The full dataset viewer is not available (click to read why). Only showing a preview of the rows.
The dataset generation failed
Error code: DatasetGenerationError
Exception: ArrowInvalid
Message: JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string. in row 95
Traceback: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 153, in _generate_tables
df = pd.read_json(f, dtype_backend="pyarrow")
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 815, in read_json
return json_reader.read()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1025, in read
obj = self._get_object_parser(self.data)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1051, in _get_object_parser
obj = FrameParser(json, **kwargs).parse()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1187, in parse
self._parse()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1403, in _parse
ujson_loads(json, precise_float=self.precise_float), dtype=None
ValueError: Trailing data
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1997, in _prepare_split_single
for _, table in generator:
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 156, in _generate_tables
raise e
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 130, in _generate_tables
pa_table = paj.read_json(
File "pyarrow/_json.pyx", line 308, in pyarrow._json.read_json
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 154, in pyarrow.lib.pyarrow_internal_check_status
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 91, in pyarrow.lib.check_status
pyarrow.lib.ArrowInvalid: JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string. in row 95
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1529, in compute_config_parquet_and_info_response
parquet_operations = convert_to_parquet(builder)
File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1154, in convert_to_parquet
builder.download_and_prepare(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1029, in download_and_prepare
self._download_and_prepare(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1124, in _download_and_prepare
self._prepare_split(split_generator, **prepare_split_kwargs)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1884, in _prepare_split
for job_id, done, content in self._prepare_split_single(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 2040, in _prepare_split_single
raise DatasetGenerationError("An error occurred while generating the dataset") from e
datasets.exceptions.DatasetGenerationError: An error occurred while generating the datasetNeed help to make the dataset viewer work? Make sure to review how to configure the dataset viewer, and open a discussion for direct support.
pred_label
string | pred_label_prob
float64 | wiki_prob
float64 | text
string | source
string |
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.637193
| 0.637193
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World Aviation Industry News - Lockheed Martin
South Korea ready to purchase 60 F-35 CTOL fighter aircraft from United States.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency of United States notified Congress March 29 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Korea for 60 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $10.8 billion.
The conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A is a multirole, supersonic, stealth fighter that has extraordinary acceleration and 9-g maneuverability and agility.
The Government of the Republic of Korea has requested a possible sale of (60) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft. Aircraft will be configured with the Pratt & Whitney F-135 engines, and (9) Pratt & Whitney F-135 engines are included as spares. Other aircraft equipment includes: Electronic Warfare Systems; Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence/Communication, Navigational and Identification (C4I/CNI); Autonomic Logistics Global Support System (ALGS); Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS); Full Mission Trainer; Weapons Employment Capability, and other Subsystems, Features, and Capabilities; F-35 unique infrared flares; reprogramming center; F-35 Performance Based Logistics. Also included: software development/integration, aircraft ferry and tanker support, support equipment, tools and test equipment, communication equipment, spares and repair parts, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical documents, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics personnel services, and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated cost is $10.8 billion.
This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by meeting the legitimate security and defense needs of an ally and partner nation. The Republic of Korea continues to be an important force for peace, political stability, and economic progress in North East Asia.
The proposed sale of F-35s will provide the Republic of Korea (ROK) with a credible defense capability to deter aggression in the region and ensure interoperability with U.S. forces. The proposed sale will augment Korea’s operational aircraft inventory and enhance its air-to-air and air-to-ground self-defense capability. The ROK’s Air Force F-4 aircraft will be decommissioned as F-35’s are added to the inventory. Korea will have no difficulty absorbing these aircraft into its armed forces.
The proposed sale of this aircraft system and support will not negatively alter the basic military balance in the region.
The prime contractors will be Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, Texas; and Pratt & Whitney Military Engines in East Hartford, Connecticut. This proposal is being offered in the context of a competition. If the proposal is accepted, it is expected that offset agreements will be required.
Implementation of this proposed sale will require multiple trips to Korea involving U.S. Government and contractor representatives for technical reviews/support, program management, and training over a period of 15 years. U.S. contractor representatives will be required in Korea to conduct Contractor Engineering Technical Services (CETS) and Autonomic Logistics and Global Support (ALGS) for after-aircraft delivery.
There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness resulting from this proposed sale.
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cc/2020-05/en_head_0031.json.gz/line5
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__label__cc
| 0.514782
| 0.485218
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Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle-SA_in_Germany.png
Map of Germany showing Halle
Halle (also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish from Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia) is the largest town in the German Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. It lies in the southern part of the state, on the river Saale. Population: 243,045 (2001).
2 Sights
3 Miscellaneous
The name Halle derives from the Celtic word for salt, like that of its namesake in Westphalia, Hallein and Hallstatt in Austria and Schwäbisch Hall in Germany; while the name of the river Saale contains the Germanic root for salt. Salt-making has taken place in Halle since at least the Bronze age.
Historic saltern in Halle, Sachsen-Anhalt
Wasserturm-Nord_Halle.jpg
A water tower in Halle, Germany
The town was first mentioned in 806. It became a part of the bishopric principality of Magdeburg in the 10th century and remained so until 1680, when Brandenburg annexed it together with Magdeburg.
After World War II Halle served as the capital of the short-lived administrative region of Saxony-Anhalt (until 1952), when the East German government abolished its "Länder". As a part of East Germany (until 1990), it functioned as the capital of the administrative district ("Bezirk") of Halle. When Saxony-Anhalt was re-established as a Bundesland, Magdeburg became the capital.
Giebichenstein Castle, first mentioned in 961, west of the city centre on a hill above the Saale river.
Moritzburg, a newer castle, built in 1503; residence of the bishops of Magdeburg; destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, then a ruin for centuries, rebuilt in 1904; today an Art Gallery.
Cathedral, a steepleless building, originally a church within a Dominican monastery (1271).
Halle-Neustadt, Mostly built in the 1960s Halle-Neustadt lies just to the East of Halle. A classic example of how mean, state sponsored housing, on a huge scale, combined with brutalist architecture and "one-size-fits-all" social engineering failed to achieve its aims – but did convice most of the people that lived there that moving to another city was a good idea. Halle-Neustadt is sometimes referred to as "Hanoi" – in an ironic play on words referring to the heavily bombed capital of Vietnam (Ha-Neu: abbreviation for Halle-Neustadt – German pronunciation: hanoi).
GDR revolutionary monument, demolished in 2003.
Within East Germany Halle's chemical industry, now mainly shut down, had great importance.
The famous Baroque composer Georg Friedrich Händel was born in Halle. Today there is an annual Händel-festival. Georg Cantor worked as a professor at the university of Halle.
A university was founded in Halle in 1694. It is now combined with the University of Wittenberg and is called Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg'.
Halle was a center of German Pietism and played an important role in establishing the Lutheran church in North America, when Henry Muhlenberg and others were sent as missionaries to Pennsylvania. Henry Muhlenberg's son, Frederick Muhlenberg, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, was a graduate of Halle University.
Many Plattenbau houses can be found in Halle, especially in Halle-Neustadt.
Official site (in German) (http://www.halle.de/)
Martin-Luther-University (http://www.uni-halle.de/MLU/index_e.htm) Halle-Wittenberg
Map showing Halle in relation to Leipzig (http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=51.4901&lon=11.9027&scale=1000000&icon=x) from Multimap.com with Halle marked.de:Halle (Saale)
eo:Halle (Saale) it:Halle sul Saale nl:Halle an der Saale sv:Halle an der Saale
Retrieved from "http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Halle%2C_Saxony-Anhalt"
Categories: Cities in Germany
This page was last modified 21:36, 15 Jun 2005.
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__label__cc
| 0.618332
| 0.381668
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On a Warm Day in July
Manon de Boer @ Jan Mot
For her new exhibition at Jan Mot, Manon de Boer is currently working on two new films. The film she presented in this same gallery this summer is, from October onward, on view at the S.M.A.K. We meet the artist for a conversation on a rainy day.
Memory, recollection, the way it is affected by time, the gaps, the emptiness created within it, the body that carries it within itself, the place it opens to escape the compulsion of perfection, the space to fail: this is what our conversation is about. These were her interests already in 1996, when she made her first portraits of Laurien and Robert: in one two-minute-long shot, the length of a Super8 film reel, she films a face in concentration while the actions remain off-screen. She captures moments when the person in the picture is somewhere else: Laurien lost in the book she is reading, Robert in the guitar he is playing on. These are empty moments, full of potential.
Manon de Boer will return several times to Laurien and Robert for new portraits: repetitions with a difference. She observes how time affects her friends. She films Robert in 1996 and 2007; Laurien in 1996, 2001, 2007 and now again in 2015. The fourth portrait, which is now part of her exhibition at Jan Mot, not only shows how time affects the person she films, but also the filming itself. Manon de Boer no longer shoots on Super8, but on 16mm. Super8 is so hard to find nowadays. No one escapes the clutches of time.
In an unguarded moment Manon de Boer speaks of the ‘smaller works’ she makes between the ‘larger works’. This distinction is probably less clear than it sounds. But it does say something about her method. The one relates to the other like the sketch to the painting. Those portraits of Laurien probably belong to the first category: capture the moment when it presents itself.
Or Maud Capturing the Light “On a clear day “, the film she presented just before the summer at Jan Mot: again the length of a 16mm reel. The only difference is that, here, Manon de Boer does not operate the camera herself, but the Maud mentioned in the title. The camera is placed facing a work by Agnes Martin from the series On a Clear Day. The owner of the work is asked to turn the camera on and off at times when the incident light illuminates it in a special way. The result is a sequence of shots, of different durations, always of the same picture, with ever-changing variations of light, reflection, colour. A very particular aesthetic experience. A series of moments, captured when they present themselves.
Idiorythmy
Manon de Boer talks about her son, her inspiration for a new series of (smaller?) works on rhythm, the experience of time; on the importance of empty moments in time, on boredom as well, on the personal aspect in that rhythm. Maud’s filming fits in that series: those random moments when she stands still with the light that fills the room.
