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Chinese researcher He Jiankui faces prison time for creating CRISPR babies
A month ago, there were countless commentaries on the one-year anniversary of the news that Chinese researcher He Jiankui had created the world’s first genome-edited twins.
Now, commentaries are focused on the news that He has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan ($560,000) for practising medicine without a licence, violating Chinese regulations on human-assisted reproductive technology and fabricating ethical review documents.
Zhang Renli and Qin Jinzhou, embryologists who participated in He’s experiment, have also been given prison sentences and fines.
“As a scientist, one does not like to see scientists going to jail, but this was an unusual case … [He’s work was] clearly wrong in many ways.”
Some scientists believe that He’s sentence should have been harsher. Others believe the penalties are sufficient and will be an effective deterrent.
Still other scientists bemoan the fact that scientists are being sent to jail. At the same time, they acknowledge that these are unusual circumstances. For example, Jennifer Doudna, one of the pioneers of CRISPR technology, told the Associated Press: “As a scientist, one does not like to see scientists going to jail, but this was an unusual case … [He’s work was] clearly wrong in many ways.”
Structural enabling
From our perspective, these comments miss the mark insofar as they fail to acknowledge that the birth of three genome-edited babies is not just the work of three scientists. A three-year jail term and a 3 million yuan fine will not bring closure to this affair. It is important that He and his colleagues have been held accountable for their actions, but it is equally (if not more) important that we critically examine the institutional structures and cultural context that facilitated He’s actions.
In December 2015, the organizing committee of the First International Summit on Gene Editing — of which I was a member — issued a statement stipulating that “it would be irresponsible to proceed with heritable human genome editing unless and until (i) the relevant safety and efficacy issues have been resolved … and (ii) there is broad societal consensus.”
This statement was widely, and in my view appropriately, described by the media as a call for a moratorium on heritable human genome editing. Almost immediately thereafter, however, prominent scientists insisted that a moratorium was uncalled for.
This perspective was crystalized in the February 2017 report Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics and Governance by the U.S. National Academy of Science and National Academy of Medicine. This report concluded that “clinical trials using heritable germline genome editing should be permitted,” provided there was a compelling reason and there was strict oversight limiting use of the technology to specific criteria.
Reference points
In November 2018, when He Jiankui was criticized for making CRISPR babies, he claimed to have satisfied the criteria set out in the 2017 report. While it is reasonable to dispute this claim, the fact remains that there was an authoritative document that He could point to as endorsing future use of heritable human genome editing.
Moreover, while the 2018 organizing committee of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing concluded that heritable genome editing “remains irresponsible at this time,” it also called for a translational pathway forward — a roadmap — for moving from basic research in the lab to research involving humans. In this way, the committee both endorsed the future use of heritable genome editing and signalled that the pivotal ethical issue was how best to proceed.
In opposition to this view, in March 2019, prominent scientists and ethicists, including two of the three CRISPR pioneers (Feng Zhang and Emmanuel Charpentier) and several members of the organizing committee for the 2015 Summit, renewed the call to adopt a moratorium. A moratorium would allow for discussion on whether to proceed with germline editing while taking into consideration a wide range of “technical, scientific, medical, societal, ethical and moral issues.”
Closure on the He saga requires more than an investigation, legal sanctions and better regulations. It requires us coming to terms with the fact that heritable human genome editing is “irresponsible at this time,” not only because the science is premature, but also because widespread agreement on its merits is lacking. The absence of a widely agreed-upon, ethically sound reason to pursue this science very much matters.
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Version Francoise
Posted on January 26, 2011 by baggingarea
Ed Ball co-formed Television Personalities with Dan Treacy during the punk period, set about Bill Grundy, Part Time Punks, Syd Barratt amongst others and set up their own record label. Ball also formed The Times who released records regularly between 1980 and 1999. While finding a home at Creation in the 80s and 90s Ball found the time to record various (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) celebrations of acid house, drug culture and Manchester/London at the time. This is Lundi Bleu, his version of New Order’s Blue Monday with Bernard Sumner’s lyrics translated into French. It’s a post-acid house, 8 minute monster which finds time to turn into Neil Young’s After The Goldrush at the end. Very lovely and very of it’s time. Art Dept IAMT, currently in Nuremburg, this one’s for you.
The Times – Lundi Bleu (Man New Age Mod Mix).mp3
Filed under: bernard sumner, Creation Records, Dan Treacy, ed ball, new order, Television Personalites, the times |
« A Equals Action Save Me From Me »
John Medd, on January 26, 2011 at 12:06 pm said:
Bonjour from Dodgy!
Simon, on January 26, 2011 at 7:47 pm said:
I was a big fan of The Times during the early to mid 80s, their This Is London album is one of my favourite Mod(ish) things.I owned this, but at the time I got a little bored of it. Sounds damn nice now though.
Anonymous, on January 27, 2011 at 8:54 am said:
I'm a big fan of his Manchester record, not a novelty record but a touching tribute to the Town Creation had adopted at the time. Definitely worth a look/listen.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n_kfYzG33cTedloaf.
And I forgot to mention Love Corporation. Doh.Tedloaf.
swiss adam, on January 27, 2011 at 9:43 am said:
Love Corp are great.
Art Dept, on January 29, 2011 at 1:42 pm said:
>vielen dank!
Wally, on July 16, 2012 at 9:15 pm said:
Our second volume of the Television Personalities tribute had a lovely cover of Cloud Over Liverpool by Wales band Superszar. We are currently putting together a Times tribute – hopefully ready in the next year.
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Tom Morello Unleashes Suicide Prevention Track ‘Every Step That I Take’
Jeff Cornell
Tom Morello released the official lyric video for his new song “Every Step That I Take,” which features Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley and DJ and producer Whethan. The song honors Morello’s late friend and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell and aims to raise suicide prevention awareness.
Morello has teamed up with SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) to promote the song and it’s powerful message. The guitarist recently stated, “With the passing of Chris over a year ago, and the momentum towards the stigma from mental health issues and suicidal thoughts, it was very important to have a song from that point of view.”
The lyric video begins with a silhouette of a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt who claims, “This is a communique from The Atlas Underground.” The figure then speaks the lyrics in the song’s chorus: “One foot in the shadows / One foot on the breaks / One step towards the gallows / Where it’s quiet and safe.”
The song features a driving electronic beat with plenty of classic Morello guitar work. Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley lends his signature vocals to the track. He sings the poignant lines, “Lost in the motions / Locked in a safe / Trying to forget the key / And I know where I lost it / But I’ll never say / One day it was taken from me.”
Morello will release his new album, The Atlas Underground, on Oct. 12. It features collaborations with Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Songs, K. Flay, Gary Clark Jr., Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath and rappers GZA, RZA, Boi and Killer Mike. Pre-orders are available here.
Tom Morello will celebrate the release of his new album by signing copies of the effort and hanging out at Fingerprints Music in Long Beach, Calif. on Oct. 12. The event is also supporting a soap and shampoo drive for Mental Health America of Los Angeles. Fans are encouraged to bring unopened soap and shampoo. See info below.
Tom Morello Shampoo and Soap Drive
The Top 90 Hard Rock + Metal Albums of the 1990s
10 Unforgettable Rage Against the Machine Moments
Source: Tom Morello Unleashes Suicide Prevention Track ‘Every Step That I Take’
Filed Under: Tom Morello
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October 17, 2017 July 8, 2019
The Commotions – Volume II
URL: https://thecommotionsband.com/
I-TUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/volume-ii/id1282594243
Soul, funk, and R&B as practiced by the Motown and Stax masters is what falls in The Commotions’ wheelhouse and it never sounds imitative. Instead, the band’s thirteen originals mine the fertile ground of the aforementioned styles while imbuing the work with individual charisma and personality that makes use of the sound while still making a personal statement. The band’s extended lineup of eleven members plus a touring vocalist only scratches the surface of the participation level that goes into Volume II – the band has recruited a slate of guest stars who add immeasurably to the final result. Volume II has contributions from three different songwriting styles, but each of the creative forces behind this band find complementary ground and share enough unity of purpose and vision that they overcome their rather negligible differences. The Commotions are impressive on every front and challenge anyone who might suppose that this sort of traditional music is limited to regurgitating standards and barren of new creativity.
If “Good Enough” doesn’t grab your attention, check your pulse because you might be dead. Rebecca Noelle and the band power out of the starting gates with a blazing, energetic number that grabs musical life by the throat and has satisfying boldness. The Commotions, from the first number onward, do an amazing job of bringing the horns into their musical arrangements without ever throwing the balance of each song out of whack. Rather than relying on guitar, The Commotions seem to build their songs around the horn and rhythm section with any additional instruments adding further color. “Masquerade” makes great use of the brass strengths and experiments, some, with a doo wop influence that you don’t hear on the album’s other numbers. Listeners come into a particularly stellar stretch of the album’s track listing with the songs “Let Me Kiss You, Baby”, “Too Little Too Late”, “Say Yes to Me Tonight, and “Right Kind of Wicked”. The first two and last song in that list are the strongest, in no small part thanks to their memorable choruses, but the song “Say Yes to Me Tonight” isn’t any slouch and has one of Jeff Rogers’ best vocals on Volume II. His pipes give “Right Kind of Wicked” an equally memorable workout.
Rebecca Noelle captures listeners’ imaginations and hearts once again with the track “Believe In Yourself” and the positive message of the song’s lyrics is well in keeping with the album’s general mood and never risks heavy handedness. Volume II’s sole ballad, “Loving You”, is another great vocal performance from Jeff Rogers that builds around his understated phrasing talents and the immense amount of heart he’s capable of investing in these performances. The Commotions wisely choose to end the album with the one-two punch of “Take a Chance” and the playfully scolding “Come Clean”. The former is a really physical tune with an especially fine drumming performance from Jeff Asselin while the album closer features one of the more zesty singing performances that Noelle brings to the release. Volume II is going to find a lot of lovers within the R&B/soul fan base, but anyone who’s a fan of the blues and high quality songwriting in general will find much to admire here.
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/2W4kEOlJbHhi0Da5wFIHyc
Shannon Cowden
Dynamos – Shake, Rattle, and Roll
Romeo Dance Cheetah – Magnificent Man
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The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.
The righteous will inherit the land And live in it forever.
AMPC
[Then] the [consistently] righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it permanently.
The righteous will possess the land; they will live on it forever.
God’s people will own the land and live here forever.
The righteous shall possess the land, and dwell therein for ever.
Good people will get the land God promised and will live on it forever.
EHV
The righteous will inherit the earth. They will dwell on it forever.
The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
ESVUK
The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it for ever.
·Good [Righteous] people will inherit the land and will ·live [dwell] in it forever.
The righteous men shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.
Righteous people will inherit the land and live there permanently.
The righteous will possess the land and live in it forever.
Good people will inherit the land. They will live in it forever.
The righteous will inherit the land, and they will dwell in it forever.
Ain The righteous shall inherit the earth and live upon it for ever.
AKJV
The righteous will possess the land and abide in it forever.
The godly shall be firmly planted in the land and live there forever.
Live this way and you’ve got it made, but bad eggs will be tossed out. The good get planted on good land and put down healthy roots.
The righteous will inherit the land, and dwell on it forever.
The righteous will inherit the earth and dwell in it forever.
The righteous will inherit the land And dwell in it forever.
Good people will inherit the land and will live in it forever.
The godly will possess the land and will dwell in it permanently.
Those who do what is right will be given the land. They will live in it forever.
The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it for ever.
The righteous shall inherit the land, And dwell in it forever.
Those who are right with God will be given the land, and live on it forever.
The godly will possess the land and will live there forever.
The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever.
NRSVA
The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it for ever.
NRSVACE
NRSVCE
OJB
The tzaddikim shall inherit Eretz, and dwell therein forever.
The faithful lovers of God will inherit the earth and enjoy every promise of God’s care, dwelling in peace forever.
The righteous shall possess the land, and dwell upon it for ever.
Those leading God-pleasing lives will inherit His land and settle there forever.
WYC
But just men shall inherit the land; and shall inhabit thereon into the world of world. (But the righteous shall inherit the land; and shall inhabit it forever.)
The righteous possess the land, And they dwell for ever on it.
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Try It Tuesday
Try It Tuesday: A Plague Tale
July 23, 2019 July 16, 2019 SypLeave a comment
Two gameplay elements that I traditionally don’t like — and often moan at great length about — are escort quests and stealth segments. I don’t think I’m alone in that. So imagine that there’s a game that features a non-stop escort quest WITH nothing but stealth! That’d be the worst game ever, right?
Except, no, it’s not, at least when it’s A Plague Tale: Innocence. This one was picked up on my radar a couple months back due to the high volume of praise that it had been receiving, and after checking it out, I figured the story and setting were interesting enough to outweigh how the game itself plays. And that turned out to be largely true.
Set in slightly fantasized version of medieval France, A Plague Tale follows Amicia, a daughter of a well-to-do lord, who is thrust into a skittering flight from the Inquisition with her hardly-ever-seen little brother Hugo. Something’s both wrong and dangerous about Hugo that’s attracted the Inquisition, and they will stop at nothing to get to him.
To make matters worse, the Black Death has broken out, except in this version of history, it’s called the Bite, and it comes by swarms of man-eating rats that burst out of the ground everywhere and are only thrwarted by light and fire. So, Inquisition on one side, rats on another, and a scared teen and a little kid running through it all. That makes for a compelling framework.
While A Plague Tale isn’t going to make me love escort or stealth missions, at least it incorporated both with a minimum of frustration. Generally, Amicia is not able to deal with challenges head-on, so she has to use her sling (and its various types of ammo) and environment to trick guards, distract rats, and creep around threats. It’s possible to kill the soldiers, but it’s not that easy and not always advisable.
The game is a journey of a thousand smaller parts, with each part being an environmental puzzle or situation to overcome. How do I get through the barn to the rafters? How do I outrun the guards? How do I use lit mirrors to channel rats? The game gradually gives more and more tools to use, but always at a measured pace so that it’s not that overwhelming. What’s even better is that there are often more than one way to beat a section, so I always felt like I was rewarded for my own choices rather than figuring out the one path to success.
I was hoping for a stronger story, something in the line of an adventure game, but really A Plague Tale’s narrative mostly rests on what’s around you — snippets of conversations from guards, sights both disgusting and beautiful, muttered comments from Amicia, and the occasional dialogue between characters. I wasn’t really in love with the idea of lugging Hugo around for the whole game, especially since he tends to freak out if you leave him behind. It’s Babysitting: the Dark Ages in parts.
What really gripped me was how much detail is paid to the setting and this vision of a world coming apart from an apocalypse of sorts. We’re very used to modern day apocalypses in our media these days, but having one set in old timey France is fascinating. It’s not accurate for what really happened, of course, but I think that once we accept that a form of magic is operational in this game, we can go with almost anything else.
Good stuff. I play in little spurts here and there and am hoping to have it beaten within a week or two. I give this the Syp Seal of Approval.
Try-It Tuesday: The Last Door
June 25, 2019 June 13, 2019 SypLeave a comment
The recent GOG summer sale didn’t leave me unscathed, as I was tempted into snapping up a few heavily discounted deals, including Cosmic Star Heroine, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Epic Pinball, and both of the Last Door titles. I guess I was intrigued about the latter for fairly strong reviews and an interesting graphical style.
In fact, while the indie games industry is ga-ga over pixel art these days (and I’m not complaining, since I love it too!), I can’t recall too many that get, well, THIS pixelated. The Last Door’s art style is chunky and blocky, like early King’s Quest entries or later Atari 2600 efforts. I mean, it’s good for what it is, but I think what works with this is that the lack of fine detail makes the player imagine a whole lot — which is a very useful quality for a horror title.
Which this is, of course. The Last Door is a sort of spooky adventure game set in the late 1800s and dealing with some (pixelated) disturbing imagery and themes. A guy named Devitt is drawn back to investigate some strange goings-on with some former schoolchums of his, and without spoiling too much, let’s just say that an experiment that they performed back at school has had dire consequences and drawn all of them into different forms of madness.
Plus, there are birds. A lot of birds. A lot of angry birds who are possibly channeling things you don’t want to know about.
Each of the four episodes of the first game run about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how fast you can figure out the relatively few object puzzles. None of them are that hard, as each episode takes place in a single location (a house, a school-turned-hospital, a city block, and another house). There are even handy shortcuts to quickly transition to the next screen when you’ve already explored that location, which is a nice alternative when you have to backtrack a lot.
So is it scary? Um… sometimes. It’s not the most frightening thing I’ve ever played, and these days I have a pretty low bar for being too scared to play on, but there are a few scenes that made me jump or recoil. A few unexpected smash cuts or creepy things or what have you. I wasn’t too much on edge, as Devitt can’t die or be harmed, so the threat of death isn’t so much present as a cracked doorway into insanity.
The real star is not the visuals, but rather the sound design. The minimalistic music, the odd noises, the use of loud chords at dramatic moments, all of this had a deep impact as I was wearing earphones. One episode even ended with a black screen and nothing but the sound of dirt being shoveled on top of the coffin that trapped you. It was highly effective.
I found myself intrigued and enjoyed what the team did with the art style and the gradually unfolding tale. I suppose my greatest complaint is that the narrative doesn’t really move forward that quickly nor is it resolved by the end of the first game (there’s a whole “Hey, come play the second game to find out what happens!” cliffhanger here, which I did not appreciate even though I own the second game). There are several abstract weird moments that are never explained or put into context, as well as a few moments where scary things happen just to be scary, I guess.
For about two hours of play, The Last Door delivered on an interesting enough experience that I didn’t feel cheated out of the 99 cents that I spent on it, and if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is. Now I guess I’ll have to dip into the sequel, if only to find out how all this ends.
Try-It Tuesday: Outer Wilds
June 18, 2019 June 7, 2019 SypLeave a comment
This was a title that I had brief but fierce hopes for when I bought it for a discounted $15 on the Epic Store. The visuals and intimate, hand-crafted space setting had instant appeal to me, so why not? And I have to say that, for $15, I think I got my money’s worth — even if Outer Wilds isn’t a perfect game.
The setup for this one is a little odd, so track with me here. You’re a four-eyed blue alien that lives on a very tiny world, and you’ve started your first day as an astronaut in its Outer Wilds Venture organization. After taking a tour of the village (which contains the cleverly integrated tutorial), you blast off to… just explore. Go wherever you want inside your solar system, see what’s what, and poke around. There are a few story threads given to you at first, but no strong guidance.
Your ship is a ramshackle thing that contains more wood and tape than high technology, although you’ve got enough to get you places and a suit to protect you from the elements. After landing on a moon or planet and seeing what there is to see, the world comes to an end. The whole solar system, actually, thanks to a supernova.
And then you wake up, the clock reset, and you have 20 more minutes of exploration before the supernova happens again. So yeah, you’re in a Groundhog Day time loop with the apocalypse happening three times an hour. Or sooner, if you happen to kill yourself in one of the many exciting ways that are possible here. It’s very survival game-lite here, with only rocket pack fuel and oxygen to worry about, along with general health. But since whenever you die you start over, there’s not a whole lot of time lost. Progress, perhaps.
So this is the big exception to the time loop reset — the ship computer. For whatever reason, it keeps track of my progress as I uncover any information and mysteries. It’s kind of the quest tracker of the game, showing links between relevant discoveries and nudging me toward certain areas. Without this, I have no idea how you’d even play the game period, as it’s so free-form and some of the mysteries very obscure and, er, mysterious.
Outer Wilds feels extremely intimate. Every planet is pretty small — as in, “walk around the circumference in two minutes” small — and the whole solar system here is so smooshed together that it takes only seconds to zip from one planet to another, including takeoff and landing. Initially, it seems like there’s not much here, with just six or seven destinations, but exploration keeps opening up more and more.
Outer Wilds makes a great case for hand-crafted worlds, and this is exactly why I’ll gladly take something smaller that has a lot of design and function to it rather than giant expanses of meaningless randomly generated terrain. Each world here has had a lot of thought put into it, including a water world with vortexes that suck islands up into space, a world with a black hole in the middle, and twin worlds that exchange sand a la an hourglass as the 20 minutes goes on.
The game gives you a handful of tools and abilities for exploration, including a translator for an alien language you keep finding, a sound scope to help locate other astronauts, and a very finicky jetpack. Here’s where my main criticism of the game lies, and it’s almost a dealbreaker.
For all of its well thought-out mysteries, Outer Wilds falters when it comes to its controls. It’s simply not a good platformer nor a ship sim, and since so much of the game involves both, it’s unavoidable. To get to the mysteries and narratives, there’s a whole lot of annoying platforming and maneuvering that has to happen. I’m not going to belabor this point, but if everything functioned a lot better, the game would be an instant classic.
As it is, I have to weigh my interest in these worlds and mysteries vs. the excitement-stealing nature of the controls. It’s a good enough game to play in little spurts here and there, and I think that’s probably what’s going to happen. I would like to know the “why” behind all of the plot points, but I don’t know if I have it in me to persist until I get there.
Try-It Tuesday: Blade & Soul
May 21, 2019 May 8, 2019 Syp3 Comments
So why Blade & Soul? There’s no particularly strong reason why I chose this for my next MMO experience, just that it seemed like it had a solid following, has been putting out a lot of updates, and was from the classic MMO studio that’s already canceled some of my favorite games. So why not?
I’ll admit that eastern MMOs have an uphill battle with me. I don’t dislike the cultures that these games represent, but it’s not one that I strongly identify with or fantasize about. There’s a lot about anime and eastern animation that makes me roll my eyes and feel like we’ve seen this a million times before… and here’s a million and one, because Blade & Soul is not going to tread on any new ground. You’re the last surviving student of a super-awesome dojo that was betrayed and razed to the ground. Now, you got to be super-awesome for everyone.
Tired tropes aside, Blade & Soul gets off to a very strong start. First of all, character creation is absolutely wonderful, with a nice selection of classes, races, and visual customization from which to choose. My only quibble was that there are some class/race lockouts, such as the Summoner only going to the tiny girl-people.
And then the game surprised me with a strong cinematic start. In fact, the whole first hour plays out more like an extended martial arts game cutscene than an MMO, with some tutorial stuff interspersing a LOT of mini-movies. It definitely raises the tension and stakes right off the bat instead of the slow-burn that most MMOs choose to cultivate. While I did like it, I thought that the initial story was rushed, a little confusing (why is everyone calling me “Cricket” now? Why did that little guy with the bunny ears turn into a big guy with bunny ears?), and didn’t allow for much time to explore or choose a path.
Blade & Soul gets high marks on eye candy, and while it’s no Black Desert or anything, it had me doing the “guy nod of approval” (you know, frown a little, raise your eyebrows, and bob your head a little). At least it was nice to look at, and once the game showed me that my character was capable of gliding (some… how) right from level one, I got a kick out of taking that mode of transportation to every quest destination.
WHEEE! Kind of makes me feel bad I never got a glider in Guild Wars 2…
Combat wasn’t hard to grasp — this is an action MMO we’re talking about, here, so lots of mouse clicking and the occasional hotkey for specials. I went with a Warlock, so she had these cool floating pamphlets while attacking and even a really wicked-looking Asian demon as an occasional summon.
But Blade & Soul has a lot of small little nuances that I didn’t get right away (or, you know, ever). The tutorial would fling things at me really fast and then with no follow-up I’d find myself confused. So how do I get new skills? Or upgrade them? Is… that something I should do? Oh well, I’ll just go back to mouse clicking and hope I’ll win. Yay, I won.
Eventually the tutorial period is over and the game settles into a calmer, more traditional RPG opening. You know the type: peaceful village, trite quests, “Oh you’re awake? You look strong. You’re now recruited to protect us!”
So as I go through a few more quests, here are a few additional and random thoughts from Blade and Soul:
The user interface is a hot mess — it’s an eyesore of sprawling elements and has the largest minimap I’ve ever seen in an MMO.
It takes so, so long to log into this game. Not sure why, as I haven’t had this problem with any other MMO on my computer. Probably about a five minute load time for me.
There’s some good voice acting — but a lot of cringy acting too.
Beautiful loading screens!
I could do without the computer loudly announcing things to me like “THE SCREENSHOT HAS BEEN SAVED” and “THERE ARE NEW ITEMS IN THE HONGMOON STORE.” Kind of immersion breaking, and my immersion wasn’t too deep to begin with.
If you’re looking for a quest pattern other than the “epic story arc broken up by a handful of scattered side quests,” then go elsewhere. That’s pretty much the pattern here, like it or not.
The equipment system absolutely baffles me from an initial cursory glance. This is where the game really differs from contemporaries and requires a bit of a learning curve.
So from what I can tell, it’s not a terrible game, just not one that pulled me in and made me hungry for more. Has some charm, but feels a little too rote and tropish for my tastes.
Try-It Tuesday: Fractured
May 7, 2019 April 12, 2019 SypLeave a comment
I know I really should listen to my own advice and stop jumping into alphas and early testing, because the entire time I was in Fractured, I kept thinking to myself, “What is the POINT here?”
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have gone into a game this early except that (a) I have been cheering this little indie project on ever since its first announcement, and (b) for whatever reason, the team dropped the NDA for its very first alpha test and winged me a key. That intrigued me. What did I have to lose other than my time, innocence, and all clothing?
Here we early testers are, shaping the world in our undies. Truly, legends will be told of us brave pioneers who were at a sleepover and then jumped through a portal into this strange, new world.
But here’s the thing: There’s no game here. I mean, it’s functional. You can log in. You can do stuff. But I was expecting something in the way of classes and story, and instead was treated to no instructions whatsoever and nothing to do other than your usual survival game stuff. You know, pick up a ton of stuff, start crafting, make your mark on the world, and hopefully hide your shame with ragged clothing. It’s the same formula that I’ve already groused about a few times recently, so I won’t belabor it here. Welcome to alpha, I know.
So I ran… and ran… and ran. Fractured is an isometric title, so you don’t get any sense of what’s beyond the borders of the screen except what the minimap or larger map indicates (“green”). I didn’t really bump into much of anything other than generally pleasant nature and one area of ruins that turned out to be an unclaimed housing plot. So I guess I claimed it? It’s as good of a place to die as any other.
I’m not writing this to be hard on Fractured, because you get what you get when it is early alpha. It’s a very unfinished game that we’re poking around in. And to give credit where it’s due, there are some praiseworthy elements. The UI is clean and even attractive, everything works (more or less), I saw no egregious bugs, and if the world actually had stuff in it, I’d be happy to explore it. Oh, and the one music track that kept looping was pleasant enough.
Other than bumping into some friends, I had one humorous encounter. A wolf came up to attack me, and I was so glad to actually have something to fight (everything else I’ve seen was wildlife that just fled before me) that I started punching with abandon. But the wolf got the best of me and… knocked me unconscious. I guess you can’t die right now? So after a few seconds, my character stood back up with a sliver of health, at which point the wolf — who was patroling the area — ran over to “kill” me again. And again. And again.
I was being corpse camped by a wolf. Turnabout is fair play.
I also found a fully-built (but not furnished) player cabin, which shows you what others who know what they’re doing can accomplish.
It looks to be a very sizable continent with many biomes, if this map is to be believed. If I had many hours and perhaps a motorbike, I wouldn’t mind zipping around to seeing what the non-light forest areas looked like.
I wrapped up my time in Fractured’s alpha 1 by putting my crafting to good use. Here. I’m finally clothed and wielding a spear. If that wolf comes looking for trouble, a face full of stick is what it’s going to get.
Try-It Tuesday: DC Universe Online
April 30, 2019 April 7, 2019 SypLeave a comment
It’s been a long, long while since I last tried out DCUO. The tutorial really was a turn-off to this game and didn’t make me want to stick around to push deeper into it, and I have all sorts of reservations these days about dealing with Daybreak. But as part of my effort to go on an MMO safari this month and also to expand my look into superhero MMOs for my column, I thought it was high past time to do that.
DCUO is the type of game where for every one good thing it does, it does another poorly. The character creator is a perfect example of this, with tons of options laid out in the most awkward and difficult-to-use format possible. There really should be a different version for PC users so we’re not saddled with the cruddy console-friendly UI that is on display here.
Unlike City of Heroes, DCUO goes a more modern route with being an action MMO with lots of clicking, combos, and movement. It’s very fast-paced in this approach, and I can see that as being both a pro and con. I definitely enjoyed getting into scraps (especially when I got the hang of the symbiosis between powers and melee attacks) but it always felt like my power selection and usage here took a backseat. Plus, those powersets were about as generic and unthrilling as possible, which is why I went with mental abilities and called it a day.
I made a robot staff-fighter who could do some fancy mental projections and fly around. It was fine for my purposes, and after a while I got into a groove of mindlessly knocking out missions and slapping bad guys around with my staff and the odd car wielded as a weapon. It was odd seeing my costume evolve with gear, but I like the idea of collecting pieces and using them cosmetically in the future.
Probably my most favorite part was the ability to fly right off the bat. Actually, my three-year-old wanted to hang out with me while trying this and he figured that the spacebar was the answer to everything. Bad guy? SPACEBAR. Quest objective? SPACEBAR! That naturally sent me shooting vertical about three hundred feet, but he felt involved and happy and I couldn’t take that away from him. Plus, DCUO has no fall damage, so I’d just un-toggle flight and we’d crash down on the ground with a statisfying thump.
There’s a lot I’ve yet to wrap my head around, how the systems work and just how pay-to-win (or paywalled) this game is, but for now, it’s a fun diversion for a half-hour here or there. I love to zoom around Gotham picking fights as a bad guy (yes, you can be a villain in this one!) and hearing some of the classic voice acting from the Batman series and elsewhere.
DC Universe Online, Try It Tuesday
Try-It Tuesday: Starmourn
April 16, 2019 March 29, 2019 Syp3 Comments
When it comes to the fringe world of MUDs, Iron Realms is a current powerhouse, containing several popular titles that have endured even as online players have mostly forgotten that text-based MMOs are an actual thing. The studio’s newest title, Starmourn, just released into open beta this winter and caught my attention due to its sci-fi nature and promises of engineers and hoverboards. I’ve only ever lightly tried MUDs, so I figured it was time for another go with as modern of a title as I could access.
I’ll say this for MUDs — they always seem much more concerned with getting you into the headspace of your character during the creation process than most MMORPGs. I often lament how bare bones and boring character creators are in MMOs compared to pen-and-paper RPGs, but at least Starmourn has a slew of options and encourages you to visualize your looks in your imagination rather than giving you a picture to go with it. The details go so far as to descriptive skin and eye color, although I was disappointed not to get more in the way of background and traits. I went with a Jin Engineer with a smoky skin tone in the hopes that one day I would get probes, hoverboards, and other fun toys.
Unfortunately for blogging, MUDs are not very photogenic. It’s a bunch of reading, for the most part, and by and large I enjoyed what I experienced here. The different colors of text separated quest text, other players’ presences, general descriptives, location directions, items, and so on. I think you get more used to parsing this as you play, but I found that it was a bit of an eyesore at first, especially when you got to a new area and the text kept scrolling as events unfolded. I don’t want to be speed-reading, worried that I’ll end up dead because I’m on paragraph 4 while my character is being lasered in paragraph 10.
The other problem I had with the text is that the main box is far too wide, making my eyes travel too far left and right to be comfortable. After a couple of hours playing, my eyes grew fatigued from this. Perhaps there were options to resize the center frame, but I didn’t see it.
One very nice touch was that Starmourn includes a lot of hypertext links, allowing me to bypass typing every last thing out and clicking on options when presented as well as directions on the mini-map.
So this is the general layout here, with the minimap on the upper left, character sheet ont he lower left, main screen and options in the middle, and on the right descriptions of items in the room and quests.
Starmourn started out with my character crash-landing on a planet and then falling in with a group of scoundrels while slavers came to attack the area. It’s all an extended tutorial of do this, do that, and you definitely won’t die, but I still thought it was more interesting than your standard MMO “go kill the first five mobs and return with their ears” quest. Following this, we took off and I got a confusing spaceship tutorial — and yes, the spaceships kind of move in real time, although not very fast. Plus you have to keep using various text commands that I was sure I was not going to remember, so I hoped that there would be shortcuts in the future if I got my own craft.
Eventually the game dumped me out in a large city area, and here’s where my interest started to flag. Probably one of the worst things that RPGs can do to me at the start is go “Here’s a big town, now poke around and feel lost and directionless as you’re trying to learn the game!” I sat on a bench, I stood up from a bench, I had a long chat with an AI information broker, and I took a shuttle from one part of the city to the other, all while whatever immersion the tutorial had created started to dissipate.
I have a feeling that I’ve played visual games for too long at this point in my life. I would have had a lot more patience (not to mention fascination) with a MUD like this in the 1980s or 90s, but getting over the learning hump would take a bit of a push that I’m not willing to put in right now. Still, it was interesting and made me applaud the fact that devs are still creating these kinds of games today, so check this out if it sounds interesting to you!
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Wonders of the animal kingdom. Mammalia
(공)저: Wonders
appeared quite fresh and blooming; so I concluded the vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get at the incipient fruit, or to catch the insects which often take up their abode in flowers. The vampire, in general, measures about twentysix inches from wing to wing extended, though I once killed one that measured thirty-two inches. He frequents old abandoned houses and hollow trees; and sometimes a cluster of them may be seen in the forest, hanging head downwards from the branch of a tree."
Goldsmith .alludes to this in the "Deserted Village." Speaking of America, he says—
"And matted woods, where birds forget to sing,
But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling."
"The vampire has a curious membrane, which rises from the nose, and gives it a very singular appearance. There are two species of vampire in Demerara, and both suck living animals. The larger, which is rather more than the size of the common bat, sucks men and other animals; the other measures about two feet from wing to wing extended, and seems to confine himself chiefly to birds. I learnt from a gentleman high up in the river Demerara, that he was completely unsuccessful with his fowls, on account of the small vampire. He showed me some that had been sucked the night before, they were scarcely able to walk. Some years ago," continues Mr. Waterton, " I went to the river Paumaron with a Scotch gentleman, by name Tarbet. We hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a planter's house. Next morning I heard this gentleman muttering in his hammock, and now and then letting fall an imprecation or two, just about the time he ought to have been saying his morning prayers. 'What is the matter, Sir,' said I, softly, 'is anything amiss?' 'What's the matter?' answered he, surlily, 'why the vampires have been sucking me to death.' As soon as there was light enough I went to his hammock, and saw it much stained with blood. 'There,' said he, thrusting his foot out of the hammock,' see how these imps have been drawing my life's blood.' On examining his foot, I found the vampire had tapped his great toe; there was a wound somewhat less than that made by a leech; the blood was still oozing from it; I conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of blood." Mr. Waterton must have been quite envious of this adventure of his friend, for he adds shortly after, "/ had often wished to have been once sucked by the vampire, in order that I might have it in my power to say it had really happened to me. There can be no pain in the operation, for the patient is always asleep when the vampire is sucking him; and as for the loss of a few ounces of blood, that would be a trifle in the long run. Many a night have I slept with my foot out of the hammock, to tempt this winged surgeon, expecting that he would be there, but it was all in vain; the vampire never sucked me, and I could never account for his not doing so, for we were inhabitants of the same loft for months together."
Humboldt relates, " that during a night encampment in South America his great dog was bitten, or, as the Indians say, pricked at the point of the nose by some enormous bats that hovered around the hammocks. The wound was very small and round: though the dog uttered a plaintive cry when he felt himself bitten, it was not from pain, but because he was affrighted at the sight of the bats that came out from beneath the hammocks." He adds, "that during the many years he so often slept in the open air, in climates where vampires are so common, he was never wounded."
These bats become very fat at certain times of the year, and are then said by the Indians to be good eating. Their smell is as strong as that of the fox; but the French, who reside in the Isle of Bourbon, boil them in their soup to give it a flavour.
In New Caledonia the natives interweave the hair with a kind of tough grass, and make ropes and tassels for their clubs. The bats mentioned by Belzoni, as abounding in the long and dreary galleries of the Egyptian pyramids, are the Rhinopoma Microphylla, or Chauve-souris cPEgypte; the French name is very appropriate, as the creature, in addition to its bird-like wings, has a long slender taiL
The largest of the bat tribe is the Kalong Pteropus Javanicus, or eatable bat of Java. In the Museum of the East India Company there are several specimens, the largest of which measures five feet two inches in the expansion of the wings, and the smallest three feet ten inches; the rest are about five feet. The length of the arm, including the fingers, is fourteen inches. The length of the hind legs is eight inches and a half. These bats are very numerous in the lower parts of Java. They live in societies, and select a large tree for their place of abode, suspending themselves by the claws in companies of some hundreds.
A species of Ficus (in habit resembling Ficus religiosa, or religious fig of India), which is often found near the dwellings of the natives, affords them a very favourite retreat, and the extended branches of one of these are sometimes covered by them. They are quite silent during day, unless disturbed, or any contention arises among them; they then utter sharp piercing cries, and the oppressive light of the sun causes them to make
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Bio brings anti-Nazi hero to vivid life
December 27, 2019 in Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Bonhoeffer Reviews, Book Reviews, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Harlem, Hitler/Nazism, New York, The Grace of Living Well and Dying Well, Union Theological Seminary | Tags: abyssinian baptist church, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, dietrich bonhoeffer, Frank Fisher, game of thrones, germany, harlem, Lynda Edwards, Michael Haggard, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, nazism, new york city, Pastors Against Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Church Struggle in Nazi Germany, Schenectady, Times Union | Leave a comment
Saints can be a tough sell; readers can’t connect emotionally with heroes too perfect to feel human. Michael Haggard’s new book, “Pastors Against Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Church Struggle in Nazi Germany,” takes a unique approach to the young, wildly courageous Lutheran born into a prosperous German family.
A professor at Schenectady’s Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, Haggard demonstrates why so many humans, from Harlem churchgoers to prison guards, found Bonhoeffer such great company. He was funny, brilliant, blunt, thorny, an avid outdoorsman whose hiking trips made him a hit as an inner-city youth minister.He still inspires antifascist activists worldwide. His writings are so fresh and sharp, echoes of his work can even be found in pop-cultural epics like “Game of Thrones.”
Haggard makes readers keenly aware of the long, joyous life Bonhoeffer could easily have had if he had fled Germany. While attending college in New York City, Bonhoeffer became good friends with fellow seminary student, Frank Fisher, who was black. Bonhoeffer taught Sunday School at Fisher’s Harlem church. A gifted musician, Bonhoeffer loved learning and gospel and spirituals.
At age 28, Bonhoeffer was safely employed in England in 1934 as Nazism swept Germany.
For the rest of the review…
October 22, 2019 in Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Bonhoeffer Quotes, Bonhoeffer Resources, Books, cheap grace, Costly Grace, D.Min. Thesis-Project, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, preaching, Union Theological Seminary | Tags: blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, cheap grace, costly grace, D.Min, dietrich bonhoeffer, dr. haddon robinson, Gerald Hawthorne, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, J.A. Motyer, Mark Devine, Peter Davids, preaching, Robert H Stein, the cost of discipleship, union theological seminary | Leave a comment
The third reason Dietrich Bonhoeffer can impact is his emphasis on a non-compromising faith. This was known as “costly grace,” Bonhoeffer spoke against the “cheap” grace within the church. His classic statement is found in the Cost of Discipleship: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”[1] To Bonhoeffer, this was basic Christianity. It was impossible to be a follower of Jesus and not live a self-sacrificing life out of obedience and love to him.
John de Gruchy, in Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Witness to Jesus Christ, writes that Bonhoeffer first began to explore Christ’s radical call to follow him while he was an “unpaid lecturer” at the University of Berlin[2]:
During his two years (1931-33) at the university he became a ‘minor sensation’, attracting a significant number of students to his lively seminars. Many of the insights which later found expression in The Cost of Discipleship were first explored in the informal discussions which Bonhoeffer had with the circle of students who gathered around him.[3]
Bonhoeffer’s chief concern in the The Cost of Discipleship is that “grace…has become so watered down that it no longer resembles the grace of the New Testament, the costly grace of the Gospels.”[4] Bonhoeffer called this a “cheap grace”[5] and it had “been the ruin of more Christians than any other commandment of works.”[6] Bonhoeffer defined “cheap grace” as:
…the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.[7]
“Costly grace”, on the other hand, is:
…is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.[8]
Of all the works of Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship is certainly his “angriest book—possibly his one ‘angry’ book…none of Bonhoeffer’s early works reveal him inflamed and vehement, as this book does. The tone throughout the book is entirely serious, rarely speculative, often rhetorically powerful—but always angry.”[9] There is an idea of Bonhoeffer’s anger in the first chapter of the book:
We Lutherans have gathered like eagles round the carcase of cheap grace, and there we have a drunk of the poison which has killed the life of following Christ…To be “Lutheran” must mean that we leave the following of Christ to legalists. Calvinists and enthusiasts—and all this for the sake of grace.
We justified the world, and condemned as heretics those who tried to follow Christ. The result was that a nation became Christian and Lutheran, but at the cost of true discipleship. The price it was called to pay was all too cheap. Cheap grace had won the day.[10]
There was urgency for Bonhoeffer to complete the book because he believed that true discipleship was the only hope for Germany:
The conditions Bonhoeffer faced are simple reason enough why. He wrote the book between 1935 and 1937, while directing the seminary at Finkenwalde. Hitler by now had roused the German people to a nationalistic furor and an utter blindness to social responsibility.
The imprisonment and terrorization of Jews raged through the large cities. Any outspoken criticisms of the Nazi regime, including those from the Confessing Church, were quickly squelched. Germany had been, not too long ago, a “Christian” nation; now men and women continued to attend church services, but the real spirit of Christianity had dimmed to a darkness.
At this time Bonhoeffer wrote his strongest book, a challenge to Christian discipleship, because he believed that only a real return to the Christian faith could save Germany.[11]
Biblical Foundation:
Jesus said in Luke 9:23-25: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”
Robert H. Stein comments that three conditions for following Jesus are laid out in this passage:
The first involves a need to deny oneself. This is much more radical than simply a denial of certain things. This mandates a rejection of a life based on self-interest and self fulfillment. Instead a disciple is to be one who seeks to fulfill the will and the teachings of Christ.
The second condition involves the need to take up one’s cross…Jesus’ own crucifixion reveals more fully to Luke’s readers that this call is a commitment unto death. There needs to be a willingness to suffer martyrdom if need be.
The final condition is the need to follow Jesus. In contrast to the other two conditions, indicating that following Jesus must be continual[12]
Jesus made it clear later in Luke chapter 9 that following him could actually mean sacrifice to the point of homelessness. In verse 57, a man came to Jesus and boldly declared: “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Most people have a home to go to, but Jesus made it clear that some of his followers will be kicked out of their homes because of their commitment to him.
It was this commitment that Bonhoeffer wrote about. He wrote that “cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church.”[13] To Bonhoeffer, grace should be “costly” because it cost Jesus Christ his very life. Grace is also costly because it costs people their very lives if they follow Jesus. Yet cheap grace had reduced discipleship to mere doctrine. Following Jesus has been cheapened by deemphasizing repentance, baptism, church discipline and the Lord’s Supper.
It is grace without biblical discipleship, that is, without the renouncing of personal ambition in order to follow and obey Jesus. The way of the cross means that we give up everything to be a Christ follower (Luke 14:25-35).
The Apostle Paul described it this way: But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that, I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:7-8). It was Paul’s desire to discard everything that was once important and meaningful so he could be a better follower of Jesus.
Gerald F. Hawthorne interprets Paul’s words: “…were Paul to place the whole world with its wealth and power and advantages, its prestige and accolades and rewards in one scalepan of the balance and Christ in the other, Christ alone would overwhelmingly outweigh everything else in terms of real worth. Hence, from the standpoint of simple logic Paul cannot afford to gain the whole world if it means losing Jesus.”[14]
Bonhoeffer saw discipleship much like the Apostle Paul did. His own commitment to Jesus was tested in 1939, when professors Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Lehmann asked Bonhoeffer to come to New York City to assume a teaching position at Union Seminary and thus, escape the perilous situation in Germany. This would certainly keep Bonhoeffer out of harm’s way. With great hesitation, Bonhoeffer accepted the position. So in June of 1939, Bonhoeffer and his brother Karl-Friedrich made the voyage to the United States.
However, he quickly realized that it was a mistake. His time in America was short-lived. He explained his decision to return to Niebuhr:
It was a mistake for me to come to America…I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Germany after the war if I do not share the tribulation of this time with my people…Christians in Germany are faced with the alternatives either of willing their country’s defeat so that Christian civilization may survive, or of willing its victory and destroying our civilization. I know which of the alternatives I have chosen but I cannot make the choice from a position of safety[15]
To Bonhoeffer, true and biblical discipleship had to be costly and self-sacrificing. There really was no other way to follow Jesus. He returned to Germany because he was a “German and a Christian.”[16] As a Christian, he had to follow Jesus regardless of the cost to his own safety and position. If he had to suffer, then so be it in order to follow Jesus.
In the Cost of Discipleship, he wrote: “Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his Master…If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow him.”[17]
While twenty-first century followers of Jesus are not threatened by Hitler and Nazism, they do face the possible threats of materialism, pride and cheap grace. Thus, preachers must make doubly sure that their own commitment to Jesus is non-compromising and that their preaching and teaching does not side-step the costly demands of Jesus.
Further, the New Testament is clear that suffering will be experienced by the followers of Jesus. James 1:2-4 assumes that Christians will suffer: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
J.A. Motyer writes that “trials of many kinds” is a “true picture of life!”[18] Trials often bring distress and discouragement. Yet, according to James, since they are interwoven into the very fabric of our lives, they should be seen as a reality of life. Motyer continues: (James) “appeals, therefore, not for the adoption of a superficial gaiety in the face of life’s adversities, but for a candid awareness of truth already known.”[19]
Life’s adversities will result in the development of a perseverance that can lead to mature Christian character. That is, the faith of the Christian will be refined through the “slow and painful” process of testing. This refining through testing will lead to a “new facet of the believer’s character that could not exist without testing.”[20]
Suffering, to James, can result in true joy when trials are seen as essential tests for our faith. Joy can be experienced even at the onset of “various trials” because they can lead to positive results. The trials will vary from believer to believer depending on one’s circumstances. Yet, there will always be a cost in following Jesus.
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 89.
[2] De Gruchy, ed., Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Witness to Jesus Christ, 13.
[3] Ibid., 13-14.
[4] http://www.probe.org/history/history/dietrich-bonhoeffer.html#text2
[6] Ibid., 55.
[9] Kuhns, In Pursuit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 81.
[10] Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 53.
[11] Kuhns, In Pursuit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 81-82.
[12] Robert H. Stein, The New American Commentary: Luke, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992), 279.
[14] Gerald H. Hawthorne, Word Biblical Commentary: Philippians (Waco: Word Books, 1983), 139.
[15] Quoted in Mark Devine, Bonhoeffer Speaks Today (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2005) 19-20.
[16] Ibid., 20.
[17] Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 91
[18] J.A. Motyer, The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of James (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985), 30.
[20] Peter Davids, New International Greek Testament Commentary: Commentary of James (Grand Rapids, 1982), 68, 69.
How Would Dietrich Bonhoeffer Vote in the 2020 Election?
August 13, 2019 in America, Berlin, Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Bonhoeffer Resources, Books, Can Bonhoeffer Be Abused?, cheap grace, Conspiracy and Imprisonment, Costly Grace, Culture, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Eberhard Bethge, Eric Metaxas, Ethics, Harlem, Hitler/Nazism, New York, Persecution, Serving Jesus in the Severest of Trials, Standing Against Evil in Society, The Church, The Church and The Jewish Question, The Grace of Living Well and Dying Well, Union Theological Seminary, Valkyrie, Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? | Tags: 2020 Election, abyssinian baptist church, adolf hitler, Adolf von Harnack, America, Bildungsbürgertum, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, Bonhoeffer Moment, bonhoeffer: pastor, bonhoefferblog, Catholic Center Party, Charles Marsh, dietrich bonhoeffer, Eberhard Bethge., eric metaxas, Ernst Troeltsch, Joel Looper, karl bonhoeffer, Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, LARB, martyr, Obergefell v. Hodges, Operation Valkrie, President Donald Trump, prophet, Sojourers, spy, Stephen Haynes, Stephen R Haynes, The Battle for Bonhoeffer, Vatican, Wall Street Journal, Weimer Republic | Leave a comment
How Would Bonhoeffer Vote?
By Joel Looper
LESS THAN A MONTH before the 2016 presidential election, evangelical journalist and biographer Eric Metaxas made the case in The Wall Street Journal that, though they might find his morals odious and his behavior unconscionable, American evangelicals had no choice but to vote for Donald Trump. Metaxas admitted that Trump’s lecherous Access Hollywood hot-mic audio comments, which the Washington Post had made public five days before, might be a deal-breaker for some religious voters. But Trump’s opponent, he argued, had “a whole deplorable basketful” of deal-breakers, and, purity be damned, Christians were obligated to stop her from reaching the Oval Office.
To make his point, Metaxas needed a weighty moral example, a name that had currency among churchgoers. Attentive observers of American Christianity could almost have predicted his choice. “The anti-Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer also did things most Christians of his day were disgusted by,” Metaxas wrote, implying that pulling the lever for Trump was analogous to conspiring against Hitler’s regime, while voting for Hillary Clinton was roughly equivalent to joining the brownshirts. As everyone knows, evangelicals bought what Metaxas was selling.
This was far from the first time the Berlin theologian and pastor’s name was used to gain leverage in American politics. The Bonhoeffer of Metaxas’s 2010 best seller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, had all the theological orthodoxy and manly grit an evangelical could want. Conversely, though Charles Marsh’s 2014 biography, Strange Glory, was exquisitely crafted and meticulously researched, his Bonhoeffer looked suspiciously like an American liberal Protestant with some inclination toward activism and progressive politics. He even spent the years he was incarcerated in the Nazi military prison at Tegel (1943–1945) suffering from unrequited love toward his best (male) friend, Eberhard Bethge, rather than pining for his fiancée, Maria von Wedemeyer.
More recently, both conservative and progressive journalists, pastors, and academics have entered the fray, claiming that either the Obergefell v. Hodges decision to legalize gay marriage (the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ronnie Floyd) or the election of Donald Trump (Sojourners magazine) constitutes a “Bonhoeffer moment,” one in which Christians must resist cultural or governmental authority in order to obey God. The debate about who has the right to claim Germany’s most famous resistance figure has become so fierce that last year Rhodes College professor Stephen Haynes penned The Battle for Bonhoeffer to address the United States’s recent reception of his theology.
With so many American Christians wielding his name in this cultural proxy war, one might assume Bonhoeffer’s political commitments were common knowledge among college-educated believers. One would be wrong. Books on Operation Valkyrie and Bonhoeffer’s association with the July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler are a dime a dozen. English-language studies that touch on Bonhoeffer’s work on behalf of the Jews or his interest in the American Black church appear frequently enough. But if one sets out to peg Bonhoeffer as an ally of either American Democrats or Republicans, only a deep dive into current scholarship will offer any clarity.
That, of course, is because Bonhoeffer lived in a very different time and culture. He grew up among the Berlin Bildungsbürgertum — the city’s cultural elite — in the western suburb of Grunewald. Many academics lived in this upscale neighborhood. Dietrich’s childhood ambition to pursue a doctorate would not have seemed entirely abnormal in that environment. By his teenage years, his father, Karl Bonhoeffer, had become one of Germany’s most famous psychiatrists; the eminent church historians Ernst Troeltsch and Adolf von Harnack were regulars at neighborhood gatherings. However, these were hardly liberal, American-style academic circles. Most found themselves in agreement with their government’s bellicosity when war broke out in 1914. In fact, many were passionate advocates of imperialism; Harnack even acted as a speechwriter for Kaiser Wilhelm II.
A different political mood prevailed in the Bonhoeffer family. Dietrich’s older brother, Karl-Friedrich, joined the Social Democrats after a conversion to socialism during the war. The other siblings drifted toward the German People’s Party and similar parties. Theirs was a bourgeois politics sympathetic with the more open and liberal atmosphere of the Weimar Republic of the 1920s, a stance that may help explain why so many in the Bonhoeffer family would later play active roles in the resistance.
Dietrich, however, stood mostly aloof from wranglings over political ideology. His friend Eberhard Bethge has written that in the 1932 elections Dietrich supported the moderate, lay Catholic Center Party because he thought their international ties — that is, partly ties to the Vatican — could provide “stability and independence” in a rather unstable time. This was an extraordinary step for a German Protestant minister, yet in one sense it fits Bonhoeffer perfectly. His foremost political concerns were never about economics, war and peace, or even the treatment of minorities, though obviously these things were not unimportant to him. Above all else, Bonhoeffer cared about the preservation of the gospel message and the freedom of the Christian church from political and cultural entanglements that might obscure its message. The intricacies of politics, he firmly believed, were not the business of the Protestant pastor or theologian.
“There is no doubt that the church of the Reformation is not encouraged to get involved directly in specific political actions of the state,” Bonhoeffer wrote in his 1933 essay “The Church and the Jewish Question.” “The church has neither to praise nor to censure the laws of the state. Instead, it has to affirm the state as God’s order of preservation in this godless world.” There were rare exceptions to this rule of nonintervention, of course, and the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany was clearly one of them. That was not, however, simply because the Nazi government was engaging in morally repugnant deeds and implementing unjust laws, but because those deeds and laws had driven the church into a status confessionis, a situation where the very truth of the gospel was at stake.
Republicans more anxious about safeguarding religious freedom than President Trump’s peccadillos may read these lines and believe they have found a kindred spirit. When they encounter Bonhoeffer’s conclusion in his Ethics that abortion is “nothing but murder” and discover his intense impatience with American liberal theology, they might feel themselves justified in christening the Obergefell decision a status confessionis — roughly what today might be called a “Bonhoeffer moment.” Perhaps those who are potential targets of an anti-discrimination lawsuit feel especially justified in doing so.
Yet when Bonhoeffer came to Union Theological Seminary in New York for the 1930–’31 academic year and, again, for the summer of 1939, he had some harsh words for those obsessed with religious liberty. “The American praise of freedom is more a tribute to the world, the state, and society than it is a statement concerning the church,” he wrote. “But where the gratitude for institutional freedom must be paid for through the sacrifice of the freedom of [gospel] proclamation, there the church is in chains, even if it believes itself to be free.”
Bonhoeffer, it would seem, may have found the conservative panic over Obergefell more faithless than politically feckless. He may have thought their “Bonhoeffer moment” more about self-preservation and power politics than gospel proclamation.
American progressives might feel even more justified in appropriating Bonhoeffer’s legacy. After all, the first thing most people learn about the Lutheran theologian is that he resisted a tyrannical government that systematically oppressed minorities. And, as many on the American left argue, the Trump administration has at least tried to do just that. These progressive believers might buttress their case by lauding Bonhoeffer’s courageous philosemitic efforts or citing the Sundays in 1931 he spent with the Black community at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. And when they read the blistering criticisms of “otherworldly” faith in his essay “Thy Kingdom Come!” or discover his hope for the future development of a “religionless Christianity” in his final letters, enthused Democrats might be ready to enlist Bonhoeffer’s help in the 2020 election. Those “Bonhoeffer moments,” after all, will come in handy on the campaign trail.
Yet letters and documents from his year in the United States reveal a Bonhoeffer at odds with the progressive American version as well. The historical Bonhoeffer was sometimes appalled by the oppression of African Americans, but he spent much more of his time filling letters and essays with criticisms and even contempt for American liberal Protestantism and progressive politics.
“God is not the immanent progressive ethical principle of history; God is the Lord who judges the human being and his work, he is the absolute sovereign (God’s kingdom is not a democracy!),” Bonhoeffer fumed in a memo about American Christianity. “The ideal of international, democratic, collectivist life together on the basis of the value of individuals (notice the inner contradiction!) is not identical with the kingdom of God.”
For Bonhoeffer, American liberals had misunderstood an essential part of Christianity: no matter how hard we try, human beings cannot inaugurate the kingdom of God. The best believers can do before that bright day in which Christ returns is preserve human rights, political stability, and a modicum of justice and proclaim the gospel message whether or not they find it politically expedient.
So how would Dietrich Bonhoeffer vote in 2020? Which side would he back in the United States’s vituperative, divided political landscape, and which would he think has the right to claim their political program as a righteous reaction to a “Bonhoeffer moment”?
August 2, 2019 in Barcelona, Berlin, Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Bonhoeffer Letters, Bonhoeffer Quotes, cheap grace, Confessing Church, Conspiracy and Imprisonment, Costly Grace, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Eberhard Bethge, Hitler/Nazism, Serving Jesus in the Severest of Trials, The Church, The Grace of Living Well and Dying Well, Union Theological Seminary, Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? | Tags: adolf hitler, Barcelona, berlin university, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, Breslau, dietrich bonhoeffer, Dr. H. Fischer, eberhard bethge, flossenburg, germany, nazi germany, paul lehmann, Richard Penaskovic, Robert Cole, Sloan Fellow, Tübingen University, tegel prison, The Auburn Villager, union theological seminary | Leave a comment
by Richard Penaskovic July 18, 2019
Dietrich Bonhoeffer at Union Theological Seminary in 1930…
October 21, 2018 in dietrich bonhoeffer, New York, Union Theological Seminary | Tags: blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, DB, dietrich bonhoeffer, dr. bryan galloway, new york city, union theological seminary | Leave a comment
When Dietrich Bonhoeffer Became a Christian…
June 26, 2018 in Berlin, Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Books, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, New York, Union Theological Seminary, Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? | Tags: abyssinian baptist church, blog about bonhoeffer, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, dietrich bonhoeffer, dietrich bonhoeffer quotes, Eberhard Bethge., harlem, Jean Lasserre, new york city, sermon on the mount, union theological seminary | Leave a comment
by Richard Beck
Posted on 6.21.2018
One of my favorite parts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life is the spiritual transformation he underwent in the early 30s. Prior to these years, Bonhoeffer had mainly pursued theological studies as an academic, intellectual endeavor. The Bonhoeffer family was Christian, but they weren’t particularly devout by way of church attendance or personal devotion.
And while it may be strange to think of someone pursuing theology in a purely academic way, just attend AAR/SBL. Theologians and biblical scholars who have no faith in God are a dime a dozen.
That was Bonhoeffer before the early 30s. But then something happened to him. As Eberhard Bethge describes it, the theologian became a Christian.
What caused the change? Bonhoeffer’s time in America seemed to have played an important part. Bonhoeffer spent a post-doctoral year in 1930 studying in New York at Union Theological. During that time, two critical things happened.
First, Bonhoeffer was exposed to the black church. During his year in New York, Bonhoeffer attended and taught Sunday School at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.
Second, through his relationship with the Frenchmen Jean Lasserre, who was also studying at Union, Bonhoeffer was exposed to the Sermon on the Mount as the Word of God. Prior to this time, Bonhoeffer had used his Lutheran theology to keep the Sermon on the Mount in a box. But after 1930, Bonhoeffer began to see the Sermon at a command to be obeyed.
And beyond his experiences in America, I also think Bonhoeffer’s pastoral work with churches, like his confirmation class in the Wedding parish, also had a profound impact upon his faith.
All these experiences changed Bonhoeffer profoundly. Dietrich Bonhoeffer became a Christian. Here’s how his best friend Eberhard Bethge describes the change:
He now went regularly to church…Also he engaged in systematic meditation on the Bible that was obviously very different from exegetic or homiletic use of it…He spoke of oral confession no longer merely theologically, but as an act to be carried out in practice. In his Lutheran ecclesiastical and academic environment this was unheard of. He talked more and more often of a community life of obedience and prayer…More and more frequently he quoted the Sermon on the Mount as a word to be acted on, not merely used as a mirror.
Stephen Nichols on Dietrich Bonhoeffer
May 21, 2018 in Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Bonhoeffer Quotes, cheap grace, Confessing Church, Conspiracy and Imprisonment, Costly Grace, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Eberhard Bethge, Finkenwalde, Harlem, Hitler/Nazism, Jesus, New York, Preacher's Seminary, Serving Jesus in the Severest of Trials, Standing Against Evil in Society, The Church, The Church and The Jewish Question, The Grace of Living Well and Dying Well, Union Theological Seminary, Valkyrie, Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? | Tags: abwehr, adolf hitler, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, DB, Dietrich Bonhoffer, Eberhard Bethge., Finkenwalde, German Nazi party, germany, letters and papers from prison, Life Together, Nachfolge, New York, Reformation Bible College, Stephen Nichols, tegel prison, the cost of discipleship, union theological seminary, United States, University of Berlin, Valkyrie, Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? | Leave a comment
The Cost of His Discipleship
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45)
Stephen Nichols
President, Reformation Bible College
On July 20, 1944, the Valkyrie plot to assassinate Hitler failed. The very next day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to Eberhard Bethge, his former student and future biographer. Bonhoeffer had been in prison since April 5, 1943. In the wake of the failure of the Valkyrie plot, Hitler led a crackdown on the resistance movement. Hundreds were immediately arrested; many in the movement already held in prison were moved to higher security prisons. Many were put on expedited paths to their execution. Bonhoeffer was one of them.
But on July 21, 1944, Bonhoeffer wrote about a conversation he had in America in 1930. He was in the United States to learn of theological developments. He was to spend the year at the patently theological liberal Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He found it wanting. “No theology here,” he reported back to Germany. But he did find dear friends, and he found adventure on a road trip from New York to Mexico City.
Somewhere along the way, as they camped in pup tents and sat around a fire, they asked each other what they wanted to do with their lives. One of them, a Frenchman named Lasserre, said he wanted to be a saint. Bonhoeffer picks up the story from there in his letter to Bethge the day after the failed plot:
At the time I was very impressed, but I disagreed with him, and said, in effect, that I should like to learn to have faith. . . . I discovered later, and I’m still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a converted sinner or a churchman (a so-called priestly type!), a righteous or an unrighteous man, a sick man or a healthy man. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities.
As we reflect on that list in that last sentence, there’s only one word we really like, “successes.” We tend to avoid the other things mentioned by Bonhoeffer, but those things are part of life, of “this-worldliness.” Bonhoeffer then adds that by living life in this way, “We throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of the God-man in the world — watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith.”
Bonhoeffer learned this in a very short time in a very short life. He died in his thirty-ninth year. While most people are only beginning to make their mark and offer their mature thought as they turn forty, Bonhoeffer never made it to that milestone.
Young Professor in Berlin
He was born into an academic family. His father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a renowned psychiatrist at the University of Berlin. One of his brothers, a chemist, would go on to discover the spin isomers of hydrogen. The family home had a large library, a conservatory, and walls lined with very impressive looking oil portraits of his predecessors. Dietrich excelled as a student. He took his first doctorate as he turned twenty-one and a second doctorate three years later. He served in the academy, initially. But he loved the church.
As a young professor at the University of Berlin, he noticed an appeal for a teacher of a confirmation class at a Lutheran church in Berlin, on the other side of the tracks from where the Bonhoeffer family home stood. These were rough kids, who had already chewed through a few prospective teachers. The pastor was hoping to get an idealistic seminary student who didn’t have the better sense to not do this. Instead, the pastor and this band of prepubescent ruffians got a theology professor in wire-rimmed glasses and tailored suits.
Within minutes, Bonhoeffer had won them over. When the day came for their confirmation — a day the pastor was almost sure would never come — Bonhoeffer took them all to his tailor and got them all suits. He was the kind of professor who would just as soon pull out a “football” and hit the soccer pitch with his students as he lectured to them. During the time he spent in America, he got an armload of 78s of blues and negro spirituals. After the soccer games, he would spin records with his students and talk theology. For Bonhoeffer, education was discipleship.
When the German Lutheran Church endorsed the Nazi party and became the Reich Kirche, Bonhoeffer quickly became a leader among the Confessing Church, despite his very young age. He lost his license to teach at the University of Berlin, and his books were placed on the banned book list. He was appointed the director of one of the five seminaries for the Confessing Church. At this seminary in Finkenwalde, he taught his students the Bible and theology, and he also taught them how to pray. Bonhoeffer saw these three things — biblical studies, theology, and prayer — as the essential elements of the pastoral office.
Eberhard Bethge, one of his students at Finkenwalde, exemplifies what he was taught by Bonhoeffer. Bethge wrote, “Because I am a preacher of the word, I cannot expound Scripture unless I let it speak to me every day. I will misuse the word in my office if I do not keep meditating on it in prayer.”
The Gestapo found out about the seminary at Finkenwalde and shut it down. Bonheffer spent the next year in his parents’ home. He wrote Life Together, memorializing what he practiced and what he had learned at Finkenwaldeab, and he visited his students and kept them on task with their studies and ministry.
Letters from Prison
The next years of Bonhoeffer’s life, 1940–1943, are debated. He joined the Abwehr at the urging of his brother-in-law. But it does not appear that he is actually much of a spy at all. He used his position to travel freely around the country — a way to keep up with his students and keep up with the churches they were pastoring. Then comes the contested episode of his life as he became part of a group seeking to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer’s role was not one of providing strategy — that was supplied by the other highly placed military and intelligence agency officials.
Bonhoeffer appears to be the pastor in the room, the one who gives the blessing on the undertaking they were about to embark on. Bonhoeffer wrestled with it, wondering if what they were doing was right and not at all presuming it was right and righteous. It was war, and these Germans were convinced that Hitler was an enemy to the German state and the German people, as well as to the other nations plunged into war. Whatever Bonhoeffer’s contribution was to this group, he did not make it presumptively or rashly.
The plots, like the Valkyrie plot, all failed. On April 5, 1943, Bonhoeffer was arrested and sent to Tegel Prison. For the next two years, he would live in a 6’ x 9’ prison cell. He spoke of missing listening to birds. He missed seeing colors. Early in his time at Tegel, he despaired for his life. It was also in Tegel that Bonhoeffer wrote about living a “this-worldly” life. It was at Tegel that he spoke of learning to have faith in life’s failures, difficulties, and perplexities. At Tegel, he wrote poetry. He wrote a novel. He wrote sermons for weddings and baptisms — they were smuggled out and read by others at these occasions. Bonhoeffer’s time at Tegel yielded his classic text Letters and Papers from Prison.
In one of those letters, on June 27, 1944, he wrote, “This world must not be prematurely written off.” He was in a Nazi prison cell while Hitler was unleashing madness upon the world, and Bonhoeffer wrote about being a Christian in the world, in the time and place in which God had put him.
Cost of Discipleship
In 1936, Bonhoeffer published Nachfolge. It would be later published in English as The Cost of Discipleship. In it he declares, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
In Christ, we are dead. The old self and the old way is dead. And, in Christ, we are alive. After the Valkyrie plot, Bonhoeffer could write simply, “Jesus is alive. I have hope.”
Why Dietrich Bonhoeffer Decided to Return to Nazi Germany When He Could Had Stayed in America..
March 13, 2017 in Bonhoeffer Quotes, Costly Grace, dietrich bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Hitler/Nazism, New York, Union Theological Seminary | Tags: adolf hitler, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, DB, dietrich bonhoeffer, dr. bryan galloway, germany, nazi germany, new york city | Leave a comment
“I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.”
Bill Federer on Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the “American Minute”
February 6, 2016 in America, Bonhoeffer for the Twenty-First Century, Bonhoeffer Quotes, cheap grace, Confessing Church, Costly Grace, Harlem, Hitler/Nazism, Serving Jesus in the Severest of Trials, The Grace of Living Well and Dying Well, Union Theological Seminary, Who is Dietrich Bonhoeffer? | Tags: abyssinian baptist church, Adam Clayton Powell Sr., adolf hitler, Albert Speer, american minute, Berlin, Bill Federer, blog about dietrich bonhoeffer, bonhoefferblog, DB, dietrich bonhoeffer, FDR, Frank Fisher, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, koran, Malcolm Muggeridge, Margaret Sanger, Mein Kampf, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, Mufti al-Husseini, nazi ss, The Confessing Church, the cost of discipleship, Winston Churchill | Leave a comment
Dietrich Bonhoeffer born FEB 4, 1906
American Minute with Bill Federer
The National Socialist Workers’ Party leader, Adolph Hitler, became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, and began implementing a plan of universal healthcare, with no regard for conscience.
The New York Times reported October 10, 1933:
“Nazi Plan to Kill Incurables to End Pain; German Religious Groups Oppose Move…
The Ministry of Justice…explaining the Nazi aims regarding the German penal code, today announced its intentions to authorize physicians to end the sufferings of the incurable patient…in the interest of true humanity…”
The New York Times continued:
“The Catholic newspaper Germania hastened to observe: ‘The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method.’…
In Lutheran circles, too, life is regarded as something that God alone can take…
Euthanasia…has become a widely discussed word in the Reich…No life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed.”
When Germany’s economy suffered, expenses had to be cut from the national healthcare plan, such as keeping alive handicapped, insane, chronically ill, elderly and those with dementia.
They were considered “lebensunwertes leben”-life unworthy of life.
Then criminals, convicts, street bums, beggars and gypsies, considered “leeches” on society, met a similar fate.
Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger had been the editor of The Birth Control Review, a magazine that published in April 1933 an article by Ernst Rudin, one of the ‘fathers of racial hygiene.’
Ernst Rudin advised the Nazi Socialist Workers Party to prevent hereditary defective genes from being passed on to future generations by people considered by the State to be inferior mankind – ‘untermensch’.
Labeling the Aryan race ‘ubermensch’ (super mankind), the National Socialist Workers Party enacted horrific plans to purge the human gene pool of what they considered ‘inferior’ races, resulting in 6 million Jews and millions of others dying in gas chambers and ovens.
U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated in 1977:
“When the first 273,000 German aged, infirm and retarded were killed in gas chambers there was no outcry from that medical profession… and it was not far from there to Auschwitz.”
British Journalist Malcolm Muggeridge explained:
“We have…for those that have eyes to see, an object lesson in what the quest for ‘quality of life’ without reference to ‘sanctity of life’ can involve…
The origins of the Holocaust lay, not in Nazi terrorism…but in…Germany’s acceptance of euthanasia and mercy-killing as humane and estimable.”
Then there was an event of domestic unrest and violence.
The German Reichstag (Capitol Building) was set on fire in 1933, under suspicious conditions.
Hitler declared an emergency, suspended basic rights, arrested his political opponents and had them shot without a trial.
Hitler forced old military generals to retire, thus purging his administration of any who might resist him.
He swayed the public with mesmerizing speeches.
Then Nazis confiscated weapons.
An SA Oberführer warned of an ordinance by the provisional Bavarian Minister of the Interior:
“The deadline set…for the surrender of weapons will expire on March 31, 1933. I therefore request the immediate surrender of all arms…
Whoever does not belong to one of these named units (SA, SS, and Stahlhelm) and…keeps his weapon without authorization or even hides it, must be viewed as an enemy of the national government and will be held responsible without hesitation and with the utmost severity.”
Heinrich Himmler, head of Nazi S.S. (“Schutzstaffel”-Protection Squadron), stated:
“Germans who wish to use firearms should join the S.S. or the S.A. Ordinary citizens don’t need guns, as their having guns doesn’t serve the State.”
When a suspected homosexual youth shot a Nazi diplomat in Paris, it was used as an excuse to confiscate all firearms from Jews.
German newspapers printed, November 10, 1938:
“Jews Forbidden to Possess Weapons By Order of SS Reichsführer Himmler, Munich…
‘Persons who, according to the Nürnberg law, are regarded as Jews, are forbidden to possess any weapon. Violators will be condemned to a concentration camp and imprisoned for a period of up to 20 years.’”
The New York Times, November 9, 1938, reported:
“The Berlin Police…announced that…the entire Jewish population of Berlin had been ‘disarmed’ with the confiscation of 2,569 hand weapons, 1,702 firearms and 20,000 rounds of ammunition.
Any Jews still found in possession of weapons without valid licenses are threatened with the severest punishment.”
Of the Waffengesetz (Nazi Weapons Law), March 18, 1938, Hitler stated at a dinner talk, April 11, 1942 (Hitler’s Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, 2nd Edition, 1973, p. 425-6, translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens):
“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing…
So let’s not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt stated of Hitler, December 15, 1941:
“Government to him is not the servant…of the people but their absolute master and the dictator of their every act…
The rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which seemed to the Founders of the Republic inalienable, were, to Hitler and his fellows, empty words…”
FDR continued:
“Hitler advanced: That the individual human being has no rights whatsoever in himself…no right to a soul of his own, or a mind of his own, or a tongue of his own, or a trade of his own; or even to live where he pleases or to marry the woman he loves;
That his only duty is the duty of obedience, not to his God, not to his conscience, but to Adolf Hitler…
His only value is his value, not as a man, but as a unit of the Nazi state…”
FDR stated in his State of the Union Address, January 6, 1942:
“The world is too small…for both Hitler and God…
Nazis have now announced their plan for enforcing their…pagan religion all over the world…by which the Holy Bible and the Cross of Mercy would be displaced by Mein Kampf and the swastika.”
Churchill, in From War to War, (Second World War, Vol. 1, ch. 4, p. 50) described Hitler’s Mein Kampf as:
“…the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.”
Originally, Hitler was going to allow Jews to be deported to Palestine, but the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, convinced Hitler to pursue another solution.
Mufti al-Husseini attempted to follow Hitler’s example by expelling Jews from Palestine, as the Muslim Brother would also do in Egypt.
He recruited 30,000 Bosnian Muslims to join Hitler’s Waffen-SS.
Hitler gave al-Husseini financial assistance, and then asylum in 1941, with the honorary rank of an SS Major-General.
During the final battle in Berlin in April of 1945, around Hitler’s bunker, making their last suicidal stand, were 100 Muslims of the Mufti’s Arab Legion.
Hitler’s view was the Nazi’s had the right solution but the wrong religion, stating:
“Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers…then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world.”
Hitler stated:
“The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France.”
According to Albert Speer, Third Reich’s Minister of Armaments and War Production, Hitler stated in private:
“The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity…with its meekness and flabbiness?”
Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels confided in The Goebbels Diaries 1939-41, that in reality Hitler “hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity.”
Though early in his career Hitler pretended to be a Christian in order to get elected, once in power he revealed his nazified social Darwinism and became openly hostile toward Christianity.
Franklin D. Roosevelt stated December 15, 1941:
“To Hitler, the church…is a monstrosity to be destroyed by every means.”
Ministers who resisted Hitler’s attempt to “nazify” the German Protestant Church were imprisoned, such a founder of the Confessing Church, Rev. Martin Niemöller, who wrote:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Another Confessing Church leader who resisted Hitler was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born FEBRUARY 4, 1906.
He studied in New York in 1930, where he met Frank Fisher, an African-American seminarian who introduced him to Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church.
He was inspired by African-American spirituals and the preaching of Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., who helped Bonhoeffer turn “from phraseology to reality,” motivating him to stand up against injustice.
Bonhoeffer helped found the Confessing Church in Germany, which refused to be intimidated by Hitler into silence.
In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer rebuked nominal Christians:
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”
Bonhoeffer stated in a 1932 sermon:
“The blood of martyrs might once again be demanded, but this blood, if we really have the courage and loyalty to shed it, will not be innocent, shining like that of the first witnesses for the faith.
On our blood lies heavy guilt, the guilt of the unprofitable servant.”
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Canon celebrates production of 100 Million EOS-Series Interchangeable-Lens Cameras
United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, 9 October 2019 – Canon Inc. today celebrates a significant camera-manufacturing milestone, as production of Canon’s EOS-series silver halide (film) and digital interchangeable-lens cameras surpassed 100 million units on 20 September 2019. An EOS R mirrorless camera (released in October 2018) was the 100 millionth EOS-series camera produced.
Boasting an attractive product line-up that caters to a variety of genres, skillsets and requirements and an extensive range of over 70 EF and EF-S lenses, Canon strives to expand the boundaries of imaging expression. The EOS series has supported many users, from entry-level through to professionals over its long history, and enabled Canon to maintain the No. 1 share of the global interchangeable-lens digital camera market for 16 consecutive years from 2003 to 2018. In March 1987, the EOS series began with the EOS 650, a next-generation AF single-lens reflex (SLR) camera featuring the world’s first fully electronic lens mount. Production of the EOS series began in what was then Canon’s Fukushima plant and now takes place at a variety of locations - including Taiwan, Miyazaki, Nagasaki and the lynchpin Oita Canon – where production is now carried out under stringent product quality management. Following the release of the EOS 650, Canon went on to develop innovative products and technologies that put speed, comfort and image quality at the forefront - such as the high-end EOS-1 released in 1989 and the EOS 500, which was released in 1993 - expanding the EOS series to cater to many users, from amateur to professional.
In the early 2000s, as the pace of digital SLRs (DSLR) adoption picked up, Canon sought to create even more appealing products. The EOS series’ core concept was expanded to include “high image quality,” achieved through proprietary, cutting-edge technology such as Canon-developed CMOS sensors and DIGIC image processors. The EOS 300D - a compact, lightweight DSLR with an affordable price - contributed to the wider adoption of interchangeable-lens digital cameras, for consumers. Both the EOS 5D series and 1D series expanded digital EOS to professionals – specifically, the EOS 5D Mark II introduced DSLRs as valid means for movie capture and independent filmmaking. Whilst the establishment of the Cinema EOS System of professional digital cinematography products in 2011 extended Canon’s video technology to the B2B sphere entering the video production industry.
Canon will continue to explore new approaches, building on the success of the EOS cameras and the original EF mount, which gave photographers and filmmakers versatility when shooting - such as the 2018 launch of the EOS R System, which employs the new RF Mount. Expanding imaging areas - from still photo to the realm of video - the EOS Series across bodies and EF lenses supports a wide range of users, from entry-level through to professionals. Speed, comfort and high-image quality will all continue to be at the core concept of the EOS series, further strengthening the EOS System towards expanding the culture of photographic and video imaging.
Canon announces EOS-1D X Mark III camera developme...
Canon patents point to future updates of ME20F-SH,...
Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, RF 85mm f/1.2L lenses...
Canon EOS-5D Mark V and EOS R Mark II cameras comi...
Canon released DPP 4.10.40, EOS Utility 3.11.00 an...
Canon to add 24p 4K recording to Canon EOS 90D, EO...
Canon celebrates production of 100 Million EOS-Ser...
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MPR News Intelligence on higher education
Notable MN campus news stories of 2010
Alex Friedrich December 30, 2010, 4:00 PM Dec 30, 2010
The Budget Crunch might be the story of the year across many Minnesota campuses, but it’s not the only thing people have been talking about.
A number of campuses have still been able to sport new buildings, while a few have been busy grappling with flooding or academic controversies.
Finding the most notable stories is tough, considering that On Campus has been around a few months. And I’m still trying to become familiar with all the players in this Land of 10,000 Colleges.
But I’ve reviewed the news of 2010 and asked higher-ed media folks to tell me what big stuff hit their campus this year. Alas, it’s not a complete or uniform list. Some schools didn’t provide info, some — such as the U — hit the news a number of times, and others had a fairly quiet year.
In any case, here’s a mix of the most important events (or at least those with the highest profile). If I’ve missed anything, please let me know.
Anoka-Ramsey Community College: Word came down last month that by next fall, one president would govern both Anoka-Ramsey and Anoka Technical College as part of a realignment. It’s not a merger, and both colleges will function separately, but that didn’t stop worries over funding and resources. The community college also unveiled a new state-of-the-art science lab — one of 10 that were part of a $5.7 million MnSCU campus upgrade.
Carleton College: Steven Poskanzer was named Carleton’s new president, and had his inauguration convocation despite the flooding in the area. The college also completed a $300 million fund-raising campaign, and a student prank — turning the conservatory into a large model of R2-D2 — made the British press.
College of St. Benedict / St. John’s University: CSB and SJU showed their international flair by ranking No. 1 nationally in mid-length study-abroad participation.
College of St. Scholastica: The college announced The Science Initiative, a 40,000 square-foot addition to the campus Science Center. The initiative will build new laboratories, classrooms and an atrium-style gathering area for students. Construction starts early next year and will be completed in 2012 — St. Scholastica’s centennial year.
Concordia College, Moorhead: President Pamela Jolicoeur, 65, died after suffering an early morning stroke at her home.
Concordia University, St. Paul: Concordia President Robert Holst announced his retirement.
Gustavus Adolphus College: Gustavus forged ahead to improved its science instrumentation, receiving a number of grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation. The college recently acquired a Zeiss Confocal Microscope, a Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer, and an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer. (Now that’s a mouthful.) It saw flooding tie up traffic this fall. On a lighter note, it also saw its monstrous corpse flower bloom for only the second time in the plant’s life, and got media coverage when students covered a professor’s entire office entirely in aluminum foil.
Hamline University: Students got to get a good look at Minnesota gubernatorial candidates when Hamline hosted a candidates’ debate on campus. Students had opportunity to meet with candidates and ask questions. And Carol V. Beggs, a 1966 Hamline graduate who died of cancer, left $2.5 million to the chemistry program with the wish that a Hamline grad might someday find a cure for cancer.
Lake Superior College: Just as it was finally recovering from October’s storm flooding, LSC cut up to two-thirds of its vice-president positions.
Macalester College: President Brian Rosenberg appeared in a Macalester “Presidents Day” parody video that received great reviews for its offbeat humor — and got more than 62,000 hits on YouTube.
Minneapolis College of Art and Design: MCAD froze its tuition, got a new logo, and held its first presidential inauguration — for Jay Coogan, its 16th president.
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU): In the same year MnSCU announced budget difficulties, early retirements, tuition hikes and cuts to its headquarters — especially at its Mankato and St. Clout State university campuses — it enraged union employees and others by giving out more than $220,000 in bonuses to top administrators, including a $40,000 bonus to Chancellor James McCormick. But it also started wooing dropouts in an attempt to boost graduation rates, and made enrolling easier for veterans by translating military service in some areas into college credit. To top off this time of turbulence, MnSCU announced it was seeking a replacement for McCormick, who is retiring.
Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Wadena: High-schoolers displaced by a June tornado are now taking their classes on campus, having nowhere else to go. The college offered to lease them some space until they get their own. (It might be a bit tight on occasion.)
Minnesota State University – Mankato: Mankato was hit hard by cuts and layoffs, including notices to 26 tenured faculty — an unusual move.
North Hennepin Community College: Chemistry professor Eugenia Paulus gained some star power by attending the White House summit on two-year colleges –– a sector that has gained a lot of recent attention due to the economic downturn and for-profit-college scandals.
St. Cloud State University: Budget issues prompted St. Cloud State to do the unthinkable this year: cut football and other sports. But students rallied to buy athletics some time, voting in a $1.74-per-credit fee increase to fill the gap for sports. In return, President Earl Potter promised two years of no sports cuts. This month Potter announced a reorganization of the university, which eliminated aviation.
St. Cloud Technical & Community College: The college began offering an associate degree in nursing this fall after receiving unanimous approval for the change from the Minnesota Board of Nursing.
St. Paul College: This two-year institution got a shot in the arm, being named best community college in the nation by Washington Monthly — and given a glowing write-up in an article called “Shakespeare with Power Tools” — just in time for its centennial.
University of Minnesota – Rochester: The new kid on the block completed its first year of classes — and was already looking at expanding.
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities: The U caused an uproar this fall when it canceled the debut of the environmental documentary Troubled Waters, which looked at pollution (much of it agricultural) of the Mississippi River. Critics raised questions of conflict of interest and academic freedom when it became known that the official who pulled the plug, Vice President of University Relations Karen Himle, had ties to Big Ag. Himle later resigned to work in the private sector. Meanwhile, three fraternities grappled with sexual assault allegations (one of which was later dropped), and trustees chose Stony Brook University Provost Eric Kaler to succeed President Robert Bruininks, who’s stepping down next year. Meanwhile, the Big 10 expanded — all that amid a year of cuts to the College of Liberal Arts, among other things, and a year that ended with the system’s first winter campus closure.
University of St. Thomas: This story went global — the media confrontation between John Abraham, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of St. Thomas, and British global-warming denier Christopher Monckton. The Brit got nasty, saying, among other things, that St. Thomas was a “half-assed Catholic Bible college” and that St. Thomas’ Rev. Dennis Dease was a “creep of a president.” Abraham and St. Thomas remained civil, and the professor went on to help create a Climate Rapid Response Team, a group of scientists made available to explain the scientific community’s thinking on global-warming issues.
Winona State University: Winona opened residence halls and its $19.5 million Integrated Wellness Complex, an 86,366-square-foot addition to Memorial Hall that combines health-, physical-education and counseling services.
‹ Older Business is booming for the University of Gelato
Newer › Worst college role models of 2010
Browse by category Getting In Learning Money Post-Grad Schools Student Life Notes in the Margins
Alex Friedrich
afriedrich@mpr.org
Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.
How Augsburg is going all Mark Twain
How past U of M presidents view higher-ed today
Metro State data breach affected 160,000 students
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Concerts & Music
In the Crown
Spotlight Sessions VII
Join us for the seventh installment of Spotlight Sessions in The Crown!
Mark your calendars, it’s that time again – Spotlight Sessions VII!!! Spotlight Sessions, created and hosted by Casey Noel, is a Nashville-style singer/songwriter round, which gives artists the opportunity to share their songs and the stories behind them in a wonderfully intimate setting with amazing sound. Installment VII will be no different. Joining Casey for a stellar line-up are Sam Tayloe of Time Sawyer, Ella Patrick – also known as Momma Molasses, and Elliot Humphries! This is the perfect opportunity to support local musicians and hear the amazing art being made in your backyard. It will literally be music to your ears!
Tickets are $10. NC sales tax is included in the ticket price.
Guests can opt to have tickets mailed to them for a $1 postage fee, or can pick tickets up at will call for no additional charge.
Please note: There is an additional $3.50 per ticket service fee on web purchases. To avoid this charge, call the Carolina Theatre Box Office at 336-333-2605 (open Monday through Friday, from noon until 5PM), or visit the Carolina Theatre in person.
*** *** *** *** ***
Through his full band vehicle, Time Sawyer, Sam Tayloe is interested in “real people and real songs” – and that’s just what the listener finds in his music – a sense of realness. Blending a grassroots feel with heart-felt lyrics, Tayloe pulls the listener in with introspective ballads that land in that rootsy sweet spot where folk, alt-country, and rock gather for a good time.
For Sam, time is a muse for songwriting; it’s the thread that runs through life, bringing new experiences and giving us a sense of urgency, while still connecting us with our past. He has performed both solo and with Time Sawyer on the stages of some of the Southeast’s most iconic festivals; including Merlefest, Floydfest, Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, Rhythm n’ Blooms, Carolina in the Fall and IBMA’s Bluegrass First Class, sharing bills with the likes of Langhorne Slim, Phil Cook, Steep Canyon Rangers, The Wood Brothers, Joe Pug, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, and many more.
Currently based in Bristol, VA. , and originally from the Pines of North Carolina, (just south of the Piedmont in Carthage, NC) Ella Patrick – aka Momma Molasses‘ – music is soul stirringly resonate, and smothered in good old fashioned folk sentiment; blending Americana, Old-Time, Alt-Country, Pedimont Blues, Swing, Appalachian, and Bluegrass music into a uniquely timeless sound. Harnessing her rolling contralto voice, which scales over homespun finger-picked guitar, her sound is warm, rich, and passionate, with songs that embrace, and captivate listeners. Growing up with a deep love of music, Patrick began playing stringed instruments at an early age while singing gospel music in church, and learning folk ballads from her parents’ dusty late 60’s record collection. Momma Molasses recently released a new album “Anthems from a Broken Heart”. Chronicling the process of falling “out of love” and into self-respect, the album is a collection fit for those broken by past relationships, aiming to bring a sense of power, self-worth, and clarity from the knowledge that loneliness, heartbreak, and hope all walk hand in hand.
