including a resurgence of the extremist group and a destabilizing effect on the entire region.
“The war against terrorism has not ended and (the Islamic State group) has not been defeated,” the statement said, adding that the fight against IS was at a “decisive” stage that requires even more support from the U.S.-led coalition. It was the first official comment by the group on Trump’s surprise announcement.
Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria has rattled Washington’s Kurdish allies, who are its most reliable partner in the country and among the most effective ground forces battling IS. With U.S. air support, the Kurds drove IS from much of northern and eastern Syria in a costly four-year campaign.
The announcement of a pullout is widely seen as an abandonment of a loyal ally.
“The decision to pull out under these circumstances will lead to a state of instability and create a political and military void in the region and leave its people between the claws of enemy forces,” the SDF statement said.
Kurdish officials and commanders met into the night, discussing their responses to the decision, local residents said Thursday. A war monitor said among the options seriously discussed was releasing thousands of Islamic State militants and their families from various nationalities who are being detained in SDF-run prisons and camps. It was not clear whether any decision was immediately made, and SDF commanders were not immediately available for comment.
Arin Sheikhmos, a Kurdish journalist and commentator, said “we have every right to be afraid.”
“If the Americans pull out and leave us to the Turks or the (Syrian) regime our destiny will be like the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 — million of refugees, there will be massacres. Neither the regime, not Iran nor Turkey, will accept our presence here,” he told the AP.
The U.S. announcement came at a particularly tense moment in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to launch a new offensive against the Kurds but in recent days had stepped up the rhetoric, threatening an assault could begin “at any moment.”
Turkey views the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces, as a terrorist group and an extension of the insurgency within its borders. U.S. support for the group has strained ties between the two NATO allies.
In northeastern Syria, Kurdish fighters have been digging trenches and defensive tunnels, preparing for the threatened offensive. Turkish tanks and armored vehicles are deployed on the border, with thousands of allied Arab Syrian fighters mobilized to join in the attack.
The threat from Turkey could drive the Kurds into the arms of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and by extension Iran and Russia.
In new tweets, Trump on Thursday defended his decision, saying it should be “no surprise.” He claimed that Russia, Iran and Syria “are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says, because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us.”
The contention contradicts predictions that the Syrian government and its allies would attempt to fill the void created by the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Shortly before Trump began tweeting, Russia’s Putin welcomed the decision to withdraw forces from Syria, saying he agreed with Trump that the defeat of the Islamic State group removes the need for the U.S. military presence. Russia has long held that the U.S. presence in Syria is illegitimate because it hasn’t been vetted by the U.N. Security Council or approved by the Syrian government.
Russia is a key ally of Assad, and its military intervention, beginning in 2015, turned the tide of the war in his favor.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in, saying Israel will “intensify” its activity in Syria to prevent Iranian entrenchment following the withdrawal of American forces.
A Syrian member of parliament, Peter Marjana, said Thursday that a U.S. pullout would be a “recognition that Syria has won.” He spoke in comments published by the Syrian daily Al-Watan.
“This is expected,” Ebrahim Ebrahim, a Syrian Kurd based in Europe, said of the pullout. “But it is not just treason to the Kurds or the people of Syria but to democracy, to morals, if this is true. Yes, true, we fought for ourselves, but we also fought for democracies all over the world,” he added.
Trump’s contention that IS has been defeated contradicted his own experts’ assessments and shocked his party’s lawmakers, who called his decision rash and dangerous.
Earlier this month, Kurdish fighters entered Hajin, the last IS enclave in Syria, but battles continues. Government forces and allied Iranian militiamen are present on the other side of the Euphrates River.
The U.S. began airstrikes against IS in Syria in 2014 and later sent in ground troops to aid Kurdish forces. Trump abruptly declared their mission accomplished in a tweet Wednesday.
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AES Educational Foundation Announces Awards for 2015
PR Staff
New York, NY — The Educational Foundation of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced the recipients of the 2015 AES Educational Grants for Graduate Studies in Audio Engineering. The announcement was made by Don Puluse, President of the AES Educational Foundation (AESEF), on behalf of the foundation’s Board of Directors.
The second annual Bruce Swedien Scholarshipis a renewal grant awarded to Robert Fernandes, MM candidate in Sound Recording from McGill University, where he is highly regarded by the faculty. Rob has a BM from Humber College, Toronto. The Bruce Swedien Scholarship was initiated in 2014 in honor of Bruce’s 80th birthday. This scholarship aids young recording engineers who believe in putting “Music First!,” to quote Swedien’s mantra. For more information, visit http://www.swedienscholarship.org. Last year’s recipient of the Bruce Swedien Scholarship was Pawel Leskiewicz, a graduate student in Sound Recording at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University.
Two special scholarships are being generously provided by HARMAN International Industries. The Board of Directors has awarded these grants to Sina Hafezi and Jack Kelly. Mr. Hafezi is studying for a PhD in Speech and Audio Processing from the Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department at Imperial College London. He has undergraduate and MS degrees from Queen Mary University of London. Mr. Kelly will earn an MM in Sound Recording from McGill University. He has a BFA in Electroacoustic studies at Concordia University. He currently serves as Chair of the McGill AES Student Section.
The Emil Torick Scholar distinction is again offered to Charlotte Desvages, who will earn a PhD in Music from the Audio and Acoustics Group at the University of Edinburgh. Her previous degrees are from Edinburgh (MS in Acoustics and Music Technology) and Universitè de Caen Basse-Normandie (Physics). This award, honoring former AES Foundation President and founding member Emil Torick, is awarded to an outstanding student with exceptional career goals.
The John Eargle Award is given to Jose Ernesto Valenzuela. He is a Masters candidate in Music Technology at NYU, and holds a Mechanical-Electrical Engineering degree from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico. Jose is also a composer/arranger and keyboard player. The John Eargle Award is given annually to a student who excels in both technology and music.
Other honorees:
Natasha Branchwill pursue an MFA in Recording Arts and Technologies from MTSU; she has a BM in Composition from Cameron University. Karl Fleck will receive an MM in Sound Recording Technology from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell; he has a degree in Recording Arts from Hope College. Jonathan Kaspy seeks an MM in Sound Recording from McGill University; he has a BM from Humber College, and he also attended Vanier College and the Banff Center. Spencer Shafter will earn an MM in Music Technology and Performing Arts at NYU; he holds a BM in Music Technology from NYU. Jiayue Wu is a PhD candidate in Media Arts and Technology at University of California, Santa Barbara; she has an MA from Stanford University, and a BS from the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.
The AES Educational Foundation was established in 1984 to encourage talented students to enter the profession of audio engineering. Grants for graduate studies with emphasis on audio topics are awarded annually. Recipients are selected on the basis of demonstrated talent, achievements, goals and recommendations. Since its inception, the AESEF has presented awards totaling over seven hundred thousand dollars. Grants have been made possible by contributions from AES, Inc., HARMAN International Industries Inc., the estate of John K. Hilliard, JBL Inc., the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the families of John Eargle, David Smith and Emil Torick, and the family and friends of Bruce Swedien. The AES also receives support from other benefactors such as in-memoriam donors, and individuals and companies that support education in audio. Application forms and additional information are available from the Audio Engineering Society, 551 Fifth Ave., Suite 1225, New York, NY 10176, USA, or on its web site: www.aes.org/education/foundation/.
AES Announces Educational Foundation Awards for 2016
AES Educational Foundation Announces 2011 Awards
The Recording Academy, Grammy Foundation Announce New Music Educator Award
2001 TEC Awards Nominees Announced by the Mix Foundation
By Paul D. Lehrman
AES Announces Education Programming for 129th Convention
AES Announces Education Events for 131st Convention
AES 2015
By Kevin Becka
TEC Foundation Announces Sponsors for 27th Annual TEC Awards
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Council stands firm on refused Morpeth homes bid as inquiry concludes
Park packed for fun picnic event
Fire chief takes on Cheviots challenge
Paul Hedley, Northumberland Fire and Rescue Chief Fire Officer, is taking on a number of Chief's Challenges to mark his landmark 50th birthday while raising money for Tyneside and Northumberland Mind.
Tuesday, 16 October, 2018, 12:54
Northumberland Fire and Rescue Chief Fire Officer, Paul Hedley, presents a cheque to Mind.
The first expedition for this initiative was Cheviot 2000 – a 40km trek to climb all the Cheviot hills and spot heights over 2,000ft in 12 hours, which he completed in July and raised £1,290 for the mental health charity.
He said: “As a member of the Fire and Rescue Service, I am incredibly proud of the work we do every day to improve and save the lives of those who live, work and visit our communities.
“Inevitably, there are occasions when tragically we must deal with deeply upsetting and traumatic events and at those times, we simply cannot always close ourselves off and make ourselves immune to the impact of the sights, sounds, smells and emotions of those incidents.
“The mental health and welfare of fire service and other blue light responders cannot be something which is stigmatised, ignored or taken for granted. Their mental health matters.
“I chose to raise funds for Tyneside and Northumberland Mind because I know how valuable and important its Blue Light programme for emergency service personnel is. Thousands of staff and volunteers across these services have actively challenged mental health stigma, learned more about mental health and made positive changes to their approach to well-being with the support of the programme.”
More from Morpeth Herald
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unit 2: dna
unit_2_notes.pdf
unit_2_flash_cards.pdf
Part 5: DNA Replication - describe DNA replication and recombinant DNA.
Chapter 12: DNA and RNA
Section 12.1 - DNA
Section 12.2 - Chromosomes and DNA Replication
Video: Section 12.1
Youtube - Through the Virtual Cell (6.48min)
Structure of DNA
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is composed of polynucleotides (poly = many nucleotides). Each nucleotide is made up of three parts: a phosphate group, deoxyribose (a pentose sugar), and a base that contains nitrogen. The base may have a double ring structure (called purines) or a single ring structure (called a pyrimidine). The purine bases are adenine (A) and guanine (G); the pyrimidine bases are thymine (T) and cytosine (C). Adenine is always paired with thymine, and guanine is always bonded to cytosine. This is known as complementary base pairing.
Polynucleotides are joined to form long strands. Two of these strands, wound around each other and held together by hydrogen bonds, form the double helix shape of the DNA molecule. When unwound, DNA resembles a ladder. The phosphate groups and deoxyribose sugars form the sides, and weak hydrogen bonds between complementary base pairs complete the rungs of the ladder.
Functions of DNA
DNA stores an organism's genetic information in the nuclei of cells. It also replicates (makes an exact copy of itself) when cells divide, so the nuclei of new cells contains the same DNA as the cells from which they originated. Finally, DNA provides a code or template for the particular sequencing of amino acids that ultimately bond together to form a protein.
Structure of RNA
RNA (ribonucleic acid), like DNA, is a polynucleotide. However, its structure is somewhat different from that of DNA. RNA is single-stranded, so it does not form a double helix. Instead of deoxyribose sugar, RNA contains ribose sugar. And while DNA does not leave the nucleus, RNA does move out of the nucleus to perform its roles in protein synthesis. Finally, in RNA, adenine pairs with uracil, a different base that replaces thymine.
Functions of RNA
There are three types of RNA and each is involved in protein synthesis. This topic will be explored in more depth in a future lesson. For now, it is important to know the basic functions of each type of RNA:
Messenger RNA (mRNA)
produced in the nucleus by transcription, using DNA as a template
contains bases complementary to DNA (recall that uracil replaces thymine in RNA)
carries DNA's message out of the nucleus to the ribosomes (the site of protein synthesis) in the cytoplasm
Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)
a component of ribosomes
Transfer RNA (tRNA)
delivers individual amino acids to the ribosomes during protein synthesis
Comparing DNA & RNA Activity
How Does Replication Occur?
DNA Replication is the process of exactly copying one DNA double helix to produce two identical helices. The process is semi-conservative, meaning that each of the two strands from the original double helix provides a template for the formation of a complementary new strand. After replication, each new double helix will contain one original and one newly made strand.
Step 1: DNA unzips
Recall that two DNA strands are held together by weak hydrogen bonding between base pairs—adenine is paired with thymine, cytosine with guanine). There are two hydrogen bonds, or H-bonds, between A and T and three between C and G. An enzyme, DNA helicase (enzyme names end in -ase), targets certain sections of DNA that contain a large proportion of A–T bonds. DNA helicase breaks the H-bonds, causing the DNA to unzip and unwind into two separate strands. This happens simultaneously in a number of locations.
Step 2: Complementary base pairing
The action of DNA helicase results in two separated DNA strands with exposed bases that are no longer paired. Free-floating nucleotides in the nucleus pair up with the exposed bases on each strand (recall that adenine pairs with thymine, and cytosine pairs with guanine). These nucleotides are joined together by DNA polymerase to form a new sugar-phosphate backbone and create a new DNA strand.
Step 3: Replication is completed
After the unattached nucleotides become attached to an unzipped DNA strand, DNA ligase seals any remaining breaks in the sugar-phosphate backbone. Two DNA double helices have then been created from one original DNA helix. Each new double helix contains one original and one newly made strand of DNA.
DNA Replication Activity
DNA Replication Animation
Assembling a DNA Strand Activity
Recombinant DNA Technology Video
Part 6: Protein Synthesis - demonstrate an understanding of the process of protein synthesis, explain how mutations in DNA affect protein synthesis.
Section 12.3 - RNA and Protein Synthesis
Section 12.4 - Mutations
Section 12.5 - Gene Regulation
Videos: Section 12.4
Part 1: Transcription
The structure of the DNA molecule is the same in every living organism. All of life, in its infinite variety, from slime mould to the extinct Stegosaurus, is constructed from the same basic information contained in each cell. How is it possible that a molecule consisting of only six parts can provide all the information needed to produce millions of species of life?
You have already learned about the structure of DNA and that it is made up of a long series of nucleotides. These nucleotides are made up of a deoxyribose sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base (A, T, C, or G)—the six parts of the DNA molecule. The bases are paired (A with T and C with G) and joined by hydrogen bonds, and the sugars and phosphate groups form the backbone of DNA's three-dimensional double helix.
DNA codes for amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. Proteins, in turn, have a number of functions, including support, structure, movement, transport, communication, and immune defense. Protein-containing structures include hair, nails, hooves, horns, hormones, antibodies, blood proteins, and enzymes.
COPY CODE SNIPPET
In the next two lessons you will investigate protein synthesis, the complex process of creating a protein from a DNA sequence. Two major processes are involved:
In this lesson you will learn about the process of transcription, and begin to focus on how the information contained in DNA is processed to form a final product—a protein.
DNA is housed in the nucleus of a cell. In order for the information contained in DNA to reach the ribosomes (the site of protein synthesis) in the cell's cytoplasm, this information must first exit the nucleus. This is the purpose of messenger RNA (mRNA). In the same way a manager might dictate a letter to a secretary, transcription is the process by which the DNA code is dictated to another molecule (mRNA) that will then deliver its message into the cytoplasm.
Although there are only four nitrogenous bases, they can be arranged in countless different DNA sequences. It's this infinite variety of sequences that gives rise to the enormous diversity of life. All organisms contain the same complementary base pairs, but they are arranged in different ways.
One specific sequence of bases is termed a promoter region. To begin transcription, an enzyme (RNA polymerase) binds to a promoter region and begins to open up the DNA double helix, detaching base pairs and allowing complementary base re-pairing between one DNA strand and RNA nucleotides. RNA polymerase also connects mRNA nucleotides to form a single strand of mRNA. Recall that mRNA contains the base uracil in place of thymine. When a gene (a section of DNA) is transcribed, mRNA is created. mRNA will then direct the production of a certain protein. Each gene therefore codes for one specific protein.
Transcription of mRNA from DNA. One DNA strand serves as the template for mRNA production; the other DNA strand does not participate and is termed inactive at this transcription site. The inactive strand may, however, be actively transcribing mRNA elsewhere along its length.
Note that although only mRNA is discussed here, all three types of RNA (transfer or tRNA, and ribosomal or rRNA are the other types) are formed by transcription.
Go to the Biology 12 Web site Lesson 2.2A Protein Synthesis, Part 1: Translation to view an animation of this process. This animation will help you visualize transcription. Stop the animation when the tRNA discussion begins. You can revisit the site after the next lesson and watch the rest of the protein synthesis process.
Since the newly transcribed mRNA strand will eventually code for the production of a protein, the sequence of bases in mRNA is extremely important. Every three bases along the mRNA strand will provide the code for one amino acid. These three-base groupings are triplet codons. For example, the bases A-A-G will code for the amino acid lysine. In total there are 64 possible different three-base combinations (codons), but they only code for 20 amino acids.
Codons and the Amino Acids they specify
Notice that most amino acids have more than one codon associated with them, but some have six! Why have more than one codon to code for an amino acid? The answer may be that this protects the protein being formed. Any mutation that causes the last base in a codon to alter will still produce the same amino acid, and therefore still produce the correct protein.
Process of Transcription Animation
Part 2: Translation
You have learned that DNA provides the raw genetic material that will eventually code for a protein, and how DNA produces the three types of RNA (mRNA, tRNA and rRNA) required to carry out its instructions. You also know that during transcription, the DNA double helix partially unravels with the help of an enzyme, enabling the formation of a single strand of messenger RNA or mRNA. Messenger RNA, though it differs in structure from the DNA that created it, still contains the information needed to carry out protein synthesis.
Recall the numerous different types of proteins, including those that provide structural (hair, nails, and muscle), immune, endocrine, and enzyme functions in an organism. These proteins are essential for life. Messenger RNA has an important task to perform—it carries DNA's instructions from the nucleus out into the cytoplasm.
Now you will explore what happens after a mature strand of mRNA leaves the nucleus.
Translation occurs in the cytoplasm, where the purpose of DNA is fulfilled by newly created proteins that perform functions vital to the lives of cells and organisms.
After mRNA is transcribed in the nucleus, it moves into the cytoplasm to direct the formation of a polypeptide—a chain of amino acids joined by peptide bonds. A protein may be made from one or more polypeptides. While messenger RNA codes for a particular sequence of building blocks called amino acids, it also specifies the order in which they must be joined. Only 20 different amino acids exist, but they can be joined in an enormous number of different ways to create many different proteins.