She also talks about emptiness, as such, when she talks about the film she is currently finishing: On a Warm day in July. In it, she films Claron McFadden, an American soprano who improvises on a seventeenth-century song in an empty space: the ground floor of a Brussels town house by Henry Van de Velde. She talks about the potential of the space, about the undecidedness of the resident who wants to keep the space as it is, with the traces that time has left in it.
Her film undoubtedly sets out in search of the effect of that voice, of that body, of breathing in space. That is not only clear to me from our conversation, but also from one, two, many, the film she made in 2012 for dOCUMENTA (13). It is in this work, in which she not only films an extremely physical piece for flute, but also musicians and listeners in the room, that she touches upon the notion of idiorythmy for the first time. Roland Barthes talks about it in 'Comment vivre ensemble’, his lectures from1976: the way each of us develops their own rhythm so as to be able to function with both time and the surroundings.
It is this personal rhythm, this personal experience of time she looks for in her son, in Laurien, in Maud and in the singer in that empty house by Van de Velde.
www.janmot.com
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cc/2020-05/en_head_0031.json.gz/line10
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__label__wiki
| 0.560605
| 0.560605
|
Home / Bowl Hole
Bamburgh Bowl Hole Cemetery
The Bowl Hole is an early medieval cemetery site just 300m to the south of Bamburgh Castle. It is thought to be the burial ground for the royal court of the Northumbrian palace that lies beneath the present castle. The excavation of the site was undertaken by the Bamburgh Research Project (BRP) between 1998 and 2007.
The cemetery was first discovered in the winter of 1816/17, following a violent storm that blew away a large volume of dune sand to reveal an ancient land surface and a number of graves marked out by stones set on edge. Although it was subject to limited antiquarian investigation in the 1890s and 1930s, few records survived and the precise location of the site was not recorded.
The present phase of research was intended to re-locate the site and undertake a limited excavation to provide information on the time period during which it was in use and its current state of preservation. During the course of the dig ninety one individual skeletons were excavated and subject to scientific analysis by the University of Durham in a collaborative project with BRP, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Although a tradition seems to have developed that the burials were those of Viking warriors our research has demonstrated them to be a little earlier than this. A combination of radiocarbon dates and the form of the burials, with very few grave goods, has led to the current interpretation that the cemetery was principally in use in the 7th and 8th centuries AD and that its inhabitants are likely to represent some of the earliest Christians in the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria.
Whilst it is often difficult to identify the cause of death, study of skeletal remains can reveal a great deal about the life of the individual. In many cases it is possible to define the sex and in the case of children and young adults we can determine the age at death with considerable accuracy. We have also been able to reveal much about their stature and diet and the use of state of the art isotopic analysis has revealed where many of them grew up. The science behind this is complex but the short version is that we are indeed what we eat! The geochemical signature derived from the food and water we consume is locked into our teeth at the time they form leaving a kind of finger print that can be traced back to different parts of the UK and Europe.
The people buried at the Bowl Hole had terrible teeth, with cavities and plaque very prevalent. Abscesses were all too common as well, even in relatively young people in their twenties. We think that this is a consequence of rich food. Other characteristics also stood out amongst this group, they were often tall and robust individuals, certainly much more so than the average for early medieval populations.
If we take into consideration all of these factors, physical size, the apparently rich diet and the close relationship of the burial ground to the palace its hard not to come to the conclusion that they were high status individuals associated with the royal court. This is particularly fascinating as we know quite a lot about seventh and eighth century Northumbria from the historian Bede, a monk of the monastery at Jarrow, near Newcastle upon Tyne who wrote the ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ chronicling the conversion of England to Christianity. His writings bring alive, in their pages, St Oswald the once exiled king of Northumbria who founded the monastery of Lindisfarne and St Aidan, a monk trained in the Irish tradition who played such an important role in establishing the Christian community in the north. Both are closely associated with Bamburgh and it is particularly exciting to realise that some of those buried at the Bowl Hole may have heard St Aidan preach with King Oswald translating his words from Gaelic into Old English, just as Bede described.
The scientific analysis of their teeth tells us that few grew up in the immediate area of the castle. Many were from the wider British Isles with Western Scotland and Ireland well represented, probably due to the close early connection of the Northumbrian church with Iona. In a number of cases we can even trace people’s origins from beyond the British Isles, which means that they travelled a very long way to end their days at Bamburgh, from as far away as Scandinavia or even as far as the Mediterranean. Bamburgh was a well known place even 1300 years ago.
Reburial
It was always the intention of the excavators to see these individuals reburied. In 2016 they were placed in the crypt of St Aidan’s, Bamburgh, in a modern ossuary, which provides a fitting resting place for them. Excitingly the creation of the ossuary is the first part of a project led by the Bamburgh Heritage Trust to create a visitor attraction that will make the fascinating story of the investigations available to the public.
You can find out more in-depth information by visiting our blog:
Bowl Hole Part 1: background to the excavation
Bowl Hole Part 2: what we found
Bowl Hole Part 3: scientific research
We have also published numerous articles on the excavations. Please visit our Publication page for a full list.
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cc/2020-05/en_head_0031.json.gz/line20
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__label__wiki
| 0.659314
| 0.659314
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Top 4 ridiculously fast cars
There are a lot of ways to measure car excellence, but the only thing enthusiasts really care about is how fast it can move. They simply want to gallop faster than everybody else on a green light. All other metrics are almost insignificant.
The fast car club is relatively small, mainly because only a handful of car makers care enough to do something for this niche. Most of them spend their time designing, engineering, and producing “normal” cars.
Others go ahead to produce surprisingly fast machines, but they end up making them private – for reasons best known to them. Here’s our roundup of the fastest production cars in 2019.
Hennessy Venom F5
It’s easy to think the number one spot would be a famous automaker, but it’s not. Hennessy Venom is the – unconfirmed – fastest car on the planet. It can clock 301mph, which smashes the top speed with more than just a school zone limit.
This car comes with a 7.4-liter twin turbo V8 unit that cranks out a whopping 1,600 horses. That’s enough power to move a fully loaded truck at impressive speeds. Surprisingly, the Venom F5 can, reportedly, go from 0 to 249mph and back to 0 in a mere 30 seconds.
SCC Tuatara
SCC has been rather slow in producing a successor for it’s Ultimate Aero hypercar, but the results are well worth the wait.
In a statement, SCC claimed Tuatara would be capable of hitting 265mph. However, it had a top speed of 300mph when the company revealed the car. Nobody knows if this was intentional or not.
The SCC Tuatara has a V8, twin turbo 5.9 engine that is capable of 1,750 horsepower when running on E85 fuel. It also features an automated seven-speed manual gearbox that routes the car’s power to the rear wheels.
That combined with its aerodynamic design, should get SCC into the history books – only if Hennessy or Koenigsegg doesn’t beat them to the 300mph barrier.
Koenigsegg Aera RS
The Koenigsegg Aera RS is officially the fastest car in the world until the Venom F5 proves its claims publicly.
The vehicle was tested on an 11-mile stretch just outside Las Vegas, and it reached speeds of up to 285mph going one side, but they had to check it in the other direction, and the average rate came down to 278mph.
It comes with a V8 5.0-liter unit producing 1,160 horsepower, 944 pound-feet of torque and has an aerodynamic design – which has proven to be a winning combination.
However, this is a limited production car, and the company closed it was doors last year. It leaves a blazing trail of glory as it makes way for another vehicle to fill the world’s fastest car spot.
Hennecy Venom GT
In 2014, Hennecy Venom GT recorded 270 mph in Kennedy space center. The Guinness world records accepted this test, but these results have received sharp criticism from the car community.
The test was based on a one direction sprint, which isn’t the norm for speed tests. All other cars get to go both directions and settle for the average figure as the top speed.
The Venom GT boasts a V8 twin turbo 7.0 engine, capable of producing 1,244 horsepower. It is handmade by a Texas-based tuner, and that raises concerns if this vehicle qualifies to fit in the production cars list.
2020 © bandagbullet.com.
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cc/2020-05/en_head_0031.json.gz/line21
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__label__cc
| 0.565617
| 0.434383
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Dawn Of A New America
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
- Isaiah 1:2
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.
- Revelations 22:18-20
If you want to feel encouraged about our economic near future not this damned decade but the one to come - ignore the stock traders and go talk to some venture capitalists. They aren’t quite giddy (after the ‘80s and ‘90s and ‘00s, beware all giddiness), but they are optimistic about an imminent tide of innovations in technology, energy and transportation. Recall, please, the national mood in the mid-’70s: after the 1960s party, we found ourselves in a slough of despondency, with an oil crisis, a terrible recession, a kind of Weimarish embrace of decadence, national malaise and at that very dispirited moment, Microsoft and Apple were founded. The next transformative, moneymaking technologies and businesses are no doubt coming soon to a garage near you.
- Kurt Andersen
The End of Excess. Is This Crisis Good for America?
By Kurt Andersen
DON’T PRETEND we didn’t see this coming for a long, long time.
In the early 1980s, around the time Ronald Reagan became President and Wall Street’s great modern bull market began, we started gambling (and winning!) and thinking magically. From 1980 to 2007, the median price of a new American home quadrupled. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed from 803 in the summer of 1982 to 14,165 in the fall of 2007. From the beginning of the ‘80s through 2007, the share of disposable income that each household spent servicing its mortgage and consumer debt increased 35%. Back in 1982, the average household saved 11% of its disposable income. By 2007 that number was less than 1%. (See TIME’s TOP 25 PEOPLE TO BLAME for the financial crisis.)
The same zeitgeist made gambling ubiquitous: until the late ‘80s, only Nevada and New Jersey had casinos, but now 12 states do, and 48 have some form of legalized betting. It’s as if we decided that Mardi Gras and Christmas are so much fun, we ought to make them a year-round way of life. And we started living large literally as well as figuratively. From the beginning to the end of the long boom, the size of the average new house increased by about half. Meanwhile, the average American gained about a pound a year, so that an adult of a given age is now at least 20 lb. heavier than someone the same age back then. In the late ‘70s, 15% of Americans were obese; now a third are. (Read WHAT’S THE BEST DIET? Eating Less Food.)
