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Who "are" the mayoral candidates: Tonight hear them
Elaine Coorens
Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle
Yes, either Lori Lightfoot or Toni Preckwinkle will be the first African American female mayor since Chicago became a city in 1837. But, who are they?
You can hear them on CBS Chicago tonight at 6 p.m., as they have their last TV face-off before election day, April 2nd.
Lightfoot
Lightfoot, 56, is from Massillon, OH. Her parents worked hard to raise three children, Lori being the youngest. Her mother Ann, now 90, worked in an overnight shift as a nurse's aide while her dad, Eli, worked at local factories as a janitor.
“My father was super intelligent,” Lightfoot’s brother Brian Lightfoot told WTTW. “I can only imagine the level that he would excel if he didn’t lose his hearing.” Eli lost his hearing as a result of meningitis, dashing his dream to become a lawyer.
They lived not on the southeast side of their small segregated city "where realtors were wanting most blacks to go," explains Ann Lightfoot. “I wanted to let my children have a mixture of friends; there were only two black children in Lori’s school for a long time.”
A participant in many extra-curricular activities, Lori Lightfoot did well in academics, graduating from the University of Michigan.
Her next stop was Washington, D.C., where she had her first encounter with working in government. She worked for her congressman before moving to Chicago to begin her pursuit of a law degree at the University of Chicago.
Her political/civic background, as submitted to the Sun-Times is
Chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force (PATF)
President of the Chicago Police Board
Interim First Deputy of the Chicago Department of Procurement Services
Chief of Staff and General Counsel of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC)
Chief Administrator, the Office of Professional Standards, Chicago Police Department
Assistant United States Attorney in the criminal division
Served on the boards of numerous progressive and pro-choice organizations like NARAL Illinois, Better Government Association, ACLU Illinois, the Center for Conflict Resolution, the Center for Wrongful Conviction, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Chicago, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
Member of the American Constitution Society’s Board of Advisors. I received the Victory Fund’s Debra Shore Leadership Award in 2017.
Her occupation: Attorney. Until May 2018, I was a senior equity partner in the Litigation and Conflict Resolution Group at Mayer Brown LLP, where I also served as the co-chair of the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
Her education: B.A., University of Michigan, with honors; J.D., University of Chicago (full academic scholarship)
Campaign website: https://lightfootforchicago.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LightfootForChi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LightfootForChicago
Preckwinkle
Toni Lynn Reed Preckwinkle, 72, grew up in a North End neighborhood of St. Paul, MN, where her family was a minority in a predominately white area. She was the eldest of four and the protector of all, according to her brother Jan Reed in a WTTW interview.
One day he was being bullied and she was being restrained but she broke loose and ran home to get their mother. When their mother returned to the scene, she spanked one of the bullies.
Later in the evening, the police went to the Reed home, threatening their mother with arrest if she ever did that again.
Their mother, Beatrice, worked for the St. Paul Library and father, Samuel, a WWII veteran, worked for the Veterans Association (VA). They were both graduates of the University of Minnesota.
Toni excelled in sports and academics in high school then went on to the University of Chicago where she did her undergrad and graduate work.
She went on to be a high school history teacher for about ten years before moving into the not-for-profit world. Her venture into politics began in 1983 when she challenged Timothy Evans for the 4th Ward Aldermanic seat.
In 1985, Preckwinkle joined the Department of Economic Development under the Harold Washington administration. Her interest in being alderman surfaced again in 1983 in a repeat race against Evans. However in 1991, she garnered 109 votes than Evans.
4th Ward Alderman (1991-2010)
Democratic Committeeman (1992-Present)
Executive Vice Chair of Cook County Democratic Party (2010)
Cook County Board President (2010-Present)
Her occupation: Cook County Board President
Her education: University of Chicago, BA, MA
Campaign website: https://toniforchicago.com/
Twitter: @toniforchicago
Facebook: facebook.com/ToniforChicago/
Campaign coverage
CBS Chicago Voter Guide with Issues and Wed. Mar. 27 Forum
The WGN debate was on Mon., Mar. 25
WTTW Forum was on Thurs., Mar. 21
ABC Chicago Forum was on Wed., Mar. 20
NBC Chicago Forum was on Thurs., Mar. 7
Sun-Times endorsement, Mar.19
Chicago Tribune's Election Guide
Chicago Tribune editorial endorsement session
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Sharing my thoughts with the world from a Particular Baptist perspective
Other Blogs I Recommend
Inside India
Posted on September 16, 2013 by particularkev
This entry was posted in India, news, video and tagged India, news, video. Bookmark the permalink.
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News reports of persecution and other information posted here does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the 'Blog Author-Master.'
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Why it’s so hard for me to decide when to listen to a podcast
Podcasts are a compelling medium.
I’ve been listening to podcasts for years now, from extremely popular podcasts such as Hardcore History and The History of Rome to niche podcasts such as Birds with Friends and Eagle Eye in the Sky (about the Philadelphia Eagles) to business podcasts like The Fizzle Show.
Recently, I’ve been a guest on some podcasts too. I spoke with Josh Schachnow from Solopreneur Grind and with Jack Monson from Social Geek Radio. Next week, another podcast recording I did is coming out. (I’ll be sharing that with you when it’s available.)
And those are just to talk about the Creator Challenge. I’ve also recorded a podcast episode and a video interview for a virtual summit for my yoga consulting business (No More Newsletters).
Beyond that, I’ve been toying with the idea of starting my own podcast.
So I’m a huge fan of podcasts. Like I said, it’s a compelling medium.
But I struggle with deciding when to listen to a podcast. The key problem is that, ever since I started meditating a few years ago, I have discovered that I feel better when I am present in the here and now. This is mindfulness. And I have discovered that I am more stressed the more stimuli are around me.
Let’s say I’m biking through the city. That’s usually not stressful, but under the right circumstances, it can stress me out a lot: for example, when it’s dark, windy, and rainy out, and there are cars all around me, particularly noisy ones. In a moment like that, if I add listening to a podcast as a stimulus, I will likely become uncomfortably stressed.
That’s an extreme example. For me, anyway. For you, biking through the city might be a relaxing activity.
What about when I’m cooking, or when I’m doing my daily stretches? Usually I have to think when cooking, because I’m not an experienced cook. So I can’t focus on the podcast. Even when I’m stretching, which I do every day, I still focus on the stretching to a point that I notice myself missing large chunks of the podcast.
Okay, so how about I simply sit still and look out the window while I listen to a podcast? For some reason, that bores me. Monkey mind…
In the end, I usually listen to podcasts on the go. For me, it’s ideal to listen while I’m on public transit. I’m not doing nothing—I’m moving towards my destination—so it’s not as “boring” as listening to a podcast at home while staring out the window. But I also don’t have to pay much attention when I’m on the bus, metro, tram, or train. And I do listen to podcasts while biking often as well. After all, I’m Dutch, so I like to go most places by bike.
But I continue to struggle to decide when to listen to a podcast. I want to do the podcast justice by giving it my full attention, yet I don’t allow myself to simply listen to a podcast and do nothing else. Whereas if I try to listen to a podcast while doing something else that’s meaningful, I learn (again!) that I cannot multitask and it’s pointless to try.
When do you listen to podcasts? Do you have these same struggles?
The number one thing I gained from creating content every day
Everyday gratitude
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India’s oil imports from Iran slump 60% in Feb y/y: Sources
NEW DELHI: India's oil imports from Iran in February plunged by over 60 percent from a year ago to about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) as New Delhi cuts imports under a sanctions waiver deal with Washington, data compiled by Reuters showed.
The United States introduced sanctions aimed at crippling Iran's oil revenue-dependent economy in November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, including India, which allowed them to import some Iranian oil.
India has been allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil till early May.
India's February imports from Iran were about 4 percent lower than January's purchases, the data showed.
Iran was the eighth biggest oil supplier to India in February compared with seventh in January, and slipped from third position it held a year ago, the data showed.
Last month Tehran's share in India's overall oil imports declined to about 5 percent from about 14 percent a year earlier, the data showed.
In the first 11 months of this fiscal year that began in April, India's oil imports from Iran rose by 5.6 percent to 486,400 bpd as refiners boosted purchases ahead of the U.S. sanctions drawn by discounts offered by Tehran, the data showed.
Iran was hoping to sell more than 500,000 bpd of oil to India in 2018/19, its oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said last year, and had offered almost free shipping and an extended credit period to boost sales to the country.
Indian refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp, Mangalore RefineryNSE 0.85 % and Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil CorpNSE -1.65 % together lifted 1.25 million tonnes or 9 million barrels of Iranian oilin February.
Delivery of some cargoes is delayed to March as Tehran has a limited number of ships.
In the previous fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2018 Indian refiners cut purchases from Iran due to a dispute over the award of development rights of a giant gas field.
Government sources say Reuters' calculations showing India's oil imports from Iran in this fiscal year would be higher than the 452,000 bpd, or 22.6 million tonnes, it imported in the previous year, were correct.
India's total oil imports in February were about 5 million barrels, a growth of about 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
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Leigh, D. Lemay, L.E. Leonardi, N. Lerberg, S. Lerczak, J. Leslie, H.M. Levine, U.Y. Li, X. Li, C. Lin, Y. Lin, H. Linder, E. Lindstrom, E.S. Lineweaver, C.H. Lippitt, C. Liu, J. Liu, Y. Liu, P. Liu, Jianguo Lloret, J. Lockfield, K. Loder, T.C. Logan, J. Logan, J.M. Long, E.V. Longworth, B. Lorenz, K. Lu, C. Lu, Y.H. Luciano, K.E. Ludlam, J.P. Lugo, A.E. Lunsford, T.L. Lynch, J.C. Lyon, S. Lyons, M.K. Machas, R. Magnusson, B. Magnusson, eds. Maher, N. Makrides, E. Malizia, N.R. Malkinson, D. Malone, T. Maragos, J. Maranger, R. Marani, A. Marcano, E. Marcus, N. Mariotti, G. Marti, E. Martin, S. Martin, D.G. Martin, D. Martin, R. Marzadri, A. Marzouk, A. Maschner, H.D.G. Mather, M.E. Matich, P. Maxwell-Doyle, M. Mayer, L.A. Mayer, P.M. Mayorga, E. McCarthy, M.J. McClelland, J. McConnell, W.J. McCormick, S.D. McDermott, J. McDowell, W.H. McDowell, W. McGillis, W.R. McGlathery, K. McGlathery, K.J. McMahon, K. Megonigal, P. Meile, C. Melendez, E. Melillo, J. Menard, S. Mendelssohn, I. A.Merner, L. Meybeck, M. Meyer, J.L. Meyer, J. L.Michener, W.K. Miller, R.J. Miller, E.E. Millette, T.L. Millington, J.D.A. Millones, M. Mills, A.L. Minaei, M. Mineau, M.M. Mitchell, L.R. Mitwally, H.M. Mondrup, T. Monticino, M. Moore, N. Moore, W. Moore, W.S. Mora, J. Moran, M.A. Morgan, E.J. Morkeski, K. Morris, J.T. Morris, J. T.Morris, J. Morrison, H.G. Morse, J.L. Morse, N. Morse, N.B. Moseman-Valtierra, A. Moser, E.B. Moulton, O.M. Mozdzer, T.J. Mudd, S.M. Mulholland, P. Mulholland, M. Mulholland, P.J. Mulholland, P. J.Murphy, A.E. Muth, R.M. Nadelhoffer, K. Naiman, R. Najjar, R.G. Nardin, W. Naylor, L. Neckles, H. Neet, M. Neeti, N. Neff, R. Nehring, A. Neill, C. Nelson, G.A. Nelson, James Nelson, A. Nelson, K. Nelson, K.C. Nelson, J.A. Neubauer, S.C. Newbold, J.D. Nguyen, T. Nicolson, C. Niederlehner, B. R.Nielsen, J.L. Nietch, C.T. Nifong, J.C. Niven, R.K. Nixon, S.W. Noble, P.A. Nolin, A. Nynam, J.A. O'Brien, J. O'Brien, J.M. O'Brien, M. O'Neil-Dunne, J. Oczkowski, A.J. Ogden, L. Ogden, L Ogden, L.A. Ogden, L.A. Ohman, M.D. Olker, J.H. Ollinger, S. Olofson, P.R. Olsen, S.B. Onsted, J. Onsted, J.A. Ossolinski, J. Overton, A.S. O’Neill, V. O’Neill-Dunne, J. OﾒBrien, J. M.P., Campostrini Packman, A. Pacocha, S. Padeletti, A. Palanisamy, G. Palmer, M.E. Pan, Yun Parker, D. Parks, B. O.Parmentier, B. Parolari, A. Pascal, P-Y. Pataki, D.E. Pataki, D.E. Pataki, D. Pautzke, S.M. Paynter, I. Pease, K. M.Pederson, J. Peery, B.W. Pellechia, P.J. Pellerin, B.A. Pellerin, B. Pellerin, B. A.Pennings, S. Pennino, M.J. Perdue, M. Peri, F. Perring, A. Peters, D. Peters, D.P.C. Peterson, B. J.Peterson, B. Peterson, B.J. Petrova, S. Petsch, S.T. Pfister, C.A. Pharino, C. Philbrick, S. Picard, C. Pieri, N. Pincetl, S. Pinlay, G. Podestá, G. Polasky, S. Polsky, C. Poltz, M.F. Polz, M.F. Pontius, R.G. Poole, G.C. Poole, G. Porter, D.E. Porter, D. Potter, J. D.Potter, J.D. Potter, J. Powell, L. Powell, J.C. Powell, H. Prahl, F. Preheim, S.P. Prosser, D. Purinton, T. Quan, B. Quay, R. Quigley, E. Quirk, T. Rabalais, N. Rabalais, N.N. Raciti, S. Rakshit, R. Ramsey, K. Rand, D.M. Randall, J. Rao, A. Rao, P. Raposa, K.B. Rastetter, E. Rastetter, E.B. Ratick, S. Raymond, P.A. Raymond, P. A.Reay, W.G. Redman, C.L. Rees, D. Regenauer-Lieb, K. Regnier, P.A.G. Ren, H. Reo, N.J. Reyes, E. Richey, J. Riordan, B. Ripple, W.J. Ritchie, M.E. Ritter, A. Rivera-Monroy, V.H. Robinson, W. E.Robinson, C.T. Rochlin, I. Rodriguez, E. Rogan, J. Rollinson, C.R. Roman, C.T. Roman, C. Rosa, I.M.D. Rosenblatt, A. Rountree, R.A. Runfola, D.M. Runfola, D.S.M. Rustad, L.E. S.E., Hobbie. S.J., Ratick Sabater, F. Sailor, D. Salgado, J. Saliba, K. Salisbury, J. Samples, S.R. San Gil, I. Santacruz, A. Santos, R. Saraceno, J. Sarma-Rupavtarm, R. Sauls, L. Savoy, T. Sax, D. Schaaf, C. Schaffner, L. Scharler, U. M.Schindler, D.E. Schmidt, V. Schmidt, L. Schmidt, T. Schmitt, C. Schmitz, O.J. Schneider, B.U. Schneider, L.C. Schneider, L. Schoch, C. Schramm, A. Schroeder, R. Scott, D. 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Viaroli, P. Vidon, P.G. Vieillard, A. Vieillard, A.M. Viggato, T. Von Bodungen, B. Von Bodungen, B. von Braun, J. von Trapp, K. Vorosmarty, C. J.Vorosmarty, C.J. Vorosmarty, C. Vose, J. Waddell, K. Waide, R.B. Wainright, S. Walker, R.L. Walker, L.R. Walker, D. Walsh, J.M. Walter, J.F. Wan, Z. Ward, E. Ward, B.B. Wares, J. Warren, S. Warren, P. Warren, R.S. Watson, E.B. Weaver, M. Webler, T. Webster, J. R.Webster, J.R. Weinstein, M.P. Weinstein, D. Weinstein, M. Weinstein, M. P.Weller, D.E. Wells, S.P. Weston, N. Weston, N.B. Whitall, D. Whitney, C. Wiberg, P. Wiberg, P.L. Wiegert, R. Wigand, C. Wigand, C.A. Wilcox, K.R. Williams, K. Williams, C. Williams, M. Williams, B.L. Williams, L. Williams, B. Williams, P.J.leB. Willig, M.R. Wilmers, C.C. Wilson, G. Wilson, M. Wilson, C.A. Wilson, R.W. Wiseman, W. Wohl, E. Woldschutte, H. Wollheim, W.M. Wollheim, W. Wong, R. Woodbury, P. Wool, C. Wright, L.A. Xiang, W. Yan, Y. Yandik, W. Yanez-Arancibia, A. Yang, Q. Yao, J. Yarie, J. Yarmey, L. Yarnal, B. Ye, S. Yeates, A.G. Yoklavich, M. Yoo, G. Yoskowitz, D. Young, T. Zappa, C.J. Zappa, C. J.Zawatski, M. Zeglin, L. Zemmelink, H.J. Zhang, X. Zhang, Y. Zhao, Y. Zhao, L. Zieman, J.C. Zwart, G.
Filters: Keyword is erosion [Clear All Filters]
Hopkinson C.S., Morris J.T., Fagherazzi S., Wollheim W.M., Raymond P.A. 2018. Lateral Marsh Edge Erosion as a Source of Sediments for Vertical Marsh Accretion. Journal of Geophysical Research.
Fagherazzi S., Viggato T., Vieillard A.M., Mariotti G., Fulweiler R.W.. 2017. The effect of evaporation on the erodibility of mudflats in a mesotidal estuary. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 194:118-127.
Ganju N.K., Defne Z., Kirwan M.L., Fagherazzi S., D'Alpaos A., Carniello L.. 2017. Spatially integrative metrics reveal hidden vulnerability of microtidal salt marshes. Nature Communications. 8
Leonardi N., Ganju N.K., Fagherazzi S.. 2016. A linear relationship between wave power and erosion determines salt-marsh resilience to violent storms and hurricanes. PNAS. 113:64-68.
Leonardi N., Defne Z., Ganju N.K., Fagherazzi S.. 2016. Salt marsh erosion rates and boundary features in a shallow Bay. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 121:1861-1875.
Mariotti G., Kearney W.S., Fagherazzi S.. 2016. Soil creep in salt marshes. Geology.
Leonardi N., Fagherazzi S.. 2015. Local variability in erosional resistance affects large scale morphodynamic response of salt marshes to wind waves. Geophysical Research Letters. 42
Leonardi N.. 2015. Modeling the effect of Marine Processes on Deltaic Wetland. PhD
Leonardi N., Fagherazzi S.. 2014. How waves shape salt marshes. Geology.
Valentine K.. 2013. The Effect of Physical and Biological Processes on the erosion of Cohesive Sediments. B.S.
Fagherazzi S.. 2013. The ephemeral life of a salt marsh. Geology. 41:943-944.
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Column: Josh Gordon provides ‘Flash’ of inspiration
Josh Gordon celebrates his fourth quarter touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Sept. 9, at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland. The game ended in a 21-21 tie. (Phil Masturzo/Beacon Journal/TNS)
By Stephen Thompson, Staff Writer
Current New England Patriots wide receiver Josh Gordon has often been at the center of ridicule and criticism about his personal and professional struggles. The player nicknamed “Flash,” has proven that he can be a game-changing talent when on the field, but the story of Gordon’s career has been marred by his off-the-field issues. Suspensions and substance abuse violations kept Gordon from fully realizing his talent and holding down a spot on an NFL roster.
Gordon contributed a solid stat line last Thursday for the Patriots, catching two passes for 50 yards and a touchdown. Those numbers wouldn’t look incredible for any other player, but for Gordon, they resembled much more — the culmination of a journey back to the NFL after taking a two-year hiatus to deal with drug addiction.
Coming out of Lamar High School in Houston, Gordon played two seasons of college football for Baylor University — but following a 2010 season, in which he posted 42 receptions for 714 yards and seven touchdowns, Gordon failed a drug test. This was his second substance violation in as many years.
Gordon was suspended indefinitely and eventually transferred to the University of Utah. After sitting out for one season due to NCAA transfer rules, he declared for the 2012 NFL Supplemental Draft, where he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns. He would go on to become one of the league’s most productive rookie receivers, catching 50 passes for 805 yards and five touchdowns. That was the last full season Gordon played.
Gordon followed up his standout rookie campaign with a two-game suspension in 2013 for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, but was still selected to the Pro Bowl after accounting for more than 1,600 yards in his final 14 games.
A DUI earned Gordon a 10-game suspension in 2014 and another substance abuse violation kept him sidelined for all of 2015. He was reinstated in time for 2016 training camp, but had to sit out the first four games of the regular season. Before Gordon could step on the field during that season, he checked into an in-patient rehabilitation facility.
“This is the right decision for me and one that I hope will enable me to gain full control of my life and continue on a path to reach my full potential as a person,” he wrote in a statement he released when he began his treatment program.
Gordon was then released from the facility and played two games at the end of the 2017 season. This season, Gordon played just one game for the Browns before being traded to the Patriots for a fifth-round draft pick. Gordon has played sparingly in New England, but showed flashes of his tremendous talent by catching Tom Brady’s 500th career touchdown pass last week against the Colts.
Touchdown Number 500, for Thomas “The Goat” Brady 🐐!
First touchdown as a Patriots for Josh Gordon! Awesome 😎#patriots #gopats #tombrady #joshgordon pic.twitter.com/5v6MJvnE1P
— New England Patriots (@patriotsfanpage) October 5, 2018
Gordon has been ridiculed by football spectators for years. Entering this season, many expected the same Josh Gordon to show up, get suspended and repeat the process that has come to define his NFL career.
But I see a different Josh Gordon — and an extremely hypocritical system that has come to vilify Gordon despite overlooking other cases.
Look at where Gordon’s presence on the national football stage began — Baylor University. The Bears football program is infamous for its cover-up of sexual assault and rape cases by former head coach Art Briles, the same man who suspended Gordon in 2010 for testing positive for marijuana. The same coach who ignored the calls for help from victims of sexual violence determined that Gordon was unfit to be on his football team.
You can also see the stark contrasts between Gordon’s story and the careers of other troubled NFL players. Tyreek Hill, another All-Pro wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs, pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery when he was in college at Oklahoma State, but that part of his past is quickly forgotten when fans and coaches see Hill sprinting down the sideline for a touchdown on Sunday afternoons.
Now I understand that sports, especially football, can sometimes harbor shady characters for the sake of their talent, and to stop supporting someone because of a past mistake is wrong. But is Josh Gordon truly among the worst the NFL has to offer and deserving of the treatment he’s received?
Booger McFarland, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers player who currently works for ESPN as an analyst, remarked in 2017 that he didn’t think Josh Gordon deserved a place in the NFL.
“He needs to get his own life in order first,” he said.
But Gordon was shunned from football for his mistakes while men like Richie Incognito, who used a racial slur to verbally abuse a teammate, or Joe Mixon, who is on video physically assaulting a woman, are welcomed with open arms. Were Incognito or Mixon asked to do the same kind of self-examination and exhibit the same self-sacrifice as Gordon? No — both players were absolved of their past mistakes and returned to the football field unscathed.
Gordon deserves a chance to remake himself in the NFL not just because he is an incredible talent, but because he is someone we should all strive to be like. Unlike so many of his peers, Gordon owned his problems and took the steps necessary to get better, no matter how difficult or embarrassing they were. That’s why it’s so awesome to see him back on the field catching touchdowns in New England, regardless of your feelings toward the Patriots. Josh Gordon is trying to overcome his demons and continues to prove that he is up to the task.
All reports out of Foxboro have been glowing about Gordon’s work ethic, commitment, talent and character. In a time where the NFL has become more and more controversial for issues like the roughing the passer rule, kneeling for the anthem and concussions, Gordon is one of the bright spots that make football worth watching. A comeback story for a star player suffering from addiction should draw our admiration — not disdain — and this Sunday, when Josh Gordon takes the field on national TV, remember that his story goes beyond football.
Tags: browns, column, comeback, gordon, josh gordon, nfl, patriots, thompson
Stephen Thompson, Senior Staff Writer
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NC State’s Barber proves to be cut above Pitt defense
By Jasper Wilson / Senior Staff Writer
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Cats are known for being fast, and Cat Barber is no exception.
North Carolina State’s starting point guard, whose given name is Anthony, proved as much when he used his speed to great effect on Wednesday night, scoring a career-high 34 points, 21 of which came in the first half, to run past Pitt in an ACC tournament second round game. The Panthers lost 81-70.
As Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon worked through all the ways that Barber hurt his team, he came to a simple conclusion.
“It was just his night,” Dixon said.
Barber’s career-high entering the game was 28, set earlier this year. He didn’t miss any of the 12 free throws he attempted and tied his mark for most 3-pointers made in a game with four.
By doing all of that, he attacked what has been an area of debilitating weakness for Pitt for much of the season, ranking last in the 15-team conference in opponent field goal percentage, allowing opponents to shoot 45 percent from the field on average, ninth in points given up per game (65.3) and ninth in opposing 3 point percentage (33 percent).
“I thought they had trouble containing him and stopping his penetration,” NC State head coach Mark Gottfried said. “And then we got ahead and they tried to press us. At that point it becomes really difficult to contain Cat.”
Conversely, the seventh-seeded Wolfpack (20-12, 8-10 ACC) as a unit have been strong offensively all season, boasting the 4th best-scoring offense in the league at 70.6 points per game, ranking fifth in 3-point percentage at 36 percent and ninth in field goal percentage at 44 percent.
The mismatch is one with which the 10th-seeded Panthers (19-14, 8-10 ACC) were already familiar, having been defeated by the Wolfpack 68-50 in the conference opener for both teams at the beginning of January. In that meeting, State shot 27-52 from the field, good for 52 percent, and 16-27 (59 percent) in the second half.
Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner led the way for the Wolfpack then, scoring 19 and 16 points, respectively. Barber contributed just nine.
When asked for the cause of such a massively improved performance this time around, the sophomore mentioned his mindset.
“I was more aggressive. My teammates and coaches were telling me to be me,” Barber said. “So today I just came out with a high sense of urgency and confidence that I’m gonna put the team on my back, and that’s what I did.“
The rest of his team followed his lead, collectively shooting 12-27 (44.4 percent) and 5-10 from 3-point range (50 percent) in the first half.
That aggressiveness from Barber, and the rest of his teammates, was unrelenting until the end, as he scored six points in the final two minutes of play.
“We had times where we had the advantage to score the ball, so we took it,” he said. “So I think in our eyes we weren’t going to turn down the opportunity to be aggressive the whole game.”
Pitt never led and tied the game only twice, both instances coming in the first half when neither team had yet scored double digits.
Tags: acc, basketball, jasper wilson, nc state
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Home → About coal seam gas → FAQ
Are oil and gas operations harmful to human health?
Properly regulated oil and gas operations are safe and the Australian oil and gas industry has a strong compliance record. The people most exposed to oil and gas are workers in the industry, and an independent epidemiology program linked with Monash University clearly shows that petroleum industry employees have better health than the general Australian community and are less likely to die of the diseases commonly causing death – including cancer, heart and respiratory conditions. For more information, see this webpage.
Is hydraulic fracturing a new technology?
Hydraulic fracturing has been around for a long time, with the first use of hydraulic fracturing taking place in 1949. The process has been used safely in oil and gas for almost 70 years in more than 2 million wells around the world.
Why are chemicals used in fracking?
Fracking fluid is generally 90% water, 9.5% sand and 0.5% chemical additives. Most of the chemicals used in fracking are found in familiar household products and food additives. Commonly used substances include guar gum (a thickener found in food products), acetic acid (in vinegar), sodium chloride (salt), ethanol, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and sodium hypochlorite and hydrochloric acid (both used in swimming pools), cellulose (used to make paper), acetic acid (the active part of vinegar) and small amounts of disinfectants. These chemicals are all used in very low concentrations and in almost all cases they are biodegradable, meaning they break down.
Chemicals are used because the tiny cracks in the rock created by fracking will quickly close unless they are held open in some way. This is done by injecting a proppant made from sand into the cracks. But sand does not dissolve in water so a thickener (guar gum) is needed to carry the sand. Other chemicals help reduce friction, remove bacteria and prevent scale from building up in the well.
For a list of chemicals used in Australian CSG operations click here.
Are BTEX chemicals used in CSG fracking?
No. In Australia, BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) chemicals cannot be used in fracking fluids. BTEX chemicals may occur in natural water sources, so in some instances trace levels of these chemicals may be detected following hydraulic fracturing. They can also be detected in industrial and irrigation waters that farmers and pastoralists use all the time.
How can we be sure fracking fluids won’t contaminate the environment?
Following the completion of a fracking stage, between 20% and 70% of fraccing fluid is recovered and stored in lined pits or in steel tanks so that it can be reused in another fraccing stage or in another well.
When no longer needed, the fluids and residue are placed in lined evaporation ponds. The bulk of the material is sand that returns from the bore plus the remaining fluid with the additives. Most of the additives will break down fairly quickly under light and the sand will settle out with the remaining small amount of salt. Once these have dried out, the remaining residue is taken away to a licensed facility for disposal.
Do drilling and fracking cause gas to migrate into waterbores and aquifers?
Natural gas wells are constructed to ensure gas cannot migrate to neighbouring bores and aquifers. It is not in the gas companies’ interests to allow leakage of gas into aquifers. Such leaks would make it difficult to extract the gas and would reduce the amount of gas available for sale.
Water in coal seams typically lies 200 metres or more below the water table used for stock and domestic purposes. In most cases, hundreds of metres of barrier rock separates fracture zones from useable water aquifers.
The design of the well and the cementing and casing practices also protect the aquifers from water entering the bore hole or the gas from the hole entering the aquifer. The standards for gas wells are far higher than those applying to water bores.
Wells have multiple layers of steel casing and specially engineered concrete. These separate the contents of the well from water aquifers. Each segment of steel casing is cemented in place then pressure tested and scanned to ensure there are no cracks or leaks before the next layer of casing is inserted and cemented in place. The standards applying to oil and gas wells drilled through water aquifers are very high – much higher than those applying to water bores.
The use of multiple layers of protection around wells to ensure no connectivity with water aquifers has been used in gas production for many decades. Instances of well failure are very rare.
Could the fractures extend vertically into drinking water aquifers?
No. Each fracture stage is individually engineered and controlled to limit fractures to the oil and gas bearing rocks. Extensive research on hundreds of wells in the US has conclusively demonstrated that the fractures induced by the process are confined to the rocks close to the target zone.
How do operators ensure they are not depleting or contaminating ground water sources?
Companies use extensive monitoring to detect any possible changes in the environment that could be a result of operations. Before, during and after activities begin, monitoring is used to measure the potential impact on the environment. Before drilling a well, companies undertake extensive surveys to fully understand the environment.
All exploration and drilling activities are closely regulated by the government. Before obtaining approval to drill or frac, operators must develop environmental management plans that describe what the risks are and how they will be managed. Every step of the drilling and fraccing process must be reported to the regulator, which will closely monitored these operations.
Will sink holes be created as water and gas are drained from the coal seams?
No. This has not occurred in two decades of Queensland CSG production. Once the water and gas have been pumped out, the coal seam remains in place, so it is not possible for underground caverns to be created.
Does CSG production require thousands of wells to be drilled closely together and restrict other land uses?
Operators have a cost incentive to minimise the number of wells required. With horizontal drilling, multiple wells can be drilled from the same drilling pad, which minimises both costs and land disturbance. The location of wells and pipeline routes is agreed in consultation with landholders. These are often placed along fencelines to minimise inconvenience.
How can we be sure that wells will not deteriorate over time and cause environmental problems 50 or 100 years from now?
The risk of a well casing failure in Australia is low because the industry is committed to ensuring that wells are constructed and maintained to the highest standards using the latest available technology. Specially engineered steels and cement used in well casings are designed to withstand pressures far in excess of those found underground. In the absence of air and water, steel does not corrode and there well casings have been recovered after 40 years with very little deterioration. A 2011 study by the US Groundwater Protection Council showed that less than 0.1% wells drilled since the early 1980s had issues with well integrity (12 out of 34,000 wells in Ohio and 2 out of 187,000 wells in Texas). Most of these were drilled in the 1980s and 1990s before improved cement formulas and regulations were in place.
Australia's coal seam gas resources
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This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.
Imprisonment for Debt
by Robert C. Voigt, 2006
See also: British Debts
From the time of the earliest colonial settlements until the mid-nineteenth century, imprisonment for debt was common in North Carolina and throughout British North America. Legal procedures for imprisoning a debtor in default were introduced into the American colonies from Great Britain, where English law generally held borrowers strictly accountable for their financial obligations and allowed individuals to be jailed at their own expense in the event of default. The purpose of the law was to provide creditors a forceful means of collecting payment on a debt.
During the early colonial period, North Carolina was burdened with an unsavory reputation as a haven for irresponsible debtors and runaway indentured servants, in part because of a 1669 law that protected new settlers from foreign creditors for a period of five years. (Virginia and South Carolina particularly berated North Carolina for harboring debtors, although those neighboring colonies enacted laws granting similar protections during the 1600s.) Despite the 1669 law and North Carolina's reputation as a haven for idle debtors, early colonial North Carolina generally adhered to traditional English law in holding borrowers fully responsible for debts and making them subject to imprisonment for default.
Imprisonment for debt (except in cases of fraud) was abolished by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1867. The legislative ban was confirmed the following year under the North Carolina Constitution of 1868. Developments in the law leading to the eventual abolition of imprisonment for debt did not follow a gradual and consistent trend favoring more lenient treatment of defaulters on loans. Instead, changes in the law occurred in a series of sporadic legislative measures and court decisions that reflected changing economic conditions, regional political differences within the state, and an awareness of practical considerations as well as moral and humanitarian concerns.
George Philip Bauer, "The Movement against Imprisonment for Debt in the United States" (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1935).
Peter J. Coleman, Debtors and Creditors in America: Insolvency, Imprisonment for Debt, and Bankruptcy, 1607-1900 (1974).
Kenneth Edson St. Clair, "Debtor Relief in North Carolina during Reconstruction," NCHR 18 (July 1941).
NC DCR Digital Collections, 1867 Session Laws: http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,178301
Historic Halifax Jail, built in 1838. Image courtesy of NC Historic Sites. Available from http://www.nchistoricsites.org/halifax/main.htm (accessed October 31, 2012).
American Revolution (1763-1789)
Early Statehood (1789-1820)
Antebellum (1820-1861)
Civil War (1861-1865)
Reconstruction (1865-1876)
Law and legal history
Voigt, Robert C.
1 January 2006 | Voigt, Robert C.
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Select ratingGive Granville County 1/5Give Granville County 2/5Give Granville County 3/5Give Granville County 4/5Give Granville County 5/5
GRANVILLE COUNTY GOVERNMENT:
http://www.granvillecounty.org/
COUNTY SEAT: Oxford
FORMED FROM: Edgecombe
LAND AREA: 531.57 square miles
2018 POPULATION ESTIMATE: 60,115
White: 64.5%
Black/African American: 32.1%
American Indian: 0.8%
Asian: 0.7%
Pacific Islander: 0.1%
Two or more races: 1.7%
Hispanic/Latino: 8.2% (of any race)
From State & County QuickFacts, US Census Bureau, 2018.
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: 1ST
BIOGRAPHIES FOR
WILDLIFE PROFILES FOR
Piedmont region
RIVER BASIN: Neuse, Roanoke, Tar-Pamlico, Map
NEIGHBORING COUNTIES: Durham, Franklin, Person, Vance, Wake
See also: North Carolina Counties (to access links to NCpedia articles for all 100 counties)
by Allyson C. Criner, 2006
Granville County, located in the Piedmont region of north central North Carolina and partially bordered by the state of Virginia, was formed in 1746 from Edgecombe County. It was named for John Lord Carteret, second Earl Granville, who was granted the land of the Granville District by King George II. The county reached its present dimensions after being divided in 1752, 1764, and 1881 to form parts of Orange, Bute (no longer extant), and Vance Counties, respectively. Oxford is the county seat, having succeeded Granville Court House in that capacity in 1811. Other communities in Granville County include Butner, Creedmoor, Stem, and Stovall.
Tuscarora and Saponi Indians dominated the many tribes that once inhabited Granville County. Settlers, mostly from Virginia, began to occupy the area after the Tuscarora War of 1711-13. Agriculture, particularly the production of tobacco using slave labor, drove the early economy of Granville County, which, during slavery's peak in the mid-nineteenth century, was one of a handful of North Carolina counties with as many as 10,000 slaves. The county also had a sizable community of free blacks, including dozens of craftsmen such as the masons who helped build the homes of some of the county's more affluent families. The development in the 1850s of bright leaf tobacco, which could be cultivated in the sandy soil of the Piedmont, kept tobacco production strong in the county following the elimination of a slave-based plantation economy.
Granville County is still one of the largest tobacco-producing areas in the state, but with the introduction of manufacturing industries, the county's economy is no longer primarily agricultural. Manufactured products include apparel, tires, telecommunications equipment, cosmetics, and china. Camp Butner, a major World War II military installation, was converted for other uses, including a federal prison and state mental hospital. In 2004 the population of Granville County was estimated to be 53,000.
Annotated history of Granville County's formation:
For an annotated history of the county's formation, with the laws affecting the county, boundary lines and changes, and other origin information, visit these references in The Formation of the North Carolina Counties (Corbitt, 2000), available online at North Carolina Digital Collections (note, there may be additional items of interest for the county not listed here):
County formation history: http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p16062coll9/id/289882
Index entry for the county: http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p16062coll9/id/290082
Lewis Bowling, Granville County Revisited (2003).
Corbitt, David Leroy. 2000. The formation of the North Carolina counties, 1663-1943. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p16062coll9/id/290103 (accessed June 20, 2017).
Granville County Government: http://www.granvillecounty.org/government/
Granville County Chamber of Commerce: http://granville-chamber.com/
DigitalNC, Granville County: http://www.digitalnc.org/counties/granville-county/
North Carolina Digital Collections (explore by place, time period, format): http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/home/browse
Rudersdorf, Amy. 2010. "NC County Maps." Government & Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina.
Criner, Allyson C.
Origin - location:
1 January 2006 | Criner, Allyson C.
Hello I am trying to track
Permalink Submitted by Mariah Zingarelli (not verified) on Thu, 03/01/2018 - 23:48
Hello I am trying to track down the parents of Jesse Barnett Jr who was born anywhere from 1775-1783 in Granville, North Carolina and died in Hardin, Tenessee in 6 DEC 1851. He was married to Frances Gregory. Thank you very much!
I have traced my grandmother
Permalink Submitted by Levonia Sams-Kenton (not verified) on Tue, 12/26/2017 - 15:15
I have traced my grandmother to this area. Her name is Rosa Della Richardson 11/25/1878 -10/28/1931. I am interested in the genealogy of the Richardson families in Granville County at the time.
I would like to know if F S
Permalink Submitted by Ima Doris Smith (not verified) on Tue, 06/21/2016 - 21:19
I would like to know if F S Royster had a slave named James William Royster sometime in the 1700 or 1800's?
Dear Ima,
Permalink Submitted by kagan on Fri, 06/24/2016 - 11:47
Thank you for visiting NCpedia and taking time to share your question.
I am replying to the NCpedia you included in your post and cc’ing Reference Services at the NC Government & Heritage Library. A librarian will contact you shortly to help with this question if you are still looking for information.
I am also including here the link to the Frank Sheppard Royster, Sr. NCpedia entry for additional information for Reference Services: http://ncpedia.org/biography/royster-frank-sheppard-sr
Kelly Agan, NC Government & Heritage Library
Do you have information about
Permalink Submitted by James Dennard (not verified) on Tue, 10/14/2014 - 12:00
Do you have information about Harriet Byrd who married Jacob Dennard? Both born about 1750. I have traced my ancestors to this area. Also about Thomas Dennard born early 1700s and possibly Jacob's father.
Dear James,
Permalink Submitted by kagan on Thu, 10/16/2014 - 15:05
Thanks for visiting NCpedia and asking your question.
Unfortunately, NCpedia does not have any additional information about Harriet Byrd and Jacob Dennard.
If you would assistance locating resources about your family history, genealogy librarians at the Government & Heritage Library can help. You can find the library's contact information and services on our website at http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/contact.html.
I am also forwarding this information to you in an email.
Kelly Agan, Government & Heritage Library
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Learning from the Past: One Eye on the Stairs and One Eye on the Future
In Education
Learning from the Past: One Eye on the Stairs and One Eye on the Future2009-02-082015-11-09https://ndnr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ndnr-logo-with-web1-300x169-copy.pngNaturopathic Doctor News and Reviewhttps://ndnr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/11962383_ml.jpg200px200px
David Schleich, PhD
As the formation of the naturopathic profession accelerates in North America, it is useful to reflect on events and personalities that have been part of that history. The well-known admonition that if we don’t learn from the past we are more likely to repeat its problems or errors is without doubt true with regard to professional formation for NDs. In America, many higher education scholars predict that new naturopathic programs in various forms will emerge in the next decade. The most likely form is a program within an existing university or other post-secondary educational institution. This has been true, for example, at NUHS and at Bridgeport in the last decade. SCNM and BINM are likely the last standalone naturopathic colleges in North America to be established in that mode.
Another form could be the often-discussed notion of “bridge programs,” of special interest to the chiropractic profession but also attracting attention from other health care professionals. The stirring of interest for such a program in Idaho in recent months, as another example, calls attention to the need for a strategy that can invite and support a high-quality program aligned with the rigor and standards of the CNME rather than affiliation with rival groups whose standards appear suspect. As well, the two cohorts who have already graduated from John Thomas College in St. Louis with state-authorized degrees called “naturopathic medical doctor” or “NMD” are another case in point. What is encouraging, though, is that this latter group is very eager to understand and to create their program in concert with potential new CNME standards for bridge programming.
We have in our history one tale of bruising and woe that warns us about being alert to the emergence of rival interests for new programs in naturopathic medicine. While we would want them to be in the CNME family, we must also be prepared to do the work necessary to assure that flight path as demand for natural medicine accelerates in North America and beyond. An event 20 years ago in Ontario, Canada, is worth noting. Certainly, in 2009, our agencies, colleges and networks are much stronger than they were back then; however, the same detractors are afoot and it is worth our being vigilant.
The “Ontario Incident”
In Canada, about two decades back, the fragile Ontario College of Naturopathic Medicine, predecessor to the current CCNM, had a very bumpy path for several years through that process of aligning with the right accrediting body and the right professional groups. As the 1980s closed, the American Naturopathic Medical Association (ANMA), led by Donald Hayhurst and others of Nevada, attempted to assimilate the little Canadian school into its sphere. Sadly, leaders in the Hayhurst camp and at OCNM itself both contributed to the messy, complex transition that was in play as the Canadian school tried to move into the mainstream of naturopathic professional development. At the time, the issue that seemed to rankle the executive of the Ontario Naturopathic Association most of all was that the executive director of the Ontario school, Dr. S. Hambly, had applied for accreditation with the ANMA-endorsed American Naturopathic Medical Certification and Accreditation Board (ANMCAB) at the same time as his administration was quietly communicating for candidacy with the profession’s bona fide accrediting body, the CNME. The ANMCAB agency was directly in conflict with the CNME, the accrediting body spawned by the AANP and recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Neither accrediting body knew that the school was seeking accreditation from both at the same time.
This all occurred during the spring and summer of 1989. During this period, the board and management staff of OCNM prepared a self-study document (OCNM Self-Study, ANMCAB, August 1989), which resulted in an October site visit by the ANMCAB. The formal application for accreditation had been dated Jan. 5, 1989 (ANMCAB, Application for Accreditation, January 5, 1989). The documentation for accreditation by the ANMCAB was a significantly smaller, less rigorous and less comprehensive study than that required by the CNME for the same purposes. For example, its financial section required a simple profit and loss statement rather than a full budget analysis, including capital and operational sections with full five-year projections and consideration of operating ratios. As well, its review of operational systems consisted only of a listing of positions rather than a more thorough analysis of decision-making in such key areas as curriculum development and review, learning outcomes in clinical education and operating standards in patient care in the teaching clinic.
In any case, while Dr. Hambly and colleagues pursued a parallel accreditation process with the CNME, a group of NDs called the “Requisitionists,” led by Dr. Pamela Snider (who lived and practiced in Canada at the time) and Dr. Daria Love (an early graduate of OCNM and formerly a Doctor of Chiropractic), attempted to clarify the school’s intentions and to make transparent its current actions. Certainly, the Ontario Naturopathic Association (ONA; now called the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors, or OAND) at the time had no knowledge of this double application. An application for “communication status” with the CNME had been sent to Seattle by Dr. A. Manolis, the director of research at OCNM, on March 15, 1989. The chair of the commission on accreditation for the CNME, Kathleen Shelly, sent a letter to OCNM on Oct. 7, 1989 (coincidentally the very day of the site visit by the ANMCAB) accepting the application and indicating that the next step in the process was for OCNM to begin its self-study process according to the guidelines published in the CNME’s Educational Standards and Accreditation Procedures (ESAP). OCNM had been accepted in the preliminary status of “communicating for candidacy” at the Commission meeting of the CNME on May 20, 1989. OCNM was thus eligible for communication status based on new regulations adopted after 1986 related to foreign schools. This schedule was later brought forward as events at OCNM heated up.
The Requisitionists began presenting affidavits of their concerns to Dr. Hambly as well as to the board of OCNM. Cecil Baxter, executive director of the CNME, confirmed in a Nov. 21, 1989 letter that the self-study could be sent to the Commission and its evaluators by mid-February, 1990 with a target date of late April 1990 for a visit by an evaluation committee. Thus, a May 1990 decision by the CNME for OCNM candidacy was entirely possible.
The data and documents available indicate that the OCNM board could not have been unaware of the dual stream of accreditation effort. First, the self-study report was endorsed by the executive of the OCNM board. Second, Dr. Allen Bell, a member of the OCNM board, was present at the Nov. 4 meeting of the CNME in Oregon and reference to his presence is made in the minutes of that CNME meeting (Minutes, CNME, Nov. 4, 1989).
As well, Dr. Hambly, notwithstanding his overtures to the ANMA and meetings with its representatives, was well informed of the profession’s distaste for any affiliation with the ANMCAB. On Nov. 25, 1989, for example, Dr. K.D. Farnsworth, president of the Association of Naturopathic Physicians of British Columbia, had written to Dr. Hambly, stating: “If OCNM accepts accreditation from the ANMCAB, which does not meet the standards set in B.C., this could jeopardize the status of those doctors graduating from OCNM and seeking licensure in B.C.” (Letter to S. Hambly from K. Farnsworth, 1989)
As well, Dr. John Bender, chairman of the Board of Directors of Drugless Therapy – Naturopathy (BDDT-N), the regulatory board in the province of Ontario at the time, wrote to Drs. Farquharson and Hambly on Dec, 11, 1989, explaining: “We believe the CNME is the only current accrediting agency in the U.S. or Canada and would encourage you to pursue communicating status with them. We believe communicating status with the CNME to be of extreme importance in upholding the high standards of OCNM.” (Letter to S. Hambly, from John W. Bender, 1989)
In that same month, Dr. Carlo Calabrese, president of the CNME, wrote to Dr. Hambly explaining a request for information about the status of OCNM’s application for candidacy and ultimately, accreditation. Dr. Calabrese was informing Dr. Hambly about an inquiry (from one of the Requisitionists) that the CNME was not going to respond to because of confidentiality.
“I asked your permission before releasing any of our communications. You informed me that you would prefer not to have that material released. I will therefore honor your preference and not release the documents. I have informed the petitioner for the documents that Ontario College’s application for evaluation for Communicating status is active and that the Council’s Commission on Accreditation is anticipating receipt of your self-study in May 1990. I would expect that the evaluation will be complete and a decision rendered at the Commission meeting in November 1990.” (Letter to S. Hambly, from C. Calabrese, Dec. 16, 1989)
Clearly, there were two accreditation pathways being pursued. The Ontario and national professional associations, once they became aware of OCNM’s objective of achieving ANMCAB accreditation, increasingly opposed OCNM’s actions with respect not only to accreditation, but also to the fight against deregulation by the provincial government, a process that was in full swing during this turbulent period. That the profession was witnessing an attempt to deregulate naturopathic medicine in the Province of Ontario and that the only school in Canada at the time was giving very mixed messages about the direction it was proposing to take the profession underscored the serious threat to naturopathic medicine in Canada in those days. What it boiled down to was that by 1989, just over ten years after OCNM was launched, a serious schism had developed and was growing between the only college training new naturopathic doctors for entry to practice in Canada and the profession it had been founded to serve. It is no wonder that the majority of students from British Columbia and a number from Ontario went to NCNM or Bastyr at that time in order to avoid the confusion.
Continuing Confusion
At any rate, communication continued to deteriorate among the chairman of the governing board of OCNM, Dr. Bell, Dr. Hambly, senior administrator at the college, and the ONA. The ONA executive began a series of communications in late autumn 1989 to document its concerns and to turn the conflict around. Very rapidly, a number of issues arose that blocked healthy interaction among the college board of directors, the BDDT-N and the ONA. First, the ONA took issue with the OCNM board’s refusal to provide members of a group called the Institute for Naturopathic Education and Research (INER) with copies of the bylaws and membership list of INER itself. Drs. Snider and Tunstall, concerned that OCNM was opting to ally itself with the ANMA and not with the AANP and the CNME, requested a membership list so they could approach the members of the nonprofit organization behind the school to lobby against this direction. Dr. Hambly refused to provide this information to them as well as to other concerned college board members, ONA members and BDDT-N registrants. These NDs, according to Dr. Snider, were “alarmed about the membership in INER (the membership-based ‘charitable organization’ whose charter from the provincial government enabled the school to operate) being compromised by “parachuting in” members of the ANMA to “influence the Board’s composition and governance practices” (Interview, Dr. Snider, Feb. 4, 2002).
Next, the ONA was experiencing “non-cooperation” with OCNM on an increasing basis. In their Nov. 22, 1989 document, “Summary of Issues,” the ONA addressed its concerns directly to Dr. Bell: “OCNM initiated a legal action (constitutional challenge) with the Ontario government without consulting with the ONA and without working in consolidation with their ongoing efforts. We cannot afford the arrogance of one part of the profession doing it their way and to hell with what anyone else thinks! ‘United we stand, divided we fall.’ This was an inappropriate,ill-timed act and has injured our image and efforts with the government. Education is the mandate of naturopathic schools. Although the school can and is encouraged to assist in the political process, consultation with the provincial association must precede and be agreed upon before public or government actions of magnitude are taken.” (Summary of Issues, 1989, p. 1)
The ONA president also summarized in a letter to Drs. Farquharson and Hambly the Ontario profession’s alarm at OCNM’s “unilateral actions” with respect to the CNME. The allegation was that OCNM had been “defaming the CNME” in support of the ANMA: “The CNA and every provincial association in Canada support the CNME. It represents the highest level of excellence in naturopathic education that our profession has ever evolved, and we are proud of it. We have worked diligently to advance its stature with the United States government for years. Recently we were obliged to write a letter to the United States Department of Education stating the absolute commitment of the Canadian Naturopathic Association to the CNME. We were forced to apologize for the embarrassment of the OCNM Board’s letter to the Department defaming the CNME caused us. OCNM is unauthorized to publicly undermine the CNME without agreement of the Canadian naturopathic community. Your letter damaged the naturopathic profession in the United States and potentially in Canada. Although it may ultimately be to our advantage to have our own educational accrediting body in Canada, we have not yet matured to that reality. CNME in no way means we are governed like puppets from the United States. We endorse this council’s standards as it forwards the entire profession of naturopathy educationally and politically.” (Letter to Dr. S. Hambly from Dr. P. Wales, 1989)
Indeed, involvement with the ANMA triggered mounting retaliation against OCNM by members of the profession. Drs. Snider and Tunstall eventually initiated a legal action, supported by Robert Schad, who later became chair of the new CCNM board, and the ONA to remove the OCNM board and replace it with a new board more in tune with the wishes of the profession. The details of that process are presented in more detail next. However, the ONA established a “line in the sand” in its letter to Dr. Bell concerning OCNM’s relationship with the ANMA mid-January, 1990, and copied to Drs. Farquharson and Hambly citations from which capture the growing enmity between the two organizations.
“Regarding the American Naturopathic Medical Association, it is of interest to us, Dr. Bell, that in your letter of March 9th to the United States Department of Education, you fear a monopolistic rule of Canadian Naturopathic education by the CNME, yet paradoxically OCNM invites numbers of United States members of the ANMA to be members of INER, thereby having a vote and influence over Canadian naturopathic education. And, though a few individuals of the ANMA are well qualified, most of their association are clearly not licensable by provincial or state standards, not having attended a four-year institution in naturopathic medicine nor having graduated from an acceptable accelerated program. Some practice with correspondence degree doctorates and many practice with degrees obtained just by asking for it [sic]. They advertise that anyone with an accredited medical arts degree of some kind can be a member of the ANMA and call themselves naturopathic doctors, just by stating that they practice alternative medicine or some sort and paying a fee for the degree. Also, we seriously question the wisdom of OCNM’s solicitation for so-called accreditation with the ANMCAB, which purports to accredit colleges and institutions, yet has no government recognition of any kind in any state and has very minimal standards. Is this who we want to invite into our schools and associations? If the college pursues the course it is on, it almost certainly will cause deregulation in Ontario. The other provincial goverments [sic] are looking at the outcome of the Ontario situation before making moves for or against us. OCNM’s involvement with the ANMA undermines the professional standards naturopathy has worked so laboriously [sic] to achieve. If we do not embrace the highest standards we can achieve, we will at best be mediocre and at worst dissolve as a profession, replaced by those with higher standards and greater professionalism. Embracing the ANMA is not in the best interests of the Canadian Naturopathic profession and is not in the best interests of your students, reducing them at once to the level of diploma mill graduates, and they will be viewed as such by the Canadian and United States governments and by other professions. We will not tolerate OCNM’s involvement with this organization.” (Letter to Dr. Bell from the Executive of the ONA, January 16, 1990)
The ANMA and CNME Today
Eventually Hayhurst’s organization would become very active in national naturopathic politics. This Las Vegas, Nevada-based group then and now has a comprehensive lobby at the State and federal levels, advocating for the deregulation of the naturopathic profession. Their position is that the non-invasive therapies of the ND constitute no threat to the American public and thus there is no need for regulation. The ANMA organization “accredits and certifies” thousands of “holistic practitioners” and endorses doctoral and master’s level programs in naturopathy, nutrition, energy medicine, psychic counseling and a number of parapsychologies and helping profession designations. The schools that train these individuals are principally correspondence organizations with no or marginal clinical training. The ANMA operates in most American states. Its website includes attacks on the CNME, various state and provincial professional associations, and on the accredited naturopathic colleges, including the Canadian college.
The CNME is recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as the national accrediting agency for programs leading to the Doctor of Naturopathy or Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND or NMD) degree. The CNME considers only four-year, in-residence, doctoral-level colleges and programs for accreditation. It does not provide information on correspondence schools or other programs that do not prepare students to become licensed naturopathic physicians. The purpose of the U.S. Secretary’s recognition process is to ensure that accrediting agencies like the CNME are reliable authorities as to the quality of education or training offered by the college or programs they accredit. The Council consists of a representative from each accredited and candidate college or program, plus five naturopathic physicians and three representatives of the public. The Council elects its members based on criteria in its written policies.
The ANMA, on the other hand, is not linked to any external body, nor governed by a regulatory framework. It embodies the principle in its operations of “laissez-faire” and “free enterprise.” The ANMA contends that its accrediting regimen is “ample and sufficient to guarantee the public safety.” However, no state or provincial licensing group currently recognizes an ANMA-certified practitioner unless that practitioner is also licensed through a bona fide state or provincial authority. Nevertheless, the ANMA has been tenacious in lobbying to prevent the expansion of regulation in each state and provincial legislature. Its membership base is many times larger than that of the “legitimate bodies,” the AANP and CNA.
As we move forward growing our profession, awareness of those who would challenge our goals and our vision can be sharpened by knowing what has happened in the past. The Ontario incident spanned half a decade before it was all sorted out. Now the profession in Canada is thriving, CCNM is a major contributor to research and to a growing cadre of well trained naturopathic doctors, and Ontario itself, once in danger of being deregulated, is the largest jurisdiction of licensed naturopathic doctors in the world. As I have been heard to say more than once, we need to keep one eye on the future always (knowing where we want to get to) and one eye on the stairs in front of us as we climb to that future.
Next month, we will have a closer look at one of the key tools in our repertoire for professional formation, from the educational perspective: the AANMC.
David Schleich, PhD is president and CEO of NCNM, former president of Truestar Health, and former CEO and president of CCNM, where he served from 1996 to 2003. Other previous posts have included appointments as vice president academic of Niagara College, and administrative and teaching positions at St. Lawrence College, Swinburne University (Australia) and the University of Alberta. His academic credentials have been earned from the University of Western Ontario (BA), the University of Alberta (MA), Queen’s University (BEd) and the University of Toronto (PhD).
Documents referenced in this article derive from unpublished archives of the OAND, made available to me graciously by Drs. P. Wales and D. Love:
OCNM Self-Study, ANMCAB, August 1989.
ANMCAB Application for Accreditation, January 5, 1989.
Eligibility Requirements for Accreditation by the CNME, The Council on Naturopathic Medical Education Handbook, Educational Standards and Accreditation Procedures, the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education, June 1991.
Letter to S. Hambly from K. Farnsworth, Nov.25, 1989.
Letter to S. Hambly from John W. Bender, Dec. 11, 1989.
Letter to S. Hambly from C. Calabrese, Dec. 16, 1989.
Summary of Issues, ONA, Nov.22, 1989.
Letter to Dr. S. Hambly from Dr. P. Wales. Nov. 30, 1989.
Letter to Dr. Bell from the executive of the ONA, Jan. 16, 1990.
Accreditation, Higher Education, Naturopathic Institutions, Schleich
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UBCNM Program Closure: A Canary in a Coal Mine?
The Sitz Bath in Gynecology: A Traditional Treatment RevisitedEducation, Fertility, Women's Health
Improving Estrogen Dominance With Food and Herbal MedicineAnti-Aging, Anxiety/Depression/Mental Health, Botanical Medicine, Education, Endocrinology, Environmental Medicine, Fertility, Geriatrics, Mind/Body, Nature Cure, Women's Health
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ND Women’s Basketball
ND falls to top-ranked Huskies despite Mabrey’s 23 points
Daniel O'Boyle | Monday, December 7, 2015
Through just over two quarters, a depleted No. 3 Notre Dame looked to be matching No. 1 Connecticut blow for blow, behind a 21-point first half from freshman guard Marina Mabrey. But a 17-0 run for the Huskies (6-0) in the second half was too much for the Irish (7-1) to overcome, as UConn defeated Notre Dame 91-81.
Notre Dame was forced to enter the latest installment of the most famous rivalry in women’s basketball without either of its starting forwards: junior Taya Reimer was ruled out with an achilles injury while sophomore and ACC Preseason Player of the Year Brianna Turner missed out due to a shoulder injury. Their absence was conspicuous in the opening minutes, as the Huskies raced to a 10-2 lead, scoring all 10 points within the paint and out-rebounding the Irish 6-0.
But when Marina Mabrey came off the bench, the freshman helped keep the Irish alive, hitting a pair of 3-pointers to trim UConn’s lead to 12-8 before the Huskies pushed their lead back out to nine at the end of the quarter, 27-18.
Kathryne Robinson | The Observer
Freshman guard Marina Mabrey looks to shoot during Notre Dame’s 74-39 victory over Toledo on Nov. 18 at Purcell Pavilion.
In the second quarter, Marina Mabrey’s shooting continued to be a highlight for the Irish, while her older sister, senior guard Michaela Mabrey contributed offensively as well. The two sisters combined for 25 of Notre Dame’s first 30 points before junior forward Kristina Nelson added a jumper to put the Irish ahead for the first time, by a score of 32-31. A layup from Marina Mabrey brought her to 21 points and gave Notre Dame another lead with 36 seconds remaining in the half, but UConn senior guard Moriah Jefferson put the Huskies back ahead at halftime with a 3-pointer to make the score 45-43. Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said she was impressed with the team’s resilience and the way they recovered in the first half despite missing Turner and Reimer.
“After the start of the game, when they took an eight-point lead, it could have ended badly,” McGraw said. “But we just fought back, and got the lead for a couple of possessions and ended up down by only two at the half. So I think we showed the resilience we have and that it doesn’t take size, we found another way to play and we were very successful with it.”
In the second half, though, the Huskies began to pull away. The Irish found themselves down by seven points with 3:44 remaining in the third quarter when Irish freshman guard Arike Ogunbowale made a layup to make the score 61-56. But Notre Dame didn’t score again in nearly five minutes of play, while the Huskies added 17 points to extend the lead to 78-56. The Irish fought back with a 13-2 run to stay in the game with just under five minutes remaining, but the Huskies were able to close it out with relative ease, winning by a margin of 10 points in the end.
“There were a lot of positives,” McGraw said. “I thought we battled. We never quit. We had a four minute stretch in the third quarter that was the difference in the game. We missed a couple of shots and they were able to convert some and that was it, the game came down to that stretch. I was really pleased with how we shot the ball, I thought our guards on the perimeter were fantastic. They played with poise and confidence. Everybody who came in off the bench, especially Marina [Mabrey] and [Ogunbowale] was fearless.
“The two freshmen came in on the biggest game of the season so far, in a hostile environment and really played well and didn’t show any fear. I was really proud of how they played and how they handled themselves.”
Marina Mabrey was effectively shut down by Jefferson in the second half, adding only two points but still led the Irish in scoring with 23. After impressive showings in previous weeks, McGraw said she felt the freshman was set for a breakout game on the big stage.
“She came from a tournament down in the Bahamas where she was on the all-tournament team, and then after the Ohio State game we really felt like she was about to have a really special game,” McGraw said.
The injuries inside for the Irish had a clear impact, as the Huskies outscored them in the paint 48-30, as senior forward Breanna Stewart scored 28 points and added 10 rebounds for the Huskies.
The Irish will next be in action at Purcell Pavilion on Wednesday at 7 p.m., when they tip off against DePaul.
Tags: Arike Ogunbowale, Breanna Stewart, Brianna Turner, Connecticut, Kristina Nelson, Marina Mabrey, Michaela Mabrey, Muffet McGraw, ND Women's Basketball, Taya Reimer, UConn
About Daniel O'Boyle
Daniel O'Boyle is a senior sports writer living in Alumni Hall, majoring in Political Science. He is currently on the Notre Dame Women's Basketball, Men's Tennis and Women's Soccer beats. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Daniel spends most of his free time attempting to keep up with second-flight English soccer and his beloved Reading FC. He believes Lonzo Ball is the greatest basketball player of all time.
Irish give up early lead, fall to Connecticut
It was a rare phenomenon at Purcell Pavilion on Saturday, featuring a crowd that...
All too familiar: Notre Dame falls to Connecticut in NCAA title game
Irish dominate in exhibition win
Notre Dame’s streak of five consecutive Final Fours snapped by Stanford in Sweet 16
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(1) An employee who becomes a member without prior service credit may purchase prior service credit, not to exceed the lesser of ten years or the member's years of membership service, for the period of service the member was employed by a school district or by an educational service unit and which is not used in the calculation of any retirement or disability benefit having been paid, being paid, or payable in the future to such member under any defined benefit retirement system or program maintained by such other school district or educational service unit. The purchase of prior service credit shall be made in accordance with and subject to the following requirements:
(a) A member who desires to purchase prior service credit shall make written application to the administrator of the retirement system that includes all information and documentation determined by the administrator as necessary to verify the member's prior service and qualification to purchase the prior service credit. Such application shall include the member's written authorization for the administrator to request and receive from any of the member's former employers verification of the member's prior service, salary, and other information for determining the member's eligibility to purchase prior service credit. Before prior service credit may be purchased, the administrator shall have received verification of the member's salary in each year with the other school district or educational service unit and confirmation that the prior service to be purchased by the member is not also credited in the calculation of a retirement or disability benefit for such member under another defined benefit retirement system or program. The member's application to purchase prior service credit may be made at any time before the fifth anniversary of the member's membership in the retirement system or, if earlier, the member's termination of employment with the school district;
(b) The member shall pay to the retirement system the total amount he or she would have contributed to the retirement system had he or she been a member of the retirement system during the period for which prior service is being purchased, together with interest thereon as determined using the rate of interest for the purchase of prior service credit. Such payment shall be based on the most recent years' salary the member earned in another school district or educational service unit if the salary is verified by the other school district or educational service unit or, if not, the payment shall be based on the member's annual salary at the time he or she became a member;
(c) Payments by the member for the purchase of the prior service credit shall be paid as the board of trustees may direct through direct payments to the retirement system or on an installment basis pursuant to a binding irrevocable payroll deduction authorization between the member and the school district over a period not to exceed five years from the date of membership. Interest on delayed payments shall be at the rate of interest for determining interest on delayed payments by members to the retirement system. In the event the member terminates employment with the school district for any reason before full payment for the prior service has been made, the remaining installments shall be immediately due and payable to the retirement system. Prior service credit may be purchased only in one-tenth-year increments, and if payments are made on an installment basis, the prior service will be credited only as payment has been made to the retirement system. If the prior service to be purchased by the member exceeds the member's membership service at the time of application or any subsequent date, such excess prior service shall be credited to the member only as the member completes and is credited additional membership service, in one-tenth-year increments, notwithstanding the member's payment for such prior service credit. If the member retires or terminates employment before completing sufficient membership service to permit all of the excess prior service that has been purchased by the member to be credited to such member, the retirement system shall refund to the member, or to the member's beneficiary if the member's termination is due to his or her death, the payments that have been made to the retirement system for such uncredited prior service, together with regular interest on such refund; and
(d) The school district shall contribute to the retirement system an amount equal to the amount paid by each member for the purchase of prior service credit at the time such payments are made by such member.
(2) Any employee who became a member before July 1, 2014, and who has five or more years of creditable service and any employee who became a member for the first time on or after July 1, 2014, and who has ten or more years of creditable service, excluding in either case years of prior service acquired pursuant to section 79-990, 79-994, 79-995, or 79-997, or subsection (1) of this section, may elect to purchase up to a total of five years of additional creditable service under the retirement system, and upon such purchase the member shall be given the same status as though he or she had been a member of the retirement system for such additional number of years, except as otherwise specifically provided in the Class V School Employees Retirement Act. Creditable service may be purchased only in one-tenth-year increments. The amount to be paid to the retirement system for such creditable service shall be equal to the actuarial cost to the retirement system of the increased benefits attributable to such additional creditable service as determined by the retirement system's actuary at the time of the purchase pursuant to actuarial assumptions and methods adopted by the board of trustees for this purpose. The election to purchase additional creditable service may be made at any time before the member's termination of employment, and all payments for the purchase of such creditable service must be completed within five years after the election or before the member's termination or retirement, whichever event occurs first. Payment shall be made as the board of trustees may direct through a single payment to the retirement system, on an installment basis, including payments pursuant to a binding irrevocable payroll deduction authorization between the member and the school district, or by such other method approved by the board of trustees and permitted by law. If payments are made on an installment basis, creditable service will be credited only as payment has been made to the retirement system to purchase each additional one-tenth-year increment. Interest shall be charged on installment payments at the rate of interest for determining interest on delayed payments by members to the retirement system.
Source:Laws 1951, c. 274, § 14, p. 918; Laws 1953, c. 308, § 3, p. 1029; Laws 1982, LB 131, § 5; Laws 1987, LB 298, § 8; Laws 1988, LB 551, § 4; Laws 1992, LB 1001, § 23; Laws 1993, LB 107, § 5; Laws 1995, LB 505, § 6; R.S.Supp.,1995, § 79-1045; Laws 1996, LB 900, § 626; Laws 1997, LB 624, § 24; Laws 1998, LB 497, § 15; Laws 2005, LB 364, § 13; Laws 2013, LB263, § 24; Laws 2014, LB1042, § 10; Laws 2016, LB447, § 29.
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2010's 3D 7 Candles
JURASSIC WORLD (3D)
Posted on June 13, 2015 by nEoPOL
DIRECTOR: Colin Trevorrow
Will we be adding this to our collection? YES
With my hopes raised by the four star reviews across the board, I ventured into Jurassic World daring to expect the sequel to Jurassic Park (1993), which I have been waiting for since the summer of 1993. It was not always this way. Up until this week my, expectations were for another light sequel to reboot or refresh the all but dead franchise, which had been languishing in production hell since 2001, for a new generation, but I was never expecting it immerse me with the depth and well judge action which Spielberg’s original masterpiece had done all those years ago.
But it didn’t take more that two minutes for me to be disappointed by the tone of this film, as the opening credits appeared on the screen accompanied by Michael Giacchino haphazard score. We are given a scene in which two dinosaur eggs are hatching in a lab, which at first glance appear to be Velosoraptors, similar to what we witnessed in the first film, but it will become clear that they are the new, genetically improvised dinosaur, the Indominous Rex.
Then we meet two boys, a teenager who fancies himself to be a ladies man and his younger brother who throughout the next day will teach his older sibling the value of their relationship and that of life itself. Yeah, seriously!
But in all fairness, the plot zips along and it is not long before we are despatched to Jurassic World. If Jurassic Park was based on an African game reserve, then Jurassic World is Disney World, along with their equivalent of Main Street U.S.A.
It is here where we are treated to the most perverse use of product placement that I’ve seen in while. Granted, comments have been made its defence that this more of a satirical nod to the commercialisation of theme parks, I.E. Disney, but seriously! What a well judged way to make a TON of money in the process. Though I did like the IMAX reference, more poignant for those watching the film in IMAX 3D, I’m sure.
At least during all this vulgarity, there are many homages to Jurassic Park littered throughout, even a brief visit to the original section of the old park, including the rotunda and the parking garage from the original finale.
So, much has been said, critically about the chauvinistic nature of the female characters in this film, namely Claire (a miscast Bryce Dallas Howard). And yes, it is wholly justified. Considering that one of Jurassic Park’s underlining conceits was that all the dinosaurs were all female and that Laura Dern’s, Ellie Sattler even has a brief argument with John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) about “Sexism in survival situations” in the first film, Spielberg had done plenty for women lib over his long career. But here, 22 year later, we are supposedly introduced a career woman who needs to spend time with her nephews to break down her cold exterior to find the woman beneath.
Well, it only seems to take our Indiana Jones wannabe, Owen (Chris Pratt), who is a two-dimensional representation of the hero, to crack her shell to bring out the swooning, maternal, damsel in distress. Just because she drives a truck for five minutes in the final battle and shoots a Pterodactyl does not make her a strong female character, it just means that she can drive long enough to find her hero, which she literally does!
The Indominous Rex is a new hybrid dinosaur, the species which make up its DNA, I will not divulge as it is part of the plot and offers the nearest thing the film has got to a successful twist, but even that is not earth shattering. Suffices to say that this creature escapes and runs a muck on the island, Isla Nublar. But I was hoping to dispose of this plot quickly, hoping that it would serve as a catalyst for a more interesting story, but instead the I–Rex just stomps around eating people and smashing through cages letting everything else out in the process.
The pursuit of this animal is the plot and that was disappointing to me. I suppose the subtext of this was that it was wrong to splice DNA together to make a new dinosaur but I thought this point had been hammered home in Jurassic Park (1993), that creating ANY dinosaur in this way was questionable. “Life finds a way” and all that.
“They have no idea what century they’re in and they will defend themselves, violently in necessary” to paraphrase Ellie Sattler (Jurassic Park)
“She has no idea where she is and she’s trying to work out her place in the food chain” Again paraphrasing a statement by Owen (Pratt) in reference to the Indominous Rex as she chomps her way through a special forces team.
But with John Hammond’s death, INGEN has been taken over by Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) , who is another noble business man who is more interested in dinosaurs and customers satisfaction than profits and statistics, which Claire is constantly reeling off to him, in order to remind us that her femininity is encased in a tough, cynical shell. Unfortunately, he meets his end rather unceremoniously after quite possibly being the best character in the whole movie!
Back to Owen, who is the Robert Muldoon of this film, though a pale shadow of the original Kenyon game keeper played by the late Bob Peck in the original film. Like I said before, he could quite literally jump on his classic bike and begin shooting the next Indiana Jones movie, as long as he brings some of his Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) charm with him because other than being a “Badass” to quote one of the boys, who remarks to their Aunt Claire (Howard) that “Your boyfriend is a badass”, only for her go all googly eyes, yeah again, really, he plays this part very straight and stoic. He is too cool for school and he knows it.
He is training a pack of four Velosoraptors, as part of an insidious INGEN programme to test their intelligence to see if they can be trained as a new breed of solider. Interesting but unnecessary. The whole training of the Raptor’s thing is fine but Vincent D’Onofrio’s sort of villainous Hoskins, is under developed and I’m not sure whether Director, Trevorrow, who I do believe was the WRONG choice for a film of this scale, knows if he is supposed to be scary of just slightly menacing. But he is a safe, child friendly villain, with a nefarious, yet not evil, agenda.
The main issue with this film is not so much the pacing, but the lackadaisical nature of the script. The film in littered with nods to the original but they are often shoehorned in, with most of them available to view in the trailers and they have little impact on the plot, unlike the likes of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver’s other reboot, though I understand that their script was later re-written, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011).
To be honest I was both expecting and fearing that it was in this direction that Jurassic World was going to go. As hinted at in Jurassic Park, if you re-introduce an extinct eco-system into the modern world, it would have devastating consequences, with and kind of “evolution war” ensuing. This was of course just hinted at but the impending doom implied in this conversation was ominous.
Alas no. All but having what you might loosely refer to as a “twist” or two in the final minutes and the release of the T-Rex, having survived the first film, the conclusion is pretty much as expected and equally as abrupt. The ice-maiden has melted, the brothers are best mates and the park, well I don’t know!
All besides a reference to “the park going Chapter 11 by morning”, meaning that it was going to go bankrupt, it was unclear as to what had happened to Jurassic World as the sun rose the next day. Some of the animals had been released but clearly they could be recaptured again and obviously the death toll was high but is this the end of Jurassic World?
I was expecting an ending which would take the dinosaurs off the island, finally and perhaps begin some form of, you guessed it, “Jurassic World” finally firing the opening shot in a war of evolution between the pro-historic world and present day mankind. It was not what I wanted to see but it was implied, certainly with the original writing team, the film’s working title “Jurassic Park: Extinction” and even the final title (“Jurassic World”), with broader, wide reaching implications.
But no. This ended up just being a glossier, more hyped up version of Jurassic Park III (2001). A “dinosaurs chasing humans around the island and eating people along the way” type of thing. This was 3-D film with a 2-D plot, offering lip service to the depth of the original whilst trying to go bigger for a modern, more visually demanding audience.
Enter B. D. Wong, the only original cast member to return, Dr. Wu, the scientist behind the cloning process. Here, he is presented as a slightly mad scientist type and minor villain of sorts, who seems to get away with some of their perverse research in order to set up the sequel, I presume.
Whether a sequel is on the cards or not is still unconfirmed though I have heard that another two films have been green-lit and that the good news is that Colin Trevorrow will not be returning.
Treverrow and his writing partner, Derek Connelly are responsible for the final screenplay which has caused some controversy. The pair have been disputing the screen credit given to Jaffa and Silver, with the pair claiming that their final draft was solely their own work. Personally, I doubt that Jaffa and Silver, who have worked wonders with the Planet Of The Apes franchise in recent years, would have had too much to do with this finished screenplay so I think that it is probably in THEIR interests to have their own names removed in order to let Trevorrow have his glory. I doubt that this will win any best screenplay awards next season anyway.
So, in the end, love is in the air, feminism has been set back to Cretaceous period and the sequel has been set up along with the audition tape from Chris Pratt’s Indiana Jones. But I suspect that Pratt may go the same way as Avatar’s (2009) Sam Worthington, who after Avatar and Terminator: Salvation (2009), did a couple of mainstream movies and has since fallen off the radar.
But I don’t want to be too harsh here. The action is good and at times, thrilling and even though I have been critical of Pratt and Howard’s characters, they are fun if not dated. This is an enjoyable if somewhat lighter film than it thinks it is. I also believe that this is a film which will do a lot better with me on a second viewing. I have not seen this in 3-D yet either but that should not be a major factor. This had a lot to live up to but like Jaws (1975) and Robocop (1987) to name but two franchises where the sequels have never been able to live up to the originals which spawned them.
Great for the kids and even the family as a whole and if you don’t love Jurassic Park (1993) as much as I do, then this review might seem a little too critical but to me, there were too many missed opportunities it is a real shame.
2d3dbryce dallas howardchris prattdinosaursfeminismingenjurassic worldparkREAL D 3DLeave a comment
TANGLED EVER AFTER (3D)
RARE 3D TITLES OF THE MODERN ERA
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Photo by Jorge Lopez
Valley history photo: Pharr Riots
Eduardo Martinez March 23, 2017
In the early 1970s, Pharr, Texas, was still segregated after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with anglos populating the south side and people of color living on the north side. The city council and the school boards were made up of anglo representatives even though Pharr residents were mostly people of color.
On Feb. 6, 1971, a peaceful gathering was held to call for more representation by people of color in local government. The peaceful gathering escalated into a riot instigated by fire hoses used on demonstrators by police, and it led to Deputy Sheriff Robert Johnson shooting Alfonso Loredo Flores, an innocent youth.
This photo by Jorge Lopez is in honor of Alfonso’s memory.
To get updates of Valley history from Pharr From Heaven, subscribe to our newsletter.
Eduardo Martinez
Eduardo is the LGBTQ reporter at Neta. He is also known as the barrio historian, "Pharr From Heaven."
Andres Sanchez June 18, 2019
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The Story Behind Maroon 5’s Epic, Celebrity-Packed ‘Girls Like You’ Video
Maroon 5, YouTube
Just a week after its release, Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" video has already racked up north of 55 million views — thanks in large part to its star-packed roster of famous guest stars.
Now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) has detailed how they got everyone from Cardi B to Jennifer Lopez to participate, and apparently, it all started with Ellen DeGeneres.
"Ellen came on the first shoot day. She was the first person to sign up and support it," Dobkin said of the five-day shoot. "She understood that all the other women were going to be put together with visual effects. It was so funny when she finally started looking around for where the women were coming from, which I did not tell her to do at all. She understood just as an artist — she was like, 'Oh yeah, all these women are coming and going? I’m gonna look around for all of them.'"
As for everyone else, frontman Adam Levine either called or sent personal letters.
"This is the list of people that we were inspired by, who said yes and actually were able to make it," Dobkin continued. "Adam… wrote the letters. Some people he called. I know he called Tiffany Haddish directly. And it was really funny ’cause sometimes the girls come in and their management is like, 'Wait, what’s going on?' Cardi flew out and shot the video without anybody approving. She was awesome."