So, translation is the “process by which the sequence of codons in mRNA dictates the sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide”. The players in this complex, choreographed production are mRNA, a variety of enzymes, and the two types of RNA we have yet to discuss in detail—transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA).
Messenger RNA or mRNA is a long, single strand composed of a large number of nucleotides. Recall that a nucleotide is the building block of both DNA and RNA. It contains a sugar, phosphate group, and one of four nitrogenous or nitrogen-containing bases:
DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), guanine (G)
mRNA: uracil (U) replaces thymine (T)
A codon is a three-nucleotide unit on the mRNA strand. Different codons specify different amino acids. For example, in the following chart below AAU and AAC both code for the amino acid asparagine.
tRNA
Protein synthesis occurs at the ribosomes located on rough endoplasmic reticulum. After messenger RNA leaves the nucleus, it will proceed to the ribosomes, but the amino acids that will be joined must also be present. Getting amino acids to the ribosomes is the job of transfer RNA. Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a long, single-stranded nucleic acid molecule. In tRNA, complementary base pairing gives the molecule a convoluted, boot-like shape:
The three bases in the tRNA molecule act as an anticodon that is complementary to a specific codon of mRNA. Each tRNA molecule also carries one specific amino acid to a ribosome, where protein synthesis is underway.
At the ribosomes, each tRNA anticodon binds to a specific mRNA codon. For example, the tRNA anticodon GCU would bind to the mRNA codon CGA because these bases are complementary. Remember that in RNA, A always pairs with U, and C with G.
There are three types of RNA, and two of those (mRNA and tRNA) have already been discussed. The third type is ribosomal RNA or rRNA. It is produced in the nucleolus, inside the nucleus, and is a component of ribosomal subunits that come together when protein synthesis begins.
As you will see, ribosomes move along a strand of mRNA. Often, several ribosomes will be translating the same mRNA strand at the same time, but in different locations. They move along like an assembly line. This is called a polyribosome, or polysome. Ribosomes exist only until a complete polypeptide chain is formed, then they dissociate into their subunits and fall off the mRNA strand.
Translation Animation
Translation 3 STEPS:
Step I: of protein synthesis is chain initiation, when synthesis begins. On mRNA, the codon AUG codes for methionine, the start codon. The ribosome assembles at the AUG codon along with the first tRNA molecule and its anticodon. Note that the ribosome, not the mRNA strand, will move during synthesis. Protein synthesis does not begin until a ribosome reaches the start codon (AUG) on the mRNA strand.
Step 2: chain elongation, is exactly that. A polypeptide chain grows longer as amino acids are added to it, one at a time. When a new tRNA molecule arrives at the ribosome carrying a second amino acid, it lands on the second of two binding sites on the ribosome. Methionine, the start codon, is still situated on the first binding site.
Next, methionine is peptide-bonded to the amino acid that landed with the new tRNA.
As the ribosome moves along the mRNA strand, one codon at a time (this ribosome movement is called translocation), the tRNA molecule that has delivered its amino acids leaves the ribosome. It will return again and again, each time with another amino acid to be joined to the chain. Over and over, tRNA delivers amino acids that form peptide bonds with the growing polypeptide chain.
Step 3: is chain termination. There are three codons that do not specify an amino acid. Instead, these signal stop. When the ribosome reaches a stop codon, an enzyme, also called a release factor, binds to one of the two binding sites and sets the polypeptide chain free from the last tRNA molecule.
After the production is over, the cast (ribosome, tRNA, mRNA) separates. An mRNA strand can be translated again, but it will only last as long as the polypeptide it codes for is needed.
Protein Synthesis Review Animation
Protein Synthesis Online Activity
Video - Inner Workings of the Cell
ENZYMES & METABOLISM
When you think of all the activities an organism must constantly perform in order to stay alive, you might think of eating, breathing, blood circulation, excretion, and movement. However, it's also important to think about what is happening at the cellular level. Cells must continuously metabolize to produce the energy that keeps an organism alive. Depending on the type of cell, other activities might include synthesis (producing bone, muscle, and other types of tissue), breakdown (e.g., digestion), communication (e.g., neurons, hormones, etc.), and so on. These diverse biochemical reactions have something in common. They must occur at a very fast rate, and they require enzymes to maintain that rate. In short, life as we know it could not exist without enzymes!
Enzymes are proteins that are created by protein synthesis (transcription and translation), which you have already studied. Although the precise number of different proteins coded for by DNA is unknown, estimates range up to 150,000. If we accept the estimate that half of these proteins are enzymes, then there are up to 75,000 different enzymes in the human body.
Biochemical reactions are chemical reactions that occur in living organisms. These reactions begin with one or more reactants, and then convert these reactants to products. The many chemical reactions that occur in cells are collectively termed metabolism.
A typical chemical reaction might be described as:
A + B = C + D
where A and B are reactants, and C and D are products.
However, reactions in cells are often more complex and occur as part of a metabolic pathway—a series of conversions in which the product of one reaction becomes the reactant in the next reaction:
A g B g C g D g E g F
Note that B, C, D, and E are both reactants and products. For example, in the reaction A g B, A is the reactant and B is the product. Next, in B g C, B becomes a reactant and C is a product, and so on.
Cellular metabolism must occur rapidly in order to sustain the life of an organism. This is why metabolic pathways, such as the one above, require enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts. They speed up chemical reactions without being used up in those reactions. The molecules that react with enzymes are called substrates (substrate is another word for reactant). Enzymes are specific—each enzyme will only form a complex with a certain substrate. That is why different enzymes are used in different steps of a metabolic pathway.
Chemical reactions cannot occur unless molecules have enough energy to react with each other. This required energy is termed energy of activation, or simply activation energy. Enzymes lower the energy of activation in a reaction, allowing it to proceed at a lower than usual energy level.
In Graph X, no enzyme is present, and the conversion of substrate to product requires a higher Ea (energy of activation) before it can occur. Graph Y shows the same reaction when an enzyme is present. Note that Ea is much smaller when an enzyme facilitates a reaction.
It is also important to note that the product of a reaction is the same whether an enzyme is present or not. However, depending on reaction conditions, more products may result, or the rate of the reaction may be altered. This will be the focus of a future lesson.
How Enzymes Work
Enzymes are catalysts for thousands of different biochemical reactions in the human body. Because each enzyme is specific to a certain substrate, there are many different enzymes. Although each enzyme is involved in a different reaction, all enzymes function in the same way.
Each enzyme contains an active site to which a particular substrate can bond to form an enzyme-substrate complex, an intermediate step between reactants and products.
This equation is demonstrated in the following diagram.
The structure labeled 1 is an enzyme, 2 is a cofactor (more on these shortly!). Label 3 represents substrate, and 4 is the product formed by the reaction.
Note that the enzyme remains intact and is not used up. After the reaction is complete, the enzyme is available to react again. For this reason, small amounts of enzyme are often all that is required, and these small amounts can have large effects.
Refer to your Inquiry Into Life textbook and study the diagram on enzymatic action. Note the following important points:
formation of a temporary enzyme-substrate complex during reactions
enzymes catalyze both synthesis and decomposition reactions
enzymes are not changed or used up in reactions
In addition to the enzymatic action diagram in your Inquiry Into Life textbook, use your favorite search engine to find an animation of enzyme action if you have access to a computer and the Internet. Try using the search terms “enzyme animation.” Watching a diagram come to life can often help clarify difficult concepts, such as enzyme action!
Enzyme Action Animation
Enzyme Action Animation 2
Induced Fit Model
Enzyme and substrate fit together in much the same way as a lock and key, except that the enzyme actually changes itself slightly in order to fit with its substrate. Because of this slight alteration, we use the term induced fit model to better describe how the enzyme and substrate interact.
Go to your Inquiry Into Life textbook and look for an illustration of the induced fit model.
Go to the Biology 12 Web site Lesson 2.3A Enzyme Metabolism and watch a narrated animation: Navigate to Cells—Metabolism. Pay attention to the way the enzyme changes shape to induce a better fit with its substrate.
The active site on an enzyme is restored to its original shape after a product is released. Because enzymes are not used up in the reactions they catalyze, cells generally only require a small amount of a given enzyme.
Enzyme names often end in -ase and are named for their particular substrate (e.g., lipase acts upon lipids, nuclease upon nucleic acids, lactase on the sugar lactose, etc.). This does not always hold true, however. The digestive enzymes trypsin and pepsin do not follow this naming convention.
Factors Affecting Enzyme Action
There are at least 2000 enzymes in the human body and each one is involved in a different biochemical reaction. Enzymes are essential to life because biochemical reactions cannot occur without them, so it is important to understand some of the factors that affect enzyme activity reaction rates.
In this lesson you will look at the effect on reaction rates of substrate and enzyme concentration, temperature, pH, inhibitors, and cofactors. Each of these factors can be introduced, removed, or altered to influence the rate of an enzymatic reaction.
Recall that reaction rate is the speed at which substrate is converted to product, and that biochemical reactions occur along metabolic pathways. These pathways are comprised of a specific sequence of steps that, in total, are more energy-efficient than one large reaction. Each reaction requires a specific enzyme. The more ideal the conditions for an enzyme, the more effectively it can catalyze the reaction to which it is so loyal, and the more quickly the entire pathway can proceed towards a final product.
ENZYME QUIZ
1) Temperature
Each enzyme functions most effectively at its own optimum temperature. At this optimum temperature, the movement of molecules is rapid enough to allow the maximum number of collisions between enzyme and substrate. More collisions mean an increased rate of formation of enzyme-substrate complexes. If the temperature rises too high, the enzyme becomes denatured and the reaction rate decreases. Denaturation is damage that alters the active site of an enzyme so its substrate can no longer bind to it.
Note that the graph is not symmetrical because at lower temperatures, molecules move more slowly. Enzymes still function but not as effectively as they do at their optimum temperature. In the human body, this temperature is 37ºC. At high temperatures, enzymes no longer work at all.
2) pH
Enzymes also function best at an optimum pH. As with temperature, optimum enzyme pH varies with enzyme type and location. Recall that pH refers to the scale that indicates the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Some enzymes, such as those involved in digestion in the stomach, function best in an acidic environment. Enzymes in the blood require a more neutral pH, and a basic pH is necessary to the activity of enzymes in the small intestine. This graph shows pH vs. the rate of reaction for three enzymes. The peaks of each curve represent the optimum pH for each enzyme. If pH is too low or too high for an enzyme, it will denature.
3) Enzyme & Substrate Concentration
As substrate concentration increases, the rate of a reaction will also increase because substrate molecules take up more active sites. Once all available active sites are occupied, the reaction proceeds at its maximum rate (saturation point) and the graph levels off. Increased substrate concentration will have no effect on reaction rate.
Between points A and B on this graph, substrate concentration increases. The rate of reaction also increases to point B. B represents active site saturation—all the enzyme available is being used in the reaction, so the reaction cannot proceed any faster. If more enzyme is added, the rate of reaction would again increase.
Increasing enzyme concentration will also increase reaction rate. More active sites are available for bonding with substrate molecules, so the chance of collisions between enzyme and substrate is higher. The reaction rate will continue to increase as long as there is enough substrate available to form enzyme-substrate complexes.
Enzyme Inhibition
Enzyme inhibition occurs when the substrate is unable to bind to the active site of an enzyme. The enzyme is then prevented from catalyzing biochemical reactions in the body. Depending on the enzyme, the affects of inhibition will vary. The two main types of enzyme inhibition are competitive and non-competitive.
A competitive inhibitor (a molecule similar in shape to the actual substrate) binds to the enzyme active site. The inhibitor and the substrate have to compete for the active site. The substrate molecules cannot bind with the active site if the inhibitor has already done so, and vice-versa. Some examples of competitive inhibition include:
In metabolic pathways, the pathway end product can bind with the first enzyme in the pathway. Since the products of one step in such a pathway become the reactants in the next step, this binding effectively blocks the pathway from proceeding. End product inhibition of metabolic pathways is almost always competitive.
Some antibiotics work by occupying the active sites of enzymes. For example, an antibiotic interrupts the metabolic pathway that produces folic acid by competing for the active sites of one enzyme in the pathway.
Many toxic substances act as inhibitors to enzymes involved in vital biochemical processes. Once the enzyme is inhibited the process cannot take place, and the results can include paralysis, coma, or death.
A non-competitive inhibitor is a molecule that binds to another site (not the active site) on the enzyme and inactivates the enzyme molecule. This type of inhibitor causes the enzyme to change shape, thus altering the active site and preventing the enzyme from forming bonds with its substrate.
Examples of non-competitive inhibitors include:
Heavy metal ions (lead, mercury, silver, chromium, etc.) can affect the shape of enzymes, causing heavy metal poisoning (e.g., lead poisoning from lead-based paint).
Nerve gases such as Sarin inhibit the active site of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme vital to proper nerve response and functioning. Nerve gas poisoning can cause death.
Enzyme Cofactors
Just as enzymes can be inhibited, they can be helped by one of two cofactors:
an inorganic ion (one that does not contain carbon)
an organic, non-protein molecule called a coenzyme
One of these two helpers is required in order for enzymes to function correctly. Inorganic ions, called cofactors, include metals such as copper (Cu+2), Calcium (Ca+2) and Magnesium (Mg+2). The role of inorganic ions is to activate enzymes.
Organic, non-protein coenzymes assist the enzyme in its function. Coenzymes provide atoms, ions, or electrons to enzymatic reactions. Vitamins are common components of coenzymes, so that when we lack a vitamin in our diet, coenzymes (and therefore enzymes) may not function correctly. As a result, important chemical reactions in the body may be hindered.
Unit 2 Review Questions
Please answer the following questions
1. Compare and contrast the structure and function of DNA and RNA.
2. What are the end products of:
Replication:
3. Compare and contrast the function of DNA helicase with RNA polymerase.
4. What are the three steps in translation and give a brief description of each step.
5. What is the function of DNA ligase?
6. Why is the process of replication called semi-conservative?
7. During transcription, which 2 steps does RNA polymerase function?
8. At any one time, how much of the DNA is transcribed?
9. Give a description of the 3 steps involved in translation.
10. Give the sequence of base pairs below, what is the resulting amino acid sequence?
3'-TACGGCTTG-5'
11. How do enzymes increase the rates of chemical reactions?
12. An enzyme in your stomach, pepsidase, breaks peptide bonds. Its optimum pH is 2. Describe the change in reaction rate if you were to swallow a liquid which raised the pH of your stomach to 6.
13. The metabolic pathway which converts cellulose to glucose invloves 5 steps. How many different enzymes does this metabolic pathway require?
14. Explain the difference between a competitive and an non-competitive inhibitor.
15. Explain the induced fit model of enzyme activity
Unit 2 Jeopardy
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U.S. Government Tracking Immigration Journalists
Recently, San Diego news affiliate, NBC 7, shared documents they received suggesting the federal government has been tracking journalists and immigration advocates associated with the migrant caravan reaching the southern United States border from Central America. As the caravan reached the border and media attention increased, some activists, journalists, and social media influencers began to suspect they were the targets of increasing scrutiny by immigration enforcement officials. A Homeland Security official leaked documents to the news channel on the condition of anonymity.
According to the documents provided by the anonymous source, the government kept tabs on journalists and activists by:
Multiple inspections at migrant shelters
Detainments at the border
Refusal of entry at the Mexican border
Collection of their personal information in a secret database
Alerts on their passports preventing them from entering Mexico
Inclusion in a “target list” of individuals who should be screened at the border
The document includes individuals’ photos, birth dates, and alleged role in the caravan. Detailed dossiers are included for each person in the document. A dossier on one woman included details about her personal vehicle, her mother’s identity, and her employment history. While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the authority to detain any person for additional screenings, they should not be doing so based on profession or political leanings alone, according to immigration experts. The anonymous Homeland Security source noted that creating dossiers on men and women is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.
Journalists and Government Tracking
Several men and women listed in the government database were marked as warranting follow-up screenings. A freelance photographer covering the caravan says she probably crossed the United States – Mexico border at least a dozen times and was transparent about her purpose for doing so each time. In December 2018, she was detained and questioned by border agents multiple times. Once she was asked to leave her cell phone and photography gear on a table outside the interview area. Many of the journalists subjected to secondary screenings at the border said they considered them to be invasive.
Response from Customs and Border Protection
San Diego’s NBC 7 sent the leaked documents to CBP asking questions about the veracity and legality of the alleged tracking tactics. While they did not answer all the questions, they did say the caravan’s decent on the border posed a “risk to public safety” warranting the gathering of evidence that might be needed for future legal actions and to determine if the event was orchestrated. In a follow-up statement to NBC 7’s report, CBP say all the people included in the report were present at the border in November when violence erupted. They claim journalists are being tracked to determine what incited the violence late last year.
Philadelphia Immigration Lawyers at Surin & Griffin, P.C. Protect the Rights of Foreign Nationals and Their Advocates
The Philadelphia immigration lawyers at Surin & Griffin, P.C. represent individuals facing complex immigration issues. With extensive experience arguing in immigration court and before the Boards of Immigration Appeals, you can trust our team to work tirelessly on your behalf.
As immigration policies continue to evolve, we remain on top of changing laws to provide smart, up-to-date legal guidance for your situation. To discuss your case with a multilingual Philadelphia immigration lawyer, call us at 215-925-4435 or contact us online to schedule your consultation today. Located in Philadelphia, we serve clients throughout Pennsylvania and nationwide.
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Opioid epidemic: Patients who are caught in the middle
Tyler Eagle
"We feel like we have to keep proving we are disabled just to get some level of care to keep making it day to day," Janet Zureki says.
This is part of a special report. Related story: Michigan's fight against overdoses.
As the country confronts an ongoing opioid epidemic, law enforcement officials are cracking down on healthcare providers they deem as overprescribing medicines — a practice many say contributes to an increase in drug abuse and overdose deaths.
It’s a problem that deeply affects Monroe County: 44 people died from drug-related overdoses in 2015, with 31 of those deaths tied to opioids. It’s a stark increase compared to earlier years — in 2010 there were 18 drug overdoses, with nine of those deaths caused by opioids.
While officials confront the health crisis, however, patients who suffer from chronic pain or have debilitating illnesses have found themselves caught in the middle.