We saw what was happening for years, for decades, but we ignored it or shrugged it off, preferring to imagine that we weren’t really headed over the falls. The U.S. auto industry has been in deep trouble for more than a quarter-century. The median household income has been steadily declining this century ... but, but, but our houses and our 401(k)s were ballooning in value, right? Even smart, proudly rational people engaged in magical thinking, acting as if the new power of the Internet and its New Economy would miraculously make everything copacetic again. We all clapped our hands and believed in fairies.
The popular culture tried to warn us. For 20 years, we’ve had Homer Simpson’s spot-on caricature of the quintessential American: CHILDISH, IRRESPONSIBLE, WILLFULLY OBLIVIOUS, FAT AND HAPPY. And more recently we winced at the ultra-Homerized former earthlings of WALL-E.
We knew, in our heart of hearts, that something had to give. Remember when each decade, not long after it finished, assumed a distinct character? We all knew and know what “the ‘50s” mean, and they definitively ended with the Pill, J.F.K.’s assassination and the Beatles just as “the ‘60s” ended when Americans got tired of being alarmed and hectored, and “the ‘70s” ended when stimulants became more popular than depressants and AIDS appeared. But in all salient respects, “the ‘80s” - Reaganism’s reshaping of the political economy, the thrall of the PC, the vertiginous rise in the stock market did not end.
The ‘80s spirit endured through the ‘90s and the 2000s, all the way until the fall of 2008, like an awesome winning streak in Vegas that went on and on and on. American-style capitalism triumphed, and thanks to FedEx and the Web, delayed gratification itself came to seem quaint and unnecessary. So what if every year since the turn of the century the U.S. economy grew more slowly than the global economy? Stuff at Wal-Mart and Costco and money itself stayed supercheap! Even 9/11, which supposedly “changed everything,” and the resulting Iraqi debacle came to seem like mere bumps in the road. Even if deep down everyone knew that the spiral of overleveraging and overspending and the prices of stocks and houses were unsustainable, no one wanted to be a buzz kill.
But now everything really has changed. More than a year into the Great Recession, we still aren’t sure if there’s a bottom in sight, and six months after the financial system began imploding, it’s still iffy. The party is finally, definitely over. And the present decade, which we’ve never even agreed what to call - the 2000s? the aughts? has acquired its permanent character as a historical pivot defined by the nightmares of 9/11 and the Panic of 2008-09. Those of us old enough to remember life before the 26-year-long spree began will probably spend the rest of our lives dealing with its CONSEQUENCES - in economics, foreign policy, culture, politics, the WARP and woof of our daily lives. During the ‘80s and ‘90s, we were Wile E. Coyote racing heedlessly across the endless American landscape at maximum speed and then spent the beginning of the 21st century suspended in midair just past the end of the cliff; gravity reasserted itself, and we plummeted.
In the Road Runner cartoons, after each fall, the coyote is broken and battered but never dies. America isn’t going to expire either. But unlike him, we will be chastened and begin behaving more wisely. For years, enthusiasts for UNFETTERED CAPITALISM have insisted that the withering away of enterprises and entire industries is a healthy and necessary part of a vibrant, self-correcting economic system; now, more than at any time since Joseph Schumpeter popularized the idea of creative destruction in 1942, we must endure the shocking and awesome pain of that metamorphosis. After decades of talking the talk, now we’re all obliged to WALK THE WALK.
We cannot just hunker down, cross our fingers, hysterically pinch our pennies, wait for the crises to pass, blame the bankers and then go back to business as usual. All that conventional wisdom about 2008 being a “change” year? We had no idea. Recently Rush Limbaugh appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, panicking not so much about the economy but about how the political winds are blowing as a result. If we finally manage to achieve something like universal health care, Limbaugh warned, it would mean “the end of America as we know it.” He’s right, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is the end of the world as we’ve known it. But it isn’t the end of the world.
You know the story of the ant and the grasshopper? The ant is disciplined, the grasshopper parties as if the good times will last forever and then winter descends. Americans are, bless us, energetic grasshoppers as well as energetic ants, a sui generis crossbreed, which is why we’ve been so successful as a nation. Our moxie comes in two basic types. We possess the Yankee virtues embodied by the founders: sobriety, hard work, practical ingenuity, common sense, fair play. And then there’s our wilder, faster and looser side, that packet of attributes that makes us American instead of Canadian: impatient, hell-bent, self-invented gamblers, with a weakness for blue smoke and mirrors. A certain fired-up imprudence was present from the beginning, but it required a couple of centuries for the most extravagant version of the American Dream to take hold: starting with the California Gold Rush in 1849 ח riches for the plucking, with no adult supervision we have been repeatedly wont to abandon prudence and the tedium of saving and building in favor of the fantastic idea that anybody, given enough luck and liberty, can make a fortune overnight.
It’s time to ratchet back our wild and crazy grasshopper side and get in touch with our inner ant, to be more artisan-enterpriser and less prospector-speculator, more heroic Greatest Generation and less self-indulgent baby boomer, to return from Oz to Kansas, to become fully reality-based again.
Just as our two-sided national character has always toggled back and forth between its steady and skylarking aspects, so does our national history run in cycles, as writers have noted almost from the beginning. And so once more we are making the periodic shift from an unfettered zeal for individual getting and spending to a rediscovery of the common good, from “the business of America is business” seeming inarguably true to sounding narrow, callous, a little crazy.
But in fact, there are two cyclic waves in American history: one for politics and the general national spirit, the other for economic growth and contraction. Think of the two wave systems as running along the same timeline but perpendicular to each other ח politics on the horizontal, weaving left to right; economics on the vertical, weaving up and down. Each affects the other, but unpredictably. A political or economic era can be as brief as 10 years or as long as a quarter-century, but the politics and economics don’t move obviously in sync. Prosperity, for instance, can reinforce the “natural” political shift toward the right, as it did after World War II and for most of the past 25 years, but it can also accelerate a turn to the left, as it did in the early 1960s. Or the social discombobulations provoked by a given zig, as with the late ‘60s, can make the zag that follows more extreme; thus the long political period we’ve just been through.
Every now and then, the drastic end of flush economic times happens to coincide with the natural end of a conservative political era. Such was the case in the 1930s coming after three straight conservative presidencies, a period of whizbang technological progress (electrification, radio, aviation) and a culture of bon temps rouler ח and such is the case now.
We’ll see soon enough how well President Barack Obama copes, but long before the collapse, he clearly sensed the nature of the historical moment. His Democratic opponents were all over him a year ago when he gave the Reagan Revolution its due, but he was exactly right: “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America ... He tapped into what people were already feeling ... [He] transformed American politics and set the agenda for a long time ... In political terms, we may be in one of those moments where we can get a seismic shift in how the country views itself and our future. And we have to take advantage of that.”
Work the Program
Given that we’ve brought on the current crises through a quarter-century of self-destructive financial excess and overdependence on debt and fossil fuels, during the same quarter-century we’ve all become familiar with a way of thinking about self-destructive excess and dependence. The vocabulary of addiction recovery could come in handy just now. We are like substance abusers coming off a long bender, hitting bottom (we can only hope) and taking the messes we’ve made as a sobering wake-up call. I’ve always thought many of the 12 Steps were superfluous, so here is a streamlined, secularized Three-Step Program for America Bubbleholics Anonymous? ח to start getting back on track:
Admit that we are powerless over addiction to easy money and cheap fossil fuel and living large that our lives had become unmanageable.
Believe that we can, individually and collectively, restore ourselves to sanity and normal living.
Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and be entirely ready to remove our defects of character.
Of course, when addicts finally quit, it feels awful for a while, and that’s where we are right now. The recession, provoked by the sudden, essentially cold-turkey abandonment of spending, lending and borrowing, is something like our national equivalent of the jitters, sweats and seizures that addicts experience right after they give up the junk. Actually, the applicable addiction trope is more like food (or sex) than drugs or booze, since as economic creatures, we can’t quit; we just have to teach ourselves to buy and borrow in moderate, healthier ways. The new America must be about financial temperance, not abstinence.
Our great national rehab won’t be easy. But it wasn’t only in olden times that Americans have coped with breathtaking flux and successfully undertaken dramatic change. In fact, we’ve just done it. During the era recently ended, we adapted to hundreds of TV channels and multiple phone companies and airlines that arise and disappear as fast as strip-mall stores. WOMEN have come close to achieving real equality; being gay has become astoundingly public and unremarkable. And speaking of shaking off addictions, half again as many of us smoked cigarettes in the early ‘80s. We watched (and helped) the Soviet Union and its European empire collapse and watched (and helped) China change from a backward, dangerous Orwellian nation into a booming, much less Orwellian member of the global order. During just the past 15 years, we’ve managed to reduce murders in New York City by two-thirds; grown accustomed to the weird transparency and instant connectedness of the new digital world; sequenced the human genome; and inaugurated a black President. That’s change.
This time around, though, in contrast to the early ‘80s, it’s much clearer from the get-go that one era has ended and a new one is about to begin. A lot of the change will be the result of collective political choices, as we clear away the wreckage, consider the bad habits and ill-advised schemes that got us here and try to refashion our economic and health-care and energy systems accordingly. But at least as much of the new America of the 2010s and beyond will be the result of transformed sensibility, changes in our understanding of what’s important and sensible and attractive, and what feels hollow or silly or nuts.
The reset button has been pushed. So what will be the protocols and look and feel of the America about to emerge?
Only six months ago, we thought we might be on the verge of a remarkable new era ח thanks to the possible election of Obama. It is bizarre how secondary that epochal change now seems. It’s as if Jesus had returned but just afterward extraterrestrials landed, and as a result everybody stopped paying much attention to the holy dude. But it’s also a perfectly apt and gratifying turn of events: candidate Obama positioned himself as a smart, steady character who happened to be black, and the economic emergency that helped ensure his election has pushed the fact of his race and its heavy symbolic freight into the shadows of public consciousness. Once the crises have passed, however, I think we’ll rediscover the ramifications, small and large, of the enlightened national turn we made last Nov. 4 and start enjoying the dawn of a new era of racial reconciliation.