But the one person they couldn't get on board? Helen Mirren.
"She was going to be in it, and we could not work out the schedule. But at one point I looked at Adam and was like, 'We have to stop.'" Dobkin explained. "Seriously, we were like, “Let’s go to London and we’re gonna get Adele,” and we were trying to get a hold of Michelle Obama, and I was like, “You know I extended the final chorus to get everyone in!“
Revisit the "Girls Like You" video — which also features Camila Cabello, Mary J. Blige, Gal Gadot, Sarah Silverman, and Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown, among a laundry list of others — below.
From Cardi B to Camila Cabello: 59 Celebrity Yearbook Photos
Filed Under: Maroon 5
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Tag Archives: aztec deities
January 17, 2018 by postcardsfromsanantonio
Postcard from Mexico City: Long-buried Aztec deities continue to surface downtown
A life-size figure with skin flayed and liver hanging out sounds alarming, but there is a disarming charm to Mictlantecuhtli. So cute, let’s call him Mickey.
The sculpture represents the Aztec god of death who periodically was bathed in the blood of human sacrifices. But his well manicured hands appear to be politely gesturing “pardon me,” and his smile possesses almost a Mona Lisa-like serenity. And, what a survivor. He was buried in downtown Mexico City for more than 400 years.
Maybe it was the recent exposure to all of the Day of the Dead skulls and skeletons accompanied by traditions designed to encourage the departed to return to earth to their loved ones that made the god of death less terrifying. Plus, I imagine he would be more menacing if I were a perspective blood donor of his bath water.
The destruction of Aztec temples under the order of Hernan Cortes in 1524 was no secret, and, in fact, the reuse of some of their stones for the construction of the Cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was a major public relations maneuver demonstrating the might of the Spanish conquistadors. But for centuries, the remains of the city of Tenochtitlan and its Templo Mayor were kept buried below the development of the cosmopolitan city above. Archaeologists poking about and stumbling across remnants of the Aztec civilization were discouraged from their pursuits.
In 1978, electrical company workers digging a little deeper stumbled upon a circular monolith more than 10 feet across. The intact relief of Coyolxauhqui, the daughter of a maternal earth goddess and Mixcoatl, a god of the hunt, war and the Milky Way. Coyolxauhqui plotted against her mother, so a younger sibling, Huitzilopochtli, chopped off her head and limbs. Her depiction in stone shows her severed limbs all akimbo around her torso.
Her brother’s revenge extended to his brothers, all 400 of them. Eliminating much of the competition, Huitzilopochtli emerged to assume a role as a deity of war and the sun. He was the patron of the city of Tenochtitlan, and appeasing him required frequent refueling from human sacrifices, accounting for many of the human skulls found on site.
The twin sanctuaries of the Templo Mayor were dedicated to his worship and that of Tlaloc, the rain god, “he who makes things sprout.” While rain god sounds peaceful, a provoked Tlaloc could cause drought, floods, hurricanes and illnesses. Although he kindly bestowed life in paradise to those who drown or were struck by lightning, Tlaloc, too, needed sacrifices to encourage him to provide the right amount of rain needed for crops.
Miclantecuhtli, the god of death, who once stood inside the House of the Eagles
chacmool, the name assigned to reclining figures with heads facing at 90-degree angles and containers on their stomachs for offerings (such as human hearts), found at the Templo Mayor
Tlaltecuhtli, the earth goddess of the Mexicas
eagle warrior on left; Miclantecutli on right
Skulls of human sacrifices or entombed nobles were abundant on the site.
tzompantli, rows of stone sculptures of skulls
bench decorated with warriors in feathered regalia in the House of the Eagles
stone warriers once guarding Templo Mayor now “stand at ease,” leaning against one of its staircases
eagle with a receptacle in its body, possibly for the hearts of sacrificial victims
Toltec mask indicating contact with other cultures
8-foot tall spiral roof ornaments representing snails associated with the rain god Tlaloc adorned the roof of calmecac, the school for children of nobility.
eagle warrior
one of several serpents guarding the Templo Mayor
Back to 1978, weighing in at about eight tons the monolithic Coyolxauhqui proved hard to ignore. Excavation around her revealed a rich minefield of artifacts in amazingly good condition. Numerous buildings near the Cathedral were demolished to provide accessibility, and archaeologists soon discovered the Templo Mayor consisted of pyramids built upon pyramids by successive Aztec rulers over a period of about 150 years.
Designed by architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, the Museum of the Templo Mayor opened adjacent to the site in 1987 to display some of the more than 7,000 objects unearthed during the archaeological explorations.
The main ruins of Tenochtitlan cover close to seven city blocks, much of which has not been excavated. Often emerging from adversity, opportunities for additional digs still arise. In the 1990s, work to halt the sinking of the Cathedral as the city’s water table dropped led to numerous finds beneath its floor. More than 20 years after the deadly 1985 earthquake, a damaged building was demolished to reveal the ruins of the Calmecac, the elite school of the Aztec nobility.
Near the museum foyer lies a 12-ton monolith representing Tlaltecuhtli, the earth goddess. This massive 12 x 13-foot relief was not discovered until 2006 on the grounds of an estate on the corner of Guatemala and Argentina Streets. As with many of the Aztec deities, she possessed a split personality. Her name means “the one who gives and devours life.” She demanded many human hearts and much blood to keep her in a positive life-giving mood.
The excavation of Tenochtitlan and the adjacent museum provide an incredible opportunity to view relics from the Aztec civilization from one site all grouped together. Its location downtown by the Zocalo offers an understanding of the development of Mexico City from the 1300s, to the conquest and the construction of the Cathedral, to the growth of the surrounding aristocratic neighborhood during the Diaz years and finally into a bustling contemporary city, home to more than 20 million inhabitants.
Pardon us, Mickey and crew. Please look kindly upon us mortals pausing to stare. Surely you appreciate your liberation after centuries underground. And the contemporary temple of a museum reverently sheltering you now is quite palatial.
Posted in Mexico, Travel
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Gary Kubiak Kirk Cousins Dalvin Cook Stefon Diggs Mike Zimmer Sports NFL football Professional football Football
Vikings slowly but surely adjust to yet another new offense
By DAVE CAMPBELL - Jun. 14, 2019 07:21 PM EDT
Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski watches quarterbacks during drills at the team's NFL football training facility in Eagan, Minn., Thursday, June 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton- King)
EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Stefon Diggs has dived into yet another playbook. The fifth-year player is taking direction from a fourth offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski, since he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings.
As challenging as the frequent changes in philosophy and terminology have been, well, at least the Vikings' veterans are used to it by now. Might learning a new system become less daunting when players are doing so almost every spring?
"Yeah, it actually does," Diggs said this week with a smile, as he attempted to downplay the difficulty of another scheme shift. "We have run the same route a million times. Just because it has a new name doesn't mean we can't run it. Just being around for a little while now has made it a little easier."
Still, there's been no denying the defense in Minnesota has had the edge in full-team drills over the defense during the practices that were open to the media in May and June. Sure, the defense is stacked with Pro Bowl players at each level, one of the most elite units in the league, but it's hard to beat the familiarity with coach Mike Zimmer's system that has remained stable since its implementation upon his arrival in 2014.
"They might give us some formation that we haven't seen, and our guys can adjust to it just because they've seen it and done it before. Maybe not this spring, but they've seen it and done it before," Zimmer said, making no mistake that his perspective continues to lie with the defense despite his authority over and responsibility for the entire roster.
Stefanski, who took over on an interim basis for the final three games last season following the firing of John DeFilippo, has been on the staff since 2006. So he has absorbed pieces of several different schemes as his favored ingredients for the yet-to-be-defined system the Vikings will employ this fall.
At Zimmer's urging, they'll strive for a better pass-run balance, and the arrival of new offensive line coach and running game coordinator Rick Dennison has helped the offense hone in on a zone-blocking scheme to maximize running back Dalvin Cook's cutback abilities and the mobility of the blockers up front. They'll also likely strive for more play-action passes, a strength of quarterback Kirk Cousins and, to hear Zimmer to tell it, a bother for any defense if properly executed.
"You have to take a peek at it from 20,000 feet, as opposed to on the ground, but what I'm appreciative of is that we have some really good position coaches here, and they're great teachers," Stefanski said. "I love to walk around this practice field and just listen to them teach, because I pick something up every time that I'm out here. I bounce around to each one of these position groups as they're working in individual, and I can tell you we have an outstanding staff here."
That, of course, includes new assistant head coach and offensive adviser Gary Kubiak. The former Houston Texans and Denver Broncos head coach, while trying to let the 37-year-old Stefanski forge his own identity, has a significant role in the rollout, a valuable sounding board and strategist for both Stefanski and Zimmer.
"It's a different role, but I'm really enjoying it. I mean, I get to watch guys coach. I'm watching all the good young coaches on the offensive staff, being with Kevin every day, and watching him do the things I did for 30 something years and then sitting down with him after practice and talking through situations," Kubiak said. "Me and Zim have battled for many, many years, and now we get to battle every day in practice. But it's been really good."
More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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From the Muddy Banks of Rememberance
Khirad
I wish I had something really deep to write, looking back upon seventeen years ago.
But the truth is, I only realized what anniversary it was today. I don’t even have a clever title (nostalgie de la boue? nah, keep it simple, dude).
In fact, I actually have a lot to write on the man, his music, and what it meant to me growing up.
For those many of you on the Planet who are Boomers; children who came of age in the 60s, you may not get it, but I think you can relate. You lost a lot of your own brightest voices. I can only think that this was like our generation’s version of losing John Lennon (though under different circumstances).
This was one of those seminal moments in my life. I lost one of the few “stars” (and I loved that he hated that) I could genuinely relate to personally, and geographically.
On April 5th, 1994, when I was in 8th grade, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana shot himself with a shotgun in his Lake Washington, Seattle home. On April 8th, his body was found. He had joined the 27 Club.
I don’t remember what I was doing in Seattle, if it was a pre-planned family trip to Seattle or my relatives north of there, but on April 10th (Spring Break?) I distinctly remember the hotel room skyscraper we were staying in downtown, and being able to watch MTV while looking out the window to see this happening simultaneously:
I’m going to assume most of you don’t know Washington (the state goddamit!), but even though I lived most my life only 2½ hours away, there’s really no reason to go to the old lumber mill town of Aberdeen, and I hadn’t been until June of 2010 on a trip back to my native state. I figured this would be as fitting a time as any to share just one portion of that trip.
This is a bridge near Felony Flats in Aberdeen over the Wishkah River (from the Chehalis word hwish-kahl, “stinking water”). After school, Kurt and sometimes friends would hang hang out under it. The house where he grew up was a few blocks to the left of the bridge in this photo. I had the good sense of decency not to go looking for it. In any case, it was here that part of his ashes were spread.
It was like a bit of a pilgrimage. I spent a couple minutes in silence under that bridge. It was one of the closest moments I’ve had to something of a spiritual feeling–as silly as I know that sounds. It was like connecting with friend I never got to meet, but I could feel part of him there, someone who reminded me of, well, a bit of me.
There’s a funny story to this plaque. If you notice, a certain word among his quotes appears to be tampered with.
Out of the ground
Into the sky
Out of the sky
Into the dirt
The song “Something in the Way” was a reference to this spot.
(Preview pic courtesy Mïk Watson)
Washington Kurt Cobain
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I always thought this was a crazy-weird story. Kids in the Hall’s (another quintessential Gen X iconic group) Scott Thompson talks about Cobain.
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whatsthatsound
From Bowie, to Kurt
Perfect song. And one that is sure to have been appreciated.
Hey, cool! And that was probably Bowie’s most “grunge-y” album.
Questinia
Kurt was stone cold the best song writer of a generation. Even the songs he wrote for Courtney were decent. I still listen to Nirvana just because they’re awesome. I try not to assign anything beyond the fact that they were an excellent band with excellent songs.
I feel the same way, more or less, about Jeff Buckley.
I guess it’s better to have heard them and lost them than never to have heard them at all.
I miss you Kurt.
[img]http://www.fanoftheband.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/nirvana.jpg[/img]
Pepe Lepew
How interesting, we went to a Foo Fighters movie last night and they talked a lot about Cobain for about the first 30 minutes of the movie.
I saw Nirvana in the Salem Armory maybe five or six months before Cobain died. He looked terrible. He just stood in front of the mic barely moving and Pat Smear played most of his guitar parts. I know it’s easy to say now, but at the time, I thought, “that guy isn’t going to last much longer.”
His death didn’t affect me as much as John Lennon’s or even Stevie Ray Vaughan’s. To be honest, at the time, my reaction was “another dumbshit rock star who couldn’t handle success.” I was actually angry about it. I was angry at him.
Years afterward, I read his biography and I think I understood him a little better. He had a hard life; broken home, constantly moving and changing houses. He never really connected to anything, not to his family and not to Aberdeen. It sounded like for a brief time when he was sleeping on people’s couches in Olympia playing gigs for pocket money, he approached something nearing happiness. The only thing he connected to was music. I think he was completely lost, and in the end the music wasn’t enough. It was obvious he was deeply troubled and in a lot of pain (even physically, he had some painful condition with his gut), probably officially clinically depressed and maybe even bipolar, and instead of getting real help, he self-medicated with heroin. If you read Nirvana’s lyrics, most of their songs were pretty dark and grim, and you can see now the pain that drove those lyrics.
The funny thing is, I have all of their CDs, but I can’t even listen to Nirvana anymore. I just find it too depressing, especially after reading his biography.
I actually haven’t listened to Nirvana for years, either. I mean, once in a while, but I moved on.
Yet they’re still a part of me, if that makes sense.
That being said, after putting this article up I did go through a few of my favorite songs (which are invariably not the singles-but those with more personal meaning to me and which take me back).
I never had that reaction to his, death, ’cause I thought I understood it. On the other hand, I also understood that reaction and can’t blame one if they had it. It was quite natural in its own way.
And yes, after you read a biography about him, that is the sense you get.
What you witnessed at the Salem Armory (ugh, and to think I turned down a Nirvana concert there in ’91 — how was I to know my mom was that cool at eleven years of age?!) gels with what he said in his suicide note.
He really was feeling horrible and not into it anymore.
And, you totally echoed a few things I wrote in my reply to KT.
KillgoreTrout
Thanks Pepe for answering the question I put to Khirad about why Cobain killed himself. I really didn’t know, and was curious.
ParadisePlacebo74
I guess I’m about as gen-x as they come, ’cause I knew exactly what this article would be about as soon as I read the title. I even had “Something in the Way” playing in the back of my mind as I started reading.
I was living up in Everett, WA at the time he died, having moved there from central Florida when I got out of high school in ’92. I really liked Nirvana, and owned all of their albums, but I wasn’t fanatical about them like so many others. They were just another foundational group in the realm of all things grunge, and I didn’t really fit in with any music scene at the time — though I’ve come to love that genre more and more as the years have past. The reactions to his death that I observed seemed to be very mixed. Some young people were ambivalent, saying that he was just another famous addict that didn’t make it out alive — while others showed a deep sadness and loss of direction. I’ve stayed somewhere in between. He was one of the most unique lyricists I’ve ever experienced. He could make a person question how they felt about the world without actually reminding them of anything cohesive. I remember driving around downtown Seattle with a friend a couple of years later, stoned out of our minds and listening to Cobain play noise guitar to William S. Burroughs insane spoken word on “The Priest They Called Him”, and really being affected by his unique musical style. I think he would be one of the most influential personalities in modern times, if he hadn’t had that terrible moment of desperation.
He could make a person question how they felt about the world without actually reminding them of anything cohesive
I definitely don’t count myself as a Nirvana fanatic.
But I also feel a deep link.
Somewhere in between, to a greater extent than you, I guess; but I viewed Nirvana much the same as you. I knew people – girls especially – with a really unhealthy obsession.
But totally, maybe Q has the vocabulary for it, but the lyrics were in a real Beat, Surrealist vein. Even if he hadn’t put much thought into them, the way they were strung together could be brilliant.
“Nature is a whore” used to be one of my favorite such observations.
AND “THE PRIEST”!!!
I have that CD!!!
Really great comment. You must be as Gen X as they come, because that mirrors my own experience/opinions.
And since you were in Everett, you’d probably know where Skagit County is. That’s where my relatives were north of Seattle. I was from SW Washington, like Cobain.
Khirad, now I know how Gen Xers and other young people feel when they listen to Boomers talk about 60s music. I don’t know much about Nirvana and Cobain. I did enjoy a few bands in the 90s, like Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Melissa Etheridge.
In the 90s, I was pretty heavy into blues bands. I didn’t have much to relate to with younger musicians, being older than them.
Why did Cobain decide to, “make his exit?” Was it severe depression or something else?
I have mixed feelings about suicide. I feel a person has a right to end their own life, if that is indeed what they want. But I also consider it to be the easy way out. (my father’s opinion passed on to me).
I do know how you feel about losing a favorite artist though. Like anybody from the 60s must feel. I remember going to a candle light vigil in Boston Commons the day after Lennon was assassinated. Standing with hundreds of others, holding a candle in a slow, cold drizzle while singing some of the best of Lennon’s songs. I was truly stunned when I heard Howard Cosell announce it on Monday Night football. To this day, I still grieve at times when thinking about it or seeing a special on TV or whatever.
Kurt Cobain, from his early teens had chronic severe depression or was bipolar. He was also the classic outcast (allegedly joked that he would be the one voted Most Likely To Kill Everyone At A High School Dance). And unlike so many other music stars, he was genuinely discomfited by celebrity, he never came to terms with it–being painfully shy and really gentle; fragile, really. Of course, all this is recipe for drug abuse, and heroin was his drug of choice (also in part to chronic stomach pain he had).
Prior to his suicide he had had an intervention from family and friends (which is ironic considering Courtney was involved in this). He was at a treatment rehab center, jumped the fence and disappeared (though how nobody thought to check the places he lived eludes me). An electrician is the one who found his body.
While I think the intervention can’t be overlooked as a trigger (and how horrible for his loved ones to feel any guilt for doing the right thing, that’s not what I suggest), but this was really not a case where ‘no one saw it coming’. His lyrics are full of depression-related references. “I think I’m dumb, maybe just happy,” “I miss the comfort in feeling sad,” and of course the quasi-satirical song title “I Hate Myself and I want to Die” among others.
Kurt Cobain’s last interview was with Rolling Stone magazine on January 27,1994. When the writer asked him, “One of your songs that you cut from In Utero at the last minute was I hate myself and I want to die. How literally did you mean it?” Cobain responded:
“As literal as a joke can be. Nothing more than a joke. And that had a bit to do with why we decided to take it off. We knew people wouldn’t get it; they’d take it too seriously. It was totally satirical, making fun of ourselves. I’m thought of as this pissy, complaining, freaked out, schizophrenic who wants to kill himself all the time: ‘He isn’t satisfied with anything.’ And I thought it was a funny title. I wanted it to be the title for the album for along time. but I knew the majority wouldn’t get it.”
I think one can joke about themselves and be self-aware, but that it still doesn’t mean there’s not any truth to it. He was obviously under no illusions about who he was or what he was like. He was also a very funny, silly, witty person. People get the wrong idea that depressed people are always forlorn with their wrist glued to their forehead.
However he was under a sort of illusion. It was mental illness-induced.
This brings me to suicide. I agree, in principle, that someone can’t “commit suicide” – I’ve never understood how according to some it is technically a crime, to take one’s own life (although the distinction makes sense in terms of life insurance policy of accidental death, I guess).
But philosophy aside, it hurts those around you. You believe you’re so worthless that they would be better off without you. Unless you’re an abusive asshole, this isn’t true. That is why the term mental illness is not just a cute play off of physical maladies–it is an illness. I’ve never understood the easy way out characterization, unless you are a criminal who cheats justice after killing another, etc. I also believe suicide can be honorable, in some cases. But I don’t understand how going against every biological instinct of survival is easy.
You’re different (in that you’ve been there I think, and most people I’ve heard say that expression have had no clue what it’s like to even be sad), and I’m probably over-parsing a simple expression, but as someone with my own struggles who chickened out and only ever made half-hearted attempts — to stare death in the face, your own mortality–with one flash you are gone at your own hand–is anything but easy.
In his case. I understand why he did it. But I don’t condone it. I don’t think he’s a bad person who selfishly deprived his daughter of a father. I believe he was someone with severe mental illness exacerbated by drug addiction.
But to add to the tragedy was the crazy conspiracy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpiP2NBCOVU
This is part of the reason why people hate Courtney (the Yoko Ono in some circles of Nirvana fans). Some actually blame her for his death – whether by her own hand, or in driving him to it. Now, Courtney may be a crazy b*tch (and I’m not being sexist, she’d say the same thing), who is capable of the most bizarre, and irresponsible behavior; a trainwreck until very recently (if her rehab and Buddhism is still going well). But even if you thought Kurt could have done better (I likeed him also, that he never went out with models and actresses–he was an outcast to the end), they loved each other sincerely in their own mutually enabling, dysfunctional way, and you gotta respect that his feelings for her were genuine.
Anyway, since you like Blues, one of Cobain’s favorite artists was Leadbelly – and this is maybe one of under a handful of songs that can make me tear up (or sob, after a few drinks). Apparently I wasn’t alone:
“Cobain was a marvelous singer…I heard his unplugged version of that Leadbelly song and it was such a perfect vocal that I was really moved.” – Allen Ginsberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLe-NS3haxA
And to bring in some more voices you might recognize.
“He had a touch most guitarists would kill for.” – Chuck Berry
“That kid had heart.” – Bob Dylan
“He was a genius.” – Paul McCartney
“He really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me.” – Neil Young
“I mourn for Kurt. A once beautiful, then pathetic, lost and heroically stupid boy.” – Pete Townsend
escribacat
He’s impressive. He’s pretty easy on the eyes, too.
I never said one CAN’T commit suicide. Just the opposite, really. I said it is a person’s right to take their own life if that is what they really want. And I also relayed my dad’s and consequently my belief that suicide is the easy way out.
Every situation is different. I know about depression and being bi-polar AND suffering from PTSD and addiction. I nearly offed myself more than once. I won’t go into my personal life beyond what I’ve said already. I don’t condemn Kurt for committing suicide. I’m sure he had his torments. Maybe what has kept me going, in spite of everything, is the fact that I have a daughter and I know what my suicide would do to her. It would wreck her, completely. Those with children don’t have the luxury of suicide.
I think you misunderstood my comment in part.
My only disagreement with you is in that it is easy.
Or that it is always done in a state where someone is thinking clearly about what they would do to their children.
I used to think my parents would literally be better off without me–the perennial screw up–who was just a burden to them, like I was doing them a favor. Just wasting oxygen.
That is mental illness. I don’t know what was in his head. But maybe he thought they’d be better off without him. That he could never be a good father, just mess things up. It’s not true–and would have been seriously flawed reasoning considering who he was leaving Francis Bean with.
I don’t know your circumstance, but in mine I was clearly not seeing things as they really were–how it would devastate (in a sense it is selfish, or at least self-involved, in that you’re wrapped up in your own darkness)–it’s a very real illness that distorts reality. Add to that in Cobain’s case a whole lot of heroin.
As a new father should he have killed himself? Or even been using drugs. Of course not. Can it be excused just with mental health issues? not completely.
I’m just trying to say things are never black and white (and I get overly sensitive about metal illness issues), but we can probably agree on things being complicated in some degree or another.
Khirad, KT, It’s possible he felt he could never get off the junk, and realized that life wasn’t worth living while on the junk. If that were the case, then he would probably rationalize that he was doing his kid a favor. When you’re deep inside an addiction, life without the stuff (whatever it is) can seem unimaginable.
e’cat, that could very well have been the case. I don’t know really know what his reasoning was. I am just relating his experience to my own. (to a degree)
I know, from experience, that there are depths to which one can sink where suicide looks far easier than pressing on. Sometimes it seem the ONLY choice.
I know what it’s like to sit on top of a skyscraper, at night, peering over the edge and being just a split second decision from jumping. Or what it’s like to have the barrel of a gun in my mouth, again being just a split second decision away from death. And neither time was I of clear mind.
As I said, everybody is different. I don’t get overly sensitive about the subject of mental illness, but I can absolutely, without doubt, say that I know, from experience quite a lot about it. More than anyone would ever want to know.
Haruko Haruhara
This is one Foo Fighters song actually about Kurt Cobain…
… unlike the 33 other Foo Fighter songs people claim are about Kurt Cobain
Yes, anything by Foo Fighters or Hole was parsed and over-analyzed for references to Kurt Cobain.
However; this is a pretty good contender from Courtney.
Hole – Pacific Coast Highway
And Dave Grohl said this song was about Kurt, too.
I am old – 65 – but, I see that he meant a lot to you. Suicide is quite tragic.
KQµårk 死神
Excellent tribute to Kurt Cobain’s memory Khirad.
I’m more in WTS’s generation as well but I thought the 90’s was an incredible decade for music. The rawness and angst of alternative and rap as well where just an incredible reflection of those times. Young people knew something was wrong but they didn’t quite have their finger on what was wrong yet.
We were lucky enough to live in Jax Fl at the time near Five Points which if anyone knows the area is the tiny artsy area in Jax. We use to see members from Limp Bizkit, Everclear and other local bands all the time. Remind me to tell you a couple stories about Fred Durst and his antics. Though we lived there far after the golden age of Southern Rock bands like Molly Hatchet, The Allman Brothers Band, 38 Special, The Outlaws, and Lynyrd Skynyrd who recorded there.
Young people knew something was wrong but they didn’t quite have their finger on what was wrong yet.
And you just put the finger on what I was having trouble expressing in reply to WTC. That did seem to be the whole mood of the time in a nutshell (especially as a teen!).
I can only imagine with Fred Durst… oh lord.
Everclear is Portland (and proud!) though, unless they had a period I’m not aware of after setting up there.
One of the drummers is from Jax and he was down there quite a bit with the rest of his crew one winter.
Nicely done, Khirad.
I’m not quite a boomer; my music was Zeppelin, Skynyrd, The Who, Bowie, and then later The Clash, The Pretenders, The Talking Heads, and REM. I only got into alt rock at all because I was living in Oakland at the time and drove a lot into S.F., so I had it on my radio. I remember hearing “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam, and totally getting into it, but at the same time thinking it was nothing new. It sounded like Mountain, a band from my generation that never quite made it.
Nirvana, and Cobain’s significance, I have to admit, I just didn’t get. But then my generation didn’t really have anything comparable to Hendrix, Janis or Lennon and their tragic deaths. Keith Moon? A legend, yes, but hardly a poet. Ian Curtis, I suppose, but the great waves of mourning for him were mostly limited to the other side of the pond.
Anyway, here’s to those whose flames burn only briefly!
Whats–Mountain was the first concert I ever went to, at age 13. Nantucket Sleigh Ride!! And I probably saw you at the Fab Mab (Mabuhey Gardens) in SF in the 80s, dancing to Romeo Void or the Dead Kennedys or Jim Carroll or Oingo Boingo.
I didn’t hear much in the 90s that I was really crazy about. I think Dave Matthews is a great musician. But I also didn’t get Nirvana or Pearl Jam. My niece was obsessed with Pearl Jam. I always thought his voice — to quote Henry Miller — sounded like a goose farting.
Dave Matthews is an incredibly talented band, and I madly respect their craft, but I’ve never heard a song I related to.
Different strokes for different folks. 🙂
Ya kinda had to grow up during the time is my point, I think. Although, c’mon, Dead Kennedys are cool.
The early 90s were the best thing since the late 60s and early 70s and Punk to happen in music in the last few decades, I’m gonna stand by it. It was a brief golden age, and most critics would agree.
I just don’t know what to say other than that. I’m kinda confused how anyone couldn’t find the Singles soundtrack epic. 😛
A goose farting? I have no idea what that sounds like, but I’m guessing not Eddie Vedder! 🙂 Besides, like I said, his voice reminds me of the singer/guitarist of Mountain, Leslie West. Ditto the screaming, searing guitar leads. I’m surprised Vedder never mentions them as an influence, because he is never shy about naming, and covering, his idols.
Whats–Okay I confess. I’ve never heard a goose farting. 😆 It’s just a line from Henry Miller I’ve always wanted to use (he uses it to describe his father laughing, I think). So it’s how I imagine it would sound if a goose farted. Kind of like goose honking only … worse. I do seriously dislike Eddie Vedder’s voice, not sure why. I mean, I find it extremely irritating.
I will have to listen to Mountain again because I can’t remember if they sound like P.J. or not. Anyway, I like Nirvana better than Pearl Jam but never understood the connection that Khirad describes. However…I felt that way about the Clash.
Ya either love or hate his voice.
In my case it grew on me.
It’s idiosyncratic to be sure and when he overdoes it is slightly irritating.
The Clash? Coolness, e-cat. “Death or Glory” is one of my all time favorite songs.
Khirad, do you mean you are confused about me not getting into Nirvana so much even though I like The Clash? It’s just that I wasn’t as into music, in general, during that time when I was living on the West Coast. I had my old familiars for home, and then I heard new stuff on the radio. I had other things on my mind then, like raising the baby, then moving to Japan, working, studying. So I never really gave Nirvana a chance, just because music was not a major priority then.
Again, very confused.
Nirvana’s like a direct descendant of bands like The Clash (though more Sonic Youth).
jkkFL
wts- interesting observation in the last paragraph.
When my nephew was in his late teens, we had a very interesting conversation about Jimi Hendrix- and the others who died during his era, which could apply here as well..
Would the star have burned as brightly, if those who died so young, had lived? Of course there was no conclusion, but it was fascinating!
Hey, jkk! Hendrix was heading into prog rock. One of the most interesting tidbits of Not Making This Up rock trivia I have ever come across was that he was all set to hook up with Keith Emerson and company and form a supergroup called H.E.L.P.
The other guys carried on to become the E.L.P. that one either loves or loathes today.
But if that had happened, prog rock would have been very different, I imagine. With his love for fashion, and his amazing guitar, he couldn’t have avoided the funk scene, so he either would have blown past prog after a short stint with HELP, or the two genres would have bridged somehow.
Morrison was heading more and more into gruff blues. Janis probably couldn’t have sustained what she was doing. Pete Townshend could smash as many guitars as he wanted, but she only had ONE voice!
One thing’s for sure. None of those three would have produced something as weeny as “Someone’s Knocking at the Door” or “The Doggone Girl is Mine”.
I actually take that as a compliment, because I kinda think Cobain was so uniquely Gen X, that it would be hard to get it if you weren’t–and I appreciate the blunt honesty (very Gen X of you, btw).
The sound was both original in its rawness, inspired by both the pop and obscure, and indie alt music (before ‘alternative’ and ‘indie’ had been branded and lost all their meaning) of his large record collection, and finally, it was reactionary to 80s glam metal.
I also think there was a lot of Aberdeen in it. Aberdeen defines grunge. Flannels and soaked grit were not fashion, they’re part lumber town, and Northwestern to the tee. I was both a little honored and annoyed when grunge fashion took off around the country. “Look, I just went to GAP and got this rad new flannel!” would produce such a look of derision in my face I couldn’t even describe it in the most acerbically sarcastic of tones. You think you’ve seen an eye-roll?
I do think he and Ian Curtis shared many similarities, though. Both personality-wise, and music wise — not even counting their respective tragic ends.
Pearl Jam was always more of the Classic Rock vein. And for a little trivia, Cobain thought they were corporate poseurs (“Radio Friendly Unit Shifters”, as it were).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qZ_5kutgfY
Eddie Vedder, being totally classy, never held it against him.
For the record, the first CD I bought was Pearl Jam’s “Ten”, and I still like them, but just not to the same degree. They were sorta grunge-lite.
That has to be the first time I’ve ever seen ‘Keith Moon’ and ‘poet’ in the same sentence! He was every bit the legendary drummer as Neil Peart is, but deep he was not (unless he was driving a car into a pool!). 😉
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” – Neil Young, as quoted in Cobain’s suicide note.
I’m convinced he’d still be making music today, possibly with his daughter, Francis Bean–now grown up and also pursuing music. That’s what’s so sad. What’s the difference between a Trent Reznor, who cleans himself up, and a Kurt Cobain? Just a really bad day and succumbing to a moment of deepest, darkest despair, it seems…
The key thing about that Neil Young quote is that it had absolutely nothing to do with suicide, or even death, per se. He could have easily sang it about Jim Morrison or Hendrix, as they were buddies, or at least acquaintances, of his. But he sang it about Johnny Rotten (NOT Sid Vicious). He was singing about the statement the Sex Pistols made, even though they didn’t really have anything (such as talent, vision, or even the ability to create a song that didn’t sound like all their OTHER songs) to sustain it. If you’re going to be a flash in the pan, make sure the cook cries “Owch!”, in other words.
Neil Young, even at that time, knew the whole rock scene backwards, forwards and sideways. He helped create it, and he knew all its victims personally. That song didn’t contain the message Kurt Cobain was hearing when he, as you write, succumbed to a moment of despair.
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2019 Information Guide
Baseball Information Guides
2019 Quick Facts (.pdf)
Yellow Jackets in the MLB Draft
Danny Hall Baseball Camps
2019 Promotional Schedule
2019 Game Notes
#STINGDAILY: Summer Baseball Leagues Update
By Jon Cooper
As the summer leagues head into their stretch drives, Georgia Tech players were making their presence felt, be it in league all-star games or within their various leagues.
Here is a look around at how the Yellow Jackets did in their various leagues in games from Monday, July 16, through Sunday, July 22.
Sam Dove, OF/3B, Harwich Mariners – Dove struggled at the plate hitting .182 in four games (4-for-22), with six strikeouts, but hit in four of the Mariners’ six games, drew three walks, scored three runs and drove in four more. Two of those RBIs came on his third homer of the summer, a blast in the middle of the Mariners’ seven-run fourth inning Wednesday that sunk Falmouth, 7-5.
Zane Evans, C/RHP, Harwich Mariners – Evans neither pitched nor caught this week, DHing twice. Evans had a tough time, going 0-for-9, with six strikeouts (three in each game). He is hitting .128 for the summer.
Mott Hyde, SS, Wareham Gatemen – Pick your synonym for hot and it will describe Hyde. In four games, the shortstop batted .538 (7-for-13), with a .667 on-base percentage and six runs scored — all team highs. He scored in every game and finished the weekend on a streak of three straight multi-hit games, getting two each on Friday vs. Hyannis, and Sunday against Brewster, with a three-hit game at Falmouth in-between. Hyde also had a .769 slugging percentage, with three doubles. Hyde raised his batting average 28 points to .330, and pushed his slugging percentage up 36 points, to .505.
Dusty Isaacs, RHP, Cotuit Kettleers – Isaacs did not pitch this week. He headed into the this week with his ERA down to 2.20, and he’s struck out 16 in 16 1/3 innings, having allowed one run and three hits, while striking out six and walking one in his last two appearances, covering 6 2/3 innings. He’s been rewarded for his effectiveness with two wins. He is 2-0 on the summer.
Daniel Palka, 1B/LHP/OF, Wareham Gatemen – Palka was as hot as Hyde, hitting .357 for the week (5-for-14), while slugging a team-high .857, with a double, and two homers and six RBIs (his homers and RBIs led the team). He had a .500 on-base percentage, drawing four walks while striking out once. Palka, who scored four runs during the week, hit in all four games and rides a five-game hitting streak, during which he is hitting .412 (7-for-17). He’s also driven in a run in each of those five games. He raised his average 10 points for the week, to .290, increased his slugging percentage 41 points to .579 and his OPS 62 points to .955.
Cole Pitts, RHP, Harwich Mariners – Pitts did not appear this week. He’ll try to bounce back from a rocky performance his last time out, when he allowed three earned runs on three hits in a third of an inning. He carries a 12:1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio into the week, although he’s struck out only one hitter in his last three appearances, covering 2.0 innings.
NOTE: Harwich is 20-12 and in first place in the East after a 4-2 week, which started and ended with losses but had a four-game winning streak in between. The Mariners lead the division by a half-game over Yarmouth-Dennis and by one game over Orleans.
In the West, Cotuit went 3-1 (two games were postponed), having won three in a row. They allowed one run in each of the wins, and lead the West with its 18-12 record, five games ahead of the sinking Falmouth Commodores. Wareham, went 2-2, also having two postponements, and sits in third, five games off the pace at 13-17.
Valley League
Alex Cruz, RHP, Harrisonburg Turks – Cruz didn’t appear until the ninth inning on Sunday against Rockbridge, but it was an inning that had a little bit of everything. He entered the game in the top of the ninth as a pinch-hitter and singled. Cruz would come around to score on a bases-loaded walk to Yellow Jackets teammate Charles Sheffield. He’d then start the bottom of the ninth inning at third. When the Rapids cut the lead to 12-8 and brought the tying run to the plate, Cruz came in to pitch and struck out the only batter he faced, recording his 18th strikeout of the summer and earning his second save.
A.J. Murray, C, Harrisonburg Turks – The freshman catcher was 1-for-7 but ended on a positive, as he pinch-hit and singled in the ninth inning Sunday in the 12-8 win at Lexington. Unfortunately, he was thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into a double. Murray also drove in a run on Thursday, with a sixth-inning ground out (scoring Sheffield) at Staunton, to cut the Turks’ deficit to 5-2 — it preceded a 12-run frame by the Braves in the 19-3 loss. Murray is hitting .226 with three homers and 13 RBIs.
Charles Sheffield, OF/1B, Harrisonburg Turks – Sheffield batted .235 (4-for-17), but had hits in four of the team’s five games. He showed good plate discipline, as he walked five times, including three times on Sunday. He scored twice and drove in a run. Sheffield, who is hitting .276, also swiped his second base of the summer. He is 2-for-6 overall.
Thomas Smith, 2B, Harrisonburg Turks – Smith had a tough week at the plate, hitting .176 (3-for-17) but hit his first triple of the summer, in the first inning of Tuesday’s game at Waynesboro. The hit gave the Turks a 1-0 lead, but would be the only run they’d score in the 5-1 loss. He also had an adventurous week on defense, as, in addition to playing his usual second base, Smith saw action at short on Thursday at Staunton and Sunday at Lexington, and played both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader with New Market and Sunday at third. Despite the juggling, he made just one error all week.
NOTE: Harrisonburg went 2-3 and lost two games in the standings on first place Waynesboro. The Turks ended the week at 26-15, still in second place but three games back of the Generals in the South Division.
New England Collegiate Baseball League
Chase Butler, 3B, Danbury Westerners – Butler was 0-for-3 with a walk as DH in Monday’s 4-2 loss to Holyoke. He is hitting .193 with a homer and eight RBIs.
Paul Kronenfeld, OF/1B, Sanford Mariners – Kronenfeld was one of the few Mainers to swing the bat well, hitting .308 for the week (4-for-13). He started the week on a roll, getting hits in four of his first five at-bats, including a three-hit effort on Monday in the 4-0 loss to New Bedford. It was his first three-hit game of the summer and third multi-hit game. He also extended his perfect base-stealing streak to four. His second-inning single against Laconia extended his hitting streak to six games, but that streak would end the next night in the 8-0 loss to the Muskrats. Although he trailed off over the weekend, carrying an 0-for-8 drought into the weekend, it’s only the third time all season he’s gone hitless in back-to-back games. He has yet to go hitless in three straight.
Daniel Spingola, OF, Danbury Westerners – Spingola had another outstanding week, batting .353 (6-for-16), with an .824 slugging percentage and a 1.274 OPS. He hit in four of Danbury’s five games with a pair of multi-hit games. Of his six hits, four of them were for extra bases, as he blasted a pair of homers (accounting for his two RBIs for the week) and had two doubles. He finished the week as one of the Westerner’s seven representatives at the All-Star Game. He went 0-for-2 in the game. He also scored six runs. Spingola raised his average nine points, to .306, increased his slugging 49 points to .565 (second on the team) raised his OPS 68 points to .924.
NOTE: Danbury went 3-1 and headed into the break on a three-game winning streak. The Westerners are 8-2 in their last 10 games and, at 19-15, are in second place in the Western Division, four games back of the Keene Swamp Bats.
Sanford went 2-2 on the week, with one game cancelled. The Mainers, who scored only six runs all week and were shutout in both losses, are in third place in the Eastern Division at 11-18. They are 11 games off the pace.
Coastal Plain League
Cameron Gibson, OF/RHP, Peninsula Pilots – The freshman outfielder had a rough week at the plate, batting .133 (2-for-15), with five strikeouts, he scored two runs, drove in a run and continued his flawless play not only in the outfield, but also at first base. Defensively, Gibson is still perfect, having made all 43 chances and chalking up two assists.
Josh Heddinger, RHP, Peninsula Pilots – Josh continued his outstanding work in his one start, allowing two runs (both earned) and four hits over 6 2/3 innings on Tuesday at Morehead City. Heddinger, who got no decision in the Pilots’ 4-3 loss, had bouts with his control, walking six, vs. two strikeouts, but saw his ERA drop to 4.21. His opposing batting average is .173.
Jonathan Roberts, RHP, Peninsula Pilots – Roberts did not see action in any of the five games this past week.
NOTE: Peninsula is 8-10 in the second half, following a 3-2 week. They’re tied for fourth place in the East, with the Wilson Tobs.
Northwoods League
Connor Lynch, C, Lakeshore Chinooks – Lynch had a solid week, batting .273 (3-for-11), with a double. He scored a run, drove in a run and even stole his first base of the summer on the back end of a double-steal in the seventh inning on Sunday against the Green Bay Bullfrogs. Earlier in the inning, his RBI single drove in what proved to be the winning run in the Chinooks’ 4-3 win.
NOTE: After a 4-3 week, Lakeshore is 9-8 in the second half and has dropped into a third-place tie with the La Crosse Loggers in the South Division, six games back of the first place Wisconsin Woodchucks.
Sunbelt Baseball League
DeAndre Smelter, P/OF, Douglasville Bulls – Following his playing in the Sunbelt Baseball League All-Star Game, Smelter had another solid week, hitting .313 (5-for-16), with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. He also drew four walks in compiling a .450 on-base percentage. DeAndre stole his sixth base in the sixth inning Thursday night against the Windward Braves but was caught stealing for the first time one batter later.
NOTE: Douglasville was 1-4 in a frustrating week that saw all four losses decided by one run.
July 13, 2019 #TGW: Fast Track to the Big Leagues
#ProJacket Johnathan Langley journey to Big Leagues culminates at 2019 MLB All-Star Weekend
#TGW: Fast Track to the Big Leagues
July 2, 2019 Five Jackets Named to Academic All-ACC Team
Guldberg, Hurter, Murray, Roedig and Waddell receive academic recognition
Five Jackets Named to Academic All-ACC Team
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Hunger strike commemorations launched
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes must be used as an opportunity to look forward as well as remember those who died.
Mr Adams was joined at the Europa Hotel in Belfast by relatives of the ten hunger strikers who died and former political prisoners at the launch of a year-long series of events to mark the 25th anniversary.
The event was also addressed by Oliver Hughes, brother of the IRA hunger striker Francis Hughes, and by the former prisoners Martina Anderson and Seando Moore.
Mr Adams said the prison protests of the late 1970s and early 1980s and, in particular, the 1981 hunger strike were watershed moments in Irish history.
“It does not seem like 25 years ago when ten republican prisoners lost their lives when faced with an intransigent British government in London and an Irish government in Dublin more interested in self-interest than seeking a resolution to the situation in the H-blocks and Armagh prison,” he said.
“The forthcoming year will provide an opportunity to reflect upon the ten men who died, the contribution they made, and the sacrifices made by their families during the summer of 1981.
“These events must also be about more than looking back.
“They must also be about looking to the future, exploring how best we move our struggle forward in the coming years, and how best we complete the job of delivering Irish unity and independence.”
Mr Adams said the year-long series of events would also allow a new generation of people, who were not even born in 1981, to learn about the time and take part in mapping out the future.
“My generation of Irish republicans will never forget those terrible months from March to October when ten men died in the H-blocks of Long Kesh and over 50 others died on our streets but, in marking the 25th anniversary of the hunger strike, we have an opportunity to celebrate their lives, remember their sacrifice, and rededicate ourselves to advancing the struggle,” Mr Adams said.
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Irish Republican News · March 16, 2019
Bradley again defends killer soldiers
British Direct Ruler Karen Bradley is facing further criticism after she praised the “courage and distinction” of British soldiers following the Bloody Sunday decision to prosecute one of them for murder.
Fourteen civil rights demonstrators died when British paratroopers opened fire on their protest in January, 1972. Bradley paid tribute to members of the Crown Forces just hours after the prosecution decision against one of the paratroopers was made known.
She said: “We are indebted to those who served with courage and distinction to bring peace in Northern Ireland, and I have the deepest sympathy for the suffering of the families of those who were killed on Bloody Sunday and all those who lost loved ones during the Troubles.”
Bradley faced calls to resign last week after she told the House of Commons that killings carried out by British soldiers and police are “not crimes”, but rather actions of those “fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way”.
In November, she said she wanted to find a way to get British soldiers facing prosecution for murder “off the hook”. She said she was working to find a way “that we can all be happy that our service veterans and former police officers do not face harassment in the courts, do not face disproportionate focus from the legal services.”
She has also declared that soldiers convicted of murder should be eligible for early release under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Bloody Sunday Trust chairman Tony Doherty called on Bradley to resign.
Mr Doherty, whose father Patrick was one of those killed in the Bloody Sunday massacre, said: “Her crassness is fathomless. The British army did not bring peace. To the people of Derry, the Parachute Regiment brought murder, mayhem and injustice.”
Her comments also mean she is not an appropriate person to appoint a successor to Police Ombudsman Michael Maguire, according to one of his predecessors.
Nuala O’Loan, who in 1999 became the north’s first police ombudsman, said Karen Bradley’s involvement in appointing a replacement for Mr Maguire would undermine trust in the police watchdog.
“I don’t think she is capable of being perceived as impartial and I think it’s critical for trust in the police ombudsman’s office that the person appointed can be seen to have been appointed impartially,” she said.
“It is a function of the secretary of state, that has to be exercised but she is not the person who can exercise it.”
Mrs O’Loan said that although Bradley had apologised for her more controversial statements, she it was “very clear that that is the way she thought”.
“My view would be that if she remains in post and makes the appointment there may well be questions about the impartiality of the candidate she appointed because she has said what she has said,” she said.
“It’s not to reflect on anybody who might be appointed but simply trust in the police ombudsman’s office is critical to the operation of it and I think what she has said has indicated that she is not impartial.”
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Infections after a traumatic brain injury: The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems
Rishabh Sharma, Sandy R. Shultz, Marcus J. Robinson, Antonio Belli, Margaret L. Hibbs, Terence J. O'Brien, Bridgette D. Semple
Central Clinical Sch
Department of Neuroscience
Immunology Alfred Hospital
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious global health issue, being the leading cause of death and disability for individuals under the age of 45, and one of the largest causes of global neurological disability. In addition to the brain injury itself, it is increasingly appreciated that a TBI may also alter the systemic immune response in a way that renders TBI patients more vulnerable to infections in the acute post-injury period. Such infections pose an additional challenge to the patient, increasing rates of mortality and morbidity, and worsening neurological outcomes. Hospitalization, surgical interventions, and a state of immunosuppression induced by injury to the central nervous system (CNS), may all contribute to the high rate of infections seen in the population with TBI. Ongoing research to better understand the immunomodulators that underlie TBI-induced immunosuppression may aid in the development of effective therapeutic strategies to improve the recovery trajectory for patients. This review first describes the clinical scenario, posing the question of whether TBI patients are more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia, and if so, why? We then consider how cross-talk between the injured brain and the systemic immune system occurs, and further, how the additional immune challenge of an acquired infection can contribute to ongoing neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration after a TBI. Experimental models combining TBI with infection are discussed, as well as current treatment options available for this double-barreled insult. The aims of this review are to summarize current understanding of the bidirectional relationship between the CNS and the immune system when faced with a mechanical trauma combined with a concomitant infection, and to highlight key outstanding questions that remain in the field.
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
Accepted/In press - 25 Apr 2019
Sharma, R., Shultz, S. R., Robinson, M. J., Belli, A., Hibbs, M. L., O'Brien, T. J., & Semple, B. D. (Accepted/In press). Infections after a traumatic brain injury: The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
Sharma, Rishabh ; Shultz, Sandy R. ; Robinson, Marcus J. ; Belli, Antonio ; Hibbs, Margaret L. ; O'Brien, Terence J. ; Semple, Bridgette D. / Infections after a traumatic brain injury : The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems. In: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2019.
@article{49a1e98de2f64956b08af1a355749954,
title = "Infections after a traumatic brain injury: The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems",
abstract = "Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious global health issue, being the leading cause of death and disability for individuals under the age of 45, and one of the largest causes of global neurological disability. In addition to the brain injury itself, it is increasingly appreciated that a TBI may also alter the systemic immune response in a way that renders TBI patients more vulnerable to infections in the acute post-injury period. Such infections pose an additional challenge to the patient, increasing rates of mortality and morbidity, and worsening neurological outcomes. Hospitalization, surgical interventions, and a state of immunosuppression induced by injury to the central nervous system (CNS), may all contribute to the high rate of infections seen in the population with TBI. Ongoing research to better understand the immunomodulators that underlie TBI-induced immunosuppression may aid in the development of effective therapeutic strategies to improve the recovery trajectory for patients. This review first describes the clinical scenario, posing the question of whether TBI patients are more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia, and if so, why? We then consider how cross-talk between the injured brain and the systemic immune system occurs, and further, how the additional immune challenge of an acquired infection can contribute to ongoing neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration after a TBI. Experimental models combining TBI with infection are discussed, as well as current treatment options available for this double-barreled insult. The aims of this review are to summarize current understanding of the bidirectional relationship between the CNS and the immune system when faced with a mechanical trauma combined with a concomitant infection, and to highlight key outstanding questions that remain in the field.",
keywords = "Brain injury, Immune response, Immunosuppression, Infection, Inflammation, Neurotrauma, Pneumonia",
author = "Rishabh Sharma and Shultz, {Sandy R.} and Robinson, {Marcus J.} and Antonio Belli and Hibbs, {Margaret L.} and O'Brien, {Terence J.} and Semple, {Bridgette D.}",
doi = "10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034",
journal = "Brain, Behavior, and Immunity",
publisher = "Mosby International",
Sharma, R, Shultz, SR, Robinson, MJ, Belli, A, Hibbs, ML, O'Brien, TJ & Semple, BD 2019, 'Infections after a traumatic brain injury: The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems' Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
Infections after a traumatic brain injury : The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems. / Sharma, Rishabh; Shultz, Sandy R.; Robinson, Marcus J.; Belli, Antonio; Hibbs, Margaret L.; O'Brien, Terence J.; Semple, Bridgette D.
In: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 25.04.2019.
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T2 - The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems
AU - Sharma, Rishabh
AU - Shultz, Sandy R.
AU - Robinson, Marcus J.
AU - Belli, Antonio
AU - Hibbs, Margaret L.
AU - O'Brien, Terence J.
AU - Semple, Bridgette D.
N2 - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious global health issue, being the leading cause of death and disability for individuals under the age of 45, and one of the largest causes of global neurological disability. In addition to the brain injury itself, it is increasingly appreciated that a TBI may also alter the systemic immune response in a way that renders TBI patients more vulnerable to infections in the acute post-injury period. Such infections pose an additional challenge to the patient, increasing rates of mortality and morbidity, and worsening neurological outcomes. Hospitalization, surgical interventions, and a state of immunosuppression induced by injury to the central nervous system (CNS), may all contribute to the high rate of infections seen in the population with TBI. Ongoing research to better understand the immunomodulators that underlie TBI-induced immunosuppression may aid in the development of effective therapeutic strategies to improve the recovery trajectory for patients. This review first describes the clinical scenario, posing the question of whether TBI patients are more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia, and if so, why? We then consider how cross-talk between the injured brain and the systemic immune system occurs, and further, how the additional immune challenge of an acquired infection can contribute to ongoing neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration after a TBI. Experimental models combining TBI with infection are discussed, as well as current treatment options available for this double-barreled insult. The aims of this review are to summarize current understanding of the bidirectional relationship between the CNS and the immune system when faced with a mechanical trauma combined with a concomitant infection, and to highlight key outstanding questions that remain in the field.
AB - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious global health issue, being the leading cause of death and disability for individuals under the age of 45, and one of the largest causes of global neurological disability. In addition to the brain injury itself, it is increasingly appreciated that a TBI may also alter the systemic immune response in a way that renders TBI patients more vulnerable to infections in the acute post-injury period. Such infections pose an additional challenge to the patient, increasing rates of mortality and morbidity, and worsening neurological outcomes. Hospitalization, surgical interventions, and a state of immunosuppression induced by injury to the central nervous system (CNS), may all contribute to the high rate of infections seen in the population with TBI. Ongoing research to better understand the immunomodulators that underlie TBI-induced immunosuppression may aid in the development of effective therapeutic strategies to improve the recovery trajectory for patients. This review first describes the clinical scenario, posing the question of whether TBI patients are more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia, and if so, why? We then consider how cross-talk between the injured brain and the systemic immune system occurs, and further, how the additional immune challenge of an acquired infection can contribute to ongoing neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration after a TBI. Experimental models combining TBI with infection are discussed, as well as current treatment options available for this double-barreled insult. The aims of this review are to summarize current understanding of the bidirectional relationship between the CNS and the immune system when faced with a mechanical trauma combined with a concomitant infection, and to highlight key outstanding questions that remain in the field.
KW - Brain injury
KW - Immune response
KW - Immunosuppression
KW - Infection
KW - Neurotrauma
KW - Pneumonia
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
DO - 10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
JO - Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
JF - Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
Sharma R, Shultz SR, Robinson MJ, Belli A, Hibbs ML, O'Brien TJ et al. Infections after a traumatic brain injury: The complex interplay between the immune and neurological systems. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2019 Apr 25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
10.1016/j.bbi.2019.04.034
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Calhoun County, West Virginia Records
Calhoun County, West Virginia Courthouse Records
Calhoun County, West Virginia Census Records
Calhoun County, West Virginia Vital Records
Calhoun County, West Virginia Resources
Calhoun County, West Virginia External Links
Calhoun County, West Virginia (Map It) was created on March 5, 1856 from portions of Gilmer County. The county was named in honor of John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), a famous South Carolina statesman who championed state's rights and U.S. Vice President.
Calhoun County is bordered by Ritchie County (north), Gilmer County (east), Braxton County (southeast), Clay County (south), Roane County (west), Wirt County (northwest). A Map of Calhoun County, West Virginia contains detailed information about roads and boundaries, these maps may include rural communities, churches, and cemeteries.
Calhoun County Cities and Towns include Arnoldsburg, Big Bend, Big Springs, Chloe, Five Forks, Floe, Grantsville, Millstone, Minnora, Mount Zion, Nobe, Orma, Sand Ridge, Tanner
Calhoun County, WV Courthouse
The Calhoun County Courthouse is located in Grantsville, West Virginia. The Clerk's Office DOES NOT DO RESEARCH. Most staff will assist people in finding the materials, but it is up to the individual to do the research.
The following dates indicates what vital, land, probate, and court records are in Calhoun county. The date listed for each record is usually the earliest registration filed. The date does not indicate that there are alot records for that year and does not mean that all such events were actually filed with the clerk. Until 1863 West Virginia was part of Virginia, See Virginia State Records for Info and links for years prior to 1863.
Calhoun County Clerk has Birth / Death Records from 1856, Marriage Records from 1856, Land Records from 1856 and Probate Records from 1856.
Calhoun County Clerk of Circuit Court has Court Records from 1856.
U.S. Federal Population Schedules: 1860, 1870, 1880 (free index), 1890 (fragmented), 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
U.S. Census Reconstructed Records: Virginia, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607-1890
U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedules: 1860
U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules: 1860, 1870 and 1880
Selected U.S. Federal Census Agriculture Schedules: 1860, 1870 and 1880
Selected U.S. Federal Census Industry Schedules: 1860, 1870 and 1880
Calhoun County Historical and Genealogical Society, P. O. Box 242, Grantsville, WV 26147-0242
Calhoun County, West Virginia Message Boards
Calhoun County, West Virginia Genealogy Boards
Calhoun County, West Virginia Books - Amazon
Calhoun Co., West Virginia - FindaGrave
Calhoun County Encyclopedia
Calhoun County, West Virginia Links - Cyndi's List
Calhoun Co. WVGenweb
Calhoun County, West Virginia Ancestry Database Collections
Calhoun County, West Virginia Military Records
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In Bulletin
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In Bulletin September Quarter 2018
The New Payments Platform and Fast Settlement Service
Access to Small Business Finance
Does It Pay to Study Economics?
The Effect of Minimum Wage Increases on Wages, Hours Worked and Job Loss
Money in the Australian Economy
Firm-level Insights into IT Use
The Cyclical Behaviour of Labour Force Participation
Interest Rate Benchmarks for the Australian Dollar
Financial Stability Risks and Retailing
RMB Internationalisation: Where to Next?
Bulletin – September 2018 Australian Economy Access to Small Business Finance
Ellis Connolly and Joel Bank[*]
Download 371KB
business, credit, start-ups
Photo: Hero Images
The Reserve Bank has conducted additional outreach this year to hear a broad range of perspectives on small business finance. Many small businesses looking to grow still find it challenging to access finance, particularly without providing real estate as security. Lenders highlight that they are keen to lend to small businesses, but that unsecured finance involves more risk. This article considers these issues and outlines some initiatives market participants have suggested that could help to improve access to finance for small businesses.
Each year, the Reserve Bank convenes its Small Business Finance Advisory Panel to better understand the challenges faced by small businesses.[1] This year, the Reserve Bank has also hosted two special roundtable events. The first was co-hosted with the Australian Banking Association (ABA) and the Council of Small Business Australia. Participants discussed the challenges faced by small businesses when borrowing from banks. The second was co-hosted with the Australian Treasury and the Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA). This roundtable focused on innovative financing options that are emerging from outside the traditional banking system.[2] This article summarises the issues that have been highlighted by entrepreneurs, lenders and equity investors regarding access to small business finance.
The Entrepreneurs' Perspective
The message from the Small Business Finance Advisory Panel and surveys continues to be that many small businesses find it challenging to access finance. While conditions are better than they were in the period just after the global financial crisis, around one-fifth of businesses report that they have found it relatively difficult to access finance (Graph 1). In addition, the proportion of small businesses that perceive it to be relatively easy to access finance has declined recently.
While interest rates on business loans are near historic lows, there continue to be differences between the rates paid by small and large businesses. The spread of interest rates on small business loans relative to the cash rate has remained persistently high since the global financial crisis (Graph 2). In contrast, interest rate spreads on corporate bonds issued by large businesses have declined since earlier this decade. Research recently published by the Reserve Bank has found that smaller and riskier companies faced high borrowing rates, which was constraining their investment (Hambur and La Cava 2018).
The entrepreneurs on the Reserve Bank's Advisory Panel have highlighted the following key issues:
Access to finance for start-ups is very limited: banks are reluctant to finance start-ups given the high risks involved. Entrepreneurs often resort to using personal credit products (such as credit cards) to fund their day-to-day operations when they start their business. Equity financing would often be more appropriate, particularly for start-ups, but there are relatively few avenues for such financing in Australia.
Banks are reluctant to extend finance without real estate as collateral: entrepreneurs looking to expand their business are concerned by the collateral and personal guarantees they need to provide to obtain sufficient finance.[3] They find it difficult to borrow more than around $100,000 on an unsecured basis to support their day-to-day trading activities. In addition, medium-sized businesses report that it is hard to obtain additional finance once they have pledged all of their real estate as collateral. As a result, many entrepreneurs delay expansion until it can be funded from retained profits.
The process to obtain finance is lengthy and onerous: entrepreneurs report that banks are reluctant to provide them with advice on how to obtain finance. As a result, they find it difficult to compare lending products and determine the one that would suit them best. When they apply, they have to provide a large amount of information and documentation. The banks then take a long time to decide whether to extend the loan. This can be particularly problematic if the business opportunity is time sensitive. While innovative non-bank lenders are offering products with streamlined application processes, the annualised interest rates on these products are often very high.
Large businesses continue to impose onerous payment terms: some large businesses require small business suppliers to accept payment times well beyond 30 days. The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) drew attention to this issue in a report last year (ASBFEO 2017). In response, the Business Council of Australia published the Australian Supplier Payment Code, which commits signatories to pay small businesses on time and within 30 days. However, some large businesses have not signed the code and their payments are frequently delayed well beyond this benchmark.
The Lenders' Perspective
In response to the concerns raised by entrepreneurs, banks highlighted at one of the roundtables that their lending to small businesses has been growing over recent years (Graph 3). However, it has tended to grow more slowly than their lending to large businesses. Also, banks' off-balance sheet exposures to small businesses are well below those to large businesses; this may reflect reluctance by banks to extend undrawn facilities, such as overdrafts and bank guarantees, to small businesses. Within lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the growth has been spread across both smaller businesses (the ‘SME retail’ exposures of the banks, which are below $1 million) and medium-sized businesses (the ‘SME corporate’ exposures, which are typically above $1 million) (Graph 4).
On a portfolio basis, lending to small businesses can be quite profitable for the banks, and the risk is mitigated by property collateral. Banks emphasise that the challenges small businesses face in accessing unsecured finance mainly reflect the higher risk associated with this form of lending. Market participants and the Productivity Commission have raised some concerns about the effect of prudential capital requirements on lending to small businesses (Productivity Commission 2018). In particular, they argue that the capital requirements encourage banks to seek residential property as collateral for these loans. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) released a consultation paper earlier in the year, which included some proposed changes to the treatment of small business lending (APRA 2018).[4]
The increased scrutiny of conduct in the financial services sector has extended to lending to small businesses. Market participants have highlighted that there is a trade-off between providing more protections for small business borrowers and the willingness of banks to lend. There is often a blurred line between the business and personal finances of entrepreneurs, so banks can find it operationally easier to also apply the responsible lending rules for consumers to small businesses. This could be contributing to the issues that entrepreneurs have raised about the loan application process.
In response to the increased scrutiny, the industry associations have been updating their standards for small business lending. The ABA's new Banking Code of Practice was recently approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and will provide additional protections for small businesses. It includes limits on the use of ‘non-monetary default’ clauses in loan contracts (these clauses allow banks to put customers who were still meeting their loan repayments into default for breaching a loan condition). The new code will also require banks to provide three months' notice if they are not intending to extend a loan facility. In addition, AFIA recently released a Code of Lending Practice for online small business lenders. The Code aims to improve the transparency of the products offered by these lenders, particularly regarding the cost of finance for the borrower.
The Reserve Bank also engaged with a range of innovative non-bank lenders to small businesses that have entered the market to compete with the banks. These include new online lenders and marketplace platforms. These lenders are generally providing short-term unsecured cash flow finance of up to $250,000, with a streamlined loan application and decision-making process. While these lenders are growing rapidly, overall they remain a very small share of small business finance. A key issue faced by these lenders is their high cost of funding relative to the banks. This is related to the fact that unsecured small business lending is relatively high risk, and is one reason why these lenders often charge very high interest rates.
The Equity Investors' Perspective
The Reserve Bank also engaged with venture capital funds and family offices to better understand their role in financing small businesses. These funds tend to specialise in particular industries and target a few businesses with high growth potential. These investment opportunities are typically identified through market research or via networks. There has been a significant increase in fund raising for venture capital in recent years, sourced mainly from superannuation funds and government initiatives (such as the $500 million Biomedical Translation Fund). This has been supported by the introduction in July 2016 of tax incentives for investments in early stage innovative companies. Nevertheless, the supply of venture capital remains small in Australia compared with many other advanced economies. According to industry surveys, venture capital funds have been investing up to $500 million per year in around 100 companies (AVCAL 2017).
The entrepreneurs on the Reserve Bank's Advisory Panel reported an increase in the number of approaches they had been receiving from private equity investors. However, interest from private equity varies significantly by industry; technology and health businesses appear more likely to be approached than retail and rural businesses, for example. Some of these entrepreneurs are reluctant to sell equity to professional investors, since they are concerned about the loss of control and the short investment horizons of some venture capitalists. Overall, there appears to be a funding gap for established small businesses that cannot obtain additional debt finance or attract the limited supply of venture capital finance.
Initiatives Suggested by Market Participants
Improving the financial capability of small businesses
Lenders are concerned about the relatively low level of financial capability among small businesses applying for finance. According to ASBFEO (2018), up to 45 per cent of small businesses do not use accountancy software to maintain up-to-date and accurate financial records. Market participants suggested that with better accounting processes, these businesses could more easily produce evidence of their financial performance when they apply for a loan.
Market participants also highlighted that many small businesses are unaware of factors that can affect lenders' assessments of their creditworthiness. For instance, a small business owner's credit score will be lower if they have previously applied for multiple personal credit products, such as credit cards or vendor finance when purchasing consumer goods. It was noted that this could be addressed through a coordinated information campaign involving government agencies, lenders and credit reporting bureaus. This could include existing programs to improve the financial capability of small businesses. For instance, information could be provided about the factors affecting creditworthiness when an entrepreneur first registers their business, and when small businesses lodge their tax statements. More targeted information could also be provided by lenders when they do not approve loan applications, and by credit reporting bureaus through the credit score reports that they offer.
Another issue is that many small businesses do not pay their tax obligations on time, and effectively use this as a relatively cheap form of finance. Many of these businesses appear to be unaware that unpaid tax debts negatively affect assessments of their creditworthiness, and make it more difficult to obtain bank finance. In June 2017, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was owed $14 billion in collectible tax debt by small businesses, which makes the ATO one of the single largest lenders to small businesses. To manage this, the ATO offers payment plans for small businesses at concessional interest rates that are often cheaper than bank finance. In 2016/17, the ATO negotiated 650,000 tax debt payment plans for small businesses; this implies that a significant proportion of small businesses could be on tax debt payment plans. These payment plans help small businesses to manage their cash flows, but businesses also need to be aware of the longer-run implications of maintaining tax debts.
Providing lenders with better information to make lending decisions
There are several policy initiatives that have the potential to improve access to finance by providing banks and new lenders with more information about the capacity of borrowers to service their debts.
The comprehensive credit reporting regime for consumer lending will provide lenders with more ‘positive’ information about a large number of potential borrowers. This includes high-quality data on consumers' monthly loan repayment histories and credit limits on borrowing facilities. Previously, lenders only made ‘negative’ credit information about their customers available, such as loan applications and defaults. Legislation was introduced earlier this year implementing a mandatory regime. Under this legislation, the major banks will be required to supply information to the credit reporting bureaus.
Evidence from other countries that have comprehensive credit reporting regimes (such as the United Kingdom and the United States) indicates that lenders can use these data to more accurately predict whether loans will default (IFC 2012). Lenders can then make more informed decisions on whether to extend credit and what interest rate to charge. According to the credit reporting bureaus, the Australian regime would be expected to have the largest effect on the personal lending market. But it should also increase the willingness of lenders to extend credit to small businesses, given that the personal and business finances of entrepreneurs and company directors are often intertwined.
Discussions with market participants have highlighted several ways in which the credit reporting regime could be further improved to assist small business lending. The regime only covers providers of consumer credit and there is a reciprocity requirement for lenders to be able to access the data. As a result, new online providers of small business finance cannot get access to the information since they do not provide consumer credit. This could be resolved if consumer credit providers agreed to relax the reciprocity requirements for specialist small business lenders. Market participants have also highlighted that the value of comprehensive credit reporting for small business lending would be enhanced if the regime was extended to include commercial lending data and trade payments between companies. In addition, according to some market participants, there are data gaps in the Australian regime that reduce its usefulness for modelling credit risk. For instance, the regime currently does not provide information on loan balances and repayment amounts; these data are shared in other regimes such as in the United Kingdom and the United States. It also excludes consumer obligations to utilities and telecommunications companies. The Australian Government has announced that it will allow the ATO to disclose the tax debts of businesses to credit reporting bureaus where the business has not entered into a tax debt payment plan with the ATO. While this has been welcomed, industry participants have suggested that tax debts that are subject to a payment plan could also be disclosed.
The introduction of an open banking regime will make it easier for individuals, including small businesses, to share their own transaction data securely with third-party service providers, such as potential lenders. The Australian Government recently announced that it will phase in open banking, with the major banks to make data on card and deposit accounts available by July 2019, and mortgages by February 2020. Other banks will have an additional 12 months to meet these deadlines. Individuals and small businesses will be able to instruct their bank to share their data with competing providers, allowing for more accurate credit assessments.
According to market participants, better access for lenders to the financial data of businesses would also help to improve access to small business finance. The credit reporting bureaus and some lenders are already collaborating with the major cloud-based accounting software platforms. These partnerships allow small businesses to share their financial data with potential lenders, simplifying the loan application process. Lenders and credit reporting bureaus have indicated that it would also be useful to have more access to ATO data on the finances of small businesses applying for loans, particularly to verify business income from tax returns.
Making it easier to use personal property as security
Market participants have suggested that the reliance on real estate as collateral in small business lending could be reduced by making it easier to use other assets as security, such as machinery and equipment. In 2009, the Australian Government sought to consolidate security interests in personal property in a national regime, registering all such interests on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). However, according to lenders and small businesses, the PPSR is subject to some data quality issues that inhibit new secured borrowing. Some new lenders have also found the PPSR to be difficult to use. In response, they have chosen to only provide unsecured finance.
According to small businesses, some lenders require borrowers to provide security over all present and future property. These interests are registered on the PPSR at low cost, but are often not removed when the borrower has fully repaid the loan. The small business owner then needs to apply for the security interest to be removed before another lender can use the business's assets as security. Removing an entry on the PPSR can be a lengthy process, which can then delay access to secured finance for the business. To put this in context, there are 7 million registrations on the PPSR that relate to property held by businesses; by comparison, there are 2.2 million businesses actively trading. The number of current registrations has grown at an annualised pace of 6 per cent over the past five years, which is above the 2 per cent growth in the number of businesses. There are 2.6 million security interests from prior to the start of the PPSR in 2012 that are current on the PPSR, and some of these may relate to loans that have already been repaid.
The Government held an independent inquiry on the personal property security regime in 2014. The report was tabled in Parliament in 2015 and contained recommendations on how to simplify the regime and make the PPSR easier to use (Whittaker 2015). The report also recommended an education campaign be conducted to better inform businesses and borrowers about the operation of the regime. The Government is currently preparing its response to this report (Attorney-General's Department 2018).
Establishing an Australian Business Growth Fund
ASBFEO (2018) and some market participants have suggested setting up a Business Growth Fund (BGF), given the difficulty established small businesses face obtaining sufficient bank finance, and the relatively small size of the local venture capital market. The suggestion is to model this on the UK BGF, which was launched in 2011, with a capital base of £2.5 billion funded by five major UK banks. The UK BGF aims to provide finance to existing small businesses that are seeking to grow, with investments of between £1 million and £10 million via minority equity stakes and mezzanine debt. Many of the small businesses funded by the UK BGF have been referred by the banks that own the fund, in cases where they believe that equity finance would be more appropriate than additional bank debt. Unlike venture capital funds, the UK BGF does not have a time horizon for divestment, instead referring to its investments as ‘patient capital’. The fund also does not seek to take control of the businesses it invests in, but provides managerial expertise by appointing a non-executive director to each board. The fund has diversified its investments by industry and region, and has a network of 14 offices across the United Kingdom and Ireland. So far, the UK BGF has invested £1.5 billion in around 220 businesses. The fund has been profitable over recent years, and has been increasingly funding new investments from earnings. Following the UK BGF model, the Canadian Government and the Bank of Canada have recently encouraged the establishment of a C$1 billion Canadian BGF, funded by 13 banks and insurance companies.
One difference between Australia and the United Kingdom is the prudential capital treatment of equity investments by banks. Under the capital framework in Australia, equity investments by banks are typically fully deducted from their regulatory capital. In contrast, the UK Prudential Regulation Authority applied a concessional risk weight for equity exposures in the UK BGF.
Government involvement in the supply of finance for small businesses
Some market participants and ASBFEO (2018) have also suggested that there be more direct government involvement in lending to small businesses. One suggestion is for the government to partially guarantee loans to small businesses that would not otherwise qualify for bank funding. This is similar to the loan guarantees provided under the US Small Business Administration (SBA) program. The SBA provided guarantees on around US$25 billion in small business loans in 2017 and has a total loan portfolio of around US$130 billion. Following the 2008/09 recession, when the delinquency rate on loans guaranteed by the SBA rose to over 4 per cent, the annual cost (net of premiums) of the SBA peaked at US$6½ billion. Recently, with the delinquency rate on these loans having declined to around 1 per cent, the annual cost has been around US$1½ billion (SBA 2018). Another suggestion put forward was for the government to establish a fund to lower the cost of capital by purchasing hybrid capital instruments issued by smaller lenders. The suggestion is that the rate of return on the hybrid instrument would be inversely linked to the lender's volume of lending to small business. This proposal is similar to the US Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF), which was established in 2010 to encourage smaller banks to lend to businesses following the 2008/09 recession. In 2015, the Productivity Commission reviewed the case for providing credit guarantee schemes for new businesses (Productivity Commission 2015).
Many entrepreneurs report that they face challenges obtaining finance to expand their small businesses. The banks emphasise that they are keen to lend to small businesses, but that unsecured finance is more costly due to the higher risk involved. There has been more funding available from private equity sources recently, but the supply of venture capital still remains relatively small in Australia. Market participants have suggested some initiatives that could potentially improve access to finance for small businesses. In particular, comprehensive credit reporting and open banking are thought to have the potential to lower the cost of credit risk assessment for lenders and increase access to finance. There are also efforts to improve the financial capability of small businesses, such as by encouraging better financial record keeping. The reliance on real estate as collateral in small business lending could be reduced by making it easier to use other assets as security, such as machinery and equipment. Finally, market participants have noted private sector initiatives in other jurisdictions to provide more equity funding for small businesses seeking to expand.
The authors are from Domestic Markets Department. [*]
The Small Business Finance Advisory Panel has been in place for 26 years. Entrepreneurs from a range of industries and locations are invited to join the Advisory Panel for terms of three years; see Connolly and Jackman (2017). [1]
The Reserve Bank published media releases after the Small Business Finance Roundtable in April (RBA 2018a) and the Roundtable on Innovations in Small Business Finance in June (RBA 2018b). [2]
The Reserve Bank's liaison with lenders and businesses has highlighted that the availability of housing collateral by small business borrowers has a significant effect on the cost and availability of debt finance; see Connolly, La Cava and Read (2015) [3]
These changes include removing the distinction between ‘SME retail’ and ‘SME corporate’ exposures for banks that use the advanced internal ratings-based (IRB) approach to credit risk management. For banks that do not use the IRB approach, APRA has proposed to reduce the risk weight on unsecured lending from 100 per cent to 85 per cent. Following consultation, APRA is planning to implement changes to the capital framework in 2021. [4]
APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority) (2018), Revisions to the capital framework for authorised deposit-taking institutions, Discussion Paper, 14 February. Available at: <https://www.apra.gov.au/sites/default/files/Revisions%2520to%2520the%2520capital%2520framework%2520for%2520ADIs.pdf>
ASBFEO (Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman) (2017), Payment Times and Practices Inquiry – Final Report, April 2017. Available at: <http://www.asbfeo.gov.au/sites/default/files/ASBFEO_Payment_Times_and_Practices%20Inquiry_Report.pdf>
ASBFEO (2018), ‘Affordable capital for SME growth’, June 2018. Available at: <http://www.asbfeo.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/ASBFEO-affordable-capital-for-SME-growth.pdf>.
Attorney-General's Department (2018), ‘Statutory Review of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009’, Available at <https://www.ag.gov.au/Consultations/Pages/StatutoryreviewofthePersonalPropertySecuritiesAct2009.aspx>.
AVCAL (Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Limited) (2017), 2017 Yearbook, November. Available at <https://www.avcal.com.au/documents/item/1560>.
Connolly E and B Jackman (2017), ‘The Availability of Business Finance’, RBA Bulletin, December Quarter, pp 55–66.
Connolly E, G La Cava and M Read (2015), ‘Housing Prices and Entrepreneurship: Evidence for the Housing Collateral Channel in Australia’, A Moore and J Simon (eds), Small Business Conditions and Finance, Proceedings of a Conference, Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney, pp 115–144.
Hambur J and G La Cava (2018), ‘Do Interest Rates Affect Business Investment? Evidence from Australian Company-level Data’, RBA Research Discussion Paper No 2018-05.
IFC (International Finance Corporation) (2012), Credit Reporting Knowledge Guide, International Finance Corporation, Washington D.C.
Productivity Commission (2015), ‘Business Set-up, Transfer and Closure’, Productivity Commission Inquiry Report No 75, December.
Productivity Commission (2018), ‘Competition in the Australian Financial System’, Productivity Commission Inquiry Report No 89, August.
RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) (2018a), ‘Small Business Finance Roundtable’, Media Release No 2018-09.
RBA (2018b), ‘Roundtable on Innovations in Small Business Finance’, Media Release No 2018-15.
SBA (Small Business Administration) (2018), Agency Financial Reports. Available at <https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-performance/performance-budget-finances/agency-financial-reports>.
Whittaker B (2015), ‘Review of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009’, Final Report, February. Available at <https://www.ag.gov.au/Consultations/Documents/PPSReview/ReviewofthePersonalPropertySecuritiesAct2009FinalReport.pdf>.
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Statement on Monetary Policy – May 2006 Foreign Trade and Capital Flows
In SMP May 2006
International Economic Developments
Box A: Recovery in Japan
International and Foreign Exchange Markets
Domestic Economic Conditions
Box B: Regional Economic Performance
Foreign Trade and Capital Flows
Box C: Commodity Contract Prices and Trade
Domestic Financial Markets and Conditions
Box D: Capital Gains and Measures of Household Saving
Inflation Trends and Prospects
Commodity prices and the terms of trade
Australia's terms of trade rose sharply over 2005, and they are likely to have increased by a further 2 per cent in the March quarter (Graph 37). They have increased by more than 30 per cent over the past three years, and are probably now just above the peak in the early 1970s, to reach their highest level since the wool boom of the early 1950s. This dramatic upswing has been mostly driven by substantial rises in the prices of Australia's commodity exports, supported by strong growth in the global economy. The RBA index of commodity prices (ICP) increased by 6 per cent over the three months to April, and by 26 per cent over the year, to be at its highest level since 1982, when the series commenced (Graph 38 and Table 9).
