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__label__cc	0.70015	0.29985	Women Suck… STILL… Kind Of… February 15, 2018 /in Blog /by E. P. Lee Women Suck… Kind Of… I’m still in deep caca, she won’t let it go. I still hold WOMEN 100% responsible for the Trump, and The Republican Dark Side victories of 2016 (and for ALL Republican Victories in the 16 years before that too). And even though she acknowledges all of my reasoning for same, and nods her head in agreement when I mouth off statistics and state the recent political history supporting my claim, she huffs, and puffs away… And points sharp objects at me threateningly often… It’s tense here. But there has been some give and take on both our parts now, some play in her adamant position that it’s NOT the fault of Women, and some play in my position that other factors, and other PLAYERS were somewhat responsible too. There’s this biggie; I claim that the leadership of the Democratic Party, and their failure to control, and unify, their core membership factions, and message, is largely responsible for where we are today. She sighed big-time in agreement there… I think I heard a quietly murmured: First, I said that the Party factions from: Black Lives Matter, to the Hispanic Coalitions on Immigration, to the LGBTQ on Transgender Bathroom Rights, to Women’s Groups on issues of Late-term Abortion, or any other fractional Democratic group that screams out: “What do we want: JUSTICE NOW!” … make the middle of America, the quiet “Center”, the “Silent Majority” of yore, cringe. Next, I said that the Democrats of the immediate past (and present) had no viable, unified message to counter the repeated messages of security, comfort, and stability that the Republican Dark Side has offered up to the quiet Center of America; year after year, after year. Slogans do the Democrats spew out as the separate groups housed under their Big-Tent shout out their individual DEMANDS over, and over, and over again: “Black Lives Matter, Save the Dreamers, Protect the Environment, Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, LGBT Rights (Teenage (and younger) Transgender Bathroom Rights), Women’s Rights, Abortion Rights, Equal Pay for Equal Work” and on, and on, and ON! It’s a cacophony of constant political NOISE… A juggernaut of sound… But all the quiet “Center” of America wants to hear about is reassurance on issues of personal and familial safety, personal and familial economic security, and societal stability… President Richard Nixon issued a cry for support to the “Silent Majority” of America on November 3, 1969 in a speech made during tumultuous times as issues of peace and war, civil rights, societal activism, the Sexual Revolution, Abortion, and Women’s Lib all gathered steam. In 1969, that nascent “silent majority” rallied for him; Tricky Dicky won a LANDSLIDE re-election victory in 1972 some three years later. The “Silent Majority” voted for Nixon back then, just as they voted for Donald Trump and The Dark Side Republican Party in 2016. Interviews by NPR (National Public Radio) conducted in Iowa at a Trump Rally in 2016 yielded these definitional insights from two attendees, a wife and husband, on who members of the “Silent Majority” were. ““The people that mind their own business, don’t depend on anyone else” said (the wife) … of Indianola, Iowa, when asked to describe the ‘silent majority’. [They] don’t expect anything from anybody, and they’re kind of quiet. They don’t go around bragging. They’re not activists.” Her husband, … said: “They expect a dollar work for a dollar pay. They don’t want anything free, but they don’t want stuff taken away from them either. And that’s happening to us out here in the cheap seats.” In 2016, after eight years of the Obama, Democratic Party Slogan: “Change you can believe in…” … members of the Iowa “Silent Majority” … in the Center of America … wanted to go back to what they had before. And they, and THOUSANDS, upon THOUSANDS, of others like them, voted that way throughout the quiet Center of America in the Rust Belt of the Mid-West, and Pennsylvania. And so went the election of 2016… … to THE DARK SIDE! So obviously Women didn’t do it all alone 2016, they had help from the “Silent Majority” … … and help from all of that Democratic noise… That juggernaut… Next I said that the screaming “Bernie Bros” (and all of the other Democratic Party fanatical others…), and their repeatedly shouted vitriol towards the Democratic Party Elite, and Hillary, cost Hillary the fervor she needed with the Democratic Party BASE faithful, lowering turnout… All of that shouting, that “ALL, or nothing at all” attitude, that juggernaut of sound, netted lower party loyalist election day action, they didn’t vote… And there went victory. The noise in the Big-Tent of the Democratic Party does not abate today, it gets louder, and louder still. Just yesterday as I browsed CNN, I came across a screed against a proposed new “snack-chip” for Women. A trailblazing new product was suggested by PepsiCo’s CEO on an arcane Radio Show. The Dude proposed a chip with less “CRUNCH” so that Women could indulge their penchant for those “snack-chips” demurely. Later that day, the celebrity CNN TV news reporter Erin Burnett dished the conceit on the Anderson Cooper Show on CNN; next there was a print “Opinion” piece on the CNN News Feed website which pilloried the “proposed” new product conceit anon. The article is quoted below: “We (women) don’t need to make less noise in public — we need to make more. We are loud, persistent and insistent on being heard.” And further: “With the winds of #MeToo at our backs and the midterms on the horizon, more and more women are waking up and recognizing that they’re not alone in experiencing unfair pay, sexual harassment and assault, or other kinds of discrimination including against immigrant women and families.” And all of these elements: “#METOO, unfair pay, sexual harassment, assault, discrimination against immigrant women and families, gender justice, racial justice, economic justice… emanate from the postulation of a poorly thought out, hypothetical, product presentation on an arcane radio show. Back in Indianola, Iowa I think they probably rolled their eyes over this, and said: Even here in Miami, as a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, and a confirmed lefty who supports all of that stuff the CNN “Opinion” author does, I say: “SAY WHAT” … The CNN “Opinion” author railed at these heinous WRONGS that must be addressed, COMPLETELY, with NO COMPROMISE, no negotiation; there should be 100% resolution of “all”, TODAY! But to the “many” General Public in the “Center” of the land, that “Silent Majority” mentioned before, eyes are rolled upwards, and verbal wonderment is expressed at what all the fuss is about. “SAY WHAT…” The Dark Side Republicans stay, on message year after year, after year; they never vary… and woefully, the mainstream “Center” isn’t unhappy with Trump and his Dark Side Republican cohorts right now… … what with the extra money of the 2017 tax-cuts in their pockets weekly, the overall improved economy, and the pending new Federal Budget monies to be spent on infrastructure, and domestic programs… … life in America looks pretty good to them. And if that continues… The DARK SIDE WINS AGAIN IN 2018… And I’ve been saying that for almost a year now. It’s all about the “Center” … What don’t the Democrats understand? Just what… But maybe, just maybe, I don’t have to worry about those sharp objects in her hand any longer. Phewwwww… Tags: WomenSuck https://andthepuppyhowls.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/blog-default-image-closer.jpg 300 300 E. P. Lee https://andthepuppyhowls.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/LogoWebIcon310pxV2_b8b5bb8da9642d2eb75f67f5a37dfbf1.png E. P. Lee2018-02-15 11:28:022019-04-30 17:30:46Women Suck... STILL... Kind Of... E.P. Lee is an Author, Graphic Artist, and Blogger born and raised in New York. He has written many 21st Century Adult Fairy-tales including “And The Puppy Howls” and “As the Dog Barks”. Now out of industry entirely, Eric is happy to enjoy the perpetual Florida sun and write.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2279
__label__cc	0.675229	0.324771	Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/45157352720a4f608bb107c46f1f5374 U.S. Air Force Academy Crowder List of US students named as Rhodes scholars for 2019 By The Associated PressNovember 18, 2018 The 32 American students chosen as Rhodes scholars for 2019 , as provided by the Office of the American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust: Hadeel Abdallah, Lexington, Kentucky (University of Kentucky) Rayan A.R. Alsemeiry, Mesa, Arizona (Yale University) Vidal M. Arroyo, Rancho Santa Margarita, California (South Chapman University) Alaleh Azhir, New York City (Johns Hopkins University) James W. Brahm, Huntsville, Alabama (U.S. Air Force Academy) Mikaela J. Brisack, Oxford, Mississippi (University of Mississippi) Kristina M. Correa, Robstown, Texas (Stanford University) Leah Crowder, Tucson, Arizona (University of Arizona) Nicolette C. D’Angelo, Hewitt, New Jersey, (Princeton University) Margaret H. Dods, Linwood, New Jersey (U.S. Naval Academy) Brittany N. Ellis, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania (Harvard University) Rachel Elena Gallina, Lake Orion, Michigan (Boise State University) John Hoffmeyer, Florence, South Carolina (Princeton University) Jennifer Huang, Granger, Indiana (Indiana University) Austin T. Hughes, San Antonio (University of Iowa) Kushal T. Kadakia, Houston (Duke University) Ariel Kantor, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Duke University) Katherine M. Kowal, Louisville, Colorado (Lewis and Clark College) Anea B. Moore, Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) Eren Orbey, Acton, Massachusetts (Yale University) Jin Kyu Park, New York City (Harvard University) Lia Petrose, Laurel, Maryland (University of Pittsburgh) Katharine H. Reed, Arnold, Maryland (Princeton University) Grant H. Rigney, Normandy, Tennessee (University of Tennessee) Serene K. Singh, Colorado Springs, Colorado (University of Colorado) Rhea C. Stark, Milwaukee (Brown University) Riley S. Tillitt, Eden Prairie, Minnesota (Yale University) Sarah Tress, New York City (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Madison L. Tung, Santa Monica, California (U.S. Air Force Academy) Laila Ujayli, Dublin, Ohio (Ohio State University) Claire R. Wang, North Salt Lake, Utah (Duke University) Kristiana L. Yao, Naperville, Illinois (University of Miami)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2281
__label__wiki	0.946237	0.946237	Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/67c5abc4469b46bd965733337568b8ec UN says civilians targeted in airstrikes on Yemen’s capital People inspect the site of an airstrike by Saudi-led coalition forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, May, 16, 2019. Yemen's human rights minister says heavy fighting is underway in the country's south as rebel Houthis push to gain more territory from government forces and their allies. The clashes come as the Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes on the capital, Sanaa, earlier on Thursday, targeting the Houthis and killing at least three civilians. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) CAIRO (AP) — The U.N. refugee agency says it is “deeply saddened” by the targeting of civilians in recent airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which left at least six dead including four children, in Yemen’s capital. The agency issued a statement Friday quoting its spokesman Andrej Mahecic as saying that refugees were among those injured in Thursday’s attacks, including a Somali woman and her daughter who were receiving “critical” medical treatment. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says the humanitarian conditions for more than 275,000 refugees and asylum seekers who live in Yemen have “deteriorated significantly” due to the ongoing war. Yemen’s four-year civil war has produced the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Fighting has pitted Iran-aligned Houthi rebels against the internationally recognized government, which is backed by the Saudi-led military coalition.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2282
__label__wiki	0.624968	0.624968	Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/c047543575554d609823cfb45a737d6e Appeals court allows Trump abortion rules to take effect By GENE JOHNSONJune 20, 2019 FILE - In this Friday, April 5, 2019 file photo, President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. A federal appeals court said Thursday, June 20, 2019 that new Trump administration rules imposing additional hurdles for women seeking abortions can take effect while the government appeals decisions that blocked them. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) New Trump administration rules imposing additional hurdles for women seeking abortions can take effect while the government appeals decisions that blocked them, a federal appeals court said Thursday. The rules ban taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals and prohibit clinics that receive federal money from sharing office space with abortion providers — a rule critics said would force many to find new locations, undergo expensive remodels or shut down. More than 20 states and several civil rights and health organizations challenged the rules in cases filed in Oregon, Washington and California. Judges in all three states blocked the rules from taking effect, with Oregon and Washington courts issuing nationwide injunctions. One called the new policy “madness” and said it was motivated by “an arrogant assumption that the government is better suited to direct women’s health care than their providers.” But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco called the rules “reasonable” and said they accord with a federal law that prohibits taxpayer funds from going to “programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” “If the program refers patients to abortion providers for family planning services, then that program is logically one ‘where abortion is a method of family planning,’” the panel wrote. It granted the Justice Department a stay of the lower court injunctions, allowing the rules to take effect. A federal court in Maryland has also issued an order blocking the rules, but that only applied in that state. The Justice Department has appealed it. “We are pleased that the Ninth Circuit has cleared the way for this important executive branch action to take effect while our appeals are pending,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kelly Laco said in an emailed statement. “The Department of Justice’s position is supported by long-standing Supreme Court precedent and we are confident we will ultimately prevail on appeal.” The states and health care providers who challenged the law vowed to keep fighting. Planned Parenthood said it would immediately ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider the decision. The organization serves about 1.6 million of the 4 million low-income patients who receive health care through Title X, a 1970 law designed to improve access to family planning services. “The news out of the 9th Circuit this morning is devastating for the millions of people who rely on Title X health centers for cancer screenings, HIV tests, affordable birth control and other critical primary and preventive care,” Dr. Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “Planned Parenthood will not let the government censor our doctors and nurses from informing patients where and how they can access health care.” Abortion is a legal medical procedure, but federal laws prohibit the use of Title X or other taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman. Abortion opponents and religious conservatives say Title X has long been used to indirectly subsidize abortion providers. The administration’s new rules are a return to rules that were adopted in 1988 and subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court. Under the Clinton administration, those rules were abandoned in favor of a requirement that the clinics provide neutral abortion counseling and referrals upon request. Those challenging Trump’s approach pointed to the Affordable Care Act, which bars the government from creating unreasonable barriers to medical care or interfering with communications between the patient and provider. But the 9th Circuit said that just because the government is refusing to subsidize abortion referrals does not mean it’s creating barriers or interfering with communications. While the new rules would permit clinic staff to discuss abortion with clients, they would no longer be required to do so. If patients ask for an abortion referral, staff would be required to give a list of primary care providers with no indication as to which provide abortions. The list would have to include providers who do not offer abortions, and it could not include clinics or organizations that aren’t primary care providers, such as Planned Parenthood. “This decision is a major step toward the Trump Administration being able to ensure that all Title X projects comply with the Title X statute and do not support abortion as a method of family planning,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a news release. Johnson reported from Seattle. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed from Washington, D.C.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2283
__label__wiki	0.867077	0.867077	Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/e1a6ac9eb03d4b44ad004f83fce52ceb State budgets Washington Legislature begins 105-day session By RACHEL LA CORTEJanuary 15, 2019 On the first day of the 2019 Washington state Legislative Session Jan. 14, 2019 in Olympia, Wash. Squaxin Tribal Council Vice-Chairman Charlene Krise opens the Climate Change Crisis rally on the steps of the legislative building, encouraging the rally supporters to get personally involved with the issue. (Steve Bloom/The Olympian via AP) OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington lawmakers started their 105-day legislative session Monday, tasked with writing a new two-year state budget while addressing a variety of costly issues, including addressing the state’s troubled mental health system. Democrats increased their margins in both legislative chambers after the November election, and now hold a 28-21 majority in the Senate and a 57-41 edge in the House. A total of 22 new members were sworn into the House Monday and six new members were sworn into the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, a Democrat from Spokane, said lawmakers would be moving forward on climate policies as well as making progress on improving the mental health system and that both parties will work toward solutions. “We make better decisions when we have the broadest amount of input,” he said. “I believe we will work toward bipartisan solutions as much as we possibly can.” Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the House Republican leader, said even though they are the minority party, they have ideas to offer on various issues, including affordable housing. He said that while Democrats have the votes to pass any bill that they want, he called on his fellow Republicans to “be the accountability people.” “It is hard for single-party government to hold itself accountable,” he said in a speech on the House floor. “We need to be the ones that hold government accountable.” For the first time in years, lawmakers will write a new two-year budget without the primary focus being satisfying a court mandate on education funding, though they say there’s still work to be done to continue to improve basic education, especially on special education. House Speaker Frank Chopp gave an emotional final opening day speech, calling for work on homelessness and specifically calling out the issue of homeless youth. “We should not see them as isolated individuals, but as our own kids in our own family,” he said before having to pause, choking back tears. “For God’s sake, let’s meet this challenge to provide a home and hope for all of our kids.” Chopp announced last month that he would be stepping down from his leadership role at the end of the legislative session, but would remain a member of the Legislature. He has been the state’s longest-serving speaker and is the second longest-serving House speaker in the nation. Mental health reform and funding is an area that the governor, Chopp and lawmakers in both parties have said needs to be a top priority this year. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who introduced his budget proposal last month, proposed $675 million in spending over the next two years to address the state’s behavioral health system, including expanding treatment options and additional housing support. Lawmakers also plan to address concerns at Western State Hospital, an 850-plus bed facility in Lakewood that has been plagued with problems and has lost its certification by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and federal funding after it repeatedly failed health and safety inspections. Leaders in the House and Senate will release their budget proposals in the coming months and will work to negotiate a final budget before the session concludes at the end of April. Inslee, who is weighing a 2020 presidential run, will deliver his annual State of the State speech Tuesday afternoon. The Legislature convened minus two members who resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct. Democratic Sen. Kevin Ranker of Orcas Island resigned Friday amid an outside investigation into inappropriate conduct with a former legislative assistant. Leaders say the process for his replacement will start soon. He was the fourth lawmaker in the past six months to either lose an election or resign because of sexual misconduct allegations. House Republicans are also in the midst of awaiting the outcome of the process of choosing a replacement for Rep. Matt Manweller, who submitted his resignation letter last month after allegations of a relationship with a former high school student in the 1990s when she was 17 and allegations of inappropriate conduct at Central Washington University, where he was fired from his professor position last August. During his chamber speech, Chopp addressed the issue of sexual harassment at the Capitol, saying that among the work lawmakers need to achieve this year is “getting our own house in order.” He noted the work of lawmakers, lobbyists and staff over the past year to come up with recommendations and a code of conduct. “Together, we will create a workplace where everyone is treated with respect,” he said.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2284
__label__wiki	0.601647	0.601647	Filmation’s Lou Scheimer: An Appreciation by J.J. SEDELMAIER Home » MOVIES & TV » Filmation’s Lou Scheimer: An Appreciation by J.J. SEDELMAIER Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 25, 2013 \| 0 comments In which the guy behind Saturday Night Live’s Ambiguously Gay Duo pays tribute to an animator who inspired him: UPDATED 10/19/16: Today would have been Lou Scheimer’s 88th birthday, so we’re re-presenting this piece by J.J. Sedelmaier: Dan here: A quick intro before I turn the pulpit over to J.J. Sedelmaier. When animation pioneer Lou Scheimer died last week, I felt a pang of sadness. He was one of the founders of Filmation, the company that produced Masters of the Universe and a funky Star Trek cartoon in the ’70s, among a gazillion other projects. Naturally, Filmation is best known to me as the producer of the schlocky 1960s DC cartoons starring Batman (which in my mind is an unofficial fourth season of the Adam West show), Superman, Aquaman, Superboy, plus key members of the Justice League (featuring an oddly excitable Flash) and the Teen Titans (featuring a way off-model Kid Flash). But I do plenty of reminiscing around here, so it hit me that the best guy to tip the cap to Scheimer is J.J. Sedelmaier, whose uproarious Ambiguously Gay Duo was a direct riff on those kitschy ‘6os DC romps. Thanks, J.J. The floor is yours: A few years ago I was doing a signing of “Saturday Night Live”/TV Funhouse art at San Diego Comic-Con. A man came up to me and introduced himself and proceeded to say how much he loved our cartoons. It was Lou Scheimer! A Scheimer retrospective book from TwoMorrows I’ve always cherished the unsolicited overture he made and we had a wonderful conversation about how his various cartoon series have become an integral part of pop culture. Lou Scheimer passed away on Oct. 17 and it’s more than fitting that he receive his due as someone who influenced several generations of Baby Boomers and animation fans with the cartoons that his studio, Filmation, produced. A great deal of my studio’s reputation is firmly set in the world of satire and parody, and a majority of this work has been inspired by the cartoons that were done by Filmation, Hanna‐Barbera and similar TV production shops. On top of all this, Lou took great pride in making cartoons with a message and from what I hear, Filmation was a wonderful family environment to work in – and when most all series animation was shipped overseas, he kept the work in the U.S. Forget Kid Flash. Even the Flash is off model! The 1960s and 1970s were hardly a Golden Age of Animation, and the Saturday Morning realm of limited animation production was hardly groundbreaking in its technique, but we can’t deny it’s effect on millions of kids who would later carry a fondness and affection for characters and shows they grew up with. Personal nostalgia is like a narcotic, complete with distorted reality and even hallucinations – what else would cause anyone to swoon to the likes of “Scooby‐Doo”? But it’s this infiltration into the viewer’s DNA that has allowed us to do the parodies so successfully. So here’s a healthy thanks and much respect to Lou Scheimer! A sampling of Sedelmaier’s Filmation-inflected work can be found here, here and here. And the best of them all, the Ambiguously Gay Duo! SUPER-STAR HOLIDAY SPECIAL: J.J. Sedelmaier’s Batman Thanksgiving \| 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] extraordinaire J.J. Sedelmaier (Ambiguously Gay Duo, The X-Presidents) has a Thanksgiving story better than Charlie […] 13 GREAT CARTOONS: A FILMATION DC Superheroes Celebration \| 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] Green Lantern: Sirena, Empress of Evil. This one is most notable for being the episode that most influenced the…	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2288
__label__cc	0.740181	0.259819	HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1880s → 1881 → March 1881 → 24 March 1881 → Commons Sitting → BILLS OF SALE ACT (1878) AMENDMENT (re-committed) BILL.— [BILL 104.] COMMITTEE. § Order for Committee read. § MR. MONK , in moving that the Speaker do now leave the Chair, said, it was Isis intention, if the House went into Committee, to ask the Committee not to consider the Amendments that night, for there were a great many Amendments on the Paper; and he understood that the President of the Board of Trade wished for further time, in order to consider what Amendments it might be his duty to also place on the Paper. He therefore intended, after the Preamble of the Bill had been postponed, to move to report Progress, and to postpone the further consideration of the Bill in Committee until after Easter. § Motion made, and Question proposed, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."—(Mr. Monk.) § SIR WALTER B. BARTTELOT observed, that this was a most important Bill, and suggested that the best course would be that the Speaker should not then leave the Chair, but that the debate should be adjourned, so that the further Amendments might be placed on the Paper, and a good opportunity afterwards be given for the consideration of the Bill in Committee. I hope the House will assent to the proposal of the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mr. Monk). The grievance which the Bill proposes to deal with is really a very urgent one, and is a great and growing scandal. It is exceedingly desirable that there should be some speedy legislation on the subject; but, at the same time, I do not think the Bill of my hon. Friend should be allowed to pass exactly in its present form, and the House will have to give very careful attention to the Amendments already on the Paper, and to others to be proposed. There are some important Returns which have been asked for from County Court Judges, and some statistics which I hope to be able shortly to lay upon the Table. I therefore asked my hon. Friend, if the Bill should be now moved into Committee, to agree to the next stage of the Bill not being taken until after Easter. There will then be full time given to consider the Amendments; and considering the great difficulties there undoubtedly are, especially in a Session like this, in making progress with a Bill, I hope the House will assent to the suggestion now made. § MR. R. H. PAGET hoped the official Amendments would be placed on the Paper before Easter; otherwise, when the House met after Easter, they would be in the same position as they now were. If the right hon. Gentleman would give an assurance to that effect the proposal might be agreed to; if not, he thought it should not be assented to. The hon. Member is under some misapprehension. I understand that there are already on the Paper one or more Amendments to this Bill, and that there are other Amendments to be placed on the Paper by private Members. It was to those that 1918 I particularly referred. As to the position of the Government, it might be possible to deal with this subject in connection with the Bankruptcy Bill; and that is under the consideration of the Board of Trade. If not, then we should propose to place any Amendments we might consider necessary in connection with the present Bill on the Paper. So far as I have any influence in the matter, there shall be full time for the consideration of the Amendments. § MR. R. N. FOWLER did not wish to offer any opposition to the Bill; but he thought the House should have some understanding that the Amendments of the Government should be placed on the Paper before Easter. § MR. C. M. PALMER also urged that the Government Amendments should be placed on the Paper before Easter, in order that they might be properly considered. With regard to the proposal of the hon. Member for the City of London (Mr. R. N. Fowler), I am afraid I could not pledge myself to put my Amendments on the Paper before Easter; but if I cannot do so, I will endeavour to insure that there shall be sufficient time for consideration afterwards. § MR. WARTON , observing that the Government seemed not to have recovered from the influence of urgency, said, there was no urgency about this Bill. It was a ridiculous Bill; and if there was any scandal, it would be in passing a Bill of this insane description, which would destroy bills of sale altogether. There were, at least, 100 Bills of more importance than this before the House; but the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mr. Monk) was always endeavouring to force on legislation at an unseemly hour; and he protested against going on with the Bill now. § Motion agreed to. § Bill considered in Committee. § (In the Committee.) § On Question, "That the Preamble be postponed?" said, he hoped, now that his hon. Friend had got the Speaker out of the Chair, he would at once consent that the Bill should not be brought on till the month of May. The House would then have 1919 an opportunity of seeing the Amendments of the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Chamberlain), who was so exceedingly fond of getting Bills into Committee, so that they might be advanced a stage, if there was something that he wished done. He (Sir Walter B. Barttelot) objected to the principle exceedingly; and as it was not a good principle for the House or for the country, particularly in the case of a Bill like this, which required the most serious consideration. It was a most important Bill. Undoubtedly it ought to pass; but it ought not to be passed in a hurry. The right hon. Gentleman stated that he was not prepared to put down his Amendments until after Easter; but he though the ought to be able to place them on the Paper before the House separated for the Easter Recess. said, as soon as the Preamble had been postponed he should be ready to report Progress, and he would ask that the Committee should be fixed for an early day in May. He hoped that would meet the wishes of his hon. and gallant Friend opposite (Sir Walter B. Barttelot). It was, as his hon. and gallant Friend said, a most important Bill, and he wished to have it thoroughly considered. He wished to give ample time for putting further Amendments upon the Paper, and to consider those Amendments which were now on the Paper; but he hoped to see the Bill carried during the present year; and, as his hon. and gallant Friend knew, it was almost impossible for private Members to carry their Bills, unless they took these opportunities of moving the Speaker out of the Chair. A single Member would be able to stop this Bill if he postponed it this evening without taking the stage. § EARL PERCY wished to point out that if the practice were pursued of moving the Speaker out of the Chair before the Amendments which were known to be about to be moved were put on the Paper, the only way in which such a very irregular practice could be prevented was by systematically "blocking" Bills. hoped that as he had given way to the feeling of the House in not pressing for a division, the hon. Gentleman opposite would not unduly press the matter now. The right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Chamberlain) had not yet got a notion of the way the Government were going to treat the Bill, whe- 1920 ther they would move Amendments to the Bill itself, or whether they would incorporate in it some Bankruptcy Bill, which would never be soon passed this Session. § Preamble postponed. § Committee report Progress; to sit again upon Tuesday 3rd May. Back to BILLS OF SALE ACT (1878) AMENDMENT (re-committed) BILL.— [BILL 104.]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2295
__label__wiki	0.770134	0.770134	HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1880s → 1889 → February 1889 → 28 February 1889 → Commons Sitting → ORDERS OF THE DAY. ADDRESS IN ANSWER TO HER MAJESTY'S MOST GRACIOUS SPEECH. HC Deb 28 February 1889 vol 333 cc603-83 603 § Order read for resuming Adjourned Debate on Amendment proposed to Question [21st February]—[See page 41.] § And which Amendment was, In paragraph 8, line 4, to leave out all the words after the word "Country," to the end of the paragraph, in order to insert the words,—"But we humbly represent to Your Majesty that the present system of administration in Ireland is harsh, oppressive, and unjust, that it violates the rights and alienates the affections of Your Majesty's Irish Subjects, and is viewed with reprobation and aversion by the people of Great Britain: And we humbly represent to Your Majesty that such measures of conciliation should be adopted as may bring about the contentment of the Irish people, and establish a real union between Great Britain and Ireland,"—(Mr. John Morley) —instead thereof. § Question again proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question." § Debate resumed. § MR. SHAW LEFEVRE (Bradford, C.) Mr. Speaker, I had not quite concluded 604 my remarks when the House adjourned yesterday, and therefore I ask permission to make a few more observations. Yesterday, I endeavoured to show that the Chief Secretary for Ireland is responsible for the conduct of the Resident Magistrates in the sentences they pass on conviction under the Crimes Act, and that the right hon. Gentleman does not exercise the discretion which he possesses of directing that the prisoners should be treated as first-class misdemeanants. I quoted the language of the Chief Secretary, but the right hon. Gentleman was not satisfied with my quotation. I said I would look at the speech again, and having done so, I find I was justified in everything I said on the subject. The Chief Secretary has spoken several times on the treatment of political prisoners, and in every case has justified their treatment as common criminals. In a speech on the 6th of August last the right hon. Gentleman said that nothing would induce him, as long as he was Chief Secretary, to draw a distinction between one class of offenders against the law and another. In a speech he made in December last, he said that it was impossible, in his opinion, to draw a distinction between political offences and other crimes. Again, on Friday last, in one of the most ungenerous speeches ever addressed to the House, in which he accused these prisoners of malingering, of imaginary sufferings, foolish mania, obtaining relaxation of rules, and so on, the right hon. Gentleman said— He would not, so long as he was Irish Secretary, admit that any man had earned special privileges in an Irish prison because he had been engaged in the shocking crimes for which Members of that House had been imprisoned under the Crimes Act. Therefore I am entitled to say that the right hon. Gentleman has given a cue to the Resident Magistrates, and they have followed it. In a debate which, took place in December, Mr. Edward Harrington gave his experience in prison in a speech of great dignity and moderation; he described the indignities to which he had been subjected, how his clothes had been torn off, how he had been ordered to take exercise with criminals, and on refusing to do so was put upon bread and water; and, worst of all, when he had to give 605 evidence in a Court of Justice, he was brought among his own constituents in prison dress. I myself saw Mr. Blunt in Court in prison garb. § MR. A. J. BALFOUR He refused to put on ordinary clothes. § MR. SHAW LEFEVRE I was not aware of that. At all events I saw Mr. Sheehy in Loughrea in prison garb, and he had not refused; neither had Mr. E. Harrington refused, for he made a complaint on the subject to the House. The right hon. Gentleman has directed the prosecution of no fewer than 11 Members of this House, some of whom got three months', four months', and five months' imprisonment for speeches, all of which had been forgotten. These 11 men have been prosecuted during the Recess, and they have all, or nearly all, been sentenced to imprisonment as common prisoners, and for the first time two of them, Mr. E. Harrington and Mr. Condon, were subjected to hard labour. The gaolers also have taken the cue and increased their severity to the prisoners, whom they have submitted to the indignity of having their hair out. There never was a greater outrage committed in the name of law than that in Mr. E. Harrington's case. As the House has heard from the Solicitor General for Ireland (Mr. Madden), he was tried for one offence and sentenced on another. No evidence was given in support of the charge, which related to the speech which he had made, but he was sentenced to six months' hard labour for publishing reports of meetings of suppressed branches of the National League. For 16 months no person has been proceeded against for a similar offence. The Solicitor General said that if Mr. Harrington had undertaken not to repeat the offence he would have been let off. No one in Ireland would give such an undertaking; indeed, I read in the Freeman's Journal that a poor widow and her daughter were sent to gaol for two or three months for refusing to give such an undertaking. Mr. E. Harrington preferred to apply to the Superior Court for a habeas corpus rather than to appeal. He did not succeed, and therefore an appeal was not open to him. Then there is the case of Mr. Carew, one of the most respected Members of the House, and a thorough 606 gentleman in every respect. He was convicted of conspiracy to induce persons not to take evicted farms. For that offence he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment. Mr. Carew declined to appeal, because the County Court Judge—Judge Darling—had expressed his determination never to interfere in the exercise of the Magistrates' discretion unless he was satisfied the Magistrates had made some mistake in law. I will not deal with the case of Mr. O'Brien further than to say that it is necessary that someone as well known and popular as Mr. O'Brien should bring vividly to the public mind the iniquity of the present system. Mr. Sheehy has made a similar resistance to these prison indignities, especially to the enforced exercise with common criminals. There is no civilized country in Europe where such indignities are inflicted on political prisoners. In France the question is not so much one of law as of administration. It is impossible by law to define what is a political prisoner; the matter is therefore left to the administration of the Minister of the Interior. In 1883 M. Thiers issued a circular in which he directed that political prisoners should be treated with special indulgence. Under this category came offenders under the Press Laws, and those who had been convicted in connection with public meetings. All doubtful cases were to be referred to the Minister of the Interior. The rules were liberally administered, and even members of the International, who advocated something like public plunder, were held to come within them, while those who had joined in the excesses of the Commune—pétroleuses and the like, were treated under the ordinary law. That disposes of the Chief Secretary's argument with respect to dynamiters. In former times in our own country a like leniency was extended to political crime. In 1809 William Cobbett, who was convicted of inciting soldiers to mutiny, was treated with extraordinary indulgence, even allowed when in prison to have his children with him and to continue the publication of the Weekly Register, containing as it did bitter attacks on the Government. Leigh Hunt composed in prison some of his best poems. Some of the best things in English literature have been written by political prisoners in 607 goal. I might, perhaps, recommend to right hon. Gentlemen opposite a little book called "Prison Lyrics," which was committed to memory by Mr. Wilfred Blunt, while he was in prison recently. The same policy was followed in the imprisonment of Mr. O'Connell. He, convicted of conspiring to intimidate and create terror among the people, was treated in prison with extraordinary indulgence. On many days his dinner party consisted of as many as 30 people. It is stated also that Sir Charles Gavan Duffy received lessons in elocution during the time he was in gaol. I quote these instances for the purpose of showing what was the practice in the past, and I say the Chief Secretary has practically inaugurated a new policy by treating Irish Members and others in the manner he has treated them—a policy, I venture to say, discreditable to this country, and opposed to the good fame of England. It appears to me to have been the deliberate policy of the right hon. Gentleman to affix to Irish Members the status of criminals. He always speaks of offences under the Crimes Act as crimes and the perpetrators as criminals, and in a speech from which I quoted a short time ago he spoke of the offence committed by Irish Members, and afterwards alluded to those who committed such offences as "shocking criminals." It appears to be part of that same policy that has been exposed before the Royal Commission—the policy of branding the Irish Leader and his principal Colleagues with connivance, with outrage and crime. In Ireland the policy has been to treat those Members who have committed offences under the Crimes Act as criminals in every sense of the term. One part of this policy has altogether failed. It is exploded. The accused have become the accusers, and I will venture to say the policy of the Chief Secretary, in reference to the Crimes Act, will be equally unsuccessful. It was on the very day for the Second Reading of the Crimes Act that the forged letters were published, with the object of influencing public opinion and enabling the Government to carry their Act through; and I say, therefore, that forged letters, Coercion Act, and Government might appropriately disappear from the scene together. I would not even make an exception in favour of my right hon. 608 Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In conclusion, let me say a word on the effect of the policy. The treatment of Irish prisoners and others in this matter has been foolish and wanton, and has not had the desired effect. It does not deter people from committing offences of this kind; on the contrary, it rather stimulates and induces people to do the same thing. There are numbers of people in Ireland who have been induced, by the very manner in which these prisoners have been treated, to commit similar offences. In yesterday's Freeman's Journal it appears that the evictions upon the Clanricarde estate have been renewed. I was under the impression that the Chief Secretary had refused to lend the forces of the Crown for carrying out evictions on this estate. I thought that Dr. Healy, the coad-juting Bishop of the diocese, had persuaded the right hon. Gentleman that it was not wise to do so, and I am surprised that a force is assisting the landlord on that estate. The account in the Freeman's Journal says six families were evicted on the previous day, and turned out upon the roadside. The weather was intensely cold, and snow covered the ground. It was pitiful, the correspondent said, to see old men, women, and young children shivering in the cold, while their household goods were being scattered about the yard. Twenty Emergency men, a hundred police, and a detachment of soldiers assisted at the evictions. It appears that the force assembled on the previous night. For my own part, I can only say that, having taken up the case of these unfortunate people, I will not be backward in supporting them in future, in the absence of their legitimate advisers, their Representatives, and the Leaders of the Irish Party—Mr. O'Brien and the hon. Member for Mayo, who, I am sorry to hear, is compelled to leave England for the benefit of his health. The Representatives of the country are about to go to prison, and I say that if I can render any assistance, if they desire it, by going there and holding a meeting to protest against these cruel evictions, I shall feel it my duty to do so, and I will give whatever advice to the tenants may seem pertinent to the occasion. In conclusion, I will refer to words used by my hon. Friend the Chairman of Committees. He concluded 609 his short speech by saying that, in Ireland— A great system was working for equity and freedom, and an ever-increasing attempt to give the same guarantees for independence as England possessed. I am sorry to think my right hon. Friend is living in a fool's paradise; for that appears to me exactly the converse of what is taking place. For my part, after some inquiry in Ireland during several visits, and having paid more attention to the facts of the cases that have occurred there under the Coercion Act than most Members during the last two years, I have certainly come to the conclusion that the administration of Ireland under the present Chief Secretary is being carried out by an organized system of police espionage, supported by and supporting a system of Coercion, carried out in total contempt of Irish opinion—in total disregard of all those Constitutional principles which the English people most value and uphold. § MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN (Birmingham, West) I must confess that I am somewhat disappointed by the speech to which we have just listened. When my right hon. Friend rose yesterday afternoon I hoped that he would at least introduce some novelty into the debate, and rise to the height of this great argument. My right hon. Friend has devoted special attention to Ireland and to Irish policy, and he has devoted to that question all the resources of a most painstaking intellect; and certainly I hoped that on the present occasion be would have given to the House some general principles of policy upon which we might have continued the discussion, and that he would not have confined himself, as he has done, strictly to the lines of previous speakers, and to a disquisition on all the petty details of administration in Ireland. I wish to recall to the House the fact that the Amendment we are considering consists of two branches. In the first place, this Amendment condemns in unhesitating and unqualified terms the present system of administration in Ireland; and, in the second place, it goes on to suggest an alternative policy and the adoption of such measures of conciliation as would bring about the contentment of the Irish people and establish a real union between Great Britain and Ireland. 610 Surely the second part of the Amendment is much more important than the first, and yet, from first to last, although we have had three days' debate, no single speaker has uttered one single word upon the second branch. The line of argument hitherto has, in my opinion, not been broad enough to sustain a Vote of Censure. What is it that we are asked to do? We are asked to censure the Government, knowing that the result of that would be a change of Government; and, what is more important, an entire change in the relations between this country and Ireland. Surely, if we are to take so important a step as that, we ought to know something of the policy of the Government which is to succeed the one we are asked to condemn. It may be a good thing to make such a change; it may be that the time has come for it; but, if so, why do you argue, why do not you give us and the country an opportunity of considering what are the circumstances which should now lead us to reverse the policy at which we arrived only two years ago? In 1886 the policy of Home Rule, the policy of a separate Parliament in Dublin, was rejected in this House; and it was rejected still more conclusively in the country. It may be that our fears which led us to join in that rejection may have been groundless. It may be that in course of the two years which have elapsed you have found new arguments which will enable you to recommend more successfully the policy which was then rejected. Why do not you produce the arguments to the House? Why do you ask us to give a verdict on false pretences? Why do you ask us to accept Home Rule not by any arguments in favour of Homo Rule, but by petty attacks on the Administration? I say that the course we are asked to take is too important to be decided by a side wind. The fate of the Empire, the peace of Ireland, by your own assertion, depend upon the course which you are recommending. The fate of the Empire and the peace of Ireland ought not to be allowed to depend upon the question whether one particular Member of Parliament has had his hair cut and another Member of Parliament has refused to be weighed. What are the grounds, hitherto submitted to this House, upon which we are asked to 611 reverse the decision at which we arrived in 1886? We are to accept a Home Rule Administration—because that is the question—because it appears that under the Coercion Act, out of some 5,000,000 subjects of Her Majesty in Ireland, there are at the present time 111 persons, all told, who have been confined for short periods of imprisonment in the Irish gaols. It is not denied by anybody that these persons have committed the offences with which they are charged. They boast of it; it is made part of the case on their behalf that they have committed these offences deliberately, of course with the best intentions and motives. It is not denied, I believe, that offences of this kind must be repressed. Either you must do away with the state of things under which these offences are committed or you must repress the offenders. But it is said in a few cases—as far as I know not in more than half-a-dozen of them—the sentences which have been inflicted are harsh and excessive; and it is said that in another small number of cases, probably a score, or it may be a little more than a score, the treatment of those offenders, after they have been convicted, has been unnecessarily harsh. These allegations are all of them made on ex parte statements. They are made either on the authority of the persons themselves or on the authority of newspaper editors, and I should have thought hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway were not inclined to place implicit reliance upon newspaper statements. Yet it is upon this evidence with which the House is called upon to deal, and with which, even if it were better evidence, the House is incapable of dealing—it is upon this evidence, which is not good enough to hang a dog upon, that you are asked to turn out a Government and to replace them with what I may call a Home Rule Administration. Even if these allegations were proved up to the hilt: that there has been harsh administration of the law in Ireland; that, to accept the language of my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle, there has been a prostitution of the law in Ireland; that there are unjust Judges in Ireland; that there are gaolers devoid of human sympathy, who actually take a personal delight in torturing their prisoners—even if all that were true, although it might be ground for an inquiry 612 by this House, and for the condemnation of the persons concerned, and for an appeal to the Crown to remove these unjust Judges, and to the Government to remove these unjust gaolers, yet it would not of itself be a ground for removing the Government. Certainly not; and it is no ground at all for altering the policy upon which the Government have taken their stand. It is perfectly evident that the promoters of this debate feel that they are weak. They feel that it is not enough to prove up to the hilt charges against officials in Ireland, but that it is necessary to connect the Government with their malpractices, and, accordingly, they have not hesitated to impute the basest, the meanest, and the wickedest motives to the Members of the Government, and, above all, to the Chief Secretary. It has been insinuated from these Benches, and directly alleged from the Benches below the Gangway, that the Chief Secretary has consented to, and has, in fact, stimulated, the torture of political opponents who have worsted him in debate. § MR. DILLON They have done it all the same. We have a precedent for action of this kind. I remember that in a previous Administration there were some abominable crimes, not alleged, but proved, against officials and persons of position in Ireland—some persons connected with Dublin Castle. The accused were brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment, and then the Party below the Gangway charged the Government of the day—charged Lord Spencer and the right hon. Gentleman the Member for the Bridgeton Division of Glasgow—with conniving at those outrageous offences. They even went further, and charged them with personal sympathy with those outrages. Now this precedent is followed, and the same Party, cheered, I am sorry to say, from above the Gangway, are charging the Government, not, indeed, with connivance with crime, for crime is not alleged, but, at all events, with motives which I should deem to be criminal. I say that the charge is preposterous. I say more. There is not a man in this House, wherever he sits and whatever he may think it fit to do in these bitter Party recriminatory discussions—there is not a 613 man in this House who believes a word of it. The right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary can afford very well to disregard these charges. He knows that if he would come down here tomorrow—if he would say, like some of his predecessors, that he had "found salvation" in four-and-twenty hours—if he would say that he was a convert to Home Rule, he would be covered with the profuse adulation of the hon. Members who now abuse him, although, perhaps, in the one case as in the other, their personal admiration would not be accompanied by much personal respect. Well, Sir, supposing for the sake of argument I go further and admit, not the motives charged against the Chief Secretary—that would be absurd—but supposing I admit that he has made a mistake, and by an error of judgment done something which he ought not to have done, or refrained from something which he ought to have done, I say that again would be a reason for a representation from this House, but it would not be a sufficient reason for replacing the Chief Secretary and the Government of which he is a Member by a new Chief Secretary and a Government pledged to a policy which by hypothesis we are all bound to oppose. I complain that in this debate hitherto we have not reached the real kernel of the argument. I wish to come to the second branch of the Amendment which has been proposed. I quite admit that if there be such a policy as is here indicated, if there be a policy of conciliation which will secure contentment in Ireland, and if that policy is refused by the Government, then undoubtedly you have a sufficient reason for turning them out, and I think the sooner you do so the better. But if you have such a policy as that, why do you not put it before us? Why do you not tell us what it is? Why do you not allow us to judge of it? No; I know that that would not answer your purpose. You want us to swallow your policy with our eyes shut. We respectfully decline to do so. Now in 1886 my right hon. Friend the Member for Mid Lothian contended that there were only two alternatives before the House and the country. One was a system of Coercion more stringent than any which had previously existed, and the other was his own policy of conciliation, which was represented by his 614 two Bills. At that time we protested against this. We said there was a third alternative, and that it was possible to continue on the ancient lines of Liberalism, and, while steadily maintaining the Union in all its fulness and completeness, at the same time to seek out and remedy any proved grievances on the part of the Irish people. But we said at the same time that it would be within your power to make that alternative impossible. We said it was within the power of hon. Members, and, above all, hon. Members from Ireland, to create such an agitation in Ireland as would make repressive measures absolutely necessary, and we all know that since that time it has been the deliberate and avowed policy of the Irish Members to make the Government of Ireland impossible, and to force Coercion on the Government of the country. But, at least, I say this. If we were to have Coercion, so far from its being the most stringent Coercion ever known, it is the mildest in the history of the country. ["No, no!"] Well, let us contrast it with some Coercions which preceded it. Under this Act, which is represented as so arbitrary and as so tyrannical, under which the whole country of Ireland is alleged to be groaning, you have just 111 men, and no more, in prison, and for short periods of imprisonment. In the time of the late Mr. Forster over 1,000 men were in prison at one time, and at that time there was very much less success attended the imprisonment of those 1,000 persons than has now attended the imprisonment of 111 gentlemen who are now, unfortunately, confined for the pacification of Ireland; because as to the result of this Coercion Act there can be no two opinions. You may say, if you like, that other things have contributed to this result; but the result itself is indubitable and undeniable. You may test the condition of Ireland by any of the usual tests, and you will find that in all respects it has been enormously improved. Since the Act was passed the number of outrages has diminished, boycotting has been immensely reduced, the number of persons claiming protection is very much less, and, more important than all, people begin to recognize that they can do what they have a legal 615 right to do, and are beginning to take vacant farms all over the country. Under these circumstances I say there is no case where so much good in the way of pacifying the country has been effected with so little real repression and interference with individual liberty. But then it may be said that although the law can be justified, yet the administration of the law has been conducted with excessive harshness. Now, just let us look into the alleged abuses of the law, and let me point out that this kind of allegation is made against every law in every country and at all times. I am bound to say that there is not a bench of magistrates in the United Kingdom against which similar charges have not been made—charges, that is to say, of administering law in such a way as to inflict unjust or unequal sentences. These charges are very often made without sufficient proof; but, even if they were proved, you never heard anybody coming to the House of Commons and proposing a Vote of Censure on the Government because some magistrate committed a man for six months when he should only have given him two. Now we have had a number of individual cases brought before the House. Every one of these has been replied to categorically, either by the Chief Secretary for Ireland or the Solicitor General for Ireland; and with one exception, to which I will refer, the answers appear to me to be satisfactory. At all events, they are sufficient to show conclusively that there are two sides to the case, and that the House of Commons would be very improperly advised if it accepted a purely ex parte statement. Take one case as a type of the rest and as significant of the light way in which these accusations, apparently without any investigation, are brought forward. Here is a case brought forward by my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle, and made part of his solemn indictment of the Government, for it was not like a speech in debate—it was a deliberately prepared indictment against the Government; and he quoted it as one reason why, as I have said, we should turn out the Government and adopt a Home Rule policy. There is one case," said my right hon. Friend, "in which I hope the Chief Secretary will give us further information, for the circumstances, as stated, are so extraordinary that I 616 cannot believe them. But he, perhaps, can tell us whether they are true or not. Two young men were charged with obstructing a constable at Ennis on February 10th. The obstruction consisted in the defendants, while engaged in conversation, laughing at the constable. The defendants denied that they were laughing. The magistrates sentenced them to three months' imprisonment, in default of finding bail for good behaviour. I say this may not be true, but it requires investigation. Yes, Sir; certainly it requires investigation. I cannot conceive a fairer case for putting a question to the Solicitor General and getting a reply; but is it upon an allegation of this kind, as to which my right hon. Friend does not venture to offer an opinion, even though it is a true accusation, that we are to found a great Constitutional argument and to attack the Government of the country? Now, what was the answer of the Solicitor General? In the first place, it was not a prosecution under the Crimes Act at all. It was under the ordinary law. These young men were proved to have deliberately insulted the constable. They said to him, "You are a scoundrel. You are the meanest man in Ennis, and we shall soon kick you out of Ennis." The men were ordered to give bail. One man gave bail; the other refused to do so, and he was imprisoned in default. Well, now this is the proof of the iniquity of the Government, of the arbitrary character of the Crimes Act, and, of course, of the tyrannical cruelty and injustice which is proceeding in Ireland. Why, it is the most ordinary case in the world of a couple of rude roughs brought before a magistrate and ordered to find bail for good behaviour and sent to gaol in default. The only other case to which I wish to refer is that of Mr. E. Harrington, and which, as I have said, is the exception to the satisfactory reply of the Government to the charges against them. Mr. Edward Harrington, at all events, is a man of courage. He has gone to gaol, and he has taken his punishment bravely. He has not complained about putting on the prison clothes, and he has suffered all the penalties inflicted upon him, although we are told—and I daresay it is true—they involve some physical suffering. Well, Mr. Harrington committed an offence which I do not want to depreciate, and, being brought before the magistrates, he was sentenced to what I believe is the 617 utmost punishment allowed by law—namely, six months with hard labour. I think that a tremendous punishment, especially for a man of education. But that is not all. It is admitted that the Court offered Mr. Harrington to let him off altogether if he would give an assurance not to repeat the offence. I think two things follow from that. It shows that the Court was not vindictively inclined, but it shows that the Court was of opinion that the offence committed was of a kind which it was necessary to deter others from committing, but not of a kind which required penal infliction. There is all the difference in the world between punishment for the sake of punishment and for the sake of prevention. I confess it appears to me that this was a case in which the only punishment that was necessary was for the sake of prevention; and I do venture to urge the Government, in view of all the circumstances of the case, to especially consider the case of Mr. Harrington, and see whether it be not one to which the clemency of the Crown might be extended. I now pass to the other classes of complaint with regard to the prison treatment of prisoners under the Crimes Act. There is the case of Mr. O'Brien. I do not want to say much about Mr. O'Brien's case, especially in his absence, but I think it is fair to say this—that everyone who has seen him in this House must know, not only that he is a delicate man, bnt also a person of a rather excitable temperament; and it is quite possible, under the circumstances—the irritating circumstances in which he was placed the other day—that he may not have recollected all that passed. At all events we have to consider the statement, which, we are told, comes directly from him, and which was given to us by the hon. Member for East Mayo (Mr. Dillon). Well, but since then a paper has been laid on the Table of the House, to which we are entitled to pay some attention, and as to which all I am going to say is, that it conflicts very materially with the statement given to us the other day. This is a paper called for by the hon. Member for Longford (Mr. T. Healy), and laid on the Table accordingly. It is a statement by the prison doctor (Dr. O'Farrell), and I will read the only passages which I think are in conflict with Mr. 618 O'Brien's statement, and simply leave the matter to the judgment of the House. Dr. O'Farrell says— Mr. O'Brien was lying in bed on two mattresses, with a plentiful supply of good and new bed covering. Receiving me courteously, and affording me every facility for examining him, he expressed himself as feeling well, and seemed in very good spirits. In reply to my questions, he said he had every confidence in the skill and kindness of the prison medical officer. That is the gentleman against whom the hon. Member for East Mayo brought the most extraordinary and violent accusations the other day. He said, I think, that in his opinion the conduct of this gentleman was infamous. Dr. O'Farrell continues— And that the friction which occurred with him last Thursday was owing to a misunderstanding on his own part. He stated that he had no complaint of any kind to make regarding his prison treatment; and that if the rule depriving him of his clothing had to be insisted on, he would say no excessive violence had been used in forcing it. On my remarking that it was not easy to measure the exact degree of force necessary once a struggle was provoked, as official, like other human temper, is, unfortunately, an imponderable quantity, Mr. O'Brien at once candidly said that the officials had displayed no temper on the occasion in question. I shall say no more on that particular case, but I would submit that on the general question it is a fair subject for discussion whether the gentlemen convicted under the Crimes Act, or the majority of these gentlemen, should or should not be treated as first-class misdemeanants; and if a Bill or Resolution were brought before the House dealing with the subject I confess I should be inclined to support it. But it is perfectly beside the main issue to put forward as a reason for turning out the Government, that they have carried out the law as it exists at present. I think these charges are an attempt to avoid the main issue. They are an attempt to get a verdict from the country on a side issue, not by argument addressed to the understanding, but by an appeal to sensation and sentimental declamation. I do not agree for a moment with the statement in the Amendment of my right hon. Friend that the policy administered in Ireland is viewed with reprobation and aversion by the people of Great Britain. ["Oh!"] I may be blind, but I do not see the point. It is true the right hon. Gentleman 619 the Member for Newcastle said the other day there was an irresistible voice—that the hour had struck, and that the irresistible voice would sweep the Government from power. Well, I confess I do not hear the irresistible voice. I suppose the irresistible voice is to be found in what the Gladstonian papers dignify by the name of the "National Protest." I should like to ask my right hon. Friend whether he really is satisfied with the result of the latest atrocity agitation? I have been in a great number of agitations. I have witnessed them from near at hand. I am bound to say there is no agitation, in my opinion, in recent times which has been so little effective as this one. My right hon. Friend is more behind the scenes than I am, but it appears to me as if this irresistible voice was the voice of Mr. Schnadhorst, speaking through the Sub-Committees, the General Committees, the Executive Committees, and the Management Committees, whose operations he so ably controls. So far as I can see, the great heart of the people is beating with perfect tranquillity, in spite of all the agitation. But then, perhaps, my right hon. Friend relies upon recent elections. All I ask him on that point is to enter upon the study of comparative meteorology, and, if he does, he will find there is no case of any Government's being in power for the time this Government has been in power and losing so little. ["Oh! Oh!"] Well, lam quite certain that the Government of which I know most lost a good deal. We never took that view of by-elections when my right hon. Friend was in power. I do not think that they are any conclusive key to the current of public opinion; and I have really more faith in the good sense and intelligence of my fellow-countrymen than to believe that they will allow their opinions upon a subject which involves the highest interests to be changed by such miserable side-issues as these by which it is now sought to influence their decision. Now, Sir, I have dealt as far as I intend to deal with the first part of this Amendment. It is the only part—or else I should not have spent my time on it—with which the promoters of the Amendment have dealt up to the present time. I say with regard to it that the allegations are not proved, and if they were proved, they would not constitute 620 in themselves a sufficient case for turning out the Government. If you want to do that, the only way is to produce an alternative and a better policy than their policy. And, again, I ask my right hon. Friends on this bench, when they speak at the concluding portion of this debate, to tell us what their policy is. [Ironical laughter.] Hon. Members below the Gangway think that this is a most laughable request to make. They are afraid, perhaps, that my right hon. Friend behind me would fall into a trap if he told the country what he would do with regard to the relations of the Government to Ireland if he were sitting opposite. I do not think that it is an unreasonable demand to make, and I will support it by a historical precedent. In 1868 there was a Conservative Government in power. There was coercion in Ireland and discontent in Ireland. My right hon. Friend was then the Leader of the Opposition. What did he do? He put before the country and the House a remedial policy for Ireland in all its details. That was the date when he told us of the up as tree with its three branches. § MR. W. E. GLADSTONE (Mid Lothian) I did not go into any details. § MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN Well, he put before country the main principles of his policy. He spoke of the up as tree. He proposed remedial legislation in three branches—for education, for the land, and the Irish Church; and he promised that as the result of that legislation there should be content and union of hearts in Ireland. But my right hon. Friend did more than that. He put before the House a series of Resolutions upon the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church. That is all we ask him to do now. Let him put upon the Table of the House and let us discuss Resolutions embodying the main principles of his Irish policy. We are perfectly ready to grapple with and discuss them, and possibly we may be able to agree. I say possibly. I admit that I am not so sanguine as I once was. In 1886 we knew perfectly well what my right hon. Friend's policy was. It was put before us in two Bills, and, of course, with great detail and elaboration. But we cannot discuss with you upon those Bills, because they are dead. 621 That is no longer the policy of my right hon. Friend. [Mr. GLADSTONE expressed dissent.] My right hon. Friend corrects me. Do I understand him to differ? Then what is the policy of my right hon. Friend? That is what I have been trying to get at ever since the Bills were defeated in 1886, and I have never got it to this moment. Now we know that these Bills, one of which we were told was abandoned, the other of which was to be altered in material particulars, and both of which were dead—that these Bills are now resuscitated and alive, and that they stand as the policy of my right hon. Friend. My right hon. Friend thinks that the opinion of the country or of the House is changed with regard to these Bills. Let him bring them forward again as Bills or as Resolutions, and we are prepared to discuss them again. Then it will be fair to ask the House to turn out the Government if it agrees with my right hon. Friend. But I confess that although we know now that these Bills contain the policy of my hon. Friend, we know also—because he has told us so himself—that there are to be important alterations in them. I assume that if he should challenge the House again upon this policy he will be prepared to tell us—and I do not see why he should not tell us in the present debate—what those alterations are. That is not asking for details, for the alterations affect the greatest principle—the principle which he has himself put into the forefront—the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. I think we have a right to ask for some information with regard to this question. I know it is no use to appeal to hon. Gentlemen; but I should like to appeal, through them, to the country, to consider what is the result of this policy of silence—of this abstinence from all information of which we can catch hold. I want them to see what a situation they are forging for themselves. Suppose that upon this Amendment they were successful. That is not very likely, but they must be successful sooner or later. [Opposition cheers.] You receive that as if it were a Heaven-sent communication. I wonder whether hon. Gentlemen were so absolutely hopeless of ever getting back into power that they are grateful for an intimation from me that at some time or other they must be successful. I suppose no 622 Government can always remain in office, and when this Government, in the ordinary course of events, gives place to the Government led by my right hon. Friend, when that time comes which is so ardently desired by Members below the Gangway, then, at all events, my right hon. Friend will have to state his policy, and not merely the main principles of it, but the full details. I will suppose that he is successful in persuading the then House of Commons to adopt it. I will also suppose that he is successful in persuading the country to adopt it on the occasion of the second general election which must take place before a great constitutional change is made, and which it is perfectly certain would take place. Assuming that my right hon. Friend is perfectly successful on both occasions, even then I would ask him to consider what chance there is of a final settlement if it is to be, as it will be on this hypothesis, forced upon an unwilling but a powerful and energetic minority in Ireland, and if it is to be carefully watched, strenuously criticized, and persistently opposed by a powerful minority in this House and in this country? I do not believe, after all, if it were possible to look on this matter apart from Party interests, that any reasonable man would deny my proposition—namely, that there is no chance of any Party making a final settlement of this question without some sort of general assent. The only chance of a final settlement is where all the moderate men of all Parties agree. It is all very well in the heat of Party discussion to forget that; but although it is unsafe to prophesy, I prophesy with the most absolute certainty of fulfilment, that if you carry the old scheme, or any new Home Rule scheme, it will break down within six months under such opposition as I have indicated. If that is so, is it not worth while once more to see whether there be not some points on which we are all agreed? I am not speaking of myself—I am speaking of the moderate men of all Parties. Are there any points at all upon which the moderate men of all Parties are agreed, and the consideration of which offers a chance of further agreement? From time to time it is worthy the attention of the House of Commons to consider whether this is the case. § MR. BIGGAR (Cavan, W.) Lay them on the Table. I say that there are points of agreement upon which moderate men do agree even at the present time. Here is the first one. I believe that moderate men of all Parties agree in this—the primary importance of a settlement of the land question. Just note one thing in passing. Here we are discussing the administration of the Crimes Act, and a number of cases are brought forward. I notice that every one of those cases is an agrarian case, and has nothing whatever to do directly with the Home Rule question. I do not press that point too far. I am perfectly ready to admit that when you have settled the land question there may remain a very strong feeling in favour of Home Rule of some kind or other. I admit that, but I say if you could do away with the agrarian difficulty you would do away with the system of coercion and the necessity of such a debate as this, and all these cases of grievances which have been brought before the House. And, therefore, if my right hon. Friend has a land policy to propose which will secure these results, that would be a very proper thing to challenge the opinion of the House upon, and, if the Government did not adopt it, to turn them out. We are agreed as to the primary importance of such a question. I want to call attention to the language used by my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle (Mr. J. Morley). This is an extract which I know expresses his present view, but it is an extract which appeared in the Nineteenth Century of November, 1882. He then wrote— If there were no other check, the land question would stand in the way if we are to undertake Home Rule in such a sense as would satisfy Mr. Davitt and Mr. Dillon. Are we to make terms with the landlords beforehand? If so, what is the security that those terms will be observed? I just note, in passing, that this is precisely one of our difficulties about any proposal for the extension of local government in Ireland. We want to know what is the security that any terms we make will be observed. My right hon. Friend says now, "Oh, you have armies and navies, and by them you can control the Irish Parliament." 624 But at any rate in 1882 he did not think so, because he put this question. He goes on to say— If not, are we prepared to see the landlords sent flying for their lives with bag and baggage? The land is the question that interests the Irish more than all other questions put together. What value would they set upon an arrangement which excluded this from the sphere of their own control? If it is not excluded, can we expect them to handle the interests of those whom they regard as their hereditary tyrants and most cruel oppressors with respect for property and interests that is exacted by public opinion in this country, where the dispossessed class happen to be powerfully represented? If this be a well-grounded apprehension, then some form of equitable expropriation must precede any effectual form of Home Rule. Now, Sir, I say I agree with every word of that, and I believe it will be concurred in by every reasonable man. Is there what my right hon. Friend calls a reasonable form of expropriation which can be found and which will not involve excessive risk to the British taxpayer, because that is the only reason, so far as I know, which led any of us to oppose the Land Bill of my right hon. Friend; at all events, it was the primary reason. Well, is there such a plan? Can such a plan be proposed? I think there can be. Some hon. Members have just invited me to consider the subject of the Round Table. I observe that my right hon. Friend (Sir W. Harcourt), speaking last night at Derby, alluded to that celebrated Conference, and gave his own account of what took place there. Now, the proceeding of my right hon. Friend is very characteristic—characteristic of the proceedings of his Party in this debate. When I heard that my right hon. Friend was contemplating a statement as to the proceedings of the Round Table, I wrote to him to suggest that we should confer on the facts only—not upon anything else—in order that there might be an agreement, at least, upon the facts. It was open to each of us to make our own comments upon the facts; but I thought we might compare our respective notes of what took place at the time, and that that would avoid subsequent controversy. My right hon. Friend declined. § SIR W. HARCOURT (Derby) My right hon. Friend says, Why? Because he preferred, as my right hon. Friend's colleagues appear also to prefer, to rely upon an ex parte statement. § SIR W. HARCOURT The reason why I declined the proposal of my right hon. Friend was because, before he went to Scotland and demanded the publication of a secret proceeding, he never said a word to his colleagues about his intention to divulge, or to demand the divulging, of that secret, and I told him that, as he had chosen to take his own course without consulting us, we—I and my colleagues—took our course without consulting him. The statement which my right hon. Friend has just made necessitates a further allusion to the matter, which I had intended to reserve for discussion in the public Press. It is quite true that my right hon. Friends accused me of challenging them and forcing their hands, and compelling them to divulge something which I suppose they did not want to divulge. But I have pointed out to my right hon. Friend, in correspondence, that the cause of the remarks of which he complains is to be found in a previous speech delivered some considerable time before by my right hon. Friend the Member for New-castle-on-Tyne (Mr. Morley). Speaking at Ipswich in October, my right hon. Friend, in answer to some such request as that which I have made to-day to my right hon. Friend the Member for Mid Lothian that he would disclose his policy, said,—"My right hon. Friend Mr. Chamberlain knows what our policy is. He knew it at the Round Table;" and then he went on to condemn in the strongest possible terms what he called the Birmingham plan of Irish land settlement. Now, Sir, as it is my opinion, and as I think I shall be able to show, that the only plans which were discussed at the Round Table were the Birmingham plans, I think I was justified under those circumstances in protesting against the inferences which would be drawn from my right hon. Friend's statement, and in offering them my permission, at all events, to publish anything which took place at that Conference. Now, Sir, that is only a digression. I come back to my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby. He has taken, as he has said, his own course. Well, that will necessitate my taking my own course. I cannot admit that the right hon. Gentleman's statement of our proceedings is adequate or accurate, and I shall take the earliest possible opportunity of 626 correcting him in those particulars that I think to be material. But all I want to do now is to refer to this Conference for the sake of my present argument. I was dealing with the Land Question. I was dealing with the possibility of finding some scheme which might settle the Land Question, which might carry through an equitable expropriation without involving British credit. Well, now, one thing, at all events, is absolutely beyond dispute in connection with the Round Table. My right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-on-Tyne said, the other day, if we were not in entire agreement we were at least in sight of one another. My right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, speaking last night, confirmed that statement. He even went beyond it, and said we were in substantial agreement. Well, what were we in agreement upon? What were the plans that were discussed at the Round Table? Were they the Bills of my right hon. Friend the Member for Mid Lothian? Certainly not. Those Bills were laid on the shelf; they were never referred to. [Sir W. HARCOURT: Oh!] There was no reference whatever, and the discussion proceeded from first to last—["Oh, oh!"]—this is my statement—the discussion proceeded from first to last as regards the land question upon a plan which I submitted, which my right hon. Friend possesses at this moment in writing, and which, if anybody doubts me, I challenge him to produce; and, as regards Home Rule, it proceeded upon a consideration of the inter-provincial system of Canada, which is totally distinct from the plan of my right hon. Friend, and which I offered to accept as a basis of discussion in the debates upon the Home Rule Bill. Well, I say under those circumstances I am justified in asserting that, at all events, the plans which were discussed there were not the plans of my right hon. Friend. But, as regards Local Government, just consider for a moment what that means. Consider what the inter-provincial system of Canada is. The discussion turned upon a system under which, in the first place, there would have been a separate treatment of Ulster. It turned upon a system under which there would have been a representation of Irish Members at Westminster, and the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament would have 627 been maintained. It turned on a system under which the administration of the law—the appointment, that is to say, of the Judges and the magistrates—was to be in the hands of the Imperial authority, and not of the local authority; it turned on a system under which there were to be statutory provisions for protecting the private rights of every man, for preventing undue preference, either of classes or individuals, and for preventing the taking of any man's property without adequate compensation. And it provided, besides all this, for the continuance of an Imperial authority—not the Army; not the Navy—in order to see that those statutory provisions were observed by the local and subordinate authorities. I say that may be a bad system or a good system—I am not discussing that now. All I want to know is this—we were at that time within sight of one another upon that system—are we still within sight of one another upon that system? [Cries of "No" from the Irish Members.] Oh, you have changed your minds. [A Voice: "You have changed yours."] Well, who are the real Leaders of the Party? That may be the difficulty. I have my own opinion why the Round Table Conference came to an end, and it is not the opinion which was expressed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby. I think there was a power behind the Throne which got uneasy at the negotiations, and accordingly they were brought to a premature conclusion. But I say again, if my right hon. Friends are still within sight of me upon these points, why don't they put their propositions in the form of Resolutions before the House and let us discuss them? I think it is very likely that we might find other persons to agree with us—perhaps persons on both sides of the House. Let us go a step further with regard to the land question. I have already called attention to the fact in another place that my right hon. Friend at a dinner party at which he spoke in London about the time of the Round Table Conference stated that, although he adhered to his original intention—that is, his land scheme of perfect security—yet that he admitted the strength of the objections to the use of British credit, and that he had come to the conclusion on reconsideration that 628 plans might be found for carrying out the object without having recourse to British credit. § MR. GLADSTONE Hear, hear; that is so. I never denied it. Very well; my right hon. Friend is, no doubt, still of the same opinion. I do not say—I am not alleging that the plan which my right hon. Friend had in view was the plan which I submitted to the Round Table Conference, and which my right hon. Friend considers to be too ingenious and too impracticable; but, at all events, my right hon. Friend, if he does not accept my plan, has a plan of his own. He sees his way to the general lines of a plan which would affect this object, an object—and I want to bring the House back to this—which is essential to the success of your policy. You cannot have Home Rule without an effective and satisfactory Land Bill. With an effective and satisfactory Land Bill Home Rule would be robbed of half its terrors. Well, I say that if my right hon. Friend has a plan of this kind, and if he would produce it in this House for discussion, or if he would follow the course pursued on the Irish Church Question and put forward resolutions on the main lines of such a plan— I laid down no main lines for the Irish Church Disestablishment. My right hon. Friend says he did not give any main lines in his resolution about the Irish Church? Well, I accept his statement. As regards what I am now speaking about, I wish—whether there be a precedent for it or not—he could see his way to give an indication to the House of the main lines upon which at least a land scheme might be carried, and I believe that by so doing he would render greater service to the House and to the country than any services that he has rendered during the long course of his political existence. If this land question were out of the way the greatest obstacle to further progress would be removed. Why? Does any one doubt for a moment that if the Land War were out of the way there would be any objection in any part of the 629 House at once to proceed with Local Government in Ireland, at least on the lines of the English and Scotch Local Government Bill. Surely hon. Members below the Gangway would agree that in a proposal for the settlement of the Irish Question a proposal for conferring Local County Government on Ireland must form a part? [Mr. Morley here said something to the right hon. Gentleman in an undertone.] Oh, yes; but that does not make any difference in the argument that Local Government for Ireland is necessary, whether it be carried out by an Irish Parliament or by the Imperial Parliament. All I say is, that if we got a land scheme which would end the Land War, then a Local Government System for Ireland presents no difficulties either by a Local or Imperial Parliament, and so far, at all events, you would settle the question. I have never made the slightest concealment of the opinion to which my right hon. Friend referred last night, and which I gave expression to at the Pound Table Conference, and again and again in public speeches, that if you grot as far as this you might go farther. I express my own opinion; but I have always thought that in these circumstances it would be possible, and it might be wise, to relieve this overworked Parliament by a system of delegation of some of its business. I do not believe in that case that there would be any difficulty or difference of opinion as to the subjects which should be submitted to any local assembly which might be created. There are certain subjects which would suggest themselves to the mind of every Member of the House—questions affecting Education, Temperance, Local Government, Public Works, and many other Questions, on which we could agree, which could be, in my opinion, most conveniently dealt with by Local Assemblies in Ireland, in Scotland, and perhaps in Wales. The difficulty does not arise there. I think myself it is worth while even for Home Rule Gentlemen to consider the difficulties which they have to overcome; and the difficulties which I think they have to overcome before they can succeed in persuading the House and the country to carry Home Rule are stupendous. The difficulties are two-fold. In the first place, you have to devise some plan by which the system of the control of the Imperial Parliament 630 may be maintained. My right hon. Friend told us we have got the Army and Navy. It is not enough to tell us that we have got the Army and Navy. We do not want to be out of one difficulty into another. We do not want, six months after the granting of Home Rule, to have to re-conquer Ireland. I am not so certain as my right hon. Friend seems to think that it would be so easy a thing to accomplish; but whether easy or difficult we do not want to have to do it. And before we see our way clearly to granting these local liberties we ought to see our way to a means by which the control of Parliament may be given over to local authorities. The second point with which you have to deal—indeed it is the crux of the whole situation [ironical laughter]—there ought to be no jeering or laughing when this subject is mentioned; it is not the policy of wise men to jeer and laugh at difficulties of this magnitude—the next question with which you have to deal is the question of Ulster. When my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for North Armagh spoke the other day you laughed at his statement that there would be forcible resistance against the decrees of an Irish Parliament, and you seek to institute a similarity between a threat of resistance to an Irish Parliament and resistance to the Imperial Parliament. I say, at all events, that the two things stand on a totally different footing. I say that there is one thing which the Imperial Parliament has no moral right to do. If it chooses it has a perfect right to repudiate the allegiance of any part of the Empire. It has a right to send them adrift, to force them from us against their will; it has a right to say to Ulster "Go from us; we will not have you any longer among us;" but it has no right to transfer the allegiance of Ulster or any other portion of the United Kingdom against the will and the consent of that portion which is sought to be separated. Therefore, I say the case is quite different; and I say, further, that although hon. Members from Ireland ridicule in public the threats which are made they know in their hearts that those threats are serious. ["No."] Well, they may be going blindly into the ditch; but they know, and I know, that there would be such serious 631 resistance to a proposal to transfer the allegiance of Ulster to a Home Rule Parliament in Dublin that the whole of your work would be undone six months after it was completed. I am afraid that I have trespassed too long on the patience of the House. At all events, I have attempted to deal frankly with the Question before the House. I say that the object of my argument has been to show that the complaints of the administration of the Crimes Act are not proved, and if they were proved they would not justify a complete change of policy. They amount to an attempt to obtain a verdict from the people of this country on false issues; and I appeal to my right hon. Friends who may have to follow me in Debate to, at all events, place the future discussion on a broader, sounder basis, and to tell us, not in detail, but broadly, what is the policy which is to bring about the union of hearts which they ask us to anticipate, and to put that policy before us in a form in which we can meet them in discussion. § MR. BRADLAUGH (Northampton) There has been one word constantly recurring in the able speech we have just listened to which I should like, if possible, to interpret—and that is the word "we." The right hon. Gentleman, speaking as if with authority, said what "we" are ready to do—what "we" are prepared to meet. Speaking with some slight experience, at any rate, of England, Scotland, and Wales, I do not quite understand what the right hon. Gentleman means by "we." I know the Party opposite; I know a strong Party in the House, though a diminishing one, which follows the noble Lord the Member for Rossendale (the Marquis of Hartington); but I know nowhere out of Birmingham the Party for whom the right hon. Gentleman speaks. In 1884–5 the right hon. Gentleman could have used the word "we" with authority, for he then spoke in the name of nearly all the advanced Liberals and the great bulk of the Radicals of this country. I was one of those who looked to the right hon. Gentleman for leadership and guidance in a more advanced policy than even that of the Cabinet with which he was connected, and I was taught so to look at him by his own words—words which, if his leisure will permit him to remain 632 in the House for a short time I shall have to call his attention to. But since 1886 I deny the right hon. Gentleman's right to speak for either the Radicalism or the Liberalism of this country. I am afraid that if any accident happened which separated the right hon Gentleman for a time, however short, from the noble Lord the Member for Rossendale, who now sits beside him, he will find that he has not a friend among those whom he once denounced because they neither toil or spin. Nor has he claimed a right to be the Leader of any Party among whom I mix and mingle. The right hon. Gentleman rebuked the right hon. Gentleman who preceded him in the debate for not having risen to the height of the argument with which we have to deal; but the right hon. Gentleman descended himself to the Round Table instead of mounting to any argument that at all applied to the Amendment before the House. The right hon. Gentleman complains that there has been a discussion of petty details, and yet he occupied a considerable portion of his time with petty details personal to himself, and in petty details in reference to the various incidents which he said he intended to pass by. Now, what is the issue as raised by the right hon. Gentleman himself in the speech he has just delivered? The right hon. Gentleman has taken the House back to 1886, and has stated that the right hon. Member for Mid Lothian has said that there were only two alternative policies for Ireland—Coercion, or conciliation in the shape of Home Rule. Though the right hon. Gentleman stated that the Land Question was at the bottom of the difficulty, he refrained from making any proposal himself, notwithstanding his position of great authority, a Minister without portfolio, with all the leisure to bring any proposal forward, with all his influence to induce the other side of the House to vote for it. I would venture to suggest that the right hon. Gentleman has been reticent on the subject because he knew, as we all know who sit on this side of the House, and as the bulk of the English people know, that the redemption of Ireland, if it is to be merged in the Land Question, cannot be realized by those with whom he works and whom he supports in office. If the redemption of Ireland is to be 633 realized, it cannot be by the kind of gentleman who tampers with it on the one hand with its Ashbourne Acts, and which intimidates the people on the other with measures coercive in the highest degree. It can only be achieved by one man, to whom the Irish people have given almost their love, certainly their grateful trust. According to the right hon. Gentleman, coercion is very mild in Ireland. Three years and a half ago, the right hon. Gentleman—when he needed to make no provision against the inhabitants, when he would have been protected in the country by the love of the bulk of his townspeople—held these views:— Coercion is for an emergency. It is nonsense to talk of a Constitutional system and of a Constitutional Government if the Constitution is always being suspended. When the emergency is over, then it is the duty of wise Statesmen to seek out the causes of discontent and endeavour to remedy them Yes, but the Address says that emergency is over—that you have already had "salutary results" in the restoration of order and confidence in Ireland. But, in 1886, these were the only grounds taken by the right hon. Gentleman in the defence of coercion. He said— Murder, outrage, and assassination are things which no Government can tolerate. If these stalk the land, then it is the duty of the Government, at all risks and hazards to put them down, and from the measures of protection may be asked. I listened to the speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary introducing the Crimes Bill, and he did not pretend that the number of crimes of violence was larger than it had been. I have the memory of this House and the correction of Hansard behind me. His exceedingly able brother the Member who spoke on the Amendment to the Address, said, crimes of violence, because there was a powerful political organization in Ireland. And this was the opinions of the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Chamberlain) of the Party sitting opposite to him:— For myself I have very little confidence in the striking qualities of a Conservative Administration. I have had some experience on this point. The Tory Party to a man opposed the concession of equal rights and equal privileges to our Roman Catholic fellow subjects. The Tory Party to a man resisted the removal of duties which pressed upon the food of the food of the people. The Tories to a man resisted the extension of the suffrage. I do not believe in them as directors of the British Constitution or the British connection; and I believe in them the less because I am certain that no policy can conduce to more surely 634 separation than persistence in opposition to opposition to reform, and a stupid reliance upon the brute force of Coercion as the only remedy. The Tory prescription has been tried for centuries, and it has failed conspicuously, And I am going to vote for the Amendment because the right hon. Gentleman wants more doses of Coercion. He says— There are only 111 persons in gaol under the Coercion Act just now. But where are the 1,900, the 2,000 imprisoned since the Act parsed? They probably escaped his recollection, because I am sure the right hon. Gentleman is too fair a speaker to leave out the facts which tell against his case. He did not mention, when he was drawing attention to the thousand men who were imprisoned under Mr. Forster, and I opposed Coercion then as I have opposed it all my life—that they did not have their hair clipped or their beards cut, that they did not wear prison dress. He did not mention, galling and shameful as their imprisonment was, that it was very different to what it is now. There is no comparison between the treatment of prisoners then and now. While we find that Mr. Forster had the grace to let a Member out of prison on his pledged word to return, we have the answer of the hon. and learned Chief Secretary this afternoon in reference to a Member who may be ruined by legal proceedings against him and brought by one of their own agents, and who wished to Bee his legal advisers. They carefully sent him to a gaol away from his counsel and solicitors, and refused to allow him to be brought within easy reach of them. And the Chief Secretary, with that respect for the Representatives of the people which I hope a General Election will teach him to express in a different fashion—said he never heard of a gaol being brought nearer to the counsel and solicitors of the prisoner. But I have never heard tell of 25 Members of Parliament being in gaol, or being pursued by warrants, or about to go to gaol, or just come out of gaol. I have never heard of it under any Coercion Acts which have been acted upon. The right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Chamberlain) says, we are to vote against this Amendment because the allegations it makes are not true, and because the conciliatory alternative is inefficient. The allegation 635 is that the admistration of this Act is alienating the affections of the people. I have seen a few audiences during the last four or five months, rather more than the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham. Those audiences were of the character which the right hon. Gentleman needs to address; and there are two names which spontaneously provoked expressions of disapprobation and aversion—the name of the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary, and still more distinctly that of the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Chamberlain), I will tell you why. Those with whom I am associated and whose sympathies I have, rather take the view which the right hon. Gentleman himself took four or five years ago, that from the Tories you can only expect Toryism. Sir, from the man who professed Radicalism, and who stood in the front of the line and before others, they had a right to expect something else than desertion from their ranks. I have no right to put myself against one of his influential position, but in the Bull Ring of Birmingham, in a free meeting, if he would so far condescend as to allow myself and himself to take a verdict upon this Amendment I would undertake to carry it by 99 out of every 100 against him. We are asked, What is our alternative? It is that which the right hon. Gentleman himself taught us four years ago. The right hon. Gentleman spoke then about Coercion being no cure, and against Coercion being no remedy. He said— I believe that one of the greatest Irish problems is still before us, and we must wait for its solution in a new Parliament. —that was what Parliament expected in 1885. Mr. Gladstone has removed two of the greatest grievances of Ireland. He has disestablished an alien Church, and he has reformed the Land Laws; but there remains a question as important, possibly more important than both those two. What was that question? The right hon. Gentleman said:— I have it in Mr. Gladstone's own words—(so he must be got at from this)—that it is the wisest possible self-government for Ireland which is consistent with the maintenance of the integrity of the Empire. And that is our alternative. The second part of the Amendment says:— And we humbly represent to Your Majesty that such measures of conciliation should 636 be adopted as may bring about the contentment of the Irish people, and establish a real union between Great Britain and Ireland. These may not be the words of the right hon. Gentleman, but the main principles are here; and he must have consulted, the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid Lothian before he so expressed himself. Some nine months before the speech I have referred to, which those who were Members of Parliament in 1885 will never forget, the right hon. Gentleman spoke of the alternatives; but now he "wants his money back." "You have changed your minds," he says; but I say he has changed his speech. I don't accuse him of changing his mind; he is much too able and acute to change his mind suddenly on these things. But for years he has condemned Coercion, and has favoured the extension of local self-government to Ireland, not as to mere county rates or parochial matters, because you could not possibly speak of them as likely to be inconsistent with the integrity of the Empire. About the same date the right hon. Gentleman, praising the noble Lord the Member for Paddington (Lord Randolph Churchill) said, in addressing a London audience— Let us take the question of Coercion. Here we know what Lord Randolph Churchill's policy is, and I will say that to my mind it is a wise and statesmanlike policy. Lord Randolph Churchill does not believe, neither do I believe, in the efficacy of perpetual repression. Yet to-night the right hon. Gentleman has not uttered a word of condemnation of that perpetual continuation of the Coercion Act talked about by the hon. Member for North Armagh (Colonel Saunderson.) And the right hon. Gentleman went on to say:— Lord Randolph Churchill does not believe, neither do I, in the policy of perpetual preparation, and he favours, as I favour, the concession of Local Government to Ireland and a system on which Irishmen shall have some effective control over their own affairs. This hardly means Local Boards. The Radicals have a right to complain, and I do complain on behalf of those who in 1886 were the constituents of the right hon. Gentleman, that that right hon. Gentlemans sits with us, and gives his help to those on the opposite side. He speaks of "we Liberals." We Liberals must do liberal things as well as use liberal 637 phrases; and even if disappointed by the failure of some petty plan we must not let that hinder the redemption of the country. Why was there no word in rebuke of the hon. Gentleman the Member for North Armagh in the speech of the right hon. Gentleman? The hon. Member for North Armagh spoke of the "Coercion Act," describing it by its right name, and hoped it would permanently remain on the Statute Book. There was a time when the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham said, "For my part I hate Coercion; I hate the name and I hate the thing;" yet he is going into the same Lobby with the Party who wish to make it perpetual. The right hon. Gentleman endorses the complaint of the Chief Secretary as to the attacks made on the Government. They say they repudiate the horrible charges, and the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham has said the Irish Members made worse charges against the Members of the Liberal Party. The talk about horrible charges hardly comes with a good grace from the right hon. Gentleman, who has been present at meetings and heard, without rebuke, charges of complicity with murder made against the Irish Members—charges since shown by the accessories themselves to have been based on forgery bolstered up by perjury. The right hon. Gentleman appealed through this House to the country. I appeal also to the country to answer him, and to say that the least we expected from him was that he would have made some inquiry on the matter. The right hon. Gentleman, using an unlucky phrase, spoke of the situation which the Irish Members had "forged." I speak of the situation which the allies of the Government have employed others to forge, using the word forge only in the sense of the right hon. Gentleman. They have forged a situation from which they will escape with great difficulty; because those outside are beginning to think, and Members sitting on the Opposition Benches are beginning to be afraid of a situation which has been forged by forgery bolstered up by perjury—I dare not say by subornation of perjury—although £500 and £1,000, and £1,700 and £2,000 have been paid for statements which, if true, ought to have been 638 furnished without any monetary inducement. What would be said of an Irish Member who could be shown to have given a witness large sums to give evidence? I remember, when the hon. Member for Cork (Mr. Parnell) got up in the House and denied the genuineness of these forgeries, his denial was received with laughter from the Ministerial Benches—and now that this accusation, which is intended to murder the political reputation of the hon. Member for Cork, and through him assassinate the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid-Lothian has failed, we have a half-hearted withdrawal and an expression of regret, that sounded very much like regret that the letters were not genuine, and an utter absence of that fulness and frankness of apology which might naturally have been expected. The country will watch the Division List on this Amendment, as showing those who desired to make themselves parties to such conduct. The Conservative Party was once a great and chivalrous Party, and would not have acted thus. They have now been using as a Party weapon at every election "Parnellism and Crime," and I want to ask a Question of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, at least, has Liberal traditions. You have used it as a Party weapon. In every election "Parnellism and Crime" has gone round, and I want to ask the First Lord of the Treasury—or, as he is not here, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, at least, has Liberal traditions—one or two questions. But before I do so I should like to praise some of the conduct of the Government. A man named Molloy was called before the Commission, and the Government thought it their duty to at once prosecute him instead of waiting, as is usual, till the close of the labours of the Commission before doing so. They prosecuted him because they thought he had committed perjury. I am sure it was only desire for truth that instigated the prosecution; there was no intention to suggest that others had induced the man to commit perjury; it was only desired that all witnesses should have the terror of the law before them. But is the balance of justice to be equal? Is the Government going to deal with other perjurers as they have dealt with Molloy? Will they institute prosecutions for the printing of letters bought 639 with the money of persons making charges, bought without inquiry as to where they came from, with a careful shutting of the eyes which, in ordinary cases, would be evidence of conspiracy? Will the Government instruct the Attorney General to lay a criminal information against the Times for a most infamous libel, used for the purpose of distorting the policy of the House and inducing it to believe that some of its Members were bad men who should not be trusted? Will the Government give instructions that proceedings be taken against that interesting gentleman, Mr. Houston, who, it is clear, knew before he got into the witness-box that there was something suspicious about some part of Pigott's case? If Houston concealed this from the Attorney General he deserves indictment. I have too much respect for the Attorney General, from whom I have received some courtesies, to believe for a moment that he had had the faintest suspicion of the truth; the contrary would be so absolutely shocking, so thoroughly terrible, that the disgrace would cling to him for life. I acquit him thoroughly—no English gentleman, with such knowledge, could have put Houston in the box and allowed him to make a statement without putting some question which would give a clue to it. But then Houston ought to be prosecuted by the Government, if only to clear themselves and the Attorney General from complicity; and if this is not done I shall make it a charge against the Government on every platform in the country that they prosecuted Molloy because they thought it would damage the defendants, and refrained from prosecuting those who stood self-convicted, because they had been associated with themselves. Office may be held at too high a price. Past Conservative Leaders would not have hesitated for a moment to have washed their hands of this business. It is not as if it did not already concern the House, for it has been used at every election to influence voters. It is no question of land redemption or of solution of the agrarian problem that has been urged so much. It is that Mr. Parnell wrote the letters; he must have written them, or he would have taken legal proceedings before. Anything, in fact, was said that was likely to secure the support of the weak backed Liberal 640 Unionist; and it had its effect at some of the elections. At this moment, when we are dealing with this question, are we to be told by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham that the right hon. Member for Central Bradford did not rise to the grandeur of the debate? Was the right hon. Gentleman present when the hon. and gallant Member for North Armagh spoke? Grandeur of debate! The Journals of the House record the fact that 280 years ago payments were made to various officials, including the Serjeant and the "old fool" of the House. It does not appear when the Office ceased, but after hearing the speech of the hon. and gallant Member for North Armagh I understood why there was no need to keep it up. The right hon. Member has spoken of the feeling of the country. I desire to speak with all respect of the noble Lord the Member for Rossendale for his ability and integrity. It is with grief and sorrow that Liberals break from him. But, at the noble Lord's last meeting with his constituents, the vote of confidence he received and returned thanks for was coupled with the unanimous expression of the desire of his supporters for an immediate and wide extension of local government to Ireland. And when two powerful statesmen like the noble Lord, and at some distance the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham, keep a Government in power whose traditions are not the traditions of those who elected them, whose desires are not the desires of those who elected them, the responsibility is rather theirs, and the country looks to them. It looks to the noble Lord in the hope that even now the judgment, which in the traditions of this House and of all those who bore his name, has usually been associated with the effectuation of English liberty, might give to Ireland the possibility of it. To the noble Lord's Colleague we do not so look. We know there is no way to agreement, and Radicals desire to see that right hon. Gentleman in the Tory Government to which he belongs. They have no desire and no wish for the return of the right hon. Gentleman; for when the hour comes they do not want that in the midst of a great battle, upon which the happiness of a nation depends, the 641 lieutenant general shall have the chance in the thick of the fight of throwing away his sword and uniform, although he is for the principle, because he does not like the fit of the epaulettes or the fashion of the hilt. § MR. M. W. MATTINSON (Liverpool, Walton) I cannot see how the personal attack made by the hon. Member for Northampton upon the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham can help us in the consideration of this Question. The hon. Member, too, has made impassioned references to the proceedings before the Special Commission. I am not altogether surprised at it, and as far as I am concerned, speaking only with reference to the only point on which a judgment can now be arrived at, I have no hesitation in admitting that the hon. Member for Cork has been greatly wronged, and, I believe, there is a universal desire on all sides of the House—on the Ministerial side as much as anywhere else—that those who have repeated a particular charge should make ample reparation of a full and large apology. But that does not affect the facts of the situation with which we have to deal. The personal integrity of the hon. Member for Cork has nothing whatever to do with the administration of Ireland; it has nothing whatever to do with the question whether we shall have two Parliaments and two Governments. I am not going to say that during the past two years, there may not have been some miscarriage of justice in Ireland, or that changed conditions may not justify a call for some modification of the policy of the Government; but I shall vote without hesitation against the amendment because, on a balance of considerations, I have no doubt that the present course of events amply justifies the action of the Executive. The broad fact that crime has been largely reduced, and substantial progress made in the re-assertion of the law is the vindication of the Government and outweighs my mistakes which may have been made here and there. The charges against the Government appear to range themselves under three heads; first, arrest in the United Kingdom of Irish politicians; second, conviction in Ireland of Irish Members; and third, their treatment in prison. As to the first, it is clear that no injustice 642 has been done to the individuals affected. The selection of time and place for arrests may have been stupid blunders, but that is a matter between the Chief Secretary and his supporters and not for hon. Gentlemen opposite. I believe that the action of the Government in this respect has been perfectly legal and just; but I question whether it was worth while to cause an Irish Member, against whom a warrant had been issued, and who was a fugitive from justice in this country, to be brought back into the jurisdiction of the proper tribunal in Ireland. Irish Members in this country might perhaps be a nuisance to the Government of the day, but while they are here they are not disturbing the peace of Ireland, and therefore the desired results, so far as the peace of Ireland is concerned, could be obtained by allowing them to remain in England without arresting them. A Member who has a warrant out against him will not cross the Channel, because he knows that by doing so he would have to walk straight into an open prison. It has been said that what it is possible to do in England is illegal in Ireland. My answer to that is, that you can with impunity do that in England which is harmful in Ireland. The policy of the Government should be to keep persons away from places where they do mischief. I refuse to support the Amendment of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Newcastle, because I hold that while there may be a question as to the absolute necessity of arresting Irish Members on English soil, yet in my judgment there is no question about the legality or the justice of it. The second point is that the convictions in Ireland have been unjust. Now, I say, with regard to the charge that harsh sentences have been inflicted under the Crimes Act, it is difficult to pass a sound opinion in any case unless we have all the facts before us. In the case of Mr. E. Harrington, the penalty strikes me as being very severe. It is the maximum penalty, and it is imposed for an offence which was not one of the most aggravated kind. My difficulty in the matter has not been removed by the suggestion which has been made that, but for a technical point raised, Mr. Harrington would have been convicted of something else. Why did he not appeal? And on this question generally I must 643 say that, so far as I can make out, there never has been any real or substantial ground for the suggestion that the County Court Judges are not perfectly fair. I think that, taken as a whole, the Resident Magistrates do discharge their duties with impartiality and average intelligence. There is one other ground of accusation taken up by the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. J. Morley), and that is in regard to the treatment of Irish prisoners. I hope hon. Gentlemen opposite will believe me when I say that I personally have felt it to be a most humiliating circumstance that hon. Members of the House of Commons, men of culture, should be subjected, in the ordinary course of the operation of the law, to the treatment of which we have heard so much. But I cannot find anything in that treatment on which to found a charge against the Government. Hon. Members say that political opponents ought to be treated differently from other persons. Perhaps they ought; but, after all, that is a question for consideration of Parliament and not of the Executive Government. I take it that when the Crimes Act was passed Parliament determined that, in certain circumstances, offenders should be subjected to certain treatment. I can quite understand the agitation for a change of the law, but I cannot understand why the present accusation should be brought against the Government. If the Chief Secretary alters the treatment of Mr. O'Brien and the other Members of Parliament now in gaol, he must, in common justice, alter the treatment of every one committed to prison for similar offences. Where would that land us? In the position that the Chief Secretary must make a wholesale dispensation in respect to Crimes Act prisoners. But at present you cannot make it a ground for definite accusation against the Chief Secretary that he will not take upon himself the dispensing with the punishment prescribed by a Statute passed so recently and after full consideration. While I say this, I desire to add that I think prison treatment, not only in Ireland, but in England also, is a matter which may fairly come under review. I cannot doubt that it would be quite possible to deal with political prisoners in a way which might not be unsatisfactory even to hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway 644 opposite. There are only a very few words more which I wish to say. Some of the hon. Gentlemen sitting around me have tendered to the Government advice. The hon. Gentleman the Member for South Belfast (Mr. Johnston) has, for instance, suggested that the Crimes Act ought to be strengthened, and another hon. Friend of mine has suggested that the administration of the law in Ireland ought to be more rigorous—that prosecutions ought to be quicker. I should be sorry to administer the Crimes Act with greater stringency than it is administered at present. I have always understood it is a maxim in the administration of the criminal law that in proportion as crime diminishes, so the necessity for stringent punishment diminishes. The case which we make against the amendment of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Newcastle (Mr. J. Morley) is that crime has largely diminished. If that be, as I believe it is, a true representation of the present condition of Ireland, it seems to me the logical outcome is this, that the time may soon come when it may be possible for the Government, consistent with the safeguarding of the interests committed to their care, to abate the rigour of their administration of the Crimes Act. § MR. WINTERBOTHAM (Gloucester, Cirencester) I think the hon. Member for Liverpool deserves a word of acknowledgment from this side, because I think he has been the very first—at all events, the hon. Member very frankly and very honourably did express it—to express from that side a feeling of regret, and almost of repulsion, at the treatment hon. Members had had to undergo. I congratulate him upon that, and I live in the hope that he will be followed in his expression of opinion by many of the gentlemen of England before long. He also showed the first faint indications of distrust in the policy of the Government he supports. He could not help saying that he did not like the arrest of Irish Members in England, and he said he would be glad if it could be avoided in future. Well, for my part, I hope you will go on in that way. You cannot better play our game, or bring home more forcibly to the minds of English people what your Coercive Policy means. When an hon. Member like Mr. Carew goes down to an English 645 constituency he wins all hearts by his frankness and fairness, staying in our houses he endears himself to us all. He addresses a crowded meeting, and then he is hurried off by the police. The next thing the people who know him and love him hear about him is that he has been knocked down, stripped, and treated like a common felon. This brings home to the English people and Scotch people appreciation of what Coercion is much better than we can. If we could bring homo to the people what the policy pursued for so many hundred years by Liberal and Conservative Governments alike really is, there would be a very short end made of Coercion. Then the hon. Member for Liverpool could not quite swallow Mr. Harrington's sentence of six months' imprisonment with hard labour, and, as I understood him, considered it too severe for the offence he had committed. Nor did he like the prison treatment. I think gradually you will find, as the time for the General Election draws near, there will be a good deal of discontent of this sort expressed by hon. Members who represent large constituencies and come into touch with the people of the country. The hon. Member for Liverpool said we had no right on this treatment of prisoners to found an indictment against the Government. Well, but in the first place, the Chief Secretary, has entire control of prison discipline in Ireland. We are convinced that he has power of interference, and if we needed a convincing argument in support of that conviction he has himself supplied it, by his intervention in allowing priests to wear their own clothes in prison. You will not get many people to under stand why there should be an intervention of this kind in favour of parsons and not of Members of Parliament. Well, for about the five hundredth time we are again face to face with our old own chief difficulty, the Government of Ireland. Disguise it how you like, the debate may take a particular line on one occasion, and a different line on another, but every year the same question crops up, and I suppose I may say that four-fifths of the House of Commons would agree as to what they are aiming at. We recognize all of us the national danger of a continuance of this state of things, and in different ways desire 646 to bring about a different state of things. Nearly all of us long for the pacification of Ireland, it is only upon the methods of bringing about that desired result that we differ. I say nearly all, for there is a small section of bitter Orangemen whom I would not include among those who wish and desire such a settlement. I am comparatively a young Member of the House, but I have heard Orange Members talk of putting their heel on the necks of their countrymen. I have heard the hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for North Armagh, who, I suppose, I must regard as a serious politician, say that he not only rejoiced in the Crimes Act being in perpetuity, but he would like to see imprisonment under it made perpetual too. With such men, holding such opinions, there can be no truce, no parley. I do not include them in my opinion that there is an earnest desire on both sides of the House to bring this long and bitter quarrel to an end. It does not much matter what you say or do, we are but servants of the people, and our masters have made up their minds. Coercion is doomed, and you know it! You may cling to it a little longer, but there is a great difference in Coercion now to what it used to be. Coercion in the old days was with no democracy, but now you have to satisfy a democracy who are masters, with votes, of the justice, wisdom, and righteousness of your policy; and you have not satisfied them. A straw will show which way the wind blows, and there are several straws to show it now. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham has given you a little Radicalism wrapped up in a certain sort of way, and I did not notice that you cheered him much. You do not quite trust that right hon. Gentleman; you cannot quite forget the doctrine of ransom; you remember his reference to those "who toil not, neither do they spin;" yet the right hon. Gentleman knows how to turn his barque to every favouring wind. In Scotland he warned you in pretty plain language that a policy of Coercion was a negative policy, and would not commend itself much longer to the people of this country. The uncontested election at Burnley is another straw that shows the direction of the wind, and you will have other indications 647 before long. The country has made up its mind that Ministers who will not put an end to a policy of Coercion and try something of a different character must clear out and make room for those who will, and the country will express its meaning more clearly as time goes on. It is no question of detail, of this Bill or that, it is begging the question to raise the question of the old Home Rule Bill, whether it is alive, or dead, or in a state of suspended animation. The country cares nothing for points such as these, we are long past such. The supremacy of Parliament was the great thing, and I was one of those who voted—and I would do it again under similar circumstances—who voted against the old Home Rule Bill. The supremacy of Parliament, the absolute supremacy of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, is what I and others insisted upon. I think I can show by an extract from a speech of one of the ablest of the Liberal Uuionists what a hollow sham this contention of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham is. The speech I refer to was delivered by the hon. and learned Member for Inverness on May 21st, 1886. He said— If this demand for the retention of the Irish Members were conceded"— Now mark this— it would be found by logical sequence to be a measure to which the noble Lord the Member for Rossendale nor any other Member on this side of the House would have any objection. The retention of Irish Members has been given up, and the opposition of the hon. Member for Inverness has not been pacified. Why? The House knows perfectly well that all we asked for in the way of criticism on the Home Rule Bill of 1886, all the reasonable requirements—certainly all the criticisms I made—have long since been given in to by the Leaders of the Liberal Party. But where are the pledges given in the election of 1886? [Cheers.] I am glad to hear that cheer, it enables me the more easily to allude to a personal matter, with which I hardly dared to trouble the House. In my absence the hon. and learned Member for West Ham, speaking of my conduct, said I had been returned pledged to support a Government I had not once 648 voted for, and that I was returned without a contest because I stood as a Liberal Unionist. Well, my answer is two-fold. First of all to stand as a Liberal Unionist means to stand with the support of Tory votes, and if necessary to fight a brother Liberal. I put myself in the hands of the Liberal Three Hundred, and I was asked practically unanimously to fight their battles again. I said I was a foe to coercion of any sort or kind, and that I never would be a party to it. I said that in my election address. I said, while I objected to certain details in the Home Rule Bill, I was earnestly in favour of a large and generous measure of local self-government for Ireland. Ah! we all said that. I have stood on Liberal platforms to help brother-Liberals, and I do not think there was one of them who did not pledge himself to "a large and generous measure of local self-government for Ireland." I can clear myself in another way. One of my chief supporters, the man who preceded me in the representation of the division, the right hon. Baronet the President of the Board of Trade, had the honour and courage to state publicly and quite recently that the Conservatives had no right to find fault with me for any breach of faith; for I had said and done merely what I said I would do in my election address. I am sorry to trouble the House with such a trifle as my consistency. The hon. and learned Member for West Ham was inaccurate and misinformed; probably he had been in communication with some of the Times' witnesses. The country is not asking about this Bill, or that. With all critics and doubters, with men who are throwing clouds of doubt in the eyes of the people by saying "What will a Liberal Government do; what do you mean by conciliation?" the country has no concern. The country says, "We are sick and tired, humiliated and disgusted with this perpetual recurrence to a policy of force, and are thoroughly resolved, if you will not devise the means of carrying out a policy of conciliation upon which we have set our hearts, you must make room for those who will." It is a policy of negation, says your ally, and he warns you it will serve your purpose no longer. It is the happy state of good will and comradeship that has sprung up between the 649 two peoples that has beaten you and confounded all your designs. It is this feeling of goodwill and comradeship which has sprung up between the two democracies makes the Union safe to-day; it is this feeling that makes the United Parliament supreme to-day; but not to this but the next Parliament do they look forward. You have not sought their confidence; this Parliament can claim no debt of gratitude. From Irish Members, certainly, you can claim no gratitude; but they look forward with hope, belief, and confidence to the next Parliament, and the electoral battle in which the two democracies will take part. The result of your administration is fatal to all your pretensions to govern Ireland with a strong hand. You have done your best to goad the people to madness; you have imprisoned their Leaders, and treated them with ignominy when you have got them in your power. You have stifled free meetings and free expression of opinion, and having driven them from the Constitutional method of expressing their complaints, what wonder that the complaints of the people find expression in languge not so Constitutional? I do not wonder; it is astounding how little outrage there has been, it is marvellous considering that the people are not educated that they have exercised so much self-control. How have you treated them in Ireland? Your Prime Minister calls them Hottentots, and your Chief Secretary is never tired of talking of them as the descendants of the rebels of '98 and '48, and telegraphs to his police, "Do not hesitate to shoot," and delights in telling the Constabulary, all of whom read his words, "If you tire be sure you kill." This is what you have done in Ireland. This is the Christian administration of the Government of a Christian people! I tell you the Christian people of England and Scotland loathe and abominate what you have done in Ireland. With the aid of the Loyal and Patriotic Union you have flooded town, village, and hamlet with pictures of horror and hateful calumnies of the Irish leaders. You have flooded every town, village, and hamlet in the country with millions of phamplets containing the most hateful calumnies of the Irish people and pictures of horrors. You 650 have sent down paid lecturers to blacken the character of the Irish people and of their leading men. You have resorted to calumny of the basest description, to gross exaggeration, misrepresentation and abuse, and some of those who work with the Government, and are in tone with the Government, have not stopped short of forgery itself. Yes, the Loyal and Patriotic Union has done its level best to stifle the goodwill that was growing up between the two people and giving hope for the future. That has all gone off like water from a duck's back; but in spite of it a feeling of affection is growing up in the hearts of the Irish and English nations. You have blackened the characters of the Irish Members; you have distorted their motives and done your best to favour old bigotries, but it is all of no use. Macaulay, in his essay on Milton, says— We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions. But the more violent the outrages the more assured we feel that the revolution was necessary. The violence of these outrages will always be proportioned to the ferocity and ignorance of the people, and the ferocity and ignorance of the people will be proportioned to the oppression and degradation under which they have been accustomed to live. [A laugh.] The Tories, the less educated of them, laughed at Macaulay at that time. The better educated of the Tories of this day do not, as a rule, laugh at Lord Macaulay now. Lord Macaulay expresses the feeling of the English people, and that is why you fail to arouse them by your tales of outrage and crime. They are a liberty-loving people, and they believe that liberty is far better than restraint. When you speak of law and order they reply, "Your law was obtained under false pretences; you had no mandate from us to make such a law. You told us that you were opposed to Coercion, and the moment we entrusted you with power to make law, you proposed Coercion." That is one of the answers to the argument of the right hon. Member for West Birmingham. At every Unionist platform we were told it was a calumny to say that there were only two alternatives—Home Rule or Coercion. There was a third; but the right hon. Gentleman turning to the Irish Members said, "you have made the third course impossible." They took to Coercion very quickly, like a duck taking to water. That is my first reply to the right hon. 651 Gentleman. The second is that you passed this law in the teeth of the protests of three of the four component parts of the Empire. The Scotch people said they would not have it; the Welsh and Irish also resisted it, and you passed it by the clôture. You passed it, denying to afford a reasonable time to discuss it, and you passed it even then under the falsest of pretences. There is a speech of the Chief Secretary to be found in Hansard in which the right hon. Gentleman said:— They (the Government) always denied that it was intended by the Bill to interfere with the relations of landlord and tenant. This was a Bill to put down crime. It was not conflicts between landlord and tenant in which they desired to interfere; it was not combinations which they desired to crush, but it was crime which would not be tolerated in any other country on earth, and which ought not to be tolerated in Ireland. Having got it under these pretences you have used it to put down combinations, and for no other purpose than to assist the landlord in his quarrels with his tenants. That was your position at the time of the General Election (Ministerial cries of "No"). If it was not, why do you now object to face the people. They tell you, lastly, that respect and reverence for law depends on what the moral weight of the law itself is. The law-breakers of the world have many of them been the heroes of the world. John Brown was hanged legally; Hampden, Pim, Cromwell would have been living if they had not been successful; and the same may be said of Garibaldi, who went sword in hand to Naples; Magguire and Kossuth [An Hon. MEMBER: Kossuth was not successful]. No, he had to take refuge in free England; your fathers cropped the ears of dissenters quite legally; my grandfather was imprisoned for many years in Newgate gaol, quite legally, for preaching a sermon; at present you only clip the hair and moustache of your opponents. You are getting ashamed of the old method, and your children will be ashamed of your method as you are of that of your ancestors. The prisons of the world are now objects of curiosity. If you go to Rome the first thing you go to see is the prison in which Peter and Paul were imprisoned; if you go to Bedford your first visit is paid to the prison in which John Bunyan was confined; so also at Southampton where 652 Isaac Watts was put. I do not defend every act that has been done in Ireland. I have never failed to say that I cannot agree with every doctrine of the Plan of Campaign, but I maintain that the Plan of Campaign was the result of your policy. You drove the Irish people from Constitutional usages into illegal courses, and then followed the old system of repression, punishment, and brutality. But, in spite of all this, there is a brighter prospect just now. It is because the people of the two countries love each other and trust each other; it is because the people have listened to Ireland's sons and believe their story, and believe in their future, that I, for one, shall vote for the amendment of my right hon. Friend. § MR. HOWORTH (Salford, S.) The speech of the Hon. Member who has just addressed the House is chiefly interesting from his references to the action of Members on this side of the House. He says that he has some difficulty in reconciling their opinions as avowed before the constituents with their practices in this House. I myself have been constrained to rise owing to the challenge which was thrown out yesterday by the hon. Member for East Northamptonshire (Mr. Channing) as to a recent incident in Lancashire; but nothing had happened in the history of this movement which had brought more discredit and ridicule upon it in the minds of the working classes than that incident. I am sure that the House will desire to get as far away as possible from the recrimination which formed the staple of the speech of the hon. Member who has just sat down. The Amendment of the right hon. Member for Newcastle seems to me to raise a false and illogical issue. It is a perfectly arguable point, no doubt, that the Act has operated harshly and severely on certain men; but I contend that it is not an arguable position to maintain in the House of Commons that the duty of the Executive is to interfere with the administration of the Crimes Act or of any other Act in order that certain classes of offenders should be given a different treatment from certain other classes. To give the Executive power to discriminate offenders would be to resort to the practices of the middle ages. How could Parliament prevent the Chief Secretary 653 for Ireland under such, conditions from treating offenders according to his private preferences and political views? To ask the House to consent to such a state of things is to ask it to consent to a very great offence against all legal and political principles. The Executive in Ireland, so far as the decisions of the Irish Courts are concerned, are in precisely the same position as the Executive in England; the treatment of prisoners is governed by Statute and if the Executive chooses to interfere with the decisions of the Courts of law, it unquestionably commits a breach of the law, and must do so at its own peril. I understand that during the late Administration there were two cases in which the Home Secretary did feel it his duty to interfere with the functions of the Prisons Board and the discipline of the prisons in favour of particular persons, but I believe myself that such action was entirely contrary to law, and that the Home Secretary did these acts at his own peril. It is said that the Irish Courts of Law themselves have interpreted the Statute in an unnecessarily cruel manner, and in a way that was never contemplated by Parliament, but I maintain that it is impossible to review the decisions of the Courts, unless you have the witnesses and the evidence before you. How is it possible for this House at any time to constitute itself into a Court of Justice? There is a proper appeal in all cases, and I think it is a great pity that when a Bill was passing through the House, one or two Amendments suggested from the opposite benches were not adopted. I think their adoption would have made a great difference in the sentimental grievance which is now alleged. It would have been a great improvement in the legal administration of justice in Ireland if the Resident Magistrates had been appointed during good behaviour, so as to avert the least suspicion of their being at the mercy of the Executive. Further, there might with advantage have been a rota of these magistrates, so that there would not have been always particular men to try particular cases in particular districts. Again, as to the question whether the victims of the Crimes Act have been treated by the prison officials with unusual and undeserved cruelty, much has been said on this subject, which is more a form of 654 buffoonery than of serious argument. It is said, for instance, that for persons convicted of certain offences to be compelled to travel third class instead of first class is a grievous indignity. I myself always travel third class, and if those who make these complaints themselves travelled third class more frequently they would know the feelings of the British democracy better than they do. Mr. Rider Haggard, in his novel, "King Solomon's Mines," mentions a party who were interrupted by savages whilst one of the party was shaving, and had just half completed that operation. As the savages had never before seen a man with hair on only one side of the face, they deemed him to be a god and began to worship him. The difficulty of the position was that as the man had been recognised as a god by the fact that he had hair on one side of his face, he was obliged to go about amongst them ever after carefully shaved on one side only. It seems to me that this is an extremely opposite comparison to make. However much hon. Gentleman may shout "hear, hear!" the working men of Lancashire, many of whom take the same view of politics that they do, only laugh and ridicule the hero whose heroism depends on a circumstance of that kind. Having said this much, it seems to me that one has gone over the three different divisions, at all events of the difficulty as presented by my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle. In the first place, the question of whether the Executive is justified or not in interfering with the course of justice, by apportioning penalties according to its own individual whim and fancy and not according to the rigid law, I think most Members will agree with me that a more dangerous position was never put before an assembly of politicians. In the next place, it is an equally dangerous position to maintain that this House is either a fit or a competent tribunal to revise the decisions of Irish Courts of Justice whether humble or superior. Having provided the proper machinery to prevent injustice I think they ought to abide by it. I qualify that by saying that there are some amendments which I should have liked to have seen incorporated in the Crimes Act, and, as far as I myself am concerned, 655 it would have been a great pleasure to me to have voted for such Amendments if they had been presented to the House, because I feel that they would have been reasonable. In the third place. I cannot help thinking that when we test those cases of cruelty by the facts that we presented they are reduced to such rediculous proportions that it is really monstrous that a great Party in the State should put them forward as grounds of grievance. I am tired and weary of this perpetual application to Ireland of a law which I feel to be necessary if the State and society are to be held together, and I wish and hope that the time may come, very speedily, when we may devote ourselves if possible to something rather more in accordance with our hopes and our ambitions. I should very much like to see, at a time not very far off, Ireland left to decide a great number of local questions such as we see remitted in this country to different localities. It would, I feel, be a great advantage if we could put aside some of those angry recriminations and approach the problem along more rational lines. Whether that comes about now or later on, I feel most certain that one thing we must maintain at all hazards, and that is the law, and whether we maintain it here or it is maintained from a Parliament in Dublin society can not exist, but will really be planted upon a basis of anarchy unless this prime factor is maintained at all hazards. It is because I feel that this is neither an English nor an Irish question, but one upon which all politicians should share the same feeling, that I shall vote with the greatest possible confidence against the Amendment of my right hon. Fiend the Member for Newcastle, which raises issues which are utterly false and utterly misleading. § MR. REID (Dumfries, W.) I feel no doubt that the hon. Gentleman the Member for Salford has spoken with the very best intentions, and that the policy which has been afflicting Ireland and distressing this country must be distasteful to him. But the hon. Gentleman has certainly been somewhat backward in his action on this matter, because when some of the Amendments which he himself has said he should like to see introduced into the Coercion Act as at 656 present administered were proposed, he did not vote in favour of them. MR HOWARTH The Amendments to which I refer were cut out entirely without debate. § MR. REID They were cut out in consequence of a system of closure far more drastic than any ever proposed by a Liberal Government, and that closure was supported by the hon. Member himself. I trust the hon. Member now recognises the serious consequences arising from that Act. I am astonished that the Chief Secretary, than whom there is no man endowed with more literary grace and probably literary attainments in the House, should go down to Glasgow and Dublin and speak in the tone and the spirit that he has adopted about brother Members of the House placed in prison. If the right hon. Gentleman did not feel it himself, from his own instinct, when he dwelt upon the severity of the language with which he spoke of Mr. Mandeville after that gentleman's decease, no words of mine can convey the feeling. But I am satisfied that when the passion of this argument and controversy has a little gone by, the right hon. Gentleman himself will regret, and I think he will be ashamed of the tone in which he has spoken. I wish to say a few words in regard to the very remarkable speech of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham. I presume that he represents the Liberal Unionist Party, and I think after the peculiar conduct and position of Members of that Party we are entitled to know whether he does represent the opinions of the noble Lord the Member for Rossendale, or whether we have two leaders of the Liberal Unionist or dissentient Liberal Party—the one who makes speeches of a quasi-Radical kind in this House, and the other who enters into private negotiations with the Government and aids and abets them in the most Tory part of their proceedings. When the charge is made that one integral part of the United Kingdom is administered by unjust laws, unjustly applied, that men by the score are sent to prison without fair trial, and also that when they are in prison they are subjected to treatment unworthy of a civilized nation, the right hon. Gentleman appears to think that that is a matter of no importance. Without 657 discussing whether it is true or not, I think we can gauge the true depth of the Liberalism of the right hon. Gentleman. He says we may be of opinion that the Government is grossly abusing its powers; that the Executive is in dangerous contact with the judicial officers; and that injustice is thereby wrought; and yet that is no ground, if it only applies to Ireland, for turning the Government out of Office; it is only a ground for a Committee to make inquiry into particular cases. The Solicitor General for Ireland has congratulated the House that no one makes charges against the Resident Magistrates now. Well, no one has made charges against any class so much as Resident Magistrates. We say they are persons of no capacity whatever—half-pay officers, briefless barristers, and promoted policemen; that they have duties to discharge which are not in England entrusted even to the Judges of the highest Courts; that their relations to the Executive Government are of a most remarkable character; and that they are executive as well as judicial officers. The Resident Magistrates are incompetent to discharge their duties, but the Chief Secretary speaks of them as if they were men inspired. The right hon. Gentleman has succeeded in getting for £400 a year men of extraordinary ability and judgment to discharge duties which are only intrusted to English Judges of the highest rank. How do those men act? I admit that it is difficult in this House to take case by case. The Resident Magistrates are as wise as serpents. They take care to have a fragment of evidence on one point, but to inflict punishment for offences which have not been proved. It is observed that they are not anxious to give the right of appeal; they will not state a case; they show the worst feature of a Judge in desiring that his decision shall escape review. They administer ferocious punishments, as is shown in the case of Mr. Harrington. Does any hon. Member consider that six months' hard labour is a proper punishment for publishing proceedings of a suppressed branch of the National League? Even the right hon. Member for West Birmingham is unable to defend that proceeding, and I am sure that the hon. Member for Salford will not defend it. How is the sentence defended by the 658 Chief Secretary? The right hon. Gentleman says it is true that Mr. Harrington was guilty of that offence, but that everybody knows perfectly well that he has been guilty of the other offence of delivering a speech, and the Chief Secretary's defence of the Resident Magistrates is, that though the punishment might be too great for the offence which was committed, yet there was another offence not proved to have been committed, and in that view the punishment was not excessive. I am afraid the hon. and learned Gentleman did not do me the honour to listen to my speech. I never made any assertion so extravagant or absurd. I am obliged to the right hon. Gentleman for his courtesy—for the epithets he makes use of. He attributes to me the making of absurd statements. I did not attribute any extravagant or absurd statement to the hon. and learned Gentleman. I merely say that I did not say anything so extravagant or absurd. Then I withdraw my remark. I must have misunderstood the speech of the right hon. Gentleman. I promise to read the speech in the Times again, in order to see whether or not I have made a mistake. The people of Ireland believe that the whole of this procedure is a farce; that a trial is a mockery; that conviction is practically certain; and it is because of the general discredit which attaches to the sentences and the judgments of the Resident Magistrates that they impugn the administration of justice in Ireland. Then there is the question of jury-packing. Say there are 72 men on the panel. The prisoner may challenge six and the Crown six. Then the officer proceeds to call juror after juror until 12 men can enter the box. By the exercise of a right founded on an old Statute never used in England, the Crown can order men to "stand by;" and by this means, not of selection, but of exhaustion, they can put 12 men into the jury box for the purpose of trying the prisoner. That is the system of jury-packing, and that system exists in Ireland at present; and I defy the Government to deny it. The system is in force in nearly all the agrarian and political cases, and the result is that if trial before 659 a Resident Magistrate is a farce, trial, before a jury is a still greater farce; it is a gross fraud on the administration of justice. If the Government deny this, then there is a short and sharp method of meeting it. I am prepared to apply for a Committee to investigate my statement, and, if it is found that I am wrong, to express my regret to the House. Is such a system not a scandal and a disgrace, and do hon. Members opposite think that it is a healthy feature in any Government? Does the hon. Member for Salford believe that Lancashire men would respect, or ought to respect, the law, or should be called upon to obey it, if it were administered in such a manner to them? But what is the object of all these things? It is the most mercenary oppression that has ever existed. There has been in the history of Ireland oppression for divers purposes. We know what happened in the rebellion of 1798 and in other rebellions; but I am not aware that there has been any oppression in Ireland so utterly degraded as this oppression, because it is for the purpose of enabling landlords to get by their own combinations money out of the pockets of their tenants which in equity they ought not to have, and to use the Criminal Law in order to deprive the tenants of the only means they have of resisting those combinations. In 1885 the right hon. Member for West Birmingham (Mr. Chamberlain) came forward with a programme which has been condemned by many as too extreme. No one followed the right hon. Gentleman more heartily than I did at that time. Indeed, I lost my seat in consequence, and no one looked forward more eagerly than I to see the right hon. Gentleman lead the rival Party. But what shall I say now? The right hon. Gentleman has driven away thousands upon thousands of men who were earnest and sincere in following the flag which he unfurled at that time. The right hon. Gentleman has allied himself with the Party and policy of Coercion, which he has helped to carry out with relentless severity. No man in the history of the last three or four years comes worse out of this business than the right hon. Gentleman. But there are other Members of the Liberal Unionist Party to consider. The Chairman of Committees (Mr. Courtney), in answer to a speech made by the hon. 660 Member for the Rushcliffe Division of Nottingham (Mr. J. E. Ellis), spoke of the imperfections of the agents of the Government in Ireland. Did the right hon. Gentleman mean the Resident Magistrates or the police? Which did he mean? It is not worthy of a man in his position, if he believes there are defects in the Government of Ireland, not to come forward and assist us. It is not worthy of a man of the great position of the right hon. Gentleman in this House, when he believes there are imperfections in the agents of the Government, not to come forward and assist in endeavouring to find out where they have done wrong. If the Liberal Unionists are to maintain the Union, or to do anything else that is good, it is not by allowing themselves to become the servants out of livery of Her Majesty's Government that they will succeed. Coming to the second part of the Amendment, I am resolutely opposed to pledging British credit for the benefit of the Irish landlords, who have been allowed for a long time to plunder the Irish people, and whom I desire to prevent from plundering the English and Scotch people. The Irish landlords have made their bed and they must lie on it. If I had my will, I should wish to see an Irish Parliament dealing with the Land Question themselves; but I would not object to a settlement of the Irish Land Question being made by this House, if desired, provided British credit is not pledged for the purpose. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham demanded the plan of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid Lothian for establishing Home Rule. That plan has been given substantially already; its outline and principles are thoroughly well-known. But before the time comes for a Dissolution it is essential that further particulars should be given on some points; but unless a Dissolution is nearer at hand than it is admitted to be by hon. gentlemen opposite, I, for one, will not press the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid Lothian or his Colleagues to come forward with a plan against their will, because I do not wish to withdraw any part of the attention now being paid to the gross misgovernment of Ireland. If, however, Her Majesty's Ministers are prepared to grant a Dissolution, I will do my best 661 to urge on the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Mid Lothian the propriety of bringing forward a detailed plan. Will the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham concede the propriety of consulting the hon. Member for Cork and his Friends in regard to the framing of any such measure? If he will, there is no difference in the position which the right hon. Gentleman takes up and ours. I hope the Home Secretary, who will probably speak soon, will tell us what the Government think of the policy propounded by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham. Is there any sincerity in that move? The right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham made a speech that was intended, of course, to catch votes if he could get them, and to divert the attention of the country from the present system of government in Ireland; and, I ask, are the Government prepared to make any approach to the views of that right hon. Gentleman, or are they to go on in the course of Coercion? Surely they could not go on spending the resources of the Empire in order to allow injustice to be done by the Clanricardes, the Olpherts, and the Vandeleurs in Ireland. That is the meaning of the policy now pursued. I believe that hon. Gentlemen opposite themselves feel that that policy could not be continued indefinitely. They are working the Constitution at high pressure, and there is danger in protracting this heated controversy. I submit it is not a healthy thing that a man like Mr. O'Brien, who was condemned by the law, should go to large meetings in England and Scotland and be received with acclamation and delight. But the law has been brought into popular contempt in Ireland, and the contamination may extend to England. We cannot be sure that we shall always be at peace; and if we continue this policy of exasperation we cannot tell how long we shall have the Members from Ireland, who I believe are now willing to take a moderate and statesmanlike view of this question, in their present frame of mind. Confident as the Liberal Party are of their triumph at the next General Election, it would be more satisfactory to them and the country if this great controversy could be closed by a national settlement. The time is opportune, and the work is pressing. 662 Is there not virtue and wisdom enough in this great Assembly to effect such a settlement? § MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.) The hon. Member for East Mayo said the other night that boycotted farms in Ireland were not being taken. I wish to challenge that assertion. I have been, during the last six weeks, on ten Plan of Campaign estates. Only a fortnight ago I walked over 13 boycotted holdings on one estate which had been taken by independent men from other counties. I counted the head of cattle on each farm; I saw the leases; I investigated the previous tenancies of the men; and I say that, although the hon. Member for Mayo knows a great deal, he does not know everything, and the House had better take with a pinch of salt everything that comes from that quarter as well as from the Freeman's Journal. An hon. MEMBER What was the estate? § MR. T. W. RUSSELL It was the Coolgreany Estate. The farms have been taken by responsible tenants. By emergency men? No; an emergency man has not 50 head of cattle. I also found on that estate 12 men who had retained possession of their farms, and who absolutely refused to join the Plan of Campaign. They had a right to do this. Because they dared to be honest men, because they claimed the right to make their own bargains with their landlord, these men found the greatest difficulty in selling their cattle at fairs, in getting provisions, and in maintaining the ordinary decencies of life. When we see how you treat these men, we know how you would treat us. Let those who are going to govern Ireland learn, first of all, to govern their own passions. Talk of tyranny and terrorism!—on one Campaign estate I had put into my hand three stamped legal documents, signed by the tenant, authorizing the landlord to distrain, the rent being paid all the while, and the documents were to protect the landlord from any subsequent action. [A VOICE: Where was this?] On the Lewis estate. I state nothing that I have not investigated to the bottom. In one case a man had actually asked to be evicted after he had paid his rent, and 663 he asked that a good force of "peelers" should be sent, and that he should be allowed to defend himself against them. [Laughter.] Laughter is no answer to facts; he laughs best who laughs last. On that and on other estates he visited there was a system of terrorism which Home Rule Members support, because they condemned the only machinery for dealing with it. Mr. O'Brien in the speech for which he was condemned said that the presence of a land-grabber was equal to an epidemic of yellow fever, and asked the people not to rest until they had stamped out the plague. How have peasants acted on such advice in the past? In Kerry, the other day, I stood on the threshold of a man who wanted to emigrate, who consulted the agent about the sale of his tenant-right, failed to come to terms with his next neighbour, and finally sold to a man named Cornelius Murphy, who was denounced as a land-grabber, and within a few months was shot dead in his own house. This (addressing the Home Rulers) is what you are supporting. You support it because you denounce the only machinery that can cope with it. Take the case of Forhan, who took a boycotted farm and who was on his way from Tralee market with labourers when he was shot dead on the high road, and peasants who were near would not render assistance. A dozen cases could be given to show what peasants understand by the stamping-out process; and the hon. Member (Mr. O'Brien) who, knowing this, recommended it, was guilty of a criminal act, and deserved to be treated as a criminal. [Mr. MORLEY: Why did they wait four months?] That is the business of the Executive Government. [A VOICE: "What were the dates of the murders?"] The first, the 28th of January, 1888; the second, the 20th of February, 1887, and that of Fitzmaurice in 1888, two days after the delivery of a speech denouncing land-grabbers by Mr. Davitt, within 20 miles of the spot. There is no use in comparing these things with Primrose League actions. Primrose Leaguers never used such language about dissenting shopkeepers; if they did, they could be prosecuted under the ordinary law. Lord Spencer was brought to book the other day, when he was challenged to give a single instance, and could not. 664 As foul charges as were now brought against the Government were once brought against Lord Spencer and the right hon. Member for the Bridgeton Division. They were charged with hanging an innocent man in Miles Joyce. The right hon. Gentleman (Sir George Trevelyan) was virtuous. He could forget and forgive; smitten on one cheek he turned the other; and hated then, he was despised now. If the charges were wrong in 1882–3, what proof was there that they are right now? If they were not to be believed then, why should they be credited now? This proposed Vote of Censure was largely founded on the reports of the Freeman's Journal, which, to my own knowledge, has reduced lying to a fine art, and which has more actions hanging over it for lying than all the newspapers in the United Kingdom. I am sorry the case of Father M'Fadden has been referred to at all, because it is before the Courts; but if Father M'Fadden, had acted like a good citizen— § MR. T. P. O'CONNOR I rise to order. I ask whether the hon. Member is justified in pronouncing an opinion on the conduct of Father M'Fadden, who is at present under trial, and whether former allusions had not reference solely to the manner in which the Government have treated Father M'Fadden. It is not in my province to decide; the matter is one which rests entirely in the discretion of the hon. Member. The hon. Member for East Mayo has charged the Government with murder. If Father M'Fadden had acted the part of a good citizen, if he had obeyed the summons of the Court, no warrant would have been necessary, and Inspector Martin might have been alive to-day. Therefore Father M'Fadden, whatever he was legally, was morally responsible for the murder. I was present at the Unionist banquet at Dublin, and I was not aware of any objection to the publication of the names of the company. It is said that there were roars of laughter at the story of Mr. O'Brien's sufferings. I affirm there was nothing of the kind. I am not quite sure whether roars of laughter were not inserted by the Freeman's Journal. The same report appeared in the Times, the Dublin Daily 665 Express, and all other papers, and it was a report that was furnished officially, no newspaper reporters being present. The laughter was provoked by the Chief Secretary's account of the manner in which the Lord Mayor of Dublin made a "holy show" of himself by sending his two ambassadors to the Castle at 2 a.m., and crediting the story of the Chief Secretary's coming down in his shirt with a star on his breast. § MR. SEXTON My telegram was despatched at 11 o'clock and his letter at 1 o'clock, and the roars of laughter occurred long before that. I and my friends claim to laugh even at the Lord Mayor of Dublin. We claim the right to laugh at what we think fit, even though it concerns Mr. O'Brien, and though attempts may be made to intimidate us, as attempts have been made to intimidate and ruin shopkeepers who refused to put up their shutters out of sympathy for Mr. O'Brien. This is an instance of the liberty that hon. Members believe in. Until they show a little more toleration towards those who differ from them, they ought not to claim self-government. As to the treatment of Mr. O'Brien, I would be quite willing to vote for any Bill providing that imprisonment for all political offences, as these are termed—those of the dupes who commit the crimes as well as those who instigate them—should be without hard labour, or as first-class misdemeanants. But if the law is to be altered, let it be altered on some general principle. It is a mistake to suppose that there are only two classes of offences—the purely political and those of the thief and the gaol bird. There is, for instance, the man who violates the secrecy of the ballot; he is liable to six months' hard labour, and you make him consort with criminals, and you dress him as one. If the law is to be altered, let it be done thoroughly, and not merely for Members of Parliament. The hon. Member for East Mayo stated the other night that he hated crime and did his best to put it down. I ask him this question: Who paid for the defence of he murderers of Huddy? § MR. T. M. HEALY Ask Webster. You talk of your hatred of crime, yet when one of the foulest murders ever perpetrated in 666 Ireland comes to be tried by jury whose verdict you never yet questioned, you pay for the defence of the murderers. § MR. JOHN DILLON We pay for the defence of the murderers? I say that is a foul lie. No doubt the language of the hon. Member, and especially the way in which it was addressed-was very irritating; but I cannot allow the word "lie" to pass in this House, and I hope hon. Gentlemen will refrain from these personalties, which are derogatory to the dignity of the House. I unhesitatingly withdraw, Mr. Speaker; but I do say the provocation was intense. § MR. RUSSELL I will put it in this way—(Cries of "Withdraw") If hon. Members will listen to me, I will explain I cannot withdraw that which I know to be true. Is that fair play, Mr. Speaker? I put it to you, Sir, when he made this charge he pointed to me. He said the hon. Member for East Mayo said he hated crime, and then he pointed at me and said, "Yet you pay for the defence of these murderers." That is the reason that I said I considered the remarks of the hon. Member to be of an irritating character. I think the hon. Member had better pass away from this matter. I never intended to refer to the hon. Gentleman the Member for East Mayo personally as having had anything to do with the defence of these men. I say that most unhesitatingly. § MR. O'HANLON , who was sitting in one of the side Galleries: Who, then, did you refer to? Order, Order! I now come to the question of crime on the Kenmare Estate. At the end of October last year, crime had been reduced almost to a vanishing point. In September in fact there was none at all. But then the Plan of Campaign was inaugurated on the Kenmare Estate and simultaneously crime burst out again and moonlighting and intimidation became rife. You may denounce crime but unquestionably it follows wherever the Plan of Campaign is started. Yes, Pigott for instance. Don't mention Pigott to me. I have no more to do with him than you have. § MR. W. JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.) I rise to say that the hon. Member who interrupted from the gallery has come down and seated himself behind the hon. Member speaking, and is interrupting him. § [At this point there was considerable disturbance behind the hon. Member for South Tyrone.] § MR. O'HANLON (Cavan, E.) I want this gentleman to apologize. I will just give him a minute to think, and if he does not apologize I will— § MR. H. J. WILSON (York W.R., Holmfirth) I distinctly saw the hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for South East Durham personally assault the Member for East Cavan. Will the hon. Baronet explain? § SIR H. HAVELOCK-ALLAN With the greatest pleasure. I recognized by chance the hon. Member who is now sitting next me as the hon. Member who made that irregular interruption in the Gallery just now. I had not the slightest intention of bringing myself into personal collision with the hon. Gentleman; that is a thing I should most studiously avoid; but I happened by accident when passing him to come into contact with him, and I regret having done so. The hon. and gallant Gentleman—as I suppose I am bound to call him—comes over and throws himself on me, and then he offers this as an apology. It is not one, and if he does not apologize, I will not give him much time. I hope the hon. and gallant Gentleman will apologize to the hon. Member. I must say I did observe what apparently was the hon. and gallant Gentleman's throwing himself on the hon. Member. It is most improper, and the hon. and gallant Gentleman must apologize. If I have in the slightest degree— I did observe what passed. Nothing could be more improper. The best course for the hon. and gallant Gentleman to take is to apologize. For a long course of years, Sir, it has been my pride to observe your ruling with the utmost respect. I can assure you that it is a matter of extreme regret to me, and nothing was further from my intention than to hurt the feelings of the hon. Gentleman. I should be loth indeed to come into contact with him. Mr. Speaker, I beg your pardon again, Sir. He says I had better get out of this. Order, order! Really, I hope I may appeal to hon. Members on both sides of the House, and I do appeal to them with confidence, to set their faces against these interruptions. They are most unseemly, and give pain to everybody who has at heart the dignity of the House. I call upon the hon. Member to continue his speech. The real fact is that the area of disturbance in Ireland is exceedingly limited. Everywhere I went I perceived evidences of the improved state of things. Boycotting was diminishing, and all the scenes at the arrest and trial of certain persons were part of a carefully prepared drama. The grievances of Ireland must, indeed, be few when one of the most prominent put forward was that Mr. O'Brien was made to travel second instead of first class. I heard the speech delivered by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for West Birmingham, and I believed everything that the right hon. Gentleman says about the land question. [A laugh.] It is very easy to laugh, no doubt, and by way of qualifying for an Irish Parliament to turn that House into a Cogers'-hall. The Land Question was at the root of this whole Irish business, and if we once removed it from the troubled arena of Irish politics, we shall remove the one question which prevents every question from being fairly approached and settled. I shall vote against the Amendment, because no attempt has been made to prove the first part of it, and because the second part had not been touched. § MR. T. M. HEALY (Longford, N.) The House will be very glad to see that the health of the hon. Gentleman has been so completely restored by his recent excursion to Ireland, at the expense of the Times. These excursions were not undertaken at the expense of the Times? At the expense of the Loyal and Patriotic Union. Nor at the expense of the Loyal and Patriotic Union? I must beg that the hon. Gentleman will not turn this House into a Coger's hall. We are all glad that the hon. Member's health has been so much restored as to enable him to deliver himself with so much energy. But the hon. Gentleman labours under great disabilities, for all the cases which he has trotted out to harrow the feelings of the House are the cases which have already been dealt with at the Times Commission; and as the hon. Member trotted them out one by one, I noticed a sickly smile steal over the face of the Attorney General. I am surprised that the hon. Member could not even wait for the Report of the Judges; but as the Report of the Judges must in this case be that it was a case, and the case of fraud be of a certain character, I can understand the natural anxiety of the hon. Member to be a little in advance of the Report. I will now ask the House to judge of the character of the statements made by the hon. Gentleman. It was stated by him that evicted farms on the Coolgreany estates had been taken, that the tenants had cattle, and that he had seen their leases. But the men who were supposed to be tenants were notorious emergency men who killed Kinsella, and who had never received a day's punishment for the murder. These were the men who were installed on the estate, and assisted by the Loyal and Patriotic Union. This is the contemptible kind of stuff which the House is asked to swallow. I am surprised the hon. Gentleman manages to work himself up into such a passion; why, he is not even an Irishman. The hon. Gentleman says that he found the Plan of Campaign everywhere to be a deadly and blighting curse. But why did he write to the Times to suggest that the head rack-renter, Lord Clanricarde, should be compulsorily expropriated? That was the first, as it was the chief, estate on which the Plan of Campaign was started, yet, regardless of that fact, the hon. Member went down to Portumna and Loughrea 670 and passed over the estate with the police agent, and his suggestion is that, because the Marchioness of Clanricarde was not suitably buried, Lord Clanricarde's estate should be expropriated. The hon. Gentleman also visited the Delmege estate. What did he say to the tenants there? Did he not say to the tenants on that estate that they need not be a bit afraid, and that they were terribly rack-rented? [Mr. T. W. RUSSELL indicated that that was so.] And, according to the information which he had from two of the tenants, the hon. Member told them that they need not fear eviction, as he would take care that neither soldiers nor police were granted for such a purpose. I am astonished that the hon. Gentleman, being a Scotchman, should get up steam so rapidly, and work himself into a passion on behalf of a country with which he has nothing to do, except that he owns an hotel in it. He has stated that the Freeman's Journal, which he says is the most libellous paper in existence, interpolated the roars of laughter in its report of the speech of the Chief Secretary for Ireland which was delivered at the banquet in Dublin; and he remarked that that paper had had more actions against it than any other paper in the kingdom. I thought that the Times enjoyed that forensic distinction. But why are libel actions brought against the Freeman's Journal? Every one of them is brought by a Resident Magistrate, and the venue is always laid in Belfast, although the hon. Gentleman has talked about the purity of the jurors of the City of Dublin; and when the Freeman's Journal applied to have the venue changed, they went out of the frying-pan into Lord Ashbourne, and that distinguished Member of the Cabinet, who sat in the Court of Appeal, promptly disallowed the appeal. These libel actions are brought for reports and public meetings printed in that Journal, and you lay the venue in Belfast in order to get damages. Now, as to the charge that the Freeman's Journal has interpolated "laughter" in the report of the speech of the Chief Secretary at the banquet in Dublin, I have got a copy of the pamphlet issued, and I have also a copy of the Times which contained a report of the speech. It is said that the Government have on their side all the wealth, education, culture, and 671 courage of Ireland, and that their supporters are only anxious to lead thousands of stalwart men against the Nationalists. But what is the case? These men of wealth, and education, and culture, and courage dared not have it known that they were at tha banquet to the Chief Secretary. No; you won't meet us in the open. The Times report is identical with that in every newspaper. I ask this House, which is a fair assembly, to judge between my statement and that of the hon. Gentleman who last spoke. The Chief Secretary said— I desire not to descend into the squalid details of the controversy which are forced on the Irish Secretary only too often by the tactics of those with whom he has to deal [laughter and cheers]. The last thing I desire to do is to add any to the very many words I have had to say with regard to Mr. William O'Brien [laughter]. "Laughter" you see at the mere mention of the name of Mr. O'Brien—it was so funny. Why, the guests bubbled up with laughter like champagne bubbles rise in a bottle just opened. Then the right hon. Gentleman said— The last thing I desired to do was to add another word to the many words I have had to say with regard to Mr. O'Brien [laughter] and Mr. O'Brien's prison treatment. and then there was renewed laughter. "I take little interest in these histrionic performances," and then there was more laughter; they would not give him a chance to go on. "I take even less interest in them on the second representation [laughter]." Then he said— I ought, perhaps, to say a word, and I assure you it shall be a great word, on the communication I had the honour of receiving at about a quarter to one last night—[prolonged laughter]—a telegram from the Lord Mayor of Dublin—[renewed laughter]—which I allude to now, because I take it it represents the national case with regard to Mr. O'Brien's treatment in prison, and in this document, the original of which I have got in my hand, I read—I won't read it all—'Illegal and brutal violence [laughter]—that is not it [laughter]—unexampled indignation [laughter]—system of attacking and breaking down your political adversary by torture. [Laughter.] No, that is not it; here it is, Mr. O'Brien has now been naked in his cell for thirty-six hours. [Roars of laughter.]' What are you to think of a man who will make these utterly reckless and un-sifted statements? The Chief Secretary has also said that my Friend O'Brien 672 objected to travel second class. The only objection Mr. O'Brien took was this— I will insist upon being treated in Ireland as I have been treated in England. I will not allow you to act the hypocrite in England by taking me first class, and then, when you get me to Ireland, trying to huddle me in a second or third-class carriage. I will insist upon equal treatment in the two countries. Now, with regard to the statement that Mr. O'Brien objected to the prison clothes. I wonder Dr. O'Farrell's report, which was published this morning, did not contain Mr. O'Brien's statement to me about prison clothes! Will it surprise the House that Mr. O'Brien does not object in the least to prison clothes? I will read Mr. O'Brien's statement on the point, and thus show that the stories flying about amount to an abominable hypocrisy got up to pretend that this man desires better treatment because he is a Member of Parliament. Mr. O'Brien says:— He (Dr. O'Farrell) asked had I any complaint of the way in which the other officials had carried out their orders? I told him that it was not the officials I complained of, but their orders. I said, 'Of course, they used very considerable force and violence, and caused me very cruel suffering, but I admit that they did not use more force than was necessary, because I resisted with all my strength, and it was undoubtedly necessary for them to use very considerable force if they were to succeed in overpowering me. They did overpower me; but I do not charge that they did so with any wilful brutality or ill-temper.' Dr. O'Farrell then asked me whether I objected to his examining me, and I said, 'Not in the least; neither to you nor to anyone else.' At the same time, I told him distinctly that I was fighting this matter, not as a sick man, but as a political prisoner. I said, 'I will contend for nothing that the poorest or the commonest man convicted under the Summary Jurisdiction Clause of the Coercion Act is not equally entitled to. With me it is not in the least a question of food or even of treatment, but of classification. I told the officials before in Tullamore—and I am quite as willing now, as then, to carry out the proposition—that this whole struggle might be obviated by the simple expedient of making all prisoners convicted under the Summary Jurisdiction Clause of this Act a separate 'class.' Whatever their treatment might be, if this were done, I, for one, would not have the slightest objection to wear whatever prison uniform would be set apart for that 'class,' or to perform any menial offices whatever that would be imposed on my comrades. Those who think us criminals could think so still, and would have the satisfaction of punishing us as much as any ordinary criminals could be punished, while we would have it established that it was under this Act, and under this Act alone, that we were criminals; but the object of our present treatment 673 clearly is to attempt to degrade and confound us with criminals. [An hon. MEMBER: What is the paper you are quoting from?] This statement was made to me by Mr. O'Brien on the day Mr. O'Brien was convicted in Tralee. The statement was made 12 months ago to the prison officials of Tullamore that he was fighting not for food or clothes, but that he should be put into a separate class, and should not be compelled to associate with the burglar, the thief, and the forger. You can print the broad arrow two feet long on his back if you like; Mr. O'Brien will not mind. Now, the Chief Secretary has often been convicted, especially in relation to matters arising under this Act, of misstatement, misrepresentation, and I will say falsification of fact, as clearly as any man has ever been found guilty by a jury. I would convict the right hon. Gentleman now, and here, of as deliberate an attempt to pervert the truth in relation to this matter—[Cries of "Oh!" and "Order!"] I do not wish to put my words offensively, but I will convict him of as great a misstatement as any man was ever guilty of. The Chief Secretary stated in his letter to Mr. Armitage that any Government which allowed Mr. O'Brien's speech to go unpunished might make itself accessory to assasination. Why, then, did the Government allow four months to elapse before prosecuting the speech? Feeling the pressure of that point, the right hon. Gentleman put up the Solicitor General for Ireland yesterday to make a statement—Pigotted him, in fact, and he Pigotted the House. The Solicitor General for Ireland said the reason of that was because the First Lord of the Treasury gave a promise that until the Irish Estimates were disposed of there should be no pursuance of any prosecution of Irish Members. That was the excuse. Will the House believe that this speech was made on the 30th of September? Two months afterwards, on the 23rd of November, the First Lord's promise was made. I call that Pigottry. I understand that the hon. and learned Gentleman has deliberately accused me of wilful falsehood, because my hon. and learned Friend near me, in discussing this incident, said one of the reasons was that the First Lord of the Treasury had not 674 given the pledge in question till the 23rd of November, and the speech was delivered on the 30th of September. Of course, I should be out of order in dealing with the whole of this question, which I am perfectly prepared to deal with—which I only admitted to deal with—through inadvertence, an inadvertence which the House will excuse when they recollect that I spoke for two hours. What I ask is whether it is in order to accuse me of deliberate falsehood because my hon. and learned Friend near me did not give as full and effective an explanation of the facts as seemed consistent to the hon. and learned Gentleman? Any accusation of deliberate falsehood is quite un-Parliamentary. Quite so, Mr. Speaker; certainly. I did not use the words deliberate falsehood. The hon. Member did make use of an expression which I trust will not become common in this House. It implied the statement I have made. In dealing with a matter like this, it is very difficult, on the spur of the moment, to capture the most suitable expression to characterize the Minister's statement. Therefore, I will content myself by the baldest recital of the circumstances. The Chief Secretary writes to Mr. Armitage that the speech delivered on the 30th of September, if unprosecuted, would involve the Government in being accessory to assassination. The point taken thereon is—"Why did you not prosecute for four months?" Reply—"Because the First Lord of the Treasury promised there should be no prosecutions pending the Estimates." Rebuttal—"Turn to the First Lord of the Treasury's statement, and you will find the date of the promise was 23rd November, two months afterwards, and Parliament was not sitting at the time the speech was made." § THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN) I ought to call to the recollection of the House exactly what I did state. I only accounted for the difference of time between the date of the First Lord's pledge and the conclusion of the Session, and I said that if that period of time were deducted, that made the delay very much less than what was mentioned. I have sent out for a record, the accuracy of which will hardly be disputed by the Colleagues of the right hon. Gentleman—namely, the Times. In the meantime, assuming the validity of the statement of the hon. and learned Gentleman—who had a very difficult position in having to make up for the blunders of the Chief Secretary for Ireland—the point I have put forward remains. While the First Lord of the Treasury was, I hope, virtuously disporting himself at Cannes or Monaco, this Speech remained unprosecuted by Her Majesty's Government. I have now been furnished with the words of the hon. and learned Gentleman as reported in the Times, and they are as follows:— The right hon. Member for Newcastle asked how it was that Mr. O'Brien was not prosecuted until January for the speech he had made in September. Well, the simple answer was that a pledge had been given by the Leader of the House, that Members of Parliament should not be proceeded against until the Estimates were finally disposed of, which did not happen till Christmas Eve, and then the intervention of Christmas carried the proceedings over till January. What is more, that pledge only applied to Members against whom warrants or summonses were then issued, and my hon. Friend the Lord Mayor of Dublin (Mr. Sexton) simply asked, after the Jeremiah Sullivan incident, that there should be no further prosecutions until the Irish Estimates were disposed of. The Government had the entire month of October in which to proceed against the Irish Members. Parliament did not meet until about the middle of November, and during all that time this virtuous Unionist Government was making itself "accessory to assassination." That is not all, for—will the House believe it?—Mr. O'Brien was not prosecuted for the speech in question until two other summonses for different matters in Kerry had been determined upon. I will supply the House with another extraordinary fact—namely, that there was no thought of prosecuting Mr. O'Brien so long as the late Governor of Clonmel—a respectable old Catholic gentleman, who was believed to be more or less in sympathy with the Nationalists—remained alive. He was unhappily drowned about the beginning of the present year, and until the Government brought down from Downpatrick an instrument 676 on whom they could rely for inflicting this torture upon Mr. O'Brien, they never dreamt of commencing proceedings against Mr. O'Brien. I ask the Chief Secretary whether that statement is true? If the hon. Gentleman asks me, I will reply on the spot. It is wholly untrue—it is wholly incorrect. The speech was made on the 30th of September. In due course it came to me early in October, and I stated it was my opinion that the language ought to be prosecuted. The Attorney General thought a prosecution would lie, but desired evidence of a recrudescence of the conspiracy. As soon as he heard of it, he said that such language ought not to go unpunished. I never knew until a week ago that the Governor of Clonmel Gaol had been replaced. Observe the present statement the right hon. Gentleman makes. I will not imitate the right hon. Gentleman by saying that the statement is wholly untrue. [Mr. A. J. BALFOUR: I apologize.] The statement now is that in the month of October the opinion of the Chief Secretary that the speech ought to be prosecuted went to the Attorney General for Ireland. The Attorney General, who is not a sleepy man, allowed the matter to lie for four months. Now, what is the evidence of a recrudescence of the conspiracy? The principal witness was one W. T. Hanly, one of the Times' witnesses, who had in my presence sworn that he had not been subpoenaed by the Times, but whom, two days afterwards, the Attorney General had to interrupt Mr. Harrington's evidence to call, because he had been subpoenaed for a long time, and was waiting to give his evidence. William P. Hanly, of Thurles, land agent, deposed, in the presence of Mr. O'Brien— I was acting in 1887 and 1888 as agent for Mr. Cormack, over the lands of Modeshill, County Tipperary. I am the person referred to in Mr. O'Brien's speech given in evidence today. I see the Civil Bill Decree produced. It is Mr. Wall's signature to it, and the handwriting of Mr. Boyd, Clerk of the Peace. The Sub-Sheriff wrote the name of Andrew Carden in my presence. Captain Andrew Carden was High Sheriff, and Mr. Gerald Fitzgerald Sub-Sheriff, that year. That is Mr. Fitzgerald's hand-writing to that decree. I received possession under the Sheriff's warrant on that 677 decree. I have still the lands mentioned in that decree in my hands. I got possession under the four other ejectment decrees handed in. All those are for the lands of Modeshill, and are signed by the County Court Judge and Clerk of the Peace, and the warrants are signed by the Sheriff of the County Tipperary. The decrees are at the suit of Michael D. Cormack v. Michael Power, Michael D. Cormack v. Patrick Funcheon, Michael D. Cormack v. Martin Drennan, Michael D. Cormack v. Patrick Puncheon and Bridget Keeffe. That was the entire evidence given on behalf of the Crown. That is the evidence of the recrudescence of the conspiracy. I beg the House to listen to this man's cross-examination to see how much Mr. O'Brien's speech, made on the 30th September, had to do with the prosecution:— Cross-examined by Mr. Healy—When were the lands evicted? In May, 1888. Did you make any effort to tenant the lands? I have made no effort to get them tenanted since. It was in 1884 there was a feeling against land-grabbing, and it increase in 1889. The Land League was just dying out until the recent agitation about two or three months ago. Re-examined by Mr. Ryan—I attribute the revival of the Land League to the Thurles Convention. Boycotting was revived. The Convention was on the 24th October. No one would take the evicted farm until the tenant settles. A great number of them I could not get tenants for, and that continues up to the present in Tipperary. To the Court—Modeshill is about 14 miles from Carrick-on-Suir. I don't know where Ballyneale is. Such is the evidence upon which you have sentenced Mr. O'Brien to four months' imprisonment, and to be assaulted in the abominable way he has been assaulted. It is said Mr. William O'Brien was put in the charge of officials Were Protestant officials put in place of Catholic officials? Were Catholic warders removed from the prison where Mr. O'Brien was to be taken, and were Protestant warders put in their place? Above all, I have to ask with regard to this man, whom your own doctors, Dr. Barr and Dr. Ridley, said was a delicate man, and as to whose state of health the Chief Secretary says he has lots of evidence, whether he has been put in charge of a doctor who has been recently liberated from a lunatic asylum? Is Dr. Hewetson a liberated lunatic or not? There is no answer from the Treasury Bench. This accounts for your waiting four months. So long as the old Governor of the gaol lived—a quiet, respectable, decent man—no attempt was 678 made against Mr. O'Brien in Clonmel gaol, but then you bring a warder from Downpatrick and make a prison doctor of a liberated lunatic, who boasted he would soon put Mr. O'Brien into prison clothes. Would it not be desirable that, for your own self-protection, you should take some measures of precaution to prevent these terrible accusations being made against you? The hon. Member for South Tyrone says we made desperate charges against Irish officials in Dublin. Yes; and, what is still more melancholy, we proved every one of them. Where are the men we attacked in '83? Where is Cornwall, the Secretary of the General Post Office? A hunted felon! Where is Detective Director French? A hunted felon! Where are all the rest of the gang, some of whom have been playfellows of Lords Lieutenants in the past? Perhaps if Mr. Richard Pigott could be produced we might get some further evidence as to his trade in obscene literature. [An hon. MEMBER: Photographs.] We proved all the charges we made in 1883. Not a single official we attacked in connection with these desperate crimes but has been hunted out of the country like unclean things as they were. The hon. Member for South Tyrone gets up and, tearing a passion to tatters, declares we have been attacking white-robed angels, when you know you did not dare to allow Cornwall or any one of them their pensions. There are men whom we have met before the Commission against whom we have said no word in relation to this very matter; but if we should, you will see whether two years hence a Government will get up and say we made the accusations with absolutely no foundation. I tell the Government this thing is not through yet, and when the hon. Member for South Tyrone talks to us about making false accusations, I think the less said on the subject of false accusations by a paid pamphleteer of the Times the better so long as an unsavoury odour lingers around the employés of that respectable journal. Now, I take up another matter to test the accuracy of the Chief Secretary's statements in his letter to Mr. Armitage, I assert it as a positive fact that he is unable to prove a single statement he made therein. He says that it is not true that five warders attacked Mr. O'Brien, and in 679 the struggle tore his clothes off. Perhaps his contention is that there were only four warders? No; that was not my point at all. I made the contradiction in all candour, and meant that the statement as a whole was entirely untrue. Mr. O'Brien's statement is that the chief warder directed him to strip and put on the prison clothes, and on his refusal three other warders, with the chief warder, rushed upon him, the Governor standing by. They threw him down and dragged his clothes away. One of the warders placed his knee on the prisoner's chest, and, perhaps, not intentionally, caused him considerable suffering. He heard someone say, "Don't hurt him," and the knee was removed. Now, whether will the House believe Mr. O'Brien or the Chief Secretary? If these denials are persisted in will a sworn, inquiry into the subject be granted? Or will you allow a sworn inquiry to wait, as it did in the case of Mr. Mandeville, until it takes the form of a coroner's inquest? This is the only sworn inquiry open to these unfortunate prisoners in Ireland. You meet their testimony with denials in this House, the victims die and their friends repeat their testimony; the coroner's jury find it true, and then you get the coroner's decision quashed in the Queen's Bench. Now, I am not making the point that, if a man is to be stripped, force, if it is legal, should not be used to overcome resistance. I am dealing with the Chief Secretary's denial that force was used. Mr. O'Brien says he was flung on the floor; the Chief Secretary denies that. Mr. O'Brien struggled against the execution of the order to cut off his hair and beard; he remembered some dashes at him with scissors, and became unconscious. When he recovered, he found his mouth full of hair. No wonder the Liberal Unionists at the banquet laughed. I remember other Philistines who laughed over a similar triumph at another famous banquet. The Chief Secretary goes on to deny that the prisoner was left naked in his cell for 36 hours—says it is all a dream of Mr. O'Brien's imagination. Meanwhile, before dawn, shortly after seven, Mr. O'Brien was aroused, unless indeed they took furtive glances 680 through the spy-hole. The prisoner drank but could not eat, walking about to keep himself warm and getting what warmth he could from the hot water pipe. At the usual hour a plank bed, mattress, and two blankets were brought, but no pillow. Mr. O'Brien says he could not sleep, cold as he was, and got what comfort he could from resting his head on the water pipe. Noble spectacle for Liberal Unionist laughter! Might I suggest to the Government that instead of some of the frescoes that commemorate the deeds of your forefathers and adorn the corridors communicating between this and the House of Lords—removing, for instance, from entablature, the "Last sleep of Argyle"—they should commission an artist to design, as a substitute, this Bed of O'Brien at Clonmel. This is the man whom twenty millions of the Queen's subjects love as if he were their brother, and who, if they had it in their power, would, rather than a hair of his head were touched, see every Tory Minister and Liberal Unionist at Jericho. All this is matter for jeers and sneers and laughter at a Liberal Unionist banquet! Why, from point of policy, to put it no higher, is it desirable that these things should go on? I tell the Government that if anything had happened to this man they would have had Ireland in a state in which not 50 Coercion Bills would have succeeded in restoring what you call a condition of law and order. It is to this fact we may attribute whatever little concessions were made, not to the brutal cynicism of official gentlemen who sneer and cheer and laugh at a Liberal Unionist banquet. Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary was enjoying himself, paid by the country he deceived at the hustings with promises of no coercion. He was careful to tell the Liberal Unionists he "slept the sleep of the just!" Mr. O'Brien describes the scene, and continues to narrate how he was dragged along, he not knowing the intention was to weigh him. The Secretary for War the other night said the weighing-machine was brought up to the door of the cell, Mr. O'Brien having to walk no distance at all. Now, I should like to see this weighing-machine. I should like to know how far it is a portable machine. Why, in regard to a man towards whom you have used every 681 indignity, and knocked him down, stripped him, put him in prison clothes, cut off his beard and hair, you should be so careful of his feelings as to bring the weighing-machine to the door of his cell, I cannot understand. Mr. O'Brien, with no intimation of the intention to weigh him, found himself being dragged across the main hall of the building; then, finding himself put on the machine, he still resisted, because, he said, after the manner in which he had been treated, he would yield to nothing but force. The attempt to weigh was abandoned, and he was taken back to his cell, where he removed his prison clothes, retaining nothing but his shirt. The door was closed, the warders making no attempt to force him into the clothes again. A prisoner can only compute time by meal-times and the sound of clocks he may hear, and Mr. O'Brien did this. Food was brought, but neither Governor nor Doctor came near the man who had suffered brutal violence, and was left hour after hour naked in his cell, his plank bed and covering taken away, his quilt dragged from him as too great a luxury, and the prisoner resumed his walk up and down his cell in his shirt. So he remained until the doctor was brought to his senses by what the Chief Secretary calls a system of intimidation. All I say is, God bless the means that brought the doctor to his senses. I tell you straight the only protection William O'Brien had from being done to death in his prison was that the doctor found out mighty quickly that if he took William O'Brien's life, his own period of doctorship in Clonmel gaol might not be a very pleasant one. It was not to pity, not to humanity, not, respect for law and order, but what you describe as intimidation, that you yielded and gave this man clothes to cover himself. If intimidation works miracles like this can you wonder it should be practised? If you will not yield to humanity and good sense, then I say long live intimidation. For generations you were deaf to all appeals, then the people of Ireland combined, and to intimidation you yielded what you refused to logical argument. In the same way this prison doctor found there was a feeling swelling up outside that if O'Brien were killed the people of Clonmel and of Ireland would know the reason why. 682 But the Chief Secretary did not state who was the person who committed the assault on the doctor's house. It is a curious incident that he is a Liberal Unionist. His name is Kingston, and his father is employed in the Sub-Sheriff's office. He was caught at once by the police standing opposite the house, and brought before my hon. Friend the Mayor of Clonmel who on the previous day was sentenced to four months' imprisonment and was then out on bail. My hon. Friend made the first use of his liberty in sentencing Kingston to the utmost penalty the law allowed, a fine of forty shillings or a month's imprisonment. The right hon. Gentleman did not tell this story, but I leave the House to judge why. This was the only incident of violence offered to the Doctor—or if there were others why did you not institute a prosecution. Kingston was sentenced by the Mayor, and I am not surprised, for Kingston said he threw the stone as the result of a Liberal Unionist plot. I have not the slightest doubt that Kingston's fine of 40s. will be paid by Mr. Houston of the Loyal and Patriotic League. Yes, I am informed that a member of the Conservative party in Clonmel came forward and paid the fine. The right hon. Gentleman finds all this extremely amusing. Well, I do not know that if I were drawing a salary of £4,400 a-year and coals, that I should find it so extremely amusing to be caught out in several gross perversions of the truth, but then people are differently constituted. The Chief Secretary having been categorically shown to have misstated facts in several instances, finds it subject for laughter only! Now I come to the final statement upon which the whole speech in Dublin was based, that Mr. O'Brien refused to allow himself to be medically examined. Was that true or false? The right hon. Gentleman has himself confessed it was absolutely false, and there is not a shred or shadow of foundation for it. The right hon. Gentleman, in his letter to the Times, says— To say that Mr. O'Brien threw every obstacle in the way of medical examination is excessive, he allowed his pulse to be felt, and the stethoscope to be used, but he declined to be weighed, and declined to answer questions as to the present or previous state of his health. From what happens was this, according to Mr. 683 O'Brien's account. The doctor placed a stethoscope to his heart, felt his pulse, placed another instrument to his breast, and struck him lightly on the stomach. Mr. O'Brien told the doctor he was at perfect liberty to examine him, but he declined to answer questions because of the perversions of his answers on a previous occasion when the Chief Secretary stated the hon. Member had sheltered himself under plea of a weak heart. What are we to think of the statement of an official who says Mr. O'Brien threw every obstacle in the way of medical examination? There is not a shred or tittle of truth in the statement. When caught out in this statement, when gibbetted at the cross roads of public opinion, he comes with his letter to the Times, saying this statement was excessive. I do not think it was excessive, it was Balfouresque. 'It would be more correct to say,' said the Chief Secretary, 'that Mr. O'Brien threw very serious obstacles in the way of medical examination.' This is equally unfounded. He threw no obstacle in the way; he simply declined to answer any question as to his previous history, because the Chief Secretary, when he was imprisoned in Tullamore, made the most atrocious misuse of statements made, declaring that Mr. O'Brien sheltered himself behind the plea of a weak heart. This is the Gentleman who has charge of five millions of Her Majesty's subjects, who has the liberties of every man in Ireland at his disposal. This magnanimous Gentleman, who has the fate of Irish Members in his hands, gets up and makes a statement that is absolutely unfounded, and when it is shattered and riven, withdraws it with about as much grace as the Attorney General withdraws the forged letters from before the Royal Commission. § It being Midnight, the Debate stood adjourned. 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__label__cc	0.726279	0.273721	Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan (EORP) Revision Date: Laws 1950, Chapter 59, First Special Session created the Judges’ Retirement Fund, which ultimately merged with EORP. The first incarnation of EORP was created by Laws 1981, Chapter 284. These two programs were merged by Laws 1985, Chapter 309. Statutory authority is found at Arizona Revised Statutes §§ 38-801 to 38-823. The Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan provides a statewide retirement system for elected officials in Arizona. State and county elected officials, including judges, are eligible to participate. Other political subdivisions may become a part of EORP by joinder agreement. The Public Safety Personnel Retirement System Board of Trustees administers EORP. EORP is funded by cost-sharing contributions from members and members’ employers, as well as monies derived from a share of court fees. The Board of Trustees provides oversight for investments pursuant to A.R.S.§ 38-803. Although the Board is not responsible for the actions or omissions of the local boards, it has the authority to seek review or rehearing in order to protect the System as a whole. The Board of Trustees is made up of nine members, appointed to five-year terms. Legislation adopted in 1950 provided a pension for judges of the Supreme Court and the Superior Court who had at least 20 years of service at age 65. The amount of the pension was initially established as two-thirds of the salary at the time of retirement from the bench. Additionally, any judge with at least 10 years of service who had to retire for medical reasons (mental or physical) could be awarded a pension by the Governor upon petition. If a retired judge received retirement pay, the Supreme Court could call on that judge to aid the Supreme or Superior Court as the Supreme Court deemed fit which could include examining the facts of a case, examining citations, or preparing opinions for the court. Additionally, retired judges receiving a pension could not practice law privately or engage in any other public service for compensation. A fund was created consisting of 25% from each of the following: the county library fund from each county in Arizona, monthly fees collected by the Clerk of the Superior Court, and monthly fees collected by the Clerk of the Supreme Court. Additionally, 5% was deducted from the salary of each Supreme Court and Superior Court judge. The State Treasurer oversaw the fund. See Laws 1950, Chapter 59, First Special Session. Laws 1957, Chapter 25 provided for any judge with at least 12 years of service to receive a pension, although it was proportionate to a pension for 20 years of service (i.e. 12/20=60%, so only 60% of a normal pension was given). Laws 1981, Chapter 284 created the EORP. Previously, elected officials had been members of the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS). As a result, all unencumbered monies paid into ASRS by elected state or county officials or on their behalf was transferred to the EORP fund, now part of the PSPRS. Elected officials were entitled to a pension amounting to half their final annual salary, provided they had at least 15 years of service. For those with fewer than 15 years of service, their pension would decrease by 3.5% for each year below the 15 year mark (i.e. 13 years of service meant a pension of only 43% of an official’s final annual salary). A similar increase to an elected official’s pension occurred for each year of service beyond 15 years. Laws 1982, Chapter 261 repealed and replaced the changes made by Laws 1981, Chapter 284, creating a comprehensive framework for EORP. This included, but was not limited to, optional forms of payment, modified powers and duties for the PSPRS fund manager, and an exemption from state taxes for contributions and benefits. Laws 1985, Chapter 309 repealed Articles 3 (Judge’s Retirement Plan) and 3.1 (EORP) of Title 38, Chapter 5 and added a new Article 3 that combined both plans into a new EORP. The fund manager of the PSPRS continued to administer the new EORP fund. The cap on annual compensation also increased significantly to $90,000 or 100% of the member’s average compensation across their 3 highest earning consecutive years, whichever was less. Laws 2011, Chapter 357 made changes to each of the state retirement systems (PSPRS, CORP, EORP and ASRS). Section 55, Legislative findings, stated in part: “The Legislature recognizes that in order to have a sound public retirement system that benefits this state, taxpayers and member of the retirement systems, the public retirement systems must be funded with contributions and investment earnings based on actuarial methods and assumptions that meet generally accepted actuarial standards. ... The Legislature finds the current structures of ... the plans do not achieve this goal … and intends to modify and amend these various retirement programs in order to protect the best interests of the members and beneficiaries.” The 2011 measure made a number of significant changes, including cost of living adjustments, return to work, member’s contribution rates, compensation, calculation of retirement benefits, and purchase of credited service. The measure also created the Defined Contribution and Retirement Study Committee to study the feasibility and cost of transferring existing or new members to a defined contribution. A written report of findings and recommendations was required to be submitted to the Governor, Legislature and Secretary of State by December 31, 2012. Laws 2013, Chapter 217 established a defined contribution retirement system for elected officials, rather than a defined benefit program, for those who are elected or appointed on or after January 1, 2014. Laws 2018, Chapter 140 repealed existing statute relating to EORP permanent benefit increases and instead established an EORP cost of living adjustment. The change was referred to the voters by House Concurrent Resolution 2032. The changes became effective when Proposition 125 was approved by the voters in the November 2018 general election. A second enactment in 2018 eliminated the specific EORP employer contribution rate of 23.5% and required the employee contribution rate to be set at the actuarial value determined for each fiscal year. This measure was introduced in response to the Arizona Supreme Court 2016 decision Hall v. Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan, 241 Ariz. 33, 383 P.3d 1107(2016). See Laws 2018, Chapter 343. Arizona Revised Statutes §§38-801 et seq. Laws 1950, Chapter 59, 1st Special Session Laws 1957, Chapter 25 Laws 1981, Chapter 284 Laws 2018, Chapter 140 and Chapter 343 House Concurret Resolution 2032 2018 General Election Publicity Pamphlet, Proposition 125 State of Arizona Official Canvass of the Nov 6, 2018 General Election Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System annual reports (consult for year by year changes). See also: Annual Reports on the Arizona Memory Project. Agency Histories Follow the State Library	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2298
__label__cc	0.525311	0.474689	b3ta user Leo Sasquatch (58379) You are not logged in. Login or Signup Profile for Leo Sasquatch: a member for 12 years, 0 months and 23 days has posted 2 messages on the main board has posted 0 messages on the talk board has posted 5 messages on the links board has posted 17 stories and 19 replies on question of the week They liked 196 pictures, 24 links, 0 talk posts, and 105 qotw answers. Ignore this user Add this user as a friend Profile Info: Recent front page messages: Best answers to questions: » The nicest thing someone's ever done for me Sheer coincidence My brother died at the age of 39 from inoperable stomach and bowel cancer. He was a lot older than me, and had moved out and joined the Army before I was even born, so we were never really close. But still, I have a photo of him hanging on the wall, taken on the day he was promoted to Major in his regiment, not very long before the initial diagnosis. He was my bro', and I've always been so very proud of him. Some time ago, I was in a dreadful state of debt. My house was about to be repossessed, making me homeless in the process, have my credit rating destroyed, everything I owned sold off until the debts were paid, and quite probably lose my job as well. Warrant sales are a bitch. And the day came when the dreaded knock at the door turned out to be the initial representative from the bailiffs. A big, tough-looking bloke, who looked like he would be well capable of handling himself if the home-owners kicked off violent. I didn't - I had nothing left, I just let the guy in. He was very professional, doing an unpleasant job with calm and civility, and then he stopped, halfway mid-spiel. He was looking at the photo of my brother, hanging up in the hallway. He turned slowly to look at me and said: "That is Tony (Sasquatch), isn't it?" "Yes, it is." "D'you mind my asking - how did you know Tony?" "He was my brother." I was, of course, completely confused by this point. Was this some sort of horrific Candid Camera set-up - what the hell was going on? His posture and body language transformed instantly. "Fuck me, you're Tony (Sasquatch)'s little brother? He was my Captain for three years. Fucking decent bloke. Right, sod this, I'm not having his little brother made homeless. Here's what we're going to do..." And he laid it all out for me. What I'd have to do - who I'd have to call, what I'd have to claim for, what forms to fill in, and what to put on them to get them through first time. He gave me names and phone numbers, shared every tip and trick of the trade with me, and promised he'd 'forget' to file the paperwork for my job for a couple of weeks, to give me time to get it all sorted. I'd have to put the work in, but it was the best chance I was going to get. And it worked. It all worked. I lost the house, but got rehoused instantly by the council, kept all my stuff and my job. It didn't even wreck my credit rating, due to the way the handback of the house to the building society was processed. I was 24 hours away from being homeless and completely destitute, and this guy saved me from all that, because he thought he owed Tony one last favour. Thanks Robert. (Sun 5th Oct 2008, 16:05, More) » Kids Two true tales Both from around the same time - my son was very young, around 2 years old. The first was just sort of funny (after the fact). The second, I still don't know. The first: we were in the local swimming playpark - not a proper pool, just rubber rings, and a wave pool, and jacuzzi beds. Leith Waterworld - always a handy weekend destination. Coming out of the wave pool, my son sees a very large lady spilling out of her costume in all directions and pipes up: "Fucking troll! Fucking troll, Daddy!" He's not being quiet, and half the poolgoers hear this, especially as he's pointing straight at her. She goes scarlet and scurries away. I tell him I'm very cross with him, he's being very rude, and we're going home now. This does not make him happy. I pick him up and cart him off to find my wife, who's on the jacuzzi beds, and tell her we'll be leaving, even though we've only been there 10 minutes. "Why, what's the matter?" "Well, your son just called a woman a very nasty name." At this, Little Sasquatch speaks up: "Not nasty. She fucking troll!" Mrs Sasquatch blanches, and asks him where he's heard such horrible language. "Thomas Tank!" It takes a few moments, but understanding slowly dawns. "Oh, you meant 'Fat Controller!" We leave anyway - the thought of trying to deliver that explanation to the lady in question just didn't appeal somehow. The second one weirds me out to this day. We were in a mini-mall, and waiting outside the health food shop, as it was tiny, and packed, and didn't need all three of us to go in for a few bits of shopping. Across the way was one of those art/print/poster shops, and in the window was a print of the classic Barrie Clark picture of a Spitfire. More interesting to a small child than rice and spices, I thought, so we went over. "Isn't that a nice aeroplane?" I say. "Spitfire." says my not-two-year-old son. "What...?" "Spitfire." he repeats. It's not written on it anywhere, and he's not reading yet anyway. How the hell does he know? Then he says, clearly, and in a broad Yorkshire accent: "Aye, that's the one. We can do it. Give 'em hell, lads!" Then he looks up at me and repeats, as if he's the one speaking to a small child: "Spitfire." At this point Mrs Sasquatch emerges with shopping and he runs over to greet her. The moment, whatever it was, is over, and he never makes further mention of it. It kind of stuck in my mind though, although I never heard from our own personal 'Captain Howdy' ever again. (Sun 20th Apr 2008, 0:56, More) » Pathological Liars Bi-lingual? Tri-lingual? Quad-lingual? Keep trying... My dad never had any time for religion. But he still didn't like being rude when various god-botherers stopped bothering their (g/G)od and came bothering him instead. Before WW2, he'd been in the Egyptian police, so he spoke Arabic like a native. He'd been in France and Germany and spoke both those languages pretty well too. He'd picked up bits and pieces in his travels, some Hindi in India and god-knows what in Burma, and amongst the Gurkhas (Nepalese/Gurkhali). Perhaps not good enough to make dinner-party conversation about politics, but enough to get by on a daily basis and command a troop of Gurkhas. He also 'spoke' some very basic sign language, and knew the British sign alphabet. So one day there's a knock at the door, and when he answers it, there's two guys there, who immediately kick off in american accents, so I reckon they had to be Mormons. My dad stands there for a few seconds, then says in French: "I'm sorry, I don't speak any English." Well, Mormon no.1 looks at him, and starts struggling to reply in halting schoolboy French. "Oh dear," says my dad in fluent German, "I'm sorry, I don't speak French either.". Mormon 2 starts in with some German (got to give 'em credit, the poor sods were trying real hard to save his irredeemable ass). "No, sorry," says my dad in flawless Arabic, "German's no good either. Maybe you should try another house?" At which point the god-botherers spot me behind my dad in the hallway. "Excuse me, sonny, but do you speak English? We're trying to talk to your dad about Jesus.". Dad turns, sees me, and starts signing to me. "No, no," he says, in what he later assured me was Hindi, "the boy's deaf and dumb - can't hear a word you're saying. - not right in the head, the poor lamb." Meanwhile, I've heard the J-word, so I've sussed what's going on and am keeping quiet. At this point, the guys figure out they're not getting a straight answer, and it's time to cut their losses. "We'll be going now. Sorry to have bothered you." they say in that way people do when they're talking to the elderly and insane. They'd turned away by this point, so I couldn't actually see their faces when my dad closed the door, saying "Not at all, old chap, good day to you!" in his best BBC english accent, but damn I'd have paid serious money to have done so. (Sun 2nd Dec 2007, 2:35, More) » IT Support PCs and the evil mouse I was there, the day the first PC came into our office. We'd managed very well until then with dedicated green-screen terminals, which only had a single Big Red Switch on the front, that simply powered up the monitor. The Department Manager, her 2IC, and three Team Leaders were all standing around this PC, wondering why it wouldn't work. They weren't impressed. This was rubbish! It wouldn't even turn on! It was running Windows 3.1, just like my home machine. This booted remarkably swiftly from a hard drive, but the system had two On switches - one more than they were used to. The power switch on the base unit was a big, solid, up/down toggle switch, exactly like the one on the base of the monitors of the green-screen terminals. The monitor switch was a tiny, square switch, of exactly the same colour as the plastic around it, on the monitor itself. I listened to the whirring noises from the HD that told me when Windows was ready, then reached over and pressed the switch on the front of the monitor, which came on immediately to display the Windows desktop. There was a genuine collective gasp of amazement, and I was the IT guru for the entire department from that point on. That, in and of itself, had its drawbacks. They asked me to write and present the course to train the entire department how to use the PC, plus Word and email. Yoink. But okay, it could be done, although I hadn't realised how much I'd absorbed in 10 years mucking about with computers since the days of the ZX81. Mostly, it wasn't too bad, and I actually learned a lot about dialling my assumptions way down when training. But there was one guy I nearly killed. I delivered the course individually, as we only had one PC in the department, and they wanted everybody trained on PCs before they went to the expense of rolling them out to everyone. Now Allan was apparently intelligent enough to hold down a role at a major life assurance company, but he could NOT grasp the idea of the mouse. Everybody else had taken 10 seconds to grasp the basic idea of 'mouse = cursor'. Then a few minutes more to go over single-click to select, double-click to execute and right-click for secondary menus. They were all smart cookies. But Allan did not get it. He'd look at the mouse, and mentally measure some distance, then move the mouse that distance. Then look back at the screen, see how far he'd fallen short, or over-shot, look back at the mouse, move it again, look back at the screen... I could not make him watch the screen while he moved the mouse. Three times, he walked away from the training, because he got so frustrated that he couldn't make the PC do the simplest thing. It was shit, it was evil, it hated him - oh my word, the language he used. On the fourth attempt, I brought in a shoebox, and cut a small hole in the end. I put the shoebox over the mouse and made him put his hand in the hole so he COULDN'T SEE THE MOUSE while he was moving it. I saw the clicky happen in his eyes as he realised he didn't need to. After that, File Manager, Word and email held no terrors for the poor chap. (Sat 26th Sep 2009, 9:47, More) » Tales of the Unexplained Dad's Sister My family used to have the village shop in a tiny farming village in rural Lincolnshire. And because it was so distributed, my dad used to do deliveries in the van. Farmers and their families would phone through their orders, and make a date for delivery. On weekends, as a young Sasquatch, I'd go with my Dad and help him carry boxes and bags. This was great, as I got to go round all the farms, play with all the kids and be shown all the animals. One day, we were visiting a farm, and the farmer's wife introduced my dad to her mum, who was visiting. She said her mum was the local fortune-teller, at which my dad smiled politely and said "How interesting." or some such. He didn't believe in any of that rubbish. A more mundane and normal setting could not be imagined - a workday farmhouse kitchen, plain wooden table, muddy boots by the door. Then this woman looks up at my dad and says "I've got a message for you." Her face crumpled, and she was clearly confused. "It's your sister, but it's a man. He's in a greenhouse in the sky, but it's falling and it's on fire. How can a greenhouse be in the sky...? How can a man be your sister?" To my total surprise, my Dad's face was wet with tears. He thanked her for the message and said he understood perfectly. Things returned to normality; tea was made, drunk, and we left. In the van, I was bursting to know what that had all been about. When my Dad had been a teenager, his best pal was a lad called Peter, and they looked very similar in height and facial features. People used to ask them if they were brothers, and their stock reply was "No, we're sisters!" Peter had gone into the RAF during the war, and had flown in an Anson light bomber, which was nicknamed the Flying Greenhouse. His plane had been lost over the Channel. (Fri 4th Jul 2008, 8:15, More) [read all their answers]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2299
__label__cc	0.674364	0.325636	Show Review: The Cars @ Showbox SoDo Posted on 05/11/2011 by Dagmar The audience at the Cars last night was so thrilled to be there. People were dancing and smiling as if, well, as if the Cars were playing their first show in twenty-four years in a venue where you could actually see the band. I’m convinced the Cars are one of the most influential band of their era. You can hear their sound all over so many bands, whether the bands realize it or not. So how does the original stack up? Absolutely sleek, shiny, strong and joyful. Move Like This, the band’s first album in quite some time (since 1987 if you want to count back), is a brilliant work, one that you can recognize right away as a Cars album – and there’s everything right in the world with that. Also, Showbox SoDo introduced a new sound system last night, and it absolutely worked with the Cars in producing a crisp, perfect delivery. Singer/guitarist’s Ric Ocasek’s vocals were record sharp, and all instruments were clarity itself. The band has an elegant presence that shone through with familiar and less familiar songs, including the opening “Good Times Roll,” “Let’s Go,” “Touch and Go,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” “Sad Song” and “Keep on Knocking.” The song “Moving in Stereo,” which might just be my favorite Cars song, got two plays as the band didn’t seem happy with performance one. It was incredible to hear the song even once, but twice was an ecstatic godsend. “I’m Not the One,” and “Just What I Needed” exquisitely went through the roof. Deceased bassist/singer Benjamin Orr is missed – a loud contingent of the audience screamed for “Candy-0” – yet the Cars continue their relevant beauty. Review by Dagmar Written by: Dagmar on 05/11/2011. Filed Under Show Reviews This entry was tagged posted by dagmar, the cars. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2300
__label__wiki	0.807022	0.807022	Fonds - Records of the Poverty Analysis and Policy Sector Records of the Poverty Analysis and Policy Sector 24.72 linear feet of textual records Poverty Analysis and Policy Sector The poverty analysis and policy sector functions in the World Bank evolved from the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) research project launched in 1980 by the Development Research Center (DRC) located in the Development Policy Staff (DPS). The LSMS was developed to improve the quality of collection of household data. In turn, this data was used to monitor progress of living standards; identify consequences of government policies on households; and to improve exchange of data between survey statisticians, analysts, and policy makers. LSMS efforts were overseen by DRC from 1980 to 1982. In March 1983, DRC was replaced by the Development Research Department (DRD). The DRD was located in DPS successor Economics and Research Staff (ERS). A Living Standards Measurement Unit (DRDLS) was established in DRD to oversee LSMS research projects. Dennis N. de Tray was appointed the Head of DRDLS. In June 1987, DRD was terminated. LSMS functions were transferred from DRDLS to the new Welfare and Human Resources Development Division (PHRWH) located in the Population and Human Resources Department (PHR). Jacques van der Gaag was appointed Chief of PHRWH. The transfer of LSMS functions from DRDLS to PHRWH changed LSMS focus from a long-term research project to a permanent means of data collection, monitoring, and policy analysis within Bank operations. In 1990, the working paper entitled Improving data on poverty in the Third World: the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study documented this shift. LSMS additionally served as a tool for PHRWH's broader functions focused on poverty analysis and policy. PHRWH functions focused on: expanding the Bank's knowledge base regarding the causes and consequences of poverty; and providing operational and analytical support to the Regions in the design and evaluation of poverty reduction interventions. Activities undertaken in support of these functions included: designing and validating development policies that benefit the poor, with emphasis on the human capital formation of the poor; designing and validating anti-poverty strategies that target the poor; researching the impact of the education and training services; implementing the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys as a core basis for sector work and design of projects for poverty alleviation; and researching the response of households to changes in their economic environment. In January 1992, PHRWH was closed and its functions were transferred to the Population and Human Resources Poverty Analysis and Policy Division (PHRPA). PHRPA functions included: research and policy analysis (including LSMS); monitoring poverty trends and policy implementation; operational support; and dissemination and training. PHRPA, however, was terminated along with PHR in December 1992. As part of the reorganization that took effect in January 1993, PHR was split between two newly created departments: the Population, Health and Nutrition Department (PHN) and the Education and Social Policy Department (ESP). Both of these departments were placed in the new Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Vice Presidency (HRO). The LSMS related functions of PHRPA were transferred to the Poverty and Human Resources Division (PRDPH) of the Policy Research Department located in the Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC). ESP absorbed the functions of PHRPA, as well as a number of other social sectors. ESP performed work in four main thematic areas: Poverty analysis and social policy; Labor markets and safety nets; Women in Development; and Education and Training. The ESP Department was responsible for: formulating and disseminating policies and guidelines for its sectors; monitoring the effectiveness of policies and approaches; identifying and disseminating best practices and lessons of experience; liaising with Bank-external organizations and professionals in the field; assessing skills requirements and upgrading skills; and providing operational support to the Regions. On July 1, 1995, HRO became Human Capital Development and Operations Policy (HCO). The education team was removed from ESP and placed in the newly established Human Development Department (HDD) of HCO. ESP was terminated, and the remaining teams were moved into the new Poverty and Social Policy Department (PSP). PSP contained four thematic Groups: Gender Analysis and Policy; Poverty and Social Assistance; Labor Markets, Social Protection, and Public Sector Management; and Participation and Non-Governmental Organizations. PSP's work was focused on different social sectors, but had a particular poverty reduction emphasis. Responsibilities included: performing analytical work covering the three elements of the Bank's poverty reduction strategy: (i) encouraging policies conducive to labor-absorbing growth; (ii) promoting human development through the provision of social services, especially primary education, primary health care, and family planning; and (iii) designing and implementing safety nets to protect vulnerable groups in society when necessary; providing support in preparation of poverty assessments; monitoring Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) to ensure poverty is at the center of the strategy; and preparing an annual progress report on poverty. On December 31, 1995, Human Capital Development and Operations Policy (HCO) was terminated, and replaced by the Human Capital Development Vice-Presidency (HCD). PSP remained in HCD. In December 1996, the Human Capital Development Vice-Presidency (HCD) was terminated. The PSP Groups of HCD were transferred to the Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) under the oversight of International Economic Department Director (IECDR) Masood Ahmed. The Gender Analysis and Policy Group, the Poverty and Social Assistance Group, and the Public Sector Management Group temporarily became the Poverty, Gender, and Public Sector Management Department (PGP) in January 1997. These PGP sector groups were then mapped into independent units in the new Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (PREM) launched in July 1997. The new PREM Poverty Division (PRMPO) launched in July 1997 absorbed the functions of the Poverty and Social Assistance Group of PGP. The objectives of PRMPO included: to develop approaches to country assistance strategies that are firmly grounded on analysis and determinants of poverty, with the participation of the poor; to foster implementation and monitoring of poverty-focused strategies through sharing and documentation of good practices; to strengthen understanding of how public policy can lead to the poor expanding their capabilities and managing risks they face; to deepen understanding of the links between patterns of development and poverty reduction, and implications for assistance strategies; to deepen the Bank's understanding of the linkages between poverty and social exclusion, post-conflict situations, gender, and violence; to develop a program of analytical work and a broad consultative process to build up to the WDR 2000 on poverty; to develop practical approaches for evaluating the impact of interventions on poor households, controlling for general patterns of change; to support a shift in project work to greater use of feedback, evaluation and redesign of interventions and institutions to increase gains for the poor; to strengthen in-country capacity to generate and use data for the monitoring and diagnosis of poverty; to make both data and analyses widely and regularly available, within and, especially, outside the World Bank; and to assess the progress of the World Bank in supporting strategies, policies, and projects to reduce poverty. In June 2001, PRMPO was closed and was replaced by the Poverty Reduction Group in the PREM Network (PRMPR). Sometime after 2005, the Poverty Reduction Group was renamed the Poverty Reduction and Equity Department (PRMPR). World Bank Group Archives Records were transferred to the World Bank Group Archives using approved records retention and disposition schedules. The fonds includes records from PHRWH's involvement with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and World Bank Poverty Research Conference held in 1989. It also includes records related to the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys, as well as records related to liaison with LSMS collaborators in the U.N. National Household Survey Capability Program (NHSCP), the UN Statistical Office (UNSO), and the U.N. Statistical Commission. Lastly, the fonds contains the records of trust fund donor supported projects of the PRMPO and its successor PRMPR from 1998 to 2007. Accruals are expected. Records are subject to the World Bank Policy on Access to Information. Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group. See the Records of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network (WB IBRD/IDA PREM) for PREM Vice President sector department oversight and support records related to PRMPO and PRMPR. See the Records of the Human Resources Development and Operations Policy Vice Presidency - Education and Social Policy Department (ESP), Poverty and Social Policy Department (PSP), and Poverty, Gender, and Public Sector Management Department (PGP) records (WB IBRD/IDA WB_IBRD/IDA_91-04) for records related to ESP, PSP, and PGP. Records of the Office of the Chief Economist-- Records of the Economics and Research Staff (ERS)-- Subject File of Dennis N. de Tray, Head of the Living Standards Measurement Unit (DRDLS), Development Research Department (WB IBRD/IDA DEC-02-07). See oral history of Dennis N. de Tray. Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G). Browse fonds as list Show all digital objects Poverty Analysis and Policy Sector (Creator)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2307
__label__wiki	0.561966	0.561966	THE DOUBLE (2013) Release dates 04/04/2014 Ratings Info strong language, suicide references Genre(s) Drama Director(s) Richard Ayoade Cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Sally Hawkins, Wallace Shawn, Yasmin Paige, James Fox, Craig Roberts, Noah Taylor, Chris O'Dowd, Paddy Considine, Christopher Morris THE DOUBLE is a drama about a man who finds his life being taken over by someone who looks exactly like him, but with a very different personality. There is use of strong language ('f**k'), as well as milder language such as 'hell', 'Jesus', 'damn', 'crap', 'ass' and 'bloody'. There are scenes depicting characters committing suicide by throwing themselves from buildings, but this is presented in a stylised manner, with only brief images of bloody injury in the aftermath. There is also a suicide attempt by overdosing on pills, with verbal references to the character trying to kill themselves, but the act takes place off screen. There is also brief moderate violence, moderate sex references and a passing drug reference. THE DOUBLE Film 92m 44s Studio Canal 03/01/2014 15 THE DOUBLE Video 89m 2s Studio Canal 27/05/2014 15 THE DOUBLE FilmTrailer 2m 25s Studio Canal 11/02/2014 12A THE DOUBLE VideoTrailer 2m 20s Studio Canal 27/05/2014 12	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2310
__label__wiki	0.827568	0.827568	© Ron Smith Common Nighthawk Common Pauraque Antillean Nighthawk Chordeiles gundlachii Caprimulgidae Version: 2.0 — Published January 1, 2002 Michael J. Guzy Figure 1. Breeding range of the Antillean Nighthawk. Breeding range of the Antillean Nighthawk. Winter range unknown. Antillean Nighthawk, adult (female?), Dry Tortugas, FL. March. Antillean Nighthawk, adult (female?), Dry Tortugas, FL. March; photographer Brian E. Small A familiar feature of summer evenings from the Greater Antilles and Bahamas to the Virgin Islands, the Antillean Nighthawk is often seen pursuing flying insects over open areas, towns, and beaches, using its voluminous mouth to scoop them from the air. This habit, along with its long, thin, pointed wings, has earned the species the local name "Mosquito Hawk" in many areas. Large feeding flocks of this nighthawk are sometimes observed on warm, cloudy days, after rain, and at dusk. The Antillean Nighthawk is most easily distinguished from the Common Nighthawk, a species it closely resembles in plumage, by its calls. In the Florida Keys, both species have been reported nesting in the same areas, a result of changes in their distribution during the last half-century, probably owing to habitat alteration by humans-vegetation removed, creating open gravelly or sandy areas, which both species use for nesting. Only recently (1982) recognized as a species, the Antillean Nighthawk was formerly classified as a subspecies of the Common Nighthawk. Reports that the 2 forms were nesting in the same areas, along with noticeable differences in their vocalizations, prompted elevation of the Antillean Nighthawk to species status. The biology of the Antillean Nighthawk is essentially unknown, including where the species spends the winter, most aspects of reproduction, and much of its behavior. Most of what is known (or suspected) about this bird has been inferred from studies of the Common Nighthawk (summarized in Poulin, R. G., S. D. Grindal and R. M. Brigham. (1996b). "Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor)." In The birds of North America, no. 213., edited by A. Poole and F. Gill. Washington, D.C: Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union. Poulin et al. 1996b), but given the known differences between these species, further work will no doubt reveal more dissimilarities. Other than descriptions of range and nesting records, only Stevenson et al. ( Stevenson, H. M., E. Eisenmann, C. Winegarner and A. Karlin. (1983). Notes on Common and Antillean nighthawks of the Florida keys. Auk 100:983-988. Stevenson et al. 1983) have made the Antillean Nighthawk a focused subject of research to date. Overview of Migration Guzy, M. J. (2002). Antillean Nighthawk (Chordeiles gundlachii), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.619	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2318
__label__cc	0.519288	0.480712	Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation : Lessons for the IMF International Monetary Fund. Independent Evaluation Office Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation Chapter 2. The Evaluation Framework Chapter 3. Recurring Issues from IEO Evaluations Chapter 4. Conclusions and Issues for Board Consideration Annex 1. IEO Findings Related to Recurring Issues Annex 2. Selected IMF Decisions and Initiatives Related to Recurring Issues, 2008–13 1. This evaluation aims to help the IMF enhance its effectiveness by identifying major recurring issues from the IEO’s first 20 evaluations and assessing where they stand. These issues are tendencies that the IEO has found in specific instances and that have affected the IMF’s performance in all of its core areas of responsibility: surveillance, lending, and capacity development. Almost all of them have been frequently discussed within the IMF as requiring institutional attention. While the Fund has addressed these issues in specific instances, their recurrence in different contexts in multiple IEO evaluations suggests that they are intrinsic to the nature of the IMF, with deep roots in its culture, policies, and governance arrangements. 2. The evaluation has been prepared in response to the 2013 External Evaluation of the IEO, which proposed that the IEO prepare a review of “generic and substantive issues” that are not “encapsulated in specific recommendations” but deserve monitoring. The External Evaluation further proposed that the review “should focus on major generic issues identified by the IEO rather than [being] an exhaustive review of specific actions” (Ocampo, Pickford, and Rustomjee, 2013, p. 28). This proposal received broad support from the Executive Board, Management, and staff when the report was discussed at the Board in March 2013. 3. The External Evaluation proposed such a review as a means to strengthen the follow-up process for Board-endorsed IEO recommendations.1 At present, this process consists of (i) Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) for those IEO recommendations endorsed by the Board, and (ii) Periodic Monitoring Reports (PMRs) to track the implementation of those recommendations. The External Evaluation found that the follow-up process has several weaknesses. One is “conflicts of interest for Management, which has the triple responsibility of overseeing the summing up of the Board discussion, preparing the subsequent implementation plan, and monitoring its application” (Ocampo, Pickford, and Rustomjee, 2013, p. 24). The external evaluators recommended that the preparation of PMRs be moved to the Office of Internal Audit in order to separate Management’s implementation and monitoring functions. This change has been approved by the Executive Board to take effect in 2014 (IMF, 2014). 4. Another weakness the external evaluators identified in the follow-up process is that it has become a “box-ticking” exercise, in which IEO recommendations are turned into “a series of specific actions” that tend to dilute their substance; there is no monitoring of broad policy conclusions and concerns raised in IEO reports. The implementation of an IEO recommendation is no longer tracked once the IMF staff judges, and the Board concurs, that the benchmarks for implementation noted in the MIP have been met or are progressing to timely completion.2 This may in part explain why “recommendations deemed by the Fund to have been met or on track for completion tend to be raised again in subsequent IEO reports” (Ocampo, Pickford, and Rustomjee, 2013, pp. 23–24). 5. In line with the External Evaluation’s proposal, the present report focuses on key issues that have recurred in past IEO evaluations, rather than on specific IEO recommendations and their implementation. IEO recommendations, even when endorsed by the Board, do not preclude the IMF from addressing the identified issues in an alternative way. By highlighting the recurring issues, this report aims to advance the overall effort to enhance the follow-up process, the need for which has been recognized by the Board. This approach also accords with the suggestion made by the Managing Director, in her response to the External Evaluation, that it would be useful to “refocus the follow-up process … on the broader policy objectives.”3 6. Though some of the issues highlighted in this report may not be fully solvable, recognizing them and understanding their root causes is a first step in moving to address them in a fundamental way. Without strategic efforts to get to the bottom of the problems, the IMF will keep attempting to address the same issues in different contexts without finding permanent solutions. 7. The rest of the report is organized as follows. Chapter 2 discusses the framework of evaluation, including the identification of recurring issues, the evaluation questions, and the sources of evidence. Chapter 3 applies the framework to issues identified by the evaluation team as most frequently recurring in five areas, namely: (i) Executive Board guidance and oversight; (ii) organizational silos; (iii) attention to risks and uncertainty; (iv) country and institutional context; and (v) evenhandedness. Chapter 4 presents conclusions and issues for Board consideration. Annexes 1 and 2, respectively, present a complete list of IEO findings related to the five groups of issues and a selective chronological summary of relevant IMF initiatives and decisions adopted during 2008–13.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2320
__label__wiki	0.68825	0.68825	IMF Survey, Volume 35, Issue 13 International Monetary Fund. External Relations Dept. Afghanistan: IMF loan; de Rato, African Governors meet; Bank-Fund collaboration; New Zealand, Libya; Chinese monetary policy; Lebanon: reconstruction; Canada: commodity boom; Persian Gulf: statistical agency; ECB monetary policy; WAEMU; Mineral resources. IMF Survey Vol.35, No.13 July 2006 IMF Financial Data In the News: IMF Approves $119 Million Loan for Afghanistan African Governors Meet with De Rato on Voice and Representation Country Briefs: Sustained Sound Policies Bode well for New Zealand Libya Urged to Take Up Comprehensive Reform Plan Country Focus: Designing an Independent Monetary Policy for China Lebanon: Defying Gravity Strong Fundamentals and Commodity Boom help Sustain Canada’s Vigorous Performance Research: A Case for Creating “Gulfstat”—a Regional Statistical System Forecasting European Central Bank monetary policy Regional Focus: The WAEMU Urged to Advance on Regional Convergence Forum: Helping Countries Avoid the “Resource Curse” Addressing Africa’s concerns On June 23, the Committee of African Governors on Voice and Representation met with IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato in Madrid to exchange views on governance reforms in the Fund and on the role of African countries in the reform process. At the meeting, the Governors indicated that they would like to see action on several fronts that they felt had not been adequately addressed in the IMF’s medium-term strategy: protection of Africa’s voting power and voice in the Fund, the need for an additional chair to address the heavy workload of the two Executive Directors representing sub-Saharan Africa, and the underrepresentation of Africans at all staffing levels. The purpose of the meeting, according to Manuel Chang, cochair and Minister of Finance of Mozambique, was to establish a clear understanding of where the process was and of de Rato’s intention to address concerns. The meeting was cordial and constructive, according to Abdoulaye Bio-Tchane, Director of the IMF’s African Department. De Rato emphasized that “he was committed to bringing forward to the Singapore Annual Meetings a package of reforms that could command the broad support of the membership,” and he reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that, as part of the reforms, emerging and low-income member countries have an important role and voice in the governance of the Fund. In his opening statement, de Rato stressed that his reform proposals extended beyond rebalancing economic weights, which had been addressed in the past, to include basic votes, which have not been adjusted since the creation of the Fund. The proposals to increase basic votes and rebalance quotas would help protect African’s voice in the Fund, he said. On an additional chair for sub-Saharan Africa, de Rato said he did not see enough of a consensus across the membership to make this a realistic early prospect. But he said he was prepared to explore ways to strengthen the voice and capacity of the existing sub-Saharan African chairs. As for staffing at the IMF, de Rato reiterated the goal of raising the share of African nationals on the staff from 6.3 percent currently to 8 percent. He noted there had been difficulties in achieving the Fund’s diversity objectives, which management considered a high priority, and he asked the ministers for help. As for strengthening Africa’s voice and participation in the Fund, de Rato proposed setting up a committee composed of Fund management, Executive Directors representing Africa, and African Governors as a forum in which, twice a year, issues of concern to Africa could be raised. De Rato asked the staff to follow up on this proposal. Responding to de Rato’s opening statement, the ministers reiterated a number of concerns. First, they suggested that an ad hoc increase in quotas, as proposed by the Managing Director, might not benefit Africa and might even erode its voting power further. They thus urged the staff to clarify in a Board document how such an ad hoc increase would affect Africa’s voting share. They recognized that IMF members’ positions on increasing the number of Executive Board chairs for sub-Saharan Africa were far apart, but several ministers favored launching a debate to consider the proposal. The ministers agreed with de Rato that Africa’s representation on the Fund’s staff needed to be increased and pledged to support the institution’s recruitment efforts. According to a statement the Governors and de Rato released at a press conference after the meeting, the discussions “emphasized that governance reforms are at the heart of the continued legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fund and that this is a crucial element of the IMF’s medium-term strategy. Governance reforms must certainly take into account the need for adequate voice and representation of African countries, where the Fund continues to play an important advisory and financing role” Public comments sought on IMF-World Bank collaboration Can the IMF and the World Bank strengthen the ways the two organizations collaborate on joint efforts? An external review committee, appointed in March, would like to hear from the public. Comments should be submitted to erc@imf.org by September 15. The public’s input will help the committee weigh the efficiency and effectiveness of current arrangements and contribute to recommendations for improvements. The six-member committee is particularly interested in the public’s perspectives on the division of labor between the Fund and the Bank. Among the specific questions the committee is taking up are whether the division of labor is consistent with the organizations’ respective mandates and is actually being implemented; whether Fund-Bank collaboration on country work can be improved and perhaps better tailored to differing circumstances; and whether there is scope to improve collaboration on policy areas, such as financial sector soundness, trade, and poverty reduction. For more information, please see www.imf.org/external/np/exr/erc/index.htm.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2321
__label__cc	0.608222	0.391778	Posts Tagged ‘Ethics in Business’ Management Lessons from ‘Mahabharata’ Posted in Management Lessons, tagged Alertness, Arrogance, Attachment, Cadbury, Cafe Coffee Day, Coca Cola, Commitment, Competence, Concentration, Deepak Parekh, Diageo, Domino's, Ethics in Business, Excelllence, Execution, Failure, Followership, G M Rao, GE, Gender Balance, Governance, Humility, Impartiality, Infosys, Inner Voice, KFC, Knowledge, Leadership, Loyalty, Mahabharata, Management Lessons, McDonald's, Merit, Moral Compass, Mukeeta Jhaveri, N R Narayana Murthy, Nestle, Perseverance, Pizza Hut, Promises, Ramayana, Stephen Covey, Strategy, Tatas, The Eighth Habit, Virtue, Yang, Yin on June 22, 2019\| Leave a Comment » Just like ‘Ramayana’, the epic of ‘Mahabharata’ also has many management lessons for the present day business leaders and managers. Greed, jealousy, quest for power, trying to achieve goals irrespective of the fairness of the means deployed – all these contradictions in life are very poignantly brought out. Here are some lessons which could be drawn from the epic. Merit over Birth When it comes to announcing a successor to his vast kingdom, King Bharata does not choose any of his own sons. Instead, he names Bhumanyu whom he considers more capable to manage the affairs of his kingdom. In a dynastic rule, seeds of democracy are thus sown. In India Inc’s power rankings, professional CEOs are on the rise. Three of the top ten in the 2013 edition of ‘India Inc’s Most Powerful CEOs’ are professionals. Five years back, K V Kamath was the only professional in the top… MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM MOVIES Posted in The Magic of Movies!, tagged Corporate Intrigues, Corruption, Ethics in Business, Finances, Getting Hired, Industrial Relations, Innovation, linkedin, Management, Managing the Boss, Movies, Self-confidence, Setting Goals, Social Entrepreneurship, Team Work, Work Life Balance. Linkedin on November 14, 2018\| Leave a Comment » Movies reflect what is happening in the society. In some cases, like literature, they also hint at what could be in store for us in the days to come. They not only influence what happens in the society, but also take a harsh look at its ills – including their own! There are a number of spoofs, created by some of our best known dream merchants, which reveal the level of maturity the film industry has attained. Somehow, movies examine only some segments of the society; that too, mostly along predictable lines. Politicians, cops, industrialists and others are mostly depicted in a stereotyped manner. Business and management have so far not merited much attention from our film makers. If business has been captured, it has mostly been depicted to be ruthless. Catering to mass appeal, the film makers have propounded the belief that big money is invariably bad. The fact… The ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ of Management Posted in Management Lessons, tagged Blake Mouton Grid, Ethics in Business, Innovation, Yes Men, Zombies, Zoo Organizations on October 11, 2013\| 2 Comments » There are innovations which have an irresistible mass appeal. A brand name thus ends up becoming a generic name of a product class. Xerox is a ready example in the same genre. All those who take creativity and innovation seriously would notice that such developments happen only because someone identifies a latent demand and proceeds to do something about it. An organization culture which enables such endeavours deserves to be complimented and replicated. X, Y and Z The art of managing people has been analyzed in great detail by theorists in the past, and commendably so. McGregor was bang on target when he came up with the X and Y approach to managing people. Also, Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton came up with their Management Grid concept, where the X axis has “Concern for Production” and the Y axis has “Concern for People”. This proved to be a very useful tool to classify leadership styles. Yes-Men With due respects to the brilliant work done by those mentioned above, one would like to make the concept of a Management Grid more contemporary by adding a new dimension, Z. This axis covers our “Concern for Ethics”. When it comes to corporate governance, most businesses are driven more by greed than by the norms of propriety. Compliance with statutory provisions and indulging in tax avoidance rather than blatant tax evasion are given a short shrift. As a repercussion, we end up having more controls and complex laws, thereby making non-compliance even more attractive. The good news is that there are indeed enlightened businesses and right thinking managers who score high on the Z axis as well. Such businesses have been around for more than a century and have done well for themselves; they have also given back to society in terms of advanced medical facilities, support to fine arts and sports and several other CSR initiatives. They are to be found in all spheres of life. They have perfected the art of boosting the sagging morale and ego of their superiors, thereby securing better perks and intangible benefits for themselves. Due to close proximity to their bosses – whether perceived or real – they end up being king makers. Smart bosses easily figure out how to remain at an arm’s length from them. The tricks they use to steer clear of yes-men: a discouraging body language, asking for hard evidence for all the charges being levied against someone who is absent and generally berating them on select occasions in public. A vast majority of professionals decide to be ‘passengers’ and not ‘drivers’ in their careers. They are happy to behave like headless chickens, strutting about sounding very busy but with meagre results to show. Typically, they outsource the thinking part to brainy birds around them and lead a mentally sedentary but self-contented life-style. Call them file-pushers, clock-watchers, head clerks or what you will – they do serve a useful purpose in keeping big bureaucracies running like well-oiled machines. They can also be groomed to become devoted followers for charismatic and dynamic leaders. ZOO ORGANIZATIONS Organizations where the top management believes that any suggestion for improvement in a department emanating from another department amounts to interference and sacrilege tend to become like zoological parks. All subject experts get confined to their ‘cages’ or ‘enclosures’. Forays into another’s territory are frowned upon. This is a sure shot recipe for nipping creativity and innovation at the work place. The biggest casualty of course is the hapless customer who has had the misfortune of buying a product which turns out to be defective. The incessant running from pillar to post he/she is subjected to ends up creating a market ambassador the organization could surely do without. Posted in Management Lessons, tagged Alertness, Arrogance, Attachment, Cadbury, Cafe Coffee Day, Coca Cola, Commitment, Competence, Concentration, Deepak Parekh, Diageo, Domino's, Ethics in Business, Excelllence, Execution, Failure, Followership, G M Rao, GE, Gender Balance, Governance, Humility, Impartiality, Infosys, Inner Voice, KFC, Knowledge, Leadership, Loyalty, Mahabharata, Management Lessons, McDonald's, Merit, Moral Compass, Mukeeta Jhaveri, N R Narayana Murthy, Nestle, Perseverance, Pizza Hut, Promises, Ramayana, Stephen Covey, Strategy, Tatas, The Eighth Habit, Virtue, Yang, Yin on July 12, 2013\| 20 Comments » In India Inc’s power rankings, professional CEOs are on the rise. Three of the top ten in the 2013 edition of ‘India Inc’s Most Powerful CEOs’ are professionals. Five years back, K V Kamath was the only professional in the top ten. In a reversal of an openly declared of Infosys, Chairman N R Narayana Murthy recently stirred a hornet’s nest by insisting on bringing his own son as a team member. Only time will tell if the decision pays of; as of now, seniors in the company are a bit shaken up with the move. For his father Shantanu’s happiness, Bhishma swears never to marry. Throughout his life, he remains committed to the kingdom of Hastinapur. Despite his difference of opinion with Dhritarashtra and Duryodhana, and despite his obvious fondness for the Pandavas, he leads a vast army against the latter. However, his conduct is very transparent; he openly tells Duryodhana that though he is fighting for Kauravas, he shall not harm any of the Pandavas. On the flip side, Bhishma also sets the example of a senior professional who overstays his welcome! Many organizations have deeply committed silent performers who stick by it irrespective of the business ups and downs being faced. Business houses which follow a healthy set of values do end up attracting more such professionals whose value systems match with their own. In times of crisis, such people tend to be pillars of strength for the company. However, there could be situations when they need to be taken on board merely as advisors and not as executors, so younger blood in the organization also gets a chance to prove its mettle. Failures are Stepping Stones Bhishma abducts three sisters – Amba, Ambika and Ambalika – to get them married to Vichitravirya. However, Amba claims she is already in love with Salya and cannot accept anyone else as her life partner. Eventually, she is rejected by both Bhishma and her own ex-lover Salya. She takes this failure as a challenge and ends up being born as a person of mixed gender –Shikhandi – in King Drupad’s family. Eventually, he/she becomes the cause of Bhishma’s death in the battlefield. Those who take their failures as a challenge have the capacity to introspect. They identify their weaknesses and take steps to excel in areas in which their arch rival is strong. Ultimately, victory is theirs. Promises are like Babies! Just like babies, promises are easy to make but difficult to keep. When they are studying together, Drupad, a prince, and Dronacharya, a commoner, become good friends. Drupad light-heartedly tells Dronachrya that once he grows up to become a king, he would be happy to share half of his kingdom with Dronacharya. However, once they grow up, Drupad reneges on his statement and even mocks Dronacharya in his court. The result is life-long bitter rivalry between the two which spills onto the battle field, with Dronachrya on the Kaurava’s side and Drupad on the Pandava’s side. CEOs who promise a promotion merely to achieve short-term results often find that the promotee eventually reaches his level of incompetence at lightning speed, embarrassing all concerned. Smart HR honchos never make promises which they know cannot be kept. Same goes for marketing wizards who fear a severe backlash from customers should the product not live up to the latter’s expectations. Destructive Attachment Contrast the behavior of King Bharata to that of Dhritarashtra. He has an obsessive attachment to his evil son. He permits the Pandavas to proceed to Varnavat where, by his son’s evil designs, they are persuaded to stay at a house constructed of inflammable materials. He allows a deceptive game of dice, making the Pandavas lose their part of the kingdom. In his presence, Draupadi, his daughter-in-law, is insulted in his royal court. Bhishma, Vidur, Krishna and several others attempt to persuade him to rein in the unbridled ambition of his son Duryodhana, but to no avail. The result is a terrible war leading to devastation of the kingdom. CEOs who promote their sycophants without assessing the overall welfare of an organization get doomed likewise. Multi-tasking is a buzzword in professional circles. But Arjuna displays a kind of concentration which involves a complete focus on the task at hand. In the process, he evolves into an excellent archer of his times. Whether it is the bird whose eyes alone he is able to see before shooting his arrow, or the rotating fish whose eye he has to pierce based on the image cast in the water urn placed below in the court of King Drupada, he excels in accomplishing the task at hand. Managers who look satisfied with their day’s work would invariably share the same secret with you – of having done something satisfactorily that day! Aiming for perfection, they are at least able to excel in the tasks at hand. And focusing on one thing at a time surely helps! Notice the kind of setbacks Pandavas get to suffer in their lives. They survive the insidious designs of their Kaurava cousins at Varanavat. After losing their kingdom and wealth to Kauaravas in an unfair game of dice, they undergo an exile for twelve years in forests. This is followed by a year of remaining incognito, which they do so in King Virata’s palace. When a peace proposal gets discussed with Kauravas, Yudhishthira offers to settle the dispute between the brothers by being content with ownership of five villages only. Even this gets turned down by Duryodhana. The tenacity of bouncing back in the face of adversity that Pandavas display is worth emulating. Many MNCs are put off by the way the Indian market is skewed – with a miniscule share of the well-heeled who have global exposure and a vast majority of common people who aspire for reliable products and services at highly discounted prices. GE and Nestle have learnt their lessons. McDonald’s, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Café Coffee Day in the fast food business have also sharpened their teeth by offering mouth-watering menus in the range of INR 44-119! The mother of Pandavas, Kunti, delivers a master stroke by getting Draupadi to accept all the five brothers as her husbands. The result is a whole unified family which goes through its trials and tribulations as a single unit. Each of the brothers has a USP – if Yudhishthira is the epitome of virtue upholding ‘dhrama’ (righteousness) at all costs, Bhima and Arjuna are great warriors who have to be kept on a tight leash, impatient as they are in extracting revenge from Kauravas. Nakula and Sahdeva have their own unique qualities. Together, the five brothers form a multi-skilled and invincible team. Large conglomerates like Tatas often sound similar in their overall configuration. Each company within the group’s fold has a unique place in the market. Each is headed by a stalwart who is a subject specialist in the field. The companies operate in fields as disparate as salt and software. Yet, all of them are connected by a common value system and a similar business philosophy. Draupadi Syndrome Juggling between five husbands is no mean task and Draupadi appears to handle it rather well. In what are euphemistically known as “matrix” organizations these days, reporting to several bosses at the same time could be a challenging experience. One has to learn to balance each boss’ expectations against those of others. Much depends on their relative seniority or clout in the company, based on which one could handle the situation. Of course, it does not pay to pitch one of the bosses against the other, whether directly or indirectly! Excellence in Governance When Indrapastha is built, Pandavas rule in a fair and just manner. They do not stray from the path of righteousness, thereby winning the love and affection of their subjects. They rule for thirty-six years before falling prey to an unfair game of dice. Excellence in governance is a vital condition for a business leader to command respect amongst his team members. Taking good care of people is an important part of governance. The HR initiatives taken by the Tata group after The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was targeted in a terrorist attack on November 26, 2008 in Mumbai, go on to show how well the company cares for its employees. Being Impartial In the Yaksha episode, Yudhishthira is asked as to which of his four brothers he would wish to be brought back to life. He chooses Nakula. When queried, he justifies his choice by explaining that of the five of them, three (himself, Bhima and Arjuna) were born to Kunti and two (Nakula and Sahdeva) to his father’s second wife, Madri. Since he is alive, Kunti is only partially bereaved. Likewise, let Madri also be partially bereaved – hence his choice of Nakula. Pleased at this, Yaksha revives all the four remaining brothers. Being impartial does not come easy to a leader. However, this is indeed the mark of a true statesman. Loyalty to Boss Karna faces humiliation at the hands of Pandavas for not being born in a royal family. Duryodhana realizes his potential as an ally and immediately comes forward to confer kingship upon him. They become life-long friends. Karna’s loyalty towards Duryodhana is so strong that even after realizing that he is the eldest of the five Pandavas, he chooses to fight against them, for Duryodhana. Here is an example of unflinching loyalty to a boss! India has a great tradition of real men displaying not only their macho side, but also their effeminate and softer side. The great warrior Arjuna spends a whole year incognito in King Virata’s palace, disguised as the eunuch Brihannala, teaching music and dance. One of his pupils, Princess Uttara, ends up becoming his daughter-in-law who gives birth to Parikshit who eventually inherits the kingdom when Pandavas decide to retire. There is increasing realization amongst corporates in contemporary times to encourage females to assume leadership roles. Companies like Diageo, Cadbury, Coca Cola and others are making conscious efforts in that direction. Bringing a better gender balance at the board level is the current buzzword. Leading businessmen are hiring icons of the stature of Deepak Parekh, G M Rao, Mukeeta Jhaveri and a host of others to mentor women who can shoulder board level responsibilities in the days to come. Juniors First When a decision has to be taken as to who should lead the Pandava army in the war, Yudhishthira first consults Sahadeva, the junior most brother. This approach has several spin-offs. It instills enthusiasm and self-confidence in the younger managers. If the seniors are consulted first, others may not be able to speak with freedom, and even honest differences of opinion may get construed as disrespect. Strategy and Leadership In a careful reading of the major turning events in the whole narrative, Krishna emerges as an eminent strategist. He keeps Draupadi’s frustration under check. He knows that Kauravas would never agree to let Pandavas have their share of the kingdom in a peaceful manner. Yet, he himself goes to plead their cause so that peace is given a last chance. In the battle that ensues, he virtually leads the 7 divisions of Pandavas’ army to a decisive win against the 11 divisions of Kauravs’ army. The manner in which Krishna persuades a demoralized Arjuna to take up his arms by enunciating the basic principles of life in the Bhagavad-Gita is exemplary. One of the basic concepts enunciated by Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita is that of the everlasting nature of the soul. The concept of a soul now finds a resonance even in modern management literature. In ‘The 8th Habit’, Stephen Covey urges professionals to pay heed to their ‘inner voice’. While proposing the whole person paradigm, he speaks of the four dimensions of a person – spirit, body, heart and mind. Coming back to ‘Mahabharata’, all mighty warriors on the Kauaravas’ side fall with specific inputs from Krishna. In case of Bhishma, Arjuna attacks him standing behind Shikhandi. Dronacharya is misled to believe that his son Ashwatthama has fallen at the behest of Krishna. When Duryodhana appears to be invincible in his mace fight with Bhima, he gestures to the latter to hit the former below the navel, thereby incapacitating him. When Balarama gets upset with Bhima for having broken a cardinal principle in his final fight with Duryodhana, Krishna intervenes to pacify him by reminding him of the several injustices perpetrated by the Kauravas on Pandavas. Once the war gets over and all his sons have got killed, Dhritarashtra attempts to kill Bhima by crushing him in a close embrace. Krishna is able to read his mind and deftly pushes across a metal statue instead, thereby saving Bhima’s life. Much like a business leader of modern times, Krishna displays vision, flexibility in approach, resourcefulness and an excellent capacity to command. He is the trouble-shooter par excellence who leads, inspires, guides and motivates. Execution and Followership If Krishna proves his leadership skills, Pandavas display the skills of being true followers and executors. Yudhishtira, considered an epitome of virtue, agrees to announce the false news of Ashwatthama’s death, thereby leading to Dronacharya getting vanquished. Motivated by him, Arjuna takes up his arms against his grandfather, Bhishma. Bhima listens to Krishna and ends up killing Jarasandha (much earlier in the narrative) and Duryodhana (towards the fag-end of the battle). Often, seniors in companies lament about the lack of some qualities in their assigned leader. But one needs a sense of humility, confidence in another’s ability and the motivation to achieve a super-ordinate goal to work as an effective team member. An objective assessment of the situation at hand, unqualified support for the overall goal, registering dissent wherever necessary and balancing the leader’s weaknesses with one’s own strengths are some of the factors which result into better execution of plans. Do Not Take Help for Granted Nakula and Sahdeva’s uncle, Shalya, decides to offer his big army to Pandavas in the ensuing war. However, on the way to the battle field, Duryodhana extends a very thoughtful and warm hospitality to Shalya’s army. The result is that Shalya becomes obliged to fight his own nephews in the war! Yudhishthira ends up repenting for having taken Shalya’s help for granted without worrying about the needs of the vast army marching on its way with the intention to assist him. When working on a project, we often take our friends and colleagues for granted. ‘Mahabharata’ exhorts us to first put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, realize his constraints and then only expect to be helped accordingly. Receive Favors with Humility and Alertness Shalya receives favors from Duryodhana with humility but without alertness. He does not bother to check whose hospitality he and his army are enjoying. There are days on which a manager may be pleasantly surprised to find himself being unduly praised by seniors. In some cases, this could be a sign of impending doom – of being saddled with an impossible task which others might be loath to pick up! Alertness while accepting praise surely pays. Key to Failure As the crown prince of Kauravas, Duryodhana initiates a war which has to be fought under the leadership of commanders who have a soft corner for the Pandavas! With the exception of Karna and his own brothers like Dushasana et al, all his commanders – like Bhishma, Dronacharya and Shalya – are only duty bound to support him. Their real sympathies are with the Pandavas. Thus, he is saddled with an army which is far superior to that of Pandavas in terms of sheer numbers, but sorely lacks in motivation. Duryodhana’s greed, envy and jealousy lead him to his doom. In the business world, we often come across fool hardy leaders who set their goals so high as to be unrealistic. If a proper assessment of the resources available at their command is not made, failure is bound to follow. Rash Commitments Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son, gets killed unfairly and the main culprit is held to be Jayadratha. Arjuna is livid with rage and declares that he would kill Jayadrath by the following evening or renounce the world. At a crucial moment in the next day’s war, Krishna intervenes to ensure Arjuna’s victory, bringing relief and joy to all. Faced with a drastic situation, a professional needs to sit back and think for some time before committing himself to a target which could well turn out to be unattainable. Knowledge vs. Virtue One of the sub-plots narrates the story of Arvavasu and Paravasu. Both are sons of a great scholar and become great scholars in their own right by acquiring knowledge. But one turns out to be good and the other evil. Moral of the story – knowledge which remains undigested information crammed into the mind cannot instill virtue in a person. Such knowledge merely remains like our clothes, an external factor in our appearance which does not reveal what we are within ourselves. Post Lehman Brothers, educational institutions have started taking the issue of instilling the right values in their students seriously. A business leader without a strong moral compass and lacking a set of virtuous values and ethics could lead the business to eventual ruin. Seeking Favors sans Competence In another sub-plot appears the story of Yavakrida, who craves to master the Vedas without having to study them! He is grudgingly granted a boon to this effect, but eventually dies at the hands of a demon after being charmed by a young maiden. A true blue professional would surely aim to occupy the coveted corner office, but only after he has done his own SWOT analysis. Avoid Arrogance One of the several sub-plots in ‘Mahabharata’ is that of Nahusha who falls from grace after having occupied the throne of Indra, king of the Gods. His fall comes about because of sheer arrogance and pride. Power and pelf bring in severe obligations in their wake. Successful CEOs understand this, take extra care to keep their pride in check and tailor their inter-personal relationships accordingly. ‘Mahabharata’ is rich with several other narratives which could be useful to management practitioners. Also, each narrative may be interpreted in several ways, depending upon how one goes about analyzing it. ‘Mahabharata’ by C Rajagopalachari. Adi Parva original. Bhagavat Purana. Series by K M Munshi. Series by Ram Kumar Bhramar. (Related posts: https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/management-lessons-from-ramayana https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/management-lessons-from-the-life-of-lord-krishna) Posted in Management Lessons, tagged Corporate Intrigues, Corruption, Ethics in Business, Finances, Getting Hired, Industrial Relations, Innovation, linkedin, Managing the Boss, Self-confidence, Setting Goals, Social Entrepreneurship, Team Work, Work Life Balance. Linkedin on October 27, 2012\| 7 Comments » If business has been captured, it has mostly been depicted to be ruthless. Catering to mass appeal, the film makers have propounded the belief that big money is invariably bad. The fact that wealth is not always ill-gotten has been ignored. The reality that every business activity has social spin-offs – like employment generation and wealth creation – has invariably been given a short shrift. Likewise, the subject of management appears only on the fringes of the narrative. If the story revolves around a business family which is trying to modernize its factories by bringing in advanced equipment and machinery, the issue gets hijacked either as a personality clash between the hero and the villain, or as an industrial relations dispute between the management and the workers. Nevertheless, quite a few movies have captured some facets of management. It would be instructive for us to review a random sample and see if we could learn some lessons from these. Setting Clear Goals Way back in 1992, we had “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar” (Director: Mansoor Khan) which showed the single-minded pursuit of the hero avenging a humiliation by winning a marathon cycle race in an interesting climax. “Lakshya” narrated the story of a youngster drifting in life, clueless as to what he wants to do for a living. Circumstances lead him to join the Indian Army and he gets involved with the Kargil incursions by Pakistan into Indian territory. In the process, he discovers himself, achieves a clarity of purpose and leads his men to victory. (2004, Director: Farhan Akhtar) Yet another coming of age story came our way in “Wake Up, Sid”. It is the heroine (Konkona Sen Sharma) who inspires the hero (Ranbir Kapoor) to set his own goals in life. (2009, Director: Zoya Akhtar). Let Goals be Based on What You Excel In! Rajkumar Hirani explained this concept rather well in his immensely successful “3 Idiots” (2009). If you are passionate about a hobby of yours, and make it your profession as well, you would surely excel. Happiness, contentment, recognition and rewards would automatically follow. Ethics in Business “Rocket Singh – Salesman of the Year” (2009, Director: Shimit Amin) had a theme which spoke of ethics in business. If marketing efforts are directed at deceiving customers and if either the product or service is shoddy, the business will go down in the dumps. Philip Kotler would have surely approved! Managing the Boss Aziz Mirza delighted us with both “Yes Boss” (1997) and “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” (2000). Scratch below the glitzy surface of these slick flicks and you are sure to learn quite a few tricks on managing bosses. If “Yes Boss” was about being a yes-man, “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” was about manipulating bosses to get them to announce decisions which were contrary to their original stands. Yes, the bosses were mere caricatures and depicted as bumbling buffoons. But the hero and the heroine could get away with it purely based on the outstanding results they brought in! Another interesting dimension we got to see was in “Aitraaz” (2004, Directors: Abbas Mustan). The movie was based on a Hollywood flick by the name of “Disclosure”. In return for rapid promotions, the female boss ends up trying to seduce the subordinate hero. However, thanks to a zealous wife and smart technology, the hero manages to wriggle out of a tricky situation! Handling Corruption Hrishikesh Mukherji came up with “Satyakam” in 1969. Based on a Bengali novel by Narayan Sanyal, the movie tugged at our heart-strings by taking us through the trials and tribulations of Satyapriya, a whistle-blower who suffers in his professional as well as personal life and loses the battle against corruption. In 1983, Kundan Shah gave us the memorable “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron”. With sterling performances by Nasseruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani and others, it tackled the issue of corruption in real estate and construction deals in a humorous vein. The movie ends with a cut-throat gesture made by both the protagonists, signifying the death of justice, fair play and truth in an age of corruption. Fast forward to 2010, when Shyam Benegal gave us a heart-warming “Well Done, Abba”. A great satire on our public delivery failures, the movie captured the effect of rampant corruption on laymen. Armaan Ali, a driver, plans to dig a well in his farmland to ensure adequate water supply. Depending upon a government scheme, he soon learns the pitfalls involved. How he wriggles out of the situation forms the interesting part. Getting Hired! Of the several interview scenes one has witnessed in movies churned out by Bollywood, the one portrayed in “Golmal” (1979, Director: Hrishikesh Mukherji) remains my favorite. Facing an eccentric industrialist, Bhavani Shankar (Utpal Dutt), who believes in traditional values and thinks that all those without a moustache happen to be characterless, Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma (Amol Palekar), desparate to get a job, puts on a moustache and manages to charm the boss in the interview. He not only lands up with a job with a salary higher than expected, but also manages to eventually sing his way into the heart of the boss’ daughter! “The Day of the Jackal” (1973, Director: Fred Zimmermann) has the professional assassin appearing for an interview. The OAS team is astounded by the fee of half a million dollar quoted by him to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. The Jackal responds by saying that he deserves the fee, because he is the best in the business! In both the cases, professional capability, coupled with self-confidence, won the day! In “Namak Haraam” (1973, Hrishikesh Mukherji), the issue of rising trade unionism was portrayed effectively. Vicky (Amitabh Bacchhan) plans to defuse the situation by getting his friend Somu (Rajesh Khanna) to become a union leader. In the process, Somu gets influenced by the workers’ point of view and a confrontation between the friends ensues. In Rajshri Production’s 2011 offering, “Love U…Mr. Kalakaar”, Sahil, a struggling artist, is faced with the challenge of running his future father-in-law’s business empire more profitably, so as to be able to win the hand of his lady-love Ritu. In order to ensure success, Ritu, a fresh MBA, ends up giving marketing and HR lessons to Sahil. The movie, directed by S. Mansavi, also captured office politics effectively. Performance on the job and the strong bonding between the lovers eventually saves the day. Self Confidence vs. Shyness and Diffidence Basu Chatterji treated us to a sumptuous fare in “Chhoti Si Baat” (1975). Both the hero and the heroine work in different offices. Love blossoms, but the hero is a simpleton and keeps losing to a colleague of the heroine – whether in social skills or in indoor games. Eventually, Arun (Amol Palekar) decides to undergo a crash course in self-confidence, comes back in style and wins the hand of Prabha (Vidya Sinha), the girl of his dreams! Finances, Share Markets “Satta Bazaar” (1959, Director: Ravinder Dave) portrayed the ruin of a family due to over indulgence in the share markets very effectively. In another Rajshri offering, “Jeevan Mrityu” (1970, Director: Satyen Bose), the hero uses share price manipulations to seek revenge from the bad guys who had got him convicted for a theft he had never committed. “Guru” (2007, Director: Mani Ratnam) was loosely based on the life of late Dhirubhai Ambani. It restored our faith in the equity markets and showed us how one’s fortune could get reversed and then regained! In “Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein” (2012, Director: Pramod Joshi), the hero is so busy pursuing his career goals that he fails to attend his daughter’s arangetram. His family deserts him for a weekend. The movie is all about his regaining the work-life balance, and articulates the current dilemmas being faced by managers. There are some useful tips on the art of living, placing the movie on a spiritual plane. A high-risk business like producing movies can survive only on continuous innovation. Of late, the upwardly mobile middle class in India has opened up a new segment of the movie goers’ market. Bollywood themes are no longer confined to romantic duets, with the hero and the heroine chasing each other around trees. New themes have been experimented with, and the results are heartening. Consider movies like “Iqbal”, “Pa”, “Bum Bum Bole”, “Chak De India”, “Dor”, “Welcome to Sajjanpur”, “A Wednesday”, “Udaan”, “Taare Zameen Par”, “Vicky Donor”, “Kahaani” and “Barfi”. The sheer diversity of themes is remarkable, even if there is a romantic angle deftly woven into some of the plots to ensure commercial survival. Giving Back to Society “Swades” (2004, Director: Ashutosh Govarikar) set a good example of how rural problems can be addressed by talented people who decide to chuck their lucrative careers abroad and return to their roots in India. A recent IFC report showcases Indian Social Ventures like Husk Power Systems, WaterHealth International and Suvidhaa Infoserve. In the days to come, trust Bollywood to come up with more variants of the “Swades” theme! Extra-marital Affairs If “Pati Patni aur Woh” (1978, Director: B R Chopra) touched upon the boss going wayward, “Rang Birangi” (1983, Director: Hrishikesh Mukherji) brought home the issue of a bored housewife getting her busy husband’s affection back with the support of a mutual friend. Both were excellent comedies with serious messages; one showed us the futility of romancing a secretary, the other spoke of the need to attach a better value to the needs of our loved ones. Corporate Intrigues When it comes to the inner machinations of business empires and corporate feuds, one readily remembers “Kalyug” (1981, Director: Shyam Benegal) and “Corporate” (2009, Madhur Bhandarkar). Even though such efforts have been few and far between, the honesty with which these movies have got made speaks highly of the directors, producers and the script writers. The underbelly of over-reaching greed, unbridled ambition and business rivalry – all have been brought home very candidly in both these works. “Duplicity” (2009, Director: Tony Gilroy), starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen was an interesting take on corporate espionage. “Pyaar Impossible” (2011, Director: Jugal Hansraj) touched upon the issue of software piracy, though the basic theme was romantic in nature. When it comes to team work and bonding, who can forget the Jai and Veeru duo of “Sholay” fame? Personality-wise, both are poles apart. Jai, played by Amitabh, is sober, quiet and meditative. Veeru, played by Dharmendra, is loud and outspoken. The ways in which they go about wooing their sweethearts in the village are as different as, say, chalk and cheese. But when it comes to confronting Gabbar, they work in perfect unison, displaying a unique understanding and respect for each other. (1975, Director: Ramesh Sippy). MOVIES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE ?! In the scam-ridden exciting times that Indian managers operate in these days, new social developments are taking place. Thanks to a byte-hungry media, we have a torrent of CAG reports, court cases, corporate misadventures, information tumbling out of closets courtesy the RTI Act, sting operations and confidential conversations getting recorded and leaked at regular intervals. One has no doubt that our movie makers can be relied upon to soon start churning out movies with scripts which highlight management and governance issues with a sharper focus. Hopefully, these would capture the business world in a more balanced fashion – depicting not only the seamier and manipulative side but also the philanthropic and CSR side, besides depicting initiatives in the realm of social entrepreneurship! (PS: You may also like to look up https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/management-lessons-from-movies-2-0)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2322
__label__cc	0.586214	0.413786	Photo courtesy of Alliance Theatre Winnie-The-Pooh and Friends Sat, May 26 10:30am – 12pm Atlanta’s Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre will preview scenes from its upcoming family production WINNIE-THE-POOH in the Historic Fourth Ward Park Amphitheatre (680 Dallas St NE, Atlanta, GA 30308) on May 26 at 10:30 a.m. In addition to scenes and music from the Alliance’s upcoming production WINNIE-THE-POOH, beloved characters from other productions in the Alliance Theatre’s Youth and Families Series will take the stage to perform iconic scenes and songs, including selections from THE WIZARD OF OZ. Patrons are encouraged to arrive early, as seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Grant Park Summer Shade Festival PAW Patrol Live! The Great Pirate Adventure! Georgia Apple Festival Historic Fourth Ward Park 680 Dallas St NE Alliance Theatre	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2325
__label__wiki	0.581401	0.581401	82. Three Saints who made me love them: David the Tree-dwller, Martin the Merciful, the Venerable Bede September 7, 2018 September 7, 2018 · Fr. Bill When God first made himself known to me it was like a swift kick where I needed it. Later when out of the blue the Lord Jesus showed me he loved me, it was sweet and gentle, and ever since I have loved him back with all my heart. Someday maybe I’ll tell you those stories. Maybe not. The point is that God works with us in different ways. Likewise with his saints. If you’ve been reading this Blog, you know how Nicholas and Nektarios just “took hold of me” in a wonderful way. At other times certain saints may quietly, inexplicably draw us to themselves. Here are 3 such saints from my life. Saint David of Thessaloniki, the Dendrite … meaning “tree dweller”, from the Greek “dendron, δένδρον”. Why I should love this strange man I have no idea. I’m afraid of heights. Living in a tree is the last thing I’d ever want to do. Nevertheless, from the first time I met him he won me over. David apparently was from Mesopotamia, then a great monastic center. How or why he came to Thessaloniki we don’t know, but there outside the city he climbed into an almond tree, probably inspired by the Middle Eastern stylites. When people asked why in the world he was up there, he said God had told him to, and he would come down when God told him to come down. The story says he set up a bench on a sturdy limb. Because Thessaloniki is cold in the winter, and also for practical reasons, I’d guess his dwelling was somewhat more elaborate than that. Like the Stylites, David attracted much attention – became something of a tourist attraction, one might say. When after 3 years God told him to come down, the Archbishop and many others were there to welcome him. Now he moved into a little cell below where more strange things happened. Quoting from John Moschos’ The Spiritual Meadow: “At this time, because of the barbarians, the walls of the city were patrolled at night by soldiers. One night those who were on guard-duty…saw fire pouring from the windows of the recluse’s cell. The soldiers thought the barbarians must have set the elder’s cell on fire; but when they went out in the morning, to their amazement, they found the elder unharmed and his cell unburned. Again the following night they saw fire…in the elder’s cell—and this went on for a long time. The occurrence became known to all the city and the countryside. Many people would come and keep vigil at the wall all night long in order to see the fire… I said to myself: ‘If God so glorifies his servants in this world, how much more so in the world to come when He shines upon their face like the sun?”