They are patients who are prescribed opioids; they neither abuse their medications nor distribute them to others. Instead, they rely on them as part of their treatment plans.
Many of those patients feel like they’re the invisible victims in the response to the public health crisis.
Opiod prescription rates
LIVING WITH THE PAIN
Janet Zureki will never know a day without pain.
From the moment the 49-year-old Monroe resident wakes up, she grapples with managing pain stemming from a traumatic injury she endured after a botched operation.
Zureki had to have her tailbone surgically removed after it was broken. The injury also resulted in her spine leaking fluid and damaged muscle tissue in her lower back and hips, causing her severe pain.
“My kids would have to watch me crawl around the house,” she said. “There were times I couldn’t even crawl — I would have to stop and wait for it to subside.”
Zureki takes prescribed opioids throughout the day, combining it with physical therapy and exercise to address her pain. A patient of Dr. Lesly Pompy of Monroe, she worked with the doctor for several years to develop a treatment plan to give her “back a quality of life.”
But in 2016, Pompy’s offices were raided by local law officials after a year-long investigation levied accusations of illegal pill distribution and healthcare fraud. His license later was suspended and his case referred to a federal court.
The charges left several of his patients with chronic conditions and severe illnesses adrift, many scrambling to find new pain management specialists, she says.
An Air Force veteran, Zureki worked as an asset collector for the Internal Revenue Service before her injury prompted her to take an early retirement. A wife and mother of two, she says addressing her pain is a part of her daily life, often making it hard to take part in social and family events.
“It’s hard sitting at an event for your kids,” Zureki said. “You don’t get butterflies when your kids are doing good because you want to go home because of the pain.”
Lyn Herrmann, an auto factory worker who lives in Monroe, can relate.
Herrmann suffers from bulging discs and degenerative disc disease. She also has another serious disease that causes her pain. Her job, which she has had for 21 years, requires strenuous physical labor and has long hours, sometimes averaging 10 to 12 hour days.
Herrmann is not a viable candidate for corrective surgery. Instead, she has to rely on a treatment plan that addresses her condition, which includes opioid pain medicine. In addition to complicating her work life, her conditions impact life at home with her husband and 4-year-old daughter.
“Some days my daughter wants me to play with her on the floor and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back up if I get down there,” she said. “I want to play with my kid, but sometimes I just can’t. It makes me feel like a bad mother.”
EFFECTS ON PATIENTS
A routine operation gone awry resulted in the injury to Zureki’s tailbone. For nine months, her pain grew until it became unbearable. At first, doctors were unable to identify the source of her discomfort.
But as her condition worsened, her primary physician referred her to Pompy, who specialized in pain management. He was the first doctor to find her broken tailbone and helped her come up with a plan on how to address it.
After the raid, Zureki was unable to receive her medications for several months. She tried to find another physician quickly, but many doctors who worked in pain management were leaving the field or weren’t accepting new patients.
Her own primary doctor refused to prescribe her pain medicines and others in the area were wary of taking Pompy’s patients, she said, adding that some doctors even had signs in their windows saying they wouldn’t prescribe opioids.
“We feel like we have to keep proving we are disabled just to get some level of care to keep making it day to day,” Zureki said. “We were treated like we did something wrong. No one would even see us.”
Zureki eventually experienced the effects of withdrawal and the return of her pain. The muscles in her back contracted again and she struggled to breathe while sitting up.
“The vomiting, the pain, the crying — you can’t feel like yourself. To be taken off medication you’ve been on for years isn’t safe,” she said. “Even when you’re back on the medicine, it’s like you have to start all over.”
Herrmann, also a former patient of Pompy, had similar experiences.
Her primary care physician refused to treat her pain and referred her to another doctor, a practice many pain patients face, she said, adding that doctors would rather transfer responsibility of their patients’ pain care to another physician than risk scrutiny.
“Family doctors in Monroe are all afraid to give anyone any pain medicine,” Herrmann said.
It took several months for Herrmann to find a new pain management doctor. During that time she lowered her dosages and rationed her medication as she looked to bridge the gap in care, an act that she says shows she doesn’t abuse her medication.
Even now doctors are reluctant to prescribe pain medicine, often reducing or adjusting her dosages.
“Every month it decreases like I’m magically going to get better,” she said. “I’m not going to get better. I’m going to get worse.”
FIGHTING A STIGMA
Zureki said pain management patients face stigmatization for taking medications, sometimes even from their own doctors. Pain patients will minimize the depth of their pain out of fear of being accused of drug seeking, she said.
“You tell your pain doctor about your pain, but you don’t want to tell them the worst of it because they may think you’re trying to get more drugs,” she said. “You’re always walking on egg shells. What if you lose this pain doctor? Where do you turn next?”
Herrmann said people make assumptions about pain patients and patients of Pompy without trying to understand the severity of patients’ pain or conditions.
“They think you’re a druggie or just making it up,” she said.
Zureki says it’s easy to became resentful of having to take medications. Her life is regimented around it, often having to plan days in advance what she will do so she can be prepared.
It also takes a mental toll, she said, adding that she sometimes battles depression and anxiety that stems from her condition.
“It’s a constant battle. If the pain would be better, the depression would be better. They feed off of each other,” she said. “ You end up in a vicious cycle.”
Herrmann’s plant is slated to begin production on a new vehicle soon. She is worried about how she will manage her pain as the car parts she works with at the factory will be much heavier. Not working is not an option for her, she says, so she’ll have to work through the pain.
She said a lot of people aren’t abusing their medication and need it to function, which she hopes law enforcement and doctor will better understand in the future.
“Overdose death numbers seem to be rising even though prescriptions are more rare,” she said. “Who do they have to blame now?”
Zureki understands the need to address the opioid problem in Monroe. She supports stricter prescribing guidelines, but she also hopes law enforcement will work more closely with doctors to ensure patients with legitimate needs for medication don’t lose access to care.
“They’re creating a vacuum by just cutting off the doctors,” Zureki said. “They’re potentially making people go from getting the legal medication they need to turn to the streets.”
Zureki hopes to get her doctor back one day. She continues to work on retraining her muscles by going to the gym and hopes to resume the treatment plan she and Pompy created together.
“I’m not even 50,” she said. “ What’s it going to be like when I’m 70 if I can’t find a way to get (the pain) controlled?”
Video clip: The August 2017 rally in support of Dr. Pompy.
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In this Friday, July 5, 2019 photo, a sculpture created by American artist Brad Downey depicting Melania Trump is seen in her hometown in Sevnica, Slovenia. A life-size sculpture of the U.S. first lady has been unveiled in her hometown of Sevnica, drawing mixed reactions from the locals. (AP Photo/Miro Majcen)
Miro Majcen
'She might like it,' Slovenian pipe layer says of his Melania Trump statue
By Meagan Flynn / The Washington Post
Nobody seems to know for sure whether the statue of Melania Trump, unveiled Friday in Slovenia, is a serious work of art or a parody - not even the art gallery that presented it.
The statue was carved with a chain saw into a living linden tree on the banks of the Sava River, about five miles outside the first lady's hometown of Sevnica, Slovenia. Rising nine feet from the trunk, the statue is blocky, waving with a hand more akin to a paw. Its eyes are bulging ovals beneath a near unibrow, its nose a pudgy blob. Save for its powder-blue Inauguration Day garb, it looks little like the first lady, leading some locals to poke fun of the statue as a "Smurfette" or "scarecrow," as the BBC reported.
And yet still there's something endearing about its rough edges, which reflect its creator: The statue is the work of a blue-collar pipe layer, an amateur woodworker who grew up near Trump's hometown.
The sculptor, Ales "Maxi" Zupevc, was commissioned by American artist Brad Downey to design and carve the statue in late 2018. Downey, a Kentucky-born conceptual artist, is sometimes known for his public pranks, but insisted in an interview with The Washington Post that this Trump statue is serious. Downey's idea was to find an artist born in the same town and at the same time as the first lady, as a comment on how two lives rooted in the same place can drastically diverge.
The end result seems in some ways duplicitous: the inspiring backstory of a humble ditch digger, presented by a globe-trotting artistic provocateur. You may laugh at the statue, and then feel bad for laughing. The Slovenian art gallery showing the work doesn't help, saying maybe it is a prank but maybe it isn't. "Who knows?" wrote the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana's Match Gallery in announcing Downey's full exhibit, which includes several other political works.
But maybe that's the point, said Berlin-based curator Lukas Feireiss, who has studied Downey's art for years.
"I think that's the beauty of it, that nobody can answer the question: Is it serious? Is it a joke?" Feireiss told The Washington Post. "That ambiguity is the strength of his work, the fact that we can't really figure it out. That's always, to me at least, that's always the power of it."
A living display of Downey's love for contradictions, Zupevc and Trump share the same roots but little else. According to Downey, Zupevc and Trump were born in the same hospital in the same month, April 1970, and to Downey, that was part of the allure of selecting Zupevc as the artist. He didn't want anyone well known or academic, instead seeking a hobbyist whose humility would add just the right touch to the rough chain sawing. The chain saw was Downey's idea too: a "poetic aggressiveness" to complement the beauty, as he described it.
"I wanted to follow a working-class guy doing art on the side," Downey told The Post. "He's always made art on his own. He didn't make art to become a famous artist. I thought it was charming and honest and it wasn't corrupted by academia."
In a documentary short produced by Downey, Zupevc said that he has no formal training in woodworking. He taught himself, carving owls or a bust of a local waitress into sturdy logs for fun, a reprieve from the backbreaking work in the dirt. He works for a small civil engineering and repair company, sometimes digging ditches for cables and pipes seven days a week during the peak season. "Sometimes you're up to your knees in mud," he said.
Zupevc said a group of artists came to his home late last year - "very late at night, I have to say that" - and asked him to make the statue of Trump. He was thrilled, and soon they found a healthy tree down by the Sava River. Downey said his only contribution to the actual design was chopping the linden tree to his desired height, then providing Zupevc a photo of her from President Trump's 2017 inauguration that would serve as his inspiration. In it, she wears a powder-blue coat and pumps, waving gracefully to a crowd, "to the world," Downey said.
In the video, Zupevc said he liked Melania Trump. He described her as "modest," a "simple woman."
"But let's face it," Zupevc said, changing course, "she owns half of America, while I have nothing."
Carving Trump would be Zupevc's first attempt at a statue of a full human figure, he said. That's why he felt so proud of his work, he said once it was finished. Sitting at the base of the statue, he started to choke up while noting how hard he'd worked, saying he would "give anything for a free Sunday with my wife, just one friggin' Sunday." Then, he pointed up at the first lady.
"But I think you can be pleased. Isn't that so?" he said.
The reviews were mixed.
"If the monument was meant to be a parody, then the artist has been successful," a woman identified only as Nika, a 24-year-old architecture student, told AFP.
Another resident told British station ITV: "It doesn't look anything like Melania. It's a Smurfette. It's a disgrace."
But then there was the hometown pride. "She is our beauty, no matter what, even here. She looks like she just walked out of a beautiful naive painting," as Sevnica resident Mojca Platnar told ABC News.
Feireiss, on the other hand, preferred to see it both ways, finding the crudeness of the statue appealing in its own way. "The roots of the tree are still in the ground. There's something rough about it. But there's something very rough about the first lady too," he said, adding, "To me it is a parody, but at the same time, it's not. This guy put a lot of work into this."
Downey said the speculation over whether the statue is meant as a joke hasn't bothered him, adding that people can interpret the monument however they please. He said residents he interacted with promised to take care of it.
"People might laugh at the aesthetics of the monument," he said, "but the context plays a very important role. This is not the random positioning of a monument. People may laugh, but the context still resonates."
Trump's own thoughts are for now unclear; a spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zupevc, for one, hoped she would be happy.
"She might come and see the thing," he said in the film. "She might like it."
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Brad Downey
Lukas Feireiss
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I hope I wasn't prescient about Donald Trump
Enoch's Hope -- How a Prophet succeeded in getting God to change His mind about a bad policy
Allegory of Hope for My LGBT Brothers and Sisters
LGBTQ Faces
For LDS people of conscience struggling with the Church's LGBT policies
A Mormon Apology
The Mormon Grail: Free samples! You'll be hooked
14 Articles of (My) Faith
Putting faces on the Mormon LGBTQ crisis
Devotion and despair: The lonely struggle of a gay Mormon
By Lauren Jackson, special to CNN
(CNN) On the night of February 12, 2016, Harry Fisher spent a few hours online: He scrolled through Facebook, checked his email. He searched Google Maps for nearby canyons and read through the lesson plan for a Sunday school class he would not live to teach.
Fisher navigated to LDS.org, the official website for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and clicked on a page he knew well: the church-issued "Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual."
From there, Fisher visited the webpage of the assigned lesson plan for the upcoming Sunday; it was titled "I Know in Whom I Have Trusted." The last section of the lesson suggested asking class members to analyze a chapter from the Book of Mormon and report on how the scriptural characters responded to discouragement.
Perhaps Fisher was looking for answers himself.
The 28-year-old Brigham Young University student was under stress in his final semester at school. He had fallen behind in his classes and failed a job screening that his mother said he had placed high hopes in. And in his last month of life, he publicly outed himself as gay on Facebook.
The Sunday school manual's answers were meant to be a model for Latter-day Saints to follow. Some suggested answers included: "Read the scriptures," "Trust in the Lord and look to Him for support" and "Engage in mighty prayer."
This was the last webpage Harry Fisher ever visited.
A search and rescue team used Fisher's internet history to locate his body high above Israel Canyon, a scenic hiking destination south of Salt Lake City, Utah. That history also paints a portrait of a man in his last days, struggling to reconcile his faith with his sexual identity.
Harry Fisher as a boy.
Death in a digital era lacks a sense of finality. Social media profiles remain, frozen in time. Personal videos can be replayed, and for a moment, the dead are resurrected in pixelated form.
For Fisher's father, Paul Fisher, Harry's internet search history and Facebook profile provide pieces of a puzzle -- an incomplete jigsaw of Harry's last thoughts and final feelings.
Paul Fisher shared his son's final Facebook posts, corresponding comments from friends, and a 30-day internet search history with CNN in an effort to shed light on who Harry was, what he loved, and what he believed. Harry's mother, Claire, also spoke with CNN.
The Fishers, who are divorced, agree that being gay was a source of loneliness for their son. They disagree to what extent the Mormon church played a role in fostering feelings of isolation.
Claire Fisher is a Mormon; Paul Fisher, though married to Claire for a decade, never joined the church.
But this much is clear: Their son's struggle to reconcile his faith with his identity was not his alone. Mormon leaders have been laboring to create a welcoming atmosphere for all members -- gay or not -- even as they hold fast to doctrines that regard homosexual acts as sinful.
On February 12, Harry Fisher closed his computer, leaving one last virtual fingerprint on LDS.org. Paul Fisher said that sometime in the hours that followed, Harry left his apartment -- taking his Bible and Book of Mormon, but leaving behind an empty gun case and a typed note.
With his Brigham Young University hoodie in his passenger seat, Fisher drove his 1995 Toyota 4Runner south from Draper to a final destination resonant with religious overtones: Israel Canyon.
Fisher left his scriptures in the passenger seat, bookmarked on Matthew 16:25: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
A search team found Fisher's body 11 days later, lying atop the canyon overlook with a gun at his side and three of his Mormon church membership cards in his pocket, Paul Fisher said.
Israel Canyon, where Harry Fisher's body was found.
Harry's identity
Raised in the church, Mormonism constituted a foundational aspect of Fisher's identity -- but it was not his only identifier. He was a committed son and brother, a beloved bridge in a family split by divorce. He was a sci-fi junkie who avidly followed the Avengers, the Japanese anime show "Naruto Shippuden" and Star Wars.
He watched Portuguese language tutorials online, listened to Dan Carlin's podcast "Hardcore History," and reverenced Dostoyevsky. He ignored emails about overdue books at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library. He supported Bernie Sanders. He was also gay.
Fisher publicly identified himself as gay only after he left his job with Ancestry, a website for genealogical research staffed by many fellow Mormons and headquartered in Lehi, Utah. In a January Facebook post, he disclosed how being both a member of the LDS Church and gay had been particularly difficult.
"Many of my friends and family already know this, but for those who don't, let me let you know I'm gay. It hasn't been a secret, but I wasn't completely public with it before now because I worried that while I was at Ancestry.com it might hurt my opportunities for promotion. Some of my closest friends at Ancestry were pretty openly anti-gay, so while I don't know if any of my bosses were, and don't think they were, it seemed safer not to risk finding out."
Harry Fisher's came out as gay on Facebook last January.
Ancestry spokesman Brandon Borrman said the company was "deeply saddened" upon hearing of Fisher's death.
"We were also horrified when we read of the concerns he had while he worked here. We believe this is (and strive for it to be) a place where everyone feels welcome and can live their lives without any worry of self-identification, retribution or discomfort. That said, we do not operate in a cultural vacuum. ... We hope that we can honor Harry's memory by continuing to improve ourselves as a company and by fighting for equality in the communities where we operate."
Fisher's post went on to share that "being gay in Utah while being a Latter-Day Saint can be hard. ... It seems like every couple of Sundays I have to go out to my car to keep from crying at church."
He then thanked those who had said "positive things about gay people, even if you didn't know you were talking about me. It really means a lot."
That post gave Paul Fisher relief. "I thought, 'He's come out, he's OK. He's taken that big burden off of himself and everything is going to be fine.'
"I couldn't have been more wrong."
'Looking for a bullet'
In the hazy wake of Harry's death, the Fishers are grasping to answer the most pressing question raised by suicide: Why?
The Fishers, like many families, are left to deconstruct last words, subtle intonations, prolonged sighs -- pegging the formerly inconsequential as missed opportunities for intervention. There is always another clue to analyze, more to try to make sense of.
In Harry's suicide, as in many suicides, there is never one simple answer. Paul Fisher believes the circumstances leading up to his son's death were complicated.
In early January, Fisher decided to take on 22 credits in his final semester at BYU, where he had a 3.98 GPA. The heavy course load was an attempt to graduate by summer and move to Washington, D.C., where he was applying to become part of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Harry's father believes his son saw the nation's capital as an escape.