Elliott Humphries is the guy in the glasses strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a quiet ballad, as much to himself as to the audience. He’s also the guy perched atop the bar, ripping out a solo on his Fender Telecaster as his group wails across the room.
He recently stepped out on his own after six years as the front man for Be the Moon, a hard-rocking Americana band from Burlington, N.C. Elliott was known for leaving it all on the stage during Be the Moon performances, and he brings that same fervor to his solo work.
The music he makes falls somewhere between the heartache of Jason Isbell and Ryan Adams, the energy of Husker Du and AC/DC, and the passion and compassion of Johnny Cash and Tom Petty. There’s an urgent quaver in his voice, whether he’s singing about lost love, the state of the world, or escaping the limits of small-town life. Elliott writes about the space between hope and heartbreak, perspective and pain.
Casey Noel, creator and host of Spotlight Sessions, is a singer/songwriter in the NC Triad area. She is currently a senior at UNCG, and has been playing guitar since the age of five. Casey Noel brings a blend of folk, Americana, country, and blues to her unique rasp and powerful sound. She possesses a pure vocal quality that is both distinct and mesmerizing. Though fairly new to the Triad music scene, she has become a crowd favorite at a variety of different venues throughout the Triad area.
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US 10th Cir.
UNITED STATES v. BRUNE
United States Court of Appeals,Tenth Circuit.
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Gustave Wilhelm BRUNE, Defendant–Appellant.
No. 12–3322.
Before TYMKOVICH, BALDOCK, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges. Tim Burdick, Assistant Federal Public Defender (Cyd Gilman, Federal Public Defender with him on the briefs), Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Kansas, Kansas City, KS, for Appellant. James A. Brown, Assistant United States Attorney (Barry R. Grissom, United States Attorney, with him on the brief) Office of the United States Attorney, District of Kansas, Topeka, KS, for Appellee.
Gustave Brune repeatedly failed to update his sex offender status as required by Kansas and federal law. When he was arrested for these oversights, things got worse because the arresting agents found images of child pornography on Brune's computer. He was eventually indicted in federal court for failure to update the sex offender registry and possession of child pornography, and convicted on both charges.
Brune makes two separate constitutional challenges to his convictions. First, he asks us to find unconstitutional a subsection of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 42 U.S.C. § 16913, which requires federally convicted sex offenders, among others, to register their status in states where they live, work, or study. Under SORNA, it is a criminal offense for any sex offender subject to the act's requirements to fail to register or keep the registration current. Brune argues that § 16913 exceeds Congress's authority under the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I. Based on recent Supreme Court precedent, United States v. Kebodeaux, 133 S.Ct. 2496 (2013), we disagree.
Second, Brune brings a facial challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), a statute that criminalizes possessing, or accessing with the intent to view, materials containing images of child pornography. Brune contends that the statute is unconstitutionally overbroad because it proscribes significant amounts of speech and conduct protected by the First Amendment. Because Brune fails to establish the substantial overbreadth needed to prevail on his facial challenge, we find the statute facially constitutional.
Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we AFFIRM the district court's decision to deny both of Brune's motions to dismiss his indictment.
Brune pleaded guilty in 2001 to a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B), which prohibits the possession of child pornography. He served twenty-seven months in federal prison and, upon completing his sentence, he was placed on supervised release.
In the late summer of 2004, Brune's contingent federal supervision was revoked because he violated a condition of his release. The violation subjected Brune to an additional twenty-one months in jail. In 2006, Brune completed his supplemental sentence and was released without federal supervision.
Although he secured the privilege of unsupervised release, Brune's freedom was not unconditional. As a result of his federal conviction under § 2252(a)(4)(B), Brune was required to register as a sex offender for life under the Kansas Offender Registration Act (KORA), K.S.A. 22–4901 et seq. KORA was enacted in 1994 as a result of Kansas's intent to comply with the federal Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (the Wetterling Act), Pub.L. No. 103–322, §§ 170101–170303, 108 Stat. 1796, 2038–45 (1994), which in part required states to enact mandatory registration systems for sex offenders as a prerequisite for the receipt of certain federal funding. To fortify the safeguards underlying the Wetterling Act, Congress enacted SORNA in 2006, which required offenders such as Brune to register their status as a sex offender and keep that registration current. 42 U.S.C. § 16913(a). Failure to do so is a federal offense. 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a).
Between his 2006 release and 2011, Brune habitually failed to comply with his registration requirements. As relevant to this case, Brune does not dispute that he failed to register between August 2009 and early May 2011. His dereliction of the registration requirement for over twenty months violated SORNA's yearly registration requirements, not to mention the more stringent obligations under KORA.
After an investigation, federal officials charged Brune with a failure to register as a sex offender and issued an accompanying arrest warrant. During a search of his home incident to the arrest, government agents discovered images of child pornography on Brune's home computer. The government seized the computer and confirmed that Brune had accessed a webpage containing child pornography.
He was subsequently indicted for (1) failing to register under SORNA, 18 U.S.C. § 2250; and (2) unlawfully, knowingly, and intentionally accessing with the intent to view child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). He unsuccessfully lodged constitutional challenges to the indictment in district court, and eventually pleaded guilty to the charges, reserving the right to bring this appeal.
Brune contends the two statutes underlying his indictment offend the Constitution. First, he argues the Necessary and Proper Clause cannot sustain Congress's decision to enact SORNA's registration provisions. Second, he asserts the conduct prohibited by § 2252A(a)(5)(A) is unconstitutionally overbroad. For the reasons articulated below, we find both of Brune's contentions unpersuasive.
A. Constitutionality of SORNA
Brune contends his indictment should have been dismissed because Congress exceeded its constitutional powers in enacting SORNA. In particular, he argues Congress overstepped its enumerated powers because SORNA is untethered to the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I of the Constitution, which “grants Congress the power to ‘make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers' and ‘all other Powers' that the Constitution vests ‘in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.’ “ United States v. Kebodeaux, 133 S.Ct. 2496, 2502 (2013) (quoting U.S. Const., art. I, § 8, cl. 18).
We review de novo the district court's denial of a motion to dismiss an indictment on constitutional grounds. United States v. Carel, 668 F.3d 1211, 1216 (10th Cir.2011). As a part of our de novo review, however, we must “presume that the statute is constitutional.” See id. (citing United States v. Plotts, 347 F.3d 873, 877 (10th Cir.2003)). That deference requires “a plain showing that Congress has exceeded its constitutional bounds.” United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598, 607 (2000).
Brune's constitutional argument is at odds with the Supreme Court's recent decision in Kebodeaux. In that case, the Court rejected an as-applied challenge by a serviceman to SORNA's registration requirements. Kebodeaux was convicted by court-martial for having sex with a minor while on active duty in the United States Air Force. After serving his sentence, he was required to register as a sex offender under the Wetterling Act, but was not put on supervised release. When Kebodeaux failed to properly update his registration status, he was prosecuted under SORNA.
Kebodeaux argued that the Constitution did not allow the federal government to regulate federally convicted sex offenders' intrastate activities through registration requirements. Kebodeaux, 133 S.Ct. at 2500. The Supreme Court, however, found the statute was consistent with Congress's power under the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause. The Court held that, when affixed to Congress's power under the Military Regulation Clause, the scope of the Necessary and Proper Clause permitted Congress to enact SORNA's registration requirements. Id. at 2505. It did not matter that the sex offender was not on supervised release or otherwise free from direct supervision of the government. Id. By virtue of the ongoing federal registration requirements under the Wetterling Act, the Court explained, the government maintained a special relationship with Kebodeaux in perpetuity. Id. at 2504–05.
Brune is in a similar place to Kebodeaux. As part of his punishment for a violation of a validly enacted federal law, Brune was subject to civil registration requirements imposed on sex offenders. In fact, Brune, like Kebodeaux, has been subject to federal registration requirements—first under the Wetterling Act and then under SORNA1 —since his 2001 federal conviction. Due to this government supervision, indirect as it may be, Brune was never unconditionally released from federal oversight.
As the Court did in Kebodeaux, we apply the principles underpinning the Necessary and Proper Clause to determine SORNA's constitutionality as applied to Brune. Specifically, we ask “whether the statute constitutes a means that is rationally related to the implementation of a constitutionally enumerated power.” United States v. Comstock, 560 U.S. 126, 134 (2010); see also McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 405, 4 L.Ed. 579 (1819).
To answer this question, we apply a well-established two-part test. See Comstock, 560 U.S. at 133–36. First, the statute of conviction must be a valid exercise of one of Congress's enumerated powers. Thus, in Kebodeaux, the Supreme Court found that Congress's power to regulate the military under the Constitution included the authority to impose criminal penalties for sex crimes committed during military service. Kebodeaux, 133 S.Ct. at 2503.
Second, if the statute of conviction is constitutional, then the incidental statute or regulation must be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated power underlying the statute of conviction. An incidental requirement that simply imposes an additional obligation resulting from the violation of federal law fits within this framework. Id. at 2504. In Kebodeaux, the registration requirements under SORNA and the Wetterling Act were an “eminently reasonable” exercise of Congress's power under the Necessary and Proper Clause. Id. Based on this analysis, the Supreme Court confirmed SORNA's constitutionality as it applied to Kebodeaux.
But the decision in Kebodeaux was far from unanimous and it drew two dissenting opinions and two concurrences that bear on our analysis. The principal dissent by Justice Thomas criticized SORNA itself as an unconstitutional means that does not further—that is, “carry into execution”—any of Congress's enumerated powers. Id . at 2512 (Thomas, J., dissenting). In other words, because SORNA's registration requirements were not directed at implementing the Military Regulation Clause (or any other Article I power), the dissent explained, the Necessary and Proper Clause could not protect SORNA from Kebodeaux's asapplied constitutional attack. Id. at 2514. Without proper tethering to a constitutional power, the dissent reasoned that SORNA partially (and impermissibly) usurped the general police power that the Constitution expressly reserved to the states. Id. at 2513.
To a lesser degree, the concurring opinions by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito shared this concern about expanding the scope of Article I power through registration requirements, like those under SORNA, that resemble some sort of “federal police power over prior federal offenders.” See id. at 2508 (Roberts, C.J., concurring in the judgment). Notwithstanding this criticism, the concurring opinions both found SORNA constitutional as a necessary and proper exercise of Congress's power “[t]o make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.” See id. at 2508 (Alito, J., concurring in the judgment) (quoting U.S. Const., art. I, § 8, cl. 14); see also id. at 2506 (Roberts, C.J., concurring in the judgment). In short, the concurrences found substance in the fact that the criminal statute under which the government prosecuted Kebodeaux was enacted pursuant to the Military Regulation Clause and sought to limit the scope of the holding to cases arising under, more or less, identical factual circumstances. But for our purposes, the majority opinion binds us, and its analysis does not confine SORNA's constitutionality to applications involving only the Military Regulation Clause. See id. at 2503 (majority opinion). Nothing in the majority opinion isolates the Military Regulation Clause as the sole foundation for congressional authority in support of SORNA.
Thus, while respectful of the well-reasoned alternative analysis urged by the dissent and concurrences, we are convinced that Kebodeaux requires us to reject Brune's constitutional challenge to SORNA even though his statute of conviction was enacted pursuant to the Commerce Clause.
Guided by the Kebodeaux majority's application of the Necessary and Proper Clause's two-part test described above, we conclude that SORNA survives Brune's as-applied challenge. Like the statute that punished military sex offenders in Kebodeaux, Brune's original statute of conviction, 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B), plainly withstands constitutional scrutiny as an exercise of congressional authority under the Commerce Clause to regulate the interstate trafficking of child pornography. Plotts, 347 F.3d at 879 (“[T]he Commerce Clause empowers Congress to criminalize the receipt of child pornography over the Internet.”); see also United States v. Wollet, 164 F. App'x 672, 676 (10th Cir.2006) (same); United States v. Riccardi, 405 F.3d 852, 866–67 (10th Cir.2005) (same). And because the constitutionality of the underlying statute cannot be reasonably questioned, SORNA's registration requirements are a limited and rational extension of congressional power, as permitted by the Necessary and Proper Clause.
Simply put, Kebodeaux directs our conclusion that SORNA is constitutional as applied to Brune, a federal sex offender who was never unconditionally released from federal supervision.2
B. Constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B)
Brune next contends that § 2252A(a)(5)(B)'s unconstitutional overbreadth is evident on the statute's face because, despite its aim to reach only child pornography, it unintentionally restricts an individual from accessing sizable amounts of protected speech.3 We review Brune's challenge de novo, Carel, 668 F.3d at 1216, and we “perform an independent examination of the record to ensure protection of free speech rights.” Hawkins v. City & County of Denver, 170 F.3d 1281, 1285 (10th Cir.1999).
Before turning to the text of the statute, we review applicable First Amendment and overbreadth principles.
1. The First Amendment
It is well established that Congress has broad authority to criminalize the creation and dissemination of child pornography. Although the First Amendment prohibits Congress from making any law “abridging the freedom of speech,” U.S. Const. amend. I, that freedom “does not embrace certain categories of speech, including defamation, incitement, obscenity, and pornography produced with real children.” Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal., 535 U.S. 234, 245–46 (2002). The Supreme Court has upheld laws that criminalize the production and distribution of child pornography. See, e.g., New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747 (1982); Osborne v. Ohio, 495 U.S. 103 (1990).
But the fact that a statute is designed to suppress child pornography does not necessarily insulate it from an overbreadth challenge where the “law punishes a ‘substantial’ amount of protected free speech, ‘judged in relation to the statute's plainly legitimate sweep.’ “ Virginia v. Hicks, 539 U.S. 113, 118–19 (2003) (quoting Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 615 (1973)). An imprecise law that criminalizes access to Nabokov's Lolita or Woody Allen's Manhattan will not survive constitutional scrutiny even if it also bans access to actual hardcore images of underage victims. In other words, the test for overbreadth does not display extra teeth whenever the statute addresses an area that has long been proscribed.4 Nonetheless, a “universal and long-established tradition of prohibiting certain conduct creates a strong presumption that the prohibition is constitutional.” Nevada Comm'n on Ethics v. Carrigan, 131 S.Ct. 2343, 2347–48 (2011) (quoting Republican Party of Minn. v. White, 536 U.S. 765, 785 (2002)).
2. Facial Overbreadth5
To succeed in an overbreadth challenge, thereby invalidating all enforcement of the law, a challenger “must show that the potential chilling effect on protected expression is ‘both real and substantial.” ’ Jordan v. Pugh, 425 F.3d 820, 828 (10th Cir.2005) (quoting Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 216 (1975)). Finding some overbreadth only satisfies part of the inquiry, as the challenger must also show that the “law punishes a ‘substantial’ amount of protected free speech, ‘judged in relation to the statute's plainly legitimate sweep.” ’ Hicks, 539 U.S. at 118–19 (quoting Broadrick, 413 U.S. at 615).
The Supreme Court has “vigorously enforced the requirement that a statute's overbreadth be substantial ” in both absolute and relative terms. United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285, 292 (2008) (emphasis in original). Thus, even where a fair amount of constitutional speech is implicated, we will not invalidate the statute unless significant imbalance exists:
[T]here comes a point at which the chilling effect of an overbroad law, significant though it may be, cannot justify prohibiting all enforcement of that law—particularly a law that reflects “legitimate ․ interests in maintaining comprehensive controls over harmful constitutionally unprotected conduct.” For there are substantial social costs created by the overbreadth doctrine when it blocks application of a law to constitutionally unprotected speech, or especially constitutionally unprotected conduct.
Hicks, 539 U.S. at 119 (citation omitted) (quoting Broadrick, 413 U.S. at 615); see also Williams, 553 U.S. at 292 (“[I]nvalidating a law that in some of its applications is perfectly constitutional—particularly a law directed at conduct so antisocial that it has been made criminal—has obvious harmful effects.”).
Facial challenges, moreover, including those based on overbreadth, “are disfavored for several reasons.” Wash. State Grange v. Wash. State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442, 450 (2008). At a fundamental level, facial challenges counteract principles of both judicial restraint and separation of powers. With respect to judicial restraint, facial challenges permit judges to issue “premature interpretation of statutes on the basis of factually barebones records,” Sabri v. United States, 541 U.S. 600, 609 (2004) (alteration incorporated) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted), and breach the fundamental principal “that courts should neither anticipate a question of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it nor formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied,” Wash. State Grange, 552 U.S. at 450 (quotations omitted). And regarding the separation of powers, facial challenges empower a court “to nullify more of a legislature's work than is necessary,” which disrupts the intent of the people's democratically elected officials. Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of N. New England, 546 U.S. 320, 329 (2006).
Conscious of these risks, the “[a]pplication of the overbreadth doctrine ․ is, manifestly, strong medicine” and it “has been employed ․ sparingly and only as a last resort.” Broadrick, 413 U.S. at 613. The bottom line is that successful “facial challenges are best when infrequent.” Sabri, 541 U.S. at 608.
3. Brune's Challenge
With these principles in mind, the first step in analyzing an overbreadth challenge is to “construe the challenged statute; it is impossible to determine whether a statute reaches too far without first knowing what the statute covers.” Williams, 553 U.S. at 293. And even if the statute does reach some “protected expression, facial invalidation is inappropriate if the remainder of the statute ․ covers a whole range of easily identifiable and constitutionally proscribable ․ conduct․” Osborne, 495 U.S. at 112 (alteration in the original) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted); see also Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 494 (1982) (“In a facial challenge to the overbreadth and vagueness of a law, a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct. If it does not, then the overbreadth challenge must fail.” (footnote omitted)).
Section 2252A(a)(5)(B) punishes the (1) knowing possession of, or accessing with the intent to view, (2) any print material, film, or computer media, (3) containing an image of child pornography:
Any person who ․ knowingly possesses, or knowingly accesses with intent to view, any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, computer disk, or any other material that contains an image of child pornography․
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B).6
The parties agree on much. In particular, they agree that the statute requires an offender to meet at least the following elements: (1) he must knowingly access some proscribed material; (2) he must intend to view that material; and (3) he must know that the material contains an image of child pornography.
Brune, however, argues that the statute's overbreadth is revealed by both its failure to specify that the defendant “inten[d] to view” the images of child pornography directly, and its use of the potentially far-reaching catchall “any other material.” We examine, and reject, each contention.
a. “With Intent to View”
Brune contends the statute is unconstitutionally overbroad since it does not require that the offender specifically intend to view an image of child pornography.
As we highlighted above, our review of the statutory text starts with a fair and commonsense assessment of the statute's reach. United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460, 485 (2010) (reviewing animal cruelty statute). “[A] court should not invalidate a statute on its face simply because [it] may criminalize some protected speech.” Ward v. Utah, 398 F.3d 1239, 1247 (10th Cir.2005). Rather, we must guard that we do not “go beyond the statute's facial requirements and speculate about ‘hypothetical’ or ‘imaginary’ cases.” Wash. State Grange, 552 U.S. at 450–51. But still we must also indulge “a judicial prediction or assumption that the statute's very existence may cause others not before the court to refrain from constitutionally protected speech or expression.” Broadrick, 413 U.S. at 612.
It is Brune's burden to show, “ ‘from the text of [the law] and from actual fact,’ that substantial overbreadth exists.” Hicks, 539 U.S. at 122 (alterations in the original) (quoting N.Y. State Club Ass'n., Inc. v. City of New York, 487 U.S. 1, 14 (1988)); see also Members of City Council v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 801 (1984) (“[T]here must be a realistic danger that the statute itself will significantly compromise recognized First Amendment protections of parties not before the Court for it to be facially challenged on overbreadth grounds.”).
For a challenger to carry this burden, he must identify protected materials that would be inevitably targeted by the statute. See Faustin v. City & County of Denver, 423 F.3d 1192, 1201 (10th Cir.2005) (“[I]n this case Faustin has presented no evidence and made no showing that Denver's policy has ever been applied to prohibit any expression on [highway] overpasses other than [clearly proscribable speech] or that Denver's policy has ever been so broadly interpreted by the public in a way that it has chilled any such speech.”); see also United States v. Sayer, 748 F.3d 425, 435–36 (1st Cir.2014); United States v. Dean, 635 F.3d 1200, 1206 (11th Cir.2011). Indeed, overbreadth exists where a challenger can point to “actual fact[s]” that would permit unconstitutional applications of the statute. N.Y. State Club Ass'n., 487 U.S. at 14 (rejecting an overbreadth challenge where the appellant failed to create a record of existent clubs to which the statute would be unconstitutionally applied in violation of the First Amendment). This requires a “statute's application to real-world conduct, not fanciful hypothetical s.” Stevens, 559 U.S. at 485 (Alito, J., dissenting).
The Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Stevens is instructive. In that case, the defendant attacking the statute demonstrated that “depictions of ordinary and lawful activities ․ constitute the vast majority of materials subject to the statute.” Stevens, 559 U.S. at 473 (emphasis added).7 By contrast, Brune has not described examples of constitutionally valuable speech that might be punishable under the statute as he interprets it. He provides no specific examples, and his hypotheticals fall short of establishing that a considerable amount of speech subject to the statute is deserving of protection. For example, Brune argues the statute might theoretically reach a 500–page book containing a great deal of protected speech and a single image of child pornography. Reply Br. at 8. But in the end, “the mere fact that one can conceive of some impermissible applications of a statute is not sufficient to render it susceptible to an overbreadth challenge.” Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. at 800.
To deny Brune's overbreadth challenge, therefore, we need not decide, as he suggests, if an individual with no specific intent to view the image of child pornography itself can be punished under the statute.8 Read either way, the statute is not overbroad. It is enough that, on the record before us, we see no evidence that the impermissible applications of § 2252A(a)(5)(B), to the extent any exist, are substantial in comparison to the unprotected, criminal speech that the statute unquestionably covers. This is not to say that Brune's construction of the statute is frivolous or unjustifiable; but it is to say that his offered interpretations do little to expose the overbreadth of the statute in either an absolute or relative sense. See, e.g., Board of Trustees of State Univ. of N.Y. v. Fox, 492 U.S. 469, 485 (1989). And read contextually, we are convinced the statute's meaning is readily understandable and not overbroad.9
In sum, we see no grounds for administering the “strong medicine” of overbreadth invalidation to § 2252A(a)(5)(B) because Brune cannot show substantial overbreadth in either an absolute or relative sense.
b. “Any Other Material”
Brune's second effort to establish overbreadth is likewise insufficient. He argues that the phrase “any other material” is expansive and possibly limitless. He claims the phrase sweeps into the statute's orbit broad categories of media protected by the First Amendment. Aplt. Br. at 26–28 (“Unlike a book or movie—‘Material,’ when such a term includes a web site or other internet based products, does not have a beginning and an end. It is not self-contained.”). Taken to its extreme, Brune's position is that the statute potentially criminalizes all Internet access.
When viewed in isolation, it is difficult to dispute that “any other material” might be susceptible to several meanings—the nominal form of the word “material” is a flexible term that defies singular description.10 But no statute is an island unto itself. We can look around to provide substance and context to a potentially unclear term. See Tyler v. Cain, 533 U.S. 656, 662 (2001) (“We do not ․ construe the meaning of statutory terms in a vacuum.”). Since Congress has left undefined the word “material” and the phrase “any other material” in the statute, we give the terms their “ordinary meaning.” Kouichi Taniguchi v.. Kan. Pac. Saipan, Ltd., 132 S.Ct. 1997, 2002 (2012). An inquiry into a statutory term's meaning must consider the ordinary, contemporary meaning at the time Congress enacted the statute. BedRoc Ltd. v. United States, 541 U.S. 176, 184 (2004).
Unlike many instances, simply resorting to a dictionary definition in this case is not especially helpful. The multiple definitions of “material” preclude an obvious, unitary usage.11 Nevertheless, the possibility that several workable definitions of “material” can properly imbue the statute does not lead to an expansive reading of this term. In fact, the reverse is true as we are required to construe a phrase within a statute with reference to its accompanying words “in order to avoid the giving of unintended breadth to the Acts of Congress.” Jarecki v. G.D. Searle & Co., 367 U.S. 303, 307 (1961).
To this end, any lingering doubt about the limiting principle applicable to the residual phrase “any other material” is quickly satisfied by scrutinizing intrinsic statutory aids. First of all, the wording of the statute invites the application of the canon of construction of ejusdem generis: when “general words follow specific words in a statutory enumeration, the general words are construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those objects enumerated by the preceding specific words.” Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105, 114–15 (2001) (quoting 2A Norman J. Singer, Sutherland on Statutes and Statutory Construction § 47.17 (5th ed.1991)). Stated another way, when a broad reading of an undefined term serves to undermine Congress's decision to specifically list items that the statute covers, then the undefined term can only be defined with reference to the items that precede it.
Applied to § 2252A(a)(5)(B), ejusdem generis advises that “any other material” should be construed as like in kind to, and no more expansive in scope than, “book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, [and] computer disk.” Those terms denote specific, concrete forms of media that are used to capture, store, or deliver information as a means of communication. They are tangible illustrations of media, rather than mediums themselves. Brune's assertion that such a definition creates an effective ban on the Internet is incorrect for this very reason.12 The Internet is the medium; content available on the Internet, including, at a minimum, downloadable digitized images of child pornography from unique uniform resource locators (URLs), are the specific type of media that the statute targets.13
In addition, as between multiple reasonable interpretations of a statute, we will always prefer one that sustains constitutionality to one that does not under the presumption of constitutional validity. NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1, 30 (1937) (“The cardinal principle of statutory construction is to save and not to destroy.”). In fact, “every reasonable construction must be resorted to, in order to save a statute from unconstitutionality.” Nat'l Fed'n of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 132 S.Ct. 2566, 2594 (2012) (quoting Hooper v. California, 155 U.S. 648, 657 (1895)). Here, reading the definition of “any other material” expansively, as Brune would have it, implicitly eviscerates the statute's element of scienter and criminalizes otherwise innocent conduct—a reading that smacks of overbreadth. See United States v. X–Citement Video, Inc., 513 U.S. 64, 70 (1994). Most users of the Internet are likely aware that child pornography exists on the Internet. Under Brune's broad interpretation of the statute, these innocuous Internet patrons, fully aware that the “Internet” contains child pornography somewhere in its disreputable underworld, would form the necessary intent to violate the statute the moment they logged on to access the Internet. That is not an obvious interpretation of the text, and reading it that way violates our duty to interpret a statute “where fairly possible so as to avoid substantial constitutional questions.” Id. at 69; see also Clark v. Martinez, 543 U.S. 371, 381 (2005) (“[Constitutional avoidance] is a tool for choosing between competing plausible interpretations of a statutory text, resting on the reasonable presumption that Congress did not intend the alternative which raises serious constitutional doubts.”).
So, to ensure that the statute maintains the broadly applicable scienter element required of a criminal statute, see Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 263 (1952), it is necessary to understand “any other material” as something more precise than the “Internet.” This limiting construction seems obvious from the statutory text, but, in the least, § 2252A(a)(5)(B) is “readily susceptible” to our interpretation and no “rewriting” is required to get there. See Stevens, 559 U.S. at 481.14
Because the Internet as a whole is not a “material” within the meaning of § 2252A(a)(5)(B), the degree to which the catchall provision must be further tapered is beyond the scope of an overbreadth challenge. Put simply, once the Internet is excluded from the tagalong phrase, “any other material,” Brune's overbreadth challenge to the statute falls flat, regardless of what other materials are included within that phrase. Furthermore, there is no “realistic danger” that the statute as written will significantly chill protected speech, and we have not been made aware of any cases where the government has targeted innocent Internet browsing or related activity under this statute. See Williams, 553 U.S. at 302.
As a medium, the Internet has undoubtedly generated some complications in ascertaining the precise contours of the First Amendment in an age of technology that is constantly changing and difficult to define. Cf. Sturm, 672 F.3d at 901 (examining the extent to which “visual depictions” of child pornography refer to the substantive content of the image or a particular item containing that image for the purpose of establishing a federal jurisdictional nexus). Accordingly, and particularly in the context of child pornography, Congress and the Supreme Court have engaged in an ongoing effort to strike a careful balance between safeguarding constitutionally protected speech and enforcing legitimate criminal laws. See, e.g., Williams, 553 U.S. at 292–93. That careful balance is not disrupted by § 2252A(a)(5)(B) because, again, any protected speech that falls under the ambit of the statute is insubstantial in comparison to its plainly legitimate sweep.
Brune has not sufficiently met his burden to demonstrate otherwise.
For the reasons expressed above, we AFFIRM the district court's denials of Brune's motions to dismiss his indictment.
I concur in the judgment because I agree that SORNA is constitutional as applied to Brune and that 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B) withstands Brune's overbreadth challenge under the First Amendment. But I don't join one part of the majority's opinion discussing the elements under § 2252A(a)(5)(B). The statute makes it a crime when a person:
knowingly possesses, or knowingly accesses with intent to view, any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, computer disk, or any other material that contains an image of child pornography that has been mailed, or shipped or transported using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, or that was produced using materials that have been mailed, or shipped or transported in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer.
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B) (2012).
The majority concludes that the statute requires proof of “(1) knowing possession of, or accessing with the intent to view, (2) any print material, film, or computer media, (3) containing an image of child pornography [.]”1 In one key respect, that recitation does not reflect my understanding of § 2252A(a)(5)(B).
The majority's recitation of the elements suggests that the government must prove that the defendant intended to view only the material containing child pornography-not the child pornography itself. That's not my view. I believe that § 2252A(a)(5)(B) requires proof that the defendant intended to view an image of child pornography. On this point, I concede that the statute is not a model of legislative drafting. Here, I would consider the legislative history to help find Congress's meaning. In my view, the amendment to § 2252A(a)(5)(B) demonstrates that the intent-to-view requirement attaches to the image of child pornography.2
If indeed the statute does require proof that Brune intended to view child pornography, we need not fine-tune what qualifies as any other material to defeat Brune's First Amendment challenge. The Supreme Court has held that requests to obtain child pornography are “categorically excluded from the First Amendment.” See United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285, 299 (2008). In other words, a person who intends to view child pornography gets no protection under the First Amendment. Because the statute applies only to persons accessing child pornography and intending to view it, the statute implicates no protected speech under the First Amendment and accordingly is not overbroad.
For these reasons, I concur in part and concur in the judgment.
1. We recognize the Supreme Court's conclusion that SORNA's extension of the Wetterling Act does not pose constitutional problems. Kebodeaux, 133 S.Ct. at 2504–05.
2. In reaching this conclusion, we join the collection of federal appellate courts that have uniformly found that, post-Kebodeaux, SORNA's registration requirements cannot be constitutionally challenged under the Necessary and Proper Clause. United States v.. Reyes, 550 F. App'x 201 (5th Cir.2013); United States v. Elk Shoulder, 738 F.3d 948 (9th Cir.2013); United States v. Brunner, 726 F.3d 299 (2d Cir.2013). We previously upheld § 16913 under the Necessary and Proper Clause when applied to a sex offender on supervised release. See Carel, 668 F.3d at 1222.
3. Because this is a facial overbreadth challenge, we find it irrelevant to consider certain issues with the completeness of Brune's own indictment.
4. In Ashcroft, for example, the Supreme Court held that a statute ran afoul of the First Amendment due to overbreadth even though it furthered a goal of criminalizing child pornography. Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 251–53.
5. Brune has standing to facially challenge § 2252A(a)(5)(B)'s constitutionality because the First Amendment overbreadth doctrine provides “an exception to the general rule that a person to whom a statute may be constitutionally applied cannot challenge the statute on the grounds that it may be unconstitutionally applied to others.” Massachusetts v. Oakes, 491 U.S. 576, 581 (1989).
6. Although it is not at issue in this case, the statute makes clear that the government must also prove “the child pornography has been mailed, or shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.” United States v. Sturm, 672 F.3d 891, 897 (10th Cir.2012) (en banc) (quotation marks omitted).
7. In Stevens, the challengers of the statute submitted extensive documentation of actual movies, magazines, and books that would be subject to the statute despite their social, artistic, and literary value. See generally Br. for Respondent, United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460 (2010) (No. 08–769), 2009 WL 2191081.
8. We note that in many ways Brune's reading of the statute is grammatically superior to the government's. Still, Brune's argument fails because, even accepting his reading, the statute is not unconstitutionally overbroad because its legitimate sweep far exceeds its impermissible applications.
9. The thrust of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on child pornography strengthens our conclusion. As previously emphasized, child pornography is a category of speech unworthy of First Amendment protection. Brown v. Entm't Merchs. Ass'n, 131 S.Ct. 2729, 2763 (2011) (comparing the categorical prohibition on child pornography to less absolute areas of unprotected speech). Furthermore, the Court has consistently recognized that statutes banning the possession of child pornography are not chiefly aimed at shielding citizens from the content of the speech itself. See Osborne, 495 U.S. at 109–10. Instead, the harms underlying the creation of child pornography (including child sexual abuse), the economic motives for its production, and the market-making effects engendered by its existence all raise compelling concerns that justify congressional prohibitions on the production and possession of child pornography. See Paroline v. United States, 134 S.Ct. 1710, 1717 (2014); see also Osborne, 495 U.S. at 109–11; Ferber, 458 U.S. at 757–60. With these considerations in mind, § 2252A(a)(5)(B) is sufficiently tailored to support valid congressional interests without overreaching to circumscribe substantial amounts of protected speech. Nor does Ashcroft not change the result. In that case, the Supreme Court struck down portions of a federal child pornography statute, finding that a ban on virtual child pornography was unconstitutionally overbroad because those depictions cultivate only contingent and indirect harm to minors. Ashcroft, 535 U.S. at 250. Not so here. Section 2252A(a)(5)(B)'s target is materials containing actual depictions of child pornography, which indisputably breed the collection of harms that Congress reasonably seeks to eradicate.
10. It is likely that Congress intended “any other material” to remain somewhat vague in order to encapsulate a multitude of objects that could not be comprehensively and individually listed out. See Antonin Scalia and Bryan A. Garner, Reading Law 33 (1 st ed.2012).
11. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, for example, offers more than five nominal definitions of “material,” almost all of which could conceivably—albeit some more fittingly than others—apply to the statutory text. Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1392 (1986).
12. The government does not help in arguing the statute is limited to only “webpages” in the Internet context. That term is vague itself and provides little guidance as to what types of Internet material would be subject to the statute. Because it is unnecessary to do so for the statute to survive Brune's overbreadth attack, we decline to interpret the statute in the manner suggested by the government.
13. As we explained in United States v. Dobbs, downloadable images on the Internet are automatically stored to a computer's cache when a person visits a URL on the Internet. 629 F.3d 1199, 1201–02 (10th Cir.2011). One might argue that this fact presents an overbreadth problem with respect to § 2252A(a)(5)(B) for the careless Internet user who stumbles across a URL containing images of child pornography. But the government still must prove that the defendant “knowingly” accessed that URL. Without a “pattern of child-pornography-related searches immediately preceding the creation of illegal images in the cache,” or similarly sufficient evidence, the government would have difficulty showing the knowing access of “material.” See id. at 1205. As further protection against this scenario, and as we have already addressed, Brune concedes that the statute requires the offender to “know” that the “material” contains images of child pornography. See supra at 16.
14. In the vagueness context, which overlaps significantly with overbreadth, “[i]t has long been [the Supreme Court's] practice ․ before striking a federal statute as impermissibly vague, to consider whether the prescription is amenable to a limiting construction.” Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358, 405 (2010).
1. United States v. Brune, No. 12–3322, slip op. at 17 (10th Cir. [DATE] 2014). In a footnote it adds as a fourth element the interstate nexus, which, I agree, is not at issue in this case.
2. Enhancing the Effective Prosecution of Child Pornography Act of 2007, Pub.L. No. 110–358, 122 Stat. 4003 (2008) (designating section 3 as “Knowingly accessing child pornography with the intent to view child pornography ” (emphasis added)); S.Rep. No. 110–332, at 5 (2008).
TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.
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Portishead Open Air Pool (Somerset)
Home > United Kingdom > Somerset > Portishead
The Portishead Open Air Pool opened in April 1962 and is a 33m heated, typically 28 C, open-air pool and toddler pool.
The pool has a tuck shop and cafe.
Open from April to September every year, although is open for cold water swimming at limited times out of the main summer season.
Our weather forecast for Portishead in Somerset is split into two widgets. The first shows a timeline containing temperature, wind, sunrise/sunset and chance of rain, whilst the second shows the forecast for the week ahead including severe weather alerts when available.
The Lido Kitchen
Beach: Portishead beach View: Located next to Portishead’s open-air pool and overlooking the small windswept beach at across the Bristol Channel. What’s on the menu?: A contemporary restaurant serving classic brasserie dishes, modern British cuisine and tapas. Stop off as well for afternoon tea and taste their delicious homemade cakes.
Portishead Point Lighthouse
Portishead Point Lighthouse is also known as Battery Point Lighthouse after Battery Point where it stands. The lighthouse was built in 1930’s and is a black metal pyramid on a concrete base with a height of 9 meters (30 feet).
Portishead Beach
Portishead beach is located on the north Somerset coast within the Severn Estuary and is one of the closest beaches to Bristol at just 5 miles. The beach is an estuary beach and so you don’t really get sand, much more mud and rocky beach backed by some grass and salt marsh, adjacent to the beach is a 100-year-old artificial lake and a small park. On a clear day, you get some good views over to the south Wales coast. For sand you will need to head down the coast to the likes of Weston-Super-Mare. Although we list this beach as Portishead beach after the town it is also known as Kilkenny Bay or Woodhill Bay. Facilities at the beach include a car park and also parking on the road, lido, cafes, toilets at the car park and Lido, either end of the beach.
Blacknore Point Lighthouse
Blacknore Point lighthouse was built by Trinity House to assist shipping moving into and out to the docks at Avonmouth. Blacknore Point Lighthouse was built by Trinity House to assist shipping moving into and out to the docks at Avonmouth on the river Severn north-west of Bristol. The Lighthouse was built in 1894 and converted to automatic electric operation in 1941.
Tyntesfield
Tyntesfield House, 19th-century Victorian Gothic Revival country house with gardens, arboretum and rolling parkland.
Esplanade Road,
Portishead,
Somerset,
BS20 7HD
Search Portishead Somerset Locations
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Mission Statement: The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR – known as the Citizens Committee on Human Rights in Australia) is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious mental health industry watchdog whose mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health. We work to ensure patient and consumer protections are enacted and upheld as there is rampant abuse in the field of mental health. In this role, CCHR has helped to enact more than 150 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive mental health practices since it was formed over 48 years ago. Watch Our Mission Statement Video:
How CCHR Was Established
CCHR was co-founded as an independent mental health watchdog in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Dr Thomas Szasz at a time when patients were being warehoused in institutions, abused, stripped of their constitutional, civil and human rights, and left without recourse.
As CCHR’s co-founder, Thomas Szasz stated “They were then the only organisation, and they still are the only organisation, who were active in trying to free mental patients who were incarcerated in mental hospitals with whom there was nothing wrong, who had committed no crimes, who wanted to get out of the hospital. And that to me was a very worthwhile cause; it’s still a very worthwhile cause. We should honour CCHR because it is really the organisation that for the first time in human history has organised a politically, socially, internationally significant voice to combat psychiatry. This has never happened in human history before.”
CCHR has long fought to restore basic unalienable human rights to the field of mental health, including, but not limited to, full informed consent regarding the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis, the risks of psychiatric treatments, the right to all available medical alternatives, and the right to refuse any treatment considered harmful. CCHR does not advocate for any particular medical, educational or particular treatment, but does advocate for giving people alternatives and resources to assist them in finding non-harmful solutions, featured on CCHR’s website here.
More About CCHR
Our Stance on Psychiatric Drugs: People frequently ask if CCHR is of the opinion that no one should ever take psychiatric drugs, but this website is not dedicated to opinion. It is dedicated to providing information that a multi-billion dollar psycho/pharmaceutical industry does not want people to have. For this reason CCHR created the psychiatric drug side effects search engine. which consists solely of international drug regulatory warnings, published studies and adverse reactions to psychiatric drugs filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Regarding psychiatric diagnosis, it is not a matter of opinion about whether mental disorders are “real” but whether there are valid medical tests to prove mental disorders are medical conditions requiring the administration of mind-altering and potentially lethal psychiatric drugs— and the answer is no. The pertinent question is this: Do people have a right to all the information about A) the documented risks of psychiatric drugs; B) the medical validity of the psychiatric diagnosis for which drugs are being prescribed; C) to be given non-harmful medical alternatives to psychiatric drugs/treatment and D) and the right to refuse any treatment the patient considers harmful. CCHR’s answer to all of these questions is yes.
Our Stance on Psychiatric Disorders: The psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars a year in order to convince the public, legislators and the press that psychiatric disorders such as Bi-Polar Disorder, Depression, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc., are medical diseases on par with verifiable medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Though CCHR has been pointing out the lack of science to back these claims for decades, it is only recently that key high profile individuals within the mental health industry have backed what CCHR has said all long:
‘Mental illness’ is terribly misleading because the ‘mental disorders’ we diagnose are no more than descriptions of what clinicians observe people do or say, not at all well established diseases
Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman, April 2015
While DSM has been described as a ‘Bible’ for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary…. The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. In the rest of medicine, this would be equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever.
Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, 2013
This fact is this: psychiatric labels are not diseases they are marketing campaigns. It is simply a way to maintain their hold on a billions of dollars-a-year psychiatric drug industry (over $8 billion annually in Australia) that is based on marketing and not science. Unlike real medical disease, there are no scientific tests to verify the medical existence of any psychiatric disorder. Despite decades of trying to prove mental disorders are biological brain conditions, due to chemical imbalances or genetic factors, psychiatry has failed to prove even one of their hundreds of so-called mental disorders is due to a faulty or “chemically imbalanced” brain. To counter this obvious flaw in their push to medicalise behaviours, the psychiatric industry will claim that there are certain medical conditions that do not have a verifiable test so this justifies the fact that there aren’t medical tests for mental illness. This is frankly a lame argument; Whereas there may be rare medical conditions that do not have a verifiable medical test, there are virtually no psychiatric disorders that can be verified medically as a physical abnormality/disease.
This is not to say people don’t get depressed, sad, troubled, anxious, nervous or even sometimes act psychotic. The question then is simple—is this due to some mental “disease” that can be verified as one would verify cancer or a real medical condition? And the answer is no.
To find out more about psychiatric diagnoses, click here.
CCHR has worked for more than 40 years for full informed consent in the field of mental health, and the right to all the information regarding psychiatric diagnoses and treatment, not just the information coming from those with a vested interest in keeping them in the dark.
It is in this spirit that we present you with videos, news, medical experts and information designed to arm you with facts.
As a non-profit organisation, it is through public donations that we are able to continue our educational campaigns. For more information on donating to CCHR click here.
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Honourees
Laurent Lemaire
A brotherhood of entrepreneurs
Video available in French only.
Brothers Bernard, Laurent and Alain Lemaire were born in Drummondville. Their father was a resourceful self-taught entrepreneur who developed his own method for creating pulp from recycled paper. Inspired by their father, Bernard and Laurent gave an abandoned paper mill a second life by launching their own company producing paper from recycled fibres. This was how Papier Cascade got its start, in 1964 in Kingsey Falls. The Lemaire brothers did not become a trio until 1967, when Alain joined the business. Their shared vision and complementary skills—Bernard is the visionary, Laurent the financier and Alain the production specialist—made them a strong, well-balanced management team. The company’s decision to go public in 1983 drove further growth, first in the United States and later in Europe. Conscious of the importance of staying at the forefront, they created a research and development facility to support innovation within the company. In addition to contributing to Quebec’s dynamic entrepreneurial scene, the Lemaire brothers have promoted Quebec’s expertise in sustainable development around the world.
Their beginnings A brotherhood of entrepreneurs Their legacy
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CERV LAW, PLLC: Cybersecurity Law & Data Privacy Law Firm in St. Petersburg - Serving Tampa Bay & Florida
The Internet of Things Threats
People and devices are more interconnected than ever. As a result, Cybersecurity Law and Data Privacy Law are some of the most rapidly changing areas of law. While the laws are quickly changing, often times, they can’t even keep up with the technology that changes in the blink of an eye… and so do the threats.
Hackers and bad actors have an easy job, all they have to do is find one entry point or weakness at a single moment—and they are quite skilled, employing technical measures (e.g. hacking, brute force attacks, etc.) and social engineering techniques (e.g. “phishing” or “whaling”). Meanwhile, businesses must protect all possible entry points at all times—while trying to successfully operate their businesses and serve customers. Cybersecurity threats and risks do not only originate from the outside. Employees and poor internal controls can create vulnerabilities either through intentional conduct (e.g. employees stealing or selling data) or by mere accident (e.g. leaving a phone or laptop in an Uber). Any of these scenarios can trigger a mandatory, legal obligation for a business to report a data breach to regulatory authorities, customers, and the public. Such an event can have lasting impact on a business, and in some instances, destroy the business’ reputation or the business itself.
Sounds scary and you might be thinking that you should unplug all your devices and go back to paper and pencil. Before you do that, know that attorney Christopher Cervellera of CERV LAW, PLLC is able to assist your company in navigating the various legal and technical issues in this cyber age. In 1999, using a computer in a library, Chris Cervellera created his first website. In the nearly two decades since then, Chris has used his technical skills to help a number of organizations and companies in the management and deployment of various web and information technology platforms and solutions. Today, Chris’ technical experience, combined with his legal knowledge and skills, allow him to help companies with their Cybersecurity Law and Data Privacy Law needs in these disruptive and rapidly changing times.
Cybersecurity Law and Data Privacy Law Practice Areas
Attorney Christopher Cervellera of CERV LAW, PLLC has the skills and experience to help your company in a number of Cybersecurity Law and Data Privacy Law areas including:
Cybersecurity Threat Assessment, Threat Reduction, and Regulatory Compliance
Working closely with a client’s IT professional or assisting a client in IT or cybersecurity vendor selection
Development of Internal Controls & Cybersecurity Policies
“War Games” (breach and response simulation)
Vendor Management & Risk Assessment
Drafting and Review of Critical Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Documents
Data Privacy and Data Security Plans and Procedures
Bring Your Own Device Policies (BYOD) for Employees
Vendor Agreements
Data Collection, Retention and Destruction Policies
Identifying “Incidents” versus “Breaches” Under Applicable Laws
Mandatory Post-Data Breach Notifications and Disclosures
Florida Data Breach Notifications – Fla. Stat. § 501.171
Assisting with notifications in other U.S. states and countries by leveraging connections to lawyers and advisors throughout the world (e.g. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] and California’s Consumer Privacy Act of 2018)
Various Federal Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Laws
Advisory Services for Compliance with Cybersecurity and Data Protection Laws Pre- and Post-Data Breach
Florida Data Breach Notifications – Fla. Stat. § 501.171.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – 42 U.S. Code § 1320d–6.
Financial Services Modernization Act: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) – 15 U.S.C. §§ 6801–6809.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) – 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6505.
Federal Trade Commission Act – 15 U.S.C. §§ 41-58.
Learn more about Chris Cervellera.
Request a Consultation*
*Feel free to contact CERV LAW, PLLC. However, contacting the firm via phone, e-mail, website contact form, social media, postal mail, etc. does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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Riders, Bombers square off in first-place showdown
September 07, 2019 News, CFL Playoffs, Grey Cup, Montreal Alouettes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Toronto Argonauts
WINNIPEG — Cody Fajardo knows the significance of the Banjo Bowl showdown between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“Any time that you’re playing for first is a big game, especially where we’re at in this point of the season,” the Riders’ quarterback said in advance of Saturday’s CFL game at IG Field. “They say that once Labour Day heats up, that teams start to amp it up in terms of getting geared up to put yourself in good position to make the playoffs.”
Saturday’s sold-out Banjo Bowl has playoff implications. Winnipeg is first in the West Division with an 8-3 record. The Riders (7-3) are second and riding a six-game winning streak.
Both teams can gain from a win. A Winnipeg victory would give the Blue Bombers a two-game advantage over the Riders in the race for first place in the West Division.
The Green and White would move into first with a victory and clinch the three-game season series between the two teams. Saskatchewan earned a leg up on the Blue Bombers thanks to Sunday’s 19-17 win in the Labour Day Classic. The teams’ records in head-to-head action are one of the league’s playoff tiebreakers.
“It’s a big game, whether it’s for the fans and how much pride goes into it or the whole prairie history of the thing,” said Riders linebacker Solomon Elimimian. “I see it as where we’re trying to get to as a team. We’re trying to get the best seeding that we can to give us the best chance to win the Grey Cup.”
Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said he didn’t need to point out the importance of Saturday’s result to the players.
“Our guys know this is a big game,” Dickenson said. “They know that we play Winnipeg three times and if we can win two of the three, then we have a little bit of an advantage. That’s the main thing we look at.”
The Riders and Blue Bombers are to play again on Oct. 5 at Mosaic Stadium. It’s one of only three home games remaining for the Riders in the second half of the season. They play host to the Montreal Alouettes (Sept. 14), Blue Bombers and Edmonton Eskimos (Nov. 2).
After Saturday’s game, the Riders are on the road for contests against the Toronto Argonauts (Sept. 28), Calgary Stampeders (Oct. 11), B.C. Lions (Oct. 18) and Eskimos (Oct. 26).
“You have to expect to win your home games and fight and claw for the away games,” Fajardo said. “For us, riding a six-game winning streak, momentum is on our side right now.”
Saturday’s game marks Willie Jefferson’s first appearance in the Banjo Bowl as a member of the Blue Bombers. The lanky defensive end signed with the Blue Bombers during the off-season after two-plus seasons with the Riders.
In the 2018 Banjo Bowl, Jefferson recorded three defensive tackles, a sack and returned an interception 97 yards for a touchdown in the Riders’ 32-27 win over the Blue Bombers.
“That’s exactly what we’re hoping for this week,” said Jefferson, who had three defensive tackles and a sack on Sunday. “We’re hoping for a good turnout with these fans and to make a lot of good plays on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.”
Jefferson is off to another strong start this season with nine sacks, three behind Riders’ defensive end Charleston Hughes, who leads the CFL with 12.
“(Jefferson) is so athletic and he’s so long,” Dickenson said. “We’re going to try to run at him and force him a little bit. When you single block Willie, he can make life difficult for you. We’re going to try to help our guys a little bit when they face Willie.”
The Riders, meanwhile, are using the same roster as Sunday.
“We’re thrilled by that,” Dickenson said. “We feel that we have a good team and that our roster is gelling. On a short week, it’s tough to put a lot of new faces in and expect a lot.”
mmccormick@postmedia.com
twitter.com/murraylp
Source: montrealgazette.com
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Buyer’s rep lawsuits: The Chicagoland View
Last week, an interview with Baird & Warner CEO Steve Baird went up online asking him his point of view on the pending lawsuits over buyer’s representation currently working their way through the courts. Though it was titled “Baird & Warner CEO: ‘The buyer should pay the buyer agent,’” his thoughts on the topic were not necessarily revelatory or exhaustive; in fact it was one of the shortest responses in the Q&A:
At the end of the day, people are going to use buyers agents and they are going to pay them somehow. So, are we going to change the way we pay? Maybe. I don’t know, I haven’t really read the lawsuit. You’re not going to get a situation where buyers are represented for nothing, they’re going to get paid somehow or people are not going to move into the business and they’re not going to provide that service. We will adjust like way back when buyers’ agents were subagents. My own particular view is that the buyer should pay the buyer agent and the seller should pay the seller agent. It’s coopted in different markets depending on local custom. That’s the way it’s done in the commercial business.
Still, the piece got us thinking at Chicago Agent magazine. Chicagoland has a lot of smart real estate executives: Do they think the lawsuits have merit? How do other company owners here see the industry changing if these suits are successful?
The merit of the lawsuits
On the topic of whether the defendants in the two class-action suits have a case in their charge that buy-side brokers’ compensation is non-negotiable and that this drives up costs and stifles competition, guarded optimism might be the best descriptor for how Chicagoland real estate executives are feeling at the moment.
Yuval Degani, founder of Dream Town Realty, told Chicago Agent magazine he believes the cases have no merit. “The claim that brokers will not show listings with lower co-op not only can’t be proven, but based on my experience, it’s baseless,” he said. “That’s just ridiculous.”
Part of the reason Degani and others in the industry feel this way is because they’ve seen first hand how technology has changed the relationship that consumers have with both agents and data. Degani noted that, with the many sources of listing information available to the public, it’s hard to argue that brokers are able to direct consumers away from properties that are offering lower compensation. “Twenty years ago, when a client relied solely on the broker for information, this may have been an argument, though still baseless in my opinion,” he said.
While Thad Wong, cofounder of @properties, agreed with Degani that the facts of the cases aren’t very strong, he still sees them as significant threats to the industry. “I don’t think that they’ll prevail and I actually don’t think the current setup is flawed,” Wong said. “But I think they have merit; otherwise they would not have gotten this far.”
These suits have been hard to decipher partially due to the general confusion about how compensation has worked in real estate in the past, and how the idea of buyer agency has evolved. And that’s why Jennifer Ames, team leader of Ames Group Chicago and license partner with Engel & Völkers, suggested a close look at history to understand the issue more clearly. “It used to be a very inefficient market where agents had to find buyers for their own listings and there was no central way to share information,” she said, noting that the MLS was created specifically to standardize and disseminate listing data.
Ames noted that, for all the accusations of conspiracy and price setting being made in these lawsuits, it’s really just a function of how real estate data sharing has evolved that’s responsible for the way buy-side commissions are handled. “Since the MLS was formed, the total commission is paid to the seller’s broker because they are the entity that is responsible for the marketing and sale of the listing. The seller’s broker then offers a portion to the commission to the broker who is representing the buyer,” she said. “There are no rules or requirements about how that commission is allocated. In our market, the listing broker could keep most and pay out less or pay it all out and keep nothing.”
Indeed, Ames noted that part of the reason the industry has evolved to support more buyer’s agents was to ensure better advocacy for consumers. Back when all agents — regardless of which side of the deal they were on — were considered sub-agents of the seller, consumer advocates became concerned about equal representation. “This led to lawsuits from buyers who expected their broker to be their advocate, and the rules of agency changed,” she said. “Now in Illinois, all brokers who work with buyers are considered agents of the buyer so there is no confusion about where their fiduciary duty lies.”
Do sellers really pay the buy-side commission?
One of the central arguments of these cases is that sellers are being forced to pay a commission that they cannot negotiate themselves. But Wong said even the notion that the sellers pay the buyer’s agents isn’t really accurate. Because the money to purchase a property is ultimately coming from buyers (or their bank), the argument could be made that buyers pay the seller’s agent. “It only comes from how the deal is structured. The idea that the seller pays it is a little bit silly,” he said. “It really is semantics.”
Wong further argued that sellers understand that there are many related costs that have nothing to do with the value of a home — from property repairs to commissions to miscellaneous fees — that get factored into the listing at the pricing stage. The idea that these costs are paid by the seller is really just a way of streamlining them through one party. “Unless you’re talking about taxes, it doesn’t really matter who is paying,” he said.
Joan M. LoCascio, managing broker and executive vice president for Fulton Grace, agreed that the origin of buyer’s agents’ commissions doesn’t play a factor in the service agents provide their clients. “I don’t believe a change in where commissions originate could ever impact the desire Fulton Grace agents have to help our clients achieve their goals,” she said. “Whether compensation comes from buyer, seller or from both, informed consumers will continue to demand a high level of service and expertise from a very competitive and highly regulated industry.”
What might happen
LoCascio was confident that, no matter what, these lawsuits do not have the power to undermine the fundamental position of real estate professionals in the transaction. “As a whole, the real estate industry is extremely resilient, and will respond positively to any potential changes resulting from class action lawsuits,” she said.
Still, Degani noted that there’s a lot at stake. “The MLS is one of the greatest American inventions. It is the only one of its kind in the world,” he said. “Abolishing broker cooperation will send us back 50 years. All we have to do is see what happens in Europe where buyers pay their brokers. They have to go from listing broker to listing broker to get data, and often a listing agent collects commissions from buyers and sellers. That’s not benefiting consumers.”
Wong agreed that these suits represent an important moment not just for the real estate industry, but for consumers, and said a change to buy-side compensation could be disastrous to the housing market. “If it goes though, it’s a big deal. It’s going to involve everyone in the transaction,” he said. He predicted that not only might buy-side commissions be cut in half, but also that sales prices will be significantly reduced. “You’re going to see deflation; you’re going to see home prices fall.”
The importance of buyer representation
Degani worried about buyers who are currently struggling to come up with a down payment, needing to pay brokers’ fees out of pocket. “Take for example an FHA buyer: That’s a person that the federal government is helping realize the dream of home ownership with a 3.5 percent down payment. These are buyers who cannot afford paying a broker as well,” he said. “They will either stay away from the process, or use a listing agent who has the seller’s best interest at heart.”
Wong said some real estate professionals who deal exclusively with high-end clients may be less concerned about the fallout from these lawsuits because the burden will fall chiefly on the lower end of the market. But he noted that if these lower-end buyers see their dollars unable to stretch as far in the marketplace, some won’t be able to enter the market at all. This could create a cascading effect on the market, which has already been hampered by a lack of first-time buyers in recent years. “That’s what a big deal this is,” he said. “It will affect the majority of Americans and it will affect the majority of home values.”
LoCascio’s confidence in a positive resolution for these suits comes from her belief in the importance of buyer’s representation. “Brokers provide the human connection to a real estate transaction. Buyer’s agents are the grounding force and the voice guiding consumers through major investments and in most cases, the purchase of a lifetime,” she said.
But Wong worried that if the suits do prevail, that relationship could be severed for many buyers. “There would be much fewer agents out there” willing to do buyer’s representation for a lower fee, he said. “And that is a disservice to the consumer.”
Tags: buyer's rep, commissions, lawsuits, legal, mls
Gary Lucido says:
There is absolutely no merit to this lawsuit. It has several key inaccuracies in its claims: http://www.chicagonow.com/getting-real/2019/03/home-sellers-file-real-estate-commission-class-action-lawsuit/
A seller could easily refuse to pay a co-op commission and still put the listing in the MLS and good luck to the realtor who tries to hide that listing from their buyers.
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Rear Adm. Kevin Meeks retires from U.S. Public Health Service
by Chickasaw Nation Media Relations Office
Rear Adm. Kevin Meeks spoke about his 32 years of service to the U.S Public Health Service Commissioned Corps at a special ceremony at the Chickasaw Nation Community Center in Oklahoma City, June 27.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby praised Rear Adm. Kevin Meeks, Chickasaw, for 32 years of service to Native Americans through the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps, which administers Indian Health Service.
Meeks formally retired in a special ceremony June 27 at the Chickasaw Community Center with full honors witnessed by a contingent of colleagues, peers, friends and family.
“Your retirement is bittersweet for us. You’ve been so good to Indian Country and the Chickasaw Nation. You will be very, very difficult to replace. We appreciate your intelligence and the passion you have for the people you serve,” Governor Anoatubby said.
“You are a great example of servant leadership,” Governor Anoatubby said, citing one of the Chickasaw Nation’s core values that include 11 guiding principles of professional behavior for tribal leaders and employees.
Governor Anoatubby pointed out Meeks was a critical player in providing quality health care to 2.2 million Native Americans and represented tribes in self-governance negotiations. He was praised for providing Native Americans leadership and sage advice in a career where he served in many states and worked with countless tribes.
He was awarded the PHS Commissioned Corps’ Distinguished Service Medal during the ceremony.
Meeks, reared in Byng, earned degrees from East Central University in Ada and the University of Oklahoma where he graduated with a master’s degree of public health.
He began his career in 1987 as a service unit sanitarian at the Lower Brule/Crow Creek reservations in South Dakota. He ended his career as deputy director of field operations for Indian Health Service, the principle federal entity advocating and providing health care to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Meeks served from 2009-2017 as Oklahoma City area director, overseeing health care to the “largest and most diverse service population” managed by the Indian Health Service.
In addition to Governor Anoatubby, Rear Adm. Silvia Trent-Adams, principal deputy assistant secretary for health, and Rear Adm. Michael Weahkee, principal deputy director of Indian Health Service, lauded Meeks’ years of service.
Both told Meeks’ wife, Janice, to expect phone calls when the breadth of experience and knowledge possessed by her husband was required in the future – even though he is retired. Janice Meeks smiled broadly and nodded acceptance of the inevitable.
About PHS Commissioned Corps
As one of the United States’ seven uniformed services, the PHS Commissioned Corps fills public health leadership and service roles within federal government agencies and programs. The PHS Commissioned Corps includes officers drawn from many professions, including environmental and occupational health, medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, psychology, social work, hospital administration, health record administration, nutrition, engineering, science, veterinary, health information technology and other health-related occupations.
Officers of the corps wear uniforms similar to those of the United States Navy with special PHSCC insignia, and the corps uses the same commissioned officer ranks as the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Commissioned Officer Corps from ensign to admiral. Since June 1960, PHSCC has been considered military service for retirement purposes.
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Tag Archives: Dante Lam
China’s Box Office: A Holmes-y Reception
by Albert Wang with Robert Cain for China Film Biz
Note: Due to an unexpected week’s delay in China’s box office reporting, we’re just now putting out the report for the week ending January 22nd, with the report for the week ending January 29th to come shortly.
We can only speculate as to why China’s box office numbers were delayed last week. The hold-up may have been related to SARFT’s recent crackdown on box office misreporting and under-reporting. Apparently new systems are currently being implemented to prevent the widespread practice of selling tickets for one film and then writing the name of another film on the face of the ticket. This sort of manipulation allows monies paid by the ticket buyer for one film to be funneled to another.
When the numbers were finally released they showed Warner Bros’ Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows to be last week’s big winner at the mainland Chinese box office with a decent $10 million gross. This may come as a bit of a surprise, given that the original Sherlock Holmes movie was viewed by some as a relative flop in mainland China when it was released in 2010. NYMag, for instance, pointed out that while Avatar earned in China about one-third of what it made in the US, the original Sherlock movie’s China release earned just one-eighteenth of its US box office haul.
Perhaps the first film’s underperformance can be attributed to China’s unfamiliarity with the Sherlock Holmes brand, but Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has had no such marketing woes. The sequel is on pace to significantly outdo the original at the Chinese box office.
In second place with $7.3 million was Dante Lam’s newly released thriller The Viral Factor, reportedly Taiwan megastar Jay Chou’s last starring role in an action movie. The film also stars Nicholas Tse in yet another gritty and nuanced “bad guy” role. Stylish Hong Kong director Lam, whose most acclaimed film is 2008’s Beast Stalker (also starring Nicholas Tse), is known for making his films chock full of car chases and explosions — not to mention the occasional male actor literally crying his heart out.
The rest of the Chinese box office leaders include the previous week’s top film, The Great Magician (starring Tony Leung and Zhou Xun), the animated film Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf 4, and the 2012 installment of the All’s Well Ends Well series, the Chinese New Year comedy that stars many of Hong Kong’s biggest stars. With an opening weekend tally of just $2.2 million, an 80 percent drop from the 2011 edition’s first week result, the numbers for All’s Well Ends Well 2012 don’t bode well for continuation of the series.
The Taiwanese romance You Are the Apple of My Eye, while dropping five places to the eighth spot at last week’s box office, continues its strong showing, having already grossed more than all 2011 Taiwanese releases in mainland China combined.
Meanwhile Zhang Yimou’s war epic The Flowers of War has wound down its theatrical run on the mainland with a cumulative gross just below the $100M mark. Assuming the reported numbers are accurate, even though Flowers stands as the 3rd highest grossing film ever in the PRC, the film’s initial theatrical returns will fail to repay even half of its $90 million production cost.
Cumulative box office for the week was $40.8 million, up by 13 percent as measured in dollars (up 7 percent in Chinese yuan) over the same period last year. This would be a nice bump in most territories, but given that the mainland’s screen count has risen by 50 percent since January, 2011, theater operators will undoubtedly be disappointed with the weekly result.
Albert Wang is an aspiring producer of US-China film co-productions who joined the Pacific Bridge Pictures team in December, 2011. His previous blog on US-China films can be seen at hollymu.com.
Posted in Analysis, Box Office Reports | Tagged Albert Wang, All's Well Ends Well 2012, box office misreporting, China box office, China's box office, Dante Lam, Jay Chou, Nicholas Tse, Rob Cain, Robert Cain, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, The Great Magician, The Viral Factor, You Are the Apple of My Eye | 1 Reply
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Judge Rejects Baltimore Police Officers’ and Department’s Attempts to Dismiss Wrongful Conviction Lawsuit in Drug-Planting Case
On September 12, 2019, a federal judge issued a 72-page opinion allowing a lawsuit alleging that Baltimore Police Department officers planted drugs on two innocent men to move forward. On April 28, 2010, plainclothes officers planted approximately 32 grams of heroin in Umar Burley’s car, in which Brent Matthews was a passenger. Both men were sent to prison as a result. Years later, in the course of investigating corruption in the Baltimore Police Department’s infamous Gun Trace Task Force, the government learned that the officers had planted heroin in Mr. Burley’s car. Upon this discovery, a judge in the District of Maryland fully exonerated Mr. Burley and Mr. Matthews of their drug convictions.
Andy Freeman, one of the attorneys representing Mr. Burley and Mr. Matthews said, “We are pleased that Mr. Burley and Mr. Matthews are finally on the road to compensation for the egregious wrongs done to them by the Baltimore Police Department officers, supervisors, and the department itself. For decades, the Baltimore Police Department and its supervisors condoned rampant misconduct by their plainclothes officers, which emboldened them to violate citizens’ rights—including by planting guns and drugs on innocent Baltimoreans.”
Mr. Burley and Mr. Matthews are represented by Andy Freeman, Chelsea Crawford, and Neel Lalchandani of Brown Goldstein & Levy, along with co-counsel at Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White.
Read Baltimore Sun article covering case here.
Read full Opinion here.
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Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #90: Drone strikes and soft targets
You are here: Home / Publications / Managing Uncertainty Podcast / Managing Uncertainty Podcast – Episode #90: Drone strikes and soft targets
January 13, 2020 By // by Bryan Strawser
In this week’s edition of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, our first for 2020, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses the recent drone strikes carried out against Iranian aligned unconventional forces, militia, and government officials by the United States – with a focus on steps that businesses that operate in the region – and globally – should consider as tensions rise and escalations occur in retaliation.
Topics discussed include intelligence, monitoring threats, freedom of navigation, travel safety & security, soft target protection, detecting pre-attack surveillance, and other measures that companies should take.
Despite knowing the proper pronunciation of Qasem Soleimani’s name, I pronounced it incorrectly multiple times during this episode. My apologies for my error. — Bryan
Related Episodes & Blog Posts
Episode #76: BryghtCast for the week of October 7th, 2019
Episode #78: BryghtCast for the week of October 14th, 2019
Blog Post: Top 12 Global Risks of 2018
Bryan Strawser: Hello and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is Bryan Strawser, principal and chief executive here at Bryghtpath, and I’m running solo again today. We’re here to talk about Iran and the Middle East. Given recent events that have occurred over the last couple of weeks throughout Iraq and Iran and the involvement of the United States admitted, confirmed involvement of the United States on a drone strike killing an Iranian official near the Baghdad airport about a week ago.
Bryan Strawser: I’m sure you’re familiar with the details of the incident, but to back up a little bit, there has been for a number of months, years even in Iraq, a number of attacks on United States military interest throughout the region that have connectivity back to the unconventional forces of the government of Iran. These unconventional forces in many cases, were the Quds Force, Q-U-D-S, and the commanding general of the Quds Force. Quds is the unconventional warfare arm of the Iranian military and intelligence apparatus. The commanding general was Major General Suleimani and a week ago as he was leaving the Baghdad airport in a three-vehicle convoy with some allies of his, no Iraqi government officials but Aronian allies that operate within Iraq, his convoy was struck by a series of missiles fired from a U.S. Government Reaper drone, a more modern version of the predator.
Bryan Strawser: Killed in this drone strike were General Suleimani along with some local allies as how I’d outlined before. It took a little bit of time, a few hours before this was confirmed, and then a few more hours for the United States to announce that they had made the drone striking, accepting responsibility for the strike. In addition in the following days, but the United States executed a number of other strikes, some of which our government has confirmed, some of which have not been confirmed as well as a special operation in Yemen that attempted to capture one of our top 20 wanted terrorists who was another close ally of the Iranian unconventional forces, the Quds Forces.
Bryan Strawser: Now, the geopolitics with all of this are super complex. They go back centuries in some cases and certainly some of it goes back to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. There’s some very strongly held differences of opinion between the two countries but the important part here is there’s just no mistaking that the United States’ decision to strike General Suleimani was a very significant event in terms of the current conflict in the Middle East. And General Suleimani was a leading strategist for unconditional warfare, he played a very significant role in the Middle East as the Quds Force and the Iranian government has been involved with Hamas, with Hezbollah and with other unaffiliated groups that are aligned with the government of Iran, like Iranian militias that operate in Iraq and Yemen and elsewhere. And you could connect, and the United States certainly believes this in terms of the intelligence that they have published, they believe that we could connect General Suleimani to hundreds of deaths of American servicemen and women in Iraq and else his other actions against the United States, Israel, and other allies throughout the Middle East.
Bryan Strawser: So there’ll be almost certainly will be escalations and we’ve already seen some of this as a result of the decision to make this strike. And with all of that as background, what I want to focus on is what we always talk about here on the podcast, which is what American businesses and other businesses operating in the Middle East, and throughout the world, that might be impacted. What should we do in order to make sure that our people are safe, that our business operations are secure and that we’re prepared for what may come in the future in terms of retaliation and escalation from this attack?
Bryan Strawser: First, I think it’s important to point out the likelihood of an actual conventional war that would occur between the United States and its allies and Iran and its allies, is highly, highly unlikely. It’s unlikely for a couple of reasons. The first is that although Iran has significant military capability, perhaps has evolved nuclear weapons or may have some other weapons of mass destruction and Iran has a large inactive military, the United States remains the world’s really only superpower and the Leviathan as Thomas P.M. Barnett refers to, the Leviathan of the United States military would probably make short work of the country of Iran and its military forces if necessary. But I think there’s also the other side of this which is that Iran is playing a long game of chess here and hoping that the United States is not playing a strategy game of chess in return. Iran’s approach to the United States since the 1970’s when the current government took over from the Shah of Iran, and there was the Iranian revolution and they seized the United States embassy, their approach has been almost entirely to engage in a series of unconventional warfare campaigns that impact the United States and our allies.
Bryan Strawser: So, I don’t think you’re going to see head-on conventional military conflict between the two countries. I think what we will see is unconventional warfare, and I want to start that by saying that one of the likely areas that we’re going to see from Iran will be the use of cyber attacks of various types in order to disrupt United States government interests and private sector interests throughout the world. Though they will most certainly be targeting the United States and our allies and part of that will be impacting the business community and I think we’ll see that first in the cyber domain. Iran has significant offensive cyber warfare capability. They are one of the countries that U.S. Cyber Command talks about as being a significant threat along with Russia and China and North Korea and they’re a significant threat with significant capability. So cyber is one area where we’re going to see that.
Bryan Strawser: The second area where I think we’re going to see risk, the areas that are most at risk, are going to be the military targets that are in the region. And we’ve already seen some of that with a missile strike on U.S. bases launch from Iran. These are bases that the United States operates inside the country of Iraq. We saw that within a few days of the drone strike on Suleimani and I believe we’re going to continue to see those types of unconventional attacks on United States interests in Iraq for at least as long as we’re there.
Bryan Strawser: The third area of risk is ocean traffic that is moving in the Persian Gulf, particularly through the Strait of Hormuz where Iran has previously, as recently as July, seized Western flagged ships. They seized a couple of ships that carried United Kingdom flags, which just means they’re kind of homeported or registered with that country, but they’ve taken other actions over the years to engage militarily across the Persian Gulf. They shot down the United States drone and some other attacks over the last 20 or 30 years have occurred there. The United Kingdom since July has been organizing protective missions for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has also been involved in supporting that mission and I believe there are some other NATO and EU countries that have participated in this as well.
Bryan Strawser: The area of greatest concern in the region from our standpoint and in real area of concern globally are our soft targets. Here we’re talking about business interests, civilian populations, and would almost think about this as something that should be looked at as kind of concentric levels of risk. We think the closer that we are to the Persian gulf, the more challenges and more risk that can be seen and the farther out that you are geographically then the less risk that there are. Certainly, businesses that operate close in or in the Middle East are likely at the greatest risk. We believe the secondary risk is in Europe of both Eastern and Western Europe, and then we get into some farther afield targets even here in the United States. The way to think about the geographic risk here is that civilian populations that are massing in areas in the Middle East or in Europe and then in the United States are possible soft targets. Think about these indirect attacks like shopping malls and sporting events, movie theaters, large public gatherings, large public events, as being places that should really consider their level of soft target protection. In this time of this kind of global uncertainty, what other measures should be taken in those areas, for example, here in Minnesota, the Mall of America has long been talked about as a significant terrorist target of opportunity, and I know that the security team there who does a lot of things both seen and unseen, likely took steps, I don’t know for sure, but I would predict that they took steps in response to Iran’s vows of escalation and revenge following General Suleimani’s death at the hands of U.S. Forces.
Bryan Strawser: We haven’t seen too many of these kinds of soft attacks coming from a foreign aligned group here in the United States but I will take you back to a few years ago in San Bernardino, California, where two individuals that had come to the country and had been radicalized, kind of align themselves with the ISIS/ISIL movement, a man and his wife committed a mass shooting of his co-workers at a county worker gathering in San Bernardino, and then engaged in a running gun battle with local state and federal law enforcement. Ultimately that resulted in their deaths and the subsequent investigation pointed to their close alignment with ISIS acting on their own in a lone wolf manner, but having been radicalized through the Internet and other encounters that they had had. So these kinds of attacks, certainly Iran is not publishing the kind of self radicalizing material that ISIS did on the internet, but this type of attack on a soft target is still a strong possibility. And this is the kind of campaign that the Quds Force really focused on, these unconventional attacks on softer targets throughout the world.
Bryan Strawser: So what should companies do? Well, first is just to continue to monitor the threat. We want to make sure that you’re looking at the news, you’re looking at information from the U.S. State Department, from groups like OSAC, the Overseas Security Advisory Council, at the state department. If you’re an FBI InfraGard member, you’ll have access to some information there, certainly, some information that’ll be more physical and cybersecurity-focused. These are things we want to make sure we’re monitoring the threat that we understand what might be at risk for us as this situation continues to evolve. When you think about your soft target protection, really think about how can you engage in efforts to detect pre-attack surveillance. That almost always happens in some of these attacks. There’s an attempt to surveil the target and understand the points of weakness and opportunity that they could use to strike.
Bryan Strawser: I think companies should look at their travel safety and security policies, how you’re monitoring geopolitical risk and what your approach is to travel in the Middle East. Do you have contingency plans for operations and business travel in the area and do you feel like in your worst-case scenario that could happen here in terms of a soft target attack or an unconventional attack on some forces where you happen to have facilities or may have travelers nearby, what does that approach look like? Certainly would look at what you’re training the teams too that are traveling to these areas, but also looking strongly at what’s your capacity, whether organic to your organization or through a third-party service to get folks out if the situation escalates. And again, we want to make sure that you’re monitoring current events and taking appropriate actions to protect your team and your assets and your business operations.
Bryan Strawser: So, hopefully, that gives you a little bit of background on the situation following the killing of General Suleimani by the United States, what that might mean for your business operations. Again, if there’s anything we can help you within these areas here at Bryghtpath, we’d be happy to chat about that. Give us a call anytime at 612-235-6435 or drop us an email at contact@bryghtpath.com. That’s it for this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. We’ll be back next week with another new episode. Thanks for listening.
Filed Under: Managing Uncertainty Podcast Tagged With: Bryan Strawser, bryghtpath, bryghtpath llc, drone strike, iran, Managing Uncertainty, managing uncertainty podcast, middle east, persian gulf, pre-attack surveillance, soft target, soft target protection, soft targets, surveillance
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Does May have the reformist zeal?
|By William Walter
Theresa May’s desire to see a society that works for everyone is a bold ambition that requires an equally bold programme of reform, argues William Walter.
Tomorrow’s closing address at Conservative Party conference presents Theresa May with an opportunity to set out her roadmap for government. An opportunity to move beyond her reputation as a pragmatic managerialist and present herself as an ideological visionary.
Her talk of ‘one nation Conservatism’, and ‘a country that works for everyone’ in her acceptance speech offer clues to her priorities for social reform. And subsequent announcements regarding the reintroduction of grammar schools, together with a desire to see Brexit delivered, serve as geysers of ideological zeal. But almost four months into her premiership the pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister to offer a more coherent programme of reform for her government.
As other commentators have noted, her first priority must be preserving the union. Scotland, in contrast to England, voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. This difference has helped fuel nationalist feeling north of the border. It is important the Prime Minister projects a message of optimism extolling the virtues of the Union.
But she must also set out her longer term vision for the country. George Osborne’s tenure as Chancellor saw effective decision making crippled by fears of the potential negative media and political implications these decisions might entail. As a consequence, all too often unpopular decisions were avoided. The tax code is a shining example of how this inertia has manifested itself. For decades the tax system has been allowed to become steadily more complex, which in turn has hindered business and economic growth. Now is the time to address this problem. Theresa May should announce a programme of reforms aimed at stripping back the tax code and bringing income tax brackets more in to line. The artificial incentives and exemptions that became the hallmark of successive chancellors, most notably Gordon Brown, should be done away with.
And just as enabling free enterprise and promoting economic growth are central tenants to delivering a fairer society, so too is aspiration and the opportunity to better oneself. Homeownership is undeniably an important component in this. The UK is currently experiencing a chronic shortage of housing supply. For millions the idea of home ownership is becoming an ever more distant dream. To address this, the Prime Minister needs to reform our country’s antiquated planning laws and embark on a nationwide programme of housebuilding to deliver hundreds of thousands of new homes for both private and social tenants.
Finally, Theresa May’s reform of the education system should go beyond the reintroduction of grammar schools. The higher education system is inadequate. Too many young people remain wedded to the idea that university is the most effective route to maximising their career and earnings potential, naïve to other options available to them.
We need to see a two-pronged approach to reforming our higher education system and boosting the take-up of apprenticeships. Firstly, we need to see increased transparency and competition in the higher education market, and secondly we need to see a concerted drive to promote high value apprenticeships targeted at both young people and their parents.
The desire to see a society that works for everyone is a bold ambition that requires a bold programme of reform. With this in mind, the Prime Minister should embrace the unique circumstances in which she now finds herself. With her Labour opposition in turmoil and the Party relatively united, Theresa May has a once in a generation chance to take the difficult decisions and to put the country on the path to long-term prosperity and see her vision realised.
William Walter
William Walter is the Founder and Editor of Comment Central. He began his career in Parliament working for three Conservative MPs — the then Shadow Minister for Universities & Skills, Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Opposition Treasury whip, James Duddridge MP, and former Shadow Pensions Minister, Nigel Waterson MP. In addition to his Parliamentary work he has also written for a range of publications, including: The Daily Telegraph, City AM, Metro and Conservative Home.
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by Peter Bingle
What does the PM’s decision mean for the country?
Peter Bingle discusses the implications of the Prime Minister’s…
May, the deaf musician
A meaningful Brexit is dead, warns Sean Walsh, but the damage wrought…
by Sean Walsh
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April 7, 2008 / 12:26 AM / 12 years ago
World is not enough for teenage judoka Teddy Riner
Chrystel Boulet-Euchin
FORGES-LES-EAUX, France (Reuters) - Ask giant French judoka Teddy Riner what he fears and he will tell you: “Nothing, no-one — except my parents!”
France's judo World Champion Teddy Riner attends a training session in preparation for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, at Forges-les-Eaux in this March 25, 2008 file photo. Riner took the sport of judo by storm last year when he won the world and European over-100kg titles. Almost unheard of before he became judo's youngest heavyweight world champion at the age of 18 in Rio de Janeiro last September, Riner, who stands 2.04 metres tall and weighs 129 kg, became an instant celebrity in France. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/Files
The remark betrays the youth of the would-be Olympic champion, who took the sport of judo by storm last year when he won the world and European over-100kg titles.
Almost unheard of before he became judo’s youngest heavyweight world champion at the age of 18 in Rio de Janeiro last September, Riner, who stands 2.04 meters tall and weighs 129 kg, became an instant celebrity in France.
The Guadeloupe-born athlete struggled to deal with the fame and the pressure of following in the footsteps of compatriot David Douillet, a double Olympic champion and four times world gold medalist.
As he prepares for Beijing, though, the heavily muscled Riner, nicknamed “Teddy Bear” by female fans, has come to terms with his celebrity.
“After Brazil, there were ups and downs but I have now learned how to cope with it all, how to say no to media before competitions,” the softly spoken Riner told Reuters in an interview.
“As for people who walk up to you in the street, you can’t say no to them, you should simply say ‘thank you’.”
JAZZ DANCING
Hyperactive as a child, Riner tried his hand at swimming, tennis, football and even modern jazz dance before focusing on judo.
Later, when he was training at France’s National Sports Institute outside Paris, coaches from basketball and boxing tried to convince this exceptional athlete to have a go at their sports.
Riner declined the offers, remaining faithful to judo, a sport popular in France.
His win last year gave France their first heavyweight world title since Douillet’s triumph 10 years earlier and followed a shock first-round victory over the sport’s master, Kosei Inoue of Japan.
Riner is so confident about his chances in Beijing in August that he decided not to defend his European title in Lisbon this month.
“With my coaches, we looked at my programme and we decided it was not necessary to go to the European championships before the Games,” he said.
“I’ve started a period of four weeks concentrating on bodybuilding. I walk on the mat only to work on my technique but I don’t do any fights.
“Technically, I’m nearly ready, I’ve only got to fine-tune a few details. I’ve just come back from a two-week training session in Japan where I practiced a lot. Physically, I still need to work, to push my limits even further.”
MEDAL HOPES
A medal in Beijing is the focus of his entire year.
“I know I can win but I also know I can lose in the first round,” said Riner, who lives in Paris with his parents and studies micro-computing.
“What I want is to bring back a medal, a nice one. I know there will be many fights and it will be tough but I also know I can do it.
“All I want is to bring back a medal.”
Riner’s coach Franck Chambilly has faith in his charge.
“I haven’t any doubt about his ability to become Olympic champion,” Chambilly, himself a European medalist at the lighter weight of under 60kg in the 1990s, told Reuters.
“The strongest thing about him is his mind and he will do everything to be Olympic champion. There’s no doubt about it, though he still has progress to make.
“There isn’t much time left but I am not worried as he absorbs new information very quickly.”
Writing by Patrick Vignal, Editing by Clare Fallon
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In July 2013 CAJ responded to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) consultation ‘Guidance on the Termination of Pregnancy: The Law and Clinical Practice in Northern Ireland.’ In this response we reiterated it is now well established that there is a requirement of legal certainty in relation to abortion law and policy in Northern Ireland. This has been established under human rights law in relation to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) again made clear in the European Court of Human Rights judgement in ABC v Ireland in 2010. In this submission we raised concerns that the proposed DHSSPS guidance had been drafted in a way which made the document less likely to meet the requirements of legal certainty and more likely to be susceptible to litigation. We note that insofar as clear guidance has still not been progressed, the DHSSPS continues to remain in breach of these requirements.
CAJ welcomes the Department of Justice (DoJ) ‘consultation on the criminal law on abortion, lethal foetal abnormality and sexual crime’, issued for consultation until January 2015. The DoJ proposes legislation to enable abortion in the cases of fatal foetal abnormality and pregnancy as a result of rape or incest (sexual crime). CAJ supports these proposals. In taking this position we wish to draw attention to the following human rights jurisprudence.
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Bianca Green – From Excel Academy Student to Delco Academy Employee
Home » Bianca Green – From Excel Academy Student to Delco Academy Employee
By Camelot Education
In Camelot Blog
Bianca Green – From Excel Academy Student to Delco Academy Employee2020-01-092020-01-09https://cameloteducation.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_90.pngCamelot Educationhttps://cameloteducation.org/wp-content/uploads/blog-featured-image-101.jpg200px200px
Delco Academy classroom counselor, Bianca Green, has been where many Delco Academy students are today: she was struggling with life as a teenager, and that affected her education.
“I lost my father in my junior year of high school,” she said. “That was a difficult time for me, and it began to affect my dedication to school and other things in my life. My attendance and grades suffered immensely. I stopped completing homework and was not engaged in classwork. Eventually, my teachers advised me that, because of all of this, I was not on track to graduate.”
Bianca found herself completely out of school. Getting a GED was not an option for her, as her parents always insisted that she complete high school and continue her education beyond that point.
“I started researching alternative high school options and came across Camelot Education’s Excel Academy South in Philadelphia,” she said. “I met with the academic counselor at the school and told them about my journey, my current academic status, and my desire to graduate on time. I wanted to meet my personal goals, and that meant graduating from high school. With the support of Excel Academy, I immersed myself in the program and fulfilled my goal of obtaining a high school diploma.”
Bianca graduated in 2011, started a family, and then went on to work as a classroom aide for a charter school in Philadelphia. One of her goals had always been to help others the way she was helped at Excel Academy, and she continues to do this through her work in education.
Recently, a position opened up at Camelot Education’s Delco Academy, part of the Southeast Delco School District, and Bianca applied to be a teacher’s aide. She began working at the school last year, in September.
“When Bianca Green’s resume came across our desks at Delco Academy, she was brought in to interview along with several other applicants,” said the school’s clinical director, Simone Golden. “Her bubbly personality and experience in the classroom setting with diverse learners made her a stand-out candidate.”
In her position at Delco Academy, Bianca works with high school students, supporting the teacher in the classroom with academic instruction by running small groups that the teacher organizes, reinforcing lesson material, and discreetly addressing behavioral issues in the classroom so that the teacher does not have to stop a lesson. She may speak with a student discretely in class to refocus their efforts on learning, or she might invite the student into the hallway to talk through their emotions before rejoining class.
Delco Academy serves students in grades K-12, referred by the school district in Delaware County, PA, who experience emotional, behavioral, and academic challenges. Camelot’s approach to education centers on whole-child support for students, with an understanding that before learning can happen, the fundamental needs of each student must be met. The school also focuses on immersive social-emotional learning (SEL) which allows students to develop skills and strategies to help them thrive in social and emotional situations outside of school.
“At my high school in Philadelphia, Excel Academy, all of the students came from different backgrounds,” Bianca said. “We each had our own story as to why we did not take the traditional route in school and why we needed the support of a program like Camelot. However, we all had a common purpose, and that was to gain our high school diploma. Along the way, we formed relationships with staff members that really cared about our well-being, not just as students, but as people. I knew if, given the opportunity, I would be able to be the person to our students that the staff members at Camelot were for me. I’d be able to give a lot of them something that they may not have in their home lives and show them, through my own experience, that hurdles don’t have to determine your future. I am a Camelot success story.”
Delco Academy Principal, Cathy Menow, calls Bianca a wonderful addition to the high school staff.
“Her energy and ‘can do’ attitude have significantly impacted our students in a positive way,” Menow said. “As a former Camelot student, she has a unique perspective. She holds the students she works with to high expectations while continually helping them to meet their daily goals. In our Criminal Justice class, she worked with a student who did not have a partner on a PowerPoint presentation. When the presentation was completed, she joined the student during the presentation and they did it as a team. That’s just an example of how she truly wants the best for our students.”
Bianca, who has been working toward her associate’s degree, calls the culture and learning environment at Delco Academy ‘awesome.’
“The staff helps students in all ways they can – tangibly, mentally and emotionally,” she says. “My being a student before, and now an employee shows the children you can reach your goals. I take pride in reminding the students I’ve been in their shoes. My story may not be the same as theirs, but our story can end the same way. I graduated high school, I have completed several courses in college, I am a mother, I’ve built my work experience, and I am now doing what I always dreamed of and love – working with children that many people have given up on. It’s important to me to remind our students that they have value and to follow whatever dream they have. Anything is truly possible.”