Although there has been broad-based strength in commodity markets, the most recent increase in the ICP has been mainly driven by the exceptional strength in base metals prices. The base metals index increased by 22 per cent over the three months to April. The recent rise partly reflected higher global portfolio allocations to commodities and speculative demand, particularly in the case of the 15 per cent run-up in the month of April. However, fundamental factors such as robust global demand, supply disruptions and low inventory levels are also supporting prices, particularly for copper and zinc.
Contract prices for coal and iron ore for the 2006/07 year (beginning April) had not been settled at the time this Statement was being finalised in early May. However, based on forecasts of price settlements, the new contract prices should be broadly neutral in aggregate for the ICP. (For further details, see ‘Box C: Commodity Contract Prices and Trade’.) Rural commodity prices rose by 3 per cent over the past three months, reflecting higher prices for sugar, wheat and wool. The price of sugar has been supported by high oil prices and an expected supply shortfall in 2006, which has been exacerbated by crop damage in Queensland from Cyclone Larry. Sugar prices are related to those for oil because of sugar's role in ethanol production, a substitute for petrol.
The terms of trade are likely to remain strong over the coming year. In the June quarter, expected increases in iron ore contract prices, as well as the sharp increases in metals and fuel prices through April, are likely to more than offset falls in contract prices for coal. Further ahead, expansion in global supply capacity for resources will probably, over time, tend to put downward pressure on their prices. Together with moderate growth in import prices, this is likely to result in some cyclical weakening in the terms of trade in due course. However, for at least the next year or so, the terms of trade are expected to remain at exceptionally high levels.
The subdued growth in Australia's export volumes over 2005 has in part been a signal of tight supply capacity. As a consequence, the 17 per cent increase in export earnings over the year was almost entirely due to rapid growth in resource export prices, which lifted resource export earnings by 40 per cent (Graph 39). Growth in resource export volumes was relatively sluggish, partly because of a number of episodes of disruption to coal, oil and LNG exports. Similarly, resource export volumes look to have fallen in the March quarter, due to precautionary shutdowns and some delays to resource export operations due to cyclones in Western Australia. These disruptions added to the recent volatility of monthly trade data and highlight the sensitivity of mining production when the industry has little spare capacity. Nonetheless, strong world demand and expansions in production capacity make for a positive growth outlook for resource export volumes over the remainder of 2006. In particular, shipments of LNG from the new Darwin compression plant commenced in February, and additional LNG shipments from the North-West Shelf are due to have commenced in the June quarter.
Earnings from manufactured exports increased by around 8 per cent over 2005, mostly reflecting solid growth in volumes in the middle of the year. More recently, export volumes appeared to have been relatively soft in early 2006. Strong global demand for raw materials has benefited resource-related manufactured exports, but reduced competitiveness with imports has encouraged some firms in the automotive sector to shift manufacturing operations offshore. Rural export earnings fell by around 3 per cent over 2005, as higher prices only partly offset broad-based falls in export volumes. The overall outlook for rural exports in 2006 is nonetheless positive, given above-average global prices, the large winter crop harvest in late 2005, and early indications of a large increase in summer crop production in 2006. The value of services exports increased solidly in January and February, to be 5 per cent higher over the year. The staging of the Commonwealth Games will have provided a boost in the March quarter. However, as noted in previous Statements, services exports are being dampened by declining average visitor expenditure and the increasing competition from foreign airlines.
The demand for imports slowed noticeably over 2005, in line with the more restrained pace of domestic spending (Graph 40). However, import volumes appear to have risen solidly in the March quarter, to be around 8 per cent higher over the year. Trends across the components of imports have been broadly consistent with the recent pattern of domestic spending; the value of capital goods imports increased by around 20 per cent over the year to March, in line with the favourable conditions for machinery & equipment investment. Fuels & lubricants imports have surged since the beginning of 2006, partly because some of the LNG production in the Timor Sea is being treated as an import before being re-exported.
Some categories of imports have been boosted, and some types of exports reduced, by the elevated level of the exchange rate in recent years. Compared to the level of the terms of trade, however, the exchange rate is much lower than earlier relationships would have suggested (Graph 41). This implies that, notwithstanding effects on areas of manufacturing, the exchange rate is not providing much of an offset to the stimulatory effects of the terms of trade on the economy as a whole.
The net income deficit (NID) widened to 4.2 per cent of GDP in the December quarter 2005, the highest level in over a decade (Graph 42). While there has been a rise in interest payments on debt owed abroad, the bulk of the recent movement reflects strong profitability of enterprises operating in Australia, mainly in the resources sector. Since the resources sector has a relatively high degree of foreign ownership, some of these higher profits accrue to foreign investors, and are thus recorded in the balance of payments statistics. With business investment rising strongly over the past couple of years, but corporate and government saving also increasing, the national saving–investment gap appears to have changed little. The total current account deficit remains around 6 per cent of GDP (Graph 43).
Strong demand from foreign investors for Australian assets has driven continued strong gross capital inflows in recent quarters. Given the net inflow of capital of around 6 per cent of GDP during the past year, Australian net foreign liabilities in nominal terms have risen as a ratio to GDP. Relative to the value of Australia's private-sector wealth, however, net foreign liabilities are little changed since the late 1990s, at slightly below 20 per cent. This ratio has been broadly stable in recent years at a lower level than in the first half of the 1990s (Graph 44).
Within the total net capital inflow, gross foreign equity investment into Australia has been strong for some time, and was underpinned in the December quarter by foreign interest in share floats by several Australian companies. However, this was largely outweighed by substantial direct equity investment offshore by Australian entities, which resulted in almost the entire net capital flow into Australia over 2005 being accounted for by the debt component. Available data for the March quarter are suggestive of debt inflows having been increasingly concentrated in borrowings by financial intermediaries, especially via offshore bond issues, where these highly rated borrowers have been able to raise funds at attractive rates (see the chapter on ‘Domestic Financial Markets and Conditions’ for more details). In contrast, offshore bond issuance by non-financial businesses was much lower than the average of recent years, both in gross terms and adjusting for maturities.
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America's Top 10 Favorite Street Foods
by Oisin Curran
Browse the article America's Top 10 Favorite Street Foods
Many city-dwellers turn to street food as a quick, delicious solution to lunch on the run. See more pictures of international snacks.
©iStockphoto.com/eliandric
Packed with history and regional flair, street food is a culinary gem hidden in plain sight. These days, thanks to the pace of contemporary life, many of us are eating on the run. That's where street food comes in -- these delicious specialties are custom-made for high-speed living. As befits a nation of immigrants, we eat immigrant street food. The 10 street foods that follow were all born abroad but grew up stateside, and there's a distinctly American twist to their fascinating stories. Read on to find out what part of a pizza is native to the New World and how a Jewish guy from Wisconsin made a Greek snack into a classic American street food.
Grind up some chickpeas, add garlic, parsley and coriander, and fry until crunchy. According to some, it's a recipe as old as the Bible. In all likelihood, it's even older, having started out in Egypt as a dish made with fava beans. But even today, falafel's origins are in dispute. Some Israelis claim it as an ancient Jewish food, while many Palestinians bristle at the idea. Cooler heads maintain that falafel is a regional delicacy, not a religious one. But politics are of little consequence when you're standing on the sidewalk at lunchtime waiting for your favorite vendor to wrap some pita bread around a selection of pickled beets, tahini sauce, fresh veggies and, above all, crispy, delicious falafel.
Hot dogs are classic street fare. More mustard, please!
©iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino
If you live in Chicago, it's a beef frank and you eat it on a poppy seed roll with mustard, relish, onions, pickles, tomatoes and celery salt. If you're in Rochester, N.Y., it's a spicy pork sausage -- split, grilled and nestled in a toasted bun. The varieties are as endless as the stories of its origins. Are they called franks because they were invented in Frankfurt, or are they called wieners because they come from Wien (aka Vienna)? Nobody knows for sure, but one thing's certain: A hot dog's not a hot dog until it's sitting in a bun. And that important innovation is all-American.
Archaeologists have dug ancient pizza ovens out of the ash of Pompeii in southern Italy. But the classic pizza that we've come to know and love wouldn't exist without a little help from the New World. When the tomato was first brought to Europe from South America, the upper classes refused to eat it because they were convinced it was poisonous. But peasants were too poor to be picky, and they started spreading the red fruit on their pies. Several centuries later, fresh basil and mozzarella were added, and the classic pizza Margherita was born. Today, U.S. pizza toppings are as varied as the American palate. From pineapple to pickles, the only limit is your imagination.
When you're craving a burrito, you've got a hankering for a stuffed tortilla -- not a little donkey.
©iStockphoto.com/Joe_Potato
Steamed or grilled, filled with beef or rice and beans, all burritos start with the same round, flat flour tortilla. They probably get their name from an old Spanish saying: "If I had a horse, I would go make my fortune, but I only have a little donkey." In Spanish, the word for "little donkey" is "burrito." Like its animal namesake, the burrito can carry anything: beans, rice, sour cream, cheese, avocados, chicken, beef, pork. You name it. In Sonora, Mexico, their likely birthplace, burritos are small, simple affairs, but over the decades, as burritos made their way north and west to their modern day capital, San Francisco, they grew in size and complexity until they became a great Mexican-American delicacy.
The Greek word gyro means "spin," and that makes sense when you think of those huge cones of mystery meat spinning on their axes in sidewalk restaurants around the world. Before it became street fare, the gyro was popular long ago in Greece. Traditionally, these meat cones were made by hand from a combination of beef and lamb trimmings, breadcrumbs and oregano. Then, one day in Milwaukee in the early 1970s, a Jewish-American entrepreneur named (believe it or not) John Garlic was brainstorming with his wife Margaret when they dreamed up the idea of mass-producing that spinning meat. Voila -- Old World met New World to create an enduring street-side favorite.
Crêpes
Crêpes come sweet or savory, making them perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacktime.
©iStockphoto.com/Zeiss4Me
Legend has it that in the 1930s, the great French chef Charpentier invented crêpes suzette with its signature orange sauce for the future King Edward VII of England. But long before that, it was the favorite food of French peasants. Originating in Brittany in northwest France with the simple ingredients of buckwheat flour, eggs, butter and milk, the crêpe has proven to be one of the most versatile foods ever created. Made on the spot by sidewalk vendors around the world and filled with everything from cheese and ham to strawberries and cream, crêpes are beloved by all.
Frozen cream and sugar: simple, yet perfect. Was it invented in the 1600s in the court of Charles I, or even earlier by the Emperor Nero who sent slaves to fetch ice from the mountains? Actually, the historical record points to ancient China as the birthplace of the world's favorite portable dessert. It was in 1774, on the eve of the American Revolution, that ice cream first arrived in the United States. But it took nearly another century before an ingenious New Jersey woman named Nancy Johnson invented a hand-cranked ice cream maker and America's love affair with that miraculous confection took off. Chocolate or vanilla, scooped or soft-served, in a cone or a cup -- maybe some of ice cream's popularity is due to its versatility. After all, you can opt to sit down to an elaborate banana split concoction, or you can just walk down the sidewalk with a waffle cone and let your favorite flavor melt in your mouth.
Churros are a breakfast pastry with Latin flair.
©iStockphoto.com/Maica
This delectable breakfast pastry owes its name to its unusual curvy shape. Once upon a time, Spanish shepherds stuck high in the mountains for days on end became desperate for a treat. Using the limited available ingredients of butter, eggs and flour, they concocted a fried pastry that resembled the horns of the sheep they tended. Those sheep were called churros. In time, that humble shepherds' food made its way to Latin America and then north to the United States. In recent decades, Americans have taken to churros with gusto. Dusted with sugar and served with a steaming cup of hot chocolate, churros make an amazing sidewalk breakfast.
For hundreds of years, aristocrats savored delicate webs of sugar spun by elite chefs, but for regular people, that sweet, melt-in-your-mouth sensation was far too expensive. Then, in 1897, John C. Wharton and William Morrison invented a machine that melted and spun the sugar with ease. In 1904, they brought their machine to the St. Louis World's Fair, where it was a huge success. In the 1970s, a further innovation fully automated the process all the way through packaging the confection in paper or plastic bags. Today, it's hard to imagine a street fair without those pink, azure and ultramarine clouds of what used to be called fairy floss.
Is street food under threat? According to Consumers International, street food makes up nearly half of the developing world's diet, yet globalization is eroding the regional variety of street food. If you love street food and want to protect its future, you can learn more at Street food.org.
This famous Philly snack tastes best sprinkled with salt and smothered in mustard.
©iStockphoto.com/MalevolentDust
In 610, a monk twisted some leftover dough into the shape of crossed arms and gave it to children as a reward for learning their prayers. Pretzels were a hit across Europe, and nine centuries later, when the Turks were tunneling under the walls of Vienna, it was the early-bird pretzel bakers who heard them and sounded the alarm. Even today, the coat of arms of the Viennese bakers proudly bears a pretzel. But it was the Pennsylvania Dutch who perfected what would become a famous Philly snack. According to The New York Times, the soft pretzel, sprinkled with salt and smothered in mustard may be the definitive street food.
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American Museum of Natural History. "Hot Dogs as America." April 30, 2009. (April 28, 2010).http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/baseball/hotdogs/
Churrisimo Café. "Traditional Spanish Foods" June 22, 2006. (April 28, 2010).http://www.churrisimo.com/churros_history.html
Feiler, Bruce. "Spun Heaven." Gourmet Magazine. February 2000. (April 28, 2010). http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2000/02/spunheaven
Fox, Peter. "Burritos -- A Search for Beginnings." Washington Post. April 11, 1998.
Goldstein, Elaine Dann. " Fare of the Country; Philadelphia's Twist on the Pretzel." The New York Times. Nov. 13, 1988. (April 28, 2010).http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/13/travel/fare-of-the-country-philadelphia-s-twist-on-the-pretzel.html?sec=travel
Gordan, Lucy. "The Pizza Connection." The Epicurean Traveler.com. May 2007. (April 28, 2010). http://www.epicureantraveler.com/articles/Pizza_History_Gordan/Pizza%20History_Gordan.html
Kantor, Jodi. "A History of the Mideast in the Humble Chickpea." The New York Times. July 10, 2002. (April 28, 2010).http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/10/dining/a-history-of-the-mideast-in-the-humble-chickpea.html?pagewanted=2
Kraig, Bruce. "Hot Dog: A Global History." Reaktion Books, University of Chicago Press. 2009.
Pappas, Lou Seibert. "Crêpes: Sweet & Savory Recipes for the Home Cook." Chronicle Books, 2006.
Segal, David. " The Gyro's History Unfolds." The New York Times. July 14, 2009. (April 28, 2010).http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/dining/15gyro.html
Street Food.org. "Serving Up Street food in the Global South." (April 28, 2010).http://street food.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
University of Guelph. "Ice Cream History and Folklore." 1995. (April 28, 2010).http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/ichist.html
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VALDOVINOS, CLAUDIO and RUTH, MAXIMILLIAN. Nacellidae limpets of the southern end of South America: taxonomy and distribution. Rev. chil. hist. nat. [online]. 2005, vol.78, n.3, pp.497-517. ISSN 0716-078X. http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0716-078X2005000300011.
Taxonomically, the Mollusca of the southern end of South America are moderately well known, but the literature is scattered, there is little information on their habitats, and distributional records are scarce for the Chilean archipelago lying between Chiloé Island (42° S) and Tierra del Fuego (55° S). Although much is known about the biology and ecology of of some species of Nacellidae, the taxonomy of the group have been partially neglected, particularly in remote areas of the world such as the Chilean fjords. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the nomenclatural status, and establish the morphological characteristics and distribution of the Chilean Nacellidae. Especially, the following three objectives are pursued: (i) to clarify the correct identity of existing species; (ii) to describe of morphological details, highlighting the clear diagnostic characters of each species, and (iii) to delimitate and discuss their geographical range in Chile. The examination of the Nacellidae of the Chilean fiords has resulted in the recognition of one species of Nacella (Nacella) and seven species of Nacella (Patinigera), wherein the principal specific differences are in the shell (shape, thickness and color) and in radular teeth morphology. The genus Nacella and its subgenus Patinigera are cold-water limpets, and are exclusively inhabitants of Subantarctic and Antarctic waters. The greater part of their range being subantarctic, but extending to the Antarctic by way of the Scotia Arc, and also ranging northward up the Chilean coast to at least Valparaiso at 33° S (only N. (P.) clypeater). They apparently have their centre of distribution in the Magellanic Province of southern South America, corresponding to an area with a high degree of diversification (N. (N.) mytilina, N. (P.) chiloensis, N. (P.) deaurata, N. (P.) delicatissima, N. (P.) flammea, N. (P.) magellanica, N. (P.) venosa), wherefrom the species tends to spread eastward, with a larval transport probably assisted to a considerable extent by the prevailing West Wind Drift which strongly operates in the Subantarctic Zone
Keywords : Nacellidae; Nacella; Patinigera; Chile; taxonomy; distribution.
· abstract in Spanish · text in English · English ( pdf )
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Home Health Transplanting mismatched organs may be possible — and safe — in the...
Transplanting mismatched organs may be possible — and safe — in the future, new findings suggest
Pre-treatment with an antibody-drug combination avoids side effects in mice; could substitute for current toxic regimens using chemotherapy or radiation
A transplant of blood-forming stem cells, also known as a hematopoietic-cell or bone-marrow transplant, offers the prospect of cure for many blood, immune, autoimmune and metabolic disorders. But the treatment required before the transplant — chemotherapy and radiation — is toxic enough that most patients either cannot receive a transplant or suffer from bad side effects. Now, research conducted at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute finds that a new pre-treatment, combining a specially-targeted antibody with a drug, has virtually no toxicity, at least in mice.
If the findings hold up in clinical trials, the new pre-treatment could enable patients to receive stem-cell transplants for a much wider range of disorders, perhaps even from unmatched donors, and could also greatly expand the use of gene-modified stem cells. Results were published in two back-to-back papers February 6th in Nature Communications.
“Our findings suggest a huge opportunity to do transplants in a way that’s extremely safe and extremely effective,” says Agnieszka Czechowicz, MD, PhD, who was co-first author on the first study with Rahul Palchaudhuri, PhD from Harvard University and co-first author on the second study with Zhanzhuo Li, MD, PhD of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). “This also opens up the possibility of easily using blood-forming stem cells that have undergone gene therapy and gene editing, without additional toxicity.”
The whole-body chemotherapy and radiation currently used prior to stem-cell transplantation are designed in part to deplete patients’ own defective blood-forming stem cells. This provides space for the donor stem cells to engraft, but it wipes out the immune system, raising the risk for infections, and can cause other serious side effects such as anemia, infertility, other organ damage and secondary cancers. Moreover, if the stem-cell donor isn’t an exact match, patients’ immune systems must be suppressed for prolonged periods, to prevent the body from rejecting the donor cells.
Targeting pre-treatment to avoid side effects
The new studies build upon research Czechowicz conducted as a graduate student at Stanford University, where she is now on the faculty. That research found that pre-treatment with an antibody that blocks the CD117 receptor killed off blood-forming stem cells selectively, since few other cells carry this receptor. This enabled mice to receive new blood-forming stem cells safely, without the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Clinical trials with a human version of this antibody are now underway at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in patients undergoing stem cell transplants to treat severe combined immunodeficiency.
“Although the ‘naked’ antibody was very helpful, we have long wanted to make the antibody more powerful,” says Czechowicz.
Czechowicz continued her work during her residency and fellowship at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center in the lab of Derrick Rossi, PhD, at the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s. To enhance the effects of the CD117 antibody, the researchers attached a drug called saporin, which has already been used in cancer patients and inhibits ribosomes, the protein-building structures in all cells. The team hoped that the combination would efficiently kill blood-forming stem cells, and only these cells, by stopping their ability to make important proteins.
“We theorized it would be effective, but were both reassured and excited when it worked so well,” says Czechowicz.
The first study showed that a single dose of the antibody-drug combination eliminated more than 99 percent of blood-forming stem cells in mice. This allowed high levels of transplanted stem cells to take up residence in the host animals and effectively replace their blood and immune systems. Importantly, the antibody-drug conjugate specifically targeted the hosts’ stem cells without harming other kinds of blood cells and without causing clinically significant side effects. The animals’ immune cell function was preserved and responded effectively to pathogens.
Transplants from any type of donor?
While the first study used matched donors, the second study tried the same approach with fully mismatched donors (based on the major histocompatibility complex or MHC). The mice receiving the transplants also received immunosuppression, but only for a very short period. They showed up to 50 percent engraftment of the donor cells. This was enough for the mice to also tolerate skin grafts from the same donors, even many months after their first transplants.
“Transplants of blood-forming stem cells not only create new blood and immune systems, they also lead to tolerance of other donor tissues and organs without the need for chronic immune suppression,” explains Czechowicz. “But this approach isn’t used often, since it has, until now, required toxic radiation or chemotherapy pretreatment. Our modified approach could be transformative for the transplant field, and could potentially enable both stem cell transplantation and subsequent solid organ transplantation from any type of donor.”
“If the principles demonstrated in these studies translate to the clinic, they open the possibility of expanding stem cell transplantation to many more patients who we know would benefit if only it were made more tolerable,” says Rossi, who was a co-senior author on the first study with David Scadden, MD of Harvard University and a co-senior author on the second with Philip Murphy, MD of NIAID.
The researchers plan further studies to confirm the safety and efficacy of the combination using a human CD117 antibody. They also plan to investigate other antibody-drug combinations. Magenta Therapeutics (Cambridge, Mass.) has licensed the technology and is working towards developing and testing this approach in patients. The company presented pre-clinical data on anti-CD117 antibody-drug conjugates at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in December 2018, using another ribosome inhibitor, amanitin.
Supporters of the studies include: The National Institutes of Health (R01 A I132638, RO1HL107630, R00AG029760, UO1DK072473-01), the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI000615-25), the NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (K99/R00 HL119559, HL44851, HL129903), a Potter Fellowship to the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, the Gerald and Darlene Jordan Chair of Medicine of Harvard University, Harvard Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator Fund, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, The New York Stem Cell Foundation, The Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the American Federation for Aging Research.
Czechowicz, Rossi and certain other study co-authors are founders and equity holders in Magenta Therapeutics and are co-listed as inventors on related U.S. patent applications. Boston Children’s Hospital is also an equity holder in Magenta Therapeutics. See the papers for a complete list of authors, funders and disclosures.
From Stanford University:
For those hoping for a new heart, liver, bone marrow or other organ, the wait for a compatible organ has always been part of the excruciating drama of transplantation.
If an organ isn’t tissue-matched — that is, if it doesn’t bear an immunological resemblance to the patient’s own tissue — the patient’s body will likely reject it. Even when the organ is a close match, there are enough differences that the organ recipient will likely have to take anti-rejection drugs, possibly for life. These drugs have toxic side effects and leave patients vulnerable to infections.
All of this may change in the future because of a set of collaborative discoveries by Agnieszka Czechowicz, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, and her colleagues at Stanford, Harvard, Boston Children’s Hospital and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Czechowicz began the work as a graduate student in the laboratory of Irving Weissman, MD, who directs Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. She continued her research during her residency and fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center before returning to Stanford as a faculty member.
In a pair of papers published online Feb. 6 in Nature Communications, the researchers describe how an antibody-drug conjugate seeks out and eliminates blood-producing stem cells in mice. This is particularly important because other studies in animals and patients have shown that replacing blood-producing stem cells with a donor’s blood-producing cells can promote the immune acceptance of tissues from that donor. Unfortunately, current methods of eliminating blood-producing stem cells rely on toxic levels of chemotherapy or radiation, or both, that not only have acutely damaging and long-lasting side effects, but also leave the recipient vulnerable to infection while the transplanted cells engraft.
No damaging side effects in mice
In the first study, Czechowicz and her colleagues found that the antibody-drug conjugate could effectively and specifically eliminate blood-producing stem cells in a mouse without damaging side effects. Once eliminated, the researchers could replace the original blood-producing stem cells with others from an immunologically identical donor animal. Czechowicz shares lead authorship of this study with Rahul Palchaudhuri, PhD, a former postdoctoral scholar at Harvard. Derrick Rossi, PhD, associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard, and David Scadden, MD, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, are the senior authors.
The study showed that a single dose of the antibody-drug combination could specifically target blood-forming stem cells and kill more than 99 percent of them without harming other sorts of cells. Transplanted cells could then easily take up residence in the bone marrow. The animals’ immune reactions were not significantly affected and could continue to defend against various pathogens during the procedure.
This type of approach would be exciting news for clinicians who currently rely on blood-forming stem cell transplants to cure their patients of a variety of blood and immune disorders, including cancer. It would also be exciting news for researchers developing blood-forming stem cell gene therapies, as this treatment could also enable safe engraftment of gene-modified cells.
Using nonmatching stem cells
But there’s more. In the second study, the researchers found that this same antibody-drug conjugate, in combination with a short-course of immune suppression, could also be used to replace some of a mouse’s blood-producing stem cells with donor stem cells that do not match those of the recipient.
“The result is a chimera — a mix of original and transplanted blood stem cells — in the recipient,” Czechowicz said. Mice with these mixed blood and immune cells did not develop any complications and were able to accept a skin transplant from the stem-cell donor even many months later, the researchers found.
“Using this technique to make recipients tolerant to donor organs is incredibly exciting,” Czechowicz said. “It indicates that we could have a relatively safe method of inducing tolerance without the need for chronic immune suppression, and do that without needing to match donors and recipients for tissue type. This approach could be transformative for the transplant field.”
Czechowicz shares lead authorship of this second study with Zhanzhuo Li, MD, PhD, a staff scientist at NIAID. Co-senior authors of the paper are Rossi and Philip Murphy, MD, chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at the institute.
Czechowicz and her colleagues caution that this work has so far only been done in mice and has yet to be proven in clinical trials. However, the work shows that it may be possible to someday safely and easily restore patients’ blood and immune systems with no chemotherapy or radiation, and moreover give patients an organ from a mismatched donor, with minimal immunosuppression.
The first study was supported by the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, the Jake Wetchler Foundation, the Harvard Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator Fund, the American Society of Hematology, the National Institutes of Health, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine the Gunn/Olivier Research Fund, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research, the Stinehart-Reed Foundation, the HL Snyder Medical Foundation, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the American Federation for Aging Research.
The second paper was supported by the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, the National Institutes of Health, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the American Federation for Aging Research
Stanford’s Department of Pediatrics also supported the work.
Link found between gut bacteria, successful joint replacement
Ultrasound-assisted optical imaging could replace endoscopy in breakthrough discovery
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CDL Provider
29,939 Works
Temporal Inflection Points in Decorated Pottery: a Bayesian Refinement of the Late Formative Chronology in the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia
Christine Hastorf, Erik Marsh, Andrew Roddick, Maria Bruno, Scott Smith & John Janusek
Dataset published 2019 via UC Berkeley
The Late Formative Period immediately precedes the emergence of Tiwanaku, one of the earliest South American states, yet is one of the most poorly understood periods in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin (Bolivia). In this paper, we refine this period’s ceramic chronology with large sets of dates from eight sites, focusing on temporal inflection points in decorated ceramic styles. These points, estimated here by Bayesian models, index specific moments of change: (1) cal AD 140...
https://doi.org/10.6078/d1qd66 Cite
Simultaneous extracellular recordings of avian auditory neurons in zebra finches presented with all the repertoire of vocalizations used by this species for vocal communication
Julie Elie & Frederic Theunissen
Dataset/Neurophysiology published 2019 via CRCNS.org
This data set contains extra-cellular electrophysiological recordings from 6 urethane anesthetized adult zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), 4 males and 2 females. At each electrophysiological recording site a set of sounds was presented to the subject. This set was made from 10 ripple noise stimuli of 2 sec., and 20 songs of zebra finches and the vocalizations from the repertoire of 10 individuals. The maximum number of stimuli that could be selected in that procedure was...
https://doi.org/10.6080/k00c4t06 Cite
Exploring Unintended Environmental and Social Equity Consequences of Transit-Oriented Development
Farzad Alemi Caroline Rodier
Text published 2019 via National Center for Sustainable Transportation
https://doi.org/10.7922/g2028pr5 Cite
Salinity and Velocity in Lower South San Francisco Bay
Olivia Hoang
In order to measure salinity gradients in the longitudinal, lateral, and vertical directions, a mesh of nine Ruskin RBR XR-420 CTDs and two Seabird SBE-37's were placed in various positions in all three dimensions. Lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 were placed in the channel. Lines 5 and 6 were placed in the shallows, lateral to line 2. Line 1 has two CTD's attached at the top and bottom of the water column. Lines 2...
https://doi.org/10.6078/d14h5k Cite
Emissions Benefits of Electric Vehicles in Uber and Lyft Services
Alan Jenn
https://doi.org/10.7922/g23r0r38 Cite
Draw near camp, illustrating chaparral, digger-pine and oak
Walter P. Taylor
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7xk8cnm Cite
Microdipodops megacephalus sabulonia and Mus musculus, skulls - correct ventral view
W. C. Matthews
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7jd4w5w Cite
A Return to Lilliput: The LICRA v. Yahoo - Case and the Regulation of Online Content in the World Market
Marc H. Greenberg
Text published 2003 via Berkeley Technology Law Journal
https://doi.org/10.15779/z386d64 Cite
Round Valley looking South East. Oaks, Ceanothus and Manzanita brush; Digger and Yellow Pines.
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7zg6qb7 Cite
Female Long-tailed Chickadee feeding two young twig
Joseph S. Dixon
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7hq3xgr Cite
Deer (Mule) - food of. Black-eyed Susan (2), sometimes eaten by deer (July)
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7bp01jv Cite
Cottonwood 5 ft. 2 inches in diameter partly gnawed by beaver
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7fb51hs Cite
Race and the Core Curriculum in Legal Education
Frances Lee Ansley
Text published 1991 via California Law Review
https://doi.org/10.15779/z38t15r Cite
Cyberspace Technological Standardization: An Institutional Theory Retrospective
Daniel Benoliel
https://doi.org/10.15779/z382q3x Cite
View South to New Ireland from Emira Island
Charles G. Sibley
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7h41r8c Cite
"Bull hunting" for geese, by market hunters - immediately after a shot
A. D. Ferguson
https://doi.org/10.7299/x74f1q76 Cite
The Čḯxwicən Bird Bone Project
Kristine M Bovy
Dataset published 2018 via Open Context
https://doi.org/10.6078/m7tx3cfn Cite
A Constitutional Law of Remedies for Broken Plea Bargains
Westen, Peter; Westin, David
https://doi.org/10.15779/z381n0k Cite
Spotlight on Ventura: Young Women's Perspectives on Reform in the California Youth Authority
Freeda Yllana
Text published 2005 via bglj
https://doi.org/10.15779/z38z89f Cite
Original sand dune and mesquite areas
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7x34wrt Cite
Nest and eggs of Gadwall
Harold C. Bryant
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7xs5shq Cite
Site of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology with the compliments of Miss Carol Day July 30, 1929
Joyce Gross
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7jh3kpj Cite
Unlocking the Truth: Evaluating 2008 Election Issues for Elderly Minorities as a Key to Understanding Medicare Reform
Susan E. Cancelosi
Text published 2008 via Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy
https://doi.org/10.15779/z38rs5d Cite
Pintails in flight (over the beaches)
https://doi.org/10.7299/x7t72fwx Cite
Nest of Yellow-billed Magpie in valley oaks
Jean M. Linsdale
https://doi.org/10.7299/x75b01fh Cite
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Tag: Yuri
TWELVE DAYS: FLIP FLAPPERS AND FUNERAL
Triumph is not a word many people will ever associate with 2016. Last year was a pretty rough year for everybody, but nobody wants read about how much 2016 thoroughly sucked. I’m going to focus on perhaps the only redeeming aspect of 2016, which was, of course, Flip Flappers. Given that a majority of humanity’s suffering in 2016 was self-inflicted, I’m still not sure that we deserved such a fantastic work of art as Flip Flappers, but I’m not going to complain. Of course, in typical 2016 fashion, this masterpiece went largely unnoticed even in the anime community and continues to be criminally underappreciated. It is worse than bad things happening to good people; it is as if nobody realized these good people even existed. Of course, being a ridiculously well versed connoisseur of music (something with zero real world applicability), I am quite used to works of art that change how I see myself or how I see the world or how I perceive the human experience going unacknowledged and unappreciated by any humans with whom I actually speak. Whenever I think about that, it upsets me that so many people are missing out on such great, beautiful moving music. Funeral by Arcade Fire triumphed by winning the attention span of music fans across the country in the mid 2000s. Arcade Fire was able to rise above the ocean of competing indie rock bands because Funeral, the band’s debut album released in 2004, is itself the essence of triumph. Funeral is triumph over relatable obstacles that we all face: depression, the struggle with identity and the many other mundane toils of the human experience, and it does so by dreaming. Funeral exhorts us to adopt the disposition of a child. Dreams can come true, even once we’ve grown up, and we need to remember that in order to hold onto hope for the future.
And this brings us back to 2016, the year in which it seemed hope had finally been extinguished for humanity. But we had Flip Flappers (and when I say “we,” I mean the infinitely small fraction of humanity that spent each week this fall excitedly anticipating what adventures Papika and Cocona would embark on next). Flip Flappers, like Funeral, is triumph incarnate. These two works of art deal with all the same themes and struggles and both deliver a resounding message of hope for the world. Funeral and Flip Flappers aren’t concerned with what’s going on with the rest of the world. They are focused on the generation of hope through perseverance as an individual through all their personal struggles. These two works hinge on triumph. Flip Flappers is the most flamboyantly triumphant anime in recent memory, and Funeral might very well be the most triumphant album of all time. In dealing with their shared themes and conflicts, Funeral and Flip Flappers frequently mirror each other’s uses of imagery and tone. The expansive orchestral nature of Funeral’s instrumentation is the perfect match for the vast visual vocabulary of Flip Flappers. Funeral and Flip Flappers are exuberant celebrations of Life, specifically youth, of the beauty and struggles of growing up, and of the fantastical journey of self-discovery.
In order to make its message hit hard, the world shown from Cocona’s perspective in the beginning of Flip Flappers is dark and claustrophobic. Nick Creamer wrote about this in his crunchyroll column early on in the Fall season, and it provides a perfect articulation of the implications of the barren and oppressing world in which Cocona finds herself wiling away the days of her adolescence. Whether the viewer realizes it or not, they have been given a glimpse into Cocona’s mind, and this characterization is much more efficient, subtle and compelling than any rambling Oregairu-style monologue. Cocona is depressed.
One of the most original aspects of Flip Flappers is the probable source of Cocona’s depression. Natasha from Isn’t it Electrifying argued in an article for crunchyroll that it would only be reasonable for Cocona, who is clearly grappling with her sexuality, to suffer from depression. It’s a consequence of the alienation that she experiences from realizing that she is different from the rest of society, which assumes that all people are heterosexual until they say otherwise, and the difficulty of being different, especially when your differences may cause others to resent you. They may even cause you to resent yourself. The struggle to escape depression is equal parts self-discovery and regaining control of the direction of one’s life. Flip Flappers is one of the best depiction of struggling with depression anime has ever given.
Dealing with depression is, for too many people, an essential part of growing up, and the greatest challenge is always grasping the reins and seizing control of your own life. This is a theme that serves as a foundation for the entirety of the album Funeral. Flip Flappers and Funeral are triumphant because they tell of overcoming immense difficulty and taking action and seizing control of your life. They also are fantastic artistic documents of the power of love and self-discovery. The coordination between the anime and the album is not a direct song-to-episode one correlation, so I’ll just organize this essay using Funeral’s track list. Despite what I just said, Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels) is almost a line by line parallel of Pure Input. The crunchyroll synopsis of this episode was “girl meets girl; girls go on an adventure.” That’s exactly what happens. Neighborhood 1 tells of two young neighbors who, at the height of a blizzard so strong that the snow has completely buried their homes, run away together. The meet by digging a tunnel to connect their windows, and then they run away, leaving behind their sobbing parents. Flip Flappers’ shifting settings of Pure Illusion provide mystical worlds that are spawned by characters’ thoughts and perceptions. The snow covered world Arcade Fire creates in Neighborhood 1 is very similar to the first Pure Illusion that Cocona and Papika visit together. Papika takes Cocona by the hand in Pure Input and brings her on an adventure to a winter wonderland within pure illusion. In both the show and the song, the snow can represent both the crushing weight of depression and all the other petty burdens that weigh us down as humans. In Pure Input, Papika and Cocona appropriate the snow for recreational use, throwing snowballs and building snowmen.
Snow also represents the impermanence of youth and the magic of love (2018 note: no clue where I pulled that from but okay). Change is inevitable, it’s merely a matter of how we change and whether or not we embrace it. In the chorus of Neighborhood 1, the speaker reflects on how his/her partner helped them to change for the better during their experiences together after they ran away from home, from their parents, and never looked back. As the series goes on, Papika changes all the lead in Cocona’s head with her Golden Hymn, “Dai-dai-dai suki!” By going on adventures with Papika, Cocona comes to recognize what has been missing from her life.
We see the first sign of evidence that Cocona may be changing for the better after her half-transformation, which was triggered by her desire to save Papika. Cocona makes a decision, a decision to step out of her comfort zone to do something. She rejects her anxiety and indecisiveness to take action, and when she does so, she transforms and gains the power to save Papika. This is Cocona’s first step toward seizing control of her life.
The theme of escaping to fall in love is also especially relevant to the fifth episode, in which Cocona, Papika, Yayaka and the twins have all been trapped in yuri hell, a version of their school that crosses the Class-S genre with horror. The Class-S genre revolves around very deep “friendships” between young women. The horror that Flip Flappers pulls from the genre is its expectation that these relationships inevitably end before adulthood. Bloom into You’s seventh episode also dealt with this notion, which Sayaka’s former girlfriend had left with her when she said she’d grown “too old” for their relationship. That notion is dispelled when Sayaka learns of the relationship between her teacher and the owner of a local coffee shop. Flip Flappers depicts an epic escape from the restrictions of the Class-S genre, one that I think is reflected by the escape Neighborhood 1’s young couple into the snow.
Neighborhood 2 opens with driving drums. The drums carry on the momentum and the potential for growth, change and love that lies before Cocona now she has proven to herself that she is capable of taking action. Cocona must continue to push and play an active role in her own life, but she’s afraid, and understandably so, since Papika had nearly died in their first journey to pure illusion. In Neighborhood 2, the chorus reads like a cheerleading squad, singing, “come on Alex, you can do it, come on Alex, there’s nothing to it!” Cocona wants connection with Papika because she isn’t totally rejecting her. However, Cocona’s anxiety hinders her ability to express herself, as the chorus demands, “if you want something, don’t ask for nothing.” Within Cocona’s heart, her desire for connection with Papika doesn’t override her fear of losing Papika. However, as they plunge into pure illusion once again, the decision is no longer for Cocona to make. This song’s exhortations are relevant throughout the entirety of Cocona’s coming of age story.
“Une Anne Sans Lumieree” is the intermission in the four Neighborhood songs that make up the first half of the album, and the mood becomes much less urgent. This reflective song, with its nostalgic guitar motif reminiscent of the Beatles’ “In My Life” and Radiohead’s “No Surprises,” allows us to open our ears and listen to sound of blossoming love. Cocona is inherently self-conscious and must be noticing bits of evidence that she may be falling in love with Papika, especially in school from the Yuri Hell, which is loaded with Yuri imagery. What makes this experience so blissful for Cocona is the fact that Papika both prompts and embraces Cocona’s feelings. Beforehand, nobody seemed to be able to relate to Cocona’s experience of being different, but Papika lives and breathes being different and, as shown in episode two, is embraced for it. The song repeats that “if you see a shadow, there’s something there.” Cocona is bright enough to realize what’s going on. Just as the show relies heavily on visuals to accomplish most of the storytelling, the music of “Une Anne Sans Lumieree” itself perfectly captures the feeling of falling in love. The coda of the song, especially, perfectly captures the acceleration of romance. The tempo picks up at the end of the song and it becomes much heavier. Once you realize that you are falling in love, you can’t step on the breaks.
Neighborhood 3 (Power Out) is the first of three fist-pumping anthems on this album and is the thematic centerpiece of the album. It perfectly boils down what Cocona must do in her coming of age story in order to liberate herself from loneliness and depression. It is a call to arms to fight for what you want and for what you love. It also grounds itself in a very real stage of development for children in the suburbs of the first world. Arcade Fire’s third neighborhood is one populated by adolescents who no longer feel any responsibility to obey their parents, or whose parents have grown apathetic. Essentially, the third neighborhood is one without any parents, so basically any anime neighborhood ever. All jokes aside, the absence of parents makes this setting the stage in life in which you are forced to become independent. The energy and urgency of the song are perfectly suited to the challenges of self-discovery and agency, challenges that Cocona knows very well. The song is predicated on a problematic turn of events, but the decision of those in the song to go out into the town are framed as having ends other than ameliorating the situation. They go out to find a light, to chase dreams. At the beginning of the series, Cocona is faced with the dreaded career survey, a staple anime representation of uncertainty about the future, the most universal kind of anxiety. Part of Cocona’s problem is that she doesn’t have a light to go out and find. The kids in the song also go out to pick a fight, meaning they feel strongly enough about something to take a risk and go fight. Cocona first acts confrontational when Yayaka reveals to her and Papika that the end game for collecting the amorphous is world domination. These things that are important to us are fundamentally linked to who we are. Cocona expresses distress and reluctance to return to Pure Illusion after she realizes how their Inception inspired meddling changed Iroha-senpai. At the end, Cocona turns against her mother to fight for her independence and agency, which she built over the course of the show, and her relationship with Papika. She knows she loves Papika. Loving Papika is central to who Cocona is, who she has become. At the end of the series, it would be true to say that Cocona is Cocona because Papika is Papika. The power was out in Cocona’s heart before she met Papika, but as a result of their adventures, Cocona learned to take it from her heart and put it in her hand.
Neighborhood #3 is also very reflective of Yayaka”s personality. Yayaka is impulsive, and if you were to ask yourself which characters from Flip Flappers would ever pick a fight, the first name that would come to mind would be Yayaka. Of course, Yayaka despises this aspect of her personality and wishes somebody else could make all her decisions for her. Cocona, on the other hand, is struggling to learn to make decisions for herself, and must reject Mimi, her mother, when she says that Cocona can’t be trusted to make decisions for herself. One line in particular in this song captures Cocona’s mindset at the beginning of the story. Arcade Fire uses a storm as metaphor for growing up, singing “growing up in some strange storm, nobody’s cold, nobody’s warm.” Cocona rediscovers warmth when she meets Papika and Yayaka must ignore her orders and protect Cocona, who is a source of warmth for her. Musically, the melodic cacophony of Neighborhood 3 is a great reflection of the messiness of youth.
Neighborhood 4 expresses frustration at how slowly things change, if they change at all. Cocona’s passiveness, her inability to make things happen on her own is captured in the song’s chorus, which says “a watched pot never boils, well I closed my eyes and nothing changed.” Flip Flappers contradicts this song by introducing Papika to Cocona, a wildcard who forces Cocona to start to change.
Ultimately, Papika and Cocona aren’t too concerned with preventing the bumbling Asclepius’s plan for a New World Order. They are concerned with each other and themselves. The song notes that all the neighbors are burning. Everybody else falls in love, and Cocona is having a difficult time navigating her first experience with romance. The Crown of Love, which comes next, reverts the focus to a key scene earlier in the series, the Mad Max pure illusion and the mask. Tension boils between Cocona and Papika in the first three episodes, exploding in a fight and a reconciliation. The Crown of Love is a plea for forgiveness, and is an important reminder that real love, a real healthy relationship needs both partners to be comfortable enough with each other to fight. Cocona is forced to that point by the mask, but it is not the last time they will fight.
Wake Up is the thematic successor of Neighborhood 3 (Power Out). Wake Up is about braving your way through life. For Cocona especially, this is a much more difficult struggle. The song exhorts children to wake up and seize the opportunities to make mistakes now. Cocona’s fear of making mistakes prevents her from taking an active role in her own life. Not only does Cocona need to “hold her mistakes up,” she needs to realize that mistakes are a fundamental part of growing up. Cocona has to wake up and start playing an active role in her life. In doing so, she has to accept who she is, regardless of how much her identity deviates from society’s norms, and then actively embrace Papika and her feelings for her. At the beginning of the story, Cocona is faced with the career survey, but she can’t see where she’s going. By the end of the story, Cocona has accepted who she is and has the confidence in herself to believe that wherever it is she’s going, she’ll be comfortable with herself.
Wake Up also repeats Neighborhood 3’s emphasis on agency with the lines, “with my lightning bolts a glowing, I can see where I am going.” Once Cocona learns to become independent and take control of her life, she’ll have less anxiety about the future. Yeah, Haiti’s lyrics are way too specific and violent for any reflection on Flip Flappers. Musically though, its lush and playful, which is an excellent description of Flip Flappers.
Rebellion (lies) is the final of the three anthems that dominate Funeral and it returns to the theme of embracing the naiveté and idealism of childhood. These are assets in the journey to knowing yourself and understanding life. The defiant message of this song is that happiness is possible, contrary to what the world tells us, and that’s not a lie. Honestly, anything else I have to say about this song in relation to Flip Flappers would simply be retreading points I have already made. For example, the line “sleeping is giving in” is another exhortation to take control of your life and not running away from your problems. To be honest, the reason I originally scrapped this was that I figured it was all so obvious that it doesn’t warrant me going in depth.
In the Backseat just perfectly captures Flip Flappers’ understanding of dependency. The lines, “I like the peace in the backseat, I don’t have to drive, I don’t have to speak” are a perfect portrait of Cocona at the beginning of the series and in episodes 11 and 12. In those two episodes Mimi returns and assumes the responsibility of making all of Cocona’s decisions for her. This is also exactly what Yayaka wanted, to have other people make tough decisions for her. The line, “I’ve been learning to drive my whole life” is a great expression of how growing up is entirely oriented towards eventually becoming independent.
Okay this was really messy, but I’m glad I’m getting it out there in some form, since so many people have expressed their desire to see it. Honestly, I didn’t even really touch on everything. Most of this was written in January of 2016, I can’t believe how much my writing has changed since then.
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From One Oil City To Another
Baby boomers, Blues, Diary, Entertainment, Journal, Life, Media, Music, Music news, Nostalgia, Punk, Punk Rock, R&B, Rock music, Rockmine, Uncategorized
I found myself in Aberdeen last night, in the middle of a blizzard of snow, wondering if it were possible to be further away from the Canvey Island of Dr. Feelgood. Not that odd a thought, as I was there to see “Oil City Confidential” at one of only four cinemas in Scotland showing this hybrid rock/cinema event.
Sitting at the start of the second decade of the 21st Century, watching a paean to proto punk, pub rock is probably pretty weird as evidenced by the almost embarrassing smattering of people that left probably 90% of the seats vacant. Director, Julian Temple had melded a strange amalgam of home movies, film noir clips, reconstructions, live footage and talking heads into a fatally flawed film. That isn’t to say it wasn’t a good film, or an interesting one. It was, but it didn’t gel as a film about Dr. Feelgood. Far more, it seemed to be an homage to Wilko Johnson.
If Wilko was dead, not Lee Brilleaux, I could see the point and how it would work; friends and band-mates recounting anecdotes and tall tales but this didn’t work for me – because of Wilko. His stage persona was lithe, frenetic, focussed but as narrator of his own story he seemed largely lost. It didn’t help that I seemed incapable of accepting that the old shambling figure before me seemed nothing more than a detached observer of his own life. This really couldn’t be Wilko.
From time to time, we’d see this narrator play something to illustrate part of the story but the playing, like his words, was all over the place. I met him once. Dr. Feelgood were in the middle of their first U.S. tour but during a few days off, Wilko flew back to London. I was at United Artists offices in the city, sitting in reception when he walked in. The exact details are somewhat clouded by the passage of time but the trip home had been prompted by the non-appearance of a bag of white powder in The States.
The receptionist greeted him warmly and having ascertained why he wasn’t on the other side of the pond, found the missing bag. Wilko then asked for a room with a typewriter and disappeared. On my way out from seeing the press officer, I was walking past an open door when the, by then wired, guitarist called out to me. He’d been busy battering out lyrics on a portable and asked me if I’d listen to some of them and give my opinion. I remember being impressed both with the occasion and words but that’s all the information I’ve retained.
That’s the crux of my problem. I remember the Wilko that I met and yet I seem unprepared to accept that I have aged as much as he has. Somehow, the juxtaposition of the 1970’s high-energy performances seen in the captured live footage, with the guitarist as he is now seemed all the sadder. I wanted an unsullied celebration of this all too English amphetamine fuelled, electric, delta blues. I wanted the snapshot in time.
Canvey Island was itself a major player in the film. The faded fifties glamour of the casinos and holiday camp were a powerful backdrop to the evolution of the band. Even seeing it now, it offered far less pathos than inspiration as we followed one of the regular 2 hour tours that takes fans round all the important Feelgood landmarks.
The fact that fans still take those tours is testament to something hugely important that was sidestepped to a large degree: there was a Dr. Feelgood after Wilko left the band. It might not have been as exciting an era as when he was part of it but it saw the band continue to grow as a group of musicians and Lee Brilleaux take his rightful place as one of Britain’s best blues men. They may never again have had the startling effect that their early years made on the music industry but it can easily be argued that without Feelgood, there would never have been Punk. Unlike Punk, of course, Feelgood weathered the changing musical tastes of several decades and stayed true to their roots. They also remained in the hearts and minds of fans of basic rhythm and blues.
For me, the most poignant part of the film was Wilko sitting with his life in cuttings and pictures spread out before him. I had a deep sense of intruding on a private moment, watching someone access personal memories that should never be lightly shared. That, more than anything else troubled me. It seemed that he had lost his own connection with those events; was seeing them as a third party and yet I understand the reasoning (if there is one).
Despite that pathos there was one real sense of emotion in the film. It came from Shirley Brilleaux, Lee’s widow. She was filled with such feeling for this man that saw her smile, laugh and cry whilst thinking of him. Such simple emotions that were obviously heartfelt left me hungering for more knowledge of her husband. In many ways, Shirley was the unexpected star of this film. She did Lee proud.
When the film petered out there was a break before the video feed was turned on again. It was just enough time to hit the bar and hope for better things to come. I wasn’t expecting much, based on what I’d seen of Wilko and the announcement that Alison Moyet was going to be a guest did not bode well for me. “Alf” from Yazoo with Wilko Johnson? No way!
Strangely, that was the unexpected highlight of the evening. She looked great and sounded amazing! As for the shambolic narrator, a simple truth became self evident – all he needed was an audience. Not a film crew but a real audience that he could strut his stuff in front of – and boy, did he strut! The moves, the energy and, of course, the licks were all there. I just wanted someone to put a “Wilko” wig on him and take me back 35 years. The video feed was stunning. To see every chop of his fingers on those strings, every chord change, was incredible. I just didn’t want to see the bushiness of his eyebrows or the lines on his face that the high definition picked out in minute detail.
Playing counterpoint to Wilko’s machine-gun like guitar was Norman Watt-Roy on bass. Watt-Roy goes back to 1968 with The Greatest Show On Earth, an early signing to the Harvest label. From there he joined Glencoe, then Loving Awareness and finally Ian Dury & The Blockheads. It was an odd sight. He seemed unaware of his guitarist but somehow, as is the case with all great bass players, totally attuned to him. Odd isn’t really the word. More outlandish. Part gargoyle let loose; part Orang Utang; part octopus. A figure dancing to his own tune yet producing the most incredible runs far beyond the reach of many. His dexterity on the fretboard and his obvious skill with picking and slapping the strings between the bridge and first pick-up was totally breathtaking.
There was one other guest onstage. A leather-jacketed harmonica player that looked totally familiar and yet I couldn’t believe I was seeing. Charles Shaar Murray, one of the greatest music journalists ever, showed he really knew how to blow a blues harp and paid a fine tribute to the one man missing from the stage – Lee Brilleaux. Somehow, that tied it all together. Wilko’s guitar was as good as it ever was but his singing was weak and reedy.
Alison Moyet lifted the event, as did C S M but really all it did was point out that Dr. Feelgood was at its best when the original line-up was together. A stunning guitarist capable of great lyrics and a wonderful vocalist who could make a harmonica wail unlike anyone outside the American blues elite. One thing is certain, Lee and the Feelgoods are missing from today’s music and that’s sad.
Ploughing through videos and not the snow outside
Baby boomers, Culture, Entertainment, Journal, Life, Media, Music, Nostalgia, Pop, Pop Festivals, Pop Music, Rock Festivals, Rock music, Rockmine, Seventies TV, Sixties TV, Woodstock
The last week should have seen me working in the house. There’s painting, plastering and varnishing to do but with Friday’s daytime temperature a chilly -8 C, it will have to wait.
It’s meant I’ve been huddled over a heater in front of the computer and working on my various blogs that haven’t had any attention paid to them for ages. The Rockmine Television one is very nearly finished. I’ve only got 2009 and the start of this year to do and that will be every U.K. number one up. At the moment, along with the Eurovision Winners, it amounts to 1157 videos.
I would have completed it had I not been distracted looking for festival footage. I started collecting rock video in 1982 and have cupboards full of video tapes that would take me years to digitize and as a result, I’ve become rather bored by the whole thing, or so I thought. A casual trawl through YouTube once again got me excited about video.
You mention festivals and everyone will say Woodstock, Isle Of Wight, Glastonbury, Reading, Knebworth, Phoenix, T In The Park, the Hyde Park Free Festivals and many more. Material from all of them is available but I discovered was there was footage of Fehmarn Isle, Bilzen Jazz ’67, ’68 & ’69, Windsor ’67, Copenhagen Jazz ’68, Rome ’68 and even Kastival ’68!
I know it’s rather sad to say it but I got rather excited by that. I went looking for footage of the Sunbury Festival in England and found another of the same name in Australia that I’d never even heard of. And I call myself a rock music archivist! There is just SO MUCH stuff out there! It really is a video collector’s dream. So, while I haven’t yet finished one listing, I’m adding masses of stuff for the next one. There are people who would say that sums me up perfectly but, hey! what the hell…
Having put a posting up several days ago, I was completely taken aback when my stats rocketed. It’s very strange to discover that the key to the blogs is just to be me. When I started www.rockmine.com back in 1995, I shut myself in my office for several days while I got to grips with HTML and then just put up the stuff that interested me. Somehow, over the years, I forgot that.
Many years ago, Radio One’s “Newsround” did a piece on me. I was the last article on it and it went straight back into Nicky Campbell, who described me as “anally retentive”. Fine praise from a James Bond collector! I prefer to remember Mick Wall who, when he was editor of Classic Rock, came to visit the archive with the board of directors of Future Publishing and called me “the real deal”. The editor of Total Guitar said I was “the God of anoraks”. Oh, happy days!
Yet here I am snowed in, wondering what on earth I’m doing in the wilds of Perthshire with a garage and a house full of books and papers when all I really need is in my head. Mid-life crisis is really no excuse for the amount of time I’ve taken to remember that! Back in 1975, I was working on a college project that needed a slogan or dictum. Being a pretentious sod, I came up with “If religion is the opiate of the people, then rock music is marijuana for the masses”. Somehow, I forgot that myself.
If you want to get up, or get down, get maudlin or melancholic, energized or ecstatic, music can get you there. Since I was a kid, I’ve known that and yet it’s so easy to lose track of the simple constants and truths we hold dear. Oddly, in amongst more than 1,000 number ones, I found songs to do all of those things and songs that took me back to so many moments in my past. There are even songs I hated that had other memories attached that give them significance way beyond their artistic value.
That’s what makes rock and pop wonderful. There are tracks today that don’t do anything for me and yet they’ll be no less significant for someone twenty or thirty years from now than the music that I still listen to. The secret may just to be open to everything. That’s what made John Peel such a great DJ, he listened to everything with an open mind and an open heart.
If music touches you, it doesn’t matter who it’s by, or what it is. All you can say is that you feel it.
Today In Rockmine
Baby boomers, BBC-TV, Entertainment, Journal, Life, Media, Music, Music news, Nostalgia, Pop, Pop Music, Punk Rock, R&B, Random, Rap, Rock music, Rockmine, Seventies TV, Sixties TV, soul music, Today in music history, Top Of The Pops, Uncategorized
I am, as they say, a tad frustrated. Having exceeded a certain age, I should be past my mid-life crisis but it seems to continue unabated.
Back in the mists of iTime, I effectively shut myself away in my office for about five days. I did venture out for meals and shagging but the rest of the time was spent trying to master HTML. The mission was a success, I sort of got the hang of it and hand coded a site that went online on July 18th, 1995. Fuck! Is it really that long ago? It feels like yesterday and yet, it also feels like another lifetime.
Now, here I am with a web-site and a blog – but am I doing either? The answer is simple. No, I’m not.
What you get comes straight from my head. Sometimes, I will accept, I have no idea what’s going to present itself on the screen in front of me. It’s stream of consciousness, or drivel (whichever you might think). The one thing that’s been a constant, since that very first day, is it came out of my head. It wasn’t checked with someone or edited and yet the blog has ground to a halt.
Someone has been very sweet and was checking it for me on a daily basis but I realised that it was screwing me up beyond belief. Since I was in my teens, I’ve written, poetry, porn, crap of all sorts but it just came from my fingers. I didn’t need to think about it and I didn’t. I typed it out, posted it – and waited for a cheque or a rejection note (and in some cases, come-ons from the editors of top-shelf magazines). It was a laugh, a job, something to do but I always took it seriously. It was me. Just as this is.
My head has always been so fucked that it’s a wonder I could ever function on anything resembling a normal state. I come from a dysfunctional family but then, who doesn’t. I hate confrontation but am incredibly confrontational. I always have been but who really cares. We’re all like that. It’s year upon year of suppressed anger that eventually takes over. You lose sense of yourself and yet somewhere in the back of your mind you can often find the key. One moment, one situation, where rather than face a confrontation, you simply give in. That moment, where you want to say “no” more than anything and don’t, is where it all goes wrong.
Is this a semantic debate or a rock blog? It’s both, believe me. For me at least, it is. I have to take ownership of what I have done and continue to do. The mistakes I’ve made are numerous but as long as I take responsibility for them, it’s fine. They’re in the past and gone but that doesn’t mean I can’t continue to learn from them. I have a vivid memory of sitting on the floor as a small child playing with a construction set and a friend of my mother’s asking why I wasn’t out on a bright summer’s day playing with friends. Before I could answer, my mother did. “He’s happier playing on his own in here”, she said.
Needless to say, I didn’t want to be stuck in the corner of a room listening to two women bitch about everything and everyone they knew but I didn’t open my mouth and say anything. Here we are, four and a half decades on and not much has changed, except for one thing. I know where I fucked up and it makes me desperately unhappy. It’s amazing how satisfying even saying, “No, I don’t want coffee tonight” can be.
The archive; the almanac; the memorabilia – all of them are, in some ways, extensions of myself but they’re not me. Now, all I want to do is do something with them. In the case of the garage and the huge piles of newspapers I’ve found a solution I’m comfortable with. I’m burning them! A one-inch pile of tabloids will easily make two paper “logs” more than 3 inches in diameter. They burn for at least an hour and make very little ash. Carefully positioned at night, they’ll even keep a fire going until the next morning. Ripping up things – and creating warmth – what could be more satisfying?
In amongst this upheaval, I’m trying to rebuild my iTunes library. In the last few years, it’s quadrupled in size but I look at it with deep sadness. Everything that ever gave me joy is there but the artists that created those works are pale shadows of their former selves. They no longer inspire me. I want someone to do that again. I want to hear something new and exciting but I struggle, I really do.
If it wasn’t for the wealth of sites on blogspot.com providing links from everything from the most obscure 60’s releases to albums that will hit the shops in a month or so, I would go nuts! The music industry whinges on and on about illegal downloads but it’s all crap. Back in the “good old days” you could go into a record shop and while away an hour or two in listening booths, or in later years at “listening stations” but you could listen to new releases by anyone and everyone. That doesn’t happen anymore. back in the ’60s and ’70s the amount of music on mainstream TV channels was vast in comparison to today. From “Crackerjack” to “The Black & White Mistrel Show” and even “Tonight”, you could see and hear what was happening in music.
We’re not talking about the latest project from Simon Cowell here, we’re talking about real music, written and performed by real bands who had slogged for years paying their dues in flea-pits and bars across the land. I really miss that.
At one point, I thought my problem was that I didn’t care anymore but it’s really the opposite. I care too much. I hope I never, ever stop caring but I need new, exciting music and I’m not getting it. If you know of anything exciting, send it to me. I AM SERIOUS! And don’t worry what it is. My tastes are extremely eclectic but one thing remains constant. The best single ever recorded – “London Calling” by The Clash.
Today In Music, February 10th
Culture, Diary, Entertainment, Journal, Life, Media, Music, Pop Music, Random, Rock music, Today in music history, Uncategorized
From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Monday 10th February):
1940. James “Jimmy” Merchant (Frankie Lymon And The Teenagers) born in New York.
1980. Sammy Hagar‘s UK tour which should have started today at Portsmouth’s Guildhall is postponed. His son is in hospital in the States with kidney problems and Hagar wants to be with him.
1988. The breach of contract case brought by Zang Tumb Tumb Records against Holly Johnson finishes at the High Court in London. Mr. Justice Whitford, presiding, rules that restraints in Johnson’s contract were unreasonable. He dismisses the label’s action and refuses to grant the injunctions they were seeking to ensure that Holly would not record for another company. Giving his verdict, the judge said: “Mr. Johnson, who I found entirely reasonable, was, in my judgement, entitled to free himself from these onerous obligations… He is a singer. He wants to make a living”. Holly, who was tied into a ZTT contract as a member of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, had been looking for a solo contract with another label. The judge adjourned the case until a later date when the matter of costs will be decided. On leaving the court, Holly (27) said, “This is a great day for recording artists everywhere and I believe this will help them in the future to get better and fairer agreements. Now I just can’t wait to start work again”.
1998. Frank Sinatra is once again admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following reports that “Ol’ Blue Eyes” is suffering from blood in his urine which may indicate bladder cancer.
2004. The Ellen DeGeneres Show including musical guest, Sting
2002. Folk singer Dave Van Ronk dies in New York University Medical Center, where he’d been undergoing treatment for colon cancer. His management company said that during the treatment “his cardio-pulmonary system failed”. Van Ronk (65) had been an influence on many of the singer songwriters from the sixties onwards, including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian and Suzanne Vega.
Music Paper From Today
New Musical Express from 10th February 1968. A copy taken from Rockmine’s almost complete run of U.K. music papers. The front page is mainly given over to a rare gem of UK psych pop from The Nerve. Original copies sell for more than £ 30. Both the A and B side can be found on the Psych compilation CD, “Magic Spectacles”.
Daily Babble
As you can see from the image above, I’ve got a working A3 scanner again. Now all I have to do is work my way through the thousands of music papers I have! I need to sort my system for scanning. I pulled out 4 last night and my office is now in total disarray. I took 4 piles out from different shelves and different papers and now I can’t move around the 8 piles I created. Aarghh!
I went out to the garage to look for some other mags to scan and found a load of “Sounds”. All had paper tabs in for news stories that I was meant to include in The Almanac. What was that I was saying about having a system? I suppose I better try and tidy up – or do some more scanning…
Today In Music, February 9th
From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Sunday 9th February):
1942. Carole King born Carole Klein in Brooklyn, New York.
1963. On the Helen Shapiro tour, The Beatles perform at the Empire Theatre, Sunderland, Durham, playing two shows during the evening. The first leg of the Shapiro tour is due to finish tomorrow with another two shows in Peterborough but The Beatles will not be appearing. Their place will be taken for one night only by Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers as they’ll be in London recording their first album. The Beatles will be back with the tour when it restarts on February 23rd.
1991. Andrew Lloyd Webber and his new wife Madeleine have their marriage blessed at a church service followed by a reception at the couple’s mansion in Ecchinswell, Hants. They were married in secret at Westminster Register Office on February 1st. Only five close family members and friends attended. They had originally planned a full church service for today but felt the publicity would not be appropriate during the Gulf War.
1967. Lulu is admitted to hospital in London to have her tonsils removed. The 18 year old singer is cancelling all engagements for this month, including a series of six shows for Scottish Television.
1973. The Midnight Special (U.S.A.). Show 3. Host: Johnny Rivers. Guests: Ace Trucking Company; Albert Hammond; Merilee Rush; The Spinners; Steely Dan; Paul Williams; Wolfman Jack.
The Partridge Family (U.S.A.) in an episode entitled, “Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex…But Couldn’t Pronounce”.
1981. Bill Haley is found dead on his bed by one of his children at his home in Harlingen, Texas. The rocker was fully clothed and it’s thought he died from a heart attack, probably six hours before being found. He was 55.
Baby boomers, BBC-TV, Canned Heat, Culture, David Bowie, Diary, Entertainment, Hip-Hop, Journal, Life, Media, Morrissey, Music, Music news, Nostalgia, Pop, Pop Music, R&B, Rap, Rock music, Rockmine, Today In Music, Today in music history, Woodstock
From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Sunday, 8th February):
1946. Alfredo Fito (Canned Heat) born Adolpho De La Parra in Mexico City, Mexico.
1963. Shane Fenton is pelted with eggs when he appears at a lunchtime rock ‘n’ roll session at the Lyceum Ballroom in The Strand, London. Fenton was a last minute replacement for Jess Conrad and was miming when the eggs started to fly.
1980. David Bowie‘s marriage to Angie ends as their divorce is finalised today. David gets custody of their son, Zowie (now calling himself Joe). Angie gets a cash settlement of £ 30,000. She’s also telling the world that she expects to make another £ 100,000 by writing her memoirs!
1997. The New Edition reunion tour runs into problems in Los Angeles. Bobby Brown fails to show for the gig claiming he has flu and couldn’t perform. If that wasn’t enough, Ronnie Devoe walked off stage during the set after seeing his uncle, the group’s manager Brooke Payne, collapse with chest pains in the wings. Devoe accompanied his uncle to hospital where he was checked over before being discharged to rest at home.
2008. Later… With Jools Holand. (BBC-2, U.K.) Mayra Andrade; Morrissey; Ida Maria; British Sea Power and Joe Brown. Morrissey performs four tracks. Here he is with one of them, “All You Need Is Me”.
1973. Max Yasgur, the farmer on whose land Woodstock was staged, dies of a heart attack in a Florida hospital.
Baby boomers, BBC-TV, Beatles, Elton John, Entertainment, George Harrison, Journal, Life, Media, Music, Music news, Pop, Pop Music, Seventies TV, soul music, The Beatles, Today In Music, Today in music history, Top Of The Pops
From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Wednesday, 28th January):
1946. Rick Allen (The Box Tops) born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1995. Elton John, Ray Cooper and Sting perform at the first benefit for The Elton John AIDS Foundation in New York. The performance along with dinner and an auction raises $ 1 million.
1980. All five original members of Guys And Dolls appear in court for the first day of a legal case brought by their former managers, Ammo Productions Ltd., for £ 12,900 in unpaid commission. The group have issued a counter suit claiming £ 3,418 in unpaid royalties.
1987. Elton John‘s wife, Renate, flies into London after working for the last month in Los Angeles. She has not travelled to Australia, where Elton is still recovering in hospital but did say she has spoken to him on the ‘phone “at least once a day”.
1971. Top Of The Pops. (BBC-1, U.K.) Presented by Jimmy Savile. Badfinger; Elvis Presley (Promo); Frankie Valli; George Harrison/Pan’s People; Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon; Martha & The Vandellas; Stevie Wonder; The Equals; The Mixtures; The Supremes/Pan’s People; The Weathermen. Here are Badfinger with “No Matter What”
2000. Motown saxophonist Thomas “Beans” Bowles dies in Detroit after a ten year battle with prostate cancer, aged 71. Bowles was best known as a baritone sax player and arranger but was also tour manager for the early Motown Revues that toured the U.S.A. His career with Motown was far from smooth. He claimed to have written “Fingertips” for Stevie Wonder but never received a credit. On leaving the company, he was even forced to negotiate for the rights to his own name, which he’d unwittingly given to Motown when he signed his contract in 1962.
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Posts Tagged ‘record’
“The piano ain’t got no wrong notes”*…
Once a staple of middle-class American homes, a piano in the living room has become a less common sight, as fewer people learn to play the instrument. And in a city where square footage (and privacy) are at a premium, devoting space to a 500-pound instrument may seem like a strange choice. Yet Michael “Mickey” Finn, a resident of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, has been working full-time as a piano tuner in New York City for nearly 20 years.
Finn’s first job in the city was as a piano technician for the New York City Opera, before he became an independent tuner, working in private homes, in rehearsal rooms, and for institutional clients…
Finn speaks to Topic about his own musical education, how he started getting clients, and the song he plays to test his own work; illustrated with photos by Gus Powell, who followed him for several days as he tuned his way across town: “He’s Got the Keys to the City.”
* Thelonious Monk
As we tickle the ivories, we might recall that it was on this date in 1948, three days after an announcement of the innovation at a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria, that Columbia Records began mass production of the 33 1/3 RPM long-playing record. The format, which allowed for over 20 minutes of music on a side, briskly overtook the 78 rpm format and dominated music sales well into the 1980s. The popularity of the LP ushered in the “Album Era” of English-language popular music, beginning in the 1960s, as performers took advantage of the longer playing time to create coherent themes or concept albums.
Tagged with 33 1/3, Album, history, LP, Mickey Finn, music, piana tuner, piano, record, tuning
“Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.”*…
In the major leagues this season, batters have been hitting the ball so hard, and so far, that pitchers are suggesting foul play. “There’s just something different about the baseballs,” one veteran reliever complained earlier this summer. “I don’t have anything to quantify it, but the balls just don’t feel the same.” It’s been an unprecedented year for home runs: hitters are on pace to shatter the previous single-season record for them (5,693), which was set in 2000, at the height of the steroid era, when sluggers were making widespread and illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. In June, players hit more home runs than in any previous month in the game’s history (1,101), sometimes in gaudy fashion, as when seven different players hit grand slams in a single day (another record)…
Under the circumstances, it was easy to miss another major-league record being set this week. Granted, it was somewhat obscure. It concerned one of baseball’s most pleasurable and least appreciated feats: the immaculate inning.
Rick Porcello [above], the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, threw one in a win against the Tampa Bay Rays on [August 9]. He struck out the side—three up, three down—on nine consecutive pitches. It was the eighth immaculate inning pitched this season, which topped the previous high (seven), from 2014…
Rarer than a no-hitter: “The ephemeral perfection of the Immaculate Inning.”
And check out The Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s “Treasures from the Baseball Diamond.”
* Satchel Paige
As we contemplate control, we might consider its opposite, recalling that on this date in 1909, in the first of two games at South Side Park, Dolly Gray of the Washington Senators entered the record book by walking eight White Sox in the 2nd inning, with seven of the walks in a row (each feat a Major League record that stands to this day). The six runs scored were enough for a 6 – 4 Chicago win, although the Sox managed only one hit against Dolly.
Tagged with baseball, Dolly Gray, history, immaculate inning, pitching, record
“That tactile feel of flipping through a stack of vinyl remains one of life’s simple pleasures”*…
Nearly everyone interested in records will have, at some point heard the news that there is a Brazilian who owns millions of records. Fewer seem to know, however, that Zero Freitas, a São Paulo-based businessman now in his sixties, plans to turn his collection into a public archive of the world’s music, with special focus on the Americas. Having amassed over six million records, he manages a collection similar to the entire Discogs database. Given the magnitude of this enterprise, Freitas deals with serious logistical challenges and, above all, time constraints. But he strongly believes it is worth his while. After all, no less than a vinyl library of global proportions is at stake…
An interview with master collector Zero Freitas: “Inside the World’s Biggest Record Collection.”
* Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)
As we drop the needle, we might send harmonious birthday greetings to Jean-Philippe Rameau; he was born on this date in 1683. One of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered (with François Couperin) the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time.
Tagged with Album, collection, history, largest record collection, LP, music, Rameau, record, Zero Freitas
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”*…
Although well-known for her massive novels The Fountainhead (about an architectural genius who blows up his own skyscraper) and Atlas Shrugged (about a group of fiercely individualistic anti—union entrepreneurs who band together and go on strike), Ayn Rand was something of a culinary devotee–or so the publication of this hitherto unsuspected book of recipes would suggest.
Written in her trademark “romantic realist” style, this large collection includes recipes unique to its author, such as “I Need No Warrant for Being Green Beans,” “Rational Pumpkin Muffins of the Highest Intelligence,” and “Chicken Baked Only for Itself.”…
More– including a recipe for an old standard, made Objectively better– at “Preparing Eggplant Rollatini With the Highest Competence.”
See also Mc Sweeney’s “Recipes that would be officially approved by the Ayn Rand Institute.”
* Ayn Rand
As we decide to diet, we might recall that it was on this date in 1992, at 11:00 a.m., that the current world record brown trout was caught on the Little Red River in Arkansas by Howard “Rip” Collins. At forty-pounds, four ounces, it far exceeded the previous record-holder, a 38-9 brown caught by Mike “Huey” Manley of North Little Rock four years earlier.
Collins and his catch
Tagged with Ayn Rand, brown trout, cook book, cooking, fishing, humor, recipes, record
“Few of them were to be trusted within reach of a trowel and a pile of bricks”*…
email readers click here for video
It is oddly mesmerizing to watch Robert Boll win the the 1st annual World Champion Brick Olympics– and set a Guinness world record– by laying 914 bricks in one hour. Boll’s feat has been bested several times since, most recently, by Travis McGee:
* P.G. Wodehouse
As we get set for the paint drying event, we might recall that it was on this date in 1917 that the Victor Talking Machine Company released two songs recorded by The Original Dixieland Jass Band — “Livery Stable Blues” and “Dixie Jass Band One Step”– as two sides of a 78 rpm disc… the first jazz record ever released. As readers can see in the photo below, the band changed the spelling to “Jazz” later that year.
Tagged with bricklaying, Guinness world record, history, jazz, Livery Stable Blues, record, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band
“Pray don’t talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing”*…
If you’re planning to relocate but want to live somewhere with a near-exact temperature profile, where should you go?
That depends: Folks in San Francisco might choose San Luis Obispo 200 miles south, or Portugal’s Cabo Carvoeiro 5,600 miles east, as these locales have 99 percent similar monthly temperatures. Chicagoans could go to Ottawa or Dalian, China, whereas New Yorkers will feel at home in Dover, Maryland; Milford, Delaware; or Makhachkala, Russia.
That’s according to an engrossing map tool from Codeminders that compares places with equivalent climates…
More at “A Guide to Finding Cities With Nearly Identical Temperatures“– and try it for yourself here.
* “Pray don’t talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me quite nervous.”
– Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
As we ponder the differential impacts of climate change, we might recall that it was on this date in 1900 that a massive storm spread record snows from Kansas to New York State. Snowfall totals ranged up to 17.5 inches at Springfield IL and 43 inches at Rochester NY, with up to 60 inches in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.
Central Park, after the storm
Tagged with cities, Codeminders, maps, meteorology, record, snow, temperatures, weather
“All art is propaganda”*…
Between 1943 and 1945, with the help of Warner Bros.’ finest animators, the U.S. Army produced a series of 27 propaganda cartoons depicting the calamitous adventures of Private Snafu.
Read the extraordinary story (replete with a cameo by Bugs Bunny) and learn how one of the cartoons inadvertently let slip one of the war’s greatest secrets– “Ignorant Armies: Private Snafu Goes to War.”
And watch the Private Snafu films here.
* Upton Sinclair
As we stand to attention, we might recall that it was on this date in 1947 that Stan Musial tied Ty Cobb’s record for the most five-hit games in a season (four)– and he did it in style, hitting successfully on the first pitches from five different pitchers.
“How good was Stan Musial? He was good enough to take your breath away.”
— Vin Scully
Tagged with Animation, baseball, film, Musial, Private Snafu, propaganda, record, Ty Cobb, Warner Bros, World War II
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Star Trek: Discovery 2×12 – ‘Through the Valley of Shadows’ – Review
By Dave Bond 8 April 2019 7 April 2019
Leave a Comment on Star Trek: Discovery 2×12 – ‘Through the Valley of Shadows’ – Review
A major piece of Star Trek lore is touched upon in the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery, as Captain Christopher Pike sees a future vision of himself mute, burned, and confined to a chair, able to communicate only through a blinking light. For those not aware, Christopher being in this state formed the plot of ‘The Menagerie’: an episode of season one of Star Trek: The Original Series.
Here, Pike is on the holy planet, Boreth, to retrieve a time crystal, guarded by Klingon monks. Chief amongst them is the now fully grown son of Tyler and L’Rell, Tenavik – visual evidence that time moves somewhat differently there, as he was a baby in the earliest episodes of this run. The need for a time crystal is part of the whole season-long Red Angel/Control story arc that, we can assume, will continue to play out over the final two episodes.
In the B-plot, Michael and Spock investigate a Section 31 ship where all but one of the crew is dead. The sole survivor is possessed by Control, which attempts to take over Burnham too. This thread ends with Michael and Spock making it back to Discovery in time. It’s by far the less resonant of the two story strands.
This is likely because the reveal of Pike’s fate is so powerful to viewers of this show, as well as fans of the original series. It is disturbing to see Christopher come face-to-face with the horribly scarred, immobile man he will become. It is well-shot, and extremely well acted. Anson Mount doesn’t milk the moment, but lets the full impact of that moment show. He has been the most successful part of an uneven season.
READ MORE: Game of Thrones – Top 5 Weirdest Sh*t on Planetos
Less successful is the actual plotting. This show is fond of asserting things out of nowhere, and then having to rush behind, later, with some half-baked explanation – such as the whole Michael and her mother having the same biometric signature/DNA. There is simply no reason given at this stage why Pike’s taking of the crystal would lock in his terrible fate. Some kind of credible reasoning may have led the audience to understand more the unwelcome decision he has to make, and why it has to be this way. Instead, it feels like a contrived no-win scenario, born in an over-earnest writers’ room (“what if he chooses his own fate guys?!”). It’s high on concept, but low on reasoning. For once, however, this isn’t a serious issue. The callbacks this season to previous Trek have been a mixed bag. Here, the imagery and acting – playing into the fact that the Sword of Damocles has been hanging over Pike from the start, his ultimate fate always leading here – is strong enough to make this very effective. His accident is still some time in the future, but we know now that any chance of some cheat to get around it is extremely unlikely. Pike will end up that tragic, burned husk of a man, with only Talos IV able to offer him the hope of a future, far down the line.
More important to the future of this show seemed to be some of the more minor touches. With ‘Through the Valley of Shadows’, finally, the crew of the USS Discovery showed us some natural, organic-feeling downtime. The were times in this episode where they really felt like a real team – comprised of real people. This bodes very well for season three. These things can take time, yet often seem to gel all at once. As we’ve often argued, whatever the flaws of Star Trek: Discovery, much of Star Trek‘s history is comprised of weak seasons one and two. More could have been done with minor characters to-date, but some of that lightness we see in the mess this week is just nice extra shading to Discovery’s world, and very welcome.