"Harry was looking for a more socially progressive community. He viewed D.C. and a job with the police department as his way out of Utah," Paul said.
The week before final exams, Harry skipped school to fly to Washington for the physical portion of the police department entrance exam, which included a timed obstacle course.
He failed it by 2 seconds, his father said.
On his way home, he searched online for the appeals process for the entrance exam. Then Harry called his mother to tell her he was going to take the rest of the week off school, saying he "needed a few days to reconsider his options."
Several days later, he was dead.
"It seems to me in retrospect that [his death] was really thoughtfully done and had been considered as a contingency," Claire said. "I believe there was a part of him that was looking for a bullet. He got to a point where he was just done."
Latter-day labels
On the day Fisher's body was found, Elder David A. Bednar, one of the church's top leaders and considered a "prophet, seer, and revelator," made media waves when he said, "There are no homosexual members of the church."
Bednar was responding to a question posed by a member in Chile, who asked, "How can homosexual members of the church live and remain steadfast in the gospel?"
Bednar continued his response by encouraging Mormons to identify first as "children of God" instead of with a particular sexual identity. Nonetheless, Bednar's remarks incited a conversation among Mormons on the importance of language in sexual identification. It also ultimately pointed to another question: Is there room for gays in the Mormon church?
The LDS church's labels for those on the LGBT spectrum have evolved over the past century. Before 1950, the church referred to homosexuality as "the sin that dare not speak its name," occasionally using the Biblical term "sodomy."
In the 1960s, "homosexuality" entered the church's lexicon after leadership became concerned that the "practice" had begun to "infiltrate the church." The church began to use the term "same-sex attraction" in the mid-1990s, encouraging gay members to avoid "over identifying with [their] temporary mortal condition."
Today, the church continues to use the term "same-sex attracted" when referring to gay members. One notable exception exists: the church's public-facing website mormonsandgays.org. The site was first released during Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign as an effort to address the church's stance on sexuality to the public. Targeted for a nonmember audience, the website is the first instance in which the church uses "gay" in an official publication.
The church stresses that all, regardless of sexual or gender identity or marital status, are welcome to attend worship services weekly. But to be included in church records as an official member, congregants must abide by certain standards of conduct. Mormon members are taught that attraction to a member of the same sex is not a sin, but marrying someone of the same sex is.
Still, senior church officials have admonished members to reach out to gay Mormons with love.
"As a church, nobody should be more loving and compassionate. Let us be at the forefront in terms of expressing love, compassion and outreach. Let's not have families exclude or be disrespectful of those who choose a different lifestyle as a result of their feelings about their own gender," Elder Quentin L. Cook said in a video released in 2012 on mormonsandgays.org.
The church's desire to reach out to gay members is coupled with a doctrinal imperative to take a protective stance in advocating for traditional marriage. Mormon theology is founded on a core doctrinal belief that marriage between a man and a woman is essential for salvation in the highest levels of heaven.
Most publicly, the church organized significant support for California's Proposition 8 in 2008, which banned gay marriage statewide. In the years since, church leaders have expressed the view that all people deserve equal rights civilly. Top leadership has advocated for housing and employment protections for LGBT people.
But recent policy changes to church disciplinary handbooks for local leaders requiring the excommunication of members in same-sex marriages affirm that the church's doctrinal stances remain the same.
Meanwhile, LGBT advocates worry about the harm exclusionary messages could have on gay and lesbian Mormons.
"You don't get much greater rejection than a top church leader telling you you do not exist," said Mitch Mayne, a Mormon from San Francisco and advocate for LGBT church members. Mayne was one of the first openly gay Mormon leaders. "I think it was a grave mistake to refer to LGBT identity not as an orientation but as a cross we must bear, a behavior," he said.
Many LDS members, like Harry Fisher's mother, Claire, agree with the church's position that homosexuality is a challenge to be overcome by a lifetime of celibacy. Claire considers her son's sexuality to be a result of a "chemical effect" on his body, a "challenge" faced in his "imperfect human condition."
"We spoke about these affinities a little over a year ago," Claire said, describing the time when Harry came out to her. "I asked him where he stood, and he said he had full intention to live within the bounds the Lord has set for these appetites and passions. He thought of himself as basically a Mormon monk."
Still, Claire recognizes Harry's celibacy was a source of loneliness. "I think he may have seen this as an escape. It all came crashing in, he snapped. This was not an act of rebellion, of being angry at God, of being bullied at church, he just succumbed to the loneliness."
Paul Fisher has a different perspective. He said he was not aware of his son's choice to remain celibate. "I just assumed one day he would show up with a guy at my door and I would meet his boyfriend."
In January, unsubstantiated claims of an increase in suicide among gay Mormon youth prompted a public statement on gay suicide from the church-owned paper, Deseret News.
"We mourn with their families and friends when they feel life no longer offers hope," church spokesman Dale Jones said. The article went on to outline how "constant love" from families and congregations can decrease risk factors for LGBT youth. However, church officials drew a line between "acceptance of a youth" and "embrac[ing] the individual's sexual identity."
This is the difficult balance the church is weighing as it seeks to promote principles of inclusion while standing by its doctrinal positions.
And now there are heightened consequences for gay members of the church: Choosing to live with a partner or marry a member of the same sex are grounds for excommunication.
The church made that policy change last November. It also addressed the children of same-sex unions, rendering them ineligible for baptism until they are 18 years old and willing to denounce same-sex marriage.
When the policy was leaked online by a whistleblower, the Mormon church found itself at the eye of a public relations hurricane. Thousands of members gathered in the church's Temple Square in Salt Lake City to resign from the church. Petitions circulated demanding disaffiliation with the Mormon church. College athletic teams across the country were encouraged to boycott games and matches with church-sponsored Brigham Young University.
According to his father, Fisher followed the response to the policy change closely.
"I don't know if [gay marriage] was something he considered," Paul says, "but he did express to me at a dinner after he came out publicly on Facebook that he hoped within 10 years the LDS church would allow gay marriage."
Claire disagrees, saying, "Harry wasn't waiting for the brethren to come to their senses on anything."
'Love is like a surgical knife'
In the month before he died, Fisher renewed his "temple recommend" card -- identification used by the church's most faithful members to gain access to sacred LDS temples.
He successfully passed a "recommend interview" with his bishop. His support of church leadership as "prophets, seers and revelators" was required to pass the interview and gain access to the church's most sacred places of worship. In Mormon doctrine, his eternal fate was contingent on the answer.
In the interview, Fisher was not explicitly asked about his sexuality. The 10 questions required to receive a recommend are uniform in congregations across the world and none require members to state their sexual identity. He was, however, asked about his adherence to the church's Law of Chastity -- the standard prohibiting premarital sex and homosexual relations of any kind.
Additionally, Fisher was asked about his support for any organizations whose activities were not in line with church teachings. Fisher posted publicly about his response to the question on Facebook.
He said, "One of the questions asks, 'Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.' I answered no."
According to his mother, Fisher put all three of his prior temple recommends in his wallet before he died. Yet in the last week of his life, he also spent time online exploring what it meant to "sustain" or support his leaders' edicts.
In early February, Fisher accessed the page of a Terryl Givens' article, "What it Means to Sustain," on the LDS blog Times and Seasons eight different times. As a University of Richmond professor and active member, Givens speaks as a Mormon scholar closely affiliated with the church.
The article was a published letter Givens had written to a friend who questioned how to support church leadership despite disagreeing with the recent policy regarding gay members.
Givens' friend asked: "How can I sustain a leadership that I think has acted in error or unrighteously?"
Givens answered that God required "faith and patience" from members who are led by fallible men and women. He said "the church is not a democracy" but insisted leadership was, overall, seeking to serve members with love. He believed Mormons could only exert influence on leadership "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned."
On January 28, Fisher changed his Facebook cover photo to a picture of an LDS temple. Overlaid on the image was a caption: "Love is like a surgical knife. Sharp and dangerous."
While dozens of LGBT Mormon advocacy organizations have arisen with the advent of the internet, the church has been careful not to sanction any of these grassroots movements. And for devout members like Fisher, seeking answers from outside sources is often deemed subversive.
According to his public search history, Fisher sought answers to his questions from the church. He never ventured into the large repository of anti-Mormon blogs and forums. Instead, he visited the church's website and typed the word "seek" into the scriptural search bar. He navigated to the page for Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."
But Fisher found few resources for gay Mormons in official church publications. He pursued the next best option: blogs of active members asking similar questions.
Fisher visited the blogs Times and Seasons, By Common Consent and Feminist Mormon Housewives, reading articles titled, "How did you become aware of gender issues in the Church and world?"
Fisher later posted his own "thoughts about transgenderism" to Facebook. On January 10, he wrote:
"I feel very strongly, though, that people should have the right to look and act however they want, and to be called by whatever labels they want. So much that is evil in the world comes from categorizing people."
He concluded the post with a hashtag: #thegospelisbigger.
An emotional soul
Fisher's mother says she first noticed a change in Harry after he returned from his two-year LDS mission to Rochester, New York. She believes his exposure to a world outside Utah unsettled her son.
"Ever since he came home from his mission he had a deeper kind of sadness. He had an emotional soul, but he had never been exposed to prostitutes and drug dealers like he was in western Rochester," Claire said. "He came home with a bit of cynicism, a bit more jaded about the human condition."
She remembered the first thing Fisher wanted to do upon return from his mission was read "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. For the characters in Dostoyevsky's novel, suffering is quasi-religious. Death and devastation are ways for the Karamazov brothers, like the biblical character Job, to draw closer to God.
Fisher asked his mother to read the book with him -- seeking someone to share his feelings with.
"He wanted me to understand the depth of suffering in the human condition," Claire said.
For many LDS missionaries, who leave their homes for 18 months to two years to proselytize in an assigned region of the world, loneliness is pervasive. Missionaries, many of whom leave on their mission immediately after high school graduation, are only allowed to call home on Christmas and Mother's Day, though they can email once weekly.
This loneliness can be exacerbated for gay missionaries bereft of resources from the church and cut off from the internet, where many find solidarity with other gay Mormons.
"I don't think [Harry] knew he was attracted to men in high school. But the mission gives you the 'in your face' realization that you may be attracted to that guy," Claire said.
Harry Fisher on his LDS mission in Rochester, New York.
Paul believes his son returned home from his mission with some questions about the church. Harry disliked the church's emphasis on attending "young single adult wards" -- groups designed for unmarried adults ages 18-29. He believed the prioritization of marriage in these wards (the LDS term for congregation) detracted from the focus on worshiping Christ.
Soon after his mission, Fisher began attending a "family ward" -- Mormon congregations open to all. Upon realizing he was not married, the bishop overseeing the ward asked him to leave.
"A bishop ordered him out of the family ward and told him to join a singles ward," Claire Fisher said. "He moved every year for the last five years, not laying down any roots."
A lack of resources
Paul Fisher wishes he had encouraged his son to utilize more LGBT resources and communities that exist in Utah. "I wish I had walked him into an organization like the Utah Pride Center. I wish I had shown him that this community existed. It doesn't mean he would have responded positively, but I wish I had."
Claire Fisher says she spoke with her son about existing resources, but he rejected them.
"He had considered all the options that were open to him as someone who identified with same gender affinity. We had discussed the resources, namely North Star, but he rejected the idea and felt he would do it on his own."
North Star is a "faith affirming" organization which seeks to provide resources for "Latter-day Saint individuals and families concerned with sexual orientation or gender identity."
While the Mormon church has advocated publicly for equal rights for the LGBT community, it has left the provision of resources to the LGBT community to secular entities. To date, the church has not adopted any of the resources developed by Mormon LGBT advocates, including the Family Acceptance Project, a training program for families and religious leaders aimed at increasing acceptance of LGBT youth and addressing mental illness.
The Family Acceptance Project is the only faith-based training program listed as best practice by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The materials were adopted by the Utah State Health Department as a resource for families last September in light of a threefold increase in youth suicides in Utah since 2007.
Andrea Hood, suicide prevention coordinator with the department, said there is no statistical evidence that the increase in suicide is connected to the LDS church policy change, or to religion in general, but it is difficult to say for certain as data on sexuality and religion are not always included in police reports. Hood also noted that religiously motivated discrimination is a risk factor -- along with mental illness, prior trauma and depression -- in teen suicides.
"We want to show them examples of adults who are LGBT who, if they have faced faith discrimination in their life, they have been resilient and that they are happy, successful adults who are thriving members of our community."
Mormon leaders have been pitched the Family Acceptance Project in meetings with advocacy groups since 2008, but the materials have not been implemented. The church rarely adopts outside material for use in leadership training or member instruction, preferring to produce teaching manuals internally.
In the eight years since the church was introduced to the concept of the Family Acceptance Project, no materials have been produced internally with the aim of helping church leadership respond to at-risk LGBT youth. The church declined to comment on the adoption of the materials.
Mayne, the openly gay Mormon leader, said the church has "completely missed the boat" in terms of providing resources for LGBT members. "It is a dangerous time to be an LGBT Mormon right now."
Other members of the advocacy community agree, pinpointing the problem on an empathy gap.
Kendall Wilcox, an openly gay LDS member, filmmaker, and former BYU professor, said, "To overcome that empathy gap, leaders need to do the work of stepping out of their homes and their offices, to have many, many long conversations with LGBT members about their lived experiences."
Erika Munson, co-founder of the LGBT advocacy group Mormons Building Bridges, said, "I would like to hear a little more compassion. I want to hear an acknowledgment of that pain -- that it is a pain that hits an identity. I want leaders to say, 'This is difficult, you are not alone, I am here for you.'"
Claire says her son preferred to chart his course of reconciliation alone.
Claire also is wary of how helpful the gay communities could have been for Harry. "In the support groups ... being in proximity to another gay man would exacerbate the issue if you're trying to get a hold on it."
Claire laments the loneliness her son felt but underscores that his death is about more than just his sexual identity -- it was about the isolation he experienced in forming relationships.
"Though his dad and his older sister are adamant that the Mormon church killed my son, it didn't. Loneliness did."
'My work is finished'
On the last night of his life, Fisher called his mother one final time. In the conversation, she asked him what "he had come up with in terms of his future plans."
Fisher often sought his mother's opinion when making life decisions. Yet that night, he grew quiet. With a sigh, Fisher said, "Mom, Mom you know, I know you mean well."
Later that night, Harry Fisher left a typed note in his apartment. It read, "I know God loves me and that my work is finished."
Weddings, engagements, family shots, newborns and children - we are experts at capturing the perfect shot for any special occasion.
© Mormon Grail
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Garden State Residential TODs Receive $43.5M Financing
Cushman & Wakefield has arranged a pair of loans in support of new construction and refinancing of two multifamily properties in East Orange, N.J.
Adriana Pop
Oct 29, 2015
East Orange, N.J.—Cushman & Wakefield has completed $43.5 million in financing for a pair of two residential and mixed-use buildings located at 141 and 315 South Harrison St. in East Orange, N.J.
141 and 315 South Harrison St. in East Orange, N.J.
The firm worked on behalf of the properties’ owner and borrower Blackstone 360, a Newark, N.J.-based development firm headed by president & CEO S. Airaj Hasan.
Cushman & Wakefield’s East Rutherford, N.J.-based Capital Services team, consisting of George Gnad, Jessica Ke and Michael Winters, secured the financing from Amboy Bank.
The firm’s Capital Services team arranged a $19.5 million loan for the 105-unit residential high-rise located at 141 South Harrison, as well as an additional $24 million construction loan for a proposed seven-story project of 150 luxury apartments above the current 30,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space located at 315 South Harrison. According to Cushman & Wakefield, these deals reflect the continued strength of the Garden State’s residential market.
“The residential market in general continues to be very strong,” Gnad said in prepared remarks. “Amboy Bank was very interested in starting a relationship with Blackstone 360, which, under Airaj Hasan’s leadership, is literally breathing new life into East Orange–and other urban centers–with these kinds of projects.”
The two East Orange multifamily properties are conveniently located in a transit-oriented area, near the Brick Church New Jersey Transit Station.
“In general, lenders are very keen on getting involved with transit-oriented residential projects, the kind that continues to attract both the younger generation entering the workforce as well as empty-nesters,” Gnad added.
Over the past five years, Blackstone 360 has been at the forefront in modernizing and rehabilitating East Orange. So far, the company has invested more than $60 million into the construction of mixed-use projects along the South Harrison Street corridor, creating a residential living community in this area.
Cushman & Wakefield successfully completed its merger with DTZ on September 1, 2015. The firm, which now operates under the iconic Cushman & Wakefield brand, is led by Chairman & CEO Brett White and Global President Tod Lickerman. The company is majority owned by an investor group led by TPG, PAG, and OTPP.
Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield
Airaj Hasan
Amboy Bank
Blackstone 360 LLC
Tod Lickerman
Harbor Group Buys Brooklyn Community for $117M
Strategic Capital Scores $70M Loan for NY Tower
Philly’s Tallest Residential Tower Lands $295M Loan
Loft Apartment Building Sells for $61M in NYC
FCP Buys Philly High-Rise for $118M
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MVS Tribute to Former National Secretary
After almost 21 years service in the MVS, holding a variety of offices, HoU. RVO and National Secretary Richard Dale has finally hung up his stripes and is reverting to being a member at our Humber Unit.
As you will know Richard has had a few health problems lately, but has still kept his hand on the tiller of the MVS, steering it through the hiccup of losing a National Secretary.
As was reported recently, Richard was keen to say he would compile the AGM Minutes and true to his word he has done so.
Tony Minns Chair of the MVS Council said, “In the time that I have known Richard Dale, I can state that he has been an utterly dependable and calm guiding hand to the MVS Council and to the wider MVS membership in matters of governance”.
He continued, “We will miss Richard’s sound knowledge of the MVS and are happy to accept his offer of providing advice or guidance whenever it is required”.
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2018 Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship
A first-hand experience with government advocacy and legal activism at one of the most innovative law and advocacy centers in the country wants you to join the National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy Center as an intern this summer — made possible with the Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship stipend awards.
Interested applicants are asked to submit their application online by Friday, January 19, 2018.