A big reason for Obama’s election and high approval ratings is his privileging of the empirical and pragmatic ahead of ideological reflex. We have not, of course, arrived in a golden age of fair-minded, intellectually honest postpartisanship, as proved by the congressional votes on the stimulus package and the redoubled ferocity of brain-dead partisans. But a majority of Americans out in America are dialing back or turning off their ideological autopilots, thanks to the economic crises, Obama’s approach and the postזCold War realities. With the Soviet Union gone and China socialist in name only, the specter of communism is no longer haunting us, and charges of socialism have lost the political power they had for most of the past century. Rather, it’s suddenly capitalist piggishness that provokes genuine rage. When nearly half the House Republicans vote for a confiscatory 90% tax on Wall Street executives’ bonuses, the old “class warfare” lines seem moot.
We haven’t come to the end of ideology, as Daniel Bell asserted in 1960 and Francis Fukuyama restated in 1992, but the familiar polarities of right and left are losing their salience. For a while, America will be in a state of ideological flux which means we’ll be unusually free to improvise a fresh course forward. We can have universal health coverage and public schools unbound from the stultifying grip of teachers’ unions. We can tax fossil fuels so that solar and wind become more economical and commit seriously to nuclear power. We can impose sensible regulatory mechanisms and enthusiastically promote free markets and free trade. We can grow the armed forces to fight all necessary wars but also forgo pork-barrel weapons systems.
It’s not that disagreements about government intervention won’t disappear ח and we’ll continue to have true believers on the left and the right. But with the economy in uncharted territory, we’ll come to recognize that party-line adherence to old political convictions won’t provide any easy way out. Given that it was our unthinking trust in the unthinking certainty of “experts” that got us here securitized debt? credit-default swaps? uh, sure, whatever ח Americans can now revert to their ruthlessly pragmatic, commonsensical selves. Admitting that we aren’t certain exactly how to proceed is liberating, and key. Hyperbolic rants and rigid talking points, in either Limbaughian or Olbermannian flavors, now seem worse than useless, artifacts of a bumptious barroom age.
The utterly international nature of our present economic hell makes it all the scarier. But in the long run, I think we will also see an upside: the meltdown amounts to a spectacular moment of global CONSCIOUSNESS, this generation’s version of the Apollo astronauts’ iconic 1968 photograph of the earth from the moon an unforgettable reminder that all 6.7 billion of us are in this together, profoundly and inextricably interdependent. (The sublime always has a bit of terror mixed in.)
If you want to feel encouraged about our economic near future ח not this damned decade but the one to come ignore the stock traders and go talk to some venture capitalists. They aren’t quite giddy (after the ‘80s and ‘90s and ‘00s, beware all giddiness), but they are optimistic about an imminent tide of innovations in technology, energy and transportation. Recall, please, the national mood in the mid-’70s: after the 1960s party, we found ourselves in a slough of despondency, with an oil crisis, a terrible recession, a kind of Weimarish embrace of decadence, national malaise ח and at that very dispirited moment, Microsoft and Apple were founded. The next transformative, moneymaking technologies and businesses are no doubt coming soon to a garage near you.
The present chastening can’t mean turning into a nation of overcautious, unambitious scaredy-cats. This is the moment for business to think different and think big. The great dying off of quintessentially 20th century businesses presents vast opportunity for entrepreneurs. People will still need (greener) cars, still want to read quality journalism, still listen to recorded music and all the rest. And so as some of the huge, dominant, old-growth trees of our economic forest fall, the seedlings and saplings that is, the people burning to produce and sell new kinds of transportation and media in new, economic ways ח will have a clearer field in which to grow.
The ecology of business and employment at the high end has already been transformed by the Wall Street crash. The end of the boom in the financial industry means that careers manipulating money will no longer be so seductive to such a disproportionate share of our best and brightest. Among the 2007 graduates of Harvard College who went straight to work, half the kids heading to banks and consultancies said that if money weren’t an issue, they’d be embarking on different career paths, and the 20% of the class that went to work in public service, politics, the arts and publishing would instead be 39%. In the postbubble economy, plenty of smart and ambitious young people will still pursue financial careers, God bless them, but other fields will get a bigger share of the cream.
The baby boomers were historically fortunate: they missed the Great Depression and World War II, and though they grew up with the hideous ambient hum of potential nuclear Armageddon, until they reached middle age, the only great national trauma was the one the ‘60s and Vietnam ח in which they were the self-regarding stars. The so-called millennials, on the other hand, have come of age during a period defined by the digital revolution, 9/11, financial bubbles bursting, a possible depression and the election possibly their election ח of an African-American President: the makings, frankly, of a healthier, more useful generational creation myth than assassinations, antiwar protests and countercultural bacchanalia (which, by the way, enabled the risk-taking, party-hearty, quasi-utopian paradigm of the past quarter-century). In other words, the kids are all right. (Read stories from people who lived through the Great Depression.)
Whether or not Congress passes some kind of carbon-taxing scheme that ushers in a true alternative-energy era, “sustainability” is going to be shaping individual and public-policy decisions. And I don’t just mean eating locally grown foods, driving more fuel-efficient cars and using weird lightbulbs. Annual increases of 10% and 15% in real estate prices were not sustainable; endlessly lowering taxes and expanding government isn’t sustainable; Medicare and the war on drugs as currently constituted are not sustainable. Sustainability in this sense is as much old-fashioned green-eyeshade Republicanism as it is newfangled kumbaya-ish green talk, and achieving it will require partisans on both sides to face facts and make unpleasant choices.
Yes, we must start spending again, and we will. But we’ve all known people who, having survived the 1930s, never lost their Depression habits of frugality. And so it will be again. We don’t need to turn ourselves into tedious, zero-body-fat, zero-carbon-footprint ascetics, but even after the economy recovers, deciding to forgo that third car or fifth TV or imperial master bathroom or marginally cooler laptop will come more naturally.
The housing industry is comatose, yet even that has a silver lining. We have a moment to pause and reflect before we begin building again. When big-time real estate development resumes, we can move beyond the incoherent, anything-goes paradigm of the postwar era and produce more places to live along the lines of the towns and cities everyone instinctively loves, communities designed to become true communities. “The days where we’re just building sprawl forever,” Obama said in February in South Florida, “those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to design communities.”
Although certain self-parodying epiphenomena of the Age of Profligacy ח so long, Paris Hilton! are about to disappear, fun will endure. Hollywood is doing fantastic box-office business, thanks to insanely unserious movies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Madea Goes to Jail. The Colbert Report has been a special haven of sanity amid the sky-is-falling hysteria. And again, history is encouraging in this regard: Saturday Night Live and modern comedy were born during the malaise-y ‘70s, just as wit and humor ח the New Yorker, the Marx Brothers, screwball comedy flourished in the ‘30s. I’m even hopeful that the meltdown and resulting reset might jar the culture in deeper ways. For three decades, too much of art and design and entertainment has seemed caught in a cul-de-sac, almost compulsively reviving styles and remixing the greatest hits of the past. (Think: post-Modern architecture, pop music based on sampling, ‘60s-style shift dresses, pseudo-midcentury home dשcor.) Since we’re now finished with a 25- or 30-year-long era in both politics and economics, maybe a new cultural epoch will emerge as well. Maybe more of the next big things will be actually, thrillingly new.
Sixty-eight years ago, a founder of this magazine, Henry Luce, published an essay in LIFE celebrating a national history that had “teemed with manifold projects and magnificent purposes ... It is in this spirit that all of us are called, each to his own measure of capacity, and each in the widest horizon of his vision, to create the first great American Century.” And so we did. The question now is how far we can extend our heyday of manifold projects and magnificent purposes. Golden ages and empires do come to an end.
“History doesn’t repeat itself,” Mark Twain is supposed to have said, “but it rhymes.” Does America in 2009 rhyme with the Britain of 1909? Back then, the British were finishing a proud century as the most important nation on earth economically, politically, militarily, culturally. But the U.S. was coming on fast, having already overtaken the Brits economically. Between the beginning of World War I and the end of World War II, as America turned into the unequivocal global leader, Britain became an admirable also-ran, radically diminished as a global player. If the 21st century rhymed, China would be the new us feverish with individual and national drive, manufacturer to the world, growing like crazy, bigger and much more populous than the reigning superpower. And our next half-century would, according to the analogy, unfold like Britain’s in the first half of the 20th century, requiring a downsizing of our national ambitions and self-conception.
In fact, we surely will have to adjust the ways we think of ourselves. Still an exceptional country, absolutely, but not a magical one exempt from the laws of economic and geopolitical gravity. A nation with plenty of mojo left, sure, but in our 3rd century, informed by the wisdom of middle age a little more than the pedal-to-the-metal madness of youth.
The same goes for our individual senses of lifestyle entitlement. During the perma-’80s, way too many of us were operating, consciously or not, with a dreamy gold-rush vision of getting rich the day after tomorrow and then cruising along as members of an impossibly large leisure class. (That was always the yuppie dream: an aristocratic life achieved meritocratically.) Now that our age of self-enchantment has ended, however, each of us, gobsmacked and reality-checked by the new circumstances, is recalibrating expectations for the timing and scale of our particular version of the Good Life. Which, of course, fuels the ferocious anger at the Wall Street rich even now getting richer with subsidized eight-figure bonuses.
However, if most of our hypothetical individual futures don’t look quite so lavish, as a nation we have two not-so-secret weapons that, managed correctly and given a little luck, could allow us to remain at the top of the heap for a long time to come: technological innovation and immigration.
For our past two centuries, a key to national prosperity and power was the extraordinary physical scale of our land, our population, our natural resources. CHINA has similar advantages today, and partly because we have already been there and done that, paving the way, it has been able to develop in fast motion, cramming 100 years of development into 30. But I’m reminded of Philip Johnson’s apt, bitchy description of Frank Lloyd Wright during the forward looking 1930s “as the greatest architect of the 19th century.” Twenty-first century China is the greatest country of the 20th century. Muscular industrialism gets you only so far. Further increases in productivity and prosperity require ingenuity and enterprise applied at the micro scale digital devices and networked systems, biotechnology, subatomic nanotechnology. As China and other developing countries finally achieve the industrial plenty that we enjoyed 50 years ago, the U.S. can stay ahead once again by pioneering the NEXT-GENERATION TECHNOLIGIES that the increasingly industrialized world will require. (Read: WILL CHINA’S STOCK MARKET REBOUND BEFORE THE S&P?)