Star Trek: Discovery is not at all a bad show, and one that, if season one is anything to go by, will play far better when several episodes are watched in a row. It’s felt unusually bitty when taken an entry at a time. The writing has been a little up and down, but it must be remembered the show runners were replaced around halfway through the season. The lack of a consistent vision has been clear, as the show never seems sure quite how far it should lean into the franchise’s illustrious history.
It feels that there is much more to come from the show, both in terms of the Burnham character – still a little underdeveloped, and lead in name only for much of this run – and strengthening the idea of the crew as an ensemble. The better episodes of this season have kept it simple, eschewed silly bait-and-switch plot developments (save for that aforementioned extraordinary scene in this episode) that are designed to shock more than advance organic storytelling, and just told us a story. ‘New Eden’ was an outstanding example of a show finding its voice, while staying true to the wider property’s DNA. In whatever debrief the staff of this show undertake before launching into season three, it is to be hoped that they note this, see how some of the organic interplay in this twelfth episode worked so well, and orient future direction more to these – and Star Trek‘s – strengths.
As it is, ‘Through the Valley of Shadows’ contains the best of the show’s character work, along with some of its worst instincts in story structuring. That scene though was exceptional, and a real season highlight.
Tags: Star Trek Star Trek: Discovery
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March 21, 2016 August 5, 2018
De Stijl
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Many of us have encountered the pattern – blocks of primary colours randomly situated amid a strict geometry of verticals and horizontals – on walls or furniture or curtains or clothes. What does it mean and where did it originate?
The design belongs to the Dutch De Stijl (literally “The Style”, also known “neo-plasticism”), a movement that was founded in Amsterdam in 1917 by Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) and Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931), two pioneers of abstract art. (Read about another pioneer of abstract art, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), here). Other members of the group were the painters Bart van der Leck and Vordemberge-Gildewart, the sculptor Georges Vantongerloo and the architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van ‘t Hoff and Jacobus Oud.
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Originally a publication, De Stijl was, in large part, a reaction to the devastation of World War I. Artists associated with the movement aimed to develop a universal language of art that could transcend different geographic and temporal boundaries and appeal to a broad, cross-cultural international audience. Pure abstraction symbolising peace and harmony was reached only through minimal essentials of line and shade.
Theo van van Doesburg (1883-1931), Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
In Western thought, geometry has often been associated with spirituality but such an elevated appropriation of colour had not been seen before.
In a video for Tate, Professor Michael White of the University of York demonstrates a Liverpool-based reconstruction of Mondrian’s French studio, which he occupied from 1921 to 1936 and which become one of the most celebrated places in inter-war Paris. White says that Mondrian was posing an interesting question: “Can you use colour as itself and not to stand for anything else? If you made yellow into a circle immediately people would start making associations with the sun or something like that. So he decides the only way forward is to paint in areas of perpendicular relationships.”
De Stijl, when it started, stated that its goal was “the organic combination of architecture, sculpture and painting in a lucid, elemental, unsentimental construction.” A manifesto of 9 points was formulated in 1918:
There is an old and a new consciousness of time. The old is connected with the individual. The new is connected with the universal. The struggle of the individual against the universal is revealing itself in the world-war as well as in the art of the present day.
The war is destroying the old world with its contents: individual domination in every state.
The new art has brought forward what the new consciousness of time contains: a balance between the universal and the individual.
The new consciousness is prepared to realise the internal life as well as the external life.
Traditions, dogmas and the domination of the individual are opposed to this realisation.
The founders of the new plastic art therefore, call upon all, who believe in the reformation of art and culture, to annihilate these obstacles of development, as they have annihilated in the new plastic art (by abolishing natural form) that, which prevents the clear expression of art, the utmost consequence of all art notion.
The artists of today have been driven the whole world over by the same consciousness, and therefore have taken part from an intellectual point of view in this war against the domination of individual despotism. They therefore sympathise with all, who work for the formation of an international unity in Life, Art, Culture, either intellectually or materially.
The monthly editions of “The Style”, founded for that purpose, try to attain the new wisdom of life in an exact manner.
Co-operation is possible by: I. Sending, with entire approval, name, address and profession to the editor of “The Style”. II. Sending critical, philosophical, architectural, scientific, literary, musical articles or reproductions. III. Translating articles in different languages or distributing thoughts published in “The Style”.
Extract from the De Stijl Magazine, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
A selection of De Stijl artworks:
Composition A by Piet Mondrian, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red by Piet Mondrian, Tate Modern, London, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Victory Boogie Woogie by Piet Mondrian, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Composition VII (the three graces) by Theo van Doesburg, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Study for Arithmetic Composition by Theo van Doesburg, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Two Sculptures by Georges Vantongerloo, Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]
Chair by Gerrit Rietveld, Wikipedia (User “Ellywa”, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Schröder House in Utrecht built by Gerrit Rietveld, Wikipedia (User “Husky”, CC BY 3.0)
De Stijl dresses by Yves Saint Laurent (1966), Wikipedia (User “Erich Koch”, CC BY-SA 3.0)
De Stijl Clocks on zazzle.co.uk. No Copyright Infringement intended. Used for illustrative purposes only
De Stijl Room, Flickr (User “Marianne Bevis”, CC BY-ND 2.0)
De Stijl and Dutch Modernism (2003) by Michael White
The Story of De Stijl (2011) by Hans Janssen and Michael White
Towards Universality: Le Corbusier, Mies and De Stijl (2002) by Richard Padovan
Featured: Mondrian Lookalike by User “Husky”, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
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Published by Tulika Bahadur
Cosmopolitan soul and King's College London + National Gallery alum - slowly working on a novel and a collection of short stories. Say hi at tulikabahadur@gmail.com, send all professional communication, including enquiries related to content creation, curatorship, educational engagements, art buying and building a collection, to tulika@elucidaction.com.au. Follow on IG: @tulika_inez_bahadur89. View all posts by Tulika Bahadur
Posted in Architecture, Contemporary (roughly 1960s onwards), Fashion and Textiles, Interiors, Late Modern Period (roughly 1800-1950s), Painting, PhilosophyTagged abstract, art, building, color, colours, creativity, de stijl, design, dutch, england, europe, first world war, form, france, furniture, london, minimalism, painting, paris, Philosophy, rome, spirituality, tate museum, the netherlands, the style, universality, utrecht, yves saint laurent6 Comments
6 thoughts on “De Stijl”
lifecameos says:
Fascinating ! I have never studied art at all, and read very little about it.
Tulika B. says:
It took me some time to appreciate “modern” art – now, I love learning about it! Though I don’t like ALL of it, I do feel there’s much meaning to be found in a lot of it.
leflaneurlondon2 says:
De Stijl is sooo beautiful 😍
I find it very stylish and smart!
Its so pure and inspiring, I love observing the cracked paint of an aged Mondrian original.
Pingback: “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?”: Studio Vollaerszwart Dresses the Hague in “De Stijl” – On Art and Aesthetics
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Home » Blog » Sports » TC McCartney–Some Stories Write Themselves
TC McCartney–Some Stories Write Themselves
Alan Tapley February 5th, 2019 Sports Share:
TC McCartney
Last week, TC McCartney was named the quarterbacks coach for the Denver Broncos. Generally, a story about a QB coach doesn’t draw much interest, even in Bronco Country, but this one may change your mind.
McCartney was with the San Francisco 49ers last season, and worked under head coach Kyle Shanahan and Denver’s new offensive coordinator, Rich Scangarello, as a lower-level assistant. McCartney is 29 years old, started in the NFL as a quality control assistant with the Cleveland Browns, and the TC stands for Timothy Chase. Have I piqued your interest yet?
Bill McCartney
Well, maybe it would help to let you know that TC McCartney is the grandson of legendary University of Colorado football coach, Bill McCartney. Coach Mac, as he was called, started off as a high school coach in Michigan, was hired by Bo Schembechler at University of Michigan, and then accepted the head coaching job at CU in 1982. Coach Mac ended up coaching the Buffs for 13 years, going 93-55-5 over that span, including a National Championship win in 1990.
TC’s mom was Kristy McCartney. Kristy was a student at CU back in 1988, and the campus and local news had a field day when it was discovered that Kristy was pregnant with child. A college pregnancy happens on occasion, but the fact that Kristy’s father, Coach Mac, was also the founder of a highly successful Christian conservative group for men called Promise Keepers made headline news. Coach Mac and the Promise Keepers had many old-school religious beliefs, including being opposed to abortion, and most relevant, preaching against pre-marital sex. The Promise Keepers had almost a million men gather in Washington, D.C.; the movement was exploding locally and nationally, and now the founder’s daughter was unmarried and pregnant with TC. It was a big deal.
Sal Aunese
TC’s father was Sal Aunese. Aunese was a 5-star recruit from California who came to the University of Colorado after being recruited by the Buff’s head recruiter at the time, Les Miles. Coach Mac was in need of an option quarterback and the talented kid from the San Diego area was the type of recruit that could turn a program around. Aunese came to Colorado, became an instant star, and the Buffs were not only nationally ranked, but they were now nationally known. The whispers were getting loud, but no one spoke of it publicly. Coach Mac’s daughter was pregnant with the star quarterback’s baby.
There’s more.
Kristy finally told her father about the pregnancy, and despite thoughts to abort, she decided to keep the baby. Coach Mac confronted Aunese, but Aunese had no intention of marrying Kristy. Coach Mac understood. To marry without love would be foolish and eventually the couple would stop seeing each other. But the Buffs were now challenging for a National Championship, and the whispers continued. Then Sal got sick.
It was a short time later, during the winter conditioning program that Aunese started throwing up blood during practice. Hospital results determined that the star quarterback had a rare form of stomach cancer. He would only have six months to live.
The players were devastated, but as Sal’s condition worsened, the team would galvanize together and try their best to win for their suffering brother. Sal’s condition would become a rallying call.
Timothy Chase McCartney was born on April 24, 1989. His father, Sal Aunese, would make it to the hospital for the birth. Kristy and Sal had moved on from each other, but Sal, despite his weakened condition, would cherish the little time he had with his son. Sal immediately nicknamed the boy TC.
Sal Aunese died on September 23, 1989. He was 21 years old.
CU players celebrate their first and only National Championship.
At the memorial, Coach Mac finally acknowledged in public what most knew already. Kristy gave birth to Sal’s child, and Coach Mac would love him unconditionally. A young TC would spend nearly everyday with his grandfather as the years passed. Talking football, watching film, spending time with Grandpa, and learning from the best,
The 1989 Buffs came close to finishing their mission of honoring Aunese as they lost the National Championship game to Notre Dame 20-6, but the following year they would complete their goal. With a 10-9 victory over the Irish in the 1990 Orange Bowl, Colorado won their first and only National Championship. Coach Mac would retire four seasons later.
TC McCartney would go on to play quarterback for Fairview High School (Boulder, CO), where his uncle, Tom McCartney was the football coach. Coach Gary Barnett, a former assistant for Coach Mac, was ready to give TC a roster spot at CU upon graduation, but Barnett was replaced by Dan Hawkins, and the plans fell through. Then a call came in from LSU, a national powerhouse, and an offer to make the team as preferred walk-on. The coach at LSU at that time was Les Miles. The same man that recruited TC’s father decades earlier. TC would go on to coach at LSU and CU before taking a job in the NFL.
Yep. Some stories just write themselves.
Images via espn.com, pac12.com, sports.espn.go.com, boulderinn.com, elevenwarriors.com
Alan Tapley
Alan Tapley is an educator, author, and blogger who has lived just outside of Boulder for the last twenty years. His published work includes two novels, two children’s books, a series of cartoons in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and multiple sports related articles. His love for family and the state of Colorado is only matched by one thing, his passion for sports. The first baseball game he ever attended was at Wrigley Field, before there were lights. At the final Bronco game at the old Mile High, he allegedly cut out a piece of his seat in the South stands. But regardless of being here for the Avalanche’s last Stanley Cup, the Rockies only World Series appearance, and all the Broncos’ Super Bowl Victories, his wife never fails to remind him that he wasn’t at the University of Colorado in 1990, like she was. The year the Buffs football team won the National Championship.
Tagged: Bill McCartneyColorado BuffaloesDenver BroncosLes MilesPromise KeepersRich ScangarelloSal AuneseTC McCartney
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Neolithic
May 24, 2011 September 14, 2012 Manuelancient mysteries, archaeoastronmy, Boyne River, Carnac, Hieros Gamos, hierosgamos, Ireland, lunastice, Neolithic, NewgrangeLeave a comment
The Megalith Builders divided the British Isles and Brittany into four quadrants, and built their main monuments on this territory in accordance with the symbolism associated with each cardinal point. The island of Ireland, in the west, was where they erected the royal necropolis.
The mound with a passage tomb called Newgrange is undoubtedly one of the most important and prominent megalithic monuments. Like Avebury and Carnac, the main stage of construction took place at the end of the 4th millennium BC. This monument is located on the north side of a large meander of the Boyne River in the eastern side of Ireland, along with other fine examples of mounds with passage tombs such as Knowth and Dowth.
The Megalith Builders understood life as a result of the union of two principles, solar and lunar (in classical mythology Apollo and Artemis), and, logically, they understood death as the result of their separation. The kings, like Orion, were considered demigods, possessed of an immortal spirit within a mortal body. The megalithic complex of Avebury and Stonehenge were designed to make sure that the kings should experience the same kind of immortality that Orion, that is, they should die to be reborn again as princes.
This unbroken maintenance of the royal lineage would be accomplished during the monarchical renewal ceremony, held every 19 years during the mayor lunar standstill (lunastice). This very special ceremony included the regicide, as I explained in the releases dedicated to Avebury and Stonehenge, but also the sacred union (hierosgamos) of the new kings and queens as explained in this new issue. The Y and Z Holes of Stonehenge were used to determine the most suitable time, depending on the cycles of the moon, to celebrate the sacred marriage.
May 5, 2011 September 14, 2012 Manuelancient civilizations, archeoastronomy, Avebury, Carnac, megalith builders, megalithic, monarchy renewal, Neolithic, precession of the equinoxes, StonehengeLeave a comment
The most famous megalithic monument in the world is, unarguably, Stonehenge. Its construction began in the early 3rd millennium BC as a large henge (110 m of diameter) built on the southern plains of England.
By the 24th century BC, it also had –among other features– a tall bank along the inner side of the ditch, a concentric ring of thirty standing stones with as many horizontal above (Sarsen Circle), and five huge trilithons arranged inside in the shape of a horseshoe.
Later, another ring and horseshoe of stones called Bluestones were also erected inside the Sarsen Circle. About its center there was a unique stone known as Altar Stone.
The transit of the Sun at midsummer over the star Regulus, which took place around the 24th century BC, had to be an astronomic event of capital importance for a solar culture. This moment would be anticipated and signaled as the propitious occasion to reform the ceremony of monarchical renewal, outdated by the precession of the equinoxes.
The solution to their problem could be very simple yet revolutionary: to move the ceremony from summer to winter.
The inadequacy of Avebury’s design to accommodate the necessary shift from a static to a dynamic scenario, reflection of the sky, would be the insurmountable motive behind its abandonment.
The entrance of Stonehenge would be, therefore, designed to be oriented towards the rising of Regulus during midwinter, and not, as popularly believed, towards the midsummer sunrise.
The Bluestones placed inside the Sarsen Circle of Stonehenge were collected in Wales, concretely in Preseli Hills, more than 200 km away from Stonehenge, a fact that has puzzled archaeologists, but to which we can now give a compelling reason based on the sky of that epoch.
The kings and princes would gather for the monarchical renewal ceremony in Avebury –later Stonehenge– arriving from different directions, the princes would do it from the east, navigating on the Thames and Kennet Rivers, whereas the kings would arrive from the west, along the Bristol-Avon River.
The people gathered for the monarchical renewal ceremony would live mostly in provisional shelters dismantled at the conclusion, and near to a good source of water. The locations of the living quarters at Avebury have been already suggested for the different participants in the previous installment. In Stonehenge, these quarters could have been at Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, large henge-type structures built by the Salisbury-Avon River. This river was connected to Stonehenge by an avenue of about 3 km in length, which would be for the exclusive use of kings, princes, princesses and priests.
At Stonehenge, the ceremony had to begin exactly at sunset, when the kings (rising Regulus), walking along the avenue, reached the entrance, illuminated by the last solar rays filtered through the stones. The regicides would happen when Leo culminated and reflected inside the Sarsen Circle.
The crowing ceremony would start when Corona Borealis reached the zenith, and it would finish with the following sunrise, some minutes later, when the princes would be declared as new kings.
Once the ceremony was over, the kings would navigate southwards on the Salisbury-Avon River, into the English Channel and from there to Carnac in Brittany to erect the stones in memory of their fathers, the late kings.
April 27, 2011 October 11, 2012 Manuelancient civilizations, archeoastronomy, astronomy, Avebury, megalithic, Neolithic, Orion, prehistory, Silbury Hill, stone ring of AveburyLeave a comment
Avebury is a huge megalithic complex in the south of England. It comprises several stone circles, avenues, enclosures, mounds and long barrows, being its principal element a large henge (ca. 400 m in diameter), a type of megalithic construction consisting of a stone ring (the largest in Europe) surrounded by a ditch and a bank.
Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremonial usage. As a matter of fact, I am going to propose which could have been that ceremonial usage, and describe the ritual performed in it.
The first signs of activity at this megalithic complex can be traced back to the first half of the 4th millennium BC, but it was not until the end of this millennium that construction took on a larger scale, about the same time than in Carnac.
The complex has suffered severe damage, mostly from the 14th century AC onwards due to farming and religious zealotry, although reports from antiquarians and archaeological research have helped to reconstruct virtually its original aspect.
Inside the henge there are two extra stone rings; the north one containing three large stones (two extant) at its center known as The Cove, and the south one containing a single tall monolith called The Obelisk (non–extant) along with an alignment of smaller stones.
The henge had four opposing entrances, the south one connected with an avenue, the West Kennet Avenue, formed by paired standing stones that ended on top of a hill, at a wooden circle called The Sanctuary. A similar avenue, the Beckhampton Avenue, led out from the western entrance of the henge towards a structure called The Longstones.
A huge man-made mound, the largest in Europe (pre-modern times), known as Silbury Hill, is the other great element of the complex. It has a conical shape with an imposing height of 40 m ended in a platform that was reached by a spiraling ramp around the mound. Silbury Hill was erected near the source of the Kennet River.
Here we are proposing that Avebury was built as the venue where the Megalith Builders renewed their monarchy. The whole complex was designed as a schematic representation of the celestial scene visible during the heliacal rising of Orion’s brightest star, Rigel, some days after midsummer.
Avebury functioned, therefore, like a huge scenario where kings and princes enacted the drama they interpreted was being played in the sky.
April 16, 2011 September 13, 2012 Manuelancient civilizations, archaeology, archeoastronomy, Avebury, Carnac, megalithic, Neolithic, prehistory, Stonehenge, The Alignments of Carnac2 Comments
The Alignments of Carnac are near the coasts of Brittany (NW peninsula of France), and constitute the largest and most spectacular megalithic monument in the world. This extraordinary complex contains more than 3,000 standing stones, huge granite menhirs aligned in several rows along approximately 4 km, divided into three main modules and a last one much smaller and degraded.
Many hypotheses have been raised, some really unusual, to explain the purpose of these alignments; for example, an antiquarian of the last century suggested that it could be the fossil of a large snake. Others suggested that it might be a Roman camp, or a way to temples disappeared, or even a prehistoric earthquake detector. A local legend says that they were Roman soldiers petrified by God while they were chasing St Cornelius, the local saint. Alexander Thom proposed, as he did with many other megalithic monuments, that they could have been an ancient astronomical observatory.
However, the most accepted hypothesis is that they formed a huge necropolis; in fact, in the vicinity of the alignments there are several mounds with a more obvious funerary purpose, such as that of Saint-Michel, one of the oldest megalithic constructions.
A colossal monument such as the Alignments of Carnac necessarily requires an equally colossal labor in its construction. Archaeology is faced with the dilemma of finding a megalithic society that complies with the grandeur of its monuments. What type of social organization would allow such a display? We should keep in mind that we are talking about the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, i.e. the European Megaliths Builders preceded the considered as the earliest civilizations, those of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
I propose as a working hypothesis that the builders of the Alignments of Carnac could have belonged to a solar culture, politically organized as a confederation of about ten kingdoms, each governed by a king who ruled for a fixed period of time established by a cycle of heaven. This monument in particular would be the royal mausoleum, each stone representing one of the kings of their history.
March 15, 2011 September 15, 2012 Manuelancient mysteries, archaeology, archeoastronomy, Avebury, Carnac, megalithic, navigation, Neolithic, prehistory, Stonehenge4 Comments
I entered into the subject of this blog with the archaeological and astronomic expertise of an amateur, ignorant about the ideas that only later I found out are so dominant about the prehistoric people.
After several years of studying this subject I arrived to the conclusion that, if we really want to have a coherent view about our prehistoric ancestors, we need to relinquish some preconceived ideas, no matter how useful they were up to now.
We must elevate our eyes to the sky while keeping the feet on the ground, because the landscape they interacted with was the land below, the seas around and the sky above, without sharp demarcations in between.
It is impossible to be absolutely objective in writing about history, much the less about pre-history, when instead of written documents we have rock carvings, when the archaeological remains have been ravaged by the pass of millennia, and when the artifacts have been retrieved mostly from tombs. The academic interpretations equate the lack of archaeological remains to no-existence, from where only very limited hypothesis can arise. Restraining judgment only to the physical evidences can render interpretations as deviate from reality as giving free rein to the imagination, both equally off the mark.
This blog will begin by investigating the people who inhabited Western Europe during the Neolithic Age, known as “Megalith Builders” because they used big (mega) stones (lith) in some of their constructions. We’ll find out that they were neither tribal people dressed with furs that lived in scattered chiefdoms where aggression and superstition ruled supreme, nor they constituted a paradisiacal society. We will see that they could have had customs closer to our understanding of a classical culture, organized in societies expanding over large territories, able to navigate long distances and, overall, reached a deep understanding of the cycles of life and death, of the interconnection between the Earth below, the sky above and the humans in between.
This blog is based on the assumption that much of the knowledge of the Megalith Builders’ culture may not be properly represented in the archaeological record, but it may have survived and reached us encapsulated in myths, as well as in all kind of cultural, political and religious manifestations of modern society. We could say that this blog is going to interpret the results of a very special archaeological excavation, one that does not dig on the soil but on the prehistoric stratum where the memoirs of our megalithic ancestors remain stored in our collective unconscious.
I hope the readers who will open the pages of this blog will equally open their minds and will be able to see our prehistoric ancestors under the new light that reveals them as tremendously curious people and adventurous travelers whose main legacy is not so much the big stones of their monuments but the foundation of our civilization.
The first three mysteries will be the three most monumental megalithic sites: The Alignments of Carnac, the stone ring of Avebury, and Stonehenge.
Note: Now you may read all the information at once and in detail in my new book: “Sailors of Stonehenge.”
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Seaside Resort in the South of France 1927
75 x 100 cm Image size:
Add to wishlist Shop more Paul Klee
Klee was a talented musician and musical theorist. This work was one of his many landscapes made in the 1920s that reflected his interest in music. The irregular patches of colour resemble musical notes and the horizontal dark lines, staves.
Artist Paul Klee
Artwork Seaside Resort in the South of France 1927
Image size 327 x 488 mm
Credit Graphite, crayon and watercolour on paper on board 32.7 x 48.8 cm
Born near Munchenbuchsee, Switzerland in 1879, Klee was an inventive artist, art theorist and talented musician. In 1898 he moved to Munich to study art first under Knirr then moving to Stuck in the Munich Academy. His first major work was series of ten etchings ‘Inventions’ in 1903-05. At various points in his life he associated with artists Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Macke, Marc and Deluanay. In 1921 he moved to Weimar to teach at the Bauhaus, later moving with the academy to Dessau. He taught until 1933, when he was dismissed by the Nazis. This dismissal profoundly affected him, both physically and regarding his output of work. Klee died in exile, in Switzerland in 1940.
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Ruffin on the Road
Southern India: Kanyakumari to Chennai
Posted on January 21, 2013 by ruffinontheroad
As much as Kiran and I were moving around there was destined to be one brutal travel day, and it was provided by the drive from the houseboat at Kumarakom to the southernmost tip of India at Kanyakumari. It took 10 hours to drive 140 miles. When we left the houseboat dock and drove through the middle of a jammed town I figured we’d get through it to the highway on the far side, but the jammed town continued for the entire 140 miles.
I don’t know where to begin to describe the semi-controlled chaos of driving in India. There are many buses, but there are no bus lanes so they stop in the middle of the road to pick up and discharge passengers. There are swarms of “auto rickshaws”, the yellow, three-wheeled taxis that look to be reasonably safe for three people but often carry ten. There are thousands of motorbikes, squeezing in wherever they can. There are pedestrians trying to cross the road: women with babies, old men with canes, kids without fear. There are cows on the side of the road or crossing it to go stand on the median. On this day – the first of a three-day holiday weekend – there were tens of thousands of people on our route lining the streets in a celebratory mood.
There are no lanes and no apparent rules. A red light means: “go, if you think you can make it.” If you stop at a red light the people behind you honk. But that’s OK, so does everyone else. Since you can’t break your concentration on what’s in front of you long enough to check your mirrors, as a courtesy drivers honk as they are about to pass. And passing, that’s where the real fun begins. The oncoming lane is open territory, and if you drift
The Vivekananda Memorial
over there to pass a bus that is passing an auto rickshaw and two motorbikes, it’s the responsibility of the oncoming traffic to try to give you room. If there is no room you wait until the last possible second and then force your way back in line. And so it went for ten hours on the road to Kanyakumari.
Kanyakumari is at India’s southernmost point, where three bodies of water come together: the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Indian Ocean in between them. Many people died here during the
tsunami of 2004. It’s a spiritual spot, the site of the impressive Vivekananda Memorial on an island just offshore and a place where thousands of people come daily to touch the sacred waters. But it’s also festive, with huge bazaars and many shops, and people come here from all over India. I looked at thousands of faces that morning and only four or five others were white.
The Gandhi Memorial
Kiran and I wanted to take the boat to the memorial but the line was too long. Instead we drifted over to a very pink building that turned out to be a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. We checked our sandals and were met at the entrance by Jilal, the memorial’s self-appointed guide. He told us that after a tour of the U.S., U.K., Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma and other countries, Gandhi’s ashes had resided here before being spread in the Ganges River and here at the junction of the three seas.
“He was murdered in1948 at the age of 79, and this building is 79 meters high,” Jilal told us. It has architectural elements of a Muslim mosque, Hindu temple and Christian church: again, the theme of acceptance. “Three seas, three religions,” Jalal said. In the middle of the main room is a waist-high memorial to Gandhi. There are two holes in the ceiling and only on October 2
Kiran and I pay our respects
every year, Gandhi’s birthday, does the sun line up perfectly and shine directly down on where his ashes rested.
We walked up to the top of the memorial to take some pictures. The waters here are holy to Hindus and we saw many people dipping their toes or hand in the water, some diving in off a rock. On the terrace of the memorial we met some of the young men from the group that dresses in black during their annual 40-day passage of humility, and took a few shots with them. We went to the water’s edge and waded in, admired the Vivekananda Memorial and hit the road to Madurai.
I don’t know how two journeys of equal length to and from the same city could be so polar opposite, but the drive to Madurai was on a modern, four-lane highway with little traffic, and what took ten hours the previous day took less than three.
After checking in to our hotel we were met by a wonderful guy named Mahesh, a client of Prasad Chavali’s, and he took us to the Meenakshi Amman Temple, one of the biggest in India and for the purposes of my trip the Hindu equivalent of St. Peters’s Basilica and the Hagia Sophia Mosque. It was completed in 1655 and is the centerpiece of a city that has a 2500-year history.
Dedicated to Meenakshi, the consort of Shiva (the Destroyer), Hinduism’s most popular god, the temple receives a remarkable 15,000 visitors per day, up to 25,000 on Fridays, and one million during a ten-day festival in April. It features 14 towers, five of them huge and visible from a long distance. Each tower was carved from one rock and is covered with colorful depictions of various Hindu deities. Vibrant color is a theme throughout the temple, even on the ceiling of the interior, a reflection of the celebration of life and the fact that many Hindu deities had their favorite colors.
There is a Hall of a Thousand Pillars, countless shrines to various deities and a couple of inner sanctums with long lines of people waiting to enter, but only Hindus. Kiran and Makesh were apologetic about the exclusion of non-Hindus but I was very content to roam the outer corridors waiting for them, looking at the more than 30,000 sculptures. Again, I was one of just a handful of white faces, as I had been that morning in Kanyakumari. I did feel like a bit of an intruder but that was more than countered by the sense of being somewhere truly, authentically spiritual and of importance to a great many people.
At one point Mahesh said something about there being one God in Hinduism. Ah ha, I thought … I’m finally going to get a definitive answer about this. “OK,’ I said, “if there is one God, who is it? Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva?”
“It’s all of them,” he said. “And so much more.” They are not making this easy.
Mahesh was kind enough to take us to dinner that night at one of his favorite spots across the Vaigai River and as part of my acclimatization routine I kicked up the spiciness factor a couple of notches, much to the amusement of the support staff watching me sweat and turn a devilish shade of red.
The next day Kiran and I flew to Chennai, formerly known as Madras and India’s fourth largest city with nine million people living in the greater metropolitan area. From the airport we went to the home of Prasad and Kiran’s cousin Ramu and had vegetarian pizza from … Pizza Hut. Then six of us, including Ramu’s wife and two little girls, piled into his car and made the drive toward the coast to see two sites of ruins from the sixth and
Ramu and his family.
seventh centuries. It was a holiday and the road to and from the beach was packed, and there were a lot of visitors to the ruins. It was fun and chaotic and a treat to be with a nice young family.
Later Kiran and I checked into our hotel and went to a “British” pub in the basement called Geoffreys to have a beer. We were wearing long pants and dress shirts, but they wouldn’t let us in because we had on sandals. There was one guy at the bar and one guy shooting pool, so apparently they felt they had enough business. I had to laugh at the irony; in the past week I had been to a dozen places where I wasn’t allowed to wear shoes, where I got hissed at for holding shoes, and now we can’t get a beer in this dive because we’re not wearing nice enough shoes.
Two flights up we found a sensible bar.
Music Corner. Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton were together briefly in Blind Faith back in the 1970s, and reunited at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival for a modernized version of the Blind Faith classic Can’t Find My Way Home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT-SFgkVlno
Our friends from the Gandhi Memorial
Southern India: Mumbai to Kumarakom
Greetings from India, the place Christopher Columbus was really looking for when he accidently bumped into the Bahamas. Chris was right, there are a lot of spices here, a point that is reinforced at every meal.
My three weeks in India have been organized by my good friend Prasad Chavali – you will meet him later – and by many of his friends. This has been a team effort for which I am extremely grateful, and it would take me from Mumbai on the southwest coast down to the southern tip of the country, up the southeast coast, to Hyderabad for a week with a side trip to Prasad’s hometown, and ultimately up north to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. But it started when I flew from Istanbul to Mumbai, the biggest city I have ever seen.
The seven most populous incorporated cities in the United States (Wikipedia, 2011) are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Antonio. The total population of the seven combined is 21,282,546. The population of Mumbai is 22 million people, who are densely packed into seven “islands”, which are almost different cities. It’s like seven Clevelands all strung together. Mumbai was known as Bombay until the British left and it was returned to its original name.
The Leopold Cafe
After an all-night flight and a few hours of sleep I met Subbu, a childhood friend of Prasad’s, and he took me to dinner. It was a 90-minute drive around and through a couple of the “islands” and provided my first glimpse of Indian traffic and driving, which is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We bumped into and knocked down a pedestrian going through one intersection, but he bounced right back up and went on his way as if it never happened. Subbu and I had dinner at the Leopold Café. In November 2008 a boatload of Islamic terrorists arrived from Pakistan and carried out three days of shootings and bombings killing 164 people in all, including seven at the Leopold Café. It would have been many more if not for a courageous Australian tourist who steered a large group of diners to a safe place and then barricaded the stairway with chairs as the two shooters were trying to ascend to the second floor. All the terrorists were shot and killed by Indian armed forces except for one, who was captured and hanged just a few weeks before I arrived.
The next day the same driver, Rizwan, picked me up at the hotel and within 10 minutes on the highway we had been rear-ended. The perp started to take off but Rizwan sped up and cut him off. It took just five minutes at
Victoria Terminus, the largest train station in India
the side of the road to clear everything up; apparently no one is at fault, no one’s insurance pays for anything, it’s just another dent, but five minutes is required for intense gesturing.
I saw a good bit of Mumbai that day, including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the largest train station in India. Originally called Victoria Terminus after the British Queen (and still known to locals as VT), it was completed in 1887 in a lively combination of European and Indian architectural styles. It was also victimized by the November, 2008 attacks as two terrorists attacked commuters with AK-47s and grenades.
We visited the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, an enormous outdoor laundry where half the city must send its clothes. Only men (dhobis) are strong enough to scrub the clothes all day in the concrete troughs, standing in chemicals. They also launder themselves, as we saw voyeuristically from the overpass above. The job is passed down within families and the dhobis earn around $4.00 per day, according to Rizwan.
Just your basic strip-mall dry cleaners.
At the seawall of the Arabian Sea is the impressive Gateway of India, which was completed in 1920 and is designed to be the first thing that visitors to Mumbai see if they arrive by boat. In 1947 the last of the British troops occupying India left through the Gateway. Directly across the street is Mumbai’s most famous five-star hotel, the Taj Mahal.
The Gateway of India
The next day I walked from my hotel to a large, modern mall, where I was wanded by security people before entering. Security here is very tight everywhere; luggage goes through screening upon leaving the airport and upon entering a hotel, for example. Relations with Pakistan, always tense, became heightened a few days earlier when two members of the Indian army were killed by Pakistani freedom fighters, one of them beheaded.
After a flight to Bangalore the next day I had a wonderful dinner with two more of Prasad’s childhood friends, RK (Rama Krishna) and Srini. When I mentioned the possibility of seeing an Indian movie RK said: “Bollywood movies are about nothing. If you go see one, put your brain in the freezer.”
Most of our conversation that night was about Hinduism, and in fact the entire visit to this bustling, tech-oriented city would be so. I had told Prasad that one of the objectives of coming to India was to absorb what I could about the background and principles of the religion, and RK provided a great introduction.
Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion and is often discounted by the monotheistic religions because it has many “gods”. Everything in nature is a god … the sun, moon, rain, wind. There are gods for almost everything conceivable: for education, for overcoming obstacles, for health. There are gods by name, like Krishna and Rama the big three: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. RK explained that all the gods were really “avatars” of Vishnu. Listening to him I started wonder if this was a matter of semantics and the broad use of the word “god”. Over the coming days I would hear devout Hindus refer to God in the singular – “God will watch over them”, etc. – and I have come to think of Hinduism as a one-God religion at its core.
The International Society of Krishna Consciousness
Confusing the matter more is that Hinduism is based on a cycle; nothing begins or ends. There is no starting point, no governing body, no Jesus or Mohammed, no preferred day to worship, no tangible structure and no identifiable supreme deity, which makes it all the more challenging to comprehend.
I spent my day in Bangalore in the company of RK’s nephew Phani, a very pleasant young man who thinks Pierce Brosnan is the best James Bond ever but understands why old people like me prefer Sean Connery. Our first stop of the day was the best: ISKCON, the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. I wish I had good photos from the interior but I had to check my camera, along with my shoes.
Recorded chanting greets you as you approach, and a long line of people were methodically entering by stepping to the next tile with each new chant. There were many young men dressed in black, unshaven, and Phani told me they follow a strict 40-day program each year during which they simplify and de-personalize their lives: dressing plainly and identically, eating bland food, even abandoning their names and calling each other “swami.” We would see many of these pilgrims over the next few days.
Phani introduced me to a number of gods during our time at ISKCON, but this place is all about Krishna, who looks very feminine in most renderings with soft features and curly hair, but who apparently is quite impish and likes to flirt with girls.
Inside the Big Bull Temple
I met with one of the spiritual residents of ISKCON, Varada Simha Dasa. I had difficulty understanding him, as many of the words he used to describe the philosophy of Hinduism were Indian words, but at one point I did gather he was telling me about the four primary sins: sex outside of marriage, eating meat, gambling, and alcohol and coffee consumption. I need to find out if they believe in hell.
We then went to the Big Bull temple. The bull is a legendary symbol in Hinduism and signifies strength, and this temple features a large black bull, adorned with white and yellow garlands; quite odd, almost cartoonish, but it’s a very well known and spiritual place and is located on Big Bull Boulevard.
At our final stop of the day Phani and I removed our shoes to visit some smaller shrines and then carried them as we walked into the main temple, where silence was mandatory. I stood respectfully in the back and was vaguely aware of an odd sound behind me, and finally turned around to see this woman on her knees hissing at me and pointing at my shoes. So I walked outside to wait for Phani, put my left shoe on the bottom step to tie the laces and was immediately set upon by one of the security people. I have purchased several Hindu spiritual guides but apparently what I need is a rulebook.
I would be travelling the next five days with Meher Kiran Nori, who had worked in the U.S. for ten years including three with me in Florida; he is now back working for Prasad in his Hyderabad office. Kiran took a train
The Chinese fishing nets of Kochi
to Bangalore, picked me up at the hotel and we flew to Kochi, which is in a different state and has a different language and alphabet. Kiran explained that most of India’s 28 states use a different, Sanskrit-based language; Hindi is the nation’s common language and English is widely spoken as well.
The highlight of our afternoon in Kochi was being at the waterfront for the sunset. It’s famous for its Chinese fishing nets as Kochi is the only place outside of China where they are used. They are distinctive and interesting as they dry in the late sun.
The promenade along the water was very crowded and festive, with many children and ice cream vendors and
Sunset Point in Kochi
artists, and the fishing boats returning, and even a few other tourists who had come for the setting of the sun. There was one painting I liked and Kiran explained the imagery featuring three religions: Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. It reflected the openness and tolerance of Hinduism, the respect for other belief systems and philosophies. “All religions are rivers flowing to the same sea.” I’m beginning to really appreciate the pacific values and the pragmatic themes of Hinduism.
On the way from Kochi to Kumarakom, Kiran and I were slowed by a long procession, a line of well-dressed men preceded by several hundred women in their colorful saris. As we gradually made our way to the front we saw four large flags: red, with a white hammer and sickle. “CPI,” said Kiran. “Communist Party of India. They are big in this state.”
Houseboat on Lake Vembanadu
We got to Kumarakom around noon and boarded one of 20 or so “houseboats” tied up to the shore on a tributary leading to Lake Vembanadu, the largest lake in the state. These long, iron-hulled vessels were once used to carry up to 50 tons of timber and other goods, and were rowed manually. Now they are covered, powered and feature a kitchen and several staterooms.
We had a three-man crew for the two of us and after an introductory toast with coconut water we got underway.
Kiran kicks back with a Kingfisher
As we entered the expanse of the lake Kiran and I sat back in easy chairs as one of the crew brought us beers. It was so peaceful and relaxing after six days of major cities, some much needed tranquility. The shoreline of the lake features many acres of rice paddies, the only ones below sea level outside of Holland. There were many species of beautiful birds and purple hyacinth growing among the lily pads.
After enjoying a gorgeous sunset we were brought a delicious fish dinner, and we watched an India-England cricket match on a small flat screen. Kiran was patient in explaining the sport, and I started to get excited when India appeared to have a chance to come back and win, just falling short. Being on a boat is always therapeutic, and the night we spent on Lake Vembanadu was the ideal respite before the next phase of the trip.
The Intrigue of Istanbul
Posted on January 7, 2013 by ruffinontheroad
My brother David arrived in Istanbul on the afternoon of December 29 and left the morning of January 1. Two full days and a bit, all the way from Boston to Turkey and back, just to see his big brother before he gets any further away. How lucky am I to have the brother and sister that I do?
David Beckwith looking stylish at the Grand Bazaar
We arrived roughly the same time from Boston and Cappadocia respectively. The hotel sent a driver to pick us up, and the ride into town was the first indication as to the nature of our Istanbul adventure. All was fine as we drove along the water toward the skyline in the distance, when suddenly traffic just stopped. “First 15 kilometers, 20 minutes,” the driver said. “Last three kilometers, one hour. Maybe more.”
Several times he darted off to the right into a double-ended parking lot to try and pick up ground. The first time we went through the Istanbul Fish Market, which was fascinating to see, but the market traffic was almost as bad and we cost ourselves time. On another occasion he bolted into a strip mall, floored it to the other end and forced his way back in line on the main road, having gained five car lengths. As we cracked up in the back seat the driver looked at us in the rear view and shrugged. “It’s the Turkish way,” he said.
Finally he pulled a U-turn and headed into some side streets, ever upward, ever narrower, 90-degree turns at max speed. It was great! He dropped us off at the end of a cobblestoned lane that had a red carpet running down the
Domes and Minarets: From the terrace of our hotel.
middle. We walked past half a dozen restaurants with their pitchmen out front and up an alley to the entrance of the Ambassador Hotel, which turned out to be an exceptional place to stay: well located, intimate with only 20 rooms, and a great view of the big mosques from the breakfast patio on the top floor. We checked in, grabbed some dinner at the Kabob House, and crashed.
A tour the next day began at the site of the old hippodrome, where there is an obelisk that was made in Egypt around 1500 B.C.; it was brought to Istanbul in the fourth century and had to be cut by a third because no ship was big enough to transport it. We visited the Blue Mosque, which has six minarets and 21,000 blue tiles on the interior, and holds 4500 people for prayer. “Imams used to climb the minarets to call people to prayer, but now they used PA systems,” the guide said, in case anyone in Istanbul wasn’t aware of that. “Imams used to be fit. Not anymore.”
Hagia Sophia
Istanbul’s most famous and visible landmark is the Hagia Sophia, which started out as an Orthodox church, became a mosque and is now a museum. Originally built in 360 it was plundered and then rebuilt in 415.
Inside the Hagia Sophia
Destroyed once more it was built yet again by Byzantine emperor Justinian starting in 532, but with much more majestic dimensions.
We got a demonstration of how Turkish carpets are made from a wholesaler who must have a kickback deal with the tour company, had lunch, saw another mosque and headed for Topkapi Palace, which I had been looking forward to ever since seeing the movie Topkapi in 1964, the instigator of my love for heist films. The crowds there were enormous, as they had been all day. “Christmas crowds,” our guide told me. “Worse than summer.” There was a security checkpoint heading into the palace. I put my man-purse on the conveyor, walked through the machine, handed my ticket to someone, went through the turnstile and took off with my group, forgetting the bag.
Ten minutes later I realized I didn’t have it. There was nothing of value in it except my passport, wallet and credit cards, and two cameras. David and I ran back and we found it in a security booth; my passport, I remembered, was actually in the safe in my hotel room, and everything else was just as I left it. Stupid and lucky … a combination you just have to gratefully accept from time to time.
Bulent, our trusty waiter/bartender at the Port Shield
That Sunday evening we found an Irish bar (“Specializing in Turkish and Italian Cuisine”) called The Port Shield that shows American football. All season I’d seen only about ten minutes of a college game in a hotel lounge in Prague and was in need of a NFL fix, and David, being a Patriots fan, was interested in several games that could influence the Pats’ playoff situation. We watched a bit of the Giants-Eagles and Bears-Lions games while listening to music that was no more Irish than the food; my brother, the most musically hip member of our family, identified a band called the Sneaker Pimps, who were followed by some weak lounge tunes and then by a 1930s French ballad sung by Edith Piaf’s tone-deaf sister. “It sure isn’t Danny Boy,” David said.
On the roof at the 360 Club.
We hopped in a cab and headed across a bridge to another part of town to meet up with Douglas Cajas, who I had met in Cappadocia. We walked from his hotel down a long pedestrian boulevard that reminded me of Vienna;
upscale shops and restaurants, stylish young people. We zeroed in on a well-known Istanbul club and restaurant called 360 because of its panoramic view of the city, hung out for a while with the beautiful people and had a bite to eat. David and I ended up back at the Irish place having one last beer and watching a bit more football.
The next day we did some shopping, including a visit to Istanbul’s famous Grand Bazaar, a covered labyrinth of 4,500 shops. We were advised not to buy anything of substance there, like jewelry or carpets (“tourist prices”) but we were just t-shirt shopping anyway. I struck up a conversation with a carpet merchant named Mehmet Sert, who invited us in for tea. A really nice man, and he knew America as well as we did.
Jacksonville? “Beautiful city. I have many clients there in the Navy.”
Our friend Mahmet in his carpet shop in the Grand Bazaar
Princeton? “One of my favorite places in the U.S.”
Boston? “I have many friends there, I can tell you all the best Turkish restaurants in Boston.” He is headed to America in February and it wouldn’t surprise me if he and David ended up having dinner in one of those restaurants.
That night was New Year’s Eve. I booked a cruise on the Bosporus, having been assured of a great dinner and fireworks coming from both the European and Asian sides of the river. It was extremely cheesy with an irritating band, a bad belly dancer, worse champagne and virtually non-existent fireworks, but we were at a good table with a Pakistani family of five from Calgary and two lovely women from Morocco, so David, Douglas and I had fun. And it was a fairly invigorating stroke of midnight on the upper deck with the city’s festivities going on all around us.
Douglas makes a friend
After David left for the States the next morning I saw a few other Istanbul attractions, including the Basilica Cistern, a huge underground storage area for the city’s water supply, built in 532 by the Romans and supported by 336 marble columns. But the highlight of my remaining time there was the Hodja Pasha dance show on my final night (“Trip Advisor’s #1 Night Out in Istanbul!” according to the brochure).
Dancing has always been an integral part of culture in this part of the world, whether it was used to distract people from pending invasions or celebrate a good hunt. During the Byzantine rule, religious oppression and totalitarianism forced dancing into secluded places around the harbors and in underground taverns, environments that must have been like the Prohibition speakeasies of 1920s America.
One of the underground dancers of that period was named Theodora. She was the daughter of a circus guard, but she became the mistress of the emperor Justinian and was so sexy and ambitious that Justinian eventually married her and made her empress. She became the most influential and powerful woman in Byzantine history. I have a major crush on Theodora.
The show was terrific. It was in a circular theater with stone walls that reminded me of my cave hotel in Cappadocia, with maybe 200 seats on the outside of the circle. There was a 7-piece band and even though the instruments they played (except the bass) were unfamiliar, you could tell they were excellent musicians. They had an occasional number on their own during costume changes, and the music was wild and wonderful.
And the dancers were outstanding, especially the women. They were elegant and graceful and fit, and the dances were unusual and energetic. There was only one belly dance, and it was breathtaking, nothing like New Year’s Eve. This woman was so seductive and athletic, and every twitch of every muscle was in sync with the percussionist. And later she did a dance under a black light with different colored scarves that was hypnotic. It was a great show. Here’s a promotional clip, but people have posted other clips on YouTube if you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kk7lCaFQBo
On the way home I stopped by the Port Shield for one last beer and to say goodbye to Bulent, our favorite bartender. Walking back to the hotel through the midnight mist I realized how at home I suddenly felt here. The narrow, winding, cobblestone streets … the restaurant hawkers … the diners sitting outside no matter what the temperature, smoking and arguing … the exotic music and the variety of smells coming from the kitchens … all of it was so intoxicating, and so familiar after just five days. Before tonight I would have said that Istanbul was special because of the time I got to spend with my brother but that it wouldn’t go on the list of places to return to one day. But now I’m not so sure.
Music Corner. One of the things I enjoy most about exploring music on YouTube is discovering combinations of artists you would never expect. James Taylor and the Dixie Chicks? Not a pairing that would necessarily come to mind, but here they are, doing a version of Sweet Baby James that makes you think maybe it was a country song all along.
Here are few more shots of Istanbul.
The bridge at midnight. All of these weird effects are absolutely intentional, the result of years of training.
The Grand Bazaar
The Basilica Cistern
Istanbul fishermen
Trees and sky.
Hagia Sophia from terrace of the Ambassador Hotel
There is an intergalactic thread throughout a visit to Cappadocia. The guides often refer to the dramatic geology as a moonscape. The local legend is that fairies from another planet built the dwellings in the rocks, and there are even statues of aliens outside some of the tourist shops. And in truth the only word to describe this place is “otherworldly.”
The area is famous for its cave hotels, which are built back into the rock cliffs that populate most of Cappadocia,
A Cappadocia Cave Hotel
and I stayed two nights at the Hotel Asia Minor, in the town of Urgup. I couldn’t see much in the darkness upon arrival but was escorted to a large room with rock walls; “yes, you are in the cave” the night manager said. And so I was. The room was wonderful, with hardwood floors and ceilings, a large and modern bathroom and free wifi with a strong signal.
I wandered into a bar down the street, had a glass of local wine and spent some time chatting with Ramazan and Yusef, a couple of very friendly local guys. Ramazan works in the bar but he is also a tour guide; he speaks English and Japanese fluently and is working on Spanish. He was born during Ramadan, thus his name. Yusef asked if I was going for a hot air balloon ride, and when I told him I hadn’t thought about it they both insisted it was the best way to see Cappadocia. I asked them to hook me up, and they said they would.
I was picked up the next morning by Selim, our guide for the day, and he quickly got into the history of the area and how it was formed. Here is the Cliff’s Notes version:
Cappadocia (pronounced Cappa-DOKE-ia, more in line with the Turkish spelling Kapadokya) is in central Turkey, a 75-minute flight from Istanbul and an hour drive from the airport in Kayseri. The area is 450 square kilometers. The name comes from ancient Persia (6th century B.C.) and means “Land of the Beautiful Horses”. The Persians came to this area and trained the indigenous wild horses to be used in combat.
The unique geology of the area is the result of several things, starting with the eruption of Mt. Erciyes millions of years ago. At almost 13,000 feet the mountain is visible from all over the region, and the locals
Mt. Erciyes
call it “white mountain” since it’s covered in snow year-round. The eruption covered the area in up to 150 meters of ash capped with 15-20 meters of magma, which turned into basalt.
Over the centuries seismic activity in the area caused several mountain ranges to squeeze the Cappadocia region to form huge mesas, and then the vertical erosion from the rain and horizontal erosion from the wind gradually created the monolithic structures that today attract visitors and scientists from all over the world.
The softness of the ash is what makes the area unique; it’s not just interesting geological features, it’s the fact that the rock could be hollowed out and that people have been living in those rocks for 2000 years or more. In one A.D., immediately after the crucifixion of Christ, Christians came to this region from the Holy Land to escape persecution by the Romans. They lived here in hiding until the fourth century, when the emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion.
We visited an open-air museum where a theological community was formed around the tenth century, with one large convent, a number of monasteries and several churches, where the frescos demonstrate clearly the advancing levels of sophistication in both art and religion. And the best-known features of the area are the gardens of “fairy chimneys” and “mushroom rocks” that so vividly display the geological layers and effects of erosion.
Selim gave us insight to the culture of the area as well as the geology. Men have traditionally been potters, and we saw a demonstration of the old-school kick wheel method of pottery making. Women work in textiles. Marriages are arranged here; young girls start working on their dowries in their teens, making Muslim prayer carpets, embroideries, socks, and other items. When the dowry is ready the family flies a flag over its house indicating that families of young men may now come and visit. I asked Selim if his marriage was arranged; he said it was. I asked if he was happy. “Yes, I am happy,” he said. “About 70 percent.”
I had dinner that night with Douglas Cajas, a wonderful young guy who had joined our tour in the afternoon. Douglas is originally from Guatemala, is a Stanford graduate and works in New York for a German media company. We had a very pleasant evening and made plans to meet up in Istanbul a few days later.
Outside my hotel at 5:45 a.m. the next day, awaiting my ride to the balloon takeoff point on a cold and still morning, I was startled by the call to prayer that commenced simultaneously from three mosques in the neighborhood. The wailing from each of them was distinct and clearly personal, but it was all plaintive, shrill, and of considerable distress to every dog within half a kilometer. The sound systems must have come from a recent U2 tour.
It was short ride to a large flat area where dozens of vans from different companies were pulling in. Maybe 200 people gathered in a building to grab a tea or coffee and present their credit card. When we arrived there was one balloon starting to inflate, but within minutes there were fifteen, and the sound of the massive gas burners and the glow of the flames in the pre-dawn were a treat for the senses.
I was assigned to a balloon that was still on its side but quickly filling up, and 28 of us were loaded into the massive basket … me, and 27 of my closest friends from China. There were four compartments with seven people in each, and a space in the middle for the pilot. We lifted off easily and floated along a meter or two above the ground. All around us other balloons were doing the same thing, some already up to 100 meters, some still inflating, and the higher we went the more balloons we could see rising from other staging areas nearby. It’s a bit dodgy at first as every pilot tries to find his path clear of the others, but gradually we had open air, our pilot cranked up the heat and we started to climb.
It was a magnificent site. All around us these enormous things were floating at various altitudes, each becoming more vibrantly colorful as the sun peeked over the horizon. Below us stretched the extraordinary geology of Cappadocia’s volcanic tapestry, flat and eerie at first, but more breathtaking as the sun got high enough to create shadows and depth of field. I’m not crazy about heights, but on this morning I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
At the recommendation of Ramazan and Yusef I had signed up with a company called Kaya Balloons. “They are better than the others,” Yusef told me. “They have the best pilots and the newest balloons.” Two fairly important components of the experience, one would guess. Our pilot’s name was Murat Coban. I asked him how long he had been doing this. “It’s my first flight,” he said, a joke I’m guessing he pulls out four or five times a week. He has been flying the balloons for 17 years and in fact is the owner of the company.
A couple of times Murat dropped down beneath the level of the ground into a canyon, coming within feet of the canyon wall before expertly hitting the gas and popping back over the top. Then we would rise three meters per second and be at 200 meters within a minute. Our highest point was 550 meters, about 1,800 feet. At the end of the trip we drifted over to a Kaya truck, gently landed on the trailer, had a glass of champagne and received a certificate of achievement. I was back at my hotel having breakfast by 8:45. Hell of a way to start the day. Here are a bunch of pictures.
I actually found a clip of the 5th Dimension singing Up, Up and Away, a good fit with the balloon pictures, but it was lip-synched so that’s a non-starter. Instead we have the Moody Blues classic Nights in White Satin. The performer is Mario Frangoulis, a young Greek guy singing in Italian. The venue is The Theater of the Earth, in Thessaloika, Greece, which may remind you of Red Rocks in Denver if you’ve ever seen a concert there. And for fans of the Moody Blues there is a nice surprise at the end. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcEdAYfddAQ
Leaving Europe
Posted on December 27, 2012 by ruffinontheroad
I trust everyone had a wonderful, over-indulgent Christmas with family and friends. My Salzburg buddies and I had a nice farewell dinner, and Christmas day was spent packing and enjoying some goose soup, a concession to the local holiday cuisine.
I’ll probably end up saying this about the whole trip but certainly the European section to me will always be about friends … catching up with old friends and making new ones. Hanging out in Florence with Leo and Penny McCullagh; sailing in Croatia and touring Rome with Tom and Peggy Briggs and being with them in Tuscany with Rick and Nancy Richardson; spending quality time in Rome with Brother Santiago Mejia-Rojas; doing Vienna and Salzburg with my amazing sister, and having dinner in Vienna with Julie Hautin, a friend from Paris who volunteered with me in Tanzania; my Salzburg friends Gabi, Maria and Thomas, and the entertaining tour guides they introduced me to; and my wonderful new friends from the river cruise. They’ve all had a hand in making the past four months so memorable.
As far as places, Prague, Budapest and Vienna stand out as very special cities for very different reasons. The islands of Croatia are beautiful, especially Trogir, Hvar, and Korchula, and of course Dubrovnik as well. Rome is in a league by itself when it comes to history and art and religion. But it’s the beauty and ambiance and food and wine of Tuscany that seems to be the most enduring memory. I’d love to go back one day.
Anyway, here are a few other items and random thoughts as I leave Europe, with a couple of nice shots of Salzburg after a fresh snowfall.
Greifswald. While on safari in Kruger National Park in July I spent a couple of days with Michael North, his son Chris, 16, and daughter Connie, 12. Michael is the chairman of the history department at the University of Greifswald, in northern Germany. When we parted company in South Africa I said something about maybe coming to see them when I was in Europe. In early December Chris sent me an email that basically said “are you coming or not”, so I booked a rental car, made plans to spend a day in Berlin and then head up to the Baltic Sea.
I don’t have much to say about Berlin. I know it’s a terrific city and maybe I’ll visit again under better conditions, but I was there just after the shootings in Connecticut and it was the wrong time to be sightseeing. I did a three-hour walking tour on a cold and rainy day, and saw some stuff … a big chunk of the wall that was fourth-generation, not at all what it looked like originally (but I liked graffiti you can see below: “madness”) … Checkpoint Charlie, which has been rebuilt for tourists with German guys in American military uniforms who charge you to take their picture … a parking lot marking the location of the bunker where Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun were married just before they took cyanide pills and ended up in a pool of burning gasoline, surely one of history’s least romantic honeymoons.
From Berlin I drove north to Greifswald, a chance to experience the real German autobahn. In my little Ford I made it up to 180 kilometers per hour – about 112 mph – before wimping out. At one point I was doing 100 mph in the middle lane and Audis and Beamers and Mercedes were passing me on the left so fast it made my car shimmy. In the rain. These people are nuts.
Reconnecting with the North family was a very welcome distraction. Michael and I walked around town a bit that first evening before Chris joined us for dinner at an Italian diner. The next day Michael showed me his university, which has 12,000 students, many of them from countries around the Baltic like Finland, Norway, Estonia and Russia. We visited the historic old cathedral, and then drove 10 minutes to the beach, in a fishing village on the edge of the sea, where we had an amazing and very scenic fish lunch. That evening I was invited to their home for cheese and wine and had a great time … got to see Connie again, and meet Regina, Mrs. North. They are all excellent musicians … double bass, cello, piano and organ, trumpet, bassoon … the Von Trapp family of northern Germany! Wonderful people, and as they come to the U.S. every year I will see them again.
It’s a Small World, Part II. Many of you know about the man for whom I am named, my great x 3 grandfather Edmund Ruffin, who at the age of 61 fired the first shot at Ft. Sumter and kicked off the Civil War.
When I was in Michael North’s office at the University of Greifswald I saw a small confederate flag in a pencil holder on his desk. “I gave a speech not long ago in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and brought that back,” he said, ever the history buff. So I told him about Edmund Ruffin and he became very animated. “I know this guy!” he said excitedly. “I heard about him in a lecture yesterday.” Excuse me?
He went and found his young colleague, Robert Riemer, who just the day before, as part of his doctorate program, had given a talk entitled “Reforming the Slave Economy”. I never did quite grasp the benefit of discussing what the economic future of the American south might have been had the Confederacy won the war, but in any case Edmund Ruffin, because of his contributions to the agronomic prosperity of the south and the books he wrote on things like crop rotation and soil management, figured prominently in Riemer’s lecture. A young history professor-in-training way up here on the Baltic Sea in the former German Democratic Republic, and he knew more about Edmund Ruffin than I did.
And how about the timing! This wasn’t two years ago, or six months ago, it was yesterday! Life is sure interesting sometimes.
Overstaying my welcome. About a week before I left for Turkey a met a guy in a bar who told me that there is a 90-day time limit for staying within the European Union. His American girlfriend had flown to Salzburg from California and because she had previously violated the deadline by just three days, she was not allowed into Europe; they held her for a day at the Salzburg airport before sending her back to the States. I had already been in Europe around 120 days. “They’ll let you out, but you won’t ever be able to come back,” he told me. Ever? Seems a bit harsh.
I didn’t think about it again until I was at the Munich airport this morning, about to board a plane for Istanbul, and the lady at passport control started taking longer than usual.
“When did you come to Europe?” she asked.
“It’s been a while,” I said, which was true. “Couple of months,” I said, which was not.
She flipped through all the passport pages again. “And where did you enter Europe?”
She kept looking for the stamp that would bust me, and then called over the guy from the next booth. He scanned the passport for a minute before saying something that I assumed was along the lines of “screw it, let him go”, because she did.
Turkey is in Europe, at least the half where I’m landing. I may have to bluff my way out of this again.
Conservation. When it comes to energy conservation Europe is many kilometers ahead of the United States. So many sensible practices are just ingrained in the culture and part of the day-to-day routine.
Every car here has a manual transmission, and all the cars I rented used diesel fuel, a bit more expensive but much more efficient. People turn their engines off at red lights (diesels shut down automatically in neutral). In hotels you need your room key to turn on the lights, so you can’t leave them on when you go out. Lights in many places are movement activated and shut off when none is detected. Escalators go one-third speed when there are no passengers. Toilets have two flush buttons, a smaller one for water only. Mass transit is efficient, affordable and widely-utilized. Recycling goes without saying. Signs of alternative energy in the form of wind turbines and solar farms are everywhere. It’s impressive.
Music. While on crutches for three weeks in September I didn’t go out much and became addicted to YouTube as an amazing source of music; you can stumble upon remarkable clips there from past and present, and from time to time I may throw a link on here to something interesting.
The first one is personal, a major source of my love for music. I first heard this version of this song on a transistor radio while hiking through the woods at camp one summer in the early 60s, and thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. Still do. And while I didn’t really understand the significance of the lyrics at the time, they clearly had meaning beyond the moon/June love songs that dominated top-40 radio. So grab some ear buds and see if this brings back a memory or two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW6NVcqcRVE
Weather permitting the next post will feature photographs of a very dramatic place: Cappadocia.
Making the Turn
I hope everyone back home is well and coming off a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had spaghetti in Switzerland which was fun and unique, and you don’t have to eat turkey to still be grateful for so much. I’m especially thankful for the six amazing months on this journey, for the new friends and unforgettable experiences … but I’m also thankful there are six months to go!
Things have been relatively quiet since returning from Budapest. I had a pleasant couple of days with a friend at Lake Como (we rented a boat and buzzed George Clooney’s place but he wouldn’t come out and play) and a fabulous week with my sister Jean. We did three days in Vienna and three back in Salzburg, with lots of walking and talking sprinkled with a museum or two, a palace, a concert, Irish pubs and great dinners. She’s absolutely the best company, and a great friend. And now my brother David – my other favorite person in the world – is coming to join me for New Year’s in Istanbul, so I’m truly blessed and very thankful for my family.
When Jean was here we looked back through the photographs from this trip and I realized there are many I like that never made it on the blog. Since this is the halfway point for this adventure it seemed like a good time to share some of them. (Let me know your favorite … erb0603@gmail.com). Thank you for checking in!
Kilimanjaro casts a imposing shadow on the clouds far below. Mt. Meru is in the distance.
I’ve always wanted to see Antarctica, but I can’t imagine it being any more dramatic than Kilimanjaro’s crater and summit, where the snowfields are sadly diminishing.
This is inside the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater. We saw a number of endangered species there, but the zebra was not one of them.
Wildebeests party all night and need a mid-afternoon nap. Just like the Spanish.
I love how the Acacia trees give definition to the Serengeti. The giraffes are cool too.
I just like the sky in this shot of the Serengeti.
After a rain in Longa, one of the townships near Cape Town. The conditions are beyond description.
We visited a penguin colony on a beach in South Africa and one of the brochures blew onto the sand. “Hey Phil,” I’m sure I heard this guy say to his buddy, “come look at this. You won’t believe the crap they’re saying about us!”
Male elephants in Addo Elephant Park near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, have been getting gradually smaller, so they brought in four big males from Kruger National Park. Three of them were accepted by the herd, but this guy was not and he roams the park alone.
Victoria Falls … the natives have always called it “The Smoke that Thunders”, an excellent name. Take a raincoat.
Pre-dawn on the beach at Bagamoyo. I like this picture because it reminds me of the end of “Close Encounters”.
This was taken by my friend Julie Hautin at the orphanage where she volunteered in Bagamoyo. So many beautiful, innocent faces.
Siwadaa Malingumu is one of the wonderful women I worked with at Bawodene, an organization in Bagamoyo that focuses on empowering women. Her granddaughter is Aisha Ally Juma. Nice soft light.
This is my artist friend Idd Mnyamili and his adoptive brother, Mudi. Idd’s father brought Mudi into the family after he was abandoned by his mother; such is the treatment of albinos in Africa. Mudi’s a great kid who is doing well in school, and he has an exceptional big brother to love him and make sure he wears his sunblock.
The morning of the day I left Bagamoyo I went for a walk on the beach with Idd and the wonderful, irrepressible Emily Farley, who was supposed to leave before I did but stayed three more months. A cool tree, and two very special people.
Bruges, Belgium, a lovely place.
The pristine and melancholy beauty of the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, in Normandy.
There is an overlook on the south side of the Arno River where tourists and vendors and street musicians gather to enjoy the view of Florence, which is dominated by “Il Duomo”, the great cathedral.
Croatia is 95% Catholic but we were told that Croatians are really not that religious. Maybe if the churches were just a little bit more accessible …
On the wall surrounding the old town of Dubrovnik.
It’s hard not to fall in love with Tuscany.
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is a very accessible church, and incredibly beautiful.
These guys outside a shop in Positano are a little creepy, but you have to respect the attention to detail with the chest hair.
First snow of the year in Salzburg.
This is almost a black-and-white photograph except for a couple of hearty trees hanging onto the last vestiges of autumn.
Another shot of the overlapping seasons.
My Salzburg friends Gabi (above) and Maria (below). Gabi owns the apartment I am renting and Maria works at the jewelry store across the street, and both are also in demand as tour guides. Wonderful people and a lot of fun.
We’ve seen dozens of magnificent churches in six months, few more spectacular than the cathedral at the Abbey in Melk, on the Danube cruise.
OK now, repeat after me ….
Nice villa on Lake Como.
My sister’s going to kill me for this, but I think she looks cute.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a New Year filled with love and good health. God bless!
Images of Budapest
Posted on November 17, 2012 by ruffinontheroad
The first thing you learn is how to pronounce it: Buda-pesht. Then you learn that Budapest is really two cities divided by the Danube River: Buda, the hilly, wealthy residential area on the south side of the river; and Pest, the much larger, flat, more commercial area to the north. They may not like each other much, but they are both beautiful and endlessly interesting.
The river trip concluded in Budapest with a city tour in the afternoon and a post-dinner cruise to see the city at night. It was cold on the upper deck, but waiters passed around shots of Palinka – Hungarian fruit brandy – to provide some warmth. The views were stunning in every direction. The Royal Palace, the Castle District and St. Mathais Church overlooked the river from the hilltop on the Buda side; the enormous and striking Parliament building dominated the Pest side; and the Chain Bridge and the other crossings of the Danube framed the picture east and west.
(The photo at the top is of the Chain Bridge and the Royal Palace. The bridge is the oldest in Budapest and, as with every other bridge in town, it was destroyed by the Nazis on their way out of the city in 1945. For a while a make-shift pontoon bridge provided the only way across the river, but the Chain Bridge was rebuilt and reopened in 1949.)
I stayed in Budapest for two days and enjoyed an authentic Hungarian dinner with local residents Adrienn and Laszlo Barta, a wonderful walking tour of the city the next day with Anrienn’s sister Anita, and a fun dinner the last night with Greg and Becky Graves, friends from the cruise. Here are some pictures of this intriguing city.
From a colonnade behind the St. Mathias Church in Buda, this is the view on a foggy afternoon back across the Danube, toward Pest.
Heroes Square features the Millennium Memorial, which honors the leaders of the tribes that founded Hungary in the 9th century. The Memorial was started in 1896 on the country’s 1000th anniversary, and completed in 1900.
The magnificent Budapest Parliament Building, on the banks of the Pest side of the Danube.
Bronze shoes affixed to the concrete and candles and flowers left by visitors pay tribute to the Jews who were brought to the bank of the Danube during WWII, and shot and dumped in the river by Hungarian Nazis.
I had a delightful dinner with Adrienn and Laszlo Barta. Laszlo is the cousin of a friend back in the States whose family left Hungary during the revolution in 1956, and he teaches mechanical engineering at a local university near their home outside of Budapest. Adrienn teaches dentistry in the city. And yes, I had goulash.
I don’t think they serve goulash here. During my walking tour with Anita, she showed me the first McDonalds ever in Eastern Europe. It was opened in 1989 and because the Russians still occupied Budapest everyone was afraid to go there. But when the Berlin wall came down toward the end of that year it became the hottest place in town, and people used to get all dressed up just to go have a Big Mac and fries.
This is the marvelous City Market, where each shop is family-owned and where most of the city goes for groceries. Upstairs are clothing shops and small pubs. “The people who are eating are tourists,” said Anita as we strolled through at 10:30 in the morning, “and the people who are drinking are locals.”
On the left, a typical shop in the City Market.
On the right, well, I guess those guys will be forever linked, even in a little shop in Budapest.
Around 2000 a unique phenomenon began taking root in Budapest: “romkocsma”, they are called in Hungarian. In English: Ruin Pubs. These hip and eclectic bars started popping up in abandoned buildings in the city’s 7th District, the Jewish section of Budapest that became neglected during and after the war when so many of its residents were deported, or worse.
Ruin Pubs are generally large areas with many smaller rooms and usually one outdoor area that is popular in the summer. Anita and I stopped by the best-known of them, called Szimpla Kertmozi … Simple Garden. To enter you walk through three doors of thick plastic strips hanging vertically. Inside, everything is junky and funky, each room “decorated” differently; one was covered with old computer monitors that were programmed with indecipherable images. Every inch of wall space was filled with graffiti, strings of lights hung randomly, and the large open space in back showed old black and white war films on a large screen. There were tables, chairs and stools of every shape and description, whatever, one assumes, could be found discarded elsewhere. There were dozens of interesting seating options, including an old car, a bathtub, theater seats, and a pommel horse.
The place was empty when Anita and I visited at mid-day, but after dinner I dragged Greg and Becky Graves back there and the pub was comfortably active. After touring the whole place – there is a substantial upstairs area as well – we found a table in a side room where some college kids were smoking from a hookah pipe. A young woman approached us with a bucket of huge carrot sticks. “This is a tradition here, they are for good luck,” she said. I already felt pretty lucky being able to see this place, and in surfing the Internet later I found that, on one site anyway, Szimpla Kertmozi is rated the third best bar in the world. The first two are in Amsterdam, where the hookahs probably contain something different.
My last morning in Budapest I took a cab to the Keleti train station, a dark, foreboding place that was still appealingly atmospheric. All the signs and announcements were in Hungarian only, and although no one was rude, no one was outwardly friendly. After two guys in uniform were unable to help guide me to the right platform for my train, I started to laugh. Five months ago I would have found this environment uncomfortable, but now, for some reason, it actually made me happy.
I walked into an enormous restaurant with marble columns and an ornate ceiling that had to be 20 feet high. It had a stage underneath some windows with speakers to either side … seriously, a train station with live entertainment? I did my best to order a ham and cheese omelet from a waiter who looked like Bela Lagosi, and got a small egg pizza that might have had a piece of meat on it somewhere. But it wasn’t bad.
As I started to enter a restroom a man grabbed my arm. “Hey, you pay first. You give that lady 150 florit”. (That’s about 70 cents I think. If I write a book about this trip, the European section is going to be called “Paying to Pee”.)
When I walked out of the restroom the same guy started following me through the station. “Where you from? USA? Oh, United States, very beautiful people, very clever. Do you like tennis? I like tennis. Mister John McEnroe, Mister Andre Aggasi, I like them very much.”
His name was Tibor (TEE-bor). “One of the greatest Hungarian footballers, his name also is Tibor”, he said. I asked him how he learned to speak English so well. “Rock music. I like to listen to rock music. You know Aerosmith? The Rolling Stones? I like them very much.” I gave him a couple of Euros, but his entertainment value was worth far more.
Tibor likes tennis and the Rolling Stones. I like Budapest.
River Cruise II: Nuremberg and the AmaDolce
After three days in Prague we took a bus to our ship in Nuremberg, Germany, settled in, had a great dinner, and the next morning took an amazing tour of the city with our guide Art, an American who has been living here for 23 years. After September visits to Normandy and the concentration camp at Mauthausen, our day in Nuremberg was a fitting conclusion to my World War II trilogy.
In terms of the war, Nuremberg is well known for two reasons. It was the site of the huge Nazi rallies and some of Hitler’s most megalomaniacal projects, and it was also the venue for the historic war crimes trials after the end of the war.
Because of its strategic importance Nuremberg ended up being 90% destroyed by allied bombs. Its central location and its rail system made it ideal for transferring military equipment and personnel to the countries Germany was attempting to occupy. And there were factories there that produced most of the engines being used in the war effort; submarine engines, tank engines, even motorcycle engines, were all made in Nuremberg, so it became a primary target for the allies.
The location and the rail system were also the reason Hitler chose Nuremberg as a rallying point for Nazi party activities; it was easier for 500,000 people to gather there. Additionally, the police chief was an enthusiastic Nazi who could guarantee security. Finally, Nuremberg was once the seat of power for the Holy Roman Empire, and the symbolism was not lost on Adolph.
We drove into and around the former Congress Hall, which was modeled after the Colosseum in Rome but would have been twice as big if it had been completed. It was built next to a lake (which was drained on this day) and the infirmity of the earth necessitated the sinking of massive pilings, but Hitler thought it would look twice as big when reflected in the water. It had huge doors that were designed to make any individual walking through them feel weak and insignificant; only when he is part of the masses should a man feel strong.
Here’s the kicker: Congress Hall was being built to host just one rally each year, on just one day, featuring just one speaker. Now it’s used for storing appliances.
Just across the lake from Congress Hall is Zeppelin Field, where the big rallies took place. The grassy hillsides are overgrown and the austere presentation stadium has been partially dismantled, but enough of it remains to leave an uncomfortable impression. The Versailles Treaty at the end of WWI restricted Germany to only 100,000 soldiers, so they recruited “farmers” and trained them to be soldiers but put shovels in their hands that could easily be exchanged for rifles. And they came by train from all over Germany and they filled this field.
I climbed up the stairs to the presentation stand, paused a moment, and walked out onto the platform where Hitler used to speak. We’ve all seen pictures and video of those rallies, more than 300 huge swastika flags waving in the wind, the little man saluting 250,000 of his lemmings. All kinds of thoughts go through your mind standing there. How does one evil man get so many disenfranchised young men to follow him? How could this have happened, and are we really sure it can never happen again?
From Zeppelin Field we went into town. Here are a few quick facts about Nuremberg: it’s the site of Germany’s first train station (1835); there is a seven-kilometer medieval wall around the old town still stands, mostly intact despite the bombing; and Henry Kissinger was born and raised there, and still returns on occasion to watch his favorite soccer team.
We went to the courthouse where The Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal took place. Prior to the end of the war Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met three times to discuss what to do after the war ended. Stalin wanted to pick 100,000 German soldiers and execute them publically. FDR and Churchill wanted a fair and very visible trial. Stalin wanted it in Berlin, which was the capital of Germany and of course in the Soviet zone, but there were no facilities big enough. Courtroom 600 is the largest of the 80 courtrooms in Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice, and it was suitable. Also, there is a prison just behind the courthouse (still functioning) and the defendants could be housed there and transported safely through tunnels, reducing the possibility of an attempt at liberation or assassination.
There were 24 original defendants who were charged with conspiracy against peace, war of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The group did not include Adolph Hitler, Joseph Goebbels or Heinrich Himmler, as the gutless bastards had all committed suicide before they could be indicted. The United States, France, England and Russia all supplied judges, and the prosecution was overseen by U.S. Supreme Court judge Robert Jackson, who was given a leave of absence. His opening and closing statements are considered to be among the great speeches of the 20th century.
The trial lasted one year between 1945 and 1946 and attracted worldwide attention; Walter Cronkite was among the journalists covering it, and Ernest Hemmingway attended as well. Of the 24 original defendants, 12 received death sentences and were executed in the prison grounds, eight received life sentences, two were acquitted and Hermann Goring killed himself the night before his execution with a cyanide pill rumored to have been supplied by a guard in return for a gold watch.
Martin Bormann was tried in absentia and his remains were found in Berlin in 1972. Adolph Eichmann was found hiding in South America in the early 60s, tried and executed. I remember being in the school lunchroom that day and everyone standing and cheering as the clock struck the appointed hour. I’m not sure any of us really understood the specifics, we just knew it meant the end of another Nazi bad guy.
After Nuremberg we started cruising on the AmaWaterways’ ship AmaDolce. I’ve never been one for cruises, had no idea what to expect and was prepared for anything, but it turned out to be an exceptional experience in every respect.
The three-year old AmaDolce was extremely comfortable. It certainly helped that the ship’s capacity is 148 passengers and we had just 64, November not being the optimal cruise season (in fact this was the AmaDolce’s last cruise of the year) and a number of cancelations coming courtesy of Hurricane Sandy. It never felt crowded and was a much more intimate environment that it might have been otherwise.
The ship is 360 feet long and only 11.5 meters wide, as some of the 25 locks between Nuremberg and Budapest are just 12 meters wide. When we were in one of those you could open the sliding glass door in your stateroom and touch the wall of the lock.
The crew of 40 was exceptional. Most were eastern European, and they were unfailingly cheerful and helpful despite the fact that it was the end of a very long season and they were all anxious to get home. The Cruise Director that held all of this together was Kriss Stallabrass, a Canadian now living in Holland. Kriss was somehow equal parts tour guide, historian, Elvis impersonator, camera mechanic, psychiatrist, raconteur, excursion coordinator and a dozen other things. She may not be a doctor but she knows one in every port. Her job, she said, was to “be a mind reader and try to anticipate what will make everyone happy. You can never forget that for every person on board, this is the trip of a lifetime.”
Ama was started by an Austrian named Rudi Schreiner ten years ago. “He wanted to start a company that would feature everything he would want in a cruise,” Kriss told me. “Different wines every night, free Wi-Fi throughout the ship, free movies in the rooms, the best food. So that is what we strive for.”
Our good buddy Szabolcs (pronounced Saboch) Smida, from Salgotrjan, Hungary, was the bartender. Sabo is 25 and has already been in 68 different countries.
“I have been in almost every European country because of cross-country skiing,” he said. “I was on the Hungarian national team and almost went to the Olympics. But I didn’t go because I fell in love. I stopped training because of love. We were 19, it was the first love for both of us, and we were crazy.”
“Please tell me you are still together,” I said.
“No,” he said, with a touch of sadness. “It didn’t work. We didn’t talk for four years, but now we are great friends.”