Qualified applicants will spend the summer at the NAD Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland where they will participate actively in advocacy efforts to protect the civil, human and linguistic rights of the American deaf community. Preference will be given to students pursuing careers in law, public policy, nonprofit management or related fields. This scholarship provides a nominal financial stipend to qualified applicants. Chosen applicants are responsible for their own travel, lodging, and related needs during the internship.
Past Scholarship recipient, Lisa Bothwell shares her encouragement for other interested applicants, “I was fortunate to be able to work with the lawyers at the NAD. I did legal research on transportation, employment, and effective communication. I graduated from the College of Law at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and became a licensed attorney in Texas!”
Another recipient, Hayley McLemore shares gratitude for the experience, “I realized this was a great opportunity for me to be able to experience legal advocacy within the deaf and hard of hearing community. During my internship, I was able to discover different issues related to accessibility and deaf and hard of hearing rights. The internship was very helpful for me to narrow down my career goals — I’d like to get into legal advocacy after I graduate!”
Also a past recipient, Alexander Van Hook states, “The internship gave me a look at how the NAD works as an organization, and I became more informed on current issues key to deaf people. It was also a step for me to explore what I want to do for my future.” Today, Alexander Van Hook is a graduate student at American University.
In the Summer of 2016, Lily Esquer-Horta worked closely with Tawny Holmes, NAD Education Policy Counsel, on various projects to study the needs of diverse students and their families. Some of her responsibilities included social media posts and policy projects related to the language and communication needs of deaf and hard of hearing mainstreamed students.
The recipient for the Summer of 2017, Nida Din just started her second-year attending the University of Houston Law Center in Houston, Texas. After finishing law school in the next two years, Nida plans to advocate to promote a fully accessible world for deaf people.
Stipend Disbursement & Internship Duration
Duration of summer internships shall be on a full-time basis for no less than 10 weeks and no more than 15 weeks per year.
Determination of the stipend amount for each qualified applicant is based on the length of the internship and the Application Criteria below. For example, a qualified applicant studying in law school (Juris Doctor degree) who commits to the entire length of the summer internship may be eligible for the full $6,000 stipend. Up to two qualified applicants studying for their Bachelor’s degree may receive stipends of up to $3,000 each.
Applicants are responsible for their own transportation, lodging and meals. The NAD is located near the Silver Spring Metro station, which allows for convenient transportation throughout the DC Metro area (MD/DC/VA). Applicants are also responsible for their own automobile parking fees, if applicable.
Applicants seeking Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship consideration must be currently enrolled in academic studies toward graduate or undergraduate degrees within the following or related fields:
Law (Juris Doctor degree)
Public Policy (Master’s or Bachelor’s degree)
Nonprofit Management (Master’s or Bachelor’s degree)
Applicants will be screened on the basis of the following criteria:
Deaf or hard of hearing;
Demonstrated commitment to and advocacy for public service – specifically civil, human and linguistic rights of the American deaf community;
Evidence of leadership abilities and potential for continued growth in leadership skills;
Excellent research, writing and presentation skills; and
Strong academic and extracurricular credentials.
Screening and Selection Process
The respective points of contact for the NAD Headquarters and the Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship Committee shall coordinate screening of applicants and selection of recipients.
The screening and selection process is delineated as follows:
Tuesday, January 23, 2018 – Applications are screened for completeness and satisfaction of criteria by the NAD, and eligible applicants’ documentation are shared electronically with the Scholarship Committee;
Friday, February 9, 2018 – Top applicants are selected by the Scholarship Committee, and interviews are scheduled within the next few days. Local applicants will be interviewed in person at the NAD Headquarters. Remote interviews will be conducted via video or phone for those who reside outside the greater MD/DC/VA area;
Friday, February 23, 2018 – Conclusion of interviews; the NAD conveys final recommendations to Scholarship Committee;
Monday, February 26, 2018 – Committee selects scholarship recipient/s;
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 – the NAD informs scholarship recipient/s
About the Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship
Established by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) at its 50th Biennial Conference in Philadelphia, PA, the scholarship encourages and enhances the NAD and its distinguished history of advancing professional opportunities for young deaf and hard of hearing individuals pursuing careers in law, public policy, nonprofit management and related fields. Many NAD interns, inspired by their passion and experiences at the NAD Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, have gone on to become successful leaders and advocates in their respective communities. Nancy J. Bloch served the American deaf and hard of hearing community diligently for nearly 19 years as Chief Executive Officer of the NAD. In 2011, when her tenure ended, the scholarship in her name was created to honor Nancy’s life-long commitment to invest in the future of young deaf and hard of hearing advocates so that they, too, can pave the way for others to follow in the future.
About the Scholarship Committee
The committee has a simple, straightforward objective – to raise a specified amount each year to ensure funds are continually available to support annual disbursement of internship stipends and re-investment for fund growth purposes.
Currently supported through generous individual contributions made during and since the 50th Biennial NAD Conference, the scholarship fund relies on individual, organizational, corporate and foundation support to further its goals. Donate online or via mail/fax, and select the “Nancy J. Bloch Leadership & Advocacy Scholarship Fund” in the Donor Designation section to ensure that your contribution is directed appropriately.
Scholarship Committee members welcome inquiries from individuals and groups interested in donating to the scholarship fund. Members include Nancy Bloch, Chair; Barbara Jean “BJ” Wood, Vice Chair; LeWana Clark, Shane Feldman, Jerry Nelson, Annette Posell, Julie Rems-Smario, Jackie Roth, Bobbie Beth Scoggins, and Chris Wagner, with President Melissa Draganac-Hawk and Chief Executive Officer Howard A. Rosenblum as ex officio members on behalf of the NAD.
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Home » News » South Korean man killed and cooked his neighbour’s Welsh Corgi before inviting the animal’s owner around to eat it.
South Korean man killed and cooked his neighbour’s Welsh Corgi before inviting the animal’s owner around to eat it.
A South Korean man killed and cooked his neighbour’s Welsh Corgi before inviting the animal’s owner around to eat it.
Police said the 62-year-old man admitted carrying out the gruesome crime, adding that he had become irritated by the dog’s constant barking.
He told police that he threw a stone at the two-year-old Corgi which caused it to lose consciousness.
‘Only after the dog passed out, he claims, he strangled the animal and cooked it,’ a detective in the southern city of Pyeongtaek said.
‘The man then invited his neighbours to share the meal, including the father of the dog-owning family,’ he said.
Dog meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine.
But consumption has declined as South Koreans increasingly embrace the idea of dogs as pets instead of livestock, with eating them now something of a taboo among younger generations.
The case came to light when a daughter of the family this week published an online plea calling for public support to ensure that the offender be punished sternly.
A petition has so far gained almost 15,000 signatures.
‘We had been all around the town, handing out leaflets containing the dog’s picture, phone number and rewards of one million won ($940), in order to find the missing dog,’ the daughter said by phone, asking for her family’s name to be kept anonymous.
‘When I reached the man’s house, which is just three doors down from ours, he expressed sympathy, promising to let us know if he found the dog.’
At that time, however, the farmer was hiding the dog, either alive or dead, in his barn, she said.
The following day, the suspect visited her father, drank with him and consoled him over the missing dog.
‘He even invited neighbors to come share the dog meat, including my father who did not accept the invitation as he is a non-dog meat eater,’ she said.
As many as one million dogs are still consumed in South Korea each year, with the greasy red meat — which is invariably boiled for tenderness — believed to increase energy.
Activists have stepped up campaigns to ban dog consumption. Under a newly strengthened law, animal abusers face up to two years in prison or 20 million won ($18,700) in fines.
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A funnel on mars could be a place to look for life
From Nanowerk news:
(Nanowerk News) A strangely shaped depression on Mars could be a new place to look for signs of life on the Red Planet, according to a University of Texas at Austin-led study. The depression was probably formed by a volcano beneath a glacier and could have been a warm, chemical-rich environment well suited for microbial life.
The findings were published this month in Icarus, the International Journal of Solar System Studies (“Candidate volcanic and impact-induced ice depressions on Mars”).
Image Credit: Joseph Levy/NASA
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FastSat Ready for Shipping to Alaska
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FASTSAT is a small, microsatellite class spacecraft bus that will carry six experiment payloads to low-Earth orbit. One of FASTSAT's mission objectives is to demonstrate its ability to eject a nanosatellite from a microsatellite while avoiding re-contact with the FASTSAT satellite bus. Credit: NASA/MSFC, Doug Stoffer
The Mini-Me instrument. Credit: NASA
The PISA instrument. Credit: NASA/Doug Rowland NASA has successfully completed a comprehensive pre-shipment review of the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, a small, microsatellite class spacecraft bus that will carry six experiment payloads to low-Earth orbit.
The pre-shipment review was completed in May, demonstrating the flight hardware has successfully passed all environmental and performance tests and is authorized for shipment to the launch site for final integration on the Minotaur IV launch vehicle, built and operated by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va.
Engineers will pack the satellite into a shipping container for delivery in early July to the launch complex in Kodiak, Alaska. FASTSAT is scheduled to launch no earlier than Sept. 1, 2010.
Mission operations for FASTSAT and all six experiments will be managed from the newly configured small satellite control room at the Huntsville Operations and Science Control Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Ala.
"An outstanding team of engineers and scientists worked diligently to get us to this milestone," said FASTSAT Project Manager Mark Boudreaux at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. "We are ready to perform the remaining activities, ship the spacecraft to Alaska and integrate FASTSAT on the launch vehicle."
FASTSAT will be flying on the STP-S26 mission -- a joint activity between NASA and the Department of Defense Space Test Program (DoD STP). FASTSAT and all of its six experiments flying on the STP–S26 multi-spacecraft/payload mission have been approved by the U.S. Department of Defense Space and Experiments Review Board.
"The outstanding work and accomplishments from the FASTSAT Team illustrate joint activities at their finest," said U.S. Air Force Col Stephen D. Hargis, DoD STP director. "This is a clear example of what is possible when NASA and the U.S. Air Force put their minds together for a common goal…mission success and maximizing access to space."
One of the six experiments on the FASTSAT bus, Nanosail D, is designed to demonstrate deployment of a compact solar sail boom system that could lead to further development of this alternate propulsion technology and FASTSAT's ability to eject a nanosatellite from a microsatellite -- while avoiding re-contact with the FASTSAT satellite bus. Nanosail D, managed by the Marshall Center, will be the first NASA solar sail deployed in low-Earth orbit. Nanosail D was designed and built by NASA engineers at Marshall in collaboration with the Nanosatellite Missions Office at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. This experiment is a combined effort between the Space and Missile Defense Command, Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, both located in Huntsville, Ala. and NASA.
The other two technology experiments include the Threat Detection System and the Miniature Star Tracker, both managed by the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
In addition, the spacecraft carries three atmospheric instruments built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in partnership with the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The instruments include the Thermosphere Temperature Imager (TTI), designed to measure the temperature, atomic oxygen and molecular nitrogen densities of the thermosphere; the Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric Atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons (MINI-ME), a low-energy neutral atom imager that will detect neutral atoms formed in the plasma population of the Earth's outer atmosphere to improve global space weather prediction; and the Plasma and Impedence Spectrum Analyzer (PISA), a device that will test a new measurement technique for the temperature and density of thermal electrons in the ionosphere – which can interfere with radio-based communications and navigation.
The satellite was designed, developed and tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center in partnership with the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation (VCSI) and Dynetics, both of Huntsville. Dynetics provided key engineering, manufacturing and ground operations support for the new microsatellite. Thirteen local firms, as well as the University of Alabama in Huntsville, were also part of the project team.
Kim Newton
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
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Home > About Us > News & Media > Groundbreaking for UNC Cancer Care at Nash
Groundbreaking for UNC Cancer Care at Nash
New facility to be named Danny Talbott Cancer Center
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new UNC Cancer Care at Nash facility was held on Thursday, May 4, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. in the Nash Day Hospital atrium. Heavy rains in no way dampened the spirits of those attending the indoor “groundbreaking” ceremony for the 11,000 square-foot facility which is scheduled to be completed in early 2018.
The official name for the center, announced at the Nash UNC Health Care Foundation’s Pink Party fundraiser, will be UNC CANCER CARE at NASH, Danny Talbott Cancer Center, named in honor of Rocky Mount’s athletic legend and cancer survivor.
In addition to a newer, brighter environment and more convenience for patients, all current services — radiation and infusion (chemotherapy) treatments along with supporting navigation, nutrition, and social work services — will be offered in a single location. Providing services in one space will also give oncologists, nurses, and professional staff greater opportunities for real time, face-to-face meetings and improved communications with primary care physicians, clinicians, patients, and families.
The medical oncology clinic features nine examination rooms and one additional exam/procedure room. For chemotherapy treatments; the new infusion center features 14 semiprivate bays with recliners, one private room with a bed, and a dedicated pharmacy for faster treatment.
For radiation treatment, the new center will utilize two linear accelerators, plus a CT simulator for precise dosimetry — the determination of radiation doses. This area also includes separate sub-waiting areas for male and female patients.
Welcoming remarks from James Lilley, Chairman, Board of Commissioners, Nash UNC Health Care, opened the ceremony. Larry Chewning, President and CEO of Nash UNC Health Care, praised the staff on work already being done to fight cancer.
Dr. Laura Jacimore, a board-certified radiation oncologist with the center, shared her hopes and dreams from 12 years ago when she first joined Nash UNC that, “One day, we would have a comprehensive cancer center where our patients would come to get all their cancer-related care.” She closed with one of her favorite proverbs, “’Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.’ Many thanks go out to all those who’ve made this new ‘tree of life’ possible for our patients and this community.”
Dr. Devena Alston-Johnson, board-certified in medical oncology and hematology, also shared her enthusiasm and excitement about the new center. She has treated patients around the country, most recently serving as both Medical Director for Cigna and as a physician for the St. Francis Don Secours Health System near Greenville, SC before joining Nash UNC.
Cancer’s prevalence and its enervating effects on the human body have made it the most despised disease in the world, ahead of AIDS and Alzheimer’s. In round numbers, half of all men and one in every three women will experience cancer. Among women, breast cancer is the most common form; among men, it’s prostate cancer.
Sterling Grimes, Director, Cancer Services at Nash UNC Health Care, closed out the groundbreaking ceremony with accolades for all those who have made UNC Cancer Care at Nash a reality. She said, “I am so pleased for our patients that we can continue to provide state-of-the-art cancer care in one beautiful, convenient facility. This really is a dream come true.”
For more information call 252-962-4150.
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PUBLIC DEMANDS ARPAIO PARDON
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017
40,000 Petitions Delivered to DOJ: Trump Should Listen
WASHINGTON, DC– In wake of news that President Trump is considering pardoning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the National Center for Police Defense urges the President to follow through on this plan.
James Fotis, the President and founder of the National Center for Police Defense, delivered 40,000 signed petitions to the U.S. Department of Justice calling for an end to Sheriff Joe’s prosecution. Fotis has defended Arpaio’s action and witnessed the trial first-hand.
“Sheriff Arpaio was recently denied jury trial, resulting in being found guilty of criminal contempt by a judge with an agenda,” said Fotis. “Arpaio was for performing his duty to the people of Arizona.”
Chris Day, a former state prosecutor who serves as the legal analyst and treasurer of the National Center for Police Defense is available to discuss the legality of the former Sheriff’s trial.
“Sheriff Joe Arpaio, like everyone who goes on the stand, must be tried fairly, and in the same processes that every other constituent must face. He served as a servant of the law for over 50 years, so his practices were supported by a majority of constituents and their families, extending far beyond Maricopa County,” said Mr. Day.
“Arpaio is ultimately deserving of a pardon, and we hope President Trump will do so.”
For more information, or to schedule an interview with Jim Fotis, CEO, and President of National Center for Police Defense, please contact Shirley & Banister Public Affairs.
The National Center for Police Defense, Inc.
Photo credit: Jamelle Bouie
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Why Blue-State Republicans Are Turning Away From GOP
Campaign 2018 Congress Featured Post White House
Froma Harrop October 19, 2018
Reprinted with permission from Creators.
You’d think that with stocks still up for the year and the new tax law smiling on big earners, the financial community would be gung-ho for Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. But it’s not. For the first time in a good while, Wall Street is giving more in direct donations to Democrats than Republicans.
And here’s a big reason: The new tax law purposely punishes people in the expensive-to-live-in blue states, which is where Wall Street people live. To them, this is not just about money. It’s personal.
At issue is the $10,000 cap on what taxpayers may deduct for state and local taxes. In the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey suburbs, property taxes alone can easily exceed $10,000. Then there are state and local taxes.
Until 2016, Finn Wentworth, a real estate mogul and executive for the New York Yankees, raised money for the Republican National Committee. He’s now raising hundreds of thousands for Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat vying for an open House seat in an affluent northern New Jersey district. A former Navy helicopter pilot, she faces Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber.
The Republicans’ fleecing of his region displeases Wentworth greatly. “It was almost like the New York metropolitan area — we had a target on our back,” he was quoted as saying.
Let us count the ways limiting this deduction is unfair. First off, the federal government will now be taxing income already taxed by states, cities and towns.
The high taxes reflect the high cost of living. Thus, public employees — teachers, police, firefighters — must be paid more than elsewhere, and that expense must be tacked onto state and local tax bills.
Speaking of which, decidedly middle-class people also get sucker-punched by this tax on their taxes. In Long Island’s Nassau County, where a good chunk of the New York City police force resides, the average property tax alone exceeds $11,000.
This attack on blue states is the handiwork of Southern and rural politicians intent on making taxpayers in mostly Democratic regions bear more of the nation’s tax burden. Keep in mind that the income tax is already a blue state tax. The federal tax code treats a $110,000 income in super-expensive San Francisco the same as a $110,000 income in highly affordable El Paso.
In 2016, New York state sent about $41 billion more in tax revenues to Washington than it got back in federal spending, the 47th-worst deal in the country. New Jersey ranked 50th. Now we can expect the imbalance to get worse.
There is a potential remedy, and it is to replace the Republican Congress with a Democratic one. The Democrats need to gain 24 seats in the midterms to take over the House. There are now 37 Republican-held seats in the high-tax blue states of California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland. Their voters tend to be especially sensitive to taxes.