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These Amazing Shadows
The Movies That Make America
An Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS tells the history and importance of the Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American...
An Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, THESE AMAZING SHADOWS tells the history and importance of the Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself.
What do the films Casablanca, Blazing Saddles and West Side Story have in common? Besides being popular, they have also been deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and listed on The National Film Registry.
The current list of 550 films includes selections from every genre - documentaries, home movies, Hollywood classics, avant-garde, newsreels and silent films. This 88-minute documentary reveals how "American movies tell us so much about ourselves... not just what we did, but what we thought, what we felt, what we aspired to, and the lies we told ourselves."
"Inspiring... elegantly assembled." - David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
"Film-montages to end all film-montages." - John Lopez, Vanity Fair
Kurt Norton, Paul Mariano
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Reich’s iterated function systems and well-posedness via fixed point theory Academic research paper on "Mathematics"
Fixed Point Theory Appl
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Academic research paper on topic "Reich’s iterated function systems and well-posedness via fixed point theory"
Xu et al. Fixed Point Theory and Applications (2015) 2015:71 DOI 10.1186/s13663-015-0320-7
0 Fixed Point Theory and Applications
Reich's iterated function systems and well-posedness via fixed point theory
Shaoyuan Xu1*, Suyu Cheng2 and Zuoling Zhou3
Correspondence: xushaoyuan@126.com 1 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, 521041, China Fulllist of author information is available at the end of the article
In this paper, we prove the existence of the attractors for Reich's iterated function systems by virtue of a Banach-like fixed point theorem. As a result, under the condition that the Reich contractions discussed are continuous, we give an affirmative answer to an open question posed by Singh etal. in 2009. In addition, we formulate a collage theorem for Reich's iterated function systems.
MSC: 47H10; 54HA25
Keywords: Reich's iterated function systems; attractor; Reich contractions; complete metric spaces; fixed point theory
Fixed point theory (see, for instance, [1-12]) plays an important role in iterated function systems as well as fractals (see [11-25]). As is well known, the simplest fractals are the self-similar sets, which are deemed to be the 'fixed points' of the Hutchinson-Barnsley operators in the setting of hyperspaces of compact sets of the original spaces endowed with the Pompeiu-Hausdorff metric. In order to describe such Hutchinson-Barnsley operators, one need utilize iterated function systems (see, for example, [11-15]). The concept of iterated function systems was introduced by Hutchinson in 1981 (see [13]) and popularized by Barnsley in 1998 (see [14]) as a natural generalization of the well-known Banach contraction principle. They represent one way of defining fractals as attractors of certain discrete dynamical systems. Moreover, they can be effectively applied to quantum physics, wavelets analysis, computer graphics and other applied sciences (see, for example, [2632]). Therefore, it is no wonder that they have been attracting widespread attention of mathematicians and others for recent years (see, for example, [33-36]).
Since 1981, an increasing number of fractals has been yielded by iterated function systems (IFSs). For years, IFSs have become powerful tools for construction and analysis of new typical fractal sets. In order to construct a fractal, one usually draws support from known fixed point results obtained in the setting of appropriate spaces (see, for instance, [11-25]). In [23], Kashyap etal. obtained a new fractal from the Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem, generating the classical fractal set, which was introduced by Mandelbrot in 1982. Moreover, some open problems on IFS have been posed for the sake of theory and applications. In 2009, Singh et al. [24] posed an open question on IFS: In the IFS introduced by Hutchinson, can one replace the Banach contractions by the Reich contractions? In 2010,
© 2015 Xu et al.; licensee Springer. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Interna-tionalLicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,distribution,and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the originalauthor(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Sahu and Chakraborty [25] introduced//-iterated function system and obtained some interesting results related to the above-mentioned open question. In this paper, following Hutchinson and Sahu and Chakraborty, we present some new iterated function systems by using the so-called generalized contractive mappings (namely, the Hardy-Rogers type operators; see, for instance, [10,11]), which will cover a much larger range of mappings. We obtain the attractors for a number of new iterated function systems by virtue of a Banach-like fixed point theorem concerning such generalized contractive mappings. It should be mentioned that among these new iterated function systems is Reich's iterated function system. As a result, under the condition that the Reich contractions discussed are continuous, we give an affirmative answer to the above-mentioned open question posed by Singh etal. In addition, we show that the attractor, either for Hutchinson's iterated function system or for the / -iterated function system, turns out to be the same as for Reich's iterated function system which can be deduced by means of such a Banach-like fixed point theorem concerning such generalized contractive mappings. At last, we formulate a collage theorem for Reich's iterated function systems.
2 Iterated function systems and an open question
In this section we first recall some well known aspects of iterated function system used in the sequel (more complete and rigorous treatments may be found in [13-15]). Then we present an interesting open question regarding an iterated function system associated with the Reich contractions, which was posed by Singh et al. in 2009.
Definition 2.1 ([1, 4]) Let X denote a metric space with distance function d and T be a mapping from X into itself. Then T is called a (Banach) contraction if there is a constant 0 < s <1 such that, for all x, y e X,
d(Tx, Ty) < sd(x,y).
Definition 2.2 ([5, 6,10,11, 24]) Let X denote a metric space with distance function d and T be a mapping from X into itself. If there exists a constant a with 0 < a <2 such that, for all x, y e X,
d(T(x), T(y)) < a[d(x, T(x)) + d(y, T(y))],
then T is called a Kannan contraction.
Definition 2.3 ([6-8,11, 24]) Let X denote a metric space with distance function d. Suppose that the mapping T: X ^ X satisfies
d(Tx, Ty) < Ld(x,y) + M[d(x, Tx) + d(y, Ty)] (2.1)
for all x, y e X, where L, M are constants with L, M > 0, 0 < L + 2M < 1. Then T is called a Reich contraction.
Note that if M =0, then the Reich contraction is reduced to a Banach contraction; if L = 0, then the Reich contraction is a Kannan contraction. The following is the classical Banach contraction principle.
Theorem 2.1 ([1, 4]) Let T: X ^ X be a contraction on a complete metric space (X,d). Then T possesses exactly onefixed point x* e X. Moreover,for any point x e X, the sequence {T°n(x): n = 0,1,2,...} converges to x* e X. That is limn^TO T°n(x) = x*, for each x e X, where T°n denotes the n-fold composition ofT.
In the famous paper [13], Hutchinson proved that, given a set of contractions in a complete metric space X, there exists a unique nonempty compact set A c X, named the at-tractor or fractal for the iterated function systems.
IFS generally employs contractive maps over a complete metric space (X, d), where Ba-nach's celebrated result mentioned above guarantees the existence and uniqueness of the fixed point known as 'attractor' or 'fractal'. This can be done since a Hutchinson-Barnsley operator is also a contraction over H(X), where H(X) denotes the space whose points are the compact subsets of X.
We now give some basic definitions and theorems concerning an iterated function system, which are used in the proofs below.
Let (X, d) be a complete metric space and H(X) denote the space whose points are the nonempty compact subsets of X. Let x, y e X and let A, B e H(X). Then the Pompeiu-Hausdorff distance from the set A to the set B is defined as
h(A,B)=d(A,B) v d(B, A),
where the notation u v v means the maximum of the pair of real numbers u and v, and d(A, B) is defined as
d(A, B) = max{ d(x, B):x e A},
where d(x,B) = min{d(x,y): y e B}.
Note that the function h is the metric defined on the space H(X).
In IFS, the contractive maps act on the members of a Hausdorff space, i.e., the compact subsets of X. Thus, an iterated function system is defined as follows:
Hutchinson's iterated function system consists of a complete metric space (X, d) together with a finite set of continuous contractions Tn : X ^ X with respect to contractivity factor sn, n = 1,2,3,...,N.
Similarly, a K-iterated function system consists of a complete metric space (X, d) together with a finite set of continuous Kannan contractions Tn : X ^ X with K-contractivity factor an, n = 1,2,3, ...,N.
We now present the existence of the attractor for Hutchinson's IFS, i.e., the following theorem, which was given by Hutchinson or Barnsley (see [13,14]).
Theorem 2.2 ([13,14]) Let {X: Tn, n = 1,2,3, ...,N} be an iterated function system with contractivity factor s. Then the transformation W : H(X) ^ H(X) defined by W(B) = UN=i Tn (B) for all B e H(X) is a contraction on the complete metric space (H(X), h(d)) with contractivity factor s. That is,
h(W(B), W(C}) < sh(B, C).
Its unique fixed point, which is also called an attractor, A e H (X) obeys
A = W(A) = U Tn(A)
and is given by A = limn^œ W°n(B) for any B e H(X), where W°n denotes the n-fold composition of W.
In 2009, Singh et al. [24] posed an open question regarding IFS associated with the Reich contractions as follows.
Question 2.1 ([24]) Can one replace the Banach contractions in Theorem 2.2 (above) by the Reich contractions?
This precisely means whether the following is valid.
Theorem A ([24]) Let (X, d) be a complete metric space andf : X ^ X be Reich contractions, i.e.,
dfi(x),f (y)) < Lid(x,y) + Mi[d(x,fi(x)) + d(y,fi(y))] (R)
for all x, y e X, where Li, Mi are constants with Li, Mi > 0, Li + 2Mi < l, i = l,2,...,n. Then there exists a unique nonempty compact subset A ofX that satisfies A = (J ni=lfi (A).
We remark that, in the condition (R) above, if Mi = 0, then it reduces to the well-known Banach contraction condition and Theorem A reduces to above Theorem 2.2 (i.e., the existence theorem for attractor of Hutchinson's IFS). Further, if Li = 0 and 0 < Mi < l/2, then the condition (R) is the well-known Kannan contraction. Singh et al. in [24] wrote that Theorem A is correct for Li = 0 and 0 < Mi < l/3. They indicated that a proof for the general case, viz., Li = 0 and 0 < Mi < l/2, is awaited. In 20l0, Sahu and Chakraborty [25] gave a proof for such a general case as follows.
Theorem 2.3 ([25]) Let {X : Tn,n = l,2,3,...,N} be a K-iteratedfunction system with K-contractivity factor a. Then the transformation W : H(X) ^ H(X) defined by W(B) = UN=i Tn(B) for all B e H(X) is a continuous Kannan contraction on the complete metric space (H(X), h(d)) with contractivity factor s. That is,
h(W(B), W(C)) < a[h(B, T(B)) + h(C, T(C))].
A = W (A) = y Tn(A)
In the subsequent section, we will prove that Theorem A above holds under the condition that the Reich contractions discussed are continuous, giving an affirmative answer to Question 2.1 with such an assumption.
3 New iterated function systems and an affirmative answer to the open question
In this section, we attempt to explore the possibility of improvement in IFS by replacing the Banach contraction condition or the Kannan contraction condition by a more general condition which is called, for convenience, the generalized contraction condition. One can easily see that such a condition generalizes not only the Banach contraction condition, but also the Kannan contraction condition. As a consequence, we can replace the Banach contractions in Theorem 2.2 (above) by the Reich contractions, thus give an affirmative answer to the above-mentioned open question (i.e., Question 2.1).
Now, we extend the Banach contraction and the Kannan contraction to the so-called generalized contractive mapping as follows.
Definition 3.1 ([10,11]) Let (X, d) be a metric space. The mapping T: X ^ X is called a generalized contractive mapping if it satisfies the following generalized contraction condition:
d(Tx, Ty) < a1d(x,y) + a2d(Tx,x) + a3d(Ty,y) + a4d(x, Ty) + a5d(y, Tx) (3.1)
for all x, y e X, where ai > 0 (i = 1,2,3,4,5) satisfy
a1 + a2 + a3 + a4 + a5 < 1.
By virtue of symmetry in (3.1), we may only consider the case that a2 = a3 and a4 = a5. Thus, in the sequel, without loss of generality, we will assume that T: X ^ X is a generalized contractive mapping satisfying
d(Tx, Ty) < ad(x,y) + c(d(Tx,x) + d(Ty,y)) + e(d(x, Ty) + d(y, Tx)) (3.2)
for all x, y e X, where a, c, e > 0 satisfy
a + 2c + 2e <1.
Remark 3.1 It is easily seen that any of the Banach contractions, the Kannan contractions and the Reich contractions is a special case of the generalized contractive mapping.
Now let us first present the fixed point theorem for the generalized contractive mappings.
Remark 3.2 It should be noticed that the so-called generalized contraction mentioned in Definition 3.1 above is also called Hardy-Rogers type operator. Petrusel recently pointed out in his interesting paper that any Hardy-Rogers type operator is a Ciric type operator, but the reverse implications do not hold (see [11] for details).
Proposition 3.1 ([10,11]) Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that the mapping T: X ^ X is a generalized contractive mapping satisfying (3.2). Then T has a unique fixed pointp inX.Moreover,for anyx0 e X, thePicard iterate {xn}, wherexn = Txn-1 (n = 1,2,...), converges to the fixed point p and satisfies d(xn, p) < 1-;d(Tx 0, x0), where b = a+c+e.
For the sake of completeness, we now give a sketch of the proof by three steps. Step 1. We first show the existence of the fixed point. Suppose that x0 is an arbitrary point in X. Set
xn+1 — Txn, n — 0,1,2,....
We can easily show that {xn} is a Cauchy sequence. In fact, by (3.2), we can get
d(xn+1,xn) < bd(xn,xn-1) < b2d(xn-1,xn-2) <• • •< bnd(Tx0,x0),
where b = .
Hence, for any n > 0, m > 1, we have
d(xn+m, xn) < d(xn+m, xn+m- 1) + d(xn+m-1, xn+m-2) + ••• + d(xn+1, xn)
< (bn+m-1 + bn+m-2 + ••• + bn)d(Tx0,x0)
< -—Td(Tx0,x0). 1 - b
Therefore {xn} is a Cauchy sequence in (X, d). So there existsp e X such that xn ^ p as n ^ro. From (3.2), we have
d(xn, Tp) = d(Txn-1, Tp)
< ad(xn-1,p) + cd(d(xn,xn-1) + d(Tp,p)) + e(d(xn-1, Tp) + d(xn,p)).
Taking n we get
d(Tp,p) < (c + e)d(p, Tp).
Then, we get (1 - c - e)d(q, Tp) < 0, which implies that d(p, Tp) = 0 since 1 - c - e > 0. So we have p = Tp.
Step 2. We then show the uniqueness of the fixed point. Assume that there exists another point q e X such that Tq = q, then by (3.2) we see
d(p, q) = d(Tp, Tq)
< ad(p, q) + c(d(Tp,p) + d(Tq, q)) + e(d(p, Tq) + d(Tp, q)) = ad(p, q) + 2ed(p, q)
which gives (1 - a - 2e)d(p, q) < 0, thus d(p, q) = 0, So, p = q.
Step 3. We finally show the formula for the error estimate of a successive sequence. From a chain of inequalities presented before we see
d(xm+n,Xn) < -—-d(Tx0,x0). (3.3)
Letting m ^^ in (3.3), we get
d(xn,p) < -—rd(Txo,xo), (3.4)
which completes the sketch of the proof of Proposition 3.1.
By means of Proposition 3.1, we easily get the following corollary, which is a Banach-like fixed point theorem.
Corollary 3.1 Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that the mapping T: X ^ X is a Reich contraction, i.e., there exist constants L, M with L,M > 0, L + 2M < 1 such that
d(Tx, Ty) < Ld(x,y) + M[d(x, Tx) + d(y, Ty)]
for all x, y e X. Then T has a unique fixed point p in X. Moreover, for any x0 e X, the Picard iterate {xn}, where xn = Txn—1 (n = 1,2,...), converges to thefixed point p and satisfies d(xn,p) < 1-bd(Txo,xo), where b = ^.
By the argument in the proof of Proposition 3.1, we easily obtain the following result.
Proposition 3.2 Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that the mapping T: X ^ X is a generalized contractive mapping satisfying (3.2). Let x* e X be the fixed point of T. Then we have
1 — c — e
d(x0,x*) <-d(x0, Tx0), Vx0 e X. (3.5)
v ' 1 — a — 2c — 2e
Proof Setting n = 0 in (3.4) of Step 3 above, we obtain (3.5) immediately. □
Remark 3.3 We note that Proposition 3.1 can be seen from [10] and [11], but the proof of Proposition 3.1 is somewhat different from that of [10], Theorem 1. In fact, as is indicated in [11], the idea of the proof of [10], Theorem 1 is to prove that f is a contraction on the graphic of the operator, i.e., there exists a positive constant j <1 such that
d(Tx, T2x) < jd(x, Tx) for all x e X.
However, ours need not do so since we directly prove the Picard iterated sequence is Cauchy and converges to the unique fixed point, which is a valuable addition to [10].
Remark 3.4 Proposition 3.1 generalizes the famous Banach contraction principle.
In order to present the new iterated function systems, we need the following lemmas.
Lemma 3.1 Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that the mapping T: X ^ Xis a continuous Reich contraction satisfying
for all x, y e X, where L, M > 0, L + 2M <1. Then T : H(X) ^ H(X) defined by T(B) = {T(x): x e B} is also a Reich contraction satisfying
h(T(B), T(C)) < Lh(B, C) + M[h(B, T(B)) + h(C, T(C))] (3.6)
for each B, C e H(X).
Proof Let us first prove that T maps H(X) into itself. In fact, if S e H(X), then S is nonempty and compact in X. It is obvious that T(S) is nonempty. Now we prove that T(S) is compact in X. Let {yn} c T(S) be any sequence. Then there is a sequence {xn} c S such that yn = Txn (n = 1,2,...). Since S is compact, there is a subsequence {xnk} c {xn} such that x„k ^ x e S. By the continuity of T we see y„k = Txnk ^ Tx e T(S), so T(S) is compact in X. It is easily shown by the definition of Reich contraction that T satisfies
d(T(B), T(C)) < Ld(B, C) + M[d(B, T(B)) + d(C, T(C))], VB, C e H(X)
d(T(C), T(B)) < Ld(C,B) + M[d(C, T(C)) + d(B, T(B))], VB, C e H(X). So, for all B, C e H(X), we have
h(T(B), T(C)) = d(T(B), T(C)) v d(T(C), T(B))
< {Ld(B, C) + M[d(B, T(B)) + d(C, T(C))]}
v {Ld(C,B) + M[d(C, T(C)) + d(B, T(B))]}
< L[d(B, C) v d(C,B)] + M[d(B, T(B)) + d(C, T(C))]
< Lh(B, C) + M[h(B, T(B)) + h(C, T(C))],
which completes the proof of Lemma 3.1. □
Lemma 3.2 Let (X,d) be a complete metric space. Let Tn : n = 1,2,...,N be mappings which map (H(X), h) into (H(X), h). Suppose that the mappings Tn satisfy
h(Tn(B), Tn(C)) < Lnh(B, C)+M[h(B, Tn(B)) + h(C, Tn(C))]
for all B, C e H(X), where Ln,Mn > 0, Ln + 2Mn < 1. Define T : H(X) ^ H(X) by T(B) = T1(B) U T2(B) U ••• U Tn(B) = UN=1 Tn(B)for each B e H(X). Then T also satisfies
h(T(B), T(C)) < Lh(B, C) + M[h(B, T(B)) + h(C, T(C))]
for all B, C e H (X), where L = max{Ln : n = 1,2,...,N}, M = max{Mn : n = 1,2,...,N}.
Proof We shall prove the lemma by using the mathematical induction method. For N = 1, the statement is obviously true. Now, for N = 2, we see that
h(T (b), t (C)) = h(Ti(B) u r2(B), ïi(C) u r2(C))
< h(Ti(B), Ti(C)) v h(T2(B), T2(C))
< {Lih(B, C)+Mi[h(B, Ti(B)) + h(C, Ti(C))]}
v {¿2h(B, C)+M2[h(B, T2(B)) + h(C, T2(C))]}
< max{Li,L2}h(B, C) + max{Mi,M2}[h(B, Ti(B)) v h(B, T2(B)) + h(C, Ti(C)) v h(C, T2(C))]
= Lh(B, C) + M[h(B, Ti(B) U T2(B)) + h(C, Ti(C) U T2(C))],
where L = max{L1,L2}, M = max{M1,M2}. Therefore, we see h(T(B), T(C)) < Lh(B, C) + M[h(B, T(B)) + h(C, T(C))].
Thus, from all the above results, we are in a position to present the following theorem for the new iterated function system {T„}^=1 consisting of the continuous Reich contractions defined as
for all x,y e X, where Ln, Mn are constants with Ln,Mn > 0, Ln + 2Mn < 1. Such an iterated function system is called Reich's iterated function system.
Theorem 3.1 Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that the mappings Tn : X ^ X are continuous and satisfy the Reich contractive condition as (3.7). Then the transformation T : H(X) ^ H(X) defined by T(B) = UN=1 Tn(B) for all B e H(X) also satisfies the Reich contractive condition (3.6). Its unique fixed point in (H(X), h(d)), which is also called an attractor, A e H(X) obeys A = T (A) = UN=1 Tn (A) and is given by A = limn^TO Ton(B) for any B e H(X).
Similar to Theorem 3.1, the following Theorem 3.2 can be deduced by the same method, so we omit its proof.
Theorem 3.2 Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. Suppose that the mappings Tn : X ^ X are continuous and satisfy the following condition:
d(Tnx, Tny) < Ln(d(x,y) + d(x, Tnx) + d(y, Tny)) (3.8)
forallx,y e X, whereLn are constants with 0 < Ln <3. Then the transformation T: H(X) ^ H(X) defined by T(B) = UN=1 Tn (B) for all B e H(X) also satisfies the condition
By induction we see Lemma 3.2 is proved.
d(Tnx, Tny) < Lnd(x,y) + M«[d(x, Tnx) + d(y, Tny)]
k(T (B), T (C)) < L{h(fi, C) + h{B, T (B)) + h{C, T (C))),
where B, C e H (X), L = max{Ln : n = 1,2, ...,N}. Its unique fixed point in (H(X), h(d)), which is also called an attractor, A e H(X) obeys A = T(A) = IJ^ Tn(A) and is given by A = limn^cx, T°n(B) for any B e H(X).
Based on the above arguments from Lemma 3.1, Lemma 3.2 and Proposition 3.2, we are now in a position to formulate a collage theorem for Reich's iterated function system.
Theorem 3.3 Let (X, d) be a complete metric space. LetL e H(X) be given and e be given. Choose Reich's iterated function system {Tn}N=1 consisting the Reich contractions as (3.7). If
h^L, ljTn(L)j < e,
then h(L, A) < 1L2M, where A is the attractor of Reich's IFS. Equivalently, the equality
h(L,A) < ^M^, UTn(L))
holds for all L e H (X).
Remark 3.5 In Theorem 3.1, we obtain the attractors for Reich's iterated function systems, which generalizes the main results concerning both the famous Hutchinson iterated function systems and the K-iterated function systems in [13] and [25], respectively.
Remark 3.6 Theorem 3.1 gives an affirmative answer to the above-mentioned open question (i.e., Question 2.1) under the condition that the Reich contractions discussed are continuous. Theorem 3.1 and Theorem 3.2 are a valuable addition to the main results of literature [13,14, 24, 25].
Remark 3.7 Theorem 3.1 shows that the Hutchinson-Barnsley operator for Reich's iterated function system is a Picard operator and its unique 'fixed point' is a single-valued fractal. Such is called single-valued fractal for single-valued Reich contractions. As for multi-valued fractals for self multi-valued operators and nonself multi-valued operators, we refer to [9,12], respectively.
Remark 3.8 It should be noticed that Theorem 3.1 is a generalization of [22], Theorem 1 and Theorem 3.3 is a generalization of both [22], Theorem 2 and [37], Theorem 1. Hence, our main results in this paper may have potential applications to the complex polynomial hyperbolic NIFS (nonlinear iterated function system) mentioned in [22] and image compression referred to in [37].
The authors have contributed equally and significantly in writing this paper. Allthree authors read and approved the final manuscript.
1 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, 521041, China. 2Library, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, 521041, China. 3School of Lingnan, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
The authors are grateful to Professor MS EL Naschie for valuable comments on the original manuscript. Special thanks are due to the referees and the editor, who have made a number of valuable comments and useful suggestions, improving the original manuscript greatly. This research is supported in part by the foundation of the research item of Strong Department of Engineering Innovation of Hanshan Normal University, China (2013) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11371379).
Received: 5 February 2015 Accepted: 4 May 2015 Published online: 16 May 2015 References
1. Agarwal, RP, Meehan, M, O'Regan, D: Fixed Point Theory and Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2001)
2. Granas, A, Dugundji, J: Fixed Point Theory. Springer, New York (2003)
3. Rus, IA, Petrusel, A, Petrusel, G: Fixed Point Theory. Cluj University Press, Cluj (2008)
4. Banach, S: Sur les opérations dans les ensembles abstraits et leur application aux équations intégrales. Fundam. Math. 3,133-181 (1922)
5. Kannan, R: Some results on fixed points. II. Am. Math. Mon. 76,405-408 (1969)
6. Reich, S: Kannan's fixed point theorem. Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. 4,1-11 (1971)
7. Reich, S: Some remarks concerning contraction mappings. Can. Math. Bull. 14,121-124 (1971)
8. Reich, S: Fixed points of contractive mappings. Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. 5,17-31 (1972)
9. Reich, S: Fixed points of contractive functions. Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. 5, 26-42 (1972)
10. Hardy, GE, Rogers, TG: Generalization of a fixed point theorem of Reich. Can. Math. Bull. 16,201-206(1973)
11. Petrusel, A: Ciric type fixed point theorems. Stud. Univ. Babe§-Bolyai, Math. 59(2), 233-245 (2014)
12. Petrusel, A, Rus, IA, Serban, MA: Fixed points, fixed sets and iterated multifunction systems for nonself multivalued operators. Set-Valued Var. Anal. (2014). doi:10.1007/s11228-014-0291-6
13. Hutchinson, JE: Fractals and self similarity. Indiana Univ. Math. J. 30, 713-747 (1981)
14. Barnsley, MF: Fractals Everywhere. Academic Press, New York (1998)
15. Falconer, KJ: Fractal Geometry: Mathematical Foundations and Applications. Wiley, New York (1990)
16. Wicks, KR: Fractals and Hyperspaces. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 1492. Springer, Berlin (1991)
17. Petrusel, A: Fixed point theory with applications to dynamical systems and fractals. In: International Conference on Nonlinear Operators, Differential Equations and Applications. Semin Fixed Point Theory Cluj-Napoca, vol. 3,
pp. 305-315 (2002)
18. Boriceanu, M, Bota, M, Petrusel, A: Multivalued fractals in b-metric spaces. Cent. Eur. J. Math. 8(2), 376-377 (2010)
19. Chifu, C, Petrusel, G: Well-posedness and fractals via fixed point theory. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2008, Article ID 645419(2008)
20. Fiser, J: Iterated Function and Multifunction Systems; Attractors and Their Basins of Attraction. PhD thesis, Palacksy University, Olomouc, Czech (2002)
21. Mihail, A, Miculescu, R: Applications of fixed point theorems in the theory of generalized IFS. Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2008, Article ID 312876 (2008)
22. Wang, XY, Li, FP: A class of nonlinear iterated function system attractors. Nonlinear Anal. 70, 830-838 (2009)
23. Kashyap, SK, Sharma, BK, Banerjee, A: On Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem and fractal. Chaos Solitons Fractals 61, 44-45 (2014)
24. Singh, SL, Prasad, B, Kumar, A: Fractals via iterated functions and multifunctions. Chaos Solitons Fractals 39, 1224-1231 (2009)
25. Sahu, DR, Chakraborty, A: ^-Iterated function system. Fractals 18(1), 139-144 (2010)
26. Block, L, Keesling, J: Iterated function systems and the code space. Topol. Appl. 122,65-75 (2002)
27. El Naschie, MS: Iterated function systems and the two-slit experiment of quantum mechanics. Chaos Solitons Fractals 4(10), 1965-1968(1994)
28. El Naschie, MS: Iterated function systems, information and the two-slit experiment of quantum mechanics. In: El Naschie, MS, Rossler, OE, Prigogine, I (eds.) Quantum Mechanics, Diffusion and Chaotic Fractals, pp. 185-189. Elsevier, Oxford (1995)
29. Slomczynski, W: Institute from quantum entropy to iterated function systems. Chaos Solitons Fractals 8(11), 1861-1864(1997)
30. Daya Sagar, BS, Rangarajan, G, Veneziano, D: Preface. Fractals in geophysics. Chaos Solitons Fractals 19, 237-239 (2004)
31. Bohnstengel, J, Kessebohmer, M: Wavelets for iterated function systems. J. Funct. Anal. 259, 583-601 (2010)
32. Freiberg, U, Torre, DL, Mendivil, F: Iterated function systems and stability of variational problems on self-similar objects. Nonlinear Anal., Real World Appl. 12,1123-1129 (2011)
33. Barnsleya, M, Vince, A: The eigenvalue problem for linear and affine iterated function systems. Linear Algebra Appl. 435,3124-3138(2011)
34. Secelean, NA: Generalized iterated function systems on the space (X). J. Math. Anal. Appl. 410, 847-858 (2014)
35. Dumitru, D, Ioana, L, Sfetcu, RC, Strobin, F: Topological version of generalized (infinite) iterated function systems. Chaos Solitons Fractals 71, 78-90 (2015)
36. Yao, YY: Generating iterated function systems of some planar self-similar sets. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 421,938-949 (2015)
37. Drakopoulos, V, Bouboulis, P, Theodoridis, S: Image compression using affine fractal interpolation on rectangular lattices. Fractals 14(4), 259-269 (2006)
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Liverpool Travel Kit
Useful Information to Help You Start Your Trip to Liverpool
Our Liverpool Travel Kit lays out the essential information you need to help planning your trip to one of the most popular destinations in the UK. No matter how frequently you travel, some questions will always need answers: What’s the weather like? How can I get from the airport to my hotel? What currency and type of plug do I need? We have all these answers plus other basic info about the best time to go, getting there, getting around, and a few useful travel tips.
It’s all compiled in this Liverpool Travel Kit. After reading this short and easy-to-read guide, you will be a little more prepared to start your trip in Liverpool.
Best time to travel to Liverpool (weather-wise)
Liverpool has a temperate maritime climate, with cool winters and moderately mild summers.
Average temperatures range from 3ºC in winter to 19ºC in summer.
Most rainfall occurs from October to April, yet you can expect a few rainy days even in summer.
The warmest time of the year is from May to September. As for weather, it’s the best time to visit Liverpool.
Mid-summer, July and August, is peak tourist season. Expect hotel and flight prices to rise accordingly.
Liverpool basics
Plug Type: G
Electricity: 220-240 V
Currency: Pound sterling (£)
International Dialling code: +44 151
Emergency telephone number: 999
Getting into the city
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Originally known as Speke Airport, Liverpool John Lennon Airport was renamed in 2001 in honour of one of the city’s most famous citizens. The airport sits on the north bank of the River Mersey, 7 miles east of the city centre. It hosts a good range of facilities including eateries, shops and banking services. There are several transfer options to reach central Liverpool:
A taxi to the city centre takes around 30 minutes and costs roughly £11-15. The taxi rank can be found just outside the terminal building.
The bus takes around 45 minutes and costs roughly £2-3. You can purchase your ticket online or directly in the bus. The bus stop is right in front of the terminal.
Car rental agencies can be found in the arrivals hall.
Liverpool Lime Street Railway Station
Liverpool Lime Street is the main railway station in Liverpool. One of the oldest train stations still in use in the UK, it was open in 1836 and sits right in Liverpool city centre. This historical train station hosts a good choice of facilities including coffee shops, ATM machines and various shops. From here, you can get to your hotel by bus, local train or taxi.
Getting around Liverpool
The most pleasant way to explore central Liverpool is on foot. The city centre is rather compact and it hosts landmarks and attractions such as the Cavern Pub, the Albert Dock and the Merseyside Maritime Museum which can be found within 1 km of the Town Hall.
For longer journeys, the city’s transport services are efficient and affordable. Run by Merseytravel, a connected bus, urban train and ferry network can take you almost anywhere in Liverpool.
The ticketing system looks rather complicated at first sight as a wide range of tickets and passes are available: urban train only, bus only or a combination of bus, train and ferry.
Liverpool is also divided into 10 areas of travel. The city centre belongs to the area C.
The urban train network is underground in the city centre.
The price of a single ticket on bus or urban train starts from £2.30
A 1-day bus ticket in the Merseyside area (it covers 7 out of 10 areas) costs £4.80
A 1-day Saveaway ticket on all public transport in the entire city including suburbs costs £5.30
Taking a taxi
Many taxi and black cab companies operate in Liverpool. The most popular of them include LCR Taxis, Alpha Taxis, and Delta Taxis.
Over 20 black-cab ranks can be found near the train stations, city landmarks and shopping areas throughout the city centre.
Taxis can be hailed on the street unless a taxi rank is at hand nearby.
Taxis’ initial rates for the first 330 yards is £2.60. Each subsequent 232 yards costs £0.20. Prices are higher at night, on weekends and on special days such as Christmas.
Payment of the fare by credit card is usually possible but it’s best to ask the driver before you start your journey.
Popular mobile phone apps such as Uber, MyTaxi and GetTaxi, just to name a few, can be used to hail a taxi in Liverpool.
Billede taget af TerriersFan (CC BY-SA 3.0) Redigeret
Cycling with CityBike
Liverpool features a bike sharing scheme named CityBike. It’s a great way to explore the city on clear days. All you need to do is to register online and instantly receive login and PIN by email and SMS. A 1-day membership costs £1. The first 5 minutes of use are free, then the price is £1 per hour. Over 50 docking stations can be found throughout the city centre.
Billede taget af Rept0n1x (CC BY-SA 2.0) Redigeret
Annual events in Liverpool
The Grand National
What: The UK’s most anticipated horse racing event. The weekend event culminates in a steeplechase that is watched on television across the country.
When: April
Where: Aintree
International Beatleweek
What: A celebration of Liverpool’s most famous sons and rock’n’roll legends, The Beatles. Hundreds of bands play in venues throughout the city, with most of the action taking place in The Cavern Club.
When: August
Where: The Cavern Club and other city venues
10 Best Things to Do in Liverpool
Paul Smith, 24 Dec, 2019
5 Places to Learn Something New in Liverpool
6 Things to Do With Your Family in Liverpool
12 Best Food Markets in London
Blackpool Travel Kit
8 Cool Things to Do in London This Summer
Birmingham Travel Kit
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Published 16.09.2019 - Updated 16.09.2019
bavAIRia
bavAIRia e.V. was founded in 2006 as an association under German law and is officially supported by the Bavarian State Government. bavAIRia e.V. is responsible for the management of the Cluster Aerospace being engaged in the fields of Aeronautics, Space and Space Applications. The Bavarian Copernicus Office is hosted at bavAIRia and bavAIRia has been contracted by the European Space Agency - ESA hosting the IAP Ambassador Platform in Germany. bavAIRia’s objective is to foster cooperation between industry, SMEs, universities, research institutes and politics. In addition, bavAIRia e.V. supports especially innovative small and medium-sized companies by linking them with universities, research institutions, manufacturers of systems and subsystems and actual end users. Together with the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology, bavAIRia e.V. represents the regional activities in the areas of EGNSS and Copernicus at NEREUS, the Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies in Brussels.
GMV is a Spanish, privately owned company devoted to engineering, software development and turnkey systems integration for the aerospace and defense markets. GMV has been providing high quality solutions since its creation in 1984 and has a remarkable international experience in cooperation with the most relevant international institutions and organizations in our target markets. Throughout these years, GMV has been involved in consultancy, specification, design, implementation, deployment, maintenance and operations of different systems in the areas of satellite control centers, remote sensing and data processing, flight dynamics, mission analysis, mission planning and navigation systems and applications. Today, GMV is diversified and offers its solutions, services and products in very diverse sectors world-wide: Aeronautics, Banking and Finances, Space, Defense, Health, Cybersecurity, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Automotive, Telecommunications, and Information Technology for Public Administration and large corporations.
TeRN (Technologies for Earth Observation and Natural Risks) is a public/private consortium founded on the basis of a Framework Program Agreement between the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Basilicata Region Authority with the aim of creating the regional technological cluster on Earth Observation for Natural risk prevention and mitigation. TeRN include EO experts coming from enterprises, academic/research entities, and public sectors who have long term experience on development of products/services based on: ground, aerial and satellite-based earth observation technologies for the study, monitoring and mitigation of natural and environmental hazards usable also in other application fields such as security, monitoring and preservation of cultural heritage and monuments and natural resource manage The objective of the consortium is to promote research, technological development, innovation, technological transfer in the sector of Earth Observation. TeRN main activities are focused on the development and integration of different Earth Observation technologies and methodologies (sensor synergy) to monitor and mitigate natural hazards, with particular focus on climatic, hydrogeological and seismic risks. The added value products, advanced methodologies and integrated technologies developed by TeRN are applicable also in other fields such as security, monitoring and preservation of cultural heritage/monuments and natural resource management (water, agricultural, forest and environmental resources).
The University of Leicester (ULEIC) is a leading UK university committed to international excellence through the creation of world changing research. The Space Research Centre (SRC) is part of the University’s department of Physics and Astronomy, with labs housing various cutting-edge space design and testing instruments. The University of Leicester has an established international and regional reputation for Earth Observation (EO) research and has demonstrated a strong interest in the use of EO data in this sector. Expertise in the processing of optical and radar satellite imagery as well as LIDAR data has been underpinned by NERC funding. Examples include the development of techniques to monitor carbon stocks in forests and GHG emissions from soils, agricultural land management, fires and land cover change.
NEREUS (Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies) is an initiative of currently 26 regions and 36 Associate Members located in 12 EU-Member States. NEREUS offers a dynamic platform to all EU Regions aiming at making a better use of space technologies for the delivery of efficient public policies. It serves as an advocate for regional concerns, voicing the regional dimension of European space policies and programs at a political level. Striving to be a key source of information on space matters, the network’s core mission is to increase the awareness and understanding of space solutions for all public users. Since 2007, NEREUS has served as a direct channel to regional users of space technologies, such as local authorities, SMEs, universities and research institutes and citizens. By showcasing regional user stories, NEREUS strives to demonstrate the added value of space uses as enabling tools to solve territorial management issues, with a beneficial impact on citizen’s daily lives. NEREUS is actively involved in initiatives that expand across three main areas: (i) political dialogue; (ii) interregional collaborations; (iii) public outreach. To that end, NEREUS offers a dynamic framework to its stakeholders and partners to leverage on its multiplier potential for cross-border/cross-sectorial collaborations. Moreover, it facilitates the exchange of best practices and know-how across its vast network of public authorities, enabling the promotion of user-experiences and opportunities for the uptake of space technologies.
Institute of Marine Research
The Institute of Marine Research (IMR) has about 1000 employees and is Norway‘s largest centre in marine science, and the second largest marine research institute in Europe. Its main task is to provide science-based advice to the Norwegian government and authorities on aquaculture, on the oceanic and coastal ecosystems, on seafood quality, and on the marine environment. IMR‘s headquarters are in Bergen, but important activities are also carried out at the departments in Tromsø, at the research stations in Austevoll, Matre and Flødevigen, and the institute´s fleet of research vessels. The institute is also heavily engaged in development and activities in the Third World.
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Australian bishops react to ‘Yes’ vote to same-sex marriage
In Global Church
ROME_BUREAU_CHIEF
After Australians overwhelmingly supported same-sex marriage in a postal referendum, the head of Australia's bishops' conference called on the government to enact conscience protections to "ensure that Australians can continue to express their views on marriage, that faith-based schools can continue to teach the traditional understanding of marriage and that organizations can continue to operate in a manner that is consistent with those values.”
ROME – Responding to the results of Australia’s non-binding referendum by postal vote on same-sex marriage – with the “yes” earning 61 percent of the votes – the president of the country’s bishops’ conference said that a change in civil law doesn’t change the Catholic understanding of marriage.
“The Catholic Church, and many others who sought to retain the traditional definition of marriage as it has been understood for centuries, continues to view marriage as a special union between a woman and a man, which allows for the creation and nurture of children,” said Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne.
In a statement made on Wednesday in the wake of the result of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, Hart also said that the Church “continues to respect the dignity of LGBTIQ Australians and our ministries will continue to care deeply about the dignity and value of all people we encounter.”
Noting that 4.8 million Australians are opposed to a “change to the definition of marriage,” he also urged parliamentarians to recognize their concerns by “putting in place strong conscience and religious freedom protections.
“These protections must ensure that Australians can continue to express their views on marriage, that faith-based schools can continue to teach the traditional understanding of marriage and that organizations can continue to operate in a manner that is consistent with those values,” Hart said.
RELATED: Poll finds majority of Australian Catholics back same-sex marriage
Bishop Michael McKenna of the Diocese of Bathurst also released a statement following the result, sharing some of the concerns expressed by Hart: “I trust that the assurances given, by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, that any legislation would not impinge on religious liberty, will be respected.
“I would encourage everyone to work together in a spirit of cooperation for social harmony and the common good,” McKenna wrote in his statement.
Heading into the vote, Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, of the Diocese of Parramata, unlike most of the bishops, did not call on Catholics to vote “no,” instead saying it was a “decision each person is free to make.”
“It should be an opportunity for us to witness to our deep commitment to the ideal of Christian marriage,” he had said. “But it should also be an opportunity for us to listen to what the Spirit is saying through the signs of the times.”
Hours after the results of the postal service vote were announced, his diocese issued a statement saying it “respects the will of the Australian people.
“It now seems likely that civil marriage will be open to people of the same-sex and we respect that outcome,” the diocese said, adding that the Catholic Church will continue to “promote and practice the tenet of our faith,” that marriage is a lifelong bond between a man and a woman, and open to life.
The Diocese of Parramata also echoed the calls for the Australian parliament to ensure that “proper freedoms” are legislated, guaranteeing that those who remain in favor of the traditional definition of marriage are “free to speak, teach and act on this belief.”
“They voted Yes for fairness. They voted Yes for commitment. They voted Yes for love,” said Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister in an address broadcast this morning. “Now it is up to us, here in the parliament of Australia, to get on with it.”
The majority of parliamentarians supported the Yes campaign, though several have vowed to vote down gay marriage regardless of the result. However, a draft bill to legalize it is now expected to pass before Christmas.
A total of 133 out of 150 electorates recorded a majority “Yes” result while only 17 voted “No.” The national survey returned 7.8 million responses in support of same sex marriage and 4.9 million voted against.
Government Senator Dean Smith on Wednesday introduced a bill to the Senate permitting only churches and ministers of religion to refuse to celebrate same-sex weddings.
“If there are amendments, let’s see them, but let’s be clear about this: Australians did not participate in a survey to have one discrimination plank removed, to have other planks of discrimination piled upon them,” Smith told reporters, according to The Associated Press.
RELATED: Head of Australia’s bishops says Church employees entering same-sex marriages could be fired
Though some prominent Catholics openly acknowledged to voting “Yes,” they, too, voiced concerns regarding religious freedom.
For instance, Jesuit Father Frank Brennan, head of Catholic Social Services Australia, wrote for the Jesuit publication Eureka Street that he had voted yes, but acknowledged the validity of the concerns.
“I am one of those Australians who will be pleased when same-sex marriages are recognized by Australian law but with adequate protection for religious freedoms,” he wrote back in late August.
The Coalition for Marriage, which campaigned for a “No” vote, declared it was committed to defending the freedom of those who voted no.
Lyle Shelton, spokesman for the coalition, said: “I don’t think anyone who voted in this postal survey wants to see their fellow Australians put up on hate speech charges.
“We need to protect freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and also freedom of religion,” she added.
Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said he’s “deeply disappointed” with the results, adding that the potential legislation would “further deconstruct marriage and family in Australia.”
He also praised the voters who “stuck to their guns and voted No or abstained,” despite the fact that from the start it often seemed “a David and Goliath struggle with politicians, corporates, celebrities, journalists, professional and sporting organizations drowning out the voices of ordinary Australians and pressuring everyone to vote Yes.”
Head of Australia’s bishops: Employees entering same-sex marriages could be fired
Poll finds majority of Australian Catholics back same-sex marriage
Vote ‘No’ on same-sex marriage but show respect, Australian bishops say
Archbishop Anthony Fisher
Archbishop Denis Hart
Australian bishops
Global Church
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"The most beautiful pier in England"
Sir John Betjeman
150 Birthday
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Discover @ The Pier
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The building of the Pier
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The building of the Pieradmin2018-01-30T13:31:10+00:00
The History of Clevedon Pier
Part 1 The building of the Pier
The building of Britain’s seaside piers was a direct legacy of the industrial revolution. The fruits of that revolution, often harshly exacted and only slowly shared, were wealth, leisure and new demands for entertainment and travel.
Until the Severn Tunnel was opened in 1886, Brunel’s Great Western railway line from London to South Wales took the ‘Great Way Round’ (via Swindon and Gloucester) – Clevedon’s closeness to the main line from London to Bristol and the South-West, and the opening of the branch line to Clevedon from Yatton in 1847 offered the exciting possibility of a faster route to South Wales by steamer from a pier at Clevedon. Such a scheme would supplement the existing route between New Passage and Portskewett which had been operating further upstream since 1863.
A pier for Clevedon had been under consideration for some time. Indeed a partly constructed structure had been destroyed by high winds and heavy seas in November 1837. However the idea was revived and on a Wednesday in November 1866, a meeting took place at the Public Hall, Clevedon. A proposed scheme for a pier was accepted and The Clevedon Pier Company was formed, the board of directors made up of Sir Arthur Elton, Richard Godwin, Samuel Ransford and John Maynard. By July 1867 work had begun.
The first physical sign of the pier was a buoy bobbing 800 feet out into the channel. It had been placed there by Mr James Bullock, a resident mariner, under instructions from Mr Charles Lempriere, Shairman oif the Aberystwyth and Tynmouth Pier Company. On the basis of this survey it was suggested that Clevedon’s pier should be 840 feet long.
The actual construction work was entrusted to Hamilton’s Windsor Iron Works of Liverpool. Two engineers, John William Grover and Richard Ward were engaged. They opted for an openwork structure, providing minimum resistance to the wind and waves. A marriage of beauty, utility and economy.
The contractors had been lucky to find some large quantities of Barlow rail, discarded from Brunel’s broad-gauge South Wales Railway. It may not have been successful as railway line, but it could be used to make superbly slender and strong supports for the pier. For almost two years, slowly diminishing stacks of the ironwork were stored along The Beach, Esplanade and Wellington Terrace. The construction of the pier was a very laborious task as every section of ironwork had to be manhandled before the crane could raise it into position. Approximately 370 tons of wrought ironwork was required. Gales regularly halted the work, but the structure held firm.
The construction was at times a perilous undertaking. Anthony Sheridan, one of the riveters, is recorded as having saved three men from drowning. Henry Groves was not so lucky. He was killed whilst hoisting a small boat under the Pier. The mercury reported that a gloom was cast over the entire works ‘in consequence of this melancholy occurrence’.
Construction of the abutments to the Pier was not as hazardous as that of the pier itself. However, the design had changed from its original form and now included a Toll House, with accommodation for the Pier Master, which was built by Clevedon builder, W. Green, who was also responsible for building the bandstand further along the beach. It was designed by architect Hans Price of Weston-Super-Mare, in a Scottish baronial style, much favoured at that time for bridge abutments. The romanticism of its design, contrasted strongly with the functional engineering of the pier. The entrance gates and railings were made in Clevedon in the foundry of Turner and Sons.
In all, the total cost of building the pier was £10,000 and employed an average workforce of sixty men. On the 6th February 1869, the contractors were able to hand the completed structure over to the Directors of the Pier Company.
Gala opening 1869
The official opening of Clevedon pier was held on Easter Monday, 29th March 1869. Throughout the morning, large numbers had congregated at Clevedon railway station. The 10:15 train from Bristol alone had brought five hundred passengers.
The opening day was a great success according to at least one contemporary newspaper report. Floral arches were erected throughout the town and a salute of guns was fired when the flag by the tollhouse was hoisted. Four hundred people were treated to lunch and the Board of Directors dined together at the Rock House Hotel.
Echoing the profound wishes of this great concourse, a huge triumphal arch astride the Marine Parade, carried the inscription, ‘SUCCESS TO THE PIER’.
At 1.30pm the five hundred children burst into the singing of Psalm 148, and there was a short service of dedication, in which the local clergy also hinted that the opening of the pier should not be allowed to interfere with the observance of the Sabbath. There was then a cannon volley fired by the First Somerset Artillery, the massed bands played the National Anthem, and Clevedon pier was open for the good of the townspeople and the benefits which commerce would bring.
Victorian era and beyond
For twenty years Clevedon pier provided a new, fast route over to South Wales. However, the opening of the Severn Railway Tunnel on 1st December 1886 began to snatch away the passengers that might have travelled to Clevedon for the transfer via the steamers. Business on the pier faltered and in 1891 the pier was transferred to the ownership of Clevedon Council, just at a time when costly pierhead improvements had become essential.
However, it was not all doom and gloom. The sum of £10,000 was borrowed from the town, to pay for a new pierhead and a landing stage. These consisted of twenty-four massive iron columns and forty-two green-heat piles, 25 feet long. The new landing stage was built at an angle to the pierhead, in order to align with the prevailing Bristol Channel current. The re- habilitated pier was re-opened on 3rd April 1893 by Lady Elton.
Just a year later, a Japanese style pagoda and two shelters were added to the pierhead. The style of these beautiful structures owes much to John Nash’s Brighton Pavilion built several centuries earlier. The Town Surveyor oversaw this work which was undertaken by McDowell and Stevens of the Melton Iron Works. 26 tons of ironwork was thus added to the pierhead.
In 1913, the timber landing stage, which had deteriorated, was replaced by the present pre-cast concrete structure. Even this work suffered temporary disruption by a gale which wrecked sections of the newly installed concrete and ripped up decking.
Next: Decadence, decay and collapse
10:00 to 17:00 (Last Entry 16:30)
(Open every day except Christmas Day)
The Toll House
BS21 7QU
enquiries@clevedonpier.com
Tiffin Café Reservations:
Click here to book a table
pier@tiffingroup.com
© Clevedon Pier & Heritage Trust Ltd.
Clevedon Pier Artwork Update!
New Winning Pier Artwork Number!
Winner announced for Clevedon Pier artwork!
Postponed – Skittles on the Pier
Website design by Carn Gerrish Creative
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Preview: Chagrin Valley Chamber Music Series ends season with Mozart, Dvořák and Shostakovich on April 6
April 1, 2014 by Special to ClevelandClassical.com
“It’s a piece of epic proportions with so many emotions from deep sorrow to sarcasm,” violinist Hristo Popov told us in a telephone conversation. “The Shostakovich Piano Quintet has a lot in common with the current political environment in Eastern Europe, and should be very appealing to people on both sides.”
Popov, who is artistic director of the Chagrin Valley Chamber Music Series, has chosen the Shostakovich, along with chamber works by Mozart and Dvořák, for the season finale of the series on Sunday, April 6 at 3:00 pm in Valley Lutheran Church in Chagrin Falls. The concert is free.
Shostakovich, who had a complicated relationship with the Stalinist government of the USSR, falling in and out of official favor on a regular basis, wrote his only chamber work for piano and string quartet in 1940, a piece that has been described as both rigorous and accessible. It was enthusiastically received at its first performance by Shostakovich and the Beethoven Quartet, who encored both the scherzo and finale.
The composer joked that he had written himself into the 40-minute work so it couldn’t be toured with another pianist — and indeed it allowed him to travel with both the Beethoven and Glazunov quartets. “It’s a challenge to make all the changes in mood,” Popov said, “and also a challenge to rehearse. You get one section right emotionally, then you have to move on to the next. It’s also technically challenging. While it’s not the most avant-garde piece, there are many unusual things about its structure — irregular rhythms and phrases and unpredictable twists. Just like his life at the time.”
For the quintet, Popov will be joined by German-born violinist Felix Olschofka, violist Yu Jin, cellist Michael Gelfand and pianist Eric Charnofsky. Earlier in the program, Olschofka and Charnofsky will play Mozart’s A-Major Sonata, K. 305, a two-movement work written in Mannheim in 1778 while the 22-year old composer and his family were enroute to Paris.
To complete the afternoon, Popov, Olschofka and Jin will perform Dvořák’s Terzetto, intended as a piece of house music for himself as violist, his colleague, violinist Jan Pelikan, and Pelikan’s student Josef Kruis, a hapless fiddler whose name has gone down in history because his part was too difficult for him. Dvořák charmingly simplified the second violin line, then later recast the work for violin and piano. This Sunday’s audience, however, will hear the original version from 1887, a surprisingly deep, complex and virtuosic work considering its recreational nature. Olschofka, who teaches at North Texas State University in Dallas and met Popov while playing chamber music in New York, will have absolutely no problem with Dvořák’s second violin part.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com April 1, 2014
Click here for a printable version of this article.
Return to the website.
Filed Under: Previews Tagged With: Chagrin Valley Chamber Music, Eric Charnofsky, Felix Olschofka, Hristo Popov, Michael Gelfand, Yu Jin
About Special to ClevelandClassical.com
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by e.r. punshon
The stage was set, Bobby thought, the actors in position; but how the drama would develop, that he could not even guess.
The churchyard at Hillings-under-Moor is the final resting place of Janet Merton – buried, so everyone believes, along with celebrated poet Stephen Asprey’s unpublished verses and love letters. The potential value of the poems has posed a constant danger of grave-robbing, but the Duke of Blegborough has a new cause for alarm. He has heard that there is an official move to open the grave, and its contents may shed a most unwelcome light on his dead wife.
Bobby Owen of the Yard also discovers the former rector of the church, Rev. Thorne, had gone for an evening stroll two years earlier – and disappeared into thin air. Whether his disappearance was in connection with the contents of Janet Merton’s grave is something Bobby will come to find out, with the help of Edward Pyle, of the Morning Daily, Janet Merton’s formidable niece Christabel, John Hagen (church sexton and self-taught classical scholar) and a man named Item Sims.
Brought to Light is the thirty-second novel in the Bobby Owen Mystery series, originally published in 1954. This new edition features a bonus Bobby Owen short story, and an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
“What is distinction? … in the works of Mr. E.R. Punshon we salute it every time.” Dorothy L. Sayers
Category: Crime Fiction
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ExtremeSwitching 200 Series: Command Reference Guide Version 01 .02.04.0007 > Quality of Service Commands > DiffServ Show Commands > show policy-map
This command displays all configuration information for the specified policy. The policyname is the name of an existing DiffServ policy.
Format show policy-map [policyname]
Mode Privileged EXEC
If the Policy Name is specified the following fields are displayed:
Policy Name The name of this policy.
Policy Type The policy type (only inbound policy definitions are supported for this platform.)
Class Members The class that is a member of the policy.
The following information is repeated for each class associated with this policy (only those policy attributes actually configured are displayed):
Assign Queue Directs traffic stream to the specified QoS (Quality of Service) queue. This allows a traffic classifier to specify which one of the supported hardware queues are used for handling packets belonging to the class.
Class Name The name of this class.
Committed Burst Size (KB) The committed burst size, used in simple policing.
Committed Rate (Kbps) The committed rate, used in simple policing.
Conform Action The current setting for the action taken on a packet considered to conform to the policing parameters. This is not displayed if policing is not in use for the class under this policy.
Conform Color Mode The current setting for the color mode. Policing uses either color blind or color aware mode. Color blind mode ignores the coloration (marking) of the incoming packet. Color aware mode takes into consideration the current packet marking when determining the policing outcome.
Conform COS The CoS (Class of Service) mark value if the conform action is set-cos-transmit.
Conform DSCP Value The DSCP mark value if the conform action is set-dscp-transmit.
Conform IP Precedence Value The IP Precedence mark value if the conform action is set-prec-transmit.
Drop Drop a packet upon arrival. This is useful for emulating access control list operation using DiffServ, especially when DiffServ and ACL (Access Control List) cannot co-exist on the same interface.
Exceed Action The action taken on traffic that exceeds settings that the network administrator specifies.
Exceed Color Mode The current setting for the color of exceeding traffic that you can optionally specify.
Mark CoS The class of service value that is set in the 802.1p header of inbound packets. This is not displayed if the mark cos was not specified.
Mark CoS as Secondary CoS The secondary 802.1p priority value (second/inner VLAN tag. Same as CoS (802.1p) marking, but the dot1p value used for remarking is picked from the dot1p value in the secondary (that is, inner) tag of a double-tagged packet.
Mark IP DSCP The mark/re-mark value used as the DSCP for traffic matching this class. This is not displayed if mark ip description is not specified.
Mark IP Precedence The mark/re-mark value used as the IP Precedence for traffic matching this class. This is not displayed if mark ip precedence is not specified.
Non-Conform Action The current setting for the action taken on a packet considered to not conform to the policing parameters. This is not displayed if policing not in use for the class under this policy.
Non-Conform COS The CoS mark value if the non-conform action is set-cos-transmit.
Non-Conform DSCP Value The DSCP mark value if the non-conform action is set-dscp-transmit.
Non-Conform IP Precedence Value The IP Precedence mark value if the non-conform action is set-prec-transmit.
Peak Rate Guarantees a committed rate for transmission, but also transmits excess traffic bursts up to a user-specified peak rate, with the understanding that a downstream network element (such as the next hop‘s policer) might drop this excess traffic. Traffic is held in queue until it is transmitted or dropped (per type of queue depth management.) Peak rate shaping can be configured for the outgoing transmission stream for an AF (Assured Forwarding) traffic class (although average rate shaping could also be used.)
Peak Burst Size (PBS). The network administrator can set the PBS as a means to limit the damage expedited forwarding traffic could inflict on other traffic (for example, a token bucket rate limiter) Traffic that exceeds this limit is discarded.
Policing Style The style of policing, if any, used (simple).
If the Policy Name is not specified this command displays a list of all defined DiffServ policies. The following fields are displayed:
Policy Name The name of this policy. (The order in which the policies are displayed is not necessarily the same order in which they were created.)
Policy Type The policy type (Only inbound is supported).
Class Members List of all class names associated with this policy.
The following example shows CLI display output including the mark-cos-as-sec-cos option specified in the policy action.
(Extreme 220) (Routing) #show policy-map p1
Policy Name.................................... p1
Policy Type.................................... In
Class Name..................................... c1
Mark CoS as Secondary CoS...................... Yes
The following example shows CLI display output including the mark-cos-as-sec-cos action used in the policing (simple-police, police-single-rate, police two-rate) command.
Policy Name....................... p2
Policy Type....................... In
Class Name........................ c2
Policing Style.................... Police Two Rate
Committed Rate.................... 1
Committed Burst Size.............. 1
Peak Rate......................... 1
Peak Burst Size................... 1
Conform Action.................... Mark CoS as Secondary CoS
Exceed Action..................... Mark CoS as Secondary CoS
Non-Conform Action................ Mark CoS as Secondary CoS
Conform Color Mode................ Blind
Exceed Color Mode................. Blind
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Best Jokes Ever!
Dysfunctileaks
Dysfunctional Book Reviews
Jokes/Generic
Literary Combat
The Literary Girlfriend
The Repeats
books, humor, literature, relationships, romance, writing
The Literary Girlfriend: The Designated Driver, Part 2
Maybe most guys would have been proud to have a topless dancer as a girlfriend, and in a way I was, but Daniella and I had put a lot of effort into hiding what her job was from my/our friends. Whenever she was out in public with me, she wore thick black glasses and carried a copy of a Jane Austen book with her. She told my friends that she was a paralegal. Now my friends were going to the topless club where she worked for New Year’s Eve, and I needed to warn her. Kirk, Jerome, and the others would be there in about 15 minutes. That didn’t give me much time.
The first phone booth (this was in the early 1990s) was on a street corner about five minutes away. Even though a rough looking guy was talking, I parked my car and got out. The rough looking guy saw me and turned his back on me while continuing his conversation. I knew what that meant. I got back into my car, found another phone booth a few minutes away, but a guy was standing nearby at the bus stop looking at me while playing with his zipper. I didn’t like the looks of that either, so I got back into my car. The next phone booth was occupied by three teenagers eyeballing everybody who drove by. The next phone booth was… never mind. It had already been almost 15 minutes since the other guys took off. They’d almost be to Nero’s. Any phone call I’d make would be too late. I took a deep breath and drove home.
It was past ten. The football games were over. The cheesy New Year’s Eve countdown shows had begun. I wasn’t in a festive mood.
I didn’t know what to expect. Would Kirk and the guys recognize Daniella? If she saw them first, would she stick around or leave? Would she pretend she wasn’t Daniella if they saw her? Would Kirk and the guys tell me if they saw Daniella? How would they break it to me, that my shit-talking librarian girlfriend was a stripper? If that happened, would I act shocked, or would I confess that I knew? Would Daniella be pissed at me for not warning her, or wouldn’t she care? I was sometimes surprised by what pissed her off and what she could blow off.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long. Daniella stormed into the apartment about 30 minutes later, caked in makeup, hair down, wearing her badass leather jacket and extra tight jeans. Daniella looked great as a badass. I would have loved to have gone out with her in public as a badass, except when I wore a badass leather jacket and rough jeans, I just looked like a nerdy guy dressing up as a badass. The badass outfits accentuated our physical mismatch, so she usually went out with me in librarian mode. But I liked looking at her when she was a badass.
Daniella stood frozen by the door and grinned. “Shit, that was close,” she said.
Daniella told me that she had spotted Jerome as soon as he’d walked into Nero’s. He was a tall guy with a distinct chin, and Kirk had almost gotten them all thrown out right away by grabbing a dancer without paying for a lap dance first. Jerome had had to throw down some cash before they could be seated, but the disturbance had given Daniella a chance to bail out, to act like she wasn’t feeling well and head to the back of the club. That was the short version, which was all I really wanted. The less I knew about Nero’s, the better.
“I tried to warn you,” I said. “I promise. I just couldn’t get to a phone in time.”
“They wouldn’t have given me a message,” Daniella said, still standing over me instead of sitting down. “I know a dancer, her kid was in the emergency room, and they didn’t tell her until after the shift was over. Fuckers.”
She paced around while she talked. “I was lucky I wasn’t on stage when they came in. When you’re on stage, you’re screwed if somebody you know walks in. Shit, I lost a lot of money over this. I was with a guy who works for an oil company and I…”
Then her grin disappeared. “Shit, I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear this.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I know it’s too late to tell you now, but you didn’t have to hide. I guess I don’t mind if people know you’re a dancer.”
“I do,” Daniella said. “I like our friends thinking I’m a paralegal.”
Daniella brushed her hair out of her face. She still smelled like smoke. “If they find out I’m a dancer, they’ll think… things… about me. I hate that.”
Daniella finally sat down next to me. “I like having friends that think I’m… normal… for once. I like what we have going.”
I nodded thoughtfully (at least I hoped it looked thoughtful). Even though my friends thought highly of Daniella, “normal” wasn’t a word any of them had used, but I decided to keep that to myself.
“This worked out good for you,” Daniella said, her grin returning. “You said you wanted to spend New Year’s Eve together, and you got your wish.”
“That’s true.” I hadn’t thought of that.
“How do I know you didn’t plan this?” she asked. I couldn’t tell if she was serious.
“I’m not that devious,” I said.
“People think that,” she said slowly. “Your friends think you’re a nice guy, but I know you, I know how freaky you really are. You could plan something like this. You could have… told… your friends to go to Nero’s.” She got so close that my mind got muddled (in a good way), even in her smoky dried-sweaty condition, and I thought she was going to do something seductive, but she was simply looking me in the eye. “Tell me you didn’t plan this,” she said.
“I didn’t plan this.” I hadn’t, so that was easy.
“Hmmmm,” she said. “You might be telling me the truth, but I’m going to punish you anyway.”
Punish? This was getting good after all.
“You’re going to take me downtown, and we’re going to go…” and she listed a bunch of bars and night clubs where the drinks would be overpriced. “And you’re going to let me drink, and you’re going to dance with me.”
This really was turning into punishment, but she didn’t know it. Any guy would have been glad to be her bar-hopping date on New Year’s, but all I could think of was the money, my cash that was running out. One thing about Daniella, she was always an expensive date.
“But… I can’t dance,” I said. It was a lame excuse, but I was desperate, and I’ve never been a quick thinker.
“Then you can stand there and pretend with a drink in your hand, and I’m going to dance, and nobody will even notice you, and you’re going to act like you like it.”
Watching her dance crazy wasn’t a bad way to spend time, but the money issue still gnawed at me. “Some of those places have long lines,” I said desperately. “We’ll never get in.”
“They’ll let me in,” she said.
“But they’ll make me stand outside.”
“I can get you in.”
“It’s getting late.”
“They’ll just be getting started.”
I groaned. This was more impossible than trying to talk my mom out of going to church on Christmas Eve. At least with church, I only had to throw a few bucks into the offering plate. I had no idea how much money Daniella could make me spend at the bars on New Year’s Eve, but I knew it was going to be a lot. I cursed my brother and his wife at that moment. I should have said no to them. I should have been enjoying this moment. Daniella was going to get me into some trendy bars and dance crazy in front of me and probably do something really affectionate at midnight, and all I could think about was the money. The money. The stupid money.
To be continued in… The Literary Girlfriend: Identity Crisis .
If you want to read “The Literary Girlfriend” from the beginning (it’s getting kind of long), start here.
From → The Literary Girlfriend
WeiChuaan permalink
Reblogged this on From a heart of a loafer.
Two installments in one week?! Thank you!
dysfunctional literacy permalink
Thank YOU for reading. I originally meant “The Designated Driver” to be one installment, but it was too long (almost 3,000 words), so I thought it’d be a good idea to split it up.
Annie permalink
Too funny…keep it up!
defensordelaverdad permalink
Reblogged this on Fabián.
meezeman permalink
Money the solution to and cause of all problems. Another good post.
David Stewart permalink
Dude’s going to have to get a second job to afford her. Maybe we’ll find out what will happen when he tells her he can’t pay all her bills anymore.
List of X permalink
Just wondering, was there never a thought that you could give your brother half the money you had, not all of it? 🙂
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The Literary Girlfriend: The Designated Driver »
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Now only $0.99 on the Amazon Kindle!
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THE LITERARY GIRLFRIEND: The serial romantic comedy that proves literacy is only skin deep
Completely free at Dysfunctional Literacy!
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MDA Telethon
This Labor Day, Let’s Commit to Wiping Out the Charity Model for All People With Disabilities in Our Lifetime
September 6, 2015 / Ingrid Tischer / 6 Comments
The medical model of disability would keep us separated by diagnoses — different and disconnected — but the social model can bring us together — unique and united — through common concerns for our rights.
This Labor Day weekend has me feeling celebratory because there’s no Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Telethon on the air for the first time in 49 years.
This is great. If you’ve got that particular diagnosis. If you don’t, you may still have a problem. If, say, you’re diagnosed with autism.
People with autism are still dealing with the same dynamic of destructive messages in the fundraising that purports to help them.
Criticizing how funds are raised generates a whole lot of anger if the critics are among those who are said to benefit from the efforts. That’s why cross-disability solidarity, disability history, and telling our own stories are so important. The medical model of disability would keep us separated by diagnoses — different and disconnected — but the social model can bring us together — unique and united — through common concerns for our rights.
I’ve said it before and it’s still true: “I look at fundraising as a means of not just supporting social change but in promoting it as well. How we raise money says a lot about our attitudes toward the cause we want to fund.”
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Diversified Royalty Corp.
About DIV
Royalty Partners
Mr. Mikes
Financials & SEDAR Filings
Diversified Royalty Corp. Announces October 2016 Cash Dividend, Special Meeting of Shareholders, Q3 2016 Earnings Release Date, and an Update on the John Bennett Indemnity Claim
Vancouver, B.C., October 4, 2016, For Immediate Release – Diversified Royalty Corp. (TSX: DIV) (the “Corporation” or “DIV”) is pleased to announce that its board of directors has approved a cash dividend of $0.01854 per common share for the period of October 1, 2016 to October 31, 2016, which is equal to $0.2225 per common share on an annualized basis. The dividend will be paid on October 31, 2016 to shareholders of record on October 14, 2016.
Special Meeting of Shareholders
The Corporation will be holding a Special Meeting of shareholders to consider and, if thought advisable, to pass a special resolution to approve the reduction of the stated capital of the Corporation’s common shares to $200.0 million.
The meeting will be held at 9:00 am PST on Thursday, November 10, 2016 at the offices of Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP, located at the 25th Floor of 700 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. Materials for the meeting will be mailed to shareholders of record as of the close of business on October 11, 2016.
Q3 2016 Earnings Release Date
DIV will release earnings results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016 following the closing of regular trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on November 14, 2016.
John Bennett Indemnity Claim
As previously disclosed, on August 9, 2016 the US courts convicted and sentenced Mr. Bennett. On August 15, 2016, the Corporation filed a motion in Ontario court to set aside the Interim Payment Order. The Ontario court date was originally scheduled for October 5, 2016 and subsequently rescheduled to November 17, 2016; this subsequent date is peremptory on Mr. Bennett (i.e. he cannot ask for another adjournment). The interim stay on any further payments under the Interim Payment Order remains in place.
DIV currently has a dividend reinvestment plan (the “DRIP”) in place. The DRIP allows eligible holders of the Corporation’s common shares (“Common Shares”) to reinvest their cash dividends paid in respect of their Common Shares in additional Common Shares, which, at the Corporation’s election, will be issued from treasury or purchased on the open market. If the Corporation elects to issue Common Shares from treasury, such Common Shares will be purchased under the DRIP at a 3% discount to the volume weighted average of the closing price for the Common Shares on the TSX for the five trading days immediately preceding the relevant dividend payment date. The Corporation may, from time to time, in its sole discretion, change or eliminate the discount applicable to Common Shares issued from treasury.
To be eligible to participate in the DRIP, holders of Common Shares must be resident in Canada. Participation in the DRIP does not relieve shareholders of any liability for taxes that may be payable in respect of dividends that are reinvested in new Common Shares under the DRIP. Shareholders should consult their tax advisors concerning the tax implications of their participation in the DRIP having regard to their particular circumstances.
The full text of the DRIP is available under the “Investor Relations” section of the Corporation’s website located at http://diversifiedroyaltycorp.com and on Computershare’s website located at www.investorcentre.com. Eligible beneficial shareholders who wish to participate in the DRIP should contact their investment advisor, bank or brokerage firm to enroll in the DRIP. Eligible registered shareholders may enroll online at Computershare’s web portal located at www.investorcentre.com.
Shareholders should carefully read the complete text of the DRIP before making any decisions regarding participation in the DRIP.
About Diversified Royalty Corp.
DIV is a multi-royalty corporation, engaged in the business of acquiring top-line royalties from well-managed multi-location businesses and franchisors in North America. DIV’s objective is to acquire predictable, growing royalty streams from a diverse group of multi-location businesses and franchisors.
DIV currently owns the Franworks, Sutton, and Mr. Lube trademarks. Franworks operates mid-tier casual neighborhood pub restaurants under the Original Joe’s, State & Main, and Elephant & Castle brands across Canada and in select US markets and generates approximately $225 million of gross sales annually. Sutton is among the leading residential real estate brokerage franchisor businesses in Canada with approximately 7,900 agents and 200 offices across Canada. Mr. Lube is the leading quick lube service business in Canada with 170 locations across Canada and approximately $200 million of annual system sales.
DIV is currently paying a dividend and expects to increase cash flow per share by making accretive royalty purchases and through the growth of purchased royalties. DIV expects to pay a predictable and stable dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend as cash flow per share increases allow.
Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words “anticipate”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “will”, ”project”, “should”, “believe”, “confident”, “plan” and “intends” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements made in relation to: the amount and timing of the October 2016 dividend to be paid to DIV’s shareholders; the timing of the release of DIV’s earnings results for the third quarter of 2016; the timing of the Special Meeting of shareholders; the record date for determining shareholders who will receive materials for the Special Meeting; the expected timing of the hearing in the Ontario court on DIV’s motion to set aside the Interim Payment Order; the DRIP; and DIV’s corporate objectives. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of DIV to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in such forward-looking statements. DIV believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. In particular there can be no assurance that: DIV will be able to make monthly dividend payments to the holders of its common shares; DIV will announce its earnings results at the time expected; the Special Meeting will be held at the time or at the location expected; the record date for the Special Meeting will not change; the Ontario court will set aside the Interim Payment Order; DIV will keep the DRIP in place; or DIV will achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance, and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. DIV undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by law.
In formulating the forward-looking statements contained herein, management has assumed that business and economic conditions affecting DIV and its royalty partners will continue substantially in the ordinary course, including without limitation with respect to general industry conditions, general levels of economic activity and regulations. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect.
All of the forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, DIV.
THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR THE ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
Additional information relating to the Corporation and other public filings, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer
Greg Gutmanis, Chief Financial Officer and VP Acquisitions
Home | SiteMap | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy
902 - 510 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3A8
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Bodele Depression Dust Storm
Intermittent dust storms continued in Chad’s Bodele Depression in mid-January 2008. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on January 14.
In this image, two off-white plumes of dust blow toward the southwest. The northern plume is much larger and more intense than the southern plume. Because the Bodele Depression sits between two mountain ranges in Chad, it is downwind from a natural wind tunnel. A research paper published in 2006 concluded that some 40 million tons of Bodele Depression dust reach the Amazon basin each year, accounting for half of the Amazon’s dust supply. Further, the researchers found that the minerals in this dust play a crucial role in fertilizing the Amazon’s vegetation.
Closer to the source, considerable amounts of Bodele Depression dust regularly blow toward Lake Chad. Although the dust thins near the lake, a veil of dust appears west of the lake.
NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The Rapid Response Team provides daily images of this region. Caption by Michon Scott.
Koren, I., Kaufman,Y., Washington, R., Todd, M., Rudich, Y., J Vanderlei, M., and Rosenfeld, D. (2006). The Bodele depression: a single spot in the Sahara that provides most of the mineral dust to the Amazon forest, Environmental Research Letters, 1 (014005), p. 1-5. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/1/1/014005.
Bodele Depression Dust Feeds Amazon
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Shadegan Pond
September 3, 2012JPEG
September 3, 2012TIFF
Covering about 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) in Iran’s Khuzestan province, the Shadegan wetlands are the largest in Iran. At their center is Shadegan Pond, a large but shallow body of water surrounded by a varied landscape of sugar plantations, date palm orchards, small towns, and military fortifications.
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the pond on September 3, 2012. The Karun River winds along its western edge. Fields of sugar cane stand northwest of it. The town of Shadegan—which is flanked by long, narrow orchards—lies to its east.
Environmental conditions at the wetlands vary throughout the year. In the fall and winter, rains in the Zagros Mountains send water flooding through an intricate series of shallow lagoons and marshes. Many of these areas dry out during the summer months. This image was acquired in the fall, when the area was relatively dry.
The Shadegan wetlands support an array of living things. Sheep, cattle, and water buffalo roam the area, while Mesopotamian himri, carp, and catfish are commonly caught in the pond’s waters. Dozens of bird species—including several types of ducks, terns, gulls, and egrets—can be found in Shadegan Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge is one of the most important sites in the world for the marbled teal, a diving duck. Shadegan supports about 10,000 to 20,000 of these birds in the winter, about half of the world’s population.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Adam Voiland.
This large, shallow pond in southern Iran supports an array of migratory birds and other wildlife.
Image of the Day for February 12, 2017
Terra — ASTER
Image of the Day Land Water Human Presence
Akhgari, M. (2013, August 21) Marine Ecotourism in Shadegan wetland. Journal of Marine Science: Research & Development.
The Guardian (2015, April 16) How Iran’s Khuzestan went from wetland to wasteland. Accessed February 10, 2017.
Kaffashi, S. et al. (2011, May 17) Economic valuation of Shadegan International Wetland, Iran: notes for conservation. Regional Environmental Change, 11 (4), 925-934.
Travestyle (2016, January 24) Photo Essay: Life By The Shadegan Lagoon. Accessed February 10, 2017.
UNDP (2011, March) Shadegan Wetland Management Plan. Accessed February 10, 2017.
Louisiana Wetland Loss
Floods in Afghanistan
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Your Weekend Movie: Atonement
As the snow grows deeper and the wolves gather at your door, nobody would blame you for choosing to tuck yourself under a blanket, make some cocoa and relax with a charming, optimistic Christmas movie. Since there don’t seem to be any on this weekend, however, you’ll get Atonement and like it!
Joe Wright’s second film arrived amidst much anticipation, following his debut Pride and Prejudice – a film which shocked audiences and critics by actually being a worthwhile addition to the Jane-Austen-on-film canon, but also by coaxing a terrific performance out of his lead Keira Knightley (I would argue that these two films marked a turning point in Knightley’s reputation among the public – she’s now mostly regarded as a highly talented actress, rather than a pouting box office mascot). Atonement soars on the performances James McAvoy as doomed lovers Cecilia and Robbie, separated by the childish malice of Briony (Saoirse Ronan) and the oncoming storm of the Second World War. The film was nominated for Best Picture and 5 other gongs at the Academy Awards, and even scooped No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood for Best Film at the 2008 BAFTAs.
If you’ve seen it, you’ll understand just how punishing Atonement can be for those of a cheerful temperament. A story of doomed love and heartbreaking regret set in the darkest years of the 20th century, the film goes to harsh places to underscore the tragedy of Ian McEwan’s source novel. The story of Cecilia and Robbie tells us that true love can’t always win out, and Briony’s plot offers a stark message in itself: sometimes nothing can make up for past mistakes, even if takes a lifetime. Essential viewing.
Sunday 19th December, 10:15 PM – ITV1
Tim Burton successfully outsources creativity
MUBI – The Good, The Bad and The Unfair
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Eureka Baptist Church
Our Proud Church History
The church dates back to 1877, when the first Missionary, L. Jacobson from Stillwater visited a few Baptist families who immigrated from Denmark. With help from Jacobson, these families joined with the Trade Lake Swedish Baptist Church. In 1881, the present Church organized. On Sunday, June 5, 1881 a meeting was held and the church organized with 26 members.
Br. Eckmann was chosen the leader which continued until February 1884 when he passed away due to cold climate and hard labor. Under his leadership, 16 souls were added to the church. The leadership was continued by C. Hanson and J. Welling. M. Nelson was also elected leader for several years.
Missionary O.C. Jensen from Chicago visited and aided the group. Through his preaching, eight were converted and baptized March 5, 1888. They went to the west short of “T” Lake (a small lake a quarter mile northwest of Big Twin Lake) and cut a hole in the thick ice. Missionary Jensen descended into the water by stepladder and each of the candidates did the same. As each candidate was baptized and ascended out of the water, a blanket was thrown around him and he walked up to Mrs. Eckmann’s house to change clothing.
As the services grew in attendance it was hard to find room for all that came, so quite a large vacant house was rented from Brother H.S. Lawdahl for $1.00 a month. This building was used until 1890 when the old Trap Rock school was purchased for $30.25. During these years, all farm work and transportation was done by ox team. Most people walked to the church services.
In 1891, N. Matson was called as Pastor and also preached at several other locations. About this time, a gradual change from oxen to horses began. Brother Mattson brought a good team of horses with him when he arrived in Eureka. Mattson was the first pastor with set wages. The church agreed to give him $200 a year.
One day Brother Mattson was in St. Croix Falls when a drunk man said to him, “Come down to El Salem and preach to us. We need it!” Brother Mattson did not pay much attention at the time, but later decided to go there to look into the situation with Brother Carlson. They found the people of El Salem receptive to the preaching of God’s Word. Four were converted and added to the Eureka Danish Baptist Church on December 10, 1894. El Salem Baptist Church was organized and became the first daughter church.
In the summer of 1893, a beautiful church was erected 2 miles north of Eureka Center (County Rd G & Scrubtown). Christian (Mattson) Bording knew the carpenter trade from Denmark and built the beautiful building. The tools he used the build the church came with him from Denmark. Mattson also had a general store in Scrubtown in an old log building. The first meeting was held at the church on October 28, 1893. A total of 50 were baptized and added to the Church in 8 years.
M. Jensen of Olden, MN took over on January 1, 1900. Steady progress was made. In the following year, a parsonage was built ½ mile south of the church (Ray Little’s Farm). There were large celebrations held every July 4th at the parsonage. A large meal was served and games were played in the front yard.
Around this time, there were also many changes to the church membership. Many sold their property and moved and others moved in. In 1914, the Model T Fords and other makes of cars were purchased by different parties in the community and gradually cars took the place of horses and means of transportation.
In the fall of 1915, J. Bergstrom called to pastor. During his pastorate, several members moved to the Milltown community. In 1917, a church was organized and was called Milltown First Baptist. Rev. Bergstrom divided his time between the two. In 1919, J. Christensen of Humbolt, IA began serving the two churches. He was the first pastor to own a car, however bad weather conditions forced him to use a team of horses and sled during the winter months. For ten years he made the hard and cold trips between the two churches.
In 1922, the old church building located 2 miles north of Eureka was taken down and work on the present church building began. The stain glass windows were removed from the old building and used in the new structure. Chris Bording learned the carpenter trade from his father, Christian Bording. The new church was built by Bording and Mr. Schneewind. Chris Bording built many buildings around the area, including the barn located at 2241 210th Avenue (Orvin Johnson Farm). The new Church building was dedicated September 16, 1923. In 1929 Eureka and Milltown severed their pastor connection, each getting their own. Milltown was the second daughter of the Eureka Danish Baptist Church.
The parsonage on Scrubtown was sold in 1921 when the church decided to move to Eureka. The original house was eventually taken down in the 1970s. For many years, the church rented a house near Cushing for their pastor. This location was not very convenient. Many had the vision of one closer to the Church. In January 1930, the church voted to build a parsonage across the road from the new church at an approximate coast of $3500. This project did not materialize. In 1936 it became a reality. This beautiful building was built across the road on a lot donated by friends. The money was raised by members and much the building was largely done by members who gave their time, thus reducing the cost. The Ladies’ Aid paid the interest on the loan.
Rev. Mickelson was called as pastor in March of 1938. He encouraged us to give more to missions. This commitment has remained with us through the years. One of the members, Elnora Nelson, attended Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis and went out as a missionary under New Tribes Mission to Paraguay, South America. The church supported her financially and in prayer.
The events of WWII impacted the church by taking two members. A memorial service was held June 2, 1946 at Eureka Baptist Church for Jimmie Anderson and Hilton Peterson, childhood neighbors, that paid the supreme sacrifice for our country. A joint funeral service was held in June of 1945. Jimmie was born in 1926 and graduated from St. Croix Falls. He enlisted into the Navy and was assigned for duty in the Pacific theater of war on a Navy Destroyer. It was with the ill-fated Hull that he lost his life in the typhoon of December 18, 1944. Hilton Peterson was born in 1925 and graduated from Milltown High School. He entered the service of his country in 1944 where he was assigned to the Marine service. It was in the battle for Iwo Jima that he was wounded from which he died February 28, 1945. He was the only child to lifelong members, John and Edna Peterson.
Rev. Evert Chamberlain was called as pastor in August 1950. The church became incorporated under his ministry. The church was called by two names until the time. From that time on the name “First Baptist Church of Eureka” was dropped and the name “Eureka Baptist Church” was used.
Because of the crowded conditions for Sunday School, a building called “the annex” was built on the west side of the parking lot. A garage is located in the front part, with Sunday school rooms in the back.
Pastor Chamberlain and several other of the church members who lived in the St. Croix Falls area realized the need for gospel work in the area of Taylors Falls. Services were conducted in the Community Hall in Taylors Falls. In September 1954, the First Baptist Church of Taylors Falls was organized with 27 members. Pastor Chamberlain served as pastor of both churches for a time. This was the third daughter church.
Dan Thompson became pastor in September 1956. In 1957 the church basement was extended to the north and remodeled, making room for a Sunday School office, nursery, furnace room, and restrooms. The kitchen was enlarged and a Sunday school classroom provided.
Rev. Max Fisk served as pastor from 1962 to 1963. During his ministry, improvements to the church building were continued. The pews were refinished and an oak floor was laid in the auditorium.
During Rev James Cooper’s ministry, a new Lowrey organ was purchased. Rev. Ernest Ruark began his ministry in January 1971. At this time, the walls were paneled and the floor in the basement was carpeted. Ruark left in 1973.
New padded pews were installed in December 1974. In the Fall of 1975, work on a new church entry was done, including a new study for the pastor. Double glass doors open into a sunny foyer with a wide stairway leading to the church auditorium. The old entry was made into a Sunday school room or a room which can also be used during services by parents with small children. A window and speaker system were also added to this room.
Rev. Bjork became pastor in March 1978. He commuted from Plymouth, MN until August when he and his family moved into the parsonage. Their stay in the parsonage was cut short by a fire in December which extensively damaged the interior of the parsonage. The congregation was greatful to God for the protection of the Bjork family. The family stayed with Russell Jensen until a mobile home was purchased to use as a temporary home for them. Pastor Bjork left in February 1980.
The congregation thought it wise to finish renovations to the parsonage before calling a new pastor. The renovation was extensive. About the only things not replaced were the foundation, studding and roof. By means of much volunteer labor, the “new” parsonage was completed free of debt.
Ralph Shepard came to minister in January 1981. A large Centennial celebration was held in June 1981. Members and former pastors reminisced back into time recalling how faithfully God had worked through the 100 years. The annex had been remade into a museum. Historical items were displayed such as early secretarial books, song books and bibles. Many of which were in Danish. Two of the first pulpits were displayed along with beautiful communion set with 2 goblets. Two church families had continuous membership of three to five generations during the 100 years – The John Nelson descendants and the Hans Mattson descendants. All realized the Lord’s blessings had been given in spiritual leadership. Ralph Shepard left in 1988.
In 1989 Karl Helwig became pastor. Pastor Helwig was very active with children’s programs. Vacation Bible School, Sunday School and AWANA were always well attended. Pastor Helwig left in 2006.
Willis Christensen became the pastor in 2008. Pastor Christensen's joyful spirit brought life back into the Church. The church steeple was redone, the church and annex have been painted, windows have been replaced and the parsonage has been redone along with landscaping. Pastor Christenson retired in 2013.
In January of 2017, the Church hired Seth Brickley to Pastor.
We must remember the labors of the struggling pioneers who scarified, labored and worked tirelessly and ceaselessly to found this church and then to dedicate it to the glory of God as they served Him.
We cannot fully tell the history of our church by just recounting dates. Through these past 140 years, hundreds have come to know Christ as Savior. God has used the faithful ministry of our pastors and leaders to prepare many for His service. Knowing it has been only through the faithfulness and mercy of our loving Heavenly Father that we can look back on 140 years as a church; and trusting in His continued guidance and blessing for our future, we humbly and joyfully say TO GOD BE THE GLORY!
Copyright © 2017 Eureka Baptist Church - All Rights Reserved.
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Burnsville Location
Our branch office near the Minneapolis, MN area is located in Burnsville, just off I-35W a few miles south of the Twin Cities. Burnsville is a dynamic community with over 90 restaurants, a beautiful Performing Arts Center, the 120-store Burnsville Center, and more than 1,750 acres of parks. Located at the junction of two major interstates, Burnsville is just minutes from the MSP International Airport and major regional attractions like Mall of America, Valleyfair, the Minnesota Zoo, and the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
Burnsville was a rural, primarily Irish farming community which has grown from about 2,700 people in 1960 to become the 10th largest city in Minnesota with a population now over 60,220 people. The city lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River.
Our current office building was purchased in 2017 and includes additional space for potential future expansion. The office is conveniently located off of Highway 13 with exposed windows providing natural light on both floors.