One afternoon we were offered the opportunity to visit the bridge. The second captain, Imre Valentyik, was on duty; there are three captains who rotate. Imre had gone to navigation school for five years and then been a sailor in the Hungarian navy for six years before joining AmaWaterways.
The ship has two 1050 horsepower Caterpillar engines, props that can rotate 360 degrees, and 700 hp side thrusters. It can go 30 kilometers per hour with the current, which were doing on this trip. The Danube seems to be consistently deep – there were between 5 and 6 meters under the keel the whole time we were on the bridge – and without sand bars or anything tricky, except for the locks. We did have to change our schedule one day because of rain and the need to get under one bridge before the water got any higher.
Imre kept the ship on course with a flick of his finger, following the electronic charts and the GPS effortlessly. “Can you see other ships on the river?” he was asked. He tightened in on the GPS and showed us a ship coming toward us several kilometers away. He said it was a cargo ship currently going 12.5 kph. “And the captain,” he said, “his name is Herbert.” All that information was on his screen. Very cool.
Kriss and the team had scheduled interesting excursions almost every day. A large group spent most of one day in Salzburg. We all enjoyed the amazing Abbey at Melk, a massive Baroque structure overlooking the Danube. In the Middle Ages it was a fortress guarding the area from the Turks, but 300 years ago it was refurbished as a monastery, and it’s also a large and active day school with 920 students attending. The monks are good businessmen who have figured out how to make the place prosperous, and 500,000 visitors per year at ten Euros each is a pretty good start. They have come a long way from the day they sold their copy of the original Gutenberg Bible in order to pay to have the roof repaired.
I spent most of one day in Vienna with Greg and Sharon Duggan, who had been there often and knew it well. It was a scouting trip for me since I’ll be back there with my sister in a couple of weeks. An unexpected treat was walking through a nearly deserted amusement park; it’s a little known fact that the three most revered attractions in Vienna are Schonbrunn Palace, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the bumper cars at Prater Amusement Park.
Of course what made the trip really special was getting to know the other passengers. Some acquaintances were made during the three days in Prague and then it seemed that each day of the cruise you learn three or four more names and stories, so by the end of the trip you feel surrounded by friends. I spent quite a bit of time with the Duggans, who are in the travel industry in the Denver area; Ed and Cindy Berre, the couple from Cincinnati I had dinner with in Prague; and Greg and Becky Graves, from northern Maine. Greg Graves is a big man with a big personality who likes golf and Duke basketball, so you know he’s a hell of a guy.
There were John and Faith, a couple who live in Reno and Phoenix respectively but make it work; Tony and Nancy, who got married two weeks after they met at a hotel he was managing; Lynn and Linda, charming cheeseheads from Wisconsin, home of the Green Bay Packers and tough guys with guns; and the delightful Mary Beth and Jill from Durham, North Carolina. Mary Beth is a doctor whose brother Jim Spanarkel was a great Duke basketball player in the late 70s, the first Duke player to score 2000 career points. These people and others contributed to this being such a memorable experience, and all seemed to agree that spending a week in a nice hotel that floats from one amazing place to another is not a bad way to go.
The River Cruise I: Prague
Posted on November 8, 2012 by ruffinontheroad
Ever since the end of the Cold War I’ve wanted to visit Prague and Budapest. While working on the itinerary I found a river cruise that started in Prague and terminated in Budapest, and that seemed like a good way to connect them, see some other places along the way and spend some leisurely time floating along the Danube, courtesy of the good people at AMAWaterways.
The train ride from Salzburg to Prague was five hours, but the time passed quickly thanks to fellow travelers. After changing trains in Linz I was in a six-person compartment, alone for the first hour until joined by a nice young man named Peter Larndorfer, a teacher in Vienna on his way home to see his parents in a small town in northern Austria. “I would like to travel more, but I think I am too timid,” he said. “When I go somewhere I am always wanting to go home.” His only trip out of the European Union was to Israel, probably the place I am not visiting that I most want to see.
Peter worked as a guide for seven years at Mauthausen, the concentration camp I visited in September. I asked him about guiding relatives of victims. “Of course, I’ve had relatives of both victims and perpetrators,” he said. “It was just as emotional for families of the SS guards.” I told him how I had found the memorials there to be a symbol of hope. “Many of them were designed or built by people who were imprisoned there,” he said, which I hadn’t realized. “So yes, they do represent survival.”
He asked about the election and we talked about American politics for a while. “I like how strong people’s opinions are in America,” he said. “In Austria we walk lightly about such things, but in the U.S you always know where someone stands.” I asked where he learned to speak English so well. “From watching American films and shows.”
Peter got off, others came and went at various stops, but for the final 90 minutes it was just me and George, a young guy who was reticent at first to speak English. He works as a cook in a restaurant in Germany half the year, and comes home to Prague to be with his family the other half. He told me the most important thing to see in Prague is the Charles Bridge … “the oldest stone bridge in Europe” he told me, which turned out not to be quite true, but you have to love the civic pride.
I really liked George. When there was a lull in the conversation and I gazed out the window for a few moments, in the reflection I could see him looking at me, wanting to talk some more and thinking about what to say. His confidence grew with each sentence in English and he was clearly feeding off of it, so I asked him many questions. Sometimes I understood the answer, something not so much, but I enjoyed watching him dig for the right phrase, fail to come up with it, and then with great determination find another way to communicate his point. When I asked about the Czech language, for example, he said it’s very similar to Russian, but he made it emphatically clear that people in the Czech Republic have no use for anything Russian.
Walking from the platform into the main train station in Prague I saw a plaque dedicated to the man for whom the station is named: Woodrow Wilson. He was instrumental in Czechoslovakia becoming independent in 1918.
European cities are often qualified in architectural terms. Prague is 1,100 years old and therefore thought of as a product of the Romanesque Era, which lasted until the 10th century and was characterized by semi-circular arches. By the time of the Gothic Era in the 12th century (pointed arches, heavily-decorated facades), Prague was flourishing, and because both styles feature towers and steeples it’s known as the “City of One Hundred Spires”, even though it now has more than 500.
Prague has a rich and varied history. It has been the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and seat of two Holy Roman Emperors; it was an important asset to the Austro-Hungarian Empire; and after the First World War became the capital of the combined entity of the Czech state and Slovakia, which had been part of Hungary.
Czechoslovakia was the only democracy in this part of the world between the wars, but unemployment caused by the Great Depression made the country susceptible to Nazi propaganda, and Germany started to occupy it in the late 1930s before declaring it part of the Third Reich.
Following the war there was a predictable backlash against the extreme right of Nazi Germany, and the nation became vulnerable to the appeals of Communism, which was voted in in 1948. Those who didn’t agree were imprisoned or worse; many priests and resistance leaders were hung in the 50s. Gradually the private sector was eliminated, and the state ended up owning everything.
We had a guide named Hana who lived through it. “We could not go to Western Europe, only to Poland, Bulgaria and East Germany. We could not buy appliances, good clothing or jeans, and we had to buy bad East German cars, not even the good ones made in Czech Republic. We got fruit from Cuba. It wasn’t good, but I remember how much I loved the half a banana I got at Christmas time.”
They listened to Voice of America to get the truth. Students demonstrated peacefully – and effectively – in what became known as the Velvet Revolution. On one occasion 200,000 people protested in enormous Wenceslaus Square, and in 1989 things started to loosen up, with East Germans getting permission to go to the West in advance of the wall coming down on November 9. On the 25th the Communists finally gave up, a president was elected and the borders opened up. Slovakia had its own aspirations of independence and in 1993 there was a peaceful split, both countries agreeing to create a capitalist economy.
Today Prague is a thriving city of 1.2 million people. Located in northwest Czech Republic, not far from the German border, it has become one of Europe’s biggest tourist attractions. Like many European cities it has an “Old Town”, and this one dates from the 9th century (Prague’s “new” town was built in the 14th). And almost everyone speaks English. The Slavic language makes Russian and others languages in the region easy to learn, “but we no longer learn Russian in school,” Hana told us. “Since the end of Communism here we learn English.”
The leading destination for visitors is the Prague Castle. Built in the 1340s and on a hilltop overlooking the city, it is enormous and includes a beautiful cathedral that was started in 1344. We walked down from the Castle, through commercial areas and across the river on the famous Charles Bridge, which quite an experience with its statues of significance, vendors, street musicians and an amazing amount of people. I had been told about the crowds in Prague and it was no exaggeration; even in mid-November the number of tourists was staggering, with large groups of Chinese and Japanese dominating, but we heard most European languages as well. Not many North Americans this time of year, but others more than fill the void.
At a friend’s recommendation I checked out the Sex Machines Museum, which was weird but not uninteresting. There seem to be a lot of very creative people out there inventing things that would Caligula blush. I got a particular kick out of the intricate schematics in the patent applications; anyone who masters the assembly process deserves to have a little fun.
Architecturally, Prague is a beautiful city, but, like many parts of Rome, some of the beauty is ruined by graffiti, which is just a shame. And the city would be well served by giving someone a pressure-washing contract; old is great, but so is clean.
At night, though, Prague is magical. Any city looks better at night, but in Prague it seems different. The stone streets of Old Town and the huge squares shine under the street lamps, and the old buildings are beautifully lit. The huge crowds have dissipated and people move about energetically, in couples and small groups. There is music everywhere, from the street musicians playing exotic instruments to classical concerts in a wide variety of venues. Old Town Prague just feels romantic, with a pulse and a purpose.
I had two great nights there. The first I hung out with Ed and Cindy Berre, a terrific couple who live in Indian Hill, Ohio, the Cincinnati suburb where I went to high school. During the tour that day we’d seen a notice for a guitar concert that looked interesting, so we went to see the “Czech Guitar Duo” in the basement of an art gallery, where folding chairs seated maybe 50 people. The guitarists were brother and sister Jana and Petr Bierhanzl, and since Jana is also a painter of note, they often perform in galleries. They played some classical things, including pieces by Vivaldi and Paganini, and ended with some lively Flamenco numbers. A nice way to pass an hour.
The three of us then found a restaurant close to our hotel, and had fun time comparing notes about Cincinnati. In an attempt to extend the culinary adventure that has so far included kudu, impala and ostrich, I ordered lamb glands; which glands, I didn’t ask. It was tasty, unless you looked at it.
The following night I had dinner with Kriss Stallabrass, the Tour Director Extraordinaire of our AMAWaterways cruise. She took me to Krema, her favorite local spot, down an alley and into a wonderfully authentic subterranean environment. Kriss is a knowledgeable world traveler, a Canadian who lives in Holland, having moved there from Budapest, and we enjoyed sharing travel experiences. She introduced me to Becherovka, a local herbal drink. “If you’re sick it will make you better,” she told me, “and if you’re sad it will make you happy.” And if you’re sober it will make you less so.
I ended all three nights in Prague at the casino in the Marriott across the street from our hotel. The first night was horrific, the second included a minor comeback, and the third, with a couple of very engaging Brits sharing the blackjack table, was outstanding.
The three days in Prague passed too quickly. But it was time to cruise.
Positano and the Amalfi Coast
Posted on October 31, 2012 by ruffinontheroad
I had an eventful drive from Rome to Positano, mostly because the GPS lady and I were having trust issues, but I arrived safely to my hotel, walked out onto the balcony and saw this:
The view alone made the difficult drive worthwhile. Positano is a modest village on the Amalfi Coast between Sorrento and Solerno, in the region of Campania. It’s blankets the craggy hillside like all the coastal towns here, with the commercial area wedged into a fold in the hill leading down to the Mediterranean, where boats await passengers for the 40-minute trip to the island of Capri. Positano was a thriving port during the Middle Ages and through the 17th century, but experienced hard times in the 1800s when more than half the population emigrated. Tourism began to take hold here in the 1950s, especially after a 1953 magazine essay by John Steinbeck appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. He wrote: “Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.” One of the more interesting Positano facts is that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote “Midnight Rambler” in a bar here.
It was the last weekend of “the season” and many hotels and restaurants were in the process of closing down. I did the Capri trip, pleasant enough, and found a few really good restaurants with amazing views, but basically it was a quiet couple of days and a good chance to decompress from and reflect on the previous month in Italy and Croatia. Positano and Capri are both extremely vertical environments, providing ample exercise by necessity, and my knee held up well, which was encouraging.
No reason for more words than that, so … ciao!
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The State Academic Mariinsky (Ex. Kirov) Ballet and Opera Theatre - New Stage (Mariinsky II)
Saint Petersburg always was famous for its theatres, and among a huge number of the various theatres Mariinsky is the most important one. Before we could admire the performances only visiting the historical stage of that world famous place, but from May 2013 we also can enjoy the New modern stage of Mariinsky Theatre, which is called Mariinsky-2. The new project is considered to be one of the most innovate concert and theatre area in the world. The theatre auditorium with a perfect acoustic was created for more than 2000 spectators!
See also: Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall
Mariinsky II Theatre, ul. Dekabristov, 34, St Petersburg, 190000
See theatre's playbill
Mariinsky II is a good thing. With its 2,000 seats and carefully engineered acoustics, the theatre offers impressive technical flexibility.
History of Mariinsky II
In 1997 the conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre Valery Gergiev personally talked to the president of Russian Federation that time Boris Eltsin about the amplifying the stage of the main theatre of Saint Petersburg. The first project of the New Stage was created by American post-modernist Erik Moss two years later, but was denied. In 2003 the new tender was organized, in which 6 foreign and 5 Russian companies took part. The French architect Dominique Perrault won the tender and offered a gorgeous project with a very complicated form of the auditorium. Due to the plan the theatre should be finished in 2009, but unfortunately that project neither was realized because of its complexity. In 2009 a new variant of the future theatre was chosen, created by a Canadian bureau Diamond & Schmitt Architects. The first finance plan calculated 10 milliard rubles, then went up to 19 milliards and the completion date was moved to 2013. Finally in 2013 the colossal project of the New Stage of Mariinsky Theatre was finished and grand opening took place on 2 May 2013. The total budget cost 22 milliard rubles!
Repertiore of Mariisnky II
The repertoire of the theatre shows great variety of the directions, actors great skills, the relation of the deep history with the modern audience and the modern pieces of different styles: opera, ballet or symphonic music. There you can enjoy such opera works as: Aida, A Life for the Tsar, Tosca, Dead Souls, Madame Butterfly, Eugene Onegin, The Tail of Tsar Saltan, and more; and outstanding ballet plays like: Anna Karenina, Ballet Imperial, Carmen Suite, The Firebird, Inside the lines, Koniok-Gorbunok (the little humpbacked horse), Presentiment of spring, Simple things, The Swan, Without, and more wonderful works of Russian ballet.
The Mariinsky 2 gives you a good opportunity to appreciate works of most famous names in the history of Russian and European classical and modern music Art such as Glinka, Verdi, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Shchedrin, Massenete, Ravel and more. And certainly you’ll enjoy the masterpiece skills of a lot of outstanding ballet dancers, among them: Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Daria Pavlenko, Denis Matvienko, Vladimir Shklyarov and others; talented opera singers: Svetlana Volkova, Irina Bogacheva, Olga Borodina, Vasily Gorshkov, Aleksandr Gerasimov and more. We can’t miss the name of the present conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre who is Valery Gergiev, outstanding artist, musician, the director of the majestic Mariinsky Orchestra!
About New Building
The modern building of the theatre is made of beige marble, has panoramic windows of different size and the top of the theatre is covered with metal roof. The total square of the theatre is 79 114. Inside it’s also very smart decorated with illuminated walls made of onyx, marble floors, stairs and numerous big ceiling lamps, which represent thousands of crystal drops joined with invisible lines, created by Swarovski Company. Thanks for the big panoramic windows from the inside vestibule you can enjoy the marvelous view to the historical building of the Theatre and the Krukov canal. During the evening performances the theatre looks completely different. The big auditorium hall was created due to the norms of XVIII and XIX centuries; it means that it’s acoustically and visually perfect. Inside there are 3 circles which are decorated with different kinds of wood. The auditorium was made to accommodate up to 2000 visitors. The stage consists of three parts: the main one, the back stage and the rehearsal hall. They can be used separately o together, depending on the complexity of the performance. The beautiful amphitheatre is located on the top of the building, it was created to organize festivals during the White nights, the most popular and theatric period in Saint Petersburg!
Dresscode in Mariinsky II
Talking about dress code: formal suite and the black tie for men and the evening dress for women are the must. Visiting the theatre in the cold season(autumn, winter, early spring) remember about a possible snow and rain outside, that’s why don’t forget to take shoes to change and to leave your coat and hat in the cloakroom.
How to get and When to visit
The New stage of Mariinsky theatre is located right next to the Historical one, at the Teatralnaya square, near the Krukov canal. It is quiet easy to reach it from every point of the city, using underground(stations Admiralteyskaya, Sadovaya, Sennaya, Spasskaya), taxi o simply walking along the beautiful streets and canals of Saint Petersburg. Beside we’ll gladly organize a transfer for you from the hotel or your cruise ship.
The Theatre is worth visiting every time of the year, but the June is considered the most romantic and nice time because apart from the precious performance you can enjoy wonderful White Nights of Saint Petersburg!
Book tickets now!
We have the best prices, the best offers, take advantage to get the best seats in the best theatre of Saint Petersburg!
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2019: July August
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Derrida for stand-ups
Posted by Richard Coyne ⋅ August 24, 2013 ⋅ 6 Comments
Filed Under Derrida, language, Structuralism
It’s easy to get carried away with words, either written or spoken, especially if you’re good at stringing them together. I was reminded of this propensity at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with its programme category “Spoken Word,” indicating entertainments in which amusing writers like David Sedaris stand up and talk, and others sit and listen for an hour and a half.
The philosopher Jacques Derrida knew how mesmerising words could be, and was practiced in so using them. His clever essay “Plato’s Pharmacy” is a commentary on Plato’s Phaedrus, a dialogue between Socrates, Plato’s teacher, and a young pupil, Phaedrus. On the face of it, the Platonic dialogue is about the exercise of true wisdom, through reason, against the shallow and beguiling rhetorical strategies of the Sophists, with their appeal to myths and persuasive trickery. But Derrida takes a different tack from the orthodox commentators, and concentrates instead on a passage in Phaedrus recounting a myth of the origin of writing, and writing as a drug. Here’s the problem with writing things down, according to Plato’s mythical dialogue.
It will atrophy people’s memories. Trust in writing will make them remember things by relying on marks made by others, from outside themselves, not on their own inner resources, and so writing will make the things they have learnt disappear from their minds. Your invention is a potion for jogging the memory, not for remembering. You provide your students with the appearance of intelligence, not real intelligence. Because your students will be widely read, though without contact with a teacher, they will seem to be men of wide knowledge, when they will usually be ignorant (Plato, Phaedrus 275a).
This is a bit like advising students not to take notes in class (and for stand-ups to extemporise rather than read from a script). So dating back as far as Plato, the philosophical literature is suspicious of the power of the written word, and harbours a nostalgia for pre-literate society: when people only spoke, without writing things down — they extemporised, or committed their speeches to memory.
Derrida titles his essay on Phaedrus “Plato’s Pharmacy” in response to the term potion. Derrida makes much of this small word rendered by different translators of Phaedrus as “medicine,” “antidote,” “drug” and “poison.” It seems that the original Greek word, pharmakon, can be translated either as something that cures or that to the contrary makes you unwell, an ambiguity that appears reasonable as early medical practice was at best a risky business.
One of the variant forms is pharmakeus, which also relates to a magician (a dispenser of spells), a scapegoat, and a parasite. The Athenians apparently kept outcasts (some of whom claimed to be magicians) within their midst so that they could be sacrificed to the gods when something calamitous happened, such as a plague or siege. Pharmakon also means colour according to Derrida. It’s the cosmetic used to make corpses presentable prior to burial. (So there are several connections here with the theatrical.) Derrida’s strategy is to show through various examples, intertextual connections and traces, how scholars treat writing as if it were something toxic. He then indicates how such scholars contradict themselves when they think of writing in this purely negative way.
Turning words inside out
Derrida observes that in order to describe the superior qualities of speech Plato has to resort to the metaphor of words as “written in the soul.” It seems that it’s always necessary to describe what is good, the privileged entity in an opposition (speech over writing in this case) by appealing to the superiority of the lesser term (in this case writing).
Writing in the soul is therefore a kind of proto-writing, a more basic and primordial written entity, but writing none-the-less. So Derrida’s argument begins with the distinction between speech, the privileged term, against writing, the denigrated or supplemental term. He shows that in the very texts that assert this difference and priority, the tables can be turned. Speech in fact depends on what we understand as writing. In more general terms it seems that the centre depends on the periphery. In linguistic terms meaning (the signified) depends on the circulation of signifiers. The speech/writing distinction is therefore not just an oddity, or an example amongst others of the quirkiness of language, but touches on the core of what it is to claim access to meaning and truth.
Implications for Architecture
Derrida’s observations about language still resonate with and have inspired architects, critics and theorists. One of the main outcomes of Derrida for architecture is to re-assert, or at least to wrestle with, architecture’s material characteristics over its ideologies, to treat architecture, and to theorise architecture, by considering how ordinary it is — its textures, plumbing, specificity, and its everydayness in social and urban contexts: its potions, poisons, paints and parasites.
Another way to look at the implications for architecture is to think of what a reading of Derrida displaces from architectural discourse, or at least how it turns certain concepts we take for granted into problems: concepts such as authenticity, original meanings, intentions, higher meanings, deeper meanings, fundamentals, the essential, the essence of architecture, architecture as a medium for expressing the spirit of an age, architecture as an expression of the intentions of the designer, drawings and models as representations of the ideas of the designer, the spirit of place, origins, concepts of genius, objectivity, subjectivity, and theory as a foundation for practice. In other words it stops architecture taking itself too seriously.
There’s also something about design in the way Derrida deals with words, the associations between words, and letting them carry us along: antidote, potion, scapegoat, colour, sacrifice. Design is after all abetted by the ability to string things together, to see significance in the marginal, and to emerge intoxicated from a flood of unlikely and improbable associations.
Implications for stand-up
In a way, Derrida is describing what stand-ups and entertainers operating within the genre of the “Spoken Word” do. They string out unlikely associations: house-hunting in Paris, contemplating a whorehouse, going to Amsterdam, falling in love with Anne Frank’s house, wanting to knock down a wall (New Yorker).
I elaborate much more on Derrida and architecture in Coyne, Richard. 2011. Derrida for Architects. Abingdon: Routledge.
“Orthodox” commentaries on Phaedrus draw attention to its lessons on the nature of rhetoric, its vindication of Plato’s method of writing, as a series of conversations between protagonists (dialectic), and the divided passions of the human psyche (a pre-Freudian version of the ego, the id and the superego), and the obvious recourse to exclusively male erotic relationships in exemplifying love.
Some scholars and architects explore architecture as a text, as writing. Another term Derrida uses for proto-writing is arche-writing. The prefixes, proto- and arche-, function to delineate a first, primary, basic, foundational, prototypical, archetypical condition on which the stem (following the prefix) of the word is founded. The prefix is attached to the de-privileged term in an opposition, as if to elevate its status over some opposing term. It takes little imagination to see the possibilities for play on the word “architecture”: arche-tecture, arche-texture, arch(e)tecture. The word “architect” derives from the Greek for master builder, arkhitektonikos. The tekton is a builder or carpenter, a word that also relates to tekhne, as art. The words “technical,” “tectonic,” “text” and “texture” share a similar root. The emphasis in architecture, according to its etymology at least, falls on tectonics, material configurations. There is nothing here about ideas, cosmos, knowledge, wisdom, meaning, or a medium of transcendence for the human spirit. The architect is the mere craftsman.
Also see Structuralism in architecture: not a style but a tool for critique, The opposite of architecture, Architecture as the last fortress, The internet as hypertext or archive, and Derrida and wikileaks.
On the themes of theatre and entertainment see We are all entertainers and What are audiences for?
Here are some sounds from a walk up the Edinburgh Royal Mile, ie High Street, between North Bridge and George IV Bridge, this evening, on the last weekend of the Fringe Festival. 6 minutes, mono https://rcoyne99.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/festivalroyalmile.wav
Derrida, Jacques. 1981. Plato’s Pharmacy. Dissemination: 61-171. London: Athlone.
Derrida, Jacques. 1982. Différance. Margins of Philosophy: 3-27. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
Derrida, Jacques. 1986. Point de Folie: Maintenant l’architecture. In N. Leach (ed) (ed.), Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory: 305-317. London: Routledge.
Derrida, Jacques. 1989. Jacques Derrida in discussion with Christopher Norris. In A. Papadakis, C. Cooke, and A. Benjamin (eds.), Deconstruction: Omnibus Volume: 71-78. London: Academy Editions.
Derrida, Jacques. 1997. Why Peter Eisenman writes such good books. In J. Kipnis, and T. Leeser (eds.), Chora L Works. New York: Monacelli Press.
Derrida, Jacques. 1997. Architecture where the desire may live. In N. Leach (ed) (ed.), Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory: 301-305. London: Routledge.
Derrida, Jacques. 1997. Chora. In J. Kipnis, and T. Leeser (eds.), Chora L Works: 15-32. New York: Monacelli Press.
Derrida, Jacques, and Hilary P Hanel. 1990. A letter to Peter Eisenman. Assemblage, (12)6-13.
Eisenman, Peter. 1990. Post/El cards: A reply to Jacques Derrida. Assemblage, (12)14-17.
Kipnis, Jeffrey, and Thomas Leeser (eds). 1997. Chora L Works: Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman. New York: Monacelli Press
Mikics, David. 2010. Who Was Jacques Derrida? An Intellectual Biography. London: Yale University Press
Wigley, Mark. 1987. Postmortem architecture: The taste of Derrida. Perspectiva, (23)156-172.
Wigley, Mark. 1995. The Architecture of Deconstruction: Derrida’s Haunt. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
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Make Mine a Double #12: Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla” (1970)
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs is one of the most beloved and critically lauded of rock albums and it’s not hard to see why. It conflates two of the form’s most cherished devices—red-hot electric guitar solos and verses filled with vivid romantic disappointment, and achieves high-water marks in each, especially on its titanic title track. Most true-blue rock fans already know that as the Sixties drew to a close Eric Clapton was deep in the throes of a hopeless infatuation with Patti Boyd, already married to his close friend George Harrison. And that by 1970 Clapton was at a career crossroads. He had made his name as one of rock’s most exalted guitar heroes not long after moving to London from his native Surrey, first with the Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, then especially with groundbreaking power-trio Cream. But Clapton soon grew disillusioned with the lengthy (and often overblown) jamming and psychedelic left turns of the virtuosic threesome—not to mention its fractious mix of personalities.
After Cream’s famous farewell concert at the Albert Hall in November of 1968, Clapton was at a bit of a loss. Hard-wired to a belief in the overarching integrity of American blues and averse to the type of adulation that would have hippies tagging London walls with the catchphrase “Clapton is God,” he rummaged around for the right musical fit. Next up was Blind Faith and although Eric may have been musically and personally simpatico with co-leader Steve Winwood (the group also included Cream drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Ric Grech) the band collapsed under the weight of its own supergroup industry hype after only one album. By the end of 1969, Clapton was content to be a sideman with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, playing his searing lead guitar lines from sidestage while the group’s namesake married couple held the spotlight. His first, eponymous solo LP came out soon after but before this became his chosen career path, there was one more go at working within a group format. Recruiting three members of the Delaney & Bonnie touring group and settling on a band name that obscured his role as frontman, the newly christened Derek and the Dominoes repaired to Criteria Studios in Miami during the summer of 1970. Soon after arriving their producer Tom Dowd suggested they check out a hot new group from Georgia who were playing a gig nearby, a specific request from their Cream-fan lead guitarist.
“Duane should be right along.” From l to r: Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle
Even without the addition of a second guitarist of equal high standing, the Dominoes would have likely enjoyed a good measure of creative success. Clapton’s three full-time bandmates—keyboardist/vocalist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon—were a highly skilled supporting cast well versed in the soulful, Southern-fried rock and gritty R&B impulses of the Delaney & Bonnie/Leon Russell/Joe Cocker axis so popular at the time. But after seeing the Allman Brothers Band in concert, a mightily impressed Clapton quickly befriended (and recruited) lead guitarist Duane Allman, adding a whole new dimension to a project with a lot of upside already. Although the Allmans, like Cream, often pushed songs past the twenty-minute mark in concert, the jazzy blues improvisations of the Macon-based outfit seemed more organic and less show-offy than the famed British trio. Allman was, according to Clapton in his 2007 autobiography, “the musical brother I never had” and this was borne out by their complementary styles. The stinging tones of Clapton’s trusty Stratocaster meshed perfectly with Allman’s distinctive bottleneck slide sound and of course there would also be the sort of scintillating, fleet-fingered dual soling that would pass into guitar-geek legend.
Allman’s inspiring presence was timely. Clapton admitted in his book to going into the Layla sessions with only a couple of originals (eventual LP opener “I Looked Away” as well as a rough draft of the title cut) and a few blues standards he was keen to cover. But the material came fast and furious over that late summer and fall until it filled four sides with some of the most passionate rock music ever recorded. “I Looked Away” opens the album with a lilting country-rock groove that belies the emotionally-fraught soundscapes ahead, but it doesn’t take long to get a taste. The one-that-got-away lyric isn’t exactly groundbreaking but the vocals, with Clapton’s tenor trading verses with the deeper and somewhat gruff voice of Whitlock, are a marvel. This gambit (nearly as crucial to Layla’s success as the Clapton-Allman alliance) was said to be in emulation of Memphis R&B greats Sam & Dave, quite plausible considering the Stax Records background of fellow Memphis native Whitlock.
One can imagine the legions of guitar-loving rock fans, in the fallout of the psychedelic Sixties, having their ears prick up to this earthy and emotionally direct new music, especially after the two great tracks that follow it. The charming alliteration of “Bell Bottom Blues” came to Clapton after Patti Boyd’s request that he buy her a pair of designer flares when he got to the States. From that we get an absolutely tortured depiction of a spurned lover so in thrall to a woman that he would “crawl across the floor” and “beg you to take me back” for just one day so as not to completely perish from the scene, complete with a delicate upper-register guitar solo so heartfelt that its highlight are the notes almost too painful to play. But self-encouragement soon follows in “Keep on Growing” with Clapton and Whitlock again singing alternating lines of love lost (and offering supportive shouts of “yeah-yeah” when it’s the other’s turn) before the hopeful chorus and a liberating instrumental finish where an army of overdubbed Erics (there’s no Duane on this and two other tracks) lead the charge with the other three in full gallop close behind. In light of the originality of these three tracks, the side one closer—a conventional cover of the blues standard “Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out”—can’t help but pale in comparison.
But in the “Assorted Love Songs” of these four sides, fresh approaches far outnumber the inveterate twelve-bar tendencies that once prompted Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau to dub Clapton the “master of the blues cliché,” a comment that deeply upset the guitarist, then still with Cream. The other three Clapton-Whitlock collaborations (“Keep on Growing” was the first) add new hues to the old blues, the vibrant vocal tag-teaming and lofty instrumental constructions don’t let up thru the determinedly soulful “Anyday,” the chugging rocker “Tell the Truth” (a much faster version produced by Phil Spector had been released as a single) and the tour de force “Why Does Love Got to be So Sad?” In this Southern-style rave-up, a near-frantic Clapton rails against romance’s age-old injustices, as well as its confusions: “Won’t you show me a place/Where I can hide my lonely face/I know you’re going to break my heart if I let you.” Most anyone with a pulse has felt at least once in their life “like a song without a name/I’ve never been the same since I met you” though it’s one of the tunes that seems most specific to Patti Boyd: “I can’t keep from singing about you.” With volume levels that could have stripped the paint off Criteria’s studio walls, Duane solos throughout the song with an intensity that is almost superhuman. When Eric joins in, the notes seems to be coming at you twenty different directions and it all ends with a decelerated, Allman’s style outro, a sweet-toned reprieve after the cathartic emotions are fully exorcised.
This YT video of “Why Does Love Got to be So Sad” features lyrics on the screen and a fine photo montage of band members as well as Patti Boyd.
What’s amazing is that all this creative outpouring took place against an admitted background of such prodigious alcohol and hard drug intake that in our own relatively temperate age it would practically constitute a national crisis. Clapton was by now well down the road to the heroin addiction that would derail his life and career pretty much until 1974. And when the original songs ran out the covers that sat beside them were mostly first-rate as well. Their amped-up version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” may lack some of the gentler appeal of the original but the heraldic power chords, ardent vocals and Jim Gordon’s complex drum fills transform it into stirring tribute to Eric’s friend who died during the making of the album. The nine-minute take on Big Bill Bronzy’s “Key to the Highway” is more guitar-duel nirvana and the country seasoning added to Chuck Willis’ R&B stroll “It’s Too Late” made it the perfect choice to perform when the Dominoes made a well-received appearance on the Johnny Cash TV show. The best straight blues here is probably “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” with Clapton’s torrid between-the-lines soloing and its relevant love-triangle lyrics that, though written by Billy Myles, seem to cut straight through to the Eric-George-Patti situation: the obsessed but conflicted narrator backs out of a potential affair with his best friend’s old lady.
Live on the Johnny Cash Show in 1971 doing “It’s Too Late.”
Patti Boyd was first seen by the greater public when, as a young London-based model, she got to play one of a group of uniformed high-school girls flirting with the Beatles on a train ride in A Hard Day’s Night. George asked her out on the set but had to wait a few days for a yes. A toothy, girl-next-door blond beauty who was never quite exotic enough for significant modeling success, Boyd was top shelf as a rock-chick muse. Married to Harrison in 1966, her husband’s deepening devotion to Eastern mysticism may have strained the relationship but they remained married until ’74 and Boyd was the inspiration for several George-penned Beatles tunes, most notably “Something.” Although Eric was convinced the couple were on the outs by the time he and Boyd met and although feelings may have been mutual, it would a long agonizing wait for him.
“What’ll you do when you get lonely/And nobody’s waiting by your side,” began the song he wrote about Boyd that he came to Miami with in an unfinished state. Although directed at the object of his desire, Clapton could just as easily be talking to himself and the mix of self-pity and admonishment in “Layla” is made even more urgent by the relentless repetition of the song’s famous signature riff, reinforced with a reputed six tracks of guitar. Tom Dowd was a key player throughout these sessions and not just for his incandescent production. He was a fatherly facilitator for the self-doubting Clapton and helped build what began as a ballad into a rock juggernaut, especially after Allman came up with the totemic seven-note figure. The missing piece of the puzzle was found when an elegiac piano piece written and played by Jim Gordon was added as the instrumental “coda” (it takes up more than half of the seven-minute running time) renowned for its aching beauty.
In the documentary film Tom Dowd and the Language of Music, the late producer sits in front of his mixing board and deconstructs the song, isolating elements like Allman’s ghostly slide guitar sound and noting that both he and Clapton were playing notes that were “off the top of the instrument.” The quieter second section suggests that the spurned lover of the last four sides finally turns away from the woman who has “turned my whole world upside down” and heads off alone into the sunset (listen for Radle’s “walking” bass line) while Allman sounds his famous “bird tweets” in a majestic fade to black. But wait, there’s more. As if playing over the closing credits of a movie, LP closer “Thorn Tree in the Garden” makes for a fitting and intimate ending, a melancholic acoustic-guitar ballad by Bobby Whitlock that Dowd recorded by having the group sit around a single open mic.
Master producer Tom Dowd on the making of “Layla” from the highly-recommended documentary “Tom Dowd: The Language of Music”
If ever an album had a postscript—or, indeed, many of them—it’s Layla and Assorted Love Songs. First off, the album did well initially (#16 in the U.S.) but the title track only achieved its status as a ubiquitous radio classic after several fits and starts and re-releases over the next few years. The LP didn’t even get its own review in Rolling Stone, instead being twinned with the Allman Brothers’ Idlewild South in a write-up that betrays the higher critical standards of the day (“Bell Bottom Blues” is “filler”?!). Duane Allman, who was only able to squeeze in a few dates with the Dominoes on their subsequent tour, died in a motorcycle accident near his home in Macon less than a year after Layla’s release and a month shy of his 25th birthday. Carl Radle kept in contact with Clapton during the latter’s three-year layoff while battling drug addiction and was with him for the 461 Ocean Boulevard comeback album and tour in 1974—then succumbed to liver disease in 1980 after being unable to conquer his own substance abuse demons. Jim Gordon, the golden-touch session drummer whose voluminous list of credits ran the gamut from Bread to Frank Zappa, developed a severe case of (undiagnosed) schizophrenia and murdered his mother in 1983 in a delusional state that was discounted at trial due to changes in California law—as of January 2019 he is still serving a sixteen-years-to-life sentence. Thankfully, nothing tragic happened to Bobby Whitlock, unless one counts the fizzling-out of his Seventies solo career; he’s still in fine form whenever he resurfaces.
The only other official D&D release was this live album released in 1973, two years after the band broke up.
And what of Mr. Clapton? Everyone knows of his successful run as a solo artist and his elevation to one of rock’s elder statesmen. He got together with Patti Boyd soon after her divorce from Harrison and the two were wed in 1979, an era that produced perhaps the last well-known ode to her, the hit single “Wonderful Tonight.” But in her own autobiography called “Wonderful Today,” Boyd doesn’t pull her punches in recalling how quickly the union hit the rocks, the bottle quickly replacing the needle as Eric’s habit of choice. Her husband certainly has not denied just how far he fell during that period and the couple divorced in 1989, the final straw being Clapton fathering a child with another woman (Boyd was unable to conceive). Still, the ideal of the song she was most famous for inspiring stayed resilient: even his tepid “Unplugged” performance of “Layla” on MTV couldn’t kill it—indeed, it snagged Clapton one of the six Grammy awards he won in 1993. (Co-writer Jim Gordon shared the award but of course was not in attendance, neither was he mentioned in the acceptance speech). Many have commented over the years about the permenance of great art and its ability to rise above the many vagaries of its creators and creation and so too will Layla and Assorted Love Songs forever stand tall over the inauspicious circumstances that trail behind it.
You can check out an excerpt of my book “Rock Docs: A fifty-Year Cinematic Jorney” at http://booklocker.com/books/8905.html or by clicking on the book cover image above. If interested in purchasing, you can contact me directly for a special offer and free shipping! Thanks, Rick.
rick.ouellette@verizon.net
Posted in Make Mine a Double and tagged Bobby Whitlock, Derek and the Dominoes, Duane Allman and Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon incarceration, Layla, Patti Boyd Eric Clapton relationship, rock double albums, songs inspired by Patti Boyd, Tom Dowd on January 2, 2019 by Rick Ouellette. 2 Comments
← Whit Stillman’s “Metropolitan”: Spending the Holidays with some “basically good” people
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A great start to the blogging year for you with this post. As ever, I learnt a lot.
Patti Boyd has inspired an awful lot of songs over the years – She must have been “some gal”.
Rick Ouellette says:
Really! I will have to take a peek at her memoir some day (“Wonderful Today”). Happy 2109, Rick
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Tag Archives: LBCHC 2013
Flash Fact: Long Beach Comic & Horror Con 2013
I spent Saturday at Long Beach Comic and Horror Con, which despite its name is still, five years on, one of the most comics-focused “comic con” events I’ve been to. Among other things, I caught the Young Justice Voice Acting panel with a dozen cast members and Greg Weisman, a discussion panel between Marv Wolfman and Scott Lobdell and a spotlight on Mark Waid (see photo). Wolfman and Waid are always fascinating, and Lobdell turned out to be really interesting as well. Brian Buccellato was supposed to be there as well, but I never saw him. Artist’s Alley was huge, though, and I never quite managed to do the full systematic pass that I intended, so it’s entirely possible that all my trips through the area missed him.
Some interesting Flash-related bits:
Jason Spisak, when asked about getting into his character, remarked that Wally West’s lines in the script always look like he’s a “total douche,” but what he had to do was think: His friends keep him around. There’s got to be something endearing to him that they want to have around. He’d find that and make it come through in his acting.
Speaking of Young Justice, the game studio that did Young Justice: Legacy still has the license. If the game does well enough, they’d like to do a sequel…set during what would have been season three.
Mark Waid, when asked what story felt like he’d finally made it, said “The Return of Barry Allen.” That’s interesting, since the story was about Wally West reaching the point where he felt like he’d finally made it. He also said that his record at making good cliffhangers is due to the fact that he writes them before figuring out how the character’s going to get out (which makes for a few stressful days at the beginning of the next script). If he doesn’t know how, the audience isn’t going to guess!
Scott Lobdell compares the New 52 Kid Flash’s personality to Woody Woodpecker.
Check out my full write-up at K-Squared Ramblings or go straight to the photos.
This entry was posted in Fandom and tagged Cons, LBCC, LBCHC 2013, Long Beach, Mark Waid, Marv Wolfman, Scott Lobdell on November 25, 2013 by Kelson.
WonderCon 2014 and Long Beach 2013: California Comic Con Plans
WonderCon has officially announced that they’re returning to Anaheim in 2014 for a third year, from April 18-20. It’s turned out to be a good venue for the convention, especially if they can work the remaining kinks out of parking next year, and it means it’s easy for me to attend, since it’s close enough for me to commute. (That really takes some of the pressure off of trying to get tickets for San Diego, too.)
Still, I hope they find a way to move back to the Bay Area soon. I attended three years at the Moscone Center when it meant traveling (it probably helps that I have family and friends in the area to visit on the way up and back), and while the show still feels very much like part of the same family, it does feel like a slightly different show. I was in San Francisco on a business trip last week, and when I realized I was in the neighborhood, I just had to stop by Yerba Buena park and the Moscone Center for old time’s sake.
Coming up sooner, though, is Long Beach Comic and Horror Con, next weekend (November 23-24). This will be the fifth year of the convention, which was started to fill the gap left when Wizard World canceled their Los Angeles convention in 2009, and I’ve been kicking myself over not buying the lifetime membership they offered in year two. It’s a great local convention, and it’s very focused on comics. To give you an idea how focused, the main floor is built around Artist’s Alley as its main feature. I’ll definitely be attending Long Beach this year, and plan on posting photos to my Flickr stream and Speed Force’s Instagram feed.
ComiKaze!
In case you’re wondering, I didn’t attend Stan Lee’s ComiKaze Expo last weekend. I went the first year and enjoyed it well enough, but it’s always within a few weeks of Long Beach, and if I have to choose just one, it’s going to be Long Beach. (Plus I had that business trip to prepare for.)
It doesn’t help that ComiKaze’s promotion is off-putting, the way they puff up their own importance and act as if other local cons like LBCC (and for that matter WonderCon) don’t exist. In good traffic, the Long Beach, Los Angeles and Anaheim convention centers are less than half an hour from each other. People here spend more time than that commuting to work.
Cross-posted at K-Squared Ramblings.
This entry was posted in Fandom, Timely and tagged Comikaze, Cons, Cross-Post, LBCC, LBCHC 2013, Long Beach, WonderCon, WonderCon 2014 on November 12, 2013 by Kelson.
Grand Comic Book Database
Nerdage
Speedster Art on Flickr
Girls Gone Geek
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Fate of journalism program at Delta State U. to be decided in Thursday board meeting
April 15, 2015 September 5, 2018 Katherine Schaeffer
MISSISSIPPI — When Delta State University announced plans to eliminate five academic programs in November, students and faculty somberly gathered in mourning to protest the cutbacks.
Since then, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Mississippi Press Association, the Southeast Journalism Conference and several local media outlets have rallied behind the university’s journalism program, which would be eliminated along with funding for the university’s 83-year-old newspaper, The Delta Statement.
On Thursday the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees may drive the final nail into the journalism program’s coffin when it decides whether to accept the university’s proposal.
Although the university is free to determine its newspaper’s budget, the board must approve program eliminations, said Caron Blanton, a Mississippi Public Universities spokeswoman. Delta State President Bill LaForge will present information and numbers at the meeting.
Patricia Roberts, chairwoman of the university’s journalism program, said she worries cutting The Statement’s print production could be a step toward “eliminating the voice of students here at Delta State.”
In November, LaForge announced the university would discontinue its journalism program as part of a $1 million university-wide budget cut, which also includes the elimination of its communications/theater studies and modern foreign languages programs.
Roberts, the only journalism professor at Delta State, said her $65,000 salary including benefits is the only cost the university incurs by offering journalism coursework. Journalism students’ tuition dollars — usually about $120,000 — and about $350,000 in donor funding usually covered the cost, she said.
Twenty-two journalism students were enrolled at Delta State last fall, but that number dropped to about 10 since the November announcement, Roberts said. Freshmen who hadn’t started their journalism classes were required to change majors and some students transferred. Roberts said she will stay on staff through next school year to “teach out” students in senior-level courses.
Each semester, about 15 students join The Statement’s staff as part of the newspaper workshop class Roberts teaches, she said. If Roberts’ position is eliminated, the newspaper will no longer have a faculty adviser.
The Statement will continue in its print incarnation in the fall, before transitioning to a web-only format in the spring. With students transferring or graduating, Roberts said she expects about three students on staff spring staff.
The Mississippi Press Association sent a letter to LaForge on Monday, urging him to reconsider cutting funding to the paper and the journalism program.
“We feel the discontinuation of journalism programs at Delta State sets a terrible and disheartening precedent for a well-informed student body,” according to the letter.
Mississippi Press Association Director Layne Bruce said eliminating the student newspaper would rob the campus of a “tool of connection between students, faculty and alumni.” Bruce said the press association would be willing to offer the university financial support, possibly in the form of a grant, to keep The Statement in print as university officials figure out another source of funding.
“In addition to the multiple First Amendment issues raised in this move, closing a journalism program and eliminating the faculty position of the university’s sole journalism professor creates many other serious issues for an institution of higher education,” according to a joint news release from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Student Press Law Center. “Journalism courses not only prepare students for the field, these courses also teach students how to think critically and creatively, how to communicate clearly and how to collaborate with others — elements any employer wants in employees.”
Contact SPLC staff writer Katherine Schaeffer by email or at (202) 974-6317.
Tagged Delta State University, Mississipp Institutions of Higher Learning, MIssissippi, Mississippi Press Association, Mississippi Public Universities, recent-news, Society of Professional Journalists, Southeast Journalism Conference, The Delta Statement
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O’who? What you should know about Hillary Clinton’s most serious challenger
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to announce at the end of this month what most assumed he had been gearing up for: a challenge to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.
His aides told reporters who had traveled along for a trip through New Hampshire on Thursday that he will likely tell donors and supporters in a conference call that he is “inclined to run,” according to The Washington Post. His announcement will likely come around May 30 in Baltimore, where he served as mayor from 1999-2007.
Presidential speculation has followed O’Malley since 2012, when it wasn’t yet clear if Clinton would seek the nomination. But despite about three years of jostling during his tenure as Maryland governor, he’ll start well behind Clinton in the race and without much name recognition.
Some of his most fervent "support" to date has come from the reliably conservative Drudge Report, whose founder, Matt Drudge, is obviously pining for a liberal challenger to Clinton as well. Upon the news on Thursday O’Malley was getting ready to announce, The Drudge Report plastered a photo of O’Malley, shirtless and in running gear, on its banner.
He also might start behind an unexpected competitor for attention, as well — Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who announced late last month that he’d seek the Democratic nomination for president. The challenge for O’Malley, political strategists and political science professors said, is to paint himself as an electable Bernie Sanders — and a more progressive Hillary Clinton.
“He has absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain by running,” said Stella Rouse, the assistant director of the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland, in an email. “He can play the contrarian to Hillary, hopefully gain some publicity and support (especially via the debates if he does well).”
But O’Malley, who always served as the presumed progressive alternative to Clinton, might need to do some work to just attain that status again. It’s been Sanders who has gained real momentum in polls since his announcement.
Sanders jumped from 6 percent of the Democratic primary vote in April to 13 percent in May, according to surveys from Public Policy Polling. He’s also seen similar spikes in support in key states like New Hampshire, where a poll found that at least one-third of the Democratic electorate was cramming for a more progressive nominee — be it Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). In that same poll, from the University of New Hampshire, O’Malley was still stuck at the bottom with 2 percent.
Geoffrey Skelley, the associate editor of the University of Virginia Center for Politics’ Crystal Ball, placed O’Malley behind Sanders in terms of viability in the center's newsletter on Thursday.
“Along with his policy views, Sanders’ personal characteristics may also make him a potent ‘protest’ option for liberals in the Democratic primary,” Skelley wrote. “He is assertive and knows precisely what he believes in — and is unabashed in expressing himself.”
Rouse added: “He will have a tougher time carving out a spot to the left of Hillary Clinton now that Bernie Sanders is in the race.”
Skelley described O’Malley as someone who “fits the profile of a more serious challenger to Clinton (or did at some point).”
The unrest in Baltimore, where protests sprang up amid the death of a 25-year-old black man in police custody, hasn’t helped. Some of the tactics O’Malley instituted as Baltimore’s mayor were criticized, and he found a mixed reception after he came back to the city from an overseas trip. The unrest rekindled a longstanding feud between O’Malley and David Simon, author and creator of The Wire. (Tommy Carcetti, the politically expeditious Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor in the show, is loosely based on O’Malley, Simon has said.)
“O’Malley has a very steep hill to climb. First, he left the Maryland governorship, pretty much with his tail between his legs. His approval numbers were underwater at 41 percent,” Rouse said. “Second, the recent Baltimore riots did not help O’Malley. While he thought he could garner some positive publicity by ‘returning home,’ his policies of tough policing when he was Mayor of Baltimore came under scrutiny.”
O’Malley has, however, become much more willing to challenge Clinton more directly recently. He has come out against a trade deal that most liberal Democrats oppose, as well as drawn a contrast and implied that she has hedged on her support for the deal in light of political expediency. Clinton helped craft the early stages of the deal as secretary of state, but has said more recently that she needs to see the final parameters before announcing her position.
Many progressives think he simply needs to get out his message to a wider audience. On the stump, he often talks about his progressive record as governor. He did the tax hikes on the wealthy. He did the minimum-wage hike. The death penalty is gone in Maryland. Gay couples can marry. Undocumented immigrants can qualify for in-state tuition. Health-care reform in Maryland has real legs and is in the midst of a revolution.
But does that message have a place anymore?
Said Rouse: “I think his message will easily get drowned out and he will have a tough time getting that message out there and gaining any campaign traction.”
Brett LoGiurato is the senior national political correspondent at Fusion, where he covers all things 2016. He'll give you everything you need to know about politics, with a healthy side of puns.
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Pentagon Denies Withholding Information on Chemical Weapons Discoveries in Iraq
The Pentagon had neither intend nor need to keep secret the information about the chemical weapons discoveries in Iraq, stated Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.
Bush Was Right to Get Saddam Out: US Expert
Jeffrey D. Gordon states that the Pentagon never classified the reports on the multiple encounters of the US and coalition troops with the chemical weapons of Saddam Hussein and it is the biased manstream media to blame for the only recent "sudden" discovery of the fact Iraq has WMD.
Chemical Weapons Created With Western Support Found by US Troops in Iraq: Reports
At least six times US troops were wounded by the chemical weapons designed in the United States from 2004 to 2011.
Resolution on Chemical Weapons in Libya Not Planned: Russian UN Ambassador
No resolution on Libyan chemical weapons is planned for the near future, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told journalists Monday.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia Must Stop Supporting Jihadi Militants in Syria: Syrian Envoy to UN
Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, addressed the UN this week, saying that Turkey and Saudi Arabia should account for their own involvement in the Syrian conflict before leveling “null and baseless accusations to the Syrian government”. Syria’s government has been accused of using chemical attacks in northern Syria in recent months, Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
New Chemical Defense Regiments Formed in Russian Armed Forces
Russia's Central Military District (CMD) will complete the formation of two regiments of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD) in the Samara Region and the Altay Territory by the end of the year, the district's spokesperson said Thursday.
Threat of Chemical, Biological Weapons Use Remains Prevalent: Russian Defense Minister
Events in the Middle East highlight that the threat of chemical and biological weapons use remains prevalent, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday in a conference call with the top military brass of the Armed Forces.
Ban Ki-moon: UN, OPCW Work on Elemination of Syrian Chemical Weapons Successful
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - UN Joint Mission on Syria was successful, the UN said in a press release issued a day after the termination of the mission.
Syria Reaffirms Commitment to Stand Against Against Use of Chemical Weapons
Syria is committed to the full implementation of the provisions of the Convention of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and within the frame of the OPCW, the country's Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said Monday.
Islamic State Using Chlorine in Fougasses: Defense Ministry
Islamic State (IS) extremists have used chlorine in fougasses several times, Iraq's Ministry of Defense stated.
Russia Urges to Provide Information on Chemical Arsenal in Libya
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia wanted to see the information on the state of chemical weapons in Libya.
Libya After Gaddafi
Syria Denies Use of Chlorine Chemicals: Reports
In response to US Secretary of State John Kerry's accusations of using chlorine chemicals, the government of Syria has stated that the country has handed down all the chemical weaponry it possessed and that it complies with international conventions on arms control, AFP reported Sunday referencing Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kerry: Syria Uses Chlorine Gas Despite Chemical Weapons Agreements
US Secretary of State John Kerry has accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of breaking global agreements on the use of chemical weapons, Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday.
WSJ Reporter: Islamic State Militants Allegedly Use Chemical Weapons in Iraq
Islamic State (IS) militants could have used chemical weapons in an attack on Iraqi forces in the town of Dhuluiya, about 43 miles north of Baghdad, according to The Wall Street Journal’s reporter’s Twitter.
OPCW Destroys 93% of Syrian Chemical Weapons Arsenal
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has destroyed 93 percent of chemical weapons agents removed from Syria, according to a report it released on Thursday.
One Year Since Chemical Attacks in Syria
On this day a year ago, almost 1,500 people were killed by chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus. The US intelligence placed the blame on government forces. Damascus denied the allegation.
Elimination of Chemical Weapons in Syria
On August 21, 2013, the media reported the large-scale use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces on the outskirts of Damascus.
UN Chief Hails Destruction of Syria's Declared Chemical Weapons, US-Russian Efforts
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the destruction of all of Syria's declared chemical weapons.
Obama Praises Russia’s Contribution to Syria Chemicals Destruction
US President Barack Obama has thanked Russia for its assistance in neutralizing Syria’s stockpile of deadly chemical weapons, following the Pentagon’s statement that the operation to destroy the chemicals had been successfully completed aboard US ship Cape Ray.
Syria’s Chemical Weapons Destroyed on US Vessel Cape Ray – Pentagon
Teams aboard the US ship MV Cape Ray have finished neutralizing materials from Syria's declared chemical stockpile, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said on Monday.
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Ubiquitous Game – Soccer’s All Over the Place
MLS as Role Model
What's the impact of the MLS on youth soccer? The league has been around for 12 years now. Has the league inspired more kids to play soccer or stick with it beyond the usual age? Has soccer's accessibility let's say on TV or via the Internet, helped grow the base of kids playing soccer--inspired more players.
Now, with more ease, young soccer players can look up to pros as role models and follow them each week. Stars aren't just posters on the wall. What do they call them, wall bangers? We'll really know when soccer has made it when the main advertisers on Fox Soccer aren't Kick Medic and Wall Bangers, no disrespect to either the banger or the medic they’re just not beer commercials. When alcohol is advertised on a sports broadcast you know they’re making money.
But when I was younger you really had to dig to find soccer. I think I watched my first English Premier league match when I was in college. I'd borrow videos from friends or grabbed books about the game as I got older, but it was rare to find a game on TV or even cable for that matter.
The thing with soccer is everyone plays when their 6 or 7, but they drop out and play the big other sports as they get older. They want to be Mike or now Lebron and not Adu. Could you imagine if Lebron played soccer? What's interesting, and maybe evident in the past women's World Cup in China, is that the small skillful player, someone like a Marta for example, are the ones that cause more harm to opposing defenders then physically stronger athletes let's say. Look at Robinho, he's spends more time dancing in the discothèques than in a gym.
Foreign Exchange Students
Have you played soccer with a foreigner who thinks they're Ronaldo, just because they come from Brazil or the Spaniards who thinks they’re Raul since they come from Spain? For one thing though, they do know how to play the game, their technique just isn't on par with their mouth or their idol for the most part. They do know where to play the ball and how to move though. They've grown up watching soccer. They come to your high school, take all the girls and whip up on your high school team but party too much and don’t play after college.
That's the thing about soccer, or at least that's what the soccer player likes to say, you can't just pick up the game in a flash, it takes time to train your feet to work in a comfortable manner as your hands. If someone throws you a ball you can catch it, but if some one throws you a ball can you keep it up in the air once, and then hit a volley.
The Superstar
The great athlete can't just step into the game of soccer and be a star. Sure, to a certain extent they can, but a player like Eddie Johnson, who has blazing speed and the potential to be a World Class star, just doesn't seem to have the touch or savvy of forwards in the EPL. I don't see him fitting in as part of a tandem, like Yorke and Cole, in their days at Manchester United. Eddie's young though, it's too early to say just yet. Adu, at his young age, took a beating by the soccer community because he wasn't a savior of the MLS. He now seems to have reached a more confidant place, and showing that on the field. He has a new role model named Rui Costa. He came on late as a sub against AC Milan in the Champions League. Kids watching Adu play against Kaka and then seeing Ronaldinho and DaMarcus Beasley embrace after their recent game--might make them their idols. And there's talk of Altidore to Real, and I don't mean Real Salt Lake a la Freddy's past trade. Adu and Jozy's counter parts in the NBA, Kobe and Wade. And then there's Dempsey, he's just legit. However, look at a player like Bojan, the new forward for Barcelona; he has a knack for the game that appears to be nearly innate.
The growing almost ubiquity of the game, whether it's the MLS, YouTube videos, Fox Soccer, Setanta or ESPN games, gives young players more models to follow and stars to dream about becoming. Youngsters can pull together parts of all these different players’ games into your own. That's the path to success, whether it's art or sport, you take bits and pieces of your idols and incorporate them into your game. The way Messi plays is no doubt both art and sport. He's the new Maradona. Wolcott is the new Henry. There's always a precursor. Someone dreamed about being someone else.
The thing you always hear is what if Dwayne Wade or Allen Iverson played soccer, can you imagine.
It's amazing how many LA Galaxy emblazoned Beckham jerseys have been sold all over the world, but are there future Beckhams out in the back yard striking the ball against a wall, imagining themselves in the MLS, taking a free kick to win the game, bending the ball around an imaginary wall. I'm sure there are.
Kids learn a number of different ways, and then not all kids have access to a computer or cable TV. And that's the real beauty of soccer; pickup games in the park with players from all over the world are free. But it takes a combination of a number of things to become a great soccer player, a mentor, exposure to the games great players, following in love with the sport--because there's no short cut. You have to spend time with the ball.
If you've watched a Champions League match or a World Cup game, it's pretty easy to fall for the game. If you've been to one, then you might just become obsessed. Drew Carey might fall into this category. And soccer, it's actually an expensive sport when it comes to all the traveling and camps and tournaments, and then the shoes you have to have and other gear. But the pure game, that is something that's passed down from a family member or a mentor or a coach or a player that has given you encouragement.
But now, yes, you can see more soccer, you can go to games. There's a growing following of certain MLS teams. There's Fox Setanta, and usually local Spanish channels that show matches, it's not just a flash of a game on TV during the World Cup with terrible announcing. There are ads for Beckham and then Nike's recent women's soccer campaign. I wasn't surrounded by the game so much growing up. You had to seek it out. I remember seeing Diego Maradona on the cover of SI holding the World Cup trophy, but didn't see any of the games in Mexico on TV.
Now, you simply type in Hand of God and see the Maradona clip from Mexico. Does that diminish the art of the story? No longer is it relaying a story, just punch it in to Google and watch it. But that's another article.
Sure, if we’re looking just at America soccer players this video numbers are not exclusive to the red white and blue, and the age range I’m sure is broad, but you get the idea:
1,662,682 watched this Messi Compilation
How many kids went out into the yard and tried to hit the post like him or did they just want to buy more Nike gear? Be like Mike? Now it's Be like Messi. And Messi's not a bad role model. He respects his mentor, Ronaldinho, with a unique kind of feeling. A player who was told he was too small. But are kids getting better in the United States. Results from the most recent U-20 World Cup might just answer this question and the growing list of Yanks Abroad. Is this due to the MLS developing young players or just technology and access to broadband? No really, there are more and more players being developed in this country, new training centers like the one built by Brad Friedel and select young players going on tours sponsored by soccer shoe companies and the MLS.
Who’s Watching
I had a friend ask me the other day if I watch the MLS. Among soccer players the respect isn't necessarily there for MLS whole heartedly, as though it just isn't there yet. But I told him yeah, the last few years I've become a real fan, certain teams have a spirit, a style, like DC United and Houston, and if you followed the MLS this year, the fight that LA showed on their win streak without Beckham, nearly getting into the playoffs, that might just pull you in to watch more. Yeah, the MLS has settled into a league I watch, along with a ton of kids via TV or via YouTube highlights, but the role models, those are still Messi, Ronaldinho, Kaka, and Henry, not yet Jozy and Adu and Dempsey, but soon.
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Archive for the ‘India-U.S. Relations’ Category
India and US at UN: A Complicated Dance
Photo from flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/eoincampbell/2790347402/sizes/m/in/photostream/
During India’s first nine months on the Security Council, it has worked with the United States on broad themes but often differed on country-specific issues. Council membership has a price: many votes inevitably disappoint some of India’s constituencies and international friends.
Read our op-ed in The Hindu, October 8, 2011.
U.S. Election Season: How does India Fit In?
Photo by Carol Mitchell, http://www.flickr.com/photos/webethere/3026782091/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Jobs and reviving the economy will shape the 2012 U.S. election and future U.S.-India relations. During the long election season, attention will focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and how to deal with a rising China. India does not attract the same controversy, but the unresolved economic issues on the U.S.-India agenda will be in the spotlight.
See our op-ed in The Hindu (Chennai), August 23, 2011.
After the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue: Not Visionary but Solid
Hillary Clinton in Chennai, photo by U.S. Embassy Delhi, from flickr
Hillary Clinton and her distinguished team beat expectations for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. They notched up some solid gains on the bilateral agenda, started two regional dialogues with strategic potential, and established some benchmarks for the next year.
For the future of U.S.-India relations, they need to tackle some of the longstanding trade and investment issues, get nuclear trade moving despite the undoubted difficulty of the nuclear liability issue, and above all – keep paying attention. This is an important but high maintenance relationship.
Read text of Teresita Schaffer’s comments on the Brookings web site.
U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue: All-Star Cast, Playing Small Ball
Photo by U.S. Embassy Delhi, http://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassynewdelhi/5951774930/sizes/m/in/photostream/
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is bringing with her an all-star team for the second round of U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, which will take place later this year. Five heads of agencies are joining her, including the Director of National Intelligence, along with 3 officials who are one rung away from the top of their agencies. They will do useful work, but they need to make their game more ambitious.
Read Teresita Schaffer’s comments, posted by Brookings July 18, 2011.
Of Planes and Men: The U.S.-India Partnership
Photo by The Wanderer’s Eye, Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-wanderers-eye/5549993130
May 1, 2011: The world’s biggest international military aircraft deal in two decades has been moving slowly through the Indian government’s procurement process. After years of discreet and not-so-discreet lobbying by aircraft manufacturers, heads of state, and everyone in between, the Indian Air Force announced on April 27 that it was short-listing the two European entries and excluding from further consideration the remaining four contestants, including two from the United States: a Boeing-led consortium with the F-18 and Lockheed Martin with the F-16.
The announcement sent shock waves through Washington. This was by far the biggest potential military sale ever contemplated with India. It had been regarded in the United States not just as a commercial bonanza at a time of economic distress, but as the opportunity to introduce a new level of operational and strategic understanding into the growing India-U.S. defense relationship. In the five months between the high of the Obama visit to Delhi and, now, the low of the aircraft decision, what have we learned about how the two countries are managing their partnership and where it is headed?
Obama in India: Many High Notes, Much Work Ahead
An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on the accomplishments of Barack Obama’s fall 2010 visit to India, as well as work the countries still have to do.
As President Barack Obama’s plane headed eastward from New Delhi, he left India on a high. The India-U.S. partnership had been lifted out of the apparent slowdown of the past two years. The marquee announcement that the United States supported India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council had the headline-grabbing quality for which India’s policy watchers hungered.
Obama’s three-day visit produced some real accomplishments that will put more substance into the increasingly important partnership between India and the United States. It also left the two countries with a lot of work to do to realize that potential.
Originally published November 9, 2010 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Commentary. Read the entire article.
Obama in India: Taking the Partnership Global
An article written by Teresita C. Schaffer on the transformation of the relationship between the United States and India.
Barack Obama’s trip to India this month will have moments of theater and high drama, and undoubtedly will produce an imposing list of “deliverables.” But its most important message is the expanding scope of the India-US partnership. Until late 2009, the Indo-US conversation, and most of the success stories in the new relationship, was confined to bilateral issues. In the past year, the two governments have begun serious conversations about security in Asia. In the coming year, the incipient discussion on global governance will become a major feature of US-India relations. For the first time, the two countries may have the ingredients needed for the strategic partnership both want.
Originally published November 5, 2010 by YaleGlobal.
U.S. Engagement in Indian Health Care: What is the Impact?
A report by Teresita C. Schaffer for the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Global Health Policy Center.
This report assesses the impact of U.S. engagement with India’s health sector in the past six decades. The United States’ involvement with health in independent India goes back to the earliest days. The longest involvement is through the U.S. foreign aid program, which has worked primarily with the government of India. Other parts of the United States government have also been involved, chiefly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and both the capacity-building and research activities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Private American institutions have been involved in India, including foundations, universities, and medically oriented businesses, as well as private Americans, including many of Indian origin. In at least one case, the recently founded Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), both the American institution represent public-private collaboration.
Originally published by CSIS in November 2010. Read the entire report.
The United States and India 10 Years Out
A working paper by Teresita C. Schaffer in conjunction with the Center for a New American Security’s study on the relationship between the U.S. and India.
India and the United States have transformed their relationship in the past 20 years. Looking ahead a decade or more, this trend is likely to continue. The two countries can expect strong economic ties and a lively security relationship, including defense trade and especially stronger cooperation in the Indian Ocean. Economic issues will remain important drivers of Indian foreign policy. Cooperation on the global scene will have ups and downs, but the two countries will gradually find more areas where they can work together. As India’s international trade encompasses more sophisticated and knowledge-based products, India will pursue economic interests that do not necessarily dovetail with those of the developing countries as a group. India-Pakistan relations are likely to remain brittle. India will continue to see China as its major strategic challenge.
Originally published by CNAS in October 2010. Read the entire paper.
Washington Visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India
An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on Manmohan Singh’s fall 2009 visit to the United States.
India has become a major bilateral partner. It is the principal power in the Indian Ocean, increasingly a player in Asia-wide political and economic deliberations, with a lively security relationship with the United States. The United States had $61 billion in bilateral goods trade with India in 2007, the most recent available year. Additionally, India exported approximately $19 billion in software and related services to the United States in 2007, making the United States India’s top trading partner and India a significant trading partner for the United States.
Originally published November 23, 2009 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Critical Questions. Read the entire article.
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Will Royals be able to recapture last year's glory?
Justin Rimpi
It has been just under four months since the last game of the MLB Playoffs concluded. That game was Game 5 of the World Series that saw the crowning of the Kansas City Royals as 2015 World Series Champions.
With pitcher’s and catcher’s for all 30 MLB teams reporting this week, and the position players reporting next week, the 2016 MLB season is beginning to take shape. As in any season, there is a handful of teams that seem to be contenders, but sometimes these pre-season contenders do not live up to the high expectations being placed on their shoulders.
For example, the Washington Nationals were many experts picks to win the National League Pennant if not the World Series. In reality though the Nationals did not even get a taste of the playoffs as they finished second in their own division to the surprise National League Pennant winners the New York Mets. The Houston Astros whom have been cellar dwellers in the American League Central and the National League West for virtually a decade made it into the playoffs.
All of these examples in addition to many more just comes to show the parity that exists in Major League Baseball. Pundits nor fans really know how their team will fair in the gauntlet of a 162 game season. As the 2015 New York Mets can attest to, a team could plod along up until late July and then make one move that puts life back into their season and then find themselves in the World Series.
Many pundits say the Chicago Cubs, yes the Chicago Cubs, are primed for a World Series. It seems the Chicago Cubs are picked everything single year to break through through their 107 year World Series drought. Another team that seems to be a trendy pick is the New York Mets.
The New York Mets have improved their defense in the off season, which really hurt them in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. The main culprit of their defensive meltdown in the “Fall Classic” was second baseman Daniel Murphy. He now finds himself with the divisional rival Washington Nationals. Murphy has been replaced by former Pittsburgh Pirate second baseman Neil Walker who is a much better fielder than his predecessor Murphy.
The Toronto Blue Jays also have a very legitimate shot at winning the World Series this year as well. Their high-powered seems up to the task once again this year of carrying the team. Led by 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson the Blue Jays offense looks to be ever better than they were last year when they ranked first in many major offensive categories like Runs scored, Home Runs, and OPS.
The defending champion Kansas City Royals have flown under the radar this off-season as they have made no significant moves in the off season to improve their team. Instead they lost their best Starting Pitcher Johnny Cueto whom signed with the San Francisco Giants as a free-agent. The Royals have retained their solid bullpen, but will that be enough to vault them back into contention for a championship.
There is sure to many ups and downs in the six month MLB season. Each team goes into Spring Training with a sense of optimism that this will be their year and they will be World Series champion at the end of October. As the season progresses many teams will have to rationalize that this will not their year even though they put everything they had into this season. Other teams will have great years, but just not be able to achieve the ultimate goal of a World Series. When all is said and done 29 teams will come up short and only one will be crowned World Series champion and be remembered for their achievements for years to come.
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UPDATE: THREE KIDS SHOT IN THREE DAYS. TENNESSEE LEADS NATION IN KIDS PULLING TRIGGER OF NEGLIGENTLY STORED FIREARMS
Posted on August 20, 2017 by safetennesseeproject
*PLEASE NOTE: Since this post was published this morning, a THIRD child has unintentionally shot and killed himself in Memphis. An 8-year-old boy shot himself, was taken to the hospital where he died. The numbers below have been updated.
Over a two day period, two 4-year-olds in Memphis shot themselves with negligently stored firearms. On Friday, a 4-year-old little girl was home with two other other children and their father when she picked up a gun and unintentionally shot herself with it. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Just one day later, a 4-year-old boy unintentionally shot himself. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later died.
“Once again, we see the tragic consequences of negligent gun storage,” said Beth Joslin Roth, policy director for the Safe Tennessee Project. “These shootings are not accidents. They are the direct result of an adult’s choice not to properly secure their firearm. This continues to be a serious issue in our state. Yet for two years now, our legislature’s solution to the problem is to do absolutely nothing.”
In an in-depth USA Today/AP report of unintentional shootings of children last year, Memphis was ranked first in the nation while Nashville came in tenth. A Johns Hopkins study published last year flagged Tennessee as one of seven states with a disproportionate number of unintentional shootings.
None of those seven states have laws requiring the safe storage of guns.
Tennessee’s problem with these types of shootings is not getting better and is on pace to exceed the numbers from last year. According to the database maintained by the Children’s Firearm Safety Alliance, an organization founded by Roth and Missouri state Senator Representative Stacey Newman, Tennessee currently leads the nation in shootings involving children with access to negligently stored firearms.
Of all the cities in the country, Memphis ranks first.
In Tennessee, there have been almost as many total incidents so far in 2017 as there were in all of 2016. There have been seven fatalities in 2017, tying the total number of fatalities in 2016.
“Everyone of these shootings is a gut wrenching tragedy, but they’re also infuriating because they could easily be prevented,” said Roth. “Sadly, our efforts to address the these children being injured and killed are ignored. We tried to pass MaKayla’s Law to hold irresponsible gun owners accountable. The bill never got out of committee. Unfortunately, we have lawmakers who indicate that they want their NRA score ‘to be as high as you can get it’ and who refer to unintentional shootings of children as ‘acts of God’ and out of our control.
“Let me perfectly clear – these shootings are not ‘acts of God’. They are 100 percent fully preventable tragedies and they are well within our control.”
Roth plans to continue to work with lawmakers to pass MaKayla’s Law and raise awareness about the importance of safe storage of firearms through her work with Safe Tennessee and the Children’s Firearm Safety Alliance (CFSA). A revised version of MaKayla’s Law, sponsored by Sen. Sara Kyle and Rep. Sherry Jones, failed in the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 22, 2017. Senators Harris, Kyle, and Kelsey voted for the bill. Senators Bell, Bowling, Lundberg, Overbey, Roberts, and Stevens voted against it.
“It is vital that parents talk to their children about gun safety, but that is not enough. Not even close,” Roth explained. “The single most important job any gun owner has is to keep their gun out of the hands of the wrong people, including and especially children. Safe storage saves lives. It would have saved the life of the 4-year-old in Memphis yesterday.”
TENNESSEE CHILDREN INJURED AND KILLED AS A RESULT OF NEGLIGENTLY STORED FIREARMS IN 2017 BY THE NUMBERS
As of 8/20/2017
20 incidents
12 injuries
8 fatalities
Year end 2016
According to the CFSA, Tennessee currently leads the nation in the number of these incidents
Memphis leads not only Tennessee, but the nation in the number of these incidents:
St. Louis 6
Of the nine incidents in Memphis this year, seven occurred just this summer since June 21. Two occurred over the last weekend.
Of the twenty incidents in Tennessee this year, at least twelve involved children under the age of 13, seven were toddlers or preschoolers.
Of the twenty incidents in Tennessee this year, six involved children shooting a sibling, cousin, or other relative. Eleven of the children shot themselves. In two incidents, the circumstances were unclear.
The Senate Judiciary voted against MaKeyla’s Law on March 22, 2017. There have been sixteen incidents involving children shooting themselves or someone else with a negligently stored firearms since the bill failed.
TENNESSEE INCIDENTS IN 2017
August 20, 2017 – Memphis – FATALITY
An 8-year-old boy shot himself in his home. He was taken the hospital where he later died.
http://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stories/8-year-old-child-dead-after-shooting-in-southeast-memphis/595642288
A 4-year-old boy in Memphis shot himself and was in very critical condition. Not long after, he died. No word on how he was able to pick up a loaded gun or whether or not charges will be filed.
http://wreg.com/2017/08/19/self-inflicted-gun-shot-leaves-toddler-in-critical-condition/
August 18, 2017 – Memphis – INJURY
A 4-year-old chid was home with two other children and their father when she picked up a gun and shot herself with it. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition. No word on how she accessed the gun or if charges will be filed.
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/36170855/girl-4-critical-after-accidental-shooting-on-egan-drive
July 8, 2017 – Memphis – FATALITY
A 3-year-old gained access to his father’s loaded, unsecured gun and fatally shot himself with it. The father kept the gun in a case, but the 3-year-old was still able to pick up the gun and pull the trigger. No word on whether charges will be fired.
http://wreg.com/2017/07/08/a-3-year-old-accidentally-shoots-himself-officials-say/
July 8, 2017 – Greeneville – FATALITY
A 17-year-old was holding a gun in his home when it unintentionally discharged and killed him.
http://wjhl.com/2017/07/09/17-year-old-dies-after-accidental-shooting-in-greene-county/
July 7, 2017 – Nashville – INJURY
A 15-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the foot with a shotgun. Witnesses report that other teens were present. The boy was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
http://wkrn.com/2017/07/07/nashville-teenager-accidentally-shoots-himself-in-foot/
July 5, 2017 – Memphis – INJURY
A 12-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother were playing with a gun at their home. The boy unintentionally fired a shot, hitting his sister in the leg. She was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. No word on whether charges will be filed.
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/35818513/brother-accidentally-shoots-12-year-old-sister-in-leg
June 23, 2017 – Memphis – INJURY
A 14-year-old child unintentionally shot himself just after midnight Friday morning, according to Memphis Police Department. The child was taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in non-critical condition.
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/35732981/child-shot-near-covington-pike-stage-road
A 15-year-old unintentionally shot himself at a house. His condition is unknown.
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/35717755/mpd-teen-accidentally-shoots-self-at-whitehaven-home
June 5, 2017 – Nashville – FATALITY
A 2-year-old unintentionally shot their 7-year-old cousin. The girl was taken to the hospital where she passed away. Police have not yet indicated whether charges will be filed.
http://wkrn.com/2017/06/06/police-toddler-shoots-cousin-inside-home-south-of-downtown/
May 17, 2017 – Nashville – INJURY
A man was bathing his children around 2am. He took his 1-year-old out of the bath tub, placed him on a bed and left the room, The child found a loaded gun and fired it, grazing his face.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/35448327/toddler-shot-in-face-at-east-nashville-apartment
A 3-year-old child was staying with a man and his wife when he found a loaded, unsecured gun in a bedroom and fired it, striking himself in the foot.
http://www.newschannel5.com/news/report-of-shooting-prompts-heavy-police-response
May 5, 2017 – Chattanooga – INJURY
A 10-year-old boy was playing with his parent’s 9mm Glock handgun as he talked to a friend on his computer when he discharged the gun and shot himself in the arm.
http://newschannel9.com/news/local/police-report-10-year-old-accidentally-shot-himself-with-his-parents-gun
April 14, 2017 – Memphis – INJURY
Four boys, two brothers, and two cousins were home alone when they found a small-caliber handgun. The 13-year-old boy started playing with the gun and accidentally shot his 12-year-old cousin. The gun was left unsecured, and there were no parents at home.
http://www.localmemphis.com/news/local-news/shelby-county-deputies-respond-to-reports-of-12-year-old-possibly-shot/692152162
April 9, 2017 – Chattanooga – FATALITY
A 13-year-old boy was shot in the head in his home in Chattanooga. Another boy in the house, who was 16, called 911. Police found no evidence that the shooting was “anything other than an accident.” The boy later died as a result of his injuries.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2017/apr/09/13-year-old-hospitalized-after-accidental-shooting/422016/
March 24, 2017 – Nashville – INJURY
Three teenagers were in a car when a 13-year-old was shot in the leg by someone else in the vehicle.
http://wkrn.com/2017/03/24/13-year-old-injured-in-accidental-shooting/
February 26, 2017 – Perry County – FATALITY
A 13-year-old boy was unintentionally shot and killed by a 12-year-old relative as the two children were in a bedroom playing with a handgun taken from a family member’s backpack. The victim was taken to Perry County Hospital where he died from his injuries.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/34609415/12-year-old-shot-and-killed-in-perry-county
February 20, 2017 – Memphis – INJURY
A 4-year-old was unintentionally shot by his brother. The brother was playing with the gun and dropped it, causing it to discharge. The children’s grandmother claims she fired a gun to intimidate people she said had shot into her home. She said she put the gun “back into the box but forgot to lock it.”
http://www.fox13memphis.com/news/4-year-old-child-shot-in-north-memphis/495654841
January 17, 2017 – Cocke County – FATALITY
The mother of a 12-year-old boy called EMS to report that her son had shot himself. Upon arrival, EMS tried to revive the child but he did not survive.
http://wate.com/2017/01/18/tbi-investigates-death-of-cocke-county-12-year-old/http://wate.com/2017/01/18/tbi-investigates-death-of-cocke-county-12-year-old/
January 17, 2017 – Springfield – INJURY
A 5-year-old found a handgun in a bedroom and fired it, striking the child’s 9-year-old cousin in the arm. No charges have been filed.
http://www.newschannel5.com/news/9-year-old-shot-in-the-arm-by-5-year-old
tagged with Accidental shooting children, Child access prevention, Featured, Irresponsible gun storage, MaKayla's Law, Negligent firearm storage, Safe storage, Safe Tennessee Project, Sara Kyle, Sherry Jones, Unintentional shooting children
Gun Violence in Tennessee
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Fat weighs heavy on the brain
New study shows obesity interferes with memory, thinking and reasoning
Obesity, or being extremely overweight, isn't problematic only because of the extra pounds. The condition also boosts a person’s risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Now research indicates that obesity also leads to problems with memory, thinking and reasoning. The good news, an international team of scientists reports, is that the damage may be undone through weight loss.