It matters not that some Republicans, such as Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey, voted against the tax bill. His presence helps maintain the Republican majority that made it happen. As his Democratic opponent, Tom Malinowski, put it, “there is precisely 0.0 percent chance (the deduction) will be restored if we send Congressman Lance back to Washington to vote for the same GOP leadership that passed the tax bill and will defend it to its dying political day.”
An ad now saturating the region shows Sherrill flying a helicopter and shouting over the whir, “I’ll fight to restore your tax deduction, and Jay Webber won’t.”
Did Republicans in Washington really think that they could stick it to the blue states with no consequences? If they did, they might think otherwise after Nov. 6.
Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.
Froma Harrop
Froma Harrop’s nationally syndicated column appears in over 150 newspapers. Media Matters ranks her column 20th nationally in total readership and 14th in large newspaper concentration. Harrop has been a guest on PBS, MSNBC, Fox News and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and is a frequent voice on NPR and talk radio stations in every time zone as well.
A Loeb Award finalist for economic commentary in 2004 and again in 2011, Harrop was also a Scripps Howard Award finalist for commentary in 2010. She has been honored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the New England Associated Press News Executives Association has given her five awards.
How Ivanka And Her Dad Misled Buyers In Trump Projects
#EndorseThis: Trump Finally Admits Jamal Khashoggi Is Dead
National Memo October 19, 2018
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SportCricket
sport, cricket
Big Bash League boss Kim McConnie has ruled out any prospect of banned stars Steve Smith and David Warner being allowed to play during the 2018/19 season amid calls for the pair's punishments to be reconsidered. The disgraced ex-Australian captain and vice-captain are barred from playing in the BBL as part of their 12-month bans for their roles in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal. Both were able to play in the inaugural Global T20 Canada tournament as the Cricket Australia (CA) sanctions do not apply to club cricket overseas. CA insist there is no chance the sanctions will be softened but there has been a backlash among current and ex-players who believe the punishment is too harsh. Former Australian allrounder Shane Watson, who has branded the penalties as "extreme", has called on CA to allow Smith and Warner to play in the BBL. McConnie says that won't happen and there won't be any formal promotional roles for the pair. "Both players have done a really good job and accepted the ruling from Cricket Australia, and they won't be appearing in the BBL this season," McConnie told AAP. "I think every player who plays cricket, we love to think that they talk about the Big Bash and promote the tournament. "But beyond being cricket players themselves that have a love of the format, there'll be no formal relationship." Watson last month questioned the logic of Australia's two most high-profile players helping boost another country's competition. "The thing that just disappoints me about the whole situation is now Steve Smith and Dave Warner are over promoting other tournaments by playing in them," Watson said. "I understand the rulings ... but for them to have the opportunity to go and promote other tournaments, I'd prefer if they're going to do that and have access to do that (that) they have access to promote the Big Bash, for example. "At the moment we've got a few world-class players ... but they don't just fall out of trees. "That's why Steve and Dave are such an integral part to Australian cricket, especially in the shorter format." The 2018/19 BBL schedule will be unveiled on Wednesday. "We've got so many heroes within our current league, and what we're going to be focusing on this season is really making sure that we bring some of those younger players that we're developing in our own system," McConnie said. "So we're going to have some star power but it's also about promoting the generation coming through the T20 format as well." Australian Associated Press
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/6cec9142-8dd1-4ba1-9cf0-c9fae8d82178.jpg/r0_74_800_526_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
Smith, Warner no chance for BBL: McConnie
Michael Ramsey
Steve Smith was among the 10 marquee players for the Global T20 Canada league.
Big Bash League boss Kim McConnie has ruled out any prospect of banned stars Steve Smith and David Warner being allowed to play during the 2018/19 season amid calls for the pair's punishments to be reconsidered.
The disgraced ex-Australian captain and vice-captain are barred from playing in the BBL as part of their 12-month bans for their roles in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal.
Both were able to play in the inaugural Global T20 Canada tournament as the Cricket Australia (CA) sanctions do not apply to club cricket overseas.
CA insist there is no chance the sanctions will be softened but there has been a backlash among current and ex-players who believe the punishment is too harsh.
Former Australian allrounder Shane Watson, who has branded the penalties as "extreme", has called on CA to allow Smith and Warner to play in the BBL.
McConnie says that won't happen and there won't be any formal promotional roles for the pair.
"Both players have done a really good job and accepted the ruling from Cricket Australia, and they won't be appearing in the BBL this season," McConnie told AAP.
"I think every player who plays cricket, we love to think that they talk about the Big Bash and promote the tournament.
"But beyond being cricket players themselves that have a love of the format, there'll be no formal relationship."
Watson last month questioned the logic of Australia's two most high-profile players helping boost another country's competition.
"The thing that just disappoints me about the whole situation is now Steve Smith and Dave Warner are over promoting other tournaments by playing in them," Watson said.
"I understand the rulings ... but for them to have the opportunity to go and promote other tournaments, I'd prefer if they're going to do that and have access to do that (that) they have access to promote the Big Bash, for example.
"At the moment we've got a few world-class players ... but they don't just fall out of trees.
"That's why Steve and Dave are such an integral part to Australian cricket, especially in the shorter format."
The 2018/19 BBL schedule will be unveiled on Wednesday.
"We've got so many heroes within our current league, and what we're going to be focusing on this season is really making sure that we bring some of those younger players that we're developing in our own system," McConnie said.
"So we're going to have some star power but it's also about promoting the generation coming through the T20 format as well."
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Duke of Westminster: I had wonderful, idyllic childhood in Fermanagh
The Duke of Westminster grew up on an island in Lough Erne
The sixth Duke of Westminster spoke at length of his “idyllic” Fermanagh childhood on Desert Island Discs in 1995.
“I had a wonderful childhood in Northern Ireland,” said the duke, who died on Tuesday aged 64.
“I was quite happy and content to have lived there all my life. I knew what I wanted to be – I wanted to farm and take it all rather gently, I thought.”
He added: “I had a wonderful life living on an island in Lough Erne the other side of Enniskillen, 52 miles of lakes, 365 islands, my two sisters, myself, my mother and father and realising for the first 15 years that one was just going to have this idyllic way of life.
“I was brought up in Ulster where you were treated purely on your own merits.
“You were treated because of who you are, and I was called Gerald all my life.
“There was no question of ‘your grace this’ and ‘your grace that’ and ‘Lord this and Lord that’,” which he sometimes found “very embarrassing” in later life.
One of the songs he chose was the theme to ‘Harry’s Game’ by Clannad. He selected it because “it is full of tragedy and it is the only theme that I think encompasses the tragedy of Ireland so brilliantly, and of course the book and film had a tragic ending of great misunderstanding – and that is the story of Ulster”.
The duke was taken to boarding school in England when he was seven where his “broad Ulster accent” was forced out of him by teasing, he said.
Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Tom Elliott of the UUP met the duke a few times and his father before him – who was the area’s MP in the 1950s.
The family home was Ely Lodge in Fermanagh, which encompassed some 3,000 acres, and their home was on Acres Island, he said, which the family divested itself of in the 1980s.
He also met the duke once at the newly renovated UDR barracks in Enniskillen, which was named after the family – Grosvenor Barracks.
“He had a significant interest in Fermanagh and inquired as to how local business and farming were doing,” Mr Elliott said.
LIVE BLOG from day one of the 148th Open at Royal Portrush - disastrous start by Rory McIlroy
The duke’s mother, Viola Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, died in a car accident near Dungannon in 1987, aged 74. His daughter Lady Edwina Grosvenor married TV historian Dan Snow in 2010.
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Russia Praises Donald Trump's Meeting With Kim Jong Un, Plans to Be Involved in North Korea Peace Plan
By Cristina Maza On 6/12/18 at 12:28 PM EDT
World Russia North Korea Donald Trump
Officials in Russia have said they feel positive about the outcome of President Donald Trump's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and they hope that Russia can be involved in the negotiating process to promote peace on the Korean peninsula.
The six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, which stalled in 2008, had aimed to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's nuclear program through cooperation between the U.S., China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Speaking Tuesday in the wake of Trump's historic meeting with Kim in Singapore, Russian officials said they would like to see the six-party talks get back on track.
"As of now we cannot but welcome the fact that an important step forward has been made. Devil is in the detail, of course, and it is necessary to understand the specificities. But as we understand the impetus has been provided," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters Tuesday about Trump's meeting.
"We, together with Chinese friends, together with other participants of what used to be called six-lateral talks, are looking forward to getting this format relevant again, and will continue working towards a result," Ryabkov added.
It is unclear if Trump plans to include Russia or other countries in the talks with North Korea going forward. Trump used the signing of a joint agreement to call attention to his own accomplishments and Pyongyang's willingness to pursue peace.
"I don't think they've [North Koreans] ever had the confidence, frankly, in a president that they have right now for getting things done and having the ability to get things done," Trump told reporters after signing the agreement. "And he [Kim Jong Un] was very firm in the fact that he wants to do this. I think he might want to do this as much or even more than me because they see a very bright future for North Korea," Trump continued.
Trump called the agreement with North Korea "very comprehensive," although some analysts have criticized the agreement for being too vague. All of the points in the agreement stress that the U.S. and North Korea will work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and will commit to building peace and stability. The agreement does not mention any other country.
Nevertheless, experts have said that both China and Russia will need to play a role in promoting peace in the region, since both countries have outsized economic influence with North Korea. Kim met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the week leading up to the summit.
Russia Praises Donald Trump's Meeting With Kim Jong Un, Plans to Be Involved in North Korea Peace Plan | World
North Korea's Military Is Quiet Ahead of Summit
Donald Trump Says North Korea Summit Will Be a Success
Putin Says Russia Will Help Trump - North Korea Summit
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September 4, 2017 Issue
Ken Burns’s American Canon
Even in a fractious era, the filmmaker still believes that his documentaries can bring every viewer in.
By Ian Parker
“Documentaries are traditionally advocacy,” Burns said. He sees his films as acts of “emotional archeology” that aspire to be art.
Illustration by R. Kikuo Johnson
Like Steven Tyler, of Aerosmith, Ken Burns has a summer house on Lake Sunapee, in New Hampshire. The property is furnished with Shaker quilts and a motorboat; every July 4th, a fifteen-foot-long American flag hangs over the back deck. He bought the house in the mid-nineties, with money earned from “The Civil War,” his nine-part PBS documentary series, and its spinoffs. When PBS first broadcast that series, in a weeklong binge in the fall of 1990, the network reached its largest-ever audience. The country agreed to gather as if at a table covered with old family photographs, in a room into which someone had invited an indefatigable fiddle player. Johnny Carson praised the series in successive “Tonight Show” monologues; stores in Washington, D.C., reportedly sold out of blank videocassettes. To the satisfaction of many viewers, and the dismay of some historians, Burns seemed to have shaped American history into the form of a modern popular memoir: a tale of wounding and healing, shame and redemption. (The Civil War was “the traumatic event in our childhood,” as Burns later put it.) History became a quasi-therapeutic exercise in national unburdening and consensus building. Burns recently recalled, “People started showing up at the door, wanting to share their photographs of ancestors.”
Burns is now sixty-four. He is friends with John Kerry and John McCain. He has been a character on “Clifford’s Puppy Days,” the animated children’s series—“What’s a documentary?” “Great question!”—and has been a guest at the Bohemian Grove, the off-the-record summer camp in Northern California for male members of the American establishment. Visitors to his office see a display of framed Burns-related cartoons, most of which assume familiarity with his filmmaking choices: an authoritative narrator offset by more emotionally committed interviewees, seen in half-lit, vaguely domestic surroundings; slow panning shots across photographs of men with mustaches; and a willingness, unusual in the genre, to attempt compendiousness, to keep going. Last year, a headline in the Onion read “Ken Burns Completes Documentary About Fucking Liars Who Claimed They Watched Entire ‘Jazz’ Series.”
Burns’s company, Florentine Films, is based in Walpole, New Hampshire, where Burns has lived since the late seventies. The company has thirty-four full-time employees, and a schedule of documentaries that extends to 2030. When Paula Kerger, PBS’s president and C.E.O., recently introduced Burns at a public event in Los Angeles, she quoted a tweet that described him as “the Marvel Studios of PBS.” Burns’s future plans—of varying uncertainty—include a series about country music, to be broadcast in 2019, and multipart films about the Mayo Clinic, Muhammad Ali, Ernest Hemingway, the American Revolution, Lyndon B. Johnson, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, crime and punishment in America, and the African-American experience from the Emancipation Proclamation to the Great Migration. Burns, who has not yet strayed from American subjects, and whose work tends to display a kind of wishful patriotism—a soaring appreciation of something that’s not quite there—explained Churchill’s place on the list by saying, “Thank God that he had an American mother.”
At Lake Sunapee, which is an hour’s drive from Walpole, Burns likes to take a daily walk. A three-mile loop, on quiet streets, leads him up a hill, and then down to Sunapee Harbor, which has the tidy calm—a bandstand, a little museum—of a place about to be turned to ash in a disaster movie. When I joined him one morning in July, he was wearing a T-shirt, decorated with palm trees, advertising a public radio station in Miami. He walked fast. He pointed out a house that he knew to be currently occupied by witches, and a small hotel that had the air of being “back in the forties or fifties, when there were no interstates.” The people of Sunapee either knew Burns as a neighbor or recognized him as a public figure. He is made conspicuous by an unusual mass of collar-length hair, which resembles the removable piece on the top of a Lego figure. (In 1975, Burns had long hair, and a hairdresser cut most of it off; he still uses that hairdresser, exclusively.) As we walked, Burns said hello to everyone. When he congratulated a man on the progress he was making in the construction of a house, the man explained his success by saying, “I’m old and alone.”
When Burns bought the lake house, in 1994, he was recently divorced, and had two young daughters. One of them, Sarah, is now a writer and director of documentaries; she made “The Central Park Five,” in 2012, with her father and David McMahon, her husband. Lilly, her younger sister, is a showrunner on “Broad City,” the Comedy Central series. Burns remarried in 2003, and with his second wife had two more daughters. This summer, when he came to the lake with the girls—now twelve and six—he had again recently divorced. Alongside more troubled thoughts, he was able to describe optimism: since the breakup, he said, his relationships with his younger children had “quadrupled in their intensity and love and intimacy.”
His apparent openness and his buoyancy—for more than thirty years, he’s had an audience for Dad jokes—are sometimes obscured by speechifying. His default conversational setting is Commencement Address, involving quotation from nineteenth-century heroes and from his own previous commentary, and moments of almost rhapsodic self-appreciation. He is readier than most people to regard his creative decisions as courageous, and he told me that when people make uninvited suggestions about how he might change his working habits he imagines someone saying, “Mr. Cézanne, how about some watercolors?” As Peter Miller, a close friend since junior-high school, in Ann Arbor, recently noted, fondly, Burns is “not without ego.” He can be sharp, almost peevish, in response to criticism of his work. But he’s keen to appreciate jokes about his reputation. A few years ago, he appeared with the comedian Eugene Mirman in a short film promoting Hampshire College, their alma mater. (“Stop panning!” Mirman shouts at one point. “I’m being panned to death!”) Recalling this, Burns noted, “There’s always this surprise that I’m a good sport.”
When we stopped by the general store, a man took a moment to connect the face and the career. He filibustered—“Ah, ah, ah . . . ”—before continuing, “I watch all of your documentaries. I can’t get enough of them. They should have more.”
Burns began to reply: “In September, we have—”
The man interrupted, to give his name.
“Nice to meet you,” Burns said. “I’m Ken Burns.”
“I know,” the man said.
“In September, we have ten parts—eighteen hours—on the history of the Vietnam War,” Burns said.
“Nice,” the man said.
Later, we talked on Burns’s deck, and looked out over the lake. He listed, in descending order, the films that members of the public most press him to make: “Railroads, labor, immigration. And then: ‘My great-great-grandfather wrote four volumes about the Civil War. He didn’t go, but . . . ’ ” He laughed. He later said, “After ‘The Vietnam War,’ I’ll have to lie low. A lot of people will think I’m a Commie pinko, and a lot of people will think I’m a right-wing nutcase, and that’s sort of the way it goes.”
Burns’s girls, who were playing with a babysitter, occasionally came onto the deck to ask for help with Band-Aids, or with ideas for Charades. One time when Willa, his six-year-old, emerged, Burns found it easy to persuade her to recite a list of U.S. Presidents. She hesitated only once or twice. “You always put Ulysses Grant too early,” her father said, gently.
A motorboat, flying a Trump flag, stopped not far offshore. “I don’t think they’re going to fish,” Burns said, and he made a remark about the Texas School Book Depository. He wasn’t sure if the people on the boat were trying to rile political opponents. “I don’t know what they can provoke,” he said. “They have all the guns. We can’t do anything.”
“I miss when we were free, and I could eat you.”
General Merrill McPeak flew two hundred and sixty-nine combat missions in Vietnam. He became Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and retired from the military in 1994. He is tall and lean, and has a quiet, deadpan swagger. (He makes remarks like “The trouble flying with me is that you don’t know you’ve landed.”) In 2012, he agreed to be interviewed by Lynn Novick, Burns’s co-director on “The Vietnam War”; later, McPeak became a consultant on the series, with particular responsibility for technical detail. He was asked, for example, to approve the engine sounds that Burns’s colleagues added to silent film of military aircraft.
It’s an oddity of the Burns technique that many of his most conspicuous interviewees—including the novelist and historian Shelby Foote, in “The Civil War,” and the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, in “Jazz”—also have an editorial role. They become part of a group of paid historical experts, perhaps two dozen strong, who, during production, meet with the filmmakers, in New York and Walpole, to discuss script drafts and view early edits.
Novick has worked at Florentine Films since 1989. She recalled the first consultants’ meeting for “Jazz,” in the mid-nineties. A question was asked: Would it be better to describe the roots of jazz as African or American? Two participants, disagreeing, “almost came to blows,” she said, adding, “One got up and left and never came back.”