And no other nation assimilates IMMIGRANTS as successfully as the U.S. The sooner we can agree on a coherent NATIONAL POLICY TO ENCOURAGE as many as possible of the world’s smartest and most ambitious people to become Americans, the better our chances of forestalling national decline. The waves of exotic foreigners who arrived in the 19th and early 20th centuries were unsettling, but previous generations got over it, luckily, since those newcomers were instrumental in forging the American Century.
The next new America that hatches will not be some bizarro world opposite of everything that came just before. History proceeds dialectically. The New Deal era ended, but its basic social and economic underpinnings have endured. Notwithstanding the backlash against the 1960s, the changes born of that decade’s sharp left turn ח civil rights, feminism, gay rights, environmentalism, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll became part of the American way of life. In the same way, even as we now rediscover the need for sensible regulation and systemic fairness, the fundamentally good lessons of the Reagan age - entrepreneurialism mostly unbound, proud Americanism will endure. The babies will not be thrown out with the bathwater.
We are in a state of shock. In a matter of months, half the value of the stock market and more than half of Wall Street’s corporate pillars have disappeared, along with several million jobs. Venerable corporate enterprises are teetering. But as we gasp in terror at our half glass of water, we really can and must come to see it as half full as well as half empty. Now that we’re accustomed to the unthinkable suddenly becoming not just thinkable but actual, we ought to be able to think the unthinkable on the upside, as America plots its reconstruction and reinvention.
Andersen is a novelist of (Heyday, Turn of the Century), the host of the public-radio program Studio 360 and a former columnist for Time.
Section Revelations •
Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. - Otto von Bismarck
Ancient African skeletons hint at a ?ghost lineage? of humans
Sonos sunsets several smart speakers? software support, spurring storm
The Mount Vesuvius eruption was so hot, one man?s brain turned to glass.
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Junkers Ju 86 on skis in Sweden
Due to a lack of suitable airfields Swedish military aircraft were often fitted with floats during the summer period for operation from lakes and rivers, and in the wintertime skis were fitted. This practice continued until the early 1940s.
When the first Swedish Junkers Ju 86K bombers (Swedish designation B 3) were ordered in 1936 it was specified in the contract that a ski undercarriage was to be designed for the aircraft. Two pairs of skis were ordered from Dessau for winter tests. The wooden parts were made by Propeller-Hersteller Heine and arrived in Dessau in January 1938. The skis were then completed and tried on one of the Swedish aircraft, Ju 86K-4 c/n 0860361 (B 3A s/n 143), before it left the factory.
After arrival in Sweden this aircraft was assigned to the Swedish air force test establishment (Försökscentralen) at Malmslätt, Linköping. It remained there until July 1941 and was the subject of a number of tests, including ski trials.
The first tests with the Junkers-made skis were made at Boden in northern Sweden, in April 1938. Take-off and landing was accomplished within 180-190 meters on a 50 cm thick layer of snow with hard surface. Tests were resumed in April 1939, now with a modified type of ski acquired from Junkers. Polish-made skis from the Szomanski firm were then ordered for comparative tests, but when the war broke out in September they were seized by German authorities at Gotenhafen and were never delivered to Sweden.
In February 1940 metal fairings for 20 pairs of skis, later reduced to 14 pairs, were ordered from Svenska Karosseriverkstäderna AB at Katrineholm and they were delivered in December 1940. However, snow clearance techniques soon developed far enough to render skis unnecessary and eventually the skis acquired for the B 3 were never used.
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Welcome to Barrier-Free BC
“Just Say Yes” Action Kit
Organizational Supporters
Barriers in BC
13 PRINCIPLES FOR A British Columbians with Disabilities Act
1. The Act SETS A TIMELINE:
The goal of the British Columbians with Disabilities Act is to achieve a Barrier-Free province within a specific and clearly defined deadline set by the legislation; a timeline which begins immediately upon proclamation and will include checkpoints at regular intervals until existing and on-going barriers are removed.
2. The Act APPLIES TO ALL:
The Act will apply to all persons with disabilities whether their disability is considered physical, sensory, cognitive, communication or mental health related and will include visible, invisible, permanent or episodic conditions. The Act will apply to all government departments, crown corporations, companies, organizations and any other entity that is regulated under provincial jurisdiction.
3. The Act SETS THE BAR:
A British Columbians with Disabilities Act will supersede all other legislation, regulations or policies which provide lesser protections or entitlements but will protect any rights which persons with disabilities have already earned and currently enjoy.
4. The Act REMOVES BARRIERS:
The Act will require the Government, including provincial and municipal regulated organizations, to be made fully accessible to all persons with disabilities by the removal of existing barriers and the prevention or creation of new barriers. These barriers may include but are not limited to physical, legal, information, communication, attitudinal, technological or other barriers.
5. The Act CHAMPIONS BARRIER-FREE GOODS, SERVICES & FACILITIES:
The Act will require all provincially regulated service providers to ensure that their services and facilities are fully usable by persons with disabilities based on principles of universal design. Service providers will be required to develop and implement detailed plans to remove existing and to prevent the creation of new barriers.
6. The Act CHAMPIONS BARRIER-FREE WORKPLACES & EMPLOYMENT
The British Columbians with Disabilities Act will require organizations to take proactive steps to achieve a barrier-free workplace and employment opportunities. Employers will be required to develop and implement plans for the removal of existing and prevention of new workplace and employment barriers.
7. The Act CHARGES GOVERNMENT TO LEAD, EDUCATE, TRAIN, INFORM & REVIEW:
The British Columbians with Disabilities Act will require Government to lead the province toward achieving the goals of the Act and fulfilling its mandate. It will further require Government to provide education, information and resources for provincially regulated businesses and organizations which must comply with the Act. The BC Government will be required to appoint an independent person to periodically review and publicly report (at regular intervals) on progress towards the goal of full accessibility.
8. The Act IS ENFORCEABLE:
The Act will provide for a prompt, independent and effective process for enforcement. This will include a comprehensive and clearly defined avenue for persons with disabilities who encounter barriers which are in violation of the legislation to raise and submit complaints to enforcement officials.
9. The Act IS MADE REAL THROUGH REGULATIONS:
The BC Government will be required to make regulations that clearly define the steps needed for full compliance under the Act and that said regulations be independently reviewed a minimum of every four years. It will be open to recommendations made on an industry-by-industry or sector-by-sector basis. This will include a requirement that input be obtained from persons with disabilities and disability-related organizations prior to enactment.
10. The Act ENSURES PUBLIC MONIES DO NOT CREATE OR PERPETUATE BARRIERS:
The Act will require that the BC Government ensures that no public money is used to create or perpetuate barriers against persons with disabilities. Government departments, agencies, and crown corporations should be required to make it a strict condition of funding programs, transfer payments, subsidies, loans, grants, capital or infrastructure projects that no such funds may be used to create or perpetuate barriers. There should also be a requirement that procurement of goods, services or facilities be fully accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities. The BC Government should be required to monitor and enforce these requirements and to periodically report to the public on their compliance.
11. The Act IS A LENS THROUGH WHICH TO VET LEGISLATION:
The Act will require the BC Government to review existing legislation and regulations identifying possible accessibility barriers and develop timelines to address the shortcomings. Government will review all future proposed legislation and regulations before they are enacted to insure accessibility barriers are not about to be created.
12. The Act SETS POLICY:
The British Columbians with Disabilities Act will influence and affect the development and implementation of provincial policy thereby enhancing and improving access to a full range of goods, services and programs not currently available to persons with disabilities in BC.
13. The Act HAS REAL FORCE & REAL EFFECT:
The Act must be more than mere window dressing. It should contribute meaningfully to the improvement of the position of persons with disabilities in British Columbia enabling them to fully participate and enjoy community life. It must have real force through effective enforcement mechanisms which lead to real effect.
Barrier-Free BC – 13 Principles for a British Columbians with Disabilities Act
A more thorough description of the Principles can be found here.
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1/25/2012 02:47:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 3 Comments
Private Eye article about Keith Tilbury, ESA, WCA, Atos, Unum and the Spartacus Report. The image was sent to me as a jpeg (I think!) which I'm aware isn't accessible via screen reader. Lack of spoons means I can't sort this out but if anyone can help out so that it's properly accessible that would be fantastic thank you!
Updated 1721, text with thanks to Steve Budden
FIT-FOR-WORK TESTS
in the Eye's growing post-bag of appalling decisions made by French service company Atos in assessing sick and disabled people as being "fit for work", one of the most shocking concerns Keith Tilbury. Mr Tilbury (pictured) spent 13 days in a coma fighting for his life after he was accidentally shot in the stomach by a police firearms officer. The bullet smashed a rib, damaged his sternum and put a hole in his liver. He had to have part of a kidney removed and lost part of his bowel. He had massive entry and exit wounds, muscle and other extensive soft tissue damage.
Since that disaster in 2007, Mr Tilbury has suffered two heart attacks, two while undergoing surgery, a quadruple coronary bypass, two transient ischemic attacks (mini-strokes), one full-blown stroke resulting in reduced vision in his eyes, post-operative complications — and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mr Tilbury, 60, says: "I have had many hours of cognitive behaviour therapy with a psychotherapist trying to work out why a Thames Valley Police firearms instructor would fire Dirty Harry's weapon of choice — a .44 magnum — in a seminar room."
Given his well-documented health records, Mr Tilbury, who had been a civilian emergency call centre operator, is trying to establish how on earth the Atos nurse or doctor — he is not sure which ¬could decide that he is fit to work without "dropping down dead" when there has been no improvement in his health since his last assessment. Like thousands of others, Mr Tilbury is having to go through the ordeal of appealing against the decision. He sees the box-ticking Atos test — drawn up with the help of the US insurance giant Unum, which was fined millions in the US for cheating its clients — as no more than a govermment tool to slash the benefits of people who through no fault of their own can no longer work.