We currently have fewer than 10 employees working in our Burnsville location. Some live in the Burnsville-Lakeville area and others live in Minneapolis-Saint Paul and commute to work opposite the flow of typical traffic. Our small office means we need people who are flexible about the tasks they perform, are able to help out in multiple areas, and can work as part of a team.
The Burnsville area is truly a great place to live and work. Check out these links that describe the community, events, and assets:
City of Burnsville
Burnsville Chamber of Commerce
Burnsville Convention and Visitors Bureau
Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Burnsville, MN MAP
About Us Prairie du Sac Office
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Edge Consulting Engineers, Inc.
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Prairie du Sac, WI 53578
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Blommers-Hieronymus-Feldt Fellowship
Home » Scholarships and Awards
Awarded to doctoral students in educational measurement and statistics and established through gifts given in honor of Professors Blommers, Hieronymus and Feldt.
More about Blommers, Hieronymus and Feldt
Paul J. Blommers joined the University faculty in 1943, first as Secretary of the Committee on Examinations and then as Registrar and Examiner. He served for one year as Acting Dean of the College of Education and was Chair of the Division of Educational Psychology, Measurement an Statistics from 1966 until his death in 1977. A widely published authority in the area of measurement and statistics, Professor Blommers was a highly respected member of the faculty.
Albert N. Hieronymus joined the College of Education faculty in 1948, the same year he was appointed Director of the Iowa Basic Skills Testing Program. His work in the Iowa Testing Programs and his numerous publications in the field of testing have resulted in national and international recognition of that program. Professor Hieronymus retired in 1987 but was active within the department until his death in 2007.
Leonard S. Feldt joined the College of Education in 1954. He served as Chair of the Iowa High School Testing Program from 1960 until 1981 when he became Director of the Iowa Testing Programs and was named E. F. Lindquist Professor of Educational Measurement. He served as a division chair for a total of ten years. Professor Feldt was widely published in the field of educational measurement and statistics. He retired in 1994 and passed away in 2012.
Recent recipients
2017 - Aaron Lee McVay
2016 - Kyung Yong Kim, Carrie Morris
2015 - Kyung Yong Kim, Adam Reeger
2014 - Jaime Peterson, Adam Reeger, Mengyao Zhang
2011 - Wei Wang
2010 - Katherine Furgol
2009 - Bradley Brossman
2008 - Sarah L Hagge
2007 - Scott W. Wood
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EEAS > 圣海伦娜 > Speech by Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament Plenary debate on eastern neighbourhood developments
Speech by Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament Plenary debate on eastern neighbourhood developments
Strasbourg, 27/11/2019 - 19:34, UNIQUE ID: 191127_22
Speech by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament Plenary debate on eastern neighbourhood developments
Thank you, Mr President, for your very kind words.
Indeed it is the third or fourth time that I say goodbye to this hemicycle either here or in Brussels, but it is a pleasure to be back for the last session for which I will be in office.
Just to reassure you, not only will I take the debates today and tonight, but also the urgencies tomorrow and the day after, so I will be there until the very last moment that I could be. This is a sign of dedication and of recognition of the work that this parliament is doing, in particular on foreign policy.
Let me also thank you for the opportunity to look back at these five years of work with our Eastern partners. I remember very well, when I took office in 2014, that was the most important element of our foreign and security policy agenda. I can now proudly say that we have become closer as the European Union to all six of our Eastern Partners, in different ways, and I believe we have managed to improve the situation of each and every one of them through this partnership even if – obviously - challenges remain. I will try to go briefly through the achievements, the positive side, but also the shortcomings and the things on which I see that we still need to work a lot together.
I believe that this positive path that we have followed has been possible because our work has been focussed always on our greatest common interest that we share between the European Union and our Eastern partners, and that is our people. The people of Europe, whether they live inside or outside the European Union.
The twenty deliverables that we are implementing within the Eastern Partnership focus on the issues our people care the most about: jobs, energy security, education, strong civil society, independent media - things that are indeed on top of our citizens’ agendas.
In these years, we have put in place ambitious Association Agreements and Free Trade Areas with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Their citizens can now also travel to the European Union without a visa, when they come for business, for tourism or to visit family.
We have also achieved good progress in trade, energy, connectivity or the digital sphere. At the same time, we need to do more in the fields of the rule of law, judiciary or fighting corruption.
Earlier this year we have celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Eastern Partnership together with our partners, and we decided to launch a broad consultation process on the future of this Partnership. We have now collected more than 200 contributions coming not only from governments and civil society, but also academia, the business community, members of the European Parliament, and other stakeholders. I want to thank you for the contributions you have given us.
I am proud I can now leave to you and to my successor [Josep Borrell Fontelles] this huge capital of ideas, achievements, but also aspirations and dreams – as a very solid foundation for the next Eastern Partnership Summit and for the future of our Partnership itself.
Of course, each of the six countries has a different situation and different aspirations too. So let me very briefly go through them.
Ukraine has faced unparalleled challenges, with Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Since 2014 we have put together for Ukraine the biggest support package in the history of the European Union. We have invested more in Ukraine than in any other country in the world, and no other partner has invested in Ukraine as much as we have done.
This has led to some very important, tangible results. Ukraine today is a stronger, more resilient country than it used to be. The new government has taken a bold approach to reforms as the people of Ukraine expect substantial change on the rule of law, the fight against corruption and the prosecution of the bank fraud.
In recent months, positive developments have also materialised on the security side – mainly thanks to Ukraine's constructive approach. The Normandy 4 Summit of 9 December is now an opportunity for substantial progress.
Our priorities are the same as those of our friends in the Eastern Partnership countries, be it security, good jobs, good governance, or institutions that they can trust and rely on.
This is also the case in the Republic of Moldova, where we have supported structural reforms to fight corruption, improve the electoral framework, and to ensure an independent and accountable justice system.
Moldova has now a new government, and the need for genuine reforms remains.
As always, the European Union is ready to support reforms in all possible ways, and as always, our support remains conditional. Our support is and I believe will continue to be focussed in particular on reforms to fight corruption and vested interests, and in ensuring that state institutions preserve or build their autonomy and are not politicised.
Moving to Armenia, the government has committed to substantial democratic reforms, in line with our [Comprehensive and Enhanced] Partnership Agreement. In fact, Armenia considers the Agreement with the EU as a true blueprint for reforms, and we are proud of that. Our support to the reform process has increased after last year's political revolution, including to the ongoing justice reform. And I am confident that this partnership will become even closer in the years ahead.
With Azerbaijan, the work continues in order to finalise a new agreement. We want an ambitious agreement in line with international standards, one that ranges from human rights to support of the diversification their economy.
We will also continue to work for the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, encouraging and supporting dialogue at the highest level between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We fully support the mediation efforts and the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, including through the work of our Special Representative.
The European Union is born as a peace project. Building peace is our DNA, is our "raison d'etre"; it goes to the core of who we are. We need, I believe, to continue investing enormously on this, as conflict has not yet disappeared from our continent.
On the contrary, the security situation along the administrative boundary line with the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia has worsened in recent months.
This is why we are increasing our EU Monitoring Mission's presence on the ground. Because our support to Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity is not just a statement or a declaration of principal. It is the foundation of our daily concrete work on the ground.
Georgia is a close and reliable ally in the neighbourhood, and this is precisely why we don’t shy away when we see risks, as today we see the risk in the country of a backsliding on some important reforms in the rule of law area.
Finally, on Belarus. The recent parliamentary elections were a "lost opportunity" to deliver on international standards, and we have called on the authorities to implement electoral reforms before next year's presidential elections. You all know that we have divergences with Belarus, particularly on human rights. Yet I am convinced that the only way forward is to continue engaging, and to finalise our Partnership Priorities. This would be the best way not only to work on our mutual interests, such as the economy and nuclear safety, but also to better address the human rights situation, which is so important for us.
Putting people first was our approach throughout these five years, with all six partners, as diverse as they are, with a differentiated approach respectfully.
We have always focused on people and not on geopolitics. I want to close on this, to stress once again something that I have discussed not only with our partners in the east of Europe but also with our interlocutors a little bit further east: explaining clearly that our Eastern Partnership is not and I believe will never be "against" anyone. It is “for”. It’s for our people, it’s for improving living standards, including democratic standards, for a more peaceful European continent based on partnership and cooperation.
I want to close by thanking you and this Parliament for all the support you have given to our work with our Eastern partners because, in particular in this field, the work of the parliament has been key in liaising with the national parliaments through your many delegations, through your many visits. This has been a fundamental pillar in accompanying our work with not only the institutions but also the societies of our six eastern partners.
Adam KAZNOWSKI
Press Officer for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
+32 (0) 2 29 89359
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Speech by Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament plenary debate on the situation in the broader Middle East region, including the crises in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon HR/VP speeches Thank you Mr President, The streets of the Middle East in Baghdad, in Beirut, in Tehran and other cities have witnessed large demonstrations – which in all countries are still ongoing. Events are unfolding and each case is different. Yet there seem to be some common causes. The
Speech by Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament plenary debate on the situation in Israel and Palestine, including the settlementsSpeech by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament plenary debate on the situation in Israel and Palestine, including the settlements
Speech by Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament plenary debate on the situation in the broader Middle East region, including the crises in Iran, Iraq and LebanonSpeech by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the European Parliament plenary debate on the situation in the broader Middle East region, including the crises in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon
Remarks by HR/VP Federica Mogherini at the signing ceremony of the EU-Viet Nam Framework Participation AgreementRemarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini at the signing ceremony of the EU-Viet Nam Framework Participation Agreement
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Home » news » human rights and rule of law » Maoists Call on China’s Official Union to Stand up For Workers
Maoists Call on China’s Official Union to Stand up For Workers
Activist Yue Xin at a demonstration in support of Jasic workers in Shenzhen in August 2018.
JWSG.
A Maoist group backing a workers’ movement in the southern province of Guangdong on Thursday called on the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official union to stand up for workers’ rights, and work for the release of detained workers and activists.
Yue Xin, a graduate of China’s prestigious Peking University and former #MeToo campaigner remains incommunicado after being detained alongside dozens of others on Aug. 27, the Jasic Workers’ Solidarity Group (JWSG) said in an open letter to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which is holding its annual congress in Beijing.
Yue was a key figure in the Maoist group, some of whose members took a job at the Jasic Technology factory in Guangdong’s Shenzhen city to help workers apply to register an independent labor union to represent them.
After a police raid on its headquarters, Yue was believed to have been sent back to her hometown like other activists, but has been incommunicado since, and nobody knows her whereabouts, the JWSG said in a letter sent to Peking University alumni on Oct. 16.
“Yue Xin has been incommunicado for exactly 60 days now,” the letter said. “Anyone who cares about justice in our society, as we do, should be concerned about her.”
The group also called on the ACFTU to support the Jasic workers’ campaign, which had complained to a local branch of the union and been dismissed. The ACFTU has long been seen by labor experts as an organ of the Chinese Communist Party that supports the party’s agenda.
“Workers Liu Penghua, Mi Jiuping, Yu Lingcong and Li Zhan, who tried to form a trade union at Jasic have been held for nearly three months … and illegally deprived of the right to meet with their lawyers,” it said. “The local justice bureau even threatened their defense lawyers, saying that their licenses would be revoked if they continued to defend them.”
The four were all placed under formal arrest by police in the city on Sept. 3, following their initial detention at the factory on July 27.
The letter said workers at Jasic had long complained of abuses of their employment rights, including illegal dismissals and wage deductions, but that the local branch of ACFTU had done nothing.
‘An ant who can be trampled at any time’
They had finally established an independent union, but had been beaten up and later detained for their trouble, it said.
“In the eyes of [employers like Jasic], the dignity of workers can be trampled and the rights of workers can be ignored. The worker is like an ant who can be trampled at any time,” the letter said.
The Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website said it strongly protested what it called “the enforced disappearance” of Yue Xin at the hands of the government.
Li Qiang, of the New York-based group China Labor Watch, agreed.
“This has created a climate of fear and increased uncertainty in China,” he said. “Actually, Yue Xin is a student who was only doing what the Chinese Communist Party told her to do in standing up for the workers.”
More than 40 years after his death at the age of 82, late supreme leader Mao Zedong still presents a political dilemma to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
While revering Mao as the leader who founded the People’s Republic on Oct. 1, 1949, the party has been forced to conclude publicly that the leader made some “serious political mistakes.”
Locally funded statues of Mao have been torn down in recent years, reflecting official concerns over the potential use of the Great Helmsman’s image as a focus for millions of poor and dispossessed people in China, including the country’s army of petitioners, many of whom have lost their land or homes to government-backed development.
Government censors have shut down a number of Maoist websites in recent years, but has previously allowed them to reopen after politically sensitive events.
Reported by Wang Yun for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Chinese Official Says Taiwan Election Brings '10,000-Year Stink' of Separatism
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Nikolaos Chountis
Nikolaos Chountis (Greek: Νικόλαος Χουντής; born 17 September 1953 in Langadia, Arcadia) is a Greek politician and former Member of the European Parliament, currently serving as General Secretary of the political party Popular Unity.
Νικόλαος Χουντής
for Greece
Manolis Glezos
14 July 2009 – 30 June 2014
15 April 2004 – 19 July 2004
Alekos Alavanos
Alternate Minister of European Affairs
27 January 2015 – 13 July 2015
Sia Anagnostopoulou
Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Athens B
Georgios Miltiadi Kyritsis
17 September 1953 (1953-09-17) (age 66)
Langadia, Arcadia, Greece
Popular Unity
Synaspismos, Syriza (until 2015)
Dr Evmorfia Sagkana
Panteion University
Electrical engineer[1] and politician
1 Early life and education
Early life and educationEdit
Chountis was born in Langadia, Arcadia. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and with a degree in political science from the Panteion University.[1]
Political careerEdit
On 15 April 2004, Chountis succeeded Alekos Alavanos in his role as a Member of the European Parliament for Greece. Chountis served until 19 July 2004, following the 2004 European Parliament election. During this period he represented Synaspismos.
Following the 2009 European Parliament election, Chountis was elected as a Syriza Member of European Parliament. He served until 2014 as Syriza's only MEP.
Following the January 2015 Greek legislative election, he was elected a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for the Athens B constituency, representing Syriza. On 27 January 2015, he was appointed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as the Alternate Minister of European Affairs in his cabinet.
Hountis with successor Sia Anagnostopoulou.
A member of the Syriza's Left Platform, Hountis was internally opposed to the government's bridge agreement in February.[2] On 13 July 2015, following Tsipras' agreement with the European creditors and well ahead of the parliamentary vote, Hountis resigned from his ministerial office to be replaced by Sia Anagnostopoulou. He also resigned from Parliament and was succeeded by Giorgos Kyritsis.[3][4]
Succeeding the retired Manolis Glezos on 20 July 2015, he once again became a Member of the European Parliament.
On 26 August 2015, he defected to Popular Unity, alongside 52 other members of Syriza's central committee.[5] He becomes Popular Unity's only MEP.
Personal lifeEdit
Chountis is married to Dr Evmorfia Sagkana.[1]
Personal profile of Nikolaos Chountis in the European Parliament's database of members
Terms of office of Nikolaos Chountis at the Hellenic Parliament (in English)
^ a b c "CV of Nikolaos Chountis". Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 15 April 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
^ Kouvelakis, Stathis (6 March 2015). "Syriza on a Tightrope". Jacobin. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
^ "SYRIZA MP and minister Nikos Hountis resigns". Kathimerini. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
^ "Terms of Office of Nikolaos Chountis". Hellenic Parliament. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
^ http://www.protothema.gr/politics/article/503447/o-eurovouleutis-nikos-houdis-kai-alloi-52-ektos-suriza/
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nikolaos_Chountis&oldid=906883317"
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Not to be confused with Super Mario World.
Packaging artwork
Nintendo EAD Tokyo[a]
Koichi Hayashida[1]
Kenta Motokura[2]
Programmer(s)
Hideyuki Sugawara
Norihiro Aoyagi
Rikuto Yoshida
Mahito Yokota
Toru Minegishi[3]
Koji Kondo[4]
Yasuaki Iwata
JP: November 21, 2013[6]
NA: November 22, 2013[5]
EU: November 29, 2013[7]
AU: November 30, 2013[8]
Single-player, multiplayer
Super Mario 3D World[b] is a platform video game in the Super Mario series developed and published by Nintendo for their Wii U home video game console. It is the sixth original 3D platform game in the series and the sequel to the 2011 Nintendo 3DS game Super Mario 3D Land. The game follows Mario and friends attempting to rescue fairy-like creatures called Sprixies from Bowser, who invades the realm known as the Sprixie Kingdom. The gameplay is similar to previous installments of the series, with players passing through individual levels to reach Bowser. The game also introduces a power-up called the Super Bell, which turns the character being played into a cat, enabling them to climb walls and use a scratch attack, as well as a character selector.
The game was critically acclaimed for its level design, presentation, replay value and soundtrack, though some reviewers voiced criticism on its unreliable camera during multiplayer. The game was a financial success, selling over 5 million units worldwide, and becoming the second best-selling game on the Wii U system.
Gameplay[edit]
Luigi, Toad, Peach, and Mario (pictured from left to right) sprint through Really Rolling Hills, a level within the game.
The levels of the game follows a similar play style to Super Mario 3D Land, which combines the free-roaming gameplay of 3D Super Mario games with the mechanics of 2D side-scrolling platforming games in the series, including a flagpole and timer in the levels.[9] Up to four players may control player characters, including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad. Additionally, Rosalina appears as a hidden, unlockable fifth playable character. Similar to their appearances in Super Mario Bros. 2,[10] each of the characters possesses unique abilities and controls differently: Mario has balanced running speed and jump height; Luigi jumps higher and falls slower, but has lower traction; Peach can jump and shortly float through the air, but runs slowly; Toad runs the fastest, but cannot jump as high and falls faster; and Rosalina can use the spin attack move as seen in the Super Mario Galaxy games, but has the slowest running speed.[11] The player can select any of the five characters to use before beginning a level, and up to four players may explore the same level simultaneously with each character, sharing from a pool of lives. Players are also able to pick up, carry and throw each other to either help or hinder their progress.[12]
The levels of the game are accessed through a world map, in which players can explore to find hidden secrets or access bonus areas to earn more items or coins. Each level contains three hidden collectable Green Stars which are required to access certain levels, and each main level contains a hidden Stamp which can be used in handwritten posts to Miiverse within the game's community. Players can also view messages left by other players, both on the world map and after clearing a level, and can download 'Mii Ghosts', which are live records of other players completing levels. They are used to race against and sometimes hold gift prizes such as coins or extra lives.[13] Additional Green Stars can be earned in Captain Toad levels, where players control Captain Toad, who cannot jump, as he navigates puzzle-like stages using the GamePad's functionality, and Mystery Houses, where players must clear a series of challenges with short time limits, as well as challenge levels, that have the player complete quick challenges in fast succession.[14][15]
Along with several returning items from previous games, such as the Fire Flower, Super Leaf, Mega Mushroom, Propeller Box and Boomerang Flower, several items are introduced. The Super Bell gives players a Cat Suit, allowing them to run faster, perform unique attacks and climb up walls to reach new areas. A variation of the Super Bell, the Lucky Bell, allows the player to temporarily transform their character into a lucky cat statue that awards coins under certain conditions.[16] Another new power-up are the Double Cherries, which make a clone of the player, allowing for more effective attacks and a higher chance of survival; the more Double Cherries the player uses, the more clones that appear. Players can also wear Cannon Boxes, which fire shots at enemies, Light Blocks, which can defeat ghosts and Goomba masks, which let them blend in with enemy Goombas. Players are also able to pick up various objects, such as bombs, baseballs and Piranha Plants, which can be used to defeat enemies or solve puzzles, and ride around in a Skating Shoe or on an aquatic dinosaur named Plessie.[17]
The game features functionality with the Wii U GamePad, allowing players to rub the touchscreen, or blow into the microphone to reveal hidden blocks or items, hinder enemies and activate mechanisms. The game also supports Off-TV Play.[18] The game is also compatible with the Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Classic Controller and Wii U Pro Controller.[19] An unlockable Luigi-themed version of Mario Bros., Luigi Bros., is accessed by clearing the game or by having save data from New Super Luigi U.[20]
Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad find a tilted glass pipe. After Mario and Luigi fix it, a green Sprixie Princess appears and tells them that Bowser kidnapped and trapped the rest of the Sprixie Princesses in jars. He arrives and captures her before escaping through the pipe, while the heroes enter it and pursue him. They find themselves in a realm known as "The Sprixie Kingdom" and set off to find the fairies. After the heroes save the final Sprixie, Bowser re-captures all seven fairies and heads to his amusement park fortress. There after Bowser uses the Super Bell to transform into "Meowser" (a cat-like Bowser), one of them hits a giant POW Block that Bowser stands on and he falls through the sky. With Bowser defeated, the heroes say goodbye to the fairies, and travel through the pipe back to the Mushroom Kingdom.
Development[edit]
Director Koichi Hayashida promoting the game at E3 2013
In a January 2013 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced that a new 3D Mario game was being produced by the development team behind Super Mario Galaxy.[21][22] The title was announced during the E3 2013 Nintendo Direct on June 11, 2013, along with its tentative release date of November 2013.[5]
A staff of 100 personnel wrote ideas for game mechanics upon sticky notes, which were collected upon the studio walls and then evaluated. If the team liked an idea, they would implement it in-game to test it. Kenta Motokura, a director of the game stated "We discussed and discarded a huge number of ideas during development - sometimes you just can't tell if an idea is good or bad by looking at it on the drawing board; when this happens, we try it out in-game. If we don't find the idea fun, it won't make it into the final product. There was a lot of back and forth on the course designs due to this".[23]
The game's signature feline costumery came early in development, to implement an attack mechanic, introduce the ability to climb walls, and to help a novice to clear obstacles. The inspiration for the Double Cherry, an item that creates controllable clones of a player character, came late in development when a developer erroneously inserted an extra copy of Mario's character model into a level. The team was relieved to see that the game did not crash with two identical characters present, and were amused that both could be controlled simultaneously. Developers "scrambled" to include this feature in the final game.[23]
According to Koichi Hayashida, Peach was originally not going to be a playable character. Yoshiaki Koizumi suggested for Peach to be playable, which would be agreed upon. Koizumi reasoned, "I think she adds a lot to the sense of competition when you get in multiplayer ... You can have different people choosing different characters based on their personality or whoever they like."[24] Hayashida also revealed that Super Mario 3D World was meant to be a Wii U game that fans of New Super Mario Bros. could enjoy, as well as a de facto continuation of Super Mario 3D Land.[23]
Similarly, Rosalina was later added as a playable character. Kenta Motokura said, "I was thinking about what would be pleasing after the ending and wanted to bring in another female character in addition to Princess Peach. Rosalina has a following among the Super Mario Galaxy fanbase, and she appeared in Mario Kart recently, so I think she's well known."[25]
The game's soundtrack was composed by Mahito Yokota, Toru Minegishi, Koji Kondo and Yasuaki Iwata, and performed by the Mario 3D World Big Band. A soundtrack was released for Club Nintendo members in Japan, Australia and Europe, featuring 77 tracks across two CDs.[26][27] The game had developmental assistance from 1-Up Studio.[28]
Aggregate score
Metacritic 93/100[29]
Destructoid 10/10[30]
Edge 9/10[31]
Eurogamer 10/10[32]
Famitsu 38/40[33]
Game Informer 9.25/10[34]
Game Revolution [35]
GameSpot 9/10[36]
GamesRadar+ [37]
Giant Bomb [38]
IGN 9.6/10[39]
Joystiq [40]
Nintendo Life 10/10[42]
Nintendo World Report 10/10[41]
ONM 93%
Super Mario 3D World was critically acclaimed. It gained scores of 92.77% and 93/100 on aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively.[43][29] It also won many awards from media outlets, including Game of The Year (GOTY) from Eurogamer, Digital Spy, and MSN UK.
Famitsu gave the game a score of 38/40.[33] IGN's Jose Otero gave 3D World a 9.6/10, praising the visual design's "youthful energy," the "interesting risks" taken with the level designs, the "maddening challenge" offered by later worlds, and the "genuinely funny and memorable co-op". He said, "I reveled in the sheer brilliance of how much energy and gameplay mileage Nintendo has packed into every world." Otero's only complaint was that "the camera becomes a slight obstacle in four-player multiplayer".[39] GameTrailers gave the game a score of 9.5, praising its gameplay and presentation, while criticizing camera issues and some odd control choices.[44] GamesRadar gave the game a score of 4.5/5, praising improved multiplayer and some moments so brilliant that they can make some other levels seem dull by comparison.[37] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku called the game "a terrific Mario game... just not a very good Wii U game", praising the game itself, but lamenting that it doesn't do much to show off the Wii U's capabilities.[45] Patrick Klepek at Giant Bomb, saying "World continues to make the case that it's possible to reinvent a classic over and over again".[46]
Anime News Network gave the game an A grade, calling it "fun, imaginative, and filled with little surprises and delights."[47] Edge rated the game 9/10, calling it "Wii U's best game to date," and "the most next-gen game that 2013 has yet produced," and stating that Mario is the most fun character to play as because "his cohorts' abilities aren't anything special".[31] Destructoid's Chris Carter awarded the game a 10/10, praising the power-ups (especially the catsuit, which "open[s] up [doors] platforming-wise that weren't there before," and the double cherry, which "Nintendo really outdid themselves in terms of the technical mechanics" to make possible), the "incredibly sharp" graphics, and "one of the best OSTs I've ever heard". Carter wrote that "the only downfall of the design is the selection of boss fights," as Nintendo "had achieved a level of platforming design that's close to perfection".[30] Joystiq's Richard Mitchell gave the game 5/5 stars, praising the "astounding" visual craftsmanship, "excellent soundtrack," and "artful, purposeful design" which "communicates goals with complete clarity".[40] GameZone's Mike Splechta gave it a 9.5/10, stating "With multiple characters to play as (harking back to Super Mario Bros. 2) and an unlockable fifth, a fantastic and unobtrusive multiplayer component and enough new power-ups to make even Mario's head spin, you're bound to have a highly enjoyable time with one of the best 3D platformers released thus far."[48]
Eurogamer's Christian Donlan gave the game a 10/10, describing it as "an endless freewheeling treat of a game" with an "ad-libbed drive to...explore how many different situations [Mario] can be squashed into". He noted that this inventiveness carries over to the "lavish and quick-changing" soundtrack: "This is pastiche at its most skillful, its most panoramic."[32] Cheat Code Central's Jenni Lada gave the game a 5/5, calling it "the closest we will ever come to a perfect Mario game, one that is a culmination of every right decision ever made in the series."[49] Nintendo World Report stated that it's a Mario game that one would want to continue playing once the game is beaten and may be the killer app of the Wii U, saying "Thankfully 3D World isn’t just a refinement of the Mario formula, it’s a powerful re-imagining. It’s an explosive cavalcade of color and excitement as well as a well thought out evolution of Mario."[41] The Escapist gave the game four out of five stars, but was slightly critical of it, saying "Buy it if you love that little plumber, and enjoy the new toys, but don't expect your mind to be blown."[50]
Sales[edit]
In Japan, the game's first week sales in three days at retail, totaled to 99,588 copies sold (not including eShop download sales)[51] and 57% of its initial shipment.[52] The sales were considered low at first, but it maintained strong sales during the following weeks. By January 5, the game's sales totaled about 400,000 units in Japan and was still on the weekly top 10 charts.[53]
In the UK, the game debuted at number 14, behind its competitor, Knack, which debuted at number 13.[54] During its first eight days on the market, there were 215,000 units sold in the US according to the NPD Group, debuting out of the Top 10.[55]
As of September 30, 2019[update], the game had yielded sales of 5.83 million units worldwide, making it the Wii U's second best-selling game.[56]
Legacy[edit]
Based on and expanding upon the game's "Captain Toad" puzzle-based levels, a separate game, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, was released for the Wii U on November 13, 2014 in Japan, December 5, 2014 in North America and in January 2015 in PAL regions as a spin-off to Super Mario 3D World featuring Captain Toad and Toadette. Years later, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS on July 13, 2018. It was received with favorable reviews.
In late 2014, downloadable content was released by Nintendo for Mario Kart 8, containing the ability to play as 'Cat Peach', which is a reproduction of her pink cat costume from obtaining the Super Bell item in Super Mario 3D World.[57]
Elements from Super Mario 3D World show up in Super Mario Maker 2, as assets players can use while designing their course.[58]
Pre-release awards and nominations
2013 Destructoid's Best of E3 Best Wii U Game Nominated [59]
Best Platformer Nominated
GameTrailers Best of E3 Best Wii U Exclusive Nominated [60]
IGN's Best of E3 Best Overall Game Nominated [61]
Best Wii U Game Nominated
Best Platforming Game Nominated
The Nerdist Best of E3 Best Platformer Won [62]
Post-release awards and nominations
2013 Cheat Code Central 7th Annual Cody Awards Best Nintendo Game Won [63]
Digital Spy Game of the Year Won [64]
Eurogamer Game of the Year Won [65]
GameRevolution Game of the Year Nominated [66]
Best Wii U Exclusive Won [67]
GameSpot's Game of the Year Wii U Game of the Year Nominated [68]
GameTrailers Game of the Year Awards 2013 Game of the Year Nominated [69]
Best Nintendo Game Won [70]
IGN's Best of 2013 Best Overall Game Nominated [71]
Best Overall Music Nominated [72]
Best Overall Platformer Game Won [73]
Best Wii U Game Won [74]
Best Wii U Music Won [75]
Best Wii U Graphics Won [76]
Best Wii U Platformer Game Won [77]
Spike VGX Game of the Year Nominated [78]
Best Nintendo Game Won
National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR) awards Game, Franchise Family Won [79]
Camera Direction in a Game Engine Nominated
Game Design, Franchise Nominated
Game of the Year Nominated
2014 BAFTA Video Games Awards Best Game Nominated [80]
Best Family Game Nominated
Best Multiplayer Game Nominated
Best Original Music Nominated
Game Developers Choice Awards Game of the Year Nominated [81]
Best Design Nominated
32nd Golden Joystick Award Best Audio Nominated [82]
Best Multiplayer Nominated
SXSW Gaming Awards Game of the Year Nominated [83]
Excellence in Gameplay Nominated
Excellence in Animation Nominated
Excellence in Technical Achievement Nominated
Best Multiplayer Game Won
^ Development Cooperation by 1-UP Studio
^ Japanese: スーパーマリオ3Dワールド Hepburn: Sūpā Mario Surī Dī Wārudo
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^ Nichols, Scott (December 21, 2013). "Why Super Mario 3D World is Digital Spy's game of the year". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
^ Robinson, Martin (December 30, 2013). "Eurogamer's Game of the Year 2013". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on October 13, 2016. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
^ Severino, Anthony (December 20, 2013). "Game of the Year 2013". GameRevolution. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013.
^ Severino, Anthony (December 19, 2013). "Best Wii U Exclusive 2013 Awards". GameRevolution. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014.
^ "Mario Kart 8 - Wii U Game of the Year". GameSpot. December 14, 2014. Archived from the original on December 14, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
^ GT's Game of the Year 2013. GameTrailers. January 10, 2014. Event occurs at 2:31. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
^ Game of the Year Awards 2013 - Best Nintendo Game. GameTrailers. January 7, 2014. Event occurs at 2:38. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
^ "Best Overall Game". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ "Best Overall Music". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ "Best Overall Platformer Game". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ "Best Wii U Game". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on January 17, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ "Best Wii U Music". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 11, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ "Best Wii U Graphics". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ "Best Wii U Platformer Game". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on October 14, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
^ Nunneley, Stephany (December 7, 2013). "Spike VGX 2013 Award winners: Grand Theft Auto 5 wins Game of the Year". VG24/7. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
^ "NAVGTR Awards (2013)". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers.
^ "Games in 2015". BAFTA. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
^ "14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards". Game Developers Choice Awards. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
^ Reynolds, Matthew (September 24, 2014). "Golden Joystick Awards 2014 public voting now open". Digital Spy. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
^ Renovitch, James (February 11, 2014). "SXSW Announces Gaming Awards Nominees". The Austin Chronicle.
Bros.: The Lost Levels
Bros. 2
World 2: Yoshi's Island
Maker 2
Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
3D Land
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
Advance 4
Mario video games
Japan portal
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Super_Mario_3D_World&oldid=926367721"
2013 video games
Cooperative video games
Mario platform games
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development games
Nintendo Network games
Side-scrolling video games
3D platform games
Video games scored by Koji Kondo
Video game sequels
Video games featuring female protagonists
Wii U eShop games
Wii U-only games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Video games developed in Japan
Articles containing Japanese-language text
CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
Articles using Video game reviews template in single platform mode
Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2019
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Jeremiah Wright (D) = Bob Jones (R)? Only the Corporatist Media Knows for Sure (Because it Gets to Decide for Itself and Make Up a Fake Narrative to Keep Straight White People Scared)
From the LGBT alumni of – snigger – BJU:
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney enthusiastically accepted the endorsement of Dr. Bob Jones III, Chancellor of Bob Jones University, during the last election.
“We’re proud to have Dr. Jones’ support and look forward to working with him to communicate Governor Romney’s message of conservative change to voters,” Romney spokesman William Holley said in a statement in October 2007.
The endorsement of Bob Jones was once a much-sought-after prize in South Carolina’s early primary. In 2000, George W. Bush’s speech before the BJU crowd brought controversy to his campaign because of the university’s rule forbidding interracial marriage and dating. One month later, BJU reversed its long-standing policy on CNN’s Larry King Show. All serious Republican candidates, including Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George H.W. Bush made the pilgrimage to America’s “Fortress of Faith” in the upstate town of Greenville.
Back in those days, the following statement by Dr. Bob Jones III, then president and now-chancellor of BJU, barely raised an eyebrow:
I’m sure this will be greatly misquoted but it would not be a bad idea to bring the swift justice today that was brought in Israel’s day against murder and rape and homosexuality. I guarantee it would solve the problem post-haste if homosexuals were stoned, if murderers were immediately killed as the Bible commands.
Go to any bar in the Dupont Circle area and you’re liable to find a few stoned gays (trans folks too probably.)
If the corporatist media did its job the way that it tried to do a job on candidate Barack Obama in 2008, then – forget the North Carolina nutjob – the entirety of the Mormon religion would be Multiple Choice Mitt’s “Jeremiah Wright problem.”
Our questions for Governor Romney are:
(1) Were you aware in 2008 that Dr. Jones and BJU had advocated the stoning to death of homosexuals?
(2) If yes, why did you accept his endorsement? If you weren’t aware, why not?
(3) This time, will you accept his endorsement? Or will you join our petition drive calling on Dr. Jones to apologize for his rampant, blatant homophobic statements?
Will the corporatist media even go for the low-hanging fruit of Bob Jones?
I’m not holding my breath.
11 Comments | George W. Bush, History, Non-ENDA, Random nutty fundies | Permalink
For Those Who Didn’t Think That Mitt Romney’s Obnoxious Elitism Could Get Any Worse…
We have history!
A newly-unearthed photograph showing Mitt Romney demonstrating in favour of the Vietnam War draft might leave the presidential candidate feeling somewhat embarrassed.
The veteran Republican, then 19, can be seen picketing an anti-war sit-in at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in 1966.
George Romney headed American Motors before becoming Michigan governor in 1963, a position he held for six years before being appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by Richard Nixon.
Ironically, he later had a change of heart and turned against the Vietnam War.
His pro-war son, meanwhile, never served in south-east Asia because his status as a Mormon missionary exempted him from the draft.
The GOP hopeful spent just one year at Stanford before heading to France for 30 months of missionary work.
He had already met his future wife Ann in 1965 when he was 18 and she was 15. The couple married in 1969 and have five sons and 16 grandchildren.
Millionaire son of a millionaire – who knows he’ll never have to face the draft (much less the VC) because of the special rights afforded to religionists – campaigning to ensure that poor kids can be legally enslaved against their will to fight battles that will benefit corporatists such as his father and future corporatists such as himself.
What does that make him?
The 0.00000001%?
Hell, even Dubya had to make some effort at pretending to be in the National Guard to avoid going to Viet Nam.
Yes, I guess this is indeed the ultimate reason to disqualify Mr, ‘Corporations Are People Too’ from contention for the presidency: By comparison to Mitt, George W. Bush is actually a patriot.
It recently emerged that Mr Romney has plans to quadruple the size of his $12 million California home.
How many of the people who weren’t able to dodge the draft with not just money but religion would like to spend $12 million to quadruple the size of their graves?
Inquiring war dead want to know.
I hope that the emergence of this causes Mitt the Flip to shit in his magic underwear.
2 Comments | Action Alerts, George W. Bush, History, Non-ENDA, Random nutty fundies | Permalink
If State-Level Republicans Really Care About Cutting their Budgets….
…then perhaps, instead of anthropology, they should de-fund – or even outlaw – so-called ‘business administration’ degree programs.
Seriously. After all, what have any of them ever produced?
Leave a Comment » | George W. Bush, History, Non-ENDA, Random nutty fundies | Permalink
Patriot Act = Enabling Act
Sorry, but Godwin’s Law doesn’t apply to Nazi comparisons that are accurate.
From Crooks and Liars:
Looks like Bin Laden won. Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s watching and laughing:
Two Senators have been warning for months that the government has a secret legal interpretation of the Patriot Act so broad that it amounts to an entirely different law — one that gives the feds massive domestic surveillance powers, and keeps the rest of us in the dark about the snooping.
“There is a significant discrepancy between what most Americans – including many members of Congress – think the Patriot Act allows the government to do and how government officials interpret that same law,” wrote the Senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. “We believe that most members of the American public would be very surprised to learn how federal surveillance law is being interpreted in secret. ”
Sadly, I can’t agree with that last sentence.
I might have been able to 30 years ago, but now? An American public dumbed down by MTV, right-wing talk radio and the fake dichotomies of an artificial two-party system even before Fox ‘News’ was allowed to work its way into the American greymatter? Most of them actually believe that Dubya won in 2000 and 2004, no?
Leave a Comment » | Action Alerts, George W. Bush, History, Non-ENDA | Permalink
Big Awful Mistake Scoreboard
Seen today exiting the parking lot of a grocery store somewhere in the American Midwest:
Obama‘s a big awful mistake, eh?
Tell ya what Ms. ‘Marriage – One Man One Woman’ Born Again 2010 Iowa Voter, you think Obama’s such a big mistake? Then get thee to an Abbottabadery.
What you’ve declared to be America’s ‘big mistake’ beat you to that, didn’t he?
And, um….
Why was Osama still around for Obama to catch in 2011?
Oh, Ms. ‘Marriage – One Man One Woman’ Born Again 2010 Iowa Voter……..
I’m waiting for an answer.
Either worrying about who can get married and who can’t was (and is) more important than finding a mass murderer who wouldn’t have given a shit on 9/11 if he had had intel informing him that the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were full of nothing but people who share your view on marriage limitation (and, lets get real, the Pentagon probably was) or someone who, at best, had questionable occupancy rights to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from 2001-09 really wasn’t playing for the team that you’ve convinced yourself that he (not to mention the person Obama beat in 2008) was, or….
maybe you’re just a worthless, braindead homophobic racist.
[ADDENDUM – 5/5/2011, 5:24 PM CDT]
I’d forgotten to include this photo, taken at the same parking lot – roughly a minute before the ‘BAM’ shot.
No optical illusion. The Americross is planted in the bed of the pickup, which – now here’s the money shot (in light of the ‘god is able’ communique) – was parked in a handicap space.
Now, to be fair, I didn’t see anything expressly anti-Obama on this, um…., vehicle. But, I am left with a question: If god is able, why is he not willing?
Leave a Comment » | George W. Bush, History, Random nutty fundies | Permalink
Don’t Let the Revisionists Get Away With it
Its already started:
Its as if Dubya and Obama were two pitchers who combined for a legendary pitching performance: Dubya the starter, and Obama the reliever.
The lives and legacies of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden have been inextricably intertwined since Sept. 11, 2001.
Two days after bin Laden’s terrorist operation killed more than 3,000 Americans, Bush declared, “We will not rest until we find him.” It was Bush who authorized the CIA to use the harshest interrogation tactics in U.S. history. Then came Tora Bora, Guantanamo Bay, waterboarding, rendition, terrorist strikes in London and Madrid, and more than 6,000 U.S. military casualties in twin wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now that bin Laden has been killed by U.S. forces on a mission first assigned by President Bush, aided by evidence gained from “enhanced interrogation techniques” authorized by the former president, Bush’s frustrating “mission impossible” has, in the dead of night, turned into “mission accomplished.”
And in an instant, Bush’s fruitless search for bin Laden was hailed across the political spectrum as a determined effort that paved the way for his successor’s success.
The Houston Chronk says it, so it must be true, eh?
“He never wavered in that mission” to capture or kill bin Laden, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday at a news conference near Ground Zero.
How interesting that the Houston Chronk is basically an echo chamber for the latest Dubya-canonization meme from Fox ‘News’:
Fox & Friends had wall-to-wall coverage of the celebrations inspired by news of Osama bin Laden’s death this morning, and had on lots of analysts to discuss the Obama administration’s big victory in the so-called “war on terror”.
To do that, strangely enough, they had on all sorts of commentators, including various politicians, such as Karl Rove, and featured statements from the likes of Dick Cheney. Oddly enough, not a single segment managed to include a Democratic politician or even one person from the Obama administration.
Instead, what we heard all morning was how George W. Bush deserves credit too! They even ran a segment featuring Bush vowing in 2001 he would eventually get Bin Laden, with the longest time frame being a year from then.
As Steve Benen puts it:
There’s a fair amount of this rhetoric bouncing around this morning, and it’s not especially surprising — Republicans aren’t going to credit President Obama, regardless of merit, so it stands to reason they’ll try to bring George W. Bush into the picture.
If this is going to be a new GOP talking point, we might as well set the record straight.
In March 2002, just six months after 9/11, Bush said of bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him…. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you.”
In July 2006, we learned that the Bush administration closed its unit that had been hunting bin Laden.
So, while we’re on the subject of 2001 and units….
Barack Obama is not Randy Johnson to Dubya’s Curt Schilling.
Rather, the year is 1986 and Barack Obama is the New York Mets to Dubya’s Bill Buckner – not to imply that Obama was lucky but, rather, that the Bush family is on one team and the rest of us are on another.
But reality has never gotten in the way of a conservative Texas ‘news’ outlet fluffing the Bush family.
If history is any guide, the successful U.S. military operation is likely to boost the sagging popularity of President Barack Obama. But for Bush, the terrorist leader’s death also could alter public perceptions of his presidency.
Hopefully it will remove all doubt that Dubya didn’t give a damn about finding bin Laden and, instead, was only concerned about ejaculating on Iraq.
“It’s certainly a validation of the policies that President Bush put in place following the attacks of 9/11,” said Midland businessman Donald Evans, a close Bush friend and former commerce secretary. “President Obama has looked back at how President Bush led the war on terrorism and I think he drew many lessons from that.”
Bush left office in January 2009 as the least popular president in three decades. But lawmakers from both parties said Monday that his aggressive efforts to combat al-Qaida will burnish his legacy. A small group of Texans gathered outside Bush’s Dallas home Monday, leaving behind American flags and patriotic, red, white and blue balloons.
“President Bush has been proven correct,” said Rep. Al Green, D-Houston. “He indicated that he would bring bin Laden to justice or we would bring justice to bin Laden. While President Bush isn’t president, I do believe President Obama finished what President Bush started.”
Some elected officials said the interrogation tactics approved by Bush may have played a key role in locating bin Laden.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican, told the Houston Chronicle that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed provided U.S. interrogators the name of a courier trusted by bin Laden, enabling U.S. officials to eventually track the courier to the compound where bin Laden was found and killed on Sunday by a helicopter-borne team of Navy SEALs.
McCaul, a former federal prosecutor who handled counterterrorism duties in Texas for the Justice Department, said Mohammed had surrendered the crucial information some time after being subjected to the “aggressive interrogation techniques for which the Bush administration was criticized.”
The practices used on detainees at Guantanamo have fueled deep divisions over the value and ethics of harsh interrogation techniques, but supporters now point to the intelligence gathering as one way in which critical information was collected over a period of years.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said intelligence obtained at Guantanamo prison that led to bin Laden’s death was “a direct result of President Bush’s orders.”
“President Bush set into motion the mission to bring down bin Laden,” she said, “and President Obama carried it through to completion.”
How’d that campaign for Texas governer go, eh Kay?
Still, said Mark P. Jones, chairman of the political science department at Rice University, the killing of bin Laden is “bittersweet for President Bush.”
“On one level, he’s happy to see him receive the justice that he deserved,” Jones said. “On another level, he has to be disappointed it didn’t happen on his watch. It reminds people that he failed in the capture or death of bin Laden.”
Maybe I’m being too harsh with Bill Buckner. After all, he was a good player who made a bad play – just at the worst possible time.
Perhaps Dubya is actually Manny Ramirez.
The fate of bin Laden was one of several unsettled matters that academics say will influence Bush’s ultimate place in history. These include the nation’s economic situation, the fragile stability of Iraq, the future of war-torn Afghanistan and the fate of democracy movements in undemocratic nations in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Certainly, President Bush handed off two unresolved wars and an economic collapse to his successor,” said Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillson. “Anything that takes the edge off those problems – bin Laden’s death, economic recovery, and easing out of Iraq and Afghanistan – will help President Bush’s legacy, at least at the margins.”
So, to stick with the baseball comparisons, I guess that would make the ‘journalists’ who can’t be bothered to mention:
Would they collectively be Eddie Gaedel?
Wart and Remembrance
Remember the run-up to the 2000 presidential election?
When gay conservatives were falling all over themselves to support George W. Bush, justifying that support with the delusion that there was no proof whatsoever that he was actually anti-gay?
Well, what if – all other things being equal – he actually had turned out to be the stealth pro-gay candidate that those gay conservatives were asserting/implying that he was?
What if he had supported – and achieved – DOMA repeal? DADT repeal? An inclusive ENDA?
While that would all have been nice, it wouldn’t alter one nagging piece of reality: George W. Bush actually lost the 2000 presidential election. The process that put him into the White House in 2001 was illegitimate and everyone – including Justices Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist, O’Connor and Kennedy – knows it. Ditto for 2004.
In turn, even if 2001-2009 resulted in occurrences which could allow a sane person to honestly claim that President George W. Bush was a friend to the LGBT community, the same sane person could not honestly say that George W. Bush legitimately earned the right to be in the position where he was able to demonstrate that friendship via DOMA repeal, DADT repeal, inclusive ENDA passage, et. al.
Remember this.
You’ll be asked about it later.
2 Comments | George W. Bush, History | Permalink
You are currently browsing the archives for the George W. Bush category.
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ABANDONED AT&T Switching Equipment Nuclear Bomb Shelter
Constructed in 1967, the 7,700 square-foot bomb shelter was built by AT&T in the event of a disaster to house five people for up to 30 days to keep the lines of communications open.
The shelter was designed by Alfred Easton Poor, an American architect who was involved with many buildings and projects in New York City as well as multiple works in Washington, D.C. for the US Federal Government.
Over his long career, Poor’s projects include both public and private sector works. Along with fellow New York architect Robert P. Rogers, Poor won the open international design competition for the Wright Brothers National Memorial in 1928.
For the US Government, he worked on a project that restored and extended the East Front of the US Capitol building in the early 1960s, and was also a leading architect in designing the US Library of Congress’ James Madison Memorial Building, the third-largest public building in Washington.
Poor was especially active in the New York City area. His projects include the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, the Queens County Courthouse and prison in Kew Gardens, the Home Insurance Company Building, and the 40-acre Red Hook housing projects.
Poor was chosen by Walter Annenberg to design the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
According to his obituary in the New York Times, he also “designed dozens of branch offices in Manhattan and abroad for the Chemical, National City and Marine Midland banks” and “designed a number of Long Island country homes.” Unlike a fallout shelter that protects from radioactive debris, the main purpose of this shelter was to protect from shock waves and overpressure, though it could protect from fallout for a period of time as well. The front retaining wall is 3 feet thick, the roof slab is between 24-31 inches thick, and the concrete floors are 26 inches thick. Industrial springs were installed throughout the struc
ExPix_Abandoned_Nuclear_Bomb_Shelter19.jpg
ABANDONED Nuclear Bomb Shelter florida
Abandoned Nuclear Bomb Shelter
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Faculty Profile for Dr. Ty Schepis
Dr. Ty Schepis
Associate Professor — Psychology
UAC 238
ts36@txstate.edu
Schepis, T. S., & McCabe, S. E. (2019). Prescription Opioid Misuse in US Older Adults: Associated Comorbidities and Reduced Quality of Life in the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions-III. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 80(6), e1–e8. https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.19m12853
Schepis, T. S., Wilens, T. E., & McCabe, S. E. (2019). Prescription drug misuse: Sources of controlled medications in adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 58(7), 670–680.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.09.438
Schepis, T. S., Simona-Wastila, L., & McCabe, S. E. (2019). Prescription opioid and benzodiazepine misuse is associated with suicidal ideation in older adults. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 34(1), 122–129. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.4999
Schepis, T. S. (Ed.). (2018). The Prescription Drug Abuse Epidemic: Incidence, Treatment, Prevention and Policy. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-Clio.
Schepis, T. S., McCabe, S. E., & Teter, C. J. (2018). Sources of opioid medication for misuse in older adults: results from a nationally representative survey. PAIN, 159(8), 1543–1549. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001241
Award / Honor Recipient: Nancy M. Petry Memorial Mid-Career Award, Society of Addiction Psychology. 2019
Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award. 2019
Award / Honor Recipient: College Achievement Award for Scholarly / Creative Activities. August 2018
Award / Honor Recipient: Special Recognition for Excellence in Research Funding and Sponsored Programs. August 2018
Award / Honor Recipient: Alpha Chi Favorite Professor, Alpha Chi, Texas State University. November 1, 2015
Schepis, Ty (Principal), McCabe, Sean E (Supporting). Nonmedical prescription drug misuse among US older adults: subtypes, motives, and diversion sources, National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Federal, $548488. (Funded: August 15, 2017 - April 30, 2021). Grant.
Schepis, Ty S (Principal), McCabe, Sean E (Supporting), Teter, Christian J (Supporting). Prescription Drug Misuse Characteristics in Adolescents and Young Adults: Influence of School Enrollment, National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Federal, $572757. (Funded: June 1, 2017 - April 30, 2020). Grant.
Schepis, Ty S (Principal). Ecological Momentary Assessment of Mechanisms related to College Student Prescription Stimulant Misuse, National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Federal, $146440. (Funded: March 1, 2017 - February 28, 2019). Grant.
Schepis, Ty (Principal). Impulsivity, Risk Taking, Stress and Nicotine Abstinence in Young Adult Smokers, National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Federal, $102226. (Submitted: March 2011, Funded: February 1, 2012 - January 31, 2013). Grant.
Schepis, Ty (Principal). Stress, Self-Control, Impulsivity and Smoking Cessation in Adolescents, Yale University Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-control and Addiction at Yale University School of Medicine, Institutional (Higher Ed), $18252. (Funded: January 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009). Grant.
View all Grants
Personnel Committee
August 2015-Present
Texas State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Texas State University Alcohol and Drug Advisory Council
August 2014-May 2019
University Academic Governance Committee
Graduate Advisor
June 2016-June 2017
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Tag Archives: open science
Blogging is dead. Long live the blog!
At 268,000, visits to this blog are now down 37% from the peak year of 2015. At the same time, this year I had the fewest number of new posts, just 39. On the other hand, this year I had 25 million impressions on Twitter. Whatever that means.
In my case, and probably many others, the role of the blog has changed with the growth of Twitter. A lot of what the blog did was provide an immediate outlet for daily chatter and work in progress thoughts, a way to get feedback, check in with colleagues, learn new things and meet new people. That’s a lot of what I use Twitter for now, more efficiently (if more noisily).
The other squeeze on the blog is the imperative to do open science more systematically, for which I use the Open Science Framework to post data and code — in projects, which may include multiple files, and quick files for single documents. And of course I use SocArXiv for more formal working papers, reviews, and preprints (mine are here).
So what is the role of the blog? It’s the place for official news and announcements about new work — including notifications of stuff I’m publishing elsewhere — longer arguments, and informal work. It’s a way for people to subscribe to my news via email (it also goes on Facebook, which a lot of sociologists use).
In several talks I have tried to illustrate the total information strategy in something like this pentagulation:
For a wider perspective, I also wrote a report on Scholarly Communication in Sociology, which is intended especially for grad students and early career scholars.
I’m happy to hear suggestions (on any platform) for how to handle communication strategy.
Book aside
The tricky relationship between platforms and different media came home to roost in my book, Enduring Bonds: Inequality, Marriage, Parenting, and Everything Else That Makes Families Great and Terrible. That book was inspired by the success of this blog, which is what enticed University of California Press to consider it. Unbeknownst to the vast majority of my readers on other platforms, I worked pretty hard on it, selecting the best blog posts, and then combining, updating, and adding to them to make a collection of essays, with data. I don’t know how successful the book is compared with other academic books generally, but, with almost no marketing beyond my social media platforms, it has generated basically no buzz for me (media, invitations, etc.). That’s in contrast to working papers, tweets, and blog posts, which continue to bring in wider attention. I know other people have done amazing blog-to-book projects, but this experience definitely showed me that the successful translation is far from automatic. Live and learn! Maybe in the long run the book will be what persists from the first decade of this blog.
Tagged as blog, books, media, open science, social media, twitter
Updated: I submitted a resolution to the ASA Committee on Publications, for consideration at our January meeting. You can read and comment on it here.
The American Sociological Association has signed a letter that profoundly betrays the public interest and goes against the values that many of us in the scholarly community embrace.
The letter to President Trump, signed by dozes of academic societies, voices opposition to a rumored federal policy change that would require federally funded research be made freely available upon publication, rather than according to the currently mandated 12-month embargo — which ASA similarly, bitterly, opposed in 2012. ASA has not said who made the decision to sign this letter. All I know is that, as a member of the Committee on Publications, I wasn’t consulted or notified. I don’t know what the ASA rules are for issuing such statements in our name, but this one is disgraceful.
The argument is that ASA would not be able to make money selling research generated by federal funding if it were required to be distributed for free. And because ASA would suffer, science and the public interest would suffer. Like when Trump says getting Ukraine to help him win re-election is by definition in the American interest — what helps ASA is what’s good for science.
The letter says:
Currently, free distribution of research findings is subject to a 12-month embargo, enabling American publishers to recover the investment made in curating and assuring the quality of scientific research content. … The current 12-month embargo period provides science and engineering society publishers the financial stability that enables us to support peer review that ensures the quality and integrity of the research enterprise.
That is funny, because in 2012 ASA director Sally Hillsman (since retired) said the 12-month embargo policy “could threaten the ability of scholarly societies, including the ASA, to continue publishing journals” and was “likely to seriously erode and eventually jeopardize our financial ability to perform the critical, value added peer review and editorial functions of scientific publishing.”
The current letter, at least with regard to ASA, tell this whopper: “we support open access and have a strong history of advancing open access through a broad array of operational models.” They literally oppose open access, including in this letter, and including the current, weak, open access policy.
The ASA-signed letter is very similar to one sent about the same time by a different (but overlapping) large group of publishers, including Elsevier, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, claiming the rumored policy would hurt ‘merica. But there are subtle differences. The ASA letter refers to “the current proven and successful model for reporting, curating and archiving scientific results and advancing the U.S. research enterprise,” which should not be tampered with. The other letter warns of the danger of “step[ing] into the private marketplace” in which they sell research. Knowledge philosopher Peter Suber offered an excellent critique of the market claims here in this Twitter thread:
1/ Many of the new publisher lobbying statements use the standard rhetoric that government #openaccess policies interfere with the market. Many go a step further and assert that the market is working well.
— Peter Suber (@petersuber) December 19, 2019
ASA and the other money-making societies really want you to believe there is no way to do curation and peer review without them. If we jeopardize their business model, ASA says, the services they provide would not happen. In fact, the current subscription models and paywalls stand in the way of developing the cheaper, more efficient models we could build right now to replace them. All we need to do is take the money we currently devote to journal subscriptions and publisher profits, and redirect it to the tasks of curation and peer review without profits and paywalls — and free distribution (which is a lot cheaper to administer than paywalled distribution).
The sooner we start working on that the better. In this effort — and in the absence of leadership by scholarly societies — the university libraries are our strongest allies. This is explained by UNC Librarian Elaine Westbrooks in this Twitter thread:
People in the US are getting all worked up over the threat that articles produced as a result of federally funded research could be open.
— Elaine L Westbrooks (@UNC_Librarian) December 19, 2019
Compare this forwarding thinking librarian’s statement with Elsevier. In proudly sharing the publishers’ statement, Elsevier vice president Ann Gabriel said, “Imagine a world without scientific, medical societies and publishers who support scholarship, discovery and infrastructures for peer review, data archiving and networks.” Notice two things in this statement. First, she does not mention libraries, which are the academy-owned institutions that do literally all this as well. And second, see how she bundles publishers and societies. This is the sad reality. If instead of “societies and publishers” we had “societies and libraries” maybe we’d be getting somewhere. Instead, our societies, including the American Sociological Association, are effectively captured by publishers, and represent their interests instead of the public interest, and the values of our community.
I remain very pessimistic about ASA, which is run by a professional group with allegiance to the paywall industry, along with mostly transient, naive, and/or ineffectual academics (of which I am certainly one). But I’m torn, because I want to see a model of scholarly societies that works, which is why I agreed to serve of the ASA Committee on Publications — which mostly does busy work for the association while providing the cover of legitimacy for the professional staff.
Letter of opposition
So I posted a letter expressing opposition to the ASA letter. If you are a sociologist, I hope you will consider sharing and signing it. We got 100 signatures on the first day, but it will probably take more for ASA to care. To share the letter, you can use this link: https://forms.gle/ecvYk3hUmEh2jrETA.
In light of a rumored new White House Open Access Policy, the American Sociological Association (ASA), and other scholarly societies, signed a letter to President Trump in support of continued embargoes for federally-funded research.
We are sociologists who join with libraries and other advocates in the research community in support of federal policy to make the results of taxpayer-funded research immediately available to the public for free. We endorse a policy that would eliminate the current 12-month waiting period for open access to the outputs of taxpayer-funded scientific research. Ensuring full open access to publicly-funded research contributes to the public good by improving scientific productivity and equalizing access — including international access — to valuable knowledge that the public has already paid for. The U.S. should join the many other countries that already have strong open access policies.
We oppose the decision by ASA to sign this letter, which goes against our values as members of the research community, and urge the association to rescind its endorsement, to join the growing consensus in favor of open access to to scholarship, including our own.
Tagged as american sociological association, ASA, open access, open science, publishing, science, social science
“Why we need open science in demography, and how we can make it happen” is the title of a talk I gave at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research yesterday, as part of an open science workshop they hosted in Rostock, Germany. (The talk was not nearly as definitive as the title.)
The other (excellent) keynote was by Monica Alexander. I posted the slides from my talk here. There should be a video available later. The organizing committee for the event is working to raise the prominence of open science discussions at the Institute, and consider practices and policies they might adopt. We had a great meeting.
As an aside, I also got to hear an excellent tutorial by E. F. Haghish, who has written Markdoc, a “literate programming” (markdown) package for Stata, which is very cool. These are his slides.
Tagged as demography, germany, open science, socarxiv, stata
“The Coming Divorce Decline, ” which I first posted a year ago, has now been published by the journal Socius. Three thousand people have downloaded it from SocArXiv, I presented it at the Population Association, and it’s been widely reported (media reports), but now it’s also “peer reviewed.” Since Socius is open access, I posted their PDF on SocArXiv, and now that version appears first at the same DOI or web address (paper), while the former editions are also available.
Improvement: Last time I posted about it here I had a crude measure of divorce risk with one point each for various risk factors. For the new version I fixed it up, using a divorce prediction model for people married less than 10 years in 2017 to generate a set of divorce probabilities that I apply to the newly-wed women from 2008 to 2017:
…the coefficients from this model are applied to newly married women from 2008 to 2017 to generate a predicted divorce probability based on 2017 effects. The analysis asks what proportion of the newly married women would divorce in each of their first 10 years of marriage if 2017 divorce propensities prevailed and their characteristics did not change.
The result looks like this, showing the annual probability falling from almost 2.7% to less than 2.4%:
The fact that this predicted probability is falling is the (now improved) basis for my prediction that divorce rates will continue to decline in the coming years: the people marrying now have fewer risk factors. (The data and code for all this is up, too).
Prediction aside: The short description of study preregistration is “specifying your plan in advance, before you gather data.” You do this with a time-stamped report so readers know you’re not rejiggering the results after you collect data to make it look like you were right all along. This doesn’t always make sense with secondary data because the data is already collected before we get there. However, in this case I was making predictions about future data not yet released. So the first version of this paper, posted last September and preserved with a time stamp on SocArXiv, is like a preregistration of the later versions, effectively predicting I would find a decline in subsequent years if I used the same models — which I did. People who use data that is released on a regular schedule, like ACS, CPS, or GSS, might consider doing this in the future.
Rejection addendum: Sociological Science rejected this — as they do, in about 30 days, with very brief reviews — and based on their misunderstandings I made some clarifications and explained the limitations before sending it to Socius. Since the paper was publicly available the whole time this didn’t slow down the progress of science, and then I improved it, so I’m happy about it.
Just in case you’re worried that this rejections means the paper might be wrong, I’m sharing their reviews here, as summarized by the editor. If you read the current version you’ll see how I clarified these points.
* While the analyses are generally sensible, both Consulting Editors point out the paper’s modest contribution to the literature relative to Kennedy and Ruggles (2014) and Hemez (2017). The paper cites both of these papers but does not make clear how the paper adds to our understanding derived from those papers. If the relatively modest extension in the time frame in this paper is sociologically consequential, the paper does not make the case clearly.
* There is more novelty in the paper’s estimates of the annual divorce probability for newly-married women (shown in Table 3 and Figure 3), based on estimating a divorce model for the most recent survey year, and then applying the coefficients from that model to prior years. This procedure was somewhat difficult for the readers to follow, but issues were raised, most notably the question of the sensitivity of the results to the adjustments made. As one CE noted, “Excluding those in the first year of marriage is problematic as newlyweds have a high rate of divorce. Also, why just married in the last 10 years? Consider whether married for the first time vs remarried matters. Also, investigate the merits of an age restriction given the aging of the population Kennedy and Ruggles point to.”
Tagged as american community survey, demography, divorce, open access, open science, publishing, socarxiv
Less than half of women with PhDs in survey keep ‘maiden’ names
Marital Name Change Survey first results and open data release.
Over the last three days 3,400 ever-married U.S. residents took my Marital Name Change Survey. I distributed the survey link on this blog, Facebook and Twitter. I don’t know who took it, but based on the education and occupation data a very large share of the respondents were women (88%) with professional degrees (30%) or Phds (27%). It’s not a representative sample, but the results may still be interesting.
Here I’ll give a few topline numbers as of 8:00 this morning, and then link to a public version of the data and materials. These results reflect a little data checking and cleaning and of course are subject to change.
Respondents were asked about their most recent marriage. Half were married in the 2010s, but the sample includes more than 400 married in the 1990s and 200 earlier.
The vast majority (84%) were women married to men; 11% were men married to women and 4% (~140) were in same-gender marriages. Here are some observations about the women married to men. The name-change choices are shown below, with “R change” indicating the respondent changed their name, and “Sp change” indicating their spouse changed. The “Other” field included a write-in, and the vast majority of those were variations on hyphenations or changes to middle names.
Because of the convenience nature of the sample, I don’t put much stock in the overall trend (I’ll try to develop a weighting scheme for this, but even then). However, I think the PhD sample is worth looking at. Here is the trend of women with PhDs (now or at the time of marriage) married to men.
By this reckoning, the feminist-name heyday was in the 1980s, followed by a backslide, and now a rebound of women with PhDs keeping their names. The 2010s trend is like that found in the Google Consumer survey reported by Claire Cain Miller and Derek Willis in NYT Upshot.
Note, these no-change rates are higher than those reported by Gretchen Gooding and Rose Kreider from the 2004 American Community Survey, which showed 33% of married women with PhDs had different surnames than their husbands (regardless of when they got married). I show 53% in the 2000s had different names than their husbands, and 57% in the 2010s. Maybe that’s because I have more social science and humanities PhDs, or just a more woke sample.
These results also show a strong age-at-marriage pattern, with PhD women much more likely to keep their names if they married at older ages. Over age 40, 74% of women with PhDs kept their names, compared with 20% who married under age 25. (Note this is based on education at the time of the survey; I also collected education at the time of marriage, which I discuss below.)
I asked people how important various factors were if people considered changing their names. Among PhD women marrying men who did not change their names, the most important reasons were feminism (52% “very important”), professional considerations (34%), convenience (33%), and maintaining independence within the marriage (24%). Among those who took their husbands’ names, the most important factors were the interests of their children (48%) and showing commitment to the marriage (25%).
A few other observations: PhD women were most likely to keep their names if they had no religion (53%), were Jewish (46%), or other non-Christian religion (43%); protestants (27%), Catholics (29%), and other Christians (21%) were less likely to keep their names. Finally, those who had lived together before marriage were most likely to keep their names (51% for those who lived together for three years or more, compared with 27% for those who did not live together at all).
I don’t have time now to analyze this more, but that shouldn’t stop you. Feel free to download the data and documentation here under a CC-BY license (the only requirement is attribution). This includes a Stata data file, and PDFs of the questionnaire and codebook. This will all be revised when I have time.
Open-ended responses
I am not including in the shared files (yet) the open-ended question responses, which include descriptions of “other” name change patterns, as well as a general notes field, which is full of fascinating comments; given the non-random nature of the survey, this may turn out to be its most valuable contribution.
Here are a few.
I changed my name to my spouses because I HATED my father and it was the easiest way to ditch his name. I kept my married name after divorce. I’m currently pregnant (on my own) and plan to change my name again and now I will take the surname of my step-father, who has been my “dad” since I was 5.
“True partnership”
My wife and I had been together 10 years and through several iterations of domestic partnerships prior to marrying. Including before she completed her PhD. I didn’t want to change my name because my name flows really poetically and a change would ruin it (silly but true). She didn’t want to change her name in part because it’s what everyone in her profession know her as. I think we both also feel like our names represent our life histories and although we are a true partnership, that doesn’t negate our family histories or experiences. Which I guess is feminist of us. But we never explicitly discussed feminism as an issue.
This is complicated.
My partner and I both had our own hyphenated names already! We kept our own hyphenated names initially (and our marriage was not legally recognized at the time so there wasn’t a built-in or convenient option to change at that point anyway). When we had kids, we have them a hyphenated name, one of my last names and one of hers. Eventually we both changed to match the kids, so we all share the same hyphenated name now.
And so on. Fascinating reading!
Filed under Me @ work, Research reports
Tagged as data, marriage, names, open science, survey, survey methods
I spent my semester as an MIT / CREOS Visiting Scholar and it was excellent
Cambridge in the fall.
As a faculty sociologist who works in the area of family demography and inequality, my interest in open scholarship falls into the category of “service” among my academic obligations, essentially unrecognized and unremunerated by my employer, and competing with research and teaching responsibilities for my time. In that capacity I founded SocArXiv in 2016 (supported by several small grants) and serve as its director, organized two conferences at the University of Maryland under the title O3S: Open Scholarship for the Social Sciences, and I was elected to the Committee on Publications of the American Sociological Association. While continuing that work during a sabbatical leave, I was extremely fortunate to land a half-time position as visiting scholar at the MIT Libraries in the fall 2018, which helped me integrate that service agenda with an emerging research agenda around scholarly communication.
The position was sponsored by a group of libraries organized by the Association of Research Libraries — MIT, UCLA, the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, and the University of Pittsburgh — and hosted by the new Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS) at MIT. My principal collaborator has been Micah Altman, the director of research at CREOS.
The semester was framed by the MIT Grand Challenges Summit in the spring, which I attended, and the report that emerged from that meeting: A Grand Challenges-Based Research Agenda for Scholarly Communication and Information Science, on which I was a collaborator. The report, published in December, describes a vision for a more inclusive, open, equitable, and sustainable future for scholarship; it also characterizes the barriers to this future, and identifies the research needed to bring it to fruition.
Sociology and SocArXiv
Furthering my commitments to sociology and SocArXiv, I continued to work on the service. SocArXiv is growing, with increased participation in sociology and other social sciences. In the fall the Center for Open Science, our host, opened discussions with its paper serving communities about weaning the system off its core foundation financial support and using contributions from each service to make it sustainable (thus far have not paid COS for its develop and hosting). This was an expected challenge, which will require some creative and difficult work in the coming months.
Finally, at the start of the semester I noted that most sociologists — even those interested in open access issues — were not familiar with current patterns, trends, and debates in the scholarly communications ecosystem. This has hampered our efforts to build SocArXiv, as well as our ability to press our associations and institutions for policy changes in the direction of openness, equity, and sustainability. In response to this need, especially among graduate students and junior scholars, I drafted a scholarly communication primer for sociology, which reviews major scholarly communication media, policies, economic actors, and recent innovations. I posted a long draft (~13,000 words) for comment in January, and received a very positive response. It appears that a number of programs will incorporate the revised primer into their training, and many individuals are already reading and sharing it with their networks.
One of the chief barriers identified in the Grand Challenges report is the lack of systematic theory and empirical evidence to design and guide legal, economic, policy and organizational interventions in scholarly publishing and in the knowledge ecosystem generally. As social scientists, Micah and I drew on this insight, and used the case of peer-review in sociology as an entry point. We presented our formative analysis of this case in the CREOS Research Talk, “Can Fix Peer Review.” Here is the summary of this talk:
Contemporary journal peer review is beset by a range of problems. These include (a) long delay times to publication, during which time research is inaccessible; (b) weak incentives to conduct reviews, resulting in high refusal rates as the pace of journal publication increases; (c) quality control problems that produce both errors of commission (accepting erroneous work) and omission (passing over important work, especially null findings); (d) unknown levels of bias, affecting both who is asked to perform peer review and how reviewers treat authors, and; (e) opacity in the process that impedes error correction and more systematic learning, and enables conflicts of interest to pass undetected. Proposed alternative practices attempt to address these concerns — especially open peer review, and post-publication peer review. However, systemic solutions will require revisiting the functions of peer review in its institutional context.
The full slides, with embedded video of the talk (minus the first few minutes) is embedded below:
Research design and intervention
Mapping out the various interventions and proposed alternatives in the peer review space raised a number of questions about how to design and evaluate interventions in a complex system with interdependent parts and actors embedded in different institutional logics — for example, university researchers (some working under state policy), research libraries, for-profit publishers, and academic societies. Working with Jessica Polka, Director of ASAPbio, we are expanding this analysis to consider a range of innovations open science. This analysis highlights the need for systematic research design that can guide the design of initiatives aimed at altering the scholarly knowledge ecosystem.
Applying the ecosystem approach in the Grand Challenges report, we consider large-scale interventions in public health and safety, and their unintended consequences, to build a model for designing projects with the intention of identifying and assessing such consequences across the system. Addressing problems at scale may have such unintended effects as leading vulnerable populations to adapt to new technology in harmful ways (mosquito nets used for fishing); providing new opportunities for harmful competitors (the pesticide treadmill); the displacement of private actors by public goods (dentists driven away by public water fluoridation); and risk compensation by those who receive public protection (anti-lock brakes and riskier driving, vaccinations). Our forthcoming white paper will address such risks in light of recent open science interventions: PLOS One, bioRxiv and preprints generally, and open peer review, among others. We combine research design methods for field experiments in social science, outcomes identified in the grand challenge report, and the ecosystem theory based on an open science lifecycle model.
ARL/SSRC meeting and Next Steps
Coming out of discussions at the first O3S meeting, in December the Association of Research Libraries and the Social Science Research Council convened a meeting on open scholarship in the social sciences, which included leaders from scholarly societies, university libraries, researchers advocating for open science, funders, and staff from ARL, SSRC, and the Coalition for Networked Information. I was fortunate to participate on the planning committee for the meeting, and in that capacity I conducted a series of short video interviews with individual stakeholders from the participating organizations to help expose us all to the range of values, objectives, and concerns we bring to the questions we collectively face in the movement toward open scholarship.
For our own work on peer review, which we presented at the meeting, I was especially drawn to the interviewees’ comments on transparency, incentives, and open infrastructure. In particular, MIT Libraries Director Chris Bourg challenged social scientists to recognize what their own research implies for the peer review system:
Brian Nosek, director of the Center for Open Science, stressed to the need to consider incentives for openness in our interventions:
And Kathleen Fitzpatrick, project director for Humanities Commons, described the necessity of open infrastructure that is flexibly interoperable, allowing parallel use by actors on diverse platforms:
These insights about intervention principles for an open scholarly ecosystem helped Micah and me develop a proposal for discussion at the meeting. Our proposed program, IOTA (I Owe The Academy) aims to solve the supply-and-demand problem for quality peer review in open science interventions (the name is likely to change). We understand that most academics are willing to do peer review when it contributes to a better system of scholarship. At the same time, new peer review projects need (good) reviewers in order to launch successfully. And the community needs (good) empirical research on the peer review process itself. The solution is to match reviewers with initiatives that promote better scholarship using a virtual token system, whereby reviewers pledge review effort units, which are distributed to open peer review projects — while collecting data for use in evaluation and assessment. After receiving positive feedback at the meeting, we will develop this proposal further.
Our presentation is embedded in full below:
A report on the ARL/SSRC meeting describes the shared interests, challenges to openness, and conditions for successful action discussed by participants. And it includes five specific projects they agreed to pursue — one of which is peer review on the SocArXiv and PsyArXiv paper platforms.
In the coming several months we expect to produce a white paper on research design, a proposal for IOTA, and a presentation for the Coalition for Networked Information meeting in April, to spark a discussion about the ways libraries can jointly support additional targeted work to promote, inspire, and support evidence-based research. And a revised version of the scholarly communication primer for sociology is on the way.
Tagged as academia, librarians, open access, open science, peer review, socarxiv
October 5, 2018 · 9:30 am
Proposal for ASA to adopt TOP Guidelines and Open Science Badges
My term on the American Sociological Association Committee on Publications begins in January, so I drafted the first proposal from my platform.
This is for ASA to adopt the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines from the Center for Open Science, and to start using their Open Science Badges, which recognize authors who provide open data, open materials, or use preregistration for their studies.
I put the proposal up in Google Docs, where you can read and comment on it if you like: here.
Tagged as ASA, open science, publishing
In this primary, extremism in unified opposition is no vice; negative campaigning against Dems is no virtue. 1 hour ago
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Last day of this year and time for my recollections of 2014’s main events.
As always this is by no means meant to be a complete coverage of all the events that happened during 2014, just a personal blog post about some of the things I remember, and a few that I had forgotten until I started to compile this list.
I hope you enjoy.
We will start off with the weather since so many of us seem to be obsessed with it.
In the United States there were weather extremes. In California, for example, January was the warmest and driest on record in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. Only four other Januaries since 1878 had been completely dry in Los Angeles until January 2014. Alaskans experienced their third warmest January in 96 years of record, according to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.
In many parts of the Midwest, on the other hand, 2014 was the coldest winter since the late 1970s or early 1980s. And some southern states of the US became the victims of, firstly, winter storm Kronos which brought a rare blanket of snow as far south as Louisiana, and sleet as far south as Harlingen, Texas and Pensacola, Fla. in late January, and then, just days later, a second winter storm, Leon, hit many of the same areas causing commuter chaos in both Birmingham, Ala. and Atlanta. Leon also spread ice and sleet to the Gulf Coast, including the Florida Panhandle, and the Low country of South Carolina.
And worse was on the way. Winter Storm Pax deposited an inch or more of ice in a swath from east-central Georgia into South Carolina, including Augusta, Ga. and Aiken, S.C. Pax was the second heaviest ice storm dating to 1947 in Wilmington, N.C. The accumulation of ice from Pax claimed the famed “Eisenhower tree” at the Augusta National Golf Club. Pax marked the first time since January 1940 that Columbia, S.C. saw snowfall for three straight days.
In complete contrast, the week after Pax, Columbia, S.C. tied its all-time February high of 84 degrees. Augusta, Ga. warmed into the 80s two straight days on Feb. 19-20.
Elsewhere in the world, severe Atlantic winter storms took their toll on many parts of England which in 2014 experienced storms and rain not seen since the late 19th century.
In Tokyo, Japan, which usually averages only about 4 inches of snow each year, there were also severe snow storms. In February, snow blanketed the city with 11 inches of snow in less than a week, the heaviest snowfall in 45 years for Tokyo and in 60 years for the city of Kumagaya, northwest of Tokyo. The following weekend, parts of eastern Japan, including parts of the Tokyo metro area, received another round of snow. Some smaller communities were isolated by more than 3 feet of snow.
And in the southern hemisphere, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology reported that more than 10 percent of Queensland and almost 15 percent of New South Wales experienced their record hottest day on Jan. 3. A second heat wave hit parts of southern Australia in mid-January, with temperatures peaking above 41 degrees Celsius (just under 106 degrees Fahrenheit) for four straight days from Jan. 14-17, and reaching a sizzling 43.9 degrees C (111 degrees F) on both Jan. 16 and 17.
In the world of business and technology 2014 was the year the Obama administration decided to stop inversion deals, where US companies bought foreign domiciled businesses and moved their profit centers to a much more tax friendly location.
In technology buys, one of the largest was Facebook’s purchase of smartphone application WhatsApp for $19 Billion.
In other sectors 2014 saw world oil price plunge to around $50 per barrel, good news for consumers, not so good for producers.
Under pressure from the fall in oil and gas prices, along with the economic sanctions imposed by the west because of the ongoing situation in the Ukraine, the Russian Ruble went into free fall in December.
Also in 2014, in March, the United Nations International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s Antarctic whaling program was not scientific but commercial and refused to grant further permits.
With Quantitative Easing having been ended in the US (for the moment anyway) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced plans for a new $29 billion fresh stimulus, including subsidies and job-creating programs, to help pull the world’s third-largest economy out of recession.
After their embarrassing foul up last Christmas, this year both FedEx and UPS managed to deliver more than 99 percent of express packages as promised on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, according to shipment tracker ShipMatrix.
South Korean prosecutors arrested a government official who allegedly leaked information about an investigation into former Korean Air Lines executive Cho Hyun-ah, who forced a flight to return over a bag of macadamia nuts. Most of the rest of the world tends to think that the idiot executive should suffer the consequences of her stupidity, not the whistleblower.
And finally, after their embarrassing hack attack and cringe-worthy capitulation to what amounted to a terrorist cyber attack which was rightly criticized publicly by President Obama, Sony finally decided to release its movie ‘The Interview’.
Conflicts, Wars & Terrorism
Unfortunately 2014 saw many conflicts and acts of terrorism.
In April an estimated 276 girls and women were abducted and held hostage from a school in Nigeria. The following month, Boko Haram militants killed approximately 300 people in a night attack on Gamboru Ngala and terrorists in Nigeria detonated bombs at Jos, killing 118 people.
June saw the emergence of a Sunni militant group called the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’ (also known as the ‘ISIS’ or ‘ISIL’). It began an offensive throughout northern Iraq, with the aim of eventually capturing the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad and overthrowing the Shiite government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The group has been responsible for beheading of hundreds of people including several from the United States.
In July and August tensions between Israel and Hamas grew following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in July. Israel launched ‘Operation Protective Edge’ on the Palestinian Gaza Strip starting with numerous missile strikes, followed by a ground invasion a week later. In 7 weeks of fighting, 2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis were killed.
Also in July, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 souls on board. There are conflicting claims as to who was responsible, some blaming pro Russian forces for a missile strike and others blaming Ukrainian forces.
In August and September the United States military began an air campaign in northern Iraq to stem the influx of ISIS militants and the following month the United States and several Arab partners began an airstrike campaign in Syria.
Expect more on these stories during 2015.
During 2014 we said farewell to many well know people from various walks of life. Here is just my selection of those I remember.
From Literature
Sue Townsend
British novelist and playwright (b. 1946)
British writer and life peer
(b. 1920)
From Movies & TV
Roger Lloyd-Pack
British actor
Austrian-Swiss actor
American actor
American actress and diplomat
American film director,
writer, and actor
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.
Rik Mayall
British comedian,
writer and actor
American radio host
and voice actor
American actress and singer
Israeli filmmaker
American actor and comedian
British actor and film director
American comedian, actress,
and television host
American actor (b. 1939)
Ken Takakura
Japanese actor
English actor
American television producer
and writer
Italian actress
Billie Whitelaw
English actress
Luise Rainer
Golden Age actress
“The Great Ziegfeld”
From Music
American singer, songwriter,
musician, and activist
American singer and guitarist
Glenn Cornick
British bass guitarist
British rock bassist
British jazz clarinetist
From Politics
Zbigniew Messner
9th Prime Minister of the
People’s Republic of Poland
11th Prime Minister of Israel
British politician and diarist
138th Prime Minister of Spain
James R. Schlesinger
American economist and politician
A. N. R. Robinson
3rd President of Trinidad and Tobago
American politician and diplomat
2nd President of Georgia
Irish Taoiseach (prime minister)
British politician and
First Minister of Northern Ireland
Nicholas Romanov
Prince of Russia
Jean-Claude Duvalier
41st President of Haiti
John Spencer-Churchill
11th Duke of Marlborough,
British peer and educator
21st Prime Minister of Australia
From Space Exploration
Valeri Kubasov
Soviet cosmonaut
Wubbo Ockels
Dutch astronaut and physicist
Henry Hartsfield
American colonel and astronaut
Anatoly Berezovoy
From Sport
Portuguese footballer
Mae Young
American professional wrestler
Louise Brough
Tom Finney
English footballer
Nelson Frazier, Jr.
American boxer
Australian race car driver
Malcolm Glazer
American businessman,
owner of Manchester United
Valentin Mankin
Ukrainian sailor, Olympic triple champion
and silver medalist
Fernandão
Brazilian footballer and manager
Argentine-Spanish footballer
Andriy Bal
Ukrainian football player and coach
Björn Waldegård
Swedish rally driver
Italian race car driver
The big health scare of 2014 that dominated the headlines was the of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa in February, that initially infected over 19,000 people and killing at least 7,000, the most severe both in terms of numbers of infections and casualties.
In other news, also in February, Belgium became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age.
On January 1, Latvia officially adopted the Euro as its currency and became the 18th member of the Eurozone.
In February, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office, replacing him with Oleksandr Turchynov, after days of civil unrest that left around 100 people dead in Kiev. The pro-Russian unrest lead to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and an insurgency in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In March, Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, severed diplomatic and political ties with Panama, accusing it of being involved in a conspiracy against the Venezuelan government.
Also in March, an emergency meeting, involving the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada temporarily suspended Russia from the G8.
In April, also in response to the Crimean crisis, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution temporarily stripping Russia of its voting rights; its rights to be represented in the Bureau of the Assembly, the PACE Presidential Committee, and the PACE Standing Committee; and its right to participate in election-observation missions.
The same month, United States President Barack Obama began new economic sanctions against Russia, targeting companies and individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In May the Royal Thai Army overthrew the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in Thailand.
Back in Europe, in June, King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicated in favor of his son, who ascended the Spanish throne as King Felipe VI.
And the political year ended on a positive note, with U.S. President Barack Obama announcing the resumption of normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba after more than half a century.
The major space event of 2014 happened in November when the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Philae probe successfully landed on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.
The two major world sporting events of 2014 were the XXII Olympic Winter Games, held in Sochi, Russia in February, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil, and won by Germany, during June and July.
In American sport the Super Bowl was won by the Seattle Seahawks, the MLB World Series winners were the San Francisco Giants and in basketball the San Antonio Spurs came out on top.
Ice Hockey had three champions in 2014, Canada becoming Olympic champions, Russia world champions and in the NHL the Los Angeles Kings were the victors.
In tennis at the world famous Wimbledon Tournament in England Novak Djokovic became Men’s Singles Champion and Petra Kvitova Ladies Singles Champion, while the men’s and women’s winners of the US Open were Marin Čilić and Serena Williams respectively.
In Soccer, as noted above, Germany won the 2014 World Cup. The European Champions League winners were Real Madrid and the English Premiership was won by Manchester City.
The Formula 1 motor racing champion for 2014 was British driver Lewis Hamilton, who also picked up the award of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
In golf’s major championships, the Masters Tournament, held in April, was won by Bubba Watson by three strokes. It was his second Masters championship.
May saw the BMW PGA Championship where young Northern Ireland man Rory McIlroy birdied the 18th hole to win by one stroke over Irishman Shane Lowry, who also birdied the 18th hole.
In June, U.S. Open winner was Martin Kaymer who won by eight strokes to become the first German player to win the U.S. Open, and the first player to win the Players Championship and the U.S. Open in the same year.
In July, the Open Championship Northern Ireland man Rory McIlroy, was on top again winning by two strokes over Rickie Fowler and Sergio García. It was his third career major championship, and his first Open Championship. With the win, he became the fourth player ever of 25 years old or under to have won at least three majors.
In August, McIlroy was back, winning the PGA Championship by one stroke over Phil Mickelson. He was having quite a year, it was his fourth career major and his second PGA Championship.
Then in September, in the Ryder Cup, Team Europe (also including McIlroy) defeated Team USA by a score of 16½ – 11½. It was the third consecutive Ryder Cup victory for Europe, and also Europe’s fifth consecutive home victory in the Ryder Cup.
In March Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 airliner en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappears over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board. The aircraft is presumed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean.
In April Korean ferry MV Sewol capsized and sunk after an unmanageable cargo shift. More than 290 people were killed, mostly high school students.
In May hundreds of workers were killed in mining accident in Turkey.
In July, Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashed in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.
And just a few days ago AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed, wreckage has been found off the coast of Indonesia’s Kalimantan coast.
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(REFERENCE COPY - Not for submission) Children's Television Programming Report
CPR-131709
WMDT
Children's TV Programming Report
Current Step is General Information
Children's Television Information
Digital Core Programming
Digital Core Programming Summary
Non-Core Educational and Informational Programming
Sponsored Core Programming
Liaison Contact
Report reflects information for : Second Quarter of 2012
Station Type Network Affiliation
Affiliated network ABC/CW
Nielsen DMA Salisbury
Web Home Page Address www.wmdt.com
State the average number of hours of Core Programming per week broadcast by the station on its main program stream 3.0
State the average number of hours per week of free over-the-air digital video programming broadcast by the station on other than its main program stream 168.0
State the average number of hours per week of Core Programming broadcast by the station on other than its main program stream. See 47 C.F.R. Section 73.671: 4.0
Does the Licensee provide information identifying each Core Program aired on its station, including an indication of the target child audience, to publishers of program guides as required by 47 C.F.R. Section 73.673? Yes
Does the Licensee certify that at least 50% of the Core Programming counted toward meeting the additional programming guideline (applied to free video programming aired on other than the main Yes No program stream) did not consist of program episodes that had already aired within the previous seven days either on the station's main program stream or on another of the station's free digital program streams? Yes
Digital Core Programs(17)
Digital Core Program (1 of 17)
Program Title EVERYDAY HEALTH
Origination Syndicated
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS/11:00AM-11:30AM ET
Total times aired at regularly scheduled time 12
Total times aired
Number of Preemptions 0
Number of Preemptions for other than Breaking News
Number of Preemptions Rescheduled
Length of Program 30 mins
Age of Target Child Audience 13 years to 16 years
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. In this weekly half-hour series developed and produced to educate and inform viewers ages 13-16, our hosts scan the country finding those who "pay it forward" to promote health and wellness. The remarkable people that viewers meet are referred to as "agents of change" special individuals who are making big changes in people's lives, one small step at a time. Everyday Health is a series that uniquely raises awareness to help fight obesity, raise self-esteem, establish physical fitness habits and prevent negative health choices. An inspirational program about people who confront challenges by taking control, Everyday Health, through captivating storytelling, reports on amazing teens and other selfless Americans who are "paying it forward,"with good will and new ideas that will inspire other teens to take action.