A few weeks ago, General McPeak met with Burns and Novick in a hotel restaurant in Beverly Hills. They were scheduled to appear together at an evening preview of “The Vietnam War,” and at a subsequent panel discussion. The series, which took ten years to make, and cost about thirty million dollars, was largely finished a year ago; by this summer, Burns had already spoken at more than a dozen such events. (“Rinse and repeat,” he said.) He had been onstage the previous night, in San Francisco, and had at one point invited Vietnam veterans and former war protesters in the audience to stand up, together, and accept applause. In the morning, passing through airport security, he had removed from his pants pockets a few items that he always carries: a button from the uniform of a soldier who participated in the D Day landing; a silver heart; a minié ball that a friend picked up at Gettysburg.
Over lunch, McPeak described a moment when he and the other advisers first saw a scene about the release and repatriation of American prisoners of war, in 1973. On the soundtrack, Burns had added Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful.” At least one adviser found this too triumphal; an ex-P.O.W. in the room did not. “I was kind of in the middle of that, hoping to bridge an unbridgeable gap,” McPeak said. He came to agree with Burns that viewers deserved a moment of emotional, perhaps tearful, release: “There’s not much about our Vietnam experience that is uplifting,” he said. “It’s mostly an enormous downer. But, if there’s any glimmer of good news, it was that we got our guys back.”
McPeak also recalled an objection that he’d made to a script change. In a section about the massacre of South Vietnamese civilians, in My Lai, in 1968, “murder” became “killing.” (The final script: “The killing of civilians has happened in every war.”) McPeak pressed for “murder.” His argument, he said, was, “Let’s open the kimono—let’s tell it all, see it the way it is.”
At lunch, Burns defended his change, on the ground that My Lai continues to have “a toxic, radioactive effect” on opinion. “Killing” was the better word, he said, “even though My Lai is murder.”
The general had lost that argument but accepted the final wording. At the restaurant, he told me, “I’m in. I don’t think it’s tough enough, but I’m in.” (He had already praised the film as “monumental work.”) He went on, “I believe My Lai was my fault. My responsibility.” He had been a senior officer in a U.S. military that “never stepped up to accept responsibility.”
Burns, struck by these words, said, “I’m so glad that we know you.”
Earlier, Burns had said, “Documentaries are traditionally advocacy: ‘Here’s a big problem. Here are the bad guys. Here are the good guys. How do we change this?’ That’s fine. It’s like an editorial, and that’s what editorials do.” He described his own films, in contrast, as exercises in “emotional archeology” that aspire to be works of art. “We just happen to work in history,” he said. (He sometimes talks of the need to enliven “the dry dates, facts, and events of the past.”) Burns frequently—almost hourly—says, “Sometimes a thing and the opposite of a thing are true at the same time,” paraphrasing a remark made by Wynton Marsalis, in “Jazz.” Burns uses the line less to acknowledge historical uncertainty than to advertise inclusiveness: a desire to guide all but the most sectarian or jaded viewers through an obstacle course of their own biases. He is not disengaged from his material, but his sense of a subject, and his sense of an audience’s reaction to that subject, seem to be fused. He once said, “I want to bring everybody in.”
That instinct, from which Burns is afforded little respite, can give him the air of someone running for office. In the late eighties, while making “The Civil War,” Burns started carrying with him a copy of a letter written by a Union Army officer, Sullivan Ballou, to his wife, a week before his death in battle. Ballou’s words, which have some of the iambic sinew of the Gettysburg Address—“how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution . . .”—became well known after they were included in the film. “I can’t tell you how many lunches and dinners he’d pull out the letter and read it aloud,” Dayton Duncan, a writer and producer of Burns’s projects, said. “The other members of the family would be rolling their eyes, but I always found it moving.”
In the decades since “The Civil War,” Burns has evolved into an editor-in-chief. After Florentine has committed to a subject, the company sends out proposals to seduce funders. A director starts identifying interview subjects; a writer starts on a script. Geoffrey Ward, who has written the bulk of Burns’s scripts since the mid-eighties, as well as his own books of American history, wrote “The Vietnam War.” Burns sometimes still conducts interviews, although Lynn Novick did eighty-five of the hundred interviews filmed for “The Vietnam War.” These sessions use a single camera. The eyes of an interviewee are flooded with light, as if for an ophthalmological examination. The setting, Novick told me, has to register as “a real place—not a studio—but not so much of a real place that you’re curious about where you are.” (Her apartment, on the Upper West Side, has been used in eight documentaries.) A session often begins with an effort to dampen an interviewee’s dreams of becoming the Shelby Foote of the new series—the alpha anecdotalist.
In the early years of production on a documentary, Burns gives his opinion on script revisions and interviews. He’s likely to be reading relevant historical accounts—this summer, in preparation for the probable L.B.J. project, he revisited Robert Caro’s acclaimed multi-volume biography, and for the series on post-Civil War African-American history he was reading about the Ku Klux Klan. But he does not strive for expertise. “I can’t be in the weeds” of scholarship, he said. He has too little time, and, besides, “It’s important to have someone saying, ‘Who the fuck cares?’ ”
There are more Vietnamese voices in “The Vietnam War” than Burns at first thought necessary. Novick had to make the case for including them. “I wanted to pull them back, because we’re making an American film,” he said. “Her genius was to insist.” One powerful interview is with Bảo Ninh, the novelist and former North Vietnamese soldier, who describes returning home from war: “Six years without a letter. For six years, my mother had no idea if I was alive or dead. Can you imagine the happiness of a mother?” But, out of respect for neighbors, the family didn’t celebrate: “In our apartment building, six young men were drafted, and I was the only one to return.”
Burns, warding off potential critics, told me that the way he delegates is “lawful”—it breaks no filmmaking rules. He added, “The one thing I won’t give up is that primacy in the editing room. The films are made there. No amount of rare or never-before-seen archival material, or even great interviews—and they are great—can replace the triage, the decisions.” (When absorbed in editing, he often ends up sitting on his haunches.) “I seem to know what we should do next,” he said—both at the start, when the material is “this incoherent blob,” and later. He told me that Amy Stechler, his first wife, who collaborated on his early documentaries, once announced that she’d cut two frames—a twelfth of a second—out of an hour-long film; he identified the cut.
Two or three years into a major project—perhaps at a time when another series is nearing broadcast, and yet another is being born—Burns is able to watch a “blind assembly” of a documentary’s first episode. This contains only two elements: clips from interviews and a narration recorded, temporarily, by Burns. Even more than Peter Coyote, the actor who has become Burns’s usual narrator, Burns makes a script sound like a eulogy read by a depressive, with every sentence suggesting slight disappointment. (“He doesn’t like rising tones,” Coyote told me. “Occasionally I get away with it.” He added, “What I’m able to do is thread the listener through sentences with lots of subordinate clauses.”) There are no other visuals, so most of the time the screen is black. I saw a script that Burns had marked during a blind-assembly screening of the first episode of “Country Music.” He had crossed out two-thirds of the early clips, and he had written notes about what remained: “Nice but later”; “Where’s this coming from?”
His anticipation of an audience’s likely boredom, disquiet, or satisfaction is unusually visceral. He recently referred to a sequence, in “The Vietnam War,” in which the testimony of Bill Zimmerman, an anti-war activist, is set against that of an Army veteran, who describes his dismay at seeing American protesters carrying North Vietnamese flags. “What you’ve done is allow someone who tensed up listening to Zimmerman to exhale,” Burns explained. “And someone who has exhaled with Zimmerman to say, ‘Of course, there’s another truth.’ ”
“The Vietnam War” feels like a departure from Burns’s previous work. It has animated three-dimensional maps and foreign-language interviews. There’s rock music, as well as a score commissioned from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; Erik Ewers, a longtime editor at Florentine, who has worked on dozens of hours of film chivvied along by ragtime and bluegrass, told me, with feeling, that the opportunity to use “Dazed and Confused,” by Led Zeppelin, was “a dream come true.” The film includes striking sequences in which well-known black-and-white photographs, always central to Burns’s work, coëxist with color film and color photography. The subject, being recent and contested—and its traumas sometimes evident in the stiffness around the mouths of witnesses—has its own narrative potency. The war is not a room in the House of Americana; the film’s ambition is not to breathe life into the dead. There’s little call for the narrator of the series, or its interviewees, to talk of its subject as a representation of America. (From “The Shakers”: “They are, in many ways, the American dream.” “Baseball”: “It’ll do for a figure for the American system.” “Thomas Hart Benton”: “He knew where America was and he knew what America was.” “Jazz”: “Jazz music objectifies America.”)
Still, when the narration begins, its liturgical phrasing, and its reach for a negotiated settlement among viewers, will seem familiar. “America’s involvement in Vietnam began in secrecy,” Coyote announces, in voice-over. “It ended, thirty years later, in failure, witnessed by the entire world.” (An internal debate about whether “failure” should be “defeat” lasted for months, Burns told me.) “It was begun in good faith, by decent people, out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence, and Cold War miscalculation,” Coyote continues. “And it was prolonged because it seemed easier to muddle through than admit that it had been caused by tragic decisions, made by five American Presidents, belonging to both political parties.”
Burns, who is a Democrat, said that he’d become friendly with Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska, joking that they’d developed a “bromance.” In a recent interview with Tyler Cowen, Sasse praised Burns, saying, “One of the things that he’s trying to do is give us a common canon. He’s trying to give us some shared experiences.” In a 2003 article, in the journal Rethinking History, David Harlan, a historian and the author of the “The Degradation of American History,” described Burns’s major films as “dramas of integration,” referring not only to the centrality of race in his work—“Baseball” pivots around Jackie Robinson—but to Burns’s overarching commitment to the idea of a shared American culture, one whose values and ideals “can be found not in European intellectual traditions but in American social practices, in the myriad things Americans actually do together.” A Burns documentary seems to have the ambition of becoming the kind of binding American experience—the anthem at a ballgame—that interests Burns as a filmmaker.
But the promotion of a national canon requires, first, the suggestion that the culture is struggling without it—that there are no other teachers left. In one of our conversations, Burns described George Washington as a quite forgotten man. “If George Washington can be lost, then anybody can be lost,” he said. He recently told an audience at the National Press Club that Vietnam is “a war we have consciously ignored.” This viewpoint seems to overlook decades of popular fiction and nonfiction, including a multipart documentary series in the eighties, on PBS.
Burns’s devotion to the United States as a subject also requires the removal of foreign distractions. So a viewer of “Brooklyn Bridge,” Burns’s first professional film, from 1981, would be forgiven for thinking, wrongly, that it described the world’s first suspension bridge. The first episode of “Baseball” barely mentions overseas precursors of the sport.
Burns also needs to expel intractability. In the first episode of “The Civil War,” Foote, using words that some viewers found hard to take, described the Civil War as the result of a kind of misunderstanding. “We failed to do the thing we really have a genius for, which is compromise,” he said. “Americans like to think of themselves as uncompromising. Our true genius is for compromise. Our whole government’s founded on it. And it failed.”
Foote’s voice is one of many—throughout the series, Barbara J. Fields, the Columbia historian, discussed the war as one part of an unfinished struggle for African-American equality—but he is central to the series, and Burns often quotes his commentary. I asked him about President Donald Trump’s reference to the Civil War, in a radio interview this spring. After speaking admiringly of Andrew Jackson, Trump said, “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?” Trump’s remarks were widely criticized as fatuous. Alexandra Petri’s comic response, in the Washington Post, was in the form of a letter from Sullivan Ballou: “Ah! But yet my heart fondly wishes that Andrew Jackson could have done a deal.”
Burns and I were speaking before white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, and before Trump expressed his chagrin about “the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments” commemorating Confederate figures. Burns, who has sharply criticized Trump in public, calling him “an infantile, bullying man,” said that he actually agreed with the President on the question of compromise and the Civil War. “I think he got excoriated for the wrong reason,” he told me. “Yes, this is our genius, and we didn’t do it.” The Senate had just voted on repeal of the Affordable Care Act. When Senator McCain cast the decisive vote against repeal, Burns e-mailed three words—“Profile in courage”—to his friend Mark Salter, who is McCain’s long-time adviser and former speechwriter. Given current political conditions—and the history of Republican implacability about Obamacare—it was curious to hear Burns say, the next day, that in American politics “the problem now is lack of compromise.”
In Los Angeles, Burns and Novick went to an appointment while McPeak stayed at the restaurant with me. He explained that, last year, when “The Vietnam War” was finished, the consultant group disbanded; he, Salter, and Thomas Vallely, a former marine and a director of the Vietnam program at the Harvard Kennedy School, stayed on, as a kind of rebuttal unit.
“And that’s the absolute biggest Ping-Pong player you could find?”
“What we’re trying to do is bullet-proof this thing,” McPeak said. “Ken relies on public funding, in large measure, so it would not be good to go out with something that creates a huge backlash.” (In fact, less than a quarter of Burns’s funding derives from government sources; the rest comes from corporations, foundations, and individual donors.) “It’s not that we’re trying to pull our punches,” McPeak said, but there was, he observed, more than one way to describe a thing accurately. “I tell my wife the truth, but I don’t want to be an extremist about it.” He laughed. “There are ways to say things that cool the temperature in the room, and there are ways that increase it.” When “The Vietnam War” is broadcast, he said, “the attack that will get the most attention will come from the Flat Earth Society—people saying, ‘We woulda coulda shoulda won, and what happened is that Walter Cronkite turned against it.’ ”
Burns had his sixty-fourth birthday while he was in Los Angeles. That morning, at breakfast, he remarked that his younger brother, Ric, who is also a filmmaker, had just sent him an e-mail referring to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Ken said that, when writing a reply, he had begun to quote—“When I get older, losing my hair”—and then paused. “It’s a sore point, because Ric’s got this gigantic Friar Tuck bald spot, and I haven’t. I deleted it and said, ‘Thank you, love you, too.’ ”
He observed that “Kenny,” as his brother used to call him, had only ever been used by family members and strangers—“by assholes, saying, ‘Hey, Kenny, how you doing?’ ” Burns then quoted a photo caption once published in National Geographic: “Kenny Burns takes lunch from mother’s hand.” In the April, 1959, issue, a black-and-white photo shows a smiling woman, in a plaid shirt, facing an infant propped on a wooden chair, as sunlight falls on his hair. The accompanying article, written by Burns’s father, Robert, and illustrated with his photographs, describes a stay of many months, a few years earlier, in the French Alpine village of Saint-Véran. Robert Burns was then a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at Columbia, and the visit was fieldwork.
“The village at that time had one foot in the twentieth century and one in the Middle Ages,” Burns had told me. “People brought their cows into their farm kitchens for the winter—warmth for them as well as the cows.” Burns had his first birthday in France, and Ric was born after they returned, so Saint-Véran existed for the boys only as family myth. Their father sometimes baked the kind of bread he’d eaten there. “He said that you needed a saw to cut through it in the middle of the winter, but then if you dunked it in coffee or milk or wine it would release itself. He would re-create it. I don’t think it was very good, but we loved it because he made it, and it was from this Brigadoon that we had never been to.”
Burns didn’t mean to suggest that France had made his father happy. “I don’t know if ‘happiness’ was even a word that could have been a part of my father’s lexicon,” he said. Robert Burns never finished his dissertation, and never advanced beyond an assistant professorship, first at the University of Delaware, then at the University of Michigan. “That hung over us like a miasmic smog,” Burns said. “He had received some negative feedback from his thesis adviser. After four or five chapters, he never wrote another word.” Professionally, “that doomed him, plus my mother’s sickness.”
His mother, Lyla, was given a diagnosis of cancer soon after the family returned from France. She died in 1965, when Ken was eleven. He said that someone shown a sequence of Christmas-card photos of him and his brother, taken by his father, would not guess at the “madness and sadness” that overtook the family. Ric Burns described the circumstances more directly. The boys grew up with “a dying mother and a mentally ill father,” he told me. Their father likely suffered from bipolar and obsessive-compulsive disorders, and was “caught in endless loops of self-defense and self-exoneration.” Although Robert Burns was not violent, he was often enraged. In 1958, he had a breakdown and spent four months in a mental institution; the boys were taken to visit him, but were not told where they were. After their mother’s death, Ric said, “we were running the show—we were more parents than my father.” When Ric was in tenth grade, and Ken in eleventh, their father took a research trip to Morocco and the French Alps for several months. He left a checkbook; Ken paid the bills. This upbringing created unusual freedoms, Ric said, but was still a “Bergmanesque, dark thing, which Ken is determined to save himself from, and determined, in some sense, to save the world from, too.”
Ken Burns sees a connection between his father’s distress and his own productivity. He meets deadlines and keeps to budgets. There are only a few examples of failed ideas, and in these cases Burns was not at fault. A biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., was defeated, Burns said, by the King family: “They wrote me a letter saying, ‘We think you are the person to do the biography,’ and I said, ‘You are right.’ And I went to visit them in Atlanta, and I realized they weren’t going to let go.” He added, “This was a husband and a father they could not control in life, and so desperately tried to control in death.”
When Ken started making films, in the late seventies, Ric sometimes helped. In the mid-eighties, Ken began work on “The Civil War.” Ric was then a graduate student at Columbia. In Ken’s telling, Ric, like his father, “couldn’t figure out the gear that got you out of neutral. So I asked him to come on and work with me.” (Ric doesn’t quite see himself in this description, but he was grateful to have been shown a path out of the academy.) Ken said, “He came on as an assistant, and then as a co-producer, and just did unbelievable stuff.” (Ric said that he was never an assistant.) Their working relationship seems to have been mutually rewarding, if combative. Ric said, “I think Ken has often felt that there’s an abyss right behind him, and that if he doesn’t fight hard enough he’ll get sucked back into it.” His brother could be willful: “Ken rules his world with an iron fist.”
They did not work together again. Ric had the impression, from Ken, “that the only way it would be O.K. if I continued to work as a filmmaker was if I worked for him, and I had a different point of view about that.” Ric went on to make admired documentaries of his own, including “New York,” in 1999.
Ken Burns’s film series about the Second World War, which aired a decade ago, was called “The War.” When the title first appears, it’s superimposed on an uncaptioned 1945 photo of Robert Burns, then a recently commissioned second lieutenant, smiling. Burns described a trip that his father made to the French Alps in the late seventies. “He was going to put together a little film, and I was going to help him,” he said. He took a 16-mm. camera, and shot landscapes, keeping the camera still. “The compositions were impeccable,” Burns said, but the shots were too short. “He ran the camera for four to five seconds, whereas we count off in our head to at least fifteen.” He explained to his father, delicately, that there was a way to stretch the shots, by printing each frame twice. “But, basically, it was the same as when his thesis adviser had talked to him. That there could be anything wrong! He just said, ‘That’s it, I don’t want to do it.’ ”
Burns added, “He was a great carpenter. At one point, where he was really flailing, in the seventies, I said, ‘Why don’t you become a carpenter? You’re so good at it.’ He thought that was insulting, which, of course, it was, in a way.”