Unum has been helping both Tory and Labour governments with so-called welfare reform, going right back to Peter Lilley's 1994 social security "Incapacity for Work" shake-up.
Atos, which boasts that its contract with the current govemment is worth
1 "approximately £100m a year", happened to a be the only other private company sitting alongside Unum on the then Labour government's panel which reviewed and came up with the hated "work capability test" which is now failing Mr Tilbury and thousands like him.
Companies like Atos and Unum (which markets its insurance on the back of welfare reform) now stand to make even more millions, however, as the coalition presses ahead with its plans for similar assessments for those receiving disability living allowance (DLA). By replacing DLA with a personal independence payment which is subject to regular review and face-to-face assessments, the government says it can save £1bn because it claims many people no longer require the support.
But a recent detailed study, Responsible Reform, accuses the govemment of consistently using inaccurate figures to exaggerate the rise in DLA claimants, while concealing the overwhelming opposition to its latest reform. The detailed 40-page study — dubbed the Spartacus report and written and funded by disabled people — found that the number of working-age people receiving DLA, excluding those with mental health conditions, had remained remarkably stable. One of the authors, Kaliya Franklin, said: "Cutting spending on DLA will increase the burden on local authorities, the NHS and community services at the very time they are seeking to find savings by reducing eligibility, particularly for social care support."
There is no point in subjecting people with permanent disability to regular assessments and those whose conditions do improve would welcome reform — and indeed assessments — if they were simplified and considered robust, fair and transparent. But as Mr Tilbury and so many like him have found, the government's work capability test, delivered by Atos, is none of those things. PS: After the shooting incident in which Mr Tilbury was injured, Thames Valley Police was fined £40,000 with £25,000 costs and the PC who fired the weapon. David Micklethwaite, £8,000 and £8000 costs, for breaching health and safety regulations.
Matthew Smith said...
Both the picture and the text underneath it are too big for the column they're in, so there's a strip missing on the right in both (making the text incomprehensible).
Jackart said...
My question is this. Given the plural of "anecdote" is not "data", how widespread is a case such as this? How did this story come about, presumabley as part of an appeals process, in which case, why worry?
Sure, bureaucratic box-ticking exercises are going to throw up some silly answers, but after an appeal, how many, really, deserving people are going to lose out, vs the number of flagrantly fit people abusing the system.
You'll point out the low fraud numbers for DLA, while ignoring the widespread abuse of IB.
Yes. What this chap went through is shocking. There's no indication that this is a final decision, or of appeals.
You claim to be in favour of checks on eligability in principle, but will rule any attempt to do so as bureaucratic box-ticking exercises. Well of course they are.
Hard cases make bad law, and are usually picked up on appeal.
Ami said...
Jackart,
To try and answer your question, between October 2008 and August 2010, 69800 people (15% of all those found fit to work by ATOS) had the decision overturned by the appeals tribunal.
The appeal success rate was higher for those who had representation - the Citizens Advice Bureau reported a 70% success rate for their clients.
Processing appeals is expensive. Currently ATOS suffer no financial penalty for wrong decisions.
(Figures from fullfact.org. These figures do not include those wrongly considered capable of 'work-related activity' who were placed in the support group after appeal.)
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February 26, 2004 February 28, 2010 Mark Watson 0 Comments Carter Scholz, Harry Turtledove, Ian Watson, James Patrick Kelly, John Varley, Judith Moffett, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepard, Orson Scott Card, Richard Kearns, Robert Silverberg
Stories by : Carter Scholz, Harry Turtledove, Ian Watson, James Patrick Kelly, John Varley, Judith Moffett, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepard, Orson Scott Card, Richard Kearns, Robert Silverberg
February 26, 2004 February 28, 2010 Mark Watson 0 Comments Bob Leman, Charles L. Harness, Connie Willis, Gardner Dozois, George Alec Effinger, John Varley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lee Montgomerie, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Octavia E. Butler, Pamela Sargent, Tanith Lee
Stories by : Bob Leman, Charles L. Harness, Connie Willis, Gardner Dozois, George Alec Effinger, John Varley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lee Montgomerie, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Octavia E. Butler, Pamela Sargent, Tanith Lee
Hartwell Cramer Reviews Year's Best
Year’s Best SF 5. David G. Hartwell. Eos Books 2000
February 25, 2004 October 9, 2011 Mark Watson 0 Comments Barry N. Malzberg, Brian Aldiss, Brian M. Stableford, Chris Beckett, Chris Lawson, Cory Doctorow, Curt Wohleber, Elisabeth Malartre, Fred Lerner, G. David Nordley, Gene Wolfe, Geoff Ryman, Greg Egan, Hiroe Suga, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucy Sussex, Mary Soon Lee, Michael Bishop, Michael Swanwick, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Reed, Sarah Zettel, Stephen Baxter, Terry Bisson, Tom Purdom
Stories by : Barry N. Malzberg, Brian Aldiss, Brian M. Stableford, Chris Beckett, Chris Lawson, Cory Doctorow, Curt Wohleber, Elisabeth Malartre, Fred Lerner, G. David Nordley, Gene Wolfe, Geoff Ryman, Greg Egan, Hiroe Suga, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucy Sussex, Mary Soon Lee, Michael Bishop, Michael Swanwick, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Reed, Sarah Zettel, Stephen Baxter, Terry Bisson, Tom Purdom
Dozois Reviews Year's Best
Years Best Science Fiction 17th Annual Collection. Gardner Dozois 2000
February 24, 2004 September 19, 2011 Mark Watson 0 Comments Alastair Reynolds, Ben Bova, Charles Sheffield, Chris Lawson, David Marusek, Eleanor Arnason, Frederik Pohl, Geoff Ryman, Greg Egan, Hal Clement, James Patrick Kelly, Kage Baker, Karl Schroder, Kim Stanley Robinson, M. John Harrison, Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, Paul J. McAuley, Richard Wadholm, Robert Grossbach, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Sage Walker, Sean Williams, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Walter Jon Williams
Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Ben Bova, Charles Sheffield, Chris Lawson, David Marusek, Eleanor Arnason, Frederik Pohl, Geoff Ryman, Greg Egan, Hal Clement, James Patrick Kelly, Kage Baker, Karl Schroder, Kim Stanley Robinson, M. John Harrison, Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, Paul J. McAuley, Richard Wadholm, Robert Grossbach, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Sage Walker, Sean Williams, Stephen Baxter, Tanith Lee, Walter Jon Williams.
Year’s Best Science Fiction, 9th Annual Collection. Gardner Dozois. 1992
February 24, 2004 September 19, 2011 Mark Watson 0 Comments Alexander Jablokov, Brian W. Aldiss, Chris Beckett, Connie Willis, Geoffrey A. Landis, Greg Egan, Gregory Benford, Ian McDonald, Ian R. Macleod, Jack Dann, James Patrick Kelly, Karen Joy Fowler, Kathe Koja, Kim Newman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lois Tilton, Mark L, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Pat Cadigan, Paul J. McAuley, Rick Shelley, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Walter Jon Williams, William Gibson
Stories by : Alexander Jablokov, Brian W. Aldiss, Chris Beckett, Connie Willis, Geoffrey A. Landis, Greg Egan, Gregory Benford, Ian McDonald, Ian R. Macleod, Jack Dann, James Patrick Kelly, Karen Joy Fowler, Kathe Koja, Kim Newman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lois Tilton, Mark L, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Pat Cadigan, Paul J. McAuley, Rick Shelley, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Walter Jon Williams, William Gibson
February 24, 2004 September 19, 2011 Mark Watson 0 Comments Brian Stableford, Bruce McAllister, Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis, D. Alexander Smith, Eileen Gunn, George Alec Effinger, Harry Turtledove, Howard Waldrop, James Lawson, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Judith Moffett, Kathe Koja, Kim Newman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lewis Shiner, Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Pat Cadigan, Robert Silverberg, Steven Gould, Steven Kraus, Walter Jon Williams
Stories by : Brian Stableford, Bruce McAllister, Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis, D. Alexander Smith, Eileen Gunn, George Alec Effinger, Harry Turtledove, Howard Waldrop, James Lawson, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Judith Moffett, Kathe Koja, Kim Newman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lewis Shiner, Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Pat Cadigan, Robert Silverberg, Steven Gould, Steven Kraus, Walter Jon Williams.
February 24, 2004 September 19, 2011 Mark Watson 0 Comments Alexander Jablokov, Bruce McAllister, Bruce Sterling, Dean Whitlock, Gene Wolfe, Howard Waldrop, Ian Watson, James Patrick Kelly, Joseph Manzione, Karen Joy Fowler, Kate Wilhelm, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepard, Michael Bishop, Michael Flynn, Michael McDowell, Neal Barrett Jr, Octavia E. Butler, Orson Scott Card, Pat Cadigan, Pat Murphy, Paul J. McAuley, R. Garcia y Robertson, Robert Silverberg, Susan Palwick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Walter Jon Williams
Stories by : Alexander Jablokov, Bruce McAllister, Bruce Sterling, Dean Whitlock, Gene Wolfe., Howard Waldrop, Ian Watson, James Patrick Kelly, Joseph Manzione, Karen Joy Fowler, Kate Wilhelm, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepard, Michael Bishop, Michael Flynn, Michael McDowell, Neal Barrett Jr, Octavia E. Butler, Orson Scott Card, Pat Cadigan, Pat Murphy, Paul J. McAuley, R. Garcia y Robertson, Robert Silverberg, Susan Palwick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Walter Jon Williams.
February 24, 2004 September 19, 2011 Mark Watson 0 Comments Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis, Damon Knight, Greg Bear, Harry Turtledove, Howard Waldrop, Jack Dann, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Judith Moffett, Karen Joy Fowler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lewis Shiner, Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, Neal Barrett Jr, Orson Scott Card, Pat Cadigan, Richard Keans, Robert Silverberg, Scott Baker, Somtow Sucharitkul, Tanith Lee, Tim Powers, Tom Maddox, Walter Jon Williams, William Gibson
Stories by : Bruce Sterling, Connie Willis, Damon Knight, Greg Bear, Harry Turtledove, Howard Waldrop, Jack Dann, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Judith Moffett, Karen Joy Fowler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lewis Shiner, Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, Neal Barrett Jr, Orson Scott Card, Pat Cadigan, Richard Keans, Robert Silverberg, Scott Baker, Somtow Sucharitkul, Tanith Lee, Tim Powers, Tom Maddox, Walter Jon Williams, William Gibson.