Does the Licensee identify the program by displaying throughout the program the symbol E/I? Yes
Program Title OCEAN MYSTERIES WITH JEFF CORWIN
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS/9:30AM-10:00AM ET
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. The half-hour weekly series, Ocean Mysteries, offers a fresh approach to the quest for aquatic understanding by blending stories of fascinating sea creatures, comparisons to popular land animals, and analogies to human experience. Hosted by Jeff Corwin, Ocean Mysteries is produced for ages 13-16 - and beyond -by showing how animals share the same behaviors, challenges and triumphs that humans do. From exciting rescues of abandoned animals to unexpected conflicts in the 'family dynamics' of the mingling species, viewers will get to know - and care- about these heroes, and all of the fascinating life teeming in our oceans.
Program Title ELIZABETH STANTON'S GREAT BIG WORLD
Origination Network
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS/12:00PM-12:30PM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Elizabeth Stanton's Great Big World provides dynamic core programming in the areas of particular concern to young teens; including global, social, educational, and wellness issues. Award-winning teen hostess Elizabeth Stanton and select celebrity friends travel around the world volunteering in areas of specific need - ranging from feeding the hungry in the slums of Kenya to bringing hearing aids to Vietnamese neighborhoods whose citizens have experienced high rates of profound deafness and hearing loss. Great Big World offers a dynamic television experience for teens - combining the exciting, fun, and diverse experiences of world exploration with the life-changing volunteer opportunities available in these same areas. Various age-appropriate global issues are introduced to the viewing audience through indepth and thoughtful interviews with Elizabeth, her travel buddies, and the friends they meet along their journey. In addition, Elizabeth and friends' personal hands-on experiences in the field both inspire teens to engage in selfless, helping behaviors in addition to educating them on where and how to find volunteer opportunities.
Program Title ON THE SPOT
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SUNDAYS/12:30PM-1:00PM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. On the Spot was created by the award-winning producers of the long running Educational and Informational show, Animal Atlas, now in its seventh successful season of national syndication. Last year, the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State Officers released the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an attempt to set a national curriculum to bridge the standards gap between states. The content of On the Spot, a 30-minute E/I program for teens ages 13+, is based on the Common Core State Standards. The show uses an entertaining on-the-street format to test how well young people know the information contained in their own national curriculum. Then, On the Spot explains the answer to each question. The pedagogical approach of testing first and explaining the answer second has been shown to enhance retention and understanding. On the Spot challenges viewers to recall middle and high school knowledge about history, science, math, English, second languages, health, geography, art, music, and technology, and then teaches them the answer.
Program Title MADE IN HOLLYWOOD: TEEN EDITION
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SUNDAYS/11:30AM-12:00PM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. One of the striking aspects of being an adolescent today is that whether they are urban or rural and regardless of income levels, there are some life choices that must be made as they grow and develop. These are the pre-teen and teenage boys and girls who are growing up in a real culturally diverse, highly mobile, dynamically technical, and multimedia society with a variety of opportunities, as well as a number of socioeconomic challenges.The goal of this program is to provide for adolescent boys and girls in the 13 to 16 year old age-group an opportunity to explore and learn about the technical, artistic, creative, business, and administrative careers that are a part of the motion picture, television, music video, and home entertainment industries, as well as to learn about some of the skills, personal attributes, techniques, and strategies needed to enter these fields. Our goal, while recognizing that many factors go into obtaining a position in any industry, is to provide the young audience with enough background so that their own career exploration, planning, education and decision-making can begin. .
Program Title FOOD FOR THOUGHT WITH CLAIRE THOMAS
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS/11:30AM-12:00PM ET
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Young, enthusiastic and passionate about food, Claire Thomas is the 22 year old host who opens viewers' eyes to how everyday life can inspire culinary creations in Food for Thought. Each weekly-half hour, produced for ages 13-16, informs and educates teens about the power of food as a tool for exploring new places, meeting new people and learning about different cultures. Claire serves as a role model for 13-16 year old viewers by showing her passion for her family, life, and healthy living by sharing stories in the kitchen. Creative inspiration can come from any place at any time-sometimes from family, sometimes from friends, or even from bloggers needing her help. No matter how exotic or local the location, she's always in search of new tastes and places to explore. Based on her unique perspective gathered throughout each episode, Claire will teach the audience how to prepare the "inspired" dish while promoting a healthy attitude towards food and life.
Program Title CUBIX: ROBOTS FOR EVERYONE
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS 7:00AM-7:30AM ET(CW)
Age of Target Child Audience 7 years to 12 years
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Cubix: Robots for Everyone takes place in the year 2040 in Bubble Town where robots outnumber humans. The series centers around a 13 year old boy named Connor, his robot Cubix, and the members of a special club known as Botties. Each member of the Botties has their own robot with a unique characteristic. The robots are friendly, efficient and function in imaginative ways to help make Bubble Town a great place to live. But it's a good vs. evil world and Connor and the Botties learn lessons of right and wrong, teamwork, courage and problem solving during their adventures to thwart Dr. K.'s evil schemes to take control of Bubble Town's robots. Each member of the Botties faces life scenarios that commonly affect children today - feeling sad and alone, insecure and vulnerable, fear of failure, and overcoming uncertainties and phobias. Whether it is Connor facing a difficult initiation task in order to join the Botties; Chip dealing with his insecurities because he isn't as tall as the others; Charles' bragging; Cubix being blamed for something that he didn't do; Endruix' stage fright; or Antonio's jealousy during a competition that leads him to act like a spoilsport, the Botties face the same reallife conflicts and fears that children face. Throughout the entire series, the Botties learn important lessons about themselves including self-confidence, courage, loyalty, patience, humility and pride but they also learn the importance of perseverance, teamwork and embracing their differences to overcome obstacles. These lessons resonate as the Botties work together to defeat Dr. K. and his evil schemes.
Program Title CULTURE CLICK
Total times aired at regularly scheduled time 1
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Culture Click is a weekly half-hour series that explores the genesis of - and reasons behind- cultural events that permeate our everyday lives. Developed and produced for viewers aged 13-16, host Nzinga Blake opens each episode from her virtual reality set with a list of what's trending on search engines that week. These topics will serve as a jumping-off point for a deep dive into the culture viewers 13-16 will embrace. Each week Nzinga will analyze and answer the questions that shape our society - using the power and speed of the internet and user-generated questions and content. Experts in pop culture will join her to add insight and historical perspective. And most importantly, viewers will come away with a week's work of "aha" moments to share with their friends and family. Six degrees of separation takes on a whole new meaning, and there's no limit to what viewers will learn when they experience Culture Click.
Program Title BORN TO EXPLORE
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Developed and produced for 13- 16 year olds, the world's cultures and its geographical wonders come alive as the youngest president in Explorers Club history, Richard Wiese, takes viewers on a globetrotting adventure. While developed for 13-16 year olds, Born to Explore is engaging for the whole family. In this weekly half-hour series, Richard uncovers amazing facts of nature and man made treasures. In Born to Explore, Richard Wiese takes the role of the ultimate Social Studies teacher to a new level, bringing the viewing audience to the places and people of our world who form our cultures. Whether he climbs Mount Kilimanjaro, explores why people live a the base of an active volcano, or travels down the Nile River, viewers will travels the world without leaving their homes.
Digital Core Program (10 of 17)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. In this weekly half-hour series developed and produced to educate and inform viewers ages 13-16, our hosts scan the country finding those who 'pay it forward' to promote health and wellness. The remarkable people that viewers meet are referred to as 'agents of change,' special individuals who are making big changes in people's lives, one small step at a time. Everyday Health is a series that uniquely raises awareness to help fight obesity, raise self-esteem, establish physical fitness habits and prevent negative health choices. An inspirational program about people who confront challenges by taking control, Everyday Health, through captivating storytelling, reports on amazing teens and other selfless Americans who are 'paying it forward, 'with good will and new ideas that will inspire other teens to take action.
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS/7:30AM-8:00AM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Young, enthusiastic and passionate about food, Claire Thomas is the 22 year old host who opens viewers' eyes to how everyday life can inspire culinary creations in Food for Thought. Each weekly-half hour, produced for ages 13-16, informs and educates teens about the power of food as a tool for exploring new places, meeting new people and learning about different cultures. Claire serves as a role model for 13-16 year old viewers by showing her passion for her family, life, and healthy living by sharing stories in the kitchen. Creative inspiration can come from any place at any time - sometimes from family, sometimes from friends, or even from bloggers needing her help. No matter how exotic or local the location, she's always in search of new tastes and places to explore. Based on her unique perspective gathered throughout each episode, Claire will teach the audience how to prepare the "inspired" dish while promoting a healthy attitude towards food and life.
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATURDAYS/12:30PM-1:00PM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. One of the striking aspects of being an adolescent today is that whether they are urban or rural and regardless of income levels, there are some life choices that must be made as they grow and develop. These are the pre-teen and teenage boys and girls who are growing up in a real culturally diverse, highly mobile, dynamically technical, and multimedia society with a variety of opportunities, as well as a number of socioeconomic challenges.The goal of this program is to provide for adolescent boys and girls in the 13 to 16 year old age-group an opportunity to explore and learn about the technical, artistic, creative, business, and administrative careers that are a part of the motion picture, television, music video, and home entertainment industries, as well as to learn about some of the skills, personal attributes, techniques, and strategies needed to enter these fields. Our goal, while recognizing that many factors go into obtaining a position in any industry, is to provide the young audience with enough background so that their own career exploration, planning, education and decision-making can begin.
Program Title LIVE LIFE & WIN!
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SUNDAYS/12:00PM-12:30PM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Early and middle adolescence is an exciting yet a challenging period in one's life. Adolescents across the demographic spectrum and from all walks of life grapple with a number of pivotal but normal developmental milestones, such as preparing for more independence and responsibility, and experiencing change in relationships with family and peers. With increased self reliance, young people make more of their own choices. And all the while, one cannot overlook that they grow in a dynamic, diverse, and complex world that offers both opportunities and social challenges. Connection III Entertainment Corp. is a media production & distribution company that recognizes the physical, emotional, mental, and social challenges faced by adolescents as they negotiate their newfound independence and the concomitant decisions they make. As part of its commitment to support young people as they navigate these challenges, Connection III Entertainment Corp. created, developed and is producing the FCC Friendly, Educational/Informational TV series, Live Life & Win!. The series features: Inspirational segments and teen success stories of character and personal determination in the arts, school, sports, and community; considers topics such as social responsibility and justice, perseverance, leadership, academic achievement, volunteerism, and life skills such as the importance of exercise and nutrition. The goals of the series are to encourage the 13 to 16year old audience to: (1) explore, discover, and learn strategies to achieve personal dreams; (2) learn about the personal attributes important for achieving dreams; (3) explore volunteerism as an opportunity to build character and to uncover personal passions; and (4) gain knowledge about life skills necessary to Live Life and Win!.
Program Title SEA RESCUE
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. THE HALF-HOUR WEEKLY SERIES, SEA RESCUE, FEATURES THE RESCUES, REHABILITATION AND IN MANY INSTANCES , THE RELEASE BACK INTO THE WILD OF OCEAN WILDLIFE. PRODUCED FOR AGES 13-16, SEA RESCUE OFFERS EDUCATIONAL AND ENTERTAINING TELEVISION BY DEMONSTRATION THE WELFARE AND MEDICAL BENEFITS THAT RESCUE AND REHABILITATION PROGRAMS PROVIDE ANIMALS. VIEWERS WILL ALSO LEARN THAT THREE'S A RECIPROCAL BENEFIT: RESCUED ANIMALS PROVIDE VALUABLE INSIGHT INTO THEIR BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY. THIS INFORMATION ADDS TO THE POOL OF KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO CONSERVE THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES. EACH WEEK, SEA RESCUE WILL LEAVE IT'S AUDIENCE INSPIRED BY THE REAL-LIFE STORIES OF THE FEATURED ANIMALS AND RESCUERS AND WITH A FULLER UNDERSTANDING OF THE RICH ARRAY OF SEA LIFE WITH WHICH WE SHARE OUR PLANET.
Program Title JACK HANNA'S WILD COUNTDOWN
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SATUDAYS/9:00AM-9:30AM ET
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Wildlife expert and animal ambassador, Jack Hanna, brings the viewer face-to face with the best of the beasts. In this weekly half-hour series that will engage viewers 13-16, as well as the whole family, Jack highlights his favorite animals and adventures from around the world. Presented in countdown style, Jack offers up a different 'top ten' each week in a variety of categories. What are the top ten 'fastest animals in Africa,' 'tallest insects,' 'biggest eaters,' smartest birds'...Jack will answer all of these questions and more. As Jack reveals the categories, he gives further insights and interesting facts about the animals allowing viewers of all ages the opportunity to be entertained as well as learn more about the fascinating animal kingdom in Jack Hanna's Wild Countdown.
Program Title WILD, LTD
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled SUNDAYS/11:00AM-11:30AM ET(CW)
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. 'Wild Ltd' is a half hour series created and designed with the focus of educating and entertaining children from 13 to 16 years of age. In each episode the cameras follow Game Ranger Michelle Garforth-Venter, on her adventures both on land and under the water. Michelle meets researchers and veterinarians and learns about their work - suggesting job opportunities in the conservation world. Michelle always teaches about the anatomy of the species at hand, the conservation listing and how we can better preserve their population numbers. Each episode is designed to reveal to children the value of wild spaces and the creatures that live within.
Non-Core Educational and Informational Programming (1)
Non-Core Educational and Informational Programming (1 of 1)
Program Title The Outdoorsman with Buck McNeely
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled: Saturdays/6:00AM-6:30AM
Total times aired at regularly scheduled time: 13
Number of Preemptions -1
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. The Outdoorsman is an informative program that allows your young teen to explore a world that may be otherwise unknown to them. The series is hosted by Outdoorsman International founder BUCK McNeely. An international adventurer, dedicated conservationist and game management proponent, Buck promotes the enjoyment of the great outdoors. His program has been recognized for it's educational value by: Dr Jim Dufek of South MO State University, and Charles D. Guthrie, Ed.D. of John Wood College. Both professors agree that this program provides youngsters with knowledge about game management and conservation, the heritage of hunting and fishing, as well as informs the viewer about the habitat and culture of each unique place Buck visits on his trips.
Does the program have educating and informing children ages 16 and under as a significant purpose? Yes
Does the Licensee identify the program by displaying throughout the program the symbol E/I? No
Does the Licensee provide information regarding the program, including an indication of the target child audience, to publishers of program guides consistent with 47 C.F.R. Section 73.673? Yes
Date and Time Aired:
Sponsored Core Programming (0)
Does the Licensee publicize the existence and location of the station's Children's Television Programming Reports (FCC 398) as required by 47 C.F.R. Section 73.3526(e)(11)(iii)? Yes
Name of children's programming liaison Jessica Simpson
Address 202 Downtown Plaza
City Salisbury
State MD
Telephone Number 410-742-4747 Ext. 347
Email Address jessica_simpson@wmdt.com
Include any other comments or information you want the Commission to consider in evaluating your compliance with the Children's Television Act (or use this space for supplemental explanations). This may include information on any other noncore educational and informational programming that you aired this quarter or plan to air during the next quarter, or any existing or proposed non-broadcast efforts that will enhance the educational and informational value of such programming to children. See 47 C.F.R. Section 73.671, NOTES 2 and 3.
Other Matters (14)
Other Matters (1 of 14)
Age of Target Child Audience from 13 years to 16 years
Program Title LIVE LIFE & WIN
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled Saturdays/10:30-11:00 AM ET
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled Saturdays/7:00 AM-7:30AM ET(CW)
Age of Target Child Audience from 7 years to 12 years
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled Saturdays/9:30-10:00 AM ET
Other Matters (10 of 14)
Days/Times Program Regularly Scheduled Saturdays/9-9:30 AM ET
Describe the educational and informational objective of the program and how it meets the definition of Core Programming. Developed and produced for 13- 16 year olds, the world's cultures and its geographical wonders come alive as the youngest president in Explorers Club history, Richard Wiese, takes viewers on a globetrotting adventure. While developed for 13-16 year olds, Born to Explore is engaging for the whole family. In this weekly half-hour series, Richard uncovers amazing facts of nature and manmade treasures. In Born to Explore, Richard Wiese takes the role of the ultimate Social Studies teacher to a new level, brining the viewing audience to the places and people of our world who form our cultures. Whether he climbs Mount Kilimanjaro, explores why people live a the base of an active volcano, or travels down the Nile River, viewers will travels the world without leaving their homes.
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Ice Apocalypse - MULTIPLE METERS SEA LEVEL RISE (narrated video)
Author Topic: Ice Apocalypse - MULTIPLE METERS SEA LEVEL RISE (narrated video) (Read 275174 times)
Re: Ice Apocalypse - MULTIPLE METERS SEA LEVEL RISE (narrated video)
Here is another repost regarding possible increased risks of flipping the Earth's magnetic poles
": sidd Today at 02:26:20 AM
"In my opinion, a collapse of the WAIS this century would likely accelerate schedule for the long overdue flipping of the Earth's magnetic poles. "
Interesting. What leads you to this opinion ? Do tell.
Here is some background references:
1. Adam C. Maloof Galen P. Halverson Joseph L. Kirschvink Daniel P. Schrag Benjamin P. Weiss Paul F. Hoffman (2006), "Combined paleomagnetic, isotopic, and stratigraphic evidence for true polar wander from the Neoproterozoic Akademikerbreen Group, Svalbard, Norway", GSA Bulletin, 118 (9-10): 1099-1124, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/B25892.1
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-abstract/118/9-10/1099/125331/combined-paleomagnetic-isotopic-and-stratigraphic?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Abstract: "We present new paleomagnetic data from three Middle Neoproterozoic carbonate units of East Svalbard, Norway. The paleomagnetic record is gleaned from 50 to 650 m of continuous, platformal carbonate sediment, is reproduced at three locations distributed over >100 km on a single craton, and scores a 5–6 (out of 7) on the Van der Voo (1990) reliability scale. Two >50° shifts in paleomagnetic direction are coincident with equally abrupt shifts in δ13C and transient changes in relative sea level. We explore four possible explanations for these coincidental changes: rapid plate tectonic rotation during depositional hiatus, magnetic excursions, nongeocentric axial-dipole fields, and true polar wander. We conclude that the observations are explained most readily by rapid shifts in paleogeography associated with a pair of true polar wander events. Future work in sediments of equivalent age from other basins can test directly the true polar wander hypothesis because this type of event would affect every continent in a predictable manner, depending on the continent's changing position relative to Earth's spin axis."
2. J. R. Creveling, J. X. Mitrovica, N.-H. Chan, K. Latychev & I. Matsuyama (08 November 2012), "Mechanisms for oscillatory true polar wander", Nature, volume 491, pages 244–248,
doi:10.1038/nature11571
http://www.nature.com/articles/nature11571
Abstract: "Palaeomagnetic studies of Palaeoproterozoic to Cretaceous rocks propose a suite of large and relatively rapid (tens of degrees over 10 to 100 million years) excursions of the rotation pole relative to the surface geography, or true polar wander (TPW). These excursions may be linked in an oscillatory, approximately coaxial succession about the centre of the contemporaneous supercontinent. Within the framework of a standard rotational theory, in which a delayed viscous adjustment of the rotational bulge acts to stabilize the rotation axis, geodynamic models for oscillatory TPW generally appeal to consecutive, opposite loading phases of comparable magnitude. Here we extend a nonlinear rotational stability theory to incorporate the stabilizing effect of TPW-induced elastic stresses in the lithosphere. We demonstrate that convectively driven inertia perturbations acting on a nearly prolate, non-hydrostatic Earth with an effective elastic lithospheric thickness of about 10 kilometres yield oscillatory TPW paths consistent with palaeomagnetic inferences. This estimate of elastic thickness can be reduced, even to zero, if the rotation axis is stabilized by long-term excess ellipticity in the plane of the TPW. We speculate that these sources of stabilization, acting on TPW driven by a time-varying mantle flow field, provide a mechanism for linking the distinct, oscillatory TPW events of the past few billion years."
3. To learn how much the North Pole has shifted in the recent decades due to rapid ice mass loss, see Chen, J..L., C.R. Wilson, J.C. Ries, B.D. Tapley, Rapid ice melting drives Earth's pole to the east, Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 40, 1-6, DOI: 10.1002/grl.50552, 2013; which can be found at the prime author's website at the University of Texas, where you can download a preprint (made available by the author):
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/personal/chen/publication.html
and here is a link directly to the preprint pdf:
ftp://ftp.csr.utexas.edu/pub/ggfc/papers/2013GL056164_preprint.pdf
Here is my last repost from the 'Adapting to the Anthropocene' thread about increased risk of flipping the Earth's magnetic pole due to abrupt sea level rise associated with abrupt ice mass loss this century:
Do you mean magnetic pole or rotational pole ? both the papers you cite talk about the rotational pole.
sidd,
I will move this line of discussion to the 'Ice Apocalypse' thread (see the link below) in the Antarctic folder as this topic was meant to be just a word of warning here. However, my general point is that a some portion of the changes in the magnetic pole can be associated with changes in the rotational pole (the attached image illustrates how fast this is currently changing), due to changes in the magma flow associated with ice mass redistribution. Furthermore, my point is that due to the current exceptionally high rate of anthropogenic forcing and the bipolar seesaw mechanism that possible abrupt changes in ice mass loss can make faster changes in tectonic behavior than observed in the paleorecord.
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2205.50.html
ASLR"
Chen et al 2013 Figure 2.JPG (49.54 kB, 683x447 - viewed 2857 times.)
As a follow on to my last series of re-posts about correlating true polar wander (shifting of the Earth's rotational axis) and magnetic field reversals and mass redistribution around the Earth; I provide the first linked reference that provides paleo evidence that during periods of little polar wander the is reduced activity of magnetic pole flipping; while the second linked article makes it clear that polar wander is associated with all mass (ice, sea level, groundwater, isostatic rebound) redistribution. Also, Hansen's ice-climate feedback results in changes in precipitation patterns that will affect polar wander.
I recommend that scientists with the appropriate Earth models that include Earth's interior core-mantle-lithosphere mechanisms should assume some up-bound scenarios for possible future abrupt mass redistributions around the Earth (including: a WAIS ice mass collapse and associated isostatic rebound, increased rainfall at both poles; changes in groundwater distributions, etc.) and then see what happens to tectonic activity (including magnetic fields, volcanism and seismic activity):
Courtillot V & Besse J. (1987 Sep 4), "Magnetic field reversals, polar wander, and core-mantle coupling", Science vol 237, issue (4819), pp 1140-7, DOI:10.1126/science.237.4819.1140
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/237/4819/1140
Abstract: "True polar wander, the shifting of the entire mantle relative to the earth's spin axis, has been reanalyzed. Over the last 200 million years, true polar wander has been fast (approximately 5 centimeters per year) most of the time, except for a remarkable standstill from 170 to 110 million years ago. This standstill correlates with a decrease in the reversal frequency of the geomagnetic field and episodes of continental breakup. Conversely, true polar wander is high when reversal frequency increases. It is proposed that intermittent convection modulates the thickness of a thermal boundary layer at the base of the mantle and consequently the core-to-mantle heat flux. Emission of hot thermals from the boundary layer leads to increases in mantle convection and true polar wander. In conjunction, cold thermals released from a boundary layer at the top of the liquid core eventually lead to reversals. Changes in the locations of subduction zones may also affect true polar wander. Exceptional volcanism and mass extinctions at the Cretaceous-Tertiary and Permo-Triassic boundaries may be related to thermals released after two unusually long periods with no magnetic reversals. These environmental catastrophes may therefore be a consequence of thermal and chemical couplings in the earth's multilayer heat engine rather than have an extraterrestrial cause."
Title: "Climate Change Is Moving the North Pole"
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160408-climate-change-shifts-earth-poles-water-loss/
Extract: "As ice melts and aquifers are drained, Earth's distribution of mass is changing—and with it the position of the planet's spin axis."
Edit, also see which indicates that about 66% of the polar wander over the indicated period was due to rapid changes in ice mass loss:
Surendra Adhikari and Erik R. Ivins (08 Apr 2016), "Climate-driven polar motion: 2003–2015", Science Advances, Vol. 2, no. 4, e1501693, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501693
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/4/e1501693
Abstract: "Earth’s spin axis has been wandering along the Greenwich meridian since about 2000, representing a 75° eastward shift from its long-term drift direction. The past 115 years have seen unequivocal evidence for a quasi-decadal periodicity, and these motions persist throughout the recent record of pole position, in spite of the new drift direction. We analyze space geodetic and satellite gravimetric data for the period 2003–2015 to show that all of the main features of polar motion are explained by global-scale continent-ocean mass transport. The changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) and global cryosphere together explain nearly the entire amplitude (83 ± 23%) and mean directional shift (within 5.9° ± 7.6°) of the observed motion. We also find that the TWS variability fully explains the decadal-like changes in polar motion observed during the study period, thus offering a clue to resolving the long-standing quest for determining the origins of decadal oscillations. This newly discovered link between polar motion and global-scale TWS variability has broad implications for the study of past and future climate."
« Last Edit: February 08, 2018, 07:49:54 PM by AbruptSLR »
While I am not a scientist, the fact that the linked reference associates climate change with a Cambrian true wander event and associated changes in the paleomagnetic data, indicates to me that qualified scientist should model what impacts that abrupt sea level rise this century would have on both Earth's rotational and magnetic axes:
Wen-Jun Jiao et al. (16 January 2018", "Paleomagnetism of a well-dated marine succession in South China: A possible Late Cambrian true polar wander (TPW)", Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pepi.2018.01.009
Abstract: "The Cambrian true polar wander (TPW) hypothesis remains controversial largely because of the uncertainties in the quality and/or fidelity of the paleomagnetic data as well as their chronological control. Testing the TPW hypothesis requires high-quality paleomagnetic data of sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions. Here, we present paleomagnetic results of a continuous Cambrian shallow marine succession from South China where available detailed biostratigraphy provides exceptional chronological constraints. Forty-three sites of paleomagnetic samples were collected from this limestone-dominated succession. Stepwise thermal demagnetization generally reveals three-component magnetizations. Low- and intermediate-temperature components can be cleaned by ∼330°C, and the high-temperature component (HTC) was isolated typically from ∼350 to ∼450°C. A positive fold test and the presence of reversed polarity in the strata, together with rock magnetic data as well as the scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) results, collectively suggest that the HTCs are likely primary. A directional shift of the HTCs occurs between the lower-middle Cambrian and the upper Cambrian strata in the succession and is tentatively interpreted to indicate a ∼57° polar wander from ∼500.5 to 494 Ma. Because the rate of polar wander is too fast to be a tectonic origin, this polar wander is interpreted to represent a Late Cambrian TPW. This TPW appears coeval with the Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion (SPICE) and the major trilobite mass extinctions, suggesting a potential link between the TPW and the Late Cambrian biotic and climatic changes. Because the proposed TPW event is exceptionally well-dated, it should be testable through examination of other worldwide sections."
And on the way to a reversal of poles, some scientists have said the magnetic field will do a polar vortex, i.e. weaken and become erratic. Bad news for our electro-magnetic society when a solar storm hits it.
(No source - dredged up from a rusty filing cabinet in the brain from a long time ago at Uni when plate tectonics was still just a hypothesis and these flipflops played a big part to prove it).
I thought that I would offer the following comments and associated images regarding ECS in our warming world:
1. The first image shows calculated values of inferred ECS with latitude based on recent surface temperature observations (and thus do not include slow response contributions. Things to note include: a. the inferred ECS near the North Pole is approximately 4.2C; b. the inferred ECS over the Southern Ocean is around 1.3C because Antarctic ice shelves have lost so much ice mass that they are already activating Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism, and c. the inferred ECS over most of Antarctica is around 2.5C, which is much less than that for the Arctic because of the relatively high surface elevation for most of Antarctica; which will change is the WAIS collapses.
2. The second image shows paleo values for Gain (in 'C per W/sq-m') compared to the AR5 likely range for these values vs frequency (in cycles/year). This shows both that the IPCC is highlighting linear response for what is a highly non-linear behavior and that long/fat tailed events (like freshwater hosing events) can have Gain values that are 2.5 times higher than assumed by the IPCC; which translates into higher than recognized resists for mankind.
3. The third image shows how the product of the frequency PDF for bad events times the expected magnitude of such bad events results in maximum risk towards 65% to 75% confidence level for the PDF. This means that policy makers should be working with the upper end of expected ECS range rather than with mean or mode values.
ECS with Latitutude.PNG (25.34 kB, 415x510 - viewed 2683 times.)
Climate Sensitivity on Paleo Timescales.PNG (30.18 kB, 406x457 - viewed 2700 times.)
3 Product of frequency & magnitude of consequence.PNG (24.16 kB, 193x216 - viewed 2712 times.)
"ECS" refers to what?
Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity - ECS
https://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-sensitivity-advanced.htm
FishOutofWater
Sea level rise is already slowing the earth's rate of rotation.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/glacial-melt-slowing-of-earths-rotation-19843
To get the rotational pole to wander there must be differential rotation of the crust, mantle and/or core. Angular momentum of the earth moon system is conserved. Over long periods of time tides slow earth's rotation and the rotational energy is transferred to the moon.
If the findings of the linked reference are correct then "chain-reactions of fast draining lakes" could threaten the stability of key portions of Greenland's ice sheet over the coming 50 years:
Poul Christoffersen et al, Cascading lake drainage on the Greenland Ice Sheet triggered by tensile shock and fracture, Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03420-8
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03420-8
Abstract: "Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet are expanding inland, but the impact on ice flow is equivocal because interior surface conditions may preclude the transfer of surface water to the bed. Here we use a well-constrained 3D model to demonstrate that supraglacial lakes in Greenland drain when tensile-stress perturbations propagate fractures in areas where fractures are normally absent or closed. These melt-induced perturbations escalate when lakes as far as 80 km apart form expansive networks and drain in rapid succession. The result is a tensile shock that establishes new surface-to-bed hydraulic pathways in areas where crevasses transiently open. We show evidence for open crevasses 135 km inland from the ice margin, which is much farther inland than previously considered possible. We hypothesise that inland expansion of lakes will deliver water and heat to isolated regions of the ice sheet’s interior where the impact on ice flow is potentially large."
Title: "Chain reaction of fast-draining lakes poses new risk for Greenland ice sheet"
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-chain-reaction-fast-draining-lakes-poses.html
Extract: "A growing network of lakes on the Greenland ice sheet has been found to drain in a chain reaction that speeds up the flow of the ice sheet, threatening its stability."
Adam Ash
Comparing the size of the heat sinks represented by the main ice masses:
Arctic 25,600 cu km (mid winter)
Greenland 2,850,000 cu km
Antarctic 26,500,000 cu km
So Arctic peak winter ice volume is about 1% of Greenland's, and Greenland's is 10% of Antarctica's. Thus the heat which disposes of most of the Arctic's ice in summer, is having a significant input to Greenland's ice mass too. The less Arctic ice there is, the more the heat goes into the Greenland heat sink, and the adjacent ocean.
Its kinda the inverse of a scheme to pay off debts. Pay off the smallest first, then there is much more to pay off the next. Get rid of Arctic ice, then with that job done that heat will hit Greenland hard. Hanson's exponential rate of change of SLR becomes more likely every day.
Hansen, James Hansen.
This is Hanson:
Whoa, Neven, the sea ice has been restored and we're back in the '90s. Kids having innocent fun. These days kids here are acting like adults and the adults are acting like kids.
These are dizzying times. It's so hard to get a handle on the rates of change and the probabilities of extreme events like rapid sea level rise. I wish we could retreat to the innocence of that video but we can't.
Quote from: AbruptSLR on February 08, 2018, 05:18:39 PM
... However, my general point is that a some portion of the changes in the magnetic pole can be associated with changes in the rotational pole (the attached image illustrates how fast this is currently changing), due to changes in the magma flow associated with ice mass redistribution. Furthermore, my point is that due to the current exceptionally high rate of anthropogenic forcing and the bipolar seesaw mechanism that possible abrupt changes in ice mass loss can make faster changes in tectonic behavior than observed in the paleorecord.
The first image shows the southern supercontinent Gondwana about 183million year ago at the point of the initial breakup of the supercontinent. The second image highlights the Euler geometry of hexagons and pentagons bounded by the supercontinent rupture lines that define the lines of minimum energy required to break apart the supercontinent. These two images illustrate the origins of the area known as the South Atlantic Anomaly – an expanse of the field currently stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe, as discussed in the reference linked (and the last two images) below. The Hare et al. (2018) linked open access reference indicates that this region is likely a key area of the Earth core-mantle boundary that is likely in the process of triggering a flip in the Earth's magnetic poles.
Vincent J. Hare et al. (15 February 2018), "New Archeomagnetic Directional Records From Iron Age Southern Africa (ca. 425–1550 CE) and Implications for the South Atlantic Anomaly", GRL, DOI: 10.1002/2017GL076007
Abstract: "The paucity of Southern Hemisphere archeomagnetic data limits the resolution of paleosecular variation models. At the same time, important changes in the modern and historical field, including the recent dipole decay, appear to originate in this region. Here a new directional record from southern Africa is presented from analysis of Iron Age (ca. 425–1550 CE) archeological materials, which extends the regional secular variation curve back to the first millennium. Previous studies have identified a period of rapid directional change between 1225 and ∼1550 CE. The new data allow us to identify an earlier period of relatively rapid change between the sixth and seventh centuries CE. Implications for models of recurrent flux expulsion at the core-mantle boundary are discussed. In addition, we identify a possible relationship of changes recorded in these African data with archeomagnetic jerks."
Title: "A Mysterious Anomaly Under Africa Is Radically Weakening Earth's Magnetic Field"
https://www.sciencealert.com/something-mysterious-under-southern-africa-dramatically-weakening-earth-s-magnetic-field-south-atlantic-anomaly
Extract: "This could be precursor to Earth's poles swapping places.
The region that concerns scientists the most at the moment is called the South Atlantic Anomaly – a huge expanse of the field stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe. The field is so weak within the anomaly that it's hazardous for Earth's satellites to enter it, because the additional radiation it's letting through could disrupt their electronics.
… the artefacts revealed that the weakening in the South Atlantic Anomaly isn't a standalone phenomenon of history.
Similar fluctuations occurred in the years 400-450 CE, 700-750 CE, and 1225-1550 CE – and the fact that there's a pattern tells us that the position of the South Atlantic Anomaly isn't a geographic fluke.
"We're getting stronger evidence that there's something unusual about the core-mantel boundary under Africa that could be having an important impact on the global magnetic field," Tarduno says.
The current weakening in Earth's magnetic field – which has been taking place for the last 160 years or so – is thought to be caused by a vast reservoir of dense rock called the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province, which sits about 2,900 kilometres (1,800 miles) below the African continent.
"It is a profound feature that must be tens of millions of years old," the researchers explained in The Conversation last year.
"While thousands of kilometres across, its boundaries are sharp."
This dense region, existing in between the hot liquid iron of Earth's outer core and the stiffer, cooler mantle, is suggested to somehow be disturbing the iron that helps generate Earth's magnetic field.
There's a lot more research to do before we know more about what's going on here.
As the researchers explain, the conventional idea of pole reversals is that they can start anywhere in the core – but the latest findings suggest what happens in the magnetic field above us is tied to phenomena at special places in the core-mantle boundary."
Gondwana Breakup 183M years ago.PNG (240.31 kB, 599x660 - viewed 2392 times.)
Gondwana Breakup following Euler's law.PNG (497.36 kB, 579x737 - viewed 135 times.)
Zone of achaeomagnetic study.PNG (59.39 kB, 355x469 - viewed 2384 times.)
Archaeomagnetic directional migration pattern for south africa.PNG (57.87 kB, 473x490 - viewed 2374 times.)
The very generation of earths magnetic field is poorly understood. Magnetic pole reversal is even less well understood. The impact of changing tectonics in response to ice unloading is also poorly understood and it's influence on magnetic field generation is not understood at all. I am aware of no literature suggesting that ice unloading will cause magnetic pole reversal, and i consider the notion quite farfetched.
While glaciovolcanism (defined as “the interactions of magma with ice in all its forms, including snow, firn and any meltwater”), may still be in its infancy; nevertheless, I provide the following links to relevant information (& two images about geomagnetism), and I note that there is more information in the 'Antarctic Tectonics' thread in the Antarctic folder; for those who are interested in learning more about this topic:
J.L. Smellie (2018), "Chapter 10 – Glaciovolcanism: A 21st Century Proxy for Palaeo-Ice",
Past Glacial Environments (Second Edition), Pages 335–375, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100524-8.00010-5
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081005248000105
Abstract: "Glaciovolcanism is a young science that has undergone a major transformation during the last 15 years. It is important for a variety of reasons but it is set to play a major role in deriving critical parameters of past ice sheets and thus greatly improve the accuracy of their reconstruction. Glaciovolcanic studies can deduce a wider range of parameters than any other methodology currently existing, including: establishing the presence of ice, its age, ice thickness, ice surface elevation, and basal thermal regime. These attributes can be acquired routinely for many glaciovolcanic sequences and, uniquely, several are quantifiable. Most glaciovolcanic terrains provide punctuated rather than continuous records of the coeval ice sheet, i.e., with numerous time gaps. Despite the gaps, glaciovolcanic studies of ice sheets have been completed successfully in the three major glaciovolcanic regions of the Earth: mainly Antarctica, but also Iceland and British Columbia (Canada). Future studies in these and other glaciovolcanic regions will considerably improve our knowledge of Earth’s water inventory and contribute to a better understanding of past ice dynamics and the impact of the cryosphere on global climate."
Title: "Antarctic Glaciovolcanism:
https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/geology/people/smellie-jl/personal/ant-glaciovolc
National Geographic Geomagnetism Model.PNG (728.71 kB, 531x667 - viewed 2338 times.)
Gobal Magnetic Model.PNG (316.33 kB, 453x663 - viewed 2315 times.)
The linked articles confirm that not only are the Earth's rotation poles wandering rapidly, but so are its magnetic poles:
Title: "Shifting Ice Caps - Magnetic Poles and Ice Caps move in Tandem"
https://planet-earth-2017.com/wandering-poles/
Extract: "“The rate of the magnetic pole’s movement has increased in the last century compared with fairly steady movement in the previous four centuries”, said Joseph Stoner and the Oregon researchers."
Title: "Magnetic north pole drifting fast"
Extract: " The Earth's north magnetic pole is drifting away from North America so fast that it could end up in Siberia within 50 years, scientists have said."
Quote from: AbruptSLR on March 15, 2018, 03:52:00 PM
It may (or may not) be a coincidence that a tectonic fissure has recently formed in south-western Kenya, in an area close to the recently identified weakening of the Earth's geomagnetic fields :
Title: "Large crack in East African Rift is evidence of continent splitting in two"
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/03/31/large-crack-in-east-african-rift-is-evidence-of-continent-splitting-in_c1739076
Extract: "A large crack, stretching several kilometres, made a sudden appearance recently in south-western Kenya. The tear, which continues to grow, caused part of the Nairobi-Narok highway to collapse and was accompanied by seismic activity in the area.
The East African Rift is unique in that it allows us to observe different stages of rifting along its length. To the south, where the rift is young, extension rates are low and faulting occurs over a wide area. Volcanism and seismicity are limited.
Towards the Afar region, however, the entire rift valley floor is covered with volcanic rocks. This suggests that, in this area, the lithosphere has thinned almost to the point of complete break up. When this happens, a new ocean will begin forming by the solidification of magma in the space created by the broken-up plates. Eventually, over a period of tens of millions of years, seafloor spreading will progress along the entire length of the rift. The ocean will flood in and, as a result, the African continent will become smaller and there will be a large island in the Indian Ocean composed of parts of Ethiopia and Somalia, including the Horn of Africa."
Rift Valley System.PNG (1001.36 kB, 612x791 - viewed 148 times.)
Kenya fissure March 2018.PNG (395.33 kB, 326x566 - viewed 1961 times.)
Kenya fissure March 2018 a.PNG (575.99 kB, 480x639 - viewed 1968 times.)
« Last Edit: April 02, 2018, 04:11:03 AM by AbruptSLR »
I guess it is possible that the fissure was responsible for the weakening. We would need to seek out someone better knowledgeable in this area.
RoxTheGeologist
The crack is probably the continuing extension of east African Rift system and thinning of the lithosphere the 'crack' is just the latest brittle fault that represents the continuing plate movement. The development of this rift system has been understood for at least 20 years, and has been going on for 10s of millions of years (the red sea is an extension of African plate boundary, Somalia I believe, is considered to be on its own plate)
There may be a relationship between the plate movement (essentially the top of mantle convection cells) and the deep mantle structure, but spreading is happening in may other places (the gulf of California is somewhat analogous to the red sea), and is just part of the normal tectonic cycle. My best guess is that the two aren't casual.
salbers
As I mentioned elsewhere, a recent PNAS paper shows SLR is accelerating at .08mm/yr^2. One can look at the doubling time of each component and there we see Antarctic Ice Sheets have a relatively low contribution now, though the shortest doubling time, on the order of 6 years. The overall doubling rate of the rise is roughly 35 years.
And GRACE data shows the more specific acceleration of the Antarctic Ice Sheets.
Quote from: Adam Ash on March 15, 2018, 10:49:06 AM
The linked open access reference is highly relevant to Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism, as an abrupt collapse of key WAIS marine glaciers, would increase ocean temperatures at key Greenland marine-terminating glaciers via the bipolar seesaw:
Tabone, I., Blasco, J., Robinson, A., Alvarez-Solas, J., and Montoya, M.: The sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet to glacial–interglacial oceanic forcing, Clim. Past, 14, 455-472, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-455-2018, 2018.
https://www.clim-past.net/14/455/2018/
Abstract. Observations suggest that during the last decades the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has experienced a gradually accelerating mass loss, in part due to the observed speed-up of several of Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers. Recent studies directly attribute this to warming North Atlantic temperatures, which have triggered melting of the outlet glaciers of the GrIS, grounding-line retreat and enhanced ice discharge into the ocean, contributing to an acceleration of sea-level rise. Reconstructions suggest that the influence of the ocean has been of primary importance in the past as well. This was the case not only in interglacial periods, when warmer climates led to a rapid retreat of the GrIS to land above sea level, but also in glacial periods, when the GrIS expanded as far as the continental shelf break and was thus more directly exposed to oceanic changes. However, the GrIS response to palaeo-oceanic variations has yet to be investigated in detail from a mechanistic modelling perspective. In this work, the evolution of the GrIS over the past two glacial cycles is studied using a three-dimensional hybrid ice-sheet–shelf model. We assess the effect of the variation of oceanic temperatures on the GrIS evolution on glacial–interglacial timescales through changes in submarine melting. The results show a very high sensitivity of the GrIS to changing oceanic conditions. Oceanic forcing is found to be a primary driver of GrIS expansion in glacial times and of retreat in interglacial periods. If switched off, palaeo-atmospheric variations alone are not able to yield a reliable glacial configuration of the GrIS. This work therefore suggests that considering the ocean as an active forcing should become standard practice in palaeo-ice-sheet modelling.
As bad as the linked article about a potential collapse of the Atlantic overturning circulation sounds, just consider that the article does not even talk about the impacts of the bipolar seesaw and a potential collapse of the WAIS this century, on the ocean current conveyor belt:
Title: "Avoid Gulf stream disruption at all costs, scientists warn"
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/13/avoid-at-all-costs-gulf-streams-record-weakening-prompts-warnings-global-warming
Extract: "Serious disruption to the Gulf Stream ocean currents that are crucial in controlling global climate must be avoided “at all costs”, senior scientists have warned. The alert follows the revelation this week that the system is at its weakest ever recorded.
Past collapses of the giant network have seen some of the most extreme impacts in climate history, with western Europe particularly vulnerable to a descent into freezing winters. A significantly weakened system is also likely to cause more severe storms in Europe, faster sea level rise on the east coast of the US and increasing drought in the Sahel in Africa.
The new research worries scientists because of the huge impact global warming has already had on the currents and the unpredictability of a future “tipping point”."
Edit, see also:
Title: "Stronger evidence for a weaker Atlantic overturning circulation"
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/04/stronger-evidence-for-a-weaker-atlantic-overturning-circulation/
While the two attached images are not from the linked research, the first image (from 2000 Richard Alley data for Greenland) illustrates how quickly temperatures warmed in Greenland 15,000 kya; while the second image should how 14,700 to 13,5000 kya the subsequent Meltwater pulse 1A rapidly drove-up sea level (& I note that Meltwater pulse 1A appears to have been triggered by a collapse of portions of the Pine Island embayment marine glacier, see the last link about Meltwater pulse 1A). This paleo-data illustrates how rapidly the bipolar seesaw can change global climate, and I note that we appear to be entering a parallel phase of bipolar seesaw, with rapidly shifting North Atlantic (see the immediate previous post) and North Pacific ocean circulation patterns, and with the PIG and Thwaites marine glaciers at risk of rapidly collapsing due to associated changes in local ocean circulation patterns:
Title: "Shift in ocean circulation triggered the end of the last ice age"
https://www.upi.com/Shift-in-ocean-circulation-triggered-the-end-of-the-last-ice-age/8381524574301/
Extract: ""This gives us an example of the way that different parts of the climate system are connected, so that changes in circulation in one region can drive changes in CO2 and oxygen all the way over on the other side of the planet," researcher Will Gray said.
The end of the last ice age was precipitated by a shift in the circulation of the North Pacific Ocean some 15,000 years ago.
Scientists modeled the ancient shifts in circulation and ocean-atmosphere gas exchange by measuring the chemical composition of foraminifera, the tiny fossil shells left behind by plankton. Their analysis -- published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience -- revealed an uptick in the amount of CO2 released by the North Pacific beginning 15,000 years ago. Previous studies have found evidence of shifting circulation patterns in the Atlantic at roughly the same time.
Earlier this month, another group of researchers published a study showing the Atlantic's circulation is slowing down. Scientists suggest a slowdown could significantly alter climate patterns across the globe.
"In our study we see very rapid changes in the climate of the North Pacific that we think are linked to past changes in ocean currents in the Atlantic," lead researcher Will Gray, an environmental scientist at St. Andrews, said in a news release. "This gives us an example of the way that different parts of the climate system are connected, so that changes in circulation in one region can drive changes in CO2 and oxygen all the way over on the other side of the planet.""
Gray et al. (2018), "Deglacial upwelling, productivity and CO₂ outgassing in the North Pacific Ocean", Nature Geoscience, doi: 10/1038/s4156-018-0108-6
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0108-6
Title: "Meltwater pulse 1A"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater_pulse_1A
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The linked 2008 Editor's Note, discusses the 'John Mercer effect' that "… stands for the fact that scientists (in this case glaciologists) are wary of being similarly characterized as alarmists, particularly because of the impact that this may have on future funding." This is due to what " … Rachel Carson called "the gods of profit and production", and it will likely lead to a "Climate Catastrophe":
https://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind0802&L=SCIENCE-FOR-THE-PEOPLE&E=0&P=163360&B=--%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D_-1010152671%3D%3D_ma%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D%3D&T=text%2Fhtml;%20charset=us-ascii
Extract: "Twenty years ago climatologist James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, widely considered to be the world's leading authority on global warming, first brought the issue into the public spotlight in testimony before the U.S. Congress. Recently, Hansen published an article entitled "Climate Catastrophe" in the New Scientist (July 28, 2007), http://www.newscientist.com. There he presented evidence suggesting that under "business as usual," in which greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase unchecked, a rise in sea level by several meters during the present century due to the melting of polar ice sheets is a "near certainty."
A sea level rise of this extent (up to five meters or sixteen feet) would mean the loss of land areas on which much of the earth's population lives at present (10 percent of the world's population live less than ten meters above the mid-tide sea level.). Yet, most scientists, even glaciologists, still downplay the full extent of the danger, failing to acknowledge probable nonlinear processes associated with climate change, and are especially reticent when it comes to making public statements in that regard.
Why? Hansen calls this the "John Mercer effect." In the 1970s John Mercer, a glaciologist at Ohio State University's Institute of Polar Studies, drew attention to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is separated from the bulk of Antarctica by a mountain range. Ice shelves floating on its rim put it in a delicate balance so that global warming, Mercer claimed, could within a mere forty years cause it to disintegrate and slide into the sea, raising the sea level by five meters.
Other glaciologists looked into Mercer's model and decided based on the data collected that what he described could indeed happen. But most climatologists and geologists publicly dismissed the idea that an ice sheet as big as Mexico could disintegrate in less than a few centuries (Spencer R. Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming, pp. 79-80). According to Hansen, although it was not obvious at the time whether Mercer or his critics were correct, "researchers who suggested that his paper was alarmist were regarded as more authoritative." Hansen believes that Mercer lost funding opportunities as a result. This discouraged other scientists from speaking out.
The John Mercer Effect then stands for the fact that scientists (in this case glaciologists) are wary of being similarly characterized as alarmists, particularly because of the impact that this may have on future funding. "Scientists downplaying the dangers of climate change [or other threats to the status quo] fare better when it comes to getting funding." Hansen points to his own experience. In 1981, based on the first reliable estimates of average global temperature by NASA, he pointed to the dangers of global warming from fossil fuel use. The result: his research group had some of its funding pulled by the Department of Energy, which specifically criticized aspects of that paper. Hansen argues that such economic/funding constraints have the effect of inhibiting scientific criticisms of the status quo: "I believe there is pressure on scientists to be conservative." To be sure, scientists are trained to be skeptics, but "excessive caution also holds dangers. 'Scientific reticence' can hinder communication with the public about the dangers of global warming. We may rue reticence if it means no action is taken until it is too late to prevent future disasters."
Hansen's description of the John Mercer Effect reflects the way in which a system devoted to what Rachel Carson called "the gods of profit and production" (see the Review of the Month in this issue) constrains scientists (along with everyone else), whenever issues arise that potentially threaten the vested interests-even when it is a question of protecting human life and the planetary environment. In the United States, where so much of the scientific funding comes from the Pentagon and the large corporations, the John Mercer Effect is especially strong in limiting what scientists are willing to say and do. As Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin have written "the irrationalities of a scientifically sophisticated world come not from failure of intelligence but from the persistence of capitalism, which as a by-product also aborts human intelligence" (Dialectical Biologist, p. 208; see also their Biology Under the Influence [Monthly Review Press, 2007])."
I replied to the previous message at
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,1053.msg151925.html#msg151925
The linked reference provides a current, limited-scale, real-world example of Hansen's ice-climate feedback.
Alessandro Silvano et al. (18 Apr 2018), "Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water", Science Advances, Vol. 4, no. 4, eaap9467, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aap9467
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaap9467
Extract: "Strong heat loss and brine release during sea ice formation in coastal polynyas act to cool and salinify waters on the Antarctic continental shelf. Polynya activity thus both limits the ocean heat flux to the Antarctic Ice Sheet and promotes formation of Dense Shelf Water (DSW), the precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water. However, despite the presence of strong polynyas, DSW is not formed on the Sabrina Coast in East Antarctica and in the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica. Using a simple ocean model driven by observed forcing, we show that freshwater input from basal melt of ice shelves partially offsets the salt flux by sea ice formation in polynyas found in both regions, preventing full-depth convection and formation of DSW. In the absence of deep convection, warm water that reaches the continental shelf in the bottom layer does not lose much heat to the atmosphere and is thus available to drive the rapid basal melt observed at the Totten Ice Shelf on the Sabrina Coast and at the Dotson and Getz ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea. Our results suggest that increased glacial meltwater input in a warming climate will both reduce Antarctic Bottom Water formation and trigger increased mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with consequences for the global overturning circulation and sea level rise."
Title: "One of the most worrisome predictions about climate change may be coming true"
https://bangordailynews.com/2018/04/23/environment/one-of-the-most-worrisome-predictions-about-climate-change-may-be-coming-true/
Extract: "Two years ago, former NASA climate scientist James Hansen and a number of colleagues laid out a dire scenario in which gigantic pulses of fresh water from melting glaciers could upend the circulation of the oceans, leading to a world of fast-rising seas and even superstorms.
Hansen’s scenario was based on a computer simulation, not hard data from the real world, and met with skepticism from a number of other climate scientists. But now, a new oceanographic study appears to have confirmed one aspect of this picture — in its early stages, at least.
The new research, based on ocean measurements off the coast of East Antarctica, shows that melting Antarctic glaciers are indeed freshening the ocean around them. And this, in turn, is blocking a process in which cold and salty ocean water sinks below the sea surface in winter, forming “the densest water on the Earth,” in the words of study lead author Alessandro Silvano, a researcher with the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia.
Hansen said that “this study provides a nice small-scale example of processes that we talk about in our paper.”
The linked reference finds that:
"… Labrador Sea deep convection and the AMOC have been anomalously weak over the past 150 years or so (since the end of the Little Ice Age, LIA, approximately AD 1850) compared with the preceding 1,500 years.
We suggest that enhanced freshwater fluxes from the Arctic and Nordic seas towards the end of the LIA – sourced from melting glaciers and thickened sea ice that developed earlier in the LIA – weakened Labrador Sea convection and the AMOC. The lack of a subsequent recovery may have resulted from hysteresis or from twentieth-century melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet."
These findings support Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism.
Thornalley et al. (2018), "Anomalously weak Labrador Sea convection and Atlantic overturning during the past 150 years", Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0007-4
There is a reason why Thwaites Glacier has been nicknamed the 'doomsday' glacier, and why research institutions keep spending more and more research dollars to study this important marine glacier.
Title: "Penn State researchers join international effort to study Antarctic ‘doomsday’ glacier"
https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2018/04/30/penn-state-researchers-join-international-effort-to-study-antarctic-doomsday-glacier/
Extract: "Researchers from Penn State University will be part of a major, international effort to better understand an Antarctic glacier, dubbed the “doomsday glacier” for its potential to contribute significantly to global sea level rise.
The Thwaites Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is about the size of Pennsylvania. The threat of it collapsing is so significant that the National Science Foundation and the United Kingdom’s National Environmental Research Council today announced $25 million in funding for eight research efforts."
The linked reference provides a mathematical framework for modeling cascading tipping mechanisms resulting in abrupt climate change; and as an illustration of this methodology it provides a conceptual model for coupling the North Atlantic Ocean Overturning Current and the ENSO system in the Pacific. Consensus climate science should use such a methodology to better evaluate the risks associated with Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism:
Dekker, M. M., von der Heydt, A. S., and Dijkstra, H. A.: Cascading transitions in the climate system, Earth Syst. Dynam. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2018-26, in review, 2018.
https://www.earth-syst-dynam-discuss.net/esd-2018-26/
https://www.earth-syst-dynam-discuss.net/esd-2018-26/esd-2018-26.pdf
Abstract. We provide a theory of cascading tipping, i.e., a sequence of abrupt transitions occurring because a transition in one subsystem changes the background conditions for another subsystem. A mathematical framework of elementary deterministic cascading tipping points in autonomous dynamical systems is presented containing the double-fold, fold-Hopf, Hopf-fold and double-Hopf as most generic cases. Statistical indicators which can be used as early warning indicators of cascading tipping events in stochastic, non-stationary systems are suggested. The concept of cascading tipping is illustrated through a conceptual model of the coupled North Atlantic Ocean – El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) system, demonstrating the possibility of such cascading events in the climate system.
The DOE has now released computer code & preliminary results from ACME (Accelerated Climate Model for Energy) while the DOE has renamed the program E3SM (Energy Exascale Earth System Model), and this world's most sophisticated climate model projects that ECS for the rest of this century will be about 5.2C (& this relatively high value is likely attributable to the state-of-the-art way that ACME/E3SM models aerosols and cloud feedback mechanisms).
While some consensus scientists (like Bjorn Stevens) have said that it is difficult to determine whether the ACME findings are any more relevant than other models in the CMIP6 program; I believe that these findings from the world's most advanced ESM warrant the adoptions of the Precautionary Principle, particularly as the ACME results only partially address Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism:
Title: "DOE’s maverick climate model is about to get its first test"
doi:10.1126/science.aau0578
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/does-maverick-climate-model-about-get-its-first-test
Extract: "In 2017, after President Donald Trump took office and pulled the nation out of the Paris climate accords, DOE dropped "climate" from the project name. The new name, the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), better reflects the model's focus on the entire Earth system, says project leader David Bader of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
One preliminary result, on the climate's sensitivity to carbon dioxide (CO2), will "raise some eyebrows," Bader says. Most models estimate that, for a doubling of CO2 above preindustrial levels, average global temperatures will rise between 1.5°C and 4.5°C. The E3SM predicts a strikingly high rise of 5.2°C, which Leung suspects is due to the way the model handles aerosols and clouds. And like many models, the E3SM produces two bands of rainfall in the tropics, rather than the one seen in nature near the equator.
The first test of the E3SM will be its performance in CMIP6. Nearly three dozen modeling groups, including newcomers from South Korea, India, Brazil, and South Africa, are expected to submit results to the intercomparison between now and 2020."
" like many models, the E3SM produces two bands of rainfall in the tropics, rather than the one seen in nature near the equator. "
O dear. I had hoped it would do better. But further discussion should probably be i a thread on models, perhaps.
Remember that ice mass loss from Antarctica is expected to accelerate nonlinearly with continued global warming, so while the current Antarctic contribution to sea level rise of 0.5mm/y may seem small, when it is increased nonlinearly to 2100, this small value could become big:
Title: "Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Is Melting Three Times Faster Than We Thought"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/antarcticas-ice-sheet-is-melting-three-times-faster-than-we-thought
Extract: "Antarctica’s ice sheet is melting three times faster than previously forecasted, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature by 80 scientists. The team said that the ice sheet is melting so fast that 219 billion tons of ice is pouring into the ocean annually—enough to raise sea levels by a half millimeter per year. Between 1992 and 1997, Antarctica was losing 49 billion times of ice per year; from 2012 to 2017, that number increased more than eightfold, according to the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise. At this rate of acceleration, scientists warn that oceans would rise faster than ever, which means a reduced amount of time for low-lying communities to prepare adequately. “We’re still talking about roughly a half a millimeter per year,” one scientist told The Washington Post. “That isn’t going to sound horribly unmanageable. But remember for the northern hemisphere, for North America, the fact that the location in West Antarctica is where the action is amplifies that rate of sea level rise by up to an about additional 25 percent in a city like Boston or New York.”"
Antarctic Ice Mass Loss through 2017.PNG (132.53 kB, 643x683 - viewed 900 times.)
« Last Edit: June 14, 2018, 11:21:39 PM by AbruptSLR »
Recent findings indicate that as the oceans continue to warm the less the oceans will be able to act as a carbon sink for atmospheric CO₂. This means that the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ will increase faster than previously expected:
Title: "Invisible scum on sea cuts CO2 exchange with air 'by up to 50%'"
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/28/invisible-scum-on-sea-cuts-co2-exchange-with-air-by-up-to-50
Extract: "The world’s oceans absorb around a quarter of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making them the largest long-term sink of carbon on Earth.
They found surfactants can reduce carbon dioxide exchange by up to 50%.
Dr Ryan Pereira, a Lyell research fellow at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said: “As surface temperatures rise, so too do surfactants, which is why this is such a critical finding.
“The warmer the ocean surface gets, the more surfactants we can expect, and an even greater reduction in gas exchange.
Rob Upstill-Goddard, professor of marine biogeochemistry at Newcastle University, said: “These latest results build on our previous findings that, contrary to conventional wisdom, large sea surface enrichments of natural surfactants counter the effects of high winds.”"
The linked reference discusses the finding of improved modeling near the Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT) that are of particular interest for calibrating climate models to including Hansen's ice-climate feedback mechanism (that is highly related to the response of the meridional overturning circulation). These new finding indicate higher climate sensitivity than projected by earlier (as in those used by AR5) less-sophisticated models. These findings increase the probability that Hansen's warnings about the risks of abrupt climate change this century are correct:
Hutchinson, D. K., de Boer, A. M., Coxall, H. K., Caballero, R., Nilsson, J., and Baatsen, M.: Climate sensitivity and meridional overturning circulation in the late Eocene using GFDL CM2.1, Clim. Past, 14, 789-810, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-789-2018, 2018.
Abstract. The Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT), which took place approximately 34 Ma ago, is an interval of great interest in Earth's climate history, due to the inception of the Antarctic ice sheet and major global cooling. Climate simulations of the transition are needed to help interpret proxy data, test mechanistic hypotheses for the transition and determine the climate sensitivity at the time. However, model studies of the EOT thus far typically employ control states designed for a different time period, or ocean resolution on the order of 3°. Here we developed a new higher resolution palaeoclimate model configuration based on the GFDL CM2.1 climate model adapted to a late Eocene (38 Ma) palaeogeography reconstruction. The ocean and atmosphere horizontal resolutions are 1° × 1.5° and 3° × 3.75° respectively. This represents a significant step forward in resolving the ocean geography, gateways and circulation in a coupled climate model of this period. We run the model under three different levels of atmospheric CO2: 400, 800 and 1600 ppm. The model exhibits relatively high sensitivity to CO2 compared with other recent model studies, and thus can capture the expected Eocene high latitude warmth within observed estimates of atmospheric CO2. However, the model does not capture the low meridional temperature gradient seen in proxies. Equatorial sea surface temperatures are too high in the model (30–37 °C) compared with observations (max 32 °C), although observations are lacking in the warmest regions of the western Pacific. The model exhibits bipolar sinking in the North Pacific and Southern Ocean, which persists under all levels of CO2. North Atlantic surface salinities are too fresh to permit sinking (25–30 psu), due to surface transport from the very fresh Arctic ( ∼ 20 psu), where surface salinities approximately agree with Eocene proxy estimates. North Atlantic salinity increases by 1–2 psu when CO2 is halved, and similarly freshens when CO2 is doubled, due to changes in the hydrological cycle.
Quote from: AbruptSLR on November 26, 2017, 11:32:00 PM
Another reason that DeConto & Pollard (2016)'s projection for the loss of the Thwaites ice plug may be too slow, is that they (and essentially all other modelers) have based their estimates of current ice mass loss from the ASE largely on data from the GRACE satellite. However, the past GRACE data may have been corrected using a conservative estimate of the associated glacial isostatic adjustment, GIA, in this area.
While the linked research, indicating more rapid bedrock uplift in Amundsen Sea Embayment, seems like good news, if one refers to projections from ice sheet models that do not include Pollard's & DeConto's ice cliff and hydrofacturing mechanism and which assume radiative forcing scenarios of RCP 4.5 or less. However, if one assumes radiative forcing scenarios close to BAU for the next two decades and projections from Pollard & DeConto's recent work, then Barletta et al (2018)'s finding are actually bad news regarding the potential collapse of the WAIS this century.
V.R. Barletta el al. (22 Jun 2018), "Observed rapid bedrock uplift in Amundsen Sea Embayment promotes ice-sheet stability," Science,:
Vol. 360, Issue 6395, pp. 1335-1339, DOI: 10.1126/science.aao1447.
The marine portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) accounts for one-fourth of the cryospheric contribution to global sea-level rise and is vulnerable to catastrophic collapse. The bedrock response to ice mass loss, glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), was thought to occur on a time scale of 10,000 years. We used new GPS measurements, which show a rapid (41 millimeters per year) uplift of the ASE, to estimate the viscosity of the mantle underneath. We found a much lower viscosity (4 × 1018 pascal-second) than global average, and this shortens the GIA response time scale from tens to hundreds of years. Our finding requires an upward revision of ice mass loss from gravity data of 10% and increases the potential stability of the WAIS against catastrophic collapse.
Title: "Bedrock in West Antarctica rising at surprisingly rapid rate"
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-bedrock-west-antarctica-surprisingly-rapid.html
Extract: "The findings, reported in the journal Science, have surprising and positive implications for the survival of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), which scientists had previously thought could be doomed because of the effects of climate change.
The unexpectedly fast rate of the rising earth may markedly increase the stability of the ice sheet against catastrophic collapse due to ice loss, scientists say.
Moreover, the rapid rise of the earth in this area also affects gravity measurements, which implies that up to 10 percent more ice has disappeared in this part of Antarctica than previously assumed.
Researchers led by scientists at The Ohio State University used a series of six GPS stations (part of the POLENET-ANET array) attached to bedrock around the Amundsen Sea Embayment to measure its rise in response to thinning ice.
The "uplift rate" was measured at up to 41 millimeters (1.6 inches) a year, said Terry Wilson, one of the leaders of the study and a professor emeritus of earth sciences at Ohio State.
In contrast, places like Iceland and Alaska, which have what are considered rapid uplift rates, generally are measured rising 20 to 30 millimeters a year.
"The rate of uplift we found is unusual and very surprising. It's a game changer," Wilson said.
And it is only going to get faster. The researchers estimate that in 100 years, uplift rates at the GPS sites will be 2.5 to 3.5 times more rapid than currently observed.
While modeling studies have shown that bedrock uplift could theoretically protect WAIS from collapse, it was believed that the process would take too long to have practical effects.
"We previously thought uplift would occur over thousands of years at a very slow rate, not enough to have a stabilizing effect on the ice sheet. Our results suggest the stabilizing effect may only take decades," Wilson said.
Wilson said the rapid rise of the bedrock in this part of Antarctica suggests that the geology underneath Antarctica is different from what scientists had previously believed.
Some scientists suggest that WAIS may have passed a tipping point in which ice loss can no longer be stopped, which could be catastrophic, Wilson said. The glaciers there contain enough water to raise global sea levels up to four feet.
The problem is that much of this area of Antarctica is below sea level. Relatively warm ocean water has flowed in underneath the bottom of the ice sheet, causing thinning and moving the grounding line—where the water, ice and solid earth meet—further inland.
The process seemed unstoppable, Wilson said. "But we found feedbacks that could slow or even stop the process."
One important feedback involves "pinning points—elevated features of the earth rising from the surface below the grounding line that pin the ice sheet to solid earth. These pinning points are going up in response to the uplift of the earth and could prevent further retreat of the ice sheet.
Another feedback is lowering sea levels. Massive ice sheets along the ocean have their own gravitational pull and raise the sea level near them. But as the ice thins and retreats, the gravitational pull lessens and the sea level near the coast goes down.
"The lowering of the sea level, the rising of pinning points and the decrease of the inland slope due to the uplift of the bedrock are all feedbacks that can stabilize the ice sheet," Wilson said.
Other researchers had estimated how much the earth would have to rise to protect WAIS given a range of future climate warming scenarios.
Results of this study estimate that the bedrock at the Pine Island Glacier grounding line (which is part of WAIS) will have risen about 8 meters in 100 years. That is about three times higher than values shown by others to reduce run-away retreat in this area.
"Under many realistic climate models, this should be enough to stabilize the ice sheet," Wilson said.
She said while this study delivers some potentially good news for the Amundsen Sea Embayment, that doesn't mean all is well in Antarctica.
"The physical geography of Antarctica is very complex. We found some potentially positive feedbacks in this area, but other areas could be different and have negative feedbacks instead," she said. Regardless of feedbacks, models suggest that the WAIS will collapse if future global warming is large."
Regardless of ice models, Barletta(2018) is good news. In all cases, faster uplift is a stabilizing force. So i do not agree with the statement that:
"However, if one assumes radiative forcing scenarios close to BAU for the next two decades and projections from Pollard & DeConto's recent work, then Barletta et al (2018)'s finding are actually bad news regarding the potential collapse of the WAIS this century."
Barletta's work shows that bedrock in the Amundsen sea is rising at two to three times the previously estimated rate, and will rise even faster in future. I quote from the paper:
"The extremely low upper mantle viscosity that we constrain supports the possibility of increased stability of the WAIS with respect to previous studies (16, 17). Lower mantle viscosity leads to faster bedrock uplift in response to ice mass loss. Rapidly rising bedrock shallows the ocean at the grounding line and reduces the buoyancy forces experienced by the edge of the ice sheet while reducing the slope of the bed beneath the ice sheet (fig. S3)"
"In 100 years, uplift rates at the GPS sites will be between 2.5 and 3.5 times larger than currently observed (Fig. 3B), and the bedrock at the Pine Island Glacier grounding line will have risen by about 8 m compared to the present (Fig. 3, C and D). This is about three times higher than values shown to reduce runaway ice surface velocities within 100 years (15). The time required to build sufficient deformation to trigger the stabilization effect is much shorter (27) than in (16). Under low and medium climate forcing, with the onset of the stabilization feedback about two times faster (27), the condition for ice-sheet stability and its possible readvance can reasonably be expected to occur much earlier than predicted in previous studies (16, 17). Based on our estimates, it might produce a deformation large enough and early enough in the deglaciation phase to prevent the complete collapse of the WAIS even under strong climate forcing."
The bad news in Barlettta's work is that because of the revised GIA, it turns out that actual ice mass loss over the last few decades is larger than previously thought.
"We thus contend that published GRACE-derived ice mass loss estimates for ASE, for example, ~108 Gt/year (1) (drainage basins of Pine Island and Thwaites and Smith glaciers), are systematically underestimated by between 10.0 and 13.9 Gt/year, which is more than 10% of the total ice mass loss estimate for the ASE."
i attach fig S3.
Barletta-2018-fig-s3.png (155.05 kB, 836x605 - viewed 189 times.)
Quote from: sidd on June 21, 2018, 10:03:31 PM
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions; and while Barletta et al (2018) can believe that their findings will help to pin Thwaites, their Figure S3 (see first image), looks a rather similar to Rignot et al (2017) for the Thwaites gateway (see second & third images), and I believe that marine cliff failures (see the fourth image from Wise et al (2017), will mean that the suspected pinning point will not be able to stop DeConto & Pollard (2016)'s ice cliff and hydrofracturing from occurring within the next twenty to thirty years:
Yu, H., Rignot, E., Morlighem, M., & Seroussi, H. (2017). Iceberg calving of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica: full-Stokes modeling combined with linear elastic fracture mechanics. The Cryosphere, 11(3), 1283, doi:10.5194/tc-11-1283-2017
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/1283/2017/tc-11-1283-2017.pdf
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/11/1283/2017/tc-11-1283-2017-assets.html
Wise et al. (2017), "Evidence of marine ice-cliff instability in Pine Island Bay from iceberg-keel plough marks", Nature 550, 506-510, doi:10.1038/nature24458
Barletta et al (2018) Figure S3.PNG (81.85 kB, 383x313 - viewed 743 times.)
Fig 1b Thwaites 2017.PNG (279.62 kB, 437x482 - viewed 735 times.)
Fig 3 Thwaites 2017.PNG (30.67 kB, 412x477 - viewed 730 times.)
Pine Island Retreat due to cliff failures 12_3 kya.PNG (103.57 kB, 639x807 - viewed 126 times.)
The associated summary by Langin (doi: 10.1126/science.360.6395.1283 ) in the same issue of Science lays out your both point and mine:
Some extracts from that article:
“It may just buy the world a few extra decades,” says Rick Aster
“It’s not a get out of jail free card,” says Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. “It’s more of a refinement on the pace of [ice sheet] collapse,” he says, especially if we continue “stomping on the climate gas pedal.” Ingo Sasgen, a geophysicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, agrees. “It’s still a rather slow process compared to melting,” he says. “If you have a very strong warming from the ocean, the ice sheet will disintegrate whatever the solid earth does.”
I take the Barletta results as good news, since this is the one of the few results that suppress WAIS mass loss rather than enchance it. So the situation is slightly better than I thought.
That summary also references an article in Nature by Kingslake et al. on which i commented earlier:
That article looks at GIA as well. But in light of Barletta results, I think they need to revisit their calculations in the Amundsen sector, since the crust beneath is more labile than they assumed. That may explain the lack of skill in that sector.
Quote from: sidd on June 22, 2018, 12:00:52 AM
All of your points are well taken, however considerations that might make the situation slight worse than you might (or might not) have been thinking include:
a) The low viscousity of the magma almost certainly means that it is convecting heat upward from the Earth's core faster than previously thought by consensus scientists; which means that the geothermal heat flux through the bedrock is greater, which means that both basal ice melting is higher and that the stiffness of the basal ice is lower. Both of these factors should increase conventional ice flow.
b) The local Earth's crust is rising because more rock mass is moving into this area from surrounding areas. This means that as ice mass is lost, the local sea level will not fall as fast as it would have with more viscous magma; which means that there will be more buoyant force on the marine glacier which means it will be less stable.
c) More local Earth movement means more seismic and volcanic activity, both of which reduce ice stability.
Ice sheet models will need to improve considerably before anyone can conclude that we are all safer than consensus scientists thought before this research was available.
Gaia is even more amazing than I thought.
Quote from: AbruptSLR on June 22, 2018, 03:57:39 AM
This is the asthenosphere, the top part of the mantle where the solidus and the geothermal gradient converge. There isn't necessarily any partial melt (magma), but the viscosity is lower than the upper mantle and the lithosphere (the brittle part of the top of the mantle and the crust). The asthenosphere does flow, and that is where the compensation mechanism for PGR is thought to originate. The ductile flow that is thought to happen as the mechanism for isostatic compensation will not affect mantle convection or necessarily increase or decrease the temperature at the base of the lithosphere. Even if it did the timescales for this change are much greater than the time for ice melt.
Thinning or thickening of the lithosphere can effect the geothermal gradient (e.g. you get volcanic activity at rifts). Melting ice effectively thins the lithosphere, and you get pressure release, but also you change the temperature at the crust/ice boundary. I'm not sure how that would effect the solidus/geothermal gradient, but if you do increase partial melt, again, that will take a long time to effect the surface unless you already have existing magma chambers at high levels in the crust.
Quote from: RoxTheGeologist on June 22, 2018, 06:03:28 PM
Rox,
Please review the linked pdf, and see if you are interested in revising any of your statements.
Begeman, C. B., Tulaczyk, S. M., & Fisher, A. T. (2017). Spatially variable geothermal heat flux in West Antarctica: Evidence and implications. Geophysical Research Letters, 44. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075579
https://websites.pmc.ucsc.edu/~afisher/CVpubs/pubs/Begeman2017_GRL_AntWGZ-HF.pdf
Abstract Geothermal heat flux (GHF) is an important part of the basal heat budget of continental ice sheets. The difficulty of measuring GHF below ice sheets has directly hindered progress in the understanding of ice sheet dynamics. We present a new GHF measurement from below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, made in subglacial sediment near the grounding zone of the Whillans Ice Stream. The measured GHF is 88 ± 7 mW m_2, a relatively high value compared to other continental settings and to other GHF measurements along the eastern Ross Sea of 55 mW m_2 and 69 ± 21 mW m_2 but within the range of regional values indicated by geophysical estimates. The new GHF measurement was made ~100 km from the only other direct GHF measurement below the ice sheet, which was considerably higher at 285 ± 80mWm_2, suggesting spatial variability that could be explained by shallow magmatic intrusions or the advection of heat by crustal fluids. Analytical calculations suggest that spatial variability in GHF exceeds spatial variability in the conductive heat flux through ice along the Siple Coast. Accurate GHF measurements and high-resolution GHF models may be necessary to reliably predict ice sheet evolution, including responses to ongoing and future climate change.
Extract: "Current geophysical GHF models underestimate the observed magnitude and spatial variability of GHF, which may be enhanced by magmatism or advection of crustal fluids."
Caption for the first image: "Figure 2. (a) GHF measurements and estimates for West Antarctica (Engelhardt, 2004a; Fisher et al., 2015; Foster, 1978; Fudge et al., 2013) and the western Ross Sea region (Morin et al., 2010, and references therein; Schröder et al., 2011) overlain on ice velocity (Rignot et al., 2011). Grounding line outlined black (Bindschadler et al., 2015). Profile line (A-A0) shown in black. Extent of GHF estimates below Thwaites glacier (THW, dashed line) (Schroeder et al., 2014). (b) Estimates of spatial variability in heat conduction and production along the profile line shown in Figure 2a, as difference from mean conductive heat flux along that profile (79mWm_2). (c) Shear heat flux estimates calculated from ice velocity and associated errors. GHF measurements and estimates close to the profile line are plotted (mean ±1 SE, SLW value lies off axis)."
Caption for the second image: "Figure 3. (a) Analytical model for GHF based on Fox Maule et al. (2005) (black and gray lines) compared with GHF measurements and estimates (blue) as a function of magnetic crustal thickness. The SLW value lies well above the plot. Dotted lines show the envelope of ±15% variation in crustal thermal conductivity from 2.8 W m_1 °C_1. (b) GHF anomaly due to modeled magmatic intrusions with cubic geometry. Intrusion depths are the distance from the surface of the crust to the top of the intrusion. GHF values are the maximum achieved at the surface over the center of the intrusion. Black contours represent mean ±1 SE bounds on GHF at SLW. Gray contours mark the time since emplacement at which the maximum GHF values plotted are achieved. (c) Probability density functions of GHF models for West Antarctica (An=An et al., 2015; FM=Fox Maule et al., 2005; SR=Shapiro & Ritzwoller, 2004) and GHF measurements in the Basin and Range Province, USA, 16% of which exceed 300 mW m_2 (National Geothermal Data System). In Figures 3a and 3c, GHF measurements and estimates for West Antarctica are plotted as mean ±1 SE, where available (references in Figure 2). GHF estimates below Thwaites glacier (THW), shown in Figure 3a, plotted as mean, ±1 SD (solid line), and the full range of THW values (dotted line) which extend off axis to 375 mW m_2 (Schroeder et al., 2014)."
First image.PNG (392.87 kB, 606x817 - viewed 116 times.)
Second image.PNG (196.98 kB, 296x836 - viewed 111 times.)
« Last Edit: June 23, 2018, 12:11:27 AM by AbruptSLR »
With regards to a more specific near-term cryosphere prediction, I predict that in less than 2.5-years, the PIIS and the SW Tributary Ice Shelf will experience a concurrent major calving event (along the intersecting cracks shown in the attached Sentinel-1 image from Nov 28 2017) that will temporarily cause the ice velocities in the SW Tributary Glacier to accelerate.
The attached Sentinel-1 image from June 21, 2018, indicates that the SW Tributary Ice Shelf has already experienced a major calving event, and we will see whether the PIIS experiences a major calving event in the same vicinity within the next year.
Calving of SW Tributary Ice Shelf prior to June 21 2018.PNG (719.81 kB, 662x863 - viewed 98 times.)
To paraphrase the paper "There's magmatic activity in the rift under the ice sheets; it shows up as concentrated hot spots under the ice; it looks like modern rift regimes; models underestimate the special variation and intensity; but we don't have a lot of data; it might be important"
What I wrote was really to correct your first paragraph. Low viscosity magma does not conduct heat from the earths core. Heat is transported from the core by mantle convection, and that is certainly not magma; It also takes a LONG time, it's about 2500km and it convection is thought to move at 20mm a year. Changes to it are not likely to effect the ice regime in the next 10000 years. I probably should have been more direct and not got into where magma actually forms and how pressure/temperature changes could produce more magma.
This paper finds an extremely high heat flow and low viscosity that is best explained by partial melting in the upper mantle. The heat flow is higher than the basin and range which has a low velocity zone and ongoing volcanism. If there's a rapid ice mass loss there will be decompression melting. This could increase volcanic activity as the ice melts as happened during the late Pleistocene in Alaska and Iceland.
This rapid isostatic adjustment is only good news if we stop emitting GHGs. Perhaps, then, the ice would find a new grounding line. If we keep the heat on with GHG emissions this will only add to the melting which we now know is already worse than we thought.
This isostatic adjustment rates found in the study are stunning, but the will not be fast enough to compensate for accelerated melting if we keep our feet on the gas pedal.
Thank you for the clarifications. I concur that the main points of concur are the numerous pre-existing concentrated hotspots under the ice, and I also concur with FishOutofWater that if we continue BAU emissions for much longer, the isostatic adjustment rates will not be fast enough to compensate for the other consequences of ice mass loss.
After many tens of millions of years of repeated ice sheet collapse, it is not surprising that many of the pre-existing hotspots beneath the WAIS are located in critical areas like underneath the PIG:
Title: "Researchers discover volcanic heat source under major Antarctic glacier"
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-volcanic-source-major-antarctic-glacier.html
Extract: " A researcher from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and five other scientists have discovered an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica.
The scientists conclude by writing: "The magnitude and the variations in the rate of the volcanic heat supplied to the Pine Island Glacier, either by internal magma migration, or by an increase in volcanism as a consequence of ice sheet thinning, may impact the future dynamics of the Pine Island Glacier, during the contemporary period of climate-driven glacial retreat.""
Brice Loose et al. Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier, Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04421-3
Fig 1.PNG (411.55 kB, 560x730 - viewed 106 times.)
Makes me wonder more about what's happening under the Thwaites. Sea ice concentration is much lower near its outflow than by the PIG. From NSIDC for June 24th:
Thwaites area on 2018-06-24.png (14.49 kB, 256x110 - viewed 358 times.)
« Last Edit: June 26, 2018, 09:36:59 AM by steve s »
The Thwaites outflow seems to be increasing, and to be warm! , much of the near glacier waters are shown to be ice free - see the close up below.
Given ASLR's latest post, 2 above, perhaps the focus of the research should have been on the Thwaites, not the PIG.
Thwaites area 2018-06-27.png (17.19 kB, 116x111 - viewed 259 times.)
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Alice In Chains doesn't sound heavy metal to me. Like, at all.
Hey Riffs, just outta curiosity, how much have you heard of AIC's material?
Not enough, I think. And it's been a long time. I've been contemplating getting into it again because so many people seem to have an appreciation for this band that I cannot understand.
What should I start with?
Well, I pretty much enjoy all of their output, but I'd recommend starting with the debut, which is my personal favorite of theirs, and contains some of their all time classics, such as We Die Young, Love, Hate, Love, and the legendary (if overplayed) Man in the Box. The sophomore, Dirt, is also great, but not as metallic as the debut, and a bit more on the alternative side, but it still contains plenty of Sabbathian riffs and dense atmospheres. Also, don't know what you think of acoustic music, but they have a couple of really cool and mellow EPs under their name; Jar of Flies and Sap. Jar of Flies, especially, is bloody amazing.
I think that's enough for you to start. Haven't mentioned the selftitled and Black Gives Way to Blue because they're a bit more divisive than their other material (though I love them nonetheless). You'll see for yourself if you like them.
erickg13
Location: The Middle of the Pacific Ocean.
I don't understand the hatred of Black Gives Way to Blue by some AIC fans. It's really quite a solid album. It has it ups and downs, but some people don't like it. I really don't like the excuse that its because it doesn't sound like Layne era material. It doesn't for a reason: they moved on. It sounds Jerry Cantrell's solo work with William Duvall harmonizing, which adds a lot to the music in my opinion. Facelift is the place to start for anyone trying to get into AiC. Dirt is quite good as well, but I think that Unplugged is the best album they did. It's not quite a greatest hits, but the way they do the music from electric to acoustic and the haunting nature of Layne Staley's weakened voice on that album makes it really stand out.
doomster999
Keeper of the Dreary Realm
Riffs, U mad? listen to THIS, THIS, THIS, or from the comeback material, THIS.
gomorro wrote:
Infact I use to have a relly hot friend from there but unfurtunetly the last party we have I was really wasted and grab her ass and it cause a huge problem. Her dad (that is a marine) wants to ripp my nuts... thinks are not the same...
erickg13 wrote:
Black Gives Way to Blue is indeed solid. The tone and the atmosphere of the album is gigantic. Some straight up doom metal moments like Acid Bubble, A Looking In View to psychedelic awesomeness of When the Sun Rose Again, it's just outstanding.
I used to hate BGWTB and it took a long time for it to grow on me, now it's probably my favourite AiC album yet. Same goes for the self-titled album. Both those albums are really hard to get into since they both have some really long songs. BGWTB is a winner since it has some of the band's heaviest songs yet (A Looking in View, Last of my Kind) mixed in with some stuff which would not sound out of place on the band's two acoustic EP's. The self-titled is good since it's quite possibly the darkest, most depressing album Alice in Chains or anyone else for that matter has ever managed to create.
Black Gives Way to Blue is great, but the change in vocalist (I refuse to agree that William is a Layne clone) and the increase in similarity to Jerry's solo stuff indeed has caused a bit of a stir among AIC fans. Personally, I find it to be my second favorite AIC record, just behind Facelift.
Alice in Chains is one of the hands-down best bands in the world, ever. Jerry Cantrell is no doubt a millionaire, but he deserves so much more recognition than he gets in either the "grunge" OR "metal" circles. granted, they're a fucking huge band, but so many modern-day alternative types dismiss them as being too metal, while at the same time lots of metalheads do the same for the opposite reason.
Alice in Chains is one of the hands-down best bands in the world, ever. Jerry Cantrell is no doubt a millionaire, but he deserves so much more recognition than he gets in either the "grunge" OR "metal" circles.
Don't know Turner, as I believe that they get plenty of recognition from the public and artists, both old and new. They just have the perfect formula; emotional depth (without falling into the typical "I'm so angsty" trap), the right balance between catchiness and heaviness, and attention grabbing vocals. Really, I know plenty of people who wouldn't touch metal with a stick yet love AIC (and get quite surprised when I tell them that they're pretty much a metal band). The bit about them being one of the best bands in the world?
Ravenlord266
I don't know if they are mentioned already here, but Temple of the Dog is one of my most favorite albums of all-time.
Ravenlord266 wrote:
I heard a few of their songs a while back and they just struck me as typical generic alt rock stuff like Pearl Jam, nothing amazing or anything.
I know plenty of people who wouldn't touch metal with a stick yet love AIC (and get quite surprised when I tell them that they're pretty much a metal band).
It is sort of annoying when i see people arguing over why nirvana is a better grunge band then alice in chains or why alice in chains is better then nirvana or pearl jam etc, when they don't even realize alice in chains is actually just a metal band and that these bands have absolutely nothing in common. (happens a lot on alice in chains youtube videos)
Mmmmm, never been witness to such pointless bickering myself. Guess I'm lucky
Xlxlx, I've started listening to Facelift. It's pretty good so far. Better than I remembered!
Doomster: It does sound more like hard rock/grunge to me. It's heavy, but not metal to my ears. I'm gonna listen further.
And yeah, I've been told I'm mad before
Ah, glad to know that! Any tracks that you like in particular?
And while we're on the grunge thread, I have to ask; do you like Soundgarden?
Glad to know that you're enjoying Facelift. Yeah, it does sound 'hard rock/grunge' to them who are obsessed with Judas Priest and Iron Maiden riffs but it sounds 'metal' to them who are obsessed with the riffs of Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus. Got what I meant?
Last edited by doomster999 on Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
The SHM
Primate wrote:
I consider them a metal band in genre from the grunge scene. In other words, 'grunge' was more of a music scene, rather than a genre. To me. And because they were a scene, there could be bands of varying styles and genres that could still be called grunge. If Iron Maiden came from Seattle as did TAD and Green River, I'd still call them grunge, but only as a scene. Maiden'd still be metal; TAD be sludge metal; Green River be sludge punk.
You say "Justin Bieber", I say... OK. So?
92% of teens have cleanly divided themselves according to genres. If you're part of the 8% that doesn't give a shit why others listen to their music, then I don't care. Just enjoy the damn music.