On a morning in late June, Burns was sitting with colleagues in a screening room in the West Village. He had a legal pad on his lap, and was preparing to see, for the first time, a restored version of “Brooklyn Bridge,” which he made not long after leaving Hampshire College, in 1975. It was nominated for an Oscar in 1982.
Burns has sometimes suggested that his subject was daringly dull. “Every time I’d say, ‘I want to do an hour on, you know, a bridge,’ people would say, ‘You’re crazy!’ ” he told me. This may underplay the success of “The Great Bridge,” David McCullough’s 1972 book, which was Burns’s inspiration. (McCullough became a script consultant on the film, and also its narrator.) But it’s true that, in the late seventies, it was not every young filmmaker’s dream to craft an hour of narrative history, for television. Burns’s choices were unfashionable. “Totally,” he said. “And that was O.K.” He later added, “I had rejected cinéma vérité. I just found it a little bit too precious that you would limit yourself to no narration, no music, and pretend that you were getting, in a Godardian sense, truth twenty-four times a second.” At Hampshire, he’d been taught by Jerome Liebling, the photographer and filmmaker. Burns recalled asking him an overwrought question about auteur theory; Liebling’s response had been to “take me by the elbow, put me out of his office, and shut the door.” Burns went on, “If I hadn’t met Jerry, I’d be teaching film theory at some third-rate college, and bitter.”
In Burns’s view, conventional narrative—“and then and then and then”—is “about as good a thing as has ever been invented.” He contends that the catastrophe of the Second World War caused academic historians to lose confidence in narrative, and to be drawn instead to Freud and Marx and to “semiotics and symbolism and deconstruction and postmodernism and queer studies and African-American studies and feminism.” A challenge to “top-down, great men” history was welcome, Burns said, but these alternatives “were like blind men describing one part of the elephant, very accurately.” From the start, he said, he “was intuitively practicing something that included all of that.”
Stephen Ambrose, the popular historian, is said to have remarked that “more Americans get their history from Ken Burns than from any other source.” (PBS and Florentine Films often use the line as a promotional blurb.) After the success of “The Civil War,” some academic historians praised Burns, but others lamented his popular reach, and accused him of sappiness and nostalgia. In a collection of essays by historians about “The Civil War,” Leon Litwack noted how the last episode jumps ahead to the gatherings of Union and Confederate veterans, at Gettysburg, in 1913 and 1938: the effect is “to underscore and celebrate national reunification and the birth of the modern American nation, while ignoring the brutality, violence, and racial repression on which that reconciliation rested.” Eric Foner, similarly, wrote that “Burns privileges a merely national concern over the great human drama of emancipation.”
Burns, in a 1994 interview, said that the academy had “done a terrific job in the last hundred years of murdering our history.” He told me that criticism of his work was at times “gratuitous and petty,” or powered by jealousy.
He recalled two documentaries that had inspired him. One, a portrait of Gertrude Stein, by Perry Miller Adato, from 1970, used actors, reading quotations, alongside a narrator. The other was “City of Gold,” a Canadian short from 1957: the camera moved across archival photographs of the Klondike gold rush of the eighteen-nineties, and transitioned, almost imperceptibly, to near-motionless contemporary footage. On his first viewing, Burns said to himself, “Oh, I know where to go with that.” He spent much of his twenties and thirties in photography archives, with a camera pointed at photos attached, with magnets, to an easel. (He could pan and tilt, but zooms were too unsteady. These had to be done by a specialist, expensively, at an animation table, frame by frame.) Burns wasn’t alone in treating photographs this way—one thinks of the opening titles for “Cheers”—but the technique came to be associated with his work, and was later named for him. In 2002, Steve Jobs invited Burns to visit Apple, and demonstrated a new iMovie feature that engineers were calling the Ken Burns Effect. Jobs asked if Apple could keep the name, and Burns agreed, as long as the company supplied equipment to some nonprofit groups and to his own office. The two men became friends. Burns often stayed with Jobs in Palo Alto; Jobs’s daughter interned at Florentine.
In the West Village screening room, Burns told his colleagues that at his first audience Q. & A., in 1981, a woman asked him where he’d found footage of the Brooklyn Bridge’s construction. “I said, ‘Well, Ma’am, it was built between 1869 and 1883, there were no motion pictures.’ She said, ‘No, no, I’m talking when the scows brought the blocks of stone to the bridge, and they were being hoisted up.’ And I said, ‘Those were all still photographs.’ And she said, ‘No, they weren’t.’ ” He laughed. “And I said to myself, ‘Shut up, you won.’ ”
The film is in two halves. A history of the bridge’s construction is followed by a meditation on its place in American culture. When the screening ended, Burns said, “God, I knew every single thing by heart. Every word.”
He thanked the technicians in the room: “You guys, it is so gorgeous, so unbelievable.” Among other fixes, the restoration had adjusted color and removed the vertical “bounce” that affects most old reels of film. Daniel J. White, the editor in charge of the process, observed to Burns that bounce can give film “a nice, organic look, and a lot of older people appreciate that. But, any time I talk to a twenty-year-old, they’re like, ‘Why is it doing that? What is that?’ ” He was flapping his hand in the air.
Burns was struck by how the film seemed divided into scenes by captions and by fades to black. “It doesn’t really matter—because the impulse is kind of pure—but captions like ‘Leaving Cincinnati’ and ‘Early Bridges’?” He was laughing. “Right? I would never do ‘Early Bridges’ now.”
He then asked about the color tint in his interview with Arthur Miller, who, in the film’s final spoken words, says of the bridge, “It makes you feel that maybe you, too, could add something that would last and be beautiful.”
Unusually, Burns had shot the interview outdoors. “I remember that day as warmer,” he said. “So could we bring him down just a few points and make it a bit—orange?”
“You got it,” White said.
Burns asked to rewatch the shot that follows Miller: the bridge, as seen from the Brooklyn side, against an evening sky that’s dark and threatening, except for a bright band above the horizon. (An image of a cannon against a similar, if less boastfully spectacular, sunset became a leitmotif in “The Civil War.”) “I just want to say, it’s all in that shot,” Burns said. Seeing its color restored, he said, “I almost started to cry.” He recalled a day in the spring of 1979, when he happened to be driving from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Noticing the sky, he stopped in Dumbo and scrambled to shoot. “The sun was going down and everything was gray and silver in the clouds,” he said. “It was the kind of thing where everybody stopped. Didn’t matter who you were. There was an ultimate self-remembering that went on, a pause, the way you do when you stand in front of the Grand Canyon. That was Roll 53—the grail we’ve been tilting toward ever since.”
In Sunapee, Burns apologized for the size of his S.U.V., a Denali, before driving to a neighboring town to buy dog food. In the car, he said that he first stopped drinking in 1988, while making “The Civil War.” He didn’t have an uncontrolled, “jittery” problem, he explained, but “if there’s a box of cookies I eat the cookies.” He described his subsequent drinking as if reading from a curriculum vitae: “In the mid-nineties, I think it was white wine, and then I gave that up. And then I did red wine, and then I stopped that for a while, and somewhere in the mid-aughts I started with prosecco, and I did prosecco for seven or eight years.” He had a rationale for the prosecco: it seemed more egalitarian than champagne, and less likely to cause hangovers. “But then I realized I just liked prosecco, so I stopped that, four years ago.” He added, “I’ve been thinking maybe it’s time to go back and do something again.”
He referred to his first divorce, in 1993. “That really hurt, that took a long time for me to heal, and I spent a decade focussing on the girls—and having fun, out in the world, and dating—but it really took a full decade to escape the pain of it.” He went on, “I have a kind of vigilance that works very, very well with filmmaking and parenting. And vigilance isn’t necessarily the ingredient of a relationship.” He added, “You actually have to have some trust.”
On my way to Sunapee, I’d stopped at Walpole, to visit Burns’s office, and to see, in Burns’s orchard, a replica of the garden pavilion at Monticello. I’d eaten lunch with Dayton Duncan, the script writer and producer, in a local restaurant that Burns partly owns. We then walked across town, past a war memorial unusual for the ample space left for the dead of future wars, and arrived at the white, Gothic Revival house where Burns’s films are edited. Duncan showed me a few unfinished scenes—narrated by Burns—from a middle episode of “Country Music.” Elvis Costello and Jack White talked, with charm, about Loretta Lynn. A little later, there was an interview with Charley Pride.
“Still on your left.”
Burns, as narrator, explained that Pride grew up “in a shotgun shack in the Mississippi Delta.” Onscreen, there was a photo of a house. It’s a common experience, when you watch Burns’s films, to become aware of your own quiet querying, even as the storytelling machine rolls forward: Did we just see the thing being mentioned—the hill in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam, the country singer’s home—or not? In this case, not. As Duncan explained, no picture of Pride’s childhood home is known to exist, so a stand-in was found. (A few weeks later, a new stand-in image, by Dorothea Lange, took its place.)
It’s hard to think of this license as deception, but it’s not an inevitable part of documentary filmmaking. Burns told me that he expects his audience to “surrender to narrative.” But his vigilance—his investment in his viewers’ relationship with his material—can sometimes feel like micromanagement. A camera pan that essentially gives instructions on how to look at a photo can be revelatory, or feel like a nudge in the ribs. With repetition, a musical idea can start to grate. In Burns’s films, one rarely sees a wide American landscape without hearing the screech of a red-tailed hawk. (“The Simpsons” follows the same rule.) The opening clip of “The Vietnam War” shows a marine, lying in mud, raising a helmet on the end of his rifle, to check for snipers. On the soundtrack, there’s then the ping of a ricocheting bullet. Burns added the ping, and said that the film shows no evidence of a bullet hitting the helmet. Ric Burns, connecting his brother’s upbringing to the narrative “choke hold” that he has sometimes felt in Ken’s work, said, “Part of the reason some things get made is because one’s grip is so strong. It’s very difficult to let go.”
When I saw Burns in Sunapee, he argued that fastidiousness about photographic authenticity would restrict his ability to tell stories of people cut off from cameras by poverty or geography. He then explained what, at Florentine Films, is known as Broyles’s Law. In the mid-eighties, Burns was working on a deft, entertaining documentary about Huey Long, the populist Louisiana politician. He asked two historians, William Leuchtenburg and Alan Brinkley, about a photograph he hoped to use, as a part of the account of Long’s assassination; it showed him protected by a phalanx of state troopers. Brinkley told him that the image might mislead; Long usually had plainclothes bodyguards. Burns felt thwarted. Then Leuchtenburg spoke. He’d just watched a football game in which Frank Broyles, the former University of Arkansas coach, was a commentator. When the game paused to allow a hurt player to be examined, Broyles explained that coaches tend to gauge the seriousness of an injury by asking a player his name or the time of day; if he can’t answer correctly, it’s serious. As Burns recalled it, Broyles went on, “But, of course, if the player is important to the game, we tell him what his name is, we tell him what time it is, and we send him back in.”
Broyles’s Law, then, is: “If it’s super-important, if it’s working, you tell him what his name is, and you send him back into the game.” The photograph of Long and the troopers stayed in the film.
Was this, perhaps, a terrible law? Burns laughed. “It’s a terrible law!” But, he went on, it didn’t let him off the hook, ethically. “This would be Werner Herzog’s ‘ecstatic truth’—‘I can do anything I want. I’ll pay the town drunk to crawl across the ice in the Russian village.’ ” He was referring to scenes in Herzog’s “Bells from the Deep,” which Herzog has been happy to describe, and defend, as stage-managed. “If he chooses to do that, that’s O.K. And then there are other people who’d rather do reënactments than have a photograph that’s vague.” Instead, Burns said, “We do enough research that we can pretty much convince ourselves—in the best sense of the word—that we’ve done the honorable job.”
I later spoke to Herzog, who is a friend of Burns’s. Talking of “The Vietnam War,” he said, “I binge-watched it. I would feel itching: ‘Let’s continue.’ ” When he was through, he called Burns. “I just said, ‘This is very big.’ ” The film had flaws, he told me, “but it doesn’t matter.” The project was at once sweeping and serious. Herzog said, “Let’s focus on the big boulder of rock that landed in the meadow and nobody knows how it materialized.”
In Sunapee, Burns and I took his boat onto the lake with Olivia, his twelve-year-old. We circled around an island. After half an hour, returning at some speed, Burns said, “I’m having trouble with the brake!” Olivia screamed, then stopped screaming long enough to explain—“He does this every time, it doesn’t get old”—and then screamed some more. The boat accelerated toward the dock, where their dog stood, barking. “I’m sorry, sweetie!” Burns shouted over the engine. “I love you!”
We went out for ice cream, at the harbor, and Burns told his daughters that, “in the Civil War, when people had been in combat—you know what that means?—they said they’d ‘seen the elephant.’ I guess it’s just the most exotic thing they could think of.” He noticed Olivia’s bruised knees, and described them in Burnsian terms: “You’d expect to tilt up and see a tough boy.”
As we drove back, with the sun low, there was a family joke or two about Trump. Then Olivia mentioned that she’d met Barack Obama half a dozen times. Burns is friendly with the former President, and has hopes of making at least one documentary about him. This idea has been discussed with, but not yet blessed by, its subject.
“He sent me a video when I couldn’t make it, remember?” Olivia said. Burns pulled over, so that he could find it on his phone. In the spring of 2014, Burns and his wife were invited, along with a few other couples, to an informal dinner at the White House. “We had drinks out on the porch, and we went out to the garden that Michelle was growing,” he recalled. “Then we came in and ate.” A video clip from that night—an artifact from a now distant era—shows the President in the private residence, in a plaid shirt, looking into Burns’s phone camera. “Olivia, I miss you!” Obama says. “I wish you were here tonight. But, since you aren’t, this is the best I can do, to send you a message. I hope you’re doing good. I hope school is fun.” Burns drove on. “We got there at six, we left at two. He didn’t want us to leave. He wanted to dance more.”
Earlier, Burns had said of the Obama project, “I am a bull at a rodeo, snorting to get out and do this. I would love to sit down with him and do fifteen or twenty two-hour sessions. And make a film, in a couple of years, that would be in his own words. It would just be him. And then, in ten years, we’d add all the other things. So we could get at least fifteen years away from Obama’s Presidency and triangulate.” He went on, “Hopefully, we’d have then left behind the specific gravity of journalism, and near-history, and passed to a place where we can just do it.” ♦
This article appears in the print edition of the September 4, 2017, issue, with the headline “Mr. America.”
Ian Parker has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2000.
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Estimate of about one million casualties on US-South Korea Side of a Korean War and Probable Iraq-Afghanistan situation afterward
Brian Wang | April 20, 2017 |
The more credible scenarios are that North Korea could inflict up to 1 million casualties on South Korea and possibly land a few missiles into Japan if the North Korea went into a inflict maximum damage mode. South Korea and the USA would be able to beat down and contain North Korea. The situation would then transition into a prolonged Iraq-Afghanistan. North Korea also has thousands of tons of chemical weapons.
The US should be able to strike and rapidly cripple any medium and long range missile strike launch sites.
The US could use stealth fighters and stealth bombers to degrade North Korean missile capabilities and nuclear weapons within a few days. The US would then be able to dismantle the North Korean air force, air defenses and other missiles over the next two weeks.
South Korea and the US would be able to take out any regular tanks and artillery within about a month.
An uncertainty is if North Korea would be successful in embedding 100,000 commandos into Seoul for a more protracted urban warfare situation.
North Korea has a lot of tunnels and would have a large military force that would likely be under instructions to use IEDs and other guerilla tactics to make a long term mess of North Korea. There would also be a refugee and starvation situation in the aftermath.
The US is racing to install the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea.
North Korea has more missiles than the THAAD system could shoot down in a full scale attack. However, the system would be useful if satellites could detect where more dangerous missiles might be launched. North Korea might have a dozen nuclear small nuclear weapons. North has a lot more chemical weapons.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense estimated in 2012 that North Korea had a stockpile of between 2,500 and 5,000 metric tons of chemical weapons. Annual production is estimated at 4,500 tons in peacetime and 12,000 tons in wartime.
North Korea is believed to have highly lethal nerve agents, which work by disrupting the human body’s nervous system, resulting in asphyxiation. North Korea is believed to have stockpiles of sarin, soman, tabun, VM and VX nerve agents.
According to longtime analyst Joseph Bermudez, North Korea is believed to have specialized in “sulfur mustard, chlorine, phosgene, sarin and the V-agents.”
The Korean peninsula is relatively short; from Hyesan on the North Korean/Chinese border to the southern tip of South Korea is less than 500 miles, or the distance from Portland, Maine to Baltimore, Maryland. Pyongyang to the DMZ is only 100 hundred miles and only 120 miles to Seoul.
As of 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense estimates North Korea has less than one hundred short-range missile launchers of all types, including the Toksa/KN-02 Viper (a derivative of the Russian SS-21 Scarab) with a range of 75 miles, and its collection of Scud missiles, with a maximum range of 185 to 625 miles. Toksas and Scuds would have to be based close to the border.
North Korea also has less than fifty launchers for its No Dong missiles. Developed using Scud technology, No Dong has a range of 800 miles, making it useful for striking from deep inside North Korea against South Korea and Japan.
North Korea is believed to have 5,100 multiple rocket launchers and 4,400 self-propelled artillery pieces. Rocket artillery of 122-millimeter or greater and field artillery of 152-millimeter or greater would be capable of firing chemical shells. The majority of Pyongyang’s artillery would be capable of delivering chemical strikes.
The North Korean People’s Air Force is capable of delivering chemical weapons by air, but its aging fleet of airplanes are less reliable and less likely to get through South Korean defenses than other means.
Read next: VTOL electric plane with 36 engines has successful test flight and will enable air taxi service »
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Tags: geopolitical, north korea, risks, united states, War
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