(pp. 52-3) You may remember how one of the Desert Fathers of Egypt said to a disciple, “If you wish, you can become all fire”, and as he prayed, hands uplifted, flames went up from his fingers. David was persuaded to visit Constantinople where he met the Empress Theodora, then went into the Senate and censed them all (Do you think this might help our U.S. Senate?), holding charcoal and incense in his hands without being burned. David the Dendrite died on the way home at about age 90, on June 26, 540. His relics were kept at a little monastery which had grown up around him, till in the 14th century the Latins stole him. Through the efforts of the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, they were finally returned in 1978 and now lie in the lovely little monastery church of Agia Theodora near the waterfront in downtown Thessaloniki. When I was first there many years ago I knew nothing of Saint David. I stayed till they chased me out at closing time. I could not bring myself to leave. I didn’t know why. Now I think I know why. Saint Martin the Merciful of Tours Martin came from Pannonia (modern Hungary), born in 316 (336?) soon after the Great Persecution had ended. His father, an officer in the imperial army, was pagan, but during his boyhood Martin became a catechumen of the Church. He felt obliged to follow his father into the army – though he was uneasy about it, since he felt it was wrong for a Christian to kill another human being. Saint Martin the Merciful. Martin was on duty at Amiens in Gaul, north of Paris, when he saw a beggar shivering in the winter cold, so he cut his cloak in two and gave half to the beggar. It is said that night Christ appeared to Martin, wearing the cloak he had given to the beggar. Soon after, Saint Martin the Merciful was baptized. He reluctantly stayed in the army. 2 years later barbarians were invading Gaul and he knew he would have to kill in battle, so Martin asked for a discharge. When his commander accused him of cowardice, Martin volunteered to stand unarmed in the front line. But next day the barbarians surrendered without a fight, and Martin was allowed to leave. For some time he traveled. It seems he lived alone for a while on an island off the Italian coast. Then he came to know Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, and spent time in his diocese as an ascetic. Already he was becoming known, and the people of Tours, on the River Loire in the west of France, called him to be their bishop. He did not want it. He hid from them, some say in a goose shed, but people from Tours found him and lured him out by a trick: One of them told him that a poor man needed help. Saint Martin the Merciful thought he must respond. When he emerged, they hauled him off and had him consecrated as their bishop! In Tours Martin established an abbey at Marmoutier (here it is today), a few miles away on the Loire. He made this his residence, so he could retreat from the commotion of the city and live and pray as a monk. Martin was a good administrator and pastor: he set up a system of parishes and tried to visit them all annually. But he was known above all for his many works of charity. Saint Martin the Merciful. Martin defended Orthodoxy against the Arians and fiercely opposed paganism. He destroyed a number of pagan temples. The historian Sulpicius Severus, who knew him personally and wrote his biography, recorded the time when Martin was about to fell a sacred tree, and druids dared him to stand in its way as it fell. He did, it missed him, they took it as a sign and were baptized. At that time in the Diocese of Ossonoba in Portugal the Priscillians were a sort of Manichaean sect. Their bishop Ithacius, fed up with them, asked Emperor Magnus Maximus to destroy them. Martin, who opposed such violence, traveled to Trier where the Emperor was holding court and begged him to spare them. Saint Martin the Merciful. Martin died on November 8, 397 (398?) while making a pastoral visit to the church in Candes, a town along the Loire. Legend has it that as his body was being carried home by boat the trees along the river burst into blossom. Perhaps it’s not a legend. In many places, before the pre-winter cold sets in, there is a week or two of calm almost summer-like weather. In America it’s called “Indian Summer”, in Greece the “Little Summer of Saint Demetrios” – and I read that in places in western Europe it is still called “Saint Martin’s Summer”. The River Loire in Candes, now called Candes Saint Martin Martin was buried on November 11, the usual day he is commemorated, though in some places it’s November 12. (The Russian date of October 12 seems to be a clerical error.) His burial place drew many pilgrims during the Middle Ages, and in the year 1008 (it took long enough!) a great cathedral was built for him in Tours. Many churches were named for him. (You classical music buffs have likely heard music from the “Academy of Saint Martin’s in the Fields” in London.) During the French revolution, the cathedral was destroyed, together with most of his relics . (Why do people do these things?) But a new cathedral has been built on the site to house the few fragments of his relics which have been recovered, and again there are many pilgrims. My only contact with Saint Martin was a transitory one. On a misty, moisty morning, as our train sped through Tours hurrying towards Paris, I waved out the window to Saint Martin the Merciful. Saint Bede the Venerable On a cold rainy morning in July 1978, Khouria Dianna and I climbed from Durham city up the hill to Durham (Anglican) Cathedral – properly called “The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and Saint Cuthbert of Durham”) – a bleak grey Norman structure that seemed to fit the weather. There we found the tomb of “The Venerable Bede” as he is usually titled – and properly pronounced “Beed”. Bede was a gentle, holy, humble Benedictine monk who was the greatest of early English scholars. In a note added to one of his writings, Bede told that at age 7, in the year 794, he had come to the Benedictine Saint Peter’s Abbey at Jarrow, Wearmouth, near Durham. The lack of specifics about his background has caused many to think he was orphaned and went to the Abbot Benedict Biscop in desperation. It was said that afterwards whenever the monks chanted the Psalm verse “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me”, Bede would begin to cry in gratitude that he had found a home. Bede added that at age 19 he was made deacon, and priest when he was 30. During the rest of his life, except for a few brief travels, he never left the Abbey Bede’s life consisted first of prayer, then of learning and writing. Benedictine spirituality, derived directly from the monastic rules of Saint Basil the Great, was (and in most ways still is) remarkably similar to our classic Orthodox monastic style – the daily Offices, grounded in the Psalms. (“7 times a day will I praise thee.” Psalm 118/119) Go to any traditional Orthodox or Benedictine monastery today, and you’ll know what shaped Bede. As for learning and writing, Bede’s abbot on his travels brought back so many books that Jarrow possessed between 300 and 500 of them, almost certainly the largest library in England at the time – and Bede made every use of them. Though he spoke Anglo-Saxon (pre-Chaucerian English), he was proficient in Latin, Greek and to some extent Hebrew. From his writings it is obvious that he had read the early Fathers extensively. He wrote numerous commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, often using allegorical interpretation as we Orthodox sometimes do. He wrote poetry, hymnody, about grammar and science (he mentioned that “the earth is round like a ball”) and more. However, Bede’s classic ground-breaking work was his Ecclesiastical History sf the English People, without which almost nothing would be known for sure about early British Christian history. Like a modern historian he culled information from many sources both written and oral, old and new, being critical when it was appropriate. If you want evidence that early England was geniunely Orthodox, read this book. It has the spirit and style and “feel” of Orthodoxy, from ancient times till today. A modern English source notes that he did not possess a modern skepticism about the supernatural. Good! There was a dispute at the time between those who followed the earlier British (Celtic) forms of worship and Church organization (more like disorganization!) and the later (to Bede, “modern”) Roman ways which had been brought to England by the Papal mission to the Angles, led by Saint Augustine of Canterbury. Bede supported Rome – which in those days was still Orthodox, a far cry from the modern Papacy – likely because he thought the British Christians needed protection against new pagan intrusions. And he wrote the history of how the Synod of Whitby decided for Rome in 664. But for all his intellectual capability, here is what Bede wrote about learning: “Better a stupid and unlettered brother who, working the good things he knows, merits life in Heaven, than one who though being distinguished for his learning in the Scriptures, or even holding the place of a doctor, lacks the bread of love.” As Bede’s health failed, he was working on a translation of Saint John’s Gospel into Anglo-Saxon. He attended services as long as he could. After that, confined to his bed, he coiuld hear them being sung,. He continued to dictate his translating to a young monk, but often faded in and out. Finally his scribe said to him, Father you have only a little way to go. Bede completed the last verses. The young monk said, “It is finished, father.” Bede replied, “Yes, truly it is finished”, said “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost”, and was gone. The Venerable Bede died on the Eve of the Ascension, May 25, 735, but is commemorated on May 27, so as not to conflict with the May 26th feast of Saint Augustine. His body was first buried at the monastery church at Jarrow. In 1022 his relics were taken to Durham Cathedral, where they lie today in the Galilee chapel. How did he escape Henry VIII and the Reformation? As with most saints in most Anglican churches the Venerable Bede is honored at Durham, but just barely. When we were there, I think maybe a candle was burning. There was nobody around. I thought he deserved more than that. Saints! Brothers and sisters, know the lives of God’s saints, these holy examples and guides and intercessors. You can read about them daily on the websites of almost any Orthodox Archdiocese. Some of them, maybe even some of the peculiar ones, may reach out to you, and you will find new brothers or sisters on high to love. Has this already happened to you? Please tell us about it. Next 2 weeks: The Elevation of the Holy Cross and why the world doesn’t get it 65. The Wonderful Works of Saint Nicholas, Part Three - Two more Stories from Midwest America 24. My Travels: 2006, Part One - Saint Nektarios strikes again! 63. The Wonderful Works of Saint Nicholas - Part One 81. 2010 Trip, Part 2 – Saint Nektarios, Crete, Health Care 83. The Elevation of the Holy Cross, Part 1 – “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.” Laurel Kashinn says: Thank you for this wonderful article. A few years ago at one of your study groups at St. Nicholas, we were reading from a book about the lives of several contemporary holy elders, and there was a very brief chapter about then-Elder, now Saint Paisios the Athonite. I read only one paragraph about his life in class — a brief synopsis — and that night I dreamt about him. I have since been very drawn to him and have read many of his writings. I also feel very drawn to his contemporaries, in particular, Saint Porphyrios. Love the book about his life, Wounded By Love. MamaV says: I loved this! Thank you for introducing these holy friends! I also love St Paisios; I have met him through writings by and about him. Now his icon is on my kitchen wall reminding me not to yell at my kids 🙂 It seems like I do need to acquaint myself with St.Paisios. The yelling really does get to me, and I always feel horrible afterwards – wondering if I am demonstrating Christ-likeness to my kids. St Paisios on family life is so reassuring… it’s good to be reminded over and over that the most important thing is prayer and that I can’t really control outcomes. Dmitri Karamazov says: Thank you Father! The lives of Saints are so inspiring. The Saints do seem to “make my acquaintance”. Three Saints who have come to make me love them are St. Mary of Egypt, St. Andrew the Fool for Christ, and St. Christopher.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2335
__label__wiki	0.812499	0.812499	MIA scores a major coup and snags some Titians Euan Kerr February 26, 2010, 12:00 AM Feb 26, 2010 “The Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and an Unidentified Saint” by Titian (All images courtesy Minneapolis Institute of Arts.) The Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Patrick Noon is not one given to hyperbole, but it’s clear he’s very pleased by the exhibit he’s bringing to Minneapolis “This is a very special show,” he told me. “Because of the quality of the pictures and the importance of these in the history of western art.” The show is called “Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland” will be on view February 5, 2011, through May 1, 2011. It contains paintings and drawings from several major major Renaissance painters, but Noon says Titian is the star. Tiziano Vecellio to give him is full name was highly sought by the crowned heads of Europe to paint work for their palaces. Two of the works in the show, scenes from the goddess Diana’s life were commissioned by King Phillip II of Spain. Diana and Callisto” by Titian “They are simply astonishingly beautiful and well preserved,” says Noon.”His use of color is brilliant, stunning brushwork. These are the things artists look to emulate, especially the Romantic painters in the 19th century.” The pictures have an interesting history. After centuries in private hands, Diana and Callisto, painted in 1556 – 1559 and Diana and Actaeon painted around the same time were given as a long term loan to the National Galleries of Scotland in 1945. Two years ago the NGS, together with the National Gallery of London, were offered the works. Together they raised the money to buy Diana and Actaeon over a period of five months. They are now raising the funds for Diana and Callisto. Patrick Noon is blunt when he talks about their importance. “These are the finest works by Titian outside Italy and Spain.” The exhibit also includes works by Tintoretto, Veronese,Bassano, and Lotto. “The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome, Peter, Francis and an Unidentified Female Saint,” painted by Lorenzo Lotto about 1505 When asked if this is a big feather in the MIA’s cap Noon admits a show like this doesn’t come about without a lot of work. But he thinks it’s worth it. “I think people will really enjoy seeing them,” he says. “These are really beautiful things.” Museums Painting People ‹ Older Art Hounds: Akram Khan, Rachel Breen, Radical Powers/Children of Euler Newer › A slice of “Sugar Head Pie” Art Hounds: Jennifer Davis, Rapture, and the world’s foremost Arabic instrumentalist Art Hounds: Lowertown Classics, Kay Herbst Helms, and a dance queen from Ames, Iowa Art Hounds: Teen poetry, Fargo orchestral music, and paintings of YouTube partiers “MPR is there when I wake up, throughout the day, and every evening.” —Ray from Rochester, MN	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2336
__label__wiki	0.912648	0.912648	War over, fear still stalks polls in north Sri Lanka Shihar Aneez JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lanka’s northern cities hold local polls for the first time in many years on Saturday and though the civil war is over, fear and intimidation remain rife, poll monitors and opposition politicians say. Voters in the separatist Tamil Tigers’ self-declared capital of Kilinochchi, and in Mullaittivu where they were defeated by government forces in May 2009, will elect local councilors for the first time in 29 years. The northern Jaffna district, under military control in the latter half of the 26-year civil war, will be holding its first local government election in 12 years. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, eager to gain support in the north, toured the area this week to launch development projects and promised more of them, in a war-ravaged region that remains firmly under military control. “More money has been allocated to your province than the other provinces. There is no place for communal politics in Sri Lanka in the future and narrow-minded politics is unwanted in the future,” Rajapaksa, who is from the Sinhalese ethnic majority, told a crowd in mostly rote Tamil this week. Rajapaksa’s government led the offensive to destroy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), culminating in a final battle in May 2009 that ended the guerrilla group’s campaign for a separate state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. Since then Rajapaksa has promised to rebuild the north, shunning calls for political reconciliation in favor of economic development under what he calls “The Northern Spring.” But violence has persisted, and militias who fought for the government have used force to retain their influence. Election monitors have catalogued many violations, including the use of state resources for campaigning, and the use of violence. “Everyone knows certain sections of the military and the political groups operating in Jaffna are behind these (violations),” Keerthi Thennakoon, executive director of the Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), told Reuters. “A well-calculated fear psychosis has been created among Jaffna and Killinochchi voters.” DEAD DOGS AND FUNERAL WREATHS Opposition politicians, including those elected from the north, have complained they have little access to the area and say they expect intimidation to keep turnout low. “Unknown people have placed a killed dog in front of one candidate’s house while other candidates have seen a funeral wreath on their front doors,” parliamentarian M.A Sumathiran, from the former LTTE political proxy the Tamil National Alliance, told Reuters. He said soldiers are going from house to house “insisting people must vote for the government party, and with all this intimidation of our candidates and the public, no action has been taken so far.” The government has denied any wrongdoing. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a Sinhalese Marxist party which in past decades led two violent insurgencies, said the military would not let them put up campaign posters and followed candidates during canvassing. “The government badly needs to win this election at any cost to show the international community that their undemocratic and controlled governance in the north has resulted in development and thus people are supporting them,” JVP parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Reuters. Rajapsksa is under heavy pressure from the West to engage in political reconciliation of a sort acceptable to the TNA, and to investigate accusations of war crimes during the war’s final phases to which a U.N.-sponsored report has drawn attention. Additional reporting by N.Parameswaran in Jaffna and Ranga Sirilal in Colombo; Writing by Bryson Hull; editing by Tim Pearce	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2340
__label__cc	0.717561	0.282439	Verity Health System Mulls Sale Of One Or More Of Its California Hospitals As It Faces Financial Pressures The company owns and operates St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. It also has four hospitals in Northern California. Los Angeles Times: Verity Health May Sell St. Vincent And Its Other Hospitals The nonprofit Verity Health System is considering selling one or more of its six California hospitals because of financial pressures. ...The hospitals, many of which are in lower-income neighborhoods, have been struggling for years to keep their doors open. Just a year ago, Nantworks, the Culver City company controlled by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, bought Integrity Healthcare, the management company that provides guidance to Verity, which owns and operates the hospitals. Soon-Shiong also provided an undisclosed amount of funding to Verity. “The top priority of Verity’s board and management team is to establish a long-term, sustainable path forward for our hospitals, which are of critical importance to the communities they serve,” Rich Adcock, Verity’s chief executive, said this week in a statement. (Petersen, 7/11)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2341
__label__wiki	0.579525	0.579525	PC Riding Association Lawn Sign Doug Ford Will Cut Middle Class Taxes Cutting second tax bracket by 20% will put more money in pockets of middle-class families TORONTO – Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford today announced that an Ontario PC Government will put more money in the pockets of middle-class families by cutting the second provincial income tax bracket by 20%. “Our plan takes more out of the hands of government and out of the pockets of connected insiders and elites,” said Ford. “Because we understand that this money belongs to you, and is best spent by you.” An Ontario PC Government will deliver a targeted tax cut to Ontario’s second tax bracket, with the biggest relative savings realized by those earning $42,960 to $85,923 per year. “Our plan will save taxpayers as much as $786 per year,” said Ford, “this is just one more way an Ontario PC Government will put more money back in your pocket.” Ford’s announcement was the latest in a series of measures that will put more money in the pockets of Ontario families. They include: Reducing Hydro Bills by 12%, saving the average family $173 per year. Introducing a minimum wage tax credit that ensures minimum wage earners pay no provincial income tax, saving low-income earners as much as $850 per year. Introducing a child care rebate that respects parents to make their own child care decisions, with rebate of up to 75% on child care expenses, saving parents up to $6750 per child. Eliminating Kathleen Wynne’s ‘cap-and-trade’, saving drivers over four cents per litre at the pump. “The other parties want to tax more, spend more and force you to pay more,” said Ford. “We are the only party who understands how hard you work and how much you pay.” “For all the people out there who are struggling to get by because of Kathleen Wynne’s higher hydro bills, higher taxes and higher fees, I have a clear message for you,” Ford concluded. “Change is coming and help is on the way.” Backgrounder – 20% Middle-Class Tax Cut Ontario has lost its traditional above-average income status in Canada. In the 1990s, Ontario’s average income was 10% above the national average, but in 2012, incomes in Ontario fell below the national average for the first time ever.[1] Between 2005 and 2015, Ontario families saw the slowest rate of income growth of any province in Canada.[2]In fact, during that period, median individual income in Ontario grew 3.8% while, in Canada, total average income rose by 12.7%.[3] Ontario’s median household after-tax income rose by 5.9% in those years (2005-2015), despite the growth of 11.3% for Canada as a whole.[4] Over that same period, employment income for Ontario workers actually declined by 2.3% – the only negative growth rate among all provinces.[5] We know how hard taxpayers work for their money. You shouldn’t be paying more than you need to. You deserve a government that is working for you and respects your hard-earned dollars. How We Will Fix It: A Doug Ford-led Ontario PC Government will introduce a 20% income tax cut for the middle class. This tax cut will benefit the second, middle class tax bracket, which are earners between $42,960 and $85,923. This means, the current rate of 9.15% for these income earners will drop to 7.32%, and save taxpayers as much as $786 a year. That’s more money in your pocket to spend on your priorities. The Ontario PCs will put more money in your pocket. This tax cut adds to the money-saving measures a Doug Ford Government will introduce, which includes: o Lower hydro bills by 12 – an average saving of $173 per year. o Minimum wage tax credit, saving minimum wage earners as much as $850 per year. o Childcare rebate that returns up to 75% of childcare costs back to parents. o Scrapping the Cap and Trade scam, which will save families $285 per year. [1] https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/ontarios-fall-statement-if-this-plan-is-working-what-does-failure-look-like. [2] https://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/170913/dq170913a-eng.htm [3] https://www.competeprosper.ca/blog/ontario-economic-update-lowest-median-income-growth-in-canada-what-gives [4] http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/hlt-fst/inc-rev/Table.cfm?Lang=Eng&T=101&S=99&O=A Donate to the Riding Association Connect with the Party Authorized by the CFO for the Ontario PC Party. View our Privacy Policy. Built with NationBuilder.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2343
__label__wiki	0.952548	0.952548	The Latest: Trump considering 2-week US funding extension Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attend talks at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018.Mikhail Klimentyev / AP 11:21 AM EST 10:47 PM EST BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The Latest on President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit (all times local): President Donald Trump says he’d be willing to sign a two-week government funding extension to allow for ceremonies honouring the life of former President George H.W. Bush. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump says lawmakers have asked him for an extension after Bush’s death late Friday. The 41st president is set to be honoured with a state funeral, including plans to lie in state in the Capitol this week, a ceremony at the National Cathedral and a national day of mourning Wednesday. Trump says: “I would absolutely consider it and probably get it.” Trump had been gearing up for a showdown at the end of the week as he’s sought billions for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump says his next meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is likely to happen in January or February. The president tells reporters that there are three sites under consideration, but he’s not identifying them. Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One on his return from Argentina, tells reporters that he and Kim are “getting along very well” and have a “good relationship.” He adds that at some point he’d like to invite Kim to the United States. Negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea on ending its nuclear program have appeared to stall in the months since Trump and Kim held a historic summit in Singapore in June. The two leaders made a vague commitment on “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula during the summit, but glossed over how to make it happen. President Donald Trump says he will shortly be providing formal notice to Congress that he will terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement, giving lawmakers six months to approve the replacement he recently signed. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from Argentina, Trump says: “I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly.” Seeking to gain leverage with skeptical lawmakers to approve the revised trade pact, Trump says Congress “will have a choice” as it considers the agreement he signed with the leaders of Mexico and Canada on Friday during the Group of 20 summit. He says they can choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or “pre-NAFTA, which works very well.” Trump has made renegotiating NAFTA a centerpiece of his presidency. The White House says China’s government is “open to approving” the purchase of Dutch semiconductor manufacturer NXP by American chipmaker Qualcomm should it be revived. China nixed the proposed takeover earlier this year, citing antitrust concerns, after U.S. and European regulators approved the deal. The new openness to the transaction Saturday comes hours after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) met in Argentina in a bid to cool a flaring trade war. China’s decision earlier this year came amid a period of heightening tensions between the U.S. and China over trade and intellectual property issues. Qualcomm announced it was dropping plans to proceed with the deal after it failed to receive Chinese government approval. It is unclear whether the transaction could be revived. China has agreed to label fentanyl a controlled substance after a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The deadly synthetic opioid is responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. drug deaths annually. The White House says Xi agreed to the move, long sought by the U.S., during a dinner Saturday between the two leaders on the margins of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. U.S. officials for years have been pressing the Chinese government to take a tougher stance against fentanyl, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin. Most U.S. supply of the drug is manufactured in China. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the decision means that “people selling fentanyl to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law.” The White House says President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have reached a 90-day ceasefire agreement on new economic tariffs to allow for continuing trade negotiations. The two met for dinner in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Saturday as they sought to de-escalate a trade war. Press secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump has agreed not to raise U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports as scheduled on Jan. 1. She added that the two countries will “immediately begin negotiations on structural changes” around intellectual property protections, cybertheft and other U.S. priorities. Tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods were set to rise from 10 per cent to 25 per cent in the new year, and Trump was considering duties on even more Chinese goods. The White House says if the two sides don’t reach agreement within 90 days, then Trump will impose the tariffs. President Donald Trump has wrapped up his time at a summit for world leaders with more than two hours of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two are trying to tamp down tensions surrounding a U.S.-China trade war. Top economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters after the meeting that it went “very well,” but no other details have been released. During two days at the Group of 20 summit of rich and developing nations held in Argentina, Trump met one on one with the leaders of Germany, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, Japan and the host country of Argentina. He cancelled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s seizure of Ukrainian ships. He also cancelled a wrap-up news conference out of respect to former President George H. W. Bush, who died Friday. Trump boarded Air Force One late Saturday en route to Washington. President Donald Trump is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the countries look for ways to ease an escalating trade war. Trump suggested to reporters just before the sit-down that at “some point” it could yield “something that will be good for China and good for the United States.” He didn’t elaborate. Trump and Xi were set to talk over dinner Saturday at a summit of world leaders in Argentina. The two are trying to negotiate the end to a trade conflict that is rattling financial markets and threatening the world economy. Both sides have raised tariffs on billions of dollars of each country’s goods. Trump said they would also discuss the opioid crisis. He said he hopes China will criminalize fentanyl, the synthetic form of opioids largely shipped from China. A senior White House official says a joint G-20 statement meets many U.S. objectives, most importantly reforming the World Trade Organization. President Donald Trump and the other leaders signed the document at the end of a two-day summit of rich and developing nations held in Argentina. The U.S. supported the language on the WTO but did not sign on to a commitment to support the Paris Climate Accord, which Trump is exiting. All the other countries agreed to support the statement. The White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, also noted language on workforce development and women’s economic development and said China committed to doing infrastructure financing on “transparent terms.” -By Catherine Lucey President Donald Trump is meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid a global outcry over the death of a U.S.-based columnist who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Erdogan has sought to keep international pressure on Saudi Arabia over the slaying in October of Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has said there is no definitive evidence that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is complicit in the killing. He says the kingdom is an important ally that has helped keep oil prices low. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown prince must have at least known about the plot to kill Khashoggi. The two leaders are meeting at the Group of 20 rich and developing nations in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The meeting is closed to reporters. President Donald Trump held an “informal conversation” with Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday. That’s according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who says the chat occurred during the dinner program at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sanders says that as is typical at multilateral events, the president and first lady had several informal conversations with world leaders at the dinner, including Putin. Trump and Putin were supposed to have a formal bilateral meeting Saturday at the summit, but Trump called it off Thursday amid spiking tensions over Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews last weekend. President Donald Trump is talking trade and other hot-button international issues with German Chancellor Angela Merkel — a leader he says is “highly respected by everybody, including me.” They are meeting during the Group of 20 summit of rich and developing nations being held in Argentina. Trump and Merkel will discuss trade, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and Moscow’s violations of a landmark nuclear arms treaty that Trump plans to exit. Many in Europe have looked to Merkel as Trump has called into question traditional trans-Atlantic ties with his announcements of trade tariffs, repeated criticism of European contributions to NATO and other issues. Merkel has walked a fine line, criticizing some of Trump’s decisions while emphasizing that a good relationship with Washington is central to her government. President Donald Trump says he expressed his “best wishes” to the Bush family after the death of former President George H.W. Bush. Trump says he spoke with former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Saturday. He praised the elder Bush, who died Friday, as “a high-quality man who truly loved his family.” He added that Bush’s death “really puts a damper” on his participation at the international Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Earlier Saturday, Trump cancelled a scheduled summit news conference out of respect for the Bush family. Trump has publicly sparred with the political dynasty, clashing on style and substance. Trump commented while meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who praised the late Bush one of the fathers of German reunification. President Donald Trump has ordered American flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days to honour former President George H.W. Bush. In a proclamation signed Saturday, hours after Bush died, Trump has also designated Wednesday as a national day of mourning. Trump encourages Americans to gather in places of worship “to pay homage” to Bush’s memory. He adds: “I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.” Trump hails Bush as “one of America’s greatest points of light,” a reference to one of Bush’s signature phrases about American civic culture. Trump has mocked the “points of light” phrase, saying at campaign rallies that “I never quite got that one.” President Donald Trump is cancelling a planned news conference at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina Saturday, “out of respect for the Bush Family” after death of former President George H.W. Bush. In a tweet, Trump says he was “very much looking forward” to speaking with the news media before leaving the summit in Buenos Aires “because we have had such great success in our dealing with various countries and their leaders at the G20.” He adds: “However, out of respect for the Bush Family and former President George H.W. Bush we will wait until after the funeral to have a press conference.” Trump is scheduled to meet down Saturday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese President Xi Jinping before returning to Washington. When President Donald Trump sits down for dinner Saturday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, their table talk will undoubtedly have a global impact. Trump and Xi will be seeking a way out of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, while also saving face for their domestic audiences at home. Trump says: “There’s some good signs. We’ll see what happens.” The Trump-Xi meeting is the marquee event of Trump’s whirlwind two-day trip to Argentina for the Group of 20 Summit. Trade analysts and administration officials acknowledge it won’t be easy. The United States and China are locked in a dispute over their trade imbalance and Beijing’s push to challenge American technological dominance. ‘We had no idea this was coming:’ Windsor auto parts plant to close, putting 270 out of work, after losing Chinese customer Two years ago city waived the manufacturers’ $1.3 million tax bill to keep plant open	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2344
__label__wiki	0.87635	0.87635	Solar Bus Stop Shows Bright Times Ahead October 3, 2005 - You may be in the dark as to when the next bus will come along, but from October stored solar energy will keep London’s bus stops shining through the night. Some 7000 of the city’s 17,500 bus stops are scheduled to be retrofitted with solar-powered panels over the next five years. The panels will power lights that illuminate the sign, timetable and passenger waiting area. The scheme will be rolled out in October and by Christmas, London will have the largest network of solar-powered bus stops in the world. But according to Ivan Bennett, head of research and development at Transport for London, this is despite the solar industry’s apathy to the project. “I was surprised at how backward the industry was in coming forward with solutions when we first approached them,” he says. But the company that did come up with the good, Canadian firm Carmanah Technologies, has been awarded a £1.5M contract, their bigest contract to-date outside North America. A canopy holds the photovoltaic cells. Solar bus stops appear to be big business. Carmanah reports Q2 revenues of $6.5M, an 87% increase over Q2 2004. A 30-watt solar array on top of the canopy (see pic) captures light energy. Two light-emitting diodes under the canopy provide illumination and an energy management system monitors input and output and safeguards the battery, a 96 watt lead-acid Hawker cell battery. The system is based on Carmanah’s solar-powered marine lights. Marine lights are used to mark hazards and have a range of several miles. “They have to be robust and reliable”, says Bennett, “which is what we need at bus stops in the middle of winter”. Older photovoltaic (PV) panels would have had to be the size of a filing cabinet to cope with UK weather. The new panels are much smaller and include sufficient by-pass diodes to prevent shading. On small panels, even a leaf could confuse the system into assuming it was dark and switching on the lights. PVs generate electricity from sun light. Certain materials, in this case silicon, can be adapted to release electrons when they are exposed to light, thereby producing electricity that can be stored in rechargeable batteries for night-time use. The technology contains no moving parts, releases no emissions and is independent of any grid system.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2348
__label__wiki	0.585568	0.585568	Estate of Gravis v. Coffee C.A. No. 28815 (Ohio Ct. App. 2019) Estate of Gravisv.Coffee STATE OF OHIO COUNTY OF SUMMIT IN THE COURT OF APPEALS NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICTJul 10, 2019 C.A. No. 28815•2019 Ohio 2806• C.A. No. 28815 ESTATE OF WILLIAM O. GRAVIS Appellee v. MICHAEL COFFEE, et al. Appellants APPEARANCES: MARK W. BERNLOHR and SUSAN K. ZERRUSEN, Attorneys at Law, for Appellants. MICHAEL J. KAPLAN, Attorney at Law, for Appellee. TEODOSIO, Presiding Judge. APPEAL FROM JUDGMENT ENTERED IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS COUNTY OF SUMMIT, OHIO CASE No. 2016-CV-094 DECISION AND JOURNAL ENTRY {¶1} Michael Coffee and Thomas Coffee appeal the judgment of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division, dismissing their counterclaim. We affirm. {¶2} Mr. William O. Gravis passed away on August 16, 2016. Prior to his death, Vanessa Wollet filed an application to be the guardian of his person and estate. Mr. Gravis, as the proposed ward, was served with notice of the application on June 8, 2015. A second application for guardianship was filed by Jacki Lynn Hastings on June 17, 2015. A hearing was held before the magistrate on July 21, 2015, with the magistrate issuing a decision on July 27, 2015, finding Mr. Gravis incompetent, recommending the appointment of Ms. Wollet as guardian of the person, and recommending Attorney John Greven to be appointed as guardian of the estate. {¶3} On August 20, 2015, the trial court entered judgment finding Mr. Gravis to be incompetent by reason of mental and physical disability, and incapable of taking proper care of his self or property, thereby appointing Ms. Wollet as the guardian of his person. On November 25, 2015, Mr. Greven applied for guardianship of the estate and the trial court entered judgment appointing him as such. {¶4} The matter before us for review was initiated in September 2016 by the estate of William O. Gravis ("the Estate"), which filed a complaint for declaratory judgment, unjust enrichment, and constructive trust. Michael Coffee and Thomas Coffee filed their joint answer and counterclaims in October 2016. The trial court granted judgment on the pleadings in favor of the estate as to all but one of the counterclaims. The remaining counterclaim sought declaratory judgment on the issue of the ownership of real property located in Bath, Ohio. {¶5} The dispute over the ownership of the real property arose out of the challenged validity of a transfer on death designation affidavit executed by Mr. Gravis on November 23, 2015, to transfer certain real property to Michael and Thomas Coffee. The affidavit was prepared and notarized by the attorney for the Coffees: Mark Pirozzi. At the time the affidavit was signed, Mr. Pirozzi was aware that Ms. Wollet had been appointed as the guardian for the person of Mr. Gravis. The Coffees sought to have the transfer on death designation declared valid and motioned the trial court for summary judgment in their favor both on the Estate's claims and on their remaining counterclaim for declaratory judgment. Conversely, the Estate argued the designation was invalid due to the trial court having previously declared Mr. Gravis to be incompetent. Initially the trial court denied summary judgment, finding that there were "genuine issues of material fact" concerning the decedent's competence. However, on September 20, 2017, the court sua sponte entered a judgment entry (followed by an amended judgment entry on September 21, 2017, which attached the property description), citing to its inherent powers under R.C. 2104.24(C). In dismissing the remaining counterclaim, the trial court found that there was "no genuine issue of fact" and that the Estate was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. We note that the Coffees do not raise any potential procedural errors by the trial court in their assignment of error, and we decline to raise the argument for them. See Pascual v. Pascual, 9th Dist. Medina No. 12CA0036-M, 2012-Ohio-5819, ¶ 6. (stating that "[i]t is the appellant's burden to affirmatively demonstrate error on appeal * * * [and] where an appellant has failed to develop an argument on appeal, complete with citations to law, it is not this Court's duty to create an argument for them"). {¶6} Following the trial court's amended judgment entry, the Estate filed a voluntary dismissal of the second and third counts of the complaint "pursuant to Rule 41." The Estate also filed a motion for a judgment entry concluding the litigation, arguing that the trial court's September 20, 2017, entry dismissing the remaining counterclaim had also resolved the first count of the Estate's complaint, and that the litigation was complete. On September 21, 2017, the trial court granted the Estate's motion and issued a final judgment. Michael and Thomas Coffee now appeal, raising one assignment of error. {¶7} As a preliminary matter, we are obligated to raise sua sponte the question of our jurisdiction. See Whitaker-Merrell Co. v. Geupel Constr. Co., 29 Ohio St.2d 184, 186 (1972). This Court has jurisdiction to hear appeals only from final judgments. Article IV, Section 3(B)(2), Ohio Constitution; R.C. 2501.02. "In the absence of a final, appealable order, this Court must dismiss the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction." Smirz v. Smirz, 9th Dist. Lorain No. 13CA010408, 2014-Ohio-3869, ¶ 8. Although not raised by the parties, this case implicates two issues concerning the matter of jurisdiction that we will consider at the outset. The first issue involves the finality of the trial court's entry purporting to resolve the Estate's claim for declaratory judgment; the second issue is with regard to the Estate's voluntary dismissal of its second and third causes of action. {¶8} R.C. 2721.02(A), setting forth the force and effect of declaratory judgments, provides: "[C]ourts of record may declare rights, status, and other legal relations whether or not further relief is or could be claimed." "The declaration may be either affirmative or negative in form and effect [and] has the effect of a final judgment or decree." Id. {¶9} "[I]n the context of a declaratory judgment action, merely entering judgment in favor of one party, without further elaboration, does not constitute a final judgment sufficient to give this Court jurisdiction over an appeal." Peavy v. Thompson, 9th Dist. Summit No. 25440, 2011-Ohio-1902, ¶ 10. "In order to properly enter judgment in a declaratory judgment action, the trial court must set forth its construction of the disputed document or law, and must expressly declare the parties' respective rights and obligations." Miller Lakes Community Assn. v. Schmitt, 9th Dist. Wayne No. 11CA0053, 2012-Ohio-5116, ¶ 8. "If the trial court fails to fulfill these requirements, its judgment is not final and appealable." Id. However, we have also stated: "Where the denial of a motion for summary judgment in the context of declaratory judgment gives rise, however, to the reasonable and logical inference that one party has in fact prevailed, the requirements of finality are satisfied." Lexington Ins. Co. v. DunnWell, LLC, 9th Dist. Summit No. 27476, 2016-Ohio-5311, ¶ 10. {¶10} In its judgment entry dismissing the Coffees' counterclaim, the trial court found: [T]he Transfer on Death Designation Affidavit executed for the real property owned by William O. Gravis in Bath, Ohio, and recorded at Doc #56175434 with the Summit County Fiscal Office on December 3, 2015[,] is not valid, and is void as a matter of law. As a result, Defendants Michael Coffee and Thomas Coffee have no interest in the subject real property in Bath, Ohio, as it is part of the probate estate of William O. Gravis and shall be disposed of per the terms of the will that was admitted to probate in case #2016 ES 871. Defendants Michael Coffee and Thomas Coffee are permanently enjoined from any attempt to occupy, sell, convey, transfer, or assign any interest in the aforementioned property. As the Defendants Michael Coffee and Thomas Coffee are not heirs at law pursuant to the statute of descent and distribution, they have no interest in the probate estate of William O. Gravis. In motioning the trial court for a judgment entry concluding the litigation, the Estate contended this language was dispositive of its claim for declaratory judgment and requested the trial court enter an order finding the same. {¶11} In its order granting the Estate's motion, the trial court stated that its judgment entry of September 21, 2017, which had dismissed the Coffees' counterclaim, also "resolved and disposed of" the Estate's first cause of action. The trial court went on to note that the Estate had dismissed its remaining causes of action and that the court had previously dismissed all remaining counterclaims and third-party claims. The trial court then concluded by stating that the judgment entry and its prior judgment entries dismissing the Coffees' claims concluded the matter, and the entries, taken together, contained the final judgment of the court. {¶12} The initial question that we must address is whether the trial court's judgment of September 21, 2017, constituted a final judgment as to both the Coffees' and the Estate's causes of action for declaratory judgment. {¶13} Count seven of the Coffees' counterclaim states a cause of action for declaratory judgment, requesting the trial court declare: (1) that the decedent's purported Last Will and Testament, dated November 6, 2014, was fraudulent; and (2) that the November 23, 2015, transfer on death designation affidavit was valid and that the Coffees are the owners of the subject property. In its judgment entry of April 21, 2017, the trial court granted judgment on the pleadings in favor of the Estate as to the Coffees' counterclaim for a declaratory judgment asking that the will be declared invalid. The Coffees do not appeal from this order. In addition, we note that R.C. 2107.71(A) provides: "A person interested in a will or codicil admitted to probate in the probate court * * * may contest its validity by filing a complaint in the probate court in the county in which the will or codicil was admitted to probate." The judgment entry of September 21, 2017, states that the Coffees "are not heirs at law pursuant to the statute of descent and distribution * * * [and] have no interest in the probate estate of William O. Gravis." {¶14} With regard to the counterclaim's requested declaration that the transfer on death designation affidavit was valid and that the Coffees are the owners of the subject property, the judgment entry of September 21, 2017, stated that "the Transfer on Death Designation Affidavit executed for the real property owned by William O. Gravis in Bath, Ohio, and recorded at Doc #56175434 with the Summit County Fiscal Office on December 3, 2015[,] [was] not valid, and [was] void as a matter of law." {¶15} The Estate's first cause of action for declaratory judgment states that a controversy arose with respect to the parties' respective rights and obligations with regard to the property of the decedent or the Estate. In its prayer for relief as stated in the complaint, and in pertinent part, the Estate requests from the trial court: (1) an order declaring the rights and obligations of the parties in the property in which the decedent or the Estate has or had an interest; (2) an order determining as to each asset at issue whether the asset is rightfully included within the probate estate; (3) an order declaring invalid, null and void all conveyances, transfers, or assignments to the defendants of the decedent's or the Estate's property. The only property specifically identified in the Estate's complaint consists of two parcels of land located in Bath Township, Ohio. The complaint goes on to allege that the Coffees had "begun to seek to exercise dominion and control over the real estate." No factual claims are made as to any other property, real or otherwise. {¶16} As noted above, the trial court declared that: (1) the transfer on death designation affidavit was not valid and was void as a matter of law; (2) the Coffees had no interest in the subject property; (3) the subject property was part of the probate estate to be disposed of per the terms of the will; (4) the Coffees were permanently enjoined from any attempt to occupy, sell, convey, transfer, or assign any interest in the aforementioned property; and (5) the Coffees were not heirs at law and had no interest in the probate estate. The trial court therefore addressed all aspects of the Estate's cause of action for declaratory judgment by so declaring the rights and obligations of the parties in the property, determining that the subject property was rightfully included in the probate estate, and declaring that the transfer on death designation affidavit was not valid and was void as a matter of law. {¶17} We therefore conclude the trial court expressly declared the parties' respective rights and obligations and that the September 21, 2017, judgment entry constituted a final judgment as to the declaratory judgment claims of both the Estate and the Coffees. However, that does not end our inquiry, as we must now look to the voluntary dismissal by the Estate of the second and third counts of its complaint. {¶18} Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) provides that "a plaintiff, without order of the court, may dismiss all claims asserted by that plaintiff against a defendant by * * * filing a notice of dismissal at any time before the commencement of trial * * * [.]" Recognizing that this language is clear and unambiguous, the Ohio Supreme Court has concluded that a voluntary dismissal under Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a) can only operate to dismiss all claims that a plaintiff has pending against a defendant. Pattison v. W.W. Grainger, Inc., 120 Ohio St.3d 142, 2008-Ohio-5276, ¶ 18. "[Civ.R. 41(A)(1)(a)] does not allow for the dismissal of a portion of the claims against a certain defendant" because it "applies to discrete parties, not discrete causes of action." (Emphasis sic.) Id. "[B]ecause Rule 41(A)(1) does not permit a party to voluntarily dismiss anything less than all of its claims against any one party[,]" any attempt to do so is a nullity. Perez Bar & Grill v. Schneider, 9th Dist. Lorain No. 09CA009573, 2010-Ohio-1352, ¶ 7, citing Pattison at ¶ 18. {¶19} Upon the Estate's motion, the trial court concluded that its judgment entry of September 20, 2017, resolved both the Estate's first cause of action for declaratory judgment and the Coffees' counterclaim. As indicated by our analysis above, we agree that the judgment entry resolved all claims for declaratory judgment. As a result, when the Estate dismissed its second and third causes of action on September 21, 2017, it was dismissing all of its remaining claims, as its claim for declaratory judgment was no longer pending. Therefore, the voluntary dismissal was proper under Civ.R. 41(A)(1). We conclude the trial court's judgment was final and appealable, and this Court has jurisdiction to consider this appeal. ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FINDING THAT THE APPOINTMENT OF A GUARDIAN OF THE PERSON CREATED AN IRREBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION OF INCOMPETENCE TO SIGN A TRANSFER ON DEATH DESIGNATION AFFIDAVIT. {¶20} In their assignment of error, the Coffees argue the trial court erred in finding that the appointment of a guardian of the person created an irrebuttable presumption of incompetence to sign a transfer on death designation affidavit. We disagree. {¶21} Appellate review of an award of summary judgment is de novo. Grafton v. Ohio Edison Co., 77 Ohio St.3d 102, 105 (1996). Summary judgment is appropriate under Civ.R. 56 when: (1) no genuine issue as to any material fact remains to be litigated; (2) the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; and (3) viewing the evidence most strongly in favor of the nonmoving party, reasonable minds can come to but one conclusion and that conclusion is adverse to the nonmoving party. Temple v. Wean United, Inc., 50 Ohio St.2d 317, 327 (1977), citing Civ.R. 56(C). A court must view the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and must resolve any doubt in favor of the non-moving party. Murphy v. Reynoldsburg, 65 Ohio St.3d 356, 358-359 (1992). A trial court does not have the liberty to choose among reasonable inferences in the context of summary judgment, and all competing inferences and questions of credibility must be resolved in the nonmoving party's favor. Perez v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., 35 Ohio St.3d 215, 218 (1988). {¶22} The Supreme Court of Ohio has set forth the nature of this burden-shifting paradigm: [A] party seeking summary judgment, on the ground that the nonmoving party cannot prove its case, bears the initial burden of informing the trial court of the basis for the motion, and identifying those portions of the record that demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact on the essential element(s) of the nonmoving party's claims. The moving party cannot discharge its initial burden under Civ.R. 56 simply by making a conclusory assertion that the nonmoving party has no evidence to prove its case. Rather, the moving party must be able to specifically point to some evidence of the type listed in Civ.R. 56(C) which affirmatively demonstrates that the nonmoving party has no evidence to support the nonmoving party's claims. If the moving party fails to satisfy its initial burden, the motion for summary judgment must be denied. However, if the moving party has satisfied its initial burden, the nonmoving party then has a reciprocal burden outlined in Civ.R. 56(E) to set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial and, if the nonmovant does not so respond, summary judgment, if appropriate, shall be entered against the nonmoving party. Dresher v. Burt, 75 Ohio St.3d 280, 293 (1996). {¶23} At the outset, we note that the trial court did not specifically make or rely upon a finding that the appointment of a guardian of the person created an irrebuttable presumption of incompetence to sign a transfer on death designation affidavit. Rather, the trial court relies on two separate statutory sections in its order. The first basis for the trial court's ruling is R.C. 2111.04(D) (incorrectly cited as 2114.04(D) in the trial court's order), which provides: "From the service of notice [of the guardianship proceeding] until the hearing, no sale, gift, conveyance, or encumbrance of the property of an alleged incompetent shall be valid as to persons having notice of the proceeding." The trial court found that notice of the application for guardianship of the person and estate was received by Mr. Gravis on June 8, 2015, and that a hearing on the issue of the guardianship of the estate was not held until November 25, 2017, which was two days after the execution of the transfer on death designation affidavit. The trial court went on to find that as a consequence, and pursuant to R.C. 2111.04(D), the affidavit was not valid and was void as a matter of law. {¶24} The Coffees' assignment of error neither addresses these findings nor addresses R.C. 2111.04 as a basis for the trial court's ruling. "[A]n appellant's assignment of error provides this Court with a roadmap to guide our review." Taylor v. Hamlin-Scanlon, 9th Dist. Summit No. 23873, 2008-Ohio-1912, ¶ 12. This Court declines to chart its own course when an appellant fails to provide guidance. Young v. Slusser, 9th Dist. Wayne No. 08CA0019, 2008-Ohio-4650, ¶ 7. "It is not this Court's duty to create an appellant's argument for him." Thomas v. Bauschlinger, 9th Dist. Summit No. 27240, 2015-Ohio-281, ¶ 8. It is an appellant's duty to demonstrate his assigned error through an argument that is supported by citations to legal authority and facts in the record; it is not the function of this Court to construct a foundation for his claims. Ohio Edison Co. v. Williams, 9th Dist. Summit No. 23530, 2007-Ohio-5028, ¶ 9. The Coffees provide us with no argument as to how the trial court erred in its analysis with regard to R.C. 2111.04(D). {¶25} The second basis for the trial court's ruling is its position as "superior guardian." Under R.C. 2111.50(A)(1), "[a]t all times, the probate court is the superior guardian of wards who are subject to its jurisdiction * * *." R.C. 2111.50(B)(1), provides: In connection with any person whom the probate court has found to be an incompetent or a minor subject to guardianship and for whom the court has appointed a guardian, the court has, subject to divisions (C) to (E) of this section, all the powers that relate to the person and estate of the ward and that the ward could exercise if present and not a minor or under a disability, except the power to make or revoke a will. These powers include, but are not limited to, the power to do any of the following: (1) Convey or release the present, contingent, or expectant interests in real or personal property of the ward, including, but not limited to, dower and any right of survivorship incident to a survivorship tenancy, joint tenancy, or tenancy by the entireties[.] {¶26} The trial court stated that the magistrate had made a finding that Mr. Gravis was incompetent on July 27, 2015, and that on that date Mr. Gravis thereby became subject to the jurisdiction of the probate court as an incompetent person, with the probate court becoming superior guardian of Mr. Gravis' person and estate pursuant to R.C. 2111.50. The trial court found that because it had all the powers conferred upon it as superior guardian pursuant to R.C. 2111.50(B)(1), Attorney Pirozzi had no authority to procure the transfer on death designation affidavit from Mr. Gravis, and that consequently, the affidavit was not valid and was void as a matter of law. {¶27} Once again, the Coffees' assignment of error does not address the trial court's rationale that the procurement of the affidavit conflicted with its role as superior guardian pursuant to R.C. 2111.50. And as above, we note that an appellant's assignment of error provides this Court with a roadmap to guide our review. Taylor at ¶ 12. We decline to chart our own course when an appellant fails to provide guidance. Young at ¶ 7. The Coffees have failed to show any error in the rationales employed by the trial court in making its ruling. {¶28} The Coffees' assignment of error is overruled. {¶29} The Coffees' assignment of error is overruled. The judgment of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division, is affirmed. There were reasonable grounds for this appeal. We order that a special mandate issue out of this Court, directing the Court of Common Pleas, County of Summit, State of Ohio, to carry this judgment into execution. A certified copy of this journal entry shall constitute the mandate, pursuant to App.R. 27. Immediately upon the filing hereof, this document shall constitute the journal entry of judgment, and it shall be file stamped by the Clerk of the Court of Appeals at which time the period for review shall begin to run. App.R. 22(C). The Clerk of the Court of Appeals is instructed to mail a notice of entry of this judgment to the parties and to make a notation of the mailing in the docket, pursuant to App.R. 30. Costs taxed to Appellants. /s/_________ THOMAS A. TEODOSIO FOR THE COURT HENSAL, J. CONCURS. CARR, J. DISSENTING. {¶30} This appeal, as the majority's opinion reflects, presents us with some complicated procedural issues. The most glaring problem to me though is the fact that the trial court granted summary judgment sua sponte to Appellees on grounds neither party had the opportunity to address. Consequently, I respectfully dissent and would reverse and remand the matter to the trial court to afford the parties the chance to address R.C. 2111.04 (D) and 2111.50 initially. MARK W. BERNLOHR and SUSAN K. ZERRUSEN, Attorneys at Law, for Appellants. MICHAEL J. KAPLAN, Attorney at Law, for Appellee.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2349
__label__wiki	0.846369	0.846369	Refugee Week a reminder of our call to care for those on the margins: Catholic Mission St Vincent’s Parish Ashfield holds regular welcome events for refugees, inspired by Pope Francis and encouraged by Catholic Mission. Image: Catholic Mission. Refugee Week 2019 is a time to reflect deeply on the plight of those around the world, including in Australia, who are seeking asylum and to offer support, says the Catholic Church’s official mission agency. Father Brian Lucas, National Director of Catholic Mission, says the week is a reminder of our duty to reach out to those on the margins of society. ‘Refugee Week shines a light on the reality of women, men and children in situations we cannot imagine,’ he said. ‘It reminds us of our call to love one another and to do what we can to bring fullness of life to all.’ Catholic Mission, the Australian agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies, supports a range of programs around the world benefiting children, communities and church leaders, including programs supporting refugees. ‘In troubled parts of the world, Catholic missionaries are running programs from emergency relief to resettlement and livelihood support,’ Fr Lucas said. ‘Fundamentally, these programs ensure the protection and restoration of human rights for some of the world’s most persecuted individuals.’ During Refugee Week, Catholic Mission calls on Australians to offer prayerful and financial assistance where possible to support projects from Asia to Africa that provide for those most at risk, especially refugee children. Among the projects supported internationally by Catholic Mission/Pontifical Mission Societies: In India, the Ranabondo Catholic Church in the diocese of Krishnagar cares for 350 refugee children who have fled violence and persecution in Bangladesh. The St Stephen’s Parish in Sudan’s Archdiocese of Khartoum has established six refugee camps and offers support to many families escaping war zones in South Sudan, Nubba Mountain and Darfur. The Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Buhunguro Parish of the Archdiocese of Mbarara, Uganda is composed of 15 outstations housing refugees from the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. “These projects are just some examples of the hundreds of projects throughout Africa and parts of Asia where the local Catholic Church is providing support and rehabilitation for families that have fled situations of violence and extreme poverty” said Fr Lucas. In addition to projects overseas, Catholic Mission is involved in domestic support for refugees and asylum seekers. The organisation is a founding member of the End Child Detention Coalition (ECDC) which began in 2012 and, with its 26 member organisations, seeks protection and support for children in the Australian detention system. Through its member organisations, ECDC reaches 220,000 people, drawing them into the work of protecting children, along with their families who are seeking asylum. Jenny Collins-White, Advocacy Manager for Catholic Mission, observed, ‘It is critical that the Australian Church and its organisations engage in the work of safeguarding the most vulnerable and creating a culture where we welcome, protect, promote and integrate migrants and refugees into our communities. Pope Francis is constantly urging us to take on this work and the need is practically roaring at us!’ In response to this need, Catholic Mission has also joined an alliance of individuals, organisations, schools and parishes from across the Catholic community who advocate for fair and humane treatment for people seeking asylum in Australia. The Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA) is led by Jesuit Social Services and JRS (Australia), and Catholic Mission is one of its National Advisory Group. For more information on Catholic Mission’s work with and advocacy for refugees and asylum seekers, or to learn more about our work, phone 1800 257 256 or visit www.catholicmission.org.au. With thanks to Catholic Mission.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2352
__label__wiki	0.798814	0.798814	FINDINGS IN THE MATTER OF A COMPLAINT REGARDING THE MINNESOTA STATE BAR ASSOCIATION On November 2, 2000, Greg Wersal ("Complainant") filed a complaint with the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ("Board") alleging that the Minnesota State Bar Association ("MSBA") violated certain provisions of Minnesota Statutes, chapter 10A. The Complainant alleges that the MSBA made expenditures in excess of $100 to influence the election of certain endorsed judicial candidates, and that the MSBA failed to register a political fund with the Board within 14 days after making such expenditures. The Complainant further alleges that the MSBA failed to disclose the source of funds used and the expenditures made to influence the election of its endorsed judicial candidates. The evidence submitted consisted of copies of an Advisory Opinion issued by the Board on August 28, 1998, certain pages printed off the MSBAs website, MSBA plebiscite ballots, and printouts from the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune websites. Lloyd Grooms, attorney, responded on behalf of the MSBA, by letters dated November 27, 2000, and February 8, 2001. Mr. Grooms states that the MSBA has a membership of approximately 15,000 legal professional members and that the MSBA has traditionally polled those members through plebiscites to determine their opinions on candidates running for judicial offices. He further states that the results of those plebiscites have been published to the MSBA members and public through a general press release. In 1998, the MSBA Executive Committee considered whether "ambiguities in the Minnesota Fair Campaign Practices Act" could be viewed as prohibiting its endorsement of a judicial candidate. The Committee decided against endorsing a judicial candidate at that time because an endorsement could be construed as an impermissible corporate contribution to a political campaign. According to Mr. Grooms, the Executive Committee did not consider whether such an endorsement would violate any provisions of Minnesota Statutes, chapter 10A. Mr. Grooms provided information about expenditures associated with preparing, printing, mailing, processing and counting the returned ballots, and preparing and distributing the press releases. Mr. Grooms informed the Board that the funds used to pay expenses related to the 2000 judicial plebiscite were part of the general operating budget of the MSBA. He also supplied copies of correspondence sent to candidates and MSBA members and an advertisement endorsing certain candidates. According to Mr. Grooms, the MSBA did discuss using an existing political fund, LawPAC, to pay the expenses of the plebiscite and endorsement. This option was not pursued because the LawPAC constitution limits the purpose of LawPAC to supporting candidates for legislative offices in the state of Minnesota. The Board considered the matter in executive sessions on December 12, 2000, January 9, and February 20, 2001. Mr. Grooms appeared on behalf of the MSBA and Mr. Wersal appeared on behalf of himself at the January 9, 2001 meeting. The matter was considered based on the complaint, information provided by both parties and testimony presented. STATEMENT OF THE EVIDENCE 1. The MSBA is an organization consisting of legal professionals and is not registered with the Board. 2. In previous election years, the MSBA has conducted plebiscites for contested judicial races to determine its members opinions of the candidates and has published the results through a general press release. 3. In connection with the 1998 plebiscite, the MSBA Executive Committee considered whether its endorsement of a judicial candidate could be construed as an impermissible corporate contribution to a political campaign. Ultimately, the Executive Committee decided that due to "ambiguities in the Minnesota Fair Campaign Practices Act," the results of the 1998 plebiscite would be announced to the public but that there would be no endorsement of judicial candidates. The MSBA testified that at no time did the MSBA consider whether such endorsements could be construed as violating any provisions of Minn. Stat. Chapter 10A. 4. In advance of the 2000 plebiscite, the MSBA decided and announced that a candidate receiving at least 60% of the votes would be "endorsed" by the MSBA. 5. During September 2000, the MSBA mailed plebiscite ballots to all of its lawyer members asking them to determine their preference among the candidates in the contested Minnesota Supreme Court and Court of Appeals 2000 elections. Background information supplied by the candidates was included with the plebiscites. 6. On October 10, 2000, the MSBA tabulated approximately 3,600 returned ballots and published the results through media press releases and posted them on the MSBA website. 7. To more broadly communicate the results of the ballots and endorse those candidates receiving more than 60% of the votes, an advertisement was placed in several newspapers. 8. Among other things, the advertisement prominently stated, "Heres who we support for the jobs, " and identified five incumbent candidates for judicial office. 9. The MSBA communications indicated that they were prepared and issued by the MSBA; they do not, however, clearly state that the communications were not approved by the candidates, or that the candidates were not responsible for the communications. 10. The cost of preparing, distributing, and publishing the communications relating to judicial candidate endorsements were paid by the MSBA and exceeded $100.00. The funds used to pay these expenses were part of the general operating budget of the MSBA. 11. The MSBA discussed using its existing registered political fund, known as "LawPAC," to pay expenses related to the 2000 judicial plebiscite. This option was not pursued because the LawPAC constitution limits the purpose of LawPAC to supporting "candidates to legislative offices in the state of Minnesota." 12. The above expenditures were not made from a political committee or political fund, and MSBA did not form or register a political committee or political fund within 14 days of making expenditures in excess of $100. FINDINGS CONCERNING PROBABLE CAUSE 1. MSBAs costs of preparing, distributing and publishing a press release, statements of endorsement on the MSBA web site, and newspaper advertisements constituted independent expenditures on behalf of candidates as defined in Minn. Stat. 10A.01, subd. 18. 2. The MSBA failed to establish either a political committee as required by Minn. Stat. 10A.11, or a political fund as required by Minn. Stat. 10A.12, subd. 1, prior to taking actions related to the endorsement of judicial candidates. 3. The MSBA failed to register with the Board by filing a Statement of Organization required by Minn. Stat. 10A.14, subd. 1, no later than 14 days after making expenditures in excess of $100. 4. The MSBA failed to file with the Board the Reports of Receipts and Expenditures required by Minn. Stat. 10A.20, subds. 1 and 2, after making expenditures in excess of $100. 5. The MSBAs printed or written advertisements and statements of endorsement failed to contain statements in conspicuous type disclosing that they were independent expenditures not approved by the candidates and that the candidates were not responsible for them, as required by Minn. Stat. 10A.17, subd. 4. 6. There is probable cause to believe that the MSBA violated the provisions of Minn. Stats. 10A.11 or 10A.12, subd. 1; 10A.14, subd. 1; 10A.17, subd. 4; and 10A.20, subds. 1 and 2. Based on the above Findings Concerning Probable Cause, the Board issues the following: Pursuant to Minn. Stat. 10A.02, subd. 11, probable cause having been found, the MSBA shall take the following actions to remedy the violations: 1. The MSBA shall establish and register either a political committee or political fund with the Board within ten (10) days after the order is signed; 2. The political committee or political fund shall file the necessary Report of Receipts and Expenditures in connection with the 2000 judicial endorsement with the Board no later than 30 days after the order is signed. If the political committee or political fund made aggregate expenditures in excess of $100 prior to August 22, 2000, the political committee or political fund shall file the Report of Receipts and Expenditures for the period January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2000. If the political committee or political fund did not make aggregate expenditures in excess of $100 prior to August 22, 2000, the political committee or political fund shall file a Report of Receipts and Expenditures for the period August 22, 2000, to December 31, 2000. 3. The report shall identify the source(s) of the funds expended for endorsement purposes by percentage and category, e.g., 30 % membership dues, 20% donations, 40% Continuing Legal Education registration fees, etc. In addition, the report must include the name, address, and employer of any individual who contributed in excess of $100 dedicated to the endorsement process together with the date and amount of the contribution. 4. If the political committee or political fund made aggregate expenditures in excess of $100 prior to August 22, 2000, the political committee or political fund shall pay a late filing fee of $1,000 for failure to timely file pre-primary election and pre-general election Reports of Receipts and Expenditures. If the political committee or political fund did not make aggregate expenditures in excess of $100 prior to August 22, 2000, the political committee or political fund shall pay a late filing fee of $500 for failure to timely file a pre-general election Report of Receipts and Expenditures. As required by Minn. Stat. 10A.02, subd. 11, the Board will report its findings to the Ramsey County Attorney. Dated: February 23, 2001 Wil Fluegel, chair	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2355
__label__wiki	0.883592	0.883592	Civil Rights Overview Civil Rights: Law and History By submitting this form, you agree to Findlaw.com's terms. We respect your privacy. Top Headlines U.S. Supreme Court Modern Practice Is It Legal? Weirdly Legal Everyday Legal California Lawyers Federal Practice What the L? Law & Tech Created by FindLaw's team of attorney writers and editors. The Declaration of Independence, issued on July 4, 1776, stated "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal..." Yet the new nation declaring its independence permitted the continuation of the practice of slavery for people of African heritage, a practice that continued until the Civil War in the 1860s. At the conclusion of the Civil War, much remained to be done to ensure the rights and privileges of citizenship to all Americans. As America became a more diverse nation, welcoming immigrants from around the globe, problems of racial discrimination endured for many minority group members. Women and persons with disabilities also fought for and obtained laws that provided for fairness and equality. Background and Introduction On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed the slaves held in the states still fighting in the Civil War. After the War, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1865, abolished slavery everywhere in the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, made the former slaves, and any other person born in the U.S. or naturalized, a citizen and required that all citizens be granted equal protection of the law. The Fifteenth Amendment, adopted in 1879, made it against the law to deny any citizen the right to vote because of his or her race or color or because he or she was formerly a slave. Despite the promises of these new laws, the former slaves and their descendants, along with other racial and ethnic minorities, did not receive equal treatment under the law. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state governments could separate people of different races as long as the separate facilities were equal. This "separate but equal" doctrine lasted until 1954. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a segregated public bus to a white man even though it was legally mandated. Ms. Parks was arrested for refusing to move. This was the catalyst for a boycott of the public buses led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The peaceful boycott continued for 381 days during which time 90 percent of the African Americans in Montgomery refused to ride the buses, culminating in the desegregation of the bus system, and resulting in further boycotts and protests for other civil rights issues and Rosa Parks is considered to be the "mother" of the civil rights movement. Public Accommodations and Facilities Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation because of race, color, religion, or national origin. Places of public accommodation are: hotels, motels, restaurants, movie theaters, stadiums, and concert halls. Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has the same anti-discrimination provision as Title II, but pertains to public facilties, owned, operated or managed by state or local governments, like courthouses or jails. Until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, persons from minority groups were excluded from, or segregated in, restaurants, motels, theaters, and other places of public accommodations and public facilities. In the 1960s people protested public accommodation discrimination. On February 1, 1960, African American students were denied counter service at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina because the policy was that only white customers could sit at the counter; African Americans had to stand. The next day they returned with more students and the peaceful protest called a "sit-in" was begun. Across the South, peaceful sit-ins by students took place in more than 100 cities in 1960. Although the protesters were beaten, and sometimes sent to jail, they continued to peacefully sit-in until they achieved their goals -- desegregation of places of public accommodation. Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in public schools (including elementary schools, secondary schools and public colleges and universities) because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in the public schools was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. However, implementation of the Court's decision went slowly, with massive resistance from the states. In 1957, a federal court ordered the desegregation of public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the nine black children who were enrolled in Central High School from attending. Mobs of angry people greeted the students on the first day of school, preventing them from attending the school, until President Eisenhower made the National Guard protect the children. In September 1958, Governor Faubus closed all the schools in Little Rock to prevent any more black children from attending white schools. The schools remained closed until August 1959, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered them re-opened. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of a person's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In 1962, Cesar Chavez set out to organize migrant farm workers in the California grape fields into a union. The farm workers were mostly Hispanic (although there were other ethnic groups represented like Filipinos) and had an average family income of about $2,000 per year. In 1965, the farm workers went on strike in a movement known as La Causa. In 1966, Mr. Chavez led a 250-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to bring attention to the farm workers' conditions. The nonviolent strike lasted three years. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits discrimination in voting practices or procedures because of race and color. In 1957 and 1960, Congress had enacted voting rights laws that took small steps toward increasing minority voting participation for all Americans. The 1965 Act, however, made huge strides towards making voting rights a reality. The Act prohibited literacy tests and poll taxes which had been used to prevent blacks from voting. In 1975, Congress recognized the need to protect citizens who did not read or speak English well enough to participate in the political process and expanded the protections of the Voting Rights Act to them. In 1963, civil rights activists began an effort to register black voters in Dallas County, Alabama. In January and February 1965, protests were held in Selma to bring attention to this violation of rights. The protests were met by violence by Sheriff James Clark and his deputies. On February 17, a small civil rights march ended in the shooting of Jimmy Lee Jackson who died from his wounds several days later. The civil rights activists decided to hold a memorial march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery on March. 7. In a day known as "Bloody Sunday", peaceful protestors were ambushed by law enforcement officials resulting in chaos and violence. Another march, held on the steps of the state capitol, ended in tragedy when Ku Klux Klan members shot and killed Viola Liuzzo, a white 39-year-old civil rights volunteer from Detroit, Michigan, who had come to support the Alabama African Americans. In August, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. The Fair Housing Act, contained in Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibits discrimination in the sale, financing or rental of housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. Shortly after the signing of the Voting Rights Act, in the summer of 1965, a riot erupted in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles over accusations of police brutality against a black motorist. During the next four summers, similar riots and unrest broke out in cities throughout the United States. The quest for civil rights had moved out of the South and spread to the rest of the country. In a report of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1959, Chicago was called "the most residentially segregated large city in the nation." Soon, the attention of all the civil rights activists in Chicago turned to the issue of fair housing. The civil rights movement began marchs into white-only areas of Chicago only to be met by mobs of whites. The attacks continued into the month of July. Finally, at the end of August, city leaders met with Dr. King and agreed to a program of fair housing. The Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. In 1988, Congress enacted amendments to the Fair Housing Act that gave the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) a large role in enforcing the law; the DOJ litigates fair housing cases in court, while HUD investigates and attempts to resolve complaints of housing discrimination. Rights of Institutionalized Persons The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 ensures that the rights of persons in institutions are protected against unconstitutional conditions. Those confined in government institutions include persons with disabilities, the elderly in government-run nursing homes, and prisoners. In March of 1972, a group of parents, volunteer organizations, and individual residents at the Willowbrook State School for the Mentally Retarded filed a federal lawsuit against the State of New York and the administrators of the school to correct conditions at the school. Conditions for the residents at Willowbrook were hazardous to the health, safety and sanity of the residents: The residences were dirty, people didn't have clean clothes to wear, the plumbing didn't work, and there were not enough doctors and nurses to take care of them. The Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of mental Hygiene in charge of Willowbrook described the institution as a "major tragedy." The Civil Rights Division intervened in the lawsuit as amicus curiae ("friend of the court") to help the parents and others prove that the rights of the residents were being violated. After three years of court actions, all the parties to the lawsuit agreed on a settlement to correct the conditions at Willowbrook. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination in employment, in places of public accommodation, including all hotels, restaurants, retail stores, theaters, health care facilities, convention centers, parks, and places of recreation, in transportation services, and in all activities of state and local governments because a person has a disability. Approximately 43 million Americans have one or more physical or mental disabilities, and this number is increasing as the population as a whole is growing older. Individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion and access to lesser services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or other opportunities. For example, a nine-year-old girl who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair wanted to participate in a Sears, Roebuck and Co. modeling program for children. According to the girl's mother, the Model's Club Program instructor said that the girl could not participate in the program because they used a ramp for the models that was one foot off the ground and that the girl would be out of place with the other children. The U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division investigated the complaint and entered into a settlement agreement with Sears to ensure that this girl, and any other child with a disability, would be able to attend the modeling program. The Constitution specifically refers to Indian tribes when it states that "Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." There are hundreds of American Indian tribes that have tribal governments that are recognized by the United States in a government to government relationship. There are also approximately 300 federal Indian reservations in the United States. On an Indian reservation the tribal government performs many of the same functions that State governments do. Indian reservations are usually lands that the tribes kept when they entered into treaties with the federal government. American Indians are a racial group who sometimes face discrimination the same as African Americans do. In fact, before the civil rights laws were enacted, in some states you could find three separate drinking fountains labeled "whites," "Colored" and "Indian." There were also three sections in some movie theaters. All of the civil rights laws that protect people from discrimination because of race or color or national origin also protect American Indians. The DOJ sued a school district in Utah for not having a high school in the remote community of Navajo Mountain. The Navajo and Paiute high school age students who live in this community all had to go more than 90 miles from home and live in dormitories or with relatives and attend boarding schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The school district had built high schools in the communities where non-Indians lived. The school district argued that because the Indians live on a reservation they didn't have a right to a public school built and operated by the district. The court ruled that even though they live on an Indian reservation, American Indians have a right to receive all of the same services that state and county governments offer to all other citizens of the state. The settlement of this lawsuit required the school district to build a new high school in this community. This lawsuit was the first time the Civil Rights Division had ever enforced the education statutes on behalf of American Indians; the lawsuit was originally filed by Indian students and their parents, but both the Navajo Nation and the United States joined in the lawsuit to support the students and their parents. Japanese American Interment On December 7, 1941, the country of Japan bombed the United States military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As a result, the United States entered World War II against Japan, Germany, and Italy. As a result of the war with Japan, many people in the U.S. did not trust people of Japanese ancestry although there was no proof that Japanese-Americans were disloyal to America. However, the federal government and its military leaders decided that no one of Japanese ancestry could live on the west coast of the United States, while people of Italian and German ancestry could remain. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which began this prohibition. Over 120,000 people, including children and the elderly, were required to leave their homes in California and parts of Washington, Oregon and Arizona. Some people moved to other states, but the majority went to internment camps. They were only allowed to take few belongings with them, and many families lost virtually everything they owned except what they could carry. Internees spent many years in camp, behind barbed wire fences and with armed guards patrolling the camps. In 1980, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians was established by Congress. This commission reviewed the impact of Executive Order 9066 on Japanese-Americans and determined that they were the victims of discrimination by the Federal government. On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The Act was passed by Congress to provide a Presidential apology and symbolic payment of $20,000.00 to the internees, evacuees, and persons of Japanese ancestry who lost liberty or property because of discriminatory action by the Federal government during World War II. The Act also created the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund to help teach children and the public about the internment period. Talk to a Civil Rights Attorney About Your Potential Claim Civil rights are fundamental to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If you suspect that your civil rights have been violated, then the first contact should be an experienced civil rights attorney. See FindLaw's lawyer directory for a civil rights attorney in your area. Contact a qualified civil rights attorney to help you protect your rights. Help Me Find a Do-It-Yourself Solution Complaint for Employment Discrimination Civil Rights Basics Civil Rights History	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2357
__label__cc	0.515923	0.484077	Isabel Kreidler Trucksville United Methodist Church 40 Knob Hill Rd. Trucksville, Pennsylvania, United States Obituary of Isabel Kreidler Isabel Kreidler, age 89 of Trucksville, passed away Thursday May 9, 2019 at the Meadows Nursing Center, Dallas. She was born in Austin PA on November 14, 1929 and was the daughter of the late William and Rena Edwards Painter. Isabel graduated from Coughlin High School in 1948 and from Wyoming Seminary Dean School of Business in 1949. Isabel started her real estate career with the E.C. Wideman realty agency. After she and Tom moved to Florida in 1993 she spent many years with the Patrick Stracuzzi real estate team of Remax Stuart. In 2014, with Tom’s health failing, Isabel moved back to Trucksville where she and Tom reconnected with their church family. They made new friends residing at Trucksville Manor. Isabel was active in United Methodist Women, having served as an officer in many capacities. She served on the Board of Trustees, the Finance Committee, Church Women United and as a youth counselor at Trucksville United Methodist Church. Isabel had a servant’s heart. She was a Cub Scout den mother, Girl Scout leader, camp counselor, Sunday school teacher, and gave freely of herself to her community and church. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years, Thomas, Isabel's only sibling William, and her son, Kevin. Isabel is survived by her son, Thomas III, daughters Kathy Barlow (Mike) Betsy (Sam Barker) and Carol Oliver (Mark), her daughter in law Wendy. She loved her 8 grandchildren and her 8 great grandchildren. When asked how she would like to be remembered Isabel wrote, "I loved my family, my god, and life itself." A memorial service will be held Saturday, May 18 at 11 a.m. at the Trucksville United Methodist Church, 40 Knob Hill, Shavertown, Pa, with Pastor Jay Jones officiating. Arrangements are by the Curtis L. Swanson Funeral Home, Inc., corner of routes 29 and 118, Pikes Creek. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Trucksville United Methodist Church TECEC-A/C Fund. The family would like to extend a special thanks to the staff of the Meadows Nursing Center for their kind and compassionate care given to their mother.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2360
__label__wiki	0.550579	0.550579	Comments by the UK Government on the Report of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel On Digital Cooperation The UK welcomes the report of the High Level Panel and its aim to “leave no one behind” in the digital age. We strongly support the emphasis on sustainable development, recognising that digital technology has huge potential to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We support further work to explore the idea of sharing “digital public goods” – in fact, the UK is supporting the Digital Impact Alliance, which is already working in this area. We agree there is a pressing need to ensure affordable access for all to digital networks and to support digital equality for women and traditionally marginalised groups. Geneder digital equality in particular is essential if we are to harness fully the potential of digital technology for sustainable development. Digital literacy is also critically important to empower individuals and communities. We welcome the strong emphasis throughout the report on multi-stakeholder cooperation. This is essential if we are to address the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. We need to develop effective ways of working in which all stakeholders have a role. We welcome the UN Secretary General’s Technology Strategy, published last year, which charts a positive way forward for UN in this regard, recognising that the UN needs to change how it works to become a more trusted platform for stakeholders to discuss digital issues. We are cautious about some of the detailed recommendations, some of which need further consideration: We agree that greater capacity building is required, but this needs to be pro-active and targeted, reaching out to specific under-served stakeholders. We are not convinced that there is evidence that “help desks” would be effective. We agree that human rights apply fully in the digital world, but the Human Rights Council is best placed to review this, taking into account the experience of stakeholders, rather than starting an agencies-wide review. We welcome the steps the HRC is already taking to start this work. We are not convinced by the idea of a “Global Commitment on Digital Trust and Security” or a “Global Commitment for Digital Cooperation”. There are already many initiatives like this and there is a risk it would cause duplication, confusion and de-value existing texts such as the World Summit on the Information Society. Finally, we strongly support efforts to strengthen the IGF and ensure that it is able to carry out its mandate fully. IGF should remain “bottom up” and non-decision-making, but it needs a much clearer focus, more inclusive participation and clearer outcomes. We would like to see a stronger funding base for the IGF and support for the IGF from across the UN system. We welcome the proposal to move responsibility for the IGF to the office of the Secretary General. We do not support new processes within the UN system, which would lead to duplication and additional costs. We should look to improve how existing UN Agencies are managing the impacts of digital technology. There is a great opportunity here to align a strengthened IGF with more multi-stakeholder cooperation in the UN system. Comments on the report’s recommendations Rec 1 A – We recommend that by 2030, every adult should have affordable access to digital networks, as well as digitally-enabled financial and health services, as a means to make a substantial contribution to achieving the SDGs. Provision of these services should guard against abuse by building on emerging principles and best practices, one example of which is providing the ability to opt in and opt out, and by encouraging informed public discourse. The UK strongly supports this recommendation. Digital technology has a huge role to play in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals. There has been enormous progress in getting half the world’s population online but all stakeholders need to step up their efforts to ensure that no-one is left behind. We need to push not only for the next billion connected to the web, but the billion after that, and the billion after that. Only through strong public-private partnerships can we reach the most marginalised. Capacity building programmes and an enabling environment for investment will also be essential. Digital literacy is critically important in order to ensure that technology empowers individuals and communities in all parts of the globe. Rec 1 B – We recommend that a broad, multi-stakeholder alliance, involving the UN, create a platform for sharing digital public goods, engaging talent and pooling data sets, in a manner that respects privacy, in areas related to attaining the SDGs. The UK supports further work on this proposal. We need to be careful not to impose a top-down “one-size-fits-all” solution, but there is great potential for development agencies and other stakeholders to take this forward, working in partnership with stakeholders in developing countries to find solutions which are responsive to local and regional needs. The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) is already doing work in this area, with support from the UK. DIAL is a partnership of USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Swedish government and the United Nations Foundation. It is working to speed up the deployment of proven software and technology platforms, supporting responsible data sharing and technology for development and open source software platforms. We would support work to see how we can build on this model, which has the potential to reduce cost and speed up the impact of digital development initiatives, including digital public goods. Rec 1C – We call on the private sector, civil society, national governments, multilateral banks and the UN to adopt specific policies to support full digital inclusion and digital equality for women and traditionally marginalised groups. International organisations such as the World Bank and the UN should strengthen research and promote action on barriers women and marginalised groups face to digital inclusion and digital equality. The UK strongly supports this proposal. Digital equality for women is essential if we are to ensure that all parts of the community can benefit from technology and harness it for sustainable development. Digital technology is a powerful tool to empower women and so provide new opportunities for economic and social development for the whole community. Addressing this issue should be a critical priority and all stakeholders need to work across a range of social, economic, cultural and educational areas. We also need to be mindful of potential negative consequences that digital access can have on marginalised groups and women if access is not accompanied by improving literacy and capability. Rec 1 D – We believe that a set of metrics for digital inclusiveness should be urgently agreed, measured worldwide and detailed with sex disaggregated data in the annual reports of institutions such as the UN, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, other multilateral development banks and the OECD. From this, strategies and plans of action could be developed. The UK supports this recommendation. There are already many sets of metrics collected and we need to be careful not duplicate existing work. We look to international institutions to work together and collaborate to ensure that the statistics they collect are fit for purpose, broadly recognised and used to inform evidence-based policy. Rec 2 – We recommend the establishment of regional and global digital help desks to help governments, civil society and the private sector to understand digital issues and develop capacity to steer cooperation related to social and economic impacts of digital technologies. The UK agrees that greater capacity building is required, but this needs to be pro-active and targeted, reaching out to specific under-served stakeholders. We are not convinced that there is strong evidence that establishing a general “digital help desk” would be effective or play a useful role. Many UN Agencies and other stakeholders already run programmes of support for under-represented stakeholders to engage. This capacity building work is often rooted in strong subject-specific expertise, it is well-recognised and it is effectively networked. Care needs to be taken not to duplicate existing support and to ensure that the potential users are aware of it. It would be more effective to improve and join up existing capacity rather than using up resources on another new initiative without evidence that it would actually be a practical help. Rec 3 A – Given that human rights apply fully in the digital world, we urge the UN Secretary-General to institute an agencies-wide review of how existing international human rights accords and standards apply to new and emerging digital technologies. Civil society, governments, the private sector and the public should be invited to submit their views on how to apply existing human rights instruments in the digital age in a proactive and transparent process. The UK strongly agrees that human rights and fundamental freedoms apply fully in the digital world. We believe that interpreting how existing international human rights accords and standards apply online and to new and emerging digital technologies is an issue for the UN’s human rights bodies to consider, particularly the Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council has already agreed clear and timely resolutions on human rights in areas of digital policy and we welcome the further work it is now doing. We believe that the Human Rights Council, and the other mechanisms of the UN’s human rights system, should continue to strengthen their focus on new and emerging digital technologies across their work. We agree that listening to the experience of stakeholders is an important element in that work. It is important to maintain a consistent and joined-up approach to the application of human rights and we would not support a role for other UN agencies in interpreting how human rights apply in particular areas of policy. Rec 3 B – In the face of growing threats to human rights and safety, including those of children, we call on social media enterprises to work with governments, international and local civil society organisations and human rights experts around the world to fully understand and respond to concerns about existing or potential human rights violations. The UK strongly supports efforts to work with social media organisations and others to protect users from the harms that exist online and to empower users to protect themselves. The UK has recently published a White Paper on Online Harms which outlines a package of online safety measures, particularly for children and vulnerable groups, and which also supports innovation, a thriving digital economy and respects human rights. Rec 3 C – We believe that autonomous intelligent systems should be designed in ways that enable their decisions to be explained and humans to be accountable for their use. Audits and certification schemes should monitor compliance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems with engineering and ethical standards, which should be developed using multi-stakeholder and multilateral approaches. Life and death decisions should not be delegated to machines. We call for enhanced digital cooperation with multiple stakeholders to think through the design and application of these standards and principles such as transparency and non-bias in autonomous intelligent systems in different social settings. The UK supports the recommendation that systems be designed in ways that enable their decisions to be explained, but this should not prejudge any technological development pathways. Our Office of Artificial Intelligence has published guidance on AI ethics and safety, which aims to build a culture of responsible innovation, and we have contributed to regional and global work to promote best practice. We consider that AI liability, and machine decision-making in situations that may impact on human life, deserves further consideration and should reflect local norms. We will continue to support this work. Rec 4 – We recommend the development of a Global Commitment on Digital Trust and Security to shape a shared vision, identify attributes of digital stability, elucidate and strengthen the implementation of norms for responsible uses of technology, and propose priorities for action. The UK is not convinced that there is currently a useful purpose for a Global Commitment on Digital Trust and Security. There already exists a wealth of existing global, regional and national initiatives in this area. Rather than create another new one, we need greater collaboration to map ongoing work, strengthen cooperation and minimise duplication. We also note that the UN Group of Government Experts and a new Open Ended Working Group are about to begin and we should not prejudge their work. The UK believes that the vast majority of cyber attacks can be prevented with good, basic cyber security measures. Bringing diverse communities together to build capacity is key to addressing the global challenge of enhancing trust in digital technologies. Whilst the UN has a role to play we are pleased the see the focus on industry and wider society highlighted in the report. We look to industry to help drive the change required to ensure the development of technologies that are ‘Secure by Design’. Rec 5 A – We recommend that, as a matter of urgency, the UN Secretary- General facilitate an agile and open consultation process to develop updated mechanisms for global digital cooperation, with the options discussed in Chapter 4 as a starting point. We suggest an initial goal of marking the UN’s 75th anniversary in 2020 with a “Global Commitment for Digital Cooperation” to enshrine shared values, principles, understandings and objectives for an improved global digital cooperation architecture. As part of this process, we understand that the UN Secretary-General may appoint a Technology Envoy. The UK notes the proposal for a “Global Commitment for Digital Cooperation”. There are existing commitments of this kind and we should be cautious not to duplicate or de-value them. At the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), for example, for example, world leaders called for a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society and WSIS continues to serve as a powerful and well-recognised multi-stakeholder agenda for digital cooperation. We believe that the proposal for a “distributed co-governance architecture” deserves further consideration. The great strength of this proposal is the emphasis on multi-stakeholder cooperation, which will be essential if we are to make effective progress in addressing these issues. There is a risk of too much complexity, however, which could make this proposal difficult to navigate, particularly for developing countries. We strongly support efforts to strengthen the IGF. The IGF has a very full mandate, set out in the Tunis Agenda. We would like to see stronger support for the IGF from across the UN system in order to ensure it is able to fulfil that mandate. We were very pleased the UN SG attended the IGF in Paris. Moving responsibility for the IGF to his office would give the IGF much greater political weight. The IGF should remain “bottom up”, but it should have a clearer focus and the debates should be curated and shaped in a way that leads to clearer outcomes, a clear understanding of the different views and what further action needs to be taken. We strongly welcome the Secretary General’s call for wider participation in the IGF. It will also be critically important to expand the financial support available to the IGF if it is to become the strengthened global forum that we want to see. We do not support the proposal for a “digital commons architecture” or for the creation of new processes within the UN system. This proposal would lead to duplication and additional costs and it would be yet another forum in a policy area that is already very crowded. It would also cut across the mandates of many existing UN agencies. We do not believe that the analogy with the law of the sea is correct. Digital technology clearly gives rise to public policy issues that need to be properly addressed and there is a significant role for governments and, where necessary, for proportionate regulation. But the development, ownership and day-to-day management of digital technology is led by the private sector and the technical community and a multi-stakeholder approach is essential. We strongly support the appointment of a Tech Envoy. This appointment could play a supportive role in strengthening the IGF and building stronger and more effective links between the UN and private sector and civil society stakeholders Rec 5 B – We support a multi-stakeholder “systems” approach for cooperation and regulation that is adaptive, agile, inclusive and fit for purpose for the fast-changing digital age. The UK welcomes the strong emphasis on multi-stakeholder cooperation throughout the report. Multi-stakeholder working is essential if we are to address the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. The historic approach of negotiating inter-governmental resolutions and treaties is not adaptive, agile or inclusive and it is not fit for purpose. We need to develop effective new ways of working in which all stakeholders have a role. We strongly welcome the UN Secretary General’s Technology Strategy, published last year, which charts a positive way forward for UN engagement in digital issues. The Strategy recognised that the UN needs to change how it works in order to become a more trusted platform for stakeholders to discuss digital issues. There is a great opportunity here to align a strengthened IGF with more multi-stakeholder cooperation in the UN system. Source: https://comment.eurodig.org/digital-cooperation-report/comments-by-email/comments-by-the-uk-government/	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2362
__label__wiki	0.872015	0.872015	Home » CMRS Events » CMRS Lecture Series » Lecture Series Archive » 2017-2018 CMRS Lecture Series Jesus Rodriguez-Velasco (Columbia University): Location: 18th Avenue Library, Room 090 Abstract: This talk will explore the specific ways in which the legal discipline appropriated the science of the soul in the Mediterranean, with especial attention to al-Andalus and the university of Paris in the 12th and 13th centuries. Whereas I am interested in the Middle Ages, I think that this process of appropriation is still ongoing, and I will give some attention to contemporary legal artifacts that deal with the connection of the legal discipline and the science of the soul, including the Spanish Law of Historical Memory, and the project of Forensic Architecture. Bio: Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco teaches Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Columbia. He has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Universidad de Salamanca, Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), and the École Normale Supérieure (Lettres et Sciences Humaines). Among his publications are books and articles on Medieval and Early Modern knighthood, history of the book and reading, medieval political theory, law and culture, Occitan poetry, etc. He is one of the executive directors of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies and a member of the MLA Committee on Scholarly Editions. He was the recipient of the 2010 John K. Walsh award for his article "La urgente presencia de las Siete Partidas". Robin Fleming (Boston College): "Remembering (and Forgetting) the Dead Infants in Late-Roman and Early Medieval Britain" Date: 10/6/17 Abstract: One of the striking things about the archaeology of Britain is the omnipresence of the bodies of still-born or newborn infants in the burial record of the late-Roman period, and their archaeological invisibility after the Roman state's withdrawal c. 400. The treatment of little corpses, so I will be arguing, can help us identify some of the profound transformations in the lived experience and thought worlds of people in Britain first under and then after Rome that are completely unwitnessed by texts. The changing treatment of the infant dead hints at broad cultural and cosmological shifts as Britain moved from Roman to early medieval. Bio: Robin Fleming has written three books and several dozen articles on the political history of viking, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman England; late-Roman and early medieval material culture and osteoarchaeolgy; historical writing in the early Middle Ages; English law before the Common Law; Domesday Book; and nineteenth-century medievalism. She is currently investigating Britain in the century before and after Rome's fall, in order to determine how Roman ways of life, identity, burial, and status-marking changed once the Roman economy collapsed and connections to the wider Roman World began to unravel. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Harvard Society of Fellows; the Bunting Institute; the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University; and the Guggenheim Foundation. She was a 2013 McArthur Fellow. Alexandra Walsham (University of Cambridge): "Recycling the Sacred: Material Cultural and Cultural Memory in Post-Reformation England" Location: Thompson Library, Room 202 Abstract: This talk will focus on ecclesiastical recycling - on how medieval Catholic objects negotiated the passage to the Reformation by being remodelled and repurposed for alternative, often profane use - and explores the significance of this process in the realm of memory. Bio: Alexandra Walsham is Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests fall within the field of the religious and cultural history of early modern Britain and focus on the immediate impact and long-term repercussions of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations set within their European context. She has published extensively on a range of themes, including post-Reformation Roman Catholicism; religious tolerance and intolerance between 1500 and 1700; providence, miracles and the supernatural in post-Reformation society and culture; the history of the book, the advent of printing, and the interconnections between oral, visual and written culture; religion and the landscape; the memory of the Reformation; age, ancestry and the relationship between religious and generational change. She is co-editor, with Matthew Hilton, of the journal Past and Present, and has served as General Editor of the Past and Present Book Series and Past and Present Supplements (OUP). She is one the Series Editors of Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History (CUP) and also serves on the editorial boards of a number of other journals, including Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and British Catholic History. She is currently Chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Historical Research. Scott Bruce (University of Colorado, Boulder): "The Dark Age of Herodotus: Shards of a Fugitive History in Medieval Europe" Bio: Scott Bruce is an historian of religion and culture in the early and central Middle Ages (ca. 400-1200 CE). He is a specialist on the history of the abbey of Cluny. His first book, Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism: The Cluniac Tradition (c. 900-1200) was published in 2007 by Cambridge University Press (UK). This book explores the rationales for religious silence in early medieval abbeys and the use of nonverbal forms of communication among monks when rules of silence forbade them from speaking. His second monograph, Cluny and the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet: Hagiography and the Problem of Islam in Medieval Europe, was published by Cornell University Press in 2015. This book is a study of the representation of the Muslims of La Garde-Freinet in Cluniac hagiography in the eleventh century and the influence of these depictions on polemical works written against Islam by Abbot Peter the Venerable of Cluny in the twelfth century. Professor Bruce has recently translated a collection of medieval Latin ghost stories for Penguin Classics: The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters from the Romans to the Renaissance. His new book, The Relatio metrica de duobus ducibus: A Twelfth-Century Cluniac Poem on Prayer for the Dead (co-authored with Christopher A. Jones) will be published by Brepols this winter. POSTPONED: Misty Schieberle (University of Kansas): "Rethinking Gender and Language in Stephen Scrope's Epistle of Othea" Abstract: For decades the scholarly consensus about Stephen Scrope’s translation of Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea has asserted that it is a precise translation of her work but that he must have held some antifeminist positions because he denies Christine recognition as author, and he inexplicably genders as masculine multiple women from classical mythology. Yet a thorough examination of all three manuscripts and the closest extant manuscript to Scrope’s source challenges these views. Even though these copies are affected by scribal variants, as a whole, these manuscripts provide a fuller picture of Scrope’s process as translator and his difficulties grappling with the complexity not only of Christine’s often-unexpected perspectives but also of her language itself and even some of the classical myths that structure her work. When Scrope’s process is reconstructed, the evidence reveals him to be, at worst, passively antifeminist and, at best, an imprecise and uninformed translator. At its core, this analysis provides a methodology for examining manuscript traditions and reevaluating what previous scholars have meant when they term Scrope’s Epistle a “good” translation. Bio: Misty Schieberle specializes in 14th- and 15th-century English literature, especially Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate; gender and political literature; Christine de Pizan and medieval French literature in England; and manuscript studies. Her current research explores gender, fortune and fate, and manuscript studies in works by Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and Christine de Pizan that were popular in late medieval England. Her first monograph – Feminized Counsel and the Literature of Advice in England, 1350-1500 – explores Middle English political literature that represents women as wise, beneficial counselors to kings. She is currently working on a critical edition of medieval English translations of Christine de Pizan's Epistre Othea for the Middle English Texts Series and related studies of the diverse manuscript history of the Othea in French and English. Richard Firth Green (The Ohio State University): "Fairies and Witches: An Unexplored Connection" Location: 220 Sullivant Hall Bio: Richard Firth Green is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University. He is the author of numerous books, including Elf Queens and Holy Friars (2016), A Crisis of Truth: Literature and Law in Ricardian England (1998), Poets and Princepleasers: Literature and the English Court in the Late Middle Ages (1980) and of numerous articles in such journals as Speculum, Medium Aevum, Chaucer Review, and Studies in the Age of Chaucer. Shannon McSheffrey (Concordia University): "Evil May Day, 1517: Riots Against Immigrants in Tudor London" Abstract: On the eve of May Day, 1517, rioting Londoners rose up in the night and attacked the homes and persons of strangers. From about nine o'clock the night of 30 April, the rioters ran through the streets of the City, targeting areas in which stranger artisans and merchants were known to live and work. By three in the morning, the riot had run its course and the City officials had re-established a precarious order. Although a later ballad portrayed Evil or Ill May Day, as the riot came to be known, as a "bloody Slaughter" of strangers, with the drainage channels in the streets running with blood, all the evidence suggests that no strangers lost their lives in the attacks, damage being limited to assaults and the sacking of houses and shops. A close examination of this episode in its own early sixteenth-century context offers us an entrée into the complicated situation of the rioters' primary targets, the immigrant artisans, mostly Dutch, who lived in certain enclaves in the City, most numerously in the precinct of St. Martin le Grand. If the attacks they suffered on Evil May Day were hardly typical of their daily lives, the sparks for the riots and the responses from City and crown were part of the larger complex of their existence at the margins of London civic life. Bio: Professor McSheffrey's research interests centre around law, mitigation, gender roles, civic culture, marriage, literacy, heresy, and popular religion in late medieval England. She has published a number of scholarly articles and four books, Gender and Heresy: Women and Men in Lollard Communities, 1420-1530 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995); Love and Marriage in Late Medieval London (Medieval Institute Publications, 1995); Lollards of Coventry 1486-1522 (co-authored with Norman Tanner), Camden Fifth Series, vol. 23 (Cambridge University Press, 2003); Marriage, Sex, and Civic Culture in Late Medieval London (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006). A fifth book, Seeking Sanctuary: Law, Mitigation, and Politics in English Courts, 1400-1550, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in summer 2017. She has won several awards for her research and teaching and was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society of the U.K. in 2002. David Areford (University of Massachusetts Boston): "Christ Child Creator" Abstract: Most late medieval images of the child Jesus present him with clues that make explicit the unusual nature of his being and his sacrificial mission. The interpretive framework most often applied to such depictions is the so-called Proleptic Passion, that is, the anachronistic manifestation of Christ’s death in scenes of his infancy – a conflation of the beginning and end of his human life. This paper examines several fifteenth-century prints of the Christ Child that include references to the Passion, ranging from subtle to overt: a seemingly innocent pose of sleep, the presence of the Arma Christi (usually the cross, the lance, or the crown of thorns), or even the wounds of the crucifixion. Especially fascinating is a little-known German woodcut of the Christ Child holding the sudarium, the cloth miraculously imprinted with the face of his adult self on the way to Calvary. Interpreted counter to the dominate model of the Proleptic Passion, this modest print proves to be a nuanced commentary on time and knowledge – both earthly and divine. Instead of simply collapsing time in a forward direction (present to future), the image also moves backward (present to past), as well as in both directions simultaneously. In the logic of the pictorial situation, the Christ Child unfurls his own image and thus reenacts the dynamics of the Incarnation, revealing his power (and identity) not only as Savior but also as Creator, as God the Father. Bio: David S. Areford is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the author of The Art of Empathy: The Mother of Sorrows in Northern Renaissance Art and Devotion (2013) and The Viewer and the Printed Image in Late Medieval Europe (2010). He is coauthor of Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public (2005); and coeditor of Excavating the Medieval Image: Manuscripts, Artists, Audiences (2004). He has published articles in Studies in Iconography and chapters in From Minor to Major: The Minor Arts in Medieval Art History (2012), The Woodcut in Fifteenth-Century Europe (2009), and The Broken Body: Passion Devotion in Late-Medieval Culture (1998). His current book project is Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2365
__label__wiki	0.912732	0.912732	Posts tagged: Warren Anatomical Museum Staff Finds: Richard Warren in the Warren Museum By Bryan Sutherland, March 22, 2018 Richard Warren While processing the records from the Office of the Dean from the tenure of George Packer Berry, Center staff came across images, below, of Richard Warren in the Warren Anatomical Museum. The images were taken as a part of the Program for Harvard Medicine, a fundraising initiative undertaken in the early 1960s. Given this time period, the images show the Warren Museum both as it was nearing the end of its primarily exhibition function at Harvard Medical School, and before repeated reductions in space allotment narrowed the museum from its original space in the top three floors of Building A (now Gordon Hall). Richard Warren (1907-1999), M.D., 1934, Harvard Medical School, was a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, specializing in cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders. He was a nephew of John Warren (1874-1928), a professor in the Anatomy Department at Harvard Medical School. Other ancestors include John Warren (1753-1815), Revolutionary War surgeon and a founder of Harvard Medical School, and John Collins Warren (1778-1856), Hersey Professor of Anatomy and Surgery and Dean of Harvard Medical School, whose personal collection of anatomical specimens, along with an endowment of $5,000 in railroad stock, helped establish the Warren Anatomical Museum. Richard Warren donated books, manuscripts, and artifacts from his family to the Boston Medical Library and Harvard Medical School. After retiring from medicine, Warren pursued the study of conifers at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum, which houses records related to his work. The finding aid for the Office of the Dean of Harvard Medical School can be found here. The finding aid for the Warren Anatomical Museum records can be found here. The Center for the History of Medicine also holds the Richard Warren papers. For information regarding access to these collections, please contact the Public Services staff. Richard Warren, Warren Museum Richard Warren with Phineas Gage skull and tamping iron Collections, Warren Anatomical Museum \| John Collins Warren, John Warren, Phineas Gage, Program for Harvard Medicine, Richard Warren, Warren Anatomical Museum Staff Finds: Hertig, the Pathology Lab, and the Warren Museum By Bryan Sutherland, January 2, 2018 While processing the Arthur Tremain Hertig papers, Center staff discovered images of Hertig instructing Harvard Medical School students in the Pathology laboratory. Included are two images (first two below) that show Hertig using Warren Anatomical Museum specimens as part of the instruction, as the Pathology Department utilized the collection for teaching purposes. The Warren Anatomical Museum was established at Harvard Medical School in 1847 through a gift from John Collins Warren (1778-1856), and from the time of its founding until the late 1960s, the museum served a significant role as a resource for the teaching of medicine. Arthur Hertig (1904-1990) was a pathologist, human embryo researcher, and professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School. He joined the Department of Pathology in 1931, was promoted to Professor of Pathology in 1948, and in 1952 was named Shattuck Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Chairman of the Department of Pathology. As chairman, teaching was a priority for Hertig: His own lectures were clear and laced with a sense of humor … His regard for his students was manifested by his practice of having every one of them attend a tea in small groups in his office, although this consumed a great deal of time. The students awarded him two prizes for excellence in teaching and made him an honorary member of one of the graduating classes. The finding aid for the Hertig papers can be found here. Collections, Warren Anatomical Museum \| Arthur Hertig, Department of Pathology, Pathology Lab, Shattuck Professor of Pathological Anatomy, teaching, Warren Anatomical Museum Center hosts Massachusetts high school students for Phineas Gage symposium By Dominic Hall, December 6, 2016 Colloquium on Phineas Gage flyer, Courtesy of Nancy Donlon The Center for the History of Medicine hosted forty students and seven teachers from six area high schools on November 28th for a half-day “Colloquium on Phineas Gage: A Scientific Inquiry.” The AP Psychology and AP Biology students came from schools across eastern Massachusetts and included Medford High School, Burlington High School, John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, Arlington High School, Braintree High School, and Dedham High School. The program was developed and organized by Medford High School AP Psychology teacher Nancy Donlon and was generously supported by the Medford Educational Foundation. Director Scott Podolsky, MD and Warren Museum curator Dominic Hall participated from the Center. The students were exposed to a panel of Harvard Medical School and independent scholars who presented diverse material on the historical character of Gage and on modern medicine’s Phineas Gage colloquium t-shirt. Courtesy of Kaitlin Donlon. understanding of the human brain. Harvard Medical School associate professor and Massachusetts General Hospital neurosurgeon Frederick Barker, MD placed the Gage narrative within the 19th-century debates surrounding neuroscience and the rejection and adoption of cerebral localization. Independent scholar Matthew L. Lena discussed the problematic fictions that have been tied to Phineas Gage’s patient history and how one integral case study can inform, support or hinder modern medical practice. The panel concluded with associate director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School assistant professor Steven Schlozman, MD‘s presentation on the modern understanding of how adolescent and teenage minds hold information and processes emotion through the construction of narratives. The colloquium ended with the students breaking into groups and exploring the content presented from the three panelists and their renewed sense of the Gage narrative. Center News, Exhibits and Events, Warren Anatomical Museum \| Frederick Barker, Matthew L. Lena, Phineas Gage, Steven Schlozman, Warren Anatomical Museum Phineas Gage 3D Print! Phineas Gage 3D Print, Courtesy of Graham Holt, Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Boston Children’s Hospital One of the most interesting developments in the renewed teaching capacity and impact of Phineas Gage is the recent establishment of a printable 3D model of well-known patient’s skull. The print file was created by Graham Holt at the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children’s Hospital, and is based on the 2004 thin-slice computed tomography scans of Peter Raitu and Ion-Florin Talos. The file grants a tangible portability to the Gage skull given that the original usually stays safety ensconced in the Warren Museum Exhibit Gallery. Holt’s 3D print had been downloaded 725 times as of October 3rd. The project was featured on the May 5th 3D Printing Today Podcast (segment at 1:02:30). The Warren Anatomical Museum has been using its own version of the Holt print in on-site, hands-on educational programs. The print file for the Gage skull can be found in the following two places: The NIH 3D Print Exchange The capacity to print a version of Gage’s skull is an exciting addition to the Gage educational experience. More about the original CT scan is discussed in Ratiu, P., Talos, I. F., Haker, S., Lieberman, D., & Everett, P. (2004). “The tale of Phineas Gage, digitally remastered.” Journal of neurotrauma, 21(5), 637-643. More about the Phineas Gage case in general can be found on Malcolm Macmillan’s Phineas Gage Information Page. Warren Anatomical Museum \| 3D Printing, Phineas Gage, Phineas Gage 3D Print, Warren Anatomical Museum Phineas Gage Event on June 23rd By Dominic Hall, June 10, 2016 Skull of Phineas Gage, Warren Anatomical Museum in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine On the evening of June 23rd the Center for the History of Medicine will host a set of lectures on the ever-evolving case of Phineas Gage, highlighting new investigations and revisiting important past scholarship. The event is free and open to the public. “Phineas Among the Phrenologists: The American Crowbar Case and Nineteenth-Century Theories of Cerebral Localization” By Frederick Barker, MD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Neurosurgeon, Massachusetts General Hospital “The Odd Fame of Phineas Gage: How Phineas Got His Groove Back, and Why Getting Gage Right Matters” By Matthew L. Lena, Independent scholar The evening will also include remarks by Center for the History of Medicine Director Scott Podolsky and Warren Anatomical Museum Curator Dominic Hall. The program will last an hour and fifteen minutes and will conclude with a panel of questions and answers. Refreshments will be served. Reception begins at 5:30pm. Registration is required. To register, use our online registration form or email us at ContactChom@hms.harvard.edu. Center News, Exhibits and Events, Warren Anatomical Museum \| Dominic Hall, Frederick Barker, Matthew L. Lena, Phineas Gage, Scott Podolsky, Warren Anatomical Museum Phineas Gage Event on June 23rd! By Dominic Hall, June 8, 2016 On the evening of June 23rd the Center for the History of Medicine will host a set of lectures on the ever-evolving case of Phineas Gage, highlighting new investigations and revisiting important past scholarship. The event is free and open to the public. The program will last an hour and fifteen minutes and will conclude with a panel of questions and answers. Refreshments will be served. Skull and life mask of Phineas Gage, Warren Anatomical Museum, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, WAM 00949 & 00950 When: Thursday, June 23, 2016. Reception begins at 5:30pm. Where: Minot Room, 5th floor, Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, 10 Shattuck Street, Boston MA 02115 What: Lecture series on Phineas Gage. Free and open to the public. Exhibits and Events \| Phineas Gage, Phineas Gage Life Cast, Phineas Gage skull, Warren Anatomical Museum Center for the History of Medicine collections in Autumn 2015 Harvard Medicine Magazine Cast of John Thelwall, Warren Anatomical Museum, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Artifacts, artwork and ephemera from the Center for the History of Medicine’s Boston Medical Library and Warren Anatomical Museum collections highlight the “Backstory” section of the Autumn 2015 Harvard Medicine, entitled Voices. Complementing the magazine’s central theme, each historic piece focuses on aspects of human speech and the history of vocal health. Ephraim Cutter Laryngoscope, Boston Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Featured from the Warren Anatomical Museum is a phrenological cast of the head of John Thelwall (1764-1834). Thelwall was an English professor of the science of elocution and a prominent member of the London Corresponding Society, which advocated for voting rights and government reform. In 1814, Thelwall published Results of experience in the treatment of cases of defective utterance, from deficiencies in the roof of the mouth, and other imperfections and mal-conformations of the organs of speech : with observations on cases of amentia, and tardy and imperfect developments of the faculties. The cast is part of the Warren Museum’s Boston Phrenological Society collection. In the Society’s A Catalogue of Phrenological Specimens Belonging to the Boston Phrenological Society (1835), the Thelwall cast was categorized under the faculty of “Language.” Johann Nepomuk Czermak Laryngoscope, Boston Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine The “Backstory” spotlights four historic items from the Boston Medical Library collection. Ephraim Cutter, Harvard Medical School Class of 1856, designed his own laryngoscope, based on the demonstrations of laryngoscopy pioneers Manuel Garcia and Johann Nepomuk Czermak. The device was manufactured by Cambridge, Massachusetts telescope lens maker Alvan Clark & Sons in 1859. The Library collection also includes a laryngoscope mirror designed by Czermak, who took the first endoscopic photograph. The article displays a drawing of the vocal tract by Medical School instructor in laryngology Franklin Henry Hooper, Class of 1877. Franklin Henry Hooper vocal tract drawing, Boston Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Also from the Boston Medical Library collection, the piece features the business card of Sarah Fuller, a noted 19th-century speech therapist. Fuller trained at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts and was the long-term principal of the Boston School of Deaf-Mutes. In 1890 Fuller gave Helen Keller her first speech lessons, using techniques she learned from Alexander Graham Bell. All four items were photographed for the Magazine, and the Hooper drawing is digitally displayed in the online version of the “Backstory.” Artifact Photographs by John Soares. Sarah Fuller business card, Boston Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Warren Anatomical Museum \| Alvan Clark & Sons, Boston Medical Library, Boston Phrenological Society, Ephraim Cutter, Harvard Medical Library, Harvard Medicine magazine, Johann Nepomuk Czermak, John Thelwall, Sarah Fuller, Warren Anatomical Museum WAM Curator Presents at University of Texas Medical Branch By Dominic Hall, October 9, 2015 Ashbel Smith Building (“Old Red”), University of Texas Medical Branch, October 5, 2015 Dominic Hall, the Curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum, spoke in the historical lecture hall of the Ashbel Smith Building, affectionately known as “Old Red,” at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) on October 5, 2015. Hall was invited by Paula Summerly, Research Project Manager for the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine, and the members of the “Old Red” Medical Museum Task Force and Heritage Committee to discuss the history of the Warren Anatomical Museum and the Museum’s evolution over its approximately 160-year history. University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), like Harvard Medical School, has a surviving historical anatomical and pathological collection. In his 1910 Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Institution for the Advancement of Teaching, Abraham Flexner said of the UTMB collections, “There is a large pathological museum, beautifully kept, every specimen classified, labeled, each indexed; and a notable anatomical museum in which special preparations are most advantageously arranged for teaching use.” Of the approximate 45 museums or specimen collections mentioned by Flexner, he was conservative in such praise. In addition to the UTMB medical museums, Flexner thought very favorably of the collections at McGill, the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, the University of Toronto, the Army Medical School, the Iowa Medical College, and the University of Pennsylvania. UTMB’s “Old Red” Medical Museum Task Force and Heritage Committee has been working since 2009 to revitalize the UTMB pathological and anatomical museums. The Warren Anatomical Museum underwent a similar transformation in 1999 when it was transferred into the Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. At the time of Hall’s visit, UTMB was launching its 125th anniversary celebration. The school is the oldest medical college in Texas. Staff News, Warren Anatomical Museum \| Abraham Flexner, Anatomical Museums, Dominic Hall, Medical Museums, Pathological Museums, University of Texas Medical Branch, Warren Anatomical Museum	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2366
__label__wiki	0.80819	0.80819	Alkins Family Crest, Coat of Arms and Name History Ar. three bars az. in chief three torteaux. Origin, Meaning, Family History and Alkins Coat of Arms and Family Crest Alkins Origin: England, Ireland Origins of Alkins: This interesting name, noted as Alkin, Alkins and Allkins, is of early English origin, and is the patronymic form of the surname Alkin, the "s" being a shortened form of "son of". Alkin is one of the diminutive surnames produced from the old given name "Al", itself a short form of a particular male name, usually Alan or Alexander. The earlier is a Celtic given name of great antiquity, considered to acquire principally from the Gaelic "ailin", a diminutive form of "ail", rock, while Alexander is of old Greek origin, from "Alexandros", usually derived to mean "defender of men", from the Greek "alexein", to defend, with "aner, andros", man. One Alkin the Jonge (younger) noted in the Assize Court Rolls of Cheshire in 1296. Examples of the surname from English Parish Records contain as the wedding of Thomas Alkyns and Mary Newman at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London, in July 1617 and the christening of Judith, daughter of William and Lora Alkins, at St. Petrox, Dartmouth, in Devonshire, in August 1641. The Royal symbol given to an Alkins family represents three bars azure in chief three torteaux on a silver shield. More common variations are: Allkins, Ailkings, Alkinso, Whalkins, Elkins, Ulkins, Alkons, Alkens, Alknis, IIkins. The surname Alkins first appeared in Kent at Hawkinge or Hackynge, a church in the union of Elham, Hundred of Folkestone which dates back to at least 1204 when it noted as Hauekinge and literally meant "place frequented by hawks" or "place of a man called Hafoc", acquired from the Old English particular name "hafac" and ing. The present town and local church is almost 1 mile (1.3km) east of the original hamlet and is best known as the home of RAF Hawkinge, the closest operational airfield to France and used extensively during the Battle of Britain in World War II. "Part of the lands and taxes [of East Wickham, Kent] given by the famous admiral, Sir John Hawkins, in the period of Elizabeth, to the hospital for distressed sailors founded by him at Chatham, to which they still belong." "The Hawkinses of The Gaer, co. Monmouth, and those of Cantlowes, co. Middlesex, demand a local origin from the Church of Hawking, near Folkestone, in Kent, of which Osbert de Hawking was master temp. Henry II. The family transported to Nash Court in the church of Boughtonunder-Bleane in the same division, and there remained until the year 1800. " The very first recording spelling of the family was shown to be that of John Alkyn, dated about 1307, in the "Parliamentary Writs", Herefordshire. It was during the time of King Edward I who was known to be the “The Hammer of the Scots", dated 1272 - 1307. The origin of surnames during this period became a necessity with the introduction of personal taxation. It came to be known as Poll Tax in England. Many of the people with surname Alkins had moved to Ireland during the 17th century. People with the name Alkins moved to America in many centuries like Thomas Hawkins, who settled in New England in 1630. Job Hawkins, who settled in Boston in 1630. Richard Hawkins who settled in New England in 1635. Robert and Mary Hawkins, who came to the America aboard the Elizabeth and Ann in 1635, and settled in Charlestown. Here is the population distribution of the last name Alkins: United States 386; Canada 137; Barbados 101; England 65; Trinidad and Tobago 53; Indonesia 51; Guyana 27; Australia 20; Belgium 2; Scotland 1. Alkins Coat of Arms Meaning The two main devices (symbols) in the Alkins blazon are the torteaux and bar. The two main tinctures (colors) are azure and argent. Azure is the heraldic colour blue, usually quite a deep, dark shade of the colour (there is a lighter blue that sometimes occurs, known as celestial azure). If colour printing is not available then it can be represented by closely spaced horizontal lines in a scheme known as “hatching” 1. The word is thought to originate from the Arabic lazura and it represents the colour of the eastern sky. It is also said to be the colour associated by the Catholic Church with the Virgin Mary and hence of particular significance 2. For easy recognition of the items on a coat of arms, and hence the quick identification of the owner, bold simple shapes are best. Hence, simple geometric shapes are often used for this purpose 5 One of the simplest such shapes is the plain circle, known to heralds as the roundle. 