The SHM wrote:
Same here. Nicely explained.
Think of it this way, Riffs. This song carries a strong Alice In Chains stylistic influence, but it's definitely metal. If it was under the Alice in Chains name, would you still think it's not metal?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovoQGlSZatU
I've always thought of it as an extremely laid back and open album. Feels like everyone involved came out of their shell and just did their thing without constraints. I like them a lot more than Pearl Jam or even some Soundgarden stuff.
Is it wrong if I really hate Man in the Box?
Bleed the Freak is really cool! I can't Remember which follows just fits right. Of course, stuff like We Die Young. It still doesn't give me that metal feel (not that I really care whether it's metal or not).
I liked Soundgarden. I think when Badmotorfinger came out, I was really into acrobatic singing. Being a singer myself, I guess I liked seeing people push their voice. But it's not an album I appreciated over the long term. Superunknown I still dig to this day. Feels more mature and balanced. Sounds really good too.
I like the song myself, but it's insanely overplayed, so the hate is understandable
Really? I find most of AIC's riffing to be highly metallic in nature. Hell, Iommi is a clear influence in Cantrell's playing style. But hey, as long as you like it.....
Superunknown is great (and like you say, more developed overall), but with time, Badmotorfinger has become my favorite Soundgarden album. It's just that its rawness, savagery, and the "we take shit from no one" attitude wins me over. Also, it has my all time favorite SG song (Slaves & Bulldozers, in case you wanna know). I also find Louder than Love to be horribly underrated, though that's most likely because it was eclipsed by the aforementioned albums.
Black Sabbath and Maryland bands sound like hard rock/grunge to me. *Pun intended*
misogynisticfeminist
I visited my parents a few months ago, and my mom had Facelift in the car, so I got to listen to it for the first time in like 8 years. When I got home I had to revisit all their stuff and am now pretty glad I found that cd in the car I had forgotten how enjoyable this band is/was. Now I'm doing the same thing with Nirvana. I haven't listened to them since probably 2002 or 2003. We'll see how this goes. So far so good!
New video up. Quite neat if I must say so.
AiC - Hollow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmSeWqmlqYs
Best post-grunge band- anyone want to take a crack at it?
Well, I like a bit Silverchair. Their first three albums are pretty cool. Audrey Horne from Norway which features Thomas Tofthagen, the lead guitarist of Sahg(Doom/Stoner) is pretty good as well. His playing style is remarkably similar to Jerry Cantrell, specially when he plays in Sahg. He's admittedly a big fan of AiC and Cantrell.
I watched the video quite minutely today, has anyone noticed that something tends to come out from the astronaut's shoulder? Ridley Scott influence much?
Einzige
"Grunge" isn't a cohesive musical genre, point-blank. It's a media-created catch-all term, sort of like "New Wave Of British/American Heavy Metal", that describes all things and nothing about the sound simultaneously.
Alice In Chains were a metal band, point blank. I wouldn't even label them "grunge metal"; they're straight up doom if they're any sort of subgenre. There's a reason they started out playing Armored Saint covers.
Nirvana were a blend of The Pixies and Black Sabbath. Kurt always thought of himself as a punk rocker, and he wanted to make moderately accessible punk.
Pearl Jam wanted to be Led Zeppelin. Their derivative, Stone Temple Pilots, were better than they were.
Last edited by Einzige on Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Einzige wrote:
Nirvana were a blend of The Pixies and Black Sabbath. Curt always thought of himself as a punk rocker, and he wanted to make moderately accessible punk.
Seconded. I agree on the Stone Temple Pilots part as well.
Chevelle, 10 Years and Staind, although those bands are more sort of on the alt-metal side of things.
TheHellRazor
I love grunge. I don't branch out into it as much as metal, I love Nirvana to death, I love Alice In Chains, Silverchair, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots. Pearl Jam was just okay. Mudhoney is pretty good, and so is Temple of the Dog.
Someone also mentioned non grunge 90's era stuff like the Chili Peppers, I love them too. I really wish I coulda been born a late 70's child so I could've lived through the 80's and 90's. Sadly I was born in 1998 and I'm having to live in the era of shitty pop and hip hop.
Hellrisen
Location: thE ocEAN
Sounds to me that Pearl Jam was trying to be the Bachman Turner Overdrive of the 90's, not Led Zep.
You've got crabs, Ass-Face!
TheHellRazor wrote:
Pop was just as shitty- in the '70s (probably the most shitty it's ever been during this decade actually), '80s, and '90s, and not all hip hop is that bad.
Look up 'Wolfmother' or 'Radio Moscow' or 'Witchcult' or 'Rival Sons' and go from there.
Powerslave93
I absolutely LOVE grunge. From Nirvana and Pearl Jam to Blood Circus and Nudeswirl, I think it was an awesome form of music. I can understand the apprehension towards it by older people as it was massively hyped. I also agree that it had a TERRIBLE effect on modern rock music and that Nirvana would not get the acclaim they get had Cobain not committed suicide. But I think it was still an exciting and heavy form of music and I don't think that it deserves to be made out to be this great enemy of metal as it has been by a lot of people. I think bands like Pantera and Rage Against the Machine (even though I love those bands) did greater harm to metal than grunge did. Plus, I have a personal attachment to the 90s, and that definitely enhances the listening experience.
Last edited by Powerslave93 on Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
doomster999 wrote:
I can't agree with you on that, actually many of the so called "Alternative metal" bands from the early 90s (Helmet, Tool, etc.) are mainly to blame for the horrible wave of nu metal that came in the mid 90s.
Yes, the above mentioned bands are very much responsible for nu metal. As well as bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Biohazard, Pantera, D.R.I, Sepultura (since 'Roots'), Carcass and later Cryptopsy (influence on deathcore) alongwith At the Gates (some songs), In Flames and other melo death bands had significant impact on shaping the early mallcore (metalcore/nu metal/deathcore combined) sound.
I really don't see what metalcore and deathcore have to do with nu-metal. They suck, sure, but they're completely different breeds of sucky music. If you gave a Waking the Cadaver CD to a Coal Chamber-listening 14-year-old in 2000 he would probably not know what to make of it.
I've some favourites from the glam/hair era such as The Crimson Idol (WASP), Slave to the Grind (Skid Row), Pride (White Lion). I think there's much originality and honest music in these albums than just bland and goofy cock rock.
No way in hell is The Crimson Idol hair metal. Hell, with its epic tendencies, it's closer to power metal than hair metal. Not that it's very close, but The Crimson Idol is even further from glam than it is from power metal.
As for the "alternative vs. glam" debate, I'm going to side with hair metal as the less shitty genre. At least the hair bands could sing, could play, and sometimes wrote music that was catchy and fun.
I haven't got into the debate whether The Crimson Idol is a hair metal album or not. I would say it's not but "Doctor Rockter" is a cock rock tinged tune. Apart from that it's a damn good heavy/speed metal record.
The term "Alternative" can be traced back to late 60's-early 70's when Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart were writing experimental pieces drawing influences from blues and jazz. The term was contaminated by the late 90's when awful lot of shitty corporate pop rock bands got lumped into it. Radio stations and mainstream media are responsible for that abomination.
But this discussion is based on the 'grunge' era. I don't like the term myself but that's a different issue. And if you're talking about writing quality music with quality vocals then Soundgarden and Alice in Chains could eat all the known glam bands for breakfast. Both of these bands were cursed by the 'grunge' label, they never cared for it and they had more in common with Sabbathian brand of doom/stoner metal. Chris Cornell in his prime was a beast, even better than King Diamond. And Layne Staley was one of the most original and honest voices I've ever heard.
I like a little Hair Metal myself (Whitesnake, Cinderella, Motley Crue, etc...), but I wouldn't knock Grunge down like that.
Grunge...is difficult to describe. Sure, you might be right about Nirvana (Though I actually like Bleach, which I say is their only album anyone should listen to, but what do I know...), but we actually got some great bands out of that scene. Soundgarden flat out rocked, Alice In Chains was almost Doom and just great, Pearl Jam gave us their first album, and we got Melvins' weirdness. I'd say the upcoming of Grunge would be great if it weren't for so many terrible bands coming out of it (WHICH you could say the same about Hair Metal )
Well like i said earlier, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Melvins etc are all awesome and very much metal, but NOT grunge. To me, if i had to define grunge as a musical genre (i don't really consider it an actual genre anyway) it would be pretty much just straight up alternative rock with a tiny bit more of an emphasis on punk rock & hard rock, but essentially the exact same thing. Alice in Chains are not grunge because they have absolutely no punk influence whatsoever and are just straight up Heavy metal/rock n roll
Nirvana=Grunge
Pearl Jam=Grunge
Foo Fighters=Grunge
Alice in Chains=Heavy metal
Soundgarden=Heavy metal/Stoner rock
Melvins=Doom metal/Hardcore/Stoner rock
The term "grunge" really didn't mean anything. None of the bands sounded the same, it was just some name that MTV and the music press created. Even "grunge" musicians like Mark Arm and Ben Shepherd said the term meant nothing. So to say Nirvana and Pearl Jam are grunge while AIC, Soundgarden, and Melvins aren't is kind of redundant.
SladeCraven
Alice in Chains is one of my favorite bands. I think their output dominates the grunge "scene." They, along with Soundgarden, are easily the strongest out of that time period, in my opinion.
That is not to say I dislike other bands from the time period or shortly thereafter, mind you. I enjoy Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana(to an extent), and Pearl Jam as well. I just honestly think Alice in Chains, and arguably Soundgarden, have virtually no competition among those bands.
"Death has come to your little town, Sheriff."
misogynisticfeminist wrote:
your mom is awesome
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Home » News » Initiatives » Statements » Remarks Commemorating the Third Anniversary of the Uprising in Bahrain
Remarks Commemorating the Third Anniversary of the Uprising in Bahrain
Remarks at Capitol Hill Event Commemorating the Third Anniversary of the Uprising in Bahrain
by Robert Herman, Vice President for Regional Programs
I am honored to be here at the invitation of my good friends at Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. While we express our collective abhorrence and commiserate over the ongoing brutal repression against a non-violent popular movement for democratic transformation, we also come together to celebrate the courage, commitment and resilience of Bahraini citizens in freedom’s struggle against injustice and the denial of fundamental rights.
My organization, Freedom House, is proud to partner with ADHRB, which has played a pivotal role in shining a spotlight on the Kingdom of Bahrain’s continued assault on cherished freedoms in a vain attempt to crush the democratic aspirations of its people. Husain and his colleagues have worked tirelessly to tell the real story of what has been transpiring in Bahrain and to amplify the voices of those inside the country who dare to challenge authoritarian power with little more than their ideals, boundless courage and determination to organize for political change.
As I look at these chilling yet also stirring photos, it is a reminder of the power of images to help shape our understanding of events. They also humanize the tragedy that is Bahrain, capturing the suffering and sacrifice that ordinary people are prepared to endure to bring about a free society. These photos also stand in sharp contrast to the propaganda manufactured by the Bahraini government’s pricey, hired-gun lobbyists desperate to sell an alternative narrative of a responsive, capable and modern state dedicated to socio-economic progress and upholding citizen’s rights – that they would have you believe is now under siege from violent extremists intent on dividing the country along sectarian lines at the behest of their Iranian masters.
Three years after the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry released its report documenting the government’s indiscriminate use of deadly force to quell peaceful protests and employing torture against incarcerated demonstrators, the government has not implemented a single one of the report’s major recommendations. Excuses for non-action underscore the absence of political will on the part of the monarchy to institute changes to address the legitimate and long-ignored grievances of the large majority of the country’s citizens, Sunni as well as Shiite.
The National Dialogue launched last year to bring the two sides together could have been a promising process but it has been fraught with problems and a basic unwillingness of the ruling family to countenance reforms that would end its monopoly on political power. Make no mistake, it is this basic intransigence that increases the likelihood that a transition away from absolute monarchy will not be achieved peacefully.
Sadly, what is happening in Bahrain is part of a larger trend across the Gulf region and far beyond. In Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, oil-wealthy monarchies that have counted on coopting their respective citizenries by providing material wellbeing in return for allegiance to autocratic rule, are cracking down on advocates of democracy and human rights. Indeed the authoritarian pushback against those championing fundamental freedoms has been gaining in strength globally for several years. Despotic regimes intent on crushing growing popular demand for accountable governing institutions are employing a variety of strategies and tools to shrink the space for political opposition and pro-democracy civil society. They will resort to force, even deadly force, when they think it necessary, but much prefer to misuse and cynically manipulate the law and the legal system to provide a patina of legitimacy to what is in reality harsh repression.
And all of this while subordinating legislative and judicial institutions to executive power as well as controlling broadcast media and access to and content on the internet. Authoritarian solidarity means the exporting “worst practices,” sharing the most effective ways to quash or otherwise prevent democratic challenges.
The more aggressive and self-confident global assault on democracy and fundamental freedoms is aided by the failure of the leading democratic countries, including the United States, to do more to counter this systematic and coordinated effort to silence dissent and preserve authoritarian power and privilege.
In the case of Bahrain, the U.S. and other governments are surely complicit in the ongoing denial of fundamental freedoms –expression, association and assembly-- enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our political, diplomatic and military support for the Bahraini monarchy and other authoritarian allies is not only contrary to our stated ideals and values, it is also inimical to our long-term security interests in promoting genuine stability based on the rule of law, respect for basic rights and accountable government. Former Director of National Intelligence and former commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Dennis Blair, a member of the Freedom House Board of Trustees, has written and spoken eloquently of the false trade-off between security on the one hand and promoting human rights on the other. He and other defense experts have argued that the basing of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain should not prevent the U.S. from actively supporting democratic reform. It is the U.S. not the Bahrainis that enjoy leverage as there are viable alternatives for hosting the fleet.
Beyond initiating deliberations with the Bahraini government on relocating the Fifth Fleet, there is much that the U.S. –the Administration and Congress-- can and should do to bring about an end to government repression and encourage the political evolution of Bahrain in the direction of democracy and the rule of law.
It starts with making clear to the Bahraini government and to democracy advocates that we support the rights of citizens to freely express their views and to organize with the aim of catalyzing political reform. That strong message must be conveyed publically as well as privately and must be backed by action including the suspension of arms sales and conditioning any resumption of military assistance on respecting human rights and embarking on significant political reform. This is long overdue. Language in the FY14 omnibus appropriations bill restricting provision of funds for tear gas, small arms and ammunition used to repress peaceful expression and assembly is welcome but by no means enough.
Other immediate steps include:
Release of all political prisoners
Halting indiscriminate, excessive use of force and allowing citizens to exercise their fundamental rights
Initiate a process of accountability for those involved in serious human rights violations, in essence ending impunity for security forces and others engaged in the repression, whether extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances or torture.
Dropping all politically motivated charges against civilians who participated in pro-democracy demonstrations
Withdrawal of all remaining Saudi and UAE forces deployed in Bahrain
At the same time, it is crucial that Bahrain’s democratic movement adhere to the strategy of non-violence that has animated it since the beginning, even in the face of continued use of deadly force and torture by the security forces, presumably under orders from the highest levels. And to counter the regime’s contention that the country’s Shiite majority seeks power in order to impose an Iranian style system, the movement’s leadership must maintain its inclusive character and reassure fellow citizens that there is a place for all of them in a democratic in a Bahrain grounded in the rule of law and the core principle of equality.
In Bahrain as elsewhere, authoritarian leaders are clamping down precisely because they know they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to popular democratic movements, which are accelerating the erosion of regime legitimacy. Rather than introduce far-reaching reforms, they cling to power, in some cases hoping their strategic relationships with influential patron states, will allow them to weather the political storm. They are most assuredly on the wrong side of history.
Let us continue to draw inspiration from the brave men and women of Bahrain in their struggle for freedom and let us resolve to continue working together to ensure a peaceful transition to democratic rule in which all citizens are free to exercise their fundamental rights and build a more just society.
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5 Best Alternatives to Tor Browser to Browse Anonymously
Adarsh Verma
Security of Tor Project, the most popular service to browse the web anonymously, is under suspicion. Tor Project has suffered from a couple of security setbacks in the recent times. These included the attacks on Tor and confirmation of the possibility of the security breaches. Back in 2014, judicial agencies and law enforcement agencies all around the globe against the Tor network services.
There are possibilities of Tor being compromised by the NSA who has called it “the king of high secure and low latency anonymity.” The US department of defense, that includes NSA, funds the Tor Project and in the past, it has tried to compromise its integrity. The NSA has attempted to break the Tor browser’s encryption and has been successful to a small extent. You must have read our dedicated article on how true Identity of tor users can be hacked.
In past, Tor network has announced that some unknown sources have managed to get the information about people who are using these hidden services. You can also use a good VPN service like IPVanish or ExpressVPN to stay anonymous.
Here we are presenting a list of top 5 best Tor alternatives that you can use:
Tor alternative #1: I2P
I2P is an anonymous peer-to-peer distributes communication layer which is built using the open source tools. It is a complete Tor alternative. Just like any other P2P software, the software implementing this computer network layer is called I2P layer and other computers running I2P is called I2P node.
It is designed and optimized for hidden services, faster than Tor with fully distributed and self-organizing capability. Unlike Tor, peers are selected based on continuous ranking and profiling. There are unidirectional tunnels instead if bidirectional circuits, thus making the number of nodes double which a node has to compromise to get the same information.
Tor alternative #2: Tails
Tails is one of the best Tor alternatives available out there. It is a live operating system which could be started from any computer using a USB drive, DVD or a SD card. It has in-built pre-configured apps that give you the services of a web browser, IM client, office suite, editors for image and sound etc. It uses Tor’s services for providing the anonymity but adds extra security layers. This could be used anywhere without leaving any trace.
Recommended: Everything About Tor: What is Tor? How Tor Works?
Tor alternative #3: Subgraph OS
It uses the Tor network just like Tails but it focuses on usability. This Canadian security firm calls it an “adversary resistant” operating system that is designed to reduce the attacks on users. It boasts that it has built-in encrypted email client, built-in disk encryption and firewall. Added to these, Subgraph OS provides you the advantages of limiting the ability of malicious files and data formats. Unlike Tails, Subgraph OS could be run as a permanent OS rather than a bootable OS from a USB or BVD.
Tor alternative #4: Freenet
Freenet is a peer-to-peer to resist the censorship similar to I2P. It uses the same P2P technology of distributing data storage to deliver and keep the information but separates the protocol of user interaction and network structure. This makes it easy to access the Freenet network using a variety of ways like FProxy.
Since its version 0.7, Freenet comes with the two-tier security: Darknet and Opennet. With the help of Opennet, users connect to arbitrarily with other users. Using Darknet, users connect to only those users with whom they exchanged Public Keys in the past. Both of these modes could be used together. It comes with a free software suite to enhance the censorship-free communication over the web.
Tor alternative #5: Freepto
Freepto is another Linux-based OS which could be booted using a USB disk on any computer. The data you will save on the USB disk will be automatically encrypted. It provides the hacktivists an easy way to communicate easily just like Tor. Freepto is a collective startup promoting the knowledge sharing. This OS comes loaded with a web browser, image editor, mail client and it’s easy to install. You can also create a customized version of Freepto. You are free to add new software and make changes. It is based on Debian Live Build which is a set of tools that helps you to make new and Debian-based Linux distributions.
Did you find these Tor alternatives useful? Use them and tell us in comments!
Recommended: Tor or VPN? What’s Best And Which One Should I Use?
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This section allows users to search for bibliography entries sorted by publication date. The listing is equipped with an OPEN URL feature, which is a standardized link that carries citation information. When you click on an OpenURL link, the information it contains is sent to a library's URL Resolver (aka link server). The open URL resolver then looks through the library's subscriptions to determine if your institution has purchased the full text of the resource and where it can be found. To use the Open URL feature click on the button "Search Locally."
Filters: First Letter Of Title is H [Clear All Filters]
Boorman, John. Hope and Glory. Colombia Pictures Corporation; Nelson Entertainment; Goldcrest Films International , 1987.
Boorman, John. Hope and Glory., 1987.
Boorman, John. Hope and Glory. United Kingdom: Columbia Pictures, 1987.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1986.
Schechter, Steven. The Homefront. United States, 1985.
VanDevanter, Lynda. Home before Morning : The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam, Edited by Christopher Morgan. New York : Beaufort Books, 1983.
Health Care as Social History: The Glasgow Case, Edited by Olive Checkland and Margaret Lamb. Aberdeen, UK: Aberdeen University Press, 1982.
Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
Best, Geoffrey. Honour Among Men and Nations: Transformations of an Idea. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981.
Kennedy, Thomas C. The Hound of Conscience: A History of the No-Conscription Fellowship, 1914-1919. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1981.
Reanda, Leanne. "Human Rights and Women's Rights: The United Nations Approach." Human Rights Quarterly 3, no. 2 (1981): 11-31.
Evans, Hilary. Harlots, Whores & Hookers: A History of Prostitution. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co., 1980.
Atwood, Rodney. The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution [C2]. Cambridge, Eng. ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Atwood, Rodney. The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Atwood, Rodney. The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Best, Geoffrey Francis. Humanity in Warfare: The Modern History of the International Law of Armed Conflicts. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980.
Nesher, Avi. Ha-Lahaka., 1979.
Nesher, Avi. Ha-Lahaka. The Troupe. Israel, United States: Eastways Productions, 1979.
Evans, Hilary. Harlots, Whores and Hookers: A History of Prostitution. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co., 1979.
Evans, Hilary, and Mary Evans Pict Library. Harlots, Whores & Hookers: A History of Prostitution [C2]. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co., 1979.
Cantlie, Neil. A History of the Army Medical Department. Vol. 2. Edinburgh, UK: Churchill Livingstone, 1974.
Mandelshtam, Nadezhda. Hope Abandoned. New York: Atheneum, 1974.
Thomas, Antony. Hang up Your Brightest Colors. United Kingdom: Go Entertain, 1973.
Boorman, John. Hell in the Pacific., 1968.
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Tag: Lee Won-jong 이원종
August 1, 2013 January 31, 2015
How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (남자사용설명서) – ★★★★☆
How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (남자사용설명서)
When it was released on February the 14th, How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (남자사용설명서) had the unenviable – and quite unfortunate – task of competing with several enormously popular films at the box office, in the form of Miracle in Room Number 7 and The Berlin File, which earned over 12 million and 7 million admissions respectively. A week later, gangster epic New World appeared in cinemas, hauling over 4 million admissions. Despite positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, the romantic-comedy just couldn’t compete.
This is a genuine shame as How to Use Guys with Secret Tips is an incredibly energetic, entertaining, and fresh rom-com. Director Lee Won-seok (이원석) infuses the film with a wacky and colourful sensibility, whilst simultaneously probing the sexism that exists within the workplace and, by extension, Korean culture. While the film turns to formulaic predictability in the final act to tie up all the loose ends, How to Use Guys with Secret Tips is visually enjoyable and great fun, marking director Lee as a talent to watch.
Choi Bo-na is constantly undervalued and overworked – until she finds the video
Assistant director Choi Bo-na (Lee Si-yeong (이시영) has worked for years in a TV commercial company, endlessly slaving away on other productions while waiting for her big break…which never arrives. Moreover, Bo-na is very aware that her gender is an issue within the workplace as it holds her back from progressing within the sexist industry. When a new commercial for the company is shot on a beach, lead actor Lee Seung-jae (Oh Jeong-se (오정세) complains about everything, and Bo-na’s frustrated attempts to chastise the arrogant star results in more disapproval. So much so in fact that when the commercial has finished shooting, the entire team leave the sleeping AD on the beach. Wandering alone at night, Bo-na spies the colourful Dr. Swalski (Park Yeong-gyoo (박영규) selling instructional videos. Reluctantly agreeing to buy How to Use Guys with Secret Tips, Bo-na starts putting the tips into practice and suddenly her life begins to turn around with hilarious results.
While the story of a woman struggling in both her professional and personal life is nothing new in the rom-com arena, director Lee infuses the film with such a whimsical visual and musical vitality that it’s impossible not to be won over. From the outset the director’s keen sense of mise-en-scene and flamboyantly playful use of text and image techniques are apparent, yet it is the introduction of charismatic Dr. Swalski that allows him to fully display his zany aesthetics. The doctor – brilliantly performed by Park Yeong-gyoo – is a guardian angel of sorts who bestows advice on how to manipulate men through the video. The cheesy and camp sensibilities of such ’70s style infomercials are lovingly recreated to hilarious effect, from the costumes and props through to the mistakes and bad editing. What makes Dr. Swalski special however is that he is not confined to the TV set. Director Lee constantly plays with and breaks the barriers between the three realities – the video, Bo-na’s life, and the audience – which makes the film incredibly charismatic.
Colourful Dr. Swalski provides the tips Bo-na needs to move ahead, to great comedic effect
The comedy hijinks that ensue as Bo-na uses the tips are fantastically entertaining as they feature elements of truth, in that director Lee is probing real gender issues that exist within contemporary Korean culture. Bo-na is a great and talented director, yet her gender halts her progress. Her attempts to conceal her femininity with hoodies and to be treated equally merely results in hiding her attractiveness, which stops men making allowances for her. However when Bo-na begins employing Dr, Swalski’s advice, the story spins into poking fun at modern masculinity to great effect. From simple eye contact through to massaging the male ego, Bo-na learns the simplicity of the opposite sex and rapidly rises through the ranks. This is articulated the most through her relationship with arrogant actor Lee Seung-jae who, despite his initial snobbery, finds himself in very comical situations in attempting to prove his worth.
Yet How to Use Guys with Secret Tips unfortunately flounders in the final act. With so many funny plot threads to tie up, the story falls back on the predictable cliches found in the genre to do so. The absence of director Lee’s playfulness is keenly apparent during the resolution which is a real shame, as the build up to that point is wonderfully entertaining. Still, while the finale is somewhat lacking, the film is certainly one of the most visually energetic and inventive romantic comedies to appear from Korea in recent memory, and a great debut from director Lee.
Can Bo-na find true love and success without using the tips?
How to Use Guys with Secret Tips is a wonderfully wacky and colourful romantic comedy, full of visual and musical vitality. Director Lee Won-seok is brilliantly inventive as he plays with genre and cinematic conventions, infusing the film with a seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm. The laughs come thick and fast as they are based in truth, including sexism in the workplace and the fragility of the male ego, which are explored to highly comical effect. While the final act falls back on cliche and predictability, How to Use Guys with Secret Tips is a very entertaining and fun rom-com.
Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (제17회 부천국제판타스틱영화제) Reviews
A Moment to Remember (내 머리 속의 지우개) - ★★★★☆
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The adventures of two grave hunters!
The monumental mason made a spelling error in the word "memory".
All Saints, Chebsey, Staffordshire
(Click on an image for a larger version)
Standing above the village on a natural mound of higher ground, the church is mostly built from reddish sandstone in the Gothic style and dates from the 12th century. The west tower dates from the 15th century, and is constructed from mostly grey with some red sandstone blocks. The external staircase turret (on the southeast corner of the tower) at Chebsey, is an unusual feature. The church was extensively renovated in 1897 under the supervision of Staffordshire ecclesiastical architect Andrew Capper.
The monumental mason made a
spelling error in the word "memory".
Where is the best place to see pictures of other unusual graves?
FACEBOOK SOCIAL HISTORY GROUP
FACEBOOK CEMETERY EXPLORATION GROUP
You really do have to wonder why Roman numerals were used in this memorial.
St Mary and St Thomas a Becket, Much Birch, Herefordshire
The church was rebuilt by Thomas Foster in 1837.
You really do have to wonder why Roman
numerals were used in this memorial.
Private Sydney Dale "died from gas" in November 1918.
St Michael, Dulas, Herefordshire
The church was built in 1865 by G C Haddon of Hereford. This is the replacement for a much older building, which was demolished when Dulas Court was built; all that remains of the original church are an ancient cross and a couple of gravestones on the front lawn of the residential home.
"Also of 7 children buried here".
St Eigon, Llanigon, Powys
The parish church of Llanigon, Wales is dedicated to "Saint Eigon", but this almost certainly refers to Eigion, brother of St Cynidr, to whom the parish church in neighbouring Glasbury was dedicated.
Unusually the dates of birth, baptism and death are all reported.
St Andrew, Cranford St Andrew, Northamptonshire
St Andrew's dates from the later part of the 12th century, the nave arcade surviving from that time. The tower was added during the following century, at which time the church was largely rebuilt, and a north chapel was added. Further building took place in the 14th century when the clerestory and porch were added and new windows were inserted. The south chapel was added in the following century. In 1847 a north transept was added to form a family pew for the Robinsons of Cranford Hall.
The dates of birth, baptism and death
are all reported on this memorial.
The portcullis motif is a shorthand way of showing the deceased had been a member of parliament.
St Peter, Lowick, Northamptonshire
Although the church has early 14th-century origins, it is mainly late 14th and early 15th century, being built for the Greene family of Drayton House.
John Rathbone was Member of Parliament
for Lewes from 1974-1997.
Thomas Roberts had two wives - details of both appear on his gravestone.
Ringstead Cemetery, Ringstead, Northamptonshire
Thomas Roberts had two wives - details of both appear on his gravestone. The engraving of a bell is most unusual.
She said, "Not German, not English, but European".
St Nicholas, Twywell, Northamptonshire
The church contains 12th to 14th century elements then nothing until the 19th century.
Jack Waldron was an "adopted Kenyan".
Lapley Graveyard, Lapley, Staffordshire
A general view
FACEBOOK SOCIAL HISTORY GROUPhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/609806292391471/
FACEBOOK CEMETERY EXPLORATION GROUPhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/345000398956884/
We love these old fashioned boards that mention benefactors of the church.
St James, Cardington, Shropshire
The presence of a church on the site is recorded in the Domesday Book. The village, including its church, was given in 1167 to the Knights Templar, and remained in their possession until 1308. They were responsible for starting the building of the present church in the later part of the 12th century. During the following century the chancel was rebuilt and extended, and the tower was added. Further additions and alterations were made during the following three centuries, followed by the porch in 1639. Restoration was carried out between 1852–68, which included removal of the gallery.
The tomb of Judge Leighton (d 1607) shows his 3 sons and 5 daughters - one of whom died in infancy.
The monumental mason must have engraved the forename of the deceased incorrectly.
All Saints, Lapley, Staffordshire
The church probably dates from the late 11th or early 12th century. The nave and chancel are clearly Norman as is the lower part of the tower but the upper portions appear to be 15th century.
The monumental mason must have engraved the
forename of the deceased incorrectly.
An unusual design featuring a stone scroll.
Great Malvern Cemetery, Worcestershire
Mary Little was the daughter of Wesleyan missionaries. She loved India and served there for 27 years.
"Ain't Misbehavin'"
Llanwnog Cemetery, Llanwnog, Powys, Wales
A husband and wife who died on the same day.
St Gwynog, Llanwnog, Powys, Wales
Gwynog was born in Wales in 511 A.D., the son of Gildas, 'a most ancient British historian' and a monk of Bangor. Gwynog was a pupil of St. Ffinnian, an Irish monk. Gwynog left the country to take refuge in Brittany with his father, who had stirred up the wrath of the Welsh princes - especially that of Cyr!las, who was Prince of Powys. Gwynog took orders late in life and became Bishop of Vannes, but after rousing the anger of the King he was sent into exile. He died in Angers at the age of 69, in 580 A.D., just 10 years after the death of his father. He lived in this part of Powys between 540 and 550 AD.
Unusually the day of the week that the deceased was buried has been mentioned on the gravestone.
Baptist Chapel, Nantgwyn, Powys, Wales
The Church was formed in 1766 and the first chapel was built in 1792, with a hipped roof. When the Baptist chapel was rebuilt at Nantgwyn in 1877, bricks of contrasting colour were used, to give the impression of Classical pillars.
Oh dear - the mason had a few problems!
St David, Newtown, Powys
The foundation stone of the church was laid by the Countess of Powys on 27th October, 1843. By the early 1870s the building was being described as "most inconvenient" and structural faults had appeared and as a result a faculty was granted in 1873 for major alterations. This entailed the removal of the galleries and the construction of a chancel with organ chamber and vestry, the removal of the reredos, which had been erected using the screen from the old church, and the replacement of the old box-pews by oak pews free to all. Sadly many problems proved insurmountable and the church had to close in June 2006 and the Parish of Newtown merged with the Parish of Llanllwchaiarn.
The rather crudely drawn angels blowing trumpets are delighful.
The rather crudely drawn angels blowing trumpets are delightful.
The First Baron Hindlip (1811-1887) represented East Worcestershire in the House of Commons.
St James the Great, Hindlip, Worcestershire
The original church appears to have consisted of chancel, nave and tower, but was almost entirely rebuilt in 1864, when a south transept was added. In 1887 the church was further enlarged, the chancel lengthened eastward, the transept pulled down and the present aisle, chapel and vestry added. The church was also re-roofed and the tower considerably restored, so that little of the original fabric remains.
Robert Berkeley was the Founder of this cemetery.
Spetchley Cemetery, Spetchley, Worcestershire
"Also faithful friend, Eric his Dog".
St Mary, Kempsey, Worcestershire
St. Mary’s church was built between the 12th century and 15th centuries, and the 15th century tower is 82 feet tall. The composer Sir Edward Elgar lived in the village from 1923 to 1927, during which time he was made Master of the King’s Music and he practised on the Organ in St Mary’s Church.
A. S. Gledhill served under an alias.
St James, Norton, Worcestershire
The church was extensively restored in 1874-75 by Hopkins and Ewan Christian. The older parts are of sandstone rubble. It comprises a nave with a 12th century north wall and a modern south aisle of four bays, a rebuilt 14th century chancel, a later medieval west tower and a timber porch on stone foundations.
The Galton family is remembered on the brass plaque on the south wall of the nave.
St James, Oddingley, Worcestershire
No part of the fabric is earlier than the 15th century, when the existing building, with the exception of the tower, was erected. The nave, judging from the position of the doorways, was originally longer, and was shortened when the tower was added, probably in the 17th century. Although the church retains its original windows, they have been much restored and their stones recut, doubtless when the chancel was rebuilt in 1861.
The Galton family is remembered on the brass plaque on the south wall of the nave, which, originally erected in Hadzor church, celebrates the life of Robert Cameron Galton, the youngest son of John H Galton, the lord of the Manor.
Martin, is the computer off?
Other interesting graves
The monumental mason made a spelling error in the ...
You really do have to wonder why Roman numerals we...
Private Sydney Dale "died from gas" in November 19...
Unusually the dates of birth, baptism and death ar...
The portcullis motif is a shorthand way of showing...
Thomas Roberts had two wives - details of both app...
She said, "Not German, not English, but European"....
We love these old fashioned boards that mention be...
The tomb of Judge Leighton (d 1607) shows his 3 so...
The monumental mason must have engraved the foren...
Mary Little was the daughter of Wesleyan missionar...
Unusually the day of the week that the deceased wa...
The rather crudely drawn angels blowing trumpets a...
The First Baron Hindlip (1811-1887) represented Ea...
The Galton family is remembered on the brass plaqu...
John Hough was Bishop of Worcester from 1713 to 17...
Richard Edes, Dean of the Cathedral 1597-1604.
John Gauden (1605 – 23 May 1662) was an English Bi...
The memorial to John Moore and his wife Ann plus t...
Abigail, the wife of Godfrey Goldisburgh the Bisho...
A modern grave that includes a large model of a tr...
Francis died "on board ship in the Indian Ocean" a...
An unusual design for a war memorial with rather m...
The monumental mason had a problem with the alignm...
According to her memorial Eleanor died aged 6 mont...
Hannah Perret died after "many years of suffering ...
A husband and wife died 2 weeks apart.
The memorial to Thomas Woodyatt located at the rea...
In the Vernon Chapel there is a large monument to ...
One of the first politicians I remember!
John Wesley was the founder of Methodism.
Robert Fisher Tomes "died very young".
"She died after a very long illness ..."
William Davey died as a Prisoner of War in Germany...
Russell died in a mountaineering accident.
An amazing statue for such a small churchyard!
The memorial to a very brave man
We admired this unusual design incorporating silho...
William Abbott "died after a few hours illness".
William Brown was sexton of this cemetery for 48 y...
Two brothers - one died in battle, the other from ...
The memorial includes an attractive photograph of ...
"And their beloved dog Sian."
Kenneth Richardson was killed at Bagworth Colliery...
This little gem of a poem is a new entry in our "p...
Edith lost her baby son and her husband in the sam...
1939-1945 - Memorial to the Missing at Brookwood M...
John was lost on his voyage from Ireland to Liverp...
Two young siblings who died 6 days apart.
"Give Em Hell".
Missing in action over the Bay of Biscay.
Lily died on her 90th birthday.
One child died aged 7 and three others died in inf...
"Re this plot see burial book".
"I did it my way".
Four siblings who seem to have died in the same mo...
Harry Hassal served throughout the First World War...
On 25 yard long stretch of graves around the perim...
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Home Greek news Crime Thessaloniki Ex-Mayor had his Life Sentence Reduced
Thessaloniki Ex-Mayor had his Life Sentence Reduced
Daphne Tsagari
Former Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos had his life sentence for embezzlement reduced to a maximum of 20 years by a new court ruling today.
By a vote of 3 to 2, the five-member Appeals Court ruled that Papageorgopoulos had been an “accessory to the stealing of municipal funds while in office.” This crime carries a jail term of between 10 and 20 years.
He was initially convicted in February 2013 along with municipal treasurer Panayiotis Saxonis and the former general secretary of the municipality, Michalis Lemousias.
Papageorgopoulos continued to protest that he was not responsible for the embezzlement of 17.9 million euros, declaring the court’s verdict “a mistake.” The court had ruled that he was a key part of a scam that lasted between 1999 and 2008. It is believed to be the longest sentence given to any Greek politician convicted of corruption.
“I declare that I have nothing to do with this case,” he told the Thessaloniki court, according to Greek media, adding that “Some people will go to their graves weighed down by remorse.” while he pointed out that his trial had been turned into a “political process.”
Papageorgopoulos was the mayor of Thessaloniki, Greece, from 1999 to 2010 after serving as deputy sports minister in the early 90s.
Saxonis was responsible for forwarding the contributions from council workers’ salaries to social security funds. Prosecutors said he kept that money and, after taking a 10% cut, forwarded the rest to Lemousias who split it with Papageorgopoulos.
Lemousias had his sentence reduced from life to a maximum of 20 years as well. Saxonis had his 15-year sentence for embezzlement and money laundering upheld.
Appeals Court
Ex-Mayor
Vassilis Papageorgopoulos
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A Letter From Eastern Uganda
“This is a project designed to provide environmental solutions to the national region, which forms Uganda’s drylands.
It has suffered from the indiscriminate and persistent cutting of trees for many years, arising from ever-increasing demand for wood fuel, timber and survival pressures. While deforestation continues unabated, there are no planned interventions to restore the ecosystem. Droughts, floods, windstorms, and hailstones have become common occurrences in the region, destroying people’s livelihoods and plunging them deeper into poverty. Life being better with trees, and our neighbourhoods feeling better to live in and work in when they are green, our farmland and countryside can produce high-quality food and support life better when trees play a part in the landscape.
Apply For a Tree Planting Grant
Planting trees, therefore, helps to improve the resilience of our land and to mitigate current environmental threats such as global warming, droughts, floods, storms and other natural calamities resulting from climate change. Trees also help to reduce ozone levels; sequester carbon, helping to remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the air, which cools the earth, while releasing oxygen to sustain life on earth!
The project implementation strategy will start with a pilot project which will be implemented at the household, school and community levels. At the household level, every child will be facilitated to plant and grow a tree, at the school level every class will be facilitated to plant and grow trees in the school compound, and at the community level, every leader (religious, community and elders) will be facilitated to plant trees in the marginal and borderlands. While Women’s Enterprise will directly manage the implementation of this project, it is important to note from the onset that direct benefits of The Project will be communal.
Trees planted at the household level will be owned by the respective households, the trees in the school compound will be owned by respective school communities (teachers and children), while trees planted at the marginal lands and borderlands will be communally owned. Our plan is that successes of the pilot phase will be scaled up to cover the whole region, and later be replicated in the country and in the region.
The overall goal of this project is contributing towards the restoration of tree cover in the region. This project will provide multiple benefits to the community, including contributing to increased tree cover which is paramount in reducing the greenhouse gas effect. The project will plant a variety of trees, each providing specific benefits. Growing White Teak /Yemane (Gmelina Arborea) in the cattle corridor will greatly lessen overgrazing by providing dry-season fall of the edible leaf, flower, pod, and lopping part of the green canopy as animal feed during both wet and dry seasons. The white teak will also provide quality timber while providing benefits to beekeepers thus improving their socio-economic conditions. Planting Citrus and Mango trees have both environmental and economic benefits in a region where feasibility studies have shown to be very conducive for citrus and mango farming.
Economic benefits will accrue from the sales of fruits, provision of nectar to bees and subsequently income from honey and its products. Planting Shea tree (Vitellaria Paradoxa) and Tamarindus Indica (Fabaceae) will provide income through the sale of Shea butter and food respectively. It will also lead to the preservation of these tree species which are rapidly becoming extinct in the region. Planting Banyana trees will increase the tree cover in the region hence facilitating absorption of greenhouse gases. This will, in turn, improve the microclimate and increase the biodiversity which, in a long run will lead to the reduced occurrence of floods and droughts in the region. Lastly planting clone eucalyptus tree will help in alleviating the current pressure of firewood exerted on the available trees in the region since they are fast growing and high yielding trees.
The overall goal of our project is to improve the quality of life of rural communities by contributing to environmental conservation and preservation. This project is designed to achieve the following specific objectives:
1. Facilitate 10 volunteers to attend training of trainers (TOTs) course in agroforestry, environmental protection and preservation, and sustainable farming practices
2. Facilitate trained trainers (10 TOTs) to sensitize 10,000 elders, community leaders, religious leaders and members of small-scale farmers’ groups to promoting sustainable farming practices by the end of 2017
3. Establishing one community nursery as a source of tree seedlings by the end of 2017
4. Plant 20,000 seedlings Gmelina Arborea tree by the end of 2017
5. Plant 20,000 seedlings of Citrus and Mango trees by the end of 2017
6. Plant 20,000 fast growing and high yielding eucalyptus trees by the end of 2017
7. Plant 10,000 seedlings of Shea tree (Vitellaria Paradoxa) and Tamarindus Indica (Fabaceae) trees
8. Plant 10,000 seedling of Banyana tree by the end of 2017.
The region is characterized by practices that lead to land degradation including overgrazing, deforestation, inappropriate farming systems, and degraded land whose productivity continues to decline. Occurrences of droughts, floods, windstorms, and hailstones are not uncommon in Teso region, destroying people’s livelihoods and plunging them deeper in poverty in addition to causing loss of lives and property.
All people subsist in agriculture and heavily rely on nature for survival. Unfortunately, while relying on nature for survival, they have contributed a lot to the destruction of nature.
Indiscriminate cutting of trees for firewood and charcoal, such practices as slash and burn while it is not a preserve of small-scale farmers, characterize the community. The above-mentioned practices continue to impact negatively on the land and are not about to end soon. Increasing demand for charcoal and other tree related products derived from the drylands, for example, is leading to increasing decline in the tree cover in the region. Land in the region is getting seriously degraded, with problems of vegetation loss and soil compaction leading to erosion. Gully erosion is especially visible in many areas. The resulting effects of overgrazing include soil compaction, erosion and emergence of low-value grass species and vegetation with subsequent declines in carrying capacity of the land and therefore low productivity. More than 90% of the total population living in rural areas directly depends on firewood for their energy needs, and a big fraction of the urban dwellers depend on charcoal. Generally, almost all people in Teso depend on wood fuel as a source of energy.
Bush burning during the dry season is also increasing the extent of wind erosion.
Our Enterprise is a community-based organization which is run by a network of dedicated volunteers who are selected by community leaders on a regular basis. To maintain their morale, they continually build their capacity as and when opportunities arise to enable them to serve their respective communities. The organization also endeavours to make them role models in their respective communities. With support, they could train 5 trainers and facilitated them to train 187 small-scale Citrus and Mango farmers and modelled 2 jobless youths to become role models in Citrus and Mango farming. The organisation was also able to distribute citrus and mango seedling to the trainers to enable them to start model farms for demonstration purposes. In addition, 10,000 trees have been planted as a demonstration forest.
Planting trees helps to improve community resilience and to mitigate environmental threats. Increased tree cover, improved soil fertility and reduced environmental calamities are among the general benefits to the communities. However, there will be benefits specific to individual households and schools. At the household level, any household which agrees to plant a tree on its courtyard owns the tree and all direct benefits associated with that tree. At the school level, trees planted at the school compound will be owned by the school community (pupils/students and teachers). At the community level, trees which will be planted at the borderlands and marginal lands will be owned communally and their benefits accrue to the respective community.
While the drivers of deforestation include increasing demand for firewood, charcoal, timber and survival pressure, lack of knowledge/ignorance is at its epicentre. Increasing knowledge and awareness of environmental concerns is very critical. Thus, interventions should provide holistic strategies that address both the drivers and knowledge gap.
Sustainability is at the heart of this project. Just like the ripple effect of training, knowledge and skills acquired in tree planting, agroforestry, environmental preservation and conservation by the benefiting communities will remain as an asset for the communities even after the end of the project. Expectations are that the communities will continue using acquired knowledge and skills to perpetuate project benefits to generations to come.”
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Tag: Good
Good Cybersecurity Can Be Good Marketing
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans Recent research conducted by IBM among global boardroom and C-suite executives in 28 countries found that better cybersecurity is among their top technology priorities. But while CMOs “are key drivers of digital-based growth for most organizations, many are not in The…
Good bye marketing! Hello growth hacking
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans I am currently reading Ryan Holiday’s book, Growth Hacker Marketing, alongside other growth hacking resources, about 33 of them in total. The reason I am on the growth hacking crash course is because I am no longer interested in doing The…
BlackBerry DTek 50: Is It Good for Business?
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans BlackBerry’s DTek 50 is a decent, affordable Android smartphone with a slew of extra security features. That could make the newly announced device — which is set to launch next month, selling for $299 — an enticing option for workers. Just…
Professor bullied as a boy at a Rochford school writes book to help other children Proud – Patricia Matthews with a copy of her son’s book that is aimed at helping children who have been bullied The book- Egghead 2 hrs ago / Kristina Drake Share: 1 comment Want more local news stories like these via email? Your email address Sign up A PROFESSOR has described how he was relentlessly bullied through his school years in a new book to help children overcome the problems he faced. Michael Lacey-Freeman, now 52, has written an 80-page educational book called Egghead describing his experience of being picked on. He says the aim of the book is to get a clear message across: “If you are a victim of bullying, tell your family. Don’t keep it to yourself, and don’t believe what the bullies say. They don’t know you.” Mr Lacey-Freeman was bullied while attending Holt Farm Junior and Infant School in Rochford, where he was called “Egghead” due to the shape of his head. But he has turned the nasty name around and used it as the title of his book. The story is set in the early 1970s. It is about a young boy who is constantly bullied at school from the age of seven, both mentally and physically. School for this boy is a question of survival – it is about getting through the day. Patricia Matthews, Michael’s mum, said the book is called Egghead because that is the nick name Michael was given when he was bullied. She says he was bullied due to having a misshapen head because he was born with a different bone structure. The 74-year-old, who lives in Rochford Garden Way, said: “He wants to help the other kids. He went through so much. I’m very proud of him.” Things finally got better for Mr Lacey-Freeman when his teacher suspected something was wrong and convinced him to tell his family. He is now living in Italy and teaching English as well as writing. He explained: “The story is mostly true. I should know, because that young boy was me. “When you are very young, you tend to believe that what others say about you is true. You don’t question it and you have little or no defence. Because of the constant taunts of my peers, I believed that I was worthless, a failure, a freak. I believed that I was unacceptable. “Because of this, at first I kept it all to myself. I didn’t think I could tell my family – then they would also think that I was worthless. I suffered by myself. I tried to deal with the bullying by making myself as small as possible. I would sit by the window, looking out, waiting for the school day to end.” Mr Lacey-Freeman said he didn’t want to criticise the school. He added: “It was a good school with excellent teachers. In fact one of my teachers noticed this small boy sitting by the window, and convinced me to tell my family about the bullying. Once my mother knew, bless her heart, things got a little better. I was no longer alone, and I felt stronger.” The author added: “If even only one child connects with the story and feels less alone, then I will be happy.” The book has been very successful so far and sold out on Amazon but is available online at Waterstones and eurobooks.co.uk for £8.50. Share: 1 comment Promoted stories N. Korea deploys ballistic missile for possible Fri. launch: Yonhap Nikkei Asian Review Adopted daughter reveals 15-year secret relationship with birth mother IrishCentral Bangladesh’s solution to children drownings. Turner Broadcasting System Inc. The cop who forced Target to drop their ludicrous Irish t-shirts IrishCentral Apple spurs industry shift to low-power display technology Nikkei Asian Review Tricks To Make Your Glassware Shine World Kitchen Recommended by People who read this article also read Tourists “detained” by mob – for taking photos of seafront Tourists “detained” by mob – for taking photos of seafront Teenager arrested after ten mile chase in golf buggy Teenager arrested after ten mile chase in golf buggy UPDATED: Road closed after accident along Southchurch Avenue UPDATED: Road closed after accident along Southchurch Avenue Westcliff school head girl dies age 18 Westcliff school head girl dies age 18
A PROFESSOR has described how he was relentlessly bullied through his school years in a new book to help children overcome the problems he faced. Michael Lacey-Freeman, now 52, has written an 80-page educational book called Egghead describing his experience of being picked on. He says the aim of the…
UNSCR 2270: The Good, the Bad and the Perhaps Surprising Opportunity for the North Korean Economy
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans The new sanctions established on March 2, by UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2270[1] bring to mind the hardships that North Korea endured after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The economic disruption from the end of the Cold War led…
10 Ways to Help Your Kid Get a Good Night’s Sleep
View full post on Common Sense Blog – Parenting, media, and everything in between – No name #pso #htcs #b4inc Read More The post 10 Ways to Help Your Kid Get a Good Night’s Sleep appeared first on Parent Security Online. View full post on Parent Security Online
Former Subway Pitchman Jared Fogle “Not a Good Dad”
Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle supposedly did not spend much time with his children, according to court papers, reports NY Daily News. Mr. Fogle, who was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for collecting child porn and paying for sex with underage girls, rarely saw his 4-year-old son…
SA kids: the good news and the bad
By the end of March, 11.7 million children were getting the R330
For Cybersecurity, US Government Seeks a Few Good Hackers
Source: National Cyber Security – Produced By Gregory Evans WASHINGTON: Alejandro Mayorkas, a high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official, opened a speech over the summer in Las Vegas before hundreds of hackers with a dare. “I challenge you all to make my phone ring during my remarks,” he said, brandishing…
5 good reasons to try HERE Maps on your iPhone or Android device
Initially available only on Windows Phone devices, HERE Maps (formerly known as Ovi Maps and Nokia Maps) can now be downloaded on Android and iOS, thus being accessible to most smartphone users around the world. Android was the first major platform to get HERE Maps (in the second half of…
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Keratoconus is one of the most commonly occurring corneal diseases, sometimes estimated at one person in three hundred suffering from this debilitating and progressive condition.
This progressive thinning and distortion of the cornea affects people most often in their late teens and early twenties and is more common in men than women. Traditionally the only treatment available was a full thickness corneal graft of donated tissue, however, in the last 5 years new techniques have been developed to halt or significantly reduce the progression. These include Collagen Cross Linking and Intrastromal ring segments. While it is true that some people may proceed to a graft many patients benefit from these procedures.
Corneal dystrophies are also amongst the more frequently seen diseases of the cornea, Fuchs’ Dystrophy being one of the most common. In the past people with Fuch’s Dystrophy had chronic, progressive loss of their best available vision and once again the only treatment was a full thickness graft from donated tissue. Newer surgical techniques now allow a partial, more well tolerated graft to be done called an Endothelial Keratoplasty.
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Dr Sophia Zagora
MBBS (Hons), MPHTM, FRANZCO
Dr. Sophia Zagora is a uveitis, medical retina and cataract specialist. She treats both adults and children with retinal diseases and inflammation in the eye. These include conditions such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, vein occlusion, uveitis and scleritis. She also has a strong interest in cataract surgery in these patients.
She graduated from the University of Sydney Medical School with Honours. She has been awarded a Masters of Public Health and Tropical Medicine which involved clinical study in Papua New Guinea. Her general ophthalmology training was at Sydney Eye Hospital where she completed a year as the professorial senior registrar. She has undertaken fellowship training in uveitis, glaucoma and medical retina as the Professorial Fellow at Sydney eye hospital where she gained a particular interest in managing patients with complex eye diseases; and then a Uveitis Fellowship with Professor Sue Lightman at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London where she underwent further uveitis and medical retina training in both adults and children. She has worked as a locum Consultant at Westmead and Liverpool Hospitals helping with their Cataract waitlist reduction prior to taking up a position at the Sydney Eye Hospital.
Dr Zagora is currently a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney and continues to conduct clinical research, has published multiple book chapters and manuscripts in major international ophthalmology journals and also frequently reviews articles for these journals. She has presented at both national and international ophthalmic meetings. For the past 4 years she has participated widely in international Medical Retina and Uveitis clinical trials both in Australia and London.
She particularly enjoys being involved in teaching. She has been registrar of the court for the RANZCO examinations, responsible for organising the teaching of registrars in NSW, the national Senior Trainee Group spokesperson for the RANZCO Council and Federal Quality & Education Committees. More recently teaching in Fiji with RANZCO. She was awarded the registrar of the year during her training.
Her diverse training and clinical experience helps her manage patients with varying and complex eye pathologies.
Hospital Appointment:
Consultant Ophthalmologist, Sydney Eye Hospital
Academic Appointment:
Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney
Dr Sophia Zagora View larger image
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As H.O.P.E. was emerging as a local cancer support network, there were aspirations to include a cancer resource library. The library exists today in honor of Frances Ann Landis, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer in August 1994. Her family graciously donated funds to help propel the dream of the library into reality.
In the beginning, Barb was diligently carrying boxes of books to H.O.P.E.’s support group meetings. Today the library encompasses over 2000 publications. Topics include various types of cancer and treatment, health and diet, coping and grieving, inspiration and humor. A kids and teens section is also available, focusing on these sensitive topics for youth.
The library is located within the H.O.P.E. office and is available to cancer patients, their families, friends, and the community.
We would like to announce a new series of books “100 Questions & Answers”. These insightful and helpful books entail Q & A’s for Lymphoma, Kidney Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Lung Cancer, Liver Cancer, Mesothelioma, Leukemia, Breast Cancer, Brain Tumors, Bladder Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Melanoma & Skin Cancer and Cancer Symptoms and Cancer Treatment Side Effects.
To arrange a visit to the library, please feel free to call the office at 717-244-2174 and we would be happy to assist you. After you find a book to or two that is of interest, you may “check-out” said books and take them home and read them at your leisure.
We appreciate the good intentions from folks who want to donate books to our library, but we try to add new books that are of the latest and greatest information available. If anyone cares to donate to the library, we will accept cash donations for this purpose with which we can purchase the latest versions.
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Towards a Global Pact for the Environment
SUBMISSIONS AND STATEMENTS
Gaps in international environmental law and environment-related instruments
The report reviews and analyses the corpus of international environmental law and environmental-related instruments as well as the governance structure and implementation of international environmental law.
Access the Report of the Secretary General here
Summary of the Second Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group
The second Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group was drawn to a close Wednesday with the adoption of a provisional ag
Member States debate the need for a global pact for the environment
The First Substantive Session on a Global Pact for the Environment took place at UN Headquarters in Nairobi in January 2019.
Dramatic growth in laws to protect environment, but widespread failure to enforce, finds report
Nairobi, 24-01-2019 – The first-ever global assessment of environmental rule of law finds weak enforcement to be a global trend th
See you in court, citizens tell governments on climate change
BARCELONA, Jan 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Environmentalists in France and Ireland are pushing forward with legal cases aimed at forcing thei
ICC addresses UN working group on the Global Pact for the Environment
At a substantive session of the United Nations’ (UN) General Assembly ad hoc working group on the Global Pact for the Environment in Nairobi, Kenya
Fifth Day of the First Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group
During the last day of the first substantive session of the Ad hoc Open-Ended Working Group (AHWG), discussion focused on the agenda for t
Fourth Day of the First Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group
On Thursday, the first substantive session of the Ad hoc Open-Ended Working Group heard a brief report on the progress of deliberations th
Third Day of the First Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group
The Ad hoc Open-ended Working Group (AHWG) opened on Wednesday with the observance of a minute of silence for the victims of Tuesday's sus
Second Day of the First Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group
On the second day of the first substantive session of the Ad hoc Open-ended Working Group (AHWG) established by the UN General Assembly to
First Day of the First Substantive Session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group
The first substantive session of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group (AHWG) towards a Global Pact for the Environment (A/RES/72/277), conv
South African indigenous community win environmental rights case over mining company
A court has ruled that companies must first seek permission from local communities if they plan
Second meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics
The second meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group was scheduled for 3-7 December 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Joint statement of the United Nations Special Procedures Mandate Holders on the occasion of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC
6 December 2018 - As independent experts of the UN Human Rights Council*, we call on States to fully integrate human rights standards and principle
3rd December 2018 - Report of the United Nations Secretary General on Gaps in International Environmental Law Released
Entitled “Gaps in International Environmental Law and Environment-Related Instruments: Towards A Global Pact for the Environment” (Documen
14th Conference of the Parties to the Conference on Biological Diversity concludes in Egypt:
The UN Biodiversity Conference was held from 13 - 29 November 2018 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Honduras: Masterminds of Berta Cáceres killing still at large, say UN experts
On 28 November 2018, a Sentencing Tribunal of the Honduran Judiciary in Tegucigalpa convicted seven men of the murder of the Lenca leader, an envir
Environmental rights means any proclamation of a human right to environmental conditions of a specified quality
Environmental rights are enshrined in over 100 constitutions yet
Organizational session of the Working Group, September 5th to 7th, 2018, New York.
States exchanged their views on the project of a Global Pact for the Environment and a high level of support from States and NGOs has already emerg
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The Hechinger Report
The dark side of education research: widespread bias
Fifth grade teacher Hakim Rashad at Arise Academy in New Orleans, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017.
Critics have attacked Big Pharma for widespread biases in studies of new and potentially profitable drugs. Now, scholars are detecting the same type of biases in the education product industry — even in a federally curated collection of research that’s supposed to be of the highest quality. And that may be leaving teachers and school administrators in the dark about the full story of classroom programs and interventions they are considering buying.
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An analysis of 30 years of educational research by scholars at Johns Hopkins University found that when a maker of an educational intervention conducted its own research or paid someone to do the research, the results commonly showed greater benefits for students than when the research was independent. On average, the developer research showed benefits — usually improvements in test scores — that were 70 percent greater than what independent studies found.
“I think there are some cases of fraud, but I wouldn’t say it’s fraud across the board,” said Rebecca Wolf, an assistant professor in the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of the draft study. “Developers are proud of their products. They believe in them. They’ve worked hard in developing these products. They want a study that puts the best face forward.”
Biased research matters because current federal law encourages schools to buy products that are backed by science. In order to tap into federal school improvement funds, for example, low-achieving schools with disadvantaged children are required to select programs that have been rigorously tested and show positive effects.
The study, “Do Developer-Commissioned Evaluations Inflate Effect Sizes?” was presented at a March 2019 conference session of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) in Washington, D.C. The paper is a working paper, meaning it has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and may still be revised.
Wolf and three of her colleagues analyzed roughly 170 studies in reading and math dating as far back as 1984 that are part of the What Works Clearinghouse. That’s an archive of research that the U.S. Department of Education launched in 2002 to help educators decide which educational products to buy. It is by no means a complete or an exhaustive collection of educational research but a group of high quality studies curated by experts. The studies track test score gains and compare students who got the intervention with those who didn’t.
Related: Education researchers don’t check for errors — dearth of replication studies
More than half, or 96, of the studies were conducted by independent researchers while 73 of them had some sort of insider connection with creating or selling the product. Wolf labeled the research a “developer” run or funded study if the inventors, distributors or an employee of the developer or distributor were involved in the research. Studies were considered developer studies even if the developer didn’t directly conduct the research but commissioned an outside researcher to carry out the study.
Wolf took many aspects of the studies that can lead to bigger student gains into consideration. For example, a personal tutor tends to produce larger student gains than a curriculum used by an entire classroom. Kids in younger grades tend to see bigger improvements than older kids. Smaller studies on fewer students are more likely to show a bigger bang than larger ones. But even within a host of subcategories, Wolf found that the developer studies still pointed to larger benefits than the independent studies.
Replication studies are relatively rare in education research but both developer and independent studies were available for 18 of the reading and math interventions. When Wolf compared these independent and the developer studies side by side, the developer studies tended to post 80 percent higher gains for students for the same educational product.
There are a number of reasons for why developer studies tend to show stronger results, according to Wolf, whose full time work is to evaluate educational programs. The first is that a company is unlikely to publish unfavorable results. Wolf speculates that developers are more likely to “brand a failed trial a ‘pilot’ and file it away.”
A second common issue is how students are kept out of experiments. Timothy Shanahan, a reading specialist and a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, shared an anecdote before attendees of the March 2019 SREE conference. He recalled a reading study where struggling students who didn’t complete the program were excluded from the treatment group. The comparison control group, of course, kept the low achieving readers and their low scores, making the intervention look more successful. Wolf also found these sort of “sample selection” differences when she compared developer and independent studies side by side. One developer study decided to exclude some students from the treatment group after randomly being selected for it. These details are often in the study’s fine print but educators would have to look for them.
Developers often create their own yardsticks for measuring student success, devising their own assessments to go along with their programs. That might allow an education product company to measure what they’re teaching more precisely. But those same gains are often not evident in a reading or math assessment given to all students each spring.
These research choices that lead to bias seem to be an open secret in education research circles. Wolf said she asked researchers who heard her presentation if they were surprised by her conclusions. “Every single person said ‘no.’ If you’re in the work of program evaluation, you can see why these things might happen,” said Wolf.
Related: The ‘dirty secret’ about educational innovation
This isn’t the first study to detect bias in education research. The problem of hiding unfavorable results from publication was documented as far back as 1995. In 2016, one of Wolf’s co-authors, Robert Slavin, wrote about the positive results that researchers get when they devise their own measures to prove that their inventions work. In that same year, another group of researchers also detected a developer bias in a smaller group of studies about math programs that are part of the What Works Clearinghouse collection. This new Hopkins study addresses some questions about that analysis and confirms the conclusion that when people study their own inventions, the results are stronger.
Solving this bias problem won’t be easy. Some advocate for pre-registration, something that the field of medicine uses, in which study authors describe the design and measures to be used ahead of time. SREE launched such a registry in 2018. That makes it harder for developers to tweak their study design on the fly when the students aren’t faring as well as they had hoped. However, schools are complex places and it’s often necessary to make adjustments to an experiment when something isn’t working with teachers or school-day schedules.
Wolf argues that educators should pay more attention to whether the research is independent. In her research for this study, developer funding wasn’t always disclosed and she often had to contact researchers to learn these details. Wolf said these conflicts of interest should be highlighted and disclosed up front.
Sunlight is a remedy just as in the pharmaceutical industry.
This story about education research was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
Categories: Columnists, Jill Barshay, K-12, News, The Science of Learning
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My Blocked Drain
Updated on June 4, 2013
Derek James
Blockage
Blockage of the drains. A few years ago we lived in a large house with eight steps up to the front door, that is one step up from the pavement, then a flat bit for five or six feet, then seven steps further. We'd been in the house for a few months when one day a scream came from the toilet and my wife came dashing out yelling that the toilet bowl was about to overflow. I took a look at it and water had risen in the pan and was not draining away. It was totally blocked solid. I said, 'OK, Who's been putting things they shouldn't down the toilet?'
No one had. I went to see an old, retired builder down the street. He came up to the house, looked at the tree on the pavement, and said, 'I know these houses of old. What happens is the root from that tree gradually finds a crack in the sewer pipe, and forces its way in to get at the moisture. Over the years, the root expands and closes the pipe. They used the old china clay pipes in these houses, and they get very brittle. I've seen it dozens of times. But the good news is,' he said, 'it's not your problem. It's the Council's problem. It's their tree and it's in their road. Just call them up and they'll come out to have a look and sort it out.'
'Oh, great,' I said. 'Another thing,' he said, looking at my wall where the single step up was. 'See that damp patch on the wall. That's where the siphon is situated, around there. When there's a blockage the water backs up and comes out of the siphon. That shows you that the blockage is this side of the property, under the pavement.'
Whose Problem?
'Marvellous,' I said, highly relieved. I'd had visions of hiring contractors, digging up roads costing huge amounts of money. I rang the council and told them the tale of woe. I was told I'd have to write in so that there was a permanent record of my complaint. I wrote my letter and waited, all the time the toilet was still blocked. The level of water in the bowl had gone down but we didn't want to press our luck after trying it a second time and getting the same rise of water up to the rim. We were using neighbours toilets and family showers. Two weeks later I had a reply to my letter, saying that my tree root theory was highly improbable, that the blockage was almost certainly on my property and therefore my responsibility. I wrote another letter asking how they were so certain that it was on my property. Two weeks later I had a reply to tell me that their engineer was coming to see me. Great, I thought. I'll give this guy a piece of my mind, I'll tear him up in strips. On the appointed day, a van turned up with three men in it. One of them explained to me that the sewer pipes left my property then dropped down steeply to the main sewer in the centre of the road. He pointed out the manhole cover in the road. 'All well and good,' I said. 'But if the tree root has wormed its way into it and blocked it, then it's your problem.' While we were talking, the two other guys had lifted the manhole cover using a small crane. We all grouped around the hole in the centre of the road. The main sewer channel was evident about fifteen feet down. 'See the drop from your house to the sewer?' the first one asked. 'Yes, I can see that, but how do you know it's not blocked at some point between here and the house?'
'Because I've never heard of tree roots blocking a sewer before. But,' he said grinning. 'I'll prove it to you' His two men went to the van and brought out a mobile movie camera and a monitor. They connected it all up and lowered the camera down to where my pipe joined the sewer. We could see up the pipe clearly. He drove the camera up the pipe with a little joystick while we watched the monitor. It was as clean as a whistle all the way to my property. Of course my builder friend had joined us to see the fun, and when he saw the clear pipe on the monitor, he walked away without a word. So the problem was mine and I'd wasted four weeks by listening to his theory. I felt a real idiot. The council boys were grinning like Cheshire cats when they left.
I started digging inside my property where the damp from the siphon was. About four feet down I found the pipe. It was a clay pipe so there was nothing to lose, I broke a hole in the top of it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the blockage. It was cement. There was so much of it that I could just get my fingers between the top of the cement and the pipe.
Some builder in the past had emptied his left over cement down the drain and it had hardened into a solid mass at the base of the siphon. From then on it was simply a matter of breaking out the old piece of cement filled pipe and fitting a new piece over the two ends. I could have saved a month's wait and a great deal of embarrassment if I'd done it on the first day. We live and learn.
Blocked Drain? Whatever You Do, Don't Swallow!
by Richard Parr24
Eek! There's a Rat in My Toilet!
by Vicki Green114
How My 90-Year-Old Mother Fixed theToilet, or, What to Do When Your Toilet Stops Up
by Paradise733
How does a Toilet Work - Toilet Basics 101
by Novel Treasure0
Septic Leach Field Lines Clogged by Tree Roots: Cheap Drain Fix
by Howard S.0
How To Repair a Galvanized Pipe Using Dresser Couplings
by Jerry Watson23
10 years ago from SE US
Great story! I've run into a few self-proclaimed experts in my time as well and have had to "reap" the consequences.
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Humboldt Forum
The Palace of the Republic at the Humboldt Forum
Berlin, 15 May 2019
The Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss will also focus on the multifaceted history of the site, which spans around 800 years. Here the predecessor to the Humboldt Forum, the Palace of the Republic, plays a key role. The Stiftung’s collection will be incorporating major sections of the interior of the Palace, which have been provided by the Institute for Federal Real Estate (BImA).
Over the last 800 years, the site of today’s Humboldt Forum has witnessed more social, urban, political and cultural developments than virtually any other location in Berlin. With construction of the Forum currently nearing completion, the history of the site is crucial to understanding the architecture and concept of the new building.
The Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss has a statutory duty to explore and present this history. In order to let future visitors to the Humboldt Forum find out more about this very special place, the self-contained History of the Site unit has developed a range of things for them to see and do. These include a video panorama on the ground floor, a tour around the Palace Basement, the Sculpture Hall, and thirty-six Traces displayed all around the building, evoking important functional aspects of the Berlin Palace and the Palace of the Republic as well as historic events that took place there. The Stiftung believes it has a particular responsibility when it comes to honouring the site’s previous building, and seeks to do justice to this role in a number of ways. Visitors to the future Humboldt Forum will find the Palace of the Republic represented above all in the Traces.
Traces of the Palace of the Republic
Twelve key objects, ensembles and collages illustrate various aspects of how this most prestigious of all East German buildings was used, as well as important events in its history. The glass ballot box, which was used for voting in the first and only freely elected East German people’s chamber, symbolizes the transparency of political decisions following the political Wende of autumn 1989.The political significance of the Palace of the Republic was such that the East German Ministry for State Security deemed it worthy of exceptional security precautions. A monitor from the former control centre as well as video recordings bear witness to the virtually comprehensive surveillance of visitors and staff inside and outside the building. The floral wall relief made for the Palace restaurant by the Meißen porcelain factory gives an impression of the opulent and magnificent décor. The commitment to quality is seen too in the design of the backlit guidance system, which lived up to contemporary design standards in every respect.
Works of art with very different contents and styles will provide an opportunity for discussing the significance of commissioned works of art in 1970s East Germany – for instance, a small section of Jo Jastram’s Lob des Kommunismus (In Praise of Communism), a bronze relief created for the foyer of the Volkskammer, will be on display in the Humboldt Forum, along with Wolfgang Mattheuer’s painting Guten Tag (Good Day) from the Palace gallery. A plate from the Palace restaurant, two ice-cream cups from the milk bar, and a collage of programmes, posters and film excerpts all refer to the fact that the general public viewed the Palace of the Republic above all as a venue for a wide range of culinary delights and an attractive programme of cultural events with stars from East and West. Finally, a photo of the peaceful revolution in autumn 1989 juxtaposed with an image of the March Revolution of 1848 and a photo of the November Revolution of 1918 emphasise that this place has repeatedly offered a hotly disputed setting for political strife.
Interior design from the Palace of the Republic
On 19 September 1990, staff protests concerning asbestos levels led to the Palace of the Republic being closed. Before clean-up work began in May 1998, large parts of the décor were salvaged and carefully documented. Since then, chairs from the Volkskammersaal (plenary hall), desks from the political parties’ offices, elements from the signage system, the infamous spherical lamps, pieces of carpet, coat stands, marble slabs from the main foyer, furniture from the youth club, and many other interior design items have been held in storage by the Institute for Federal Real Estate (BImA) in the Spandau district of Berlin. Large parts of these holdings have now been transferred to the collection of the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. Instead of spectacular and largely well-known objects such as the pictures from the Palace gallery, which are currently being looked after by the Deutsches Historisches Museum, most of these items are mundane pieces of furniture and décor, which nonethless exert a powerful effect at a symbolic or emotional level. This now means the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss has at its disposal a solid foundation of objects which can be used time and again to investigate the all-important history of the Humboldt Forum’s predecessor.
Inspired by the eponymous Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt and their delight in exploring the world and comprehending it as a system linking nature and culture in myriad ways, the Humboldt Forum will establish a new venue for experience, learning and encounter in the heart of Berlin. The participating actors are the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) with the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SMB), Kulturprojekte Berlin and Stadtmuseum Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU), and with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss at the helm. The Humboldt Forum has already developed a highly visible presence with a broad programme of exhibitions, discussions, performances, workshops, films and artistic interventions.
Download the press release as a PDF
Presse contact
Michael Mathis
Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss
+49 151 1617 97 27, m.mathis@humboldtforum.com
Further information and visual materials available at humboldtforum.com/press
To the press page ►
Berliner Schloss
Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Kulturprojekte Berlin / Stadtmuseum Berlin
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Home News Channels Entertainment “Vme Entrevista: Yoani Sanchez” Airs One-on-One Interview with Cuban Blogger
“Vme Entrevista: Yoani Sanchez” Airs One-on-One Interview with Cuban Blogger
Vme TV presents Yoani Sanchez, recognized for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba
Vme TV
MIAMI, Aug. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Vme TV, the first and only Spanish-language public television network in the United States, introduces audiences to the controversial Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, with an exclusive interview discussing issues, hardships and the future of digital communications in her native island. “Vme Entrevista: Yoani Sanchez,” airs on Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 3:30 p.m. E/P.
Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131031/FL07950LOGO
During her visit to the Hispanicize 2014 conference in Miami, Florida, Alonso Castillo had the opportunity to interview Yoani Sanchez, who talked about her role as the digital and social voice of Cuba – a country that, for over 50 years, has suffered from oppression through censorship of media and lack of freedom of the press. She comments on the country’s long-standing dictatorship along with her experiences and her point of view regarding whether social media will ever evolve in the struggling country and what its role may be in the future.
Sanchez has achieved international fame and received multiple awards for her critical portrayal of day-to-day life in a communist country like Cuba. Her writings have been published by renowned media sources such as the Huffington Post, which have applauded her for her dedication to opening communication channels, despite the technological obstacles and governmental threats that prevent the freedom of speech of the Cuban people.
“Vme Entrevista: Yoani Sanchez” forms part of a yearlong series of interviews with influential leaders who are doing their part to make the world a better place. Other notable personalities featured previously in the series include award-winning actress, Rita Moreno and former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Lech Walesa.
Available in 43 markets and reaching more than 70 million households in the United States, Vme TV is available through Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network and AT&T U-verse among other local cable companies. To find your local channel or to learn more about Vme TV, visit www.vmetv.com or follow us on social media via www.facebook.com/vmetv or www.twitter.com/vmetv.
ABOUT VME TELEVISION
Vme TV (pronounced veh-meh), is the first national Spanish-language television network in association with public television stations. Reaching more than 70 million households in the United States, Vme TV is broadcast in 43 markets by PBS stations and is available on DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-verse, as well as major cable companies including Comcast. The 24-hour digital broadcast service is dedicated to entertain, educate and inspire families in Spanish with a contemporary mix of original productions, exclusive premieres, acquisitions, and popular public television programs specially adapted for Hispanics. To find your local channel or to learn more about Vme TV, visit www.vmetv.com (http://www.vmetv.com/mediakit) or follow us on social media via www.facebook.com/vmetv or www.twitter.com/vmetv.
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News provided by: Vme TV
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Michael Chadd, Birth Date: 27 October 1817, Death Date: 17 June 1886, <p xmlns="">Michael, his wife Mary, and daughter, Clara, traveled from England on the ship <em>Windermere</em> in 1854. The first documentation of Chadd being in Utah is when he was rebaptized in the 15th Ward on 10 March 1857. Birth date is also confirmed by this same record. Further research is needed to narrow the year of travel and identify the name of the company he traveled with. </p>
Michael Chadd
Michael, his wife Mary, and daughter, Clara, traveled from England on the ship Windermere in 1854. The first documentation of Chadd being in Utah is when he was rebaptized in the 15th Ward on 10 March 1857. Birth date is also confirmed by this same record. Further research is needed to narrow the year of travel and identify the name of the company he traveled with.
Unknown Companies (1847-1868)
Fifteenth Ward, Record of Members.
Utah, Deaths and Burials, 1888-1946.
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September 26, 2019 / 5:27 PM / 4 months ago
On whistleblower complaint, Pompeo says U.S. State Department acted appropriately
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a press conference at the Palace Hotel on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, New York, U.S., September 26, 2019. REUTERS/Darren Ornitz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said he had not yet fully read the whistleblower complaint about U.S. President Donald Trump’s interactions with the leader of Ukraine but that he believed the State Department had acted appropriately.
“To the best of my knowledge and from what I have seen so far, each of the actions that were undertaken by State Department officials was entirely appropriate,” Pompeo told a news conference.
The whistleblower report released on Thursday said Trump not only abused his office in attempting to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 U.S. election for his own political benefit, but that the White House also tried to “lock down” evidence about that conduct. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
The report references State Department officials and ambassadors, some by name.
Pompeo said the Trump administration has sought to “create a better relationship between the United States and Ukraine and build on the opportunities to tighten our relationship and help end corruption in Ukraine.”
Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker
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:: Archive > MB in International press
Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood and America--Friends? Foes? Fanatics?
An article in Al Ahram suggests that the US may be softening their stance towards the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Some recent reports say that the US and Europe have extensive budgets
Monday, April 30,2007 17:18
An article in Al Ahram suggests that the US may be softening their stance towards the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Some recent reports say that the US and Europe have extensive budgets planned for developing new intelligence on the group, which have been officially banned since 1954.
James Traub writes a fascinating and revealing article in the New York Times Magazine about the Muslim Brotherhood and the significant role they play in Egyptian society and politics...and the potential for a new and quickly expanding role.
Just this past week, the MB have announced they will enter 20 candidates in the June elections for the upper house of parliament, according to The Muslim Weekly.
So, what is the Muslim Brotherhood"s aim and what role will the United States play in all of this? The US gives Egypt over 2 billion dollars in aid a year, only second to Israel and claim they do not "engage" with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, Traub writes in his article:
"In June 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a landmark address at the American University in Cairo...Asked after the speech about the Muslim Brotherhood, Rice said flatly, "We have not engaged the Muslim Brotherhood and . . . we won’t.”
Traub says that American diplomats had been in contact with Brotherhood officials over the past few years.
"Rice’s spokesman, Sean McCormack, told me, "We do not meet with the Muslim Brotherhood per se, as we don’t want to get entangled in complexities surrounding its legality as a political party." He added, however, “Consistent with our practice elsewhere, we will nonetheless meet with any duly elected member of the parliamentary opposition.”
Al-Ahram reported that American officials met with the Muslim Brotherhood recently in Cairo. Steny Hoyer, the Democratic majority leader of the House first met with Mohamed Saad El-Katatni, a Brotherhood member during a visit by a congressional group and then later the same day at a cocktail party held at the residence of US Ambassador to Cairo Francis Ricciardone.
It seems that whether the U.S. decides to engage with the Muslim Brotherhood or not, they remain a contentious part of Egypt"s political scene and according to some people"s calculations may end up "turning Egypt into a mix between Palestine and Iran." -- whatever that means.
The moderate Muslim Brotherhood
Robert Leiken and research associate Steven Brooke
Posted in MB in International press
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Phantom smells more often haunt women
According to statistics, women often have the feeling of smells, which actually do not exist: men are concerned about this problem less often.
Some people notice that they sometimes sense some kind of foreign smell — for example, urine or burnt porridge — although they are surprised to find that there is no source of such an aroma in sight. In fact, this happens almost everywhere. Medical specialists periodically encounter this problem in patients, calling it an idiopathic sense of phantom odors. But in medicine, accurate statistics on this issue does not exist. Such a problem was started by Swedish researchers. They managed to establish that the population of Sweden, belonging to the age range from sixty to ninety years, feels phantom scents in almost 5% of cases.
American experts picked up the initiative and conducted a similar calculation in their own country. It was found that out of more than seven thousand participants in the experiment, 6.5% of people felt non-existent aromas from time to time, most of them were female (approximately 2/3).
Olfactory discrepancies in medicine are called the term “phantosmia”, and in some patients such false sensations are indeed signs of pathology. In this case we are talking about unpleasant odors - sulfur, decomposition, rotten eggs, bitterness. The condition may be aggravated by an appropriate reaction: increased saliva secretion, aversion to food, and cognitive impairment.
How to explain the wrong olfactory response of the body is unknown. Scientists have suggested that sensory receptors in the nasal cavity, which smell, for some reason, begin to function too actively. Researchers notice that false aromas are mainly concerned with people who have ever received head injuries or have had other serious health problems - for example, infectious diseases, benign or malignant tumor processes, hemorrhages. Some experts are inclined to believe that in this matter the culprit must be sought in the hormonal sphere.
It rarely happens that people turn to a doctor with such a problem. However, in many situations, the appearance of false smells requires additional diagnostics with subsequent treatment prescriptions. There are cases when frequent non-existent aromas indicated the presence of mental disorders and even neoplastic brain diseases in a patient.
Most likely, scientists still have to conduct more than one study on this topic. Experts predict that it is possible that in the near future, physicians will even be able to diagnose the nature of smells that a patient feels.
Information published on page https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/article-abstract/2696525
Allergy to odors can be provoked by polluting, chemical substances, pollen of flowering plants. The reasons that influence the possible occurrence of allergies are: structural changes of the infectious disease itself, deteriorating environmental conditions, hereditary factors. Read more..
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Emperor Palpatine – aka Darth Sidious
Darth Vader is the Black Pope - the Supreme Jesuit General - who serves his master the dark emperor Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious, who is insidious – slowly and subtly harmful or destructive.
http://jahtruth.net/darth.htm
The word Palpatine is one “p” away from Palatine which is the central one of the seven hills of Rome/New Babylon where the double “p” – p p - pope sits in his evil lair of the Vatican.
http://jahtruth.net/robab.htm
The Palatine Hill (Latin: Collis Palatium or Mons Palatinus) is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands 40 metres[1] above the Forum Romanum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other.
It is the etymological origin of the word "palace" and its cognates in other languages (Italian "Palazzo", French "Palais" etc).
According to Roman mythology, the Palatine Hill was the location of the cave, known as the Lupercal, where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive. According to this legend, the shepherd Faustulus found the infants, and with his wife Acca Larentia raised the children. When they were older, the boys killed their great-uncle (who seized the throne from their father), and they both decided to build a new city of their own on the banks of the River Tiber. Suddenly, they had a violent argument with each other and in the end Romulus killed his twin brother Remus. This is how "Rome" got its name - from Romulus. Another legend to occur on the Palatine is Hercules' defeat of Cacus after the monster had stolen some cattle. Hercules struck Cacus with his characteristic club so hard that it formed a cleft on the southeast corner of the hill, where later a staircase bearing the name of Cacus was constructed.[citation needed]
Rome has its origins on the Palatine. Indeed, recent excavations show that people have lived there since approximately 1000 BC.
Many affluent Romans of the Republican period (510 BC – c. 44 BC) had their residences there. The ruins of the palaces of Augustus (63 BC – 14), Tiberius (42 BC – 37) and Domitian (51 – 96) can still be seen. Augustus also built a temple to Apollo here, beside his house.
The Palatine Hill was also the site of the festival of the Lupercalia.
In July 2006, archaeologists announced the discovery of the Palatine House, which they believe to be the birthplace of Rome's first Emperor, Augustus.
Interesting “coincidences”.
The 12 commandments (10+2)
Libertarians React to News of Coming Draft (+howto REFUSE TO VOLUNTEER.)
Vermin Clean-up Season
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NYC Memorials, and Other Matters
A beautiful post-summer day in NYC, and I went for a walk during lunch. Of course, I spent time in the cemetery of Trinity Church, where they’ve taken to putting up small informative signs for tourists, including one in front of the gravestone shown above. It says Charlotte Temple on it, which is the name of a novel that was wildly popular in late 18th century America, but there is some doubt as to why it’s there. (Reminds me of a recent article about the pseudo-grave of Nick Beef, next to Lee Harvey Oswald’s final place of rest.)
A NYTimes article from several years ago says that a researcher got the church to lift the slab to see what’s under it, but there is no burial vault, however, that doesn’t mean that no one is buried there. The little sign says that the inscription may have been carved by a bored stoneworker during construction work on the church. I like that explanation – the artistically inclined skilled artisan class, and all that.
Further on my walk, I encountered a very odd place for NYC: the sign in the window says as much – “It’s free. We know that’s hard to believe in NYC!” The place is a nice modern storefront called Charlotte’s Place, and it has tables, computers, books, and spaces for sitting, talking, meeting, and other sociable activities. It is completely free, and is maintained as a resource for the community, by Trinity Church it seems. An anonymous grave which might house no one and a free space for anyone, all from Charlotte.
Continuing, I walked past the souvenir shop for the 9/11 Memorial: I have visited the memorial site and walked around, but never been in the store.
In an interview a few years after the destruction of the WTC, Phillip Roth was quoted on the “kitchification” of the event and its victims. I have commented before on what I feel is a rather ghoulish or morbid preoccupation with this horrible event, so I have not much to say other than that I found the store depressing and faintly nauseating, and, as that phrase I hate goes, “It is what it is…” Seems appropriate for once.
At least while I was there I noticed this gem of a façade – sorry for the bad pic, but I didn’t have my camera, and only real estate firms had images online – which is at 125 Liberty Street.
Meanwhile, nearby, the slow, laborious work on Calatrava’s Faberge egg of a transit hub continues… As the article correctly remarks:
It is important to note how the projects within the World Trade Center are unique in the sense that they were, and continue to be, fueled by emotions associated with the 9/11 attacks.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: 911, architecture, calatrava, kitsch, Literature, nyc, pop culture, terrorism, wtc | Permalink
Posted by Lichanos
The United States of Fear
Tom Friedman has outlined his latest installment in the ideology of fear, backed by his fellow mainstream writer, Bill Keller. Friedman tells how us how he stops his worrying (or at least, worrying about the wrong things) and has learned to love Big Brother, and Keller says he is making an “important point”:
Yes, I worry about potential government abuse of privacy from a program designed to prevent another 9/11 — abuse that, so far, does not appear to have happened. But I worry even more about another 9/11. That is, I worry about something that’s already happened once — that was staggeringly costly — and that terrorists aspire to repeat.
I worry about that even more, not because I don’t care about civil liberties, but because what I cherish most about America is our open society, and I believe that if there is one more 9/11 — or worse, an attack involving nuclear material — it could lead to the end of the open society as we know it. If there were another 9/11, I fear that 99 percent of Americans would tell their members of Congress: “Do whatever you need to do to, privacy be damned, just make sure this does not happen again.” That is what I fear most.
So, here in the Republic of Fear, we appeal to the best in our citizens,their abject terror of something bad happening. The print by James Gillray at the top recalls an earlier historical episode of the Security State, the British effort to root out atheists, freethinkers, and revolutionists in its midst. Gillray was paid by the Tories, but he couldn’t help seeing how ridiculous they were, despite his politics.
Bad things do happen all the time, it’s true, although usually to other people, but surely those terrorists are targeting me! It follows, that we must cast principles by the wayside and go all out to provide security.
This security apparatus doesn’t do a very good job, although it never ever makes mistakes. A recent FBI review of 150 shootings by agents concluded that every last one of them was perfectly justified. That beats the NYPD hands down! The NSA, CIA, etc. did a great job of preventing the Boston bombing, and we all know how well the CIA did before 9/11 (See Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower). Was a lack of data the problem?
The head of the NSA has testified that the snooping has foiled 50, yes 50 terrorist plots. I’m sure he has a list, and it seems to have grown since the uproar started. Not many details offered, however. All top-secret. I wonder… Another acolyte of the Security State has argued for the necessity of gathering all of our phone records by saying, “If you are searching for a needle in a haystack, first you need a haystack.” Is this really the best way to protect our country? It’s remarks like this that made the phrase “Military Intelligence” an oxymoron.
Once they have this data, mistakes will be made. They have been made already. Sometimes with dire consequences, such as rendering suspects to countries that are willing to torture them without limit (Syria’s no longer good for that, however.) or just upending their lives because a name appeared on a list somehow, like the lawyer in Washington state who converted to Islam after he married a woman from the middle east. Ah…the price we pay for liberty!