Earlier studies had connected obesity-related diseases to cognitive problems. The word cognitive comes from cognition, which refers to the brain processes involved in gathering, analyzing and using information. In the previous studies, people with heart disease or high blood pressure — diseases strongly tied to obesity — scored lower on memory, thinking and reasoning tests than did people who didn't weigh as much.
Health experts define obesity using a scale called the body mass index, or BMI. Anybody can figure out his or her own BMI — it’s a math calculation that uses height and weight. To find out your BMI, follow the “Calculate your BMI” link under “Further Reading.” If a person’s BMI is greater than 30, then that person is considered to be obese.
For the new study, scientists wanted to know if obesity caused the lower scores on cognitive tests. The researchers set up an experiment involving 150 obese volunteers. The new study was led by John Gunstad, a psychologist at Kent State University in Ohio who studies how diseases affect thinking abilities.
Gunstad and his colleagues asked the 150 obese people to take cognitive tests. The scientists then compared the test results with those from healthy people. The researchers found that, in general, the obese study participants’ scores were lower than those of healthy people. On some tests, including memory tests, nearly 1 in 4 scored low enough to be considered learning disabled, or handicapped.
After the initial test, 109 of the obese participants underwent a type of surgery that helps people lose weight. Twelve weeks after the procedure, the patients had lost about 50 pounds each. Gunstad and his colleagues tested the group again and found that patients who had lost weight scored higher on memory tests.
That wasn’t true for people who hadn’t lost weight, either through surgery or other ways. Those people did worse on the second round of tests.
“That was a bit surprising,” Gunstad told Science News.
In another study, the researchers investigated a possible cause for the connection between obesity and brain functions. The scientists used a tool called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to see inside people’s brains. MRIs, which use magnetic fields and radio waves, produce three-dimensional images of internal organs.
Gunstad and his colleagues used MRI to study the nerve bundles that shuttle information through the brain. A white, fatty substance surrounds and protects these bundles. Gunstad and his colleagues found damage in this protective outer coating in obese people.
“It’s not as though a cable has been cut,” Gunstad told Science News, but the damage could be a problem for signals trying to get from one place to another in the brain.
Mark Bastin, a brain-imaging expert at the University of Edinburgh Western General Hospital in the United Kingdom, told Science News that Gunstad’s MRI work was interesting and thorough. But he noted that because Gunstad’s study was small, the results should be considered an early step in the larger scientific investigation.
Inside the brain, obesity may damage nerve channels. In the bigger picture, obesity impairs thinking, memory and reasoning. In the biggest picture of all, inside and out, obesity is bad news for a person’s mind and matter. About 1 in 3 adult Americans, or 72 million people in this country, are obese, and all face higher risks of heart problems, cancer and diabetes, as well as cognitive problems.
“Doctors have known for a long time that being overweight is bad for your body,” Gunstad says. “It can damage your heart and make it harder to breathe.” Now his research shows that being overweight can also damage the brain, “especially,” he notes, “the parts of your brain most important for paying attention and learning new things. This could make it hard to do your best and get good grades in school.”
In recent years, the number of children and teens who are overweight has been climbing dramatically. “If this pattern continues,” Gunstad says, “it will put many people at risk for brain damage and problems at school and work.” That’s why he recommends that kids help protect their brain by maintaining a healthy weight, talking to parents and teachers about eating healthy foods, and getting enough exercise. After all, the science argues, “a healthy body leads to a healthy brain.”
POWER WORDS (adapted from the New Oxford American Dictionary and the National Institutes of Health)
obesity Extremely overweight, with a BMI in excess of 30.
BMI Body mass index. An indicator of whether a person is overweight or underweight.
MRI Magnetic resonance imaging. A method that uses powerful magnetic fields and radio waves to create three-dimensional images of internal organs.
epidemic A widespread occurrence of a disease.
magnetic field The space around a magnet where magnetic forces can be detected and measured.
radio waves An electromagnetic wave within the range of radio frequencies.
nerve A whitish fiber or bundle of fibers that carries signals to the brain or spinal cord, or from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and organs
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Zap! updated!
Zap! The Science Fiction RPG
There’s a new version of Zap! on RPGNow. A lot of work went into this one. There are some rules clarifications, and significant new optional rules for things like speeding ship-to-ship combat, adding hit locations to regular combat, and pages and pages of new example equipment. Many of the most useful tables have been added to a new Appendix for easy printing, and there’s a whole bunch of new art, mostly from public domain SF comics of yore. Plus I’ve included a 5 page Quickstart PDF with just enough rules to generate a character and go.
Also, I’ve been running a lot of G+ Hangout games using Zap! If you want to join in the fun, follow me or the SFX! RPGs community on G+. We’re trying to set up an every-Tuesday-night SF RPG hangout, where I’ll be one of the rotating GMs, and I have pick-up games several other nights of the week. If I can get interest, I’d love to run a longer term campaign instead of pick-up one-shots. Drop on by!
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Membership application and renewal
A membership fee is payable on joining the club, and is renewable annually in January.
If you join and pay during October, November or December you will be deemed to have paid your membership for the whole of the following year.
As a member, you will receive the Club's quarterly Bulletin, and the annual Journal, The Tasmanian Naturalist.
Annual membership fees (in Australian dollars, AUD) are:
Family $35.00
Concession/Junior $25
For a postal subscription to The Tasmanian Naturalist only, the annual fees (in Australian dollars, AUD) are:
Australia $20.00
Overseas $25.00
You can download an application form for paying by post or for bringing along to a regular TFNC meeting, or you can pay online, as follows:
Select a membership or subscription category, click Pay Now button, then enter your details and pay by credit card or PayPal account.
Family $35.00 Adult $30.00 Concession / Junior $25.00 Tas Naturalist subscription only: Australia $20.00 Tas Naturalist subscription only: overseas $25.00
2019 Committee
Tas Field Naturalists Committee elected at 7 March 2019 at the AGM
President: Kevin Bonham......................................president@tasfieldnats.org.au
Vice-President: Genevieve Gates
Secretary: Margaret Warren................................ secretary@tasfieldnats.org.au
Treasurer: Jane Catchpole...................................treasurer@tasfieldnats.org.au
Naturalist Editor: Mick Brown..............................mickjbrown1@outlook.com
Bulletin Editor: Deirdre Brown.............................tfn.bulletin.editor@gmail.com
Walks and Talks: Amanda Thomson....................
Librarian: Annabel Carle.......................................librarian@tasfieldnats.org.au
Website: Deirdre Brown........................................web.master@tasfieldnats.org.au
General Committee members:
Anna McEldowney
Abbey Throssell
Margaret Williams
Secretary's Report presented at AGM March 2019
At the end of what has been another good year for the club I would like to thank the committee members, most of whom have been serving on the committee for many years and who keep the club running smoothly.
Another vote of thanks goes to Amanda Thomson who organised all the interesting speakers and the excursions we have enjoyed throughout the year. The average attendance at meetings was 30 and 15 at excursions.
In March, members explored Tooms Lake, a place first visited by field nats in 1949 and the site of an Easter camp in 1969.
In September Maria and John Grist revealed the sites of some of the old huts on Mt Wellington and told of their history.
Also much appreciated by members was a tour of the TMAG collections facility at Rosny in November. Most people drive by these buildings without knowing what wonders are held within and Cathy Byrne gave us a most interesting and informative tour.
In December we ended the year with an excursion to Echo Sugarloaf and a well attended BBQ at Randall’s Bay.
Lastly a thank you to everyone who contributes photos to the Field Nats Facebook page. The site is followed by people not only from Tasmania but from all parts of the country. It is a good way of attracting new members and particularly young people who are the future of our club, so keep up the good work.
Speakers in 2018
February: Simon Grove: Sinking to New Depths in Pursuit of Rare Tasmanian Mollusks (37 Members and Guests)
March: Kevin Bonham: Highlights from Field Nats Bulletins (22)
April: Els Wakefield: The Natural Wonders and People of Zambia, Botswana and Namibia (23)
May: Peter Fehre: Another Natural Asset – Tasmania’s Native Orchids (37)
June: Richard Robinson: Fungi, Fire and Forestry (27)
July: Rod Griffin: Reproductive Biology of Australian Acacias (37)
August: Stephen Harris: Tasmanian Callitris (27)
September: Maria and John Grist: Mt Wellington Huts (35)
October: Helen Fitton: Seaweed Science (17)
November: Cathy Byrne: Lepidopterist’s Taxonomic Toolkit & Thalaina (Satin Moths) (35)
December: Members Night (28)
February: Gould’s Lagoon (18 Members and Guests)
March: Toom’s Lake (13)
April: New Town Falls (17)
May: Handsome Caves (19)
June: Woodvine (16)
July: Mt Pleasant Observatory (14)
August: Eucalyptus Id with Mark Wapstra (14)
September: Mt Wellington Hut Ruins (14)
October: Rheban Beach (10)
November: Tour of TMAG Collections and Research Facility (13)
December: BBQ - Echo Sugarloaf, Randalls Bay (18)
Margaret Warren, Secretary
Here is a pdf of the Tasmanian Field Naturalists Rules
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Facebook Launches Another Mobile site
By Aakar May 19, 2010
Facebook is launching another mobile site 0.facebook.com.
0.facebook.com is a new mobile site that includes all of the key features of Facebook but is optimized for speed. It initially is available through more than 50 mobile operators in 45 countries and territories with zero data charges. Facebook claims 0.facebook.com is faster than mobile site m.facebook.com.
In a blog post, Facebook says “Yet when using the mobile internet, people around the world face two main challenges—sometimes the experience is too slow to be fun and the cost of data plans and understanding them can be daunting. We have designed 0.facebook.com to help solve these two barriers and we hope that even more people will discover the mobile Internet with Facebook as a result.”
0.facebook.com is fast and free but it is only available on the networks of certain mobile operators. People can still access Facebook from its standard mobile site m.facebook.com or mobile site for touch screen mobile devices, touch.facebook.com, under operator's standard data charges.
Facebook is launching 0.facebook.com in partnership with more than 50 mobile operators around the world, listed below.networks.
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Products with this ingredient
Soya lecithin is a fatty substance that occurs naturally in eggs, whole grains and legumes (which include soybeans, peas and alfalfa). Lecithin was first isolated by Maurice Gobley in 1850 from egg yolk and named after it (Greek ‘lekithos,’meaning ‘yolk of egg’).
It is a vital, structural, cell membrane component of living organisms, and it is produced naturally in the body.
Most commercial lecithin now comes from soya bean, from which it was obtained in the 1930s.
In nutrition, egg was long a mystery to researchers because it is very high in cholesterol, but eating them in moderation didn't seem to significantly increase cholesterol blood levels. This was until lecithin in the egg was found to help prevent cholesterol from attaching itself to the walls of blood vessels. There are many health claims about lecithin as a supplement - from helping against neurological conditions to improving liver function.
Maurice Gobley identified it as the substance that allows oil and water to mix - which makes lecithin unusual in that it's a naturally occurring surfactant (surface-active agent).
Surfactants, also known as tensides or wetting agents, are substances used to lower the surface tension of a liquid, which then allows easier spreading of product and helps to emulsify it (blend two ingredients that would otherwise separate, such as water and oil). For this reason, lecithin is a highly valuable ingredient in cosmetics and is also widely used in the food industry to help improve the texture of baked goods, sauces and processed foods, such as margarine and chocolate.
When applied in a cosmetic product, lecithin also softens the skin and helps the absorption of other ingredients.
Adding a natural surfactant to the formula also reduces the need for synthetic ingredients and allows for more sophisticated blends of raw materials.
Soya Lecithin can be found in these products
H'Suan Wen Hua
875.00 THB
Hair Custard
The proof is in the pudding...
Sassy, not brassy, hair
Blousey
Go bananas for this moisture-restorer
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Video Shows Grisly Aftermath of Fatal Shooting of Black Man in Minnesota
A car at the scene of a shooting of a man involving a St. Anthony Park Police officer in Falcon Heights, Minn., on July 6, 2016.
Leila Navidi—Star Tribune/AP
By Justin Worland
Updated: July 7, 2016 2:15 PM ET
Police shot and killed a Minnesota man Wednesday evening following a traffic stop in an incident that drew protests in the state’s capitol and parallels to other fatal shootings of black men including a shooting in Louisiana earlier this week.
A female passenger streamed the aftermath of the incident on Facebook Live showing Philando Castile, 32, bloodied in the driver’s seat and a police officer with his gun still visible through the window. The woman’s daughter sits in the backseat of the car.
In the video, the woman, Diamond Reynolds, says the officer asked Castile for his license and registration. Castile reached for the information as requested and also informed the officer that he had a gun in the car and was licensed to carry, the woman says.
“I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hands up,” the officer says in the graphic and expletive-laced video.
“Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him,” the woman says in the video. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir.”
The video continues as Reynolds and her daughter are detained and transported in the back of a police car. “It’s OK,” the daughter tells her mother. “I’m right here with you.”
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. in Falcon Heights, a St. Paul suburb, and Castile was declared dead at a nearby hospital less than an hour later, according to the Star Tribune.
The video—now viewed more than 2 million times on Facebook—gained immediate traction online over night. Protesters gathered in front of the governor’s residence in Madison shouting “no justice, no peace.” An investigation into the shooting by the St. Anthony Police officer is being led by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The department’s interim chief said he few details about the incident, according to the Associated Press.
The incident occurred as outrage continues in Louisiana over a video of a black man being shot repeatedly by police. In that video, the man—identified as Alton Sterling—had already been apprehended and appeared to be lying prostrate on the ground when an officer opened fire at point blank range. The U.S. Department of Justice is leading the investigation in that case. More than 120 black men have been killed by police in the U.S. in 2016.
Write to Justin Worland at justin.worland@time.com.
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GARZA COUNTY
John Leffler
Garza County Map. Courtesy of the Texas Almanac. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.
GARZA COUNTY. Garza County is in Northwest Texas, partly on the Llano Estacado and partly in the breaks of the lower plains. It is bordered on the north by Crosby County, on the west by Lynn County, on the east by Kent County, and on the south by Borden and Scurry counties. Its center point is 33°10' north latitude and 101°20' west longitude, forty-two miles southeast of Lubbock. The county was named for a pioneer Bexar County family of which José Antonio de la Garza was a well-known member. It covers 914 square miles of rough, broken land drained by tributaries of the Brazos River; elevations vary from 2,100 to 3,000 feet above sea level. The area's sandy, loamy, and clay soils support grass, small mesquite, and thorny scrubs and cacti. The county averages 18.91 inches of rainfall per year and has an average minimum temperature in January of 28° F and an average maximum in July of 95°. The growing season averages 216 days.
Evidences of early man found in Garza County include Clovis spearheads; in 1934 archeologists also discovered the sixteen-foot-long tusk of a prehistoric imperial mammoth. A type of arrowpoint used by hunters before A.D. 1500 was uncovered in the county during the 1960s and named the Garza point. From about 1700 to the 1870s the region was dominated by Kiowas and by Comanches of the Wanderers band, who hunted in the area. These Indians held the Southern Plains for 175 years before yielding to the United States Army in the 1870s.
Garza County was formed from Bexar County in 1876. It began to be settled by ranchmen during the mid-1870s, when buffalo hunting had nearly devastated the herds. Two of the earliest ranchers in the county were Andy and Frank Long, who stocked the range south of the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos for their OS Ranch. In 1879 W. C. Young and Ben Galbraith established the Llano Cattle Co in the northwest part of Garza County. The ubiquitous West Texas rancher John B. Slaughter used Garza County rangeland during the 1870s. In 1880 the census counted thirty-six residents in the county. The last Indian raid in the county occurred in 1883 at the Curry Comb Ranch, owned by the Llano Cattle Company; in 1884, the Square and Compass Ranch put up the first barbed wire fence in the county. The disastrous winter of 1885–86 (see BIG DIE-UP) and the drought of 1886 discouraged some of the early ranchers, and by 1890 only fourteen residents remained. During the 1890s, however, other ranchers and a few farmers began to move in and drilled wells to help ensure their water supply. By 1900 thirty-eight farms and ranches had been established in Garza County and the population had risen to 185, but at the turn of the century the county's economy was still almost entirely devoted to cattle production. The agricultural census for 1900 reported only 545 improved acres in the county, with only twenty-one acres planted in corn, but the cattle herds that year comprised 29,094 head.
The development of the county quickly accelerated after 1906, when Charles William Post bought 250,000 acres in Lynn and Garza counties to start an experimental colony. He bought a number of ranches, fenced off the land in 160-acre tracts, laid out a townsite, built houses, and in other ways worked to attract settlers. In 1907 Garza County was formally organized, with the new town of Post City designated as county seat. Land speculators and liquor were banned in the settlement. That same year, Stockton Henry began publication of the Post City Post. By one estimate, more than 1,200 families followed the cereal millionaire to the colony, and the company town Post named for himself hastened the development of the entire region. Transportation improved with an extension southward through the county of the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway in 1910.
C. W. Post sponsored a number of agricultural experiments in the area. His rainmaking efforts between 1910 and 1913 were some of the more colorful, if less conclusive, of these. Post's "rain battles," as he called them, involved the heavy use of explosives fired from kites and towers along the rim of the Caprock. Though more than half of the "battles" produced immediate measurable moisture, the project did not actually contribute to the colony's success in agriculture. Nevertheless, by 1910 there were eighty-one farms and ranches in Garza County, and the population had increased to 1,995; by 1920 farms and ranches numbered 425 and residents 4,253.
Though C. W. Post is and was best known for his cereal company, little corn or wheat was grown by the settlers he attracted to his colony: instead, cotton became the foundation of the area's agricultural economy. Post built a gin in 1909 and a cotton mill in 1911, and by 1920 cotton culture occupied almost 18,358 acres in Garza County; corn was planted on 1,389 acres, and wheat production was negligible. By 1925, 617 farms had been established; by 1929, the number was 796, and more than 51,100 acres in the county was planted in cotton. But the cotton boom peaked in the 1920s, and by the end of the decade poultry production was growing in importance. In 1929 county farmers reported more than 36,000 chickens and produced almost 112,000 dozen eggs. Meanwhile, cattle continued to play a significant role in the economy; in 1929 more than 24,000 cattle were counted in Garza County, and sorghum culture occupied more than 10,000 acres of county land.
Many of the county's residents suffered through the effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl during the 1930s. Cotton production dropped significantly, and many farmers left their lands. By 1940 cotton was grown on only about 35,000 acres, and the number of farms in the county had dropped to 721. The discovery of oil in the area in 1926 helped somewhat to offset the worst effects of the depression. Although the area lost many farms during the 1930s, the county's population actually rose slightly during that time; in 1940, 5,678 people lived in Garza County.
Starting in the late 1940s, petroleum became more important. Production of crude totaled only 12,278 barrels in 1938 and 11,216 barrels in 1944. By 1948, however, it had increased to more than 2,577,700 barrels; more than 5,507,000 barrels were pumped in 1956, and more than 6,752,000 in 1978. By January 1991, 250,618,823 barrels of petroleum had been extracted in Garza County since 1926. The petroleum industry helped to diversify and stabilize the economy, which remains fundamentally agricultural. The most important county industries in the early 1980s were agribusiness, oil and gas extraction, and textile mills. In 1982, 94 percent of the county was devoted to ranching and farming, and about 11 percent was cultivated, with cotton, sorghum, wheat, and hay being the most important crops. About 22 percent of county workers were employed in manufacturing. In the mid-1980s Garza County produced an $18 million annual average income from agriculture, 60 percent from crops, mostly cotton and grains; the remainder came from cattle and hogs. About 14,000 acres of the county's farmland was irrigated.
Most of Garza County’s voters supported the Democratic presidential candidates in virtually every election from 1908 (the first year the area participated in a national election) through 1964; the only exception occurred in 1928, when Republican Herbert Hoover carried the area. The area’s political loyalties began to shift, however, in 1968, when Democrat Hubert Humphrey could win only a plurality of the county’s votes, and in 1972, when Republican Richard took the area with almost 70 percent of the total. Though Democrat Jimmy Carter was able to win in Garza County in 1976, the Republican presidential candidates carried the county in every election from 1980 through 2004.
U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 207 cross the county north to south, and U.S. Highway 380 crosses west to east, , and the area is also served by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. After the 1940s the population fluctuated, rising in the 1950s and 1970s but dropping during the 1960s and 1980s. The census counted 6,264 residents in 1950, 6,611 in 1960, 5,289 in 1970, 5,336 in 1980, and 5,143 in 1990. In 1990 Hispanics accounted for about 25 percent of the population.
The U.S. census counted 6,435 people living in Garza County in 2014. About 44.2 percent were Anglo, 48.3 percent were Hispanic, and 7.3 percent African American. Of residents age twenty-five and older, 70 percent had completed high school and 10 percent had college degrees. In the early twenty-first century agriculture, oil production, and hunting leases were important elements of the local economy. In 2002 the county had 246 farms and ranches covering 499,552 acres, 81 percent of which were devoted to pasture and 18 percent to crops. That year farmers and ranchers in the area earned $9,738,000; crop sales accounted for $6,291,000 of the total. Cotton, beef cattle, and hay were the chief agricultural products. More than 4,291,000 barrels of oil were produced in the county in 2004; by the end of that year 334,732,515 barrels of oil had been taken from county lands since 1926.
Post (population, 5,470) is the county’s seat of government and largest town; other communities include Justiceburg, Graham, Close City, and Pleasant Valley. The county offers visitors lake activities, scenic areas, the Post-Garza Museum, and Founders Day, which is held in September.
County Historical Survey Committee, Wagon Wheels: A History of Garza County, ed. Charles Didway (Seagraves, Texas: Pioneer, 1973).
Handbook of Texas Online, John Leffler, "GARZA COUNTY," accessed July 18, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcg03.
Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Modified on September 2, 2016. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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On Set | Inside A Three-Michelin Omakase
By T: The New York Times Style Magazine Singapore
Gourmet /26 November 2018
Earlier in November, the two-time three-Michelin starred chef, Masaki Miyakawa popped by Singapore for a short pop-up restaurant at the Nami restaurant and bar in the Shangri-La hotel. While the pop-up stint ran for two full weeks, Miyakawa himself was here for only five days — he closed his namesake restaurant, Sushi Miyakawa in Sapporo, for all five days — and rushed back to Sapporo to tend to the surge of winter tourists and diners.
Miyakawa's career started after he graduated from high school, a time when he was in search of a chef apprenticeship. "At first, I was just interested in becoming a chef — any kind of chef. Then I saw an advertisement calling for sushi chefs. So I decided to take this path," says Miyakawa.
"There are so many kinds of sushi in Japan," says Miyakawa as he lists them out — the takeaway sushi stores, the conveyor belt (Kaiten) sushi restaurants, and the top-notch omakase style sushi that he does now. "In places like Kaiten sushi, the cheap sushi restaurants, it's easy to make the nigiri. You just need one week of training to make a nigiri," laughs Miyakawa.
His training was, however, vastly different from the one described above. It took him three years before he was allowed to touch a fish. "First, I started off as a dishwasher. I was washing dishes every day. After that, I became a chef who made food for the staff — I made meals for my seniors and they would comment if the food was too salty or sweet. That was how I gained experience and improved." That took three years.
He then had to learn to make basic styles of sushi, namely the maki and gunkan. "After work, I will take home the shari [rice] and take old newspapers, cut them like nori [seaweed] and practice rolling them up," recalls Miyakawa.
When he was finally allowed to "handle" a fish, he found himself removing the scales, then the fishes' heads, before he was allowed to touch the precious flesh. In between was a rigorous training of learning every different type of fish, their source, the conditions they were brought up, and how all these factors affected the taste and texture of the fish — and therefore, the dining experience.
He saw his first three-Michelin star crowning back when he was training at Sushi Yoshitake in Hong Kong. Later, he returned to Japan, set up his own Sushi Miyakawa, and earned three Michelin stars for himself in 2017. To Miyakawa, there is no lofty recipe or method behind these Michelin accolades. It's about knowledge of the ingredients and careful attentiveness to the diner.
Here, Miyakawa's video interview with T Singapore:
"Shokunin refers to someone who is committed to and focussed on what he is doing. Sushi chefs are shokunins because they can only make sushi. Sushi chefs? They can only do this, but they are good at doing this.
I am Masaki Miyakawa. I was born in 1970, I am 48 years old. I am from Hokkaido, from a small town in Asahikawa. Now, I'm currently living in Sapporo where Sushi Miyakawa is.
I think sushi making is everything — it's art, it's mathematics. I need to see what the situation of the fish is. If it's salty, I will need to add lesser soy sauce. Everything is calculated.
When I step on the counter, I'm thinking of how to satisfy the customer. When I'm making the sushi, I am thinking of what the situation of the fish is. For example, when the fish is firm, I will make the rice firmer as well. So the guests will be able to enjoy the texture of the fish. Or if the eel is soft, I will make sure the rice is soft as well, so it melts and sets well in your mouth. It's usually omakase that I make, where I choose and serve dishes that I think is in the best quality. But I look at guests' reaction when they eat. If the guest had something oily and is reacting to it, I will choose something else.
Anyone can do this job, but you need a sense of effort and commitment. You do need patience for this job. But what motivates me to keep going is when my mentors praise me for what I do or when the customers say, "This tastes good."
I am not good with words. Sushi is a tool for me to communicate with others. I create a dish, serve it to the guests, and from the reactions the guests make, I communicate with them."
Gourmet Is Cold Brew Better Than Iced Coffee?
Gourmet The Scientific Art of Ageing Whiskies
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Should Rival Automakers Be Scared Of The Hyundai Kona Electric?
• August 22, 2018
To date, Hyundai hasn’t done a whole lot in the electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid marketplace. Its IONIQ electric car (available for the last year or so) has been well-received, but due to battery supply issues, it’s not always been super-easy to get hold of one. That, and while efficient, its range isn’t anything to get super-excited about.
But now there’s a new Hyundai electric car coming to market in the form of the Hyundai Kona Electric. It’s already available in some markets, and should be available in many world markets by the end of this year.
Offering the same styling as the gasoline Hyundai Kona SUV, this compact five-seater also manages an EPA-approved range of 258 miles (415 kilometers), placing it above the Chevrolet Bolt EV, Renault Zoe EV and Nissan LEAF in the range charts. It also offers up to 100 kW rapid charging, but retails for less than the long-range Tesla model 3.
Which brings us to today’s question. If Hyundai can make enough, should other automakers be scared? We think so. here’s why.
Don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe and support us using one of the two links above.
Five Things We Don't Yet Know About Tesla's...
Why Hasn't Battery Swapping For Electric Cars...
What Type Of Charging Is Best For Your Electric Car?
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Photo credit: King of Hearts
by Stuart
The Scoop: San Francisco
...you’ll leave your heart in San Francisco!
A vibrant, hilly city in Northern California, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, best known for its year-round fog and cable cars. Forward-thinking and ultra-modern in outlook, bohemian and old-fashioned in style, with so many things to see and do we dare you not to fall insanely in love with this eclectic city!
English (main language). San Francisco is a culturally diverse city with many different, co-existing districts. As such, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog (Filipino), (and numerous other languages) can sometimes be heard.
Autumn and spring are considered the best times to visit San Francisco. September to November offers some of the year’s warmest temperatures and most sparse crowds, with around 11 hours of daily sunshine from September, then decreasing by about an hour a month thereafter.
With average daily temperatures around 14°C from July to October, SF is rarely sweltering. Spring offers mild temperatures and less rainfall. July is the busiest and hottest month, as average daily highs can reach around 24°C with around 14 hours of sunshine. Even though the city is rarely freezing, January is the coldest and wettest month, at around 10°C and roughly 119mm of rainfall.
Around early February is great for the Chinese New Year Parade with events held all over the Bay Area to celebrate and preserve the traditions of one of the world’s most distinct and historic Chinatowns.
Late June is usually the best time to catch the annual Pride Parade when the entire city is awash with rainbows and bright colours in celebration of everyone and diversity. As *arguably* the birthplace of the LGBT movement and culture, the scale of the celebrations can only be described as epic and truly something to behold, with stuff happening all over town!
Not wanting to settle for just one massive street party, on the first Sunday of October San Francisco also plays host to the Castro Street Fair. This is an LGBT street festival, featuring the unique character of the community in events across the city but primarily focused on the Castro area.
The Ghirardelli Square Tree Lighting Ceremony towards the end of November is a joyous spectacle encompassing all things festive and sweet - with live music and an abundance of treats for inducing that special Christmassy feeling.
As one of the world’s top travel destinations with up to 24 million visitors per year, flights from the UK are frequent and popular. The area is served by two major airports, San Francisco International Airport and Oakland, both within easy reach of the city. Low cost carriers, such as Norwegian, hold regular sales promotions when return tickets from the UK to Oakland can be snapped up at around £249. These don't include meals or baggage however, so you'll need to factor in another £100 if you need them. When not on sale, a ticket on Norwegian will set you back around £350 (or £450 with baggage.) Thomas Cook Airlines (read our review here) regularly include San Francisco in flash sales, with tickets coming in at £300 including baggage, so bargains are there to be had if you can be flexible on dates.
BA fly their Airbus A380 into SFO, which is a fantastic way to travel. Tickets will come in anywhere between £502 and £800 for an economy return. A typical economy Avios redemption will set you back 32,500 Avios plus around £350 in taxes and charges. My advice would be to check out prices on Momondo, or keep an eye on our Travelscoop email newsletter for the latest offer alerts.
While you’re there
As when visiting most popular cities, it’s best to work out a rough daily budget before you go, allowing for some contingency.
“Sanny Franny” has so many iconic things to see and do that budgets can easily spiral out of control. While the city isn’t as expensive as New York, it isn’t cheap either. A midrange daily spend (excluding accommodation) is likely to cost around $130. This takes into account eating out, entertainment, attractions, public transport and tips. NB: tipping in SF, as in most of America, is essential. Only exclude or reduce tips for exceptionally poor service.
If you love to tick off big attractions, the San Francisco CityPASS is a great option at about £70 for an adult and £52 per child. Although it doesn’t include Alcatraz, it is valid for 9 days after first use, saves around 42% on gate prices, and often skips the need to queue up. It covers:
Cable car and Muni bus transport (unlimited for 3 consecutive days)
Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise Adventure
Exploratorium OR de Young Museum
On top of all the above, the booklet comes with lots of restaurant and shopping money off coupons in the back.
Must-see: Alcatraz Island
Seeing and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge is free, so if you’re going to pay to visit one big tourist attraction in San Francisco, then it has to be Alcatraz Island. Located in San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, the Island is best known for its federal prison which closed in 1963. Holding prisoners as notorious as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the "Birdman of Alcatraz") and George "Machine Gun" Kelly, the stories are brought to life with an amazing spine-chilling reality through the immersive cellhouse audio tour. The wash-house in particular can leave visitors feeling a sombre sense of the true harsh realities of prison life. Hearing the countless failed escape attempts is a highlight. The Island itself is managed by the National Park Service and has a history which stretches far beyond the prison, as well as being a habitat for nesting seabirds.
Visitors can reach the island by ferry in around 15 minutes from Pier 33, close to Fisherman’s Wharf. There are various tours available for Alcatraz visitors:
Day Tour, circa $38 (approx. 2.5hrs)
Night Tour, circa $45 (approx. 2.5hrs)
Behind the Scenes, circa $90 (approx. 4.5hrs)
Alcatraz & Angel Island (seasonal tour, approx. 5.5hrs)
Note, it is strongly advisable to book tickets online well in advance of travel to San Francisco as Alcatraz Island tours are extremely popular and can sell out many weeks in advance. Visit Alcatraz Cruises to book.
You can see the Golden Gate Bridge from many places all over the city, and even the plane as you’re coming in to land at San Francisco International Airport, if you look hard enough! Walking and driving over it are free. But the absolute highlight of my own trip to San Francisco was hiring a bike and cycling over it. Donning a helmet and setting off towards San Francisco Bay on a blue-sky sunny day is always the first memory that comes back to me of my time in the city. Don’t worry if you’re not a very experienced cyclist (it was my first time on a bike in 30 years!), the route is obvious and easy to navigate with cycle lanes alongside breath-taking scenery, and even a café for a quick pit-stop! I’d recommend riding into the beautiful town of Sausalito on the other side of the Bridge and stopping for lunch at one of the many Bay-side restaurants. I realised during the return bike ride, not only that I was in the best place in the world at that moment, but also that going over the Bridge on a bicycle was an exhilaratingly joyous must!
Top tip: In Sausalito, don’t just stop at one of the first couple of bike stops you come to where you’ll be charged for leaving your bike for a few hours. Ride a little further up the road and you’ll come across plenty of free bike parking, and for as long as you want to stay. Just don’t forget to lock your bike and remove all valuables before leaving it!
While you're there, a great restaurant to check out is Venice Gourmet - kind of resembling an antique shop, I enjoyed an enormous cheeseboard and amazing clam chowder.
Baseball Game
Not having a clue about the rules of baseball but wanting to try out something typically and iconically American, I booked tickets online the day before for a home San Francisco Giants vs. San Diego Padres game. And what an experience! Based at AT&T Park, the MUNI (San Francisco’s underground system) journey was an experience in itself as we encountered ever more excited Giants fans, decked out in their team’s orange and black colours. The first sight of the unique position of the stadium in front of the Bay was a definite wow factor moment. Despite not really knowing what was happening on the field, the atmosphere alone was incredible and infectious. A walk around the copious food and beverage stands and witnessing entire generations of families all out for an enjoyable afternoon was inspiring.
Tickets: Bigger savings the earlier you book, and ticket prices vary depending on view. However, tickets can start from as little as $10 per person for the back rows. Don’t forget to factor in costs for getting to the venue, and food and drink, which you will undoubtedly want to buy to enter into the spirit of it all! Nearest MUNI stop is King St and 2nd. Tickets can be purchased here.
Not really a hidden gem, but do try some of the best sourdough you’re likely to taste from any of the Boudin Bakery & Cafés in San Francisco: The flagship Fisherman’s Wharf bakery is impressive, with as many different types of sourdough as you can possibly think of!
Also, try out Greens vegetarian restaurant for a very nice meal spent looking out across the bay at the Golden Gate Bridge. Tasty food, if fairly costly for the portion sizes, but still a great experience in a relaxed atmosphere with fabulous waiting staff. The restaurant is popular so booking is advisable. Dress code is smart casual, but there is very little pretentiousness.
Check out these free (tip-based) San Francisco walking tours for more alternatives to seeing the city:
My Personal Highlights
San Francisco is easy to navigate by foot, tram, bus and MUNI. Accommodation away from the more expensive Fisherman’s Wharf/North Beach areas will probably allow for a cheaper stay and more of an overall understanding of the city and its vastly unique districts.
For my week-long stay, I found an affordable top-quality Airbnb apartment (check out our Airbnb guide) in The Castro, generally known as the “gay district”. As such, it’s awash with colour and rainbow flags, a cacophony of LGBT-related shops for all manner of tastes, rainbow road crossings, and people from across the LGBT spectrum comfortable enough to be who they are, and hold hands if they so desire. But what struck me more than anything is its inclusivity. Nobody, regardless of sex, race, age or sexual orientation seemed out of place there. About an hour and twenty minutes’ walk (or a much quicker tram or MUNI ride) from the Wharf area (the furthest part of the city we visited), this was a wonderful area to return back to base, and to have a drink or a meal, at whatever time of the day.
Mission Dolores Park, in The Mission District, was a fabulous place to go and chill, drink in the sights and generally mix with the locals. With far-reaching city views from the sloped edges of the park and occasional wafts of food, alcohol and recreationally-smoked cannabis (this smell quickly becomes a familiar one in California), I can still quite honestly say that this felt like my safest and best park experience, in the world, ever.
Thirty minutes’ walk from The Castro are the ‘Painted Ladies’, a magnificent row of brightly painted Victorian and Edwardian houses; almost a surprise for their individual simplicity yet sheer ‘presence’ and beauty, with the San Francisco skyline as a stunning backdrop. Note: San Francisco is hilly, so public transport is sometimes a better option for leg-weary travellers.
Muir Woods national monument, established 1908, is just north of San Francisco and is known for its awe-inspiring towering redwood trees and trails, and well worth a visit. Its tallest tree is a staggering 258 feet (79m). Open daily from 8am-5pm, entry is $10 per adult and free to children 15 or under.
The Perfect Book
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
San Francisco, 1976. A naïve young secretary, fresh out of Cleveland, tumbles headlong into a brave new world of laundromat Lotharios, pot-growing landladies, cut throat debutantes, and Jockey Shorts dance contests. The saga that ensues is manic, romantic, tawdry, touching, and outrageous.
Despite its age, this is a grippingly entertaining read as you become embroiled in the lives of the characters and their encounters in the city. Maupin brings San Francisco and each character to life with a unique pulsating energy, richness and charm. Intelligently funny and astonishingly forward-thinking for its day, I found it almost unputdownable!
A poetically written Steinbeck-typical novel without much of a plot. Rather, it is an attempt to capture the feeling and people of a place, the cannery district of Monterey, California, which is populated by a mix of those down on their luck and those who choose for other reasons not to live "up the hill" in the more respectable area of town. The "story" of Cannery Row follows the adventures of Mack and the boys, a group of unemployed yet resourceful men who inhabit a converted fish-meal shack on the edge of a vacant lot down on the Row, and the cast of fatalistic, humdrum, yet beautifully drawn characters who live close by.
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£599pp | 8nt New York, San Francisco & Las Vegas Trip
Flights included
£575pp | 7 nights at a 4* Gran Canaria resort
All-inclusive • Flights included
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£412pp | 7 nights at the 3* Ifa Interclub Atlantic, San Agustin (GC), Gran Canaria
£362pp | 7 nights at the 4* Occidental Ibiza, San Antonio Bay, Ibiza
£411pp | 7 nights at the 3* Elba Castillo San Jorge & Antigua Suite Hotel, Caleta de Fuste, Fuerteventura
£338pp | 7 nights at the 4* Hotel Best San Diego, Salou, Costa Dorada
£172pp Based on 2 people per night | Grand Hotel San Pietro, Sicily, Italy
Breakfast • Flights option available
£444pp | 7 nights at the 3* Apartments Playasol Riviera, San Antonio Bay, Ibiza
£320pp | 7 nights at the 3* Globales Pueblo Andaluz, San Pedro de Alcantara, Costa del Sol
£469pp | 7 nights at the 4* Palladium Hotel Palmyra, San Antonio, Ibiza
£412pp | 7 nights at the 4* Ole Galeon Ibiza Hotel, Puerto San Miguel, Ibiza
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Cartier To Launch Campaign For Love Jewelry On Facebook
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bySpencer Cain 8 years ago
If this isn’t a sign of the times, then I don’t know what is. Iconic jewelry brand Cartier is turning to Facebook for their latest campaign, and while I was tentative at first, after getting the whole scoop via WWD, I’m totally stoked.
The first leg of their second digital “How Far Would You Go For Love” campaign for the Love jewelry line will launch November 9 on the ridiculously popular social media platform. The brand has over 280,000 “fans” on Facebook, so this seems like a great way to reach the masses. While Cartier is a timeless name, it can’t hurt to market to a younger audience.
“A digital platform is a wonderful medium to express creativity,” said Corinne Delattre, senior vice president and global head of marketing at Cartier International. “Our mission is to keep the timelessness of our maison in the reign of the ‘endless now.'”
The short film directed by Waverly Films, features music from the band Air. The plot revolves around a New York City painter as he goes on a mission to find the perfect vision of a woman.
Frankly I love it, but anything related to Cartier Love can do no wrong in my eyes. Seriously — I’m still waiting for someone to buy me a Love bracelet (hint, hint). (I mean, what’s $5,000? Kim Kardashian spent $10 million on her wedding! I’d wear this everyday for the rest of my damn life! )
Anyway, check out the making of the video below and ponder: How far would you go for Love?
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May 10, 2018 May 10, 2018 by Cole Hickey
Ryan Coogler Would Love The Opportunity To Make A Female ‘BLACK PANTHER’ Spinoff
When Black Panther released back in February, it was met with social, critical, and commercial praise. Ryan Coogler was such an integral part of the movie’s success that Marvel is waiting on him before they start on the sequel. One of Coogler’s many achievements with the film was assembling an amazing cast of actors. Speaking Thursday afternoon at the Cannes Film Festival, he discussed his passions for many characters in his Marvel movie.
First, he spoke to the importance of the female cast members and the role their characters played in the film.
“I think you could argue they are more important. There’s a whole section of the film where T’Challa is out of the movie and you’re just following the women. That’s one of my favorite parts of the movie when I watched it, and I didn’t expect that. That part of the movie you feel like you’re watching something fresh and new. That part of it was exciting. We have these actresses who could easily carry their own movie. Some of them have before. We were so fortunate. I would watch a movie with them!”
The panel host’s follow up question was something that probably came to all our minds; would he ever want to make a Black Panther spin-off focusing on these characters?
“Oh man, that would be amazing if the opportunity came up. They did it in the comic-book version.”
Perhaps his appreciation for how the women of Wakanda can stand on their own and protect their homeland could lead to a similar plot point in the sequel. Hopefully his care and support of these characters could foster them into a position where they could help found an all female superhero team?
Would you like to see more of the women of Wakanda in the sequel to Black Panther? DO you think one or more of them should have their own movie? Tweet us @superbromovies and Cole
Source: Yahoo Movies
Black Panther is out now digitally and will be out on Blu-ray May 15!
“Black Panther” follows T’Challa who, after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African Nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T’Challa’s mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that put the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.
Posted in MCU News
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Buyers Guide Adhesive Tape Stock (No Lines)
2-Part carbonless- white, with 2 position permanent adhesive tape top & bottom
Black ink with gray back
FTC Amends Used Car Rule, Issues Revised Buyers Guide
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced final amendments updating the Used Car Rule by revising the Buyer's Guide that must be displayed on a used vehicle before that vehicle is displayed for sale or a customer is allowed to inspect it for the purpose of buying it. The amended rule is effective January 27, 2017. However, the final rule permits dealers to use their existing stock of Buyers Guides for up to one year after the effective date of the rule amendments.
These final amendments are the end result of a lengthy regulatory review process that began in 2008 and in which NADA played a central role. NADA submitted more than four sets of extensive comments with respect to this rule making, met with the FTC and other interested stakeholders, and coordinated with other trade associations and entities in the submission of numerous other comments.
The revised Buyers Guide contains a number of changes, many of which were sought by NADA to help dealers. For example, it contains a method for disclosing "certified" and other warranties that does not exist on the current Buyers Guide. It also allows dealers to disclose (if they choose) that the manufacturer's warranty has not expired on certain components of a vehicle.
In addition, NADA successfully argued against numerous other changes that were sought by so-called "consumer" groups, state attorneys general, and the plaintiffs' bar, and that were proposed in several different ways by the FTC. For example, among the suggestions that were not ultimately accepted by the FTC: a requirement that dealers disclose whether they obtained a vehicle history report and provide a copy to the consumer; inflammatory proposed language on the "As-Is" guide that stated "but you may have other legal rights and remedies for dealer misconduct"; and calls to regulate the sale of cars under the Used Car Rule based on their recall status.
NADA will issue more detailed guidance for dealers on the revised Buyers Guide. In the meantime, dealers should review the revised Buyers Guide carefully and work with your vendors and advisors to ensure that they are prepared to use the revised form as required by the final rule and their own state law.
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Oscar Robertson gives LeBron his blessing
‘I wish LeBron and I could have teamed up together.’
Up Next From Sports
Focus on Sport/Getty Images|Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
By Oscar Robertson
LeBron James just led his team to one of the most incredible comebacks in the history of professional sports – and that still isn’t enough for some people.
But it’s certainly good enough for me. I’m happy to use my first opportunity to contribute to The Undefeated to congratulate LeBron and his Cleveland Cavaliers coaches and teammates on what they just pulled off.
LeBron doesn’t need me to speak for him. His record on and off the court speaks for itself. But the way he willed the Cavaliers to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals was beyond the beyond. He showed himself to be a true gladiator, the ultimate competitor.
On paper, the Cavaliers did not appear to stack up with the Golden State Warriors. But as LeBron played the extra minutes, put in the extra effort, and carried the team on his back, he inspired both the Cavs’ starters and their bench to be more competitive and take the Warriors out of their game.
In the process, I think he displayed even more maturity, composure and command of the game than he has previously, and that only comes with experience.
LeBron has now been to the Finals six straight times and has won the ring in three of them. That puts him in some pretty rarefied company right there.
And to think he did not receive a single first-place vote for MVP in the NBA’s regular season. Frankly, I think the people who voted that way are biased and should be prohibited from voting in the future. But at the same time, I have no doubt that the snub gave LeBron some extra motivation.
Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, center, stands in the back of a Rolls Royce as it makes its way through the crowd lining the parade route in downtown Cleveland, celebrating the basketball team’s NBA championship.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
So I can understand why he might have gotten into it a bit with Steph Curry – at least verbally – as the series progressed. I found that fun to watch.
This championship was also a big win for all of northeastern Ohio.
Cleveland was once a “home away from home” for my Cincinnati Royals team in the NBA’s early years, and I’ve since visited there many times on both business- and basketball-related matters. So I have some sense of understanding of what ending a 52-year championship drought meant to the city and its long-suffering fans.
I learned in my own high school years at Indianapolis Crispus Attucks – when we became the first all-black team and the first Indianapolis team to win a state title – how a championship win can galvanize an entire city and bring people together.
It also brings you into the spotlight of public scrutiny and media coverage, which has both its plusses and minuses. With social media added to the equation the way it is today, the noise never stops.
I think LeBron is not always understood, often mischaracterized, often criticized. It seems that as soon as you become successful, the media, and often the fans, will be all over you. Having had a taste of that myself during my playing career, and again more recently in the blogosphere, I also have a sense of what that is like. I hate to think of how the haters would have responded if Cleveland had lost the series.
Any time an athlete is unique, or breaks the mold – especially today with all the overemphasis on analytics – and is not afraid to speak up, he or she will become a lightning rod for criticism. It comes with the territory. I think LeBron has handled it pretty well. I think he was able to tune out most of the white noise, focus on the task at hand, and respond only when he felt the time was right.
So, I want to cut through all the noise and talk about what I think LeBron represents as an athlete, an entrepreneur, a community leader, and – now that free agency has begun – someone who has been able to take advantage of the Oscar Robertson Rule to the ultimate degree for which it was intended.
LeBron, the basketball player
No one has ever before seen a player quite like LeBron. He’s a five-tool player, fundamentally sound, and able to do practically anything on the court. As the NBA continues to evolve, I think he is the model other players ought to emulate.
I also admire him for continuing to improve his command of the game and his basketball IQ, year after year, instead of coasting on his athleticism.
LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers battles for the ball with DeMarre Carroll #5 of the Atlanta Hawks in the first quarter during Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs.
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
And he understands and respects the history of the game, the players who came before him and set standards of play in various areas. Which many of today’s players do not.
Obviously LeBron is a physical force – a Shaquille O’Neal who can play outside, if you will – but he doesn’t depend only on his size and strength. He has great footwork, he can set up in any position on the court, and he now finishes much better when driving to the hoop.
His shot selection has improved, he’s become better at involving his teammates, better at finding the open man, and better at recognizing what the defense is giving him and countering accordingly instead of trying to force passes or shots that aren’t there. And his defense has improved. I don’t think Golden State was prepared for just how dominant a presence he could be at the opposite end of the court.
And he can still get better, as his mental approach to the game gets even better. He’ll find that the game will slow down for him even more.
He can become even better at involving his teammates in the game. He can develop a more varied repertoire of moves and shots around the basket – finesse as well as force. If he does that, he’ll put additional pressure on the defense and he might also save himself so much physical wear and tear.
If he can avoid injury, I think he can play pretty much as long as he wants to.
LeBron, the entrepreneur
I know how hard it is to be taken seriously in the business world when you’re an athlete – especially a black athlete. After 40 years of running my own companies, I still run into that kind of resistance.
That’s why I admire what LeBron has been able to accomplish off the court just as much as I do his basketball achievements.
LeBron’s business management company, LRMR Ventures, has set a new standard with its creativity, professionalism, and intelligence in branding, marketing, and making deals while keeping the business in-house. He and his boyhood friends, Rich Paul, Maverick Carter and Randy Mims, have shattered the stereotype of the posse that typically surrounds star athletes and entertainers and generated serious money on their own. And they just signed Ben Simmons, this year’s No. 1 NBA draft pick.
I think it’s actually been to their advantage that they grew their company as they did without going the usual route of – and picking up the usual attitudes from – working within established agencies in New York or Los Angeles.
In this manner, LeBron and his colleagues are setting a welcome example that other athletes still seem slow to emulate: You need to learn how to control your own destiny. Whatever the “conventional wisdom” says, there are always other avenues leading to the same goal.
LeBron, the community leader
LeBron James, right, finishes his ride during the LeBron James Family Foundation, King for Kids Bike-a-thon, in Akron, Ohio, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010.
AP Photo/Phil Long
Practically every athlete today has his or her own charitable foundation and/or causes for which they advocate. In reality, some of these are little more than photo ops – show up, smile for the cameras, shake some hands and go home. Not much in the way of personal involvement.
Because LeBron came out of challenging circumstances, he can personally relate to what people need. His community involvement is for real, and it’s personal as well as financial. He cares about the city of Akron, the city of Cleveland, and he has provided support in many different ways. He has also lent his support to NBA Cares initiatives when called upon.
I believe that if you’re blessed with talent that leads you to financial success, you have an obligation to give back and to set a good example. He has.
LeBron and the Oscar Robertson Rule
Forty years ago this year, after six years of groundbreaking legal action, my player rep colleagues in the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and I managed to secure a court settlement with the NBA that paved the way for free agency, not only in the NBA but ultimately in all of professional sports.
This settlement, known as the Oscar Robertson Rule, was a game-changer that forever altered the landscape. Players now had a degree of control over their own destinies instead of being bound to one team for life.
And you won’t believe how strongly the NBA owners opposed what we were trying to do. Today, some of the same people who vehemently opposed us are now taking credit for the growth and prosperity of franchises in all professional sports. What did the Los Angeles Clippers sell for, $2 billion?
It was the Oscar Robertson Rule that enabled LeBron to bypass college and join the NBA right out of high school. (This was before “one-and-done” was put into effect.)
It was the Oscar Robertson Rule that enabled LeBron to sign with the Miami Heat when his contract with the Cavaliers expired in 2010. He took a lot of heat for his alleged “disloyalty,” but he was simply exercising his prerogative as a businessman and making the decision he believed was in his own best interests.
Every professional athlete should have the right to make his or her own decisions about where to play, with whom, and for how much money. There is no other business that restricts the people who work in that business from making similar choices.
LeBron is now a free agent once again. I hope he re-signs with Cleveland, but at least he has the freedom to make that decision. And when a new salary cap kicks in the following year, he might already be under contract, or he may go through the same process all over again.
It’s often been said of LeBron that he really runs the franchise in Cleveland, that he makes or influences coaching and personnel decisions. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if so, more power to him! He wants to win. He may not always make the best choices, but then, how many coaches or general managers do? Looking back on my own career, I wish I had had similar opportunities. Maybe we wouldn’t have always played second fiddle to the Boston Celtics.
Finally, because I regard what I achieved as NBPA president equal to anything I ever achieved on the court, I’m happy to see LeBron taking a more active role in the NBPA, as first vice president and a member of the executive committee.
He demonstrated his leadership chops five years ago when he spoke up and rattled some cages during the lockout. Fortunately, since then the NBPA has elected an effective, high-profile president in Chris Paul, the first A-list player to accept that responsibility in 10 years.
There is a time commitment involved in working with the union, and you’ll never please all of your colleagues. But at least today, with social media, you can communicate with them immediately and act quickly when the situation demands.
And LeBron is a master of social media, whereas I haven’t got a clue. But one thing I am sure of is this: I wish LeBron and I could have teamed up together. Who could have beaten us?
Correction: An earlier version of this column incorrectly said LeBron James was NBPA executive vice president.
Oscar Robertson, the National Association of Basketball Coaches' "Player of the Century,” is also an established labor leader, entrepreneur, author, basketball ambassador, and an advocate for healthy living and organ disease prevention. He is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as an individual and as co-captain of the 1960 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic basketball team. The first player to average a triple-double for an entire season, he holds the NBA's career record for triple-double games (181) and previously held the single-season record of 41, which Russell Westbrook broke on April 9, 2017. The first black president of any national sports or entertainment labor organization, he led the National Basketball Players Association's class-action, anti-trust lawsuit against the NBA, resulting in the Oscar Robertson Rule which ultimately made NBA players the first pro athletes to achieve free agency. More than 120,000 readers have been schooled in the fundamentals of the game through his instructional books “Play Better Basketball” and “The Art of Basketball.” Find him at www.thebigo.com.
This Story Tagged: Cleveland Cavaliers Commentary LeBron James NBA Oscar Robertson
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Official Danny Crawford listens to Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks complain after he was called for a technical foul during the second half against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on Dec. 2, 2014, in Cleveland. The Cavaliers defeated the Bucks, 111-108. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
Larry Sanders is ready to play ball again
2:15 PMA good part of the nation is covered in snow, so here’s to hoping that everyone out there is safe and has enough food to last a couple of days should that become an issue in coming days. Snow days are fun, but can be very annoying.
Rep. Steve King is riding for all the wrong things. After saying that he didn’t want to rebuild this country with “someone else’s babies,” he’s doubled down. No. 1, he made it clear that he meant exactly what he said, in all of its white supremacist glory and, secondly, he’s added to that by pointing out that he doesn’t think this will ever be a so-called minority-majority nation, because blacks and Latinos will be too busy fighting with each other for that to happen. That’s about as reckless a statement as we get from a congressman.
If we’re ever going to get to Mars, there’s one thing we have to think about: procreation. Because if we’re going to be inhabiting the red planet, as it seems so many people are looking to do, it’s not going to be enough to just keep shipping people out there to keep the place populated. Someone’s going to have to start having babies, born as Martians. Which means that the business of sex in space is a serious one. And the science behind how that would work for humans is actually fascinating.
Last week, it was the 20th anniversary of Biggie’s death. We’ll always love Big Poppa, of course, but one of the women who held him down during his time was of course his wife, Faith Evans. It’s sad because unfortunately her music career has always been sort of overshadowed by the fact that she is B.I.G.’s widow, but Evans has bangers, y’all. If anyone can give you a reasonably level-headed breakdown of what exactly was going on in those hectic years of regional battles in rap, she can. She sat down with Desus & Mero to talk about the old days.
A couple of years back, Larry Sanders walked away from the NBA. At the time, he’d violated the league’s drug policy a few times and ostensibly left basketball due to mental health issues. It was a tough story because many couldn’t understand why he’d leave so much money on the table in the prime of his career. But, in the time since, he’s emerged as an artist of multiple disciplines. Now, he’s coming back. The center has signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who need help after Andrew Bogut’s season-ending injury. It’s a heck of a gamble, to say the least.
Coffee Break: There was a time when The Big Bang Theory was a major part of my life. I loved that show. I grew away from it and since then it’s become one of the most popular shows in America. Now, CBS is launching a prequel series for Sheldon’s character, which is all wrong. That needs to be set aside for Raj. Come on, y’all.
Snack Time: Toads get a bad rap. Somewhere along the line they were associated with ugliness, which doesn’t help their cause. But, for the most part, they’re pretty chill. Check out this story of a guy who makes hats for one. Love it.
Dessert: Behold, the best GIF from the White House Press Room of all time.
Locker Room Lawyer
Locker Room Lawyer, Episode 14: Andre Iguodala and the N-word
The 2015 NBA champion recently delivered some racially charged postgame remarks
By Aaron Dodson @aardodson
Michael Brown Sr. (center) leads a march from the location where his son, Michael Brown Jr., was shot and killed to Normandy High School, where his son was a student, to mark the anniversary of his death on Aug. 8, 2015, in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown Jr. was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9, 2014. His death sparked months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson and drew nationwide focus on police treatment of black suspects. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Video calls Michael Brown ‘robbery’ in Ferguson into question
Not that he deserved to die over the matter, anyway
First lady Michelle Obama signs autograph on the T-shirt of Dylan Molineaux, a 4th grader of Bancroft Elementary School in DC, during the fourth annual Kitchen Garden spring planting March 26, 2012 at the White House in Washington, DC. School kids from all around the nation joined the first lady for the annual planting. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Michelle Obama gives a little help to Yara Shahidi
What Are Those?!
Courtesy of Nike
What Are Those?!: 3/10/17
John Ross’ record-setting 40-yard dash in Nikes and Paul George’s debut signature sneaker
Nicki Minaj attends Balmain after-show party as part of Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2017/2018 at Manko Paris on March 2, 2017, in Paris. Victor Boyko/Getty Images
Nicki Minaj replies to Remy Ma, sort of
Mark Hamill attends the European premiere of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ at Leicester Square on Dec. 16, 2015, in London. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
‘Star Wars Episode VIII’ takes a turn
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Host, comedian Hasan Minhaj speaks on stage during 2017 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at Washington Hilton on April 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Hasan Minhaj wins the weekend at White House correspondents’ dinner
2:23 PMIt was extremely busy last week and over the weekend. I filled in for Bomani Jones on The Right Time on ESPN Radio. Then on Sunday we did The Morning Roast, which was fun. Then this tweet destroyed my mentions.
The president is back at it. Monday, he released audio of an interview in which he exposed himself as being completely unaware of American history, which is shocking to exactly zero people. What continues to be surprising is how brazenly he just states things that are completely incorrect and seems to think that just saying them will make it so. Not the case. Andrew Jackson wasn’t alive for the Civil War. That’s a fact. Also, it’s extremely not OK to call Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” for multiple reasons.
Pres. Trump insinuates that he might be running against Sen. Warren for the presidency in 2020: "It may be Pocahontas, remember that." pic.twitter.com/tlVPhxj9As
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 28, 2017
Speaking of the president, he skipped the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Again, that came as no surprise. The annual event that turns D.C. into a raging zoo of celebrity and politics still went on, however, and it was probably better that he wasn’t present, as basically every single person who took the stage was there to let him know exactly how little they think of him. But comedian Hasan Minhaj was clearly the star of the show, stinging the media crowd with a scathing plea to do better while dropping some of the smartest jokes that event’s seen in years.
If you haven’t heard about the Fyre Festival, lucky you. Basically, Ja Rule and a guy whom many people consider to be a scam artist put together a week full of programming that was supposed to blow the festival circuit away in terms of scale, luxury and exclusiveness. All this came at price tags that got up into the tens of thousands of dollars. Seriously. Then, it completely fell apart. Literally. And people were stuck in the Bahamas with no food and no shelter. Total debacle. Now they’re getting sued for $100M, accused of fraud. Life comes at you fast.
The Big3 appears to officially be here. I have to admit, when this idea first came up, I didn’t exactly think it would last. Sure, Ice Cube was involved, but I figured he might lose interest or some other snag would come up that didn’t get it off the ground. I was WAY wrong about that. Over the weekend they league held its draft, which is pretty cool. It’s a 3-on-3 hoops league with former NBA stars, so I don’t know how much good basketball we’ll get, but it’ll certainly have star power. The top pick was Rashad McCants, which is … interesting.
Coffee Break: If you don’t know who Francesca Ramsey is, you will soon. The comedian and Comedy Central star is soon getting her own late night show, which is very special in America, as she’s a black woman. But with that opportunity comes a lot of pressure, never mind responsibility, to a certain extent. It won’t be easy, but we’re glad she’s there.
Snack Time: If you’re wondering, Rep. Maxine Waters is still about that action when it comes to talking about the commander in chief. She laid it out again over the weekend, calling him disgusting and disrespectful.
Dessert: This will make you laugh. Guaranteed.
UCLA guard Lonzo Ball’s father LaVar Ball talks to a reporter before a college basketball game between the Washington Huskies and the UCLA Bruins on March 1, 2017, at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, CA. Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
LaVar Ball overplays his hand
Gift Ngoepe #61 of the Pittsburgh Pirates makes his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park on April 26, 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
Gift Ngoepe breaks new ground in MLB
Former U.S. President Barack Obama visits with youth leaders at the University of Chicago to help promote community organizing on April 24, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. The visit marks Obama’s first formal public appearance since leaving office. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Barack Obama is taking money from Wall Street
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The CIA Declassified 100,000s of Files About Psychic Abilities and UFOs
Written by Jake Anderson
(ANTIMEDIA) Paranormal research and investigations into UFOs are considered career killers in the academic world. In the field of journalism, mainstream publications rarely explore the topics as anything more than entertaining curios delivered with a chortle and a smile. However, a newly declassified cache of documents released by the CIA confirms the government has been researching — and actually employing — psychics for decades.
The STARGATE program, popularly known as the real-life government research lampooned by the film The Men Who Stare At Goats, was among the top-secret programs revealed in a recent CIA document dump that included 930,000 declassified files and 12 million pages. Much of this was previously available to the public only at the National Archives in Maryland. Thanks to freedom of information activist groups like Muckrock, which applied pressure on the CIA for years, these files can now be found in the CIA’s CREST searchable database.
The CIA’s mission statement for the STARGATE program, which contained a stamp specifying the materials should not be released to foreign governments, reads: “To establish a program using psychoenergetics for intelligence applications.”
The William A. Tiller Institute for Psychoenergetic Science defines psychoenergetics “as energy exchanges that can be influenced by consciousness.”
The study of whether human intention can have an effect on the material world around us has been the subject of several multidisciplinary approaches over the decades. It appears the government was deeply involved in this research and that local law enforcement agencies have extensively used psychics.
The cache of documents reveals that the CIA has been experimenting with psychic researchers for decades and, in some cases, actually conscripting them into the Cold War as potential spies.
Other documents revealed the use of psychics in spy operations conducted by the government. Articles from decades past, written by columnist Jack Anderson, describe the CIA project Grill Flame, which involved psychics using remote viewing to try to infiltrate military installments within the Soviet Union. Anderson describes the “Twilight Zone research” as “psychic warfare.” Multiple projects were funded by the Defense Department and the CIA, one of which involved trying to erect a “psychic shield” to block Soviet psychics, who were suspected of being more advanced in their ESP programs.
The files also elucidate the CIA experiments involving Uri Geller, a controversial celebrity psychic. In 1973, according to the new memos, Geller underwent multiple experiments to test his psychic abilities. In one test, the word “bunch” provoked test subjects to draw grapes. In response, Geller — who was completely isolated from the control group in a separate room — described seeing purple circles. This was just one of multiple tests that led CIA investigators to conclude that Geller “demonstrated his paranormal perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner.”
In the decades since, skeptics such as James Randi have attempted to debunk or disprove Geller’s abilities. Incredibly, the new CIA documents actually contain a formal rebuke of James Randi’s critique, debunking the debunker and further corroborating the fact the CIA firmly believed Geller had demonstrated evidence of extrasensory perception.
Organizations such as the Global Consciousness Project claim to have produced evidence that human consciousness affects physical matter in a way that we do not truly understand. On its website, the group states:
“When human consciousness becomes coherent, the behavior of random systems may change. Random number generators (RNGs) based on quantum tunneling produce completely unpredictable sequences of zeroes and ones. But when a great event synchronizes the feelings of millions of people, our network of RNGs becomes subtly structured. We calculate one in a trillion odds that the effect is due to chance. The evidence suggests an emerging noosphere or the unifying field of consciousness described by sages in all cultures.”
The book The Margins of Reality summarizes a series of experiments conducted at Princeton University that suggest human intention can have a measurable impact on random number generators.
The declassified CIA STARGATE files reveal that the government has invested considerable money and resources into programs operating on the premise that there are powers of the mind that transcend the five traditional senses.
Multiple files in the declassified trove also corroborate police departments all across the country routinely using psychics in criminal investigations. Detectives will often hire psychics to perform remote viewing in order to try to recover a missing person or apprehend a criminal. In a document entitled, “Use of Psychics in Law Enforcement,” the utility of psychic research was directly stated:
“All of the police officers said they had used a psychic in a case as described in the newspaper articles. Eight of the officers said that the psychic had provided them with otherwise unknown information which was helpful to the case. In three of these cases, missing bodies were discovered in areas described by the psychic.”
Alongside the STARGATE files, the new CIA documents also contain dozens of documents pertaining to UFOs. One file contains a report made by police officers in Moscow, who submitted eyewitness testimony of a UFO:
“They noticed a spherical object hanging and ‘pulsing,’ alternately shrinking and expanding.”
This is just one of possibly hundreds of files on UFOs released. Another file discloses a CBS Radio Network news bulletin from 1981 in which a news anchor (Dan Rather’s temporary replacement) addresses a UFO activist group called Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUSE). In 1977, the group sued the government over CIA/NSA documents pertaining to UFOs as a “military threat.” They believed the government possessed “tantalizing information….a report on a UFO which supposedly shot down a Russian MIG over Cuba.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of government and military UFO reports. Thousands of such reports exist in the CIA’s real-life X-files.
Investigations into UFOs have intensified in recent years, as high-ranking government and military officials continue to disclose anomalous interactions, such as the following NASA report of a military encounter with a UFO:
“As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nautical miles it lost all instrumentation and communications. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it, the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications. Another brightly lighted object came out of the original object. The second object headed straight toward the F4.”
It will take a sustained effort by many independent investigators to weed through the files and stitch together the truths contained in STARGATE and other recently released CIA files. If nothing else, it’s a fascinating inside look into how one of our government’s most powerful agencies approached psychic research and the UFO question.
You can find the CIA database here. Please post any significant documents you find in the comments below.
Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo
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Hodgins reaches scoring milestone as Eagles continue non-conference play
The EWU women’s basketball team is five games into its 12-game non-conference schedule. So far, the slate has seen the Eagles take on teams like 2016 ...
Wendy Schuller Agrees to Contract Extension
EWU women’s basketball head coach Wendy Schuller has been at the helm for 16 seasons and will be staying there for five more after athletic director Bi...
Two Paths, Same Destination for EWU Women’s Basketball Seniors
For EWU’s Tisha Phillips and Ashli Payne, Friday’s 79-64 victory over Northern Arizona meant more than just clinching a first-round bye in the Big Sk...
EWU Women’s Basketball Clinches First-Round Bye in Big Sky Tournament
The EWU women’s basketball team capped off their Big Sky Conference (BSC) regular season schedule with the team’s most important win of the season. The...
EWU Women’s Basketball Fight to Secure First-round Bye in Big Sky Conference
By Brandon Cline, Sports Editor
With only two regular season conference games left on the schedule, the EWU women’s basketball team is painstakingly close to securing a coveted first-round bye in the Big Sky Conference (BSC) Tournament. The Eagles’ efforts to secure a bye were replenished this past weekend, with the team sweeping the Weber State Wildcats and the Idaho State Bengals on a roadtrip to ...
Women’s Basketball Splits Home Stand Against Pair of Big Sky’s Best
The EWU women’s basketball team split a pair of Big Sky Conference (BSC) home matchups against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and the Northern Colorado...
EWU Women’s Basketball shows promising results in early season play
The EWU women’s basketball team has only just begun Big Sky Conference play, but they are quickly proving that they are legitimate contenders for a con...
Big Sky track championship preview
By Grace Pohl, Staff Writer
The EWU track and field team has 32 qualifiers going into the Big Sky Championships on May 11-14 in Greeley, Colorado. Last year, EWU hosted the championships at Roos Field with both women and men finishing fifth overall. The front-runners for EWU’s women’s track team are seniors Kaytlyn Coleman and Katie Mahoney. With their record-breaking season, they are set out to...
Women’s Basketball team seeded No. 2 in tournament
The EWU women’s basketball team goes into the Big Sky Basketball Tournament ranked as a No. 2 seed, with Montana State at the No. 1 seed. The Eagles lost their last two games of the season on the road against Idaho State University and Weber State University. The team finished its season 19-11 overall and 13-5 in conference play. The Eagles have a first-round bye into th...
Q&A with Hayley Hodgins
Hayley Hodgins broke the all-time leading scorer record that stood for 29 years, previously held by Brenda Souther (1983-87). Hayley is the lone senior...
EWU women’s basketball wins at home
The EWU women’s basketball team improved to 19-9 overall, 13-3 in league, in their last home game of the season, beating the University of Idaho, 84-70. The...
Women’s basketball split at home
The Eastern women’s basketball team had a win and a loss at home this past week, dropping to Sacramento State, 94-91, on a buzzer-beater winning shot...
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The SFUO is worth saving
Sam Schroeder
2018/08/28, 11:23 pm
I write to you as the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) is on the verge of a seismic shift. For as long as I have been a student at this university, the SFUO has drudged through scandal after scandal. I can only assume that these latest allegations against the president and executive coordinator will serve as the final climax to this era of corruption and apathy. It’s not over quite yet, there will likely be a long and drawn-out battle between the students who are demanding change and those executives and board members who resist it. But come February, when students go to the polls in the SFUO general election, the next chapter in the SFUO’s history will begin. The question we must all ask is; what should that next chapter look like?
An important thing to underscore about the alleged fraud is that it is indicative of far more than two or three corrupt individuals. It is indicative of an organizational structure that lacks the oversight and transparency necessary to prevent corruption. The biggest mistake the student population could make is throw out the entire United team and think that the job is done and that the problem solved. The problem is far deeper, and the solutions are far more challenging than a simple change of the guard.
First, the SFUO must put in place better oversight. The forensic audit being forced on the Federation is a good start, but the SFUO needs to make sure that permanent financial oversights are added. Employees of the Federation, especially elected ones, should have no doubt that if they misuse student money, they will get caught. In addition to this, the disciplinary decision-making process of the SFUO should be overhauled. This scandal has proven beyond any shadow of doubt that the Board of Administration is too partisan to be solely responsible for disciplinary action. Instead, there should be an independent disciplinary board made up of non-partisan students selected by the Fed Bodies. This ensures that the decisions made by this board are fair; both in practice and in perception.
Second, the SFUO must create a culture of accountability to the students. This means a greater respect for their democratic decisions, more emphasis on transparency and openness, and a better two-way dialogue between the students and their executive. These are principles that students must demand of their elected officials. Executives must be open to criticism, and committed to improving based on the criticism they receive. This is how a constructive dialogue is built between the students and their federation.
Third, we need to accept that some things shouldn’t change. United will leave a mixed legacy. Yes, they will leave a legacy of corruption and infighting. But they will also leave a legacy of diversity and passion for social justice. This part of their legacy commands our respect and our gratitude. The SFUO must continue to be a bulwark for equality as the next generation of SFUO executives and board members show that progress and principle can go hand in hand.
That’s the SFUO I’d like to see, but for this to happen people must stand up and take action. Make no mistake, the SFUO’s sombre state of affairs is the product of apathy. Without the participation of the student population at large, there will be no progress. We must resist the urge to scrap the whole organization. The SFUO can and should play a positive role in the lives of students. We can’t allow ourselves to become lazy and decide that the SFUO isn’t worth saving. It will take serious work, but if we succeed, the students will be better off. Finally, the success or failure of this next chapter comes down to the student leaders. If the student leaders, both current and aspiring, shrug in pessimism and defeat, then count on the scandals and the mismanagement to continue. But if student leaders fight for the well-being of the Federation and the students, the next chapter will be a success.
BOAfraud allegationsSam SchroederSFUOSFUO executive coordinatorsfuo presidentuottawa
Kanye West not the only star at Ottawa Bluesfest’s first weekend
Almost 30 minutes after the scheduled start time, a platform of lights lowered towards the Bell stage at Ottawa’s 2015 RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest and Kanye West finally walked out. The antsy crowd instantly forgave West’s tardiness as the familiar beats of his 2007 hit “Stronger” pounded out of the speakers.
GSAÉD, SFUO, CLS get power to veto ads in Unicentre
Anchal Sharma
2012/02/07, 1:52 pm
STUDENTS PASSING THROUGH the Unicentre in December found themselves staring at large Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers advertisements. According to Caitlin Campisi, internal commissioner of the Graduate Student Association (GSAÉD), students filed several complaints, which resulted in GSAÉD and the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) gaining power to veto ads in the …
U of O receives failing grade in free expression index
Spencer Van Dyk
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has ranked the University of Ottawa among the worst in Canada in terms of freedom of expression.
Heckles
So That's How My Life's Going
Philosophical Sh*t
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Like Mother, Like Daughter: Lisa Bonet and Daughter Zoë Kravitz Appear in Calvin Klein Ads
Lisa Bonet and Zoë Kravitz
Calvin Klein via Instagram
Calvin Klein's newest watch campaign has two familiar faces as its cover girls. Lisa Bonet and her daughter, actress Zoë Kravitz, prove that although there's a 20-plus-year age difference, they definitely could pass for sisters.
Zoë Kravitz, 27, is Bonet's eldest child, and her father is Lenny Kravitz. In the gene lottery, you could say she hit the Powerball. And if the saying "Black don't crack" doesn't resonate concerning Bonet, I'm going to need you to adjust your glasses.
Zoë Kravitz is leaving her own mark on the world. She's a model-actress-singer who was in Balenciaga's latest campaign, as well as its Spring 2016 fashion show.
Although Bonet's time on The Cosby Show and A Different World put her on the map, she's been careful over the years about her acting roles. Most recently, she can be seen in The Red Road along with her husband, Jason Momoa.
With Lenny and Lisa as parents, did you not expect Zoë to pave her own way in the industry?
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Russia may start importing poultry from Iran: Trade official
Moscow will purchase poultry, fish and shrimp from Iran as an alternative source to avoid the deficit growing from Europe’s sanction policy and Russia’s countermeasures. Iran has agreed to supply oil in exchange for Russian goods, including grain.
MOSCOW, December 17 (Sputnik) – Russia intends to start importing poultry from Iran and increase the import of fish and shrimp from the country, Russian trade representative in Iran Andrei Lugansky told RIA Novosti in an interview.
“Iran at some point carried out a state program on the construction of poultry farms, which is why this country can import in Russia a big amount of chicken,” Lugansky said Wednesday.
He also noted that Iran would increase the supply of fish and shrimp to Russia, with all the details for the delivery already finalized.
Last week, Russian state agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said that the country might start importing fish from Iran as early as December, once the necessary inspections are complete. The Iranian Agriculture Ministry said that 18 Iranian companies had plans to start supplying fish products to Russia.
In October, Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert said that Russia had shortlisted more than 20 potential suppliers of Iranian seafood.
This move comes as Russia banned for a year virtually all food imports from the European Union, the United States and a number of their allies over economic sanctions imposed on Moscow for its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. The embargo targets poultry and seafood, as well as beef, pork, fruit, vegetables and dairy products.
More restrictions followed the outbreak of bird flu in several European countries in October, which prompted Russia to close its doors to all imports of cattle, swine and poultry by-products from Europe. Russia’s agricultural agency has explained that pathogenic germs and heavy metals were repeatedly detected in food imports from EU producers.
Black, Azov Sea Ports Key to Boosting Russian Grain Exports to Iran
Deliveries of grain to Iran from Russia may significantly increase with the use of ports in the Black and Azov seas, Andrei Lugansky announced.
“This year, Russia has accumulated about 110 million tons of grain, which greatly increased the country’s wheat export capacity. Logistical and financial details pertaining to the sale of wheat to Iran are currently discussed,” Lugansky said on Wednesday.
He pointed out that logistics was the biggest issue to resolve as, unlike Caspian Sea ports, the ports in the Black Sea and the Azov Sea are fit to handle the expected volume of wheat deliveries, which may increase by the end of 2014.
Lugansky said that Russia and Iran were engaged in several projects aimed at increasing the Caspian Sea region’s grain receiving capacities, with Tehran able to process up to 30 million tons of grain annually.
In September, Andrei Gormakh, first deputy chief executive of Russian state-controlled grain trader United Grain Company, said that Russia and Iran were considering a deal for the supply of grain in exchange for oil, with the company able to supply Iran with 2.1 million tons of grain a year.
In November, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said that Russia was preparing its first deliveries of grain and manufactured goods to Iran.
In early December, Iranian authorities confirmed to Sputnik News Agency that the country had agreed to supply oil in exchange for Russian goods, including grain.
Russian and western oil companies are keen on returning to Iran once sanctions imposed on the country are lifted, but it will require certain actions from Tehran, the Russian trade representative in Iran told RIA Novosti.
“The negotiations [regarding the return to Iran] are conducted by many European and western companies. They see the upsides of working with Iran: cheap workforce, cheap energy infrastructure in the country, protection of investments by the domestic legislation and tax exemption,” Lugansky said in a Wednesday interview.
According to the official, sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and the European Union are not the only obstacle hindering the re-entry of foreign oil companies into Iran. The country’s laws are also in the way as, according to the country’s constitution, the Islamic republic owns all of the oil reserves on its territory and it is prohibited to use oil fields under production sharing agreements.
“In other countries, if a big oil company decides to extract oil, part of it goes to the state, while the other part goes to the company. In Iran, any oil company has to give 100 percent to the state and then wait for the indemnification. They [Iranian authorities] are discussing possible ways to resolve the situation legislatively, in accordance with the production sharing principle,” Lugansky said.
He refrained from making predictions about how long the negotiations between international oil companies and Iran might take, pointing out the outcome depends on the companies.
“This issues concern not only Russian companies, but many western businesses … that, despite the sanctions, are willing to work with Iranian oil,” Lugansky said.
Last week, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said the country’s government would offer foreign investors new oil contracts totaling $40 billion in 2015. Several energy giants – Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Total and Russia’s Lukoil – have expressed interest in investing in Iran once sanctions on the country are lifted, Iranian officials said earlier.