6 So popular is this charge that a shorthand has arisen for roundles of a particular colour and torteau is a roundle gules, or red. (We must be careful however not to confuse this with the word in French heraldry, in which torteau means roundle and must have the colour specified.) Most authorities agree that the English usage signifies the “Manchet cake” or communion wafer and thus is a symbol of religious allegiance. The bar is a thin, horizontal stripe across the centre of the shield 7, usually in groups of two or three (any more and there would be confusion with barry, a treatment of horizontal lines of alternating colours). Bars can be a distinctive and easily recognised device, early examples include those awarded by Henry III of England to the family MAUDYT Argent, two bars gules. 2 The Symbolisms of Heraldry, W. Cecil Wade, George Redway, London, 1898 P150 6 A Glossary of Terms used in British Heraldry, J.H. Parker, Oxford, 1894, Entry:Roundle 7 A Glossary of Terms used in British Heraldry, J.H. Parker, Oxford, 1894, Entry:Bar	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2367
__label__wiki	0.79914	0.79914	Joyce will be delivering a talk entitled: Damming the future: SNC-Lavalin and Water Export. In all the press coverage of the SNC-Lavalin affair, not enough attention has been paid to the company’s involvement in Site C – the contentious $11 billion dam being constructed in B.C.’s Peace River valley. The Liberals say that any pressure they put on Jody Wilson-Raybould to rubber-stamp a Deferred Prosecution Agreement for SNC-Lavalin was to protect jobs at the company. But the pressure may have been to protect something much bigger: the Liberals’ vision for Canada’s future. Site C epitomizes that vision. Nelson has written extensively on this issue. In this keynote speech she will bring together the most salient points about SNC-Lavalin’s involvement in Site C (which is ideally sited for water-export); the company’s thirty-year interest in exporting water to the U.S.; the role of companies like the Blackstone Group in water profiteering; and the federal Liberals’ “Mid-Century Long-Term Low-Greenhouse Gas Development Strategy” – a vision that could facilitate the damming and draining of the country. Click here for one article that Nelson wrote on this subject. About Joyce Nelson Joyce Nelson is an award-winning writer and investigative journalist whose seventh book, Bypassing Dystopia: Hope-Filled Challenges to Corporate Rule is a sequel to Beyond Banksters: Resisting the New Feudalism. Joyce Nelson explores global examples of active and creative resistance to the iron grip of corporatism on our economies and imaginations. Nelson was given an award for her writing by the Vancouver Island Human Rights Society and on three occasions her articles have been selected by NewsWatch Canada for their Top Ten “significant but under-reported” stories of the year. In addition, Nelson has created 23 hours of radio documentary for CBC Ideas, all of which were re-broadcast by popular demand, and she won 2nd Prize for Radio Drama in the CBC Literary Competition. Nelson has also taught at Queen’s University and the University of Victoria. Nelson writes regularly for The Watershed Sentinel, Counterpunch, and other publications. She is also a visual artist and member of the Beach Guild of Fine Art in Toronto.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2372
__label__wiki	0.889498	0.889498	UEFA Challenge On Sporting Crown Jewels’ Sport Business UEFA, FIFA and their Challenges of Free Broadcasting Events This article was first published in the July 2008 issue of SportBusiness International In separate actions, FIFA and UEFA have lodged complaints against the European Commission’s decision to approve the lists of certain ‘crown jewels’ sporting events – the World Cup and the European Championships – drawn up by the UK. The European Union’s Television Without Frontiers Directive, as recently amended by the Audio Visual Media Services Directive, provides the legal basis for Member States to compile lists of designated events that are of major importance to society, so must be broadcast on free-to-air television. In the UK, only the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 fall under the definition of free-to-air broadcasters. Of the three, Channel 4 historically has rarely bid for sports rights (bar cricket), reducing the effective list of bidders for the football matches to the BBC and ITV. The lists must be provided to the Commission that then decides whether the events in question are of major importance to theMember State country and most importantly that the compilation of these lists complies with EC law. If the list complies with EC law, the Commission will approve it. There is no obligation on Member States to introduce listed events legislation and supply a list to the Commission. Currently only Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the UK have a list system in place. The only constant event throughout the submitted lists are the World Cup and European Championships. Crucially the UK lists all of the World Cup and European Championship finals games collectively as of major cultural importance to the UK. UEFA have challenged the Commission’s decision to approve the UK’s listing of the entire UEFA European Championship final tournament, UEFA state that the Commission has erred in concluding that matches not involving England, Northern Ireland, Wales or Scotland in the European Championships could be considered as events of major importance for the UK. FIFA have challenged the listing of World Cup games by both the UK and Belgium. FIFA contend that, in the UK’s case, the Commission failed to state reasons for approving the inclusion of all 64 matches. Their argument includes the assertions for the approval of both the Belgian andUK lists that the procedure adopted was not clear or transparent, that not all matches are of importance to the UKor Belgian public and that the list system infringes competition law. FIFA points to both lists preventing it from licensing new entrants who wish to use premium sports broadcasting to establish themselves in the European football broadcasting market. This begs the question as to how many UK viewers would deem a European Championship finals match between Romania v France of cultural significance to the UK? However, if in the next World Cup Romania v France is the determining fixture to decide whether England goes through to the knock-out stages of the competition, there would certainly be an argument for that game being of cultural significance. The context of the game therefore becomes very important and something that could not be easily catered for before a tournament began. Similarly, the entitlement of a UK citizen to watch the complete tournament unravelling on a free-to-air, non-pay TV broadcast channel, to many, is viewed as an inherent right. The expectation of not having to pay for watching live football which UK viewers have traditionally watched for free does potentially hold some merit when one considers that the hugely popular Premier League and Champions League competitions are not protected under the UK list at all. The Italian equivalent to theUK list is substantially more selective in relation to the World Cup and European Championships however, and includes only the final and all matches involving the Italian national team. However the Italian list is more restrictive in relation to the broadcasting of the Champions League; if an Italian team reaches the semi-finals and/or final the broadcast must be screened on free-to- air television. The UK list does not require any Champions League matches to be made available to free-to-air broadcasters even though ITV does screen such matches. The issue is essentially a consideration of what events should be deemed of ‘major importance to society’. It is difficult to anticipate the outcome of these cases as there are valid arguments on both sides. UEFA and FIFA appear to be playing hardball in using the European courts to attack the current Belgian and UK lists. By only launching actions against the two lists it must be that the organisations are satisfied that the other national submitted lists go no further to protect a smaller number of events, or that the Belgian and UK lists offer the best examples of lists which go beyond what the organisations feel is proportionate and necessary, unduly limiting a rights holders ability to maximise their revenues for highly lucrative competitions. The ultimate aim will perhaps manifest in a compromise solution that may allow UEFA and FIFA to sell the rights to group games that do not include Belgian or England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland games to interested pay-tv operators, whilst allowing all games involving England for example to appear live on their own country’s free-to-air broadcasters. in Football Broadcasting, Football Finance The integrity of football: Club and player ownership in the English Premier League UEFA, FIFA and their Challenges of Free Broadcasting Events 30 July 2008 This article was first published in the July 2008 issue of SportBusiness International In separate actions, FIFA and UEFA have lodged complaints against the European Commission’s decision to approve the lists of certain ‘crown jewels’ sporting events – the World Cup and the […]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2374
__label__wiki	0.867242	0.867242	Tag: Warren Buffett A downbeat media roundup: Buffett disappoints, startups falter and publications die On April 29, 2019 May 22, 2019 By Dan KennedyIn Media, The Return of the Moguls Previously published at WGBHNews.org. Has there been a more disappointing newspaper owner than Warren Buffett? When Buffett bought 63 papers from the Media General chain in 2012 for $142 million, it looked like the billionaire investor might play a significant role in reinventing local journalism. A year earlier Buffett had bought his hometown paper, the Omaha World-Herald, along with six other papers for $200 million. He already owned The Buffalo News. And Buffett liked newspapers — so much so that he even had a hand in winning a Pulitzer Prize: In 1973, when he was the owner of the Omaha Sun, he helped his reporters investigate a local charity by finding documents, providing financial analysis, and assisting with the writing, according to a 2014 account in The Wall Street Journal. He was also a trusted adviser to the Graham family back when they controlled The Washington Post and he was a shareholder. “By the spring of 1974,” Katharine Graham wrote in her memoir, “Personal Story,” “Warren was sending me a constant flow of helpful memos with advice, and occasionally alerting me to problems of which I was unaware.” Yet Buffett has been talking down the newspaper business for years — and last week he was at it again. “They’re going to disappear,” he told Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer, citing the ongoing decline of advertising. He did allow that three national papers, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, might survive. But everyone else was “toast.” Certainly they’re going to be toast with owners like Buffett. As I wrote in my book “The Return of the Moguls,” Buffett has allowed his managers to cut hundreds of jobs from his newspapers in recent years, even as his fellow multibillionaire Jeff Bezos has overseen growth and profits at the Post. Perhaps it would be too much to expect someone in his 80s to dedicate himself to figuring out the future of the newspapers he had acquired. But Buffett was ideally positioned to bring in the sorts of minds who might apply themselves to the task of saving smaller papers. Surely Buffett understands as much as anyone that readers and advertisers will put up with an ever-diminishing paper for only so long before an irreversible downward spiral sets in. Buffett is by no means the worst owner a newspaper could have — not with hedge funds and corporate chains slashing and burning their way through the mediascape. But anyone who hoped he would establish himself as an innovative force in recalibrating the economics of journalism has to be disappointed. Two high-profile startups misfire The meltdown of two high-profile digital startups raises questions about not just what went wrong, but whether there were any warning signs we should have paid more attention to. The more disheartening of the two is The Correspondent, a Dutch website that recently concluded a successful fundraising campaign to launch what we all thought was going to be a U.S. edition. The project, funded through a membership model, is free of advertising and is based on the idea of journalists and readers engaging in an ongoing conversation. Among the early enthusiasts was Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University. And me: I wrote about the project two years ago, made a donation to the site last fall, and urged others to do the same. Recently, though, we learned that there wasn’t going to be a separate U.S. edition after all. Instead, there would be an English-language edition, based in Amsterdam, and the New York office would be closed now that the fundraising campaign had concluded. The founders took to Twitter to explain that we had misunderstood them. Had we somehow gotten it wrong? No, according to Zainab Shah, a former BuzzFeed journalist who was The Correspondent’s first U.S. hire. In a devastating piece last Friday by Laura Hazard Owen at Nieman Lab, Shah said she took the job after being told she would head up what would in fact be a U.S. edition headquartered in New York, and that she recently quit after the founders made clear that it wasn’t going to happen. “They’re really good at the PR thing, and it really feels like gaslighting,” Shah said. “They were like, ‘Well, we never promised a U.S. newsroom.’ I was like: Wait, did I just imagine all this?” I should note that the founders continue to defend themselves and that Shah’s experience is just one data point. Still, this is bad news for those of us who hoped that The Correspondent represented a new way of doing journalism — “optimized for trust,” to use Rosen’s phrase. Also running off the rails last week was The Markup, intended as a source of data-driven journalism about the largest technology companies. Months before its scheduled launch, co-founder and editor-in-chief Julia Angwin, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, was fired by chief executive Sue Gardner, whom Angwin had helped recruit, and replaced by another co-founder, Jeff Larson. Five of the seven editorial employees quit in support of Angwin, and Craig Newmark, the Craigslist billionaire who provided much of the funding, is said to be involved in getting the project back on track. What exactly went wrong is too convoluted to get into here. For that, I recommend Mathew Ingram’s detailed overview at the Columbia Journalism Review. (Although I salute Angwin if it proves true that her sins included refusing to take a Myers-Briggs personality test.) The larger issue with both The Correspondent and The Markup is whether there are any lessons in these two very different situations. I wish I could say there was — but at least in the case of The Correspondent we could see trouble brewing from some distance. Last fall, for instance, the site was involved in a nasty public dispute with Sarah Kendzior, a contributor to the Dutch-language site. The facts remain murky, though it was clear that something was amiss. And then, as I’ve noted, The Correspondent’s founders not only reneged on their promise to launch a U.S. edition in the United States, but they claimed they had never said any such thing. That was gently disputed by none other than Rosen himself at his blog, Press Think, back in March. “Through 2017 and much of 2018 we shared a default assumption that The Correspondent would be based in New York,” he wrote. “I call it a ‘default’ because we never sat down to decide it, and there was no real cost study or strategic analysis behind it. Rather, we had opened a campaign office in New York (with borrowed office space) and it seemed like that would evolve into The Correspondent’s newsroom.” My only takeaway is that startups can be problematic. I’ll be watching The Correspondent closely and hoping its English-language edition proves to be worthwhile — although it will be a long time before I make another donation. As for The Markup, I can only trust that Newmark, having already stepped in, will do the right thing. I assume that means bringing back Angwin in some top role, even if Gardner is not completely wrong about her alleged shortcomings as a manager. New England lost two venerable publications in recent weeks. Last week The Improper Bostonian, a free glossy magazine covering lifestyles, entertainment, and the arts, announced that its current issue would be its last after 28 years. “It was ultimately a family decision, that was really the bottom line,” owner and publisher Wendy Semonian Eppich told Folio, which covers the magazine business. “It was heavily based on finances, but it goes bigger than finances and that is critical and that is the truth.” Several weeks earlier The Portland Phoenix, the last of the Phoenix newspapers, was shut down by its current owner, according to the Bangor Daily News. The Phoenix traces its roots to the Boston After Dark, founded by the late Stephen Mindich in 1966. At one time the papers included editions in Boston, Providence, Worcester, and Portland. I was on staff at The Boston Phoenix for many years, and I wrote the cover story for the Portland paper’s debut in 1999 — a profile of Maine’s then-senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both moderate Republican women. The fortunes of free publications with free websites have diminished to the vanishing point as advertising revenues continue to crater. We’re lucky that we still have DigBoston, a for-profit alternative weekly allied with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Warren Buffett still thinks newspapers are doomed On April 24, 2019 April 24, 2019 By Dan KennedyIn Media Warren Buffett in a 2010 White House photo The self-made billionaire Warren Buffett has been a disappointment ever since he started buying newspapers. According to Bloomberg News, he believes that all except a few national papers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post are doomed — echoing remarks he’s been making for several years. Here’s what I wrote about Buffett in “The Return of the Moguls”: For a self-confessed newspaper fan whose net worth was roughly the same as that of [Jeff] Bezos (more than $60 billion apiece in mid-2016), Buffett’s role in helping to figure out the future of journalism might be considered disappointingly modest. Perhaps it would be too much to expect someone in his mid-eighties to dedicate himself to figuring out the future of the newspapers he had acquired. But he was ideally positioned to bring in the sorts of minds who might apply themselves to the task of saving smaller papers in much the same way that Bezos and [John] Henry were attempting to reinvent their much larger properties. Surely Buffett understands as much as anyone that readers and advertisers will put up with an ever-diminishing paper for only so long before an irreversible downward spiral sets in. Buffett isn’t the worst newspaper owner out there by any means. But as someone who has taken a great interest in newspapers over the years (among other things, he was a close adviser to former Post publisher Katharine Graham), it seems to me that he could have done more. BBJ scores big on two local media stories On September 5, 2013 September 5, 2013 By Dan KennedyIn Media8 Comments The Boston Business Journal has come up aces during the past week with two meaty stories on local media news. • A shaky future at the Globe. The first, published last Friday, found that confidential financial documents put together by the New York Times Co. suggest The Boston Globe was in slightly worse shape than outside observers might have imagined when the paper and several affiliated properties were sold to Red Sox principal owner John Henry for $70 million in early August. The BBJ’s Craig Douglas writes (sub. req.): In essence, Henry is buying into a borderline breakeven enterprise already teed up for $35 million in cost cuts over a two-year period before he even walks through the door. How bad is it? According to the documents cited by Douglas, advertising revenue at the New England Media Group (NEMG) — mainly the Globe, the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester and Boston.com — is expected to be 31 percent below the 2009 level next year. And paid print circulation revenue continues to slip despite price increases at the Globe and the T&G. You may have heard people say at the time of the sale that Boston.com was worth more than the Globe itself. Well, I don’t think you’ve heard me say it. Print advertising remains far more valuable than online, and that holds true at NEMG as well. Douglas writes: The Globe is by far the biggest revenue generator of the group, accounting for 69 percent, or about $255 million, of its forecasted revenue this year. The Telegram & Gazette in Worcester is next in line at $42.5 million in forecasted revenue this year, while Boston.com is on track to book about $40 million. Print products account for about 88 percent of NEMG’s total annual revenue. That heavy reliance on print-related advertising and circulation revenue has proven particularly problematic of late, as both categories have lost ground since 2009 and are forecasted to see continued deterioration for the foreseeable future. Douglas’ story is protected behind a paywall, but if you can find a print edition, you should. Suffice it to say that John Henry has his work cut out for him. The picture Douglas paints is not catastrophic. But it does show that the Globe is not quite as far along the road toward figuring out the digital future as some of us might have hoped. • Tough times ahead for local papers. The other big media splash, which I linked to last night, is Jon Chesto’s analysis of the sale of Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones Local Newspaper Group (formerly Ottaway Newspapers) to an investment firm affiliated with GateHouse Media. The papers sold include three prominent Greater Boston dailies: The Standard-Times of New Bedford, the Cape Cod Times and the Portsmouth Herald, on the New Hampshire seacoast. Chesto’s article is part of the BBJ’s free offerings, so by all means read the whole thing. It’s a real eye-opener, as he explains as best anyone can at this early stage what the sale and simultaneous bankruptcy of GateHouse will mean for local papers and the communities they serve. Unfortunately, indications are the news will be very bad indeed. Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse, which publishes about 100 local papers in Eastern Massachusetts (including The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, The Enterprise of Brockton and The MetroWest Daily News of Framingham), will somehow be combined with the entity that holds the former Ottaway papers into a new company with the uninspired name of New Media (that may change). (Update: Chesto is a former business editor of The Patriot Ledger, which no doubt helped him write his piece with a real air of authority. And thanks to Roy Harris for reminding me of that.) The deal with Murdoch — at $82 million, quite a bit more than I had anticipated — was done through Newcastle Investment Corp., a real estate investment trust that is part of Fortress Investment Group, which in turn is GateHouse’s principal backer. The powers-that-be are already talking about slashing the Ottaway papers, which are among the best local dailies in the region. Chesto writes: The papers are described as “under-managed by News Corp.” with “expense reductions of only 6% since 2010.” Translation: We can take more out of the expenses than News Corp. did. GateHouse has been an aggressive cost cutter in recent years, most notably with efforts to consolidate most of its page design and layout functions. That work was centralized in two locations, including an office in Framingham. But it will soon be downsized further, into one location in Austin, Texas. Yes, Murdoch, the “genocidal tyrant,” is likely to prove a better steward of local journalism than the people he’s selling to. Post-bankruptcy, with $1.2 billion in debt off their backs, the executives now running GateHouse are going to be empowered. According to a presentation put together for investors, Chesto writes, New Media may spend $1 billion to buy up local media companies over the next three years. Chesto doesn’t say so, but if I were working for the Eagle-Tribune papers north of Boston (The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, The Daily News of Newburyport, The Salem News and the Gloucester Daily Times), I’d be polishing that résumé right now. On the other hand, those papers have already been cut so much under the Alabama-based CNHI chain that it’s not like a new owner could do a whole lot worse. At a time when there are reasons to be hopeful about the newspaper business thanks to the interest of people like John Henry, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett, the GateHouse deal shows that there are still plenty of reasons to be worried about the future. Warren Buffett on the Goldman Sachs case On May 4, 2010 By Dan KennedyIn Society12 Comments Interesting to see that Warren Buffett’s take on Goldman Sachs is essentially the same as mine. Goldman is being investigated on charges that it did not disclose to investors that hedge-fund manager John Paulson helped put together an investment vehicle that he then bet against. Buffett’s view, writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times, is that such information is irrelevant as long as investors knew what they were buying. Buffett put it this way: For the life of me, I don’t see whether it makes any difference whether it was John Paulson on the other side of the deal, or whether it was Goldman Sachs on the other side of the deal, or whether it was Berkshire Hathaway on the other side of the deal…. It’s very strange to say, at the end of the transaction, that if the other guy is smarter than you, that you have been defrauded. It seems to me that that’s what they are saying. The scandal that nearly brought down the entire financial system wasn’t what was illegal — it was what was legal. Now if only I shared Buffett’s investing acumen.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2376
__label__wiki	0.771396	0.771396	FIND ANYONE'S PERSONAL EMAIL & PHONE NUMBER Hire talent 10x faster with the most powerful sourcing platform available Woodside Energy Website: http://www.woodside.com.au/ Size: 1,001-5,000 employees Overview: Woodside is an Australian oil and gas company with a global presence, recognised for its world-class capabilities – as an explorer, a developer, a producer and a supplier. Our mission is to deliver superior shareholder returns through realising our vision of becoming a global leader in upstream oil and gas. Wherever we work, we are committed to living our values of integrity, respect, discipline, excellence, and working together for a sustainable future. Our operations are characterised by strong safety and environmental performance in remote and challenging locations. We recognise that long-term meaningful relationships with communities are fundamental to maintaining our licence to operate and we work to build mutually beneficial relationships across all locations where we are active. Our producing LNG assets in the north west of Australia are among the world’s best facilities. Today, our exploration portfolio includes emerging and frontier provinces in Australasia, the Atlantic margins and Sub-Saharan Africa. We have significant equity interests in high-quality development opportunities. We are Australia’s most experienced LNG operator and largest independent oil and gas company. Our proven track record and distinctive capabilities are underpinned by 60 years of experience, making us a partner of choice. Through collaboration we leverage our capabilities to progress our growth strategy. For more information please visit us online: http://www.woodside.com.au http://www.woodside.com.au/careers http://www.facebook.com/woodsideenergy http://twitter.com/woodsideenergy http://www.youtube.com/WoodsideEnergyLtd Tweets by Woodside Energy People also viewed these companies ALPS Corporation hpinkcartridges Eden Angel Investment Responsive Energy Group NORD Drivesystems Pvt. Ltd Learnlode Energent The Newcastle Herald GIS Home Improvements Teckgeekz Analytics Press	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2378
__label__cc	0.505516	0.494484	Exploration Assets Merger With Titan Special Meeting - June 12, 2019 Ecuador Mining Legislation TSX-V: CGLD $0.18 OTCQX: CGLDF $0.13 Gold: $1,422/oz Copper: $2.70/lb Dynasty Reports Financial Results For The Year Ended December 31, 2013 And The Commencement Of Commercial Production At The Zaruma Gold Project Vancouver, B.C., March 31, 2014 – Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. (“Dynasty” or the “Company”) (TSX: DMM, OTCQX: DMMIF) announces that it has released its audited consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2012 and that is has commenced commercial production at the Zaruma Gold Project (“Zaruma Project”) effective October 1, 2013. The selected financial information presented herein is qualified in its entirety by, and should be read in conjunction with, the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements as at and for the year ended December 31, 2013 and the related notes thereto and the Company’s management’s discussion and analysis, which are available on the Company’s website (www.dynastymining.com) and on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). All dollar amounts in United States dollars unless otherwise stated. Zaruma Gold Project Operating Results Gold Revenue $ 15,670,352 Gold sales (ounces) 12,355 Average realized price per ounce $ 1,269 Mined material milled (tonnes) 29,948 Average grade (grams/tonne) 15.14 Average recovery (%) 94.3 Gold production (ounces) 13,748 Cash costs (US$/oz Au)(a,b) $ 592 Cash costs (US$/tonne Au)(a,b) $ 272 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Au)(a,b) $ 791 a) Net of by-product credits b) Non-GAAP measure. The Company commenced accounting for the Zaruma Project as being in commercial production commencing on October 1, 2013 as the project was meeting production milestones to be operating, for accounting purposes, in the way intended by Management. During the period the Company processed approximately 325 tonnes per day (“tpd”) of mined material which was below the threshold previously set to indicate commercial production. However, since the average grade of this material was significantly higher than the average grade previously set to indicate the commencement of commercial production, the decision was made to treat the Zaruma Project as though it was operating in the way intended by Management and thus as having commenced commercial production, effective October 1, 2013. The Company previously commenced the development of three separate declines, being “Cabo de Hornos”, “Ayapamba” and “Barbasco”, at the Zaruma Project to access the mineral resource contained therein. Primarily as a result of budget constraints in 2013, the Company concentrated development activities on the main decline, “Cabo de Hornos”, since it provided the best access to the in-situ resources and where the installation of an electrical sub-station allows the mine to be powered from the main grid. The average grade of material processed during the period was 15.14 grams per tonne (“g/t”). Substantially all the high grade material mined in the period was from certain sections of the Soroche vein where the grade was particularly high. The average processing rate of 325 tpd represents less than one third of the current installed capacity of the Zaruma processing plant. Cash costs per ounce and all-in sustaining cash costs per ounce for the three months ending December 31, 2013 were $592 and $791 respectively. It is not uncommon or unexpected to encounter areas of the deposit with significantly higher or lower grades as compared to the average grade previously disclosed in the Company’s mineral resource estimate for its Zaruma Project, since the resource at Zaruma is known to contain a significant variability in grade between different areas, which are often in close proximity to each other. As a result it is unlikely that the Company will achieve a consistent monthly production profile during this early production phase of operations, until material is mined from additional multiple veins. In the near term, the Company intends to remain focused on developing the main decline with the intent to continue to develop high grade gold veins in the area which will provide access to additional mining faces which in turn is expected to improve production. This outlook is based on current operations, mine plans and exploration results, which are subject to change and as such cannot be assured. Subsequent to December 31, 2013, the average grade to date has dropped compared to the fourth quarter of 2013 but has still remained consistent with the overall average resource grade. The average daily tonnage of material processed through the mill in 2014 to date is markedly lower than the average achieved in the fourth quarter of 2013 due to the reallocation of resources at the beginning of the year to carry out normal course maintenance and development work on the main decline earlier in the year. This maintenance and development work is now complete and the Company is refocussing on mining resource grade material to be delivered to the mill for processing. However, there is therefore no assurance that the results achieved by the Company in the fourth quarter of 2013 will remain consistent over future periods or be representative of stable ongoing results from our mining activities at our Zaruma Project in the near term. The following tables show selected consolidated financial information for the nine months ending September 30, 2013, three months ending December 31, 2013 and the years ending December 31, 2013 and 2012. Consolidated Statements of Financial Position, as at: As at December 31, 2013 the Company had cash resources of $4.9 million and a working capital surplus (current assets less current liabilities) of $0.2 million compared to cash resources of $0.5 million and a working capital deficit of $5.3 million as at September 30, 2013; and cash resources of $0.4 million and a working capital deficit of $2.7 million as at December 31, 2012. The increase in production and sales in the fourth quarter of 2013 provided the liquidity the Company needed to not only reduce its trade payable balances but to also accumulate cash to cover certain upcoming payments due to the Ecuadorean Government, including: The annual renewal of mineral concessions of approximately $1 million. This balance was paid earlier in March of this year; The payments of NSR royalties for the second half of 2013 of approximately $0.7 million. This balance was included in accounts payable on December 31, 2013 was paid earlier in March of this year; and Estimated employee participation tax and corporation tax balance owed of approximately $2 million, which is payable by mid-April 2014. Included within short term loans is a $1 million Promissory Note from corporations represented by the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. The Promissory Note bears no interest, is repayable on demand and is secured by way of a General Security Agreement over certain assets of the Company. Non-GAAP Measures Cash costs per ounce and per tonne Cash cost per ounce of gold and cash cost per tonne of processed ore are key performance measures that management uses to monitor performance. Management believes that certain investors also use these non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate the Company’s performance. Cash costs are an industry standard method of comparing certain costs on a per unit basis, however, they do not have a standardized meaning or method of calculation, even though the descriptions of such measures may be similar. These performance measures have no meaning under IFRS and, therefore, amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies. The following tables present a reconciliation of cash costs per tonne of processed ore and cash costs per ounce of gold to the cost of sales in the consolidated financial statements for the three months ended December 31, 2013. Since the Company started commercial production on October 1, 2013 there is no comparable data for earlier periods. Operating expenditure $ 9,715,023 Change in inventory 910,674 Depletion and depreciation (1,418,870) Royalties (794,852) By-product credits (266,780) Total cash costs 8,145,195 Gold produced 13,748 Cash cost per ounce of gold $ 592 Cash cost per tonne processed $ 272 All-in cash costs per ounce and per tonne The Company believes that “all-in sustaining costs” will better meet the needs of analysts, investors and other stakeholders of the Company in understanding the costs associated with producing gold, the economics of gold mining, assessing our operating performance and also the Company’s ability to generate free cash flow from current operations and to generate free cash flow on an overall Company basis. The Company, in conjunction with an initiative undertaken within the gold mining industry, has adopted an all-in sustaining cost performance measure; however, this performance measure has no standardized meaning. The Company has conformed its all-in sustaining definition to the measure as set out in the guidance note released by the World Gold Council (“WGC”) (a non-regulatory market development organization for the gold industry whose members comprise global senior gold mining companies). “All-in sustaining costs” are intended to provide additional information only and do not have standardized definitions under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. These measures are not necessarily indicative of operating profit or cash flow from operations as determined under IFRS. Although the WGC has published a standardized definition, companies may calculate these measures differently. “All-in sustaining costs” include total production cash costs incurred at the Company’s mining operations, which forms the basis of the Company’s by-product cash costs. Additionally, the Company includes sustaining capital expenditures, corporate selling, general and administrative expenses, and exploration expenditures in this measure. The Company believes that this measure represents the total costs of producing gold from current operations, and provides the Company and other stakeholders of the Company with additional information of the Company’s operational performance and ability to generate cash flows. As the measure seeks to reflect the full cost of gold production from current operations, new project capital is not included. Certain other cash expenditures, including tax payments, dividends and financing costs are also not included. The Company reports this measure on a gold ounces sold basis. The following tables provide a reconciliation of all-in sustaining costs per ounce to the consolidated financial statements for the three months ended December 31, 2013: Total cash costs $ 8,145,195 Royalties 794,852 Depletion and depreciation 1,476,950 Capital expenditure 145,618 Exploration expenditure 309,304 Total all-in sustaining cash costs 10,871,919 All-in sustaining cash cost per ounce of gold $ 791 Update on the preparation of revised 43-101 Technical Reports As previously disclosed on January 24, 2014, the Company is in the process of preparing an updated Technical Report in respect of its Zaruma Project and amended Technical Reports in respect of its non-producing Jerusalem and Dynasty Goldfields Projects in order to address the results of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission. Due to delays in the preparation of such Technical Reports, the Company now anticipates that such reports will be completed and filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com in April 2014. The authors of such reports, Messrs. Richard L. Procter, BSc (Eng), MBA, MIMMM, CEng, and Allen J. Maynard, BAppSc(Geol), MAIG, MAusIMM, each of whom is “independent” and a “qualified person” in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, have supervised the preparation of and approved the written disclosure relating to such projects in the Company’s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2013 which has been filed on SEDAR. However, the mineral resource estimates contained in the Company’s public filings should not be relied upon until such time as the Technical Reports supporting such resource estimates have been filed. About Dynasty Metals & Mining Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. is a Canadian based mining company involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties in Ecuador. The Company is currently focused on developing its Zaruma Gold Project, at which the Company is engaged in intermittent production. The Company also has the following non-producing assets: the Jerusalem Project and Dynasty Goldfield Project. Brian Speechly, a Fellow of AusIMM (Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy), a director of the Company and a “qualified person” within the definition of that term in the National Instrument 43-101, has supervised the preparation of and has verified the technical information contained in this news release. Precious metal element assays were determined by the Company at our on-site laboratory facility located at the Zaruma Project processing plant site. The on-site laboratory typically carries out both fire assay and solution assays on a 3 shift basis. Currently some 40 samples (20 liquid and 20 solid) are tested daily. These data provide the facility with adequate checks for overall plant control and metallurgical balance sheet management. As well as this, the laboratory undertakes testwork with regard to the efficiency of the processing facility, whereby bench scale test are carried out on flowsheet alternatives (such as intense cyanidation, options for flotation circuitry and leaching, absorption and tailings thickening work). Allen J. Maynard is the independent qualified person for the mineral resources on the Zaruma Project and he has reviewed the references to resources in this press release. For further information please visit the Company’s website at www.dynastymining.com or please contact: Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc. Murray Oliver Toll Free: 1 888-735-3881 (North America only) Email: info@dynastymining.com Brisco Capital Partners Corp. Scott Koyich Email: Scott@briscocapital.com This news release contains statements which are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking information” which are prospective in nature, including, without limitation, statements regarding Dynasty’s future plans, expectations relating to the Zaruma mine development and mineral extraction including accessing higher grades of precious metals as the Company advances through declines, and timing of the filing of Technical Reports in respect of the Company’s mining projects. Forward-looking information is not based on historical facts, but rather on then current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates, including assumptions relating to the Company’s ability to continue progress through its declines with minimal or no interruption, that the Company will be able to continue its progress in respect of its mines as planned, that new equipment will perform as described, that the Company will continue to sell processed gold and silver at levels that allow it to fund the continued development of its mining projects, that the Company will have access to capital if required, that all necessary approvals and arrangements will be obtained and/or finalized in a satisfactory manner in order to continue developing the Company’s projects, and that the Company’s equipment will operate at expected levels. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “projects”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “should”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Dynasty’s actual results, revenues, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Important risks that could cause Dynasty’s actual results, revenues, performance or achievements to differ materially from Dynasty’s expectations include, among other things: (i) risks related to prior mining activity at its mines and declines, (ii) uncertainties relating to mineral resource estimates (iii) risks related to availability of capital on satisfactory terms, (iv) risks related to being an early stage producer; (ii) risks related to Dynasty’s lack of history in producing metals from Dynasty’s mineral exploration properties and its ability to successfully establish mining operations or profitably produce precious metals; (v) that Dynasty will be unable to successfully negotiate agreements with the holders of surface rights on areas covered by Dynasty’s project concessions; (vi) changes in the market prices of gold, silver, and other minerals, which, in the past, have fluctuated widely and which could affect the profitability of Dynasty’s operations and financial condition; (vii) risks related to governmental regulations, including taxation statutes; (viii) risks related to Dynasty’s primary properties being located in Ecuador, including political, economic, and regulatory instability; (ix) uncertainty in Dynasty’s ability to obtain and maintain certain permits necessary to the Company’s current and anticipated operations; (x) the possibility that the completion of new Technical Reports will be delayed, resulting in orders or other sanctions against the Company by Canadian securities regulatory authorities; and other risks found in Dynasty’s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2013, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations, Dynasty is not under any obligation and Dynasty expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View previous (Jan 24, 2014) Return to the news release list View next (Apr 30, 2014) By providing your e-mail address, you are consenting to receive press releases, quarterly and annual reports, presentations and other information concerning Core Gold Inc. and its affiliates and partners. CountryCanadaUSAOther ©2019 Core Gold Inc. \| Disclaimer Website by Adnet © 2019 Core Gold Inc.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2380
__label__wiki	0.921706	0.921706	Tag Archives: Al-Nusra Front Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Regains Control over Strategic Town in Damascus Countryside TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian army continued its advances in the Southern parts of the country, and took back control of a strategic town in Damascus countryside. The foreign-backed terrorists were pushed back from the town of Kafr Yabous in Damascus countryside and the army regained full control over the town. Kafr Yabous is located in Al-Qalamoun region in Damascus countryside and it is only 11 kilometers from the borders with Lebanon. The Al-Nusra Front terrorist group had control over the Kafr Yabous which is in the Southeastern parts of al-Zabadani town. Tens of Al-Nusra terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured in fierce clashes with the Syrian troops. Also in the past 24 hours, a large number of terrorists were killed in heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the Al-Nusra Front in Damascus province. The army soldiers struck a heavy blow at the terrorists in the areas of al-Zabadani, Eastern Ghouta and Douma in Damascus countryside, killing and injuring scores of them. Elsewhere, the Syrian Armed Forces, in a series of massive operations against militants’ strongholds on Sunday, gained more grounds in various battlefields in Homs province. Syrian troops killed and injured so many anti-government fighters in Rajem al-Kaser, al-Sultaniyeh, Masa’dah and Um Sahrij in the Eastern countryside of the Central Homs province, a military source said. Meantime, army’s attacks against Takfiri terrorists in the Western part of Ovania village, Western al-Samadaniyeh and Naba’a al-Sakher in al-Quneitra province, left scores of foreign-backed fighter killed and wounded. Also, 20 terrorists affiliated to the so-called “Sham Hawks Group” were killed by the Syrian soldiers in Bazabou, Nahlia, Al-Treisi and Nahla in the Northwestern province of Idlib. Also, the Syrian air force staged a massive targeted attack on a joint meeting of two major terrorist groups in Damascus countryside early on Sunday, killing and injuring a large number of the terrorist leaders. The army airstrike targeted a gathering of Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar Al-Sham commanders in Mazaya district in the town of Zabadani in Damascus countryside. A sum of 27 commanders of the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham were killed in the air raid. The leader of the Al-Nusra Front, Abdulrahman Nassif, was also wounded during the airstrike. Elsewhere, the Syrian army continued to make more gains in its fight against the Al-Nusra Terrorist Front in surrounding areas of Daraa province, killing at least 220 terrorists, a security source said. The army soldiers stormed the hideouts of Al-Nusra Front in Ibta’ village and claimed the lives of more than 40 militants, a Syrian source said on condition of anonymity. Also, some 30 terrorists were killed in heavy fighting between the Syrian army and the terrorist group in the town of Dael, located 14 km to North of Daraa city, the source added. The security source further said the army also inflicted heavy losses on the terrorists in the areas of Qarfa, Namer, and al-Shaikh Miskeen and left over 150 al-Nusra terrorists dead. Syria has been the scene of insurgency since 2011 when certain western powers and their regional allies voiced loudly that Syrian protests have no diplomatic solution and they started supplying the country’s opposition groups with their arms and funds. In 2014, specially after victory of President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s presidential election, the army has gained upper hand in its anti-terrorism campaign, and has been partly successful in sealing borders with Turkey and Jordan. Source: Fars News By MKERone Posted in Syria Tagged Al-Nusra Front, foreign funded terrorism, Syria, Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Army, Terrorism Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Regains Control of Strategic Towns in Hama Countryside TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian army made major advances in Hama countryside in the Central parts of the country and regained control of strategic towns in there. The army units took control of Al-Jadideh, Al-Malh and Al-Jamileh towns in Mohrad-Salibieh road in Northwestern Hama countryside. Hama province in Central Syria has a population of over 2 million people and it has been the scene of fierce clashes between the Syrian army and militants in the past three years. Also in the past 24 hours, more than 4 notorious Al-Qaeda ringleaders were killed in fierce clashes between the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front. Meantime, Sami al-Aridi, one of the ringleaders of the terrorist Al-Nusra Front in Syria, raised fraud accusations against Ahmad Jarba, the president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), saying he has stolen millions of dollars of international aids. Writing on his Twitter page, Aridi said that Jarba had stolen $75mln of the international aids which were due to be allocated to the treatment of the wounded and refugee Syrians. Also earlier this year, founder of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Riyadh Al-Asa’ad claimed that head of the Syrian opposition bloc Ahmad al-Jarba is a spy. Al-Asa’ad’s accusation came as the rifts among the Syrian opposition are further widening. Divisions among the foreign-based Syrian opposition have widened after Idris was replaced by Abdullah al-Bashir. Idris along with more than a dozen senior militant commanders have severed ties with the SNC, widening divisions among the foreign-sponsored opposition. The military wing of the opposition said it has sacked its chief of staff due to difficulties in the operations against the Syrian government. The anti-Syria military coalition was established in 2011. But it has never been able to attract people in the war-torn country. Also, a military source said that a unit of the Syrian army has killed 20 terrorists in Morek in Hama’s Northern countryside on Sunday. Terrorists Alaa Ibrahim Al-Hamid Al-Eliwi, Mohammad Abdul-Mo’ti Al-Ghazal and Hassan Abdul-Karim Al-Na’ssan were identified among the dead, the state news agency reported. Also in Aleppo, an army unit eliminated all members of an armed terrorist group in the last of Nazlet Al-Zebdieh in Seif Al-Doula and fully controlled a number of buildings there. Meantime, the United Nation’s top humanitarian field operations official said more than 9 million Syrians had been displaced by the country’s conflict. “Some 6.5 million of the displaced people are still inside Syria, while 2.7 million have fled to nearby countries,” John Ging said, warning that those numbers were likely to grow. “Month-after-month, it’s 5,000 people that are being killed in this crisis. Hundreds of thousands have been injured in this crisis, and again with the intensification of the conflict, these numbers are growing all the time,” he said. Army units pounded Saturday terrorist groups’ gatherings and dens in various areas across the country, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists’ ranks in lives and equipment. Terrorists of Chechen and Turkish nationalities were killed in army operations that targeted terrorist groups’ gatherings in various areas in Damascus Countryside. Army units killed all members of several armed terrorist groups in Al-Mleiha farms and Ein Tarma valley in Eastern Ghouta and destroyed all their weapons. Qaderi Al-Sheikh Baker from Chechnya and Lawrence Al-Bashqati from Turkey were identified among the dead, in addition to Abdulrahman Al-Zarqawi and Ammar Al-Tout. The army intensified operations on Joubar axis from the eastern side and destroyed several terrorists’ dens, leaving a number of them dead and wounded. Emad Matar and Mohammad Omar Juha were among the dead. Meantime, Syria’s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) announced the final list of presidential contenders. The SCC Spokesman announced that the final list of the country’s approved candidates for its upcoming presidential election came down to three individuals: Bashar Hafez Al-Assad, Maher Abdul-Hafiz Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah Al-Nouri. The final list of candidates was announced in a Saturday press conference by SCC Spokesperson Majid Khadra, who further added that “the announcement also serves as an official notification to the respective presidential contenders to begin their election campaign as of Sunday, May 11, 2014”. By MKERone Posted in Syria Tagged Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda, foreign backed terrorism, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, Syria, Syrian Arab Army Foreigners train Syrian rebels in Afghanistan to use chem weapons – Lavrov Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Reuters / Sergey Karpukhin) There are reports that some third countries are training Syrian rebels to use chemical weapons in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The intention is to put the skill to use in new false flag actions in Syria, he explained. The suspected training happened in Afghan territories not under control of the government in Kabul, Lavrov said. “Some reports indicate that [Al-Qaeda-linked radical] Al-Nusra Front is planning to smuggle toxic compounds and relevant specialists into Iraqi territory to stage terrorist attacks there this time,” Lavrov said. By thomasmantell Posted in Afghanistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, USA Tagged Afghanistan, Al-Nusra Front, Liwa Al-Islam, obama, Syria, Syrian Jihadists, Syrian rebels, TAKFIRISTS, USA, Western backed terrorists, Western intelligence Agencies Breaking: Whistleblower Reveals U.S. State Dept. Ships Arms Directly to al-Qaeda The murder of Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi was an organized hit to cover up direct arm deals By Kit Daniels, Infowars.com A former CIA gun runner revealed that the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in order to cover up the U.S. State Department’s direct arm shipments to al-Qaeda. Discussion on Benghazi attack starts around the 37:00 mark. William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee started his career as a CIA contract pilot in the late 1950s, delivering guns and ammunition on behalf of the agency to Fidel Castro. Plumlee confirmed that such arm deals are still common today, with the State Dept. shipping arms to al-Qaeda via the CIA. During an interview with Alex Jones, Plumlee pointed out that Pat Smith, the mother of an information management officer also killed during the Benghazi attack, received little information from the Obama administration about her son’s murder. “I began to wonder ‘why won’t they tell her anything?’” He asked. “Then a contact of mine in the Middle East, a high-ranking NATO official, mentioned to me that he had reports that the ambassador [J. Christopher Stevens] had been complaining about the dispatches and cables that he had got from the State Department about the weapons being received and [Islamic] radicals armed, including Stinger missiles.” By thomasmantell Posted in Libya, Syria, USA Tagged Al-Nusra Front, Arms Shipments, jihadists, libya, Murder, obama, State Department, STEVENS, Stingers deal, Stingers Missiles, Syria, TAKFIRISTS Kenyan Bloodbath: State-Sponsored Sophistication & Motivation Anti-ICC Kenyan President and his government appear to be the target of US-bolstered Al Qaeda attack. SIEGFRIED MODOLA/REUTERS By Tony Cartalucci, LandDestroyer What are the chances that family members of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta just so happened to be visiting Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in the midst of an unprecedented cross-border attack by Al Qaeda Al Shabaab terrorists – and that these family members were successfully singled out and murdered? The BBC reported in its article, “Nairobi Westgate attack: The victims,” that: President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nephew Mbugua Mwangi and his fiancee Rosemary Wahito are among the many Kenyans killed in the attack on the Westgate shopping centre. What are the chances that Al Qaeda is armed and funded by the US from Afghanistan in the 1980’s, to Libya in 2011, and now Syria to undermine enemies of Wall Street and London, but not in Somalia to undermine neighboring Kenya whose new president won partly due to a popular backlash against the West’s discredited International Criminal Court (ICC)? Indeed, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was charged by the ICC for “crimes against humanity” even as he ran for president. The Kenyan newspaper, the Standard, published “Is history repeating itself as Uhuru Kenyatta, like father, faces trial?,” where current President Kenyatta’s persecution by the ICC is seen as a parallel to the persecution of his father, Jomo Kenyatta, by British colonial rule. It stated: In April 2011, Ngengi Muigai, a close relative of Uhuru drew parallels between his charges at the ICC and the trial, jailing and unlawful detention of his father by the British colonial government. How much can a wife and a mother bear? Her husband’s tribulations from the British colonialists and now her son from the neo-colonialists said Ngengi. Mama Ngina had said at the same venue: I’m sure Uhuru, Ruto and the rest will go to The Hague and come back so that we can proceed with nation building. She said this on the day she laid hands on both her son and Ruto as she prayed for their safe return from The Hague. She said the charges facing her son and his co-suspects were the work of neo-colonialists and urged Kenyans to stand by Uhuru and resist just like they had resisted the British colonial rule. The colonialists gave us problems and it is now clear they have never relented, said the former First Lady. The former first lady is not alone in viewing the ICC as the modern day successor of old European subjugation and colonization. President Kenyatta’s persecution by the ICC is a tell-tale sign that he has made enemies in the West. The ICC itself is a discredited institution openly collaborating alongside NATO and in particular, the US, UK, and France to target political enemies around the world. This would be made abundantly clear in Libya in 2011, where the ICC played a crucial role in NATO’s propaganda campaign against Tripoli when ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo “confirmed” that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif Al-Islam was “captured” by Libyan militants and en route to the Hague. Saif Al-Islam would turn up the next day, very much free and still leading the defense of Tripoli – meaning the ICC lied as part of a wider NATO psychological operation to portray Libya’s capital as overwhelmed and captured. By thomasmantell Posted in Israel, Kenya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, USA Tagged AL-CIAda, Al-Nusra Front, Doha, ICC, Israel, KENYA, Manipulation, NATO, Targetting Kenyan President, USA Commander of Nusra-Linked Lebanese Group Injured in Syria In clear evidence that the Syrian crisis sees some Lebanese parties engaged to play crucial role in supporting the armed groups opposing Damascus, al-Manar TV discloses the injury of a commander Lebanese armed group while fighting in the Syrian territories.Hussein Ali Dergham, Lebanese, is the commander of an armed group which is linked to Nusra Front in Syria. Al-Manar reported that Dergham had infiltrated the Syrian territory through barren mountains of Ersal, in Bekaa. He was injured days ago during clashes with the Syrian army, according to security information obtained by al-Manar. Dergham was relieved in a field hospital in Syria, then entered the Lebanese territories through a border area in Ersal, according to the information, which added that the Lebanese fighter was transferred by a Red Cross vehicle into a private clinic in Baalbek because of his serious injury. Continue reading → By MKERone Posted in Lebanon, Syria Tagged Al-Nusra Front, Foreign backed militants, Lebanese fighters, Lebanon, Terrorism Khatib Urges U.S. to Reconsider Al-Nusra Blacklisting The opposition National Coalition, newly recognized by Washington as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, on Wednesday urged the U.S. to review its blacklisting of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front. “The decision to blacklist one of the groups fighting the regime as a terrorist organization must be re-examined,” the bloc’s leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, said at a meeting in Morocco of the Friends of Syria group that includes the United States. “We can have ideological and political differences with certain parties, but the revolutionaries all share the same goal: to overthrow the criminal regime” of President Bashar Assad. On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama recognized the National Coalition as the legitimate representative of the nation’s people. It also blacklisted as a terrorist group the al-Qaida-linked Al-Nusra Front, which U.S. officials fear seeks to hijack the revolution. Continue reading → By MKERone Posted in Syria Tagged Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda, foreign backed terrorists, Middle East, Politics, Syria, Terrorism, terrorist list	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2383
__label__wiki	0.706881	0.706881	Boutros Boutros-Ghali; Richard Avedon; David Herbert Donald Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali discusses the future of the U.N. as he sees it. Richard Avedon on his return to fashion editorial work with the portfolio, '"n Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort." Author David Herbert Donald talks about "Lincoln," a best-selling portrait of the 15th American president. Richard Avedon David Herbert Donald Boutros Boutros-Ghali World Politics Books History Art and design Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali discusses the future of the U.N. as he sees it. 24:29 James Hoge; 'Lincoln'; Robert James Waller Politics, Books, History James Hoge reports on his recent trip to the World Economic Forum; "Lincoln"; Robert James Waller. 55:41 Prime Minister Haris Silajdžić; Karen... World, Politics, Sports PM Silajdžić on the arms embargo against Bosnia; Global perception of the U.S.; Chuck Daly on basketball. 54:10 Foreign Policy in the Balkans Richard Holbrooke and Stephen Cohen discuss the unrest in Russia and the war in Bosnia. 17:26 Stephen Cohen; Panel on Martin Luther King... Politics, History Princeton's Stephen Cohen on the prospects for the former USSR; a panel on Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy; Republican strategist Ed Rollins. 56:16	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2389
__label__wiki	0.60251	0.60251	Will this generation respond? Pope John Paul II said he came to Denver to proclaim the Gospel in the “modern metropolis,” but some organizers thought only 60,000 pilgrims would show up. The 750,000 people who gathered in Cherry Creek State Park proved them wrong. Today, the Church continues to face obstacles, and it must be asked: Will this generation respond with the same openness to the Holy Spirit and courageous faith? Twenty-five years ago, very few people expected what St. John Paul II later dubbed “a revolution” to happen in the “cow town” called Denver. Yes, it was a newer city in the American West that was growing, has some of the most beautiful natural wonders in our country, and the Church was experiencing growth from an influx of Latino immigrants. But the witness of the joy, enthusiasm and love that poured forth over those five days in August surprised many. There are other fruits that were born from World Youth Day in Denver. For many young people, their faith was deepened, and the foundation was laid for their vocation to the priesthood, religious life or marriage. Our archdiocese has also witnessed a boom in lay-run apostolates in the wake of World Youth Day, especially compared to other dioceses around the country. It’s also fair to say that our local Church was energized by the faith-filled experience of 1993. At the same time, we must be realistic about the headwinds the Church is currently encountering, both locally and on a national level. When one compares the weekly Mass attendance statistics for the archdiocese between 1990 and 2017, the downward trend in the practice of the faith is clear. In 1990, 37 percent of Catholics in the archdiocese attended Mass each week, but in 2017 only 23 percent of the flock came to Mass that often. It is telling that this drop occurred even as the population of Catholics in the archdiocese increased by 250,000 people over the same period. The numbers tell a similar story on a national level, with 39 percent reporting weekly Mass attendance in 1990 and 23 percent saying they attended in 2017, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). These numbers paint part of the picture, but they only give you a bird’s-eye view of the Church. I know from my time as a priest and these past six years as archbishop that although the practice of the faith is declining in some parts, there are also very vibrant ministries, parishes and families throughout northern Colorado. Certainly, this is good, but we cannot be content with the status quo. The time has come, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of World Youth Day, for a new “revolution” in how the people of the archdiocese live out our faith and share it with others. Over the last three years, I have spoken with all the priests of the archdiocese about the need to promote this culture of discipleship. In the last few months, with their input and the contributions of numerous lay people, we are focusing on four areas that will help create the foundation for such a culture. They are: formation in discipleship, changing how we receive people at parishes, equipping disciples to go out, and freeing up priests and parish staff from administrative tasks so they can evangelize. The most essential part of building a culture of discipleship is forming parishioners so that they have the support they need to become committed disciples, if they aren’t already. Without this core group of people who have encountered Jesus Christ in a life-changing way, the faith can easily become a set of impersonal rules, especially for those who have had no exposure to the faith. So, how do we support existing disciples or those in formation? As I have discussed with all the priests, we need to create discipleship networks throughout the archdiocese that provide a place for missionary disciples to receive support, share best practices and experience community. We also need to ask: How do we respond to that person who calls the parish looking for information about Baptism or marriage, or the anointing of the sick, even though they haven’t been to church in years? Do we direct them to the forms they need to fill out, or do we work to create a friendship, seeing the conversation as a moment to receive them as Christ would? These moments could be the gateway to a life-long relationship with Christ and the Church if we approach them differently. In short, we need to look at improving how we receive people who come to our parish or contact us. The third area of focus is on promoting a culture of going out by teaching the disciples within our parishes how to approach someone who is not close to the Church or has no faith exposure at all. Every parish should ask itself: What events or ministries do we offer that a person without a faith background or a lapsed practice of the faith would be interested in? And if a person is further interested, how do we gradually bring them closer to Christ and the Church? The final aspect of creating a culture of discipleship that the administrative offices of the archdiocese will be working on is freeing up priests and parish staff for evangelization. Priests, catechists and youth ministers spent years training to share the faith, but too often their time is spent dealing with paperwork. While respecting the autonomy of the pastor, this effort will provide parishes with solutions that relieve some of the operational burdens they experience, particularly in more remote settings. The analogy of a tree is a great way to describe this creation of a culture of discipleship. The spiritual legacy and fruits of World Youth Day are the trunk, and from that trunk these four areas of effort spring forth as branches. These four branches are just the initial growth of the tree, or a culture of discipleship that I hope and pray will flourish in the Archdiocese of Denver for the next 25 years and beyond. May St. John Paul II intercede for our efforts and may every person in the archdiocese be drawn closer to Christ and his Church! COMING UP: ‘Denver, Denver, una rivoluzione!’ ‘Denver, Denver, una rivoluzione!’ The awakening of Denver after WYD '93 Vladimir Mauricio-Perez The festivities kicked off Aug. 11 at Mile High Stadium, where the Holy Father was flown into via helicopter. It wasn’t just a big deal that World Youth Day was happening in Denver; it marked the first World Youth Day ever to be held in the United States, which means it was the pope’s first encounter with the youth of America in this setting. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford fondly remembers the pope’s visit to the Mile High City. It’s something he never expected to happen and was just as surprised as everybody else when it did during his episcopacy as Archbishop of Denver. “To see the Holy Father seated in the episcopal chair in the Cathedral — that doesn’t happen very often,” Cardinal Stafford recalled.“I never dreamed that it would happen.” Pope John Paul II sits on the episcopal chair in the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Yet, what many don’t know is that this event that would change the course of American Catholicism came in a time of turmoil for the Church in Denver and America as Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila recalls, who at the time was the Director of the Office of Liturgy of the Archdiocese of Denver. “The Church was in a period of transition with the implementation of Vatican II, the changes in the Liturgy and other changes. Archbishop Stafford had come in 1986 and the period of experimentation had come to an end. There were some who were resistant to that. There were others who celebrated, and so the church was still somewhat divided,” Archbishop Aquila said. To see the Holy Father seated in the episcopal chair in the Cathedral — that doesn’t happen very often. I never dreamed that it would happen.” When WYD came about, the pope invited the faithful to focus on Jesus himself, springing forth a renewed sense of unity in the archdiocese. “WYD brought a real unity to the clergy and to the faithful of the archdiocese. Part of that was through the various talks that John Paul II gave, his emphasis on an encounter with Christ and his words… It brought in a whole new energy into the Church. There was almost spirit of maintenance, of just keeping things going, and WYD brought in the aspect of a deeper formation, a deeper relationship with Christ, and a deeper living out of the faith in the world,” Archbishop Aquila evoked. Fertile soil, abundant fruit The Denver youth responded with an open and generous heart to the Holy Father’s calling. They left quite an impression on Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Stafford recalled. “There were 100,000 young people in the stadium in Denver, and I was standing below him and looked up and there were tears on his face. When he went back to Rome, he was filled with joy and enthusiasm for the people of North America in a way that had not been present before,” Cardinal Stafford said. “When he saw me several months later, it was in a meeting in Rome, and the only thing he said to me was, ‘Ah Denver, Denver, una rivoluzione!’ “He was overwhelmed by the mystery of the young people in Denver. They are in love with people, they are in love with God, they are a beautiful people because of that.” Denver, Colorado, Saturday, August 14, 1993, World Youth Day 1993, Pope John Paul II, Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass at Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception for pilgrims from each diocese in U.S. and International delegates, James Baca/Denver Catholic Register. What many Catholics and non-Catholics found impressive about WYD ‘93 was the love, enthusiasm and initiative with which the youth responded to God’s call put forth by the Holy Father. “I think part of [what made Denver such fertile ground] was the presence of Archbishop Stafford and his real desire for people to come to know Christ and to really be faithful to him and to the teachings of the Church,” Archbishop Aquila said. “When he became Archbishop of Denver, he had a wealth of experience in guiding people in service of the poor and really care for the poor, a deep love for Catholic education and a real support for Catholic schools. “There were initiatives that he had begun that helped people be more receptive to Christ and to the Church.” A quarter century later, the Archbishop of Denver sees that WYD touched the laity the most, a reality he sees evident in the many new apostolates that sprung out after ’93. Looking at the next 25 years, he hopes that what began with St. John Paul’s visit to Denver will deepen and expand as the Church goes out to make disciples in society. “I would hope that the Church would continue to grow and to really go out and witness in her service to the poor, in Catholic education and in our Catholic schools,” Archbishop Aquila concluded. “I would hope to see more active parishes that are truly rooted in going forth and making disciples. That there would be the kind of fire in Denver similar to the early Church, where many lay people would go out and teach others the faith and invite them to encounter Christ.” Aaron Lambert contributed to this report.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2396
__label__wiki	0.725263	0.725263	Llandaff Cathedral Thanks for calling in. Walking along the River Taff in Cardiff is such a treat. Passing through the City along the Taff Trail, it's not long before you reach another City, Llandaff. This is where both Roald Dahl and Charlotte Church were born and went to school. The 12th Century Anglican Cathedral stands on an older religious site which was near the old river crossing. It has suffered a great deal over the years in the hands of Owain Glyndwr, Oliver Cromwell and WW2, being the second worst damaged Cathedral in the UK after Coventry. Even its organ was destroyed by a lightning strike and had to be replaced in 2010. As you enter, it's the huge modern Christ in Majesty by Jacob Epstein over the nave that immediately catches your eye. In the distance the Lady Chapel can be seen with the beautiful decoration and stained glass windows. There are a number of other chapels - The Dyfrig Chapel has a ceramic portrayal of the six days of creation by Edward Burne-Jones - The Welsh Regiment Chapel is very bright and modern and is dedicated to the fallen in all wars since the 18th Century - St Illud Chapel is dedicated to the 53rd Welsh Infantry Division and has a triptych by Dante Gabriel Rossetti - St Teilo Chapel has a window by William Morris and Ford Maddox Brown. Here's a link to the Cathedral's History page for more details. Following the Dean's Steps up to the rest of the City, the Cathedral looks imposing, especially in the sun. At the top, there's a charming green with seats around and a memorial. The ruins of the Bishop's Palace have been turned into a public garden. Just round the corner, there's the short High Street with small shops and cafes. One building had a blue plaque to show that this was Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop where Roald Dahl had once tricked her by putting a dead mouse in a jar. Time to stop for lunch at the quaint Jaspers Tea Rooms, a cafe consisting of lots of small rooms joined together and named after Jasper Tudor, Uncle of King Henry VII. He took possession of Cardiff Castle after the Battle of Bosworth and married Catherine Woodville, sister of Elizabeth. The Cathedral has a Jasoer Tower and the café menu said that he introduced the fiery red dragon as a symbol for Wales on the flag. Can you see the red Welsh Dragons? Labels: Cardiff This morning we're off to the Park by the Shops as it has been turned into Narnia while this year's outdoor production -The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - takes place. It sounds rather good, with the first part being in the theatre followed by a picnic and second half in the grounds. Full of anticipation, I thought I'd have a look at the set outside, however there wasn't much to see!! Around 'Narnia', fungi were abundant. Berries had blackened. Clouds were threatening. Roses were still being buzzed on. Chestnuts were ripening. Ducks were enjoying a lunchtime snack. All is well, with the world. Time to go back into the cupboard. Labels: South Hill Park Norwegian church Last time we walked round Cardiff Bay and spotted the Norwegian Church across the water. It's a bit of a shame that a white temporary building had been erected next to it as it rather spoilt the effect. Still, it's a bit unusual to see a Norwegian Church in Wales. What's it all about? With Cardiff being a major port in the 1800s, the Norwegian merchant fleet did a lot of its business there so in 1868 the Norwegian Seaman's Mission built a church as a meeting place and a home from home for the sailors and those Norwegians that were living there and later for those who couldn't return to Norway during WW2 due to Nazi occupation. The iron clad building was added to over the years and used for many events. The author Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff near Cardiff to Norwegian parents and was christened in the church in 1916 as were his three sisters. Over the years it fell into decline and by 1974, it was closed and deconsecrated. Roald Dahl campaigned to save it and became the first President of the Preservation Trust. The church was dismantled in 1987 and re-erected on its present site in 1992. Nowadays, it is an arts centre and café. Ronald Dahl is celebrated there every September. It's such an attractive building, isn't it. Cardiff Barrage Nice to see you again. As we're down in Cardiff Bay, we're going to have a walk all the way round the 494 acre fresh water lake, controlled by the Cardiff Barrage. The Bay used to be subject to the tides from the Severn Estuary/Bristol Channel but by erecting the Cardiff Barrage from the Docks to Penarth, opened in 1999, the rivers Taff and Ely flow into and are contained in the lake that is Cardiff Bay, ideal for boating and which looks much more attractive than the mudflats of the previous low tides. This encouraged regeneration of the area too. Starting at the Millennium Centre, we'll head for the water turn right onto Mermaid Quay, walking past the restaurants and shops with the water on our left. You pass the large Techniquest building. There are all sorts of different areas and buildings to enjoy. Round the corner, the Wetlands Reserve supports a wide diversity of wildlife. Across the Bay, Penarth is visible with it's pretty white cottages. After the Wetlands Reserve, there's spacious grassland of Hamadryad Park and then we have to head through the residential streets for a while to cross the River Taff via the Clarence Bridge. At this point we realise we could have taken a short cut from the Millennium Centre and missed all that out but where's the fun in that! Ha! On the other side of the river, the trail passes through the International Sports Village which includes an ice rink, international swimming pool and Cardiff International White Water. There's lots of building work going on in this area and the path can be difficult to find but what you are looking for is another bridge over the River Ely. Now we are back to the interesting bit by the river full of fishing boats, marinas and pretty houses. This is Penarth. From here you can see the Barrage. One of the locks was opening as a boat was entering the Bay from the Estuary. Can you see the piece of road that has lifted up? You can also look back to the Millennium Centre. We're stopping off for lunch at the Customs House. Such a shame that the building next door is all boarded up. Suitably refreshed, all the exciting sights and sounds of the Barrage itself are right in front of us. At 1.1 km long, it has 3 locks, 5 sluice gates to control the water in the Bay, a fish pass to allow sea trout and salmon to return to the rivers and a pink hut for yacht clubs to use to start races and for other events. Let's have a look. Gate Closed Gate Open Locks from the Estuary side Looking through the harbour walls Looking back to the Bay from the harbour walls Mudflats in the estuary Pink hut When the gates open and the roadway lifts up, as you'd expect alarms are sounded and lights flash, to warn everyone. It's really fascinating watching it all in action. Over the other side, whilst enjoying the sailing boats, the white sails on land remind us of Cardiff's link with the sea. There's so much to do, especially for children - parks, watersport activities, skate plaza, history of coal, Dr Who Experience and an enormous crocodile bench from Roald Dahl's books. There's even a Norwegian church, more on that another time. Now we're back to the Millennium Centre, definitely ready for a cup of tea. Of course, you could get a water bus instead of having to do all that walking. Thanks so much for popping in. We've had a little break in Cardiff, just for a bit of a change and even though there was a storm heading over from the States, fortunately the initial drizzly bits disappeared and out came the sun. Right then, let's start the tour, how about down by the Bay. As well as many restaurants and cafés, boats and things to do, there are some notable public buildings including the Senedd, the Welsh National Assembly set up in 1999. From a distance, I found it quite difficult to see as the transparent glass building is so light and airy, however this is the public part of the building and the debates take place down below within the slate plinth. While we were there, some of the ceramic poppies from the Tower of London's 2014 Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, were cascading from the window. Passing through security, inside the building, there is a hush like entering a cathedral, despite people enjoying a cup of tea or browsing in the giftshop. Centrally placed, wooden slats rise up to form a huge mushroom-shaped funnel and the ceiling is full of curves which are continued in the canopy on the outside of the building. From the floors below, the huge circular opening of the funnel can be seen above the circular debating chamber which, in turn, the public can just glimpse through the glass from the public area above. Opposite the Senedd, the Merchant Seaman's memorial, designed by Brian Fell, was also adorned with poppies, wreaths this time. From one angle it appears to be the hull of a ship but from another it's a face. The red terracotta Pierhead building, now used for events and conferences connected with The Senedd, used to be the offices of the Bute Docks Company, later the Cardiff Railway Company, when it opened in 1897. At that time, Cardiff was the world's largest port, handling more coal than anywhere else. It was built by the 3rd Marquess of Bute who was one of the richest men of his generation. A fun fair and the seaside was on Roald Dahl Plass for the Summer, great for the children. William Pye's Water Tower stretches up high, no water but nobody can resist a photo in the shiny surface. Overlooking the Bay is the sculpture People Like Us. The wonderful Millennium Centre's copper oxide surface shines out in the sun. Closer, a poem reads 'In these stones, horizons, sing' in English and Welsh. The letters are actually windows, lit from inside at night. A great performance venue for all types of shows. 8 national arts companies are based here with cafés and shops too. The remainder of the concert hall has multi-coloured slate cladding. Well that's just a flavour of what you'll find in Cardiff Bay. Over the next few posts, I'll show you a few other places. Albert Memorial Revisited Back to the Basingstoke Canal Reading Rivers Five on Friday - Colour Dodging the Rain at the P by the S Rob and Nick Carter Five on Friday in Yateley	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2407
__label__cc	0.727678	0.272322	Department of Media and Communication Studies Media and Communication Studies (Peer-reviewed publications) Diaspora and Rootedness, Amateurism and Professionalism in Media Discourses of Irish Soccer and Rugby in the 1990s and 2000s Free, M., 2013. Diaspora and Rootedness, Amateurism and Professionalism in Media Discourses of Irish Soccer and Rugby in the 1990s and 2000s, Éire-Ireland, Volume 48, Issue 1&2, Spring / Summer 2013, pp. 211-229 Free, Marcus This article explores the tensions between conceptualizations of the nation in terms of diaspora and rootedness, and between amateurism and professionalism, in Irish media discourses of Irish soccer and rugby in the 1990s and 2000s. Given the article’s broad scope and limited space, detailed theoretical elaboration and extensive examination of discursive data will not be possible. Rather, the article offers a tentative overview of how these tensions have been manifested in Irish print and broadcast media, and of how they have evinced fantasies and anxieties about sporting achievement as indicative of collective national achievement. Media discourse Irish-American Cultural Institute http://muse.jhu.edu/article/510693	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2410
__label__cc	0.715561	0.284439	« October 2018 \| Main The DWF Format was invented by Autodesk but was AutoCAD? Autodesk has a large array of products and services. Some were developed internally such as Fusion 360 and Inventor whereas others were acquired such as Revit. AutoCAD is the product the founders started with although their original intent was to automate the business man's desktop with electronic Rolodex, word processing, and spreadsheet software — hence the name Autodesk. There is debate as to whether or not AutoCAD was internal or by acquisition as the founders were asked to bring software prototypes to the table, and that's where AutoCAD got its start (outside of the company but by a founder). Regardless of its origin, AutoCAD has evolved over the years by being developed internally as well as by integrating technology through acquisition. Back in the day when I was a DWF Technical Evangelist, I joking referred to AutoCAD as DWF Content Creator. Earlier this year, a visitor arrived in the lobby of our San Rafael office, looking to buy a copy of AutoCAD. Our visitor was Howard Johnson who was the CEO of Vertex — a company acquired by Softdesk back in 1987, and ultimately acquired by Autodesk when Autodesk acquired Softdesk in 1996. Howard wanted to play around with AutoCAD to experience for himself how Vertex technology had gotten integrated into Autodesk products. Howard was greeted by Amanda Kinley on our Community team who hooked Howard up with a free AutoCAD subscription and pointed him to various training materials. Thanks, Amanda. While visiting with Amanda, Howard shared some materials. How Vertex Got Its Start in 1987 by Howard Johnson I had been developing my idea for creating standard details on CAD and tying this in with manufacturers’ product details. Over lunch one day with a business acquaintance, I mentioned what I was doing. He thought it was a good idea and suggested writing a business plan and seeking investors. We agreed to give it a try. The business plan was written, and we started raising money from individual investors. We rented some office space nearby and started hiring some of the best programmers around who were also architects. These people like Mark Crosley and Spencer Jue who I had worked with in SMP were well known in this area and completely bought into and supported the concept. They developed a system, which used parametrically changeable product based icons of standard building materials such as drywall components, steel shapes, concrete footings, wood products, doors frames, window details etc., all arranged in the CSI format. These details could be inserted as icons, rotated and parametrically altered to the correct size. These icons knew what they were and automatically identified themselves with an arrowhead pointing to the product. Thus, if you created a 3-5/8" stud, it would note itself as such. Vertex Office in 1988 Vertex Customer Testimonial In 1990, I was contacted by the manager of the Bay Area Tapers and Painters Trust Fund, which ran a $4 billion fund, to provide a site and building analysis on an adjacent property to their present quarters in South San Francisco. They were interested in constructing a new headquarters building for the Fund. I did a code review and developed a schematic for a 12,000 sq ft building with a basement and parking. The Trust Fund decided to proceed, and I started developing a program. On completion of the program and establishing a budget of $40,000 for the construction, I proceeded into the design phase. This was an interesting project for me, and since I had no staff to supervise, this became a very personal project. Most architects (when they get to a position of being awarded substantial commercial project) are not able to sit down and do the entire project from beginning to end on their own. I thought this an admirable project to close out my practice by doing just that. I produced the working drawings in the same time frame as if I had a staff, using the Vertex system. This system worked perfectly, and my productivity was increased by 250% in using the software, totally fulfilling my expectations. The project was bid to two selected contractors, Turner Construction and Barnes Construction. The difference between the bids was only $1,000. The total change orders on the job came to 1%. I was happy with the results. During the construction, I had to attend monthly Board Meetings to be available to answer questions. It was an interesting board to watch in action. Since this was a trust fund, the Board was composed equally of union members and contractors; neither side liked the other, and it was amazing to me that they ever agreed on anything. They were a pretty violent group, one fellow apparently tried to shoot another member for some imagined slight. I decided to keep a low profile. AutoCAD continues to grow. It has a rich set of capabilities that have evolved over time. Some of these were homegrown and others were integrated. We are grateful to contributors like Vertex over the course of AutoCAD's development. In 2010, Howard was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle in a story entitled "Architect has no designs on retirement." Today, DWF files from AutoCAD go beyond the paper. Posted at 10:53 AM in DWF \| Permalink Tags: #AutodeskTechnology, Autodesk Technology	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2411
__label__wiki	0.722537	0.722537	The Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston recalls being nuts in the ’70s April 9, 2014 · by the newt · in american made. · ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 6, 1991 By Steve Newton The five members of the Doobie Brothers that pull into the Pacific Coliseum on Friday (June 7) will be the same five guys that posed nearly naked on the racy (for 1972) fold-out sleeve of the breakthrough Toulouse Street album. They’re also the same gang that dressed up in old-fashioned Western garb and hopped on a stagecoach for that album’s hit-filled follow-up, The Captain and Me. But despite promotional claims to the contrary, this particular team—guitarist/vocalists Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons, drummers John Hartman and Michael Hossack, and bassist Tiran Porter—isn’t the original Doobie line-up per se. “They just call it that for convenience as much as anything else,” admits Johnston. However, it is the Doobies line-up that first achieved real success. “The first album didn’t do anything, but the second album, Toulouse Street, took off,” says Johnston, “and the people that were on that are the ones in the band now.” So it’s almost the original Doobie Brothers. And as far as fans of pre-Michael McDonald tunes like “China Grove”, “Jesus is Just Alright”, and “Rockin’ Down the Highway” are concerned, it might as well be. But the five players out of San Jose, California who provided ’70s high-schoolers with some of radio’s finest driving tunes have also developed musically over the years, as can be heard on the band’s latest release, Brotherhood. “We brought along a lotta new musical ideas when we got back together,” says Johnston, “ ’cause all of us had explored different things when we were apart. And then of course we used outside writing, which helped achieve even more of a different sound. We wanted to get away from the usual Doobie sound, because it’s not good to stay safe, so to speak. You gotta go out and try some other things.” Johnston makes no apologies about the kind of the music the Doobies made in their heyday, however—or about the kind of money they made with hummable mega-hits like “Listen to the Music”, which recently surpassed two million radio broadcasts. That’s one tune that Johnston knew was going to be a hit as soon as he finished writing it. “That’s the only song I’ve ever been correct about,” he laughs. “That’s the only song I ever said, ‘This would make a good single.’ I thought ‘China Grove’ might, but ‘Long Train Runnin’ ’? I said, ‘You’re crazy to put that out. You’re insane. That’ll never do anything.” It did do something, though, as one of a string of hits that helped the Doobies sell more than 40 million albums world-wide. And Johnston claims that he wasn’t even striving for radio acceptance at the time. “We were just strivin’ to do anything! We weren’t striving for any particular audience, for any particular nothin’. We were just trying to make it, just get out there and get goin’.” And what does Johnston appreciate most about the sizeable wealth he’s accumulated from a steady stream of royalty cheques? “That it carried me over in the years when nothin’ was happening! Otherwise I’d have been out starvin’. I’m awful damn lucky to have gotten where I am, ’cause I threw a lot of money away in the ’70s bein’ nuts, like everybody else did. But I had a good accountant, and I quit bein’ crazy—in the latter part of the ’70s, anyway.” Tags: 1991, Brotherhood, Doobie Brothers, John Hartman, Michael Hossack, Patrick Simmons, San Jose, Tiran Porter, Tom Johnson interview, Toulouse Street ← Megadeth kicks the most butt on the Clash of the Titans tour Steve Morse transforms into a different kind of person at night → One response to “The Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston recalls being nuts in the ’70s” Anonymous July 9, 2017 at 11:11 am · · Reply → You guys are still my number one hero’s looking forward to seeing you again you might recognize me if you see me I know all. All the words I miss Keith and Cornelius. Scott	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2412
__label__wiki	0.647411	0.647411	O EDJ Čo je Európsky deň jazykov? Prečo Európsky deň jazykov? Na prahu veku polyglotov Oslava jazykovej rozmanitosti Účasť Kto sa môže zapojiť? Ako sa zapojiť? Podujatia EDJ Nájdite podujatie Galéria obrázkov 2017 Súťaž „Tričko Európskeho dňa jazykov“ Niekoľko faktov o jazykoch Vedeli ste, že...? Často kladené otázky o posunkovej reči Celebrity, ktoré hovoria rôznymi jazykmi Názvy miest Hovor so mnou! Jazykový kvíz Hra v posunkovej reči Tie isté slová - iný význam Najdlhšie slová Idiomy sveta Unikátne slová Zvuky zvierat Zistite sami, ako ste na tom s jazykovými zručnosťami Všetky farby dúhy Učitelia Inventár ICT a OER nástrojov Adresár jazykových združení Materiály pre učiteľov Pridajte vaše matérialy Národné kontakty Our planet has over 7 billion people who speak between 6 000 and 7 000 different languages. A few languages are spoken by hundreds of millions of speakers, such as English or Chinese, but most are spoken by only a few thousand, or just a handful of speakers. In fact, 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by just 4% of the people. Europeans often feel their continent to have an exceptional number of languages, especially when compared to North America or Australia. Yet, only 3% of the world’s total, some 225 languages, are indigenous to Europe. Most of the world’s languages are spoken in a broad area on either side of the Equator - in southeast Asia, India, Africa, and South America. Many Europeans may think that a monolingual way of life is the norm. But between a half and two-thirds of the world’s population is bilingual to some degree, and a significant number are plurilingual. Plurilingualism is much more the normal human condition than monolingualism. Diversity of languages and of cultures, as in the case of biodiversity, is increasingly being seen as a good and beautiful thing in itself. Each language has its own way of seeing the world and is the product of its own particular history. All languages have their individual identity and value, and all are equally adequate as modes of expression for the people who use them. We know from comparisons of the rates at which children learn to speak that no language is intrinsically more difficult than any other language. The structure of language Language is an arbitrary system of sounds and symbols which is used for many purposes by a group of people, chiefly to communicate with each other, to express cultural identity, to convey social relationships and to provide a source of delight (for example, in literature). Languages differ from each other in their sounds, grammar, vocabulary, and patterns of discourse. But all languages are highly complex entities. Languages vary in the number of their vowel and consonant sounds, from less than a dozen to over a hundred. European languages tend to have inventories in the middle range – from around 25 such sounds (e.g. Spanish) to over 60 (e.g. Irish). Alphabets reflect these sounds with varying degrees of accuracy: some alphabets (e.g. Welsh) are very regular in the way they symbolise sounds; others (e.g. English) are very irregular. Within grammar, each language comprises several thousand points of word formation and sentence construction. Each language has a huge vocabulary available to meet the needs of its users – in the case of European languages, where scientific and technical vocabulary is very large, this reaches several hundred thousand words and phrases. Individual speakers know and use only a fraction of a language’s total vocabulary. The words educated people use – their active vocabulary – can reach some 50,000 words; the words they know but do not use – their passive vocabulary – is somewhat larger. In everyday conversation, people often make use of a small number of words, but with great frequency. It has been estimated that a 21-year-old has already uttered some 50 million words. Living languages and cultures are constantly changing. People influence each other in the way they speak and write. New media, such as the Internet, give languages fresh opportunities to grow. Languages are always in contact with each other, and affect each other in many ways, especially by borrowing words. English, for example, has over the centuries borrowed from over 350 languages, and European languages are all currently borrowing many words from English. The task of learning the mother tongue is one which we accomplish essentially in the first five years of life, though certain features of language (such as vocabulary acquisition) continue indefinitely. Language develops through several stages. During the first year, babies makes a wide range of vocalisations, out of which emerge the rhythm and intonation patterns, and then the vowels and consonants. Around the age of one year, the first understandable words are uttered. During the second year, two-word combinations follow, moving slowly to three- and four-word combinations. Three and four-year-olds use increasingly longer and complex sentences. Vocabulary grows from some 50 active words by 18 months to several thousand words by age five. The mother tongue is usually described as an individual’s first learned or primary language. This is the language people know best, the language they use most, or the language with which they most closely identify. With some bilingual people, two languages have been learned so closely together that it is impossible to choose between them, in terms of ”first” or “second” languages. With most bilinguals, however, the distinction is clearer, as the learning of a second or third language takes place in school or later in life. There is no absolute age limit beyond which it is impossible to learn another language. Bilingualism is a complex phenomenon. A common myth is that a bilingual person has two equally developed languages; in reality, bilinguals rarely display a balance between their two languages. Another myth is that all bilinguals are the same in their abilities; in reality, they display many kinds of bilingualism. Some sound like native speakers in both their languages; others have a strong foreign accent in one. Some can read well in both languages; others can do so only in one. Some prefer to write in one language, but can only talk in another. Bilingualism brings all kinds of benefits. Being bilingual can enhance your chances of successfully learning other languages. Somehow, the learning of a third language is facilitated by the learning of a second. Bilinguals may also have some advantages in thinking: there is evidence that they make faster progress than monolinguals in certain areas of early cognitive development and are in many ways more creative in their linguistic skills. Bilinguals have the great advantage of being able to communicate with a wider variety of people. Because bilinguals have the opportunity of experiencing two or more cultures in an intimate way, their ability can lead to more sensitivity in communication and a readiness to overcome cultural barriers and to build cultural bridges. There are also important practical issues: bilinguals have a potential economic advantage because a larger number of jobs becomes available to them. It is also increasingly accepted that multilingual companies have a competitive edge over monolingual ones. Languages are related to each other like the members of a family. Most of the languages of Europe can be grouped together, because of their common origins, as a single, large Indo-European language family. The families in Europe with the most member-languages and the most speakers are the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic. The Germanic language family has a northern branch with Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Faroese, as well as a western branch with German, Dutch, Frisian, English and Yiddish as its members. The Romance language family has as its members Romanian, Italian, Corsican, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan, French, Romansh, Ladin and Sardinian. To the Slavic language family belong languages such as Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. Within the Celtic family are Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton, with revival movements under way for Cornish and Manx. To the Baltic family belong Latvian and Lithuanian. Separate families with only one member are Greek, Albanian and Armenian. Basque is an exceptional case, because it does not belong to the Indo-European family and its origins are unknown. Other language families also have members in Europe. In the North we find the Uralic languages: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, several Sámi languages, as well as other small languages in the northern parts of the Russian Federation such as Ingrian or Karelian. In the Southeast we find representatives of the Altaic language family, notably Turkish and Azerbaijani. The Caucasian family is spoken in a relatively small and compact area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and comprises also about 40 members, among them Georgian, and Abkhaz. The Afro-Asiatic family includes Maltese, Hebrew and Berber. All these languages use a small number of alphabetic scripts. Most languages use the Roman (or Latin) alphabet. Russian and some other Slavic languages use Cyrillic. Greek, Yiddish, Armenian and Georgian each have their own script. Non- European languages widely used on European territory include Arabic, Chinese and Hindi, each with its own writing system. The languages of Europe Estimates vary, but there are about 225 spoken indigenous languages. The five languages spoken by most people in Europe are, by number of mother tongue speakers, Russian, German, English, French and Italian. But most European countries operate routinely with several languages. The exceptions are small states such as Liechtenstein and the Holy See (Vatican), and even in these places we find significant use of second languages. The 49 states parties to the European Cultural Convention have 41 official or national languages and many accord special status to other languages. Most countries have a number of traditionally spoken minority or regional languages. The Russian Federation has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory; the number varies from 130 to 200 depending on the criteria. Some regional and minority languages have obtained official status, for example, Basque, Catalan and Galician in the regions of Spain in which they are spoken. Welsh has protective language rights in the United Kingdom, as does Frisian in the Netherlands and the Sámi languages in Norway, Sweden and Finland. Due to the influx of migrants and refugees from all over the world, Europe has become increasingly multilingual. London, for example, has more than 300 languages spoken as a home language. Most other larger cities, particularly in western Europe, easily have 100-200 languages spoken as mother tongues by their school populations. The most common languages include Arabic, Berber Turkish, Kurdish, Hindi, Punjabi, and Chinese. However, many of these languages are spoken by small minorities, and their future is under threat. Daily, informal, oral interaction between parents and children is crucial to the survival of a language. Experts have estimated that over this century at least half of the world’s languages, and perhaps more, will die out. Within two generations all traces of a language can disappear when children are no longer raised in it. The reasons for giving up a language are manifold, and include the physical destruction (through environmental crisis and disease) of a community or its habitat, active antagonism by political groups, and – the commonest cause - economic and cultural domination by more powerful and prestigious languages. But whatever the reason, the result is the same: the loss to humanity of a unique resource. Through the work of the Council of Europe, two important international instruments came into force in 1998. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is in force in 25* member states; the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities which includes some provisions for minority languages, is in force in 39* member states (* ratifications as of 2010). These treaties are important in protecting and promoting the linguistic wealth of Europe. At the beginning of the 21st century, all European citizens live in a multilingual environment. In their daily lives, citizens come across many different languages, for example on a bus or a train, through TV, radio or newspapers, or the ingredients on a product in the supermarket. There is a need to increase popular knowledge and understanding of the diversity of the languages of Europe, and of the factors affecting their maintenance and growth. There is a need to generate a greater interest in and curiosity about languages. There is a need to enhance linguistic tolerance within and between nations. These were just some of the aims of the European Year of Languages 2001, which was organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union. On the eve of the closing event of the Year of Languages, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to declare the European Day of Languages to be celebrated on 26th September each year, with similar objectives.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2423
__label__cc	0.679117	0.320883	Center for Control, Dynamical Systems, and Computation Postprints from CCDC The Center for Control, Dynamical Systems, and Computation (CCDC) facilitates interdepartmental cooperation in control engineering, dyanamical systems, and computation at UCSB. Consisting of about seventy faculty and graduate students from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Mathematics, the Center serves to initiate and coordinate research projects rich in opportunities for cross- disciplinary investigations and applications to industrial, environmental, transportation, and defense systems. The Center attracts gifted graduate students to cross-disciplinary teamwork, in which theoretical concepts, computational methods, and engineering design are organically merged. The Center organizes workshops, short courses, and publishes a technical report series. The Center's two weekly seminar series routinely bring leading experts in the field and contribute to the Center's rich and stimulating research environment. With its post- doctoral and visiting faculty positions, the Center actively stimulates inter institutional and international cooperation. The common interests and cooperation among Center members can be discerned from frequent cross- listing of courses and joint publications. Interactions among Center faculty have resulted in a comprehensive graduate program in which MS and PhD students can pursue their studies across several engineering departments, with active support of faculty in applied mathematics and scientific computation. Courses covering virtually every area of control and dynamical systems are regularly offered. Overcoming the limitations of adaptive control by means of logic-based switching Hespanha, Joao P Liberzon, D Morse, A S In this paper we describe a framework for deterministic adaptive control which involves logic-based switching among a family of candidate controllers. We compare it with more conventional adaptive control techniques that rely on continuous tuning, emphasizing how switching and logic can be used to overcome some of the limitations of traditional adaptive control. The issues are discussed in a tutorial, non-technical manner and illustrated with specific examples. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Hysteresis-based switching algorithms for supervisory control of uncertain systems We address the problem of controlling a linear system with unknown parameters ranging over a continuum by means of switching among a finite family of candidate controllers. We present a new hysteresis-based switching logic, designed specifically for this purpose, and derive a bound on the number of switches produced by this logic on an arbitrary time interval. The resulting switching control algorithm is shown to provide stability and robustness to arbitrary bounded noise and disturbances and sufficiently small unmodeled dynamics. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2434
__label__cc	0.735832	0.264168	Tag Archives: Peter Gabriel birr [bur] n. 1. force; energy; vigor 2. emphasis in statement, speech, etc. 3. a whirring sound v. 4. to move with or make a whirring sound Chuck Yeager (1923), George Segal (1934), Jerry Springer (1944), Peter Gabriel (1950), Henry Rollins (1961) Ah, the Grammys. I didn’t watch them last night but I read the results and, after much consideration, I came away with the following: THE GRAMMYS BLOW. We loved with a love that was more than love. ↔ Edgar Allan Poe To put it simply, The Roots just get it. They get better with each album and have honed their sound to the point few other musical acts have. Here’s “Lighthouse” off the latest album, Undun. → So I’ve been doing my best to wake up earlier than I have in the past and one of the morning shows I’ve been trying to watch is Eye Opener on WPHL17 here in Philadelphia. And, boy, I’m sorry, but it’s pretty awful. → Thinking about buying shares in Facebook? Maybe you should read this first. → After years of pretending that I’d seen it, I’m proud to admit that this Saturday, I finally watched Air Force One from start to finish. What did you do with your Saturday that’s worth talking about? Tagged "Lighthouse", Air Force One, Birr, Chuck Yeager, Edgar Allan Poe, Eye Opener, Facebook, Facebook Stock, George Segal, Henry Rollins, Jerry Springer, Peter Gabriel, The Grammys, The Roots, Undun, WPHL17 \| 2 Comments \| semblance [sem-bluhns] n. 1. outward aspect or appearance 2. an assumed or unreal appearance; show 3. the slightest appearance or trace 4. a likeness, image, or copy 5. a spectral appearance; apparition John Pell (1611), Frédéric Chopin (1810), Glenn Miller (1904), Ralph Ellison (1913), Harry Caray (1914), Pete Rozelle (1926), Harry Belafonte (1927), Robert Bork (1927), Robert Conrad (1935), Roger Daltrey (1944), Dirk Benedict (1945), Alan Thicke (1947), Burning Spear (1948), Catherine Bach (1954), Ron Howard (1954), Timothy Daly (1956), Nik Kershaw (1958), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (1974) Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of this blog. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year. Looking back to the first night, having a vague idea of what I wanted to accomplish and sitting here now, I’m slightly amazed with how it’s all transpired. Some trial and error, some ups and downs, some hiatuses and I’m still borderline addicted to updating this blog almost every day. More importantly, I’m happy that so many of you come here daily to read what I’ve got to offer, especially those of you who take time our of your day to let me know what you think, both good and bad. All the feedback has been really helpful and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you. Truly. I’m not going to make any promise of what’s to come or what’ll happen on the euneJeune daily, but as of right now, I have no intention of quitting. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be posting something most every day, except Saturdays and Sundays. Thanks again for reading. Come back tomorrow for some more. I promise I’ll be back to my bitter self by then and will most definitely have something I need to get off my chest about the world around us. Indeed. In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, “Look at me…I’m tall, and I’m straight, and I’m handsome. Look at you…you’re all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you.” And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, “Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest.” So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day. ↔ Tom Waits One music artist I feel sometimes goes unnoticed is Peter Gabriel. Sure, I know the dude is a megastar and, right now, he’s probably sitting in a house so big most of us don’t possess the imagination to conceptualize its enormity, figuring out which charitable cause to throw his weight behind next. But he’s not on the top of anyone’s list. I talk about music constantly, and I always ask people whose music they simply couldn’t live without. I’ve gotten hundreds of different responses but no one’s ever said, “Peter Gabriel.” And I’m not sure why. Sure, he’s got a couple strikes against him like the fact Genesis did their best work after Gabriel left, forcing Phil Collins to come out from behind his drumkit. And, yeah, his use of costumes during live shows was, to put it mildly, less successful as David Bowie and Elton John but, let’s face it, not everyone can pull that shit off. On the other hand, he’s credited with changing the way music videos (Remember those?) were made with songs like “Sledge Hammer.” And the scene from the movie Say Anything where John Cusack holds the boombox, blasting “In Your Eyes,” outside of Ione Skye‘s house is largely considered the greatest use of music in the history of cinema. 1986’s So is almost always mentioned in those Top 500 Albums of All-Time lists that music critics create when there’s not a lot going on. Obviously, Peter Gabriel’s done some stuff, some good, some bad, some puzzling, but you’ve got to give him his due because he’s done it all on his terms. And that’s pretty much the definition of cool. Here’s my choice for his best song – “Come Talk To Me.” → As I’m sure you’re aware, one of the biggest earthquakes ever hit the South American nation of Chile over the weekend. So far, it doesn’t appear to be as devastating as the one that almost destroyed Haiti almost two months ago. From what I can tell that’s because, according to experts, the Chilean quake was “deeper” and its epicenter was located 20 miles offshore. Also, Chileans were better prepared for an earthquake both in terms of the structure of their buildings and the infrastructure of its government. As I write this, the death toll for Chile has been set at a little over700, but I suspect that number will climb in the days to come. If you know anyone who’s living in Chile and are looking for information on them, Google has setup a Chile People Finder. → Probably tomorrow, or maybe the next day, I’ll have some final thoughts on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games but right now I’d just like convey my appreciation to all the US Olympians who helped bring home a record 37 medals, especially the members of the Men’s Ice Hockey Team, who played some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen in my life. But more on that to come. → As of late, I know I’ve been in the need for some laughs and this article from The Onion did the trick. And, no, Dikembe Mutombo is not a US Senator. I had to look that up to make sure, though. Tagged "Come Talk To Me", "Sledge Hammer", "In Your Eyes", 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Alan Thicke, Burning Spear, Catherine Bach, Chile Earthquake 2010, Chile Earthquake Death Toll, David Bowie, Dikembe Mutombo, Dikembe Mutombo Is Not a US Senator, Dirk Benedict, First Anniversary of the Blog, Frederic Chopin, Genesis, Glenn Miller, Google Chile People Finder, Haiti Earthquake, Harry Belafonte, Harry Caray, Ione Skye, John Cusack, John Pell, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Nik Kershaw, Pete Rozelle, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Ralph Ellison, Robert Bork, Robert Conrad, Roger Daltrey, Ron Howard, Say Anything, Semblance, Team USA, The Onion, Timoth Daly, Tom Waits, Top 500 Albums of All Time, US Olympians Bring Home Record 37 Medals \| 2 Comments \| colloquial [kuh–loh-kwee-uhl] adj. 1. characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal 2. involving or using conversation Hans von Bülow (1830), Frank Nelson Doubleday (1862), Larry Storch (1923), Soupy Sales (1926), Elvis Presley (1935), Bob Eubanks (1938), Graham Chapman (1941), Robby Krieger (1946), David Bowie (1947), Mike Reno (1955), Paul Hester (1959), R. Kelly (1967), Ami Dolenz (1969), Sean Paul (1973) As I type this, I’m watching a TNT promo for Southland. Last year, NBC dropped the cop drama before it even debuted. TNT scooped it up and will start running the series, in its entirety, this Tuesday. (TNT is waiting to see how the ratings go for the seven episodes NBC aired plus six never-before-seen ones before deciding to order a new season.) As I’ve felt in the past, I’m currently confounded why some quality shows get the boot and other crappy shows (According To Jim, The Real World, Judge Judy, JAG) seem to run on forever. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me since quality entertainment seems to be a notion no one concern themselves with. It got me thinking about some other shows that were inexplicably dropped before their time. The following is a list of my favorite shows abandoned too soon. Firefly (2002) – (Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau) The Joss Whedon sci-fi series was seemingly loved by many. Except for FOX, which canceled the show after the first season. Internet rage is still burning bright, despite the network’s attempt to ease the angry mob with Serenity, a full length movie featuring the entire original cast. Sports Night (1998-2000) – (Josh Charles, Peter Krause) The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin created one of the smartest sitcoms ever. ABC ran it for two seasons before pulling the plug. Grounded For Life (2001-2005) – (Donal Logue, Kevin Corrigan) Easily on my top-five list of most clever sitcoms. FOX ran it for two years, then The WB for two more. Then it was over. And the laughter came to a halt. Arrested Development (2003-2006) – (Jason Bateman, Michael Cera) In what was probably the biggest affront to television viewers in the history of the world, FOX dropped was most likely the smartest show of its time. To this day, no one can really say why. The Unusuals (2009) – (Jeremy Renner, Adam Goldberg) I’m pretty much alone on this one, I think. I loved this show. But ABC didn’t. Ten episodes and then done. The National Rifle Association says that, “Guns don’t kill people, uh, people do.” But I think, I think the gun helps. You know? I think it helps. I just think just standing there going, “Bang!” That’s not going to kill too many people, is it? → Eddie Izzard There’s not a ton of information out there on Seattle-based band The Pale Pacific (formerly The Pale). I came upon the 2005 release Urgency a while back and it became one of my favorite “half albums” – those containing an equal amount of both good and so-so songs. (I’ve got a lot of those, by the way.) One of the better songs is “Identity Theft.” Give it a listen. → I’m not so naive to think all of this wintry weather going on is proof-positive that global warming is hogwash. But -50° wind chills in the Midwest don’t exactly help Al Gore’s cause. → Someone needs to be in a world of hurt to attempt to stab themselves to death. That’s exactly what Howard Stern’s sidekick, Artie Lange, did. Nine times. Long bouts of depression and numerous episodes of drug abuse apparently led him to it. Here’s hoping the guy can find some kind of peace and shake loose of his demons. → The other day, I reported that Vampire Weekend and Spoon were releasing albums next Tuesday. I lied. Vampire Weekend is releasing Contra next week, but Spoon’s Transference won’t come out until two weeks later. In any case, should be a good couple of months coming up for new music with Ben Kweller, Eels, Beach House, David Bowie, Midlake, Hot Chip, Peter Gabriel, Field Music, Jason Falkner, Shout Out Louds, Rogue Wave, The Whigs, Aloha, Frightened Rabbit, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Morning Benders and White Stripes all poised with fresh material. Tagged "Identity Theft", Aaron Sorkin, ABC Cancels Sports Night, ABC Cancels The Unusuals, According To Jim, Adam Goldberg, Al Gore, Aloha, Ami Dolenz, Arrested Development, Artie Lange, Artie Lange Stabs Himself, Beach House, Ben Kweller, Bob Eubanks, Colloquial, Contra, David Bowie, Donal Logue, Eddie Izzard, Eels, Elvis Presley, Field Music, Firefly, FOX Cancels Arrested Development, FOX Cancels Firefly, FOX Cancels Grounded For Life, Frank Nelson Doubleday, Frightened Rabbit, Global Warming, Graham Chapman, Grounded For Life, Hans von Bulow, Hot Chip, Howard Stern, JAG, Jason Bateman, Jason Falkner, Jeremy Renner, Josh Charles, Joss Whedon, Judge Judy, Kevin Corrigan, Larry Storch, Michael Cera, Midlake, Mike Reno, Nathan Fillion, NBC Cancels Southland, Paul Hester, Peter Gabriel, Peter Krause, R. Kelly, Robby Krieger, Rogue Wave, Sean Paul, Serenity, Severe Winter Weather Across US, Shout Out Louds, Soupy Sales, Southland, Spoon, Sports Night, Summer Glau, Ted Leo And The Pharmacists, The Morning Benders, The Pale Pacific, The Real World, The Unusuals, The WB, The WB Cancels Grounded For Life, The West Wing, The Whigs, TNT, Transference, TV Shows Canceled Too Soon, Urgency, Vampire Weekend, White Stripes \| 2 Comments \| Word: jabberwocky [jab-er-wok-ee] n. 1. a playful imitation of language consisting of invented, meaningless words; nonsense; gibberish 2. an example of writing or speech consisting of or containing meaningless words ∞ adj. 3. consisting of or comparable to Jabberwocky; meaningless; senseless Birthday: Albrecht Dürer (1471), Henri Rousseau (1844), Armand Hammer (1898), Fats Waller (1904), Raymond Burr (1917), Leo Sayer (1948), Al Franken (1951), Mr. T (1952), Judge Reinhold (1957), The Notorious B.I.G. (1972), Fairuza Balk (1974) Standpoint: Thursday is the day I address your suggestions for Annoying Sayings & Misused Words. Let’s have at it. “OMG” – (submitted by Fred T.) – “OMG” started out as a chat acronym for “Oh my God!’ But, I’m sorry to report that it has snuck out into the spoken word. I think it’s a great thing to teach children to say instead of, “Oh my God!” Otherwise, unless you’re using it ironically (something I’ll always support), congratulations. It’s official. You’re a tool. “It’s” vs. “Its” – (submitted by Cheryl F.) – When it comes to “it’s” and “its”, I’m ever vigilant. Definitely easy to make a mistake here with just an apostrophe (‘) making the difference. “It’s” is a contraction for “it is” or “it has.” It’s going to be a great day. “Its” is possessive pronoun meaning “of it” or “belonging to it.” The bear got its foot trapped in the rocks. These two words are confused and misused mainly due to lack of attention to detail. Make sure to keep an eye out. One of the easiest grammatical mistakes to miss. “I know, right?” – (submitted by Harold W.) – I’m reasonably sure, without my knowledge, a law was passed that every woman under-30 in this country is obligated to utter this phrase exactly 85 times per day. First, if you’re agreeing with something someone said by saying, “I know,” there is no need to follow it with, “right?” The other person already agrees with you. By itself, it’s not that bothersome. But the way it’s said most of the time can make my skin crawl. I think it all has to do with the 2-octave jump the voice does when emphazizing the last word “right,” making it sound like, “I know, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?” How about you? What things do you hear or read that bother you? Let us know. Quotation: Never mistake motion for action. – Ernest Hemingway Tune: I read about Harlem Shakes‘ song “Sunlight” on a friend’s Facebook status update. Great driving-to-the-beach song. Gallimaufry: Today might be remembered for a long time as President Obama and former VP Dick Cheney will both give speeches on the state of terrorism in this country. Cheney thinks Obama has left the country wide-open for a terrorist attack and will give his thoughts in a speech titled “Keeping America Safe: An Address by Dick Cheney.” Obama’s speech is called, “How’s Dick Cheney Still Alive?” ∞ Human piece of garbage Michael Vick was released from prison yesterday after serving 18 months for admitting sharing responsibility for brutally murdering several dogs. The former NFL star will server the last two months of his sentence under house arrest in Hampton, Virginia. Vick is reportedly ready to join a Humane Society of the United States campaign designed to discourage urban youth from pitting angry dogs against each other in fights to the death. ∞ Oscar-winning director Cameron Crowe understands how to make music work in movies. If you’ve ever watched the scene from Say Anything where John Cusack plays Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” outside Ione Skye’s house, you know exactly what I mean. Anyway, Crowe has compiled a list of some of the best music moments in film history. Pretty solid, in my opinion. Incoming: Tomorrow – It’s my birthday. But it’ll also be Friday so you’ll get my 3 Things To Do In Philly When You’re Dead plus some birthday-related list. Come back and check it out. Tagged "In Your Eyes", "Sunlight", Al Franken, Albrecht Durer, Annoying Sayings & Misused Words, Armand Hammer, Cameron Crowe, Dick Cheney, Ernest Hemingway, Fairuza Balk, Fats Waller, Harlem Shakes, Henri Rousseau, I know right?, Ione Skye, It's vs. Its, Jabberwocky, John Cusack, Judge Reinhold, Leo Sayer, Michael Vick, Mr. T, NFL, OMG, Peter Gabriel, President Obama, Raymond Burr, Say Anything, The Humane Society of the United States, The Notorious B.I.G. \| 3 Comments \|	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2437
__label__wiki	0.894763	0.894763	Bagnoli Airfield Part of Twelfth Air Force 45°11′51.25″N 011°52′10.42″E / 45.1975694°N 11.8695611°E / 45.1975694; 11.8695611 Military Airfield Controlled by United States Army Air Forces Location of Bagnoli Airfield, Italy Bagnoli Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield in northeast Italy, which is located approximately 4 km south of Conselve in the Province of Padua in the Italian region of Veneto. It was an all-weather temporary field built by the United States Army Air Force XII Engineer Command using a graded earth compacted surface, with a prefabricated hessian (burlap) surfacing known as PHS. PHS was made of an asphalt-impregnated jute which was rolled out over the compacted surface over a square mesh track (SMT) grid of wire joined in 3-inch squares. Pierced Steel Planking was also used for parking areas, as well as for dispersal sites, when it was available. In addition, tents were used for billeting and also for support facilities; an access road was built to the existing road infrastructure; a dump for supplies, ammunition, and gasoline drums, along with a drinkable water and minimal electrical grid for communications and station lighting. Once completed it was turned over for use by the Twelfth Air Force 57th Fighter Group during 15 July-5 August 1945, flying combat operations with P-40 Warhawks. When the 57th moved out the airfield was closed. Today, the main runway is visible in aerial photography. This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/. Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4. Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556. USAAF Twelfth Air Force in World War II Berguent Louis Gentil Marnia Médiouna Nouasser Port Lyautey Rabat Sale Ras el Ma Ain M'lila Berteaux Canrobert Chateau-dun-du-Rhumel Es Sénia (Oran) Maison Blanche (Algiers) Nouvion Orleansville Relizane Rerhaia Sedrata Sainte-Barbe du Tlélat Tafaraoui (Oran) Tébessa Telergma Thiersville Youks-les-Bains Dar el Koudia Depienne Djedeida Djilma Ebba Ksour El Bathan Enfidaville Goubrine Grombalia Hergla La Sebala Le Sers Massicault Mateur Menzel Temime Oudna Pont du Fahs Protville Sainte Marie du Zit Souk-el-Arba Souk-el-Khemis Thelepte Agrigento (Sicily) Barcelona LG (Sicily) Boccadifalco (Sicily) Borizzo (Sicily) Capodichino (Naples) Castelvetrano (Sicily) Cassibile (Sicily) Catania (Sicily) Comiso (Sicily) Ciampino (Rome) Decimomannu (Sardinia) Elmas (Sardinia) Falconara Gerbini (Sicily) Le Banca Licata (Sicily) Malignano Mazzara (Sicily) Milazzo (Sicily) Messina (Sicily) Montecorvino Ombrene Ponte Olivo (Sicily) Rocca Bernardo Rosia Scordia (Sicily) Serretella Termini (Sicily) Tortorella Torrente Comunelli Tre Cancello Voltone Aghione (Corsica) Amberieu (Y-5) Amiens (B-48) Clastres (A-71) Dijon (Y-9) Dôle-Tavaux (Y-7) Ghisonaccia (Corsica) Gisonochia (Corsica) Istres (Y-17) La Vallon (Y-18) Luneville (Y-2) Loyettes (Y-25) Poretta (Corsica) Saint-Dizier (A-64) Salon de Provence (Y-16) Serragia (Corsica) Solonzara (Corsica) Tantonville (Y-1) Toul-Ochey (A-96) XII Bomber XII Tactical Air XXII Tactical Air XII Troop Carrier (Provisional) 5th Bombardment 42d Bombardment 47th Bombardment (7th Fighter) 51st Troop Carrier 52d Troop Carrier 57th Bombardment 62d Fighter 64th Fighter 90th Photographic Bombardment 2d Bombardment 301st Bombardment 310th Bombardment 1st Fighter 31st Fighter 324th Fighter 332d Fighter 3d Reconnaissance 5th Reconnaissance 68th Reconnaissance Troop carrier 60th Troop Carrier 313th Troop Carrier 414th Night Fighter Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Fifteenth This article about an airport in Italy is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bagnoli_Airfield&oldid=782618007" Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Italy Airports established in 1944 Italian airport stubs Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2441
__label__wiki	0.535756	0.535756	Barbara Hendricks (politician) This article is about the German politician Barbara Anne Hendricks. For the opera singer, see Barbara Hendricks. Barbara Hendricks Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety 17 December 2013 – 14 March 2018 Succeeded by Treasurer of the Social Democratic Party 26 October 2007 – 26 January 2014 Kurt Beck Franz Müntefering Inge Wettig-Danielmeier Dietmar Nietan Parliamentary Secretary of State for Finance 27 October 1998 – 16 November 2007 Hans Eichel Peer Steinbrück Imgard Karwatzki Steffen Kampeter Member of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Assumed office Social Democratic Party List (1952-04-29) 29 April 1952 (age 67) Kleve, West Germany Barbara Anne Hendricks (born 29 April 1952) is a German politician and member of the SPD party. From 2013 until 2018, Hendrick served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. From 2007 to 2013, she was Federal Treasurer of the SPD, and from 1998 to 2007 she was Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Finance.[1] 1 Early life and career 2.1 Early beginnings 2.2 Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance, 1998–2007 2.3 Treasurer of the SPD, 2007–2013 2.4 Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, 2013–2018 2.5 Later career 3 Other activities 3.1 Financial institutions 3.2 Cultural institutions 3.3 Others 5 Cabinets Early life and career[edit] Barbara Hendricks was born in Kleve. After obtaining her Abitur in 1970 at the Johanna Sebus Gymnasium in Kleve, Hendricks studied History and Social Sciences in Bonn, passing the Staatsexamen examination for high school teachers in 1976. She then worked for the Association for Student Affairs until 1978. After that, until 1981, she was a deputy press secretary at the press office of the Bundestag parliamentary party of the SPD. In 1980 she was awarded a doctorate based on a thesis entitled Die Entwicklung der Margarineindustrie am unteren Niederrhein [The development of the margarine industry on the lower Rhine]. She was then press secretary of the minister of finance of the state of North Rhine-Westfalia until 1990. In 1991 she was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment, Spatial Planning and Agriculture of the State of North Rhine-Westfalia. Early beginnings[edit] Barbara Hendricks has been a member of the SPD since 1972 and has been the president of the SPD party organization for the District of Kleve since 1989. From 1984 to 1989 she was a member of the District Council (Kreistag) of the Rural District of Kleve. From 1990 to 2001 she was a member of the party council. From 1987 to 2001 she was a member of the state party executive of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia – as from 1996 as treasurer. Since the 1994 elections, Hendricks has been a member of the Bundestag. In parliament, she served on the Finance Committee from 1994 until 1998. In addition, from October 1995 to November 1998, she was a member of the executive of the SPD parliamentary group, under the leadership of the group’s chairman Rudolf Scharping. Hendricks was always elected to the Bundestag via the party list of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 2001 she has been a member of the SPD (federal) party executive. Barbara Hendricks and Angela Merkel in 2013 Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance, 1998–2007[edit] Following the 1998 German federal election, on 27 October 1998 Hendricks was appointed Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. From 22 November 2005, Hendricks continued in this office in the first cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel – meaning that she was a state secretary under three finance ministers: Oskar Lafontaine, Hans Eichel, and Peer Steinbrück. She left this office on 16 November 2007, after being elected federal treasurer of the SPD. Treasurer of the SPD, 2007–2013[edit] From October 2007, Hendricks served as SPD federal treasurer, a position in which she administered the party-owned media holding Print and Publishing Society (DDVG) with stakes in regional newspapers such as Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Leipziger Volkszeitung and Märkische Allgemeine.[2] In the campaign for the 2009 German federal election Hendricks was a member of the "shadow cabinet" of the SPD candidate for the chancellorship, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, where she was responsible for consumer affairs.[3] Following the elections, she served on the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development until 2013. On the committee, she was her parliamentary group’s rapporteur on heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC); poverty reduction strategies (PRSP); the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the World Bank; and the European Development Fund (EDF). In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2013 federal elections, Hendricks was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by Angela Merkel, Horst Seehofer and Sigmar Gabriel. Until 2014 Hendricks also served as a member of the executive of the SPD Culture Forum,[4] mainly responsible for culture financing. Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, 2013–2018[edit] at 2016 UNFCCC Conference COP22 in Marrakech (Africa) From 17 December 2013, Hendricks served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in the third cabinet of Angela Merkel. Hendricks led the German delegations to the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima[5] and the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. In August 2015, she was part of Chancellor Merkel’s delegation to the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany and Brazil in Brasília.[6] In early 2015, Hendricks proposed a new draft law that imposes an outright ban on fracking for shale gas in the following years and only allow scientific test drilling under strict conditions to assess the risks and environmental impact.[7] The resulting legislation that passed the cabinet in April 2015 softened her line somewhat, restricting fracking until 2019, after which commercial fracking could only go forward after passing various tough regulatory hurdles.[8] The legislation, however, allows fracking for deep-lying or "tight" gas, a technology that has been used for decades in Germany.[9] By early 2016, Hendricks entered in talks with various stakeholders on drawing up a plan over how to exit coal-fired power generation in Germany, later named 'Climate Action Plan 2050'.[10] Later career[edit] Following the 2017 elections, Hendricks remained in office until 2018 but left with the new coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel taking over. She joined the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to her committee assignment, she has been serving as deputy chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the Cono Sur States (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay). Other activities[edit] Financial institutions[edit] KfW, ex-officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (2014–2018) Volksfürsorge Deutsche Lebensversicherung AG, Member of the Advisory Board (2005–2013) German Investment Corporation (DEG), Member of the Supervisory Board (2005–2007) IKB Deutsche Industriebank, Member of the Advisory Board (2005–2007) Cultural institutions[edit] Federal Cultural Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees (2002–2007) Jewish Museum, Berlin, Alternate Member of the Board of Trustees (2001–2007) Museum Foundation Post and Telecommunication, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees (1998–2005) Others[edit] Central Committee of German Catholics, Member[11][12] Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), Member of the Board[13] Aktion Pro Humanität foundation.,[14] Member of the Board of Trustees Denkwerk Demokratie, Member of the Advisory Board German-Dutch Conference, Member of the Steering Board Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, Member of the Board of Trustees Federal Agency for Civic Education, Member of the Board of Trustees (2010–2014) German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), Member of the Board of Trustees (2002–2007) Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie, Member IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (IG BCE), Member Hendricks is openly lesbian.[15] After the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Germany, Hendricks married her long-term partner Valérie Vauzanges in October 2017.[16] Cabinets[edit] First Schröder cabinet (junior minister) Second Schröder cabinet (junior minister) First Merkel cabinet (junior minister) Third Merkel cabinet (cabinet minister) Literature by and about Barbara Hendricks in the German National Library catalogue Barbara Hendricks: Steuergerechtigkeit für Familien [Tax justice for families] In: Wolfgang Thierse (ed.): Religion ist keine Privatsache [Religion is not a private matter]. Patmos, Düsseldorf 2000. ^ Hendricks, Barbara. "Barbara Hendricks. Typisch Niederrhein". Barbara Hendricks. Typisch Niederrhein. (in German). Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved Mar 7, 2015. ^ Ian Johnson (November 13, 2012), German newspaper FR files for insolvency Deutsche Welle. ^ "SPD-Kompetenzteam: Steinmeier zieht ohne Stars in den Wahlkampf" [SPD competence team: Steinmeier faces the election campaignwithout any stars]. Spiegel.de (in German). 30 July 2009. ^ "Hendricks, Barbara". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Feb 16, 2007. Retrieved Mar 7, 2015. ^ Jens Thurau (December 13, 2014), Lima climate conference goes into extra time Deutsche Welle. ^ Thomas Vitzthum (August 20, 2015), Reise ins Land der begrenzten Möglichkeiten Die Welt. ^ Caroline Copley (April 1, 2015), Germany sets very high bar for fracking Reuters. ^ Europe’s fracking failure Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2015. ^ Caroline Copley and Christoph Steitz (January 20, 2016), Germany must draw up plan for coal exit – environment minister Reuters. ^ Members Central Committee of German Catholics. ^ Barbara Hendricks erneut im Zentralkomitee der Katholiken Rheinische Post, November 21, 2016. ^ Organizational Structure Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). ^ "Hoffnungsvoller Besuch" [Hopeful visit]. Rheinische Post (in German). 11 November 2008. ^ "Erste offen lesbische Bundesministerin". EMMA (in German). Jan 20, 2014. Retrieved Mar 7, 2015. ^ "Umweltministerin Hendricks hat Lebenspartnerin geheiratet". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). dpa. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Barbara Hendricks (politician). Website of Barbara Hendricks ‹See Tfd›(in German) Biography of Barbara Hendricks at the Bundestag ‹See Tfd›(in German) Peter Altmaier Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety 2013–present Incumbent Third Merkel Cabinet (2013–2018) Angela Merkel (CDU) Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) Frank-Walter Steinmeier (until 27 January 2017, SPD) Brigitte Zypries (since 27 January 2017, SPD) Thomas de Maizière (CDU) Heiko Maas (SPD) Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) Andrea Nahles (SPD) Christian Schmidt (since 17 February 2014, CSU) Hans-Peter Friedrich (until 17 February 2014, CSU) Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) Manuela Schwesig (until 2 June 2017, SPD) Katarina Barley (since 2 June 2017, SPD) Hermann Gröhe (CDU) Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) Barbara Hendricks (SPD) Johanna Wanka (CDU) Gerd Müller (CSU) Peter Altmaier (CDU) Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barbara_Hendricks_(politician)&oldid=903694497" 20th-century German politicians 21st-century German politicians Construction ministers of Germany Environment ministers of Germany Female members of the Bundestag LGBT members of the Bundestag Lesbian politicians Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia People from Kleve Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians 20th-century German women politicians 21st-century German women politicians Women federal government ministers of Germany	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2442
__label__wiki	0.5914	0.5914	Delhi–Meerut Expressway (Redirected from Delhi-Meerut Expressway) Controlled-access expressway in India 96 km (60 mi) Major junctions Section 1 : Nizamuddin Bridge - Delhi-UP Border 8.7 km (5.4 mi) Nizamuddin Bridge, New Delhi UP Gate, Delhi-UP Border. Hindon Bridge at UP Gate awaits widening plan. Section 2 : Delhi-UP Border - DASNA 19.2 km (11.9 mi) UP Gate, Delhi-UP Border Dasna, Ghaziabad Section 3 : Dasna - Hapur Section 4 : Dasna - Meerut Partapur, Meerut Delhi, Uttar Pradesh Highway system Indian road network Delhi–Meerut Expressway (Hindi: दिल्ली-मेरठ एक्सप्रेसवे) is India's widest 96 km long controlled-access expressway, connecting Delhi with Meerut via Dasna in Ghaziabad in India. The 8 lanes old stretch of National Highway 24 (NH-24) up to Uttar Pradesh Gate is widened to 14 lanes(widest expressway in India), the road between UP Gate and Dasna also will be fourteen-laned. The next phase of the expressway will be built on a new alignment from Dasna to Meerut - a six-lane stretch joining Meerut bypass. The 28 km (17 mi) stretch between Nizamuddin Bridge and Dasna is one of the most congested areas in the NCR. [1] The total project cost is estimated to be between ₹8000-10000 crores.[2] 2.1 Package I : Nizamuddin Bridge to Delhi-UP border 2.2 Package II : Delhi-UP Border to Dasna 2.3 Package III : Dasna to Hapur 2.4 Package IV : Dasna to Meerut 3 Funding 4 Status update 4.1 Section 1: Nizamuddin Bridge to Delhi-UP Border 4.2 Section 2: Delhi-UP Border to Dasna 4.3 Section 3: Dasna to Hapur 4.4 Section 4: Dasna to Meerut 5 Green initiatives A proposal for a Ghaziabad to Meerut expressway was mentioned in the Lok Sabha by the then Minister of State for Urban Affairs and Employment in March 1999.[3] The proposal again found mention in a February 2000 seminar speech by the then Union Urban Development Minister.[4] An expressway from Delhi to Meerut via Ghaziabad was then proposed under the NCR Transport Plan 2021, which was notified in September 2005. The Delhi to Ghaziabad section was to be taken up in 2001-11 with the Ghaziabad to Meerut scheduled 2011-21.[5][6] In February 2006, the Committee on infrastructure gave approval for a feasibility study for the expressway.[7] The decision to build the expressway was announced in the 2006 budget speech by then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.[8][9] Construction of 1,000 km of expressways under National Highway Development Program (NHDP) Phase-VI was approved in November 2006.[10] In December 2006, it was reported that 600 km of expressways would be chosen from among the proposed expressways including the Delhi-Meerut expressway for the first stage of NHDP Phase-VI on the basis of a prioritization study being taken up by the NHAI.[10][11] In April 2008, it was reported that proposals had been invited from consultants for deciding the alignment of the expressway.[12] In November 2009, it was reported that the alignment study had been completed and a consultant had been appointed for the feasibility study for the project, with the expected completion of the study by May 2010.[13] In August 2011, it was reported that the expressway was targeted for completion by December 2015.[14] In October 2011, it was reported that the feasibility report was under progress and the project was to be taken up under NHDP Phase-VI. The alignment proposed was to be along NH-24 from Nizammuddin to Dasna and then to Meerut.[15] In December 2011, the December 2015 targeted completion date was reaffirmed and the feasibility report submitted by the appointed consultant was said to be under study.[16] In May 2012, it was reported that the original target of awarding concession by 2009-10 was not completed due to various problems regarding alignment finalisation, and the consequent delay in feasibility reports.[17] In July 2013, the Steering Group appointed by the Prime Minister to accelerate Infrastructure Investment decided on 15 March 2014 as the last date for awarding of contract for the expressway.[18] In August 2013, it was reported that the expressway was targeted for the contemporary financial year.[19] In November 2013, it was reported that the stretch from Delhi up to UP Gate was to be converted from six lanes to fourteen lanes with six lanes grade-separated exclusively for traffic moving towards Meerut. The stretch from UP Gate to Dasna was to be eight laned and a new six lane alignment was to come up from Dasna to Meerut bypass on NH-58. The project cost, including land acquisition, was estimated at ₹6,450 crore (US$930 million).[20] On 18 November 2013, it was confirmed that Centre, not the Uttar Pradesh state government, would build the much delayed Delhi–Meerut Expressway starting from Nizamuddin Bridge on Ring Road. Once complete, commuters will be able to reach Meerut in 45 to 60 minutes and cut travel time to Haridwar and Dehradun by almost an hour.[1] The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) under the government of India Chaired by Prime minister Narendra Modi approved the Delhi–Meerut Expressway (4 laning) with construction of connected roads to be undertaken in July 2014. CCEA under PM Modi again approved the widening of these roads 8/6 laning in May 2016. There will be six- to eight-laning of NH 24 (Hapur bypass), six laning of NH 58 (Delhi-UP border), six-laning of NH 235 (Delhi-UP). The total cost is about ₹7,855.87 crore (US$1.1 billion)."[21] The deadline set for the project is three years.[22] Construction of the Nizamuddin to Dasna road was scheduled to begin on 31 December 2015.[23] Project[edit] National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has divided the 96 km stretch starting from Nizamuddin bridge in the outer ring road in New Delhi to Meerut bypass into 4 packages: Package I : Nizamuddin Bridge to Delhi-UP border[edit] This section is 8.7 km long, 14 Lane (6 Lane Expressway, 8 Lane Normal Highway, 2.5 m Bicycle Track on Both Side) with 4 flyovers and 3 vehicle underpass.[24] The project involves development of expressway from Nizamuddin Bridge (km-0.000) to existing Delhi-Uttar Pradesh Border (km-8.360) section of NH-24 [25] Development of Package I of Delhi–Meerut Expressway in length of 8.7 km in Delhi has been awarded to concessionaire Welspun Delhi Meerut Expressway Private Limited.[26] Total project cost will be ₹841.50 crore (US$120 million).[27][28]. This phase of the expressway was inaugurated on May 27, 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi .[29] Package II : Delhi-UP Border to Dasna[edit] This section is 19.2 km long, 14 lane (6 lane expressway, 8 lane normal highway, 2.5 m bicycle track on both sides) with 13 vehicle underpasses and 6 foot-underpasses.[24] Tender goes to Apco Chetak[30][31] (Apco Infratech Ltd is based in UP and Chetak Enterprises Ltd in Rajasthan), at a cost of ₹1,998 crore (US$290 million)[32] (cost of shifting of transmission lines: ₹225 crore (US$33 million), cost of shifting water pipeline: ₹160 crore (US$23 million), 22,027 trees will be cut and ₹22 crore (US$3.2 million) compensation given to district forest department)[24] The work is carried out under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) : Phase-VI.[33] A total nine underpasses and three flyovers are planned on the 20 km stretch to Dasna. But following a revision in the detailed project report, the plan was amended to 15 underpasses and a just one flyover, at Lal Kuan. The underpasses will be built in such a way that there is no criss-crossing traffic on the expressway and traffic flow at intersections will be altered accordingly.[34] Package III : Dasna to Hapur[edit] This section is 22.2 km long, 8 lane normal highway, from existing km 27.500 to existing km 49.923 of NH 24.[35] 1 flyover and 12 underpass will be constructed on this segment.[24] Previously it was 6 lane but in Sep-Oct 2016 board meeting it was updated to 8 lanes.[32] Contract has been awarded to Apco-Chetak[24][36] (Apco Infratech Ltd is based in UP and Chetak Enterprises in Rajasthan), at a cost of ₹1,081 crore (US$160 million).[26] Package IV : Dasna to Meerut[edit] 46 km long, 6 lane expressway is a new greenfield alignment. The alignment will be from Dasna in Ghaziabad district to Meerut Bypass at Partapur.[37] Earlier, the 45-km-long Ghaziabad to Meerut section of NH-58 was also part of project but due to the decision of Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) to use dividers on NH-58 for trains' elevated corridor, the highway was not used and new alignment was proposed.[37] The tender for the above alignment has been awarded to GR Infraprojects for a contract value of Rs 1087.07 Crores.[38] Funding[edit] Of the total project cost, 40% will be funded by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the new 'Hybrid Annuity Model'. The remaining 60% will be arranged by the concessionaire by way of mix of debt/equity of 48:12, 12% being the promoter’s contribution and rest will be funded by Punjab National Bank-led consortium.[39] Status update[edit] Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the expressway on 30 December 2015.[40] Section 1: Nizamuddin Bridge to Delhi-UP Border[edit] 2017 Mar: 15% work completed.[41] 2017 Aug: 60% work completed.[42] 2017 Nov: 75% work completed.[43][44] 2018 Apr : 100% work completed 27 May 2018 : Inaugurated by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi . Section 2: Delhi-UP Border to Dasna[edit] 2017 Mar: Contract is yet to be awarded to developer.[41] 2017 Aug: Apco-Chetak (joint venture between Apco Infra from Uttar Pradesh and Chetak from Rajasthan) the developer for this section is not able to complete financial closure for this section i.e. not able to get it financed by banks.[42] 2017 Nov: Work has finally started on this section.[45] Leveling work has started and separator boards have been enacted for proposed flyover at Lal Kuan by Apco Infra. 2018 May: 15% work completed.[46] 2018 Oct: 24% work completed.[47] 2019 Jan: 35% work completed. This stretch is expected to be completed by November-2019[48] 2019 Feb: UP border to Dasna will be completed By December 2019 i.e. before the official deadline of May 2020. [49] 2019 Apr 46% work completed on UP-Border - Vijaynagar stretch of 8 kms. [50] 2019 July 53% work completed on UP-Border - Vijaynagar stretch of 8 kms. [51] To be inaugurated by December 2019.[52] Section 3: Dasna to Hapur[edit] 2017 Mar: Work started.[41] 2019 Jan: 85% work completed. This stretch is expected to be completed by August 2019[54] 2019 July: 93% work completed. This stretch is expected to be completed by July 2019[55] Section 4: Dasna to Meerut[edit] GR Infraproject is developing this section from Dasna to Meerut from Km 27.740 of NH 24 to Km 51.975 of NH 58 . The contract value is Rs 1087.07 Crores [56] 2018 May: 3% work completed.[57] 2018 Aug: Work started and going on full phase. 2018 Dec: 25% work Completed[58] 2019 July: 51% work Completed[59] On Delhi-Meerut Expressway by December,2019. Green initiatives[edit] The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to utilise the solid waste from Ghazipur landfill in construction of Delhi–Meerut Expressway to curb pollution.[60][61][62] National Expressway 2, Eastern Peripheral Expressway or KGP (Sonipat(kundli)-Ghaziabad-Palwal) is a proposed road which will bypass Delhi on the eastern side. Western Peripheral Expressway, a complementary and under implementation road bypassing Delhi on the western side, Sonepat-Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP). ^ a b "NH-24 in Delhi to be 14-laned for Meerut Expressway". The Times of India. ^ Taneja, Mansi (11 September 2014). "NHAI to offer six packages for Eastern Peripheral Expressway". Business Standard.com. ^ "Press Release - Connecting cities near Delhi with Express Highways". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 9 March 1999. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Connecting cities near Delhi with Express Highways". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 3 February 2000. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "NCR Transport Plan 2021" (pdf). pp. 6–7, 11. Retrieved 24 March 2011. ^ "Regional Plan 2021 - National Capital Region Planning Board". Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - PM reviews progress of infrastructure projects". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 16 February 2006. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Summary of the General Budget 2006-07". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 28 February 2006. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Shri S.Jaipal Reddy's Speech". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 24 May 2 ccc006. Retrieved 7 January 2014. Check date values in: \|date= (help) ^ a b "Press Release - Development of access controlled expressways". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 14 December 2006. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Construction of Expressway under Phase VI of NHDP". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 7 December 2006. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Development of Expressways under NHDP-VI". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 23 April 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Economic Editors' Conference, 3‐4th November, 2009" (pdf). Press Information Bureau, Government of India. November 2009. p. 5. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Express Highway between Delhi and Meerut". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - New Expressway Projects". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 19 October 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Development of Delhi-Ghaziabad Highway". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Construction of Expressways". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Press Release - Deadlines set for key infrastructure project investments". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Special Feature - Building not just Roads but Nation". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 26 August 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ Dipak Kumar Dash (18 November 2013). "NH-24 in Delhi to be 14-laned for Meerut expressway". Times of India. TNN. Retrieved 7 January 2014. ^ "Govt Approves Expansion of Highways in Five States". Outlook India. ^ "Narendra Modi government sets three-year deadline for completion of Expressway projects". DNA India. ^ "50km of 14 lanes in 30 months". TimesofIndia. ^ a b c d e "NH 24 Widening 14 Lane Work Progress Status, Completion Date \| Delhi-UP Date-Dasna-Hapur \| Delhi Meerut Expressway". www.uptunews.in. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ India, Press Trust of (5 March 2016). "Welspun Enterprises to develop 1st phase of Delhi-Meerut E'way". Business Standard India. Retrieved 5 June 2017. ^ a b ".:NHAI:.Project Awarded Between 2015-16". www.nhai.org. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ "Welspun Enterprises to develop 1st phase of Delhi-Meerut Eway". Retrieved 5 June 2017. ^ "View Project - Department of Economic Affairs - InfrastructureIndia.gov.in". infrastructureindia.gov.in. Retrieved 5 June 2017. ^ Sood, Jyotika (28 May 2018). "Narendra Modi inaugurates two expressways, says infra key priority". Mint. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2018. ^ "Delhi-Meerut Expressway Project [Package-II] \| Roadways \| ProjectsToday". www.projectstoday.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ "NHAI: Project Awarded Between 2016-17". www.nhai.org. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ a b "डासना से हापुड़ तक एनएच चार से होगा आठ लेन का". www.livehindustan.com (in Hindi). Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ "4 bidders in race for UP Gate-Dasna stretch of Delhi-Meerut Expressway". The Financial Express. 3 October 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ "15 underpasses to make NH-24 signal-free from UP Gate to Dasna - Times of India". ^ Research, Infraline Energy. "Six-eight Laning Delhi Meerut Expressway (nh-24,58) Package Iii". Infraline Energy. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ a b "Finally, work begins on Delhi-Meerut Expressway - Times of India". The Times of India. 2 May 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ "GR Infra Projects". Retrieved 8 April 2019. ^ Bureau, Our (12 September 2016). "In a first, Welspun ties funds for road project under 'Hybrid Annuity Model'". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 5 June 2017. ^ "Prime Minister to lay Foundation Stone for Delhi-Meerut Expressway". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 13 June 2017. ^ a b c "Completion of Delhi-Meerut expressway, Centre's pet project, delayed, yet again". India Today. ^ a b c "दिल्ली मेरठ एक्सप्रेस-वे का काम फिर अटका, नहीं शुरू हो पाया सेक्शन दो". ^ "अगले महीने पूरा हो जाएगा दिल्ली-मेरठ एक्सप्रेस वे का पहला चरण: नितिन गडकरी". ^ PTI (14 November 2017). "Phase I of Delhi-Meerut Expressway to be completed next month: Nitin Gadkari". ^ "UP Gate to Dasna toll widening starts - Times of India". ^ https://thewire.in/government/the-delhi-meerut-expressway-that-pm-dedicated-to-the-nation-is-69-incomplete ^ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pmo-moves-to-remove-hurdles-in-path-of-highway-projects-flagged-off-by-modi/articleshow/66298360.cms ^ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/no-smooth-ride-on-nh-24-before-aug/articleshow/67401578.cms ^ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/delhi-meerut-expressways-2nd-leg-set-to-open-this-april/articleshow/68087096.cms ^ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ghaziabad/only-46-done-8km-stretch-of-delhi-meerut-expressway-set-to-miss-april-deadline/articleshow/68869810.cms? ^ https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/article/delhi-meerut-expressway-progress-5-things-you-need-to-know/446931 ^ https://www.livemint.com/news/india/second-section-of-delhi-meerut-expressway-to-open-ahead-of-schedule-1562754872440.html ^ http://grinfra.com/ongoing-projects/ ^ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ghaziabad/farmers-halt-delhi-meerut-e-way-work/articleshow/66961363.cms ^ "Use of Alternate Material for Construction of Nationalfugjkway". Press Information Bureau. 24 November 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ India, Press Trust of (24 June 2016). "NHAI to use solid waste from Ghazipur in Delhi-Meerut expressway". Business Standard India. Retrieved 6 June 2017. ^ PTI. "NHAI to use solid waste from Ghazipur in Delhi-Meerut Expressway". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 June 2017. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Delhi–Meerut_Expressway&oldid=905665121" Expressways in India Transport in Meerut Expressways in Uttar Pradesh Expressways in Delhi CS1 Hindi-language sources (hi) Use Indian English from June 2016 All Wikipedia articles written in Indian English Infobox road temporary tracking category 1 Articles containing Hindi-language text	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2443
__label__wiki	0.898873	0.898873	Edmund Phipps (British Army officer) (Redirected from Edmund Phipps (MP)) For the British lawyer and author of the same name, see Edmund Phipps. General the Honourable Edmund Phipps (7 April 1760 – 14 September 1837) was a senior British Army officer and Member of Parliament. [1] He was born in London, the fourth son of Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave and was the younger brother of Constantine John Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave, Hon. Charles Phipps and Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave. He was educated at Eton College (1771-73) and St John’s College, Cambridge (1778-80). He entered the Army in 1780 as an ensign in the 85th Regiment of Foot, became a lieutenant in the 88th Foot and then a captain in the 93rd Foot. In 1782 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Governor of Gibraltar. He transferred as a captain to the 1st Foot Guards and was a.d.c. to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1784 to 1787. He was promoted brevet-colonel in 1796, major-general in 1801 and lieutenant-general in 1808. In 1807 he was appointed colonel-commandant of both the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot (later the Kings Royal Rifle Corps), a position he held until his death. He was made full general on 12 August 1819. He also held the positions of Paymaster and Inspector-General of the Marines (1810-1812) and Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance (1812-30). When his elder brother was elevated to the peerage he inherited his Parliamentary seat for Scarborough, holding the seat himself from 1794 to 1818. He was subsequently elected to represent Queenborough from 1818 to 1820 and Scarborough again from 1820 to 1832. He died unmarried in 1837 in Venice. ^ "PHIPPS, Hon. Edmund (1760-1837), of Mulgrave Castle, Yorks". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 29 May 2017. Parliament of the United Kingdom Hon. Henry Phipps Earl of Tyrconnell Member of Parliament for Scarborough With: Earl of Tyrconnell 1794–1796 Lord Charles Somerset 1796–1802 Lord Robert Manners 1802–1806 Charles Manners-Sutton 1806–1818 Succeeded by Charles Manners-Sutton Viscount Normanby Robert Moorsom Sir John Osborn, Bt Member of Parliament for Queenborough With: Robert Moorsom Succeeded by Hon. John Villiers George Peter Holford Viscount Normanby Member of Parliament for Scarborough With: Charles Manners-Sutton Succeeded by Sir John Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, Bt Sir George Cayley, Bt Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edmund_Phipps_(British_Army_officer)&oldid=901350214" Phipps family (English aristocracy) Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge British Army generals Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1790–1796 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1801–1802	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2444
__label__wiki	0.932654	0.932654	Go Down Moses This article is about the song. For the book by William Faulkner, see Go Down, Moses (book). "Go Down, Moses" Song by Fisk Jubilee Singers (earliest attested) Songwriter(s) Choral version by Les Petits Chanteurs de Montigny Problems playing this file? See media help. "Go Down Moses" is a spiritual. It describes events in the Old Testament of the Bible, specifically Exodus 8:1: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me", in which God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. The opening verse as published by the Jubilee Singers in 1872: When Israel was in Egypt's land Let my people go Oppress'd so hard they could not stand Way down in Egypt's land Tell old Pharaoh In the song, "Israel" represents enslaved African Americans, while "Egypt" and "Pharaoh" represent the slavemaster.[1] Going "down" to Egypt is derived from the Bible; the Old Testament recognizes the Nile Valley as lower than Jerusalem and the Promised Land; thus, going to Egypt means going "down"[2] while going away from Egypt is "up".[3] In the context of American slavery, this ancient sense of "down" converged with the concept of "down the river" (the Mississippi), where slaves' conditions were notoriously worse, a situation which left the idiom "sell [someone] down the river" in present-day English.[4] 1 "Oh! Let My People Go" 2 In popular culture 2.1 Films 3 Recordings "Oh! Let My People Go"[edit] See also: Songs of the Underground Railroad "Oh! Let My People Go" Sheet music cover, 1862 Although usually thought of as a spiritual, the earliest recorded use of the song was as a rallying anthem for the Contrabands at Fort Monroe sometime before July 1862. Early authorities presumed it was composed by them.[5] Sheet music was soon after published, titled "Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands", and arranged by Horace Waters. L.C. Lockwood, chaplain of the Contrabands, stated in the sheet music the song was from Virginia, dating from about 1853.[6] The opening verse, as recorded by Lockwood, is: The Lord, by Moses, to Pharaoh said: Oh! let my people go If not, I'll smite your first-born dead—Oh! let my people go Oh! go down, Moses Away down to Egypt's land And tell King Pharaoh To let my people go Sarah Bradford's authorized biography of Harriet Tubman, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869), quotes Tubman as saying she used "Go Down Moses" as one of two code songs fugitive slaves used to communicate when fleeing Maryland.[7] Tubman began her underground railroad work in 1850 and continued until the beginning of the Civil War, so it's possible Tubman's use of the song predates the origin claimed by Lockwood.[8] In popular culture[edit] This section contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (February 2017) Films[edit] Used briefly in Kid Millions (1934). Jess Lee Brooks sings it in Preston Sturges' film Sullivan's Travels (1941). Gregory Miller (played by Sidney Poitier) sang the song in the film Blackboard Jungle (1955). A reference is made to the song in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), when a bedridden Cameron Frye sings, "When Cameron was in Egypt's land, let my Cameron go". Sergei Bodrov Jr. and Oleg Menshikov, who play the two main characters in Sergei Bodrov's film Кавказский пленник (1996; Prisoner of the Mountains) dance to the Louis Armstrong version. The teen comedy film Easy A (2010) remixed this song with a fast guitar and beats. The song was originally published as Original Soundtrack and is listed in IMDb.[9] William Faulkner titled his novel Go Down, Moses (1942) after the song. Djuna Barnes, in her field-changing novel Nightwood, titled a chapter "Go Down, Matthew" as an allusion to the song's title. in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind, slaves from the Georgia plantation Tara are in Atlanta, to dig breastworks for the soldiers, and they sing "Go Down, Moses" as they march down a street. The song was made famous by Paul Robeson whose voice, deep and resonant as it was, was said by Robert O'Meally to have assumed "the might and authority of God."[10] On February 7, 1958, the song was recorded in New York City and sung by Louis Armstrong with Sy Oliver's Orchestra.[11] It was recorded by Doris Akers and the Sky Pilot Choir.[citation needed][12] The song has since become a jazz standard, having been recorded by Grant Green, Fats Waller, Archie Shepp, Hampton Hawes and many others.[13] It is one of the five spirituals included in the oratorio A Child of Our Time, first performed in 1944, by the English classical composer Michael Tippett (1905–98). It is included in some [Passover Seder\|seders] in the United States, and is printed in Meyers' An Israel Haggadah for Passover.[14] The song was recorded by Deep River Boys in Oslo on September 26, 1960. It was released on the extended play Negro Spirituals No. 3 (HMV 7EGN 39). The song, or a modified version of it, has been used in the Roger Jones musical From Pharaoh to Freedom[when?][citation needed] The French singer Claude Nougaro used its melody for his tribute to Louis Armstrong in French, under the name Armstrong (1965). The song heavily influences "Get Down Moses", by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros on their album Streetcore (2003). The song has been performed by the Russian Interior Ministry (MVD) Choir.[15] Jazz singer Tony Vittia released a swing version under the name "Own The Night" (2013). The phrase "Go Down Moses" is featured in the chorus of the John Craigie song, "Will Not Fight" (2009). The phrase "Go Down Moses" is sung by Pops Staples in the song The Weight in The Last Waltz film by The Band (1976). The usual lyric is actually "Go down Miss Moses".[16] Avant-garde singer-songwriter and composer Diamanda Galás recorded a version for her fifth album, You Must Be Certain of the Devil (1988), the final part of a trilogy about the AIDS epidemic that features songs influenced by american gospel music and biblical themes. The NBC television comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air twice used the song for comedic effect. In the first instance, Will Smith's character sings the song after he and his cousin Carlton Banks are thrown into prison (Smith sings the first two lines, Banks sullenly provides the refrain, then a prisoner sings the final four lines in an operatic voice.)[17] In the second instance, Banks is preparing for an Easter service and attempts to show off his prowess by singing the last two lines of the chorus; Smith replies with his own version, in which he makes a joke about Carlton's height ("...Let my cousin grow!").[citation needed] The song is sung in the miniseries The Spies of Warsaw (2013). Della Reese sings it in Episode 424, "Elijah", of Touched by an Angel, which Bruce Davison sings "Eliyahu". Recordings[edit] The Tuskegee Institute Singers recorded the song for Victor in 1914.[18] The Kelly Family recorded the song twice: live version is included on their album Live (1988) and a studio version on New World (1990). The latter also features on their compilation album The Very Best - Over 10 Years (1993). The Golden Gate Quartet (Duration: 3:05; year and album unknown).[citation needed] "Go Down Moses" was recorded by the Robert Shaw Chorale on RCA Victor 33 record LM/LSC 2580, copyright 1964, first side, second band, lasting 4 minutes and 22 seconds. Liner notes by noted African-American author Langston Hughes.[19] Christian child's prayer § Spirituals ^ Cornelius, Steven (2004). Music of the Civil War Era. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 118. ISBN 0313320810 ^ For example, in Genesis 42:2 Jacob commands his sons to "go down to Egypt" to buy grain ^ In Exodus 1:10, Pharaoh expresses apprehension that the Hebrews would join Egypt's enemies and "go up [i.e. away] from the land" ^ Phrases.org.uk ^ ""Editor's Table"". The Continental Monthly. 2: 112–113. July 1862 – via Cornell University. We are indebted to Clark's School-Visitor for the following song of the Contrabands, which originated among the latter, and was first sung by them in the hearing of white people at Fortress Monroe, where it was noted down by their chaplain, Rev. L.C. Lockwood. ^ Lockwood, "Oh! Let My People Go", p. 5: "This Song has been sung for about nine years by the Slaves of Virginia." ^ Bradford, Sarah (1869). Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. Dennis Brothers & Co. pp. 26–27. Archived from the original on June 13, 2017 – via University of North Carolina: Documenting the American South. ^ "Summary of Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman". docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-25. ^ "Easy A - Original Sound Tracks". IMDB. ^ Brooks, Daphne (2006-01-01). Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910. Duke University Press. p. 307. ISBN 0822337223. ^ Nollen, Scott Allen (2004). Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music, and Screen Career. McFarland. p. 142. ISBN 9780786418572. ^ Muhammad, Siebra. "BLACK MUSIC MOMENT: HISTORY OF "GO DOWN MOSES" ~ THE SONG USUALLY THOUGHT OF AS A SPIRITUAL". jobs.blacknews.com. Retrieved 2017-09-22. ^ "Go Down Moses". Allmusic.com. ^ An Israel Haggadah for Passover. New York: H. N. Abrams. 1970. ^ Russian Interior Ministry (MVD) Choir Recording. "Go Down Moses". YouTube. ^ "The Weight \| Robbie-Robertson.com". robbie-robertson.com. Retrieved 2017-03-12. ^ NBC The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. "Go Down Moses". YouTube. ^ Gibbs, Craig Martin (2012). Black Recording Artists, 1877–1926: An Annotated Discography. McFarland. p. 43. ISBN 1476600856. ^ The album itself! The Continental Monthly. Vol. II (July–December, 1862). New York. Lockwood, L.C. "Oh! Let My People Go: The Song of the Contrabands". New York: Horace Waters (1862). Sweet Chariot: The Story of the Spirituals, particularly their section on "Freedom" (Web site maintained by The Spirituals Project at the University of Denver) Free scores of Go Down Moses in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki) William L. Chaplin Richard Dillingham Daniel Hughes William Cooper Nell Harriet Forten Purvis Robert Purvis Hetty Reckless Harriet Beecher Stowe Frances Harper Delia Webster List of Underground Railroad sites Levi Coffin House Bilger's Rocks Wilson Bruce Evans House Sites in Indiana Allen Chapel Town Clock Church F. Julius LeMoyne House Negro Fort John Rankin House Gerrit Smith Estate John Freeman Walls Historic Site Pearl incident (1848) Jerry Rescue (1851) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852 book) Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856 book) Oberlin–Wellington Rescue (1858) Thirteenth Amendment (1865) Songs of the Underground Railroad Abolitionism in the United States opponents of slavery African-American opponents Fugitive slaves Fugitive slave laws lawn jockey Slave catcher The Underground Railroad Records (1872 book) Angola, Florida Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Harriet Tubman Memorial (Boston) The Railroad to Freedom: A Story of the Civil War (1932 book) A Woman Called Moses (1978 miniseries) Nicholls Town Roots of Resistance (1989 documentary) The Quest for Freedom (1992 film) Freedom: The Underground Railroad (2013 board game) Underground (2016 TV series) Harriet (2019 film) See also: Slavery in the United States and Slavery in Canada Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Go_Down_Moses&oldid=901394156" American folk songs Paul Robeson songs African-American spiritual songs Cultural depictions of Moses Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown Songs about religious leaders Songs about Egypt Articles with trivia sections from February 2017 All articles with trivia sections Vague or ambiguous time from March 2015	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2445
__label__wiki	0.974511	0.974511	For other uses, see Hard Rock (disambiguation). Stylistic origins Cultural origins Mid-1960s, United States and United Kingdom Typical instruments Derivative forms Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with keyboards. Hard rock developed into a major form of popular music in the 1970s, with bands such as the Who, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Kiss, Queen, AC/DC and Van Halen. During the 1980s, some hard rock bands moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock,[1][2] while others began to return to a hard rock sound.[3] Established bands made a comeback in the mid-1980s and it reached a commercial peak in the 1980s, with glam metal bands like Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard and the rawer sounds of Guns N' Roses, which followed up with great success in the later part of that decade. Hard rock began losing popularity with the commercial success of R&B, hip-hop, urban pop, grunge and later Britpop in the 1990s. Despite this, many post-grunge bands adopted a hard rock sound and in the 2000s there came a renewed interest in established bands, attempts at a revival, and new hard rock bands that emerged from the garage rock and post-punk revival scenes. Out of this movement came garage rock bands like the White Stripes, the Strokes, Interpol and, later on, the Black Keys. In the 2000s, only a few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers. 2.1 Origins (1960s) 2.2 Expansion (1970s) 2.3 Glam metal era (1980s) 2.4 Grunge and Britpop (1990s) 2.5 Survivals and revivals (2000s) Drum notation for a back beat[4] Hard rock is a form of loud, aggressive rock music. The electric guitar is often emphasised, used with distortion and other effects, both as a rhythm instrument using repetitive riffs with a varying degree of complexity, and as a solo lead instrument.[5] Drumming characteristically focuses on driving rhythms, strong bass drum and a backbeat on snare, sometimes using cymbals for emphasis.[6] The bass guitar works in conjunction with the drums, occasionally playing riffs, but usually providing a backing for the rhythm and lead guitars.[7] Vocals are often growling, raspy, or involve screaming or wailing, sometimes in a high range, or even falsetto voice.[8] Hard rock has sometimes been labelled cock rock for its emphasis on overt masculinity and sexuality and because it has historically been predominantly performed and consumed by men: in the case of its audience, particularly white, working-class adolescents.[6] In the late 1960s, the term heavy metal was used interchangeably with hard rock, but gradually began to be used to describe music played with even more volume and intensity.[9] While hard rock maintained a bluesy rock and roll identity, including some swing in the back beat and riffs that tended to outline chord progressions in their hooks, heavy metal's riffs often functioned as stand-alone melodies and had no swing in them.[5] Heavy metal took on "darker" characteristics after Black Sabbath's breakthrough at the beginning of the 1970s. In the 1980s it developed a number of subgenres, often termed extreme metal, some of which were influenced by hardcore punk, and which further differentiated the two styles.[7] Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have existed side by side, with bands frequently standing on the boundary of, or crossing between, the genres.[10] The roots of hard rock can be traced back to the 1950s, particularly electric blues,[11][12] which laid the foundations for key elements such as a rough declamatory vocal style, heavy guitar riffs, string-bending blues-scale guitar solos, strong beat, thick riff-laden texture, and posturing performances.[11] Electric blues guitarists began experimenting with hard rock elements such as driving rhythms, distorted guitar solos and power chords in the 1950s, evident in the work of Memphis blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson, and particularly Pat Hare,[13][14] who captured a "grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues" (1954).[14] Other antecedents include Link Wray's instrumental "Rumble" in 1958,[15] and the surf rock instrumentals of Dick Dale, such as "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961) and "Misirlou" (1962). Origins (1960s)[edit] Cream, whose blues rock improvisation was a major factor in the development of the genre. In the 1960s, American, Dutch and British blues and rock bands began to modify rock and roll by adding harder sounds, heavier guitar riffs, bombastic drumming, and louder vocals, from electric blues.[11] Early forms of hard rock can be heard in the work of Chicago blues musicians Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf,[16] the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" (1963) which made it a garage rock standard,[17] and the songs of rhythm and blues influenced British Invasion acts,[18] including "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks (1964),[19] "My Generation" by the Who (1965),[5] "Shapes of Things" (1966) by the Yardbirds, "Inside Looking Out" (1966) by the Animals, and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965) by the Rolling Stones.[20] From the late 1960s, it became common to divide mainstream rock music that emerged from psychedelia into soft and hard rock. Soft rock was often derived from folk rock, using acoustic instruments and putting more emphasis on melody and harmonies.[21] In contrast, hard rock was most often derived from blues rock and was played louder and with more intensity.[5] A few bands also emerged on the European mainland. The Dutch rock band Golden Earring (founded in 1961) also produced a rougher sound than was used to. The German bands Scorpions and Accept are also counted among the founders of European hard rock. In the 1970s more and more bands with international success were added, including the German Michael Schenker Group and the Swedish band Europe. Also in the 1980s Dutch bands Vandeberg and Vengeance made succes in Europe. The Danish band Pretty Maids and the Swedish Backyard Babies went on successful European tours. On the European mainland other influences were often added, as a result of which the metal genres became more prominent. Blues rock acts that pioneered the sound included Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Jeff Beck Group.[5] Cream, in songs like "I Feel Free" (1966) combined blues rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos of Eric Clapton.[22] Jimi Hendrix produced a form of blues-influenced psychedelic rock, which combined elements of jazz, blues and rock and roll.[23] From 1967 Jeff Beck brought lead guitar to new heights of technical virtuosity and moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band, the Jeff Beck Group.[24] Dave Davies of the Kinks, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend of the Who, Hendrix, Clapton and Beck all pioneered the use of new guitar effects like phasing, feedback and distortion.[25] The Beatles began producing songs in the new hard rock style beginning with their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album") and, with the track "Helter Skelter", attempted to create a greater level of noise than the Who.[26] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic has referred to the "proto-metal roar" of "Helter Skelter",[27] while Ian MacDonald called it "ridiculous, with McCartney shrieking weedily against a massively tape-echoed backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing".[26] Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975. Groups that emerged from the American psychedelic scene about the same time included Iron Butterfly, MC5, Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge.[28] San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a crude and distorted cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues", from their 1968 debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that outlined much of the later hard rock and heavy metal sound.[28] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild", which contained the first lyrical reference to heavy metal and helped popularise the style when it was used in the film Easy Rider (1969).[28] Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), with its 17-minute-long title track, using organs and with a lengthy drum solo, also prefigured later elements of the sound.[28] By the end of the decade a distinct genre of hard rock was emerging with bands like Led Zeppelin, who mixed the music of early rock bands with a more hard-edged form of blues rock and acid rock on their first two albums Led Zeppelin (1969) and Led Zeppelin II (1969), and Deep Purple, who began as a progressive rock group in 1968 but achieved their commercial breakthrough with their fourth and distinctively heavier album, In Rock (1970). Also significant was Black Sabbath's Paranoid (1970), which combined guitar riffs with dissonance and more explicit references to the occult and elements of Gothic horror.[29] All three of these bands have been seen as pivotal in the development of heavy metal, but where metal further accentuated the intensity of the music, with bands like Judas Priest following Sabbath's lead into territory that was often "darker and more menacing", hard rock tended to continue to remain the more exuberant, good-time music.[5] Expansion (1970s)[edit] The Who on stage in 1975 In the early 1970s the Rolling Stones developed their hard rock sound with Exile on Main St.[30] (1972). Initially receiving mixed reviews, according to critic Steve Erlewine it is now "generally regarded as the Rolling Stones' finest album".[31] They continued to pursue the riff-heavy sound on albums including It's Only Rock 'n' Roll[32] (1974) and Black and Blue (1976).[33] Led Zeppelin began to mix elements of world and folk music into their hard rock from Led Zeppelin III[34] (1970) and Led Zeppelin IV (1971). The latter included the track "Stairway to Heaven",[35] which would become the most played song in the history of album-oriented radio.[36] Deep Purple continued to define hard rock, particularly with their album Machine Head (1972), which included the tracks "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water".[37] In 1975 guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left, going on to form Rainbow and after the break-up of the band the next year, vocalist David Coverdale formed Whitesnake.[38] 1970 saw the Who release Live at Leeds, often seen as the archetypal hard rock live album, and the following year they released their highly acclaimed album Who's Next, which mixed heavy rock with extensive use of synthesizers.[39] Subsequent albums, including Quadrophenia (1973), built on this sound before Who Are You (1978), their last album before the death of pioneering rock drummer Keith Moon later that year.[40] Emerging British acts included Free, who released their signature song "All Right Now" (1970), has received extensive radio airplay in both the UK and US.[41] After the breakup of the band in 1973, vocalist Paul Rodgers joined supergroup Bad Company, whose eponymous first album (1974) was an international hit.[42] The mixture of hard rock and progressive rock, evident in the works of Deep Purple, was pursued more directly by bands like Uriah Heep and Argent.[43] Scottish band Nazareth released their self-titled début album in 1971, producing a blend of hard rock and pop that would culminate in their best selling, Hair of the Dog (1975), which contained the proto-power ballad "Love Hurts".[44] Having enjoyed some national success in the early 1970s, Queen, after the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975), gained international recognition with a sound that used layered vocals and guitars and mixed hard rock with heavy metal, progressive rock, and even opera.[1] The latter featured the single "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK charts for nine weeks.[45] Kiss onstage in Boston in 2004 In the United States, shock-rock pioneer Alice Cooper [46] achieved mainstream success with the top five album School's Out (1972), which was followed by the #1 album Billion Dollar Babies in 1973.[47] Also in 1973, blues rockers ZZ Top released their classic album Tres Hombres and Aerosmith produced their eponymous début, as did Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd and proto-punk outfit New York Dolls, demonstrating the diverse directions being pursued in the genre.[48] Montrose, including the instrumental talent of Ronnie Montrose and vocals of Sammy Hagar released their first album in 1973.[49] Former bubblegum-pop family act the Osmonds recorded two hard rock albums in 1972 and had their breakthrough in the UK with the hard-rock hit "Crazy Horses."[50][51] Kiss built on the theatrics of Alice Cooper and the look of the New York Dolls to produce a unique band persona, achieving their commercial breakthrough with the double live album Alive! in 1975 and helping to take hard rock into the stadium rock era.[17] In the mid-1970s Aerosmith achieved their commercial and artistic breakthrough with Toys in the Attic[52] (1975), which reached number 11 in the American album chart, and Rocks (1976),[53] which peaked at number three.[54] Blue Öyster Cult, formed in the late 1960s, picked up on some of the elements introduced by Black Sabbath with their breakthrough live gold album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975), followed by their first platinum album, Agents of Fortune (1976), containing the hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached number 12 on the Billboard charts.[55] Journey released their eponymous debut in 1975[56] and the next year Boston released their highly successful début album.[57] In the same year, hard rock bands featuring women saw commercial success as Heart released Dreamboat Annie and the Runaways débuted with their self-titled album. While Heart had a more folk-oriented hard rock sound, the Runaways leaned more towards a mix of punk-influenced music and hard rock.[58] The Amboy Dukes, having emerged from the Detroit garage rock scene and most famous for their Top 20 psychedelic hit "Journey to the Center of the Mind" (1968), were dissolved by their guitarist Ted Nugent, who embarked on a solo career that resulted in four successive multi-platinum albums between Ted Nugent (1975) and his best selling Double Live Gonzo! (1978).[59] Rush on stage in Milan in mid-September 2004 From outside the United Kingdom and the United States, the Canadian trio Rush released three distinctively hard rock albums in 1974–75 (Rush, Fly by Night and Caress of Steel) before moving toward a more progressive sound with the 1976 album 2112.[3][60] The Irish band Thin Lizzy, which had formed in the late 1960s, made their most substantial commercial breakthrough in 1976 with the hard rock album Jailbreak and their worldwide hit "The Boys Are Back in Town", which reached number 8 in the UK and number 12 in the US. Their style, consisting of two duelling guitarists often playing leads in harmony, proved itself to be a large influence on later bands. They reached their commercial, and arguably their artistic peak with Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979).[61] The arrival of Scorpions from Germany marked the geographical expansion of the subgenre.[29] Australian-formed AC/DC, with a stripped back, riff heavy and abrasive style that also appealed to the punk generation, began to gain international attention from 1976, culminating in the release of their multi-platinum albums Let There Be Rock (1977) and Highway to Hell (1979).[62] Also influenced by a punk ethos were heavy metal bands like Motörhead, while Judas Priest abandoned the remaining elements of the blues in their music,[63] further differentiating the hard rock and heavy metal styles and helping to create the new wave of British heavy metal which was pursued by bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon and Venom.[64] With the rise of disco in the US and punk rock in the UK, hard rock's mainstream dominance was rivalled toward the later part of the decade. Disco appealed to a more diverse group of people and punk seemed to take over the rebellious role that hard rock once held.[65] Early punk bands like the Ramones explicitly rebelled against the drum solos and extended guitar solos that characterised stadium rock, with almost all of their songs clocking in around two minutes with no guitar solos.[66] However, new rock acts continued to emerge and record sales remained high into the 1980s. 1977 saw the début and rise to stardom of Foreigner, who went on to release several platinum albums through to the mid-1980s.[67] Midwestern groups like Kansas, REO Speedwagon and Styx helped further cement heavy rock in the Midwest as a form of stadium rock.[68] In 1978, Van Halen emerged from the Los Angeles music scene with a sound based around the skills of lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen. He popularised a guitar-playing technique of two-handed hammer-ons and pull-offs called tapping, showcased on the song "Eruption" from the album Van Halen, which was highly influential in re-establishing hard rock as a popular genre after the punk and disco explosion, while also redefining and elevating the role of electric guitar.[69] Glam metal era (1980s)[edit] Main article: Glam metal The opening years of the 1980s saw a number of changes in personnel and direction of established hard rock acts, including the deaths of Bon Scott, the lead singer of AC/DC, and John Bonham, drummer with Led Zeppelin.[70] Whereas Zeppelin broke up almost immediately afterwards, AC/DC pressed on, recording the album Back in Black (1980) with their new lead singer, Brian Johnson. It became the fifth-highest-selling album of all time in the US and the second-highest-selling album in the world.[71] Black Sabbath had split with original singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio, formerly of Rainbow, giving the band a new sound and a period of creativity and popularity beginning with Heaven and Hell (1980). Osbourne embarked on a solo career with Blizzard of Ozz (1980), featuring American guitarist Randy Rhoads.[72] Some bands, such as Queen, moved away from their hard rock roots and more towards pop rock,[1][2] while others, including Rush with Moving Pictures (1981), began to return to a hard rock sound.[3] The creation of thrash metal, which mixed heavy metal with elements of hardcore punk from about 1982, particularly by Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer, helped to create extreme metal and further remove the style from hard rock, although a number of these bands or their members would continue to record some songs closer to a hard rock sound.[73][74] Kiss moved away from their hard rock roots toward pop metal: firstly removing their makeup in 1983 for their Lick It Up album,[75] and then adopting the visual and sound of glam metal for their 1984 release, Animalize, both of which marked a return to commercial success.[76] Pat Benatar was one of the first women to achieve commercial success in hard rock, with three successive Top 5 albums between 1980 and 1982.[77] Often categorised with the new wave of British heavy metal, in 1981 Def Leppard released their second album High 'n' Dry, mixing glam-rock with heavy metal, and helping to define the sound of hard rock for the decade.[78] The follow-up Pyromania (1983), reached number two on the American charts and the singles "Photograph", "Rock of Ages" and "Foolin'", helped by the emergence of MTV, all reached the Top 40.[78] It was widely emulated, particularly by the emerging Californian glam metal scene. This was followed by US acts like Mötley Crüe, with their albums Too Fast for Love (1981) and Shout at the Devil (1983) and, as the style grew, the arrival of bands such as Ratt,[79] White Lion,[80] Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot.[81] Quiet Riot's album Metal Health (1983) was the first glam metal album, and arguably the first heavy metal album of any kind, to reach number one in the Billboard music charts and helped open the doors for mainstream success by subsequent bands.[82] Poison seen here in 2008, were among the most successful acts of the 1980s glam metal era. Established bands made something of a comeback in the mid-1980s. After an 8-year separation, Deep Purple returned with the classic Machine Head line-up to produce Perfect Strangers (1984), which reached number five in the UK, hit the top five in five other countries, and was a platinum-seller in the US.[83] After somewhat slower sales of its fourth album, Fair Warning, Van Halen rebounded with the Top 3 album Diver Down in 1982, then reached their commercial pinnacle with 1984. It reached number two on the Billboard album chart and provided the track "Jump", which reached number one on the singles chart and remained there for several weeks.[69] Heart, after floundering during the first half of the decade, made a comeback with their eponymous ninth studio album which hit number one and contained four Top 10 singles including their first number one hit.[84] The new medium of video channels was used with considerable success by bands formed in previous decades. Among the first were ZZ Top, who mixed hard blues rock with new wave music to produce a series of highly successful singles, beginning with "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (1983), which helped their albums Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985) achieve diamond and multi-platinum status respectively.[85] Others found renewed success in the singles charts with power ballads, including REO Speedwagon with "Keep on Loving You" (1980) and "Can't Fight This Feeling" (1984), Journey with "Don't Stop Believin'" (1981) and "Open Arms" (1982),[56] Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is",[86] Scorpions' "Still Loving You" (both from 1984), Heart's "What About Love" (1985) and "These Dreams" (1986), and Boston's "Amanda" (1986).[87] Bon Jovi's third album, Slippery When Wet (1986), mixed hard rock with a pop sensitivity and spent a total of 8 weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 12 million copies in the US while becoming the first hard rock album to spawn three top 10 singles — two of which reached number one.[88] The album has been credited with widening the audiences for the genre, particularly by appealing to women as well as the traditional male dominated audience, and opening the door to MTV and commercial success for other bands at the end of the decade.[89] The anthemic The Final Countdown (1986) by Swedish group Europe was an international hit, reaching number eight on the US charts while hitting the top 10 in nine other countries.[90] This era also saw more glam-infused American hard rock bands come to the forefront, with both Poison and Cinderella releasing their multi-platinum début albums in 1986.[91][92] Van Halen released 5150 (1986), their first album with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals, which was number one in the US for three weeks and sold over 6 million copies.[69] By the second half of the decade, hard rock had become the most reliable form of commercial popular music in the United States.[93] Original member Izzy Stradlin' on stage with Guns N' Roses in 2006. Established acts benefited from the new commercial climate, with Whitesnake's self-titled album (1987) selling over 17 million copies, outperforming anything in Coverdale's or Deep Purple's catalogue before or since. It featured the rock anthem "Here I Go Again '87" as one of 4 UK top 20 singles. The follow-up Slip of the Tongue (1989) went platinum, but according to critics Steve Erlwine and Greg Prato, "it was a considerable disappointment after the across-the-board success of Whitesnake".[94] Aerosmith's comeback album Permanent Vacation (1987) would begin a decade long revival of their popularity.[54] Crazy Nights (1987) by Kiss was the band's highest charting release in the US since 1979 and the highest of their career in the UK.[95] Mötley Crüe with Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) continued their commercial success[96] and Def Leppard with Hysteria (1987) hit their commercial peak, the latter producing seven hit singles (a record for a hard rock act).[78] Guns N' Roses released the best-selling début of all time, Appetite for Destruction (1987). With a "grittier" and "rawer" sound than most glam metal, it produced three top 10 hits, including the number one "Sweet Child O' Mine".[97] Some of the glam rock bands that formed in the mid-1980s, such as White Lion and Cinderella experienced their biggest success during this period with their respective albums Pride (1987) and Long Cold Winter (1988) both going multi-platinum and launching a series of hit singles.[80][92] In the last years of the decade, the most notable successes were New Jersey (1988) by Bon Jovi,[98] OU812 (1988) by Van Halen,[69] Open Up and Say... Ahh! (1988) by Poison,[91] Pump (1989) by Aerosmith,[54] and Mötley Crüe's most commercially successful album Dr. Feelgood (1989).[96] New Jersey spawned five Top 10 singles, a record for a hard rock act. In 1988 from 25 June to 5 November, the number one spot on the Billboard 200 album chart was held by a hard rock album for 18 out of 20 consecutive weeks; the albums were OU812, Hysteria, Appetite for Destruction, and New Jersey.[99][100][101][102] A final wave of glam rock bands arrived in the late 1980s, and experienced success with multi-platinum albums and hit singles from 1989 until the early 1990s, among them Extreme,[103] Warrant[104] Slaughter[105] and FireHouse.[106] Skid Row also released their eponymous début (1989), reaching number six on the Billboard 200, but they were to be one of the last major bands that emerged in the glam rock era.[107] Grunge and Britpop (1990s)[edit] Main articles: Grunge and Britpop Hard rock entered the 1990s as one of the dominant forms of commercial music. The multi-platinum releases of AC/DC's The Razors Edge (1990), Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (both in 1991),[97] Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears (1991),[108] and Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) showcased this popularity.[69] Additionally, the Black Crowes released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker (1990), which contained a bluesy classic rock sound and sold five million copies.[109][110] In 1992, Def Leppard followed up 1987's Hysteria with Adrenalize, which went multi-platinum, spawned four Top 40 singles and held the number one spot on the US album chart for five weeks.[111] Nirvana were at the forefront of the 1990s grunge era. While these few hard rock bands managed to maintain success and popularity in the early part of the decade, alternative forms of hard rock achieved mainstream success in the form of grunge in the US and Britpop in the UK. This was particularly evident after the success of Nirvana's Nevermind (1991), which combined elements of hardcore punk and heavy metal into a "dirty" sound that made use of heavy guitar distortion, fuzz and feedback, along with darker lyrical themes than their "hair band" predecessors.[112][113][114] Although most grunge bands had a sound that sharply contrasted mainstream hard rock, several, including Pearl Jam,[115] Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden, were more strongly influenced by 1970s and 1980s rock and metal, while Stone Temple Pilots managed to turn alternative rock into a form of stadium rock.[116][117] However, all grunge bands shunned the macho, anthemic and fashion-focused aesthetics particularly associated with glam metal.[112] In the UK, Oasis were unusual among the Britpop bands of the mid-1990s in incorporating a hard rock sound.[5] In the new commercial climate glam metal bands like Europe, Ratt,[79] White Lion[80] and Cinderella[92] broke up, Whitesnake went on hiatus in 1991, and while many of these bands would re-unite again in the late 1990s or early 2000s, they never reached the commercial success they saw in the 1980s or early 1990s.[113] Other bands such as Mötley Crüe[96] and Poison[91] saw personnel changes which impacted those bands' commercial viability during the decade. In 1995 Van Halen released Balance, a multi-platinum seller that would be the band's last with Sammy Hagar on vocals. In 1996 David Lee Roth returned briefly and his replacement, former Extreme singer Gary Cherone, was fired soon after the release of the commercially unsuccessful 1998 album Van Halen III and Van Halen would not tour or record again until 2004.[69] Guns N' Roses' original lineup was whittled away throughout the decade. Drummer Steven Adler was fired in 1990, guitarist Izzy Stradlin left in late 1991 after recording Use Your Illusion I and II with the band. Tensions between the other band members and lead singer Axl Rose continued after the release of the 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident? Guitarist Slash left in 1996, followed by bassist Duff McKagan in 1997. Axl Rose, the only original member, worked with a constantly changing lineup in recording an album that would take over fifteen years to complete.[118] Slash and McKagan eventually rejoined the band in 2016 and went on the Not in this Lifetime... Tour with them. Foo Fighters performing an acoustic show in 2007. Some established acts continued to enjoy commercial success, such as Aerosmith, with their number one multi-platinum albums: Get a Grip (1993), which produced four Top 40 singles and became the band's best-selling album worldwide (going on to sell over 10 million copies), and Nine Lives (1997). In 1998, Aerosmith released the number one hit "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", which remains the only single by a hard rock band to debut at number one.[54] AC/DC produced the double platinum Ballbreaker (1995).[119] Bon Jovi appealed to their hard rock audience with songs such as "Keep the Faith" (1992), but also achieved success in adult contemporary radio, with the Top 10 ballads "Bed of Roses" (1993) and "Always" (1994).[98] Bon Jovi's 1995 album These Days was a bigger hit in Europe than it was in the United States,[120] spawning four Top 10 singles on the UK Singles Chart.[121] Metallica's Load (1996) and ReLoad (1997) each sold in excess of 4 million copies in the US and saw the band develop a more melodic and blues rock sound.[122] As the initial impetus of grunge bands faltered in the middle years of the decade, post-grunge bands emerged. They emulated the attitudes and music of grunge, particularly thick, distorted guitars, but with a more radio-friendly commercially oriented sound that drew more directly on traditional hard rock.[123] Among the most successful acts were the Foo Fighters, Candlebox, Live, Collective Soul, Australia's Silverchair and England's Bush, who all cemented post-grunge as one of the most commercially viable subgenres by the late 1990s.[114][123] Similarly, some post-Britpop bands that followed in the wake of Oasis, including Feeder and Stereophonics, adopted a hard rock or "pop-metal" sound.[124][125] Survivals and revivals (2000s)[edit] Aerosmith performing at Quilmes Rock in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 15, 2007 A few hard rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s managed to sustain highly successful recording careers. Bon Jovi were still able to achieve a commercial hit with "It's My Life" from their double platinum-certified album Crush (2000).[98] and AC/DC released the platinum-certified Stiff Upper Lip (2000)[119] Aerosmith released a number two platinum album, Just Push Play (2001), which saw the band foray further into pop with the Top 10 hit "Jaded", and a blues cover album, Honkin' on Bobo, which reached number five in 2004.[54] Heart achieved their first Top 10 album since the early 90s with Red Velvet Car in 2010,[126] becoming the first female-led hard rock band to earn Top 10 albums spanning five decades. There were reunions and subsequent tours from Van Halen (with Hagar in 2004 and then Roth in 2007),[127] The Who (delayed in 2002 by the death of bassist John Entwistle until 2006)[128] and Black Sabbath (with Osbourne 1997–2006 and Dio 2006–2010)[129] and even a one off performance by Led Zeppelin (2007),[130] renewing the interest in previous eras. Additionally, hard rock supergroups, such as Audioslave (with former members of Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden) and Velvet Revolver (with former members of Guns N' Roses, punk band Wasted Youth and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland), emerged and experienced some success. However, these bands were short-lived, ending in 2007 and 2008, respectively.[131][132] The long-awaited Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy was finally released in 2008, but only went platinum and failed to come close to the success of the band's late 1980s and early 1990s material.[133] More successfully, AC/DC released the double platinum-certified Black Ice (2008).[119] Bon Jovi continued to enjoy success, branching into country music with "Who Says You Can't Go Home", which reached number one on the Hot Country Singles chart in 2006, and the rock/country album Lost Highway, which reached number one in 2007. In 2009, Bon Jovi released another number one album, The Circle, which marked a return to their hard rock sound.[98] Wolfmother, 2007 The term "retro-metal" has been applied to such bands as Texas based the Sword, California's High on Fire, Sweden's Witchcraft and Australia's Wolfmother.[134] Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album combined elements of the sounds of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.[135] Fellow Australians Airbourne's début album Runnin' Wild (2007) followed in the hard riffing tradition of AC/DC.[136] England's the Darkness' Permission to Land (2003), described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s glam",[137] topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum. The follow-up, One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back (2005), reached number 11, before the band broke up in 2006.[138] Los Angeles band Steel Panther managed to gain a following by sending up 80s glam metal.[139] A more serious attempt to revive glam metal was made by bands of the sleaze metal movement in Sweden, including Vains of Jenna,[140] Hardcore Superstar[141] and Crashdïet.[142] Although Foo Fighters continued to be one of the most successful rock acts, with albums like In Your Honor (2005) reaching number two in the US and UK, many of the first wave of post-grunge bands began to fade in popularity. Acts like Creed, Staind, Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback took the genre into the 2000s with considerable commercial success, abandoning most of the angst and anger of the original movement for more conventional anthems, narratives and romantic songs. They were followed in this vein by new acts including Shinedown and Seether.[143] Acts with more conventional hard rock sounds included Andrew W.K.,[144] Beautiful Creatures[145] and Buckcherry, whose breakthrough album 15 (2006) went platinum and spawned the single "Sorry" (2007), which made the Top 10 of the Billboard 100.[146] These were joined by bands with hard rock leanings that emerged in the mid-2000s from the garage rock, Southern Rock, or post punk revival, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Kings of Leon,[147] and Queens of the Stone Age[148] from the US, Three Days Grace from Canada,[149] Jet from Australia[150] and The Datsuns from New Zealand.[151] In 2009 Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup that brought together Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones attracted attention as a live act and released a self-titled debut album that reached the top 20 in the US and UK and the top ten in several other countries.[152][153] List of hard rock musicians (A–M) List of hard rock musicians (N–Z) Timeline of heavy metal and hard rock music ^ a b c S. T. Erlewine, "Queen", Allmusic, archived from the original on 12 February 2011 . ^ a b V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0-87930-653-X, pp. 903–5. ^ a b c V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. Erlewine, All Music Guide to Rock: the Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0-87930-653-X, p. 966. ^ D. Anger, "Introduction to the 'Chop'", Strad (0039-2049), 10 January 2006, vol. 117, issue 1398, pp. 72–7. ^ a b c d e f g "Hard Rock", Allmusic, archived from the original on 12 February 2011 . ^ a b R. Shuker, Popular Music: the Key Concepts, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2nd end., 2005), ISBN 0-415-34770-X, pp. 130–1. ^ a b V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. 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Black country bluesmen made raw, heavily amplified boogie records of their own, especially in Memphis, where guitarists like Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson (with the early Howlin' Wolf band) and Pat Hare (with Little Junior Parker) played driving rhythms and scorching, distorted solos that might be counted the distant ancestors of heavy metal. ^ a b Robert Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar", pp. 13–38 in Anthony DeCurtis, Present Tense (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1992), ISBN 0-8223-1265-4, pp. 24–27. ^ J. Simmonds, The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches (Chicago Il: Chicago Review Press, 2008), ISBN 1-55652-754-3, p. 559. ^ Jane Beethoven, Carman Moore, Rock-It, page 37, Alfred Music ^ a b P. Buckley, The Rough Guide to Rock (London: Rough Guides, 2003), ISBN 1-84353-105-4, p. 1144. ^ R. Unterberger, "Early British R&B", in V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra and S. T. 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Media related to hard rock at Wikimedia Commons Backbeat Arena rock Anatolian rock Baroque rock Beat music Cock rock Comedy rock Deathrock Flamenco rock Avant-prog Post-progressive Pub rock (United Kingdom) Pub rock (Australia) Raga rock Sufi rock Tropical rock Viking rock Wizard rock Album-oriented rock Progressive rock (radio format) List of years in rock music Origins of rock and roll Electronics in rock music Rock Against Communism Rock Against Racism Rock Against Sexism Rock music and the fall of communism Rockism and poptimism Women in rock Beatlesque List of rock genres Progressive music Rock musical Rock festival Wagnerian rock Wall of Sound Subgenres and fusion genres Biker metal Blackened death metal Blackgaze Celtic metal Crossover thrash Death-doom Kawaii metal Medieval metal Nu metalcore Technical death metal Bass stack Fuzz bass Blast beat Cymbal choke Double bass drumming Gallop drumbeat Dropped tunings Guitar solo Palm muting Power chord Shred guitar Death growl Notable scenes and movements African heavy metal Argentine heavy metal Australian thrash metal Australian heavy metal Bangladeshi heavy metal Bay Area thrash metal Brazilian thrash metal Chinese heavy metal Japanese metal Les Légions Noires New wave of American heavy metal New wave of British heavy metal Early Norwegian black metal Palm Desert Scene Swedish death metal Teutonic thrash metal National Socialist black metal Unblack metal Heavy metal subculture Sign of the horns Umlaut Musical form Blues scale Eight-bar blues Musical improvisation Traditional blues verses Twelve-bar blues Walking bass Work songs Coon songs Resonator guitar Slide guitar Blues harp Washtub bass Canadian blues Detroit blues Hill country blues Louisiana blues West Coast blues Classic female blues Fife and drum blues Gospel blues Blues genres Blues musicians Blues musicians by genre Blues standards Blues festivals Blues songs Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hard_rock&oldid=905439608" British rock music genres American rock music genres Commons category link is locally defined	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2446
__label__cc	0.584431	0.415569	Hinds' Feet on High Places Hannah Hurnard Christian Literature Crusade Print (Hardback & Paperback) Hinds' Feet on High Places is an allegorical novel by English author Hannah Hurnard. Hinds' Feet was written in 1955 and has become a very successful work of Christian fiction, seeing new editions published as recently as July, 2005. Plot introduction[edit] It is the story of a young woman named Much Afraid, and her journey away from her Fearing family and into the High Places of the Shepherd, guided by her two companions Sorrow and Suffering. It is an allegory of a Christian devotional life from salvation through maturity. It aims to show how a Christian is transformed from unbeliever to immature believer to mature believer, who walks daily with God as easily on the High Places of Joy in the spirit as in the daily life of mundane and often humiliating tasks that may cause Christians to lose perspective. The book takes its title from Habakkuk 3:19, "The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." The story begins in the Valley of Humiliation with Much Afraid, being beset by the unwanted advances of her cousin, Craven Fear, who wishes to marry her. Much Afraid is ugly from all outward appearances, walking on club feet, sporting gnarled, deformed hands, and speaking from a crooked mouth that seems to have been made so by a stroke or the like. The Good Shepherd is tender and gentle with Much Afraid, especially in the beginning. However, His many sudden departures may strike the reader as bizarre, given the human penchant to expect kindly souls to never do anything that may be interpreted as rude or as hurtful in any way. Yet, though the Shepherd leaves in a moment, He returns the same way at the first furtive cry of the forlorn little protagonist. "Come, Shepherd, for I am much afraid!" When Much Afraid intimates that she would love to be able to dance upon the high places as do the sure-footed deer, the Shepherd commends her for this desire. In order to accomplish this, he offers to "plant the seed of love" into her heart. At first sight of the long, black hawthorn-looking seed, she shrieks in fear. Soon, she relents, and after the initial intense pain, she senses that something is indeed different in her, though she still looks the same, for now. Just when the reader thinks that Much Afraid is about to reach the High Places, the path turns downward towards a seemingly endless desert. There is incident with an extremely high cliff that must be ascended by a steep, slippery and very narrow zig-zagging track, with the help of her two companions, Sorrow and Suffering. Then days are spent in a forest that is shrouded in a thick cloud of fog. During this time Much Afraid is sequestered with her two friends in a log cabin. The climax is an unexpected twist that comes as Much Afraid despairs of ever reaching the High Places. Allusions/references to other works[edit] The book bears some stylistic similarities to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. The name of the protagonist, Much-Afraid, also appears first in Bunyan's work. Bosman, Ellen. “Hind's Feet on High Places” in Masterplots II: Christian Literature. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2007: 779-782. Bezzina, Christopher Felix. 'Journey to the High Places. Hannah Hurnard's Spirituality and the Song of Songs.' https://www.amazon.com/Journey-High-Places-Hurnards-Spirituality/dp/1620320983 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hinds%27_Feet_on_High_Places&oldid=893409338" Christian allegory 1955 British novels Christian novels	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2447
__label__wiki	0.742304	0.742304	Yost Theater Exterior of venue, featuring the marquee (c.2017) Auditorium Theater (1913) Clune's Santa Ana Theater (1913-19) 307 N Spurgeon St Santa Ana, CA 92701-4856 June 16, 1913 (1913-06-16) Frederick Eley Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer Venue Website Yost Theater-Ritz Hotel NRHP reference # The Yost Theater is a concert and events venue in Santa Ana, California. It is a National Register of Historic Places-listed building located in Santa Ana's Downtown Historic District. Under the ownership of the Olivos Family it became a movie house for the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. In recent years it housed various church organizations and underwent renovation in 2007. It now functions as a church called Hillsong. 2 Noted performers The Yost first opened as the "Auditorium Theater" in 1913. It then was renamed the "Clune's Santa Ana Theater" the same year. It was not until Ed Yost purchased the theater that it acquired the name, Yost Theater. In 1950 the theater was leased to Luis Olivos, father of Louie Olivos Jr. The theater housed vaudeville, silent films, and talkies before it became a Mexican cinema house under the Olivos Family. Louie Olivos Jr. brought talent of Mexican cinema to the Yost including Antonio Aguilar, and Vicente Fernández to name some. He also brought Ike and Tina Turner and Sonny and Cher to the Yost. The Chase Family, developers of the Fiesta Marketplace shopping district, purchased the Yost from the City of Santa Ana in 1986. After this purchase the theater became a church, and as a result of this, the structure suffered defacing and alteration of its interior. In 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Yost Theater would be reopened for the benefit of the community at large. Restoration and conversion to a live theatre was carried out by architect Thomas Berkes, and it reopened as a concert and live performance venue that same year. Following the reopening, the Centro Cultural de México began programming concerts and related events, including an appearance of Dolores Huerta, Director of United Farm Workers, and a lecture on Frida Kahlo by Mexican art connoisseur Gregorio Luke. On August 23, 2010, the City of Santa Ana Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve Conditional Use Permits No. 2010-04, No. 2010-05, and No. 2010-06 that allowed the venue to be operated after-hours, with a Type 47 ABC license, and as a banquet facility. Noted performers[edit] Ernie Ball and His Gang Ike & Tina Turner Jarabe de Palo Kate Voegele Sense Field Shelby Lynne The Yost in 2007 Cine Yost Marquee in 2007 Historic Downtown Santa Ana Downtown Santa Ana Historic Districts National Register of Historic Places listings in Orange County, California Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yost Theater. Lists by state Lists by associated state Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yost_Theater&oldid=880534033" Buildings and structures in Santa Ana, California History of Santa Ana, California Cinemas and movie theaters in California Theatres completed in 1913 National Register of Historic Places in Orange County, California Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in California Culture of Santa Ana, California Tourist attractions in Orange County, California 1913 establishments in California	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2448
__label__wiki	0.955463	0.955463	Paris climate summit How the landmark Paris climate accord came together In the tense final hours, world leaders from a handful of large countries took the negotiations into their own hands, leaving smaller countries fuming.NYT News Service \| December 14, 2015, 17:05 IST By Coral Davenport PARIS: It took almost two weeks for negotiators from 195 countries to finally pass the landmark climate accord over the weekend after several espresso-fueled all-nighters and long, passionate debates over the meaning of a single word, such as "shall." But the story of how the deal came together started long before that - in December 2009, with the failure of the last such summit meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. That gathering was, in hindsight, a case study in how not to do a deal. The hosts of the event had set a stern tone, with concrete barricades, concertina wire and steel cages to house protesters who stepped out of line. Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister of climate and energy, was blunt in her approach, "putting pressure on all governments to make the political price of being an obstacle so high that no one will pay it," she said at the time. In the tense final hours, world leaders from a handful of large countries took the negotiations into their own hands, leaving smaller countries fuming. Little emerged from the talks, other than acrimony and suggestions that perhaps such summit meetings were ultimately futile. "After Copenhagen, many world leaders believed that the United Nations process would no longer work for tackling climate change," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations said in an interview. "It was deeply disappointing. It was painful." So what changed from Copenhagen to Paris? In short, three things: a fundamental change in the geopolitics of climate change; a shift in the perception of global warming from a distant warning to an immediate threat; and the art of French diplomacy during the event and in the months beforehand to soften the sharp elbows of negotiators and reduce the chances that major points of contention might kill a deal again. In particular, they made sure that each country, regardless of its size or wealth, felt its voice would be heard. "It was a wonderful surprise that after the incredible disappointment of Copenhagen, these 195 countries could come to an agreement more ambitious than anyone imagined, " said Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank president, who has been closely engaged in the talks. "This never happens." The talks in Copenhagen were handicapped before they even began, as major countries viewed President Barack Obama with deep skepticism. The reputation of the United States on climate change had suffered because of its decision, under President George W. Bush, to withdraw from the world's first climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol. Americans had historically demanded action from other nations while doing little at home, despite the country's status as the world's largest greenhouse-gas polluter through recent decades. And the United States was locked in an impasse with China, the world's other largest polluter, as each country waited for commitments from the other before acting itself. Obama, still early in his first term and having just won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, promised other world leaders in Copenhagen that all this would change under his administration. He assured them that Congress was on the verge of passing a sweeping new climate change bill, sponsored by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. But Obama's pledges won him little credibility. He was treated dismissively by the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, who sent him progressively lower-level officials for the final negotiations. In the strained closing hours of the conference, Obama burst into a meeting with Wen and other leaders, where they worked all night on laptops to hammer out the terms. Hedegaard had signaled a few months before the talks began that failure was not an option for the deal. "China and other emerging nations must accept it even if it isn't fair," she said. But force of will would not carry the day, and the late, backroom deal failed to win the consensus required for a legally binding agreement, as a handful of countries, including Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba, blocked its passage. "The rich are destroying the planet," said Hugo Chavez, the Socialist president of Venezuela, during the talks. "Perhaps they think they're going off to another one after they've destroyed this one." Soon after Obama returned home, Kerry's climate change bill failed in the Senate. And for the rest of his first term, Obama put the issue of climate change on the back burner. That changed after his re-election. Even Obama's own aides were surprised when he told them in early 2013 that he intended to put climate change at the heart of his second term. In his first State of the Union address after his re-election he threatened Republicans on climate change, saying, "If Congress doesn't act, I will." This enraged Republicans and drew criticisms of abuse of executive power. The following year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued aggressive new regulations to cut greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants. Those rules - which could lead to the shutdown of hundreds of plants and freeze construction of future plants - stand as the most significant action taken by any US president on climate change. Republicans declared that Obama was waging a "war on coal." But those actions also fundamentally altered the perception of the United States in international climate talks. "It changed the game," said the French climate change envoy, Laurence Tubiana. China's views on climate change shifted, as well. The vast expansion of coal-fired power plants that was fueling China's rapid economic growth was also choking its cities with pollution. With public anger rising over record levels of toxic smog, Chinese officials began to take steps to curb China's use of coal. Paying close attention to that shift was Kerry, now secretary of state. He saw an opportunity to broker a deal, and to try to pave the way toward a broader agreement in Paris. Throughout 2014, Kerry held a series of meetings in Beijing focused on climate change. In October 2014, he invited the top Chinese environment official, Yang Jiechi, to a private lunch at the Legal Seafoods restaurant overlooking Boston Harbor. They spoke for three hours about the changes that had already influenced their pollution politics at home and discussed the possibility of turning that into new policy on the world stage. The next month, Obama visited Beijing, where he and President Xi Jinping of China announced that they would move forward jointly on plans to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution. That announcement broke the deadlock that had stalled climate change negotiations for over 20 years. The following month in Lima, Peru, negotiators wrote a first draft of what would ultimately become the Paris Agreement. In language modeled after the agreement between the United States and China, the Lima pact required every country to submit its own climate change plan before meeting in Paris. "The China announcement changed everything," said Kerry in an interview. "It changed people's thinking about this. Without the China announcement, you wouldn't have 184 nations ready to come to Paris, the homework done, the table set." The planet itself was changing. From the time lawmakers began pushing for climate change policies in the 1980s, the issue had loomed largely as a future existential threat. But in recent years, scientific studies have started to draw a direct link between climate change and certain weather events, such as the 2010 extreme heat wave and forest fires in Russia; crippling droughts in Texas in 2012 and Australia in 2014; flooding in Miami; and storm surges across the Pacific. "Since Copenhagen, there has been a virtual torrent of studies that assess the link between the buildup of greenhouse gases and specific events," said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University. "The more real climate change is to the average person, the more real it is to policymakers in terms of making decisions about saving lives and cleaning up after disasters." All those moments led up to Paris - where elements of French diplomacy helped to seal the deal. Like Obama, the French president, Francois Hollande, wanted to forge a legacy on climate change, and he wanted a landmark accord to bear the name of his capital city. Given the troubled history of climate talks, the host government was widely viewed as playing a crucial role in the outcome. French officials, led by Hollande, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and Tubiana, the climate envoy, wanted to ensure that they avoided the mistakes of the Danes. In the year leading up to the talks, Tubiana traveled the world and met with her counterparts long before they arrived for the negotiations. Fabius, the poised and gracious public broker of the talks, helped smooth out difficulties behind the scenes. The biggest point of contention was over a push by the United States for an aggressive system to verify that countries were living up to their emissions pledges. China and India argued that outside verification would be too intrusive. Developing countries insisted that rich countries be required to pay them to adapt to the ravages of climate change. That provision remains in the text, but in a preamble section that is not legally binding. Unlike the Copenhagen talks that were marked by frequent walkouts, the Paris talks remained on an even keel. Negotiators from over 100 countries repeatedly said that they hoped that at the end of the two weeks, they would reach a deal. The French were also mindful that tempers flare and decision-making deteriorates when people are hungry and tired. Having released a draft of the agreement on Thursday night - precipitating an all-night negotiating session - the French said they would not release another one until Saturday morning, thus guaranteeing that negotiators would have Friday night to catch up on sleep. And on the brink of releasing that Saturday draft, which turned out to be the final one, the French suddenly called a lunch break. "It was a very specific constellation of events," said Kim, the World Bank president. "This doesn't happen if the French aren't working on this for a year. It doesn't happen if Obama doesn't spend the time building relations with Xi. It doesn't happen without the Chinese-US announcement. But it represents the biggest shift we have ever seen on this global crisis."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2450
__label__wiki	0.574215	0.574215	News Releases > Engineering alum initiates fundraiser for wildfire relief Marc Apduhan (second from left) with fundraiser participants On July 31, 2017, UBC President Santa Ono issued a broadcast email regarding the wildfires that have been devastating British Columbia this summer. According to the Wildfire Service information office, an estimated 894,941 hectares have burned in BC since April 1. So far $315.7 million has been spent fighting the fires and at their peak more than 45,000 British Columbians had been displaced from their homes. It is the worst wildfire season on record in the province. At times like this, Ono writes, we may ask “what can I do to help?” He goes on to encourage us to donate to the Red Cross relief fund, saying, “no matter how small, your support will make a difference.” Marc Apduhan (APSC ’17, Chemical and Biological Engineering) is passionate about sustainability and environmental issues and recently began a position with Hemmera as an environmental engineer in training. When he realized the impact the fires were having, he decided to take action. As a recent graduate, he wasn’t in a position to make a significant monetary contribution to the Red Cross relief fund, so he initiated a fundraiser. Hemmera was already encouraging their staff and community to support the wildfire relief, so when Marc began his efforts, they immediately offered to match any donations he raised. “I also work on campus with Dr. Susan Baldwin at Remediation Technologies,” says Marc. “I first became aware of the impact of the fires when her fieldwork in Quesnel had to be cancelled due to the impending danger of the fires. Then I began hearing how friends working and living in and around BC were being evacuated. I didn’t realize how major of an issue this actually was until I started looking into it. The maps I saw showed the towns my friends were staying in surrounded by the wildfires.” To incentivize donations, Marc approached Darby’s, a local restaurant, to co-host his fundraiser — your donation earned you a meal that you could either enjoy yourself or donate to someone in need (all tips were also donated to the relief fund) and if Marc reached his goal of $1000 he vowed to entertain donors by singing (if badly) karaoke. “As a new employee, I wasn't nervous asking Hemerra to throw the dinner,” he says, “but I was nervous about inviting my colleagues, and discussing the relief effort, and asking for money. I think that people are typically skeptical when you ask for money. They think, ‘Why should I donate to the Red Cross when I can donate to something else? Why is this problem getting all the attention, and why is another one not?’ I empathized and was ready for this response, but actually, everyone was all for it.” “I think the scariest part about this is that it's a natural disaster, one we're indirectly causing, and it's the worst one we've had,” says Marc. “Disasters like these are only getting worse as we move forward. The sad thing is, I think people are becoming complacent about climate change. Especially in cities like Vancouver, where it's not as visible. When the smoke reached Vancouver, that's when people started to pay attention. It's important to educate yourself and see how you can contribute — be it raising funds to assist those directly affected, talking about it with others, or making a change in your lifestyle.” Marc’s fundraiser raised $1500, and the donations are still coming in. His team at Hemmera have raised $10,080. “I dearly hope this assists those affected,” he says. “And I hope it gets people talking about climate change and what we can do to help. I'm floored by the amount of support I've received, and hope others get inspired to do the same.” To contribute to Marc’s fundraiser, visit paypal.me/marcapollo. For more information about (or to donate to) the British Columbia Fires Appeal, visit www.redcross.ca/donate/appeal/donate-to-the-british-columbia-fires-appeal. Your donation will help provide immediate relief such as cots, blankets, family reunification and financial assistance for food, clothing and personal needs. Beyond meeting immediate needs, your donation may also help re-entry and go towards more long-term recovery, resiliency and preparedness.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2451
__label__cc	0.585001	0.414999	“Dignity” vs. “respect” Today, I read an article, and one sentence talked about treating other people with dignity and respect I had thought I understood the difference between the words dignity and respect. But then I realized that I didn't understand — at least in the above context. I checked out the definitions on dictionary.com, m-w.com, etc. and I still didn't get it. What is difference between the two words dignity and respect in this context? meaning differences nouns meaning-in-context edited Jun 11 '13 at 8:48 pnvnpnvn I think it's semantically odd, because the only way I can make sense of the dignity part is to take it to mean "treating other people in a way which upholds their dignity". – Colin Fine Jun 10 '13 at 22:54 I think you ought to include some of the better definitions that you found within this question. It's a courtesy. Otherwise, we'll all have to check out the definitions, same way you did. – J.R. Jun 11 '13 at 0:57 @Colin Fine: I think to treat with dignity is most easily understood as in a dignified manner, corresponding to in a respectful manner. If you start by assuming you're giving respect, the counterpart doesn't really work with dignity. – FumbleFingers Jun 11 '13 at 3:07 Every time I read this question, I imagine Rodney Dangerfield saying, "I can't get no dignity." – J.R. Jun 11 '13 at 14:27 @J.R. That's it exactly. – MetaEd♦ Jun 11 '13 at 18:51 Dignity is honorableness, a quality of the person being elevated. Respect is a viewpoint, a quality of the person doing the elevating. In your example context, there is considerable overlap of connotation, and one could be used in place of the other. In other contexts, it would be hard to do so. For example, we can refer to the dignity (honorableness) of an action, but can’t meaningfully substitute respect. And we can refer to things differing in some respect (from some viewpoint), but can’t meaningfully substitute dignity. Dignity identifies a worthy, high, and honorable condition. When person A treats person B with dignity, it means person A acknowledges person B’s dignity (worth or value). This is also seen in the verb dignify: if I say “I refuse to dignify that with an answer”, I mean I refuse to treat the question as worth answering: it’s not me, but the question itself that lacks dignity.¹ Respect identifies the act of paying attention or proper consideration, and by extension the act of viewing someone as worthy of such consideration. When person A treats person B with respect, it means person A takes proper notice of person B, according person B due care and honor. This is also seen in the verb to respect: if I say “I refuse to respect that decision”, I mean I refuse to treat the decision as worthy of respect: it’s me, not the decision, that lacks respect.² It is helpful to look at the etymology of these words, because their meanings reflect their history. Dignity comes from the Latin noun dignus, “worth”, and is related to other valuing words such as dignitary, dainty, deign, disdain, and indignation.³ Respect comes from the Latin verb respicere, literally “look back at”, and is related to other viewing words such as spectator, spectacles, and inspect.⁴ MetaEd♦MetaEd It might be easier to have answered this question had you given a little more detail about the context in which you read it - but, with that proviso, here's my two-pennyworth! I agree that there is considerable overlap between the two terms, dignity and respect, yet they do often be seem to be used together. One context that is fairly common and topical in the UK at the moment is in the treatment of patients - and particularly elderly patients - in hospital. In that particular context, I tend to think of dignity as referring to the manner in which they are 'physically' treated or handled, e.g. handling them in a private cubicle with curtains properly drawn, treating their physical body with respect and privacy as far as possible even when having to help them dress/undress or having to help with private and/or intimate functions. On the other side, I think of respect as 'dignity' for their 'inner person', for their wishes and desires: listening to what they want and to their preferences, and responding to them, even if you cannot meet their wishes or they are inappropriate for medial reasons - not just doing what you think is necessary and ignoring what they are saying. Give them at least a moment of time, rather than ignore them completely. That's how I distinguish between the two in that particular type of circumstance: whether others agree, or can explain the differences in clearer terms, .... TrevorDTrevorD To given more context, the article is here: newsday.com/news/region-state/…. The sentence is: "As mayor of the city, I expect that all police officers will act professionally and treat all persons with dignity and respect," Boughton wrote. Thanks – pnvn Jun 10 '13 at 23:39 Thanks. I won't attempt to comment on US usage in that context, except to say that it appears that both physical and verbal treatment by the police officer were questionable and it's again possible that there could be an implied difference. Equally, it's possible that the mayor was just using a common expression without thinking about it fully. – TrevorD Jun 10 '13 at 23:55 Thanks for taking the time to respond! StackExchange doesn't let me mark your response as answer because I don't have enough points/reputation. – pnvn Jun 11 '13 at 0:10 @pnvn I do not believe you need to earn reputation before you can accept an answer to your question. See: meta.stackexchange.com/a/5235/171321 – MetaEd♦ Jun 28 '13 at 3:49 Let me see if a different perspective works. I read your answers and a lot of it makes sense. Totally. Yet, I was left with this confusion as to whether the framers of that phrase did so because of the fluidity when said or because they intended actually to differentiate the concepts. Here I believe they actually mean two different concepts. Respect : Respect is an inner function. It requires one person to look into the other persons viewpoint and attempt to see it from their perspective. The person wanting respect may not be in a position of choice to leave the situation when treated with disrespect. The person wanting respect may or may not be deserving of respect but expects to be treated respectfully in so far as the interaction is concerned. However there may be disagreement between the two people which can be valid and neither party agrees to compromise in order to be treated with respect. The situational example is a supervisor supervisee. The supervisor may disagree with the supervisee about a viewpoint. However the supervisee may want to be treated with respect and likewise the supervisor. Dignity : Dignity is being treated in a dignified manner. Taking into account the other persons limitations, station in life, older in years etc... The person wanting dignity may not be interested in the respect of the other person, but they want to be treated in a dignified manner. The person giving dignity does not have to respect the other person. They merely have to treat them in a dignified manner. The situational example is a service rendered between two parties. The service has been paid for. The person rendering the service agrees to do in a dignified manner irrespective of whether they respect the person who is receiving the service. Likewise the person receiving the service expects dignity, but has no corresponding expectation of respect. I apologize, I dont have references for this. Just my thought process based on answers so far and my own perception of the words. AlgorithmicsAlgorithmics Dignity: Dignity is being treated in a dignified manner. ... The person giving dignity does not have to respect the other person. They merely have to treat them in a dignified manner. The situational example is a service rendered between two parties Your argument is somewhat circular. – Chenmunka May 19 '17 at 8:02 Garner's Modern English Usage has this to say - https://books.google.com/books?id=2xv4CwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT1334&dq=%22treat%20with%20dignity%22&pg=PT1334#v=onepage&q=%22treat%20with%20dignity%22&f=false If someone knows how to embed this image please help. I had no luck with it. One observation on the usage. As Trevor pointed out, this use of dignity is frequently encountered in health care. It is idiomatic there, and seems to have developed a specific meaning. It is often used as a synonym for equality in patient treatment, regardless of race, health status, or social background. Here is a nice example of that - https://books.google.com/books?id=6jyzsW3GlyQC&lpg=PA53&dq=%22treat%20with%20dignity%22&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q=%22treat%20with%20dignity%22&f=false Phil SweetPhil Sweet Dignity is giving the person the space not to be teased, prompted, provoked or delighted with guessing their response. Respect is listening to their opinion and allow that to be that person's position. CompleteComplete Welcome to English.se. When giving an answer it's best to provide sources! You can also use paragraphs. – virmaior Feb 12 '14 at 1:14 protected by Mari-Lou A Jun 24 '17 at 3:58 Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged meaning differences nouns meaning-in-context or ask your own question. What's the difference between “suasive” and “persuasive”? “In 15 minutes” or “15 minutes later”? Usage of “screened for” in the context of a study sample “Rebellion” vs. “revolution” Difference between “dawn” and “realize” “Evocative” vs. “provocative” Send or Send across Can you respect a belief you don't agree with, and that you find morally reprehensible? Are there significant differences in how “college” and “university” are used in syntactic constructions? The difference between the meanings of “assumption” and “hypothesis” in the mentioned context?	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2453
__label__wiki	0.949578	0.949578	Report human rights violations Jaswant Singh Khalra Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti Satwant Singh Manak Kuljit Singh Dhatt Mission & Theory of Change The Disappearance of Human Rights Attorney Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti On May 12, 1994, Indian security forces abducted Punjab human rights attorney Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti in broad daylight. Over the following weeks, security forces clandestinely detained and tortured Mr. Bhatti. The Indian Government continues to deny justice to Mr. Bhatti's family. On the anniversary of Mr. Bhatti's disappearance in 2007, Ensaaf submitted a communication (225KB, PDF) to the UN Special Representative on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders. Relying on court papers and interviews with Mr. Bhatti's wife Harcharanjit Kaur Bhatti, the communication provides a detailed summary of Mr. Bhatti's case and identifies key perpetrators. Mr. Bhatti was Sangrur district's leading defense lawyer for individuals accused of crimes under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act, 1987, a draconian law that facilitated torture and indefinite detention. He was litigating 131 TADA cases at the time of his disappearance. Mr. Bhatti further protected his clients from extrajudicial executions, characterized by security forces as "encounters." In 1993, the Punjab Police started to apply for and receive production warrants that allowed them to remove individuals accused in TADA cases from jail, and kill them in fake encounters. Mr. Bhatti secured orders from the Punjab & Haryana High Court, which prevented the superintendent of the jail from removing his clients without the High Court's permission. Despite threats to his life, Mr. Bhatti refused to abandon his clients. After security forces abducted him on May 12, 1994, two eyewitnesses saw Mr. Bhatti in custodial detention, critically injured from torture. An inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) collected evidence directly implicating then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jasminder Singh and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Surjit Singh in Mr. Bhatti's detention, torture, and disappearance. The evidence in the CBI report demonstrates that DSP Surjit Singh and SSP Jasminder Singh ran an unofficial interrogation center at Bahadur Singh Wala Qila in Sangrur, where Mr. Bhatti and many others were secretly detained and tortured. Despite the overwhelming evidence against several police officers, in 1997 the CBI recommended the closure of the case, concluding that Mr. Bhatti was "untraced." In 2017, the government of Punjab promoted Jasminder Singh to Director General of Police (Internal Vigilance Cell). Mr. Bhatti's family continues to await justice. No one has been charged with torturing and disappearing him. Mr. Bhatti is survived by his wife, two daughters, and a son. Stay connected to Ensaaf Mapping the Killings View our new interactive data visualization site, mapping and profiling 5100+ victims. Rajvinder S. Bains: This procedure has failed completely. Rajvinder S. Bains, a human rights attorney in the Punjab & Haryana High Court for over 20 years, discusses his experiences with the High Court in cases filed on behalf of victims of disappearances or extrajudicial executions. (Oct. 2007) Mohinder Singh: What justice can we get from here? Mohinder Singh discusses the abduction and murder of his son by the Punjab police and his pursuit of numerous avenues of justice. (Oct. 2007) Tarlochan Singh: A Mockery of Justice Tarlochan Singh describes his son Kulwinder Singh’s abduction by the Punjab police, and his 18-year continuing legal struggle for justice for Kulwinder Singh’s extrajudicial execution. (Oct. 2007) Stay up to date about Ensaaf’s work to protect human rights in Punjab and beyond. Gurcharan Singh and his Desire for Justice In an SBS Dateline program on Punjab, Geoff Parish discusses the Punjab governments offer of compensation to 17 families, with no investigation or admission of liability by the state, in the Punjab mass cremations case. Gurcharan Singh rejected this offer. (Apr. 2002, Uploaded with permission from SBS.) Jaswant Singh Khalra: Investigations into Illegal Cremations An SBS Dateline program on Punjab describes human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalras discovery of the Punjab polices use of secret cremations to hide evidence of extrajudicial executions. The clip includes an interview with human rights activist Ram Narayan Kumar. (Apr. 2002, Uploaded with permission from SBS.) A Witness Among the Bodies: Surviving Bluestar On the 30th Anniversary of Operation Bluestar, Ensaaf presents an eyewitness account of the Indian Army attack on The Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab, from June 1 and June 6, 1984. This exclusive interview reveals how the Indian Army intentionally killed thousands of civilians and used excessive force during this assault. Ensaaf Speaks with Manak about Court Decision, On November 26, 2013, the Punjab & Haryana High Court allowed the appeal of the State of Punjab and reversed and nullified the decision of the Single Judge directing investigation by the CBI. Not only did it refuse to order an inquiry into Satwant Singh Manak’s allegations that he witnessed the Punjab Police torture and unlawfully kill ten people, it also fined Manak, ordering him to pay 2,000 rupees to each of the accused police officers. A Labor Of Love: Contesting Impunity On July 23, 1989, Punjab Police officers abducted, tortured, and unlawfully killed 35-year old Sikh community leader Kuljit Singh Dhatt. For 25 years, his family has relentlessly pursued justice, attending over a hundred hearings, petitioning various courts and commissions, and enduring police harassment and intimidation of witnesses. On May 9, 2014, a judge convicted three police officers of abduction in order to murder Kuljit Singh Dhatt, sentencing them to a mere five years. The legal battle continues, now in the higher courts. Navkiran Kaur Khalra: “We are proud of what our father did.” Navkiran Kaur Khalra, daughter of murdered human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra, recounts her family’s struggle for justice and her father’s discovery of thousands of killings and secret cremations by the Punjab police to hide evidence of wrongdoing. (Oct. 2007) Jaswant Singh Khalra: Last International Speech – The Struggle for Truth In his last speech made to a Canadian audience, Jaswant Singh Khalra discusses his investigations into the thousands of illegal killings and secret cremations by the Punjab police and his readiness to die to expose the truth about these crimes. Jaswant Singh Khalra begins his speech with a moving fable about the struggle of truth and light against expanding darkness. He recounts how he traced the fate of many disappeared Sikhs to Amritsar’s municipal cremation grounds. Through government records obtained from these municipalities, Khalra exposed a detailed history of systematic human rights violations in which security forces abducted, murdered, and secretly cremated an estimated 6,017 Sikhs in Amritsar district alone–then one of 13 districts in Punjab–from 1984 to 1995. (Apr. 1995) Paramjit Kaur Khalra on Impunity in Punjab In this video, Paramjit Kaur Khalra describes the need for a truth commission to redress the thousands of disappearances and killings in Punjab, India perpetrated during the counterinsurgency of 1984 to 1995. In September and October 1995, Indian security forces illegally detained, tortured, and killed her husband, human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, for his work uncovering over 2,000 cases of extrajudicial executions and secret cremations in Amritsar district alone. On November 4, 2011, India’s Supreme Court upheld life imprisonment for five officers involved in Khalra’s unlawful abduction, torture, and killing. Mrs. Khalra continues to seek justice for the all victims of illegal killings and disappearances. Seeking Ensaaf On Human Rights Day, we share this documentary to show you how your support helps us document abuses on the ground. Seeking Ensaaf, filmed by Andrew Heskett, Ryan Westra, and David Thompson, recipients of the Sikh Scholarship Program at Chapman University, in August 2013, follows Ensaaf field workers as they document a case of extrajudicial killing in Punjab. Thank you for joining us on this journey to end impunity and achieve justice for the disappearances and unlawful killings of the Decade of Disappearances in Punjab. A Light of Justice: Commemorating Jaswant Singh Khalra On the 20th anniversary of the police abduction of human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra, Ensaaf released A Light of Justice: Commemorating Jaswant Singh Khalra. This 30-minute film contains interviews with Khalra’s family, as well as archival footage of Khalra when he was investigating secret cremations and disappearances in Punjab. Twenty years after Khalra’s martyrdom, the architects of the widespread and systematic human rights abuses in Punjab remain free. The Indian government is no closer to bringing Gill and the other perpetrators to justice for organizing Khalra’s – and thousands of other innocent Sikhs’ – death. Please watch and share this film via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The Last Killing Satwant Singh Manak joined the Punjab Police to provide his family with a stable income. But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in response to an insurgency, Indian security forces committed systematic and widespread torture, disappearances, and unlawful killings in Punjab. Manak silently witnessed the torture and executions of 15 unarmed individuals at the hands of his fellow police officers. The killing of Kulwant Singh, a teenager who had passed 10th grade, deeply affected Manak. No longer able to suppress his conscience and the horror of what he witnessed, he resigned from his job and filed a case against his fellow police officers. That case covers ten of the victims. Ensaaf is a nonprofit organization working to end impunity and achieve justice for crimes against humanity in India, with a special focus on Punjab, by documenting abuses, bringing perpetrators to justice, and organizing survivors. Copyright © 2018 Ensaaf, all rights reserved. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. Privacy Policy. Accept	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2454
__label__wiki	0.757183	0.757183	Bristol Historical Association The HA branch for Bristol From October 2018 meetings will usually take place in Lecture Theatre 3 in the Woodland Road complex. Please enter via 21 Woodland Road and follow the signs. Date, Speaker and Event Wednesday 17th October 2018 Dave Martin Cast Bronze Reputations in Bristol and Should Colston Fall? Dave Martin is a history adviser and author based in the West Country. He is currently researching a book on historical statues. Dave has lectured on this topic at the HA National Conference in 2018 and written an article for The Historian in 2017 on the controversy around the statues of Cecil Rhodes and General Gordon entitled Rhodes Must Fall yet Gordon is repaired?. The lecture will consider statues of historical figures that can be found in public places in Bristol and nearby towns all set within a national context. In questioning those statues – who funded them, how are they depicted, where are they sited – the lecture will try to answer the central questions, ‘Who do we choose to commemorate with statues in our streets and what do our choices say about us and our changing view of history.’ Given the recent controversy around Colton’s statue here in Bristol this promises to be a thought provoking lecture followed by a lively question and answer session. Rob Pritchard The Bristol Blitz talk & walk (Repeat) due to waiting list and its success in May 2018 we are repeating this event – contact Robpritchard1957@gmail.com if you would like to be on the list. There will be a £2 charge for printing costs. Rob Pritchard taught history in four comprehensive schools for 37 years. As an undergraduate at the University of Bristol in 1978 he completed a dissertation on the Bristol Blitz. In 2018 he re-researched his dissertation using something that was unavailable forty years ago….the internet. We will start with a talk in Lecture Room 8 behind 21 Woodland Road. The walk (3-5 pm) will take us along Park Row, down Christmas Steps and around the old city of Bristol. We will finish by Temple Church in Victoria Street and will adjourn to the King’s Head. Associate Professor Madge Dresser Bristol Slave Trade walk (we are afraid that this walk is now full) Meet outside the Wills Building at 11 am. The walk will last two hours. Professor Madge Dresser, F.R.H.S., R.S.A., is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of the West of England and Honorary Professor in Historical Studies at the University of Bristol. A graduate of UCLA, LSE and the University of Bristol, she has published and broadcast widely on the themes of slavery and its legacy in Britain. Much of her work uses Bristol as a base from which to explore the global themes of race, ethnicity and gender. Born in Los Angeles but living in Britain since 1970, she has taught and researched about slavery at Virginia Commonwealth University and Colonial Williamsburg. As a public historian she has participated in national and local debates and broadcasts on the memorialisation of slavery, including Rhodes Must Fall and the Edward Colston Memorial in Bristol. Professor Dresser has written several books connected with Bristol including Women and the City Bristol 1373-2000 (2016) (Editor: Madge Dresser), Slavery Obscured the Social History of the Slave Trade in Bristol (2007), and with Peter Fleming Bristol: Ethnic Minorities and the City 1000-2001 (2008). In 2017 Professor Dresser made major contributions to the Black History Month events at the M-shed. Dr Tracy Borman Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces Henry VIII and the men who made him Priory Road Social Sciences Complex Tracy Borman studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PHD in 1997. She went on to a successful career in heritage and worked for a range of historic properties and national heritage organisations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, The National Archives and English Heritage. She is now Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust which encourages children to visit and learn from historic properties. She is also joint Chief Curator for Historic Royal Palaces the charity that manages Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace, the Banqueting House, Whitehall and Hillsborough Castle. Tracy has also appeared on television and radio, and regularly contributes to history magazines, including BBC History. She has frequently given talks for the Historical Association including being one of their key speakers at the 2018 Conference. In addition to all this Tracy has written a number of highly acclaimed books including: Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen Witches: A Tale of Sorcery, Scandal and Seduction. Henry VIII and men who made him. Bristol Heat of Great Debate What was the greatest failure of the Age of Revolutions? Public speaking competition for history students in the South West Lecture Room 8 21 Woodland Road This autumn the Historical Association will again be running heats for the Great Debate 2019. Bristol successfully hosted one in 2018 with ten entrants one of whom went on to the final at the Palace of Westminster. This year the Great Debate is supported by Waterloo 200 and the question is: What was the greatest failure of the Age of Revolutions? The final will be held at Windsor Castle in March 2019 with presentations in the Waterloo Room. Since we are holding the Bristol heat at the end of November we need schools and colleges interested to contact us and the Historical Association in London as soon as possible to register their interest. Normally there will be one place per school and two schools from last year have already been in touch to register their interest so do get in touch as soon as you can in September to register your interest. Katie Logan is the member of the HA team in London who is coordinating the event Katie.Logan@history.org.uk Further guidance for students and teachers is available at these links https://www.history.org.uk/getinvolved/resource/7805/creating-the-debate-public-speaking-guide https://www.history.org.uk/getinvolved/module/7507/the-great-debate-advice-for-students Dr Nicola Grove The Adventures and Misadventures of Fanny Fust: capacity in an heiress with learning disabilities – Talk & Film Performance/Oral History Lecture Theatre 3 Woodland Road Dr Nicola Grove works as a storyteller, trainer and researcher in disability education, health and social care and the arts, specializing in narrative and story, communication, oracy in the curriculum and disability issues. She is an honorary Senior Lecturer at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent. She believes passionately in the value of the lives of all individuals, linked to each other through our shared stories. She says her main teachers have been the people she has met who are labelled as different because of their apparent disabilities. Fanny Fust was a young learning disabled woman who was kidnapped and forced to marry a man who was after her fortune in eighteenth century Bristol. In a joint project with the University of Bristol, Fust’s tale was rewritten by Openstorytellers, an organisation that supports people with learning disabilities by using current and historical true stories. In this talk Nicola will introduce the Openstorytellers and their research and with performers involve the audience in the story of Fanny Fust. This event will raise issues about History’s links to oral tradition, an interesting local history story and show how History is moving beyond the book and the lecture hall. Dr James FreemanBritain in the 1970s Lecture Theatre 3 Woodland Road Dr James Freeman is historian of contemporary British politics, economics and society, with particular research interests in the histories of rhetoric, political concepts, neoliberalism, Thatcherism, and digital humanities methodologies. He currently teaches an undergraduate course on the 1970’s called Decade of Discord.Long portrayed as the “terrible seventies in which the post-war consensus broke down”, “the decade that taste forgot” , the decade of the three day week and the winter of discontent, the 1970’s has become a decade of serious academic study and an exam topic. Dr Freeman will focus about how the 1970s are a decade that still shapes our political landscape more profoundly than any other. Tuesday 29th January 2019 Bristol Historical AssociationHistorical Pub Quiz The Golden Guinea BS1 6SX Professor David Stevenson LSE ‘A Carthaginian Peace? Revisiting the Treaty of Versailles’ Professor Stevenson’s main fields of interests lie in international relations in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the origins, course and impact of the First World War. His publications include: With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918, 1914-1918: the History of the First World War (2004) Armaments and the Coming of War: Europe, 1904-1914 (1996) The First World War and International Politics (1988). 1917: War, Peace, and Revolution. Professor Stevenson was a Member of the academic advisory committee for the Imperial War Museum’s new First World War Galleries, which opened on 19 July 2014. He has been a consultant for the BBC Documentary series Railways of the Great War, a series of five programmes produced by Boundless Productions and presented by Michael Portillo. At the London School of Economics Professor Stevenson teaches on undergraduate courses on International History and the First World War. He has lectured at Sandhurst and amongst his many other commitments he was one of the judges in the Historical Association’s Great Debate Final in 2017. This lecture on ‘A Carthaginian Peace? Revisiting the Treaty of Versailles’ will look afresh at this most controversial of all peace treaties. Dr Jessica Moody University of Bristol Remembering Slavery in the ‘Slaving Capital of the World’ : Liverpool and the Legacy of the Past Dr Jessica Moody FHEA (HEA), PhD (York), MA (York) Lecturer in Public History at Bristol University Her research concerns how people engage with the past through collective memory, public history and heritage. She is also currently writing up research on First World War exhibitions York, Scarborough and Portsmouth in 2014 and 2016. She joined the University of Bristol in September 2017. Her lecture is on “Remembering Slavery in the “Slaving capital of the World”: Liverpool and the Legacy of the Past”. She will focus on Liverpool’s public memory of transatlantic slavery that is how the city of Liverpool has publicly remembered – over time – its own extensive role in the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement of African people This will act as a useful comparison with our events on Bristol’s role, both Dave Martin’s lively lecture on Cast Bronze Reputations which discussed the reputation of Colston in October 2018 and Dr Madge Dresser’s very popular Bristol Slave Trade Walk in November 2018. Dr Moody forthcoming book is called Remembering Slavery in the ‘Slaving Capital of the World’: Liverpool and the Legacy of the Past is due out later this year. She is also currently writing up research conducted with Dr Geoff Cubitt at First World War exhibitions in York, Scarborough and Portsmouth in 2014 and 2016 and has worked with a number of national museums. Wednesday 24th April 2019 Dr Toby Green King’s College London A Fistful of Shells: New Perspectives on West Africa in the era of the Slave Trade. This event replaces the previously advertised lecture by Professor Miri Rubin In 1897, in what is now southern Nigeria, a British military force sacked the ancient capital of the kingdom of Benin. In the rubble, the expedition leaders found a cache of intricate brass, ceramic and wood artworks that seemed too beautiful and subtle to have been produced by a culture that the British regarded as “uncivilised”. The officers helped themselves. Many of the works are now in the British Museum; others were auctioned off for cash. The men who looted them believed they had a right to “rescue” the artworks for posterity (and profit). From their perspective, the stark economic inequality that characterised the relationship between European and West African states was natural and timeless. In A Fistful of Shells, the historian Toby Green dismantles the racist myth of West African “backwardness”. He shows that the inequalities that made the European “scramble for Africa” possible grew out of a catastrophe, the path to which began in the 15th century. Rob Bell Archaeologist Tour of Acton Court The tour is now fully booked Acton Court House. There are only 25 places. Please contact Rob Pritchard In 1535, one of England’s most colourful kings, Henry VIII, came to stay at Acton Court with his second wife, Anne Boleyn, while on his summer Progress around the West Country. The owner of Acton Court, Nicholas Poyntz, wanted to impress his sovereign, so for Henry’s pleasure, he built a magnificent new East Wing on to the existing moated manor house. The new wing was a splendid testament to Nicholas Poyntz’s loyalty to his King. He went to immense trouble and expense to impress Henry, decorating the state apartments lavishly and fashionably. He was well rewarded as it is thought he was knighted during the royal visit. Today, the East Wing which was built in just nine months comprises most of what remains at Acton Court. It offers a rare example of 16th century royal state apartments and some decorations which are said to be the finest of their kind in England. Also surviving, hidden in the masonry until it was discovered during conservation work is the King’s “en suite” garderobe, or privy. Sir Nicholas went on building at Acton Court until his death in 1556. The surviving Eastern half of his long gallery can still be admired. It was a daring construction with large windows and a painted frieze of biblical text and moralising verses in Latin. During archaeological excavations at Acton Court, there were many exciting finds, thought to be associated with King Henry’s visit. These included examples of the finest Venetian glass of its time, Spanish ceramics, and some of the earliest clay tobacco pipes yet discovered. Dating from the late 16th century, these support the view that Sir Walter Raleigh gave one of the first demonstrations in England of the technique of smoking during a visit to Acton Court. One item of particular importance was found by chance in a nettle patch next to the building. It is a Cotswold limestone sundial designed by the royal horologist, Nicholas Kratzer, dated 1520. The Poyntz family owned Acton Court from 1364 until 1680 when the direct line of succession ended and the house was sold. It was subsequently reduced in size and converted for use as a tenant farmhouse. The building’s fortunes declined to the point of dilapidation in the 20th century. It is due in part to this neglect that Acton Court was left largely untouched and as a result a unique Tudor building has been preserved virtually intact. Wednesday 22nd May 2019 Professor Kate Dossett University of Leeds “Today’s Young Feminists Know Better Than That”: Archives, Activism and the Making of Women’s History. Women as history makers and historical actors Kate Dossett joined the University of Leeds in 2003. Her research and teaching focuses on race and gender in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her two main areas of interest are women’s and gender history, in particular the construction of feminist knowledge through Feminist Archives and Women’s Libraries and histories of the African Diaspora including black nationalism, the international black left, the Harlem Renaissance and black feminism. She is currently working on two projects: a history of radical black theatre in the United States and the making of feminist history and archives in Britain and the United States. She has worked with the National Theatre to develop an adult learning programme on African American Theatre in the 20th Century and delivered public lectures at the National Maritime Museum and the Leeds City Museum. Her work on the history of women’s libraries and feminist archives includes working with Feminist Archive North and Glasgow Women’s Library. She has been a guest expert on Radio 4’s Great Lives series and a contributor to Woman’s Hour. She has recently written a book on Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal. Her book Bridging Race Divides: Black Nationalism, Feminism and Integration 1896-1935 (2008) was winner of the Julia Cherry Spruill Prize for the best book in southern women’s history. 7.30 pm Bristol Historical Association Historical Pub Quiz The Golden Guinea Pub BS1 6SX Tweets by BristolHA //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js The Making of Women’s History May 23, 2019 Acton Court tour. Hidden gem. May 22, 2019 “A Fistful of Shells: New Perspectives on West Africa in the era of the Slave Trade” April 25, 2019 How Liverpool came to terms with its involvement in the Slave Trade March 21, 2019 It’s the Treaty of Versailles but not as we know it February 27, 2019 Bristol Historical Association Twitter Bristol HA WordPress	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2456
__label__wiki	0.857369	0.857369	DAS INTERVIEW: EINTRACHT FRANKFURT Eintracht Frankfurt hat in dieser Saison mit dem Erreichen des Halbfinales des Europa League für eine große Überraschung gesorgt. Aber auch abseits des Platzes beeindruckt der Verein mit einem fanorientierten Ansatz, der sich auszuzahlen scheint. Vor dem Heimspiel gegen Chelsea sprach FSE mit Henning Schwarz, dem Geschäftsführer der Fanabteilung, sowie Justiziar Philipp Reschke, dem Bereichsleiter für Sicherheit, Fanbetreuung und Spieltagsleitung. FSE STATEMENT ON BAKU UEL FINAL: HOSTING CONDITIONS & TICKET ALLOCATION Earlier this month, representatives from Football Supporters Europe (FSE) visited Baku (Azerbaijan), where this season’s UEFA Europa League (UEL) final will be held. The purpose of the visit was to assess the city’s preparations for the fixture, with a specific focus on the Olympic Stadium. In addition to the usual meetings with UEFA representatives and Azerbaijani officials, FSE also consulted local supporters’ groups, human rights activists, and journalists. The final will take place on Wednesday 29th May at 23:00 (local time). While Baku has a lot to offer visitors, the 2019 UEL Final will take place in a challenging environment, and FSE have concerns that we hope will be addressed in the coming months. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT According to Human Rights Watch’s 2019 World Report, the human rights situation is critical. In the context of the UEL Final, this is problematic on two levels. First, it limits the ability of outside organisations to access accurate information on the state of the preparations and the political dimension of the event. Second, it has the potential to dampen the festive atmosphere one expects from a major sporting event and undermine its inclusivity. Azerbaijan also has a poor record when it comes to LGBT+ rights, with the ILGA-Rainbow Index ranking it as the worst state in Europe for gay and trans citizens. This is particularly worrying given the growing number of LGBT+ fan groups who are likely to follow their team all the way to the final. FSE have received assurances from UEFA that they are committed to organising the final in line with the United Nations’ ‘Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ and other relevant conventions. UEFA also stated that they would liaise with local authorities to ensure members of the LGBT+ community feel safe and welcome during their stay in Azerbaijan. FSE are monitoring the situation carefully and will update LGBT+ fan groups in due course. FANS’ RIGHTS Football supporters in Azerbaijan are also regularly targeted by the authorities. Minor offences can often lead to a period of administrative detention ranging up to eight weeks. This repressive atmosphere is compounded by a heavy police presence, which is immediately noticeable to an outside observer. It is important to note, however, that there is a limited risk of arrest or imprisonment for foreign fans. The probable outcome in the case of a minor offence will be deportation. Citizens of most countries from the UEFA region will need to apply for a visa before their arrival in Azerbaijan. Applications have to be made online and cost 20 USD – or up to 50 USD for expedited processing (3 hours). FSE would advise travelling fans to apply at least 10 days before their planned date of departure. Worryingly, the visa application process requires mandatory disclosure of a person’s HIV status. While it is unclear whether the application can be denied on this basis, FSE believe it violates the right to equal protection under the law. In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly issued a Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS which specifically encouraged member states to remove any existing HIV-related travel restrictions. Following an inquiry from FSE, UEFA informed us that they are liaising with the Azerbaijani authorities toensure that anyone wishing to attend the final or UEFA EURO 2020 matches can do so irrespective of theirhealth status. FSE welcome UEFA’s immediate response and efforts on this subject but remain adamant that only full removal of the restrictions would be a positive outcome. UEFA TICKETING POLICY Finally, the announcement on ticketing policy for the final raises questions related to both the finalists’ allocation and the specific Azerbaijani context. With 37,500 tickets available to the general public, which represents an all-time record of 58% of the overall capacity, FSE fear that the number of tickets reserved for supporters of the two finalists will be exceptionally low. FSE representative Martin Endemann commented: “While we acknowledge that visiting Baku will require time and money, fans will travel no matter what. UEFA should take into consideration that it is the supporters of the finalists who are the most likely to travel to Azerbaijan, not the general public.” Access to the country is indeed limited to three international airports (Baku, Gandja and Qabala), which are mostly connected to Russia and Turkey. “Taking into consideration the high percentage of tickets madeavailable for the general public and the difficulties to travel to Baku, it is FSE’s understanding that theorganisers are relying on the local fans to fill the stadium”, Endemann added. This could prove difficult considering the ticket prices, which may be perfectly affordable for most traveling fans, but will likely be beyond the means of most local football lovers. Indeed, tickets start at 30 EUR in a city where the average monthly salary is 220EUR and the nationwide minimum salary is 70 EUR. In a country which often resorts to mobilising civil servants or forcing other groups to attend public events, this ticketing policy carries the risk of serious abuse. FSE is particularly worried about forced ticket sales, a phenomenon alleged to have occurred during the 2012 Eurovision song contest and the 2016 New Year’s Eve concert at the Olympic Stadium. In light of these challenges, FSE expect the Azerbaijani authorities to guarantee the safety and basic civil rights of all fans attending the final. Moreover, FSE hope that the UEL Final will draw attention to the difficulties outlined above. Image: 'Flame Towers of Baku' by wilth (Flickr) Worryingly, the visa application process requires mandatory disclosure of a person’s HIV status. While it is unclear whether the application can be denied on this basis, FSE believe it violates the right to equal protection under the law. In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly issued a Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS which specifically encouraged member states to remove any existing HIV-related travel restrictions.t2 18 - 20328 Hamburg, Germany Following an inquiry from FSE, UEFA informed us that they are liaising with the Azerbaijani authorities toensure that anyone wishing to attend the final or UEFA EURO 2020 matches can do so irrespective of theirhealth status. FSE welcome UEFA’s immediate response and efforts on this subject but remain adamantthat only full removal of the restrictions would be a positive outcome. FSE STATEMENT ON EUROPA LEAGUE KICK-OFF TIMES After watching their team lose 1-0 to FC BATE Borisov in Belarus last week, Arsenal fans are now faced with the prospect of a 5:55pm kick-off for the return leg at the Emirates (London). Such an early start means that many fans will find it difficult, if not impossible, to attend the game due to work and other commitments. This is, of course, a problem in and of itself, but it is compounded by the fact that season ticket holders have already been charged for the fixture. INTERVIEW: EINTRACHT FRANKFURT Eintracht Frankfurt have surprised just about everybody this season by making it to the semi-finals of the Europa League. But they’re impressing off the pitch, too, with a fan-centred approach that appears to be paying dividends. Ahead of their home tie with Chelsea, FSE spoke to Henning Schwarz, the CEO of the Fan Department, and Philipp Reschke, the club’s in-house counsel, who is responsible for security, fan services, and matchday operations. FSE: What does success in Europe mean for a club such as Eintracht? Henning Schwarz: For us, it’s the biggest thing that can happen, apart from winning our first title in 30 years and our German cup victory last year. Frankfurt is, after all, a European city. When you walk through the city you can feel how important this is for people, especially since we don’t qualify for Europe every season. We last qualified 6 years ago, so we celebrate each game. Our first match against Marseille was difficult, of course, because we were excluded from the stadium and the city centre. But after making it through the group stage and beating bigger opponents in the knockout rounds, the euphoria has continued to build. Phillip Reschke: As an association, we regard every European matchday, whether home or away, as a festive event. Our UEFA Cup win in 1980 is an important part of the club’s DNA. If you treat every game with such reverence, it becomes infectious: the players and coaches are motivated, and the fans put their heart and soul into the spectacle, from the noise-level to the choreography. That creates an even more intense bond between the two. Our board member, Axel Hellmann, said “When the team steps onto the pitch it is as if they have imbibed a magical potion. They consider themselves invincible.” European competitions have a completely different aura. Taking part is something very, very special for everyone involved. FSE: We don’t get the impression that you consider the Europa League to be a second-class competition? PR: Europa League games are the pinnacle for us. We only know the other competition from television. But I don’t want to judge other, more experienced clubs. We just have a different experience and outlook. FSE: Henning, you mentioned that Eintracht fans were excluded from Marseilles earlier in the competition. This must have been a huge blow? HS: Of course! Being excluded from the stadium was hard enough, but the decree prohibiting Eintracht fans from entering the city was even worse. It was obvious that we should work together with FSE and Association Nationale des Supporters (ANS) to oppose these measures. PR: There was no long discussion in the club. We consider a municipal ban on football fans to be a completely disproportionate and legally dubious measure. With all sympathy for security concerns, this is not – cannot be – the future of European football. That’s why we opposed it, on principle, even though we knew, given the time period involved, there would be little chance of overturning the ban. It’s a question of principles and precedent: after Marseille is before Marseille. And that is why we have an interest in ensuring that a French administrative court decides on the legality of such a measure. At the moment, we’re in the early stages of the process (we expect it to last for 18-24 months). FSE: We gather that you are also critical of UEFA’s sanctions for Olympique de Marseille, which were imposed in response to incidents at Europa League matches during the 2017-2018 season? HS: We can say that we reject collective punishment in whatever form. We have always favoured perpetrator-oriented punishment in the Bundesliga. Participating in a European competition hasn’t changed our opinion. PR: We recognise that UEFA, as the organiser of a competition with so many cultures, nations and clubs, has a much harder time maintaining a consistent level of order and safety than national associations. But, in the end, the result of this collective punishment, which impacts innocent fans, shows how unhelpful and counterproductive these means of sanction are. FSE: What services does the club offer for its fans? HS: We offer travel to every game, including transfers and tickets. This offer is aimed first and foremost at the 52,000 members for whom I work. Seven supporter liaison officers from the club, five of whom work full-time, also travel to away games. We make sure that we cater for fans with impairments, too, of course. PR: The Frankfurt fan project, is also involved, and sends 3-5 people on away trips. From the pre-planning and distribution of tickets to the journey and as a point of contact on-site, we are there for our fans at every step. We don’t think so much in terms of “Europa League tourists” who would like a nice trip, but rather of the organised fan scene. We coordinate the process and we’re available as contacts whenever we can be. In addition, we act as a buffer to and mediator with the local security forces, especially during the preparation period. This is an important role because they differ not only geographically, but also on the basis of philosophy, deployment strategies, willingness to communicate, culture etc. We try to prepare the host clubs and cities for our fan scene. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t. In this context, we have worked with the Fan Department and FSE to establish a system of legal assistance where local lawyers help fans who have problems on the ground. These lawyers provide timely and high-quality assistance. We want to make sure that no one is left in a dark hole to rot. So far, we’ve had very good experiences with the respective colleagues in Marseille, Rome, Milan and Lisbon. FSE: Given that UEFA regulations give away fans only 5% of the overall ticket allocation, is the process of distributing tickets difficult? PR: Yes. In a game like the one at Chelsea, we can’t take all requests into account. That’s just the way it is. But our system privileges the regular away supporters, and we always try to find a way to bring the hard-core fans. This isn’t always easy, but we believe that we have a good system in place. We don’t have a ticket lottery. FSE: You’ve been spared absurd prices so far: what was the most you have been charged and how do Eintracht set prices for their away sector? PR: The most expensive game so far was in Milan, where the tickets of the regular contingent cost 30 EUR, while the 8,000 additional tickets we received were a bit more expensive at 40 EUR. This is OK because the host club provided us with more tickets from a higher category at our request. But you’re right, we’re yet to fall prey to exorbitant prices. For our home games, we respond to the pricing policy of each opponent. Our fans only had to pay 5 EUR in the Ukraine, so we charged Shakhtar Donetsk fans the same for the second leg. That´s just the right thing to do.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2458
__label__wiki	0.512405	0.512405	Millennial Workers Are Thriving in Age-Old Workplaces TechUber This Is Uber’s Biggest Problem Adam Lashinsky This article first appeared in Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. Sign up here. I try not to write about the same company twice in one week, but Uber’s just-released year-end results make the wildest of companies tough to ignore. Let’s start with two numbers: $7.5 billion and $4.5 billion. The former is Uber’s 2017 sales, according to multiple reports Tuesday, when Uber shared results with investors. It’s a giant number. Were Uber a public company, which it has said it wants to be, such results would rank it No. 367 or so on the Fortune 500 list of the biggest companies in the U.S. Here’s the thing about the Fortune 500, a list designed to show the industrial and financial might of the American economy: Most of the companies on it make money. Not Uber. It lost the latter number, a staggering amount. “There are few historical precedents for the scale of its loss,” writes Bloomberg’s Eric Newcomer. Uber doesn’t file these numbers with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so it’s hard to slice and dice them. The loss includes things like write-downs, stock-based compensation expenses, depreciation, and legal costs. (Uber clearly hopes litigation payments aren’t recurring, especially since it has settled its acrimonious suit with Alphabet’s Waymo unit.) Indeed, The Wall Street Journal reports that Uber’s cash burn for the fourth quarter was a “scant”—adjective: barely sufficient or adequate—$40 million. I’d say a quarterly burn of $40 million is indeed barely sufficient. It shows that despite its robust sales growth Uber still isn’t where it needs to be to go public. In December, in Guangzhou, China, we announced that the 2018 Fortune Global Forum would be held in Canada. Today we’re proud to say specifically where and when: Oct. 15-17 in Toronto. The Global Forum brings together CEOs and government leaders to discuss broad business issues and topics of interest in the host country. Nine months out, as we plan this exciting—and close to home!—event, expect energy, infrastructure, and a robust home-grown technology industry to be among the issues that take center stage.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2459
__label__wiki	0.879117	0.879117	This Algorithm Knows You Better Than Your Facebook Friends Do Jan. 12, 2015 , at 4:09 PM By Christie Aschwanden Filed under Personality Tests The Facebook “like” icon displayed outside of Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Plenty of us saw the 2013 movie “Her” and wondered whether something like the customized personal assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson could ever be possible. And then plenty of us moved on, never knowing whether we’d find the answer. Youyou Wu and Michal Kosinski decided to investigate. Wu, a social psychologist at the University of Cambridge’s Psychometrics Centre who has interned at Facebook, and Kosinski, a computer scientist at Stanford University, tried to create a precursor to Johansson’s character using a Facebook app called myPersonality. Is it possible, they wondered, that a computer program could be trained to understand and respond to a person’s thoughts and needs better than real people in his or her life? In a paper published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers show that yes, computers can know us better than we know each other, at least as measured by a computerized personality test. Wu and her colleagues exploited a database of myPersonality’s 100-item questionnaires that measured users on a Five Factor Model of Personality, gathering data on how open, conscientious, extroverted, agreeable and neurotic people were. This wasn’t one of those sham personality tests, either — the app was created in 2007 by David Stillwell, deputy director of the Psychometrics Centre, and based on a scientifically validated model of personality. Users could also ask friends to assess their personalities using an abbreviated, 10-question version of the test, and the myPersonality database now contains more than 300,000 such friend-ratings. People who use the app can opt in to share their anonymized personality ratings and Facebook data for research purposes, and more than 40 percent of the app’s 7.5 million users have done so. Wu and Kosinski developed an algorithm that predicts somebody’s Five Factor personality type using only Facebook likes. Using a sample of 17,622 U.S. participants who had been judged by at least one friend and a group of 14,410 users who’d had two friends fill out the 10-question survey, the researchers measured correlations between the self-judgments of personality and the judgments made by Facebook friends. The following chart shows a few of the associations between Facebook likes and personality traits that they found. The average Facebook user had liked about 227 items, but the computer program needed only 100 likes to outperform the average human judge. The model predicted the average person’s five-trait personality better than their work colleagues, Facebook friends, and even some of their family members. Only spouses outperformed the model, on average. Given enough likes, the computer can always outperform humans, Wu said. The ability to create an accurate personality profile depends on having enough relevant information to work with, and in some cases, the computer has more signals and can better access and assess them than the human mind can. “Even if I gave you a list of likes, you might not be able to remember them or make sense of all of them,” Wu said. Another advantage: Computers can generate algorithms to make predictions in a rational and consistent way, while people often fall prey to bias by giving undue weight to certain things. The study, of course, doesn’t prove that the “Her” scenario is possible. People are unlikely to fall in love with a computer program that merely predicts their five-trait personality profile, and it’s probably overreaching to sell this model as superior to human judgment just yet. Yes, the differences between the computer and the humans were significant in a statistical sense, but it’s also a very large sample size, and that means most differences will reach such significance, said Joshua Miller, a clinical psychologist who studies personality at the University of Georgia. This study’s bottom line is that a computer can outperform humans at predicting a score on a computer test, and that’s hardly surprising. In real life, the computer probably isn’t meaningfully superior to humans in ways that matter. But that doesn’t make this finding less impressive, said Miller, because it hints at what might be possible. Facebook likes are some of the most basic, visible digital fingerprints that a person leaves on the Internet. “I may not like something because I don’t want my friends to know I like that,” Miller said. “If you combined this with something like a Google search history, the predictions could get substantially better.” Take it a step further and combine such aggregated information with artificial intelligence-enabled chat bots like Cleverbot or Jabberwacky, and it’s easy to envision us slipping into a world like the one depicted in an episode of the British TV show “Black Mirror,” where a grieving widow looks for comfort in a replica of her dead husband, created entirely from the traces of him left behind. Before you freak out, know that we’re still a long way from that. How far? You can try the personality predictor and decide for yourself. Christie Aschwanden is FiveThirtyEight’s lead writer for science. Her book “Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery” is available here. @cragcrest Technology (30 posts) Facebook (20) Social Media (12) Algorithms (6) Personality Tests (3) Black Mirror (1) Like (1)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2461
__label__wiki	0.977861	0.977861	Henry Bloch, co-founder of tax company H&R Block, dies at 96 Associated Press April 23, 2019 KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Henry Bloch, who helped found tax preparation giant H&R Block, died Tuesday at age 96, the company announced. Bloch died of natural causes at St. Luke's Hospice in Kansas City. He founded H&R Block in 1955 in the city with his brother, Richard, to take advantage of the vacuum left as the Internal Revenue Service stopped providing free income tax returns service. Richard Bloch died in 2004. Henry Bloch retired as H&R Block's chief executive officer in 1992 and as chairman of the board of directors in 2000. "Through his honesty and integrity, Henry embodied the best of American business, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. In so many ways, he was ahead of his time and a model for today's entrepreneur," said Jeff Jones, president and chief executive officer of H&R Block Inc. in a written statement. "His vision lives on through our H&R Block associates and the many philanthropic organizations that he supported." Bloch, who flew 32 combat missions over Germany as a navigator in World War II, also was a philanthropist and a foundation he started along with his wife, Marion, that supported numerous charitable causes in Kansas City, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute at Saint Luke's Hospital and the Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Marion Bloch died in 2013. "This is an enormous loss to the community and to the Nelson-Atkins," said Richard Green, chair of the museum's Board of Trustees in a written statement. "Henry Bloch had an unfailing vision and enthusiasm that was borne of genuine gratitude." Bloch is survived by four children, 12 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. Berlin’s Plan to Preserve Affordable Apartments: Buy Them EXCLUSIVE: Rice talks about his first days as EQT CEO	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2464
__label__wiki	0.603058	0.603058	Tag: ‘false’ No Man’s Sky is now under investigation for false advertising September 29, 2016 subhadip The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority announced it’s investigating the way No Man’s Sky has been advertised on Steam. Regulators from the ASA have examined the game’s Steam page and, based on the information presented there, compiled a list of ways that No Man’s Sky gameplay deviates from what the company’s advertising copy promises. Rock Paper Shotgun has details on the investigation, as well as the initial findings by the ASA. Discrepancies between the advertised game and the actual title include: Videos: User interface design Ship flying behavior (in formation; with… Technology'false', advertising, for, investigation, Is, Man’s, No, now, sky, under Trump’s criticism of Obama, Clinton as ‘co-founders’ of Islamic State called ‘false’ August 11, 2016 subhadip Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s characterization of U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as “co-founders” of the Islamic State militant group drew swift rebuke on Thursday as “false” and “unhinged.” The exchange was the latest in a series of attacks from Trump in which he has sought to depict America as less safe, Democrats to blame and himself as the only one who can restore security. Democrats, in turn, have used Trump’s often hyperbolic statements to argue he is unfit to be president and lacks the temperament… News'co-founders', 'false', as, called, Clinton, criticism, Islamic, Obama, of, State, Trump's	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2468
__label__wiki	0.984427	0.984427	Project Cars 2 Not Coming To Nintendo Switch Dennis Patrick / Updates / Bandai Namco, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, Project Cars 2, slightly mad studios / The Nintendo Switch has been receiving plenty of unwanted announcements since it’s big press event reveal. This includes the lack of an internet browser and streaming applications upon launch. However, since the company did not receive the praise and reception that they once hoped for with the Nintendo Wii U, it became apparent that the company will need the help of third-party support. While it seems that the company is having an easy enough time nailing down a few big name companies to alert fans of future projects to be released on the Nintendo Switch, not every game is going to see a release on the console. Instead, we learned that the game director behind Final Fantasy XV has no plans on releasing the game on the Switch and now it seems that we’ll see Project Cars 2 also release outside of Nintendo’s home consoles. Recently, Project Cars 2 creative director, Andy Tudor, recently spoke to Red Bull in which the developer stated his excitement over the Nintendo Switch. However, it doesn’t look like the upcoming video game release will launch on the platform. The interviewer asked Andy if Project Cars 2 will see the same fate as its predecessor when it came to the release for the Wii U and according to the developer, it’s more than likely we’ll see the title launch without a version of Nintendo Switch in mind. “I think the Wii U thing is very similar to the PSVR thing, and that’s why I don’t want to get people’s hopes as much. With the Wii U version, the actual machine was brilliant, I play on it with my kids all the time, but technically, getting the game to a state where it matches our standards was extremely challenging. In the end it was something we weren’t happy with, releasing a version that was substandard to what the eventual title ending up being, which was critically acclaimed (it did extremely well), and it may not have been if we pursued the Wii U version further, so we decided to ultimately stop production on that. In terms of Nintendo Switch, I can say probably that Project CARS franchise will not be coming to Nintendo Switch currently.” As mentioned, Nintendo is going to need the help from third-party support to keep Nintendo Switch relevant. Though we may not receive Final Fantasy XV or Project Cars 2, there’s still plenty of other titles in the works with more titles likely to be unveiled for the console during this coming E3 expo, the first of which to be open to the public. nintendoswitch-prod first-look-at-nintendo-switch00014100still014jpg-f48026_765w super-mario-switch_1 nintendo-switch-trailer-1-mp4_000079204 nintendoswitchheader nintendoswitch9	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2471
__label__cc	0.596817	0.403183	Ganna has been taking part as a vocalist in the Annual National Day Gala Concerts of the Emirates National Choir with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) 2012-2014 From the interview with Viktoria Gorelova Ganna as a choir vocalist… “Gala Concert on the occasion of the National Day of the United Arab Emirates, the UAE National Symphony Orchestra appears on stage at the National Theatre of Abu Dhabi – November 30th, 2013.” The concert was advertised widely through the mass media, online and on Emirates television. The National Day Gala Concerts gave me the chance to make the acquaintance of the United Arab Emirates audience Ganna Sorbat For the past two years Ganna has been taking part as a vocalist in the Annual National Day Gala Concerts of the Emirates National Choir with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). The NSO was founded in 2011. Its founder and chief Executive director Janet Hassouneh announced that the main purpose of the NSO foundation was to “engage, enrich and inspire” the Emirates public with a number of Classical and Jazz concerts conducted over the year. Ganna was invited to perform for the first time in 2012. – Ms. Sorbat, what you would like to say about the National Day Gala Concerts, which you have participated in during the last two years? – Every concert, which I participate in, is special for me and I give myself over to the audience. The National Day Gala Concerts gave me the chance to make the acquaintance of the United Arab Emirates audience. I have been invited several times now to take part in concerts on stage with brilliant and talented young musicians and performers under the direction of maestro Andrew Berryman and I always consider it a pleasure and an honour. Text: Viktoria Gorelova Ganna’s performances at Beach Rotana and Emirates Palace Kempinski, Abu Dhabi 2011 – 2013 Ganna has been featured as a pianist in the show “Video Games Live” (VGL) on December 13th, 2013 + eight = eleven “Now your heart is free, just open it for love” – Ganna Sorbat “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Maya Angelo “Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.” – Ludwig van Beethoven “In our hands the key of life and we should use it right.” – Ganna Sorbat ”Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.” – Dmitri Shostakovich ”The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” – Johann Sebastian Bach Ganna Sorbat was invited to perform for the 3rd Russian Imperial Charity Ball in Los Angeles on February 23rd, 2019 at 7pm La super star presents live performance by Ganna Sorbat, October 13th Nerdbot-Con 2018 Nerd & Cosplay Convention LA SUPER STAR SPECIAL EVENT FRIDAY AUGUST 10TH 9.30 PM Ganna Sorbat performance at la super star special event Friday July 20th Russian Speakers’ Society of Austin Presents: The 18th Russian Spring Fest – “FIREWORKS OF MUSIC” at Scottish Rite Theater on Saturday, March 3rd, 2018, at 7 pm Ganna Sorbat was invited to perform at the Ukrainian festival on October 15, 2017 at 12pm © 2011 - 2019 GANNA SORBAT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED web-design Brandboost Inc.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2472
__label__wiki	0.56928	0.56928	Carers Stories Damien’s Story January 26, 2016 by Paul O Mahoney “They can’t do anything for themselves, only smile.” Damien Douglas of Lucan, Co. Dublin, has cared for his twin girls Ailis and Una for over twenty years. The girls suffer from a chromosomal abnormality known as Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, which means they are non-verbal and require care and supervision twenty-four hours a day. They are wheelchair users, which can make transport a major issue, and at home must be moved with a hoist. The twins are fed through a syringe in their stomachs twice daily, and peg fed overnight, and must be showered daily due to incontinence. The condition further has led to added complications, including epilepsy and joint problems. Damien, formerly an Assistant Director of Nursing with the HSE, gave up work in 2013 to care full-time for Ailis and Una with his family. He has since been active in lobbying for the provision of services for adults with intellectual disabilities; he is part of Stewarts Care Rights Review Committee, and has given presentations in recent years to National Carers Conventions. Damien’s decision to take early retirement from a rewarding career coincided with the twins’ turning eighteen. He has worked to highlight the difficulties faced by parents when a child is making the transition to adulthood and can no longer rely on schools or day care services. After the age of eighteen – in fact, between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five – services are comparatively scarce, and frontline staff and service providers under-resourced throughout the country. Damien is the chair of PAID (Parents of Adults with an Intellectual Disability), a sub-group facilitated by Family Carers Ireland. The parents involved have designed surveys to map supports by county in Ireland and reported findings to National Carers Conventions; forged links with other organisations advocating for those with disabilities; and lent their support and expertise to academic research into service provision and carer resilience. Of the twins, Damien says: “They can’t do anything for themselves, only smile,” adding: “They are so happy. They love music and sensory stimulation, and are very social in their own way. A lot of energy goes into looking after them.” Filed Under: Carers Stories Donagh’s Story December 18, 2015 by Daragh O'Toole “Donagh seems to know automatically whatever his brother needs.” Twelve year-old Donagh O’ Sullivan from Glengarriff, Co. Cork, helps to care for his younger brother Diarmaid, who has special needs. Diarmaid has autism, global developmental delay and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and is non-verbal. Diarmaid needs full-time care and is completely dependent on others for all of his needs. Their mother, Julie O’ Shea, has three other boys, Stephen (19), Feargal (17) and Cathal (14), and while Diarmaid’s other brothers are very helpful to him, she says Donagh is exceptional and will always go the extra mile – staying with Diarmaid for hours, playing with him, tucking him into bed at night, making sure he has his favourite toys and giving up his bed regularly for his brother when he becomes upset. “He seems to know automatically when Diarmaid wants a drink of water, or whether he wants food, whether he needs changing, or if he wants to go to bed”. There is just 15 months between the two brothers, and Donagh feels this helps their bond. “I think the age, it kind of makes us click more,” he says. “I’d feed him in the morning, at breakfast, as he can’t feed himself. I might get him clothes for school in the morning; make his bed; check him when he goes to sleep,” he describes the ways in which he helps Diarmaid, summing it up as: “Simple stuff like that.” When Donagh was named Young Carer of the Year 2015, it was not possible for Diarmaid to attend the ceremony on November 11th. Diarmaid was not aware of the award but missed Donagh at home. Julie says: “Feargal was looking after him, but Diarmaid really missed Donagh. They are rarely apart – when Diarmaid goes to school at St Joseph’s, he is gone before Donagh, and back after him, so he never knows that Donagh isn’t there during the day.” Jennifer’s Story “Of course you would like to have more help; but that’s life, and you get on with it.” Jennifer Carroll cares for her two children, Alex, 8, and Ava, who is 3 and a wheelchair user. Both children live with a genetic disorder, osteogenesis imperfecta, which means that bones can break and fracture very easily. Jennifer is a single mum and takes both children from their home in Offaly to Crumlin Hospital for check-ups and treatments up to six times each month. Those days are long, often from 8am to 8pm. Jennifer does a lot of exercises with Ava each day to help prevent muscle weakness from using her wheelchair. The condition means that Jennifer’s care is full time. “It is constant supervision with them. The slightest fall can become a fracture. Alex has had eight breaks and Ava has had three. I think they’ve adjusted to the pain. They go to Crumlin every three months for infusions to strengthen the bone. It won’t cure them but it helps reduce the likelihood of a break.” While she appreciates these medical supports, the lack of supports offered in other areas is occasionally frustrating. Alex has a full time special needs assistant with him in school, but Jennifer has been unable to get one for Ava to attend preschool. The reason given was that SNAs are not provided at preschool level. “After the recent budget, they may do from next September, but that’s no good to Ava now, she’s missing out on the year”. Jennifer shows remarkable optimism and resilience in the face of these challenges. “Of course you would like to have more help,” she says, “but that’s life, and you get on with it” If, like Jennifer, you care for someone you might find our Help and Advice section useful. Mary’s Story “Only for Máiréad, I don’t think I’d be still here. It’s what keeps me going!” Mary Galvin has cared for her granddaughter Máiréad for the past 33 years. Máiréad has severe cerebral palsy, and is entirely dependent on carers for all aspects of daily life. She attends day care from 9-5, but is cared for by Mary at all other times. Mary also advocates for Máiréad, ensuring she has access to the best possible healthcare. “She has her good days, her bad days, her off days – same as you or I do,” Mary says of Máiréad. “She has good nights, and you might be up all night with her”. Her GP, Dr. Kieran Harkin, has said of Mary’s selfless devotion to her caring role: “I’m impressed by her, really, total love for her granddaughter: for the intense physical work that’s required, she makes nothing of it, and I’ve never heard her complain. I’ve never heard a single complaint. When you see what Mary puts in, it’s really very hard not to say, ‘Well, if Mary can do this at her age, maybe I can do the same’.” Now aged 85, Mary wanted to be a nurse when she was younger, and she now feels she has got the hang of taking care of people. “I’m used to it now. Sure my God, after 33 years! Do you know, only for Máiréad I don’t think I would be still here. It’s what keeps me going! I know I have to keep going because of her. Otherwise I suppose I’d be long gone”. If, like Mary, you care for someone you might find our Help and Advice section useful.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2477
__label__wiki	0.53571	0.53571	Global world with global responsibility On June 24, 2018 By VH Migration and immigration have recently become burning issues all over the world, even though they are not new topics. People have always been moving around the world in smaller or bigger numbers, from south to north or east to west, for one reason or another. The books about the history of flamenco talk about the different possible routes how the gipsies – originally from India – reached Andalusia. Via land through Turkey and Europe or via land and sea, through Africa and through the Mediterranean. This was the first major migration relating to the people of flamenco and at that time, they were not even called flamencos yet, they were just people moving in the world. After this journey, as the gipsies settled down in Andalusia and their culture mixed with the locals and the local traditions, flamenco evolved and surged. Throughout history, people of flamenco had to leave their homes many times in the search of a better life (and mostly simply for survival). Famous example of migration is the one around the Spanish Civil war. Lots of people, including the flamencos, left Andalusia when the Spanish Civil war started, and many of them settled down in Catalonia. They are called ‘charnegos’ in Spanish. Flamenco examples of the people leaving Spain in 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil, are Carmen Amaya, the gipsy dancer from Barcelona and Sabicas, the gipsy guitarist from Pamplona. During the ’30’s and ’40’s they first toured together South & Central America, then the United States, and while Carmen Amaya returned to Spain a decade later, in 1947, Sabicas settled in New York permanently, and didn’t even visit his native Spain until 1967. Sometimes, circumstances of life force us give up our current lives. Be it a desired change, or not! No one can be blamed for fleeing war or poverty, or for wanting to have a better life for themselves and for their children. Some of us were lucky to be born in a country where there is no war or poverty, and some of us even had the luck of having parents who wanted and could care for us. But not everybody. Turning away from these people, building fences and walls, separating children from their parents, is not the solution. Over the past decades, the world has become global. We know now what’s happening around the world, because technology allows us to have connection and communication with distant parts of the world, not to mention the possibility of travelling there. This is why I strongly believe that we should all realise that the responsibility is also global! The ones in a better position must help the ones in need. After all, we are all humans. Londro – Yo vengo de Hungría (The song is a mariana sang by a singer from Jerez, his name is El Londro and he sings “I come from Hungary with my caravan searching for life”. The original was sung by Bernardo de los Lobitos, but I really like this version too. Interesting to think that the song could be about me, as well.) carmen amayaflamencolondromigrationsabicasspain La Bienal de Flamenco 2018	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2480
__label__wiki	0.707056	0.707056	Smoke or Fire, The Speakeasy out November 9th! Smoke Or Fire are set to release their third full length on Fat titled The Speakeasy on November 9th, recorded by Matt Allison at Atlas Studio. A member change welcomes Ryan Parrish (Darkest Hour) who lends his talent on drums; while this recording marks the first time Gwomper (AVAIL) was part of the writing process since he took over stewardship of bass when long time member Ken Gurley left the band. The Speakeasy is a complete album in the truest sense, lacking nothing, while offering varied, yet equally enthralling melodies and music on each of the 13 tracks. Constructed around the cornerstone of the guitar driven, heavy punk rock sound they are known for, this album evolves much further. Innovative melodies are ushered along by clever guitar work as gruff vocals give way at times to a more polished pitch. Catch Smoke or Fire on a wee east coast run and be sure not to miss them at our CMJ showcase on October 23rd! Take a peek at what Joe McMahon had to say about recording The Speakeasy below: We were so happy to be able to record the new record with Matt Allison in Chicago. Matt is not only a great friend of ours, but really becomes the 5th member of the group when you’re in the studio with him. We were working with a pretty slim time period on this record, and everyone really showed up. Ryan Parrish killed it on drums, and made such great contributions during the writing process. It was also a lot of fun to watch Gwomper record his Bass on the record. He gets so into it, I think he moves around more while he’s recording than he does on stage. The only hitch we ran into was me losing my voice half way through recording vocals. When that happens all you can do is wait until it comes back, and you have no idea how long that’s going to be. It took 6 days before I could start singing again. When the record was finished, Jeremy and I both agreed it was the first time we had left the studio with everything coming out exactly the way we wanted. The songs, the artwork…everything. We couldn’t be happier with this record.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2482
__label__wiki	0.545422	0.545422	America is Not A Christian Nation So Says Obama KFC Kickin For Christ April 17, 2009 12:06:23 PM from JoeUser Forums Did you hear about this one? This doesn't help quell the rumors that Obama is acting like the AC. Recently he told the Turks that America is not a Christian Nation. So is he trying to prove it? This was on Fox News this morning. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/16/georgetown-university-hid-religious-symbols-white-house-request/ 2 Pages1 2 Next Reply #1 April 17, 2009 12:08:43 PM This is a very suspicious way for a Christian to act. Maybe he needs to read the part of the scriptures about "not hiding your light under a bushel." AldericJourdain Reply #2 April 17, 2009 1:35:28 PM He never said he was not a Christian, he said that we're not a Christian nation. To me that sounds like a Christian who knows his facts. We're not a Christian nation, we're a multi-cultural, multi-religion/non-religion nation. CharlesCS To go thru all this trouble for what? Did the people of this country ask our President to be so neutral? Obama was to bring change to this nation, but did that mean to take away everything that made this country? It does not matter how many signs they cover, it does not matter what angle the camera is point, no matter how neatral Obama tries to be, we all know he is Christian and that he will do what his faith dictates otherwise he could not be Christian. Therefor all this BS about trying to be neutral is pointless and useless. In the end Obama is either not Christian, or he his actions are dictated by his faith, which in the end means that the people affected by his actions are also being affected by a religion they may not believe in. from JoeUser Forums Obama was to bring change He can keep his change. I don't want it. In the end Obama is either not Christian, or he his actions are dictated by his faith, which in the end means that the people affected by his actions are also being affected by a religion they may not believe in. That's what I'm saying. This sounds not like how a Christian is to act. I'm not sure what Obama is (he appears confused himself) or where his faith is leading him. It's not Christian I can tell you that. There's not one thing he has said or acted upon that shows he is a Christian. Anyone can call themselves a Christian. It's another matter to show evidence of it. There's not a court of Christian law that could convict Obama as a Christian. To me that sounds like a Christian who knows his facts. which facts? The facts this nation was grounded on or the new and improved facts we are now operating on? Christian? What are you basing that on? What makes him a Christian? He doesn't attend church. He doesn't know his bible. He supports abortion (killing of life) among other non-Christian beliefs. Every chance he gets he disowns Christians or their beliefs. He's alot like Oprah. Did you know what he said in France? Did you hear him diss his own country? He said this: "In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." Can you imagine? This is OUR PRESIDENT? Did you hear him denigrating the U.S? Why didn't he focus on something positive instead of insulting all Americans. He made us appear weak and small in the yes of the world when he said that. Aren't you insulted? I am! I'm on record here and elsewhere as saying repeatedly BEFORE the election (warning) that Obama is running for world leader, not President of the US of A. His actions lately have been bearing this out. Quoting KFC Kickin For Christ, What's wrong with admitting faults? I sure as heck thing it's a good thing. Honestly, I would rather have a leader who says it like it is, than someone who denies we ever are at fault. Sorry, but that's part of how i view responsibility, etc. It's one thing to admit fault, it's another to go out there telling other people how stupid you are. I admit to my mistakes, but I don't tell people who stupid I am for making mistakes. Obama was not voted in to apologize to the world for us. Hmm, I don't really view it as saying we're stupid. Though at times we can be, lol. Obama was voted in to set us back on track, and internationally, we need to definitely get back on track. With the comment: For the most part, when do we really acknowledge Europe's role? Remember back in '03 when it was pretty much screw Europe and what not? We've become way too arrogant as our power has grown. The evidence is in how some countries treat us (with a few exceptions) and with comments I've seen made by foreigners. Still, I agree, Obama could have worded things better. Speaking of, since I believe the topic of faults and such was mentioned in this threa. Since you want people to admit faults of Obama, instead of propping him up. Then lets make a deal: I'll make my criticism of Obama as well as Democrats, more vocal, if you'll start giving the occasional praise toward him and Democrats (as well as criticizign Republicans). Deal? ~Alderic Nitro Cruiser Remember back in '03 when it was pretty much screw Europe and what not? I remember it a bit differently... in 02 Iraq was in violation of a few UN (that means United Nations) resolutions. Europe pretty much said screw the resolutions, it will hurt our trade with Iraq, and what is more important? Money or integrity? In 03, nine months later, the US decided to hold up the shameful UN's worthless resolutions, along with a few other honorable countries that believed they should do what they promised to do. Those of us that followed the in and outs during the time because our @sses would be going, know this. Most others memories on the issue start March 22, 2003 (with exception of MD, which helped gain public support, but was not need to uphold the resolutions). cactoblasta Reply #10 April 17, 2009 8:10:46 PM I bet any Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist or other non-Christian Americans would be glad to know their president doesn't think the US is a christian nation. Cacto, I'm not a very religious person, but I think he (Obama) could have said his piece in a better way. First, he shouldn't have use any religion by name, not stating who we aren't, but who we are. Perhaps something like, "We are a nation of many faiths and beliefs". Nobody singled out, nobody left out, no feelings hurt. He did claim to be a uniter, not a divider after all. Perhaps something like, "We are a nation of many faiths and beliefs". Nobody singled out, nobody left out, no feelings hurt. But equally, no effect at all. Saying the US isn't exclusively Christian conflicts with a common misconception outside the US. It likely gave his speech a bit of extra weight in Turkey. It's also a fact that many Christians back in the US forget and should remember, so it seems to have the potential to achieve two aims for the price of one. Not bad if it works, and if it doesn't it really only annoys the deluded. if you'll start giving the occasional praise toward him and Democrats (as well as criticizign Republicans). sure. I've never had trouble giving praise where praise is due. But with Obama, I'm not seeing too much these days to praise. Personally, he seems like a nice guy, and a nice husband and father. That's about it for me. The Dems? Are you kidding me? Even the Dems I know aren't very happy these days. They don't even like Obama and the few I know are kicking themselves for voting for him. I think he (Obama) could have said his piece in a better way. First, he shouldn't have use any religion by name, not stating who we aren't, but who we are. Perhaps something like, "We are a nation of many faiths and beliefs". Nobody singled out, nobody left out, no feelings hurt. He did claim to be a uniter, not a divider after all. exactly right.........good comment. kingbee if the usa was a monarchy, a variety of other -archies, a dictatorship or a theocracy, its president's actions and decisions might well be dictated by his faith and those who believed otherwise would certainly be affected by his religion. since it's not any of those, but a secular nation composed of persons of all faiths as well as no faith, our president--whomever he may be--is obliged to act in comformance with the constitution and operate as both head of the executive branch and commander-in-chief of the military forces. the executive branch is primarily charged with enforcing the nation's laws. anyone who has a problem acting in accordance with the law rather than dictates of his personal spiritual belief or affiliation shouldn't aspire to that office. believe in what you know rather than what you hear applies particularly well to the case of those who continually assert america was founder by christians on the basis of judeo-christian (whatever the hell that's supposed to be) principals. our system of law is based on roman law and those most responsible for instituting our constitutional government were, at most, nominally christian and included one former president who issued a proclamation officially stating the us was not a christian nation. believe in what you know rather than what you hear applies particularly well to the case of those who continually assert america was founder by christians on the basis of judeo-christian (whatever the hell that's supposed to be) principals. hmmmmm Kingbee and I was thinking just the opposite. I've got volumes and volumes of our Founding Father's writings to back up the fact they indeed had in their minds that this nation was to be a Christian nation. Did you know that George Washington left behind 97 volumes and Jefferson 60 alone? In fact, in every single town in the New World churches were the first buildings to go up. Our educational institutions like Harvard, Princeton and Yale were for the education of our ministers. In every school bibles were read and the first reading primers (seen one) were all based on the bible. The only book on the shelf in most homes was a bible. Back then even up to the 1800's there was so much Christian writing in the lawbooks that some that were not of the Christian persuasion came to Christ. Charles Finney was one. He studied the lawbooks and read so much about Christ and the scriptures in these books that he came to Christ because of his studies. He is the person we hold accountable for the altar call today in many churches. James Wilson was made Justice of the Supreme Court and founded the first law school in America. He wrote the first textbook on law and said this as a sitting S.C. Justice: "Human law must rest its authority ultimately on that law which is divine." Oh....and he was considered an expert on the Constitution. included one former president who issued a proclamation officially stating the us was not a christian nation. who? Besides Obama. I just love it when everyone jumps on the bandwagon with the whole separation of church and state thing. How many kow that Jefferson had NOTHING to do with the Constitution but came to the U.S. a month after it was finished? He was in France. But yet he's the only guy we talk about in the separation of church and state? Govenor Morris was the last signer of the Constitution and he was the most active when it came to the Constituion Conventions speaking on the floor 173 times....more than any other founder....yet no one has heard of him today. Ask around. Ask how many people have heard of Morris and how many have heard of Jefferson. I'm telling ya, there's a reason for this. There's a reason why most can only point out two signers in the famous Declaration of Independence Painting made to celebrate the moment (Franklin & Jefferson) and know next to nothing on any of the other signers. Morris wrote most of the words of the Constituion. It was basically his document. He also wrote two commentaries on the Constitution. He said: "Religion is the only solid basis of good morals, therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and mankind's duties towards God." What does he know? Only that he made a very significant impact in our country, that's all. Doesn't it make sense that Govenor Morris would know the intent of the Constitution? Then why do we take Jefferson's 8 word comment in a letter of all things and run with it? Answer? Because we are being led in a very certain direction that our founding fathers had no intention. Our kids are being brainwashed with revisionist history for a purpose and a plan. MasonM Reply #17 April 17, 2009 10:40:41 PM Yep, The USA was meant to be a Christian theocracy and anyone in power who thinks differently must be the AC. Sure thing. I'm not an Obama fan, far from it, but these sorts of extremist religious insiuations are not only absurd but make most relligious peoples look like kooks. How many kow that Jefferson had NOTHING to do with the Constitution but came to the U.S. a month after it was finished? He was in France. To claim that Jefferson had nothing to do with the writing of our constitution is dishonest and an excersie in denial. He most certainly did although not alone. I am always amazed at how peotple attempt to change historical facts to fit their ideology One of my ancestrors was John Adams and he, among several other, contributed to our constitution. This is well documented in his personal journals whicb I have read. Jefferson was prominatly mentioned in those journals as the one who guided and pretty much wrote our constitution. These documents are easily available for anyone to read. While I follow the teachings of Jesus I would not want to live in a theoccracy of any kind. God saw fit to give people the right to choose and that's good enough for me. Reply #18 April 18, 2009 6:17:47 AM Morris wrote most of the words of the Constituion. none of which are "god" btw. it's more than just the constitution. consider our flag. what emblem is found on flags of christian nations that's missing from ours? btw it was president john adams who signed the treaty of tripoli after having sent it to the senate for ratification. it was read aloud on the senate floor, each senator was presented a printed copy and it was unanimously approved--one of 3 unanimous results of the first 339 matter put to the senate for vote--and was thereafter reprinted in the philadelphia papers without any recorded negative reaction by the citizenry. article 11 reads as follows: As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. signing date in the us was june 1797. bear in mind many of the founders were not only still alive but active in government. which leads me to believe your first sentence deliberate (if fantasy-driven) fabrication. Because we are being led in a very certain direction that our founding fathers had no intention. Our kids are being brainwashed with revisionist history for a purpose and a plan. you couldn't be more correct in your follow-up sentence. our kids are being brainwashed by dominionists such as yourself. Reply #19 April 18, 2009 10:11:48 AM Regardless of what he said, having the University remove/hide signs of religion is the real issue here. I agree, don't speak there if you don't like the decor, or think it would offend someone. Stick to public places. MLK didn't cover up the Lincoln memorial (and anyone that suggests that isn't a hallowed place needs go visit and get their patriotism meter readjusted). This is an excerpt taken from Gary Bauer's article 4-17-09. When President Obama went to Turkey and had a photo-op in a major mosque and said nice things about Islam, perhaps he was just being a polite guest. But what explains the arrogance of the White House's demands that Georgetown University cover up the monogram representing Jesus Christ during the president's Tuesday address? According to several news reports, the White House demanded that all signage and symbols be covered during the president's speech Tuesday. Fox News reported that the White House insisted that the move was made only to provide a proper setting for the speech. What was the setting? A Catholic university founded by the Jesuits in 1789! Moreover, the president quoted the Sermon on the Mount during his address, which begs the question: Why would the president go to a Catholic university to deliver a speech quoting the Sermon on the Mount, and demand that a symbol of the sermon's author be covered up? What explains this odd behavior? The president goes overseas denies America's cultural heritage and tells Muslim audiences about Islam's contributions to America. He bows before Saudi Arabia's Muslim king and the White House tries to deny it. Now he goes to a Catholic university and tries to turn it into a secular institution by demanding that religious symbols be covered up. Whoever is advising the president on protocol needs to be fired. Really? You have something to back this up Mason? I'm all for historical facts. Go ahead. Show me. Put your facts on the table for me to see. Do you know when the Constitution was ratified? Where was Jefferson? How much did he write on this? How about NOTHING! He had nothing to do with the Constitution other than to support it. He disqualified himself. Minister to France Because Jefferson served as minister to France from 1785 to 1789, he was not able to attend the Philadelphia Convention. He generally supported the new constitution despite the lack of a bill of rights and was kept informed by his correspondence with James Madison. Being a Christian nation and running a theocracy are two diff things. The FF did not wish to have any religion as a state religion. That's what Jefferson meant by Separation of Church and State. They came out of that background and set this country up to have "freedom of religion" not "from religion." But that still doesn't negate the fact that this country and its founders wished to have a Christian influence in this new world and all their laws and mandates were based on the Holy Bible. Yes. You're doing the same thing critics do when they want to tear down scripture. They find one thing and hold on to it as if this settles it. This treaty of Tripoli is commonly misused for purposes such as yours to show that our nation wasn't founded on Christian principles. Advocates for this idea use this treaty as the foundation of their whole argument. Remember while the Founding Fathers openly declared that America was a Christian nation they did not set up a federal establishment of such. They prohibited this from happening on purpose. They left it up to the States. So if the article is read as a declaration that the federal government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian religion, such a statement is not a repudiation of the fact that America was considered a Christian nation. Article XI simply distinguished America from those historical strains of European Christianity which held an inherent hatred of Muslims; it simply assured the Muslims that the United States was not a Christian nation like those of previous centuries (with whose practices the Muslims were very familiar) and thus would not undertake a religious holy war against them. There would be no crusades against them coming from America. There would be no force feeding of Christianity aimed at the Muslims. Shortly after the military excursion against Tripoli was successfully terminated, its account was written and published. Even the title of the book bears witness to the nature of the conflict: The Life of the Late Gen. William Eaton . . . commander of the Christian and Other Forces . . . which Led to the Treaty of Peace Between The United States and The Regency of Tripoli Morris was the one who did the physical writing, but those who were involved and contributed to the constitution included John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Edmund Randolph, James Madison, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, and George Wythe. No single person was the sole author. Twelve of the thirteen states sent delegates to the Constitutional Convention to revise the Articles of Confederation and the entire convention worked on it. Jefferson's work contributed greatly to the project, as did the work of many others. They all deserve credit for the final work. com'on Mason. I know how smart you are. Do your HW. Show me what you're saying about Jefferson. He didn't even sign it. If he was as involved as you say, why didn't he sign it? I think it was God's purpose that he was away in France. I don't think it was a coincidence.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2487
__label__wiki	0.775487	0.775487	Moghalu, Ezekwesili blast Buhari, Atiku for shunning debate By Abisola Olasupo The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu and the presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria(ACPN)Obiageli Ezekwesili slammed president Muhammadu Buhari and the opposition People’s Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar for shunning the 2019 presidential debate. Moghalu said he is “surprised that the leaders of the APC and the PDP have decided to turn their back on the people of Nigeria and tell them finally, they never amounted to much in their eyes.” “The reason why they are not here: one is arrogance. They believe the people of Nigeria have no voice and no choice. They believe that you cannot move away from them.” “They believe they have trapped you, they have kept you in bondage for over too long and it is now time for us to send them a message. The second reason why they are not here is because they cannot answer the questions. “Very simple, very straight-forward. They belong to the old class of recycled politicians who want to come to power with a sense of entitlement.” While the Ezekwesili said Buhari and Abubakar actions has just simply announced their exit from the governance of Nigeria. “I think it is important for us to acknowledge that there is a political class that needs to fade away from our country because the idea that the will of the people will be subordinated to the whims and caprices of our politicians should be a total anomaly,” she added. Ezekwesili further stated that “as we in this country focus on the ideas that will develop our country if the two dominant parties cared about the Nigerian people, they would come here in order to have a contest of ideas on how we would fix Nigeria.” “I must let you know that for the Nigerian people, this is a moment to make a clear judgment as to whether we are connected to the issues that matter to the Nigerian people,” she affirmed. Abubakar and Buhari shunned the presidential debate which was held at Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. The duo alongside other candidates were expected to state their plans and intentions to Nigerians if they are voted in the forthcoming election. A spokesman for Buhari’s campaign team said the president’s busy schedule precluded from participating in the debate. “The busy and hectic official and campaign schedules of Mr. President clashed with this programme,” Festus Keyamo said. But it is not surprising that the president missed the debate. In 2015 as a candidate, he failed to show up at a similar event. Abubakar said he shunned the presidential debate because Buhari who is “at the helm of the affairs of the nation is not present to defend himself or his policies.” He,however, challenged the president to fix a time convenient for him to have a face off which might also include other candidates. Also present at the debate is the presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria, Fela Durotoye. 2019 ElectionAtikuEzekwesiliFela DurotoyeMoghalupresidential debate2019	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2490
__label__cc	0.654484	0.345516	See Our Latest Donation RagingBull.com Foundation’s founders, Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond, first started donated trading profits to charity in 2017 when Jason Bond donated all of his 2017 trading profits of $232,048.28 to a number of charities. At the start of 2019 Jeff and Jason set a goal to donate $1 million in trading profits to charities in 2019, and the RagingBull.com Foundation officially began! Our foundation brings together members of RagingBull.com, which is one of the largest communities of active traders in the U.S. A number of these traders pledged to donate their trading profits, which then allows us to share these trading profits with recognized charitable and philanthropic organizations. The Foundation receives suggestions for suitable recipients from RagingBull.com’s community of active traders. The proposed recipients are then carefully selected based on the recipient organization, its work, and the reason for the donation. Donations made by the foundation allow beneficiaries to continue their work to improve the lives of people and their communities. You can see how many charities we have donated to and the total donations to date at our donations page. “The vision of the RagingBull.com Foundation is what we call trading profits, paid forward. This allows us to share our trading profits with recognized charitable organizations. In turn, these charities can put these donations to good use, and help to improve the lives of people and their communities.” – Jason Bond About Our Trading Donors Jeff Bishop Jeff Bishop is the founder of several popular financial education and trading websites including WeeklyMoneyMultiplier.com and RagingBull.com. Jeff is a multi-millionaire trader with nearly 20 years of experience under his belt. Jeff co-founded RagingBull.com Foundation with his business partner, Jason Bond, to bring the profits of trading to benefit others. Jason Bond Jason Bond’s reputation as someone intent on improving the lives of others began as a first-rate educator and high school gym teacher. When he was still a teacher, Jason learned how to trade stocks, and paid off over $250,000 in student loan debt. Jason started teaching others how to trade and, using his ever-deepening knowledge and experience of trading, Jason has since taught thousands of people how to trade. In 2017 Jason began to apply his trading profits, donating all of his 2017 trading profits of over $232,048 to recognized charities. Kyle Dennis At just 28 years old Kyle had already earned millions from trading biotech stocks alone. His unique background in biotechnology, finance, and technical charting, gives him special insight into the biotech sector, which he uses to win a significant amount of highly profitable trades. Kyle teaches traders how to discover, track, and evaluate biotech companies. In the last few years, Kyle has featured on Yahoo Finance, Market Watch, The Street, Seeking Alpha, and The Money Show to tell his remarkable story. Help With Our Work These are currently two main ways that you can help our work, by: Donating your trading profits directly to organizations doing good work, and that you personally feel motivated to help with. Joining the RagingBull.com community of active traders, and providing suggestions for which organizations we should donate trading profits to next. To stay informed on the work of our Foundation, please keep an eye out for our press releases and announcements which are published here on the Foundation website. See Our Recent Donations	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2492
__label__wiki	0.791601	0.791601	9/11/2001 Attacks Were An Inside Job » 9/11/11 - Ten year anniversary of the False Flag Terrorist attacks » DHS/NCS/Gingrich (?) are determined to attack targets in the US on 9/11/11 Author Topic: DHS/NCS/Gingrich (?) are determined to attack targets in the US on 9/11/11 (Read 31006 times) just a bulletin to cause fear so far http://www.breakingnews.com/item/ahBicmVha2luZ25ld3Mtd3d3cg0LEgRTZWVkGOOgpQQM/2011/09/08/dhs-its-accurate-that-there-is-specific-credible-but-unconfirmed-threat-information-ahead-of-911-anniversary-statement If specific and credible, why tell anyone until there's confirmation? Fishy fishy fish. Morality is contraband in war. - Mahatma Gandhi Re: DHS - While Obama gabs - Spec, Cred Unconfirmed Threat Pre-9/11 Anniver Breaking now on CNBC. From Pakistan/Afganistan region targeting carbombs in NY and/or Washington. U.S. sees credible but unconfirmed terrorism threat WASHINGTON \| Thu Sep 8, 2011 7:47pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has credible but unconfirmed information about a possible terrorism threat surrounding the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The context is still forming," the U.S. official cautioned, adding the threat appeared connected to Washington and New York City but other cities could not be ruled out. (Reporting by Phil Stewart and Mark Hosenball) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/us-usa-security-threat-idUSTRE7877S220110908 White House official: President was briefed on threat information; Govt has enhanced security in advance of 9/11 anniversary - NBC News IridiumKEPfactor Right on Time. Obama unveils his jobs speech and then the MID threats the people with an AL CIADA threat perhaps a Lone Wolf threat. Reading right from a script. ABCNEWS: two rental trucks sought. 3 people sought. Quote from: IridiumKEPfactor on September 08, 2011, 06:55:48 pm Act 1, Scene 1: Politically battered President gives first major election speech of 2012 election using Congress as a prop for the crediblity, then, minutes before he end of the speech DHS releases the preconditioning for the false-flag of reelection campaign. NBC reporting overseas intelligence refering to targets of bridges and tunnels. Government Censorship, Protecting You From Reality Just in time for another 10 year event. FLASHBACK: NWO DOCUMENT DISCUSSES 4 SCENARIOS & 2010, 2020 TO PUSH AGENDA http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=46071.0 Spare no cost for truth's sake, neither depart from it for any gain. -Proverbs 23:23 Bestow not the gifts that God has given you to get worldly riches. -Proverbs 23:4 Anderson Vanderbilt is babbling with Senator McCan't about it,... no worries everybody go back to sleep. Bloomberg will however be giving a press conference later on. US chasing down "credible" threat info http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/08/us-chasing-down-credible-threat-info/ Update 8:08 PM A senior administration official tells CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr: “We have received credible information very recently about a possible plot directed at the homeland that seems to be focused on New York and Washington, DC” It is believed to have involved three individuals who have possibly entered the US, at least one believed to be a US citizen. US officials believe the threat is a vehicle laden with explosive bomb but “the intelligence picture is not completely formed. Not enough is known about the potential operatives and their plotting. ADD: The source says part of the suspects travel itinerary included going through Afghanistan to Iran. At the moment the U.S. does not believe Iran was involved. Updated 7:54 PM A U.S. intelligence official told CNN National Security Producer Pam Benson, “We’re trying to sort out” if what they are seeing “is accurate.” “We can’t tell if anything is going to happen, “ said the official, who added, “This is a very sensitive period which adds to the anxiety.” A federal law enforcement official tells CNN’s National Correspondent Susan Candiotti that the administration is fully aware of a threat attack on the U.S. on or about September 11th, and that “we’re taking it very seriously.” The official said the threat is not specific as in being detailed in nature. “We’re running it down vigorously, “ the official tells CNN. “The FBI, JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force), and others are fully aware of it,” the official added. The official added that the threat appears to go beyond intelligence gathered from Osama Bin Laden’s compound after he was killed by Navy Seals. That information talked about aspirations to carry out an attack on U.S interests on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. “Like any threat, we’re taking it very seriously,” the official said. CNN contributor Fran Townsend is told by senior administration official that there are a lot of questions about this information—“weird things” – the official said. The official said the information just came in and has to be run down– that there are some questions about sourcing– but that due to the sensitivities around the coming 9/11 anniversary officials felt they should inform people. Department of Homeland Security Press Secretary Matt Chandler issued this statement in response to news reports about a possible threat: “As we know from the intelligence gathered from the OBL raid, AQ has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11. In this instance, it’s accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information. As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days. Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots underway. Regardless, we take all threat reporting seriously, and we have taken, and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise. We continue to ask the American people to remain vigilant as we head into the weekend.” Reporting from Lesa Jansen, Pam Benson, Mike Ahlers, Jessica Yelling, Carol Cratty and CNN contributor Fran Townsend White House, intelligence and other officials briefed members of Congress Thursday about a "specific, credible but unconfirmed threat" to the U.S. homeland, a government official told CNN. The source said New York City and Washington were cited as possible targets. The legislators were told that officials are "strongly concerned" and "are not taking anything for granted," the source told CNN. President Barack Obama was informed and "directed that the intelligence community and the Administration take all necessary steps to ensure vigilance," senior administration official tells CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin. Additionally, a senior administration official with first-hand knowledge told CNN National Security Contributor Fran Townsend that there is "specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information," although the official added there are a lot of questions about the information. The official noted that al Qaeda has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries. ... probably a tweet from a nine-year-old in Kalamazoo. Quote from: Catalina on September 08, 2011, 07:07:40 pm That's gonna take some time to read but it looks promising. Do you know where to find the 2010 stuff specifically? Nevermind the financial collapse, they're out to get us! Quote from: Sasha on September 08, 2011, 07:30:12 pm it's buried in here; Toward A Dangerous World: U.S. National Security Strategy for the Coming Turbulence [336 Pages] (LONG BUT VERY INTERESTING FIND) http://www.theblackvault.com/documents/dangerousworld.pdf their condensed report from the earlier updates Officials confirm 'credible but unconfirmed' 9/11 threat From Barbara Starr, Mike M. Ahlers and Lesa Jansen, CNN September 8, 2011 8:21 p.m. EDT Homeland Security Secretary Janet Ogretano says officials have picked up "lots of chatter" on jihadi websites. Washington (CNN) -- U.S. officials said Thursday evening they have "specific, credible but unconfirmed" information about a threat against the United States coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. "We have received credible information very recently about a possible plot directed at the homeland that seems to be focused on New York and Washington, D.C.," a senior administration official told CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. The plot is believed to involve three individuals who have possibly entered the United States, at least one believed to be a U.S. citizen, the official said. U.S. officials believe the threat is a vehicle laden with explosives but "the intelligence picture is not completely formed," the official said. "Not enough is known about the potential operatives and their plotting." The official said the information came in around noon Wednesday. Officials said they were taking the threat seriously, while evidently trying to temper the news by saying such threats are commonplace during key events. "It's accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information," said Matthew Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. "As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days. Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots under way. "Regardless, we take all threat reporting seriously, and we have taken, and will continue to take, all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise. We continue to ask the American people to remain vigilant as we head into the weekend," Chandler said in a prepared statement. A government official told CNN that members of Congress were briefed by White House, intelligence and other officials Thursday about the threat. The lawmakers were told that officials are "strongly concerned" and "are not taking anything for granted," the source told CNN. In addition, a senior administration official with first-hand knowledge told CNN National Security Contributor Fran Townsend that there is "specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information." But the official added that there are a lot of questions about this information -- "weird things." There are questions about sourcing and other points that need to be clarified, the official said, but because of the sensitivities about the coming 9/11 anniversary officials felt they should inform people. Multiple senior counterterrorism officials told Townsend on Thursday evening that the information came in the previous 12 to 14 hours. Such last-minute information is inevitable, the sources said. A U.S. intelligence official told CNN National Security Producer Pam Benson, "We're trying to sort out" if what they are seeing "is accurate." "We can't tell if anything is going to happen, " said the official, who added, "This is a very sensitive period, which adds to the anxiety." A federal law enforcement official told CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti that the administration is fully aware of a threat of an attack on the United States on or about September 11, and that "we're taking it very seriously." The official said the threat is not specific as in being detailed in nature. "We're running it down vigorously," the official said. "The FBI, JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force), and others are fully aware of it." The official added that the threat appears to go beyond intelligence gathered from Osama bin Laden's compound after he was killed by Navy SEALs. That information talked about aspirations to carry out an attack on U.S. interests on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. "Like any threat, we're taking it very seriously," the official said. A senior administration official told: "The president was briefed. He directed that the intelligence community and the administration take all necessary steps to ensure vigilance." Earlier Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters that intelligence officials had picked up "lots of chatter" on jihadi websites and elsewhere about the impending 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks "and we're taking it all seriously," but nothing yet that warranted issuing a threat advisory. Nonetheless, the department will be at a heightened level of readiness as the nation commemorates the anniversary, "staffing up" the Federal Air Marshals Service and other agencies, she said. "We don't have something that would reach that standard (of a credible threat), but we still have lots of chatter out there. And we take every bit of that seriously and are tracking it down," Napolitano said. "In the intel world, there's lots of chatter, and we're taking it all seriously. And should there be something that rises to the level where I have to issue a threat advisory, we will issue a threat advisory." A federal official told CNN's Mike Ahlers that Napolitano was aware of the threat when she made those remarks. Napolitano said it is not uncommon to see increased chatter before major events. "We know it's an iconic day to al Qaeda, in part because of what was found at the (Osama bin Laden) compound. So we are preparing accordingly," she said. "I don't want to give those (details) out because I don't want to tell the bad guys exactly what we're doing," Napolitano said. "But I think it's fair to say that in addition to asking citizens to be vigilant and so forth, that we have ourselves leaned forward and have made sure that we are doing all that we can from the DHS perspective." One U.S. official told CNN that al Qaeda "has long been focused on commemorative dates for attacks, to include the anniversary of 9/11." "U.S. counterterrorism entities have been alert for any leads, and for the first time we've received specific and credible -- but unconfirmed -- threat information linked to the 9/11 anniversary," the official said. "Any and all leads related to possible plots are of course being run to ground." The official said the threat is based on one report. "It has a date and a few details, which makes it specific and credible," said the official, "but that doesn't mean we are going to be attacked. ... It's not necessarily true, however we know there is interest in an attack around 9/11." CNN's Jessica Yellin also contributed to this report NYPD, Mayor Bloomberg, and The FBI Will Hold a Presser At 9:30pm 2 Trucks located from Kansas City (?!?!), no terror threat from them -CNN 9/11 Terror Threat: Have You Seen 2 Missing Rental Trucks? By Mark Berman Opposing Views on Sep 8, 2011 http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/headlines/911-terror-threat-have-you-seen-2-missing-rental-trucks A developing story out of Washington, where federal officials reportedly have uncovered a "credible threat" of an al-Qaeda attack in New York City or Washington, D.C. on or around the 10th anniversary of 9/11. ABC News is reporting that three people entered the United States from Afghanistan, possibly via another country, sometime in August with the intent of pulling off a "vehicle-borne attack," according to senior officials. ABC reports: One of those officials added that at least two rental trucks -- one from Penske and one from Budget -- were being sought nationwide. The Budget GMC truck and the Penske GMC both were missing from locations in Kansas City, Missouri. It was not immediately known if that search was connected to the plot. Officials say the information is "very specific," that "it seems like the information has been worked for a while." Federal officials are said to be working on an urgent bulletin to send to law enforcement all over the country. Fox News reports that the names of the suspected terrorists are not known and that the threat is "specific enough to elicit worry," according to one U.S. official. "As we know from the intelligence gathered from the [bin Laden] raid, al-Qaeda has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said in a statement. "In this instance, it's accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information." NWOSCUM "Yuppie Scum" Timothy McVeigh with a rental truck?? Rinse and repeat.......these azzholes are TOO predictable. "The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, and their power of forgetting is enormous." --Adolph Hitler, "Mein Kampf" Georgiacopguy 'Cause it's a revolution for your mind...K?! Car bombs for the 9/11 anniversary??? There's his jobs plan, somebody has to handle all the infrastructure that goes with such an auspicious and daring false flag. And all those people involved will surely get disappeared, creating even more job vacancies to be filled. And hey, the suicide bombers get jobs, short lived though they are... The resistance starts here. Unfortunately, the entire thing is moving beyond the intellectual infowar. I vow I will not make an overt rush at violent authority, until authority makes it's violent rush at me and you. I will not falter, I will not die in this course. For that is how they win. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. Re: DHS/NCS are determined to attack targets in the US on 9/11/11 Once again, we know who the real terrorists are Quote from: Effie Trinket on September 08, 2011, 10:22:28 am http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/09/08/mantech-appointment-svp.aspx ManTech names ex-NRO officer senior VP of advanced tech unit Deborah Thurman will help oversee program development, business unit performance By David Hubler ManTech International Corp. has named Deborah Thurman senior vice president and group deputy in the Systems Engineering and Advanced Technology group. She formerly served as senior vice president of contracts responsible for all contract-related functional areas within the company. In her new role, Thurman will assist group president Terry Ryan in overseeing program development and business unit performance goals, the company said in an announcement Sept. 8. Thurman spent more than 24 years on active duty with the Air Force, providing support to various weapons systems programs, including the B-52, F-16 and Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile. Thurman is a Vietnam veteran and also served tours in the Pentagon and the White House. Her last Air Force assignment before retiring in 1997 was as a contracting officer at the National Reconnaissance Office supporting research and development and operational systems. ManTech’s Systems Engineering and Advanced Technology group provides integrated solutions to customers including the NRO, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and Homeland Security Department. http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2007/11/rick-renzi-and-mantech.html MANTECH BOARD OF DIRECTORS George J. Pedersen, Chairman: (ManTech CEO and Co-Founder) George J. Pedersen is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of ManTech International Corporation, a company he co-founded as two-person operation in 1968. ManTech has grown to become one of the U.S. government’s leading providers of innovative technologies and solutions for mission-critical national security programs supporting the Intelligence Community and departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Justice; the Space Community; and other U.S. federal government agencies. ManTech has approximately 6,800 employees with operations in 40 countries. Revenues have steadily increased from $431 million in 2001, just prior to the company’s initial public offering (IPO), to $1.137 billion in 2006. Since 2002, the company’s revenue has grown by a compounded annual rate of 23 percent and during the same period its operating income has grown by a rate of 24 percent. Mr. Pedersen is Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Scientific Research, Inc.; a member of the Board of Directors of GSE Systems and Chairman of their Executive Committee; and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association For Enterprise Integration and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). In 2005, he received the James Forrestal Industry Leadership Award from the NDIA for his "demonstrated record of business accomplishment" and his active role in "helping to preserve and strengthen the nation's defense industrial base." Mr. Pedersen was chosen for his "astute business judgment, keen political instincts and a broad understanding of the vital role the industrial base plays in ensuring the nation's security," according to NDIA. In 2006, Mr. Pedersen received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Corporate Growth National Capital Chapter. The award is given annually to individuals in the region that have contributed significantly to the region’s corporate growth over a number of years. Mr. Pedersen is on the Board of Directors of the National Defense Industrial Association, the Institute for Scientific Research, Inc., and the Association For Enterprise Integration. He also serves on the boards of GSE Systems, MASI UK Limited and MARE, Inc. Robert A. Coleman Mr. Coleman is President and Chief Operating Officer of ManTech. Mr. Coleman was named President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company in September 2004 and elected as a Director of the Company in March 2006. Prior to that, he was the President of ManTech's Information Systems and Technology organization. Before joining ManTech, Mr. Coleman was the CEO and President of Integrated Data Systems Corporation (IDS), a highly regarded provider of software engineering, computer security and enterprise architecture solutions to the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense that had revenues of approximately $40 million at the time it was acquired by ManTech. Founded by Mr. Coleman in 1990, IDS was acquired by ManTech in February 2003. Richard L. Armitage Mr. Armitage has served as a Director of ManTech since 2005. From 1995 to 2001, Mr. Armitage served on our Advisory Board. Since 2005, Mr. Armitage has served as President of Armitage International, L.C., which provides multinational clients with critical support in the areas of international business development, strategic planning, and problem-solving. From 2001 through 2005 he served as the Deputy Secretary of State, and prior to that assignment, he was President of Armitage Associates, L.C., a world-wide business and public policy firm. Beginning in the late 1980's, Mr. Armitage held a variety of high-ranking diplomatic positions, including as Presidential Special Negotiator for the Philippines Military Bases Agreement; as Special Mediator for Water in the Middle East; as a Special Emissary to Jordan's King Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War; and as an Ambassador, directing U.S. assistance to the new independent states of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Armitage has received numerous U.S. military decorations and has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service four times, and has received the Presidential Citizens Medal and the Department of State Distinguished Honor Award. Mr. Armitage currently serves on the board of directors of ConocoPhillips, a NYSE-listed international, integrated energy company. Mary K. Bush Ms. Bush was appointed a Director of ManTech on October 5, 2006. Ms. Bush founded Bush International, a global consulting firm in 1991. From 1989 to 1991, Ms. Bush served as managing director of the Federal Housing Finance Board, the oversight body for the nation's 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Prior to 1989, Ms. Bush was the Vice President of International Finance at the Federal National Mortgage Associate (Fannie Mae). From 1982 to 1984, Ms. Bush served as U.S. Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a position appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. In that capacity, she worked with the U.S. Treasury Department to formulate policy on IMF lending and global economic matters. Ms. Bush serves on the board of directors of The Pioneer Family of Mutual Funds, Brady Corporation, Briggs & Stratton Corporation, and UAL Corporation (United Airlines). Barry G. Campbell Mr. Campbell has served as a Director of ManTech since 2002. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Campbell served as a director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Allied Aerospace Industries, Inc., a Virginia-based aerospace and defense engineering firm. From 1993 to 1997, Mr. Campbell served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Vitro Corporation, the largest subsidiary of Tracor, Inc. In 1997 he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tracor’s subsidiary, Tracor Systems Technologies, Inc. until the sale of Tracor, Inc. to GEC Marconi, Plc in 1998. Walter R. Fatzinger, Jr. Mr. Fatzinger has served as a Director of ManTech since 2002. Mr. Fatzinger joined ASB Capital Management, Inc., an asset management firm, in February 1999 and currently serves as Vice Chairman and director of the firm. Mr. Fatzinger served as Executive Vice President of Chevy Chase Bank, F.S.B., the parent of ASB Capital Management, Inc., from 1999 to 2002. Mr. Fatzinger currently serves on the board of directors of Optelecom Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company and a manufacturer of communications products that transport data, video and audio over the internet and fiber-optic cable. Mr. Fatzinger currently serves as Vice-Chairman and Director of Chevy Chase Trust Co., also a subsidiary of Chevy Chase Bank and is Chairman of the University of Maryland Foundation. Admiral David E. Jeremiah, USN Ret. Admiral Jeremiah has served as a Director of ManTech since 2004. From 1994 to 2005, Adm. Jeremiah served on our Advisory Board. Admiral Jeremiah currently serves as Chairman of Technology Strategies & Alliances Corporation, a strategic advisory and investment banking firm engaged primarily in the aerospace, defense, telecommunications, and electronics industries. Admiral Jeremiah serves on the board of directors for Todd Shipyards Corporation, a NYSE-listed company engaged in shipbuilding, ship overhaul, conversion and repair in the United States. During his military career, Adm. Jeremiah earned a reputation as an authority on strategic planning, financial management and the policy implications of advanced technology. From 1990 to 1994, Adm. Jeremiah served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Generals Powell and Shalikashvili. Richard J. Kerr Mr. Kerr has served as a Director of ManTech since 2002. From 1994 to 2002, Mr. Kerr served as Chairman of our Advisory Board. From 1996 to 2001, Mr. Kerr served as President of the Security Affairs Support Association, an organization composed of government and industry members that is focused on national security policy. Prior to that, Mr. Kerr worked at the Central Intelligence Agency for 32 years, including as Deputy Director for Central Intelligence. Mr. Kerr headed a small team that assessed intelligence produced prior to the Iraq war, at the request of the Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence. He currently serves on a commission responsible for monitoring compliance with the Belfast Treaty (Good Friday Agreement). Lt. Gen. Kenneth A. Minihan, USAF Ret. Lt. Gen. Minihan was appointed a Director of ManTech on June 6, 2006. Since 2002, Lt. Gen. Minihan serves as Managing Director of the Homeland Security Fund for Paladin Capital Group. From 1999-2002, Lt. Gen. Minihan served as President of the Security Affairs Support Association. Lt. Gen. Minihan spent 33+ years of service in the Air Force, serving from 1996 to 1999 as the 14th Director of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. From 1995 to 1996 he was a Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Lt. Gen. Minihan is a Founder of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance in Washington, D.C., and serves on the board of directors of BAE Systems, NA, MTC Technologies, Inc., Verint Systems, Inc. and Lucent Government Solutions. Stephen W. Porter, Esq. Mr. Porter has served as a Director of ManTech since 1991. Mr. Porter is Senior Counsel with the law firm of Arnold & Porter, where he has practiced law since June 1993, focusing on real estate, tax and corporate law. Mr. Porter became a certified public accountant in 1961. Mr. Porter currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and is Immediate Past Chairman of the Board of the District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce. From 1992 to 1994, he served as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-partisan public policy institute. http://www.mantech.com/about/board.asp All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately Quote from: Dig on September 07, 2011, 11:23:38 pm This was live in front of millions of viewers for the GOP debate on MSNBC.... Newt Gingrich actually said that the next false flag terror attack will kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. THAT CLIP NEEDS TO GO VIRAL ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so shocking no one could even understand it and it was ignored, but we know exactly what he means. It was the same warning that Gary Hart made which caused AJ to get on the air before 9/11. The timing of the movie contagion is very suspect as well as CSIS white papers. MITRE, SAIC, and Booz Allen are also primary suspects for 9/11 and other false flags so they likely will be leading the nexct false flag that Newt Gingrich is exposing. Quote from: swain on September 07, 2011, 11:54:35 pm http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/politics/08republican-debate-text.html?pagewanted=12&_r=1 GINGRICH: Yeah, I just want to go back, frankly, to the homeland security question, because it's important for us to confront this. I helped develop the model for homeland security. It hasn't been executed well. The fact is, we have enemies who want to use weapons against us that will lead to disasters on an enormous scale. And the original goal was to have a Homeland Security Department that could help us withstand up to three nuclear events in one morning. And we need to understand, there are people out there who want to kill us. And if they have an ability to sneak in weapons of mass destruction, they're going to use them. We need to overhaul and reform the department, but we need some capacity to respond to massive events that could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans in one morning. Newt Gingrich helped set up Homeland Security right after 9/11, but Homeland Security was developed before 9/11 by a grant from the RAND Corporation. Also, the fact that he says it was built to respond to 3 nuke attacks in one morning is the craziest batshit insanity I have ever heard in my life. The implications of that statement are mind boggling. Three nuclear attacks in one morning? A Nixon/Johnson 3AM call x 3?!?!?!?! There needs to be immediate grand jury investigations into Newt Gingrich, RAND Corporation, MITRE, and DHS needs to be defunded ASAP! How long have they been planning this transformation? The Institute for Homeland Security is an off-shoot of the ANSER Institute, which was established by the RAND Corporation in 1958. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ANSER_Institute_for_Homeland_Security Quote from: Dig on December 19, 2010, 11:26:40 pm TSA and DHS are not the government. Just like the Gestapo, they will be found guilty of crimes against humanity. This has already been planned, look at the history. The company, ANSER Institute of Homeland Security was originally funded by RAND corporation. They set up PROMIS and PTECH and work for outside interests and not the interests of the US nor its legal government. They set up 9/11 and then got power after 9/11. People like Gannon and Ruth David are open conspirators, so is CSIS, Kissinger, and his interns. People are waking up to this fact and can see clearly that this beast called DHS are the actual anti-government radical violent trilateral terrorists who mean to bring our entire country down. The following speech is from February 2000, 18 months before 9/11 terror attacks. The entire agenda is laid out. Who is John C. Gannon? HE WAS A DIRECTOR OF THE RAND FUNDED 'ANSER INSTITUTE OF HOMELAND SECURITY BEFORE 9/11!!!! Quote from: Dig on January 08, 2011, 12:25:33 pm The CIA in the New World Order: Intelligence Challenges Through 2015 Remarks by John C. Gannon Chairman, National Intelligence Council Smithsonian Associates’ "Campus on the Mall" http://www.nti.org/e_research/official_docs/cia/2100CIA.pdf Thank you for the warm introduction. I’m delighted to represent our Director, George Tenet, at the Smithsonian Associates’ "Campus on the Mall." This is an exceptional public education program that takes on today’s challenging issues in a creative and stimulating manner that is in keeping with benefactor James Smithson’s well-known commitment to what he called the "increase and diffusion of knowledge." I look forward after my remarks to your comments and questions, which, for me, is the "value added" of having to listen to myself talk. When my former boss, Bob Gates, was here in 1992, he entitled his address, "The End of the Cold War: Where Do We Go From Here?" I actually had thought of calling mine, "Ten Years After the Cold War: Where Do We Go From Here?" Now, the typical Washington cynic would say that this just proves intelligence bureaucrats are notoriously slow in responding to change. FULL SPEECH: http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/archives/2000/dci_speech_020200smithson.html John C. Gannon Dr. John C. Gannon[1] is on the Board of Advisors at the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security. Gannon is "Vice-Chairman of Intellibridge Corporation, a Washington firm that provides web-based analysis to corporate and government clients. Previously he served as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (1997-2001) after serving for two years (1995-1997) as the Deputy Director for Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency. In June 1998, Mr. Gannon was also appointed the Assistant Director of Intelligence for Analysis and Production. "From 1992 until 1996, Mr. Gannon was the Director of the Office of European Analysis in the Directorate of Intelligence (DI). Before that, he held many assignments in the DI, including various management positions in the Office of European Analysis and tours on the staff of the President's Daily Brief, in the Office of Economic Research, and as a Latin America analyst. "Mr. Gannon served as a Naval Officer in Southeast Asia and later, while in the Naval Reserves, was an instructor of navigation at the Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. He has been active in civic affairs in Falls Church, Virginia, serving on the City Council and Planning Commission (as Vice Chairman and Chairman). Early in his career, Mr. Gannon taught social studies and science in a secondary school in Jamaica as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He also taught high school in Saint Louis. "Mr. Gannon earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. in history from Washington University in Saint Louis and a B.A. in psychology from Holy Cross College in 1966. His graduate studies focused on Latin America, and his doctoral dissertation documented the evolution of political parties in Jamaica. He speaks Spanish." ANSER Institute for Homeland Security The ANSER Institute for Homeland Security is the Department of Homeland Security's first "government think tank," or Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), focused on providing independent analysis on homeland security concerns. [1] The Institute operates within Analytic Sytems Inc. (also known as the ANSER Institute). Although the DHS Science and Technology Directorate announced in 2004 that they "selected [ANSER] to operate the Homeland Security Institute . . . [f]ollowing a full and open competition procurement process conducted by Science and Technology,"[1] the Institute was "initiated and funded by ANSER's Board of Trustees in October 1999" and "formally established in April 2001."[2]. Governance and Enabling Legislation According to the Institute's website, it "is a not-for-profit center that operates under an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract vehicle between DHS and Analytic Services Inc."[3] The Under Secretary for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate was authorized to fund FFRDCs like the Institute under The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Section 305 of PL 107-296, as codified in 6 U.S.C. 185), and ANSER operates the Institute as an FFRDC for DHS under contract HSHQDC-09-D-00003.[4] The Institute for Homeland Security is an off-shoot of the ANSER Institute, which was established by the RAND Corporation in 1958.[1] As Margie Burns wrote June 29, 2002, in Online Journal: "Although funded and initiated in October 1999, the institute was formally established only in April 2001, following a month of high-tech and heavy-hitter-security-type buzz assisted by its ties to the military and to the intelligence community. On March 13-15, 2001, the Homeland Security (HLS) Mini-Symposium was held by the Military Operations Research Society (Alexandria, VA), at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD. "Also on March 13, [2001] by coincidence, George Walker Bush released his first National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) (dated February 13, 2001), which expanded the National Security Council and added 11 new coordinating committees." [2] The NSPD directed the Deputy National Security Adviser -- Bush appointee Stephen J. Hadley, formerly with the National Institute for Public Policy and a former member of ANSER's Board of Trustees -- to attend NSC meetings, and makeing him Executive Secretary of the NSC. "Interestingly -- given today's emphasis on 'coordinating' and 'information-sharing' -- the directive also stated, 'The existing system of Interagency Working Groups is abolished.'" ibid. Homeland Security? Burns continued: "Perhaps as part of the same push last March, a now-gone web page from the Institute for Homeland Security answers a question posed on March 30, 2002, by Mark Bower of the Air National Guard: why homeland?" ibid. The Institute's answer conceded that the catch phrase homeland defense had only "recently entered the lexicon of public discourse," although "the concept of 'defending the homeland' is an idea dating back through the better part of human history. To the best of knowledge, the Burns added, the term homeland defense is attributed to a 1997 report by the National Defense Panel. "News reports credit it to panel member Richard L. Armitage, former CIA officer and now deputy secretary of State, though Mr. Armitage has not taken full credit for it -- understandably." [3] Writing for Buzzflash, Margie Burns postulated, "If Congress actually creates a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security [which occurred through Executive Order on February 28, 2003], we will have a Cabinet office named after a corporation. Members of the House Committee on Government Reform and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee should be watchful. The government has already given the company lavish free advertising, with assistance from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's publications. In spite of the Institute, the phrase homeland security was little seen in the popular media before September 2002 (at least in this country); aside from a sprinkling of journals and think tanks, only the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times newspaper, Insight Magazine, and UPI boosted the Institute and its central catch phrase with any frequency." ibid. Burns continued in Online Journal, "Immediately after September 11, the Washington Times was foremost in aggressively touting and defending -- indeed, insisting on -- instant adoption of homeland as the term of the hour, in articles published on September 16, 22, 30, and October 3 [2001], also citing ANSER. Predictably, the institute's web site also references articles from the Washington Times." ibid. According to the ANSER Institute web site, in May 2001, the ANSER Institute of Homeland Security "was established to enhance public awareness and education and contribute to the dialog on a national, state, and local level." [4] However, when Dr. Ruth A. David, Ph.D., the Institute's CEO, was named the 2001 Bloomfield Distinguished Engineer-in-Residence at the College of Engineering at Wichita State University, the university's web pages stated: "ANSER ... performs technical, program, and policy analyses for the Department of Defense." Additionally, at a plenary session presentation held at MORS from February 29 to March 2, 2000, and attended by Dr. David, ANSER was described as a "Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC)." [5] On another occasion, "Mark DeMier of ANSER Analytic Services, a nonprofit U.S. Air Force-funded think tank, and editor of its Homeland Security Bulletin is quoted as saying. 'There is no single, coordinated U.S. government definition of homeland defense.'" [6] "The Institute believes that preparing for these new challenges will require a determined, integrated effort at every stage of the process: deterrence, prevention, preemption, crisis management, consequence management, attribution and response." The Institute states that it is "leading the debate through executive-level education, public awareness programs, workshops for policy makers and online publications." ANSER produces a weekly 15,000-subscriber newsletter and the Journal of Homeland Security, "which features articles by senior government leaders and leading homeland security experts." In the spring of 2002, one analysis of the Institute's performance stated that the then less than two years old Institute had "already gained recognition outside of the Beltway as a landmine of information regarding timely and in-depth debates concerning national security policy." The Institute's newsletter provided "one example of ANSER's increasing position of influence, as initially fewer than 100 people subscribed to the weekly email," which had then "grown to include over 100,000 readers." The Institute's Journal of Homeland Security quickly become "a staple for those involved in national security industries, as it provides a comprehensive overview of homeland defense, with article authorship being balanced between defense experts and academics alike." ibid. Further evidence of ANSER's influence comes from none other than the Council on Foreign Relations: "Due to its rising influence, earlier this year [2002], Foreign Affairs published a review of the Institute for Homeland Security, noting that the Institute's 'Web site presents an array of resources, including an online journal, access to the syllabi of several courses on terrorism and homeland security, links to a wide variety of Internet sources, and a virtual library' on homeland defense.'" ibid. 'Partnership agreements' with other policy-oriented agencies such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the RAND Corporation were also praised. Additionally, the Secretary of the United States Air Force "hailed ANSER for producing products for the defense industry 'marked by quality, responsiveness, and objectivity.'" ibid. "ANSER has also been offering online programs in cooperation with American Military University in Manassas, VA, leading to certificates in Homeland Defense, Forecasting Terrorism, and Homeland Security. A course called Homeland Security, conducted by the Institute's Director Colonel Randall Larsen, was geared up to begin fall 2001 at the National War College, with the first lecture by Col. (ret) Randall Larsen and Col. Robert Kadlec on homeland security coincidentally scheduled for September 11." ibid. The Washington Post, according to its 1998 annual report, engaged in a joint venture with ANSER: "'Legi-Slate, a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company ... and ANSER ... [April 15] announced the partnership to provide ANSER's summaries of congressional hearings on defense acquisition and readiness on Legi-Slate's online service.' ... The Post Company 'disposed of substantially all' its Legi-Slate assets in 1999 ... "ibid. Leadership Team (as of September, 2010)[5] Dr. Ruth A. David, Ph.D. (President & Chief Executive Officer) Philip Anderson, Ph.D (Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, HSI Operating Unit) Mr. George Thompson (Vice President, Deputy Director for Homeland Security Programs, (HSP), Mission Area Director for Departmental Unification and Integration) Mr. Robert Tuohy (Vice President, Deputy Director for Homeland Security Operations, (HSO), Mission Area Director for Resilience, Emergency Preparedness, and Response) Director's Staff Richard Kohout (Mission Area Director, Counterterrorism, Borders, and Immigration) Glenn Price (Fellow, Outreach Program Director) Margaret "Jo" Velardo, PhD (Research Director) Gerald "Jerry" Diaz, Ph.D (Fellow, HSO Directorate, Manager, Operations Analysis Division) Mark Hanson (Fellow, HSO Directorate Manager, Threat and Risk Analysis Division) Sarah Maloney (Fellow, HSP Directorate Manager, Business Enterprise Analysis Division) Stephen Ries, PhD (Fellow, HSP Directorate Manager, Work Force Analysis Division) Shelby Syckes (Fellow, HSP Directorate Manager, Program Analysis Division) Senior Research Staff John Baker (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Charles Brownstein, PhD (Fellow, HSP Directorate) Joseph Chang, PhD (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Samuel Clovis, PhD (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Kim Corthell (Fellow, HSP Directorate) Gary Foster (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Jerome Kahan (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Curt Mann (Fellow, HSP Directorate) David McGarvey, Ph.D (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Howard Smith (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Peter Zimmerman, PhD (Fellow, HSO Directorate) Robert Zimmerman (Fellow, HSP Directorate) Past Institute Personnel Col. Randy Larsen (USAF, Ret.) Peter Roman, Ph.D. Col. Dave McIntyre, Ph.D. (USA, Ret) Dr. Elin Gursky Lloyd Salvetti Alan Capps Jennifer Crook Sonita Almas Steve Dunham Trisha Anderson Madhavi Patil Dr. Jay C. Davis Michael J. Bayer Admiral Harold W. Gehman Jr. (USN, Ret) Dr. John A. Hamre Phil E. Lacombe Dr. Joshua Lederberg Judith A. Miller Dr. Michael C. Moriarty Dr. Tara O'Toole ANSER (Analytic Services Inc.) Chapter 4: U.S. Reflexive Modernization by Ian Alexander Oas. Re U.S. as "world hegemon" and the ANSER Institute and RAND Corporation influence on shaping U.S. defense policy. ANSER Homeland Security entry from 911Review.Org, accessed August 30, 2010. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Homeland Security Establishes Its First Government "Think Tank", Department of Homeland Security press release, April 23 2004, from the DHS website], accessed August 31, 2010. ↑ ANSER Homeland Security Institute newsletter, August 21, 2003, accessed August 31, 2010 ↑ "Governance" page on the ANSER Homeland Security Institute website, accessed August 31, 2010. ↑ Home Page, ANSER Homeland Security Institute website], accessed August 31, 2010. ↑ "Leadership" page on the ANSER Homeland Security Institute website, accessed August 31, 2010. Category: Homeland security GLOBAL TRENDS 2015: A Dialog About the Future with NG Experts http://www.dni.gov/nic/PDF_GIF_global/globaltrend2015.pdf http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2015.html Address by John C. Gannon Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production The National Security Telecommunications Information Systems Security Committee Thank you. It is a special pleasure to be among such distinguished speakers today to address such an important organization as the NSTISSC. Your conference organizers asked me to share our perspective on the cyberthreat, over the next several years. I’ll be happy to do that this morning. To assist in my discussion of this important topic, I will draw from the work the National Intelligence Council has done on Global Trends 2015, with which I hope you are familiar, and on other estimative work undertaken by the NIC over the past year, especially by our National Intelligence Officer for Science and Technology, Larry Gershwin. It is useful, I think, to put the cyber threat into the context of a major S&T revolution over the next fifteen years. In Global Trends 2015 we anticipate that the world will almost certainly experience quantum leaps in information technology (IT) and in other areas of science and technology. The continuing diffusion of IT and new applications of biotechnology will be at the crest of the wave. Information Technology will be the major building block for international commerce and for empowering nonstate actors. Most experts agree that the IT revolution represents the most significant global transformation since the Industrial Revolution beginning in the mid-eighteenth century. The integration--or fusion--of continuing revolutions in information technology, biotechnology, materials science, and nanotechnology will generate dramatic increases in technology investments, which will further stimulate innovation in the more advanced countries. Older technologies will continue lateral “sidewise development” into new markets and applications through 2015, benefiting US allies and adversaries around the world who are interested in acquiring early generation ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) technologies. Biotechnology will generate medical breakthroughs that will enable the world’s wealthiest people to improve their health and increase their longevity dramatically. At the same time, genetically modified crops will offer the potential to improve nutrition among the billions of malnourished people in the world. Breakthroughs in materials technology will generate widely available products that are multi-functional,environmentally safe, longer lasting, and easily adapted to particular consumer requirements. On the downside, disaffected states, terrorists, proliferators, narcotraffickers, and organized criminals will take advantage of the new high-speed information environment and other advances in technology to integrate their illegal activities and compound their threat to stability and security around the world. The networked global economy will be driven by rapid and largely unrestricted flows of information, ideas, cultural values, capital, goods and services, and people: that is, globalization. This globalized economy will be a net contributor to increased political stability in the world in 2015, although its reach and benefits will not be universal. In contrast to the Industrial Revolution, the process and timelines of globalization will be more compressed. Its evolution will be rocky, marked by chronic financial volatility and a widening economic divide. Regions, countries, and groups left behind will face deepening economic stagnation, political instability, and cultural alienation. These entities will foster political, ethnic, ideological, and religious extremism, along with the violence that often accompanies these phenomena . These disaffected entities will force the United States and other developed countries to remain focused on “old-world” challenges while simultaneously concentrating on the implications of “new-world” technologies. GT2015 “Bottom Line” We do make an effort in GT2015 to cut through the scary scenarios to a broad judgment about the cyber threat: Increasing reliance on computer networks is making critical US infrastructures more attractive as targets. Computer network operations today offer new options for attacking the United States within its traditional continental sanctuary—potentially anonymously and with selective effects. Nevertheless, we do not know how quickly or effectively adversaries such as terrorists, proliferators, narcotraffickers or disaffected states will develop the tradecraft to use cyber warfare tools and technology, or, in fact, whether cyber warfare will ever evolve into a decisive combat arm. We need, therefore, to assess carefully the capabilities of these varied groups in a continuing integrated threat assessment rather than panic and run. The cyber threat is a call to action—collaborative and concerted action across NSTISSIC agencies—not a cry to surrender. For those nations with a decisive technological advantage, like the United States, we need to remind ourselves that keeping that technological advantage will be our best line of both defense and offense. Which is to say, we need to do a lot more work on this and to keep you all in the loop as we go along. [NOTE: This is contrary to all ideas of freedom and the rights of man. The CIA proposes to have more central control rather than more localized control such that we are protected by millions of people grounded in the traditions of America. They are saying that as threats get greater and greater, any attempt at sovereignty is a sign of weakness, a sign of panic, a sign of surrender. The CIA is saying that the only way to show America is powerful is by destroying the constitution and all sovereignty. Allen Dulles had the exact same mentality and that is why JFK fired his ass!] Perspective from 2001 Let’s jump back from 2015 for a few moments and talk more concretely about the threats we face today. Hostile cyber activity today is ballooning. The number of FBI computer network intrusion cases has doubled during each of the past two years. Meanwhile, several highly publicized intrusions and computer virus incidents since 1998 have fed a public—and perhaps foreign government—perception that the networks upon which US national security and economic well-being depend are vulnerable to attack by almost anyone with a computer, a modem, and a modicum of skill. This impression, of course, overstates the case. US Networks as Targets It is true that information from industry security experts suggests that US national information networks have become more vulnerable—and therefore more attractive as a target of foreign cyber attack. The growing connectivity among secure and insecure networks creates new opportunities for unauthorized intrusions into sensitive or proprietary computer systems within critical US infrastructures, such as the nation’s telephone system. The complexity of computer networks is growing faster than the ability to understand and protect them by identifying critical nodes, verifying security, and monitoring activity. The prospects for a cascade of failures across US infrastructures are largely known and understood. Business firms are dedicating growing, but still insufficient, resources to the defense of critical US infrastructures against foreign cyber attack—a low likelihood threat compared to routine disruptions such as accidental damage to telecommunications lines. Nonetheless, mainstream commercial software—whose vulnerabilities are widely known—is replacing relatively secure proprietary network systems by US telecommunications providers and other operators of critical infrastructure. US government and defense networks similarly are increasing their reliance on commercial software. Such commercial software includes imported products that provide opportunities for foreign implantation of exploitation or attack tools. Finally, opportunities for foreign placement or recruitment of insiders have become legion. As part of an unprecedented churning of the global information technology work force, US firms are drawing on pools of computer expertise that reside in a number of potential threat countries, such as Russia. Access to US proprietary networks by subcontractors of foreign partners is creating “virtual” insiders whose identity and nationality often remain unknown to US network operators. Despite these growing vulnerabilities, however, the most important US targets remain difficult to compromise. Compromising such targets requires more advanced tools and tradecraft, such as recruiting an insider. Foreign or US insiders were responsible for 71 percent of the unauthorized entries into US corporate computer networks reported to an FBI-sponsored survey last year. Despite the growing interconnectivity I’ve stressed this morning, control networks-whose compromise could disrupt critical US infrastructures such as power or transportation—are designed to be less accessible from outside networks, according to industry experts. In addition, many control networks use unique, proprietary, or archaic programming languages thought to be--and clearly intended to be--poorly understood by hackers. Growing Foreign Capabilities Advanced technologies and tools for computer network operations are becoming more widely available, resulting in a basic, but operationally significant, technical cyber capability for US adversaries. Most US adversaries have access to the technology needed to pursue computer network operations. Computers are almost globally available, and Internet connectivity is both widespread and increasing. Both the technology and access to the Internet are inexpensive, relative to traditional weapons, and require no large industrial infrastructure. The tradecraft needed to employ information technology and tools effectively however—particularly against more difficult targets such as classified networks or critical infrastructures—remains an important limiting factor for many of our adversaries. Hackers since the mid-1990s have shared increasingly sophisticated and easy-to-use software on the Internet, providing tools that any computer-literate adversary could obtain and use for computer network reconnaissance, probing, penetration, exploitation, or attack. Moreover, programming aids are making it possible to develop sophisticated tools with only basic programming skills. Globally available tools are particularly effective against the mechanisms of the Internet, but specialized tools would be needed against more difficult targets, such as the networks that control many critical infrastructures. Even with technology and tools, considerable tradecraft also is required to penetrate network security perimeters and defeat intrusion detection systems—particularly against defensive reactions by network security administrators. Tradecraft also will determine how well an adversary can achieve a targeted and reliable outcome, and how likely the perpetrator is to remain anonymous. Attackers must tailor strategies to specific target networks—requiring advanced and continued reconnaissance to characterize targets and ensure that exploitation tools remain effective in the face of subtle changes to computer systems and networks. Cyber attacks against less well defended military networks, such as logistics for example, still would require prior identification of critical nodes and a preplanned campaign, if the attacks were to achieve a strategic impact such as delaying a US force deployment. Potential Actors and Threats Let me talk about some of the groups that will challenge us on the cyber front: Although the most numerous and publicized cyber intrusions and other incidents are ascribed to lone computer-hacking hobbyists, such hackers pose a negligible threat of widespread, long-duration damage to national-level infrastructures. The large majority of hackers do not have the requisite tradecraft to threaten difficult targets such as critical US networks—and even fewer would have a motive to do so. Nevertheless, the large worldwide population of hackers poses a relatively high threat of an isolated or brief disruption causing serious damage, including extensive property damage or loss of life. As the hacker population grows, so does the likelihood of an exceptionally skilled and malicious hacker attempting and succeeding in such an attack. In addition, the huge worldwide volume of relatively less skilled hacking activity raises the possibility of inadvertent disruption of a critical infrastructure. Hacktivists A smaller foreign population of politically active hackers—which includes individuals and groups with anti-US motives—poses a medium-level threat of carrying out an isolated but damaging attack. Most international hacktivist groups appear bent on propaganda rather than damage to critical infrastructures. Pro-Beijing Chinese hackers over the past two years have conducted mass cyber protests in response to events such as the 1999 NATO bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade. Pro-Serbian hacktivists attacked a NATO Website during Operation Allied Force. Similar hacktivism accompanied the rise in Israeli-Palestinian clashes last year. Hackers for Hire Government and criminal organizations have the resources to recruit hacker talent and the motivation to guide that technical talent with sophisticated tradecraft in order to turn it toward long-term objectives that could threaten the United States. Industrial Spies and Organized Crime Groups International corporate spies and organized crime organizations pose a medium-level threat to the United States through their ability to conduct industrial espionage and large-scale monetary theft, respectively, and through their ability to hire or develop hacker talent. Japanese syndicates used Russian hackers to gain access to law enforcement databases, evidently to monitor police investigations of their operations and members, according to a press report last year. According to press reports, a Mafia-led syndicate last year used banking and telecommunications insiders to break into an Italian bank’s computer network. The syndicate diverted the equivalent of $115 million in European Union aid to Mafia-controlled bank accounts overseas before Italian authorities detected the activity. Foreign corporations also could use computer intrusions to tamper with competitors’ business proposals, in order to defeat competing bids. Computer network espionage or sabotage can affect US economic competitiveness and result in technology transfer--directly through product sales, or indirectly-to US adversaries. Because cyber criminals’ central objectives are to steal, and to do so with as little attention from law enforcement as possible, they are not apt to undertake operations leading to high-profile network disruptions, such as damage to US critical infrastructures. Major drug trafficking groups, however, could turn to computer network attacks in an attempt to disrupt US law enforcement or local government counternarcotics efforts. Organized crime groups with cyber capabilities conceivably could threaten attacks against critical infrastructure for purposes of extortion. Moreover, rampant criminal access to critical financial databases and networks could undermine the public trust essential to the commercial health of US banking institutions and to the operation of the financial infrastructure itself. In addition, criminal computer network exploitation could inadvertently disrupt other infrastructures. Traditional terrorist adversaries of the United States, despite their intentions to damage US interests, are less developed in their computer network capabilities and propensity to pursue cyber means than are other types of adversaries. They are likely, therefore, to pose only a limited cyber threat. In the near term, terrorists are likely to stay focused on traditional attack methods. (Nonetheless, we will be on the alert for new information that could alter this judgment. We anticipate that more substantial cyber threats are possible in the future as a more technically competent generation enters the ranks. National cyber warfare programs are unique in posing a threat along the entire spectrum of objectives that might harm US interests. Among the array of cyber threats, as we see them today, only government-sponsored programs are developing capabilities with the prospect of causing widespread, long-duration damage to US critical infrastructures. China (to name just one example) is expanding cyber related military training and is already incorporating cyber warfare into military exercises, according to press reporting. President Jiang last year stated that wars were passing from the stage of “mechanized warfare” to that of “information warfare.” A Chinese presidential decree last year established a military university whose mission includes training soldiers in information warfare, among other communications-related fields, according to a Chinese press report. Future Tools and Technology New cyber tools and technologies are on the way for both the offense and defense. For example, because networks-and their vulnerabilities-are evolving so rapidly, new tools for network mapping, scanning, and probing will become increasingly critical to both attackers and defenders. Either side could apply research in autonomous software “agents”-intelligent, mobile, and self-replicating software intended to roam a network gathering data or to reconnoiter other computer network operations. For defenders, incremental deployment of new or improved security tools will help protect against both remote and inside threats. Technologies include better intrusion detection systems, better methods for correlating data from multiple defensive tools, automated deployment of security patches, biometric user authentication, wider use of encryption, and public key infrastructures to assure the authenticity and integrity of e-mail, electronic documents, and downloaded software. For attackers, viruses and worms are likely to become more controllable, precise, and predictable-making them more suitable for weaponization. Advanced modeling and simulation technologies are likely to assist in identifying critical nodes for an attack and conducting battle damage assessments afterward. Other capabilities likely by 2005 include self-modification to defeat signature recognition, remote control, stealthy propagation, and the ability of a single tool to affect multiple, mainstream operating systems. In addition, tools for distributed hacking or denial of service-the coordinated use of multiple, compromised computers or of independent and mobile software agents-will mature as network connectivity and bandwidth increase. The rapid pace of change in information technology suggests that the appearance of new and unforeseen computer and network technologies and tools could provide advantages in cyber warfare to either the defender or the attacker. Wildcards for the years beyond 2005 include the possibility of fundamental shifts in the nature of computers and networking, driven, for example, by emerging optical technologies. These changes could improve processing power, information storage, and bandwidth enough to make possible application of advanced software technologies-such as artificial intelligence-to cyber warfare. Such technologies could provide the defender with improved capabilities for detecting and attributing subtle malicious activity, or could enable computer networks to respond to attacks automatically. They could provide the attacker with planning aids to develop an optimal strategy against a potential target and to more accurately predict effects. Despite the fundamental and global impact of the information revolution, the reliance of critical US activities on computer networks, and the attention being devoted to information operations, uncertainty remains whether computer network operations will evolve into a decisive military weapon for US adversaries. To a degree that we cannot estimate, emergency measures to compensate for computer network disruptions will be available to maintain some basic level of services-as demonstrated during the Y2K rollover. Adversaries, therefore, may never overcome the planning uncertainties that derive from a US potential to work around even severe degradations in network performance. Let us hope I am right in this judgment. Whether or not foreign computer network operations mature into a major combat arm, however, they will offer an increasing number of adversaries new options for exerting leverage over the United States-including selection of either nonlethal or lethal damage and the prospect of anonymity. Adversaries will be able to use cyber attacks to attempt to deny the United States its traditional continental sanctuary with attacks on critical infrastructures. They could exploit US legal and conceptual controversies relating to defending privately operated networks with US Government resources and the separation of the US domestic and foreign security establishments. Adversaries also could use cyber attacks to attempt to slow or disrupt the mobilization, deployment, combat operations, or resupply of US military forces. Attacks on logistic and other defense networks would be likely to exploit heightened network vulnerabilities during US deployment operations-complicating US power projection in an era of decreasing permanent US military presence abroad. Implications for Intelligence Whatever direction the cyberthreat takes, the United States Government will be confronting an increasingly interconnected world in the years ahead. This is the core message of GT2015. We will have to develop, in response, greater communications and collaboration across the agencies of our own Government, with other governments, and with the corporate world. Interagency cooperation will be essential to understanding the cyberthreat, as well as other transnational threats that will crowd our agenda, and to responding effectively with interdisciplinary strategies. Consequence management of a major attack on a critical US infrastructure would involve virtually all agencies of the Federal Government, State, and local governments, foreign governments, law enforcement, the military, the medical community, and the media. NSTISSC and the Intelligence Community clearly have a lot of work to do if we are to understand this evolving threat and to be prepared to deal with it. Remember that the following speech was given in April of 2001 by the Central Intelligence Agency. It says that electronic threats are "limited". This of course limited scrutiny with the Stephens/Mossad/Saudi funded PTECH component of the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Remember that PTECH and MITRE (CIA well aware of all MITRE activity) were in the basement of the FAA for two years before 9/11/2001. This means that the CIA who knew about MITRE and PTECH were guiding other agencies, namely, in this specific speech... The National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Committee, away from being alert to any electronic crimes prior to the 9/11 false flag. They likely did the same speech to other agencies like the FAA, etc. But, the NSTISSC (created by George HW Bush in 1990) had accountabilities to the systems in use at all government agencies (FAA, SS, FBI, WH, etc.) for PTECH to run wild during the 9/11 event with limited scrutiny thanks to the CIA's internal propaganda! "Ptech was with MITRE Corporation in the basement of the FAA for two years prior to 9/11" Indira Singh & P-Tech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1_HHNtXqes Indira Singh on Mitre and Ptech - Pt. 1 http://www.myspace.com/video/decompartmentalized/indira-singh-on-mitre-and-ptech-pt-1/19481838 Anti_Illuminati for dummies. The ultimate study guide for the layman. Developing Cybernetic dictatorship based on Nazi, Soviet & Stasi BETA-TESTS http://cryptome.org/nstissc.htm 29 March 2006. nstissc.gov has been superceded by cnns.gov April 2005 index of issuances: http://www.cnss.gov/Assets/pdf/CNSS-INDEX_APR_2005.pdf Unclassified National Security System issuances: http://www.cnss.gov/full-index.html http://constitution.ncsc.mil/wws/nstissc/html/overview.html The National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security Committee (NSTISSC) was established by President Bush under National Security Directive 42 (NSD 42) entitled, "National Policy for the Security of National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems," dated 5 July 1990. It reaffirms the Secretary of Defense as the Executive Agent and the Director, National Security Agency as the National Manager for National Security Telecommunications and Information Systems Security. In addition, the Directive establishes the NSTISSC. The NSTISSC provides a forum for the discussion of policy issues, sets national policy, and promulgates direction, operational procedures, and guidance for the security of national security systems through the NSTISSC Issuance System. National security systems contain classified information or: a. involves intelligence activities; b. involves cryptographic activities related to national security; c. involves command and control of military forces; d. involves equipment that is an integral part of a weapon or weapons system(s); or e. is critical to the direct fulfillment of military or intelligence missions (not including routine administrative and business applications). Images source: http://constitution.ncsc.mil/wws/nstissc/Assets/images/ http://constitution.ncsc.mil/wws/nstissc/Assets/images/nsd42.gif http://constitution.ncsc.mil/wws/nstissc/Assets/images/orgchart.gif http://constitution.ncsc.mil/wws/nstissc/Assets/images/nstissc20002.gif http://constitution.ncsc.mil/wws/nstissc/Assets/Flash/nstissc%20Report.txt This will also allow for a sharp crackdown on any protesting 9/11 Family and First Responders at ground zero. CNN just reported that the three suspects have rather common names, making it that much harder to track down,... even with global sat, and eschelon, and a 1000 mile commute from truck rental to terror site,... boy, they underestimate us. CSPAN right now, David Cohen, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Terrorism Al Qaeda budget duscussion and tactical possibilities from a speech earlier today FLASHBACK... Astor Heir to the throne Anderson Cooper proves he is the American Al-Qaeda An ANDERSON COOPER 360°INVESTIGATION AMERICAN AL QAEDA http://insidecablenews.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/cnn-announces-new-programming-and-website-changes/ "Terrorizing the American people has made me..." "Mo Money, Mo Money Mo Money!" "Anderson Cooper is rich, biaaaatch!" Week-long series begins the week of May 10 followed by one hour special on Sat., May 15, & Sun., May 16, at 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m. (one hour; all times Eastern) Bryant Neal Vinas, born and raised in New York, a once friendly, baseball-playing Catholic altar boy, is now a sworn enemy of the U.S. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson spent a year tracing Vinas’ life’s journey, learning how and why he became a hate-filled terrorist helping al Qaeda plan a bomb attack on New York City. Exclusive images and first-time interviews yield the most intimate portrait ever of an American homegrown terrorist. Do not be fooled by CIA's latest decepti-CON... Astor Jesus [Again thanks to Brocke for this awesome work!] Quote from: Dig on February 04, 2011, 10:59:37 am Latest headline: Mubarak thugs force Anderson Cooper into hiding http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/anderson-cooper-a-bit-scared-attacks-egypt/ CNN is now in control of the spin along with the Astor/Vanderbilt savior Jesus figure a.k.a. AC360! And since AC is also officially CIA by his own admission (confirmed over 4 years ago by Radar), CIA has boots on the ground manufacturing regime change. How much more obvious does it get? The media is running 1,000 headlines about Mubarak's men having CIA connections and zero about AC. But, 4 years ago it was disclosed, hundreds of millions of people know about it, WTF? And now we learn that CNN is connected to the ASPEN INSTITUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AC's hiding of CIA ties puts all American journalists and CIA officers at risk http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=15416 Article posted Sep 06 2006, 9:43 PM Anderson Cooper has long traded on his biography, carving a niche for himself as the most human of news anchors. But there's one aspect of his past that the silver-haired CNN star has never made public: the months he spent training for a career with the Central Intelligence Agency. Following his sophomore and junior years at Yale, a well-known recruiting ground for the CIA, Cooper spent his summers interning at the agency's monolithic headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in a program for students interested in intelligence work. His involvement with the agency ended there, and he chose not to pursue a job with the agency after graduation, according to a CNN spokeswoman, who confirmed details of Cooper's CIA involvement to Radar. Bob Woodruff and others have learned, American journalists are already prime targets in the world's conflict zones, and are typically accused of having CIA ties even where none exist. And by not disclosing his training before now, Cooper has arguably made it into a potential issue. "It creates the appearance of something smelly there," says a former CNN official who knows Cooper. (Particularly in light of the period Anderson spent studying Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi after college. Soon after, Cooper apparently gave up his Bond fantasy to pursue a career in journalism--except for a brief period when he starred as host of ABC's reality show, The Mole.) According to the spokeswoman, Cooper told his bosses at CNN about his time with the agency. But even if he hadn't, says Walter Isaacson, who headed the network from 2001 to 2003 and is now president of the Aspen Institute, it's not the sort of thing that would automatically require disclosure, since the stint was brief and far in the past. "I think what he did was probably fine and cool, and I've got no problems with it," he added. Quote from: Murray Von Hayek on October 24, 2007, 05:36:31 pm I am reading a book on the Vanderbilt Empire and I thought this would be good post I don't know if anyone has posted this, seen it before or not so I am just putting it out there. It is interesting. I mean we know the guy is a paid government operative furthering the lies of the war in Iraq and and now a global warming shill so......yeah. Personally I think he is under mind control but what do I know, I am a whacko conspiracy theorist. From Anderson Cooper's blog and then the Skull & Bones article too. My summer job ... nearly 20 years ago So an interesting thing happened today. A Web site has published an article saying that I once worked for the CIA. CNN received a call from the Web site yesterday informing us that they were going to publish this story. They didn't have all their facts straight, and I've received some questions about it, so I decided to just write this blog post, hoping to get the facts out there. As a college student, I had a number of summer jobs and internships, including working at the CIA. Keep in mind, we are talking about nearly 20 years ago. The Bangles "Walk Like An Egyptian" was on the radio. I was 19 years old, and like many college students was curious about a variety of careers. There was a flyer for the CIA in my college career counseling office, and I applied for a summer job. I was a political science major and was interested in serving my country. For a couple months over the course of two summers, I worked at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. There are reporters who've been in the military, others who've interned on Capitol Hill while they were in college. I know the CIA may sound more exotic and mysterious, but it was actually pretty bureaucratic and mundane, at least the little bit that I saw of it. By the end of the second summer, I realized it was not a place I wanted to work after college. I've told all my employers about it over the years, but have chosen not to talk about it publicly. When I began to travel overseas to war zones as a reporter, I realized that some Jihadist might not understand that what people do for summer jobs in college doesn't mean they make a career out of it. Oh, yeah, in case you're interested, after I graduated college, I briefly worked as a waiter, but I decided not to make a career out of that job either. Anderson Vanderbilt Cooper - Skull & Bones 1989?? The below information has been taken (with some paraphrasing) almost entirely from biographies published on Wikipedia.com; of which I have contributed to the authoring of and correcting of numerous entries. (see additional sources below) Anderson Hays Vanderbilt Cooper (Yale '89) is the youngest son of the late author Wyatt Emory Cooper and clothing designer, artist and author Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt. Gloria Vanderbilt is the daughter of American railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925) and his second wife, Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan. Known as Reggie, he was the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1845-1934). He attended Yale University, as did his grandson Anderson, where Reggie acquired a reputation for dissipation—and no degree. (1904-1965). Reginald Vanderbilt left a $4 million trust for Anderson's mother Gloria, which was to have been administered by his grandmother, but it caused a much publicized civil court case for the custody of his mother with Reginald's sister, Gertrude Vanderbilt-Whitney, who did eventually win the custody battle in 1934. The custody case for Anderson's mother was largely won on the grounds that Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan-Vanderbilt frequently made long trips to Europe without her daughter and that Morgan-Vanderbilt had also repeatedly exposed Anderson's mother Gloria to the intimate relationships of both her male & female partners; thus causing the New York City courts to find Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan-Vanderbilt to be an unfit mother and sending Cooper's mother Gloria Vanderbilt to live with his great-aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt-Whitney . As there is currently no confirmed listing of the fifteen members of the 1989 Class of Skull & Bones...one can only speculate as to whether Anderson Hays Cooper only followed his famous ancestor's footsteps to the gates of Yale University...or if he continued over to the doorway of Skull & Bones' tomb (house) as well. Gertrude was the wife of Harry Payne Whitney (S&B 1894), who's father was U.S. Secretary of the Navy William Collins Whitney (S&B 1863), US Secretary of the Navy. Thus making CNN's Anderson Vanderbilt Cooper's also the great-nephew of Alfred Gywenne Vanderbilt (S&B 1900), who on May 1, 1915 boarded the RMS Lusitania bound for Liverpool, England; which on May 7th, in the Irish Channel, the German submarine Unterseeboot 20 torpedoed, triggering a secondary explosion (widely believed to be a huge shipment of weapons from Remington Arms) that sank the Cunard ocean liner in just eighteen minutes. Vanderbilt's body was never recovered. Harry Payne Whitney's brother William Payne Whitney (S&B 1898) married Helen Hay and they had a daughter Joan Whitney Payson and son John "Jock" Hay Whitney (Yale's Scroll and Key). Joan & Jock both inherited huge trust funds from their father and their grandfather William Collins Whitney when their passed away in 1927. Jock Whitney went on to become a pioneer in the production of color-movies, financier, philanthropist, art-collector, a U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom as well as the publisher of the New York Herald Tribune. Joan Whitney Payson married Yale University alumni Charles Shipman Payson, she also cofounded the New York Mets baseball team with George Herbert Walker, Jr. (S&B 1927) in 1960. He was also the brother-in-law of former U.S. Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush (S&B 1917), and the father of the current U.S. Ambassador to Hungary George Herbert Walker III (S&B 1953). He was also the uncle of former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush (S&B 1947), to whom he was extremely close. "Uncle Herbie" helped fund the former President George H.W. Bush's initial entry into the oil business in the early 1950s. U.S. President George H. W. Bush (S&B 1968) is son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush (S&B 1947), the grandson son former Connecticut U.S. Senator Prescott Sheldon Bush (S&B 1917), the great-nephew of James Smith Bush (S&B 1922), George Herbert Walker, Jr. (S&B 1927), Dr. John Mercer Walker, Sr. (S&B 1931), Louis Walker (S&B 1936), the nephew of Jonathan James Bush (S&B 1953) and the cousin U.S. Ambassador George Herbert Walker III (S&B 1953)of Ray Carter Walker (S&B 1955) and several others. America2 Romans 10:9-10 King James Version CNN is going on and on about it tonight. I thought you were joking! That is an actual position in the United States Treasury Department! Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are the number 1 and 2 financial terrorists in the country and Rothschilds are the number one financial terrorists on the planet! What has Dacvid Cohen done for the past 2 years while these financial terrorists have been stealing over $30 Trillion from the US?!?!?!?! Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence http://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/Pages/cohen-e.aspx David S. Cohen was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence on June 30, 2011. As Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Cohen leads the Treasury Department’s policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions aimed at identifying and disrupting the lines of financial support to international terrorist organizations, proliferators, narcotics traffickers, and other illicit actors posing a threat to our national security. He is also responsible for directing the Department’s efforts to combat money laundering and financial crimes. In this role, Cohen serves as a member of the Obama Administration’s national security team in developing financial strategies to combat these wide ranging threats and protect the U.S. and international financial systems from abuse. David S. Cohen was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 1, 2009 as the Department of the Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing. In his role as Assistant Secretary, Cohen was responsible for formulating and coordinating the counterterrorist financing and anti-money laundering efforts for the Department of the Treasury. He supervised the work of the Treasury Department's Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and the Treasury Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture. Obama Nominates CFR Member David Cohen to Treasury http://www.chartingstocks.net/2009/03/obama-nominates-cfr-member-david-cohen-to-treasury/ Sunday, March 8, 2009 14:56 President Barack Obama will nominate David Cohen to serve in the US Treasury as assistant secretary for “terrorist” financing. Mr. Cohen will work directly under US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Bloomberg reports that the nomination of Mr. Cohen and 2 others were needed because “efforts to revive the economy have been hampered by vacancies in key posts.” I’m not quite sure what role David Cohen, who is an attorney by trade, will play in “reviving” the economy. Mr. Cohen has served as Deputy Director of Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as well as the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence to the NYPD, a position newly created after 9-11. David Cohen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In October of 2002 he and 12 other CFR members authored a book titiled “Terrorist Financing” which was published in the Council on Foreign Relations Press. The book’s overview argues that the “Bush administration’s current efforts are strategically inadequate to assure the sustained results needed to protect U.S. security.” It goes on to say that “Bush administration appears to have made a policy decision not to use the full power of U.S. influence and laws now on the books to pressure other governments to more effectively combat terrorist financing…. urges the Bush administration to reconsider the recently announced “second phase” of its policy to curb terrorist financing, which will rely more on foreign leadership and less on blocking orders” President Obama, who ran on the slogan of change, will nominate someone more hawkish than George Bush to the US Treasury. What exectly does the assistant secretary to the treasury for terrorist financing do? What role will Mr. Cohen to have in “reviving the economy.” Does a CIA background qualify someone to influence economic policy?? Cohen returned to the Treasury in 2009 from the Washington law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he practiced for seven years. His practice at Wilmer Hale focused on civil and criminal litigation, the defense of regulatory investigations into accounting and financial fraud, and anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance advice for a broad range of financial institutions including banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, mutual funds and hedge funds. Cohen first joined the Department of the Treasury in 1999, working in the Office of the General Counsel as Senior Counsel to then General Counsel, Neal S. Wolin. In that position, Cohen was involved in crafting legislation that formed the basis of Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act, the 2001 update to the Bank Secrecy Act that provided Treasury new tools to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Serving under two administrations in the General Counsel's Office, first as Associate Deputy General Counsel and later as Acting Deputy General Counsel, Cohen advised senior officials on a range of legal and policy issues, including the Department's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing policies Prior to joining Treasury, Cohen practiced law for nine years at the Washington law firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin LLP, where he specialized in white collar criminal defense and civil litigation. From 1989 to 1990, Cohen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Norman P. Ramsey, United States District Judge for the District of Maryland. He conducted post-graduate research on nuclear crisis management from 1985-1986. Cohen received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1989, and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Cornell University in 1985. Quote from: America2 on September 08, 2011, 09:12:43 pm yup, and on and on and on, like Dig is pointing out, it seems Anderson 360 might be part of the conditioning for this op. Bilderberg's Pakistan Agenda Uncovered Blackwater/XE/CIA control the entire region between Pakistan and Afghanistan The only terrorists there are the ones your taxes pay for By: Saad Ali http://911blogger.com/node/21841 Submitted by bbruhwiler8 on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 9:06pm Pakistan has been labeled the most dangerous country in the world, (a safe haven for terrorists). The leaders of our country are eager to invade and the mainstream media is working tirelessly to create the fear that will allow them do so. The fact that only six corporations dominate our major media outlets, it’s obvious that our information sources serve the interests of the controlling. For that reason, I set out on a trip to Pakistan to find out what is actually going on in that country. What I discovered shocked me. The first stop of my trip was Islamabad, Pakistan, the nation’s capital. Islamabad has been victim to many suicide attacks in recent years. Thousands of people have been murdered by the hands of the terrorists, aka Blackwater. Blackwater has been confirmed by former CIA officials to having over 3,000 operatives present throughout the country. Pakistan’s International News reported on the increasing suspicious movement of foreigners in Peshawar, Pakistan. A local resident stated, “What we have been hearing about the presence of Blackwater or other suspicious foreigners in Peshawar and Pakistan is alarming.” Investigative Journalist, Wayne Madsen, in a Russia Today interview stated, “I’ve been told by private military contract sources that a former British SAS officer is basically putting ads in local newspapers in Pakistan looking to rent compounds for this influx of private military contractors.” Madsen also talked about how three former Pakistani generals have been giving speeches, stating that private military contractors are present in Islamabad and Peshawar. We all know about the ruthless killings of countless innocent civilians Blackwater is responsible for in Iraq and Afghanistan. These murderers are loyal to nothing but a paycheck, and their presence in Pakistan has angered many. I set out to find where I can find these mercenaries, and what their agenda is in Pakistan. By talking to different independent media outlets I was able to locate the area which has been allotted to Blackwater mercenaries in Islamabad (In case you’re wondering, they stay in the F-7 region.) Now it’s not easy getting close to the area because security is extremely tight. Driving by was about as close as I could get. However, talking to different people about Blackwater and their agenda opened a lot of doors for me. The US can’t invade Pakistan without a reason. Blackwater USA has been contracted to destabilize the country and pave a reason to invade. Along with Blackwater, intelligence agencies CIA, Mossad, and Raw have been reported to be working in Pakistan as well. Now you’re probably questioning, how would Blackwater and these agencies destabilize Pakistan? Well they are playing with the ‘terror’ card, like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who is really behind these suicide bombings that occur on a daily basis in Pakistan? In order to answer this, let’s look at the facts. On September 20, 2008 a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing 54 and wounding 266. The media fed us the usual ‘terrorist attack’ story, like they did on 9/11. But according to a report by Tariq But of the Saudi Gazette, witnesses said that Marines unloaded a US embassy truckload of steel boxes and shifted them inside the Marriott Hotel on Wednesday, three days before the bombing. It was a high-security operation carried out with both the main gates of the hotel closed. Only the US Marines could approach the truck to unload the steel boxes and shift them inside the hotel. Hotel sources said the boxes were not passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the lobby and were shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott. Incidents like the Marriott Hotel bombing occur on a daily basis in Pakistan. Circumstantial evidence proves the fact that Blackwater and other intelligence agencies are heavily involved in these bombings, and are using them to destabilize the country and create a scare by pointing the blame to the so called ‘extremists.’ Recently, Peshawar was victim to a devastating bomb blast in which 117 innocent Pakistani’s were killed. Local news agency NNI has reported that Hakimullah Mehsud, the Chief of the Pakistani- Pashtun Movement in Pakistan, has blamed Blackwater for the bomb blast. Mehsud claimed that “Blackwater and Pakistani agencies are involved in attacks in public places to [maliciously] blame the militants.” Blackwater and other intelligence agencies are playing their cards differently throughout the country. In some parts, including Islamabad, they created a war between the militants and the government. In others, however, we see a war between Shi’ites and Sunnis. This topic takes me to my next stop, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. This city has seen more bomb blasts than any other city in the country. Over 4,000 people have been killed in the last few years. As I entered the city I was in complete shock from what I saw. What was once a peaceful, growing city was now a chaotic police state. The military roamed the streets fully armed with machine guns and tanks. Soldiers with AK-47’s were stationed on every corner of the city. All schools and universities were shut down, and we were living under a curfew. I had to watch my back 24/7 with the worry that a bomb could explode, or someone, out of nowhere, would start shooting innocent people. Most days, while reporting, people would tell me to go home and stay safe; there has been a bomb threat. I could sense the tension between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites everywhere I went. Many sources told me that a war was created between the two sects. What confused me was that Sunni’s and Shi’ites have lived in Pakistan for decades, and have never fought like this. Why have they begun to kill each other now? I spoke with Sunni and Shi’ite leaders, and both agreed that a third party is involved. Immediately, I thought of Blackwater’s involvement in the Sunni/Shiite war in Iraq. I then spoke with local media outlets and party leaders about Blackwater, and like I had predicted, they confirmed their presence. Blackwater is out there buying and recruiting terrorists. According to locals I spoke with, Blackwater is recruiting by offering money to poverty stricken individuals for carrying out missions. These recruits are completely blind to what they will commit. For example, a paid recruit could be assigned to deliver a package, that package would then automatically detonate along the way, successfully completing the mission. I spoke with former members of the Taliban, and they said, “These bomb blasts are not the work of Muslims willingly killing themselves along with hundreds of brothers, sisters, and children. Pakistan has been stained with bloodshed by the hands of Blackwater, Mossad, CIA, and Raw.” The reason we have not heard much about Blackwater in Pakistan, is because journalists in the country are being silenced for speaking out. A recent example of this is that of Dr. Shireen Mazari, a respected journalist for The News and a defense analyst. Two months back, Dr. Mazari’s weekly column was censored when she exposed the presence of Blackwater mercenaries in Pakistan. According to Crescent Online, US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, accused Dr. Mazari of spreading “wildly incorrect” information that had “compromised the security of Americans.” I spoke with a journalist (for security purposes, he wished to remain anonymous) in Islamabad, Pakistan, about why journalists are being silenced. He said, “Saying the word ‘Blackwater’ is a crime for journalists, there is no code of conduct, they’ll either kill you or your family, it’s that simple.” He told me how Blackwater has supreme authority in Pakistan, because of the corrupt government. The so called ‘democratic’ government of Pakistan has been sold to the interests of the New World Order. There is no law or order coming from Islamabad. The politicians, the media, and the military officials are puppets being pulled by President Obama and his handlers. President Obama once said, “I have great respect for the Pakistani people.” Murdering over 800 reported innocent Pakistani men, women, and children Mr. President is not respect. The media jumped all over the fact that we successfully killed leading Taliban militant, Baitullah Mehsud, but barely touched on the hundreds murdered along the way. D.I. Khan is now home to many of the surviving refugees from Waziristan. I had the opportunity to speak with these individuals about their situation and feelings towards this heinous crime. Hamid Abdullah, a refugee barely surviving, lost his wife and children in the attacks. In his native tongue, Pashto, he said, “America has been ruthless to us, they have killed our families and we have nothing left, but our faith in Allah. Obama believes his plan will succeed, however, in the words of the Holy Qur’an, Although they plan, Allah also plans. And Allah is the Best of Planners.” Abdullah and others currently live in refugee camps whose conditions are the worst of the worst. What is the real reason behind this agenda to deteriorate Pakistan? In order to put the puzzle pieces together, let’s start by looking at what the media and our leaders are feeding us. To start off, PNAC signer, Richard Holbrooke, has urged the absolute necessity for passing the Kerry-Lugar bill, the 5 year $1.5 billion aid package given to Pakistan to help fight the so called “war on terror”. Furthermore, an article from the Huffington Post, reports that advisors to President Obama’s administration say their worst security nightmare is the possibility that Pakistan — a nuclear-armed country — might fall under the control of Al-Qaeda militants. Lastly, PNAC contributor Henry Sokolski, in an article, implies that Pakistani-Chinese relations pose a threat to the world, and that something must be done to suppress it. Further investigating these assumptions reveals a far larger picture from what they are showing us. The Kerry-Lugar bill drafted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry and ranking Republican Richard Lugar, authorizes a grant of $1.5 billion annually for 5 years. The bill explicitly and falsely states that “Pakistan has been a nuclear proliferator; and that parts of its territories are safe havens for terrorist networks.” The bill gives President Obama the power to “develop a comprehensive interagency regional security strategy to eliminate terrorist threats and close safe havens in Pakistan, by working with the government of Pakistan — to best implement effective counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts in and near the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including the FATA, the NWFP, parts of Balochistan and parts of Punjab.” In other words, the President of the United States’ power has now been extended to the different provinces of Pakistan. He may now make decisions for not only the US, but also for the sovereign state of Pakistan. The Kerry-Lugar bill will successfully end Pakistan’s sovereignty. The people are very angered by it, in fact it is known in Pakistan as the “document of surrender.” Pakistan is one of the few sovereign nations with nuclear power and it has been increasingly evident that the globalists wish to suppress it. The media has created this false scare among the American public that the so called “terrorists” are living freely in Pakistan, and they will overthrow the deteriorating government and establish Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism. So therefore, America must invade Pakistan, and stabilize the situation, before the ‘terrorists’ get their hands on the nuclear weapons. An example of this would be Fredrick W. Kagen’s article for the New York Times, he writes, “As the government of Pakistan totters, we must face a fact: The United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss.” The fact of the matter is, Pakistan is suffering the effects of a U.S. led war. Why invade a sovereign country that has neither threatened nor attacked the United States? The next threat to the agenda for the New World Order lies behind the growth of Pakistani and Chinese relations. In order for China to sustain its status as the emerging economic superpower, it must take all the necessary steps required in order to have sufficient energy resources for the near future. According to Pakistani think tank, BrassTacks, Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean became visible in 2002, when they invested heavily and began work on the Gwadar Port, located in Baluchestan, a province of Pakistan. The Gwadar Port has its benefits for both Pakistan and China. According to Abdus Sattar Ghazali, executive editor for American Muslim Perspective, “The cost benefits to China of using Gwadar as the port for western China’s imports and exports are as evident as the long-term economic benefits to Pakistan of Gwadar becoming a port for Chinese goods.” Not only does Gwadar enable China to fulfill its energy needs, but it will also provide a strategic military footprint in the Arabian Sea, which has the United States worried. In order to halt this, the globalists need to block China’s access to the Arabian Sea by way of Gwadar. According to BrassTacks, to do this, “there needs to be a ‘new Pakistan’ as indicated in Operation Enduring Turmoil.” Operation Enduring Turmoil is PNAC’s plan to disassemble Pakistan into three parts. According to a “game plan” drawn out by Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, in a 2006 article of the Armed Forces Journal, “Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren [and] would also lose its Baluch territory to Free Baluchistan. The remaining ‘natural’ Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.” With this done, what was once the NWFP, a province of Pakistan, is now part of Afghanistan, and what was once Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan, is now its own state, Free Baluchistan. This would force China to impossibly go through Afghanistan and Free Baluchistan in order to reach the Arabian Sea. Such an arrangement would cut China’s route to the Arabian Sea. See the map below for a detailed summary of the plan. Pakistan has become a product of the New World Order. The agenda has been outlined, and is in effect as we speak. The country has been invaded from all ends and the people have been silenced. My trip to Pakistan answered so many questions I had about the region. Seeing the destruction of Pakistan with my own eyes really blew me away. I realize that after Pakistan, they will move along to another region and continue their plan for a New World Order. What we see happen in these countries will very well happen here in America, some of which we have already seen. The destruction of these countries are not only accomplishing an agenda, but are also being used as testing grounds. We need to get out there and expose the New World Order agenda before it is too late. I hope my report answered questions that you might have had, and gave you a broader scope on what is actually going on in Pakistan. Keep fighting the New World Order and may god be with us all. Operation enduring turmoil Found the Gingrich quote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMjwVVkFl4g&feature=related AND, not only does he go on about his roll, but the speech he gives is a special plant non-question that led off from a commercial break, i.e. a special announcement. ...transcribing. How credible is CNN/CIA? CNN/CIA/AOL/SKULL BONES promotes struggling soldier's wives to sell their bodies CNN/CIA/AOL/SKULL BONES teaches 8 year old girls how to kill classmates CNN Debate Scorecard "Strategists" EXPOSED! CNN: American children are too fat and need testing to help them Cops fire taser at 10-year old boy, CNN commentators laugh about it CNN Exploits Southern California Fires to market their "Planet in Peril" Kickoff CNN promoting the new CIA Black Operations (Los Zetas) as Al Qaeda of Mexico Quote from: SOS3 on March 27, 2010, 11:50:23 pm Alex Jones obliterates the CNN deception Alex Jones Inside CNN Attack Piece 1/2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYE5hcS_x5M Alex Jones Inside CNN Attack Piece PT 2/2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukWGnph1PIs In this important interview, Alex Jones shows us what goes on behind the scenes of the CNN attack piece apparently set on demonizing tea parties and pro-Constitutional movements as "violent". Alex instantly recognize the attempt to demonize him personally, as well as to discredit other grassroots political movements by the tone of the producers questions. The interview, filmed on Friday, was set-up by Anderson Cooper's producers, but so far hasn't aired. Was Alex too controversial, or will excerpts of the footage be used in a future segment? We don't know for sure, but all that Anderson Cooper's program showed on Friday in connection with the alleged "violent" tendencies was Sarah Palin and John McCain. Regardless of what CNN chooses to air in the future, or how they might distort Alex's responses, here is a record of what really happened. It was filmed on a pocket camera, and no audio of CNN's questions is available, but Alex Jones' responses are all here, as he denies their attempt to frame his influence over talk radio and in documentary films as connected with "violence" "anarchy" or other such demonized terms. Alex calls out CNN for their complicity in "violence" through the promotion of the Iraq War-- which resulted in more than 1 million dead Iraqi civilians, including women and children. Alex dares CNN to mention over the airwaves the fact that Anderson Cooper was admittedly in the CIA and is part of the elite Astor family, or the fact that CNN reported the collapse of WTC Building 7 more than an hour ahead of attempt, likely in response to an early Reuters wire report. Yet, no retraction has been made. Whether or not Alex's strong response to the attempts at painting political dissent as "violent" terrorism will ever be aired or not remains to be seen. www.infowars.com http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel I know it! I had to read the TV screen several times while blinking heavily. Newt's Special Announcement for DHS and the Comming False Flag from the Regean Shrine "Yeah, yeah. I just wanna go back to the Homeland Security question cause its important for us to confront this. I, uh, I helped develop the model for Homeland Security. Its, ah, hasn't been executed well, but the fact is, we have enemies that want to use weapons against us that will lead to disasters on an enormous scale,... and the original goal was to have a Homeland Security that could help us withstand up to 3 nuclear events in one morning. And we need to understand, there are people out there who wanna kill us, and if they have an ability to sneak in weapons of mass destruction, they're gonna use 'em. We need to overhaul and reform the Department, but we need some capacity to respond to massive events that could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans in one morning. Yep." And that is the 'solution' for Bilderberg/DHS's planned false flag to come! What's his fixation on, "one morning", too? Did DHS used to have the rest of the day off, or was he hinting at somthing. This planned false flag could be used to declare Newt 'a prophet' and re-engage the War on Terror Deception because the Global Warming Deception has failed and Rick Perry is turning into a complete loser... Here is what Newt wrote before 9/11/2001... Quote from: Dig on June 20, 2011, 11:44:58 pm http://holtz.org/Library/Social%20Science/The%20Age%20of%20Transitions%20by%20Newt%20Gingrich.htm Age of Transitions - Exposure of Gingrich's Transhumanist Agenda http://conspiracyrealitytv.com/the-age-of-transitions-eugenics-and-transhumanism-your-future-has-been-planned/ It’s important to realize that this report clearly states that cybernetic enhancement of human performance is inevitable. With Newt Gingrich proclaiming “those countries that ignore these patterns of change will fall further behind and find themselves weaker, poorer, and more vulnerable than their wiser, more change-oriented neighbors”. Mr Gingrich conservatively calls for a tripling of the National Science Foundation budget. He also mentions George Bush’s approval of a $604 million dollar increase towards the nano budget. Convergence is the priority of importance in implementing the promise of a new day for the 21st century. One group stands above all others for applauding this convergence. They are known as transhumanists. Most prominent among which are professors, philosophers, scientists and celebrities. The transhumanists see a world of problems just begging to be solved with converging technology. What most people don’t realize is that this concept is not new. It is in fact a repackaging of what was once called eugenics. The term eugenics means good genes, or good origin. It was coined in 1883, by British scientist Sir Francis Galton. He defined eugenics as “A moral philosophy to improve humanity by encouraging the best and brightest to breed”. Galton was the half-cousin of Sir Charles Darwin, the famous originator of the theory of evolution, which also would come to be known as Darwinism. Galton actually used the theory of evolution to substantiate his new science of eugenics. In his book, Studies on Hereditary Genius, he attempted to prove that the aristocratic families of the British empire were in fact a superior race. The fact that in the struggle for life, they had made it to the very top of society proved that they were the best that humanity had to offer. It is important to note that Darwin’s famous The Origin of Species is subtitled Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Not surprisingly, the Royal Society, a scientific institution dedicated to the improvement of natural knowledge, picked up on these new ideas and promoted Darwin heavily. Being a creation of the British monarchy, the Royal Society was obviously in favor of promoting the idea of the genetic superiority of the royal family. Science itself was being positioned to replace the old religious appeal, with the divine right of Kings to rule over the inferior masses. Darwin himself stated “Elite status is prima facie evidence of evolutionary superiority”. Through scientism, science as religion, Darwinism could in fact bring about social change. Social Darwinism would manifest itself as eugenics. To eugenicists, the masses were cattle, with Galton calling eugenics ‘the science of improving the stock’. The rise of scientism began the widespread proliferation of eugenics as it reached American shores at the turn of the century. The Eugenics Record Office in Cold Springs Harbor New York went to work amassing hundreds of thousands of family pedigrees for genetic research. They also lobbied for state sterilization acts and other eugenic legislation. In 1899, Henry Clay Sharp, a prison physician, began sterilizing degenerate prisoners, and later in 1907 he was a key advocate for a law in Indiana that was passed, mandating the compulsory sterilization of degenerates throughout the state. In 1921, the American Eugenics Society was formed and began propaganda campaigns which included the promotion of eugenics in churches, schools, and state fair exhibitions. Funding for American eugenics came from the Carnegie, Harriman, and Rockefeller families among others. Eugenics was being accepted as a genuine form of science. Social Darwinism made strong advances toward a world in which scientism would fulfill Galton’s dream of having eugenics be the religion of the future. But a major setback occurred at the end of World War II. It was discovered that American eugenics had been a major influence on Hitler’s Final Solution. In 1934, Rudolf Hess had stated that “national socialism is nothing but applied biology”. Hitler had only wanted to preserve the best German stocks and elevate them to a dominate position in society. It was at this point in eugenics history that a crucial move had to be made in order to hide eugenics from the now aware masses of humanity. Prominent eugenicist Sir Julian Huxley stepped up and offered a solution. He simply invented a new word to replace eugenics. That term being, TRANSHUMANISM, which he defined as the need for mankind to realize the importance of steering the direction of its own evolution. Yes, eugenics was one of the original aspects of transhumanism. And it is no surprise as Julian was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, who had been a president of the Royal Society, and one of the most well known advocates of Darwinism in its early days. Julian, being properly raised, was educated at Oxford. His specialty being evolutionary biology. He went on to many high level positions, which included the titles of Vice President and President of the British Eugenics Society, which of course had the task of removing undesirable variants from the human gene pool. Julian Huxley had said the following of eugenics “The lowest strata are reproducing too fast. Therefore… they must not have too easy access to relief or hospital treatment lest the removal of the last check on natural selection should make it too easy for children to be produced or to survive; Long unemployment should be a ground for sterilization”. At this point it’s important to understand the legal definition of the word terrorist. Since 9/11, a mountain of legislation has been passed, including the Patriot Act, the Military Commission Act, the John Warner Defense Act and countless others. All of which have, through their legislative cunning, rendered the term terrorist so ambiguous that you can be deemed a terrorist for any reason at all. You can be taken to a secret prison without charges, without Habeas Corpus, and with no rights whatsoever. These laws were not written on a whim. They were specifically designed to give the government carte blanche authority over the people during the chaos and confusion of the Age of Transitions. And so, this transition is perhaps the most important transition of all time. Some people don’t want it. They fear this transition because this transition is to a planetary civilization tolerant of many cultures. These are the terrists. In their gut, they fear this, because they know they are witnessing the birth plans of a beginning of a new planetary civilization and the terrists want nothing to do with it. -Michio Kaku (terrist as in terra firma, the Earth, etc. Sounds a bit like another word though, doesn’t it?) The British Ministry of Defence has published its “Strategic Trends” report. The report has attempted to predict what will happen from 2007 until 2035. It predicts global chaos. It states that as global interdependence increases, every aspect of human life will change. Climate change, competition for resources, shortages of food and water, and the constant threat of pandemics, will keep people in a world wide state of shock. During the next 30 years, every aspect of human life will change… As the middle class in the west declines, extremist politics will be embraced by some out of desperation. Flash mobs will threaten military forces which admittedly will be working alongside police. As America and Europe decline in power, China and India are expected to gain prominence on the global stage. The population of the west will decrease due to declining fertility. The report mentions this declining fertility on three separate occasions, but interestingly never explains the cause of this problem. Amid all this crisis, technological breakthroughs will develop at an unprecedented rate. Human computer interfaces will stimulate cultural change. By 2035, an implantable information chip could be developed and wired directly to the user’s brain… synthetic sensory perception beamed directly to the user’s senses. It is likely that the majority of the global population will find it difficult to ‘turn the outside world off’. ICT is likely to be so pervasive that people are permanently connected to a network or two-way data stream with inherent challenges to civil liberties; being disconnected could be considered suspicious. A small super-rich elite and a substantial underclass of slum and subsistence dwellers… A more permissive R&D environment could accelerate the decline of ethical constraints and restraints. The speed of technological and cultural change could overwhelm society’s ability to absorb the ethical implications… The nearest approximation to an ethical framework could become a form of secular utilitarianism, in an otherwise amoral scientific culture. Declining youth populations in Western societies could become increasingly dissatisfied with their economically burdensome ‘baby boomer elders’… This could lead to a civic renaissance, with strict penalties for those failing to fulfill their social obligations. It might also open the way to policies which permit euthanasia as a means to reduce the burden of care for the elderly. The problem is that we are living in a virtual reality. We’re living in a totally controlled environment. An environment that has been created by mass media. Now, many people, especially young people, accept unquestioningly the reality that is presented by the media. Popular culture, movies, television, music–carry messages about how society works and how people should behave, and so entertainment is not value free. It has ideological content it presents itself. It presents a world view that influences the people who watch the programming. There is a reason why television networks and the music industry, the various companies, they have programming departments. The programming that we are constantly assaulted by throughout our life, conditions us. It programs a particular world view. In case you did not know...the agenda is cybernetics/transhumanism... Global War on Terror and Global Warming fraudulent solutions pushed on us by Bilderberg psychos are exactly the same! Quote from: Dig on April 11, 2011, 07:50:14 pm The Story of the Millennium: The A.G.I. Manhattan Project http://agimanhattanproject.com/index.html What does this man mean by becoming "gods", and has his war already begun? What is AGI, and how large is the effort to make it happen? Will humans as we know ourselves today remain the dominant species on the planet in the near future? Why did the economic meltdown occur? Can we look forward to a future of economic prosperity? What do we have to fear, and what don't we? What does the War on Terror have in common with Global Warming? What will government look like in the near future? Are we becoming slaves, and how can we be empowered like never before? What is the true struggle of the 21st Century? What are the dangers of emerging technology? These are just some of the realities and implications you're about to discover, and the AGI Manhattan Project is the key to it all. Part 1: The AGI Manhattan Project Page last updated: 7/15/2010 First we must establish the what the AGI Manhattan Project is, and what is is about. Radical life extension and cognitive augmentation are the overarching goals of the technological establishment. These types of advances are each aspects of the growing movement known as "Transhumanism", where the goals is to modify humans using various technologies to transform into a dominant new species of "posthumans". They literally believe they'll be able to live for hundreds upon hundreds of years, and have superior cognitive and physical abilities by utilizing various emerging technologies such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. The first and foremost "holy grail" in this overall effort is Strong AI, aka Artificial General Intelligence. The world is full of AI: from video games to the stock market. But these AI's are "narrow" in ability. AGI refers to a "general" intelligence. Generally intelligent, not narrowly. Human level and beyond intelligence would greatly accelerate their other technological goals kicking off what they call the "Technological Singularity". Regardless of whether or not you believe this to be possible they're actively doing it. Regardless of whether or not you agree they're taxing you to do it. There is absolutely no debate or refutation to this fact whatsoever. This isn't even to say their dreams are possible, but they're trying with all of their might (and your money) to do it. It's right on public military websites, and in video statements by the higher ups and even heads of top tech corporations. The New York Times even recently did a piece, titled "Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday", that championed Ray Kurzweil, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Peter A. Thiel, Peter H. Diamandis and Keith Kleiner as being at the forefront of the Singularian Movement. The Singularity University, located at NASA's Ames Research Center, is their epicenter. Perhaps most importantly, especially considering how if they succeed it would be undoubtedly the biggest event in human history, and most potentially devastating, with almost no chance of turning back, it's all happening without an ounce of public discourse or debate. This overall effort openly involves virtually every government agency and department, every branch of military, which are all funded by Congress, and led by the administrations of both George Walker Bush and Barack Hussein Obama. It also involves the projects and supercomputers at literally all major all national laboratories, along with virtually all national universities, and all of the above tied in with the majority of the crony heads of the top technology corporations. The Intelligence Industrial Complex In July of 2010, the Washington Post unveiled "Top Secret America", a massive 2 year investigative journalism story with an interactive presentation detailing the post-9/11 security and intelligence apparatus. Their investigation into this realm of the Military Industrial Complex uncovered some 1,271 government organizations, 1,931 private companies in about 10,000 locations, an estimated 854,000 contractors holding top-secret security clearances, all working on programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security and intelligence across the United States. In Washington, and the surrounding area 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space. All of that based on the premise of stopping Al Qaeda. Now 100% of the above wouldn't be exactly be specifically about building AGI, but that is the overall security and domestic spying apparatus. What their massive report didn't tabulate is the direct AGI Manhattan Project efforts being conducted primarily by DARPA, NASA, NIST and the NSF. The Pentagons mad science coordination division, aka Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), sits at the top of this dragnet of science research & development (R&D) gathering. Enter the heart of science pyramid... the AGI Manhattan Project. DARPA is the lead agency. They are both the capstone, and the foundation. They coordinate national labs & universities, companies and corporations, and agencies with all branches of military. Their scientific "thrusts" run the entire gauntlet of transhumanism related efforts, from cybernetics to life extension to next-gen Skynet level artificially intelligent cognitive computers. They direct the R&D to the most appropriate groups and institutions, and then help orchestrate systems wide integration upon completion. To cite all relevant quotes from their various programs could take half a book. At this juncture there's only space to list and link the programs, which are basically all modules of the same goal: Architectures for Cognitive Information Processing (ACIP), Biologically-Inspired Cognitive Architectures (BICA), Omnipresent High Performance Computing (OHPC), Real-World Reasoning (REAL), Cognitive Assistant that Learns (CALO), Deep Green (DG), Cognitive Information Processing Technology, Physical intelligence (PI), NetTrack (NT), Bootstrapped Learning (BL), Deep Learning, Integrated Learning (IL), Transfer Learning (TL), Accelerated Learning, Machine Reading (MR), Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks (RoBIN), Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC), Neurotechnology for Intelligence Analysts, Bio-Molecular Nano-Devices/Systems (MOLDICE), Biomimetic Computing, RealNose, Towards a Unification of Inference, Reasoning and Learning, Global Autonomous Language Exploitation (GALE), Self-Regenerative Systems (SRS), and Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE). This video was made using all government / military quotes and imagery. It's very difficult to even attempt to place budget figures on DARPA. They have their budget, as well as their cousins IARPA & HSARPA, while a lot of work by NASA, the NSF is in lockstep, not to mention military black budgets and secretive CIA & DIA budgets. Funding for virtually every aspect of government agendas has hardly even decreased, while many areas have seen increases. The unique thing about DARPA is they aren't limited by their budget alone. Singularity University, Intelligent Archives (IA), Intelligent Systems, High-End Computing Capability (HECC), Integrated Systems Research, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Cognitive Sciences, and a dizzying array of other complex projects in those research areas. One project in particular stands out here: NASA's "Planetary Skin" program seeks to build a "global nervous system" network of sensors to monitor the entire planet, with all nations hooked into the system. It's being sold on over-hyped Global Warming alarmism, and it intends to help the global management of resources, building a new carbon based economy. Watch the video. By its very nature it's the ultimate act of high treason, a total stampede over national privacy and sovereignty, that's costing us $100 million in it's initial phase. Adaptive Systems Technology (AST), Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI), Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), Emerging Frontiers (EF), Core BIO Investments, Adaptive Systems Technology (AST), Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS), Science and Engineering Beyond Moore’s Law, Cyber-physical Systems, Cognitive Engineering, Mapping the Brain in Time and Space, Cognitive Engineering, One good example of virtually every government agency working in lockstep towards the Technological Singularity is the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The following institutions are all coordinated under the NNI, by the cabinet level National Science and Technology Council (NSTC): Bureau of Industry and Security, Consumer Product Safety Commission,USDA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Army Engineering R&D Center, Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Army Research Office (ARO), DARPA, Defense Research & Engineering (DDR&E), Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of State, Department of Transportation, Department of Treasury, EPA, FDA, Forest Service, US Intelligence Community, U.S. International Trade Commission, NIH, NIST, NASA, NSF, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Patent and Trademark Office and the US Geological Survey. NBIC Conference Another prime example of the system wide drive for the Singularity is a 2001 conference organized by the Dept. of Commerce and the NSF, which produced a 482 page document titled "Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance". It had representatives and speakers from the following institutions: The White House, National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Commerce, Newt Gingrich, NASA, National Institutes of Health, Hewlet Packard, Institute for Global Futures, National Science and Technology Councils Subcommittee on Nanoscale Science Engineering and Technology (NSET), IBM, Raytheon, Lucent, University of California, Stanford University, Sandia National Labs, Brandeis University, MIT, University of Washington, University of Strathclyde, Tissue Informatics, University of Pennsylvania, University of Louisville, NYU Medical School, University of Calgary, Duke University, University of Texas, UCSB, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Carnegie Melon University, Department of Defense, DARPA, Naval Research Laboratory, Defense For Research, New England Complex Systems Institute, University of Virginia, University of Maryland, Institute of Nanotechnology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Commission on the Future of Aerospace, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, The EPA, Department of Chemistry, Princeton Materials Institute … The goal of the meeting wasn't merely to promote the 4 "NBIC" technologies: "Four transforming tools have emerged: nanotechnology for hardware, biotechnology for dealing with living systems, information technology for communication and control, and cognition-based technologies to enhance human abilities and collective behavior." Instead it was about structuring collaborative research to promote the converging of the 4 revolutionary science paradigms into an all new form of substrate. The goal being eventually to create and merge humans with new forms of synthetic "life", to become "Post Humans", and to merge humans into a brain implant enabled "hive mind" (that's a quote): Hive Mind If we can easily exchange large chunks of knowledge and are connected by high-bandwidth communication paths, the function an d purpose served by individuals becomes unclear. Individuals have served to keep the gene pool stirred up and healthy via s exual reproduction, but this data-handling process would no longer necessarily be linked to individuals. With knowledge no longer encapsulated in individuals, the distinction between individuals and the entirety of humanity would blur. Think Vulcan mind-meld. We would perhaps become more of a hive mind —an enormous, single, intelligent entity. Another choice example of cross-sector collaboration to construct the Singularity, is the Singularity University, which is housed at none other than the NASA Ames Reserch Center (ARC), in Silicon Vally. It's partners include Google, ePlanet, Autodesk, Motorola, FIAP, Steelcase, 23andMe, Canon, LinkedIn, Wordpress, KurzweilAI, University of California, Stanford and others. Google was the primary institution behind the Singularity University, which is no surprise considering Google's co-founders have repeatedly stated on the record that they intend to develop AI that in their words "would be like the mind of God", which by default would be AGI. AGI is in effect the first sentence on their corporate philosophy page. Their mission statement is to gather and organize all of the worlds information (literally all of it), and their statements are for their machine to understand all it it better than you or I ever could. This includes every book, scientific paper, web page, email, instant message, news & magazine article, ever written by humans that they can manage to get their hands on. It also includes images, user made videos (not even only those posted on YouTube), every movie and TV show ever recorded. GOOGLE GODzilla from IIB IIF on Vimeo. From there, Google is rapidly expanding into the phone and soon to be TV markets. While the TV side will only let them spy on you as well as the TV can, the phone market gives them real time GPS tracking with audio & camera monitoring. They're on the record saying they already monitor everyone via their PC microphones, and it doesn't end there. Google’s model from the ground up is in building what they call “the mind of god”, knowing and "understanding everything in the world", and in this pursuit they’re connected to the government and military to the core. The Google Boys truly are brilliant, as they’ve designed their system and all of their products to make the system smarter every time all of their users use them. Meaning, every time you use their ‘free’ services, and things like their phones, you help bring their “mind of god” scenario closer to reality. It's important to note that Google has a 1.2 million square foot research complex leased on NASA's ARC, which is a borderline military facility. The main Googleplex HQ is almost literally next door neighbors of the ARC, and they use it to land their corporate and private aircraft. Google was a NASA / DARPA / NSF / CIA funded startup, and today they're openly partnered with the NSA which has an open record of spying on the U.S. populace. Google is but one corporate example. Apple recently purchased a DARPA AGI-precursor pet project named "Siri" (PAL / CALO), for a cool $200 million. They didn't actually buy it from DARPA, instead they bought it from Stanford Research Institute (SRI) who DARPA paid $150 million to make. That's right, US taxpayers paid SRI $150 million to then turn around and sell the product to Apple for another $200 million, while themselves keeping what they need to build even more powerful AI in less time. While Google is at the AGI forefront in software, IBM is leading the AGI renaissance in revolutionary hardware and mammalian brain simulation. Projects range from their Blue Brain to DARPA's SyNAPSE (as explained by them in the video above). IBM's Almaden Research Center is a major hub in AGI coordination where they host annual conferences for AGI luminaries to have a gathering of the minds. When talking about hardware don't leave out Intel. The Singularity is the passion of their CTO, as he explains in the video above and countless others. They're even working on brain implants, perhaps to help Google reach their dream of everyone having Google built into their brains. Hewlet Packard's 10 year "Central Nervous System for the Earth" (CeNSE) program is likely the inspiration behind NASA's Planetary Skin. They seem to have been in the lead of their own little realm of AGI Panopticon, while the other bigshot corporations take care of the rest of its aspects. Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Yahoo, Sun, and endless others are also lockstep in the AGI Manhattan Project, all envious of Google's leading role. It needs to be noted that federal funding budgets don't include the funding allocated by these corporations themselves, or other outsiders, making assessing the true funding of the AGI Manhattan Project virtually impossible, but just going by non-secretive federal budget numbers it's in the billions annually, not to mention parallel efforts in the UK & EU. The 110th U.S. Congress, released a report on the Singularity, in 2007: Every exponential curve eventually reaches a point where the growth rate becomes almost infinite. This point is often called the Singularity. If technology continues to advance at exponential rates, what happens after 2020? Technology is likely to continue, but at this stage some observers forecast a period at which scientific advances aggressively assume their own momentum and accelerate at unprecedented levels, enabling products that today seem like science fiction. Beyond the Singularity, human society is incomparably different from what it is today. Several assumptions seem to drive predictions of a Singularity. The first is that continued material demands and competitive pressures will continue to drive technology forward. Second, at some point artificial intelligence advances to a point where computers enhance and accelerate scientific discovery and technological change. In other words, intelligent machines start to produce discoveries that are too complex for humans. Finally, there is an assumption that solutions to most of today’s problems including material scarcity, human health, and environmental degradation can be solved by technology, if not by us, then by the computers we eventually develop. While the AGI Manhattan Project really came to being under Bush (the "Christian"), Obama has brought it out of the lab and into his house. Obama, who likes to talk about innovation in technological revolutions, put one Zachary Lemnios as DoD Director of Defense Research & Engineering. This guy helped setup DARPA’s IPTO to spearhead the type of AI you see in the movies. “America risks being left behind in the global economy: Revolutionary advances in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other fields are reshaping the global economy. Without renewed efforts, the United States risks losing leadership in science, technology and innovation.” That's what Obama's campaign website said the day he was elected (which is completely removed now). The “Revolutionary” advances he’s talking about are Artificial General Intelligence (“information technology”), genetic engineering / synthetic biology & designer babies (“biotechnology”), and too much in terms of nanotechnology to sound-byte like the others. The “other fields” he mentioned is almost certainly the other field he didn’t mention, cognitive sciences. Google is at the forefront of this thing, with as deep of governmental integration as is possible (literally), including today with agents embedded in the Obama administration. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and their "Chief Internet Evangelist" Vint Cerf were on Obama's campaign team, and campaigned with him on the Obama jet, and was then immediately appointed 'Special Economic Adviser' on a panel of Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs henchmen. Today he sits on Obama's President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Google managers and employees were some of the strongest supporters of candidate Obama, donating around $803,000 to his presidential campaign, according to the website OpenSecrets.org. Among corporate employees, only staffers at Goldman Sachs and Microsoft gave more. Google's fingerprints are visible on a broad new report on the future of the Internet and information commissioned by the Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute. The paper calls for greater broadband deployments and "open-access policies." FCC chairman Julius Genachowski and the administration's chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, praised the report, saying it would guide Obama's web policy. The co-chair of the commission that wrote the report? Google vice president Marissa Mayer. Read my lips: 'No Lobbyists In My Administration'! Some other Google agents in the Obama administration include Sonal Shah, Sumit Agarwal, Andrew McLaughlin and formerly Katie Jacobs Stanton. Ray Kurzweil is essentially the messiah of the transhumanist movement, and in 2007 he did a double-header keynote speech with Obama in front of United Church of Christ in Hartford, Connecticut. At the SC09 (Supercomputing 2009) conference, Gore, the main keynote speaker at the event, in his speech titled "Building Solutions - Energy, Climate and Computing for a Changing World", to an audience of 11,000 top technologists and technocrats, he argued that 'supercomputing' will save us from Global Warming. This wouldn't be the first time he's implied supercomputers will be our savior. In 2005, in front of nearly 2,000 technologists and technocrats, at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium, Al Gore had then also appealed to massive supercomputers as being the savior from global warming. The audience was filled with Silicon Valley luminaries: Apple's Steve Jobs; Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt; Internet godfather Vint Cerf; Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang; venture capitalists John Doerr, Bill Draper, and Vinod Khosla; former Clinton administration defense secretary William Perry; and a cross section of CEOs, startup artists, techies, tinkerers, philanthropists, and investors of every political and ethnic stripe. The goal: to enlist the assembled leaders in finding market-driven, technological solutions to global warming and then, in quintessential Silicon Valley style, to rapidly disseminate their ideas and change the world. "I need your help here," an emotional Gore pleaded at the end of the evening. "Working together, we can find the technologies and the political will to solve this problem." The crowd fell hard. "People were surprised," says Wendy Schmidt, who helped organize the event and, with her husband, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, supported Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. Ever since Al "lost" the 2000 election, he's been serving on the Senior Board of Directors at Google, as well as at Apple Computer since 2003. The 1986 “National Science Foundation Authorization Act”, which was, in part, for the establishment of a global warming policy. What’s typically overlooked is the 2nd part of that same Act that was for the drive for the NSF/DARPA “supercomputing” program. Then, only 2 years later, in 1988, Gore authored legislation to: “ESTABLISH A HIGH-CAPACITY NATIONAL RESEARCH COMPUTER NETWORK, DEVELOP AND DISTRIBUTE SOFTWARE, DEVELOP ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS“ Al also campaigned for U.S. President that year, and according to him, his main goal of that campaign was more about increasing awareness of global warming than it was about actually winning. Today Google enjoys perhaps the deepest government integration in history, with their primary operations being centered around AGI, and Apple just recently bought DARPA's 'Skynet precursor' from SRI. Until 2009, Eric Schmidt sat on Apple's Board of Directors with Al Gore, both of whom were implicated in a 2006 stock options backtrading scandal with Steve Jobs. Decades ago he was closely allied with Al Gore's "Atari Democrats", and futurist Alvin Toffler, which had left a lot of people scratching their heads as to why he was the top "Republican" for so long. At that "Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance" event, Newt Gingrich did the key keynote presentation, and in it he refers to our current era in time as the “Age of Transitions”: We are starting to live through two patterns of change. The first is the enormous computer and communications revolution described above. The second, only now beginning to rise, is the combination of the nanotechnology-biology-information revolution. These two S curves will overlap. It is the overlapping period that we are just beginning to enter, and it is that period that I believe will be an Age of Transitions. Focusing on computers and communications is only the first step toward understanding the Age of Transitions. While we are still in the early stages of the computer-communications pattern of change, we are already beginning to see a new, even more powerful pattern of change that will be built on a synergistic interaction between three different areas: the nano world, biology, and information. The sciences have reached a watershed at which they must combine in order to advance most rapidly. The new renaissance must be based on a holistic view of science and technology that envisions new technical possibilities and focuses on people. The unification of science and technology can yield results over the next two decades on the basis of four key principles: material unity at the nanoscale, NBIC transforming tools, hierarchical systems, and improvement of human performance. After he resigned (right while Bill Clinton was being impeached), he went on to stand together with Hillary Clinton in setting up computerized health records. One the one hand it can help some people, on the other it completely deprivatizes our health records by allowing the federal government instant access. "We want to live forever, and we're getting there." Manhattan Project v2.0 National laboratories are the final "public" realm. Literally all of them, and their supercomputers are fully integrated into the aforementioned apparatus. One example of choice would be Los Alamos, which was the home of the original Manhattan Project. They're hooked up, along with many leading universities, into the NSF's TeraGrid network, which is a super high speed advanced version of the Internet, designed specifically for large scale science collaboration across institutions, enabling access to the various different top-in-class supercomputers. What puts DARPA at the top of the scientific pyramid is that they have access to mining literally every resource, meaning even indirectly supportive work done at different levels are still at their disposal for concept and results mining. It can be ascertained that the countless thousands of people indirectly involved in it don't even realize what they're a part of. With global telecommunications now being radically different than 60 years ago, private intranets can connect up any remote office or personal computer as a collective. This means that a modern day Manhattan Project could be operated across the planet in 'secret' with great ease. This would especially be the case if you had literally a million or more parallel platformed CPU’s at your disposal (like Google does). Consider that computing power per $1,000 is literally less than millionth what was during the Manhattan Project, and that project only cost about US$24 billion. Anything even resembling a modern semiconductor computer hadn’t even been invented yet. Meanwhile, every year their capabilities expand as CPU prices drop and work gets easier, exponentially, thanks to Moore’s Law and the Law of Accelerating Returns. The original Manhattan Project had about 100,000 workers, mostly all doing physical labor. The AGI Manhattan Project can easily have more than that figure, mostly all doing direct scientific research. The Debate Over The AGI Manhattan Project Is Over! Unlike the issues being exploited to operate it, there's no debating the existence of the AGI Manhattan Project. It can be ascertained that the countless thousands of people indirectly involved in it don't even realize what they're a part of. With global telecommunications now being radically different than 60 years ago, private intranets can connect up any remote office or personal computer as a collective. This means that a modern day Manhattan Project could be operated across the planet in 'secret' with great ease. This would especially be the case if you had literally a million or more parallel platformed CPU’s at your disposal (like Google does). Consider that computing power per $1000 is literally less than millionth what was during the Manhattan Project, and that project only cost about US$24 billion. Anything even resembling a modern semiconductor computer hadn’t even been invented yet. Meanwhile, every year their capabilities expand as CPU prices drop and work gets easier, exponentially, thanks to Moore’s Law and the Law of Accelerating Returns. The original Manhattan Project had about 100,000 workers, mostly all doing physical labor. The AGI Manhattan Project can easily have more than that figure, mostly all doing direct scientific research. The issue is what the intentions of the true elites that shape U.S. policy have in mind for all of this. Listening to the PR people of transhumanism should offer a safe insight: becoming "gods". There's a war being waged against us. A great many of the people on the planet are feeling the effects from this already, via the economic meltdown. While the economic war didn't against us started generations ago, the modern technological war came before the economic assault, so we'll explore that first. Re: DHS/NCS/Newt Gingrich are determined to attack targets in the US on 9/11/11 Time for some comic relief concerning the Newt... What happens when an MSM "Newsman" can no longer handle the hypocricy of Newt Giingrich? When a fake republican and true globalist assface like Newt Gingrich gets totally pwned by an average citizen who cares about his country, Scarborough cannot help but sound off an uncontrollable euphoria of elation which lasts a really long time...eventually Zbigniew Brzezinski's daughter has to jump in. http://vodpod.com/watch/9135160-joe-scarborough-loses-it-over-newt-gingrichs-awkward-encounter-video Hey Joe, a lot of times you seem to be shilling big time for your Harriman/GE masters, and lots of members call you on it. But, I have to say...thanks for that one. Priceless! Hey Bilderberg...the American people are awake and will not buy the Gingrich Deception.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2497
__label__cc	0.664267	0.335733	Saved on 2019-06-09 from heradas.com I often find it difficult to pick favorites, but when it comes to novelists it’s easy: Iain Banks, hands down, is my favorite. It’s hard to overstate the impact his writing has had on me, the Culture novels in particular. Reading The Player of Games rewired the way I think about class and economics. Use of Weapons forced me to confront difficult philosophical and ethical questions, both highly personal and utilitarian in scope. Its story also destroyed me emotionally for weeks, more on that to come. Inversions made me reconsider what sort of intervention policies might be most functional. Look to Windward intimately addressed mental health, PTSD, and the far reaching impact of warfare on the personal and cultural psyche of humanity. The Culture series, published from 1987 to 2012, comprises nine standalone science fiction novels, one novella, and two short stories set in a shared universe. It is often described as utopian fiction, but I find it not so easily reducible to just that. The majority of the stories take place on the periphery of The Culture’s post-scarcity, godlike AI run utopia, not in the Culture proper. But even inside that flawed paradise, things are often a little more complicated than they seem. I don’t mean that this is one of those utopias which is (dun dun duuun!) secretly a dystopia or anything narratively cliche like that. The society of the Culture is a true utopia, but the narratives in Culture novels usually deal with questions of meaning within conceptual utopia. What do you need when you lack for nothing? How do you construct purpose and value when your society is generally materialist? “The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines they had (at however great a remove) brought into being: the urge not to feel useless.” – Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas Every Culture novel is brimming with these philosophical, ethical, moral, and existential ideas while somehow also being entertaining, heartbreaking, darkly humorous, disturbing and exquisitely written. His writing is like a virus that gets in your brain and codes for self-reproduction. It’s not too often that a fun science fiction romp might also literally change the way you think. I just cannot recommend these books enough. I’ve written a handful of Culture reviews in the past, but I’ve been longing to reread the novels and properly write up my thoughts. Last February when Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon Studios was adapting the Culture novels for television, I thought, what the hell, it’s been a few years since I’ve read them, this is a great time to dig back in. So here I am, on the fifth anniversary of his passing, going round once more. Over the next few (or several, or dozen, or who knows how many) months I’ll be publishing thoughts and ramblings on Iain Banks, the Culture novels and their related works. I tend to take a mostly spoiler-free approach when writing about fiction, opting instead to focus more on theme, style, prose, narrative structure, and characterization while keeping recaps to a minimum. There is no shortage of excellent recap and synopsis writing available elsewhere, but I’m much more interested in introducing these books to readers in a way that doesn’t ruin the potential enjoyment of discovery. That being said, in order to discuss certain aspects of Culture novels, I may have to bend my usual rules slightly, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep spoilers to a minimum and mark them where applicable. So, let’s begin with Banks himself: Banks was a highly prolific writer, publishing a total of thirty books over twenty-nine years. He considered himself a science fiction writer, but his creative output was wide, covering also the spectrum of mainstream literary fiction, memoir/travelogue, and a posthumous collection of poetry — his own bundled together with those of his lifelong friend and fellow Scottish science fiction writer Ken MacLeod. As a fierce, outspoken leftist, socialist, and atheist with a quick sardonic wit, Banks was often in the news regarding UK and world politics, particularly regarding Britain’s participation in the West’s post 9/11 involvement in Iraq. In his home country of Scotland and the rest of the UK he may be best known for his highly polarizing 1984 debut, The Wasp Factory. A book which famously printed alternating positive and negative blurbs from various publications on its dust jacket and subsequent paperback editions. A brilliant piece of marketing if you ask me. Or possibly it’s his 1992 novel The Crow Road that he’s best known for. It’s an enrapturing and mysterious portrait of a large intertwined familial Scottish community that began with the unforgettable first line: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.” Although his novels have been critically lauded worldwide, none of his mainstream literary fiction, what he referred to as his “hampstead novels”, achieved much measurable popularity in the United States. Here, he’s best known for his Culture series of science fiction novels, and even that work is relatively unknown. Something that is hopefully about to change with the upcoming Amazon Studios adaptation of Consider Phlebas. As an American, I regret that Iain Banks wasn’t properly on my radar until he died of gallbladder cancer in 2013, just two months after announcing to the world that he was “officially very poorly”. Since stumbling upon his work I have devoured all but one of his science fiction novels (published under the quite obvious pseudonym of Iain M. Banks) and a handful of his mainstream novels (published without the M). There is a certain thread of macabre humor and fascination with the dark corners of human nature that binds most of his work together. He also had a unique internal dialogue of opposing ideas encapsulated in his novels. While doing some research in preparation for this essay, I stumbled upon the concept of antisyzygy, and more specifically what is referred to as Caledonian antisyzygy, or in other words, the Scottish variety. The term was first used in 1919 by George Gregory Smith, a Scottish literary critic, in his book Scottish Literature: Character and Influence. He described it as “..a reflection of the contrasts which the Scot shows at every turn, in his political and ecclesiastical history, in his polemical restlessness, in his adaptability, which is another way of saying that he has made allowance for new conditions, in his practical judgement, which is the admission that two sides of the matter have been considered.” I found this fascinating, mainly because I have never come across a more perfect description of how Banks explores philosophies and ideas in his writing. In her book The Mighty Scot, Maureen M. Martin further elaborates: “Writings by Scots on their country’s national psyche and literature often point to what has been called a ‘Caledonian antisyzygy’ —a conflict between rational and romantic, canny and reckless, moralistic and violent, an idea of dueling polarities within one entity that finds fictional expression..” The revelation that this duality is common not only among Scottish writers, but the Scottish people in general lends credence to the idea that something about the historical, political, religious and social aspects of Scottish life creates this internalized way of dealing with conflict. I find that Caledonian antisyzygy is deeply entwined in everything Iain Banks wrote. In all of his fiction he spends quite a lot of time chipping away at his own arguments as if they were opposing views, patching and refining them over the course of each book. He does this frequently, and most effectively in his Culture novels, and he’s very, very good at it. As a reader you find yourself unsure of your own opinions by the end of a Banks novel. Instead of an end all solution to whatever question has been posited by the story, you’re left in the wake of the dissonance created by the question itself, with a variety of possible solutions to consider. In 1990, in conversation with the British science fiction writer Michael Cobley he discussed his approach toward writing: “..in fiction the trick is to give people a choice of potential answers so they can disagree with what you’re saying, or what they think you’re saying.” Offering that option to the reader, to be free to disagree with the message, and still enjoy the book on some level, creates a well rounded experience and speaks to his mastery of the craft. It also gives each story the possibility to resonate on different levels for different readers, not to mention enabling tremendous reread value, and lending towards several different possible interpretations by the same reader when read at different points in their life. Another aspect of his writing that’s worth noting, is just how fully he explores the societies or ideas in opposition to his main social ideals as represented by the Culture. He isn’t merely setting up straw men to be easily overcome. This approach reminds me of the Principle of Charity, which states that when in argument with an opponent, argue against the most charitable version of their view. Mainly, assume they’ve come to their argument rationally, and have valid reasons for believing as they do. Only then can you have a meaningful dialogue with someone holding an opposing view to your own. I’ll be back in the coming weeks to discuss Consider Phlebas, his first published Culture novel, and in my opinion, one of his least understood and most divisive. If you haven’t yet read any Iain Banks, it’s a fantastic time to start. This weekend pick up a Banks novel, preferably a Culture book and spend a little time celebrating his life by getting to know one of the most unique writers of our modern time. The series of books share almost no continuity with one another, so feel free to dig in anywhere. I highly recommend The Player of Games as an easy entry point as well as one of the best in the series. Culture Essay Index: Iain Banks’ Culture series: Caledonian Antisyzygy and the Principle of Charity Consider Phlebas: Peripheral Storytelling and the Politics of Genre	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2499
__label__wiki	0.875933	0.875933	Adelie penguin convoy in Ross Sea, Antarctica -- now the largest protected area in the world. Richard McManus / Getty Images Climate Desk Surge in marine refuges brings world close to protected areas goal By Jonathan Watts on Nov 23, 2018 This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A record surge in the creation of marine protected areas has taken the international community close to its goal of creating nature refuges on 17 percent of the world’s land and 10 percent of seas by 2020, according to a new U.N. report. Protected regions now cover more than five times the territory of the U.S., but the authors said this good news was often undermined by poor enforcement. Some reserves are little more than “paper parks” with little value to nature conservation. At least one has been turned into an industrial zone. More than 27 million square kilometers of seas (10.4 million square miles, and 7 percent of the total) and 20 million square km of land (7.7 million square miles, or 15 percent of the total) now have protected status, according to the Protected Planet report, which was released on Sunday at the U.N. biodiversity conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Almost all of the growth has been in marine regions, most notably with the creation last year of the world’s biggest protected area: the 2 million square kilometer (almost 800,000 square miles) Ross Sea reserve, one-fifth of which is in the Antarctic. The no-fishing zone will be managed by New Zealand and the U.S. “We have seen an enormous expansion in the past two years. There is now more marine protected area than terrestrial, which nobody would have predicted,” said Kathy McKinnon of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. “I think we’ll continue to see a substantial increase, I’d guess, to at least 10 percent in the near future.” The U.N. convention on biological diversity says it has received national commitments for an additional 4.5 million square kilometers of land and 16 million square km of oceans to be given protected status in the next two years. This would put it on course to achieve one of the key aims of the 2010 Aichi biodiversity targets. “This is the target with the most progress. In an ocean of bad news about biodiversity loss and eco-destruction, it is important to highlight that progress, though we still have a lot more to do to ensure not just the quantitive target but the effectiveness of the management,” said Cristiana Pașca Palmer, the head of U.N. Biodiversity. The creation of protected areas has not been enough to halt a collapse of species and ecosystems that threatens civilization. Since 1970 humanity has wiped out 60 percent of mammal, bird, fish, and reptile populations, with a dangerous knock-on impact on food production, fisheries, and climate stability. Protected areas are important refuges from this wave of extinctions but many are underfunded and poorly policed. Only one in five have provided management assessments to the U.N., which has raised questions about the viability of the rest. Naomi Kingston, of U.N. environment world conservation monitoring center, said: “There is a race to deliver on Aichi target 11. It is fantastic that countries are coming with more ambition, but not if it is just a number without substance. “Some areas that have been reported to us as protected areas have been completely built over. We need datasets to define which areas are paper parks and which are real.” Developing nations have better reporting standards because many are obliged to provide regular assessments in order to qualify for funds from the Global Environment Fund. By contrast, many wealthier nations devote few resources to monitoring. Discussions will focus on a new, more flexible category for community land that is used by locals for both agricultural production and wildlife conservation. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, this is a model that has often helped improve biodiversity because residents – often from indigenous communities – live closely with nature and have an interest in protecting it. For example in Namibia, the area designated as protected was doubled through the recognition of community conservancies as part of the national protected areas estate. Kingston said the biodiversity of the region also improved. “It’s a real success story that shows how a government working with the community can deliver on conservation, governance and equity,” she said. “We need to move the narrative away from designating areas and then putting a fence around them, and to instead work more with communities who have been protecting wildlife for generations.” There are still considerable problems, including communication weaknesses, dubious classification and national competition for ever scarcer resources. China does not share maps of its protected areas and will not allow the other data it submits to be used publicly. The U.K. has publicly committed to a goal of classifying 30 percent of oceans as protected, but some of the marine conservation zones in its own waters provide very limited protection for biodiversity. Britain has also approved fracking in a national park, contrary to IUCN guidelines that extractive activities are incompatible. China, Russia, and Norway also caused disappointment and anger this year by blocking plans to create a huge new reserve in the Antarctic that would have been a sanctuary for whales and other species. To keep up with shifts in designations, the U.N. and its partners have launched a live report that tracks changes in protected areas and land use. In future, they hope to overlap this map with satellite images and data on land use to measure how well conserved the areas are. Regardless of their effectiveness, conservation experts say halting the decline of the natural world needs not just protection but a rethink of what it means to coexist with other species.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2500
__label__cc	0.687971	0.312029	February 6th, 2013 by Dr. Val Jones in Book Reviews When I was in medical school, I read Samuel Shem’s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor – and it made me feel connected to my peers during the most stressful time of my training. So when I was invited to review Shem’s “bookend” to House Of God, it was with a sense of eagerness and nostalgia that I accepted the challenge. How had the author’s thinking developed since the launch of his first blockbuster in 1978? I hoped to find a kinder, gentler Shem, perhaps looking back on his career in medicine with a sense of grace and dignity. I wanted the pomp and cruelty of his training to fade away into a kind of “it was all worth it in the end” conclusion. Alas, I was jarred into a very different reality. The Spirit Of The Place is a gruesome portrayal of American suburban decay, mixed with some unexplained hostility towards non-Jewish Americans and those with conservative values. The hero of the book, Orville Rose, escapes his mundane American life for a two year adventure with Doctors Without Borders in Europe. He soon is ensconced in a carnal relationship with a gold-digging, alternative-medicine practicing, Buddhist, Italian yoga master who later dumps him for a Swiss banker. Orville returns from Italy to his home town of Columbia, New York, to sort out his family affairs after his mother’s death. She has arranged to transfer all of her wealth to him if he agrees to live in his childhood home for a full year and thirteen days – a fate almost worth than death. Columbia is a horrific place, filled with poverty, violent crime, summer mosquitoes, and winter ice storms. The central medical figure is an aging general practitioner (Bill Starbuck) who regularly prescribes a kind of snake oil for various life-threatening ailments (Starbusol). Orville sees this physician as a kind of avuncular mentor, excusing his gross medical malpractice as simply “old fashioned.” Bill soon asks that Orville take over his practice while he goes on a much needed vacation, which turns out to last over a year. Orville is stuck being the only GP for a town of about seven thousand. He soon becomes overworked and overwhelmed. But that doesn’t stop him from falling in love with a single mom and polio survivor who was secretly asked by his dying mother to mail Orville letters (written in advance) after her demise. These letters are filled with venom and manipulative accusations (paging Dr. Freud). The plot makes the reader predisposed to feel empathy for the protagonist, but Shem so exposes Orville’s character flaws that he is nearly entirely unlikable. Every tender moment in the book is derailed by some sort of unpleasant comment or thought. Take for example, the death of Dr. Starbuck. Orville is at his bedside in the ICU, explaining how important it is to treat patients with dignity, even when they are unconscious. He gently whispers that it’s ok for Dr. Starbuck “to let go” and provides one last facial shave as the man drifts off into his final breaths. And in the middle of this, what does Orville also think to himself? “…Bill’s groin, the purple crowned penis that had had its share of adventures in repayment for his tending the whores on Diamond street. ‘Two dollars a housecall, Bill, and you never came away empty-handed.’ He took out his comb and combed Bill’s thin hair, gray lines on a shiny dome.” And then there’s the awkward sex scene where Orville describes kissing his lover’s limb shriveled from the polio virus. I’ll save that one for your imagination. The point, we are left to assume, of this depressing exploration of human defects (from the physical to the emotional, and at every level of organization – from the family unit to the city government and even national and international politics) is to promote tolerance and understanding of the human condition. Unfortunately the book is more likely to suck the last breath of optimism and hope out of you. The darkness has consumed the light, and with little to admire in any character portrayed in The Spirit Of The Place, it is difficult to read. In fact, it took me over two months to complete it. That being said, Shem is an excellent writer. And for those who enjoy wrist-slitting fiction, this may be just the book for you. I was personally quite astonished by Abraham Verghese’s exuberant cover jacket blurb: “An incredible and heartfelt story… The Spirit Of The Place entertains, satisfies, and affirms; it is beautifully conceived and brilliantly executed.” Clearly not everyone agrees with my analysis. I’d be curious to know which one of us is crazy – me, Verghese, or Shem? I suppose Shem would say we all are, and that’s the point… The Friday Funny: The Half-Monty 3 views Cartoon: Statin Overexposure? 3 views	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2502
__label__wiki	0.686102	0.686102	info@getech.com Company Directors and Advisors Results and Financial Reports Gravity & Magnetic Gravity & Magnetic Data G&M Data Search Global Depth to Basement Multi-Sat Offshore Gravity U.S. Domestic G & M data Gravity & Magnetic Services Survey Management and QC Regional Reports Overview Tectonics Online Sierra Leone Oil and Gas Exploration License Rounds info@getech.com \| +44 113 322 2200 Stock Exchange Announcements 2015 RNS Announcements for 2015 16-11-15 Director’s Dealings 10-11-15 Board changes 03-11-15 Final results for the year ended 31 July 2015 11-08-15 Exercise of options – Directors’ dealings 07-08-15 Trading update 17-04-15 Notification Of Major Interest In Shares 13-04-15 Further National Oil Company Multi-Year Contract 08-04-15 Completion of Acquisition of ERCL 24-03-15 Conditional Acquisition of ERCL by Getech 24-03-15 Interim Report for the six months ended 31 January 2015 The Company announces that, on 13 November 2015, it received notice that Peter Stephens, a director of the Company, and his wife, Veronica Stephens acquired 9,000 and 6,000 Ordinary Shares respectively at a price of 37p per share. Accordingly, Peter Stephens now holds 1,068,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company, representing 3.25% of the issued share capital. GETECH Group plc Raymond Wolfson, Chief Executive Tel: 0113 322 2200 WH Ireland Limited Katy Mitchell Tel: 0161 832 2174 The Company’s key industry sector is oil and gas exploration and production, and the Board has decided to strengthen its sector-specific capabilities by appointing a non-executive director with extensive and relevant industry experience. Chris Flavell has therefore been appointed as a director of the Company with immediate effect. Christopher Hugh Flavell, aged 58, has 35 years’ experience in operating E&P companies and consultancies and brings a wealth of knowledge and contacts in the industry. Most recently he managed Tullow Oil’s exploration geoscience team from 2007-2013, which was a period of outstanding success for the company and in 2013 he left Tullow to form a geoscience focussed recruitment consultancy. Chris is currently a director of Zinc Consultants Limited but is not and has not been a director or partner of any other companies or partnerships in the last 5 years. In addition, Colin Glass has agreed to step down from his position as non-executive Director and Company Secretary, at the Annual General Meeting. Stuart Paton, Chairman said “The Board is most grateful to Colin for his outstanding contribution to the Company’s overall development since its formation in 2000, and in particular his contributions as a board member throughout that period. In 2000 he led the negotiations for the spin-out of the Company from the University of Leeds, and in 2005 he played a significant part, together with IP Group, in the flotation of the Company on AIM. His accountancy practice, WGN, supported the finance function of the Company until the Board agreed it was appropriate to appoint a full-time Financial Controller in June 2014, following which he helped to ensure a smooth transition. The Board wish Colin all the very best for the future. We are very pleased to welcome Chris to the Board. His experience and contacts in the industry will be invaluable as the Company looks for opportunities to grow the business.” There is no further information to be disclosed under paragraph (g), Schedule 2 and AIM Rule 17 of the AIM Rules of Companies in respect of this appointment. 03-11-15 Final results for the 12 months ended 31 July 2015 GETECH, the oil services business specialising in the provision of exploration data and petroleum systems studies and evaluations, announces its Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 July 2015. Significant increase in income and profit during a year in which the global oil and gas market suffered badly Acquisition of ERCL in April 2015 Largest ever contract with Sonangol for $5m Two other contracts with national oil companies, one of which generated income in the year Revenue £8,639k (up 32% from £6,593k) and profits £1,992k (up 99% from £1,001k) Proposed final dividend for the year ended July 2015 of 1.74p giving full year dividend for the year ended July 2015 of 2.20p (2014: 2.20p) Cash level £4,727k at 31 July 2015 Raymond Wolfson, Chief Executive Katy Mitchell Chairman’s statement I am pleased to make my fifth report as Chairman of the Company, on the tenth full year results since its admission to AIM, of Getech Group plc and its subsidiary companies (“Getech” or “the Group”), for the year ended 31 July 2015. Getech is a geoscience services business specialising in the provision of data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors. I report a Group profit before tax of £1,992,236 (2014: £1,000,816) after interest receivable of £13,554 (2014: £32,914) on revenue of £8,638,588 (2014: £6,592,798). The post-tax profit was £1,812,996 (2014: £1,575,228) giving earnings per share of 5.77p (2014: 5.21p). These are a strong set of results and demonstrate the continued growth of the Company. Getech is proposing a final dividend of 1.74p per share in respect of the year to 31 July 2015 (2014: 1.76p) in addition to the interim dividend of 0.46p per share announced in March 2015. The final dividend will be paid on 17 December to shareholders on the register of members on 20 November. For the exploration and production (E&P) sector, the financial year 2014-15 has proved to be even more challenging than the previous financial year. The reduction in exploration expenditure we had observed in 2013-14 has been followed by a very significant drop in the oil price in the last year. This oil price drop has led to significant reductions in capital expenditure across the whole E&P sector, and major redundancy rounds in many companies. The reductions in capital expenditure affect exploration spend most quickly and most dramatically. A wide range of service companies have been severely impacted, both in terms of income and profits, with a number going bankrupt and consolidation taking place across the sector. Against this very difficult backdrop, Getech has performed well in the last financial year. The Company has doubled its profits and increased revenue by 32%. Under the challenging circumstances affecting the sector, these are extremely strong figures and stand out relative to the rest of the sector. The acquisition of ERCL in April 2015 contributed to our growth in the year. This Henley-based consultancy provides services which are very complementary to the existing Getech offering. In particular, the expertise in seismic data and in planning and delivering field developments, significantly broadens the services we can provide. Further, the consideration paid, through a mixture of cash which was partly funded through new bank debt, shares, and contingent payments, reduced the up-front payment and aligns the key ERCL staff to the success of the combined Group. There is clearly ongoing uncertainty in relation to the oil price although most analysts are suggesting a ‘lower for longer’ scenario with a key theme being that companies need to be ‘fit for $50’. The industry has already responded by reducing the cost profile. For example, seismic and rig rates are substantially lower than one year ago which should encourage companies to continue exploration. In the medium term, as has happened in previous cycles, the oil price will presumably increase due to supply constraints caused by the reduced investment we have witnessed in the last year. However, there remains considerable uncertainty about the timescale for the recovery of the oil price. At the same time, the deep cuts to staffing in many companies, including the international oil companies (IOCs) and large US independents, mean that their capability to undertake exploration is severely curtailed. This provides a real opportunity for Getech to provide focused, high quality advice to these companies and the last year has demonstrated that, even in challenging times for the sector, we can continue to develop a robust business. Nevertheless, in the short-term there remains considerable uncertainty about the state of the market and its impact on our trading and accordingly we believe the year ahead will be trading substantially below current market expectations. In this context we will seek to mitigate the immediate effects of the lower oil price while at the same time pursuing attractive opportunities as and when they are available to grow our business in the medium to long term. There are four areas where we continue to believe we have a strong foundation for maintaining profitability and growing our business in the longer term. Firstly, our Globe framework, which entered its second phase in August 2014, has seen continued support from the larger E&P companies. They clearly see the value of Getech’s support in improving their exploration performance. Globe continues to provide an environment which encourages increased interaction with our clients, which is essential to the longer-term benefits in terms of focused consultancy work. Secondly, we have seen continued demand for proprietary projects, where we can leverage the ERCL acquisition to provide a broader range of advice. The ERCL acquisition provides capability in seismic interpretation, well planning, field development and asset management, which mitigates to some extent the effect of low oil price on large-scale exploration. Thirdly, our relationships with a number of national oil companies and governments, which are generally less susceptible to oil price fluctuations, provide a degree of robustness. Our ongoing relationship with Sonangol and ERCL’s experience in managing licence rounds demonstrate our strengths in these areas. Fourthly, our strong knowledge base and financial robustness allow us to look at new opportunities. We are in the process of developing new business streams, which build on our core strengths and which we hope will be major revenue generators in the medium term. Following the successful completion of the ERCL acquisition, we are also actively looking at further acquisition opportunities, which will grow our core areas of expertise. Finally, I would like to say how pleased I am to continue to be involved with the Company and to thank the staff and my fellow Directors for all their hard work and dedication. I am also very pleased to welcome the ERCL staff based in Henley, who are a great addition to the Getech team. The whole organisation has shown great fortitude and delivered great results in challenging circumstances. Dr Stuart Paton Operating review I report that in our tenth year as a public quoted company, Getech Group plc (“Getech” or “the Group”) returned a pre-tax profit of £1,992,236 (2014: £1,000,816) for the year ended 31 July 2015. We reported that the previous year to July 2014 was difficult for the E&P sector. The year to July 2015 has seen a significant drop in oil prices, and subsequent major job losses in both oil companies and service companies. The high seismic and drilling costs, and poor exploration success that had affected the sector in the prior year were exacerbated by the oil price, which fell from over $100 at the start of August 2014 to below $50 by early January 2015. Although the oil price recovered slightly for a brief period in the first quarter of 2015, it subsequently fell again and has since remained close to or below $50. There remains considerable uncertainty as to when the oil price will significantly increase. The strategy to increase our resilience against market volatility has underpinned the performance in the current year. This comprised two main elements: significant longer-term contracts to generate increased forward visibility of income; and a focus on relationships with national oil companies, which tend to react less to changes in the oil market. In September we announced our largest ever contract, which was $5m of consultancy work for Sonangol, the Angolan national oil company. This involved generating structural and related interpretation for all the Angolan basins. The project has been completed to schedule, and as indicated in the announcement in September 2014, the majority of the income was recognised within the year to July 2015. We also announced in November a further umbrella contract with a major national oil company, and in December announced the first order under this contract amounting to £400k. In April 2015, we announced that we had successfully passed through the tender process with a further major national oil company, under which we are one of three qualified bidders for a three year programme comprising several basin work packages per year, each of which we believe would be significant. We have continued the Globe development programme during the year. While we continue to enhance the data content, our Globe clients have been particularly pleased by the software that we have developed to improve the user experience. Globe continues to be our global exploration database and is actively used to add value to new sub-global products and proprietary contracts. It is essential that Globe is built with a balance between primary data (i.e. data measurements) and interpreted data. Our staff continue to build the interpretations but we have also added two significant third party data-sets – a well data-set comprising more than a million North American wells, and a seismic data-set which covers a number of areas of interest across the world. These help to provide the important assurance to Globe clients that our work is controlled by independent data. In March 2015, we announced the agreement to acquire ERCL, which is a consultancy company based in Henley-on-Thames. ERCL is highly complementary to Getech both in terms of its skill-sets and in terms of its position in client exploration workflows. Getech has historically been known for gravity and magnetic data, and for geological work at global and regional scale. ERCL has a range of geoscientists of various disciplines, but has a particularly strong seismic interpretation team, which had previously been a gap in Getech’s resources. ERCL typically operates at a smaller geographical scale and at stages in client workflows which are later than the Getech focus. With some clients, they also directly plan the drilling programmes. This means that Getech is now able to offer a significantly broader coverage of client workflows. In addition, ERCL works closely with governments and national oil companies providing, amongst other things, strategic and advisory services. ERCL was formed in January 2014 by merger of the businesses of two existing companies, and in its first year of trading it delivered income of £3.8m with profit before tax of approximately £1.2m. The reaction from our clients to this acquisition has been very positive, particularly as regards the strategic synergies. The ERCL acquisition also fits with our strategy of long-term relationships with national governments, with ERCL recognised for its experience in licence round management. In prior years one of our main constraints was the inability to recruit experienced staff. However, with the market conditions during the year we have been able to recruit a number of key staff. This, combined with the resources in ERCL, has enabled us to significantly extend our capabilities and credibility into new areas of working. While the previous two years have been very difficult for the oil and gas market in general, we enter the new year with increased net assets and with increased cash. This gives us a firm foundation from which we can continue to execute a long-term growth strategy. We have continued to enhance Globe as an exploration data-set and to increasingly realise the value from it in a number ways. We anticipate that the work in the current three year development period will continue to add to its intrinsic value as well as increasingly enabling us to realise value directly through its use at a variety of scales and in a range of product types. In line with the existing strategy, we aim to increase the level of business with national oil companies (NOCs). We recently recruited an extremely experienced International Business Development Manager whose role is renewing and establishing relationships with a range of NOCs and governments, as well as seeking new government data-sets that may become available for use in Globe. The acquisition of ERCL further strengthened this strategy through their existing links and reputation with a number of governments and NOCs. We acquired ERCL as part of our growth strategy. It not only adds new skills and income streams, but also a number of synergies. We can now offer a more comprehensive service to our current clients, extending into later stages of the exploration workflow. There are real opportunities to cross-sell to existing clients, and to provide more efficient overall marketing and sales for both companies. ERCL is based in Henley-on-Thames, which is very close to London and many companies working in the oil and gas sector. While Leeds has been a very successful location, it is outside the mainstream areas of the industry and ERCL brings an established base in proximity to large parts of the UK oil and gas industry. Finally, while the market is at best uncertain, we are still regularly engaged with our clients and have a number of significant sales proposals awaiting approval. Client budgets are clearly under significant pressure, but even where there is little current money there has still been a willingness to consider proposals for inclusion in 2016 budgets. While there remains significant uncertainty about the short term and we cannot predict how the market will develop during 2016, we remain convinced that our products and staff are well regarded and satisfy a clear industry need. As such, whilst we anticipate a slow start to 2016, we remain confident about the long-term prospects for the extended Getech Group. Raymond Wolfson Consolidated statement of comprehensive income For the year ended 31 July 2015 Revenue 8,638,588 6,592,798 Cost of sales (3,001,898) (2,126,433) Gross profit 5,636,690 4,466,365 Administrative costs (3,649,666) (3,497,841) Operating profit 1,987,024 968,524 Finance income 13,554 32,914 Finance costs (8,342) (622) Profit before tax 1,992,236 1,000,816 Income tax (expense)/credit (179,240) 574,412 Profit for the year attributable to owners of the Parent 1,812,996 1,575,228 Other comprehensive income Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit or loss: Currency translation differences on translation of foreign operations 19,807 (95,030) Total comprehensive income for the year attributable to owners of the Parent 1,832,803 1,480,198 Basic earnings per share 5.77p 5.21p Diluted earnings per share 5.61p 4.95p All activities relate to continuing operations. Consolidated statement of financial position As at 31 July 2015 Property, plant and equipment 2,852,508 2,747,916 Goodwill 3,131,538 – Intangible assets 2,046,499 513,476 Deferred tax assets 159,127 311,644 8,189,672 3,573,036 Inventories 292,005 180,092 Trade and other receivables 4,235,047 2,850,538 Current tax assets 117,522 812,767 Cash and cash equivalents 4,726,734 3,422,594 Total assets 17,560,980 10,839,027 Borrowings 266,132 – Trade and other payables 4,628,221 2,707,710 Current tax liabilities 395,155 – Non-current liabilities Trade and other payables 979,785 – Deferred tax liabilities 319,062 321,452 2,064,512 321,452 Net assets 10,206,960 7,809,865 Equity attributable to owners of the Parent Share capital 81,824 75,790 Share premium account 4,195,918 3,012,960 Capital redemption reserve 6 6 Share option reserve 155,492 125,948 Currency translation reserve (110,950) (130,757) Retained earnings 5,884,670 4,725,918 Total equity 10,206,960 7,809,865 The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors on 3 November 2015. Consolidated statement of cash flows Share-based payment charge 58,912 21,186 Depreciation and amortisation charges 366,268 239,704 Impairment of intangible assets 298,110 — Fair value adjustments (303,887) — Finance income (13,554) (32,914) Finance costs 8,342 622 Exchange adjustments (59,058) 44,686 Increase in inventories (111,913) (14,092) Decrease/(increase) in trade and other receivables 202,006 (727,154) Increase/(decrease) in trade and other payables 483,349 (833,048) Cash generated/(used in) from operations 2,920,811 (300,194) Income taxes paid 456,650 (180,226) Net cash generated/(used in) from operating activities 3,377,461 (480,420) Purchase of property, plant and equipment (258,856) (106,897) Purchase of intangible assets (128,090) — Development costs capitalised (976,831) (82,867) Acquisition costs, net of cash received (1,130,619) — Funds transferred into fixed-term deposits — 500,000 Interest received 13,554 32,914 Net cash (used in)/generated from investing activities (2,480,842) 343,150 Proceeds from issue of share capital 24,495 20,339 New term loan 1,100,000 — Repayment of long-term borrowings (68,203) (119,048) Equity dividends paid (683,610) (616,538) Interest paid (8,342) (622) Net cash generated from/(used in) financing activities 364,340 (715,869) Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 1,260,959 (853,139) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 3,422,594 4,357,927 Exchange adjustments to cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 43,181 (82,194) Cash and cash equivalents at end of year 4,726,734 3,422,594 Consolidated statement of changes in equity Share capital Share premium account Merger relief reserve Capital redemption reserve Share option reserve Currency translation reserve Retained earnings Total £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ At 1 August 2013 75,319 2,993,092 — 6 122,717 (35,727) 3,749,273 6,904,680 Dividends — — — — — — (616,538) (616,538) Issue of capital under share‑based payment options 471 19,868 — — (17,955) — 17,955 20,339 Share-based payment charge — — — — 21,186 — — 21,186 Transactions with owners 471 19,868 — — 3,231 — (598,583) (575,013) Profit for the year — — — — — — 1,575,228 1,575,228 Currency translation differences — — — — — (95,030) — (95,030) Total comprehensive income for the year — — — — — (95,030) 1,575,228 1,480,198 At 31 July 2014 75,790 3,012,960 — 6 125,948 (130,757) 4,725,918 7,809,865 Issue of share capital 5,442 — 1,159,055 — — — — 1,164,497 Transactions with owners 6,034 23,903 1,159,055 — 29,544 — (654,244) 564,294 Currency translation differences — — — — — 19,807 — 19,807 Total comprehensive income for the year — — — — — 19,807 1,812,996 1,846,506 At 31 July 2015 81,824 3,036,863 1,159,055 6 155,492 (110,950) 5,884,670 10,206,960 Notes to the consolidated financial statements Nature of operations The principal activity of Getech Group plc and its subsidiary companies Geophysical Exploration Technology Inc. and ERCL Limited (collectively “Getech” or “the Group”) is the provision of gravity and magnetic data, services and geological studies to the petroleum and mining industries to assist in their exploration activities. Getech Group plc is the Group’s ultimate Parent Company (“the Parent Company”). It is incorporated in England and Wales and domiciled in England (CRN: 2891368). The address of its registered office is Convention House, St Mary’s Street, Leeds LS9 7DP. Its principal place of business is Kitson House, Elmete Hall, Elmete Lane, Leeds LS8 2LJ. Getech Group plc shares are admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM. Basis of preparation These consolidated financial statements (“the financial statements”) have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in issue as adopted by the European Union. IFRS include interpretations issued by the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The Directors have instituted regular reviews of trading and cash flow forecasts and have considered the sensitivity of these forecasts to different assumptions about future income and costs. With the sound cash levels and continued prospects for profitable trading, the Directors are fully satisfied that the Group is a going concern and will be able to continue trading for the foreseeable future. The financial information set out above, which was approved by the Board on 2 November 2015, is derived from the full Group accounts for the year ended 31 July 2015 and does not constitute the statutory accounts within the meaning of section 434 of the Companies Act 2006. The Group accounts on which the auditors have given an unqualified report, which does not contain a statement under section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006 in respect of the accounts for 2015, will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies in due course. The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 July 2014 which have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies, contained an unqualified audit report and did not include a statement under s498(2) or s498(3) of the Companies Act 2006. Paid during the year Final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 July 2014 at 1.76p per share (2013: 1.60p) 534,015 482,125 Interim dividend at 0.46p per share (2014: 0.44p) 149,597 134,413 Proposed after the year end (not recognised as a liability) The proposed final dividend per share for the year ended 31 July 2015 is subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on 8 December 2015. Basic earnings per share is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to equity holders of the Group by the weighted average number of the Ordinary Shares in issue in the year. Profit attributable to equity holders of the Group £1,812,996 £1,575,228 Weighted average number of Ordinary Shares in issue 31,416,845 30,249,212 Diluted earnings per share is calculated by dividing the profit attributable to equity holders of the Group by the weighted average number of the Ordinary Shares which would be in issue if all the options granted, other than those which are anti-dilutive, were exercised. The addition to the weighted number of the Ordinary Shares used in the calculation of diluted earnings per share for the year ended 31 July 2015 is 1,510,171 (2014: 1,560,109). The Annual Report and Accounts, and notice convening the Annual General Meeting of the Company will be posted to shareholders on 12 November 2015 and will be available from the Company’s website www.getech.com, from that date. The Annual General Meeting of Getech Group plc (“the Company”) will be held at Kitson House, Elmete Hall, Elmete Lane, Leeds LS8 2LJ on 8 December 2015 at 12 noon. The Company announces that it has today received notice that Raymond Wolfson has sold 17,500 Ordinary Shares at a price of 57p in order to settle the remainder of his income tax bill, following the exercise of options announced on 11 August 2015. Accordingly, Raymond Wolfson now holds 457,979 Ordinary Shares in the Company, representing 1.39% of the issued share capital. The Company announces that it has today received notice to exercise options over ordinary shares in the Company by certain directors of the Company as set out below: Number of Shares Colin Glass The Company also confirms that it has received notice to exercise options over Ordinary Shares from certain employees of the Company, as set out below: Date of exercise Exercise Price Accordingly, the Company has today issued 402,934 new Ordinary Shares (“New Ordinary Shares”). The New Ordinary Shares rank pari passu with the Company’s existing issued Ordinary Shares. Application has been made to admit the New Ordinary Shares to trading on AIM, and dealings in these shares are anticipated to commence on 14 August 2015. On admission, the Company will then have 32,895,748 shares in issue. Raymond Wolfson has simultaneously sold 12,500 Ordinary Shares at a price of 57p in order to settle part of his income tax bill on the exercise of these options. Accordingly, Raymond Wolfson now holds 470,479 Ordinary Shares in the Company, representing 1.43% of the issued share capital. Colin Glass now holds 656,807 Ordinary Shares, representing 2.00% of the issued share capital of the Company. There are no shares held in treasury, therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company will be 32,895,748. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules. Getech, the geoscience services business specialising in the provision of data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors, provides a trading update. The Directors anticipate that the Company will return trading figures for the year to 31 July 2015 which show a very significant year on year improvement. The current estimate, which is subject to review and audit, is profit before tax of £2.0m (2014: £1.0m) on income of £8.5m (2014: £6.6m), representing a 100% increase in profit before tax and a 29% increase in income. This result would be slightly below current market expectations. The Directors regard this as a strong performance given the current market conditions, which include the rapid fall and volatility in the oil price, and an extended period of retrenchment and redundancies throughout the oil and gas market globally. Getech had previously stated that it aimed to reduce its exposure to volatility in the market through a number of means. Specific strategies included focussing on major contracts with National Oil Companies (“NOCs”), and signing multi-year contractual commitments with clients. In both respects the Company has achieved successes – three major NOC contracts were announced during the year and longer term contracts include the commitments to Globe as well as the highly successful multi-satellite project. While these have not guaranteed isolation from movements in the market, the impact has been substantially reduced and as a result the Company has been very much more resilient than in 2009. The Company also notes that although three major contracts with NOCs were announced during the year to July 2015, only the Sonangol contract (announced in September 2014) generated income during the year. The Company anticipates that all three clients will generate significant income in the coming year. In May 2015 the Company completed the acquisition of ERCL, the Henley based consultancy. The Directors are delighted with progress on the integration programme and although, like other service companies, it is seeing the impact of the market downturn, in its first four months as part of the Getech group it has made a positive contribution to group profits. Overall, the directors believe that the market conditions in the year ahead will remain challenging but, based on the existing contracts and continued client interest, the directors remain optimistic for the future. Stuart Paton, Non-Executive Chairman of Getech Group plc, said “In market conditions as difficult as these, we are delighted with the performance for the year and the resilience that this demonstrates to market volatility. I am particularly pleased that we have achieved this while two of the three new NOC contracts we announced during the year are still to start generating income. The market is expected to remain tight, with uncertainty about the timing of recovery of the oil price. However, we are increasingly confident about the prospects for 2016 as a number of significant discussions have already, at the request of our clients, been aimed at inclusion of Getech products in their 2016 budgets. This will supplement the income already committed to the Globe and Multi-satellite projects as well as the anticipated returns from the three NOC clients who signed contracts in the year to July 2015.” The Company confirms today that on 9 June 2015, Veronica Stephens, the wife of Peter Stephens, a director of the Company, acquired 25,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company at a price of 53p each and on 12 June 2015, she acquired a further 25,000 Ordinary Shares in Company at a price of 53p (a total of 50,000 Ordinary Shares). Accordingly, Peter Stephens is now interested in 1,038,000 ordinary shares in the Company representing 3.19% of the issued share capital and total voting rights of the Company. TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARES 1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached: GETECH GROUP PLC 2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes): An acquisition or disposal of voting rights An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments An event changing the breakdown of voting rights Other (please specify): Increase in total voting rights X 3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation: Investec Wealth & Investment Limited 4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.): N/A 5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached: 13 April 2015 6. Date on which issuer notified: 25 April 2015 7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached: Below 3% 8. Notified details: A: Voting rights attached to shares Class/type of if possible using the ISIN CODE Situation previous to the triggering transaction Resulting situation after the triggering transaction Shares Number Rights Number of shares Number of voting rights % of voting rights Direct Indirect Direct Indirect Direct Indirect GB00B0HZVP95 971,830 971,830 971,830 2.99% B: Qualifying Financial Instruments Resulting situation after the triggering transaction Type of financial instrument Expiration date Exercise/ Conversion Period Number of voting rights that may be acquired if the instrument is exercised/ converted. % of voting C: Financial Instruments with similar economic effect to Qualifying Financial Instruments instrument Exercise price Expiration date Exercise/ Conversion period Number of voting rights instrument refers to % of voting rights n/a Nominal Delta Total (A+B+C) Number of voting rights Percentage of voting rights 971,830 2.99% 9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable: Proxy Voting: 10. Name of the proxy holder: n/a 11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold: n/a 12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights: n/a 13. Additional information: 14. Contact name: Phil Beardwell Chartered FCSI Senior Compliance Manager 15. Contact telephone number: 020 7597 1356 Getech (AIM; GTC), the geoscience business specialising in the provision of data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors, announces a further significant multi-year contract with a major National Oil Company (“NOC”). This contract is for a three year period with the NOC having the option to extend for a further two years. Getech has progressed successfully through an extended tender process and the NOC has now confirmed that Getech is one of three companies contracted to provide basin evaluation services. It is anticipated that the NOC will offer by way of tender to these three companies several basin evaluation packages per year, and that the value of each package will, if won by Getech, significantly affect the Company’s results and therefore be the subject of further announcements. Raymond Wolfson, Chief Executive of Getech Group plc, said: “We previously announced that the strategy in relation to our Commissions division was to continue to build the regular range of consultancy projects, but also to focus on a number of key clients who, individually, could be material to Getech’s trading. In the second half of 2014 we announced two such contracts and this third contract represents a further success for our stated strategy, in what is currently a very challenging marketplace. “This NOC has a global exploration remit and specifically requested bidders to provide information about their global databases. We cited our Globe framework and were informed that the workflow approach within Globe was a contributor to our success with the bid, although any sale of Globe would be carried out through a separate process and budget. “While our historic business was primarily new ventures and early stage exploration, in recent years our strategy has included extending our work further along client workflows to leverage additional value from our skills and products and to increase the range of projects we could deliver. Both our recent acquisition of ERCL and this new contract are key components within this strategy.” Getech (AIM; GTC), the geoscience business specialising in the provision of data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors, is pleased to announce that further to the announcement of 24 March 2015, the agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of ERCL Limited, an upstream oil and gas consultancy, (the “Agreement”) has now completed. Issue of Equity Accordingly, Getech has today paid an initial payment of cash £1,750,000 and issued 2,176,630 ordinary shares (“New Shares”) to Huw Edwards, Richard Heath, Steve Lawrence and Chris Irons, who will all remain with ERCL following completion, and SAER Limited as follows: Percentage of issued equity Huw Edwards Richard Heath Chris Irons SAER Limited Application has been made to admit the New Shares to trading on AIM and it is anticipated that trading in the New Shares will commence on 13 April 2015, it is agreed that New Shares will be retained by the shareholders set out above for a minimum period of one year from completion. Deferred consideration is also payable, as set out in the announcement of 24 March 2015. There are no shares held in treasury, therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company will then be 32,492,814. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules. William Huw Edwards (“Huw”), aged 59, one of the founding directors and shareholders of ERCL, is to be appointed a director with effect from today. Huw is currently a director of ERCL Limited and Edwards Resource Consultants Limited. He was previously a director of PGS 2011 Limited, which was dissolved in 2013, and a director of Exploration Reservoir Consultants Limited, which was put into voluntary liquidation in 2010 on the advice of Huw’s accountants. This was a private company owned only by Huw and his wife and there are no outstanding debts in this company. As a consequence of the acquisition of ERCL by Getech, Huw now holds Ordinary Shares in the Company, as set out in the table above. Getech (AIM; GTC), the geoscience business specialising in the provision of data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors, is pleased to announce the execution of an agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of ERCL Limited, an upstream oil and gas consultancy, (the “Agreement”). Completion is scheduled for the week commencing 7 April 2015, conditional on payment of the consideration. Getech has previously stated a strategic aim of acquiring companies with clear commercial fit and synergies, in parallel with the strategic aim of organic growth. Getech’s market position has historically been focussed on global and regional scale work, which are relatively early in the exploration workflows. However, Getech has been extending its work towards basin and block scale evaluation, where there is greater expenditure and more focus on drilling risk reduction. ERCL’s skills, experience and reputation are primarily in the use and application of seismic and well data in all stages of the workflow and hence strongly complement Getech’s current capabilities and market position. The directors believe the new combined Group will be able to offer a significantly more comprehensive range of services and products, addressing exploration and development issues across a broader spectrum of client workflows. In particular ERCL brings to the Group a proven track record of working with Governments and National Oil Companies. ERCL ERCL is based in Henley-on-Thames, UK, and was formed in January 2014 by a merger of the businesses of two companies – Exploration Reservoir Consultants Limited and SAER Limited. It is a specialist upstream oil and gas consultancy currently employing 26 staff and supported by a network of specialist associates who further enhance its capabilities. The directors of ERCL are all well respected within the industry and each brings key technical skills developed from having operated since 1971, in virtually every global petroleum province. Collectively the directors and staff of ERCL have been involved in projects in over 100 countries. ERCL is a high technology company and has more than $1,000,000 of specialist oil industry geoscience software under license that is utilised by its staff to analyse technical data on behalf of its clients. The directors believe it’s investment in technology, innovative approach and creativity is well respected and is one of the company’s key differentiators in the industry. ERCL works closely with governments and national oil companies providing strategic and advisory services, together with associated license round management, capacity building and training, data management and multi-client products. ERCL also provides geo-technical expertise to oil companies for exploration and development projects, and to service companies on a proprietary basis. It also applies this expertise to create new multi-client data projects. More information about the services ERCL provides can be found by visiting www.ercl.com. In its first year of trading as ERCL, it delivered (unaudited) income of £3.8m and profit before tax in excess of £1.2m. This was supported by exceptional contributions from work in Africa. The net book value of the assets in the ERCL accounts is £40,000. Getech will acquire 100% of the issued share capital from the existing shareholders: Huw Edwards, Richard Heath, Steve Lawrence and Chris Irons, who will all remain with ERCL following completion, and SAER Limited. It is proposed that, subject to due diligence and Nominated Adviser approval, Huw Edwards will be appointed a director of Getech at a date to be confirmed, after completion. The consideration Getech will pay consideration as follows: On the date of completion, an initial payment of cash £1,750,000 On the date of completion, an initial issue of 2,176,630 shares. Application will be made to admit these shares to trading on AIM and it is anticipated that trading in the shares will commence on 13 April 2015. It is agreed that the shares will be retained by the ERCL shareholders for a minimum period of one year from completion. A further announcement will be made when the transaction completes and the shares are issued. Deferred consideration, based on the performance of the company over a three-year period. This has an expectation of generating a total of £1,550,000 over the three years if performance targets are met. The deferred consideration will be based on the profit before tax to the extent it exceeds a hurdle level in each year. The expected value of the aggregate consideration is £4,300,000. Although Getech has strong cash levels, a loan has been arranged with RBS/NatWest for £1.1m, repayable over four years or less (at Getech’s discretion), with interest rate at 2.04% above base rate. The loan is secured against the Getech office building in Leeds. The Directors believe this is the prudent approach and will reduce the up-front net cash cost of the deal to £650,000. Raymond Wolfson, Chief Executive of Getech Group plc, said: “We are delighted that agreement has been reached with ERCL. We see a very strong strategic fit between Getech and ERCL, and believe that this will open up an extended range of opportunities for the enlarged group to work with oil and gas exploration companies and national oil companies. The combined group will have a strong asset base, a broader range of skills and products, and the ability to address exploration issues across the full spectrum of clients from the smallest companies to the super-majors and NOCs. “We have known a number of the ERCL directors and staff for several years and are confident that there is both a cultural fit and a strong ability to work together to grow the combined group. We look forward to working with ERCL and the opportunities that this will bring.” Interim Report for the six months ended 31 January 2015 Getech, the geoscience services business specialising in the provision of data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors, announces its interim results for the six months ended 31 January 2015. • Revenue for the six months of £3,619,000 (six months ended 31 January 2014: £3,110,000) • Profit before tax of £707,000 (six months ended 31 January 2014: £233,000) • Interim dividend proposed of 0.46p per share (2014: 0.44p per share) • Cash levels strong at £4,733,000 • Strong demand for consultancy work through the half year • Inertia in the market led to slowdown in major sales Stuart Paton, Non-Executive Chairman of Getech Group plc, said: “We start the second half of our year with strong cash balances and a substantial pipeline of sales opportunities. Our strategy of seeking major contracts which, individually, are material to Getech has continued to demonstrate success and we have signed two ongoing major contracts with further discussions underway. This is also a key part of our strategy to increase the level of forward committed income, the other components of which are Globe sponsorship, research and development projects (Multi-satellite altimeter gravity and Global depth‑to‑basement studies) and a portfolio of smaller proprietary projects.” GETECH Group plcRaymond Wolfson, Chief Executive Tel: 0113 322 2200 WH Ireland LimitedKaty Mitchell Tel: 0161 832 2174 “Globe continues to provide an environment that encourages increased interaction with our clients, which is essential to the longer-term benefits of improved exploration performance. The annual Globe workshops in Leeds and Houston have become a major event in the year.” Getech reports a Group profit before tax of £707,000 (six months ended 31 January 2014: £233,000) after interest receivable of £5,000 (six months ended 31 January 2014: £16,000) on revenue of £3,619,000 (six months ended 31 January 2014: £3,110,000). The post-tax profit was £691,000 (six months ended 31 January 2014: £193,000). The accounts have been prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in issue as adopted by the European Union. Your Board recommends an interim dividend of 0.46p per share. • half-year profit before tax was £707,000; • cash at 31 January was £4,733,000; • interim dividend increased to 0.46p per share; • satisfactory half-year position despite the difficult market; • commissions Group continued to perform strongly; • largest ever contract signed in September 2014 – $5,000,000 with Sonangol; and • first successes for strategy of major new contracts which are individually material. During the half year the business has continued to be affected by the difficult market conditions. The very significant drop in oil price since mid-2014 has led to cuts in capital expenditure across the full range of exploration and production (E&P) companies and across the E&P business lifecycle. This has had a direct negative impact on the service companies, in particular those focused on exploration. Our previous experience of working through oil price cycles has led to a number of conclusions. First, the market can be difficult for a period of time. During this time it is important to focus on the key needs of clients and companies that are less affected by spending cuts. Second, short-term reductions in expenditure, and hence, activity, led to reduced reserves additions, and hence, a longer-term increase in activity. This observation gives us support for the longer-term prospects for the business. Third, downturns lead to opportunities for robust companies, such as Getech, to recruit good staff and consider acquisition opportunities. The Company remains in a very strong financial position. By the end of the period the cash balance amounted to £4,733,000, which is an increase of £1,310,000 on the position at 31 July 2014, despite the payment of a dividend costing £534,000 in December 2014. We are continuing to build the Globe framework with the aim of making it the pre-eminent exploration tool for oil and gas explorers. As well as increasing the resolution of Globe, we are providing additional functionality to make it more accessible to a wider group of users and more flexible in terms of the sub-global and bespoke products that it can deliver. While we are fully aware of the need to be vigilant about the potential impact of the current market conditions on our business, our strong position means that we are able to adopt the perspective that this represents an opportunity, and we continue to seek good staff and complementary acquisitions. We remain confident about our medium and longer-term prospects. For the six months ended 31 January 2015 As at 31 January 2015 Notes to the interim report 1 Nature of operations The principal activity of Getech Group plc (“the Company”) and its subsidiary company, Geophysical Exploration Technology Inc. (collectively “Getech” or “the Group”) is the provision of gravity and magnetic data, services and geological studies to the petroleum and mining industries to assist in their exploration activities. Getech Group plc is the Group’s ultimate Parent Company. It is incorporated in England and Wales and domiciled in England (CRN: 2891368). The address of its registered office is Convention House, St Mary’s Street, Leeds LS9 7DP. Its principal place of business is Kitson House, Elmete Hall, Elmete Lane, Leeds LS8 2LJ. The Company’s shares are admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM. The financial information for the six months ended 31 January 2015 and 31 January 2014 has not been audited and does not constitute full financial statements within the meaning of Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006. These consolidated interim financial statements (“the interim financial statements”) have been approved by the Board. The financial information relating to the year ended 31 July 2014 is based on the Group’s statutory accounts for that period. The statutory accounts were prepared in accordance with IFRS in issue as adopted by the European Union. IFRS include interpretations issued by the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC). The statutory accounts received an unqualified audit report, did not contain statements under Sections 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006 and have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. 3 Basis of preparation The interim financial statements are for the six months ended 31 January 2015. They have been prepared using the recognition and measurement principles of IFRS. The interim financial statements do not include all the information required for full annual financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the financial statements of the Group for the year ended 31 July 2014. The interim financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention except in relation to financial instruments held at face value through profit or loss. They have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies adopted in the last annual financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2014. The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the Group for the purpose of preparation of the interim financial statements. The proposed dividend is payable on 1 May 2015 to members on the register at 7 April 2015. 