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: big brother, civil rights, fear, politics, privacy, terrorism | Permalink
The Moro ‘Affair’
The Moro Affair seems like an oddly lighthearted name for a book about the kidnapping of a prime minister that ended in his murder. I was dimly aware of these events when they happened in the late 1970s, but my knowledge of the violent fringe group, The Red Brigades, was limited to newspaper headlines, Anarchy Comics, and various hipster cultural references of the time. Leonardo Sciasica’s examination of the case is weird, confusing, and not all that illuminating, adjectives that are frequently applied to the case and other tortured explanations of it.
Moro was at the helm of the Italian government when the Christian Democrats made historic overtures to the communists to form a stable government. Kissinger was not happy. Moro was on record as being in favor of swapping prisoners to save lives when confronted by terrorists: Why did his own party refuse to save his life? Was he sacrificed? For what, by whom? Was there CIA involvement? Were the Italian police bureaus severely disorganized and incompetent, or were darker forces at work?
6 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: aldo moro, Italy, politics, radicals, red brigades, terrorism | Permalink
Ballet Russe, Zionism, and Terror
In my recent post of Richard Francis Burton’s translation of two short tales from Scheherazade’s 1001, I included a picture of Ida Rubenstein, a figure from fin de siècle – la Belle Époque history who was new to me. She was born to a wealthy family of Russian Jews, came to dance late, for a ballerina, that is, and made a big splash with Leon Bakst and Nijinsky. Her début was a private performance of Oscar Wilde’s Salome, in which she danced through the seven veils to the nude. She was denounced by the Archbishop of Paris for dancing as Saint Sebastian in a ballet scored by Debussy, with costumes by Bakst. Sacrilege! A Jew and a woman depicting the martyred saint!
During WWII, she fled France for England, where she helped escaped Resistance members, and was intimate with Walter Guinness, her sponsor and sometime lover. He was assassinated in 1944 by members of the Stern Gang, a terrorist organization of Zionist Jews trying to dislodge Britain from Palestine.
Stern Gang is what the Brits called them, but they referred to themselves as Lehi, but also as ‘terrorists’ and, according to Wikipedia, may have been one of the last organizations to do so:
An article titled “Terror” in the Lehi underground newspaper He Khazit (The Front ) argued as follows:
Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us the command of the Torah,whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world: “Ye shall blot them out to the last man.” But first and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play: speaking in a clear voice to the whole world, as well as to our wretched brethren outside this land, it proclaims our war against the occupier. We are particularly far from this sort of hesitation in regard to an enemy whose moral perversion is admitted by all.
There we have it. Infatuation with The Cause, with Violence, with The Nation. Sound familiar? On the principle of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the Lehi made overtures to Nazi Germany, offering to assist in its war against the British in exchange for allowing the free emigration of Jews to Palestine to join the nation-building cause.
The more I learn about the history of Zionism, and its role as a foundation of Israeli society, the more disgusted I become. Former Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir, was a member in good standing of the gang.
9 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: fascism, history, israel, jews, nationalism, nazis, palestine, terrorism, wwII, zionism | Permalink
I am very happy that the tenth anniversary of our humiliating victimization by a band of fanatical terrorists falls on a Sunday. That means I don’t have to fight the crowds of visitors and dignitaries, security personnel, and media hordes to get to my cubicle where I toil for my salary. Other than that, the only observation I have is that the ‘remembrance’ often strikes me as morbid and a bit ghoulish. Certainly, there are individuals who have tremendous losses to mourn, and I wish them the best, but that’s an individual drama and anguish. I’m not sure that the articles, TV comments, speechifying and whatnot support and nurture that.
How admirably short and direct was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Perhaps we will be lucky, and receive the same.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: 911, ground zero, nyc, terrorism, wtc | Permalink
Batting 500
I thought he would never be captured or killed – I was wrong. Oh, well, I was right about those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The reasons for my relative sang froid regarding this event are illustrated by this quote from the journalistic blusterer, Ross Douthat:
They can strike us, they can wound us, they can kill us. They can goad us into tactical errors and strategic blunders. But they are not, and never will be, an existential threat.
This was not clear immediately after 9/11.
As with his fellow windbag, Thomas Friedman, as well as many, many, politicians and talking-head wannabee pundits, he takes far too long to learn his lessons. The sense of those two sentences that are in bold was very evident to me in 2001, and to John Kerry in 2004, and to the writer of an op-ed piece that I recall from the NYTimes shortly after 9/11 (citations, please, if anyone can find it![Here it is.]) that stated that Osama bin Laden’s was a form of ‘politics’ doomed for the dustbin. Yes, there were plenty of reasonable people who understood what was what, but the hysteria of people like Ross and his fellow scribblers, not to mention GWB, made it hard to understand what they were saying.
7 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: fiasco, ground zero, iraq, terrorism, war on terror, wmd, wtc | Permalink
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Victim is Hero
Make a note in the George Orwell, 1984 collection of historical amnesiac incidents…or is it?
The NYTimes had an article a few days ago about the quotation that is to be prominently inscribed in stone at the 9/11 memorial taking shape below my office window: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” As the writer showed, the text is grotesquely inappropriate, being a line taken out of context that celebrates the memory of two soldiers brutally killed in an ambush. The Aeneid was not a pastoral! The line sounds lofty and noble, but do we want to memorialize the deaths of thousands of innocent civilian victims of an atrocity with a line celebrating ancient warrior values? The author of the OpEd piece thinks it is a bit of intellectual laziness, typical of the Internet age, when people snatch quotations off of websites without doing the reading necessary to understand them fully. Well, nobody reads the classics anymore, so who cares?
As I wrote in my probably-never-to-be-published letter to the Times (but you loyal readers, can get the scoop here!) I suspect something else may be at work here. We want to remember the victims, but not as victims. That’s too painful: it reminds us of how unprepared we were, and how vulnerable we can be. Better to remember them as the first casualties in a heroic war against terror.
This fits with the current overuse of the word “hero” in our popular culture. Heroes are supposed to be people who choose to face death and danger, but now everyone who dies is a hero. Rush into a burning building and die trying to save a child – you are a hero. Killed by a falling timber as you rush in a panic out of a burning building, you’re a hero too! People terrified by death who just couldn’t escape: they don’t exist. We all know what we are doing, and we are all heroes. So nobody is a hero in the end…
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: 911, aeneid, classical literature, ground zero, hero, heroism, Literature, militarism, superhero, terrorism, virgil, wtc | Permalink
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Marooned in Macedonia
Thousands of Romany refugees eke out a hand-to-mouth existence in Macedonia, unwanted by the West and unable to return to their Kosovo homes
By Zeljko Bajic
Romany refugees in Macedonia are living on borrowed time. On March 21, the government decided to extend their leave to remain in the country by three months. What will happen to them after that is anyone's guess.
One young Romany, expelled by the Albanians after international peacekeepers arrived in Kosovo, said, "We want to go home to Kosovo, and they are only extending our stay. What has the international community done to help us return home?"
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) representatives are putting increasing pressure on the Macedonian government to grant asylum to the Romanies and the authorities are showing signs of conceding.
But the Romanies are unhappy with this alternative. They have no wish to stay in Macedonia as they see few prospects there. They dream of emigrating to the West, or returning home to Kosovo. But both possibilities seem equally remote.
Macedonia is currently home to 8,500 refugees, most of them Romanies. They have joined an existing ethnic community estimated to number between 60,000 (according to official figures) and 150,000.
The refugees flooded in from different parts of Kosovo last summer, after being expelled by Albanian extremists. They spent the first few months living under canvas in makeshift camps, where they were given basic foodstuffs and primitive medical care.
Although Macedonia has a good track record for its treatment of Romanies, some locals resent the sudden influx of refugees.
Last December, the inhabitants of Stari Dorjan, a small town on the Dorjan Lake, joined forces to picket a children's holiday camp earmarked for Romany refugees. The locals threw up roadblocks around the camp and defied the authorities for several days until their demands were met.
The refugees encountered the same level of hostility from residents in Mavrovi Anovi, a town on the slopes of Mount Mavrovo which is a popular winter resort.
In both cases, the townspeople voiced fears that the Romanies would disrupt the ethnic balance in the area and trigger a rise in crime and prostitution.
As a result, 230 gypsies took refuge in the Stenkovec camp, where they endured sub-zero temperatures without warm clothes or blankets.
A total of around 2,400 Romany refugees have been housed in 10 special centres across Macedonia -- mostly abandoned holiday camps. Most believe that returning to Kosovo would spell certain death.
Rashid Ramadani, a refugee from Gnjilan, comments, "We can't return to Kosovo. The Albanians would kill us. They accuse us of collaborating with the Serbs. There may have been a few individuals who served in Serbian paramilitary units, but you can't hold an entire people responsible for that. We have always lived in peace with our Albanian neighbours."
Ever since the refugees arrived in Macedonia, the government has been insisting they return home, claiming it lacks the facilities to look after them properly. The authorities even entered into negotiations with Belgrade over the return of the Romanies to Serbia which, they say, has a duty to take care of them. These initiatives, however, have since been abandoned.
Despite daily reports of attacks on minority groups in Kosovo, Skoplje insists that it is safe for the Romany refugees to return to the war-torn enclave.
In an interview last weekend with the state radio station, Minister of Internal Affairs Dosta Dimovska said every effort should be made to persuade the refugees that they face no real dangers by returning home.
Meanwhile, the UNHCR is encouraging the Romanies to stay in Macedonia, even if the economically challenged republic has little enough to offer its own subjects, let alone refugees.
Although many still dream of a fresh start in the West, no Western country has yet shown any signs of putting out the welcome mat.
One refugee staying at the children's holiday camp on the Vodno Hill near Skoplje said, "Journalists and aid workers come and visit us every day. Then they leave. We are left with the same problems, with the same memories about what happened to us. Maybe, at the very beginning, there was some desire to help us. I don't know how long this will last but, all the same, we are hoping for a brighter future."
While deciding to extend the refugees' leave to remain, the Macedonian government ruled that the Romanies must vacate the holiday camps by April 1. The decision was most likely prompted by the approach of the tourist season and the need to free up rooms for holiday-makers.
After April 1, the UNHCR together with the ministries of employment and town-planning will be obliged to find alternative accommodation -- probably under canvas.
But those who have been unable to get a place in a hotel or receive help from the Macedonian Red Cross and the UNHCR have been forced to fend for themselves. In most cases, this means renting a room in Skoplje's Shuto Orizari district, the only Romany enclave in Europe.
Nezdet Mustafa, Shuto Orizari mayor and leader of the United Party of Roma, describes the settlement with pride. "This is the only Roma bastion in the world," he says. "We have over 40,000 Romanies living here."
But, even though the settlement has recently been modernised, some areas still lack a proper sanitation system and sewage spills across the streets. About 80 per cent of Shuto Orizari residents are unemployed.
In some cases, as many as 10 people live in a single room. Rents -- which range between 150 and 200 German marks a month -- are prohibitively expensive for unemployed Romany refugees.
Surviving from day to day has become a bitter struggle. Many sell cheap milk, peas, rice and cooking oil from humanitarian aid packages at the Shuto Orizari market, using the income to pay their rent and buy small quantities of fruit, vegetables and meat. Sometimes, they can stretch to cigarettes and alcohol as well.
"We survive somehow", says one refugee. "But Macedonia remains the most tolerant country in Europe as far as Romanies are concerned."
Zeljko Bajic is a regular contributor to IWPR
Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo
BCR Issue 128
http://tinyurl.com/y2mydd9l
Dodik Toys with Muslim Vote
Sumadija Takes on Belgrade
The Mitrovica Syndrome
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Tag: Andrew Cannon
Iowa’s holiday from taxes — and reality
Make no mistake, Iowans are being sold a bill of goods — but at least it’s tax-free!
Mike Owen
Oh, boy! It’s sales-tax holiday weekend in Iowa.
We’re talking about a “7 percent off” sale, folks — on only a limited list of items. When’s the last time that brought you into a store? At any other time of year, it would not draw customers, but guffaws. Seven percent? Really?
As IPP’s Andrew Cannon pointed out last year at this time, these gimmicks “drain revenue, and feed unfairness in a state tax system.” They are found, according to the Iowa Department of Revenue (DOR), in 17 states, and take various forms.
Of course the folks in the malls will say they’re great — anything to get someone in the door. But think about it. We’re literally talking about a few bucks off a pair of jeans, about $5 off a $70 pair of shoes. You could do a heck of a lot better on a regular sale at a store even when you’re paying sales tax.
And when you’re paying the tax, you’re not stiffing the school that your child will be attending in a few weeks in new jeans and shoes.
There is a price to public services any time we chip away at revenues. Whether the cost is around $3 million — as this gimmick appears to cost, according to a 2009 report from the DOR — or $40 million in some business tax credit program, it all adds up. Money not brought in due to exceptions in the tax code costs the bottom line every bit as much as money spent by a state agency.
Posted by Mike Owen, Assistant Director
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on August 3, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, OrganizationTags Andrew Cannon, Iowa Fiscal Partnership, Iowa Policy Project, ITEP, Mike Owen, sales tax, tax fairness, tax holidayLeave a comment on Iowa’s holiday from taxes — and reality
Who would take Governor’s deal?
Why are state employees the Governor’s target? Revenues are up, and the Governor is happily giving away millions to companies that don’t pay income tax. Why should state workers take a $1,000 pay cut?
There’s a little gamesmanship about public-worker benefits this week that is avoiding a critical question: How will the state compensate workers for giving up negotiated health benefits?
Governor Branstad on Monday repeated his plans to push for a 20 percent premium contribution by state employees in the next contract, putting out a pledge to pay that amount himself right now. For the Governor it’s $224 per month.
IPP’s Andrew Cannon has done a good job of exposing the fact that public worker health benefits in Iowa, while more generous than those offered in the private sector, don’t make up for lower pay in comparable positions or positions requiring comparable qualifications/education. On balance, there is a penalty for working in the public sector.
Governor Branstad doesn’t talk about the wages/salary side. He is ignoring the fact that, unlike his pay and that of state legislators, state employees’ benefits in place are a result of bargaining — a point acknowledged far too little, but thankfully was cited this week by the Muscatine Journal’s Steve Jameson. State employees agreed on the pay levels they receive in the context of other benefitsthey al so receive.
Oddly, when the Governor says state workers should pay $1,000 toward their health insurance, he is peddling it all as savings to the state. Actually, we should expect salaries to go up to compensate for lost benefits.
Also, why are state employees the Governor’s target? Revenues are up, and the Governor is happily giving away millions to companies that don’t pay income tax, and leaving corporate tax loopholes open as well. So explain again, please: Why should state workers take a $1,000 pay cut?
Who would take that deal?
By Mike Owen, Assistant Director
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on July 4, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, Economic Opportunity, OrganizationTags Andrew Cannon, Des Moines Register, Governor Branstad, health benefits, Mike Owen, Muscatine Journal, public workers, Radio Iowa, state employees, Steve Jameson, Terry BranstadLeave a comment on Who would take Governor’s deal?
The policy effects of Supreme Court ruling — beyond politics, legal arguments
The central purpose of the law should not be lost in the discussion: to expand health insurance coverage and help create a health system that works for everyone.
Andrew Cannon
While many are focusing on the political and judicial ramifications of today’s Supreme Court ruling affirming the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it’s important to focus on how the law will affect health coverage.
ACA provisions at the heart of the Supreme Court decision are the personal responsibility requirement (or individual mandate) and the Medicaid expansion. Both provisions are not scheduled to take effect until January 1, 2014.
However, a number of provisions have been in effect since 2010 — shortly after the law’s passage, and have helped make insurance coverage accessible and more affordable for millions of Americans. Today’s ruling upholding the law means that millions of Americans will retain that coverage and those benefits.
Among the provisions currently in effect:
Young adult coverage — Uninsured persons age 18 through 25 may continue to be insured as a dependent on their parents’ health coverage. This provision has extended health care coverage to an estimated 6.6 million young Americans.[1]
Protections against pre-existing condition exclusions for children — The ACA prevents insurers from denying coverage to sick children. In Iowa, there are up to 51,000 children who have pre-existing conditions.[2]
The end of lifetime and annual benefit limits — Consumers with serious health conditions and treatment expenses no longer need to worry about bumping against maximum amounts an insurer will pay.
The elimination of the Medicare “doughnut hole” — Under existing Medicare law, seniors with high prescription costs had to pay for prescriptions entirely out-of-pocket. The ACA gradually eliminates this “doughnut hole,” providing seniors a 50 percent discounts on name-brand drugs and a 7 percent discount on generic drugs.
Tax credits for small businesses — Small businesses that meet specified qualifications may presently receive a tax credit if they offer their employees coverage and cover at least half of the premium cost.[3] Estimates of the number of eligible businesses vary, from about 2.6 million to about 4 million.[4] Take-up has been limited, partially due to lack of awareness.
Provisions that will take effect in 2014:
Expanding Medicaid coverage — Under the ACA, uninsured individuals with earnings at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($30,657 for a family of four in 2012) will qualify for enrollment in Medicaid. If Iowa fully participates in the Medicaid expansion, as many as 114,700 Iowans may receive coverage.[5]
Creation of new insurance marketplaces, or “exchanges” — The ACA instructs states to construct new insurance marketplaces, accessible by Internet, in which those who don’t receive insurance through their employer may shop for insurance coverage. Individuals who don’t qualify for Medicaid coverage will receive tax credits to help them cover the cost of their heath premium. This is the group affected by the individual mandate. According to estimates, as many as 250,000 Iowans could find their health coverage through the new insurance marketplace, or exchange.[6]
While legal scholars and political pundits will undoubtedly have much to say for months on today’s decision, the central purpose of the law should not be lost in the discussion: to expand health insurance coverage and help create a health system that works for everyone.
[1] Sara R. Collins, Ruth Robertson, Tracy Garber and Michelle M. Doty, “Young, Uninsured, and in Debt: Why Young Adults Lack Health Insurance and How the Affordable Care Act is Helping,” the Commonwealth Fund. June 2012. <http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Issue%20Brief/2012/Jun/1604_collins_young_uninsured_in_debt_v4.pdf>.
[2] Christine Sebastian, Kim Bailey, and Kathleen Stoll, “Health Reform: A Closer Look. Help for Iowans with Pre-Existing
Conditions,” Families USA. May 2010. <http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/health-reform/pre-existingconditions/iowa.pdf>.
[3] See “Right Balance for Small Business in Health Reform,” Iowa Fiscal Partnership, July 22, 2010. <http://www.iowafiscal.org/2010docs/100722-IFP-HCR-credits.pdf>.
[4] “Small Employer Health Tax Credit: Factors Contributing to Low Use and Complexity” (GAO-12-549), Government Accountability Office, May 2012. <http://gao.gov/assets/600/590832.pdf>.
[5] John Holahan and Irene Headen, “Medicaid Coverage and Spending in Health Reform: National and State-by-State Results for Adults at or Below 133% FPL,” Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, May 2010. <http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/medicaid-coverage-and-spending-in-health-reform-national-and-state-by-state-results-for-adults-at-or-below-133-fpl.pdf>.
[6] Matthew Buettgens, John Hollahan, and Caitlin Carroll, “Health Reform Across States: Increased Insurance Coverage and Federal Spending on the Exchanges and Medicaid,” Urban Institute, March 2012. <http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412310-Health-Reform-Across-the-States.pdf>.
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on June 28, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, Economic Opportunity, OrganizationTags Affordable Care Act, Andrew Cannon, health care, health insurance, Iowa Fiscal Partnership, Iowa Policy ProjectLeave a comment on The policy effects of Supreme Court ruling — beyond politics, legal arguments
Small boost in funding masks long-term reductions in state services
Small increases in some budgets should not distract from big cuts in higher education and water quality over time. There is more work to do.
David Osterberg
July 1 begins the new fiscal year for the state of Iowa so this is a good time for IPP staffers to update reports released during the legislative session.
Two areas of funding that generally get lip service support from our elected officials are higher education funding and funding for water quality programs. In both areas there was some increase over the very low levels of funding from the previous year. Yet the long-term erosion of funding in these areas of state services was not improved a great deal.
While funding for ISU, UNI and the University of Iowa was increased this year by about $20 million, funding for these institutions still remains about 40 percent below what it was in fiscal year 2000 when inflation is taken into account. Andrew Cannon’s earlier report showed that long term underfunding is the reason that tuition has increased so much over the last decade. Community colleges seem to have fared better with only a 15 percent reduction in funding in real terms over the same period but enrollment has increased, so actual support for students is lower than that.
Water quality received some funding increases in two of the eight individual programs reviewed by Will Hoyer in his March 2012 report. However, overall funding for this group of water quality programs has fallen from what it was 10 years ago.
Lower funding in areas Iowans strongly support are the consequence of continual tax cuts that reduce the size of the state budget in relation to the size of the Iowa economy.
Posted by David Osterberg, Executive Director
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on June 26, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, Economic Opportunity, Energy & EnvironmentTags Andrew Cannon, community colleges, education, higher education, Iowa Fiscal Partnership, Iowa Policy Project, regents, state tuition aid, water quality, Will HoyerLeave a comment on Small boost in funding masks long-term reductions in state services
Look at more than public employees’ health benefits
A comprehensive and holistic look at public employee compensation reveals that the political talk driving some public policy proposals is mere myth.
It will not be surprising, in the post-Wisconsin-recall world, if policymakers feel emboldened to challenge public employee compensation. Governor Branstad has already signaled that some of his policy initiatives in the coming years will bear the stamp of Wisconsin. In a June 12, 2012, meeting with Des Moines Register reporters and editors, the Governor said he intends to require public employees to contribute 20 percent of the cost of their health insurance.
If that sounds reasonable — considering that private-sector workers contribute, on average, more than 20 percent of their health insurance premiums — it misses the realities of overall public employee compensation.
While it is true that public employees contribute less on average to their health insurance plans than private-sector workers, they have negotiated the benefit as part of overall compensation packages that, all political hyperbole and “conventional wisdom” aside, typically leave public employees behind their private-sector counterparts. As IPP research has demonstrated, public workers tend to be paid considerably less than similarly educated workers in the private sector. Generally better health insurance benefits do not compensate for the deficiency, so a gap remains.
After controlling for experience, education, and other demographic factors, public-sector employees still receive 6 percent to 8 percent lower overall compensation — that is, pay, health, dental, life and disability insurance, and retirement benefits — than private workers.
Requiring an employee contribution of 20 percent of health insurance premiums is a disguised cut in compensation and amounts to a repudiation of contracts that have been negotiated in good faith between public employees and the state. Furthermore, it would widen the gap between public and private sector pay.
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on June 13, 2012 June 13, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, Economic Opportunity, OrganizationTags Andrew Cannon, Des Moines Register, Governor Terry Branstad, health care, health contribution, health insurance, Iowa Policy Project, Jason Clayworth, public employees, public workers1 Comment on Look at more than public employees’ health benefits
Budgeting in context
The budgeting decisions of last year ought to be viewed in context.
Following last year’s prolonged legislative session, legislators and the governor congratulated themselves for a budget that fully funded programs and reduced reliance on what they called “one-time funds.”
It is true that state services, systems and structures were funded to a large degree through a stable source, the General Fund (where income and sales taxes are pooled). And funding levels increased generally, especially in comparison to the recession-affected budgets of FY10 and FY11, when many state services and programs took severe cuts.
But the budgeting decisions of last year ought to be viewed in context, as we do in a new report.
First, the use of “one-time funds” proved to be the right choice at the time. Because of the recession, state revenues declined precipitously, which led to a 10 percent across-the-board budget cut. One-time funds now derided by some were used precisely as intended. State “rainy day” funds, reserved for economic emergencies, and the federal Recovery Act (ARRA) combined to fill budget gaps and save services. ARRA provided billions of dollars to Iowa to finance K-12 education, higher education, and health care programs for children, the elderly, Iowans with disabilities and low-income Iowans who had no other access to health insurance.
Second, consider how funding for state services and programs compares to pre-recession funding levels. Even as revenues have bounced back, and funding for many services has stabilized, it is unclear if present levels are adequate to met needs. For instance, state funding for community colleges in FY12 will reach about $164 million, up from FY10 and FY11 levels, but still remain below pre-recession levels. At the same time, community colleges are serving more Iowans than ever, with enrollment reaching 106,000 in FY11, up from 88,000 students in FY08.
Iowa’s other public higher education system, the Board of Regents, this year is working under a 3 percent reduction in funding from FY11. Even with the governor’s proposed FY13 increase, Regents funding would still be below recession levels, to say nothing of pre-recession levels. Students pay the price, with continually increasing tuition costs.
Other programs, such as the Early Childhood Iowa initiative, which provides preschool tuition subsidies and parental education; Child Care Assistance, which helps low-income working parents cover the cost of child care; and the Family Investment Program, which helps the lowest-income families meet basic needs and prepare for employment, all have seen large cuts in funding since before the recession. Even into economic recovery, some programs are still being reduced.
Improving upon last year or the year before is good, but the long-term question asks if we are adequately funding programs to meet Iowans’ needs and to adequately invest in Iowa’s future. Judicious use of public funds is not as simple as cutting services to bring down expenses, but taking a balanced approach that assures adequate funding for services that position Iowa for the future.
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on February 8, 2012 February 9, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, Economic Opportunity, OrganizationTags American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, Andrew Cannon, ARRA, budget, economy, education, environment, health insurance, Iowa Fiscal Partnership, Iowa Policy Project, revenue stability, work supports, working familiesLeave a comment on Budgeting in context
Iowa leads the way to kids’ health coverage
Two recent reports highlight Iowa’s success in extending health insurance coverage to children.
Two recent reports highlight Iowa’s success in extending health insurance coverage to children. Both reports are the work of the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a nonprofit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible information, research and analysis on health issues.
The first report — “Performance Under Pressure: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2011-2012” — demonstrates the steps that all states are taking to cover children. For instance, hawk-i, Iowa’s version of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), has expansive income eligibility guidelines, allowing children from families with income up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($67,050 for a family of four) to enroll in the program. Only two states (New York and New Jersey) have broader eligibility guidelines.
Iowa has enacted other policies that make enrolling in public programs less cumbersome, less costly, and more consistent with the goal of getting kids covered.
KFF’s second report highlights Iowa — along with Alabama, Massachusetts and Oregon — among states leading the way in children’s health coverage. “Secrets to Success: An Analysis of Four States at the Forefront of the Nation’s Gains in Children’s Health Coverage” notes that Iowa has experienced, thanks to its use of CHIP in policies including hawk-i, a nearly 20 percent decrease in the number of uninsured kids. Efforts to expand and simplify the eligibility and enrollment process are key to Iowa’s success in covering kids.
As we noted last month, Iowa’s efforts to cover kid not only help the kids and their families, but also help the state. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Iowa with a $9.5 million Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act bonus payment in late December, in reward for the state’s efforts to expand children’s health insurance coverage.
Though Iowa has implemented some of the policies that led to success in kids’ coverage in the adult health coverage program, Medicaid, additional policy changes could further reduce the overall rate of uninsurance in the state. For instance, Iowa’s Medicaid eligibility thresholds are Iowa are quite low, especially in comparison to hawk-i eligibility levels.
Both Kaiser reports note that Iowa, like every state, will face challenges to maintain and further improve its health insurance coverage. Budgetary pressures, burgeoning caseloads and a growing strain on information technology systems make it difficult. However, both articles illustrate a number of policies Iowa could pursue to continue to be a leader in kids’ health coverage.
Author iowapolicypointsPosted on January 23, 2012 February 9, 2012 Categories Budget and Tax, Economic Opportunity, OrganizationTags Affordable Care Act, Andrew Cannon, children's health insurance, CHIP, economy, hawk-i, health care, health insurance, Iowa Fiscal Partnership, Iowa Policy Project, medicaid, uninsuranceLeave a comment on Iowa leads the way to kids’ health coverage
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Travel to Sydney
Sydney is the biggest city in Australia with delicate weather, lovely customs and breathtaking sightseeing. The city is surrounded with candy beaches in the eastern part near the beautiful harbor. This means that wherever you are in the CBD, you always have a beautiful landscape in every angle.
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Sydney Review
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Sydney, is known for its ideal climate, relaxed lifestyle and friendly locals. The city is surrounded by beaches on its Eastern side and the CBD is positioned on the beautiful Sydney harbour, meaning that view of blue water is never far away!
Sydney is home to a wide variety of beaches and natural wonders to contrast its culture and bustling city life. Most of Sydney’s best spots, including Sydney Harbour, are easy to access via public transport that makes weekend adventures a great option.
With a relatively relaxed and open culture, Sydney is a place where the good things in life are celebrated. Whether it is a drink with friends at one of the city’s many bars or cafes, a sports game or a trip out of town, Sydney is a city where you will always find something new to enjoy and will never have enough of it.
As the home to people of many different cultures, in Sydney you will find a wide variety of cuisines. Eating out on a budget is made possible with a wide variety of restaurants across the city. It’s also easy to find good quality fresh food to cook with at home.
With lots of public space, it’s easy to find somewhere in Sydney to relax. Whether you want to walk or exercise or meet up with friends, one of Sydney’s many public parks will suit your needs. Virtually every suburb in Sydney features a park for you to visit and relax.
Nature and attractions:
Bondi to Coogee beach walk
The Opera House to Botanic Gardens Walk
Manly scenic walkway
Chinese garden of friendship
Sea life Sydney aquarium
Wildlife Sydney zoo and its following exhibits:
Butterfly Tropics
Devil’s Den (Tasmanian Devils)
Gumtree Valley (Koalas)
Wallaby Cliffs
Daintree Rainforest (Cassowary)
Kangaroo Walk-About
Kakadu Gorge (Crocodile)
Koala Encounters
Outback Adventurers Cafe
Night Fall
Paddington reservoir gardens
SIGHTS:
Queen Victoria building
The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is a major botanical garden located in the heart of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1816, the garden is the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world. It is open every day of the year and access is free. Its stunning position on Sydney Harbour and immediately adjacent to the Sydney CBD, the Sydney Opera House and the large public parklands of The Domain ensure it is one of the most visited attractions in Sydney.
A cliff top coastal walk, the Bondi to Coogee walk extends for six km in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The coastal walk features stunning views, beaches, parks, cliffs, bays and rock pools. The beaches and parks offer a place to rest, swim or a chance to eat at one of the cafes, hotels, restaurants or takeaways.
The Opera House to the Botanic Gardens Walk may be the most famous walk in Sydney. Stroll around the magnificent architectural structure of the Opera House. Then head toward one of the best lookout spots, Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. From there, meander to and through the Royal Botanic Gardens.
One of the more famous and most scenic routes is the Manly Scenic Walkway, opened in 1988. Encompassing panoramic views of the majestic entrance to Sydney Harbour and swathes of bushland, walkers are able to contrast the old and new Australia as they pass by modern harbourside suburbs juxtaposed with Aboriginal sites, native coastal heath and pockets of sub-tropical rainforest. The Manly Scenic Walkway is comprised of a number of connecting walks, with walking grades to suit everyone.
The Chinese Garden of Friendship was built as a beautiful symbol of friendship between Sydney in the State of New South Wales and Guangzhou in the province of Guangdong, China (sister cities of sister states), to mark Australia’s bicentenary in 1988. The garden was designed and built by Chinese landscape architects and gardeners following the Taoist principles of ‘Yin-Yang’ and the five opposite elements—earth, fire, water, metal and wood. These principles also stress the importance of Qi, the central force of life and energy.
Hyde Park, the oldest public parkland in Australia,[1] is a 16.2-hectare (40-acre) park in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales. Hyde Park is on the eastern side of the Sydney city centre. It is the southernmost of a chain of parkland that extends north to the shore of Sydney Harbour via The Domain and Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Hyde Park is approximately rectangular in shape, being squared at the southern end and rounded at the northern end. It is bordered on the west by Elizabeth Street, on the east by College Street, on the north by St. James Road and Prince Albert Road and on the south by Liverpool Street.[1]Around the park’s boundaries lie the Supreme Court of New South Wales, St. James Church, Hyde Park Barracks and Sydney Hospital to the north, St Mary’s Cathedral, the Australian Museum and Sydney Grammar School to the east, the Downing Centre to the south, the David Jones Limited flagship store and the CBD to the west. It is divided in two by the east-west running Park Street. Hyde Park contains well-kept gardens and approximately 580 trees; a mixture of Hills Figs,[2] palms, and other varieties. It is famed for its magnificent fig tree lined avenues. Sandringham Gardens sit on the eastern side of the park, close to the intersection of Park Street and College Street.
SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium (formerly Sydney Aquarium) contains a large variety of Australian aquatic life, displaying more than 700 species comprising more than 13,000 individual fish and other sea and water creatures from most of Australia’s water habitats. Additionally, the aquarium features 14 themed zones including Jurassic Seas, Discovery Rockpool, Shark Walk, and the world’s largest Great Barrier Reef display. Along the way, visitors encounter animals unique to each habitat, including two of only five dugongs on display in the world, sharks, stingrays, penguins and tropical fish, among others.It is a public aquarium located in the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the eastern (city) side of Darling Harbour to the north of the Pyrmont Bridge.
Wildlife Sydney zoo
Wild Life Sydney Zoo (formerly Sydney Wildlife World) is a wildlife park in the heart of the city of Sydney, Australia. Officially opened in September 2006, it is located on the city side of the Darling Harbour leisure and retail precinct, next to Sydney Aquarium and Madame Tussauds Sydney.
Wild Life Sydney Zoo is divided into 10 zones, containing the following exhibits:
JUST metres from the hustle and bustle of the city’s pumping Oxford St sits a tranquil oasis few Sydneysiders know about it — not bad for a former water reservoir turned servo. Paddington Reservoir Gardens is built on the site of the former 19th century reservoir once responsible for supplying much of the inner eastern suburbs with water. Built below street level the cavernous 33m long by 31m wide and 5m deep reservoir looked like it should be accommodating ancient Roman bathers and revellers.
Less than two hours from Sydney by car or train, the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area is one of Australia’s most spectacular natural parks. The area also offers an enormous variety of activities to enjoy. The Blue Mountains make for the perfect holiday destination for families, nature lovers, and adventure seekers. Bushwalks abound in the region and are an excellent way to take in the natural attractions, with trails to suit all ages and levels of experience. Visit Scenic World in Katoomba to enjoy panoramas of the wilderness, waterfalls, valleys and rugged sandstone tablelands by cablecar or the famous scenic railway. Explore the ancient caverns of Jenolan Caves and discover limestone crystal and underground rivers deep within the mountains.
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, Australia. It is one of the 20th century’s most famous and distinctive buildings.The building and its surrounds occupy the whole of Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and close by the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district (CBD) and the North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of Sydney, and Australia. The bridge is nicknamed “The Coathanger” because of its arch-based design
Rich in history and architecturally splendid, the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) occupies an entire block on Sydney’s George Street, and has over 180 of Sydney’s finest fashion boutiques, jewellery shops and homewares, accompanied by delightful cafes and restaurants. The grand building, built in the 1890s was erected as a Municipal Market on the scale of a Cathedral. The QVB was beautifully restored and re-opened in 1986, and quickly became Sydney’s most popular and prestigious shopping centre.
Visiting Chinatown in Sydney can be an exciting and rewarding experience for any tourist. You can find some of the best Chinese culture right in this neighborhood. They offer some of the best festivals, shops, history, and even food. This is essential when walking through the streets all day that you stop for a hot plate of traditional Chinese cuisine. The food in Chinatown is some of the best you will see outside of Asia. You will be able to sit down, and rest your feet after a long day of walking in one of the relaxed restaurants. Make sure to order one of your favorite classic Chinese dishes of the menu, and satisfy your hunger. This allows you the most when it comes to visiting Chinatown in Sydney. You can also visit some of the dessert and bakeries that are around the town. This allows you to stop off for a little snack when it is wanted. What could be better than great food at affordable prices?
he State Theatre is a heritage-listed theatre, located in Market Street, in the city centre of Sydney, Australia. It hosts film screenings, live theatre and musical performances, and since 1974 it has been the home of the annual Sydney Film Festival.
Related Review ...
Gold Coast’s famed for its long sandy beaches, surfing spots and elaborate system of inland canals and waterways. Inland, hiking trails crisscross Lamington National Park’s mountain ridges and valleys, home to rare birds and rainforest.Stay with us for more information.
Brisbane enjoys a subtropical climate with hot, humid and rainy summers and cool to warm, dry winters often with clear blue skies and a little crisp in the mornings and evenings. Here you can find best nature and sights and also our recommendation.
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Director - Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education
Faculty 4-Year College/University
Physics: Applied, Physics: High Energy, Physics: Nuclear
Director - Cornell Laboratory for
Accelerator-based Sciences and Education
Cornell University seeks applications and nominations of candidates for the position of Director of the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education (CLASSE). CLASSE is a major interdisciplinary research center whose mission includes the study of accelerator physics, photon science and particle physics. CLASSE has extensive resources that support its research mission. These include Newman and Wilson laboratories, their supporting technical and administrative staff, facilities (including the CHESS National x-ray facility), shops and computing infrastructure, and the Cornell Electron Storage Ring accelerator complex. CLASSE facilitates an array of research projects in accelerator physics, photon science, and theoretical and experimental particle physics and cosmology, and in addition to CHESS, it hosts the Center for Bright Beams and the CBETA energy recovery linac. It is the host lab for NSF US-CMS LHC High-Luminosity MREFC upgrade project. CLASSE infrastructure and personnel are supported primarily through research grants.
The CLASSE Directorship is a dual appointment, reporting to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) as the chief executive officer of the Laboratory and a senior tenured member of the Cornell faculty with academic responsibilities in one of the academic units with significant faculty and student involvement in CLASSE-based activities. The CLASSE Director is responsible for the management of the laboratory’s administrative infrastructure, staff and research facilities so as to best support and promote the success of the broad range of externally sponsored research projects that are carried out by the faculty and staff associated with CLASSE and that utilize CLASSE resources. The Director works in close consultation with the PIs for the major CLASSE projects to ensure the availability and proper allocation of resources necessary for success.
The Director is the principal advocate and ambassador for the evolving CLASSE programs and is expected to articulate and promote that scientific vision within the university and secure funding with federal and state agencies as well as industry partners. The Director is expected to maintain a national and international presence on review panels and advisory boards, and to keep well apprised of national and international developments in the fields of photon science, accelerator physics and particle physics that could significantly impact current and future CLASSE projects and programs. The Director also has oversight responsibility for the graduate and postdoctoral educational mission of CLASSE and for its educational outreach activities.
The search committee welcomes applications or nominations for this position, preferably accompanied by a curriculum vitae and cover letter bearing on the candidate’s qualifications for the Directorship. Relevant qualifications include international scientific stature, demonstrated leadership, and management skills at the laboratory level.
Applications should be submitted at https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/15742. Review of applications will begin January, 2020 and will continue until the position is filled.
Cornell University is an innovative Ivy League university and a great place to work. Our inclusive community of scholars, students and staff impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas to further the university's mission of teaching, discovery and engagement. With our main campus located in Ithaca, NY Cornell's far-flung global presence includes the medical college's campuses in Manhattan and Doha, Qatar, as well as the new Cornell Tech campus located on Roosevelt Island in the heart of New York City.
Diversity and Inclusion are a part of Cornell University’s heritage. We are a recognized employer and educator valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities. We also recognize a lawful preference in employment practices for Native Americans living on or near Indian reservations.
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©2018 by James Di Giacomo. Proudly created with Wix.com
Artsy Theatrical
After taking some time off from acting and producing, James decided to get back into the swing of things as of August 2019, with new headshots and a new outlook.
The son of Italian immigrants, James was born in the Bronx, NY, and raised in NJ. He moved to Los Angeles in 2001. He has since appeared in numerous independent films, television shows and over a dozen national TV commercials. He has also created, co-wrote, produced and co-directed a multi-award winning TV pilot in which he also starred in.
James is also a vegan and an animal advocate. Click on the bunny image on the upper left hand corner and donate any amount you can to Bunny Luv. They rescue bunnies from all over southern CA and foster them until they are adopted. They are a NO KILL bunny shelter. James has 2 beautiful CAGE-FREE rabbits, that roam freely throughout his home and are litter box trained and spoiled beyond belief.
James has been a proud SAG member since 2004 and is an alum of iO West. Learn more about James and his work at the links below.
TV PROJECT
COMEDIC REEL
THEATRICAL REEL
UNDECIDED PICTURES
With so many platforms out there, today more than ever, Hollywood is in need of content, GOOD content. James formed Undecided Pictures in 2012 and recently optioned a feature film called GOUGE a horror/thriller based off a short story he wrote.
HAVE YOU MET MISS JONES was James' first TV project under his new production company, which he created and developed with his writing partner, James also produced, co-wrote and co-directed the finished TV pilot, which won 11 awards at various festivals around the world. It stars the iconic Patty McCormack, Dot-Marie Jones, James Kyson, character actor Art LaFleur and of course, James Di Giacomo, who plays the title character.
Patty who played Connie, has known James since 2001. James was a huge fan of hers and loved her in the classic film THE BAD SEED, which his writing partner made him watch. James told Patty that one day, he and his writing partner David Mattia would write something for her. And 11 years later we sent her the script for Have You Met Miss Jones -- she replied back to James, saying, "This is fuckin' hilarious," and that she was interested in playing the character role of Connie, Angelina's (James) mother. Patty was nominated for an Academy Award (THE BAD SEED) and has been acting in Hollywood for 65 years.
After filming, Patty sent James a note, telling him this was the most fun she had ever had on a set! James was blown away by Patty's performance and by her comment. James was also humbled by all the people who wanted to be a part of this little dream he had, that started with an idea, that turned into a script, which manifested into a finished TV pilot.
Watch the award winning TV pilot for yourself HERE. And, if it makes you laugh or you enjoy the performances or storyline, please share it with your friends. To create original content is never easy, to create good quality original content is even harder. James is so proud of how it turned out. Aside from the amazing acting, incredible cast and hilarious storyline, James feels that he accomplished something far greater than he could have ever imagined with the filming of HAVE YOU MET MISS JONES. James invites you to check out this deleted scene between Angelina and her son in the video directly below.
Undecided Pictures is seeking to expand, so if you would like to invest, contact James for more info on some of his other film and TV projects by scrolling to the bottom of this page.
JAMES DI GIACOMO
Content Creator - Actor - Producer - Director
My Universe
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Testing grammar
May 17, 2017 May 17, 2017 John Hodgson Bew report, fronted adverbials, functional grammar, Grammar, Halliday, language, punctuation, spelling
There has been much comment, discussion and even fury in the media about the new grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) tests for primary school pupils. Parents, teachers, academics and other commentators claim that the tests are inappropriate for primary pupils and that these high-stakes assessments have a deleterious effect on teaching and learning.
Part of the problem lies in terminology. Children have to spot examples of grammatical constructions such as “fronted adverbials”. This term has become notorious as it has not previously been used in grammatical descriptions and seems sometimes to apply to phrases that are essentially “adjectival”. The deeper problem is that the label becomes more important than the underlying reality. It is obviously good to teach children the structures of language, particularly if such knowledge helps to express themselves more accurately. But testing a knowledge of labels is very different from testing an understanding of language structures.
Such understanding requires a connection between children’s everyday understanding of language and the grammar they have to grasp. Linguists such as Halliday have developed a functional approach to language that gives meaning to everyday interactions. However, GPS relies on ‘ideal’ forms of language that contradict everyday experience. The Oxford or ‘serial’ comma is outlawed when it is in fact common and correct usage. GPS requires that ‘exclamations’ must begin with ‘How’ or ‘What’ and include a finite verb – which is not the case in real language use. Terms like ‘command’ or ‘exclamation’, which have a social function, refer in GPS only to specific grammatical structures.
This context-free view of grammar implies that children’s language is either right or wrong. Lord Bew’s review (2011) of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability seized (p.60) upon “spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary” as elements of writing “where there are clear ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers, which lend themselves to externally-marked testing”. GPS performance thus becomes a key indicator of a school’s success or failure – even though the view of language enshrined in the tests is so limited.
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The Dwarves of Death
Print ISBN: 9780241967737
Each of my novels seems to be a reaction to the one that came before it. After the tricksy, multi-layered narrative of A Touch of Love, I decided to write something simpler.
The story grew out of my experience of playing in a band called The Peer Group during the mid-1980s. The band was formed in 1985, when I was still studying at Warwick University. Most of the other members, however, were medial students at Guy’s Hospital in South London, so that was where our rehearsals usually took place. We began by playing mainly my own compositions, which tended to be tuneful, jazzy instrumentals in the vein associated with Canterbury-school bands like Caravan and Hatfield and the North. Gradually we moved in a more poppy direction, and ended up sounding (or trying to sound) a bit like Everything But The Girl or Prefab Sprout. Our most distinctive feature was the quirky, oblique lyrical content of the songs – all the words were written by our drummer, Ralph Pite, now the author of an excellent biography of Thomas Hardy among many other books.
In the late 90s I co-wrote the screenplay of a film adaptation, Five Seconds to Spare, which starred Max Beesley, Andy Serkis, Ray Winstone and Anastasia Hille. Despite this fine cast, in retrospect I can see that the film suffers from an imbalance between the musical background, the central love story and the murder mystery – the same problem that you find in the book, in fact.
My short story ‘V.O.’, contained in Loggerheads and Other Stories, is a sort of sequel to this novel, revisiting the hero, William, a few years later when he has become a well-known composer of film music.
The novel also contains the music for a tune of mine called ‘Tower Hill’. On Facebook I found that a French fan called Fabien LaBonde had transcribed the tune, and you can see this transcription here. Thanks, Fabien, wherever you are.
Buy The Dwarves of Death
Buy The Dwarves of Death as an audiobook
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About Ketley Miller Joels
Ketley Miller Joels is a dedicated niche practice, where all solicitors have the same high level of expertise, specialising in areas such as divorce, finances and child law. Clayton Miller set up this firm with Mary Ketley and Jessica Joels in 2010 having worked together and known each other for over 15 years. The likes of Darren Hark, Philip Cooper, Sohini Sanghvi and Che Meakins have joined the team in recent years to establish KMJ as one of the country’s leaders in its industry.
Our expert team will use their skills and knowledge to deal with your matter personally, or as a team when required, from start to finish. The firm ranked in the Legal 500 and is quoted as “an excellent all-around family law firm that provides a high-quality service.”
Find out more about who you’ll be working with here:
Clayton Miller
clayton@kmjsolicitors.com
Clayton deals with all aspects of family law, specialising in all family matters, offshore trusts, company structures (private and public), international law, prenuptial agreements, high net worth cases and cohabitation law. Clayton also deals with Inheritance Act claims. Clayton spent five years working in family law with a firm in Australia before moving to the UK in 1999.
From that time, he worked for a niche family law firm in North London with Mary Ketley for a few years, before moving to a West End firm in 2010, when they decided to set up KMJ Solicitors. Clayton is dual-qualified in both Australia and the UK and is a member of the dual-qualified Family Lawyers, International Bar Association, Anglo-Australian Family Lawyers Group and the Family Law Council of Australia.
“Miller is noted for his ability to assimilate and master the details of complex financial cases and keep on top of them.” – Legal 500
Get started online with Clayton Miller
Philip Cooper
philip@kmjsolicitors.com
Philip joined KMJ Solicitors in February 2012 after several years working at a leading North London firm and was made up to become a Non-Member Partner two years later. He qualified as a solicitor in 2005 and is a member of Resolution. Philip specialises in divorce matters including high net worth financial settlements, often involving multi-jurisdictional issues, and is increasingly advising clients on nuptial agreements.
Many of his cases involve complex financial arrangements with substantial assets, family companies, offshore funds and family trusts, and many other aspects of family law. Philip is also experienced in aspects of child law such as arrangements for children following separation, including financial provision for children of unmarried parents and also child abduction. Philip has also lectured other lawyers on nuptial agreements.
Philip is “immensely able” and “works tirelessly for his clients” – Legal 500
Get started online with Philip Cooper
Margaret Kelly, MCIArb
Margaret@kmjsolicitors.com
Margaret is a skilled talented and experienced family solicitor and practitioner, qualifying in the UK in 1982, and in Australia in1985
She specialises in all aspects of family law from complex financial and children matters to those that are more straightforward. She acts for clients both at the beginning (prenuptial pre civil partnership agreements) and end of relationships.
Her clients range from housewives to high profile individuals. Cases will often involve overseas assets and trusts. Using all her skills she will strive to obtain the best outcome for her
She has always had an interest in non court based methods of resolving problems and trained as mediator in 1995, she added to this skill set when she later trained in the hybrid model.
She is collaboratively trained and was one of the first to train in family arbitration and is qualified to undertake both financial and children arbitrations. She sits as a judge in London and is able to draw from the knowledge and skills acquired in that role when working on cases.
Margaret is regularly recognised b The Legal 500, below is a quote from 2019 edition
“What Makes Margaret Kelly stand out is the following: her knowledge of the law , her deep commitment to the psychological wellbeing of her client; her capacity to remain in touch with her innate empathetic and compassionate stance towards her clients whilst delivering realistic and objective advice”
She sits as a Deputy District Judge in London and speaks at Family Law conferences both in the UK and internationally as well as training other family law practitioners.
Margaret is a contributing author to the Resolution Family Disputes Hand Book.
Mary Ketley
mary@kmjsolicitors.com
Mary deals with all aspects of family law including cohabitation, divorce, financial settlements, injunctions and occupation orders, disputes involving children and child abduction as well as dealing with civil partnership issues.
Mary is involved in running workshops and presenting seminars to professional organisations and charities on various aspects of family law. Mary taught and lectured before being admitted as a solicitor in 1993. She has specialised in family law throughout her career. She is a member of Resolution formerly known as the Solicitors Family Law Association.
“Ketley is a brilliant team player whom clients trust implicitly.” Legal 500
Get started online with Mary Ketley
Sohinni Sanghvi
Associate Solicitor
sohinni@kmjsolicitors.com
Sohinni trained exclusively in family law, qualifying into a niche family practice specialising in divorce, financial remedy and child law. She joined KMJ Solicitors in April 2017 and her experience has covered civil partnership dissolution, financial claims upon the breakdown of relationships between unmarried couples, property disputes and cases regarding maintenance for children.
Sohinni has a particular interest in cases involving complex financial remedy applications and cases involving high-value assets, and has also advised on private child law cases involving contact disputes, parental responsibility, relocation and those involving complex abuse allegations, including those with an international law element. Sohinni has a passion for family law and appreciates the doctrine of confidentiality, particularly in high-profile cases.
Sohinni previously assisted in the leading Court of Appeal case, (Re B (A Child) (Habitual Residence) (Inherent Jurisdiction) [2015] EWCA Civ 886) which went up to the Supreme Court (In the matter of B (A child) [2016] UKSC 4) early in 2017. Sohinni has written a number of articles which have been published online and in the Family Law Journal and regularly writes a commentary on significant cases and developments in family law.
She is a member of Resolution and her practice is based on a collaborative approach where possible and a litigious one where necessary. Her clients value her sympathetic yet robust approach under challenging circumstances, her clear advice and a focus on cost-effectively achieving their long-term objectives.
Get started online with Sohinni Sanghvi
Elizabeth Simos
elizabeth@kmjsolicitors.com
Elizabeth has practiced family law exclusively since qualification and received the Award of ‘Young Solicitor of the Year’ at the Family Law Awards 2018.
She joined KMJ in 2018, having previously trained and practiced as a family solicitor in London. She advises on all aspects of family law and specialises in divorce, complex family finances involving commercial assets and international elements, disputes over arrangements for children, cohabitation disputes and urgent injunctive applications. She regularly receives instructions on nuptial and cohabitation agreements. Elizabeth has acted for a number of high profile clients.
Elizabeth is the recipient of the Clive Schmitthoff International Award (United States) for legal writing and the Vis Moot Honourable Mention for Individual Advocacy (Vienna, Austria). She holds a Masters degree (LLM) in International Commercial Law and has held the position of President, Trustee, and Chair of the Board of Trustees of a charity. She is fluent in Greek and is a member of Resolution.
Elizabeth’s articles have featured in the FT Adviser, Financial Times , Family Law Journal, Lexis Nexis and American Bar Association publications, amongst others.
Get started online with Elizabeth Simos
Rachel@kmjsolicitors.com
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« KfC’s 2013 Project: Revisiting 12 Canadian authors who influenced me
Justice, by Larry Watson »
Toby’s Room, by Pat Barker
Purchased from the Book Depository
Serious readers of literature inevitably find themselves reading at least a sampling of war fiction. Homer probably deserves the title of “founding father” for the genre back in the 8th century B.C.; Kevin Powers (The Yellow Birds) and Ben Fountain (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) were the latest to join the list of practitioners with well-reviewed novels published in 2012 concerning the Iraqi War. It is, alas, part of the sad history of humanity that there has been a rare time in the 29 centuries in between that there hasn’t been a conflict available for fiction writers to explore.
Given the breadth and depth of war fiction, it is equally inevitable that each reader will have a “best of genre” selection. For this reader, that nod goes to Pat Barker for her Regeneration trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and the Booker Prize winning Ghost Road). The first novel is the author’s version of the story of anti-war poet Siegfried Sassoon and neurologist/psychoanalyst/anthropologist W.H.R. Rivers’ treatment of his shell shock. While Regeneration is mainly about the upper class men who fought in WWI, Barker discovers some interesting working class characters in that process — Rivers is present in all three volumes of the trilogy, but the plebian officer Billy Prior moves to the centre in the concluding one. Taken together, the three are as good an examination as I have read of the effects of war on the individuals and societies involved (okay, Tolstoy did a pretty fair job on the same themes as well).
The trilogy was my introduction to Barker (pre-blog, unfortunately, so there are no reviews here) and I have been a reader of both her back catalogue and new works ever since. She struck another responsive chord with KfC in 2007 with Life Class. I have an affection for novels about art and artists — this one focuses on a group of students (like the characters in Regeneration, many drawn from real life) at London’s Slade School of Fine Art in the years leading up to WWI.
All of which is a long introduction to explain why I was looking forward to Toby’s Room. It returns to many of the characters who featured in Life Class (but you don’t have to have read that one to appreciate this one). They have now graduated, only to find themselves part of the British war effort rather than practising artists, taking us into the world of the Regeneration trilogy.
All Barker’s novels, characters and plots have their dark sides and in Toby’s Room she wastes little time exposing them. We first meet the narrator, Elinor Brooke, in 1912 on a return home from the Slade for a family weekend — the only thing she is looking forward to about it is seeing her brother Toby, also in London as a medical student but they rarely see each other there. The two take a walk to their childhood hideaway, a disused mill. Childhood memories suddenly give way to present impulses:
He grabbed her arms and pulled her towards him. Crushed against his chest, hardly able to breathe, she laughed and struggled, taking this for the start of some childish game, but then his lips fastened on to hers with a groping hunger that shocked her into stillness. His tongue thrust between her lips, a strong, muscular presence. She felt his chin rough against her cheek, the breadth of his chest and shoulders, not that round, androgynous, childish softness that had sometimes made them seem like two halves of a single person. She started to struggle again, really struggle, but his hand came up and cupped her breast and she felt herself softening, flowing towards him, as if something hard and impacted in the pit of her stomach had begun to melt.
Both are shocked by what has happened but that “melting” does not stop: Elinor goes to Toby’s room that night and the two consummate their “affair”.
Having given us incest in chapter one, Barker does not let up in the next few chapters. Through the combined influence of the Slade’s director, Henry Tonks (one of the real-life characters in the novel), and Toby, Elinor has been allowed to enrol in an anatomy lab at the medical school — Tonks believes that a hands-on knowledge of anatomy will improve her drawing. Here is Elinor meeting her cadaver:
Mantegna’s Dead Christ. From where Elinor stood at the foot of the slab, the feet appeared huge, out of all proportion to the body. His face was dark, the eyes shuttered; nobody could have mistaken this stillness for sleep. Freed from the apprehension of an answering gaze, she let her eyes slide down, across the soaring chancel arch of his ribcage, along the flat nave of his belly to where his penis lay, a shrivelled seahorse on an outcrop of wrinkled and sagging skin.
Barker shows no pity for the squeamish reader — several chapters are devoted to the complete dissection of the cadaver. Like the incest she introduced at the start of the book, this supplies context that will prove essential in later sections.
Not of all that context-setting is quite so gruesome. Barker also introduces two of Elinor’s fellow students at the Slade — the upper-class fop, Kit Neville, and Paul Tarrant, a working class lad lucky to get into the toffy school. When we get to the present-day narrative that forms the bulk of the book five years later in 1917, these three (with a strong supporting role for Tonks) become the driving cast of the novel.
That present day thread is set in motion with the arrival of a telegram announcing that Toby is “Missing, Believed Killed” in France. It is a telegram that leads to an obsession for Elinor: Is Toby truly dead? And what really happened?
She first enlists the help of Tarrant, to whom she was briefly engaged, now back from the war because of a serious leg injury, but starting a new career as a government-paid war artist. Kit Neville was part of Toby’s unit when he went missing — Elinor and Paul track him down at Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup, Kent where he is having his face re-built as a result of his own war injury. And, just to complete the circle, Tonks is working at the hospital, sketching the faces of patients as they undergo reconstructive surgery (this too is real — you can find some of the sketches online here). Tonks hires Elinor as an assistant portraitist — the process of getting Neville to reveal the story proves to be a long one so she is eager to be on site.
Did Toby’s Room replace the Regeneration trilogy in my “war genre” ranking? No — it didn’t come close to accomplishing that, but do not take that as a criticism. In the final analysis of this novel, the war experience actually is more background than foreground; this is a novel about how fractured individuals (which we all are) come face-to-face with life-crippling events. Barker is not just a realist writer, she is ruthless in her realism, a trait shared by few novelists. Undoubtedly, that may prove too much for some (and I can understand why); for this reader, it was again proof positive that Barker is an exceptional novelist, one whom I will keep reading as long as she keeps writing.
This entry was posted on January 3, 2013 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Author, Barker, Pat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
15 Responses to “Toby’s Room, by Pat Barker”
Yes, onto my wishlist it goes, I think she’s one of the best authors writing in the UK today.
Oddly, one I didn’t like so much is the one that stays with me most, Border Crossing. I often find myself thinking about the characters in that one.
I haven’t read Border Crossing yet but reviews suggest it seems similar (to me, at least) to ones that I have in the sense that Barker uses some troubling and disturbing situations to do what she does best — develop characters.
Thanks Kevin: I’ve yet to read this but I won a copy of it. Agree with you on the Regeneration Trilogy
Well, if you are looking for a cheery work, don’t pick up this one. I did find echose of the trilogy in it, even if I don’t think it was as ambitious in intent as those novels.
I’ve been reading a lot of Great War books in recent years – Graves, Barbusse, Junger, Manning, Blunden, Remarque – and I have 2 volumes of Sassoon on the shelf. For that reason Barker intrigues me yet there’s somthing that keeps putting me off the trilogy. She seems to be quite divisive. Or maybe I’ve just read some particularly negative views that have lodged in mind. But the praise you offer her work (aloong with Guy) is persuasive Kevin.
The trilogy does seem divisive — I suspect because readers have different expectations of what is “good” when it comes to war fiction. I felt when I read it that Barker may well have started off intending only to write about Sassoon and that story, but discovered in Regeneration some characters (Rivers and Billy) who warranted further attention. I am one of those who thinks that the second and third novels are somewhat weaker than the first (still fine, however).
What is consistent in her work is the writing — for me, she has a style that engages me from the beginning and draws me fully into some very unlikely scenes (like the details of what happens in a dissection lab).
Like you, my reading of the regeneration trilogy was pre-blog and I’ve never thought of revisiting the author since. Barker is a very serious writer and she repays investigation into what lies behind the printed page. This one sounds as though it could be a bit of an ordeal with the incest and the dissections. While it may not be a book I would rush out and buy, I’ve now ordered it from the library but may have to wait a few weeks before it arrives.
Barker is easier to read than she is to write about. She definitely wants to set her readers on edge with some disturbing material but does manage to do it in a way that causes me to think, rather than just get shocked.
As much as I appreciated it, I have not returned to the Regeneration trilogy either. I am not a particularly avid reader of war fiction as a genre — which means I still have quite a few war “classics” to get to a first time.
The Illiad remains my touchstone for war fiction, but as you say at the end this clearly isn’t attempting the same kind of exploration. It does sound difficult, which I mean as a compliment.
Do you know what draws Barker to this period so strongly?
As for your question: Barker’s first three novels (I have only read Union Street) were all working class, feminist, set in the industrial north. According to Wikipedia, she didn’t want to be labelled as an author of working class, feminist, northern novels, so she moved to the Great War, inspired by her stepgrandfather. As far as I can tell, every novel since those first three has been set in that time period. That will draw no complaints from me — as in this novel, she tends to draw tangential lines off of the central war story. Who would have thought that war atrocities would lead to sub-themes on Polynesian customs (as in Ghost Road)?
I was fortunate enough to hear Pat Barker talking at the Ilkley Literature Festival last autumn. It was interesting to hear her talk about the mental and creative processes she went through in writing what was initially intended to be one book, and ‘grew’ into three (in the Regeneration Trilogy).
I’ve just found this interesting clip of her talking about why writing about the psychological impact of War has become such a recurring theme.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2FRMnQ6M4c
Many thanks for the comment. I have always felt that Barker did not start out to write a trilogy but discovered some characters and ideas that needed further exploration when she wrote Regeneration — so I am glad to have that impression confirmed.
And the link you include should offer Max some thoughts in response to his question in the previous comment.
Deirdre O'Brien Says:
I think Barker is a marvellous writer but, after reading several of her novels, I found her just too depressing and decided I wouldn’t read anything else of hers. I wish she would write a happier book.
I have just finished reading Toby’s Room, my first Barker, which I picked up as a result of your review. I’m still reeling from it a bit, especially after having seen the Tonks pastels on the website you refer to. I found it compelling reading and I loved the style of writing. Now I can’t wait to read more of Barker’s books. I have Life Class on my tbr so I may start there (and perhaps I should have read that one first having re-read your review…)
I would read Life Class next — although that is by way of saying that I think you will like Barker well enough that you probably want to “save” the Regeneration trilogy for when you can get to it.
I don’t think reading them out of order will be a problem — at least, I didn’t find any parts in Toby’s Room that relied on what I remembered from the previous novel. Yes, you are going to be meeting younger versions of some of the characters who were in this one, but that just makes it like an extended flashback.
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The three heritage Lansdowne buildings are situated in a prominent location on Manns Avenue near the Neutral Bay ferry wharf on Sydney Harbour. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style popular at the beginning of the twentieth century, Lansdowne was most likely purpose built as private hotel accommodation during a period of intense land speculation and development in the city, particularly around the harbour and along rail lines. The history of Lansdowne touches memories from around Australia and beyond. In its hundred years as a private hotel, guest house and more lately boarding accommodation, it has provided a home for people from country NSW, interstate, and all over the world as they worked or holidayed in Sydney.
Lansdowne is part of the Craignathan estate, situated on land first granted in 1814 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The estate has links with surveyors, adventurers and explorers whose actions, ideas and enterprises helped to forge the fledgling colony. Its landscape nurtured and inspired architects and artists. It has been home to judges and poets, artisans and dreamers. It has been the scene of romance and tragedy and triumph for the ever changing pageantry of people who have passed through its corridors.
The property which had become a run down, low income boarding house was acquired by Cranbrook Care in 2007, with the intention of returning the property to its former glory. Cranbrook Care has achieved this, incorporating a state of the art Aged Care facility into three heritage buildings.
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Center for West European Studies, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington
European Studies Major and Minor
Featured Western Europe Courses
Brussels Summer Study Abroad
Hellenic Studies
Visiting Faculty & Scholars
The European Union in Seattle
Claremont-UC Conference
Jean Monnet EU Center
European Studies’ 25th Anniversary
Destination Europe: Research Opportunities in the EU
Celebrating the 2019 Model EU and looking forward to 2020
Student participants negotiating as Heads of Government
On this Flashback Friday, we celebrate the exciting and thought-provoking 2019 West Coast Model EU event organized by the University of Washington’s Jean Monnet Center of Excellence with the generous support of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme. Joao Rodrigues, the senior legal advisor from the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington D.C., launched the event with his keynote speech on Friday evening. In his talk, Mr. Rodrigues discussed many topical issues affecting the European Union, including its relations with the United States under the Trump Administration. Of particular interest was the topic of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as California and Washington State are considering similar legislation modeled on that of the EU. Student participants had the opportunity to engage with Mr. Rodrigues directly through a Q & A session, where he shared personal insights into his role as a legal advisor and his thoughts on the importance and role of the European Union. On Saturday former U.S. Ambassador to Romania Mark Gitenstein (2009-2012) gave the Diplomat’s Address at a special luncheon for student participants and attending professors. Mr. Gitenstein provided insight into the role and duties of an ambassador and discussed Romania’s membership in the European Union, which was of particular importance during the first half of 2019 when Romania held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Joao Rodrigues discussing the European Union’s relations with the United States.
Besides the noteworthy guest speakers, what made Model EU especially engaging this year was the impressive level of talent, knowledge, and dedication the student participants brought to the event. Undergraduate students from numerous U.S. and Canadian universities – including the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, Bellevue College, Brigham Young University, San Francisco State University, Lewis-Clark State College, Scripps College, the University of Utah, Western Washington University, the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia – engaged in negotiations as either Heads of Government or Energy Ministers, each representing different European Union member states. EU member states represented this year included: Poland, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, France, plus many more! Student Heads of government negotiated the critical topic of EU immigration, providing critiques and proposing solutions. Student Energy Ministers took up negotiations on another topic of great significance, EU energy supply and energy resource dependence.
Ambassador Gitenstein leading a Q&A session with participants.
All the student participants did an absolutely phenomenal job and all the negotiation awards were well deserved. Awarded students hailed from Brigham Young University, University of Oregon, University of Utah, Lewis-Clark State College, San Francisco University, University of Washington, and University of Victoria in Canada. UW student Danielle Carrasquero, representing Greece, received an award for Outstanding Head of Government.
The 2020 West Coast Model European Union event will take place at the University of Washington on March 6-7, 2020.
More pictures from Model EU:
Our University of Washington team!
Negotiations with Heads of Government
Negotiations with Energy Ministers
Center for West European Studies
cweseuc@uw.edu
Center for West European Studies & The EU Center Staff
James Caporaso
Director, The EU Center & Jean Monnet Chair
Sabine Lang
Director Center for West European Studies and Chair, European Studies Program
Managing Director - Ellison Center, Center for West European Studies, EU Center
Alexander Hollmann
Dr. Nick and Nancy Vidalakis Endowed Professor of Culture, Excellence, and Spirituality in Hellenic Studies
Center for West European Studies, The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Box 353650, Seattle, WA 98195-3650
Room 203B Thomson Hall | Phone: (206) 543-4852 | Email: cweseuc@uw.edu
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Author: Demetra Molocea
Need An Arabic Dictionary? Here Is A List
by Demetra Molocea
The 2002 statistics on enrollment in foreign languages in U.S. institutions of higher education show that enrollments in Arabic were relatively stable during the 1980s. However, since 1995 they have shown rapid growth, particularly between 1998 and 2002, almost doubling. Arabic is among the fifteen most commonly taught languages in the U.S. hence, the pressing need for dictionaries designed for English-speaking users as the target...
Popular Arab Sports
When most people think about the word sports, they think of conventional games such as soccer, cricket, and baseball, but in the Arab countries, sports often have another definition. Indeed, conventional sports are practiced throughout the region, and physical activities were part of Arab culture centuries before colonialism, reflecting the geographical specificity of the Arab World in relation to space, time and objects. Though the...
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Ramadan is just around the corner! What is Ramadan you ask? During the holy month of Ramadan Muslims are required to abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until sunset. For the past few years, Ramadan has fallen in the summer, so it is crucial to stay hydrated and drink more between iftar and suhoor. Iftar is the meal to break the fast after sunset. Typically, people will enjoy dates,...
Arabic Pronouns – A General Classification
Pronouns are incredibly elementary. They are simply the I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they, and other variations we are all familiar with. We learn how to use these at a young age in school as a required grammar lesson, and, although grammar on its own is exceptionally important, pronouns are also drastically important when it comes to identification communication. Learning to correctly apply pronouns...
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When most people hear the word geography, they immediately begin to think of maps, but it’s so much more than that. To understand why studying geography is relevant, people must first understand what it means. The word comes to us from the ancient Greeks, who needed a word to describe the writings and maps that were helping them make sense of the world in which they...
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Exploring Arabic speaking countries can be quite an adventure, but you need to know how to ask for directions in Arabic and to understand what you’re told. After all, if you don’t understand the directions, you might miss the very things you hoped to see. However, first you need to know how to ask for directions, as it is a very common situation for the foreigner abroad. To...
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The best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it, but when you don’t have a language partner or when you’re are not living in an Arab country, then you have to come up with alternative ideas. One way of immersing yourself in a language is through the newspaper! Aside from learning about current affairs, reading newspapers can teach you new...
Arab Times – Telling The Time In Arabic
When making plans, appointments, and travel arrangements in Arabic speaking countries, you need to be able to state days and tell the time in Arabic. We’ve already posted an article about days in Arabic, so let’s cover the time words as well. First, however, let’s get familiar with some vocabulary on the subject of time. Clock in Arabic /Saa’at haa'it / ساعة حائط Time in Arabic /Waqt/ وقت Minute in...
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No matter how good your Arabic is, most people in Arabic speaking countries will know you’re not a native speaker, so if you’re a foreigner visiting or living in an Arab country, you might be frequently asked the following question: min ayn ant?/ من أين انت؟ . Basically, an Arab is asking you, “Where are you from?” You can answer this simply with the country you’re from: ana...
Common Arabic Words For Feelings And Emotions
How do you feel right now? What do you say when you’re happy or surprised, worried or embarrassed? Sometimes we have beautiful things to say and at other times, nastier things to utter. Sometimes we might be on the giving end of these things and occasionally on the receiving side of them. Our ability to interact with each other and manage our relationships with our peers...
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Press Release: Springer [March 23, 2015]
Springer and Université Joseph Fourier release SciDetect to discover fake scientific papers
Grenoble | Heidelberg | New York, 23 March 2015. After intensive collaboration with Dr. Cyril Labbé from Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, Springer announces the release of SciDetect, a new software program that automatically checks for fake scientific papers. The open source software discovers text that has been generated with the SCIgen computer program and other fake-paper generators like Mathgen and Physgen. Springer uses the software in its production workflow to provide additional, fail-safe checking. Springer and the University are releasing the software under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.0 (GPLv3) so others in the scientific and publishing communities can benefit.
SciDetect scans Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files and compares them against a corpus of fake scientific papers. SciDetect indicates whether an entire document or its parts are genuine or not. The software reports suspicious activity by relying on sensitivity thresholds that can be easily adjusted. SciDetect is highly flexible and can be quickly customized to cope with new methods of automatically generating fake or random text.
"SciDetect, developed by Tien Nguyen, a member of Dr. Labbé's team of PhD students, is a valuable building block for the future of academic publishing. It helps us ensure that unfair methods and quick cheats do not go unnoticed. We stand behind the integrity of our authors and consider it our duty to uphold this ethical principle. Accordingly, we have decided to make the software freely available to our partners," explained Dr. Hubertus von Riedesel, Executive Vice President Physical Sciences and Engineering at Springer.
"Although software cannot supplant peer reviews and academic evaluation, SciDetect lends publishers an additional hand in the fight against fraud and fake papers," said Dr. Cyril Labbé, who has been working with Springer since last year. "The software can scan large volumes of materials and give publishers further assurance about the reliability and quality of accepted papers. At Springer, the software already aids the evaluation process before production begins. Our cooperation with Springer has been very productive so far, and we look forward to making further improvements to the software together."
In February 2014, Springer learned that it had published 18 articles that were generated by the SCIgen computer program, which creates fake documents for submission as Computer Science and Engineering conference papers. Springer immediately reached out to Dr. Labbé, the leading expert in the field. As a result of their cooperation, Springer decided to fund a PhD candidate in Dr. Labbé's team, who is working with Springer to create better detection mechanisms and guard against any future programs that are similar to SCIgen.
Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble is a world-renowned, leading research university specializing in science, technology and health, and hosts over 19,000 students, 1,550 PhD students, 1,500 faculty members and researchers, as well as 1,500 technical and administrative staff. The university is in the top 150 of universities worldwide (Shanghai ranking, 2014), and is part of the Université Grenoble Alpes, which is a broader entity encompassing 60,000 students from all disciplines in one area of natural beauty – Grenoble. Nestled at the heart of the Alps, the city enjoys panoramic views of the surrounding Belledonne, Chartreuse and Vercors mountain ranges. Among France's leading cities for the quality of its student life, it is also an outstanding international scientific community, home to several international research institutions and key national research bodies.
Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is a leading global scientific, technical and medical publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe – especially in Germany and the Netherlands – primarily for physicians and professionals working in healthcare and road safety education. Springer published roughly 2,200 English-language journals and more than 8,400 new books in 2013, and the group is home to the world's largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. In 2013, Springer Science+Business Media generated sales of approximately EUR 943 million. The group employs more than 8,000 individuals across the globe.
After intensive collaboration with Dr. Cyril Labbé from Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, Springer announces the release of SciDetect, a new software program that automatically checks for fake scientific papers. The open source software discovers text that has been generated with the SCIgen computer program and other fake-paper generators like Mathgen and Physgen. Springer uses the software in its production workflow to provide additional, fail-safe checking. Springer and the University are releasing the software under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.0 (GPLv3) so others in the scientific and publishing communities can benefit.
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Spontaneous Happiness
By Andrew Weil
Narrated by Andrew Weil / 7 hours 13 minutes
Everyone wants to be happy. But what does that really mean? Increasingly, scientific evidence shows us that true satisfaction and well-being come only from within.
Dr. Andrew Weil has proven that the best way to maintain optimum physical health is to draw on both conventional and alternative medicine. Now, in Spontaneous Happiness, he gives us the foundation for attaining and sustaining optimum emotional health. Rooted in Dr. Weil's pioneering work in integrative medicine, the book suggests a reinterpretation of the notion of happiness, discusses the limitations of the biomedical model in treating depression, and elaborates on the inseparability of body and mind.
Dr. Weil offers an array of scientifically proven strategies from Eastern and Western psychology to counteract low mood and enhance contentment, comfort, resilience, serenity, and emotional balance. Drawn from psychotherapy, mindfulness training, Buddhist psychology, nutritional science, and more, these strategies include body-oriented therapies to support emotional wellness, techniques for managing stress and anxiety and changing mental habits that keep us stuck in negative patterns, and advice on developing a spiritual dimension in our lives. Lastly, Dr. Weil presents an eight-week program that can be customized according to specific needs, with short- and long-term advice on nutrition, exercise, supplements, environment, lifestyle, and much more.
Whether you are struggling with depression or simply want to feel happier, Dr. Weil's revolutionary approach will shift the paradigm of emotional health and help you achieve greater contentment in your life.
Author Andrew Weil
Narrator Andrew Weil
Publication Date November 8, 2011
Genre Rank #8,074 in Self-Improvement
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Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Learning from Dogs
Dogs & integrity
Category: Capitalism
What if Reporters Covered the Climate Crisis
Like Murrow Covered World War II?
The new Covering Climate Now project will help media “tell the story so people get it.”
This is how the speech by Bill Moyers is introduced in this issue of The Nation:
The following is an abridged version of the speech by the iconic TV newsman Bill Moyers, as prepared for delivery at a conference at the Columbia Journalism School on April 30. A video of the speech can be seen at TheNation.com/moyers-speech.
Well, we have the advantage of going straight to the video.
“What is journalism for, if not to awaken the world to looming catastrophes?“
A new dog food alert.
This came in on Saturday.
Dear Fellow Dog Lover,
Pet Supplies Plus is recalling pig ears dog treats in 33 states because they may be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria.
To learn more including which states are included in the recall, please visit the following link: Pet Supplies Plus Recalls Pig Ears Dog Treats in 33 States
That link is the following.
Pet Supplies Plus Recalls Pig Ears Dog Treats in 33 States
July 5, 2019 — Pet Supplies Plus is recalling bulk pig ears supplied to over 400 retail stores in 33 states due to potential Salmonella contamination.
Bulk pig ears were distributed to Pet Supplies Plus stores in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Developing Story
The Pet Supplies Plus recall may or may not be related to another developing story.
On July 3, 2019, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the Agency is investigating contaminated pig ear dog treats that may be connected to human Salmonella infections that have sickened 45 people in 13 states.
Twelve patients are hospitalized.
In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating a multistate outbreak of drug-resistant Salmonella infections linked to contact with pig ear treats.
None of the 45 cases are confirmed to be a result of purchasing pig ears from Pet Supplies Plus, according to the company.
The investigation is ongoing. The Dog Food Advisor continues to monitor this developing story.
What’s Recalled?
Bulk pig ear dog treats were stocked in open bins. Prepackaged branded pig ears are not included in this recall.
Because the bulk pig ear dog treats were sold in open bins, the company provided the following image of the related in-store sign.
About Salmonella
Salmonella can affect animals eating the products and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products.
Individuals infected with Salmonella should monitor for some, or all, of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever.
Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms.
Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.
Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting.
Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain.
Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.
What Caused the Recall?
Testing by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development revealed that aging bulk pig ear product in one of Pet Supplies Plus stores tested positive for Salmonella.
The company has removed bulk pig ear product from the shelves at all its stores and has stopped shipping bulk pig ears from its Distribution Center.
PSP is working with the FDA as they continue their investigation into what caused the reported Salmonella outbreak.
Consumers who have purchased bulk pig ears should discontinue use of the product and discard it.
Consumers who have further questions are welcome to contact Pet Supplies Plus Neighbor Service team at 734-793-6564 between Monday and Friday 9 am to 4 pm ET (excluding holidays).
U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.
Or go to https://www.fda.gov/petfoodcomplaints.
Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.
Get Dog Food Recall Alerts by Email
Get free dog food recall alerts sent to you by email. Subscribe to The Dog Food Advisor’s emergency recall notification system.
Share this amongst your dog owner friends.
Jul 8, 2019 Jul 6, 2019
Pigs ears
Dogs are so, so special!
A lovely item on BBC News is being republished.
Sean Coughlan wrote a most delightful piece on the BBC News website the other day.
No matter how many times dogs are referred to it always cheers me up to read about them, especially on a major news website.
Dogs ‘prevent stressed students dropping out’
By Sean Coughlan, BBC News family and education correspondent
Therapy dogs are used in more than 1,000 universities and colleges in the US – Getty Images
Stress among students really can be reduced by spending time with animals, according to research from the US.
It has become increasingly common for universities to bring “therapy dogs” on to campus – but claims about their benefits have often been anecdotal.
Now, scientists say they have objective evidence to support the use of dogs.
Patricia Pendry, from Washington State University, said her study showed “soothing” sessions with dogs could lessen the negative impact of stress.
Dogs are also used to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder – Getty Images
The study of more than 300 undergraduates had found weekly hour-long sessions with dogs brought to the university by professional handlers had made stressed students at “high risk of academic failure” or dropping out “feel relaxed and accepted”, helping them to concentrate, learn and remember information, she said.
A children’s hospital in California got its first therapy dog this year – Getty Images
“Students most at risk, such as those with mental health issues, showed the most benefit,” said Dr Pendry.
The dog therapy research team at Washington State University
It has also become more common in the UK, with Buckingham, University College London, Cambridge, Nottingham Trent, London Metropolitan and Swansea among those deploying dogs.
The University of Middlesex has even put “canine teaching assistants” on to the staff, to stop lonely students dropping out.
Stress-busting dogs join the staff of university
‘Every schools needs a dog as a stress buster’
Dogs used to relieve student exam stress
The university study involved 300 undergraduates at Washington State
Previous research has suggested stroking pets can reduce stress hormone levels.
Students spent an hour with dogs, brought to the university by professional handlers
“There does seem to be something specific about the reducing of anxiety from the petting of animals,” said Dr Pendry.
Middlesex University has put dogs on the staff as “canine teaching assistants”
“Do we fully understand the mechanism? No,” said Prof Nancy Gee, a psychologist at the State University of New York and researcher from the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, also part of the project.
But students appeared to “feel calmer and more socially supported”, giving them more confidence in their studies.
Even just looking at animals could sometimes lighten the mood, Prof Gee added.
This is such a lovely piece. Professor Nancy Gee sums up what we feel when we are close to a dog and yet ponders on the precise science of it.
It’s true! Even just looking at a dog, or more in our case, definitely lightens the mood.
Just look at the exchange of softness in that third photograph from the top. The one about a children’s hospital in California that took on its first therapy dog.
The power of a photograph
No words to say how I feel!
The bodies of Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter lie on the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico. AP Photo/Julia Le Duc
This is a terrible photograph. It has been widely shown but that doesn’t make it any less terrible.
Patrice Ayme recently wrote about the tragedy but for today I am republishing the article in The Conversation.
How much power can one image actually have?
Nicole Smith Dahmen
Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon
Paul Slovic
Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
When the Associated Press published Julia Le Duc’s photograph of a drowned Salvadoran man, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his 23-month old daughter Valeria, it sparked outrage on social media. According to Le Duc, Ramírez had attempted to cross the Rio Grande after realizing he couldn’t present himself to U.S. authorities to request asylum.
But beyond raising awareness via Twitter and Facebook feeds, does an image like this one have the power to sway public opinion or spur politicians to take action?
As journalism and psychology scholars interested in the effects of imagery, we study the ability of jarring photos and videos to move people from complacency to action. While graphic imagery can have an immediate impact, the window of action – and caring – is smaller than you’d think.
A political catalyst?
Photographs and videos – through their perceived authenticity – can have an effect on people.
Research suggests that the graphic photo of slain Emmett Till in his open casket served as a “political catalyst” in mobilizing Americans to action in the civil rights movement. Similarly, news images have been credited as playing an important role in ending the Vietnam War.
But not all scholars agree. A recent article argued that it was a “myth” that the iconic “napalm girl” photo swayed public opinion and hastened the end of the Vietnam War.
Did the ‘napalm girl’ significantly shift public opinion on the Vietnam War? manhhai/flickr, CC BY
We must also look to psychology to understand the impacts of emotional news content. Research demonstrates that audiences need an emotional connection – and not merely a “just-the-facts” reporting approach – as “prerequisite for political action” when it comes to appreciating the importance of distant mass suffering. And imagery can trigger this emotional connection by overcoming the psychic numbing that occurs when casualties mount, images blur and lost lives become merely dry statistics.
Images from Syria
In April 2017, gut-wrenching images seem to have awakened the world to the human atrocities happening in Syria. Following a chemical bomb attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, graphic photos and videos documented the horrific effects of the banned nerve agent sarin. Millions bore witness to excruciating human suffering: gasping, choking, writhing and dying. More than 500 people were injured, with at least 86 deaths, including 28 children.
The vivid, closeup images of sarin attack victims were resonant enough to break through the complacency of people and politicians accustomed to bad news emerging from the war-torn nation. In President Trump’s response – which included a retaliatory missile strike – he seemed to recognize the value of the Syrian lives depicted in the horrific photos and videos.
Syrian doctors treat a child following a suspected chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. Edlib Media Center, via AP, File
“When you kill innocent children,” he said during a news conference, “that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line – many, many lines.”
The limits of an image
Nonetheless, even though the attacks may have briefly heightened U.S. concerns over the wars in Syria, the photographic documentation of the suffering in Syria wasn’t new.
The 2015 photos of a tiny Syrian boy’s lifeless body resting face down in the sand similarly stirred the world’s collective consciousness. Within hours of its release, the photo had reached 20 million people through Twitter, with many more millions seeing it on the front pages of newspapers the next day. Afterwards, government restrictions on accepting refugees were loosened while private donations to organizations like the Red Cross spiked dramatically.
A year later haunting images of a young boy in the back of an ambulance, caked in dirt and blood, galvanized the world.
But the emotional and compassionate responses to both photographs were short-lived. The bombing of civilians in Syria continued. Refugees continued risking their lives to escape the war zone.
After a photograph of a dead Syrian boy went viral in 2015, the number of daily donations to a Swedish Red Cross campaign designated specifically for aiding Syrian refugees spiked dramatically – but only for a brief window. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, CC BY-SA
Since the publication of Le Duc’s photo of the dead migrants, supportive politicians may feel emboldened to sound the alarm on the plight of Central American migrants. Donations to immigrant aid organizations might briefly spike.
But it seems that a photograph, no matter how emotionally devastating, can only do so much.
Yes, it can create a window of time when we’re motivated to act, and we’ll usually do so if we have effective options to pursue. This could mean a charitable donation at the individual level or, collectively, a surge of political will. However, psychology research from the “arithmetic of compassion” suggests that sympathy for distant human suffering declines when we’re presented with rising body counts. Sometimes we’re discouraged by the scope of the problem and this stops us from doing things that actually make a difference – even if partial solutions can save lives. Other times, if the options for helping others seem too narrow or ineffective, we’ll turn away and stop caring.
Images can alert us to the horrors of violence, mass migration and poverty. But as we have seen time and again, photographs and news footage of human suffering generally precipitate a short-term emotional reaction, rather than a sustained humanitarian response.
As one reads the article it is much more than a comment on a single image despite how terrible that photograph may be.
The two scientists set out to show that the period that we are alarmed or terrified or just plain sad at the state of nations is rather short.
Maybe it’s the self-protective nature of our species that does this.
But it still doesn’t diminish the horror of that top photograph.
Reflections on the future
Father’s Day ….
….. was OK in the morning but for some reason I was in a dark mood in the afternoon.
(And if you want to skip today’s post I don’t blame you at all. This is not my usual style albeit it is important.)
I was reflecting on the state of the world. Global population was well in excess of seven billion people. The longevity of those people was increasing. That’s good news. The health standards were increasing. That’s also good news.
However, the pressure on farming is intense. More and more land is required. The natural world is under supreme pressure. Extinction rates of many natural species are soaring.
Planet Earth has far too many people!
OK, maybe in time the population level will come down but right now it is too high.
Then in came Tom Engelhardt’s latest essay. I read it and reflected. Is it too dark to post? Then Jeannie said that if you really want to share it then publish it.
Here it is, published with Tom’s kind permission.
Tomgram: Engelhardt, Trump Change
Posted by Tom Engelhardt at 4:23pm, June 16, 2019.
If Donald Trump Is the Symptom…
Then What’s the Disease?
By Tom Engelhardt
Don’t try to deny it! The political temperature of this country is rising fast. Call it Trump change or Trump warming, if you want, but grasp one thing: increasingly, you’re in a different land and, whatever happens to Donald Trump, the results down the line are likely to be ever less pretty. Trump change isn’t just an American phenomenon, it’s distinctly global. After all, from Australia to India, the Philippines to Hungary, Donald Trumps and their supporters keep getting elected or reelected and, according to a recent CNN poll, a majority of Americans think Trump himself will win again in 2020 (though, at the moment, battleground-state polls look grim for him).
Still, whether or not he gets a second term in the White House, he only seems like the problem, partially because no president, no politician, no one in history has ever gotten such 24/7 media coverage of every twitch, tweet, bizarre statement, falsehood, or fantasy he expresses (or even the clothes he wears). Think of it this way: we’re in a moment in which the only thing the media can’t imagine saying about Donald Trump is: “You’re fired!” And believe me, that’s just one sign of a media — and a country — with a temperature that’s anything but 98.6.
Since you-know-who is always there, always being discussed, always @(un)realdonaldtrump, it’s easy enough to imagine that everything that’s going wrong — or, if you happen to be part of his famed base, right (even if that right isn’t so damned hot for you) — is due to him. When we’re gripped by such thinking and the temperature’s rising, it hardly matters that just about everything he’s “done” actually preceded him. That includes favoring the 1%, deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants, and making war (unsuccessfully) or threatening to do so across significant parts of the planet.