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Home » Latest News » Who Really Determines California’s Water Flow
Posted by nkump on Mar 25, 2013 in Latest News | Comments Off on Who Really Determines California’s Water Flow
This year, all eyes are on Governor Jerry Brown’s $23 billion water plan – what he’s calling a solution to California’s long-standing battles in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Two massive, 35-mile water tunnels would ensure the water supply for 25 million Californians. More than 100,000 acres of habitat restoration would bring back imperiled fish.
At the same time, a different state agency is quietly taking on a planning process that could have a much larger impact on the state’s water supply and wildlife.
The State Water Board is making a controversial determination: is too much water being taken out of the Delta? Over the past 50 years, the Delta has been tapped to meet the needs of a rapidly growing state. Today it supplies cities from Sacramento to the Bay Area and Southern California, as well as millions of acres of farmland in the Central Valley.
If the State Water Board finds that too little water is being left in the Delta for endangered salmon and other wildlife, the agency has the power to get that water by amending what’s long been considered sacrosanct in the state: water rights.
While many say the Governor’s plan, known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), will address key environmental factors like the powerful water pumps in the south Delta that harm fish, the plan won’t address the overall balance of water use.
“The water board process is the number one, two and three most important things that could lead to restoration of the Delta,” says Jon Rosenfield of the Bay Institute. “BDCP is a distant fourth or fifth.”
Natural River Flows
The central debate is over the freshwater needed to support fish populations that have declined in recent years, like Chinook salmon. Biologists say the natural river flows they depend on have been dramatically altered by dams and water pumping.
On Wednesday, the State Water Board is holding a public hearing looking at the flows of the San Joaquin River, one of two major rivers that meet in the Delta. In December, the agency released a preliminary draft recommending that at least 35 percent of the river be allowed to flow from February to June.
“It’s closer to natural flow than the current flow regime,” said Les Grober of the State Water Board. “The current regime is: store as much water as possible during the spring months and keep it in storage for release in the summer for agriculture and hydropower.”
Typically, the San Joaquin runs with only about 30 percent of its natural flow, though it varies from year to year. The new requirements would largely affect two of the tributaries that feed the San Joaquin, the Merced and Tuolumne rivers, which currently have spring flows of about 20 percent.
In 2010, the State Water Board released a report recommending that at least 60 percent of the river be allowed to flow, looking solely at wildlife protection. The agency arrived at the current recommendation of 35 percent by including the needs of water users and agriculture.
“Our role is to develop water quality objectives that provide for the reasonable protection, not the absolute protection [of fish],” said Grober. “Reasonable means you have to look at the water supply costs of providing some level of protection to fish. We talk about balancing the competing uses of water.”
The Board will set flow levels for the rest of the Delta, including the Sacramento River, in the next phase of the process. After staff recommendations are made, board members will look at the water rights to determine where the extra water will come from.
Criticism from Both Sides
The State Water Board’s proposal is getting heat from both sides of the debate – wildlife groups and farming communities.
“What it means is very little change from the status quo,” said Rosenfield of the Bay Institute. “Obviously a third of a river is not a whole river, or even half a river. It means that less water is making it to the Delta than needs to.”
Rosenfield and other environmentalists argue that spring flows are crucial to the Delta’s ecosystem. “Juvenile Chinook salmon are migrating out of the rivers and into the Delta and so freshwater flows are helping them do that,” said Rosenfield. “In the Delta itself, Delta smelt and longfin smelt are spawning.”
“You’re going to lose a lot of land to fallowing,” said Allen Short of the San Joaquin Tributaries Authority, a group representing major water districts that use the San Joaquin River. “The economy is going to spiral downwards because you’re going to lose jobs and you’re going to lose the agricultural base.” The State Water Board estimates a 7 percent reduction in irrigated acreage.
The water districts argue that the invasive species that prey on young salmon, like striped bass and largemouth bass, are a larger threat. “We don’t believe additional flows are going to make a difference in increasing the fish population,” said Short. “You need to fix the other stressors in the Delta and the San Joaquin before you require additional flows to go down the river.”
Short would like to see programs that encourage more bass fishing. “Instead of catch and release, catch and eat,” he said. “The idea is to drive the population down so our fish have a better chance of coming back.”
Rosenfield says some of the economic costs will be offset. “I think the cries that ‘the sky is falling’ is hyperbole in the extreme,” he said. “We have a river that used to be one of great Chinook salmon rivers in the world and if it was even marginally restored, it could support another 100,000 salmon per year. That could be a great boon to our fishing economy up the coast all the way to Oregon.”
Battles to Come
Many expect a bitter fight even before the State Water Board begins looking at water rights. Major water districts, including the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, have pledged to fight any increases in river flow. Even San Francisco could be involved, since the city depends on water from the Tuolumne River. “If additional flows are required, San Francisco does have skin in the game at that point,” says Short.
State Water Board staffers say they’ll be working closely with the state agencies developing the Governor’s water plan. Ultimately, that plan won’t move ahead without approval from the Water Board. In the meantime, the board will continue the contentious process of dividing up California’s water.
“It’s the crux of what’s important to all people in the state of California: how we value water and how do we think water should be used?” Grober said.
Source: KQED
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UNITS 1-6
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Mia Zamora
Mia Zamora, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of English, Director of the Kean University Writing Project, and Coordinator of the World Literature Program at Kean University in Union, NJ. Dr. Zamora is a faculty leader committed to encouraging lifelong reading and writing. Her passion for literature is rooted in her belief that reading and writing are essential to communication, learning, and citizenship.
Zamora is a scholar of Electronic Literature (literary works that originate in a digital environment and require digital computation to read.) She is a digital humanist and she writes about how digital technologies are transforming education in the 21st century. Dr. Zamora is an educator who embraces #ConnectedLearning as she advocates for open networked education. She is currently launching a University Makerspace – a site for interdisciplinary campus collaboration and an outreach hub for students and teachers throughout the state.
Mia Zamora has won the Kean University Presidential Excellence Award for Teaching, she is a Fulbright scholar, and she is a past President of the New Jersey College English Association. Her research interests in Comparative Literature, Postcolonial Literature, nationalism, and cultural studies are reflected in her book entitled Nation, Race, History in Asian American Literature: Re-membering the Body and her Postcolonial Studies Book Series. Dr. Zamora completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a fellow of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
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One of my favourite documentaries of all time is The Fog of War. In it, Errol Morris uses his clever Interrotron to interview former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The movie plays a bit like a monologue; Morris’ voice is hardly present. The movie is structured on MacNamara’s “11 lessons”, which are given to us as he moves us through his wildly fascinating life. Ever present in The Fog of War was the invisible elephant in the room of Iraq. McNamara had, for the vast majority of his life, maintained that former Secretaries of Defense should not criticize current ones. His rhetoric and general message sure seemed pointed towards the Gulf, however, and shortly before he passed away he changed his mind and spoke publicly against the war. This was after he took part in this film, however. Clearly, Morris had something to say about Iraq with the film, though it stands alone as a study of McNamara’s life and times.
I wonder if I’ve ever been as happy as Errol Morris was when Rumsfeld agreed to do this. This is very clearly the film that he has always wanted to make. An opportunity to dive into the mind of the man seen as responsible for if not the Iraq War itself, then in large part the campaign to rally support for it. He must have been ecstatic. The comparisons with Fog of War are impossible to avoid. Here we have two films, both one on one interviews using an Interrotrons, with former Secretaries of Defense who are seen as responsible for wars that are often compared against one another, by the same guy. The only notable difference on paper is that Phillip Glass was replaced by Danny Elfman (Who did an admirable job of almost replicating Glass’ sublime Fog of War score). And yet, the two films are wildly different. The film flows less logically than Fog of War, and isn’t as good of a story. This is in large part due to the fact that unlike McNamara, Rumsfeld is not repentant. He is not sorry, he does not think he deceived the American people.
The result is a film that works on a number of levels. It’s a portrait of the man – Donald Rumsfeld. It’s the creation of a documentary maker who is an adversary of his subject. It’s a movie about what a person can make themselves believe, about subjective reality. It’s a story about a man who demands to make his mark, despite the decisions of others to diminish him in history. It’s utterly fascinating.
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Articles from October 2016
Thirteen Former Cape Leaguers in the World Series
CAPE COD, Ma. – It’s one of the most anticipated World Series in years. And even before the first pitch of Game 1 crosses the plate tonight in Cleveland, Cape League fans around the country have already won.
Hall of Fame tickets may be purchased by Cape League fans
Tickets can be purchased by phone.
Six Former Cape Leaguers to Join Hallowed Hall
Six former Cape Leaguers will be honored at a ceremony on November 19 as the Class of 2016 is set to join the elite ranks of the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame. St Louis Cardinals Second-Basemen Kolten Wong Leads 2016 HOF Class.
Cape League Alumni End 2016 MLB Season on Top
“Where tomorrow’s stars shine today” is more than a Cape Cod Baseball League catchphrase. And the proof is in Major League Baseball.
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← McDonnell on What Is and Isn’t an “Official Act”
News Coverage of McDonnell →
Influence of Justice Scalia Felt in Unanimous Decision Throwing Out Gov. McDonnell Conviction
The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling throwing out the conviction of Gov. McDonnell (while leaving open the possibility of a retrial on a narrower theory of the case) is sensible and courageous, and shows the continuing important influence of Justice Scalia in this area of the law. It is hard to write an opinion letting off the hook someone whose actions were as odious as Gov. McDonnell, in taking rolexes, funding for his daughter’s wedding and more from someone who wanted the governor’s assistance in marketing the equivalent of snake oil. But it was the right thing to do.