The West suspects Iran of developing a nuclear weapon under the guise of a civilian program. Tehran’s controversial nuclear activities have triggered the imposition of several rounds of sanctions on the country. In particular, the United States, the European Union, and a number of other nations have banned domestic businesses from entering into any energy, missile or financial agreements with Iran. These moves, along with other restrictions imposed on Iran’s oil and petroleum industry, have significantly hit the Iranian economy, which depends heavily on oil trade revenues.
By Sputnik News
The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.
Andrei Lugansky, Iran, Iran exports to Russia, Iran-Russia trade, Quoted, RIA Novosti, Russia, sanctions, sanctions against Iran, sanctions against Russia December 17, 2014
Iran says sees more steps ahead in nuclear talks
Iran’s Javad Nekounam suffers knee injury
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The Projects and Construction Review - Edition 8
Naoki Iguchi
Makoto Saito
Rintaro Hirano
Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
The main assets for project finance in Japan are power plants and public infrastructure.
After the first project financing transaction took place in the late 1990s in relation to conventional power projects, private finance initiative (PFI) projects were at the centre of the project finance field.
The Japanese government enacted the Act on Promotion of Private Finance Initiative Funds (Act No. 117 of 1999, as amended; the PFI Act), which initiated the boom of PFI projects. As PFI projects contemplated project finance debts, the project finance market developed in line with the expansion of the PFI market. Furthermore, after the PFI Act was amended in 2011 to introduce concession arrangements, project finance has been used for a wider class of infrastructure assets.
In addition, the Act on Special Measures on Procurement of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources by Electricity Utilities (Act No. 108 of 2011, as amended; the Renewable Energy Act) boosted the development of the projects of renewable solar and wind plants nationwide.
II THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Investment in infrastructure is one of the core initiatives of the current administration, which aims to invest 21 trillion yen in infrastructure projects between 2013 and 2022. The government considers the concession scheme as a key tool to accomplish that goal. Since the privatisation of two international airports in the Kansai region in 2016, many airports have been or will be privatised by way of this scheme. Furthermore, the government advocates using the concession scheme for other assets, for example, toll roads, water purifying plants, sewerage facilities and convention centres. The procurement of concession has commenced for some of these assets.
Construction of new conventional power plants has been expected in recent years because it is not clear when the nuclear plants, whose operations have been suspended, will be allowed to resume operations and many of the current conventional power plants are facing renewal deadlines. However, owing to the global trend against coal-fired plants, and for commercial reasons, several projects to construct new conventional power plants were cancelled in 2017 and this year.
The growth of the renewable energy sector is expected to continue. As projects from several years ago have now commenced operation, the secondary equity sale of these projects is active in Japan, and infrastructure funds that acquire these projects have been formed.
With respect to offshore wind farm projects, while a pilot project that the government launched in the Kashima region is still ongoing, a commercial-based project is expected to emerge in the next few years.
III DOCUMENTS AND TRANSACTIONAL STRUCTURES
i Transactional structures
Common vehicles used as project companies are joint stock corporations and limited liability companies. Sponsors inject equity by way of pure equity (or legal equity) as well as subordinated loans. Regarding subordinated loans, the Money Lending Business Act (Act No. 32 of 1983, as amended) does not fully exempt intra-group lending. Generally, a shareholder that owns less than 20 per cent would not be allowed to provide loans to the project company.
Recently, in addition to pure equity and subordinated loans, tokumei kumiai (TK) investments have often formed part of equity. A TK investment is an investment made under a TK contract, which is a bilateral contract whereby one party (the TK operator) receives funds from the other party (the TK investor) and with those funds conducts certain pre-agreed business, and shares the profit generated from this business with the TK investor. The business will be conducted in the name of the TK operator and the TK investor's liability is limited to the obligation to make an investment of the pre-agreed amount. The TK operator can enter into TK contracts for the same business with multiple TK investors, in which case, taken as a whole, the structure will be economically very similar to a limited liability partnership where the TK operator is a general partner and TK investors are limited partners. Under a TK contract, profit and loss allocated to TK investors is directly recognised by the TK investors, not by the TK operator.
Under the PFI Act, although various delivery structures have been adopted, the majority of PFI projects are availability-based accommodation projects, which use the build-to-order (BTO) structure. The ownership of an accommodation facility is transferred from the project company to the procuring authority upon its completion, and the accommodation facility is maintained by the project company thereafter.
In a concession project, the right to operate a subject infrastructure facility is granted to the project company while the ownership of the facility is retained by the public authority.
ii Documentation
A typical set of documents to be entered into in a project finance transaction are as follows:
PFI (concession) contract between the project company and a procuring authority, or a power purchase agreement between the project company and a power utility;
design-and-build (D&B) contract between the project company and a D&B contractor, or an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract between the project company and an EPC contractor;
operation and maintenance (O&M) contract between the project company and an O&M contractor;
fuel supply contract between the project company and a fuel supplier;
direct agreements between the lenders and the counterparties to various project documents;
insurance agreement between the project company and insurance companies;
finance agreements including senior credit facility agreements, interest rate swap agreements, intercreditor agreements and security agreements; and
shareholders agreement between the project company's shareholders and the project company itself.
In relation to a construction contract, the Construction Business Act (Act No. 199 of 1949, as amended) (CBA) requires that a construction contract be made in writing, stipulating that there must be at least 14 items provided in the CBA to make the contract terms clear and unequivocal (Article 19, CBA).
iii Delivery methods and standard forms
Project finance lenders usually require that a construction contract be a date-certain, fixed-price and lump-sum contract. As a means of satisfying this requirement, construction agreements where project finance is involved often take the form of a D&B or EPC contract.
With regard to the delivery structure of construction projects, typically a contractor performs the works in accordance with the design provided by an owner or owner-retained designers. Typical standard forms for this delivery structure are the public work standard contract (PWSC) (last amended in 2017) published by the central government and providing the general conditions for public works; and the general conditions for construction contract (GCCC) (last amended in 2017) for the private sector. The GCCC was jointly drafted by several industry associations that respectively represented owners, developers, designers and contractors. It is the most widely used standard form, and is generally used together with special conditions prepared by the parties. Accordingly, when the GCCC is used in a project financing transaction, it is often amended by way of special conditions so that it will satisfy the project finance lenders' requirements.
For D&B-type contracts, the general conditions for design-build contract (GCDB) (last amended in 2012) drafted and published by the Japan Federation of Construction Contractors is the only published standard form. The GCDB was prepared by a contractor's association to promote the D&B delivery structure. Nonetheless, unlike D&B forms used in international construction projects, the design and construction parts are easily separable in the GCDB; the parties proceed to the construction phase only after the owner confirms the contractor's design products.
For industrial plant construction works, EPC contracts are widely used. The Engineering Advancement Association's General Conditions for Domestic Plant Construction Work (the ENAA-Domestic) (last amended in 2011), drafted and published by the Engineering Advancement Association, one of the contractors' associations, integrates design, construction and commissioning phases into a single contract; however, in reality, full turnkey EPC contracts are not frequently used for the construction of industrial plants, such as chemical process plants and power plants, unless project finance debt is procured. As a result, EPC forms are most commonly used in renewable energy projects, as they are usually financed by project finance debt. However, the ENAA-Domestic is not widely used in the market, and EPC forms that have been developed by contractors or project sponsors are more often used.
For PFI projects, the PFI Act does not specify any particular delivery structure. Various delivery structures have been adopted under this Act, including, in order of the most common: BTO, build-operate-transfer, build-transfer and build-own-operate.2 There are no publicly available standard forms of contract; however, for local governments' reference, the central government published a sample BTO contract, as well as the Guideline on Contracts – Notes for PFI Project Contracts (2003) and the Guideline for Risk Allocation in PFI Project (2001).
For design works and supervision services of construction works, the industry associations that jointly drafted the GCCC also publish the General Conditions for Design Work and Supervision (GCDS) (last amended in 2015).
IV RISK ALLOCATION AND MANAGEMENT
i Management of risks
Obstructions at the site
The GCCC provides that if the contractor discovers any obstructions to the construction work at the site, the contractor shall immediately notify the administrative architect of this in writing (Article 16, GCCC). It also provides that if it is necessary to vary the scope of work, the additional amount shall be agreed by the employer, the administrative architect and the contractor, through consultation.
Unless parties use such major contract forms, the contractor may have to bear the risk of unforeseen ground conditions. In a fixed-price contract, the court found that the contractor may not claim any additional costs, unless the court finds the situation to be extraordinarily unfair (Tokyo High Court, judgment of 29 March 1984, 1115 Hanrei Jiho 99). The court considered some factors in order to determine whether or not they were unfair, such as whether the conditions were unforeseeable to the parties and whether the conditions were not attributable to the contractor. It ultimately found that the conditions in question were foreseeable.
As a traditional civil law jurisdiction, Japan has the concept of force majeure, but does not have that of frustration. Most contract forms have provisions for force majeure as a cause of extension of time and termination.
Theoretically, the core effect of force majeure is to prevent the contractor from being liable for delays to the work. Except where the work is no longer possible because of force majeure, the contractor has to resume and complete the work once the influence of force majeure ceases to be in play. Whether the contractor is entitled to claim additional costs for resuming and recovering the work is a matter of debate. Contrarily, most major contract forms provide that parties have to consult each other first, and if the parties agree that the contractor's losses on the uncompleted works, materials and equipment were substantial, and good care of these was not taken, the employer shall indemnify the contractor for such losses (Article 21, GCCC). As such, solutions given by the major forms are still ambiguous and limited.
ii Limitation of liability
The concept of limitation of liability is generally accepted under Japanese law. It is common in particular types of projects, such as renewable energy projects. Furthermore, liquidated damages, which are caused by breach of contract, including but not limited to delay in completion and non-accomplishment of the agreed level of performance, are also accepted under Japanese law and sometimes limit the amount of actual damages.
Foreign investors should note that a defaulting party may be liable for tort as well as for breach of contract. Where there are defects in a building that jeopardise its basic safety, and the defects are attributed to the design, the designer shall be liable for the damage caused by the defects incurred not only by the employer but also by a third party under the tort theory (Superior Court, judgment of 6 July 2007, 1984 Hanrei Jiho 34).
iii Political risks
The GCCC provides that either party may, by expressly stating its reason, make a claim for a necessary adjustment to the contract price if it is being used inappropriately or improperly owing to unexpected legislation (Article 29, GCCC); however, the GCCC does not provide an effective price adjustment mechanism, leaving it to the parties' negotiation and agreement. This kind of ambiguity is found in the majority of domestic project and construction contracts.
V SECURITY AND COLLATERAL
In project finance transactions, project finance lenders normally request security interests over most of the borrower's assets. For real property, mortgages and revolving mortgages are common forms of security interest created for the benefit of project finance lenders, and these mortgages and revolving mortgages may be perfected by registration. For shares of companies and rights (e.g., rights for account receivables, rights for bank accounts, rights for insurance proceeds and leasehold rights) pledges and revolving pledges or security by way of transfer are used depending on the type of assets. Generally, the pledge, revolving pledge and security by way of transfer may be perfected by consent from or notice to the obligor with a certified date.
Additionally, project finance lenders reserve rights to assign to themselves or third parties designated by the project finance lenders project-related contracts entered into by the borrower in order to enhance the step-in rights of the project finance lenders.
In traditional project finance transactions in Japan, sponsors often owe obligations to provide monetary support to project companies in recourse events, and pure non-recourse loans, in which sponsors owe no direct contractual liability to project finance lenders, are not common in traditional project finance in Japan. However, in recent years, there have been more non-recourse loans (rather than limited recourse loans) in project finance transactions for renewable energy power plants.
VI BONDS AND INSURANCE
With the exception of a construction agreement in relation to a conventional public procurement (without project finance debt being employed), performance bonds are not widely used in relation to construction agreements in Japan, except for projects where international sponsors are involved. Where performance bonds are required in relation to those projects, they often take a form of demand guarantee under the Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees published by the International Chamber of Commerce.
The following are typically procured in relation to project finance:
erection all-risk insurance (during construction);
third-party liability insurance (during construction and operation);
delay in start-up insurance (during construction);
all-risk insurance (during operation);
business interruption insurance (during operation); and
any other insurance statutorily required for the business that the project company conducts.
In Japan, project finance debt is predominantly procured by banks, and project bonds are rarely used. In some projects where non-bank financial institutions provide project finance debt, those financial institutions participate in a bank-debt syndicate, rather than subscribing for project bonds.
VII ENFORCEMENT OF SECURITY AND BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS
Project finance lenders normally ensure their step-in rights with a combination of (1) security interests created over most of the assets and rights in connection with the project and (2) reservation of rights to assign project-related contracts to the project finance lenders or designated third parties. In exercising such step-in rights in case of an event of default, project finance lenders first try to assign the project to a third party designated by the project finance lender with voluntary cooperation by the project company and its sponsors using the pressure of the step-in rights. If the project company and its sponsors are not cooperative, the project finance lender will unilaterally exercise its step-in rights, which may include foreclosure of security interests.
Generally, in a bankruptcy proceeding and civil rehabilitation proceeding, secured creditors may still foreclose their perfected security interests outside the bankruptcy or civil rehabilitation proceeding and collect proceeds of foreclosure. However, in a corporate rehabilitation proceeding that is applicable to stock companies (not limited liability companies), secured creditors may not exercise their security interests outside the corporate rehabilitation proceeding.
VIII SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
i Licensing and permits
In developing power plants or other infrastructures, all the applicable permits, certifications and notifications relating to the development must be obtained and implemented. In addition to nationwide regulations, in most cases there are multiple layers of local regulations set by prefectures, cities, towns, villages and wards that may include a requirement to conduct an environmental impact assessment.
ii Equator Principles
Some leading Japanese banks have adopted the Equator Principles and typical covenants and representations required by the Equator Principles commonly appear in project finance documentation.
IX PPP AND OTHER PUBLIC PROCUREMENT METHODS
i PPP
Before the concession scheme was introduced in 2011, most of the PFI projects were availability-based accommodation projects (e.g., schools, government offices, public housing, hospitals, school catering service facilities and libraries) and projects in the transportation sector, such as Haneda International Airport, were exceptions (although PFI can be employed to various types of infrastructure and is flexible). The amendment of the PFI Act in 2011 aimed to change this situation and to develop the PFI regime to accommodate broader PPPs that can be used in various types of infrastructure projects. Under the concession scheme, a concessionaire is allowed to collect from the general public a commission, toll, fee or other moneys for use of the infrastructure that it operates. As such, the concession scheme is considered an appropriate form for a project where the private sector assumes all or part of the revenue and demand risk.
In most PFI and PPP projects, the bidding process has two stages, and only the bidders that passed the first stage are invited to the second stage, and the winner of the second stage becomes a preferred bidder. In recent projects, a competitive dialogue has been conducted in the second stage. Proposals of bidders are evaluated by scoring various aspects of the proposal based on the standards prescribed in the tender documents. The preferred bidder is usually not allowed to further negotiate a contract with the procuring authority after it has been chosen as the preferred bidder. As such, it does not take much time to conclude the contract once the preferred bidder is selected. Most of the work done after the preferred bidder is selected is in relation to the finance documents, and the project finance lenders are usually required to accept the terms of the contract agreed between the bidder and the procuring authority.
ii Public procurement
There is no legislation in Japan that deals directly with public procurement; the Public Account Act (Act No. 35 of 1947, as amended) (in relation to procurement by the central government) and the Local Autonomy Act (Act No. 67 of 1947, as amended) (in relation to procurement by local governments) refer to the permitted forms of public procurement (i.e., open competitive tender, restricted competitive tender and negotiated procedure) and their respective procedures.
Although criminal sanctions apply to persons who commit serious violations of procurement procedures (e.g., graft or cartel activity) there is no specific cause of action available to losing bidders that can stop the procurement procedure or the conclusion of the contract.
X DISPUTE RESOLUTION
i Special jurisdiction
Generally, litigation at court is the most popular dispute resolution procedure. Although there is no special jurisdiction of special courts for projects and construction disputes, district courts in Tokyo and Osaka have a department called the Building Division. Nonetheless, foreign investors should note that Japanese courts, even with building divisions, are generally not familiar with expert analysis on delay because there are almost no experts in this area. District courts also provide court-sponsored mediation services (private mediation services are rarely used in any of the industry sectors).
ii Arbitration and ADR
Additionally, the CBA designates the Construction Dispute Board (CDB) as the government-sponsored alternative dispute resolution procedure (Article 25, CBA). There are local CDBs and a central CDB. The jurisdiction of each CDB is determined by the registered office of the claimant, or the construction site in question. Central and local governments appoint a panel of mediator-arbitrators. The CDB is not a dispute board frequently used in international construction practices, but a kind of conciliation tool purely formulated for domestic disputes. It is not advisable for foreign investors to rely too much on the CDB procedure.
The most recommended dispute resolution is arbitration. Although use of arbitration for domestic disputes is quite infrequent in Japan, the Arbitration Act (Act No. 138 of 2003, as amended) is modelled after the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law. The Japan Commercial Arbitration Association is the most reliable arbitration institution in Japan, but any foreign arbitration institution can be chosen instead. The language of arbitration as English.
XI OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSIONS
The project finance market in Japan still has room for potential expansion but, in the areas of concession-type PFI projects and offshore wind farm projects (among others), potential expansion depends on the level of deregulation by the national government.
The role of local governments is also important as they have the power to initiate or support various projects that are potential targets for project financing.
1 Naoki Iguchi, Makoto (Mack) Saito and Rintaro Hirano are partners at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu.
2 http://pfi-as.jp/case/cat4692/post_29.html.
International Project Finance
Dispute Resolution in Construction Projects
Collaborative Contracting
Other chapters on Japan
The Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Review
The Corporate Immigration Review
The Energy Regulation and Markets Review
The International Investigations Review
The International Trade Law Review
The Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity Law Review
The Real Estate Law Review
The Restructuring Review
The Securities Litigation Review
The Shareholder Rights and Activism Review
The e-Discovery and Information Governance Law Review
All titles on Japan
The Transport Finance Law Review Edition 5
Editor Harry Theochari
This book is intended to provide the legal industry with a guide to transport finance today, in each of the key jurisdictions globally in which aircraft, rolling stock and ships are financed. Each contribution reflects the significance of the transport sector today, and the need for readily available funding for industries that underpin the global economy by transporting people and commodities around the world every day.
The Project Finance Law Review Edition 1
Editor David F Asmus
Many of the classic project finance texts are becoming increasingly dated as the years go by, while project finance itself continues to evolve with the markets it serves. The purpose of this volume is to provide a living guide to project finance that will be updated on a regular basis, while still tackling the core project finance concepts that every practitioner needs to understand.
The Government Procurement Review Edition 7
Editors Jonathan Davey and Amy Gatenby
Addleshaw Goddard LLP
It is our pleasure to introduce the seventh edition of The Government Procurement Review. Our geographic coverage this year remains impressive, covering 17 jurisdictions, including the European Union, and the continued political and economic significance of government procurement remains clear.
The Aviation Law Review Edition 6
Editor Sean Gates
Gates Aviation LLP
The sixth edition of The Aviation Law Review marks the continuation of one of The Law Reviews’ most successful publications. In the year since the last review was published, there have been some significant developments with regard to international air carrier liability, with both Russia and Thailand acceding to the Montreal Convention on air carrier liability of 1999 alongside Chad, Indonesia, Mauritius, Sudan and Uganda. Inevitably, the European aviation legal scene continues to be dominated by Brexit where reassuring words, at least by regulators in the UK, have yet to be capped by any positive developments in terms of final agreements.
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What NYC And Others Will Be Talking About Wednesday -- December 14, 2015
December 15, 2015: Howard re-signed for five years.
It has been announced that Howard Stern signed a new five-year deal with Sirius XM which includes a 12-year deal giving Sirius XM rights to video and audio material from Stern's 30-year radio career and a plan "to launch its first venture into video programming with Howard."
I was pretty sure he would go video; I wish I had said that below, although as he ages, I thought he might not want to be on video, but his past shows can easily go into syndication.
Where oh where will Howard go? Or will he stay? Bloomberg is reporting that we should know in less than 48 hours:
On the morning of Wednesday, December 16, 2015, Stern will host his final show under a five-year contract with SiriusXM. What he will do next remains a mystery. He could walk away from the medium, as he once did from broadcast, to try his hand at, say, Internet radio.
Or he could retire. Or he could sign a new contract with SiriusXM.
During his show last week, Stern told listeners he hasn't made up his mind. If past is precedent, he will probably reveal his next move on the air in the coming days. There's a lot of money riding on the decision.
At least $80 million / year.
My hunch: $100 million minimum to stay another year.
The Apple Page
Macrumors is reporting:
General Motors said it has "anecdotal evidence" that CarPlay, available in over two dozen 2016 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC models, is helping sell new vehicles to customers, according to The Wall Street Journal. A pair of GM dealers confirmed CarPlay is "helping to close the deal" on purchases.
Just How Big A Deal Is The Bakken? -- Pretty Big -- December 14, 2015
This is from the EIA:
The EIA continues to expand its assessment of technically recoverable shale oil and shale natural gas resources around the world.
The addition of four countries—Chad, Kazakhstan, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—to a previous assessment covering 42 countries has resulted in a 13% increase in the global assessed total resource estimate for shale oil and a 4% increase for shale gas.
A total of 26 formations within 11 basins were analyzed in these 4 countries. Of the eleven basins, one is the Williston Basin.
Although the formations in the newly added four countries (Chad, Kazakhstan, Oman, and UAE) contain significant volumes of technically recoverable resources, there is currently no shale exploration underway in any of the four countries, meaning the new assessed resources are not yet economically recoverable.
The portions of these resources that become economically recoverable in the future will depend on crude oil and natural gas market prices, as well as the capital and operating costs and productivity within the countries. Each of the countries has an existing oil and natural gas industry with infrastructure connecting the basins to global markets. All current production of oil and natural gas in Chad, Kazakhstan, Oman, and the UAE is from non-continuous resources (from high-permeability formations).
However, only four countries (the United States, Canada, China, and Argentina) are currently producing oil and natural gas from these resources at commercial scale, with the United States alone providing 4.4 million b/d, or more than 90%, of global tight oil production and 42 Bcf/d, or more than 89%, of global shale natural gas production.
Again, from tight oil, the United States accounts for more than 90% of global tight oil and most of that comes from three plays: the Permian, the Eagle Ford, and the Bakken.
Labels: Production_Global, Production_US, Staggering
The Fracklog -- December 14, 2015
On December 10, 2015, I expressed my opinion that the number of wells waiting to be fracked seemed "odd." I had expected the number to increase, at least slightly, and probably significantly month-over-month (September to October). In fact, the Director's Cut suggested the fracklog had decreased but the "math" was not "correct."
The daily activity report released today was a fairly typical daily activity report and suggests why I was surprised by the number of wells on the fracklog.
In today's daily activity report -- a report that covered three days -- Saturday, Sunday, and Monday -- there were seven more DUCs. Of the eight wells that came off the confidential list (and not "permits canceled") -- of the eight wells that came off the confidential list over the three last days, seven of them were DUCs.
Over the same period of time, the same three days, there was reported only one producing well that was completed. With a typical daily activity report of seven DUCs and only one producing well being completed, we are taking one step forward, seven steps backward on the list of wells waiting to be fracked.
A Week-Long Beer Summit Following False Arrest Of One Harvard Professor; The President Ignores San Bernardino -- Largest Terrorist Attack on US Soil Since "9/11"
The Los Angeles Times reports:
The overwhelming drama of Giuliani's first televised statements — which segued into round-the-clock news conferences and a constant physical presence in the wounded city by Guiliani, then-Gov. George Pataki and, occasionally, President George W. Bush — contrasted with the underwhelming response 11 days ago to the terrorist attack in San Bernardino.
Local officials arrived promptly, aided by geography. Gov. Jerry Brown showed up only briefly before heading to Paris for the international conference on climate change. President Obama has yet to visit, though his spokesman would not rule out a trip before his Hawaii vacation begins at the end of this week. Obama did deliver Oval Office remarks on the shooting, which appeared to do little to calm nerves.
Labels: Commentary_2015, FrackingBacklog
Three (3) New Permits -- December 15, 2015
Active Rigs 65 181 191 183 200
Wells coming off the confidential list Tuesday:
30368, SI/NC, Petro-Hunt, Thompson 153-95-8D-6-2H, Charlson, no production data,
31145, SI/NC, XTO, Ryan 14X-9EXF, Siverston, no production data,
Three (3) new permits --
Operators: Liberty Resources (2), EOG
Fields: Wheelock (Williams), Ray (Williams), Parshall (Mountrail)
Comments: the EOG permit is for a wildcat in 34-155-89; this is east of the line where the Bakken is believed to "end"
There were eight (8) permit renewals:
Emerald Oil, 4), Noonan Federal (2), Slugger, and Talon in McKenzie County
Thunderbird Resources (2), Franks Creek and Lower Thirty in Billings County
CLR and Samson Oil & Gas each had one: Simco in Divide County, and Rainbow in Williams County, respectively
Fifteen (15) permits were canceled:
Slawon (6): Muskrat, Jugard, Moleback (4) al in Mountrail County
QEP (5), Moberg (2) and Kummer (3) in McKenzie County
Hess (4), all EN-Eva wells in Mountrail County
One (1) producing well completed:
28184, 2,171, XTO, Nelson Federal 21X-5A, Antelope, Sanish pool, t11/15; cum --
"Real" OIl Prices, 1983 -- 2015: Joh Kemp, December 14, 2015
From John Kemp:
Interesting graph, huh? This goes back all the way to 1983 so one can't say Kemp cherry-picked the time period. It almost appears the period between 2004, or maybe even as late as 2005, and 2014 was an anomaly or an outlier, and that the "true" price for oil runs between $20 and $40 per bbl. In hindsight, something happened in 2005 - 2007 that operators drilling for conventional oil allowed the price to spike and give operators working unconventional oil fields an opportunity. I don't know but it is an interesting graph.
Now, about that "something happened in 2005 - 2007." In fact, more specifically it was Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2009, that provides a study of the "Causes and Consequences of the Oil Shock of 2007 - 2008," out of the University of California, San Diego.
This paper explores similarities and differences between the run-up of oil prices in 2007–08 and earlier oil price shocks, looking at what caused these price increases and what effects they had on the economy.
Whereas previous oil price shocks were primarily caused by physical disruptions of supply, the price run-up of 2007–08 was caused by strong demand confronting stagnating world production. Although the causes were different, the consequences for the economy appear to have been similar to those observed in earlier episodes, with significant effects on consumption spending and purchases of domestic automobiles in particular. Absent those declines, it is unlikely that the period 2007Q4–2008Q3 would have been characterized as one of recession for the United States. This episode should thus be added to the list of U.S. recessions to which oil prices appear to have made a material contribution.
Although the article tends to emphasize the consequences, reading between the lines confirms what the blog has pointed out numerous times with regard to Saudi Arabia's ability to increase production when necessary. According to wiki, this is the mission of OPEC:
OPEC's mission is "to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry."
The Health of ObamaCare
The weekend was incredible. The Christmas issue (or was it the "holiday") issue of The New York Review of Books arrived; and the Friday and Saturday issues of The Wall Street Journal with "Arena" and "Review" were available. More than enough to keep me busy during spare moments between family events with out-of-town company all weekend.
From "Arena," The WSJ, "The Coming Shakespeare Extravaganza: The 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's death next year is sparking an explosion in books, tours, and spinoff, none of which I will be interested in except for an occasional book, perhaps. But I am just getting back into another one of my "Shakespeare phases" and 2016 may be a good year to reading more of Shakespeare. That should keep me busy.
So far, more than 140 Shakespeare-related titles are listed for next year on Amazon.com, including more than 40 in April alone. (The anniversary date is April 23.) “Can you imagine the table at Barnes & Noble ?” said Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which will release two nonfiction books on Shakespeare next year.
The first, Edward Wilson-Lee’s “Shakespeare in Swahililand,” looks at the impact of the Bard’s works in eastern and central Africa. A second as-yet-untitled entry, by Elaine Scarry, theorizes that Shakespeare’s sonnets were written to another poet—who wrote poems back to him.
The new books come in addition to an already voluminous body of work on the Bard. WorldCat, an online catalog encompassing the collections of some 70,000 libraries in more than 150 countries, lists 182,000 books related to Shakespeare.
Hey, by the way, it is said no other person has more books written about him than Shakespeare (Jesus Christ might be an exception. But answer me this: "Who has probably been the subject of more books than any other American, Lincoln excepted?" The answer will come later.
Among the many articles not related to books or reading was an essay in Saturday's WSJ "Arena," by Daniel Kessler on "The Health of Obamacare." [I remember the first time I used "ObamaCare" in place of the official title of the act and a reader wrote to tell me it was irresponsible of me to call it that, demeaning a very, very act/law. Whatever. Now "everyone" calls it "ObamaCare."]
Another digression. Sorry.
Kessler begins:
More than five years ago, the Affordable Care Act—what most of us call Obamacare—was passed into law with two big declared goals: to reduce the number of Americans who lack health insurance and to cut health spending that doesn’t give good value for money. Has the law been a success? The country is sharply divided. The most recent Gallup and Kaiser Family Foundation tracking polls show public opinion almost evenly split, with Democrats largely supporting the law and Republicans opposing it. This partisan divide in public opinion has changed little since 2009, when President Barack Obama won a narrow victory in Congress for his signature domestic legislation.
Some data points from the essay / op-ed (I am going through this for the first time; I have not read it yet; I do not know how Kessler stands on ObamaCare, although seeing it in the WSJ provides a hint:
the law reduced the number of uninsured from around 45 million (14%) to 35 million (11%), but some (much?) was through expanded Medicaid
ObamaCare delivers between 20 cents and 40 cents per dollar of expenditure
the Earned Income Tax Credit delivers around 90 cents of value to its recipients per dollar of expenditure
given that more than half of ObamaCare's reduction in the number of the uninsured has been from its expansion of Medicaid, this makes the law look more like welfare for the medical-industrial complex than support for the needy
after two years, the Oregon Medicaid expansion had no significant effects on beneficiaries' physical health, though it did reduce their self-reported financial strain and depression -- New England Journal of Medicine, Boston
the jury is still out on whether ObamaCare slowed the cost of healthcare, though most have a feeling
an obscure part of ObamaCare, the "Cadillac tax" on high-cost plans appears to be having a positive effect
ObamaCare may lay a foundation for future reform
bottom line: neither the triumph touted by supporters nor the disaster trumpeted by opponents
The downside:
premiums have not gone down
many people were not able to keep health plans they liked
health benefits from expanding coverage have been elusive
macroeconomic consequences have been negative
disincentives will reduce the number of hours worked by 1.5% to 2% from 2017 to 2024
And then the author concludes: more is necessary; the question is who will be brave enough to confront difficult policy problems that we still face.
Oh, yes, the answer to the question, the most written about American, Lincoln excepted? George Armstrong Custer.
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Even the ‘diverse’ Democratic Party isn’t diverse ENOUGH for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
TOPICS:Alexandria Ocasio-CortezCongressDemocratsfar LeftJustice Democratsprogressives
Posted By: usafeaturesmedia November 20, 2018
(National Sentinel) Identity Politics: The Democrat Party likes to tout itself as far more “diverse” than the GOP and “reflective of today’s America” as a whole.
But even that diversity isn’t diverse enough for Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialist from New York.
During an appearance on MSNBC Monday evening, she complained that there were too many men and “very few people of color” comprising the growing group of Democratic lawmakers opposed to handing Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California the Speaker’s gavel when her party takes over the House in January.
“Well, for me when I was reading this letter that was kind of released today, my main concern was that there is no vision, there is no common value, there is no goal that is really articulated in this letter aside from we need to change,” Ocasio-Cortez told host Chris Hayes.
After bemoaning the concept of “changing our party leadership just for the sake of it,” Ocasio-Cortez then criticized the similar characteristics shared by many in the group as well as the notion that the leadership could end up “more conservative.”
“I mean, if anything, I think that what it does is that it creates a window where we could potentially get more conservative leadership,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
“And when you actually look at the signatories, it is not necessarily reflective of the diversity of the party. We have about 16 signatories, 14 of them are male. There are very few people of color in the caucus. There’s very few ideological diversity. It’s not like there are Progressives that are signing on. It’s not like you have a broad-based coalition. So I find it — you know, I’m not totally bought into the concept.”
Hayes then asked her about her involvement with Justice Democrats, a group made up of young progressives she addressed via video conference call over the weekend that exists, in part, to primary incumbent establishment Democrats.
“I think what’s important to articulate what justice Democrats is about is really, it’s not — their mission isn’t ‘we’re gonna primary Democrats,’” she said. “Their mission is ‘we’re going to support working class candidates to run in midterm elections.’
“And so they have supported and endorsed candidates in red to blues, in open primaries, but they do not shy away from actual primaries in blue races either. So, you know, I’m not sure if it really changes much because incumbent Democrats support and endorse against other incumbents all the time,” she said.
That’s a blatant lie.
“Long story short, I need you to run for office. All I’m asking you to do is throw your hat in the ring, say ‘what the heck,’” she said on the call.
The Hill reported:
The incoming freshman Democrat added that she and other members of the Justice Democrats, a group of progressive Democrats seeking to shift the Democratic Party left, would support challenges to incumbent Democrats they view as insufficiently aligned with the views of progressives in the party, particularly on the issue of corporate campaign donations.
Ocasio-Cortez sees herself as a modern female version of Che Guevera. But America isn’t 1960s Cuba, and she hasn’t even spent one full day as a real member of Congress yet.
Furthermore, she will learn that activism isn’t the same as legislating, and believing your own press is usually not a very good idea.
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2 Comments on "Even the ‘diverse’ Democratic Party isn’t diverse ENOUGH for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez"
Buzz | November 20, 2018 at 10:47 am | Reply
Dumber than a box of doorknobs.
John | November 21, 2018 at 2:22 am | Reply
Your comment is an insult to doorknobs.
Huge demographic shifts over last decade putting Dems on defense in 2020 House races
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Airbnb rethinks search experience, starts guiding travelers to great neighborhoods
JVG November 13, 2012 1:52 PM
Community-powered hotel alternative Airbnb today launched a new feature called Neighborhoods to help travelers pick places to stay in communities best suited to their particular tastes and inclinations.
Airbnb is a four-year-old, heavily funded startup that makes a popular web and mobile service for listing your available spaces and booking everything from couches to castles. The company offers hotel room alternatives in more than 30,000 cities around the world.
Airbnb Neighborhoods went live Tuesday in seven different markets and aims to shake up the travel search status quo by highlighting the unique attributes of 300 local neighborhoods.
“Neighborhoods are the original communities. They are the keys to unlocking local culture and one-of-a-kind experiences,” Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky said in a statement. “By going deeper and tapping into local knowledge, we are introducing our community to a neighborhood’s personality so they can match it with their own.”
The new service directs sojourners down a path of neighborhood exploration with guides that allow filtering by preference, and include maps, details on transportation options, editorial content, and tips from hosts in the areas.
Airbnb visitors interested in booking places to stay in Rio de Janeiro, New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Paris, and Washington D.C. will find that Neighborhoods, which has taken over the site’s homepage, now drives the search experience.
A click on a city brings up a selection of attributes such as “nightlife,” “arty,” or “dining,” and a click on an attribute pulls up the corresponding neighborhoods, each listed with a colorful photo and labels to help folks make the best selection. Finally, the neighborhood page gives both an overview of the community along with a more detailed photo-centric guide to local attractions, features tips from local residents, and shows-off popular places to stay.
Tuesday’s launch rethinks the booking experience around the travel factors that matter most to people searching for places to stay, and suggests that Airbnb’s plan is to make search entirely driven by the Neighborhoods’ experience. The startup said it will continue to roll out Airbnb Neighborhoods to additional travel markets around the world.
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Mark Zuckerberg begins to accept responsibility for Facebook’s influence
Mathew Ingram, Fortune February 17, 2017 5:44 PM
Above: Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit on November 19, 2016, Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed , "We also need to do our part to stop the spread of hate and violence and misinformation."
Image Credit: Screenshot / VentureBeat
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg likes to write open letters during times of great import. He wrote one when the company went public, he wrote one to his infant daughter when he became a father, and he has written a new one that was published on Thursday.
So why is now a time that requires an almost 6,000-word essay touching on world affairs, U.S. politics, the value of high-quality journalism, and the crumbling social fabric of America? Because it seems that Zuckerberg has become “woke,” as the kids like to say.
In other words, the Facebook co-founder seems to have awakened to some of the unintended consequences of the mega-platform that he has built. On a lot of issues, he tells Recode’s Kara Swisher that his “views have become more nuanced.”
In the case of the media, for example, Zuckerberg has undergone a significant evolution from his original position just after the election, when he scoffed at the idea that “fake news” distributed on the social network was a problem, and reiterated his position that Facebook is not a media company—and therefore is more or less blameless when it comes to such things.
Since then, Zuckerberg has admitted that disinformation spread via social media is a problem, and that Facebook needs to help. He has instituted a series of moves to help fact-check news stories on the network. Facebook also started a journalism project, and reached out to local media outlets.
Some of this might just be a public relations exercise, designed to simulate interest in the problem in order to get critics off his back. But in his letter at least, the Facebook CEO confronted the problem head on, saying: “Giving everyone a voice has historically been a very positive force for public discourse because it increases the diversity of ideas shared. But the past year has also shown it may fragment our shared sense of reality.”
He goes on to say:
We know there is misinformation and even outright hoax content on Facebook, and we take this very seriously. We’ve made progress fighting hoaxes the way we fight spam, but we have more work to do. We are proceeding carefully because there is not always a clear line between hoaxes, satire and opinion.
Zuckerberg has clearly been listening to critics of the attempt to get Facebook to arbitrate what is true and what isn’t, who argue that putting this power in the hands of a single company is unwise. As the Facebook CEO says: “In a free society, it’s important that people have the power to share their opinion, even if others think they’re wrong. Our approach will focus less on banning misinformation, and more on surfacing additional perspectives and information.”
In a larger sense, Zuckerberg seems to be admitting in his essay that Facebook’s original, somewhat simplistic goal—to bring the world together and connect everyone to everyone else—was a little flawed, or at least didn’t take into account some realities of the world in which we live.
If you are trying to create a single, unified global platform with homogeneous standards and practices for billions of people—which Facebook has arguably been trying to do—then you are doomed to fail. This has happened in both large and small ways, whether it’s Facebook removing breast-feeding photos because they might offend someone, or taking down historic Vietnam war pictures.
As Zuckerberg puts it in his letter, “there are questions about whether we can make a global community that works for everyone, and whether the path ahead is to connect more or reverse course.” Needless to say, the Facebook co-founder’s default is to connect more, but he admits that “our community spans many countries and cultures, and the norms are different in each region.”
The solution, he says, is to allow for more personal customization, so that each user can decide what they wish to see or not see. And for those who argue that this perpetuates “filter bubbles,” Zuckerberg says that Facebook will try to expose users to alternate perspectives.
But he is also aware of the dangers of doing this, which he describes in this way:
Research shows that some of the most obvious ideas, like showing people an article from the opposite perspective, actually deepen polarization by framing other perspectives as foreign. A more effective approach is to show a range of perspectives, let people see where their views are on a spectrum and come to a conclusion on what they think is right.
The Facebook CEO also seems to be aware of how much social platforms like his (and Twitter, for that matter) encourage people to take extreme positions, or create division in order to get attention.
“Social media is a short-form medium where resonant messages get amplified many times,” Zuckerberg says. “This rewards simplicity and discourages nuance. At its worst, it oversimplifies important topics and pushes us towards extremes.”
So what can Facebook do to solve these problems, when the whole structure of the network—not to mention the monetization model—is arguably oriented towards maintaining the status quo? Zuckerberg is a little vague on how that is going to happen. He talks about better tools for understanding each other, better ways to have conversations, connecting more people from different walks of life, etc. But there is little about how exactly those will work.
Perhaps there are some social and political (and even just human) problems that not even Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg can solve—as well-intentioned as they might be.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com. Copyright 2017
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Waymo will build its driverless cars in Detroit
Kyle Wiggers@Kyle_L_Wiggers April 23, 2019 7:36 AM
Above: A self-driving vehicle developed by Google parent company Alphabet's Waymo.
Months after Waymo announced that it would dedicate a factory in southeast Michigan to the production of level 4 autonomous cars — that is, cars capable of driving without human supervision in most conditions — the Alphabet subsidiary this morning revealed that it has settled on a location in Detroit. Waymo will partner with Detroit-based American Axle & Manufacturing, a manufacturer of automobile driveline and drivetrain components and systems, to repurpose the factory, with the goal of “bringing a workforce back to an area where jobs in the automotive industry were recently lost.”
Waymo also said that it’ll work with a range of automotive partners — including Canadian company Magna — to outfit cars with its driverless system, and it claims the retrofitted factory will be the world’s first of its kind when it kicks off operations in mid-2019. The plan is supported by a $13.6 million investment from Waymo, an $8 million grant from Michigan Strategic Fund, and a $25,000 investment from MichAuto, the automotive economic development division of the Detroit Regional Chamber. It could pay the salaries of up to 400 new workers by 2025.
“We wanted this facility to benefit from a location in southeast Michigan — the heart of the American automotive industry — and its strong talent base,” Waymo wrote in a Medium post. “We [looked for a facility that would offer] us the flexibility to continue to grow and expand our operations in Michigan over time and where there was a strong pool of talent across engineering, operations, and fleet coordination.”
According to a deal with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), Waymo’s manufacturing plant must be in operation by the end of 2021, with at least 100 new employees. The company currently operates a roughly 20-person, 53,000-square-foot office in Novi, Michigan that opened in 2016.
“Today’s announcement by Waymo shows that the City of Detroit remains at the center of the future of the auto industry. Waymo could have located the world’s first 100% dedicated level 4 autonomous vehicle factory anywhere,” said Detroit mayor Mike Duggan. “We deeply appreciate the confidence John Krafcik and the Waymo team are showing in the Motor City.”
Today’s news follows the expansion last year of Waymo’s full-service center in Chandler — which houses operations and support teams, including fleet technicians, fleet dispatch, fleet response, and rider support — to 60,000 square feet. More recently, the company said it would open an 85,000-square-foot technical service center in the city of Mesa, Arizona, near Phoenix’s East Valley, which it expects will “more than double” its capacity to maintain the fleet of cars in Waymo One, its driverless taxi service in Phoenix.
The developments have come two years after Waymo began building and testing driverless Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans in the Detroit Metro area. The vehicles are produced in Windsor, Canada and shipped to the Novi, Michigan center, where they’re outfitted with hardware and software by Waymo and Chrysler engineers.
Last year, Waymo said it would add up to 62,000 minivans to its fleet, and it has signed a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to equip 20,000 of the automaker’s Jaguar i-Pace electric SUVs with its autonomous system by 2020. It also became the first company to obtain a fully driverless car permit in California last year, when it got the green light to test its self-driving cars on public roads. And it says its cars have driven 10 million miles autonomously on public roads in 25 states and 7 billion simulated miles.
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Catherine Kilmain
Dr. Catherine Kilmain, Vice President of Engineering, Bell Helicopter Textron
Overseeing about 1,400 engineers globally, Dr. Catherine Kilmain heads a dynamic rotorcraft organization charged with both research and development in the Bell XworX and traditional development in Bell production programs.
“The push that we had at XworX and the push that we’re having in our traditional engineering group is actually to broaden our engineers,” she observed. “Those who are part of an XworX core engineering team have a lot of cycles of learning, have a lot of experience, and are called on to do a lot of different things. That adds a lot of value in terms of knowledge that they can bring to the challenges that we face. That same kind of thinking is what we’re trying to push into the entire engineering organization to get them a little bit broader. Recognizing we still need some deep technical knowledge in some core areas, we’re trying to press to make sure people are really stretching and are growing themselves beyond one discipline.”
Like the rest of the rotorcraft industry, Bell is hungry for engineering talent. “I would say there is a gap that the industry faces in Double-Es [Electrical Engineers] and software engineers,” acknowledged Kilmain. “The competition for that capability with the Googles, the Amazons, and the internet Silicon Valley-type companies is strong. I think our industry knows that and is trying to figure out how to better publicize opportunities for those disciplines within the vertical lift industry. Personally, I think it’s more challenging and satisfying to create fly-by-wire software that helps a machine complete its mission than to write some software that’s just another search engine. We need to do a better job as an industry attracting that talent, showing what could be in our space for them.”
Engineering Options
Through most of her school years around New Haven, Connecticut, Catherine Kilmain felt no attraction to aviation or engineering. “I liked math and science, and I originally wanted to be a heart surgeon for a very long time in high school until Top Gun came out. I went to see Top Gun, and that’s when I decided to become an aerospace engineer.” A high school guidance counselor pointed the curious senior to Syracuse University. “I chose engineering but didn’t know much about it. Syracuse has a full engineering program — I really enjoyed being there — but it also has a broader campus, so there are a lot of other disciplines. I chose a university so if engineering didn’t work out for me, there were other majors.”
Engineering studies at Syracuse worked out well, and Catherine (née Ferrie) Kilmain turned an aerospace engineering (AE) degree toward graduate studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology and unexpected rotary-wing career. “I didn’t even think of helicopters when I went to Georgia Tech,” she recalled. “I didn’t know they had a Rotorcraft Center of Excellence — that’s how ignorant I was. I wanted to get my Ph.D. because I thought I wanted to teach. I got interested in composites at Syracuse, and I went down to Georgia Tech to work on composites. There was a helicopter dynamics class taught by Dr. Hodges. I took the class, enjoyed it, and did well in it, but I still didn’t think about pursuing a career in rotorcraft.”
Doctoral preparations nevertheless coincided with a campus visit from Bell recruiters. “Dr. Jing Yen, who was the director of flight technology at the time here at Bell, set up interviews at the AE department. I signed up for an interview before I was finished with my degree — I didn’t want to be a five-, six-, seven-year Ph.D. student. I defended my thesis in early September and started work at the end of September 1997.”
Bell assigned the new engineer to the world’s first commercial tiltrotor. “I hired into the airframe stress group and I was put on the BA609 program,” said Dr. Kilmain. “It was my first time to understand the design and development process. It was when we were just kicking off the program, and just understanding how we do design, how we do iterations. How we got from concept to execution was very eye-opening for me.”
Tiltrotor work led to other advanced developments. “I stayed on 609 until 1999 and I went into the research organization. If you look at the charter of XworX today, it was XworX, but that’s not what we called it. I was brought in for my composite/fracture mechanics background, so we were looking at advanced materials, new layups for rotor heads and rotor blades. Some of that was cooperative research work for what was then NRTC/RITA [the National Rotorcraft Technology Center / Rotorcraft Industry Technology Association], now the VLC [Vertical Lift Consortium], on how we could partner together on damage tolerance.
“A lot of what we currently have in helicopter flaw tolerance requirements was a result of the input that the collective industry provided to the FAA. The work that we did at Bell — but actually for the industry on damage tolerance for certification — was rewarding. The ability to partner as an industry on ways and means to help influence what needed to be done for rotorcraft certification is a great model.”
Bell formally stood up its XworX in 2004. “We used to have a new product development center, a rapid prototyping center, and we married that execution piece with our Research and Development center, so what we’re calling XworX now supported the Model 429 rapid prototyping.” Dr. Kilmain became the manager of XworX in 2009 and, “Anything new in new-product test and development gets done under the XworX moniker.”
The rapid prototyping shop today provides a rapid response mechanism for the full range of Bell programs. “When something like a Model 525 or a 505 has a specific Statement of Work, as we execute the traditional engineering aspects, there are always development challenges. That’s when we reach out to the XworX team members, and they become part of those programs to help solve them and think a little non-traditionally. If there is some quick build to try out a modification, we call in that team to help.” Dr. Kilmain was named Vice President, XworX, Research and Development, Test and Evaluation in 2012.
“The current development programs like 525 and 505 are production programs that leverage the quick turnaround of some of our machining experts and build experts and the engineering team. On some things like a V-280, we call on our XworX engineering talent initially to help drive some of the new ways of thinking. There’s a lot of new technology and new capability in the V-280, so it’s a good blend of getting the right group of people together to get that done. I think the secret to solving a lot of difficult challenges is having many different perspectives in the room that can add to and challenge solutions versus having one voice.”
Simultaneous development programs at Bell — the commercial Model 505 Jet Ranger X light single- and Model 525 Relentless super medium twin-engine helicopters, and military Model V-280 Valor tiltrotor — advance the portfolio of Bell technologies. Dr. Kilmain explained, “Value proposition for the customer is our main focus and making sure we can meet whatever capabilities and needs they have at the most cost-friendly place. Those technologies and capabilities that feed into that value proposition are where we’re going to place our greatest emphasis. Safety, obviously, and being cognizant of the missions you need to meet and what you need to do for your customer are key.”
Dr. Kilmain offered, “I think tiltrotors have proven their value over and over again. The V-22 is hugely successful, and the V-280 is going to be extremely impressive to the US government and the world. We’ve got fly-by-wire in our 525 and V-280. There are a lot of benefits to that technology. Certainly, we’re looking at reducing noise, flying a little bit greener. I think autonomy is of interest to everybody, it seems, even Google. We’ve got the Fire Scout partnership with Northrop Grumman based on our Model 407. As we demonstrate more of our fly-by-wire capability, I think autonomy will definitely be a next leap.”
Fast-moving Bell teams use rapid prototyping tools, according to Dr. Kilmain. “We do use 3-D printing a lot. Sometimes, it’s just for fit-form-and-function, sometimes to fly, to demonstrate. What separates an XworX proof-of-concept from a development program is you don’t always weight-optimize. You don’t have to meet all of the certification requirements. It has to be airworthy, obviously, and safe, but you can do things a little bit differently than if you were going to release things for production. It’s a lot quicker in terms of engineering process tools, manufacturing tools that we can use to get to a solution that we can turn over to production.”
New developments demand more from Bell engineering, and the company has a multi-front recruiting campaign to cultivate new engineering talent. Dr. Kilmain explained, “We start with our [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] STEM events in the sixth- to eighth-grade just developing a passion for engineering. We do a lot with our Boot Camps where we recruit college sophomores and juniors to come in and go solve an engineering challenge that we have. From there, we have our college internship programs in the summer. It’s a mix, depending on our needs. We started our co-op program with undergrads who will be with us a full semester from different universities — Georgia Tech, Maryland, etc., and, locally, Texas universities. We can always use good engineers.”
Catherine Kilmain joined the AHS International in 2000, and in 2002 earned the AHS François-Xavier Bagnoud Award recognizing a member under the age of 30 who has made a significant contribution to the industry. In 2004, she received the Harry T. Jensen award for her rotorcraft damage tolerance work. A former member of the AHS Board of Directors, Dr. Kilmain remains involved with AHS International. “I think it builds a really close, tight-knit industry which can work for or against us,” she concluded. “I think it’s very positive where you can see the same people and have a place where you can talk about things that are common interests. It can also, if left as its own little island, create the same problem we have with the Double-Es and software engineers: We don’t get our message out how great rotorcraft and vertical lift are.”
Vertiflite Leadership Profile: Vertiflite March/April 2016
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Searsport Town News
By Dick Desmarais | Jul 13, 2019
radiosearsport@aol.com
This weekend the fire department will be holding its annual car show. For more info, call 548-2302.
Saturday, July 13, the First Methodist Church will be holding a Turkey Supper with all the trimmings at the church on Main Street, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 16, the selectmen will hold their regular meeting in the Town Hall starting at 7 p.m. This meeting will be televised on channel 1303.
Veteran salute: All are welcome to a family picnic and salute to Waldo County veterans on Saturday, July 13, beginning at noon in Mosman Park.
Bring a dish for your family and/or to share and a lawn chair. Hot dogs, hamburgers and sodas will be available for a small donation.
From 1 to 2:30 p.m., the Danny Harper Band will give a concert. Danny Harper is one of Maine's remaining true "traditionalists," and that is reflected in the many songs he writes and records. He first began singing and writing country music back in the 1960s and had his own weekly TV show in the 1970s.
The event is hosted by Waldo County Republicans. For more info, call or text 207-992-3172.
Dick and Jane are back!
Haddock chowder, salad and strawberry shortcake supper.
July 17 - Searsport Congregational Church
Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and dinner at 5:00 p.m. - $11.
Saturday, July 20, Where in the World? Day - Penobscot Marine Museum visitors will be able to explore the Museum's 2019 Where in the World? exhibit through special family-friendly activities including trivia, a scavenger hunt, speakers, and more. All activities are included with Museum admission. The Where in the World? exhibit features paintings of Maine cargo ships in foreign ports and the navigational charts that guided the way. Captains and owners commissioned paintings of their vessels as a point of pride to ensure a successful voyage. Today, these port paintings provide viewers with a tour of the ports as they looked in the early to mid-1800s. Navigational charts with hand-written course notations from the Museum’s collections accompany the port paintings, putting the voyages of Maine sea captains into geographical context. Where in the World? Day has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Allen Insurance and Financial. For more information visit penobscotmarinemuseum.org or call 207-548-2529. Museum admission is free for Searsport and Stockton Springs residents.
Wednesday Children’s Programs at Penobscot Marine Museum – PMM will hold children’s programs on Wednesdays throughout the summer. Junior Adventurers starts June 19 and runs every Wednesday through August 7. Each program begins at 11:00 a.m. and runs 30 minutes to one hour, and are free with Museum admission. Families will discover Penobscot Marine Museum’s campus through stories, crafts, games, and special tours of the exhibits. These weekly programs are designed for children and their families to have fun at the Museum. Each program will explore a different topic and include a craft to take home. Junior Adventurers has been made possible thanks to support from Wayne Hamilton in memory of Loraine Hamilton. For more information visit penobscotmarinemuseum.org or call 207-548-2529 ext. 213.
Sunday, July 14, Lobstering Women of Maine – PMM will hold an exhibit reception on Sunday, July 14 between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. for Susan Tobey White’s Lobstering Women of Maine. The reception is free, and will be held at the Museum’s Old Town Hall located at 7 Church Street in Searsport. Along with the artist, many of the women portrayed in these paintings are planning on attending the reception.
In Lobstering Women of Maine, Belfast artist Susan Tobey White captures Maine’s lobster industry through her brightly colored paintings of lobster women at work. The exhibit showcases the lobster industry, explores Maine’s traditions and heritage, and reveals the strength of women. White appreciates the hard working women in the lobster industry, and was inspired to depict them in her art. She portrays women from the coast and islands of Maine from Ogunquit to Stonington. Lobstering Women of Maine is on display at Penobscot Marine Museum for the entirety of their 2019 season thanks to the generosity of Hamilton Marine.
Acrylic Workshop - In conjunction to the exhibit, White will also be teaching an acrylic painting workshop using photos from the Museum’s collection as inspiration on Saturday, July 27. The cost of this one day workshop is $125 or $115 for Museum members, and will be held on the Museum’s campus. Preregistration is required by July 19. For more information on the reception visit call 207-548-2529. To register for the workshop, please call 207-548-2529 ext. 213 or email jganskop@pmm-maine.org.
Public Works – The crew did a lot of work down on Station Avenue including ditching, brush cutting, culverts and a major road re-build. They also installed cross culverts on two other roads. They continued patching potholes and painted additional crosswalks in June. We have completed engineering plans for Cottage Street that have been reviewed by the Department of Environmental Protection. We hope to be able to start working on that project as soon as this month. Early in June, we had Maine Municipal Association here to conduct a safety inspection. They did not find any deficiencies in the Public Works area.
Wastewater – Howard and Dan are doing well. They worked with a contractor and repaired the faulty foot valve at the plant. Right after that project was completed, a water line in the clarifier room broke. The environment in the clarifier is very corrosive and any metal in that area eventually rots. They have capped the line and will replace it with plastic later this year. We continue to work with Woodard and Curran on seeking funding sources for a plant replacement. I believe we have secured about $1.7 million so far. We should hear about a grant that Dean Bennett applied for this month. That grant has the potential of adding another $500,000 to the project.
Carver Memorial Library – The staff is doing well. The roofing company was there last week and completed the roof replacement on the library addition.
Ambulance – The Ambulance responded to 50 calls for service in June. They had two paramedic intercepts and three inter-facility transfers. Adrian reports that both ambulances are running good and there are no equipment issues.
Fire – The Fire Department responded to eleven calls for service in June. They issued 27 burn permits for the month. The portable generator repairs and improvements are complete and the trailer is back at the station. The Chief has no new truck or equipment issues to report.
Code Enforcement – Randy is doing well. Building permit request continue to be very high right now. He and Harriet have been going out investigating complaints and new buildings that have been built without the proper permits. They have been very successful.
Police Department – The Searsport Police Department received 183 calls for service during the month of June. The department is very short staffed right now and are still managing to cover all complaints. Officer McCrillis is done at the schools for this year and his return to patrol is a big help right now. This year was a great success for the school resource program. The Chief attended the summer conference of the Maine Chief’s of Police Association. All cruisers are up to date on service and are running well. The Chief reports that they are preparing for the 4th of July parade and fireworks.
Economic Development – Dean Bennett is doing well. He is continuing to work with a developer who wants to export goods from the port. He finalized our next ad for MaineBiz magazine. He has reached out to a couple of franchise owners about the vacant Maritime Farms building. We had a meeting with the Penobscot Marine Museumabout the potential downtown parking lot. As soon as they report their agreement with the plan, he will be in contact with an abutter about securing some additional property for it. This is a great project for our community. He has coordinated with a couple of new businesses in town for marketing.
Town Hall – The roofing at the Town Office is complete. Our next serious work will be paint and trim on the outside and new lighting upstairs. I hope to have these items done before this time next year.
Committees – The Shellfish Committee, Historic Preservation Committee and Planning Boards all met last month. The 175th Anniversary Committee continues to meet on a biweekly basis. They have placed orders for promotional items that will be available before the end of summer including tee shirts, coffee cups, key chains, window decals and even coins. The Anniversary book is coming together nicely. This should also be ready before the end of summer.
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2018 College Guide and Rankings
Republic 3.0
Successes of Philanthropy
Why the Right Abandons Democracy in Favor of Authoritarianism
by Nancy LeTourneau
| 6:30 AM
The White House/Flickr
There is a theme that has been emerging since the Tea Party was formed in reaction to Barack Obama’s election. It has most recently been articulated in response to the online exchange between Sohrab Ahmari and David French. As I noted previously, Andrew Sullivan did a good job of summarizing Ahmari’s position.
He wants the state to act boldly “to fight the culture war with the aim of defeating the enemy and enjoying the spoils in the form of a public square re-ordered to the common good and ultimately the Highest Good.”…
He wants to shut down the primacy of individual autonomy in a country where different people can coexist with others of radically different politics or faith…
“Civility and decency are secondary values,” Ahmari writes. “They regulate compliance with an established order and orthodoxy. We should seek to use these values to enforce our order and our orthodoxy, not pretend that they could ever be neutral.” Rewind that one more time: Ahmari wants to enforce his moral order on others. He believes pluralism is merely a cloak for libertinism.
And that’s why many on the right, even and especially conservative Christians, support Trump. He may be morally corrupt but he can be relied on to enforce moral order against the destabilizing forces of individualism and secularism.
Josh Marshall captured the theme embedded within Ahmari’s position in a post titled, “The American Right Gets Tired of Democracy.”
The basic thrust is a political vision that prioritizes hierarchical social cohesion and has the government takes a leading role enforcing traditionalist cultural and social values and keeping conservative Christianity as the taproot of the state. Church and state are both on the same team and working, collaboratively, toward the same end. The pluralist vision of the state most of us are familiar with, in which it is a semi-neutral arbiter between lots of different visions of how people should live their lives, is anathema…
As others have noted, the idea is that the culture war and the related battle for an ethno-nationalist identity are simply too important, immediate and dire to have any time to worry about things like the rule of law or even democracy.
Adam Serwer has a similar take.
The tide of illiberalism sweeping over Western countries and the election of Donald Trump have since renewed hope among some on the religious right that it might revive its cultural control through the power of the state. Inspired by Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Vladimir Putin in Russia, a faction of the religious right now looks to sectarian ethno-nationalism to restore its beliefs to their rightful primacy, and to rescue a degraded and degenerate culture. All that stands in their way is democracy, and the fact that most Americans reject what they have to offer.
…the illiberal faction in this debate retains Trump as its champion precisely because the president is willing to use the power of the state for sectarian ends, despite being an exemplar of the libertinism to which it is supposedly implacably opposed, a man whose major legislative accomplishment is slashing taxes on the wealthy, and whose most significant contribution to the institution of the family is destroying thousands of them on purpose. It is power that is the motivator here, and the best that could be said for these American Orbánists is that they believe that asserting an iron grip on American politics and culture would offer the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Every authoritarian movement has felt the same way.
This willingness to eschew democracy in favor of authoritarianism was forecast by Zachary Roth before Trump’s election. He noted that, recognizing that they were about to become a permanent minority, Republicans decided that “being outnumbered doesn’t have to mean losing.” The strategies employed to undermine democracy included voter suppression, gerrymandering, fighting for the involvement of dark money in politics, judicial engagement, and something called pre-emption, by which red states overruled laws passed by more progressive local communities.
But the most prescient analysis of what has recently become more obvious came from Doug Muder back in 2014 in an article titled, “Not a Tea Party, a Confederate Party.” He compared what was happening in the Republican Party following the election of the first African American president to the response of confederates to Reconstruction following the Civil War:
After the U.S. forces won on the battlefield in 1865 and shattered the organized Confederate military, the veterans of that shattered army formed a terrorist insurgency that carried on a campaign of fire and assassination throughout the South until President Hayes agreed to withdraw the occupying U. S. troops in 1877. Before and after 1877, the insurgents used lynchings and occasional pitched battles to terrorize those portions of the electorate still loyal to the United States. In this way they took charge of the machinery of state government, and then rewrote the state constitutions to reverse the postwar changes and restore the supremacy of the class that led the Confederate states into war in the first place.
By the time it was all over, the planter aristocrats were back in control, and the three constitutional amendments that supposedly had codified the U.S.A’s victory over the C.S.A.- the 13th, 14th, and 15th — had been effectively nullified in every Confederate state. The Civil Rights Acts had been gutted by the Supreme Court, and were all but forgotten by the time similar proposals resurfaced in the 1960s. Blacks were once again forced into hard labor for subsistence wages, denied the right to vote, and denied the equal protection of the laws.
In the end, Muder defined the confederate world view that has become a resurgent force in American politics.
The essence of the Confederate worldview is that the democratic process cannot legitimately change the established social order, and so all forms of legal and illegal resistance are justified when it tries…
The Confederate sees a divinely ordained way things are supposed to be, and defends it at all costs. No process, no matter how orderly or democratic, can justify fundamental change.
To return to Marshall’s analysis, this isn’t the first time in this country that “the American right got tired of democracy.” We can contrast that with a powerful description from Serwer.
Black Americans did not abandon liberal democracy because of slavery, Jim Crow, and the systematic destruction of whatever wealth they managed to accumulate; instead they took up arms in two world wars to defend it. Japanese Americans did not reject liberal democracy because of internment or the racist humiliation of Asian exclusion; they risked life and limb to preserve it. Latinos did not abandon liberal democracy because of “Operation Wetback,” or Proposition 187, or because of a man who won a presidential election on the strength of his hostility toward Latino immigrants. Gay, lesbian, and trans Americans did not abandon liberal democracy over decades of discrimination and abandonment in the face of an epidemic. This is, in part, because doing so would be tantamount to giving the state permission to destroy them, a thought so foreign to these defenders of the supposedly endangered religious right that the possibility has not even occurred to them. But it is also because of a peculiar irony of American history: The American creed has no more devoted adherents than those who have been historically denied its promises, and no more fair-weather friends than those who have taken them for granted.
There is no greater example of what it means to be privileged than watching the right abandon democracy in favor of authoritarianism as a means to maintain power.
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Nancy LeTourneau
Nancy LeTourneau is a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly. Follow her on Twitter @Smartypants60.
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“Narrative History at its Most Enthralling”: Interview with Roger Crowley
On Sep 21, 2017 Oct 1, 2017 By arwen1968In Maritime History
Leer esto en castellano
Today we’re going to talk about – and talk with – one of my favourite authors.
Let’s start with an excerpt:
View from the Doge’s prison, Venice
..Pisani could hear the cries from the ducal prison. Putting his head to the bars, he called out ‘Long live St Mark!’ The crowd responded with a throaty roar. Upstairs in the senatorial chamber a panicky debate was underway. The crowd put ladders to the windows. They hammered the chamber door with a rhythmic refrain: ‘Vettor Pisani! Vettor Pisani!’
Reads like a novel?
It isn’t.
It’s history – as written by the British historian, Roger Crowley.
The excerpt above is from City of Fortune, Roger Crowley’s book on the rise and decline of Venetian naval power. If you’d like to find out why – the clearly popular – Admiral Pisani (1324-1380) was languishing in the Doge’s prison and what happened next, you know what to do.
(No, I did not mean look it up on Wikipedia!)
“Narrative History at its Most Enthralling”
“Narrative history at its most enthralling” is how, on his website, Roger Crowley describes what he does and it’s not a phrase I’d quarrel with. I can recall dozens of vivid episodes that I could have chosen for the excerpt I started this post with (but the others wouldn’t have gone with my Venice dungeon photo).
Some of you might think that I like Roger Crowley only because he writes about the history of the Mediterranean, and in particular about naval history; well, I’ll refer you to my comments regarding David Abulafia, who bloody bored me to tears on the subject. I enjoy Roger Crowley’s books because of the way he writes, not just what he writes about. If tomorrow he published a book on the ecclesiastical history of early medieval Britain retelling the Venerable Bede, I’d probably buy it.
History – this will come as a shock to some of you who only remember it from school – is not merely a boring list of dates or a collection of anaemic stories about anodyne kings. History teems with heroes, travellers, villains… and ordinary people, some of whom had the gift of the gab. This is exactly what makes history exciting, vivid and personal.
Which is how Roger Crowley tells it.
I recognise that a naval history of the Serenissima Repubblica may not have universal appeal (read it, read it, it’s a ripping yarn!), but unlike Herodotus, Mr Crowley is not a single book wonder. To date he has written four books and is working on a fifth; take your pick from (in order of publishing):
Constantinople: The Last Great Siege (2005)
Empires of the Sea (2008)
City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire (2011)
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire (2015)
??? (Coming to a bookshop near you in 2019!)
(You’ll have to read the interview to find out what ??? is about.)
Interview with Roger Crowley
Roger Crowley (Used with permission)
You studied literature at university, not history. What inspired you to start researching historical topics and to write history books?
I’ve always been interested in history – as a child particularly the archaeology of Egypt, and the idea of finding things in the earth, and I thought I was going to be an archaeologist, but it never happened, I got too interested in words. Also when I was young my parents went to live in Malta and I was quickly hooked on the Mediterranean world and its past.
After university I went to live in Istanbul. The antiquity of the city fascinated me. Many years later I started to think about Istanbul and its former incarnation Constantinople, and the moment when the city passed from the Greeks to the Turks – a highly dramatic moment – and thought it would be interesting to explore the fall of Constantinople as a subject. I realised that this was a moment of history that had everything – and no one had written an account of it for fifty years. And I just wanted to write about Istanbul.
One of the reasons that I find Roger Crowley’s books hugely enjoyable is that he always includes first-hand accounts. Those of you who are similarly addicted to the genre know that some of these can make extremely dull reading: being in the right place at the right time doesn’t necessarily mean you can tell your story lucidly, let alone spin a good yarn. But the eye-witnesses Roger Crowley chooses are able to speak for themselves coherently, honestly, vividly.
Have you got a favourite eye-witness? Could you perhaps recommend a first-hand account that makes particularly good reading for the general public?
I particularly love the good-natured Felix Fabri, the German monk who made two trips to the Holy Land and to Egypt in the 1480s. It’s vivid early travel writing at its best. Difficult not to enjoy the account of a man kept awake while travelling up the Nile by the belching of crocodiles.
Translations of his books are hard to come by – only one part’s in English I think (‘The Book of the Wanderings of Brother Felix Fabri’). It can be read on line. There are two books about his journeys which incorporate his writing and are very readable. ‘Jerusalem Journey’ and ‘Once to Sinai’ by H F M Prescott – second hand only.
Also, very readable, a first-hand account of the siege of Malta in 1565: ‘The Siege of Malta 1565’ by Francisco Balbi.
A few years ago you gave an interview in which you said that you generally find yourself having to learn new languages while doing research for your books. How many languages have you learned this way and which ones?
Because I don’t write about English history, and because original sources are essential, I’ve found it a necessary chore to read a variety of languages. To be honest I’m not a great linguist and I’ve had to spend time learning to read – rather than speak – a number of languages. This becomes even tougher when the sources are written in old forms of the language. So I have read in French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish (very tough to read but I can speak it a bit), some Spanish, a little Modern Greek, and Latin (which I learned at school). With some of these the reading is pretty slow – I have a lot of large dictionaries – and I’ve reached an age when retention of new vocabulary is not terribly impressive. After a while all the Romance languages blur together into one large soup. My one regret is that I don’t know any German which would be extremely useful but I’m not sure I’m up to taking this on at the moment.
How long does it take you to research and write a book? What is your method of working and do you visit all the locations that you are writing about?
The books take three to four years each – quite slow work – including language learning time.
When I wrote my first book I wrote a chapter by chapter outline and it made the book easier to write. Since then I’ve tended not to plan at the outset but to read widely round the subject, to study bibliographies carefully to try to find out what’s worth reading and above all to try to hunt down really good first-hand accounts.
I produce hundreds of pages of handwritten notes from this research before I really get down to the real writing (which I tend to do straight to laptop unless I’m having trouble framing my thoughts.) I work chapter by chapter. I’ll gather all the source material for the chapter, immerse myself in it, try to produce a near perfect draft then move on to the next.
A sense of place is important so I do try to visit key locations involved but never all. With something like the Portuguese empire I’d spend my whole life touring the world and I’ve learned to get an advance sense of places it’s essential to go to and those not. Sometimes I’ve trekked off to somewhere for the sake of one descriptive adjective…
Could you share an interesting episode of history that you came across while researching but which you had to leave out the final book?
Voices from the past always fascinate me. The traces of the Greek diaspora – pottery, buildings, artefacts and place names – can be found everywhere they went, and although the people themselves may seem very distant to us, we can still catch their voices on the tombstones and monuments that they left behind. Visiting the city of Constanta in what is now Rumania, I read the translation of a tombstone, the epitaph of a woman, written as if she herself were speaking directly to us from nearly two thousand years ago. It tells the story of her life and says in part:
“Perinthos, my husband, put up this memorial. And if you want to know, passer-by, who and whose I am, listen: when I was 13 a young man loved me. Then I married him and bore three children. Finally I had a fourth child, though I should not have had anymore, because the child died first and a short time after I did too. I left the light of the sun when I was thirty. I, Cecilia Artemisia, lie here. My husband, Perinthos, lives and mourns me with a faint voice. A greeting to you whoever you may be, you who pass by our graves!”
Things like this bring the humanity of past people very close to us.
On our recent trip to Portugal I introduced my family to Roger Crowley by retelling episodes from Conquerors; one of the episodes that captured their attention was the battle of the Portuguese fleet under the command of Lourenço de Almeida against the forces of the Sultan of Egypt in the port of Chaul. Almeida, who could have easily sank the Egyptian fleet by gunfire from the distance, chose instead to close in with the enemy in order to conform with the fidalgos’ code of honour. It was a fatal decision for himself and his men, and Young Friend of the Elephants, with the righteousness of eleven-year-olds, duly concluded that Lourenço was an ‘idiot’. It’s not a conclusion that I’m entirely in agreement with…
What’s your opinion of the fidalgos’ code of honour and of Lourenço – do you view him as more of a hero or a fool?
Lourenço, seen from our perspective, looks like a fool. We can’t help asking ourselves ‘why on earth didn’t he just cleanly blast the enemy out of the water from a distance’, but this is to see the past through modern eyes.
The aristocratic warrior class of Portugal was bound by a medieval code of personal valour. (To put this into perspective there was a famous incident about fifty years earlier, during an attack on a Moroccan castle, when the arguments among the Portuguese as to who should have the honour of climbing a scaling ladder first went on so long that they were all killed!)
Lourenço also had a question mark against his reputation and courage after refusing to attack a port earlier – he personally was keen to do this but was outvoted. So he needed to prove himself. Also capturing ships provided booty and material rewards, which would be lost if the ships were just sunk. This was a powerful incentive for his men. So he’s probably more a victim of the times than anything. Albuquerque met strong resistance trying to haul the fidalgos into a new age of warfare where regimental group strategy might replace uncoordinated personal valour.
Are you working on any books at the moment and if yes, what is the topic and when can we expect to read it?
At the moment I’m working on a book about the end of the crusades in the Holy Land, specifically the fall of Acre in 1291, the last stand of the crusaders. It won’t be out until 2019 unfortunately, owing to my present speed of working.
My thanks to Roger Crowley for taking the time to answer my questions!
⇒ More about City of Fortune: a book review & a Steller photo story.
⇒ The Gruesome News from Famagusta
⇒ The Lusiads Or How Portugal Won an Empire
⇒ The Wanderings of Felix Fabri
history booksinterviewPortugalRoger CrowleyVenice
Quote of the Week: Communion
Lisbon in Black & White (Lisboa en blanco y negro)
2 thoughts on ““Narrative History at its Most Enthralling”: Interview with Roger Crowley”
Fascinating. The epitaph from Constanta is wonderful.
Sep 23, 2017 at 7:54 am Reply
We’ll have to thank Roger for that of course! 🙂 I really like it too.
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Home / Comics / What Am I Reading?
What Am I Reading?
by: Tyrone Selby, creator/writer of the Elements of Light comic series.
Okay, here’s a little rant for you guys. Hopefully no one takes offense, but uses this as a teach tool for future projects.
Scenario: All of your friends have been raving about a particular television series. “It’s so great, you have to watch it!”. Around the water cooler at work, everyone is talking about the latest episode where so much drama ensued, and when you try to understand the plot, everyone tries to explain to no avail…finally giving up saying “It’s hard to explain, you have to watch it for yourself and see.” You finally catch the show on the air, and you are completely lost in the newest episode. You have no idea who the characters are, what the plot is, nor why/how the characters have gotten themselves in this particular situation. Now you feel lost and that you’ve completely wasted your time. But you know what would have fixed this problem? Two minutes worth of: “Previously on…” or “Last time on”
One of my biggest pet peeves as a reader of comic book series’ is when I’ve heard really good things about a comic series, or asked to review something, and there’s no blurb saying what has happened thus far. This, in my opinion, is extremely important for comic book/television series to gain new avid readers.
For those who don’t know, I’m a big fan of X-Men. I grew up on watching them, and the comics are just as great! However, with my busy schedule, I don’t have time to keep up with reading the story plot as it continues. What I like about the series though is with every new issue and volume, they always write a “So far in X-Men…” blurb, so I’m always caught up and I never missed a beat. Sure, there might be little details where someone died and came back to life or some craziness, but that’s what google is for!
All in all, whether you’re mainstream or indie comic series creators, for the love of Pete, please add that little paragraph in your book to catch up your readers. I guarantee you will make more money that way!
Tags comics creating indie indie comics
Next Detroit: Become Human- Review
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Harley Huke [unedited] Music Review
Posted on April 10, 2019 by John Cronin in alternative, Alternative pop, dark pop, EDM, electronic, Indie pop, Pop, Pop Music, Singer/Songwriter, Spotify, USA
Harley Huke on Genius
“When I made the decision to pursue music, countless people around me did everything in their power to convince me that it wasn’t the right decision, that it’s too hard, or that it was wrong for me all together. So that’s really what (Nothing But Trouble) is talking about” Harley tells me. With this drive and passion to prove to so many that this notion is wrong, Harley has gained quite a following… 4.6k Facebook page likes, 50k monthly listeners on Spotify, and almost 20k Instagram followers all believing in what she does is the path that is paved for her… Me included.
Music has been something that Harley has loved for most of her life, and she “kinda just went with it and hoped for the best”. Writing about “the usual stuff” like life and past experiences, she released her first single (a cover of Radiohead’s Creep) in 2017. It was with that single that Harley’s success already began to grow, and today Creep has been played over 300k times on Spotify.
“It’s so crazy to think that there are people out there who actually identify themselves as my fan. It’s the most fantastic thing when I get DMs, comments, and messages on social media.”
-Harley Huke (4/1/2019)
With her past music, Harley was too afraid to be vulnerable. So she wrote in a more general way, a way that a large majority of people can relate to. As recently stated, her first original single (Nothing But Trouble) was about believing in one’s self or standing up for yourself. Fire seems to be about letting go of painful memories even though they are hard to let go. All these are general, but made in such a Emo Pop way that sounds different and catchy. I would love to see more music videos, as I believe Nothing But Trouble paints an amazing picture of what she is trying to promote as her music, that being dark and raw music. Due to personal and family issues that came up, she had to take a break from releasing new music. However, the next single is set to release sometime in the Spring. Harley tells me these tracks are going to be focused more on her personally, and she plans to be much more vulnerable with these tracks.
“I’m from now on just focusing on myself, my art, and just what I want to do & hopefully it’s the right decision, and hopefully it works for me.”
-Harley
She is now focused on finishing school and releasing new music, which is what she loves. Plans are to release about five songs throughout this year, and hopefully one or two more music videos are to be released within that time period as well!
I would like to thank Harley for her continued communication, we have been working to make this review possible for about a 6 months now and I am beyond excited to say it worked out! I will be keeping in touch with Harley obviously, and when the next single comes out I will update everyone!! This update can be found on UMB’s Facebook page, so please go like the page… By the way, thank you to everyone who already liked the page because we are creeping up on 1k likes!!! Have a good night!!!!
Nothing But Trouble (2017) by Harley Huke
Fire: 5/5
Nothing But Trouble: 5/5
Creep (Radiohead Cover): 5/5
Top Song: Fire (2018)
Tagged EDM, Harley Huke, Music, New Hampshire, New Music, Pop, Pop Music
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Home » Boston » Dorchester
New Hampshire teen charged with being the dumbass who made threatening calls to two Boston bars
By adamg on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 5:35pm
Boston Police report that Seabrook, NH police have picked up a Hampton, NH 16-year-old wanted for calling in violent threats to dbar in Dorchester and the Alley Bar downtown earlier this month.
Boston Police had previously obtained warrants charging the kid, not named because of his age for being delinquent for making threats with serious public alarm and for civil rights violations. Both bars have a large LGBTQ clientele.