Here, then, is the question of the day, the sort you’d ask about any patient with a rising temperature: If Donald Trump is only the symptom, what’s the disease?
Blowback Central
Let me say that the late Chalmers Johnson would have understood President Trump perfectly. The Donald clearly arrived on the scene as blowback — the CIA term of tradecraft Johnson first put into our everyday vocabulary — from at least two things: an American imperium gone wrong with its never-ending wars, ever-rising military budgets, and ever-expanding national security state, and a new “gilded age” in which three men (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett) have more wealth than the bottom half of society and the .01% have one of their own, a billionaire, in the Oval Office. (If you want to add a third blowback factor, try a media turned upside down by new ways of communicating and increasingly desperate to glue eyes to screens as ad revenues, budgets, and staffs shrank and the talking heads of cable news multiplied.)
Now, I don’t mean to sell Donald Trump short in any way. Give that former reality TV star credit. Unlike either Hillary Clinton or any of his Republican opponents in the 2016 election campaign, he sensed that there were voters in profusion in the American heartland who felt that things were not going well and were eager for a candidate just like the one he was ready to become. (There were, of course, other natural audiences for a disruptive, self-promoting billionaire as well, including various millionaires and billionaires ready to support him, the Russians, the Saudis… well, you know the list). His skill, however, never lay in what he could actually do (mainly, in these years, cut taxes for the wealthy, impose tariffs, and tweet his head off). It lay in his ability to catch the blowback mood of that moment in a single slogan — Make America Great Again, or MAGA — that he trademarked in November 2012, only days after Mitt Romney lost his bid for the presidency to Barack Obama.
Yes, four years later in the 2016 election, others began to notice the impact of that slogan. You couldn’t miss the multiplying MAGA hats, after all. Hillary Clinton’s advisers even briefly came up with the lamest response imaginable to it: Make America Whole Again, or MAWA. But what few at the time really noted was the crucial word in that phrase: “again.” Politically speaking, that single blowback word might then have been the most daring in the English language. In 2016, Donald Trump functionally said what no other candidate or politician of any significance in America dared to say: that the United States was no longer the greatest, most indispensable, most exceptionable nation or superpower or hyper-power ever to exist on Planet Earth.
That represented a groundbreaking recognition of reality. At the time, it didn’t matter whether you were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Marco Rubio, you had to acknowledge some version of that formula of exceptionalism. Trump didn’t and, believe me, that rang a bell in the American heartland, where lots of people had felt, however indirectly, the blowback from all those years of taxpayer-funded fruitless war, while not benefitting from infrastructure building or much of anything else. They experienced blowback from a country in which new billionaires were constantly being created, while the financial distance between CEO salaries and those of workers grew exponentially vaster by the year, and the financing of the political system became a 1% affair.
With that slogan, The Donald caught the spirit of a moment in which both imperial and economic decline, however unacknowledged by the Washington political elite, had indeed begun. In the process, as I wrote at that time, he crossed a psychologically taboo line and became America’s first declinist candidate for president. MAGA captured a feeling already at large that tomorrow would be worse than today, which was already worse than yesterday. As it turned out, it mattered not at all that the billionaire conman spouting that trademarked phrase had long been part of the problem, not the solution.
He caught the essence of the moment, in other words, but certainly didn’t faintly cause it in the years when he financed Trump Tower, watched his five Atlantic City casinos go bankrupt, and hosted The Apprentice. In that election campaign, he captured a previously forbidden reality of the twenty-first century. For example, I was already writing this in June 2016, five months before he was elected president:
“In its halcyon days, Washington could overthrow governments, install Shahs or other rulers, do more or less what it wanted across significant parts of the globe and reap rewards, while (as in the case of Iran) not paying any price, blowback-style, for decades, if at all. That was imperial power in the blaze of the noonday sun. These days, in case you hadn’t noticed, blowback for our imperial actions seems to arrive as if by high-speed rail (of which by the way, the greatest power on the planet has yet to build a single mile, if you want a quick measure of decline).
“Despite having a more massive, technologically advanced, and better funded military than any other power or even group of powers on the planet, in the last decade and a half of constant war across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa, the U.S. has won nothing, nada, zilch. Its unending wars have, in fact, led nowhere in a world growing more chaotic by the second.”
Mind you, three years later the United States remains a staggeringly powerful imperial force, with hundreds of military bases still scattered across the globe, while its economic clout — its corporations control about half the planet’s wealth — similarly remains beyond compare. Yet, even in 2016, it shouldn’t have been hard to see that the American Century was indeed ending well before its 100 years were up. It shouldn’t have been hard to grasp, as Donald Trump intuitively did, that this country, however powerful, was already both a declining empire — thank you, George W. Bush for invading Iraq! Mission Accomplished! — and a declining economic system (both of which still looked great indeed, if you happened to be profiting from them). That intuition and that slogan gave Trump his moment in… well, dare I call it “the afternoon sun”? They made him president.
MTPGA
In a sense, all of this should have been expectable enough. Despite the oddity of Donald Trump himself, there was little new in it, even for the imperial power that its enthusiasts once thought stood at “the end of history.” You don’t need to look far, after all, for evidence of the decline of empires. You don’t even have to think back to the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991, almost three decades ago in what now seems like the Stone Age. (Admittedly, Russian President Vladimir Putin, a brilliant imagineer, has brought back a facsimile of the old Soviet Union, even if, in reality, Russia is now a rickety, fraying petro-state.)
Just take a glance across the Atlantic at Great Britain at this moment. And imagine that three-quarters of a century ago, that modest-sized island nation still controlled all of India, colonies across the planet, and an impressive military and colonial service. Go back even further and you’ll find yourself in a time when it was the true superpower of planet Earth. What a force it was — industrially, militarily, colonially — until, of course, it wasn’t.
If you happen to be looking for imperial lessons, you could perhaps say that some empires end not with a bang but with a Brexit. Despite all the pomp and circumstance (tweeting and insults) during the visit of the Trump royal family (Donald, Melania, Ivanka, Jared, Donald Jr., Eric, and Tiffany) to the British royals, led by a queen who, at 93, can remember better days, here’s something hard to deny: with Brexit (no matter how it turns out), the Earth’s former superpower has landed in the sub-basement of history. Great Britain? Obviously that adjective has to change.
In the meantime, across the planet, China, another once great imperial power, perhaps the greatest in the long history of this planet, is clearly on the rise again from another kind of sub-basement. That, in turn, is deeply worrying the leadership, civilian and military, of the planet’s “lone superpower.” Its president, in response, is wielding his weapon of choice — tariffs — while the U.S. military prepares for an almost unimaginable future war with that upstart nation, possibly starting in the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the still-dominant power on the planet is, however incrementally, heading down. It’s nowhere near that sub-basement, of course — anything but. It’s still a rich, immensely powerful land. Its unsuccessful wars, however, go on without surcease, the political temperature rises, and democratic institutions continue to fray — all of which began well before Donald Trump entered the Oval Office and, in fact, helped ensure that he would make it there in the first place.
And yet none of this, not even imperial decline itself, quite captures the “disease” of which The Donald is now such an obvious symptom. After all, while the rise and fall of imperial powers has been an essential part of history, the planetary context for that process is now changing in an unprecedented way. And that’s not just because, since the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, growing numbers of countries have come to possess the power to take the planet down in a cataclysm of fire and ice (as in nuclear winter). It’s also because history, as we’ve known it, including the rise and fall of empires, is now, in a sense, melting away.
Trump change, the rising political temperature stirred by the growing populist right, is taking place in the context of (and, worse yet, aiding and abetting) record global temperatures, the melting of ice across the planet, the rise of sea levels and the future drowning of coastlines (and cities), the creation of yet more refugees, the increasing fierceness of fires and droughts, and the intensification of storms. In the midst of it all, an almost unimaginable wave of extinctions is occurring, with a possible million plant and animal species, some crucial to human existence, already on the verge of departure.
Never before in history has the rise and decline of imperial powers taken place in the context of the decline of the planet itself. Try, for instance, to imagine what a “risen” China will look like in an age in which one of its most populous regions, the north China plain, may by century’s end be next to uninhabitable, given the killing heat waves of the future.
In the context of both Trump change and climate change, we’re obviously still awaiting our true transformative president, the one who is not a symptom of decline, but a factor in trying to right this country and the Earth before it’s too late. You know, the one who will take as his or her slogan, MTPGA (Make The Planet Great Again).
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He runs TomDispatch.com and is a fellow of the Type Media Center. His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War (Dispatch Books).
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer’s new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands,Beverly Gologorsky’s novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt’s A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy’s In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower’s The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2019 Tom Engelhardt
I’m 74. I don’t know how long I’ve got.
Part of me wants to live for a long time. That’s why I am vegan and trying to stay as fit as I can. (I’m also aware that Jeannie’s Parkinson’s Disease is a terminal disease and that in the latter stages she will need me to look after her.)
But then again I’m not sure I want to live in a world that continues to degrade especially continues to degrade in natural ways.
What’s the answer?
What do others who are on or around my age think about it?
What is the disease?
How much time do we have left?
A post from Patrice Ayme.
I have subscribed to Patrice Ayme for some time now. I don’t know who he is because he writes under a pseudonym, or a nom-de-plume. (And, indeed, I may have the gender incorrect but I’m pretty sure it’s a male.)
Patrice writes frequently and doesn’t mince his words.
But then he writes about really serious matters and often has criticism for the ‘ruling classes’.
Such as he has in the post that was published on the 6th May. I left a comment:
It’s extremely worrying and not something that can be put off. The clock is at 5 minutes to midnight. In Britain Extreme Resistance are pursuing a campaign that may just produce a political outcome. And, indeed, the English Government have come up with goals to combat climate change.
So keep banging your drum, Patrice, and hope that urgent action across the world isn’t too far away.
To which Patrice replied:
Dear Paul:
thanks! Here I am fighting with my daughter’s school, which has decided to install artificial, plastic grass. It’s horrendous for the environment, and it endangers the lives of children (in many ways, including a disease called “SUBEROSIS” caused by organic cork.) Here real ecologist take it hard, and have started to burn artificial plastic flame retardant fields: 13,000 were recently installed in the USA, a proof of mass corruption…
Feel free to use my essay on your site, BTW, of course…
And thanks again…
Now I hadn’t heard of Suberosis before, but no problem, a quick web search brought up Wikipedia and this:
Suberosis is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis usually caused by the fungus Penicillium glabrum (formerly called Penicillum frequentans) from exposure to moldy cork dust.[1][2] Chrysonilia sitophilia, Aspergillus fumigatus, uncontaminated cork dust, and Mucor macedo may also have significant roles in the pathogenesis of the disease.[1]
Cork is often harvested from the cork oak (Quercus suber) and stored in slabs in a hot and humid environment until covered in mold.[1] Cork workers may be exposed to organic dusts in this process, leading to this disease.[1]
I don’t fully understand how the laying of artificial grass leads to possible Suberosis.
But I have decided to republish even though it has nothing to do with dogs! (Well, not directly.)
Nature Collapsing, Plutocracy Thriving
Both phenomena are related. The more nature collapses, the more plutocracy thrives (see the multi-centennial fall of Rome, for reference). Small people and other losers have no interest to see nature collapse. However, plutocracy does. Because Pluto-Kratia, Evil-Power, is best expressed and justified during war-like states, and civilizational collapse sure qualifies.
Plutocracy survived the collapse of the Roman and Carolingian empires with flying colors. In the Roman case, most noble families had a bishop in their midst. The collapse of the Renovated Empire of the Romans (Renovatio Imperii Romanorum) and its renewal by the Ottos and Capets brought the feudal order, another plutocratic success.
Now is no different: we have a terminal CO2 crisis bringing in extreme, sudden temperature, acidification and ocean rises: 1% of US CO2 is from state subsidized private jets. Nobody notices, because media have made sure to create entire generations just preoccupied by celebrities, not by what is going on, which is really most significant.
Nor has the media been keen to notice the likes of Biden annihilated the Banking Act of 1933, in the 1990s, bringing in the age of the financial plutocracy… itself a heavy financier of fossil fuels. So all what some schools are thinking of is installing “Apps”, and plastic grass, instead of teaching sustainable global citizenship. We are cruising towards an apocalypse, at an increasing pace: the Sixth Mass Extinction. The United Nations just came up (May 6, 2019) with an analysis made by 132 countries and 455 scientists: one million species are disappearing. For example, nearly all amphibians.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/06/world/one-million-species-threatened-extinction-humans-scn-intl/index.html
One problem with burning forests in the tropics is that what is left are often extremely poor soils (differently from northern European soils, which are very forgiving, explaining in great part why north west Europe replaced the Greco-Roman world…) Cattle grazing on a tract of illegally cleared Amazon forest in Pará State, Brazil. In most major land habitats, the average abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more, mainly over the past century,,, [Credit Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times]
In Africa, burned forest is often replaced by lateritis, a soil which is red, baked, hard… for the good reason that it is full of Aluminum.
It is the Sixth Mass Extinction, but this time the dinosaurs have thermonuclear weapons.
What to do? Get involved, get aware, protest. Protests can become unbearable to the powers that be.
This is the way the fascist government of Brunei on the island of Borneo was just dealt with. It drew powerful international condemnation when it rolled out its interpretation of sharia laws on April 3. Now, the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, reverted his decision: after all, the country won’t enforce Islamic laws that include stoning to death for rape, adultery and gay sex.
Killing all the people who got killed in World War Two was atrocious. However, what is now unfolding has the potential to be way way worse. Einstein said he didn’t know which weapons will be used to fight World War Three, but next it would be sticks and stones. That was naively optimistic. If we acidify further the ocean with acid from CO2, we may kill the Earth’s oxygen making mechanism. Not really news, as this was clear five years ago already:
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/global-hypoxia/
Many behave as if there will be no tomorrow, because they feel that way! It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, it has to be resisted.
What’s needed, beyond recording what’s going on, is interpreting it, going beyond, building ideas, and moods meant to last. Only deeper thinking can do this, and ensure a planet capable of lasting. Because we are not at the regional level anymore. When climate change, plus nefarious human impact, forced the Harappan civilization to abandon its homeland, the Indus valley, it was dealing with forces it had no idea existed. Maybe there are such forces out there. But there are also plenty of forces we can see, and which are plenty lethal enough, at civilizational scale, and the scale of the entire biosphere. Stop. And think. One million species are marching towards extinction, among the plants and animals we know.
From NYT:
WASHINGTON — Humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded.
The 1,500-page report, compiled by hundreds of international experts and based on thousands of scientific studies, is the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers that creates for human civilization. A summary of its findings, which was approved by representatives from the United States and 131 other countries, was released Monday [May 6, 2019] in Paris. The full report is set to be published this year.
Its conclusions are stark. In most major land habitats, from the savannas of Africa to the rain forests of South America, the average abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more, mainly over the past century. With the human population passing 7 billion, activities like farming, logging, poaching, fishing and mining are altering the natural world at a rate “unprecedented in human history.”
At the same time, a new threat has emerged: Global warming has become a major driver of wildlife decline, the assessment found, by shifting or shrinking the local climates that many mammals, birds, insects, fish and plants evolved to survive in. When combined with the other ways humans are damaging the environment, climate change is now pushing a growing number of species, such as the Bengal tiger, closer to extinction.
As a result, biodiversity loss is projected to accelerate through 2050, particularly in the tropics, unless countries drastically step up their conservation efforts.
I’m in the autumn of my life and may not live to see the consequences of what we are doing to Nature and to the Planet.
Then again, if some of the predictions bear true, I won’t have to live an awful lot longer to experience real change.
It’s time for a complete re-analysis of our relationship with the natural world.
May 10, 2019 May 9, 2019
The End of Ice
Climate disruption at its worst!
Margaret K. recently emailed me a link to a recent Ralph Nader Radio programme.
As I said in my email to her after Jeannie and I had listened to it:
OK. Have listened to it just now.
I don’t know what to say.
Frankly, I’m overwhelmed. I need some time to let it settle down but it’s going to be featured on the blog very soon.
I’m still ‘processing’ it but that doesn’t stop me from sharing it with you.
Ralph spends the whole hour with independent journalist, Dahr Jamail, author of “The End of Ice,” his first person report on the front lines of the climate crisis.
In late 2003, award-winning journalist, Dahr Jamail, went to the Middle East to report on the Iraq War, where he spent more than a year as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. Mr. Jamail has also written extensively on veterans’ resistance against US foreign policy. He is now focusing on climate disruption and the environment. His book on that topic is entitled, The End of Ice.
“So much of what we talk about is so dire and so extreme and so scary and also disheartening that I quote Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident writer and statesman. And he reminds us that as he said, ‘Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.” And that’s where I get into this moral obligation that no matter how dire things look, that we are absolutely morally obliged to do everything we can in our power to try to make this better.” Dahr Jamail, author of “The End of Ice”
Now here’s the link to the radio programme: Link
(It’s a download so wait just a short time for it to play.)
Do put an hour to one side and listen to this important and compelling programme.
Margaret K
An introduction to Scientists Warning
The power of networking!
I am indebted to Margaret K. for including a number of videos in her long comment to my post The End Of Ice. They are being watched.
On Monday morning we watched one of them Deep Adaptation. It was a stark message.
It is included below. It’s 39 minutes long.
Please watch it!
Then if you are so minded their website is here. It’s free to join and you will be left with the feeling that you are doing something important. From that website:
The Union of Concerned Citizens of Earth
At some point we realize that humanity has strayed down a rabbit hole from which it cannot seem to emerge. This quagmire is the belief in the idea of Consumerism, with its cast of advertising executives, bankers and economists, corporate CEOs, politicians, etc. We have evolved a defective ‘operating system’ that insists on infinite, accelerating economic growth despite the ecological costs – namely the destruction of Nature. Those who have signed or endorsed the Scientists’ Warning through this website have displayed a clear understanding of what is wrong and how we must head to avoid the worst of ecological destabilization that we have inflicted on Mother Earth. We are all therefore de facto members of what we are calling the Union of Concerned Citizens of Earth.
“The world will have to start listening to the good scientists and not the ones paid to justify dodgy developments.”
– Greer Hart
Feb 6, 2019 Feb 5, 2019
Deep Adaptation
Greer Hart
The End of Ice – A review
On January 21st this year I republished a post by Tom Engelhardt and called it The song this planet needs to hear. His post was essentially a piece written for Tom by Dahr Jamail. It was called A Planet in Crisis and it included reference to a recently published book The End of Ice.
Subsequently, I decided to order the book by Dahr Jamail, it arrived a week ago and I ended up finishing it last Saturday.
I was minded to publish a review of the book, and here it is:
The End of Ice by Dahr Jamail
This is a book that I wished I had not read.
Yet, this is a book that once started I wanted to finish, and finish quickly.
It’s a brilliant book. Very impressive and very readable. But I speak of it from a technical point-of-view.
Now that I have finished it life will never be quite the same again. Nor, for that matter, for anyone else who chooses to read it.
Dahr Jamail has a background as a reporter, with some other books under his belt. But his reporting skills really come to the fore with The End Of Ice. For he has travelled the world speaking to experts in their own field and listening to what they say about the future prognosis of the planet that you and I, and everyone else lives on.
Earth has not seen current atmospheric CO2 levels since the Pliocene, some 3 million years ago. Three-quarters of that CO2 will still be here in five hundred years. Given that it takes a decade to experience the full warming effects of CO2 emissions, we are still that far away from experiencing the impact of all the CO2 that we are currently emitting. (p.5)
And if you are below the age of 60 or thereabouts you are going to experience this changing world head on. To be honest, whatever age you are things are starting to change.
We are already facing mass extinction. There is no removing the heat we have introduced into our oceans, nor the 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere every single year. There may be no changing what is happening, and far worse things are coming. (p.218)
It really is a grim read. A grim but necessary read.
The eight chapters in the book spell out what is already happening. The diminishing glaciers and rising snow levels, the loss of coral, the rise in sea level and the loss of vast tracts of land as a consequence. Then there is the future of forests around the world. As I said, it is a grim read but a necessary one.
Towards the end of the book Dahr Jamail quotes author and storyteller Stephen Jenkinson:
“Grief requires us to know the time we’re in,” Jenkinson continues. “The great enemy of grief is hope. Hope is a four-letter word for people who are willing to know things for what they are. Our time requires us to be hope-free. To burn through the false choice of being hopeful and hopeless. They are the two sides of the same con job. Grief is required to proceed.” (p. 218)
Upon finishing this superb book, that you really do need to read, the one emotion that I was left with was grief. For what we have done to this planet. For what we are doing to this one and only home of ours.
Grief.
P.S. Dogs would not have done this to our beautiful planet.
A book review
Dark money.
Back to politics of the bigger order.
I stopped and pondered whether I should share this with you but then I decided to so do. Reason is that this is …. well, let me put it in the words of the essay: “Dark money is among the greatest current threats to democracy. It means money spent below the public radar, that seeks to change political outcomes. It enables very rich people and corporations to influence politics without showing their hands.”
Enough said!
You Want It Darker?
The remarkable story of how the hard-right Koch brothers funded a Trotskyite splinter group.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 7th November 2018
Dark money is among the greatest current threats to democracy. It means money spent below the public radar, that seeks to change political outcomes. It enables very rich people and corporations to influence politics without showing their hands.
Among the world’s biggest political spenders are Charles and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries, a vast private conglomerate of oil pipelines and refineries, chemicals, timber and paper companies, commodity trading firms and cattle ranches. If their two fortunes were rolled into one, Charles David Koch, with $120bn, would be the richest man on Earth.
In a rare public statement – an essay published in 1978 – Charles Koch explained his objective. “Our movement must destroy the prevalent statist paradigm.” As Jane Mayer records in her book Dark Money, the Kochs’ ideology – lower taxes and looser regulations – and their business interests “dovetailed so seamlessly it was difficult to distinguish one from the other.”
Over the years, she notes, “the company developed a stunning record of corporate malfeasance”. Koch Industries paid massive fines for oil spills, illegal benzene emissions and ammonia pollution. In 1999, a jury found that it had knowingly using a corroded pipeline to carry butane, which caused an explosion in which two people died. Company Town, a film released last year, tells the story of local people’s long fight against pollution from a huge papermill owned by the Koch brothers.
The Koch’s chief political lieutenant, Richard Fink, developed what he called a three-stage model of social change. Universities would produce “the intellectual raw materials”. Think tanks would transform them into “a more practical or useable form”. Then “citizen activist” groups would “press for the implementation of policy change.”
To these ends the Kochs set up bodies in all three categories themselves, such as the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Cato Institute and the “citizens’ group” Americans for Prosperity. But for the most part they funded existing organisations that met their criteria. They have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a network of academic departments, thinktanks, journals and movements. And they appear to have been remarkably successful.
As researchers at Harvard and Columbia universities have found, Americans for Prosperity alone now rivals the Republican party in terms of size, staffing and organisational capacity. It has pulled ”the Republican party to the far-right on economic, tax, and regulatory issues.” It was crucial to the success of the Tea Party Movement, the ousting of Democrats from Congress, and the staffing of Trump’s transition team. The Koch network has helped secure massive tax cuts, the smashing of trade unions and the dismantling of environmental legislation.
But their hands, for the most part, remain invisible. A Republican consultant who has worked for Charles and David Koch told Jane Mayer that “to call them under the radar is an understatement. They are underground.”
Until now, there has been no evidence that Charles and David Koch have directly funded organisations based in the UK. But a few weeks ago, a reader pointed me to one line he found in a form submitted to the US government by the Charles Koch Foundation, which showed money transferred to a company that appears to be the US funding arm of a UK organisation. Once I had grasped its significance, I set up a collaboration with the investigative group DeSmog UK. We could scarcely believe what we were seeing.
The organisation the Charles Koch Foundation has chosen to fund is at first sight astounding: a US organisation established by an obscure magazine run by former members of a tiny Trotskyite splinter group. Some of its core contributors still describe themselves as Marxists or Bolsheviks. But the harder you look at it, the more sense the Koch donations appear to make.
The name of the magazine is Spiked. It emerged from a group with a comical history of left factionalism. In 1974, the International Socialists split after a dispute over arithmetic in Volume 3 of Das Kapital. One of the new factions formed the Revolutionary Communist Group. In 1976, it split again, and one of the splinters became the Revolutionary Communist Tendency. It was led by a sociologist at the University of Kent called Frank Furedi. In 1981 it changed its name to the Revolutionary Communist Party.
In 1988, the party launched a magazine called Living Marxism (later LM). By then, it had abandoned many of its former convictions. Among the few discernible traces of its revolutionary past was an enthusiasm for former communists in the Balkans, such as Slobodan Milošević. In 2000, it closed after losing a libel case: it falsely claimed that ITN had fabricated evidence of Serb atrocities against Bosnian Muslims. But as soon as the magazine folded, a network of new groups, with the same cast of characters – Frank Furedi, Claire Fox, Mick Hume, Brendan O’Neill, James Heartfield, Michael Fitzpatrick, James Woudhuysen – sprang up to replace it. Among these organisations were the Institute of ideas, the Academy of Ideas, the Manifesto Club and a new magazine, Spiked. It had the same editor as LM (Mick Hume) and most of the same contributors.
We found three payments over the past two years from the Charles Koch Foundation. They amount to $170,000, earmarked for “general operating support”. The payments were made to Spiked US Inc. On Spiked’s “Donate” page is a button that says “In the US? Donate here”. It takes you to the PayPal link for “Spiked US, Inc”. Spiked US, in other words, appears to be its American funding arm. Beyond a postal address is Hoboken, New Jersey, it is hard to see what presence it has in the US. It appears to have been established in 2016, the year in which the Koch donations began.
When I asked Spiked what the money was for and whether there had been any other payments, its managing editor, Viv Regan, told me that the Charles Koch Foundation has now given Spiked US a total of $300,000, “to produce public debates in the US about free speech, as part of its charitable activities.” She claims the foundation supports projects “on both the left and the right”. The Koch Foundation has funded “a free-speech oriented programme of public debates on campus titled the Unsafe Space Tour” and four live events, the first of which is titled ‘Should we be free to hate?’. She told me “We’re very proud of our work on free speech and tolerance, and we are proud to be part of the programme.”
But I have been unable to find any public acknowledgement of this funding. Neither on the videos of the debates, in the posters advertising them or in reports of the events in Spiked magazine is there any mention of the Charles Koch Foundation. From what I could see of the title slides in the videos, they acknowledged an organisation called the Institute for Humane Studies, but not the Foundation. Spiked has yet to reply to my questions on this matter.
The Koch brothers are famously careful with their money. According to Jane Mayer, they exert “unusually tight personal control over their philanthropic endeavours”. David Koch told a sympathetic journalist, “If we’re going to give a lot of money, we’ll make darn sure they spend it in a way that goes along with our intent. And if they make a wrong turn and start doing things we don’t agree with, we withdraw funding.” So what might have attracted them to this obscure organisation?
Spiked magazine, now edited by Brendan O’Neill, appears to hate left-wing politics. It inveighs against the welfare state, against regulation, the Occupy movement, anti-capitalists, Jeremy Corbyn, George Soros, #MeToo, “black privilege” and Black Lives Matter. It does so in the name of the “ordinary people”, whom, it claims, are oppressed by the “anti-Trump and anti-Brexit cultural elites”, “feministic elites”, “green elites” and “cosmopolitan politicians”.
It repeatedly defends figures on the hard right or far right: Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage, Alex Jones, the Democratic Football Lads’ Alliance, Tommy Robinson, Toby Young, Arron Banks, Brett Kavanaugh, Viktor Orban. They are portrayed as victims of “McCarthyites” trying to suppress free speech. It demands the hardest of possible Brexits, insisting that “No Deal is nothing to fear”, as it would allow the UK to scrap EU regulations.
But what it appears to hate most is environmentalism. It rails against “climate scaremongering”, and has called for fracking and coal production to be ramped up. It blames the Grenfell Tower disaster on “the moral fervour of the climate change campaign”. It mocks the idea that air pollution is dangerous and has proposed abolishing the planning system. “We need to conquer nature, not bow to it,” it contends. “Let’s make the ‘human footprint’ even bigger”.
Spiked’s writers rage against exposures of dark money. It calls the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr, who has won a string of prizes for exposing the opaque spending surrounding the Brexit vote, “the closest thing the mainstream British media has to an out-and-out conspiracy theorist”. It carries numerous articles by writers from the obscurely-funded Institute of Economic Affairs and from the Cato Institute, that was founded by Charles Koch. Its editor, Brendan O’Neill, also writes for Reason Magazine, owned by the Reason Foundation, which has received $1 million from the Charles Koch Foundation over the past two years.
Bizarrely, Spiked still uses Leon Trotsky to justify its positions. It claims to have built its philosophy on his objective of “increasing the power of man over nature and … the abolition of the power of man over man”. This means, it says, that “we should fight for greater human dominion over the natural world”, and that regulatory power should not be used to prevent anyone from exercising their agency. The result appears to turn Trotsky’s objective on its head: without constraint, those with the greatest agency can exercise uninhibited power over others.
Its enthusiasm for Trotsky is highly selective. As one of Spiked’s writers noted in 2002, his central message was that “the retreat behind national boundaries is a recipe for reaction”. Yet the magazine’s defence of both Brexit and Viktor Orban, Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, is founded on the notion of national sovereignty. Spiked seems to have remembered everything Leon Trotsky wrote that could be recruited to the cause of corporate capital and the hard right, and forgotten all his, shall we say, less enthusiastic musings about those forces.
Above all, its positions are justified with the claim to support free speech. But the freedom all seems to tend in one direction: freedom to lambast vulnerable people. The Unsafe Space tour that the Charles Koch Foundation financed was heavily slanted towards this line. Yet, when I exercised my freedom of speech in sending my questions to Spiked, I was denounced on the front page of the magazine as a “McCarthyite”. This is its favourite insult, which it uses prolifically to dismiss legitimate inquiries and critiques. The usual term for asking awkward questions about powerful interests is journalism. Open information and transparency are crucial to free speech: the more we know, the freer we become. Spiked has also called for schools, universities and governments to be “cleansed” of “the malign influence” of green NGOs, which it denounces as “the environmentalist enemy within.” Some friends of free speech, these.
The Kochs are mentioned in several Spiked articles, but no corresponding interests are declared. An article in 2016, when Spiked received $170,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation, attacked the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, in which the Koch brothers have a major interest.
Is this the extent of the Koch brothers’ funding of groups based in the UK? Who knows? I have not yet had a response from the Charles Koch Foundation. But I see these payments as part of a wider pattern of undisclosed funding. Democracy without transparency is not democracy.
http://www.monbiot.com
If I was a younger man I would be very active in trying to stop this threat to our open society.
But I am not!
All I can do is to republish this insightful essay by George Monbiot and hope that a few of you didn’t realise this thing was going on, and are concerned!
Charles and David Koch
Richard Fink
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There’s more to a dog’s whiskers than we imagined!
Dog rescuers are a great bunch of people!
It’s amazing what your bladder will do for you!
Picture Parade Three Hundred and Twenty-One
This man loves his dog a lot!
Bow ties!
Pentobarbital found in route to dog food!
The making of a scent dog.
Interacting with us
Guest posts most welcome
There's more to a dog's whiskers than we imagined!
Togo, the heroic dog
Now this is talent!
Organic milk in the USA
Rationing - the New Paradigm?
Tied to a fence
The Winston Churchill effect?
350.org The headline on the website says, “We’re building a global movement to solve the climate crisis.” Say no more!
Baseline Scenario Great insight into the Global Crisis
Dog Kisses's Blog Dogkisses’s blog is a personal life, health and story blog.
Dreamwalker's Sanctuary A Sanctuary for Inspirational Thoughts of Light, Love and Peace.
For the love of the dog! Wonderful passion about all matters canine!
Freedom to Survive Nakibul Hoq, blogging from Bangladesh in the city of Dhaka.
Lime Bird Writers Limebird was created in 2011, designed with writers in mind
Naked Capitalism How Yves Smith finds the time to produce the huge volume of articles and website links every day is beyond me.
Patrice Ayme A thinker in pursuit of truth.
Patrick Smith Photography Beautiful planet Earth.
Spirit of Now Peter Russell’s very thoughtful journey.
Transition Culture This important site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations.
WordPress.com Supporting this Blog – well done, the team
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The mission of the Lloyd Library and Museum is to advocate for education in plant-based science, medicine, conservation, art and history. We provide resources to engage visitors and researchers from the community and around the globe.
The Lloyd aspires to serve with excellence, to make a meaningful difference and to become a place of destination.
Serve with Excellence
Our actions will be based on the highest levels of quality, integrity and professionalism. We will provide resources, events and activities that appeal to a broad range of people. We will be responsive to all levels of knowledge, meeting guests where they are and if they desire, help move them along a continuum toward more knowledge.
Create an Impact
We will strive to make our work relevant and impactful—from the local community to the world. We will bring excitement about plants and encourage plant conservation among our visitors.
Become a Place of Destination
Our unique collections deserve to be more widely known and enjoyed. We will become a “must-visit” destination for artists, historians and scholars interested in the science, art and history of plants. We will offer year-round programming that appeals to a wide variety of individuals and groups of all ages and interests.
Our levels of excellence will set us apart. We will be memorable. We will provide a first-tier experience that exceeds expectations. We will have visibility, be well-known locally and around the world. We will be considered a ‘destination.’ Our reputation will be outstanding.
Our resources will be widely available and accessible. We will provide access points to our materials through cataloging and descriptive aids, utilizing current and emerging technology. Our library and exhibitions will be open to the public at convenient hours. Our team will be quick to respond to queries.
In all areas—from the way we manage our collections to the way we interact with our constituents—we act with care. We promise to use the highest professional standards in maintaining and preserving our collections, and in our operations and structures. We work with partners to promote conservation and preservation of history and natural resources. We value our donors and offer recognition in meaningful ways. Our resources will be used wisely to sustain the operation and its collections, to optimize the number of people who find value at The Lloyd, and to remain relevant and responsive.
We believe the world is improved when people, professionals and communities engage in collaboration. We expect to learn and grow with our visitors and researchers. We look beyond our walls to see how our resources and staff can support the broader efforts of our profession, our city and around the globe. We seek the wisdom of others, encouraging the voice of diverse stakeholders in deciding our programs, services and exhibits.
We respect all people at all levels—from visitors and researchers to staff and collaborators to our peers around the globe. We treat youth visitors with the same level of professionalism and kindness used to engage scholars. We welcome the use of our resources for free expression of ideas and study. We honor the heritage, evolving the founders’ vision to meet the needs of today and tomorrow. We respect this earth and hope our work will foster its conservation.
Our leaders and staff will act with integrity. Our organization will act in visible, predictable and understandable ways. Our processes and procedures will be clear.
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New Survey Indicates Majority Support for Iran Deal
September 1, 2015 Jim Lobe 2 Comments
After assessing detailed arguments for and against the pending Iran deal, as well as alternatives proposed by its critics, a majority of a representative sample of registered voters concluded that Congress should approve the July 14 agreement if it comes to a vote next month, according to a major new survey released Tuesday.
Fifty-five percent of respondents ultimately came out in favor of the deal, according to the survey, which polled 702 voters on August 17-20.
By contrast, 44% said that the agreement should be rejected and favored an alternative course. Twenty-three percent recommended increasing sanctions against Iran and companies that do business with it, while 14% said they preferred trying to renew negotiations to get better terms. Seven percent opted for threatening Iran with military action unless it agrees to those terms.
However, strong majorities of both self-described Democrats (72%) and Independents (61%) recommended approval of the deal, while a large majority of Republicans opted for rejection and pursuit of the alternatives.
The partisan difference marked a significant change from a similar survey just over a year ago on the P5+1 negotiations with Iran that led to the July 14 agreement. At that time, there were no significant differences between self-identified Republicans and Democrats on whether the U.S. should enter into a deal in which the major global powers lift sanctions against Iran in exchange for strict curbs on its nuclear program.
Citizen Policymakers
The University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation (PPC) designed and carried out both surveys based on the so-called “Citizen Cabinet” model. This method simulates the policy-making process: respondents were given briefings on the subject and arguments pro and con on all options before being asked to make a final recommendation.
In the latest survey, each respondent received six critiques of the Joint Comprehensive Program of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran deal is formally known. Each critique was itself subject to pro and con arguments.
The survey organizers developed all of the arguments in consultation with congressional staffers from both sides of the aisle, as well as other experts. This process ensured that the arguments were balanced and accurately reflected both the basic facts regarding the deal and the views of all parties to the debate.
Momentum Shifting in Congress
The new PPC survey comes out at a moment when the Obama administration appears to be succeeding in gaining the support of a sufficient number of Democrats to sustain a veto against congressional rejection of the JCPOA. Officials are hoping to marshal enough Democratic support in the Senate (41 votes against a resolution to reject the JCPOA) so that a veto won’t be necessary.
At the same time, the deal’s opponents, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), are pouring tens of millions of dollars into television, radio, and Internet ads, in a campaign that appears to have gained some traction with the general public. In the latest Quinnipiac poll released Monday, for example, 55% of respondents said they oppose the deal, while only 25% said they supported it. Another 20% said, however, that they didn’t know enough to make a judgment. A CNN poll taken in mid-August found that only 41% of respondents said that Congress should approve the deal, while 56% said it should be rejected.
In rather stark contrast to the PPC survey, neither of those polls provided meaningful details about the deal itself. Indeed, the Quinnipiac poll simply asked respondents, “Do you support or oppose the nuclear deal with Iran?” without any further elaboration. Such phrasing is more likely to elicit the respondent’s feelings about Iran than on the substance of the “nuclear deal.”
According to a Reuters survey, about 39% of the public as of August 28 said that they had heard “a little bit” about the nuclear accord, and another 28% said that they had “not heard anything at all.” About 25% said they had heard “a fair amount,” and only 8.5% claimed to have heard “a great deal.”
The PPC’s director, Steven Kull, said the latest survey showed that respondents, when informed about the contents of the JCPOA and its various pros and cons, were indeed worried about certain aspects of the deal and their implications.
“There is a lot of concern about key terms of the deal, especially the limits on inspections and the release of frozen funds to Iran,” he said. “Standard polls are reflecting these concerns, but when voters think through the issue, they conclude taking the deal is better than any of the alternatives.”
A Partisan Divide
Indeed, the new survey should hearten the administration and its supporters who, of course, are focused virtually exclusively on persuading Democratic lawmakers in both houses to rally behind Obama and the JCPOA.
Although 65% of Democrats supported Obama’s efforts to conclude an agreement in the 2014 survey, 72% of Democrats found the actual agreement acceptable when asked to make a final assessment. And although 51% of Independents said that they supported the negotiations last year, 61% said that they were satisfied with the outcome in the latest survey.
Republicans support for Obama’s efforts, on the other hand, has declined sharply. Although 62 percent of Republicans said that they preferred negotiating an agreement that would ease sanctions in return for curbing Iran’s nuclear program a year ago, only one in three that said the JCPOA was acceptable. Thirty-six percent said they favored increasing sanctions, 20% recommended trying to renegotiate the deal, and 9% said that they believed that Washington should threaten to take military action unless Iran agreed to terms they deemed acceptable.
The pool of respondents, however, did not consider any of these alternatives likely to succeed. Fifty-four percent of respondents thought that it was unlikely that Washington’s negotiating partners in the P5+1 would go along with any effort to reopen the negotiations (the alternative that is most widely promoted by congressional opponents of the deal). And four out of five respondents (79%) considered it unlikely that Iran would agree, in any case.
A slightly higher percentage (81%) of all respondents said that they thought that threatening military action was unlikely to prove effective.
To make your own assessment about the JCPOA and its alternatives, the PPC has set up the same policy-making simulation on a public site.
Photo: Steven Kull
Analysis, Iran AIPAC, Iran, JCPOA, Jim Lobe, nuclear deal, polling, Program for Public Consultation, public opinion, Quinnipiac, Reuters, Steven Kull
Previous Article← Dissidents Join Iranian Majority in Supporting Nuclear Deal
Next ArticleThe Effort to Destroy the Iran Agreement: Chapter Two →
Andrew Ryback
Only 55% in favour? That’s not much of a margin. It really shown how dumbed-down a huge chunk of the voting population is.
Eugene Neigoff
I want to know the way your sample was taken, what criteria did you use, and what is the margin of error. I suspect you biased the poll.
Is Iran on the Edge of a Precipice?
Background and consequences of protests in Iran: A look from within
Can The Iran Crisis Be A Blessing in Disguise for Europe?
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Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform
(Redirected from Peterson-Pew Commission)
The Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform met from January 2009 to December 2011. It was a collaboration of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the CRFB.
In December 2009, the commission issued a report titled "Red Ink Rising: A Call to Action to Stem the Mounting Federal Debt."[1]
Then in November 2010, the commission issued a follow-up report titled "Getting Back in the Black."[2]
"Getting Back in the Black": Final Report, November 2010
Among other recommendations, the Peterson-Pew Commission's final report in November 2010 included the following:
"The Commission supports enacting budget limits that would be automatically enforced through broad spending cuts and tax increases—if policy makers fail to make necessary legislative changes. Specifically, the Commission recommends that Congress and the President:
"Adopt medium-term, long-term and annual limits on the amount the government can borrow as a share of national income. The targets are intended to commit the government in advance to a path of borrowing consistent with economic stability;
"Establish multi-year annual caps for spending and tax expenditures that are consistent with the enacted debt targets;
"Create automatic triggers to keep budget plans on track and control the major drivers of the growing debt; and
"Improve the timeliness, completeness and transparency of information used in the budget process to better inform policy makers and increase their accountability for all budget decisions."[3]
Peterson-Pew Commission Members
Bill Frenzel, former Republican congressman from Minnesota.
Jim Nussle, former Republican congressman from Iowa and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush.
Timothy Penny, former Democratic congressman from Minnesota.
Charlie Stenholm, former Democratic congressman from Texas.
Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Director of the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.
Barry Anderson, former deputy director and then the acting director of the Congressional Budget Office.
Erskine Bowles, former director of the Small Business Administration, and deputy chief of staff and chief of staff under the Clinton Administration. He is also co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform AKA the Simpson-Bowles Commission.
Charles Bowsher, former comptroller general of the General Accounting Office under Ronald Reagan .
Dan Crippen, former director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1999 through 2003.
Vic Fazio, former Democratic congressman from California.
Bill Gradison, Jr., former Republican congressman from Ohio. He is also a member of the Board of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
William H. Gray, III, former congressman from Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Budget Committee, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, and majority whip.
William Hoagland, Senior Vice President - Bipartisan Policy Center, former director of Budget and Appropriations in the Office of the Senate Majority Leader, former staff director of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.
Lou Kerr
Jim Kolbe
James T. McIntyre, Jr.
June O'Neill
Marne Obernauer, Jr.
Robert Packwood
Rudolph Penner
Robert Reischauer
Charles Robb
Martin Sabo
Eugene Steuerle
David Stockman
John Tanner
Laura Tyson
George Voinovich
Carol Cox Wait
Joseph R. Wright, Jr.
Robert Strauss, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee from, chairman of President Carter's election campaigns, special trade representative under President Carter, and President Carter's personal representative to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He later served as U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.[4]
↑ Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform, Red Ink Rising, commission report, December 2009.
↑ Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform, Getting Back in the Black, commission report, November 2010.
↑ Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform, Getting Back in the Black, commission report summary, November 10, 2010.
↑ Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform, About Us, commission website, accessed July 4, 2013.
Retrieved from "https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Peterson-Pew_Commission_on_Budget_Reform&oldid=602829"
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PDF2 PDF |Add To My Favorites | Version: 08/12/15 - Chaptered 07/21/15 - Enrolled 07/06/15 - Amended Senate 06/22/15 - Amended Senate 05/14/15 - Amended Assembly 04/30/15 - Amended Assembly 04/13/15 - Amended Assembly 02/26/15 - Introduced
AB-816 Cooperative corporations: worker cooperatives.(2015-2016)
An act to amend Sections 12200, 12238, 12243, 12253, 12310, 12404, 12420, 12431, 12460, 12461, 12530, 12653, and 25100 of, to amend the heading of Part 2 (commencing with Section 12200) of Division 3 of Title 1 of, and to add Sections 12201.5, 12228.3, 12230.5, 12253.5, 12310.5, 12317, 12404.5, 12454.5, 12460.5, 12530.5, and 12656.5 to, the Corporations Code, relating to cooperative corporations.
[ Approved by Governor August 12, 2015. Filed with Secretary of State August 12, 2015. ]
AB 816, Bonta. Cooperative corporations: worker cooperatives.
Existing law, the Consumer Cooperative Corporation Law, governs the organization and operation of consumer cooperative corporations. The law specifies the provisions that may be set forth in the articles of incorporation of a consumer cooperative. Existing law provides for, among other things, information to be included in a corporation’s bylaws, definitions necessary for purposes of defining patrons, and requirements as to voting rights of members. Except as specified, existing law requires that the voting power of members having voting rights in a cooperative corporation be equal. Existing law also requires cooperative corporations to hold a meeting of members annually. Existing law makes the violation of specified provisions a crime.
This bill would rename the law the Cooperative Corporation Law, and authorize a cooperative corporation to elect to designate itself as a worker cooperative in its articles of incorporation. The bill would require that 51% of the workers shall be worker-members or candidates. The bill would authorize a worker cooperative to apportion and distribute its net earnings and losses at the time and in the manner specified in the articles of incorporation or bylaws. The bill would require a worker cooperative to only make patronage distributions to the worker-member class. The bill would define the patrons of a worker cooperative as worker-members and authorize their patronage to be measured by work performed. The bill would authorize a worker cooperative to issue a membership, that is not divisible into partial memberships, having the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions, or conditions as provided in the articles or bylaws.
This bill would also authorize a worker cooperative to establish itself as a capital account cooperative in its articles or bylaws, in which case the entire net book value of the corporation would be reflected in member capital accounts, one for each member, and an unallocated capital account, if any, as specified.
This bill would also authorize a worker cooperative to establish itself as a collective board worker cooperative, in which all worker-members serve on the board. A collective board worker cooperative would not be required to hold an annual meeting of members.
This bill would authorize 2 or more worker cooperatives to consolidate, as specified, prescribe the actions to be taken upon the dissolution of a worker cooperative, and make other conforming changes.
The Corporate Securities Law of 1968 generally regulates the offer and sale of securities in this state. That law requires the offer and sale of securities to be qualified with the Commissioner of Business Oversight, and exempts specified transactions or securities from qualification. That law makes it unlawful for a person in connection with the offer or sale of a security to engage in fraudulent or misleading acts or omissions.
The shares or memberships by a corporation subject to the Consumer Cooperative Corporation Law are exempt from the qualification requirement, if the investment does not exceed $300.
The bill would increase the investment limitation of the above-referenced exemption from qualification from $300 to $1,000.
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO
(a) A worker cooperative has the purpose of creating and maintaining sustainable jobs and generating wealth in order to improve the quality of life of its worker-members, dignify human work, allow workers’ democratic self-management, and promote community and local development in this state.
(b) The purpose of this act is to amend the Consumer Cooperative Corporation Law to clarify that the law applies to cooperatives in general, not just consumer cooperatives, and to create more visibility for worker cooperatives. This act is intended to provide a definition of worker cooperative for purposes of this act, and not for purposes of other laws.
The heading of Part 2 (commencing with Section 12200) of Division 3 of Title 1 of the Corporations Code is amended to read:
PART 2. COOPERATIVE CORPORATIONS
Section 12200 of the Corporations Code is amended to read:
This part shall be known as the Cooperative Corporation Law. This part is intended primarily to apply to the organization and operation of cooperatives, including, but not limited to, consumer cooperatives, worker cooperatives, and cooperatives formed for the purpose of recycling or treating hazardous waste that elect to incorporate under its provisions.
Section 12201.5 is added to the Corporations Code, to read:
(a) Notwithstanding Section 12201, the net earnings and losses of a worker cooperative shall be apportioned and distributed at the time and in the manner specified in the articles of incorporation or bylaws.
(b) Net earnings declared as patronage distributions with respect to a period of time, and paid to a creditor or member, shall be apportioned among the members in accordance with the ratio that each member’s patronage during the period bears to total patronage by all members during the period.
(c) The apportionment, distribution, and payment of net earnings required by subdivision (a) may be paid in cash, credits, written notices of allocation, or capital stock issued by the worker cooperative.
“Capital account cooperative” is a worker cooperative in which the entire net book value is reflected in member capital accounts, one for each member, and an unallocated capital account, if any.
“Collective board worker cooperative” means a worker cooperative in which there is only one class of members consisting of worker-members, all of whom are members of the board.
(a) “Member” means any person who, pursuant to a specific provision of a corporation’s articles or bylaws, has the right to vote for the election of a director or directors, or possesses proprietary interests in the corporation.
(b) The articles or bylaws may confer some or all of the rights of a member, set forth in this part, upon any person or persons who do not have any of the voting rights referred to in subdivision (a).
(c) Where a member of a corporation is not a natural person, such member may authorize in writing one or more natural persons to vote on its behalf on any or all matters which may require a vote of the members.
(d) A person is not a member by virtue of any of the following:
(1) Any rights such person has as a delegate.
(2) Any rights such person has to designate or select a director or directors.
(3) Any rights such person has as a director.
(e) “Worker-member” means a member of a worker cooperative who is a natural person and also a patron of a worker cooperative.
(f) “Community investor” means a person who is not a worker-member and who holds a share or other proprietary interest in a worker cooperative.
(g) “Worker” means a natural person contributing labor or services to a worker cooperative. “Candidate” means a worker who is being considered for membership in a worker cooperative, as defined in the corporation’s articles or bylaws.
(a) (1) If the corporation is organized to provide goods or services to its members, the corporation’s “patrons” are those who purchase those types of goods from, or use those types of services of, the corporation. If the corporation is organized to market, process, or otherwise handle its members’ products or services, the corporation’s “patrons” are those persons whose products or services are so marketed, processed, or handled by the corporation.
(2) “Patronage” of a patron is measured by the volume or value, or both, of a patron’s purchases of products from, and use of services furnished by, the corporation, and by products and services provided by the patron to the corporation for marketing.
(b) (1) If the corporation is organized as a worker cooperative, the corporation’s “patrons” are its worker-members.
(2) If the corporation is organized as a worker cooperative, “patronage” may be measured by work performed, including, but not limited to, wages earned, number of hours worked, number of jobs created, or some combination of these measures.
(a) “Voting power” means the power to vote for the election of directors at the time any determination of voting power is made and does not include the right to vote upon the happening of some condition or event that has not yet occurred.
(b) If different classes of memberships are entitled to vote as separate classes for different members of the board, the determination of percentage of voting power shall be made on the basis of the percentage of the total number of authorized directors that the memberships in question (whether of one or more classes) have the power to elect in an election at which all memberships then entitled to vote for the election of any directors are voted.
(c) Community investor voting power in a worker cooperative shall be provided in the articles or bylaws, and is limited to approval rights only over a merger, sale of major assets, reorganization, or dissolution. Approval rights shall not include the right to propose any action.
“Worker cooperative” or “employment cooperative” means a corporation formed under this part that includes a class of worker-members who are natural persons whose patronage consists of labor contributed to or other work performed for the corporation. Election to be organized as a worker cooperative or an employment cooperative does not create a presumption that workers are employees of the corporation for any purposes. At least 51 percent of the workers shall be worker-members or candidates.
The articles of incorporation of a corporation formed under this part shall set forth:
(a) The name of the corporation.
(b) The following statement:
“This corporation is a cooperative corporation organized under the Cooperative Corporation Law. The purpose of this corporation is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which a corporation may be organized under the law.”
[The articles may include a further description of the corporation’s purpose.]
(c) The name and street address in this state of the corporation’s initial agent for service of process in accordance with subdivision (b) of Section 12570.
(d) The initial street address of the corporation.
(e) The initial mailing address of the corporation, if different from the initial street address.
(f) Whether the voting power or the proprietary interests of the members are equal or unequal. If the voting power or proprietary interests of the members are unequal, the articles shall state either (i) the general rule or rules by which the voting power and proprietary interests of the members shall be determined or (ii) that such rule or rules shall be prescribed in the corporation’s bylaws. Equal voting power means voting power apportioned on the basis of one vote for each member. Equal proprietary rights means property rights apportioned on the basis of one proprietary unit for each member.
(g) Pursuant to Section 12310.5, the articles of incorporation may state whether the cooperative has elected to be governed as a worker cooperative.
(a) A corporation organized under this part may elect to be governed as a worker cooperative by making the following statement in its articles of incorporation or its amended articles of incorporation:
“This corporation is a worker cooperative corporation organized under the Cooperative Corporation Law.”
(b) A corporation that makes the election to be governed as a worker cooperative, unless expressly exempted, shall be governed by all the provisions of this part.
Section 12317 is added to the Corporations Code, to read:
(a) A worker cooperative may, in its articles or bylaws, establish itself as a capital account cooperative.
(b) The articles or bylaws of a capital account cooperative may authorize assignment of a portion of retained net earnings and net losses to an unallocated capital account. The unallocated capital account in a capital account cooperative shall reflect any paid-in capital and retained net earnings not allocated to individual members. Earnings assigned to the unallocated capital account may be used for any and all corporate purposes, as determined by the board of directors.
(c) The system of member and unallocated capital accounts may be used to determine the redemption price of member shares, capital stock, and written notices of allocation. The articles or bylaws may provide for the capital account cooperative worker cooperative to pay or credit interest on the balance in each member’s capital account.
(d) The articles or bylaws of a capital account cooperative may permit the periodic redemption of written notices of allocation and capital stock and shall provide for recall and redemption of membership shares upon termination of membership in the cooperative. However, no redemption may occur that would result in the liability of any director or officer pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 12370) of Chapter 2.
(e) As used in this section, “written notice of allocation” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1388 (b) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Except as permitted in Sections 12314 and 12404.5, the voting power of members having voting rights shall be equal.
(a) The worker-members of a worker cooperative shall have voting power as provided in subdivision (a) of Section 12253.
(b) Community investors have voting power only as provided in subdivision (c) of Section 12253.
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), a corporation may issue memberships having different rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions, or conditions, as provided in its articles or bylaws. If the articles or bylaws authorize at least one class of voting memberships, a corporation may also authorize and issue additional classes of memberships, preferred or otherwise, that are divisible into a series or are nonvoting or both.
(b) All worker-members shall have the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions, or conditions as provided in the articles or bylaws. This membership shall not be divided into partial memberships.
(c) A worker cooperative shall only make patronage distributions to the worker-member class.
(a) No member may be expelled or suspended, and no membership or memberships may be terminated or suspended, except according to procedures satisfying the requirements of this section. An expulsion, termination, or suspension not in accord with this section shall be void and without effect.
(b) Any expulsion, suspension, or termination must be done in good faith and in a fair and reasonable manner. Any procedure that conforms to the requirements of subdivision (c) or (d) is fair and reasonable, but a court may also find other procedures to be fair and reasonable when the full circumstances of the suspension, termination, or expulsion are considered.
(c) A procedure is fair and reasonable if all of the following occur:
(1) The provisions of the procedure have been set forth in the articles or bylaws, or copies of such provisions are sent annually to all the members as required by the articles or bylaws.
(2) It provides the giving of 15 days’ prior notice of the expulsion, suspension, or termination and the reasons therefor.
(3) It provides an opportunity for the member to be heard, orally or in writing, not less than five days before the effective date of the expulsion, suspension, or termination by a person or body authorized to decide that the proposed expulsion, termination, or suspension not take place.
(d) Any notice required under this section may be given by any method reasonably calculated to provide actual notice. Any notice given by mail must be given by first-class or registered mail sent to the last address of the members shown on the corporation’s records.
(e) Any action challenging an expulsion, suspension, or termination of membership, including any claim alleging defective notice, must be commenced within one year after the date of the expulsion, suspension, or termination. In the event such an action is successful the court may order any relief, including reinstatement, it finds equitable under the circumstances, but no vote of the members or of the board may be set aside solely because a person was at the time of the vote wrongfully excluded by virtue of the challenged expulsion, suspension, or termination, unless the court finds further that the wrongful expulsion, suspension, or termination was in bad faith and for the purpose, and with the effect, of wrongfully excluding the member from the vote or from the meeting at which the vote took place, so as to affect the outcome of the vote.
(f) This section governs only the procedures for expulsion, suspension, or termination and not the substantive grounds therefor. An expulsion, suspension, or termination based upon substantive grounds which violate contractual or other rights of the member or are otherwise unlawful is not made valid by compliance with this section.
(g) A member who is expelled or suspended or whose membership is terminated shall be liable for any charges incurred, services or benefits actually rendered, dues, assessments, or fees incurred before expulsion, suspension, or termination or arising from contract or otherwise.
(a) A worker cooperative may create an indivisible reserves account that shall not be distributed to members.
(b) Funds in the indivisible reserves account shall only derive from non-patronage-sourced income, in a manner provided in the articles or bylaws, or by the board, and shall be used as capital for the cooperative.
(a) Meetings of members may be held at a place within or without this state that is stated in or fixed in accordance with the bylaws. If no other place is so stated or fixed, meetings of members shall be held at the principal executive office of the corporation. Unless prohibited by the bylaws of the corporation, if authorized by the board of directors in its sole discretion, and subject to the requirement of consent in clause (b) of Section 20 and those guidelines and procedures as the board of directors may adopt, members not physically present in person at a meeting of members may, by electronic transmission by and to the corporation (Sections 20 and 21) or by electronic video screen communication, participate in a meeting of members, be deemed present in person, and vote at a meeting of members whether that meeting is to be held at a designated place or in whole or in part by means of electronic transmission by and to the corporation or by electronic video screen communication, in accordance with subdivision (f).
(b) Except as provided in Section 12460.5, a regular meeting of members shall be held annually. In any year in which directors are elected, the election shall be held at the regular meeting unless the directors are chosen in some other manner authorized by law. Any other proper business may be transacted at the meeting.
(c) If a corporation fails to hold the regular meeting for a period of 60 days after the date designated therefor or, if no date has been designated, for a period of 15 months after the formation of the corporation or after its last regular meeting, or if the corporation fails to hold a written ballot for a period of 60 days after the date designated therefor, then the superior court of the proper county may summarily order the meeting to be held or the ballot to be conducted upon the application of a member, after notice to the corporation giving it an opportunity to be heard.
(d) The votes represented at a meeting called or by written ballot ordered pursuant to subdivision (c) and entitled to be cast on the business to be transacted shall constitute a quorum, notwithstanding any provision of the articles or bylaws or provision in this part to the contrary. The court may issue such orders as may be appropriate including, without limitation, orders designating the time and place of the meeting, the record date for determination of members entitled to vote, and the form of notice of the meeting.
(e) Special meetings of members for any lawful purpose may be called by the board, the chairman of the board, the president, or other persons, if any, as are specified in the bylaws. In addition, special meetings of members for any lawful purpose may be called by 5 percent or more of the members, however, in a worker cooperative with more than four worker-members, a special meeting may only be called by the greater of three worker-members or 5 percent of the worker-members. In a worker cooperative with fewer than four worker-members, special meetings may be called by one worker-member.
(f) A meeting of the members may be conducted, in whole or in part, by electronic transmission by and to the corporation or by electronic video screen communication (1) if the corporation implements reasonable measures to provide members a reasonable opportunity to participate in the meeting and to vote on matters submitted to the members, including an opportunity to read or hear the proceedings of the meeting concurrently with those proceedings, and (2) if any member votes or takes other action at the meeting by means of electronic transmission to the corporation or electronic video screen communication, a record of that vote or action is maintained by the corporation. Any request by a corporation to a member pursuant to clause (b) of Section 20 for consent to conduct a meeting of members by electronic transmission by and to the corporation, shall include a notice that absent consent of the member pursuant to clause (b) of Section 20, the meeting shall be held at a physical location in accordance with subdivision (a).
Notwithstanding Section 12460, a collective board worker cooperative shall not be required to hold an annual meeting of members.
(a) Whenever members are required or permitted to take any action at a meeting, a written notice of the meeting shall be given not less than 10 nor more than 90 days before the date of the meeting to each member who, on the record date for notice of the meeting, is entitled to vote thereat; provided, however, that if notice is given by mail, and the notice is not mailed by first-class, registered, or certified mail, that notice shall be given not less than 20 days before the meeting. A worker cooperative shall provide notice of the meeting not less than 48 hours before the meeting if the meeting is a meeting of only worker-members, provided that the notice is delivered personally to every worker-member. Subject to subdivision (f), and subdivision (b) of Section 12462, that notice shall state the place, date, and time of the meeting, the means of electronic transmission by and to the corporation (Sections 20 and 21) or electronic video screen communication, if any, by which members may participate in that meeting, and (1) in the case of a special meeting, the general nature of the business to be transacted, and no other business may be transacted, or (2) in the case of the regular meeting, those matters which the board, at the time the notice is given, intends to present for action by the members, but, except as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 12462, any proper matter may be presented at the meeting for such action. The notice of any meeting at which directors are to be elected shall include the names of all those who are nominees at the time the notice is given to members.
(b) Notice of a members’ meeting or any report shall be given personally, by electronic transmission by the corporation, or by mail or other means of written communication, addressed to a member at the address of such member appearing on the books of the corporation or given by the member to the corporation for purpose of notice; or if no such address appears or is given, at the place where the principal office of the corporation is located or by publication at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the principal office is located. An affidavit of giving of any notice or report in accordance with the provisions of this part, executed by the secretary, assistant secretary, or any transfer agent, shall be prima facie evidence of the giving of the notice or report.
If any notice or report addressed to the member at the address of such member appearing on the books of the corporation is returned to the corporation by the United States Postal Service marked to indicate the United States Postal Service is unable to deliver the notice or report to the member at such address, all future notices or reports shall be deemed to have been duly given without further mailing if the same shall be available for the member upon written demand of the member at the principal office of the corporation for a period of one year from the date of the giving of the notice or report to all other members.
Notice given by electronic transmission by the corporation under this subdivision shall be valid only if it complies with Section 20. Notwithstanding the foregoing, notice shall not be given by electronic transmission by the corporation under this subdivision after either of the following:
(1) The corporation is unable to deliver two consecutive notices to the member by that means.
(2) The inability to so deliver the notices to the member becomes known to the secretary, any assistant secretary, the transfer agent, or other person responsible for the giving of the notice.
(c) Upon request in writing to the corporation addressed to the attention of the chairman of the board, president, vice president, or secretary by any person (other than the board) entitled to call a special meeting of members, the officer forthwith shall cause notice to be given to the members entitled to vote that a meeting will be held at a time fixed by the board not less than 35 nor more than 90 days after the receipt of the request. If the notice is not given within 20 days after receipt of the request, the persons entitled to call the meeting may give the notice or the superior court of the proper county shall summarily order the giving of the notice, after notice to the corporation giving it an opportunity to be heard. The court may issue such orders as may be appropriate, including, without limitation, orders designating the time and place of the meeting, the record date for determination of members entitled to vote, and the form of notice.
(d) When a members’ meeting is adjourned to another time or place, unless the bylaws otherwise require and except as provided in this subdivision, notice need not be given of the adjourned meeting if the time and place thereof (or the means of electronic transmission by and to the corporation or electronic video screen communication, if any, by which members may participate) are announced at the meeting at which the adjournment is taken. At the adjourned meeting the corporation may transact any business which might have been transacted at the original meeting. If the adjournment is for more than 45 days or if after the adjournment a new record date is fixed for the adjourned meeting, a notice of the adjourned meeting shall be given to each member of record entitled to vote at the meeting.
(e) The transactions of any meeting of members however called and noticed, and wherever held, are as valid as though had at a meeting duly held after regular call and notice, if a quorum is present, and if, either before or after the meeting, each of the persons entitled to vote, not present in person, provides a waiver of notice or consent to the holding of the meeting or an approval of the minutes thereof in writing. All such waivers, consents, and approvals shall be filed with the corporate records or made a part of the minutes of the meeting. Attendance of a person at a meeting shall constitute a waiver of notice of and presence at such meeting, except when the person objects, at the beginning of the meeting, to the transaction of any business because the meeting is not lawfully called or convened and except that attendance at a meeting is not a waiver of any right to object to the consideration of matters required by this part to be included in the notice but not so included, if such objection is expressly made at the meeting. Neither the business to be transacted at nor the purpose of any regular or special meeting of members need be specified in any written waiver of notice, consent to the holding of the meeting, or approval of the minutes thereof, unless otherwise provided in the articles or bylaws, except as provided in subdivision (f).
(f) Any approval of the members required under Section 12362, 12364, 12373, 12502, or 12658 other than unanimous approval by those entitled to vote, shall be valid only if the general nature of the proposal so approved was stated in the notice of meeting or in any written waiver of notice.
(g) A court may find that notice not given in conformity with this section is still valid, if it was given in a fair and reasonable manner.
(h) Subject to the provisions of subdivision (i), and unless prohibited by the articles or bylaws, prior to any regular or special meeting of members, the board may authorize distribution of a written ballot to every member entitled to vote at the meeting. Such ballot shall set forth the action proposed to be taken at the meeting, shall provide an opportunity to specify approval or disapproval of the proposed action, and shall state that unless revoked by the member voting in person at the meeting, the ballot will be counted if received by the corporation on or before the time of the meeting with respect to which it was sent. If ballots are so distributed with respect to a meeting, the number of members voting at the meeting by unrevoked written ballots shall be deemed present at the meeting for purposes of determining the existence of a quorum pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 12462 but only with respect to the proposed action referred to in the ballots. These ballots shall be distributed in a manner consistent with the requirements of subdivision (b) and Section 12464.
(i) Unless prohibited by the articles or bylaws, written ballots may be distributed in a manner contemplated by subdivision (h) with respect to the election of directors, except that no ballots may be so distributed with respect to the election of directors if cumulative voting is permitted pursuant to Section 12484.
Except as provided in Section 12530.5, any corporation may merge with another domestic corporation, foreign corporation, or other business entity. However, a merger with a nonprofit public benefit corporation or a nonprofit religious corporation must have the prior written consent of the Attorney General.
Notwithstanding Section 12530, a worker cooperative that has not revoked its election to be governed as a worker cooperative under Section 12310.5 shall not consolidate or merge with another corporation other than another worker cooperative. Two or more worker cooperatives may merge or consolidate in a manner consistent with this chapter.
(a) After determining that all the known debts and liabilities of a corporation in the process of winding up have been paid or adequately provided for, the board shall distribute all the remaining corporate assets in the manner provided in Sections 12655, 12656, and 12656.5.
(b) If the winding up is by court proceeding or subject to court supervision, the distribution shall not be made until after the expiration of any period for the presentation of claims that has been prescribed by order of the court.
(c) Anything to the contrary notwithstanding, assets, if any, that are not subject to attachment, execution, or sale for the corporation’s debts and liabilities may be distributed pursuant to Sections 12655, 12656, and 12656.5 even though all debts and liabilities have not been paid or adequately provided for.
(a) After complying with the provisions of Section 12653, and except as otherwise provided in Section 12655, upon dissolution of a worker cooperative the majority of the unallocated capital account shall be distributed to members on the basis of any of the following, as specified in the articles of incorporation or bylaws of the cooperative:
(1) Patronage.
(2) Capital contributions.
(3) A combination of patronage and capital contributions.
(b) A worker cooperative is authorized to include patronage provided by past and current members in its distribution of the unallocated capital account.
(c) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to any amounts in the indivisible reserve account. Any amount in the indivisible reserve account shall, upon dissolution, be allocated to a cooperative development organization designated in the articles of incorporation or the bylaws.
The following securities are exempted from Sections 25110, 25120, and 25130:
(a) Any security (including a revenue obligation) issued or guaranteed by the United States, any state, any city, county, city and county, public district, public authority, public corporation, public entity, or political subdivision of a state or any agency or corporate or other instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing; or any certificate of deposit for any of the foregoing.
(b) Any security issued or guaranteed by Canada, any Canadian province, any political subdivision or municipality of that province, or by any other foreign government with which the United States currently maintains diplomatic relations, if the security is recognized as a valid obligation by the issuer or guarantor; or any certificate of deposit for any of the foregoing.
(c) Any security issued or guaranteed by and representing an interest in or a direct obligation of a national bank or a bank or trust company incorporated under the laws of this state, and any security issued by a bank to one or more other banks and representing an interest in an asset of the issuing bank.
(d) Any security issued or guaranteed by a federal savings association or federal savings bank or federal land bank or joint land bank or national farm loan association or by any savings association, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 5102 of the Financial Code, which is subject to the supervision and regulation of the Commissioner of Business Oversight of this state.
(e) Any security (other than an interest in all or portions of a parcel or parcels of real property which are subdivided land or a subdivision or in a real estate development), the issuance of which is subject to authorization by the Insurance Commissioner, the Public Utilities Commission, or the Real Estate Commissioner of this state.
(f) Any security consisting of any interest in all or portions of a parcel or parcels of real property that are subdivided lands or a subdivision or in a real estate development; provided that the exemption in this subdivision shall not be applicable to: (1) any investment contract sold or offered for sale with, or as part of, that interest, or (2) any person engaged in the business of selling, distributing, or supplying water for irrigation purposes or domestic use that is not a public utility except that the exemption is applicable to any security of a mutual water company (other than an investment contract as described in paragraph (1)) offered or sold in connection with subdivided lands pursuant to Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 14310) of Part 7 of Division 3 of Title 1.
(g) Any mutual capital certificates or savings accounts, as defined in the Savings Association Law, issued by a savings association, as defined by subdivision (a) of Section 5102 of the Financial Code, and holding a license or certificate of authority then in force from the Commissioner of Business Oversight of this state.
(h) Any security issued or guaranteed by any federal credit union, or by any credit union organized and supervised, or regulated, under the Credit Union Law.
(i) Any security issued or guaranteed by any railroad, other common carrier, public utility, or public utility holding company which is (1) subject to the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission or its successor or (2) a holding company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or a subsidiary of that company within the meaning of that act or (3) regulated in respect of the issuance or guarantee of the security by a governmental authority of the United States, of any state, of Canada or of any Canadian province; and the security is subject to registration with or authorization of issuance by that authority.
(j) Any security (except evidences of indebtedness, whether interest bearing or not) of an issuer (1) organized exclusively for educational, benevolent, fraternal, religious, charitable, social, or reformatory purposes and not for pecuniary profit, if no part of the net earnings of the issuer inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, or (2) organized as a chamber of commerce or trade or professional association. The fact that amounts received from memberships or dues or both will or may be used to construct or otherwise acquire facilities for use by members of the nonprofit organization does not disqualify the organization for this exemption. This exemption does not apply to the securities of any nonprofit organization if any promoter thereof expects or intends to make a profit directly or indirectly from any business or activity associated with the organization or operation of that nonprofit organization or from remuneration received from that nonprofit organization.
(k) Any agreement, commonly known as a “life income contract,” of an issuer (1) organized exclusively for educational, benevolent, fraternal, religious, charitable, social, or reformatory purposes and not for pecuniary profit and (2) which the commissioner designates by rule or order, with a donor in consideration of a donation of property to that issuer and providing for the payment to the donor or persons designated by him or her of income or specified periodic payments from the donated property or other property for the life of the donor or those other persons.
(l) Any note, draft, bill of exchange, or banker’s acceptance which is freely transferable and of prime quality, arises out of a current transaction or the proceeds of which have been or are to be used for current transactions, and which evidences an obligation to pay cash within nine months of the date of issuance, exclusive of days of grace, or any renewal of that paper which is likewise limited, or any guarantee of that paper or of that renewal, provided that the paper is not offered to the public in amounts of less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) in the aggregate to any one purchaser. In addition, the commissioner may, by rule or order, exempt any issuer of any notes, drafts, bills of exchange or banker’s acceptances from qualification of those securities when the commissioner finds that the qualification is not necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
(m) Any security issued by any corporation organized and existing under the provisions of Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 54001) of Division 20 of the Food and Agricultural Code.
(n) Any beneficial interest in an employees’ pension, profit-sharing, stock bonus, or similar benefit plan which meets the requirements for qualification under Section 401 of the federal Internal Revenue Code or any statute amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. A determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service stating that an employees’ pension, profit-sharing, stock bonus, or similar benefit plan meets those requirements shall be conclusive evidence that the plan is an employees’ pension, profit-sharing, stock bonus, or similar benefit plan within the meaning of the first sentence of this subdivision until the date the determination letter is revoked in writing by the Internal Revenue Service, regardless of whether or not the revocation is retroactive.
(o) Any security listed or approved for listing upon notice of issuance on a national securities exchange, if the exchange has been certified by rule or order of the commissioner and any warrant or right to purchase or subscribe to the security. The exemption afforded by this subdivision does not apply to securities listed or approved for listing upon notice of issuance on a national securities exchange, in a rollup transaction unless the rollup transaction is an eligible rollup transaction as defined in Section 25014.7.
That certification of any exchange shall be made by the commissioner upon the written request of the exchange if the commissioner finds that the exchange, in acting on applications for listing of common stock, substantially applies the minimum standards set forth in either subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1), and, in considering suspension or removal from listing, substantially applies each of the criteria set forth in paragraph (2).
(1) Listing standards:
(A) (i) Shareholders’ equity of at least four million dollars ($4,000,000).
(ii) Pretax income of at least seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) in the issuer’s last fiscal year or in two of its last three fiscal years.
(iii) Minimum public distribution of 500,000 shares (exclusive of the holdings of officers, directors, controlling shareholders, and other concentrated or family holdings), together with a minimum of 800 public holders or minimum public distribution of 1,000,000 shares together with a minimum of 400 public holders. The exchange may also consider the listing of a company’s securities if the company has a minimum of 500,000 shares publicly held, a minimum of 400 shareholders and daily trading volume in the issue has been approximately 2,000 shares or more for the six months preceding the date of application. In evaluating the suitability of an issue for listing under this trading provision, the exchange shall review the nature and frequency of that activity and any other factors as it may determine to be relevant in ascertaining whether the issue is suitable for trading. A security that trades infrequently shall not be considered for listing under this paragraph even though average daily volume amounts to 2,000 shares per day or more.
Companies whose securities are concentrated in a limited geographical area, or whose securities are largely held in block by institutional investors, normally may not be considered eligible for listing unless the public distribution appreciably exceeds 500,000 shares.
(iv) Minimum price of three dollars ($3) per share for a reasonable period of time prior to the filing of a listing application; provided, however, in certain instances an exchange may favorably consider listing an issue selling for less than three dollars ($3) per share after considering all pertinent factors, including market conditions in general, whether historically the issue has sold above three dollars ($3) per share, the applicant’s capitalization, and the number of outstanding and publicly held shares of the issue.
(v) An aggregate market value for publicly held shares of at least three million dollars ($3,000,000).
(B) (i) Shareholders’ equity of at least four million dollars ($4,000,000).
(ii) Minimum public distribution set forth in clause (iii) of subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1).
(iii) Operating history of at least three years.
(iv) An aggregate market value for publicly held shares of at least fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000).
(2) Criteria for consideration of suspension or removal from listing:
(A) If a company that (A) has shareholders’ equity of less than one million dollars ($1,000,000) has sustained net losses in each of its two most recent fiscal years, or (B) has net tangible assets of less than three million dollars ($3,000,000) and has sustained net losses in three of its four most recent fiscal years.
(B) If the number of shares publicly held (excluding the holdings of officers, directors, controlling shareholders, and other concentrated or family holdings) is less than 150,000.
(C) If the total number of shareholders is less than 400 or if the number of shareholders of lots of 100 shares or more is less than 300.
(D) If the aggregate market value of shares publicly held is less than seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000).
(E) If shares of common stock sell at a price of less than three dollars ($3) per share for a substantial period of time and the issuer shall fail to effectuate a reverse stock split of the shares within a reasonable period of time after being requested by the exchange to take that action.
A national securities exchange, certified by rule or order of the commissioner under this subdivision, shall file annual reports when requested to do so by the commissioner. The annual reports shall contain, by issuer: the variances granted to an exchange’s listing standards, including variances from corporate governance and voting rights’ standards, for any security of that issuer; the reasons for the variances; a discussion of the review procedure instituted by the exchange to determine the effect of the variances on investors and whether the variances should be continued; and any other information that the commissioner deems relevant. The purpose of these reports is to assist the commissioner in determining whether the quantitative and qualitative requirements of this subdivision are substantially being met by the exchange in general or with regard to any particular security.
The commissioner after appropriate notice and opportunity for hearing in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 11500) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, may, in his or her discretion, by rule or order, decertify any exchange previously certified that ceases substantially to apply the minimum standards or criteria as set forth in paragraphs (1) and (2).
A rule or order of certification shall conclusively establish that any security listed or approved for listing upon notice of issuance on any exchange named in a rule or order of certification, and any warrant or right to purchase or subscribe to that security, is exempt under this subdivision until the adoption by the commissioner of any rule or order decertifying the exchange.
(p) A promissory note secured by a lien on real property, which is neither one of a series of notes of equal priority secured by interests in the same real property nor a note in which beneficial interests are sold to more than one person or entity.
(q) Any unincorporated interindemnity or reciprocal or interinsurance contract, that qualifies under the provisions of Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code, between members of a cooperative corporation, organized and operating under Part 2 (commencing with Section 12200) of Division 3 of Title 1, and whose members consist only of physicians and surgeons licensed in California, which contracts indemnify solely in respect to medical malpractice claims against the members, and which do not collect in advance of loss any moneys other than contributions by each member to a collective reserve trust fund or for necessary expenses of administration.
(1) Whenever it appears to the commissioner that any person has engaged or is about to engage in any act or practice constituting a violation of any provision of Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code, the commissioner may, in the commissioner’s discretion, bring an action in the name of the people of the State of California in the superior court to enjoin the acts or practices or to enforce compliance with Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code. Upon a proper showing a permanent or preliminary injunction, a restraining order, or a writ of mandate shall be granted and a receiver or conservator may be appointed for the defendant or the defendant’s assets.
(2) The commissioner may, in the commissioner’s discretion, (A) make public or private investigations within or outside of this state as the commissioner deems necessary to determine whether any person has violated or is about to violate any provision of Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code or to aid in the enforcement of Section 1280.7, and (B) publish information concerning the violation of Section 1280.7.
(3) For the purpose of any investigation or proceeding under this section, the commissioner or any officer designated by the commissioner may administer oaths and affirmations, subpoena witnesses, compel their attendance, take evidence, and require the production of any books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, agreements, or other documents or records which the commissioner deems relevant or material to the inquiry.
(4) In case of contumacy by, or refusal to obey a subpoena issued to, any person, the superior court, upon application by the commissioner, may issue to the person an order requiring the person to appear before the commissioner, or the officer designated by the commissioner, to produce documentary evidence, if so ordered, or to give evidence touching the matter under investigation or in question. Failure to obey the order of the court may be punished by the court as a contempt.
(5) No person is excused from attending or testifying or from producing any document or record before the commissioner or in obedience to the subpoena of the commissioner or any officer designated by the commissioner, or in any proceeding instituted by the commissioner, on the ground that the testimony or evidence (documentary or otherwise), required of the person may tend to incriminate the person or subject the person to a penalty or forfeiture, but no individual may be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which the person is compelled, after validly claiming the privilege against self-incrimination, to testify or produce evidence (documentary or otherwise), except that the individual testifying is not exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury or contempt committed in testifying.
(6) The cost of any review, examination, audit, or investigation made by the commissioner under Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code shall be paid to the commissioner by the person subject to the review, examination, audit, or investigation, and the commissioner may maintain an action for the recovery of these costs in any court of competent jurisdiction. In determining the cost, the commissioner may use the actual amount of the salary or other compensation paid to the persons making the review, examination, audit, or investigation plus the actual amount of expenses including overhead reasonably incurred in the performance of the work.
The recoverable cost of each review, examination, audit, or investigation made by the commissioner under Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), except that costs exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) shall be recoverable if the costs are necessary to prevent a violation of any provision of Section 1280.7 of the Insurance Code.
(r) Any shares or memberships issued by any corporation organized and existing pursuant to the provisions of Part 2 (commencing with Section 12200) of Division 3 of Title 1, provided the aggregate investment of any shareholder or member in shares or memberships sold pursuant to this subdivision does not exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000). This exemption does not apply to the shares or memberships of that corporation if any promoter thereof expects or intends to make a profit directly or indirectly from any business or activity associated with the corporation or the operation of the corporation or from remuneration, other than reasonable salary, received from the corporation. This exemption does not apply to nonvoting shares or memberships of that corporation issued to any person who does not possess, and who will not acquire in connection with the issuance of nonvoting shares or memberships, voting power (Section 12253) in the corporation. This exemption also does not apply to shares or memberships issued by a nonprofit cooperative corporation organized to facilitate the creation of an unincorporated interindemnity arrangement that provides indemnification for medical malpractice to its physician and surgeon members as set forth in subdivision (q).
(s) Any security consisting of or representing an interest in a pool of mortgage loans that meets each of the following requirements:
(1) The pool consists of whole mortgage loans or participation interests in those loans, which loans were originated or acquired in the ordinary course of business by a national bank or federal savings association or federal savings bank having its principal office in this state, by a bank incorporated under the laws of this state or by a savings association as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 5102 of the Financial Code and which is subject to the supervision and regulation of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, and each of which at the time of transfer to the pool is an authorized investment for the originating or acquiring institution.
(2) The pool of mortgage loans is held in trust by a trustee which is a financial institution specified in paragraph (1) as trustee or otherwise.
(3) The loans are serviced by a financial institution specified in paragraph (1).
(4) The security is not offered in amounts of less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) in the aggregate to any one purchaser.
(5) The security is offered pursuant to a registration under the Securities Act of 1933, or pursuant to an exemption under Regulation A under that act, or in the opinion of counsel for the issuer, is offered pursuant to an exemption under Section 4(2) of that act.
(t) (1) Any security issued or guaranteed by and representing an interest in or a direct obligation of an industrial loan company incorporated under the laws of the state and authorized by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions to engage in industrial loan business.
(2) Any investment certificate in or issued by any industrial loan company that is organized under the laws of a state of the United States other than this state, that is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and that maintains a branch office in this state.
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Slapped Slaps Suit on Slapper
By Various Authors, Oct. 7, 2009
Back When
Dear Matthew Alice:
While standing in the license-renewal line for an hour and a half the other day at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I realized that this chore is one of our society’s great levelers. Everyone — Paul Bloom, Dr. Thomas Day, Don Coryell — must stand in line at the DMV in order to obtain a license. Am I right?
Sara Kassara, Mission Beach.
Not long ago I met someone in line who looked remarkably like Joan Didion. (She resembled the photograph on Didion’s latest book, The White Album.) I introduced myself and she said, “I had better tell you what I am doing here. What I am doing here is trying to pass a test that corresponds, in some totemic way, to everything in California that I have been taught to believe in. To say that this line is in some way better than the eight-items-or-less line at the Mayfair in Hillcrest is beside the point.”
— STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP, Matthew Alice, October 11, 1979
Twenty-Five Years Ago
Daniel Muñoz is the publisher of San Diego’s Mexican-American newspaper La Prensa. In mid-July of last year, he filed a suit against Rachael Ortiz, executive director of Barrio Youth Center in Logan Heights. Muñoz states that on May 6, 1983, he and his wife attended a social function at the Casa Bonita restaurant on Sweetwater Road in National City. At 8:30 p.m., someone told him that a woman was calling him from across the room. It was Rachael Ortiz. Muñoz’s suit claims that she made obscene gestures at him. She then reached up and slapped him.
[I]t was not surprising when in May of this year Ortiz filed a cross-complaint alleging libel and conspiracy on the part of Daniel Muñoz as well as his attorney Denise Moreno Ducheny and her husband Alvin Ducheny.
— CITY LIGHTS: “SLAPPED SLAPS SUIT ON SLAPPER,” Abe Opincar, October 11, 1984
Twenty Years Ago
My baby loves the Grateful Dead. Loves ’em so much that the quickest cure at our place for an onset of persistent fussiness is rockin’ Ariel in her daddy’s arms to “Touch of Gray,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Bertha,” or any other GD tune of ancient or recent vintage.
— CITY LIGHTS: “THE DIAPER DEEJAY,” Alan Reder, October 12, 1989
Fifteen Years Ago
I’ve finally seen what I feel to be the very best moment of local television broadcast this year. It was Tuesday last week. Johnatan George, the 36-year-old “career criminal” who two years ago made headlines by bolting from a sheriff’s van in the Gaslamp Quarter and shooting to death Michael Champion, a 28-year-old motorist, testified on his own behalf.
“If [Champion] had not knocked the gun out of my hand, it would not have discharged,” George said.
— AS SEEN ON TV: “REMAIN CALM,” Abe Opincar, October 6, 1994
Unlike a lot of my classmates, I don’t practice law anymore. I stay at home with my kids. On a good day, I’m happy about my decisions. I wouldn’t trade Johnny’s smiles and Rebecca’s first word and Angela and Lucy’s make-believe games for the billable-hour grind most lawyers endure.
— KID STUFF: “A LONG WALK DOWN A NARROW CORRIDOR,” Anne Albright, October 7, 1999
Five Years Ago
Sunday’s startling endorsement by the Union-Tribune of Democrat Mike Aguirre for San Diego city attorney seems to have turned conventional wisdom on its head. But there is a big reason behind the U-T’s seeming madness, according to newspaper insiders: the death of publisher Helen Copley.
Though Republican, David Copley, 52, quietly gave $5000 to left-leaning gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington, even as his mother’s paper was endorsing Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
— CITY LIGHTS: “OVER MOM’S DEAD BODY,” Matt Potter, October 7, 2004
More stories by Various Authors
The Low Life of Tom Waits — Oct. 20, 2010
Jesus and the Colonic Booth — Sept. 29, 2010
Back when it was Jack Murphy. And the Padres till stank. — Oct. 21, 2009
Troubleshooter Gets Fired — April 1, 2009
Crossroads Church — Jan. 14, 2009
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How to dive Cardiff Reef
You won't see any spaces to swim around the kelp canopy
By Gyan P.-K., July 18, 2017
Waterfront stories
Cardiff beach with shower. The surface swim is quite long (800–1200 ft.)
DiveBums.com
The following comes from DiveBums.com
Getting Wet: Head to the north end of the parking lot and enter the water where the lagoon flows into the ocean. You'll most likely see surfers to the south and north of this area. Try to stay between the two sets of surfers. The bottom here, like the whole dive area, is a rocky reef with lots of dips and high points. You may be up to your knees in water at one point and then take a step and be over your head, so be careful walking out.
Head to the north end of the parking lot.
The Lineup: The surface swim is quite long (800–1200 ft.) You need to swim out in a west-northwest direction, putting yourself just north of the lagoon outlet. Get yourself out to where the kelp canopy gets thick. You may run into a spot of kelp on the way, but go around it and keep swimming out. You'll know when you get to the spot because you won't see any spaces to swim around the canopy.
Drop Down: You'll drop down into about 25–40 ft. of water. You can go west through the "paths" between the kelp until you get to the end of the kelp forest and then return east. The bottom here is uneven, with lots of nooks and crannies. Expect to see lots of lobsters, surf perch, urchins, and the rest of the usual kelp forest fare. Visibility is generally fairly poor (8–20 ft.) due to the shallowness of the site.
Quast Rock, T Rock, Anchor Rock and God's Rock — Nov. 27, 2018
An alternative to Children's Pool — April 2, 2018
Witness to a reef — June 18, 2014
Thar She Blows! — Dec. 21, 2006
A survey of diving in San Diego — Nov. 14, 1974
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