In an earlier case, Sun-Diamond, Justice Scalia wrote a majority opinion (involving the conviction of Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy on illegal gratuity charges) in which Justice Scalia warned about the criminalization of ordinary politics. This unaninimous opinion by Chief Justice Roberts follows that same lead. It is not enough that conduct is odious—the rules governing political action need to be clear enough so that politicians know the line between politics as usual and crossing the line. In this case, all the government had to prove was that the Governor contacted state officials and asked them to take a meeting with the donor. The government did not have to prove that the Governor sought to influence anyone’s decision on anything. This raised problems of both a vague statute as well as overzealous prosecutors (as I argued in an earlier oped in the NLJ). Prosecutors seek to make a name for themselves by going after corrupt politicians. But vague and broad laws criminalizing ordinary politics raise due process problems, selective prosecutions, and unfair treatment. Justice Scalia signaled this and here a unanimous court followed his lead.
Justice Scalia’s influence was also felt in the mode of analysis. Tellingly, Chief Justice Roberts begins with a textual analysis of the statute, and the canon of construction known as noscitur a socciis. He uses the textual tools to define what counts as an official act, and reads that statute in a way that avoids vagueness and makes sense. At least in the ordinary run of cases, Justices today follow Scalia’s lead and start with a textual analysis. It is not always the end of the analysis, but it is always the beginning. And in a case like this, presenting issues of possible overreach, the textual analysis lined up with the pragmatic analysis.
This opinion does not mean that there’s an easy path to corruption. Every state should make it illegal for public officials to accept large gifts from non-family members. And it may be on remand that McDonnnell will get convicted. But the law, and the line between politics and crime, must be clear. On this point, the Court was able to speak in one voice, and the case would have been 9-0 not 8-0 had Justice Scalia not died in February.
Posted in chicanery, Supreme Court permalink
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Updated On: Jun 20, 2015
Hundreds of union members crowded the Statehouse in Trenton to protest Gov. Chris Christie's funding reductions to public pensions. Protesters gathered at the statehouse at noon for the protest and were heard chanting "We want to be paid" and "Governor Christie, breaking his word, breaking the law". Trenton, NJ 5/12/15. (Photo by Adya Beasley | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
NJ.com - TRENTON - If the state Supreme Court rules Tuesday that New Jersey's public workershave a contractual right to pension funding and orders Gov. Chris Christie to pay back the $1.6 billion he cut from the current budget, the fight may not end there.
State Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R-Monmouth) said he would consider defying a court decision that would order such a huge payment with only three weeks left in the fiscal year, saying it would crush New Jersey's taxpayers and economy.
That kind of response could set up a power struggle between the courts and the other two branches of New Jersey government.
"If the court acts in a way that is completely unrealistic... I think our duty then is to act responsibly in the face of that irresponsible court action," O'Scanlon said.
"It's obviously something I've thought about. I would bet it's something that others have thought about. And I think it's a safe bet it's something the governor has thought of as well," he said. "This governor has proven over and over again he's willing to take these issues head on."
A spokesman for Christie declined to comment.
The court has been asked to weigh in on a dispute between Gov. Chris Christie, who slashed $1.57 billion from this year's pension payment to balance the budget, and public worker unions, who say that cut violated their contractual right to full pension funding.
The decision comes as the end of the current fiscal year looms just three weeks away.
The court could strike down all or part of a 2011 pension law that guaranteed the state would ramp up payments into the pension system, or it could uphold the law, and possibly order the state to restore the full payment.
A lower court in February ruled that the 2011 pension law created a contract between employees and the state, and Christie was in breach.
Christie appealed the decision, stressing that the court shouldn't play a role in budget disputes and doesn't have the power to force the Legislature or governor to make an appropriation.
O'Scanlon said he, and possibly others, may be willing to test that authority.
"I think as responsible legislators and what I know to be a responsible governor, I think we take action to meet the spirit of the court's ruling, if not the letter of the ruling... And that may mean defying the court," O'Scanlon said.
Christie has said the state simply can't afford to make the payment. He slashed a $2.25 billion planned contribution to $681 million after tax collections came up short.
His treasurer and the state Legislature's chief budget analyst have said that so close to the end of the fiscal year the state's coffers are nearly bare.
Christie also recommends underfunding next year's payment by $1.8 billion in his proposed budget.
Democrats have proposed raising taxes on millionaires to generate some of the cash for the fiscal year beginning July 1, while Republican lawmakers and Christie oppose the tax hike.
"I don't need a court to tell me what the dynamics are," O'Scanlon said. "The court decision doesn't change how much revenue we have... The court decision isn't really going to change what we know at all."
Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), said he expects the high court to uphold the lower court's ruling, which will only reinforce what he already knows: "It's the law and we have to follow it.
"I would be shocked if this decision was anything other than that."
The question remaining is what leverage the court has if the governor or lawmakers refuse to comply, Greenwald added.
"It really is just a check and balance, but a very important check and balance to the public to say this is an obligation and it has to be funded," he said.
There is an element of judicial brinksmanship anytime the courts order the other branches to act, Robert Pallito, a Seton Hall University political science professor and a former attorney, said. He expects the court to stop short of ordering a payment rather than risk that type of interbranch showdown.
"This is a tricky case for separation of powers reasons," he has said. "Courts don't like to order the political branches to raise funds or make payments."
This article appeared on NJ.com authored by Samantha Marcus.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/06/pension_fight_might_not_end_with_supreme_court_rul.html
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In response to the growing crisis in Syria, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Eamon Gilmore TD, has pledged to make up to €500,000 available to Irish Aid’s partner humanitarian agencies who are working on the ground.
The Tánaiste said that the funds would be made available to the Red Cross and UN agencies operating in Syria as well as in neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. Irish Aid funding will be used to provide immediate relief to those affected by the fighting and to pre-position emergency supplies for use in the event that the situation deteriorates further.
“After almost a year of conflict in Syria, the UN estimates that 7,500 people have died, while up to 200,000 people have fled their homes amid widespread destruction. Some have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, while hundreds of thousands of civilians have been caught up in the fighting. There is a real risk that the situation could deteriorate further and I believe the international community has a duty to respond.”
The Tánaiste underlined the importance of securing immediate and unhindered access for all humanitarian agencies, including the UN, which has the lead role in coordinating international humanitarian efforts:
“Despite the valiant efforts of humanitarian agencies to reach those most in need, access to vulnerable communities and regions remains extremely difficult. The situation in Homs is particularly dire, with food and medical supplies running dangerously low. We will continue to call for free, safe and unhindered access for all humanitarian workers and relief supplies. In this regard, we fully support the efforts of Baroness Amos, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, to gain access and encourage the Syrian authorities to engage with her and with the International Committee of the Red Cross without further delay with a view to allowing immediate access to people suffering as a result of the violence”.
The Tánaiste echoed the warnings made by the UN regarding the dangers associated with any possible militarisation of emergency assistance.
“It is critical to the integrity and safety of aid operations that they are seen to be independent of all military force. The provision of essential humanitarian relief must be kept separate from other activities”.
Minister of State for Trade and Development, Joe Costello, T.D., has placed Irish Aid’s Rapid Response Corps on standby and offered emergency stockpiles to aid agencies as part of their response.
“The Irish Aid Rapid Response Corps and our emergency stockpiles in Dubai are available for immediate dispatch as required. I have asked my officials to keep in close contact with the relief operation and to liaise with the Red Cross and the UN as the situation with regard to humanitarian access and the needs of these agencies gradually becomes clearer.”
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Pink-backed Pelican Pelecanus rufescens
Current view: Climate Change maps
AUC: 0.8581, O:88.9, R:99.7
The above map shows the simulated distribution for the Pink-backed Pelican ( rufescens) for 2025 based on projected future climate change. The map is generated by relating the species current range to current climate and then projecting this relationship onto future climate simulations. This projected future range is based on climate simulations produced by the hadley center (HADCM3 model using the B2a scenario of future greenhouse gas emissions).
See Hole et al. 2009 for further information.
BirdLife International's Climate Change Programme
Case studies on climate change from State of the World's Birds
IPCC Assessment reports
Return to "Projecting the impacts of climate change"
The modelling and mapping work presented here was undertaken at Durham University with funding from RSPB and using bird range data provided by the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen. The MacArthur Foundation funded the production of these maps on this web-page. Improved presentation of these resources was facilitated through support by the GEF. Anyone wishing to use these maps for any purpose should contact Dr Stephen G. Willis in the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Durham University.
BirdLife International and Durham University (2020 Species climate change impacts factsheet: rufescens. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22nd January 2020.
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Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies
by David Sinden (Author), Matthew Morgan (Author), Guy Macdonald (Author) and Jonny Duddle (Illustrator)
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Beasts (RSPCB) operates a rescue center for werewolves, dragons, fairies, giants, sea monsters, and other fantastical creatures. The RSPCB has stopped crimes against beasts, but there are still some people out there who will do anything to get their hands on one of these mythic animals . . . even if that means crossing the members of the RSPCB. In the first book, Werewolf versus Dragon, a dragon’s mangled body… (more)
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Beasts (RSPCB) operates a rescue center for werewolves, dragons, fairies, giants, sea monsters, and other fantastical creatures. The RSPCB has stopped crimes against beasts, but there are still some people out there who will do anything to get their hands on one of these mythic animals . . . even if that means crossing the members of the RSPCB. In the first book, Werewolf versus Dragon, a dragon’s mangled body arrives at the RSPCB, and the Society knows that they’ve got a real monster on their hands. Ulf, a werewolf-boy, and his friends must stop the most evil beast hunter before it’s too late. The adventure continues in the second book, Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies, for Ulf and his friends, Orson the giant, Tiana the Fairy, and Dr. Fielding. A sea monster has suffered a life-threatening injury, and it looks like the evil Baron Marackai is back—and this time beasts are on the menu. Ulf must stop him again—the future of the RSPCB depends on it.
Fiction Juvenile & Young Adult Themes Boys & Men Action & Adventure
From the same authors
Juvenile & Young Adult / Action & Adventure
Publisher: Aladdin (April 28, 2009)
Collection: Aladdin
Juvenile & Young Adult >
Themes >
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