The Dorchester Reporter reports the teen "made threats to kill" at both bars. WBZ reports he specifically threatened gun violence against the Alley Bar.
Boston Police say he is also wanted on warrants in other communities.
The teen will first be arraigned in New Hampshire as a fugitive for justice, before being extradited here for arraignment, police say.
Dorchester Avenue
Pi Alley
What a stupid jerk that teenager is!
By mplo on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 6:31pm.
It's against the law to make threatening phone calls like that, and that kid deserves to get into trouble. Here's hoping that he does!
It's always NH
By Mike S. on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 6:58pm.
S**t like this always seems to come from NH--the Alabama of New England
You fell right into Adams
By anon on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 8:43pm.
You fell right into Adams trap. He emphasized the NH part due to his extreme prejudice towards NH (among many other things)
Among other things?
By adamg on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 10:22pm.
Please! I hate everything and everybody! I'm the Mikey of bloggers! And yes, I'm even prejudiced against Life Cereal! So I'm like the Super Mikey of All the Things!
Since we’re being biased,
By Murkin on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 2:49pm.
Since we’re being biased, Dorchester is the Detroit of New England.
Oh please, Aretha Franklin’s
By Lmo on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 3:05pm.
Oh please, Aretha Franklin’s mansion in Detroit just sold for $300,000, you can’t find a (decent) condo in Dorchester for less than $400,000. Maybe stick to NH.
If we’re being real
You misspelled Bridgeport.
Not his first rodeo, apparently
By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 9:38pm.
At the time of his arrest, the suspect was wanted on outstanding warrants sought out of Suffolk County Juvenile Court for Threats with Serious Public Alarm and Civil Rights Violations in connection to that investigation as well as additional warrants stemming from other charges from outside jurisdictions.
I wonder if he moved in order to complicate legal action?
By Ralph on Sat, 11/24/2018 - 10:14pm.
I wonder if his parents are fundamentalists realizing whom he had feeling for thought if they moved out of liberal Massachusetts and his feelings would magically go away. The kid not getting the support he needs at home is screaming out for help. Of course, it is the wrong kind of help he is seeking but this kid has "will come out in 5 years" written all over him. He is acting out because he doesn't know how to process his feelings and doesn't have anyone in his circle of support to advise him.
I am not advocating that he not be punished because clearly he should be, but that part of the punishment should include proper psychological care that he has not received up to this point. Hopefully that can put him back on the path to learn how to properly express his emotions.
You have no evidence
By anon on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 10:09am.
With absolutely no evidence whatsoever, you have concocted an entire scenario and made the immediate assumption that this kid is some kind of "repressed homosexual" who is "acting out" by committing these criminal acts. You have fallen right into the knee-jerk "every boisterous homophobe a repressed homosexual" meme which in itself is a clear form of homophobia, i.e. the kid has "feelings" that are making him act "sick". Sometimes a homophobe is just a plain old homophobe.
Oh, really?!?
By mplo on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 10:51am.
He is acting out because he doesn't know how to process his feelings and doesn't have anyone in his circle of support to advise him.
excuses the kid's violating the law and making threats over the phone? Come on now, Ralph!
Only concerned with revenge?
By Ralph on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 10:45am.
Yes, as I said, he should be punished for his behavior. I would also like to give a 16 year old a chance to become a contributing member of society in the future. I was not giving excuses to not punish him if you read all of my comments but saying that he needs help if he will ever have a chance to become a contributing member. I would hope we all would want that, not just revenge for past behavior but the ability to reform and after punishment can learn how to get along in the world at large.
In other news, this kid
By anon on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 8:04am.
In other news, this kid responsible for some bomb hoaxes around here (and elsewhere) was sentenced.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/22/israeli-teen-michael-kadar...
Juvenile should just wait until January for court
By O-FISH-L on Sun, 11/25/2018 - 10:28am.
Juvenile should just wait until January for court since new DA says she won't prosecute these type things.
I wouldn't be surprised if the kid read the stories about her unwillingness to prosecute and decided to have some "fun" knowing nothing will happen.
If the new DA thinks that bomb scares are a minor crime,
her thinking already seems to be more than a little bit skewed. The woman should realize that bomb scares are nothing to dismiss out of hand, nor are they the least bit cute, clever, or funny. The perpetrators could be responsible for the death of somebody; a person could drop dead of a heart attack, a stroke, an asthma attack, or even an epileptic seizure (although deaths from epileptic seizures are quite rare.).
Whether the person who perpetrates the bomb scare is a juvenile or an adult, s/he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law accordingly.
If the new incoming DA thinks that bomb scares are a minor crime, it already seems that her thinking is more than a little bit skewed. The woman should realize that bomb scares are nothing to dismiss out of hand, nor are they the least bit cute, clever, or funny. The perpetrators could be responsible for the death of somebody; a person could drop dead of a heart attack, a stroke, an asthma attack, or even an epileptic seizure (although deaths from epileptic seizures are quite rare.).
Sorry about the double posting, folks.
In other Dorchester news
Fields Corner to get fun-sized Target
Police identify man gunned down in Uphams Corner
Shots fired across from Ashmont T stop
Making Blue Hill Avenue better
Man shot to death in Uphams Corner
Boston ordered to pay $100,000 negligence award to woman injured in shootout between police and her sister's boyfriend
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#Blockchain All projects
Topl: Empowering growth by enabling investment
Blockchain supporting high-yield impact investing and economic development around the world
Chris Georgen
Founder & Chief Architect
As Founder & Chief Architect, Chris leads the design of Topl's protocol and directs its business and legal operations. A graduate of Rice University, he obtained degrees in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy. During his time in college, Chris performed and published interdisciplinary research focused on emergent phenomena in complex systems and developed the core ideas that inspired Topl's development. He has a deep interest in the application of new technologies to economic and financial problems and is motivated by the potential for new economic systems to improve standards of living around the world.
Jim Aman
Founder & CTO
Jim is the Chief Technical Officer and a co-founder of Topl. Concurrently, he is completing a PhD in experimental atomic physics at Rice University where he manages the quantum degenerate neutral strontium apparatus, one of only three in the world. At Rice, Jim's research focuses on the ultracold atomic regime and the search for new phenomena using novel states of matter. Before joining Topl, Jim served as CTO with Corporate Partners in Education; an education focused startup which worked to build a continuous fundraising mechanism for K-12 schools. Jim became involved in the blockchain space in 2015 after encountering Ethereum and the realization that blockchains represent a fundamental paradigm shift in the democratization of data and the interaction between users and organizations.
Nick Edmonds
Founder & Lead Blockchain Engineer
After solidifying a love for programming in his high school robotics team, Nicholas went on to graduate from the University of Houston with a degree in computer science. His former projects range from computer vision and virtual reality to neural nets and distributed computing. After reading the seminal Bitcoin whitepaper shortly after it was released in 2008, he has kept an eye on the burgeoning cryptocurrency market. Nick now leads technical development for the Topl protocol working with the rest of the technical team to continue pushing the potential of blockchain technology.
Kim Raath
Founder & Head of Financial Engineering
Kim came to the United States as a Div. I Track and Field Student-Athlete and has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. She is currently the first student at Rice University to simultaneously pursue a M.A. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Statistics. Growing up in South Africa during the 1990’s, Kim witnessed much inequality and poverty. While working for various NGO’s by rebuilding and developing communities around the world she was frequently made aware of the financial burdens, lack of adequate resources, and need for access to low-cost capital throughout the developing world. As part of the Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems and as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, she conducts interdisciplinary research allowing her to contribute to the larger economic issues that impact the availability of and the accessibility to basic needs.
Oskar Person
Oskar is currently working as a technology lead at Consense Data Exchange, a startup that revolutionizes the consent process to accelerate medical research. He joined Topl's ranks to integrate a digital self-sovereign identity solution. He has a background in applied mathematics and data science, which made him fit right in with visionary geeks at Topl.
Yamir Tainwala
Originally from Kolkata, India, Yamir is currently pursuing a major in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania. After failing to make his millions by simply hodl'ing cryptocurrency, Yamir decided that if he couldn’t beat ‘em, he would join ‘em; thus began his nosedive into the blockchain space. With his specific interest and experience in Machine Learning, Yamir is helping Topl to implement the Divine Information Markets and is a key part of the team's efforts to create the first ever market-based risk analysis platform.
Albert Balinski
Blockchain Engineer
Albert is a developer by passion. In the blockchain space, he is fascinated by tokenization and the decentralization of traditional business models. In his free time he loves writing functional Javascript code and going to the gym.
Alex Bruns
Alex Bruns is currently attending the University of Minnesota. He is pursuing a Computer Science and Product Design double major. He's been involved with blockchain technology since 2016 and is passionate about distributed exchange technology and its ability to allow cryptocurrencies to fully recognize their potential. Alex is currently a full-time blockchain engineer for Topl, working locally in Austin Texa
Kamanzi Ntashamaje
Director of Onboarding and Integration
Kamanzi is currently completing his master's degree in International Business with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and SME Management at Maastricht University. He was born and raised in Switzerland but has his roots in Rwanda. Over the course of many trips to visit his family in Rwanda, he realized how creative and dynamic the people were but also how challenging it was to obtain financing for even the best businesses. When he heard about Topl, he understood that blockchain technology can significantly disrupt the usual way of seeking and providing finance in developing countries. By joining the Topl team, he wants to contribute to this revolution.
Paige Nicolaou
Community and Content Manager
Paige Is in her fourth year at Texas A&M, pursuing an Economics Major. Although new to the blockchain space, she’s excited to see how the technology will continue to change the way things have traditionally been done, especially how it will promote a positive social impact worldwide. When Paige isn’t working, she can most typically be found at a coffee shop, crying her way through calculus homework.
Anna McGuffee
Anna is in her third year at American University, pursuing a degree in communications with a minor in applied physics. While new to all things blockchain, she has a passion for startups and learning about developing areas of technology. She is excited to be on the inside of a movement and to watch it evolve and effect the world.
Thomas Bocek Ph.D.
Advisor, P2P and Blockchain Engineering
Thomas Bocek is a professor for distributed systems and ledgers at the HSR Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil. He is a blockchain researcher and CTO of ScienceMatters. He is also involved in modum.io AG - a blockchain start-up that combines IoT sensor devices with blockchains, VALID - a blockchain-based solution for user-controlled digital identities, and he is a mentor at Iconiq Lab.
John Dobelman, Ph.D.
Advisor, Financial Markets and Engineering
John is a Professor in the Practice in Statistics at Rice University, researching quantitative finance opportunities for profit and risk management. Additionally, he is associate director of Rice's Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems (CoFES). He has extensive experience in trading and financial engineering. John worked previously as a pricing scientist at PROS Holdings and has a love for improved communication and societally useful technology applications. He likes the idea of helping to nudge the momentum of the P2P application space. John also also serves on the Board of Directors of Houston Achievement Place.
Katherine B. Ensor, Ph.D.
Advisor, Statistical Modeling and Financial Engineering
Kathy is Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics and founding director of the Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems (CoFES) at Rice University. Established in 2002, CoFES supports education and research in quantitative finance at the graduate and undergraduate level. Kathy is an expert in statistics for dependent data, financial modeling, and financial risk. She is currently Vice President for the American Statistical Association and serves on the National Academies Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics. Kathy has been recognized for her leadership, scholarship and mentoring and is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Matt Kindy
Advisor, Security and Consensus
Self-taught in C programming from a young age, Matt combined his coding interests with his love of mathematics to earn a degree in Computational & Applied Mathematics at Rice University. He has extensive experience with research and development of distributed systems and cryptographic protocols. Among his various projects, he developed and refined NIZK proofs for the JVM-based reference implementation of the STAR-Vote electronic voting system and designed a series of Solidity smart contracts used for a retail payments. Today, he is guiding Topl's implementation of the Ouroboros Praos proof-of-stake consensus protocol and is passionate about bringing secure development practices to Topl's growing team.
Max Lautenschlaeger
Advisor, Business Development and Strategy
Max is a venture developer and blockchain enthusiast with years of experience in Consulting, Company Building, Venture Capital, FinTech, and Private Equity. He holds a BA in controlling along with an MBA from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst. Max is Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Sourcing Director of Iconiq Lab, an ICO accelerator program for blockchain and crypto startups.
Mitchell Loureiro
Advisor, Strategy and Marketing
Mitchell Loureiro has built communities of hundreds of thousands and raised capital as one of the ICO pioneers. In the process, he designed many of the frameworks that govern how ICOs are run today. Today he serves as CMO of SingularityNET, the leading decentralized AI project lead by the creators of Sophia the robot. His deep commitment to pushing decentralization forward led him to back Topl.
Gary Milante Ph.D.
Advisor, Economic Modeling and Impact Assessment
Dr. Gary Milante is the Director of SIPRI's Peace and Development Programme. His research focuses on the intersection of security and socio-economic development. Throughout his career as a researcher and policy advisor, Dr. Milante has concentrated on the complex problems associated with sequencing of institutional reforms, with a special focus on the needs of fragile and conflict-affected states.
Airdrop & bounty (3%)
Future use (10%)
Seed investors (8.5%)
Team & advisers (17.5%)
Endowment (25%)
Token Symbol ARBT
Full Token Name ARBT token
Crowdsale Start October 1st, 00:00 GMT+03:00
Giibee
AvailCom
Zwoop
Topl WEBSITE
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It is beneficial to have the inbound links coming to the pages to which you are channeling your PageRank. A PageRank injection to any other page will be spread around the site through the internal links. The important pages will receive an increase, but not as much of an increase as when they are linked to directly. The page that receives the inbound link, makes the biggest gain.
How many times do we need to repeat the calculation for big networks? That’s a difficult question; for a network as large as the World Wide Web it can be many millions of iterations! The “damping factor” is quite subtle. If it’s too high then it takes ages for the numbers to settle, if it’s too low then you get repeated over-shoot, both above and below the average - the numbers just swing about the average like a pendulum and never settle down.
Guest Blogging: although this practice has been discredited due to the generation of poor quality articles, which have become spam (since they were used only to promote links), Google has failed to encourage this tactic. But, if you can ensure that you can create a high-quality guest post, that’s relevant to the context of your area, then go ahead.
And if you really want to know what are the most important, relevant pages to get links from, forget PageRank. Think search rank. Search for the words you’d like to rank for. See what pages come up tops in Google. Those are the most important and relevant pages you want to seek links from. That’s because Google is explicitly telling you that on the topic you searched for, these are the best.
Outbound links are a drain on a site’s total PageRank. They leak PageRank. To counter the drain, try to ensure that the links are reciprocated. Because of the PageRank of the pages at each end of an external link, and the number of links out from those pages, reciprocal links can gain or lose PageRank. You need to take care when choosing where to exchange links.
Informational searches are those in which the user hopes to find information on a given topic, such as Abraham Lincoln. It wouldn’t make much sense to place ads or other types of paid results on a SERP like this, as the search query “Abraham Lincoln” has very low commercial intent; the vast majority of searchers using this search query are not looking to buy something, and as such only informational results are displayed on the SERP.
When calculating PageRank, pages with no outbound links are assumed to link out to all other pages in the collection. Their PageRank scores are therefore divided evenly among all other pages. In other words, to be fair with pages that are not sinks, these random transitions are added to all nodes in the Web, with a residual probability usually set to d = 0.85, estimated from the frequency that an average surfer uses his or her browser's bookmark feature.
For any webmaster, it is important to know the rank of its web pages using a quality PR checker in order to maintain the health of its websites. One of the simplest ways to achieve that is to make use of some PR Checker tool. PR Checker is a tool that you can use to determine the significance of any webpage. It is one of the key factors that are used to determine which web pages appear in the search results and how do they rank. Keep in mind that the results of PR Checker can have significant influence on your overall Google ranking. This PR checker tool will help you to check page rank of any web page.
Jump up ^ D. Banky and G. Ivan and V. Grolmusz (2013). "Equal opportunity for low-degree network nodes: a PageRank-based method for protein target identification in metabolic graphs". PLOS ONE. Vol. 8, No. 1. e54204. 8 (1): 405–7. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...854204B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054204. PMC 3558500. PMID 23382878. Archived from the original on 2014-02-09.
If the PageRank value differences between PR1, PR2,…..PR10 were equal then that conclusion would hold up, but many people believe that the values between PR1 and PR10 (the maximum) are set on a logarithmic scale, and there is very good reason for believing it. Nobody outside Google knows for sure one way or the other, but the chances are high that the scale is logarithmic, or similar. If so, it means that it takes a lot more additional PageRank for a page to move up to the next PageRank level that it did to move up from the previous PageRank level. The result is that it reverses the previous conclusion, so that a link from a PR8 page that has lots of outbound links is worth more than a link from a PR4 page that has only a few outbound links.
Ok this is some pretty high level stuff here. There is still a lot of good information as well though. I remember when I was able to see the page rank of website on my google toolbar. I never really fully understood what it meant until later. What a person should focus on is good SEO practices to make search engines naturally want to feature your content on their search results.
In the past, the PageRank shown in the Toolbar was easily manipulated. Redirection from one page to another, either via a HTTP 302 response or a "Refresh" meta tag, caused the source page to acquire the PageRank of the destination page. Hence, a new page with PR 0 and no incoming links could have acquired PR 10 by redirecting to the Google home page. This spoofing technique was a known vulnerability. Spoofing can generally be detected by performing a Google search for a source URL; if the URL of an entirely different site is displayed in the results, the latter URL may represent the destination of a redirection.
Search engines are smart, but they still need help. The major engines are always working to improve their technology to crawl the web more deeply and return better results to users. However, there is a limit to how search engines can operate. Whereas the right SEO can net you thousands of visitors and increased attention, the wrong moves can hide or bury your site deep in the search results where visibility is minimal.
The eigenvalue problem was suggested in 1976 by Gabriel Pinski and Francis Narin, who worked on scientometrics ranking scientific journals,[7] in 1977 by Thomas Saaty in his concept of Analytic Hierarchy Process which weighted alternative choices,[8] and in 1995 by Bradley Love and Steven Sloman as a cognitive model for concepts, the centrality algorithm.[9][10]
Paid-for links and ads on your site MUST have a nofollow attribute (see Google’s policy on nofollow). If you have paid links that are left followed, the search engines might suspect you are trying to manipulate search results and slap your site with a ranking penalty. Google’s Penguin algorithm eats manipulative paid links for lunch, so stay off the menu by adding nofollow attributes where applicable.
The PageRank algorithm outputs a probability distribution used to represent the likelihood that a person randomly clicking on links will arrive at any particular page. PageRank can be calculated for collections of documents of any size. It is assumed in several research papers that the distribution is evenly divided among all documents in the collection at the beginning of the computational process. The PageRank computations require several passes, called “iterations”, through the collection to adjust approximate PageRank values to more closely reflect the theoretical true value. Cartoon illustrating the basic principle of PageRank. The size of each face is proportional to the total size of the other faces which are pointing to it.[/caption]
Despite this many people seem to get it wrong! In particular “Chris Ridings of www.searchenginesystems.net” has written a paper entitled “PageRank Explained: Everything you’ve always wanted to know about PageRank”, pointed to by many people, that contains a fundamental mistake early on in the explanation! Unfortunately this means some of the recommendations in the paper are not quite accurate.
Mega-sites, like http://news.bbc.co.uk have tens or hundreds of editors writing new content – i.e. new pages - all day long! Each one of those pages has rich, worthwile content of its own and a link back to its parent or the home page! That’s why the Home page Toolbar PR of these sites is 9/10 and the rest of us just get pushed lower and lower by comparison…
Robots.txt is not an appropriate or effective way of blocking sensitive or confidential material. It only instructs well-behaved crawlers that the pages are not for them, but it does not prevent your server from delivering those pages to a browser that requests them. One reason is that search engines could still reference the URLs you block (showing just the URL, no title or snippet) if there happen to be links to those URLs somewhere on the Internet (like referrer logs). Also, non-compliant or rogue search engines that don't acknowledge the Robots Exclusion Standard could disobey the instructions of your robots.txt. Finally, a curious user could examine the directories or subdirectories in your robots.txt file and guess the URL of the content that you don't want seen.
The Nielsen Global Connected Commerce Survey conducted interviews in 26 countries to observe how consumers are using the Internet to make shopping decisions in stores and online. Online shoppers are increasingly looking to purchase internationally, with over 50% in the study who purchased online in the last six months stating they bought from an overseas retailer.[23]
We're a growth company looking for a highly experienced Pay Per Click manager to launch and optimize campaigns in Google Adwords, Bing Ads, and more with a focus on B2B. Looking for 5+ experience: - managing enterprise campaigns in Adwords and Bing - tracking and optimizing to goals - executing a/b tests in adwords and bing - reporting and optimizing campaigns We are a fast moving, well funded, profitable startup in search of someone who is highly experienced, and able to respond quickly to the campaign needs of our business.
Search engine optimization is a key part of online marketing because search is one of the primary ways that users navigate the web. In 2014, over 2.5 trillion searches were conducted worldwide across search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, and Yandex. For most websites, traffic that comes from search engines (known as "natural" or "organic" traffic) accounts for a large portion of their total traffic.
85. Use of Google Analytics and Google Search Console: Some think that having these two programs installed on your site can improve your page’s indexing. They may also directly influence rankings by giving Google more data to work with (ie. more accurate bounce rate, whether or not you get referral traffic from your backlinks etc.). That said, Google has denied this as a myth.
Website owners recognized the value of a high ranking and visibility in search engine results,[6] creating an opportunity for both white hat and black hat SEO practitioners. According to industry analyst Danny Sullivan, the phrase "search engine optimization" probably came into use in 1997. Sullivan credits Bruce Clay as one of the first people to popularize the term.[7] On May 2, 2007,[8] Jason Gambert attempted to trademark the term SEO by convincing the Trademark Office in Arizona[9] that SEO is a "process" involving manipulation of keywords and not a "marketing service."
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Posts Tagged ‘Sozzafava’
Sanity Prevails: Scozzafava Drops Out of NY-23 Race
A lot of conservative attention is focused on defeating the Democrats’ health care “reform” that would put one-sixth of the economy – and literally peoples’ very lives – under the domination of a partisan, corrupt, and power-hungry federal government. And that is clearly a good goal.
But the best way to accomplish that end may very well be to secure victories in the three major races in 2009, and allow Democrats’ own fears to jar them back to common sense.
To that end, the news that Dede Scozzafava has dropped out of the race for the 23rd district in New York is welcome indeed.
“In recent days, polls have indicated that my chances of winning this election are not as strong as we would like them to be. The reality that I’ve come to accept is that in today’s political arena, you must be able to back up your message with money—and as I’ve been outspent on both sides, I’ve been unable to effectively address many of the charges that have been made about my record,” she said in a statement.
“It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican.”
Her decision came as a Siena Research Institute poll released Saturday confirmed that her support has all but collapsed over the last month. In her statement, Scozzafava acknowledged that while her name will continue to appear on the ballot, “victory is unlikely.”
The Siena poll conducted Oct. 27-29, in line with other recent polls, showed Democrat Bill Owens holding a razor-thin lead over Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, 36 percent to 35 percent.
Scozzafava trailed far behind at 20 percent, with 9 percent of voters still undecided.
I take my hat of to Scozzafava. She did the right thing for the right reasons.
What could have happened is my personal nightmare scenario, in which conservatives – who easily have the numbers to win – divide themselves rather than unite for the common good.
Obama won Virginia, won New Jersey, and won the New York 23rd district. Now he is in danger of losing them all, standing as a strident referendum against his agenda.
Hopefully, the quite liberal Scozzafava’s example of withdrawing as the handwriting appears on the wall will be followed by other candidates running against Democrats — whether they be “Republican” or “Independent.”
The New York 23rd district is somewhat strange. It hasn’t had a Democrat representative since the Civil War era, and yet Obama won it by 5 points in ’08. The question in this race was clear: would Republicans be able to reassert control, or would Democrats use the momentum from the Obama election to take control?
One thing needs to be pointed out: one of the major reasons that Obama appointed John McHugh to become Secretary of the Army was so Democrats would be able to seize his district from the Republican Party. Obama won the district in 2008, and the White House believed New Yorkers would say, “Yes, we can!” to Democrat rule.
Time Magazine had this to say:
But then, the race in the 23rd is no longer about local issues. It’s about a Republican Party with little power in the Beltway searching for a way out of the wilderness. And it’s about conservative Republicans sending a message: the future of the party is the conservative base. (It’s also, incidentally, about money; according to the Federal Election Commission, more than $650,000 has flowed to the candidates from independent groups just since Oct. 24.) “The 23rd has as little significance as Gettysburg. It’s just where the armies met,” says Bob Gorman, managing editor of the Daily Times and my old boss. “Everybody was looking for a fight, and that’s where they found each other.”
Well, it turns out that Lincoln’s Union defeated the Democrats’ Confederates at Gettysburg — and the Party that fought to preserve the union ended up winning the war against the Party that wanted to radically change it.
After Lincoln prevailed at Gettysburg, he was able to turn his attention to taking the war to the enemy in the South. Gettysburg – that little nowhere locale – was the turning point.
I see such a turning point again.
Virginia, and now NY-23 (thanks to Dede Scazzofava’s doing the right thing), are now locks for the Republicans. And I believe that Chris Christie will hang on to defeat Jon Corzine in the Democrat bastion of New Jersey.
No one can say with confidence what’s going to happen in the race for the New Jersey governorship, but I believe that Scott Rasmussen – who was the most accurate pollster in the 2008 election – will prove right again. He has Christie up by 3.
Frankly, the right thing for independent candidate Chris Daggett to do is put the interest of the country over his own interest and do the right thing as Dede Scazzofava did. Scazzofava dropped out to help push an independent over the top; it’s time that independent Daggett did the same to push a Republican over the top.
Ronald Reagan correctly pointed out that conservatives could not win if they divided against themselves. It’s time we get back to basics and take his advice.
If you think that Chris Daggett staying in the race with his 8% support is more important than stopping the Democrat juggernaut’s drive to impose socialized medicine, then please don’t call yourself a “conservative.”
Dede Scozzafava was liberal on a whole host of positions, and incredibly, she was even more liberal than the Democrat candidate on many issues. But I have a lot more respect for her integrity and character than I do Chris Daggett if he doesn’t put himself aside and put his weight behind the most conservative candidate who has a chance to win. I can only hope that Daggett will demonstrate his own character and willingness to put the interests of the nation ahead of his own, and drop out and put his support behind Chris Christie.
What’s at stake in these races is whether we embolden Democrats to pass a liberal domestic agenda, or let them know that they will do so at their gravest peril.
It is widely believed that if Obama loses these races, Democrats will quit following him and start looking to their own political survival. That will derail Obamacare; it will derail Cap-and-trade; it will put the kibosh on a whole host of incredibly destructive Democrat agendas.
If you are a Glenn Beck-style “conservative independent,” please realize that.
Tags:Christie, conservative, Corzine, Daggett, health care, Hoffman, independent, New Jersey, NY-23, Reagan, Republican, Sozzafava, Virginia
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Democrats, Economy, health care, Politics, socialism | 8 Comments »
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Posts Tagged ‘Ted Brassfield’
Obama Hosts Therapy Session For Disillusioned Supporters
Even Democrats are now looking deep into Obama’s empty suit – and finding him wanting:
Disappointed Supporters Question Obama
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON — It was billed as “Investing In America,” a live televised conversation between President Obama and American workers, students, business people and retirees on the state of the economy, a kind of Wall Street to Main Street reality check.
But it sounded like a therapy session for disillusioned Obama supporters.
In question after question in Monday’s one-hour session, which took place at the Newseum here and was televised on CNBC, Mr. Obama was confronted by people who said, in short, that they had expected more from him. People from Main Street wanted to know if the American dream still lived for them. People from Wall Street complained that he was treating them like a piñata, “whacking us with the stick,” in the words of a former law school classmate of Mr. Obama’s who now runs a hedge fund.
“I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for,” said the first questioner, an African-American woman who identified herself as a chief financial officer, a mother and a military veteran. “I’ve been told that I voted for a man who was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class, and I’m waiting, sir, I’m waiting. I still don’t feel it yet.”
A 30-year-old law school graduate, Ted Brassfield, told Mr. Obama he had hoped to pursue a career in public service — like the president — but could barely pay the interest on his student loans, let alone think of getting married or starting a family.
“I was really inspired by you and your campaign and the message you brought, and that inspiration is dying away,” Mr. Brassfield said, adding, “What I really want to know is: Is the American dream dead for me?”
This is why liberals need about a gazillion shock treatments at maximum voltage to go along with their therapy: because they voted for a Marxist, and want to know if the American dream is dead for them.
The left is going to pitch Obama’s latest showing as an unmitigated success. But that is only because their skulls are filled with a vile-smelling yellow-greenish pus rather than brains.
Tags:defending the mantle of change that I voted for, defending your administration, I still don’t feel it yet, I’m exhausted of defending you, I’m waiting, Investing In America, Is the American dream dead for me?, sir, Ted Brassfield, therapy session for disillusioned Obama supporters
Posted in Barack Obama, Conservative Issues, Economy, Politics | Leave a Comment »
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Statutes > Vermont > Title-09 > Chapter-77 > 2881
For the purpose of this chapter:
(1) "Single-family dwelling" means any building or structure in which a family, families, or households reside that contains sleeping facilities and is not otherwise classified as a "public building" as defined in subsection 2730(a) of Title 20 or as a "condominium" or "multiple unit dwelling" as defined in subsection 2729(d) of Title 20.
(2) "Smoke detector" means a device that detects visible or invisible particles of combustion and sounds a warning alarm is operated from a power supply, within the unit or wired to it from an outside source, and is approved or listed for the purpose by Underwriters Laboratory or by another nationally recognized independent testing laboratory.
(3) "Carbon monoxide detector" means a device with an assembly that incorporates a sensor control component and an alarm notification that detects elevations in carbon monoxide levels and sounds a warning alarm, is operated from a power supply within the unit or wired to it from an outside source, and is approved or listed for the purpose by Underwriters Laboratory or by another nationally recognized independent testing laboratory. (Added 1993, No. 86, § 1; amended 2005, No. 19, § 1, eff. July 1, 2005.)
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Veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Veterans and PTSD
Published By Hilary Young on October 16, 2018
According to the statistics of the Pew Research Center, Gulf War and Vietnam War veterans now account for 66 percent of all U.S. veterans. Although both wars ended decades ago, to many veterans who had been exposed to combat, the wars have never ended.
“Those who served during the Vietnam War continued to display issues after the war,” says Rick Tabor, a U.S. veteran. “While some would share their stories and feelings with others, many chose to keep their stories and feelings to themselves, and in many cases, the outcome was tragic.”
Tabor has served as a Navy Field Medical Corpsman stationed with the Marines and as a civilian mental health counselor. For more than four decades, Tabor has been a licensed mental health counselor, a certified mental health supervisor, a developmental disabilities specialist, and a child and adult mental health professional.
“I have seen firsthand the ways in which trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affect people,” says Tabor. “But with education and guidance, PTSD can be managed, and veterans can live healthier, more productive lives while on active duty or when they return to civilian life.”
What Is PTSD and What Are the Symptoms?
PTSD has been defined as a mental health condition that is triggered by a traumatic experience. Symptoms can include nightmares, flashbacks, irritability, insomnia, anxiety and mood changes. Symptoms appear after the event has occurred—they can be immediate or appear years after the fact. A diagnosis of PTSD will not be given, however, until the symptoms have been present for at least one month and impact the ability to function on a day-to-day basis.
As many soldiers returned home from Vietnam and found it difficult to reintegrate into civilian life, mental health professionals saw what appeared to be an epidemic of these symptoms. Eventually, they had the ability to study the effect the trauma of war has on the human brain and could finally call PTSD what it was: a diagnosable psychobiological condition.
“Back in the late 70’s, Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station’s Mental Health Clinic helped to define the PTSD diagnosis,” says Tabor. “Dating back to the Civil War, symptoms of PTSD were clearly present, but it wasn’t until 1980 that the American Psychiatric Association added post-traumatic stress disorder to the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).’”
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that roughly 7 or 8 percent of the population will experience PTSD at one point in their lives, and the percentage is higher for those who serve in the military and have seen active combat. About 30 percent of Vietnam War veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime, compared with 12 percent of those who served in the Gulf War and 11 to 20 percent of those who have served more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.
How PTSD Can Be Managed
According to Tabor, developing and practicing good coping skills can help a person when they experience a traumatic event and then recover from it.
“The biggest thing is really just acknowledging and dealing with your feelings,” says Tabor. “From there, you can adjust your attitude, discover that you have choices in how to handle your feelings, and then get the help you need to deal with what is happening.”
But if you don’t have good coping skills before the traumatic event occurs, that is when a trauma can affect the brain. For someone who struggles with PTSD, there are a variety of evidence-based treatment options. Access to care, being properly diagnosed, and putting a plan in place for how to deal with recurring symptoms are all factors in successfully navigating PTSD.
“The primary treatment is psychotherapy, but can also include medication,” says Tabor. “Research has found that cognitive behavioral therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, and eye movement desensitization reprocessing therapy—also called EMDR—can reduce the symptoms associated with PTSD.”
5 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health
Tabor has dedicated his life to helping people improve their mental health and has identified five ways everyone can improve their mental health on a daily basis:
1. Get at least eight hours of sleep a day. You are more alert and less prone to stress after a good night’s rest. Getting enough sleep can also improve your memory.
2. Focus on diet and exercise. Good nutrition is a natural defense against stress. Make sure you’re eating balanced meals throughout the day, as well as keeping yourself active. Exercise keeps you physically strong and reduces stress. All you need is at least 30 minutes of exercise, three times a week.
3. Talk to another person for at least 10 minutes daily. Talking to people stimulates the brain. A U.S. study found that talking to another person for just 10 minutes a day improves memory scores. Also, the more you interact with others, the faster your brain will work.
4. Learn to manage stress. Shift your mindset and make a list of goals and check them off when they are completed. This will help you tackle things one at a time. Seeing problems as opportunities or focusing on the positive can also help reduce stress. Stress cannot be avoided, but you can learn to manage stress.
5. Laughter is the best medicine. Laugh and have fun whenever you can. Laughing activates the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, generating emotions and relaxing the mind.
“It’s worth noting, it is completely possible to live a normal life while also coping with PTSD,” Tabor says. “My career has allowed me to develop and learn how to help persons with PTSD find effective ways to cope with the symptoms in order to lead productive lives. Being on that continuum of care journey in such a meaningful way has made for a very fulfilling career.”
Tabor joined Right at Home of Oahu, Hawaii, in 2017 as the operations manager, dedicating his expertise to support the local veteran community and seniors in Oahu.
Hilary Young is a writer dedicated to helping older Americans live healthier, more fulfilling lives. She currently blogs for HuffPost50, Fifty Is The New Fifty and Medical Guardian. You can find her on Twitter as @hyoungcreative.
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INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces the Filing of a Securities Class Action on Behalf of Fred’s, Inc. Investors (FRED)
BENSALEM, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of investors who purchased Fred’s, Inc. (“Fred’s” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FRED) securities between December 20, 2016 and June 28, 2017, inclusive (the “Class Period”). Fred’s investors have until August 27, 2019 to file a lead plaintiff motion.
Investors suffering losses on their Fred’s investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in this class action at 888-638-4847 or by email to [email protected].
In December 2016, Fred’s agreed to purchase 865 stores from Rite Aid Corp. for $950 million to help obtain approval by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) of Rite Aid’s merger with Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (“Walgreens”).
Then, on June 29, 2017, Rite Aid and Walgreens terminated their merger agreement along with Fred’s asset purchase agreement.
On this news, the Company’s share price fell $2.78, or more than 22%, to close at $9.41 on June 29, 2017, thereby injuring investors.
The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made statements: (1) downplaying or disputing contrary reports from journalists signaling regulatory turbulence in closing the merger; and (2) representing that inside knowledge of the FTC gave confidence that the deal would close.
If you purchased shares of Fred’s, have information, would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Marsh & McLennan Urges Lawmakers to Reauthorize Terrorism Risk Insurance Program During U.S. Senate Hearing
INVESTOR ALERT: Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation on Behalf of Dynagas LNG Partners LP Investors (DLNG)
Altitude Sports Officially Announces Its Marketplace.
Perma-Pipe International Holdings Announces Expansion into Egypt and Egyptian Contract Awards
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Home » Business » Companies » Kayoola steals the show as UN Environment Assembly raises the alarm on climate change impacts
Kayoola steals the show as UN Environment Assembly raises the alarm on climate change impacts
May 25, 2016 in Business, Companies, Foreign News, Infrastructure, Technology & Telecoms, Trade & Industry, Transport by Editor
NAIROBI, MAY 25 – Kiira Motors Corporation Ltd, the makers of the solar powered bus Kayoola […]
Mr. Achim Steiner ,The United Nations Environmental program Executive Director, in the Kayoola Solar bus together with the Kiira Kiira Motors CEO , Mr. Paul Isaac Musasizi.
NAIROBI, MAY 25 – Kiira Motors Corporation Ltd, the makers of the solar powered bus Kayoola have received plaudits for championing 21st century green mobility technologies in Africa .
By creating automobile technologies that mitigate the catastrophic effects of climate change, Kiira Motors is taking Uganda and Africa in the right direction in the realm of innovation says United Nations Environmental Program Executive Director, Mr. Achim Steiner.
“In this 21st century people have been wondering where this technology will come from. And to be here and we have this bus, with green mobility technology is quite inspiring,” Steiner said.
This was after Steiner together with other senior UN officials had completed a test ride in the Kayoola Solar bus – Africa’s first electric traction bus that is also powered by solar energy.
Kiira Motors Corporation is participating in the sixth edition of the Sustainable Innovation Expo as the Green Mobility Technology Exhibitor. The event is running on the sidelines of the United Nations Environmental Assembly in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
KMC was invited to be the Green Mobility Exhibitor by Climate Action, the organizers of the Expo, in recognition of the nascent automotive integrator’s pioneering role in the development of relevant and zero emissions mobility solutions for Africa and by Africans.
Professor Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa, Minister of State for Higher Education, Science and Technology, who is also attending the assembly, invited private investment to boost the green mobility technological innovations that are being championed by Kiira Motors.
“The automotive industry with these new tested technologies is the right sector for private investments. The monetary rewards will be enormous for private investors who will invest in this 21st mobility technology,” professor Tickodri said.
Mr. Paul Isaac Musasizi , the CEO at Kiira Motors said that Uganda was ready and committed to champion clean energy technology in the automotive industry. “We at Kiira Motors are fired up to ensure that vehicles made in Uganda are a reality, without compromising the safety of users or the right of future generations to a clean planet,” he stressed.
Close to 1000 delegates are attending the second United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2), which aims to tackle some of the most critical issues facing our planet, from the air pollution that kills millions of people every year to an illegal trade in wildlife that is pushing species to the brink of extinction.
Held at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, UNEA is the world’s most powerful decision-making body on the environment. This year, leaders hope to pass a raft of resolutions, including those on food waste, the fading health of oceans, the world’s natural capital, and sustainable consumption and production.
Addressing the opening session, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner noted that since the first UNEA held in 2014, “the environment has shifted from the margins of attention to the centre of global decision making.”
“It now runs through the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change, establishing UNEA as the ‘World Parliament for the Environment,” he said, stressing that UNEA is the only platform outside of the UN General Assembly to have universal representation.
UNEA also works with stakeholders and experts from the financial, legislative and scientific communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector and provides an interface between science, policy and action.
Mr. Steiner urged participants to focus on action and use this first global decision-making platform since the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement to review and accelerate progress.
He said UNEA-2, which continues through 27 May, will feature a three-day Sustainable Innovation Symposium to garner private sector engagement, the launch of a new global campaign to end the illegal trade in wildlife, and the mid-term review of the Montevideo Programme on Environmental Law.
He urged UNEA to show “we can move fast enough and hard enough to create a healthy planet, with healthy people – which leaves no one behind – which means less talk, more action.”
A series of ground-breaking UNEP reports will also be released during UNEA-2. Published today, Healthy Environment, Healthy People warns that environmental impacts are responsible for the deaths of more than one quarter of all children under the age of five, the report states.
The report – compiled by UNEP, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions – estimates that environmental degradation and pollution cause up to 234 times as many premature deaths as occur in conflicts annually, highlighting the importance of a healthy environment to achieving the 2030 Agenda.
The report finds that in 2012, an estimated 12.6 million deaths were attributable to deteriorating environment conditions, or 23 percent of the total.
Climate change is exacerbating the scale and intensity of environment-related health risks. Estimates from the WHO indicate that 250,000 additional deaths could occur each year between 2030 and 2050, mostly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress, as a result of climate change.
Mr. Steiner said, “By depleting the ecological infrastructure of our planet and increasing our pollution footprint, we incur an ever-growing cost in terms of human health and well-being. From air pollution and chemical exposure to the mining of our natural resource base, we have compromised our life support systems.
Other reports include Marine Plastic Debris and Microplastics: Global Lessons and Research to Inspire Action and Guide Policy Change, which found that 4.8-12.7 million tonnes of global plastic production in 2014 ended up in the ocean as a result of inadequate solid waste management.
Gender and Plastic Management looked at the differing roles of men and women in plastic use and consumption, identifying women in wealthy regions as important stakeholders in reducing plastics in basic consumer goods.
The 2016 Global Report on the Status of Legal Limits on Lead in Paint found that efforts to tackle lead in paint are advancing. As of early 2016, 70 of 196 countries worldwide, or 36 per cent, had established legally binding limits on lead in paint.
UNEP Frontiers found that there has been a worldwide increase in emerging zoonotic diseases, outbreaks of epidemic zoonoses, a rise in food-borne zoonoses and a troubling persistence of neglected zoonotic diseases in poor countries
Africa Blockchain Conference brings Sophia the Robot to Kampala
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Shot in the USA: Gun Violence After Newtown
Category Archives: Pregnant Woman
Killed – Pregnant Teen – Eva Casara (Chicago, IL)
CHICAGO – A third suspect in the Christmas Day murder of a pregnant Chicago teen has been charged after surrendering Monday, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
Darius D. Marshall, 19, of Dolton, Ill., is due in court Thursday to face charges of murder and attempted armed robbery. His attorney, Stuart Goldberg, told the Sun-Times his client will plead not guilty.
Marshall turned himself in after his brothers, a 16-year-old boy and 21-year-old Diante Coakley, were charged with the murder of Eva Casara, 17, over the weekend. Prosecutors say Casara was shot in the back of the head during a botched robbery in which she was allegedly participating Dec. 25. She was reportedly 26 weeks pregnant with the child of the 16-year-old suspect, who was her boyfriend.
Prosecutors have said Casara plotted with her boyfriend, his brother Coakley and another unnamed brother to commit a robbery, reports the Sun-Times. They believe Coakley fired the fatal shot, though they say Casara wasn’t the intended target.
Casara was shot in the back of the head on Wednesday. Her body was found in a residential area in Dolton around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, but police believe the shooting occurred somewhere else. Casara was taken to the hospital, where doctors saved her baby but she died.
“We believe we found the actual location where this young lady was shot at,” Dolton Police Chief John Franklin said. “It was suspected (Wednesday) night that she was not actually shot at 1102, that she was placed there. And members of the Crime Task Force have found some shell casings in the 15200 South Dorchester where we believe the actual shooting did occur there.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-3rd-suspect-charged-in-murder-of-pregnant-ill-teen/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-charged-in-pregnant-teens-death-in-illinois/
http://abc7chicago.com/archive/9372968/
http://abclocal.go.com/story?section=news/local&id=9374934
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/30/boyfriend-his-brother-cha_n_4519069.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pregnant-teen-killed-boyfriend-brother-authorities-article-1.1561273
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/illinois/dolton/charges-filed-in-christmas-slaying-of-pregnant-cal-city-teen/article_46bd75f5-65c9-5651-a560-4b36fa740112.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-06-29/news/ct-dolton-baby-met-20140629_1_baby-survives-casara-and-coakley-pregnant-teen
http://www.mcculloughfuneralservices.com/obituaries/Eva-Casara/#!/Obituary
This entry was posted in Chicago, Dead, Female Teen, Pregnant Woman, Robbery at Gunpoint on December 25, 2013 by usgunviolence.
Double Shooting – Killed – Pregnant Woman – Salatheia Smith (Tampa, FL)
Tampa, Florida — A pregnant woman is dead and a suspect is in critical condition after a violent home invasion in Tampa.
Witnesses say two masked men entered an unlocked home along N. Brooks Street around 5 a.m. Sunday, intending to rob the residents.
During the home invasion, one of the suspects shot 22-year-old Salatheia “Sunshine” Smith. Tampa Police say Smith, who was six to eight weeks pregnant, later died from her injuries.
Police say Smith’s boyfriend then released his pit bull on the intruders. One of the suspects managed to shoot the female dog in the leg as she attacked.
A suspect dropped his handgun as he struggled with the pit bull, which police say the boyfriend then picked up and opened fire, shooting 35-year-old Anthony Robinson.
Both suspects then fled the from the house, with Robinson collapsing on the sidewalk. He was taken to the hospital, where he remains in critical condition. The other suspect remains at large.
Female Victim: Salatheia (Sunshine) Smith, DOB: 12-25-90, B/F, 8214 North Brooks Street (deceased)
Male Victim: Charles Patrick Duefrane Jr. DOB: 11-01-90, W/M, 8214 North Brooks Street (uninjured)
Female Victim: Sylvia Lynn Gilley, DOB: 11-17-75, 911 East Ellicott Street, Tampa (uninjured victim who was visiting her son’s home)
Female Victim: 4-year-old girl (uninjured, visiting her brother’s home with her mother)
Injured Suspect: Robinson, Anthony Robinson, DOB 8-20-78, B/M, unknown address (hospitalized in critical condition)
Detectives have determined that two masked suspects targeted the unlocked home with the intent to rob the victims. During the home invasion, one of the suspects fired and shot the female victim. She later died from her injuries. She was 6-8 weeks pregnant. Her boyfriend then released his Pit Bull and it attacked the intruder. One of the suspects shot the Pit Bull once in the leg. The female dog was transported to an emergency vet clinic and is currently listed in stable condition. As the suspect struggled with the dog, he dropped his handgun. The boyfriend picked it up and shot one of the suspects. Both suspects fled from the home. One collapsed on the sidewalk outside of the house. He remains in critical condition this morning. The second suspect fled from the scene.
The boyfriend and girlfriend lived together at the home. His mother and 4-year-old sister were visiting when the home invasion took place. The mother shielded her daughter during the attack. Neither was injured. Anyone with information about the fleeing suspect is urged to call Crime Stoppers. Anonymous tips from the public that lead to an arrest are eligible for a cash reward of up to $3,000.
http://www.wtsp.com/story/local/2013/12/15/2048146/
http://www.tampagov.net/news/one-victim-killed-and-one-suspect-critically-injured-weekend-home-invasion
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/police-release-new-details-on-violent-tampa-home-invasion/2157248
http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2013/12/16/tampa_home_invasion_.html
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/woman-killed-in-early-morning-home-invasion
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2014/03/12/2048146/
http://www.tbo.com/news/crime/pregnant-woman-killed-suspect-wounded-in-tampa-home-invasion-20131216/
http://www.theledger.com/article/20131216/NEWS/131219363
This entry was posted in Dead, Florida, Multiple Shooting, Pregnant Woman, Robbery at Gunpoint, Woman on December 15, 2013 by usgunviolence.
Killed – Pregnant Woman – Ondrea Stevenson (Charlotte, NC)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police were on the scene of a deadly shooting in west Charlotte for more than 10 hours Wednesday.
The shooting happened after 2 a.m. at an apartment building on Leake Street off of West Boulevard and Billy Graham Parkway.
Police confirmed the female victim died after shots were fired into an apartment.
Investigators said a 19-year-old woman was asleep on the couch.
The victim was identified as Ondrea Japonica Stevenson, 19.
Officers arrived at the Little Rock Apartments and said they found the woman shot.
Eyewitness News spoke with a woman, who says her niece lives inside the apartment that was shot into. She says her niece and three other women were sleeping inside the apartment when gunshots rang out.
A friend of the victim told Channel 9 she was expecting her first child.
A 19-year-old woman pregnant with her first child was shot dead as she slept on a sofa in a North Carolina apartment in the early hours of Wednesday.
Ondrea Japonica Stevenson, who was 13 weeks pregnant, was rushed to hospital after a gunman fired four shots into the west Charlotte apartment at 2am.
Neighbors of the apartment complex feared the target may have been the father of Miss Stevenson’s unborn child.
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/police-investigating-deadly-shooting-west-charlott/ncBMs/
http://www.wbtv.com/story/24131030/woman-shot-killed-in-west-charlotte-apartment
http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/crime/2014/07/03/11067556/
http://www.wxii12.com/news/local-news/north-carolina/pregnant-19yearold-shot-killed-in-charlotte/23294118
http://www.qcitymetro.com/news/articles/19yearold_pregnant_woman_killed_in_w_charlotte070939946.cfm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2518794/Pregnant-woman-shot-dead-slept-North-Carolina-home.html
http://www.14news.com/story/24412405/charlotte-family-mourns
http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/24/12272054/
http://www.qcitymetro.com/news/articles/homicide_rate_remains_low_but_some_neighborhoods_struggle083542239.cfm
http://www.aegriersonsfcc.com/obituaries/Ondrea-Stevenson/#!/Obituary
http://www.aegriersonsfcc.com/who-we-are/testimonials
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charlotte/obituary-preview.aspx?n=ondrea-stevenson&pid=168476032&referrer=218
This entry was posted in Dead, North Carolina, Pregnant Woman, Woman on December 4, 2013 by usgunviolence.
Double Shooting – Wounded – Pregnant Woman (East Chicago, IN)
EAST CHICAGO | A 23-year-old man was killed and his pregnant girlfriend wounded in an early morning shooting when someone leaned in through a window and shot them in their sleep, police said.
The crimes may be related to the deceased trying to sever previous gang ties, East Chicago Police Chief Mark Becker said.
Rolando Munoz Cuevas III, of the 3500 block of Grand Blvd. in East Chicago, was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m. at his home, according to a Lake County coroner’s office report.
The cause of death was listed as multiple gunshot wounds suffered in a homicide.
Cuevas’ 20-year-old girlfriend, who is eight months pregnant, was hospitalized Saturday morning with what are believed to be non-life threatening injuries, police said.
“At last report, she and the baby were doing fine,” Becker said.
Police were called to the home at 6:37 a.m. for a report of a shooting and found Cuevas dead and his girlfriend wounded. Eight or nine people, including four or five young children and an older male, were home at the time of the shooting and were not injured, Becker said.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/east-chicago/e-c-man-killed-girlfriend-wounded-in-shooting/article_ff110e22-3c13-5469-887f-8d68270fb565.html
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/12/01/east-chicago-man-shot-to-death-in-bed-girlfriend-wounded/
http://wgntv.com/2013/12/01/man-fatally-shot-pregnant-girlfriend-wounded-in-east-chicago/
http://www.fifefuneralhome.com/obits/obituary.php?id=407304
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nwitimes/obituary.aspx?pid=168324724
This entry was posted in Indiana, Multiple Shooting, Pregnant Woman, Woman, Wounded on November 30, 2013 by usgunviolence.
Killed – Pregnant Woman – Caitlin A. Albritton (Gainesville, FL)
Following a daylong search, Gainesville Police arrested a man Sunday after it was reported that he shot and killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Officers arrested 33-year-old Alvin G. Thomas at Budget Inn, 4401 SW 13th St., at about 7 p.m. Sunday, said GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias in a news release.
A little more than 24 hours earlier, witnesses said they saw Thomas arguing with Caitlin A. Albritton, the mother of his 9-month-old daughter, at the Village Green Apartments, Tobias said.
Police responded to the complex, 3101 NE 15th St., after receiving calls that the 22-year-old had been shot.
Albritton was six weeks pregnant and died at the scene from a single bullet wound to her head, Tobias said. The pair’s daughter is now safe with Albritton’s family.
Thomas then drove from the complex in a silver pickup truck, Tobias said.
Police have accused the 31-year-old of killing his pregnant former girlfriend, Caitlin A. Albritton, 22, around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Neighbors told officials they heard the pair arguing in their home at the Village Green Apartments before a single gun shot was fired.
Albritton, six weeks pregnant, was rushed to the hospital but did not recover from her injuries. Thomas and Albritton were in a relationship, police said, and had a 9-month-old daughter now being cared for by Albritton’s family.
http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_af981462-5016-11e3-873a-001a4bcf887a.html
http://www.wuft.org/news/2013/11/18/gpd-captures-arrests-murder-suspect-alvin-thomas/
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20131117/ARTICLES/131119663
http://www.wcjb.com/local-news/2013/11/man-kills-mother-his-daughter-while-shes-pregnant-her-next-child
http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20131204/ARTICLES/131209866
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20131116/ARTICLES/131119685/1150/news09?Title=Woman-shot-to-death-in-northeast-Gainesville
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gainesville/obituary.aspx?pid=168120424
This entry was posted in Dead, Domestic Violence, Florida, Pregnant Woman, Woman on November 16, 2013 by usgunviolence.
Triple Murder – Killed – Pregnant Woman – Alexis Huntley-Boyce (Orlando, FL)
Investigators said Michael Boyce, 33, was arrested Thursday after he allegedly shot his wife, Alexis Boyce, in the head. Michael Boyce was denied bond during his first court appearance at the jail on Saturday.
Alexis Boyce was 8 months pregnant with twins when she was shot at her family’s apartment on Nikki Court in Orange County. Authorities said Alexis Boyce was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center, along with one of her unborn sons. The surviving twin is in the neonatal intensive care unit at Winnie Palmer Hospital.
A twin baby who survived when his pregnant mother was shot and killed last week in Orange County died late Thursday night, according to officials.
The boy, named Jael Boyce, died a week after his mother, 23-year-old Alexis Boyce, was shot in the head in her Orlando apartment, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
Boyce, who was 8 months pregnant, was pronounced dead last week at Orlando Regional Medical Center. One of the babies also died. Jael was in the neonatal intensive care unit at Winnie Palmer Hospital, but died early Friday, according to sheriff’s officials.
According to his arrest affidavit, the newlyweds were inside their apartment off Pershing Avenue about 4:25 p.m. Thursday when a shot rang out.
Alexis Boyce’s parents, who also lived in the apartment, ran out of their bedroom to find their son-in-law standing in the living room and holding a 9 mm handgun, according to the affidavit.
Leon Huntley persuaded his son-in-law to hand over the firearm just as sheriff’s deputies arrived to the scene.
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —One day after his second twin son died following the shooting death of his wife, Michael Boyce faced a judge to have another first-degree murder charge filed against him.
Boyce is accused of the Nov. 14 shooting of his pregnant wife, Alexis Boyce, at the family’s home in East Orange County. She died along with one of the two twins, a boy named Kael Boyce.
Doctors delivered the other twin, Jael Boyce, who lived for about a week. He died Thursday night, Nov. 21, after doctors determined he would only survive on life-support, and the equipment was disconnected from him.
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/man-shoots-wife-pregnant-twins-death/nbsjL/
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/twin-baby-dies-week-after-pregnant-mother-shot-dead/23103630
http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/orange-county/michael-boyce-faces-judge-for-third-murder-charge-after-second-twin-son-dies/23126768
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-11-15/news/os-pregnant-woman-killed-twins-orlando-20131115_1_suicide-watch-husband-shoots-tiffany-nelson
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-boyce-fla-man-accused-of-fatally-shooting-wife-who-was-pregnant-with-twins/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2508783/Jael-Huntley-surviving-twin-pregnant-mother-Alexis-Boyce-murdered.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2507878/Michael-Boyce-shoots-wife-pregnant-twins-dead–baby-survives.html
http://www.ocalapost.com/ex-military-police-officer-michael-boyce-killed-pregnant-wife/
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/orlandosentinel/obituary.aspx?pid=168210676
http://postellsmortuary.com/obituaries/userprofile/alexisboyce.html
This entry was posted in Dead, Domestic Violence, Florida, Multiple Shooting, Pregnant Woman, Woman on November 14, 2013 by usgunviolence.
Mass Shooting – Killed – Pregnant Woman – Taeler Shaltry (Detroit, MI)
DETROIT (WWJ) – Detroit authorities confirm that the baby who survived a cesarean delivery from a woman killed outside a Detroit house also has died.
The baby had been in critical condition but she was pronounced dead by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police say the 23-year-old mother of the child, Taeler Shaltry, and 25-year-old Brandon Webb, were killed by a gunman Sunday on the city’s west side.
Webb’s 75-year-old grandfather, Bertram Rutledge, was also critically wounded and remains in the hospital.
DETROIT (WJBK)- Detroit police say they’re looking for a gunman who killed Brandon Webb, 25, outside a Detroit house and then fatally shot Tealer Shaltry, 23. Shaltry was nine months pregnant. One other person was shot and critically wounded, Bertram Rutledge, 75.
The shooting happened around 12:50 p.m. on Sunday.
Shaltry’s baby was saved via a cesarean delivery. She and Rutledge remain in critical condition on Monday.
Neighbors tell Fox 2 Police say the gunman fled after shooting Webb but then made a u-turn, came back to the house and saw the two victims helping Webb. They say the gunman then started shooting again, striking Rutledge and Shaltry.
Police are looking for that vehicle the suspect drove off in. They say it is a 2006 silver Pontiac GF with the Michigan license plate CLB 3064. The back window of the vehicle was broken out.
Rutledge and Sheltry heard the commotion and ran to the side door of the home; the shooter again opened fire striking both Sheltry and Rutledge.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/11/09/baby-who-survived-c-section-delivery-after-mom-was-fatally-shot-has-died/
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/23874142/detroit-police-seek-suspect-after-pregnant-woman-shot-killed
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2013/11/police_recover_slain_pregnant.html
http://detroit.suntimes.com/det-news/7/77/26325/family-of-slain-pregnant-woman-still-hold-hope-to-catch-killer-one-year-later
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/23922073/baby-delivered-after-pregnant-mothers-shooting-taken-off-life-support
http://archive.freep.com/article/20131104/NEWS01/311040146/Detroit-police-seek-answers-triple-shooting-newborn-grandpa-critical-condition
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/23874142/detroit-police-seek-suspect-after-pregnant-woman-shot-killed
http://wn.ktvu.com/story/27188751/family-of-slain-pregnant-woman-still-hold-hope-to-catch-killer-one-year-later
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2013/11/mother_ids_pregnant_woman_fata.html
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/27188751/family-of-slain-pregnant-woman-still-hold-hope-to-catch-killer-one-year-later
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/11/03/pregnant-woman-among-victims-in-deadly-shooting-in-detroit/
http://www.swansonsfuneralhomes.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2318072&fh_id=12029
http://www.pyefuneralhome.com/obituaries/Brandon-Webb/#!/Obituary
http://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Brandon-C.-Webb-97022190
This entry was posted in Dead, Detroit, Mass Shooting, Multiple Shooting, Pregnant Woman, Woman on November 3, 2013 by usgunviolence.
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Jets’ Whitehead has broken foot, sidelined indefinitely
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — New York Jets wide receiver Lucky Whitehead has a broken foot and will be sidelined indefinitely.
Coach Todd Bowles said Tuesday that Whitehead was injured during practice Monday and it’s uncertain whether he will need surgery. Bowles did not know if Whitehead will be out for the year, saying only that it’ll be at least “a little while.”
Whitehead, who was on crutches during the team’s indoor practice, appeared to be the top contender to serve as the Jets’ primary punt and kickoff returner.
The injury is the latest in a string of bad news for Whitehead, who has had a strange summer. He was waived by Dallas last month following a shoplifting incident that turned out to be a case of false identity. New York claimed Whitehead off waivers on July 26.
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Dep. La Coruna – Almeria Prediction & Picks (22.03.2019) by 007soccerpicks.com
Dep. La Coruna – Almeria Prediction & Picks (22.03.2019)
Dep. La Coruna – Almeria SOCCER PICKS
Deportivo La Coruña and Almeria face at Estadio Abanca-Riazor, in a match for the 31st round of the Second Division. The two teams tied (1-1), on 19-11-2018, in the previous match for this edition of the league. In this match the home factor may be decisive, since Almeria presents considerable differences in their results at home and as a visitor.
Deportivo La Coruña:
After 12 wins, 13 draws and 4 losses, the home team is currently in the 5 th position, with 49 points won. In their last match, they lost with Las Palmas at home (0-1), after in the previous match they tied (2-2) at home, in a match against Alcorcón. This is a team that usually maintains its competitive levels in home and away matches, since in the last 30 matches they register 5 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses in away matches, with 14 goals scored and 14 conceded; against 7 wins, 7 draws and 1 loss at their stadium, with 27 goals scored and 11 conceded. For the league, Deportivo La Coruña won 17 points out of 30 possible points, after 4 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss in the last 10 home matches. In their home league matches the most frequent result at half-time was the 0-0 (7 out of 15 matches). In 29 matches in this competition, they have only won 1 of the 9 matches they suffered in the first goal. In the last 15 home matches for this competition there is 1 period that stands out: they have conceded 5 of their 9 goals between minutes (76′-90 ‘).
Deportivo La Coruña did not need to enter the field to conquer another victory, the tenth third in the championship. With this victory, Depor is among the best teams in the League 1 | 2 | 3. At home, the host team is expected to enter with a more offensive identity, with the ambition to add more to a victory and with it continue fighting for its goal, the promotion to the main division of Spanish football.
The team commanded by Natxo Gonzalez should act in the usual 4-3-3, which benefits the defensive organization and rapid departures for the attack. The three players in charge of throwing the panic in the opposing area are Pedro, Mathias Nahuel and Quique. The last player mentioned is the star of the team, with 13 goals scored. In the center of the field it is possible that they act Pedro Mosquera, Vicente Gómez and Borja Valle. The local coach can not count on Diego Caballo and Edu Expósito, for being in a period of suspension.
Almería:
After 11 wins, 11 draws and 8 losses, the away team is currently in the 9 th position of the league, with 44 points won. In the penultimate match, they lost in an away match against Sporting Gijón, by (1-0). In the last match, they tied in a home match against Granada, by (0-0). This is a team that usually makes good use of the home advantage, stronger with the help of its supporters, since in the last 30 matches they register 4 wins, 6 draws and 5 losses in away matches; against 7 wins, 7 draws and 1 loss at their stadium. For the league, Almería won 13 points out of 30 possible points, after 3 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses in the last 10 home matches. In their home league matches the most frequent result at half-time was the 0-0 (7 out of 15 matches).
The Almeria enters for this day after a draw, to zero, in the reception to Granada, in a match in which the men of the house were those who had closer to the goal. With that draw, Almeria added the second game without winning.
The outsider team must act in the traditional 4-4-2, favoring a more direct game. The two players responsible for putting the opponent’s defensive sense are Álvaro Giménez, the star of the team, with 9 goals scored. It is probable that Juan Narváez, Yan Brice, César de la Hoz and José Corpas play in the central zone of the terrain. The technician Fran Fernández must have all the players available for the match with Deportivo.
Prediction Related Bets:
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There is no power in death: ‘13 Reasons Why’ and knowing when it's time to let go
Vanessa Frances
Warning: The following contains spoilers for 13 Reasons Why Season 2, as well as discussion of suicide and other sensitive subjects.
An old ex-friend of mine called me the other day and told me that she hoped that I was dead.
Funnily enough, this call occurred just as I was in the planning stages of writing this piece regarding 13 Reasons Why and its recent second season. She concealed her number of course, but it’s hard not to recognize the voice of someone you once considered one of your closests friends, even on recording.
It’s ironic, I guess—the understanding that the universe allows for certain events and circumstances in your life to transpire in the hope that maybe each of us are going to learn something from them and grow as individuals. My relationship with this individual has changed and unfortunately come to an end, and if I had been the person that I was three years ago, her statements would have definitely impacted me differently than they did today.
My personal journey with mental health hasn’t been easy, and has brought me down a variety of different paths in life. I’ve been in some incredibly dark places, caught in moments when I believed there wasn’t a single person in the world that cared about whether or not I was there to see the sun rise the next day. I was lost for a very long time, and though there were circumstances in my life that led me to that point, a lot of my issues stemmed from my stubbornness and inability to ask someone else for help.
If you haven’t yet heard, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why just premiered its second season, filled with just as much teen drama, violence, and tough topics as the book and first season had. This season focuses on the aftermath of the suicide of Liberty High School student Hannah Baker and her family’s legal fight against the school in seeking justice for Hannah’s bullying, rape, and suicide. The school and its students grapple with a variety of other issues, including a variety of new Polaroids showing up throughout the show, Alex’s recovery from his own suicide attempt, Justin’s addiction to heroin, and the impending plot surrounding serial rapist Bryce Walker and the mysterious clubhouse. The show climaxes with Bryce being sentenced to three months of probation, Hannah’s parents losing the court case to the school, and the possibility of a school shooting, stopped by the same group tangled up in what seems like all the drama at Liberty High School.
Perhaps the most dangerous theme expressed in the final episode of season two is through Tyler, who is the only character on the show to truly seek help and find improvement in his life, but is immediately sexually assaulted after doing so. This once again proves 13 Reasons Why’s lack of understanding and lack of remorse when it comes to encouraging people to actually seek help and treatment, no matter what they say in their intro.
I first read 13 Reasons Why in my freshman year of high school, and I watched the show’s first season when it premiered last year. I enjoyed the book, though after watching the show’s first season I considered myself to be one of its harshest critics. While the show is honest and blunt when it comes to discussing so many aspects of mental illness, suicide, and sexual assault, the execution of the message allows for viewers to get caught up in the dramatization and romanticization of the message while being bombarded with the overwhelming idea that though Hannah Baker is dead, she still maintains complete and total power of the school and its students.
The problem with this idea is that it is simply false. In 13 Reasons Why, suicide is made out to be selfish and plotted out as almost a form of punishment (as executed by the almost perfect Hannah Baker).
As someone who has been down this path, I can tell you that suicide is not an act of selfishness, nor is the person attempting suicide always acting as a martyr for others in a similar circumstance. Just because you die doesn’t mean your life was flawless or that you were entirely innocent in everything that you did. I know that I am not, and I know that others aren’t either. Dying is not the art that media like 13 Reasons Why so often tries to portray it as. Those that consider suicide a viable option generally experience emotional pain each and every day, feeling so hopeless and worthless and broken that dying seems like it would be more painless than life itself.
As someone who has been through the highs and lows of sickness, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, I mean it when I say I would give it all back to banish those two years of my life from my memory forever and eliminate all of the little dark thoughts that have hung around. There is no glory in the act of revenge or feeling like you’ve one-upped someone by getting “the last word” or seeking revenge on them for how they hurt you.
The biggest problem I have with this new season of 13 Reasons Why is its portrayal of Hannah’s family and peers in the aftermath of her death. Depicting characters like Clay as still being completely obsessed with Hannah (while dating another girl who also has issues with self-harm) is a hazardous ideology to amplify on such a big budget show. Suicide rates among young people across the world are on the rise, and adding to the idea that you can forever haunt somebody in your death skews the thought process surrounding suicide and mental health, making it come across as a game of revenge instead of encouraging young people to seek therapy or treatment.
This second season was not necessary nor welcomed. Though there was honesty in the difficulty Courtney faced in coming out as gay and Alex’s grappling with surviving his own suicide attempt, the show’s integrity ended there. The fear that sexual assault survivors endure in facing their attackers, and the light sentences that convicted rapists often receive were harmful, and the power struggle between the living and the dead seems far too much like a fictional movie to be an actual portrayal of mental health and mental illness.
I’ve seen the Facebook posts—from girls that bullied me in high school to those that have never struggled with a mental illness—praising the show’s dramatic and “raw” portrayal of the events surrounding suicide, all of which beg others to just be “kind to one another.” Yet, in this world and age of the internet, there is so much room for negative spaces to form underneath the false personas we have of people. If we want to start making mental illness a priority in this country, we cannot continue to glamorize the ideas of death, teenage ignorance and innocence, and the “revenge ideology” so often portrayed in shows like 13 Reasons Why. We need to push for resources for young people, not just play a 30-second clip before episodes that contain graphic depictions of assault, rape, and suicide; otherwise, we risk the normalization of seeking violent forms of revenge like suicide or shooting up a school, or even calling ex-friends acting on pure emotion and hurt and telling them you wish they were dead. Reactionary thought as depicted in this show doesn’t shed a light, it encourages more darkness.
We have to talk about these issues before we make anymore tapes or photographs glamorizing what it is not.
Tags: depression suicide Television tv Hannah Baker Thirteen Reasons Why 13 reasons why
Exploring home: the history of palm trees in Los Angeles
I'm 21 years old, and I use a cane.
Olivia Spring
How to get out of a summer slump
An HONEST interview with high school graduates
Alana James
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You are here: Home » Adult Webmaster News » Op-Ed: NY Post Scorns NYC For Providing Internet...
Op-Ed: NY Post Scorns NYC For Providing Internet Access To All
NEW YORK CITY—If you're reading this article right now, chances are, you've got access to the internet. Of course, you may be reading it on a friend's computer, or at a library, but the point is, you got online—something that one hell of a lot of Americans (including New Yorkers) can't do with any regularity, if at all. So, a few months ago, New York City contracted with the company LinkNYC to begin building Wi-Fi kiosks around the five boroughs, most often on sites previously occupied by the now-largely unused (or broken) pay phones. The tiny structures (see photo) are open to the public, any of whom can use, 24/7, the free Wi-Fi and the Android tablet built into each booth to make free phone calls to anywhere in the country (courtesy of Vonage US, an internet phone company), including specialized service numbers 311 (NYC complaint line), 411 (information) and 911 (emergency); charge their devices via USB ports; and access the internet. It even has Braille-embossed keys and a headphone jack. There are currently almost 200 kiosks in operation, and according to Techdirt.com, the city hopes to have 500 total in operation by July, and even more are planned for the future. But until recently, there was one "problem" with letting just anybody online for free: Porn! "The city spent years sweeping porn and peep shows from Times Square—and in just a matter of months, the de Blasio administration brought back the sleaze, The Post has learned," began an article published in Sunday's (Rupert Murdoch-owned) New York Post. "The XXX-rated action returned to the Crossroads of the World via tablet-equipped street kiosks that horny hobos and even some curious school kids have used to get their kicks." OMG! OMGOMGOMGOMG! Homeless people were watching pornography! And maybe even a few teens and tweens! And in public, no less! If that's not a job for the National Guard, we're sure The Post doesn't know what would be! Because as everyone knows, the poor and/or homeless don't deserve to get their sex organs (brain included) stimulated! "I used to come here in the '70s, and I remember thinking Times Square was as skeezy as you could get, but I was wrong," The Post quoted former New Yorker and current Dallas resident Richard Herzberg, 61, as lamenting. "This is as skeezy as Times Square could get. I mean, in the old days there was plenty of porn, but you could only see it behind closed doors. So at least there was that level of modesty." Hey, Dick: They have these new things now called "eyelids." How about you close yours if you come across something you don't want to see? But actually, LinkNYC has taken care of Hertzberg's problem for him: They've now installed filters for "image searches" for the online content accessible in the kiosks, which for most people will mean bye-bye porn—unless they're tech-savvy enough to get around the filters, which we're guessing not a lot of homeless are (though we wouldn't put much past those schoolkids). What this is, of course, is class warfare—something the guy who owns The Post and the Fox New Channel knows something about, since it's his bread and butter. Yes, the same Rupert Murdoch who in 2014 was the 91st richest person in the world; the same Rupert Murdoch who was implicated a couple of years ago in the British phone-hacking scandal; the same Rupert Murdoch who tends to marry women 30 years or more his junior—that's the guy whose editors are complaining that homeless people, whose lives really can't get much worse than they currently are, were being allowed access to pornography. Good job, Rupert!
You are here: Home » Adult Webmaster News » Op-Ed: NY Post Scorns NYC For Providing Internet...
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UN Children's Fund Consultancy Job Positions in Uganda
Closing date: 17 Apr 2019
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, a fair chance
Uganda is one of the over 190 countries and territories around the world where we work to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination place in a child’s path.
Together with the Government of Uganda and partners we work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the objectives of the Uganda National Development Plan, and the planned outcomes of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.
Visit this link for more information on Uganda Country Office https://www.unicef.org/uganda/
How can you make a difference?
Under to the Social Policy and Child Protection teams through the Monitoring Specialist, Social Policy and Advocacy the consultant will conduct further analysis on FGM/C in Uganda, drawing on the wealth of data from the 2016 FGM/C survey as well as other data that is relevant and has recently become available, including the 2016 Uganda Demographic Health Survey as well as from the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS, 2016/2017) and other sources.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is an international non-profit organization that aims at supporting every child to realize their potential in life. UNICEF covers over 190 countries and territories across the world.
UNICEF’s strategic engagement with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has resulted in the integration of child poverty, rights and deprivation related indicators in national statistics including the National Population Census (2014), Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (2016/17), Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS, 2016) and Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS, 2016/17).
Important innovations introduced through UNICEF’s collaboration with UBOS include:
a) The integration of MICS modules on FGM, child discipline and ECD in the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey;
b) the implementation of Uganda’s first full-fledged disability-focused survey, which UBOS conducted using MICS’ Child Functioning modules for 2-4 and 5-17 year olds;
c) the successful piloting of the consensual deprivation approach in the Uganda National Panel Survey and its full integration in the Uganda National Household Survey; and
d) the successful utilization of u-Survey to assess the extent of FGM/C practices in six districts where FGM/C is practiced.
An important priority of UNICEF’s work has been to strengthen the evidence base, analysis and dialogue. This is because UNICEF recognizes that Uganda can only deliver on the promise of equity required under NDPII and the SDGs if the country has information on which children and families are thriving and which are being left behind.
Therefore, in addition to working with UBOS to continue strengthening the national statistical system, UNICEF supports research that can guide policy formulation and service delivery decision making with the aim of enabling the fulfilment of the rights of every child.
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) also known as female circumcision, excision or genital cutting, is a gross violation of human rights and direct manifestation of gender inequalities and discrimination and it is still practiced in some parts of Eastern Uganda. Women and girls who have undergone FGM/C suffer both short and long-term health risks as a result of the practice.
From a human rights and health perspective, it is unacceptable and the Government of Uganda has strengthened its effort to end the practice together with partners including UNICEF.
Addressing FGM/C
practice is one of the important strategies for accelerating socio-economic development and ensuring the full participation of women and girls in the development of the country.
Data on the current situation with respect to FGM/C in Uganda is essential for informing strategies for tackling the issue amid the prevailing efforts by different stakeholders
To address the limited availability of reliable data to shape programmes that will accelerate the elimination of FGM/C in Uganda, a pioneering survey was conducted to measure the prevalence of the practice, including key indicators on the knowledge, attitude and practices related to FGM/C perpetuation.
The survey was conducted in a representative sample of households in the FGM practicing districts of Eastern Uganda. The number of households selected from each of the sub-counties was sufficient to allow for the generation of indicators at sub-county level. A report was published in 2017, however a wealth of data is still available and would benefit from further analysis.
Key Tasks:
Review existing literature and Government policies on FGM/C practice in Uganda and produce a report on the review.
Review the existing FGM report, conduct further analysis / interpretation of the data from the FGM/C survey as well as from other relevant sources such as the UDHS, UNHS and information on the FGM/C in Uganda, with a view to produce a national report of the highest quality
Present analysis to UNICEF speaker series and selected stakeholders, consolidate feedback, finalize report accordingly
Produce advocacy / policy brief on the findings and recommendations of the analysis, targeting decision-makers, the public as well as CSOs
To qualify asan advocate for every child you will have…
Masters Degree holder in any of the following fields: statistics, economics, sociology or social/political sciences.
Excellent research and advanced statistical analysis skills, including advanced statistical analysis. Familiarity with statistical software such as STATA, and analysis of raw data from large databases such as the population census, National Household
Surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys, is a significant advantage.
Good communication skills - proficient in speaking and writing in English.
Note: Eligibility requirement: have no immediate relatives working in UNICEF or have no other relatives in the line of authority which the intern will report to.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
The competencies required for this post are….
View our competency framework at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.
UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization. To apply, click on the following link UN Children's Fund Consultancy Job Positions in Uganda
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Advanced Function Presentation Consortium Announces ISO Certification of Archive Format
BOULDER, Colo., January 5, 2016 – The Advanced Function Presentation Consortium (AFP Consortium), an international consortium of print industry stakeholders working together to further enhance the Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) document architecture, is pleased to announce ISO publication of the AFP Archive (AFP/A) standard, which enables accurate long term preservation and faithful reproduction of original AFP jobs.
While independent AFP archival systems have existed for many years, the ISO technical committee for document management applications (TC171) embarked on ISO standardization of AFP/A in May 2012 with the help of the AFPC. Working within the ISO process, AFP/A was exposed to a broad range of international experts and leveraged insights from sources beyond the AFPC, including additional experts within the archivist community. The end result is a recognized level of integrity that will aid the format’s widespread adoption.
“This certification is a huge step for AFP and the AFP user community,” said Harry Lewis, President, AFPC. “Until the introduction of AFP/A, archival to an ISO-recognized format would require a transform to PDF. While PDF/A is great for archiving PDF content, there is always the chance of introducing some small fidelity issue in the transform. If the resulting archive is incomplete or inaccurate, then integrity may be compromised, limiting the archive’s usefulness. For the many users who run end-to-end AFP, the introduction of a fully realized, fully approved AFP/A format is a huge boon, providing increased efficiency and compliance with regulations that demand ISO-approved standards.”
The AFP Archive standard can be obtained by ordering from ISO as document ISO 18565:2015.
To find out more about the AFPC and its numerous standards, visit https://www.afpconsortium.org/publications.html.
About AFP and the AFP Consortium
Advanced Function Presentation is a document architecture that offers performance, manageability and integrity benefits meeting the needs of large volume, variable data applications. AFP technology has historically been leveraged for the production of mission critical documents such as bills, statements and policies and contains within it methods for job ticketing, effective server-based resource management and the powerful Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IPDS) for total output integrity. In addition to being a rich, self-contained native document language, AFP is also a powerful container architecture capable of bringing full resource and production management capabilities to bear on encapsulated formats such as PDF and TIFF.
The AFP Consortium is an international open standards body consisting of around 30 companies committed to the continued development of the AFP architecture. Since 2004, the AFP Consortium has developed open standards for accurate and consistent ICC-based color management, high-speed complex text, page group recovery within high-volume production, the IS/3 interchange set for compliance, and metadata support for AFP Archive and future applications, such as accessibility features. The AFP Consortium will continue in its role to grow and maintain the complete set of AFP architecture.
For more information, visit the AFPC website http://www.afpcinc.org.
Tracey Sheehy
Breakaway Communications for AFP Consortium
tsheehy@breakawaycom.com
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