5 Earnings per share Basic earnings per share is calculated on the basis of the profit for the period after tax, divided by the weighted average number of Ordinary Shares in issue in the period of 30,327,196 (six months ended 31 January 2014: 30,183,332; year ended 31 July 2014: 30,249,212). Diluted earnings per share is calculated on the basis of the profit for the period after tax, divided by the weighted average number of Ordinary Shares in issue plus the weighted average number of Ordinary Shares which would be issued if all options granted were exercised. The addition to the weighted average number of Ordinary Shares used in the calculation of diluted earnings per share for the six months ended 31 January 2015 is 905,712 (six months ended 31 January 2014: 1,820,077; year ended 31 July 2014: 1,560,109) 6 Interim Report This Interim Report is being sent to the shareholders of Getech and will be available at its registered office, Convention House, St Mary’s Street, Leeds LS9 7DP, UK, and from its website, www.getech.com, from 2 April 2015. Directors, secretary and advisors Professor Paul Carey Marketing and Sales Director Dr Paul Markwick Peter Stephens Non-executive Finance Director Dr Alison Fielding Convention House St Mary’s Street Leeds LS9 7DP Nominated advisor and broker 28 Sovereign Street Leeds LS1 4BJ Grant Thornton UK LLP No. 1 Whitehall Riverside Leeds LS1 4BN Walker Morris Kings Court Leeds LS1 2HL Principal bankers Leeds LS1 1QT Capita Asset Services Northern House Woodsome Park Fenay Bridge Huddersfield HD8 0LA notification obligation: Old Mutual Plc (if different from 3.): reached: 20 MARCH 2015 6. Date on which issuer notified: 23 MARCH 2015 reached: Fallen Below 5% GB00B0HZVP95 1,531,811 1,531,811 1,511,000 4.98% 1,511,000 4.98% 14. Contact name: Rose Coyle 15. Contact telephone number: 0207 002 7503 reached: 26 FEBRUARY 2015 6. Date on which issuer notified: 6 MARCH 2015 reached: 5% GB00B0HZVP95 1,531,811 1,531,811 5.05% Getech, UK Kitson House Elmete Hall Elmete Lane LS8 2LJ, UK Getech, USA 3000 Wilcrest Drive ERCL, a Getech Company Holborn Tower 137-144 High Holborn WC1V 6PL Exprodat, a Getech Company © 2019 Getech. All rights reserved. Disclaimer - Sitemap This website uses cookies to improve your online experience Accept Please read our updated Privacy Policy to learn how we manage and protect your data inline with the new GDPR Click to Read the Getech Group Privacy Policy Getech Group Updated Privacy & Cookies Policy	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2503
__label__wiki	0.779451	0.779451	Gilgit-Baltistan: 10 Days Folk Festival Concludes Islamabad (News): The 10-day folk festival Lok Virsa, which started on April 12 concluded on Sunday with a prestigious award ceremony. The mega cultural event was organized by Lok Virsa (National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage) in collaboration with all the provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. People from different walks of life attended the festival for 10 days in a big way, which featured artisans-at-work exhibition, provincial cultural pavilions, folkloric song and dance performances, cultural evenings, craft bazaar, NGO stalls, theatre performances and special entertainment for children and families. Federal Secretary Ministry of National Heritage Gul Muhammad Rind said the folk genius of the people is the basis of their identity. “It is therefore the sacred duty of a nation to pay homage to the perpetuators and promoters of its cultural heritage.” Earlier in his speech, Lok Virsa’s Executive Director Khalid Javaid thanked all provincial governments, sponsoring agencies and other institutions for their unstinted cooperation to Lok Virsa for making this national event a great success. “I am also indebted to our own administrative ministry, in particular federal minister Shahzada Jamal Nazir and Secretary Gul Muhammad Rind for their all-time support and guidance for organizing the festival”. Describing the mandate of Lok Virsa, chief executive Khalid Javaid said although Lok Virsa was primarily a research-oriented organisation, it organised folk festivals in order to project traditional cultural heritage, so that young people are not overwhelmed by the onslaught of Western culture and lose touch with their own traditions. At the end, cash awards sponsored by different national organizations and individuals were given to the most authentic craftsmen and craftswomen on the recommendation of a jury of experts constituted by Lok Virsa. Jury held detailed meetings over the last three days and minutely observed working of each participating artisan so as to arrive on a just and fair decision. Craftsperson who is crippled as a result of work was also awarded at the event in addition to those who demonstrated excellence and standard setting of high quality in craftsmanship; creative and successful alliance of traditional skills and innovation in material design. There was also a category for young budding educated craftswomen. Among the sponsors, Royal Norwegian Embassy took the lead by contributing cash awards worth Rs500,000 for the craftsmen/craftswomen and folk artists participated in the festival from all over Pakistan. Other sponsors include THAAP NGO, Azad Kashmir Small Industries, Balochistan Small Industries, Sindh Small Industries, Right to Play NGO, Directorate of Culture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Arts Council. In total, sixty five cash awards worth over Rs700,000 were distributed among the winning artisans. Artisans from Punjab got 23 awards whereas Sindh 14, Balochistan 6, Kyber Pakhtunkhwa 12, Gilgit-Baltistan 6 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 4. Ten cash awards were also granted to the folk artists and singers by the organizers. Exotic cultural and musical performances were also presented during the ceremony, which were highly enjoyed by the audience. A large number of art, craft and music lovers, cultural personalities, diplomats, media persons and general public attended the event. This entry was posted in All Others, Business, Culture, Gilgit-Baltistan, Latest News, Pakistan and tagged climate, entertainment, environment, media. Gilgit-Baltistan:Expedition to K-2 By Vasiq Iqbal “Wake up, dude! It’s afternoon, you’re dreaming with your eyes open,” “You’ve never been beyond Murree and now you want to go to K-2? What are you smoking?” and “That’s lovely. Could you please pass the salt?” These are some of the more printable replies I got when I declared, with much fanfare, that I was about to embark on an expedition to K-2. Of course, not all the replies were as demotivating as these, but even the somewhat supportive ones were laced with caution, sheer terror (for my expected fate) and had the ring of a final goodbye. Going to K-2 had always been a dream of mine. Of course, it was a dream that I had seen while sitting in the comfort of my cozy drawing room, without really thinking it would happen — and that too so soon. So when the day finally arrived I blithely opted to fly to Skardu, treating myself to in-flight meals and a beautiful bird’s-eye view of the Karakorum. Little did I know that this would earn me the undying hatred of the expedition manager Fareed Gujjar. As it turned out, I was the only one lucky enough to bag a seat, while the others had to suffer through a 36-hour drive through the twists and turns of the Karakorum Highway (KKH). My attempts to pin this on the vagaries of the national carrier were to no avail, and for the rest of the trip, Mr Gujjar’s taunts were no less biting than the cold itself. Before I go on about the expedition itself, I have to send a shout-out to Zahid Ali Khan aka ZAK, a humble and brilliant photographer who captured the stunning vistas you’re looking at here. Despite being 50 years old, overweight and diabetic, and having no mountaineering experience whatsoever, he took on the Karakorum where a lot of younger and healthier men faltered. The first day started with a jeep ride from Skardu to Askoli Valley, our first camping site and the last human settlement in that area. The six-hour long, and very bumpy, ride was really tiring but I thought better of opening my mouth to complain when I saw that Gujjar’s anger over my plane ride had not yet subsided. When we reached Askoli however, all the exhaustion was forgotten. A dazzling and awe inspiring valley, Askoli is a kaleidoscope of colours. Mountains of blinding white tower over fields of lush green grass; yellow sunflowers huddle around huge black rocks. From there we hopped from one camp to another, until the vast and terrifying wilderness of the Baltoro glacier stretched out before us. It’s long and dotted with ridges, crests and troughs, which made us rename it from bal-toro to haddi-toro (bonebreaker). The Karakorum range, also called the third pole, is one of the most heavily glaciated regions in the world and its 135 glaciers are a crucial water source for the arid low-lying areas. After crossing Baltoro with our bones mostly intact, it was off to Concordia. On the way — through a cleavage between two smaller peaks — I caught a glimpse of Chogori, as K-2 is locally called. The first sight of my dream destination left me spellbound, but then a cloud descended, as if a veil had been lowered over the face of a blushing bride, and the moment passed. Not a veil, I thought again, but perhaps a crown for the King of the Karakorum. And why not? K-2 — apart from being the world’s second highest peak — is also one of the three Pakistani ‘eight-thousanders’ (peaks over 8,000 metres in height) that remain unclimbed in winter. Gasherbrum II and I were recently climbed in the winters of 2011 and 2012, respectively, leaving only K-2, Broad Peak and Nanga Parbat in this exclusive club. None have successfully scaled their heights in winter, and these three remain an irresistible challenge to mountaineers everywhere. And then there is Concordia. It got its name from European explorers, thanks to its similarity to another glacial confluence, know to the Swiss as Konkordiaplatz. To me it was like a beautiful castle, the cornerstones of which are the Godwin-Austen and Baltoro glaciers where four towering eight-thousanders stand as if to defend it. The flanks of this natural fortification are secured by the Marbel and Mitre peaks. Concordia is that bastion of mighty mountains which lures climbers from all over the world. Galen Avery Rowell, a noted wilderness photographer and climber termed Concordia “The Throne Room of The Mountain Gods”. A fitting title indeed. But the Government of Pakistan has neglected these lonely gods for too long. To understand the level of this neglect, one must compare our eight-thousanders with those of other countries. There are only 14 eight-thousander peaks in the world, all of them located in South Asia. India’s only eight-thousander, Kangchanjunga is shared with Nepal. In the same way, the four on the Nepal-China border — Mount Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu are also shared. Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna 1 (8,091m) are entirely in Nepal, whereas Shishapangma the shortest of eight-thousanders, is wholly in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. In a nutshell, six are divided between four countries, one is entirely in China, and Nepal has three. So with four of these giants (Gasherbrum I & II, Broad Peak and Nanga Parbat), Pakistan is in the lead. Even K-2, which borders China, is best accessed from Pakistan and is considered a more challenging climb than even Everest. Pakistan is a mountaineer’s paradise but no effort has been made to exploit this bounty of nature. In fact, even the simple task of installing toilets here fell to an Italian NGO. When we arrived at Concordia, we found that they had installed eight eco-friendly toilets and had even devised a mecanism to dispose of human waste. They transport the excrement in drums via porters down to an earth incinerator, a process that takes three days. While the Pakistan government does lend its support, it was the Italians that took the initiative. They also carried out a K-2 cleanup operation, collecting 802 kg of disposed climbing gear. When night falls in Concordia, the light from infinite stars travels down from the heavens to illuminate the ice under your feet. In the day, the practically unfiltered UV rays scorch your exposed skin and by night, the bitter cold makes you shiver. From there we went off to try and get to the Gilkey memorial in the foothills of K-2. This is a cenotaph cairn erected and named after Art Gilkey, an American mountaineer who died at K-2 in 1953. The place is a memorial of those who have died while struggling with this savage mountain. By this time, the whole group was so exhausted that only six out of the total 18 dared to go further. And out of those six, four decided to stay at K-2 base camp. Now it was just me and an ardent trekker named Dr Shahid, whose nightly snoring I felt sure would bring the mountains down upon our heads. Creeping, crawling and sometimes crying with fear and exhaustion, we kept our spirits up by singing “ ” and somehow managed to cover a distance of four days in just 15 hours. After crossing a couple of hanging and hair-thin ice bridges with only the light of our headlamps to guide us, we made it back to Concordia with a light drizzle falling on us. The trek to the memorial was terrifying and tiring but the view of all Concordia, the K-2 base camp, Angel Peak and a nearby lake was worth sacrificing our only Rest Day. Of course, nature then gave us not one but four rest days by stranding us at Ali camp, thanks to sudden snowstorms. Then came the zenith of our expedition: Gondogoro La, the world’s highest crossable (but very avalanche prone) mountain pass. It’s not just the height of it, a sickness-inflicting 5,940 meters that’s the problem, but the 50 degree slopes you have to ascend and descend as well. Worse yet, an avalanche the night before had buried the defined path and it was nothing less than a miracle that we, who were mostly photographers and not professional climbers, made it through without injury. Finally, there came our reward: the sight of all the 8,000m peaks of the Karakorum illuminated by the rosy-fingered dawn. No words can describe it. No picture can define it. And somehow, Pakistan cannot take advantage of the bounties nature and geography have bestowed on us. What could we gain were we to fully tap into the mountaineering market? Let’s take the example of Switzerland — famous for its alpine sports and treks — where in 2011 tourism accounted for an estimated 2.9% of Switzerland’s gross domestic product. Tourism accounts for around 150,000 full time jobs in the country, the highest peak of which is barely 5,000 metres! But perhaps Switzerland is too distant and developed to serve as a good comparison, so let’s look at India. Our neighbour-cum-foe has made tourism its largest service industry, and it now accounts for 6.23% of its GDP and 8.78% of its total employment. In Nepal, Pakistan’s strongest competitor in terms of eight-thousanders, tourism is the largest industry, so big that it’s divided into three sections: culture, adventure and ecotourism. Nepal considers the tourist industry key to alleviating poverty and to achieve greater social equity. Another contender in the race of eight-thousanders, China — possessor of half of K-2 and half of Mount Everest — is the third most visited country in the world, despite the language barrier. China’s tourism revenue reached $185 billion in 2009. Then there’s Pakistan. Last year, 18 climbing and mountaineering expeditions — a total of 120 climbers — were likely to visit Pakistan. According to an unofficial account, just 30 climbers summited the K-2 this year. In an interview one of them said “Karakoram puts the rest of the world’s mountain ranges to shame.” We are sitting on a gold mine of mountains but getting only 120 explorers a year. Now that’s a real shame. 9/11, Talibanisation and terror brought Pakistan’s tourism industry to its knees, but the recent crises and sectarian massacres have truly put it on the mat. After the 2005 earthquake, Lonely Planet called Pakistani tourism ‘The next big thing’. The Guardian even released a list of “Top Five Tourist Sites in Pakistan”, but none of this promotion was effectively used by the government. By 2008, the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR) ranked Pakistan at a dismal 103 out of 124 countries to visit. Now, the number of tourists falls every year due to a lack of security and infrastructure. Even the step of waiving royalty charges for peaks up to 6,500m, and giving large discounts for other peaks had little effect. In my opinion, it’s not the discount that’s the problem but the utter lack of security that keeps foreign climbers away. Adventure tourists, trekkers and climbers are a hardy lot who can do without spas and hotels. But they can’t do without security. Last August, a bus full of passengers was massacred at the Babusar pass, compelling security forces to close down the KKH, the only ground link of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) with the rest of the country. More than 120 stranded foreigners were then airlifted from G-B to Islamabad. Assuming that those 120 foreigners will only sing praises of G-B’s landscape (if they were lucky enough to have had a glimpse before the tragedy), would be a cardinal mistake. It is after all a marketing maxim that a happy customer tells three people while an unhappy customer tells 300!! Porterage is the life blood of the people of the mountainous regions. That is how local breadwinners manage to feed their families. A porter in the Northern areas of Pakistan earns less than $5 a day for carrying heavy loads 25kg across treacherous terrain and deadly paths, wearing only one layer of clothing and plastic chappals. If the number of tourists declines further, these people will be pushed to the brink. And desperate people are dangerous people. Writer Harvey Voge once said that “The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure that you are too”. Yes, the mountains will always be there, but that doesn’t mean we can wait around forever before taking the needed steps to make sure that others can get there too! Courtesy: ET This entry was posted in Business, Columns, Gilgit-Baltistan, Latest News and tagged aviation, cars, climate, nature, science, transportation.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2505
__label__wiki	0.676224	0.676224	Cantonese Connection October 31, 2011 \| by Nathaniel Popkin \| Possible City \| Delaware River, Governor Corbett, Guangzhou, SEPTA, Stephen Girard Guangzhou Metro Imagined 2040 Trade with Canton in Southern China helped Philadelphia get rich in the 18th century. The connection to that city was a notable one, as Philadelphia homes filled with Chinese pottery and silks and the merchant trader Stephen Girard hung portraits of his Chinese business partners. The Philadelphia-Canton connection was also notable for the length of the journey (Girard had his ship captains stop constantly, doing business at ports along the way) and for the strange way the Delaware Bay on one end of the trip perfectly mirrored the Pearl River estuary on the other. Canton is now the 12.5 million person mega-city Guangzhou, like Philadelphia a leader in higher education and medicine. Until 1997, Guangzhou had no metro system. But sustained investment, nimble leadership, and creative public policy since then has made the city a global mass transit heavyweight. Guangzhou Metro has 4.4 million riders a day, a contactless fare system, and a consultant division, which advises other cities on how to expand mass transit (how’s that for innovation in the public sector?). All this points up our lack of leadership and imagination on this key facet of urban development. Last week, facing the prospect of having to act on transit issues, Governor Corbett said he already had “too many balls in the air.” It’s not fair, of course, to compare American and Chinese cities, but neither is it right to ignore what these fast-growing, by necessity innovative places are doing. In fact, the more we try to connect to that broader urban world, the more we will be compelled to take our own future seriously. We might say it’s a strategy that worked for Stephen Girard. Nathaniel Popkin is co-founder of the Hidden City Daily and author of three books of non-fiction, including Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City (with Peter Woodall and Joseph E.B. Elliott) and two novels, Everything is Borrowed and Lion and Leopard. He is co-editor of Who Will Speak for America, an anthology forthcoming in June 2018, and the senior writer of the film documentary "Philadelphia: The Great Experiment."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2507
__label__wiki	0.863619	0.863619	Home Research > Members > 1660-1690 > LUCY, Richard (c.1619-77) LUCY, Richard (c.1619-77), of Charlecote Park, Warws. YARMOUTH I.O.W. b. c.1669, 3rd s. of Sir Thomas Lucy† of Charlecote, and bro. of Sir Fulk Lucy. educ. Queen’s, Oxf. matric. 17 Sept. 1634, aged 14; travelled abroad 1637-40; G. Inn 1652. m. Elizabeth, da. and h. of John Urrey of Thorley, I.o.W., 4s. (3 d.v.p.) 2da. suc. bro. 1658.1 Sheriff, Warws. 1646-7; commr. for assessment, Warws. 1648-52, Hants 1649-52, Warws. and Hants 1657, Jan. 1660-d., I.o.W. 1663-4, Westminster 1677-d., militia, Warws. and Coventry 1648, Warws. Mar. 1660; j.p. Warws. by 1649-d., Hants 1649-July 1660; commr. for scandalous ministers, Warws. 1654, oyer and terminer, Western circuit 1655, Midland circuit July 1660; capt. of militia ft. Warws. Apr. 1660, dep. lt. c. Aug. 1660-d.; recorder, Stratford-on-Avon 1672-d.; commr. for recusants, Hants 1675.2 Commr. for army 1653-9, Feb.-May 1660, excise arrears 1653-4; judge of probate 1654-9; member, high court of justice.3 Lucy’s ancestors had held Charlecote since the 12th century and first sat for Warwickshire in 1312. His eldest brother was a royalist colonel, but Lucy himself is not known to have taken part in the Civil War. Before succeeding to the property he was a salaried official under the Commonwealth and Protectorate. He acquired an interest in the Isle of Wight by marriage, and was first returned for Yarmouth, one mile from Thorley, in 1659, though he chose to sit for Warwickshire. Again elected for the borough in 1660, he was moderately active in the Convention, being appointed to 17 committees, of which the most important was for the indemnity bill. On 24 May he recorded his acceptance of the King’s pardon ‘with humble and hearty thankfulness’, and promised to ‘continue his loyal and obedient subject’. He made no speeches, but he was marked as a friend on Lord Wharton’s list and probably voted with the Opposition, and his name was struck out of the disbandment commission. He was re-elected with his brother-in-law Edward Smythe in 1661. Again moderately active in the Cavalier Parliament, he was named to 59 committees. His only recorded speech, made in the debate on the five mile bill on 30 Oct. 1665, suggests that he retained some nonconformist sympathies, for he objected to the second part of the oath to be imposed on dissenting ministers and schoolmasters: ‘there would be no danger to the crown from them that should take the first part’. In 1671 he sold Highclere to Robert Sawyer. He was added to the committee to consider the general test bill on 12 Feb. 1674, but otherwise seems to have avoided involvement in political controversy. He was noted in 1675 on the working lists as under the influence of the distinguished ex-Cromwellian, Lord Orrery (Roger Boyle). He visited Shaftesbury in the Tower in 1677, and was marked by him ‘thrice worthy’. He died on 21 Dec., aged 58.4 Author: A. M. Mimardière 1. Vis. Warws. (Harl. Soc. lxii) 94; PC Reg. iii. 10. 2. Thurloe, iii. 296; Merc. Pub. 5 Apr. 1660; CSP Dom. 1671-2, p. 153. 3. G. E. Aylmer, State’s Servants, 238. 4. W. F. Lucy, Lucy Fam. 36-37; VCH Hants, v. 285; CJ, viii. 116, 154; CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 445; 1675-6, pp. 562-3; 1677-8, p. 267; Bodl. Carte 80, f. 757v.; VCH Hants, iv. 278.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2508
__label__wiki	0.589503	0.589503	Blue James Band - Give Me the Love or Give Me the Fight CD Read the review of Blue James Band - Give Me the Love or Give Me the Fight CD on Home Grown Music.net Blue James Band's third album, Give Me the love or Give Me the Fight, is a testament to the band's passion for imaginative, fun-filled, soul-soothing songs. The album sees the band as vibrant as ever, with their sunny roots/rock n' roll/reggae style fused throughout the album's ten tracks.Inventive musicality and lyrical style underlie Give Me the love or Give Me the Fight, allowing each track to take listeners on their own journey, while providing singularity that impresses like a fingerprint. The album is transcendent, yet accessible. Highlights include the reggae-infused "Not Ready For You" and the worldly "They Come and They Go." At the heart of the album is the title track, the lyrics of which embody the often-ineffable complexities of love. Says singer/songwriter Clifton Williams..."I want passion in my relationships and with that comes the highs of love and the lows of fights. Without both, the passion is somehow muted." This type of sensitivity and depth, encapsulated in simple form, is thematic of the band's lyrical signature. Coupled with a rhythmic melody that pulses throughout the track, the song demands that you move your feet and sing along. Give Me the love or Give Me the Fight uniquely captures Blue James Band's infectious energy, which fans around the world already enjoy in the band's spirited live shows. With Williams sitting as producer and Scott Riebling (Weezer, We The Kings) mixing, Blue James Band has released their most dynamic and inventive album to date. I. Not Ready For You (4:25) listen 2. They Come and They Go (3:54) listen 3. Long Distance Love (3:33) listen 4. Give Me the Love or Give Me the Fight (4:28) listen 5. Setting Sun (4:34) listen 6. Who You Are (4:26) listen 7. Everyone's Running (5:1D) listen 8. Between Two Lands (4:41) listen 9. Standing in the Fire (4:15) listen 10. Eyes in the Dark (4:38) listen Released in 2012	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2509
__label__cc	0.609751	0.390249	How China Is Upending Western Marketing Practices Kimberly Whitler, assistant professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, believes the days of transplanting well-worn Western marketing practices into national markets may be numbered. She has researched marketing campaigns in China and finds they are faster, cheaper, and often more effective than traditional Western ones. Moreover, she argues they may be better suited to today’s global marketplace. Whitler is the author of the HBR article “What Western Marketers Can Learn from China.” CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch. For decades, marketing theory and practice have been defined and refined in the West, from the four Ps taught in MBA programs to the sophisticated brand management run by multinational corporations. That’s the world of marketing that today’s guest started out in. Kim Whitler worked for Procter & Gamble. She successfully pushed soap brands in Eastern Europe and also worked in China in the 1990s, when the market was rapidly evolving. Now Whitler is a marketing professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. She recently returned to China to do research. And what she learned in her interviews there surprised her. She says Chinese marketing campaigns are faster, cheaper, and often more effective than traditional Western ones. And Whitler believes in some ways they are better suited to today’s global marketplace. She wrote about this in her article in Harvard Business Review, “What Western Marketers Can Learn from China.” Kim, thanks for being here to talk about your research. KIM WHITLER: Well, thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here. CURT NICKISCH: So, when did you realize that U.S. companies were going about marketing in China the wrong way? KIM WHITLER: So, I had been doing research on CMOs in the U.S. and I had the opportunity to go to China and to do the same type of research about marketing and CMOs in China, CEOs and CMOs, both from multinational firms working, operating in China, as well as from indigenous firms. And probably by the end of the first day, I started seeing a pattern that was very different. I expected to hear a lot of similar issues that I hear in the U.S., and I didn’t. And there were, there were a lot of things that I was observing. For example, the multinational companies seemed to have this gray cloud over them. As somebody who’s done a lot of qualitative research, sometimes it’s not what people say, it’s how they’re saying it. And there was an energy and an excitement from those who were Chinese-based companies, There’s really no good way for me to say it, other than I felt energy and positivity from the Chinese companies, and I started seeing that there was a malaise, and almost like they were operating in a way that was, that was preventing them from being competitive. CURT NICKISCH: When you say malaise, this is what you saw at multinational companies? KIM WHITLER: Yes. CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. And it’s always been the case that multinational companies tailor their marketing to local markets or regional markets. Is it the fact that China is just so big that it’s, localizing it means that it writes its own rules, or do you think that something fundamentally different is going on here? KIM WHITLER: First, the structure of the market, the way that the market has evolved, is fundamentally different. So, they have these enormous conglomerates, the Baidus, Alibabas, the Tencents – these enormous conglomerates; it’s like the equivalent of putting B of A, Wall Street Journal, Google, Twitter, Activision, CNN, ESPN, all in a single company. So they have a different market structure. That market structure leads to a very different mindset. So what I started observing is that what works in the West doesn’t necessarily work in China. The market is different, the tools in some ways are different, the way that they think is different. And so, then the competencies that they’re building are different. In the U.S., we grew up with billboards and radio, and then one day we had TV, and, I’m sorry we had newspapers too in the early era. And then one day we had TV, and we had three channels. And then pretty soon we had a lot of different channels. Then we had digital, and all this transpired over decades and decades. China didn’t grow up that way. They grew up very quickly, went to a mobile-first kind of platform, where the consumers spend almost all of their time on their phones. CURT NICKISCH: I was amazed to read in your research that Chinese consumers spend twice as much time on phones as U.S. consumers do – seven hours or something like that, looking at their phones in a day? KIM WHITLER: Well yes, and then this comes back to the notion of the structure of the market because there’s research done that shows that about 55 percent of the average consumer’s time is spent just on Tencent properties. Think about, I flip from Twitter to Google, to CNN, to ESPN, to banking, to Wall Street Journal, to gaming. And they have all of that under one umbrella. So, we worry here in the U.S. about privacy and about the power and the type of data that just a Google has. Or just a B of A. Or just a Wall Street Journal. Imagine when all of that is combined under one ecosystem. It’s a double-edged sword. On one side, you have all sorts of privacy concerns. But on the other side, you have so much greater insight into the consumer. You’re able to build better products, you’re able to create better engagement with the consumer because you know a lot more about them. And so the power to create better marketing programs is far greater. And so the challenge is, is if you’ve grown up in a Western world, and that’s the way in which you think, we tend to think in a channel-centric model. So, you’ll have an organization where you’ll have a digital group, and then you’ll have an email group, and you’ll have a TV group, and you’ll have radio, and so you have all these different channels. The marketers in China are not thinking this way. They’re thinking first about the consumer because their consumer connections are all connected. So the way in which they think about marketing is different. CURT NICKISCH: So, part of it is because of the leapfrogging into a mobile-first economy. I also wonder just how much has to do with size – the number of consumers, the number of businesses, it’s almost like you add an extra zero at the end, another order of magnitude, and there’s so many more experiments and things going on, and also noise that you have to break through if you want to reach consumers, too. So, I just – how much does the size of the market influence what, what’s happening here? KIM WHITLER: I think it gets a lot of attention because of the size. It’s so important globally, and when I worked in Eastern Europe, we were at the time, one of the world’s most competitive laundry detergent markets. We had all of the big global players competing for market share in the same space. When you have such a competitive marketplace like that, you get the best from all over the world, you get money, and so speed is fundamentally paramount, and I think this is one of the – I had, I was interviewing the CEO of Google China, and he said the pace at which they move in China is intimidating. I think in the West, we’d be surprised to have somebody from Google talk about the pace being intimidating, but it is. The way in which they operate, they recognize that speed means dollars, and in many cases, for the large multinationals that have been focused for decades on driving efficiency and scale, they have not been focused on speed. In fact, the way in which they operate is the opposite of speed. CURT NICKISCH: Yeah, they plan ahead for, by season, and yeah, years in advance for big sporting events, or whatever, right? KIM WHITLER: Yeah. I was, there’s a really interesting story. I was talking with the head of marketing for Visa – Greater China, and she had worked extensively in the U.S. for companies like PepsiCo, Ghirardelli Chocolate, McKinsey, and Unilever, and she said let me give you an example of how this works. She said, in my previous CPG jobs – CPG being consumer packaged goods jobs – in the U.S., she said we would sit down with Walmart one to two years in advance, and we’d think about what seasonal promotion we’d want to have way off in the future. Most of the time, we’d think about what type of promotion, dollars and cents promotion, location in the store promotion, could we create to drive volume? She said what the Chinese would do instead is that they would think about creating seamless content across multiple platforms that were temporally relevant. And what she meant was, that would be relevant in two weeks. That’s relevant right now. So, they create, they co-create consent, and they would try to air the content immediately. And so, all of a sudden, you see this planning, plotting, methodical, we’ve got to do things in two or three years, competing with a system where they recognize that if I know what’s happening next week, and I build systems that are really agile and really fast, then I can actually be, I can potentially win. When you look at China versus the Western mindset, the Western mindset has been really around scale and efficiency. Be slow, risk-averse, create systems, reduce from five plants to one plant, create one global product platform, and the China system is a growth mindset. How quickly can we grow our market share? And these two contrasting approaches are colliding. CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. And when you say colliding, it really makes it sound like a lot of multinationals or Western companies are losing, then, if that’s how Chinese consumers respond? KIM WHITLER: So, I would answer it this way. One is that in some cases, the Western company loses out. For example, Uber. Because they’re not as fast to expand or to move, and so that prevents them from being able to compete when speed is paramount. One of the CEOs made a very good point. He said look, right now in China, you have to end up being one of the largest one or two brands in a category in order to ensure funding. And so again, this comes back to the structure of the market is creating a mindset that then creates a capability, and the capability that they’re building is one of speed, one where they can move quickly, where process isn’t paralysis, but where they build agile processes that enable them to be adaptive and to be quicker in reacting to or making changes as necessary. CURT NICKISCH: So, let’s talk a little about what Western companies should do, with this in mind, with your insights in mind, what should they be thinking about? What should they be shooting to do, and how should they do things differently? KIM WHITLER: If it were me, if I were building an organization, I would want somebody who has this sort of expertise from China. I would want to add them to my team. Because let me give you an example. All right? So, I was, I was doing a session with a group of students here at Darden, as our MBA students are, they come from all over the world, and I asked them a question. I said: here’s your job. You have to come up with some way to drive growth, but you cannot use TV, radio, billboards, digital, traditional media, any of those vehicles. So, you can’t use any promotions, you can’t use any advertising through digital or traditional means. How would you drive growth? And here’s what happened. My Chinese students’ hands immediately shot up. Those from the West kind of looked around, they were trying to think, that’s a hard question because we’ve grown up in a system and a structure, that has us thinking first about advertising and about promotions. And when I asked the Chinese students, they immediately go to KOLs. CURT NICKISCH: And KOLs being? KIM WHITLER: Key opinion leaders. They said, you immediately go find the influencers in the marketplace, and you find a way to engage with them. Or they say, how can I go create engaging content? How can I create stories? How can I create books? Or how can I create games? How can I go create content that consumers want to engage with and partner with my brand? They naturally think that direction, where we are not necessarily trained to do that. So what I would do, if I were building an organization, is to hire that capability so I could infuse it within my team. CURT NICKISCH: And then it sounds like due to the fact that a couple of these companies – Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent – are so massive in their scope and reach that there’s no way around them. It sounds like you need to go through them to get to customers. KIM WHITLER: Yeah. One of the things that surprised me, I was interviewing an executive from Tencent, and as all of these pieces were coming together, it reminded me back in the 1980s and 1990s of what the P&Gs and Unilevers of the world did with Walmart. We knew that the power was shifting from the manufacturer to the retailer. And so all of a sudden, the Procters of the world starting collocating teams down at Walmart. They had all this data on the consumer, we had a lot of analytical horsepower, but we didn’t have the data. And so we partnered to try to glean insights from the data that would benefit Walmart and benefit Procter & Gamble. And so, it seemed obvious, when I started listening to what was happening, I asked this executive from Tencent, I said: how many companies are collocating with you? The nature of the data they have far exceeds anything that Walmart has. CURT NICKISCH: Right. KIM WHITLER: He said: The potential is unlimited, but we’re just beginning to start doing this type of work. Many of the multinationals have not, have not yet moved fully into that model. CURT NICKISCH: Gotcha. Have you seen a Western company do this successfully? KIM WHITLER: Yeah. So, that’s exactly what I asked them, and a couple of the examples that they used were BMW and McDonald’s. McDonald’s really did one of the most integrated across platform programs with Tencent and is kind of a pioneer and a bit of a leader on this front. They’ve done a nice job. BMW also started collaborating directly with Tencent, again in collaboration with their agencies, but rather than working through their agencies and counting on their agencies to do everything, the multinationals are saying: Wait a second, they’re too big and they’re too important, I need to work directly with you. CURT NICKISCH: And when you say agencies, you’re talking about advertising agencies. CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. So, was there a campaign that McDonald’s or BMW did, that really stood out? KIM WHITLER: Yeah. CURT NICKISCH: It’s funny, I call it campaign, too, but that’s probably the wrong way of thinking about it. KIM WHITLER: Yeah. BMW did something really interesting. What’s the process that you go through to buy a car? You are made aware of it through some sort of advertisement, and then at some point you decide I want to go, you might search for information about it, then you go test drive it. You go to the dealership, and I want to test drive the car, right? And so they know that test driving cars is really a very important feature of the experience. And so what they wanted to do to launch a — I think the car was the X1 — again, their first objective was, how do we launch this as quickly as humanly possible across China, with as much engagement, without spending a lot of money? Because advertising costs a lot of money. CURT NICKISCH: And that means not building dealerships all around the country and getting these cars shipped there for everybody to test drive? KIM WHITLER: It means that; it means not spending a lot of money on ads that talk about the X1. It’s how do we create a viral engaging experience that people want to participate in because it’s so much fun? And so what they did is, they decided to create a virtual concert. So they had a real live concert, OK, and they had a number of celebrities from across different generations so that they appealed to a large group of their target audience. This concert was available live on mobile, OK, so you can sit there and watch everybody on your phone. So they brought in key opinion leaders, big influencers across different target demographic groups, and those influencers were there live at the event, and they were talking about the event to their fans. So as you’re watching, I’m just making this up, as you’re watching Justin Bieber sing, there’s a KOL who’s a big influencer of that demographic, who’s then connecting directly with the fans who are watching the concert via their mobile phone. The influencers then went and did a virtual test drive, where the fans could watch them experience the car and do the test drive with their favorite influencer. And then there was all sorts of fun things like vote for your best drive, and so what this was able, what they were able to do is get thousands and thousands of people to do the virtual test drives. They had over 10 million people who participated in the concert. Now, remember, this all happened in one day. And so it’s just a different way of thinking about developing a program. It was not advertising first, it was not promotion first. It was how do I create content that consumers want to engage with? And then find a mechanism to get as many consumers in your target demographic as possible to engage. CURT NICKISCH: OK. So, that sounds very digital, and it may not sound all that different from how we see brands work with Twitter to promote things, or I covered the Super Bowl, right, so there were lots of key opinion leaders there, for brands and for products, that are just part of all of the digital marketing that goes on at a huge event like that. So, to somebody who hears that BMW story and says oh, that sounds like a great thing that they did, it worked pretty well, but it doesn’t sound like that different. What is the difference? What makes this so remarkable? KIM WHITLER: I would ask you to show me an example where a company like BMW in the U.S. does this for a launch. I mean, it’s like saying, how do we go create a cultural event like Woodstock and use that cultural event to create excitement around the product? It’s not that at some point during the concert it’s “brought to you by,” it’s that it’s woven into the fabric of the experience, and then the test drives are part of the experience. And then there’s a gaming part of this, a competition. Right? We love competition. One of the things that I find most fascinating about China is because gaming is so popular, and it’s embedded into a company like Tencent, the way in which they think about engaging with the consumer starts with principles around games. How does Candy Crush get somebody to spend four hours a day on their mobile phone? And that type of thinking – because gaming is a whole different industry. How many marketers are looking at the psychology of gaming, and saying what can we learn, and bring that into the way in which we create content and engaging experiences for the consumers? CURT NICKISCH: This obviously applies to companies that do business in China, but I just wonder how much this applies to other markets in Asia, I wonder how much this applies to the potential for disruption of marketing efforts in the United States? Because this could be Chinese companies that deliver products over here, or it could just be somebody in Silicon Valley who gets an idea from how things are done in China and just wants to compete head-to-head with the U.S. company in the United States with these new strategies and tactics. KIM WHITLER: You’re absolutely right. I think historically our mindset has been, we created marketing theory out of the West. We exported it to the world through our books, our textbooks, our education. The reality is that there’s a different – because of the structure, because of the mindset, because of the competency that is being built there, we need to learn from them. This isn’t just about exportation. We need to be importing and understanding it because even if you don’t compete in China, many of these companies are investing in American companies. And so, if you’re competing here, you could be competing with a company that has a Chinese backer, that has some of this competency. And frankly, there’s a whole other reason to do it. I’m somebody who’s lived around the world and managed businesses around the world. Your goal is to become the best marketer you can. And if we think that all the ideas need to be invented in the West and exported, I think that’s myopic. There’s a lot that we can learn, and it’s not just adaptation. It’s not like we, we learn here, and then we adapt for other markets. There’s a lot you can learn about markets that are evolving in a different way. It forces them to learn capabilities and competencies that we might not have, that can make us stronger. And so, more than anything, this article was really not about how China is going to beat the U.S. or the West, it’s more that there are things that they’re learning there, that because we are, we like to learn and grow, at least the marketers I interact with, they like to learn and grow. That there’s something that we can learn and take from China that can help make us better and more competitive in the markets in which we compete. CURT NICKISCH: Kim, this has been great. Thanks so much for sharing these insights. KIM WHITLER: Thank you so much. And I really enjoyed it. CURT NICKISCH: That’s Kim Whitler. She’s an assistant professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. She wrote the article “What Western Marketers Can Learn from China.” It’s in the May-June 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review and at HBR.org. This episode was produced by Mary Dooe. We get technical help from Rob Eckhardt. Adam Buchholz is our audio product manager. Thanks for listening to the HBR IdeaCast. I’m Curt Nickisch. This article is about MARKETING	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2510
__label__wiki	0.725481	0.725481	International Committee for Support of Political Prisoners in Iran کمیته بین المللی برای حمایت از زندانیان سیاسی ایران By icsppi Posted in Documents The list of 4483 political prisoners who were executed during the massacre of 1988 by the Islamic regime in IRAN The list of 4483 political prisoners1 The list of 4483 political prisoners who were executed during2 The list of 4483 political prisoners who were executed during8-1 Zainab Jalalian political prisoner in Iran. Zainab Jalalian was arrested in July of 2007 in the Kurdish province of Kermanshah for allegedly being a member of a banned Kurdish opposition group of insurgents. She was initially taken to the detention center of Ministry of Intelligence, where she was tortured for eight months. As a result, Zainab Jalalian began to suffer from internal and intestinal bleeding. Two years after her arrest, in a trial that lasted only minutes, with no legal representation, she was accused of “waging war against God” and, at age 27, was sentenced to death. In 2010 she was transferred to the feared Ward 209 of Evin prison in Tehran, a section well known for torturing prisoners until they confess. There she was told that her death sentence would be lifted if she agreed to a televised confession admitting her “armed” involvement against the regime. She endured by maintaining her innocence and refused their demand. She was then transferred back to Kermanshah facilities to await execution. In a letter shortly after she was sentenced to death in 2009, Zainab Jalalian wrote the following: “…I am currently ill because of torture and I don’t have any lawyer to defend me. I want to tell you that my trial took only few minutes. The court told me: ‘You are an enemy of God. You must be hanged very soon.’ That was the sum of my entire court process. I asked the judge to give me permission to just say good-bye to my mother before my execution. He told me to ‘shut up’ and rejected my request.” — November 2009, According to report from group in Iran working with human rights issue,Zainab Jalalian was passed around like a soccer ball between male guards while she was tied up, blindfolded and beaten. In the first three months of her detention, she suffered such serious head injuries that her interrogators, in a rare and unusual act, were forced to transfer her to a hospital outside prison. The report also reveals that she was also flogged on the soles of her feet until she passed out. When she finally gained consciousness; she was forced to walk on her feet and was then flogged again. She was also threatened with rape by her interrogator; she protested, he then struck her on the head with an iron rod, which fractured her skull, causing her to bleed profusely. It is believed it was this blow, along with many more repeated blows to her head, affected her vision; she was consistently denied medical care for her injuries, despite many hunger strikes. She became blind in both eyes. Between 2009 and 2010, Zainab Jalalian was the subject of an international campaign against her execution. As a direct result, her death sentence was commuted to life in prison. Zainab Jalalian is presently in agonizing pain due to bleeding and infection of her intestines. The authorities are deliberately refraining from transferring her to a city hospital for proper treatment. She has been given no provisions for her blindness while serving time. Both her ailments are direct result of torture while in custody. Massacres of Political Prisoners in the 1980s by the capitalist – Islamic regime of Iran After the change of regime in Iran in February 1979, the Islamic regime took over power. But in reality, it was just a change from monarchy dictatorship to Islamic dictatorship. Oppression, imprisonment, torture and execution continued. The Iranian people’s uprising against the Shah-regime was put down and their demands were attacked. Likewise, from the first day of the Islamic regime in power, all demands of the people, for instance, for freedom, democracy, equality etc. were suppressed. The Kurdish people were attacked and bombarded. Other minorities like Turkmen, Baluche, Arabs, Lor, etc. were attacked as well and many of them were killed by the Islamic forces. During the uprising, Iranian workers had formed various workers’ councils, but these were closed down by the regime. Workers were as heavily oppressed as during the Shah regime. Iranian women fighting for equality and freedom, were attacked as one of the first groups in society. In history, Iranian students and universities had always played an important role in society against dictatorship, but the Islamic regime closed universities as well as students’ organisations ” in the name of the Islamic cultural revolution”. Many students were killed. Universities were closed from 1980 until 1983. Freedom of speech – one of the slogans of the uprising against the shah regime – has been continuously oppressed by the Islamic regime. All newspapers were closed down and forbidden, and the right to organize, demonstrate, strike etc. was forbidden. Political organizations and parties that were against the shah regime have been persecuted and forbidden from the first day of the Islamic regime, and many of the members and supporters were sent to jail, tortured and executed. With the start of the war between the two reactionary regimes of Iraq and Iran in 1980, the Islamic regime found a new excuse to oppress all movements: accusing of collaboration with the enemies – for instance at demonstrations, strikes etc. In 1981, when the Islamic regime had been two years in power, beside the military and intelligence services (Savak) of the Shah, various Islamic military (Pasdaran) and intelligence services (Savama) were organised. From this period the regime intensified mass imprisonment, torture, executions, oppression etc. At the beginning of 1981, one of the biggest massacres in Iranian history took place. Thousands of political prisoners were executed or tortured by the Islamic regime. Every day and every night, a lot of executions were carried out. The judicial system was headed by mullahs (Islamic priests). Political prisoners were called in for a so called trial in which just one mullah asked three or four questions : name, party/ organization, Will you condemn your party/ organization? or Will you collaborate and participate in an interview on television and say you regret, and you believe in islam etc.). Thousands of them were sentenced to execution and others to long imprisonment. In prison, the interrogation and torture continued all the time because the Islamic laws say prisoners must apologise and accept islam. Female political prisoners have obtained equality by Islamic laws – as for torture and execution. Many female political prisoners were raped in prison, and many of them raped just before execution, because – according to Islamic rules – if you are a virgin and you die, you are going to paradise. From 1981 until 1988, tens of thousands of political prisoners were executed or killed under torture in prison by the Islamic regime. In 1988, after the end of the war between Iran and Iraq, and after the Islamic regime’s accept of UN resolution 598, Khomeini, leader of the Islamic regime, ordered to “clean up” the prisons in Iran. In a letter he sent to the responsible for the Islamic judicial system, he ordered the execution of the political prisoners. In August and September 1988, according to the order of Khomeini, a “death commission” consisting of five members was established. They went to different prisons, for instance the Evin prison in Tehran and Gohardasht prison and called the political prisoners to so called courts. The prisoners were interrogated for two-three minutes: Do you believe in islam? Do you believe in your organization or party? Will you cooperate and make an interview on television? If the answer did not satisfy the death commission, the political prisoners were sent directly to be hanged or executed. The Marxist women according to Islamic laws – in this so called court – had to accept to pray, or if they did not accept to pray, they were lashed to death or until they accepted to do so. But many of the female political prisoners did not accept to pray and died. After the massacres of the political prisoners in 1988, the Islamic regime buried all the bodies of the executed prisoners in mass graves in different places, for example in Tehran at the cemetery called Khavaran. The Islamic regime until now has not admitted these crimes, but the names of almost 5000 executed prisoners and the names of their organizations or parties are known. Families and relatives of the political prisoners who were executed in 1988 did not get the bodies and they were not told where the bodies were buried. Some of them just got some clothes and from 1988 until to-day they are not allowed to commemorate their relatives. Until now the world does not know about the massacres of the political prisoners in Iran in 1980’s – one of the biggest massacres in world history. We – as part of the revolutionary – communist resistance movements against the Islamic regime in Iran – call for international condemnation of the massacres and the Islamic regime and for solidarity with the resistance in Iran. Overthrow the capitalist – Islamic regime in Iran – Long live socialism Stop Executions Now Mumia Abu-Jamal – first interview since escaping death row Hanging of political prisoners in the street by the Islamic regime in Iran By icsppi Posted in News, Pictures Khavaran cemetry 1988, the mass grave of political prisoners From Death Row, Mumia Abu Jamal (3/3)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2513
__label__cc	0.613484	0.386516	John Catanzaro Obituary of John Catanzaro John Catanzaro, 86, of Collegeville, PA, passed away on Thursday, February 28, 2019, at Seasons Hospice in Phoenixville, PA. He was the husband of the late JoAnne (Rowe) Catanzaro, who passed away in 2002. Born in Ambler, PA, on November 16, 1932, John was the son of the late Antonio and Filomena (DeMarco) Catanzaro. John was a 1952 graduate of Ambler High School and served in the Army during the Korean War from 1953-1955. After his time in the military, he began his career as a steel worker at the Alan Wood Iron and Steel Company and was later a sprocket manufacturer at The Budd Company. More recently, John was an active member of Saint Eleanor Parish in Collegeville, and a Fourth Degree Knight in the Knights of Columbus. He was an avid fan of Philadelphia sports teams and loved cooking. He is survived by two distant children, Angel and Jay Catanzaro; four grandchildren, Stephen Buglak, Perkasie, PA; Michael Buglak, Collegeville, PA; Jennifer Bray, wife of David, Chicora, PA; and Terri Tinker, wife of Richard, Severn, MD; six great-grandchildren; and one sister, Catherine. In addition to his wife and parents, he is predeceased by three siblings, step-son Stanley Buglak, and one grandson, Thomas Buglak. Visitation will take place on Monday, March 4, 2019, from 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. at Saint Eleanor Parish, 647 Locust St., Collegeville, PA 19426. A memorial mass will follow at 10:30 a.m. Interment will take place after the service at Augustus Lutheran Church Cemetery, Trappe, PA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in John’s memory to the MDS Foundation at https://www.mds-foundation.org/donate/ or to The Veterans of Foreign Wars at https://heroes.vfw.org/page/27953/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=homepage. Houck & Gofus Funeral Home, Inc., 955 N. Charlotte St., Pottstown, PA 19464, will be handling the arrangements. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.houckgofusfuneralhome.com.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2518
__label__wiki	0.550139	0.550139	When I went to the cinema to see this film I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. I didn’t really think it was my type of film but I was so wrong. I couldn’t stop smiling throughout the film, it was so fun and refreshing. It was very entertaining. Sometimes it’s nice to watch a film where it’s about something serious but there are many jokes that make you laugh throughout. Chris Pratt was the perfect man for the role of Star-Lord. He was charming and witty but Groot was my favourite, voiced by Vin Diesel. Groot is tree that talks and helps the guys save the world. The characters were full of energy which projected onto the audience. A truly thrilling film that excites from start to finish. I loved the soundtrack to this film, it’s so ridiculous but clever. It’s not like other superhero films where the music is serious. The soundtrack included: Come and Get Your Love By Redbone Ain’t No Mountain High Enough By Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell I Want You Back By The Jackson 5 Cherry Bomb By The Runaways My favourite song from the soundtrack is Cherry Bomb, I’ve always loved the song but when it was used in the film when they were walking in slow motion just made me laugh. My favourite part in the film was when Groot died and in the end was reborn into a baby tree. He looked so cute and tiny. I’m very excited for the second Guardians of the Galaxy film which is going to be released on the 5th of May in 2017, so we have quite a wait but I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be keeping my eye out for spoilers and casting confirmations. I’m sure the original cast will return it’s just finding out if any other Marvel characters will be added. Posted in: superhero \| Tagged: bradley cooper, chriss pratt, comics, guardians of the galaxy, james gunn, marvel, vin diesel, zoe saldana Grey’s Anatomy: Season 11 Episode 14 One thought on “Guardians of the Galaxy” Pingback: Bushwick (2017) – Film and TV by KatieMai	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2526
__label__cc	0.743587	0.256413	Home > Vol 5, No 5 (1978) > N/A The American Cockatiel Society The American Cockatiel Society was founded in February 1977 by a small group of dedicated Cockatiel fanciers in Fort Worth, Texas. Membership to A.C.S was presented to the Fort Worth Bird Club on February 17, at which time fifteen new members were added. The courtesy advertisement in Watchbird magazine was responsible for another forty members. From this small beginning the Society has grown to a world wide membership of over 650. A.C.S. is now represented in all fifty states and in six foreign countries. The growth of any society is determined by its ability to communicate. To bridge the communication gap. Dee Dee Squyres assumed the duties of corresponding secretary and Tom Squyres became bulletin editor. The first bulletin was published in May of 1977 and mailed to one hundred members. The American Cockatiel Society was formed because of the need for such a specialty club. The desire was, and is to have a true national society. This can only be accomplished by equal voice from each and every area of the country. The first one hundred members were deemed charter members, who elected the first and present board of officers. The group of charter members represents fifteen states. The Cockatiel has shown a tremendous popularity increase in recent years. This increase can be attributed partly to the new mutations. Three mutations have been established in the last decade; this is more than in the entire history of the Cockatiel. Some of the credit must also go to the pet owner. who realizes what an outstanding pet the Cockatiel is. A.C.S. 's desire is to cater to both the breeder and the pct owner. Through the medium of the bulletin you will learn what to expect from a double cross mutation or how to care for a pet Cockatiel. The goal of the society includes establishing an ideal standard for the Cockatiel, and to train and direct judges to this standard. The society's aim is to encourage closed banding and careful record keeping of all birds. and to share the knowledge and ideals of all members through the medium of the A.C.S. bulletin. What has The American Cockatiel Society accomplished in one short year? A National Cockatiel Specialty Show, "the first in America." will be held this November in Atlanta, Georgia. A.C.S. also publishes it's own show catalogue. A bimonthly bulletin is mailed to some 700 members worldwide. Traceable. coded, A. C. S. bands are offered to all members at a small cost. A proposed standard for the Cockatiel is now in effect. The list of accomplishments is impressive. but only the surface has been scratched. Such items as screening and selection of judges to form an A.C.S. judges panel is on the agenda for 1979. The appointment of state representatives for all fifty states is another program yet to be accomplished. And of course the upgrading of the bulletin to keep the members better informed must be given top priority. For only $7.50 a year the American Cockatiel Society has much to offer. COME JOIN US, YOU WILL FIND A.C.S. INTERESTING, REWARDING. AND EVEN FUN	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2533
__label__wiki	0.623858	0.623858	Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland Side Nav Journey to the Judiciary What We're Looking For Role Profiles The Recommendation Process Home › Resources › Am I Eligible? To apply for a judicial office in Scotland you must meet the statutory eligibility requirements. The Board requires you to also complete a declaration of your nationality. Applicants should be aware that the Board will consider applications from candidates who are not citizens of the British Commonwealth. However, if recommended, the Scottish Government may be unable to appoint such an applicant to the office. For eligibility criteria required for specific judicial roles, please see below for more information. Judges to the Court of Session and Chairman of the Scottish Land Court To apply for appointment to either of these judicial offices, you must be: • A Sheriff Principal or a Sheriff who has exercised these functions continuously for a period of at least five years • An Advocate of five years standing* • A Solicitor who has had rights of audience before either the Court of Session or the High Court of Justiciary continuously for a period of not less than five years • A Writer to the Signet of ten years standing who has passed the examination in civil law two years before taking up your seat on the Bench. * Please note that there is no requirement in relation to the eligibility of Advocates, that they be an Advocate immediately prior to their application or that the minimum five years standing. Sheriffs Principal, Sheriffs, Part-time Sheriffs and Summary Sheriffs Eligibility for these judicial offices is set out in section 14 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, you must be: Immediately before the appointment, held any other judicial office specified in Section 14 Legally qualified (either as an Advocate or a Solicitor) throughout the period of 10 years immediately preceding the appointment Whilst holding any of the above offices, post-holders cannot engage directly or indirectly in any private practice or business, or be in partnership with or employed by, or act as an agent for, any person so engaged. A part-time sheriff (fee-paid), or a part-time summary sheriff (fee-paid), who is a solicitor in practice must not carry out any function as a part-time sheriff or, as the case may be, a part-time summary sheriff in a sheriff court district in which his or her place of business as such solicitor is situated. Employees of the Government Legal Service for Scotland (GLSS) or the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) must resign if they wish to take up a part-time shrieval appointment (fee-paid). The Upper and First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Tribunals are a central part of the Scottish justice system and play a vital role in protecting people's rights. People can go to a tribunal if they want to challenge a decision that affects them. Tribunals tend to be less formal and more accessible than the courts. The Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 paved the way for tribunals to be brought under one umbrella – the Scottish Tribunals with two-tiers - a First-tier Tribunal, which makes decisions on cases previously heard by the individual tribunals, and an Upper Tribunal that hears appeals against decisions of the First-tier. The First-tier Tribunal is divided into chambers, each of which hears cases relating to particular subjects, like housing and property or tax. Further information about Scottish Tribunals can be found here. The eligibility criteria for appointment as a member of Scottish Tribunals can differ depending on the matter a tribunal is required to consider. We will update this section with new eligibility critera as it is published. The eligibility criteria for the Scottish Tribunals to date: Upper Tribunal - Legal Member First-tier Tribunal for Scotland - Legal Member First-tier Tribunal Tax Chamber - Ordinary Member First-tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber - Ordinary Member First-tier Tribunal Health and Education Chamber - Ordinary Member View all of our current and upcoming vacancies Register your interest to receive information and news from us, including details about our latest vacancies and upcoming events. You can unsubscribe at any time by emailing us via the contact form. Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland on Twitter Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland on Linkedin	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2534
__label__wiki	0.7923	0.7923	Springfield, New York facts for kids Springfield, New York Springfield, Otsego County, New York 45.5 sq mi (117.7 km2) 2.5 sq mi (6.4 km2) 5.46% 1,322 ft (403 m) 29.85/sq mi (11.538/km2) Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) EDT (UTC-4) Springfield is a town in Otsego County, New York, USA. The population was 1,358 at the 2010 census. The Town of Springfield is located at the northern county line of Otsego County and is approximately 50 mi (80 km) west of Schenectady. Notable residents Communities and locations in Springfield Several families settled near Otsego Lake around 1762, but little further development occurred until after the American Revolution. In 1778, Joseph Brant, native leader, led an expedition that burned the town and took captives. The Town of Springfield was formed from part of the Town of Cherry Valley in 1797. Growing hops was a major agricultural pursuit. Elisha Hall, inventor of a type of threshing machine. George Hyde Clarke, grandson to the Acting Governor of New York from 1736-1743 (under British rule) [1] Arthur L. Ryerson, steel industrialist, who died on the Titanic maintained a summer home for his family in Springfield Center known as Ringwood Henry Lansing Wardwell, New York City financier, maintained a summer estate and farm in Springfield Center known as Pinehurst. Still owned by descendents today. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 45.5 square miles (118 km2), of which, 43.0 square miles (111 km2) of it is land and 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2) of it (5.46%) is water. The town encloses the northern end of Otsego Lake. Hayden Creek flows southward from Summit Lake into the northern end of the Otsego Lake. Because Summit Lake is located on a divide, part of its flow exits from the northern end of the lake through Cedar Swamp. The "Chyle," is the name of a sinkhole at the north end of Summit Lake. Shadow Brook enters Otsego Lake at Hyde Bay. New York State Route 80, a north-south highway, intersects US Route 20, an east-west highway, north of Springfield Center. The north town line is the county line of Herkimer County and a small section of Montgomery County. 1830 2,816 36.4% 1840 2,382 −15.4% 1850 2,322 −2.5% 1860 2,390 2.9% Est. 2014 1,328 −2.2% U.S. Decennial Census As of the census of 2000, there were 1,350 people, 521 households, and 375 families residing in the town. The population density was 31.4 people per square mile (12.1/km²). There were 712 housing units at an average density of 16.6 per square mile (6.4/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.59% White, 0.15% African American, 0.07% Native American, 0.22% Asian, 0.15% from other races, and 0.81% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.19% of the population. There were 521 households out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.1% were married couples living together, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.0% were non-families. 22.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.04. In the town, the population was spread out with 26.2% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 25.3% from 25 to 44, 25.7% from 45 to 64, and 17.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 98.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $33,854, and the median income for a family was $38,490. Males had a median income of $25,625 versus $23,611 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,513. About 5.6% of families and 8.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.8% of those under age 18 and 5.4% of those age 65 or over. Allen Lake – a small lake near the west town line. Clarke Point – a headland of Otsego Lake north of Hyde Bay. East Springfield – A hamlet east of Middle Village on US-20 at the junction of County Route 31. The East Springfield Union School and Hyde Hall Covered Bridge are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Glimmerglass State Park – A state park partly in the town at the eastern shore of Otsego Lake. Hyde Bay – A bay of Otsego Lake, partly in the town. Middle Village – A hamlet east of Springfield village on US-20. Mt. Wellington – a notable hill north of Otsego Lake. Shipman Pond – a pond north of Springfield Center. Springfield – The hamlet of Springfield is located on US Route 20. Springfield Center – A hamlet on NY-80, at County Route 29A, north of Otsego Lake. Springfield Four Corners – A location northwest of Springfield village, located on NY-80. Summit Lake – A small lake north of Otsego Lake. Municipalities and communities of Otsego County, New York, United States County seat: Cooperstown Butternuts Edmeston New Lisbon Otego Roseboom Richfield Springs CDPs Schenevus Burlington Flats Fly Creek Schuyler Lake South Edmeston Springfield Center West Burlington West Edmeston‡ ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties Springfield, New York Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2535
__label__wiki	0.888672	0.888672	Make seven changes to your Constitution: India tells Nepalhttps://indianexpress.com/article/world/neighbours/make-seven-changes-to-your-constitution-address-madhesi-concerns-india-to-nepal/ Make seven changes to your Constitution: India tells Nepal These “amendments” have been conveyed to Nepal’s leadership by the Indian government through official channels Ranjit Rae, India’s ambassador to Nepal. Written by Shubhajit Roy \| New Delhi \| Updated: September 24, 2015 8:08:33 am Nepal’s Constitution to be implemented after polls Newly-elected Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba takes oath of office Nepal: Madhesi community rejects constitutional amendment as ‘incomplete’ Members of the United Madheshies of Nepal protest outside the Nepal embassy in New Delhi, Tuesday. (Source: PTI) Upset over Nepal’s newly promulgated Constitution, New Delhi wants Kathmandu to carry out “seven amendments” to ensure it is acceptable to the Madhesis and Janjatis, South Block sources told The Indian Express Tuesday. These amendments are at the heart of the protests and violence in Nepal which have left at least 40 dead. Read: We cannot bow down before pressure or persuasion: Prachanda These “amendments” have been conveyed to Nepal’s leadership by the Indian government through official channels — Ranjit Rae, India’s ambassador to Nepal, is in New Delhi for consultations — after South Block reviewed the new Constitution. The proposed amendments are: * Article 63 (3) of the Interim Constitution provided electoral constituencies based on population, geography and special characteristics, “and in the case of Madhes on the basis of percentage of population”. Under this provision, Madhes, with more than 50 per cent of the population, got 50 per cent of seats in Parliament. The latter phrase has been omitted in Article 84 of the new Constitution. “It needs to be re-inserted so that Madhes continues to have electoral constituencies in proportion to its population,” a government source told The Indian Express. [related-post] * In Article 21 of the Interim Constitution, it was mentioned that various groups would have “the right to participate in state structures on the basis of principles of proportional inclusion”. In the new Constitution (Article 42), the word “proportional” has been dropped — Delhi wants it re-inserted. * Article 283 of the Constitution states that only citizens by descent will be entitled to hold the posts of President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Speaker of Parliament, Chairperson of National Assembly, Head of Province, Chief Minister, Speaker of Provincial Assembly and Chief of Security Bodies. This clause is seen as discriminatory for the large number of Madhesis who have acquired citizenship by birth or naturalisation. Delhi says this should be amended to include citizenship by birth or naturalisation. * Article 86 of the new Constitution states that National Assembly will comprise 8 members from each of 7 States and 3 nominated members. Madhesi parties want representation in National Assembly to be based on population of the Provinces. This, Delhi says, should be done to address concerns. * Five disputed districts of Kanchanpur, Kailali, Sunsari, Jhapa and Morang: Based on the majority of the population, these districts or parts of them may be included in the neighbouring Madhes Provinces. * Article 154 of the Interim Constitution provided for delineation of electoral constituencies every 10 years. This has been increased to 20 years in Article 281 of the new Constitution. Echoing the Madhesi parties, India wants this restored to 10 years. * Article 11(6) states that a foreign woman married to a Nepali citizen may acquire naturalised citizenship of Nepal as provided for in a federal law. Madhesi parties want acquisition of naturalised citizenship to be automatic on application. This also finds favour with Delhi. Sources said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up counterpart Sushil Koirala on August 25. He appealed to the government, all political parties and the people of Nepal to eschew violence and maintain social harmony. “During the August 25 phone call, the PM told Koirala that the political leadership of Nepal should resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue with all political parties and through the process of widest possible consultation, including with the public… to strengthen the climate of trust and confidence across and between all sections of society, and arrive at solutions that reflect the will and accommodate the aspirations of all citizens of a richly diverse society within a united, peaceful, stable and prosperous Nepal,” an official said, quoting from a statement of the Ministry of External Affairs. In the last one month, New Delhi repeatedly asked Kathmandu — this included sending Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar as the PM’s envoy — to accommodate concerns being expressed by Madhesis and Tharus but that did not happen. Former Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayant Prasad told The Indian Express Tuesday: “The situation seems quite difficult in Nepal. The triumvirate of the political parties should realise the enormity of the mistake committed by them. They, simply, will have to address the concerns of Madhesis and Janjatis.” MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup has reacted to the report: “The article is incorrect. Government of India has not handed over any list of specific Constitutional amendments or changes to the Government of Nepal. Without being prescriptive on specific clauses, and as already stated earlier, we continue to urge that issues on which there are differences should be resolved through dialogue in an atmosphere free from violence, and institutionalised in a manner that would enable broad-based ownership and acceptance.” The reporter replies: The Indian Express has confirmed from its sources that these amendments/changes were communicated by New Delhi to Kathmandu. It stands by the report. Nepal Constitution DO NOT USE Neighbours 1 Any act that amounts to undermining Nepal’s sovereignty is not acceptable: Prachanda 2 Pakistani journalist Chand Nawab thrashed by Karachi police 3 Nepal does not want to be India’s ‘yes man’: Prachanda	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2540
__label__cc	0.740185	0.259815	Kumbh Mela \| Shahi Snan on Mauni Amavasya We went to attend a wedding ceremony in Varanasi from January 26 to January 30. My mother decided to go for a dip at the Triveni Sangam this time also on the occasion of the Mauni Amavasya. We came to Prayagraj city for the shahi snan on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya during the Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013. That time my dad was also with us. My Dadu, father of my mother and the family of my maternal uncle stay in Allahabad. So, it’s convenient for us. The pilgrims transform the sandy banks of the Ganga and the Yamuna into a sprawling tent city. More than 40,000 LED bulbs have been installed to brighten up the Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela — the largest congregation in the world — sees world gathering of saints, pilgrims, devotees to take holy dips in the sacred confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna, and the mystical Saraswati. Bathing in these rivers is thought to cleanse and purify ones’ soul of all sins. It’s recognized by UNESCO as India’s ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’. The tradition of Kumbh Mela is continuing since time immemorial. At any time there are millions of pilgrims on the move around the Kumbh Mela. The grand religious event, which started on January 15 on the occasion of Makar Sakranti, is expecting the highest participation on the Mauni Amavasya. Basically, Mauni Amavasya is the new moon day of the Magha month of the Hindu calendar, which falls in late January or early February. It assumes greater significance if it falls on a Monday during the Kumbh, which happens to be the case this time. The Amavasya will begin at 11:52 p.m. on February 3 and will continue till 02:33 a.m. on February 5. The Kumbh witnesses altogether three Shahi snans (Royal Baths), the first of which took place on Makar Sankranti (January 15) and the third and the last is scheduled on Basant Panchami (February 10). Our Panditjee in Allahabad booked a tent for the entire duration of the Kumbh Mela. He invited us to his tent. My mother and I reached his tent in the morning of January 3. We stayed in the tent area and also participated in the pujas and religious ceremonies all throughout the day. We stayed there for the night as we were to have our dip in the river Ganga at dawn. Dadu also joined us in the evening. I walked around the mela to see many sadhus, sannyasis, monks, devotees, and people around. It’s amazing! For the first time ever, at least 2,500 transgender (a.k.a. Hijra or Kinnar) monastics and seers are participating in the Kumbh Mela under the banner of the Kinnar Akhada. A series of religious and cultural programmes are in the kinnar village every evening and folk artists from different parts of the country perform here. The portal of Kinnar Akhara in Kumbh Mela \| Prayagraj (Allahabad) The place of hijras in Indian culture dates back to the Ramayana, a more than 2,000-year-old Hindu epic poem venerated and performed across India. In the text, the god-king Ram is exiled from the holy city of Ayodhya, with the entire kingdom following him into the forest. He orders them to turn back, but returning after 14 years, finds the hijras waiting for him in the same spot. Impressed by their devotion, he grants them the power to invoke blessings and curses on people. However, a law was passed by the British crown in 1871 classing the hijras as “criminals”. Little changed after Independence and hijras were pariahs, living in tribes, begging or soliciting for sustenance and harassed by police. It was only in 2014 that the Supreme Court officially recognised transgender people as a third gender. Kinnar Akhada is a step forward towards inclusiveness of transgenders in the Indian society. For Kumbh Mela, a new temporary city (Kumbh Nagri) has been set up along Prayagraj, which has 250-km long roads and 22 pontoon bridges. According to news agency ANI, this is the largest temporary city in the world. The 32,000-hectares township – Kumbh Nagri – on the banks of the river the Ganga and the Yamuna spanning 15 km on both sides of the rivers, was teeming with people making their way to the Sangam for the bath from one day before. Devotees have come in millions to take a holy dip on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya It is believed that on this day of Mauni Amavasya, first sage Rishabh Dev broke his long vow of silence and bathed in the holy waters. Many devotees take up a vow of silence on this day. We observed silence from the time the tithi started (11:52 p.m. on February 3) until we took our holy dip in the river Ganga at the dawn of February 4. In Vedic timekeeping, a tithi is a lunar day. It’s a divine experience to take a dip in the Sangam along with so many saints, monks, pilgrims, and devotees. Massive security and functional arrangements have been made for peaceful bathing. After our holy bath in a chilly winter morning, we warmed us with hot jalebis. After holy dip on Mauni Amavasya morning Nothing like hot jalebis in a winter morning after the bath in the river Creating a record of sort, 50 million pilgrims have taken a dip in Sangam during the auspicious Somvati Mauni Amavasya. Tens of millions of pilgrims taking a dip at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers \| Photo: Uttar Pradesh Government Pilgrimage isn’t complete without charity. Devotees donating rice (Annadaan) to poor after the shahi snan Shops selling fruits and groceries for the devotees staying in the Tent city — Kumbh Nagri We spent the whole day of the Mauni Amavasya on the bank of the river, attended religious discourses and prayers, and returned home after the havan in the evening. Havan, a.k.a. homa or homam, is a Sanskrit word that refers to any ritual wherein offerings are made into a consecrated fire. Havan after Kumbh snan Kumbh Mela never ceases to amaze and its amazement is felt in the grandeur of it being the largest religious-cultural festival in the world. This is my second Kumbh Mela here and it’s indeed a huge gathering of people. More than 120 million people are expected to visit Kumbh till Maha Shivaratri (March 4), when the festival will come to a close. I was missing my dad this time. We enjoyed the Maha Kumbh Mela together in 2013. The Government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has this time also developed a mobile application to deliver a seamless digital tourism experience to the pilgrims and the foreign visitors by providing contextual digital experience and showcasing information. I must appreciate the UP government and people of Prayagraj for making such a huge mega event a peaceful and orderly one. No untoward incident has been reported from anywhere. The government has built new roads, revamped the local airport and tried its best to keep things clean. For the first time, an Integrated Control Command and Centre has been established in the Kumbh Nagri to facilitate controlling and keeping safe the traffic movement and the crowd coming to mela. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by the Integrated Command and Control Centre wherein the security personnel can see the visuals of crowd movement and assess the crowd size. At the same time, they can also monitor anything which is suspicious. All India Radio (AIR) has set up a separate one kilowatt FM transmitter — Kumbhvani to start broadcasting at 5.55 a.m. until 10.05 p.m. daily. This broadcast can be heard in the radius of 35 km. AIR for the first time, has also made arrangements for live streaming on YouTube of all programs broadcast from Kumbhvani. The state government has harnessed all of its resources to try and make the rambunctious and chaotic Kumbh an orderly affair. The overall arrangements, Police bundobust, disaster management, and crowd management were excellent this time, which made the whole experience a pleasantly memorable one. Har Har Gangay! Har Har Mahadev! Custom & Tradition, Events & Festivals, Faith & Belief, India, Travel & LeisureDr. Judhajit RoychoudhuryConfluence, Cultural Heritage, Fair & Exhibition, Hinduism, Monks & Saints, Pilgrimage, Prayagraj, Prayers & Worship, Rivers & Streams, Shacks & Tents, Top Post on Indiblogger, UNESCO Heritage Lists, Uttar Pradesh22 comments Significance of Rituals First Experience at Comic Con 22 thoughts on “Kumbh Mela \| Shahi Snan on Mauni Amavasya” Beautiful post ! Dr. Judhajit Roy Choudhury Thank you. Should visit this kind of events. I have to make time to visit or may be after my retirement Well, don’t worry Madam. It’s repeated every 12 years or 6 years, if you include Ardha Kumbhs. Hope you’ll make time for one. Interesting read; yet to visit Kumbh Thanks, Arvind. It’s a wonderful experience. You must be there once to feel it. I hope someday I do. Life is short and the list of places is pretty long. 🙂 Yes, very true. 😃 Abhijit Ray Beautiful post. It amazes me that since the begining of time this festival is going on. Everytime people come a take a dip. What a wonderful tradition! Blessed are those taking a dip in the river. It is an awesome feeling to bathe with so many people at one point of time. Feels like the great baths of Harappa civilisations. True. It is the continuity that is so thrilling. Vandana Mathur Lovely write-up with colourful pictures. It seems that now kumbh is organised with lots of planning. I will visit it next time if possible. Sure, you must visit it at least once. It’s an amazing experience. It is actually. Last time I went to Maha Kumbh 6 years ago and it was too crowded. But this time it was so well-managed that I didn’t feel it a bit crowded. Even vehicles were allowed to reach the ghat for old and physically challenged pilgrims, even though around 5 crore of pilgrims took holy dip this year. Madhura Doshi Enjoyed the post as well as the photos 🙂 Kumbh mela is definitely on my bucket list! Thank you. It’s definitely a lifetime experience. Nils Heininger It is really nice to feek the amazement in your words. As I had a complete different experience, I am happy to hear the opposite. Dr. Judhajit Roychoudhury Hmm.. was the different good one or bad one?? I am curious. scintillatingmemoirs I’ve always heard about the kumbh and the simplicity with which people attend it. You’ve written a great post covering and showing how significant the event is. Great job! Leave a Reply to Dr. Judhajit Roychoudhury Cancel reply	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2541
__label__cc	0.682265	0.317735	Filling the “STEM Gap” America's skilled workforce is at risk. The needs of our nation's economy are outpacing the skill sets and education of our youth, creating a "gap" in our workforce. Click here to read the complete illustrated article as originally published or scroll down to read the text article. The trend holds true across all industries, but it is particularly threatening for manufacturing companies. The main problem is that we are not equipping enough young people with sufficient skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). As senior vice president of human resources for a Fortune 500 manufacturing company, I experience this problem first-hand. Modern manufacturing is, by nature, very high tech. Facilities are automated and rely heavily on computerized systems to operate equipment, implement processes, and manage infrastructure. Unfortunately, the surge in technological advances was not coupled with an effort to educate youth, or enable them with skills to execute these complex tasks. This skill deficit isn’t just a problem for manufacturers; it’s also a lost opportunity for workers. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers settle for low-paying, low-skill jobs because they leave the educational system without the knowledge and training to take manufacturing jobs that often pay professional-level starting wages. We’re sitting on a tremendous opportunity to support STEM careers in our country and bolster our talent pipeline. We need to rise to the challenge. Federal and state governments are recognizing the STEM education gap and are starting to take action. In New York, where Corning is headquartered, the state initiated a program that incentivizes degrees in STEM-related fields. It’s an important first step, and we need more of this type of government action. But we can’t rely solely on the government to fix the STEM gap. Employers and corporations can proactively inspire youth by supporting programs that build a skilled, talented workforce. If manufacturing and other industries engage quickly and comprehensively, the American workforce can stage a “STEM comeback.” Why STEM? In the next decade, nearly all of the top 20 fastest growing occupations will require some background in basic science, technology, engineering and math. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the next 10 years, the U.S. will either need to develop or import more than 2 million skilled production and manufacturing workers. Approximately half of these STEM-related jobs will be in manufacturing, health care, or construction. At Corning, finding skilled workers for technical positions is a constant challenge. The majority of our materials and processing positions require STEM-related two- and four-year degrees. Salaried engineer positions – specifically those who work in glass, ceramics, controls, and process – are also a challenge to fill. Essentially, the more STEM-intensive the role is, the more difficult it is to fill the position. But Corning is not alone. The number of U.S. companies that reported difficulty in filling positions due to lack of skills grew from 14 percent to 40 percent in the past three years. Creating more four-year graduates or people with advanced degrees is helpful, but not the panacea. According to the Brookings Institution, approximately half of all STEM jobs do not require a four-year degree. In fact, we can narrow much of the “STEM gap” by engaging students, families and communities in ways that don’t require an expensive (and in some cases, unaffordable) four-year degree. Here are a few of our initiatives at Corning. Meeting immediate needs through community colleges One of the best investments a manufacturer can make is to collaborate with local community colleges. Corning has worked for years with several local community colleges to incorporate manufacturing, machine and mechanical technologies into the curriculum. We also take these efforts beyond the classroom so students can receive first-hand experience applying their knowledge. Students spend at least one day a week (even more on spring break!) getting real-time, real-world experience operating Corning equipment and interpreting data. We call it our Technology Pipeline Program. This two-fold approach has shown tangible results over a short period of time. More than 25 percent of technicians we have hired since 2010 in Corning, N.Y., came from our program at Corning Community College. Extending reach to primary and secondary schools While community colleges often provide immediate value in filling the STEM gap, manufacturers also need to work with secondary and even primary schools to inspire our future workforce. Improving STEM literacy in students provides a sustainable benefit for the entire community while creating a lifetime of opportunity for both learners and employers. We can achieve this in three steps. The first is to offer supplemental school funding. Corning seeks opportunities to provide direct and targeted assistance for schools in the communities where we work. We provide most of our funding through The Corning Foundation, which has awarded millions of dollars in grants for local schools to fund STEM education programs. The second step is to partner with schools to develop curriculum that engages students with STEM-related content beyond the standard offerings. At Corning, we have worked with award-winning curriculum specialists at Young Minds Inspired to create an educational program about the role glass could play in technologies of the future. Third, and just as important, we encourage our most skilled employees to be guest instructors at local schools. Working locally to change attitudes While creating educational partnerships is important, we also need to do a better job inspiring students and workers to pursue STEM-related careers. Here, we have fallen woefully short. Recent research shows that only 44 percent of 12th graders were proficient in math. The story does not end there. Of those who were proficient in math, more than half (61 percent) said they were not interested in pursuing a STEM-related career. Why are young people not embracing STEM-related jobs? It can’t be money. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, STEM-workers earn approximately 26 percent more than non-STEM counterparts. In fact, the top 10 paying majors for 2013 were all STEM-based, with engineering majors having one of the highest median incomes at $92,000. The fact is, STEM-related careers have an image problem. Skilled trade workers in manufacturing are in short supply, and I believe it because these jobs are often portrayed as not being “worthy” of pursuit by young people. Business can help solve the image problem by engaging directly with students in the community through mentorships. A few years ago, Corning launched a program at Holly Shelter Middle School in Wilmington, N.C. that was designed to engage young girls in math and science. A number of our female engineers went to classrooms and participated in hands-on activities with students. We’re now expanding that program to other schools around our North Carolina facility. We are also developing a pilot program in the Corning community, recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative, designed to elevate the desirability of manufacturing jobs. Through a series of workshops with youths age 15-21, Corning will provide an overview of the benefits of jobs in manufacturing, take students on an actual plant tour, and expose the participants to testimonials from manufacturing employees. In addition, the program will provide students with an overview of how jobs in manufacturing can be challenging, can offer on-the-job continued professional growth and at the same time provide strong earnings potential. After the pilot, we will share our program with other employers so they can help us spread the word about the benefits of jobs in manufacturing and at the same time, commit to mentoring, training, and eventually hiring, local youth across the country. Since instructors, teachers, and professors play a critical role in filling the STEM gap, Corning sponsors awards programs that recognize excellence of STEM educators who go above and beyond to engage and motivate students. A company’s most precious capital is not its stock price, physical assets, or products. It is a skilled and dedicated workforce, which, sadly, is slipping away for many industries. But we have shown that it is possible for business to turn the tide for the future of our workforce. Industry, working together with government and local communities to fund, educate, and inspire the next generation of STEM-proficient workers, can close the “STEM gap” and keep American manufacturing competitive for the long term. Christine M. Pambianchi was appointed to senior vice president, Human Resources in December 2010. In this role, Pambianchi is responsible for leading Corning’s global human resource function. Christy has led the HR function since January 2008 when she was named vice president, Human Resources. Pambianchi was named division vice president, Business Human Resources in July 2004. Prior to that appointment, Pambianchi was director, Business Human Resources, where she supported many of Corning’s Operating Divisions. Pambianchi started with Corning in 2000 as division human resource manager, Corning Optical Fiber, and went on to be director, Human Resources, Corning Optical Communications before moving into her recent assignments. Prior to working at Corning Incorporated, Pambianchi worked at PepsiCo, Incorporated for ten years. While at PepsiCo, Pambianchi held human resource manager positions in plant and regional distribution locations and worked as the organization capability manager for the field sales organizations. Her last position at PepsiCo was director, Human Resources for Information Technology. Pambianchi holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Pambianchi serves as president of the board of directors at the Alternative School for Math and Science; is a member of the board of trustees of the Corning Foundation; and a member of the advisory board of the Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS). Tech Soft 3D Tech Predictions for 2019 Detroit Stoker Company Waste Not Colmeia Steady Build-Up Find out how Industry Today can help promote your business by downloading our media kit today National Beer Wholesalers Association Ajegroup Big on Cola National Forge Company A Steel Solid Reputation	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2542
__label__wiki	0.829327	0.829327	The White Worm: Shane Carruth's "Upstream Color" By Nicholas Rombes “This one fact the world hates, that the soul becomes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” I SAW UPSTREAM COLOR in the cavernous, art deco beauty of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan on a warm night, the first real sweet night of spring. I had been followed through the largely empty streets (the semester at the University of Michigan was over and most students had packed up and moved away for the summer) by two people who stayed just enough in the shadows to remain anonymous. When I stopped walking, they stopped walking. Before I even entered the theater I felt as if I was in a film noir, trailed by dangerous people who wanted to hurt me for some mistaken, unknown reason. This turned out to be the perfect prologue for the film, which — like the infecting worms it depicts — changes those who watch it in ways that are difficult to describe. Perhaps most art, at some fundamental level, is about the process of its own creation, if for no other reason than that it bears the indelible claw marks of the hands that made it. Walden, for instance, is not just about Thoreau’s experiences in nature, but also about the assembling of those experiences into the book itself. And Virginia Woolf’s experiments in her novels with extended interior monologue suggest that, maybe, that’s what her novels are really about: their composition through a particular mode of consciousness. While there are no lack of theories about what Upstream Color is about or what it all means, the fact that most of these readings don’t cancel each other out, but rather exist simultaneously, is suggestive of the particular power of this film. And it’s an especially thorny film to write about because so much of its meaning is generated not by dialogue but rather through sound. (In this respect its closest contemporary might be David Lynch’s Inland Empire or Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse or even Gus Van Sant’s Gerry.) The plot, in its most boiled down form, is improbable sounding as summary in the way that many great plots are, including Carruth’s previous film Primer (2004). A woman, Kris (Amy Seimetz), is made to swallow a small white worm by the Thief (Thiago Martins), who uses it (she is under the power of his suggestion while the worm is in her) to rob her of her savings. After several days the worm is extracted by the Sampler (Andrew Sensenig) and transfused to a pig. The Sampler (who is operating independently and without the knowledge of the Thief, and vice versa) is the central, mysterious figure in the film, who experiences, vicariously, the lives of the infected perhaps for pleasure and for creative inspiration: to make music. Kris, free of the worm but lost to herself, meets Jeff (Shane Carruth, the film’s director) who also has been infected, and with whom she forms a close bond that is echoed in the experiences of the Sampler, who “reads” their lives through the pigs who somehow register the imprints of their shared experiences. A darker reading of the Sampler suggests he recognizes — in an almost Marxist fashion — the surplus value inherent in the everyday lives of the likes of Kris and Jeff, which he transforms into an exchange value that expresses itself as his music. And yet beneath its vaguely dystopian, science fiction shell, the story the movie tells is one of narrative reframing: completely unmoored from their previous selves, Kris and Jeff must struggle (as if reborn) to make new sense of their lives. Of the many unsettling pleasures of Upstream Color, the most radical is how open it is to multiple, simultaneous readings, ranging from a basic contagion/virus film to a metaphysical meditation on what it means to have a fixed subjectivity as a human being. Although the Thief and the Sampler can both be read as rough equivalents for a filmmaker — or any artist who draws on the “experiences” of others to create — it’s really the Sampler who comes closest to standing in for a film’s director. For here is someone who collects and, in his own way, profits by the experience of others through the creation of sound and music. The transformation of real life into art is not particular to movies, and yet it is the narrative quality of cinema, emerging as it did under the shadow and influence of the realist novel, which aligns it most closely with the pilfering and selling back to the audience portrayals of its very own experiences. Near the end of the film, as Kris begins to piece together the fragments and clues that will lead her to the Sampler, Jeff locates and purchases a CD from the Sampler’s label, Quinoa Valley Recording Co. With titles like “Reverberations” and “Extractions” the CDs suggest not only their content but also the methods of their creation, a form of sampling based on physical and psychological violence. Although we don’t know for certain, it could be that when we see Kris and Jeff listening to the Sampler’s music, they are in fact listening to material gleaned from their very own lives. In 1868, Ralph Waldo Emerson published an essay in the North American Review entitled “Originality and Quotation.” Although it’s not as well known as “Nature,” “Self-Reliance,” and other essays from the 1830s and 40s, it stands as among his most radical, suggesting — in a tradition that includes Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936), Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation (1981), and Chuck Palahniuk’s “a copy of a copy of a copy” (Fight Club; novel 1996, film 1999) — that what we call “original” at any given time is deeply tangled and enmeshed with what has preceded it: The originals are not original. There is imitation, model, and suggestion […] all things are in flux. It is inevitable that you are indebted to the past. You are fed and formed by it. The old forest is decomposed for the composition of the new forest. The old animals have given their bodies to the earth to furnish through chemistry the forming race, and every individual is only a momentary fixation of what was yesterday another’s, is to-day his, and will belong to a third to-morrow. Kris and Jeff discover in the most brutal and alienating of ways just how “not original” their lives are. Blown completely off course by the orchid worms, their very existences are emptied suddenly of narrative context. They must build themselves into something new — but what? In an excellent article in The New Yorker, Caleb Crain explores the possible connections between Thoreau’s Walden (which is featured mysteriously but centrally in the film) and the story that Upstream Color tells, suggesting that the worm has perhaps radicalized Kris and Jeff, attuning and awakening them to the natural world. And yet the film is devoid of any of the agency that’s fundamental to Transcendentalism, whose proponents argued that the process of awakening (or, as Margaret Fuller called it, “self-culture”) was as fundamental as awakening itself. In Upstream Color, something is done to the protagonists (i.e., the swallowing of the worm) against their will; this causes their radical change. But there is nothing involuntary about Transcendentalism, which is very American in its relentless emphasis on the deliberate and conscious will of the individual to, in the words of Emerson, become something else. In “The American Scholar,” delivered in 1837 almost two decades before the publication of Walden, Emerson suggested that the increasing labor specialization of his era (the Panic of 1837 was well underway by the time Emerson delivered his speech in late August) further eroded the creative character of the individual. “The tradesman,” he said, exploring an idea that Marx would write about as alienated labor in the 1840s, “hardly ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and the soul is subject to dollars. The priest becomes a form; the attorney, a statute-book; the mechanic, a machine.” Human beings as machines. And yet if the Transcendentalists encouraged a return to Nature (in both a raw blooded physical sense and spiritually) not to abandon society but to re-enter it afresh and with a new sensibility, Carruth’s film detours this process in a radical way, as it chronicles Kris’s and Jeff’s gradual separation from the known and the familiar with no sense of what comes next. The glue that binds them into the world has dissolved; they are free agents in an existentially terrifying way. It’s fitting that the Sampler does what the instrument of the same name does. If one of the questions of our post-Walter Benjamin era concerns the nature of creativity in the digital age, an age dominated by the proliferation of perfectly reproducible sampled images and sounds, then it’s an especially sweet twist that finds Kris and Jeff and the others (listed as the Sampled in the credits) freed by the Sampler, both the character and machine that he uses. And yet if Kris and Jeff’s liberation (and liberation isn’t always a good thing) results in their deeper enmeshment in the natural world (the film ends with Kris cuddling a piglet), it’s certainly not a utopian or idealized Nature. The recent turn to nature in films is marked with ambiguity and sadness, as if we know (have we always known?) that we can’t go back, after all. This feeling is most pronounced in the Glendale Narrows sequence from Drive (2011), the menacing outdoor softness and insect humming in Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), the “way of nature” sequences in Tree of Life (also 2011), and in the Paradise portions of the Top of the Lake mini-series (2013). In all these examples nature is present but inaccessible, its mysteries folded deeply into itself. In Upstream Color the infecting agent — the thing that radically transforms its hosts — is not something artificial, but rather a thing of nature itself: a living worm. A worm that makes it possible for the Sampler to experience the emotional lives of the hosts without their knowing it, and while the Sampler uses these experiences to fashion his music, Carruth uses them as the basis for Upstream Color. There’s a sense that things have somehow gone terribly wrong in the world that Upstream Color depicts. It’s not just that the lives of Kris and Jeff (and the others like them at the end) have been dislodged from their familiar moorings, but that no one seems much to notice or to care. The usual safety nets we expect in times of personal crisis — family, friends, religion, community — are largely absent in the film. There is work. There are workers. Minimalist apartments and hotel rooms. In this sense, Upstream Color may very well be one of those artifacts of its time that will be looked back on as capturing a certain tendency, the prolonged heartbeat of a moment, just as films like The Conversation or The Parallax View (both 1974) offer the visceral feel of their era’s paranoia. Cutting against the grain of the triumphalist personal narratives of our era, exemplified most potently by books like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, the change that Kris undergoes does not result in her transformation into a better, kinder, more forgiving person. She becomes more alert, to be sure, but not to her own goodness in the world. Rather, it’s as if her heightened sense of her broken identity leads her to break things further: she ends up shooting the Sampler. Upstream Color‘s elliptical editing and weirdly simultaneous temporal flow have as much to do with what this film is about as the plot. There are stretches of the film that scramble time, especially the sequences that begin after the first 30 minutes that cut between the lives of Kris and Jeff and the activities of the Sampler. While it’s possible to deconstruct these moments and map out a coherent, rational placement of the film’s parts across a timeline, I wonder if being caught in the flow of the film, navigating its sometimes simultaneous and opposing currents, is fundamental to the experience of the film itself. The traditional Hollywood method of depicting events unfolding at the same in different places — cross cutting — is used here in such a rapid-fire, swirling way that we begin (like Kris and Jeff) to lose our bearings. Carruth’s interest in time travel is both thematic and formal. On first viewing, it wasn’t clear to me whether the Sampler was experiencing Kris and Jeff’s lives in real time, as they unfolded, or whether he was dipping into the pool of memories that the worms absorbed while inside their bodies. The slippages and overlaps between diegetic sound (emerging from the “now” of the screen) and images that seem to come from the past contribute in powerful ways to the film’s circular, swirling sense of time, especially in the latter parts that cut without warning between Kris and Jeff and the Sampler. In terms of experiments with sound and memory, although the pacing in each film is much different, Upstream Color has strong connections to Antonioni’s 1975 film The Passenger, especially the remarkable sequence where David Locke (Jack Nicholson) remembers a conversation with Robertson (Charles Mulvehill). As the sequence opens, it appears as if Locke recalls from memory his conversation with Robertson, and that the sound is diegetic, sourced from the “now” of screen time. However, at around the 1:40 mark in this clip the camera slowly tracks forward across the table to reveal a tape machine playing back the pre-recorded conversation between the men. At this moment, we realize that sound of the Robertson’s voice (who is dead) hasn’t been emanating from Locke’s memory, but rather from the physical space of the room itself. As I made my way home after the movie, it was already past midnight, and my mind whirred back to a class on the American Transcendentalists taught by Robert Burkholder at Penn State. He had introduced us (all of us whose lives were blessed and damaged and bleached Moby Dick-white from Nirvana whose singer seemed to understand that in waging a war against death, even with sound, death will always win) to Margaret Fuller. Somehow, the facts of her death — she drowned in 1850 in a shipwreck on 50 yards from Fire Island, New York, and her body, which Thoreau searched for on the beach, was never recovered — charged her words with an even stronger current of electricity. In Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), Fuller argued for “the unimpeded clearness of the intuitive powers.” Kris, so scrambled by the worm’s effects on her that she relies mostly on hunches, fragments of meaning, sound, and touch, seems to be operating in much the same manner. Freed from who she was, does she revert back to a heightened version of her old self? Or does she become someone radically new and different? What, I wondered, would unimpeded clearness be like? Was that why Fuller had to drown, because she had sought something that was an affront to what it means to be human? Upstream Color launches a missile whose booster rocket lands somewhere in the unmapped zones near these questions. Be careful if you see it, for its detonations don’t happen all at once. In fact, the film may be the most cleverly disguised white worm you will ever consume. I cut through ripening farm fields to avoid the same two figures that had followed me to the theater. If I said that I reached my apartment and bolted my door just in time, and that through the peephole I saw that the figures to and from Upstream Color were faceless, as if their features had been erased, and that I dreamed that night of white worms struggling to escape my body through my fingertips, you might think I was damned. In fact, I was saved. Nicholas Rombes is a writer and Professor of English at the University of Detroit Mercy. He is author of Cinema in the Digital Age as well as A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982 and the 33 1/3 volume Ramones. Dennis Hopper Needed Our Love: An Interview with Peter Winkler By John Wisniewski When Love Doesn’t Last: Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight” By Tomas Hachard Conversion Experience: Terrence Malick’s "To The Wonder" By Jon Baskin Hollywood Bigfoot: Terrence Malick and the 20-Year Hiatus That Wasn't By Michael Nordine Goodbye, Cinema: On Jonathan Rosenbaum By John Lingan SXSW Critic’s Notebook: Much Ado About What, Exactly? Joss Whedon’s Progressive Bardolatry By Ted Scheinman SXSW Notebook: On Geoff Marslett's Film "Loves Her Gun" SXSW Critic’s Notebook: Rebooting "Evil Dead"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2548
__label__wiki	0.855309	0.855309	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Eighth Circuit › 1983 › Richard Friddle, Appellant, v. Margaret Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Appellee Richard Friddle, Appellant, v. Margaret Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Appellee, 720 F.2d 24 (8th Cir. 1983) US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit - 720 F.2d 24 (8th Cir. 1983) Submitted Nov. 2, 1983. Decided Nov. 7, 1983 David L. Rush, Walters & Rush, Greenwood, Ark., R.H. "Buddy" Hixson, Hixson, Cleveland & Rush, Paris, Ark., for appellant. J. Paul McGrath, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., W. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Atty., Mark W. Webb, Asst. U.S. Atty., Fort Smith, Ark., Joseph S. Friedman, Trial Atty., Social Security Div., Dept. of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, Md., for appellee. Before HEANEY, BRIGHT and McMILLIAN, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. Richard Friddle appeals from an order of the District Court1 for the Western District of Arkansas dismissing his complaint seeking review of a final decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) terminating his disability benefits. The district court dismissed the complaint because it had not been filed within the sixty-day period provided for in 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). For reversal Friddle argues that the Secretary extended the statutory filing period when she considered additional medical evidence submitted by Friddle after the final administrative decision by the Appeals Council. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm. By letter and decision dated April 20, 1982, the Appeals Council notified Friddle that he was no longer entitled to supplemental security income (SSI) disability benefits.2 The letter stated that if Friddle desired judicial review of the decision he must file suit in federal district court within sixty days of his receipt of the letter and that receipt of the letter would be presumed to be within five days of the date of the letter. See 20 C.F.R. Sec. 422.210(c). On May 4, 1982, Friddle submitted additional medical evidence to the Appeals Council. By letter dated June 22, 1982, the Appeals Council acknowledged receipt and consideration of the evidence but informed Friddle that the evidence did not provide a basis for vacating its previous decision. The letter concluded by stating, "Accordingly, the decision dated April 20, 1982, stands as the final decision of the Secretary." On July 8, 1982, Friddle filed his complaint in district court seeking review of the Secretary's final decision. Friddle alleged that the final decision occurred on June 22, 1982. The Secretary filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, alleging that the final decision occurred on April 20, 1982, and that Friddle's complaint was therefore untimely. The Social Security Act provides in pertinent part that " [a]ny individual, after any final decision of the Secretary ... may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action commenced within sixty days after the mailing to him of notice of such decision or within such further time as the Secretary may allow." 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). The social security regulations provide that the Secretary may extend the time for filing of a suit seeking review if a claimant makes a written request with the Appeals Council stating the reasons for failure to file within the statutory period. 20 C.F.R. Sec. 416.1482. If good cause has been shown, the Appeals Council will extend the time period. Id. See 20 C.F.R. Sec. 416.1411 (factors considered in good cause determination). In this case, Friddle argues that when the Appeals Council considered the additional evidence he had submitted, the Council in effect granted him an extension of time in which to file his complaint. Friddle relies on Funderburk v. Califano, 432 F. Supp. 657 (W.D.N.C. 1977). In Funderburk the district court held that the Secretary had waived the sixty-day filing period when the Appeals Council invited a claimant to submit additional information Id. at 659. In Biron v. Harris, 668 F.2d 259 (6th Cir. 1982) (per curiam), a disability claimant presented an almost identical argument. The Sixth Circuit rejected the argument, noting that Funderburk was distinguishable because there the Appeals Council had requested the additional information. In addition, the court noted the claimant had not sought an extension of time from the Appeals Council and that the Appeals Council's letter acknowledging receipt and consideration of the claimant's evidence stated that the prior decision was the final decision of the Secretary. Such is also the case here. We agree with the Sixth Circuit that the Secretary's "consideration of the additional evidence constituted neither a later final decision nor an implicit extension of the filing limitation." Id. at 261. Therefore, the district court did not err in dismissing Friddle's complaint. We note, however, that in her brief the Secretary has invited Friddle to reapply for benefits.3 In addition, we note that in Biron v. Harris, the court suggested that under the predecessor regulation to 20 C.F.R. Sec. 416.1482 the claimant still had the opportunity to seek an extension of time from the Appeals Council to refile his court action. 668 F.2d at 261. Accordingly, the order of the district court is affirmed. The Honorable H. Franklin Waters, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas Judicial review of SSI benefits is subject to the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). 42 U.S.C. § 1383(c) (3) In Gipson v. Harris, 633 F.2d 120, 122 n. 2 (8th Cir. 1980), we stated that "the Secretary's solicitation of a new application, in our view, constitutes [a] promise that the defenses of res judicata and collateral estoppel ... will not be asserted against [the claimant] should [the claimant] file a new claim for ... benefits."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2550
__label__wiki	0.820578	0.820578	Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Second Circuit › 1988 › 51 Fair Empl.prac.cas. 1455,47 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,167curtis Cowan, Appellant-cross-appellee, v. t... Receive free daily summaries of new opinions from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 51 Fair Empl.prac.cas. 1455,47 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 38,167curtis Cowan, Appellant-cross-appellee, v. the Prudential Insurance Co. of America, Appellee-cross-appellant, 852 F.2d 688 (2d Cir. 1988) US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - 852 F.2d 688 (2d Cir. 1988) Argued May 4, 1988. Decided July 22, 1988 Joseph D. Garrison, Garrison, Kahn, Silbert & Arteron, New Haven, Conn., for appellant-cross-appellee. Wayne A. Schroder, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Washington, D.C., for appellee-cross-appellant. Before OAKES, KEARSE and PIERCE, Circuit Judges. OAKES, Circuit Judge: Curtis Cowan appeals the damage award he received in his successful Title VII and section 1981 action in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Ralph K. Winter, Circuit Judge, sitting by designation. Cowan v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America, No. B 81-511 (D. Conn. Sept. 21, 1987). Cowan claims that the district court was in error in not awarding back pay and in considering impermissible factors in calculating compensatory damages. The Prudential Insurance Co. of America ("Prudential") cross-appeals, claiming that the district court's finding of liability was contrary to the evidence and based upon a theory of discrimination expressly rejected by the plaintiff. Because we find no error in either the computation of damages or in the finding of liability, we affirm. Cowan, who is black, worked as an insurance agent for Prudential in its Stamford, Connecticut, district between 1975 and 1980. During that time the Stamford district promoted four white agents to the position of sales manager, overlooking Cowan despite his active solicitation of promotion and his superior job performance. After Cowan was passed over, his job performance declined, and on January 3, 1980, he resigned. After a bench trial Judge Winter issued his opinion in two parts, the first addressing only the liability issues and the second, damages. In the first, Judge Winter applied the test articulated in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S. Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L. Ed. 2d 668 (1973), and found that Cowan had made out a prima facie case of racial discrimination for failure to promote, and that Prudential failed to make a persuasive rebuttal case. The opinion added that Cowan had not proven his constructive discharge claim, in that Cowan's resignation was voluntary. In his opinion on damages, Judge Winter noted that an award of back pay was appropriate, but that Cowan should have earned as much in his sales agent position as he would have had he been promoted. He did award $15,000 in compensatory damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Our review of the district court's ruling on damages uses two different standards. In considering the ruling on back pay, which is here an essentially factual determination, we use a "clearly erroneous" standard of review. See Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S. Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L. Ed. 2d 518 (1985); Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 424-25, 95 S. Ct. 2362, 2374-75, 45 L. Ed. 2d 280 (1975). In considering the award of compensatory damages, we take a more deferential view, because that award involves not only determinations of fact but also the consideration of subjective and intangible factors properly left to the sound discretion of the factfinder, here the court. See Hunter v. Allis-Chalmers Corp., 797 F.2d 1417, 1424-25 (7th Cir. 1986). Back Pay Under the dictates of Title VII, Cowan is presumptively entitled to back pay for wages denied him as a result of Prudential's discriminatory promotion practices. See Cohen v. West Haven Bd. of Police Comm'rs, 638 F.2d 496, 502 (2d Cir. 1980). While back pay is an equitable remedy within the district court's discretion, "that discretion is to be exercised with a view to ' "fashion [ing] ... the most complete relief possible." ' " Id. at 504 (quoting Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. at 421, 95 S. Ct. at 2373 (quoting 118 Cong.Rec. 7168 (1972) (remarks of Sen. Williams))); Association Against Discrimination in Employment v. City of Bridgeport, 647 F.2d 256, 288 (2d Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 988, 102 S. Ct. 1611, 71 L. Ed. 2d 847 (1982). [G]iven a finding of unlawful discrimination, backpay should be denied only for reasons which, if applied generally, would not frustrate the central statutory purposes of eradicating discrimination throughout the economy, and making persons whole for injuries suffered through past discrimination. The courts of appeals must maintain a consistent and principled application of the backpay provision, consonant with the twin statutory objectives, while at the same time recognizing that the trial court will often have the keener appreciation of those facts and circumstances peculiar to particular cases. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. at 421-22, 95 S. Ct. at 2373-74, quoted in Association Against Discrimination, 647 F.2d at 288. However, Title VII expressly provides that " [i]nterim earnings or amounts earnable with reasonable diligence by the person ... discriminated against shall operate to reduce the back pay otherwise allowable." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g) (1982). Therefore an award of back pay must take into account amounts which Cowan earned or could have earned with reasonable effort. Here, the district court in essence determined that although an award of back pay was appropriate, the amount of that award was $0, because Cowan would have earned less during the fifty-eight-week liability period (from the time he was passed over for promotion until he resigned) as a sales manager than he would have earned, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, as a sales agent. The court reached this conclusion by comparing the income which Prudential guarantees sales managers with the amount that Cowan earned while diligently working as a sales agent during the same period. Although Cowan might have earned more as a sales manager during the liability period, it was hardly error for the district court to refuse to engage in speculation. Rather, Judge Winter's calculations have substantial support in the record and will not be disturbed on appeal. Compensatory Damages The district court did award Cowan $15,000 in compensatory damages on his section 1981 claim. Section 1981 provides that " [a]ll persons ... shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, ... as is enjoyed by white citizens," 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (1982), and has been interpreted to forbid racial discrimination in private employment. Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U.S. 454, 459-60, 95 S. Ct. 1716, 1719-20, 44 L. Ed. 2d 295 (1975). Cowan claims that the district court considered a number of impermissible factors in determining damages and that an award of $50,000 to $150,000 was warranted. At the hearing on damages, Cowan testified that Prudential's failure to promote him caused him severe emotional distress, humiliation, and loss of self-esteem. As a result, his home life suffered, he began having serious disagreements with his wife, and he began drinking heavily. His testimony was corroborated by testimony from his wife and from co-workers. In reaching an award, Judge Winter considered the fact that Cowan had not been subjected to overt racism or public humiliation, that the upper management of Prudential was not aware that race played a role in the failure to promote Cowan and had offered Cowan three other, though less attractive, sales manager positions in other parts of New England, that Cowan himself was the cause of some of the humiliation he suffered and some of the difficulties he had with co-workers (in that he told clients that he would be promoted and that he criticized co-workers in a newspaper article), and that Cowan had not sought counseling. Appellant does not challenge the factual bases for these findings, but rather argues that the district court considered factors not in keeping with the remedial purposes of section 1981 and Title VII. But each of the factors was directly relevant to whether and to what extent Prudential caused Cowan's emotional distress. Appellant characterizes Judge Winter's findings as if he deducted amounts from a larger figure in order to reach $15,000. Rather, Judge Winter distinguished the injuries he believed to be caused by the discrimination from those caused by other factors. Given the unquantifiable nature of the injuries, and the substantial deference we afford to the court in awarding damages, we will not substitute our views for those of the trial court. Cross-Appeal Prudential's claim that the district court decided the issue of liability on a theory of the case which was not advanced by either party is without merit. The court followed the test articulated in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S. Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L. Ed. 2d 668 (1973), in finding that Cowan had made out a prima facie case of discrimination under Title VII, noting that Cowan had proven that he was a member of a racial minority, that he sought and was qualified for a promotion which Prudential intended to make, that he was rejected, despite his qualifications, and that a non-minority employee was offered the position. See also Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, --- U.S. ----, ----, 108 S. Ct. 2777, 2783-2786, 101 L. Ed. 2d 827 (1988). Judge Winter then held that Cowan had satisfied his burden of proof because Prudential's "proffered explanation [of why Cowan was not promoted] is unworthy of credence," Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 256, 101 S. Ct. 1089, 1095, 67 L. Ed. 2d 207 (1981), and therefore pretextual. This holding was based largely on the testimony of Edward Amatrudo, the Stamford district manager, whose recommendations controlled the promotions in issue. Judge Winter did not credit Amatrudo's explanations as to why Cowan was denied the promotions, finding that his testimony was often inconsistent with earlier affidavits and deposition testimony and often evasive or internally inconsistent at trial. He cited numerous examples of such inconsistencies in his opinion and stressed the particular instance where Amatrudo testified that he did not even consider Cowan for the promotions. These factual findings are clearly supported on the record and are in no way "clearly erroneous." See Fed. R. Civ. P. 52; Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 290, 102 S. Ct. 1781, 1791, 72 L. Ed. 2d 66 (1982). Prudential argues that Cowan's claim is that he was considered for promotion but was passed over in favor or other candidates on the basis of race. The district court, the argument runs, unfairly based its decision on a theory that Cowan did not advance, namely, that he was not considered for promotion. But Prudential's argument seeks to transform a finding of fact into a theory of liability. Amatrudo's failure properly to consider Cowan for promotion, based on both his testimony and on other evidence, was undoubtedly damaging to Prudential's defense. Quite simply, it undermined Prudential's effort to satisfy its burden of rebutting the plaintiff's prima facie case by showing that it did not treat Cowan "less favorably than others because of [his] race." International Bhd. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 335 n. 15, 97 S. Ct. 1843, 1854 n. 15, 52 L. Ed. 2d 396 (1977). Whether Prudential considered Cowan for promotion is an issue of fact, not of legal theory, and as the district court's finding is amply supported, it will not be disturbed. of Second Circuit opinions.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2551
__label__wiki	0.654431	0.654431	Justia US Law US Codes and Statutes Tennessee Code 2010 Tennessee Code Title 20 - Civil Procedure Chapter 10 - Additur and Remittitur 20-10-102 - Remittitur. View the 2018 Tennessee Code \| View Previous Versions of the Tennessee Code 2010 Tennessee Code Title 20 - Civil Procedure Chapter 10 - Additur and Remittitur 20-10-102 - Remittitur. 20-10-102. Remittitur. (a) In all jury trials had in civil actions, after the verdict has been rendered and on motion for a new trial, when the trial judge is of the opinion that the verdict in favor of a party should be reduced and a remittitur is suggested by the trial judge on that account, with the proviso that in case the party in whose favor the verdict has been rendered refuses to make the remittitur, a new trial will be awarded, the party in whose favor such verdict has been rendered may make such remittitur under protest, and appeal from the action of the trial judge to the court of appeals. (b) The court of appeals shall review the action of the trial court suggesting a remittitur using the standard of review provided for in T.R.A.P. 13(d) applicable to decisions of the trial court sitting without a jury. If, in the opinion of the court of appeals, the verdict of the jury should not have been reduced, but the judgment of the trial court is correct in other respects, the case shall be reversed to that extent, and judgment shall be rendered in the court of appeals for the full amount originally awarded by the jury in the trial court. [Acts 1911, ch. 29, § 1; Shan., § 4852a1; Code 1932, § 8987; Acts 1949, ch. 253, § 1; C. Supp. 1950, § 8987; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 27-118; Acts 1987, ch. 232, § 2.] Disclaimer: These codes may not be the most recent version. Tennessee may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2554
__label__wiki	0.825402	0.825402	Thinking into the future The Mind-Blowing Promise of Neural Implants The Mind-Blowing Promise of Neural Implants Future Frontiers Feature Story Kira Peikoff September 13, 2018 5 minute read A patient with an implanted neural device that connects to a prosthetic arm can sense, while blindfolded, which of the mechanical fingers are being touched. (A still image of a video provided to leapsmag by DARPA and UPMC/Pitt Health Sciences) Kira Peikoff You may not have heard of DARPA, the research branch of the Pentagon. But you’re definitely familiar with some of the technology it has pioneered, like the Internet, Siri, and handheld GPS. "Now we’re going to try to go from this proof-of-concept all the way to commercial technologies that can powerfully affect patients’ lives." Last week in National Harbor, Maryland, DARPA celebrated its 60th anniversary by showcasing its latest breakthroughs and emerging research programs, one of which centers around using neurotechnology to enhance the capabilities of the human brain. This technology is initially being developed to help warfighters and veterans, but its success could have enormous implications for civilian patients and, eventually, mainstream consumers. The field is moving ahead rapidly. Fifteen years ago, a monkey named Aurora used a brain-machine interface to control a cursor on a computer screen. In 2014, DARPA’s mind-controlled prosthetic arm for amputees won approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Since then, DARPA has continued to push neurotechnology to new heights. Here are three of their research programs that are showing promise in early human testing: 1) A NEURAL IMPLANT HELP MANAGE PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS More than 2.2 million veterans and 44 million civilians are living with some form of psychiatric illness, and medications don’t work for everyone. DARPA set out to create new options for people living with debilitating anxiety, depression, and PTSD. “We can get somebody back to normal. It’s a whole new set of tools for physicians,” said Justin Sanchez, Director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA. He told the audience about a woman living with both epilepsy and extreme anxiety, who has a direct neural interface that reads her brain’s signals in real time and can be modulated with stimulation. He shared a recent video of her testing the device: “Now we’re going to try to go from this proof-of-concept all the way to commercial technologies that can powerfully affect patients’ lives,” Sanchez said. 2) A NEURAL IMPLANT TO HELP IMPROVE MEMORY “We are right at the cusp” of improving memory recall with direct neural interfaces, Sanchez said. All day long, our brains shift between poor and good memory states. A brain-computer interface can read the signals of populations of neurons in the lateral temporal cortex. The device continuously monitors the state of the brain and delivers stimulation within a fraction of a second after detecting a poor memory state, to improve the person’s memory performance. The improved memory lasts only seconds, so the system “delivers stimulation as needed in a closed loop to keep the performance in a good state, because of this natural variability of performance,” said Dan Rizzuto, founder of NiaTherapeutics, whose technology was developed with support from DARPA and the United States BRAIN Initiative. Check out this recently shot video of a patient testing the device, which Sanchez called “a breakthrough moment”: About 400 patients have been tested with this technology so far. In a pilot study whose data have not yet been published, patients with traumatic brain injury showed improvement in recall of around 28 percent, according to Rizzuto. He estimates that potential FDA approval of the device for patients with traumatic brain injury is still 7 to 8 years away. The technology holds the potential to help many other kinds of patients as well. “We believe this device could also be used to treat Alzheimer’s because it’s not specific to any brain pathology but based on a deep understanding of the way human memory works,” Rizzuto said. 3) A NEURAL IMPLANT TO REVOLUTIONIZE PROSTHETICS FOR WARFIGHTERS AND VETERANS Since 2006, DARPA has run a program to revolutionize prosthetics. The latest advances allow amputees to actually feel again with their bionic limbs. Sensors in a prosthetic hand relay information to an interface in the brain that allows the person to detect which of their “fingers” are being touched, while their eyes are closed: DARPA is now turning its attention to non-surgical, non-invasive neurotechnology. Researchers hope to use advanced sensor technology to detect signals from neurons without putting any electrodes directly inside the brain. Under the direction of program manager Dr. Al Emondi, the N³ program is about to launch soon and plans to run for four or five years. “We haven’t even scratched the surface of what a human brain’s capability is,” said Dr. Geoffrey Ling, the Founding Director of the Biological Technologies Office. “When we can make this a non-invasive consumer technology, this will explode. It will take on a life of its own.” Then, inevitably, the hard questions will follow. As Sanchez put it: “Will society consider some form of neural enhancement a personal choice like braces? Could there be a disturbing gap for people who have neurotech and those who don’t? We must come together and all think over the horizon. How the story unfolds ultimately depends on all of us.” Kira Peikoff is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Nautilus, Popular Mechanics, The New York Academy of Sciences, and other outlets. She is also the author of four suspense novels that explore controversial issues arising from scientific innovation: Living Proof, No Time to Die, Die Again Tomorrow, and Mother Knows Best (coming Sept. 10th, 2019). Peikoff holds a B.A. in Journalism from New York University and an M.S. in Bioethics from Columbia University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and son. We welcome all thoughts, feedback and constructive critiques: editor@leapsmag.com. A curated selection of responses are collected here. Deep Brain Stimulation for Mental Illnesses Raises Ethical Concerns If a Computer Changes Your Personality, Are You Still You? January 09, 2018 David Levine How Will Brain-Computer Interfaces Change Our Lives? And Who Gets to Decide? (Check Out Our Video Debut!) May 21, 2018 Kira Peikoff Opinion Essay Neuromarketers Are Studying Brain Scans to Influence Our Product Choices Do Our Subconscious Minds Dictate Our Behavior More Than We Realize? August 06, 2018 Julia Gottwald	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2555
__label__wiki	0.568618	0.568618	Niilesh A Raje's Blog About Niilesh A Raje Niilesh A Raje views writing as meditation. He is a "Business Analyst" by profession and a "Writer" by passion. In 2007, he was selected as "The Youth of the Nation" to represent India at the first CCS World Youth Forum held in the European Parliament, Brussels on the theme of Leadership and Motivation. As a thought leader he also received the invitation as India delegate to The Climate Project's Asia-Pacific Summit held in Melbourne, Australia in July 2009 to undergo personal training from Al Gore (Ex-Vice President of America and Nobel Peace Prize laureate). With a strong publication background his articles have been published by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), a leading association in the profession of Business Analysis in USA, in ProjectTimes.com, Business Analyst Times and In Flight Magazines to name a few. His magazine "Nosstalgiaaa", a free online bi-monthly magazine pays homage to the masters of Hindi cinema and enlightens the readers on all facets of film making through articles, interviews, trivia, anecdotes and book reviews. Nosstalgiaaa, is the first of its kind and is solely dedicated to the golden era of Indian Cinema. Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai: The Inspiring Life Of Anand Bakshi Anand Bakshi, the most prolific lyricist of Hindi cinema lived a life which in itself is an inspiring journey of faith, dreams, success and humanity. ... Anhonee Ko Honee Karde: A Tribute To Manmohan Desai Filmmaker Manmohan Desai etched his place in history of Bollywood for delivering some of the biggest hits that whizzed audiences away into a world of make-believe, where simple people did wondrous things... Lalita Pawar: The Dominating Matriarch And Scheming Manthara A tribute to Lalita Pawar, the prolific Indian actress on her death anniversary with some interesting anecdotes on her life and times....	cc/2019-30/en_head_0018.json.gz/line2556

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